Saint Bandry

Clotaire immediately condemned the bishop to exile, without having convened a synod to examine his cause. Bandry, driven from the episcopal residence, reached the seashore to the west, and there, having found a vessel ready to set sail for th e land of the Anglo-Sa terre des Anglo-Saxons Country of origin of Blessed Ralph. xons, he boarded it, after having inscribed on a rock on the shore the year, the day, and the hour of his departure.

Having disembarked, he first wandered at random, then he presented himself at the gate of an abbey and asked to be admitted as a religious, without making known the dignity with which he was invested. He was given the office of gardener,

and, for seven years, he performed these arduous duties with zeal and intelligence. God rewarded him by granting him the gift of miracles. He healed the sick either by laying his hands on them or by having them take a drink he had prepared.

However, the diocese of Soissons was prey to all sorts of calamities. Famine and an epidemic disease, lues forte inguinaria, were decimating these unfortunate populations who viewed these scourges as a punishment for the unjust exile of their bishop. Clotaire, moved by their clamors and supplications, revoked his sentence.

For a long time, the place of Bandry's retreat was sought in vain. Finally, the emissaries having discovered by chance the inscription written on the rock, traveled to England.

One day, having entered a monastery to pray to God to favor their search, they heard one of the brothers calling Bandry. Surprised to hear a name pronounced that was known to them, they turned around to see which monk would answer the call, and recognizing their bishop, they threw themselves at his knees, conjuring him with tears to return with them to Soissons. "What you ask, my children, is impossible! Shall I leave the father that God has given me and who has deigned to welcome me, a stranger and wandering traveler, to return to those who drove me away like a mad dog? I no longer belong to myself; I have vowed obedience to the abbot of this holy house."

They immediately ran to inform the abbot of what was happening; and Bandry, released from his engagements by his superior, left the monastery. All the monks accompanied him to the shore, where he embarked to return to his diocese (554).

Warned of his imminent return, the inhabitants of Soissons flocked to meet him. Arriving in the forest of Retz, at a place named Aisdin, Auditin or Audin (Aidisiu s, Aiditius), forêt de Retz Forest massif where the saint's hermitage was located. near the road that goes from Paris to Soissons, six miles or three leagues from the latter city, the multitude found itself prey to an ardent thirst, caused by fatigue and excessive heat (locus in silva Rhetia positus inter Vouldremum et capellam Metairicam). The Saint was touched with compassion; he thrust his staff into the ground and implored the help of heaven while making the sign of the cross. Immediately, an abundant spring gushed from the parched soil and the people quenched their thirst, shouting cries of joy and gratitude. This miraculous fountain still exists and is known by the name of the fountain or chapel of Mantard (Metairicam) or Demantard; it must not be confused with the fountain of Saint-Blaise which is found in the village of Arthèse, today called Saint-Bandry. The Mantard fountain became a place of pilgrimage. Every year, the par ish priest o Saint-Bandry Village named in honor of the saint, formerly Arthèse. r prior of the village of Arthèse (called today Saint-Bandry) came the day after Pentecost, with all his flock, on a pilgrimage to the Mantard or Demantard chapel, two leagues away from Arthèse. Mass was celebrated there and solemn supplications were addressed to the holy bishop of Soissons. (Very recently, the president of the archaeological society of Soissons discovered tombs in the middle of the ruins of the Mantard chapel). Muldrac, in the Royal Valois and in the chronicle of Longpont, also speaks of the Mantard chapel. It is therefore not at Arthèse that the holy bishop performed the miracle of the fountain, but ten leagues further away and quite close to Longpont, as we have indicated above.

The exiled Saint was received in Soissons with enthusiasm by the people and the clergy, both of the canonical and monastic orders; upon his return to his episcopal city, the plagues ceased their ravages.

His authority grew even further through the new miracles of which he was the instrument. The only daughter of Chlothar I was possessed by a demon, and she was inwardly driven to throw herself into water or fire. Bandry having delivered her through his prayers, the king, in recognition of this benefit, had his notary write a prescription (præceptum) by virtue of which Bandry would enter into possession of the fisc of Celles near Condé and several other lands. The generous prelate in turn donated them to the basilica of Saint-Crépin. He took advantage of the favor he had regained with the king to advance the construction of his cathedral begun by that prince, and also to found the abbey of Saint-Crépin-le-Grand.

An imposing ceremony further illustrated the episcopate of Saint Bandry: this was the translation to the fisc of Crouy of the body of the bishop of Noyon, Saint Médard, who saint Médard Bishop of Noyon who consecrated Radegund as a deaconess. died at the castle of Noyon around the year 543 (others push back his death to 558). We refer to the life of Saint Médard (June 8) for the details of this translation, which gave Chlothar a new opportunity to show his generous inclinations. The king donated the entire fisc of Crouy to Saint Médard, reserving only for himself and his successors the palace he was accustomed to inhabit. While awaiting the erection of a basilica, the coffin or shrine of the Saint was placed in a hut of foliage. Monks of Saint Benedict were called to serve their future basilica, and construction began immediately on this monastery of which Chlothar I is the founder. The king's tomb was placed in front of that of Saint Médard. Sigebert completed the construction of the church and the monastery.

About three or four years after performing the funeral honors for Clotaire I, who died at Compiègne in 561 or 562, Saint Bandry died of fever on August 1, 566, and was buried at Saint-Crépin-le-Grand, near the altar of the Blessed Virgin, as he had requested. The numerous miracles that occurred at his tomb led the abbot of Saint-Crépin, Anselme, to exhume his body in 1044 and place it in a magnificent reliquary where gold and precious stones shone. The Calvinists seized the reliquary in 1567 and threw the Saint's bones to the ground, which Dom Lépaulard, prior of Saint-Crépin, took care to enclose in another gilded wooden reliquary in 1567. Until the French Revolution, the inhabitants of Saint-Bandry (formerly Arthèse) had the privilege of carrying the body of Saint Bandry, their patron, in the general procession of the religious of Saint-Crépin on the Monday within the octave of the Ascension. Today, the city of Soissons no longer possesses any of the precious remains of this holy and celebrated pontiff.

In the ancient Soissons rite, the feast of Saint Bandry was celebrated on August 2, which was the day after his death. Since the return to the Roman breviary, the Soissons Proper sets his feast on the ninth day of August. Baillet, that other seeker of Saints, had struck Saint Bandry from his hagiographic calendar. But at no time was the celebration of his feast interrupted in the diocese of Soissons. It was Nicolas de Beaufort, a Johannite r eligious of Soisson Nicolas de Beaufort Johannite religious and author of the legend of Saint Bandry. s, who wrote the legend of Saint Bandry that the Bollandists inserted into the Acta Sanctorum, and this is not the only important piece for which these tireless hagiographers are indebted to this pious and learned man from Soissons.

We owe this biography to M. Henri Conguel, of the chapter of Soissons. — Cf. Annales du diocèse de Soissons, by the Abbé Pâcheur.