ON SAINT AYBERT THE PRIEST,
RECLUSE OF THE BENEDICTINE ORDER IN HAINAUT.
IN THE YEAR 1140.
PrefaceAybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)
BY G. H.
The monastery of Crispin, situated between the Hainaut cities of Valenciennes and Gislenopolis almost equidistantly on the roads, owes its origin to Saint Landelinus, who in the seventh century of Christ built it, Crispin transferred from Clerics to Benedictines. and after a life passed there with the greatest perfection passed over to Christ on June 15. Clerics formerly inhabited it, whence by Baldric in book 2 of the Chronicle of Cambrai, chapter 41, it is called a monastery of Canons, in whose place about the year 1080 Benedictine monks were substituted; over whom the first Abbot was Rainerus, Saint Aybert there becomes a monk in the year 1090, mentioned below in the Life of Saint Aybert, who, having taken him as companion of his journey, set out for Rome, and received the same among his monks in the year 1090, and made him Provost and Cellarer of his monastery. Saint Aybert afterwards lived, both as monk and as recluse, died in the year 1140, for fifty years, until the year of Christ 1140; when with Cycle of the Moon I, Cycle of the Sun I, Dominical Letters G.F., the feast of Easter fell on the 7th day of April, on which below in number 23 Saint Aybert is said happily to have fallen asleep in the Lord.
[2] This Life was written by a contemporary author, who in number 22 asserts that he loved him living and dead. He indicates his name in the dedicatory epistle to be Robert, Robert Archdeacon of Ostrevand wrote the Life and that by God's mercy he was Archdeacon of Ostrevand. Now Ostrevand, or Ostreband, Austerbantus or Austerbantia, is a district enclosed by the rivers Sensée, Scarpe, and Scheldt, into which they flow at Bouchain and Mortagne. To Alvisus Bishop of Arras, who died in the year 1148 This Life is inscribed to Alvisus, Bishop of Arras, established when Saint Aybert was still alive: who by the command of Eugenius on the expedition to Jerusalem was made Father and Pastor of the whole army of the Franks, and at Philippi in Macedonia in the year 1148, eight years after the death of Saint Aybert, departed this life. Laurence Surius affirms that this Life was written in good faith, which he published on the 7th day of April, but for the most part with style changed for the benefit of the reader and contracted at the end. We have the same in its primitive phrase from the Manuscript of the Convent of Rouge-Val near Brussels: and the same was published by Arnold Rayssius, Canon of Douai, extracted word for word from a most ancient parchment Manuscript of the convent of Crispin: which we give here, distinguished in our way into chapters and numbers, and illustrated with marginal summaries and other annotations. From this Life published their summaries Franciscus Haraeus, Lippelous, Dubletius, and commonly others.
[3] The body of Saint Aybert was buried in his cell, in which as a Recluse he had lived, in an oratory there built in honor of the Virgin Mother of God. From the ancient monuments of the Oratory or Chapel of Saint Aybert, John Cognatus writes, in book 3 of the History of Tournai, chapter 42, that the sacred relics of Saint Aybert enclosed in a reliquary The body enclosed in a reliquary in the year 1303 were in the year 1303 brought from the monastery of Crispin to the said Chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God; which afterwards in the year 1464 under John de Gavere Bishop of Cambrai, and again in the year 1464 by his Suffragan Godefridus, were on the 3rd of October placed in a new reliquary. When in the year 1566 the Calvinist heretics raged with the greatest fury through the Belgic territories, preserved against the fury of the Calvinists: and tore away and burned the sacred relics of the Saints everywhere; this shrine of the sacred body of Saint Aybert was hidden by the Lord of this place and estate beneath brambles and nettles in some pastures, and not found by the heretics though diligently searching. Then when the oratory, destroyed by the heretics, had been repaired, Martin Cuprius, Bishop of Chalcedon and Suffragan of Maximilian of Berghes Archbishop of Cambrai, in the year 1568 on the very Kalends of May dedicated it in honor of the Holy Cross, the Virgin Mother of God, and Saint Aybert the Confessor, whose sacred body rests there, and Indulgences of eighty days were granted partly by the Archbishop, Indulgences granted: partly by the Suffragan Cuprius, on the individual solemnities both of the Holy Cross and of the most blessed Virgin Mary, as well as on the day of Saint Aybert, and on the Lord's Parasceve.
[4] And perhaps from this year 1568 it came about that by the authority of the Archbishop those coming from Crispin yearly celebrated the feast of Saint Aybert on the day after the Kalends of May, as on the second day of the same month with some Life of his Molanus reports in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii: His feast is celebrated May 2 and April 7: who however in the Additions to Usuard places the name of Saint Aybert on this 7th day of April, on which commonly others have it, Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, Antonius Balinghen in the Marian Calendar, Hugo Menard in the Benedictine Martyrology, Canisius in the German, Balduinus Willotius in the Belgian Hagiology, likewise the Martyrology printed in French at Liège in the year 1624; the Auctarium of the Carthusians of Tournai to Greven not yet published. On both days, both this 7 April and May 2, celebrate Aybert, Ferrarius in his general Catalogue, Saussay in the Gallic Martyrology, Wion, Dorganius, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Fasti.
[5] The body of Saint Aybert at this time is preserved at Crispin in the said oratory, the above-mentioned Cognatus relates, and Rayssius in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium page 178, who then on page 345 asserts that the arm of Saint Aybert the Confessor and Benedictine monk, together with a rib and vertebra of the same Saint, arm and rib brought to Tournai to the monastery of Saint Martin, by Peter Aymericus Abbot of Crispin, with the consent of the Prior and Convent, and by the permission and license of John Richardot Archbishop of Cambrai, was given to Peter de Loyers Abbot of Saint Martin of the city of Tournai, in the year 1610, on the 24th day of November. Which relics duly examined Michael Desne Bishop of Tournai approved, in the year 1611, on the 15th day of March, and he granted that the Ecclesiastical office of double rite from the Common of a Confessor not Pontiff be celebrated on April 7, the natal day of the same Saint, and he bestowed Indulgences on those visiting the said Church on that day. Finally on the reliquary case the following inscription is found: "These inestimable treasures of the Relics of Saint Aybert, for the sake of piety and veneration, the Reverend Lord Dom Peter de Loyers caused to be honored and preserved in this little case, in the year of the Lord 1615, April 18." Other complete documents may be read in Rayssius: who adds that the said Lord Peter de Loyers gave the aforementioned vertebra as a gift to the parochial church of the village of Espain, between Tournai and Saint-Amand on the Scheldt, vertebra to the village of Espain, on the 10th day of April in the year 1611, where divine mercy has worked some miracles through the merits of Saint Aybert, which, approved by Michael Desne Bishop of Tournai, together with certain others we shall give after the Life: here we say only that the Bishop bestowed on those present at the Translation Indulgences of 40 days, and similar ones in favor of those who should visit the Espain church on the feasts or within the Octaves of Saint Aybert, of Pentecost, of the Venerable Sacrament, of the Assumed Virgin, of All Saints, and of the Lord's Nativity.
[6] Finally so great a concourse of Prelates, magnates, and pilgrims from Hainaut and Artois shortly began to be made to Espain, that the alms collected in a short time sufficed to build from the foundations a chapel in honor of Saint Aybert, adjoining the side of the parochial church, Where his chapel the first stone of it being duly laid by the Abbot of Saint Martin, in place of the Lord Bishop then hindered by arthritic pains, in the year 1612, on the third Sunday of June, in the presence of the Lords of Mortagne and Rongi and a countless crowd of neighbors. But the dwellers of Espain and of the neighboring villages of Mande, Rongy, Hollain, and Wes, desiring to have some part in this pious work, instituted various collections, by which at length it was effected, that the whole fabric being completed, the altar of the chapel was consecrated by the Most Reverend of Tournai, on the Sunday falling on the 22nd of September in the year 1613. Thus far Cognatus in the History of Tournai, part 4, chapter 40. Some relics of the same Saint Aybert are in the monastery of Haut-Mont in the aforesaid Hainaut. Moreover, that a bone of the arm of the same Saint is in veneration at Mons in the monastery of the Black Sisters, bones of the shins at Mons, given to them by Louis Berlaymont Archbishop of Cambrai (who during his See, which he held from the year 1570 to 1596, visiting the said Relics had taken some of them for himself) testifies Cognatus, book 3 chapter 42, where he says that in the year 1609 the body was brought to Valenciennes, and with other bodies of the Saints carried around in solemn procession, and then brought back to its own chapel.
