ON ST. MAURA THE VIRGIN,
AT TROYES IN CHAMPAGNE OF GAUL.
About the middle of the IX century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Maura, Virgin, at Troyes in Champagne of Gaul (S.)
BY C. S.
§ I. The Saint's deeds related by Prudentius, contemporary bishop of Troyes, in a Sermon which we shall give.
[ ] Augusta Tricassinorum, or Trecæ, called by the natives Troyes, an ample episcopal city of Gaul under the archbishopric of Sens Prudentius, bishop of Troyes and the chief place of Champagne, nourished in the ninth century a virgin named Maura, who, despising the illustriousness of her birth and her riches and all other worldly delights, in her father's house and in secular dress devoted herself wholly to the exercises of the virtues, and, before the twenty-third year of her age was completed, departed to her heavenly Spouse on this XXI day of September, and became famous for miracles. She had as her panegyrist Prudentius, bishop of that same city, who by another name was called Galindo, and of whom some other lucubrations are extant in print, especially in the Bibliotheca Patrum of Lyons, tom. 15. The church of Troyes venerates him among the Saints, and honors him with an annual Office on the VI day of April; but my Elders judged that he should only be reported among the Prætermissi, for reasons which may be seen there at the cited day. This is not the place to treat here of that man's deeds, writings and cult, and therefore on both sides there may be consulted, among others, Louis Cellot in the History of Gottschalk; the Life of Prudentius published in French at Paris in the year 1725; and the Vindiciæ of the church of Troyes for his cult, published there in the same tongue in the year 1736, whose author the writers of the Literary History of France, tom. 5, under Prudentius, §1, name as Monsieur Breyer, a canon of the same church; and to which you have an answer in the Journal de Trévoux, part 2 of the month of December of the year 1736, from pag. 2694.
[2] But, as regards the present subject, that Prudentius, reckoned the Saint's deeds in a eulogy, or Galindo, succeeded Adelbert in the bishopric of Troyes, and was already presiding over it in the year 846 or 847, in which he is read to have taken part in the council of Paris as bishop of Troyes, in Labbe, tom. 7 of the Councils, col. [ ]. His death the Annals of the Franks of St. Bertin, and after them the modern writers, fix in the year 861. Further, Prudentius was not only contemporary with the holy virgin Maura but also her familiar friend, and he stood by her as she was dying. The writers of the Literary History of France, in the volume praised above, §2 num. 5, say that he was her director or guide of conscience, but they do not prove it. Nay rather, from the words of that same Prudentius it is more probable that Leo, abbot of Mantiniacum or Mentuniacum, discharged that office toward her: for on Prudentius' testimony, that most religious man, Leo the neighboring abbot, … catechized her and regenerated her of water and the Holy Spirit; and the Virgin herself used to go to his monastery, although it was about four thousand paces distant from this city of Troyes, yet every fourth and sixth feria, by way of pilgrimage, with bare feet and without linen, in a strict fast of bread and water; and the same Leo finally faithfully attended at the couch of the dying Virgin.
[3] which, being asked by many, he wrote, and in the church Further, Prudentius, who had known her excellently well when living, praised her when dead in words before an assembly and in writing, relating those things which either he himself had observed in her, or had learned from her kinsfolk and from other persons worthy of credit whom he named. Yet this oration of which we treat was not delivered at her funeral, as is otherwise customary; but — which makes more for that Saint's commendation — on a certain solemn day, many asking that the bishop, being then according to custom about to speak to the people, should before any other subject speak of Maura's deeds, and should commit the same to writing to be read by posterity. It will be useful to have reported here the words with which he began this sermon. You press me, he says, dearest sons, in season and out of season, that in place of the sermon which on solemn days I am wont to make for you, I should not only speak of the glorious life and precious death of our sister Maura, but should leave it in writing to profit posterity. To this also her brother Eutropius, your provost, who was more truly her brother by spiritual affection than by carnal, has frequently urged me on your behalf, and that most religious man Leo the abbot, our neighbor, who catechized her and regenerated her of water and the Holy Spirit, on behalf of the holy monks.
[4] recited not very long after her death, How long after the Virgin's precious death Prudentius delivered or wrote this oration is uncertain; but one or even a few years after hers could easily then have elapsed, since he himself near the end subjoins about her burial, already at that time famous for miracles: Which (the holy Virgin's body) being fittingly delivered to burial in the place where it is now honored by the faithful, innumerable miracles followed. Breyer in the French Life of the Saint, and after him the aforesaid writers of the Literary History of France, suspect that it was delivered for St. Maura's canonization; which, if we take it of beatification, is not improbable. For this was once granted to bishops, and Prudentius there proclaims her as already received into the heavens, and affirms that her cult is approved by miracles. Nevertheless that a permission of cult of this kind, made by bishops without the authority of the Roman Pontiff, was not a canonization but only a beatification, the most eminent Prospero Lambertini, now Pope Benedict XIV, proves in his excellent Work on the beatification of the Servants of God and the canonization of the Blessed, lib. 1 chap. 6 and 10, where he treats of this subject at length and with his customary learning.
[5] and which Camuzat first published; then published in French too. Nicolas Camuzat, canon of Troyes, first published in print the aforesaid Sermon of Prudentius, which comprises the chief deeds of St. Maura and is a kind of epitome of her Life, in the year 1610 in the Promptuarium of the sacred antiquities of the diocese of Troyes, drawn, as he himself premised, from an ancient manuscript codex, which in very many places could scarcely be read because the letters were eaten away. From this Promptuarium it was afterward inserted in its place in the reissued Surian Collection of the Lives of the Saints. After this, in the year 1725, the same Sermon appeared from the Paris presses, together with the French Life of Prudentius, turned into the French tongue and illustrated with prolix Notes. Its author, who kept silent about his name, the writers of the Literary History of France, as I said above, named as Breyer, canon of Troyes. He, in chap. X of the Life of Prudentius, besides the manuscript which Camuzat published, cites two others, of which one he says existed in the monastery of St. Martin-ès-Aires at Troyes, where the Office of St. Maura, as he says, was formerly read on her feast day, the XXI of September; the other in the parish church of the village of Sainte-Maure, one French mile distant from Troyes. This last, which he used for his French version, he says was written in ancient Gothic characters in a great ecclesiastical book, and that from it some things in Camuzat's edition can be corrected. Nevertheless Breyer himself shows in his Notes so slight a difference between the two that it is not worth the labor to strive to obtain the aforesaid manuscript; especially since we can reckon those few points from Breyer's aforesaid Notes in our own Annotations.
