Saint Liberata

Abbé Barrère wrote to us from Agen on August 11, 1871, regarding Saint Livrade:

"Everything leads me to believe that our Saint Livrade is the same as Wi lgefortis, Vilgeforte Sister of Saint Gemma. otherwise Liberata, Liberada, and Livrada, honored in Spain and Portugal, and under other names in Germany, Flanders, and England, to whom heaven had suddenly sent a long beard to help her preserve her virginity.

"A vague tradition makes her the sister of Saint Quiteria. I have even seen this point affirmed by a document that the former parish priest of Sainte-Livrade possessed.

"Tamayus, cited by the Bollandists, also says that Wilgefortis, or Livrada, was the sister of Saint Quiteria, as well as Dode and Genivera. Tamayus, citing the Breviaries of Siguenza and Palencia, makes Saint Quiteria and her sisters the offspring of Catil lius and Catillius Pagan king of Galicia and father of the saint. Calsia. Although this origin has something fabulous in its form, I do not believe it to be any less true in its substance.

"The Rubem Vallis manuscripts in Brabant, and Bodecensium in Westphalia, which had adopted the Spanish version, add that Calsia was descended from the race of the Emperor Julian, and that Saint Quiteria suffered martyrdom in 477.

"This version states that the daughters of Catillius, to escape the dangers of their idolatrous family, withdrew to various places, where they suffered martyrdom. It is thus that Saint Quiteria was allegedly martyred near Aire, Dode in the diocese of Auch, and Saint Livrade in the Agenais.

"As for the German legend, relating to the sort of metamorphosis that our Saint allegedly underwent, I only knew of it through a communication from Munich."

For Saints whose history is obscure, but whose cult is popular, we can do nothing other than collect the traditions and place, as they say, all the pieces of the trial before the reader's eyes. We will therefore insert here a note on Saint Livrade, which the Rev. Fr. Carles, missionary at the Calvary of Toulouse, had the kindness to extract for us from a notice on the relics of Grand-Selve and which he sent to us on March 1, 1872.

"Saint Liberata, commonly Livrade, was born in the 4th century, in Spain, to idolatrous parents. Her father, Catilius, king of Galicia, and her mother, Callia, were b itter Galice Region of Spain home to Compostela. enemies of the Christian name. By an effect of His infinite mercy, God permitted Liberata to receive, along with the light of faith, the benefit of Christian instruction. Pressed to renounce her faith to sacrifice to the gods, Liberata secretly departed from Galicia with her two sisters Quiteria and Gemma, and went to settle in Aquitaine. These three young vows propagated the evangelical doctrine among the pagan populations and made a great number of proselytes. Catilius, informed of everything, denounced his three daughters to the governor of Aquitaine, Modérias, who subjected th em to th Modérias Governor of Aquitaine who ordered the martyrdom. e customary tortures and had their heads cut off. Saint Liberata suffered her martyrdom in the forest of Montus, in the diocese of Tarbes. Her body was initially collected in the church of Saint-Jean de Masères, and transferred, in 1342, to a chapel of the abbey of Saint-Sever de Rustau, by Pierre-Raymond de Mode-Brâne, bishop of Tarbes, as results from an inscription engraved on the lid of the white marble reliquary where it is enclosed. At the time of the wars of religion between the Catholics and the Protestants, the body of Saint Liberata was taken back to Masères, where it still remains. The abbey of Grand-Selve had possessed for several centuries a notable part of the body of this Saint, and, in the seventeenth century, the abbot gave a fairly considerable section of it to the inhabitants of Sainte-Livrade, in the Agenais, who from then on took her as the patron saint of their town and even gave it her name. Saint Liberata is held in great honor throughout Aquitaine, like her sister Saint Quiteria. Women in labor invoke her for their delivery. Several churches are dedicated to her in the south of France."

Finally, Father Cahier, second to none when it comes to dressing up medieval legends in a modern way and preserving all their inimitable charm while translating them; — Father Cahier expresses himself thus in his *Caractéristiques des Saints*:

Saint Liberata is depicted bearded and dying on a cross. Quite wonderful things are told about her, but they must be seen above all in the old Spanish and Portuguese authors, who did not spare the extraordinary for their privileged saints. She was, it is said, the daughter of a pagan king of Lusitania who, having had his states invaded by a king of Sicily, promised him Vilgeforte as a wife in order to have peace. The princess, not knowing how to escape this marriage, is said to have prayed to God to come to her aid, and a long beard suddenly covered her chin. Furious at this unexpected resource that the Saint had found, her father had her crucified. To these already very strange facts, the imagination of the legend-writers wanted to add many other embellishments that antiquity did not know; so that it resulted in a compound of circumstances all more singular than the others. The church of Siguenza, which honors this Saint as patroness under the name of *Liberata* (Librada), does not profess to believe in all the additions that have increased this account.

According to others, the extraordinary resource of Saint Vilgeforte was intended to escape the solicitations of her own father; but it is above all in the countries of the North that this legend flourished. There, the name *Liberata* given to the Saint because of the way in which heaven had rid her of the marriage, caused her to be called something like Saint *Débarras* (Uncumber). This became in Germany: Obakummer, Obakumernuss, Kummernis, Kummernissa, Sanct-Gebulf; in Flanders: Ontcommera, Onkommere, Ontcommene, Regenflegis, Regnuftedis; in England: Saint Uncumber; in France: Sainte Livrade; and in different countries, for liturgical books: Liberata, Liberatrix, Eutropis, etc. As a result of this denomination, the idea had come to England that the Saint could be particularly helpful to women who wanted to get rid of their husbands. The *Revue britannique* has devoted some details to this singular English devotion and to the primitive legend.

“For my part, I am inclined to believe that this crown, this beard, this robe, and this cross, which have been taken for the insignia of a miraculous princess, are merely a diversion of piety toward the famous crucifix of L ucca. I Lucques City in Italy where Saint Zita lived and died. t is known that devotion to this image of Jesus Christ crucified was very widespread in the 13th century; so much so that the King of England, William Rufus, would readily swear b y the Holy Face of Luc saint Voult de Lucques Clothed and crowned crucifix, possible origin of the legend of the bearded saint. ca. Now, this famous crucifix, like several others of that time, is entirely robed and crowned. At a distance of time and place, the long garment will have suggested a woman, and the beard will have earned her the qualification of the Strong Virgin. Let us add that the crucifix of Lucca having been shod in silver to prevent the deterioration that its feet might suffer under the kisses of numerous pilgrims, this new circumstance will have turned even more to the greater glory of Saint Wilgefortis. It has been said that a poor minstrel, having come to play a tune before the statue of the Saint, was rewarded with one of her rich slippers. This miracle, also attributed to a pilgrimage of the Most Holy Virgin, has every appearance of having been born at the sanctuary of the santo volto di Lucca, from where it will have made its way through the Slavic and Germanic countries.”