ON SAINT BARSANUPHIUS,
Solitary near Gaza in Palestine.
BEGINNING OF THE 6TH CENTURY.
LifeBarsanuphius, solitary near Gaza in Palestine (Saint)
BHL Number: 1000
BY D. P.
CHAPTER I.
The cult of the Saint: encomium from Evagrius.
[1] "The image of Barsanuphius is placed in the divine sanctuary of the great church, namely of Saint Sophia at Constantinople, together with the holy Fathers, His image honored in the sanctuary of Constantinople Antony, Ephrem, and others," says the Anonymous Studite in the prologue which he prefixed to the Ascetic Instructions of Saint Dorotheus; proving, among other arguments, that there were two Dorothei and two Barsanuphii, the former indeed defenders of the Acephali infected with the errors of Severus; but the latter embraced right doctrine and perfect order of life: "whom I" (says in the same place Theodore the Studite in his testament) "through the examination of the most holy Patriarch Tarasius, and by the testimony of other trustworthy men, both natives and Easterners, embrace by paternal tradition; namely, as distinct from those Doctrine approved by Saint Theodore the Studite who are fixed by the little tablet of anathema by Saint Sophronius." The Instructions of Saint Dorotheus exist, which we mentioned, a few of many: from which nevertheless some history of his life could be woven, if he were anywhere found inscribed in ecclesiastical calendars. If any writings of Barsanuphius similarly survived, we might perhaps from his Acts elicit no regrettable work: now we are content to reread the traces found elsewhere.
[2] Name inscribed in the Roman Martyrology And first as to what pertains to the cult, his name is inscribed among the Saints in the revision of the Roman Martyrology on this day with these words: "At Gaza in Palestine, of Saint Barsanuphius the Anchorite under the Emperor Justinian." In the Annotations Baronius cites the authority of Evagrius and Nicephorus. Of the former, book 4, chapter 32, these are the words: "During the same time (namely when Justinian reigned) lived plainly divine men, sanctity praised by Evagrius who in many places performed great miracles and whose glory everywhere spread: among whose number was Barsanuphius, an Egyptian by race. He lived in a monastery near the city of Gaza, and in the flesh led a life contrary to the flesh, so that he performed many memorable miracles. He is believed to have spent his age enclosed in a certain little cell; and from the time he entered it, for a space of fifty years and more, neither to have been seen by anyone, nor to have taken any food or other things on earth. When Eustochius, Bishop of Jerusalem, by no means gave credit to these things, and had determined to dig through the little cell in which that divine man was enclosed, fire very nearly bursting out of it would have burned all who had come there with him."
[3] The same things almost word for word Nicephorus Callistus transcribed in book 17, chapter 22, except that he names Salustius instead of Eustochius. investigated by the Bishop of Jerusalem, not Eustochius Great here ought to be the authority of Evagrius, inasmuch as he ended his history in the 12th year of Emperor Maurice, from whom also he professes to have obtained the office of preserving the tablets on which the names of the Prefects were inscribed, as a reward for that writing. Now the year of Christ 594, coinciding with the 12th of Maurice, is distant only by an interval of 73 years from the beginning of Justinian. This, however, is no obstacle, that in the name of the Bishop of Jerusalem we believe Nicephorus more, not as if he attained the truth better than Evagrius, since he had only this author, being 700 years younger than Evagrius, but as having obtained a more correct exemplar of Evagrius than those from which we have it printed. For the reckoning of time, soon to be deduced, but Salustius plainly persuades that we make Barsanuphius contemporary with Salustius rather than Eustochius. For Eustochius, about the year 568, intruded by force, held the See a few months; but Salustius, created in 503, not dead before 511, according to the concordant calculation of Theophanes and Nicephorus, could have lived with Barsanuphius, not indeed in the time of the Emperor Justinian (for he began only in the year 527, which perhaps impelled some transcriber of Evagrius to substitute Eustochius for Salustius, a man plainly impious, to whom he judged the above-noted violence to fit), but in the time of the Emperor Anastasius.
