Gebhard or Gebehard

ON ST. GEBHARD OR GEBEHARD, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT CONSTANCE IN SWABIA,

In the year CMXCV or CMXCVI.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Gebhard or Gebehard, bishop and confessor, at Constance in Swabia (St.)

BY J. P.

§ I. The Saint's illustrious family, his parents and brothers.

Constance, commonly Constantz, a city of Germany in the Circle of Swabia, and on the very border of Switzerland, From a sister of the king of the Franks and Roman emperor situated on the Lake of Constance or Acronian Lake, and very well known from the council celebrated there, is ennobled on this present day by the yearly memory of its most holy Prelate. Of the Man's most illustrious birth the Chronicle of Constance, of which below, writes this from page 643, which for the reader's sake we have purged of faults: This noble and venerable Prelate deserves that we should declare the most noble stock of his family, which I have been able to excerpt and gather from the Annals of the monastery of Petershausen, which he himself (as will be subjoined) founded and endowed, and it is fitting also thus to know it. In Gallia Togata there was a most noble man, to whom the king of the Franks (who was also emperor of the Romans) joined his sister in marriage. By whom he begot two sons, who both, as in birth so in virtue of soul, became most illustrious; and when they had grown up, and were wealthy in goods and most keen in strength and arms, it happened that the poison of enmity crept in between the king of that province and them, and so infected their hearts that it could by no means be restrained before the hand of the sword deprived the king of life.

[2] The king therefore being slain, these two, fearing a conspiracy of their fellow provincials, the ancestors of this holy Prelate are recorded to have drawn their origin: betook themselves to their uncle the august emperor, and, being gladly received by him, obtained dwellings in Alemannia, very many places, and as many so also the best: for he gave them Bodman and Bregenz, Überlingen and Buchhorn , Achihusen , Türingen and Heisteragew, Winterthur, with all their appurtenances; and in Curian Rhætia, Mesauch, and many others which through the age of time have been blotted from memory. Enriched therefore by such gifts from the emperor, when they had come to them and had made them their own, they bestowed gifts out of them upon their noble men who had come with them. And to some indeed they gave Türingen, to others Überlingen, and to others Buchhorn, who were afterward joined with them by affinity. After therefore the fury of the Gauls, which had blazed against these two brothers for the killing of their king, had been lulled, their kinsmen and friends sent, asking that they would return to their own country. One of them, overcome by great entreaties, returned to his country. But the other, Udalric by name, remained in Alemannia. And he kept all that had been given by the emperor, for himself and for his posterity.

[3] Of his seed therefore was born Utzo, a merciful and venerable count, his father is praised for his piety: who dwelt at the place Bregenz, which still shows the ruins of the ancient dwelling. This Utzo (that we may not omit it in passing) became of such piety and merit that even the birds felt his sanctity, and took food from his hand, and went away filled: and others, filled anew, would come. Likewise on one day at dawn a hind, coming from the wood, struck with her foot at the door of his chamber; and when the doorkeeper opened and saw the beast standing there, and reported that it had struck the door, "Come," said he to the servant, "follow her, and see whether perchance she wants anything." He, delaying not at all, followed her as she went before. She led him into the wood and showed him her young caught by the foot in a snare, and, standing with head bowed, began as it were to entreat with the movement of her ears. He at once, when he had loosed the fawn's foot from the snare, she went off joyful with her young into the wood, and the servant returned to his Lord and told him what had been done. With such things and things like them God as it were sported with this venerable man: because* Joyful is the man who has mercy in the Lord; he shall not be moved for ever.

[4] certain From these things it is evident that by the author of the said Chronicle the most illustrious nobility of St. Gebehard is referred to the sister of the most august emperor in the West. Less did Felix Manilius know, or less did he believe (from whom we shall give the Life of the same Saint), as I suspect; because, touching only in a few words upon the brightness of his family, he says: He was born of the most noble stock of the Alemanni, namely of a father by the name of Uzo or Huozo, count of the Rhætians. The Chronicle of Constance therefore deserved excellently well of the Man's most illustrious lineage, provided that what it reports be as true as it is splendid. But, first, the age of that author, so recent in comparison with so ancient a lineage as he reports, has little authority: for Manilius, or rather another who afterward enlarged it, ends his Chronicle at the year 1607, as may be seen in the title prefixed to it. Secondly, he expresses neither the name of the emperor, nor of his sister, nor of the slain king. Yet if you attend to the time, he seems to look to the family of Charlemagne, or of the others who from the nation of the Franks held the empire of the West in the ninth century. Jacques Basnage, a heterodox writer, in the Thesaurus of Monuments, or the Ancient Readings of Henry Canisius, which he reprinted, volume 4, page 820, observes this to our purpose: The genealogy of Gebhard is found in the Chronicle of Constance, deduced from a certain great and most noble Gaul who had married the daughter of the king of the Franks, whose name however is not read.

[5] notes upon the Saint's genealogy. We therefore forbear to trace back to its beginnings that genealogy so obscurely set down, since that belongs rather to genealogists than to hagiographers; but we report what has been said of it, and do not discuss whether or how it ought to have been said. Thirdly, what detracts from the genuineness of this genealogy, see below at number 9. Nor indeed does it seem worth the labor to unfold distinctly the site of all the places named above. Let these suffice: Gallia Togata, a part of Cisalpine Gaul in Cæsar and Pliny, extended from Piacenza as far as Ancona (although others make other bounds), in which is Æmilia and part of Umbria, on the coast of the Senones, exposed to the Adriatic sea, etc. Potamum, Bodman, a castle of Germany in Swabia, on the Lake of Bodman named from it, four German miles from Constance to the north. And Brigantium is a town of Rhætia in Ptolemy, Brigantia in Antoninus, today Bregenz, a town of Germany in Swabia, the head of the county of the same name, also on the Lake of Constance, where it receives the small river Bregenz. These descriptions of places we have taken from Baudrand. But altogether marvelous, and needing greater authority, are the things which the aforesaid Chronicle narrates about Uzo's sanctity being perceived by animals, and as it were proved by their testimony. Let us come now to those things which are recorded as having passed between St. Gebehard and his brothers.

[6] The aforesaid biographer, in our edition below, chapter 8 of book 1, writes about the paternal inheritance divided between the Saint and his brother, What concerns his brothers, giving us occasion to treat of his three brothers and of the divided inheritance, which in the cited Chronicle of Constance, page 644, is narrated to have happened in another manner than the author of the Life reports: Utzo the count therefore begot four sons, one by the name of Ulric, another Marquard, Lutfrid the third, and the fourth the ornament of the whole family, Gebehard. When afterward, their parents being dead, the four brothers wished to divide the inheritance among themselves, one of them, Lutfrid by name, since he was slothful and unwarlike and more despicable than the rest, fearing that perhaps on account of his cowardice he might be slighted by his brothers in the division, began to consider with himself by what art he might get round them, so that they should not deny him a share of the inheritance. Turning over many things therefore with himself, and at last finding a counsel for himself and his posterity, he addressed one of his brothers thus, the others not knowing: "You know, brother," he said, "you know that I, unequal to my brothers, appear by no means fit for the business of the world; but if you will give consent to my counsels, you will procure no small advantage for yourself and for your posterity. For I love you above my other brothers, and I desire to dwell with you; and therefore, when it shall come to the division of the goods, strive with all your might that Winterthur with its appurtenances may fall to my share: and know beyond doubt that, if this shall come into my ownership, I am about to hand it over to you, and I myself shall thenceforth remain with you as you shall bid."

[7] "In this therefore take counsel for your own advantage: strive to comply with my will," and the divided inheritance, and likewise to the second brother. So he spoke secretly to the third also, each believing that he said this out of love for himself: and by this hope he made them all ready for the carrying out of his will. And so, when it had come to the division, [and] each one's lot fell to him, and each hastened to fulfill Lutfrid's request, each being ignorant that he had promised the like to every one of them: and because the will of all was the same, that was easily brought to effect which all with one mind wished. And they confirmed Winterthur to Lutfrid, with all its appurtenances. But he, rejoicing with reason, going to the excellent estates handed over to him, made all his own, and so deceived his brothers by such cunning, and gave his labor to husbandry, and much wealth

he gathered together; and having taken a wife, he begot of her a son by the name of Adelbert, who crossed with blessed Pope Leo into Apulia, and there, fighting for the cause of St. Peter against the Normans who had invaded Apulia, fell: and his daughter was Adelheid, whom count Hartmann the elder of Dillingen took in marriage, who bore him Hartmann the younger, and Adelbert, and Udalric, who was made bishop at Constance, and three daughters, of whom one lived in the habit of a consecrated woman; but another bore Udalric, count in Gammertingen, and Adelbert, count in Achalm. Thus far that source; to which we subjoin a few observations.

