Saint Mauront

Few memories remain of the childhood of Saint Mauront. Here is only one incident, in which those who do not believe in chance will not fail to see a particular providence from God.

We have just said that he had received baptism at the hands of Saint Riquier. Now, it happened one day that this venerable and holy priest, as much for the profit of his soul as for the consolations of friendship, came to visit the blessed Rictrude. After the pious conversations with which they had nourished their souls as if with delicious and entirely heavenly bread, the man of God, having already remounted his horse, was preparing to leave. For her part, the blessed servant of the Lord, out of honor and friendship, as is usually practiced, had stepped a few paces outside the house; she took her little Mauront in her arms and raised him, and asked Saint Riquier to give his godson his paternal blessing. The man of God, without dismounting, took the child into his arms, either to embrace him or indeed to bless him. But, suddenly, says the one who recounts the fact, the enemy of all good, in his jealous rage, inspired in the animal a kind of fury that was by no means ordinary for it. It agitated itself like a demoniac, gnashed its teeth, flew into a rage, and ran here and there with a strange impetuosity. Saint Riquier saw himself in great danger of perishing; but he feared above all for the child; the poor mother feared no less. She no longer knew what to do. Already almost fainting, as if she had seen with her own eyes death, with its arm raised against such dear objects, she turned away her face, bathed in tears, so as not to be a witness to their lamentable fall. The whole house had run to the noise of the peril. However, the servant of God, who was still holding the child, addressed a prayer to the Lord. Scarcely had he finished it, when the child was on the ground, without any harm, like a little bird that lands while flying; and the horse, for its part, had resumed its former gentleness, like a peaceful lamb. The mother seized her dear child with joy and pressed him tenderly to her heart. The child smiled at his mother, and everywhere the intoxication of happiness succeeded the most vivid anxieties. One cannot doubt that such a happy outcome was due to the merits of these two holy souls. And as often, by the all-powerful goodness of God, the efforts of hell to destroy the righteous only contribute more to their progress in virtue, so it happened that this trial only added to the perfection of Saint Riquier. For reflecting that the Lord, his God, when He came to redeem the world, wishing to give us an example of humility, had appeared mounted, not on a superbly harnessed horse, but on a simple donkey that His Apostles had prepared for Him, he himself, thereafter, whenever there was a pressing necessity to travel, following the example of his divine Master, never wished to have any other mount.

Once his initial education was completed, the young Maurant was sent to the court of France, under King Clovis II and Queen Saint Bathilde. He remained there for several years, and, in consideration of his virtues and merit, as much as his birth and nobility, the king honored him with the title of secretary and chancellor of the kingdom.

It was during this interval that he had the sorrow of losing his blessed father, cruelly assassinated by villains during a journey he made from Flanders to Gascony to visit the relatives and estates of Saint Rictrude, his wife.

Saint Rictrude, after the death of her husband, resolved to dedicate her widowhood to God. Having refused a second marriage, which King Clovis II proposed to her with one of the greatest lords of his court, she turned all her thoughts and affections toward heaven; and, by the counsel of Saint Amand , formerly saint Amand Spiritual advisor to Gertrude. Bishop of Maastricht, she left the world entirely, took the veil, and retired to the abbey of Marchienn es, of which she beca abbaye de Marchiennes Abbey of which Hugh becomes the superior. me abbess a few years later, and which she edified as much as she illustrated it through forty years of the most austere penances and the most solid virtues. She herself, with the blessed Adalbaud, had given Saint Amand this land of Marchiennes to found a monastery for men, which took the name of Elnone. It is since then that, having increased the buildings and separated them from those of the monks, she established there a community of women, under the name of the abbey of Marchiennes. Among the number of nuns were first her three daughters, who were mentioned above.

Meanwhile, the young Maurant had returned to his country for a marriage he intended to contract. He had already settled all the conditions and even celebrated the betrothal when, touched by the exhortations of Saint Amand, he became entirely disgusted with the world and resolved to dedicate himself fully to God in the state of virginity. It is to be believed that the death of his blessed father, the memory of his great virtues, the example of his holy mother and his three sisters, joined to their fervent prayers, contributed not a little to this generous determination, by making him better feel all the frivolity of the goods of this world, and all the happiness there is in giving oneself to God without reserve.

