ON ST. BEDE THE YOUNGER, MONK IN THE TERRITORY OF ROVIGO, RESTING AT GENOA.
YEAR 883
PrefaceBede the Younger, monk in the territory of Rovigo, resting at Genoa (St.)
D. P.
There were published at Genoa in the year 1640 the Proper Offices of the holy Church of Genoa, revised by the order of Stephen Duratius, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Archbishop of Genoa, and published with a Kalendar of the Saints who are celebrated in particular Churches of Genoa: At Genoa the Body of St. Bede, where on this day, the 10th of April, it is indicated that the feast of St. Bede the Confessor is celebrated in the monastery of St. Benignus the Priest and Martyr, where his sacred body is had. We were in the year 1662 in the said monastery of St. Benignus, received benevolently and venerating this sacred body: but the credulity of the monks was displeasing, asserting this to be the body of the Venerable Bede, not the English Elder, the illustrious writer of the Church: who, having lived in his monastery of Jarrow among the Northumbrians, and having died in the year 735 and been buried, was in veneration: whose body Alfred, a most pious Priest, took thence around the year 1024, and placed in the case which contained the body of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, then translated to Durham, as the author of the History of the Translation of St. Cuthbert reports, illustrated by us on March 20, chapter 4 near the end, and Turgotus, published under the name of Simeon of Durham, in book 3 of the History of Durham, chapter 7, who adds that the bones of the Venerable Bede were placed in a linen sack, and thus separated from the body of St. Cuthbert. Which same things confirm William of Malmesbury in book 3 of the Deeds of the Bishops of the English near the end, and the author of the History of the Translation of the sacred Body to a new tomb, made in the year 1054, which we have also published on March 20: we shall declare all more fully on May 26, the birthday of the Venerable Bede.
[2] But of the Younger: It was not so easy to correct the error of the monks as to note it: for when we asked what records they had of the body brought there, those whom we asked knew nothing else to show than a few lines about the Translation, made, as was there noted, in the year 1233, from the monastery of Gavello in the territory of Rovigo, by a certain Genoese monk; together with two Papal Bulls to be given below, by which Indulgences are instituted to be proposed to those who should visit the said body on the feast and through the Octave. At length Arnold Wion seems to have brought some light, exhibiting on this April 10 a certain epitome of the Life, in which the one who is venerated at Genoa was indeed said to have originated from England, but who, summoned thence by Charlemagne, who lived in the time of Charlemagne: survived the same Charles by five years, and therefore must be considered entirely different from the English and famous writer of this name, who died a full 33 years before Charles obtained the Kingdom, let alone the Empire. Following Wion, Brautius, Bishop of Sarsina, in the Poetic Martyrology, is found to have adorned the same with these verses.
Against Charlemagne's will, Beda, leaving all behind, rejoices to have a humble place within the cloisters. With the Saint's tomb neglected, the miracles cease: Translated, they return in a better place.
[3] Provoked by these indications, we judged we must press further, and urge the monks of St. Benignus, whose life from a Manuscript is here to be given, to search all the corners of their archive, if perhaps there yet survived in them the Life which Wion had contracted into an epitome: and at length, with R. F. John Stephen Flisco, S. J., most zealous for promoting this work, most diligently caring for the business, there was sent to us a transcript of an ancient Manuscript, which made the remaining history of this Younger Bede clearer to us. The title was "Here begins the Life of St. Bede, Priest, Confessor and Doctor, whose sacred body and head honorably rest in the present church of St. Benignus." The author therefore was a monk of the same monastery, who (as appeared from a miracle added at the end, however interpolated, and done after the death of Blessed Martin the Solitary, which occurred in the year 1342 at Genoa in St. Benignus's) wrote after the middle of the 14th century; and knowing no other Bede than the famous one, attributed his works to the Younger; and therefore applied to him the titles Venerable and Doctor. The same however had before his eyes some things concerning the life and character of this Saint, which he who wrote asserts he saw and heard, as is had in no. 10, after the cult of the holy Body at Genoa had been established, graciously obtained from the same likely Gavellian monastery, whence earlier the body had been fraudulently removed. And mixing with these what he knew of the Elder Bede and Charlemagne, he indeed obscured them, yet not so as to have confused the characters of the times, to which the history of the Younger Bede can be coordinated, which we seem to have done no little more happily than Wion.
[4] For, first, describing at length the zeal with which Charlemagne gave the more elegant boys of the unfaithful peoples he had conquered to masters to be trained, He proves that he was applied by Charles the Great to studies, for the advancement of the Christian religion through them now as Clerics and at length as Bishops; and then passing to the praises of Bede, as one who was of the number of those whom he caused so to study; he sufficiently indicates that he was by no means summoned from England; unless you understand that England whose chief city was Sleswick, a city of the Danish kingdom, between ancient Saxony and Gothia, concerning which we treated before the Life of St. Anschar on February 3, no. 40, from which and from the neighboring regions beyond the Elbe armed fleets sent across the sea founded the Anglo-Saxon empire in Britain, He was from the race of Saxons subdued by him, retaining there their native tongue; so that it is no wonder that the name of Bede was common to two Saints, separated from each other by so great a space of years and places. We know moreover from the Annals of Einhard, who was the historiographer of Charlemagne educated by him, that from the year 772 Charles waged an almost annual war with the Saxons (among whom you may also include those Angles) and that in 805 he transferred all who lived beyond the Elbe with women and children into France, and thus put an end to the war. Among these, therefore, was the Younger Bede, born around the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the 9th.
