ON ST. DANIEL ANCHORITE AND MARTYR
AT GERONA IN SPAIN.
PrefaceDaniel, Anchorite and Martyr, at Gerona in Spain (St.)
By D. P.
FROM A MS.
[1] Ancient and illustrious in Catalonia, a region of Spain, and also an Episcopal city, is Gerona, At Gerona, called by modern Spaniards Girona, of which we treated on March 18 in the Life of Saints Narcissus, Bishop of Gerona, and Felix his Deacon, who were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian. Near this city stands an abbey of nuns of the Order of Saint Benedict, in the nearby monastery of St. Daniel, founded about the year of Christ 1097 by the Countess Mahalta, daughter of Prince Robert Guiscard and wife of Raymond Berengar II, Count of Barcelona. The name of the monastery of Saint Daniel was given to it, whose body is there preserved with great veneration the body is preserved: in a certain proper chapel within the greater chapel, enclosed in a sepulchre or marble mausoleum, as Michael Torbarus long ago wrote hither as an eye-witness. Juan Eusebius Nieremberg published in Spanish in the year 1648 Exemplary Lives and venerable Memories of certain illustrious men of the Society of Jesus, and among these he relates from page 321 onward the Life of Father Didacus Salazar, of which Life in section 2 he indicates the singular devotion of Didacus to the sacred relics, and he is held in veneration. and in particular of Saint Daniel the Anchorite, which are found in the monastery of Benedictine nuns, in a valley outside the city of Gerona, which the said Father had visited, and he had carried with him some dust from his sepulchre. The nuns celebrate a double feast of Saint Daniel: Venerated April 24 and September 1. the primary one falls on this April 24, on which day he is said to have suffered; the other on the Kalends of September, on which day his sacred body was translated. His memory on this April 24 is commemorated by Antonius Vincentius Domenecus in his General History of the Saints of Catalonia, Tamayus Salazar in the Hispanic Martyrology, and Ferrarius in the General Catalogue.
[2] The Acts are said to have been written by Andrew, a disciple of Daniel, and carried away into the East. Hence A life published in Latin and in Spanish, we deservedly doubt whether they exist anywhere. Meanwhile Tamayus Salazar attributes to him what he himself published in Latin from the Spanish history of Domenecus, with the omission of those things which Domenecus prefaces at length, frankly confessing that he has changed many things, which he thought ought altogether to be wrenched into another sense. We ourselves obtained the same matter which he had before his eyes — and which Tamayus neglected to investigate — from the manuscript of the aforesaid monastery through the kindness of the already-praised Michael Torbarus, as they are found there distributed into twelve Lessons according to the old Benedictine rite. But it is of little use to have received them. For not only those things which the stomach of Domenecus could not digest of which the former part is to be cut off; have moved us also to nausea: but we saw besides that which Domenecus could not divine, that two-thirds of these Acts — in which the race and country and whatever was said to have been done over the course of about thirty years in the East was narrated — have been taken over almost word for word, though with a certain amplification, from the Greek life of Saint John "in the well," which we gave in Latin from the new version of Sirleto on March 30; and that the compiler of this Legend, who had perhaps found it anciently translated from a somewhat fuller manuscript, thus adapted the same to Daniel, that he transcribed the names, partly the same, partly slightly corrupted, perhaps not so much through his own as through the prior scribe's fault.
[3] For each of them, therefore, the fatherland is Armenia; for each, the mother is a Christian widow which is the Life of St. John in the well given on March 30: and the sister a girl; for each, with the same, there is said to have been cause for hiding — fear from the delegate of the pagan Emperor, charged with forcing Christians by violence into idolatry: but the mother who there is Julia, here is Uliana; the sister, who there is Themistia, here is Theomita; the imperial minister, who there is written as Pompeianus, here Ponipianus; the Emperor, who there is not named at all, here is called by a glaring fiction Philip; the city to which they fled from the face of the persecutor for the sake of more freely practicing religion, there is said to be Cylistrum or Cylistra, a city of Lesser Armenia, known to Ptolemy, Strabo and the First Council of Nicaea; here their first habitation is Quiliquia or Ciliquia; the seat of refuge is written Momestia, with portentous and not easily recognizable names. Again, each is said to have gone to a secret place for the sake of prayer, to have had a venerable old man of angelic face as author in asking for the desert; having obtained his mother's blessing, to have gone thither; having duly prayed to God, to have found a station in which to remain; to have fasted there forty days; and, with an angel procuring, to have been refreshed with bread brought by a pious hermit: but there that pious hermit is called Pharmutius the Egyptian, having his place of anchoritic life in Armenia; here he is named Joseph, practicing ascesis beside the lowest Jordan river, two days' journey from Jerusalem. Finally, in both places the devil tempts the young man — first through the old anchorite himself, whom he had deceived by appearing in angelic form; then by himself, with the voice of mother, sister, and relatives
and laments; and finally wraps himself around him in the form of a dragon. Nevertheless, he could not prevail upon him, by breaking the course of the prayer begun, to ascend from his well (as it is said there), or here, to leave the hut built on the mountain.
