De quadam virgine in diocesi Leodiensi, que ultra xxx annosk vixit sin.
The Fasting Virgin of Erkel
A girl in the diocese of Liège lived without food or drink for over thirty years, sustained only by the consecrated Eucharist, which she could swallow while unconsecrated bread she could not.
without food and drink. During this time, in Germany, in the diocese of Liège, in a village called Erkel, a certain girl began to live without food and drink, and so she lived for more than thirty years. The parish priest of the said village offered her an unconsecrated host on the day she was accustomed to receive the Body of the Lord, but she could not swallow it. He took it back and gave her a consecrated host instead, which she immediately swallowed, perceiving by this that she could not take material food in any way.12
The Battle of Würselen
A battle near Cologne at Würselen saw Duke John of Brabant defeat Archbishop Siegfried, with over a thousand nobles slain on both sides.
At this time there was a battle near Cologne, around the village of Würselen, in which John, Duke of Brabant, won a victory against Siegfried of Runkel, Archbishop of Cologne. Besides the common people, one thousand three hundred nobles fell, killed on each side.3
Read the original Latin
cibo et potu. Hoc tempore in Alemania in diocesi Leodiensi in villa, que dicitur Erkel quedam puella incepit vivere sine cibo et potu, et sic ultra xxx annos vixit. Plebanus dicte ville optulit ei oblatam non consecratam die, quo consuevit corpus domini sumere, quamd non potuit deglutire, sed resumpta illab dedit ei - hostiam consecratam, quam statim deglutivit, perpendens in hoc, quod cibum materialem non posset sumere nullo modo. Hoc tempore fuit conflictus apud Coloniam Agrippinam circa villam Wu rinc, in quo Joannes duxBrabancie optinuit victoriam contra Syfridum de Run kel archiepiscopum Coloniensem, et preter communem populum ex utraque parte mille et ccc nobiles ceciderunt interfecti.
Notes
- 1 ↩The passage presents a Eucharistic miracle narrative: the girl can receive only the consecrated host, not ordinary bread. The theological implication — that her body accepts only the Body of Christ — is left implicit in the Latin and is preserved without editorial comment.
- 2 ↩The manuscript reads 'quamd' and 'illab' as scribal variants; normalized reading follows the critical text.
- 3 ↩The manuscript reads 'Wu rinc' for the place name Würselen, and 'Run kel' for Runkel. These are normalized to their standard forms.
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