Chapter X: S. Xystus, Pope 489 (17)

The Greeks observe the same day as the Latins. In the Menologium of the emperor Basil the younger, it is thus described: "On the 25th day of March, the Annunciation of the most holy Mother of God. Our God, most loving and merciful to human salvation, who ever careth for the sons of men, when He beheld man, the work of His hands, brought under the bondage of Satan, willed to send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, into the world, to pluck man out of the power of the devil. But willing not that Satan, nay, nor the celestial powers should know thereof, he committed this secret to one of the archangels, Gabriel the Glorious. And having made by His providence that a Virgin pure and immaculate should be born meet for so high an honour, to her was Gabriel sent, and he came to the city called Nazareth, and said to her, 'Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee!' But she asked, 'How shall these things be?' To whom he made reply, 'The Holy Ghost shall descend on thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.' And she said, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word.' And having thus spoken, she conceived above nature a son, the Word of God; and thereafter were fulfilled all the mysteries of the Word of God incarnate pertaining to our salvation."

In the Greek Menæa also, it is said, "March 25th, the commemoration of the Annunciation of the most holy Mother of God, our Lady, when the arch-warrior, Gabriel, captain of the celestial armies, being instructed in the secret from eternity and unknown to angels, the mystery hidden of the divine incarnation of the Son of God, was sent to the most pure Mary, unstained with any spot of sin, in the city of Nazareth, that he might declare to her the will of God the Father, and the favour and efficacious help of the life-giving Spirit for the salvation of man. And he said to her, 'Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.'"

This is the exordium of a Greek hymn on the Annunciation, by S. Joseph, the hymnographer:--"When Gabriel, the great archangel, saw thee, O pure one! the living book of Christ, sealed with the Holy Ghost, he cried to thee, 'Rejoice, oh house of joy! through whom is abolished the malediction pronounced on our first parents.'"

The ancient Arabian-Egyptian church also observed this festival. In an Arabic martyrology, the entry on March 25th is as follows, "The memorial of the Annunciation of the Mother of God, and the Incarnation of the Son of God, this day the first-fruits of our salvation and the manifestation of a mystery kept hidden from all ages. The Son of God issued forth Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel announced the favour. And now we with him exclaim, 'Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee!'" The same festival is observed by the Copts, and found in the Syriac and Chaldee, and Russian Kalendars.

In the sacramentary of S. Gregory the Great, the proper preface for this day runs thus: " ... through Christ our Lord, whom Gabriel, the archangel, announced was to be born for man's salvation, the Virgin Mary, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, conceived; that what angelic sublimity announced, virginal purity might believe, and ineffable Deity might perform. And thus we hope, by Thy assistance, to behold His face without confusion, in the solemnity of whose Incarnation we now rejoice."

In the Church of Milan, according to the Ambrosian rite, "throughout the whole of Lent, no festival of any saint is observed, and the office for the Annunciation of S. Mary is celebrated on the last Sunday in Advent."

MEMORIAL OF THE CRUCIFIXION.

In the Martyrology attributed to S. Jerome, in those of Ado, Notker, Rabanus Maurus, and many others, on this day is marked, "In Jerusalem, our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified," or words to this effect. This being by many supposed to be the day of the month on which Christ died. In an ancient Roman Martyrology, published by Rosweydus, on March 25th is inserted, "Annuntiatio Dominica et Crucifixio." Some ancient lines on this day, which occur in some Martyrologies, deserve quotation: "In hac die multa, mirabilia facta sunt, quæ notantur in his versibus":--

"Salve festa dies, quæ vulnera nostra coerces;
Angelus est missus, est Christus in cruce passus.
Est Adam factus, et eodem tempore lapsus.
Ob meritum decimæ cadit Abel fratris ab ense,
Offert Melchisedech, Isaac supponitur aris,
Est decollatus Christi Baptista Joannes.
Est Petrus ereptus, Jacobus sub Herode peremptus.
Corpora Sanctorum cum Christe multa resurgunt.
Latro dulce tamen per Christum sucipit. Amen."

Molanus, in his additions to Usuardus, adds to the two mysteries of the Annunciation and the Crucifixion, "On the same day the genesis of the world; also the victory of Michael, the archangel, over the dragon." This victory is commemorated on this day in many old martyrologies. An old Brussels MS. Martyrology adds, "On the same day the formation of Adam and his ejection from Paradise." Many insert the death of Abel; in that of Canisius, "Abel the just, the proto-martyr of the Old Testament, at once virgin, priest, and martyr, and the first of mankind to die." Also the sacrifice of Melchisedek, and the sacrifice of Isaac, are inserted on this day in many martyrologies. In some likewise, "On this day Israel crossed the Red Sea"; in some, "S. Veronica, who wiped the face of Christ"; in some also the decollation of S. John the Baptist, the passion of S. James, and the liberation of S. Peter.

But in the Greek Menæa, March 23rd is marked as that of the "Crucifixion and memorial of the Penitent Thief": on March 22nd is commemorated the Last Supper; on March 24th the Repose in the Tomb; and on March 25th, the Resurrection.

THE PENITENT THIEF.

[Modern Roman Martyrology.]

The modern Roman Martyrology has on this day: "In Jerusalem the commemoration of the Blessed Thief, who confessed Christ on the Cross, and merited to hear from him: This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." Baronius, in his notes to the Martyrology, adds that the thief is traditionally called Dimas, under which name chapels have been dedicated to him, but that as this name is derived from apocryphal sources, it is not sanctioned by the Roman Martyrology. Masinus asserts that the body of S. Dimas, the Penitent Thief, is preserved in the church of SS. Vitalis and Agricola at Bologna.