[5] Yet he was not made a monk under the same Charles, and
died: for he himself, in no. 6, asks for his dismissal from the court, and after 45 years spent in courtly services, that as for forty-five years he had served the King in the palace, so for the rest of his life he might serve his Creator in the monastery. And since he also died under the same Abbot by whom he had been admitted to the religious habit, being more than eighty years old, it is sufficiently given to understand that he was very advanced in years when he left the world, nor did he live much longer afterward. Therefore the 5th year after the death of the Emperor Charles, in which this Bede is written to have died, is not to be reckoned with the year of Christ 819, with reference to Charlemagne, who died in 814: but with reference to his grandson Charles the Bald, with the year of Christ 883. So that Bede himself, having entered the monastery about the year 873, having become a monk about the year 873, after his seventieth year of age, may be reckoned to have been about thirty years of age when he enlisted in the court about the year 828; when Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, held the Empire and kingdom of the Franks; and afterwards attached himself to Lothair or Louis the younger, his sons, and came with the last of these into Italy in the year 872; and obtained an honorable dismissal from the same, in view of his great old age.
[6] But why not from Charles the Bald? Because it is certain that Bede lived more than seven years in the monastery: nor is it likely that so aged a man, unless some necessity of accompanying the Prince had drawn him to the cities of the Venetian dominion, would have sought a place of monastic rest so far away. and died in the year 883, older than eighty, But Charles the Bald came to Italy only at the end of the year 875, and after the crown of the Empire taken at Rome on the feast of the Lord's Nativity, he held an Assembly at Pavia in February of the following year. This being supposed, Bede cannot have come with him: because thus only seven years would be had which he had spent in the monastery; but the miracle reported in no. 14 requires somewhat more, though a few. Then since he is more likely thought to have been educated and instructed in Eastern France than in Western; it will also be more fitting to believe that he attached himself to those who had the ordinary seat of their palace in this rather than in that. Nevertheless it remains that in the fifth year after the death of Charles the Bald, who departed this life in the year 877 on October 6, the same Bede died on April 10, and so in the year 883, a full 148 years after the elder Bede; to whom the Younger was also dissimilar in this, that the elder scarcely reached the sixtieth year of age, or not even that; but he himself passed the eightieth, as is had from the deeds in no. 11.
[7] and had Venerius as companion, Moreover Venerius, whom in his secular life he had perhaps had as servant, he kept as companion in the religious life, for the solace and help of his old age: whom why the Interpolator of the Life in no. 8 says is up to now held great and famous throughout the whole Gallican Church, I am utterly ignorant: for no Venerius do those know who treated of Gallican writers or Saints or Prelates. That he is sometimes called Hermit, and once even Saint, suggests the suspicion that the Benignian monks confused him with the holy Abbot of this name, who in the 7th century practiced asceticism on Palmaria, an island of the port of Luni, and translated to Reggio in the 9th century is venerated on September 13. That the same was scribe for the holy old man, I have no doubt; but although the latter is said to have dictated many things to him, works being enumerated that belong to the elder Bede, yet since nothing exists anywhere which can be believed of the Younger, I rightly doubt whether he shone with any composed books, either in the secular world or in religion. That the same, after the master's death, wrote these things: which the Interpolator, having expanded and amplified himself, added chapter 8, which is about the Translation of the body from Gavello to Genoa, will not have been an absurd conjecture.
LIFE
From the Manuscript of the monastery of St. Benignus.
Bede the Younger, monk in the territory of Rovigo, resting at Genoa (St.)
BHL Number: 1077, 1078, 1079
By D. P., FROM MSS.
CHAPTER I.
Bede's birth, education, clerical life in the palace.
[1] The Redeemer of the human race, the Lord Jesus Christ, who through the laver of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out abundantly into the hearts of those whom he disposed to gather in the unity of the faith, After the faith of Christ was preached by the Apostles, that he might redeem them from all iniquity, and cleanse to himself an acceptable people, a follower of good works; before his passion taught that unless one is reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. But after his passion he commanded the Apostles, saying, "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," that first they might suck honey from the rock, and in the second likewise draw God from the hardest stone with sweetness. The princes, imbued with the same, promoted it themselves; Which form of baptism the disciples, having been taught, observing, first catechized all who came to the faith of the Lord, and regularly instructed them concerning the parts of the creed and the rudiments of faith; then they immersed them three times in the waters of baptism in the name of the Trinity, to which by the contact of his pure flesh Christ had imparted regenerative power: so that at last, admonished by saving precepts and wholesomely informed by divine instruction, the princes of the world and the powerful, and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit washed with the laver of the sacred font, and taught the norm of true religion, might teach others to hold the same faith more by example than by word; and having become strong in battle, prudent as serpents and simple as doves, might fight against rebels as wisely as manfully, uprooting vices and in their place implanting virtues.
