Saint Rictrude

She was still in her adolescence when God permitted Saint Ama nd to go an saint Amand Spiritual advisor to Gertrude. d preach the faith in that region. This holy missionary, indeed, having not feared to represent to King Dagobert tha t the di Dagobert King of the Franks petitioned by Sulpicius to annul a tax. sorders of his conduct were a great scandal for all his subjects, and that they would infallibly draw upon him and his kingdom the wrath of God, this holy liberty had earned him exile: he then headed towards Gascony, and Providence soon led him into the family of Saint Rictrude, a young and beautiful star who took on even new brilliance from the splendor of the new star that presented itself to her.

Recent studies having established the country of origin of Saint Rictrude among the Basques, it will not be useless for the clarity of our narrative to show what the political state of this country was in the 7th century, and as a result of what circumstances this princess married a leude from the north of France.

Saint Gregory of Tours reports that in 581, under the reign of Chilperic II, the Vascones having begun to make incursions into Novempopulania, Duke Bladastes went to attack them in their own country, on the other side of the Pyrenees, but that he lost the greater part of his army there, with all his baggage. A few years later, around 588, these same Vascones, says the same historian, "rushing from the heights of their mountains, descended into the plains, ravaging the vineyards and the fields, delivering the houses to the flames and bringing back numerous captives, with all the herds. Duke Austrovalde pursued them, but drew only a weak vengeance from them."

Saint Gregory of Tours, who died in 595, says nothing more about the Vascones. But the history of this small people is continued by Fredegar, a chronicler of the 8th century, who informs us that in 602, Theudebert and Theuderic, kings of the Franks, directed their armies "against the Vascones and that having defeated them, God helping, they submitted them to their empire, made them tributary, and placed at their head a duke, named Genialis, who governed them happily."

Genialis died after a fairly long and always tranquil administration. Under the government of his successor, Aighinan, the Vascones revolted, in agreement with Senoch, bishop of Eauze and metropolitan of Novempopulania. It was then that they recognized as their duke Amand, one of the great men of the era, but whose origin has remained unknown. Amand crossed the Adour and managed, despite the kings of France, to have his authority accepted over the whole country that extends to the Garonne river.

However, Dagobert ascended the throne in 628 and made for his brother Charibert a small kingdom of Aquitaine, with the city of Toulouse as its capital. This kingdom, bounded on one side by the Loire and on the other by the Garonne, enveloped, to the south, the region where the Vascones had just established their domination. But, Amand having given his daughter Gisela in marriage to the young king of Aquitaine, the latter then acquired, either by a simple family arrangement or even by force of arms, the sovereignty of the duchy of the Vascones.

The Vascones had to undergo a great war in 637. Charibert was no more; Dagobert hastened to retake the kingdom of Aquitaine, to the prejudice of two orphans, Boggis and Bertrand, sons of Charibert and grandsons of the duke of the Vascones through Gisela, their mother. There is reason to believe that, the Vascones having accepted, as we have seen, the suzerainty of Charibert, king of Aquitaine, Dagobert wanted in his turn to place them under his scepter and that Duke Amand refused, if only to preserve this remnant of inheritance for his young wards. The fact is that, according to the report of Fredegar, the Vascones revolted and caused ravages in "the former kingdom of Charibert," that is to say, in the second Aquitaine. To put an end to these depredations, the king of the Franks sent, under the orders of the referendary Chadoind, a great army composed of ten corps, each having a duke at its head, not to mention several counts, as powerful as dukes. At the approach of this army which already, says Fredegar, "filled all of Vasconia, the Vascones, coming out from the high rocks and the depths of the valleys, ran to the combat..."

After the death of Charibert and the conquest of Gascony by the great army of Chadoind, the officers of Dagobert arrived in numbers in the Pyrenean valleys, which no longer presented any danger to them. Now, one of these young lords, by the name of Ad albaud, Adalbaud Son of Gertrude, assassinated in Gascony. Duke of Douai, in Flanders, had the occasion to see Rictrude and asked for her hand in marriage. Some close relatives of the young girl opposed this project, out of a feeling of hatred for French blood, perhaps also because Adalbaud was a Christian; but Ernold and Lichia willingly gave their acquiescence.