It is clear, then, that the life of one saint has been substituted for the life of the other, perhaps because of some similarity of calling and eremitical exercise — as we sometimes note and reprove as done in the case of other saints: and so the whole first part of the Life, as having nothing to do with Daniel, and as supposititiously taken from elsewhere and long since given to its proper Saint, ought to be omitted here.
[4] But what shall we say of the last part, in which is narrated the departure from Palestine into Gaul, the martyrdom endured at Arles, and the translation of the body to Gerona? We are not far, the other part, why and how it is given here, after a Life so notoriously supposititious in its first part, from being inclined to believe nothing in the second either: especially since it is precisely in this part that Domenecus found what no one's stomach could digest, and therefore he himself twisted it into quite another sense, compelled to this by manifest falsity elsewhere. Nevertheless, because this part (although clothed in some circumstances of times that do not properly cohere, through popular tradition, and thus committed to writing) could have had some more solid foundation in a more nearly known fact, we have believed it could be done without injury to truth that it be set forth to the reader here, with this forewarning — so that he may also be able to beware of the darkness, in a history of itself most obscure, poured over it by Domenecus while he strives to clear them away. Be it known that in the aforenamed Acts Saint Daniel is said, in the year 888, as though St. Daniel were killed in century 9. to have been crowned with martyrdom at Arles on the Rhone, under the governor Teupanius, who was persecuting Christians. This year Domenecus seized upon as the most certain mark, and tried to adapt the rest to it, but with a quite unhappy effort. For throughout the whole ninth century the Christian faith flourished among the Arlesians, throughout all Provence, and in the neighboring regions of Provence; and thus Domenecus introduces in vain the Saracens, of whom there is no mention in the Acts.
[5] One hundred and fifty years had also then passed since the time when the Saracens had ravaged Provence, as is clear from the Chronicle of Sigebert for the year 738. Saracens are not to be imagined in Provence. "Arles," he says, "a city of the Gauls, having been captured by the Saracens, and everything around having been destroyed, Charles Martel, having summoned to his aid Luithprand, King of the Lombards, went against them and turned them to flight by the terror of his name." Thereafter all things were transacted there peacefully in religion under Pepin, Charlemagne, and other kings and emperors of the Franks, up to the year 879, when Boso was made King of Arles, Provence, and upper Cisjurane Burgundy, and, dying in the year 889, he had as successor his son Louis, son of Boso: whose Acts have been carefully described by Andrew du Chesne, book 2 of the History of the Burgundians, chapters 11 and 12, and by Honoré Bouche, book 6 of the History of Provence, section 1, without any indication or trace of a Saracenic incursion. Let also the Catalogues of the Archbishops of Arles, published by Claudius Robertus and the Sanmarthani, be examined, and all things will be found peaceful throughout this century, and especially (what looked to the present question) under Rostagnus, who presided over this Church at least from the year 871 to the year 913, and was present at five Councils, and subscribed to various other contracts and donations. Moreover, Domenecus, because Daniel is read to have been crowned with martyrdom at Arles in the year 888, in place of the Emperor Philip, whom we have exploded above, substitutes the iconoclast heretic Theophilus and Michael III his son, nor are the iconoclast emperors Theophilus and Michael to be feared. under whom he adds that Saint Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was driven into exile, and Photius substituted for him, and that by a conventicle gathered by this man Pope Nicholas and other Catholics were condemned: of all of which neither mention nor shadow appears in the said Acts. Tamayus meanwhile, treating the matter as of the greatest weight, subjoins notes on the time of Michael, on the envy of Photius toward Saint Ignatius, and on the impious condemnation of Pope Nicholas; and concludes that Saint Daniel the Anchorite was born in the year 855, so that, having completed his 32nd year and a half, he might have completed his martyrdom at Arles in the year 888.
