Abundius

ON ST. ABUNDIUS,

Bishop of Como in Italy.

IN THE YEAR 468.

Abundius, Bishop of Como, in Italy (St.)

G. H.

[1] Como, an ancient city of Italy on the borders of Insubria,

increased with inhabitants by Strabo Pompey,

father of the great Pompey, Lucius Scipio, & C. Julius

Caesar, began to be called Novocomum. It is believed

to have been taught the Christian faith by St. Hermagoras, disciple of

St. Peter the Apostle, & Bishop of Aquileia; under which

Metropolitan it has hitherto remained, & itself constituted Episcopal.

Among the Bishops of this See was St. Abundius, St. Abundius deceased not in the year 469, who famed for merits

& miracles, died on this day April 2, in the year

469, as Francis Ballarinus relates in the Chronicle

of Como, Ferdinand Ughelli in the Bishops of Como,

& others. But he who on Easter day, after

the sacred things performed, to the standing people is reported

to have announced his near death, could not have died in that year

in which Easter was celebrated on April 13; but rather

in the preceding year 468, but rather 468. when with lunar cycle

13, solar 1, Sunday letters G F, Easter fell

on March 31; & then he died on the third feria of Easter.

[2] He was then buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles,

which afterwards they called St. Abundius, & him the Comenses

began to venerate as chief Patron with the greatest celebration.

his church & patronage at Como His body, which for many subsequent centuries remained unknown;

at last, while that church was being repaired,

was found by Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio Commendatary, in the year 1586.

It was resting in a white marble sepulcher whole,

clothed in Pontifical vestments,

with inscription: HERE RESTS ABUNDIUS

BISHOP OF COMO. Body translated. There were round about the sepulchers of other

holy Bishops of Como; of St. Amantius,

his predecessor; & of SS. Consul & Exuperantius, his successors:

whose bodies, with the people & Clergy of Como eager, were honorably

laid, together with the body of St. Abundius, in the high

altar of the same church; which to his honor by Pope Urban

II, on June 3, in the year 1095, was dedicated, is

an ancient tradition of the Comenses.

[3] The holy cult of St. Abundius from the Church of Como was carried

to others: for in the Milanese Breviary published in the year 1539,

& in the Missal of the same Church of the year 1522 & 1560,

the veneration of St. Abundius Bishop of Como is prescribed with

commemoration of St. Mary of Egypt, Sacred Cult, which in the last edition

is omitted. In the MS. Florentine Martyrology, which

we found with Charles Strozzi Florentine Senator,

& in the Martyrology of Bellini of Padua in the year

1498 printed at Venice, is celebrated the memory of St.

Abundius Bishop & Confessor at Como.

Followed elsewhere others, Maurolycus, Felicius, Galesinius, Molanus;

Canisius with the Roman Martyrology. Ferrarius in

the Catalog of Saints formed a greater eulogy from the Acts.

His MSS. Acts had been communicated to us at Rome by John

Baptist Marus, Canon of the Collegiate Church of St. Angelo in

the fish-market, MS. Acts & in Mombritius. but the Amsterdam fire consumed

them. We make up the loss from the works of Boninus

Mombritius, who in the first place published the Life of St. Abundius Bishop

of Como republished by Surius, with which before we had compared

the said MS. acts. From these various things are alleged by Baronius

in the Ecclesiastical Annals, chiefly at the year

450, & to them some things are inserted from Ado's Chronicle

written in the ninth century. Added is from the ancient Breviary of Como

the following hymn.

[4] Let the present assembly exult on the holy day of Abundius,

Who plucked his flock from the savage jaws of wolves. Hymn.

Preaching the doctrine of Christ, & unlocking his power,

To the light of the King he raised up the dead son.

To these cares thus given, by the spirit he knows his departure;

About to receive the glory of heaven, he prepares concord for his own.

For in the joys of Easter he had the citizens as guests,

With whom refreshed with the feast, hence is borne by Angels.

To us, you Father, sons full of sins succor;

Of those approaching your tomb, wipe away the heap of faults.

Under your governance may this Comensian fatherland thrive,

Which knows Christ the Lord through your patronage, Amen.