[4] Justinian being born but not yet reigning Now when I consider the age of Saint Dorotheus (who must have been younger than Barsanuphius), I am convinced to believe that the words of Evagrius are not to be restricted to the time of the reigning Justinian; but are sufficiently verified if Barsanuphius lived at the beginning of the sixth century, with Justinian born but not yet reigning. For the Clerics of Apamea, in letters given to the Bishops of Syria, concerning the enormity of the excesses by which their diocese is harassed by the heretical Bishop Peter,
the Church was harassed (which epistle was produced in the first Action of the Council of Constantinople, and was written about the year 517), among other things complain with Saint Dorotheus, famous before 517 that with armed bands of wicked men he had made an attack upon the monastery of Saint Dorotheus; which way of speaking, if it does not presuppose Dorotheus already dead, at least requires that he had long before departed from Gaza from the monastery of Saint Seridus, under whom he had been a monk, and had had Saint Dositheus as a disciple, and had known the holy Barsanuphius, living in the same monastery of Saint Seridus or another nearby, as an old man. For he speaks thus in Institution 4: "When I was still with Abba Seridus, the servant of that old Abbot John, Barsanuphius must have been much older contemporary of Abba Barsanuphius, was sick; and the Abbot commanded me to minister to the old man." Therefore Barsanuphius was already old, whose contemporary Abba John, Dorotheus thereafter had as his director and spiritual father, being still a young man and a novice in the spiritual life: and therefore the aforesaid Barsanuphius could scarcely have survived Salustius the Bishop, even if he be conceived to have died near to being a centenarian or older. This indeed must be conceived, because he is not to be believed to have immediately at the beginning of his conversion undertaken that strict enclosure, but advanced in age, and long and greatly exercised in the monastic life, and already famous for many miracles previously performed.
[5] who at Constantinople on 6 Feb. The manuscript Synaxarium of our College of Clermont at Paris (which we are taught was from some Constantinopolitan church by as many arguments as the many dedications of the churches of Constantinople and the translations made there of sacred bodies, or their own festivities, are noted) on 6 February has these few words: Καὶ μνήμη τοῦ ὁσίου Βαρσανουφίου, "And the memory of Saint Barsanuphius." Now from this compendium of few words it is known to us, first that there was some cult of him at Constantinople, just as his image was depicted in the sanctuary; then that there was no life of him either written at all, or at least known at Constantinople, from which, according to the common style of Synaxaries, a more extensive eulogy might have been woven. at Oria venerated 8 Feb. and 30 Aug. Now with that cult which the Saint has at Constantinople on 6 February, it agrees well enough with what Ferrari in his General Catalogue has of the church of Oria in the Sipontine region, and what Ughelli attests in volume 9 of Italia Sacra, that there Saint Barsanuphius, or (as Ughelli writes) Barsanolphus, is venerated as Patron of that city on 8 February, the same month, and perhaps day, on which he was venerated in the East; because either the body was then solemnly elevated, or he himself died about that time. But the 30th day of August, on which they say the feast is again kept by the Oritans, we suspect to be the day of the body's translation to the West, or of its new finding and elevation; concerning which finding and elevation we shall treat below in §3.
CHAPTER II
A certain Life of Saint Barsanuphius, partly fabulous, partly uncertain.