[6] But neither must the times of pagan Emperors be taken: I gladly confess that into the numbers of years errors both easily and often creep, which it is right to correct by benevolent conjecture, when, with them removed, the rest somehow stands; so that the author is not so much convicted of having erred in writing the history, as the scribe can be presumed to have acted carelessly or rashly in transcribing or even in interpolating it. But here, where the history wavers on all sides, unless that part also be cut off which concerns the martyrdom, as though endured under the pagans, what might we dare to think — that the author of the Legend, who so impudently dared to assign to Daniel the entire life of another hermit known among the Greeks, has with equal liberty of invention assigned to him a contest with a tyrant for the faith of Christ, and deaths overcome by miracles? But this being granted, nothing would prevent Daniel from having died either in the year noted, or in another of the preceding centuries — the eighth, seventh, sixth, or even the fifth or fourth — oppressed in the diocese of Arles by the violence of some impious local tyrant who is here called Teupanius and Teufanius, but would more correctly be written Theophanius.
[7] Indeed we know that various holy hermits or pilgrims killed by impious men or by robbers are venerated as martyrs by the Church; such are Saint Gerlacus, [when the killing can be believed to have been perpetrated by the violence of a private toparch,] Saint Meinrad, and others in this work, partly commemorated, partly to be commemorated — as we have already treated Gerlacus on January 5, and Meinrad on the 21st of the same month. If we will suppose the same thing to have happened to Daniel (for that he has been held as a Martyr the ancient and perpetual cult confirms), the other points of the history can not be difficultly saved, and obtain some appearance of a probable narrative founded in popular tradition or in some very brief writing. A time less remote from our age than the times of pagan Emperors seems to be required by the pious spouses Crescentius and Parabaste (perhaps Parasceve or Pansebaste) after the age of Constantine the Great, who, having made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, brought Daniel thence into the diocese of Arles. For before the times of Constantine the Great and the discovery of the Cross, it was not so familiar for westerners to make pilgrimage to the Holy Land even with their wives, that they themselves can prudently be believed to have gone thither earlier.
[8] And this confused notice — namely, that Daniel, originating from Armenia, after passing some years in eremitic life in Syria, was brought by those we have mentioned into Gaul, and, dying a bloody death under the impious toparch Theophanius, began to have the title and cult of martyr on account of the miracles that followed; but that the body, through fear of the same Theophanius, was carried off into the territory of Gerona, where it obtained stable rest and veneration — this, I say, confused notice of ancient history, together with a more definite memory of the time, could have been the whole foundation of the Legend, and the Life written long after from tradition. already sufficiently refuted. That it is not very ancient you may gather also from this, that where in the Life of John "in the well," or in the pit, Pharmutes the Egyptian is said to have carried to John food received from an angel, here Joseph is said to have received the Host to be carried to Daniel — such a Host, namely, as he himself used to receive every Lord's day, abstaining from all other food; and which afterwards is called the saving Host and the Bread of Angels: not obscurely meaning the Eucharist, which is not commonly so called by ancient writers. But enough of conjectures, from which let the reader himself discern what ought to be added or taken away; and with the whole Life of John in the Well omitted, have only that part which concerns Daniel.
LIFE
To some degree fabulous or suspect.
From a Manuscript of the Monastery of St. Daniel.
Daniel, Anchorite and Martyr, at Gerona in Spain (St.)
BHL Number: 2089
FROM A MS.
