Saint Avoye

A young man, enamored with her beauty, waited for her one day at the door of the church where the Christians were gathered, and when she came out, he declared his passion to her; but the young Aure, who had already chosen Our Lord as her Spouse, turned away at the first words, not wishing to hear any more or to answer. Upon returning home, her tears flowed in abundance; she groaned at the danger she had just encountered; for fear that the beauty of her body, which was to pass like a flower, might cause her to lose that of her soul, which could be immortal, she prayed to her Spouse, with great sighs, to make her as ugly and as disagreeable to the eyes of men as she had been until then capable of pleasing them and inspiring in them, by her mere sight, a criminal love. O God! How rare are the young girls who fear the dangers of beauty and vanity! How many, alas! prefer to be beautiful rather than chaste, and to please a man who tomorrow will be but rot, than to preserve for themselves the love of Jesus Christ, who is eternal and who shares with his lovers the treasures of his eternity! Aure was not content with making the request of which we have just spoken: in order to be loved by God alone, she undertook to destroy the graces of her face through vigils, fasts, the fatigue of long prayers that she made prostrate on the ground, and through other austerities. Vain efforts! The more she sought to become livid, emaciated, and haggard, the more her heavenly Spouse spread graces and charms over her whole person, wishing her to be in all things, on the outside as on the inside, worthy of him.

Aurée, understanding the divine intention, resolved to remain hidden in the secret of her oratory, so as to be seen only by Him who was the sole object of her desires. It was there that, speaking heart to heart with Him, she was often flooded with the torrent of His consolations, and tasted, in great peace, how sweet He is in Himself, and how liberal and magnificent He is toward those who fear Him. She was also visited by an angel clothed in a garment whiter than snow and more brilliant than the sun, who assured her that Jesus Christ, her sovereign Lord, had received her as His spouse, and that this alliance would be so firm and unshakable that neither the snares of the devil nor the pursuits of creatures would ever be able to break it. One cannot express the joy with which Avoye received such a glorious mess age, Avoye Virgin and martyr of the 3rd century, companion of Saint Ursula. nor the effects of love she manifested to show her gratitude to her Savior. The angel, by an increase of grace, gave her a new name, as in times past a new one had been given to Abraham, to Sarah, to Jacob, to Saint Peter, and to the sons of Zebedee; the name of Aurée, which she had borne until then, was like an omen that she would one day shine in heaven with the gold of charity. The angel named her Avoye, to signify that she was destined to bring back, into the ways of salvation, an infinity of people who found themselves far from them. She asked him how she could correspond to so many kindnesses of her Spouse toward her. He answered her that it was by following her mother into Great Britain, to keep company with her cousin Ursula, through whom God wished to do great things, an d who Ursule Saint whose tomb was discovered by Cunibert in Cologne. was going to render herself illustrious throughout the whole Church by the glorious combats she would sustain for the faith and for chastity.

However, Quintien, her father, came to die, and left, by his death, Gerasine, his wife, as guardian of his children and regent of his small kingdom. Shortly after, that is to say around the year 2 34, Di Dionet King of Cornwall and father of Saint Ursula. onet, King of Cornwall, who had married Darie, sister of the same Gerasine, and who had had an only daughter by her, who is the great Saint Ursula, began to make preparations for the marriage of this excellent virgin to Holop herne, son Holopherne Son of a King of Great Britain, betrothed to Ursula. of a King of Great Britain. He invited the mother of our Saint to this solemnity: this pressing invitation, divine inspiration, and the revelation that her daughter had received, determined the princess to undertake this arduous journey. After having put in good order all the affairs of her house and her small community, the government of which she entrusted to one of her sons, she embarked for Great Britain: she took with her her dear Avoye and three others of her daughters, whom Saint Elizabeth of Schönau and the blessed Herman of Steinfeld, in their revelations, call Babile, Julienne, and Victoire, and the last of her sons, aged only ten years, who is named Adrien. After a happy crossing, our holy travelers arrived in Great Britain where they were received with extraordinary testimonies of honor and joy.

Saint Ursula, Sainte Ursule Saint whose tomb was discovered by Cunibert in Cologne. who recognized the prudence and virtue of Gerasine, her aunt, revealed to her the design to which she felt drawn by a celestial inspiration: it was to avoid the wedding being prepared for her with such pomp, by leaving the place of her birth and fleeing to another country, where divine Providence was preparing for her an august triumph and the crown of martyrdom. Not only did Gerasine approve of this project, which came from God, but she wished to take part in it: her four daughters imitated her, especially our Saint Avoye, who desired so much to shed her blood for Jesus Christ. Eleven thousand virgins, assembled for Ursula's wedding, also associated themselves with her resolution. They embarked and abandoned themselves to the breath of Providence. We shall recount, on October 21, their long wanderings. It suffices t o say h Cologne Archiepiscopal see and burial place of the saint. ere that at Cologne they fell into the hands of an a Huns Barbarian people responsible for the massacre of Ursula and her companions. rmy of Huns, who committed a horrible massacre of them. There were only three whose martyrdom was deferred. Of this number was Saint Avoye. A leader of these barbarians took her captive, in the hope that the rigor of prison or torture would force her to renounce her faith and her vow of virginity.