S. QUIRINUS, M.

(A.D. 269.)

[Roman Martyrology. Another S. Quirinus on March 30th, and another on June 4th. The Quirinus on this day, March 25th, is mentioned in the Acts of SS. Maris, Martha, Andifax, and Habakkuk (Jan. 19th), which are genuine. All other accounts of Quirinus are fabulous.]

Quirinus is said, but the statement is palpably false, to have been the son of the emperor Philip, and to have been converted by his Christian mother, Severa. Putting this idle fable aside, we know of Quirinus only that he was executed with the sword in prison in 269, and the body was thrown into the Tiber, but was recovered by a priest named Pastor, who buried it in the Pontiani cemetery, whence it was removed in the pontificate of pope S. Zacharias (March 15th), and it found a shrine and resting-place eventually in the monastery of Tengern-see, in Bavaria. A spring of naphtha rising there goes by the name of Quirinus-oil.

The S. Quirinus of Rome commemorated on March 30th, according to the Roman Martyrology, is supposed to have been a military tribune, chiefly from the fact that he has been represented in armour seated on horseback. He is the patron Saint of Cologne, Correggio, and Neuss. This S. Quirinus is often represented with a falcon, which circumstance has been said to indicate his high birth, and has also led to his being reputed to have been of the Imperial family, and so being identified with the S. Quirinus commemorated on March 25th. The real reason for the falcon's presence seems, however, to lie in the story related of his martyrdom (see page 504).

S. IRENÆUS, B. M.

(A.D. 304.)

[By the Greeks on Aug. 25th; by the Latins on this day, or March 6th or 25th. Authorities:--The authentic Acts of his martyrdom.]

S. Irenæus, bishop of Sirmich or Mitrovitz on the Save, in Pannonia, the modern Hungary, died on March 25th, in the year 304. He was arrested by order of Probus, the governor of Pannonia, and was led before his tribunal. All his family were present. His mother, wife, and children surrounded him, and some of the younger children clung to his knees and implored him not to leave them. His wife cast her arms round his neck and burst into tears on his breast, and conjured him to submit to the imperial edict so as to preserve himself for her and his innocent children. The governor joined in this attempt to shake his constancy. But S. Irenæus said, "Our Lord Jesus Christ hath declared that the man who loveth father or mother, wife or children, more than Him, is not worthy of Him, so that I forget I am a father, a husband, and a son."

Irenæus was then ordered to have his head struck off and his body cast into the river Save.

S. DULA, V. M.

(DATE UNKNOWN.)

[Roman and most ancient Western Martyrology.]

Nothing is known of this saint, except that she was a servant or slave-girl--as indeed her name implies--to a soldier at Nicomedia, and that she steadfastly resisted his importunities, till, exasperated at her opposition to his passion, he killed her, in an explosion of anger. Her real name is unknown; the name Dula is simply the Greek word for servant-maid.

S. CAMIN OF INISKELTRA, AB.

(A.D. 653.)

[Irish Martyrologies. Authority:--Scattered notices in lives of other Irish saints collected by Colgan.]

S. Camin was of the princely house of Hy-kinselogh by his father Dima, a half-brother of Guair, king of Connaught, by his mother Cumania. Little else is recorded of him, until he retired to the island of Iniskeltra, in Lough Derg, where he led a very austere and solitary life, but after some time was obliged to erect a monastery to accommodate the numbers of disciples who resorted to him. Although of a delicate constitution, he closely applied himself to ecclesiastical studies, and wrote a commentary on the Psalms, collated with the Hebrew text.

S. HUMBERT, P. C.

(ABOUT A.D. 680.)

[Belgian, French, and German Martyrologies. Authority:--A life of S. Humbert by a monk of Marolles, in the 13th cent., based apparently on older documents.]

This saint was born at Maizières, on the river Oise, in the province anciently called Upper Picardy; his parents were noble, and the virtue of his father Everard obtained for him, after his death, the title of Benedictus, or the Blessed. The child from infancy showed the utmost delight in the practice of religion, and his parents took him to a monastery in Laon, where he received the clerical tonsure. He was educated and ordained priest in the monastery, and remained in it till the death of his parents, when he was obliged to leave it that he might take possession and dispose of his inheritance, which was considerable. He left the city of Laon with the blessing of the bishop, and the sanction of his superiors, and returned to Maizières, where he lived in great retirement. After a while he received S. Amandus, who had just laid aside his bishopric of Maestricht, and was on his way to Rome with S. Nicasius, monk of Elno. He accompanied them to Italy. One night as they were camping on their journey a bear attacked their sumpter horse, and killed it. When Humbert went in quest of the horse next morning to lay on it the baggage, he found it lying dead on the grass, and the bear mangling it. Humbert at once ordered the wild beast to come to him, and when it obeyed he laid on it the pack-saddle and the baggage, and made the bear carry for them all they needed till they reached the gates of Rome, when he dismissed Bruin, who retired, looking every now and then behind him, as if expecting a recall.

He afterwards made a second pilgrimage to Rome, and on his return from it, he went to visit S. Amandus in his monastery of Elno, on the Scarpe; and after having deliberated with him on a suitable place for a retreat, he retired into the monastery of Marolles, or Maroilles, in Hainault, on the little river Hespres, which flows into the Sambre. This house had been built shortly before by count Rodobert, or Chonebert, in his territory of Famart. Humbert having resolved to spend the rest of his days there, gave to the new monastery all his lands at Maizières, in 671. It was then a poor little cell lost in a forest, but this donation made it very wealthy. A story is told of Humbert at Marolles which resembles many recorded in the lives of other saints, and which shows that the old hermits and monks were the protectors of wild animals.

