Lioba

ON ST. LIOBA, VIRGIN AND ABBESS OF BISCHOFSHEIM,

CALLED ALSO LEOBGYTHA OR TRUTHGEBA, IN GERMANY.

About the year DCCLXXIX.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Lioba or Leobgytha, otherwise Truthgeba, virgin and abbess, in Germany. (S.)

BY J. P.

§ I. Her memory in the sacred Calendars; her Acts, by whom and with what helps they were written.

[ ] Just as Germany can rightly, under God, reckon that it owes to St. Boniface, archbishop of Mainz and martyr, [Of the Virgin, called into Germany by St. Boniface and celebrated by the writings of Bl. Rabanus,] whatever of spiritual good and profit and religious splendour it received from the virtues, examples, teaching and instruction of this holy Virgin; so to Bl. Rabanus Maurus, first abbot of Fulda, afterwards likewise prelate of Mainz, can be ascribed before all others whatever has been transmitted to posterity about the Deeds of the same Virgin, and about her glory and her cult, begun soon after her death. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, summoned Lioba from England, to be also the Apostle of Germany; when she had landed, he made her Mistress and Abbess of the monastery of Bischofsheim, erected by him for very many virgins; and, when about to set out for Frisia, where he obtained the precious crown of martyrdom, he first earnestly exhorted Lioba herself not to abandon Germany and the labours undertaken in it; then he carefully admonished Lull, his successor in the episcopate, and the elder monks of the monastery of Fulda, to take care of Lioba with honour and reverence: as will be seen at greater length in the course of the work. And Rabanus Maurus, born in the year 785, that is, a little after the Saint's death, inscribed her name in his Martyrology and declared her sanctity; celebrated in verses the places sacred to the Virgin's cult; and had the deeds of her Life, collected by the Saint's disciples, described in order and elegantly by his own disciple — all of which we shall also expound severally in their places. Let us take our beginning from the Martyrology.

[2] her memory in the Calendars At the day XXVIII September the said Rabanus adorns her with the following elogium: On the same day, in Germany, the deposition of Leoba the virgin, who, born in the island of Britain of the Saxon nation, nobly kept her purpose of virginity while placed in a monastery; but afterwards, being called into Germany by St. Boniface, archbishop of the church of Mainz, that she might instruct the handmaids of God in the monasteries of Germany in the divine Scriptures: where she not only wrought many miracles while living, but also after her death, being buried in the Buchonian Forest, that is, in the monastery of Fulda, according to the decree of St. Boniface, declared her sanctity by not a few miracles. There are those who have believed that St. Lioba was noted also by Bede and Ado; but they, deceived in all likelihood by the Martyrology which was published in the year 1564 with Bede's name prefixed, or by another like it wrongly attributed to Bede, did not notice that the Saint outlived that venerable man. But for the announcement in Ado they adopted that one which, marked with an asterisk by Mosander and, as not proper to Ado, relegated by Rosweyde to the Appendix, is couched in these words: In the monastery of Fulda, of St. Lioba the virgin. Neither was she marked in the other genuine classical Calendars of the ancients; the Usuardine Auctaria of Hagenau, of Greven and of Molanus, however, have her, and the last of these transcribed almost the whole text of Rabanus.

[3] She has obtained a place besides in some ancient Calendars sacred published by Martène. That of Stavelot in vol. 6 of the Amplissima Collectio has it thus: IV Cal. (of October) the deposition of Lioba the virgin; and that of Verdun: IV Cal.… of Lioba the virgin. But that of Lyre in vol. 3 of the Thesaurus Anecdotorum: IV Kal., of St. Lioba the virgin. The Vatican one, which Domenico Giorgi printed at the end of his Ado illustratus: IV Kal. In the territory of Fulda the deposition of St. Lioba, virgin. But with this longer elogium the Fulda Martyrology reports her in the same place: IV Kal. In the monastery of Fulda the deposition of the most holy virgin Lioba, who, as is reported, was a kinswoman of St. Boniface, bishop and martyr: and being summoned by him from the land of the English into France for the holiness of her life, in the place which is called Biscofesheim she nobly ruled a monastery of maidens, and was so glorious in all holiness that the Lord deigned to show forth through her very many powers and miracles. And so far did that most holy man Boniface love her for the merits of her life, that he ordered the monks of Fulda that after her death they should place the body of the holy Virgin in his own sepulchre, which he had prepared for himself while living, and should guard it with most worthy veneration for ever.

[4] And when for very many spaces of years blessed Lioba happily persevered in her holy purpose, by many, and by the Roman Martyrology. and rendered many souls to the Lord by the venerable examples of her sanctity, and shone in almost all Germany with the glory of signs and the fame of her teaching, at length she rested in peace. But her body was honourably transported to the aforesaid monastery of Fulda, and entombed with worthy praises in the church of the holy martyr Boniface, and there for a long time was famous for miracles: but after some years had intervened, her bones were translated thence by the venerable man Rabanus the abbot to the eastern mount, which is called St. Peter's, distant about XII stades from the monastery, and honourably placed in the crypt of that basilica behind the altar of St. Mary, and her merits are diligently declared round about by signs and powers. So in Giorgi, except for two words which, omitted in him and here enclosed in brackets, I have supplied from the transcript of the Queen of Sweden in our manuscript codex marked S 22. The Saint's name with an elogium has also been reported in our manuscript Florarium; but at the day XXV of September, as was briefly indicated there in the Prætermissi. In this, however, the author had no leader, so far as I know, among the older writers, nor any follower among the more recent. The most eminent Baronius thus recalls her on the day XXVIII: In Germany, of St. Lioba the virgin, famous for miracles. The announcements or elogia of the rest we here pass over; if, however, they shall anywhere seem to have built up something wrongly, or to have strayed from the right way, they will be corrected from the Acts, of which we must now treat.

[5] The Acts, at Rabanus's bidding, That they were written at Bl. Rabanus's bidding the author himself testifies in the Prologue: I, he says, not by my own presumption, but by the command of the venerable father and teacher

mine, Rabanus the abbot, being urged on … having briefly arranged the text of a little book, have taken care to lay open the series of the deeds done to those who wish to know it. But that it may be clear at what price these things are to be held, it must be inquired who that author was, what helps he used, and at what time he wrote. To his little work in Surius this title is prefixed: The Life of St. Lioba, virgin and abbess, learnedly and gravely written at the bidding of Rabanus the abbot by Rudolf his disciple. But this in our Blaubeuren manuscript transcript: Here begins the preface of Rudolf the priest on the Life of St. Lioba the virgin. But in the preface itself — or rather the dedication of the little book, which is not read in Surius — he himself discloses his name and condition, addressing the nun to whom he directs it thus: With the highest prayers I ask that thou wouldst deign to pray … for me, the unworthy and sinful Rudolf, in name, not in merit, a priest and monk of the monastery of Fulda. The same man was also the author of the Life of the said Bl. Rabanus, which we printed in vol. I of February at the day IV, and in which he not only likewise professes himself the latter's disciple, but also St. Lioba's biographer. At num. 5 he has this: To this monastery (of Fulda), therefore, Hrabanus, abbot and my teacher, presided in governance as the fifth from Bl. Boniface, etc. And this at num. 46: He (Bl. Rabanus) also translated on the same day the bones of Bl. Leuba the virgin, whose Life and deeds I comprised some time ago in a short little book.

[6] by Rudolf, a monk of Fulda, Henschen in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of Bl. Rabanus, in the cited volume of February, p. 501, said he judged him to be that same Ruodolf, or Hruadolf or Rudolph, of whom frequent mention is made in the Antiquitates Fuldenses, where, under abbot Ratgar, in the 45th year of Charlemagne's reign, 812 of Christ, and in the 1st and 2nd years of the emperor Louis, 814 of Christ and the following, he wrote the charters of donations as chancellor, or scholasticus, or clerk. But under abbot Eigil and his successor Rabanus, in the 8th year and the three following of Louis's reign, 822 of Christ and following, he wrote the same charters of donations as subdeacon. Mabillon, part 2 of the fourth Benedictine Sæculum, says that he does not think that Rudolf, the composer of that Life, Rabanus's disciple, was already at that time chancellor in the time of abbot Ratgar, when Rabanus was teaching letters at Fulda. Wherefore he adds that it is to him more likely that the biographer was he who afterwards subscribed himself subdeacon. It is of no concern to this place which of the two judged more rightly. But from the alleged charters of donations we conclude that St. Lioba's Life was not written before the year 825, since Rudolf in the XI year of Louis marks himself subdeacon, and, as we saw in the preceding number, composed the Life when already a priest. But we believe that he set his pen to this work before 842, because in the prologue he declares that he did it at the command of Rabanus the abbot, whereas in the said year the latter laid down the care of the abbacy, and in the year 847 was established bishop of Mainz, with which later title he nowhere there adorns him. Indeed I scarcely doubt that he finished that Work before 837, in which year or the following there occurred the translation of St. Lioba's sacred bones from the church of Fulda to the new one built by Bl. Rabanus on the mount, distant about XII stades from there, as Rudolf himself testifies in the Life of Rabanus.

[7] about 60 years after the Saint's death For the same author in the Life of St. Lioba not only does not touch upon the said translation, but not obscurely indicates that those same sacred bones, when he was writing, were even then preserved in the church of Fulda, saying: But after not a few years, when the church (of Fulda) had been built more augustly by the governors of that place, and was being prepared for its future consecration, abbot Eigil, with the leave of archbishop Aistulph, translated her bones (those of St. Lioba, about the year 819, as I shall say in its place) and placed them in the southern porch beside the memorial of St. Ignatius the martyr: where, laid in the tomb, she lives in miracles and in glory. Hence the words of Baillet are to be taken very broadly, when he says in his critical table that St. Lioba's Life was written nearly eighty years after her death, while yet fixing that death about 779, from which to 837 sixty had not yet elapsed. For the rest, both recent and ancient writers run out into the praises of Rudolf, who, as was shown in vol. 1 of February, presided over the schools of Fulda, and was preacher and confessor to Louis king of Germany; into his praises, I say; let it suffice to have heard one here, the annalist of Fulda in Duchesne, vol. 2 of the Historia Francorum, p. 560, where he has it thus at the year 865: Ruodolf, priest and monk of the monastery of Fulda, who flourished among almost all the parts of Germany as an excellent teacher and was held a distinguished historiographer and poet, and the noblest author of all the arts, happily closed his last day on the VIII of the Ides of March.*

[8] The helps which he had for putting together his Work from the testimonies of four of her disciples Rudolf himself points out in the Prologue to the Life of St. Lioba, saying: For I did not learn all her deeds: but a few things have come to my knowledge from venerable men, who learned them from the faithful narration of four of her disciples, namely Agatha and Thecla, Nana and Eoliba, and each according to the measure of his ability, as they had been handed on to him, took pains to commit them to writing and to leave them as an example to posterity. Of whom the religious man Mago, priest and monk, who died five years ago, was very familiar with the aforesaid women, and, coming often to them, had been accustomed to hold discourse with them about the profit of the soul. He therefore, learning from them several of her memorable deeds, took care indeed to note them down briefly; but, as Rudolf adds after some words interposed, he left them all confused and noted here and there on slips; because he was forestalled by an unlooked-for death.

[9] He says that these were collected by himself, and, with what he had besides heard from religious men still then living, and by other grave persons, arranged in order: and finally he concludes: Further, about the credibility of what is said I judge that no one of the faithful ought to hesitate, since both the probity of the persons relating it commends it, and the powers of the miracles, which are wont frequently to be divinely wrought at her dead bones, clearly show it to be true. This last assertion about the miracles he repeats toward the end of the Work, affirming in general that many are wrought; and indeed, having set forth in particular two which were wrought in the church of Fulda at the Saint's tomb, he adds: But these two, because very many of the brethren still living testify in common speech that they saw them, and I myself was present with them at the time when they were done, I have written down on account of their certainty, to the praise and glory of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.

[10] Finally, that Life is a Work to be most highly esteemed on all sides: and to be held at a great price, on the score of authority, inasmuch as it was drawn up by an excellent man who had for the greater part received the things narrated in it from the testimonies of persons who had lived with the Saint, and indeed had, at least in some part, himself seen them present; on the score of order and style, which for that age no one will deny to be grave and learned; on the score of usefulness and fruit, as the authors of our own time have found who have undertaken to commit to writing either the History of the Order of St. Benedict in England, or the propagation of that Order and of the Christian faith in Germany in the eighth century. Since, that is, they have drawn not a few things from it pertaining to their own purpose, and have illustrated and confirmed by it what they had received from elsewhere. That Life Lorenz Sur first published at the day XXVIII September, and from Surius's second and more correct edition Mabillon transferred it into the Acts of the Order of St. Benedict, part 2 of the third Sæculum, p. 246.

[11] we shall give it from Surius and the manuscripts. The same we too shall here do, yet in such a way that in the Annotations or in the margin we shall give both the noteworthy variant readings which our Elders left us in writing after a collation of Surius's edition with the manuscript of St. Maximin at Trier, and others which we found after a like collation in the manuscript transcript which in the year 1638 Fr. Johann Gamans sent from Cologne to those same Elders. But — and this is to be noted here — in this latter transcript there is prefixed to Rudolf's often-mentioned prologue a preface in which the same author dedicates his Work to a religious virgin by the name of Hadumout, and which neither Surius has, nor did our Elders record as found by them in the Trier manuscript. It is likely that it was not added by the author to all the copies, but only to one or another which he directed to the said virgin, perhaps the abbess of some convent, to whom, and to all the holy virgins assiduously invoking God with her, he commends himself. However that may be, I shall print it at the front of the Work, as more likely proper to Rudolf, and shall moreover prefix to it the titles set before the ancient division into chapters and likewise found in one transcript of Gamans. For that division, since it is too unequal, I shall not follow; but shall give a new one, after our manner, in parts and numbers according to the requirement of the things narrated and for the greater convenience of the matters to be annotated.

others, vivunt*.

others, quæ refero*.

others add ea*.

§ II. The Saint's birth; her threefold name; her life in the monastery of Wimborne in England; her letter to St. Boniface; the time at which she set out to him into Germany.

[ ] The Saint's native land, parents, and various name, Gravely indeed and learnedly, as we said before, did Rudolf arrange the Acts of St. Lioba; nevertheless — whether because he himself did not know them, or because he judged them less pertinent to her sanctity — he passed over in silence several things which we can either not attain from elsewhere, or determine only by conjecture. Thus, although he signifies that she was born in Britain of parents English by nation and noble by birth, he nevertheless does not express the place in Britain. Her father's name was, as he writes, Dimo, her mother's Ebba, who, already aged, bore her after a vow had been made; but the time or year about which this occurred he does not mark. But about the Virgin's name he relates this in particular: The woman after not many days conceived and bore a daughter, whom she called Truthgeba, by surname Lieba or Lioba; because she was beloved. For this is the sound of the interpretation of this surname in Latin. Certainly in the German tongue Liebe means beloved, in Anglo-Saxon Leofe. But that she was also called Leobgytha is admitted today by the common consent of the learned from her letter to St. Boniface, presently to be recited. Nevertheless, with Rabanus and Rudolf, Baronius in the Roman Martyrology and all the rest constantly write Lioba, whom we too have here imitated.

