ON ST. LUCY OF THE MOUNT, VIRGIN,
AT SAMPIGNY IN LORRAINE.
SYLLOGE.
Lucy of the Mount, at Sampigny in Lorraine. (S.)
BY J. C.
[Unknown to the classical and common martyrologists, St. Lucy is venerated at Sampigny in Lorraine.] Of our Saint Lucy I find mention nowhere in the common Martyrologies. Dempster begins the eleventh book of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation from her elogium. Camerarius in his book On the Piety of the Scots at the 21st day of September collected some things about St. Lucy from an, as he himself testifies, very ancient Office. Among the catalogues of the Saints of Scotland and Ireland, of which we have very many, I have found one once sent to Rosweyde by Fr. Sebastian Vitus, in which St. Lucy is announced today. Father François Lahier in the Menology of the Holy Virgins, published at Lille in the 45th year of the past century, volume 2, page 393, gave a place to our Saint, and pursues her praises from the monuments of the place, from Camerarius, and from others, and relates that the holy Virgin died on the same day as Camerarius says, the 21st of September. But unless that day is St. Lucy's feast at Sampigny, I do not know the reason. Certainly below in number 8 she is said in express words to have been translated to the heavens on the thirteenth of the Kalends of October. Moreover the same Lahier afterwards, in the year 1648, on the 20th of July, gave a letter to Bolland, of which, so far as it bears on this matter, this is a fragment: We have in Lorraine at Sampigny, where she spent her life (St. Lucy), her sacred body. There she has a church, and pilgrimage to the mount is frequent. The Office of the feast contains her Life in the Lessons. The title is: The Office of blessed Lucy the virgin of the Mount. At Matins, at Mass, and at both Vespers. The Office, which the aforesaid Lahier promises to send, Bolland had long since received in the year 1643 from the most illustrious John James Chifflet from a manuscript codex of the mount of St. Lucy, as he himself noted in the margin. From it, or from a like one, they took almost everything whatever that Dempster, Camerarius, and Lahier have brought forward about St. Lucy.
[2] The very few things which are new in them I shall subjoin; but in the poverty of other documents I first exhibit the Office in the order in which it was transcribed: The Office of the Saint, omitting, however, those things which are inserted here and there from the common of Virgins.
Responsory at First Vespers:
Happy Lucy, accomplishing her last labor,
a Virgin, made her way by merit into the citadel of the Blessed,
where, beholding divine things, with the diadem of virginity
she shall shine for ever. Now, granting us thy comforts,
ask the starry King to be favorable to us.
Versicle:
Implore pardon, heal us, make all things prosperous,
with unceasing mouth put our evils to flight, skillfully seek our advantages,
* Now, granting us, etc. Glory be to the Father, etc.
Hymn.
Let one voice of all bring forth
the praises of holy Lucy;
let lips overflow with praise,
let joy shape the voice beforehand.
A virgin prudent and humble,
a keeper of the oil in her vessel,
an unquenchable lamp,
she shone with the light of faith.
Forgetful of her frail sex,
she put her hand to strong things,
noble in signs and in life,
with grace cooperating.
Praise to the simple Essence,
to the Father, to the Offspring, to the Paraclete,
who may conform us to glory
for the merit of holy Lucy.
3Antiphon at the Magnificat:
Lucy, Bride of God, be mindful … of the company from an ancient codex once sent to us
which, singing thy deeds, asks of thee to be helped:
while the welcome solemnities of thy birthday are strong,
make those who seek thee to be free from the plague of crimes.
At the hours of Matins, the Invitatory:
To the lofty King, to whom the fabric of the world lies subject,
who consecrated to himself Lucy blessed with her dowry,
let us sing, mindful on our lips and in our heart.
In the first Nocturn, Antiphon: The beauteous virgin Lucy, when she had spurned the enticements of the flesh, deserved the most welcome embraces of the King on high.
In the first Nocturn, Responsory: The blessed virgin Lucy, grace having been divinely bestowed on her from her earliest age, with unstained body and mind rendered perpetual service to Christ.*
How happy the parents of so great an offspring, who in this world was bound with the bonds of outstanding virtues. With unstained,* etc.
[4] and antiphons In the second Nocturn, Responsories: That the sacred body of the Virgin had come to the Mount could not be hidden in the region. As though they heard her voice from on high: I am the salvation of all: come to me, you who labor.*
3rd Responsory: Thou still implorest health for our wretched souls and bodies. I am the salvation,* etc.
