September XVII*

St. Lambert, Martyr

bishop of maestricht, and patron of liege

From his life, written by Godescalc, deacon of Liege, in Mabillon, sæc. 3. Ben. and in Canisius Lect. Antiq. t. 2, part 1, l. 142, with the animadversions of Basnage. This work was compiled, with candor and sincerity (not in 773, as Le Cointe and some others mistook, but about 729), from the relation of those who attended the saint, as Dom. Rivet demonstrates, Hist. Littér. de la France, t. 4, p. 58. Stephen, bishop of Liege, Anselm. and Nicholas, canons of the same church, Rainer, monk of St. Laurence’s, near that town, Giles of Orval, and Sigebert, have also written lives of St. Lambert: that published by Godescalc is the foundation of all the rest; but that compiled by Stephen is the most elegant and methodical. See also Miræns, Annal. Belgic. ad annos 656, 676, 692, 696. Suysken the Bollandist, t. 5, p. 518. Gall. Chr. Nov t. 3, p. 827. Martenne, &c.

a. d. 709.

St. Landebert, called in latter ages Lambert, was a native of Maestricht, and born of a noble and wealthy family, who had been Christians for many descents. His father caused him to be instructed from his infancy in sacred learning, and afterward recommended him to St. Theodard to perfect his education. This holy bishop had succeeded St. Remaclus, first, in the government of his two great abbeys of Malmedi and Stavelo, and, ten years after, when the former retired to Stavelo, in the episcopal see of Maestricht. He had such an esteem for this illustrious and holy pupil, that he spared no attention in instructing and training him up to the most perfect practice of Christian virtue. St. Theodard, in 669, resolved to go to king Childeric II. who resided in Austrasia, to obtain an order of that prince for the restitution of the possessions of his church, which had been usurped by certain powerful persons; but was assassinated upon the road by those who withheld his possessions, and torn limb from limb, in the forest of Benalt, near Nemere, since called Spire. He is honored as a martyr on the 10th of September. St. Lambert was chosen to succeed him, with the consent of king Childeric and the applause of his whole court, where the saint was in great repute. Lambert regarded she episcopal charge as a burden too heavy for his shoulders, as saints have always done, and, trembling under its grievous obligations, set himself earnestly to discharge them without human respect or fear, imploring light and strength from above by assiduous humble prayer. Childeric II reigned first in Austrasia, Vulfoade being at that time mayor of his palace, whilst Theodoric III. succeeded his brother Clotaire III. in Neustria and Burgundy, under whom Ebroin tyrannically usurped the dignity of mayor of the palace. So detestable did the cruelty of this minister render the reign of the prince, that his subjects deposed him, so that Childeric became king of all France, Theodoric and Ebroin being shorn monks, the former at St. Denis, the latter at Laxeu; to which condition they both consented, that their lives might be spared. King Childeric II., a debauched and cruel prince, was slain by a conspiracy of noblemen in the year 673, the eleventh of his reign, and Theodoric, his brother, leaving the monastery of St. Denis, was again acknowledged king in Neustria, and Dagobert II. the son of king Sigebert, in Austrasia.

This revolution affected St. Lambert, merely because he had been heretofore greatly favored by Childeric. He was expelled from his see, in which was placed one Faramond. Our saint retired to the monastery of Stavelo, with only two of his domestics; and, during the seven years that he continued there, he obeyed the rule as strictly as the youngest novice could have done. One instance will suffice to show with how perfect a sacrifice of himself he devoted his heart to serve God according to the perfection of his state. As he was rising one night in winter to his private devotions, he happened to let fall his wooden sandal or slipper, so that it made a noise. This the abbot heard, and, looking upon it as a breach of the silence then to be observed in the community, he ordered him that had given occasion to that noise, to go and pray before the cross. This was a great cross, which stood in the open air before the church door. Lambert, without making any answer, or discovering who he was, laid down the upper garment he was going to put on, and went out as he was, barefoot, and covered only with his hair shirt; and in this condition he prayed, kneeling before the cross, three or four hours. Whilst the monks were warming themselves after matins, the abbot inquired if all were there. Answer was made, that he had sent one to the cross, who was not yet come in. The abbot ordered that he should be called; and was strangely surprised to find that the person was the holy bishop, who made his appearance quite covered with snow, and almost frozen with cold. At the sight of him the abbot and the monks fell on the ground, and asked his pardon. “God forgive you,” said he, “for thinking you stand in need of pardon for this action. As for myself, is it not in cold and nakedness, that, according to St. Paul, I am to tame my flesh and to serve God?”

