Baring-Gould’s sources: Canisius in his German Martyrology, Molanus in his additions to Usuardus, Wyon in his Monastic Martyrology, The claims of Hildegund to sanctity rest on no good grounds. She has never been canonised. Authority: — A life written by a priest, her master. All the earlier part was taken from her own account, and this he wrote at the request of the brethren, because of the circulation of other accounts of her early life which were not altogether correct. Another life of & Hildegund by Caesarius of Heisterbach, drawn from accounts of eyewitnesses.] At Neuss on the Rhine lived a knight and his lady, who were long childless, but at length God looked on his handmaiden, and she became the mother of twin daughters, who were baptised by the names of Hildegund and Agnes. The little girls were placed by their parents in a convent at Neuss to be educated. The mother died of a fever, and the old knight, who had long meditated an expedition to the Holy Land, now that his wife was no more, feeling “ freer and more joyous,” as the historian quaintly observes, withdrew the little Hildegund from the convent, cut her hair short, dressed her as a boy, and started with his child on the long journey. Hildegund passed as his son, and was called Joseph. On the voyage the old man falling sick, commended the child to a fellow countryman who was on the same vessel Then he died and was thrown overboard. At Acre, the man to whose charge she had been given, stole her clothes and all the money that her father had left, and escaped, whilst she lay curled up asleep in a comer of the caravanserai On waking, Hildegund ran about crying. Her helpless condition excited the compassion of a good man who was passing through Acre, and he took the child with him to Jerusalem, where he placed her in the hostel of the Knights Templars. There she remained, till chance S. Hildegund.

…brought to Jerusalem a distant kinsman of her father, who, having heard that his relative had started for Jerusalem, went about the city making inquiries for him. When he came to the hostel of the Templars, Hildegund told him that her father was dead, and that she was his son Joseph. He took her with him on his return voyage to Germany, but he also died before he reached the Rhine. She had now grown up a tall, slender stripling, active, handsome, bronzed with the Eastern sun, still in boy's clothes, with short locks. And so attached was she to the freedom of this dress, and the protection it afforded her, that she still concealed her sex.

On reaching Cologne she offered herself as servant lad to an old canon of the cathedral, and was engaged by him. But before she gave attention to her future, her first act was to offer thanks to God for having protected her in cold and and heat, from the violence of men and savage beasts, and kept her innocence intact in the midst of so many and great dangers.

Now it happened that the sister of this canon was in the convent of S. Ursula at Cologne; and the superiorship being vacant, she was elected by a large majority of the sisters to fill it But among the nuns was the niece of the archbishop, Philip of Heinsberg, and the minority were in favour of electing her. 1 The archbishop threw all his weight into the scale, to obtain the office for his niece, and the canon was obliged to appeal to Rome against him. At this time there was a schism in the Church of Treves [Trier in Germany]. The cleigy and people had elected one Volmar, count of Bliescastel, to be their bishop, whereas the emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, had nominated Rudolf, count of Wied; and as the clergy of Treves were resolved on an appeal to Rome against him, the Emperor forbade any such appeals 1 The writer of this life was himself mixed up in this controversy, as he fells us. being carried out in Germany, on pain of death. It was therefore difficult for the canon to obtain redress against his archbishop. After maturely considering the feasibility of conveying an appeal to the pope, he resolved on despatching it by Joseph, inclosed in a hollow walking-stick, and visiting Verona, where the pope then was, himself personally to support the appeal. Accordingly they started on their journey, the canon on horseback, ambling leisurely along, Joseph lightly running by his side. But when they reached Zusmarshausen, in Swabia, it was deemed expedient that, for greater security, they should part company. Here the expedition of poor Joseph well nigh came to an untimely end; for as he left Zusmarshausen early in the morning, and was making his way through the wood, he lighted on a man with a sack, who, pretending that he had left something behind which he wanted to recover, asked Joseph to sit down on his sack till his return. Now this fellow was a burglar who had broken into a house during the night, and had carried off a sackful of plate; but finding that he was pursued, adopted this means of throwing his pursuers off the scent, whilst he made off with some of the more portable valuables. Joseph was seized, beaten, and dragged back into the town. There could be no question as to his guilt Was he not found escaping through the forest with the stolen articles ? Accordingly his denials and tears were disregarded, and he was condemned to be hung. Then he begged that a priest might be sent for, and to him he disclosed the secret of his journey, and showed him his hollow stick. The priest at once went out to the people, and begged them not to insist on the execution of the lad till they had ascertained that there was no truth in his story; but to beat up the wood, and search for the man he accused. The people saw the justice of this advice, and spread through the wood, where they soon captured the S. Hildegund.

