Severus

ON SAINT SEVERUS

BISHOP OF NAPLES IN ITALY.

Century V.

Severus, Bishop of Naples, in Italy (Saint)

Antonio Caracciolo, in his book On the Monuments of the Church of Naples, chapter 24, Whether descended from the Severan family? establishes Severus as sprung from consular stock and born of the Severan family, because Symmachus, a Roman Consul, calls him "brother" in a certain letter, and Rome at that time had twin Consuls of this name; and Naples had a Severus Crispus, prefect for writing the Senate's decree, as is in an old stone in Gruter and Summontius. But that these things are said rather by conjecture than truly, you may thence gather, because the Roman Consul Symmachus, even by the testimony of Caracciolo himself, addressed all the Pontiffs who were his Catholic friends by the name of "brother"; and this because he also, although in different sacred rites, was a Pontiff. The author of the Life mentions nothing about his birth. He bore the Episcopal infulae of the Church of Naples, but for how long, and in what year he first put them on, is not established. The writer of the Life, and John the Deacon from him, looking at the year 870, limit the Episcopate altogether to 46 years; extending it from the Pontificate of Silvester to Pope Damasus. Yet this is entirely foreign from the truth: at what time he bore the Episcopate, for between Silvester, who entered the supreme Pontificate in the year 314, and Damasus, who in the year 367, others after Severus, and many indeed, held the Neapolitan Bishopric. For, passing over Cosmas, we find Calepodius, subscribing under Julius I Pope to the Council of Sardica, celebrated in the year of Christ 347: to whom, dying the same year, Fortunatus succeeded in the Bishopric; and to him in the same or following year there is extant a letter written by the pseudo-Sardican conventicle of the Arians. Then followed Maximus, who in the year 359, when the Arians had come together in the conventicle of Rimini, because he refused to subscribe to their opinion, was driven from his See under Pope Liberius, a certain Zosimus being intruded in his place by the Arians.

[2] This is certain, that the Episcopate of Saint Severus coincided with the year of the Lord 386: for there is extant a letter from Saint Ambrose written to him, dear and equal to Saint Ambrose and Symmachus? which he says he wrote in the fifty-third year of his age, which is the same as the year of the Lord 386 or the following: for Ambrose, having died in the year 398 in the month of April, had entered the sixty-fourth year of his age. Also a letter written by Symmachus to Decius about him is evidence, that the Episcopate was extended to the year 391; for in that year with Tit. Fabius Titianus, Symmachus held the Consulate at Rome: letter 51 book 7 to Decius indicates that Saint Severus was at no small value and love to him: "Let other commendations of mine," he says, "perhaps have the interpretation of kindness, this is of judgment. For I hand over to your holy breast my brother Severus the Bishop, praiseworthy by the attestation of all sects, about whom to say more, both despair of equaling his merit and his own modesty do not allow me: moreover I have taken the part of witness, not of praiser, reserving to you the inspection of his morals; which when you shall have weighed thoroughly, you will find me to have yielded rather to his praises, than through negligence to have fallen short." But also to times later than the said year 386 should it be referred, the author of the Life insinuates, whether outliving Saint Martin? when he narrates that he built a temple to Saint Martin, who however died scarcely five months before Saint Ambrose. Bartholomeo Chioccarelli meanwhile, about the year 387 substitutes Ursus for Saint Severus. Ughelli on the other hand dates the Episcopate of Ursus from the year 412: and thus Saint Severus would have lived after the death of Saint Martin 14 or 15 years.

[3] He was buried in a little shrine, which to this end, outside the city behind the temple of Saint Fortunatus, he had built for himself: from which afterwards the sacred bones were translated into the temple of Saint Martin within the city, and were placed under the high altar, the body buried first near Naples, is translated into the very city as this twin inscription teaches:

Suppliant, O traveler, venerate the stone which you see; Here once lay the limbs of Saint Severus.

Another

O guest, scatter roses, give incense to the tomb of Severus; A great Bishop had been buried here.

