ON S. HELMTRUDE THE RECLUSE, IN THE PADERBORN DIOCESE OF WESTPHALIA.
CENT. X OR XI.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Helmtrudis, Recluse in the Paderborn Diocese of Westphalia (S.)
G. H.
Herisia, commonly Herse, by a very ancient College of Canoness Virgins, after the year DCCCLXXV, The Saint born at Herisia founded, a notable place, and once adorned with many Relics of Saints, is described by several on XX May, where of S. Saturnina the Virgin and Martyr, the old Patroness there, is treated. Of the same, in a certain old Appendix of the Ursuline Acts in Crombach, thus is read, so that at the same time the notice of the same Saint seems to us to be given, of whom we proposed to treat in the title: There is a place in Saxony (Lower namely, embracing all Westphalia) Herse, and there even today a glorious congregation of Sanctimonial women, where a certain Recluse, of incomparable life and special merit, Helendruda, born and nourished, the course of most holy life completed, now corporeally rests in peace; although some part of her last time on a mountain, on which the city Iburg, of the Osnabrück diocese, is situated, in the same sanctity she passed. and there buried she shines with miracles. Of her life and sanctity so many are witnesses, as either today are at Herse Sanctimonials, or thence have been: and most truly; as God with the words of men assenting. For even today, at her tomb, frequently is restored light to the blind, gait to the lame, the sick to the use of life are restored, and those possessed by unclean spirits are cleansed.
[2] So he, not indeed a most ancient writer, and who before not many centuries lived, she is inscribed in the Calendar of Paderborn. in the judgment of Crombach in the Ursuline Vindicia p. 14; an apt witness however of the cult of S. Helendruda (as he himself calls her) among the Herisians most known in his time. Wherefore I cannot doubt, that she herself it is, whose name on this day with the names of SS. Cantius, Cantianus, Cantianilla, and Petronilla, our Joannes Gamansius found in the same old hand, in a very ancient, as he says, and notable parchment Calendar of the Cathedral Library of Paderborn, thus written, Helmtruth, Handmaid of God and Recluse; in the same manner namely, by which elsewhere in the same Calendar, with the proper Patrons of the diocese concurring, their names to the names of old Saints and others common are ascribed, as he says: her bones seem to have been scattered by heretics. wherefore he does not doubt to write her Saint absolutely, in his Notes to the aforesaid Calendar. Now that of her no veneration among the Herisians, perhaps not even memory remains, seems to have been done by the war of Christian, heretical Duke of Brunswick, in which the Relics of the temple, with tombs overturned, through the whole pavement were dispersed, nor without confusion by the holy Virgins again were collected; unless perchance by some earlier devastation of the monastery the sepulchre of Helmtrudis happened to be violated, and elsewhere her body to be removed or dispersed.
[3] Appearing to her S. Cordula the Ursuline, To her, as the same Ursuline Appendix has, with a long series of times, after the Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins, elapsed, appeared in vision S. Cordula; and her, as if her tent-companion, whether she recognized her, asked. She however, although holy and in mind now next to God, yet still corruptible, and as if corruption not bearing incorruption, of divine beauty and gravity the person abhorred: for the Virgin of God beyond all human craft was clothed marvelously, a crown intertwined with lilies and roses alternating bearing on her head. The Handmaid of God therefore, breathing from fear, unworthy of the Majesty's acknowledgment to be replied; When I, she said, am subject to the laws of carnal sin; you however, now into the order of the Heavenly assumed, are alien from all corruption. Then she, You should know, said, me to have been one of the sacred number of Cologne Virgins; who, with them in the contest of Christ triumphing, one night I survived; and the following day, desirous of death, of my own accord I offered myself to the executioners; and so in Christ dying, neither did I desert my Sisters, nor did I lose the social crown of Martyrdom. she asks and obtains a proper feast at Cologne. Therefore when of those most glorious passage day with due now devotion all Cologne venerates, of my name not even brief still recollection is held. Hence now coming I enjoin to you this of obedience, that to the Sanctimonial women, devoutly watching at our bodies, you announce from me; that, when of my Sisters' triumphal glory they celebrate, on the next day to me also something of veneration they pay: because by no means is it expedient for them, that among all who there rest, of my name only the reverence be none. And when she inquired of her name, she was ordered by the Virgin to behold her brow, that this name to her was indubitably she might know, which there she found engraved. She obeyed, saw, and read; and with distinct syllables, Cordula, distinctly written she found. The Handmaid of God therefore reported to the Sanctimonial women the divine oracle; and was believed and then established, that when of the Holy Virgins the solemnity is held, the next day to S. Cordula's praises be devoted.
[4] B. Imadus, after the year MLII Bishop of Paderborn, left to his Church a Martyrology augmented by his proper study, where, on this last of May, is prescribed to be made the Commemoration of Hildruda, she is inscribed in the Martyrology, Handmaid of God and at Herisia Recluse, to whom was revealed S. Cordula. So one and the same name is variously written, and her cult some more and more is confirmed; even if neither Saint nor Blessed title is ascribed. She is venerated S. Cordula on XXII October, on which day more is to be treated of her: meanwhile from Crombach p. 498 I note, that Bruno II, Archbishop of Cologne, consecrated some altar of S. Cordula, in the year MCXXXV, and of the festivity, as already at that time, and seems to have lived in the 10th or 11th century. distinct from the previous day, makes mention. If this is so, it seems altogether that Helmtrudis, or (as others write) Helintrudis or Helendrudis, lived in the X or XI century; of whom would that more had been written, and at some time could be brought into light. Herself meanwhile here placed, can be expunged, what in the order of the Praetermitted of her we wrote, as more fully treating of her on the day of S. Cordula in the month of October.