ON SAINT PATERNUS BISHOP OF AVRANCHES AND SAINT SCUBILIO HIS COMPANION,
IN MODERN NORMANDY.
AROUND A.D. 565.
PrefacePaternus, Bishop of Avranches, in modern Normandy (St.)
Scubilio, his companion, in modern Normandy (St.)
G. H.
At Avranches, an Episcopal city in the second Lyonese Province, under the Archbishop of Rouen in present Lower Normandy, situated not far from the Ocean and Brittany, Saint Paternus is honored with solemn cult on this day, who in the sixth century of Christ was Bishop there, having been taken from being Abbot of Sesciacum. Sesciacum monastery; Where Sesciacum was, by some called Scisciacum, is not equally clear. Arthur du Moustier in Pious Neustria, page 67, thinks it was an island of the sea near the region of Coutances, called by the ancients Caesarea, now Jersey or Gersay, it is not in the Jersey island, and with the neighboring island Guernsey, subject to the dominion of the King of England. But the Acts stand against this, in which Saints Paternus and Scubilio are said
to have resolved to go to a certain island, but recalled from that intent, to have betaken themselves to Sesciacum: where both were afterwards buried. Considering all things, we think the name Sesciacum has perished, and the parish of Saint Paternus has succeeded in its place, but it is the parish of Saint Paternus, for the reverence of whom the Deanery of Saint Paternus, among other Deaneries of the diocese of Coutances, has taken its name, although it contains under it Granville, a fortified little city on the sea, from which, toward Avranches, the said parish of Saint Paternus, commonly called Saint Pair, is not far distant. Ordericus Vitalis in book 13 of the Ecclesiastical History, under the year 1137, relates that at Saint Paternus there was a most strong fortification, fortified by a certain Richard, surnamed Silvanus, with robbers gathered from every quarter: and that the village of Saint Paternus was delivered to the flames against him by a cohort of soldiers. That the said parish of Saint Paternus was subjected by Richard II Duke of Normandy to the Abbot of Saint Michael on the Mount, subject to the Abbot of Saint Michael on the Mount. is related in Pious Neustria, and that from him, by right of patronage, they received their parish priests. Mabillon adds in notes to the supplement of the 1st century that there are seen there to this day the cenotaphs of Saints Paternus and Scubilio, and in the same place, in the year 1664, on September 1, the body of Saint Gaudus Bishop of Évreux was discovered, of whom we treated on the last day of January, whence the ancient celebrity of the place is confirmed.
[2] Saint Paternus born around the year 480, Saints Paternus and Scubilio were contemporaries with Saint Benedict, Abbot of Monte Cassino, and as he chiefly in Italy, so they in neighboring dioceses listed below, founded various monasteries. Both were born around the year 480, as we judged of Saint Benedict: Scubilio perhaps before the said year, but after the same Saint Paternus. Their spirits coalesced in the monastery of Ansion in the diocese of Poitiers; from which they went off to the region of Coutances, and before the aforesaid Sesciacum they dwelt. Saint Paternus was consecrated a Presbyter by Leontianus Bishop of Coutances, ordained Presbyter around 510, perhaps about the 10th or 12th year above the five-hundredth, at which time the said Bishop flourished. Paternus went on with Scubilio in the erection of various monasteries, until at seventy years of age he was taken as Bishop of Avranches. He had as predecessor Aegidius, Bishop around 552, who signed the Council of Orléans in 547, whom he seems to have succeeded about the year 552, and afterwards about the year 556 to have been present at the Third Council of Paris, and finally in the year 565 to have passed his last day on April 15 or 16. died around 565. Easter had then been celebrated on April 5, the cycle of the Moon being 15, of the Sun 14, the Dominical letter D. Now on the day next after Easter, Saint Paternus departed for Sesciacum, and was struck with illness, to whom Saint Lauto Bishop of Coutances came, unaware of the illness, and stayed with the sick man for eight days, was present at his death, and performed his funeral rites: when also the body of Saint Scubilio, who had died at the same time, was brought; and was buried together with the body of Saint Paternus. Charles le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks rejects the death of both into the year 563, because in that year, the Dominical letter being G, the sixteenth day of April fell on a Monday. But none of these things are said in the Acts. He began to grow ill the day after Easter, therefore in the said year in which Easter was celebrated on March 25, for three whole weeks he would have lain sick before his death, which we do not gather from the Acts: if this were established elsewhere, or at least we knew on what foundation the Saint is said to have died on April 16, a Monday, we would gladly accede to that opinion.