[6] Further, because in this Sermon express mention is made of the Sacraments of Confession, of the Eucharist and of extreme Unction, it could not but displease the heterodox, Some deny this eulogy to Prudentius, one and another of whom attacked it, or judged that it should be denied to Prudentius. Gerard Vossius, On the Latin Historians, lib. 3 part 2 chap. 4, under Prudentius indicates one adversary of it, Barth, in these words: In prose he (Prudentius) left the Life of the Blessed Maura the virgin; for the elucidating of which Barth is an adversary, lib. XLIV chap. XIX. His Work I have not seen, nor do I know what he objected against that Life; but Breyer in the Life of Prudentius, chap. XI, asserts that he was a follower of Luther, and that his animadversions are of slight moment and not worthy of refutation. The same Breyer in the same place refutes another, namely Daillé, a herald of the Calvinist sect. He pronounced that Prudentius' sermon should be rejected, because Camuzat confesses that he drew it out of an ancient and eaten-away codex, as we said above. But since the two other manuscripts cited by Breyer plainly agree with Camuzat's edition, save in very few points which make nothing to the matter, it is clear that that codex was not so eaten away but that Camuzat employed his zeal and labor most happily in transcribing it: and thus the antiquity of the codex not only does not stand in the way, but altogether favors the adjudging of the aforesaid Sermon to Prudentius.
[7] Chiefly, however, this Sermon is attacked from the passage which I subjoin: others suspect it of interpolation, And straightway, says Prudentius, turning to me she (the Saint) subjoined: This last office I ask of thee, Prudentius, father and bishop, that in their presence I may receive from thy hand the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of extreme Unction; which also was done. This passage, I say, displeases not only the heterodox, but seems also to some Catholics suspect of interpolation. As reason for suspecting, the Catholics allege that in the ancient Sacramentaries and Rituals the holy unction of the sick is constantly set before the receiving of the Eucharist, and that the same Unction only toward the end of the XII century began to be called extreme; whereas Maura is said to have asked that the Eucharist be given her before the Unction, and to have called this extreme. For this last reason Mabillon in the Preface to the 1st Benedictine Century, §9 num. 98, did not hesitate to say: The passage in the Life of St. Maura written by the Blessed Prudentius, in Camuzat, where mention is made of extreme Unction, seems interpolated. For neither in the books of the Sacraments published by Ménard, nor in Udalric in the books of the Cluniac Customs, nor in Lanfranc, Anselm, Peter Damian, Peter de Honestis in his Rule for Clerics, nor in St. Bernard or Peter Lombard, does the name of extreme Unction occur. So Mabillon, whose words Pagi in his Critique of Baronius, at the year of Christ 61, num. 2 and the following, adopted.
[8] whose arguments are set forth It may nevertheless be doubted whether Mabillon did not afterward change his opinion. For in tom. 3 of the Benedictine Annals, at the year of Christ 850, num. 12, he attributes this Sermon without any exception to Prudentius, and of the aforesaid passage writes thus:
Then she asked this of Prudentius, that she might receive from his hand the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of extreme Unction: which is the one passage among the ancients of the Viaticum set before extreme Unction, which nowhere else, if I am not mistaken, is read to be called EXTREME before the end of the twelfth century. To the aforesaid objections the aforecited Breyer has already answered, and has shown that they can in no way stand in the way of that Sermon's being believed to be Prudentius'. And indeed, although it cannot be denied that in the ancient Rituals the sacred Viaticum is set before the Unction, yet this Sermon is attacked in vain on this head. For first, from the fact that its author, reporting St. Maura's words, named the Eucharist before the sacred Unction, it by no means follows that in his age this was wont to be set first in the diocese of Troyes; since the holy Virgin, as Breyer observes, considering the supreme dignity of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and panting for it especially, could have named it before the other.
[9] and are refuted. Then, in the manuscript Pontifical of that same Prudentius, from which the Order for visiting the sick was published by Edmond Martène, lib. 1 On the Ancient rites of the Church, part 2, from pag. 121, the receiving of the Eucharist is at pag. 124 also set before the sacred Unction more clearly than light; and therefore that passage of the Sermon is objected in vain, even if it were to be taken in the manner which pleases our adversaries. As regards the word extreme added to Unction, by what argument at last will they prove that, because before the twelfth century it is read as used by no other writer, it was not employed by Prudentius? Ought it not rather to have been inferred from this that that appellation is older than the XII century? For that word is not one of those which began to be used as a Catholic token against some heresy, having been delivered by ecumenical councils; but one which flowed from the very nature of the Sacrament of Unction instituted by Christ the Lord and always acknowledged in the Church. For this Unction is truly the extreme or last of all the sacred unctions which are conferred on the faithful of Christ in this life; and St. Maura could have asked, as the last office, as she herself says, the Sacrament of extreme Unction, although that appellation had not yet in her age been generally received.
[10] We shall reprint this eulogy from Camuzat. Besides that same Sermon we know nothing about St. Maura's deeds from elsewhere, nor did Baillet find anything else about them, who in tom. 3 of his Lives of the Saints put together that Saint's Life out of it, but did not everywhere interpret Prudentius' words rightly enough, as we shall observe in the Annotations. Nor finally did Nicolas Des Guerrois in the Ecclesiastical History of Troyes at the year of Christ 853, Mabillon in the Annals in the place cited above, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, Arthur in the Gynæceum sacrum, and others who have made mention of her or have woven eulogies of her, draw their materials from any other source. But this lack of other documents is fully compensated by the aforesaid Sermon, written as it was by a learned bishop, contemporary with the Saint and her familiar friend, and publicly recited in the church in the same city where she was best known, before the people and her kinsfolk. And the errors which the same Prudentius is said to have defended elsewhere cannot stand in the way of Maura's sanctity, nor render her deeds suspect of falsehood, since he could easily have been convicted of falsehood if he had recited false things before the aforesaid hearers.
