THIS saint, nobly born in Brabant, then called Hasbain, was educated in
the abbey of St. Tron, and for his great learning and virtue was made
referendary, chancellor of France, and prime minister, by Charles
Martel, mayor of the French palace, in 737. He was always meanly clad
from his youth; he macerated his body by fasting, watching, and
hair-cloths, and allowed his senses no superfluous gratifications of any
kind. His charity to all in distress seemed to know no bounds; he
supported an incredible number of poor, and was the protector and father
of orphans and widows. Soon after the death of Charles Martel, he was
chosen bishop of Metz, in 742. Prince Pepin, the son and successor of
Charles, uncle to our saint by his mother, Landrada, would not consent
to his being ordained, but on the condition that he should still
continue at the helm of the state. Chrodegang always retained the same
sweetness, humility, recollection, and simplicity in his behavior and
dress. He constantly wore a rough hair-shirt under his clothes, spent
good part of the night in watching, and usually at his devotions watered
his cheeks with tears. Pope Stephen III. being oppressed by the
Lombards, took refuge in France. Chrodegang went to conduct him over the
Alps, and king Pepin was no sooner informed that he had passed these
mountains in his way to France, but he sent Charles, his eldest son, to
accompany him to Pont-yon, in Champagne, where the king was to receive
him. The pope being three miles distant from that city, the king came to
meet him, and having joined him, alighted from his horse, and prostrated
himself, as did the queen, his children, and the lords of his court; and
the king walked some time by the side of his horse to do him honor. The
pope {520} retired to the monastery of St. Deny's; and king Pepin, in
the year 754, sent St. Chrodegang on an embassy to Astulph, king of the
Lombards, praying him out of respect to the holy apostles not to commit
any hostilities against Rome, nor to oblige the Romans to superstitions
contrary to their laws, and to restore the towns which he had taken from
the holy see; but this embassy was without effect. The saint, in 755,
converted the chapter of secular canons of his cathedral into a regular
community, in which he was imitated by many other churches. He composed
for his regular canons a rule, consisting of thirty-four articles. In
the first he lays down humility for the foundation of all the rest.[1]
He obliged the canons to confess at least twice a year to the bishop,
before the beginning of Advent and Lent.[2] But these churches, even
that of Metz, have again secularized themselves. The saint built and
endowed the monasteries of St. Peter, that of Gorze, and a third in the
diocese of Worms, called Lorsh or Laurisham. He died on the 6th of
March. in 766, and was buried at Gorze, to which by his will, which is
still extant, he demised several estates. He is named in the French,
German, and Belgic Martyrologies.
* * * * *
The zeal of St. Chrodegang in restoring the primitive and apostolic
spirit in the clergy, particularly their fervor and devotion in the
ministry of the altar, is the best proof of his ardor to advance the
divine honor. To pay to Almighty God the public homage of praise and
love, in the name of the whole church, is a function truly angelical.
Those, who by the divine appointment are honored with this sublime
charge, resemble those glorious heavenly spirits who always assist
before the throne of God. What ought to be the sanctity of their lives!
how pure their affections, how perfectly disengaged from all inordinate
attachments to creatures, particularly how free from the least filth of
avarice, and every other vice! All Christians have a part in this
heavenly function.
Footnotes:
1. Ch. 14.
2. See the other regulations abridged in Fleury, &c., the entire rule
published genuine in {Le Cointe Amaise} t. 5, and in the later
editions of the councils{}.