ON BL. BERNARD THE PENITENT
AT SAINT-OMER IN BELGIUM.
A.D. 1182
PrefaceBernard the Penitent, at Saint-Omer in Belgium (Bl.)
G. H.
The ancient peoples of the Belgae, the Morini, inhabited their chief city Therouanne, under Christians an Episcopal one: which having been destroyed three Sees were erected, of Boulogne, Ypres and Saint-Omer. To this last St. Audomar Bishop of Therouanne gave the name, when before it was called Sithieu: which name long adhered to the monastery, In the Bertinian monastery there begun by St. Bertin, until that name being abolished it was called from its founder the Bertinian monastery, certainly one of the chief monasteries, which in Belgium excel for their antiquity and splendor. In this monastery flourished Abbot John, John the Abbot, fifth of this name, born from Ypres, who wrote the book of the Abbots of St. Bertin in the year, as he prefaces, 1434; and in chapter 45 treats of Lord Simon, second of this name and 45th Abbot, hands down these things about Bl. Bernard and among other things in the fourth part places this title: Of Lord holy Bernard the penitent, and his death: and then subjoins these things: Pope Alexander having died, Pope Lucius III succeeded, in whose second year, with Frederic II reigning, Philip II King of the Franks, Philip Count of Flanders, Desiderius Bishop of the Morini, and also in the 7th year of our Abbot Lord Simon, that is in the year of the Lord 1183, the sepulcher and example of holiness Lord Bernard, truly the penitent, from the borders of Montpellier, citizen of Maguelonne; after the worthy fruits of penitence, which he had done both publicly and privately; after pilgrimages and journeys, which seeking the patronages of the Saints he had made; finally having long conversed in this monastery, at last here under our Lord Abbot Simon taken on as a monk; snatched from this wicked world, migrated to the heavenly seats: and in this monastery, from the left side of the church, near the altar of St. Lawrence, where he himself living in body was accustomed to lie down in prayers, with much reverence is buried: whom on account of many miracles, which both in life and at his tomb came to pass, and his Life and miracles written. Ecclesiastical piety believes to have been added to the college of the Saints. Whose acts and miracles, in the booklet which is written about these and is with us, are contained in order. Thus there.
[2] This booklet is written partly by the command of the said Abbot Simon, partly at the request of other monks; and soon from the death of Bernard, which happened in the year 1182, not the following as above related. The author writes either things seen by him or faithfully known; but he himself was a Bertinian monk and called John, by John the monk, perhaps Simon's successor, Abbot 46, who presided over the already named monastery from the year 1187 until the year 1230. He himself almost always calls Bernard the penitent a Saint: an eyewitness: as is clear from the Acts, which we give described from the said Bertinian copy. There were at the heads of the Life rather long titles, which we omit, and in their place we give a marginal synopsis. Perhaps toward the end some miracles have been added by others, as also a double homily about him, which we also pass over, with only one miracle thence excerpted. Last there was an office, which formerly used to be sung in the church of St. Bertin, on the deposition of St. Bernard the penitent. That was, not of the most holy Trinity, such as now would be made for anyone not solemnly canonized; but from the ancient custom of Belgium, formerly accustomed to be kept in such cases for all the faithful departed in general, at the end of the Mass a Responsory was sung: Ecclesiastical office on the said April 19. The souls of the just are in the hand of God, And the torment of malice shall not touch them. They seemed in the eyes of the foolish to die, but they are in peace, Glory be to the Father, etc. The Responsory finished, the Priest said: The Saints shall exult in glory, etc. The Lord be with you. Let us pray: Be propitious, we beseech you, Lord, to us your servants, through the glorious merits of your Saints, whose relics are contained in the present church; that by their pious intercession we may always be fortified from all adverse things. Through our Lord, etc.
[3] The memory of Bernard the penitent on this April 19 with the title of Blessed is contained, memory in Martyrologies. in Molanus in the Natalia of the Saints of Belgium, Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti, Menard and Bucelinus in the Benedictine Martyrologies, Rosweyde in the Legend of the Saints of Belgium, published, Ferrari in the Catalog of the Saints, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, who only attributes the title of blessed memory: but Simon Martin in the sacred Relics of the desert with the author of the life calls him Saint. Arnold Rays in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium page 100, asserts that Bl. Bernard the penitent rests in the chapel of St. Catherine. We here prefix the letters of the Bishop of Maguelonne, of which soon mention is made, and explication is made in the first chapter of the Life: but they are of this kind. John by the grace of God
Bishop of Maguelonne, Letters of the Bishop about the penitence enjoined to all the Rectors of the Catholic Church, to his subjects, eternal salvation in the Lord. Be it known to all of you, that to Bernard, bearer of the present letters, we have enjoined such penance for his horrible sins, that for up to seven years he walk with bare feet, not wear a shirt all the days of his life, fast forty days before the Nativity of the Lord on Lenten foods, on the fourth feria abstain from meat and lard, on the sixth feria eat nothing but bread and wine, on every sixth feria of Lent, and of the Ember-days drink nothing but water; on every Sabbath, except on solemn days and unless illness intervene, abstain from meat and lard. Wherefore we suppliantly beseech your clemency in Christ, that for the redemption of your souls the aforementioned penitent, because he is very poor, in victuals and clothes you may mercifully sustain, relieve with prayers, and from the penance enjoined on him benignly relax according as reason demands. Given at Maguelonne, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1170, in the month of October. For up to seven years only let it be valid. By the name "sagimen" in Caesarius and other writers of the Middle Ages is understood lard and all fleshy fat, for the condiment of foods, even of garden ones, sometimes accustomed to be used by others who otherwise abstain from meats. See Vossius De Vitiis sermonis book 3.
LIFE
By John Bertinian monk, From the Ms. Bertinian codex.
Bernard the Penitent, at Saint-Omer in Belgium (Bl.)
BHL Number: 1203
BY JOHN FROM THE MS.
PROLOGUE.
The Author by command of the Abbot noted the miracles: When St. Bernard had now entered into the joy of his Lord; and what he had received from the Lord, by open miracles he was showing: lest the divine works be hidden from the knowledge of posterity by our negligence, compelled by the command of Lord Simon the Abbot, I undertook to note down the miracles of the Saint. Whence some of my companions, having taken the occasion, for the devotion which they had toward the Saint, that about his penance or conversation I should write something, began instantly to demand. and by the request of others he wrote the Life: But because I thought these things could perhaps be displeasing to some, I gave assent unwillingly: but because again I did not dare to contradict fraternal charity, if I could, I wished to serve the services of St. Bernard; with the innocent Jonah I allowed myself to be thrown by my brothers into the sea; having swum out from which, by the help of God's grace, concerning the conversation of the Ninevites may I be able to rejoice.
[2] But considering in myself both my youthful age and the tenuity of my knowledge, he invokes God and Bl. Bernard: I invoke the help of God and the Saint, especially asking this, that from my labor I may both acquire the grace of the Lord, and may profit for the edification of the simple. But lest anyone accuse me of presumption or like stammerers, who always desire to speak what they cannot, believe that I have thrust myself into this; I testify to the Lord and the miracles of the Saint, that I would rather learn another's things even with shame, than shamelessly thrust forward my own. he permits his things to be emended by others, Therefore whoever intends either to correct what is vicious, or to add what has been omitted, or even to unfold what is superfluous; with my conscience as witness, I am not ready to be indignant with him, but to entreat that he receive a worthy remuneration from the Lord. For I willingly grant, that with my work entirely abolished, whoever shall wish, or to be abolished: may compose something more beautiful to the honor of the Saint; especially since I do not intend to seek my glory in this, but I fear lest the miracles because of their multitude be able to withdraw themselves from our memory.
[3] Therefore intending first to write about his penance and conversation, I invoke God as witness, he writes either things seen or faithfully known: upon my soul, that I will write nothing, except what it shall be established was known by the report of the faithful, or was seen by me. And lest I seem to abuse poetic license, not only do I resolve to exterminate my own figments, but also to temper many things, which have been related to me, for removing the suspicion of incredulity. But because concerning the cause of his penance and his earlier conversation I profess to know little, if any distinguished orator after these, knowing the order of truth better, shall wish to treat of the life of the Saint, he ought not to be indignant with me for this short compilation. For, just as the translation of the Seventy interpreters, so that from it by another an excellent work may be composed. did not obscure the translation of Bl. Jerome, but was as it were a preparation that it might become clearer; so, though from the lesser to the greater this comparison is made, this my brief compilation will not be able to take away any praise from rhetorical treatises: but it shall augment old praise, if anyone not for the dignity of the author, but for the devotion which he had toward the Saint, shall deign to read these things: and if he shall perceive me to have declined somewhere from the rule of art, let him wish to indulge me, I pray, at least by the example of him who granted to St. Bernard the indulgence of all his sins. For with the tenuity of knowledge this also was an impediment to me, that those who incited me to write this, because of excessive devotion, knew not to bear delays, whence to my work both in order and in ornament they took away not a little.
BOOK ONE
On the Life and death of Bl. Bernard.
CHAPTER I.
Birth of Bernard, pilgrimages, pious conversation of penance at Saint-Omer.
[4] The beginning of the evangelical doctrine, where the Herald of truth and Truth herself salubriously cry, Miracles indicate his holy life. Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, how efficaciously the praiseworthy man Bernard heard; the praise of miracles, which is sung at his end, shows. Matt. 3:2 Yet concerning his conversation, what it was in his homeland in earlier years, or about his conversion, namely, by which for the sake of manifestation he bound himself to such rigor of penance, because very few things are known to us, are to be touched with a brief style. Therefore the venerable Bernard, born of father Thomas, indeed drew a clear origin from his progenitors, Born of honest parents. which he himself more clear by advances in morals, adorned with the titles of virtues. But in the region which is called Provence we do not doubt was the place of his birth, and that he was a son of the Church of Maguelonne, we have as probable from his penitential letters.
[5] Yet why he went into exile or for what offense he did penance with so much austerity, I do not dare rashly to define: especially since he himself hid all his works, as much as he could, in the Penitential letters it is handed down that he committed horrible sins, and in the penitential letters (which he bore with him sealed with the seal of the Bishop of Maguelonne, namely his own, and of Narbonne his own Archbishop), nothing else was written about his guilt, except that for his horrible sins he did penance. Yet let no one hearing that the Saint committed horrible sins, more audaciously turn to illicit things; especially since it is perhaps truer, that he committed nothing enormous, nothing inhumane, nothing which would seem horrible to the sinners of our time; but Saints, because they are panting for heavenly desires, think all that are of the world to be horrible. Whence, as I think, this man, because in the manner of penitents he believed he could be better exiled for God's love, wished his sins in general to be called horrible by comprehending them all. For as I could better investigate the truth of the matter, and as I received from those who asserted they knew his father and mother, never defamed by any crime, that he had lived legitimately in his homeland, he was never defamed by any criminal sin. Yet this is said to have been especially the cause of exile, that he made a conspiracy with the nobles of the city against the death of his Lord, who was oppressing his fellow-citizens with unjust exactions, he took part in the killing of the Lord of the dominion, and was present at his killing. But since from the knowledge or consideration of another's sin even the just are often tempted, and on the contrary from the knowledge of another's justice the unjust are amended; we should not labor much to investigate the sins of this man; but what by doing penance he merited, for our amendment more zealously reflect.
[6] For his penance for seven years he had to be unshod, and clothed in wool, When now the Lord with his fire, which he had come to send on earth, had kindled the heart of Bernard; the servant of God going to his Bishop, and truly confessing what he was reprehending in himself (as in the letters which he brought with him is read), received this from his Bishop: that for seven years unshod and clothed in wool he should have to do penance. But because a truly penitent man never thinks himself to have made satisfaction, with the permission of his Metropolitan he chastises himself with still stricter penance, for he privileges the seven-year penance with Archiepiscopal authority, and augmenting it in some observances, decides that it should so remain for all the days of his life.
[7] he binds himself with seven chains. Besides, which indeed we do not find written in the penitential mandate, but yet do not doubt to be true, he caused himself to be bound with seven iron chains: and as though about to engage with the ancient enemy in a wrestling contest, fortified on every side from the right and from the left with the arms of justice, he went forth. For indeed the breast, loins and neck, arms and legs with the disciplinary strap he chastised; striving with prudent diligence, that while he constricted all the instruments of sin with iron, he might enervate every effect of sin in himself. For he knew the beginning of sin, namely evil thoughts, to be turned over in the breast, in breast, loins, neck, arms, and legs: the concupiscence of original sin to have dominion in the loins; from the neck idle and sometimes criminal words to proceed; through the hands, which are joined to the arms, illicit things to be perpetrated; through the feet also, which the legs sustain, to serve in going for illicit works. By this consideration, as I believe, the servant of God, according to the Evangelical edict, having left all things following Christ, and as a strong athlete about to contend with the devil, casting off all the bonds of the world, beyond what had been enjoined upon him, binding himself with iron chains as has been said, chose voluntary exile: and for the sake of communicating with fraternal prayers, he makes pilgrimage to Jerusalem a third time, and obtaining the patronages of the Saints, he traveled round almost the whole world. Luke 5:11 For Jerusalem, where he who is our peace, who made both one, was corporally seen, he strove to see and approach a third time: India also and what miracles St. Thomas the Apostle did there, he saw: and that I may generally comprehend particulars, into India he wandered through every accessible land, where Christians dwell, as is said: so that he not only committed to memory the names of regions, and through the whole Christian world, but also the Episcopal and Archiepiscopal cities, as many as are in Christendom, he named by memory. How great inconveniences meanwhile he endured in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, who can worthily estimate?
[8] When at length he came to the castle, which is called of St. Audomar; Dwelling at Saint-Omer he instituted a stricter life. choosing a place to dwell near the monastery of St. Bertin, and there making in his interior man a valley of tears, he disposed ascensions in his heart, and seized the proposal of a still stricter life. For received into hospitality near the temple by a certain religious man, William by name, at all hours in which he could have permission to enter the temple, he did not neglect to be present. The first
came there, always the last to depart, assiduous in the temple and when the time demanded that the doors be closed, he many times outside was intent on prayer. Rarely or never in the temple did anyone see him sit, but in summer in the warmer, in winter in the colder places, he was accustomed to make his station. Yet while he was reading his psalms, he sometimes omitted the continuous use of standing, and in order to be more attentive to his reading, he sometimes used to sit.
[9] Besides, as I have learned by the testimony of religious men and women, often when in a most harsh winter with bare feet he stood for a long time immovable on the bare and frigid ground: the skin of his feet is bound to the earth by the cold: when he wished to depart, he would leave the skin of his soles frozen to the earth. When also from excess of cold he had horrible fissures in his feet, with a marvelous kind of medicine, he applied a cure, or, to say more truly, a burning to the gaping cracks. For at night when the order of time called him to bed, in the more secret part of his bedroom with a burning torch b and the infusion of liquid wax, he used to burn those fissures and injuries of his feet; whence to his harassed flesh (which is doubtful to no one) came more of pain than remedy.
[10] Assiduous in the divine office, And so when he had indulged a little in sleep, at the first touch of the bell or earlier, he would come to the church; and having heard our Matins in order, he was not content with these, but watchful awaiting the Matins of the Clerics of St. Audomar, and these also he did not neglect to be present at. Above all he awaited those of his parish Priest, who sang Matins of light, and heard all the office of the day; nor yet for this reason did he wish sometimes to absent himself from our hours. But how diligent he was about honesty or religion, from these things which I here wish to annex, can easily be noticed. For the altars of the holy Cross and of St. James, which are in the exterior part of the church, he swept: and all unclean things he cast away from the holy places and from the temple nearby; he keeps sacred places clean: and moreover if he looked around and saw something disorderly being done in the temple or in the courtyard, these things with great constancy he reprehended. Also when he went to Matins or anywhere, if he had seen stones lying disorderly in the street; he did not proceed until he had arranged them with bare feet in a suitable and necessary place. he arranges stones in the street: In which thing not only the pious work is commendable, but also the mode of the work; namely because with bare and ulcerated feet he walked, nor ever did he indulge his injuries with the washing of water or anything other than the fomenting I have said.
[11] clothed in a hair shirt, a chain mail, But to speak briefly about the habit of his garments, around the neck and body he was bound with iron, and to his flesh he was clothed with a most rough hair shirt and then a chain mail: over which also, that he might hide the instruments of penance, or that he might keep the other garments unharmed from the touch of iron, he had put on over a tunic of skin: but over this he had two woolen tunics of white color and somewhat thick: and a cowl: over all which he had put on a certain garment, which indeed was shaped in every way in the likeness of our cowl, but in color and thickness agreed with the tunics. But about the bonds already mentioned and always to be mentioned I still wish this to be known; that the severity of the tight binding in many places adhered to his flesh, and from the putrescence of corruption thence worms were swarming forth. Yet never for this reason did he wish his bonds to be withdrawn or relaxed, some of his chains are loosed divinely. until from God, what reward of his patience he awaited, at length he merited to be loosed. For at Cologne in the church of Bl. Peter the pectoral band leaped apart: but the rest of all the bands, except that which he wore on the neck, are said to have been broken in this villa by the report of many, which has come to my knowledge. But the lumbar bond, with the others omitted, he caused to be repaired: whose repair when it was delayed a little beyond his will, he put on the chain mail, yet neither permitted the aforesaid band nor the hair shirt to be taken from him.