[13] The biographer, teaching us nothing about the Virgin's childhood or her deeds before the religious life, An account of Wimborne in England presently subjoins to the words last given: And so, when she was grown up, (her mother) consecrated her to God and to the aforesaid mother Tetta

handed her over to be imbued with divine studies. He had discoursed at some length before about the praises of Tetta the abbess, and had sent before this about her monastery: In the island of Britain, which the nation of the English inhabits, a certain place is called by the ancient word of that people Winbrunno, which, interpreted in Latin, may be called the Spring of Wine. Which received this name on account of the exceeding clearness and the excellent savour by which it seemed to surpass the other waters of that land. In which two monasteries were anciently built, and by the kings of that nation, surrounded with high and firm walls and provided with every sufficiency of supplies by a reasonable arrangement: one, namely, of clerics (that is, of monks) and the other of women. Several ascribe the building of the monastery to St. Cuthburga alone, queen and abbess, whose Acts were illustrated in vol. VI of August at the day XXXI. John of Tynemouth, cited in vol. 1 of the Monasticon Anglicanum, p. 163, joins to her her sister Quinburga or Coenburga, and thus determines the time: In the year of the Lord DCCXVIII St. Quinburga and St. Cuthburga, sisters of Ine king of the West Saxons, flourished, who built a monastery at Wimborne. Nor are there wanting those who judge that Ine himself must be reckoned among the founders; since Rudolf says that it was built by the kings of the nation.

[14] That matter is deduced at greater length both in the cited vol. VI of August, pp. 698 and following, and in vol. 1 of February, p. 906, in the historical Commentary on the deeds of Ine, king of the West Saxons, of the monastery where St. Lioba dwelt, to which we refer the curious reader. As regards a further knowledge of the place and its name, it is everywhere called by all Winburna and the monastery of Winburne, by the inhabitants Wimborne Minster, in the province of the West Saxons, the modern county of Dorset, on the river Stour, and is thought to be the Vindogladia of the Romans, of which Antoninus makes mention in his Itinerary. To Tetta, then, the abbess of this monastery, St. Lioba was committed when already grown up; but in what year of her age or of the Christian era, the biographer is silent, content to have set forth her signal progress in religious discipline and in every kind of virtue. And while she was dwelling here, in my own opinion at least, the holy Virgin directed a letter to St. Boniface, at that time intent upon apostolic labours in Germany. I shall transcribe it from Serarius's edition of the Bonifacian letters, where it is the thirty-sixth in order; and then I shall allege the grounds of my opinion, and add other matters which I shall judge worth observing.

[15] To the most reverend lord Boniface, endowed with the infula of the highest dignity, she wrote a letter to St. Boniface, her kinsman, and most dear in Christ and bound to me by the nearness of kinship, Leobgytha, the last of the handmaids who bear the light yoke of Christ, everlasting greeting of safety. I ask thy clemency that thou wouldst deign to remember the former friendship which thou didst long ago form with my father, whose name is Tinne in the western regions; who now, before the course of eight years, was taken from this light — that thou wouldst not refuse to offer prayers to God for his soul: and also I commend to thee the memory of my mother, who is named Ebbe, who, as thou knowest better, is joined to thee by the bonds of consanguinity, and who still lives in labour, and has long been heavily oppressed by infirmity. I am the only Daughter of both my parents. And would that, unworthy though I be, I might deserve to receive thee in a brother's place, because in none of the men of my family is so great a confidence of hope placed by me as in thee. This little gift I have taken care to send, not that it should be worthy of the sight of thy kindliness, but that thou mayst keep the memory of my littleness, nor hand it over to forgetfulness through the long interval of the places: nay rather, let the knot of the binding of true love be tied for the age to come. This, beloved brother, I more earnestly beg, that I may be defended by the shield of thy prayers against the poisoned darts of the hidden enemy.

[16] This too I ask, that thou wouldst deign to correct the rusticity of this letter, and wouldst not refuse to send me some words of thy affability by way of example, from which the biographer's narrative which I am eager to hear with longing. But those little verses subscribed below I strove to compose according to the discipline of poetic tradition, not trusting in boldness, but desiring to rouse the rudiments of a slender little wit and needing thy help. That art I learned from the teaching of Eadburga, who ceases not unceasingly to search out the divine law. Farewell, living to a longer age, in a happier life, interceding for me.

The almighty Arbiter, who alone created all things,

Who ever shines with light in the Father's kingdom,

Wherein, ever burning, may the glory of Christ so reign,

May he keep thee ever unharmed by everlasting right.

[17] No prudent man will doubt that that letter pertains to our Saint, if he has but run through, even cursorily, her often-mentioned Life; nay, anyone must confess that much strength and authority accrues to the latter from the former, when he notices that in almost every period of the letter there is contained something by which what is narrated in the biographer is confirmed. Before I show this by examples, something must be said about the slight difference which lies hidden in the father's name. He is called in the Life, in Surius, Dimo; in Gamans's manuscript copy, Dynno; in the letter, Tinne: but not without reason does the Saint add that that word is his in the western regions; as if to say that the name is expressed otherwise in other regions. Add that the corruption of names, especially proper ones, through the carelessness of copyists is very frequent, and that the initial letter T among one nation is sometimes changed into D among another. In the final letter there is no difficulty; Rudolf assumed the Latin termination, Lioba retained the Anglo-Saxon, as is plain in the mother's name, who in the Life is called Ebba, in the letter Ebbe.

[18] is confirmed and illustrated. We have therefore in both places the same parents of the Saint, of whom she testifies in the letter that she is the only daughter, and which the biographer also not obscurely indicates, where he says: Since they were barren and unfruitful, (the parents) long remained without children. But when very many days had passed, and, they being now aged and advanced in years, the hope of bearing offspring was absent, her mother uttered a vow, conceived and bore a Daughter, etc. It is clear from the letter that the Saint was joined by the bond of blood with St. Boniface on the mother's side; the biographer asserts the same thing when, narrating St. Lioba's arrival in Germany, he adds: The man full of God (Boniface) received her with the highest veneration, loving her not so much on account of the kinship by which she was joined to him from the maternal blood, as on account of the holiness of her life, etc. Finally, that she was a nun and English by nation, as Rudolf narrates, we likewise gather from the letter: first from the superscription, where the Saint calls herself the last of the handmaids who bear the light yoke of Christ: secondly from this, that she notes herself the kinswoman of St. Boniface, an Englishman by nation, and separated from him — then a bishop and dwelling in Germany — by the long interval of the places: but from this latter note, as also from the mention which she makes of her parents, we draw out that the letter was written before the holy Virgin set out from England into Germany to that same St. Boniface. But she did not set out thither, as from Rudolf's words to be alleged presently the more recent writers now everywhere draw out, before the year 748; and, this opinion standing, after she had already spent 25 years or perhaps more in the monastery; as appears to me beyond doubt from other words of the same biographer, which I set down: Therefore at that time in which the blessed virgin Lioba had flourished in the monastery in the pursuits of the heavenly life, the holy martyr Boniface was ordained bishop by Gregory, Prelate of the Roman See, who succeeded Constantine in the Pontificate, and was sent to preach the word of God to the peoples of Germany. St. Boniface was consecrated bishop by Pope Gregory II in the year 723, and accordingly St. Lioba was already then dwelling in the monastery of Wimborne.

[19] Rudolf goes on to relate in summary St. Boniface's arrival in Germany, Lioba to St. Boniface in Germany his summoning from England, through envoys and letters, of clerics of various orders, and the fruits which, with their help, he brought forth; so great indeed that he acquired for Christ a great part of Germany by his saving teaching and by miracles of virtues, and the pagans, instructed in the faith, hastened in rivalry to the grace of baptism. Then Boniface began to build monasteries, that the peoples might be drawn to the Catholic faith not so much by ecclesiastical favour as by the congregations of monks and virgins. Wishing therefore that the order of both professions should be observed regularly, he took pains to obtain a suitable teaching for each; and he sent to Monte Cassino Sturmi his disciple … that in the monastery which the blessed father Benedict founded he might learn the regular discipline and the monastic life and manners… Likewise also he directed envoys with letters into his native land to Tetta the abbess, … beseeching that for the solace of his pilgrimage, and for the help of the legation enjoined upon him, she would send over to him Lioba the virgin, etc. These things the learned now everywhere so take that at about the same time St. Boniface directed Sturmi into Italy and summoned St. Lioba from England: and at the same time they conclude that Lioba was not summoned from England before the year 748.

[20] The first seems clear enough: the second is proved from the Life of St. Sturmi, she set out about the year 748; which Mabillon reprinted from Brouwer and Surius in part 2 of the third Benedictine Sæculum, pp. 269 and following, and which may be given among us at the day XVII December. It was written by Eigil, fourth abbot of Fulda, a pious and learned man, who, as he himself affirms in his prologue, had lived more than twenty years as his disciple, and whose authority accordingly must here be great. He therefore relates, to our purpose, at num. 12 and following, that St. Sturmi entered the place for founding the monastery of Fulda, granted to him at St. Boniface's prayers by Carloman king of the Franks and by others, with seven companions in the seven hundred and forty-fourth year of the Incarnation of Christ: that afterwards a plan was begun among them of sending some to the great monasteries, who should learn perfectly the monastic discipline according to the Rule of St. Benedict; that finally St. Boniface, commending the plan, enjoined this legation upon the zealous Sturmi; who, the necessaries for the journey being prepared, taking two brethren with him, in the fourth year from his entry into the aforesaid place set out for Rome, etc.; in the year of Christ 748, therefore, about which consequently Lioba too was called into Germany.

[21] not about 725 The most eminent Baronius in his Annals referred the Saint's arrival in Germany to the year 725, deceived in all likelihood by Othlo, who at the beginning of the twelfth century enlarged the Life of St. Boniface. For this author, in Mabillon, part 2 of the third Benedictine Sæculum — for it did not seem good to our Elders to reprint his lucubration at the day V June — first speaks thus at p. 42: The holy prelate, therefore, preaching and baptizing in the regions of the Thuringians and Hessians, perceived that the harvest there was indeed great, but the labourers few for instructing the copious multitude of believers. Whence, sending into his own province and native land, he thence summoned both women and men, religious and in various knowledge

imbued, and caused many to come, and divided the burden of his labour among them: among whom the chief men were Burchard, and Lull, Willibald and Wunnibald his brother, Witta and Gregory: and the religious women, namely St. Lull's maternal aunt, by name Chunihilt, and her daughter Berathgit, Chunidrut and Thecla, Lioba and Waltpurgis, the sister of Willibald and Wunnibald.

[22] Then, a few words intervening, Othlo goes on in this manner: or while Pope Gregory the second sat, as Othlo And when he had washed in the wave of Baptism thousands of men brought to the sacred faith both by himself and by his provincials, Gregory the second, Prelate of the Apostolic See, of blessed memory, being now dead, and the third Gregory holding the same See, Bl. Boniface again sent envoys to Rome, who, renewing with the aforesaid Prelate the covenants of their former friendship, should seek all the favour of familiarity which he had had from his predecessor, and should promise on his behalf all subjection due to the Apostolic See, and should also make known the conversion of very many dwelling in Germany. The last words sufficiently hint that those envoys were sent not long after Gregory III was raised to the Apostolic See, which happened in the year 731. But whoever consults this author alone, and compares the earlier words with the later, will easily imagine to himself that that conversion of very many, which Boniface ordered to be made known to Gregory III, was brought about with the help of the persons enumerated above, who accordingly had already long been living in Germany before Gregory was made Pontiff.

[23] the biographer of St. Boniface seemed to suggest. But that this cannot be admitted in Lioba's case we perceive not only from what Rudolf and abbot Eigil relate about St. Sturmi, but also from the whole series of Rudolf's narrative. For from it we learn that St. Boniface first summoned from England clerics of different orders to preach the Gospel; then, when with their help he had acquired for Christ a great part of Germany, that he began to found monasteries of both sexes, and that only then did he send for Lioba. Whence it is clear that Othlo confused what St. Boniface did about the year 725 with what he afterwards undertook at least twenty years later. Further, what has just been said about St. Lioba, others likewise show about SS. Willibald and Wunnibald — namely that each indeed set out from Rome into Germany; yet neither before the year 738. About Willibald see this proved among us in vol. 2 of July at the seventh day of the month, in the Preliminary Commentary; but Wunnibald will be treated at the day XVIII December, about whom in the meantime may be seen both the said Commentary and the Preliminary Commentaries to the Acts of St. Richard, the father of both, in vol. 2 of February, pp. 69 and following, and of St. Walburga their sister, in vol. III of February, pp. 511 and following. But here Henschen, at p. 514, because Thecla was a kinswoman of St. Lioba, and St. Walburga also seemed to have been such, was of opinion that it could be asserted by no improbable conjecture that both came into Germany with Lioba: but since the latter was only summoned about the year 748, he marked the same time for those also. Le Cointe went further, referring the arrival in Germany of all the women mentioned by Othlo to the year 749, and at the same time observing that Lioba alone is mentioned by Rudolf, because he is wholly occupied in describing her Life.

[24] Pagi in his Critica on Baronius at the year 725, num. 8, wished to side with Henschen and Le Cointe; She was not summoned thither by St. Sturmi, but by St. Boniface; but he set forth several things less accurately. Having recited the words in which Othlo asserts that men and women were summoned from England by St. Boniface, Pagi subjoins: Among others he numbers Lioba and Walpurgis, Willibald and Wunnibald, the brothers of Lioba and Walpurgis; about all of whom we must here say something, if I first advise that Baronius, deceived by Othlo, wrongly narrates the arrival of these religious women in Germany under Gregory II. For from the Life of St. Lioba, presently to be cited, it is established that Boniface sent Sturmi the abbot, his disciple, to the monastery of Cassino, and charged him to summon nuns and handmaids of God from England into Germany. Wherefore, since Sturmi was only in the year DCCXLIV called abbot of Fulda, Lioba and the others crossed over into Germany after that year of Christ. It is indeed established from the Life of St. Lioba — which Pagi presently cites as drawn up by Rudolf and published by Mabillon — it is established, I say, that Sturmio or Sturmi was sent by St. Boniface to the monastery of Cassino, and that in the year 748, as was proved above from the Life of St. Sturmi: but from the Life of St. Lioba it is in no way established that Boniface charged Sturmi to summon nuns and handmaids of God from England: since Rudolf does not mention by so much as a single word a summoning of this kind to be made through Sturmi. On the contrary, on the same Rudolf's testimony, Boniface himself, when he directed Sturmi into Italy, likewise appointed envoys with letters into England to Tetta the abbess, that she should send Lioba over. But the author adds nothing from which we might certainly conclude that others were at that time asked for by Boniface; although it seems to us most likely either that some were asked for, or that they of their own accord accompanied Lioba on her departure, which the biographer neglected to note.

[25] Besides, Pagi was mistaken, or at least gave others occasion for mistake, nor was she the sister of St. Walburga. when he made St. Lioba equally with St. Walburga the sister of SS. Willibald and Wunnibald, and when he repeated the same a little below, saying: St. Walpurgis, by some Walburgis, the sister of Lioba, after her brothers Wunnibald and Willibald came into Germany, etc. For it is established from Rudolf that Lioba was born of parents aged and until then barren; it is established from the same Saint's letter to St. Boniface that she was the only Daughter of both her parents, and Pagi could have known this, since he both cites the Life of St. Lioba and affirms from the Letters of St. Boniface that her name was also Leobgytha. But whether between Lioba and Walburga and the latter's brothers there was any close consanguinity, I would not dare to affirm beyond doubt: so it seemed to Henschen just cited, who conjectured it from this, that St. Boniface, with whom St. Lioba was joined by blood, is also said to have been a kinsman of St. Wunnibald in the latter's Life, and the maternal uncle of St. Walburga, likewise in the Life of Walburga published among us in the fifth place, inasmuch as it was written only in the fourteenth century. About St. Lioba's kinship with Thecla the discourse will return below.