Rictrude was then in the flower of her youth, and she was considered a model of candor, wisdom, and innocence; nothing was more amiable than her conduct, nothing more sweet than her words, nothing more reserved than all her actions; thus, never was a more beautiful alliance, more pleasing to God, contracted before the altars, nor under such happy auspices.

The holy ceremonies of the marriage were accomplished in the most perfect recollection. "Adalbaud offered his young bride hereditary virtues, an illustrious blood, a manly beauty, a wisdom and prudence that had outpaced his years. Rictrude brought him in return modest and chaste charms, a noble birth, great wealth, and above all, a pure and spotless life." A beautiful and holy union of two hearts that God had destined for one another, and which, despite the distance of places, He knew how to unite for the accomplishment of His providential designs. Thus, Adalbaud, by the innocence of his youth, deserved to find a virtuous wife. "Full of holiness and modesty, she has a grace that surpasses all beauty; she will be the portion and the precious treasure of those who fear the Lord. Thus her husband places all his trust in her. She opens her mouth to wisdom, and words of mercy rest upon her lips."

Some time later, Saint Rictrude came with her husband to the country of Ostrevent, where he had very vast possessions and where his family lived: it is there also that Saint Amand, upon returning from his exile, sometimes came to rest from his apostolic journeys, and to give wise instructions that inspired piety in all.

Already the blessing of the Lord had fulfilled the desires of the two spouses: four children were growing under their eyes and added a new charm to the family through their innocent games, their naive docility, and their budding virtues. Maurant, the eldest, was held at the baptismal font by the holy apostle Riquier, who p reached Maurant Eldest son of Rictrude, founder of the monastery of Bruël. the word of God in nearby regions. Nanthilde, wife of Dagobert, had served as godmother to Eusebia, the eldest of the three daughters. Saint Amand had baptized the second, Clotsende, who later replaced her mother in the monastery of Marchiennes; the youngest, Adalsende, was stil Clotsende Daughter of Rictrude and her successor as abbess of Marchiennes. l in the cradle.

Saint Rictrude, like her virtuous husband, had well understood all the holiness and gravity of the duties of marriage; she knew that henceforth her main occupation must be to form her children in wisdom and that she would one day answer before God for this precious deposit entrusted to her. Thus they both hastened "to choose sincerely religious men to give their young family the lessons that form one in science and especially in virtue." They themselves devoted all their time and solicitude to it: they were not unaware that the first and most important instruction that parents owe their children is the instruction of example: they therefore took care to confirm by all their conduct the words that came out of their mouths, and to practice, in the presence of their children, the duties of religion, and sometimes also with their hands, the works of Christian charity.

Thus, the home of Rictrude and Adalbaud truly became like a school of piety, virtues, and good works: it was in a way the meeting place for all misfortunes "and all needs. There, they assist the needy, and soften their labors and their fatigues; he who is pressed by hunger and thirst always finds relief with them; they give the poor something to cover their nakedness, and never refuse the stranger the bread and hospitality he asks for. Sometimes also one sees them leaving their quiet dwelling, surrounded by their young children who indulge at their sides in the innocent games of their age; with them they enter the house of the sick and the infirm, to bring consolation and help. Their hands do not refuse to wrap the remains of the Christian in the funeral shroud, and one could even surprise them sometimes seeking to recall repentance and peace in hearts hardened by crime or ulcerated by hatred."

Far and wide spread the good odor of the Christian virtues practiced in this religious family, and their sweet influence extended to all those who approached it: rich or poor, weak or powerful, the man who was in joy as well as the one who wept, all had but one voice to exalt and bless the charity and beneficence of Saint Rictrude and her husband.

Such was the conduct of the noble lady in the days of her prosperity and happiness; but God willed to test her through adversity, and to further purify this soul already so holy and pleasing in His eyes. At that time, Adalbaud, her husband, made a journey to Gascony, where he was perhaps called by some military expedition, or by a pressing order from the king, who had great confidence in him.