[8] these things too Concerning Winterthur one may consult Ortelius's Geographical Thesaurus at the word Vitodurum. At which word Baudrand also says: Vitodurum, a town of Gallia Lugdunensis among the Helvetians, and in the district of Zurich in Antoninus, now Winterthur, a town of Switzerland, still in the district of Zurich, on the river Eulach, on Scudo's testimony, near the castle of Kyburg, distant three German miles from Zurich to the east, and six toward Constance. Of Bl. Leo, whom Adelbert, son of Lutfrid and nephew of our holy Prelate by his brother, was said to have accompanied into Apulia in the cause of St. Peter, see what has been said in our treatise on St. Leo IX, the Roman Pontiff, at the day IX of April, where we illustrated his deeds on page 642 and following. The times agree: for St. Leo is there affirmed to have been born in the year 1002 and to have died in the year 1054. Pagi in the Critique of Baronius at the year 1041, number 4, writes of the Normans who gained possession of Apulia; but at the year 1053, number 5, of the Norman war which was unhappy for St. Leo.

[9] are explained. Of Udalric or Ulric, bishop of Constance, named in the genealogical series above, the Chronicle of Constance treats on page 567, indicating among other things concerning him that he was of the blood of St. Udalric, bishop of Augsburg, whose Acts we illustrated at the day IV of July, and that he was buried among the people of Constance in the year of the Lord MCXXVII. Concerning the other persons expressed in the said genealogical series, consult the same Chronicle in the table of St. Gebhard's family, roughly gathered, page 647, and in another concerning a part of the old family of the Kyburgs, page 664: but in this table, which, as is noted upon it, requires correction in many places, St. Ulric, bishop of Constance, is set down not as the son of Hartmann II or the elder and of Adelheid, daughter of Adelbert and granddaughter of Lipfrid or Luthfrid, as is there added, but of Hugwald, count in Dillingen. But these and other things pertaining to the genealogical series which we have reported from the Chronicle of Constance we hand over to curious investigators of genealogical matters, being about to proceed to other things which belong to our court.

perhaps donec*

* in Swabia

* in the same place. Elsewhere Buchorn

* perhaps Alschausen: in the same place.

read pro se*

read aves*

§ II. The Saint's pious upbringing; whether he was a monk; his episcopate; the monastery of Petershausen founded by him; miracles:

His manners Of the wonderful manner in which the Saint came into the light, and of his boyhood and pious upbringing, Felix Manilius writes in book 1, chapter 1, numbers 4 and 5 of our division, which we shall hereafter cite. In the summary of his Life and miracles, printed in German at Bregenz in the year 1730, and afterward rendered into Latin for our use, it is indicated that he came into the light in a place bearing the name Pfannenberg, situated near Bregenz, in the year of Christ our Savior CMXLIX, on the day VII of August. In the same place the following is handed down about his youth fruitfully passed: The young Gebhard, when he had grown somewhat, was sent by his lord father to Constance, and was handed over to the lords Canons of the cathedral of that city to be trained both in the pursuit of letters and in that of the virtues. Nor without fruit. Since in his earliest years he gave no obscure signs of his future learning and sanctity. For he was a lover of study, humble, obedient, and even then dear to all for the sweetness of his manners: whence it came about that his age, youthful but manly in manners, drew all into admiration and love: so that, the praise of his youth being spread far and wide, he was held in great honor and veneration, and was received into the number of the cathedral Canons. This last seems confirmed from his donation to be produced below, in which he says: I, Gebhart, brother of the holy church of Constance.

[11] For indeed St. Conrad, bishop of Constance, contributed very much to forming the most pious Youth's training in virtue and integrity of life, formed to piety under St. Conrad, bishop of Constance: on the testimony of Manilius at number 5 cited: But when, he says, he had passed the bounds of boyhood and had reached the life of youth, he began to frequent the companies of God, and especially of the blessed priest worthy of God, Conrad, bishop of Constance, of whom also he was the most intimate attendant; so that, namely, in his uprightness he might learn what still needed to be amended in his own manners. But how great an expectation of himself the most holy Youth had even then stirred up in the praised prelate is gathered from St. Conrad's prophecy, by which he foretold that he was to be advanced to the mitre of Constance. Manilius narrates the fact at number 6; and it is confirmed from the Life of St. Conrad published in Surius at the day XXVI of November, on which we shall have to treat of him with the Roman Martyrology. In the manuscript collections which we keep concerning that Saint for the said day, that prophecy is extended to two men to whom that same prelate foretold the said mitre, namely to Gaminolph, who succeeded him immediately in the episcopate, and to Gebehard, who succeeded him mediately. We do not transcribe the text, both because it is hidden from us on what credit that extension rests, and because it makes little to our purpose, pertaining rather to St. Conrad.

[12] You will ask whether our holy Bishop professed the institute of the monastic life. whether he professed the institute of the monastic life. Bucelin affirms it in the Benedictine Menology at the day XXVII of August: Under that master (St. Conrad), he says, he so profited that in the sacred college of monks he was easily held first in piety. Menard in the Benedictine Martyrology at the same day, in a marginal note, indicates that he doubts of that matter, saying: Yet it is not so certain whether he was a monk. In Wion's notes Belleforest is cited, in his Cosmography, in the description of the city of Constance, who narrates that he was taken to that see from being a monk of St. Gall (among the Swiss). But Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, volume 5, page 840, having made mention of the abbey which is called Petershausen, built by St. Gebehard, rejects his monkhood in these words: And this indeed I think is the reason why Gebehard has been placed in our calendars, namely on account of the building of an abbey of our Order. For in his whole Life nothing is read of his monastic profession, nor in other competent authors.

[13] Bucelin reports that he was elected to the chair of Constance in a marvelous manner, The Mother of God favors his episcopate: the Virgin Mother of God herself supporting him for that dignity: Gebhard, he says, was most devoted with a special devotion to the wonderful Mother, the Virgin of virgins: who, soon after the death of bishop Gaminolph, herself chose him as pontiff of her church, being seen by him when he had sunk into slumber to hold out, by her wooden image in the choir, the pontifical staff with this command: that he should feed the Lord's flock, and show it the pastures of eternal life. For the truth of which fact we should desire a testimony of better and older note, if it were not extant in Manilius at number 7, and if it were not from elsewhere rendered suspect to us; and therefore we leave the matter in its possession. Meanwhile here for you, reader, are other things which serve to illustrate the most holy Man's episcopate.

[14] when the Saint began this, Concerning the year in which that dignity began, authors do not agree. Manilius at number 6 marks none. In the summary of the more recent German Life the Saint is said to have been elected in the year of Christ 980. Hepidannus, a monk of St. Gall, in the Short Annals of Things Done in Alemannia, writes thus at the year 985: Kebehard is made bishop. But the opinion of Hermannus Contractus seems preferable, who anticipates St. Gebehard's pontificate by six years, writing this in Henry Canisius, volume 1 of the Ancient Readings, page 573: CMLXXIX. At Constance bishop Germenolf died; and Gebehard, a noble and venerable prelate, succeeding him, governed the church for 16 years, who built the basilica of St. Gregory on the bank of the Rhine, and an abbey out of his own estates: it is now called Petershausen. This note of time will be able to be confirmed from what we shall report below about the years of his see and of his death. From these things it follows that our Gebehard cannot be confounded with two other bishops of the same name of that same see: not with the first, who preceded him by a century, and of whom the Chronicle of Constance, page 634, writes this: Gebhard, the first of this name … flourished … about the years of the Lord DCCCLXXXV; nor with the third, who was later than our Saint by almost a whole century: for, as is there said on page 666, in the year of the Lord MLXXXV he is created bishop. Our Prelate therefore was midway between these two of the same name, and the second of this name, as he is styled in the privilege of Pope John in Manilius's Life, number 12: but in the Chronicle just cited, page 643, he is set down as the XXVIth bishop of Constance.

[15] not to be confounded with one of the same name: Basnage, mentioned above, therefore rightly corrects the mistake of a more recent writer on page 821 in these words: Take care not to fall into error when, turning over Moréri, you meet with Gebhard the first, bishop of Constance. Through the carelessness of the printer this passage lies in error: for there had already been very many bishops of Constance before Gebhard: but he is doubtless called the first that he might be distinguished from Gebhard the second. But on the occasion of which Gebhard he writes this is plainly gathered from what he premises there: There was another Gebhard, prelate of Constance, a whole century later: his election is read at the end of the Chronicle of Constance. He is indicated also in the narration of Udalschalk as the Pontiff's legate, and he was present at the council of Guastalla, and there by art and prudent counsel freed Hermann, bishop of Augsburg, who upheld the emperor's side. Of this bishop the Narration of Udalschalk makes mention in Henry Canisius, volume 2 of the Ancient Readings*, page 208, and in the recent edition of the same which Basnage published, volume 3, part 2, page 7. Observe first, and gather from what has been said above, that the Gebhard here treated of is the one whom we called the third. Secondly, that before him we have not found very many prelates of the chair of Constance, but only two, as we have just premised. Thirdly, it seems to me that Basnage pronounces quite ineptly when he will have it that Gebhard the third of this name (for it is of him he treats) is called the first, that he might be distinguished from Gebhard the second: for we have already given the first his own place before.

