Richardis

ON ST. RICHARDIS, EMPRESS AND VIRGIN, AT ANDLAU IN ALSACE,

At the beginning of the tenth century.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

The Saint's memory and cult in the calendars: her deeds examined: an elogium from the Breviary of Strasbourg: miracles.

Richardis, empress and virgin, at Andlau in Alsace. (S.)

BHL Number: 7201, 7202

BY J. S.

[ ] Although the cult of St. Richardis

the empress and virgin is ancient and beyond doubt, the memory of this Saint nevertheless could not be celebrated by the chief martyrologists, The Saint mentioned on this day in the more recent calendars, because these are partly older than she, and partly flourished at about the same time as she. For this cause she has been commemorated only by more recent writers, and was passed over even by Baronius in the Roman Martyrology. John Molanus in his additions to Usuard announces St. Richardis on this day thus: In Germany, in the monastery of Andlau, the deposition of saint Richardis, empress, wife of Charles the Fat, and virgin. Ferrari followed him in his General Catalogue, where he has thus: In the monastery of Andlau, of saint Richardis, empress and abbess. The same is mentioned in Germany generally by Saussay in the Supplement to his Gallican Martyrology. Castellain in his Universal Martyrology transfers the monastery of Andlau and the place of St. Richardis's death into Holstein, by what hallucination I do not know, unless he himself or the corrector of misprints confused Holstein with Alsace. For that the Saint died in Alsace is beyond doubt, as the Paris Martyrology rightly has, announcing Richardis in these words: At Andlau in Alsace, of saint Richardis, wife of Charles the third, surnamed the Fat, king of the Franks and emperor. The place is here excellently expressed; but the title of virgin is wrongly omitted, since that has been abundantly proved and is everywhere given to St. Richardis. The Benedictine martyrologists, Wion, Ménard, Dorgan, and Bucelin, inserted St. Richardis into their calendars on this same day. Agreeing with these, Arthur du Monstier in his Gynaeceum adorns St. Richardis with such an elogium: In Alsace, in the monastery of Andlau, of saint Richardis, empress and virgin, Benedictine abbess, formerly wife of the emperor Charles the Fat and most Christian king of the Franks: who, far preferring the heavenly and eternal kingdom to the temporal one, chose the monastic life, and, kindled with zeal for piety and purity, attained the summit of the chief virtues, adorned with which she ascended into heaven. In the course of this we shall see that the Saint is called a nun on less certain grounds.

[2] On other days too the memory of St. Richardis is celebrated by some. as also on some other days: but on this eighteenth of September she is honored Greven makes mention of Richardis the virgin on the nineteenth of August, and I do not think she is other than today's: for he seems to have followed Trithemius, presently to be praised. Another commemorates Richardis the virgin on the twentieth of August, as was there observed among the Passed Over. David Camerarius in his Scottish Menology on the twentieth of September keeps the memory of St. Richardis in these words: Saint Richarda or Richardis, empress, and daughter of Gregory king of the Scots, and wife of the emperor Charles the Fat, etc. Whether the Saint sprang from Scotland or elsewhere we do not yet examine. Here I only observe that St. Richardis in all likelihood is not venerated on those days; but on the eighteenth of September, on which we have seen her announced by many. Trithemius in book 3 of his Illustrious Men, chapter 314, testifies to the Saint's cult, writing thus: Richardus (read Richardis), empress, wife of Charles the Fat, after her husband's death, despising the earthly kingdom and spurning the kings of the world, longing for the bridal chamber of the heavenly King, enters a monastery: in which, being made abbess, she began to shine with great virtues. Her feast is kept on the XIV of the Kalends of September. She flourished in the year of the Lord 900. These things will be more fully examined below. Meanwhile they are brought forward for the Saint's cult. But I scarcely doubt that for the XIV of the Kalends of September we should read the XIV of the Kalends of October. Certainly on this day in the Breviary of Strasbourg, which we have printed in the year 1484, an Office of nine lessons is prescribed for Richardis the virgin, to be begun from Vespers. And Aubertin, Prior of Étival, in the French life, chapter 9, writes that in the church of Étival a magnificent altar was raised to St. Richardis, and that she is venerated on this day. A certain priest of the Premonstratensian Order once wrote these things to our Papebroch about the cult of St. Richardis: When I was formerly living in Alsace, I read in a manuscript codex a certain Legend, not very long, of saint Richardis the empress, formerly wife of Charles the Fat, whose feast with its Octave is most solemn in the most ancient abbeys of Andlau in the bishopric of Strasbourg and of Étival in that of Toul, formerly of Regular Canons, founded by the same saint Richardis.