[12] He learns the Psalter: He was entirely ignorant of letters, but from the alms, which he received from the faithful, he had acquired a Psalter: and for love of learning frequenting the schools, subjecting himself to the teaching of Clerics, daily he did not omit to learn something small. And since, as is written, no delay is in speaking, where the Holy Spirit the Teacher is present, what the man of God devotedly began, he quite strenuously fulfilled: and in a short time learned to read the whole Psalter by himself.
[13] The poor and sick with highest diligence he visited, and whatever he could acquire by begging, he distributes to the poor what he received by begging: he charitably distributed to beggars. Whatever good he did, he always wished to be hidden, nor as the hypocrites did he enlarge his fringes, but that he might better deceive the world, with proud bearing of limbs and cheerfulness of countenance he showed himself more as a secular than a penitent. In the secret of his bedroom according to the Lord's command he loved to pray: and there (which was known to no one while he was living and to God alone) he had strewn for himself a wonderful couch from the sharpest stones, so that after his death with the matting perforated, he strews his bed with little stones: with which they had been covered, in many places the stones appeared. Matt. 6:6
[14] The recluses also and religious men he frequently visited: he visits the recluses, with whom now learning now teaching he communicated the words of salvation, but that Recluse who stayed near the church of St. Michael situated outside the town of St. Audomar, he more often and more affectionately visited: to whom also of the better foods, which he could find, he sometimes brought a charitable gift. But in the time of snow when on a certain day he was going to visit him, he allows snow to melt within his garments, it is said that he fell into a hollow of snow, and the snow received within his garments he did not permit to be cast out, but caused the icy liquid to strain through his trembling limbs. In his mouth Christ was always, peace was always: if anyone spoke to him, or if he himself spoke to anyone, this was always next in his mouth, that God would grant us to be consummated in good, or to use his own words, would give a good end.
[15] And because innumerable are his good works; often unknown to me, that I may briefly conclude about him, whatever he knew to please God, he unceasingly fulfilled by work. How sparing he was in food or drink, who will be fit to write? he fasts strictly: On days on which seculars ate meat, in the house of our alms-giver he took very little food: on other days compelled by religious men he ate with them or abstained entirely. But indeed following the institution of the old law observing the fast of the first, fourth, seventh and tenth month, he fasted four Lents in a year: he keeps 4 Lents in a year: in which, on three days in the week, he took only bread and water at refection. Also on every sixth feria and Vigils of the Apostles with similar parsimony he abstained, or, as has been said, remained entirely fasting. And wonderfully when both by Clerics and laymen and by some monks also, he was treated much more diligently than by us, and was more affectionately exhorted to leave our monastery and dwell with them; never assenting to them, he preferred this place to all: and that he might be able to die here he sought with all desire. he desires to remain at St. Bertin. Nor do I believe this to have been done without the great mercy of God, and the prayers of St. Bertin c and the other Saints d, whose bodies or relics are venerated with us: who wished this place to be distinguished with the privilege of so great a Colleague of theirs and of an intercessor of ours.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Various miracles performed in life.
[16] But if he performed any miracles while living, not much is known to us: inasmuch as he himself, if he had done anything such, would have wished it to be hidden in every way. Yet if anyone shall diligently look at what I am about to write, that he did not complete this toilsome life entirely without miracles, he will easily be able to notice. At a certain time, with a house burning, in which stayed a certain servant, who with the Saint, while he was visiting the sick, was wont to go as a companion; the Saint came there, as if for the love of the servant, and with marvelous speed calmed all the fire. For while the household goods were being carried out, and the house, that it might be defended against the fire, was beginning now to be uncovered; the Saint ordered all who were doing these things, to desist from the begun work, and passing through the house, He extinguishes a fire with the sign of the Cross: and expressing the sign of the Cross over the fire, he made all imminent peril to rest. These are your works, Christ, who at all times through your Saints, when you wish and how you wish, work your miracles. For you who once from your persecutor made your preacher; you now, Lord, from a sinner make a performer of miracles: who kept the three boys in the Babylonian fire unhurt from burning; now also for the glorification of your Saint you have wonderfully extinguished this fire.
[17] Also at another time a certain one of our veiled Sisters, Gertrude by name, when she was laboring with intolerable suffering of her leg; saw through a dream her leg signed by the Saint, and health to her restored. Therefore on the following day, when the woman had found the Saint, she related what she had seen about him: and that he would bless her leg, she brought humble prayers. he heals a nun contracted in leg, But with him forbidding these things to be said about him, and on the contrary her persisting in prayers; at length the Saint raised his hand, signed the sick one, and while signing prayed that God would deign to heal her. With efficacy therefore accompanying the vision, the woman recovered from the trouble of all inconvenience.
[18] In a similar way also a certain man, Elbodo by name, when from pain of his leg he had almost been made contracted; saw in a vision, that if the Saint had confirmed his leg with the touch of his hand and the sign of the Cross; health ought to be returned to him. Wonderfully soon with sleep finished, the man felt himself alleviated in all his limbs: whence also as though safer about recovering health he came to the Saint, likewise another contracted, and devoutly asked that he deign to do to him according to his vision. To these things the Saint,
because he was most modest, at first contradicting when he saw him persevering in the petition, led him apart into a secret place: and handling the bare leg with bare hand, at individual places where the sufferer felt pain more sharply, he impressed the sign of the Cross; and subjoining that God might do to the man according to his faith, he permitted him to depart. Therefore with the merits of the Saint working with the faith of the man, the sick man in a short time received the use of walking rightly: and to do all his works, he recovered his pristine strength.
[19] Likewise at another time a certain woman was enduring a cephalic suffering, who neither dared to approach waters nor bridges: for if she had stood a little immovable, by the impelling vertigo of the head she necessarily fell. She also was admonished in a vision, that she should cause her head to be signed by the Saint, and thereby receive health. Therefore the woman came to the Saint, because she did not know his speech, speaking through a woman interpreter, and a woman laboring with vertigo of the head she opened what she had seen, and prayed that her head should be bound and signed with his hands. To these things the man of God, as he was most cheerful, burst into the most vehement laughter, and said he was not a physician, although he was thought to be. On the contrary when she did not desist from her prayers, as if in jest he snatched the girl between his arms, and with the embrace of one arm bound the dizzy head somewhat more firmly. In which thing what else is to be noted: by jestingly embracing her he heals her: because this man avoided the fuel of vain glory, namely popular favor, as much as he could; who heard great things said about himself and blushed. Yet lest again while avoiding vain glory, he should abandon charity; he so prudently fulfilled what was asked, that by the gesture of joking he declined hypocrisy, and by the effect of benediction he restored health. Therefore the woman, what she faithfully asked, with all unquiet vertigo driven away, efficaciously merited to obtain.
[20] Likewise one injured from a fall: At another time also one of the servants of our Chamberlain, Bricius by name, having fallen from a story, and gravely injured, was lying in bed, almost despaired of life. Whom when the man of God had visited, and amid words of consolation as he was departing had signed; soon the sick one felt the effect of the signing, and with illness gradually yielding, in a short time perfectly recovered.
[21] Truly this man I shall be able to compare to the Apostles, whom I weigh to be like them in miracles. The matter, indeed, which I relate, perpetrated in the assembly of the church, by the testimony of many has been brought to our knowledge. When at a certain time, on the Lord's Day, the man of God was intent on prayer in his place of standing, he resuscitates a girl suffocated in waters: a little girl suffocated in the waters, with great wailing of the pursuing people, is brought into the temple: whom he, when she had been brought to his station, snatched between his arms, and with the knee bent three times and three times the sign of the Cross expressed over the dead one, she began to yawn. Quickly therefore he placed her reviving on the altar of the holy Cross, where his station was near: and as secretly as he could, lest he be tempted by vain glory, he withdrew from the sight of the people: and in the same moment, she who a little before had been dead, appeared alive. Behold I see another Elisha, whom I weigh to have done similar things in a similar matter as the Prophet. For as Elisha, while he lay upon the limbs of the dead boy, returned him alive to his mother; so this man, while he held the dead one between his arms, and with the sign of the Cross prayed over her, called her back to life.
[22] From the performance of another miracle also, I see the virtue of the aforesaid Prophet shine in this blessed man. A certain woman sufficiently known, Gerlindis by name, stricken with the disease of elephantiasis, by all who saw her, was said to be a leper. For already in her face and some parts of her body the plague of leprosy, breaking out through deformed ulcers, was manifesting itself: and so her whole body within and without was infected with the disease, a leprous and contracted woman visiting him that she could scarcely bear any light touch of a hand. Also one arm, in which the leprosy more appeared, was deformedly twisted, and with her hand continually closed through contraction the nails of her fingers were adhering to her palm. What shall I say that she could not rise from bed, who in bed without the ministry of another did not turn herself? But when the necessity of nature, that she be taken down from the bed, demanded: a miserable cry and wailing indicated the incomparable sickness. Yet with all these things when she bore more grievously that she was called a leper; because she had heard many things said about the virtues of the man of God, she sent to him, and asked through a messenger that he deign to come to her. But he, for the cause of avoiding boasting, at that time did not wish to come to her: but because he was occupied in learning the Psalter he sent back word. Yet on the third day when the man of God was passing before her house, and again was asked to visit her; because he then had no occasion of declining, he acquiesced to the petition of those asking. Therefore with the man of God entering the house, she was showing him the ulcerous scars and the contracted hand and foot: and was asking that by the hand of that Saint she might merit to be signed. To these things the man of God, as he was most compassionate, kindly consoled her, and wherever the hand of the patient led him, he cleanses her with the sign of the Cross, he impressed the sign of the Cross. These things being thus done (as I have learned by her own report, who bore these things), soon all the stains of the body vanishing, were quickly reduced to nothing. Behold with the similitude of comparison not much differing, as if another Elisha he cures Naaman from his disease, while God through the merit of this man frees the woman from imminent leprosy. Yet concerning the contraction of the hand and foot the woman did not then recover; whom God in the beginning of the miracles of his Saint, as will appear in what follows, reserved to be healed under the bier of the dead man. She only obtained this meanwhile for the cause of remedy, that she could separate from her palm and move the fingers, which were fixed in the flesh: which, as I think, was a presage of future raising up.
[23] He procures increase for the crop. On a certain day when he was going to visit the sick, it happened that he made his journey through a field, in which a certain peasant was sowing his wheat. And when the man of God asked the peasant what he was doing, and he responded that he was sowing; the Saint raising his hand making the sign of the Cross, blessed the seed: where afterwards, as those who more diligently considered the matter assert, such abundance of crops grew, as scarcely ever before could have grown there. These things about the miracles of the Saint which he did while alive we have briefly touched, omitting many which we could say on account of the incredulous; and abbreviating some which we have said, on account of the fastidious. For if I were to write all, which could be written about him; the membranes would fail me sooner than the words about his pious acts.
If I should wholly be turned into tongues, or if it were given to me, An iron voice, I shall be unequal to his praises. Not Maro, not Socrates, not the learned hand of Cicero, Could worthily write the odes of Bernard.
CHAPTER III.
Illness: pious death: miracles.
[24] When now beyond the appointed term a the Saint was completing the fourth year in penance, a certain religious man saw through a dream, him clothed in Sacerdotal garments, From a vision made to another entering the church of St. Bertin, and such a multitude of those singing and praising following, that within the circuit of the temple they all could in no way be received. What sign this portended, after his death he himself by his miracles, better than I by my writings, will be able to declare. This vision being known to the man of God about himself, he is said to have smiled: yet more solicitously examining the matter, and from this or from another secret inspiration not doubting about his quick calling, he foresees himself to die soon. more strictly than he had done thus far, he decided to macerate himself.
[25] For with the sacred day b of Easter coming, indeed for the reverence of such a festivity with a very modest cake, on Easter he tastes a small cake, or to speak commonly, by the tasting of a c Flato he is said to have broken his Lenten abstinence, and never afterward besides bread and water to have eaten anything. On the second feria when he had now begun to be sick, he kept his diet in bread and water: on feria 2 he begins to sicken: but for the four following days until the Sabbath it is believed without doubt that he had either abstained entirely, or if perhaps he had used any foods, on feria 5 he says farewell to the recluse: no others than the aforesaid. On the fifth feria, as though about to say farewell to a familiar friend, the aforesaid Recluse, whom we said stayed near the church of St. Michael, he approached: and as he was accustomed brought him a charitable gift: and there among his last words, while he bade farewell to his friend, what he had never before done, he wept; and foretold that he would never see him again. Whence it is clear that this man, among other marks of his virtues, also had the spirit of prophecy, since it appears that all he foretold came about irrefragably. For during speaking, more gravely sick, while he was still with the Recluse, he began to feel sudden and sharper than usual assaults of infirmity, and so to tremble all over that he could scarcely return to his lodging. Therefore with infirmity prevailing, the man of God placing himself in his noble little bed, which instead of feathers, as we have said, had been strewn with the sharpest stones, compelled his failing limbs to serve the spirit.
[26] On the Sabbath he tastes bread and water for the last time: Two days after these, namely on the d Sabbath of the Paschal week, he tasted a little of his familiar foods, bread and water, and took absolutely no corporal food afterwards; and thus, what is wonderful to say, remaining fasting until the seventeenth day, when he was sick even unto death, we solemnly exhibited to him all the Ecclesiastical Sacraments. And first indeed, as is the custom, fortifying him with the Body and Blood of him extremis Sacramentis munitur, of whom he was a member; and as a strong athlete about to fight against aerial troops, anointing him with sanctified Oil, at last we put around him the long-desired monastic habit: but if there was any fault in him, that it had been entirely purged by the austerity of this kind of illness, he is clothed with the monastic habit. when already he was breathing out his last spirit, he showed by clear proof of miracle.
[27] Dying he heals a sick person by the touch of his hand A certain faithful woman bringing her boy, perforated in the neck by pestiferous worms, to the man of God, and touching the places of infirmity with the hand of him now almost dead, as soon as she returned home, made the boy sleep: whom after sleep more diligently looking at, with the worms extirpated, with the swellings calmed, found nothing of stain in him but certain red e marks on his neck, which as testimony of the healed disease had remained, he could easily notice.
[28] He dies in the year 1182, April 19. St. Bernard meanwhile, now made a monk, in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand, one hundred, eighty-second, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of May, rendered his soul to God: and as afterwards he more openly showed, entered to the heavenly banquet with his Brothers to feast. For clothed in our manner, under the bier a contracted woman in hands and feet is healed: and placed on the bier
because he was a penitent, he was left in the exterior part of the church: that there free approach of coming to him might be given to seculars. And without delay, when many sick were lying under the bier of such a dead man to be healed, one boy curved with hands and feet contracted for one year or more, with evident miracle was raised up.
[29] Soon with the bells resounding in praise of God, and the Brothers devoutly singing Te Deum laudamus, the novelty of the matter is spread through villages and countryside, and with an innumerable multitude of both Clerics and laymen running up, by all is shouted in God's praise. The body which in the outer part of the church had been left a little more negligently, his garments are carried off from devotion: those running up who were present, adored with devoted services; and wishing to have something of him as relics, they tore almost all his garments. Whence on account of the violence of either Clerics or townsmen, introducing the holy body into the choir, not even there were we safe; until with all expelled by force, whom we thought to be lying in wait in deceit, alone we could celebrate our vigils.
[30] On the following day, when we had to perform the customary exequies for him, because such a multitude of both sexes had come, at the exequies the greatest multitude is present, that not only within the church, but scarcely within all the offices of the monastery could they be received; that which the faithful man, as we have said, had seen about him, now could openly be shown to have been fulfilled. Who would worthily write, with what devotion all were striving to kiss the bier of the dead? With what faith they rejoiced to have placed straps or whatever of their own garments upon him? Who, I pray, King or Emperor could lead so many most devoted clients to his own exequies, as you would see to be for serving even in excess, to this poor man and in all the time of his life reputed among the lowest? The clemency of God is to be glorified in all these things, who as though lifting up the poor man from dung, shows by open miracles the poor man to sit with the princes of his people. For the woman mentioned above, Gerlindis by name, a contracted woman is healed. well enough known, and by him in her life cured of leprosy, and contracted for many years, before all was raised up there. At length with the office of the Mass scarcely finished, fearing lest because of the violence of such a multitude something of offense should happen, we prolonged the day of burial as though to be in the morrow by pretending: and thus with the people partly diminished, with fitting honor we buried the body.
[31] The body of the buried man dug up is found sweet-smelling: But because we could show nothing worthy of his relics to those seeing as they came, with more secret counsel held, we drew the buried one back from the tomb: and with the chain mail and hair shirt and iron bonds, which were still around his neck and body, with great fear of reverence stripping him; and washing the body in the purest water, we procured these things as a remedy for illnesses; and in a wonderful manner the body, which on the previous day from the squalor of long infirmity was felt to be somewhat corrupted, now was smelling more sweetly than all aromatics, was shining brighter than snow. How many sick by tasting of that water, or by kissing the relics or by sleeping beside the sepulcher recovered, who could remember all, number, very many miracles are done: or write? Truly, with every hyperbolic estimation removed, if all the miracles, which we ourselves saw, or which we knew to have been done by the relation of faithful men, we wished to write perfectly; we would incur a defect of words before of miracles. Here therefore, because we have heard that St. Bernard finished the present life, let us close the first part of our work with an end asking this of the Lord, who is the end and consummation of all his elect, that on the last day, he himself become the reward of this labor and of our devotion. Amen.