[16] But no small part in the approbation and congratulation upon St. Gebhard's election belonged to the emperor Otto II, [The emperor Otto favors the Saint, who presses for the division of the inheritance.] when he sent him a staff with the pontifical ring, commanding that with the

subjection of sheep all should obey Gebhard, and should rejoice that he had been given them by the Lord as pontiff, on the testimony of the biographer Manilius at number 7; who at number 8 praises him for virtues worthy of a true pastor, joining to them the pious violence by which he compelled his brothers, even against their will, to divide their parents' inheritance in equal balance, part of which he munificently spent in founding the very notable monastery of Petershausen: of which the same Manilius treats from number 9, and which we shall endeavor to illustrate with various documents, treating also of the revenues and lands with which he excellently provided for the cathedral church. Moreover what happened in the division of the paternal goods has already been narrated at length in §1 from the chronographer of Constance. This Basnage does not rightly gnaw at, as will be said in the Annotations on chapter 1 of the Life, letter f. Now receive, reader, certain observations about the building of the said monastery.

[17] In the year, says Manilius at number 9, of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and eighty-three, The time and situation of the founding of the monastery of Petershausen: but the fourth of his episcopate, and the eleventh of the emperor Otto the second, he began … to build the house of the aforesaid monastery — certainly not after the day VII of December of that year: for, as Labbe has it in the Chronological Compendium, Otto then died, after ten years, seven months, and two days of empire from the death of his father. Pagi at that year, number 5, in order to reconcile the authors on the day of his death, sets it that he died on the night between the VI and VII Ides of December, that is, between the VII and VIII day of that month. But such trifling minutiae ought not to detain us. Fuller information about this convent take from Brusch, On the Monasteries of Germany, from folio 98 verso of the first century: Petershausen, a most ample convent of monks of the Benedictine institute, situated opposite the city of Constance in Swabia on this side of the bridge of the Rhine, namely on the right of the Rhine as it comes out of the Acronian lake. It was founded and most munificently endowed in the year of Christ CMLXXX for monks summoned from the Cell of Meinrad, by St. Gebhard, bishop of Constance, count of Bregenz and Zähringen, who began to build the church of this convent in the year CMLXXXIII, four Rhenish gold pieces being placed in the foundations at the four corners of the church. That church was completed and dedicated and consecrated by the founder Bishop himself to blessed Pope Gregory in the year of the Lord CMXCII, on the fifth of the Kalends of November … This monastery was formerly so wealthy that it maintained eighty monks together with the abbot. Thus he, subjoining afterward the abbots of this monastery. But the etymology of that church Manilius reports at number 11.

[18] But how pleasing to God its building was appeared from the miracle prodigies which is narrated by the same biographer at number 10. The summary of the new Life printed in German reports another miracle, or rather a threefold one, since it consists of as many marvelous things. This therefore on this occasion we have judged should be narrated here also, the credit of the matter being left, however, with its author. Hear the fact: When the church, now built, was to be adorned with various paintings, at the time when holy Gebhard was away from home on episcopal business, the faithless painters stole the best and most costly colors, and hid them buried in the nearest wood. But when the holy Bishop had returned home, the painters complained that they could not finish their work for want of colors, and that thence their labor suffered very much. Hearing this, the holy Man kept silence a while, and a little after said: If anything is lacking to you, it is needful that I procure it for you. Come with me therefore: perhaps God in his accustomed goodness will provide us with those things which you want, that the work begun may be finished. Without any other guide he leads them to that place in which they had hidden underground the colors they had taken by theft.

[19] in the building There he fixes his staff in the earth, saying: Dig up the earth here, and see whether you find anything. But they, ill conscious to themselves and terrified, dug up the earth, but unwillingly, and found the colors which they had hidden. Here the Saint with a kindly face to them: Go now, my beloved sons, and with those colors which the Lord has shown us finish the more diligently the work begun. But they, terrified by this deed and covered with shame, returned to their work: and — what is more to be wondered at — presently in that same place a spring arose, supplying most limpid water to this very day. This was the second prodigy. But not yet here was the end of the issue of this prodigious matter: a third miracle also came in. On the next day therefore, while the holy Prelate reclined at table and the painters were busy at their work, all at once fell down and lay lifeless like dead men, or like men struck by apoplexy. This was announced with great tumult to holy Gebhard, still at dinner.

[20] wrought: But he with undaunted and serene mind answered: Let them be: it is fitting that they pay somewhat for what they have sinned in things belonging to the Saints. And he himself, without further stirring of mind, remained at table until the meal was finished. Then he rose joyfully from the table, and mounting the scaffold on which the painters lay as though dead, he touched them with his staff which he carried in his hands, saying: Because you lie here prostrate and idle, for this I will pay you no wages: rise and work. At this word they presently raised their heads, rose sound and vigorous, and began to work, as though nothing at all of evil had happened to them. You have here, reader, three miracles of whatever sort, certainly of greater splendor with us than of authority, because they are destitute of the testimony of an author fit to produce due credit.

[21] relics brought thither from Rome: But of the monastery of Petershausen other things remain to be said by us. For the holy Prelate, having set out for Rome and being carefully intent upon the good and safety of that same convent for times to come, obtained a privilege of liberty from Pope John XV, which is dated in the IV year of that same Supreme Pontiff, falling in the year of Christ 989. It is produced by Manilius at number 12 and following. The same biographer at number 11 had treated of the manifold and magnificent relics of the Saints with which the holy Man heaped that often-mentioned church. Among which he also placed there with the greatest zeal, as he adds, the arm of St. Philip the Apostle, granted to him with very many others by the emperor Otto III. At the day 1 of May, page 11, of the arms of that Apostle which are there written to be in other places, treatment was made: which can be reconciled at once with the Petershausen arm, if we say either that a part of the arm is to be understood for the whole, or that it was of another Saint of the same name, kept under the name of St. Philip the Apostle among the said monks of Petershausen.

[22] To what Brusch said a little before about the monks summoned from the Cell of Meinrad, as he calls him, whence the first monks were summoned thither. to inhabit the oft-mentioned monastery of Petershausen, it is well to add a short account of that Cell from the same author, folio 74 verso: A most celebrated and most wealthy convent of the Order of holy Benedict …, into which of old only princes, counts, and barons of the highest birth were wont to be received: situated not far from Zurich (a city of Switzerland, to the inhabitants Zurich) in the neighborhood of the little river Sihl. It began in the year of Christ DCCCLX, in the times of Louis the second, Roman emperor, when St. Meginrad built himself there a chapel and a little cell — the exceedingly religious son of Berthold, an illustrious count of Sulgau dwelling upon the Danube, who, having formerly been a monk and a teacher of monks, left the most ample monastery of the rich convent of Reichenau and withdrew for religion's sake into the most shadowy desert of this place, etc. Of St. Meinrad, or Meginrad, hermit and martyr, we treated on the day XXI of January, page 381 and following, and it was said that that monastery is also called the Hermitage of the Mother of God, commonly Einsiedeln, which last word is also given in the German tongue in the cited Brusch. Of this convent the Benedictine Annals published by Mabillon make mention in various places, volume 3, from which the monks were summoned by St. Gebehard who should form the first beginnings of the new convent of Petershausen. But no small difficulty here presents itself concerning the head of St. Gregory the Great, as the monks of Petershausen maintain, which that same Saint brought to them from Rome. We shall examine the matter in the next paragraph.

read Udalscalci*

§ III. Whether the head of St. Gregory the Great was brought to the monks of Petershausen by St. Gebehard; the ornaments of their church; another pious donation of the Saint.

The head of that Pontiff Manilius at number 15 narrates that St. Gebehard, among the other relics of the Saints which he received from Pope John (namely the XVth of that name), obtained also the head of the most holy Pope Gregory, a notable miracle being wrought on the same occasion in the river Po, which he is there written to have crossed dry-bodied, its waters making a passable place, in order to escape the Romans who were pursuing him on account of this precious treasure carried off, and to bring that sacred pledge to its destination, as is set forth at length in the cited place. But although the same biographer does not expressly add that that head was of Gregory the Great, that is, the first, yet there is a constant tradition among the ascetics of Petershausen that it was the head of that Pontiff, on the testimony of Murer in Helvetia Sancta, page 274: The Religious of Petershausen, he says, steadfastly assert to this day that the aforesaid St. Gebhard obtained from John the Roman Pontiff, the VIth of this name (nay, as I have already said, the XVth) the head of St. Gregory the Great, and offered it among other relics of the Saints to the monastery built by him in honor of the aforesaid St. Gregory. But a century before, Ansegisus, archbishop of Sens, had received that head from Pope John VIII, as Clarius testifies in the Chronicle of St. Peter the Living, volume 2 of D'Achery's Spicilegium, page 716 of the earlier edition, where these words occur: And the same Ansegisus asked of Pope John that relics of the Pontiffs and Doctors Gregory and Leo be given him, which also he obtained … And Pope John gave him the head of blessed Gregory the universal Pope, son of Gordianus, enclosed in lead, and the arm of St. Leo, Pope and Doctor.

