ON ST. LUTRUDIS, VIRGIN, IN THE DIOCESE OF CHÂLONS IN FRENCH CHAMPAGNE.
In the VI century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Her memory in the Calendars; the translation of her body; relics honored in various places; her Acts.
Lutrudis, virgin, in the diocese of Châlons in French Champagne (S.)
BY J. P.
The memory of St. Lutrudis, whose name various writers render variously — The Saint's memory in the more recent Calendars; for some write Luitrudis, others Lintrudis, others otherwise — I do not find inserted except in some Additions to Usuard, and in the more recent Calendars; but constantly at the present day. The Matric-Cartus-Utrecht codex announces her thus: Of Lintrudis, virgin; the Lübeck-Cologne edition: On the same day, of saint Lutrudis, virgin; Grevenus: Of Lutrudis, virgin; Molanus: At Corbie, of Lutrudis, virgin and nun. Our manuscript Florarium: Likewise of S. Lintrudis, virgin; she advanced always from good to better. To these are added the general Catalogue of Ferrari, the German Martyrology, and most of the Calendars of the Order of St. Benedict, in which, as was done by Molanus, she is everywhere ascribed to Corbie and called a sanctimonialis or nun. With this same title Saussay marks her in the Gallican Martyrology; while Arthur in his Gynæceum calls her a Benedictine Virgin; but each more rightly places her birthday in the field or territory of Châlons.
[2] she was not a nun; I readily perceive why others have ascribed her to Corbie; but there is nothing to persuade us that she was a nun in the strict sense, or a religious or monastic woman, much less a Benedictine: for as we observed in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Pusinna the virgin, one of the six sisters of St. Lutrudis, volume III of April, page 165, and in volume III of September in the Annotations to the Acts of St. Alpinus, bishop of Châlons, the biographers say indeed that those seven virgins bound themselves by a vow of virginity and received the veil from St. Alpinus; nay, those same biographers use here and there the words Sanctimoniales, Rule, nuns; but in the rest they signify more clearly that they were not bound by monastic laws and vows, but lived piously in their father's house until the death of both parents, then departed to the dwellings devolved upon them by inheritance, and there passed the remainder of their life in holiness. These things will appear more clearly in the Acts of St. Lutrudis, in which nothing occurs from which you might elicit a monastic life.
[3] Of the Saint's native country, of her parents and sisters, of the century the place of her death in the diocese of Châlons. in which she lived, and of other things, there is no need to treat particularly here; for most are sufficiently explained in her Acts to be mentioned below, and what things seem doubtful have partly been already discussed in the Acts of St. Pusinna mentioned above, as also in the Acts of St. Hoyldis, another of her sisters, in the same volume III of April, pages 773 and following, and partly may be indicated and elucidated in a few words in the Annotations. The place of the Saint's death I have placed broadly in the diocese of Châlons in Champagne, because to it belongs the district of Perthes, in which she was born, and in which — or more probably near which — is situated the mountain left to her by her father's inheritance, and called by her, according to the biographer, from her father's name, Mount Sigmarus, where also she is said to have died and to have been buried in a church built there by herself and consecrated to St. Maurice. The mountain, however, I do not find under that name among the geographers, just as neither among other writers any indication of a particular cult or of relics of St. Lutrudis.
