ON BLESSED RAYNER THE SOLITARY
at Osnabrück in Westphalia.
PrefaceRayner the Solitary, at Osnabrück in Westphalia (Bl.)
G. H.
[1] When from two hundred years ago the art of printing began to grow throughout Europe, there were various men eminent in learning and piety, who to amplify the honor of the Saints published various Acts of the Saints, and not only of some Saints in particular,
but generally of any Saints they made into collections. So Boninus Mombritius of Milan published two illustrious volumes on the Saints: His Life formerly published, and another in lower Germany collected the histories of very many Saints; of which we know two editions, one from Cologne of the year 1483, the other from Louvain of the year 1485. In this at folio 53 and the following are contained the Acts of St. Reyner the Confessor, Solitary in the city of Osnabrück, as the title is written. Which things translated thence about him we give here, to us also in manuscript by the Lord Bernard Schenckinck, Scholastic of Osnabrück and Canon of Minden, have been transmitted. The same Life of the said Reyner, but contracted, from MS was published by Franciscus Haraeus in the Lives of the Saints on this April 11, and he calls him Blessed.
[2] In the MS Florarium of Saints the memory of this man on this April 11, on which he died, is assigned in these words: "In the city of Osnabrück of Blessed Reyner the Solitary and Confessor." Memory in the Martyrologies. Greven the Carthusian of Cologne, in the Auctuarium of Usuard published in the year 1515 and 1521, adorns him with this eulogy: "Likewise of blessed memory Reyner the Solitary, who enclosed at the Church of Osnabrück, shone forth greatly in life and miracles." Which things by the same phrase are described and published by Molanus in the additions to Usuard, Gelenius in the Cologne Calendars, and Canisius in the German Martyrology. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue has these things: "At Osnabrück in Germany of St. Raynerius the Solitary." In the same way with the title of Saint he honors him Peter Cratepol, in his booklet on the Saints of Germany, where on page 130 he writes thus: "St. Reyner in the church of Osnabrück shone with miracles in life and in death." The same things the same Cratepol repeats in the Annals of the Bishops of Osnabrück, His age. in Bishop 12 Warmod. But Reyner lived much later under Gerbard of Lippe, and by him in his enclosure was established in the time of Pope Innocent III, who sat from the year 1198 until 1216. He lived however enclosed for 22 years, having died according to Haraeus about the year 1237, when the said Gerbard, by others Gerard, was living as Archbishop of Bremen, translated to this See from Osnabrück: in whose time the Life of Blessed Rayner is seen to have been first written, by an author almost contemporary, as Haraeus judges.
[3] Arnold Wion, citing only Molanus and Cratepol, inscribes in his monastic Martyrology of the Benedictine Order Rayner the Solitary; Whether he belongs to the Benedictines? they followed the footsteps of Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, Bucelinus, who also cites his Benedictine Annals. Present with him in sickness were the Friars Preachers, and at his death Ernest Prior of the Preachers of Bremen, John Dean of Osnabrück, and others; nor is any mention anywhere made of the Benedictine Order. John vande Velde in his Westphalian Calendars, not yet published, on this day mentions St. Reyner of Osnabrück. No Ecclesiastical Office is made of him. In the year 1652 were published, by the authority and order of Franz Wilhelm of Ratisbon and Osnabrück (afterwards Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church) the proper Offices of the Church and diocese of Osnabrück, but without any mention of this Solitary Rayner: which is a sign that in his honor no Ecclesiastical Office hitherto has been celebrated. Nevertheless, some yearly memory, and indeed by vow, is wont to be made by the Canons, in the same manner and rite as of deceased Bishops, the Life indicates: but what this manner was, we have not yet learned. Moreover Osnaburg or Osnabrük is a most notable city of Westphalia, and an Episcopal one.
LIFE
From MS and ancient edition.
Rayner the Solitary, at Osnabrück in Westphalia (Bl.)
