Saint Ermelinda, Virgin and Recluse at Meldert
Saint Ermelinda was born about the year 595, of a family so illustrious that Pepin, Duke of Brabant and father of Saint Gertrude (commemorated March 17), gloried to be descended from it. Her father was called Ermenold, and her mother, Ermesenda. They gave her an upbringing befitting her high birth; but far from letting her heart be taken with the allurements of vanity or the fame of greatness, from her infancy she thirsted for nothing but seclusion, prayer, and the word of God. She never desired to hear of any proposal of marriage, and to prevent her parents from being able to involve her therein, she made a vow of virginity, cut off her hair, and renounced all the pomp of this world, and took up a strict life of mortification. Soon after, these austerities were not enough for her; she required solitude to live with God only. She left her paternal home, the manor of Terndonck, near to the village of Lovenjoul, in the environs of Louvain (in modern Belgium), and the goods they offered her for her subsistence, and went to hide herself in a little market-town called Bevec. There, scorning her nobility, she went barefoot to church, where she passed the days and nights in prayer. She afflicted her flesh to make it a living sacrifice worthy in the eyes of her Bridegroom, and she had no other ambition than to be the lowly handmaid of our Lord.
Warned by an angel that two young squires were setting traps for her virtue, she forsook Bevec and went to Meldrik, afterwards called Meldaert, in the present diocese of Malines. There it was that she passed the rest of her days, living on nought but wild herbs and practicing self-mortifications reminiscent of those which the ancient and most austere solitaries practiced in the deserts. Finally, when she had overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil in many combats, it was pleasing to the Lord, Whom alone she had loved upon the earth, to call her to Himself to crown her in Heaven. She died on the twenty-ninth of October, in the beginning of the seventh century. The very angels had the care of burying her body in that place and of chanting hymns and canticles for her funeral. Forty-eight years later, the wonders that her body worked made it known; and when it had been brought up out of the earth through the piety of Duke Pepin, it was placed in a convent of virgins that he founded to that end and enriched with very great stipends.
In the representations of Saint Ermelinda of Brabant, angels are portrayed compassing her body about and presiding over her funeral. She is invoked especially for the healing of arms and legs (a pun: Erm or Arm means “arm,” and by extension, “legs.” [this is translated from French.])
It is believed that Saint Ermelinda was buried in her cell. Later (about 643), a chapel was built over her tomb, and numerous miracles began to be worked there. The holy recluse has been honored for more than twelve centuries [this was written in the mid-nineteenth century] throughout the diocese of Malines, but most particularly in Meldert and in Lovenjoul. At Tirlement (diocese of Malines), in the collegial church of Saint Germanus, there was an altar dedicated in her honor. Saint Ermelinda is honored also at Moergestel and even in Bohemia. From Meldert, where her relics reposed, they were transferred twice (in 1705 and 1744) to Louvain to keep them away from the profanations of the impious. Brought back to Meldert, they were buried in the ground during the troubles of 1729; they were brought out again in 1803, on the day of Pentecost. Deposed first in the oratory of Saint Quirin (on the border of the parish), they were afterwards placed again with honor in the parish church. In 1848 or 1849, they were enclosed in a magnificent reliquary of gilded bronze.
The above account was translated by H.T.M. from Les Petits Bollandistes, Volume 13, pp. 30–31.
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