Saint Saulve and Saint Super

The office completed, Génard, the steward of the province, came to beg the servant of God to accept some food in his house. Saulve, having accepted the invitation, went with his companion to the steward's house, where he also found Winegard, the son of Winegard Son of the steward Génard and instigator of the martyrdom. this official, a young man given over to the most criminal passions. The bishop had with him sacred vessels and church ornaments, made of precious materials, not for the love of luxury, but for the glory of God and for the honor of divine service. Winegard, having seen these objects, conceived a violent desire to seize them, and to execute his criminal project, he inquired about the path the bishop was going to follow.

The latter, having set out again with his disciple, arrived in a mountainous and wild region, bathed by a river. He intended to go to a monastery that was as if lost in these mountains, and near which there was a church dedicated to the holy Virgin. There, Winegard waited for him with his accomplices; and Saulve having come, he advanced toward him, and asked him with feigned respect where he was going. The bishop replied: "I am going to the convent of Saint Mary, if God wills it." Winegard replied: "I have just had a church built on my lands; please have the kindness to come and consecrate it." Saulve, enlightened from above and suspecting a trap, refused to follow Winegard, and began to walk faster with his companion. Then the bandit gave orders to his men to stop the two travelers, and to take their luggage from them. Winegard was a perverse and impious man: he proved it well in this circumstance. The chalice and the paten, taken from Saulve, were converted into gilding with which he adorned his horse's saddle; the pontifical vestments, of cloth of gold, were carried off to his house. As for the bishop, he had him thrown into a dark prison, along with his companion. This dungeon was located in the fortress of Beuvrage (B reviticu Beuvrage Site of martyrdom and imprisonment. m), one of his father's properties, situated four kilometers from Valenciennes.

After this heinous act, the villain went to find his father and told him everything that had happened. The latter exclaimed: "What have you done? How could you mistreat in this way a servant of God, who had come to teach us the path of truth and salvation? Who could have advised you to commit such a crime? We are sinners ourselves; our fathers were as well; must you add this great iniquity to their sins? Must the blood of a just man weigh upon our descendants, through your fault, to the third and fourth generation?" Winegard replied: "What do you want me to do now, my father? Do you want me to set him free, or keep him in prison?" His father replied: "Above all, he must not be killed: this project displeases me sovereignly. All I can tell you is that if you set him free, you will be miserable all your life; if, on the contrary, you kill him, you will burden your conscience with a great crime."

Winegard, upon leaving his father's house, went to find his accomplices to deliberate with them on what was to be done; and after hearing their advice, he returned home. Immediately, he had all the exits closed, called his jailer Winegaire, and ordered him to go immediately and cut off the heads of Saulve and his companion. Winegaire, though reluctantly, prepared Winegaire Jailer and executioner of Saints Saulve and Super. to execute this barbaric order. He found the bishop on his knees on the damp and foul floor of the dungeon, praying to God with fervor. Moved by this sight, he trembling made known to the Saint the cruel order he had just received from his master. The bishop, upon hearing this dire news, replied calmly that he was ready and that the order received could be carried out. Then Winegaire, throwing himself at the feet of the Saint, said to him in a voice choked with sobs: "O holy man! I am in great pain and in a cruel predicament! I see in you an angel of God. How miserable I am to have to carry out such a crime upon you! To save you, to save your friend, and at the same time to spare myself from this horrible crime that I must commit upon you, I see only one way: that you and your companion take flight with me during this night." Saint Saulve replied to him: "O my son, I cannot believe what you are saying: you surely wish to deceive me. How could your master be wicked enough to order such a crime?" The jailer replied: "O man of God, I take the Master of heaven and earth as witness to the truth of everything I have just told you. I beg you, believe me and do what I advise you, so that you may be saved, with the help of God. Let us flee together, and I will serve you faithfully for the rest of my life." The holy Bishop replied: "My son, it is not permitted for us to escape martyrdom, and thus renounce the rewards that Jesus Christ has promised to those who suffer and die for him." — "My venerable father," the jailer resumed, "I know that Jesus Christ reserves a crown for you; but I cannot execute the tyrannical order of my master. My heart is in sadness and terror, and it seems to me that these walls are going to collapse to crush me under their rubble." Saint Saulve said to him: "My son, be without fear. If your master gives you an order, you must execute it, according to these words of the Apostle: Servants, be obedient to your masters, in the fear of the Lord, not only to those who are good, but also to the wicked!"