real thief, with the valuables upon him, and without further investigation hung him on the first tree, and liberated Joseph. The lad remained a day or two in Zusmarshausen, and then started on his journey. But now the friends of the man who had been hung were waiting for him, and he had no sooner set foot within the wood, than they surrounded him, strung him up to the tree beside the dead burglar, and took to their heels. Providentially they were in too great haste to execute this work very thoroughly, and some shepherds coming by shortly after cut him down. The pressure of blood on the brain of the strangling girl, produced much the same effect as does drowning, and she thought she was in a warm and sunny spot, supported by angels' wings. On her opening her eyes, a knight in gay armour mounted on a white horse, standing among the green bushes, seemed to her an angel come to her assistance, and when he took her up on his pommel, and allowed her to fall asleep with his strong arms round her, and her head nodding on his bosom, as he spurred along the road to Augsburg, all doubt as to his being an archangel vanished clean away. He conducted Joseph as far as Verona, whither he was bound, and there left her. At Verona she met the canon, her master, and they continued their journey together to Rome. On their return, Joseph left the service of the canon, attracted by the excellence of the schools at Spires, and lodged in the house of a pious recluse named Mathilda. She did not remain there long, for making the acquaintance of an old knight, named Berchthold, who had retired from the world into the Benedictine [monks following the Rule of St. Benedict] monastery at Schonau, as a lay brother, the old man persuaded Joseph to accompany him thither, and embrace the religious life. There she received the tonsure [shaving part of the head as a sign of entering the clergy or monastic life], and was admitted among the novices. The writer of the biography says, “ I had then been received at Schonau, and had been placed in the house of probation. And the Lord Abbot Gottfried, that vessel elect, full of all virtues, a burning and a shining light, hearing Joseph reading and chanting among his brethren, and finding him to be very backward in his learning, for some reason, why I know not, he commended J oseph to my care to be directed and instructed, in the house of probationers. Thus were we living among the brethren, reading, studying, day and night observing the discipline of the house exactly, and as it pleased God, making daily advance. And to tell the truth, in or out, Joseph conducted himself irreproachably, making himself liked by all for his amiability, not regarding his delicacy of constitution, but subjecting himself to hard labour, carrying stones and timber from the forest, fasting and watching, and conducting himself as a stout man rather than as a tender woman.”

However, there was yet somewhat of mother Eve in her composition, for one day Joseph, and a lad of fourteen, named Hermann, who was in the same school, were at their dinner, when the master’s back being turned, Joseph nudged Hermann and bade him put his face beside here, and look at the reflection of their faces in the winocup. “ Hermann,” said Joseph, “what do you think of my face, is it not pretty ?” “ Bah !” said the little boy, “you are as vain as a woman.” Then suddenly the master, turning, caught them talking, and they both received a whipping. About the same time, and possibly on account of this whipping, Joseph got very tired of being in the monastery school, and the craving for her old roving life returned upon her. Three times did she attempt to run away, and was thrice restrained from doing so; the last time by a sudden pain in the chest, undoubted pleurisy, from which she died. And then only, to the amazement of the monks, was it discovered that Joseph was a girl The whole April jqJ 61 Hildegund.

monastery was thrown into excitement, and when the body was brought into the choir and laid with the face uncovered before the altar, not one of the monks could refrain from tears. The abbot so far restrained himself as to recite the customary prayers, but not one of the monks could pluck up voice to sing the Amen. As Joseph had often talked of his sister Agnes at Neuss, a messenger was sent there to enquire into the real name of their young novice. The abbess sent back word that Agnes was dead, and that her twin sister's name was Hildegund, who had gone to the Holy Land with her father, and had not been heard of since.

As will be seen from this charming story, about the truth of which there cannot be a question, there is really nothing whatever in the life of Hildegund which can entitle her to be called a saint. But the romance of her story made her to be canonized by the popular voice, whereupon certain modern compilers of Martyrologies inserted her in their kalendars.