Saint Die

Saint Dié remained only three years in the see of Nevers; the attraction he felt for retirement and the desire for greater perfection led him to renounce the honors of the episcopacy to withdraw into solitude; he therefore urged the clergy and the faithful of his diocese to seek a successor for him, and he left Nevers to venture into the Vosges mountains with his companions Villigod, Domnole, and another Dieudonné. He came to Romont, then to Argentelle, a place so named because of the purity of its waters, and which the people called by the corrupted name of Arrentelle. In this solitary place, he thought to end the troubles of his journey. He therefore considered building a monastery there. The walls were already rising quite high when the inhabitants of the region took offense and became jealous: they began to stir up all kinds of persecutions against him, as if he were encroaching upon their territory every day. Saint Dié was forced to abandon this place and the foundations of his monastery, and to continue his journey toward the east of the mountains. The Lord did not want the holy bishop to fix his dwelling on the banks of the Arrentelle; He destined him to enlighten other places with his virtues before granting him a permanent home. The servant of God therefore crossed a long series of winding gorges, and through a wild solitude, he reached Alsace.

He chose a retired place there in the forest of Haguenau and formed a friendship with Saint Arbogast, who had been leading an eremitic life there for some time, and who later became Bishop of Strasbourg. Forced to leave this place due to the annoyances he experienced from the inhabitants living near this forest, he retired to the island of Novientum, which later took the name of Ebersheim; some solitaries had taken refuge there around 661 to live in community. Saint Dié, to whom the neighborhood gave some knowledge of these holy figures, embraced their discipline, delighted to have found together the holiness of life, the extreme rigor of penance, and obscurity. He was welcomed with joy by the solitaries, and he began to live among them in such a way that he was an object of admiration to these earthly angels. As they saw him always growing in virtue, they begged him to place himself at their head. The reputation of his holiness attracted a large number of disciples who came to place themselves under his guidance and were imitators of his retired and penitent life. With the help of Childeric II, King of Austrasia, he buil t a church in honor of Saint Childéric II, roi d’Austrasie King of Austrasia and protector of the saint. Peter and Saint Paul, and enriched it with the relics of Saint Maurice, leader of the Theban Legion. The dedication was performed by our holy bishop in the presence of a large crowd of people who had flocked from the neighboring countries. Such was the origin of the abbey of Ebersmun ster, in the diocese abbaye d’Ebersmunster Abbey founded by the saint in Alsace. of Strasbourg. This monastery was formed under the eyes of Attic or Adalric, Duke of Alsace and father of Saint Odile, to whom the land of the island of Ebersheim belonged; this noble lord gave this nascent abbey several of his domains located in Upper Alsace, as well as the tithes of a large number of villages in Lower Alsace and the Brisgau.

As the governance of this monastery did not allow our Saint to devote himself to the exercises of contemplation, he withdrew and sought a more solitary place; it was in the vicinity of Angiville, in the diocese of Basel, that he went to settle. He built a hermitage there; but he was soon forced to leave it, compelled by the inhabitants of the region who, living by brigandage, feared that this newcomer might undertake to change their customs.

Finally, after many such trials, through which God wished to test his patience, a wealthy lord of the region, named Hunnon, with whom he had become acquainted, offered him one of his lands. Didier refused this offer, saying that he had not left his bishopric to seek domains and riches elsewhere; that his intention was to withdraw to a place that was entirely deserted, so as no longer to excite anyone's jealousy.