32] Your sweet name compels me, Bernard, to pay praises to you, [praised from odor,Which smells as nard. You are rightly called the spring, in verse you are also called nard, For you always breathe a new aroma for us. Sweet was the odor of your life, death augments the odor, And your praise grows in the good odor. from example he gives, In life you gave us documents of life, But a Teacher of life now you are present as of a better one. For that life must needs be ended by death; But that by which you now live, is remaining without end. Wonderful things indeed you did while living, but now by much More wonderful things you do and more stupendous. from miracles. You give step to the lame, you give light to the blind, you cure The sick, you make the mute pour forth words. You restore hearing to the deaf, to those extinguished in the river life; You cherish whatever sick limbs. Hence let the heart, tongue, hand praise you, let it think on it, Let it proclaim your praises, let it note them.
EPITAPH.
Here he well repented, whom Christ justified: Hence he now has merited what shall remain for him without end. He was an exemplar of faith and an image of virtue, Now the heir of Christ rejoices over the perpetual kingdom, And the thirteenth day of May in the Kalends of April They saw, with this man receiving the prepared seats. He gives the debts of death, receives the rewards of the heavenly lot, Joined to the eminent friends of Christ.
HYMN.
Let us commend ourselves to Bernard, pious father, sweet nard: Who fragrant with virtues, May he advance us by his prayers: That his intercession, may become our promise: And God through him continually may hear us salubriously. Through this Father and Son, let us praise and the Paraclete: That he who is triple in persons, as one God may free us.
VOW OF THE AUTHOR.
He who made this modest work, asks that there be given to him, The divine grace, interpreter of his name. This in exchange of reward from you, pious Saint, he requires, The end of that name f and the head of S. and I.
ANNOTATIONS.
BOOK II.
On the miracles of Bl. Bernard.
CHAPTER I.
Thirty miracles done immediately after burial.
[1] Miracles are done daily. Since with the Lord favoring about the penance and miracles of St. Bernard, which he did while alive or lying in the bier, we have treated according to the measure of our knowledge; now let us turn our pen to those miracles, which we know to have been done by him after his burial. But since the daily perpetration of miracles does not yet permit me to breathe a little, I think it suffices for the present, if I shall be able to give titles in sum to the kinds of infirmities and the modes of cures; where sometimes, that the miracles may be better distinguished, I decide to insert the words of the persons in whom the cure was made. And because I see the weight of the matter far exceeds my powers, I ask help to be administered to me by the Lord through your merits, St. Bernard.
[2] A certain woman in the onset of fever raging, with the disease put to flight obtained tranquility of mind. For although many have been freed from quartans or tertians, a raging woman is healed: yet about this one by name I wished to write, because incomparable was the infestation of her trouble. Another woman also in the castle of St. Audomar, well enough known in face and illness, who twice a had gone to St. James blind, came to the sepulcher of the Saint; likewise the blind, and caused the aforesaid spoils of the Saint to be applied to her blind eyes; and what she could nowhere obtain through any patronages of the Saints, with the darkness of her eyes put to flight there she received light. The jester b of our Hospitarius, deprived of one eye for four years, blind in one eye asked and obtained that the spoils of the Saint be placed over the place of his trouble. And without delay, feeling certain twistings and prickings of itching in his eye, he placed his hand over his sound eye; and opening the blinded one, asserted he saw: the white film, which had covered the eye, divided in the manner of a little skin yielded, and slipped down into the lower part of the eye, lay hidden without any heaviness. a paralytic woman, On the same day also a certain woman, paralytic in one side, with the dissolution of limbs consolidated, was healed.
[3] Not long after a certain one from the castle, which is called Mont-falcon c, terribly swollen with watery humor, when he had gone to St. Thomas in England d, and had not recovered, a dropsical man, and had found nothing useful in the precepts of the physicians; as soon as he drank from the aforesaid water, and slept beside the sepulcher, he appeared wonderfully thin before all. Two Scots also, disparate in sex and kind of infirmity, contracted people, were restored to health. A woman contracted is raised up: a man vexed for a long time with chronic suffering, experiences himself better. But in the cure of both we ought to commend the merits of the Saint very much, if the multitude of other miracles did not compel us to strive for brevity. For the woman while she was sleeping at the sepulcher, saw white-clad men bearing the body of the Saint in the bier: who tried to snatch something from the clothes, with which the bier was covered, and in the very attempt woken up, leaping on her paralytic feet was raised up. But the man was afflicted with that disease, which the physicians call a fistula, another bedridden from a fistula, and, as has been said, was lying in bed with chronic infirmity: who against both troubles, by the merits of the Saint rejoiced to have received remedy.
[4] Meanwhile the Lord Abbot, returning home from his affairs, and rejoicing above what can be said about the things which had been done; when he had decided to make an honorific sarcophagus for the Saint, The Abbot in sleep sees verses inscribed on the sepulcher: on the following night he saw through a dream that he was standing at the sepulcher of the Saint, and a stone of wonderful beauty lying above; in which with letters beyond measure radiating two verses were written, which he says he read so many times, until he committed them to memory in this manner.
This stone covers the form of virtue and of salvation, The virtue of Bernard smells fragrant to all in place of nard.
But that this was not so much a dream as a miracle, he who does not doubt about the vision, can easily have a conjecture. A wonderful thing is followed by no less wondrous things. For the stonemason sent to seek stones, from which he might make the sarcophagus of the Saint, sufficiently suitable for the work and more choice, than in any place in this land he believed could be found, at the first opening of the earth found. But while a greater of the stones, which scarcely fifteen men could lift, was being conveyed here, a huge burial stone is easily moved: on the way it had almost fallen from the wagon: which to place back in its place was not difficult for the two servants, who were ruling the wagon, through the merits of the Saint. For with one of them wishing to run to the villas for helpers, the other,
because he was conducting the Saint's stone, presuming upon his aid, prohibited this being done, and taking the huge mass with a companion restored it to its place.
[5] A certain man from the town of Bergues, e bringing here his little son, oppressed with some infirmity I know not what, they are healed, the sick boy, although he felt him to be improved, nevertheless distrustful of complete health and returning home, when the boy was growing better from day to day, the father for the son whom he received whole, sent back an iron boy to the Saint. A certain woman, so paralyzed on one side a paralytic, that she had had herself conveyed hither partly by cart, partly by ship; as soon as she drank from the often-mentioned water, as I myself heard from her mouth, it seemed to her that that drink went round all her side, and as if making a certain itching, restored sense to insensible members; and so when she had slept a little beside the tomb, she arose so healed that she returned home on her own feet, she who had been conveyed on others'. Another woman also, a dropsical one, badly afflicted with dropsical humor, cured by drinking of the salutary water, attained her natural slenderness.
[6] The daughter of a certain man from a village near f Cassel had been blinded for nearly seven days by some misfortune I know not what: who as soon as she promised her journey to Saint Bernard, immediately began to improve. When therefore on the journey the guides of her still seeing almost nothing, a blind one, said they saw the church of Saint Bertin and invoked the aid of the Saints resting there, the blind woman opening her eyes, saw the temple whose name she had heard, and stretching her hand toward it, asked whether it was the one. All who were present, marveling and bursting forth into weeping for joy, completed the journey they had begun: and paying due acts of thanks to Saint Bernard and also to Saint Bertin, they related these things to us in such order. And because I recollect that this was done on the day g of the elevation of Saint Bertin, considering the order of things, yet saving the honor of Saint Bernard, I do not doubt that Saint Bertin was here a cooperator. And that the truth of the miracle might better be shown, it is said that a third time after these things she was blinded, and was always re-illumined at the tomb. Again a certain woman coming secretly to the Saint, willing to confess to no one who she was or what she suffered, because by the merits of the Saint she obtained what she sought, the following day sent wax sandals to the Saint.
[7] From h Arques likewise a woman, bedridden from long time with contracted legs, saw in dream the Saint standing by her bed, a bedridden woman, and promising hope of recovering health; and the effect following upon the vision, the next day we saw the woman, to render thanks to the Saint, joyful and sound coming hither. Two women, of whom one had hands horribly swollen, the other labored with a certain constant infirmity, were healed at the tomb of the Saint. This one, for the curing of her hands, because she was poor and her infirmity was manifest, offered nothing except thanks; the other, in testimony of her health, left her staff with the Saint. A certain man, from a village called i Frutine, sick for two years, had lain in bed for two years: who, when he had been so much improved that, supported by two staves, he could walk somehow, seized upon a journey to Saint Thomas d; and though laboriously, yet came thither. But because the sick man could obtain no improvement there, what is written, "preferring one another in honor," I think the Saints also observe; a dropsical boy, since Saint Thomas did not wish to heal his pilgrim, whom he foreknew was to be healed by his colleague Saint Bernard. Rom. 12:10 The sick man therefore, as though already despairing, returning home, when the name of Saint Bernard like "ointment poured out" began to spread its fragrance widely, turned aside to the Saint, he who needed to be healed: and with wonderful swiftness, when he had shown due reverence to the Saint according to custom, perceiving divine virtue operating in him, casting aside his staves he began to walk. A boy marvelously swollen with watery humor came to the Saint: who by his slenderness showed that he had been marvelously visited by the Saint.
[8] a blind woman in one eye, having suffered great pains in it. A woman from the castle which, as I said above, is called Mount of the Falcon, c had seen nothing in one eye for nearly four years. She, recently delivered in childbirth, was lying in bed, as is custom. Meanwhile, pain of the eye pressing her more grievously than usual, she was hearing the miracles of Saint Bernard being more gloriously preached from day to day. Therefore lifting her hands from the bed, where she lay as if pagan, to heaven, she promised that she would soon approach the Saint, when after the manner of women giving birth she had been sanctified; and that her prayers might be admitted by God, she most affectionately committed herself to the Saint's patronage. Meanwhile persisting in prayer, when not much later she began to see a little; immediately, when she had performed the rite of her purification, she came to the Saint together with her husband, as she had vowed; who when she had shown her reverence to the Saint, said she saw as clearly as she had ever seen before. Another woman also, from k Bourbourg, had long labored with incurable pain of the ears, another with a worm having entered her ear. to such a degree that by turns and especially at the time of a new moon she was almost beside herself. The cause of this pain was a sheep louse, which the Grammarians l call "usia" as if from "burning," which by chance had entered the ear of her sleeping, and could in no way be extracted either by any device or by medicine. But that it might be proved that nothing is impossible to God, marvelously she is freed. when she placed some of the often-mentioned water on her sick ear; the following night when she was sleeping beside the tomb, the worm, by some divine virtue expelled from the ear, went out: and descending along the arm, entered the hand of the sleeping woman. And wonderfully, the worm did not have liberty of walking, until the woman, awakened, found her enemy, and having found, killed it. And thus when she felt no more pain, she could easily recognize, that she had killed the worm which had unceasingly vexed her.
[9] A servant from a certain country place, which is called m Energhem, laboring with hernia. ruptured around his privities; the matter of the rupture breaking out, when on account of excessive swelling he could not bring his thighs together for walking properly, bound himself with this vow: that if by the merits of the Saint he should recover, henceforth he would never wear a garment which after the manner of secular pomp was cut below, and that as long as he lived, once a year he would seek out the Saint for the sake of prayer. Therefore to the Saint as he had vowed he came, poured forth humble prayers, and what he constantly begged he effectually obtained. For when he had prayed a little at the tomb, he put his hand to his groin, to feel his pain as he was accustomed: and what is marvelous to hear, he could find no trace of swelling. He who had sustained the inconvenience related the matter done in this order, with all hearing. Let all, therefore, who shall read these things know that I write nothing at all, which I have not either heard from those who were cured, or learned from the relation of those who asserted that they knew the matter best. At that time came a man offering two wax legs, contracted in his knees, who affirmed that he had for nearly two weeks labored with a certain passion irremissibly, so that he believed the joints of his knees either to be dissolved or utterly withered. But scarcely had he vowed to seek the Saint, when immediately he began to improve. And because I have heard him who had sustained the pain relate that he received entire health, I have thought it just to commend this to writing.
[10] miserably broken in his legs, At the same time a certain man from Cassel, Gerard by name, came to the Saint: through whose leg, nearly two years before, a cart had passed, which had so withered with demolished bones, that he preferred the leg to be utterly cut off, than to have spent so uselessly upon physicians. Propped up on two supports, he could scarcely reach to the tomb: but there, with several present hearing, with his leg rendering a certain crashing sound, which was as it were an indication of the consolidation of sinews and bones, the sick man, casting aside the supports, arose: and by divine virtue showed himself healed by walking rightly. A certain man from n Bethune had recently lost the use of seeing: blind, who when he had been to Saint Thomas for his illumination, having heard the miracles of Saint Bernard, turned aside to him; and by God's merciful clemency, on the very day on which the first miracle occurred, he received his pristine function of the eyes. After these things, on the second day, two men, of whom one was from o Drincham, the other from [p] Tardinghem, both able to walk only with [q] crutches, lame, came to the Saint. These, while they sat at the tomb, said they had felt the aid of amendment: and leaving their staves there as a sign, they proved it to be true. The following day a woman, mute and contracted on one side, for three years and more impotent of her speech and of one side, while she was returning somewhat amended from Saint Thomas; tried whether anything could be added by the merits of Saint Bernard to her imperfect amendment: and running hither, according to her faith she obtained what she sought. For I myself heard her speaking quite distinctly: and that she might satisfy the unbelieving, I saw her moving her hand, which had been paralyzed, quite flexibly and placing it upon her head.
[11] blind in one eye, A certain man doing something I know not what in a wood, struck in the eye by the blow of a branch, had for nearly the space of a month been deprived of the function of that eye. Coming to the Saint, when he had many times kissed the tomb with his mouth and eyes, and rubbed the places of injury with dust of the tomb; immediately going out, having found merchants before the doors of the temple, he bought gloves; and there looking more diligently at what he had bought, he understood that he had received his lost sight. About the same time there came to the Saint a mute man, who with wonderful devotion, now embracing the tomb, now eating the earth of the tomb, a mute, sometimes also drinking from the often-mentioned water; when for one day he had awaited God's mercy there, through the presence of divine virtue obtained in such manner his lost speech. Sitting at the tomb, while he directed his hands and eyes to the Saint, with health returning, not bearing the power of divine virtue, pale and trembling he fell upon the tomb; and while falling, the bond of his tongue being loosed, he cried three times: "Saint Bernard, help!" And thus gradually beginning to speak better, whence he was, and what he had suffered, and what he had now obtained by the merits of the Saint, he related before all the people. For he said that he was from the castle which is called [r] Lucheu: where when seven years before he was guarding a certain mill; on a certain night in sleep, struck with sudden horripilation, he had been destitute of the function of all members: quickly however that passion, leaving the members, gathered itself to his throat and upper parts, and so precipitously dulled the instruments of speaking, that hardly with a month gone by he became utterly mute. With several standing by, who had known him to have been mute, he further added, that it might better be recognized, that during all the time in which he had been mute, he had followed the court of the Count [s] of Saint-Pol, and there had somehow supported his unhappy life: but he said that he had done this more by necessity
than will, partly because he could not live by labor, partly because he had lost the instrument of begging.
[12] The following day there came from a village called [t] Cappella a certain man and his wife, a drowned girl comes back to life. bringing their little daughter to the Saint, whom they said had been drowned but had revived by the merits of the Saint. For on the preceding [u] Sunday, as they said, meanwhile while they had come to the Saint, it happened that their daughter, left by the maidservant at home and neglected, played alone beside water and fell in; and with no one present who could bring aid, she was suffocated and expired. Meanwhile on the return of the parents, a question arose about their little daughter: and when she was not found, order was given to seek her outside. Therefore the maid having gone out to seek the little girl, first when she saw her drowned in the water, thinking her a dog or some piece of carrion, cursed whoever had made the water unclean; and to extract that unclean thing, she leapt into the water: and coming nearer, she saw the foot of the girl appearing above: drawing it toward her, she recognized that it was the little girl she was seeking: and the maid calling out with great wailing, the father and mother ran up, and having learned of the sad event, through immoderate grief they broke out into calumny against the Saint, saying, "O Saint Bernard, do your pilgrims receive such a reward from you? If you can do anything, give back our daughter whom you have taken: otherwise we shall not only declare you unworthy of all reverence, but we shall withdraw all, as far as lies in our power, from your veneration." The piety of the Saint did not turn itself away from the petitions of the sorrowful: whom although through grief it befell to have spoken indiscreetly, yet the Saint knew that they had calumniated nothing deceitfully. Finally, around the middle of the night, while the parents were rubbing the lifeless little body that it might be warmed, and unexpectedly feeling a light pulse of some vein in the neck, when they were invoking the aid of the Saint as if already more presumptuously, the soul returning, the dead one began to breathe, and about cockcrow appeared alive. For the sake of this thing, let us together with the parents, who brought their child to the Saint, render thanks to God and to his Saint, and let us entreat that He may always enlarge His mercy toward us.
NOTES.
p Tardinghem in the County of Boulogne toward the County of Guines: there is also another Tardinghem near Cassel.
q Thus the Flemings and the other Teutons commonly call crutches placed under the arms.
r Leucheu in Picardy, near the town of Dourlens.
s The town of Saint-Pol is in Artois, nearly midway between Saint-Omer and Amiens: who then held that County I have not taken leisure to investigate more laboriously.
t Capella in Thiérache at the borders of Hainault, between Vervins and Avesnes; vulgarly la Chapelle: but because it is called a village, we may suspect with reason that a place closer to Saint-Omer is meant; of which the chorographical tables of the territory of Cassel exhibit many, but mostly with an addition, besides one nearest of two leagues from Saint-Omer, where the road divides coming from here, and one part leads to Cassel, the other to Bailleul, which is called Cappel.
u The first Sunday after Bernard's burial was 25 April and the feast of Saint Mark: on which it is probable this miracle happened, the more so that it is credible that the first festal day was seized upon by the parents for honoring the new Saint.