From this temple also, which under Gregory XIII was yielded to the Franciscans, the sacred remains of Saint Severus were translated to the church of Saint George, thereafter on that account called Severian: which at last in the year 1310 Humbert de Mont-Oreux, Archbishop of Naples, and in the year 1330 it is elevated. raised from a lower place to the principal altar, his head being sumptuously stored in a chapel of the greater church: where to preserve the memory of the deed, these following verses remain:

After the years of the Lord two thousand and twice five nearer to sense: 1300, while Bishop the pious Umbert sits in this city, And of this church Petrus of Bari is held Rector, while the month of March stirs the spring breeze, The translation of the holy Bishop Severus is made.

[4] At Naples is seen the sepulchre, from which, having raised a dead man, he restored him to life, with this inscription: "The sepulchre, where Saint Severus called back to life a friend, whose sons and wife a bath-keeper had falsely and unduly called to court, that he might tell the truth. Paul Tasso, Doctor of Canon Law, Canon of Naples, a cultivator of the Saint, piously restored this, that the memory of so great a miracle might not be overthrown, in the year of the Lord 1573." On account of this miracle, Saint Severus began to be called in brief encomium "Resuscitator of the dead," He is wont to be invoked for the dying. and to be invoked for those who are dying: for which matter in chapter 24, Caracciolo from an ancient Ms. of Rites, which the Nuns of Saint Mary of Alvino preserve, written in Lombardic script, adduces this kind of prayer, wont to be said by the Priest assisting the dying: "Lord, I ask that all the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter, Paul, &c. and all your Martyrs Stephen, Lawrence, Januarius, Sosius, Maximus, Apollinaris, and all the others, stand by him. I pray that my Lady, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ your Son our Lord, pray for you with these and the rest of your Saints, Martin, Nicholas, Aspren, Severus, who raised the dead, Agrippinus, &c."

[5] An Office is prescribed to him, under the rite of Double, printed at Naples in the year 1525 with certain other proper ones, Cult and mention in the Martyrology. embracing nine Lessons: the same altogether as the Life, if you except the Prologue. That the cult was obtained also outside the Neapolitan diocese is clear from a certain ancient Ms. Calendar, which is prefixed to a Psalter of the city of Capua, where these things are read: "The day before the Kalends of May, of Severus Bishop and Confessor." But also at Sorrento a shrine sacred to him, which Leo Ostiensis, book 1 chapter 59, says was granted by John, Duke of Naples, about the year 933, to the Cassinian monks. The Roman Martyrology reckons him among the Saints in these words: "At Naples in Campania of Saint Severus the Bishop, Life composed before the year 800. who among other wonderful things raised a dead man from the sepulchre for a time, that he might convict of falsity a lying creditor of a widow and orphans." The Life we give from an anonymous writer; who, according to the opinion of Bartholomeo Chioccarelli among the Neapolitan Bishops, lived before the year 800; and by the testimony of Caracciolo, in Saint Severus, before Sico, Prince of Benevento; by whom the body of Saint Januarius was translated to Benevento; which the author of the Life of Saint Severus, of whom we here speak, says to rest, up to his age, near Naples, one mile from that city, Given from Mss. in a temple consecrated to him by Saint Severus.

[6] This life Ferdinando Ughelli inserted in his Italia, volume 6, received from a Lombard Ms. of the Gregorian Library: then having obtained the same again from another Ms. codex, with miracles of about the year 1050. which, brought from the Neapolitan monastery of Saint Severinus, was kept at Rome with Joseph a Costa, he gave us a proper copy. In each were added two miracles done about the year 1050, and at the request of a certain man of Capua, in whose person the first and most wonderful had been performed, carefully and faithfully described: which, as they have a different author from the Life, were thus to be distinguished from it. Whether further those in whose gratitude the life was written, so that they might have matter which they might render in verse, did anything in that kind, is not clear: someone afterwards did it about the benefit done to the Capuan; which Poem, making nothing for our purpose, can be read in Ughelli.

LIFE

From Mss. and Ughelli.

Severus, Bishop of Naples, in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 7676

FROM MS.

