Saint Hiltrude

A few years later, the first buildings of the monastery of Liessies were seen rising, which, monastère de Liessies Site of a monastic foundation and the saint's burial place. in time, would enjoy such just celebrity. Wibert and Ada intended it for their son Guntard. This young and virtuous lord had formed the plan to retire into this solitude, to devote himself there entirely to the service of God, and to live in complete withdrawal from the world. Saint Hiltrude, his sister, would have liked to follow his example; but, before obtaining this favor, she had to undergo some trials that would give her virtue an even brighter luster.

This young virgin, raised in the paternal home with all the care and vigilance that Christian parents bring to the fulfillment of this important duty, grew up before their eyes in wisdom and piety. She united to all the virtues of her sex the most brilliant qualities. Thus, her name did not take long to be known in the neighboring lands, and her parents soon found themselves solicited by different lords who desired to marry her. The biographer of the Saint points out in particular a Burgundian nobleman, called Hugh, who belonged to one of the most Hugues Brother of Odile who interceded for her return. important houses of the kingdom.

Wibert and Ada would have seen with pleasure the alliance of their daughter with this young lord, and they did not hesitate to manifest their intention and their desires to her in this regard. But the virtuous Hiltrude had already made to God the sacrifice of her virginity, and she was resolved to belong to Him entirely until her last breath. "My dear parents," she replied then with modesty, "you ask me what I think of the proposal you make to me; I will tell you frankly. For a long time I have loved Jesus Christ above all things; I have given Him my faith; it is with Him that I ardently desire to contract an alliance. If you truly love me, if you treat me as your daughter, if you do not separate me from Him whom I have chosen for my Spouse, I will always be your child: if, on the contrary, you wished to constrain my will, how could I believe that I am still your daughter?" These words made a deep impression on the minds of Saint Hiltrude's parents: they knew, moreover, that her brother Guntard shared her sentiments and helped her with his advice and his influence.

However, the urgings of Wibert and his wife Ada continued and became ever more pressing. The virtuous Hiltrude, who loved them dearly, deeply regretted the pain that her persistent refusals seemed to cause them; but her trust in God and complete abandonment to His will strengthened her soul and made her capable of the most heroic resolutions. One day, therefore, when more vivid fears regarding the new solicitations she was about to face took hold of her mind, she formed the plan to withdraw for some time into an unknown solitude, in order to express in this way to her family how fixed and irrevocable her resolution was. She communicated her plan to several people who had her trust, and withdrew with them into a small nearby wood, where they built themselves a dwelling.

The anxiety and grief of the parents were great when they noticed the flight of their beloved daughter. They easily guessed the motive that had determined her to take this step, and their sincere piety filled them involuntarily with admiration for such courageous virtue. On the other hand, they feared that a positive refusal might irritate the young Burgundian leude, to whom they had given cause for hope. Such was their position, when a thought that God suggested to them came to put an end to this embarrassment and to the perplexities of Saint Hiltrude.

Wibert and Ada had another daughter, called Berthe, who, like her sister, united the most beautiful qualities of heart and mind with eminent pi ety. T Berthe Wife of Æthelberht and daughter of the King of Paris, she facilitated her husband's conversion. hey conceived the thought of giving her as a wife to the young Hugues, in place of Hiltrude, who still persisted in her resolution to consecrate herself solely to God.

Whether the prayers of the virgin of Liessies had disposed the heart of the noble Burgundian to this sacrifice, or whether he was himself animated by great religious sentiments, he consented to this determination. He accepted the virtuous Berthe as his wife, and left Saint Hiltrude the freedom to follow the path of perfection to which heaven was calling her.

Not long after these events, Saint Hiltrude, having returned to her father's house, obtained the permission she had so long desired to go and live in retreat and the practice of works of piety. Her own parents begged the venerable Bishop of Cambrai, Alberic, to give her the veil of virgins, after which she withdrew into a small cell adjoining the monastery of Liessies, which was governed by her brother Guntard.

From this momen t on, t Guntard Brother of Saint Hiltrude and first abbot of the monastery of Liessies. he life of the blessed Hiltrude was devoted to acts of charity and religion. Her fasts were frequent, her prayers continual, her union with God uninterrupted. Often she was seen with her venerable brother Guntard, conversing about the things of heaven, and mutually inciting each other to the love of God and to ever more ardent desires for the heavenly homeland. One might have said it was Saint Benedict and his sister Saint Scholastica speaking together of the things of eternity. For seventeen years, these pious conferences continued and developed in these two holy souls an ever-new emulation to reach the perfection of their state.

Saint Hiltrude, although she was still at a young age, was already ripe for heaven, and God was about to call her to the eternal reward for which she sighed. A lingering illness gradually reduced her to extreme weakness. In her final moments, she had the consolation of seeing all her family and the religious of the Liessies community gathered around her bed. It was before their eyes and amidst their prayers that she peacefully surrendered her soul to her Creator, on the twenty-seventh day of September, around the year 785.

Her body was placed in the church of Liessies, near the altar. These words were read on her tomb: "Here was deposited, on the 5th of the Kalends of October, the body of the virgin Hiltrude."

## CULT AND RELICS. Numerous healings performed at the tomb of Saint Hiltrude made her memory dear to the populations of Hainaut. These multiplied wonders determined the Bishop of Cambrai, Erlum, to raise this holy body from the earth and place it in a reliquary. This ceremony was performed with solemnity and amidst a great gathering of the faithful on September 17, 1604. The reliquary was placed behind the high altar, which was under the invocation of Saint Lamber saint Lambert Bishop and martyr, co-patron of Liessies. t, Bishop of Maastricht and martyr. In 1128, these relics were placed in a new reliquary of magnificent workmanship, which had been given by Agnes, Countess of Avesnes. It was subsequently replaced by another even more beautiful one, executed in Paris by order of the Abbot of Liessies, Antoine de Winghe. This is the one that was preserved until the time of the Revolution of 1793. The relics of the Saint were not immediately placed in this reliquary. It was not until May 12, 1637, that the Archbishop of Cambrai, François Vander-Burch, proceeded with this ceremony in the city of Mo ns. Mons Site of John's first monastic retreat. A feast was celebrated each year at Liessies in memory of the day when the body of Saint Hiltrude was raised from the earth. It had been transferred to the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension, because it happened quite often that the feast of Saint Lambert, another patron of Liessies, fell on the seventeenth day of September, the anniversary of this solemnity. This feast, as well as that of September 27, which recalled the day of the blessed passing of Saint Hiltrude, were celebrated with Vigil and Octave. The populations of the neighboring countries flocked to Liessies on those days to commend themselves to the protection of their patron saint. Many pilgrims, after paying their respects to her, went out of devotion to draw water from a fountain about half a league away. An ancient tradition reports that Saint Hiltrude, when she left her father's house so as not to marry the lord Huguet, had drunk from this water, and that God, in consideration of her, had given the fountain the property of healing the sick, and particularly those who were attacked by fever. Saint Hiltrude has long had a proper office in the diocese of Cambrai. Her memory was formerly honored in the city of Douai, where some of her relics were possessed. There were also some in Mons, in an oratory that the abbots of Liessies had built to retreat to at the approach of the wars so frequent during the 18th century. A large number of miracles, performed through the protection of Saint Hiltrude, have made her cult very famous in the northern regions. These healings or these signaled marks of the protection of the virgin of Liessies have been collected by different historians, for the most part contemporaries. Taken from the Life of the Saints of Cambrai and Arras, by Abbé Doutombes.