He therefore communicated to his holy mother the desire he had to renounce marriage forever. She feared at first that Maurant only wished to take the path of celibacy to give himself to debauchery with more freedom, as do so many unfortunate young men who thus rush blindly into eternal abysses. With this thought, she had Saint Amand, that charitable physician of souls, sent for, and confided to him her vivid maternal anxieties regarding the salvation of her son. It was not difficult for Saint Amand to console her and restore peace to her afflicted heart.

Shortly after, as this holy bishop was solemnly celebrating Mass in the presence of the young Maurant, it happened that a bee, fluttering about, circled the latter's head three times. Saint Amand, who had noticed this circumstance, believed he saw in it an omen from heaven, had the young Maurant called, and exhorted him to execute as soon as possible the design he had conceived, which a secret revelation had just made known to him as being accepted from above.

Saint Maurant did not delay any longer; he began by placing himself in the hands of Saint Amand and abandoned himself fully to his direction. This holy Pontiff, according to the rules of the Church, blessed him and gave him the clerical tonsure in the form of a crown. He taught him at the same time the mysterious significance of this holy ceremony. The tonsure, he told him, by laying bare the top of the head, reminds us that nothing is hidden from the eyes of the Lord, not even the most intimate thoughts; and by the cutting of the hair, often renewed thereafter, it teaches us that we must likewise unceasingly cut away superfluous and criminal desires. This form of a crown, he added, expresses for us both the tiara of the high priest and the diadem of the great King; it tells us that we henceforth belong to a royal priesthood, and that after the battles and trials of this life, endured with patience, God reserves in the other, for those who love Him, a crown of immortal and infinite glory... These symbolic lessons, gathered from the mouth of the holy bishop and from Holy Scripture itself, the blessed Maurant engraved deeply in his memory and worked above all with extreme care to realize them in practice.

Raised later to the order of deacon, his entire application was to lead more and more a conduct worthy of the name he bore and the sacred character with which he was invested.

The Lord, for His part, provided him with a means of advancement in virtue by procuring for him the co mpany of saint Amé Monk of Luxeuil and co-founder of Remiremont with Romaric. Saint Amatus, Bishop of Sens. This is how it happened: this saint had been raised, against his will, to the episcopal see of Sens. Five years later, slandered by envious people to the king, who was then Theuderic III, he was relegated first to Péronne, in a monastery, under the guard of Saint Ultan, who was its abbot. After the death of the blessed Ultan, Theuderic placed Saint Amatus into the hands of Saint Mauront, with the charge of guarding him in his turn. Saint Mauront had by then become abbot o monastère appelé Breuil Monastery founded by Mauront at Merville. f a monastery called Breuil, which he had just had built himself on his land of Merville, which was mentioned above. He soon recognized the rich treasure that heaven had just entrusted to him in the person of Saint Amatus; he treated him, not as an exile, nor a prisoner, but as a saint and a man of God; he felt honored to make himself his most humble servant; and his entire application, for himself and his monks, was to study his holy life as a perfect mirror of the most excellent virtues. He even wished for him to be superior of his monastery in his place, and submitted himself to his direction like the simplest of monks. After his death, in 690, he had him buried with great honor and kept his precious remains in his monastery of Breuil, until, three years later, he had them transported to a new church, which he had had built in honor of the Blessed Virgin.

Saint Mauront then resumed the direction of his monastery, which he had been so happy at first to cede to Saint Amatus. It is impossible to say with what application he worked, until his last breath, to sanctify himself and also to sanctify the monks who had come to place themselves under his guidance. One saw flourish, at the monastery of Breuil, in all evangelical perfection, all the virtues that honor the holiest communities: the spirit of retreat, of recollection, of silence and of prayer, a profound humility, a universal mortification, an inalterable sweetness, an invincible patience, an admirable detachment from all things of this world, a holy zeal for the most austere practices of penance, for fasts, vigils, hairshirts, etc.

Saint Mauront governed the abbey of Marchiennes at the same time, since the death of Saint Rictrude his mother, which occurred two years before that of Saint Amé, in 688. He could not refuse this consolation to his holy mother, who had requested it of him before drawing her last breath. He therefore directed the abbey of Marchiennes as long as he lived, that is to say for a period of about fourteen years. We have no details on these last years of his life.