[3] with a public and ancient cult as a virgin. Further, that the cult of St. Richardis is ancient, and began at least from the eleventh century, is gathered from the solemn translation of her body, made about the middle of the eleventh century by St. Pope Leo IX. Of this the Saxon Annalist writes the following at the year 1048: The same Pope (St. Leo IX) in the convent of virgins which is named Andlau in Alsace honorably raised the body of St. Richardis the empress from the tomb, and laid it up in the church. St. Leo himself comes as a witness in the letters to be praised at number 7. Such an elevation, made by the supreme Pontiff himself, is equivalent to a beatification, so that a lawful cult was either then begun, or confirmed by the authority of Leo IX, if it had already had a beginning before. That the Saint is venerated as a virgin is clear from the Breviary of Strasbourg praised above, in which all the antiphons are proper, as also the prayer, which is as follows: O God, who without a profession of virginity didst preserve the blessed Richardis a virgin, grant that she may obtain pardon with thee for us transgressors, who under the name of wife merited from thee the crown of virginity. Through, etc. At Vespers this antiphon alone is set before the psalms: The most solemn day is here, on which the glory of the angels rejoices at the increase of the Saints, because the most sacred virgin Richardis, God's chosen, has been made their consort in heaven; by whose unceasing prayer, O God, lighten for us the weights of our sins. At the Magnificat this is set down: O Christ, author and lover of chastity, who didst choose the blessed Richardis as a bride beloved by thee; since under the name of wife thou didst preserve for her the dignity of integrity, grant that we may be aided with thee by the merits of her by whose examples of chastity we are enlightened. So too the antiphons at Lauds and the responsories to the Lessons of Matins are proper. But what is said in them about the Saint's stock, deeds, or virtues I shall more conveniently produce each in its own place. So much then concerning her cult. About the miracles and relics some things will be said after her deeds have been examined.

[4] The Life of St. Richardis was never so written by the ancients [A manuscript Oration on the Saint, from which some things are to be given: an elogium from the Breviary to be published.] as to deserve to be called a Life, so at least I think. Nevertheless there was transmitted to us a certain writing, hinted at in number 2, as though it were a Life. But it is not a Life, but rather a very short oration or homily, delivered on the festivity of Bl. Richardis, whose author shows that few things about the Saint's deeds were known to him, since he discusses almost always her virginity in wedlock, and so turns that argument on every side that he adds only a very few other historical things. For which cause I do not judge that this writing should be published; yet those few things which it has to our purpose I shall communicate to the reader in the course of this. One copy of that writing John Gamans transmitted from the codex of the monastery of Böddeken without the opening added; the other we received from the ancient Legendary of the abbey of Étival in Lorraine, of the Premonstratensian Order. In this the opening is added, which begins thus: With the whole devotion of our mind we keep the memory of the blessed Richardis the virgin, whose feasts are celebrated today, in whom we can see the wonderful grace and power of God, etc. In place of this oration, which has few historical things, I shall give the lessons of the Breviary of Strasbourg, which contain nearly everything pertaining to St. Richardis. A French Life of St. Richardis was published in the year 1665 by Antonin Aubertin, Prior of the abbey of Étival, of the Premonstratensian Order in Lorraine. Of the same Saint very many writers have made brief mention, some older, some more recent. But I shall not weave a catalogue of them here; rather I shall name each when I believe their words conduce to our purpose.

[5] About the country of St. Richardis we have nothing certain from the older writers. The Saint's country uncertain: Certain more recent writers have written that she was born in Scotland and was the daughter of a king of the Scots, but perhaps without foundation. Rader in the Bavaria Sacra, volume 3, page 73, rejects and refutes their opinion, where he collected most of what concerns St. Richardis. It is refuted by no better argument than that none of the ancients called St. Richardis a Scot, or the daughter of a king of Scotland. Another is the conjecture of François Guillimann in his Bishops of Strasbourg, page 125, to which the praised Rader assents, as does Laguille in his History of Alsace, page 138. For these conjecture that she was born in Alsace, because there, on her own property, as we shall see below, she built the monastery of Andlau. Another too she built on her own land in Alsace for the abbey of Novientum, as will be said at number 8. Wherefore, they say, if she possessed some lands in Alsace by inheritance, or received from her parents, it becomes likely either that she was born in that same province, or in some neighboring one of Germany or Gaul. In the manuscript Oration the Saint's country is not expressed, and about her birth it is only said: The most blessed Richardis was most noble in birth, fair of face, fairer in faith. In the Breviary of Strasbourg the blessed Richardis is said to have sprung from noble offspring, and again: She shone with the singular dignity of royal stock. And so royal stock is there attributed to the Saint; but she is not said to have been a king's daughter. For the rest, that she was born not long after the middle of the ninth century can in some measure be gathered from the time of her marriage; but the Saint's country has thus far remained uncertain.

