Saint Voue

After many adventures, Voué returned to Soissons, and as he approached the monastery of Notre-Dame, the demon who had been the secret author of his departure was forced to announce his return through the mouth of a servant of the abbey whom he held in his possession and who began to cry out: "Arise, go to meet Voué who is returning to the abbey to cast me out." The abbess and the nuns, having rushed to the noise, received the recluse with great joy. As for him, following the example of Saint Benedict, who had slapped a possessed monk to deliver him, he likewise struck the servant of the abbey, who was immediately abandoned by the demon. To take revenge, the evil spirit set fire to the cell that the holy man had returned to with such joy. As the door was locked from the outside, as was the practice for recluses, the devil began to shout that Voué would perish in the flames before anyone could bring him help. But his good angel delivered him, transported him to an island in the Aisne, and extinguished this i nfern Aisne River flowing through Soissons. al conflagration.

This legendary account became embellished over the centuries. It is reported that in the time of Saint Voué, the demon held great power in the city of Soissons and would carry off the thirteenth person to pass through the Rue d u Mont-Revers. The rue du Mont-Revers Street in Soissons associated with a legend of demonic possession. servant of God, to put an end to this diabolical power, ordered an extraordinary fast and prayers followed by a solemn procession. He then had twelve well-disposed people pass before him in the magical street and followed as the thirteenth. Satan appeared immediately to seize him, but the Saint commanded him with authority to clear the area and retreat to hell. Forced to obey this extraordinary power, the devil begged him not to send him back to that abyss and to grant him a less miserable retreat. Then Voué sent him into the Aisne river, below the Lardier tower. Since then, a priest would go every year to conjure the demon in this tower, where he was supposed to have established his residence, in order to satisfy the desires of the people. All that can be said of these romanticized accounts is that the name of Saint Voué, given to the gate of the Rue du Mont-Revers, was a monument that recalled some important event in the life of the holy recluse.

The monastery of Notre-Dame was also full of memories of facts no less extraordinary attributed to Saint Voué. One day, fire having broken out at the abbey, a nun whom he had cured of fever and toothache ran to warn him. He, without being astonished, gave her his cape to oppose the fire, which was extinguished as soon as this garment was brought near it. The traveler's staff that he had received from the angel and which was kept at the convent under the name of *crossillon de saint Vou crossillon de saint Voué The saint's traveling staff, used against fires. é* (Saint Voué's little crozier), also enjoyed, it was believed, the virtue of extinguishing fire. Thus, when any fire broke out in the city, it was carried there and it extinguished it immediately. It was often used to extinguish fire in the monastery's workshops, even in later times. An abbess, Ma Mme d'Harcourt Abbess of Soissons who testified to a miracle of the crossillon. dame d'Harcourt, recounts that fire having broken out in the chimney of the common warming room with extreme violence, the sign of the cross was made with the said crossillon against the chimney, and that the fire fell in a mass as large as a hogshead, so that those who were present had difficulty protecting themselves from it. It was also the custom that each year, on February 5, the day of the feast of Saint Voué, after high mass, the first sacristan would respectfully take the marvelous staff, and, followed by the second sacristan, with a lantern and a candle in hand, and several nuns reciting psalms and prayers, would walk through the monastery, making the sign of the cross everywhere, and particularly on the chimneys, with this instrument of devotion. Miracles multiplied at Notre-Dame de Soissons through the intercession of Saint Voué. Entering the cloister once to celebrate mass, he met two nuns who were very sad because they had botched the cutting of a high-priced robe that a lord of the court had asked the abbess to have made for him in the convent. The Saint made the sign of the cross over the fabric, which returned to its original form and could be cut again with more precision.

Saint Voué died around 700, on February 5th. The nuns of Notre-Dame accompanied the mortal remains of the pious recluse with their tears, which were deposited in the church o f Sainte-Cro Sainte-Croix Initial burial place of the saint. ix.

Saint Voué is particularly invoked against fires. Cf. Annales du diocèse de Soissons, by Abbé Pêcheur abbé Pêcheur Author of the Annales du diocèse de Soissons. .