One day as Humbert was busy tearing up the brambles and thistles which covered the land which he was desirous of reclaiming, and had cast off his cloak on account of the heat, the horns of the hunters proclaimed that a large party was engaged in the chase near the monastery, and shortly after he saw a frightened beast which the dogs pursued dart over the open ground and fall panting and wearied out on his cloak. The dogs surrounded the mantle, yelping, but did not venture to fall on the wild creature, and the arrows of the hunters fell short of the mark. Seeing this remarkable interposition in behalf of the poor animal, the sportsmen withdrew, highly extolling the virtue of the holy man who by his mantle could protect a beast from injury.

Humbert seldom left his monastery, except to meet S. Aldegunda, abbess of Maubeuge, with whom he had contracted an intimate union of charity and prayers. He is sometimes called abbot or superior of Marolles; at all events he had disciples, in whose arms he died, about the year 680, on March 25th.

In art he is represented with a bear by his side, and a cross marked on his shaven crown, which, according to the legend, was miraculously impressed.

S. ALFWOLD, B. OF SHERBORNE.

(A.D. 1075.)

[Mayhew in Trophæa Cong. Angl. O.S.B.; Gabriel Bucelinus in his Menologium Benedictinum. Hieron. Porter, in his Flores Vitarum Sanct. Angliæ. Authorities:--William of Malmesbury, and Henry Knyghton.]

In the reign of the Confessor, Alfwold, a monk of Winchester was raised to the bishopric of Sherborne. At that time the English people were greatly addicted to the pleasures of the table, and it was expected of the bishops to keep open house and have their tables well provided with abundant and delicate fare. But Alfwold, though ready to show all hospitality, lived plainly himself, drinking water out of a common bowl, and eating out of a wooden platter. He had S. Cuthbert's life and example ever before his eyes, and repeated to himself constantly the antiphon for his festival, "The blessed bishop Cuthbert, a man perfect in all things, in the midst of a crowd remained a monk, and to all was venerable." He visited Durham, and opening the shrine of S. Cuthbert addressed him lovingly as a friend, and deposited by his side a token of his regard.

S. WILLIAM, CHILD M.

(A.D. 1144.)

[Anglican Martyrologies. But the day of his invention, April 15th, was observed as his festival at Norwich. Authority:--An account of his martyrdom in Capgrave.]

According to the legend related by Capgrave, there lived in Norwich in the 12th century a couple named Wenstan and Elwina, of the peasant class, who became parents of a boy, named William. One day Wenstan went to a feast and took his little son with him. During the meal a beggar came in with irons on his hands, worn as an act of penance; the child put out his hands to touch the chains and manacles, and instantly they broke and fell at the feet of the mendicant. At the age of seven the boy was so filled with the ardour of self-mortification, that he fasted three days in the week, and was constantly in the church singing psalms and reciting prayers.

On the Passover in 1144, some Jews of Norwich took the child, and having strangled him, crucified him, and then took the body in a sack out of the town, to bury it in a wood. But a certain Aelward saw them entering the wood, and followed them. Then, in alarm, the Jews ran away, and considering that their only chance of safety lay in bribing the viscount, who was chief magistrate of the town, they offered him a hundred marks of silver if he would hush the matter up. The viscount took the money, sent for Aelward, and threatened and persuaded him to hold his tongue about what he had seen. Aelward kept the secret for five years, till he was on the point of death, when the martyred boy appeared to him, and bade him disclose what he had witnessed. Now at the same time, early in the morning, a nun was walking in the wood, when she came suddenly on a child's body lying at the foot of an oak tree, with two ravens fluttering over it, and the woman was so frightened that she ran into Norwich and told what she had seen. Then a crowd of people went forth and took up the body, which though it had lain five years unburied in the wood, was incorrupt, and brought it into Norwich; at the same time Aelward made his confession, and thus the whole of the circumstances were made clear; the people readily concluding that this newly found body was the same that had been left by the Jews, according to Aelward's account, unburied in the wood, five years before. The body was buried, and a rose bush was planted at the head, about the festival of S. Michael, (Sept. 29th), and it at once put forth fresh leaves and flowers, and bloomed till the feast of S. Edmund, (Nov. 20th). Many miracles were performed at the grave. It does not appear that this discovery was followed by a massacre of the Jews.

Throughout the Middle Ages three accusations were constantly brought against the Jews by the populace; all three were denounced by the authorities of the time as imaginary. They were accused of killing children. A law of the duke of Poland, in 1264, renewed in 1343, rebuked those who made this charge, and required that it should be substantiated by the testimony of three Jews. They were accused of poisoning the wells. Pope Innocent IV. in a bull denounced this charge, and in 1349, the king of the Romans ordered that the Jews in Luxemburg should be protected against the insolence of the people, because, said he, the pope and he regarded them as innocent of the many crimes attributed to them. Lastly, they were accused of sacrilege. The Abbé Fleury, in his Ecclesiastical History gives one instance of the manner in which this charge was made, "In a little town called Pulca, in the diocese of Passau, a layman found a bloody Host before the house of a Jew, lying in the street upon some straw. The people thought that this Host was consecrated, and washed it and took it to the priest, that it might be taken to the church, where a crowd full of devotion assembled, supposing that the blood had flowed miraculously from wounds dealt it by the Jews. On this suspicion, and without any other examination, or any other judicial procedure, the Christians fell on the Jews, and killed several of them; but wiser heads judged that this was rather for the sake of pillaging their goods than avenging the pretended sacrilege. This conjecture was fortified by a similar accident which took place a little while before at Neuburg, in the same diocese of Passau, where a certain clerk placed an unconsecrated Host steeped in blood in the church, but confessed afterwards in the presence of the bishop Bernhard and other persons deserving of credit, that he had dipped these Hosts in blood for the purpose of rousing hostility against the Jews."[89]

[89] Hist. Eccles. vi. p. 110.