It was then that men, who likely belonged to the family of Saint Rictrude herself, wished to dispose of him. Already, at the time of his marriage, they had shown keen dissatisfaction, and their anger had only grown upon seeing this alliance consummated between a Frank from the North and an illustrious princess of their blood and their region. This fury suddenly reawakened when they saw him reappear among them. The amiable and brilliant qualities of Adalbaud, the sorrow into which they were about to plunge Saint Rictrude, his wife and their relative, could not stifle the desire for vengeance in these ardent souls. Having thus unexpectedly assaulted the noble Leude in the solitudes of Périgord, they cruelly put him to death.

Saint Rictrude, who, at the mom Périgord Region of the saint's birth. ent of Adalbaud's departure, had her mind so filled with sad presentiments that she could not tear herself from his arms, soon learned this lamentable news, which plunged her, her children, her servants, and all the inhabitants of the land into the deepest consternation. She had the honors of burial rendered to her worthy husband with great magnificence, took up mourning along with her entire household, and began to lead the life of a Christian widow, occupied solely with the care of her children and her servants, and the practice of good works.

It was then also that she manifested the plan, which she already nurtured in her soul, to withdraw from the world, to consecrate herself entirely to God in the religious life. As prudent as she was pious, she did not fail to consult some venerable personages, and particularly Saint Amand, who had become the tutor of the family since the death of Adalbaud. According to his advice, Rictrude determined to defer her departure until her son Maurant had reached the robust age required to be admitted to the court of the King of the Franks. While awaiting this time, she gave herself with ardor to all works of piety, in the midst of her family, where Saint Amand often came to give advice and consolation. "It was indeed the greatest pleasure of this wise shepherd of souls to give lessons to this holy family, letting his teachings flow as sweet as honey, while the widow found a sea of delights in the meditation of divine mysteries, to bathe in them at leisure, and lived on tears of devotion, like the bee on dew. All of them gave their hearts to be molded by the holy pontiff, just like wax, which his artist hand folded into holy men and wise virgins: the little Maurant and Eusebia were already taking flight toward the religious life under the wings of their mother. She was the generous eagle who guided them in the air, making them look at the beautiful sun of justice, without dazzling their eyes!".

When, some time later, Saint Rictrude saw her son at court, esteemed and cherished by all, even more for his wisdom and his brilliant qualities than for the beautiful name of his family, she thought that the moment had come to withdraw to the monastery of Marchiennes with her daughters. Already, the eldest of the three, Eusebia, was at Hamage with her venerable grandmother Saint Gertru de; the Eusèbie Granddaughter and successor of Gertrude at Hamage. two youngest, Clotsende and Adalsende, also burned to consecrate themselves to God. Their mother rejoiced in the secret of her heart, seeing this innocent eagerness of her children, and she sighed for the day when their common desires would finally be fulfilled. But God wished to put her vocation to yet another delicate and difficult test.

Indeed, the king, who was filled with affection and benevolence for Adalbaud and his family, had felt deep pain when he learned of his cruel and unexpected death, and he continued to give signs of it through all the regard with which he surrounded the young Maurant. Out of respect for the affliction of a grieving widow, he hid his intentions from Rictrude for some time; but, one day, he made it known to her that his desire was to see her take as a husband one of the noble Leudes of his court. One understands all that was painful and embarrassing in such a proposal, made by the king himself, whose will, in such a circumstance, was all the more inflexible as it was almost always politics or the interest of royal power that determined it.

Soon even, whether the monarch had communicated his thoughts to some lords of the palace, or whether his words had reached their ears, several presented themselves to the illustrious widow of Adalbaud, soliciting her to yield to the intentions of the king, and to choose a husband capable of defending her family and making her happy. Rictrude replied with much wisdom and declared that a step of this importance required time and reflection on her part: thus she momentarily warded off all importunate solicitations.

From the king's first declaration, she had hastened to inform Saint Amand of this unexpected obstacle that her vocation was still encountering, and to ask him for the help of his insights and advice. With his accustomed prudence, the holy missionary urged her to wait for a more favorable time to execute her plan to embrace the religious life. Providence soon brought about this occasion, and Saint Rictrude seized it and took advantage of it with skill.