[6] We have long had some Life of Saint Barsanuphius drawn from the Codex of Bödeken in the diocese of Paderborn by our Jean Gamans; which, while treating of Saint Dositheus in February, and also in the prætermissi of the 8th of the same month, we promised to give on this day. It is inscribed in that Codex, From Acts found in the Bödeken MS truly ancient, on the Ides of September, with the title "Saint Barsanofius the Confessor." That the author was some Cleric of the Church of Oria will be made probable from what will be said below. He wrote at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the following, and quite elegantly: you would think it translated from the Greek, because of the abundance of words and the liberty familiar to Greek writers of the 8th and 9th centuries of employing longer speeches, whether actually delivered or possibly delivered, between the persons of whom it treats. Yet that the writer used his own Latin style appears from the gradations, proper to no language but the Latin: as when Barsanuphius teaches his disciples that it is of fortitude, and written about 1200 at the encounter of the enemy, not to yield; but fighting bravely, to receive his blows, receiving them, to bear them patiently, bearing them, to persevere constantly to victory. This, however, does not prevent him from having had before his eyes some older life, written or dictated in the 9th century by that monk who brought the Relics to Oria: such, namely, as memory could suggest, relying on uncertain report and tradition and on the confidence of inventing something with impunity about a Saint whose Acts no one had written. Such a Life this more recent author followed with the greatest fidelity, only rendering it more elegant; we give only the history of the double translation adding what tradition received from his ancestors preserved about the first translation of the saint's Body, and what about the later translation he himself could more accurately remember. But these last alone seemed worthy of the press. For although in the Commentary and Annotations to the Life of Saint Dositheus in February we had tried, not yet having more deeply examined it, to accommodate the writing to the aforesaid Life; now, with more mature examination applied, we should wish in that Commentary a good part of numbers 4 and 5 to be struck out; and the whole narration about Saint Barsanuphius, as it is there explained from the Bödeken Codex, we judge should be cut from our work.
[7] For it makes Barsanofius (for so it is always here written) Egyptian by nation, because the Acts are fabulous, indicating neither his country but born in the town of Petrodus; such a place is not known to Egypt to have had: but πετρώδης seems to be an appellative indicating some rocky place, taken for a proper name. Then it makes two companions from Britain come to the same Barsanofius, as he was traveling to visit the holy places, Amonius and Akacius, which certainly does not fit. For whence to British youths, in that age, either Greek names, nor his companions or such knowledge of the Greek or Egyptian language that they could join themselves to an Egyptian man? Thence it sends them to the Egyptian solitude on a 40-day journey, by which even the most distant Syene could have been reached. Where, then, was the monastery of Abba Siridus, to be approached in only twenty days from the place where Barsanuphius was dwelling? as is said in the same Life, and whence to the holy city was again a journey of not a few days? nor do they plausibly indicate the place of his asceticism Surely somewhere in mid-journey, far beyond Palestine. But from the Life of Saint John the Almsgiver we know that the monastery of Saint Seridus or Seridon was in Gaza, or at least in the territory of Gaza, and there Evagrius also places Barsanuphius, not a full hundred miles from Jerusalem, which a not-very-swift traveler could easily measure within five or seven days. Nor, even supposing that something were to be consulted in common at Jerusalem (as here, sent for consultation in the name of all the Palestinian monks, gathered in the monastery of Saint Siridus, Barsanuphius is said to have been), were consultors to be summoned from foreign Patriarchates; which yet would follow, if such an enormous distance of the aforesaid monastery from the holy City were admitted.
[8] Here, indeed, where we touch upon the council gathered at Jerusalem by Theodore the Archbishop, [Barsanuphius is fictitiously said to have been sent by Theodore, Bishop of Jerusalem (who was then none)] on the occasion of letters sent from the orthodox who were at Constantinople to Palestine, by which it was signified that Justinian, zealous for heretics, was willing both to compel all others everywhere in the Empire to advance his dogmas, and to destine to Syria a certain Marius who should expel the resisting Clerics and laymen, monks and Bishops, into exile; with inevitable ruin of the Church, unless Barsanuphius sent from the council to Constantinople, having Justinian, subdued by a heavy disease, and ordered by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to obey, brought back to the right faith: here, I say, we hold the head of the whole fiction. For neither before the year 638, in which Saint Sophronius died, did any Theodore sit at Jerusalem: to have converted Justinian (who remained obstinate) nor did Justinian, after he had at length fallen into heresy in the year 563 (while as a layman he presumes to decree on points of the faith), cease to press the ill-begun business worse until the last moment of his life, happy if even then he had repented of the ecclesiastical quiet disturbed throughout the whole Empire; nor did Barsanuphius, after he had once enclosed himself in his cell, ever show himself to be seen by anyone for fifty years and more, as we know from the more certain testimony of Evagrius; but then, when the Emperor was raging against the Church, having died before this one reigned he must long before have departed from the living, as has been shown above.