§ III. The governance of the nuns in Germany committed to the Saint by St. Boniface; the letters of the latter and of St. Lull to her; her companions and disciples.

[ ] Coming into Germany, more likely before the return Rudolf, as soon as he has indicated St. Lioba's arrival in Germany, presently proceeds thus: Therefore, as he had desired, he established for the monasteries a guardianship and a rule of regular discipline: and over the monks indeed he set Sturmi as abbot; but Lioba the virgin he decreed to be the spiritual mother of the virgins: and he appointed her a monastery in the place which is called Bischofsheim, where no small number of handmaids was gathered. He had before joined, as we saw, the sending of Sturmi into Italy with the sending of envoys into England to summon Lioba; and here again he writes as though Lioba had been set over the virgins at the same time at which Sturmi, already returned from Italy, was set over the monks; which, if taken strictly, will mean that Lioba was declared mother of the virgins only in the year 750. For Sturmi set out for Italy in the year 748, and when he had persevered there a whole year in visiting the monasteries, as Eigil his biographer expressly relates, in the second year from that … he returned. When he came, with the Lord's help, to this land, he was seized with sickness and lay ill four weeks at the monastery of Kitzingen. Then he recovered from his infirmity, and went on to bishop Boniface, who at that time happened to be in Thuringia.

[27] of Sturmi from Italy, made abbess of Bischofsheim, and of the other For my part I shall readily believe that Sturmi went off into Italy at about the same time at which the envoys went on into England to summon Lioba; but I judge it also more likely that she came into Germany and undertook the governing of the sacred virgins sooner than he returned from Italy and began to imbue men with the monastic principles which he had himself learned there. I should think, therefore, that the beginnings of St. Lioba's governance were related together with the beginnings of St. Sturmi's on his return from Italy, because only then did St. Boniface fully attain the end he intended — having, namely, obtained a suitable man to whom he might commit the general direction of men, such as he had already then committed to St. Lioba for the sacred virgins. A general direction, I say: for the words recited in the preceding number, and these also related above — Wishing therefore (St. Boniface) that the order of both professions (of men and of women) should be observed regularly, he took pains to obtain a suitable teaching for each — are not to be understood of the direction of one body of men or of one convent; but, so far as I gather from the end intended by St. Boniface, they are to be taken of a direction which should be committed to St. Sturmi over all the monasteries of men, and to St. Lioba over all those of virgins, erected and to be erected in those parts.

[28] convents she was made general Mistress And indeed, although there is no doubt that individual abbesses or spiritual mothers presided over the individual convents of virgins, a general direction of this kind St. Lioba constantly exercised almost to the end of her life, as the biographer sufficiently indicates at num. 28, saying: But she (Lioba) exercised all solicitude toward what she had begun, and, visiting the monasteries of maidens like a leader of spiritual recruits, called them on, vying with one another in their zeal, to the glory of perfection. At the following number: But when she had grown old … all the monasteries which she had under her care being set in order, etc. There is added that the said abbesses or spiritual mothers or mistresses of the particular convents were everywhere sought from among those whom the Saint herself had directed and formed in her own convent. Let the biographer be heard again at num. 14: And he (Boniface) appointed her a monastery in the place which is called Bischofsheim, where no small number of the handmaids of God was gathered: who after the example of their blessed Mistress were instructed in the pursuits of heavenly discipline, and profited so much by her teaching that several of them afterwards became mistresses of others; so that there were no, or even few, monasteries of women in those regions which did not desire the direction of her disciples. Now Bischofsheim, the monastery which St. Lioba seems to have inhabited to the very last years of her life, was in the diocese of Mainz on the river Tauber; but only traces of it now survive in the town which has kept the ancient name, commonly Bischofsheim.

[29] For the rest, both from what we have now briefly deduced and from other things by St. Boniface, who esteemed her most highly. which we shall presently read in Rudolf,

it is abundantly clear that the opinion held by all, and particularly by St. Boniface, of St. Lioba's prudence, learning and sanctity was of the highest: to such a degree that the said holy prelate, on departing for Frisia, seems to have had nothing more at heart than to take care that Germany should not lose so signal a Mistress of all the virtues. Hence he both earnestly exhorted her, as I have touched upon in a word above, to perseverance in the labours undertaken, and admonished St. Lull, his successor in the prelacy, and the Senior monks of Fulda, to take care of her with honour and reverence: affirming that it was his will that after her death her body should be placed with his own bones in the same sepulchre, so that they might together await the day of the resurrection who in their life had served Christ with equal vow and zeal. There exists besides in Serarius a letter, the 31st among the Bonifacian ones, from which I conjecture that such was the esteem of SS. Boniface and Lioba for one another that neither did she determine anything without consulting him, nor did he settle anything by way of command: but left the whole business to the Virgin's prudence.

[30] Thus runs the letter: To the venerable handmaid of Christ, to be held for ever in most sincere charity, Leobgytha, Boniface, servant of the servants of God, The same Saint's letter to Lioba, desirable greeting in Christ. Be it known to thy holiness's love that our brother and fellow-priest, by name Torhthat, related to us that he had obtained from thee by his prayers that thou wouldst, if our consent gave leave, lay a task upon a certain learned maiden for some time. Wherefore, according as thy love shall have judged it advisable in this matter for the increase of its own reward, know without doubt that our will consents and favours. Farewell in Christ. The word imperes, marked with an asterisk and in all likelihood corrupted by the copyist, does not make the sense plain enough. Perhaps it should be read that she should lay or impose* upon a certain learned maiden the task of instructing others for some time; namely to test whether she would be fit for governance. There is also another letter in the same Serarius, the 25th among the Bonifacian ones, from which is drawn out how great a confidence the holy prelate had in the prayers of the Saint and her companions.

[31] and another to her and her companions It is couched in these words: To the venerable and beloved most dear sisters Leobgutha and Thecla, and also Cynehilda and all the sisters dwelling with you, to be loved in Christ, greeting of eternal charity. I beseech and enjoin, as upon most dear daughters — even as we trust that you now do unceasingly, and have done and will do — that by your frequent prayers you entreat the Lord that we may be delivered, according to the Apostle's saying, from importunate and evil men. For faith is not of all. And know that we praise God, and that the tribulations of our heart have been enlarged, that the Lord God, who is the refuge of the poor and the hope of the humble, may snatch us from our necessities and from the temptations of this wicked world, that the word of the Lord may run, and the glorious Gospel of Christ be made illustrious, that the grace of the Lord in me may not be made void. And because I am the last and worst of all the legates whom the Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church has appointed to preach the Gospel, that I may not die wholly barren without the fruit of the Gospel, nor return empty of a number of sons and daughters, lest, when the Lord comes, I be judged guilty of a hidden talent, nor, my sins requiring it, receive from him who sent me, instead of a reward for labour, the vengeance of fruitless labour. For many (which is worse), whom I judged to be sheep to be set at Christ's right hand in the future judgment, are, by a reversal, discerned to be rank and butting she-goats, to be set at the left.

[32] And pray the Lord's mercy that God may confirm my heart with a princely Spirit, Thecla and Cynehilda, of whom a few things who willed me, unworthy, to be called a shepherd among the people, that, when the wolf comes, I may not flee after the manner of a hireling; but that after the example of the good shepherd I may strive faithfully and confidently to defend the lambs together with their mothers — namely the Catholic Church with her sons and daughters — against heretics and schismatics and hypocrites. Besides, because the days are evil, be not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. Wherefore watch, and stand in the faith, and act manfully and be comforted. Let all your things be done with charity: and according to the Gospel, "In your patience you shall possess your souls." And remember the holy apostles and prophets, for they laboured much in the Lord: therefore they obtained everlasting rewards. And according to the Psalmist, "Many are the tribulations of the just, and out of all these the Lord will deliver them": and according to the Gospel, "For he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved." As I have no doubt that Leobgutha here in the heading of the letter is the same as Leobgytha, so I have scarcely any that Cynehilda too is the same as Chunihilt, whom Othlo, in Mabillon, part 2 of the third Benedictine Sæculum, p. 42, relates to have migrated with our Saint and others from Britain into Germany, and to have been made mistress or abbess in Thuringia; and thence I gather that that Cynehilda dwelt for some time in the convent of Bischofsheim before she went off to the place designated for her. But these things, if material be forthcoming, may be more fully elucidated at the day VIII December, on which she has been inscribed in some Benedictine Calendars.

[33] are noted, to be examined more fully elsewhere. Thecla likewise Othlo sets among those who migrated, in the same place, and says that she was placed by St. Boniface in the places called Kihhingen and Ochsnofrutt beside the river Main; that is, in the monasteries of Kitzingen and Ochsenfurt in Franconia on the river Main. Thecla moreover our biographer reckons among St. Lioba's disciples and helpers in collecting her Acts. Thecla again the same biographer mentions at num. 22, and openly calls her St. Lioba's kinswoman, saying: And first Thecla her kinswoman addressed her (Lioba) in these words. But is the speech everywhere of the same Thecla? The discussion of this question belongs to the month of October, at whose day XV Thecla is announced as an abbess in Germany in the Roman Martyrology and other Calendars, as we advised in the Prætermissi of the day XXVII September, on which Ferrari had her. Meanwhile the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Hadeloga the virgin, vol. 1 of February, pp. 304 and following, may be seen, where our Elders said that it may be doubted whether there were not two Theclas, one older, who is recorded as summoned from England with Lioba, the other younger, who, on our biographer's testimony, as St. Lioba's disciple lent her labour in collecting the Acts.

[34] But while we refer that question elsewhere, about the remaining three helpers of Thecla named by Rudolf — but what is built up about Agatha, Nana and Eoliba Agatha, Nana and Eoliba — several things come to be noted. For this we promised in the Prætermissi of the day XII June that we should do, and about Agatha by name; namely that we should say on this day whatever can be said about her, unless in the meantime we should be informed that she has an ecclesiastical cult and a certain day of veneration. John Wilson in the first edition of the Anglican Martyrology reported Agatha with an elogium on the said day XII June, and Ferrari and Arthur followed him. The same Wilson in the second edition deferred her to the XXVIII day of the same month; but Bucelin to the XII of December. Wion and Ménard, not knowing the certain birthday, indicated her in the Appendix in these words: St. Agatha, nun of Wimborne in Germany, and disciple of St. Lioba, of holy conversation; Castellanus in his Aëmeriæ only this: St. Agatha, an Englishwoman. As regards the day and month, I find no reason why the authors named in the first place should have attached her memory to one rather than to another; and, to speak candidly, doubtful to me, or erroneous, is almost everything which both these and those, citing the Life of St. Lioba, have built up about Agatha.

[35] Doubtful in the first place is the title of Saint ascribed to her by all, is doubtful and not to be elicited from the Life of St. Lioba, unless they would have it granted to all of whom biographers have made honourable mention as disciples of Saints, male or female. Doubtful likewise is the title of abbess, which Alford after Wilson attributes to her. Doubtful in general are the things which the same Wilson and others from him relate, saying that Agatha was English by birth, and a religious in the monastery of Wimborne in Dorset, and was sent into Germany to St. Boniface. For these things Rudolf does not touch upon by so much as a single word; and about Agatha Othlo keeps deep silence where he enumerates the chief women who went on to St. Boniface from England. Nay, if it be true (and to me at least it is most likely) what Arthur laid down — namely that the Agatha who laboured at collecting St. Lioba's Acts is the same as she of whom Rudolf treats again in Surius's first edition, chap. 14, in ours here at num. 18 — it is far more probable that Agatha was German by birth.

[36] For Rudolf relates that, when St. Lioba was presiding over several nuns at Bischofsheim in Germany, most of it one of them, and she absent, was accused of a most base and atrocious crime: But when, he adds, the Abbess, hearing the tumult, had learned what had been done, calling the sisters together she set forth the matter, and found that none of them was missing except Agatha, who a few days before, having been summoned by her parents, had gone on with leave to their house for a certain need. Her therefore, a messenger being sent, she recalled without delay… Who, when she had come, was most manifestly freed from all suspicion of the crime, as the author sets forth at length. Whoever will have it that she was English by birth, let him say that a nun in Germany crossed over into England to visit her parents: or, if an excursion of this kind displeases, and the time indicated by the biographer's words seems too narrow, let him say that Agatha's parents likewise migrated from England, and fixed their dwelling not far from their daughter's monastery. Neither will persuade me.

[37] or erroneous. Erroneous, further, are the things which Wion and Ménard relate in these words: St. Agatha, nun of Wimborne in Germany; and Arthur in these: At Wimborne in Germany, of St. Agatha the virgin: observing then in the Notes that she died in the monastery of Wimborne. As though forsooth Winburna or Winbrunnum were a monastery of Germany, and Rudolf had not clearly enough placed it in the island of Britain. Finally it is not likely what Alford lays down about Agatha's death in the Annals of the Anglo-Saxon church at the year 757, saying: Boniface departing to heaven … there follow him in this year two Virgins, who had formerly followed him into Germany. For since Agatha lent her labour to the collecting of St. Lioba's Acts, it is rather to be believed that she outlived her; and since Lioba herself long survived the year 757 among the living, Agatha's death too must be placed much later.

I pass on to Nana and Eoliba. Wion in the Appendix to the Martyrology calls them Saints, and the first a nun of Wimborne, disciple of St. Lioba; the other a disciple of St. Lioba the abbess in the monastery of Wimborne, over which Lioba never presided. Yet in both places Rudolf is cited. Both, as Saints, Arthur reported at the day XXII November, and added this in the Annotations: Summoned from the monastery of Wimborne in England by St. Boniface the archbishop, they came into Germany together with St. Lioba, whose disciples they were, where they flourished with great holiness of life. And here too, with Wion, the Acts of St. Lioba by Rudolf are cited. We believe Rudolf that they were disciples of St. Lioba and helpers in the collection of her deeds; but holding the rest in the same place as what was asserted about Agatha, we return to our Saint.

[38] St. Lull's letter to St. Lioba There remains one letter to her among the Bonifacian ones, the 46th, bearing this superscription: To his most dear sister in Christ Leobgytha, Lull, the least servant by the authority of the lord Boniface of his disciples, greeting in the Lord. When about to set out for Frisia, St. Boniface substituted Lull for himself as successor in the see of Mainz, and to him before all others carefully committed the care of Lioba, as we have shown above. But this letter seems to me a reply to the friendly complaints of the Saint about the prelate's rather long absence, and his having somewhat neglected the remembrance and care of her: it runs thus: I judge that the industry of thy sagacity is not unmindful of the Gospel sentence in which it is said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That poverty is to be borne patiently, as the same Evangelist testifies, who says: "In your patience you shall possess your souls": keeping in thy heart that saying of David's, that according to the multitude of thy sorrows the consolations of God have gladdened thy soul. For do not think that thy sincere brotherhood in the Lord has been given over to contempt or forgetfulness; although by the truces of the times we are separated in bodily presence; nor by any means suppose me weary in thy necessities, but know only that I am forestalled by the cunning of diabolical fraud and wearied by the crafty persecution of its ministers, and that, according to the Prophet's saying, my life wearies me because of the sons of wickedness. But whatever is lacking to thy necessities, make it known by the deacon Gundwin, who will return. Suggest to him that he grow not slack in my labours; because very rare is he who is willing to share my tribulations with me. Farewell in the Lord; interceding for me the more earnestly, the heavier the anguish by which I am weighed down. Thus far St. Lull, of whom, with the Roman Martyrology, we shall treat at the day XVI October.

i.e. inducias*, intervals.

others, ut*.

