ON SAINT AYA THE COUNTESS AT MONS IN HAINAUT IN BELGIUM.
CENTURY 7.
LifeAya the Countess, at Mons in Hainaut, in Belgium (Saint)
By G. H.
CHAPTER I.
Sacred cult. Lessons recited at Matins.
Among the Martyrologists John Molanus first, most diligent investigator of the ancient veneration of the Saints, mentions this holy Matron. He in the first edition of Usuard of the year 1568, without any mention of Aya, refers on the day June 23 her husband Hidulphus, Duke of Lotharingia, at Binche. But in the second and third edition of the same Usuard, Memory in the Calendars, of the years 1573 and 1583 adorned, on this day April 18 at the end he added this: "At Mons, of Aya the Countess of Hainaut, famous both by blood and life, whose memory the Church of Mons makes in the Litanies." The same Molanus in the Indiculus of the Saints of Belgium, published at the end of the said Martyrology, "Aya," he says, "is joined with her husband Saint Hidulphus." In his eulogy then he adds this: "Mention is made of him, Hidulphus, in the Annals of Hainaut, and of his wife Aya, who is buried at Mons in Hainaut, but not elevated. Yet she is invoked in the Litanies of the Mons Church." These same things Arnold Wion copied thence in his Monastic Martyrology on this April 18. The Litanies of the Mons Church that Molanus indicates exist with the proper Offices of the Saints of the Mons Church of Saint Waldetrude printed at Douai in the year 1625, Name in the Litanies. under this title, "Old Litanies of the Mons Church"; and in them are invoked Saint Dominic and Saint Francis, and after the holy Confessors are referred Saint Mary Magdalen, Saint Mary the Egyptian, Saint Waldetrude, Saint Aldegundis, Saint Gertrude, Saint Aya, and then other women up to twenty-nine.
[2] The relics visited and approved. Saint Aya's relics, as Arnold Rayssius relates in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum p. 546, "are now with the devotion and concourse of the faithful piously venerated: and lately by the most Reverend Lord Francis Buisseret Bishop of Namur, afterwards Archbishop of Cambrai, were visited and approved." The said Francis was created Bishop of Namur in 1602, and in the following year consecrated on February 10. Then in the next year he died on the second day of May. In the old Breviary according to the use of the Church of Saint Waldetrude of Mons, which on parchment is found written in the Jesuit library of Lille, is prescribed on this day the ecclesiastical Office of Saint Ursmar the Bishop, without any mention of Saint Aya. But Romanus Chocquet, of whom below, brings forward a statute made in 1314 with the consent of the Bishop of Cambrai (who then was Peter of Mirapice) in the Chapter, by which with other Saints the cult of Saint Aya is prescribed by semidouble rite and a lesson to be recited concerning widows: "Who shall find a valiant woman?"
[3] Ecclesiastical Office. This cult, if perhaps by the lapse of time it had been omitted, after her sacred Relics were approved was renewed and augmented with an Ecclesiastical Office indicted under double rite, and with proper Lessons prescribed in the second Nocturn at Matins to be recited, which formerly with the proper Oration were wont to be read, the said Romanus Chocquet asserts. In the third Nocturn is read the Homily of Saint Gregory on the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden," and the ninth Lesson is of Ursmar, of whom also at the first Vespers and Lauds is a Commemoration. These Lessons exist with the Oration among the proper Offices of the particular Saints of the noble collegiate Church of Saint Waldetrude of the town of Mons, conformed to the norm of the Roman Breviary, and first examined and approved by the Doctors of sacred Theology of the University of Douai: which afterwards in 1625 on September 3 Francis Vander Burch Archbishop of Cambrai ratified, and that both privately and publicly by ecclesiastical persons, both of the aforesaid Chapter and others of that diocese, they be recited, sung, celebrated, and for the convenience and use of the same persons separately from the Roman Breviary be printed freely and lawfully, he granted and indulged. The prescribed Oration is this: "Almighty eternal God, Oration show your mercy to your suppliants, that we, who distrust the quality of our merits, by the intercession of your chosen Blessed Aya, may not feel your judgment, but your indulgence. Through our Lord." These are the Lessons. Lessons.