[2] Especially Constantine, Hence many of them in diverse places, with the Lord granting them success, destroyed many shrines of idols, overturned the temples of demons, and shattered their images: which being destroyed, in the same places they built churches, dedicated temples and altars to the Lord, in which they established ministers to serve the Lord. Among whom the first was Constantine and principal, set over men indeed, but a servant and disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another however was Charlemagne, son of Pepin King of the Franks, Catholic in right faith, and Charlemagne, and upright and most ready for waging the wars of the Lord: who expelled many who deviated from the way of the Lord, when they refused to submit their untamed necks to the yoke of the Lord, from their seats, lest they should disturb those devoted to right faith by violence or example from the path of rectitude. a Whom when he had thoroughly overcome by the grace of his protector, that he might show thanks to his protector for the victory granted him, he decided to lead away with him many Teutonic boys, adorned with elegant form and grace, whom he handed over to masters to be trained in letters, who had chosen boys from the nations trained, that through their knowledge and doctrine, made capable of reason, they might acquire the knowledge of the highest Redeemer and willingly receive the Christian religion. From them indeed, many in time, whom he saw fit, he caused to be promoted to the office of cleric through Catholic Bishops: so that those whose parents had devastated the rites of idols, the man of God, bound by sacred Orders, might more certainly enlist them to divine worship; lest sons should bear the iniquity of parents, from whose perfidy they had been separated by divine service.
[3] It is also reported, that wherever he destroyed the shrines of pagans, there also he built oratories of Christians (of which many in diverse parts are known to have remained to these times), which he adorned with royal gifts sufficiently and fittingly, also establishing prudent and religious men in them, by whom they might be faithfully governed to the honor of God. Thus while he was nurturing the family of the Savior in the royal court, which he strove assiduously to augment for the Lord; and stirred them to the study of sacred letters; whomever he could find expert in divine teaching and founded in the Christian religion, he kept in his court, abundantly providing for them according to royal magnificence from the goods of the treasury. For that faithful Prince understood, whose mind was joined in the love of Christ, that if he had in his company wise and religious men, by whose counsel he would use, by whose intervention also and suffrage before the supreme Judge his safety would be guarded; the advancement of holy and universal mother Church, to which he eagerly aspired, would day by day receive better and fuller increase. And therefore whomever he could, by exhortations and benefactions, he invited to the knowledge of the divine scriptures, through which they might receive as it were a seasoning for the service of almighty God. Whence many, considering the affection and love which he had toward the studious and religious, among whom was Bede, were more and more animated to the form of religion and the study of learning… b Of whose number was the venerable man Bede c the Priest: who the more attentively he exercised himself in these things, the more, by work and merit, dear was he to God and men, to his King and Princes.
[4] Considering therefore, Bede the man of the Lord, that through spiritual occupations and exercises, often crooked things are changed into straight and harsh into smooth, vices are put to flight and virtues nourished, negligence is driven out and torpor shaken off; He gave himself wholly to them, he began assiduously night and day to meditate on the law of the Lord, and to be occupied in the arts, which he had learned with much application and vigilance… d In the grace of speech he was both eloquent and fruitful; so that in the court of Charles the Emperor he had no equal to accomplish this work. Adorning the clerical habit with fitting virtues, In counsel he was so prudent and discerning, that none established in the royal court dared to change the counsel he gave. In honesty of morals and observance of religion, he was so outstanding that he was now thought not a secular Priest but a regular monk. He shunned softness in dress and habit, from which the Pastor of the Church, Peter, chief of the Apostles, strove to keep not only men but also women. 1 Cor. 9:26 He ceaselessly chastised his body in fasts and frequent vigils with the Apostle Paul: for he loved fasting; and toiling in the bestowal of alms, he refreshed the poor from the things he could have. He insisted greatly on vigils: he often gave himself to prayer, so much that the hardness of calluses occupied his knees and arms. He often avoided the tonsure of his hair; and if he ever endured it, he said it ought to be done not for the adornment of the body, but for the memory of the Lord's passion and disgrace.
[5] And holily fulfilling the priestly office. He daily celebrated the solemnities of Masses to the Lord, in which, with tears and sighs, in the spirit of humility and contrite mind, macerating himself, in the inmost recesses of his heart he did not cease to offer a living victim pleasing to God, that is, himself, without mixture of any evil work, having the truest compunction of heart, making, according to the Apostle, supplications,
for those who are outside the way, that they may be converted to the faith; 1 Tim. 2:1 prayers, for those who fight in the way, that they may not fail, but pass from labor to rest; intercessions, for those who are being purged after death, that their punishment may become shorter and lighter, and from torments they may come to everlasting rest; thanksgivings, for those who triumph in the heavenly homeland, that by their prayers and merits they may lead us with them to the wondrous vision of Christ. Teaching all by word and example. He shunned dignities not only lay but even ecclesiastical; he fled the rumors of men, he by no means wished to have the frequenting of women; and he abhorred gluttony of body. He watered the hearts of the faithful and especially of Clerics like a heavenly shower, teaching them to bring forth the imperishable fruit of good works: for this was a true Israelite without guile, who not only strove to return the talents entrusted to him, but to increase them without fraud: because the good, which through the Holy Spirit he had learned in understanding, he strove to implant not only for himself but for the benefit of the minds of other faithful, according to the Apostle's precept, by convincing, beseeching, and rebuking. 2 Tim. 4:2
NOTES.
