ON BL. LAWRENCE, HERMIT AND CONFESSOR,
AT SUBIACO IN LATIUM.
IN THE YEAR 1243.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
His ancient cult is asserted.
Lawrence, hermit and confessor, at Subiaco in Latium (St.)
BHL Number: 4792
BY P. B.
Sublacus, commonly Subiaco, is a town of Latium upon the river Anio, distant about 40 miles east of Rome, The Blessed is announced on the 17th and 18th of December; and known for nothing else so much as for the dwelling and the neighboring convents of St. Benedict, the fugitive from the world. Our Lawrence made this place illustrious in the thirteenth century, not only by his life and miracles, but also by his death and by the cult announced among his Benedictine Martyrologists — though neither in the month nor on the day on which he departed from among the living, but on the XVII day of December, on which he is reported in the year 1595 by Wion, and then by Dorgan and Menard; more fully by Bucelin on the XVIII day of December; to say nothing of the rest. Why they had recourse to that month of December I really do not know; since it is most certain that he ceased to live in the year of Christ 1243, on the XVI day of August; as
will be seen below, and as Bucelin confesses in express words. Those who had undertaken this Work therefore thought that these announcements were by no means to be acquiesced in, unless more certain things should be brought forward from Subiaco. Some things were afterwards brought forward by the very Reverend Lord Sylvester Aiossa, nephew of Michael Monachus, doctor of Decrees and canon presbyter of Capua, sufficiently known to learned men by his writings. These our Elders assigned to this XVI day of August; nothing elsewhere: whether they did this of themselves, because they read that he died on that day, or whether it was suggested by someone — which we do not know; certainly in those records there is no word about the day of his cult.
[2] Yet by no means is that honor or cult there rejected; We give him on this day, on which he died. since there he is almost always called either blessed Lawrence, or even sometimes Saint, especially in three Lives, or even four, if you add that of Bucelin: for we have received three Lives, some longer than others; of which that seems the older which, being found there, our Father Peter Poussines sent hither in the year 1670 under this title, The Life of Bl. Lawrence the hermit; but in the text he once names him St. Lawrence; and Papebroch wrote at the end: Father Poussines sent it … adding concerning Bl. Lawrence: Whose body, he says, is preserved with great honor at the third milestone thence, in a chapel built on the very place where he lived. The other Life is entitled thus: The Life and Miracles of Bl. Lawrence, hermit and confessor, briefly and faithfully collected by a certain humble monk of Subiaco, etc. Its beginning is: Blessed Lawrence, of the province of Apulia … This the very Reverend Lord Sylvester Aiossa sent; but before, unless I am mistaken, he had destined for us the Appendix to the Chronicle of Subiaco, corrected and enlarged from an old one by Cherubinus Mirtius of Trier, a monk of Subiaco; yet still in manuscript from the year 1630, as is intimated in volume 3 of the Saints of Umbria, page 320: where we have, after the mandate of Pope Innocent IV ordering an examination of the Life and miracles of Bl. Lawrence, a by no means brief compendium of that same examination by 103 sworn witnesses, as far as page 32; then at pages 32 and 33 a chronological arrangement of the miracles examined; then the Life of Bl. Lawrence according to the juridical testimonies, from page 34 to 44; where there follows an Annotation solely bearing on this matter; and lastly a poem on Bl. Lawrence as far as page 48.