[4] Nicolas Des-Guerrois in his French book on the Christian Sanctity of Troyes, treating at the year 470 of St. Hoyldis and her sisters, Her body says that the body of St. Lutrudis is in the monastery of Corbie in Picardy; and Baillet seems to have thought the same, volume 3 of the Lives of the Saints, page 299, where he has these words: She (St. Lutrudis) died on the feast day of St. Maurice, and was buried in the church of her hermitage. Her body is said afterwards to have been translated into the abbey of Corbie in Picardy, where the body of St. Pusinna her sister also seems to have been, before it was carried into Germany in the time of Charles the Bald. For my part I should not wish to deny that the body of our Saint was at some time carried to Corbie in Picardy, and that perhaps some of her relics are preserved and honored there to this day; nevertheless, since neither of these things occurs confirmed by the testimony of others, I strongly suspect that both authors were here mistaken, and took Corbie in Picardy, or the old one, for New Corbie in Lower Saxony or Westphalia; because, namely, Molanus, whom Des-Guerrois cites, and Merssaeus Cratepolius, whom Baillet alleges in the margin, without distinction of region simply name Corbie. Molanus's words I gave above; Cratepolius has these in his Annals of the archbishops of Trier, under Theodoric: He wrote the Life of Lutrudis, virgin and nun, who rests at Corbie, about the year 950. And indeed, since Corbie in Picardy is so much nearer to the diocese of Châlons, where the Saint was first buried, it was natural to judge that this was designated by Molanus and others; but the documents presently to be produced persuade the contrary.
[5] Here too Mabillon had hesitated, in Century 1 of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, carried to Corbie in Saxony when he set our Saint among the Prætermissi in these words: Lutrudis, virgin, whose Acts Surius exhibits at XXII September, was veiled by blessed Alpinus, bishop of Châlons, who died about the year 480. Why she is ascribed in the Benedictine Martyrology to the monastery of Corbie, I do not see. But when he had examined the Saxon documents more closely, he untied the knot; namely in Century 4, part 1, of the same Work, page 525, where, treating of the Translation of St. Vitus the martyr to Corbie in Saxony, he hands down these things: Besides the relics of saint Vitus, that monastery possessed also the relics both of saint Justinus the martyr and of saint Lutrudis the virgin, likewise brought from Gaul. Of Lutrudis the manuscript Saxon Chronicle has these words at the year 864: “The coming of saint Lutrudis, virgin, in the same year”: which I think must be understood of the bringing of the relics of saint Lutrudis the virgin, whose Acts Surius exhibits at the day XXII of September. Hence I judge it came about that Lutrudis, who lived in the fifth century, was ascribed to Corbie, and so to our Order.
[6] in the year 864, The things alleged by Mabillon from the Saxon Chronicle are confirmed in the Catalogue of the abbots of Corbie in Saxony, which John Letzner inserted from a manuscript found by himself into chapter 24 of the Chronicle of Corbie, published in German in the year 1590, as follows: Adelgar was elected third abbot in the year of Christ 856: he presided there thirty-two years. In the year 864 he brought to this monastery the bones of Luttrudis the virgin. In that very year, so far as we learn from the concise Annals of Corbie in Saxony, continued from the first foundation to the year 1471, and published first by Christian Franz Paullini, then by Gottfried Leibniz in volume 2 of the Writers on the affairs of Brunswick, page 296, the aforesaid abbot Adelgar granted the Saint's relics, or more probably a part of them, to the church of St. Paul founded by himself. The words are these: 863. Our Adelgar founds the church of St. Paul near Corbie, called Negenkerken \, which bishop Luithehart (of Paderborn) consecrated. In the year 864 he brought into that same church the relics of S. Luitrudis the virgin, and others gathered from every side.*
[7] she is famed for wonders Moreover, concerning the relics of St. Lutrudis, our Predecessors rightly explained the things which are related in volume III of March, page 658, in the Miracles of St. Ludger, bishop of Münster, which I transfer here: A certain woman noble in the world, from the estate called Baegge, was named Bugge. She, falling into a palsy, lay for twelve full years deprived of the use of almost all her limbs. For she could neither move head nor foot by herself, nor bring her hands to her mouth without the help of others. And when, for the sake of her recovery, as is usual with noble persons, many things were either done for her or suggested to her by many, she could receive no alleviation \. And now she had no hope in fleshly medicine, but her only refuge lay in God's mercy. Meanwhile a report went out that through the Saints whose most sacred pledges the venerable abbot Adalgar had brought from Gaul, many wonders were wrought. As these were coming, the aforesaid woman, being brought to meet them, in part received health through their merits, and in part conceived a greater hope of the entire restoration of her body.* It is then added that in the church of Werden, at the tomb of St. Ludger, she was granted entire health.