[3] The Life of Saint Paternus, in which the deeds of Saint Scubilio are contained, was published by Laurentius Surius, who considers it written faithfully enough, but in a very obscure style, The Life is given from manuscripts, and so, for the reader's benefit, made the discourse somewhat more Latin. We give it in its original form, found in several manuscripts, namely in the Trier manuscript of Saint Maximinus, in the Rouen manuscript of the church of Saint Vivian, in the Dijon manuscript of the library of Lord Councillor de Bojer, and in another of the Most Serene Christina Queen of Sweden marked number 528, and in these two the whole Prologue of Fortunatus was, who in the last codex is called Bishop. We have moreover the same Life, but in a more obscure style, written by Fortunatus; from the Boddeken manuscript among the Paderborn people, so that it seems Surius used a similar copy. The same Life, but very contracted, was published from manuscript codices by Luc d'Achery in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of Saint Benedict, first century, page 152, and afterwards whole from the manuscript of Sir d'Herouval in the Supplement of the same century, page 1100, appended at the end of volume 2. There lived in the same sixth century Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus, who, leaving his native soil, came from Italy to Gaul about the year 562, and was very dear to many Bishops, and at Poitiers, whence he was born, fixed his see, and afterwards was Bishop. There exist two poems of his to Paternus, whom Brower, and others following him, thought to have been the holy Bishop of Avranches; which is not sufficiently clear; at least in the title he is nowhere called Bishop, but in the former, or at least emended: which is in book 3, chapter 32, is called Abbot, whom he could not have recognized as such, especially that he should offer the emendation of his codex to him then an old man. He may rather have written his Life, or emended one written by another, even before he was made Bishop of Poitiers.
[4] That ancient veneration was shown to Saints Paternus and Scubilio, the Martyrology of Saint Jerome indicates, enlarged in the illustrious monastery of Fontenelle on the river Seine, built by Saint Wandregisilus: cult 15 from which the Lucca copy was transcribed, illustrated with distinguished Notes by Francesco Maria Fiorentini: in which on April 15 these words are read intruded: "The deposition of Saint Paternus the Bishop and Scubilio the Abbot." That these things are taken of these Saints cannot be doubted. We have printed at volume 2 of March the genuine Martyrology of Bede from eight manuscript codices, of which two are from the Tournai and Lobbes manuscripts, in which on this April 16 these things are read: "In the region of Coutances, the deposition of Saint Paternus the Bishop and Confessor." It is not only Sesciacum where he was deposited, but also the Episcopal city of Avranches in the region or jurisdiction of Coutances. The same is referred on the said April 16 in the manuscript Martyrology of Brussels of Saint Gudula, Molanus, and others with the Roman Martyrology. Saussay adorns both with a great elogy, and April 16. taken from the Surian Acts, thinking that on the second day of Easter he was translated to the heavenly seats and the joys of immortal life, and indeed on April 16, which under the reign of Childebert happened only in the year 518 and 529, and after his reign in the year 591, which years cannot be assigned to his death, as is clear from the things said above. The Sainte-Marthe brothers observe in the Bishops of Avranches, that in the diocese of Avranches and in that of Coutances, many basilicas were dedicated to God under the auspices of Paternus: and in the church of Saint Paternus there still lie Saints Paternus and Scubilio, celebrated for daily miracles. churches dedicated to him, relics preserved. But Saussay relates that the body of Saint Paternus, lest it be exposed to Danish depredation, was carried to Aquitaine, and laid in the city of Issoudun of the Bituriges in a basilica of his own name, in which today, as throughout the whole Bishopric of Avranches, his sacred memory is celebrated with due cult. Whether afterwards the body was brought back, or some of his relics are kept in both places, let those inquire among themselves who claim possession. Saint Paternus the Bishop and Confessor is venerated in the church and diocese of Avranches with an Ecclesiastical office under a double rite of the second class. Next to this city lies the parish called the Valley of Saint Paternus, near the sea.