In no part of this life did the straying pen of the interpolator indulge itself more than in this first chapter, adding not a few things of his own, all of which are not easy to discern; some more extravagant we have removed from the text, that it might be more concise, and we here indicate them.
CHAPTER II.
The monastic life of St. Bede, illustrated also with heavenly prodigies.
[6] When Bede, the man of the Lord, was strong in these and many other virtues, now thinking not of earthly but of heavenly things, he purposed to serve almighty God removed from the crowding of multitudes. Therefore, with grace inspiring, by whose support he had stood out as possessor of such virtues, he began to revolve in his mind how not only in mind but also in body he might flee the muddy contagions of this world: whence, choosing a better and arduous way, soon he resolved to pass over to monastic religion. Approaching Charles a the Emperor, he revealed to him the intention which he had; beseeching and supplicating humbly, Leave of retiring to a monastery requested, that with his favor and blessing it might be permitted him to withdraw from the court and palace, and to fulfill his resolve according to the good pleasure of the Lord; that as he had served the King for forty-five b years in the earthly palace, so for the rest, while he lived in this mortal life, he might serve his Creator in the monastery. Which though the Emperor took heavily and grievously, because he was grieved and feared that he and his court would be deserted by him, since he himself with the whole court greatly needed his presence, by whose counsel he was instructed, by whose aid he was sustained, on whose foreseeing he relied: yet lest he should too stubbornly resist God, whose servant the Emperor was, if he should keep the holy man at court against his will; at length with difficulty the man of the Lord obtained from the Emperor what he asked: to whom the Emperor is said to have given this response.
[7] And having obtained it, "Since the Empire of the Romans has been given us from heaven, we ought not to call anyone back from divine service, but ought to invite ourselves and those whom we can, more attentively, to his service, that we may more devotedly keep Clerics and laymen in fidelity to the Empire, and that those who wish to cleave to divine offices may not hesitate to join our familiarity. Since therefore we rejoice in your presence, but in your absence grieve too much, to whatever side you should wish to incline your mind, whether to making your residence in the palace, or to assuming the form of monastic religion; we will that whatever in our Empire may be found that pleases you shall entirely lie subject to your will." And refusing the Episcopate, Then the discreet Priest, understanding that the Emperor wished to promote him to the office of Bishop, that thus he might keep him with him, so as not to separate him from divine services; said to the Emperor: "Let not my Lord care to bestow on me episcopal dignities or the care of souls: because it seems too hard and arduous, that one who is still unskilled to hold the reins of his own life, should be established as judge of another's life: because he who knows not how to expend care on his own house, ought by no means to undertake care of God's Church. And so I refuse to assume what I do not know to suit me": and having received the blessing with thanksgiving, he departed from the Emperor.
[8] In the parts of Venice therefore, where the Emperor Hadrian founded the city which in his name he called Hadriana c, He went to Gavello, from which also the Adriatic sea is named, there was a certain venerable place, in which a fitting number of religious Brothers had been gathered for serving God, over whom Abbot William then presided, a man of great merit, endowed with continence, outstanding in honesty; which place is called Gavellum d from the river Gavello, which flows by nearby. Of the fame of which place, with his companion Venerius: and of the life and conversation of the Father who presided, because he had already heard, he came to the same place with a certain companion of his, Venerius by name: whom the venerable Bede, on account of the religion of his life and the merit of his discipline, had taken with him into his society: which Venerius, as is reported, is up to now held great and famous in the whole Gallican Church e… f But so that we may have knowledge of what he did in the same place, from many things let us briefly touch on a few.
[9] Where he is received by Abbot William, Approaching therefore the Abbot, whom on account of his religion and honesty he loved and venerated as a father, he most affectionately and humbly supplicated, that for himself and his companion, the venerable hermit Venerius, he would with divine regard provide a somewhat more remote place; where with him in divine utterances, as he had long desired, separated from others, he might more readily exercise himself. Which venerable man, yielding to his petition, most willingly granted what the man of the Lord Bede humbly asked of him. Having obtained finally the place which he had desired, the holy Father began to toil most in expositions of the divine Scriptures, especially in the sayings of the Gospels: but whatever Blessed Bede dictated, his companion the hermit Venerius most diligently put into writing… g
[10] A dove frequents his cell, After from the life and character of so great a man, what he who wrote asserts he saw and heard, we have, as we could, not as we ought, commended to the memory of the faithful for the benefit of believers; let us also report some things concerning his miracles, which God deigned to work through him. For at the time when he was dwelling in the cell, assigned to him by his Abbot, with his companion given to him from heaven, who was a most elegant scribe; a certain dove, marvelous to see but more marvelous in act, was seen to remain at the window of the cell, and seemed faithfully to instill in the ears of the holy man whatever he dictated; and whenever the Brothers entered the oratory for the divine work, it also immediately entered with them. To which dove, because a white appearance was shown to those looking at it from above, which he forbids to be driven off: in the other parts it was seen surrounded with variety; so that in it were named the feathers of the dove overlaid with silver, and the hinder parts of its back in the paleness of gold; no doubt but that in the variety of feathers it showed the difference of graces, and the variety of the gifts of the holy Spirit, which he who breathes where he wills, as he wished, diffused into the breast of his foster-child. But when the aforementioned Venerius saw the little bird so often frequent the cell, he said to the man of God: "Let that bird be caught, lest it make a stain on our books, or cause us annoyance." To whom St. Bede said: "Let it be, brother, let it be: for it is not a disturber, nor has it been sent to us by God for disturbance, but for great consolation." Then Venerius was silent, and admiring the goodness of the Lord, understood more deeply, that the man of God was not speaking of himself, but whatever he heard from the Holy Spirit, this he dictated and taught.
