Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the Reformation

by James Paterson

ST. GENEVIÈVE, PATRON SAINT OF PARIS AND FRANCE (A.D. 430).

About 430, as St. Germanus and St. Lupus were on their way to England to refute the Pelagian heresy, they stayed one night at Nanterre, a village near Paris. The villagers went in a crowd to look at these renowned saints, and a little girl in the crowd attracted the notice of Germanus, who called her to him, asked her name and all about her, and ended by bidding her parents to rejoice in the sanctity of their daughter. He then addressed little Geneviève on the exalted condition of perpetual virginity, and appointed a service in the church that he might consecrate her at once to that holy life. The service was performed, and the saint gave her at parting a brass coin, shaped like a cross, which he told her to wear as her only ornament, and leave silver and precious stones for the children of this world. From that day miraculous gifts descended on the child, who excelled all others. She once had a trance, in which she was led by an angel to survey the dwellings of the just, and the rewards of the spiritual life. She also received the gift of divining people’s thoughts. She soon became marked out, and, like other holy people, excited envy for the powers she possessed. When the Huns invaded Paris, the terrified citizens were told by her to take courage, and she assembled the matrons that they might seek deliverance by prayer and fasting; and the deliverance came, for the Huns were diverted through the efficacy of her prayers from Paris. She had great powers of abstinence, and from her fifteenth to her fiftieth year she ate only twice a week, and that was bread of barley or beans; and after fifty a little fish and milk were added to her diet. Every Saturday night she kept a vigil in the church of St. Denys, and then retired to her cell, where she was as much visited by crowds as a saint on his pillar. After she was dead her relics were eagerly sought after by rival Churches, and these stayed the horrors of plague and famine and flood wherever they were taken. All Paris believed in her as the patron saint.

EXCESSIVE REVERENCE FOR RELICS (A.D. 406).

The extravagant veneration paid to the martyrs roused great opposition in the fifth century, and the presbyter Vigilantius of Barcelona wrote a tract censuring these ashes-worshippers and idolaters. He represented it as supremely ridiculous to manifest this adoration of a miserable heap of ashes and wretched bones, and covering these with costly drapery and kissing them. He also complained that the practice of placing lighted lamps before the martyrs was only an imitation of the Pagan practice before the images of their gods. Why should they think it a merit to place miserable wax candles before the effigies of those on whom the Lamb in the midst of God’s throne reflected all the brightness of His majesty? He also thought the practice of nocturnal assemblies, held by both sexes in the churches of the martyrs, was a temptation to misconduct. And he even questioned the reliance placed in the intercessions of the martyrs. Jerome, on the other hand, defended most of these practices. His answer was, that if the Apostles and martyrs in their earthly life, before they were out of the conflict, were able to pray effectually for others, how much more could they do so after they had obtained the victory! The worship of the Virgin Mary was thought to be mainly due to the ascetic spirit brooding over the cradle of Christianity.

GREAT SECRECY IN REMOVING RELICS.

The acquisition and preservation of relics by the monks may be said to absorb all their zeal. It was decreed once that the body of St. John of the Cross should be secretly removed from Ubede to Segovia, and an officer of the Court arrived by night at the monastery, and having desired an audience of the father prior on a matter of the greatest consequence, he intimated to him the order of which he was the bearer. The order enjoined the prior, on pain of excommunication, to take up the body secretly, without apprising any one of what was to be done. This was an unexpected blow to the prior; but he took precautions, and when every one in the monastery was asleep, he went down into the grave accompanied by the officer and two monks bound to secrecy. They opened the grave; but lo! the saint being dead a year, the body was still perfect and the flesh undecayed. As the bones only were demanded, the object could not be effected, but quicklime was laid in the grave, and the officer departed and returned in nine months. The same precautions being adopted and the grave opened, the body was still perfect; but being dried by the lime, it was put in a leather case and committed to the messenger. The men left at about midnight, and strange visions were seen the same hour. One monk awoke greatly perturbed and went down to the church; but finding the prior standing at the door, who refused to allow any one to enter, the uneasy and curious monk was ordered to return to his bed without receiving any explanation. The officer meanwhile bearing the body, declared that after leaving Ubede and passing some desert mountains, he heard awful voices in the air which were not human, and which greatly disturbed him.

RIVAL MONKS CAPTURING HOLY RELICS (A.D. 1030).

Bishop Etheric of Dorchester, who died in 1038, having ascertained that the remains of St. Felix, formerly Bishop of East Angles, were lying neglected, obtained leave from King Canute to have these taken charge of, and privately informed the monks of Ramsey of the inexhaustible treasure which they might secure to themselves by getting the possession. On receiving this message Alfwin, the prior, and a number of his monks proceeded by water to the place pointed out, and being armed with the authority of the king and bishop, they overmastered all opposition, and placed on board their boat the holy ashes and the bones of St. Felix, and with psalms of joy steered their way back to Ramsey. No sooner, however, did the monks of Ely hear of what was on foot, than they became desirous of possessing so great a treasure themselves, and therefore they hurried on board their ships with a strong body of armed persons, resolved by their superior numbers to capture the relics. An event, however, occurred which was evidently not the work of human hands, but was the dispensation of the Divine will, for at the very moment when the vessels came in sight of each other a dense mist arose, which blinded the Ely crew, and yet allowed the Ramsey boat to steer right on to its destination. Whether this can be viewed as a miracle or not, still the fact is handed down by tradition that the relics of St. Felix were successfully removed to the church of Ramsey, where they were with due honour enshrined, and where that holy saint for ages bestowed benefits on those who sought his prayers.

A MONK JUDICIOUSLY STEALING RELICS (A.D. 1090).