[1] To Lord ^a the illustrious and to all the Brothers in Christ, greeting. Prologue of the author, to those who had commanded him to write. I am solicited by repeated letters of your nobility, that I should faithfully relate to you the Death or Life of Saint Severus, Priest and Pontiff. I do indeed what you command: but I fear lest I do not so efficaciously what I desire to do. Yet because you have deigned to ask, I will do it faithfully and without lying. For I have learned that it is better to press the tongue to silence, than to tell falsehoods to the sin of the soul, with Scripture saying: "The mouth that lies, kills the soul." Wis. 1:11 And therefore I greatly ask your veneration, that you may deign to give pardon to my unskillfulness. Otherwise if the cheapness of my speech shall begin to displease you, impute it not to me, but more rightly to you: because you have asked water of the purest fountain from a muddy rivulet. But let these things be briefly said: now let us come to those things, which may supply to you, who are disposing to illustrate his Life or Death in verses, matter for speaking.

[2] "To hide the secret of the King is good; but to reveal and confess the works of God is honorable." Many wondrous things and signs Almighty God shows daily through his servants, as it is written.

"Wondrous is God in His Saints." Ps. 67:36 And promising to the Apostles, He says: "He who believes in me, the signs which I do, he also shall do." John 14:12 A new thing and unheard of in these ^b our times has happened, that Severus, Bishop of the Neapolitan See, The widow of a man owing only an egg, like the ancient Saints of old, should work beside other wondrous things, which the Lord deigned to show through him. For one day, according to customary usage, a certain man, about to bathe in a bath, entered; after, washed with water, when he was withdrawing, the keeper of the bath asked an egg ^c from him for the bathing fee; which each had been wont to give as the price of the bathing. But he, forgetful to bring the egg, was by no means permitted to free himself from the debt of the bath. He began to ask him, saying with great eagerness: "I beseech you, O dearest friend and compater, bear with me a little, until I return home: and I willingly send you the egg hastily, which I owe to give you for the bathing fee." Who said: "Go in peace, and do not care for such things; only the egg which you owe to give me, do not delay to send." As soon as he entered his own house, he forgot to send the egg, which he owed the bath-keeper.

[3] demanded with one hundred solidi, And it came to pass that not long after that man died. But when the bath-keeper heard that his debtor had died, and had not sent him the egg; rising thence he called upon the Duke of his land against his wife, that her husband had owed a hundred gold solidi. Then she, detesting and swearing, began to say: "God forbid that my husband should have owed you a hundred solidi." To whom the Duke of the land gave such a judgment, that either the woman herself should pay the debt, or the creditor himself should have her together with her sons in his service. Who, sad, rising up, with her hair loosened and her garment torn from her head to her feet, she runs to Saint Severus: with tears together with her voice came to the servant of God Severus the Bishop, and prostrated at his feet, began to beseech him, saying: "O holy shepherd, O you who hold the way of the Apostles, help me, a wretched widow: because an enemy man with his deceit has oppressed me together with my sons, and says he has his right over me, because my husband owed him a hundred gold solidi, which my husband by no means owed. Be my helper, O most holy Bishop Severus, and as the most holy Daniel the Prophet freed Susanna from a false charge, so also free me, O most holy Shepherd, because I have been unjustly condemned by my false enemy." who, promising aid To whom the most blessed Confessor of Christ and Bishop Severus said: "The Lord lives, I have neither solidi, nor any thing from which I could free you; but bear with me a little until tomorrow; the Lord is about to work His wonders."