He returned to the Vosges mountains, crossed the Kaisersberg valley, and stopped for some time in a place since called, after his name, Diedolshofen or Diedolshausen (Bon-Homme); from there he descended into a valley which he named Val de Galilée, and which is called today the Val de Saint-Dié. He built a cell and a chapel there under the invocation of Saint Martin. He had to suffer extremely at first in this valley, where he found only herbs, roots, and wild fruits for food. He rejoiced in Our Lord that He deemed him worthy, along with his companions, to endure something for His love, and he believed he was well rewarded for his abstinence and the other rigors of his solitude, being able to live in the oblivion of all earthly things and in continuous conversation with his God. But the divine goodness, which watches perpetually over the relief of its servants, inspired the lord Hunnon and his holy wife Hunne or Hunna to send him the food that was necessary for him. The Saint had baptized their son and had formed, as we have said, a close friendship with them before entering the Val de Galilée; but they did not know what had become of him since. Hunnon therefore heard, during his sleep, a voice that said to him: "Why do you let the venerable Dieudonné, your friend, die of hunger in the desert, he who has left everything for my service and has voluntarily reduced himself to e xtreme po Dieudonné Bishop of Nevers who became a hermit and founder of monasteries in the Vosges. verty?" Hunnon replied that he wished with all his soul to assist him, but that he did not know the place of his retreat, nor the way to get there. "Load your horses with provisions," the voice replied, "and let them go by themselves, and my providence will lead them." He obeyed: he loaded his horses with bread, wine, and other food, and they went by themselves to the Val de Galilée. Some servants followed them and learned, by this means, the place where the holy Prelate resided; which meant that, from then on, nothing was lacking for him or his brethren. It is added that a donkey, which was carrying food for them, having been eaten by a wolf, the wife of Hunnon commanded the wolf itself to perform this office in the future and to serve as a beast of burden: which this cruel animal executed. Other people came to the aid of our Saint. The fame of his holiness soon spread not only in the neighboring regions, but in the most distant lands. A crowd of people was seen flocking to his cell, drawn from all parts by the sweet odor of his virtues, and asking to live under his discipline.

In 669, as the number of monks continued to grow, our Saint was obliged to build a vast monastery on the hill where he establish ed the Rule of Saint Co Règle de saint Colomban The first monastic rule adopted by the saint. lumbanus, to which the Rule of Saint Benedict was later substituted. He also built a church there which he dedicated to the Mother of God.

At the same time, King Childeric II gave him ownership of the entire valley. This monastery, first called Jointures because of the junction of the Rothbach stream with the Meurthe, later took the name of its holy founder. In the course of this century, religion populated the vast deserts of the Vosges; besides the monastery of Jointures, which Saint Didier had founded, Saint Gombert or Gondelbert, Archbishop of Sens, who had also abandoned his see to retire into solitude, founded that of Senones; the Bishop of Toul, Saint Badon, built Badon-Moûtier, later named Saint-Sauveur, and that of Etival; Saint Hidulphus, Bishop of Trier, who had chosen the same desert for his retreat, built a new one which was called Moyen-Moûtier.

It would take the pen of an angel to describe worthily the holiness in which this great man lived. He nourished himself more on the bread of tears and the food of the word of God than on the material bread that serves to nourish the body. His vigils were frequent, his prayer assiduous, his devotion in the chanting of the psalms and in the celebration of the divine mysteries so generous and so constant that his example was capable of softening the most hardened hearts. Moreover, he possessed a heavenly prudence for governance, and so much kindness and gentleness toward his spiritual children that everyone considered themselves happy to live under his guidance.

However, religious flocked from all parts under his discipline. Soon the monastery could no longer contain them. Then some of Saint Dié's disciples, having reached a higher degree of perfection, ventured deeper into the forests in order to lead an eremitic and contemplative life there. Saint Dié did not wish to sadden their piety and built several cells in various places in the valley of Galilee.

Saint Hidulphu Saint Hidulphe Bishop of Trier and intimate friend of Saint Deodatus. s and Saint Deodatus were united in a very close friendship; they visited each other once every year, and when Saint Deodatus went to see Saint Hidulphus, that holy Prelate would go out to meet him with his disciples to receive him; then, having taken him by the hand with great reverence, he would lead him to the oratory to pray; from there, having led him into the monastery, he would spend the whole night with him singing the praises of God and conversing about the truths of the afterlife; Saint Deodatus did the same when Saint Hidulphus came to visit him in turn, rendering to this blessed archbishop all the duties of holy hospitality.