[9] But how far removed from all verisimilitude is what is added? and from him to have obtained taxes of Palestine for the churches That Justinian, captivated by the miracles, sanctity, and eloquence of Barsanuphius, not only did with great devotion and joy whatever the Saint advised, but also added that all the revenues which were wont to be collected from the region of Palestine and deposited in his treasuries, should be distributed through the churches of Palestine, and concerning this matter handed over to Barsanuphius a chirograph strengthened with the imperial seal: by the force of which, as soon as he returned to Jerusalem, all the tributes and taxes which were wont to be paid to the collectors of the Palace, were promptly offered to the Bishop of Jerusalem, to be distributed at his discretion through all the churches. I omit other matters of less moment; such as, that of that Marius (who, destined for the persecution of the orthodox in Palestine, is feigned to have died raving on the way) no mention is anywhere found. Perhaps the occasion of inventing him could have been given by Marcellus, besides other doubts in the said Acts one of the promoters who urged the Prince to defend the error, and a little afterwards caught having hatched a conspiracy against the same, paid the penalties of wounded divine and human majesty with swift death, as Baronius teaches for the year 564. In a similar way certainly from Saint Mark, commended before Barsanuphius and Dorotheus in the testament of Saint Theodore, and conspicuous for sanctity of life and integrity of doctrine, Saint Marcellus seems to have been born, under whom the first novitiates of monastic life Saint Barsanuphius with his companions is feigned to have made in Palestine, and not until his death to have migrated back to Egypt.
[10] and mendacious Nor does it deserve refutation, that Barsanuphius, going to Constantinople and in the city which is called Galatia received by its Bishop in hospitality, made bread to abound in that house in which for a long time it had been entirely lacking. For what so great a scarcity of provisions can be conceived from the barrenness of one year, that not even a single loaf could be provided for so welcome a guest by the Episcopal table, or by the munificence of the citizens, provoked by such prodigies of miraculous healings, as is related in the Life? But who does not know that Galatia is not a city, but an entire region, in which there were several bishoprics? Perhaps for Galatia could be supposed Gabala, when it is said that Barsanuphius refused to consent to remain even for three days with the aforesaid Bishop, "because he was near Antioch, to which, arriving and finding a ship ready, within a few days he put into the port of the royal city, which is called New Rome." For Antioch of Syria was to be sought by him who would go to Constantinople by a maritime journey; and the diocese of Gabala must be crossed before the Metropolis (from which however Gabala is not far distant) was reached.
[11] Moreover, since this Life was never printed, we could forbear to refute it more laboriously, and therefore it is expedient to cut it out of this work were it not that we might seem in some way to have approved it in the commentary and notes to the Acts of Saint Dositheus, as has been premised: but we wish to abide by our proposal, often repeated, of retracting at a suitable opportunity whatever we find to have been wrongly said. It also helps from time to time to prove by example, on the one hand, how unwilling we are rashly to reckon among fabricated writings any Lives of Saints, approved either by the common people or by certain great men, and on the other, how we suffer ourselves to be led, by no regard to anyone's prejudice, not even our own, away from rejecting an acknowledged falsehood in that place where no further excuse remains for longer dissimulation: as has here happened to us, when we are expressly compelled to treat of Saint Barsanuphius, and has previously happened on various occasions, especially in the Acts of Saint Albert of Jerusalem, Legislator of the Carmelites, where we could not without censure let pass the commonly received Life of Saint Angelus the Carmelite, as contrary in many ways to the truth there demonstrated by us. When we do this, we not only do not fear lest anyone should think that all the other Lives of the Saints, or most of them, could be rejected with equal right if examined with like rigor; but on the contrary we think that much credit accrues to our work by this very thing, that we do not admit certainly fabricated and falsely attributed writings to testimony in any matter, especially a controverted one.
