Saint Winnoc, Abbot of Wormhoudt

After traveling a great distance, they finally arrived in 679 in the diocese of Thérouanne, where fame had taught them with what edification monastic discipline was seen to flourish there. Indeed, Saint Bert in was livin saint Bertin Saint whose relics were protected by Folquin. g at that time and governing th e monastery of Sith monastère de Sithiu Burial place of Saint Folquin. iu, in the current diocese of Arras, which he had built. The sweet odor that the holiness of his life spread in all directions had attracted a great number of disciples to the practice of the counsels of the Gospel. These young children, for that is how they must be called according to the acts of Saint Bertin, abandoned themselves to the guidance of this excellent master, who taught them to bear the yoke of Jesus Christ Règle de Saint-Benoît Monastic rule followed by Winnoc. under the Rule of Saint Benedict, and showed them by his actions, even more than by his words, in what manner one had to practice the holy laws of religious life. It was not long before he noticed, with astonishment, that they had reached a sublime perfection from the very beginning of their consecration to God. Therefore, judging them capable of leading a more retired life, he assigned them a particular place where he ordered them to build themselves a small monastery, in which they could then occupy themselves solely with God.

To obey the orders of their father, they built in the same country a small building suitable for their purpose, on a height then called Grunobergue, which has since borne the name of Saint-Winnoc. It is still called today Bergues-Sain t-Winnoc (Nord depar Bergues-Saint-Winnoc Town where the relics were transferred and where the abbey was established. tment, diocese of Cambrai). These four servants of God remained there for some time and lived there as men crucified to the world, and for whom the world was crucified.

There was in the same region a man to whom the title of illustrious is given, called Heremar, distinguished by his wealth and estimable for his good morals. He offered to Saint Winnoc a land under his dependency, named Wormhoudt (Nord), si tuated on Wormhoudt Site of the primary foundation and death of Saint Winnoc. the bank of the small river called La Peene. Saint Winnoc, detached from the goods of this world, sent Heremar to his abbot Saint Bertin, who accepted his donation. The deed was drawn up in the monastery of Sithiu itself, on November 4, 693. It can be seen from this foundation that Wormhoudt was at first a dependency of the Abbey of Saint-Bertin. The monastery that Saint Winnoc built there, as we shall see, was later destroyed by the Normans in 880, and was subsequently a provostship of the church of Bergues-Saint-Winnoc. Saint Bertin, after having accepted the foundation made by Heremar, sent Saint Winnoc and his companions to Wormhoudt, to whom he gave orders to build a house for the poor, with a monastery and a church in honor of Saint Martin. These four holy friends worked tirelessly to build the apartments where Jesus Christ was to be received and served in the person of the poor, and the regular places where the religious devoted to perfection could practice their exercises with fervor and without importunity. The house of God was completed in a short time by the hands of these holy workers, whose ardent charity was building at the same time in their hearts a temple to the Holy Spirit, where divine love burned until the last breath of their lives.

The three companions of Saint Winnoc, a little older than him, finished their holy career in this place, and the Abbot Saint Bertin, knowing all the merit of Saint Winnoc, placed him at the head of the community that had formed there. He governed it with a gentleness and humility that showed in him a perfect disciple of Him who said: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart." He considered that there was nothing more noble than to serve his brothers, since Jesus Christ himself had protested that he had come to serve and not to be served. As his charity was not feigned, he exercised hospitality with a promptness and outpouring of heart that clearly showed he considered himself happy on the day he could merit receiving Jesus Christ by receiving a guest for the love of Him. He willingly took upon himself all the labors that seemed too arduous for his brothers; and what surpassed their strength was light to his fervor and his humility. Thus, God granted him the gift of miracles, in order to make illustrious in the eyes of others him who was so small in his own eyes.

Having reached old age, he did not complain that age weighed him down, and, overwhelmed as he was by the number of his years, he walked with a firmer step in the way of perfection, and did not diminish any of the labors of his state. He even practiced the most arduous and humiliating ones at that age. It is reported of him that, in the last days of his life, an invisible help came to his aid, and that the millstone he was accustomed to turning went without him putting his hands to it. He blessed God for the favor He showed him, and never ceased to raise to heaven, in thanksgiving, the pure and innocent hands that God had delivered from this work. The religious were surprised, and with reason, to see that a man so weak and so broken by austerities, labors, and years, could endure a fatigue such as the one he had willingly taken upon himself. It is said that one of them, driven by curiosity, went to look secretly at what was being done in the place where the holy abbot was working. He had the satisfaction of seeing the marvelous movement of the millstone for only a moment, for he was immediately struck with blindness. The holy abbot healed him through his prayers and the sign of the cross, after having forgiven his rash curiosity.

