Saint Godebertha

As soon as she was of marriageable age, she did not lack advantageous suitors. Her parents, however, did not dare give their word to anyone without the permission of King Clovis II, from whose liberality they held their domain.

While this matter was being discussed before the king, and everyone was awaiting his will to know to whom the young girl would be give n, Saint E saint Éloi Founder of the monastery and spiritual advisor to Saint Aurea. ligius, Bishop of Noyon, appeared in the midst of the company; and, moved by a divine impulse, gave his gold ring to the virgin Godeberte, betrothing her, by this means, in the presence of the king and her parents, to Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only spouse of virgins. This action of the holy bishop was admired, and everyone spoke of it according to their own sentiments: but it was soon seen that he had been inspired by the Holy Spirit; for, at that very hour, the young Godeberte felt herself inflamed with such a vivid flame of divine love that, despising the world, trampling underfoot all its vanities, and renouncing all bodily pleasures, she begged with all her heart the holy prelate to consecrate her to God forever, and to give her the veil of virgins: which he granted her. She also chose him as her spiritual father, and abandoned herself entirely to such wise guidance.

The King of France, touched by such a pious resolution, attended the ceremony and ceded the palace he had in the suburb of Noyo Noyon The saint's principal episcopal see. n to Saint Godeberte, along wi th an oratory of Saint Ge oratoire de Saint-Georges The saint's first place of retreat and burial. orge, so that she might retire there and serve God in the company of twelve other maidens, whose direction she undertook, following the order and rule prescribed to them by Saint Eligius (656). Saint Godeberte thus lived with her maidens in solitude, conversing only with God, spending the nights in prayer, and mortifying her body through fasting, discipline, and other religious austerities. Her entire life was a perpetual holocaust to the Lord, who rewarded her with the conversion of the pagans who had until then resisted the lights of the faith, and by the power of the miracles that filled this most wondrous life.

A horrible plague was raging in Noyon: rich and poor, children and the elderly, nobles and commoners, all were falling under its blows. Those who could flee left their homes abandoned, and the contagion was so swift that no one dared to touch the corpses to perform the final duties of burial.

Godeberte, seeing the desolation that reigned in the city, urged the clergy to prescribe a three-day fast. Following the example of Judith exhorting the inhabitants of Bethulia, she exalted the efficacy of penance, a mystical river whose salutary waves wash away the stains of iniquity. She recalled the story of David returning to grace with the Lord, of the denial of Saint Peter being forgiven, of the conversion of the good thief, of Mary Magdalene drowning the memories of the past in her tears. The people yielded to Godeberte's prayers; the three days of fasting having been rigorously observed, the destructive scourge ceased its ravages.

Some time later, probably in 676, a violent fire threatened to set the entire city ablaze. Godeberte, exhausted by austerities, lay on her bed of pain: but her physical prostration did not alter the serenity of her spirit nor the ardor of her prayers. Meanwhile, the fire, spreading its devastation, reached the outskirts of the Basilica of Saint Mary; one counted only on God to ensure the salvation of this edifice built by Saint Medard, and everyone fled the frightening scene of the d isaster. God saint Médard Bishop of Noyon who consecrated Radegund as a deaconess. eberte, then forgetting her sufferings, had herself transported in a chair to the very heart of the fire, made the sign of the cross, and suddenly halted the activity of the flames.

It was also by a sign of the cross, formed over the eyes of a blind woman named Transirique Transirique Blind woman healed by Saint Godebertha. , that Godeberte restored sight to this poor woman who had placed all her trust in her. The blind woman made her vows in the monastery of Noyon, thus proving that grace had illuminated her soul, at the same time that the light of day had enlightened her eyes.

Very different was Vulgude Vulgude Disobedient nun struck with blindness by the saint. ; having entered this same monastery to practice perfection, she scandalized it by the bitterness of her character and her disobedience. One day, she even went so far as to grossly insult her superior: the latter, indignant, spat in her face. The incorrigible sister suddenly became blind and remained in this miserable state until the end of her days. "The good and naive Le Vasseur," says the Abbé Laffineur, "found up to ten reasons to justify this act of Saint Godeberte. If this severity of Godeberte seemed strange to some readers, one could, without proposing this extraordinary act for imitation, recall that the saints, inspired by God, have higher views than ours; that the soul is more precious than the body with its organs; that if a doctor sacrifices a limb to save the others, one understands that Saint Godeberte, to correct an obstinate sister, struck her with blindness, in order to heal her obstinacy and open her soul to a light more necessary than that of the eyes. We will also recall that Saint Paul, in the book of Acts, inflicted a similar punishment on Elymas, whose malice hindered the preaching of the Gospel."

The fame of Godeberte spread far and wide and attracted to her a large number of sick people whom she restored to health; but the detailed memory of these miracles has not reached us.

Godeberte was a mother for heaven. God took her from the trials of this world to clothe her in the incorruptible garment of glory. It is known that she died on April 11, at the end of the 6th century or the beginning of the 7th, without the precise year being known.

Godeberte was buried, near her monastery, in the oratory of Saint-Georges, which was later to take the name of the holy Apostles, and subsequently be replaced by a church dedicated under her invocation.