[12] That Palestinian monk, who first brought the Relics and notice of Saint Barsanuphius to the Oritans, although elsewhere certain things are mixed in seems to have drawn some things from the writings of Saint Dorotheus which, as we have suggested above, make express mention of Saint Barsanuphius. Such is that about the Xenodocheum, or rather Nosocomium, erected beside the monastery of Saint Seridus, and placed in charge of Dorotheus himself. And since it is certain that Saint Barsanufius was famous for many miracles, we do not wholly reject what is had in the Life, that in the same place a fountain was stirred up by his prayers for the use of the monastery, which was suffering from a lack of water; and that he himself gave Saint Seridus the counsel to build a Nosocomium there. That also Abba John took care of the body of the dead Barsanuphius his Master, he could have invented, or even read in other writings of Dorotheus which have now perished: since in the surviving Instructions so frequent and praised mention is made of Abba John, as a contemporary of Saint Dorotheus. Nor would it displease that he is said to have been found dead on bent knees, which taken separately may be true as is known of Paul the first Hermit, and of John of God on March 8, and of many other Saints, if we knew whence the author had received this. Say the same of the day of his death, which is assigned to September 13; and of the place of burial on Mount Calvary, to which, foreknowing his death, the Saint is said to have gone: until it shall appear on what grounds these things are related, mixed with other things so manifestly false, the more secure presumption will stand for the month of February, in which at Constantinople his commemoration was made, and the Oritans still celebrate his feast, Barsanufius was not a companion of Saint Cataldus but on the 8th day; and for the Gazan cell in which he lived enclosed; and there also I should prefer to suppose that Barsanuphius asked and received the last Sacraments from the priest of holy life Theoctistus, rather than in the Gethsemane Church of Saint Mary; yet this very thing, and the names of his parents, which are written to have been Elias and Eulampia, and several others, I am ready to believe, if they should some day be confirmed by a more ancient history and one unmixed with fables. But since such is not the Life of Saint Cataldus, Bishop of Tarentum, of which we must treat on May 8 or 10, we do not fear lest anyone should call into doubt whether the Barsanuphius praised by Evagrius is the same as he who is venerated as Patron of Oria; because in some Legend of Saint Cataldus it is said that Cataldus at Otranto enlisted as companions Saints Euprepius, Leucius, and Barsanofius, "who died an Abbot and Confessor in the city of Oria"; or lest on account of other similar Acts anyone should think that the said Barsanuphius was the first Bishop given to the Oritans by Cataldus, and that in the second century of the Christian era, to which whether Cataldus himself ought to be attributed we vehemently doubt.
CHAPTER III.
Double Translation of the Saint's Body.
[13] At Oria, the Episcopal city Between Brindisi and Tarentum is Uria, in Greek Οὐρία and Οὔρητον, an Episcopal city from ancient times, called Oria in these days, in the Salentini or ancient Iapygia, commonly called the Land of Otranto. This, as also almost all Magna Graecia, suffered immense calamities from the Saracens: for as is read in the Chronicle of Lupus Protospata, in the year 924 in the month of July, "Oria was captured, and they killed all the women, but the rest they led into Africa, selling all into slavery." And again, in the year 977 "the Hagarenes burned the city of Oria and led all the common people into Sicily." and after Brindisi was overthrown But before these things happened, Theodosius had held the Episcopal see there, who from the relics of Saint Leucius (after the overthrow by the Saracens about the year 828 of Brindisi, with them being carried to Trani; and the Metropolis of Trani itself being destroyed by the same Barbarians, and the relics transferred to Benevento) obtained half (for the Tranians had redeemed the other half with a given price) from the Prince of Benevento; and he restored them to the Brindisians, who were inhabiting the ruins of their native land under the appearance of a very small town until about the year 1000, no small consolation for their past disaster; as writes, in the booklet On the Translation of Saint Leucius to his Archbishop John at the beginning of the eleventh century, the Syncellus of that same Archbishop: which one may see published by us on January 11.