[3] The Annotation just mentioned contends that he was by Innocent IV, His cult from time immemorial is proved; if not canonized, at least placed in the number of the Blessed, although the Brief has now perished; which is proved from a certain bull of the Lord Henry, abbot of Subiaco, a contemporary of Lawrence, in which it is read thus: Henry, by the divine mercy abbot of the convent of the monastery of Subiaco, to his beloved sons in Christ Amato the rector and his Brethren of St. Mary, situated in the place which is called Morra de Butte, where rests the body of Blessed Lawrence … Given in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-five, on the tenth day of October. And it is added: Which title of Blessedness that illustrious abbot would by no means have ascribed to Brother Lawrence in a public bull, unless it had been most certainly established for him that the same Servant of Christ had been enrolled by the Vicar of Christ on earth in the register of the Blessed. Long before there happened what is there said to have been confirmed by oath in the Examination committed on the IV of the Kalends of December in the year 1243, but written in the year 1244 on the XX day of February; namely, that a lamp had already then been seen burning before the tomb of Lawrence, as is read in the testimony of the 41st miracle, which is that of Conrad of Poggio Mortario concerning his blind daughter by the name of Bona, who swore that, being asked by her, he led her to the tomb of Brother Lawrence; and when she entered the cave of Brother Lawrence, and besought God by his merits that she might deserve to receive her sight, behold, she saw a lamp burning before his tomb, etc. And a lamp could not have burned there unless the license of the Apostolic See had gone before. Nay, I would dare to say, adds the annotator, that he was enrolled among the Saints (but I know not by whom), since the supreme Pontiff Martin V calls this Brother Lawrence a Saint in a certain privilege granted to the monastery or Priory of St. Mary of Morra Bottis; which is read to have been given at Rome at the Holy Apostles in the year 1426, on the XIX of the Kalends of February, in the IX year of his Pontificate; whose original is preserved in the archive of St. Scholastica.
[4] Although we do not certainly know on what day he is honored. However it be, these things seem to suffice for his cult, as also does the end of the poem subjoined, which signifies that he is honored both by those near and by those from afar who flee suppliantly to his tomb; although I have found nothing there about the feast day, which, as I have said, is placed by all especially on the XVII, but in Bucelin and Antony of Heredia on the XVIII day of December, because they think that he was then numbered among the Blessed, which at least Heredia asserts; but since it is not proved, we prefer to report him on this day, on which he departed from this life: intending to give in this place first the fullest Life from that source, secondly a brief chronological order of the miracles, thirdly the poem mentioned: for it does not please to give the compendium of the examination, apart from the prefatory Letter of Innocent, which it pleases here to set forth, together with this appended admonition of the examiners: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We, John, humble bishop of Alatri, and Brother Gregory, called Prior of St. Bartholomew of the Isle, have received Apostolic letters in this manner:
[5] [The Letter of Pope Innocent IV, ordering an examination of his Life and miracles,] Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brother the Bishop of Alatri, and to his beloved son the Prior of the monastery of St. Bartholomew of the Isle, in the diocese of Alatri, greeting and Apostolic benediction. It has come to our hearing, by the relation of witnesses more worthy of credit, that on account of a certain Brother Lawrence, whose body rests near the monastery of Subiaco, the Lord Jesus Christ has wrought many and great miracles. Since therefore the memory of so great a man ought not to perish among men; We, wishing to be assured of these things, command your discretion by Apostolic writings that, going in person to the said monastery, and having God alone before your eyes, you diligently inquire the truth concerning the life and miracles of the same Brother; and that you faithfully set down in writing what you shall find; and, causing the writings to be written out anew by the hand of a Notary, that you deposit under your seals one of those writings at the said monastery, and the other in the sacristy of the church of Anagni; namely for the preserving of them there until the good pleasure of our will: and that you write back to us whatever you shall have determined to be done in these matters. Given at the Lateran on the fourth of the Kalends of December, in the first year of our Pontificate, one thousand two hundred and forty-three.
