ON ST. JUNIANUS, ABBOT, FOUNDER OF THE MONASTERY OF MAIRÉ
IN THE PROVINCE OF POITOU IN GAUL.
In the year 587.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Junianus, abbot, in the province of Poitou in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 4564, 4565
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
§ I. The immemorial and public cult of this Saint, his distinction from another saint of the same name, his monastic profession, his Acts, and the writer of these.
Maurolico, Felice, Wion and Dorganius announce this Saint on today's day under the name of St. Julian; This Saint, who is honored in the Martyrologies and in the Breviary of Poitiers, but Ménard, Saussay, Bucelinus, and other Menologists, from ancient instruments, have more rightly called him, instead of Julian, Junianus. Whatever be the case about the name, we gather the public cult of this Saint from the proper Breviary of Poitiers, which celebrates his yearly festival on the twelfth day of August with a semi-double office, and in which the fourth Lesson comprises summarily some of his deeds in these words: "Junianus, abbot of Nouaillé, born of noble stock in the region of Poitiers, in a certain estate which is called Champagné, laid aside his hair from adolescence for the sake of the practice of religion, and was of such holiness that blessed Radegund used him very much in sacred matters. His body, shining with countless miracles, was buried at Mairé, and thence carried to the monastery of Nouaillé." After that testimony of public veneration it is not needful here to heap up the various announcements of the recent Menologies. Add that from the ancient Acts themselves, and from the twofold history of the translation, and from other ancient monuments, the immemorial cult of this Saint is abundantly established.
[2] Benedict Gonon, in the Lives of the Fathers of the West, which he published at Lyons in Gaul in the year 1625, confounds our St. Junianus with another hermit of the same name, whom Gregory of Tours records in the book on the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 103, some confound with a hermit of the same name, and whose feast is honored on the sixteenth day of October: for when Gonon in book 4 of the Work just praised had reported the Acts of St. Junianus the hermit, after these in the same place, page 209, he wrongly writes in the notes the following: "But the festivity of St. Junianus is celebrated on the seventeenth of the Calends of November. Formerly the body of St. Junianus rested in the monastery of Nouaillé, commonly Nouaille, in the territory of Poitiers. But in the time of the persecution of the heretics the elder monks hid it in the aforesaid monastery; but because they have all now died, no one knows the place where this treasure is hidden. Now blessed Junianus is the patron of the aforesaid monastery, and he flourished about the year of the Lord 485, in the time of Clovis, king of the Franks." But because those Acts, prefixed there by Gonon, regard St. Junianus the hermit, he erroneously ascribes to him in the notes the translation of the body to the monastery of Nouaillé, the patronage of the same monastery, and the most recent concealing of the sacred relics, all of which pertain to today's St. Junianus the abbot, as will evidently appear from the following paragraph.
[3] Meanwhile let us hear Le Cointe, who in the Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 544, number 99, thus refutes this gross error of Gonon and of others: from whom he is shown to be different. "Some are shamefully deceived," he says, "when they confound blessed Junianus, who was known to Radegund, with another St. Junianus the hermit, of whom we spoke under king Clovis and Ruricius bishop of Limoges. The former was by country of Cambrai, the latter of Poitiers; the former lived in the bishopric of Limoges, the latter in that of Poitiers; the former lived a solitary until his death, the latter, going forth from his cell, built and ruled a monastery; the former departed from this life when Ruricius presided over the diocese of Limoges, the latter far outlived Ruricius: for he reached the year of Christ five hundred and eighty-seven, and, on the testimony of Gregory of Tours, in the fourth year of king Childebert, or the year of Christ five hundred and seventy-nine, Ferreolus, the successor of Exochius, was already ruling the church of Limoges, who had sat fifteen years after Ruricius, on Fortunatus's testimony; the former is honored on the seventeenth of the Calends of November, the latter on the Ides of August; the former died in the diocese of Limoges, and was buried by the river Vienne, where a town still preserves the name of St. Junian; the latter died in the bishopric of Poitiers, and was laid up at Mairé, whence he was afterward translated to Nouaillé, as we shall say in its own place." Besides, that erroneous confusion is quite easily detected from the Breviary of Limoges, which honors both these Saints on different days: for on the sixteenth day of October the feast of St. Junianus the hermit is there celebrated with a double rite, and in the Lessons of the second Nocturn his deeds are recited. But on the thirteenth day of August in the same place, in the Office of St. Radegund, only a commemoration is made of our St. Junianus, and the collect "Intercession," etc., from the common of an abbot is prescribed. Finally, the distinction of both these Saints appears plainly from their different Acts, which will be able to be compared with one another when our successors, God favoring, shall illustrate the Life of St. Junianus the hermit at the sixteenth day of October.
[4] Now another question occurs between Le Cointe and the Benedictine writers, who everywhere claim St. Junianus the abbot for their Order: for Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 559, number 12, exhibits a fragment of the Acts, in which St. Junianus is said to have kept the rule of St. Benedict, and then the annalist thus impugns the Benedictine profession of the same Saint: Le Cointe contends that St. Junianus was not a Benedictine, "This Boethius Wulfinus, who flourished in the last times of Louis the Pious, easily feigned blessed Junianus, whose Life he was writing, to be a Benedictine monk, because he was about to send his work to Godolenus, abbot of the monastery of Nouaillé (above and below that monastery is called Nobiliacense), in which the rule of St. Benedict then flourished. If Junianus bound himself and his companions to the Benedictine discipline, he certainly could receive it from none other than Maurus, abbot of Glanfeuil. But at what time did he make his novitiate in the monastery of Glanfeuil? He was professing the anchoritic life when Radegund came to Poitiers, and was already consulted by those who desired to learn the monastic life. He went forth from his cell to build a monastery and to preside over many disciples; not, however, to set out for Glanfeuil, whence he might bring the Benedictine rule into the territory of Poitiers. Then also Radegund erected a monastery of maidens, in which she willed the rule of St. Caesarius to be observed, no mention being made of St. Benedict, which surely she would not have omitted if Junianus, who is acknowledged as her spiritual father, had bound himself to the Benedictine family. This argument seemed so strong to the Benedictines that they judged that blessed Junianus should not be retained in the Benedictine Martyrology unless they inscribed blessed Radegund in the same tables. But Radegund, who followed the rule of St. Caesarius, ought not to be numbered among Benedictine nuns, unless Caesarius bishop of Arles be reckoned among the Benedictine brethren; and this is repugnant to the age of Caesarius, who founded a monastery for nuns and prescribed laws for them before Maurus betook himself from Italy into Gaul."
[5] against the Benedictine authors who everywhere assert it Philippe Bastide, a Benedictine monk of the Congregation of St. Maur, composed a Dissertation on the ancient propagation of the Order of St. Benedict within Gaul, which Mabillon published in the Acts of the Saints of the same Order after the second part of the third century, and which was again printed separately at Auxerre in the year 1683. The praised author, in chapter 14 of this Dissertation, tries to refute the arguments of Le Cointe already reported, and first he takes very ill the word "feigned" which his adversary used, and, taking it in the worse sense, thus interprets it in the same place: "When I first noticed the invention of this opinion in the Annals, I long stood astonished, marveling how it could come to pass that a learned and pious man should dare, on such slight arguments, with no authority, to charge an ancient author distinguished with episcopal dignity with a gratuitous lie. 'He easily feigned,' he says, 'that he was a Benedictine monk,' that is, with too great facility he lied that Junianus"
was a Benedictine monk."
[6] from the writer of the Acts, But, saving the interpreter's peace, this word could have been explained more mildly and less invidiously: for "fingere" is not seldom taken for "to make," "to hold oneself persuaded," "to imagine," "to think by hypothesis," and by other phrases of this kind, as could be proved by various examples, and may everywhere be seen in the authors of the Latin tongue. Hence on the Monday of Easter, in the ecclesiastical Office which we recite every year concerning the appearing of Christ to two disciples going to the village of Emmaus, there are read from a Homily of St. Gregory the Pope the following words to our purpose: "He made as though he would go further: for we say that to feign is to compose; whence we call the composers of clay potters." Therefore, according to this softer and usual signification, Le Cointe asserted only this, that Wulfinus Boethius made St. Junianus a Benedictine monk, and easily persuaded himself or imagined that he was such, because in the monastery of Mairé or of Nouaillé, to whose abbot Godolenus Wulfinus dedicates the Life of the Saint, the rule of St. Benedict then flourished. But in Le Cointe's assertion so understood we see nothing whereby that Annalist could be accused of inflicting an insult: for of the same biographer it can be said without injury that he "easily feigned" — that is, wrongly made — Clotaire lord and possessor of Thuringia, because he had helped his brother Theodoric in subduing the Thuringians.
[7] Adrien de Valois, book 7 of the Frankish Affairs, in us volume 1, page 366, who, being far removed from the Saint's age, censures that error of Wulfinus in these words: "Boethius Wulfinus the bishop, in his book on the Life of Junianus the confessor, to abbot Godolenus,… calls Brittharius the father of Radegund, queen of the Franks, and falsely says that Clotaire, whom he calls a most glorious and most excellent and orthodox king, among other most famous and most fierce nations subjected the most noble race of the Thuringians to his dominion and rule: whereas the Thuringians were subdued and made tributary by Theodoric, whose borders alone among the sons of Clovis touched them, Clotaire (as we have said) being content with a share of the booty as the reward of the help he brought his brother." Mabillon himself, in the notes on the Life of St. Junianus, and most recently Johann Georg Eckhart, in the Commentaries on the affairs of Eastern France and of the bishopric of Würzburg, book 4, number 11, or volume 1 of that Work, page 58, refute the same blunder of Wulfinus Boethius.