[6] she was married to Charles the Fat, and afterwards crowned empress with him. St. Richardis married Charles surnamed the Fat, the youngest son of Louis, king of Germany. About the year of the marriage there is no full certainty: for by Regino's reckoning she was married in the year 877, according to Hermann Contractus in the year 875. For this cause it is also uncertain whether Charles at the time of the marriage had the royal title with a part of his father's kingdom, or rather obtained that dignity after the marriage. For his father Louis died in the year 876, and after the custom of the time divided his kingdom among his three sons, Carloman, Louis, and Charles the Fat. To the latter at that time fell Alemannia, or Swabia, with several neighboring provinces, which it is not our purpose here to enumerate. But Charles the Fat little by little obtained not only his whole paternal kingdom through the death of his brothers, but the kingdom of Gaul also afterwards came to him, since the kindred kings who ruled in Gaul died without any other more suitable heir. To so many kingdoms he added the crown of the empire in the year 880, when together with his wife Richardis he was crowned at the Lord's Nativity by Pope John VIII. Wherefore in those ten or twelve years in which he lived with St. Richardis, he obtained almost the whole empire of Charlemagne his great-grandfather: but he lost everything in a few weeks after he had ill-treated and cast off his holy Wife. But let these things about Charles suffice. Concerning St. Richardis let us inquire what she did in the time of her marriage.

[7] She founds in Alsace the convent of Andlau; That the convent of Andlau, into which the town, now commonly called Andlaw, grew, was built by St. Richardis, various writers to be praised below teach, when they narrate that the Saint withdrew into that monastery. Leo IX, who raised the body of St. Richardis there, as was said at number 3, comes as a witness to that foundation in the bull given to the abbess Mathilda, by which he confirms the privileges of the said monastery. That bull was published by Martène in volume 1 of the Anecdota, column 170. The monastery is called that of saint Fabian and saint Felicity, which is called of Helio, situated in the district of Alsace. In the same the Pontiff testifies that he translated to the church consecrated by himself the body of the blessed Richarda, the first builder of that same venerable place. Bruschius in his Monasteries of Germany, folio 7, writes thus of that foundation: Andlaw, anciently Andlaha from the river of the same name, or the convent of Helio in the district of Alsace, sacred to St. Fabian and St. Felicity, a wealthy college of canonesses born in famous places, situated toward the mountains of the Vosges, was founded and most liberally endowed for twelve canonesses and as many canons in the year of Christ 880, or, as others will have it, 888, by St. Richardis, daughter of a king of the Scots, wife of Charles the Fat, emperor of the Romans, who, being separated from her husband by divorce, lived there, died, and was buried in an honorable tomb set on high behind the high altar. So far Bruschius, who makes the third and fourth among the abbesses nieces of St. Richardis. As regards the year of the foundation, I nowhere find it proved by a certain document. Aubertin in the French Life, chapter 8, believed that the foundation was made after the Saint's divorce. But it was certainly made before the divorce, and some years before 888, since the Saint in the year 887 withdrew into the monastery founded before. That noble college of canonesses still exists, of which the Gallia Christiana treats in volume 5, column 880, where it is said to have been formerly of the Benedictine Order, which nevertheless I find neither in the praised bull of Leo IX nor in the ancient writers, and for that cause it does not seem to me sufficiently probable.

[8] In Alsace also, and in the same diocese of Strasbourg, is Novientum, she benefits the abbey of Novientum, or Ebersmunster, not far distant from the town of Andlau. That St. Richardis at some time came to Novientum and showed herself beneficent, the History of the monastery of Novientum has, published in Martène, volume 3 of the Anecdota, in which at column [ ] are read the following: In these times therefore the venerable empress Richardis came to Novientum, and gave over thirty acres of field and vineyard, and one farmstead with the whole tithe of that allod, to St. Maurice (the church of the monastery) for the divine Sacrifices: chiefly doing penance because she had by her power deprived the church of St. Maurice in Sigolsheim of its tithes. For in the same village on her own ground she built a church in honor of St. Peter, and first her own tithes, then in succeeding time all the tithes of the whole village she gathered to it, except the estate of St. Maurice and of his household, and the allod of the holy Mother of God and of her household. For this cause therefore she gave over the aforesaid allod, as we have said before, and promised that she would thereafter be of profit in many things. Mabillon narrates these things briefly in volume 3 of his Annals, page 226, at the year 880, about which the matter may have happened; but the year is uncertain.