§ IV. The time and place of her death and burial; the translations of her body; the present state of the relics; the ancient and present cult.

[ ] The Saint died I do not run further through the remaining series of St. Lioba's deeds while she lived, because nothing is supplied from elsewhere which I might add to what is narrated by the biographer; and here, if anywhere it should require elucidation, that can conveniently be given in the Annotations. About the time of her death the more recent writers do not agree. Wilson in the Anglican Martyrology fixed it about the year 757; Alford in his Annals absolutely, without any particle designating an extension; but prematurely, as I have already hinted in treating of the Saint's disciple Agatha at num. 37, where I also exhibited Alford's words. Pagi, for reasons presently to be alleged, says that the Saint lived beyond 768; Mabillon, for the same reasons, gathers that she died about 772; Baillet and Castellanus about 779, to which same year Le Cointe also referred her death, and beyond which he contends it cannot be deferred. Let us now hear the reasons from which it may be established that her death occurred later than Alford fixed. Our biographer at num. 27, setting forth the veneration with which St. Lioba was attended by Pepin king of the Franks and his Sons Charles and Carloman … and above the rest chiefly Charles … who … received her, frequently invited to him, with great reverence, and honoured her with worthy gifts, adds this about Hildegard, Charlemagne's wife: But queen Hildegard too venerated her with pure affection, and loved her as her own soul: and she wished her to remain constantly with her, that she might profit in the way of life by her words and examples. But she … detested the tumult of the palace.

[40] Hence it is clear that the Saint lived at the time when Hildegard was joined in marriage to Charlemagne, about the year 779 and so not only beyond the year 757, in which Hildegard was scarcely born, and beyond 768, about which Pagi in the Critica at the year 725 and Mabillon in the Notes on Rudolf thought that Hildegard married Charlemagne; but also beyond 771, to which the learned now everywhere knit Charles's marriage with Hildegard, and to which Pagi and Mabillon themselves afterwards contended it must be knit; the former in the Critica at the said year 771, the latter in the Annals at the same year. But I have said that she lived beyond that year; and when I consider the biographer's remaining words, my mind altogether inclines to the opinion of those who suppose that she lived down to about the year 779; because there was a long-standing familiarity between the said queen and our Saint. I subjoin the words: But when she (Lioba) had grown old and was already of a more advanced age, … while king Charles was staying in the palace of Aachen, queen Hildegard sent to her, beseeching that she would not find it burdensome to come to her. For she desired to see her before she should depart from the body. Which, although she bore it ill, she nevertheless consented to on account of their OLD FAMILIARITY. She went on therefore: but she had a very short stay there, and, having returned to the monastery, after a few days she was seized with a bodily indisposition, fell into bed, and, the languor growing heavier … having received the viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ, put off the man.

[41] at Schonersheim not far from Mainz; Le Cointe judged that the year 779 was to be chosen before another, because, as Rudolf indicates, when St. Lioba went to Hildegard a short time before her death, Charlemagne was staying at Aachen; and that he truly stayed there about that same time is gathered from the Chronicle of Lorsch. For its author, referring the death of Gundeland, abbot of Lorsch, to the year 779, says: Gundeland, the divine prize of his calling being at hand, sent to the king at Aachen, etc. But that the Saint's death ought not to be placed later, the same Le Cointe draws out from this, that Charlemagne is not read to have gone either to Aachen or to Herstal from that year down to 783, the twenty-sixth year of queen Hildegard's age and the last of her life. About the day of death there is no controversy; and the place too the biographer designates clearly enough, saying: But when she had grown old, (the care of the monasteries being laid down) she came to the place which is called Schonersheim, four miles distant from the city of Mainz toward the south-west, and there she abode with the handmaids of God dwelling with her. Being summoned in the meantime, she went to Hildegard, and after a short stay, having returned to the monastery (that of Schonersheim, of course), she put off the man … in the month of September on the fourth of the Kalends of October.

[42] buried in the church of Fulda. The translation of the body According to what was said before, St. Boniface had charged that both his own and St. Lioba's bones should be laid in the same tomb in the church of Fulda. The monks obeyed the charge so far that, just as they had before taken care that the holy pontiff, martyred in Frisia in the year 755, should be carried to their monastery and had buried him there, so also they translated thither the body of the holy Virgin; but not daring to open the holy martyr's sepulchre, they did not fulfil the other part of the charge, and buried Lioba at the northern side of the altar which the holy martyr Boniface himself had built and dedicated in honour of the Lord our Saviour and of his holy twelve Apostles. The words are the biographer's, who presently records her translation thus: But after not a few years, when the church had been built more augustly by the governors of that place, and was being prepared for its future consecration, abbot Eigil, with the leave of archbishop Aistulph, translated her bones (those of St. Lioba) and placed them in the southern porch beside the memorial of St. Ignatius the martyr, where, laid in the tomb, she lives in miracles and in glory.

[43] made most likely in the year 819 Aistulph, whose name, a letter being changed here and there, is written by different writers in different ways, held the see of Mainz for 12 years, from about 814 of Christ to 826; but Eigil presided over those of Fulda as abbot for only five years, dying in 822; between which and 817 the said translation must have occurred. But we shall come nearer to its epoch if we attain the year in which the church was consecrated. The Annals of Fulda in Duchesne, vol. 2 of the Scriptores, thus lay it down at the year 819: In this year the basilica of St. Boniface the martyr in the monastery of Fulda was dedicated by archbishop Hestulf in honour of the Lord the Saviour and of all his Saints, and the bones of the holy martyr were translated on the Kalends of November. The same year Rabanus marks in verses directed to Haistulph, which Brouwer recites in book 2 of the Antiquitates Fuldenses, chap. 3:

For because thou hast dedicated the temple of the kindly martyr,

Through his servant the martyr himself has given this gift too.

For it is the eight hundred and nineteenth year

From which the merciful Saviour came into these fields.

The day too Rabanus marks in his Martyrology: The Kalends of November… Likewise on the same day, in the monastery of Fulda, the dedication of the church of St. Boniface and the translation of the body of that same holy martyr. Finally the day, month, year, bishop and abbot are all expressly stated in the inscription of the dedication, which Johann Schannat gives in the place presently to be cited.

[44] Hence, regard being had to the authority of Rudolf, who says that St. Lioba's bones were translated before November; contrary to what someone has thought. when the church, having been built more augustly, was being prepared for its future consecration, it will appear to anyone most likely that this occurred in that same year 819; and doubtful to no one that it occurred before the Kalends of November. Nevertheless Johann Schannat, in the Work which he entitled The Diocese and Hierarchy of Fulda, and published in 1727, at p. 52, relying on another author, and one of no lesser authority, attaches St. Lioba's translation to the following day, that is, the second of November. I subjoin his words: On the day after this festivity (of the dedicated church) Humbert, the chorepiscopus or suffragan of Heistulf, in like manner solemnly consecrated two crypts of the basilica, and laid the bones of St. Lioba, formerly abbess of the convent of Bischofsheim, from the northern side of the church into the southern porch of the same, beside the altar sacred to the divine martyr Ignatius: but since, of these crypts, that built toward the West, where the body of St. Boniface had most lately been placed, contained two altars not yet finished, the same aforesaid prelate Heistulf reserved them to be dedicated in the following year, on the testimony again of our Candidus, when he says:

[45] The testimony I shall presently bring forward: first it must be noted that that Candidus, relying on Candidus, a contemporary writer a monk of Fulda, described the Life of abbot Eigil, whose disciple and intimate he was, in prose and in verse, and inserted into each Work not only a full account of the dedication, at which he indicates that he was present, but also narrated what was done on the following day. Let us now see what he has to the present purpose. In

the Life drawn up in prose, in Mabillon, part 1 of the fourth Benedictine Sæculum, p. 238, the history of the dedication being premised, he goes on thus: On the next day also Humbert the chorepiscopus, at the bidding of his archbishop Heistolf, consecrated two crypts of the church, and reverently completed all the work of that day, divine authority being committed to him, with the highest reverence of the fear of God. Of which dedication indeed the day, the time, the number and the year, and at the same time also the names of the Saints whose relics were there planted, Hrabanus the master committed to memory by setting them down in writing according to rule. Here there is nothing which bears upon Lioba, and accordingly nothing which is opposed to Rudolf. Now let us proceed to the verses of Candidus, which Schannat brings forward as the foundation of his assertion, and which I transcribe from the said Mabillon, p. 256:

And when the morrow's day had put away the dark wings

of night, and the shadowy mist had withdrawn from the fields, by the testimony,

there flies forth from his lodging, the sun's light being now unveiled,

with his companions, at command, Humbert the chorepiscopus, to the crypts

of the church, two to be hallowed, which the prelate left

by yesterday's light. The first, which looks toward the East,

in the pontiff's stead, seen in his stiff purple,

he approaches — the cave at least: which, being consecrated

under one title, presently in like order he hallows,

looking toward the setting of the sun, the cave that faces it.

For two unfinished altars are here excepted:

the one where the martyr formerly lay in the middle vault of the church,

the other where Sturmi rests in the body,

and where the worthy Liobgid, kinswoman of Boniface, * reposing,

lies alone in the tomb, buried by the lot of women.

Which the prelate, returning in the year to come,

dedicates under the single title of James and Philip.

[47] but wrongly expounded. Of the neatness and beauty of the verses let the judgment rest with the reader; but in their whole series I do not find what I was looking for: namely that on the day after the festivity, on the 2nd day of November, St. Lioba's bones were translated by Humbert from the northern side of the church into the southern porch of the same, etc., which Schannat builds up, citing Candidus alone and reciting some of the verses already given. That the said author afterwards noticed this too seems clear from part 3 of his History of Fulda, published in print in the year 1729. For there at p. 98, mention of the translation being omitted, he speaks thus: But on the following day Humbert, Haistolf's suffragan, consecrated with equal festivity two crypts, where the bodies of SS. Sturmi and Lioba LAY laid in separate coffins. But not even then, in my judgment, did he hit the poet's aim, which, saving a better opinion, I judge to have been this: on the first day the church was dedicated by Haistulph and the body of St. Boniface translated; on the second day two crypts were consecrated by Humbert; so that then everything belonging to the church was consecrated, except two altars not yet finished, one of which stood in the middle vault of the church, where St. Boniface had before lain, the other where SS. Sturmi and Lioba then lay — namely in the southern porch of the same church, whither abbot Eigil had lately carried St. Lioba's remains from the northern side of the church: and thus what Candidus sings and what Rudolf writes agree plainly. But Rudolf too, although perhaps somewhat younger in age than Candidus, could also have been present at the event, inasmuch as he was the disciple of Bl. Rabanus, master of the schools of Fulda; since Rabanus was made abbot from master in the year 822.

[48] At Fulda, where no other woman had been buried, For the rest, Candidus confirms what we said above about St. Lioba's name, since he too calls her Liobgid; and besides he teaches us that, just as — on Rudolf's testimony — to our Virgin alone, while living, entry into the monastery of Fulda lay open, which neither before nor afterwards could ever be granted to any of the women, so also to her alone, down to the author's times, was granted the privilege of burial in the church of Fulda. This, I say, he teaches us in these two verses:

and where the worthy Liobgid, kinswoman of Boniface, reposing,

lies alone in the tomb, buried by the lot of women.

For these, unless I am mistaken, are to be reduced to this sense: And there Liobgid, kinswoman of Boniface, alone of women reposing, lies buried in the tomb by a worthy lot. The word neptis he perhaps used, on account of the metre, for kinswoman or blood-relation. The translation which we have handled thus far was followed some years after by another, and that to another church.

[49] to the church of the mount of St. Peter, lately dedicated, Here we have Rudolf as our author, writing thus in the Life of Bl. Rabanus, among us in vol. 1 of February, p. 521: He (Rabanus) also built a very conspicuous church on a high mount, distant about XII stades to the East from his monastery: which, when he had caused it to be consecrated at the command of archbishop Otgar by Reginbald his chorepiscopus, … he brought into it the bones of St. Felicitas, mother of the VII martyr Sons, and of St. Concordia: also of the holy virgins Basilla, Emerentiana, Candida and Eutropia. To which he added the bones and garments of SS. Aquila and Priscilla on the V of the Kalends of October… He also translated on the same day the bones of Bl. Leuba the virgin, whose Life and deeds I comprised some time ago in a short little book, and placed them in the crypt of the same church behind the altar dedicated in honour of the holy Mother of God and of the holy virgins of Christ, in a stone chest, which, surrounded also with wood, he decently adorned with the metal of gold and silver. So among us at the cited place, and in Mabillon, part 2 of the fourth Benedictine Sæculum, p. 17, where he advises that in others is read IV Kal., and in Brouwer VI Kal. of October — namely in the inscription of the dedication of the church; but whether this was done on the same day as the translation of the relics is not plainly established to me.

[50] However that may be, in Brouwer's Antiquitates Fuldenses, cited by Mabillon, p. 247, but whose inscription is faulty where the Life of Bl. Rabanus is given, it plainly has: IV of the Kalends of October for the translation of the relics; but at p. 162 is noted VI of the Kalends of October for the consecration of the church, whose inscription there exhibited I transfer hither: In the year of the Lord DCCCVIII, in the XV Indiction, this oratory was dedicated at the bidding of archbishop Otgar by Reginbald the chorepiscopus on the VI of the Kalends of October in honour of the blessed apostles, patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, confessors and virgins, and of St. Felicitas mother of the VII martyr sons, St. Concordia, St. Basilla, St. Eutropia, St. Candida, St. Emerentiana, SS. Aquila and Priscilla, and St. Leoba the virgin. There is no doubt that the inscription is corrupted in the year DCCCVIII; since, to pass over other things, Otgar, archbishop of Mainz, did not sit before the year 825 or the following. Schannat judged that he had found a more correct one, in the Work mentioned before, pp. 132 and following, where, treating of set purpose of the monastery of St. Peter, he brings forward this: That on a high mount toward the East, distant about XII stades from the principal monastery of Fulda, which by the ancients was called Vuesberg, Ugesberg, or Hugesberg, abbot Sturmi, as also his successor Baugulf, laid the first foundations of that church which Rabanus afterwards finished, is testified by Eberhard, likewise a monk of Fulda, a writer of the XII century worthy of credit, from whom we here likewise bring forward this genuine and uncorrupted table of the same consecration, not as it is in Brouwer: "In the year of the Lord DCCCXXXVIII, in the XVI Indiction, this oratory was dedicated, at the bidding of Otgar, archbishop of Mainz, by Reginbald the chorepiscopus, on the Kalends of October in honour," etc.

