Saint Gerard of Toul

After the death of Gauzelin, Bishop of Toul (963), Gerard was elected to succeed him by Bruno Brunon Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lorraine, he elected Gerard at Toul. , Archbishop of Cologne, Duke of Lorraine, and prime minister to the Emperor Otto, his brother. He submitted to this election only out of pure obedience.

Consecrated at Trier in the year 963, he was received the same year in the city of Toul as the tutelary angel of the province, amidst the acclamations of the people. Despite the fatigues of the episcopate, he never renounced his austerities or his customary penances. Each day he recited thirteen canonical hours, joining the office of the monks to that of the canons. He had the Holy Scripture read to him while he was at table and even in bed, so as to have his mind occupied with holy thoughts as long as sleep left him free. This devout practice was so pleasing to God that He approved it with a miracle.

The bishops of Toul were at that time also the temporal sovereigns of the diocese. Gerard gave excellent laws to his city, regulated the police, and established fixed weights and measures. The administration of justice was also one of his important concerns: to this day, the stone seat on which he sat to render justice to the people is still shown.

Saint Gerard joined his brother Ancelin to him to administer civil affairs in the county of Toul, in order to apply himself more specifically to the duties of a true pastor. He sought out the poor and led them himself into his palace, to wash their feet and have them sit at his table. The count, his brother, often asked as a favor to have a place among the guests. He restored the discipline that was weakening in the monasteries; he rebuilt that of Saint-Mansuy, and attached new revenues to it; he founded the Maison-Dieu, the oldest hospital in Toul, and assigned sufficient funds to it; he enriched a multitude of churches and monasteries in his diocese, either with his own money or with the liberalities he obtained from the emperor; he had the basilica of Saint-Étienne built on a vaster plan, that magnificent cathedral that we still admire today, and which took five centuries to be completed; he also built the beautiful church and cloisters of Saint-Gengoul, and attached a collegiate church to it. In reward for so many actions that had the glory of God and religion in view, Saint Gerard obtained the gift of miracles.

The affairs of his church pressing him to go to the court of Emperor Ot to II, h Othon II Holy Roman Emperor. e departed from Toul and embarked on the Moselle at the foot of the city walls. Opposite Dommartin, the cleric who accompanied him on this journey wished to wash his hands in the river; while he was leaning over, a reliquary that the Saint had entrusted to him fell into the water, and it was impossible for him to retrieve it. The holy Bishop, having successfully concluded his business at court, boarded his boat again to return to Toul. As soon as he arrived at the place where his reliquary had been lost, he began to pray, filled with confidence, plunged his hand into the water, and drew it out. This miracle surprised all those who accompanied him.

When Saint Gérard had advanced the construction of the cathedral enough so that divine service could be celebrated there, he resolved to dedicate it, and to make the ceremony more august, he invited Theodoric, Bishop of Metz. But Theodoric, not being able to be present, Saint Gérard asked him to give his new church a portion of a stone that had served in the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, of which the church of Metz had long been the custodian. Our Prelate went himself to Metz to obtain this relic more easily. He took this treasure in his hands, kissed it, watered it with his tears, and designated the part he wished for. God did not wait for Theodoric to satisfy the request of our pious bishop: the stone, struck by an invisible hand, divided of its own accord, and the portion that Saint Gérard had marked with his finger remained in his hands. Astonishment seized the spectators at the sight of a miracle they regarded as the reward for the Saint's piety; he was permitted to carry this relic to his church, the translation of which heaven seemed to approve. It was later enclosed in an image of Saint Stephen, given by Nicolas de Sane, archdeacon of Toul, and enriched by Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, with a portion of the rib of this same holy Martyr. This religious prince came to Toul on April 20, 1540, accompanied by the princes and princesses his children; he himself carried this relic to the altar at the time when Jacques Antoine, doctor of theology and dean of the cathedral church, was celebrating Mass.

Theodoric, Bishop of Metz, of whom we have just spoken, having built or repaired the monastery of Épinal, wished to honor there the relics of Saint Goëric, his predecessor in the bishopric of Metz, through a new translation; he asked, for this purpose, Saint Gérard to perform the ceremony himself, as he was the diocesan bishop. For this subject, two shrines had been prepared, one of silver and the other of iron: the latter was to be fitted into the former; but the workman, who had taken his measurements poorly, made them both the same size. This unforeseen inconvenience delayed the ceremony; the Bishop of Metz, who had invited a large number of illustrious people, was distressed by this delay. Saint Gérard, who was celebrating Mass, having conjectured from the confused noise rising among the people the subject of Theodoric's distress, asked God to honor his servant Goëric by removing the obstacle that stood in the way of the ceremony of the translation of his body. Scarcely had Gérard finished his prayer when these two shrines, placed one upon the other, fitted together in an instant; the one that was too narrow widened to receive the other without the help of a workman.