§ II. The Saint's parents and native place: the time of her death: her cult and sacred relics.
[ ] The Saint, of noble and wealthy parents St. Maura's father was Marianus, on Prudentius' testimony, rich, powerful and noble; her mother Sedulia, pious and solicitous; her brother Eutropius, provost of the church of Troyes, who brought nothing with him … at his conversion of his father's goods, leaving them to be held by his only Sister with this intent, that by their means she might enter upon a better bridal chamber and be able to celebrate her marriage more solemnly. As regards her birthplace, Baillet affirms that she first saw the light in the city of Troyes. But Des Guerrois in the Ecclesiastical History of Troyes, at the year of Christ 853, observes that this is not certainly established from Prudentius' Sermon, and doubts whether she was born at Troyes or in the territory of the same city. Besides, he suspects that she or her parents dwelt in the village which was afterward named Sainte-Maure from her, which is distant from Troyes only five hundred paces, as Camuzat has it, or one league, as Breyer says, and is situated on the river Seine. As his reason for suspecting he alleges that St. Maura was buried in the church of that place, as we shall see below.
[12] That we may distinguish certainties from uncertainties, it is established from Prudentius [is to be said to have been born at Troyes, where from her earliest years she dwelt,] that St. Maura from her earliest years dwelt at Troyes. For he says of her: From her earliest years she daily made a stay from morning Lauds until the Sixth hour in the church of the Apostles, which is the cathedral of Troyes. Besides, when he narrates that on every fourth and sixth feria she was wont, by way of pilgrimage, with bare feet and without linen, in a strict fast of bread and water, to visit the church of the monastery of SS. Gervasius and Protasius at Mentuniacum, he thus magnifies this deed from the distance of the places: Although (that monastery) at Mantiniacum is distant about four thousand paces from this city of Troyes. Since therefore from these things it is certain that St. Maura from her earliest years dwelt at Troyes, and Prudentius makes mention of no other dwelling of hers, I do not see why we should believe her to have been born anywhere but in the same city. For that her burial is observed in the village of her name proves nothing as to her birthplace, but only makes it in some measure probable that there was in the church of that place a sepulchre belonging to the holy Virgin's family. Although another reason unknown to us may also have existed for which she was buried there rather than at Troyes. Meanwhile her father Marianus, who died before her, was buried in the cathedral church of Troyes, as he had ordered in his testament.
[13] It may seem more doubtful whether she was not brought forth at Mentuniacum, which is now believed to be the village of St. Leo, commonly called Saint-Lyé. The reason is that Prudentius expressly affirms that she was instructed in the faith and baptized by Leo, abbot of SS. Gervasius and Protasius in that place. But neither does this reason sufficiently prove the point; since from what was said above it seems certain that St. Maura from her earliest years dwelt at Troyes, nor does Prudentius declare whether that Leo, who was abbot of the said place when the Saint died, was already discharging that office and already dwelling there when she was instructed and baptized by him. Nay, even if we admit that Leo already at that time dwelt in that monastery, or even presided over it as abbot, not even so shall we be able certainly to elicit thence the Virgin's birthplace; because the aforesaid abbot could have rendered that service, being asked by Maura's illustrious parents by reason of kinship or affinity or friendship, as not seldom happens otherwise. The Saint's other deeds do not need comment, or will be abundantly illustrated in the Annotations — except the year of her death, which Prudentius did not note.
[14] [she died on this day about the middle of the IX century, in the 23rd year of her age.] Of this year this one thing can be affirmed from what was said above, that it fell within the bishopric of Prudentius, which he certainly already held in the year 846 or the following, and left when he died in the year 861. Hence the author of the Paris Martyrology fixed St. Maura's death about the year 850, about which time Arthur in the Gynæceum sacrum likewise observed that she flourished. But Castellan preferred to note about the year 845. The matter is uncertain to me, nor should I dare to say whether her happy death took place before or after the middle of the ninth century; and therefore, with such a latitude of years, I have written in the margin at the beginning of the Commentary about the middle of the IX century. For the rest, since Prudentius, on the testimony of the Saint's own mother Sedulia and of her brother Eutropius, says that she died before the twenty-third year of her age was completed, the year of her birth is to be judged in like manner. Of the day of her death Prudentius left no doubt, expressly asserting that on the feast of St. Matthew the apostle, which is celebrated on this XXI day of September, she, fortified by his own hands with the last Sacraments of the dying as she had asked, passed to the Lord by a blessed death while he with others looked on.
[15] She is inscribed at this same day in some Martyrologies: Hence various more recent Martyrologies treat of her at this day, whose words I subjoin. First of all our manuscript Florarium Sanctorum, drawn up in the XV century, has it thus: In the district of Troyes, of St. Maura the virgin. Among the Usuardine supplements in Sollier, the Lübeck-Cologne edition on the same day: In the district of Troyes, of St. Maura; and the word of the city is added, probably for virgin, as Sollier observed there. Greven agrees, saying: In the district of Troyes, of St. Maura the virgin. The same have Felicius and Maurolycus in their Martyrologies. Ferrari in the General Catalogue of Saints, and Castellan in the Universal Martyrology, announce her in the city of Troyes in these words: At Troyes, of St. Maura the virgin. The Paris Martyrology agrees, in which at the same day is likewise read: At Troyes, of St. Maura the virgin, praised in his writings by St. Prudentius, bishop of that city. To these add Arthur in the Gynæceum sacrum, where he says: At Augusta of the Tricasses, of St. Maura the virgin, conspicuous for admirable virtue and fervor of spirit. Add finally Saussay too, who in the Gallican Martyrology inserted a brief eulogy of her from the often-praised Sermon of Prudentius.