[51] Be it so; let St. Sturmi with his successor Baugulf have laid the first foundations of the church, both in Schannat and in Brouwer, and let Bl. Rabanus alone have finished it — it is nothing to us; nor do we deny that Eberhard is a writer worthy of credit; but we cannot but wonder that an inscription brought forward from him should be called genuine and uncorrupted. In the year DCCCXXXVIII, in the XVI Indiction is to us a new and unknown manner of reckoning. We know that there are different kinds of Indictions, but in this, that they do not all begin at the same time of the year: yet agreeing in this, that they are all completed in a space of fifteen years, nor does any run out to a sixteenth year. Wherefore, if the corrector of Brouwer's inscription could hold as genuine and uncorrupted an inscription so found in Eberhard and duly examined, it would have been worth while to indicate the new discovery to the reader; to advise him, I say, of a new kind of Indiction. Let us say what is most likely; let us say, I mean, that the Indiction was not so marked in the autograph of the inscription; but that either in the transcript which Schannat used it was corrupted by a careless or unskilful copyist, or, if it was rightly written in the transcript and accurately transcribed by Schannat, that it was corrupted by Schannat's printer: although it has not been reported in the list of things to be corrected.

[52] the Saint's bones were translated in the ninth century: I should conjecture that for the number XIV or XV the number XVI was substituted by the copyist or the printer, as easily happens, were it not that the year 838 stands in the way, with which neither Indiction agrees. For in that year the first Indiction was running; and if the author of the inscription used the Cæsarean or Constantinopolitan one, the second had begun before the day of September on which the dedication is marked. But that the number XVI was put for the number 1 or II by the copyist or the printer is not equally likely: and accordingly it is doubtful whether the year itself in Schannat's inscription is not corrupted. Mabillon, who did not see this one, transcribing Brouwer's at the place just cited, judged that it should be corrected thus: In the year of the Lord DCCCXXXVII, in the XV Indiction, was dedicated, etc. So that the year alone is changed, and the Indiction remains: which truly — the Roman, that is, or Pontifical one — corresponded to the whole year 837. For my part, though I would not affirm that Mabillon's opinion is altogether certain, I find nothing that could be better said.

[53] afterwards brought back to Fulda, where even today There still exists today on the said mount of St. Peter a monastery, subject to the church of Fulda, as Schannat teaches us in his cited Work, where at pp. 136 and following he exhibits the series of its Provosts down to the year 1720: nor, however, does it any longer possess the body of St. Lioba, brought back thence, at a time unknown, to the church of Fulda. Let Brouwer be heard, book 2 On the Antiquities of Fulda, chap. 4: On Rudolf's testimony, the venerable bones of this Virgin were translated by Rabanus thence (from the church of Fulda) into the church of the mount of St. Peter, where even today in the crypt-porch there stands a cenotaph with a memorial of the Virgin, a present and often prodigious help for driving away the diseases of infants: but at last, received into safer places, they are at this time preserved enclosed in a tomb in the sacristy of the chief church. What is said about the present cult on the mount of St. Peter he repeats in general terms at p. 140, asserting that the monastery of that mount is famous for the patronage and miracles of St. Lioba the virgin. But the presence of her relics in the church of Fulda he recalls at p. 131; where, enumerating the Saints whose relics are wont to be exhibited at Fulda, after SS. Boniface, Sturmi, and Sola, he sets Lioba in the fourth place, who rests in the sacristy of Fulda. About to pass to the relics of the martyrs, he adds concerning the four named Saints:

And these are the pledges of those whose sanctity, as it grew up among the people of Fulda, so the glory of their cult has persevered from the very cradle of the Christian faith. Of St. Boniface and his disciple St. Sturmi frequent mention has already been made. St. Sola or Solus, another disciple of St. Boniface, is reported by Wion on the 2nd day of December, by others on the following day, and indeed also on the Xth; which is to be preferred to which may be discerned when we come to the said month. Meanwhile you have his Acts in Canisius, vol. 4 of the Antiquæ lectiones, and in Mabillon, part 2 of the third Benedictine Sæculum. I return to Brouwer.

[54] they are preserved, yet not all of them; At p. 133 he says: Now there comes to mind the substance of a slip in which … I read… In the year MCCCCLXXVIII on the day of St. Silvester the Pope, in the crypt of St. Benedict of the monastery of Fulda, there were found above the sepulchre of St. Boniface, in an old shrine, relics, namely of St. Firmus, Rusticus, Beatrice, Lioba. He adds nothing from which you might distinguish whether the speech is of all St. Lioba's relics preserved there, or only of that part of them which had formerly been deposited in that place with the remains of other Saints. The latter is to me the more likely, because other remains of the Saint appear always to have been, and even now to be, laid in a separate tomb. Although the same author compels me to believe that the greatest part of the sacred body is now absent from the tomb. For in the Recollectio of the often-cited Work, published from the press in the year 1616 at the end of the Life of St. Eigil, at p. 53, on chapter 8 of book 2, entitled On the relics of the Saints, he adds this: In the year MDCXIII, on the XII of March, on the very day of St. Gregory, when the most serene duke of Bavaria William, having sent Melchior Adgaiss, had earnestly demanded that relics from the sacristy of Fulda be shared with him, the most reverend abbot Johann Friedrich and the reverend and noble D. Georg von Hatzfeld and the other capitulars acted most humanely, that they might not seem to have failed the devotion of so pious a duke. It pleased them therefore, at the procurement of the reverend and noble Peter Ernst de Rupe, sacristan of the church of Fulda, that certain repositories be unsealed, and that inquiry be made into pledges not moved within the memory of men. Those parts were then entrusted to me, unworthy though I be. Hence he begins to give an account of the sacred bones then inspected, and, coming to our Saint, says: Of the sacred pledge of St. Lioba the virgin we found, the tomb being inspected, that little is left.

[55] We do not know to what cause so great a diminution of this sacred treasure is to be attributed: whether the rest have been lost, or granted to others. Altars perhaps to that which Brouwer in book 2 of the Antiquitates Fuldenses, chap. 8, laments in general in these words: But with the repeated damage of fires and wars, by which both the mass of the old church and other neighbouring churches were more than once shaken almost from their very foundations, it cannot be doubted that, the pavement being confused with rubble and the interiors of the crypts burnt, there arose thence both a destruction of various relics and a removal of the chief parts. But perhaps also no small part of St. Lioba's sacred remains, divided into smaller portions, was formerly granted to other places or churches in which she obtained a special cult. Such there already were in the ninth century, when Bl. Rabanus celebrated in verses the patrons of various churches and altars. Among Rabanus's poems, first published and illustrated with scholia by the often-cited Brouwer in the year 1617, at p. 59 these verses occur, which were written beside the third altar in the church of the monastery which is called Clinga:

Kindly Mother of God, most holy Virgin Mary,

keep this altar and help it with thy prayer:

which stands erected to thee and to the sacred virgins, and desires

that you may ever be present here at the prayers of the people.

Here let Cecilia abide, the virgin Agnes, the martyr Agatha,

Lioba and Anastasia and Juliana together.

The monastery of Clinga, as the editor advises in the scholia, was situated in the diocese of Speyer.

[56] At p. 60 are given the verses inscribed on the altars of the church of St. Wibert the confessor at Hersfeld in Hesse; in various places dedicated to the Saint's patronage which church, restored in the middle of the ninth century, Bl. Rabanus himself dedicated, and the altar situated in the northern apse, likewise consecrated, he willed to the most holy Mother of God and to other holy virgins, and by name to St. Lioba, as is clear from his poem:

Virgin Mother of God, do thou thyself dedicate this altar,

here with thee let the virginal choir abide:

Agnes, Cecilia, Juliana and the martyr Agatha,

Euphemia, Eutropia and Pudentiana,

Rufina, Prisca, Emerita and blessed Lioba —

here let Brigid and Eugenia stand by our vows.

At p. 62 are exhibited the verses which were written in the church of St. Justinus the confessor; I do not know whether in the town of Heiligenstadt in the territory of Mainz, whither, on Brouwer's testimony in the Scholia, p. 133, the sacred remains of St. Justinus the confessor were formerly carried by archbishop Otgar; but I suspect that in that church at least there were relics of our Saint. For after the verses which were written on the first or principal, on the northern and on the southern altars, there are subjoined, without mention of an altar, those which stood by the cross, as follows:

Here is laid a portion of the kindly Cross of Jesus Christ,

and likewise a part of the place from which he ascended to heaven.

Here of Peter the prince, of Andrew his brother, and of many others

sacred pledges remain unto life.

Lo, here is Tiburtius with his brother Valerian;

Martin stands by, and Benedict rejoicing.

Here the martyr Cecilia, and Lioba the most holy virgin,

receive pious vows and bear them back to God.

[57] and celebrated in Bl. Rabanus's To these there next succeed the verses inscribed on the altars of two churches, of which the one was sacred to St. Philip, the other to St. Saturninus. But of the first the editor notes in the Scholia: This we are still inquiring after in the diocese of Mainz; the second he passes over unobserved. Further, the left altar of each had our Saint among its patronesses. At St. Philip's these verses were read:

Here holy Mary the Mother of Christ is venerated,

joined with the sacred virgins she abides.

Here Agnes the martyr, and Juliana the martyr too,

Cecilia and Lioba, and the martyr Agatha with them.

At St. Saturninus's these:

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, do thou thyself dedicate this

altar, and being present help it with thy prayer.

And let the virginal choir alike rejoice, and kindly

here, rejoicing with thee, help it by their merits.

Here the virgin Cecilia, Agnes and the martyr Agatha,

Lucy with Lioba and Juliana abide.

[58] verses, confirm the ancient cult; Rustic and ill-tended does Rabanus's poetry here appear: yet since among his other poems there occur here and there some not so much to be despised, for the age in which he wrote, one would judge rashly that this proceeded from a defect of art or of ability. I believe indeed that the poems just recited were the work of a hasty labour, and of a man not so much intent that the poem should lack those faults by which it is rendered mean and unpleasing, as that the epigram should in some way or other embrace the names of all, or at least of the chief, patrons to whose altars it was to be applied. There is also another thing which may displease in at least four of the given epigrams, namely the excessive likeness which reigns in them, the repetition of the same names and words, and scarcely any difference in the sense. But they were to be affixed in different places far apart from one another, and therefore the author perhaps did not judge that any other variety need be sought; nor ought he to have foreseen that they would one day be collected and published side by side.

[59] the present one is proved from Brouwer and the Fulda Proper. Finally, whatever they may be, on this score at least they are precious to us, that they carry the testimony of a man beyond all exception, and make us certain not only of the ancient cult of St. Lioba — about which enough is established from what has been said before — but also of one widely spread through Germany. It is right to believe that the same continued in several places down to our own times, although the testimonies of writers by which we might certainly prove it are wanting. Except, first, the church of the mount of St. Peter, where, according to Brouwer's testimony, the cenotaph or tomb in which her sacred remains once rested stands with a memorial of the Virgin, a present and often prodigious help for driving away the diseases of infants. Except, secondly, the church of the monastery of Fulda, where according to the same writer her sacred relics are wont to be exhibited, and she is held in that class of Saints whose bodies or limbs — which, enclosed in gilded tombs or coffins, or skilfully guarded in silver reliquary-busts or jewelled head-shrines, it is the custom, according to the various character of the feasts, to bring forth thence (from the sacristy) and publicly to honour — and whose sanctity, as it grew up among the people of Fulda, so the glory of their cult has persevered from the very cradle of the Christian faith. The celebrity of the annual feast we draw out from the Proper of the Saints of the church of Fulda, which, published in the year 1670, has the following rubric at the day XXVIII September: On the feast of St. Lioba the virgin. Double of the second class. All from the common of a virgin not a martyr. For the second Nocturn lessons are assigned from a Sermon of St. Maximus the bishop on the birthday of St. Agnes: which may seem strange, since the Acts are both of the best note and supply abundant material for making proper lessons — which Acts I at length subjoin.

perhaps Bonifacia*.

ACTS

By Rudolf, priest and monk of Fulda, in the ninth century.

From Surius's edition and the manuscripts.

Lioba or Leobgytha, otherwise Truthgeba, virgin and abbess, in Germany. (S.)

BHL Number: 4845

A. By Rudolf.

THE ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE CHAPTERS.

Chap. I. About to write the Life of Lioba the virgin, the writer invokes Christ as his helper, and makes plain whence he learned the things he is about to say.

II. Of the discipline of the monastery in which the holy Virgin was instructed in the pursuits of the regular life.

III. Of Tetta, abbess of the same monastery, and her virtues.

IV. Of a sister deceased, in whose grave the heaped-up earth sank away on account of the sins of the buried woman; and how, through the prayers of the holy mother Tetta, she herself deserved to be absolved from her sins and the trench of the grave was filled up, the earth rising.

V. Of the keys of the church which suddenly did not appear, and, after the prayers of the mother of the monastery and of the other sisters, were found in the mouth of a little fox lying dead before the doors of the oratory.

VI. Of the holy virgin Lioba: that she was born of a barren mother through a revelation, and was handed over by her parents to the service of God in the monastery of the aforesaid abbess.

VII. Of her manners, in which she had flourished as a young girl in the monastery.

VIII. Of the vision which was shown her, and of its interpretation, by which it was signified to her that she would journey in far distant regions of the earth.

IX. Of St. Boniface, sent by the Apostolic See into Germany to preach: that he summoned to his help clerics of different orders from the nation of the English.

X. That, religion increasing, wishing to build monasteries of monks and of virgins, he sent Sturmi his disciple to the monastery of St. Benedict on Monte Cassino to learn the order of the regular life, and, envoys being directed into his native land, brought Lioba the virgin.

XI. That he set Sturmi over the monks as abbot, and preferred Lioba the virgin as mistress over the women, and that he appointed her a monastery at Biscofesheim, where she flourished with great merits of virtues.

XII. Of a fornicatress who, at the holy Virgin's prayers, being handed over to the malignant enemy, vomited forth by public confession the crime she had committed.

XIII. Of a fire, which she extinguished by the power of faith and by water blessed with salt.

XIV. Of a storm, which, prayer being sent before, she checked with a word.

XV. Of a holy nun at the point of death, whom she healed with blessed milk.

XVI. That, stirred by the example of her sanctity, many noble men consecrated their virgin daughters to God, and many matrons, leaving the secular manner of life, chose the monastic life.

XVII. That St. Boniface, when about to set out for Frisia, exhorted her not to desert the land of her pilgrimage, and, commending her to bishop Lull and to the seniors of the monks of the monastery of Fulda, gave charge about her body being buried beside his own bones.

XVIII. That the blessed Virgin, after the holy martyr's passion, persevering in the work of God, was loved by kings and princes and bishops and by all the people, and that, going round the monasteries of maidens, she strengthened their purpose with holy exhortations.

XIX. That she sometimes came to the monastery of Fulda for the sake of prayer, and that, having in her old age set in order the other monasteries of women, she herself remained at Schoranesheim with her disciples.

XX. That, invited to queen Hildigard, perceiving that the day of her death drew near, she foretold that she would not see her again in this life.

XXI. That, having returned to the monastery, after a few days she died, and her body was translated to Fulda and there buried.

XXII. That a certain man, bound about the arms with iron rings, praying faithfully at her sepulchre, deserved to be loosed.

XXIII. That a Spaniard, who was horribly shaken with a swelling of all his limbs, was healed through the prayer and merits of the most holy Virgin, after he had prayed at her memorial.

DEDICATORY LETTER.