Whilst St. Lambert enjoyed the tranquillity of holy retirement, he wept to see the greatest part of the churches of France laid waste. When Theodoric reascended the throne, he appointed Leudisius, son of Erchinoald, mayor of his palace. Ebroin at the same time left the monastery of Luxeu, and sacrilegiously broke the sacred engagements of his vows. He had already made the whole kingdom of Theodoric feel the effects of his power and tyrannical dispositions, when, in 677, he became mayor of the palace to that prince, and absolute master in Neustria and Burgundy, and soon after also in Austrasia, when, upon the death of Dagobert II. (who was murdered by a conspiracy of his nobles, through the contrivance of Ebroin) Theodoric was acknowledged king of the whole French monarchy. Dagobert II. had filled his dominions with religious foundations, and, after his death, was honored at Stenay, where he was buried, as a martyr. Ebroin, who had in this prince’s life-time extended his violences to several churches subject to him, especially that of Maestricht, after the death of this king, oppressed them with greater fury, and persecuted our holy bishop without control. He was, however, overtaken by the divine vengeance; for, three years after the martyrdom of St. Leodegarius, he was himself slain in 681. A nobleman, called Hermenfred, whose estate he had seized, and whom he had threatened with death, watched him one Sunday before it was light, as he came out of his house to matins, and killed him with a blow which he gave him on his head with a sword. From this and other instances we see, as Fleury remarks, that at that time even those noblemen and princes, who were most employed, and who had the least sense of religion and piety, did not exempt themselves from attending at the divine office even in the night.

Pepin of Herstal (grandson of St. Pepin of Landen, by St. Bega and Ansegesil) being made mayor of the palace, set himself to repair the evils done by Ebroin, expelled the usurping wicked bishops whom he had intruded into many sees, and, among many other exiled prelates, restored St. Lambert to the see of Maestricht. The holy pastor, from the exercise of the most heroic virtues, to which he had devoted the time of his exile and retirement, returned to his flock animated with redoubled fervor, preaching and discharging his other functions with wonderful zeal and fruit. Finding there still remained many pagans in Taxandria, a province about Diest in Brabant, he applied himself to convert them to the faith, softened their barbarous temper by his pattence, regenerated them in the holy water of baptism, and destroyed many temples and idols. He frequently visited and conferred with St. Willibrord, the apostle of Friesland. Under the weak reigns of the slothful kings, the greatest disorders prevailed in France, and every bold and powerful man set himself above the laws, and put himself at the head of a seditious faction. Of this the death of St. Lambert furnishes us with a flagrant example. Pepin, who resided at his castle of Herstal, near Liege, on the Maes or Meuse, lived for some years in a scandalous adultery with a concubine named Alpais, by whom he had Charles Martel. St. Lambert reproved the parties with so much earnestness, that some say certain friends of the lady thence took occasion to conspire against his life. Others assign the following occasion of his death; Two brothers, by their violences and plunders of the church of Maestricht, were become insupportable, and could not be restrained by the laws. At this, certain relations of St. Lambert were so exasperated, that, finding themselves driven to the last extremity, they slew the two brothers. Dodo, a kinsman of the two young men that were slain, a rich and powerful officer under Pepin, and related to Alpais, resolved to revenge their death upon the innocent and holy bishop, and attacked him with a considerable body of armed men, at Leodium, then a small village, now the city of Liege. St. Lambert had retired to sleep after matins, when Dodo with his troop broke into his house. The bishop would not suffer his two nephews nor any of his domestics to take arms to defend him, saying, “If you love me truly, love Jesus Christ, and confess your sins unto him. As for me, it is time that I go to live with him.” Then prostrating himself on the ground, with his hands extended in form of a cross, he prayed, shedding many tears. The troop of enemies, entering the house, put to the sword all they met, and one of them, throwing a dart at the holy bishop, slew him. This unjust death, suffered with so great patience and meekness, joined with the eminent sanctity of the life of this holy bishop, has been looked upon as a degree of martyrdom. It happened on the 17th of September, 709, St. Lambert having held the episcopal dignity forty years from the time he succeeded St. Theodard. His body was conveyed in a bark to Maestricht, where it was interred in St. Peter’s church. Several miracles which ensued excited the people to build a church on the spot where the house stood in which he was slain. His successor, St. Hubert, translated thither his relics in 721. At the same time he removed to the same place the episcopal see, as it had been formerly transferred from Tongres to Maestricht, by St. Servatius.