[8] As therefore the praised biographer easily believed that Clotaire had subjected Thuringia to his dominion and rule, could easily err in this matter, as in others, because that king together with his brother had subdued the Thuringians, so also he could without difficulty persuade himself that St. Junianus lived under the rule of St. Benedict, which certainly was afterward admitted by his successors, and which Wulfinus knew was in his own age observed in the monastery of Mairé or of Nouaillé. But even if both these opinions be false according to Le Cointe and others, and Wulfinus in these two assertions of his strayed from the truth, yet from this it by no means follows that he studiously fabricated such things against his own mind, and lied with too great facility, as the aforesaid Benedictine defender wrongly thinks must be concluded from Le Cointe's equivocal phrase.
[9] Now perhaps some one will demand of us that we dismiss the question of the word, or of the signification of the verb "feigned," although for want of certain knowledge we are in doubt, and pass judgment on the controversy of the matter itself. But if any one should ask roundly whether St. Junianus is to be enrolled in the Benedictine Order, we shall frankly answer that here we are at a stand: for the reasons of Le Cointe reported above are not so urgent that on their account we should dare utterly to deny to St. Junianus the Benedictine profession. But on the other hand the answers of Philippe Bastide are not so solid as to make us fully certain of the same Saint's Benedictine profession. Wherefore in this place we have been unwilling to transcribe the longer replies which that author opposes to Le Cointe, since they can easily be found in one or other edition of that Dissertation which we assigned above.
[10] For the rest, Mabillon in the Preface to the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 1, §1, confesses whether he really erred. that before the age of St. Benedict there flourished in the West and in Gaul itself various congregations of monks, which lived under different rules. But it is not easy to say whether, and which, of the monasteries of these monks passed over to the Benedictine institute after the coming of St. Maurus into Gaul, as Mabillon himself in the praised Preface, §5, or number 64, indicates in these words: "Yet the traces of the Benedictine rule propagated in Gaul in the sixth century are not so clear and open. Nor certainly is it any wonder: for, not to complain of the distance of the times, this propagation was not effected only by swarms of colonies sent hither and thither, by new buildings of monasteries; but by the silent acceptance and observance of the rule, which the ancient monasteries first took up along with their primitive manner of living, and then, as the esteem and authority of the holy rule grew, retained alone. The second Council of Tours, held in the year 567, in canons XVII and XVIII prescribes to monks a certain manner of fasting and of psalmody which, since it is altogether different from our rule, argues sufficiently that the institute published by blessed Maurus had not yet everywhere prevailed." From these things it is clear that we can determine nothing certain concerning the rule which St. Junianus followed, who at these very times had led an anchoritic life, and afterward had gathered monks in the monastery of Mairé. Therefore, that dispute being still undecided, we shall pass on to our Acts and their writer, concerning which we shall supply some preliminary information.
[11] The Life of the Saint published by Labbe Our Philippe Labbe, in the New Library of Manuscript Books, volume 2, from page 569, first published the Acts of St. Junianus, whose author and authentic credit he assigns in the title in these words: "The Life of St. Junianus the confessor, by the author Wulfinus the bishop. Now first published from a transcript of the Reverend Father Jacques Sirmond, theologian of the Society of Jesus, which we have collated with various parchments of good repute which are in our possession." Afterward Mabillon, among the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 1, page 307 and following, published from manuscript codices of the monastery of Nouaillé the same Life, with which we have collated Labbe's edition, noting in the margin the chief variation of both editions: for in that collation we have not been so scrupulously employed as to descend to minutiae, and to observe variant readings of hardly any moment. Nay rather, where a fault of the typesetter or of the copyist seemed to have crept in, we have sometimes emended one edition from the other, and have reduced some words written after the ancient manner (say "inlustris" and "inlaesus" for "illustris" and "illaesus," and others like these) to today's orthography.
[12] was written by Wulfinus Boethius, Since in both these editions we have the very source of the Acts, we do not here enumerate their French collectors, and we also say nothing of the Latin summary of the same Life, which Ménard long ago inserted in his Benedictine Martyrology. Nevertheless concerning these Acts and their writer it may be helpful to report a certain observation of the praised Ménard, who after the aforesaid synopsis, pages 306 and 307, notes the following in his Martyrology: "This Life is had in manuscript in the monastery of Nouaillé, a copy of which is in our possession. Its author is Boethius Wulfinus the bishop, as is had at the head of the same Life; and in the preface he says that he draws his origin from the Goths. Now that Wulfinus lived in the time of Louis the Pious, which is clear from the preface, in which he dedicates this Life to the aforesaid abbot Godolenus; and then from what he narrates concerning the building of the monastery of Nouaillé. A difficulty however occurs concerning these words, which are had in the said copy: 'As we learned by the narration of the aforesaid Auremundus, who was present': for that Auremundus, who lived in the time of Clotaire the first, could not have narrated the miracles of St. Junianus to Boethius Wulfinus, who was passing his life in the time of Louis the Pious. But since he says 'we learned,' not 'we heard,' he sufficiently hints that he did not hear it from him, but from others to whom the knowledge of these miracles had come, Auremundus being the first author, who had narrated them to the men of his own age." Then he confirms that explanation of his by one or two texts of the same Acts, and finally in the same place supplies a piece of information worthy of note in these words: "Certainly I have seen this Life put into French, by an uncertain author, in which it is said that Auremundus consigned it in writing to posterity."
[13] Whatever be the case about this opinion of the anonymous French translator, a bishop of an uncertain see, certainly that lucubration of Auremundus, if it ever existed, was unknown to Labbe, to Mabillon, and to other diligent investigators of matters of this kind, who all reckon only one writer of this Life, concerning whom Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, book 5, chapter 56, thus discourses: "Junianus meanwhile, having for some time emulated the anchoritic life among the people of Poitou, was living shut up in a very narrow cell, like a criminal in a workhouse. His deeds Wulfinus Boethius, living at Poitiers, set down in writing in the ninth century, at the request of Godolenus, abbot of Nouaillé, whose 'commands he feared TO OPPOSE BY DISOBEDIENCE' (so that author speaks to the abbot). This is that Wulfinus Boethius whom the poet Drepanius, in a poem inscribed to him, calls a grammarian of Orléans, and urges to write to him. The name of Drepanius is an assumed name of Florus, deacon of Lyons, as is clear from his letter to Modoinus, bishop of Autun, where he calls himself Drepanius in the inscription of the letter, and Florus in the poem. Another letter of the same Florus, with other poems of his, thou hast in the first volume of our Analecta, likewise written in verse to that same Modoinus, who is known to have lived in the principate of Louis Augustus, surnamed the Pious. These things agree excellently with the age both of Florus and of Wulfinus Boethius, to which accordingly the hitherto uncertain age of Drepanius is to be recalled. Wulfinus in the prologue of this Life says that he is a Sarmatian by origin; nor do I doubt that the name of Boethius is an assumed one for him, as also that of Drepanius for Florus, after the manner of the learned of that time. Thus to Charlemagne the surname of David, to Alcuin that of Albinus, to Rabanus that of Maurus, to Radbertus that of Paschasius, to Gottschalk that of Fulgentius, were ascribed as literary names. Theodulf, bishop of Orléans, praises Wulfinus with his scholars."
[14] Mabillon here makes no mention of the episcopate of Wulfinus Boethius (that name of Boethius is sometimes prefixed to Wulfinus and sometimes postponed), which dignity nevertheless is thus expressly stated in our Labbe in the title of the prologue: to whom nevertheless some with Mabillon "In the name of the holy Trinity. Here begins the prologue of Boethius Wulfinus the bishop to abbot Godolenus, on the Life of the most blessed Junianus, confessor and priest." Nevertheless Mabillon elsewhere, namely in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, century 1, page 307, before the Life of St. Junianus, had not only attributed to this Wulfinus Boethius the title of bishop, but had also assigned to the same biographer the see of Poitiers. But that learned Benedictine writer seems afterward to doubt of this his former opinion, and tacitly to retract it, when in century IV of the Work just praised
treating of the translation of that same St. Junianus, part 1, page 430 and following, in the preliminary observations he thus advises the reader: "A fuller narration of that matter, as also the Life of St. Junianus, was set down in writing by Wulfinus Boethius the bishop, deriving his origin from the Goths, who perhaps was chorepiscopus of Sigibrannus. There flourished at that time the poet Wulfinus among the people of Orléans, concerning whom Theodulf, prelate of that city, in book 2 of his poems, chapter 13, and the metrical letter of an uncertain author published by Morel. Was he afterward made a bishop and the writer of the Life of St. Junianus? Whoever this author be, he says that Junianus was buried in the monastery of Mairé among the people of Poitou; which, when it had been reduced to straitness in its estate, was united to Nouaillé at the beginning of the ninth century; then it became a Priory, and at last a parish church."
[15] have assigned the see of Poitiers. Nevertheless certain authors have followed Mabillon's former opinion, and have confidently surnamed this Wulfinus Boethius bishop of Poitiers. Meanwhile we have hitherto been able to find in the ninth century no bishop of this name among the prelates of Poitiers, nor have the most recent editors of Gallia Christiana found any such. Only in Labbe's edition of the Councils, volume 7, column 1697, a bishop Wulfinus subscribes the synod which was held at Thionville in the year 835. We do not know on what foundation Johann Georg Eckhart lately, in his Commentaries on Eastern France, book 29, chapter 35, or volume 2 of that Work, page 282, treating of the same synod, called this Wulfinus bishop of Poitiers, since in this subscription his see is not expressed. Wherefore our Jacques Longueval was more cautious, who in his learned History of the Gallican Church, volume 5, page 435 and following, reckoning up the various prelates of the same synod whose sees he knew, passed over the see of this Wulfinus as unknown to him. From all these things the sagacious reader easily sees that we can determine nothing certain concerning the aforesaid writer of the Acts: for although that Wulfinus, a bishop of an uncertain see, lived in the times of our biographer, yet we still do not know whether this man be distinct from him and from the grammarian or poet of Orléans. And so we shall await this information from others, and meanwhile shall proceed to the posthumous glory of our Saint.