The little book which I have written about the Life and virtues of the holy and venerable virgin Lioba I have taken care to dedicate to thy name, religious virgin of Christ Hadumout, ^a that thou mayest have what thou canst both gladly read and religiously imitate; so that, by the help of the grace of Christ, of whom thou hast been made a partner by the equality of thy purpose, thou mayest deserve to become a coheir of her blessedness and reward. Thy holiness also, religious virgin, I ask with the highest prayers, that thou wouldst deign to pray for me, the unworthy and sinful Rudolf, in name, not in merit, a priest and monk of the monastery of Fulda, together with all the holy virgins who assiduously with thee call upon the name of the Lord in truth; that I, who through the hindrance of my vices am not worthy to have fellowship with the elect of God, may, having obtained pardon of my sins through the merits and prayers of those who please God, deserve to escape everlasting punishment. ^b

ANNOTATIONS.

PROLOGUE

The author teaches by what helps, About to write the Life of the blessed and venerable virgin Lioba, I invoke her Spouse Christ the Lord, our God and Saviour: that he who granted her strength and victory against the adverse powers may grant me also speech for narrating the proclamations of her merits. For I did not learn all her deeds: but a few things have come to my knowledge from venerable men, who learned them from the faithful narration of four of her disciples, namely Agatha and Thecla, Nana and Eoliba, ^a and each according to the measure of his ability, as they had been handed on to him, took pains to commit them to writing and to leave them as an example to posterity. Of whom the religious man Mago ^b the priest and monk, who died five years ago, was very familiar with the aforesaid women, and, coming often to them, had been accustomed to hold discourse with them about the profit of the soul. He therefore, learning from them several of her memorable deeds, took care indeed to note them down briefly, but left them too obscure: because, while he studied a compressed brevity, he rendered them in several places so doubtful that, although they presented an image of knowing, they nevertheless did not convey the force of understanding. Which indeed I judge to have happened for this reason, that, being eager for things to be known, lest what he had heard should flee his memory, he first committed them to writing in summary form, so that afterwards, the sequence of the little book being arranged at leisure, he might make a fuller way of understanding in them for his readers: and that thence it came about that he left them all confused and noted here and there on slips, because, forestalled by an unlooked-for death, he had not had the space of a longer life for arranging them.

[2] Wherefore I, not by my own presumption but urged on by the command of the venerable father and my teacher Rabanus ^c the abbot, and at whose bidding, he arranged the Acts. took pains to gather into one all the things which had been briefly written by them and which I had recorded scattered on slips: and both from those which I found noted there, and from those which I learned from the relation of others, having briefly arranged the text of a little book, I have taken care to lay open the series of the deeds done to those who wish to know it. ^d For there are very many religious men still remaining in the body, who not only report those same things which I had recorded as written by others, in the same words, as they had heard them from their elders; but are also wont to add several other things worthy of record, which I have judged it fitting to couple with the aforesaid notes and to insert into this little Work: so that I may seem not so much to have undertaken to arrange and complete the beginnings of others, as in a manner to have composed writings of my own. Further, about the credibility of what is said I judge that no one of the faithful ought to hesitate, since both the probity of the persons relating it commends it, and the powers of the miracles which are wont frequently to be divinely wrought at her dead bones clearly show it to be true. But before I come to narrating the marks of her life and manners, it does not seem out of place if of her mistress and spiritual mother, who had begotten her in Christ and imbued her with the pursuits of the heavenly life, I relate out of many the few things which I have learned: so that the reader, having learned the virtues of so great a woman, may the more easily lend credit to the Disciple's deeds, the more he shall know her to have taken the first beginnings of spiritual discipline from so noble a teaching.

ANNOTATIONS.

Manuscripts, quæ referam*.

the same add ea*.

the same, planiorem*.

the same, quod*.

the same add relicta* above.

others vivo, others suo*.

others add eis*.

others, Nam*.

PART I.

An account of the monastery of Wimborne; the virtues of the abbess Tetta; the Saint's birth and the beginnings of her religious life.

The state of the double monastery of Wimborne In the island of Britain, which the nation of the English inhabits, a certain place is called by the ancient word of that people Winbrunno: ^a which, interpreted in Latin, may be called the Spring of Wine. Which received this name on account of the exceeding clearness and the excellent savour by which it seemed to surpass the other waters of that land. In which two monasteries were anciently built by the kings of that nation, surrounded with high and firm walls and provided with every sufficiency of supplies by a reasonable arrangement: one, namely, of clerics, and the other of women. Of which each, from the beginning of its foundation, was so ordered by a law of discipline that neither of them should be entered by the other sex. For never was a woman permitted to enter the congregation of the men, nor any of the men the dwellings of the virgins: excepting only the priests, who were wont to enter their churches solely for the performing of the offices of the Masses, and, the prayer being solemnly completed, to return at once to their own. But of the women, whichever, renouncing the world, had wished to be joined to their college, entered never to go out, unless some reasonable cause, or one of any great advantage, arising, should send her forth by counsel. Further, the mother of the congregation herself, when it was necessary to arrange or command anything of external affairs for the advantage of the monastery, spoke through a window, and thence discerned * whatever the reason of advantage required to be arranged or commanded.

[4] and the virtues of the abbess Tetta, Over this place, therefore, after several abbesses and spiritual mothers, there was set a religious virgin by the name of Tetta, noble indeed by birth according to the dignity of the world (for she was the sister of a King), ^b but much more noble by the probity of her manners and the display of her holy virtues: who governed each monastery with great art of discretion. For she showed forth all good and holy things by examples rather than by words, and whatever she had taught to be contrary to the salvation of souls she showed in her own acts was not to be done. The rigour of discipline too, in which that place always flourished above the rest, she kept with such solicitude that she never allowed the women access to the clerics. And the virgins, with whom she herself unceasingly remained, she willed to be so free from the company of men that not only to laymen or clerics, but even to bishops themselves, she denied entrance into their congregation. Of her * very many marks of virtues are reported, which the venerable virgin Lioba, her disciple, was wont to relate from memory and with delight: of which I have taken care to record two only, that from them the rest may be conjectured.

[5] There was in that monastery of virgins a certain nun who, prodigies on account of her zeal for discipline and her observance of a stricter life, in which she seemed to surpass the rest, was often appointed Prioress, and frequently established Deaness after the custom. She, while she exercised discipline over her subjects too incautiously and indiscreetly, stirred up against herself the hatreds of almost all, and especially of the younger ones. Whose sadness and the curses framed against her, which she could at times have soothed by her gentleness, she despised with a stubborn heart, and persevered so rigidly against them that not even in the last time of her life did she take care to remove the disturbance of their hearts by any satisfaction. She died therefore in this obstinacy, and was given to burial, and a mound was made over her grave, a heap of earth being piled up. Nor yet did the mind of the young women who hated her rest quiet, but, as soon as they looked upon the place in which she was buried, they cursed her cruelty: nay, climbing the mound, and as it were trampling upon a corpse of ill omen, for the solace of their grief they reproached the dead woman with the bitterest insults.

[6] When the mother of the congregation, the venerable Tetta, had learned this, ascribed to her merits checking the rash presumption of the young girls with the force of correction, she went on to the mound, and in a wondrous manner beheld that the earth which had been heaped above had sunk down, and had descended to the space of half a foot below the top of the grave. At which sight she was greatly terrified. For she understood from the sinking of the earth the punishment of the buried woman, and weighed the severity of God's just judgment from the diminution of the grave. Therefore, all the sisters being called together into one place, she began to rebuke them for their cruelty and hardness of heart: that on account of an injury done to themselves they were implacable,

and that for a momentary bitterness of discipline they kept perpetual discords: and that, whereas it belongs to Christian perfection to be peaceable even with the enemies of peace, they on the contrary not only did not love their enemies, but even execrated with a zeal of impiety a sister dead whom, living, they had hated against the Lord's precept. And she admonished them thenceforward to abstain from enmities, to embrace injuries, to be ready to pardon, and, as they wished their own debts to be forgiven them by the Lord, so to release one another's offences from the heart. After these words she besought them on behalf of the dead sister that, forgiving from the soul whatever before her death she had seemed to have sinned against any of them, they should apply themselves to prayer together with her, and invoke the divine clemency for her absolution. And when all had with one accord assented to her exhortations, she enjoined upon them a three days' fast, admonishing each one to press the more zealously with psalmodies and vigils and holy prayers on her behalf. But on the third day, the fast being completed, she entered the basilica with the whole congregation of virgins, and, while they made litanies and invoked the name of the Saviour, she herself with tears prostrates herself before the altar to pray for the soul of the dead sister. And while she persisted in prayer, the trench of the grave, which before had seemed almost empty, began gradually to be filled up, the earth rising: so that in one and the same moment both she herself rose from prayer, and the earth levelled the grave. From which thing it is manifestly shown that, when the tomb visibly returned to its former state through the prayers of the holy virgin, the divine power invisibly absolved the dead woman's soul.

[7] and prayers the author records. At another time also it happened that the sister to whom the care of the oratory had been committed, when after Compline she was going to bed and was locking the doors of the church, lost all the keys that night without knowing it. For there were very many, according to the diversity of the things laid up in the treasuries of the church: and some indeed of silver, but others of bronze or of iron, connected to one another by a skilfully wrought ring. But when she had risen to strike the signal for the night vigils, and had not found the keys for opening the doors of the church, a light being kindled, she surveyed with diligent search all the places which promised any hope of finding them: and, as though to have sought once did not suffice, she went over the same again with a redoubled search. And when she had done this very often, and made no progress by searching, she went on to the abbess, who, while the sisters were still resting, keeping to her vigils after her wonted manner, was anticipating the hours of night prayer, and, trembling and struck with fear, fell prostrate at her feet, and made known to her the fault of her negligence with humble satisfaction. When she heard this, she at once understood that this was a contrivance of the devil lying in wait, and, the sisters being called together, she completed the night vigils and the solemnities of matins in another building. Which being done, she straightway gave herself with them to prayer, and without delay uncovered the malice of the ancient enemy by the power of holy prayers. For while they were praying before the doors of the oratory, a little fox appeared unexpectedly, dead, in whose mouth all the keys which they grieved to have lost were found. Then the venerable mother, the keys being taken up, ordered the doors to be opened, and, entering the church with all the nuns, of whom there were then nearly five hundred present, rendered thanks in hymns and praises to almighty God, who had mercifully heard his handmaids trusting in him, and had cast down the malignant enemy with a worthy confusion. For he who said, I will set my seat in the North, and I will be like the Most High, was through the swelling of his pride made like to the beasts: and he who would not be subject to God through humility, appeared through the humble prayers of God's handmaids uncovered and confounded in a little fox. ^c

[8] The Saint is born; then, committed to the abbess Tetta, Let these things said about the venerable mother Tetta and her virtues suffice: now let the pen be turned, according to our purpose, to setting forth the deeds of her spiritual daughter Lioba. Her parents, therefore, English by nation, were noble indeed by birth, and both zealous in religion and in the observance of God's commandments. Her father was called Dimo, and her mother Ebba. ^d But since they were barren and unfruitful, they long remained without children. But when very many days had passed, and, they being now aged and advanced in years, the hope of bearing offspring was absent, her mother saw in a dream that she had, as it were, the signal of a church, which they commonly call a klockum, ^e in her bosom, and that, putting in her hand, she drew it out ringing. Waking therefore, she called her nurse, now an old woman, and revealed to her the dream which she had seen. To whom she, in a prophetic spirit, said: "We shall yet see from thy womb a daughter, whom thou must even now vow to the Lord: and as Anna offered Samuel to serve in the temple of God all his days, so grant that this one, taught from infancy in sacred letters, may serve him in holy virginity as long as she shall live." And when the woman had vowed this, after not many days she conceived and bore a daughter, whom she called Truthgeba, by surname Lieba or Lioba, because she was beloved. For this is the sound of the interpretation of this surname in Latin. And so, when she was grown up, she consecrated her to God, and handed her over to the aforesaid mother Tetta to be imbued with divine studies. ^f And her nurse, because she had foretold to her such joys to come, she rewarded with the gift of liberty.

[9] The Girl therefore grew, and was taught with such care by the abbess and all the sisters she wonderfully advances in virtue: that she knew nothing besides the monastery and the pursuits of heavenly discipline. For she took no delight in unsuitable places, nor suffered herself to be joined in the empty tales of young girls: but, burning with desire of Christ, she always had her mind bent upon reading the word of God: and, committing to memory what she heard or read, she kept the profit of the precepts by her life and manner of living. And she so tempered the use of food and drink that, despising delicacies and the enticements of daintier fare, content with those things only which were given, she sought nothing further. She prayed assiduously, knowing it written in the Apostle that the faithful must pray without ceasing. When she was not reading, she worked with her hands at what was enjoined upon her. For she had learned it written that he who does not work should not eat. Yet upon reading and hearing the holy Scriptures she spent her labour more than upon the work of her hands, striving with all her might that what she had read or heard should not slip from her soul: but, keeping the Lord's precepts, she was accustomed always to have the memory of them in the carrying out of works. And so ordering her life, she was loved by all her elders with pure affection, and, learning from all and obedient to all, she caught by imitation the proper graces of each. She followed this one's continence, that one's cheerfulness: she admired this one's mildness, that one's patience, another's gentleness. This one watching, that one reading, she strove to emulate. Above all she gave her labour to charity, without which she knew the remaining virtues to be nothing.

[10] While with these and other pursuits of virtues of this kind she strengthened her mind day by day toward heavenly things, from a vision on a certain night she saw in a dream what seemed a purple thread coming down out of her mouth. Which, having taken hold of with her hand, when she tried to draw it out, it began to be extended at greater length, and, as though it proceeded from the innermost parts of her bowels, it gradually grew greater and took increase of itself. But when, the material abounding, she filled her hand in gathering it, and the thread nevertheless hung from her mouth, she formed of it, by rolling, a ball in a round shape. In the making of which, when she sweated too laboriously, she was loosed from sleep by the distress, and began to ponder silently within herself, desiring to know the discernment of the dream. For she understood that the vision had not appeared to her without cause, but that there was in it something of hidden mystery. There was, therefore, in the same monastery a certain sister of mature age, who from the outcome of things which she had often foretold was known to have the spirit of prophecy. To her indeed she was unwilling to relate the dream as of her own person, but to one of her disciples she revealed the whole in order as she had seen it, charging her to go to her and, the dream being set forth as though it had appeared to herself, to entreat that whatever she understood in it she would make plain by her word.

[11] The girl therefore went on and did as she had been instructed by her Mistress. she understands that she is destined for greater things. And when she had set forth the whole tenor of the dream as though of her own person, that sister, foreknowing things to come, answered with indignation: "The vision is indeed true, and portends good things to come: but why dost thou lie that such things appeared to thee? For these do not befit thee, but the chosen and beloved of God" — signifying, namely, Lioba the virgin by the sweetness of her surname. "To her," she said, "these things were shown, to whom by the merit of her sanctity and wisdom such things are fitting: since she is to profit many, as much by the word of preaching as by the example of good working. For the thread which came forth from her bowels through her mouth is the doctrine of wisdom, proceeding from her heart by the ministry of the voice. But that it filled her hand signifies this, that all that she shall teach with her mouth she will match with works. Further the ball, which is made by rolling and by its roundness is easily turned, expresses the mystery of the divine word, which is rolled through the mouth and acts of preachers, and now through the active life is busied in lowly things, now through the contemplative is raised to lofty things: now humbles itself through compassion for a neighbour, now exalts itself through the love of God. By these signs indeed God has shown that thy Mistress will profit many by word and example: but the effect will be far from this place, among other nations, whither it behoves her to set out." That this interpretation of the dream was true, the outcome of events * proved.