LIFE

Published by Boninus Mombritius.

Abundius, Bishop of Como, in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 0015

FROM MOMBRITIUS.

CHAPTER I.

Fatherland, familiarity with St. Amantius, Episcopate, zeal against heretics.

[1] In the time, in which a Leo Pontiff held the highest peak

of the Apostolate, & his b

equivocal Augustus ruled the monarchy of the Empire, & c Anatolius

presided over the See of the city of Constantinople,

and d Nicetas ruled the Aquileian mitre,

B. Abundius, an excellent inhabitant of that city, St. Abundius of Thessalonica 5th cent. with divine

grace providing sailed across, & came to Como, which not

fishy g lake inundates and makes pleasant. Here affable with Greek and Latin

charm, & illustrious with the title of sanctity, familiar to St. Amantius Bishop of Como, of St.

Amantius he became familiar: whom mutual affection

of alternating covenant with so great love joined; that it was doubtful,

which of them loved the other more. Such however

was the balance in both, that they excelled in pastoral rods,

& the devout sheep as much from the guide, as

from the soldier the commonwealth of the Holy Church received, & many

inconveniences avoided. So their life was pleasant,

praiseworthy & salutary to known & unknown, that these by the presence

of religion, those by fame alone profited.

[3] While with so great concord of mutual love they enjoyed,

Amantius happened to be sick, & to approach the end

of life. At once he summoned Abundius, by him dying appointed successor;

as Elias Elisha, whom by God's providence & in the presence of witnesses

the Pontiff h ordained Pontiff,

people received, & with huge applause he is placed on the Episcopal

See. when the faith had already long flourished under Constantine. Long before i Carpophorus with

his fellow soldiers had fought & triumphed,

Fidelis also, strong in the constancy of faith, for the same cause

& with the same sentence had received the laurel of his dignity.

Now the tyrannical rage of profane Princes

had passed & withered. Besides Constantine with

his mother Helena had built a second Rome, which

is called Constantinople. This first of Emperors

had not only permitted but commanded Christians freely

to gather, & Basilicas in the honor of Christ to be built.

& Theodosius: Theodosius also

added no little degree to the Christian profession,

in whose reign the temples of the Gentiles & shrines of idols

were destroyed: for still they had remained inviolate.

So the liberty of the Church stood open, so the shaken

and weakened strength of Gentilism fell. & by SS. Ambrose, Martin, Jerome.

[3] At the same time Ambrose Bishop of Milan

shone, & Martin Bishop of Tours illustrious

flashed: Jerome Presbyter & faithful interpreter of divine law

in Bethlehem famous throughout the whole world shone forth.

who spitting into its mouth killed a huge dragon,

which scarce eight yoke of oxen could drag to the place of burning,

lest wasted it should corrupt the air:

Augustine also a Prelate illustrious for doctrine stood forth. Augustine.

These laborious husbandmen cast seeds into ages

not to fail; but among their so cultivated new fields

the mad insolence of heretics threw stealthily

tares. These were Arius & Sabellius, Eutyches

& Nestorius, leaders of error & standard-bearers of the conspiracy.

But the Orthodox perceiving the vain painting,

standing at the divine mangers, & not enduring their

perfidious contagions, had opposed to the battles of faith defenses.

Nor did the Church endure more dire contests from the stronger

forces of idolatry, when she was still an infant;

than she bore from the various and false sects of manifold

heresy, when she was now a young maiden. Are not

intestine wars proved more atrocious than external ones? Nero

Diocletian & Maximian slaughtered Christ's worshippers

& crowned them, & by sudden metamorphosis of earth-born

they made heaven-dwellers: but Arius, Sabellius, Eutyches

& Nestorius transformed the clean sincerity of faith into

perfidy: from which pestiferous animals

arising contagion had infected not a few flocks.

[4] To these God diligently applied cures, namely Hilary

& Athanasius, l Eusebius, Ambrose

& Augustine, against whom were held councils, Nicene, who with medicinal fomentations

strove to eliminate all the venom of perverse dogma from the breasts

of the unfaithful. Whence the Nicene Council

by Constantine against Arius is gathered:

whose error sprouted until Constantius was reigning,

ill-omened offspring of Constantine, who with the stain of Arian

dogma polluted, persecutes Catholics throughout the whole world.