[9] To the monastery of Étival in Lorraine, with which she had been endowed by her husband Charles the Fat, and gives many things to that of Étival in Lorraine St. Richardis likewise showed herself beneficent, as the letters of donation teach, published in the Annals of the Premonstratensian Order, volume 2, among the proofs, column 538. They have this beginning: In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Recardis, by the favoring clemency of God, empress and augusta. Let the diligence of all the faithful, namely present and future, know that we, since we acknowledge that we are debtors, and since it is recognized to befit us according to God and men, a certain monastery, delivered to us by Charles my husband, emperor of the Romans, in honor of the blessed Peter, first of the Apostles, with all things justly and lawfully pertaining to it, namely the church of the blessed Mary situated in the same place, etc. There follows a long enumeration of churches, chapels, lands, and other goods pertaining to the monastery of Étival. Then it is added: All these things I, Recardis, at the urging and counsel of Charles my husband and emperor of the Romans, deliver and give over with a most firm bounty to the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and to the church of Étival, and to those serving there the Lord and the Prince of the Apostles: namely so that they may possess and hold them perpetually, securely, and justly, under the protection of the blessed Mother of God Mary and of the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and may render no service by right to any man, etc. There follows the conclusion, and then the date, which seems somewhat corrupted by the negligence of copyists.

[10] For the chronological notes do not sufficiently agree with one another, by a diploma given in the year 884. and are as follows: Given on the Kalends of May, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 880, in the second year of the empire of my lord Charles, the fourth in Italy, the third in France, in the second Indiction. The same notes are found in the written copy which was sent from the praised abbey to Papebroch in the past century. And so I do not grasp whence Mabillon took an epoch consisting of fewer notes, which he gives in volume 3 of his Annals, page 260, in this way: Given on the Kalends of May, in the fourth year of my lord Charles in Italy, the third in France, in the second Indiction. He notes that these agree with the eighty-fourth year of that century: which is true: for Charles in the year 880, through the death of his brother Carloman, had obtained the kingdom in Italy, and through the death of Louis, his other brother, in the year 881 had likewise received a part in Gaul. And so the praised diploma seems to have been given on the Kalends of May in the year 884, in which also the second Indiction was running, in which the year of the Incarnation, as also of the empire, which was the fourth, have been corrupted. For the rest, Hugo, the editor of the Premonstratensian Annals, writing about Étival in volume 2, column 889 and following, affirms that the greatest part of the goods of Étival was brought by St. Richardis to the foundation of the monastery of Andlau. But Richardis in the praised diploma seems to assert that she is restoring to the people of Étival their monastery free, and indeed with all things justly and lawfully pertaining to it. Wherefore, since that most illustrious writer brings forward no documents by which it can be proved that the Saint used the goods of the monastery of Étival for the foundation of Andlau, I cannot but doubt whether she really used them for that end, since she herself seems to contradict it.

[11] Pope John VIII writes to the Saint. Among the Letters of Pope John VIII, one is found given to Riccarda augusta, namely the two hundred and ninety-eighth, yet at the same time inscribed to Liutward, bishop of Vercelli. The Pontiff asks the Empress first to intercede with the emperor Charles, that he may bring aid against the Saracens harassing Rome. Secondly he commends to her his legate. The third point he expresses thus: Lastly, worshiper of Christ and daughter beloved of God, we take it ill that, though often entreating for our spiritual daughter Angelberga, we have been able to confer no remedy through you, that, her exile being dissolved, we might have her brought back to the holy Apostle Peter. Whence even now we most earnestly beseech that for the love of God and of us the holy Apostolic See may be honored in this: and that, as the already-mentioned Augustus likewise promised with you, she may be brought back safe and unharmed from the captivity in which she is held in vain. This last at least the Pontiff obtained: for the empress Angilberga, widow of the emperor Louis II, who had been seized by Charles the Fat on account of her machinations for Boso, king of Provence, and taken into Germany, was sent back by him to the Pontiff. The prayers for aid against the Saracens were likewise heard: for the emperor in the year 882 set out into Italy for that cause; but he learned that the Pontiff had meanwhile died, and could be of little profit, because he was detained by other cares on every side. From that Letter of the Pontiff, which was given in the year 881, or 882, as I rather believe, it is sufficiently gathered that things stood well between Charles the Fat and his wife Richardis: nor do I anywhere find that there were dissensions between them before the year 887, to which we proceed.

