Saint Thierry of Cambrai

The few events found in his life are almost all linked to the general history of the Church of France at that time; and it is hardly possible to report them in a simple notice with the necessary details they entail. Here, in a few words, is what in these facts may interest and edify the reader.

When some bishops of France, led astray above all by the perfidious machinations of Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims, failed in the respe ct and obedience they owed Ebbon, archevêque de Reims Archbishop of Reims deposed for his treason against Louis the Pious. to Louis the Pious, Thierry, although he had received episcopal unction from the hands of Ebbo, did not let himself be drawn in and remained always faithful to his legitimate prince. Later, at the Council of Thionville, he subscribed with his other colleagues to the sentence of deposition pronounced against the Archbishop of Reims, which the latter then acknowledged having justly deserved. Among the particular judges that Ebbo had chosen in this circumstance figures Saint Thierry of Cambrai and Arras. This preference honors this worthy prelate too much not to point it out (835).

Saint Thierry was also present at the council held in Paris in 845, in which wise provisions were taken to remedy the numerous evils that afflicted the Church and the State. A few years later (849), he went to the royal house of Quercy-sur-Oise, where an assembly of bishops had been convened to condemn the errors of Gottschalk and to oppose the disorders that this turbulent and impetuous monk was causing everywhere. In another council held at Soissons on April 22 of the year 853, Bishop Thierry presented a document in which were reported all the details of the deposition of Ebbo, at which he had been present. "What I have seen and heard," he said aloud in the midst of the assembly, "I bear witness to and I report in writing." The famous Lupus of Ferrières, who was also present at this council, then took the document from the hands of the prelate and read this account of the deposition of Ebbo and his restoration, "so contrary to the canonical rules," said Saint Thierry, "that Pope Sergius had paid no regard to it and had granted Ebbo only lay communion." T he wisdom of pape Sergius Pope mentioned in relation to the canonical status of Ebbo. the venerable Bishop of Cambrai and Arras contributed much then to the restoration of peace.

Despite the manifold occupations and continual anxieties that besieged him on all sides, Saint Thierry still found time to satisfy his piety and that of his flock, by rendering to the relics of the Saints the homage and respect due to them. He had the consolation of raising from the earth the body of Saint Livinus, in the vi llage of Hou saint Liévin Missionary saint whose body was exhumed by Theodoric. thoin, in the territory of Aalst, and of publicly acknowledging there the miracles and healings that often occurred at the tomb of this martyred missionary saint. At the sound of the ravages already being caused by the Normans on the coasts of Morinia and in the neighboring regions, the monks of Saint-Vaast of Arras thought to put the Saint-Vaast d'Arras Predecessor whose relics were translated by Aubert. body of their venerable patron in safety. They begged Saint Thierry to raise this precious body himself. The prelate kindly acceded to their request, and performed this touching ceremony, not without feeling in his heart a profound sadness at the sight of the evils that were beginning to afflict France. After enclosing these sacred remains in a coffin, in the midst of an immense crowd of weeping spectators, Saint Thierry, accompanied by the monks, transported it himself as far as Beauvais.

But it was not only the pirates who stirred up disorder and afflicted the hearts of the bishops. There were also at that time a great number of unruly and greedy lords, who indulged in all sorts of vexations and rapine. One man of the region, in particular, did not cease to ravage the lands dependent on the Church of Arras and to exercise continual violence there. Saint Thierry first used all the means that his spirit of gentleness and patience suggested to him. He addressed wise warnings to this man, suited to touch him, and at the same time invited him to come to him. But the latter refused obstinately, despite all the entreaties that could be made: then, when he learned that excommunication had been launched against him, he vomited against the holy Pontiff all the insults that his blind fury inspired in him. Driven, so to speak, by a rage of greed and hatred, he gave himself over, from that moment, to new and more criminal acts of violence. But God permitted shortly after that he perished in a tragic manner, and with circumstances in which everyone recognized an effect of divine justice.

In the midst of all these pains and solicitudes of the episcopal ministry, Saint Thierry found the sweetest consolations in prayer. "Often," continues Balderic, in his chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, "he prolonged his orison well into the night. He was even sometimes rapt in ecstasy." The worthy bishop also found in the friendship of his metropolitan, the famous Hincmar of Reims, a relief in the pains of his laborious episcopate. The wri tings of the lea Hincmar de Reims Archbishop of Reims, a central figure in theological and political debates. rned archbishop of Reims prove that he bore a keen interest in Saint Thierry, that he felt a profound respect for his virtue, and had a sincere friendship for him.

The venerable bishop of Cambrai and Arras was already quite advanced in age when he had to travel to a place in his diocese, which the authors do not specify. It was, in all appearance, to fulfill some functions of his ministry there.

As he arrived at some distance from this place, he told those who accompanied him that an accident threatened him. They immediately insisted on preventing him from going further, but Saint Thierry replied to them with calm: "We must not seek to evade the will of God who strikes us to heal us, who wounds us to then bring us the remedy." Scarcely had he finished these words when a beggar appeared before him and greeted him with respect. The mule upon which the holy old man was mounted was frightened by the gestures of this man, and in the movement it made, it threw him into the arms of his people who had rushed to prevent his fall. All hastened to carry the holy bishop to a nearby place to have his broken thigh set, and to give him the other aid that his condition required.

This accident likely hastened the death of Saint Thierry, who surrendered his soul to his Creator on August 5, 862 or 863, after an episcopate of approximately thirty-two years. His body was placed in the cemetery of the monastery of Saint-Aubert, and remained there until the time of Bishop Fulbert. At that time, it was transported to the city of Magdeburg, in Saxony, to satisfy Emperor Otto the Great, who had requested relics for th e churches Magdebourg Archiepiscopal see where Norbert was appointed. of that city which he had just founded.

Taken from the Life of the Saints of the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras, by Abbé Destombes.