Trusting in this one's favor Arius m, while in

Constantinople he proceeded to the church,

about to fight against our people on the faith, turning aside through the forum

of Constantine for a necessary cause, his bowels suddenly

with his life were poured out. Whence the Arians trembled,

& the Catholics concerning God's judgment had no small

joy. After these things Pelagius against

Christ's grace sets up his error: for whose condemnation

the Carthaginian Council is gathered. Carthaginian,

After the same time Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople

contrives the error of his perfidy: against

whom the Ephesian Synod gathered, Ephesian having prosecuted his impious

sect defamed him. At this time also

the devil, in the form of Moses in Crete n appearing,

promises to lead them through the sea with dry foot to the land of promise:

with many of them killed,

some who were saved at once flew to the grace of Christ.

Chalcedonian. After these things the Chalcedonian Council

is held, where Eutyches with Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria

is condemned. Besides at Carthage

the Holy Trinity, with a fiery dart visibly was

burned up.

[5] Notice, brothers, how by moments

and intervals of times the Catholic faith grew;

first through the rosy contests of the Martyrs, then through

the victorious battlements of the Confessors against heresy;

then also because divine vengeance rendered wages

worthy of their errors. By these prefaced institutions

the memory of annual feasts is declared to be the index & witness.

Through the traces of these until the cradles of the history

of Bishop Abundius we have come, that the series & line

historical may offer no small information to our

accounts. This holy man & in arms of the Catholic faith

strenuous, accustomed to the inner chambers of the Most Holy & venerable Leo

the Pope, the discordant

controversy & sedition of heretics settled, S. Abundius, a powerful opponent of heretics. when it was raging

more fiercely. Who not a common soldier,

but a principal, governor of the Leonine service, most skilled

on the wave, most brave warrior & charioteer

in battle, not only obtained a trophy

from the conversion & flight of heretics,

but also celebrated a triumph from their ruin. He was hot, cold, hungry,

passed nights awake; on oar-benches as beds he reposed, shuddered

at soft couches, many times intrepidly underwent the hiding-places of lands

and dangers of the sea, that the thieves of unity

& robbers of the Trinity with a triple cord he might suffocate.

indefatigable in labors for the Church. He of whom the dispute was so great supplied spirits,

furnished arms & aids, & powerful showed forth all

warlike instruments. O brave athlete

& happy argonaut! whence the highest heralds equal to your studies

& merits are, not from crafted eloquence but

from bountiful wisdom, which gave the stone to pour forth water.

Blessed the fatherland which directed such an inhabitant:

but more blessed which received him as patron. Whence the Thessalonian

& is wonderful in our eyes, this is the day which the Lord has made,

let us exult & be glad in it) did not shudder at

the Ionian or Aegean, not at the Adriatic or Tyrrhenian;

for he who fears, is not perfect in love,

& perfect love casts out vain fear: neither

did he tremble at the fury & pertinacity of the present

heretics, although they had persecuted most Catholics

to death. This hero p upon the error of the heretics

horribly pressed, & did not fall: for he who gave the affection, added

the effect. Divine love,

not material but spiritual, conquers all; to which

all things yield, animated Abundius, who the erroneous sect,

in the manner of a flood dissolving the harvest q of the West & East,

with the flame of divine love dried up. Was not

Hesperia & Greece, Arabia & Media polluted with this

stain? But the winnowing fan of sharp discretion examined

the threshing floor of the holy Church,

& separated the empty husks of erroneous profession from the grains

of Catholic truth.

ANNOTATIONS.

c Anatolius crowned

the said Emperor Leo, & to him St. Leo the Pope wrote various epistles,

namely 40, 46, 48, 53, 71, 76 & 77, listed in the volumes of Councils.

