Saint Arnulf

Papole, Bishop of Metz, having died in 613, the clergy and the people requeste d Arno Arnoul Bishop of Metz and ancestor of the Carolingians. ul as bishop. King Clotaire w Le roi Clotaire King of Neustria and later sole King of the Franks, protector of Columbanus after his exile. illingly granted it, and the modest candidate felt he must obey a will that he regarded as that of God. It was nevertheless with the keenest apprehension that he bowed under the yoke of such a lofty dignity. He had previously received the free consent of his wife. This virtuous woman then retired to the city of Trier, where she took the veil of a nun Trèves Birthplace of the saint. and remained a recluse until her death.

Before his ordination, Arnoul had become acquainted and formed a friendship with Saint Romaric who, at that time, was at the court of King Theodebert. The author of his life recounts that, while crossing the Moselle one day on a bridge, which he neglected to identify, Arnoul, entirely occupied with the magnitude of his faults and the severity of God's judgments, took the ring he was wearing from his finger and threw it into the river, saying to himself inwardly: "I shall believe that God has forgiven my sins when this ring is returned to me."

Having become Bishop of Metz, it happened one day that a fish was presented to him, which he had prepared for his supper; for since his promotion he had bound himself to continual abstinence. The cook, having opened the fish, found a ring in its entrails. He quickly brought it to the Saint, who recognized it as his own, marveled at the effects of grace, and thanked the mercy of God. Paul Warnefride, who wrote the history of the bishops of Metz, expressed surprise that the author of the life of Saint Arnoul had omitted this remarkable fact "which I learned," he says, "not from a common man, but from l'empereur Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. the very mouth of the Emperor Charlemagne."

Arnoul, having resolved to lay down the burden of the episcopate and to retire into solitude, had long to struggle against the opposition that Dagobert brought to his retirement; he nevertheless succeeded in overcoming it and in having Goëric elected as his successor. He was preparing to Metz City where the saint received his theological training. finally leave Metz with Romaric, who had come to fetch him, when a violent fire broke out in the king's cellars, threatening to spread and perhaps to reduce the city to a heap of ashes. Romaric ran to the house of the holy bishop who, as usual, was occupied with the psalmody: "Let us save ourselves," he said to him, taking his hand, "our horses are at the door, let us flee for fear that the flames might surprise us." — "No, my dear friend," replied Arnoul, "but lead me towards this fire, place me near the flames, so that if God wills it, I may be consumed by them, I am in His hands." We led him by the hands, says the author of his life, and having arrived at the place where the fire was most violent, we all began to pray with him: then, having told us to rise, he extended his hand toward the fire and formed the sign of the cross. Immediately the flames turned back upon themselves in a way and did not advance any further; after which, having said Matins, we withdrew.

Having finished distributing his wealth to the poor, Arnoul departed with hi s frien Romaric Austrasian nobleman who became a monk and founder of the monastery of Remiremont. d Romaric and retired to the mountain, known today as the Saint le Saint-Mont Hermitic retreat site in the Vosges. -Mont, not far from the town of Remiremont in the Vosges, and lived there for several years with other religious men he found there. Later, he left his small community to live as a recluse, in a separate cell. Finally, increasing constantly in fervor, he confined himself to an even greater solitude, and became a hermit on a mountain higher and more isolated than the Saint-Mont, from which it is separated by a narrow and deep valley. One would need, adds Dom Calmet, to have seen the places where this Saint, with Saint Romaric and Saint Amé, dwelt, to form a just idea of their retreat and their penance. These are sterile mountains, very high and of very difficult access; covered with fir trees, surrounded by rocks and precipices, where snow and ice remain for the greater part of the year; far from all commerce of men and where even wild beasts struggle to find their pasture and shelter.