Our Saint, whose strength was quite weakened, whether by fatigue or by the austerities of penance, fearing that his infirmities might harm the regularity of his community, retired towards the end of his days to his former cell, near the chapel of Saint Martin, and from there he governed his religious with as much zeal and vigilance as if he had been in their midst.

Saint Deodatus having fallen ill unto death, Saint Hidulphus was warned by a voice from heaven and came promptly to his cell to give him the Viaticum and to render him the other assistance that one is obliged to render to the dying; the holy sick man was perfectly consoled by his presence; he recommended to him his disciples, whom he was about to leave as orphans, and begged him to take charge of them; and, indeed, Saint Hidulphus took them on, so as not to afflict such a perfect friend; thus this blessed bishop of Nevers, who had spent his life so holily in the service of God, rendered his soul to Him, laden with graces and merits, to receive from His hand the crown of immortality, on the nineteenth day of June in the year 679, at the age of about ninety.

The religious carried the body of Saint Deodatus with veneration to the church of the blessed Mother of God. They watered it with their tears. Saint Hidulphus offered the victim of salvation, and, according to the rites of the holy Catholic Church, consecrated to the earth, no doubt quite unworthy of such an honor, the precious body of the venerable deceased.

The year of Saint Dié's death having passed, during which Saint Hidulphe frequently came to visit the monastery of Galilee and to offer the victim of propitiation for the repose of the soul of his departed friend, the religious resumed the ordinary course of their exercises and solemnities. As the two holy bishops were accustomed to visit each other's cell every year, they desired to continue this holy custom. When Saint Hidulphe came to the Val de Galilée, the religious of that abbey did not fail to present his tunic to him; they even brought it to him when, in his great old age, he was no longer able to leave Moyen-Moûtier. Thus, the holy archbishop had such veneration for this relic that he would kiss it with his knees on the ground and apply it devoutly to his limbs, being well persuaded that the honor he rendered to this inanimate garment was directed to Saint Dié, whom he believed to be reigning with God in heaven. After his death, the religious of Saint Dié and those of Saint Hidulphe went in procession to one another, reciprocally carrying the sacred tunics of their fathers, and when their bodies were raised from the earth and placed in shrines, they carried them similarly in their processions. Several great miracles occurred at the tombs of these holy Prelates.

In some engravings, one sees Saint Dié carrying a church on his hand. The pious friendship of Saint Dié with Saint Hidulphe in their retreat would well deserve that a group of these two holy bishops be made.

## CULT AND RELICS. — NOTRE-DAME DU VAL DE GALILÉE.

In 787, the body of Saint Dié was transported by his religious in the same coffin in which Saint Hidulphe had placed it, and placed before the Sainte-Croix altar, in the church dedicated to Saint Maurice. In 1003, Béatrix, Duchess of Lorraine, had a translation made to place it in a more suitable location in the same church. This place became so famous that a town formed around the monastery which took and still bears today the name of Saint-Dié.

In 1049, Pope Saint Leo IX, during a journey he made to the Val de Galilée, consecrated some alta rs near the sepulc pape saint Léon IX Pope who visited the saint's sepulchre in 1049. her of Saint Dié, and notably the altars of the Croisée or Transept, built since the translation of his relics.

The cult of Saint Dié soon crossed the Vosges mountains and spread throughout France.

In the monastic martyrology of the abbey of Saint-Nabor, one reads on June 19: "A memorial is made of Saint Dié, bishop and confessor".

Grevenus, in the collection of Umard, printed in 1515 and 1521, celebrates Dieudonné, bishop of Nevers and confessor. Saussée devotes a long eulogy to him. Trithemius, in the third book of the Illustrious Orders of the Order of Saint Benedict, writes: "Adeodatus, abbot of the monastery of the Val de Galilée, shone with great virtues and great merits". Wien and Dorgon, Menard and Bacelin repeat the words of Trithemius. Camerarius, in his Scottish menology, places Saint Dié on March 23 and June 19.