ANNOTATIONS.

which may less satisfy the reader, nor so fill the mind that no room at all is left for doubt. The author is a grave man, I confess, and calls St. Lioba as his witness: but he did not hear it from her own mouth. From Lioba the four disciples received it first, from these in all likelihood Mago the priest, and from his slips or from the relation of others Rudolf: so that some circumstances exaggerated beyond measure could easily have been mingled in. Thus in the first story that execrable hatred of the holy virgins toward their dead mistress, and the impiety toward her corpse, of a kind from which even a fiercer nature is wont to shrink, may seem increased more than is right. But in the second story that sudden apparition of the little fox dead and carrying the keys in its mouth will seem wonderful indeed; but I doubt whether to all it is equally miraculous and serious. Further, in the Trier manuscript there was read, by an error, Tecla for Tetta.

others, decernebat*.

Manuscripts, ostendit*.

others, cujus*.

others, juvencularum*.

Manuscripts add ex more*.

others omit pacis*.

Manuscripts add suam*.

others add Sanctorumque ejus suffragia*.

others, ex*.

others add ferrea*.

Manuscripts, exaudivit*.

others, dejecit*.

others omit & ero*.

Manuscripts add virginis*.

others, igitur Virginem mater*.

others, didicerat, scriptum* being omitted.

others, ab universis sororibus*.

Manuscripts add postea*.

PART II.

The Saint's summoning into Germany by St. Boniface; her governance of the nuns; her excellent virtues; her miracles.

By St. Boniface Therefore at that time in which the blessed virgin Lioba had flourished in the monastery in the pursuits of the heavenly life, the holy martyr Boniface was ordained bishop by Gregory, Prelate of the Roman See, who succeeded Constantine in the Pontificate, ^a and was sent to preach the word of God to the peoples of Germany. Where, when he had found the harvest indeed great and the peoples inclined to the faith, but had few labourers to work with him in the Lord's field, he sent envoys and letters into the land of the English, whence he himself was sprung of his parents, and summoned from the various order of clerics several learned in the divine law, and fit for the preaching of the word by the merit of their life and the probity of their manners: by whose help he administered not slothfully the legation enjoined upon him. For he acquired for Christ a great part of Germany by his saving teaching and by miracles of virtues. For while daily a multitude of the peoples was imbued with the sacraments of the faith, the divine word was spread abroad not only in the churches, but also through the villages and strongholds, to such a degree that both the Catholic faithful were strengthened by assiduous exhortations, and the depraved recognized the way of correction, and the pagans, instructed in the faith, hastened in rivalry to the grace of baptism.

[13] Seeing therefore that the Church of God was growing, she is summoned into Germany and that men were kindled with vying zeal to vows of perfection, the most blessed man, establishing a twofold way to the advancement of religion, began to build monasteries, that the peoples might be drawn to the Catholic faith not so much by ecclesiastical favour as by the congregations of monks and virgins. Wishing therefore that the order of both professions should be observed regularly, he took pains to obtain a suitable teaching for each: and he sent to Monte Cassino ^b Sturmi ^c his disciple, a man noble in birth and in manners, that in the monastery which the blessed father Benedict founded he might learn the regular discipline and the monastic life and manners: and that, being to be a shepherd, he might become a disciple; and in his own subjection might learn how he ought to preside over others. Likewise also he directed envoys with letters into his native land to Tetta the abbess, ^d of whom mention has been made in what precedes: beseeching that for the solace of his pilgrimage, and for the help of the legation enjoined upon him, she would send over to him Lioba the virgin, whom the fame of her sanctity and the teaching of her virtues had then published through far distant spaces of the earth, and had filled the mouths of many with famous praise. Her departure, therefore, the mother of the congregation bore most grievously indeed, but nevertheless, because she could not resist the divine dispensation, she directed her with honour to the blessed man, as he had asked, so that the interpretation of the dream which she had once seen might be proved to have been true. Whom, when she had come, the man full of God received with the highest veneration, loving her not so much on account of the kinship by which she was joined to him from the maternal blood, ^e as on account of the holiness of her life and the doctrine of her wisdom, by which he knew that she would profit very many both by word and by example.

[14] and is given as Mistress to the nuns, Therefore, as he had desired, he established for the monasteries a guardianship and a rule of regular discipline: and over the monks indeed he set Sturmi as abbot; but Lioba the virgin he decreed to be the spiritual mother of the virgins: and he appointed her a monastery in the place which is called Bischofsheim, ^f where no small number of the handmaids of God was gathered: who after the example of their blessed Mistress were instructed in the pursuits of heavenly discipline, and profited so much by her teaching that several of them afterwards became mistresses of others: so that there were no, or even few, monasteries of women in those regions which did not desire the direction of her disciples. For she was a Woman of great virtues, and so strengthened in the vigour of the purpose she had taken up that she remembered neither her native land nor her kinsfolk: but she exercised all her zeal toward what she had begun, namely that she might show herself blameless to God, and might be a form of salvation in word and manner of life to all who obeyed her. She always took care not to teach others what she had not herself done. For she assumed nothing to herself of arrogance, nothing of pride from her position: but without acceptance of persons she showed herself affable and benevolent to all. She was angelic in appearance, pleasant in speech, bright in understanding, great in counsel, Catholic in faith, most patient in hope, generous in charity. And though she always bore a glad face, she was never dissolved into laughter by excessive mirth. No one ever heard a curse from her mouth: the sun never set as witness of her anger. And whereas she set forth the use of food and drink to others with the highest kindness, she herself took it sparingly. Whence also her little cup, from which she was wont to drink, was called by the sisters, for its size, "the Beloved's little one."

[15] over whom she excelled in every Upon the study of reading she bent herself with such diligence that, unless she was free for prayer, or refreshed her poor body with food or sleep, the divine page never left her hands. For since from the very rudiments of infancy she had been instructed in Grammar and the remaining liberal arts, ^g she strove with such urgency of meditation to attain the perfection of spiritual knowledge that, her reading agreeing with her understanding, the good of nature and of industry being doubled, she was rendered most learned. For, surveying with keen mind the books of the Old and New Testament, she committed the divine precepts to memory. But she added also the sayings of the holy Fathers, and the decrees of the Canons, and the laws of the whole Ecclesiastical order, to the fullness of her perfection. Discretion in every act and disposition of hers she greatly preserved, and always attended to the end of the things to be done: lest perchance things begun inconsiderately should afterwards, by their incompleteness, breed repentance for her. And because she knew that for the study of prayer and the industry of reading intentness of mind is necessary, in watching, as in the other pursuits of virtues, she was accustomed to keep a measure. For although always only a little, yet through the whole summer after the midday meal both she herself and all the sisters subject to her rested, nor did she consent to any of them wishing to watch indiscreetly. For she said that when sleep is taken away, sense is taken away, especially for reading. But it was always her custom that, while she slept, whether by night or at midday, holy Scripture should be read beside her bed. Which office the younger girls fulfilled by turns without trouble: and, wonderful to say, they could not pass over a single word or even a syllable in reading without being at once corrected by her, although she was asleep. For, as those same girls to whom that office was assigned afterwards confessed, often, when they perceived that she was heavily sunk in sleep, testing her on purpose, they made a slip in the reading, but they could never escape uncorrected. Nor yet is it a wonder that she could not be deceived while sleeping, whose heart he possessed who shall not slumber, keeping Israel: and who could say with the bride in the Song of Songs: I sleep, and my heart watcheth.

[16] But the virtue of humility she guarded with such zeal that, although by the merit of her sanctity and by the rank of her direction she was set over the rest, kind of virtues. she believed in her heart, uttered with her voice, and showed by her bearing that she was the last of all. And hospitality she kept with a peculiar observance. For to all without any exception of person she offered her house, and, fasting Mother that she was, she set forth the banquet. She washed the feet of all with her own hands, the keeper and mistress of the Lord's institution. While the Virgin of Christ was doing these things, by which she called forth the affection of all toward herself, the devil, the enemy of all Christians, bearing impatiently such glories of virtues in her, and such splendid increases of the advancement of her disciples, assailed them unceasingly with foul thoughts and the enticements of carnal concupiscence, trying whether he might turn any of them from the vigour of the purpose they had taken up. But when he saw his efforts broken by the prayers and fastings of those who lived chastely, the crafty plotter turned himself to other devices, so that he who could not violate their integrity by suggesting perverse things might at least corrupt their good name by defaming it.

[17] There was, then, there a certain poor woman, crippled by infirmity, A nun, accused of a dire crime, who lay at the gate of the monastery, receiving alms: to whom daily an appointed sustenance was given from the Abbess's table, and by each of the nuns clothes and other necessaries whatever were furnished out of regard for divine love. But it happened after some days that, deceived by diabolical suggestions, she fell into the baseness of fornication. And when, her womb swelling, she could not hide the child conceived, she covered the crime of the wickedness she had admitted by feigning infirmity. But when the time of birth pressed, she wrapped the newborn infant in little cloths, and at night exposed it in the pool of the stream which flowed through the middle of that place — adding, of course, evils to evils. For to defilement she joined homicide, and to homicide the contaminating of the water. But when day came, and a certain woman had come to draw water, catching sight of the infant's corpse she shuddered at the deed: and, kindled with a womanish fury, she filled the whole village with disorderly outcry, and, reproaching the holy virgins with indignation, said: "O what a chaste congregation, what a glorious manner of life of virgins, who, placed under the veil, bear sons, performing alike the office of mothers and of priests, and themselves baptize those whom they have borne! For not for the uses of milling only, O citizens, have you dammed this water, but without knowing it you have prepared it for this new and unheard-of baptism. Now therefore ask those whom you are wont to exalt with the appellation of virgins to take the corpse from the stream and give us back water fit for use. See, see, what things from the monastery"

is missing, and know that she has perpetrated this crime." At this cry the whole people was stirred: every age and every sex ran in one throng as though to a spectacle, and, seeing the abomination, shuddered at the crime, and detested the sacred virgins.

[18] But when the Abbess, hearing the tumult, had learned what had been done, her innocence calling the sisters together she set forth the matter, * and found that none of them was missing except Agatha, ^h who a few days before, having been summoned by her parents, had gone on with leave to their house for a certain need. Her therefore, a messenger being sent, she recalled without delay, being unable to bear the mark of so great infamy any longer. And when she had come, and learned that the guilt of the crime was imputed to her, looking up to heaven she groaned and said: "Almighty God, who knowest all things before they are done, and from whom no secret is hidden, and who didst deliver Susanna, trusting in thee, from a false charge: show thy mercy upon this congregation, gathered in thy name, and suffer it not to be stained on account of my sins by a foul rumour: but deign, to the praise and glory of thy great name, both to uncover and to make public her, whoever she be, who has committed this abomination." Hearing which, the venerable Mother, now sure of her purity, commanded all to enter the oratory, and to stand with arms stretched out in the manner of the Cross, until each should complete the whole Psalter, chanting it in order: and then three times in the day, that is, at the third hour, and the sixth, and the ninth, the standard of the Cross being raised, to go round the monastery with litanies, and to invoke the divine mercy for their clearing.

[19] she obtains to be made manifest by a prodigy; And when they had done this, and, this order having now been twice completed, at the ninth hour all entered the church, and the whole people being likewise gathered was present, the blessed virgin Lioba went on to the altar, and, standing before the Cross which was even then being made ready to be carried a third time, stretched out her hands to heaven, and with groaning and tears prayed, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, King of virgins, lover of integrity, most unconquered God, show thy power, and free us from this infamy: for the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon us." When she had said this, presently that most wretched poor woman, at once the captive and the minister of the ancient enemy, is filled with a demon, and, as though surrounded with flames, calls upon the Abbess's name and confesses the crime which she had committed. Then indeed, a cry being raised to heaven, all the people was amazed at the miracle: the handmaids of God wept for joy, and in common by all with one mouth the merit of Lioba the virgin and the power of Christ the Saviour is proclaimed. And so it came about that the virginal name, which the devil tried to overwhelm with an ill report, shone the more brightly, and was the more famously praised everywhere. That wretched woman, however, did not deserve to be cleansed, but the enemy held over her the right of his power to the end of her life. Many signs indeed God had already before wrought through his Handmaid, but the overshadowing of secrecy suppressed the knowledge of them. But this was the first done in Germany: and therefore famous, because it was public. ⁱ

[20] she extinguishes a fire; But at another time, when she had sat down after her wonted manner to give the divine lesson to her disciples, an accidental fire blazed up in one part of the village: which, the houses being consumed which were roofed either with straw or with marsh reed, was borne, the blasts of wind urging it, toward the monastery in which the holy Virgin was staying with the handmaids of God; and, the fire raging, it threatened destruction not only to the buildings but even to the cattle and to the people themselves. Then indeed the confused clamour of a trembling people is raised, a rush of all flies together to the Abbess: they ask that she would meet with holy prayers the peril which was at hand. But she, being of a most patient mind, while all were troubled, was not moved at all, in the confidence of faith: but ordered that they should quickly bring her in a bowl water drawn from the upper part of the stream which ran through the middle of the monastery. Which, being brought without delay, she sprinkled with salt, blessed by St. Boniface, which she unceasingly kept with her, saying: "Go, and pour this water back into the stream, and let all the people draw from that place downward, and vie in casting it against the onset of the raging fire." And when they had done this, all that violence of the flames was so quenched, as though a shower had been sent from heaven, that afterwards it touched nothing at all of the buildings. At which miracle all the people, astonished, is turned to the praise of God, who through the faith and prayers of his Handmaid so loftily delivered them from so great a peril.

[21] That too, I do not doubt, must be reckoned among her virtues, she calms a storm, that when on a certain day a savage storm and an exceeding disturbance of the air had arisen, lightnings were made and vehement winds were borne from every side, and the gloom of darkness took away the sky and the day by a night of clouds, and very terrible flashes also, and lightnings frequently sent down, brought exceeding terror upon mortals: all the people is shaken with dread, and first they drive their cattle within the safety of the houses lest they perish. Then, the peril growing heavier and threatening the savagery of death, all in despair * of living take refuge in the church, and, the doors being barred on every side, in fear they awaited the terrible judgment of God which they thought hung over them. To them, troubled and crying out with confused voice, the holy Virgin, coming to meet them, enjoins patience, promises safety, and exhorts them to apply themselves to prayer with her, and without delay she herself prostrates herself with her whole body before the altar. Meanwhile the storm rages, and the roofs of the houses do not withstand the fury of the winds, and the earth trembles with frequent strokes of thunderbolts; the density of the darkness too, and the continual bursting in of the flashes through the windows, redoubles the greatest horror in the timid.