CHAPTER II.
Another 20 miracles. The malevolent and blasphemers against Blessed Bernard punished.
[13] A man in the castle of Saint-Omer, for five years vexed with constant pain of his leg, at that time when merchants were wont to go to a Provins; since he needed to seek his livelihood from the same trade and in the same place, but was prevented by infirmity and could not; fleeing to the help of Saint Bernard, Healed, one vexed with great pain of the leg, bound himself with this vow, that if by the Saint's clemency assisting him he could continue his trading, he would thenceforth be the servant of his helper. Moreover also, when he returned, he would bring to the Saint an iron leg. In a marvelous manner, the following day, the man who was lying bedridden, arose, and went to his market whole and returned; and as he had promised, brought an iron leg to the Saint. 2 paralytics, Also two paralytics were cured on the same day; of whom, to speak briefly, one was weakened in the feet, the other trembling in his whole body. A certain man from Bourbourg had for three years sustained an image as it were of perpetual night: another nearly blind, for he could see nothing but the sun and rather bright things. This man, when for his illumination he had approached many places of the Saints, and had not obtained the effect of his prayers; at length came to Saint Bernard, and received his almost lost light in its pristine brightness.
[14] A certain young man from the city called b Ulterius-Trajectum (Maastricht), contracted in his members, had come into these parts in the service of a certain man: who because he had recently been made contracted, cast off by his lord, was living somehow in a certain village near the sea. He came to the Saint walking on his knees with a staff, and miserably bent; and was freed from the passion which he had sustained for six weeks. A certain woman from c Blaringhem had been quite contracted for three years: contracted in her legs and weak in her loins, for in her loins and legs she was so weak, that sometimes she could not rise from bed except by the aid of her husband or her children; sometimes, the infirmity somewhat subsided, she would walk on her knees leaning forward and stooping with a staff. This woman, brought hither by the service of her husband, restored to health by the merits of the Saint, returned home on her own feet. On the same day the piety of the Saint restored to health a man from d Wissant, who for sixteen years vexed with infirmity of the loins, vexed by pain of the loins for 26 years. could hardly walk at all. This man, having returned home without our leave, after some days began to be sick more grievously than before: who imputing this to his sins, that he had not made the Lord to be praised concerning his cure, by counsel of his priest returned, and recovered more perfectly than before.
[15] A little boy of a certain man from Bourbourg, while his mother was baking loaves at the oven, sent out in play, as is wont to happen, to ask for a little cake, a drowned boy is resuscitated, fell into water, and with no one present to bring aid, was suffocated and expired. When therefore after nearly two hours the boy had been found in the water, and with all things being applied to him which are wont to be done for drowned persons, nothing of life appearing in him, the parents invoking the Saint, bound themselves with this promise; that if their boy should rise up, they would offer him to the Saint, and redeem the one resuscitated by the Saint at a reasonable estimation according to the measure of their riches. The dead one, therefore, after a little while they perceived to breathe: and that Saint Bernard, and offered to Blessed Bernard is redeemed. whom they had invoked, had come to their aid, they openly perceived. The boy therefore, when he had recovered from the injury of the water, the parents brought him to the Saint, and as they had vowed they redeemed him for themselves. A priest from e Surkes, for nearly nine months past, struck with paralysis, had been destitute of the function of all members; and, what he sustained still more grievously, he had almost entirely lost his speech. A priest is freed from paralysis, and nearly mute receives his speech, He came to the Saint once, and began to improve. He came a second time, and again felt an increase of health. He came a third time, and recovered most fully. The truth of this matter many Clerics as well as laymen acknowledge, who know that the Priest had been almost mute and trembling in every way, whom now they are amazed at speaking well and being quite strong.
[16] That matron who deserved to have the Saint as a guest, named Ogina, had reserved for herself from the Saint's Relics a cap and stockings and many other things, in which she believed there to be something of sanctity, for the memory of so great a guest. We have heard that many miracles were done from these relics, and that the diligent reader may understand more from a few, we here note one of them. A certain woman having a leg swollen and ulcerous, and translucent in the manner of f a lantern: because she was ashamed to reveal her infirmity to men at the tomb, came to the matron; A swollen leg is cured by the touch of a stocking, and devoutly prayed that something from the aforesaid relics might be placed on her leg. Therefore the matron, taking the Saint's stocking, wrapped the woman's ulcerous leg with it: which immediately being drawn back, all the swelling disappeared, and the skin, which had been translucent from the defect of the disease, was restored to the likeness of the rest of the flesh. Whoever, feverish, shall deserve to have the Saint's cap upon his head once, immediately recovers from the fever. Moreover many miracles, we are absent, have been done in distant parts upon unknown persons, concerning which no faithful person ought to doubt. For a certain Cleric from Cassel related to us, a paralytic woman is healed, that a certain woman, his neighbor, whom he had long known to be paralytic, now persevered whole by the merits of the Saint. She had come to the Saint, but before she was perfectly healed, had returned; yet gradually, her infirmity falling away, as the Cleric asserts, now she rejoices in perfect health.
[17] From the town of Bergues a boy was brought to the Saint: whom, when his age was already strengthening him to walk rightly, a paralytic boy. a paralytic infirmity had contracted: and what was still more disgraceful in him, his neck hung twisted backward above his shoulders. and laboring with a twisted neck, The parents, compelled by this necessity,
betook themselves to the help of Saint Bernard; and promised that they would still bring their child. Therefore, that it might be shown that the power of so great an advocate was not local, the piety of the Saint anticipated those devoutly invoking him: and before the child was brought here, what the disease had corrupted in him, divine healing restored. Hence what I have learned by the report of many, appears to be true: namely that whoever in any distress or infirmity have invoked the Saint, even if because of some necessity impeding them they cannot come here, nevertheless the Saint has not withdrawn himself from their aid.
[18] Wine customarily given to pilgrims is divinely increased. Moreover, with how great mercy and compassion the Saint assists those coming to him, he once demonstrated by the following miracle. When many sick people were lying at his tomb, and a number of honorable men, having cast off the pride of riches and mingled with the poor, were there awaiting the mercy of God with equal devotion; a Brother wine-steward, serving the guests with wine, directed almost the last pouring of his jar to the needy: which he received back in the Saint with manifold and wondrous interest. For as that Brother asserts, when a little afterwards he wished to bring other wine from the same jar, he found the vessel, which he thought almost empty, full up to overflowing. In this miracle I think this Saint is rightly to be compared to Blessed Elisha: because as he, mercifully freeing a widow who was to be dragged away with her sons by her creditor, by divine power filled as many vessels as the woman had; so this Saint manifoldly returned the wine which had been distributed to his sick ones.
A woman from g Helchy, greatly disfigured by three h humps on her loins and by an unnatural swelling of her belly, while she was coming to the Saint, various swellings of bodies are cured, her infirmity increased by the fatigue of the journey, two bladders, little unlike the humps in size, grew upon her groin. But God, who is accustomed to reward those laboring for his sake with manifold recompense, rewarded the labor and devotion of his handmaid quite liberally: in whom, by the merits of his Saint, he not only calmed the humps of the loins and the swelling of the belly, but also reduced to nothing the newly arisen bladders.
[19] But not yet has the ancient rage of Jewish unfaithfulness rested, and the old leaven of the Pharisees does not cease to corrupt many still into slander of Christ. For there have been not a few who have not feared to interpret divine miracles in a malign sense, and showing no reverence to the Saint, said that these things were done not in Christ but in Beelzebub. three drunken youths inflict injury upon Bernard while living: What happened to one of the slanderers of the Saint, for the terror of evildoers, the praise of the good, it seems to me not useless to insert here: and because we know that the kindling of this slander had its beginning while the Saint was still living, let us relate the matter in order, as we have learned it from the report of faithful living men. When on a certain night the Saint, while still living, was going alone through the town, three youths, giving themselves to curiosity and arrogance, found him, and having found him, because they were drunk, grievously reviling him, wished to strip him of his garments. At this the man of God throws himself at their feet, and most humbly begs that he might be able to depart without insult. two of these are extinguished by sudden death: But they being unwilling to be bent by prayers and not desisting from the harassment of the innocent, the man of God, bringing forth three pennies which he happened to have, and giving them to them, pacified the madness of the gluttons for a cheap enough price, what he could not obtain by prayers and humility. But divine vengeance not accounting the injury of his servant of little weight, two of them not long afterwards, as is said, died by unforeseen death. But the third, William by name, of whom is our discourse here, persevering in his wickedness, did not fear to increase the works of malignity. For after this, on a certain day, while that fool wished to throw a boy from a certain bridge into the water, the man of God who happened to be there, cast himself as mediator between the disputants, and humbly asked that fool that for the love of God and of himself he would desist from the injury of the boy. At this he, as being always drunk, the third who had again mocked the saint full of indignation and pride, cast the man of God from him quite irreverently, and, as he had determined, threw the innocent boy into the water. Nor could this suffice for that malignant one, but, opposed to the Holy Trinity, he wished to fulfill a third work of his malignity. For on another occasion, when that fool was sitting drunk in a tavern, and had compelled him to drink wine, it happened that the man of God passed by there; whom he forcibly drawing in, compelled him to drink wine, from which he had altogether determined to abstain: and what was more to be feared by the fool, he did not hesitate to make mockery of the man of God. Not yet however could the stubbornness of the fool be pricked with compunction, but he whom he held in mockery as mortal, he believed that he could now also with impunity mock him as immortal. For when the Saint, now shining with miracles, still lay unburied on the bier; because almost the whole city was gathered for the funeral rites of so great a dead Saint, that fool also with certain of his companions, while in the funeral rites of the Blessed he blasphemes the same, had come thither more out of curiosity than out of veneration. But while all were showing due reverence to the Saint and casting their laces or any of their garments on the bier in hope of health; that wretch alone, established in filth, and still wishing to be befouled, giving birth to injustice, conceived pain for himself and brought forth iniquity. For when in silent thought he blasphemed the Saint, and said in his malign heart that he himself could bestow more upon the dead than the dead upon him; struck by a certain heavenly vengeance, he trembles and is covered with sweat, suddenly he began to tremble all over; and from anguish, with sweat flowing in waves from all his members, he could scarcely stand on his feet. And although that wretch now knew his sin to be manifest, and feared that as vengeance for his crime he must die or be suddenly contracted; nevertheless he did not ask pardon for his guilt: but full of confusion and shame, he quickly took to flight.
[22] These things being so done, when on a certain occasion some companions of the oft-mentioned wretch came to the Saint, and asked that he would come with them; he is divinely kept from entering the temple; he, that he might not be exposed and confounded on account of his fault, assented to their persuasions: but because he was not yet truly repentant, when he came to that inner door of the temple, through which access to the Saint is open to seculars, he did not have permission to enter. Feigning therefore a private necessity before the door, confused indeed and sad he departed: but pricked for a little while, without repentance he still remained in sin. In a similar manner also a second time he wished to come to the Saint, and then too he could not have permission to enter the aforesaid door. A third time also, while he wished to come to the Saint, he could not even approach the church of Blessed Bertin: but while in our courtyard, between the temple of Saint Martin and the house in which the Saint while still established in this life had dwelt, that wretch was passing: suddenly he trembled so much, that he feared he would immediately there be contracted. And thus it happened by a just enough judgment, that he who thrice had treated the mortal dishonorably, should as often also be dishonored by the immortal. But a fourth time, while that wretch was thinking evil things near the bier, by so much the more quickly and severely did the Saint avenge his injury, by so much as he could now show that he was immortal: and because by the example of this man, he wished to strike terror into the malicious. When therefore the Saint had sufficiently avenged his injury, and that wretch saw the hand of God stretched out over him in evil; at last led by penitence, until coming to his senses and repenting in the following manner he was reconciled to the Saint. First, confession having been made of his excess, on the following night he abstained from the bed of his wife; and reflecting with himself on his couch what he had ill done, dissolved in tears, before his bed naked upon the naked ground in the form of a cross he prostrated himself: and tearfully begged pardon from God and his Saint. Here spending almost the whole night without sleep; he obtained admission to the tomb. when he had risen in the morning, having taken his offering he went to the temple: and because he was now compunct, he obtained permission to enter to the Saint. But how much meanwhile he had feared the wrath of the Saint, he openly showed by his trembling and uncomposed step. When at length he had come to the tomb, offering first made, in the form of a cross he there prostrated himself: and for what he had proudly committed he humbly asked pardon. Hence let the malevolent be confounded and blush, let the benevolent exult and rejoice, and that God may always multiply the works of his mercy toward us, let the piety of the Saint reconcile his unworthy servants to his Lord.
[21] A man of Callais i, at the town of Saint Omer caught with false coins, was thrust into prison; and there he had almost entirely lost the little light of his eyes, by whose defect he had fallen into this error of coins, by weeping and watching. But when he, accused of fraud, asserted that he was a baker and that he had received those coins for his bread, and that he had known no fraud in the money, wishing to swear with many satisfactions; [A man growing blind, by invoking Bernard, washes away the slander by the judgment of hot iron] the judge compelling, one of two was proposed to him to choose, namely that he should either purge himself by judgment, or succumb to the sentence of the guilty. Moved therefore by the harsh threat of the sentence, placing all his hope in the Lord, he promised Saint Bernard that if in this article of necessity he would defend his innocence, he himself would thenceforth be his servant. What more? That blind man, by the prudence of the Saint teaching him, as I think, and receives his sight: prudently enough fulfilled all the things which those adjudged to the hot iron are accustomed to do, and free from all crime was absolved and departed. Coming therefore to the Saint, as if about to render thanks for his liberation, he received the light which he had lost, and for both benefits glorifying God and his Saint more than can be told, joyful he returned home.
[22] A certain man and his wife, from the above-mentioned village of Blarighem, husband and wife are freed from vehement agitation of their bodies were languishing from the same infirmity: who, agitating their hands and feet and all the members of their body as if mad, because they were sustaining an unspeakable passion, were showing themselves by their doings in a wonderful and unspeakable manner. These, as if soon to die, when they had been laid upon the ground, directed all their intention to Saint Bernard, and with the voice with which they were able and with simplicity of heart, they supplicated that they might be rescued from so unforeseen and imminent a death. Soon they began to improve, and they felt that the presence of the Saint was present to them, their discomfort somewhat tempered: but on the following night, the Saint visiting them through a vision, and making the sign of the Cross over them, every passion being put to flight, not long afterwards they received perfect health. And because these came to the Saint, and many giving testimony to them, they said without doubt that these things were true, in
the cause of this writing.
[23] Those vexed with the falling sickness are healed, A small boy, vexed with the falling sickness, brought from Bourbourg to the Saint, in the days of holy Pentecost k obtained full health. Him his mother without our permission brought back home, whom afterwards she reported to have fully recovered. A man from the village which is called Saint Wulmer's l, nearly nine months having passed, while on a certain day he was laboring in the cultivation of his field, struck his foot upon a stump, and lying down from the injury and swelling of his foot, and not slightly injured fell into a grave infirmity. For soon, his foot beginning to swell, he contracted the defect of limping: and as time went on the infirmity so progressed that, both legs being weakened, the capacity of walking upright was entirely taken from him: and so it came about that sometimes he lay continually in bed, sometimes, his languor somewhat mitigated, he walked with two staves. He had himself brought hither on horseback, and not wishing to enter any house, in the vestibule of our temple he spent the night in prayer. But in the morning, the doors being unbarred, coming with his staves to the Saint, carried to the tomb, while he was sitting intent on prayer beside the tomb, and one of the Brethren was singing Mass there at the altar of Saint Nicholas, he felt the help of divine propitiation: and leaving his staves rising, he obtained the possibility of walking upright. These things being so done in the sight of the people, he reported to us the order of his infirmity, as has been said: and because he had several witnesses, he wiped every cloud of doubt from our heart. Whence it can be shown by the eyesight of truth, what I profess to have often thought, that those whom the greatness of devotion brings hither from remote parts, the piety of the Saint assists them so much the more quickly and efficaciously, as it is established that they have come hither with no feigned devotion.
[24] The matter which I wish to write has been spread by celebrated report, and solemnly recited in the assembly of the church. That it may be the better proved, that feigned devotion offends the Saint more than it pleases, let the true and faithful account of a certain religious Presbyter whose name is Simon be brought forth. likewise a girl sick with fever On a certain day when the aforesaid Presbyter was preaching in the church, taking the beginning of his sermon from Saint Bernard, he rebuked their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they were little devout toward the Saint: and convicting them of feigned devotion, he related what had happened to his maidservant, as an example of terror. My maidservant, he said, while she was vexed with fever, promised Saint Bernard a penny and a candle, and immediately recovering remained well for fifteen days. But while she long retained the penny, which she had promised from necessity more than from devotion, having relapsed on account of the neglect of the vow, as was just, she incurred the wrath of the Saint: and immediately received back the fever which had been taken away. Therefore the penny ill retained she promised a second time: and then too she merited to be freed from the fever. Coming therefore to the Saint, as if about to render thanks for the benefit, freed indeed from the fever but not from the disease of avarice, not even then did she wish to render what she had promised: but with presumptuous rashness believing to justify herself, she did not fear to drink of the water of the Saint. Soon celestial vengeance follows the liar, and the fever which had a second time been taken away, is rendered as it were with interest more grievously. Now therefore that rash woman, knowing that she had transgressed against the Saint, nor daring to act falsely any further: offered to the Saint the penny and the candle as she had vowed, and immediately escaped all the disquiet of the fever, and thus in one and the same matter, together with the pretense, the Saint chastised with severity, wished to strike terror into pretenders; and while he received the penitent, to the penitent he in some manner suggested the hope of pardon.
