Saint Tanche of Saint-Ouen

She announced early on what she would one day be, a lily among thorns, an angel among men. A model for the young girls of her age, she distinguished herself by the modesty of her attire and her gaze, by her love of silence and mortification, by her application to pious readings and prayer, by her prompt and blind obedience to the orders of her parents, and by her eagerness to relieve them in household chores or field work. Her speech was so sweet, her manners so considerate, her face reflected the purity of her soul so vividly, that it was enough to approach her to feel the influence of virtue. As the Holy Spirit led her, she felt inspired to walk in the footsteps of the Virgin Mary, to despise the world with its amusements and vanities, and to consecrate her youth and her virginity to God. From then on, the divine love that inflamed her grew every day. Each of her acts was an act of love; each beat of her heart, a burning sigh toward heaven.

She had just reached her sixteenth year when her father and mother were invited by her godfather to spend the feast of the dedication of the church of Arcis at his home. They went there and left Tanche at Saint-Ouen to look after the house. When the godfather noticed the absence of his goddaughter, he said to them: "Why did you not bring the one whom I cherish as my own daughter, and whose virtues are your joy and my own consolation? She would have edified us with her pious words and would have shared in our family feast." And immediately, he sent one of his servants with two horses to bring the young girl.

At the sight of the servant, who declared to her his master's will and her parents' consent, Tanche hesitated for some time. Should she undertake this journey alone with a stranger? Was it not prudent to remain at home? However, the will of her parents was formal; not to go was clearly to disobey. What was she to do? The thought that this man must be reliable and faithful, since his master had sent him, finally settled her indecision. She commended herself to God, mounted the horse intended for her, and departed with the servant.

They had barely traveled a few kilometers when the evil spirit took hold of the servant; and, when they had arrived at the solitary place called La Beigne, he told her clearly that he desired to please her and obtain her favors. Tanche, astonished by such discourse, firmly pointed out to him the audacity of such a proposal, the injury he was doing to his master by abusing his trust, and above all the horrible crime with which he wished to stain his soul, and which made him lose the fear of God. These words, well capable of making the culprit return to himself, only redoubled his blind passion, and he even dared to utter threats. Then, the holy young girl, seeing that she had no help to hope for from men in this solitary place, made this touching prayer in her heart: "O God, my Creator! You see the danger I am in. I cast my eyes everywhere around me, and I perceive no one coming to my aid. By your power and your infinite mercy, deliver my body and my soul from the violence of this agent of hell. Send me your Holy Spirit, who protects my chastity. Do not allow malice to triumph over my weakness, but rather let me expire with my virginal crown, and let me go to sing in the company of the wise Virgins the immortal canticle of the Lamb. O my celestial Spouse, receive my soul and admit it among your blessed spirits!"

She was about to continue her prayer, when the infamous valet, more furious than ever, cried out: "What do these prayers and tears mean? Either you will immediately obey my will, or you will fall pierced by my sword. I have waited too long, I have begged too much." — "Wretched child of Satan!" replies the Saint. "What! Does your passion blind you to this point? Neither my innocence, nor the honor of my parents, nor the fear of God has any power over your soul! I have said it, I repeat it: rather die than consent to sin!"

She was still speaking when the valet rushed at her, trying to knock her from her mount. But quicker than lightning, Tanche jumped to the opposite side, hoping to escape the violence by flight. It was in vain: the wretch was in pursuit; he reached her and a struggle ensued. Seeing finally that virtue is strong as an army set in battle array, the corrupter could no longer contain himself; he seized the hilt of his sword and inhumanly struck the virgin's face. Blood flowed in streams and exhausted her strength without diminishing her courage. Raising looks full of love toward heaven, she bent her knees, and at the same moment, her head fell under the wretch's sword. But punishment followed close upon the crime. The murderer disappeared immediately. It is said that the demon seized him on the spot. What is certain is that he never reappeared. As for the virgin, she rose, took her bloody head in her hands, and advanced for the space of two kilometers to the valley of Lhultre. Arriving near a thick hawthorn bush, she stopped and set down her burden. Tanche expired ne ar the bush where vallée de Lhultre Site of the final martyrdom and preservation of the relics. she had stopped. After her death, a great number of miracles were performed through her intercession. Here are a few of them:

