ON BLESSED PATERNUS THE RECLUSE,
AT PADERBORN IN LOWER SAXONY.
IN THE YEAR 1058
CommentaryPaternus the Recluse, at Paderborn in Westphalia (B.)
FROM MS.
The springs of the Pader, from which Paderborn owes its name, made famous by camps, assemblies, and the frequent hospitality of the Emperors and Kings of Germany and France, and by the royal coronation of St. Cunigunde, Ferdinand adorned with a distinguished monument for the memory of posterity, Paderborn, illustrated by the studies of Bishop Ferdinand, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Paderborn, Coadjutor of Münster, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and Count of Pyrmont; when he honored them, among the Monuments of Paderborn drawn from Roman, Frankish, and Saxon history and illustrated with notes, with such an epigram.
Here, where the spring of the Pader rises in the middle of the city, I draw my ancient name from the great river Po; Charles, long compelled to contend with doubtful Mars, Chose this place for his camps and counsels: And he commanded the Saxon nation, cleansed by these waters, To bow its proud neck to the true God. Here Leo, brought from the Roman city, consecrated a chapel, The first work of religion. Here was the Seat, renowned, to the Lords of the earth Following in long order, to the Caesars. Here Cunigunde, virgin bride of a virgin husband, Received the royal garlands on her locks by her husband's merits. Let another pass through the seven mouths into the vast sea; No nobler source has a river than I.
[2] See the individual encomia, explained and expounded in the most learned Commentary of the same Most Serene Prince, in the aforementioned most learned book itself: which, when he, in the year 1670 next after its first edition, Blessed Paternus the recluse, (for two years later it came forth enlarged) out of his singular humanity toward us and his most favorable affection toward ecclesiastical antiquities unearthed by us and yet to be unearthed, sent to Antwerp, encouraged us, so that before any other we might in the future appeal to him himself (in whom we understood such a distinguished knowledge of sacred and profane matters pertaining to the diocese of Paderborn to reside), if anything pertaining to the Saints of the same diocese, doubtful or obscure, should occur to us in which we needed outside help. everywhere inscribed in the monastic fasti, Therefore, since Trithemius in book 3 of On the illustrious men of the Order of St. Benedict entitled chapter 324 on St. Paternus the monk: and, following the example of Trithemius, Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, and Bucelinus inserted the same with the title of Saint into the Monastic Martyrologies; while Wilson, Camerarius, and Dempster inserted him into the English and Scottish Fasti; and with these Ferrarius in the general Catalogue, and Simon Martin in The Sacred Relics of the Desert made mention of the same Paternus as a Saint: we (who have many reasons not to trust Trithemius outright in this genre) thought we should have recourse to that place from which we ought to obtain more certain knowledge of his perpetual and present veneration, namely to Paderborn itself and its Bishop Ferdinand, who would teach us by what right the title of Saint was given to Paternus.
[3] He readily granted our wishes; and first indeed made us secure, that, he is piously venerated: (although the neglect of past centuries had abolished both the distinct memory of the miracles wrought by St. Paternus and the knowledge of his tomb, and it is not known that he was ever honored with the religion of an annual feast, nor is he now honored) nevertheless by the constant tradition and piety of the people of Paderborn he was counted and named among the tutelary Saints of the city. Then the same Most Serene Prince communicated to us what he himself had once transcribed at Rome from the autograph chronicle of Marianus Scotus, which is published in a more enlarged edition of his, in these words: "In the year 1058 the city of Podelbrunna with two monasteries, that is, his death from the autograph of Marianus Scotus, of the Bishopric and of the monks, on the Friday before Palm Sunday, was consumed by fire. Now in the monastery of the monks there was a monk named Paternus, a Scot, for many years enclosed, who also had foretold the conflagration. He, seeking martyrdom, went not outside on any account, but burned in his little enclosure, passed through fire into refreshment; and concerning his tomb certain good things are also told. On those very same days, on the Monday after the Octave of Easter, going out from Cologne, for the sake of enclosing myself with the Abbot of Fulda at Fulda, upon the mat in his little enclosure, where upon that same mat he had been burned and had suffered, I prayed."
[4] That these are the genuine words of Marianus we in no way doubt: since that parchment codex (which the Most Serene Prince discovered had been translated from the monastery of St. Martin at Mainz into the Palatine Library and with it into the Vatican, rather to be sought from the autograph than from the printed edition: and judged to be the autograph of Marianus himself) came forth from there first, where the author, after he had lived ten years as a recluse at Fulda, passed the last seventeen years of his life likewise as a recluse, having died in the year 1086. Meanwhile the published edition, much more contracted in this passage, in no small measure obscures the esteem of Marianus for Paternus, and the veneration paid to him by him, when it uses words of this sort: "The city of Podelbrunna with two monasteries on the Friday before Palm Sunday were consumed by fire. Now in the monastery there was a monk named Paternus, a Scot, for many years enclosed, who also had foretold the conflagration; and seeking martyrdom he was burned. On the Monday after the Octave of Easter, going out from Cologne, for the sake of prayer I visited the same place, on account of the good things that are told about his tomb: and thus I came with the Abbot of Fulda to Fulda."