Fortitude, which appears most heroical and most conspicuous in martyrdom, is a cardinal virtue, and the mother of many glorious virtues, as courage, greatness of soul, tranquillity of mind under all dangers, patience, longanimity, constancy, and perseverance. It is the band and support of all other virtues. As the root of a tree bears the trunk, branches, (flowers, and fruit, so fortitude sustains, and is the strength of the whole system of moral and Christian virtues, which sink at the first shock without it. This, therefore, is an ingredient of every perfect virtue, by which a man is ready to suffer any hardships or death, to expose himself to any dangers, and to forego all temporal advantages rather than swerve from the path of justice. By confounding rashness, inconsiderate hardiness, and fury, with courage, many form a false idea of fortitude, which is defined, “a considerate alacrity in bearing hardships and undergoing dangers.” It moderates in us the two opposite extremes of fear and confidence, it teaches us reasonably to fear dangers and death, and to decline and avoid them, when nothing obliges us to expose ourselves to them: for to be foolhardy and needlessly to precipitate ourselves upon danger, is the height of folly and vice, and the strongest mark of a corrupt and abandoned heart. But it is true fortitude to undertake and encounter all dangers, when duty or the cause of virtue requires it. How noble and heroical is this virtue of fortitude! how necessary in every Christian, especially in a pastor of souls, that neither worldly views nor fears may ever in the least warp his integrity, or blind his judgment!

St. Columba, V. M.

This saint was a holy nun in the monastery of Tabanus, who was beheaded for her faith by the Moors, under their king Mahomed, in Spain, in 853. Her body was thrown into the river Guadalquivir, but recovered by the Christians. Her relics are venerated, part in the priory of St. Columba, part in the royal abbey of our Lady at Niagara, but both in Old Castile. See St. Eulogius, Memor. l. 3, c. 10, and Suysken the Bollandist, t. 5, p. 622.

St. Hildegardis, V. Abbess

She was born of most noble parentage, in 1098, in the county of Spanheim, in the Lower Palatinate of the Rhine, and educated, from the eighth year of her age, in the monastery of the Mount of St. Disibode, under the care of a very pious nun called Jutta, her relation, and sister to the count of Spanheim. Hildegardis excited herself to a contempt of the world, by representing to herself the phrenzy which possesses a great part of mankind in the world, by what springs they are moved, how in pursuit of empty imaginary honor, or profit, they are driven into the most laborious and hazardous attempts, how easily they swallow the most bitter and poisonous pills when they are gilt over by ambition or avarice, how eagerly they hunt after the troubles of worldly greatness, and basely adore the gaudy nothings of this life. Full of gratitude to God who had rescued her out of that region of darkness, she gave herself to serve him with her whole heart. She was favored with heavenly visions, and St. Bernard, who preached the crusade in that country, examined and approved her prophetic spirit.* It belongs only to God to vouchsafe to certain souls such favors; which are to us more a subject of admiration than of edification. For any one to fall into foolish desires of walking in such wonderful ways, is a certain mark of pride and presumption, and a dangerous illusion. Simplicity and humility is the character of true piety, which aims not at extraordinary gifts above itself. Hence the patience, the mortification, the profound humility and devotion of which this saint set us the most wonderful examples, are what it concerns us chiefly to study in her life.