[24] And the same Ansegisus, receiving this gift, brought it to Sens into the basilica of St. Peter, which to the present day is kept there with great honor. [the monks of Petershausen think they possess; but a great difficulty must be solved by them:] What of this, that this same head, a hundred years after the death of St. Gebehard, was raised to solemn honor in the monastery of St. Peter the Living, as the praised chronographer Clarius has handed down to memory at the year 1095, writing this: Likewise in this year, at the command of lord archbishop Richerius, a solemn assembly was held in the monastery of St. Peter the Living, and the most sacred head of the most blessed Gregory the Doctor, which had been laid up in a certain little shrine together with a bone from the body of our holy father Benedict the abbot, was openly shown to all, and thereafter it was established on the VI Kalends of May that this day be solemnly kept in the monastery. What more? See what was long ago said among us concerning this head at the day XII of March

pages 128 and 129, where you will read of the inspection of that same head in the year 1333 and in the year 1439, and in 1459 of its placing in a new casket. It lies therefore upon the monks of Petershausen to prove that they keep the head of St. Gregory the Great, or to admit the disjunctive proposition given above concerning the arm of St. Philip the Apostle. But whether they claim the whole head, and whether the aforesaid monks of St. Peter the Living have it entire, is hidden from us, who have seen neither. But now, since neither Manilius, as we have already noted, nor the Chronicle of Constance, as we shall presently see, says of which Pope Gregory the head was brought to the monks of Petershausen, why should there not have been brought to them the head of St. Gregory II, who flourished in the eighth century, and whose Acts we illustrated on the day XIII of February, in volume 2 of that month, page 692 and following? Why not that of Bl. Gregory III, the successor of that man of the same name, who lived in the said century, and of whom we shall have to treat with the Roman Martyrology at the day XXIII of November? Yet of this last one's relics, whether and what should then be said, we do not know.

[25] How St. Gebehard received at Rome the head of St. Gregory the Pope, Before we go on to other things, it is not unpleasant to weave onto these the manner in which St. Gebehard obtained relics at Rome, by reciting the following from the Chronicle of Constance, page 646: By the favor of the Pontiff it was permitted him to put his hand to the body of blessed Pope Gregory, on this condition, that whatever he should lift with his hand from the sacred bones at one touch, this he should carry away with him. And so by the grace of God he took up his head, with other magnificent relics from his body … This holy head indeed, after many times had since passed, was found in a chest formerly firmly made fast, but through age and lack of care wholly fallen apart, which in former times, as was said, had been laid up in the altar of St. Peter on the southern side. But when the chest was opened, in it another chest painted red was found, full of relics of the Saints, among which was found the most beloved treasure of the head, broken into pieces, of the most holy Pope Gregory. Note here in passing that that head is not kept entire among the monks of Petershausen. But having lingered on these matters perhaps longer than is fitting, we proceed to a donation of St. Gebehard which we do not read in Manilius. It is found in the Chronicle of Constance, page 645:

[26] Let all, both present and to come, know a donation made by the Saint to the church of Constance, that I, Gebhart, unworthy brother of the holy church of Constance, taking thought for the remedy of my soul, and following the Evangelical and Apostolic precepts, with the consent of my brothers and of my advocate Udalric, do hand over the property of my right, which I am known to have by the succession of my parents in the places Oberndorf , Hutzlinbach, Philophinga, Lutheresdorf, with all appurtenances belonging to the same places, buildings, bondmen, pastures, woods, waters and watercourses, movable and immovable, and all things belonging to those places, to the community of the aforesaid holy church of Constance, to the brothers there assiduously serving God: over which a Man of the highest religion and learning, bishop Conrad, appears to be set with a special government; yet on this condition, that I, receiving back that same property, or another of that same brotherhood, whomever they shall have wished, may pay a rent from it in each and every year hereafter, and may take it on the feast of our holy Father and venerable Pope Gregory for the aforesaid brothers, as the canonical rule shall show. Done at Constance on the fourth Ides of March, in the presence and with the support of my aforesaid advocate Udalric, and also of other witnesses, whose names are subscribed: Eberhart, Lutfrid, Eleibolt, Conpret, Adelbert, Merebot, Lutpret, Sigipret, Hadepret, Dietger, Wern, Adilgon. Mabillon, indicated above, says: Thus in donations of this kind among the Alemanni the power of an advocate intervened.

[27] But what conditions the Saint added to this donation and its conditions: it is well to have observed from the same Chronographer, who thus continues: But note that, although St. Gebhard made this donation to the church of Constance before he became bishop, he received those aforesaid places back in benefice, on this condition, that he himself should minister to the brothers of the said church on the feast of St. Gregory. Yet afterward, when he had been made bishop and had founded the monastery at Petershausen, he granted the said estates thither under the aforesaid condition, and in turn appointed for those same brothers of the church of Constance that thrice in the year they should come to that monastery with a solemn procession, and each time sing a Mass for his soul; and moreover on the feast of St. Gregory should sing a public Mass of that feast, and that the monks should rule the choir and minister at the altar, and that on that day two talents and five shillings should be given by the clergy from the aforesaid estates for the service. It is clear from what has now been said that this donation was made by the holy Man before his episcopate, and before the beginnings of the convent of Petershausen, and in the time of St. Conrad, bishop of Constance, and therefore not after the year 976, according to the chronological table of his family, which is found in the same chronographer, page 637: yet because it has a connection with that monastery, nothing hinders our having inserted this donation in this place, being about to give also from the same Chronographer what pertains to that monastery and to its ornaments, and is read in him from page 645.

[28] In the year of the Lord IX C. (that is, nine hundred) LXXXIII he laid the foundations of the basilica, various ornaments and offered four gold pieces, which he placed beneath the four corners of the church: and he made a crypt on the western side, in which he dug a well of water, and set in it an altar of St. Martin, which afterward Gebhard III destroyed. Above the crypt he made a sanctuary, where he set the principal altar in honor of St. Gregory: above which he built an exceedingly beautiful canopy . When therefore he had made four columns of oak wood, and had arranged that the figure of a vine be wrought upon them, he gathered the citizens of Constance into one place and, addressing them thus, said: I have four daughters whom I must give in marriage: but without your help I cannot adorn them: for this cause I come to you, and I ask that you may have some comfort to give for procuring ornaments, according to your ability and will. And when all had answered that they would most gladly do it, he ordered the columns to be brought, and said that he wished these to be clothed with silver, and began to entreat them that they would bring him aid for this: which all did with ready mind: for by their support he clothed the columns with silver, and set them upon most becomingly carved stone bases, and upon those columns he placed four arches, which he covered on one side with gilded silver and on the other with gilded copper.*

[29] added by the Saint to the church of Petershausen: And above the arches and columns he set a panel of such size that it covered the whole canopy, having in the middle a round window, and that window itself covered round about on the inside with gilded copper. But below it had a projecting border, which he covered with silver. And that panel was throughout on the lower side becomingly covered with gilded copper, having the images of the four Evangelists in raised work crosswise, because silver plates were fixed on its four sides, and on each side was inscribed one verse written in gold letters, which follows:

This small work, wrought with divers arts, The suppliant devotion of your servant brings you, Gregory, An unworthy Prelate, whom, with his faithful people, May you join, kindly Father, by your prayers to the hosts on high.

Very many buildings also this venerable Prelate made, of great costliness, both in the choir and in the church and about the altar: which were afterward altered by certain abbots: and some things age took away: for especially the walls of the basilica were on every side most beautifully painted, having on the left the matters of the Old Testament. For the bishop of Venice supplied a full measure of Greek color , which is called Lazurius ; which painting abbot Conrad had wholly destroyed, since antiquity had already taken from it its beauty.*

[30] The bishop of Venice, who is not named, is, as we suspect, Ursus of Venice in Ughelli, volume 5 of Italia Sacra, column 1271, who succeeded Peter in the year CMLXXXI; he died in the year CMXCII, as is there said. another foundation of the Saint. But when abbot Conrad lived, and who he is, we have not ascertained. Three of the same name indeed are marked in Crusius, presently to be cited, page 145: but without a distinct note of time. Yet all are placed after the year 1087, in which, as is there written, the convent was despoiled and laid waste by Henry, count of Sacred Mount. That another foundation was established by St. Gebehard the same Crusius testifies in the Swabian Annals, book 5 of the second part, page 144, of which he briefly records this: The same founded a college of Canons at Zurzach out of his own money, which he also endowed with certain annual revenues. Its situation Baudrand indicates in volume 2 at the end: Zurzach, he says, Aquæ Duræ, Ganodurum, Certiacum, a small town of Switzerland. The same Geographer reports uncertain things about the last two names; but more certain things about the place Zurzach itself. For at the word Ganodurum he writes this: Ganodurum, a town of the Helvetians in Celtic Gaul … where it was, authors do not agree. For Rhenanus and Althamer believe it to be Zurzach, or Laufenburg, towns situated on the Rhine between Constance and Basel: but Scudo, Cognatus, and Cœnalis judge that it was Constance on the Lake of Bregenz in Swabia. But at the word Certiacum he had premised this: Certiacum, a destroyed city of the Helvetians, to some is the village of Reckingen in the prefecture of Baden, but to others it is Zurzach, a very large village on the river Rhine, distant 5 miles from Forum Tiberii or Kaiserstuhl.