[1] In that time, a there was a certain Christian man named Crescentius, in the land of Provence, in the city of Arles, having a wife named Parabaste, both fearing and loving God, having neither son nor daughter. And when they had sold all they had, they made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and the said Crescentius with his wife remained in Jerusalem for three years, and distributed all he had to the poor, making prayer daily at the sepulchre of the Lord, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, Redeemer and Saviour of the human race, who knowest and hast seen all things, I have given all I have to the poor, that I may acquire Thy kingdom, and with my wife I lead a poor life: grant me some sign or relics, with which I may return to my land." A warning given, On a certain night the angel of the Lord appeared in sleep, saying to him: "Rise and go into the desert across the river Jordan, and thou shalt find there the Confessor of God, Daniel: he will go with thee into thy land, and will teach thee many good words through the mercy of God." And at the same hour the same angel departed and went to Daniel in the desert. He said to him: "O Daniel, servant of God, for the Lord Jesus says through me to thee: Rise and go to Jerusalem, and thou shalt find there a certain man named Crescentius, who is firm in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has remained in Jerusalem three years in penance and fasting, and has dispersed to the poor all he had, desiring to return to his land: go with him into his land, through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now Daniel had at that time stood in the desert for seventeen years, and rising he went to Jerusalem at the angelic word.
[2] He goes toward Jerusalem and joins Crescentius of Arles, And as he was making his way, he met on the road that man Crescentius, who was going into the desert to the same Daniel, just as the angel had said in sleep. And when they met each other and had greeted one another in turn, Daniel said to him: "Who art thou? Whither goest thou?" He answered: "I am Crescentius, seeking the desert, that I may find there Daniel, the servant of God, according to the angelic word." Daniel said: "I am he. Let us both return by the road to Jerusalem." And returning to Jerusalem, they stayed there a few days, and after a few days they went into the land of Armenia, to the city which is called b Ciliquia; and they found there a certain man named Andrew, Andrew being taken as a companion, who had been of the household of the father and mother of Daniel. And when they had joined themselves together, Daniel said to him: "Come with us, brother Andrew, and we shall walk in the service of our God Jesus Christ all the time of our life." And when a certain ship was ready to sail toward c Africa, they entered the ship. But by the divine will they could not sail to Africa, he sails to Rome and Arles,
but sailing on they put in at a certain city which is called d Turonia; from which they came to the Roman city, where Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom; and they were there forty days, and afterwards they went into the land of Provence to the city which is called Arles, coming to the house of the said Crescentius, and dwelling with prayer and penance.
[3] He converts many, A little later Crescentius died. But blessed Daniel with Andrew, his disciple, was converting many throughout the land by preaching to the faith of our Saviour Jesus Christ. There was in those days in the city of Arles a certain man named Teupanius, who persecuted Christians and killed them. When he had learned of Daniel's life, rich with virtues, he envied him, because he was converting the gentiles to the faith by preaching the name of the Most High God. On a certain day he made Daniel come to him, saying to him: "Whence art thou? What is thy nation? Why dost thou convert people to thy evil faith? Do not all fear, and yet thou dost not fear? Knowest thou not that I have the power to kill thee and to burn thee?" To the Governor he explains his lineage, Daniel answered him: "I am by nation an Armenian, from a certain city in Armenia which is called Quiliquia, the son of a certain Count who was called e Patricius, as great a man as thou, an enemy and a pagan, who died in his evil faith. And since after my father's death I had remained an infant, my good lady mother converted herself to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and showed me and my sister f the faith of salvation. And I, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, was some years in the desert, and by the word of the angel of my God came to this land, and wherever I shall find any man whom the devil has set in error, I will convert him to the faith of our Lord, who is God, Creator of heaven and earth, King of kings and Lord of lords." Teupanius answered and said: "Who is the devil?" To whom Daniel said: "Thy father is the devil, and thou art his son, because thou dost follow his will." Teupanius said: "Thou speakest as a Lord, and as one having no fear; knowest thou not that I have the power to cast thee into the fire, and that thou wilt be burned with those whom thou hast converted?" And he intrepidly professes the faith, To him Daniel said: "I fear nothing that thou wilt do to me; I fear him who is to be feared, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. He is my Lord, my helper against everything that thou art going to do to me. But thou, with thy father the devil, shalt be vanquished in thy malice." Teupanius said to his torturers: "Cast this fool Daniel into prison." When he was in the prison-house, he prayed to the Lord as was his custom.