[6] which was written in the year 1244 on the 20th day of February. The examiners proceed: By the authority therefore of this mandate we went in person to the monastery of Subiaco; and we received the witnesses written below concerning the life and miracles of Brother Lawrence of Morra Bottis, and diligently examined the same, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and forty-four, in the 1st year of the Pontificate of Pope Innocent IV, in the second Indiction, in the month of February, on the twentieth day. There follows the examination, both very long and by no means entire, and therefore here omitted; then at the end this subscription: And I, James, scrivener of the Holy Roman Church, have set down the sayings of the above-written witnesses received in the presence of the most Reverend Lord John, Bishop of Alatri, and of the reverend Father Brother Gregory, Prior of St. Bartholomew of Trisulti, and of myself, the Scrivener: and by their mandate I have reduced it to public form, and have made the sign of my name. Further, from this examination there has been composed such a Life as this:
THE LIFE
From the witnesses and the examination for the beatification.
Lawrence, hermit and confessor, at Subiaco in Latium (St.)
BHL Number: 4793
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE.
These things have been gathered from the juridical process of the year 1244 Of blessed Brother Lawrence, a man plainly admirable and singular to the whole world, so copious is the matter of his deeds that it ought not to seem unworthy of writing to any man pre-eminent in letters. But I, the most unskilled of all, although I know myself insufficient for so great a work, yet seeing and grieving that, together with the usefulness of so great a work, the memory also of so great a Man has by the negligence of writers been little by little brought almost into oblivion, and fearing that thereby it will come into contempt; although I am not able becomingly, not elegantly, nor even sufficiently to embrace worthily the whole order of his life, yet, trusting in God's help and in the blessed Man's intercession, I will undertake somehow to sketch it, and to commit it as best I may to writing, to the praise of God and to the memory of so great a Man and follower of our most holy father Benedict, as also for the comfort of devout readers; judging it more just, out of the devotion by which I am borne toward him, to incur the mark of ignorance than to be wholly silent about so precious a matter: judging it altogether unworthy (which I grieve was neglected by my elders) that, if I cannot perfectly record all the acts of his life, I should not at least strive to describe in order some part of so many miracles above mentioned and of his so great works, and to bring them to the knowledge of posterity: if nothing else, at least to give posterity a handle, where they shall have found me wanting, for trying their own powers of intellect with a happier attempt and labor.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The Blessed one's accidental homicide, and his wonderful penance.
[The Blessed one's native place, his homicide, and his conversion in the year 1209,] Rightly did the Psalmist sing: God is wonderful in His Saints: for His wisdom reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly. Therefore to those who read the sacred Pages that divine prudence seems worthy of admiration, by which He deigns to call His elect to Himself: for we read of Matthew, from a publican made an Apostle; of Magdalen, from a sinner made a lover and a disciple; of Saul, from a persecutor of the Church made her doctor; and of other Saints called from the way of this world and of darkness to the heavenly way. In whose number was this our blessed Brother Lawrence, who was a native of Fanello, a town of Apulia, which is situated between Siponto and Foggia a. He was a man simple and upright: who, when he had committed an accidental homicide, so repented of the deed that for the sake of penance he undertook a most arduous pilgrimage to that most famous church of St. James the Apostle in the farthest part of Spain; and pursuing that journey, he endured on it very many hardships of hunger, thirst, cold, and heat, sometimes at the peril of his life: thence returning into Italy in the year of salvation one thousand two hundred and nine, he sought Subiaco on the sixteenth day of December, to enter upon a stricter manner of life.
There he made a stay for some time in one of the monasteries formerly built by St. Benedict, which was called of St. Angelus beyond the lake, otherwise of the Cliffs.
[2] among the Benedictines of St. Scholastica, in a desert cave, But since in that hermitical place he could not fully do penance as he had purposed, he went to the monastery of St. Scholastica b; where, being received into hospitality by the Brethren, after two days, by leave of the abbot Romanus, he entered the cave of Morra Bottis, situated above the Cave of St. Benedict. There was then no dwelling-house there, and very rare the converse of men; but rather the lairs of wild beasts: to that place therefore he came, accompanied by two monks; and shutting himself in there, he remained unknown for some days. But that cave was so narrow that Brother Lawrence could scarcely lie down in it because of the straitness of the place; which those two monks somewhat widened and leveled with an iron bar. Shut up therefore in that hidden cave, he began to macerate his body with continual prayers, watchings, and fastings; and thence going out rarely, and not unless pressed by extreme hunger, to gather the herbs on which he fed for food. There he was first seen by the shepherds of the flocks, who pastured their herds beside the cave; and then by husbandmen, who marveled at the hardness of the Man's fare and at his piety, and from whom he sometimes received a morsel of bread. But when he had come to the knowledge of men, by the report of the shepherds, men began to flock to him, by whom he was presented with things necessary to life; whom he in like manner edified by his word and by the example of his holy life.