He never manifested resentment, nor malice. His great care was to make himself lovable rather than formidable, and it was for this reason that he believed himself destined to render services rather than to receive those of others. His royal birth did not lead him to prefer himself to those of the lowest condition, whom it pleased God to call to the same profession as him. The serenity of his spirit was marked by the cheerfulness of his face. He was firm and unshakable in his faith, of a hope that nothing could discourage, and of a boundless charity. Happy successes did not lead him to exalt himself, and unfortunate events did not cast him down. In counsel, his views went far, and, in execution, he was diligent and indefatigable. Finally, armed with all spiritual weapons, he successfully waged a continual war against the powers hostile to our salvation. But, although a victor, he groaned incessantly, and, sighing after the happy abode where one no longer has to fight, he said to God: "Deliver, Lord, deliver my soul from this prison, so that it may occupy itself eternally only with your praises." God heard him and called him to Himself on November 6 of the year 717.

Let us say a word about his posthumous glory. The Legendary of Morinie reports the details of an extraordinary healing that well deserves to be noted. "A lame man, long deprived of the use of his feet and weary from an incessant trembling of the head and hands, to the point that he could barely utter a word with a jerky voice, and his hands would let slip what they thought they were holding, wished to go to the venerable tomb of Saint Winnoc. And, while the brothers who inhabited this place were celebrating the Vigils of the feast of Easter, led by the hands of others, he came into the church to implore with tears the clemency of the almighty Lord, asking Him, through the merits of His glorious confessor Winnoc, to restore the use of their functions to his limbs, which were fatigued by an intolerable illness. The merciful Lord, who does not forget the prayer of the poor and who comes to help us in our tribulations at the opportune moment, heard the unfortunate man who prayed to Him through the merits of the blessed Winnoc. Indeed, when the reading of the Gospel was finished, which, according to custom, took place during the night in this church, after the chanting of the office, the infirm man was surrounded by an immense light, then he saw two arrows of fire come to him from each side and head toward his ears.

One having entered through his right ear and the other having penetrated his left ear, suddenly a great abundance of blood gushed from the openings that these arrows had made. Rid henceforth of the unbearable fatigue that his infirmity caused him, this man received at that very instant from divine goodness a perfect state of health. In the transports of his joy, he began to walk in the church without the slightest appearance of his ailment, and while giving thanks to the almighty Lord and to Saint Winnoc; then he recounted to the brothers who surrounded him the whole sequence of his vision, and how, after the shock of the two arrows and the arrival of this light, his infirmity had suddenly departed from him. Then he left the church, full of health and happiness, escorted by the crowd of people who praised the Lord with him, and contemplated with admiration the glorious testimonies of the power of Saint Winnoc, confessor of Christ."

## CULT AND RELICS.

Saint Winnoc was buried in the monastery of Wormhoudt which he had built himself in honor of Saint Martin, and where his memory was honored by several miracles. It is said, among other things, that shortly after his death, as the brothers were resting after midday, fire from a neighboring house spread to part of the monastery buildings, which were consumed. The church, where the body of Saint Winnoc was kept, was also entirely burned; but it was found, after the fire, that the flames had spared the tomb of the Saint and all the ornaments with which it was surrounded.

When it pleased God to punish the sins of the world through the ravages exerted during the 9th century in France and the surrounding countries by the barbarians from the North, it was deemed appropriate to remove the relics of the holy abbot from Wormhoudt and carry them to the church of Saint-Omer, at Sithiu. A few years later, Baldwin , Count of Flanders, surnamed the Bald, wishi Baudoin, comte de Flandre, surnommé le Chauve Count of Flanders who transferred the relics to Bergues in 900. ng to fortify his states and protect them from the incursions of these barbarians, had several fortresses built, and one, among others, at Bergues. The count, after having secured this place, had a church built there which was dedicated to Saint Martin and Saint Winnoc, and where he intended to transfer the relics of the latter. He went to ask for the approval of King Charles the Simple, who willingly granted him all the privileges he wished to obtain for his new church. The count, provided with these powers, removed the body of Saint Winnoc, despite the opposition of the inhabitants of Saint-Omer, and had it placed in Bergues in the year 900.

One hundred years after this second trans lation (1000), Baldwin, su Baudoin, surnommé le Barbu Count of Flanders who fortified Bergues and built the monastery in 1090. rnamed the Bearded, having made the city of Bergues even stronger with a belt of walls and built a monastery at the top of the city, had the relics of the Saint transferred there on September 18. He called for monks from Saint-Bertin, around the year 1030, to inhabit this new monastery, which had Roderic as its first abbot. After his death, discipline having relaxed a little, it was restored to its vigor in 1106 by Abbot Hermes. The abbey subsisted until the Revolution and provided several individuals commendable for their holiness and their doctrine.