[12] St. Richardis, accused of adultery, asserts herself a virgin, But in the year 887 the emperor Charles, either because with too great credulity he had lent his ears to evil speakers, or because he was even then weak in the brain, as he is certainly said to have been a little after, stirred up a most grievous dissension. The Metz Annals in Du Chesne, volume 3, page 322, having related Charles the Fat's unhappy expedition against the Northmen besieging Paris, add about him at the same year 887: At last … he withdrew, and went by a direct route into Alemannia. And first indeed he thrust from his side with disgrace Liutward, bishop of Vercelli, a man very dear to him and his sole counselor in administering public affairs, the charge of adultery being brought against him, in that he mingled with the Queen's secrets more familiarly than was fitting. Then, a few days intervening, he summons to an assembly his wife Richardis (for so the Empress was called) on the same matter. And (wonderful to say) he publicly protests that he had never had carnal intercourse with her, though for more than ten years she had been joined in his company by the bond of lawful matrimony. She on the contrary professes that she is free not only from intercourse with him but from all intercourse with man, and glories in the integrity of her virginity: and confidently affirms that she would prove this by the judgment of almighty God, if it pleased her husband, either by single combat or by the trial of red-hot ploughshares: for she was a religious Woman. And, the separation being made, she withdrew into the monastery which she had built on her own property, to serve God. Regino in his Chronicle at the same year has quite the same things. Hermann Contractus, in his Chronicle, as it was published in Heinrich Canisius, volume 1, page 555, narrates the matter thus: The empress Richarda, accused by the emperor and others of adultery with Liutward, bishop of Vercelli, who flourished familiarly in the palace with her and the emperor, proved herself by the divine judgment untouched by all intercourse with men, and a virgin to that time; although she had already appeared for twelve years in the emperor's wedlock. And presently, being separated from him, she withdrew into the convent of virgins of Andlau built by herself, and there the virgin Queen remained diligent in the divine service. I pass over other writers of Chronicles who agree with these.

[13] For it is abundantly established from these things that St. Richardis was accused, and proves it by the divine judgment, and that on that occasion her virginity became known, and that she departed from her husband into the monastery founded beforehand. But it appears doubtful whether she proved her virginity in any singular manner, as she really offered herself to such a proof. About the proof having been carried out the Metz Annals and Regino are silent, as though the emperor had given credit to the Saint when she affirmed herself a virgin. Contractus, asserting that the Saint's virginity was proved by the divine judgment, in some measure implies that she really underwent some trial,

in which the divine power preserved her unharmed; but he leaves it to be guessed what that was. The writers of later centuries went off into the most diverse opinions, each according to his own judgment. Many believed that the divorce followed without any further trial, because Charles the Fat was unwilling to accept so severe a trial. Some thought that the charge was washed away by the Saint through the harmless touching of glowing iron. Others write that the Empress's integrity was proved by the judgment of water, because it was formerly so read in Hermann Contractus, aquino judicio, for divino judicio, the divine judgment. But all those opinions, since they are destitute of the authority of the ancients, lack a suitable foundation. Nevertheless it is altogether likely that some not common judgment was employed to detect the guilt or innocence of the accused Empress, both because Hermann implies it, and because the accusation had been instituted in a manner so solemn that credit could not be given to her simply denying it, nor would the empress's reputation have been sufficiently provided for without a judgment.

[14] The manuscript Oration, which I said was delivered on the Saint's feast, namely exposed to fire, affirms in various places that a very severe trial was employed, and the Breviary of Strasbourg agrees with it altogether, so that it is not to be doubted that this was the tradition in the monastery of Andlau and of Étival. The author of the Oration already in his opening implies that the Saint was unharmed in fire. For it is most rare, he says, nay impossible, except by the help of the divine power, for anyone not to burn in the midst of fire, for a married woman to be a virgin, etc. Then in the middle of the Oration he teaches that Richardis was accused of adultery, and that on that occasion her virginity, which had always been hidden, became known, while she is tried by fire. Presently the fact is subjoined in these words: For the case is known to those who read the Chronicle, how she was accused of having sinned with a certain bishop of Vercelli. When he, being innocent, had been expelled from the court, a few days intervening, she was called to judgment by Charles the emperor, called her husband but never made so. But she, who, in order to hide the modesty of her virginity, though never made a wife, allowed herself to be thought a wife, at last, compelled by the accusation of adultery, broke out into speech, and publicly protested that she was willing to prove in judgment that she had never been either the wife or the adulteress of anyone. Wonderful to say! since already, as was said above, she had been joined to him in matrimony for more than ten years: which nevertheless she did from no boasting, but for this cause, that, the judgment being completed and the suspicion of adultery removed, she might not be compelled to return as a wife to the bed of her so-called but never actual husband, fearing lest afterwards she should be deprived of a virginity long concealed. For by one and the same judgment it was proved that she was neither the adulteress nor the wife of anyone; but by her trial she appeared altogether a virgin.