It was undoubtedly a thing most worthy of compassion to see this tender virgin, after having lost her mother, her sisters, and all her companions, slaughtered in her presence, finding herself alone in an unknown land, under the power of a barbarian who had nothing human about him but his face, and who, to idolatry and impiety, joined a fierce temper and a brutality similar to that of the most lascivious animals, finding herself under the guard of a troop of soldiers whom she could call, like Saint Ignatius the martyr, a troop of tigers. But Our Lord Jesus Christ, who had chosen her for his spouse, did not abandon her in this necessity. He illuminated her dungeon with a celestial light, to show her that he was beside her and that he was taking her under his divine protection. He sent her an angel, who consoled her and let her know that her martyrdom had been deferred only to make it more glorious, and that by suffering more torments, she was gaining a more brilliant crown. He even willed that the Blessed Virgin should be her nurse during her imprisonment: this divine Mother brought her each week three loaves kneaded by the hand of angels, the whiteness and taste of which surpassed everything pleasant and delicious she had eaten in the house of her father the king. It is thus that painters ordinarily represent our Saint. One sees her in prison, receiving loaves from the hand of a virgin, through an iron grate. These extraordinary favors, joined to the interior grace with which the celestial Spouse filled the soul of the Martyr, fortified her so powerfully that neither promises, nor threats, nor the most pressing solicitations, nor even the most acute torments, could ever shake her constancy. It is said that they brought lions into her dungeon to devour her; but He who had preserved Daniel in the lions' den also preserved this innocent lamb from the jaws of these beasts, and she received from them only caresses.

It is unknown in which country Avoye was thus held captive. If we are to believe a tradition, the Saint was brought by sea to the terr itory of Boulogne City where the saint's relics were transferred for greater security. Boulogne, in France (Pas-de-Calais), and there, finding herself restored to liberty, she withdrew into a wood, near a village called Divernie, where she lived for some time in solitude. An oratory was built in this place and occupied, for several centuries, by hermits.

The Boulonnais would therefore have been the theater of Saint Avoye's triumph, after her long and harsh struggles. Barbarians burst into this country. As she did not seek to hide, nor to place herself in safety in any stronghold, she fell into the hands of these infidels, who tore out her eyes, cut off her head, and thus made her, according to her desire, a glorious martyr of Jesus Christ. According to her history, rhymed in Old French, which was still preserved in the 18th century in the parish of Imbleville, in the diocese of Rouen, the Saint's executioners whipped her so cruelly with rods and scorpions that her body, being all torn, one could have easily counted her bones; they rubbed her wounds with a prickly hair shirt and sprinkled them with melted and boiling salt; they also cut off her breasts with blunt knives; finally, they made her suffer all the tortures that cruelty can invent. Thus, in certain paintings representing this illustrious martyr, one sees, at the bottom of the tower where she is a prisoner, an angel who presents her with a chalice, as if to tell her that she will drink from the bitter chalice of the Son of God, and that she will share in the greatest rigors of his Passion.

A tradition informs us that Saint Avoye appeared in the parish of Pleumelée, near the town of Auray, in the diocese of Vannes, in Brittany, and that she sanctified, by her touch and blessing, a stone and a fountain on the seashore. Since then, through her intercession, children who are placed on this stone, which is hollowed out in the middle, or who are immersed in this fountain, obtain the power to walk; this is why the inhabitants and pilgrims had a very beautiful oratory built there, which bears the name of this illustrious virgin. It is undoubtedly for similar favors that the town of Meulan-sur-Seine took Saint Avoye as the patron and titular of its parish; that chapels were erected to her in Imbleville, in the diocese of Rouen; in Belleville, in the diocese of Reims; and that, in the time of Philip Augustus, great-grandfather of Saint Louis, the church that bore her name was consecrated in her honor i n Par Paris Place of birth, ministry, and death of the saint. is; the street in which this church was located was also named Sainte-Avoye. In the time of Father Giry, the church of Sainte-Avoye belonged to the Ursulines; they provid ed him wi Ursulines Religious order that owns the church of Sainte-Avoye in Paris. th the documents from which he composed this biography. Saint Avoye is mainly invoked for children who are slow to walk and for hardened sinners. Her relics were preserved, before the Revolu tion of reliques Remains of the saint preserved in Paris before the Revolution. 1793, in Paris, in the church of Sainte-Avoye, and in the abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs. See Du Breuil, Antiquités de Paris; Jacques Malbraque, Histoire des Marinois, book II; Arthus du Moustier, Martyrologe des saintes Feugnes, and the Life of Saint Ursula.