[8] is famous. Rightly, I say, did they explain this of the relics of St. Lutrudis: for first, the author of the account just recited, a contemporary, as appears, prefaces that he wishes to set forth those things which are not to be sought from afar, but are proved to have been done in the nearest time, that is, from the year of the Lord's Incarnation 864: which is the very same year in which the relics were translated to the men of Corbie; secondly, although probably together with the relics of St. Lutrudis Adelgar brought from Gaul the sacred bones of other Saints also, since the cited author says that through the Saints many wonders were done, yet that these were attributed before the rest to Lutrudis I conjecture from this, that her name alone is expressed in the Chronicles cited above, and that neither in these nor in the Annals occurs mention of relics brought at another time from the Gauls to Corbie by abbot Adelgar. For the rest, the same author indicates clearly enough that the wonders generally mentioned were wrought on the very journey from Gaul to Corbie, and that the benefit particularly set forth was granted to a noble woman who came out to meet the relics on their passage through the Mark, a county of Westphalia, in which is situated Werden or Werthina, a place with a notable abbey of men of the Order of St. Benedict on the river Ruhr.
[9] Of the often-named relics of St. Lutrudis, other churches afterwards obtained parts, Her relics and cult at Paderborn, in which she has also obtained a special cult. In the Catalogue of the relics of the cathedral church of Paderborn, transcribed and transmitted to us from a very ancient manuscript parchment sheet, I read thus: Relics of S. Lutrudis, V. Hence in a very ancient parchment Calendar of the same diocese, of which likewise we have a manuscript copy, is read at the XXII of September: X Kal. Of Maurice with his companions, of SS. Hemerammus, bishop and martyr, and of Luithrud, virgin. Nay, in our manuscript Sanctuarium of the same diocese, arranged by Father John Gamans, once an outstanding helper of our Work, the following are noted at the XXII day of September: Old printed Breviary: “Luetrudis V. I. antiphon.” In the body of the Breviary, the very (day) of St. Maurice has as a suffrage a collect in which: “Today, on the yearly solemnity of blessed and holy Lugtrudis, virgin,” etc. Then is subjoined: At Höxter she is Patroness or Co-patroness in St. Peter's. Höxter, commonly Höxter, is a town in Westphalia, distant about half a mile from Corbie, and, like it, lying on the Weser, but on the other bank of the river; whether here also, as is likely enough, the relics of our Saint are honored, I have not ascertained.
[10] Before the rest, memorable is what is reported of the relics of the most illustrious abbey of Assindia or Essendia (commonly Essen) in Westphalia. notable relics also are preserved at Essen The first notice of them that met me is in the Calendars of Westphalia holy, blessed, and pious, formerly collected by the Reverend Father John Velde, a priest of the Lower Rhine province of the Society of Jesus, where at this same day these things are noted: S. Lutrudis, half of whose body is at Essen. Father Theodore Rhay, a priest of the same Society, in the book entitled Illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves, etc., speaks a little more explicitly of them at the XXII day of April: At Essen, he says, of S. Lutridis, virgin, sister of blessed Pusinna, truly her own sister, and so her true kin both in manners and in holiness that whoever knows the one knows both. Her body of old was held in veneration by all; nor were our forefathers ignorant that by her beneficence they drew rain from heaven upon their thirsty fields.
[11] That the aforesaid relics were carried about at Cologne in a solemn procession through the city in the year 1634, in a precious reliquary, given by the emperor Otto II an eyewitness teaches us, Giles Gelenius, in the little book which he entitled Colonia supplex, and in which, declaring the order of the procession, at page 48 he prefixes this title to §8: SS. Marsus, confessor, and Lugtrudis, virgin. Then he thus continues: After this another pair of Saints, brought forth from the domestic chapel of the residence of the most illustrious princess of Essen, eight Capuchin Fathers piously carried. The tomb of these Saints was wrought of pure gold and of most precious and utterly rare gems, the gift of the emperor Otto the second and of Theophano the empress his wife, bestowed on the convent of Essen at that time when Mathilda, daughter of those same sovereigns, presided over it, most illustrious both in piety and in the splendor of her birth: I learned this from the very inscription of the sacred tomb, of which these traces survive.