[3] where he macerates himself most harshly in food, drink, and clothing And when he now seemed more than man, the opinion of his sanctity growing immensely, he filled the province with admiration. He fasted at all times, content with bread and water alone, and in the evening, when the stars had risen, he refreshed himself, and quenched his thirst with water. But on the chief festivals of the year he made himself a pittance c, pouring the seed of wild fennel and salt into water: this was the refreshment of that festal day. He was clothed upon his naked flesh with a net woven of little cords and full of knots; and over that with a hooked iron coat of mail, which a threadbare and torn garment covered: he had two iron rings on each arm; four others on his legs, and as many on his thighs he carried: at his belly also he wore another ring, and likewise on his neck: about his loins he used an iron chain, by which he was girt in place of a girdle d: on his head he wore a thick iron crown, having in the upper part two plates crossed in the manner of a cross, of which one was stretched from the back of the head to the forehead, from which a nose-piece e hung down to the middle of the nose, after the fashion of a soldier's helmet. But the other plate was stretched from one ear to the other: and from these two there hung two other plates, touching either jaw.
[4] On each of these were fixed five nails, sharpened on the inner side, wasting himself by which he was pricked on both sides; so that he could bend his head neither forward nor backward without being pricked by them. And so it came about that, when, compelled by necessity, he bent his head to sleep, being pricked by them he was the sooner awakened: wherefore it behooved him to take his sleep standing upright and leaning against the rock. From so many prickings of the points, therefore, he had his head full of holes, and beset with lice, with sparse hairs scattered here and there. And that ring which hung down behind from the back of the head had a hook, to which clung the heavy hooked coat of mail, by whose weight his flesh was torn apart by the knots of the hair-shirt entering into it. But the flesh of his shoulders had so grown over the iron ring which encircled his neck, that, the flesh being putrefied, matter very often flowed forth. When on a certain occasion, at Brother Lawrence's request, Brother Benedict, Prior of the monastery of the sacred Cave, wished to remove this from his shoulders, he stained both his hands with the putrefied gore. But if any of the said rings broke, he sent it at once to be made solid again; and when it was restored, he put it back in its own place whence it had fallen. But meanwhile, while the broken ring was being mended, he used for a pillow a certain sharpened stone, like the pointed part of a blacksmith's anvil, which he had used before he used the iron plates about his jaws.
[5] Such an arduous life, then, laden with so many weights of iron, he led for about sixteen years, for sixteen continuous years; at last he yielded somewhat to obedience until the most illustrious lord Hugolinus, Cardinal, bishop of Ostia and Velletri, drawn by the fame of his sanctity, visited him, and finding Brother Lawrence most grievously sick, persuaded him to lead a more discreet life, and to moderate his excessive rigor; because by indiscreet rigor he might rather lose than gain merit with God; since what is done beyond the possibility of the body, and by indiscreet abstinence, is not of virtue but rather of vice. Obeying his admonitions, he remitted somewhat of the aforesaid austerity of life; so that he sometimes used a little wine, and ate vegetables and pulse, which he observed for three years.