* in the Black Forest near Freiburg in the Breisgau.

* that is, a college of canons, or perhaps the place where they lived in common

* that is, the tabernacle of the altar

add had supplied*, or something similar

* that is, blue

* that is, lapis lazuli

§ IV. The year of his death; his burial; the announcements in the sacred calendars; whether he was canonized; his public veneration; his relics; his proper Office.

He died in the year 995 or 996: There is a slight difference of one year only among authors in determining the death of our holy Prelate, yet such that it does not seem it should be passed over without examination. Let us set forth therefore their opinions. The chronographer of Constance, page 646, says: He died on the VI Kal. of Sept. in the year CMXCVI: which year Crusius also notes on page 144, and the new German Life. Add the cited Brusch, folio 99, who affirms that he was then buried. But Hermannus Contractus marks the year immediately preceding, writing thus at it: At Constance the venerable bishop Gebehard died. But from Manilius I draw this at number 9. He there connects the year of the Lord 983 with the fourth year of his episcopate, whose beginning can be combined with the year 979, according to what was premised in §2. But the same biographer at number 19 reports that he died on the sixth

in the sixteenth year of his episcopate: whose beginning if you connect with its end, you will arrive at the year 995. But from the aforesaid Chronographer one year of his death cannot be certainly determined in preference to the other: for although he records that he departed this life in the year 996, as we have just seen, and adds that he had ruled for 16 years, yet he sets the beginning of the episcopal dignity received by him under a disjunctive particle, saying: Bishop in the year CMLXXIX or CMLXXX. But so slight a discrepancy of time can perhaps be composed, and the authors who vary in it reconciled among themselves, if by some the years are taken as not complete and by others as complete, as not rarely happens; by which manner of reckoning, as in other cases, so in this case of ours the apparent discord between them may be composed. We however have above woven the Saint's death into the year 995 or 996.

[32] What Manilius writes about his burial in the church of St. Gregory, where he was buried: that is, of the convent of Petershausen which he had founded, is confirmed from Hermannus Contractus, page 576 cited: In the basilica, he says, of holy Pope Gregory built by himself he rests buried. The chronographer of Constance agrees, page 646: Buried in the basilica of St. Gregory built by himself. Crusius on page 144 defines the place of burial more closely, when he adds that this happened there beneath the high altar before the choir. Of the marvelous things done on the occasion of the oft-mentioned burial, consult the biographer from number 20; where also is the Man's epitaph, of which also in Brusch, folio 99: add also Crusius, page 145, where he subjoins this: In his memory loaves were distributed every year, on Gebhard's day, to all who came, which were called Gebhard's loaves, Gebharts Brotlin. Now let us bring forward the sacred calendars in which the yearly memory of this holy Prelate is marked.

[33] announcements in the sacred calendars: whether he was canonized: That his name is not found among the most ancient Martyrologists is no wonder, since these flourished long before him. To the more recent therefore we must have recourse. It is found in the German Martyrology, which is commonly called the Canisian, and in the additions to Molanus's Usuard, in these words: In the city of Constance, the birthday of St. Gebehard, bishop and confessor. To which may be joined Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, and also the monastic hagiologists Wion, Dorganius, Menard, and Bucelin: of whom the first two announce him with the title famous for miracles. Moreover it is not foreign to our present purpose to inquire whether our holy Prelate was inscribed in the catalogue of the Citizens of heaven, as some will have it. Murer in Helvetia Sancta, which he published in German, records that he was canonized by Pope Innocent II on the day XVII of August in the year 1134, in the council of Pisa, and inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints in the fifth year of his pontificate. Following this author, or perhaps some other I know not whom, the writer of the summary of the new German Life narrates this: This holy bishop Gebhard was afterward canonized by Innocent II in the year MCXXXIV, on the day VII of August, in the hundred and thirty-ninth year after his death, at Pisa in an ecumenical council, and was inscribed in the number of the Saints. This council is not reckoned among the ecumenical or general councils, although we are not unaware that, the bishops of the whole West and other religious men being gathered, it is called a synod of great glory by the writer of the Life of St. Bernard in Labbe, volume 10 of the Councils, column 989. But of this canonization I find nothing handed down to memory in Labbe and Harduin, who record few things about that council. Let therefore the assertors of this canonization see on what authority they rested when they reported it; for whose truth we require other testimonies.

[34] his veneration, miracles; relics; there is given The Man's sacred body is held in special honor and veneration, as the German summary records, among the monks of Petershausen; and it adds that singular honor is paid him in the place of his birth, which is said to be Pfannenberg near Bregenz, on account of the divine benefits there granted through him, of which we shall treat below. Of the Saint's relics carried elsewhere we know scarcely anything. Thomas John Pessina de Czechorod in his Metropolis of the Church of Prague, writing of the relics for the most part gathered by the emperor Charles IV and kept there, reports this on page 516: A notable part of St. Gebhard the bishop, brought by Charles from the monastery of Petershausen, which is in the city of Constance, MCCCLIII. That his cult was formerly stronger among the people of Constance than in the seventeenth century is gathered from the fact that in the Breviary of Constance of the year 1609 I do not even find his name. But in two others, of which one printed at Lyons bears the year 1561, the other at Dillingen the year 1575, there is a proper Office of him, which I shall produce from the earlier edition, but corrected in several places from the later. In the first and second nocturn proper lessons from the Life are set, which I shall omit, since the Life which I shall give may be consulted. Nor shall I produce what is said in the same Office concerning St. Rufus. But it is given under this title: Of Gebehard, bishop of Constance. At Vespers, over all, "Praise ye." Antiphon.

[35] the Office Blessed Gebehard from infancy was allotted a good spirit: through which he was a teachable boy and greatly to be loved. Chapter. Behold a great Priest. Responsory. Holy Prelate of God, be not unmindful of those who are mindful of you, on this so solemn feast which we now keep to you: that your supports may always be at hand for us. Verse. Secure, with no troublesome one hindering us. That your supports. Hymn. O people, break the clouds of your heart, and rejoice with clear voice, and keep now the notable solemnities of Gebehard. Whom God from infancy filled with his grace: out of which he confers upon his own many mighty remedies. Who wondrously refused the building at Constance, and God deigned to show, in the likeness of a dove, the place of his burial, where he shines most brightly, like the lightning of the Milky Way , upon the places of his building. You, Prelate of the heavenly King and splendor of the court of Olympus, come to our aid, that we be not drowned by the storm of this world. You who nimbly brought away the head of the most blessed Pontiff Gregory, cleaving the streams of the Po. Prelate, the supreme Shepherd has led you out with jubilation from the prison of the flesh; we praise you with a canticle, that we may deserve with Christ, whose kingdom lacks a beginning and all exile, to reign without end.*

[36] O Champion, defend us from the enemy's bite and from falling, of the Saint lest for our guilt he lead us away with him in lamentation. But in the ranks of death defend us from fear of the enemy, and with joyful countenance lead us with you to heaven with applause. Grant it, unbegotten Father, with Jesus and the holy Breath, that by Gebehard's prayers we may be joined in the heavenly places. Amen. Antiphon at the Gospel canticle. Hail, illustrious confessor of Christ, Gebehard; hail, precious flower of paradise: who besprinkle all things with your sweet fragrance; make us, cleansed of every squalor of vices, and, under your governance, carried over this wide sea, one day happily to enter the heavenly country by your patronage. Collect. Almighty everlasting God, who granted to your people blessed Gebehard the bishop as a minister of eternal salvation; grant, we beseech you, that we may deserve always to have as our intercessor with you in heaven him whom we had as a teacher of life on earth. Through. At Matins, invitatory: In the confession of praise let us adore the Lord, who adorned his confessor Gebehard with the robe of glory. Psalm: Come, let us rejoice.

[37] In the first nocturn, antiphon. Nobly born of ancestors, but of ancestors far more illustrious by the faith of Christ, blessed Gebehard shines forth, as a gem gleams out of gold. Psalm: Blessed is the man. Antiphon. It is established that he was brought forth not by the usual birth, but cut out of his mother's womb, the Lord foreshowing it, who knew him even before. Psalm: Why have the nations raged. Antiphon. Brought forth to the light and entrusted to a nurse, he brought his father joy by his progress, as Isaac did: because the Lord loved him more than Solomon. Psalm: Lord, why. Verse: Behold a priest. There follow three proper lessons from the Life with these three responsories: Responsory. Begotten of a most noble stock, the holy prelate Gebehard adorned with upright manners the illustrious blood in which he shone: he flourished like a green palm, and like a cedar stretched himself out with the branches of the virtues. Verse. Planted in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. He flourished like a green palm.