[16] her cult begun from her death. That her cult began soon after her death, or at any rate not long after, the same bishop Prudentius is witness, who, concluding his Sermon, says: Which (the Virgin's body) being fittingly delivered to burial in the place where it is now honored by the faithful, innumerable miracles followed, he working them who lives and reigns unto all the ages of ages. Amen. And this veneration among her fellow countrymen was deservedly stirred up by the holy Virgin's notable sanctity while she lived, made illustrious by miracles both in her life and immediately after her death. For, to speak only of these, in the same hour in which she died her body gave forth a most sweet fragrance, which not only those standing about but also Veranus, a monk in Leo's monastery, who had long lacked the sense of smell, perceived; and the water with which her virginal body had been washed after death, being turned into milk, healed by a draught Leontius, grandson of Mauriciana her mother's sister by her daughter Damona, who was in a fever; and Thecia, likewise Mauriciana's daughter, wiped away a natural blemish on her face by the touch of the same haircloth.
[17] Nowhere have I read whether our St. Maura was ever honored with an ecclesiastical Office by the clergy of Troyes, An Office of her formerly read, and her name in the Litanies. Her body buried nor have I the Breviaries of that diocese at hand,
from which I might learn this; and I rather gather the contrary from Breyer's silence on this matter. Yet on the same man's testimony, in the Life of Prudentius chap. XI, an Office of her with proper lessons was formerly read at the XXI day of September in the monastery of St. Martin-ès-Aires at Troyes, before the reform of the Regular canons of the Gallican Congregation, commonly called that of St. Genevieve, had been introduced into it. At the end too of his last Note on the Life of St. Maura he adds that her name is also read in the Litanies in a certain ancient Psalter drawn up 500 years ago. It remains that we treat of the cult of her sacred body. Prudentius, in the words reported in the preceding number, asserts indeed that it was worthily buried in the place where it was then honored by the faithful and had already become famous for innumerable miracles; but he does not name the place of burial, doubtless because it was best known to his hearers.
[18] But Camuzat in the Notes on the same Life, in the village of her name, where her tomb long survived. or eulogy, writes the following about it: Further, the body of the aforesaid virgin Maura was honorably laid in the sacred building of the village which retains and preserves her memorable name, and which is situated by the waters of the Seine, distant only five hundred paces from the aforesaid city (Troyes). Nor indeed should this be silently passed over: namely that her tomb is even now to be seen in the same building opposite the chief altar. So he, who published his little Work in the year 1610. Of the place of burial and of the tomb notable there Nicolas Des Guerrois too agrees, both in the place cited above and at the year of Christ 853, num. 22, where, varying somewhat in the circumstances, he speaks thus in French: Where (in the village of Sainte-Maure, as he premised) her body was honorably buried in the church of the same place, and to this day there is seen there, opposite the pulpit toward the North, the stone of her sepulchre, supported by four stone columns. This place is about one league distant from Troyes, situated on one of the channels of the river Seine, and is a priory with the annexed cure of a parish, dependent on the abbey of St. Martin-ès-Aires. What afterward became of that tomb I do not know: for Breyer in his last Note writes this of it: While Des Guerrois in MDCXXXVII was publishing his Sanctité Chrétienne etc., the Saint's sepulchre, supported by four stone columns, was still to be seen; but afterward it was moved from its place.
[19] It is also uncertain how long that holy Virgin's remains lay hidden there beneath the earth Her body afterward elevated there, or enclosed in her tomb, which it is established from elsewhere were taken up thence and elevated for the sake of public veneration. Let us hear again Camuzat, who, praised in the preceding number, continuing his discourse, teaches that besides, there (namely in the same church) is a wooden case in which a part of the aforesaid Virgin's holy relics is preserved enclosed. Des Guerrois agrees, saying in the place cited: In the same church rest her relics, enclosed in a wooden case painted with gold; yet only a great part of them is there. Further, the remaining portion of that virginal body was deposited in the aforesaid monastery of St. Martin-ès-Aires in the year 1415, in which the aforesaid reliquary with the body enclosed was carried from the village of Sainte-Maure to the monastery, and, after that portion had been taken out, was afterward brought back to the same village. And this monastery is one of Regular clerics of St. Augustine, commonly called Saint Martin ez aires, formerly in the suburb, now situated beside the gate of St. James of the city of Troyes, say the Sainte-Marthe brothers in their Gallia Christiana, tom. 4, pag. 622.
[20] and in the year 1415 carried to the monastery of St. Martin at Troyes, This translation and division of the relics we learn from the same Camuzat, who proves it from an authentic instrument, and attests that those sacred relics were in his time preserved and venerated in the church of that monastery. But the remaining part, he says, the monastery of St. Martin of Troyes, commonly called In areis, guards most carefully, as a most precious pledge handed over to it. And this case was made in the year MCDXV, and in it the bones of the most holy body were laid up; as is established from the instrument drawn up at that time, composed in the following series of words, and likewise enclosed in the same case. After this he subjoins the aforesaid instrument, which I too transfer hither in the same words.
[21] where a great part of her was deposited, as is proved In the name of the Holy and undivided Trinity, etc. Let all know that in the year of the Lord 1415, Indiction 8, in the sixth year of the Pontificate of the most holy father in Christ and our lord, lord John by divine providence Pope the 23rd, but on the last day of the month of June, which was the Sunday after the feast of the Blessed John the Baptist, in the reign of the most illustrious prince and lord, lord Charles by the grace of God king of the Franks, and while the general council for the reformation of the universal Church was sitting in the city of Constance, in the presence of us the undersigned — namely G. called de Ascenseriis, cleric, and G. Baudet, public notaries by Apostolic and Imperial authority, etc. — by the parishioners of the parish church of Sainte-Maure near Troyes, a member of the monastery of St. Martin-ès-Aires of Troyes of the Order of St. Augustine, there was carried with due solemnity into the choir of the said monastery a certain old chest, from which there was drawn by the Reverend father, lord Stephen bishop of Troyes, a certain and great part of the bones of the Blessed Maura the virgin, and afterward, the foregoing being first approved, enclosed in the present chest by the same Reverend father, a blessing preceding, and with the solemnities customary to be performed in such matters. In testimony of which foregoing things, etc. There being present at these things the venerable father in Christ, brother and lord, Lambert Habert the abbot, John de Campis, etc., Religious of the said monastery.