[5] cult among the Poitevins, In the manuscript Florary of Saints and the Auctarium of Grevenus to Usuard he is called Bishop of Poitiers, whom it is better in the Poitevin Litanies is invoked as Saint Paternus Bishop of Avranches, and Castaneus de la Rochepozay Bishop of Poitiers, in his notes to the said Litanies, Orléanais, has his elogy for April 16. In the city of Orléans there is a parochial church dedicated to Saint Paternus, as also among the same Orléanais some Priory of the Order of Saint Benedict. Le Mans, In the city of Le Mans, Saint Aldric built a church of Saint Stephen, and on the left side of the Church consecrated a third altar, and placed in it the relics of Saint Paternus and of other Saints. Also in the diocese of Le Mans, not far from Alençon, there is a parish of Saint Paternus, and a Priory of Saint Paternus. Ferrarius in the general Catalogue ascribes to the city of Orange near Avignon on this day also a Saint Paternus Bishop: but he is no other than Saint Paternus of Avranches, the cities in French Avranches and Orange not being sufficiently distinguished. and the Benedictines. Both Saints Paternus Bishop of Avranches and Scubilio Abbot are inscribed in the Benedictine Martyrologies of Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, and with a very long encomium in the Menology of Bucelinus. His Life also, as we have said, d'Achery mingled into the Acts of the Saints of the Order of Saint Benedict: but in the Index of Saints before the first volume he did not prefix an asterisk, by which he signified that he was not admitted by him among the true disciples of Saint Benedict, who is venerated on September 23, which is sufficiently clear from the things said above.
[6] Another controversy arises, whether Saint Paternus, referred by various writers to September 23, is the said Bishop of whom we here treat. The manuscript Martyrology of Usuard, which is preserved at Paris in the monastery of Saint Germain des Prés, where he lived and wrote, has this: "In the territory of the city of Avranches, of Saint Paternus Bishop and Confessor." The same is contained in our ancient manuscript, written under the name of Bede six hundred years ago; and in the Utrecht manuscript of the Church of Saint Mary, written five hundred years ago. But because the monastery Sesciacum, in which Saint Paternus Bishop of Avranches died, was in the diocese of Coutances, in other manuscripts of Usuard it is commonly read: "In the territory of the city of Coutances, of Saint Paternus Bishop and Confessor." So also have Bellinus, Molanus, Maurolycus, he is not rightly called different from him and Bishop of Coutances. Galesinius, and many others, with the Hagiology of Franco-Gallia, from the ancient Martyrology edited by Philip Labbe. In the German manuscript of Canisius these things are subjoined: "Likewise of Saint Scubilio the Confessor, and disciple of Saint Paternus the Bishop." The same things of both are read in Grevenus in the Auctarium of Usuard: and with somewhat larger elogy of Saint Paternus in the manuscript Florary. These things have been deduced more at length, because, the aforesaid Usuard being cited, these are read on the said September 23 in the present Roman Martyrology: "In the territory of Coutances, of Saint Paternus Bishop and Martyr," and in the notes these things are added: "He is placed here as the first Bishop of that See in the Tables of the Church of Coutances, which Demochares described in the book
On the Sacrifice of the Mass. But it is human, among many studies, for memory to be sometimes buried, and to err in some things." There exists a Catalogue of the Bishops of Coutances in Demochares, book 2, page 39, and 72 Bishops are numbered without mention of any Paternus; but the first are Ereptiolus, Exuperantius, Leonatus, Possessor, etc. The same are also reported by Claudius Robertus and the Sainte-Marthes in Gallia Christiana, nor do they mention Paternus; of whom also no mention is made in the Breviary of Coutances which we have printed there in 1609. Saussay on the said September 23 writes these things of a single Paternus: "On the same day in the territory of Coutances, the re-laying of Saint Paternus Bishop of Avranches and Confessor, whose blessed transit is venerated on April 16."
LIFE
By Fortunatus the Bishop
From various manuscript codices.
Paternus, Bishop of Avranches, in modern Normandy (St.)
Scubilio, his companion, in modern Normandy (St.)
