ON ST. AMA, VIRGIN,
AT JOINVILLE IN GALLIC CHAMPAGNE.
About the sixth century.
COLLECTION.
Ama, virgin, at Joinville in Gallic Champagne (S.)
BY J. P.
She was the firstborn among seven sisters, daughters of Sigmarus and Luttrudis, noble spouses in the district of Perthes in Champagne, The Saint's deeds from the Acts of her sisters of whom three already have a place in our Work: St. Pusinna at the day XXIII of April, St. Hoyldis on the XXX day of the same month, and St. Lutrudis at the day XXII of September. No proper Acts of our holy Virgin are extant: nevertheless whoever will consult the Lives of her sisters already named, and of St. Alpinus bishop of Châlons, who is read to have consecrated those seven Virgins to God, will easily supply that defect, and will sufficiently perceive her manner of life, at least until the death of her father Sigmarus: for until then they remained together in their father's house: but afterward they seem each to have turned aside to her own several portion of the inheritance, and there in
solitude to have completed piously and holily the course of their life. It is not established, however, what place fell to our Saint by inheritance.
[2] The author of the Life of St. Leodegarius the presbyter, written about the thirteenth century, and from those of SS. Alpinus the bishop and Leodegarius the presbyter. and for the greater part given among us in tom. IV of June at the day XXIII from a copy of a manuscript codex of the church of St. Mary of Perthes, makes mention of St. Ama and her sisters on the occasion of the said church of blessed Mary, which he signifies was blessed by St. Alpinus the bishop at the same time at which they consecrated themselves to God, and particularly adds: And holy Ama on that day handed over to God and to his Mother Mary her allod, which she had at Perthes. Yet I suspect that that author, being rather remote from the events, confounded and referred to one and the same time things which had happened at different times. For when those virgins consecrated themselves to God before St. Alpinus, their father was alive and lived long after, nor did he divide his goods among his daughters before his impending death, as the biographer of St. Lutrudis much more probably writes in this volume, pag. 452, in the following words: And it came to pass, when the last days of that same Sicmarus drew near, he gave to his aforesaid seven daughters his inheritance, and divided to each a portion of his patrimony, according as seemed good to him, that dwelling in different places they might devoutly serve God and make commemoration of his soul. Accordingly it does not seem that St. Ama, when she first pronounced her vow to God, had an allod which she might grant to the Church. I should therefore prefer to believe that that donation was made long after, namely when her parents were dead; and thence at least to gather that she finished the course of her life not far from the village of Perthes, her birthplace.
[3] Chastelain in the Geographical Nomenclature of the Saints, appended to the Universal Martyrology, at the word Joinville (which place he himself expresses in Latin as Janivilla, She is venerated at Joinville; others otherwise; we, with Hadrianus Valesius in the Notitia Galliarum and Du Cange in the Genealogy of the House of Joinville, write Jovisvilla), adds these words: Where St. Ama died, and where her body is kept. The said Valesius describes that town thus: A place (in Champagne) now distinguished by the title of a principality, situated between Chaumont and the town of St. Dizier, having a bridge set over the Marne. That the Saint died here I have not found confirmed from elsewhere; nevertheless I have announced her there, both because I have found no other place of death, and especially because her cult there is already sufficiently established.
[4] where her relics are kept, Francesco Gonzaga, part 3 of On the Origin of the Seraphic Religion, pag. 555, indicates that the convent of Friars Minor of Joinville, which was formerly a priory of the Order of St. Benedict, was distinguished by St. Ama's name. Charles Rapine, a religious of the same Order of St. Francis, agrees, in the Annals of Châlons, pag. 70, and adds that the convent was consecrated under her patronage. Arthur du Monstier announced the Saint, until then inserted in no sacred calendars, thus in the Gynæceum at the day XXII: At Joinville, a town of the same diocese (of Châlons), of St. Ama the virgin, who happily resigned to Christ her spouse a soul kept pure from the world's contagion. Probably Arthur chose that day because on it fell the memory of St. Lutrudis her sister, and he did not know the true day of the cult. Papebroch, tom. 3 of April, pag. 775, in the Annotations to the Life of St. Hoyldis, in which our Saint is called Imma, says: Ama pleases me more, because by this name she is even now known in Champagne, commonly S. Ame or Amee, Ama or Amata, which appellation is frequent in women's names throughout Champagne; and it is the more to be wondered at that du Saussay's Gallican Martyrology nowhere makes mention of her. We shall gladly learn the day of her cult. The same passage of Papebroch is cited by Tillemont, tom. 16 of the Monumenta ecclesiastica, pag. 391, and he signifies that he likewise does not know the day. Baillet, tom. 3 of the Lives of the Saints, pag. 298, went further, asserting that she has no day proper to her cult. Chastelain at last, who had not given her a place either in the Universal Martyrology, having probably investigated the matter more studiously, referred her in the Supplement to the same Martyrology to the day XXIV of September, and added particular indications of her cult, as follows: At Joinville, St. Ama the virgin, by whose name a church and a spring beside the town are distinguished, and whose relics are kept in the same town in the church of the Friars Minor. Hence we too have judged that she should be given today. But we have produced nothing here about the Saint's country, family, the age in which she flourished, and the like, because these things have been sufficiently discussed in the Commentaries and Annotations to the Acts both of her sisters and of St. Alpinus at the day VII of September.