[15] and in it, for the proof of her virginity For, wrapped over her whole body in linen cloths dipped, drenched, and saturated in wax, and set alight at the four corners, with the cloths burning about her, singing psalms to the Lord, when the cloths were consumed and at last reduced to ashes, she appeared a splendid Virgin, as whole in mind so also uncorrupted in body, and not scorched in the midst of the fire, nor with her skin blackened by the burning, nor diminished by a hair. So that orator, by whom perhaps some circumstances have been exaggerated. For that all the cloths were consumed by the fire the Office of Strasbourg does not have, although otherwise it agrees as to the manner of the proof. The antiphon at the Benedictus in the praised Office is this: O God, just and true, whose promised proclamation was made truth in the blessed Richardis: whom, passing through the fire, the flame did not harm; who justly did not feel the smell of fire in her body, because she had first fixed spiritual kindlings in her heart, grant, we beseech thee, by her intervention that we may quench harmful flames with living water. In the first responsory of the third nocturn these things are read: She, O Christ, kindled with the ardor of thy charity, despised the devouring flames of the burning. And because inwardly she burned with the fire of the Paraclete Spirit, therefore outwardly she did not feel that of the body. At the end of the second lesson it is said of Charles the Fat: Having summoned religious men and the faithful of the empire, he decreed to try her by the judgment of fire. And presently in the third: They put upon her a waxed shift next to her skin, and set it alight at four parts. But she stood motionless like a most gentle sheep: and the fire was divinely extinguished, and could in no wise harm her at all. Aubertin agrees in the French Life, chapter 5, teaching that various paintings are extant in which St. Richardis is exhibited unharmed amid the flames; and asserting that the wax-dipped shift with which she was then covered is still preserved in the abbey of Étival, in a bronze case adorned with silver plates. Hugo, praised before, in volume 2, column 920, reckons among the relics of the abbey of Étival the shift of St. Richardis enclosed in a silver case. Then he adds: She was clothed in it when, for the proof of her continence, to the credulous and suspicious emperor Charles the Fat, she passed unharmed amid the fires.

[n16] remaining unharmed. From what has been said it is clear that the tradition of those among whom the Saint is venerated is such that they believe she was exposed to fire in such a way that she must have been burned had she not been preserved by the divine power. That proof is not indeed among those which were more frequently employed in the Middle Ages, and afterwards rightly abolished, such as the proofs by duel, by cold water, by hot water, by red-hot iron, whether handling it with the hand or walking barefoot over glowing ploughshares, about which and some others our Longueval may be consulted in the preliminary Dissertation before volume 4 of the History of the Gallican church. Nevertheless, a nearly similar proof was undergone, and with less necessity, by St. Peter surnamed Igneus, who passed unharmed through a burning pyre. Of his deed we treated in the Acts of St. John Gualbert on the twelfth of July. I do not see therefore what can prevent us from believing that St. Richardis was so tried by fire as is read in the Breviary. For the intention of those who ordered so severe a trial seems to have been that, if she were guilty, what was enjoined for the trial might at the same time serve her for punishment, so that she should not thereafter have to be punished with another penalty.

[17] Now, having related the happy issue of so unusual a trial, the author of the manuscript Oration adds: The judgment completed, she withdraws to the monastery of Andlau: but as abbess Being loosed, however, not from the law of a husband, but from the reputation of a husband, … she married him whom she wished to marry, nay whom she had long since married; then at last she rejoiced that she had married him, because him whom she desired in secret, a Virgin she openly married, the Son of a Virgin, thereafter showing herself a virgin in act and profession. For, the judgment being completed, she remained thereafter a Virgin with virgins in her own monastery, which she had built from her own means, which she had enriched with her clean dowry and adorned with the relics of the Saints. The Breviary agrees that the Saint at once betook herself to the monastery of Andlau, now called Andlaviense; and all the older writers who have treated of the Saint agree. Wherefore no account is to be made of what is interposed by Brouwer in the Trier Annals, at the year 888, writing thus: And having set out first into Italy, and afterwards at Pavia in the nunnery of St. Marinus, she laid the rudiments of a severer discipline, following the same rule of life at Zurich and at Säckingen in Germany. Only then does he subjoin the building of the convent of Andlau, founded long before. Brouwer was deceived by Bruschius, who at folio 7, treating of the convent of Andlau, teaches that he inspected the ancient records of the convent of Andlau, and found in them that St. Richardis, before the foundation of the convent of Andlau, had lived in the very powerful convent of nuns of St. Marinus of the city of Pavia, of which she herself was supreme governess, as also of those of Säckingen on the Rhine and of Zurich on the Limmat, by the donation of her husband Charles the Fat, made in the year of the Lord 881. So Bruschius, not attending sufficiently to the dates. For if the donation was made in the year 881, it preceded St. Richardis's divorce by six years. And so Charles the Fat gave those abbeys indeed to his wife after the custom of that time, and she held them as abbess; but in none of them did she lay the rudiments of the monastic life, or live as a nun. Aubertin in chapter 6 thinks that the Saint after the divorce first lived in the monastery of Mont Sainte-Odile; but the conjecture is destitute of all foundation.

