Saint Menehould of Perthes

Docile to the good movements of grace that God poured abundantly into her heart, she did not allow herself to be outdone on the path of virtue. For ten years, Ménehould and her sisters vied with holy ardor on the paths of perfection. Then, of their own accord, the seven sisters formed the design to vow their virginity to God and to take only Jesus Christ as their portion. The Bishop of Châlons, Saint Alpin, received their vow, gave them saint Alpin Bishop of Châlons who consecrated Ménehould. the veil, and blessed them. Upon returning to their paternal home, Ménehould immediately set to work to rise, with the grace of God, to the highest summit of perfection.

Her time was divided between prayer and manual labor; orison was her primary occupation. Her first care was to converse and commune in meditation with the heavenly Spouse. But as the spirit cannot always remain in the heights of contemplation, as it requires rest, and as, on the other hand, idleness is the mother of all vices, she did not disdain to handle the distaff and the spindle: the product of her labor was for the churches or for the poor. To this she added a complete, blind, and prompt obedience to her parents, and cut away, by the sword of mortification, all her evil inclinations and earthly affections. Thus, she filled the lamp of her soul with the oil of all virtues, so as to be always ready to present herself before the Spouse whenever it might please Him to call her to Himself.

One year, Sygmare brought Ménehould with him to Château-sur-Ai Château-sur-Aisne Town named in honor of the saint where she practiced her charity. sne, later called the town of Sainte-Ménehould, a place included in the government of the Perthois, of which it formed the boundaries on that side. She stayed there for some time. The vast marshes that surrounded the castle, in the middle of which the village was partly built, made the country unhealthy. Its inhabitants were often prey to pestilential diseases, caused by exhalations spread by these foul places, and by the lack of air circulation, which was too concentrated because of the surrounding woods. The daughter of Sygmare had accompanied her father to Château-sur-Aisne when the inhabitants were afflicted by a contagious disease that spread to the surrounding areas. It is said that this pious and charitable girl used all her knowledge to come to the aid of the sick, and that she managed, through her care and prayers, to turn away, if one is to believe tradition, the scourge that was devastating the town. Doubtless, from this came the devotion to Saint Ménehould against pestilential diseases, as seen in ancient litanies, where her name is invoked along with that of Saint Roch.

T he disting saint Roch Saint invoked alongside Ménehould against the plague. uished birth, the holy and exemplary life of Ménehould, her active and salutary zeal near the sick, made her regarded by the inhabitants as a tutelary angel who deserved their gratitude and homage. The fame and virtues of this virtuous girl soon spread far and wide like a perfume of holiness and charity. Everyone rushed to see and bless this benefactress and to receive the care and help that she took pleasure in lavishing on those who needed it. From then on, she was regarded as a Saint and was given the name. When the people, in their adversities, believed they should have recourse to this virgin, they commonly said that they were going to Saint Ménehould. And finally, when she left Château-sur-Aisne never to return, she left in their hearts a long memory of her benefits and her piety. One may believe that from that moment the Christian religion began to be established at Château-sur-Aisne, and that we are indebted to this holy girl for having made the light of the faith, which had not yet illuminated these regions, shine before the eyes of the inhabitants. Some historians say that Saint Alpin of Châlons drove from his diocese all the Jews who were established there. Two of these Jews lived in the village below Château-sur-Aisne. In order to escape the exile with which they were threatened, they became Christians and gave all their goods to

LIVES OF THE SAINTS. — VOLUME XII.

found a hospice which they administered, it is said, for the rest of their lives. Manuscripts state that Saint Ménehould had been the first director of this hospice, and that she had shown the example of the most perfect devotion for the relief of the sick.

If one is to believe an ancient tradition, Château-sur-Aisne is not the only place in this country that enjoyed the presence and benefits of Saint Ménehould. It is asserted that she sometimes withdrew to the hamlet called L aneuville-au-Pont, Laneuville-au-Pont Site of the fountain miracle. which was then beginning to form on the Aisne river, and that there, on a mountain known since by the name of Côte-à-Vignes, this virgin had a cell where the people would go to find her, and where it is said she performed several miraculous healings. It is told that one day, during the greatest heat, several people, after having climbed this hill, finding themselves tormented by thirst, the Saint, planting her spindle into the earth fuseau Working tool of the saint that became a relic and iconographic attribute. , caused a fountain to gush forth from it, the water of which served to quench the thirst of those who had come to visit her.