ANNOTATIONS.
April 13, in the Life of Blessed Ida widow mother of Godfrey of Bouillon, who
restored it, in which several Counts of Boulogne are
buried.
CHAPTER III.
Other 20 miracles. The body of Blessed Bernard translated,
[5] A boy from the village which is called the church of Saint Omer, having a withered hand came to the Saint: A withered hand is cured who holding his hand almost the whole day under the stone of the tomb, felt it somewhat strengthened; and to the Convers who was guarding the tomb, he told it with joy. But because from long infirmity the hand was still too cold, the Convers was unwilling to indicate this to us: but permitting the boy to depart, if the improvement were stable, he commanded him to return. Therefore the boy returning home, quickly fully recovered, and the pious devotion which he had toward the Saint impelling him, for giving thanks, as he had been bidden, returned: and moving his hand nimbly before us, demonstrated the skill of his physician. On the same day a man from the town which is called de Bella; pain of chest recovered at the tomb from a certain grave infirmity: for he, as he said, felt so great a pain inside his body, and especially around the chest, that he scarcely even with great labor had the capacity of breathing. Him we heard speaking openly enough without panting, and because he asserted that he felt no pain in his chest, he furnished me matter for writing.
[26] On the following day a man from the castle of Saint Omer came to the Saint: who at another time had been healed at the tomb, but because then he had not indicated this to us, now to supply what he had less done, anguish of a swollen foot, devoutly had returned. Concerning whose infirmity or manner of cure, lest I leave the reader in suspense, shall I unfold in order the things which I have learned to have been related from his mouth? He for half a year or more, had sustained such pain in his foot, as if he truly had his foot transfixed with an iron nail: nor however did the foot appear injured by any scar, except that by a slight swelling he had alienated from the likeness of the other foot. If at any time he wished to go on foot, he could touch the ground only with his heel: and this very thing he did with great labor. Whence because he was a merchant, and in many places it was necessary for him to seek the necessities of life, he had procured a horse for himself: which however he could not mount unless someone helped him up. When therefore he had shown his foot to a most skilled physician, and because it was incurable, with danger of cutting it off, the physician had been unwilling to apply any cure to him, but had advised that the foot be cut off; at length the sick man fled to Saint Bernard; and carrying with him a waxen slipper, with great labor (which was apparent from the sweat flowing from all his members) arriving at the tomb, offered what he had vowed. Withdrawing into a secret place, while he was intent on prayer, he happened to place his foot on the ground, and felt no pain, as he was accustomed: which he did a second and third time, and always found the foot stronger. Feeling himself therefore healed, he departed joyfully, and to his market, which a little before he could scarcely reach on horseback, he went on his own feet. But because he was unwilling to indicate this to us, and did not make the Lord to be praised in his cure; what he ought to have done voluntarily, afterwards he was compelled to fulfill. For when on a certain night he felt revived torments in his foot, and on account of the concealed miracle is renewed, fearing the Lord angry with him, in the morning he returned to the Saint; and what he had foolishly concealed, before all he confessed. It is to be noted therefore how much the intercession of the Saint confers on us for the increase of good works, who, while he was unwilling that the glorification of his miracles be concealed, in this has made us in some way participants of his glory. Wherefore our devotion ought always to grow toward him, whom we daily experience praying incessantly for us.
[27] A woman from b Aire, was incomparably laboring with a cephalic affliction, Grave pain of head is cured since with the swelling of her face she had her head so stupefied, that she could scarcely feel any touch or even the pricking of iron. This woman on a certain day, more grievously agitated than usual by the trouble of her infirmity, while she was wandering through the town as if raving, a certain neighbor of hers meeting her, who was returning cured from the Saint; by her counsel she promised a journey to the Saint: and soon after the words of the promise, she felt her pain mitigated. After therefore she had discharged the promised journey by coming hither, she so perfectly recovered, that she not only showed the swelling of her head to have disappeared; but also under oath asserted that she felt no pain anywhere. On the same day a boy from the district of Boulogne, from the village which is called Helchy, obtains health. a double hump and troublesome contraction, He was disfigured by two humps before and behind, and for about two years contracted, if ever he wished to walk, with one hand placed on his knee, with the other with the support of a staff he guided his feeble gait. His patience having been proved by the expectation of two weeks, at length the Saint granted what was asked: and the humps calmed, made the contracted boy sound and upright. On the morrow moreover a girl from c the Hesdin district, from the falling sickness, increased the due heralding of our praises. For seven years wearied by this discomfort, she bore the cause of the disease in her hand, the falling sickness, which she held closed as if it were contracted; but the infirmity coming on, it was opened with a sudden motion: and soon the girl, driven by the assault of her disease, falling was tormented: and thus it happened to her almost at every time, and within a day and a night fourteen or more times she sustained that miserable passion. When this girl had vowed herself to go to the Saint, she sustained no further trouble of falling: and because at the tomb for three days she remained well, and the hand which had been contracted as it were for the cause of the infirmity, she showed sound and erect, of her perfect cure any faithful person ought not to doubt.
[28] A woman also from d Renynuiescure, for five years swollen with dropsical humor, had once come to the Saint, dropsy, and then having obtained no health, had returned home. To her not long after the Saint appeared through a vision, and admonished her to return again to the tomb: and dictated that she should go to sleep in another place than she had before lain, on the other side of the tomb. Therefore the woman, now secure of recovering health, began a second time to come to the Saint. But because from the long languor she was beyond measure weak
and not only in her body, but also in her legs had horribly swollen up; scarcely on the third day, having completed a journey of one and a half miles, she was able to arrive at the tomb of the Saint. There therefore, as she had been taught by the Saint, choosing a place to sleep, immediately as she rose from sleep, she felt vigor in all her members: and casting away the staff with which, supported, she had come, leaping and exulting, she showed us her body and legs naturally quite slender. And because I have often heard our elders relate that many bodies of Saints rest there, I think that Saint Bernard made his sick woman sleep upon the tomb of some Saint, whom in this cure he wished to honor and to be a partaker of his glory.
[29] On the same day also a certain Scot, contraction, contracted by weakness of the loins, came to the Saint with two staves: who taking a stone, which was one of those stones with which the Saint had strewn his bed, marked the places of his infirmity, and immediately fell asleep. When, however, he had been aroused from sleep, he understood that the pain had departed from his loins: and laying aside his staves rising, he indicated these things through an interpreter monk, who knew his language. At these three miracles Malachias Abbot of Holy Trinity of the Scots was present, whom we have therefore placed here as a witness, that if these things must sometime be brought to the Apostolic See, by the testimony of this Abbot we may be able to confirm our truth. But if we have need of the testimony of the Abbots of this land, we shall be able truly to bring forth all the neighboring Abbots as assertors of this matter, especially since we know from their relation that two Abbots have been healed here. For the Abbot of e Saint John of Terouanne, pain of head, while Saint Bernard had just been entombed, came to our dedication: to whom, when our Abbot wished to enjoin the sermon of Chapter and the office of the Mass, he refused both, and said that because of a pain in his head he could do neither. But because Saint Bernard was already then shining with miracles, that Abbot with great veneration went to him, and had his cuirass placed upon his head; and as he afterwards related to us, he felt no pain from that infirmity any further. Moreover the Abbot of f the Chapel of Blessed Mary at the same time had come into the town of Saint Omer so infirm, troublesome infirmity, that he had not dared to enter the Abbey, but in the town had chosen lodging suitable to his person and infirmity. Sending therefore through his servant two pennies to the Saint, he poured forth humble prayers: and promised that a third, if he were restored to health, he himself would bring to him. Meanwhile, when the household of the Abbot returned from the Saint, the Abbot his pain being mitigated, obtained the possibility of riding; and daily recovering better, after a few days came to the Saint to render his vows: and as he himself asserted, there while he was still at the tomb, he felt the help of divine healing.
[30] A certain young man in the town of g Furnes, in one side and in the tongue struck by paralysis, when for several days he had persevered at the tomb of the Saint; at length he merited to receive the reward of his perseverance. For when the time now extended beyond the fifteenth day, a paralytic, and he still was unwilling to depart; the rewarder of his patience the Lord looked upon the devotion of the humble, and with the vivification of the dead side repaired his tongue almost failing in its office unto right speaking. And since twice, as we are accustomed to do concerning the rest of the sick, once at the tomb, and in our choir before suitable witnesses, we tested him; we took care to wipe away every darkness of doubt from the hearts of unbelievers. At the same time a certain man from the Terouanne territory, madness of mind brought to the Saint his daughter, whom he said to have been mad, but through the Saint's patronage to have returned to a sound mind. For while the girl was mad, the father promised that he would bring her to the Saint: and immediately through the intervention of the powerful Advocate, he received his mad one sound, and according to the tenor of his vow brought her hither. Whence it appears how much that Saint can avail with the uncircumscribed majesty of the Lord, who in remote places more efficaciously aids those invoking him.
[31] For a certain Monk of Guasto, a Cluniac Priory, saw through a dream that he had come to our temple: who while he was before the altar of Saint Dionysius, A Monk roused by a double vision, where guests are accustomed to make their prayers, and wished to go to the Saint, nor knew the way, and had no one to lead him thither; he saw suddenly in that part of the church where the Saint lies entombed, an unspeakable brightness shining forth; to which when he had bent his step, it happened that he was shaken from sleep, and so did not contemplate the summit of the vision. But on the following night another vision of the Saint appeared to him: in which he said that with palms outstretched for a certain private necessity he had poured forth devout prayers to the Saint, and had had so great confidence in the same vision, that soon he did not delay to promise his journey hither: and punished for his negligence in fulfilling the vow, but while in the rendering of his vow he was a little negligent, a few days elapsing he fell into a grave infirmity. Believing therefore this to have happened to him for his neglect, and quickly taking tow, he was twisting a string for the work of a candle which he might bring to the Saint: which when he had measured to his neck, he is healed: as he related to us under testimony of truth, immediately all assault of the disease began to quiet down: and thus in a short time restored to entire soundness, he brought his candle to the Saint; and made open the work of mercy which had been shown to him.
[32] At the same time two women from the town which is called h Messines, coming to the Saint, with gifts with great devotion honored his tomb, and did not neglect to indicate the cause of their journey: A seven-year infirmity is cured, for one of them said that she had been freed from an infirmity which she had sustained for seven years through the merits of the Saint. But the other related that she had been infirm with an acute fever, and thence had fallen into a desperate languor, acute fever, and thus, as is wont to happen to the sick, had entirely lost her speech; after five days however, the ecstasy being calmed, she began to speak a little, and with her whole mind turning herself to Saint Bernard, she made a vow that she would seek him. In that same moment therefore, having experienced the Saint's patronage, she quickly returned to health: and coming hither she brought to the Saint a capital candle and an iron chain.
[33] Not long after, a man from the city of Arras coming to the Saint, A withered hand: said that for two years he had had a withered hand: which when he had promised his journey to the Saint, he received healed. Him in the presence of i Desiderius Bishop of Terouanne before his Clerics we proved to say true things, inasmuch as we knew him by the testimony of many to have been infirm. There was brought to the Saint a small boy in the cradle, of whose wonderful cure, with manifold praise, we ought to extol the magnificence of the Saint. For the mother of the boy, who brought him hither, relating the order of the matter to us, said: that her boy had had a broken arm. But whether this had happened to him in the womb or afterwards in the cradle, she did not know: for recently freed from childbirth, when she saw one little arm of her boy deformedly hanging below his side; a broken arm, frequently raising it, because raised up it always enormously fell away; at length the mother understood the defect of the member, and by touching proved that it was broken. And because she had already heard many things said of Saint Bernard's virtues, she promised that she and her husband, clothed in woolen and barefoot, bringing their boy with them, would seek the Saint, if the weakened member in the boy should receive its natural vigor. And so by the vows of the suppliants, the patronage of the Saint aspiring, by heavenly surgery the injury of the broken little arm is consolidated. For lest any doubt of divine works should creep in, when the parents had brought their boy hither, a certain knot could still be touched in the little arm, where they said the fracture had been.
[34] In the year of the Lord 1182, in the thirteenth week after the first burial, The body on July 29 transferred to a new Mausoleum, the body of Saint Bernard was again drawn back from the earth, and in an honorific mausoleum, which Lord Simon the Abbot had ordered to be made, on the fourth day before the Kalends of August was re-interred. After this on the second day, namely the sixth feria, toward evening when now the structure of the mausoleum had been erected, a new miracle there occurred, through which, as I think, the Saint demonstrated his favor and good pleasure in this matter. For a man from Bethune, on the morrow an infirmity of loins and feet is cured: who for almost seven weeks had been wearied by an infirmity of the loins, and the vigor of one leg and foot being entirely lost, scarcely could place his other foot upon the earth; that day while the mausoleum was being built, came thither: and immediately after having made prayer, being better, he received hope of health. Therefore that night he persevered in prayer, and in the morning when he understood himself to be healed, he offered his staff to the Saint; and about to depart, indicated to us the work of mercy which had been shown to him.
[35] After a few days a woman, coming from the Arras city to the Saint, There are healed a woman jaundiced, and abounding in vicious flesh, was demonstrating with a pale and jaundiced face the infirmity which she said she was suffering in her body, and especially around her heart: the name of which infirmity, if anyone wishes to know, the Physicians, as I think, call that disease by the Greek name sarcoma, that is, a vicious superabundance of flesh: which if you wish vulgarly according to the idiom of the Teutonic tongue to interpret, I shall be able to say that that woman was k "lardy." When this woman had been signed with the relics of the Saint, taking a stone (which we have said to have been one of those stones from which the bed of the Saint was strewn) the stone of Blessed Bernard placed under her head, she placed it under her head, and so fell asleep. When after a little while she had been awakened, she said that this sleep had profited her much: and as argument of this matter, she showed that the swelling of her hands and of certain of her members had subsided. and afterwards passing the night at the tomb, Therefore on the following night, because she had now begun to improve, being permitted to remain at the tomb; she perceived a most sweet odor, surpassing, as it seemed to her, all aromatics, to issue three times from the tomb: which sweetness removed every pain from her heart. The day now returned, when she said that she was relieved in her whole body, and, as she believed, healed, that place from which the sweet odor had come forth, she was still showing with her finger on the stone.
[36] A certain Brother, named Simon, vexed by long languor, had already so failed from excessive infirmity, that he could neither rise from bed, nor proceed to the necessities of his nature except with two staves and the help of an attendant. and a monk unable to walk because of weakness, He according to his custom with staves went to the tomb on a certain night: and there sleeping, when he was being mocked with innumerable visions, and saw nothing perfectly; about the middle of the night from the terror of some vision he leaped up from sleep; and casting away his staves,
upon which he strengthened his weakened feet, before the tomb he stood; and making a staff from the tomb, he was learning to walk like a little child, and bore himself to walking. There therefore taking proof of the virtue restored to him, he went to the nearest altars and through the whole church without a prop. And when he had prayed a little at the tomb; about to seek his bed again, he seized his staves between his arms; and changing place, carried those who a little before had brought him. A few days elapsing, likewise a dysenteric, a man from the maritime parts near Wit-Sandt came to the Saint, who as he asserted, for twenty weeks had labored with the disease of dysentery: but when he promised his journey to the Saint, he felt the remedy of divine propitiation: and coming hence hither with an oblation, he said that he was entirely healed.
ANNOTATIONS.
f This
Abbey is by the above-mentioned Blessed Ida, as we expound at length in her Life,
founded in the year 1091: there the Virgin Mother of God is famous for miracles; there Blessed Ida
died.
CHAPTER IV.
Other XIII miracles. The wonderful conversion of a sinner: and the liberation of those in peril at sea.
[37] Also an English woman, who had gone to the holy Martyrs Thomas and a Edmund for the sake of remedy, and had not recovered; crossing over to these parts, came to our region: and from an almost unheard-of infirmity, by the compassion of God's clemency, merited to be freed. By what name I should call her infirmity, I know not: A certain woman is healed of a grievous languor, which I know her to have been incomparably infirm, since indeed, as if she were mad, she incessantly whirled her head about. When therefore she had come to the Saint, and near the tomb was more sharply than usual afflicted by her passion; the pain, gathered into pus, burst forth through her ear: and as several who were present testified, with a pair of worms coming out from her ears; two worms large and deformed came forth together with the pus from her ear: and so freed from the passion which she had sustained every day for nine weeks, through the mercy of God, to prove the truth of the perfect cure, for seven days she remained with us unharmed and well.
[38] A certain citizen from the castle of Saint Omer had lost his hawk, another recovers a lost hawk: which seeking for one day, when he had not found it lost, he promised to bring a waxen bird to Saint Bernard, if he might be able to recover the lost bird. And so it came about that after about one hour, while the man was invoking the Saint, the lost hawk flew before the feet of its Lord, and brought a captive little bird between its talons. This narration perhaps will be esteemed as sport: but no falsity will here be detected. For by the relation of the servants, who brought hither the waxen bird sent by their Lord, this matter became known: and known by many, through the whole city it was celebrated. And lest any should wonder and say, that the Lord does not care about birds, let him know from the testimony of divine Scripture, that the Lord hates nothing of the things which he has made: especially since we read that the hermits in solitude exercised many virtues around the beasts, and daily we see in the smallest things the divine works more gloriously shining. Wisdom 11, 23 For although in this bird pride may be noted, still it is not for us to judge of secret things: rather if this is the work of the Lord, we ought to render to him, for his ineffable piety, what thanks we can.