§ II. The posthumous glory of the Saint from the twofold translation of the sacred body, and the miracles then wrought.
The relics of this St. Junianus When the body of St. Junianus had rested two hundred and forty-three years in the monastery of Mairé, and that place had been almost reduced to a wilderness on account of continual wars, Godolenus, the last abbot of that monastery, with the favor of Sigibrannus, bishop of Poitiers, and of Fulco, abbot of St. Hilary's, decreed to translate these sacred relics honorably elsewhere. The chief occasion of this translation Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, book 30, chapter 46, thus records: "Occasion for this translation was given by the new basilica built at Nouaillé by Godolenus the abbot, who in this year (namely of Christ 830, of which the Benedictine Annalist there treats), and indeed on the eighth of the Ides of November, which was a Sunday, had it dedicated in honor of St. Hilary; and on the same day caused the relics of St. Junianus to be translated with solemn pomp into the new basilica, and to be placed toward the East beside the base of the altar, on the testimony of Wulfinus Boethius, an author of that time, who dedicated to the same abbot Godolenus a book on the Life and translation of St. Junianus."
[17] First, from these words of Mabillon we gather that that translation of the sacred relics was made in the year of Christ 830; in the month of November of the year 830, which chronology is confirmed from the Chronicle of St. Maixent, or of Maillezais, which in Labbe, in the new Library of Manuscript Books, volume 2, page 195, has these few words to our purpose: "In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 830, the basilica of St. Hilary at Nouaillé is dedicated, and the body of St. Junianus is translated thither from the village of Mairé; which translation abbot Godolenus made, with the help of bishop Sigibrannus and of Fulco, abbot of St. Hilary's." Secondly, from the same words we dig out that the church of the monastery of Nouaillé was dedicated on the sixth day of November, the anniversary memory of which dedication is to this day observed on that day in the monastery of Nouaillé, as the praised Mabillon attests in the notes on the history of this translation. Thirdly, finally, we learn that the same Wulfinus Boethius who wrote the Life of St. Junianus also committed to writing this history of the translation, which assertion Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks, at the year of Christ 830, number 61, and other authors everywhere support.
[18] Our Labbe, in volume 2 of the praised Library, page 578, subjoined this lucubration of Wulfinus to the Acts of St. Junianus, after they had for a long time and Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century four, part 1, pages 432 and 433, reprinted the same. We transcribe it from the former edition, which nevertheless we shall collate with the latter, in this manner: "Therefore, when through countless courses of years, evils increasing, and especially by the savagery of wars, the province of all Aquitaine was being reduced to a wilderness, namely on account of the insolence of the tyrants striving among themselves, aspiring to the summit of princedom, and unwilling to submit their necks to the yoke of the kings of the Franks, it had been consumed with so great slaughter and burning of fires * that by these contests not only the commonwealth perished, but also the Order of monks was utterly annulled. Whence it came to pass that that monastery, in which the holy body was venerated with great practice of religion, became a desert wilderness, and all practice of the monastic order was thence abolished.
[19] "But after the passing of a long time, the divine clemency having mercy, had rested in the monastery of Mairé, the pride of the tyrants was subdued, and under the most pious emperor Charles peace was restored, and the unity of the Church re-established, and the places burned with fires and consumed by the slaughter of wars were again restored, and brought back to their state of comeliness and adornment. Nevertheless that place by no means afterward attained the former vigor of the monastic Order, for this cause, namely, that there was found a place more useful for monks to dwell in, by name Nouaillé, built on the land of the church of the most blessed pontiff Hilary, confessor of Christ, to which basilica that monastery also, where the same venerable Junianus rested in body, with all things pertaining to it, looks; the said place of Nouaillé being distant from the city of Poitiers about five miles: in which place a most religious congregation of monks, established under the rule of the most blessed Benedict, began most devoutly to serve God; in which most illustrious men, exceedingly learned in the monastic order, shone forth to such a degree that from the aforesaid congregation abbots were appointed in very many places, and taught the priors of this Order, after the example of those men, as it is irreproachably kept in that same place, throughout the most ample dominion of the whole empire of the Franks.
[20] with great solemnity "Meanwhile, after the death of the most glorious Caesar, who most amply exalted the empire of the Franks, and happily ruled it for about forty-eight years, and bravely protected it from every incursion of barbarian nations, his most noble offspring, the most excellent emperor Louis, took up the sceptres of the empire to be ruled. While he was happily reigning, and his son the most glorious Pippin was reigning over Aquitaine, and the most blessed prelate Sigibrannus was exercising the priesthood at Poitiers, and the venerable man Fulco, abbot of the basilica of the most holy pontiff Hilary, was ruling its congregation; at that same time Godolenus, under the prior of the monastic Order , presided as abbot in the aforesaid monastery of Nouaillé. It seemed good to him to translate that body of the most holy Junianus from the place where it was set to the place where a company of monks served God: for this reason, because where it had been laid before, it seemed not to be honored with worthy honor, nor to be adorned with the dignity of office, nor with the lighting of lamps.
[21] were translated to the monastery of Nouaillé, "At length, in the seventeenth year of the reign of the aforesaid Caesar, with the favor and counsel of the pontiff Sigibrannus and of Fulco the archchaplain, the body of the most holy Man was translated by Godolenus the abbot and the monks of the aforesaid place, with the highest honor and most worthy veneration, adorned in all things with the practice of religion, priests and throngs of peoples running together from all sides, and venerable bishops coming to meet it; and his body was carried * into the basilica of blessed Hilary, which the same venerable abbot built with wondrous beauty of workmanship. It is set toward the eastern part beside the base of the altar: the solemnity of which day shines with a twofold privilege, namely because on the same day both the most holy body with great array and triumph, as has been said, was laid up there, and the house itself was dedicated and consecrated as a dwelling-place of the heavenly King; where, by the granting of the divine clemency, tokens of miracles frequently shine forth, where also worthy benefits are granted to those who ask, petitions are bestowed, and the longed-for remission of sins is granted, by the granting of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is the kingdom and the empire, glory and power, with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, through the endless ages of ages. Amen."
[22] of which translation Saussay also makes mention, Since this translation, described by a contemporary author, evidently regards our St. Junianus, we scarcely understand what André Saussay had in mind when in his Gallican Martyrology at the fifteenth day of November he announces the following: "On that same day, of St. Junianus, confessor and hermit, whom St. Remigius baptized, whom the Holy Spirit filled with manifold grace, whom Pippin, king of Aquitaine, when he had put off the flesh and was famous for miracles, honored with a monastic church, to which, that he might there be honored as patron, he caused his sacred limbs to be solemnly carried by Sigibrannus, bishop of Poitiers, conspicuous for piety. This famous monastery, called Nouaillé, still exists in the tract of Poitiers, where from the first laying up, with fitting veneration, the body of St. Junianus was preserved, until, the heretics raging everywhere in Gaul and now laying waste Poitiers itself, the elder monks of that monastery, fearing lest by a sudden onset this impious mob should rush into this shrine, betimes removed the precious relics of their glorious Guardian from the open place. Moreover they hid them so deeply that after they themselves had died, this deadly whirlwind being calmed, no one could know the place where so precious a treasure had been hidden by them." Now various things occur to be noted concerning this announcement of Saussay.
[23] Since Saussay adds to this Saint the title of hermit, and concerning it he suggests some doubt to us. it might first be doubted whether that Martyrologist did not follow the erring Gonon, who wrongly applied the translation of today's St. Junianus to the other St. Junianus the hermit, as we showed in the preceding paragraph. Nevertheless he seems to have distinguished both those Saints well enough, since in his Gallican Martyrology he announced the feast of St. Junianus the abbot on this day, and the yearly memory of St. Junianus the hermit on the sixteenth day of October. Nay rather, that praised Martyrologist probably excerpted the announcement which we exhibited in the preceding number from the Usuardine additions of Molanus, who on the fifteenth day of November has the following: "On the same day, of blessed Junianus the confessor, whom blessed Remigius washed with baptism." Similar things we reported at the fifteenth day of November among the Supplements of our Usuard illustrated, from the codex of Hérin. But is that St. Junianus, thou wilt say, whom blessed Remigius washed with baptism, different from today's St. Junianus and from the hermit of the same name? We frankly confess that we
are hitherto ignorant of this, and that that distinction or confusion must be examined on the fifteenth day of November. Meanwhile we do not see why Saussay commemorated the translation of our St. Junianus on the fifteenth day of November, since it befell on the sixth day of the same month, as is clear from what has been said above. Finally, we do not sufficiently clearly perceive the mind of the same Martyrologist, when he asserts above that the body of St. Junianus was preserved with fitting veneration in the monastery of Nouaillé from the first laying up until the impious ravages of the raging Calvinists: for if by these words he means to indicate that the first laying up of the sacred body was made in the monastery of Nouaillé, he doubtless strays from the truth, since it is established from ancient monuments that those sacred relics rested first for more than two hundred years in the monastery of Mairé, and were thence translated to the monastery of Nouaillé in the year of Christ 830. Now we proceed to the other translation of that same sacred corpse.
[24] It was of old the custom that the relics of the Saints should sometimes be carried to the place in which councils were being held. Afterward in the year of Christ 988 the body of the same Saint Thus the shrine of St. Bercharius, abbot of Der, was carried to the synod of Airé, on Mabillon's testimony, in the reign of king Robert, and "holy faith is said to have held the primacy among many bodies of the Saints, WHICH ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOM OF THE PROVINCE ARE CARRIED TO COUNCILS." In like manner the body of St. Junianus was carried to the synod which was held in the year of Christ 988 in the monastery of Charroux, as the praised Mabillon rightly demonstrates from the persons and other attendant circumstances. Further, this carrying of the sacred body was described by Letaldus, a monk of Micy, and he dedicated his little work to Constantine, abbot of Nouaillé; both of whom Mabillon judges to have flourished at the close of that same tenth century, and he published the same writing of Letaldus, among the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century IV, part 1, pages 434 and 435, from a manuscript codex of the Poitiers monastery of St. Cyprian.