[4] Blessed Aya, as famous by blood as by life, was joined in marriage to a noble and strenuous man in arms, Saint Hidulf Duke of Lobbes, who was one of the nobles and greater ones of the kingdom of Lotharingia, under Prince Pippin. His sacred body was buried at Lobbes, from which place, together with seven other bodies of Saints, it was translated to Binche. To this Aya her kinswoman Donated by Saint Waldetrude, Blessed Waldetrude, seeing her sons and daughters despise earthly things and yearn for heavenly, relinquished the principality of the Duchy, which by paternal right had come to her. Who in turn, and in turn by Saint Aya. that she might show herself not ungrateful to God and Blessed Waldetrude, gave her own allodia, Comas, Nimy, and Brany Willotica, to the church of Blessed Waldetrude, with all freedom, burial at Mons: and in the church of the same city of Mons chose her burial: where also her sacred Relics, long ago elevated from the earth, by the devotion and concourse of the faithful are piously venerated: and lately were visited by the most Reverend Lord Bishop of Namur, who afterwards was Archbishop of Cambrai. Moreover, the miracle which happened by reason of the aforesaid donation is not to be passed over in silence. With Blessed Aya deceased, many years after her decease, certain wicked men presumed to invade and usurp those allodia, which she herself had bestowed on the church of Saint Waldetrude, saying that they belonged to them by hereditary and relationship right. After a long dispute between the church and them, the convent of that church not distrusting its right, these decided by her long dead, which had placed its hope in the Lord, committed the whole matter to the testimony of Saint Aya, who now many years had lain buried there. Who from her tomb, with both parties hearing, testified that she had justly donated those allodia to the church of Saint Waldetrude, and held her donation ratified. And so all those allodia the same church peacefully possessed, until the greater part of Brany Willotica by exchange came to the Count of Hainaut.
CHAPTER II.
Life written in French. Various things related from it.
[5] Romanus Chocquet, of the Order of Friars Recollects of Saint Francis, of the Province of Saint Andrew, to further promote the honor and veneration of Saint Aya, expounded her Life at length in 18 chapters, published at Mons in Hainaut in 1640 in French; and in the first chapter writes her born of father Brunulphus, second-born son of Walbert III, Prince of superior virtue, from the stock of Kings Pharamund and Clodio. The noble ancestry of Saint Aya Her mother he calls Lady Uraia, daughter of the Count of Boulogne above the sea. Of this family we have treated at the Life of Blessed Ida Countess of Boulogne on April 13, but of the first Kings of the Franks at the Life of Saint Sigebert on the Kalends of February: but nothing hitherto by which we might confirm the said genealogy of Saint Aya could we find. kinswoman of Saint Waldetrude. Then she is handed down to have been cousin of Saints Waldetrude and Aldegundis, as though their parent Walbert IV was the firstborn brother of the above-said Brunulphus, father of Saint Aya. The Life of Saint Aldegundis we gave on January 30, and of Saint Waldetrude on April 9, in which Saint Hidulf is said through his wife to have been her close relative. Of this one also the Life was written by Philip Harveng Abbot of Good Hope, where about the nobility of lineage of the parents and of the Saint of Belgium, who flourished in the 7th century of Christ, he inserts very many things which can be seen in him.
