Saint Waneng

The care that Saint Waneng took of his children did not prevent him from fulfilling the duties of a great captain and a wise courtier; but he knew how to give himself to the world without separating himself from God, and because of this he was highly esteemed and enj oyed the Clotaire King whose son was resurrected by Saint Flavit. intimacy of Clotaire, who had been king since 655. He contributed through his wise counsel to the peace of the kingdom, to the reduction of the power of the mayors of the palace, to the lowering of taxes, and to the repression of abuses that had crept into the Church. The king having given Saint Waneng the administration of the province of Caux, he showed in his government great zeal for justice and admirable wisdom. He believed himself obliged to set the example of a holy life, and for this he made it a rule never to allow himself to engage in mockery, a vice quite common in his time; never to utter words that could offend modesty and honesty; he avoided feasts and large meals, in which greed and intemperance usually reign; he forbade himself luxury in his clothing and furnishings. In return, he liberally distributed to the poor what his economy allowed him to set aside. He devoted a portion of his income to building monasteries; the most famous was that of Fécamp, in the Pays de Caux, in t he dio Fécamp Place of retreat for Maurilius before his episcopate. cese of Rouen. It was Saint Eulalia to whom, as we have said, he had a very particular devotion, who in a vision asked him to build this latter abbey. After obtaining permission from the king, he prepared everything necessary to raise this edifice. Only one thing stopped him: he did not know which place to choose. Heaven came to his aid; the location was indicated to him in a vision following which he recovered perfect health. He had become so ill that, for a few hours, he had been thought dead, and everything had been prepared for his burial. The king and the nobles of the kingdom vied with each other to congratulate Saint Waneng on his miraculous recovery. As for him, he occupied himself with carrying out the great enterprise that heaven demanded of him.

The Abbey of Fécamp was quickly built; the king endowed it magnificently. Nuns were assembled there and placed under the guidance of Saint Ouen an d Saint Wa saint Ouen Author of the eulogy and life of Saint Aurea. ndrille. The first abbess of this monastery was Saint Hildemarqu e or Childemarque, sainte Hildemarque First abbess of Fécamp. who, having come from Bordeaux where she had governed a community, was then living in the diocese of Rouen, perhaps at Fontenelle. Soon the new abbey was populated with holy maidens who came to dedicate themselves to God there through perpetual vows. This deserted place was a true paradise inhabited by visible angels who lived in complete separation from the world and who had no communication except with God through their prayers and their canticles. In a short time, there were up to three hundred and sixty-six nuns in this abbey.

The Abbey of Fécamp soon had a painful loss to mourn, the loss of Saint Wandrille, its wise director. Fontenelle wept for the death of its founder, and Saint Waneng for that of a devoted friend who, along with Saint Ouen, held his full confidence. This was the moment when Ebroin reigned as master and displayed his haughty, violent, and bloodthirsty spirit. The one who was first the object of his hatred w as Saint Le saint Léger Priest and overseer of the clergy of Porthe, known for his humility and miracles. odegar, advisor to Queen Bathilde. Ebroin had long detested Saint Leodegar, whom he had always encountered in his path opposing his evil designs. After having him arrested, mistreated, and mutilated in a horrible fashion, he ordered that he be taken to the castle of Saint Waneng, to whom he had given instructions as if he were one of his emissaries. But this was to know Saint Waneng very poorly; for the latter, far from lending himself to the tyrant's designs, treated Saint Leodegar as a martyr of Jesus Christ and sought to soften his captivity as much as lay within him. Ebroin's vengeance was not satisfied; he took Saint Leodegar from the hands of Saint Waneng and had him put to death. God avenged this crime, for three years later he himself was massacred.

Saint Waneng honored Saint Léger as a martyr and retired to the abbey of Fécamp, where he placed himself among the servants of the house: wishing to end his days there, in humility and prayer, he showed himself a perfect model of obedience. The most arduous and lowly work was that which he chose by preference and which he accomplished with the greatest joy. He showed the abbess the same submission he would have shown to Jesus Christ. He sighed incessantly for the end of his exile, which arrived on January 9, 686.

Saint Waneng is represented clad in iron, wearing a red cloak adorned with fleurs-de-lis, holding a sword in one hand, and a church in the other.

## RELICS AND CULT OF SAINT WANENG.

It was during the incursions of the Normans that the relics of Saint Waneng were brought to Ham. They had first been deposited in a place called Mesnil-Saint-Waneng, a hamlet dependent on the parish of Esmery, on the road to Roye, and three-quarters of a league away from Ham. It is believed that this place had belonged to Saint Waneng; he owned a castle there and would come from time to time to indulge in the pastime of hunting. The Normans, having invaded the Vermandois, looted the Mesnil, destroyed the reliquary of Saint Waneng, and threw his relics into the marshes, where the inhabitants collected them preciously and kept them until the moment they were transferred to Ham. Since that time, the inhabitants of the Mesnil have always kept the privilege of carrying the reliquary of the holy Confessor in processions.