But it was especially during the famine and plague, which devastated the Toulois following the war undertaken by Lothair, King of France, to retake Lorraine from the Empire during the minority of Otto III, that the charity and all-powerful virtue of Gerard shone most brightly. He devoted himself entirely to the relief of his people; he emptied his granaries, brought in provisions from neighboring regions, and thus fed the populations until the following harvest. To avert the scourge of the plague and disarm the wrath of God, he ordered a three-day fast, which having been carried out in a spirit of penance, he assembled the parishes of his episcopal city and those of the surrounding areas, and held a general procession, in which the bodies of the holy bishops of Toul were carried.

At the very time the procession was underway and entering the church of Saint-Mansuy, sixteen people among those following died suddenly of the plague. The alarmed people, fearing a similar fate, burst into tears. The holy Pastor, armed with a lively confidence, redoubled his prayers, shed torrents of tears, and exhorted the people by his example to humble themselves before the Lord: "There is," he said, "only a sincere penance capable of bending Him; let us humble ourselves when He strikes us, and believe that our sins are the cause of this rigorous punishment." The Saint led the procession into the church of Saint-Épre, where, after prostrating himself before the reliquaries and singing the litanies seven times, he rose to intone the antiphon: "At the voice of our supplications"; In voce deprecationis; God, who seemed still more irritated, struck three other people with the plague at that very hour, who died in the arms of the Pastor. This accident should undoubtedly have made him lose courage and slow the fervor of his people; but it served, on the contrary, only to excite his zeal and give new fervor to his prayers. The perseverance of our charitable bishop finally disarmed the exterminating angel; the air was purified, the plague suspended its ravages, and the elements no longer made their inclemency felt during the year.

Otto II had left a son of the same name as his successor; but as he was very young, and the empire seemed to require, in the present circumstances, a prince who could govern by himself, Henry, Duke of Bavaria, took the young Otto away, with the design of making himself emperor. The partisans of Otto assembled with the goal of taking the necessary measures among themselves to preserve the empire for the young prince. Saint Gerard was called to this assembly; but as his infirmities did not allow him to be present, he contented himself with praying to the Lord to support the interests of this prince against the designs of the usurper: it was concluded in this assembly to take up arms; Henry of Bavaria armed on his side. The two parties in the presence of one another, and on the point of joining battle, agreed to settle the dispute in a second assembly, to which each party would send deputies.

After some contentions, the deputies agreed to leave the empire to the young Otto, and to give, by a treaty, peace to all of Germany. God, who had reunited the hearts of the deputies through the prayers of our bishop, revealed to him, at the very hour of the conclusion of the treaty, the happy outcome of this assembly. Saint Gerard, conversing familiarly with his clerics and his servants before the door of his palace, said to them: "Peace is made and tranquility is restored to the State; the Duke of Bavaria has departed from his claims, and Prince Otto will enjoy the empire."

The nobility of the Toul region did not willingly accept the rules of police and good administration established by our Saint; they murmured loudly that he wanted to render justice to the poor and prevent the rich from oppressing them. Olderic and Richard, two of the most powerful lords of the province, were the first to incite the people to revolt, by insinuating to them that the bishop, under the pretext of charity, but in reality to enrich himself, was stripping them of their goods. As he felt himself innocent, the patience of our Saint allowed him to easily overcome the calumny; but his moderation could not recall these obstinate men to their duty; they persuaded the simple-minded that the silence of the bishop was an admission of his crimes.

Gerard, fearing that gentleness would increase the evil instead of diminishing it, believed that it was finally his duty to excommunicate Olderic and Richard; he did so solemnly, in his cathedral church, in the presence of the regular abbots, the dean, the archdeacons, and the canons.