[11] Asked by the Brothers to preach, At a certain time when Bede, the servant of God, had reached the age of eighty years, and through the insistence of vigils and the abundance of tears the sight of his eyes was dim; the Brothers of the church of Gavello came to him, who thirsted to hear the word of God from his mouth, and with very great insistence supplicated, that he would deign to enter the church, and minister to them and those who had come the word of the divine seed: which they said for this reason, not because they believed anyone had come, but so that in that way at least they might obtain from him what they had asked. Acquiescing in their requests, he entered the church, as if to a great assembly, and ascended its step, whence the sermon of preaching was accustomed to be delivered to hearers. But although, as we have said, his eyes were dim, so that they could not see clearly; yet his hearing and understanding was in him subtle and ready, so that no one seemed to hear or understand more subtly than he. Set therefore in a place of this kind of offices
suitable, he caught with his ear the sound of those who were said to have gathered to listen. And understanding that no one had come except the Clerics present, yet that he might satisfy the desire of those present, as if to a great crowd, he began to weave a sermon, saying with a clear voice: "Hear, hear: for though there is neither voice nor human motion here at all, yet many ears stand about here, having their hearing and the attention of their mind on God." For the blessed man had perceived that there was present the presence of Angels. He enjoys the angelic audience. And when he was discoursing subtly many things from the divine Scriptures, and touching on very many histories figuratively, so great a sweetness of divine words flowed from his mouth as the minds of those hearing had not felt in this life. Nor is it a wonder if, drunken by the grace of the holy Spirit, he was filling the hearts of the faithful with the sweetness of the honeycomb: by whom at the end Amen is responded. who when he had come to the end of the sermon, and had ended it with the blessing in the customary manner; a divine brightness shone round about the man of God, and the voices of many—no doubt of heavenly ministers h—followed, proclaiming and crying "Amen," as if many persons all at once had cried with one voice. But the Clerics, seeing and hearing these things, wondered at what proceeded from his mouth, glorifying and blessing the Lord, who does not cease to glorify his Saints.
[12] A certain Eutychian feigning himself blind, At the same time also there came to him a certain man, pretending to be blind, saying: "Master, grant me the benefit of healing: for though I seem to have eyes, yet I do not see the light of heaven." But on the contrary the man of God, looking at him, said: "Man, though you seem to have eyes of the body, whereby you might see the light of heaven; yet with your malice blinding you, you have lost the inner light. Now since affliction sometimes gives understanding to the hearing, the light which you claim to lack you will not possess longer, that you may know that ingratitude greatly displeases your Creator, and having been rebuked in vain, who causes his sun to shine upon the ungrateful and grateful, and rains upon the just and the unjust. For when the ancients recognized the invisible things of our Creator through the visible things of this world; why do you moderns, instructed with the manifold benefits of the heavenly Father, and redeemed with the precious blood of his Son, and illumined with the light of the holy Spirit, and fed with the communion of the Saints, and having obtained the remission of sins through the grace of the holy Spirit—all which our Fathers have handed down to us and taught us to believe—why, I say, do you not see and understand with the eye of the mind these so many and great benefits, and show thanks to their bestower?"
[13] He is struck with true blindness, Which admonitions when he had heard, not compunctuous but mocking, he was departing; and depraved in mind he hurled insults and reproaches at the man of God: for that man was a Eutychian, that is, of the sect or heresy of the Eutychians i, who had been trained by no discipline or teaching of ecclesiastical institution. And it happened according to the prophecy of the man of God, that immediately he was truly deprived of the light of which he pretendedly professed to be deprived. After seven years, however, repenting, That man therefore lacked the light of body, because he had refused to receive the light of the mind through the man of God: and withdrawing from the light of truth, he fell into the abyss of the deepest blindness, and remained so long in blindness, until he made satisfaction for his past malice: for he lamented seven years in the said blindness, because he had contumaciously contemned the seven gifts of the holy Spirit. To the Son that Eutychian could not come, because the Father had not yet drawn him (for no one can come to the Son, unless the Father first have drawn him); but after he was drawn by the Father to the Son, he did not delay to come more quickly to him.
[14] So after the space of seven k years, drawn by the Father, revived in mind, contrite and humbled in heart, in a voice of weeping coming to the man of God, he suppliantly asked pardon, and said: "Receive me repenting and returning to you, most holy Father: because unwisely and foolishly against the Lord of all and his servant I confess I have acted." And professing the Catholic faith, And he prostrated himself at his feet, asking mercy, that through him he might deserve to receive light from God. But Blessed Bede, seeing the man prostrate, says to him: "Rise, and give honor to the living and true God." And he said to him: "Do you wish to renounce the devil and all his pomp?" He answered, "I do." And the Saint: "Do you wish to renounce the sect of Eutyches and to take up the norm of true religion? And you will be enlightened." He answered, "I do." Then the man of God, taking exorcized oil, signed him on the forehead, saying: "God almighty, who opened the eyes of the man born blind and of Tobit when blinded, He is enlightened by the prayers of Bede: may he open and enlighten your eyes": and immediately he was enlightened; and from then on, becoming a faithful, he remained firm in the faith, giving glory to God, who saves all who hope in him; and from those who turn themselves from error to him, does not turn away the bosom of his mercy.