The town of Ham too La ville de Ham Traditional birthplace of the saint. k Saint Waneng as its patron, though it is not known exactly when. His feast was celebrated in the abbey long before it was in the town.

It was only in 1516 that Hangest, Bishop of Noyon, granted permission to the inhabitants to imitate the monastery and perform the office of Saint Waneng. The town of Esmery had also taken Saint Waneng as its patron; it celebrated his feast at the same time as Ham, and in addition, on September 23, it celebrated a new feast, that of the translation of a notable relic of this Saint.

Let us conclude with a note on the current state of the relics of Saint Waneng, which was sent to us by Mr. Jacob, parish priest and dean of Ham.

There remains only a small fragment of the rib of Saint Waneng given by the abbey of Ham to Esmery-Hallon in 1696. The reliquary of 1696 non ignobilis operis... has been preserved. The fragment has no other authentication than this inscription: Saint-Waneng. One may invoke a public testimony in support of this. Upon the restoration of the cult, the custom, suspended by the revolutionary turmoil, of carrying the reliquary of Saint Waneng in processions was re-established. To remove all doubt, an insigne relic (a bone) was granted under Mgr Tirmarche, today Bishop of Aden, to enrich the reliquary of Saint Waneng.

Here is the official report of this gift: In the year 1843, on the 24th of the month of May, in the presence of the members of the parish council of Ham and several inhabitants of the town, the opening of the reliquary of Saint Waneng was performed, under the presidency of Mr. Tirnarche, parish priest a châtellenie de saint Waneng Reliquary containing the saint's remains in Ham. nd dean of Ham, delegated for this purpose by the Bishop of Amiens, to proceed with the recognition of his relics and to transfer them into a new reliquary.

In this happy circumstance, the Dean of Ham, wishing to accede to the wishes of Mr. Bandelooq, then parish priest of Esmery, as well as the faithful of his parish, extracted one of the bones (ileum) to bestow it once again upon the parish of Esmery.

An official report in due form was made and signed regarding this translation of the body of Saint Waneng, and mention is made therein of the donation of this relic.

The said official report is deposited in the reliquary of Saint Waneng. — TIRNARCHE, parish priest and dean of Ham.

This official report bears the imprint of the seal of the Parish of Notre-Dame de Ham. Furthermore, the episcopal seal is imprinted on red wax.

Copied at Esmery-Hallon, February 4, 1867, by me, parish priest. — QUÉVAL, parish priest of Esmery.

The church of Notre-Dame de Ham, formerly the abbey church, possesses almost the entire body of Saint Waneng. A few small bones were only detached at different times to enrich the churches of Esmery, Eppeville, Hembleux, and Fécamp.

It is to the piety and devotion of the sacristan Bidet and a man named Ranteau that the town of Ham owes the preservation of the precious relics of its patron saint in 1793.

Witnesses to the removal of the reliquaries of Saint Waneng and Saint Maur, these two fervent Christians gathered the sacred bones with solicitude, which the profaners had, before their eyes, deposited in the sacristy, and the following night they secretly buried them in the cemetery with the silk stars that enveloped them, and several wooden reliquaries, whose presence in the midst of the holy relics was to make any error impossible when it would be permitted to return them to the veneration of the faithful.

A little more than two years later, on January 20, 1796, they were solemnly recognized by Mr. Benard, parish priest of Notre-Dame de Ham, and by all the principal inhabitants of the town, in the presence of Louis-François Frémont, priest of Noyon, charged with the administration of this diocese, who returned them to the cult and veneration of the pious faithful.

The following year, the same Louis-François Frémont came, with the title of vicar-general, to make a new recognition of the precious relics and to place them in reliquaries more worthy than those in which the necessity of the times had forced them to be deposited the previous year.

Finally, on May 24, 1843, Mgr Tirnarche, then parish priest of Ham, and since Bishop of Adras, performed a new translation of the relics of Saint Waneng and Saint Maur, and deposited them with the greatest solemnity in Gothic reliquaries fitted with glass that allow the greater part of the sacred bones to be seen, and it is in these reliquaries that they remain exposed to this day for the veneration of the faithful.

Note. The relics of Saint Maur that the church of Ham possesses are quite considerable. Tradition holds that these are the relics of the great Saint Maur, abbot. But there remains no proof to support this tradition. If it were founded, it would be a very great treasure which, until now, has remained almost hidden. — JACOB, honorary canon of Amiens, parish priest and dean of Ham. — Ham, June 24, 1867.

We have drawn the little we have said about Saint Waneng from the Bollandists and from a life published in 1796, of which only four copies are known today.