The rebels, despising the censures, formed the fatal design of taking his life, and sought the means to execute their cruel attempt. Having learned that he had gone to Manoncourt, a village dependent on the abbey of Saint-Épre, they marched a troop of seditious men there, who, not being able to penetrate the house where our Saint had retired, set fire to it. Saint Gerard escaped and took refuge in the neighboring church: there, prostrate on the ground, near the altar, he offered his life to God, singing these verses of David: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? If whole armies rise against me, my heart will not falter." *Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea; quem timebo? Si consistant adversum me castra, non timebit cor meum.*

Olderic, entering the church, found our holy Prelate in this humiliated posture; but instead of being touched by it, he approached him, dagger in hand, and threatened to kill him if he did not give him absolution from his censure. The Prelate, insensible to these threats and resolved to die rather than betray his ministry, refused to absolve him, and showed him by his constancy that one could not extort from him, through crime, a grace that was only granted to sincere penance. Olderic was so moved by the firmness of his pastor, that suddenly forgetting his unjust resentments, he threw himself at his knees, and promised to execute point by point what it would please the holy bishop to prescribe to him. Upon these promises, which seemed to come from the depths of a penitent heart, Saint Gerard gave him absolution from the censures. But the repentance of Olderic was only apparent: he revolted again; again he was struck with excommunication, not only by the Saint, but by all the bishops of France who had been assembled for this subject. God showed visibly, by the entire extinction of the family of Olderic, how much he approved of the severity of the punishment with which this relapsed lord had been struck.

Around the same time, Theodoric, Bishop of Metz, having had a chapel built in honor of Saint Lucy, in the abbey of Saint-Vincent of Metz, invited Gerard to attend the dedication. Almost at the time of this ceremony, a count, named Sigebert, being at war with Vicfrid, Bishop of Verdun, attacked this bishop in the castle of Vendresel, near Sivry-sur-Meuse. Richer, nephew of Vicfrid and archdeacon of Verdun, was killed there and the bishop taken prisoner. The Pope, informed of this attack, addressed to Egbert, Archbishop of Trier, and to Saint Gerard, an apostolic commission to compel Count Sigebert to repair the insult done to the Bishop of Verdun. After having addressed the legal monitions to this count, the two bishops struck him with excommunication. Sigebert, frightened, restored liberty to Vicfrid, submitted to the penance that was imposed on him, and paid a sum of money which was used for the decoration of the cathedral of Verdun.

The Church of Toul possessed, as did the abbeys of Saint-Mihiel and Saint-Denis, a portion of the lands that bordered the city of Bar. Frederick, who became, a few years later, the first Duke of Lorraine and first Count of Bar (959), following his marriage with Beatrix, sister of Hugh Capet and niece of Otto I, had built or repaired, under the episcopate of Saint Gauzelin, the castle of Bar, despite the opposition of the king and the bishop. Saint Gerard could not leave this enterprise against the rights of the Bishop of Toul unpunished. He complained about it to the emperor. Frederick had to give the bishop a certain number of villages with the advocacies of Saint-Dié and Moyen-Moûtiers, in exchange for the lands he possessed in the Barrois, and whose union with the city and the castle of Bar appears to have been the origin of this county. Following this reconciliation and this exchange, Saint Gerard consecrated and dedicated to Saint Stephen, in the year 992, the chapel of the castle of Bar.

The holy Bishop, having fulfilled all the duties of a zealous pastor, felt that his strength was diminishing considerably, and that, by all appearances, he would soon have to leave this life to receive the reward for his labors; far from making use of the dispensations that age and weakness might have allowed him, he proposed to redouble his austerities to appear more pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. For, "it is of little use," he said, "to have begun well, if one ends badly, since the crown is promised only to him who shall persevere until the end. Being able to count on only a few days of life, I must use these precious moments to adorn my soul with virtues; and since my body must serve as a stone in the edifice of the celestial Jerusalem, I must carve this stone and polish it through mortifications, if I intend for it to find a place in heaven. The judgments of God are so formidable, and his eye so penetrating, that the most perfect justice must tremble before him. A Christian must amass treasures of good works, so that death may be for him a passage to the happiness of the Saints; he must sow in tears in time, if he wishes to reap in joy in eternity."

Saint Gerard was deeply moved by these Christian truths; thus he carefully managed his final moments; he applied himself with more fervor than ever to works of piety and charity, and he made death the subject of all his reflections. The moment that was to end his life finally arrived; it was revealed to a Scotsman whom this holy Prelate fed and maintained in his palace. Immediately this stranger, whom Videric, the first historian of Saint Gerard, says was a good man, announced to the people of Toul, with an abundance of tears, the sad news of the imminent passing of their pastor. This people learned of it with a sorrow proportionate to the loss they were about to suffer; but our Saint was not moved by it. Always himself, he went to the choir to recite his Matins with the canons, and, having approached the altar of Saint Blaise to say a few psalms there, he was suddenly seized by a pain so acute in his head that he thought he had been struck by a lance. This pain was followed by such great weakness that he was carried, languishing, to his bed. He had his clergy and his people assembled around him to declare to them that the hour of his death was near; he exhorted them to the love of God; he recommended the observance of his law to them and finally gave them his blessing, which he extended even to the absent. After which, having received first the Extreme Unction and then the Viaticum, according to the ancient usage of the Church, long since re-established in the diocese of Toul and Nancy, he rendered his soul to God on April 22, 994, of the common era, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-first, with three weeks and three days, of his episcopate.

