(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.