[39] A man from Ponthieu, from the castle which is called b Rue, had a boy laboring with the falling sickness; who immediately, A boy laboring with the falling sickness is healed, when his father promised that he would bring him to the Saint; the boy lost every assault of his disease. And because the father, coming hither with his son, asserted on the word of the Lord, that for three months he had felt no mark of his infirmity, hence we conjecture that he entirely recovered. likewise a girl; A thing similar to this was proved to have happened to a certain other man of Bethune with his little daughter, he himself before us all narrating it. For his aforesaid daughter by the assault of the same disease so for several months was laboring, that always at the new moon for about eight days, many times a day falling, she lay on the ground as if dead: whom afterwards the father having brought to the tomb of Saint Bernard thought to have recovered there, and brought home. But after a month, fully confirmed of her health, he returned hither with his daughter, about to render due thanks to God and Saint Bernard. When now the odor of the virtues of the blessed man being spread, then a deaf woman, on all sides peoples like eagles flew together to his most holy body; a certain woman of Aire, deprived of the office of her ears, approached among others to his memory: who, prayer being made, with her own hands threw dust from the tomb of the Saint into her deaf ears; and soon with water sanctified by his relics, these being washed, immediately the ancient use of hearing was renewed.
[40] A boy in the castle of Saint Omer, a boy grievously wounded in the brain: when he had been wounded in the brain, on a certain day eating hot bread, struck by a sudden passion, was brought almost lifeless to the Saint. When therefore all day he lay there almost dead, and toward evening the Brother who was guarding the tomb ordered the impurities around it to be swept away; the mother of the boy, seeing there a scarcity of straw, and the pilgrims arriving while they bent their knees, seating themselves in the dust: O Saint Bernard, she said, if you would give me back my son, I would not delay to spread a rush mat before your tomb. But as those grieving sometimes are wont to speak to the dead, so the mother, after the aforesaid words, turning to the almost lifeless boy, asked whether he agreed to her promise. And the boy, lifting his head, answered "Yes." Even taking his mother's breast in his hand, and bringing it to his mouth, he was nursing, was speaking and was eating; and was strong enough for all the things which he had done on the previous day. O wonderful virtue of the Saint, who held the mat of the poor woman so acceptable, that for her promise he deigned to restore health to the dying boy. The same hilarity, as seems to me, still shines out in the miracles, which once shone in him while he was a penitent.
[41] a girl near death: The daughter of a certain woman, from the castle which is called Bella, vexed by long languor, at length succumbing to the disease, was thought to be knocking at the gate of natural death. Her mother, seeing so great a crisis of life, at length turned to the asylum of the blessed man's patronage, whose fame of miracles she had recently received, with prayers of this sort. O, she said, Saint Bernard, with whose odor of miracles the world is filled, succor my daughter, succor her, I pray, with heavenly medicine; to whom, as can be seen, neither human arts nor means can avail: I promise that she will be your handmaid: you will gain me as a most devoted servant to yourself: only be present to the wretched, set in the nearness of death. Soon after the end of the prayer follows the sense of improvement: for thence health increasing from day to day, when she had recovered, she came hither with her mother, relating the order of the truth to us, and paying due thanks to her healer.
[42] We are relating a matter, which we have faithfully received from one to whom it was narrated by the very one to whom it happened. We could indeed speak with his own person (since neither his name nor his acquaintance is hidden from us), of the matter itself, to hear; but we have considered it safer for us to bring in witnesses of second rank, than by raising question upon his sin to the young man, to whom the matter happened, now converted and penitent, to produce blushing and offense; for we remember it is written, Woe to him through whom scandal comes. Matt. 18, 7 The aforesaid young man therefore, although he had been lawfully joined to a wife, An adulterous young man, wandering however far beyond the granted coupling, serving the miry empress of lust, let loose with his hands all the reins to lust. For besides the simple choruses of unmarried women, married as he was he violated the seats of the married, so much that other men's wives conceived by him, and bore infants of so great a crime. Thus therefore, as we have said, wholly given over to impurity, he lived like a horse and a mule, in which there is no understanding. But as thou hast multiplied thy mercy, O God, thou savest man and beast, O Lord. confession of sin being made, The North wind therefore rising, the Holy Spirit coming breathed upon his heart: soon he went to his Presbyter, bared his wounds: upon which the Presbyter prudently pouring wine and oil, both enjoined penance on the chastised for the deeds committed, and with very many persuasions soothed him, that he might persevere in the same mind. But forgetting the penance afterwards, he turned aside from his purpose. What then? The fault of the master is indeed chided, but it is not in the physician always that the sick man be cured. He pilgrimages to Jerusalem: Moreover he undertakes a very long journey, enjoined for penance: therefore he walked through lands, crossed seas, came to Jerusalem, prayed and returned home. What then? What is done? You have indeed set out abroad, you have borne the Cross, but would that in your heart! returning he repeats the same sins: Thus, thus indeed you would have followed the Lord. But you have done a good work, but is it not rather from lands to lands, from regions to regions, and not rather from virtue to virtue that one should walk, that the God of Gods may be seen?
"They change sky, not soul, who run across the sea."
You have crossed seas, but from death to life you have not yet crossed: you have washed your feet, how have you defiled them? You have returned to your vomit: you have been diminished in vices, but you have not put them to flight. Meanwhile while adulteries are repeated, and panderings are renewed, he came to the memorial of Saint Bernard to pray. Where while he is praying, it seemed to him that his garments from the lower parts, by a creeping flame, were being consumed all around. He looks, he wonders, remembers his sins, coming to the tomb he feels his clothes burning: fears the matter may be seen by the bystanders, fears the Lord very angry with him for his crimes. Therefore for a double confusion and blush, turning aside into a neighboring corner, he strips off his clothes, and from a friend accompanying him he received one with which to cover himself. And so confused he at once went out of the oratory. O Saint Bernard! O praiseworthy man! O man instructed in the knowledge of doing penance! Consult the knight about knighthood, the physician about medicine, but our Bernard about penance: he is practiced in this school: he knows the kinds of wounds, he knows
diverse and suitable aids. Behold the young man whom that North wind had entirely chilled in his lowest parts, while fire visibly kindled his garments on the outside, the flame of the Holy Spirit, by the merits of the blessed man, invisibly kindled him within.
[43] These things being so, the often-mentioned young man immediately sought a certain recluse dwelling not far outside the borough of Saint Omer, he goes again penitent to a recluse; formerly a familiar of Saint Bernard, and poured out his heart like water before the sight of the Lord. He sets forth the whole order both of the matter and of the event. The man praised the Lord, merciful in sinners, and wonderful in his Saints. He therefore rebuked the young man for the things committed, besought him for the virtues to be acquired. The doctrine of the man is heard, is heard and embraced in all patience: therefore penance is renewed, is renewed and increased; he is changed into another: the body is chastised and reduced to servitude; vices are destroyed, virtues are built up. This is the change of the right hand of the Most High. Therefore, a few days having elapsed, it came into his mind to return to the holy tomb; and he returns. thence returning to the tomb, Where he long humbly prayed, long bent his knees, and gave thanks to the Saint for so pious a reproof, and for the correction begun most devoutly asked that it might be preserved to the end by his merits. Therefore, the prayer being poured forth, he tried to depart, but could not: he was able indeed to pray, to bend his knees, but by no means could he withdraw. where he is kept for a while secretly, Cold fear therefore seizes his limbs: yet he prays, as we have said: he bends his knees and adores, so that you would think the young man was addressed by the Saint with words of this kind in a friendly manner: Wait a little, wait, friend, and hear me, whom you know to have been an intercessor for you. You have indeed merited the wrath of the Lord for the enormity of your crimes, and with those descending into the pit you were reckoned: but, thanks to God, with my intervening, you escaped: you escaped, I say, if you adorn the good beginning with a better increase unto the end of life. Consider me, I pray, once a sinner, consider me afterwards a penitent: as if to be admonished to the constancy of penance by the example of Bernard. but see me now for temporary penance eternally crowned and exulting. Here I wished to detain you a little in prayer, so that against him who does not sleep, but is always awake, going about and seeking whom to devour, who has war, you may learn to be vigilant and to pray. I have learned by experience what I say: believe one experienced. Therefore giving thanks to the Lord, go in peace; and that nothing worse may happen to you, sin no more. Soon therefore healed according to the soul that man departed, and rendering thanks to the Lord and to his holy intercessor Bernard, lives religiously until this day.
[44] Precious in the sight of the Lord the merits of this holy man, with how great devotion in the straits of perils of necessities they are to be sought by the faithful, not only at his tomb or in the remote places of lands, but also among the swelling waves of the raging sea, has the omnipotent Lord wonderfully deigned to show by his piety. Merchants of Saint Omer For certain Merchants, inhabiting the town of Saint Omer together with their wives and families, for the sake of trade with manifold merchandise having set out abroad, and traversing various places of lands, at length came to ancient Britain, which is now called England: and there exposing their wares for sale, and comparing or exchanging others from the natives of that country, they make for England, some returned to Flanders, others sought foreign regions with their wares. Of whom two, mutually bound by fellowship, attempting by ship to reach Scotland, in the British sea shaken by an immense storm, and two of these sailing thence to Scotland, by inestimable arrangement and unusual miracle, toward themselves and all who were with them, wonderfully knew the grace of the omnipotent God through the patronage of this Saint. For when, for their death, the waves raised by stormy winds were raging, the mast of the ship together with the sails being cast into the waves, the whole vessel shaken by the great waves, are tossed by the storm: was dissolved from all its framework. And so, with the waves bursting in, the whole vessel is filled up to the upper parts: so that not so much the ship seemed to be within the waves, as the waves within the ship. Why do I linger on many things? Utterly destitute of the solace of their strength, soon they betook themselves to the aids of divine piety. While therefore some suppliantly implore the omnipotent Lord, the creator and ruler of that very element; others beg the suffrages of the undefiled Mother of God and Virgin; and others invoke the diverse patronages of the Saints, as the affection of devotion was leading them; the two aforesaid companions salubriously implore the omnipotent Lord to be propitious to them through the merits of Saint Bernard with most urgent prayer. What then? while they invoke Blessed Bernard: Immediately at the invocation of so great a man, the omnipotent Lord, who wonderfully terrified their minds, also more wonderfully reformed their life through the merits of his Saint. For the ship is snatched from the waves by a certain violent gust of strong blowing, and aloft as if for the casting of one arrow or more carried through the high air, over the swelling whirlpools of the ocean, the ship being carried up through the air, in a certain most tranquil sea, but less deep, with the greatest stupefaction of all is borne: who there fearing that they would be dashed upon the rocks and perish, supported the ship with oars and ropes, until they were led to the port of their desire. they are borne to the desired port: While therefore they are stricken with so great an awareness of divine terror, their wives, dwelling in Flanders, solicitous about the prosperity of their men, on a certain day when a most savage storm had arisen, making a waxen ship, the wives then offering a waxen ship. presented it to the Lord and Saint Bernard for their salvation. A few days afterwards elapsing, the aforesaid men returning home, while they conferred with one another about the miracle of so great a matter, and their wives indicated what they had done for them; carefully asking about the day and hour, they found it to be that very one on which, rescued from shipwreck, their wives had offered prayers and gifts to the Lord and Saint Bernard for their safety. O wonderful man, wonderfully to be followed with all praise of virtues, whom the Lord has made wonderful, distinguished with so great signs of miracles: whose merits he has equaled to the merits of the ancient Fathers c Nicholas and Giles, whom through this by a similar miracle he has wonderfully manifested to be similar to them.
[45] A certain knight from the land of d Guines had lost his bird, which they call a falcon, A lost falcon is recovered. about four days: which while on a certain day he took pains to seek here and there; it happened that he saw some pilgrims immediately coming from Saint Bernard. After mutual salutations therefore and brief exchanges of words, the aforementioned knight said that he had recently lost an exceedingly good falcon, and that for this cause he was running about thus. To whose solicitude one of the pilgrims hearing this at once giving counsel, Behold, he said, from Saint Bernard, whose fame of miracles we cannot believe has not reached your ears, all of us, as you see here, have come together: there among the signs of manifold miracles, hanging by the tomb in honor of God and in praise of the blessed man, we saw even a hawk hanging made of wax: take therefore, if it please you, my counsel, and if Saint Bernard shall have returned your falcon to you, promise that you will recompense him with another made of wax. At this the knight, I agree, said, if only the outcome should follow what you mention. So therefore it was said and they departed from one another. But it came to pass that while the aforesaid knight not long after was sitting before his doors according to his custom, where he saw his falcon which he had lost coming, calling him with the accustomed nods of signs, he stretched out his arm: and the bird flying up sat upon it. Joyful therefore he received back his falcon, and marveling at the order of the event, went to Saint Bernard as he had promised, and the bird made of wax, not unmindful of his promise, there offering in memory of the miracle, left it.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
Other XXX miracles: three dead raised.
[46] A certain man from the city which is called a Utrecht, Because of a son submerged with his wares, named Adam, a merchant by office, while with his wares and money he was sending his son across to parts beyond the sea, a storm arising on the sea, he lost his son absorbed by the waves with all his substance. While therefore the aforesaid man more than was fitting took hard the things lost outside, deprived of sense from excessive grief, the father fallen into madness, he was bound within to a graver loss. When at length with the hope of being better, he came to the tomb of the Saint, having kissed it, and signed his head with the relics of the Saint; is restored to a sound mind: he was restored to pristine health, as he had hoped. Another certain man, Robert by name, from the village called Bouelinges, while on a certain day taking food he gaped too greedily, and, so to speak, gulped down meat very inhumanly; the bone of the flesh taken stuck in his throat; and thus seduced by gluttony he suffered the ambushes near to greediness. A little bone closing the throat for 15 days He therefore for about fifteen days, neither able to speak, nor to pass food or drink, the bone obstructing the passage; at length came to the memorial of Saint Bernard: and there to him praying, when he tasted water sanctified by the relics of the Saint, when waters of the relics being tasted is removed: the bone being sent down by the force of the drink, the lost faculty of speaking is restored; and soon releasing the praises of God from his mouth, to the Saint also he rendered due thanks for his cure.
[47] From the town of Bergues a certain mother of a family her son, A foot inflamed and to be cut off is cured. whose foot the fires of an infernal fire were now almost consuming, had brought around through various places of Saints: who having obtained nowhere any remedy or cure, finally approached the borough of Saint Omer, not for the sake of prayer or of the merits of Saint Bernard, but rather that his foot might be cut off. While therefore b the surgeons were awaited in the house of the parents and friends; the mother approached the memorial of Saint Bernard together with the boy, suppliantly praying that in the sight of the divinity he be a pious intercessor for the boy, and that at no time his foot be cut off, she by her prayer might mercifully obtain from the Lord. She is not frustrated in hope of mercy, but the desire of the pious petition is followed by the effect of cure. For with the boy put to sleep before the tomb, the fire is put to sleep: the burned flesh also, with pieces of cloth wrapped around adhering, is separated from the sound flesh: and immediately the pain being put to flight, restored to pristine health, he departed with his mother. Truly our Lord and Redeemer not forgetful of his promise, by which he says, The works that I do you also shall do; the things which he promised his Saints would do in future ages, through this his Saint in the sight of the sons of men he does not cease wonderfully to work: who, adhering to the footsteps of his Savior, walking through the ways of life and the paths of justice, the seductive
blandishments of the world avoiding, swam across the shipwreck of the present life so much the more freely, as the more strictly he tamed the pleasures of the alluring flesh. John 5, 36 Whence not undeservedly enriched in that heavenly blessedness with the gift of perpetual felicity, how happy, how gloriously he assists the Author of glory, is made plainly manifest from the things which the Lord works through him.
[48] In the castle of Saint Omer a certain woman, Christiana by name, was laboring with a swelling of the whole body: who had received counsel from many wise men, and yet had remained frustrated of all hope of health. She had been a maidservant under the hostess of the blessed man, and by dwelling with her had merited to obtain his familiarity. To her on a certain night the Saint appeared, and asked whether she were sleeping. And when she asked who was speaking to her; There are healed a woman swollen in her whole body, he answered that he was Brother Bernard: and bade her come to him. At this the sick woman answering that she could not rise from bed, and that she wholly knew not where she should seek him; the Saint's precept urged, that either led or carried she should come to Saint Bertin, where he himself rests in body, if she wished to receive health. Therefore the woman, not incredulous of the vision, had herself carried to the Saint. Who while she, lying down upon the tomb, was praying, a certain sound of belching was heard from her belly, and thus all the disordered swelling was reduced to nothing. A wonderful deed no less to be wondered at accompanies it. a man deaf for 4 years, For while, for the novelty of the miracle, all the people were lifting up their voices in praise of God; a certain man, who for four years and more had been deaf, was sleeping lying there: but roused by so great a clamor, he was astonished, and with his hearing restored asked what had happened. And so the miracle doubled, the joy also of the clamoring people is doubled, and through all things the merit of the Saint is declared.