A young man from Boulogne-la-Grasse, taken prisoner by the infidels, was suffering the torments of a horrible captivity; outrages and mistreatment were not spared him, and he could hardly hope for his deliverance. Deprived of all human aid, he turned toward heaven, and remembering Tanche's powerful influence with God, he besought the Lord, through the merits and mediation of this virgin, to be pleased to break his chains and restore him to liberty. His prayer was not yet finished when the chains fell from his hands. Scarcely believing in his good fortune, he flew to the door of his dungeon; it opened before him, and he was free. He came to the tomb of the virgin to give thanks to God for this signal benefit, and he delighted in proclaiming everywhere the power and goodness of his deliverer.

A young child from Vitry (Marne) was tormented by a flux of blood that the doctors could not stop. His desperate mother learned of the marvelous healings performed by Saint Tanche; she vowed her child to the virgin of Lhultre. They brought him to the tomb of the Saint; they began to pray; but far from stopping, the illness redoubled in intensity and the child expired. They were already preparing the shroud when the mother, inspired by heaven, begged that they first place her child upon the sepulcher of the Saint. They yielded to her tears; they held a procession; they sang psalms and canticles; they celebrated a solemn mass. The priest had not finished the holy sacrifice when the child rose, spoke in the presence of the stunned assembly, asked for food, and threw himself into the arms of his mother, who was drunk with joy and filled with gratitude.

Some soldiers in the retinue of Counts Raoul and Daimbert were passing through Lhultre to pillage it. Finding neither food nor money in the houses, they learned that the inhabitants had transported everything into the church to protect the little they possessed from their rapacity. They asked Raoul for permission to enter the church to search it. The count, full of respect for the patroness of the land, strongly opposed it; but he could not prevent three of these pillagers from besieging the holy place. The inhabitants had placed the reliquary of Saint Tanche at the main door as an impassable barrier; it did not, however, stop the first of the soldiers, who broke down the door and passed through. His sacrilegious audacity immediately received its punishment, for he fell backward, smashed his head, and was picked up half-dead. A second wished to do the same and suffered the same punishment. The third, frightened by the fate of his comrades, tried to enter on horseback through a side door; but, O prodigy! behold, the virgin, resplendent in glory and majesty, appeared to him, seized the mount by the bridle, and chastised the reckless horseman so severely that he remained almost lifeless on the flagstones of the temple. Having come to their senses, these wretched profaners recognized their crime and prayed to God and the Saint to forgive them. Then the blessed Martyr appeared to them again and promised them pardon if they would henceforth renounce laying a sacrilegious hand upon holy things. They returned in perfect health and proclaimed everywhere the power of God and the goodness of His servant who, in an instant, had struck them down and raised them up, chastised and healed them.

## CULT AND RELICS.

God himself attended to her burial; as with the illustrious Catherine, He entrusted this care to the angels whose chaste virtues the virgin had so perfectly imitated. And so that her tomb would not be profaned by the plowman's plow or the dwelling of animals, He immediately caused the earth to produce dense thorns, thick bushes, and tufted briars, wishing to show men through this miracle the power of virginity and the honor with which He delights to reward it. At night, luminous forms were seen there; the sick, in passing by, experienced sudden relief or a complete cure.

However, the cult of Tanche was not established. God wished to have the honors that her courage and virtue deserved rendered to His servant. He sent a heavenly vision to a pious inhabitant of Arcis, and commanded him three times to journey into the valley of Lhultre and to seek there the body of Saint Tanche. For a long time, the servant of God hesitated; having taken counsel from a holy priest who lived in the same town, and the divine will having manifested itself again, they both set out on a cart drawn by oxen. As they did not know the precise location of Tanche's burial, they let themselves be guided by these animals, which led them directly to the bush under which the holy remains rested. They dug into the ground and did not take long to discover the head and body of the virgin-martyr in a perfect state of preservation. They hastened to thank the Lord and prepared to transport the holy body to the church of Arcis. But no sooner had they arrived in front of the church of Lhultre than the oxen, despite the goad, stubbornly refused to go any further. This prodigy made them believe that the Saint wished to rest in this church, and they made it their duty to leave the precious relic there.