One day, therefore, when the king, traveling through various parts of the kingdom, had arrived in the country of Arras, where she had vast possessions, Rictrude invited him, with all his retinue, to a great feast. She spared nothing to give this reception all the magnificence and sumptuousness appropriate, so that Clovis II could regard it as a testimony of the disposition of the noble widow to conform to his wishes.

In the middle of the meal, which had been animated by th e most fr Clovis II King of the Franks under whom Aquilin served in the army. ank and cordial gaiety, Saint Rictrude, rising from the table, asked the king, with much dignity and respect, if in her own house she was granted to do what she desired. The monarch, who undoubtedly believed that, to celebrate his welcome and that of the principal lords of the kingdom, she wanted to offer the cup and present a new, more generous wine, replied graciously that everything was permitted to her in her house. This word pronounced, Rictrude pulls from her bosom a black veil, which had been blessed by Saint Amand himself, puts it on her head, and conjures the Lord in a loud voice to help her keep it until the end of her life. At this sight, the king enters into a great rage, leaves the banquet hall abruptly, then, accompanied by his men, he leaves the castle, indignant with himself for the involuntary consent he has just given to an act that thwarts his plans. During this time, the pious family, without letting itself be troubled, placed its fate in the hands of God and hoped that its wishes would soon be granted.

In these grave circumstances, Saint Rictrude hastened to call to her side her wise and prudent counselor, Saint Amand: he alone could bring about a desirable reconciliation between the monarch and the noble widow. He came in all haste, and immediately went to the court, while the charitable lady, to attract the blessings of heaven, distributed a portion of her goods to the poor, and gave herself with fervor to all sorts of good works.

Arrived at the palace, Saint Amand represented to the monarch, with much moderation and prudence, that the venerable Rictrude had long ago conceived the desire to live far from the world, that she had acted in all things only with wisdom, that it was God truly who was calling her to this new way of life, and that it was just that the desires of the kings of the earth should yield before the will of the King of heavens. The prince yielded to these words, so religious and so wise, and the reconciliation was effected. Saint Rictrude could finally fly toward the solitude for which she had been sighing for so long.

A few days later, the inhabitants of the Castrum of Douai saw, for the last time, the holy wife of Adalbaud heading with her children toward the temple consecrated to the Mother of God, and then joyfully taking the road to Marchiennes. It was there that Saint Rictrude gave herself up in complete freedom to the inspirations of her religious soul, and consoled herself for the loss of a beloved husband through the hopes of faith. Under the guidance of Saint Jonatus, one of the most worthy disciples of Saint Amand, she spent peaceful days there, in the midst of the holy maidens who had followed her into her retreat. Her soul constantly rose toward God through prayer and pious meditations, and she drew from the sacred books the lights that illuminated her mind and the sentiments that strengthened her heart. The time was not far off when she would again need this courage inspired by religion, to endure a new loss very painful to her maternal heart.

Saint Rictrude had entered the solitude of Marchiennes accompanied by her two young daughters, who were growing up by her side and filling her heart with ineffable joy. Suddenly, a violent and stubborn illness carried off before her eyes the young and innocent Adalsende, at the ver y moment Adalsende Youngest daughter of Rictrude, who died young at the monastery. when, on earth, all was in rejoicing. From all sides resounded the triumphal cry of the angels: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." It was the Nativity of the Savior, the touching solemnity of Christmas.

For three days, Saint Rictrude knew how to restrain her tears and her sorrow so as not to disturb the feast, but when, on the day of the Holy Innocents, the grieving mothers of Rama made their lamentations heard, she could no longer suppress her own. The sacred mysteries accomplished, and the hour to take the first meal having come: "Go, my beloved sisters," said Rictrude, "go take, with thanksgiving, the nourishment for your bodies; as for me, following the example of the desolate mothers of Bethlehem, I will weep for my innocent little daughter Adalsende, whom death has snatched from me at such a tender age." At these words, the speech expired on her lips, and, heading immediately toward a secluded place, she gave free rein to her sobs, her groans, and her tears. A touching tribute of nature, which is softened in Christian souls only by the sentiment of faith and heavenly hopes.