[18] I doubt whether what Bucelin asserts in his Benedictine Menology on this day rests on a better foundation, [She seems to have been a religious neither there nor elsewhere, nay not even a nun.] when, having related the Saint's withdrawal to the convent of Andlau, he proceeds thus: Where, being made by her outstanding sanctity an example to the virgins, she deserved afterwards to be elected abbess. Thence too, being called to the government of the monastery of SS. Felix and Regula at Zurich, when she had filled the world with a most beautiful example of life and a rare fame of holiness, and had adorned the whole Order, full of merits she was called to the crown of eternity. But among the abbesses of the convent of Andlau in Bruschius, who gives a catalogue of them full enough for the time in which the Saint could have been alive, Richardis is nowhere found. No more is she inserted into the catalogue of the abbesses of Andlau in the Gallia Christiana, volume 5, column 880. The old writers too have nothing by which that opinion can be confirmed. Nay rather it seems doubtful whether she so withdrew into the monastery as at the same time to have embraced the monastic institute: for I do not find this clearly asserted by any ancient writer. As regards the presidency of the convent of Zurich, in the Gallia Christiana, volume 5, column 937, she is numbered among the abbesses of this and of two others in these words: Richardis the empress, the separated and forsaken wife of this Charles (the Fat), who presided also over the monasteries of Andlau and Säckingen. But I should rather believe that she was a commendatory abbess when she was living with her husband the emperor, than a Religious while she was separated from him. Whatever the case may be, I subjoin the lessons of the Breviary, to be recited in continuous discourse.

[19] The Saint's elogium Saint Richardis, sprung of a noble line, but nobler in faith and chastity, since she was of elegant form and educated in every discipline, and had come to marriageable age, her parents gave her over to king Charles in lawful union. Which Charles, coming to Rome together with the Queen, they received the imperial anointing and coronation from the Apostolic John. And returning to their own with great glory, the blessed Richardis remained twelve years with the emperor in all good manner of life and integrity of the flesh. But the envious devil, seeing the Virgin's constancy, contrived to sow discord and to blacken so great a praise of chastity. At that time Luitward, bishop of Vercelli, excelling among the other faithful of the realm, used to frequent the imperial court, giving wholesome counsels for the increase of the empire. Indeed, while he handled the royal affairs with diligent fidelity, the Queen was assailed by certain malevolent men, as though she had wrought the crime of adultery with the bishop. And when this had flown to the ears of the emperor, like a raging lion, and troubled within himself, having summoned religious men and the faithful of the empire, he decreed to try her by the judgment of fire. He, having taken the counsel of the nobles

they put upon her a waxed shift next to her skin, and set it alight at four parts. But she stood motionless like a most gentle sheep, and the fire was divinely extinguished: and could in no wise harm her at all: nor undeservedly; for she had in no wise violated the seal of true dignity, known to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And thus, purged by the divine judgment, she proved herself whole and unstained from all intercourse with men, a virgin.