BHL Number: 6477
BY FORTUNATUS BISHOP, FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] To the holy Lord and venerable by merits, to be embraced with the whole bosom of the heart as Father in Christ, a Marcianus the Abbot, the humble Fortunatus. He gives testimony of great charity, whose care for his friend death does not take away even after the sepulchre. For he who seeks to have the fame of a lover after death, strongly loves the very memory in the dead: and so the affection of the living drinks him in with whole breast, whom not even buried has oblivion taken from his speech. At whose request's urging, most venerable Father, you did not delay to enjoin upon us to promulgate in some page a something concerning the so celebrated opinion of blessed Paternus. Who certainly, an Apostolic man, is neither with you in oblivion nor with us absent in virtue: since by sacred acts he now rather possesses the true life, in which death does not find what to extinguish; nor has it further power to hurt, since under the foot of the Just One she rather succumbs, and is crushed by the heel, which once was in fear, though confident, a suppliant to him, because she looks upon in glory him whom she once assailed, applauding: and rather, the order being reversed, b death has learned to fear the dead man. Which work, c though unequal to this, because you have commissioned it to me, yet I shall most willingly undertake in obedience and transcribe into your claims: because with one who loves, to wish is enough if to be able is lacking: for where charity is devout, the will is greater than the capacity: for he wishes to please wholly, who for the sake of obedience surpasses even his own strength. Hence because it stretches beyond itself and aims at more than it has power, love has no measure. Thus because by love I profess myself debtor in those things which are above me, as much as I shall be able I shall procure to pay the interests of affection: yet even when I shall have paid, I owe more; since to charity what is owed is never wholly rendered. d The praiseworthy deeds of religious men, matured under the increasing advance of virtue, and brought up to the fullness of sacred blessing by venerable riches, have been declared to us by the testimony of faithful miracles of time already past, and fixed in the living eyes of the mind, even if they be not kept in writings: because he does not need an outside witness, who excels by the testimonies of domestic glory. Yet because the devout flock is strengthened by the suffrage of its Shepherd, as often as it is refreshed by the hearing of his premised virtues: e those things which have come to our knowledge concerning the deeds and conversation of the blessed Bishop Paternus, for the benefit of the hearers, we are at pains, in whatever way, to set forth.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
Birth, monastic life in his homeland and the Coutances region.
[2] Paternus piously educated The most sacred Paternus, a Poitevin, a citizen of the Aquitanian region, begotten, according to the order of the world, of noble parents formerly engaged in public administration, was brought up in holy morals. He was nourished by his mother Julitta a, a widow of nearly sixty years; by heavenly inspiration, from his first infant years, he took upon himself the reins of a mature life, and sought the habit of monk in the monastery of Ansion b to bear the yoke of the Lord's tillage. he becomes a monk, Who soon, being deputed by his Abbot to the dispensing of the cellar, in that very first grade gave an indication that by the Lord's disposition he was soon to be a Bishop governing many things. When his mother, the little one being already converted, wished to make him a tunic, she placed the warped web by chance upon the roof c. Which being stolen by a bird, which is called a kite, and carried to its nest, after the space of a year being fulfilled, was found uncorrupted: so that neither the winter rain nor the heat of summer had loosened the warp by rotting its thread; but it remained whole, as if just then proceeding hanging from the hand of the woolworker with turning spindle.
[3] While from this he was extending himself to greater virtue still in the years of adolescence, Saints Paternus and Scubilio and was leaping over the boundary of perilous age, taking counsel with Scubilio, a monk of the same cell, for the love of Christ, leaving their parents, they chose willingly to become pilgrims in the region of Coutances d with equal companionship, carrying only a Psalter. depart into the region of Coutances: Then Saint Scubilio, although he was the elder, seeing Saint Paternus much to be honored for his merits, sent his e pallium to him as brother to be made equal with himself. To whom, when they had resolved to go to a certain island, on account of love of solitude, that there, far from the world, being near to God they might be free, they were recalled from this intent f by a certain holy, noble, and God-fearing man, who asked them to go to Sesciacum g, to convert the people of the place from their superstition and idolatry, to Sesciacum and to teach them the faith of Jesus Christ. Then therefore, going toward a h cave, they found a great blind people, celebrating their orgies and festivals of the gods: whom they zealously exhorted to leave their idols, and to adore the true God, that they might be saved, they teach idolaters the faith of Christ: and to receive baptism, for the sake of him who made them. But that accursed people, maliciously closing their ears to such holy and saving admonitions, spurned their discourse, and with great obstinacy performed the horrible sacrifices of their demons. Nevertheless, Saint Paternus and Saint Scubilio, fortifying themselves with the sign of the Cross, armed with constancy and the shield of faith, with their staves overturned the pots and kettles, they overturn pots and kettles, in which those wretched idol-worshippers were cooking meats which they had dedicated to the images. For the men of God did not fear for their lives, but, animated by zeal for the Christian faith and the glory of God, they longed to shed their blood for Jesus Christ. Yet, ready to undergo martyrdom: although the barbarous multitude was copious, and could easily have killed them, God nevertheless sent such horror into it, that both returned to their cave safe and sound. i
[4] But yet it is true, that a shameless and brazen woman, to affect them with shame, with her garments raised from behind, showed them her backside. a woman insulting them is punished. Which God did not let pass with impunity: for her buttocks immediately putrefied with innumerable ulcers, which could not be healed until pardon was asked from the servants of God.