Inscription of the tomb Of SS. Marsus, confessor, and Lugtrudis, virgin.
This excellent work, adorned with gems and gold, Mathilda vowed, which Theophano well discharged, Mathilda giving these golden gifts to the King of kings … [ ] … May the spirit of Otto rest in the heavenly [ ] The lady [ ] me to be made Mathilda [ ] commanded.
Here Gelenius notes that there is then subjoined the effigy of the emperor Otto II in the midst between two Greek inscriptions, which he thus renders into Latin: ONE IN
*CHRIST, A FIRM BROTHERHOOD. EMPEROR* *OF THE ROMANS, GL. OT.*
[12] according to some, The first verses, but a little differently, are given also by Bucelinus, volume 2 of Germania sacra, page 143; and likewise by Papebroch, volume V of May, in the Annotations to chapter 1 of the Acts of Erenfrid or Ezo, of Mathilda, and of Richeza; but he, having collated Bucelinus's edition with a transcript sent here, thinks they should be read thus:
This excellent work, adorned with gems and gold, Mathilda vowed to Theophano, which she well discharged, The good abbess Mathilda, giving these golden gifts To the King of kings: which thing demands that for ever The spirit of Otto may rest in the heavenly shores: The lady Mathilda bade me be made.
Besides, Papebroch there observes that Bucelinus erred when he said that Mathilda, daughter of Otto II and Theophano (which Gelenius also did), was abbess of the convent of Essen. And indeed from her Acts just cited we learn that she dwelt at Essen, but that thence, with the consent of her brother Otto III, she was taken out and married to Erenfrid or Ezo, count palatine, to whom she bore ten children, and among these blessed Richeza. He contends, therefore, that Mathilda daughter of Theophano, who made the vow, and Mathilda the abbess, who discharged it, are different persons: there is added, that, as he shows in the same place, she was married to her husband before the year 990, whereas the other was still abbess in the year 1003.
[13] but more probably given as a gift by Otto the third: For the rest, since Gelenius, ascribing that precious tomb to the gift of Otto the second, confesses that he learned it from the inscription itself, it is greatly doubtful whether it ought not rather to be attributed to Otto the third, who, that he might satisfy his sister's vow, supplied the expense by which the abbess Mathilda might have the tomb made. The latter is certainly indicated by the aforesaid Rhay in the Illustrious Souls, treating at the XVI day of May of St. Marsus: take his words: Essen triumphs today in the relics of S. Marsus, given to that place by Otto the third of that name, emperor. To which most religious emperor it was a solemn custom to translate the bones of many Saints from darkness into light with magnificent pomp, as also he piously placed the remains of this S. Marsus in an urn of gold, worth seeing both for the fineness and variety of the work and for the splendor of its gems. So he, citing the Records of Essen. Gelenius himself is in agreement, in his Sacred Calendars of Cologne, at the VIII of June, treating of St. Marsus: His body, he says, was afterwards translated to Essen, a town of the diocese of Cologne, by the wife and children of Otto II, where it is enclosed in a golden shrine. Finally, according to Rhay at the same day, the VIII of June, that tomb or golden shrine, containing, as we saw above, the sacred remains both of St. Lutrudis and of St. Marsus, is from time to time through the year exposed to public veneration. More about St. Marsus may be said at the VI day of October, to which our Predecessors deferred the examination of his Acts.