He is venerated by the Greeks on July 3.

in the year 451 celebrated a Synod of Milan, at which St. Abundius was present,

& he brought the letter of Pope St. Leo, as St. Eusebius testifies in

the letter sent from the Synod to St. Leo, to which among others subscribed St. Abundius

Bishop of the Church of Como for himself, & for the absent Asimon Bishop

of the Church of Chur. St. Eusebius is venerated on August 12. The other holy

Fathers are sufficiently known.

m These things

also are reported in the same words in the Chronicle of Ado at the year 337, likewise

the following of this number in various places. We treat of these heresiarchs,

in various and more opportune places.

p Surius wrongly transcribed, Hæres.

q Mombritius mense of the West & East: which has no sense, & by Surius is even more obscured, when for flama, which is in Mombritius, he reads, Flamina: we have restored the sense by conjecture: for it seems to be signified, that by heresy, as by a flood inundating, the Gospel harvest throughout the whole world would have been washed away, unless the flame of divine love had dried it up: which that it might be clearer, some transposition of words seemed opportune.

CHAPTER II.

Mission to Constantinople by order of Pope St. Leo. His zeal for the faith praised by Theodoret.

[6] a Not only to the West, but also to the East

by B. Leo the Apostolic was Abundius directed,

& what was to be refuted by the authority of the Roman See he refutes; Sent by St. Leo to the East,

that to provinces far from Rome, the presence in a certain way

of Roman visitation he might bestow, & the middle

mark of divine truth he might show; because from continuous

& opportune inspection it was ready for him

to recognize, what in each matter he should decide or

reserve for Apostolic care. For when it was free to him

to deliberate, or to determine, or to suspend

under the expectation of the nobles the greater affairs

& the outcomes of more difficult causes; yet to whatever causes

he had given final touch, he always did it with

the dignity of religious persons & the reverence of

the Churches preserved; imitating the sentence of the Apostle to Timothy

exhorting to ecclesiastical government, Rebuke not

an elder, but entreat as a father or

mother, young men as brothers, young women as sisters in

all chastity: discreet in corrections, which moderation if to any inferior

members by Apostolic institution is owed;

how much more to brothers & fellow Bishops without offense

must it be rendered? 1 Tim. 5, 1, And although sometimes things happen

which in Sacerdotal persons are reprehensible,

yet toward those to be corrected benevolence should act more

than severity, more exhortation than agitation,

more charity than power. But by those, who

seek what are their own, not what are of Jesus Christ, this law

is easily departed from; & while they wish more to dominate

than to consult their subjects, honor inflates to pride;

& what was provided for concord, tends

to harm: nor do most think they have power,

unless they busy themselves in exercising injury upon their subjects.

[7] Such diligence & such custody always

& everywhere keeping abundantly, our

Abundius, that neither God nor his neighbor in

the examination of his direction he might offend, so pleased

God that & was found just; & in the time

of wrath was made reconciliation. The laborious virtue

of the most holy man, never given to leisure or sloth,

he triumphs over the Nestorians & Eutychians. so powerfully & manly everywhere among the nations overthrew