[22] from a public instrument; Thus far the instrument reported by Camuzat, in which all the chronological notes are correct except the Pontificate of John XXIII; for he, already from the last day of May of the same year, in which he had a few days before entered upon his sixth year in the Pontificate, had yielded it up in the council of Constance. But the aforesaid instrument cannot on this head be convicted of falsehood, since the people of Troyes could then still have been ignorant of the aforesaid cession of John XXIII, or at any rate not yet have held it for lawful. For it is established that Charles VI king of the Franks and the princes of his court did not at once admit it, but on the contrary disapproved the manner of proceeding of the fathers of Constance against that Pontiff, as may be seen in Guillaume François Berthier, tom. 15 of the History of the Gallican church, pag. 527 and the following. The notaries of Troyes therefore could on the last day of June have ascribed to the aforesaid instrument the Pontificate of John, because they had not yet been sufficiently informed of his free cession. Baillet has for the year of Christ 1415 the year 1414; but then the same chronological notes are faulty; and therefore it may be suspected that a printer's error crept in here. For the rest, bishop Stephen, who in the instrument is said to have taken part of the sacred relics out of the old reliquary, was Peter de Givriaco, or de Givry, whom the Sainte-Marthe brothers in tom. 3 of the Gallia Christiana hold to have sat in the episcopal chair of Troyes from the year 1395 until 1426.
[23] With Camuzat in all things Des Guerrois agrees, both in the place cited above in both which places her relics are honored. Baillet's and at the same year 1415, and he adds that those sacred relics rest in the aforesaid monastery of St. Martin at the chief altar. At the year 427 too, num. 2, reckoning the relics which in his time were honored in the same monastery, he had premised the following: In this church there is preserved among the relics an arm, with a wooden case painted with gold in which is a great part of her bones. Breyer in his last Note writes that the greatest part of her sacred bones is there, but that the ancient case with the rest of the body was carried back to the church of the village of Sainte-Maure, whence it had been brought. Baillet in the French Life speaks of these matters not accurately enough, thus: The Saint's body was carried to the church in which it was honorably honored, and where God continued to work miracles through her patronage … The body of St. Maura was afterward divided: one portion was given to the abbey of St. Martin-ès-Aires, which is of Regular canons of St. Augustine; the other was placed in the parish church of the village of Sainte-Maure, situated five hundred paces from the city of Troyes upon the Seine and subject to the same abbey.
[24] A certain translation of her was made on the Sunday narration of these matters not very accurate. which was the last day of the month of June of the year MCDXIV, when Stephen bishop of Troyes took those relics out of the old case, to lay them in a new wooden one. So Baillet, citing in the margin the Notes of Camuzat, in which nevertheless these things are not so read. For first Camuzat says that St. Maura's body was first buried in the church of the village which retains her name; Baillet hints that this was done in another. Camuzat writes that the Virgin's sacred body was in the year 1415 carried in its old case from the aforesaid village to the monastery, and that then a part of it was taken thence by bishop Stephen and placed in a new reliquary and set in the said monastery: but Baillet signifies that that division was made earlier, and that afterward, in the year 1414, a translation was instituted in which the aforesaid Stephen transferred those sacred relics from one case into another, or from the old into the new. These things being observed, I subjoin the Life or Eulogy.
LIFE
By Prudentius, bishop of Troyes.
From the edition of Nicolas Camuzat.
ON ST. MAURA THE VIRGIN,
AT TROYES IN CHAMPAGNE OF GAUL.
BHL Number: 5725
By Prudentius the bishop.
The author's preface. You press me a, dearest sons, in season and out of season, that in place of the sermon which on solemn days I am wont to make for you, I should not only say something of the glorious life and precious death of our sister Maura, but should also leave it in writing to profit posterity. For to this her brother Eutropius, your provost b, who was more truly her brother by spiritual affection than by carnal, has frequently urged me on your behalf, and that most religious man Leo the abbot c, our neighbor, who catechized her and regenerated her of water and the Holy Spirit, on behalf of the holy monks d. I rejoice in the Lord at the most abundant sheaves of your devotion, for whom it does not suffice that you beheld the powers of God in her with your own eyes, unless you also drink them in with your own ears, recited many times. For at the repeated hearing of them you run the more fervently in the odor of her ointments, and, provoked by a domestic example, embracing labor anew, you await the fruit and honor of the prize which the prudent Virgin has already obtained, who, having received oil and trimmed her lamp, entered with the Bridegroom to the everlasting nuptials; of which let us meanwhile sing after our fashion, while as wayfarers — that we may be able to recline with them [*] as those who have attained, being received where the just
feast and exult in the sight of God.
[2] The holy Girl brings her noble and rich father Sedulia the widow, diligent in the service of Christ and of the church, the blessed Girl's mother, and the aforesaid Eutropius her brother, assert that she had not yet completed the XXIII year of her age when, carnal nuptials being trodden under foot, she was admitted to the aforesaid heavenly nuptials. Further, Marianus her father, who is buried in the church of the Apostles e, departed from the world a little before her; whom that Daughter, carnally begotten by him for the world, strove to beget specially for God with much seed of tears. And he, being rich, powerful and noble, had already entered upon the broad ways of the world; but by God's grace he returned, with his Daughter as guide, to the narrow way which leads to life. In truth he was a tractable man and one who yielded to counsels, and he who had believed nothing whatever from his own father concerning the saving conversion of Eutropius his son, did not refuse to believe the virgin Maura his daughter concerning his own salvation. The Woman led the man to me, the Young girl the old man, the Daughter the father, the little Ewe the lion; and, making him fall at my feet, with admirable caution she taught him both to be crushed to the marrow for his misdeeds f and to confess fully.
