(A.D. 1048.)
[Modern Roman Martyrology. The name occurs in no ancient
Martyrologies; it owes its insertion to Baronius. His life was
written by Everhelm, abbot of Hautmont, his contemporary, in 1069.]
The blessed Poppo, born in Flanders in 978, as a youth served in arms.
He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and, on his return, engaged
himself to the daughter of his friend Frumhold. When the time of his
marriage drew nigh, Poppo mounted his horse one night, together with
some retainers, to ride to fetch his bride. He had not gone far before a
dazzling flash of light illumined him within, in his soul, and bathed
his body in a blaze of glory. As it faded away, he spurred on his horse,
and then noticed that a flame burnt on the point of his spear; it was as
though he rode bearing a tall church taper in his hand. Astounded at
this marvel, he reined in his steed, and turning to his companions said,
"God calls me to another life."
Then he left home and went, with the light still illuminating his soul,
and served in a hospital for the sick. One day a miserable leper was
brought in so covered with sores that he could not be placed with the
other inmates. Thinking that the poor creature was cold in the night,
Poppo went to him with his own coverlid, and laid it over him. Next
morning the leper was whole, the charity of Poppo had healed him.
Richard, abbot of Verdun, appointed Poppo to rule the abbey of S.
Vedast, which had fallen into scandalous disorder. When the Emperor
Henry II. was in the Betawe, between the two branches of the Rhine,
Poppo, having to visit him about some affairs concerning his monastery,
found the prince enjoying a favourite pastime of his; a naked man was
smeared with honey and exposed to bears; and the sport consisted in the
bears trying to lick the man, and he eluding their embraces. As this
sport not unfrequently ended in the man being injured, and sometimes
killed, Poppo rebuked the king, and brought him to a sense of the
impropriety of encouraging such coarse and dangerous amusements. That
this sport was popular, appears from Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims,
being obliged to forbid his clergy and monks attending either it or
bear-bating.
On another occasion, when Poppo was on his way to the Emperor, then at
Strasburg, as he passed through the Ellisgau, with some of his monks,
they saw a wolf carry off a man by the neck into a marsh. Poppo at once
called his monks to the rescue. They were unable, on account of the
loose texture of the swamp, to go direct to where the man lay, but they
surrounded the marsh, and following the bloody traces, recovered the
man, who was much mangled; they bound up his wounds, and he finally
recovered. What became of the wolf they saw not, and hoped, and hoping
believed, he was smothered in the marsh.
Poppo was afterwards created abbot of Stavelot, where the monks had
fallen into grave disorders. His efforts to reform them so irritated
some of the worst, that they attempted to poison him, but failed. Having
thoroughly reformed the monastery, he rebuilt and beautified the church,
and died on the feast of the Conversion of S. Paul, after having
received extreme unction from the hands of the abbot Everhelm, who is
his biographer.
[Illustration: Alpha and Omega; the first and the Last.]
January 26.
S. POLYCARP, _B. M. of Smyrna_, A.D. 167.
S. SIMEON THE OLD, _Ab. in Syria, end of 4th cent._
S. PAULA, _W., at Bethlehem_, A.D. 404.
S. XENOPHON, HIS WIFE AND SONS, _5th cent._
S. BATHILD, _Q., in France, circ._ A.D. 670.
S. THEORITGITHA, _V., at Barking, in Essex, 7th cent._
S. GOBERT, _C., at Foss, in Belgium_. S. ALBERIC, _Ab. of Citeaux,
beginning of 12th cent._ B. HASEKA, _R., in Westphalia_, A.D. 1261.