Finally, the moment had arrived when God was to crown in heaven a life so full of virtues and merits. Saint Mauront had come to visit the abbey of Marchiennes, which he had taken charge of, as we have just said, at the prayer of his dying mother. This visit took place, no doubt, only by a particular design of divine providence. God wanted hearts that the bonds of charity, even more than those of blood, had so closely united during life, not to be separated even after death, and that they should rest in peace in the same place. He therefore permitted that, suddenly surprised by the illness from which he was to die in the abbey of Marchiennes, Saint Mauront, after having fulfilled one last time the pious duties of his holy ministry and received the consolations of religion, fell asleep there in the sleep of the just in the arms of the Lord, beside his mother and his three blessed sisters. His death occurred on May 5 of the year 702, in the sixty-eighth year of his age; according to others, on May 5, 706, in his seventy-second year.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS OF SAINT MAURONT.]

His body remained for a long time in the church of Marchiennes, where he had been buried initially. We read in the Chronicles of Marchiennes that he was placed in the church, on the eastern side, near a well that he had caused to be dug for the service of the altar, and which still bears his name today.

He was later exhumed, it is not well known on what occasion, and the greater part of his bones were transported to Do uai. Douai Original seigneury of Gertrude's family. There also were, since the 9th century, those of Saint Amé.

They had been brought there from the monastery of Brenil, to save them from the ravages of the Normans. Thus rested together, some time after their death, in the same church, the venerated remains of these two great Saints, who, during their lives, had been bound by such a close and pure friendship.

The church of Saint-Amé, where the precious remains of Saint Mauront were kept until '93, in a chapel of this large, rich, and magnificent collegiate church, is today destroyed and no vestige of it remains.

One could see in this church a large and magnificent chapel, with an altar dedicated under the triple invocation of Saint Mauront, his mother, Saint Rictrude, and his blessed father, Adalband. One could also see their three statues there. That of Saint Mauront was in the middle; it wore a garment of distinction in the form of a royal cloak, adorned with fleurs-de-lis, in the right hand a scepter, and in the left an edifice surmounted by a bell tower. The fleurs-de-lis indicated his high lineage, and the small building, his religious foundations. Of these three statues, only that of Saint Mauront remains today.

The abbey of Saint-Ghislin, in Hainaut, also boasts of possessing the skull of Saint Mauront in a beautiful gilded silver head, and half of one of his arms in another reliquary.

Several miracles are recounted as having occurred since his death. The first is found in the life of Saint Rictrude, written towards the end of the 14th century by an anonymous monk of the Abbey of Marchiennes.

We have said that the relics of Saint Maurant were later transported to Douai. As a consequence of this translation, and with the consent of the clergy and the people of the city, it was decreed that every year, on May 5th, the feast of Saint Maurant would be celebrated with great solemnity. It was to be announced publicly in all the churches on the preceding Sunday; all servile work was forbidden on that day, and everyone hastened to attend the holy offices with great devotion, as is still seen today, the historian adds. But they went even further. Out of veneration for this great Saint, one year they went so far as to forbid work from three o'clock in the afternoon on the eve of his feast. Now, it happened that a shoemaker persisted in remaining at his work after the prescribed hour, without respect for the Saint, and without regard even for the remonstrances made to him by charitable neighbors. "How now!" they said to him, "and what temerity! Do you not see that it is God Himself whom you despise, you who despise His saints and disobey the commandments of the Church, our mother? Have you forgotten, moreover, that the Lord said: 'He who hears you, hears me, and he who despises you, despises me'? Now, you know very well that this feast is of order and obligation every year. And you, slave to avarice and vile interest, do not fear to transgress the precept of the Lord." To which this wretched prevaricator replied (what is, moreover, so often replied even today): "Eh! The priests impose upon us what they want, according to their whims. And what is Maurant, what is Rictrude, his mother? Men like us, nothing more. They were born in wealth, that is all; but they were not of a different nature than us; and, at death, they went to join their fathers just like the others. I neither honor nor fear them; they can do nothing for or against me; they are well and truly dead."