[6] Afterwards, by a pain of the spleen and stomach which had come upon him from too great abstinence, and to necessity. he began to labor in his whole body under so grievous a trouble of sickness that he could neither rise from his bed nor turn himself upon the other side without another's help; and at the exhortation of Brother Amato his disciple he laid aside so many weights of iron, because being burdened with so great a weight he could not turn himself alone: wherefore, being besought that he should not utterly break down his feeble body, but suffer some little comfort to be bestowed upon it, he yielded to the admonitions, so as to refresh his wasted limbs with fitting food. But this he did not endure long: for he suffered graver pains than usual, so that for eleven days he could take no food except water sweetened with sugar: and therefore he was again compelled to remit something of his accustomed austerity of life, so as sometimes to eat flesh; although meanwhile he by no means omitted his wonted fast: and although he observed a continual and perpetual fast, yet on the vigils of the Mother of God and of the Apostles and of other Saints, or on the days of the Ember seasons, he fasted on coarse bread and water; but for the rest of the year he observed the Lenten fast.
[7] So exact a keeper of silence was he that on three days in the week, unless urgent necessity pressed, he would not speak; and through the whole of Lent he would say no word even to his own familiars or disciples, His silence, fasting, branding of his forehead, etc.; but instead of words used signs; and so he passed his life in great abstinence, in unceasing fasts, in almost continual watchings; so that if at any time natural necessity required a little sleep, he took it not upon a bed, of which he used none at all, but upright and propped against the rock. And in memory of the most sacred Passion of the Lord, on the feast of Good Friday every year he pressed a glowing iron upon his own forehead, the scar of which burning did not become known to men until after his death. No woman did he ever admit to speech with him. The Man of God burned no less with charity than with hospitality and with other works of mercy and piety: so ready to compassionate the poor that, when he had no other means, those things which were offered to him by the faithful out of devotion he bestowed with great cheerfulness upon the poor and needy; which appeared when he ordered even sacred vestments sometimes offered to him, and the ornaments of the altar and altar-cloths f, to be sold, and commanded the price to be distributed to the poor for the relief of their want. Moreover, out of the alms offered to him he gave a needy woman of Subiaco in marriage.
[8] Alms given to him are pleasing to God. But how pleasing to God the alms made to His Servant were, the following miracle will declare. A certain citizen of Tivoli, whose name was Stephen Franguinus, was carrying on a horse a skin full of oil, and some earthen vessels full of flour, a little chest filled with raisins, and some fish in a basket, all of which a certain devout man was sending as alms to Brother Lawrence. When therefore Stephen had come to a certain dry place, not far distant from the Cave of St. Benedict, namely to the Portella (as they call it), by which men ascend to St. Romanus, in that dry, stony, and slippery place full of thickets, the horse, its foot slipping, fell laden with the said things, and rolling over like a ball, slid headlong for twenty-five paces and a half (which two eyewitnesses measured); and by the grace of God and the merits of His servant Lawrence, the horse was found unhurt, only the pack-saddle broken (commonly called lo basto), sound and standing upright: the skin of oil, having slipped from the sack, was found hanging on a branch of a holm-oak tree, unharmed; the earthen vessels full of flour were not broken, nor was the flour diminished; the masses of raisins were not at all scattered; the fish also were found whole in the baskets without breakage; and thus all things, exposed to the greatest peril, were wonderfully preserved.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
His other virtues, the favor of the Mother of God, his happy death.