[14] I have not been able to learn with certainty when, or on what occasion, the virgins of Essen were enriched with the relics of our Saint: the said relics were probably obtained in the 9th century, our Saint, I say; for as such Rhay and Gelenius evidently acknowledge her, when they call her the sister of St. Pusinna; and again Gelenius in the Sacred Calendars of Cologne, when today he thus announces her: At Essen in the diocese of Cologne blessed Lutrudis, virgin of Châlons, is enclosed in a golden tomb, whose festivity is today commemorated. But most probably they were brought thither by the care of Altfrid, who, from a monk of Corbie in Saxony, was about the middle of the ninth century made bishop of Hildesheim in the same Lower Saxony, and afterwards founded the most illustrious convent of Essen, as was said in volume III of August at the XV day, where his deeds were illustrated. For he lived in the same monastery with abbot Adelgar, who brought the bones of St. Lutrudis from Gaul, and, having been made bishop, was joined to him in familiarity, as I gather from the concise Annals cited at number 6, in which at the year 872 these things are reported: Adelgar with others took part in the solemn consecration of the church of Hildesheim, built there by Alfred, our fellow monk, the bishop. The Saxon chronographer agrees, whose words we gave from Mabillon in the cited volume III of August, page 213, where he says that that church was dedicated by Altfrid its bishop, by Rimbert of Bremen, by Liuthard of Paderborn, and by Theodoric, bishops, with the intervention of Adelgar, abbot of Corbie.
[15] Finally, my conjecture about the relics of St. Lutrudis obtained from Adelgar through bishop Altfrid for his new convent of Essen as also those which are at Hildesheim, where she is honored. is somewhat confirmed by this, that in the cathedral church of Hildesheim itself the sacred remains of the same Saint have been preserved and honored for many centuries, most probably left there also by St. Altfrid. These and their cult I know from a Fragment concerning the relics of the said church, which from a manuscript parchment codex Leibniz published in print, volume I of the Writers on the affairs of Brunswick, page 771, whose beginning is such: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1061, in the XIV Indiction, this temple was renewed by the venerable bishop of this see, Hezelo, and devoutly consecrated on the III Nones of May, in the ninth year of his ordination, in honor of the holy and undivided Trinity and of the most victorious Cross, and of S. Mary the Mother, of whose milk and hairs there is something here, and of the Saints whose relics are here enclosed and whose names shall be written below. Among these is reckoned the name of Ludrudis, as also that of Pusinna; and the following are subjoined: On any feast of the aforenamed Saints, and on any feast of nine Lessons, a candle shall burn behind the altar of holy Mary, set there at Matins from beginning to end, and at the Matins of S. Mary. I add the Breviary of Hildesheim, printed in the year 1516, where at second Vespers of St. Matthew the apostle and at Lauds of SS. Maurice and his Companions, martyrs, a suffrage or commemoration of St. Lutruda the virgin from the Common is prescribed.
[16] It remains that we should inquire in a few words what is to be determined about the Acts. The Saint's Acts Copies of three kinds are in my hands; and of the first, two, of which one was communicated to our Predecessors in the year 1659 by Father Nicholas Elsen, S.J., priest, transcribed from a manuscript codex of the monastery of St. Matthias at Trier; the other, sent by the often-praised Father John Gamans in the year 1641, so far as I understand from the notices of our Museum, was taken from a Bödeken manuscript. There is no discrepancy between the two, except that words are here and there written differently, and that in the Bödeken one this last sentence is wanting: May He (Christ) grant to the soul of His servant Theodoric, archbishop and prelate, everlasting joys. Amen. Those Acts were written in rhythmic verse by the aforenamed bishop of Trier, as the title in both copies declares. Of the second kind I have a copy, subjoined to the just-mentioned Bödeken one, and, as is noted, drawn from the same Passional. Of the third kind, finally, the copy was received from a Utrecht manuscript, but it is plainly the same as that which Surius published, and which he thought was an abridgment of Theodoric's Rhythm.