Hardly had he finished these blasphemies, the historian continues, than, returning again to his work, suddenly, I know not how, the blade he held in one hand came to pierce the other as if it had wanted to cut a piece of leather. He could never be fully healed and remained crippled for the rest of his life, so that, no longer able to work, he saw himself little by little, from the rich man he was at first, reduced to indigence, overwhelmed by debts, and forced, to escape his creditors, to flee secretly from the country, having nothing left.

The neighbors did not fail then to remember the blasphemies they had heard him utter, and to see in his misfortune a just punishment for his impiety. It was soon known throughout the city, and devotion to the cult of the Saints resumed, from that moment, a new fervor.

In another Collection of the life and miracles of Saint Rictrude, composed by another monk, named Vualbert or Gualbert, and which is also found among the manuscripts of Marchiennes, there is mention of a well, of which we spoke a word above, called the well of Saint Maurant, which he himself, out of respect, had had dug so that it could serve exclusively to wash and purify the sacred vessels and the linens of the altar; it is added that a large number of sick people, afflicted with scrofula or glandular swellings, were seen coming there, and that they continually experienced, through the virtue of Our Lord Jesus Christ, how powerful was the intercession of Saint Rictrude and her blessed son Saint Maurant; for, after having drunk of this salutary water, and having washed their faces and bodies with it, they returned perfectly healed and forever.

Jean Buzelin, a Jesuit, in his History of Belgium, printed in Douai, partly under the title of Annales Gallo-Flandrie, in 1624, and partly under the title of Gallo-Flandrie sacra et profana, in 1623, collected many things about Saint Maurant. He recounts, among other things, as having taken it from a precious book belonging to the church of Saint-Amé of Douai, that, during a translation of the bones of Saint Maurant into a new reliquary, a translation made in Douai in the year 1139 by Alvin, Bishop of Arras, in the presence of several important personages, and among others Goswin, Abbot of the monastery of Anchin, in Hainaut, and archimandrite of La Chaise-Dieu, in Auvergne, a sort of prodigy appeared, which contributed singularly to make the glory of Saint Maurant shine forth again, and to justify the honors that the piety of the faithful hastens to render him. One saw, and everyone was a witness to it, a quite extraordinary circle, shaded with various colors, surrounding in the form of a crown all those who were then handling the sacred bones, and this until they finished placing them in the new reliquary.

We will conclude the account of these few miracles with a much more recent and perhaps no less significant fact.

It was in 1556, on the eve of the Epiphany, during the night. Gaspard de Coligny, Grand Admiral of France, was besieging the city of Douai. He wanted to take advantage of the circumstance; and knowing that, during this night, the people of Flanders were accustomed to celebrate the Epiphany with feasts, he hoped to s urprise them under Gaspard de Coligny Grand Admiral of France who besieged Douai in 1556. the cover of the drunkenness and sleep that follows; he therefore ordered the assault. But Saint Maurant was watching over the safety of the city. He appeared in a dream to the guardian of the church of Saint-Amé, where we have said that his precious relics rested; he ordered him three times to ring Matins. The guardian, not recognizing Saint Maurant, refused at first, alleging that it was not yet the time; but, forced at last, he did it, and behold, instead of the strokes of Matins, it was the alarm bell that rang out. Throughout the city, people awoke, ran to arms, and flew to the ramparts; but what was the surprise of the besieged when they saw with their own eyes the Saint himself, going here and there on the wall, just as his statue represents him to us, with his clothing all sparkling with jewels and sprinkled with golden lilies, and the royal scepter in his right hand. There is no doubt that it was he himself who had defended the city, while waiting for the inhabitants to be awakened. The people and the senate of Douai were so convinced of this that, in gratitude, an annual procession was instituted in which the venerated relics of the Saint are carried solemnly; it is the canons themselves who have this honor, and there is an immense gathering of people.

The rumor of this prodigy spread even to foreign countries, for it is found mentioned in a calendar of the Benedictines edited in Mâcon in the year 1622.

Arnold Wien, who transmitted to us the memory of this miraculous deliverance, adds, in a marginal note, that his own father, Aimé Wien, then procurator-general of the city, had arrived first of all in arms on the wall and that he had been a witness himself to this miraculous scene.