[7] These things so set forth, and leaving no place for doubt that Saint Aybert not only was a Belgian, He is falsely said to have been of the Order of Vallombrosa, but also lived as a monk and hermit in Belgium and died there; no one will be able to imagine any other Crispin Abbey, whose Abbot Raynerius the Saint once followed into Italy, than that from which both the Life and the Relics and all knowledge of this Saint have flowed, as is evident from what has been said above. Because, however, after the Life published by Surius, the Vallombrosan congregation of Benedictines in Italy inscribed him in the Catalogue of their Saints, as one who from the said Life was known to have lived piously as a guest for some time in Vallombrosa itself, and because the same Congregation, in the borders of Tuscany and Romagna under the diocese of Faenza, has an Abbey called Saint Mary of Crespino; occasion has been given to some to number Raynerius among the Abbots of that monastery, and to transfer Aybert to the same, with such boldness of conjecture that even there nearby is now shown the place in which the Saint led an eremitical life. Which, as may most truly be believed concerning other Religious of the same institute and monastery (for even now both at Vallombrosa and at many other Abbeys of this Order are seen cells or hermitages, into which with the permission of their Abbot those whom God called to a more abstract kind of life withdrew themselves), so it cannot be imagined of Saint Aybert except most inconsiderately. For the hermitical cell of the aforesaid Saint, to Saint Mary of Crispin in Italy, before he went to Italy, it is established from number 6 of the Life that it was the same in which Saint Domitianus, the inseparable companion of Saint Landelinus founder of Crispin, was said to have been, and at Crispin was buried: and after Aybert had returned to the same place from Italy, he dreamed of a very high tree situated between Hasnon and Saint-Amand, as is said in number 9, to which an eagle flying brought a monastic robe, and seemed to clothe him with it; whence he understood that he was called to enter upon monastic life in the Abbey of Crispin, which the situation of the tree designated: which alone could be enough to distinguish the Crispin monastery of Saint Aybert from a hundred others of the same name wherever they might be. I omit refuting these things at greater length, since the deep silence of the Vallombrosan writers concerning Saint Aybert sufficiently dilutes the novel opinion, born from the mere affinity of names.
the Abbots of that monastery, and to transfer Aybert to the same, with such great boldness of conjecture, that even there nearby is now shown a place in which the Saint led an eremitical life. Which, as it may most truly be believed concerning others of the same institute and monastery (for even now there are seen both at Vallombrosa and at several other Abbeys of this Order cells or hermitages, to which with the license of their Abbot those withdrew themselves whom God called to a more abstract kind of life), so concerning Saint Aybert it cannot be imagined except most inconsiderately. For it is evident from number 6 of the Life that the eremitical cell of the aforesaid Saint, before he went to Italy, was the same cell in which Saint Domitianus, the inseparable companion of Saint Landelinus founder of Crispin, was said to have been, and at Crispin was buried: and after Aybert had returned from Italy to the same place, he dreamed of a very high tree situated between Hasnon and Saint-Amand, as is said in number 9, to which an eagle flying brought a monastic garment, and seemed to clothe him with it; whence he understood that he was called to enter the monastic life in the Abbey of Crispin, which the situation of the tree designated: which alone could be enough to distinguish the Crispin monastery of Saint Aybert from a hundred others of the same name wherever they might be. I omit refuting these things at greater length, since the profound silence of the Vallombrosan writers concerning Saint Aybert sufficiently dilutes this novel opinion, born merely from the affinity of names.
LIFE
By Robert, Archdeacon of Ostrevand.
Aybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)
BHL Number: 0180
BY ROBERT THE ARCHDEACON
EPISTLE
To Alvisus Bishop of Arras
[1] I Robert, by the mercy of God Archdeacon of Ostrevand, humble and unworthy, this little work, which concerning the life and morals of Dom Aybert, venerable Priest, by God's inspiration I have composed, Reverend Father and Lord Bishop Alvisus, The author offers this Life to Bishop Alvisus to be corrected, I have destined to be reread by your diligence with this intention, that whatever in it by reading you shall find laudably said or worthy of correction, by the weight of your authority may be confirmed or changed. For I know and have learned from a certain wise man that nothing is perfect in human acts, nor blessed in every respect. Wherefore I blush the less, if perchance something imperfect be found in our work, which by the industry of a wise friend may be brought to perfection. For it is by far dearer to me if any things are said less carefully in our writing, to be emended privately and paternally by your prudence, than to be gnawed publicly and with a livid tooth by some malevolent man. We have indeed as our form and example of acting in this way the poets and ancient wise men, whom we ought to imitate, who delegated their books to be recited to wise friends, that if they should find anything in them said less regularly, with brotherly sweetness they might correct them, before the volumes themselves should come forth into public. For it is written: "When parchments have been laid within, it will be permitted to delete what you have not yet published." These things having thus been said, I myself, who in this little book have painted a comely man with the color of virtues, although a deformed painter and devoid of virtue, Reverend Father, he has knowingly put no falsehood into it, as if by oath assert, and in asserting swear, that I have knowingly mixed in no falsehood: because by God's grace such is the abundance of truth, that there was no need to us of devising pestilent falsehood. Whence I reckoned it as it were sacrilege, if the honest life and bright fame of an Angelic man I should have darkened with the stain or contagion of invented falsehood, which he living abhorred as a crime. For whoever strives to honor a religious person, living or deceased, with false praises, and in honoring to magnify, it is necessary that he beware lest by lying he fall into the snare of perdition. For it is written: "You will destroy all who speak a lie." Ps. 5:7 Thus by the Almighty God, who is Truth, and to whom all deceitful iniquity is abominable, such a praiser by killing himself makes himself far alien from him. For "the mouth that lies kills the soul": nor is such praise pleasing to any person soundly wise (because praising false things, it defrauds things pleasing or well said). Wis. 1:11 Foreseeing all this therefore, I have forbidden my tibiae from the mixing in of lying: for I knew that a little of pernicious mendacity ferments and in fermenting corrupts the whole mass of sincerity and truth: and therefore I judged that these false inventions should be avoided. Farewell.
PROLOGUE.
[2] Just as in antiquity images of triumphators and combatants, or triumphal arches, in which triumphs and the likenesses themselves of outstanding men for the sake of recalling and remembering honor were expressed, used to be made, so that those looking upon them might in some way be stirred to works of probity; The Lives of the Saints are proposed for imitation, so the points of letters, by which the glorious deeds or sayings of the holy Fathers are related, are usually written, that those reading or hearing the letters themselves may be vehemently kindled to doing those things which are worthy of relation and writing. Following this similitude therefore, the life of the holy Priest of Christ, Dom Aybert, as truthfully collected of this Saint, as from religious and truthful men, and especially from Dom Alulphus a religious monk, who better than others knew his secrets, I have received, I have proposed diligently to elucidate according to the mediocrity of my wit; so that those reading or hearing it may strive to imitate the holy man, if not in all things, at least in some part; or devoutly implore him that before the merciful God he may be for them a pious intercessor and prompt helper. For it seemed to us very unseemly and absurd if the fame and works of so great a man should be shut up in silence. And since the Lord has magnified his servant, giving him strength to suffer and act marvelously, we also from the debt of fraternal love should glorify him, by the color and ornament of words, according to our measure, in writing; if the capacity of speaking nobly and urbanely were available to us, and our lips were ours, so that smoothing the ears and hearts of our hearers with the sweetness and elegance of positions, we might render them more attentive and more prompt to hear and imitate those things which shall be written about the venerable man. But if the capacity is lacking, yet the will is not lacking. The grace of the Holy Spirit is invoked Let us pray therefore to the Holy Spirit, who in his Saints is marvelous and glorious, that to the praise and glory of his name and of the holy man, and to the benefit of ourselves and our hearers, those things which I have determined to explain concerning the holy man, I may be able worthily and laudably to perform. Ps. 67
CHAPTER I.