[17] of what kind, and which are to be given here. That Rhythm, which I should not dare to praise for elegance or charm, cannot be much commended for antiquity, as being composed about the fifth century after the death of St. Lutrudis, since Theodoric its author flourished only in the tenth century, and died about the year 970; nor does he anywhere signify by what documents he was helped in writing. Nevertheless, when I compare his Work with the Acts from the Bödeken Passional, mentioned in the second place, I find almost everywhere so great an agreement in the matters narrated that it becomes altogether probable to me that these lay before him. In the matters narrated, I say; for the Rhythm is more prolix and here and there enlarged with circumstances, the Acts shorter and simpler; but even on that head they are to be preferred and to be printed instead of it, although their author is unknown and their age uncertain.
Annotata\ elsewhere Nuwe kerke*, that is, the new church
\ relief*
ACTS
By an anonymous author From the manuscript Passional of Bödeken.
Lutrudis, virgin, in the diocese of Châlons in French Champagne (S.)
BHL Number: 4953
By an anonymous author.
The Saint's parents and native country: There was a certain man in the district of Perthes a, Sigimarus b by name, very rich and noble, who from his infancy strove to fear God, serving God with fastings and prayers day and night. And when he had come to the lawful age, he took a wife named Liutdruda c, very beautiful and fearing God; and when they were joined together, both being just, they began to seek how they might keep themselves from the vanities of the world and from all iniquity and rapine \*, and how all the household of their house might be able to serve according to God's will. Nor was anything acceptable to them but what was pleasing to God. And not far from them there was a certain priest named Eugenius, a man just and prudent in all things that pertain to God; whom, joining him to themselves by a bond of familiarity, they commended themselves to his holy prayers; and whatever they could bestow in the relief of the poor, they took care to distribute and offer to the Lord Jesus Christ through his hands.
[2] she and her six sisters consecrated as virgins And when two years had passed after he had taken his wife, she conceived and bore seven daughters, whom, when he had caused them to be renewed and consecrated at the font of Baptism by the regenerating grace of Christ, he gave them names: one Imma d, another Othilda e, the third Liutdruda f, the fourth Pusinna g, the fifth Francula, the sixth Liberata h, the seventh Mathilda i. All these, therefore, when they had begun to grow a little, the aforenamed father, as being most dear daughters whom he had received beforehand from the Lord, obtained to be instructed and taught in psalms and hymns in his own house under the hand of Eugenius the priest. Then, ten years having passed, when the aforesaid daughters had already thoroughly learned to praise God in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, at that time when holy Alpwinus, bishop of the holy church of Châlons, was going about his diocese for the sake of preaching and of confirmation in the power of the Holy Spirit, their father offered them to that same holy bishop, to be consecrated to Christ and veiled with the sacred veil.
[3] Whose unanimous and concordant will in such a purpose when holy Alpwinus perceived, by St. Alpinus; in a place left to her from her father's inheritance he consecrated them and set the veils of virginity with the sign of blessing upon their heads, praying the Lord that He would grant them a service persevering in His will k. And it came to pass that, when the last days of that same Sicmarus drew near, he gave to his aforesaid seven daughters his inheritance, and divided to each a part of his patrimony, according as seemed good to him; that, dwelling in various places, they might devoutly serve God and make commemoration of his soul. Therefore the blessed and venerable virgin of Christ, consecrated and beloved by Christ with a special affection, Liutdrudis, received her inheritance in the place which her father had prepared for himself for a solitary dwelling for the sake of prayer, and for the continual contemplation of Christ's kingdom, planted about on this side and that with groves, but within quite suitable for husbandry.
[4] And so when the blessed Virgin had received this as her inheritance, she lives piously; she gave it a name from her father's name, calling it Mount Sicmarus l. And from that time in which the venerable virgin Liutdrudis, beloved of God, lost both her parents, at the exhortation of Eugenius the priest, night and day she did not cease to beseech the Lord's mercy that He would not permit her to be separated from His love, whom she had chosen as her spouse, and that He would keep her unspotted from the fleshly desires which war against the soul. Meanwhile, as the divine grace grew in her, she took counsel with the often-named priest that she should go to Rome and stay there some time for the sake of prayer; then, returning home, that she might, if it could be done, bring back some relics of the Saints obtained there, whereby she might build an oratory in the place handed over to her by her father.