[4] Meanwhile Teupanius caused wood to be gathered and a furnace g to be heated, and had Saint Daniel's hands and feet bound, and him to be cast into the burning furnace, saying: "We shall see how thy Saviour will be able to deliver thee from the flames of this fire." Cast into the fire, he remains unhurt: But the angel of the Lord did not depart from Daniel's side while he was in the midst of the burning furnace, and thus the fire set in the furnace could not harm the holy man. And when Teupanius had seen the angel of the Lord in human form with Daniel, he was astonished and said: "We cast in one, and we see two." Now Daniel stood in the burning furnace from morning until evening. After this the enemy Teupanius had him drawn forth from the fire and brought to the court, and sitting as judge said: "Thou art a man who hast studied the magic art and hast known soothsayers; being a magician, thou makest appear things that are not, and so thou canst not be burned in the fire." To whom holy Daniel: "Did I not say to thee that the Lord God would be my helper in thy torments, and that thou wouldst always incline to the part of the devil?" Teupanius said: "Thou art truly a magician, for I saw another man in the furnace, when we had cast in no one but thee alone." Daniel answered: "It was not a man, but the angel of the Lord, who was saving me and delivering me from the wickedness of thy torments."
[5] The governor therefore ordered that he should again be cast into prison until morning, for then he would inflict another torment on him, to see how his Saviour would rescue him. In the morning, he had the holy man's hands and feet bound, and, with hands and feet bound, cast him into the river Rhone. Cast into the Rhone, he escapes: But the water of the river gave way to the just man, and being divided into parts could not drown him. Saint Daniel then began to pray, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, sower of chaste counsel, helper of all the just, I have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought me out into refreshment." When Teupanius saw that the aforesaid punishments could not harm the holy man, he had him shut up in the custody of the prison until another day, thinking within himself in what way he might afflict God's saint with torments, and saying: "We can inflict no other punishments on him except to give him to ferocious beasts to be devoured, for his God evidently works great wonders through his merits." The next day he had Daniel brought before his sight, He is not harmed by the beasts, and gave him to the beasts to be devoured. For the ferocious animals gave kisses to Daniel's feet, and did not offend him, but rather licked his feet. And at that hour the Governor Teupanius had him led outside the city, where he ordered the Martyr's head to be cut off. The Saint of God, his head cut off, returned his spirit to God on the 8th day before the Kalends of May, He is beheaded on April 24, at the age of 32 years and 6 months. And when he had completed his martyrdom, he rested in glory with all the saints.
[6] But the happy Andrew his disciple, and Parabaste, who had been the wife of Crescentius, received the body of blessed Daniel and preserved it in their house for three months, and there many sick folk, on account of their faith and the merits of the holy Man, recovered their health, perceiving the sweet odors which wafted from the body of the Saint of God. Now a certain enemy, perceiving that many miracles were being wrought by the sanctity of Daniel's body, went to Teupanius and said: "Lord, that body of Daniel, whom thou didst cause to be beheaded, has wrought many wonders, and through the miracles that are wrought many gentiles are being converted to the Christian faith." To whom Teupanius answered: "I will have the body carried off and cast into the sea, and afterwards it will not be able to work wonders." The body is carried to Catalonia. Hearing this, Andrew and the good woman Parabaste, on account of the words which had been spoken by the Governor Teupanius, took the body secretly and carried it to the regions of Spain, into the land of Catalonia. In it they entered a certain place where there was a plain between mountains like a desert, where he had been a hermit: which plain, although it had mountains on both sides, yet had within it a cold spring of living water, the place of which plain is a dark valley. This place, which is in the so-called "dark valley," is near a certain city which is named Gerona; and in that plain of the said dark valley Andrew, the disciple of St. Daniel, and Parabaste buried the most holy body on the Kalends of September h in the year from the incarnation of the Lord 388. In which place Andrew and the woman Parabaste did great honor to the holy body; and after eleven years Parabaste died, and Andrew buried her in the same place next to the glorious body of Saint Daniel.
[7] Afterwards the said Andrew remained there leading a poor life for nine years. This blessed Andrew wrote the life and martyrdom of Saint Daniel in a book which the said man Daniel had had in his life, and which he had carried with him into the land of Armenia i. The holy body remained in the place of the dark valley where it had been buried. The Life was written by the disciple Andrew. And when Andrew crossed over to the land of Armenia, he did not find there any brother or sister of Daniel. Ascending to Jerusalem, he went beyond the river Jordan into the desert where Daniel had been a hermit, narrating and reading the life and martyrdom of blessed Daniel to all the hermits who were then there; and all, reading and seeing the life and martyrdom of Saint Daniel, said: "Blessed be the Lord God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen."