Saint Gertrude of Nivelles

From that time on, Gertrude remained always in seclusion with her holy mother for the space of four years (and not fourteen) that Pepin still lived; she did nothing but practice devotion, without concerning herself with the affairs of the world: she only left the palace to go to the church; when she had finished her prayers there, she returned immediately to the palace to begin other exercises of piety. Saint Pepin having passed away (646), Itta, following the advice of Saint Amand, Bishop of Maastricht, had a famous monastery built at Nivel les, whe Nivelles Site of a famous school for noble young women. re she retired with Gertrude to lead a religious life. This pious mother wished to cut her daughter's hair herself: which she did in the form of a crown; the Saint considered herself more glorious than if she had worn on her head all the diadems of kingdoms and empires.

They were soon followed in such a holy enterprise by a good number of young women, who formed a congregation and called themselves canonesses: the blessed Itta found it appropriate to establish Gertrude as superior and abbess of this famous community. Thus, the mother obeyed her daughter, and the daughter commanded her mother; this holy woman remained for twelve years in this humble submission, after which she died very holily on February 21 (652).

Gertrude, after the death of her holy mother, remained alone in charge of the conduct of this entire company; and, because this great care would have distracted her from her ordinary exercises of prayer and contemplation, she regulated things in this way: she entrusted the care of external temporal affairs to canons, and those of the interior to some of the sisters, and reserved for herself authority only over the spiritual for the guidance of her daughters; that is why she applied herself to the reading of the Holy Scripture with such ardor and assiduity that she knew almost all of it by heart; and what is more admirable, she penetrated its meaning and mysteries to explain them to others. This is not difficult to believe, given the interior and divine communications she received from the Holy Spirit during her prayers. Here is a miraculous proof of this: One day, while she was praying before the altar of Saint Sixtus, martyr, a globe of fire appeared above her head in the sight of the other sisters; which signified, says the historian of her life, that her soul was then filled with the lights of the Holy Spirit; indeed, she was so penetrated by them that she breathed only a very ardent love for her God and a perfect charity for her neighbor. The former shone forth in all her actions, and the latter, a point so essential to Christianity and so recommended by Jesus Christ, appeared mainly in the hospitals she had built to take in the poor, pilgrims, widows, and orphans, to each of whom she abundantly provided what was necessary for them.

The treatment she inflicted upon her body showed clearly that she cared little for it: she afflicted it so much with vigils, fasts, and other kinds of austerities that she finally brought upon herself a great languor; God made it known to her by revelation that this was to lead her to death. As soon as she saw herself attacked, she resigned from her office of abbess and substituted Saint Wil fetrude in her pl sainte Wilfetrude Niece of Gertrude and her successor as abbess. ace. She was a niece, twenty years of age, whom she had raised from her youth in that same house, and who became such a perfect servant of God that, after having administered this office for ten years, she deserved to be honored as a Saint.

However, the more Gertrude's strength diminished, the more her ardor for mortification seemed to increase: for, instead of relieving her body exhausted by illness, she redoubled her austerities, secretly wearing a rough hairshirt covered with old cloth, and using only a poor veil that a passing nun had once given her as alms; this was the attire with which she ordered that she be buried, saying that superfluous things are not suitable for either the living or the dead. Finally, when she felt extremely weakened, she sent one of her canons to the monastery of Fosse, which she had had built in the diocese of Liège, to learn from Saint Ultan, brother of Saint Fursey and Saint Foillan, a t what time saint Ultan Saint who prophesied the death of Gertrude. she would depart from this world. The Saint replied to the messenger: "Tomorrow, during the celebration of the Holy Mass, the spouse of Jesus Christ, Gertrude, will depart from this life to go and enjoy an immortal life: tell her that she has nothing to fear, and that Saint Patrick, accompanied by the blessed an gels, will re saint Patrice Evangelizer of Ireland and spiritual master of Guigner. ceive her soul to place it in possession of glory." These pleasant tidings being brought to her, her heart was filled with joy, and her mouth filled with the praises of her divine Spouse; the next day, which was the second Sunday of Lent, at six o'clock, she had the Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction brought to her, and, following the prophecy of Saint Ultan, when the priest was saying the prayers before the preface, she rendered her soul to Jesus Christ, on Sunday, March 17, 664, according to some; 659, according to others. She was thirty-three years old. According to her order, she was buried in her hairshirt, without a sheet or shroud; she had said before dying: The superfluous ornaments of tombs serve neither the living nor the dead.