[5] And when she had completed that great and perilous journey, and had come to Rome, she goes to Rome, and having stayed there some time, by an angel she attached herself to a certain handmaid of God named Justina, who in like manner gave herself to continual prayers and alms, serving God night and day. And when three months had been completed there, an angel of God appeared to her in her sleep, saying: Return into the land of thy nativity; of the relics but of the holy martyrs, about which thou art anxious and with too great an ardor art enkindled, be not troubled: but as soon as thou shalt have crossed the mountains and shalt have come to the monastery m of blessed Maurice, thence it behooves thee to receive relics, and what thy soul desires thou shalt be able to obtain by his prayers. Awaking, she poured forth prayer to the Lord, and told her companion Eugenius the priest the vision which she had seen. And he committed to God all that had befallen them on the journey, and the purpose of his sister Luitdrudis.
[6] And rising at earliest dawn, they began to make their journey, she is admonished about her return; coming to Ravenna, according as the angel of the Lord had commanded. And after some days, coming together near the city of Ravenna n, they saw a certain handmaid who had come out of her mistress's house, and blessed Luitdrudis said to her: Return into the house and tell thy mistress that a pilgrim asks lodging with her. She answered: Thou canst not, Lady, have lodging here, because my mistress's daughter is at the point of death. Holy Luitdrudis said to her: Shall thy mistress's daughter die because of me? The girl, having returned, said to her mistress: Behold, mistress, a certain pilgrim stands near the door, asking entrance for lodging. And she rejoiced, and running to meet her said: Lady, come into my lodging, and see the affliction of thy handmaid, for my only daughter is made ready for death; and I cannot obtain from God that I should die and she live: and taking her hand, she led her into her lodging.
[7] she obtains health for a dying girl, But she, when she had greeted the household of the house, prostrated herself upon the face of the earth, and thus prayed: Lord my God, who alone hast the power of giving life and of putting to death, grant health to Thy handmaid, and restore her unharmed to her parents: and rising from prayer, she took the girl's hand and raised her up sound and unharmed. Then the girl, who for three days had not spoken a word, said to blessed Luitdruda: Welcome art thou come, Handmaid of God, to deliver me from the precipice of death and to gladden my parents. I pray thee, therefore, give me to eat and to drink from thy hand; and taking of the covering of thy head, thou shalt veil my head: for it behooves me to remain with thee in my life. Blessed Luitdrudis answered and said: Because of the comeliness of thy beauty thou wilt not be able to journey with me; nevertheless, if thou shalt persevere unto the end in chastity of life, thou shalt be with me in the glory of God. And the girl's parents begged her to remain there; and when they could in no way obtain this, they conducted her with great honor and joy as far as another city.
[8] returning home, she builds a church to St. Maurice; And when blessed Luitdrudis, together with her companion, had come to the place of the martyrdom o of the most blessed commander Maurice, the guardian of the church, George by name, received her into lodging; to whom, when she had told of the angelic vision, he with great veneration gave her relics of the glorious martyr Maurice, which, receiving with immense joy, and reverently bringing them as far as the aforementioned place which her father had given her, she hastened to build a church, and through the ministry of her own bishop to consecrate it in honor of holy Maurice. And beside that church she built herself a little cell, in which until the day of her death, solemnly serving God, she dwelt. She also put a hair shirt next to her flesh within, and chastising her body with fastings and afflictions, whatever she could acquire and gather from the revenue of her own property she took most diligent care to bestow upon the poor. And she herself once in the week or twice took barley bread with water; but sweet or delightful foods, which were very often offered to her, she distributed to the infirm and the sick.