[3] to amendment: out of the goods received from her brother He also, by my counsel and that of his Daughter, whom I had as an excellent helper, having renounced temporal things, both made the church of the Apostles his heir, and at length ordered his own body to be buried in it out of much devotion of heart. I give thee thanks, Lord God, that it has pleased thee to grant us such a fellow-worker in thy ministry, who, like fire which burns a wood and like a flame burning up mountains, first set aflame all that was nearest — as is plain in her father and her father's household — and afterward what was far off, with that fire which thou camest to send upon the earth and which thou didst will to burn. Her brother Eutropius brought nothing with him at his conversion of his father's goods, leaving them to be held by his only Sister with this intent, that by their means she might enter upon nobler bridal chambers and be able to celebrate her marriage more solemnly. A wondrous thing! Eutropius — that I may speak saving his peace — bidding farewell to the world, was thinking of worldly things; but Maura, remaining in the world, was dealing within herself with heaven; whence she now brings back fruit in the regard of holy souls, not mortal fruit from nuptials but living fruit from tears, tasting in heaven the savor of him whose odor she smelled on earth.
[4] she liberally provides for the church: to bishop Prudentius Grieve not, Eutropius my son, nor complain that in the riches you abandoned you were cheated of the fruit of your intent; in truth, by their means your Sister entered upon nobler bridal chambers and obtained a more solemn wedlock, and out of the mammon of iniquity gained great friends and a Bridegroom powerful and rich toward all who call upon him, and beautiful in form above the sons of men g. A great friend is the Prince of the Apostles and key-bearer of the kingdom of the heavens; great is St. Paul, the vessel of election, to whose service in the church of Troyes she dedicated both herself and no small part of her goods. Who supplied oil for the lamps h? Maura. Who furnished palls i? Maura. Who procured priestly vestments at her own charge? Maura. I hold more precious than gold and topaz the linen garment bestowed upon me, which with her own hands she spun, made and whitened, and humbly asked that I should be clothed with it amid the sacred solemnities of the Masses. O liberal and kindly Virgin, thou didst these things, and I was silent. I was silent; shall I be silent always? There is a time of keeping silence and a time of speaking, now that thou gloriest with the Bridegroom in heaven. I confess, most prudent Virgin, I can no longer restrain my mouth.
[5] In one thing thou didst confer two most precious gifts, and by thy giving she gives a linen priestly vestment, wearing which he and others nothing could be to me but precious and very great; by thy bestowing, every gift is welcome, everything received is acceptable, everything rare is dear. What was it to me? I weighed the mind more than the hand, the affection more than the deed, the cheerfulness more than the sadness. I give thanks, gracious Virgin, to thy dignity, who didst bestow so excellent a habit upon one unworthy. But was it this alone? By no means: thou didst double the gift, and, abounding, didst give abundantly. Thou didst offer a twofold adornment, one bodily and the other spiritual, one outward and the other inward, one open and the other hidden — which, for the disclosing of the divine clemency and thine, and of the hardness of my wretched heart, I now wish not to lie hidden but to lie open. I was a dry fig-tree; deservedly too I looked for nothing but burning; I had withered like hay, deservedly to be cast into the oven; my soul was as earth without water, and therefore barren and unfruitful. What do I wait for? Why do I not show my misery more plainly? I handled the Sacrament of the Lord's body with scant butter of devotion; when she bestowed the aforesaid vestment, I was eating the Lamb without wild lettuces, I was approaching the Bread of angels without the bread of tears.
[6] What more? That valiant Woman sought — I do not say wool, but flax — and wrought by the counsel of her hands, and in a few days completed her work which she had made, in which the industry of the maker shone forth, and at last gave it to Prudentius the bishop, whom she loved. I shall no longer hide, Lord, thy mercy from a great council; I shall declare the most high mighty works which thou hast done through thy handmaid Maura; for the garment I received straightway had the power of that ancient rod, and drew abundant water out of me, harder than a rock k; and how great efficacy it afterward had, as often as several of us have been clothed with it amid the sacred solemnities of the Masses — a thing so well known and proved — it both displeases me to recall, for the tickling of vainglory after the manner of human frailty, and pleases me for God and for God's praise l. It displeases me, because I fear the loss of so great a treasure, which so many and so great invisible enemies see openly carried off. It pleases me, because through this I understand that God's mighty works are proclaimed. Happy art thou, Sedulia, who didst bear such Offspring, not so much for the world as for God; and she who was born on earth with thy anguish is now born in heaven with thy gladness and ours — nay, more with her own than with thine or ours: for indeed ours is but half full, since we weep and rejoice alike.
[7] We rejoice indeed that we had such a one, and we rejoice together with her in her eternal joys; but we weep that we have lost such a one, whom we had as the exemplar and mirror of all honorableness, devotion and modesty: Happy Virgin, whom, as she lay dying, the author and others but her gladness is now full and perfect; because, made to drink of the torrent of heavenly delight, she rejoices at the perils and punishments which she has escaped, and rejoices at the rewards, the mansions and the fellow citizens which she has found. Now therefore, good Sedulia, wipe away thy weeping, dry thy tears, thou who with us didst publicly hear at her passing the voice that fell from heaven: Come, it said, my beloved, and I shall set my throne in thee; for the King has desired thy beauty. For while she was calling upon the Lord, the God of gods spoke and called Maura, calling her with a manifest voice and an audible sound, who before had called her by an inward inspiration. I was standing on one side of the pallet, and Leo the abbot on the other, who then in a lowered voice, after his manner, was murmuring the psalms of David at the blessed Virgin's head. There stood also with us Mauritius, Eutropius the levite, a kinsman m of the Virgin, and a great crowd of the faithful gathered round.
[8] heard called by a heavenly voice. We were all silent, while thou, Sedulia, wast waiting, uttering now and then sobs and groans; when suddenly the aforesaid organ-tone sounded, soothing the ears and hearts of all with inestimable sweetness beyond all human measure. Nor was there lacking an untimely curiosity to know whether perchance there was anyone within or without who could have poured forth so sweetly flowing a harmony; but it was truly perceived both by the odor and by the singing that then also he came down in jubilation who ascended, the Lord, in jubilation; nor did the Lord, as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, disdain, after a long betrothal seen, to run to meet his Bride as she came, and at her coming graciously to sing songs of gladness, who was now disposing to lead her home and to join her to himself in a stable wedlock, and to claim her as his own. Do not now, Sedulia, made therefore God's mother-in-law, lament any longer, who didst hear the Lord himself rejoicing at the leading home of thy Daughter. But why do I now make a discourse of her departure, who have said little or nothing yet of her entrance or her progress? Why do I already hold the end, when the head is not yet grasped?