[25] We here transcribe that brief history, which in the place just cited has it thus: was carried to the monastery of Charroux "To the lord father Constantine, and to the other Brethren of the monastery of Nouaillé, Brother Letaldus, greeting in the Lord. The angel Raphael, sent by the Lord to relieve the labors of Tobias, after he had not only snatched him from his troubles, but also aided him with the benefits of the divine loving-kindness, being about to return to him by whom he had been sent, from whom, in going forth, he had not departed, addresses those whom he had raised up by the gift of a heavenly benefit, saying: It is good to hide the counsel of a king, but it is honorable to reveal and confess the works of God. Wherefore it is fitting that we reveal and confess the works of Christ which he has deigned to work in our times through his most glorious confessor Junianus, to the praise and glory of his name, to the edification of the hearers, that all may know that the works which he wrought in the days of our fathers he works also with us — not indeed by our merits, but by the benefit of his loving-kindness and by the intervention of those fathers whom he has bestowed on us as intercessors, and sets forth as models for correcting the heaviness * of our life.
[26] "Let us set about, therefore, the task of the promised work, distrusting indeed our own strength, in which a synod was then being held; but supported by the help of the divine bounty, namely of him who says: Open thy mouth, and I will fill it. But do ye, reverend Fathers and Brethren, help by your prayers what ye have enjoined by a charitable command, nor let our rusticity greatly displease you, provided that the truth of the deeds, alone and entire as it has been handed down by you, be pleasing. When sinners had sprung up like grass, and, as briars and thorns choking the earthly harvest, so all wicked men were laying waste the Lord's vineyard, it pleased the bishops and abbots, and all religious men, that a council ought to be held, in which both plunderings should be forbidden, and the goods of the Saints unjustly taken away should be restored, and the other evils which defiled the fair face of God's holy Church should be smitten under the sword-point of anathema. This council, therefore, was appointed to be gathered in the monastery of Charroux, and there was there a great concourse of many peoples from the district of Poitou and of Limoges and from the neighboring regions. For many bodies of the Saints were brought thither, by whose presence both religion might be strengthened and the boldness of the wicked beaten back. Assuredly that council, gathered (as is believed) by the divine will, was made illustrious through the presence of the Saints by frequent miracles. But among the other pledges of the Saints worthy of God, the remains also of the glorious father Junianus were carried thither with fitting honor.
[27] was carried, not without miracles. "But while these things were being done, when the relics had been carried out from the monastery of the holy Father, not far from the monastery those who were carrying the Saint's burden sat down and set down the sacred load. In that place, therefore, after the carrying away of the most holy relics, the devotion of the faithful set up the standard of the Cross for a memorial and remembrance that there the relics of the holy Father had rested; and from that time until now whoever comes thither suffering from fever, when the name of Christ is invoked, obtains his former health through the intervention of the same Father. Thence, therefore, when they had come to a little village whose name is Ruffec, they took lodging there, and passing that night wakeful in the praises and hymns of God, when morning came they set out on their journey; but none the less, in the same place where the relics had rested, faithful Christians made of pliant osier a kind of enclosure, that the very place where the sacred limbs had been laid might remain safe from the approach of men and of animals. After many days a fierce bull came, and in sport shook that hedge with his horns and his flanks; but as soon as he withdrew from the hedge, he fell and expired. In the same place also, from a great rain, a pool had grown up, which, retaining for some time the water it had received, out of reverence for the sacred pledges invited very many to wash there; among whom came a certain woman, laboring under the elephantine disease, who, when she had washed herself in that water, was restored to her former health, and returned home whole." Although here no word is made of the bringing back of those same relics, yet without doubt these, the synod of Charroux being finished, were carried back to the monastery of Nouaillé and there reverently preserved until the times in which the Calvinists were laying waste Gaul: for then the sacred body of St. Junianus was withdrawn from the fury of these heretics, and hidden together with the precious furniture of the church in such a way that afterward it could not be found, and to this day lies hid, as Saussay, Mabillon, and others attest. Now receive the Acts themselves, whose writer and authority we indicated in §1 of this Commentary.
Annotations* Mabillon: "est"
* elsewhere "abbate" is wanting
* Mabillon: "proposito"
* Mabillon: "inlatum"
* perhaps "pravitatem" (depravity)
ACTS
By the author Wulfinus Boethius.
From the New Library of Manuscript Books, where our Philippe Labbe, volume 2, page 569 and following, published the Life of this Saint, which we have collated with the edition of Mabillon, who published the same among the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century one, from page 307.
Junianus, abbot, in the province of Poitou in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 4562
FROM THE PRINTED EDITIONS.
PROLOGUE.
The author excuses his own lack of skill, In writing the most illustrious deeds and most noble triumphs of famous men, that they may be inviolably known in the future, and not be abolished by any length of times, those chiefly have applied the pen to whom both fluency of speech and brilliance of eloquence and fullness of sense abounded. Chiefly those who, exceedingly learned in the liberal arts, prevailed by the most fitting connection of rhetorical fluency and dialectical arrangement. To whom not only skill in the art, and inventiveness in arguments, in which from their very cradles they had been nurtured, gave support, but also the lineage of native blood and the origin of the Roman race in the Latin tongue made them most keen in setting forth what they willed. But I, a man utterly foreign to the Roman stock, and drawing my origin from the Getic race of the Sarmatians a, among whom at the beginning of speech barbarous garrulity was more evident than the knowledge of Latin eloquence, although from the very rudiments of infancy I was in no small measure nurtured among grammarians and rhetoricians, yet slowness of wit and a natural sluggishness, as it were *, has by no means made me eloquent. Whence I had utterly refused to write anything which should hereafter be ridiculous to readers. But because thy holiness, most reverend abbot Godolenus b, compels me that I should set forth to thee in writing, with such speech as I can, the notable miraculous deeds of so great a man, and by narrating in order should tell what things were done, I am greatly distressed on this side and on that, fearing lest, if I refuse to write, I be judged guilty of disobedience; if I obey thy commands, I lie open to the detractions of any readers whatever: especially of those who would rather reprehend the works of others than bring forth their own, and would rather detract from envy than learn with a simple mind.
[2] and protests that he by the command of abbot Godolenus Wherefore I have chosen, relying on the reverence and prayer of thy holiness, rather to lie open to the snares of detractors than through disobedience to go against thy commands. For he will be at hand who says: Open thy mouth, and I will fill it. On which account I beseech the reader that the rusticity of unlearned speech may not becloud the keenness of his mind, since the holiness of so great a man affords to the hunger of the mind a refreshment of inward sweetness; nor let ill-composed speech beget loathing, since the notable deeds of his miracles, truly related, can supply the pastures of eternal blessedness. For when we set before the eyes of our mind the most glorious triumphs of the Saints and of illustrious men and over the ancient enemy, both earthly acts and the enticements of the flesh grow weary, and the mind burns toward heavenly things . For what else were holy men in this world but spectacles of things to come, and a mirror of the mind; according to the Apostle: "We are made a spectacle to angels and to men"? What such spectacle could the kings of the earth ever find, on which they consumed their most vain days, as the victory of the Martyrs and the inviolate crown of the Virgins? By which spectacles the mind is made a stranger to earthly desire, most fervent in the love of God, most keen in laying hold of felicity; what such spectacle as the life of the holy Fathers, in which not the filth of garments is wiped away and the unkempt deformity * of the hair corrected, but the vices of the mind are put to flight, virtues are applied, and one cleaves without spot to Christ one's bridegroom, that the mind may become without wrinkle and spot, chaste both in the gaze of the mind and in the integrity of the body, that it may become worthy to be led into the heavenly bridal chambers into the embraces of the bridegroom, supported on this side and on that by the choirs of angels. Which may he himself deign to grant, whose kingdom and empire abides without end forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
[a.] The Getae and Sarmatians or Sauromatae are a Gothic nation, as Procopius of Caesarea testifies in book 1 on the Vandal War, chapter 2, in these words: "Very many indeed there were in former times, and are today, Gothic nations; but among them the Goths, Vandals, Visigoths and Gepids excel both in number and in dignity. Formerly they were called Sauromatae and Melanchlaeni; some also attributed to them the name of Getae. In words indeed all, as has been said, but in no respect
besides do they differ among themselves." Certainly that the Sarmatians were neighbors to the Getae we gather from this pentameter of Ovid, book 4 of the Tristia, elegy 10:
"The Sarmatian shore joined to the quivered Getae."
Concerning the origin and customs of these nations more may be seen in the praised Procopius, in St. Isidore, and in Jordanes. For us it here suffices to explain how the writer of the Acts says that he sprang from the Getic stock of the Sarmatians.
* Mabillon: "quodammodo"
* Mabillon: "obmutilet"
* Mabillon: "suprema"
* Mabillon: "temeritas"
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's native place, his adolescence passed in the desert, and a digression to the Acts of St. Radegund.
to write the Life of St. Junianus, About to write the life and likewise the notable deeds of the most blessed Junianus the monk, most illustrious for the miracles of his virtues, I judge myself very unequal to the reporting of his notable deeds. Wherefore I ask to be helped by the prayers of your holiness with every effort of the mind, trusting in the help of the heavenly majesty, that he who made the tongues of the dumb eloquent, and out of the mouth of infants and sucklings perfected praise for himself, who also compelled the tongues of brute animals to utter human speech, will breathe upon our beginnings, and himself will guide the pen, so that I may be able to set forth in worthy words the contests of his champion, that both his sublime deeds may come to the knowledge of many, and may profit healthfully for their cure. Wherefore I suppliantly ask that undivided Trinity, who is one God, threefold in persons, one in substance, to whom belongs supreme power, eternity without end, glory without beginning, taking its beginning by the passing of no time, having no end, to be present; to whom this venerable Priest clung with all the desire of his heart, yielding to no adversities, in no prosperities passing beyond the ordered life of his self-governance, humble in prosperity, in adversity most steadfast in hope: whose dwelling was remote from all men, ever loving the solitary life, that he might the more surely fix the eye of his mind, with unwavering gaze, upon the sun of righteousness.