In Bergues-Saint-Winnoc, three feasts were celebrated in honor of this holy abbot: the first, on the anniversary of his death, November 6; the second, in memory of the elevation of his body, called the Exaltation of Saint Winnoc, on February 20; and the third, that of the translation which was made of the Saint's body to the abbey of Bergues, on September 18. The first of these feasts was formerly a day of obligation throughout the city, and, during the entire octave, the faithful made it a duty and an honor to come and pay their respects to their illustrious patron.

The body of Saint Winnoc is still kept very religiously in Bergues. It was formerly carried every year in procession on Trinity Sunday, and dipped into the river called La Calme, which flows at the foot of the city; this was done in memory of a child drowned in this river who was resurrected by the merits of the Saint. It is unknown at what time this miracle was performed; but it gave rise both to this ceremony and to a Confraternity erected in honor of the holy abbot. His head was in a very rich bust, and the rest of his bones in a silver reliquary. During the spoliation of the churches in 1792, these holy relics were placed in two boxes which were sealed and placed in a cupboard in the presbytery, where they remained until 1820. At that time,

Father Ferdinand-Joseph Vandeputte, dean-pastor of the parish, wishing to increase the devotion to the patron saint, summoned several notables of the city who had been present at the extraction of the relics in 1792. They recognized the boxes in which they had been enclosed at that time and declared that they had undergone no change. These relics were first presented to Bishop Belmas, who examined them in his episcopal palace in Cambrai. His Excellency recognized that this head was the same one that, for a long period of time, had been exposed to the veneration of the faithful of the city of Bergues, and which, in the final times of calamity, had been removed from the silver reliquary, as attested by men worthy of belief, some priests, others laymen, all of whom had formerly seen this head exposed, or had themselves removed it from the aforementioned silver reliquary.

"We therefore," continues the prelate, "have replaced with respect this head in a reliquary of yellow copper plated with a layer of tin on the inside, after having bound it with a black silk ribbon and provided it with our seal, then we have permitted, and, by these presents, do permit that it be exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the church of Saint-Martin of Bergues. But, in order that the faithful may more easily venerate this august head, we have enclosed a portion of it in a box whose bottom is of copper and the front part, which a glass closes, is of silver. We have provided with our seal the green silk thread that surrounds it."

This letter is dated May 27, 1820. Another circular from the same prelate published an indulgence of forty days for those who would attend the translation which was to take place shortly after. It was conceived in these terms: "Desiring nothing so much as to increase the devotion of the faithful and to help them on the path of salvation, by providing them with the means to participate in the spiritual treasures of the Church, we have granted by our ordinary authority, as by these presents we do grant forty days of pardon and indulgence in the form and manner accustomed by the Church, to all the faithful of both sexes who, duly disposed, shall attend the solemn translation of the relics of Saint Winnoc, which is to take place from the presbytery of Bergues to the church of Saint-Martin of the same city, and shall pray there for the ordinary intentions." The ceremony took place on June 8 of the same year, in the presence of an immense crowd that had flocked from all the neighboring countries, and the reliquary, encased in a wooden statue which had been blessed beforehand, was placed in the choir. The minutes of this ceremony are signed by three former monks of the abbey of Saint-Winnoc, by several priests or laymen from the surrounding area, by the vicars of the parish, and finally by Father Vandeputte, who had presided.

On February 7 of the following year (1821), Bishop Belmas, at the request of the pastor and the faithful of the parish of Bergues, granted permission to erect a Confraternity in honor of Saint Winnoc. The prelate greatly encouraged this holy work and himself granted forty days of indulgence to all the faithful who would visit the church of Saint-Martin in Bergues and pray there for some time according to the intentions of the Church, on the days of the feast of Saint Winnoc and Trinity Sunday.

On March 4, 1823, Pope Pius VII also granted a plenary indulgence to al l the faithf pape Pie VII Pope who authorized the cult of Blessed Rainier. ul who, on November 6, the day of the feast of Saint Winnoc, and on the day after Pentecost, would visit the church of Saint-Martin in Bergues, confess, receive communion, and pray for concord between Christian princes, the extirpation of heresies, and the exaltation of the holy Church. This new spiritual favor from the Holy See was published with the authorization granted to the bishopric of Cambrai on July 16, 1823. On May 18 of the same year, the relics of Saint Winnoc had been solemnly transported into a bust and a silver reliquary, which the generous piety of the inhabitants of Bergues had acquired. This reliquary, of magnificent workmanship, is said to have cost eighteen thousand francs.

Acta Sanctorum Belgii, translation by Abbé Destombes. — Cf. Sainte de Bretagne, by Dom Lubineau and Abbé Trévaux; and the Bollandists, in volume II of September, in the life of Saint Bertin of Sithiu.