[4] There was a crypt outside the city gate, where the same Confessor of Christ God Severus and Pontiff had prepared a sarcophagus for his future burial; and this woman had her husband buried there. Seeing her in such bitterness, the man of God, moved with bowels of mercy on behalf of the woman, with which he was always clothed, ^d gave a little bell to his Cleric, that he should go around the noble city, he calls together the citizens, and at the sound of the little bell all should come together running to the Episcopal Church of the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, that the miracle which the Lord ^e was about to do through His Bishop Severus, He might show to all. When however all were gathered together at early dawn, men and women at once, they took with them the Cross of the Savior our Lord Jesus Christ, and with a litany and chanting of psalms from the Episcopal church as far as outside the gate of the city, came to the aforesaid crypt, of which we made mention above. O how many tears pouring forth there, Monks and Priests, Clerics and laymen, women and infants, widows and orphans, were beseeching God's clemency, and with a procession leads to the sepulchre of the dead man, that the Lord would hear their groaning! But that woman, who was set in bitterness of spirit, was not leaving the Bishop; but following him in her own footsteps, was sending up her voice to heaven, that God would deign to free her from so great a charge.

[5] Then the most blessed Confessor of Christ Severus, when he saw his people in great weeping and sadness, and sending up their voices to heaven, and the widow surrounded by her sons pouring forth such tears together with them; was himself moved to tears: and with great weeping, turned to the Lord, thus began to say: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who by your voice raised Lazarus four days dead; do you raise this dead man, that he may tell us concerning the debt, which this man demands from this woman, his wife, whether it be true or not." And at once he ordered the sepulchre to be opened. And when now all saw the body before their eyes, and brought back to life, he commands him to bear witness for his wife. which had for a long time lain lifeless: then the most blessed Confessor of Christ and Bishop Severus, thus beginning, said: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, rise, and sit in your tomb, and tell us if you owed solidi to the man, on account of which he holds your wife afflicted together with your sons." (O wonderful clemency of God, who willed not to sadden His Bishop in the least!) Who at once at the nearby voice, as if from sleep arose, and began to speak, saying: "By Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose sight I stand and pray day and night, I do not owe solidi, nor any other thing, except only one egg for that bath, where he washed me." Then that most wicked man confessed, that he did not owe him more, except that very egg. which done, he delivers the accused from peril. Then all rising up against him, wished to overwhelm him with stones: but the most blessed Confessor of Christ Severus forbade that such things be done, saying: "It is not lawful for us to return evil for evil, but to show good. Remember, dearest Brothers, how much and what things our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for us." Then the most blessed Confessor of Christ, turning to the dead man, thus said: "O man, do you wish to live yet in this present age? or shall I pray Almighty God for you, that He make you enjoy eternal joys among His Saints for ever?" To whom he answered: "If it please you, O most holy Shepherd and Pontiff, grant me to be a sharer in the joys among the Saints." To whom the Pontiff said: "Rest in peace, secure: for I also will ask my Lord Jesus Christ, that whatever you ask, I may merit to obtain."

[6] Saint Severus the Bishop sat for forty ^f six years, two months, eleven days. He built four basilicas. For he also buried the body of Blessed Januarius, Priest and Martyr, with his own hands, in the church outside the gate of this city at one mile, he builds various temples in which it now rests to the present day; and of those basilicas of which we made mention above, he consecrated one outside the city near Saint Fortunatus ^h, to his own name; and another in the city of wonderful ⁱ work, in whose apse he painted in mosaic ^k the Savior with the twelve Apostles sitting; having beneath them four Prophets, distinguished with precious marbles and metals. Isaiah with a crown of olive wished to designate the Nativity of Christ and the perpetual virginity of Mary the Mother of God, by saying: "Let there be peace." Jeremiah by the offering of grapes prefigures the virtue of Christ and the glory of the Passion and Resurrection, when it is said: "In your virtue." Daniel, bearing ears of wheat, announces the second coming of the Lord; in which all, good and bad, are gathered to judgment: therefore it is said: "And abundance." Ezekiel, bearing roses and lilies in his hands, announces to the faithful the kingdom of heaven, whence it is written: "In your towers." For by the roses is figured the blood of the Martyrs, by the lilies the perseverance of Confession is expressed. At first he ^l lay outside the city in the church consecrated to his name; now ^m he rests in the same church set up at Naples, in one of which he is buried. which some call Severiana, others call Saint George ⁿ because of an Oratory made there. And he made two Monasteries, of Saint Martin ^o Confessor of Christ; and another of Potitus [p] the Martyr. he founds two monasteries [q]