If, however, we consider the intolerable treatment of the Jews throughout the Middle Ages, it makes it by no means improbable that their pent-up wrongs should have exasperated them into committing acts of vengeance, when they had the opportunity. Through centuries they were ground under an intolerable yoke. They could call nothing really their own, not even their persons. They were obliged to wear a distinctive mark, like outlaws and harlots; if they emigrated, their feudal lords were under mutual agreement to seize them in foreign lands; their children were stolen from them to be baptized; if their wives wished to abjure, they were divorced; they were taxed on going in and coming out of and sojourning in any city; on the smallest pretext, their debtors refused to pay their debts. At Toulouse on every Good Friday a Jew was brought upon the cathedral stairs to have his ears publicly boxed; their lives were at the mercy of every one. The magistrates burnt them, the people massacred them, the kings hunted them down to despoil them of all, when their exchequer was low. All these insults, outrages and injustices must have created an intense hatred of Christianity, and every thing and person that was Christian, and may well have found vent occasionally in some savage murder in parody of the Crucifixion, or sacrilegious outrage on the Blessed Sacrament, which the Jews knew full well was the great object of Christian love and devotion. They would not have been human had it not been so, and though many of the stories of murders and sacrileges told against them were undoubtedly false, yet some may have been true. But at the same time it is impossible to doubt that most of these charges brought against them were invented by their enemies for the purpose of plundering them; and that others had their origin in the imagination of the people, ready to believe anything against those whose strong-boxes they lusted to break open.

The first mention of the crucifixion of a boy by the Jews is in Socrates, (Hist. Eccl. lib. vii. c. 16.) He says that about A.D. 414, at a place called Immestar, between Antioch in Syria and Chalcis, "the Jews, while amusing themselves in their usual way with a variety of sports, impelled by drunkenness, were guilty of many absurdities. At last they began to scoff at Christians, and even at Christ himself; and in derision of the cross and those who put their trust in the Crucified, they seized a Christian boy, and having bound him to a cross, began to laugh and sneer at him. But in a little while they became so transported with fury that they scourged the child until he died under their hands." The emperors being informed of this ordered the delinquents to be punished with the utmost severity.

The Jews in England were accused of having crucified a child in 1160, a boy, Robert, at Bury S. Edmunds, in 1181, at whose tomb miracles were also wrought. Another boy, Hugh, is said to have met with the same fate at Lincoln, in 1255, the place of whose image and shrine is still shown in the cathedral of that city. Matthew Paris, in his English history, under the date 1239, says, "In this year, on the feast of S. Alban, and on the following day, a great massacre and destruction of the Jews took place by order of Geoffry the Templar, a particular councillor of the king, who oppressed, imprisoned, and extorted money from them. At length, after great suffering, these wretched Jews, in order to enjoy life and tranquillity, paid the king a third part of all their money debts, as well as chattels. The original cause of this calamity was the perpetration of a clandestine murder committed by the Jews in the city; and not long after this, owing to a boy having been circumcised by the Jews at Norwich, four of the richest of that community, having been clearly convicted of that offence, were hung."

And again, under 1240, "About this time the Jews circumcised a Christian boy at Norwich; they then kept him to crucify him. The father of the boy, however, from whom the Jews had stolen him, after a diligent search, at length discovered him, and with a loud cry pointed out his son, shut up in a room in one of the Jew's houses. When this came to the knowledge of William de Rele, the bishop, a wise and circumspect prelate (!) and of some other nobles,--that such an insult to Christ might not be passed over unpunished, all the Jews in the city were made prisoners, and when they wished to place themselves under the royal protection, the bishop said, 'These matters belong to the Church, they are not to be decided by the king's court.' Four of the Jews, having been found guilty, were dragged at the tails of horses, and afterwards hung on a gibbet."

Six boys are reported to have been martyred by the Jews at Ratisbon, in 1586; another, named Johannet, at Siegesburg, another at Bacharach, another, S. Richard, at Paris, in 1182, Simon of Trent has already been spoken of (March 24th), and Raderus in his Bavaria Sancta mentions another, George, at Sappendalf, in 1540. There was another S. Richard, child-martyr at Pontoise; and the last we hear of was in 1650, in Bohemia.[90]

[90] See for fuller particulars, and more instances, the Lives of S. Werner, April 19th, S. Albert, April 20th, and S. Ludwig, April 30th.

March 26.

S. CASTULUS, _M. at Rome, circ._ A.D. 286.
SS. MONTANUS AND MAXIMA, _MM. at Sirmium_.
SS. BATHUS, _P.M._, VERCA AND CHILDREN, _MM. among the Goths,
circ._ A.D. 370.
S. EUTYCHIUS, _Subd. M. at Alexandria_, A.D. 356.
S. FELIX, _B. of Treves, circ._ A.D. 426.
S. BRAULIO, _B. of Saragossa_, A.D. 646.
S. MOCHELLOC, _Ab., in Ireland, between_ A.D. 639-656.
S. LUDGER, _B. of Munster, Ap. of Westphalia_, A.D. 809.
S. BASIL THE LESS, _H. at Constantinople, circ._ A.D. 952.