The jailer was preparing to answer, when Winegard, thinking that everything was finished, summoned him to his house and said to him: "Have you done what I ordered you?" Winegaire replied: "May Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and our Savior, grant that you may see and understand the great holiness of this man of God! You had ordered me to go and kill your two prisoners, Saulve and his companion. But I had barely opened the door of the dungeon when I was seized with great fear; and when I found myself in the presence of the man of God, I was troubled and shaken in my spirit, to the point that I fell at his feet as if fainting, and I believed that the earth was going to open up to devour me." Winegard suppressed a movement of violent anger; then he went to find his friends and said to them in a low voice: "This wretch has no courage. Let one of you go with him to this magician whose honeyed words have fascinated him. Perhaps then he will have the audacity to do what I want." Then, turning back to Winegaire, he said to him: "Go now; and do not return until you have executed my orders!"

Winegaire, accompanied by a friend of his master, therefore returned to the dungeon. When they arrived there and found Saulve resolutely awaiting death, they both hesitated. As for the bishop's companion, he had left him for a moment. Saint Saulv e was sittin saint Saulve Missionary bishop and martyr of the 8th century. g on a wooden seat; then the jailer's companion said to him: "What are you still waiting for? Why do you not carry out your master's order?" The jailer seized the axe to strike; but as he was trembling in every limb, it was impossible for him to deliver the blow. Then the Saint said to him: "Do not hesitate any longer, my son: do what you have been ordered to do." Saying this, Saulve had uncovered his neck, and he bowed his head upon his chest. Then at last Winegaire dealt him the death blow. During this time, the disciple of Saint Saulve was in another part of the prison. Having heard the blow of the axe, and the sound made by the head as it rolled to the ground, he cried out: "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!" Immediately after, the jailer-executioner went to behead him as well. Thus died together, the death of martyrs, Saint Saulve and his companion, on June 26 of the year 768, by the orders of Winegard.

Winegard, having had a hole dug in a stable, had the two bloodied corpses transported there. That of Saint Saulve was thrown into the earth first, and that of his disciple was placed on top. It is this circumstance that caused this person, whose name historians have never kn own, Super Disciple of Saint Saulve, martyred with him. to be called Super. A strange fact then awakened the curiosity of the inhabitants of the region: a bull from the said stable constantly pushed the other animals away from the place where the two holy bodies were located and did not allow it to be defiled. After searches carried out by the ministers of Charles Martel, a punishment was inflicted upon the murderers, and the two holy bodies were transported to Valenciennes, and subsequently transfer red to Brena Valenciennes City near the place of martyrdom where the bodies were transported. , now Saint-Saulve, where Charlemagne had a church built, in memory of Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. this martyrdom, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, to provide a burial place for the body of the holy Prelate.

Our holy Martyrs are depicted in a hole made in a stable; oxen turn their eyes toward the pit, and a prince has it opened.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The cult of Saint Saulve has always been celebrated in the Valenciennes region. Formerly, one could see at the monastery of Liessles (Nord, diocese of Cambrai) a stained-glass wi ndow and a saint Super Disciple of Saint Saulve, martyred with him. bone of Saint Super. It also appears that the cathedral of Arras possessed a relic of Saint Saulve. There is, in the Duchy of Jülich (Rhenish province), in the fortress of Limbourg, a church dedicated to this holy bishop, where he is venerated as patron. In 1282, Raoul, prior of Saint-Saulve, enshrined the holy bodies in a gilded silver casket.

Formerly, in the church of the old monastery of Saint-Saulve, there was a great gathering of people to ask God for the preservation or healing of their livestock through the intercession of the two Martyrs. Still today, every year, a large number of pilgrims visit the church of this parish. Some fragments of the relics of Saint Saulve, which escaped the revolutionary furies, are preserved there.

Propre de Cambrai. — Cf. Les Vies des Saints, by Alban Stein, doctor of theology; and Les Vies des Saints des diocèses de Cambrai et d'Arras, by Abbé Destombes, honorary canon of Cambrai.