[14] Why, however, did the Bishop, most fond of sacred Relics, think of refreshing the Church of Brindisi with pledges of Saint Leucius restored, rather than adorning his own of Oria with the same? Unless because already then the Bishops were common to each city, and were called by both names? But because they dwelt at Oria, not at Brindisi, they were by foreigners called Oritans rather than Brindisians. held as an Archiepiscopal see They nevertheless abstained from the use of the Archiepiscopal title, as being of lesser estimation now. Hence from the monuments of the Church of Brindisi, Ughelli teaches that Bishop Mark, who sat about the year 1000, was accustomed to entitle himself "Lord of the holy See of Oria, Brindisi, and Ostuni or Monopoli," where, as you see, Brindisi is held in second place. The first to resume the title of Archbishop was Eustachius, and long united with Brindisi with the title of Oritanus nevertheless preserved; which title alone is found in the letters of Pope Urban II and Paschal II likewise, given to Godinus the successor of Eustachius. But after the same Godinus, constrained by Pontifical mandates, restored in the year 1099 to the Church of Brindisi, whose daughter it was agreed Oria was, the primacy taken away for 120 years, the city itself having been rebuilt by the aforesaid Lupus Protospata in the times of Urban II, Baldwin, the successor of Godinus, began, no longer residing at Oria but at Brindisi, to write himself "Archbishop of the Churches of Brindisi and Oria"; and the rest afterwards held to this manner of signing, until Gregory XIV, at the request of Philip II, separated the Churches; and wishing to impose an end to the dissensions and scandals arising from the long rivalry between the citizens of both cities, decreed that an Oritan Bishop (not indeed Archbishop, as the Oritans demanded), exempted from the authority of the Archbishop of Brindisi, should be created; and made him suffragan to the Archbishop of Tarentum.
[15] These things had to be premised to the history of the Translation of Saint Barsanuphius, which we shall soon give from the Bödeken manuscript, Bishop Theodosius, residing described by the same author from whom the Life is, together with the finding and second translation made in the year 1170. In these the author is more worthy of credit than in the Life, insofar as he writes things closer to his own times, some part of which he himself as a minister of the Church of Oria could have seen in person. For this is proved by the zeal of rivalry against the Brindisians, shining in this, that he calls Lupus or Luponus, under whom the sacred Relics were found, and by whose order they were translated by Peter, Bishop of Ostuni, only "Archbishop of Oria," with the title of Brindisi omitted, which he bore until the year 1172; he himself also, like many before and the rest after him, was accustomed to reside at Brindisi. about the year 850 We think moreover that Bishop Theodosius lived about the year 850 or 860, so that at least from his death to the first calamity of the city of Oria, 60 or 70 years intervened. The Account of the translation is as follows:
[16] "To the venerable Bishop Lord Theodosius, illumining the Seat of the Church of Oria with the splendor of his life, The Relics of Saint Barsanuphius brought from the East a certain religious monk of consummate virtue famed, to whom on account of the integrity of his merits had been entrusted the custody of the body of Saint Barsanofius, when, the Saracen perfidy raging, he knew that the whole region of Palestine was now being devastated, and saw the congregation in the oratory where the holy body was preserved, which fought for the Lord by the teachings and institutions of that same Saint, terrified by fear of death and now dispersed; fearing lest the most sacred body should be injuriously handled by profane nations and enemies of the Christian name, began to be anxious, deliberating with himself with the solicitude of watchful meditation, where so precious a treasure might be entrusted. And since in those parts no safe place seemed possible for this, at last divinely admonished by counsel, taking the holy Relics themselves, with the case in which they were contained, with worthy veneration, he crossed the Adriatic sea and transported them into the parts of Apulia.