& exhausted the heretical depravities

by the authority of the Leonine legation, so that the present age &

the future lack these superstitions, nor for his posterity

was it needful to brandish the divine steel against the Nestorians or

Eutychians. And not only the battle line of such

beasts fell, but also no mark of their traces

appeared, so that triumphantly with the Psalmist

he may whether sing or prefer to chant together, chant: Ps. 17, 39,

I will not turn back until they fail, I will break them &

they shall not be able to stand, they shall fall under my feet. This

most holy man looms & stands out among all the gymnasia

& exercises of the Catholic faith, & promotes

the battle lines of the Catholics, against the deceitful phalanxes

of the heretics: which cause of so great salvation flowed to the Comans,

not chance nor fate, but divine providence

destroying both these, was the effector of so great authority

& benignity: for as Moses he produced for the Hebrews,

so he exhibited Abundius to Como. O illustrious

& solemn day, on which so great a Patron came forth,

not only to the Comans, but to all Christians, who

going forth from region to region, suffering cold

& heat, through Charybdis and quicksands, & the commerce

of various tongues, brought opulent merchandise, not of earthly

furniture, but of divine religion, & over

the Eutychians & Nestorians with the supreme admiration of all

he triumphed! Here let yield the triumphal chariot

of the Romans or the flattering breath of tyrants: for

of the finite and infinite what is the portion? & of a flying thing &

are better than the feasts of Nero & other wicked

princes: since these

the eternal court, those beget gehenna; his hunger is

satisfied, that man's satiety is famished, as the Lord says,

Blessed are you who hunger now for you shall be satisfied. Luke 9, 21,

[8] Indeed let us discuss that controversy which moved the whole

Church, & from the atrocity of the contest

let us weigh the magnitude of the victory. This strife embraced no

few lustres of time, & even to the governance

of Pope Leo & the prelacy of Abundius,

fulfilling his legation, never recovered from its perfidy.

Whence this excellent man, in wisdom & various tongues

vigorous, from the appointment of the Bishops of Italy &

the election of the Leonine dispensation, many seas

crossed, very many provinces traversed, that the question

long ventilated & contended, might neither deceive

the unwise, nor disturb the wise. Nestorius was saying

there are two persons & two natures in Christ:

but Eutyches one nature & one person.

But the Catholic faith asserted two natures, but one person

to be in Christ, that is, the same Christ

to be perfect man; & the same God &

man, to be one God & the Son of God: & not

to the perfect God: but one & the same person

to fulfill the number of the Trinity. Whence against

Nestorius it is said: Who though he be God & man, not

two however, but one is Christ. And against Eutyches

he adds: One however not by the conversion of divinity

into flesh, but by the assumption of humanity into God:

one not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.

And since in the same person of Christ another is the divinity

which received, another, whom it received, he fights for the Orthodox Faith. the humanity;

yet the same is God & man: & there is in

Christ a twin nature & twin substance, since

man is God; & one person, since the same is

man & God: whence daily we sing: For

as the rational soul & flesh is one man, so

God & man is one Christ. From such

clash of causes, the noble Abundius by God

warned, by B. Leo directed, & moved by the enormity of the heretical

crime, not a little labored & sweated,

& at last showed forth a huge palm: &

not only the branches of perverse dogma, but the trunk with

root thoroughly uprooted; to whom Theodoret Bishop of Tyre,

on the agreement of faith, this letter, bearing no small

heralds, directed in these words:

[9] To my truly amiable & most holy brother Lord

Abundius, Theodoret salutation in the Lord. I have learned

that your religion preserves the true & Apostolic faith

with a pious mind: & I gave thanks to God Almighty,

that the religion which was in peril, praised by Theodoret, is renewed

through your holiness & came to light. And as

formerly in the flood it was done, that for the seed of the human

race Noah & his sons were left: so in the present

the Western parts have been reserved, that from these also

the Eastern most holy Churches may keep the true

religion, which a sacrilegious

& new heresy was already attempting to devastate & swallow up utterly. And opportunely

can be said that Prophetic voice: Unless the Lord of Sabaoth

had left us seed, we would have been made like

Sodom & Gomorrah. Isa. 1, 9 So much has there come upon us as some

deluge & war from the wrath of God, from impious

heresy. Now we praise the true presence of our Savior in a

human body, & we confess one Son of God,

& his perfect deity, & perfect humanity:

& we do not divide our one Lord Jesus Christ

into two Sons. He is

indeed unique; but we acknowledge the difference of God & man;

& we know that one is from the Father, the other

from the seed of David & Abraham, according to the divine

Scriptures; & that the divine nature indeed is without passion;

but the body before indeed was in passion,

but now it itself is also alien from passion: for

after he rose, this also is agreed to have been

freed from all passion. These things from the letters of the most holy & most religious

Archbishop Lord Leo we have learned: for we have read

what he wrote to b Flavian of holy & blessed memory:

& we gave thanks to our most humane

God, that we have found an advocate & defender of truth.