In 1279, Pope Nicholas III having granted indulgences to those who would visit the sanctuaries of Galilee, pilgrims were seen flocking there; with the offerings of the faithful, the church of Notre-Dame was repaired, and the transepts and the apse of the church of Saint-Dié were built. At that time, the relics of the holy anchorite were deposited in a silver shrine adorned with all the decorations of 13th-century art.

In 1540, on the first day of October, the shrine of Saint Dié was opened capitularly and three joints of one of his hands were removed, along with a tooth. One of these joints, with the tooth, was sent to Lambert, Bishop of Caserta, who was then residing in Rome. As for the other two joints, they were deposited in the sacristy, then, in 1618, placed in an arm of fine silver.

The abbey was secularized in 954. It became a famous Chapter of Canons, which was erected into a bishopric by a bull of Pope Pius VI on July 21, 1777, and Barthélemy-Louis-Martin Chaumont de la Galainères was consecrated the first bishop of Saint-Dié on September 21, 1777. He converted on June 30, 1808. By the concordat of 1801, the episcopal see of Saint-Dié had been suppressed and incorporated into the diocese of Nancy; but it was re-established in 1817 by the convention agreed upon between Pius VII and Louis XVIII. This bishopric today comprises the department of the Vosges, between the dioceses of Nancy and Strasbourg.

In 1633, the Austrian army burned the shrine of Saint Dié with a portion of his relics. The rest was miraculously spared.

On November 7, 1792, the constitutional bishop, Antoine Maudau, delivered to the municipality the silver arm that contained the relics of Saint Dié, and deposited them in a wooden shrine. Instruments of so many virtues, sanctified by such a vivid faith, all imbued and trembling with Catholicism, they were displaced in this shrine closed by schism. On June 18, 1808, these precious relics were deposited in an ebony chest given by Canon Rautin.

On July 19, 1851, Mgr Louis-Marie Caverot transferred the precious relics of Saint Dié into a shrine of the greatest richness and the purest style of Catholic art. This splendid and graceful shrine is a monument to the pious liberality of the prelate and his love for the arts.

Nevers did not forget its holy bishop; as early as the 8th century, there was, under the walls of the city, an oratory under the invocation of this Saint; it was there that, later, the hospital of Saint-Dié was built, currently the corn exchange.

Saint Dié was the patron of the old parish of Saint-Dié, now reunited with Lys. Billy, near Clamecy, also honors him as a secondary patron.

The cult of Saint Didier was very widespread; in a Council held in Rome, Pope Saint Leo IX permitted the reading of the life of this holy bishop in the church.

The sanctuary that Saint Dié raised, in the Val de Galilée, under the title of the Mother of God, soon acquired great renown and became a famous place of pilgrimage, thanks to the numerous miracles that occurred there, such as the infirm healed, captives delivered, the deaf who hear, the blind who recover their sight, people crippled in their limbs who recover their use, paralytics cured, and fires extinguished. One has seen suspended on the walls of Notre-Dame de Saint-Dié a large number of chains, collars, handcuffs, and iron stocks, which attested to miraculous deliverances. In 1386, criminals having undertaken during the night to scale the walls to pillage the pious sanctuary, the bells, set in motion without the help of any human hand, rang the alarm; the townspeople, awakened, rushed over, and, finding the criminals thrown from the top of the walls, some dead, others seeking their salvation in flight, they spent the rest of the night blessing the holy Virgin and singing pious canticles to her. Other accidents happened to this chapel; several times it was burned, and always it was reborn from its ashes more venerated and more frequented. Its vaults and secular walls still preserve the trace of the fire. Escaped from the destruction of heresy, sold in 1793 and bequeathed by the last of the purchasers to the commune of Saint-Dié, on the condition that it would only serve for Catholic worship, under the direction of the diocesan bishop, it continues to be the object of general veneration.

Taken from the Hagiologie Lorraine by Mgr Cressier; Saints d'Alsace, by Abbé Hanckler; Saints du Val de Galilée, by Abbé Galont; and Notre-Dame de France.