Jean Buzelin, whom we have already cited, in the second book of his Annals, reports this same fact and in almost the same terms, under the date of 1557. Such a striking trait may encounter skeptics. The author we have just cited recounts that, already in his time, some sought to give it a natural explanation. According to them, the senate had received notice of the danger by some peasants who had entered the city the previous evening; upon this notice, the posts of the ramparts had been doubled, and finally, at the signal given by the sentinel from the top of the praetorian tower, the success of the ambushes had been prevented in time. But such is not the common belief, adds Jean Buzelin, and all the others, with more reason, attribute this deliverance to the sole protection of Saint Maurant. We say in our turn: why then would we not like to believe it ourselves? Must a miracle cost so much to the omnipotence of God? It is infinite; to His goodness for men? It is boundless; to His love for the Saints themselves? He takes pleasure in making their glory shine forth in the eyes of a disdainful and incredulous world.

The current church of Saint-Jacques in Douai still possesses some relics of Saint Mauront. One also finds near the Scarpe, and not far from the site of the former collegiate church of Saint-Amé, a fountain that bears his name. It is not rare to see people drawing water from this fountain or dipping linens in it for the sick. A prompt or unexpected recovery has often rewarded the pious confidence of the faithful.

In Merville, the cult of Saint Mauront, like that of Saint Amé, has also been faithfully preserved to this day. It is barely a few years ago that a pious family had a chapel erected on the road leading from this town to the village of Vieux-Berquin, under the patronage of these two protectors of the region. On May 5, the feast day of Saint Mauront, a novena is begun there, during which the holy sacrifice is celebrated each morning in the midst of a crowd of inhabitants who come to claim with confidence, for themselves and their relatives, the graces and blessings of heaven.

The coat of arms of Merville formerly represented Saint Mauront and Saint Amé.

Two parishes of the diocese of Soissons, Margival and Levergies, honor Sain t Mauron Margival Village in the Aisne department dedicated to Saint Mauront. t with a particular cult.

Margival is a small village to the northeast of Soissons (Aisne), ten kilometers from that city, at the bottom of a small valley. If one were to ask why the church and parish of Margival are under the patronage of Saint Mauront, and what could have led to choosing from among so many other Saints, better known in the country, a Saint who seems to be much less so, we could answer first that, although quite little known today, Saint Mauront may have been much more so in the past. We could also answer that it appears from history that the relics of Saint Amé having been brought first from Breuil to Douai, as we have seen, to save them from the fury of the Normans, they were not believed to be safe enough there, and that they were then brought from Douai to Soissons, which was a much stronger city. Now, who knows if those of Saint Mauront were not brought there at the same time?... What is certain is that the presence of Saint Amé must have naturally reawakened in Soissons and its surroundings the thought and veneration of the holy abbot who had given him a gracious asylum in his monastery, and with whom he had had such intimate relations, worthy of both.

But here is a much more plausible answer, which can easily spare us any other explanation. It is recounted in the *Recueil des miracles de sainte Rictrude*, by the anonymous religious whom we have already cited above, that, near Soissons, the blessed virgin Eusebia, sister of Saint Mauront, possessed with her mother, Saint Rictrude, a land named Vregny; that this land had been given to her by Dagobert, King of France, and by Queen Nanthilde, his wife, because both had held her at the baptismal font as godfather and godmother; that, later, Saint Eusebia having taken the veil, following the example of her mother, in the abbey of Marchiennes, she had given in perpetuity to the church of this abbey the land of Vregny with all its dependencies; and that it is for this reason that, each year, the village of Vregny sends to the abbey of Marchiennes a certain quantity of wine, as much for the service of the altar as for the infirm and the animals. And, indeed, we find in the *État du diocèse de Soissons*, printed in 1782, that, even then, there was in this parish a house belonging to the abbey of Marchiennes, and that the censier lord was the abbot of Marchiennes. Even today, this house still exists and one sees, on the territory of Vregny, a place called the Couture de Marchiennes. Is more needed to explain the origin of the devotion that led to dedicating the church of Margival under the title of Saint Mauront and placing the entire parish under his powerful patronage; especially if one considers that the two territories touch, and that the land of Vregny could then have extended to Margival and embraced it in its dependencies? We would willingly go further and say that it is even from there that the village took its name of Margival; whether one derives it from the name of Saint Mauront himself, *Mauranti vallis*, that is to say, valley of Saint Mauront; or more probably from the name of the abbey where his mother and sister lived, and which he himself governed for some time, *Marchiana or Marciana vallis*, valley of Marchiennes. We leave the judgment to those more skilled than us; but it is not far, it seems to us, from Marchienneval to Marchival, then to Margival. The *Propre Soissonnais*, in 1852, in the legend of Matins, adopted this etymology.