[4] His food for the body was very scanty; his drink the natural liquid of water; whom he compares to St. John the Baptist, his garment most cheap; his hair unshorn, and, being especially uncombed, was squalid; baths were applied to his body scarcely once in a year. So did he bear himself in all things that if any one beheld him, he straightway had before the eyes of his mind John the Baptist as it were, whom our Lord the Saviour praised for the cheapness of his garments, and for the scantiness of his food exalted above all. For as that man, by the Lord's testimony, was not a reed shaken by the wind, so this man was broken by no adversities, nor lifted up by prosperities, nor rendered softer by praise nor harsher by blame: loving the shadiness of secret groves, he often walked alone, with no companion attending. Shunning the assemblies of worldly men, and the storms of tumultuous peoples, he was already made a dweller in heaven, and an inhabitant still weighed down by earthly limbs. For although in body he clung to the earth, his mind, made in heaven a fellow-citizen of the angels, ever meditated with sweet modulation, in the inward affection of the heart: "My soul hath cleaved after thee; thy right hand hath upheld me."
[5] Now the rising of his birth was in the district of Poitiers, in a territory subject to it, and after he has indicated his birthplace, called a Briou b, in a certain estate by name Champagné c, drawing the stock of his origin from most noble forefathers; who, being nobly brought up by those same parents, and instructed in letters, which he while yet a boy learned with every effort of mind and with great fervor of desire, and laid up in the belly of his memory. But when he had happily passed from boyhood into adolescence, he laid aside his hair for the sake of the practice of religion, giving his labor to learning, and to laying hold of the knowledge of the divine Scriptures. Which he obtained so effectually that it became plain to all that the grace of so great a gift had been conferred on him by God. And when he was a youth, he never did anything boyish, nothing that lay open to reprehension. Having an honorable countenance, he was gracious to all; from his mouth sweet words ever flowed forth. He fed his mind more with the spiritual senses of the letters than with the array of foods.
[6] and the pious exercises of the Youth in the desert, While yet a youth he began to essay the footsteps of the anchorites: for often, separated from his coevals, he meditated alone in our law *, and, withdrawn, practiced as it were stolen prayers and the modulations of the psalms, never idle. For either he poured forth prayers to the Lord, or he gave labor to reading, or he pressed unceasingly upon psalmody, recalling that saying of the Apostle: "He that laboreth not, neither let him eat"; and also that of the Psalmist: "For thou shalt eat the labors of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee"; and what the Apostle says: "Idleness and insolence are always the enemies of the soul." He frequently read the Canonical and Apostolic Scriptures, also the Lives of the holy Fathers, and the victories of the Martyrs, and the crowns of the Virgins. With whose examples he ever armed his mind, and he strove to do those things which the most holy and most valiant men did most victoriously and most gloriously. But when, after the passing of some time, he passed from the age of adolescence to the vigor of youth, he seized upon the solitary life of the anchorites. Nor did it seem enough to him that he should become a solitary dweller of the desert, but he also shut himself up, like a criminal in a workhouse, in a very narrow little cell built with his own hands, lest with his eyes he should behold any delightful things which might turn the eye of his mind away from the vision of the divine majesty; here enjoying a small space of earth and sky, that in the heavens he might possess the breadth of all blessedness.
[7] he digresses to the Acts of St. Radegund, While these things were thus being done, in the course of time blessed Radegund, most noble, and wife of the orthodox and most glorious man Clotaire, crossing the river Loire from the parts of Germany, began to be a dweller of the land of Aquitaine. Whose prerogative of merits was so great that she was held more famous in all the world, and, though set in the district of the people of Poitiers, as it were in the uttermost ends of the earth, the light of her most glorious sanctity shone even into the East. In the times of the aforesaid prince and most glorious king Clotaire, when on account of the triumphs of his most glorious valor and the disposition of his most prudent mind his kingdom was being spread abroad on every side, and very many nations were submitting their necks to his dominion, among other most famous and most fierce nations he made the exceedingly noble race of the Thuringians subject to the dominions of his empire d. For when he took up arms against them, and fought manfully, he obtained from them most glorious triumphs. And when the peoples of that nation fell as booty, this most holy maiden, the king's niece, daughter of Brittharius, was taken captive. And when she was offered to the sight of the most excellent king, she straightway clung to his mind. For she was most elegant, exceedingly beautiful and comely in aspect, gracious of lip. She was still of a childish age, whom the most unconquered king ordered to be nobly nurtured and instructed in letters. Which she most sagaciously learned, and strenuously practiced in her works.
[8] who was married to king Clotaire. But when she came to the years of maidenhood, and was of age to marry and fit for marriage, she was joined to the embraces of the king, and the nuptial rite being performed, she was made his dearest wife e. Whom he loved with so great a love that he sometimes confessed that he had nothing besides her. But that most blessed woman, although raised to royal eminence, and having obtained the glory of so great a height of royal dignity, counted all things as nothing; ever in the cave of her breast she meditated on Christ, ever joined herself to him with spiritual embraces, in the hours of night with bared feet she daily went about the basilica, and rising at matins bore the care of the poor. Rising frequently from the king's side from the banquet, she took food and drink with the poor, the nurse of monks, the lover of the servants of God. For she so bore herself from virtue to virtue * that the king jested that he had not a queen for a wife, but a nun. Which most holy woman not long afterward, leaving the royal bed, consecrated herself wholly to God in mind and body, seized upon the practice of the sacred veil, came as a fugitive to Aquitaine, and, for love of so great a man as Hilary f, once Pontiff of Poitiers, that she might profit by his merits and teaching, chose Poitiers as her dwelling-place: where afterward, by the command and permission of the most unconquered king Clotaire g, she founded a monastery, and, leading her life under the rule of Bl. Caesarius, pontiff of Arles h, she had with her very many women consecrated to God, and most kindly instructed them, and led them to heavenly things.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Mabillon: "of the Lord"
* Mabillon: "gerebat"
CHAPTER II.
The Saint's cenobitic life, his priesthood, his innocence made plain by a miracle against a false accusation, and the founding of the monastery of Mairé.
When the Saint, who was a most dear friend of St. Radegund, At that time Bl. Junianus was leading his life shut up in a place called Coloniacum a. To whom this most holy woman clung with such familiarity on account of his sanctity that she believed no one to be so much her companion and so familiar. And although in body they were separated by some space of earth, yet in mind they ever remained joined by the inward affection of the heart. Meanwhile, as the practice of religion increased, when very many frequented the place in which that most blessed man, shut away, was leading a contemplative life, they compelled him to go forth thence, that he who profited himself alone might become a source of salvation to very many: and he, giving assent both to their prayers and also to their exhortations, who before had led a solitary life, began to be the father of very many, joining monks to himself, to whom by both teaching and example he might afford a guidance to the heavenly kingdoms. Having with him most religious men and most illustrious in the monastic Order, as being such as dwelt with so great and so excellent a man.
[10] was compelled to preside over monks and to become a priest, It came to pass after a little while that, the brethren compelling him, he took up the priestly degree, and he who was the father of the monks became by authority also the most illustrious teacher of so great a ministry. Having obtained the office of so great a dignity, he daily slew upon the altar of his heart a sacrifice most worthy of God,
and before he offered visible victims without, he inwardly offered himself a living victim, holy, pleasing to God, a reasonable service, baptizing himself as it were * by weeping with tears, and so offering victims to God. He advanced daily from virtue to virtue, that he might see the God of gods in Sion, forgetting the things that are behind, stretching himself out to the things that are before; and by contemplation he penetrated the secret places of heavenly mysteries. Whom the most holy Radegund cherished with her wool-work: for he had, as they say, no other covering than what was made by her. For his haircloth garment of goats' hair, which endures to this day after the fashion of a caracalla b, which we now call a cappa, and is in our possession, remains so unharmed that it savors of nothing of age, being suffused with a white color; and that most holy woman also received an iron chain from that most holy man, which, putting it on over her bare body, she wore until the passing of death; which chain, on account of his sanctity, is held to this day in great honor.
[11] falsely accused before king Clotaire, And when he was already held illustrious for the miracles of many virtues, the number of the monks began to grow; and when he saw the place near him * where he had first taken up the beginning of his religious life, he passed over into a field called Castus Locus c. And when he was there trying to build a little cell, where he might immolate to God the victims of praise, and celebrate the assemblies before dawn, it happened at that time that the aforesaid most glorious Clotaire entered the parts of Aquitaine. And when he had come to the king's estate called Gavarciacum d, that man was slandered before the king by the servants of that place, saying that his monks were striving inconsiderately to usurp something of his estate and of the territory of the fisc, and to claim it for themselves. Whereupon the king, being moved, ordered the most holy Priest Junianus to be presented to him in the palace by a certain great man, by name Aurelianus e. And that illustrious man Aurelius obeys his words, goes with all haste at the king's command: and when he had come to the place in which the most religious man Junianus was dwelling, he found him in the oratory, prostrate on the ground after his wont, pouring forth prayers to the Lord; and while he waits a little that he might rise from prayer, and that he might accomplish what had been enjoined him, so great a fear suddenly rushed upon him that he by no means dared to speak harshly to him, as he had come in agitation.