The author who wrote this life, reported by Surius, recounts as an eyewitness that a very pleasant odor exhaled from her body and filled the entire room, and that she appeared at the moment of her death to a holy abbess named Modeste, at the monastery of Rombach in the Vosges, assuring her that at that very hour she was leaving the world to go to God; this abbess gave notice of it to Saint Clodulphe (or Saint Cloud), Bishop of Metz and son of Saint Arnoul.

Ten years later, she appeared visibly above the refectory of the college of Nivelles, extinguishing the flames of a great fire that had broken out there. Another time, a child who had drowned in a well was placed on her tomb. The child's mother doubted the glory of the Saint. A nun defended her honor: "It is here," she cried out, "O great Saint, that you must make the power of your merits appear." At this invocation, the drowned child recovered his life. Abbess Agnes, who had succeeded Wilfetrude, had a beautiful temple built, where she placed the small bed on which our Saint had died; but, since then, it was transported to another church that Saint Begghe, her sister, also had built for her, and in both one and the other, God has performed numerous miracles.

The memory of Gertrude is still alive; her benefits have never been forgotten; even today, more than one precious souvenir of her is kept. Let us cite here the cup known as Saint Gertrude's cup, a work that coupe dite de sainte Gertrude Precious object preserved in Nivelles, instrument of miracles. perhaps dates back to the 6th century, which was admired and venerated in 1864 at the Malines exhibition, and which is part of the treasury of the church of Nivelles. This cup has been the instrument of many miracles which have several times been the subject of interesting accounts. — One of her relics is venerated at Cérisy-Gailly.

In the images that have been made of Saint Gertrude, mice, dormice, and field mice run around her and even climb on her crozier. Here is the explanation: In the abbey of Nivelles, water was drawn from beneath the crypt of the church, and it was used to sprinkle fields infested by voles and other rodents that are enemies of the harvest. In particular, she is invoked against rats and mice, against madness; for cats, for a good lodging while traveling, and against fever. It is especially in Belgium, among the country folk, that her cult is widespread: Belgium counts a multitude of churches dedicated to her; where there are no churches, there is her altar or her statue. On the day of her feast, in many villages, it is the custom to offer wheat as the first fruits of the harvest, in order to preserve it, through the intercession of the Saint, from the plague of rats. She is particularly honored in Gertruydenberg, in Breda, and in Nivelles, in Holland and in Belgium.

## MONASTERY OF NIVELLES.

There is no consensus on the Order to which the monastery of Nivelles belonged. It was, in the end, occupied by Canonesses; but at its foundation, it was likely Benedictine.

In the 9th century, the ravages of the Normans overturned monastic discipline at Nivelles, as appears from a diploma of Emperor Henry IV, given in 1063. This prince divided the monastery's property into three parts: one for the hospital, the second for the abbess, and the third for the chapter of both sexes. This division was confirmed in 1136 by Emperor Lothair, who made the last part into seventy-two prebends for as many brothers and sisters. Thus, the ancient monastery was transformed into a chapter of both sexes, which was composed, in later times, of forty canonesses and thirty canons.

Only those who could prove nobility of four paternal quarters and four maternal quarters were received as canonesses. They did not take solemn vows and could return to the world, with the exception of the abbess and the provostess.

The abbess was the primary dignitary; her nomination was reserved for the sovereign. She conferred all the prebends of the canonesses. Those of the canons and chaplains, she conferred alternately with the Holy See. She was the lady of the city and its dependencies, both spiritually and temporally, and took the title of Princess of Nivelles. The Sovereign Pontiffs, the emperors, and the Dukes of Brabant granted her great privileges, among others, that of minting currency.

The second dignitary was the provostess, who had the right to convene the canonesses and to preside over the chapter with a decisive vote.

The canons celebrated the office in their oratory of Saint-Paul, except on the days of certain solemn feasts when they sang the office with the canonesses. The first dignity of the chapter of canons was that of provost, and the second, that of dean, who exercised pastoral functions and had as assistants two vicars called hebdomadaries.

At the end of the last century, the chapter of Nivelles shared the fate of all our religious establishments. Fortunately, the beautiful collegiate church, dedicated first to Saint Peter, and then to Saint Gertrude, was preserved from destruction; it is today the primary parish church of the city.

Pope Honorius III issued the decree of her canonization, as observed by Cardinal Baronius in his notes on the Roman Martyrology; the memory of our Saint is marked not only in one martyrolog pape Honoré III Pope who canonized Saint Hugh. y, but in those of Bede, Usuard, and Ado, and in that of the Saints of France.

ST. AGRICO S. AGRICOL Bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône in the 6th century. L, BISHOP OF CHALON-SUR-SAONE (580).

