Bruges and West Flanders | Page 9

dry, but, strange to say, it
became liquid, we are told upon the authority of Pope Clement V.,

every Friday, 'usually at six o'clock.' This weekly miracle continued till
about the year 1325. Since then it has never taken place except once, in
1388, when the vial containing the relic was being transferred to a new
crystal tube; and on this occasion William, Bishop of Ancona, was
astonished to see the relic turning redder than usual, and some drops, as
of newly-shed blood, flowing within the vial, which he was holding in
his hand. Many notable persons who were present, one of them the
Bishop of Lincoln, testified to this event!
Other miracles wrought through the agency of this relic are recorded. A
child which had been born dead was taken to the shrine, and came to
life after three days. A young girl who had suffered for twenty months
from an issue of blood, and for whom the doctors could do nothing,
was cured by the application of a piece of cloth which had been used to
cover the relic. Another girl who had been paralyzed for a long time,
being carried into the Chapel of St. Basil, was restored to complete
strength the moment she kissed the crystal tube. In December, 1689, a
fire broke out in the Bourg, and threatened to destroy the Hôtel de Ville;
but a priest brought forth the tube containing the relic, and held it up
before the flames, which were instantly extinguished. These and many
other similar miracles, confirmed by the oath of witnesses and received
by the Church at the present day as authentic, make the relic an object
of profound devotion to the people of Bruges and the peasants of the
surrounding country, who go in crowds to bow before it twice every
Friday, when it is exhibited for public worship.
It was nearly lost on several occasions in the days of almost constant
war, and during the French Revolution it was concealed for some years
in the house of a private citizen. The Chapel of St. Basil suffered from
the disturbed condition of the country, and when Napoleon came to
Bruges in 1810 it was such a complete wreck that the magistrates were
on the point of sweeping it away altogether. But Napoleon saved it,
declaring that when he looked on the ruins he fancied himself once
more amongst the antiquities of Egypt, and that to destroy them would
be a crime. Four years after the Battle of Waterloo the relic was
brought out from its hiding-place, and in 1856 the chapel was restored
from the designs of two English architects, William Brangwyn and

Thomas Harper King.[*]
[Footnote *: Gilliat-Smith, The Story of Bruges, p. 103.]
On the first Monday after the 2nd of May every year the town of
Bruges is full of strangers, who have come to witness the celebrated
'Procession of the Holy Blood,' which there is good reason to believe
has taken place annually (except during the French Revolution) for the
last 755 years.
Very early in the day a Mass is celebrated in the Upper Chapel of the
Holy Blood, which is crowded to the doors. In the crypt, or lower
chapel, where many people are kneeling before the sacred images, the
gloom, the silence, the bent figures dimly seen in the faint yellow light
of a few tapers, make up a weird scene all the morning till about nine
o'clock, when the relic, in its 'châsse,' or tabernacle, is carried to the
Cathedral of St. Sauveur, and placed on the high altar, while a
pontifical Mass is celebrated by one of the Bishops. When that is done,
the procession starts on its march along the chief thoroughfares of the
town. The houses are decorated with flags, and candles burn in almost
every window. Through the narrow streets, between crowds of people
standing on the pavements or looking down from the windows, while
the church bells ring and wreaths of incense fill the air, bands of music,
squadrons of cavalry, crucifixes, shrines, images, the banners of the
parishes and the guilds, heralds in their varied dresses, bareheaded
pilgrims from England, France, and other countries, pages, maidens in
white, bearing palms, or crowns of thorn, or garlands, priests with
relics, acolytes and chanting choristers, pass slowly along. The
buffoonery of the Middle Ages, when giants, ballet-dancers, and
mythological characters figured in the scene, has been abandoned; but
Abraham and Isaac, King David and King Solomon, Joseph and the
Virgin Mary, the Magi, and many saints and martyrs, walk in the long
procession, which is closed by the Bishops and clergy accompanying
the gorgeous shrine containing the small tube of something red like
blood, before which all the people sink to the ground, and remain
kneeling till it