[20] from the Breviary of Strasbourg: And presently, being separated from the emperor, she withdrew to the convent of Andlau, which she herself had built from the foundations; and there, serving, the Queen remained a virgin. But the emperor in vengeance is deserted by all the princes, and another king is chosen in his place: and all who were present, seeing these things, glorified God, who saves those who hope in him. And so Charles the emperor, now deprived of his kingdom, devoutly serving God, as some say, being strangled by his own men, died, and was buried in the convent of Reichenau near Constance. But the glorious Richardis, thereafter mighty in virtues, mortifying her flesh with vigils, fasts, and prayers, visiting everywhere the thresholds of the Apostles and of the other Saints, and the sepulcher of the Lord, was zealous to frequent religious men, and to gather to her own place the relics of very many Saints. Among which precious pledges was the blessed Lazarus, once bishop in Cyprus, whom the Lord raised from the dead. His body she obtained, and conveyed to her own place. And when she had enriched her own convent with very many estates, and had adorned it with ornaments and innumerable gifts, as is still seen, and had persevered in a long holy manner of life, at last she is called by the Lord, and in the heavenly Jerusalem is crowned with the unfading laurel of immortality. At her tomb the sick and feeble are often cured, and the Lord is many times glorified through her. Let us implore the help of this Virgin with unceasing petitions, that she may ever intercede with the Lord for our sins. So far the Breviary, with which the historians generally agree about the things said to have befallen Charles the Fat after the divorce. But what is asserted in it about the Saint's pilgrimages to the thresholds of the Apostles and to the sepulcher of the Lord I do not find in others, and therefore it seems uncertain. But whether the body of St. Lazarus, whom the Lord raised, is to be believed to be that which is held for such in the abbey of Andlau, will be more conveniently examined on the seventeenth of December, on which St. Lazarus is venerated. The year in which St. Richardis died none of the ancients assigns. Wherefore we can only conjecture that she easily reached the tenth century: for she was not of a much advanced age when she departed from her husband, having been married only ten or twelve years, and afterwards she is said to have persevered in a long holy manner of life.

[21] Concerning the Saint's miracles after death the manuscript Oration agrees with the Breviary, miracles confirmed from elsewhere: which has thus: How great her merits are with God has often been proved by the power of signs, whether in the enlightening of the blind, or the raising up of the lame, or the delivering of those possessed by a demon, and everywhere God grants help to those who invoke her in the necessity of the faithful, both elsewhere and in that place where is buried the precious treasure of her body, in which, as we have heard, the Lord has done such great things. In the Breviary again the antiphon at the Magnificat in second Vespers proclaims the Saint's miracles in this manner: Lord of hosts, considering thy power in saint Richardis, we give thee glory for her merits, we praise thy magnificence in her magnificent works: by her intervention benefits are granted by thee to the blind, the lame, those possessed by a demon, and in short to those afflicted with any plague, etc. That St. Richardis is beneficent also to her clients in the abbey of Étival the praised Hugo testifies in volume 2, column 921, beginning thus about the Saint's head kept there: In the same shrine (with the shift of St. Richardis mentioned at number 15) is contained the head of the same Saint, divided into two parts. In the year 1638 a French soldier, while he attempted, without the leader's knowledge, to tear off the silver plates surrounding the case, suddenly experienced a flow of blood in his nose, and that incurable, until the sacrilegious thief, dissolved in tears, had interposed the prayers of the Religious to St. Richardis. That frequent cures of the sick have happened, as the chronicler of Étival reports, at the invocation of St. Richardis, and by the touch of her relics, is established, and to this day is attested by the frequent concourse of pilgrims who have experienced that same power, in my presence.

[22] The elevation of her body and the Saint's tomb. For the rest, what is asserted about the Saint's relics kept at Étival does not seem consonant with what Ruinart wrote in his Literary Journey into Alsace and Lorraine, among the posthumous Works of Mabillon and Ruinart, volume 3, page 455. For, after he had narrated that he found Mabillon at Strasbourg, who the day before had visited the college of secular canonesses of Andlau, and that its foundress was St. Richardis, and that she is now its patroness, he adds: Whose sacred body, not yet raised from the tomb, is religiously kept in the ancient church under the high altar. If the body was never raised from the tomb, and is kept under the altar, the people of Étival cannot have a part of the head. But I wonder that these things could be written by Ruinart, as though seen the day before by Mabillon. For it is established that the body was raised by St. Leo IX and placed where it is now kept, as was said at numbers 3 and 7. Besides, Aubertin in the French Life, chapter XI, describes the Saint's sepulcher, not under the altar, but behind the high altar, and not under the ground, as Ruinart's words seem to imply, but raised above the ground to the height of a man's stature. He adds that that tomb was wrought with wonderful artistry, and adorned with paintings and gilded ornaments, and distinguished also with four figures which represent certain deeds of the Saint. About the tomb raised above the ground behind the high altar Bruschius agrees, whose words I gave at number 7. And so Mabillon does not seem to have seen the tomb, or, if he saw it, he must himself have forgotten the tomb he had seen. From whatever source the occasion of the error arose, Ruinart certainly erred, and his whole account of the body not raised must be held to have proceeded from error; and therefore it cannot stand in the way of the belief of the people of Étival about certain relics of the Saint kept with them.

* at the exhortation