BHL Number: 7083
FROM MS.
[1] Blessed Reyner, the faithful servant of God, from childhood inflamed with the zeal of devotion, lived so innocently and praiseworthily, that the light divinely conferred on him shone before all the men with whom he conversed: and what he had as diligent meditation in the precepts of God, from the abundance of his heart all his conversation was in the precepts of the Most High. Who in manly age, Enclosed at Osnabrück for 22 years: useful to all. under Pope Innocent III, through the venerable Father Gerberd Archbishop of Bremen, then Bishop of Osnabrück, with much devotion and reverence was enclosed in an enclosure, beside the door of the greater Church of Osnabrück. In which for twenty-two years he lived so contemplatively, that in him was found fulfilled the saying of the Apostle: "Our conversation is in heaven." Phil. 3:20 They know it also and bear witness, not only religious, but also many laity, who by his words and examples less devout were stirred to devotion, but the more devout to greater devotion. Even seculars, the powerful and given to the world, whom with much simplicity he was wont to warn, and for their vanities and insolences with much gentleness to rebuke, were corrected at his simple admonition.
[2] But the blessed man Reyner wore on his flesh a military coat-of-mail, and over the coat-of-mail a garment of very coarse sackcloth, from which inwardly he sustained the greatest and constant inconvenience. He is clothed with a coat-of-mail and iron chains, Over which he had another covering of iron chains, cross-latticed in the manner of a net, very heavy, which a tunic of baser cloth covered: but in the winter time, necessity compelling, he used a pellice of skins, under which nevertheless his body rarely or never was warmed. Besides the above-mentioned burdens, his limbs, as much as he could, he had weighed down with individual iron pieces: for he had loaded his neck, arms, breast, legs individually, in memory of the Passion of Christ. not with single but with many chains and other iron pieces, which even now at his sepulcher are found and shown. Moreover he punished his little toes with iron and hair rings. And when he was asked by one, why he did these things, he answered: "As our Lord Jesus Christ in all his limbs suffered for me, so I also would wish to suffer in all my limbs."
[3] At no time, however much infirm, did he feed on flesh or dairy, nor even on fish, except on the chief feasts; and difficultly then with the counsel of his Priest did he use fish. He fasts most strictly: On Sundays he ate of one dish, namely vegetables and garlic, on the third feria and fifth similarly; but on the second feria, fourth, and Sabbath, with bread and ale; on the sixth feria and Vigils and Ember days with simple rye bread and water content he was. Even to eat wheat bread on workdays seemed to him too delicate.
[4] Under the aforesaid burdens, supported by divine help, above what the human heart can comprehend, he labored in prayers in this manner. He pours forth very many prayers, Every day the Hours of the day, of the Holy Spirit, and of the Blessed Virgin, and also the Psalter and Vigils and other special prayers, which for his familiars living and deceased he was wont to make, he fulfilled in his own way. About which he was detained for so long, that even in the summertime, when the days are longer, scarcely was there time for him to eat. On account of which also he rarely put himself to sleep: but wherever sleep caught him, there sitting he rested. Nevertheless he had a bed, in which he had placed some wood crosswise, and a mat above, on which he was wont to lie; so that not even the time of rest might be without merit. At his head in place of a pillow he had the hardest wood, and sleeps on a hard bed. in which he had made a hollow, which could contain only his head. In time of infirmity scarcely compelled by his Confessor was he induced to place a little straw under his head. And if sometimes in time of infirmity, by the precept of his Superior, he ate dairy or fish, after recovering bodily health he abstained from the said foods for as many days.