[12] to whom being brought, But when, the prayer being finished, the venerable man turned about behind him and saw Aurelius, the king's legate, standing there, he straightway bowed down and did reverence to the most blessed Priest, and indicated with suppliant words what his coming meant, saying that the king ordered him to stand before him, and that he had been sent for this purpose, that he might present him in his sight. Which being heard, the venerable Priest and monk forthwith promises that he will go, and that for the good of the whole commonwealth and the salvation of his soul he is willing to set out with ready mind. And turning into his cell, taking with him two monks, he carried a staff in his hand; for this was ever his custom, to carry a staff in his hand, and to support the weakness of his body by its help. And when they journeyed together, and made their way on foot, they came to the king's palace. Where, when they made some delay on account of the fasces of royalty and the pomp of the royal highness, he sat down at the doors of the palace, where very many came to him, whom he soothed with kindly words, and preached the sweetness of eternal life. Meanwhile his conductor, the aforesaid Aurelius, entering the palace, made known to the king's ears that Junianus the monk was present, and was sitting at the gate of the palace.
[13] Then the king, sitting on his lofty throne, ordered him to be presented to himself. he makes his innocence manifest by a miracle, And when he had been brought in, carrying in his hand the staff which he had always been wont to bear, and, on account of the state of the royal highness, none of his companions entered, but he alone, when he had approached the king's throne, as is the custom of monks, he bowed down and did reverence to the king, leaving the staff behind him upright, as he had carried it in his hand. And when the king had ordered him to rise, and he had risen at his command, the king began, while he spoke with him, to question him in conversation on many and various matters. But while they were speaking together, the king, gazing at the staff standing, not fixed in the earth, but erect upon the vaulted pavement, standing touched by no man's hand, marveled greatly and was struck with such terror that even his knees smote together. Whereupon, being compelled, he called all the nobles of the palace, showing them the miracle, and with outstretched hand pointed and said: Truly this man is holy, and truly a worshipper of God, and the greatest establisher of the Christian religion. For from the time when he began to speak with me, leaving behind his back the staff which he held in his hand set upright, since there was no one present to take hold of it; behold, it remains upright, as it was left by him. Which all alike marveling at, it struck into all astonishment of mind and admiration. And so he was thereafter venerated by all, as if they beheld in his very breast Christ our Lord and Saviour.
[14] After much conversation the most glorious king asked him and therefore he receives from that king a place what his work was, what his life, of what religious profession he was. To whom he answered with most sweet address that he passed his life under the monastic Order, and was set over monks, and kept the institutes of the most blessed Benedict f, and observed his regular life in all things, save that on account of the narrowness of the place he could not with his brethren keep it most fully, nor had he a place where the exercise of work might be done according to the rule of the aforesaid father Benedict. Which being heard, the king straightway added and said: If from the estate of our fisc there is anything neighboring to you, and suitable by the convenience of the place, as much as pleases thy holiness, and can suffice for thee and thine, both for the exercise of work and also necessary for the pasturing of beasts of burden and of cattle, we grant it to thy holiness, namely for the uses of the servants of God and of the monks who cleave to thee, that almighty God may confer on us with you a share of the labor, and grant us the reward of eternal blessedness, and may be to you in all things for a support of fullness, and for the perfection of the rule, and the increase of virtue. For the Lord conferred so great a grace upon his soldier in the sight of the king, that he who had ordered him to be brought before him because of an injury and an affront received him with the highest honor, enriched him with gifts, and refused in no way whatever he asked to be done for him. For thus Christ, who for our sake appeared humble, magnified his humble champion in the sight of the king, so that it may fitly be said of him: "He magnified him in the sight of kings, and gave him a crown of glory."
[15] fit for building a monastery, After these things the king, rising from his throne, with bended knee did reverence to the most holy man, and besought him that he would receive him with his own hands, and in his sacrifices and prayers make him commendable to God, and pray the Lord for himself and his house, for the state of the kingdom and the good of the whole commonwealth. And he admonished him to build cells, to gather monks and to win souls for God, and promised that he would with devotion furnish all things which he might ask as necessary for him. Then, bidding him farewell, he sent back with him the same man who had made him stand before him, and that he might take from the estate of the fisc as much as should seem to him convenient, Aurelius, who had been his conductor to the palace, marking it out: where there was found a place very fit for the building of a monastery, by name Mairé g. In which place, the divine clemency giving aid, he built a cell from the foundations, and built a monastery, where he both established a congregation of monks, and made them live perfectly under the rule of Bl. Benedict. With so great a glue of charity had he bound the whole company of the monks, that in all there became one heart and one soul.
[16] where, thereafter withdrawing to solitude, he practices various virtues. Meanwhile the most holy man Junianus, often leaving the throng of monks, sought out remote places. And although he was the father of a monastery, he frequently became a dweller of the desert. He found a little place, Colniacum h, where the religious man built a cell by his own labor, and there for not a few years led a solitary life, where also almighty God declared no small miracles through the merit of his sanctity; passing the nights in all things watchful by day and by night, bearing the care of the whole monastery and often seeking solitude, with the contemplative keenness of his mind he beheld heavenly things; by day he exercised himself in the works of his hands, by night he gave himself to prayers. Never did he eat bread in idleness, mindful of that saying of the Apostle: "He that laboreth not, let him not eat." Bearing about the stigmata of Christ in his body, so great an abstinence from foods was in him that the pallor of his countenance showed that he satisfied not his body with earthly banquets, but rather his soul with heavenly food, saying with the Apostle: "The world is crucified to me, and I to the world," bearing the cross of Christ, and following in the footstep of humility the poor Christ, himself poor, mindful of Bl. Peter the Apostle saying: "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps." And although by day he afflicted himself with divers works, so that his bed received him wearied, yet at midnight it was his custom to rise, according to that word of the Psalm: "At midnight I rose to give praise to thee." And no less, most studiously chanting praises to Christ, he uttered them with weeping; seven times * by day, bending his knees, he fulfilled the office of his own attendance i. This life of this troublesome world he passed with bitterness and weeping, nor was he delighted with the things of the world, whom the hard servitude of the flesh exasperated, mindful of that word of the Lord: "If any man be a friend of this world, he is made an enemy of God." Which he, guarding against, made himself so much a stranger to the world that he clung inviolably to God, spurning the broad and spacious way which leads to death, and seizing with the most fervent love of mind the strait and narrow way which leads to life.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Mabillon: "perexiguum"
* Mabillon: "quodammodo"
* Mabillon: "sæpius"
CHAPTER III.
The Saint endowed with the spirit of prophecy, and the divine vengeance upon thieves and others who wished to inflict loss or injury upon him.
The Saint in a time of famine And when he exercised himself most urgently and most steadfastly in the commandments of God, he began to flourish with manifold virtues; so that sometimes also, filled with the spirit of prophecy, he foresaw things absent and to come. Of which we subjoin very few, and chiefly those which Auremundus a, his spiritual son and inseparable companion, minister and disciple, brought after his death to the knowledge of many. When the peoples of that region had by divers crimes provoked the Lord to wrath, and had stirred up over themselves the scourge of his indignation, a mighty famine prevailed throughout the whole region. The people for the greatest part began to perish by disaster and by hunger. Whence, being driven, they gather from all sides to the holy man Junianus, tearfully beseeching that he would pour forth prayers for them to the Lord, lest they should all be consumed by famine, and, the tiller perishing, the land be reduced to a wilderness. Moved by their prayers, the holy man of God, prostrate in ashes and haircloth, poured forth unceasing prayers to the Lord that the people might not perish by famine.
[18] gives alms to a pregnant woman, At that time therefore a certain woman, driven by want and compelled by the strength of the famine, began to weep with a great wailing before the oratory where the venerable man Junianus, prostrate, was pouring forth prayers to the Lord, and with what cries she could she called out, saying: Man of God, help me. By which words the man of God, being moved, poured forth prayers to God more earnestly with tears. Rising when his prayer was finished, he calls his attendant, saying to him: Go, son; inquire what that poor woman wants, and, if thou canst do anything, help her. And when thou hast heard her, report to me what her cry and wailing means. And when the boy had swiftly fulfilled his commands, he reported to his father, saying: She is a poor woman, who lacks bread, and has not wherewith to buy it. Which being heard, he ordered her to stand in his sight, and with cheerful countenance and fatherly affection asked why she wept with so great a wailing, and disquieted him with her cries. But she answered: Truly, servant and priest of God, know that I am in peril of famine: bread is lacking, there is no buying, hunger daily grows stronger, and, behold, being with child, I am dying. Wherefore I have come to thy clemency, that if thou shalt snatch me from the peril of famine, I may be thy handmaid forever, and the son whom I bear in my womb thy servant everlastingly. And when I shall have nourished him, I will appoint him to serve thy hands continually; only help me, that I perish not.
[19] [he foretells to her that the son whom she was to bear would be his successor in the office of abbot;] Hearing this, Junianus, smiling, says: I knew indeed, before the boy called thee, both that thou wast suffering from hunger, and that thou bearest a son in thy womb, which son I know shall be my successor. Take from our hand a little gift of gold, as it pleases thee; buy thee food, that thou perish not of hunger, and when the boy shall be born, guard him with all watchfulness. Beware lest thou practice upon him any enchantment, or the defilements of diabolical persuasion; but when he shall have grown up, bring him to me, because I shall receive him from the sacred font of baptism, and shall instruct him in letters and appoint him my successor; foretelling to thee that in the coming year an abundance of crops shall overflow in this region, and by no means shall any one henceforth perish of hunger. And that woman, receiving the gold from the hand of the holy man, returned to her house rejoicing both for the money and also for the abundance of the coming year, bought food, and tempered the want of the famine, and nourished her son with all care according to the admonitions of the man of God.