[9] Clinging daily from earliest morning in the church of the Apostles, Truly I foresaw her precious end by a hidden n faith; but with thee as witness, Sedulia, and with thee constantly asserting it, Eutropius, I learned the glorious beginnings of her life. For she began to bear the Lord's yoke from her youth, and, gathering manna in the morning, was truly sent as a laborer at earliest morning into the Lord's vineyard. O good Jesus, it is altogether true that the young maidens have loved thee exceedingly; and in the young maiden Maura we see fulfilled what had long before been foretold. From her earliest years she daily made a stay from morning Lauds until the Sixth hour in the church of the Apostles, where, as you know, the image of the Lord and Savior is depicted in three manners: for he is represented as a Child sitting in the lap of his Mother; and as the great Lord sitting on the throne of majesty; and as a Young man hanging on the gibbet of the Cross o. Further, the Blessed Maura observed this custom from a tender age, that daily she ceased not to spend the whole aforesaid time: first prostrating herself with her whole body before the Infant; secondly before the Young man; thirdly before the King. Nor could she ever by any necessity be drawn away from beholding the Lord each day under the threefold likeness with unwearied bodily eye. Truly it is a trite saying and a true: Where love is, there is the eye; and the Young maiden loved [*] the Lord with sincere and entire affection, who could not be satisfied with the sight of him.
[10] It now pleases me to disclose, dearest brethren, what until now was shut up, what hitherto I have hidden; because I judge that henceforth it is harmful to keep silence and fruitful to unseal it; she hears wondrous things from the threefold likeness of Christ. and the time has come that I should of my own accord set forth what I had wrung from her mouth by importunity. The day of her calling and the swift laying down of her tabernacle was at hand; whence, desiring at length to find from her some instruction of a testament, I asked of her, and repeated the question several times, why she prostrated herself lingeringly, day after day, before the aforesaid likeness of the said Savior. At length, having been besought in many ways, she answered, not without much difficulty. Happy, she said, is the church of the Apostles, in which I have often heard both the Child wailing in his Mother's lap, and the Young man groaning on the cross, and the King thundering terribly on the throne, but graciously giving me a golden rod [p]. And when I straightway began to raise a new question with her about our Savior's groaning and wailing, my hand
she pressed with her own hand, and thereby checking my tongue, she subjoined these few words: It is to be ascribed not to nature but to miracles, if, for the recalling of the wondrous mysteries of our faith and for their strengthening in the minds of the faithful, dry wood utters a groan or a wail.
[11] O how happy is our Daughter, laborious not in fruitfulness of sons The Saint's munificence and pilgrimages; a napkin given by her but of holy works! O Mother so solicitous and troubled about very many things! For she took care to relieve the needs not only of the clerics but of the monks, as Leo the abbot and his holy congregation acknowledge, for whom out of her own goods she procured cowls and napkins [q]. She solicitously sought the favor and intercession of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul in the church of the clerics, and more studiously implored the patronage of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius in the monastery of the monks; which, although at Mantiniacum [r] it is distant about four thousand paces from this city of Troyes, yet on every fourth and sixth feria was visited by her by way of pilgrimage, with bare feet and without linen, in a strict fast of bread and water. And of how great power and efficacy is the napkin which Maura gave to Leo, both Melanus, a cleric and most holy monk, and Paulinus, a cleric, testify by clear tokens, having been freed from fevers by its touch.
[12] And although some attribute and ascribe this to the merits of the gentle Leo, drives off fevers; her tears wash away a blemish from another's eye. yet I think we must rather hold — as Leo himself holds with us — that this should be turned to the glory of the holy Virgin, which her Bridegroom marvelously works, lest another presume to usurp for himself the golden chains which the Beloved wished to present to his Beloved as a token of love and an ornament of beauty [s]. Not yet, brother Mauritius, has it slipped from my memory what, with thee as minister, I learned by a hidden [t] faith. For when the morning assembly [u] was over, thou didst signal to me to look at Maura, embracing more closely and kissing more sweetly the altar where the body of the blessed virgin Mastidia [x] rests; and also, when the Sixth Hour had been chanted by the brethren, thou didst show at the feet of the same altar the little stream of her tears, with which thou didst anoint thine own eyes: and how much that anointing profited thee, both the grace of tears which thou hast and the blemish of the eye which thou now hast not prove by sure and irrefragable arguments. For thou hast thyself been made, so long as thou shalt live, a most clear, living and true testimony of the marvelous works of the Lamb and of his Bride; for though the tongue be silent, the eye nevertheless, wherever thou shalt go, ceases not to proclaim the praises of Christ and of Maura.
[13] Being in a church of the suburb, she hears the deacon in the city We all know, dearest Mauritius the levite, that thou hast a voice of little carrying power; so that when thou readest the holy Gospel thou canst scarcely be heard from the church door. Whence therefore was that resonance which on the day of Parasceve penetrated the ears of Maura — but of her alone, and placed far off? For on the said day, between Sext and None, at the church of St. Aventinus [y], in the suburb of that city, I, a most wretched sinner, such a bishop as I am, was casting the seeds of holy preaching in the hearts of the hearers according to the duty of my office, and after my small measure was fishing for little fishes with the hook of the divine word, though few and small. Maura too was present, listening attentively and sitting among the other hearers, she who could never on any occasion be called away from a pious occupation of this kind; but because she was of God, she heard the words of God, writing them in her heart as in a book; and when, as the time required, I was making a discourse on the mystery of the Lord's passion, suddenly raising herself, while the others sat, she stood upon her feet, and fortified her whole self with the sign of the life-giving Cross.