[5] Saint Paternus was above all merciful and ready with alms, according to his power. For when in his cell he once had nothing but half a loaf for himself and his companion, he gave it to a poor man: whence Scubilio, angry for a while, grieved, giving a loaf in alms, because he was beginning to be hungry, and did not know whence he would have. Nor did he allow him to suffer hunger: but imparted food to the hungry man. For without delay, k Witherius, their first disciple, in the evening fasts, brought copious gifts, and multiplied the food of the deferred refection; and thus within the moment of an hour, what they needed, they receive food, with great joy they received. So, refection being accomplished, the liquid of water was lacking to those greatly thirsting: for the more flesh desires drinks, the more satiety after food burns. Soon, poured forth in prayer, they beseech Christ to grant water to his servants in the desert, and drink from a fountain raised up. who gave to the Israelitic peoples water in abundance from the hardest rock in Horeb. Hence, with prayers heard nearby by the ears of divinity, as Blessed Paternus touched the ground with his staff, a fountain burst forth from the depth, and so suddenly leaped up, as though another Moses with piercing rod had drawn water from the stone.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Virtues, Priesthood, and miracles of Saint Paternus.
[6] As the fame of this matter increased, their venerable man, Abbot Generosus a, after three years, went forth to seek the monks Saint Paternus found by his former Abbot, so well fugitives to Christ. Having found them, he perceived that Saint Paternus had ascended into a very strenuous life, such that besides bread and water, or herbs seasoned with salt, he took no food. He removed his sight not only from the presence of women, but even of friends, in too great austerity of life, that, removed from all, he might better await the Angelic comings, and increase in divinity what was lacking in the man. Never using a little bed, knowing nothing of bedding, never reclining on feathers, content with one garment by day and night, in place of soft wool he clothed himself with hairy sackcloth: he is ordered to moderate the matter; so that between hours of sleep and
quiet there might be no rest of the body, and with the order changed, even after the day was spent, night would succeed in labor. His Abbot, seeing that this was beyond the mark of the Rule, called him back as it were an unruly horse to b moderate fasts, commanding him not to be so hard-shut-in as to defraud himself of the sight or conversation of men. Moreover, that the cells which he himself had built, he should visit c in alternating rounds. Concerning whom, because he was of good parents, testimony was given both by the Bishop d Leontianus and by the citizens. e Commending him in his place, recalling Blessed Scubilio with him to the monastery, after a brief interval he permitted him to return to his brother.
[7] Thereafter, the man of God Paternus, made Deacon and Presbyter by Saint Leontianus, is made Deacon and Presbyter: as much as he grew in dignity, so much more he honored himself in virtues. With its twin cultivators, such fruit of grace, born of the seed of the word, was growing up at Sesciacum, that a shrine of profane worship, snatched from men, was dedicated to hearts, and an insensate place became the tillage of living beings. The cave, moreover, which received such dwellers, began to give forth the fragrance of so noble a flower, that, as though born and nourished with the nectar of all religiosity from a father's foundation and a mother's cradle, he establishes many monasteries: many swarms of monks were poured out. Finally, through the cities of f Coutances, Bayeux, Le Mans, Avranches, and Rennes, many monasteries were founded for the Lord through him, whose faith shone through works by signs from the Lord, and whose holy life through signs.
[8] And so at Sesciacum, on one occasion, a certain g Arastes offered him his maidservant, dumb in the use of her tongue. he restores speech to the dumb, Then the holy man, touching the place of the girl's lips with his hand, saw that he could not at all open the tightness of her teeth. Soon, blessing oil, when he anointed the joints of her jaws, at once they gave way, as though fragments of chains had been dashed together. So, placing the said liquid in her mouth, he asked what she had, that she should be silent? To which, the things which as mute she had kept silent, she answered in words.
[9] Likewise, when he departed from Sesciacum to Avranches, he asked Brother Scubilio to allow him to take with him two young pigeons, the pigeons denied by Saint Scubilio, which he himself had nourished. Which he denied, saying: "In place of your presence let me keep at least the relics of your pigeons." To whom Paternus said: "Let them remain with the one they love more." When he had arrived at the monastery at a distance of nearly 18 miles; he receives them following of their own accord: on the next day there, those two pigeons quickly ran to meet him, as though to follow the traces of his journey where they saw no signs. Thus the birds followed Blessed Paternus, fulfilling his desire: indeed it was fitting enough that a spiritual man should be followed by pigeons.