His charity adorned with a miracle How acceptable also his charity was in the sight of God will appear from this single example. In the twelfth year of his monastic life, which was the one thousand two hundred and twenty-first from the Virgin's childbearing, on the festival of St. Mark the Evangelist, that is, on the day of the Rogations, it happened that, the solemn procession being ended and the Litanies chanted after the custom at the sacred Cave of our father Benedict, Dom Benedict the archpriest, together with the clergy of Subiaco and other men to the number of thirty, went up fasting to the cave of Morra Bottis to visit Brother Lawrence out of devotion. These, after holy converse, were invited by him to a charitable breakfast: they did not dare to spurn the invitation of so great a Servant of God. And so, when all had reclined together, in his sight three tiny loaves were brought, with one baked in the ashes, and a small (as they call it) picia a made of hemp seed; which loaves were thought scarcely sufficient for one hungry man. There was brought also a tiny vessel of wine (commonly a flascone \*), which was doubted to be enough for one thirsty man. Upon these the Servant of God gave his blessing, and the loaves grew so multiplied between the hands of those breaking them that they not only sufficed the guests to satiety, but even the fragments gathered from what remained over, being distributed to the shepherds of the flocks who came up, sufficed abundantly. From that little vessel also all drank sufficiently; so that in that vessel the liquor of the wine seemed not indeed to increase, but rather
to well up. And when all were satisfied, Brother Lawrence commanded that they should take no food that day, because they had been refreshed with the Lord's nourishment. When the evident miracle was known to all, rising together with thanksgiving they began to sing the Ambrosian hymn b as they departed: and on that day none of them had need of any refreshment.
[10] But the stain of avarice the Man of God so execrated that he cast out from him c Amato his disciple, his constancy in his purpose. because, drawn by a certain spirit of avarice, he had presumed to ask and receive more from those who came than he had bidden him. The virtue of perseverance he so testified that, at the time when the river Tiber overflowed in a portentous inundation, and other rivers were flooding the fields everywhere, so great an abundance of water welled up in Brother Lawrence's cave that Amato his disciple was not able to cast the water out of the cave; and he complained, saying: Father, thou must go forth from the cave, for my strength failing me, I cannot master the water by casting it out, although I have cast out a great quantity. To whom Brother Lawrence: I have vowed a vow to God that I will not go forth out of this cave; wherefore neither water nor fire nor any other tribulation shall make me go forth hence: let God do His good pleasure concerning me. When he had said this, Brother Amato went out, and returning after a little while, not only saw that the flooding of the water had ceased, but even found the pavement of the cave as dry as if there had never been any trace of water in it.
[11] It pleased afterwards the great Queen of the heavenly ones that he should build anew a church in that place where of old our holy father Benedict had built one to her name Warned by the Mother of God he burns lime, (which the Lombards had destroyed about six hundred and twenty-eight years before). Wherefore, although she had appeared to Brother Lawrence more than once, yet on a certain night she stood by him more particularly with two companions to console him, and said: Here will I dwell, and I will have an oratory built for me because of thy devotion toward me. Taught by which vision, Brother Lawrence took care that a lime-kiln \* should be made for building the church.
[12] whose flowing away another is bidden by the same Mother of God to prevent But when the lime was burned, on a certain night, when by reason of the very great abundance of rains and snows fallen from heaven the lime was flowing away liquefied, the blessed Mother of God appeared to a certain Thomas surnamed de Morra of Subiaco, who was pasturing his father's oxen: he, when on a certain night he was resting with two companions in a cave which is commonly called Morra Losina, there appeared to him three matrons, shining with rosy faces and white garments; of whom one, who went before, appeared brighter in raiment, more comely in form, and taller in stature, and thus addressed Thomas: Rise and go quickly to the lime-kiln which has been made near Morra Bottis, out of which a house is to be built for me; for the lime of that kiln is perishing. And when at her bidding he had walked a horse's course d, he, being terrified at the strangeness of the thing, and fearing that he was being mocked by demons, returned to his sleeping companions: and while he sat and pondered more attentively in his mind upon the things which he had seen and heard, again the same matrons, as before, appeared to him waking and amazed; and she who had spoken to him before rebuked him with angry countenance, saying: Why hast thou returned? We were accompanying thee: why didst thou doubt?