After the death of her father and mother, Ménehould remained with her two sisters Amée and Hoïde, who took care of her youth. She then retired to a small town called Bienville, l ocated on Bienville Place of retreat and death of the saint. this side of Saint-Dizier, on the banks of the Marne. There, her days passed in prayer and works of mercy towards the poor. Ménehould only survived her sisters to retrace their virtues and surpass them in holiness. Nothing equaled her profound humility, her gentleness, her charity, her inviolable purity, her complete detachment from all created things: one could not see her, hear her, without becoming better, without feeling touched by a vivid desire to imitate her. United to God by continuous prayer, the intensity of her love made her endure a kind of martyrdom. She sighed only for invisible goods. She mortified her flesh more than her sisters, and purified her soul in the sacred fire of divine love. Finally, after a pure, fervent life, entirely filled with good works and virtues, worthy in a word to be presented to God, she left the earth to go and enjoy in heaven the presence of Him who is the joy of His Saints. She died at Bienville, at an advanced age, on October 14 around the year 490.

A painting, which can be seen in the church of Laneuville-au-Pont, depicts her striking the ground with her spindle to make a spring gush forth, with amazed figures near her. — The stained-glass window in the sanctuary of the church of Bienville represents twelve of the main features of the Saint's life.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The body of Saint Ménehould, buried in the church of Bienville, rested there until 866, at which time it was transported wit h pomp to the monastery o monastère de Saint-Urbain Site of the translation of relics in 866. f Saint-Urbain, through the care of Eichenraus, the thirty-second bishop of Châlons. Long after, on October 14, 1380, under Archambaud, also bishop of Châlons, an arm and a rib of the Saint were given to the town, which prides itself on bearing her name. Every year, since that time, the feast of the virgin of Bienville is celebrated solemnly at Sainte-Ménehould on October 14, and her relics, formerly deposited in a very well-sculpted wooden reliquary, are exposed during the octave in a chapel where a large number of country inhabitants have always been seen flocking to offer their vows and prayers to this virgin. Subsequent to this donation, the abbey of Saint-Urbain presented the same town with a spindle that the Saint fuseau Working tool of the saint that became a relic and iconographic attribute. had used, and this new gift, joined to the first, was enclosed in the same reliquary, which allowed these objects to be seen under glass for the veneration of the people. Each year, on the day of the Assumption, the reliquary of Saint Ménehould was carried in procession through the main streets, and also venerated for some time in each individual church. It was repeated the following day, the feast of Saint Roch, in memory of a pestilential disease that once devastated the country, and from which it is said to have been delivered by the intercession of Saint Ménehould and Saint Roch. It is one of these religious ceremonies that was seen represented on an immense painting hanging on the walls of the chapel where the exposition of the Saint's arm takes place, and where her statue is placed. In 1793, sacrilegious hands dispersed these holy relics. However, some pious people collected fragments of them, which are exposed to the gaze and public veneration during the octave of this patron saint of the town.

The place where the Saint caused a fountain to spring forth, located, as we have said, on a hill called Côte-à-Vigues, near Laneuville-au-Pont, has always been and is still today frequently visited by many pilgrims, by the inhabitants of the town and neighboring lands who are accustomed to going there to invoke her. There, in the niche of the fountain, the statue of Saint Ménehould, whom the people call the good virgin of Côte-à-Vigues, is kept and maintained with care. Those who make the pilgrimage devoutly take water from this fountain, which they regard as consecrated by the charity of our Saint. The inhabitants of this town celebrate every year, in a solemn manner, the feast of Saint Ménehould, who, however, is not the patron saint of their parish, but in memory of her benefits and her ancient protection. M. Tostin, former parish priest of Laneuville-au-Pont, had a cast-iron staircase placed with steps also made of cast iron, on each of which is engraved in relief an invocation from the Litanies of the most holy Virgin Mary, to ascend from the bottom of the hill to the miraculous fountain.

In 1849, a small chapel was erected in Bienville, in honor of Saint Ménehould; it is visited by many pilgrims, the sick, and others. It is located near a fountain that bears the name of Fontaine de Sainte-Ménébould, from which water is drawn almost every day, for the intention of certain variously afflicted sick people.

Her cult has survived all the revolutions of time and human passions; it has spread far and wide: it is seen in honor as far as Pulluau, in Berry.

Saint Ménehould is the patron saint of lantern makers and lamp lighters.

Taken from Beautés de l'histoire de la Champagne, by M. l'abbé Beitel, and from a brochure entitled: Souvenirs historiques de sainte Ménébould, vierge, patronne de Bienville, by the parish priest of Bienville. — Cf. Vies des Saints de la Haute-Marne, by M. l'abbé Godard, and Diocèse ancien de Châlons-sur-Marne, by Edouard de Barthélemy.