[17] "And when he had learned many good things about the character and life of Lord Theodosius, He receives them solemnly and had understood that he had bestowed praiseworthy and worthy diligence in preserving the Relics of the Saints, judging that to no one could what he was carrying be more fittingly or more safely entrusted, he came to Oria; and as he approached the city, he took care that what he brought should be made known to the aforesaid Bishop. The Bishop, indeed, whose mind burned with zeal for collecting the bodies of Saints, affected by such and so grateful a report, the more certainly the more gladly, summoned all the Clergy and people of Oria, and with psalms and canticles and divine praises went out to meet the inestimable and heavenly gift; and learning that it was the body of Blessed Barsonofius, both from its titles and from certain proofs, receiving it with the greatest veneration, bore it upon his sacred shoulders as far as the gate called Hebraica. But when he wished to enter the walls of the city, what was being carried fixed the steps of the bearer, and being prevented from bringing them into the city so that no power at all was given them of moving and entering the city; so that it was most openly seen that he was rather carrying the Bishop, who was thought to be carried by the Bishop.
[18] "Terrified by this miracle, the Bishop, the Clergy astonished, and the people, searched among themselves with vehement and solicitous investigation what this sign portended. But all, taught by one and the same spirit, perceived the cause, because he preferred to have a dwelling prepared for himself outside the walls of the city. For when the city of Oria was sufficiently fortified within by the aid of the holy Mother and perpetual Virgin Mary, and also by the bodies of the holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria; the Saint judged it fitting to assume for himself the outer custody of the same city, and to grant the suffrage of his intercession against the manifold, a church is built under the Saint's name before the gate both visible
and invisible assaults of hostile wiles, to oppose as it were an unshakable wall. Having found therefore near the said gate a suitable and fit place for depositing the most holy body, they there placed it with worthy veneration and with the obsequies of cheerful and due reverence. Divine piety, in depositing the body of his elect, deigned to show many and the greatest virtues of miracles, and to bestow a copious grace of healings on all the sick who came thither, through his intercession. Wherefore, to the honor of God and of Saint Barsanofius, the aforesaid venerable Bishop founded a church and dedicated it with the most holy Relics themselves.
[19] "For the undoubted certainty of this matter and its perpetual memory, and for the continual veneration of the holy body, he caused a title to be placed over the entrance of the place in which the body itself is contained: in the church itself he established Clerics who should continually celebrate the divine Offices there, by whose humble and continual prayer the people of Oria might implore the help of so great a Patron, that by his intercession they might deserve to be freed from the snares of this world and to attain the joys of the supernal city." Thus far the history of the first Translation; when the Cathedral in the city held Saints Chrysanthus and Daria to which I observe that the ancient Cathedral church, built by Theodosius himself (which a column in the place where now is the most fortified citadel still testifies, inscribed with a distich that can be read in Ughelli), although it was consecrated in honor of the Virgin Mother of God, was nevertheless commonly accustomed to be called after the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, whose Relics had been placed there by the same Theodosius. Concerning these Martyrs we shall treat on October 25, where it will be indicated how many churches, having obtained some part of the Sacred Relics, boast of having their bodies; as happens here with the Oritans. For Ughelli, in volume 9, column 225, enumerating the sacred pledges preserved in the new cathedral, specifying those of which there are whole bones, namely the jaw of Saint Apollonia the Virgin and Martyr, the arm and some bones of Saint Barsanulphus the divine protector, the former is now held by the Minim Fathers two bones of the Holy Innocents—of the others he writes indistinctly that there are some Relics, also of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria. In the same place he says that the Church of Saint Barsanulphus, Patron of the city, is held by the Order of the Minims, where his sacred relics are believed to lie. This persuasion perhaps arose from this, that in the Cathedral, as we said, only certain bones are preserved; although otherwise it is credible that these almost alone, not indeed all the bones of the whole body, were transported by the aforesaid Monk. How they were found and translated after the restoration of the city follows in the Bödeken MS under this title: ITEM, A VERSE HOW HE WAS TRANSLATED FROM THE SAME PLACE.
