Godfrey

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 13, November, Pt. 1 · Pdronne, uncle of Ida, Countess of Boulogne, mother of Godfrey, king of Jerusalem, paid them a visit, and asked

Godfrid, in French Godefroi, or Geoffroi, was bom at Moulicourt near Soissons. His father’s name was Frodo, that of his mother was Elizabeth. They were rich and noble, and had two sons following arms as their profession. About the year 1065, Godfrid, abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin-les- Pdronne, uncle of Ida, Countess of Boulogne, mother of Godfrey, king of Jerusalem, paid them a visit, and asked whether they had not a son to give to God. “ Alas 1” said they, “ we have only two, who are engaged in arms, and we are advanced in age and expect no more children.” The abbot advised them to vow to God that should they be given another son, they would dedicate him to the religious life. Nine months after Elizabeth became the mother of a son, whom the abbot Godfrid held at the font, and to whom he gave his own name. At the age of five this child was sent to his monastery and loved by him as his own son. One day the child was teasing a pet crane in the monastery

Digitized by Google

204 Lives of the Saints . [Nov. g.

cloister, when the spiteful bird pecked at his eyes.1 The boy recoiled, made the sign of the cross, and providentially escaped being blinded. He went to Soissons one month of October, and was at the abbey when the feast of SS. Crispin and Crispinian was celebrated. Just before mass he went into the refectory, and found the monks enjoying a hearty meat breakfast, washed down with wine. They invited him to table. He indignantly refused to eat before mass, to load the belly with carnal food before satisfying the soul with spiritual nutriment The monks scoffed at him, and forced him to retire.

He was ordained priest at the age of twenty-five, by Ratbod II., bishop of Noyon, the ecclesiastical writer. Soon after, the archbishop of Rheims sent him to the abbey of Notre-Dame-de-Nogent, which had fallen into dis- repute, and contained only six monks and two novices, in the hopes that he would restore discipline, and attract novices. At the instigation of the archbishop, and of the bishop of Laon, Enguerrand, Count of Coucy, appointed him to be their abbot. Philip I. approved, and the abbot and monks of Mont-Saint-Quentin were forced to submit. Godfrid went to the monastery, and found it in confusion: the church ruined, the cells thatched with wattles and clay to keep out the rain, the cloister full of nettles and brambles, the lands alienated, and the monks under no discipline. He re- built the church, restored the monastic buildings, brought the monks under restraint, and earned such credit as a dis- ciplinarian that many entered the abbey, amongst them two abbots, to have the privilege of living under his austere rule. After a while Manasses II. of Rheims wished to translate him to the more important and wealthy abbey of S. Remi,

1 In many mediaeval biographies we hear of cranes or storks pecking at eyes. Probably a habit of the bird now not noticed since it has become more scarce, or is not kept tamed with clipped wing.

Digitized by Google

Nov. 8.]