[13] she appearing more than once, and describing the church to be built for her, Thomas therefore, rising, began to go again; and when he had walked about two furlongs, again weakness and doubt of heart were a hindrance to him, and he neglected to observe the admonition of the repeated command, which he had heard more plainly, and returned again to his sleeping companions. But because greater wrath of vengeance is wont to follow the great gentleness of a despised admonition, in a third vision the same Lady, appearing with her companions, added threats and openly reproached him with his evil deeds, so that words of correction and of penance softened in him both the hardness and the doubt of mind; saying: Go without doubting: for we will follow in thy steps; and because thou hast obeyed neither the first nor the second time as I had commanded, unshoe thyself, and unshod go on to Morra Bottis in penance for the fornication thou hast committed; and take care that in all things thou obey Brother Lawrence, and thou shalt say to him in my name that he build there a church in my honor between two springs newly risen, so that one spring may rise at one door of the church and the other at the other, and let him know that I so will to be honored by him in that place. And let the breadth of the church be made to the measure of St. John the Baptist of the arch. Hearing these things, Thomas, now instructed by the reproach of his sin, at once rose, and wishing to rouse his sleeping companions from sleep, he could by no means do so, for a slumber from the Lord had come upon them.
[14] and he obeys. Unshod, therefore, he took his way through pathless and thorny places, breaking through snow almost knee-deep, yet strengthened by divine grace he came without any hurt to the aforesaid lime-kiln while it was still deep night, which nevertheless was lighted up as at noonday. When at last he had come to the kiln, he saw that the liquefied lime had flowed away for about two paces: he began therefore to encircle it on every side with great stones, and carried such large stones as could afterwards scarcely be moved by three men. The wall being finished, at the appearing of the dawn Brother Amato came up, marveling at his arrival: then both going on toward Brother Lawrence's cave, before they entered, he bade Amato bring in to him Thomas (whom he had never seen nor known). Entering to whom, Thomas related all that had befallen him that night; namely the threefold apparition of the women; and the commands of one of them, who had said to him as a sign of certainty that for three days he had not tasted bread, but had only plucked an herb (commonly pellitory) from the rock and drunk the juice pressed from it: from which rock water had thereafter begun to flow unceasingly.
[15] Afterwards, when the things necessary for the structure of the church had been prepared, and it had come to laying the foundations of the building, and with Lawrence he builds a church and a more spacious dwelling. a dissension arose among the workmen and the rest who were present. Then Brother Lawrence, having summoned Thomas, handed him a stone, commanding him to place the same in the foundation of the church, as had been enjoined upon him by the Lady. Having taken the stone, Thomas went to the place and looked about, wishing to consider in what place the stone should be set. And behold, the stone at once, slipping from Thomas's hands, of itself placed itself in its own place, all marveling at the deed; and upon the same the foundations of the church were laid in the year one thousand two hundred and twenty-six from the Lord's nativity. The church being built, he took care to enlarge the house for a more convenient dwelling of his disciples, whom he wished to profess and observe with him the Rule of St. Benedict.
[16] With the spirit of prophecy also he foretold things done even far away, His prophetic spirit, his miracles, his diligence, as is read in the process of his Life (miracle the fifth): but the maimed also, deprived of the steadiness of their limbs, were altogether restored fit for the agility of work; and those whose twisted feet tottered were helped by the intercession of the blessed servant of God Lawrence to the free power of walking. Many who were agitated by the infestation of demons the Man of the Lord delivered from the very perils of those spiritual wickednesses by the impressed sign of the life-giving cross. But idleness he execrated as a deadly poison of souls; wherefore he by no means wasted his time uselessly: for since he was ignorant of letters, the claustral Prior of the monastery of St. Scholastica taught him the Alphabet, and then to read the Psalter, and so far instructed him in letters that he composed for himself several Latin and devout prayers, which the same Prior took care to write down; and that little book of prayers is still preserved in the sacristy of St. Scholastica for the memory and veneration of the blessed Man.