[38] Responsory. While the flower of his first age was still in its spring, the spirit of knowledge inspiring him, from the Breviary the illustrious Gebehard, brought into the storerooms of the King, was so made drunk with the unmixed wine of the divine word that afterward he poured it forth, whence a river spread itself far and wide. Verse. The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment. That afterward he poured it forth. Responsory. The excellent man Gebehard, beloved of God and men, lovable to Pontiffs, to be venerated by princes. There shone forth the ornament of the world, the flower of paradise, the gem of heaven. Verse. The prudent and faithful steward of the Lord's household, predestined in heaven. There shone forth the ornament. In the second nocturn, antiphon. He, called back by the Spirit and adopted among the sons, is supported by sevenfold columns, that he may become a house of the wisdom from above. Psalm: When I called upon. Antiphon. He passed his infancy at home: where he grew up tender upon milk, that he might gradually make progress, and afterward receive the solid food of the church. Psalm: The words. Antiphon. Girding on the ornament of boyhood, Gebehard, chosen of God, is at once made a stranger to the world, and is given over to the discipline of letters. Psalm: Lord, our Lord. Verse: He led the just man. Responsory. A youth of the best disposition, growing strong daily in virtues, he left all the wanderings of the left hand, and with all his effort held to the paths of the right. Verse. Because of truth and meekness and justice. He left all the wanderings of the left hand. Lesson V. Responsory. A true Israelite, Gebehard, being enriched with his parents' inheritance, refused earthly wealth for the heavenly, as God charged by the prophet. Verse. If riches abound, he says, set not your heart upon them. As God charged. Lesson VI. Responsory. The chosen disciple of Christ, Gebehard, turning over the evangelical words in his mind and fulfilling them by works, being freed from Egypt out of all that he possessed, made himself a dwelling. Verse. Because he loved your commandments, O Lord, above gold and topaz. Out of all that he possessed.

[39] of Constance In the third nocturn, antiphon. In the tabernacle which God pitched and not man, while Gebehard ministered innocently with Samuel, he deservedly pleased both God and the holy prelate Conrad. Psalm: Lord, who shall dwell. Antiphon. He, like another strong of hand, wrested his patrimony from his coheirs, that he might exalt the beauty of your sweetness, according to the desire of his Lord's heart. Psalm: O Lord, in your strength. Antiphon. A wonderful exchange: to be able to have the Lord appeased, when a very small clod is offered to him whose is all the earth. Psalm: The earth is the Lord's. Verse: The Lord loved him. Gospel: Watch. Responsory. The blessed prelate Gebehard, stirred by the love of Christ, built a holy dwelling both here and in the heavens. Because he made Christ his heir. Verse. He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his justice remains for ever and ever. Because.

[40] here Responsory. After sixteen years of his rule, full of happy merits, that citizen of Jerusalem is freed from the Babylonian captivity, and is restored to the country on high: where he keeps an everlasting passover. Verse. In peace has his place been made, and his dwelling in

Sion: where. Responsory. O Gebehard of most exalted merit, priest of Christ, who, following the commandments of God, gave all your goods to the poor, be present to us your servants, weighed down by the burden of our vices: that, helped by your patronage, we may one day deserve to enjoy the eternal banquet of Christ. Verse. You who now triumph in heaven, having pity on our afflictions, appear before the face of God for us: that. At Lauds, antiphon. In the Lord shall the works of this man be praised, who sowed in blessings, to whom nothing was lacking when he gave out all his goods to the poor.

[41] reprinted. Antiphon. He made the singers stand facing the altar, and in their sound made sweet measures, "for a hymn, O Lord, becomes you in Sion." Antiphon. That just man comes leaping among the mountains, passing over the hills, standing beside the Sun of righteousness, fair and comely, and flowering like a palm with all the virtues. Antiphon. Blessed Gebehard was found without spot: because he hoped not in money: therefore his goods have been established in the Lord, and all the church shall tell of his alms. Antiphon. Today, his body being laid aside, the holy Prelate, rich in merits, has entered into the holy places, made like unto them in the glory of the Saints. Antiphon at the Gospel canticle. Blessed be the Lord God of our father; who by his doctrine and example built up his church, by his happy assumption gladdened his city on high, and by his solemn remembrance today consoles his household here present. At Mass: Your priests. Lesson: Behold a priest. Gradual: Behold a great priest, alleluia. The Lord has sworn. Offertory: I have found David. Gospel: Watch. Communion: Blessed is that servant.*

* that is, of the Milky Way, or of heaven

perhaps transiliens*

§ V. Notices of the chronographer of Constance; the writer of the Life and of the miracles; the Saint's prophecies.

When that chronographer wrote, and the author of the Life: Of the chronographer of Constance, whom we have much used in this Commentary, some notice must be given to the reader. Vossius, On the Latin Historians, book 3, chapter 10, page 651, says: In the time of the emperor Maximilian there flourished also James Manilius, a doctor of Bregenz, who made a name for himself by a Chronicle of the bishopric of Constance. He finished it at Bregenz in the year MDXIX, on the day XIX of August: in which very year the emperor Maximilian departed the earth. This Chronicle, with an appendix down to the year MDCVII, and with the illustrious families of the bishops, John Pistorius first published: in whom his name is given as James Manlius, and on page 722 it is said that the author finished his book at Bregenz in the year just marked, but on the XVII day of August — one who would have greater authority if he had greater age. The same holds in the case of the biographer Felix Manilius, who is affirmed to have written at the same time by Vossius, cited page 650, where he reports this: Felix Manilius in the year of the Lord MDXI set down in two books the Life of St. Gebhart, the second bishop of Constance … Henry Canisius first published it from manuscript papers in volume VI of the Ancient Readings. From this it is read reprinted in Surius on this day, and finally in Jacques Basnage, of whom above at number 4, published again in print in the year 1725.

[43] This latest editor of the Life, in his Observations upon it, page 821, gnaws at St. Gebehard's prophecy, one of the Saint's two prophecies which he narrates thus, and which is found in our edition in his Life, number 23: Know for certain that I have obtained from almighty God that none of the brothers now serving Christ in this monastery (that of Petershausen) shall be hurt by the second death, but that all, undergoing temporal death, shall possess eternal life with Christ. Having cited which, he subjoins this: Does God then save all monks indiscriminately, however they live? An insipid and inept question: by which that heterodox writer wrongly interprets the Saint's prophecy, and tries to suck poison out of his words, which he wrests into an evil sense. For what of it? Appearing to Beriger or Beringer, the first abbot of the convent of Petershausen, he indicates as a certain thing that he had obtained from almighty God that none of the brothers there then serving Christ should perish, but that all should be saved after death. The holy Prelate therefore indicates (as we at least interpret this passage of Manilius) that he had obtained from God singular graces for working out eternal salvation, and the gift of final perseverance, for all those monks who at that time were there serving Christ.

[44] What here is unfitting, what worthy of Basnage's censorial rod? is explained: Away with it then: Does God then save all monks indiscriminately, however they live? Whether the Saint's help before God for their salvation led him to this false and gross digression we do not inquire. This much is established: that he was estranged from the patronage of the Saints interceding before God for their clients, since he was most devoted to the Reformed, as they call it, religion, as is said in his eulogy in volume 1, after the general Preface of the Work cited above and reprinted by him. Another prophecy of St. Gebehard, which is narrated in our edition at number 33, has no difficulty, because it is announced under this condition: Whoever shall be found in this monastery SERVING WILLINGLY WITH A GOOD PURPOSE, etc., which may there be read. It remains that we treat of Manilius's sincerity.

[45] The Life written with more sincerity than authority: In his preface he speaks thus at number 3: We have not learned all the Saint's deeds, but a few have come to our ears by the report of the elders, which also, so far as we can, we take care to transmit to posterity. Then, excusing himself for his unpolished style, he commends the credit of those from whom he learned that Saint's history thus: Although those from whose report we have received these things were such and so great that we could better believe their words than the sight of our own eyes. Finally he rightly blames the silence of the elders who saw and were present at the things which God wrought through him. But although these things serve to remove the suspicion that the elders thrust lies upon Manilius, yet this remains: that in traditions of this kind false things are not rarely mingled, or at least things not sufficiently founded in antiquity, which are indeed narrated in good faith and transmitted to posterity, but have not the force of genuine history. But after the miracles the same biographer speaks thus at number 38: Behold, Father, as I could, I have gladly performed your commands, nor have I written with my hands anything but what I have heard with my ears from most truthful men, and approved elders too. From these things it follows that he wrote with more sincerity than authority. Among other things his various hyperboles displease: likewise the scarcely credible birth of the Saint, chapter 1, number 4; and the oath, chapter 2, number 24.

[46] with miracles As to the miracles, to the ancient ones which Manilius narrates must be added recent ones, approved by public authority, and very fit for propagating the glory and veneration of that same holy Prelate among mortals. We are about to give them after the Life, rendered into Latin from the German printing. Yet we set down here another old one from the German summary: It is still more worthy of note what happened in the year MXCIV to a certain young Religious at Petershausen. He, when at the time when matins were being sung in the choir he was pressed with great thirst, went out of the choir to a certain well to draw water with which to quench his thirst: and when unwarily he wished to let down the vessel meant for drawing the water, he himself fell headlong into the very deep and narrow well, with his feet raised in the air.