[15] After the death of the Emperor Charles, the venerable Priest Bede, Who, surviving Emperor Charles by five years, with increase of religion and augmentation of virtues, lived for five years in the monastery of Gavello, increasing in the clergy the light of holy doctrine and knowledge, and showing to all and each the example of holy conversation, and through the merits of an honest life persuaded good works to be done. And thus the interpretation of his name agreed with the effect of his works: for truly he was called Beda, that is, "giving well or good l"; because from the fountain of sacred eloquence he gave and offered the streams of doctrine well and copiously. For the rest, at the end of the five years, with the five talents doubled which had been delivered to him from the Lord, from darkness to light, from labor to rest, from the way to the homeland, with God calling, in the hands of the man of God Abbot William m, he happily fell asleep on the fourth day before the Ides of April. Whom St. Venerius his companion gave burial in the same place: in which place, He dies piously and shines with miracles. after the release of his body, or before, Christ the Lord gloriously manifested many miracles through him, to the praise of his name: who lives and reigns through infinite ages of ages. Amen.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Translation of the Body from Gavello to Genoa.
[16] Since the Historiographer, who treated Blessed Bede's Life in his own way, Gavellum, a monastery once great and wealthy, sufficiently expounded who he was, how educated and instructed he was, and how also he came to the monastery of Gavello, which was then in the parts of Adria wondrously built and copiously endowed, and, what was far better, entirely in persons and goods devoted to universal honesty, and principally given over to the institutions of sacred religion and divine worship: he taught also how the said Saint there lived for some time, and also of the miracles which the Lord deigned to work through him: finally, how he departed from this light, he set forth with faithful narration. It also seems worthy, how from the same monastery, to the orthodox and Catholic city of the Genoese, the bones of the said Father were transported, to intimate to the ears of the faithful: so that the judgments of God, though hidden, may without doubt be preached as most just; and concerning the Relics of so great a Father, to the honor of the almighty Lord, honor and reverence may generally receive increase from all Catholics.
[17] So then, as long as the man of the Lord Bede, with the religious Brothers who served the Lord, remained in this life in the aforesaid monastery of Gavello, While regular discipline flourished, the often-named monastery was always increasing manifold from good to better. But when the men in whom the order of religion was vigorous were taken away, the monastery also began, through defect of religion in persons and things, to diminish in fame and merit, so much that the place itself now came almost to dissolution. For though once it was frequented with the greatest reverence by the approach of many, The same collapsed it is dissipated. now by sins demanding it, the whole surrounding region is turned into a swamp and marsh; and the earth formerly fruitful is turned into saltiness, so that there is scarcely anyone who wishes to dwell in it: nor is there any choir of servants of God as there used to be, because of which the divine offices are not performed in the due manner in the same place, but only the Abbot, with too great a defect of monastic discipline, is reported to live there alone, without the society of God's servants. For which reasons indeed, the heavenly authority of majesty, which disposes all things with due end, by just judgment willed, that the body of St. Bede should not remain longer in the same place, Clergy and people being deprived; in which, on account of the mentioned defects, it could not be venerated according to the honor due to so great a Father.
[18] It pleased therefore the most high Provider, that a certain monk of the Order of Fruttuaria a, of Genoese nationality, Where, finding the holy body without honor, John the Genoese John by name, Drinker-of-Water by surname, should make a passage through Gavello: who, seeing the tomb of so great a Father not fittingly adorned was moved to the greatest admiration, because such venerable Relics were almost entirely lacking in veneration. And when he remained in such admiration and hesitation, inwardly questioning himself, he inquired, what was more acceptable to divine providence and disposition, whether thus to leave without veneration, untouched in the same place, the remains of so great a Patron; or whether he should somewhat strive to transfer the same to another church, where they could be frequented by Clergy and people, and assiduously venerated with divine offices, as is fitting and proper.
[19] Finally in such doubt he returned to his lodging with his companions: and there when they were speaking among themselves of the said Saint, inquiring who he was or whence he had come, and how the monastery itself was being governed; and learning how much in veneration he had formerly been, the said monk understood, through the inhabitants of those parts (who from antiquity and through the ancients from whom they traced their origin asserted that they knew) that Blessed Bede had lived laudably and most religiously in the same monastery during his life in the service of almighty God; and after the passing of this life, having laid down the burden of the flesh with the way, had joyfully flown back to the Author of his purity, and the sacred pledges of the same body had been honorably buried there. Who nonetheless affirmed, that as long as the monastery and those dwelling in it remained religiously in divine services, for so long the relics of the holy Father Bede, with the whole monastery and those things which belonged to the monastery, were venerated with wondrous affection not only by those nearby but also by people of remote regions: but after the vigor of the Lord declined, the multitude of those frequenting them began to cease from their visits and offerings.