S. CASTULUS, M.

(ABOUT A.D. 286.)

[Roman and almost all Latin Martyrologies. In the Archdiocese of Prague the feast of this saint is kept as a double; so also in the dioceses of Ratisbon, Frisingen, and Passau. By the Greeks on Dec. 18th. Authorities:--The Acts, and another account of his passion in the Acts of S. Sebastian.]

Saint Castulus, chamberlain of the palace to Diocletian, was wont to receive Christians into his house, and screen them from the pursuit of the magistrates. He was denounced to Fabian, the prefect of the city, who, after having tortured him in many ways, had him cast into a pit and buried in sand. He was betrayed by a renegade Christian named Torquatus, the same whom Cardinal Wiseman has introduced into his historical sketch of "Fabiola."

SS. MONTANUS AND MAXIMA, MM.

(DATE UNCERTAIN.)

[Roman Martyrology, and those of Bede and S. Jerome. Authority:--The notices in the Martyrologies.]

S. Montanus was a priest at Sirmium, in Pannonia, and Maxima was his wife. They were drowned for the faith either in a river or in a lake; probably during the persecution of Maximian.

SS. BATHUS, P., VERCA, AND THEIR CHILDREN, MM.

(ABOUT A.D. 370.)

[Greek Menæa and Menology of the Emp. Basil the Younger.]

Bathus, a Gothic priest, his wife Verca, their two sons and two daughters, and some others were burned in the church by the Gothic Jungeric. Gaatha, a Gothic queen, collected their relics, and conveyed them into Roumania; but on her return she was stoned to death.

S. BRAULIO, B. OF SARAGOSSA.

(A.D. 646.)

[Roman Martyrology. Saragossa Martyrology on March 18th. Authority:--The letters of his great friend S. Isidore.]

S. Braulio is traditionally said to have been divinely designated for the episcopate, when the clergy and people were assembled to elect to the vacant see of Saragossa, by the appearance of a tongue of flame on his head. He was an intimate friend of S. Isidore, bishop of Hispalis, or Seville, and he has been by some writers erroneously called the brother of Isidore and Leander. S. Braulio sat in the 5th and 6th Councils of Toledo. After having held the bishopric twenty years he died. The day of his death was spent in incessant psalmody. A pleasing modern legend, which the Bollandists have shown to be without ancient authority, tells that he heard angelic voices chant in choir, "Arise, my friend, and come away," to which he replied, "Behold, here am I."

S. LUDGER, B. OF MUNSTER.

(A.D. 809.)

[Roman Martyrology, Molanus and Greven in their additions to Usuardus. The Treves Martyrology, those of Utrecht and S. Gudule at Brussels, the Benedictine Martyrology, and many others. Authorities:--His life by Altfrid, B. of Münster, his disciple, derived from personal knowledge, or from information furnished by the saint's brother Hildegrim, or by his nephew, Gerfried, or by his sister, Heriburgh. There are other lives of him in prose, and three styled litanies, written in rhyme. One of the former is by an anonymous Frieslander, a contemporary; another by the monks of Werden, composed about 890. Our saint's name appears in three forms: viz., Ludger, Liudger, and Luidger. He is commonly called Ludger, a spelling he himself adopts in his life of Gregory, abbot of Utrecht. He is styled Liudger both in Altfrid's life of him, and in the verses sent to him from York by a disciple of Alcuin.]

The abbey of Utrecht, under the presidency of the devoted Gregory, had sent forth many noble labourers into the mission-field, and many more had come over from England to take their share in the good work, and to spread the knowledge of the truth. One of the most eminent of these was Ludger, the subject of this memoir. His grandfather Wrffing Ado, a noble Frieslander, though not a believer in the Trinity, was yet a help to the poor, a defence to the oppressed, and a just judge, respecting the person of no man. Radbod, king of Friesland, who had cruelly oppressed his people, banished his best nobles, and sold their estates, laid a plot against his life. Wrffing received timely warning of it from one of the king's council, and fled with his wife and son to Grimoald, "Duke of the Franks," who received him well. There he was converted to the Catholic faith; he and all his were baptized. Grimoald was the son-in-law of Radbod, and son of Pepin of Heristal. While the latter was lying on his death-bed, Grimoald went to see him, and was assassinated by a Frieslander, in the church of S. Lambert, in 714. Wrffing received the same kindness from his successors. Radbod entreated Wrffing to return; when he refused to do so, Radbod asked him to let his son come back, promising to reinstate him in his inheritance. Accordingly the younger son Thiadgrim was sent to Friesland; the king insisted on his living with him, and restored his father's lands to him.

When Charles Martel added Friesland to his Frankish dominions, "extincto Radbodo," he not only reinstated Wrffing in his former possessions, but also gave him land in the neighbourhood of Utrecht to hold in feoff for S. Willibrord, who was then labouring among the Frisians, and had fixed his see at Utrecht. Willibrord received all support and countenance from Wrffing and his family. Both he and his successor, S. Boniface, were on very friendly terms with them. Perhaps it was at his grandfather's house that S. Ludger first saw S. Boniface.

Thiadgrim, the younger son, married Liafburg, the daughter of Nothrad and Aldeburga. The latter gave her two brothers to S. Willibrord, to educate, and they first of all the Frisians received the clerical tonsure. Willibraht, the elder brother, died a deacon, the younger, before he reached that degree.