The time having come when God wished to reward the labors and mortification of His servant, Saint Romaric, accompanied by his religious, went to the hermitage of Saint Arnoul. This pious bishop and such a fervent solitary, accusing himself of having done nothing for heaven until then, commended himself to the prayers of these good servants, then fell asleep in peace (641). Romaric had the body brought to the Saint-Mont and gave it burial. But a year had not passed befor e Saint Goër saint Goëric Saint whose relics are in Epinal, invoked for Saint Anthony's fire. ic, accompanied by the bishops of Toul and Verdun, solemnly transferred it to Metz.

Saint Arnoul is represented: 1° wearing on his finger the ring of which we have spoken; 2° with armor under his episcopal cope, to recall his high birth and royal lineage; 3° hearing the confession of the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, Pepin of Landen, whose director he was, and who came every day, barefoot, to ask our Saint for the absolution of his sins; 4° wearing the rational or superhumeral, an insignia of the episcopate; 5° in hermit's costume; 6° in a group, with his mother Saint Ode, his wife Saint Dode, and his son Saint Clodulphe; 7° extinguishing by his blessing the fire of which we have spoken; 8° holding in his hand the pilgrim's staff, to recall that he left his episcopal see to retire into solitude; 8° finding, as we have said, his episcopal ring in the entrails of a fish that was being served to him.

He is the patron of Metz, and the inhabitants of this region invoke him against fire.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Saint Arnoul was therefore buried in Metz, in the church of Saint-Jean l'Évangéliste, located extra muros, which was the church of an abbey whose properties touched the city walls. This magnificent basilica was also called the church of the Apostles, because the relics of the Apostles were honored there. The numerous miracles performed at the tomb of Saint Arnoul soon caused the name of this holy Bishop to be given to the church and the abbey that possessed his relics, so that the church and abbey of Saint-Arnoul are the same as the abbey and church of Saint-Félix or of the Apostles.

In 1552, when Charles V came to lay siege to Metz, the Duke of Guise, charged with defending the place, had the abbey and the basilica of Saint-Arnoul razed, as they were an obstacle to the defensive works. Another convent and another church were offered, in the city, to the religious of Saint-Arnoul, and the relics of the Saint, along with many others, were solemnly transferred to this church, which, from then on, also took the title of Saint-Arnoul. But the relics were profaned and almost all lost during the great Revolution. There remains in Metz only a bone from the head of Saint Arnoul and his ring, relics which are preserved and honored in the cathedral church.

Before the Revolution, each year, on the eve of the feast of Saint Arnoul, his ring was carried by the canons, in choir dress, to the convent dedicated to this Blessed one, and was brought back the following evening to the cathedral with the same ceremony. It was used on that day to make, with the engraved stone of its setting, impressions on wax rings, which were distributed as objects of devotion.

At the time of 1793, when the cathedral was stripped of its treasure, the ring of Saint Arnoul was taken t o the Mint with various l'anneau de saint Arnoul Major relic associated with the miracle of the fish. sacred vessels. One of the officers of the Mint was able, by buying it back, to save it from destruction. But, later, on the point of leaving Metz, he ceded it to one of his colleagues, M. Lallouette, from whom, finally, Abbé Simon obtained it in 1819. Without losing time, M. Simon had the authenticity of this precious relic verified by different people who had had perfect knowledge of it before the Revolution, and notably by M. Valentin, then parish priest of Courcelles-Chaussy, and by Dom Millet, then parish priest of Béchamps. The former, in his capacity as grand warden of the cathedral, had had this ring in his care; and the latter, in his capacity as priest-sacristan of the convent of Saint-Arnoul, had used it to make impressions on wax rings. Official reports of all these circumstances were drawn up, and finally, in 1846, Abbé Simon handed over the ring with all these documents into the hands of Mgr Du Pont des Loges, to be kept in the cathedral treasury.

We have used, to compose this biography, the History of the dioceses of Toul and of Nancy, by Abbé Guillaume, and local Notes, provided by the superior of the Saint-Louis de Gonzague minor seminary, diocese of Metz. — Cf. Goëscard.