A flower dripping dew ascended to the honor of the mount, and upon this flower God breathed a fragrance.*
Flower, virgin, dew, welcome health, fragrance, breath of salvation. And upon this,* etc. Glory be to the Father, etc.
In the third Nocturn. Antiphon:
Healing the wounds of many with a sweet medicine,
a shining hall of God, a house and friend of the Godhead,
bear care for us, and kindly favor us.
In the third Nocturn, Responsories: Wearing down the youth of her flesh, seeking only the knowledge of God, leaving her kingdom, her acquaintance, and her fatherland, she turned her step into Lorraine.*
Desiring to be joined to Christ her bridegroom, she willingly overcame worldly glory. Leaving her kingdom,* etc.
2nd Responsory: O lamp of the Church, pouring forth a stream of oil, medicine of grace, nourishment of faith, grant protection to the fearful, warmth to the less fervent, healing to the languishing.*
In thee truth is a fruitful olive, whose purity shines and whose works are resplendent. Grant protection,* etc.
[5] At Lauds, antiphons: The venerable and prudent virgin Lucy, the flowers of the world being spurned, deserved to become a most welcome handmaid of the eternal King. and has proper Lessons,
Let the joys of the festal day run before the mouths of the Christian people, who gladly celebrate the virginal glory of Lucy to the praise of the Lord.
This is the shining Virgin, who, now bright, went forth to meet thee her bridegroom, to render him for ever the tribute of her service, joined to the choirs of the Blessed.
Hall capacious of light, and loving house of the true sun,
who with healing hand didst cherish the wretched in compassion;
now, we beg, come to meet our diseases in all things.
O happy Handmaid of God, unburden us pressed with weight,
and strip us, weary, of our gnawing faults,
and, at thy entreaty, may the gate of heaven lie open to us.
Antiphon at the Benedictus: Let us glorify with praises Lucy, the glorious Bride of Christ and noble virgin, asking that, by her entreaty, we may deserve to enjoy the glory of paradise through the ages.
Antiphon at the Magnificat: O virgin Lucy, prudent and honorable virgin, heal the sick, grant comforts to the sorrowful, with devout prayer receive our service and our vows, and may the gate of heaven through thee be opened to us.
6Lesson 1
The venerable and blessed virgin Lucy, a devout handmaid of God, From her father's court in Scotland a most devout daughter of the king of Scotland, from the earliest infancy of her age was honorably nourished in her parents' palace, and was bountiful in alms, continual in vigils and prayers, perfect in fastings and in the performance of good works, frequenting the churches of God, continually persevering in the praise of Christ. From the priests and ministers of Christ she frequently sought with all love the way of God's commandments.
Lesson 2
On a certain day, while she was in church, she heard the words of the holy Gospel preached: If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and come, follow me. And elsewhere: Amen, amen, I say to you, that you who have left all things and followed me shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting. Kindled by this with her whole heart, she subjected herself wholly to the service of Christ, that she might deserve to be a partaker of so great a promise. From that day therefore she resolved to deny herself, to forsake her fatherland, and to go to a foreign land.
7Lesson 3
Why do I delay longer? In the name of God she set out on her journey, she flees secretly and stops at Sampigny, held back by a miracle, and passing through France, came, the Lord leading her, into Lorraine. And it came to pass that, while she was standing above the Meuse in the bishopric of Verdun, as though by a divine miracle the waters rose so much that, being unable to cross further, she wished to lodge on a mount near by there. And there she found a certain man devoted to God, by name Theobald, who kindly received her and abundantly shared with her of the goods bestowed by God. And the blessed virgin Lucy remained with the good man for long times, and was always intent upon good works, according to the words of the Apostle, who says: He that laboreth not, let him not eat. For the glorious Maiden by day fed the sheep, and by night was willing to spin in a secret place.
Lesson 4
But in the course of time, by the disposing of divine grace, her host, his wife, and their children having died, blessed Lucy alone succeeded to their temporal goods. Turning temporal things into spiritual, she built in her own house a church in honor of the holy and undivided Trinity, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and of the glorious Virgin Mary, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. And the said church is now consecrated in honor of the blessed virgin Lucy, and is solemnly venerated in those parts by the faithful of Christ.