Liafburg, S. Ludger's mother, narrowly escaped being murdered at the time of her birth. Her grandmother by the father's side, a fierce old pagan, was enraged because her daughter-in-law had borne no sons but only daughters. She sent officers to snatch the new born babe from its mother, before it had sucked the breast, for it was the custom of these heathen to kill a child before it had tasted earthly food. This statement is corroborated by some old Frisian laws edited by Sibrand Siccaum.

The officers consigned the child to a servant to be drowned. As the man held the infant over a bucket of water, she stretched out her tiny arms and grasped with her hands the edge of the bucket, and with all her feeble might resisted his efforts to drown her. A woman, who chanced to be near, touched with pity, snatched the infant from the servant's hands, and ran away with it to her own home; fastening the door behind her, she hastened to a chamber and placed some honey in the child's mouth, which it instantly swallowed. The officers were sent by the heathen beldame to demand the infant: the woman said, "She has eaten honey," and at the same time she held up to them the child, still licking its lips: for this reason it was unlawful to kill the child.

The woman gave Liafburg suck from a horn filled with milk, and receiving all necessaries from the child's mother, she nursed her till the death of her unnatural grandmother, when Liafburg was received into her father's house.

Liafburg many years after, when pregnant with Ludger, heard suddenly of the return of her husband Thiadgrim from a long journey. She ran out to greet him, and her foot slipping, she fell on a stake, which entered her side. She was taken up for dead; but by God's mercy she revived, and in a few days gave birth to Ludger unhurt. This event took place probably about 744. At his baptism, which is erroneously said by one chronicler to have been performed by S. Willibrord, who was then dead, he received the name of Ludger. As soon as he was able to run about, he used to collect the bark of trees, and to sew them into books, while the other children were at play. Then he scribbled on them with reeds dipped in a black liquor and gave them to his nurse to keep as useful books. If asked, "What hast thou done to-day?" he said, "I have made books, or I have written or read all day." If asked again, "Who taught thee?" he replied, "God taught me."

Then, as he grew in grace and years, he earnestly besought his parents to entrust him to some man of God to be brought up. They accordingly, probably in 757, gave him to abbot Gregory, a noble Frank, and a disciple of the great S. Boniface, who had a monastery at Utrecht. Either here, or before this, Ludger, as he tells us in his life of S. Gregory, "saw with his own eyes S. Boniface when his head was white with hoar hairs, and his body decrepit with age." Gregory, he adds, was his preceptor, "ab infantia," he brought up his disciples with as much love, zeal, and care, as if he was their father, and they his children; they were joined to him by a tie of strong affection. He proclaimed both in deed and in truth, as well as in word the Apostolic utterance of S. Peter, concerning the calling and election of all nations, "In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." Acts x. 35. For his disciples were gathered not from one tribe only, but were the flower of all the neighbouring nations; they were enlightened with wondrous gentleness and spiritual joy, and joined into one body, because they were begotten in charity of one spiritual father, and of the one mother of all. "Some were of noble Frank families; some were English; some of the new planting of God begun amongst the Frisians and Saxons; some of the Baquarii and the Suevi; some of whatever nation God hath sent thither: of all these I, Ludger am the least, yea, the weakest and most insignificant."

"The holy father Gregory bestowed on all these gathered from all parts into one fold the spiritual food of God's doctrine and Word. Inspired by God he burned with love for his disciples and for their instruction, so that scarce a day passed on which he did not sit in the morning to receive his disciples singly, and to hear their questions, and then he gave them to drink of the cup of life, and watered them with God's Word as each had need."

Altfrid tells us that Gregory received Ludger with joy, and found great pleasure in instructing him, as he was an intelligent and sagacious child. Under his loving care Ludger advanced in the fear of the Lord, and laid aside his secular habit in that monastery; perhaps in 760, and devoted himself wholly to the study of the spiritual science. Some of his schoolfellows became bishops or teachers of Churches. Ludger was much loved by them, by reason of his wondrous gentleness and kindness: his face was cheerful, though he was not easily provoked to laughter; he combined prudence with moderation in all his actions, for he constantly meditated on Holy Scripture, and especially upon those portions of it which pertained to the praise of God, and to the Catholic faith, for all which reasons he was loved by his venerable master as an only son.

Alubert came to Utrecht in 766, or 767, being sent by the bishop of York to preach the Gospel in Frisia. Gregory besought him to be made a bishop. He consented after some reluctance, provided Gregory would despatch him to England with some native clergy. Accordingly he received as companions Sigibod and Ludger. Sigibod was ordained priest, Ludger deacon, and Alubert bishop at York, probably by Elbert, who succeeded Egbert in that see on his death in 766. Elbert on his accession had ordained Alcuin, who was his favourite pupil, deacon, and made him master of the cathedral seminary. His fame as a teacher spread far and wide; and students from all parts eagerly sought in York that instruction which no other master could supply. Ludger assiduously drank of the stream of knowledge which flowed from his lips, and it was with reluctance that he accompanied his friends at the end of a year to Utrecht, which they reached in 768.

His first act was to petition Gregory for leave to return to Alcuin, and sate himself "with the honey which he had tasted." Gregory gently but firmly refused his request: finding that in spite of all persuasion he cherished the determination of journeying to York, he sent for his father to induce him to desist from his purpose. But the studious Ludger remained firm, and at last vanquished all opposition by entreaty. He was accordingly furnished with all necessaries for his journey.

He stayed three years and a half at York, under Alcuin, where he was beloved by all for his good character and holy studies.