[17] When therefore the holy Man Brother Lawrence, as an untiring champion of Christ, had led in the service of God a heavenly life upon earth in that place for thirty-three years, [and at last his happy death in the 33rd year of his penance, the year of Christ 1243, on the 16th day of August,] and by his holy working had given to men examples of light, now his happy time was drawing near, in which the Lord would requite His well-watching Servant with the liberty of heavenly glory, after a long and most arduous contest of penance, namely of thirty-three years. When he was laboring under his last infirmity, his disciple Brother Amato, watching by the dying man, heard resounding from his breast a certain sweet sound of melody, like the harmony and concord of little bells, for some space of an hour; and when that sound ceased, that holy soul, released from the flesh, passed from labor to rest, from earthly things to heavenly, on the morning of the Lord's day, which was the sixteenth of August, in the year of Christ one thousand two hundred and forty-three, which was the first of the Pontificate of Innocent the fourth. His body was buried with fitting veneration in the same cave in which he had dwelt, and is laid there down to the present. But how precious in the sight of God was the death and life of His confessor Lawrence, the miracles noted above e testify. For the dumb received speech, the deaf hearing, the withered vigor; those laboring under various and incurable diseases received health by his blessing and intercession: and he wrought very many other wonders to the perpetual praise and glory of His name.
[18] although it may also be regarded as a martyrdom. Now any discerning reader may without doubt affirm concerning this Servant of God that, although the persecutor's sword was wanting to him, yet he did not lose the palm of martyrdom: for while he continually afflicted his body with fastings and watchings, while night and day he persisted in prayers, while he strove against the temptations of the devil, and tortured himself with so many instruments of iron, what else can be said of him but that he endured a long martyrdom? For he was his own persecutor, and patiently endured unto death the persecutions inflicted by himself for Christ, to the perpetual praise and glory of His name.
ANNOTATIONS.
\* That is, a flagon. \* That is, a lime-kiln.
A brief compendium of the miracles of blessed Brother Lawrence wrought in his lifetime.
Annotations\* That is, with little nets.
Miracles wrought after the death of Brother Lawrence.
A NOTE.
A hymn, as I think, by the same author, concerning blessed Lawrence, confessor and hermit, monk of the sacred Cave.
We sing the trophy of a valiant champion, Who, having triumphed over Satan, the world, and the flesh, Takes a laurel name from the green tree of Phoebus.
An Apulian soldier he was, from the town Of Fanello, who, while a youth, swollen with fury, Pursuing a certain man, slew him, stirred up by anger.
Then, weary of his crime, as a Pilgrim he sought The sacred temples of kindly James, Which the wealthy Iberians revere with bowed heart.
Thence, having bidden farewell, returning to Latium Behind Subiaco, beneath a lofty crag
He received a scanty threshold, hidden away in a frozen cave.
His limbs he covered with a pious soldier's Mail; his head he girt with brazen Rings in the fashion of a cross, and his legs, and all his body.
A wild root furnished him with food, And pure water healed his thirst; More rarely tasting a morsel of Ceres' gift when evening was done.
In the cave of Morra, which they call Bottis, this blessed Champion passed Thrice ten years and three in serving the King of the citadel of heaven.
Never did the Father bear his steps out thence, Though the river had rushed Into his cave; at whose prayers the water, constrained, stood back.
Whoever would tell the wondrous signs Of so great a Champion would sooner number the stars, And the wandering sands of Pontus, or the waves of the sea.
At last, full of merits, and his years Duly run out, leaving the wretched Troubles of the world, he sought the thresholds of highest heaven.
But of thee, O Cave, what worthy of honor Shall I bring forth? To whom it was granted from the highest Citadel to have deserved this, to have cherished so long a time so great a Father.
Let the pious faithful keep festival about thee, And let those who come from distant shores, Their vows fulfilled, depart unharmed by the gift of heaven.
Holy Lawrence, with the ear of piety Receive kindly the prayers which I pour forth; And mercifully deliver me, wretched amid so many perils of the world;
That, serving with thee the merciful Lord Of the heavens, I may at last deserve to be joined To the citizens on high, and to behold the supreme King of my country. Amen.