Saint Godeberte

The elevation of the body of Saint Godeberte took place on April 27, 1168, by Bauduin, Bishop of Noyon, who transferred the relics to the cathedral.

During the Revolution, the relics of Saint Godeberte were buried in the courtyard of the cathedral cloister by a pious believer named Eustache. After the restoration of worship, they were recognized and authenticated by the episcopal authority. They are today contained in a wooden reliquary in the shape of a church. Her head is kept separately in a reliquary of exquisite taste donated in 1852 by Mr. Ch. Hannonet de la Grange.

A relic of the Saint was recently given to the church of Salency by Mr. Carbonnier, former vicar of Noyon.

One may consider as a kind of relic of Saint Godeberte the handbell that will soon be hung in her chapel at the cathedral of Noyon.

Tradition recounts that our Saint used it to summon her nuns to the community's exercises. From a historical point of view, this tradition is consistent with the custom followed in Scotland in monasteries governed, like that of Noyon, by the Rule of Saint Columbanus. From an archaeological point of view, nothing prevents dating this curious monument back to the 7th century. This portable handbell, made of beaten metal sheets joined by riveted nails and having the shape of a pyramidal trunk with a rectangular base, measures twenty-six centimeters in height by twenty in width at its lower end. The flat handle, curved in an arch, features an ornamentation that resembles what is called a fishbone pattern.

The treasury of the cathedral of Noyon claimed to possess the gold ring with which Saint Eligius betrothed Saint Godeberte to Jesus Christ. I saint Éloi Founder of the monastery and spiritual advisor to Saint Aurea. t is mentioned in an inventory from 1462.

Saint Godeberte is the patron saint of the city of No ville de Noyon The saint's principal episcopal see. yon, where her cult has always been popular. She is invoked especially during public calamities and in times of excessive rain or continuous drought. In memory of the contagion she brought to an end during her lifetime, she was often invoked during the plagues so frequent in the 14th and 15th centuries, caused by the misery and evils of all kinds generated by the incessant wars of those unfortunate times.

The monastery of Saint-Godeberte, destroyed by the Normans, could never rise from its ruins, although a few nuns still remained there in the 10th century. The buildings were almost abandoned in 977, when Bishop Lindolphe I donated them to the Cathedral Chapter, which contracted the obligation to delegate four of its members to sing the office near the body of Saint Godeberte. It was undoubtedly to escape this inconvenience that the precious deposit, which had remained for four and a half centuries in the oratory of Saint-Georges, was transferred to the cathedral in 1167. It was also at this time that the Chapter had a parish church built on the same site, which took the name of Saint-Godeberte. It continued to be a frequented place of pilgrimage because of a fountain that was beneficial to sick children. This fountain no longer exists, but the memory of its location is preserved.

The bishops of Noyon, upon their first solemn entry, would stop at the church of Saint-Godeberte, remove their traveling clothes, and, after donning their pontifical vestments, would enter through the northern door, which opened only for this occasion.

The church of Saint-Godeberte was destroyed during the Revolution. The memory of its location was long perpetuated by the procession that stopped there on April 14.

In the territory of Matigny (canton of Ham), there is a place called: Vallée de Sainte-Godeberte.

Her feast is marked on February 13 in the breviaries of Amiens of 1746 and 1840 (simple); on May 5, in those of Noyon and Saint-Quentin; on April 11, in the Proper of Beauvoir (double). It was celebrated in Noyon on the Sunday following April 11; but as reserved feasts, which abound at that time of year, often caused this solemnity to be postponed, an indult was obtained (April 2, 1857) which fixed it on the fifth Sunday after Easter.

Canon Le Vasseur, dean of the chapter of Noyon and author of the Annals of that church, who imagined that the cathedral of Noyon dated from the time of Charlemagne, devoted a five-page chapter to resolving this question: Whether the portrait of our saint Godeberte, which is seen at the great portal of our church, was made from life or according to its prototype. He pronounces himself, of course, in the affirmative and sees in it an exact and nearly contemporary portrait. On the church of Sainte-Godeberte, one believed to recognize in a tombstone bearing the effigy of a nun the ancient tomb of the patron saint of Noyon. On the left portal of the same cathedral, now mutilated, one formerly saw a servant who, at the command of Saint Godeberte, carried in the fold of her dress burning coals that turned into roses and other flowers. This miracle, known only through Noyon tradition, is not mentioned in the text of Radbod. In one of the niches of the magnificent stone altarpiece of the chapel of Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours, at the cathedral of Noyon, one notices an ancient statue of Saint Godeberte holding a ring in her hand. Two rather old paintings, but of little merit, preserved in the same church, represent, one the portrait of Saint Godeberte in a nun's habit; the other, the miracle of the stopped fire. A third painting, of recent date, shows us the young virgin betrothed to Jesus Christ, in the presence of the king, by the ring of Saint Eloi. A much more curious monument is preserved in the upper room of the Treasury: it is a 14th-century cupboard where Saint Godeberte is painted next to Saint Eloi who is blessing her. M. Viollet-le-Duc publishe d the chro saint Éloi Founder of the monastery and spiritual advisor to Saint Aurea. molithograph of it in his Dictio M. Viollet le Duc French architect and author who studied the furniture of Noyon. nnaire du mobilier français, vol. I, Meubles, pl. 1. A beautiful engraving by Picart, in the collection of Figures de Saints, at the Cabinet des estampes in Paris, vol. VII, f° 212, represents Saint Godeberte standing, holding a book and a ring. This figure is reproduced in the biography of the Saint by Moutigny. We have only to mention a modern stained glass window in the church of Villers-Bretonneux; a statue in the cathedral of Noyon, due to the spontaneous offerings of the faithful following the cessation of the epidemic of which we have spoken, and blessed on February 25, 1867, by Mgr Gignoux; and the stained glass windows representing the legend of the Saint, which M. Claudine-Lavergne is soon to execute for her chapel.

The Life of Saint Godeberte, written long after her death, is attributed to Radbod II Radbod II Bishop of Noyon and presumed author of the saint's life. , elected bishop of Noyon in 1067. It is a type of panegyric that was undoubtedly read in church on the day of her feast. — We have borrowed the greater part of the life of Saint Godeberte from the Hagiography of Amiens, by M. Corblet.