These things, discrepant from the original not lightly, make us desire, the honor of the tomb. that the Chronicle of that author be at some time published more fully and more sincerely from the autograph itself. Meanwhile we leave it to the reader to judge whether what Trithemius writes, that many miracles are read to have been wrought at the tomb of St. Paternus, indicates that some booklet of his miracles had been composed, which has now perished and was read by Trithemius; or whether he himself enlarged the words of Marianus, in which he says that certain good things are told concerning Paternus's tomb, in this manner, being a writer in matters of this sort little careful.
[5] A contemporary of Marianus, but having died 14 years before him, was Blessed Peter Damian the Cardinal, who, in the year following that in which the things we have related from Marianus were done, writing a letter or apologetic opusculum for the resignation of his Bishopric (which is among the opuscula edited in volume 3 of his works, the twentieth), when he had shown by various examples that even to the best servants of God a grievous death sometimes befalls, under such a title, That a servant of God foretells the conflagration of a city, but takes counsel for himself, he weighs the whole history, as it had been narrated to him, in this manner: "That also seems worthy of no dissimilar dread, which, as a certain religious Abbot of the Diocese of Pisa related, I learned. He knew clearly, St. Peter Damian describes the same, because it happened this last summer just passed, that there was in a certain city of the Germans a servant of God, of holy conversation and good reputation, who dwelt in a little cell near a monastery. To him indeed it was revealed, that unless the people should restrain themselves as quickly as possible from their wickedness by penance, within thirty
days their whole city would lie subject to fire. He indeed not only made known the mystery of his vision to the Bishop of the city, but also took care to divulge it without delay through the whole people. They, however, persisting in the malice of their wickedness, judged the man of God to be raving; and, making no account at all of the threats of God, deigned not to correct their deeds. Thereupon the man of God orders whatever was more precious in the monastery to be conveyed into hidden recesses, where they might be kept unharmed from the fires.
[6] Why do I delay in words? At length that mournful day came, and from the seven regions of the city the avenging fire arose. Behold, the monks rush anxiously to the cell of the servant of God, and marvels at the judgments of God concerning his servants, and urgently demand that he not sluggishly go out in the imminent danger. But he utterly refuses, and committing all things to the Divine judgment, awaits unmoved what may please God concerning him. The fire therefore, with balls raging into the stars, occupies everything, pervades everything; and not only sets fire to everything else, but also, alas! — I am loath to say it — burned up the monastery itself and the very servant of God with his whole cell. Which judgment of God is indeed not so much to be discussed as feared. For what gaze of a human mind could penetrate the abyss of the Divine judgments, since He is utterly terrible in His counsels over the sons of men? For who could have believed that he who by revelation merited to recognize the destruction of a city about to perish, would himself be ignorant that he was to be burned up at the same time by the fierce flames?"
Thus far he, and turning himself to the consideration of the fire of hell, from the memory of those flames, he is pricked by the goads of divine fear. Vincent of Beauvais in book 25 of the Speculum Historiale chapter 35 summarizes Peter Damian's narrative, The firmness of his purpose proved by a miracle, after the words of Sigebert in the chronicle, transcribed to some extent from Marianus; but explaining the sense of Marianus in this, that where the latter says that Paternus, seeking martyrdom, was burned, the former writes that "on account of his purpose of enclosure he suffered himself to be burned." That this purpose was pleasing to God, no one could doubt, who will have considered that, with the whole cell burning and the servant of God himself dying among the flames, the little mat on which he was lying remained unburnt.
[7] A similar purpose of not going out of his cell on any account, on April 16, we shall see in St. Drogo, thus speaking to those who exhorted him to go out on account of the raging fire: "I have vowed a vow to the Lord, and I will pay it: but if it shall please the divine goodness that I be consumed by flames, let His will be done." But [His purpose not to be disapproved because death was not hindered by another miracle,] his burnt cell did not harm him, the flames did; they harmed Paternus. Yet it cannot for this reason be said that the purpose of the latter pleased less than that of the former; just as in the martyrs whom the flame consumed, their faith shone no less than in those whom, restrained by divine nod, it spared; as neither was the obedience of the daughter of Jephthah less praiseworthy, who allowed her father's vow to be fulfilled in herself, than that of Isaac, who offered his throat to the knife to fulfill the command of God; although in the latter case the Lord faithful in the promises made to Abraham suspended the execution of the work itself, while in the former case according to the opinion of most He permitted it, the same arbiter of life and death. Saint Peter Damian did not wish to scrutinize the abyss of the divine judgments, nor do we presume to do so; yet we think it may be said not implausibly, that the servant of God, dreading the annoyances of human praises, if he had survived by miracle the flames foretold by him, begged the Lord that He not permit him to survive the burning of the city and monastery.