A new and final trial was still reserved for the venerable Rictrude; but this time, it was to be promptly changed into joy: this was the determination that her son suddenly took to consecrate himself to the service of God, and to build, far from the court, a monastery where he would retire with other Christian heroes, animated by the same dispositions. This news, which Maurant communicated immediately to his holy mother, filled her at first with anxiety and perplexity; she feared that this beloved son, who had, through her care, preserved his innocence and the purity of his morals, might be deluding himself, and might expose himself through these irrevocable commitments to bitter regrets, and perhaps to sinful wanderings.

Saint Rictrude therefore called to her the venerable Saint Amand, "her counselor and the physician of anxious and troubled souls." The holy bishop traveled in all haste to the monastery of Marchiennes and easily calmed the apprehensions of this virtuous mother, by representing to her all that had passed at the palace between Maurant and himself, and with what prudence and discretion this young man had acted in all things.

The liveliest joy then succeeded sadness, and it was complete when Maurant arrived at the abbey of Marchiennes, to his mother, to explain to her himself the motives for his conduct. There, in the very chapel of the monastery, Saint Amand celebrated the divine mysteries and gave to the young Leude, who was voluntarily stripping himself of all the insignia of warriors, the tonsure of the clerics. Saint Maurant then retired to the monastery of Bruël (Merville), built by his care on lands that belonged to his family.

After the retreat of her beloved son, Saint Rictrude, henceforth free from all anxiety, was occupied only with God alone; she advanced with great strides in the ways of salvation, practicing with fidelity all the virtues of the religious life. Nothing could stop her in her ardor for the fulfillment of the duties of her office as abbess; she was truly for her nuns a mother full of kindness, seeking every means to be pleasing to them and to make them advance in the perfection of their state.

It was in the midst of these pious exercises that she fell asleep peacefully in the Lord, around the year 688, at the age of about seventy-six, leaving Clotsende to replace her in the direction of the monastery of Marchiennes.

## CULT AND RELICS OF SAINT RICTRUDE.

The memory of Saint Rictrude has always been held in great veneration throughout the region where she spent the latter part of her life: the high opinion held of her virtue, the fine deeds that marked her life, and the two memories she left in the world where she had lived, all contributed to garnering for her, after her death, the respect and homage that miracles performed at her tomb have only increased day by day. Several parishes in the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras are placed under her invocation. In the church of Marchiennes, one can see a very beautiful side chapel dedicated to her, which has been almost entirely restored in recent years. Besides a statue of the patron saint, there is also a polished stone monument that appears to have belonged to the former abbey of Marchiennes. This piece, approximately two meters long and seventy-five centimeters wide, is raised three feet above the ground: it depicts Saint Rictrude lying down with her arms crossed over her chest.

"The rich reliquary that contained the body of Saint Rictrude," reports Canon Parenty in his *Histoire de sainte Berthe*, p. 17, in the note, "was sent from Marchiennes to the Paris Mint in 1793. An employee of this establishment, M. Desroteurs, later deposited these relics along with those of several other saints at the Archbishopric of Paris. They remained there until July 29, 1830, at which time they were dispersed during the looting of the palace of the Bishop of Quebec. Only a small fragment remains, preserved in the church of Notre-Dame."

"Saint Rictrude," says M. Menjoulet, "is one of the best-known and most invoked saints in the North of France.

"How is it, then, that she is so little known in her own country? How could the Basques have forgotten this national figure, and how is it that, for most of them, the glorious apostle of their ancestors, Saint Amand, is in some way a stranger? Such indifference, so little in keeping with the usual constancy of popular traditions, would seem to call into question the truth of the preceding accounts, if the very particular situation of our Basques, in the midst of the surrounding populations, did not provide a very plausible explanation. Let us observe, in fact, that while they preserved, through language and customs, the still distinct seal of a common origin, the Basques were separated from one another in the ecclesiastical and civil orders. In the latter respect, the Labourdins and the Souletins belong to Guyenne, which continued the Duchy of Vasconia, while Lower Navarre was one of the *Merindades* (or districts) of the Kingdom of Navarre, in Spain. In the ecclesiastical order, the fragmentation was even more noticeable; Soule was part of the Béarnais diocese of Oloron; Labourd formed the major part of the diocese of Bayonne; as for Lower Navarre, it is split into two parts: the South (Balgorry and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port) falling under the cathedral of Bayonne, and the North (Ihaldy and Saint-Palais) depending on the diocese of Dax.