[47] very many There was no means at hand by which he could draw himself out of the water: no voice with which to implore help; no helping hand to aid him: in a word, all hope of life was lost. One hope alone remained, fixed by a pious thought upon St. Gebhard the Wonderworker, patron and founder of that convent; whose helping hand, when invoked, he at once also experienced, which, taking him by the feet, drew him unharmed out of the well. Still dripping with water he returned to the choir. His master, marveling, asked him what this meant, whence he came back all wet. But he told all that had happened; namely how in the aforesaid manner he had fallen into the well, and thence had been miraculously drawn out again by holy Gebhard and preserved from death. Which miracle afterward stirred up very many to greater veneration, love, and devotion toward holy Gebhard, patron and founder of the aforesaid convent.

[48] Then, having narrated the apparition of which Manilius treats at number 27, the holy Man the author of the summary thus continues and affirms this: But although that Religious of whom we treat at the number just cited made that apparition known to few, holy Gebhard's sanctity, merits, and most powerful patronage with God were made evident to the whole world by countless other miracles. For many, invoking holy Gebhard the bishop with trust, were freed from evil spirits: many lame and enfeebled recovered the power to walk, the blind their sight, and those oppressed with various diseases their health: especially pregnant and laboring women experienced his help and patronage in their extreme need. Which the annals of the convent of Petershausen bear witness to at length by almost countless miracles (which in this summary, for brevity's sake, I do not adduce), being filled with such prodigious cases and testimonies worthy of credit.

[49] Like prodigies happen even today almost daily, not only at Petershausen, is recorded to have shone. where his sacred body is buried and is held in special honor and veneration, but also in his own country, in which he was born to the world: as very many pregnant and laboring women in their need, and also children oppressed by various calamities, and many others, have not long since experienced the patronage and powerful help of this holy Patron, their fellow citizen; as is sufficiently plain from the appended appendix of new miracles examined and approved under oath.

LIFE

By Felix Manilius,

published from the manuscript documents of the monastery of Petershausen in Henry Canisius, Ancient Readings, volume 6, page 475 and following.

Gebhard or Gebehard, bishop and confessor, at Constance in Swabia (St.)

BHL Number: 3292

By Felix Manilius.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The author, having recorded God's mercy in redeeming man, When the Maker of things established the first-formed man in paradise with saving commandments, and set him over that place that he might there beget a spiritual offspring, until, the number of the predestined being complete, without any intervention of death he might ascend with body and soul together to that place from which the malignant spirit had fallen with his followers: the devil, goaded by the ill-will of envy that flesh should possess the glory which he as a spirit had lost, seduced man by a deceiving persuasion, and, by promising the divinity which he had not had, stripped him also of immortality along with the glory * which he already had. But God, detesting the enemy's malice more than man's fall, called man back indeed to penance; but punished the deceiver with eternal pain: and he gave man rulers and masters, to whom by his Spirit he inspired what was to be done and what to be avoided, that they might govern the rest and teach them to walk by the paths of justice, and the crooked ways

to shun. To this end he promised them his coming into the world, that by his own flesh he might free our flesh, and by his own light might enlighten our blindness, who sat in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death. And this he foretold first through the patriarchs, then through the law, and lastly through the manifold oracles of the prophets; for all these were sent to announce beforehand the coming of the Savior in the flesh, and to prepare for the Lord a perfect people.

[2] among other Saints But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons; and not only did he call those who were under the law, but also those who were without a yoke, saying to them: Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. When therefore the dispensation was finished for which he had taken flesh, and when he returned to the Father, from whom by the unity of the divine majesty he had never departed, he did not leave his servants orphans, but strengthened and made them firm by the consolation of his Spirit, and bade them preach and testify among all nations penance, and the receiving of the remission of sins through the laver of regeneration, and the faith of Christ the Lord, and the entrance into the heavenly kingdom, and the glory that shall abide. And the first sowers of this word were the Apostles, then their successors, namely the priests of the Lord, very many of whom contended even unto blood for that same word, and gladly endured death for the Lord, that they might deserve to become partakers of eternal life. But others, by fastings, vigils, and prayers, offering themselves upon the altar of their heart as a living victim to the Lord, and announcing to others the word of life, brought back with gain the talent entrusted to them.

[3] [he writes that St. Gebhard shone forth, and adds whence he drew what he reports of him.] Among whom the most blessed Gebhard glowed in the parts of Alemannia like a most splendid star, who, adorned with every radiance of the virtues, was strong in uprightness of manners and in the testimony of his life, so that almighty God through his merits often wrought marvels; all whose deeds we have not learned, but a few have come to our ears by the report of the elders, which also, so far as we can, we take care to transmit to posterity. Let no one therefore be bitten by the lightness of our words; let no one be given a distaste for reading by unpolished speech; and let the hearer attend not to who speaks or how, but to what and of whom he speaks; nor ought this to move anyone, that we presume to write not things seen but things heard: since Luke and Mark also ^a wrote their Gospel, and very many of the holy Fathers wrote what they truly received not by sight but by hearing alone. Although those too from whose report we have received these things were such and so great that we could better believe their words than the sight of our own eyes; but in this the men before us are certainly not slightly to be blamed, who saw and were present at those things which God wrought through him, in that they took no care to hand these things down in writing to the praise of Christ. But leaving these things aside, let us come, with God's help, to the order of our narration.

ANNOTATION.

rather with grace*

THE DIVISION OF THE CHAPTERS IN HENRY CANISIUS'S EDITION.

Book I. Preface.

Chapter I. Of the fact that he was cut out of his mother's womb.

Chapter II. Of his boyhood.

Chapter III. That already as a young man he conversed with blessed Conrad.

Chapter IV. How he was foretold by the same to be a future bishop.

Chapter V. Of his election.

Chapter VI. How the image of the holy Mother of God appeared to him in his sleep.

Chapter VII. Of the emperor Otto.

Chapter VIII. Of his anointing and the holiness of his life.

Chapter IX. How he compelled his brother to divide the paternal inheritance with him.

Chapter X. That out of his own share of the estates he built a monastery.

Chapter XI. When he began this.

Chapter XII. Of the raising up of him who fell with the porch.

Chapter XIII. Of the situation of that church, its dedication, and the relics of the Saints placed there.

Chapter XIV. That he obtained a privilege at Rome.

Chapter XV. The privilege of that monastery.

Chapter XVI. That he then also obtained the head of St. Gregory.

Chapter XVII. How he crossed the river Po with dry feet.

Chapter XVIII. That he appointed twelve brothers to the place.

Chapter XIX. That he chose craftsmen from among his servants, and what rights he established for them.

Chapter XX. Of the soldiers whom he appointed to the monastery.

Chapter XXI. How he raised up a lame man.

Chapter XXII. Of his death.

Chapter XXIII. Of his burial and of the miracles shown at his funeral.

Chapter XXIV. The epitaph written upon his tomb.

Chapter XXV. How after his death he appeared to abbot Periggerus.

Chapter XXVI. Of that Saint's habit.

Chapter XXVII. How long he was in the episcopate, and at what time he died.

THE SECOND BOOK, OF THE MIRACLES.

Chapter I. Of the cloud which was seen over his tomb, and how he appeared to a certain man in glory.

Chapter II. Of a blind man enlightened.

Chapter III. That many possessed persons were freed through him.

Chapter IV. Of the healing of a paralytic vexed by a demon.

Chapter V. Of a woman vexed.

Chapter VI. How he appeared to a certain brother.

Chapter VII. Of the sacristan of the church.

Chapter VIII. Of a scabby brother.

Chapter IX. Of the cure of a paralytic boy.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's illustrious family; the wonderful manner in which he saw the light; his upbringing; his episcopate; the founding of the monastery of Petershausen.

Book I.

Chapter I.

Blessed Gebhard was born of a most noble ^a stock of the Alemanni, namely of a father by the name of Uzo or Huozo, The Saint's noble and wonderful birth: count of the Rhætians ^b. Whom, while his mother carried him in her womb, being seized by sickness at the demand of the debt of death; and being set in her last extremity, she made known to her people that she carried a living infant in her womb, and asks that when her soul had been breathed out they should cut open her belly, take out the little infant, wrap him in a warm mass of fat, and most carefully keep him for God's providence. All which things were carried out as she had asked. But when the hour came at which the infant should have been born, if it had been permitted him to be cherished in his mother's womb, the little infant uttered a cry, and thence it was known that he must be unwrapped and given to the light. O wondrous works of almighty God! who, as blessed John the Forerunner of the Lord says, is able of stones to raise up sons to Abraham, and almost without the fostering of a woman's womb begot a column of his Church. To him certainly may be applied what the Lord said to the Prophet Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you.

II.

III.

[5] They took up the little infant therefore and entrusted him to be nursed, and when he was grown gave him over to letters. his upbringing: Then the boy began to be of good disposition, and, as a most prudent bee gathers honey from flowers of many kinds, so did he gather from the divers pages of sacred Scripture sweet-sounding sayings into the hive of his heart, with which he should afterward make sweet the throats of the peoples. But when he had passed the bounds of boyhood and had reached the life of youth, he began to frequent the companies of God, and especially of the blessed priest worthy of God, Conrad, bishop of Constance, of whom also he was the most intimate attendant, so that, namely, in his uprightness he might learn whatever still needed to be amended in his own manners. For he knew it was written: With the holy you shall be holy, and with the innocent man you shall be innocent, and with the perverse you shall be perverse; and therefore he fled the company of the depraved, saying with the Prophet: My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that I may sit with them; and I ministered to him who walked in the unspotted way.