But why, at some distance from Margival, the fountain of Saint Mauront? Why the custom of the procession that takes place there on his feast day? Why the custom of coming there on pilgrimage and praying there especially for young children?

One could answer that the land of Vregny having belonged to Saint Eusebia and Saint Rictrude, it could very well have happened that Saint Mauront, in one of his trips to Vregny, came to Margival, stopped near this fountain, even drank its water, and that tradition, since then, has preserved the pious memory of it to our days.

But we prefer to say that this fountain is intended simply to recall the well that Saint Mauront had had dug himself, near the church of the abbey of Marchiennes, for the service of the altar, near which he was first buried, as has been said above.

Then the use of the annual procession and the pilgrimage is easily explained: for we have seen the veneration of the people for the well of Saint Mauront and the miracles that occurred there.

Why pray there especially for young children? We would willingly see the reason in the marvelous way in which Saint Mauront was saved, while still a small child, when he ran such great danger in the hands of Saint Riquier. It has been thought that, in heaven, he would, in his turn, take a very special interest in all the dangers that this age can run.

Levergies is a village of twelve hundred inhabitants, located two leagues north of Saint-Quentin, in a nearly straight line from the latter city to Marchiennes. It is a place of pilgrimage to Saint Mauront.

One kilome ter from Levergies Pilgrimage site for Saint Mauront near Saint-Quentin. the village stood, before the Revolution, a six-foot statue representing Saint Mauront, placed on a stone pedestal. This statue, by its position, dominated all the surroundings. Around it, the piety of our fathers had planted four elms to provide shade for the pilgrims who came in large numbers from the surroundings, often even from distant lands. Everything was destroyed in '93. Only a few scattered stones remain today. A fragment of the statue, which was placed back on a stone, was preserved for a long time; but the outrages that impiety or heresy have made it suffer since, a thousand times over, have made it unrecognizable today. The lure of gain also often had something to do with it: for pilgrims sometimes deposited their pious offering under these fragments, which reminded them of the sweet thought of the Saint, and, to collect the offering which was often the right of the first comer, the statue had to suffer, especially when it had to deal with some enemy or irreligious hand; it was then overturned without pity. The crudely worked head that one sees there now is the very recent work of some rustic chisel, but has no other merit than to call for another statue more in conformity with art and which can be blessed by the Church.

As for the origin of the pilgrimage, in vain one questions the traditions and the elders; one gets lost in the night of time without discovering anything. Perhaps we owe it to some particular favor, in recognition of which a chapel might have been raised or the honor of the Saint by an inhabitant of the country; be that as it may, we hope that the children will not yield to their fathers in respect and devotion for their glorious and powerful protector, and that their devoted hands will soon hasten to rebuild the ruins, at the foot of which their fathers prayed with so much faith and drew Christian consolations so often.

Despite the sad state of the place, the pilgrimage still continues there. The inhabitants of the country like to do it at night or before the sun. One cannot give the reason. Foreign pilgrims are still quite numerous there, and sometimes one meets them there in small caravans.

As in Douai and Margival, it is especially for children that Saint Mauront is invoked at Levergies. The young people of the country also invoke him to be exempted from the militia, and others for other favors; too few perhaps for their saint.

A new motive for devotion will henceforth attract pious pilgrims to Saint Mauront: the church of Levergies has just enriched itself with gratitude with a relic of the Saint, small, it is true; but nevertheless dear and precious. This holy relic came from Douai itself, through the bishopric of Soissons.

This life was written by the Abbé Gobaille, archpriest of Saint-Quentin. — The Abbé Brunet, vicar in Douai; the Abbé Destombes, author of the *Vie des saints d'Arras*, and the Abbé Juillart, parish priest of Levergies (1868), have kindly provided us with some particular information. — Cf. also the Bollandists on May 5 and 12.