[20] And when they were speaking of such and other things together; one of those present broke forth in a murmured voice, that the sacred Relics should not remain there longer, because he himself would transport them to another church. That there was also one who wished to carry it off to another place: All which words the aforesaid Fruttuarian monk John Beaqua b solicitously kept in his heart, especially that which he had said about the sacred Relics being transferred; and because he understood another wished to do it, he hastened to anticipate his will in action, and applied the sickle of his work in the harvest of another's deliberation. Having prepared therefore all things which seemed sufficient to him for doing such a business, having implored the help of the supreme Governor, he summoned a certain familiar of his, who had competent knowledge of sailing in those parts, intending to forestall him he went to the place, and revealed to him the secret of his will; having first received an oath from him, that to no man would he in any way open the secret which he would lay bare, before the business was accomplished. And since he judged that what he had in mind could thus more conveniently be done, with his faithful companion he boarded a ship, and hastened to the desired treasure quickly.
[21] Moreover, when they had already crossed the middle of the lake, such darkness of fog overshadowed them, And a fog spread along the way that even the captain of that little ship, who thought he had full knowledge of those places at all times, and was accustomed often to guide many through those parts; was utterly ignorant where he was and to what side he should direct the little ship in which they were. Then the often-named monk, set in hesitation with greatest turmoil, because what he had desired with his whole heart seemed to turn rather to loss than to gain, began to implore the aid of the supreme Governor and Ruler, saying: "God of knowledge, God the investigator of all hidden things, who searches the reins and hearts, who separates the precious from the vile, direct my desire in your good pleasure, that through me a sinner this Saint's relics may be transferred: show me a way in the multitude of these waters, after prayers poured forth, being given passage, by which I may be able to walk to the monastery, where the most holy body rests: but if it is not of the good pleasure of your will, may my will never obtain the effect of its request." Immediately however the prayer finished, all the density of the air seemed to have departed.
[22] Without delay, the monk showed the sailor the way by which they ought to sail, and said to him: "Through this part, sailor, direct the ship." And suddenly, after a short interval, and having entered the church, there appeared to them the monastery they desired. Seeing which, they rejoiced with great joy, and hastening swiftly they came to the place. Having disembarked from the ship, they began to walk step by step to the church, pretending that they had come there as pilgrims for the sake of prayer. And when they had come to the church, the monk left his companion outside the church, so that he might cleverly look out, lest anyone come who would disturb them from what they had begun. What more? The monk approached the casket where the sacred Relics were kept; he broke open the chest, and so long did he exert himself through various efforts, until he without whom every human strength and knowledge is rightly judged weakness and folly, extended to him his help, strength, and counsel: and at length he opened that little casket, in which were the bones of the consecrated body, by striking and by various more skillful operations persisting, not without difficulty, and he drew out the same bones from the place in which they were, and carefully placed them in his apparatus which he had brought with him for this. Then having taken the treasure for which he had so long labored, rejoicing and exulting, with his companion he immediately ran back to the ship: entering it, through the same place, to the place to which they had resolved to return, they swiftly returned without any impediment. He carries off the body,
[23] These things being thus accomplished, the mentioned monk, seeing that the greater reverence he showed to the sacred Relics, the more it pleased the divine sight; placed his own shoulders under to carry, and on his shoulders he bore the burden of the holy body without the help of another for many days, until he arrived with great joy at the monastery built in honor of St. Benignus the Priest and Martyr, near the most noble city which is called Janua (Genoa), in a place called Capo di Faro: and there he placed the venerable Relics of the holy body with the highest veneration. O happy city, And he brings it to Genoa to the monastery of St. Benignus. who deserved to be adorned with so happy a Patron! O inestimable dispensation of almighty God! Who would ever have believed the relics of this Saint had been reserved for so long a time for the uplifting and adornment of the Genoese city? But deservedly is it exalted more than the rest and honored: for whoever honors God, there is no doubt he is honored by him. In this most happy city of ours God is honored, faith is cultivated, and perfidy is trampled down; heretics are pressed down and Catholics exalted, through all blessed God forever and ever. Amen. c
[24] By the miracles also done by Blessed Bede through divine power the city itself is greatly honored: of which a few of many, to the glory of the Lord,
let us propose. A certain little girl, where at his tomb an energumen is freed. who was grievously vexed by unclean spirits, after visiting many Saints, was led to the church of St. Benignus by her parents, who did not yet know of the presence of Blessed Bede. And when they had many times invoked the aid of another d Saint who is venerated in the same church, but perceived no sign of healing in the girl, they were planning to proceed with the same girl to another church. And as they were already departing, they were told that they should lead the girl to the presence of Blessed Bede: to whom having been led, when those present were praying God and Blessed Bede for a very long time, they received the counsel, that they should place on the girl's neck the chain by which that little chest, in which were Blessed Bede's Relics, was held. Which being done, the demons being put to flight, the girl received the remedy of healing, so that thereafter no evil spirit could have any return into her.
NOTES.
CHAPTER IV.
The Cult of Blessed Bede among the Genoese.
