Note 69 — PLATES XXXVIII.—XLI. CHURCH OF ST. HILDEBERT, AT GOURNAY.

St. Hildebert is a name of rare occurrence in hagiology. He was bishop of Meaux in the seventh century, but was not honored with a place in the calendar, till about three hundred years after his decease; at which time his reliques were carried to different parts of France, and finally interred at Gournay. The church, on this occasion, changed its patron, an event which commonly happened in those ages, and placed itself under the protection of the new saint, instead of the proto-martyr, to whom it had been originally dedicated.—Peter de Natalibus, in his Catalogus Sanctorum, says, that St. Hildebert ended his life as Archbishop of Tours; and that he died in that city, and was there buried, “ibique jacens in miraculis vivit.” He speaks of him likewise as an elegant scholar, and the author of a work, de contemptu hujus vitæ, written partly in verse, and partly in prose.