Being chosen abbess, she seemed still to live always in the presence of God, always united to God, always conversing interiorly with God; and with Mary at the feet of Jesus, listening to his divine instructions; yet applying herself with Martha to the active life, serving him in his spiritual daughters with so much sweetness, and attention, as if this care took up all her thought. Her community becoming much too numerous for the hermitage of Mount St. Disibode, she removed with it to Mount St. Rupert, near Binghem, so called because St. Rupert or Robert, duke of Binghem, there ended his mortal pilgrimage. St. Hildegardis wrote the life of that saint, that of St. Disibode, and several letters to the popes Eugenius III., Anastasius IV., Adrian IV., and Alexander III., the emperors Conrad III. and Frederic I., and other great personages. She changed the habit of St. Bennet for that of the Cistercians, and died on the 17th of September, in the year 1179, of her age eighty-two. See her life compiled by Theodoric, a monk, thirty years after her death: Cave, Hist. Littér, t. 2, p. 242, and her epistles Bibl. Patr. t. 23. See also Fabricius Bibl. med. et Infimæ Latinit. vol. 3, p. 773; Stilting the Bollandist, t. 5, Sept. p. 630, &c.

Saint Rouin, In Latin Rodingus, And Chrodingus

first abbot of beaulieu in argonne

He was a native of Ireland, where he embraced the monastic state, and received priesthood. Having afterwards left his own country, he retired to the monastery of Tholey in the diocess of Treves, and became a perfect model of all virtues to the monks, who, according to some writers, elected him their superior. Here he was so often interrupted by the visits of those who came from all parts to consult him, that he quitted the monastery and retired to Verdun, to be near Paul, the holy bishop of that city, where he spent two years. After this, he resolved to settle in the forest of Argonne, but being refused permission by the person to whom it belonged, he went to Rome with his disciples. Upon his return to France he obtained the consent he wished for, and taking up his residence in the forest, he there laid the foundation of the abbey of Beaulieu, which still subsists and is dependent on the congregation of St. Vannes.

The church was dedicated under the invocation of St. Maurice and his companions: and the new community soon became very generous. The holy founder was honored with the protection of king Clovis II. and his queen St. Bathildes: and was also greatly esteemed by Childeric, king of Austrasia, who confirmed the new establishment by his diploma, and endowed it with land. The saint having governed his monastery thirty years, called for a successor, and retired into a solitary place in the neighborhood, out of which he never went, except on Sundays, or when his presence was necessary in the community. He died on the 17th of September, about the year 680, at the age of eighty-six, and was buried in the church of his abbey. He is mentioned in the Gallican and Benedictine Martyrologies. See D. Menard, l. 2, Observ. in Mart. Ben. et addit. and Mabillon addit. Sec. 4, Ben.

SS. Socrates And Stephen, MM.

Their names are illustrious in the British Martyrologies. They suffered during the persecution of Dioclesian. Many churches in Wales were formerly dedicated to their memory; and they are thought to have glorified God by their death in that part of Britain. See Wilson’s English Martyrology, the Roman Martyrology, and Britannia Sancta.

* On the impression of the miraculous wounds of St. Francis, commemorated this day, see the life of that saint, Oct. 4.

* Trithemius, (Chron. Hirsang. ad an. 1147,) and after him Baillet, relate that St. Bernard visited St. Hildegardis at Mount St. Rupert. But they are solidly refuted by Stilting, p. 636, and Mabillon, or rather Martenne, t. 6. Annal. Ben. p. 410. It was at Treves that the holy doctor approved her prophetic spirit, and some of her writings which he had read there. Pope Eugenius III. did the same in the council of Treves, where he presided. (Trithem. loc cit. ad an. 1150, et Bibl. Patr. Ed. Lugd. t. 23, p. 537.) This council was held in 1147, or the beginning of 1148. (See Stilting, p. 634.) In the third book of her revelations there are some uncertain and apocryphal prophecies added by a strange hand; such as that quoted by Bzovius, ad an. 1415. See Henschen. t. 1, Mart. 7, p. 667; also Amort De Revelat. and Benedict XIV. de Canonizat.

Matthew of Westminster, ad an. 1292, attributes to St. Hildegardis the Speculum futurorum temporum; out this work was only compiled from her writings by Gebenus, prior of Ebernach, in the thirteenth century. See Bern. Pez. Thes. Anec. t. 3, part 3, p. 629. n. 14. George Ecard, t. 2, Corp. Hist. med. ævi, in Chron. Herm Cornieri, ad an. 1140; and Stilting, § 13. n. 195, 196, p. 675.

 Butler, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) III, 700-705.