[22] Then all the people, not bearing the hugeness of so great a terror, the virgin Mary being invoked; ran to the altar and rouses the blessed Virgin from her prayer, that she should be set against the perils; and first Thecla her kinswoman addressed her in these words: * "O Beloved, Beloved, in thee is the hope of this people, in thee the sum of our vows consists. Rise therefore, and for us invoke thy Lady ^k the holy Mother of God, that by her intercession we may be delivered from the peril of this storm." At this cry she rose from prayer, and, as though called to a wrestling, casting off the cloak with which she was clothed, she confidently opened the doors of the church, and, standing on the threshold, the sign of the holy Cross being made, set the name of the highest Majesty against the raging storm: and, stretching out her hands to heaven, with a threefold cry she invoked the clemency of Christ, and prayed that, through the intercession and merits of holy Mary the Virgin, he would speedily be present and favourable to his people. Straightway therefore the Divinity is present, the thunders grow quiet, the contrary winds turn their services to scattering the density of the clouds, and all that darkness of the airs, presently divided into two parts and falling back upon itself, brought back tranquillity and clear weather, the sun appearing. Thus the divine power both declared the merits of his Handmaid faithfully serving him, and granted to the peoples an unlooked-for safety, their fear being driven away.

[23] a religious dying of a flux of blood This too, which is known to have been famous and memorable among her deeds, I think it impious to pass over in silence. For a certain one of the sisters of her monastery, by name Willeswind, praiseworthy for the merit of her life and the probity of her manners, was troubled with a great infirmity of the body. For she laboured under the disease which physicians call the hæmorrhoid, and, with blood flowing through the secret parts of nature, she was tormented with a most grievous pain of the intestines. The languor therefore increasing, and taking increase day by day, the strength of her body fails, so that she could neither turn herself upon the other side, nor rise from her bed, nor walk on her feet without another's support. And when now, from the greatness of the stench, she could not remain in the common cell of the monastery, her parents, who dwelt near by, having sought and obtained leave, placed her upon a litter and carried her across the river which is called the Tauber ^l to their own house. And not long after, the disease growing strong, she came to the last extremity: and when now, the lowest part of the body being already dead beforehand, the vital breath alone throbbed in the body, the Abbess is invited by the parents, not that she should visit the sick woman, but that by her prayers she should commend her passing to God.

[24] she heals. And when she had come, approaching the bed, which a multitude of neighbours had surrounded with lamentation, she ordered the covering to be taken away (for she was already covered with a linen cloth after the manner of corpses). Which being removed, touching her breast with her hand, she said: "Do not weep: for her soul is still in her"; and sending to the monastery, she ordered a small spoon, which she herself was wont to use at table, to be brought in haste, and blessed the milk that was brought her, and let a drop * fall with the spoon into the mouth of the woman lying there; by the touch of which her throat and vital parts within so recovered that at once she moved both her tongue to speak and her eyes to see: and the heavenly remedy came to her aid with such swiftness that on the following day, strengthened with food, she recovered her strength, and before the seventh day walked on her own feet to the monastery, from which she had before been carried in a litter. And she lived several years afterwards, and in the region of the Thuringians, ^m after the death of the venerable Virgin, remained sound and unharmed in God's service down to the times of Louis king of the Franks. ⁿ By such signs of virtues, therefore, faith kindled among the peoples was fervent, and, religion growing, there grew together with it also contempt of the world. For many noble and powerful men handed over their daughters to God, to serve in the monastery under perpetual virginity: and many matrons, leaving the secular manner of life, professed chastity, and, the sacred veil being received, chose the monastic life. To whom the holy Virgin furnished the way of coming to the height of virtues both by word and by example.

ANNOTATIONS.

Manuscripts, Cujus abscessum*.

others, quia and quod*.

others add & provida*.

others, parum and parcissime*.

Manuscripts, in quo*.

others, dormitat neque obdormiet*.

Manuscripts, ministra*.

Manuscripts, officio*.

the same, ex eis*.

others omit causam*.

others omit perrexit*.

others omit factum est*.

others, fulmina*.

Manuscripts, horrorem*.

the same, inferebant*.

the same, præsentiam*.

the same add cum conjugibus & liberis*.

others, twice, vocibus his*.

others, hemoroidas and emorroidas*.

Manuscripts, pectore*.

others, guttatim*.

PART III.

The Saint's last deeds; her death; her burial; her miracles after death.

St. Boniface, setting out for Frisia, to the bishop his successor Meanwhile the blessed archbishop Boniface, preparing to go into Frisia, and resolving to visit with a heavenly medicine a nation given over to pagan rites and lying sick with the disease of unbelief, called Lull ^a his disciple, who afterwards succeeded him in the episcopate, and committed to him each thing as he wished: and in general he enjoined upon him the care of the believing peoples, and urgency in preaching, and the building of the churches begun by himself in divers places: but in particular concerning the monastery of Fulda — which he had himself built, with the authority of Pope Zacharias ^b and with the favour of Carloman ^c king of Austrasia, in the vastest solitude of the forest of Buchonia ^d — he charged that, since the monks inhabiting that place were poor and had as yet no other services, but lived by the labour of their hands alone, he should bring the building of the church already founded there to the term of completion, and after his own death should transfer his body thither to be buried.

[26] And when he had given him these and other charges of this kind, commends St. Lioba; he summoned Lioba the virgin to him and exhorted her not to desert the land of her pilgrimage, nor to grow slack in the vigour of the purpose she had taken up: but daily to enlarge with all zeal the good which she had begun: saying to her that the frailty of the body was not to be considered, nor the long spaces of age to be reckoned, nor the end of virtue to be judged steep, nor the labour of arriving heavy: especially since the spaces of this time, compared with eternity, are short, and the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us. And he commended her to bishop Lull and to the seniors of the monks of the aforesaid monastery who were present, admonishing them to take care of her with honour and reverence: affirming that it was his will that after her death her body should be placed with his own bones in the same sepulchre, so that they might together await the day of the resurrection who in their life had served Christ with equal vow and zeal. Which being said, he gave her his cowl, again admonishing her and calling her to witness about not leaving the place of her pilgrimage. And thus, all things being prepared which were necessary on the journey, he went on into Frisia. Where, when he had acquired for Christ no small portion of that nation, he consummated his labours by a glorious martyrdom: ^e and his body was translated to Fulda, and there, as he had before charged, buried with worthy honour.

[27] who both by kings But the blessed virgin Lioba remained unmoved in the work of God, desiring to inherit not earth but heaven: whence she strove with all labour toward the end of her purpose. And a praiseworthy report of her was sown abroad, and the odour of her sanctity and wisdom drew the love of all toward her. For she was honourable to all who knew her, and to the kings themselves. For Pepin, king of the Franks, and his sons Charles and Carloman, ^f honoured her with all veneration: and above the rest chiefly Charles, who after his father's death, his brother being dead — with whom he too had reigned a few years — alone obtained the helm of the empire: a man truly most Christian, and truly most worthy of empire, and rightly to be preferred for fortitude and wisdom to all the former kings of that nation, who so loved the Catholic faith that, while he ruled over all, he venerated the servants and handmaids of God with a lofty humility. ^g He therefore received the religious Virgin of God, frequently invited to him, with great reverence, and honoured her with worthy gifts.

[28] and by the queen and the princes is greatly loved: But queen Hildegard ^h too venerated her with pure affection, and loved her as her own soul: and she wished her to remain constantly with her, that she might profit in the way of life by her words and examples. But she detested the tumult of the palace as a cup of poison. The princes loved her, the nobles welcomed her, the bishops embraced her with exultation. And because she was most learned in the Scriptures and provident in counsel, they conferred the word of life with her, and often treated of Ecclesiastical institutions. But she exercised all solicitude toward what she had begun, and, visiting the monasteries of maidens like a leader of spiritual recruits, called them on, vying with one another in their zeal, to the glory of perfection. Sometimes also she was wont to come to the monastery of the monks of Fulda for the sake of prayer, which neither before nor afterwards could ever be granted to any of the women: because to that place, from the time when it began to be inhabited by monks, entrance was denied to women. But so much was granted to her alone, for this reason, that the holy martyr Boniface had commended her to their seniors, and had decreed that her body should be buried there: whose coming, however, was regulated in this order. For, leaving her disciples and attendants in a neighbouring cell, she herself with one more mature than the rest entered the monastery only in the daytime, and after prayer, the conference with the brethren being completed, she always returned at night to her disciples, whom she had left in the cell.

[29] But when she had grown old and was already of a more advanced age, she lays down the care of the monasteries; queen Hildegard all the monasteries which she had under her care being set in order, by the counsel of bishop Lull she came to the place which is called Schonersheim, ⁱ four miles distant from the city of Mainz ^k toward the south-west: and there she abode with the handmaids of God dwelling with her, serving God night and day with fastings and prayers. Meanwhile, while king Charles was staying in the palace of Aachen, ^l queen Hildegard sent to her, beseeching that she would not find it burdensome to come to her. For she desired to see her before she should depart from the body. Which, although she bore it ill, she nevertheless consented to on account of their old familiarity. She went on therefore, and, when she had been received * by the queen with the rejoicing that was customary, as soon as she heard the reasons for which she had been invited, she asked leave to return. And when she was asked the more earnestly to remain there some days, she refused, and rushed upon her friend more affectionately than usual, kissing her mouth, forehead and eyes, clinging in embraces, and left her greeted with words of this kind: "Farewell for ever, my lady and most beloved sister: farewell, precious portion of my soul: may Christ our creator and redeemer grant that we may see one another without confusion on the day of judgment: for the rest, in this light we shall never from this day enjoy the sight of one another."

[30] She returned therefore to the monastery, and after a few days, seized with a bodily indisposition, she visits for the last time; falls sick, dies, and is buried at Fulda; she fell into bed. And when, the languor growing heavier, she perceived that the time of her falling asleep was at hand, she called Torabert, a venerable priest, English by nation, who, cleaving to her unceasingly, always served her with reverence and love: and, having received the viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ, she put off the man, and with joy restored to her Creator, clean and unstained, the soul which he had given. And she died in the month of September, on the fourth of the Kalends of October, ^m and her body, taken up by the monks of Fulda, with a train of noble persons they reverently translated to their own monastery. And so their seniors remembered that St. Boniface had said that it was his will that her body should be placed with his own bones: but because they feared to open the holy sepulchre of the blessed martyr, taking counsel they buried it at the northern side of the altar which the holy martyr Boniface himself had built and dedicated in honour of the Lord our Saviour and of his holy twelve Apostles. But after not a few years, when the church had been built more augustly by the governors of that place, and was being prepared for its future consecration, abbot Eigil, with the leave of archbishop Aistulph, ⁿ translated her bones and placed them in the Southern porch beside the memorial of St. Ignatius the martyr: where, laid in the tomb, she lives * in miracles and in glory. ^o For many full of faith have often experienced divine benefits at her tomb: of which some, which at present come to mind, I have taken care to lay open soberly and faithfully to my readers.

[31] For a certain man had been bound with iron rings about his arms upon the bare body so tightly [p] where by miracles that on either side the flesh, growing over, almost covered the iron. Of which one had already before fallen from the other arm, whose trace a scar drawn over it recorded * by a manifest sign. He therefore, coming into the church, went round the memorials of the Saints at each altar in prayer. And when he had come to the sepulchre of the holy Virgin, and was applying himself there to prayer, a certain hidden force stretched the iron ring, the rivets being driven out, and cast it from his arm with no little blood. But he, rejoicing and exulting, rendered thanks to God, who had deigned, through the merits of the blessed Virgin, to loose him whom on account of his sins iron bonds had bound down to that day.

[32] her sanctity The other [q] was from Spain: who, his sins requiring it, was condemned to such a punishment that he was horribly shaken with a trembling of all his limbs. The trouble of which affliction, as he himself related, he contracted in the river Ebro. Not enduring the eyes of his fellow-citizens in this deformity, wherever it seemed good to him to go, he wandered through the various places of the Saints. And so, all Gaul and Italy having been traversed, he entered Germany. Where, when he had gone to several monasteries for the sake of prayer, he came to Fulda, and stayed there three days, received into the hospice of pilgrims, frequenting the church and praying that God would now be appeased toward him and would restore his former health. And when on the third day he had entered the oratory, going round all the altars in prayer, he came after the custom to the memorial of the holy Virgin, and, prayer being completed there, the Western crypt, above which the body of St. Boniface the martyr rests,

entered, and prostrate in prayer lay most like one sleeping, yet not trembling, as he was wont to do even in his sleep. Seeing this, the venerable man Firmadus, presbyter and monk, who was sitting there because of his infirmity and could not stand, was astonished, and forbade certain men who wished to lift him up, judging rather that the outcome of the matter ought to be awaited.

[33] it is illustrated, Meanwhile the man suddenly rose, and was not trembling, because he had been healed. Being therefore questioned by the presbyter (since he had knowledge of his tongue, because he was an Italian), he related that in an ecstasy of mind he had seen a man of venerable white hair, clothed in a pontifical stole, whom a certain girl accompanied in the habit of a nun: who took hold of him and raised him up, and offered him to the pontiff to be blessed. And when the pontiff impressed upon his breast the sign of the Cross of Christ, a bird black as could be, like a blackbird, came forth out of his bosom through the opening of his tunic, and as soon as it touched the ground was turned into a hen; and thereafter, transformed into the shape of a deformed and most hideous little man, went out of the crypt by the steps of the northern entrance. But that the prayers and merits of the holy Virgin and of the blessed martyr obtained this healing from the Lord, no Christian may lawfully doubt. For they, resting though not in one tomb yet in one place, with that same loving-kindness by which, while they lived together in the flesh, they were accustomed to succour the wretched, now abiding in heavenly brightness with Christ, do not cease to extend their patronage to those who seek their intercession. Many other signs indeed has God often wrought through the prayers of the holy Virgin, which, lest I weary the reader by the length of the narration, I forbear to pursue. But these two, because very many of the brethren still living testify in widely-current report that they saw them, and I myself was present with them at the time when they occurred, I have written down for certainty's sake, to the praise and glory of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who glorifies those that glorify him, and bestows on those that serve him not only the kingdoms of heaven, but even in this world the nobility of honour: to whom be glory with the Father and with the Holy Spirit through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

p. This was the penalty for the crime committed, and indeed for a homicide perpetrated upon a kinsman. There deserves to be heard here an anonymous author of the same ninth century in the Acts of St. Florentius, presbyter and confessor, in our vol. 6 of September, page 431: By ancient custom, therefore, the usage has grown up in the parts of inner France even to this day, that whosoever shall have cut the throat of a nearer kinsman of his with the sword, and afterwards, led by penitence, shall have reported the crime of the deed committed to the pontiff (that is, to the bishop, as is clear from what follows), iron bonds are, by the decree of that same pontiff, to be fashioned out of that very sword, and the neck of the sinner, his belly Note: read: belly and his arms are to be tightly bound with those same iron fetters; and thus let him be driven from his own fatherland and his ancestral soil: meanwhile, until the divine mercy shall command those same bonds to be loosed, let him be compelled to journey abroad, first to Rome, and thereafter through the various places of the Saints, imploring pardon for his crime. Then there is subjoined the example of a man who, after he had for a long time wandered about, thus bound for a crime of this kind, visiting various monasteries of the Saints, was at length miraculously loosed at the tomb of the said St. Florentius.

q. The following miracle is omitted in the Ms. of Gamans through the mere drowsiness of the copyist; and this I conjecture from the fact that he prefixed its title to the preceding miracle.

* elsewhere it adds: to himself

* Mss. especially

* elsewhere "to the monastery" is wanting

* elsewhere: thither

* Mss. of the age

* elsewhere: among the Saints

* elsewhere "whence" is wanting

* Mss. adds: likewise

* elsewhere "he was" is wanting

* elsewhere: of October

* elsewhere it adds: of Boniface

* elsewhere: they live

* elsewhere: he preferred