[9] she stands by her dying sister St. Pusinna While the Lord's virgin Luitdrudis was doing these things, behold, suddenly a messenger came who said to her: Behold, thy sister Pusinna, who received her inheritance in the village of Basonium [p], is sick, and calls for thee. When the Handmaid of God had heard this, she rose from the ground and scattered ashes upon her head, and, clothed in a hair shirt, through the whole night she prayed the Lord, and said that she might deserve to see her before the day of her falling asleep. And when morning had come, she went thither together with Eugenius the priest; and when she had entered the house, she found her sister set at the point of death; for for five days she had not spoken any word, but only made a sign, asking whether her Sister were yet coming. But as soon as holy Luitdrudis entered the house, blessed Pusinna raised herself and said: God almighty, I give Thee thanks, because Thou hast heard me, that I might deserve to see my most beloved sister Luitdruda. And she said to her: My dearest sister, now I shall die glad, because I have seen thy face. But I pray that thou wilt not depart from this place until thou hast given my body to burial: and having said this, leaning upon her Sister's neck, she began to weep, and amid weeping and the embraces of her Sister she passed to the Lord. And blessed Luitdrudis buried her with hymns and prayers in the village mentioned above, in a famous place beside the church of blessed Mary [q].
[10] And the funeral rites of her dearest sister being performed, she returned to her little cell, and she herself dies. and always persisted untiring in the work she had begun, avoiding human praise and shunning the boastfulness of human vanity. But after the consummation of good works in a good old age [r], full of days and of heavenly merits, in the best confession she passed to the Lord. Nor was there delay: the divine power was present, and by the hands of angels raised her soul to the starry mansions. The blessed virgin Luitdrudis was therefore buried in her own church before the altar of holy Maurice. Then, a few days having passed, a glass vessel which before her sepulcher had once been filled with oil began to overflow, and a multitude of oil ran down from above upon the ground: whence a very great throng of the sick, anointed with it, was healed by the grace of the Holy Spirit of various infirmities [s], our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through all the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. It is a place not far from Corbie in France, as Saussay and Castellanus note.
q. Whatever you have here about our Saint's coming to her dying sister, the biographer of St. Pusinna also described, but much more fully, in volume 3 of April, page 169 and following.
r. Those words in a good old age moved me to attach the Saint's death to the sixth century, since St. Alpinus, who as bishop of Châlons consecrated her a virgin to God, died about the year 510, as we showed with more probability in volume 3 of September.
Brower, volume 1 of the Annales Trevirenses, page 479, giving from ancient parchments of the library of St. Matthias an abridgment of the Rhythmic Life composed by Theodoric, archbishop of Trier, set out that prodigy — but wrongly, in my judgment — as though the oil, healing to the sick, had flowed from the Saint's tomb: But of the oil, he says, which flowed perpetually from her tomb and brought health to the diseased, Theodoric the archbishop left it thus written, that you may see the form of his rhythms.
Wholly wondrous is God's power, wondrous his own Note: elsewhere thy merit: The little vessel once filled and the oil once kindled Began to suffer no diminution from its use: [Nay, growing little by little and flowing over above, Its abundance ran down from above upon the ground, Thus giving a clear token of thy merits.] What shall I say of sight restored to the blind anointed with it? What of hearing to the deaf, of the tongue's office to the dumb? Shall I now unfold the use of walking bestowed upon the lame? The diverse distresses of every several infirmity, By which either the body grows faint or the soul wastes away, Have again and again through you obtained their former healing.
The words enclosed in brackets (with one word, however, transposed, since the reading ran copia labebatur) I have supplied from both of our manuscript copies. But from the whole context I understand nothing else than that the oil of the lamp set before the tomb was prodigiously increased and was health-bringing to the sick, which the verses immediately preceding likewise suggest; they run thus: How much, O Blessed one, you can do, how much, O virgin, you avail; The healing of so many, lately rendered through you, proves it; The joys of so many, whom you help when entreated, prove it; The healthful oil proves it, poured upon the ailing, Which in the days next after your passing then Was set before your tomb together with your vessel. \ add se*