Pious adolescence, eremetical life, Roman journey, entrance into religion.
[3] Blessed Aybert therefore, the outstanding Priest of Christ, arose from the territory of Tournai, namely from that village which is called Espeen. More powerful in virtues and sacred works than distinguished in lineage, although yet he is known to have been begotten of religious and honest parents. For his father is for certain believed to have been a Knight, by name Albaldus: his mother was called Helvidis: Born of honest parents, both of free condition and honest persons, fearing and loving God. And since, as the Psalmist testifies, "the generation of the upright shall be blessed," we believe that from the merit of their goodness they begot a son worthy of heavenly benediction, as the following things will teach more clearly than light. Ps. 5
[4] That therefore proceeding in natural and right order, we may pursue by writing the works of the holy man, first of all must be said what presages or beginnings of future sanctity the boy of good disposition showed forth, with the Holy Spirit teaching him, not the letter, who breathes where he will and inspires whom he will. For when he was a very little boy, at night, with bent knees he perseveres long, he was accustomed very often at nights secretly to rise from the bed, and with bent knees and his members prostrate on the ground, kissing it, to fatigue his whole body with innumerable genuflections. John 3 Which when scarcely sleeping he frequented, wishing no one to know, at length he was unable to hide; for he was found so acting by the servants of the house. But since he wished to have no judge or witness of his labor except Christ, whom he feared to displease if he pleased men, he withdrew into the sheepfold, thinking that he would more secretly do there what he had been accustomed to do elsewhere. praying also in the sheepfold that he may lie hidden, But at length, sometime fatigued by the excessive bending of the knees, prostrate on the ground, he was again found. Yet he did not cease from the good work, because withdrawing himself as much as he could from human sight, he was seeking other corners suitable for his solitude: for he did not wish to lose the glorious reward by popular favor. For certainly whoever places his goods in the praises of men is not of sound mind, nay sits by an insane one, not attending to that word of the Apostle: "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Gal. 1 He fasts frequently, Nor only in this way did he vex his body with divine love, but also frequently insisting on fasts, and cautiously fasting, he rigorously macerated it: for on the day when he thought to fast, he would pre-taste a tiny bit of apple or of something: so that if perchance by his Father, unwilling for the little one to fast, he were asked whether he had eaten; the truthful boy might be able clearly to answer that he had eaten. Wis. 1 For perhaps he had heard: "The mouth that lies kills the soul." He was not accustomed either to lie or to swear, or to utter playful or idle words, and therefore for idle words in the day of judgment he would give no account. Nor must it be kept silent that while in the field he was guarding his father's cattle, having heard the signal in the fields he flies to the church: on hearing the sound of the bell, leaving them he flew to the church, to pour forth praises with prayers, according to the measure of his understanding, into the divine ears. Nor is it to be wondered at, for it is written: "Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise." Ps. 8
[5] With these first-fruits of virtues and good action the illustrious boy being educated, his age changed and become more advanced, with the Holy Spirit as leader, as quickly as possible hastened to greater things, which with the style running and divine grace seconding, will presently on the spot appear. For he from the first flower of youth began to frequent the thresholds of Churches, and more advanced he hears sermons. devoutly to hear the words of life: for the man full of God had understood the saying of the Lord: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Luke 11 Who while he still lingered in the world, gradually abhorring the lasciviousness of the world and its delights, and in abhorring vilifying them, thought to be free for Almighty God alone; fearing lest he should become an enemy of God, if he became a friend of the world. He leaves worldly delights: Wherefore, eager to snatch up a narrower life, after a little he altogether renounced worldly enticements. But how he arrived at the grace of conversion, changed his life, deserted the world, and by what order and labor he happily crossed over to God by the very narrow and strait way, it is worth the labor to relate and sweet and pious to hear. Therefore when he was a youth and a layman in the house of his father, and, as was said, a lover of sanctity, pricked to the heart by the song of a minstrel,
one day he chanced to hear a minstrel singing of the life and conversion of Saint b Theobald, and the austerity of his life, which he never forsook in his living, at length obtaining perpetual glory. These things thus heard, and received with the ear of his heart, he was on the spot so pricked with divine grace, that thereafter he would use neither flesh nor fat nor linen cloths, but woolen and haircloth ones; in cold and nakedness gladly about to serve Almighty God. Wherefore he began studiously to seek the companionship of religious men: He chooses a stricter life: with whom by hunger, thirst, fasts, vigils, frequent prayers, he chastised the body and reduced it to servitude, strengthened the spirit, subjecting the flesh to reason.
[6] While he was therefore seeking this, with a certain pilgrim, whom his father had received in hospitality, as leader and indicator, he found a man of great sanctity and marvelous abstinence, namely an outstanding Priest, by name John c, dwelling in a certain solitude far from the noise and conversation of men, in which it was said Saint d Domitianus had been. But this Priest was a monk from Crispin, but by the permission of Dom Rainerus e Abbot of Crispin he was inhabiting this desert place; from the monastery of Crispin, to whom venerable Aybert is joined by a bond of charity, that there with one spirit and equal will they might serve the Lord. But how many miseries and calamities and poverties for the hope of eternal life they patiently endured in the same place, they bear miseries patiently, it is not easy to set forth individually, not ceasing from the praises and prayers of God alone: for from one side the hardship of nakedness and cold pressed them, from the other the want of bodily sustenance constrained them. For they passed many days not seeing bread with their eyes, they live on herbs: but they were content with herbs and roots of herbs, of which then there was not great abundance in those parts. Why should I pursue many things concerning the affliction of these men? With such hunger, such leanness, such pallor, fasting, watching, praying, suffering cold and nakedness, were they affected, that they might seem utterly unlike men, not appearing as men: for, as Father Aybert himself used to relate, when sometimes he went out of the place in which he dwelt, compelled by necessity, shepherds seeing him, hairy and hideously clothed in rags, fled, thinking him to be a prodigy. For he said that he was so often distressed by cold that he would put on the garment which the monk had taken off to celebrate Mass, fearing that meanwhile he might be extinguished by the force of the cold. What wonder? For often in winter it happened, that bread failing, with the ice broken they drew herbs from the waters with their hands, using which they scarcely held back their soul, having nothing else to eat. They thought perhaps with the Apostle that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the future glory which shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8 The servants of God also considered that, as much as anyone in this life treats himself more harshly, so much the more closely he is joined to supernal love; just as on the contrary, as much as anyone is delighted in lower things, and they reckon themselves unprofitable servants: so much he is disjoined from supernal love. Who, while they subtly considered these things in their heart, perhaps said among themselves that they were unprofitable servants, doing by right whatever good they labored to do, and not being able to do anything beyond or above the debt: because, although a man is justified by his works, yet, however great he be, not without the aid of divine grace and mercy can he be saved, as the Apostle says: "It is not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy." Rom. 9 And therefore whatever good they did, they ascribed not to themselves but to the Father of lights, from whom every perfect gift comes down. Among these things however which have been said, the man of God little by little was learning the psalter.