[7] Therefore Saint Severus, when three days before he was to be called from this world to a heavenly dwelling, and now when all the physicians despaired of his health, knew that he was about to go forth to the Lord; ordered all his Clergy to be called together, about to die he summons the Clergy and commands the sacred Mysteries to be exhibited before his bed; namely, that with the holy Clergy the Sacrifice being offered, he might commend his soul to the Lord: also at the same time, that those whom for ecclesiastical discipline he had commanded to be banished from the communion of the sacred Mystery, he might recall to former peace. And when he had celebrated all these things with the holy Clerics in a joyful and perfect order, suddenly he began with a clear voice to ask where his Brothers were. Then one of the bystanders, Ursus the Deacon his nephew (who after his passing was himself ordained Bishop [r]), when he had heard this, thinking that he was asking for his Brothers, that is, the Deacons, said to him: "Behold here are your Brothers." To whom he answered, saying: "I know, son," he said, "I know that here are my Brothers: but I now say my Brothers Januarius and [s] Agrippinus, who have just now spoken with me, and said they would soon come to me." And having said this, and refreshed by the heavenly conversation of Saints Januarius and Agrippinus with hands stretched to heaven, he sang this Psalm to the Lord, saying: "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help shall come to me: my help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Then the prayer being collected [t], he was silent. Meanwhile, when the night had already succeeded the day, until midnight his little body gave itself to rest, until the pain should return, which was heavily in his side.

[8] Day coming, to the Priests and Deacons and all the Clerics, by the Lord's example he preached hereditary peace. These things having passed, remaining silent until evening, then as if awakened from a heavy sleep, recognizing the time of the Lucernary [u] devotion; with hands extended to heaven, with slow voice indeed, he prayed to the Lord, saying: "To you I have lifted up my eyes, who dwell in heaven." after the Lucernary prayers "I have prepared a lamp for my Christ," he sang to the Lord. Then after some silence was made, about the fourth hour of the night, with all who were there carefully watching;

suddenly so great an earthquake shook his chamber, that those who were standing by the little bed, terrified and troubled, all cast themselves into prayer to the Lord; yet nothing was known to those who were standing outside the doors: with his chamber shaken by an earthquake he dies. for that earthquake had been not public but private in his chamber. Meanwhile, when each one, terrified by such fear, was beseeching the Lord for his sins, he, to be received by angelic hands, breathed out the spirit owed to God, He Himself helping, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES.

MIRACLES

From the same Mss., the author of the miracles being contemporary.

Severus, Bishop of Naples, in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 7677

FROM MS.

[9] You exhort me, ^a O man of Capua, most sagacious of men, to write the reward of piety which the supreme divinity, through her holy soldiers, in our times, namely George the Martyr and Severus the Pontiff and Agnellus ^b the Confessor, deigned to bestow at the very moment of death; in order that we may prepare for posterity a memorial, and for those reading a confidence of good hope. The soldier of Capua, I confess I shrank greatly from undertaking this, partly because of inexperience, and the envy of the arrows; partly because of the servants of God, and the most learned men of your city, to whom it is given to know the heavenly secret, whose vigor of knowledge shines as a light in the globe. But lest your entreaty, as of a friend, should remain unanswered, I chose rather to displease others than you alone: so that love might grow more, and truth be strengthened. And because you have merited such helpers, whom not only your city placed on earth rejoices to have as Patrons, but also the heavenly hall retains as perpetual fellow citizens with the holy Angels, it is worthy for you and all your companions to repeat their salutary praises with assiduous mouth: so that as they have been wont to give comforts of temporal life, so they may study to impart joys of eternal life. For although continual sins hinder us from receiving God's mercy; yet His clemency does not suffer us to go away fruitless: but now, as a mother extends her breasts to her children, now snatching them away darkens them lest they be sucked: so that those whom He leaves for a little while as abject, He may have perfected. But since these things we pass over, now I will undertake to explain that kindness which God deigned to work upon you, as I have drawn it from your own ears.