[20] where, Oria being restored after the Saracen disaster "After the death of Lord Theodosius, the venerable Pontiff of Oria, who deposed the body of Blessed Barsanophius near the gate which is called Hebrea, with many courses of years having elapsed, when the city of Oria, her sins provoking God to wrath and demeriting the Saint's patronage, having been devastated by the immense cruelty of the Saracens, both Sicilian and African, and burned by the fiercest fires, having filled the savagery of the enemies with the blood of their sons and their greed with the loss of their goods, that most celebrated place, most worthy of every veneration, in which the most holy body of Blessed Barsanophius had been placed, came into such neglect, that scarcely would it be believed that so precious a treasure had been left in the same place. But when divine clemency, which in anger does not withhold mercy, wished mercifully to come to the aid of the people of that city, to reconcile itself to them, and to manifest that it had him as its mediator with it, it inflamed the mind of a certain Priest, by name Mark, who was continually and with fear given to divine service and a foster-son of the holy Mother Church of Oria, to inquire into the Relics of the aforesaid holy Father: who, admonished by a threefold revelation divinely, and assured by the same Saint often appearing to him in the same form in which he is depicted, Relics found through revelation already mentioned gave himself the more diligent to the zeal of pious investigation, the more certain the divine revelation had made him, the more devout the certainty, and the more instant the devotion.
[21] "Since therefore by God's inspiration he desired, by revelation he learned, and by the Saint's own assurance he knew the place in which his relics were hidden, with many fasts, constant psalms, and prayers, and continual vigils insisting, what by preventing heavenly grace he desired, by following up in desire he sought, by helping grace in seeking he persevered, by effecting grace in persevering he found: the incomparable Pearl, by the aforenamed Most Reverend Bishop of Oria Lord Theodosius, from many ages back, in the church which he dedicated to his name, had been deposited. they are translated to the new Cathedral This he manifested by secret revelation to the Clergy of the holy Mother Church; but the Clergy with great speed and joy of mind took care to make it known to Lord Lupo, Venerable Archbishop of Oria. But because, held back by ecclesiastical affairs and especially hindered by infirmity, he could not exhibit his presence to so great an office, he mandated that so worthy a work as translating the most holy body itself into the holy Mother Church of Oria be executed in his place by Lord Peter, Reverend Bishop of Ostuni, his most devoted son. He, by the authority of the aforesaid Bishop, bore the most sacred Relics themselves with fitting honor and solemnity into the aforesaid church of Saint Mary of the Archbishopric of Oria, in the year from the Incarnation of the Divine Word 1170, in the fifth year of the reign of our most excellent Lord King William, the year 1170 in the 27th year of the office of the aforesaid Lord Archbishop Lupo. In which church, by the working hand of Almighty God, he shines forth with frequent and the greatest virtues of signs, to the praise and glory of the Lord our Savior Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen."
[22] Thus far the notable and very old Bödeken Codex, written in a region accustomed to aspirating vowels and doubling liquids; whence in it is always written "Horritanus," the adjective derived from Oria or Uria, the city: which it was enough to have noted here. by Peter Bishop of Ostuni Since the Sicilian writers agree that William II, surnamed the Good, took up the kingdom in the year 1166, his fifth year agrees very well with the year of the aforementioned Translation; but as to the year of his pontificate, either in noting its beginning in Ughelli, 1145 crept in erroneously for 1147, or here instead of 27, 25 ought to have been written. In the same place the aforesaid Lupo is said to have sat until the year 1173. The same Ughelli could deduce the series of the Bishops of Ostuni only from the year 1329, but he had notice of some preceding from old monuments, namely of Dattus, who in the year 1071 was present at the dedication of Monte Cassino; then of another anonymous, who with his Metropolitan Archbishop of Brindisi honored the translation of Saint Nicholas Peregrinus at Trani in the year 1143; and of Maroldus, who in the year 1185 signed a certain donation made by Count Tancred. Among these this Peter may be placed, as the immediate predecessor of Maroldus, who also may be believed to have seen to it that from the Relics found and translated by him some particles were sent to Brindisi to the Archbishop, mention of which is made in the Catalogue of Relics of the metropolitan church of Brindisi, printed at Rome after the Offices of the Patrons of that Church in the year 1583.