A multitude of miracles soon made the tomb of Saint Tanche famous. The infirm regained their health there; the blind, the storm of sight; the lame returned home healed; the possessed were delivered; prisoners who called upon Saint Tanche regained their freedom, and more than once death surrendered its victims.

Two chapels were erected in Lhultre in honor of Saint Tanche. Nothing remains of them; but on the site of one of them, the current chapel was built, which, completed on October 3, 1811, was blessed on March 19, 1812.

In 1441, the inhabitants of Isles and Ramerupt, jealous of the influx of pilgrims that the reputation of Saint Tanche attracted to Lhultre, claimed to possess her body in their church. This affair had such repercussions that Jean VII Léguisé, the seventy-fifth Bishop o f Troyes, went t Jean VII Léguisé Bishop of Troyes who authenticated the relics in 1441. o the site with his official and his promoter, and, after a serious examination, solemnly recognized the presence of the authentic relics of Saint Tanche at the chapel of Le Bouchet in Lhultre. This sentence was confirmed by a bull of Pope Nicholas V, given in Rome on July 8, 1442.

At an unknown date, the relics of Saint Tanche were transported to Troyes, and her head was religiously preserved at Notre-Dame des Nonnaines, in a gilded and silvered copper reliquary in the shape of a round tower. The nuns of this monastery celebrated her memory on April 17th of each year. A new translation took place on July 20, 1663, by M. Florentin de Hanom Laminoye, vicar general to Mgr François Malier du Houssay. The head of the Saint was placed in a rich chased silver reliquary, in the shape of a vase, supported by two angels and closed at its upper part by a crystal that allowed the precious relic to be seen. It nearly perished in the sacrilegious auto-da-fé that took place at the cathedral in 1793, which destroyed the greater part of the relics; but it was preserved by the sister of the sacristan of Saint-Pierre, Tanche Labeuveaux, of Lhultre. This pre Tanche Labeuveaux Sister of the sacristan of Saint-Pierre who saved the saint's head in 1793. cious remnant was returned to the church of Lhultre, with an authentication from M. Sibille, an intrusive bishop then occupying the see of Troyes. In 1836, M. Roisard, vicar general, performed a new recognition of the relics of Saint Tanche, and on October 3, 1840, Mgr de Séguin-des-Hons consecrated the Séguin-des-Hons Bishop who confirmed the authenticity of the relics in 1840. ir authenticity by an episcopal act, which was only published on the 10th of the same month, the day of the feast of the glorious Martyr. Finally, on October 10, 1846, a commemorative cross and a small monument were erected on the very site of the virgin's martyrdom, thanks to the munificence of M. Pierre Martin.

Even today, on the day of the patronal feast of Lhultre, the modest reliquary containing the skull of Sain t Tanche is exposed, a crâne de sainte Tanche The head of the saint, the principal relic preserved at Lhultre. nd the faithful from neighboring lands go on pilgrimage to venerate these precious remains, not only on October 10th, but also on Easter Monday and Whit Monday.

An indulgence of forty days was granted in perpetuity, by Mgr de Séguin-des-Hons, to the faithful who, suitably disposed, recite before the relics of the Saint, once the Pater and the Ave, and three times the invocation: Saint Tanche, pray for us. This indulgence may be gained three times a year: 1st on the very day of the feast of Saint Tanche (October 10th); 2nd on the Sunday to which the solemnity is transferred; 3rd on Whit Monday.

The cathedral of Troyes preserves a small portion of the bones of Saint Tanche in a small reliquary where those of Saint Jule and Saint Syre are also kept. Since May 16, 1841, the church of Vaupoissons has posse ssed a part Vaupoissons Parish of which Saint Tanche is the patron saint. of the skull of Saint Tanche, who is its patroness.

Excerpt from The Saints of Troyes, by Abbé Defer abbé Defer Author of the work 'Les Saints de Troyes', source of the biography. .