[10] At the time when Henry, King of the Germans, son of Conrad, came ^c to Rome to take the crown of the Empire from the Apostolic See, John, Master of the soldiers of the Neapolitans, and Duke of Campania, with his army landed at Pozzuoli; before Pozzuoli he is wounded by an arrow, and there, tents being pitched, he strove with the machines by which he was able to take the town by force. While these things were often being done, it happened one day that a man of Capua, whom we have placed in the ^d proem, was standing strong amid the ranks of fighters: whom a certain one of the townsmen, aiming at him with an arrow, gravely wounded. Him the comrades carrying off placed in the tent; and to draw out the arrow, they began to press on. Who when with many devices they labored, took away the wood in which the tip had adhered, but left the iron within. For the point of iron, entering through the end of the eyelid, which is drawn out with the iron remaining within the head. which holds the corners of the eyes, so pierced the inner places of the temple and bones, that it left no entrance for finding how it could be removed. Then, council having been taken, he was brought back to his own city by vehicle. And there, with many medicaments applied, they brought no aid of health: but also being ordered to be cut deeply with iron, no way of the hidden arrow was shown in any manner. What the wretched man should do, where he should turn, he knew not: because he whom the contests of physicians deceived, the punishments of death terrified. Here, human remedies being despaired of, At length, having obtained divine counsel, human contests being left off, he began to ask the suffrages of the Saints; that what the earthly

physicians could not grant, the princes of the heavenly kingdom might grant according to their accustomed manner, with the Lord saying: "Because what is impossible with men, is possible with God." Luke 18:27 What more? being led to the basilica of the most holy ^e Agnellus, with what prayers he could, he was asking that as he had aided many sick throughout the world, so also he would aid him placed in the contest of death. Some days having been spent there, he returned home. Likewise entering the temple of Saint George, he was demanding the help of the most blessed Severus; and was beseeching the Saints, whom he had seen painted ^f in the holy hall, the help of Saint Severus having been implored, then, saying farewell to all, he returns home, and was awaiting his last day. At length the accustomed piety of the Lord was there, according to what is written: "Who is a great God like our God?" Tob. 13:2 "Because you chastise and save, lead to the nether parts, and lead back, and after tears and weeping induce exultation. Blessed are you, O Lord God of our fathers, who when you have been angry, work mercy." But now it pleases us to call the man of Capua a little to entreat the Lord, who said: "Everyone who asks receives, and who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened." Luke 11:10 Come, man of Capua, dearest friend, begin now with the Prophet to say: "Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? Ps. 43:23 arise, and cast us not off forever. Why do you turn your face, and forget our poverty and tribulation? For our soul is humbled in the dust, our belly has cleaved to the earth. Arise, O Lord, help us, and deliver us for your name's sake." More certainly than certain that he clung to you, who would direct to you his soldiers, through whom he might offer you the help of life, and drive off the obstacle of death further.