[6] The author of the Life in the four following chapters describes the various virtues exercised in her youth, various virtues. and especially fasts, abstinences and similar bodily afflictions and mortifications, also great humility of mind and contempt of self, and singular piety and mercy toward the poor, with an image added of her giving alms to a poor man; he added also the insignia on one side of the Dukes of Lotharingia, on the other of the Counts of Hainaut, and this inscription is added below: "Saint Agia, or Aia, Duchess of Lotharingia, Countess of Hainaut etc. Wife of Saint Hidulf Duke of Lobbes, lived in the times of Dagobert King of the Franks." But what then was Lotharingia? whose name first began to be heard after some centuries from the death of Saint Aya, Whether Lotharingia was then known who, with Lothair the Younger dead, in the division of that kingdom between Charles the Bald and Louis the King of Germany, was first called the kingdom of Lothar—commonly Lotherijck; whence later generations formed the name of Lotharingia. In the same way many centuries after Saint Aya's death the name of Hainaut began to be heard, and the names of Hainaut and in the said division it was called Hanoium: and thus in the diploma of Louis King of Germany given in the year 908, which Chapeavillus in volume 1 of the Res Leodienses recites, Sigehard is named Count of Hainuensis: and Baldric in book 1 of the Cambrai Chronicle chapter 73 mentions Amulricus the Count from the district of Hainaut, who had married the wife of Isaac Count of Cambrai. Thus many formerly powerful men through the tract of Hainaut, and in other provinces, used the title of Counts or even of Dukes. That however the insignia are added, which were then nowhere employed, can be excused by the common license of painters, so that their great nobility might be indicated.
[7] The author of the Life in chapters 6 and 7 describes the marriage of Saint Aya with Saint Hidulf and the holy life of these spouses, as though through its whole course they preserved chastity, with the authority adduced of Thomas Gozee Doctor of Louvain, Marriage. who in the Notes on the life of Blessed Walbert and Bertilia published in 1553, related that some think and assert this; and specifically Jerome Mord, a Religious of Villars, in his Annals attributes to them a double crown, namely of virginity and of marriage. Hence with the Annals of James of Guise and the Lobbes monastery noted in the margin, but the place not indicated, the author of the Life asserts, that these two Saints, as soon as they were wed, had no other thoughts, than to constitute Christ the heir in his poor. Wherefore they made themselves father and mother and nurturers of the servants and handmaids of Christ, thinking their Duchies, Counties, and Baronies would be monasteries; their hospitals, their dominions; Religious of each sex, their legitimate heirs; and their poor and orphans, their infants and children. Which the author in chapter 8 again confirms, where he relates them to have been separated by mutual consent, and from the Lobbes Chronicle alleges this: "In the year seven hundred seven, Hidulphus the Duke died at Lobbes. He under Blessed Ursmar enclosed his own things and himself in the Lobbes place." But these things are not in our double copy of the Lobbes Chronicle, nor in the same Chronicle published in volume 6 of the Spicilegium of Achery, but in chapter 2 is handed down, "Saint Ursmar received the same monastery to be ruled through the intervention of Hidulfus, who was one of the nobles of the greater kingdom." Saint Ursmar was however made Abbot in the year 698, died in the year 713 on this April 18, as from the life already related is clear.
[8] The author of the life in the same chapter 8, from Thomas Gozee's Annotations, adds this: Riches obtained from the husband's death. "What and how great were Hidulf's riches one can even now see. For whatever was theirs, this Saint Aya, surviving the said husband, gave all to the Church of Saint Waldetrude. She then gave the whole patrimony for the use of the holy Virgins of Saint Waldetrude: the ornaments which she had royal, she gave to the beauty of the churches; but the estates and infinite possessions, by public donation she bestowed for the work of those serving in the basilica then of Saint Peter, now of Waldetrude; keeping nothing for herself except the cheap garment of the nuns of the Order of Saint Benedict." The author then explains in chapters 9 and 10 how Saint Aya, the pomp of the world left behind, entered the sacred College of Canonesses, and exercised herself in every kind of virtue; worthy, to succeed Saint Waldetrude after her death in the rule of the Parthenon; as he continues in chapters 11 and 12, where he writes that she had familiar conversation with the Angels; and therefore in a second image with an Angel she is depicted in the garment of Canonesses, with this inscription: "Saint Aya or Agia Canoness first, then Abbess of the most noble College of Saint Waldetrude at Mons in Hainaut: died full of merits and miracles about the year 730 on April 18": and in chapter 13 he asserts this is the common opinion. But if she reached the year 730, she seems to have reached quite a great old age. It is wondrous however that in the proper Lessons no mention is made of cenobitic life and rule, if any foundation for asserting it is held in the ancient documents, or from a sufficiently solid tradition.
[9] In chapters 14 and 15 her cult and veneration is treated, with the testimonies of Molanus, Wion, and others adduced. In whose place from the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay we give this eulogy, not without errors conceived in this way. "Likewise at Mons in Hainaut, then under the Presulate of Noyon (correct: under the presulate of Cambrai) the deposition of Saint Aya the Countess, a woman of admirable piety and charity, who was wife of Blessed Hidulf Toparch of Lobbes, entering with him upon the plan of dedicating herself to Christ, when he professing the religious life, shining in the splendor of his merits, had been made Abbot and Bishop of the same place; she herself entering the monastery of Castrilocum, which her cousin Blessed Waldetrude had founded, not only with revenue increased, but also illustrated with the ornaments of extraordinary virtue: and so intent on pious works, and persevering in the holy religious purpose, immaculate from this world she rendered her soul to God. Whose memory the Mons Church cultivates, and is accustomed to invoke her help in Litanies." Thus Saussay, who wrote the last parts about Saint Aya copied from Molanus: the earlier parts about Saint Hildulf drew from Trithemius, On the Illustrious Men of the Order of Saint Benedict book 3 chapter 303 and book 4 chapter 232; where is said, "Hildulphus, from Duke a monk of Lobbes, and afterwards Abbot there and finally Bishop of Lobbes." But Trithemius is argued guilty of error in the Notes on the Natalities of the Saints of Belgium of Molanus, in the Douai edition of 1616. Which will be shown at greater length on his natal day.
[10] Privilege of Philip the Good. What above in the Lessons is referred as the donation of the Duchy left by Saint Waldetrude to her kinswoman Aya, and her mutual liberal offering of her allodia, the same is contained in the author of the Life in the Privilege of Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy signed on January 14 of the year 1458: the allodia in French are thus brought forth: "Quesme, Nimy, Masieres, and Braine la Wihotte," where also is said among other sacred bodies to be preserved the body of Saint Aya, of which in chapter 16 that ancient testimony is brought forth in these words: "The whole treasury of Saint Waldetrude three times was reduced to ashes, Relics saved from the fire. and very many relics of Saints, and among the principal ones of Saint Aya, were burned with the reliquary." The year of that last fire to have been the twelfth above a thousand and a hundred the same author asserts, and that a great part of the relics of Saint Aya was by God's singular providence saved.
CHAPTER III.
The patronage of Saint Aya in lawsuits, various graces. Relics and cult at Antwerp and Brussels.
[11] The often-cited French Life is closed with that notable miracle, in which Saint Aya is said to have spoken from the very sepulchre, and testified that she had donated her allodia to the church of Saint Waldetrude; She is venerated as patroness in lawsuits, as also James of Guise relates in part 2 of the Hainault History book 11 chapter 4, and is confirmed in the Lessons premised. For that reason because the action, brought against the Chapter by adversaries, is believed to have been terminated; therefore the Blessed one began to be held as Patroness of those whose just causes are in danger under the doubtful or long discussion of forensic contentions; or the necessary documents for proving justice, unhappily lost, or fraudulently withdrawn, are not hoped able to be recovered by human diligence. Nor in vain: for effective help many have felt and feel, afterwards testified gratitude, by having a solemn Mass sung in honor of the Saint helper: as was testified to us by Lady Margaret of Jausse, called of Mastaing, one of the principal and senior members of the Chapter, by her letter written on this matter on November 13, 1671, in which she expressed various other things, among all especially certain favors referred to the patronage of Blessed Aya by pious people of Mons, from the year 1620, in which by the multiplication of such benefits the affection of devotion toward the Blessed one was warmed up again.
[12] "A certain one," she says, "religious of the Order of Minims asserted to me, and she has bestowed various graces upon various ones, that to his mother, for twenty years failing with a hectic consumption, the Blessed one had appeared and said, that she should be of good cheer, because she would come shortly, and would take her to herself, because she had always been singularly devoted to her; and within a week she expired. The same grace deserved a certain gate-keeper of this city, consumed by a similar wasting, and similarly devoted to Blessed Aya: who manifesting herself to him said, that he should dispose himself for death, through which from all trouble he would soon be freed. A certain citizen of this city of Mons, already about to lose his case, on account of a certain instrument lost, and through all the chests vainly sought, the loss; vowed eight continuous Masses to be had sung in the chapel of Saint Aya, and found the desired document on a certain board, where it was known nothing of this kind had been placed. Another in a like case, similarly promised some sacrifices to be had in the aforesaid place: and soon entered the house a little boy, who what was sought on a staff as a banner was carrying singing. I know a person, singularly devoted to the Blessed one, whose throat an angina so tightened once and again, that she was awaiting the hand and iron of the surgeon on the following day: who invoking the Blessed one's help felt it ready; after a short sleep she was free from every evil: and this happened in the seventieth year of this century. I know another, who from an incurable disease also suffering intolerable torments, merited health, vowing an Octave of Masses, with a sacred ex-voto to be hung at the Blessed one's altar."
[13] And these and other things, although before sacred judges not yet legitimately testified and proved, Relics brought to Antwerp. but simply believed in the good faith of those reporting, were sufficiently effective, that in their necessities many ran to Blessed Aya; nor were there lacking who, having experienced her propitious at Mons to themselves or their own, also to outsiders propagated so praiseworthy a religion. Of these one was Lady Anna Breyel, daughter of a senatorial man, a virgin devoted to God, who what she sought and obtained the most Reverend our Bishop of Antwerp proved by this instrument. "Zacharias Maes, Archpresbyter of Mons, with legitimate testimony, and Parish priest of Saint Elizabeth there, to all who will look on these present, greetings in the Lord. Since the most illustrious Lady of Mastaing, Canoness Prior of the Chapter of Saint Waldetrude, had very much insisted with us, that we should be willing to open the reliquary of St. Aya's relics, and to extract from it some portion, for consigning to some pious person of Antwerp, so that she might expose it there to the veneration of the faithful with the Superiors' permission; wishing to yield to the prayers of the aforesaid Lady, we procured for ourselves legitimate authorization from the Most Reverend Lords Vicars General of the vacant Archiepiscopal See, which was given on the 22nd day of April, 1669, provided two Priests should be joined. And the Reverend Lords F. de la Barre called de Manissart and P. Gualtier, Apostolic Notary, were called: in whose presence we opened the aforesaid reliquary, and from it we extracted three particles, which we caused to coalesce into one, trusting that the aforesaid Lady, by her singular zeal and devotion, will procure that they be held in due honor. All which things above said we attest to be most true, and for making faith I have given these present letters, signed by my own hand and those of the aforesaid Priests, and fortified with our seal. At Mons in Hainaut, April 29, in the year of recovered salvation 1669. Z. Maes, Dean. F. de la Barre de Manissart. P. Gualtier, notary. To these is subjoined the approbation of Ambrose Capello, Bishop of Antwerp, in these words: and with the approbation in the year 1669. "We grant that the aforesaid Relics of St. Aya may be exposed in our diocese of Antwerp to the public veneration of the faithful. Given at Antwerp, July 23, 1669."
