The Life of Saint Remigius

Here followeth of Saint Remigius, and first the interpretation of his name.

Remigius is said of remi, that is to say feeding, and geos, that is earth, as who saith feeding the earthly people with doctrine. Or of geon, that is a wrestler, for he was a pastor and a wrestler he fed his flock with the word of preaching, with suffrages of praying, and with example of conversation. There is three manner of armour that is for the defence, the shield, for to fight, the sword, for his salvation and health, the habergeon and helm. He wrestled against the devil with the shield of faith, with the sword of the word of God, and with the helmet of hope. Ignatius Archbishop of Rheims wrote his life.

Of the Life of Saint Remigius.

Remigius, an holy doctor, and confessor glorious of our Lord, was tofore his birth provided of our Lord, and foreseen of a holy hermit. When the persecution of the Vandals had almost wasted and destroyed nigh all France, there was a man recluse, holy and virtuous, which had lost his sight, which oft prayed to our Lord for peace and welfare of the church of France. He had on a time a vision, and him seemed an angel came to him and said: Know thou that the woman that thou knowest named Aline shall bring forth a son that shall be named Remigius, which shall deliver all the country from this persecution. And when he awoke he came to the house of this Aline and told to her his vision, and she would not believe it because of her age. The recluse said: It shall be so as I have said, and when thou hast given thy child suck, thou shalt give to me of thy milk, to put upon mine eyes, and therewith I shall be whole and recover my sight again. And like as he said all these things happened. And the woman had a child named Remigius, which when he came to the age of discretion, he fled the world, and entered into a reclusage. And sith after, for the great renown of his holy life, when he had been twenty-two years therein he was elect and chosen to be Archbishop of Rheims. He was so debonair that little birds came and ate on his table and took meat at his hand. It happed on a day that he was lodged in an house of a good woman which had but a little wine in her tonnel or vessel, and Saint Remigius went in to the cellar and made the sign of the cross upon the ton, and prayed a while. Anon the ton was so full that it leapt over, by the merits of the good saint.

Now it happed that Clodovius the king of France, which was a paynim, might not be converted for any preaching that his wife might do, which was a christian woman, unto the time that a great host of Alemans came into France. Then by the admonishment of his wife he made a vow that if the God that his wife worshipped would give him victory, he would be baptized at his returning from the battle. Thus, as he demanded, he vanquished the battle, and after came to Rheims to Saint Remigius and prayed him that he would christen him. And when Saint Remigius baptized him he had no chrisom ready, then a dove descended from heaven which brought the chrisom in an ampull of which the king was anointed and this ampull is kept in the church of Saint Remigius at Rheims, of which the kings of France be anointed when they be crowned. Saint Remigius had a niece which was married to a clerk named Genebaldus, which by devotion left his wife for to enter into religion. Then Saint Remigius saw that the see of Rheims was over great, and ordained a see of a bishopric at Laon and made Genebald first bishop of that place. When Genebald was bishop his wife came thither to see him, and he remembered of the privily that they were wont to have together, and lay on a night with her, and engendered on her a child. When his wife knew that she was great and let him have knowledge thereof, and when he wist that it was a son, he commanded that it should be named Thief, because he had engendered it by theft. After for to quench the suspicion and the words of the people, he suffered that his wife should come to him as she did tofore, and anon after she conceived a daughter, whom he commanded to name a fox's whelp, and after came to Saint Remigius and confessed him of his sin, and took the stole off his neck and would leave his bishopric, but Saint Remigius, after he had confessed him, comforted him, and gave him penance, and shut him in a little cell seven years long, and gave to him bread and water, and in the meanwhile he governed the church himself. At the end of seven years an angel came to the prison, and said to him that he had done well his penance, and bade him go out of the prison. To whom he said: I may not go out, for my lord Saint Remigius hath closed the door and sealed it. And the angel said to him: Know thou that the door of heaven is opened to thee; I shall open this door without breaking of the seal which Saint Remigius hath sealed. And anon the door was opened. Then Genebald fell down in the midst of the door in manner of a cross, and said: If our Lord Jesu Christ came hither I shall not go out but if Saint Remigius, which shut and closed me herein, come and bring me out. And then the angel went anon and fetched Saint Remigius and brought him to Laon, and he delivered him out of prison, and remised him and set him again in his see there, where he lived after, all the days of his life, holily. After his death, Thief his son was made bishop after him, which is also a saint in heaven, and at the last Saint Remigius, after that God had shown many miracles for him, he departed out of this life unto everlasting joy the year of the incarnation of our Lord five hundred.

The Life of Hilary

Here followeth the Life of Saint Hilary. The interpretation of his name.

Hilary is said of joyousness, for he was joyous in the service of God. Or Hilary is said virtuous and high, for he was high and strong in science, and virtuous in his life. Or Hilary is said of hilum, which is to say dark matter, for he had in his dictes great obscurity and profoundness.

Of the Life of Saint Hilary.

Saint Hilary, which was Bishop of Poictiers, was born in the country of Guienne. He had a wife wedded, and a daughter, and whereas he was in habit secular he lived after the life of a monk. He profited so much in holy life and sciences that he was chosen Archbishop of Poictiers. A manner of an heresy reigned in his country and through all France, which was the sect of the Arians, the which he destroyed to his power. Nevertheless by the commandment of the emperor, which was of the party of the heretics, by the suggestion of two bishops of that sect he was exiled, with which two bishops he disputed, and overcame them. Afterward, for they might not gainsay the truth of the matter, ne could not bear ne answer to his eloquence, so that he was constrained to come again to Poictiers. And as he passed by an isle of the sea, which was full of serpents, he chased them away by the virtue of his commandment, and by his sight only, and pight a staff in the middle of the isle and gave to the serpents liberty to come to that staff and not to pass farther, and the serpents obeyed him, which part is no land now but sea.