"It is to this fragmentation of the Basque population that we must attribute their forgetting of Saint Amand. The Catholics of Soule had found in the diocese of Oloron a patron already in possession of public veneration, Saint Grat, born on the borders of their beautiful valley; and every year, on October 19, they went in crowds to venerate his relics in Oloron itself. The Labourdins had as a beloved protector Saint Leon, who shed his blood at the gates of Bayonne. There remained Lower Navarre which, subject to two different churches, naturally seized upon the prescriptions of their special liturgies. Ah! If the Basques had formed one single diocese, they would have been more faithful to their memories; but separated, as they were, they could not escape the influence of the traditions that dominated in the different spheres where they were, as it were, encompassed.

"Let us add that the Basques have never had either a national history or literature. The bishops of the three dioceses to which they belonged were themselves ignorant of the religious origins of these districts, deprived of historical monuments, and it was necessary to wait until the 18th century for the exhumation of the old chronicles of the north of France to reawaken, in the South, the memory of the apostle of the Basques. But, let us say it with joy, as soon as our prelates were enlightened by the discoveries of hagiographic science, they thought of repairing the oversight of their predecessors; the new breviaries of the province of Auch, and notably the one that Bishop d'Arche saw fit to publish in 1753 for the use of the clergy of Bayonne, carried an office in honor of Saint Amand on January 6, and another in honor of Saint Rictrude on May 10. Let us not complain that the legends of the two offices do not sufficiently respect the nationality of the Basques, which they also confuse with the Gascons; it is enough to find there an important, albeit late, homage rendered by a grateful posterity to two saints who deserve to be honored as the true patrons of at least a part of our dear mountains.

"The Basque country belongs today entirely to the diocese of Bayonne, of which it is, without contradiction, the most profoundly Catholic portion; testimony of a Béarnais who wishes to be fair above all. Well! Will the author of this dissertation be permitted to express the desire that the cult of Saint Amand and Saint Rictrude spread in our beautiful diocese? Why should their feast not be celebrated again among us, with the same solemnity as those of Saint Julian, Saint Galactoire, Saint Grat, and Saint Leon? Why would one not see, especially in Lower Navarre, deprived of any devotion to a national saint, the rise of, if not some church, at least some chapel under the patronage of Saint Amand and Saint Rictrude? Why would these two saints not become popular, one as a special patron of men of zeal and devotion, the other as a sure protectress of Christian mothers and widows?

"A first reparation to these holy memories has been made, quite recently. It is a work of art, executed by the skillful and sympathetic brush of M. Romain Cazes, in the church of Sainte-Croix in Oloron, a 14th-century monument. At the bottom of the splendidly decorated sanctuary, in the arcade with seven blind bays that terminates the apse and surrounds the altar, one sees, under the name of 'Gallery of the Saints of the Country,' alongside Saint Julian, Saint Grat, Saint Galactoire, and Saint Leon, Saint Amand, apostle of the Basques, and Saint Rictrude, Gascon lady and abbess, with Saint Adalbaud himself. But Oloron is in Béarn; the Basque country will not want to remain disinherited of its purest glories.

"For some years now, the diocese of Bayonne has had the good fortune to recover the liturgy of Rome, which does not celebrate the feast of our two saints. Let us hope that episcopal wisdom finds it opportune to introduce there, according to all canonical rules, the office of Saint Amand and that of Saint Rictrude."

We have borrowed this Life from the *Vies des Saints de Cambrai et d'Arras*, by Abbé Dastonches: we have, however, modified it regarding the topography and the history of contemporary political events, with the help of the frequently cited brochure by M. Menjoulet.