I also agreed with these letters, & to this letter

of mine have I joined a copy of them, to which I also

subscribed; & from this I have proved that I follow the Apostolic rules,

that is, the true dogmas, & today in these

I remain, & therefore I suffer war. The same religious

Apostolic sect we preserve, I & other reverend

men, who with me from the most holy Churches c have been expelled,

namely Lord Ibas & Lord Aquilinus,

& the rest, against whom the inventors of the new heresy have armed

the power of the Emperors. It remains that you

with the most holy men bring aid to the most holy Church,

& remove the impious wars which impend.

Forbid therefore the sacrilegious sect, which against

piety is moved; & to the churches the former peace

restore, that the fruits of the Apostolic labors you may receive

from the Lord, who promised to render those same fruits.

All the most religious & friends of God,

Presbyters & reverend Deacons & Brothers through

your holiness I salute: & we & all who are with us

salute your religion.

[10] Of what kind & how great this Theodoret was, herald of Abundius,

by the man esteemed by St. Leo. to one inquiring, the consulted d letter

of Pope Leo answers, directed to him, of whose formula the beginning

we subjoin. To my dearly beloved brother Theodoret Bishop

Leo Bishop salutation. With our Fellow-priests returning to us,

whom to the holy Council the See

of Blessed Peter sent, we have known your love,

with supernal help, with us to have stood forth victress both of the

impiety of the Nestorians, & of the madness of the Eutychians;

whence we glory in the Lord with the Prophet singing,

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made

heaven & earth: who permitted no damage to be borne by us in our brethren:

but what by our

ministry had previously been defined, was confirmed by the irretractable

assent of the universal fraternity: as it had shown

truly to have proceeded from him, what previously formed by the first

See of all had received the judgment of the whole Christian world: so that

in this also the members might agree with the head. Ps. 123, 18 In which

for us grows more matter of rejoicing, while

the enemy struck himself so much more, the more fiercely he rose up

against the ministers of Christ. For lest of other

Sees to the one which of all the rest the Lord instituted to preside over

them, the agreement might seem to be of flattery,

& so any adverse suspicion might creep in,

there were first found those who doubted our judgments:

& while some, forced by the author of dissensions, leapt forth

to wars of contradiction, a greater good by the dispensation

of all goodness was attained. For the gifts of divine grace more sweetly

come upon us, as often as they are acquired not without great sweat: &

less good peace is wont to seem continued through leisure,

than restored after labors: truth itself also more brightly

shines & is more strongly held, while what previously faith

had taught, this afterwards examination confirms. Rejoice,

brother. There has been restored to the age, with the plunderer prostrated,

the mystery of the divine Incarnation: which the enemy of the human

race, because by the things themselves he could not take away,

was obscuring by calumnies. Rather the immortal mystery had perished

from the heart of the unbelievers: for what profits so great salvation

to the unbelieving, when the truth itself said to his own

disciples? Mark 16, 10 He who believes & is baptized shall be saved,

but he who does not believe shall be condemned.

ANNOTATIONS.

To the effect of more quickly obtaining salutary dispositions, my brothers &

Fellow-Bishops Abundius & Asterius, & also Basil &

Senator Presbyters, most approved men I sent, who would offer the form of faith, which

according to the teaching of the venerable Fathers we preach: &

what about the Incarnation of the Son of God by approved Priests of the whole world

had been defended, they should show.

c Of

this expulsion consult Evagrius book 1 chapter 10, where among the expelled

are listed Theodoret of Cyrus, Ibas of Edessa, & Aquilinus of Bibla

as Bishops.

CHAPTER III.

Council of Constantinople. A dead man raised to life.

[11] Moreover Anatolius, Bishop of the Church

of Constantinople, lesser Rome, having received

the Epistle of Pope St. Leo, on the confirmation of the Catholic

faith, against the heretics gathered a council

of all the Bishops & Archimandrites, or

Presbyters & Deacons; He delivers the letter of St. Leo to Bishop Anatolius, & before the sight

of all was recited the letter of St. Leo, which B.

Abundius in the presence of all presented, with

concordant testimonies of the Roman Fathers & the Argolic.

Anatolius Bishop of Constantinople

to this Epistle of Pope St. Leo, containing the truth of the Catholic

faith, with concordant testimonies also

of the Fathers directed by the same Apostolic See,

with full devotion consented & subscribed, saying anathema

to Eutyches & Nestorius, & to the dogma or followers

of them. Then the other Fathers, of no small number,

in the same manner subscribed. Presently St. Abundius

& Asterius Bishops, & Basil & Senator Presbyters,

said: Thanks to Almighty God, since of the reverend

Bishops, Presbyters, Archimandrites,

Deacons & the whole Clergy the professions

we have known, to profess the right faith & that handed down

by the Fathers, as their subscription,

inserted in the acts here present, declares. Therefore we also,

because we have learned that all require & expect this,

according to the assertion of the venerable man a Eusebius Bishop

Bishop Flavian, or the assent of Pope Leo, for

insinuating the Catholic faith to all, by name

we say anathema to Eutyches or to all who follow his

perfidy, he condemns the heretics, & say in Jesus Christ our Lord

before the Incarnation there were two natures,

but after the Incarnation only one nature;

when the Catholic faith both before the Incarnation confesses one,

which was then of the Word, & after the Incarnation two, that

is, of the Word & of the perfect man, to remain in one person,

with unconfused property of itself, the natures. To Nestorius

also, who, as is read, long ago dispersed a mad dogma,

saying the Lord Jesus Christ from

the Virgin Mary a man only, not also God

was born; & to his followers,

continuing in such perversity we say anathema. On account of which

it is fitting to the confirmation of his subscription,

the holy fraternity which is present, to the same &

to all who follow their teaching, anathema similarly

to say. See how by many testimonies of illustrious

men it has been confirmed that B. Abundius the perverse

dogmas of the erroneous sect, with the javelin of the Catholic faith, wounded

& extinguished. What trader or triumphator

out of avarice of obtaining money, as he out of desire

of victory, visited so many shores of the sea, so many approaches of land.

But now it is opportune to proceed further, & whatever

through the merits of the holy man of faith God willed to show:

since upright labors & contests are signs of sanctity

not doubtful. But let us report the memorable,

where the Lord calls, prodigy.

[12] There was a certain illustrious & very rich man, Regulus

of the Comensian region, c whose only son happened

to die; from which the family, consumed with funeral mourning,

rolled a huge groan with great questions.

After long weeping with one accord they offered the lifeless

body, as if a small gift, to Abundius;

among whom the father deformed & lugubrious,

& stripped of royal adornment, he raises the dead with prayers: with all his house at the traces

of the holy man rolled: Have mercy, he said, on an old man, not

having surviving offspring, not about to have an heir.

To whom shall I leave my family? to whom shall I leave the province?

If he shall return to life, the faith will be open to the people,

the unbelievers will take an argument of believing, &

the faithful will receive increase of faith. Then the man of God

is touched with wonted piety, & to those offering to reject

the things offered he was ashamed. Soon about the remuneration

of the gift treating, These, he said, ask not a tomb,

nor funeral office, nor me as a companion of complaints:

greater & more excellent things this spectacle expects.

O God, whither shall I go from your spirit, & whither from your face

shall I flee? The right hand of the Lord works valiantly, the right hand

of the Lord exalts. Let this one not be dead before you, but as

one sleeping let him live, & relate the works of the Lord, &

say, Chastening the Lord has chastened me, & to death

has not delivered me. I seek not so much the life of the dead

as the faith & salvation of the people, the resurrection of one

will be the perfection of many. At once the heavenly gates

stood open, & the prayer entered before the sight

of God; the soul went out from its hiding places, & animated the lifeless:

straightway the obsequies of the little boy were changed into the obeisances

of Abundius, when receiving from the resurrection

their dead one, joyfully they applaud & are astonished

at the miracle, & instead of grief enjoy joy; if any

were worshippers of idolatry, straightway they were made

worshippers of Christ. The whole city accordingly exults, & gives

thanks to the true God: to whom be honor & glory forever and

ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

to the Council held by him; as is indicated by the deacon Liberatus, & in

the Council of Chalcedon: & therefore afterwards in the Pseudo-synod of Ephesus,

with Dioscorus presiding, he was together with St. Flavian condemned; & in

the Council of Chalcedon against Dioscorus he acted.