When Saint Hilary came to Poictiers he met a child dead, borne for to be buried, and the child was not baptized; which child by virtue of his prayer he raised to life, for he lay long in the dust in prayer, and when he arose out of his prayer the child arose from death to life.

Saint Hilary had a daughter named Apia and she would have been married, but Saint Hilary preached to her so much of the estate of virginity that she changed her purpose. And when she was confirmed in this will and purpose Saint Hilary doubted that she should change, and prayed our Lord for to take her while she was in good purpose, and anon she died, and Saint Hilary buried her. And when her mother the wife of Saint Hilary saw that her daughter was dead, she prayed to her husband, that he should impetre and get for her like as he had done for his daughter. And anon as Saint Hilary had made his orison, she died, and by this manner he sent tofore him his wife and his daughter.

In this time the pope Leo, which favoured heresy, called a counsel of bishops, but he sent not for Saint Hilary that he should come thereto, notwithstanding Saint Hilary came thither. When the pope saw him come, he commanded that no man should arise against him, ne give him no place. Then said the pope to him: Thou art Hilary the cock, and not the son of an hen. And Hilary answered: I am Hilary and no cock, but a bishop in Gallia that is in France. Then said the pope, Thou art Hilary Gallus, and I am Leo of the Papal See, Judge. To whom Hilary said: If thou be Leo yet art thou not of the Tribe of Judah. Then the pope had great indignation and said to him: Abide thou a little, and I shall pay to thee thine hire; and Saint Hilary answered: And if thou come not again who shall pay me for thee? And the pope answered: I shall come again and shall beat down thy pride. Then the pope went down into the low chamber for to ease him, and by the conduit of his nether part voided out all the entrails of his body, and so died suddenly. Thus then as he abode the pope Saint Hilary found no place to sit on, ne none would remove to make him place, and when he saw that, he said: Domini est terra, the earth longeth to our Lord, and sat down upon the earth, and the earth arose up by miracle by the will of our Lord, in such wise that he sat as high as the other, and anon after, word came that the pope was dead. Then Saint Hilary confirmed all the other bishops that were there in the faith, and so confirmed, each went in to his country.

In the end, when Saint Hilary had impetred of God many miracles to be showed by his prayer, he became sick, and saw his death approach. Then he called to him one of his chaplains whom he much loved and said to him: Go thou out and bring to me word what thou hearest. When he had been long without, he came in and told to Saint Hilary that he had heard a great noise in the city; and when it was midnight he sent his chaplain again to hearken as he had done tofore; and when he came again in to the chamber for to tell that he had heard nothing, a great clear light entered in, that the priest might not behold it. And when the light departed Saint Hilary died, that was the year of grace three hundred and forty, let us pray to him that he pray for us. Amen.

The Life of Firmin

And next followeth the Invention of Saint Firmin.

In the time of the invention of Saint Firmin the martyr, was Saint Savin, bishop of Amiens, and saw that tofore him in the time of Saint Honor, our Lord had done take up the bodies of Saint Fulcian, Saint Victorice, and Saint Gentian, and thought all an whole night upon the body of Saint Firmin the martyr. And when it was day this holy man Saint Savin summoned the clergy and the people to fast and make prayers through the city of Amiens, to the end that our Lord would show them the place where the body of Saint Firmin the martyr lay. And on the third day our Lord sent such a miracle that he sent a ray of the sun, which pierced the wall of the monastery on the same place where the body lay. Then they began to dig and delve there, and when they came nigh the body, there issued out so great a sweetness out of the pit, that all they that were there weened they had been in Paradise. And it seemed that if all the spices of the world had been stamped together it should not have smelled so well ne so sweet, and this sweet odour spread through the city of Amiens and divers cities about, that is to wit Therouanne, Cambray and Noyon. And the people of these cities moved them each from his place with candles and offerings, without sayer or commander, but for the odour that so spread, and came unto this glorious saint. And as the body was borne in the city of Amiens, there were showed such miracles that never none were like found ne seen tofore of any saint, for the elements moved them by the miracle of this saint; the snow that was that time great on the earth was turned into powder and dust by the heat that was then, and the ice that hung on the trees became flowers and leaves, and the meadows about Amiens flowered and became green, and the sun which by his nature should go low, that day ascended as high as she is on Saint John's day at noon in the summer. And as men bare the body of this saint the trees inclined and worshipped the body, and all manner sick men, of what malady they had, they received health in the invention of the blessed body of Saint Firmin. And the burgesses that were in their gowns and mantles had so great heat that they called their servants and bond men, of whom there were many that day in Amiens, and affranchised them for to bear their clothes into the city of Amiens. Our Lord did do show such miracles, and so far sent the odour that the lord of Beaugency which was at a window and was sick of lazary, smelled the odour and was anon guerished and whole. And he took his gold and came and did homage unto the body of Saint Firmin in the city of Amiens. Our Lord hath showed many miracles for this glorious saint, and much he ought to be honoured in this world, and then pray we unto this blessed saint, Saint Firmin, that he pray for us to our Lord that he will pardon us our sins, and octroy and grant to us the glory of heaven. Amen.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 432