[49] A certain woman, Hedwig by name, from the village called Carbeke, with two other women, whom she had brought as if for testimony, brought her five-year-old son to the Saint: concerning whom she related that the virtue of the Saint had gloriously shone forth, with many standing by. For before the Lord Richard c Archbishop of Canterbury and Master d Waleran Elect of Rochester, and Master e Peter of Blois, and very many other Clerics of great fame, the boy was brought, and the mother relating it the order of truth was brought forth. For the mother, while on a certain day sitting at home she was complaining that her son was absent, a boy suffocated in the waters revives. his brother goes out to seek him: and finding him suffocated in the water, stupefied in the manner of the terrified, he ran back home: and with great wailing announced the sad event to the pitiable mother. Hearing this, the mother trembling and almost lifeless hastened to the pond: and pulled out the body of her son, which still lay in the water with head turned downward: but could find no signs of life in him. All who were present indeed said that he was dead, and proving the arguments of death, asserted that the blood which was flowing from his mouth and nostrils was flowing from the rupture of the heart and the innards. The mother however, not distrusting the clemency of God and the patronage of the Saint, was imploring the help of the faithful advocate: and promised that she would bring her son to the Saint with gifts, such as she could have; with whom she would assign herself also to the service of the Saint thenceforth. I am about to say wonderful things. Scarcely had the woman completed her words, when the boy, the spirit returning, began to sob, and by the heavenly medicament of comfort, quickly received his soundness. In this order, in which the rusticity of our style has proceeded, the mother bringing her son before the aforementioned witnesses, made known the event of the matter. Blessed be God through all things, who does not cease so to glorify his Saint.
[50] When sometime our Hospitarius had gone into England for his revenues, the nephew of a Presbyter, who holds one of the maritime parishes, was despairingly languishing; A certain man receives the use of his tongue. especially when he was swollen beyond measure both in his mouth and in his tongue, and had lost not only the faculty of speaking, but almost also of breathing. When therefore from the relation of the Presbyter the languor of his nephew had been known to the Hospitarius, he beginning to narrate the great deeds of Saint Bernard, was persuading them to invoke the Saint faithfully, presumptuously promising, that the sick man would receive health. At this when the Presbyter with words, the sick man with a nod as he could, invoked the Saint; the monk dipped the relics of the Saint, which he had with him, namely his hairs, into water; and opening with a little knife the teeth of the sick man, from the same water he instilled a little into his mouth. Soon, the effect of the medicament following, the sick man entirely received his lost speech, and the traces of the swelling and ulceration vanishing, on the third day he perfectly recovered.
[51] We have heard that a certain young man, English by nation, limping on one leg and supporting himself with a staff, came to the Saint, whose order of cure we have resolved to transcribe. While before the tomb of the Saint he lay down crying out and trembling; the monk who was sitting there to give response, asked the cause of the crying out. a young man is healed of grievous torment in one leg: To whom he said, Lord, I am enduring unspeakable pain in my leg, and now more sharply than usual the assault of my disease vexes me; and as it seems to me, as if some living animal lurking within, is devouring the bones and marrow. The monk therefore compuncted over the miserable trouble, signed the leg of the man with the stone of the Saint, and exhorting him to prayer ordered him to sleep. A little while afterwards the young man, saying that he was better, rose, and sitting uncovered his thigh; and removing a certain bandage there, drew out tow red with blood from his flesh. You might see in a wonderful manner the tow red with blood, and yet in the hole from which it had been drawn out, no blood appeared. Asked however the name of his infirmity, he said that he had been struck by a horse, and fallen among rocks, had been wounded both by the blow of the horse and by the rebound of the rocks in many places; yet for two years having been healed, recently his wounds had begun to flow with pus, so much that by some he was thought to have a fistula, by others indeed a worm. For the sake of this matter he had gone on pilgrimage to Saint Mary of f Rocamadour and to Saint Leonard g: but nowhere having obtained health, at length he came to Saint Bernard: and in such manner, as has been prescribed, he showed that he had been healed there. But because he was a stranger, publicly and privately we studied to test him: who because he could not be turned from his first assertion, and called upon his own soul as witness over the truth of it, he compelled us without doubt to give faith to his sayings.
[52] We also heard that a certain man from Falconberg had come to the Saint, a dying and scabrous man, who said that he had been despairingly sick, and now a second time for the peril of death had received the saving sacraments. He also said that his whole body had been covered with a universal scab, as if he were a leper, but through the suffrage of Saint Bernard, whom he had invoked in his aid, he had escaped both the leprosy and the crisis of death. For before the people he tore his garment, showed his flesh: where indeed the scars of the old disease still appeared, but few or no traces of the scab remained. A certain boy had his hand vehemently swollen: for which his mother promised a waxen hand to the Saint: a swollen hand is cured, and the boy, with every swelling and pain removed, obtained health. Many and other miracles we heard had been done by the Saint, but since by the negligence of those healed he did not publish them; lest we incur the mark of verbosity, neither did we wish to write what we could not openly prove.
[53] There was in the castle of Saint Omer a certain woman, who for a year or more had had both hands contracted, likewise a contracted hand: but healed at the tomb of the Saint, while she was being tested about the manner of her healing, had several witnesses of the past contraction, and manifested what had happened to her in this order. For she said that on a certain night which preceded the sixth feria, a certain image of a reverend man appeared to her, and giving counsel about recovering her health, bade her go to Brother Bernard, who rests in the church of Saint Bertin. But when morning came, while she was reflecting on her vision, she was in some way secure about her health; yet she put off her journey for her bodily weakness until the morrow, and on Saturday indeed went to the Saint, and arriving there placed her head and arms within the openings of his Mausoleum, and so fell down to prayer. While therefore she was so lying a little while, she felt her hands relax and her fingers extend: and agitated by the impulse of feminine lightness, crying out and exulting she burst forth from the openings; and showed her hands, contracted a little before, sound and erect. a boy tormented with stone, In the Furnes territory a boy was distressed by the trouble of the stone: for whose health his parents offering their vows, were praying to Saint Bernard: and promised that for the stone, if he were freed from it, they would offer an equal quantity of silver. And so their pledge, or to speak more truly, their faith, by the Saint's intervention following, the boy immediately passed out the stone, and the parents' truthfulness brought the promised quantity of silver to the faithful Patron.
[54] and a dropsical girl are healed: A girl native of the Saint Omer castle, deformedly swollen, appeared broader than long: to whom many skilled men and physicians were summoned, who were giving a unanimous sentence of never recovering health, and affirmed that she was infected with natural dropsy. For the cause of this matter the parents brought their daughter to Saint Bernard, and had the swelling of the belly signed with the Saint's chains. After this returning home, calling a physician who was expert in discerning infirmities, when they wished to test the cause of the swelling by phlebotomy; the girl came forward, and, casting off her clothes, showed the swelling of the belly to have subsided. The matter so done and so brought to our notice, has been approved by the testimony of many who knew the parents and the girl.
[55] O venerable merits of the Saint! O reverend holy place, where the hidden pledge of so holy a body is held! For among the other miracles we have seen a wonderful thing to have happened, of which if true faith of the people shall have been established, we affirm without scruple of falsity, that through this Saint we have seen the ancient miracles of the Apostles restored. For a boy who was believed to be dead, brought to the tomb, was brought to the Saint, when he had been placed upon his tomb, the vital spirit returned into him. Wherefore the monk, who was there present for giving response, when from these things which had happened he was stupefied, and did not know whether he had been brought there alive, or had revived there; turned to the wailing women who had brought the boy, and saying that he was living, rebuking them, commanded them to cease from tears. The mother therefore, who for the cause of this matter had run up, hearing her son to live, for joy, a boy revives, as is believed, fell lifeless to the ground, so much that to some of the bystanders the swooning of the mother inspired more terror than the death of the boy. Yet after some hours, the mother having returned to herself, when we asked more carefully about the event of the matter, the summary of the deed from their
assertion, who had been present at the matter, we briefly learned. For they were saying that the boy had long lain in the water, who had been submerged: and no signs of life had appeared in him when he had been drawn out: whom nonetheless brought hither they had believed to be dead. Probably therefore the faith of the people believes this to have been done by the merits of him, at whose tomb the boy first appeared alive.
[56] There was a woman in the city of Arras, who while she was sleeping, struck by a sudden passion, with distorted mouth, deformed by distorted mouth and blinded eyes, with blinded eyes, had been foully deformed. When therefore she had uselessly spent much upon physicians, after ten weeks, the infirmity still lasting, she turned all her hope to the Lord, and calling on the faithful intercessors Thomas and Bernard, vowed that clothed in woolen and barefoot she would seek them: and in almost the same hour recovering, first a vow being made; quickly received complete health. But when through negligence she was a little delaying to render it, the pain revived and returned: which justly imputing to her neglect, then, it being deferred, she took up the promised journey: and yet was not free from the assault of her disease, until she came to the tomb of our Saint. Whence although we believe both Saints, namely Thomas and Bernard, to have worked in the cure of their pilgrim, yet greater veneration seems shown to our Saint, again she is healed at the tomb. at whose memorial the health of the sick woman was restored.
[57] A boy, from the village called h Stenfort, blinded in one eye for several days, came to the Saint: who because for a whole week he showed devotion according to his ability, A blindness of one eye is cured, received the brightness of his lost light. A young man also, a native of this place, Philip by name, paralysis of one side, struck by paralysis in one side, was showing a certain image of death in himself: whose members of the side indeed all seemed rather to hinder than to render service: since he was compelled not to govern them as his own, but as it were foreign to drag them after him. He being brought to the tomb of the Saint, with wonderful speed the function of the lost members being restored, was restored to soundness. From the same infirmity too and similarly vexed in the side a girl and moreover almost mute, was brought to the Saint; and was freed from every trouble which she was suffering. A man also from the town of Bergues brought a three-year-old boy, burning of face. concerning whom how wonderful the piety of the Saint was, he was unwilling to be concealed from us. For he said that the boy had fallen into a vehemently burning fire, and so deformed had his face become; that neither one eye nor nose appeared in it, and it resembled the appearance rather of half-burnt flesh than of a face. When therefore, said that man, I was lamenting my misfortune, to Saint Bernard, whom I have often heard to be a faithful Patron to his venerators, with my whole mind I turned myself, and promised that I would seek him together with my boy. So therefore timid about the event of the matter, I laid the boy, as best I knew, in his bed: but on the next day when I looked more diligently, I found him such as you now see. For the face was slightly red from the past burning, but nose and eyes appeared whole and sound.
[58] Moreover I heard many assertions of simple folk concerning the miracles of the Saint: but as to unfold all in order would seem superfluous and too tedious; so to touch upon some summarily, A woman lying ill of disease is cured, proved by the testimony of truth, will perhaps not be useless. A certain servant of ours, Lambert by name, had a wife lying long in bed, for whom a quite humble gift, a waxen leg, he offered to the Saint, and immediately the woman obtained health. A boy also vexed by grave passion, a sick boy, recovered at the tomb of the Saint. Likewise a young man long impotent in one arm, while he was sleeping near the tomb, having an arm almost dead, it seemed to him that a worm in the place of the upper pain was descending through his arm into his fingers, and wishing to shake it from himself, he sprang from sleep: and still terrified from the vision, raising the arm which had been almost dead, he signed himself. In such order the man recovered, and to all who heard the matter, a lost ship is recovered: left material for wonder. Another man likewise had lost his ship, for seven weeks: who when he had promised a waxen one to our Saint, found the lost one; and judged this, not undeservedly, to be ascribed to the Saint's praises.
[59] A boy also diseasedly swollen around his genitals, when he was believed to be ruptured, a boy is freed from troublesome swelling: his parents brought a physician to him, and the cause of the swelling had to be inquired into. Meanwhile the mother, more solicitous by natural affection, was addressing Saint Bernard with assiduous prayers; and making a waxen candle according to her son's length, this she was promising him with great devotion. But on the next day, when the cause of the infirmity was to be inquired into, the boy was entirely sound, so that no signs of the past swelling remained in him. Many miracles of the same kind persuade me to be serviceable to brevity, because not only by the fastidious but even by well-disposed readers I shall be reprehensible, if in many similar matters everywhere I shall wish to make long treatises. Concluding therefore a great matter with a brief discourse, I shall briefly explain what happened on this our island. A small boy fell into the water, a submerged boy revives: and there from the third to the sixth hour lay. After this, search being made, in the bottom of the pool, face down clinging to the mud, he was found, and then drawn out. Thence when earth together with water was being shaken from his mouth, and nothing of life was found in him; the mother amid plaintive laments frequently invoked the Saint: and about the ninth hour the dead revived, and was to all who were present matter of praise and wonder.
[60] pain of the shins in a woman is cured, From the castle of Saint Omer a certain woman was returning from Saint James, who, suddenly suffering difficulty of return from pain of the leg, while she had to remain behind her companions; in this crisis of necessity invoked Saint Bernard in her aid: whom she soon experienced as a helper, on the next day free from all pain, was not hindered from completing the journey begun. At a certain time when a merchant from the aforesaid castle had come to England; he found there a Frisian man of his profession: with whom when he was having mutual conversation about the commerce of his art, that Frisian began to ask about the virtues of Saint Bernard, and two Frisian spouses and what had happened to him through that Saint, he showed with arguments still appearing. He related indeed that he and his wife, at one time both by swelling and infirmity of the shins were lying in bed: to whom when the merits of our Saint had become known, and they themselves had invoked him in this distress; there appeared to them through sleep a man of reverend form, who commanded that they either bring or send waxen shins to the new Confessor Bernard in the parts of Flanders, and that afterwards they would receive health. From then therefore they were not distrustful of salvation, but with daily devotion were profiting in invoking the Saint who had been shown through the vision, and through devotion in health. These things our merchant related to us, and in sign of this matter brought four shins made of wax, which the Frisian, now sound, had given him, to our Saint.
[61] I knew a certain monk in our monastery, of whom I have learned by the relation of faithful men, a difficult hernia of a Bertin monk is healed, that through the patronage of the Saint he merited to be healed of a great infirmity. But because the infirmity unknown to any of us, had invaded the private parts; suppressing the Brother's name that he not blush, I am writing only the order of the cure. From his boyhood years indeed he had been ruptured: who when among the first miracles he had seen a certain young man healed from the same infirmity; he came to the tomb of the Saint, and for the familiarity which he had had with the young man, more boldly reasoning with him, thus prayed. O Bernard, succor me a suppliant, because I loved you still while you were established in this mortality, and though I knew nothing of your miracles I venerated you. For the reason of justice (as it seems to me) demands, that you cure me rather than strangers: because although the breadth of charity extends even to enemies; yet more affectionately it gathers friends into its bosom. Thus when he had prayed, he went to sleep: who rising in the morning, when he wished to soothe the places of his infirmity with the accustomed touch, recognized what the Saint's intercession had bestowed on him, having obtained complete health.
[62] In the Bourbourg district, in a village called Loon i, a certain man, Walter by name, had been struck by an arrow, so that the iron passing through the middle of the face, from the other side reached almost to the ear. an arrow fixed in his head for six years is removed by a miracle, And so for six years laboring with this trouble, when he could be cured by no art of physicians; he came to Saint Bernard: and promised him, that if at any time the iron, which he was bearing in his head, had been drawn out; he would be ready to offer a likeness of it made of silver. Bound therefore by such a promise toward the Saint, he returned home: and after some days the arrow to the upper scar indeed against nature had returned: and so much of the shaft, with the iron still clinging, appeared outside, that it was not difficult to grasp it with tongs. That however we may consider this to have happened not by chance, but by a miracle, the iron and its shaft together could be drawn out; but soon after having been drawn out, from excessive rottenness, in the hand of the extractor they fell apart dissolved. The man therefore being made sound, according to the tenor of his vow, brought to the Saint a likeness of the iron made of silver; by whose relation this matter came to our notice.
[63] A certain woman from Arras sought the Saint from afar: who placed three candles at his tomb, and at each of the altars around one each: and besought the Brother guardian of the tomb, that as long as they could burn, he should not extinguish them; saying that this had been commanded by Saint Bernard, A woman is healed from blindness from swelling of the face. whom she asserted to have truly appeared to her, but whether she had slept or been awake she did not know for certain. For she had been blinded for six weeks because of the great swelling of her face, when a reverend man, who named himself Bernard, as has been said, appeared and giving counsel about recovering her health, commanded her to go to his tomb in the church of Saint Bertin. Because therefore, as by the woman affirming we knew, the vision was accompanied by health, rightly is this matter to be numbered among the miracles.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
Other XII miracles: of which some were added by later writers.
[64] From the Furnes territory a man, Lambert by name, returning from Saint James, on a certain night, while he wished to rise for the necessities of nature, Knee and foot bruised are cured: fell upon his leg and vehemently bruised his foot and knee, so that he did not doubt either that his leg was broken, or that some joint had sprung from its frame. While therefore on one hand for his injury, on the other (because he feared to remain behind his companions) he was afflicted with grave pain; he asked Saint Bernard to suffrage him in this distress, to whom also he bound himself by vow, that he would bring a foot and knee of iron. And so it came about that when the man amid plaintive prayers had fallen asleep, all pain at the same time was put to sleep; and morning returned, for completing his daily long journey, in no way was he hindered by any injury. To this truth bears witness the iron foot, with the knee depending at the Saint's tomb.