At this time, when the citizens of York were going forth to battle against their enemies, the son of an earl of that province was killed in a quarrel by a Frisian merchant. All Frisians deemed it prudent to quit England for fear of the wrath of his relatives. Alcuin sent his deacon Patal with Ludger, lest his love of learning should induce him to go to some other town of those parts, and he should there fall a victim to the vengeance of the young earl's friends. He returned home, in 774, with a large stock of learning and books, and was received warmly by Gregory.

About or before this time, Liafwin or Lebuin, a learned priest, was sent from England to Utrecht. He desired to preach the gospel to the people who dwelt by the river Yssel. The faithful of those parts first built him a church at Wulfre, on the west side of that river. Afterwards one was erected at Deventer, on the east side. He gained so many converts there that the Saxons made a furious attack on the place, drove out the Christians, and burned the church. When the enemy had retired, he returned, and rebuilt the church, and laboured there peacefully and successfully till his death, when he was buried in the church. Then the Saxons again sacked and burned the church, after making an ineffectual search for his body.

Albric succeeded his uncle Gregory, who had died about this time. Ludger gives a touching account of the old man's death. "He had been smitten with paralysis some years before: as he grew weaker, he eagerly looked forward for his nephew's return from Italy. When Albric arrived, he entrusted the monastery to his charge, and prophesied his own immediate decease. He bade them carry him to the oratory of S. Saviour, and set him in front of the tabernacle; there he prayed for a time, and then received the Lord's Body; then, with his eyes fixed on the altar, and his soul fixed on heaven, he departed to the Lord, whom he had served so long in sincerity." His death occurred in 776, according to the Bollandists; in 781 according to the editors of the Benedictine Acta Sanctorum.

Albric besought Ludger to assume Liafwin's charge, and to rebuild the church over his body. Being unable to discover his remains, he laid the foundations of the church within the space in which he thought they lay. Liafwin appeared to him in a vision of the night, telling him that his body was buried deep beneath the south wall of the foundations. The next day it was found in the spot pointed out, and the foundations were transferred so as to include the saint's tomb within the church. Many miracles were afterwards wrought at it. Perhaps the Romanesque crypt of the present vast church of S. Lubien at Deventer marks the site of this tomb.

Afterwards Albric sent Ludger and others to destroy the heathen temples and places of worship throughout Friesland. They found a vast quantity of treasure in them, of which Charlemagne reserved two-thirds, and gave the other to Albric for his own uses.

When Albric, in 778, was consecrated bishop at Cologne, he caused Ludger to be raised to the priesthood at the same time, and then sent him to be teacher of the Church in the canton of Ostracha, where S. Boniface was martyred. It seems that Ludger erected a church on the site of his martyrdom, near Dockum, for Alcuin afterwards sent him some Latin heroic verses to be inscribed on it.

These verses will be found in Migne's edition of Alcuin's works. The two first of the fourteen lines run thus:--

"Hic pater egregiis meritis Bonifacius almis,
Cum sociis pariter fundebat sanguinis undam."

He also, in turn with Albric and two others, presided over the monastery at Utrecht for three months in every year. Once, after he had said the night office, and had laid himself down to rest, "in solario ecclesiæ," S. Salvatoris, which probably corresponded to our parvise, or prophet's chamber, abbot Gregory appeared to him in a vision, and bade him follow him. The old man cast down to him from a higher place, as it were, pieces of garments and parchments, which he bade him distribute well. Ludger gathered them into three heaps. Marchelm, the custodian of the church, in the morning interpreted the dream to mean that Ludger would be spiritual ruler over three peoples. Then Ludger exclaimed, "Would that the Lord would give me, instead, fruit in the place now entrusted to my charge."

Ludger zealously exercised his office among the Frisians, and the seeds of life, sown by him, watered by dew from above, bore abundant fruit in the hearts of many. Thus did he avenge the death of S. Boniface by bringing to the knowledge of the truth those very peoples who had shed his blood. Again was verified the old saying, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," for that land afterwards brought forth rich crops of the corn of God's elect.

When Ludger had toiled there nearly seven years, that "root of evil," Wittikind, in 784, leader of the Saxons, drove out the servants of God, burned the churches, and made the Frisians, as far as the river Fleo, sacrifice again to the false gods. So Ludger dismissed his disciples, and taking with him his brother, Hildegrim, and another, went to Rome, where pope Adrian received him kindly, in 785. Thence he went on to S. Benedict's monastery at Monte Cassino, "for he was anxious to build a monastery on his own estate, and this was afterwards done at Werden."

Though S. Ludger's name occurs in Benedictine Martyrologies, he seems never to have become formally a monk of that order. Probably he wore their habit at Monte Cassino. The author of the Third Metrical Life says, "though he wore the cowl." "Nec hujus Regulæ, ullum observantiæ fecerat promissum." The fact that the monasteries founded by him both at Werden and Munster observed the rule of the Canons Regular, seems to settle the matter. He was called abbot simply because he presided over a Cænobium. In 787, he passed through Rome on his way home, where he obtained some relics of our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin, and of some of the saints. The news of Wittikind's conversion, or rather submission, had recalled him to his old field of labour.

Charlemagne had been at war with the Saxons, who then occupied nearly the modern circles of Westphalia and Lower Saxony, with short intervals of peace, for nearly thirty years. In 779, he defeated the Westphalians at Bochold, and received their submission, which entailed that of the Ostphali and the Angrarii. The following year he overran the country as far as the Elbe, where he encamped. Wittikind took refuge at the court of the king of Denmark, his father-in-law. The solemn sacrament of baptism was administered to an immense multitude at Horheim.

Charlemagne determined to secure the people by a systematic occupation of their territory. It was divided into districts, whither bishops, priests, and abbots were sent. The king gave them the lands, but God alone could give them the souls of the people.