A cleric from Metz, called Fulcuin, who had become a religious in the abbey of Saint-Arnoul, where he had lived in great reputation for holiness, being at the point of death at the very time our holy bishop was expiring, had an ecstasy, from which, having returned, he said to those present: "Ah! my brothers, heaven is in joy, an extraordinary feast is being held there; for I have seen a great number of blessed spirits going to meet a soul, to lead it into the glory it has acquired through the labors of this mortal life." It was soon known that the soul of which this religious spoke was that of Saint Gerard. Saint Mayeul, abbot of Cluny, who had been a friend of this Saint, also had a revelation of his death; he announced it to his religious when they were sitting down to table: "Our brother Gerard, bishop of Toul," this holy abbot told them, "has just died. Although he was very virtuous during his life, it may be that he needs our help; for one cannot enter heaven without great purity; let us pray for him." All the religious of Cluny began to pray for the repose of the bishop's soul, and the abbot rendered him the duties of a perfect friend.

The news of the death of the holy Prelate having spread throughout the country, the bishops and the great men of the kingdom of Lorraine wished to honor his funeral with their presence. A crowd of people flocked there from all parts, and, after the great and the small had kissed his feet and hands, the clergy performed the ceremony of his burial, with all the pomp due to the merit of such a great saint. He was buried in the middle of the choir of the cathedral, where Frédéric de Void, canon of this church, later had a very beautiful copper mausoleum erected.

Charity, which was the source of the greatest miracles that Saint Gerard performed during his life, having taken on new growth after his death, his tomb became a public asylum for all the unfortunate who implored the help of his power, and found aid and protection, relief and consolation.

The first example that Videric reports is the healing of a paralytic from the parish of Saint-Agnant: after having recounted, in detail, this miracle and many others, the historian adds: "This Saint ceased to perform miracles when the people unfortunately forgot to render to God the worship that is due to him, without wishing to convert to him through a better life. Thus, it has been seen, since that time, that plagues and wars have afflicted this city and its territory; that Eudes, Count of Champagne, entered the Barrois and the county of Toul with armed force; that he brought desolation and murder there; that the Leuquois and the Barisiens were chastised by the Lord until 1038; but that having then had recourse to their blessed bishop in sentiments of penance, he began again to make them feel the effects of his intercession." This author then gives, among other proofs, the healing of a blind man in the year 1050, the second year of the pontificate of Saint Leo IX, the very day that the feast of our Saint was being celebrated before his canonization.

The following centuries also happily experienced his power before God; the archives of the cathedral show this through a series of authentic attestations. The statutes of the year 1332 order that the canons shall diligently examine those who have been miraculously healed at the tomb of the Saint, and that after the miracle is proven, the person in whose favor it was performed shall be seated in an armchair under the great crown; after which the clergy shall sing an antiphon of the Saint in thanksgiving.

Those who were troubled by rupture, gout, stone, or gravel came to his tomb and never left without having received some great relief in their ailments. The people flocked there in such great crowds that one has seen, for a single day, two to three thousand pilgrims.

A holiness declared by so many miracles, so known and so respected in the kingdom of Lorraine, had to lead the sovereign Pontiff to place Gerard in the catalogue of Saints. He remained nevertheless 57 years, or thereabouts, without being canonized. But God, who had crowned the merits of his servant in heaven, willed that one of his successors in the bishopric of Toul, and later raised to the sovereign pontificate, should render him the justice that was due to him on earth. Pope Saint Leo IX canonized him in a council held in Rome in the year 1050, and he ordered there that his feast be celebrated, as it appears in the Bull of his canon saint Léon IX Pope who visited the saint's sepulchre in 1049. ization, which is read in full in the manuscript of Saint-Mansuy, but of which we shall give here only an extract, which will worthily end the life of this holy Prelate:

"Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God, etc. A short time before us, a bishop named Gerard occupied the episcopal see of Toul, from where we were drawn to be promoted to the sovereign pontificate, not certainly for our merits, but by the will of the Almighty, who disposes of all things at his pleasure. This bishop had received from the heavenly Father two talents: the knowledge of good and the practice of that same good, with the help of which he was able to understand the divine law intimately and fulfill it in all points. He knew how to make the talents that God had given him bear fruit; he converted souls by announcing to them the words of salvation, and by practicing himself what he taught, in such a way that he offered the Lord a double gain, and merited the eternal rewards. He girded his loins with angelic chastity, and carried in his hands burning lamps, by the examples of virtue that he applied himself ceaselessly to give to others. He desired so intensely to unite himself to his God, that he repeated every day that his soul sighed after him as the thirsty stag sighs after the water of the fountains. And as his life was innocence itself, as he admitted the poor to his table, as he practiced all the evangelical virtues, and as he did nothing, whether in preaching or in teaching, that was not holy and pleasing to God, he obtained from him the power to perform miracles, of which many witnesses are still living. We asked the Synod if he should be placed in the number of the Saints. The archbishops, bishops, abbots, clerics, and laymen all answered unanimously that Gerard was a holy man, and that he should be venerated as such. Consequently, we have ordered, with the consent of the Fathers of the Council, that, from now on, he be held as a Saint and honored as such at Toul, on the 9th of the kalends of May, as are Saint Mansuy and Saint Epvre and all the other Saints throughout the universe. We desire to go ourselves to perform the translation of his venerable body, and to place it under a particular altar, for the greater glory of Jesus Christ, who became man for us."

Saint Leo did indeed come to Toul, in 1051, to perform the translation of the body of Saint Gerard, accompanied by Halinard, archbishop of Lyon; by Hugues, archbishop of Besançon; by George, archbishop of Colozza; by several bishops and a great number of persons of distinction. The people had come from the province in such great numbers that the holy Pontiff had to delay the ceremony and order that it be done at night, to avoid the disorders that ordinarily accompany large crowds. The body of our Saint was found sound and whole; it was the same for his clothes, with the exception of some parts reduced to dust. His face was more ruddy and whiter than during his life. This translation took place on October 22.

959-997. — Popes: John XII; Gregory V. — Sovereigns of Bohemia: Wenceslaus I; Boleslaus I.

This Saint, son of a Bohemian magnate, was born around the year 959, and was named Woytach a t bapti Woytach Bishop of Prague, friend of Adalbert and martyr in Prussia. sm. During his childhood, he fell into a grave illness that reduced him to the point of death. His parents then carried him to an altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and made a vow to consecrate him to the Church if he recovered his health. Their son was healed immediately. They took great care to raise him in the fear of God. Adalbert, Archbishop of Magdeburg, was pleased to take charge of his education, and, upon confirming him, had him take his name. The new Adalbert, as we shall henceforth call him, distinguished himself in the famous school of Magdeburg. To his studies, he added prayer and the visiting of the poor and the sick, upon whom he lavished consolation and alms with love.

After the death of the Archbishop of Magdeburg (981), Adalbert returned to Bohemia, bringing with him a library he had formed. In 983, he received holy orders from the hands of Diethmar, Bishop of Prague. This prelate died shortly thereafter in despair, uttering horrible cries and saying that he was going to be damned for having neglected the duties of his state and for having passionately sought the honors, riches, and pleasures of the world. Adalbert, witness to this scene, was seized with fear and compunction, detested all the faults he might have committed, donned a hair shirt, and went from church to church to implore divine mercy. He also distributed abundant alms. He was running toward honors thereby, without knowing it. When it came time to name a successor to Diethmar, everyone cast their eyes upon Adalbert, who was consecrated on June 29, 983, by the Bishop of Mainz, and made his entry into the city of Prague barefoot. He was received with great demonstrations of joy by the people, and especially by Boleslaus, sovereign of Bohemia. Adalbert alone was saddened by his dignity. From that day until his death, he was never seen to laugh, and when asked the reason, he would reply: "It is very easy to wear a miter and a crosier; but it is a very terrible thing to have to render an account of a bishopric to the sovereign Judge of the living and the dead." To prepare for this terrible judgment through wise administration, he first divided his income into four parts: the first was destined for the maintenance of the church; the second, for the subsistence of the canons; the third, for the relief of the unfortunate; he reserved the fourth for his own needs and those of his household. He fed twelve poor people every day in honor of the twelve Apostles, and a greater number on feast days; he slept on a hair shirt or on the bare ground; he macerated his body with long vigils and rigorous fasts. Almost every day he preached to his people and visited the sick as well as the prisoners.