[14] There is at Antwerp one of the larger streets, called Cæsarea; in which the sodality of Cloth-shearers has a chapel, in the chapel of the Cæsarea Street. in its own manner elevated and spacious, drawn up from the foundations with squared stone, where the sacred and miraculous image of the Virgin Mother of God, brought within the walls from the suburban fields at the time of the Dutch wars, had hospitality for very many years; and with frequent benefits so kindled the minds not only of neighbors but also of citizens placed farther off, to invoke there with the highest confidence of obtaining their vow the help of the Mother of God; that with peace restored to the Brabant fields, when the aforesaid image was carried back to its place, which is called the field of St. Willibrord, with alms eagerly contributed for retaining the well-established religious observance there, it came about that in a short time that little chapel was much more adorned and more frequented than before; and more so after the pious Priest Lord Peter de Louwe presides there, every year finding new arguments by which he proves his own piety and stirs up another's, they are honored. both toward the chief Patroness of the place, Mary the Virgin, and toward six other illustrious Saints, to be invoked in various bodily or spiritual necessities. But so that one of them might be Blessed Aya, the mentioned Relics were brought into the aforesaid chapel, and her image there set forth and a feast instituted, as of the Patroness in difficult Lawsuits, as can be seen in the little books and images published by the aforementioned Lord Peter, most zealous in this part to increase divine honor.
[15] This example of the Antwerpians also moved the people of Brussels, where not long ago two Virgins devoted to God, Margareta de Nymay and Anna du Bois, piously affected toward St. Aya herself, Others brought to Brussels in the year 1673 obtained in the year 1673 the Relics of St. Aya, fortified with the seal of Ladislaus Jonnaert, Archbishop and Duke of Cambrai, which the same Prelate attested on September 23 had been taken from her reliquary, kept in the illustrious and collegiate church of St. Waldetrude at Mons. When Alphonsus de Berghes, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Archbishop of Mechelen, had recognized these presented to him on October 9, he approved the same in the tenor of the following letters. "We make known that we, on the day of the date of these present, opened a small wooden pyx, faithfully sent from Mons, and in it found the Relics of St. Aya, according to the testimonial letters of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Archbishop of Cambrai, fastened together with these of ours. Which relics we placed and enclosed in another round pyx, and with the ordinary approving skillfully made of copper and gilded, with crystal shining forth, fastened upon red silk and secured with our seal; and these, as true and legal Relics of the aforesaid St. Aya, with observance of those things which are to be observed from the sacred Council of Trent, we recognized and approved, and also decreed that they can be exposed to the public veneration of the faithful of Christ in our diocese, and by the tenor of these we decree it: granting to all and each of the faithful of both sexes devoutly visiting the said Relics, and pouring forth pious prayers before them in the spirit of humility and contrite heart, or reciting five times the Pater and Ave, according to the intention of the Church and for averting the evils hanging over our country, on the very feast of the said St. Aya each year, on the 18th day of April recurring, and through her whole Octave, and on the first weekdays of each month, forty days of true Indulgence, in the form customary in the church.
[16] solemnly exposed in the year 1674 The aforesaid two Virgins had taken care, before these things were being done about the Relics, on the very natal day of St. Aya, that her beautiful image should be exposed in the parish church of the Mother of God, called the Chapel of St. Mary: but having obtained the very relics and the permission to expose them, as said, they gave the beginning of a greater solemnity, which was performed in this very year 1674, with the annual feast of the Saint recurring: through which first they were exposed upon an altar erected for this purpose in the middle of the church and notably adorned; where they also stood for the whole octave, inserted in the gilded base of a gilded and elegant statue, representing the often-named Saint. There was added to the devotion and concourse of the faithful a plenary Indulgence, obtained from Pope Clement X; likewise a little book about the life and miracles of St. Aya was published there, and dedicated to the wife of Prince Vaudemont; who, a most religious matron, joined through marriage to the Lotharingian House, had believed it to be her duty toward that Saint (as she is now everywhere called) Duchess of Lotharingia, to honor with her presence the first act of exposing the Relics. Further, we gratefully acknowledge that we have received a copy of the said little book and the rest of the knowledge of the matter hitherto narrated from R. P. Fr. Joseph Ignatius a S. Antonio, a Discalced Carmelite, then present at Brussels when these things were happening, and with his own hand describing the diplomas kindly shown by the Pastor of the aforementioned church.