[25] A few years after the Translation it pleased, for stirring more the piety of the Genoese people, to appeal to the Roman Pontiff: whence there is still preserved the Bull of Innocent IV, for an indulgence to be obtained on the feast of the holy and Venerable Bede the Priest, and through its Octave, with this text: "Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved sons, the Abbot and Convent of the monastery of St. Benignus, of the diocese of Genoa, health and Apostolic Blessing. A forty-day indulgence given by Innocent IV. Although the Lord, by whose gift it comes that he should be served worthily and laudably by his faithful, out of the abundance of his piety, which exceeds the merits and vows of suppliants, repays those serving well much more than they can merit; nonetheless, desiring to render to the Lord an acceptable people, we invite the faithful of Christ to please him, as if enticed by certain gifts, namely Indulgences and remissions, that they may thereby be rendered more fit for divine grace. Desiring therefore that your church, in which the body of Blessed Bede the Priest, as you assert, rests, should be frequented with fitting honors, to all who are truly penitent and confessed, who venerably visit the said church on the feast of the same Saint and up to eight days after his feast, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and the authority of his Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, we mercifully relax 40 days of the penance enjoined on them. Given at Lyon on the Ides of December, in the fifth year of our Pontificate." Another plenary indulgence, Plenary from Gregory XIII, was given by Pope Gregory XIII to those visiting on Easter the altar of Blessed Bede, at Rome on January 8, 1583, in the 11th year of his Pontificate. Furthermore there exists a Brief of Sixtus V for a new Translation of the Body to be made, of this kind.
[26] "Pope Sixtus V to the beloved sons, Abbot and monks of the monastery of St. Benignus of Capo di Faro, near and outside the walls of the city of Genoa, of the Order of St. Benedict, of the Cassinese Congregation, otherwise of St. Justina of Padua. Faculty of Sixtus that the Body be carried to the great altar, Beloved sons, health and Apostolic Blessing. Since, as we have received, the bones of the Venerable Bede, formerly Priest of the Order of St. Benedict, in the church of your monastery of St. Benignus of Capo di Faro, near and outside the walls of Genoa, of the same Order of the Cassinese Congregation otherwise of St. Justina of Padua, are deposited in a certain altar thereof, and since you for greater decency and perhaps convenience, and also for other reasonable causes, desire to translate them from the same altar to the high altar of the said church, but fear that this is not permitted to you without special indult of the Apostolic See; we therefore, wishing to assent to your honest desires in this part, and opportunely to provide for the premises, and considering you and each of your singular persons as absolved from any… inclined to your supplications in this part, to you, that with such decency, ornament and veneration, and pomp and order, as shall be prescribed by the judgment of our Venerable Brother the Archbishop of Genoa, you may freely and licitly transport and transfer the bones of the said Venerable Bede the Priest from that altar at which they are now preserved, to the high altar of the same church, observing also the due and customary ceremonies and devotion, and after they have been translated and transported, to preserve them at the said high altar and cause them to be preserved and venerated, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, we grant… notwithstanding… Given at Rome… 22 October 1586, given in the year 1586. in the second year of our Pontificate."
[27] At that time, when the Archbishop of Genoa was Antonio Sauli, previously coadjutor to Cipriano Pallavicini who had died in the same year, and shortly after Cardinal of St. Vitalis, with public and private matters disturbed, nothing of what the monks had proposed to the Pontiff was put into execution for forty-seven years; as the Decree of the Visiting Fathers concerning the translation of the Body of the Venerable Bede, which we find thus written, proves: "We the undersigned, visiting the church of St. Benignus of Genoa, and finding the chapel in which rests the body of the Venerable Bede the Priest, so destitute of due worship that it does not appear that he is there, not without complaint of those observing that the merits of the most holy Father are held in contempt to the point of being slighted; we direct the Most Reverend Father Abbot of St. Benignus and his Cellarer, The Visitors decree the body is to be translated, that according to the decree of Sixtus V of happy memory issued on this matter, with fitting solemnity they transfer the blessed bones to the high altar, that they may be exposed there with more honorable ornament to those coming to the church, or at least that they instantly see to it that the accustomed chapel be restored, decently ornamented, and provided with fitting furnishings, by those who claim rights over it. And let all that has been done in this matter, in the year 1639, be reported to the future Diet and general Chapter; and if they have acted negligently, they shall be punished at the discretion of the government. Given at the monastery of San Salvatore, Pavia, on the 4th of November 1639, Dom Victorinus of Imola, Abbot of Ravenna; Dom Andreas of Parma, Abbot of Parma; Visitors."
[28] This Decree was fulfilled between the years 1643 and 1650, when the marble altar was made, execution made after 1643, the middle of three on the left side of the church: whose elegant panel represents the Venerable Bede himself in a Benedictine habit, writing before Christ who appears to him, and the lowest part of the same panel, cut through as a square, shows the chest within enclosed within the wall. The feast is celebrated there from immemorial time on April 10, with the rite of a Greater Double: and is inscribed in the Kalendar in this manner, "Of the Saint and Venerable Bede, Confessor and Doctor, Greater Double." The head, fragrant with wondrous odor, is preserved in silver cases; the rest of the body in the aforesaid marble chest. That some Relics of St. Bede are preserved at Bologna in the church of the Hospital of death, Masinus in Bologna surveyed asserts on this day: which the very reason of the place easily persuades one to be of this rather than of the elder.