Agricol or Aregius, as he is called by Saint Gregory of Tours who lived in his time and knew him very particularly, was of senatorial family, that is to say, of the highest nobility of the Gauls: the senatorial nobility served to distinguish the ancient Gallic or Roman houses of the country from the Franks and Burgundians who had introduced a new nobility: that of the sword. He had also been well raised in the exercises that serve to form the mind and the heart, and he had a greatness of soul that advantageously compensated for what the smallness of his stature might have taken away from his credit and authority among the people, who usually allow themselves to be swayed by the appearance of external and sensible things. He was very eloquent in his speeches, very polite in his manners, very prudent in his resolutions and his actions, wise and moderate in all his conduct. These excellent qualities, which distinguished him greatly in the world, were enhanced and sanctified by a solid piety, and by all the other virtues suitable to a Christian and a bishop. If one is to believe most authors, he contracted in his youth a very close friendship with the famous Fortunatus, a Christian poet, who was later bishop of Poitiers. They were instructed in the same school and under the discipline of the same master. This school was none other than the paternal home of Agricol; and this common master was none other than his father, who received Fortunatus into his home, loved him, supported him, trained him, and provided for him as his own son. As long as such a good father lived, Fortunatus looked upon Saint Agricol only as his brother; but, when he saw him dead, he implored the son, who was already a bishop, to be willing to take his place with regard to him, and to act as his father and master.

It was in the year 532, under the reign of the children of Clovis, that Agricol was raised to the episcopal see of Chalon-sur-Saône, after the death of Saint Sylvester, the sixth bishop of the city. The obligation to maintain his rank with brilliance and to observe the proprieties of his dignity before the world brought neither change nor diminution to his initial austere and penitent way of life. He lived, according to Saint Gregory of Tours, in very great abstinence. He never ate during the day, and he only began to eat in the evening, taking only a very light meal. The application he brought to building up and purifying the living temples of the Holy Spirit did not prevent him from also occupying himself with building material ones, to support and increase the piety of the faithful: he embellished them with marble, mosaic paintings, and various other ornaments. He even worked on the repair and enlargement of his episcopal city, always inclined toward the public and private good of his people, both for the spiritual and the temporal, as the common father of his church and his homeland. He was no less zealous for the good of the universal Church. He subscribed to the third Council of Orléans, held in the year 538, through the ministry of the priest Avole whom he had sent in his place. But he attended in person the fourth of the same city, in the year 541, and the fifth, which was assembled in 549; and from there he traveled to the second Council of Auvergne, which was held the same year, to have confirmed, with his colleagues, the canons and the fine regulations that had been made at Orléans, and to restore the uniformity of discipline with the purity of morals and faith in the churches of France. He was also present at the second Council of Paris, assembled in the year 555, and finally at the second of Lyon, his metropolis, in the year 567. The time of his episcopate was honored by the life and miracles of a holy priest named Desiderius, by corruption Dirie and Didier, a recluse in his diocese. To procure a new ornament for his city, he transported his body from the monastery of Gourdon, where he had died, to the church of a leper hospital that he had newly had built in the suburbs of Chalon.

Saint Agricol, after having governed his people for the space of nearly forty-eight years, died at the age of eighty-three, in the year 580, which was the fifth of the young Childebert, king of Austrasia, and he had as his successor Saint Flavius, referendary of Guntram, king of Orléans. He was buried in the church of Saint-Marcel, where his body was found, in the year 878, with those of Saint Sylvester, his predecessor, and the priest Saint Dirie, of whom we have spoken. Bishop Girbold performed the translation the same year, and it is claimed that Pope John VIII, returning from Troyes to Italy through the city of Chalon, established on this occasion or authorized the public cult of these Saints. His relics are still preserved and honored in our days, in the church of Saint-Marcel, near Chalon; they are placed on the high altar, with those of the blessed martyr Saint Marcel.

Historians of his life report a large number of miracles performed through the intercession of this merciful servant of God. We will recount only one instance of his beneficence. A man named Salomen, a native of Touraine, blind for ten years, received in a dream the advice to go to Burgundy to the place where he would find a monastery in honor of Saint Marcel. The voice from heaven warned him that as soon as he had prostrated himself before the tomb of Saint Agricol, which was in that abbey, he would recover his sight through the intercession of this great Saint. This unfortunate man set out on the journey under the protection of a relative who was to offer a gift at the tomb. Salomen had not yet traveled half the distance when his eyes began to open. He arrived at Saint-Marcel perfectly healed. He remained three whole days near the mausoleum of Saint Agricol in continual thanksgiving for such a great benefit. Then he was seen returning to his country without needing a guide.

Note: Legendary of Anton; History of Chalon.