[20] which prediction the outcome proved. But when she had brought him to the age of boyhood, she offered him to the sight of the holy man, who according to the precept of our Saviour God initiated him with his own hands at the sacred fonts. For he received him from the most holy baptism, and obtained a spiritual son, and called him Aurummundus, for this reason, namely, as bought with gold, because he had given gold to the mother whereby she might nourish that son; and he trained him as it were as his own household servant, instructed him in letters; and he, by the granting of the divine clemency, perfectly obtained the knowledge of the Scriptures, and, according to the prophecy of the man of God, obtained the priestly honor; for a long time he lived blamelessly with that same spiritual father, and obeyed him in all things. And after his death he became his successor, a man of great virtue and holiness, as one who had been instructed by so great and so excellent a man, whom he followed with all earnestness both in teachings and in examples. Many miracles of the holy man became known through his narration, because he lived a long time after his death, and kept the flock committed to him irreproachable. And although our speech cannot set forth all the things which we have heard of his miracles, yet it will not irk us to set down a few out of many. The clemency of almighty God will be at hand *, that we may be able to set forth what we have faithfully heard, and have most faithfully determined to narrate.
[21] For when the same venerable man was in the field called Castus Locus, When two thieves, to which he had given that name for this cause, that he had found it quiet and remote from all approach of women, where he had built a small cloister according to the convenience of the place, had fenced round a garden in which he had set hives of bees, and had consecrated an oratory for himself, where, removed from all worldly tumult, he might pour forth prayers to the Lord with free mind. And while he was doing these things, a certain thief lying in wait by night, breaking into the fences of his garden, tried to snatch away and steal for himself a sufficiency from the hives of the bees. But when he seized one vessel out of many, which seemed to be more excellent and to overflow with honey beyond the rest, straightway both his hands stuck fast to the little vessel, nor could he carry it thence to any other place; and he was made so feeble that, with the whole frame of his limbs undone and his feet drawn up, he lay prostrate on the ground all night long, and was tortured with the greatest pain of his sinews: and so with great wailing of pain he remained awake. But when now the dawn was rising, the gardener, rising diligently to the work of his office, holding a hoe in his hand, entered the garden. And when on all sides after his wont he looked about and went round, he found a man lying shamefully, and holding the hive of bees fast in his hands, who addressed him thus: I came in hither to steal, at the devil's instigation; but pressed by the weight of my sins, I lie here bound and unhappy. Wherefore as a suppliant I beseech thy holiness that thou wouldst deign to have mercy on me, and try to intercede with the most holy man, the venerable father Junianus, by whose merits I believe I am thus bound, by whose prayers I trust to be loosed.
[22] Then that disciple, leaving unfinished the work which he had begun, of whom one had wished to steal a hive, ran to the holy Man; he told what had been done, saying: O most kindly father, the Lord has wrought a great miracle upon our enemy; a man who came by night to steal lies shamefully bound in our garden: for he had seized a certain vessel full of honey, but nothing came of it, and besides his hands so stuck to the little vessel that he can by no means draw them thence. Hearing this, the venerable old man rebuked the brother, why he should rejoice at a man's fall, saying to him that God wills not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live, and that our Lord and Saviour taught that we must forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven. Wherefore go quickly, brother, loose the man, and, I pray thee, make him stand in our sight. And while he went at the father's command, the venerable priest gave himself to prayer, and by his holy prayers loosed the bound man, and when he had been brought in to him addressed him thus: Do not, brother, do not labor any more at stealing. But prepare what is needful with thine own hands and the sweat of thy brow, that thou mayest both have what is needful for thine own uses, and mayest give thereof to the poor. Having thus rebuked him and filled him with honey, he let him go.
[23] Meanwhile the venerable man began, for the uses of the monks and especially of the poor, the other had wished to steal a cow from the Saint, to rear animals by which human frailty might be relieved *. For he gathered also many broods of fowls, with whose flesh he might sustain the want of the sick, and whose eggs might serve for the needs of the poor. He had also flocks of goats and of sheep, that from their fleeces garments might be made, and milk and cheese might be of profit for the food of the servants of God. He had also herds for the exercise of labor and of agriculture, that, supported by all these aids, they might serve God more freely. At that time, when in the aforesaid place the venerable father was happily passing his life in holiness and the highest religion, a certain robber, whom great eating of flesh had delighted, began to burn with desire of flesh. And because he had nothing wherewith to satisfy the hunger of his madness, he began to consider how he might glut the rage of his voracity and the gluttony of his belly. Then, driven by the wickedness of the ancient enemy, he secretly in the silence of night broke into the closed house in which the herds of the aforesaid father were kept, and drove out the fattest cow of all, which he had chosen. Holding its tail with tight hands, he tried to lead it to the place of his own dwelling. But when he had gone forward a little, the cow, growing frisky, began to leap. And he, seeing that he could by no means hold it, wished to let go; but both his hands had so stuck to the tail that they could by no means be torn away: whence it came to pass that, his knees giving way, he fell forward, and the cow dragged him behind her like a cart, going round all night through her accustomed pastures, and walking through the briars and the woods of the thickets, inflicted on the wretched man no small hurt of wounds.
[24] were held bound by divine power, But when, the dawn breaking in and the twilight of day already whitening, the cow stood before the door of the house whence she had gone out, and the thief, holding the tail, lay behind her, the herdsman after his wont, when day broke, carrying the key in his hand, came to the house of the herd, found the doors broken, and thought all the herds had been stolen. But when more diligently
he looked, he found that one out of all had been taken away; and when with hurried step he went outside, he saw the cow standing, and beheld a man sitting behind her; but being utterly ignorant of what he was doing there, he thought nevertheless that he was rather the keeper and driver of the cow than its thief. Whence he accosts him with these words: I pray thee, man, it is time for the herds to hasten to the pastures; let go our beast, that she may return with the rest to feed: for keeping her a wage shall be given for thy work. To whom he, answering tearfully, said: By no means, my lord; most reverend shepherd, it is not so: for at the devil's instigation I came hither to steal, since eating of flesh delighted me, and when I would have snatched away my booty, I am held captive and unhappily wounded. I pray thee, have mercy on the fallen, have mercy on the suppliant, have mercy on the wounded, and quickly tell the most reverend father what has been done; for unless his prayer loose me, whose sanctity has bound me, I shall not be able to be loosed.
[25] they are straightway loosed through the intercession of the same Saint, Hearing which, that herdsman with cheerful and as it were smiling * countenance enters the oratory, where the most holy old man was pouring forth prayer to almighty God after his wont. Rising therefore from prayer, with the keenness of his mind purged, he had prepared a clean lodging for the Holy Spirit in the cave of his breast. For he slew upon the altar of his heart so great a victim to the Lord that presently, at the coming of the Holy Spirit, he merited the prophetic grace, and knew clearly all that had been done that night, no mortal telling it. Whence straightway, as the herdsman entered, he addresses him with these words: Do not, brother, do not rejoice at another's fall, mindful of that saying of the blessed Apostle: "He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall." Why dost thou desire to tell me rejoicing what I, before thou sawest me, knew, both what has been done and what that wretched man put into thy mouth to be told me? For that poor man did this, driven by hunger, having nothing wherewith to temper the hunger of his want. Whence it befits us most devoutly to pray the Lord for him, that he may both merit pardon of his offences, and be loosed from the bond by which he is held fast, the divine clemency having mercy. And when both lay prostrate before the Lord, the most holy man besought the Lord in these words: I pray thee, almighty God, have mercy on the fallen, loose the hands which thou hast bound, most holy Father, remit what he has seized; let him obtain pardon for those things in which he has offended. Presently, the prayer being finished, he was loosed, and let the beast go.
[26] But he himself was brought into the cell before the sight of the man of God, who kindly admonishes them to amend this vice. to whom that most holy man uttered sweet words, and addresses him with these words: Do not, brother, do not any more give thy labor to stealing: lay up in the belly of thy memory the shame of this crime, and beware lest thou forget the bitterness of this night; restrain thyself, and set before the eyes of thy mind the crime of so great confusion, if perchance the Lord may have mercy on thee, and forgive thee what thou hast wickedly offended against him, so that, purged, and made wheat out of chaff, the most kindly one may deign to lay thee up in his granaries. Steal no more, lest perchance something worse befall thee; but rather labor with thine own hands, that thou mayest both have enough for thyself, and mayest give thereof alms to the poor. Addressing him with these and very many other exhortations, he ordered food to be set before him, and to fill him with flesh, and when he was filled, bidding him farewell, permitted him to depart to his own home.
[27] On a certain day, when the venerable old man was walking here and there in the cloister to relieve his weariness, A fox, at the holy Man's prayer, that he might return again the more eagerly to prayer, it happened, in his presence, that a fox, a crafty animal, and never walking in straight paths, always tortuous and winding with a thousand meanders, entered through a certain hole into the cloister of the monastery, where, when it was seeking food among a throng of chickens, and the most blessed father was, as I believe, most keenly watching by divine ordinance, the beast attacks a hen, and hiding the head of its prey in its hollow throat, not through the hole by which it had entered but leaping over the wall, made for the thicket. Which the man of God perceiving, with cheerful mind he ran back to his accustomed arms of prayer, and gives thanks first to God his Redeemer, as he was wont, in these words: To thee, holy Father, almighty God, I render such thanks as I can. For thou hast created heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, and hast filled it with manifold beasts, and some thou hast granted for the uses of men; but some thou hast willed to be hostile because of sins. Wherefore I beseech thy clemency that thou deign * to render unharmed the prey which the destructive beast has snatched from thy servants. For from its produce there were sometimes furnished me broths b. For thou alone art the most high ruler, governor, defender and protector. Nor is anything difficult to thee in the accomplishing; but our offences hinder, as often as we do not receive what we ask in our petition.