All this zeal, all this holiness, could not reform the diocese of Prague; idolatry still reigned there, and immorality even more so; the clergy neutralized, by their bad examples, the apostolate of Adalbert. Discouraged in the face of this incorrigible flock, the pastor abandoned it for a moment to go to Rome to consult Pope John XV (989). He obtained permission to leave his bishopric, visited Monte Cassino, then returned to Rome, where he took the religious habit with his brother Gaudentius in the monastery of Saint Boniface. He spent five years there praying for his diocesans, considering himself an unworthy pastor, chastising himself through practices of mortification and obedience: he sought the most humble tasks in that monastery.

However, the Pope, at the request of the Archbishop of Mainz and the city of Prague itself, sent our Saint back to his diocese, with permission to leave it again if he did not find it more docile. Adalbert was received with great testimonies of respect and submission; but these were vain demonstrations: the Bohemians did not change their savage, dissolute customs. Adalbert was forced to abandon them again to return to Rome. In passing, he preached the Gospel in Hungary and converted, among others, King Stephen, who later made himself commendable by his holiness. When he had returned to the monastery of Saint Boniface, he exercised the office of prior there. Emperor Otto III, having come to Rome, paid him frequent visits.

Gregory V, successor to John XV, solicited by the Archbishop of Mainz, once again sent Adalbert back to his Church. The Saint obeyed, although convinced of the uselessness of this step. Passing through France, he venerated the relics of Saint Benedict at Fleury-sur-Loire; those of Saint Martin at Tours; those of Saint Denis near Paris. And after stopping for a few days in Mainz (where the Emperor had gone to consult him on the affairs of his salvation), he headed toward Prague. But learning that the Bohemians, far from being disposed to receive him, had just massacred his own relatives, pillaged their property, and burned their castles, he changed his route and went to his friend Boleslaus, Duke of Poland. The latter had the inhabitants of Prague asked if they wished to receive their archbishop: they responded only with coarse insults. Seeing that he could no longer exercise his zeal in that region, Adalbert preached Jesus Christ to the idolaters of Poland, who converted in great numbers. From there he passed, with Benedict and Gaudentius, companions of his apostolic labors, into Prussia, which had not yet been enlightened by the lights of the Gospel. His preaching had much success in Danzig: most of the inhabitants of that city received baptism. But it was not the same everywhere: on a small island, the infidels overwhelmed him with outrages. One of them surprised him from behind while he was reciting the Psalter and dealt him a blow with an oar with such violence that he knocked him to the ground half-dead. Adalbert, having come to himself, thanked Our Lord for having judged him worthy to suffer for Him. He went to another place, where he was not better received; he was even ordered, under pain of death, to leave by the following day at the latest.

Adalbert, accompanied by Benedict and Gaudentius, withdrew in accordance with the order he had been given. Finally, exhausted by fatigue, he withdrew for a few moments to take a little rest. The infidels, having noticed this, ran toward him, seized his person as well as that of his two companions, and loaded all three of them with chains. Adalbert offered his life to God through a fervent prayer, in which he asked for the pardon and salvation of his enemies. The priest of the idols pierced him with his lance, saying to him in derision: "You should rejoice now, since, by your own account, you desire nothing so much as to die for your Christ."

Six other pagans also each dealt him a blow with a lance. It was thus that he consummated his glorious martyrdom on April 23, 997. His executioners then cut off his head, which they attached to the top of a stake. Benedict and Gaudentius were taken into captivity.

The Duke of Poland, Boleslaus, had the body of the Martyr ransomed. The idolaters would only sell it for its weight in gold; but they were very surprised when this holy body, placed on the scale, was found to be extremely light. This precious relic was carried solemnly to the main church of Gniezno, from where an arm, which Duke Boleslaus gave to Emperor Otto III, was brought back to Rome and placed in the church of Saint Bartholomew.

This holy Martyr was very fearsome to demons: one of them, on the day of Adalbert's consecration, upon leaving a possessed person, said to the exorcist: "Why do you afflict me so? Am I not sufficiently afflicted to see that Adalbert is consecrated bishop today?"

He performed several miracles during his life: he restored sight to a woman by laying his hands on her eyes; he healed, by the same imposition of his hands, several sick people. Since his death, his tomb has also been honored by many miraculous healings.

Saint Adalbert has the title of Apostle of the Prussians, although he only planted the faith in the city of Danzig.

Acta Sanctorum, Godescard.