[5] But he kept silence with such solicitude that he rarely spoke, except with religious or very familiar friends; He strictly keeps silence, knowing that of every idle word an account is to be rendered on the day of judgment. Wherefore that he might beware of superfluous words, he held a stone in his mouth; which, lest beyond need or utility from human frailty he should bring forth anything, imposed silence on him. He was also wont to indicate to men by nods and signs what things were necessary to him, but few or none understood his signs: on account of which also very often in his necessities he had want, so that sometimes for several days he remained without all food, because without great necessity he did not speak, except on feast and solemn days. And those words which on the said days either in the honor of God or for the correction of his neighbor he spoke, on the next day he confessed, fearing he had brought them forth less usefully. And because he acknowledged a fault where there was no fault, he was very solicitous about confession. He confessed every Sunday and on other feasts, when he prepared himself to receive the Body of the Lord: he often confesses: which he was wont to receive with much devotion. He confessed also every second feria, fourth, and sixth. But his confession was about very small or trivial things, as about negligences and dreams, which to himself however he reputed great and difficult. Also on each day of work, not only with bent knees, but also with his whole body prostrated, he prayed three hundred times to the Lord. Sometimes also he had labored with his knees, because a certain corrupt and gross flesh had grown out of his knee; not however on this account, although he suffered much, did he cease from genuflection. He chastised also his body, where it could be touched, not with rods but with straps: in which he had tied knots, which by his Confessor were found bloody, and grievously chastises the body. when compelled he showed him the straps.
[6] But when the Lord had decreed to put an end to such labors, the time of his death was divinely revealed to him. Who beginning to enter the way of all flesh, when for some days he had lain in bed, the enclosure being opened, the Convent of the church, with certain Friars Preachers and other Religious, with due reverence, sick he is strengthened with the last Sacraments. placed upon him the Sacrament of extreme Unction, administering it to him. Which when he had received with his much and accustomed devotion, in the same devotion, even until the time of his death he remained possessed of his mind in all things. He dies on April 11. Present at his agony and glorious death were Ernest, Prior of the Friars Preachers of Bremen, with his companion, John Dean of Osnabrück, and several other Clerics and religious laymen. On the 3rd of the Ides of April therefore he happily migrated to the Lord.
[7] He shines with miracles. But when the servant of God had now breathed out his spirit with the said ones present; Hermann a Canon and Priest of the greater church was suffering such pain of teeth, that from the mind's pain madness was feared: who with his jaw placed above the jaw of the dead man, from the present vehement pain, by the merits of the man of God, was mercifully liberated at once. A certain woman, finding her child drowned in the waters, began with lamentation to cry out, and to invoke divine help and the suffrage of Brother Reiner, together with her other faithful neighbors. And behold the boy, who at summer time about the ninth hour had been drowned,
found about vespers, by the merits of the servant of God revived.
The Prioress of Querenheim, of the Order of St. Augustine, was freed from the stone by the merits of St. Reyner.
A certain man hurt by the bite of a spider had come to such pain, that he could scarcely speak, and from the vehemence of the poison swollen feared to die. Whose brother asked those who were around the sick man, to entreat God and Brother Reyner for him, and to vow, if he should be restored to health, that he would visit his sepulcher with five companions. He also urged the sick man to devotion with signs and shouts: for he had been almost deaf before the infirmity for a long time. The vow being made, it seemed to the sick man that a certain Religious, as if an Enclosed one, came to him: whose even footstep as he approached he heard: who touched with his hand the neck of the sick man, very swollen, hard, yet without pain, saying: "You are restored to health." And so it was done. For he at once received the hearing which he had long lacked; and the pain of the swelling from the poison quieted. A certain nun held a needle in her mouth, which by chance slipped into her throat: from which when she was greatly tormented, she began with her companions to invoke the help of St. Reyner. And behold, through the way which it had entered, the needle miraculously went out. The Canons also of the Church of Osnabrück, placed in a certain necessity, vowed to God and to Brother Reyner, that if from the same necessity they should be freed, every year they would solemnly make his memory, as of a Bishop. Immediately therefore the vow being made, all things which they desired prosperously happened to them. Many other miracles also done by him and written down, for the sake of brevity, because they are as it were innumerable, know here to be omitted.
April 2 — April 12
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