[10] At Avranches the hands of a maidservant of a certain Ursus, a landowner, drawn together by disease, had contracted, he heals contracted hands. and could not be unfolded: for the threads of her fingers were knotted. Yet as soon as Blessed Paternus had unfolded his prayer, the web of her contracted hands stretched out: and, health having been restored, her fingers began to tune the strings of the sinews.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
Journey to King Childebert, Episcopate, Death.
[11] Hence as fame spread, by the many entreaties of a King Childebert, he was compelled to go to meet the glorious King Childebert at Paris, shut in a covered wagon. Called to King Childebert, At the village of b Mantela, a certain boy, Milevo by name, was struck by a serpent. The holy man approached him, now at the point of death, he heals one struck by a serpent, lest the boy should perish by death coming upon him. And so, the sign of the Cross being made, and the liquor of oil poured on, the penetrating poison he cured by such an antidote. In that very place, as testimony of the matter, they built a basilica in his name and Christ's. At Paris, the unclean spirits, recognizing his spiritual coming, and performs other signs. were turned to flight from the bodies they possessed. Likewise those tormented with cold deserved to be made whole. Nor did any disease prevail there, where such a physician produced his ointments.
[12] Thereafter, when the Priest had proposed something to the King for the relief of the poor, then Childebert commanded c Crescentianus, to whom the public care pertained, to dispatch what Blessed Paternus enjoined upon him. Which he, promising to fulfill, on account of his neglect lied: and setting out for the parts of Burgundy, without the most holy man knowing, for two days Crescentianus wandered, blinded. Crescentianus, remembering his fault, whence that dark error had so suddenly invaded him, swiftly returning, having obtained pardon, he illumines him blinded. as the fault went forth from his heart, light entered his eyes, and more learned after the blindness, he fulfilled the commands of the servant of God, so that from this it was believed he had received the light of the mind rather than of the body.
[13] When he, at seventy years old, was discharging the office of Abbot with virtues, in a vision he is seen created Bishop by 3 Bishops: and was resting in his cell, which he had first built at Sesciacum, one night, the place itself was seen by him to be suffused with great clarity, and coming to him in vision, those who had migrated to God, d Melanius, e Leontianus, and f Vigor, the Bishops, by revelation ordained him Bishop. Then he, astonished, although retaining these things with himself at the time and not publishing them, and afterwards ordained Bishop of Avranches. afterwards declared them. For not long after, at the entreaty of both the people g and the Prince, when the Pastor of Avranches died, he succeeded him; he could not refuse what had already been foretold by the secret dispensation of God. Therefore, being made Bishop, he so exercised himself in the building or restoration of new churches, girded himself with the recovery of dwellings, applied himself to the utility of cultivation, poured himself out in the administration of the poor, that he was wonderful in individual things and singular in all. This will not be defrauded of memory. When on one occasion he had come to the village of h Tendenaca, with a severe companion, a certain woman, a citizen of Rennes, was offered to him in prayer, dumb. Then, the holy man having completed his prayer, immediately the woman broke her long silence, nor did she serve the enemy of muteness any longer. he restores speech to a mute woman:
[14] When the man of God was completing the thirteenth year in the Pontificate, immediately on the day after Easter, when he wished to visit the Brothers at Sesciacum, he fell into infirmity; at the same time also Scubilio, in the i Mandanensian Monastery, fell into infirmity. So they sent word to each other, that before they should depart from the world they might see each other. Then, the messengers meeting each other on the way, at the same time as his companion he dies they warned Blessed Scubilio to hasten to his brother, but a branch of the sea being in the way, he could not cross by night. Nevertheless, when the saints were distant from each other nearly three miles, on the same night Blessed Paternus, together with his aforesaid Brother, in a glorious and noble triumph, with a happy viaticum, with an Angelic chorus, in the heavenly senate, sent forth their pious souls from things earthly to Christ, and found each other again mutually in glory. And just as k Lauto the Bishop, who had come there eight days before to visit him, unaware of his illness, bestowed and conducted the funeral rites to the basilica at Sesciacum for Blessed Paternus, so l Lascivius the Bishop, leading Saint Scubilio to the same basilica, joined the funeral of the other, and is buried in the same place. and the contingent choirs, not knowing, came together into one: m and the most holy men, in a happy transit, on the same day occupied together the place of prayer which they had built: so that not even the chance of death might divide those whom one life had always joined: and at the same time one was buried together with the other at one moment, since also in pilgrimage one had followed the other. So to our Redeemer, their only lover, the elect from the world ran with happy merits, doing miracles after death, who live entirely by blessed works even after the sepulchre.