[11] animated by the same appearing to him, When one night the aforesaid man of Capua was resting in sleep, behold three men appeared to him, dissimilar in clothes but equal in manners. The first decorous in the Pontifical habit, the second reduced to the monastic schema, the third girded with a military belt: so that by the man of Capua he was even estimated to be the one who had struck him in battle: whom beholding, he grieved; for he thought he had come on account of kinship inwardly. To whom the two former said such things: "Do not think, man of Capua, that this is the soldier who struck you with the dart; but he is George the Martyr, who shows you present joys of health, and you will suffer no danger from this wound from this hour." Meanwhile they indicated themselves by their own names, namely Agnellus, and Severus; and at once withdrew themselves from his sight. The man awakened from sleep, began to ponder with himself, and to inquire in mind what he had seen. And when he turned many things over by reflecting, with raised hand he touched the entrance of the arrow, and felt as it were some roughness of iron. Then his son being called, he said: "Rise, and quickly bring me a light." This being done, the son exclaiming said: "Fear not, father, because it is the arrow, and if you let me cut a little, at once I will draw it out." To whom the father: "Wait, son: let us first enter the temple of the most holy George; and having heard the Matins office, let us go again to the altar where the body of the most blessed Severus lies, and there with the Clerics standing by and praying, let us see what the Lord is about to do." he recovers, the iron point of his wound having fallen, When these things had been fulfilled in deed, with hand put forth, when the man of Capua touched the place of the wound, at once the arrow following fell into his hand before the sacred altar. All who were there seeing so sublime a miracle, gave great praises to God, who to the world placed in evil, does not cease still through His Saints to offer such gifts. At once the man of Capua, so that their mind might be more strengthened by the miracle, what had been shown to him that night, or what had been pronounced, brought forth in the midst. Moreover this was wonderful to be understood, that the head, having been struck in a more secret part with so dire a wound, when the arrow went out, was so consolidated, that it took no solace of any human medicine. With Bede saying of Simon's mother-in-law cured by the Lord: "It is natural for those suffering from fever, when health begins, to be tired, and to feel the trouble of the sickness. But the health which is conferred by the Lord's command at the same time all returned." To whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. But neither does this seem to be passed over, which in the times of Sergius and John, Master of the soldiers of the city of ^h Parthenope, the Lord deigned to work through his servant Severus: so that while the fame of His Saints has been spread throughout the world, the hearts of the blinded may be more easily invited, and the minds of the faithful more kindled to contend.

[12] There was a certain man, Peter by name, a Greek by nation, surnamed Volicaci, from the city of Amantea ⁱ of Calabria. This man had his dwelling in the aforesaid city of Parthenope, a father brings his contracted daughter to the sepulchre of Saint Severus; near the great basilica of the most holy George the Martyr and Severus the Confessor of Christ. Who according to the substance of his possibilities offered faithfully to God in the aforesaid basilica his gifts, and poured out assiduous prayers: for he also covered the altar at which his venerable Relics lie, surrounding it on all sides with a veil, and very often offered lights. But the enemy of good work, not looking with right regard at those things which the same Peter was showing toward the servant of God with ardent mind, returned to his accustomed arts; so that his mind stirred by stings of bitternesses, no longer might offer to God prayers and lights, but complaints and quarrels. Thus once the disciple of the Savior, by enticing his mind, he deceived: so that he might make from a client a traitor, and entangle the driver of demons with the snare of Satan. But the wretch, though by such an art he does not cease to deceive many, yet is himself often found by many, with the Lord Jesus protecting, foully spurned and conquered. For his little daughter, Ursa by name, he so contracted with immense pains, that she could neither bring her hand to her mouth nor stretch it in any other way. Whom the parent beholding, bathed in tears and dismayed in spirit, bearing her in his own arms, and at the same time with a little vessel full of oil, suspended from her neck, ran to the most sacred altar, at which his body rests; and there cast down with her, poured out tears most devoutly, and with such a voice was asking the Lord King:

"You, Almighty God, who touch the summits of heaven, and prayer having been poured forth, And bind the elements with numbers: that cold with flames, Dry with wet things agree, lest the purer fire Fly away, or weights lead down the submerged lands. Who are tranquil rest to the pious, glory to the weary; Look upon my words, you who look upon the whole globe: And have pity on me, lest pressed by a heavy weight, I should lose this offspring, whom savage pestilence has bound. But you, Saint Bishop of God, venerable Severus, Who flash with piety, who loose the bonds of death; Behold my wounds, which a fiery sword Harshly burns, that I may render to you the highest praises And to the Lord, whose servant you are proved to be; Who granted to you to give life to your little ones ^k, Who always seek your holy gifts through the ages."

[13] he obtains health for the same. Such things the aforesaid man lying on the pavement was repeating with his mouth; when the merciful Lord, who never casts aside the prayers of those praying, nor deserts those invoking Him with a pure heart; at once through the merits of His servant was present, nor was the aforesaid man sooner raised from the pavement, than his daughter was restored to fullest health: and she who had been brought contracted in hands and arms to his tomb, without any delay was stretched out to her own father, and restored free from all sickness. [l]

NOTES.