[7] With the Abbot of Crispin they set out for Rome, At the same time therefore it happened that Dom Rainerus, Abbot of Crispin, to confirm the liberty of his monastery, was visiting the thresholds of the Apostles: where his plan was to lead with him these two men, bound to him by the bond of love. On which journey how many labors and hardships these three holy men, bound by brotherly charity, sustained, is known to God alone: since they walked entirely with bare feet, clothed in hairshirts, having a little money, rich with abundance of poverty; the mule which they had led with them scarcely ever mounting, with bare feet, clothed in hairshirts; but they made weak and infirm pilgrims sit upon it. Who when they had come to Rome, it was told them that the Pope of holy memory f Urban, whom they were seeking, was at Benevento. Hearing which, Dom Aybert and brother John did not dare to undertake so long a journey, With the Abbot seeking Benevento, both because they distrusted their bodily strength, and because Brother John was sick. And therefore by the counsel and benevolence of the aforesaid Abbot they withdrew to Vallombrosa, there to await him until he should return. They withdraw to Vallombrosa: Where indeed they found monks of marvelous continence and exquisite life, who pouring forth on them the bowels of piety and g benignly receiving them, strove to retain them with themselves perpetually. For these monks, of whom we speak, as the sincerity of many testifies, by monks living holily firmly and perfectly observe the rule of Saint Benedict, living by the labor of their hands, affecting their bodies incessantly with many and various labors, in hope of the heavenly life; fervid in the rigor of discipline and severe charity, benign in receiving pilgrims and the poor, received them kindly: pious in burying brethren, moreover distinguished in every kind of religion, and (as the two aforesaid men used to confess) to be preferred in sanctity to all the monks whom they had hitherto seen. Who dwelling with them for some space of time, received from them many lessons of right living, as they themselves testified.
[8] Meanwhile Abbot Rainerus, with a few companions, completed the journey begun; and coming to Benevento, was honorably received by the Lord Pope Urban. Wherefore he very easily obtained the protection of his monastery, which he had devoutly requested. So the business being completed and the Abbot confirmed with the Apostolic blessing, rejoicing and glad he returned to his companions, by whom and by the monks he was gladly received. Although we may seem in this place to have made a digression from our purpose, in descending to the monks of Vallombrosa and commending their life, yet whatever is said laudably of them, the whole certainly may seem to a wise man aptly and conveniently to cohere with the proposed purpose; because while in writing we magnify their excellent deeds, we intend also in some way to lift up him whose cause we have undertaken to write this work, and who, as he himself used to relate, and animated by their example; received from them many examples and incentives of serving God, not with deaf ear. Nor is it to be wondered at: for as the Psalmist testifies, "With the holy you will be holy." Ps. 17
[9] At last, after the servants of God were well refreshed, the Brethren having been saluted, and with a multitude of thanks and praises given for the benefits bestowed on them by them, they return to the hermitage: they returned to their own places, having endured many things in going and coming, as has been said. The Abbot returned to the monastery, and the two holy men to the hermitage. Where while by chance on a certain night Dom Aybert had given his limbs to sleep, in a dream he seemed to have ascended a very high tree, situated between Hasnon h and Saint-Amand i, Saint Aybert moved by a vision, to which flying down a white hawk or eagle brought a monastic garment, and seemed to clothe him with it. Moved by which vision he awoke, and began vehemently to meditate what that vision portended. At length it seemed well to him, according to the tenor of the vision, to become a monk. Which he easily k obtained from Dom Rainerus Abbot of Crispin, a man of holy memory; though the monks at first refused, he becomes a monk of Crispin. but afterwards willing. For they saw a humble and despised person, and did not think he would be such as afterwards they found him. And so it happens that certain things formerly seen as base are afterwards, God willing, promoted on high, as is read of David. So he is made a monk with heavenly blessing. Then after some time he is made Provost of the same monastery, and by the common election of the Brethren Cellarer: then Provost and Cellarer for they understood him to be very useful for carrying out these tasks. For in these offices, both in exterior and in interior matters, he so served Almighty God and the Brethren, that he was loved by all. He was always indeed solicitous for the common utility, laboring for the common good, discreet and keeping the measure of discretion in all things, in his work and hands, as is said, prompt, every good thing overflowed. He was prompt to hasten to carry out external business, when brotherly utility or necessity demanded. Then he bore the care of the monastery, hospitable, like a pious mother of sons: a lover of hospitality, generous to the poor, sparing to himself; and what he took from himself, peaceable, he bestowed on others. Peace indeed and concord among the Brothers he loved above all things; murmurings and detractions and other such things, which are wont to be felt in the cloister, he detested and drove off. Proprietorship in a monk he asserted to be deadly and detestable in every way.
[10] He keeps the rigor of his former life. But how he lived for himself in the cloister must not be kept silent. With bread and water, herbs and legumes, and the fruit of trees, used moderately once a day, he sustained his body: milk and cheese or fish did not enter his mouth: with a most harsh hairshirt he tamed his flesh. He is believed to have had no bed except a bench or other wood, upon which laid down he moderately rested. The Psalter before Matins he was always accustomed to chant. In bending of knees he was most frequent, with abundance and effusion of tears he was watered and flowing: devout in prayer, whence with the Psalmist he could confidently say: "I have labored in my groaning, every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears." Ps. 6 He who while in the cloister for l twenty-five years thus marvelously exercised himself, He remains 25 years in the cloister yet always bore the praise of God in his mouth. Hunger indeed, thirst, cold, every kind of affliction of the flesh seemed to hold the place of delights with the holy man, since he was always and seemed joyful and cheerful. always cheerful, For holy men, while they sometimes consider in mind the future penalty of the impious and the glory of the just, more lightly bear whatever they suffer for God, while on this side the hope of perennial glory soothes them, on the other the future penalty frightens them: and therefore by enduring temporal penalty they avoid eternal, and by avoiding the eternal, they gain the perpetual crown. And so it comes about, that while the servants of Christ beware of what is more grave, they bear more lightly what is less grave, even if it be very burdensome. So to this spiritual man the yoke of Christ was made sweet and his burden light: who though he flourished in many virtues, is believed to have remained whole in body and virgin from his mother's womb, always a virgin. which is an angelic ornament and the chief distinction of virtues.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Return to the hermitage: most austere life even after the Priesthood.
[11] What more shall I say? Although these things that are said may seem great and stupendous, yet reckoning as of least account whatever good he had done, he desired to have reclusion in the hermitage, that more freely he might there be occupied with divine praises and prayers, and more sharply tame his body. Therefore he caused a little cell to be prepared in a deserted place, before he departed from the monastery: He returns to the hermitage. which having been prepared, he scarcely obtained license from Abbot Lambert a to leave the monastery and enter the little cell: for he had been very necessary to the Brothers of the monastery. Which at length having been received, he entered the reclusion, in which as long as b he lived, under the authority of the Abbot of Crispin he served the Lord. But how rigorously he exercised his body in it, as it is glorious to hear, so is it glorious to imitate. For twenty-five years he remained enclosed in it: of which for twenty-two he abstained from all bread, and for as many from all drink, For 22 years he abstains from bread, for 20 from drink: except two. Not however bound by any vow, but of his own accord he altogether abandoned bread and drink, and certain other foods necessary for the body for so many years.
[12] But how it happened that he abstained from bread, let him who has ears to hear hear; for this is pious and very sweet to hear. It happened indeed at a certain winter time, that the place in which the man dwelt was so surrounded by the overflow of waters, that no one could approach him, nor could anyone go out. Wherefore, pressed by the want of bread, and because he did not hear the solemnities of Masses, more vehemently moved (for he was not yet a Priest), on a certain night he began sorrowfully to complain, and in complaining earnestly to entreat the holy Virgin Mary, that she would be propitious to his miseries, using these or similar entreaties: "O holy Virgin of Virgins Mary, who by bringing forth the Son of God, he is roused by the Virgin Mother of God appearing: conferred joys on a lost world, who are the fount of piety and abundance of mercy, come to the help of me a wretch, in need of bodily bread, and not hearing the solemnities of Masses." Which having been said, immediately the man of God fell asleep, but the holy Virgin Mother of God on the spot in the form of a most beautiful woman, with a multitude of girls of lower stature, through a vision appeared to the servant of God: whom when he had seen, he seemed to have said, "If I had before seen women in the cloister, I would surely have driven them from there. Why therefore have you presumed to come here?" To this the holy Virgin: "Be silent, Brother, I am the Virgin Mary, whom you so sweetly invoked. What do you want?" And he: "Help me a sinner, concerning those things which I need, and which you well know that I need." And the Lady to him: "Do you believe that Almighty God can feed you without bread?" And he: "I believe, Lady." And the Lady: "Why again do you complain of the Masses which you do not hear? Certainly your whole life and all your work are the solemnities of Masses." Then the Lady seemed to take a morsel of bread, and to put it in the mouth of the holy man. He, moved by such a vision, was so from this hour, that he neither hungered for bread nor cared to eat bread any more, content with herbs, roots, and those vile foods with which he had been accustomed to feed.
[13] He is clothed with a most harsh hairshirt, Do you wish to know with what purple or fine linen the soldier of Christ shone? Certainly from the sole of the foot to the crown he was clothed with a most harsh hairshirt. If you ask about the bed; his bed was, as we have said, a bench or other wood, with a hairshirt sack put for his pillow. Why should I repeat what has been said? Whatever good this servant of God did before he had entered reclusion, once enclosed he amplified, and by treating himself more harshly improved. If before he wept bitterly, afterwards more bitterly; if before he burned with charity, afterwards more fervently; if before he fasted on bread and water, afterwards for as many years as we have said, he used neither: and so the other good things which he did before, living more strictly he heaped up. Having shown how becomingly this worshiper of God clothed and cultivated the exterior man, it is sweet and fitting to depict with the pen, how gloriously he adorned the interior. Clothed therefore with patience and charity, armed with patience and charity: in scarlet twice dyed, and with the other arms of light so armed him, that the soldier of Christ himself, fortified on either side, might securely and honestly walk in the day, before the face of the strict and dreadful Judge, where scarcely the just shall be saved: for of this day the prophet Malachi says: "Who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? Or who shall stand to see him?" Mal. 5 Thus therefore inside and out the athlete of Christ armored with the arms of justice, could constantly proceed to combat the strong, terrible, and fearful armed one, that is, leviathan, who counting it a little thing that he has swallowed the sea, thirsts also to drink down the Jordan, that is, striving to incorporate the faithful with the unfaithful to himself.
[14] Meanwhile, as his good odor filled the world, the people began to throng to him. Meanwhile by the counsel of wise men, having first been an Acolyte, at length he was made by Lord Burchard c Bishop of Cambrai Subdeacon and Deacon, consecrated a Priest then raised to the honor of Priesthood as if from a layman, that he might better counsel the peoples coming to him, and more familiarly hear the secrets of confessions. Having been made a d Priest he daily celebrated two Masses, one for the living, the other for the deceased. He was accustomed to sing the Vigils for the dead to nine readings, he celebrates two Masses daily: in this order: in the first part of the vigil he chanted fifty psalms, with three lessons following: for the souls of the deceased he recites the entire psalter: so also in the second and third part he did. Thus in his vigil he was accustomed to chant three times fifty psalms, which is the whole psalter, with nine lessons interposed: which indeed would be burdensome and heavy to one not doing it from the heart. A hundred times a day he bent his knees, He bends his knees a hundred times: and fifty times with his body prostrate, lifted up on his joints and fingers, in each bending saying: "Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." His mouth ceaselessly sounded psalms and prayers, unless perhaps he were hindered by the people asking counsel: which, if anyone wishes diligently to consider, is not to cease from prayer. Money to receive, he does not touch money. or to touch with his hands, he shrank from as from the venom of a serpent. But if anyone wished to bestow something on him importunately, he bade it be given to the monastery of Crispin, involved in many and various necessities.
[15] What shall I say beyond this? If this man had been guilty of all crimes, which by repenting and macerating himself he would have wished to wipe out, what more would he do? Who in these times thus hated his soul, that he might save it to eternal life? Who was so a persecutor of himself? a persecutor of himself, Surely if some tyrant had held him in fetters or chains, and had withdrawn from him bread and drink for at least three or four days, it would be judged lamentable or pernicious: but he himself took both of these things from himself of his own will for many years: and yet he is known to have been liable to no crimes, but full of many virtues. immune from graver sin Yet we do not make him free from sin, but a stranger to deadly wickedness: for as blessed John the Evangelist testifies: "If we say that we have no sin, we lie." By the aforesaid exercises and other hardships, this living stone polished, and on every side made smooth and round, deserved to be placed in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem, where precious stones, polished by pressures and blows, with gems and pearls shining in the quality of their merits, with eternal and marvelous brilliance glitter: for it is written, "The just shall shine." 1 John 1 Matt. 12 What at last shall I rather say of this man? he is compared to the Martyrs: Shall I call him a Martyr or a Confessor? But to confess more truly, both a Martyr and a Confessor. For although not crowned with shed blood, yet in another manner, by bearing the cross of the Lord, in will and act he was a Martyr, to be crowned with glory and honor. He was a Martyr, when he crucified the flesh with its vices and concupiscences; he was indeed a Martyr, when he abdicated to himself every carnal pleasure; although in more frequent usage Martyrs are said to be purpled with the blood of passion, or extinguished by other force of persecutors. Which kind of martyrdom he endured by will alone, since nothing is richer to God than a good will: for if perhaps the times of persecution had returned, as certainly is believed by many, rejoicing and glad he would have run to meet his persecutors, willingly offering his neck to the striker. But since this could not be done in another way, he sought out another way of martyrdom; namely, he offered himself as a living sacrifice to Almighty God in the odor of sweetness, made the cruel persecutor of his own flesh, which is not far different from the passion of martyrdom inflicted by a tyrant. For the blessed Apostle John is read to have drunk the cup of the Lord, but is not read to have shed blood for Christ, finishing his life in peace. Nor let anyone think that I am of so perverse a mind, as to reckon one should be equated to the other; since blessed John is called a Virgin chosen by the Lord, and more loved than the rest. Matt. 20 But by the example of the Apostle I understood to show that sometimes someone
may drink the chalice of the Lord without the shedding of blood.
[16] He was indeed a Confessor, because with heart, mouth, by the exhibition of every good work he praised God, and to the Confessors and drew many to the confession of their filth by his benignity and meekness. For Confession is sometimes of sin, sometimes an act of praise and thanksgiving: for when the Son of God says to the Father, "I confess to you, Lord, Father of heaven and earth," this confession is not of sin, but an act of praise and thanksgiving: for the Son of God himself neither sinned nor could sin. Matt. 11 Certainly, if by chance Tullian eloquence were granted to me, yet the greatness of his sanctity would exceed the eloquence of an orator, and speech would fail sooner than the subject matter. Often indeed, my brothers, in the affliction of the flesh second to none of the Saints: I have read and reread the Lives of the Holy Fathers, in which men of marvelous abstinence are found: but I have found none to whom, in the affliction of the flesh, I can make this man second. Who therefore can to the fingertips express the sanctity of this blessed Priest? who when he shunned the food of men, using the food of beasts, the bestial food became for him a saving medicine: for by eating the husks of swine he well merited to enjoy the bread of Angels. So the Angelic man ate the bread of Angels, which came down from heaven and gives life to the world: for this man while contending in the contest abstained from all that wars against the soul, received the prize of those running well, well running himself. Which is not of one study's law only, nay of all well-running ones by right of heaven.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
Zeal for souls. Confessions heard.
[17] Having thus far prescribed how he lived for himself, now it seems consequent that it should be said, how from the debt of fraternal love and to others he lived. For when by counseling he profited others, he assuredly multiply increased the heap of his beatitude. He devotes himself to the salvation of others So this lamp kindled by the fire of charity, and full of the light of virtues, not to be placed under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, after it had poured forth the rays of its brightness throughout the world; with fame carrying his stupendous benefits far and wide, from all sides thronging to him thence the peoples of various nations stirred up rushed in crowds, desiring to see the face of the holy man, and to hear what was said by him, and desiring to confess to him their wicked crimes. But he with joyful mind and cheerful countenance received and sweetly consoled all coming to him. For it was as it were implanted in him by nature, that he made himself all things to all coming to him, according to their quality, desiring to make them a people acceptable to God, made all things to all, a follower of good works. Compassionating the sad and afflicted, rejoicing with the joyful and glad; counseling both these and those as the matter demanded with fatherly affection, making their adversities and prosperities his own by mourning and congratulating; mourning their adversities, rejoicing in their prosperities, which is an argument of true love. For it is written: "The exhibition of a work is the proof of love." Saint Gregory
[18] Those also who came for the sake of confession, he first as though bound by an oath, that after hearing his counsel they should return to their Bishops, about to confess the same crimes to them. Whom indeed he saw pertinacious and obstinate, and swearing that they would relate their crimes to no other, fearing lest they should fall into the pit of despair, if he did not hear them, at length overcome by their stubbornness, he received them to confession, according to the measure of their crimes enjoining the medicine of penance, He hears those confessing, yet not desisting strongly to persuade and vehemently to adjure them, that they should not hide from their Bishops the filthy things which they had uncovered to him; otherwise he imposed on them a grave and almost unbearable penance; since indeed those obliquely mocking him and carping at his deeds with biting tooth, having received authority from Pope Paschal II falsely said that he ought not to do so. Yet he received from the Lord Pope a Paschal through the Lord b Oduinus Abbot of c Saint Ghislain a mandate, that he should cheerfully hear all coming to him to confess the enormity of their crimes, and according to the quantity of the offenses burden them with the measure of penitential medicine: then this same thing was enjoined him by the Lord Pope d Innocent. and by Innocent II Whence from the above said we can gather how many uncovered to him their filth: who would never have revealed them to any other, about rather to perish in their iniquities. So great a concourse of peoples coming from everywhere flocked to him, that the place in which the man of God dwelt was so surrounded on every side, as sometimes castles or cities are wont to be besieged by enemies. Wherefore they so fatigued him that he could scarcely eat a little, and rest a little, as the nature of human frailty required. Whence also it often happened, that many desiring to speak secretly with him, and not being able to find place, crying out their miserable uncleannesses and abominable crimes publicly and with all hearing, confessed. But he responding to them according to time and place, gave salutary counsel. Very many indeed, pieces of his garments carried away like relics, who could come near to him, violently tore his garment, and whatever anyone could snatch from it, bore away, to have it for relics; while he cried out and grieved, and called himself a miserable sinner, and not such as they thought him.
[19] If therefore we wish faithfully to consider the deeds and sayings of this man, it will seem probable to us that the heart of so great a man, illustrated with so many and such great virtues, has by no means infected the spirit of elation with the venom of its wickedness; since he himself in the age of boyhood and youth had cautiously avoided the plague of that very pride with the sword of his enemy. He does not grow proud. Yet perhaps he could have been tempted by it, but with God giving the issue, he is not believed to have been able to be overcome: with which vice however many reputed wise are often deceived: because, as a certain Wise Man says, "In this light sometimes the rose is turned into mountain nard." For with all other vices pacified and utterly quieted, the watchful dragon and twisted serpent with every effort strives to mingle the venom of pestilent elation with good acts, and by it to corrupt the whole mass of sincerity and goodness; for when pride is mingled with whatever things or minds, it is the cause of their perdition: for it has long been accustomed to cast down Angels and men: Whence by a certain Wise Man it is commanded to be guarded against even in right actions. Whoever therefore is delighted by this pestilent plague, as Jerome says, is a Scribe and a Pharisee, more desiring to seem and to be called good than to be. Book 2 of the Commentary on chapter 23 of Matthew
[20] When therefore peoples, moved by the fame of this wonderful man, flowed to him from every part of the earth, let no one think that only the illiterate crowd and the unlearned came to him: nay, Bishops, Archdeacons, he is visited by Bishops and other great men, Abbots, Hermits, Nuns, and every kind of religious and literate men, noble men and women, frequented the holy man, rejoicing to commend themselves to his benefits and prayers, not unmindful of confession, and marveling at the man of God as at a beast of many heads. For who would not be astounded hearing a man drinking nothing at all for so many years, as has been said, not eating bread? marveling at his abstinence. As it seems to me, if he could thus altogether without food, just as without bread and drink, have lived longer somewhat, he would have eaten nothing at all. But since this, nature resisting, could by no means be done, he chose those not precious foods mentioned above to eat, using which he could scarcely retain his life. Since therefore I know that Christ is wonderful in his Saints, yet in myself being astonished I marvel, and marveling I cry out saying: O incomprehensible height of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Ps. 67 How many souls, deceived by diabolical fraud, from the snares of the devil did this simple man, somewhat mediocrely imbued with knowledge of letters, moderately educated, snatch by the medicine of confession and penance, nay, God through him! Rom. 11 Who if he was not in the adornment of the tabernacle typically a bowl, he produces great fruits: offering abundance of wisdom abundantly to many; he was at least a cup, inebriating many with moderate doctrine, sweetly instilling into their minds by God's inspiration oblivion of perpetrating most wicked things. Whence when he shall come to judgment, he will come not with empty hand, bringing many sheaves, and about to hear with rejoicing from the Lord: "Well done, good and faithful servant," etc. Matt. 25 Among whom he converted also that minstrel, trifles cast off, to the way of truth, by whose song divinely inspired he had first been converted to true religion.
[21] These things so written down, we say, if anyone wishes to consult the aforesaid and diligently weigh the order of the matter, he will find that the Priest of Christ mystically in the sacrifice of God offered the head not without the tail, Such a Priest, when walking from virtue to virtue, he joined a better exit to a good beginning, about to see happily the God of gods in Sion. Why do I delay on many things? That therefore whatever has been written diffusely above concerning the venerable man I may gather in brief, I say that his whole life was a martyrdom, a miracle, a consolation of the wretched, a solace of sinners, a labor and penance, a love and fear of him who in the Gospel speaks terribly, Following Christ saying: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, he takes up his cross: and follow me: otherwise he is not worthy of me." Luke 9 Whom he, hearing not with deaf ear, by bearing his cross, has quite expressly followed, loving him as a father, and fearing him as a lord. Nor is it to be doubted that Almighty God through his servant did both other miracles in his life and after death, which in due time by his help will shine forth written; he is believed to have been illustrious for miracles: since yet the virtue of charity had abounded in him in many ways, which is also common to the good alone; and far more worthy than the virtue of miracles, which is common to the good and to the bad. Since even though he did not have corporeal food, with which he might refresh the poor, and all who came to him, which is the effect of true love; yet he had the affection of good will, hidden in the treasure of the heart, than which nothing is richer to God: whence proceeded the bread of the word of God, with the word of God he refreshes others: with which he refreshed according to the measure of his doctrine all those needing it, which is so much better than bodily bread, as the soul is better than the body.
[22] Yet with great joyfulness of mind he offered to whomsoever to eat those rustic foods by which he himself was sustained. For what else should he give, who had nothing at all except the hairshirt with which his flesh was covered, and the gift of good will, which before God's eyes is no less bountiful than the munificent hand of a giver? So what he had, this he did. O if long ago among the ancient Fathers this golden star had glowed with so great splendor, with how many commendations and praises would it be celebrated today? to be compared to the ancient Fathers, For there are certain things which, the more ancient they are, the dearer they are, and of better estimation than things present and those which are held before one's eyes, chiefly because they are more ancient; which cause is quite weak and feeble. But if perhaps the force of times is so great that more ancient things prejudice things present in this respect, then it may truly be said that the praises and commendations of the holy man, which by the moderns are now kept silent, our posterity becoming veterans, with magnificent mouth admiring will chant. And since this Saint is of great merit before God, as a man of highest merit, let us beseech him, dearest brothers, sweetly and devoutly, that by his prayers and merits with the fount of mercy, our Lord Jesus Christ, He is invoked by the writer: he may obtain for us pardon of our sins, we who desire to extol his glory and honor, and who loved him living and dead, and for all piously and mercifully seeking his suffrage, and the joys of eternal beatitude to endure without end. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
Death, burial, miracles.
[23] But lest by dictating many things and writing more we seem to bring tedium to our hearers, we must stop over these things, and hasten to the end of the work as quickly as possible. Having therefore passed fifty years, not much more or less, from when he had been made a monk, to his end, in which so harshly, In the 60th year of his monkhood: as has been said, he exercised himself; those times being omitted in which he treated himself no more softly, living in the hermitage with John the glorious monk and holy Priest; having passed through, I say, so many years, a few days preceding the Lord's Pasch he began to be sick with a lethal disease. Who when he felt that in no way could he escape, he caused to be called Dom Ingelbertus, then time Prior of the Church of Crispin. Whom having been summoned, he was anointed with sacred oil by him, fortified with the last Sacraments, and by the participation of the Lord's Body and Blood was catholicly confirmed. Then on the very most sacred day of holy Pasch, which b then fell to be celebrated on the 7th day before the Ides of April, about the ninth hour of the day breathing out his spirit, he happily fell asleep in the Lord, from this world gloriously passing to the Father, with him perpetually to reign: but his sacred body, left unburied by his friends for two days, he dies on April 7, the day of Easter, was kept to be buried on the third day. Meanwhile Abbots, religious men and women, and with them peoples of both sexes, came together from every side to the exequies of the holy man, vigils having been held for two days, and with wax candles and lights, they piously and devoutly celebrated the vigils of both nights, about on the morrow honorably to bury the glorious one. But on the morrow, that is, on Tuesday, the sun pouring forth the rays of its brightness everywhere, the venerable body was buried by the Abbots of Crispin and of Saint-Amand, and other religious and honest men, with weeping and lamentation and great outcry in the same place he is buried in his cell: in which his cell had been: where by his merits and prayers to the sick and those piously asking him many benefits are granted, with our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing, he shines with miracles: who with the Father and Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through all ages of ages. Amen. c
[24] At the same time also Count Arnold d, not because he was a Count, Count Arnold but because he was the brother of the Count of this province of Hasnon, provoking death rather than life, was so enticed with fever. Who when he could by no means recover his health, held by a grave fever, groaning greatly more than to a cordial friend, does not yet reckon himself to be defrauded, if to the sight of the most blessed and most religious man, thus divulged through all nations, he might be able to come. Such things not long rolling in his mind, the place in which he knew one of so sought-after life to be sequestered, in whose sight hung the remedy of any crimes, after confession made to Saint Aybert, with hope more quickly approaching he receives: before the window of whose most narrow cell, where others had been accustomed to sit, he sat. There therefore various counsels of entreaties having been turned over among them, by the almightiness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the feverish man observes that if he were given drink from the drink of the blessed man, at once his several members would be restored to health. Many times indeed he vexed his mind with this word: "The Lord is able from the snare of this muddy infirmity to free me," by repetition of that man. Nor neglecting to make light of this reflection of mind, he asked the blessed man for his drink to be administered. The man of God therefore with a religious oath said to him, he seeks his drink: that he was utterly without beer, mead, wine, and all other drink whatsoever, except the water of the well near at hand. And the sick Count began not a little to entreat for the water of that well. Which heard, the man of God, full of good work, and crushing the morose crowd of pleasures, leading an angelic life, having summoned his attendant Hilmar, he takes water drawn from the well, ordered water drawn from the well to be brought to the Count. But this servant, following very many footsteps of his patron, draws water in a vessel diligently, and as diligently as he could offered it to the Lord the very mighty to be drunk. For indeed that remembrance which Jesus Christ to our first leaders revealed, when he blessed in the Supper of the highest Father's grace to his disciples the drink, the aforesaid Very Powerful awaits to be had by the servant of God. The man therefore beloved by God and by men, in this or a similar manner with his right hand extended, with the sign of the Cross blessed this creature of water: by the Saint's benediction "May the Son of God bless the drink of his servants." And the Count, the benediction finished, while he drank the drink of the same water, feels it so to be marrowed through his every member, as if it were mountain Falernian wine, changed into most excellent wine or of any kind of vine, since of marvelous potency. To this alone the voice quicker than the mind responds, that the water was made wine of this essence which he had tasted. Which heard, the man of God, lest he be judged a liar to God and men, more swiftly the cup being received, he felt the taste of that drink (either tasting a little or almost nothing), because for a long time past he had begun to macerate his body by any drink, all bread, vigils, fasts, prayers (abundantly distributing to the poor the alms bestowed on him in the Lord) and all exercises, as has been said: for it is found by reading, that no man is utterly without sin. Of very many in the Lives of the Fathers and elsewhere the most religious religion is read, but if it could be said, nothing to this one. For what mortal has ever been found almost thus without a speck of fragrant honey, suffused with sweetness in any place?
[25] But a certain monk, whose whole life was religion, Alulf by name, tasted by the monk Alulf. who by the public assessment of the Church of Crispin had been delegated to preserve the ecclesiastical and other benefices of that place, when he tasted the same drink, at once declared the omnipotence of Jesus Christ clearly to flourish there, and elsewhere now and always with the companies of the faithful. For who ever with pure heart invoked God, and was forsaken? Who serving him with faith is deserted? Abundantly this sacred man follows the precepts of the Psalmist saying, "Hope in God, and he will give you the petitions of your heart." Ps. 36:4 For he turns over in his heart so great a variety, to what first he may be able to tend, which he is in no way able to find: but now, with the frailty of the flesh demanding, he trembles with much greater fear, than if a monster or something of like horror he should see standing in his presence: but now according to custom, and equivalently in this manner or another, to invoke God and say, "O infinite Father of mercy, how comprehensible is your power to those obeying you, in whom are, through whom are, from whom are all things; through you the grace of the world in whom is eternal salvation; from whom whatever good proceeds best, every holy thing more holy, every proved thing more proved; pardoner of crimes, consoler of the wretched, bestower of joys, medicine of vices; having suffered weeping to
evening, from deep dawn before the morning star, you have wiped out through Jesus your Son his efforts, who console us in our several tribulations: to you be praise, salvation and glory, honor, power and empire through endless ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
EPITAPH OF SAINT AYBERT.
Aybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)
In this tomb is laid the Recluse renowned throughout the world, Dom Aybert: who slaying his flesh on the cross, Was the Pasch of Christ, when he kept his own Pasch. Let that mighty King be praised through you, Aybert, Who to you, mortally clothed with the covering of flesh, By a manifestly marvelous gift gave the food of life.
RECENT MIRACLES.
From Various Sources.
Aybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)
[26] In the year 1609 the Senate and people of Valenciennes sought and obtained from the Abbot of Crispin the shrine of Saint Aybert, Relics carried around at Valenciennes together with the body of Saint Landelinus and the pledges of other Saints, to be carried around the city in processional pomp. That solemnity completed, the shrine was brought back to Crispin, and I, says John Cognatus in book 3 of the History of Tournai, chapter 44, while visiting certain abbeys of Hainaut, arrived there on the very day on which the keepers of the chapel of Saint Aybert had come, to bring back the shrine to the chapel. I therefore was granted that happiness of honoring then the body of Saint Aybert, the chapel saved from fire, both in the church of Saint Landelinus at Crispin, and in his chapel and along the way: and on that occasion I heard that when in our age a fire had seized the very estate which is there, and the part of the chapel nearest to it; a certain tenant of that estate, touched not so much with the sense of the perishing house as of the endangered chapel and shrine, threw himself on his knees; praying to God, that he would at least wish the chapel to be safe. At which the whole house burned, but in the chapel the fire was extinguished of itself, without anyone bringing aid by pouring water, or otherwise opposing the flame as it grew.
[27] Another marvel also is attributed to the merits of the same Saint, and a boy from drowning. likewise performed in our memory. The son of a bailiff, who was working the aforementioned estate, had carelessly fallen into Saint Aybert's well (whence I too devoutly tasted the water drawn), near to the aforesaid Chapel: whom his household, thinking he would be brought out dead, were astonished to find him drawn up by them full of life and health: but he himself, asked how he had remained safe, answered that Saint Aybert had been with him, and as he had caught him gently falling, so he had held up the fallen one that he might not be suffocated. Thus far Cognatus: what follows, performed at Espain, and printed in French at Tournai in the year 1613 with the approbation of the Most Reverend of Tournai, we received from Father Peter Lechon, Rector of our College at Tournai, which also in volume 4 of the History of Tournai chapter 40 John Cognatus, mentioned above, inserted word for word: and they were again printed separately in the year 1626.
[28] Another brought to the last extremity by fevers, John Verie, son of Peter Laboureur and Catherine Simon, living in the village of Bleheries of the parish of Espain, five years and ten months old, when for the space of a whole year, excepting only three weeks, he had suffered fever; for the last twelve days of his illness he was so gravely afflicted that, because he was feared to be dying, many continuous nights it was necessary to watch by the one lying there. It happened meanwhile that in the year 1611 on April 10, the relics of Saint Aybert were brought to Espain: whose fame heard, the parents of the sick boy conceived great confidence of obtaining for their son health; and him, though on account of excessive weakness refusing, on the 13th day of the said month they brought to the church of Espain: where after hearing the office of the Mass and imploring divine aid, he recovers by kissing the relics. At Espain. they brought the son to kiss the relics of the holy man, and in a short time felt their power. For scarcely were they returning home, when the boy said he was feeling better since he had kissed the sacred pledges: at home placed on a chair before the fire, he began to play and chat with those present, nor thenceforth did he need to lie on the bed, or feel fever. But on the next day, to give thanks to God and Saint Aybert, the boy was brought back to Espain by his parents: who caused the sacrifice of the Mass to be offered, with the intention of doing the same for nine continuous days. The boy recovered full strength in such a short time, that from the fifth and sixth day of the novena devotion he was able to go to Espain on foot, and thereafter remained constantly well, as is established by the declaration of the aforenamed father and mother, of the Parson of Espain, and others testifying the matter under oath at Bleheries in the year 1612, on the 29th and 30th days of March, before Master Nicolas Philip Loys, Licentiate of Sacred Theology and Dean of Tournai, deputed for this by the Most Reverend of Tournai: whose depositions, duly examined, the said Most Reverend of Tournai judged should be admitted, with the counsel of his Vicariate, on the 9th day of April of the year aforenoted.
[29] John le Roux, fifty years old, a tenant of the village of Saint-Amand-en-Pabula, a long fever is driven out in the same hour, a fisherman by profession, and serving in the abbey of the said place, from the beginning of June of the year 1611 to the middle of September bore a fever, and this in the last fifteen days of the said illness so grave, that scarcely for two or three hours a day did it remit. It happened that a certain relative of his from Mortagne, who had come to visit him, brought up a discussion of the benefits, which were said to be obtained through Saint Aybert at Espain: and he urged that he should send someone there for three days, to ask grace for him. This counsel seemed too slow to the sick man, and he thought it better to dispatch three of his own there in one day, namely his wife, his brother, and his sister. These on the following light, about the 5:30 morning hour, while others supplicate at Espain for the sick man. leaving the man in his bed gravely feverish, set out on the journey, and arrived at Espain a little after seven. At the very time when they were praying in the church, the sick man fell asleep at home, who for the preceding days had been unable to take any sleep; and then waking up, and feeling himself free from fever, he rose from bed, put on his clothes, approached the fire, and in that state was found by his own returning home. But fasting as he was, before he tasted anything, he drank the water brought from Saint Aybert's well: which very thing he persevered in doing for three or four days. At length, thinking that he had been healed in the same hour in which the pilgrims were praying for him at Espain, he diligently asked them the hour at which they had arrived there; and finding it to be the very same in which he had been restored, he promised himself to go to Espain with his wife: which on the next Sunday he did, and again afterwards. As is more fully declared by the depositions of John le Roux himself, of Stephen his brother, and of Jassina Potier his wife; who in the Village of Saint-Amand, on the 29th day of March and the 7th of June, in the year 1612, sworn, unanimously testified that this cure, in the manner stated, happened, before the aforesaid Lord Dean of Christianity, deputed for this by the Most Reverend of Tournai, and before many witnesses.
[30] Martin du Sart, twenty-eight years old, living in the suburb of Saint-Amand outside the Tournai gate, the same coming to visit the relics on Wednesday before the feast of Saints James and Christopher, in the year 1611 was seized with fever, which compelled him to lie in bed for three continuous weeks; whence without another's help he could in no way move himself, and often also was driven from a state of mind: thenceforth he languished with a slow fever until the second feria of Easter of the year 1612, when he conceived the vow, that if on the morrow he could stand with his feet in some way, he would, God favoring, go to Espain, and there invoke Saint Aybert, to obtain health by his intercession. In the morning he did what he had promised; and, He is freed from a slow fever: although with the greatest difficulty, yet was present at the sacred sacrifice of the Mass with his wife, and duly invoked the saint. Thence they return home; and because they were expecting the fever to return that day, again he and his wife promised God and Saint Aybert, that if with their good help he was healed, they would again go to Espain: and from that day, having suffered no more fever, he certainly believes that by the merits of Saint Aybert he was healed. Concerning which matter Martin himself and others by the mandate of the aforesaid Most Reverend were heard, and examined before his Vicariate, in the year 1612, on the 10th day of December, and it was permitted that this cure be published as miraculous, T. Noppenus signing in place of the Bishop. Let us add to these three others, excerpted by Rayssius from the monuments of Crispin.
[31] As also the cook of Crispin, Jacobus Dorliens, cook of the abbey of Crispin, had labored with a quartan fever: against which evil he tried in vain every aid of the medical art. For six and a half months the sick man was so pressed, until on May 2, 1626, the help of Saint Aybert having been invoked, immediately he was freed from the fever, nor afterwards did it ever return. And he made this attested on the 6th day before the Kalends of June, in the year 1629, both to others specifically summoned for this purpose, men worthy of trust, and to his Pastor, to whom on account of his outstanding gifts both of mind and body all confidence is to be given.
[32] The most choice woman Agnes Meurin, wife of Vincent Massenaire, merchant of Ath, and a woman of Ath at Crispin. had been so involved with the troubles of pestilential fevers, that she was brought into the danger of her life. She beyond all expectation, when she fled to the sanctuary of the best Confessor of Christ Aybert, suddenly recovered. This gift of such sudden health, conferred on her by the intervention of Saint Aybert, she herself affirmed under oath before witnesses worthy of trust, and signed in her own name, in the year 1629, on the 6th day before the Ides of May.
[33] A contracted girl also is healed. Martha, daughter of Jaspar Bourgeois and Anne François, of Crispin, in the twenty-fourth year or thereabouts of her age, a certain quite vehement contraction of the nerves vexed her for about a year, so that she could not walk at all, on account of one shin being more drawn up than the other. And when again and again she had implored the helping hands of Saint Aybert, the good daughter at last is restored to her former health. Afterwards she and her mother and her brother, Landelinus by name, on the 6th day before the Nones of Quintilis in the year 1629, in the presence of the Pastor,
the Bailiff, and many others of the same place, declared and affirmed it to be consonant with the truth.
PRAYER TO BE RECITED BY THE FEVER-STRICKEN.
O most holy Father Aybert, faithful and just servant of the Most High God, who grantest relief to the fever-stricken, and conferrest healing on those held by various kinds of diseases; I beseech thee by thy accustomed piety to have mercy on me, and restore me, vexed by long and grave ailment of fevers, by thy holy prayers to former health; that sound in mind and body, I may be able to give due thanks to Almighty God, and constantly serve him.
V. Pray for us, blessed Father Aybert.
R. That cleansed from the stain of crimes, we may live blessedly after the end of this life.
LET US PRAY.
Almighty eternal God, who by the merits of Blessed Aybert thy Confessor, by the taking of the water of his well, hast willed the weak bodies of the faithful to be called back to their former health; grant, we beseech, that we, anointed from the fount of thy mercy, despising the enticements of this world, may deserve with integrity of mind and body to arrive at the heavenly reward. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.