[14] reading the Lord's Passion. And when I had asked of her what had happened to her, and why contrary to custom she did not sit with the others who were sitting; being of a modest countenance and dove-like simplicity, she answered: Ought one to sit, father, when the holy Gospel is being read? Behold, Mauritius the levite has begun to read the Lord's Passion in the church of the Apostles; if it please those standing by, let other things be laid aside a little and let it be heard. And straightway I inquired of the bystanders whether they heard anything, and, silence being made, the whole multitude answered that they heard nothing at all. Whence, understanding that a divine power was present in the excellent Virgin, with tears flowing abundantly I could by no means finish the sermon which I had begun: but at once, for the sake of the unbelieving [z], to prove God's mighty works more surely, we all hastened to the church of the Apostles, and, making a short halt at its entrance, we could at last scarcely hear the thin and slender voice of Mauritius still reading. Then, the Gospel of the Lord's passion being ended, offering together to the Lord glory and honor, offering to the Lord glory to his name, in his temple we all said glory to him who is glorious in his Saints. Further, the Virgin of God lay trembling at my feet; while others rejoiced, she wept, beat her breast, and cried out that she was a most wretched sinner, who had disturbed the word of salvation.
[15] On the feast of St. Matthew, being near death, she sees her patrons A little after there dawned the day of the aforesaid calling: a day over which a great luminary presided, namely Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, whose glorious solemnity was then being kept; but a lesser luminary was joined to him, namely Maura, the bride of God, altogether pleasing and welcome to the Apostle, who pleases before God in the light of the living: so that there are now two olive trees and two candlesticks shining before the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. For thou hast, blessed apostle Matthew, power to lead about a woman as a sister, as James the brother of the Lord and Cephas [aa]; and truly thou countest it a lesser thing to have been a toll-gatherer than to be the bridal attendant of Christ's Bride. Nor dost thou now disdain to admit into thy fellowship the Virgin who calls upon thee, who rememberest that thou wast a publican. And truly thou lovest Maura's holiness, who didst preach the everlasting salvation of Mauretania; and toward the white Virgin thou growest sweetly gentle, who art by no means affrighted at the swarthy Ethiopians [bb].
[16] standing by her; and, fortified with the Sacraments, she dies, When therefore the aforesaid solemnity came, which the gladness of the Blessed Maura's calling doubled, while we looked on she raised her head from the bed of sickness as best she could, and, having raised it, bowed it toward the four quarters; and, being familiarly asked by Leo why she did this, she answered: Behold, four strong ones surround my bed from the four quarters, driving off the bloody beasts: namely Peter and Paul, Gervasius and Protasius, whom, so long as I have lived, I have served with what devotion I could. And straightway, turning to me, she subjoined: This last office I ask of thee, Prudentius, father and bishop, that in their presence I may receive from thy hand the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of extreme [cc] Unction: which also was done. And straightway, having begun the Lord's prayer, when she had completed the second petition, in which it is said, Thy kingdom come, the jubilee of her heavenly calling being consummated, she happily passed to the Lord.
[17] and presently is made illustrious by miracles. Presently the matron Mauriciana, sister of Sedulia, and Mauriciana's two daughters, Damona and Thecia, snatching the haircloth from the holy body, divided it into four small parts, and, keeping three for themselves, laid the fourth for me, which I keep as a great treasure. And washing the body according to custom, they presented to my eyes to be seen the water turned into milk, a testimony of virginal chastity; which Leontius, son of Damona, taken with its sweetness, swallowing abundantly, was healed of a feverish heat; and by the touch of the holy haircloth Thecia was freed from a certain blemish on her face, which she had contracted from her mother's womb, and on account of which she was displeasing to her husband. In the very hour too of the holy Virgin's passing, Veranus the monk, having long before wholly lost the sense of smell, perceived in the monastery of Leo [dd] that same odor of sweetness which those near the holy body perceived. Which body being fittingly delivered to burial in the place [ee] where it is now honored by the faithful, innumerable miracles followed, he working them who lives and reigns unto all the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
but he himself does not judge this probable enough on account of the fire of that same church, which he records to have happened in the year 1188. Breyer doubtless assents to the former, and suspects that the two others were removed thence in the year 872, when bishop Ottulf was rebuilding that church. The matter is undiscovered by me.
p. He alludes to the golden rod of king Assuerus, held out to queen Esther as a token of clemency, the book of Esther, chap. 4.
q. Various kinds of mapulæ or mappulæ Du Cange reckons in his Glossary. Here napkins seem to be designated.
r. Of Mantiniacum or Mentuniacum, once commonly Mantenay, consult tom. III of February, pag. 748, in St. Romanus, the first abbot of this place and afterward archbishop of Reims; and tom. VI of May, pag. 73 and following, in St. Leo, the successor of the same Romanus in the government of the monastery. For the rest, this St. Leo flourished in the sixth century, and accordingly is far different from him of whom there is question in this Life or Eulogy.
s. He alludes to the words of the Bridegroom, chap. 1 of the Canticle: We will make thee chains of gold, etc.
t. Perhaps oculata, says Camuzat.
u. Synaxi I have substituted from Breyer; for in Camuzat sinopsi was faultily read. Further, synaxis is used for the divine Office.
x. Of St. Mastidia the virgin, and of the finding of her body in the same church of Troyes, consult our Work, tom. 2 of May, day 7, on which she is venerated.
y. The Life of St. Aventinus the presbyter you have illustrated among us at the 4th day of February, where also in §2 and in the Life, chap. 3, this church built for him in the sixth century has been treated.
z. That is, for the sake of those who were unwilling to believe this prodigy.
aa. He alludes to the apostle Paul saying, in the 1st epistle to the Corinthians chap. 9: Have we not power to lead about a woman, a sister, as also the rest of the Apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
bb. St. Matthew's deeds have been illustrated on this same day; and there, in the preliminary Commentary, §4, his preaching among the Ethiopians has been treated at length.
cc. See what was said in the preliminary Commentary, §1.
dd. That is, at Mentuniacum, four miles distant from Troyes.
ee. Namely in the village which has retained from her the name of Sainte-Maure. Consult the preliminary Commentary at num. 18 and the following.
rather eas*
eas*
id*
i.e. diligebat*