The rebellion which burst out in 782, under Wittikind, was punished severely. His accomplices, 4,500 in number, were tried before their own chiefs at Verden, on the Aller; were condemned and put to death. Their relatives and all the tribes took up arms to avenge them: a bloody battle of doubtful issue was fought at Detmold. After Charlemagne had ravaged the country for two years, he offered terms of peace. Wittikind and the Saxon nobles accepted them. He submitted to be baptized at Attigny. His example brought about the submission of Saxony and Friesland. The story is told somewhat in this fashion:--On great festivals Charlemagne was wont to distribute money to all the poor who assembled at his gate. On Easter-day, Wittikind, in the dress of a beggar, penetrated into the king's tent, where Mass was being said. After mass, he came to receive alms with the rest. He was recognised in spite of his rags, arrested, and brought before the king. Then he asked to become a Christian, and ordered the chiefs of his party to lay down their arms. It is hardly necessary to add that marvels accompanied this conversion.

On S. Ludger's return, in 787, to Friesland, Charlemagne sent him to bear the glad tidings of the gospel of peace to the Frisians in the neighbourhood of Gröningen and Norden. Away in the sea to the north was a white island, so he was told, a home of hardy seamen, whither S. Willibroad had been. Ludger resolved to go to this island of Fositesland, or Heligoland, and water the little seed of life that Willibroad had sown there. He embarked in a little vessel, and a pleasant breeze springing up, the boat was wafted towards the distant isle. Ludger stood in the bows, cross in hand, and saw a dark grey fog envelope the island. But presently the veil of mist rose, and disclosed the white chalk-cliffs glittering in sunshine, and the bishop gladly took this as an omen of success. He landed, preached the faith, and destroyed the temples, erecting churches in their stead. The people gladly heard the Word, and Ludger baptized them in the waters of the very fountain in which S. Willibroad had baptized three of the islanders on a former occasion. A son, also, of one of the chiefs embraced the faith, and became a teacher of the Frisians and the founder of a monastery.

After the complete subjugation of the Saxons, S. Ludger was directed by the emperor to repair into Westphalia. He erected a monastery where now stands the episcopal city of Münster, and travelled over the district with unflagging energy, wearing no hood, as his biographer says, with which monks usually keep their heads and shoulders warm, instructed the barbarous tribes, and appointed priests to minister the sacraments to them. He was soon after ordained bishop by Hildebold, archbishop of Cologne. His heart now turned to the wild Normans, the scourge of all the maritime peoples of Gaul and on the Baltic.

As bishop, he ministered to his Saxon flock with great judgment and gentleness, and that proud conquered people yielded more to his gentle persuasion than to the harsh commands of Charlemagne. He still ruled Friesland, which he had brought to the faith. Charlemagne also set him over a monastery in Brabant. Thus his dream of the three heaps, signifying his rule over three peoples, was fulfilled.

The chief seat of his diocese was in the canton Sudergau, at a place called Mimigardford (or, more properly, Miningardvard, the fort of Miningard) on the Aa, where he built a monastery by the river for the Regular Canons.

From this establishment the city eventually took its name of Münster, though the bishops continued to style themselves "of Mimigard" to the time of Thierry II.

He built the cathedral of S. Paul at Münster. The five Frisian counties contributed largely towards the cost. Their liberality was commemorated in a sculpture representing them offering gifts to S. Paul, which once stood near the N.W. door of the cathedral. It was defaced by the Anabaptists in 1535.

He uprooted idolatry, sowed the Word of God, built churches, and ordained priests to minister in them. He desired to bring many nations to the knowledge of the true God, and volunteered to preach to the heathen Northmen, but Charlemagne refused his consent.

The blameless conduct of Ludger did not save him from detractors, nay, perhaps it rather incited their malice. He was accused (as the anonymous Frieslander who wrote his life tells us) to Charlemagne of penuriousness in decorating the houses of God. The emperor summoned him to court, and on the morning after his arrival the chamberlain was sent to call him before the council. He found Ludger saying the divine office. Our saint promised to come as soon as it was done. A second and a third messenger summoned him, but he did not go to the emperor till the office was over. Charlemagne asked him, "Why didst thou disregard my command to come at once?" The saint said, "God is to be preferred to thee, O king, and to all men." The emperor, pleased at his reply, exclaimed, "I am thankful that I have found thee such as I ever esteemed thee, and I promise never again to give ear to those who calumniate thee." Once Ludger imposed a severe penance on a priest who left off saying the office that he might blow the fire, as they were saying Matins in their travelling tent, because the smoke was driving into the bishop's face; for the saint desired to teach his clergy that they ought to suffer nothing to disturb them when saying the Divine office.

Altfrid adds that S. Ludger "was well read in Holy Writ," as is clearly proved in the book he wrote about the life of Gregory and Albric; moreover, he wrote an account of the early events which took place at the coming of S. Boniface and at his ordination. His meaning, probably, is not that separate lives of these holy men were written by Ludger, but that notices of them were inserted in his "Life of Gregory." This is the only genuine work of his that has survived, for the epistle on the canonization of S. Suibert is not from his pen.

When he felt his end approaching, he devoted more time than before to reading Holy Writ, to chanting Psalms, and, though feeble in body, he celebrated Mass every day.

On the day of his death, March 26th, 809, very early, he heard Mass at Coesfeld, and preached; then hastening to Billerbeck, arrived there at nine o'clock the same morning, preached again, and celebrated his last Mass. That evening he gently expired.

March 27.