[28] While the same venerable man was pouring out these words to the Lord in prayer (for he had not yet risen from the pavement), that crafty animal with its prey, again passing the wall, enters the cloister. is compelled to bring it back unharmed of its own accord, And it was announced to the old man that the fox was present, carrying the hen unharmed in its mouth. And when the venerable priest went forth from the oratory, it straightway laid the unharmed prey before his feet, and the beast waited for what he should command concerning it. And when the servants of the house tried to kill it, he drove them back, saying: Do not, brethren, do not kill it. For it has not been taken by your wit or your strength, but has returned hither by the compelling power of God. Wherefore it is fitting that ye suffer it to go away unharmed. With these words he restrained the hands of the servants, that it might not be killed. Then, a sign being given with his hand, he permitted the beast to go away unharmed; and it, climbing over the cloister, made for the wastes of the thicket, so conscious of its own iniquity and craft that it was thereafter by no means hostile to that place, nor attempted any prey, not only from the birds, but not even from the fruits. Then Bl. Junianus said: Do not think, most beloved brethren, that this miracle was wrought for the merit of any of us, but for the loving-kindness of his own name, that we may fear him continually, and likewise love him, and unceasingly render him thanks.
[29] and men who did injury to this Saint, For even before these miracles which have been set forth, he did certain wonderful things which it has not seemed amiss to insert in this work. When that holy man was trying to build a cell in a certain estate called Waciacum c with the practice of religion, the men of that place rose up against him, so that they tried to overwhelm him with stones. Fleeing whom, he withdrew; but they, by no means desisting, pursued him further. Then he set a stone for a sign, and protested * that no one should pass beyond it. Those who obeyed his voice remained holy and unharmed; but those who passed beyond, not only was divine vengeance wrought upon them, but also upon all their posterity, who to this present are born deformed, either with bleary eyes or with a swelling of the throat.
[30] are punished from heaven. When at a certain time the men of the king's fisc, at the place called Gavarciacum, were trying to make a rampart, that on every side the king's estate might be bounded, they came to that estate which the blessed man possessed by the king's bounty: and when by his legate he ordered them to desist, and by no means to enclose within it what belonged to him; they, accounting his words a mockery, were all straightway made dumb and remained motionless, until that blessed man poured forth a prayer for them, and so they ceased from their folly. When that holy man had, as they say, with his own hand sown a little wood, that on account of its shade he might enter it more secretly, he assigned its growth to a keeper. When on a certain day he was going to the place which is called Costellegium d, he found that same keeper of the wood cutting the thickness of the branches in a certain beech tree, who straightway grew stiff, and could not come down thence, until that holy man together with the monks committed to him poured forth prayer to the Lord; and so, having recovered his health, he no more dared to commit any fraud thence.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Mabillon: "adsit"
* Mabillon: "sublevari"
* read "subridenti"
* perhaps "digneris"
* perhaps "protestatus"
CHAPTER IV.
The Saint's last admonitions before death, his pious departure together with St. Radegund, his honorable obsequies, and the place of burial assigned by divine power.
The Saint, knowing that death was at hand for him, The space of this time therefore being run through, and the calamities of a troublesome life overcome by the strong vigor of his mind, the most blessed Junianus began to foretell to the brethren the day of his death, and foretold that it hung over him not far off. And while he tirelessly exercised himself in the precepts of God, and his victorious mind yielded not to old age in labor, the more closely * he lifted up his mind to heaven, the more he foresaw the day of his death to be imminent [a] and to draw quickly near. And when he called back his spirit a little from prayer, seeing on all sides the throng of monks and brethren standing about, who had come together to relieve his sickness if they could, or to console him by prayer or by sweet exhortation with suppliant words, and observing that some who beheld the greatness of his fevers were weeping, he addresses them with such words, saying: Do not, brethren, do not weep over the state of my sickness; "I know whom I have believed," and I am well assured that I am not now ending life but beginning it, not enduring death but ending it. For what else is the passage of this present life but death, which was implanted in the first root of the human race? For what else does that horrible depth of ignorance indicate, from which all error arises, which receives all the sons of Adam into a certain dark bosom, so that man cannot be freed from it without labor, sorrow, and fear, save by death; and, that we may speak more truly, as many plagues, so many deaths? What of the lover himself of so many hurtful things, and from this the gnawing cares, disturbances, greater fears, mad joys, discords, quarrels, wars, ambushes, angers, enmities, deceit, flattery, fraud, theft, rapine, perfidy, pride, ambition, envy, homicides, parricides, cruelty, savagery, wickedness, shamelessness, wantonness, unchastity, fornications, adulteries, incests, and against nature so many defilements and uncleannesses of both sexes, which it is shameful even to name: sacrileges, heresies, blasphemies, perjuries, oppressions of the innocent, insults, circumventions, prevarications,
false witnessings, unjust judgments, violence, robberies, and whatever of such evils does not come into the mind, and yet departs not from this life of men?
[32] These are to be bewailed, dearest brethren, these to be fled, he gives pious admonitions to his monks, these to be ended with all joy, and we must hasten to that everlasting life, and go forth hence with joy, and hurry thither where nothing such befalls those who abide. But let us see to whom the Lord promised such a life; for Truth itself says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." He set at the beginning of blessedness the humble of heart; and by this he excluded the proud and the swollen, when he says that the poor in spirit shall reign. Then: "Blessed are the meek, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the clean of heart." Behold what manner of men are invited to eternal rest — such as have sweated in labor for a time. For those who here rejoice with the world shall there mourn without end. Truly this is to reign unfailingly: to possess a crown of blessedness adorned with such virtues as with flowers; to merit God by confession *, to behold him, in whose presence the soul may merit to see what it has loved. And if in this world for the present human frailty says that it reigns by a certain prosperity of its own; if a fleeting and false felicity flatters it, how much more must that kingdom be sought where the more caressing light of lilies and roses ever smiles? where the fragrant flowers of that painting do not wither; where the fruitfulness of the place is neither oppressed by cloud nor dried by sun; where possession does not end with its possessor; where whatever the mind desires, the sight bestows; where the just shall tread upon gems in the streets, such as kings now by no means wear in their crowns; where mortality, translated into immortality, glories in a like lot with the angels; where for men and for God, with the Thrones and Dominations, and the whole company of the angels, there is one possession. Thither, most beloved brethren, thither direct all the eye of your mind; there fix your desire, with all your strength strive thither, where the grace of so great a felicity is possessed.
[33] and having exhorted them to mutual charity, With these and very many other spiritual addresses, ministering food and drink, he kept the flock committed to him awake almost through the whole night. Among the other precepts of his addresses saying to them: Brethren, before all things have mutual charity among yourselves. Charity is God, and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him. Do not give place to the devil: for he gives place to the ancient enemy who separates himself from the love of the brotherhood. Let there be for you one heart and one soul. Take care that no variance arise concerning the preferment of my successor; but with one mind appoint for yourselves one man. And if ye desire to appoint for yourselves a true and excellent abbot, determine to appoint over you my fellow-priest and spiritual son Auremundus. For he both by the example of his life, and by the uprightness of his manners, and by the eloquence of his teaching, will, I believe, afford a guidance for the laying hold of eternal life.
[34] he dies at the same time at which St. Radegund died, And when now the dawn gave its sign, and the time drew near in which that soul, loosed from the body, should pass to heaven, bidding farewell to all and giving the kiss of peace, having paid the debt of death, triumphing as a victor over the snares of the ancient enemy, taken up by the angelic choirs he ascended to heaven. For presently there breathed forth there from heaven, for the space of nearly three hours, so great a fragrance — as we learned b by the narration of the aforesaid Auremundus, who was present * — that it surpassed the fragrance of all spices. And moreover his countenance presently shone with such brightness that thou wouldst not believe him dead, but wouldst rather think him sleeping. For he had given command that as soon as he had departed from the world, it should be announced to the most blessed Radegund, that she might pour forth prayer for him to the Lord. Which she likewise had done. It happened that on the same day, at the same hour, both departed from the world c; and those whom here the bond of one charity had bound together, there the glory of paradise received together alike. Then legates set out from both sides, who, meeting one another, each inquires of the other why he went so swiftly. Each made known to the other for what cause he had undertaken the labor of the journey, and it was found that in the point of one hour both had passed to heaven. And after the manner of a funeral, the obsequies are prepared.
[35] From all sides the peoples gather, companies of monks are present, and he is honorably buried. and they follow the most holy man with worthy obsequies. After the wonted manner they lay out his limbs upon a bier; with praises and with the worthy office of a funeral they set out for the place where he was to be buried. A not small crowd both of peoples and also of monks, going before and following after with tapers and lights, the journey is begun. And when now some part of the journey had been accomplished, suddenly those who bore that holy body on their shoulders remained motionless, and, their strength being a little recovered, tried to move it and to go forward: but the bier on which it was carried remained so immovable that it could by no means be moved thence in any direction. Marveling at the sign which had come to pass, no small dread had seized them all: but prayers being poured out to God that by signs given he would make plain where it pleased him that the most blessed body should be laid in the earth (for it had been decreed that it should be buried at Coloniacum; but it could by no means be carried thither), it seemed good to all that they should bury him in the place called Mairé. Which counsel being taken, straightway carrying him out very easily, they brought him thither. Whence it was made plain to all that the Lord willed him to be laid up there, and that it was fitting for him; where, coming with great array of a funeral, he was reverently buried. In which place a heap of miracles from that time until now shines forth. For there both demons are put to flight from possessed bodies, the blind are enlightened, the lame receive their own gait, the weak obtain soundness, worthy prayers are granted to those who ask, every ailment flees, longed-for health is poured back upon all, by the granting of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Perhaps "altius"
* Perhaps "confessione"
* Mabillon: "aderat"