8Lesson 5
While she still lived in the body, in the aforesaid church throughout her whole life she humbly rendered service to God with devout prayers and observances. [where, enriched with the goods of her host, she builds a church, dies holily, and shines with miracles.] And she lived, not only always with a chaste body but also with a chaste mind, rooted in the bonds of faith, charity, and hope, in the world for more than forty years. And she died full of days on the thirteenth of the Kalends of October, and was buried in peace in the basilica situated on the mount, in the middle of the same church.
Lesson 6
After the passing of the blessed virgin Lucy a lamp assigned to her sepulchre did service, which like a gushing fountain sent forth streams of oil, and, a miracle also being added, the oil that flowed thence wonderfully cured the pains of the languishing, nature being likewise so far changed for the better. For the fire burned in the lamp without the consuming of the oil, the lamp being changed into a fountain of oil for medicine. And so from the miracle of the body of the lamp she works miracles of bodies on earth, but pours truer streams into the bosoms of souls, from a measure good and pressed down and running over in the heavens. Wherefore it is now fitting that we glorify her with worthy praises, suppliantly asking that, by her intercession, we may be so loosed in the world from the bonds of our sins that, Christ granting it, we may deserve to enjoy perpetual rest. Who liveth, etc.
[9] Nothing certain can be determined about the credit of the Acts. Moreover these Acts, such as they are, deserve little credit, as those are wont to do which are found in Lessons commonly written long after the death of the Saints, unless it be established whence they were originally taken, which here it is by no means possible to know. It was indeed an ancient codex which Camerarius saw; but that from the antiquity of the codex a cautious judgment might be made about the worth of the Acts, the time in which the Saint died would certainly have to be known. And yet this is so uncertain that one would try in vain to divine it. Nothing occurs anywhere from which the conjecture could be restricted even within two hundred years. Theobald alone is named, who is so unknown elsewhere that no trace of him is found. For no one, I think, will wish to imagine this Theobald for himself as the count of Bar, famous in the History of Lorraine, who both left children after him and lived in the thirteenth century. From wherever the Acts proceeded, it is likely that a writer near to the Saint's time would not have passed over the name of the king whose daughter he proclaims her, and very many other circumstances, as contemporaries and near-contemporaries are wont to do. And since these are everywhere lacking, it may be suspected that Acts so concise and vague are perhaps even many centuries later, whence their credit may waver. Indeed I fear that on the sole testimony of this uncertain writer it is not sufficiently proved to the learned that St. Lucy was the daughter of a certain king of Scotland, and that she secretly fled from the Catholic court of her parents to Sampigny. For there are not a few who, and not altogether undeservedly, hold suspect whatever is carried hither from those shores by uncertain conveyers and not fortified by due testimonies. To their suspicions it is not agreeable to indulge, since nothing occurs which in any way lessens the credit, however doubtful, of the Acts. This from what I have already said and shall further bring forward is certain, that at Sampigny the holy virgin Lucy is venerated, famous for many miracles.
[10] Yet her cult is certain. Moreover Sampiniacum, to the natives Sampigny, was once a stronghold famous in more than one warlike expedition. Today it is a village on the western bank of the Meuse, and at the furthest borders of the diocese of Verdun to the south. Not far thence a hill is seen, on whose summit is set the church in which the sacred relics of St. Lucy rest, and are honored with a great concourse of the neighboring people. From that hill, where the reverend Fathers of the Order of St. Francis of Paola, whom they call Minims, have their dwelling, and which the holy Virgin, while she lived, illustrated by her virtues and after her death by her miracles, she obtained, I think, the surname of the Mount. The aforesaid Dempster reports that a fountain sprung from her sepulchre heals various weaknesses, and that three verses are read written beneath it:
A flower dripping dew ascended to the honor of the mount,
And upon this flower God breathed a fragrance,
Flower, Virgin, dew, welcome health, fragrance, breath of salvation.
Whether that fountain still gushes today in the church dedicated to St. Lucy is unknown to me. Another prodigy Lahier adds to these: namely that in that place where the Saint was wont to feed her flock there grows to this day a tree of unusual kind, sprung, as is believed, from St. Lucy's distaff fixed in the earth and growing green again. From that wood, on the same testimony, the natives make prayer-beads, and use them against various diseases, and they commonly paint the Saint holding a distaff in her hand and feeding sheep. Of all which let the credit rest with the aforesaid writers.
Annotationsperhaps nostræ*