[65] There was in the Tornehem district a certain man, originating thence, named Nicholas, industrious and skilled in the carpenter's art: who while on one day he was exercising the office of his art, and was building a house for his Lord, namely the Count de Ghisnes; a disease flying upon him, he was in a moment deprived of the strength of one of his legs. But the arrow a of the disease not yet ceasing, it did not linger long, because of a sudden paralysis, deprived of all motion, when, all present who were standing by marveling, he was left destitute not only of the strength of his leg, but also of all his strength from the extremity of his joints to the groin on one side of himself. Perceiving therefore so great a rage of disease raging in himself, to his own house and wife, both by the aid of companions and by the support of a staff, he turned aside in whatever way he could. In this manner with most grievous and insupportable pain he passed that whole day. But on the following night, the disease more and more assaulting him, he became so incapable of himself on both sides, that he could move or bend neither of his legs nor any of the joints of any of his limbs. after he had remained a whole week at the tomb of Blessed Bernard, With these and similar troubles and torments oppressed for some time, he was brought to Saint Bernard: clinging to whose tomb, he did not relax his eyes from vigils, his mouth from most devout prayers, his breast from sighs extended to the stars, for a whole week, nor did he obtain anything of his vow. Over this some monks condoling and also marveling, feared, that either he was mocking them, or that dissembling himself he was gaping for the snares of some crime. For this cause a certain Brother, wishing to extort the truth of the matter, began to palpate his legs, to handle them, to draw them here and there, saying: Man, awake, support your legs, try whether the vigor of them has revived. Who when he had tried, could not support them without the help of the monk, but, empty, as if they lacked bones, they collapsed together. Then because he had kept vigil with long prayers, and in vain; by the order and admonition of the Brethren he was carried back to his house, feeling no benefits of the Saint. Which being heard, the Count of Ghisnes compassionating him, had him carried back to the Saint Omer castle, and there entrusted him for curing to a faithful and skilled physician. in vain he tries the skill of the physicians: And when the physician had labored over him for an innumerable time, he brought to him nothing of health, and could bring nothing. Likewise also other very many physicians uselessly worked on him. Then the sick man already named from the beginning, despised the physicians, despised the powers of herbs, despised even incantations, remembering that no man is a physician like God. And immediately he began to invoke God's mercy upon himself: and that he might the more easily obtain it from the Lord, at length binding himself with a vow to Blessed Bernard, he chose as his co-helper and intermediary Saint Bernard: and vowed that he would thenceforth commit himself to none of the physicians, have no b workman except that Saint, whom he had already chosen. Namely Saint Bernard, resting at the Sithiu monastery. From that day therefore, and under the very day, he receives health, on which he had vowed to the Saint, the Lord being merciful and the Saint aiding, he began to be cured, and to be so much improved, that within a few days and as it were momentarily he was entirely restored to his pristine health. The wound of the disease being driven away, he neither dared nor wished to conceal such great miracles under a bushel. Whence praising the Lord and magnifying the Saint, he did not delay to come to us; and disclosing the series of his event, before all our congregation and a multitude of secular people, in such manner as we have written, he himself taught this truth.
[66] With how great splendor of virtue therefore, and with how great fragrance of beatitude, our glorious Bernard breathes forth to the whole company of the Blessed; that is, for example, for instruction, for correction; for all the children of the Church it is better perceived by taste than by hearing. Whence that: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Ps. 35, 9 He is therefore magnified in the sight of principality, and victory is given to him over the powers of darkness, because this is the son beloved to the Lord, in whom he is well pleased. For while he still fed on the air, how sincere, how excellent a holocaust he consumed on the altar of his heart, he was concealing: but after he paid the debt of nature, with how many signs, prodigies, virtues he was shining, The glory of Blessed Bernard becomes known from the multitude of miracles. who can enclose in the ark of his mind, who can elaborate in the testimony of letters, or with one voice be able to explain. For a city placed on a mountain was never hidden. And so this blessed one might suitably say: Do with me, Lord, a sign for good, that they may see who have known me: for thou, Lord, hast helped me and hast comforted me. This Bernard, poor and small and exhausted with many labors of hardships, became for the Lord a living and true sacrifice, and a temple most worthy of divine inhabitation: for he willingly received with Lazarus evils in his life, but now is comforted. Many things indeed the Lord worked through him not to be damned to perpetual silence: but also this little bit, touching upon with brief succinctness, we shall apply to memory.
[67] There was a certain woman, whose name was Agatha, in the village called Thetinghem, c not far removed from Bergues: who when she had produced a miscarriage in childbirth, had herself placed in baths, which with the highest desire both before and after childbirth she is said to have affected. And when the matter is thus carried on, a graver and more burning infirmity came upon her: so that it compelled her without intermission to persist in the baths, and prohibited her from being able and willing to be without them: for when once or more often she tried to cease from the baths, a delirious woman, affecting continually to remain in baths she cried out that she would immediately be snatched from the midst, unless straightway she were received back into the same. O wonderful thing and unknown unto the extreme hinges of the orb! If ever her friends, dragging the wretch from that hateful dwelling of waters, strove to detain her, she then fled away secretly, and leaped into a little ditch which she perchance found, and that she might there more freely indulge her insatiable affection, lay hidden. And while more attentively sought for, after three days she is found there; she is drawn out, brought home, and not without continuous help from friends and the service of charitable humanity (because she was needy) for about twenty-two and a half years she is permitted to persevere in misery of this kind. Finally under the image of a dream it was shown to her, for 22 years that she should be presented at the tomb of the above-mentioned Saint, and there by his merits ought to be restored to her pristine health. Which she did not delay to narrate to her own, knowing that the fame of Bernard flies on certain wings, because the virtue of God went out from him, at length carried to the tomb of Blessed Bernard, and was healing very many. Without delay, she is more swiftly carried, in no way separated from the accustomed liquor; she is exposed at the tomb of the often-mentioned Saint: at length, with no small constancy of faith and the rule of confession strengthened, she is drawn out of the baths; and immediately wringing out sighful breaths, and as if with broken thread hastening to fate, with a voice so plaintive, so clamorous she execrates that evil from her soul, not lying, until by the sacrosanct Sacrament of the Eucharist she is fortified by the grace of divine mercy: and so it came about, and the cruse of oil did not fail the poor little woman for the increase of health; until from the pitiable dungeon of the aquatic pest, by the merits of Blessed Bernard, she is entirely freed, and is taught no further to abuse such continuous baths. Come, look, she is freed. Brethren, I beg look, how the divine powers gain support for our faith. See therefore that they profit very much for our infirmity. Recall to your minds the prosperities of the world, the multitude of times, the pomps of sublime men, the glory of matrons, the abundance of riches. Consider and weigh, that all these things are as nothing, because he who loves them, is as one seeing a dream while waking. This recollection therefore ought to be great instruction. Those things therefore are to be sought, those above all to be loved, which when found do not pass away, nor when attained fail. But because no one can pant for the desire of these things without the mercy of divine grace, let us pray the Omnipotent Lord, that he grant us both to will to demand them, and to be able to obtain them: that here he may grant us to live in his fear and after these things in the fellowship of our blessed and glorious Bernard and the Saints with joy he may deign to receive us as worthy.
[68] Nor less is that to be passed over in silence which at another time also was done by the same Saint, whom the Lord appointed the redemption of his people. having the other foot withered he is healed. A certain young man in Burgundy there was, whose remaining foot, not mindful of its due vigor, had entirely withered, so that he was dragging it with himself in laborious withdrawal, and for the rest supported himself by the solace of two staves. It happened therefore that he came into the place which is called d Viscamp, but to whom that place, so celebrated enough, became known, by the common breezes a thousand entries where the pilgrim people gives service of fame. Nor was the all-embracing rumor of Bernard hidden from the inhabitant of Viscamp, namely that the Sithiu monastery was shining not a little with miraculous prodigies through the same Saint, and flowering with the long service of benediction. Hearing which, that one made cheerful, that at least he might acquire a small portion of divine grace by the tenor of faith, arranged to come to Sithiu, and cast away one of his two staves, the affection of devotion animating him: but content with the other, he had scarcely left the place, when he had already begun to feel the offense of his foot, before dead and following with impotent effort and sweeping the ground. He came therefore, and lay down at the monument of the Saint for the obtaining of divine liberation. But also you, O man, who are you to answer God? You have indeed solicited the Saint with voice and vow; but he obtained, whom in the sight of the Prince
of the most high you had as guarantor, because the Lord has raised up for us a horn of salvation, in the house of Bertin his servant. Further, that young man, by the gratuitous preparation of heavenly medicine, in the temple of Blessed Bertin is restored, and the office of his foot being received back, the supporting staff, which alone, as has been said, having spurned the other he had retained, in testimony of the outcome of the matter to the popular spectacle he left there.
[69] That also is to be noted and committed to writing; that a certain boy had here died and revived. A certain woman therefore, whose name was Anna, came from Bergues to the castle which is called Saint Omer's, where she was dwelling many days, having as it happened a son, named John, who now having grown some number of years, began to run daily to the tomb of Blessed Bernard with his coevals with desirous and frequent zeal, a little boy is freed from disease by a waxen candle being offered: to sit and to play, as the lightness of the boyish mind draws out actions. But his mother, seeing him clinging so frequently, so diligently to the memorable tomb, vowed a candle of the length of his stature to the Saint; because she knew him to be grievously tormented by a certain sickness, and from this to be daily more worsely entangled: she however, because there was no or slight substance for her, put off the purpose of the vow. After this, the boy urging, importuning, and for the most part persevering for the wax candle, the mother at length assented. But he paid the debt of his vow, and thenceforth every trouble of his body to be put to sleep, he asserted to his mother. Afterwards however about the sixth hour of the day it happened that I know not by what chance he was thrown from a bridge, and was swallowed by the injurious gape of a torrent: and while hither and thither by the water with impetus he was longer troubled, certain persons supervening find him, draw him out and carry him, already rigid with fatal cold, and livid in the whole body, and submerged, and find nothing of life remaining in him. To whom, that if they could, by some experiment they might rouse the vital spirit, the head being let down, that the waters might flow out, they firmly apply their hands to the groin parts. And while they expend various skills on him, nor profit; to the tomb of the Saint the body is carried by the mother, and to the divine disposition is better committed. But she wailing about her son's death and raving, at the tomb he revives: a concourse of people of both sexes is made, awaiting the blessed hope and the coming of heavenly glory. Why more? The Lord looked into the prayer of the humble, and a certain man signing the boy with the relics of the Saint, and placing a knife between his teeth, and his finger following, the boy began with a slight motion to hold the finger with his teeth. But he seeing the boy's face now reddened, testifies that the succor of health is hastening, and that there is now no vestige of death. Without delay, the boy is lifted, and all marveling and joyously rejoicing at the gracious exercises of virtues, he is restored sound and alive through the merits of the Confessor. O ineffable Man! O if anyone rich in Virgilian or Tullian eloquence were to come, and give his labor to writing of such and so great a man. For our smallness does not suffice nor will any ever be able to suffice from every nation which is under heaven. Indeed that woman, before the venerable phalanx of monks and the gathering of seculars, with grief entirely in exile, with her son with joyful face came forth into the midst: who asked about the circumstances of the matter, indicated herself to be a native of Bruges, and which island surrounding our monastery is the neighbor, she affirmed that for many spaces of times she had dwelt, and that at no other time would she dwell for the cause of the Saint: concerning her son however the whole event of the matter with certain assertions she set forth, and so every cloudlet of ambiguity by the ocular notice of faith she more clearly wiped away.
[70] Moreover a certain woman in the village which, by the common name Brelum we call, bordering on the Saint Omer castle, as they relate, a native, when on a certain occasion, feeling nothing evil in her members and nothing of trouble, after daily labors had given herself to rest, and afterwards in nocturnal silence, as happens, was tossing herself here and there in bed; she was astonished that her left arm together with the leg of the same side could not be moved at all. a woman contracted in arm and leg is healed And when she was shaken with plaintive hesitation over the unforeseen evil of misfortune, and those two members, entirely forgetful of accustomed vigor, so suddenly to have become dry, she stupidly remembered, Bernard came to memory: and she began with panting spirit to beg the succor of divine mercy on account of the merits of the Saint. But on the following day brought to the tomb of the Saint, with the aim of highest devotion she is exposed; prayer is made; nor thus the first, nor the second, nor the third time is she improved. And while, the space of the day being run through, nothing was done about the progress of faith, and she was barred from the tomb because of the incompetency of the hour; yet on the following day she returns, and insists with imploring prayers, and with diligent intention upon the memory of the Saint spiritually she leans. What more? She was offered to the gaze of the faithful, because she received the former solace in the aforesaid members previously withered. I remember a certain little woman came to the Saint, who related that she had wondrously experienced the virtue of the Saint: and that the better faith might be given to her words, she recalled in order, and a woman laboring with the falling sickness, whence she was, what she had suffered, and what by the Saint's merits she had obtained. For of the castle which is called e Abbeville, according to her relation, she was a citizen, and with the falling sickness for a long time now she was laboring. The trouble of her disease she had sustained thrice every day: and in the waters and in the fire she had frequently incurred the peril of death. When therefore by her incessant infirmity and peril of death she was anguished, she betook herself to the patronage of Saint Bernard: and took up the journey of pilgrimage devoutly. Wonderfully from that day, in which she began to be a pilgrim, until she came to the Saint, she felt no trouble at all of the daily disease. And relating these things to us, because she believed that she had received complete health; to all who were present she brought an occasion of believing and praising the Lord.
[71] A certain merchant, for the cause of his merchandise coming into the castle of Saint Omer, when he had been seized by a grave fever, by the counsel of his host vowed a candle to Blessed Bernard: but the care of secular things drawing him elsewhere, he paid not at all the vow. seized with a fever, Therefore on the following day, the fever being mitigated, forgetful of his pledge, he went to the sea, and relapsing because the vow was deferred. and crossing over to England, came as far as Canterbury. Where when by the revived assaults of his disease he was most bitterly urged, he ran to Saint Thomas for the sake of help: but in no way persevering in prayer, and through this perhaps not being able to obtain salvation, having learned of the presence of a physician, he had him summoned. What more? Meanwhile when the physician had been summoned, our Saint in a vision appeared to the feverish man, and rebuked him for the transgression of his vow, and afterwards with sweet consolation so gladdened the sick man with the hope of health: If you wish, he said, to be saved, seek no medicine from man: but placing your hope in the Lord, go to my tomb, knowing that when you have paid the vow you will be freed from your infirmity. Meanwhile the man being awakened from sweet sleep, already believed himself to have recovered: and immediately deserting the physician and England, he returned to Flanders; and coming with his vow to the Saint, and showing himself healed, lame in one foot, he faithfully recounted these things about the miracles of the Lord and of the Saint. A man, Michael by name, one foot entirely dead miserably dragging after himself, on a certain day near the tomb of the Saint placed himself in hope of help: whom his hope in no way deceived. For lying there, he felt new twistings in the dead members; and through the Saint beseeching divine help, he arose, stood, and walked. In the Bergues territory also a woman weakened in both legs, a woman contracted in both legs of which one was contracted, the other paralytic, by the merits of the Saint obtained soundness, and in sign of the health obtained, the staves, on which in place of feet she was leaning, to her Curator devoutly offered. f
[72] A boy from the castle of Saint Omer, submerged in a bath, by sufficiently evident indications was shown to be dead: since the vital breath had left him, pallor and blackness had deformed his countenance, and rigor had occupied the whole body. A boy submerged in a bath revives: The parents therefore weeping who saw their offspring lifeless, a great concourse of people is made; and the life which only God could give back, men were desiring to recall with the cleverness of their zeal. For some, that they might cast forth the water received inside the body, hung the boy by the feet, head downwards; others now made the rigid body, now the cold one warmed. But when they saw that all the cleverness of their zeal availed nothing, and those who were believed wiser ordered the body to be buried; a certain woman, taking it between her arms, ran to the tomb of the Saint, saying that Saint Bernard was of such sanctity, that God by his prayers ought to raise the dead. And since the woman did not hesitate through distrust, neither did her faith and hope toward the Saint fail her. For soon when the lifeless body was placed upon the tomb of the Saint, blood sprang forth through the mouth and nostrils of the dead, and the spirit returning, the boy began to yawn. Joyful rumor is scattered among the people, and some who previously had run up at the cry of mourning, at the voice of joy running together stood by; who said: that they would by no means impute that Blessed Peter would have been able to obtain this from the Lord, whence they said they confided more in the sanctity of Bernard than of Peter. Foolish indeed was this confidence: but because it proceeded from pious affection toward the Saint rather than from malice, it is piously to be excused; and the virtue of the Saint for these and other miracles is rightly to be proclaimed. erysipelas is cured, To our notice also it came, that a certain man, inflamed, as is said, with infernal fire, there through the Saint's merits was extinguished. Many other miracles we have heard to have occurred in the same place and believe: which because through our negligence have been neglected, and about the order of the deed and manner of the healings we are not sufficiently taught, we choose rather to be silent, than to incur in anything the mark of falsity.
ANNOTATIONS.
word, having professed that part of medicine which teaches the applying of hand to the work
prescribed by Theorists: but the force of this word the French and the Flemings their neighbors express, by calling them operators, which the author here judged to be more Latinly called opifices (workmen).
f What
follows as a miracle is extracted from one of the two Homilies, which we indicated at the beginning
to be found equally transcribed in the Bertinian codex:
where the author, after some commendation of the praiseworthy penance performed by Bernard, thus passes to what is in hand. But leaving those wishing to know these things, that they should have recourse to the series of his life: and
what we recently heard happened at his tomb, let us joyfully recount.