IV.

[6] Whence also the Holy Spirit deigned to foretell of him to his faithful ones his episcopate foretold by St. Conrad, that he would bear the Lord's yoke and would be the father of the household in the house of the Lord. At length, when Conrad of blessed memory, of whom we made mention above, was one day sitting with his people, and for some cause had gone out of the house for a time , the man of the Lord Gebehard came, for the sake of jesting, as often happens, and sat in the place from which the bishop had gone. But the bishop, coming in unexpectedly and seeing Gebehard occupying his place, said to him, smiling, as is reported: Come, said he, Gebehard, how quickly have you wished to forestall my place: but it shall not be so; for it is not due to you after me, but to another. But when he has been taken away, the Lord has predestined you as the ruler and shepherd of his sheep. And that this prophecy ^c was true, the outcome of the matter proved. For, most blessed Conrad having been translated to the Lord, Bamenoldus succeeded him in the episcopate, who presided about four years; and when he was dead, the clergy, senate, and people of Constance with one accord chose Gebehard as their shepherd; and that that election was acceptable to the supreme Shepherd, and that this Shepherd had been predestined for his sheep by the Lord himself, was shown by an evident sign.

VI.

VII.

[7] For there was in that same church an image of the holy Mother of God Mary carved on a wooden panel, which was seen by the blessed Man in his sleep to hold out to him the pastoral staff, confirmed by the Virgin Mother of God, and by the emperor Otto, and to command him to feed the Lord's flock and to show it the pastures of eternal life. Otto also, the second of that name ^d, the emperor, hearing of the death of the bishop of Constance and of the consent of the people in the election of the venerable man Gebehard, rejoicing sent him a staff with the pontifical ring, commanding that with the subjection of sheep all should obey Gebehard and should rejoice that he had been given them by the Lord as pontiff. For that same Man was most intimate with the lord emperor, because he was his gossip ^e, and therefore he rejoiced that he had found an occasion of promoting him to that which he had long desired, and for which he judged him most worthy by all the holiness of his life.

VIII.

IX.

[8] The canonical election being accomplished, and he being anointed with the ointment of sanctification which goes down from the head upon the beard of Aaron, he adorns himself with merits, and divides the goods with his brothers. the Man of the Lord began to imitate the example of the good shepherd, to shun the faithlessness of the hireling, to bring back with gain the talent entrusted to him, to busy himself with every effort of mind, to give his labor to every virtue, as befitted a steward of the Lord: good, merciful, modest, sober, chaste, and, to say it briefly, conspicuous in all goodness, adorned with every comeliness of manners. For he went from virtue to virtue, that he might see the beauty of the Lord in Sion. With all watchfulness he kept his heart, attending to that which the Lord says in the Gospel: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God: he became all things to all men, that he might save all: and he did all things for God's sake, that he might become his heir, and coheir with Christ. But because he was of most noble and most wealthy parents, who had left to him and to his brothers a copious multitude of estates (as human greed is, which is not filled with riches), his brothers claimed all for themselves, and had given their brother nothing of the substance left to him: but the Man of God, not from covetousness of estates, but from love of God, to whom he desired to hand them over,

being enkindled, demanded that his own share of the possessions ^f be given him by his brothers. And when they refused, he wrested it from them by force, that they should divide all in equal balance, nor did he permit them to have anything of what had fallen to his own lot. But this he did not out of malice but out of divine zeal, with a burning mind, lest perchance his brothers should incur peril to their souls if they possessed anything unjustly usurped for themselves.

XI.

[9] But this division of the inheritance being accomplished, the man of the Lord Gebehard, He builds the monastery of Petershausen. turning over in mind that saying in which the Savior says in the Gospel: Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and, Unless a man renounce all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple — built out of his own estates the monastery of St. Gregory the Pope on the bank of the river Rhine near the city of Constance, appointing there twelve brothers who should apply themselves there day and night to the divine offices, for whom he ordained that food and clothing should be sufficiently supplied out of his own means. Of earthly substance therefore he reserved nothing for himself, but faithfully gave out all to Christ's poor, as it is written: He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his justice remains for ever. He would not lay up treasure for himself on earth, where he would not know for whom he gathered, but he laid up for himself treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, where thieves do not dig through nor steal. And in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and eighty-three, but the fourth of his episcopate, and the eleventh of the reign of Otto the second, he began to build for the Lord this same house made with hands out of material stones — he himself a living stone to be set in the eternal house not made with hands in the heavens, saying with the Apostle: For we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one to come; he laid up for himself a good foundation for the time to come, that he might lay hold on the true life which is in Christ Jesus.

ANNOTATIONS.

egressus*.

others Gaminolphus*.

CHAPTER II.

A miracle; a privilege and sacred relics obtained at Rome; other miracles; the cares undertaken for the monastery of Petershausen; his death, burial, and apparition.

XII.

When therefore, God prospering him, he had laid the foundations of the church, He heals a man half-dead from a fall: he began with all his effort to press on daily with the work begun, and, God giving the increase, it came to this, that as the walls rose high, wooden scaffoldings had necessarily to be raised, by which those carrying burdens might go up and down, and upon which also those doing the work might stand. And behold, on a certain day there happened suddenly and unexpectedly what greatly saddened all who were present. For when all were vying with one another at the work, it happened that, the supports on which the workmen stood being broken, they fell to the ground, so that the master workman who was over the work was found as though lifeless, his whole body shattered. And when by what had happened they were affected with great sadness, the man of the Lord Gebehard, trusting in him who said, Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give you, bade him be lifted up and carried into the oratory of St. Michael which was there; and, all being put out, he himself shut the door and gave himself to prayer. And as he prayed the crushed man rose up whole, and he bade him return to the work, and said: Truly hereafter no one shall suffer peril to his soul from falling here.

XIII.

[11] he adorns and dedicates the church of Petershausen: And he ordered all the walls to be built up in a fixed line without porches, as they are seen to this day, so that the paneled roofs of that church appear to be suspended in the form of a cross. Which paneled roofs he adorned on every side with gilded rods in the manner of a starry sky: but the walls all round he decorated with various painting, not such as the prophet Ezekiel beheld through the pierced wall ^a, but such as should represent for the edification of the beholders the works of the Savior which he wrought in the Old or in the New Testament. But the situation of that church is toward the western quarter: it was formed after the pattern of the basilica of the prince of the Apostles built at Rome, on account of which he called that place the House of Peter. And round about it he built dwellings suitable for monks, and, all being completed, in the tenth year he dedicated the church in honor of St. Gregory the Pope ^b, and heaped it with manifold and magnificent relics of the Saints: among which also he placed there with the greatest zeal the arm of St. Philip the apostle ^c, granted to him with very many others by the emperor Otto the third.

XIV.

XV.

[12] And while with the greatest zeal he gathered from every side out of divers places relics of the Saints and everything else pertaining to divine worship, having set out for Rome, for that same cause he also hastened to Rome, that from the thresholds of the Apostles he might obtain the remains of Saints and a privilege of liberty, which also he magnificently obtained. For when he had handed over the oft-mentioned place to the prince of the Apostles by right of ownership, he was counted worthy to receive from his vicar John such a privilege: John the bishop, servant of the servants of God, in the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, namely of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We wish it to be known to all Christ's faithful how Gebehard the second, the beloved bishop of the holy church of Constance, our most beloved fellow brother, coming to Rome for the sake of prayer to the thresholds of Peter and Paul the Princes of the Apostles, and into our presence, reported to us how he, impelled at God's bidding, had built a church of monks upon the bank of the river which is called Rhine, in honor of blessed Gregory the confessor of Christ, in which place he most excellently established the rule of St. Benedict the abbot and of the monastic brothers: where he most devoutly offered, out of his own estates which came to him from his parents, and a part out of the goods of his holy church, for the sustenance and stipend of those monks, namely, who in that holy monastery do not cease day and night diligently to render the praises of Christ.

[13] Concerning which, beseeching the clemency of our humility, he obtains that the aforesaid place itself may abide for ever under the protection and defense of St. Peter and of us and of our successors the Pontiffs: yet so that no king or duke, nor marquis, nor even bishop who from time to time shall be in that bishopric, nor any person, may dare to alienate anything of all that has been granted there by that same aforesaid bishop Gebehard, or in any way to take it away from that holy monastery; but we grant that these things shall remain safe, established, and firm even unto times to come; and this too, by apostolic command, at the request of our aforesaid fellow Brother, we forbid in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: that anyone be set over that monastery save him whom the brothers there diligently serving Christ shall by common consent have chosen, and that the bishop take care to confirm the elected man with the title of blessing. And this same it has pleased us to decree concerning the election of the advocate ^d.

[14] But if it should ever happen — which God forbid — that the bishop of that same holy church be a heretic or a schismatic, let the brothers of the aforesaid monastery have power, by the authority of the Apostolic See, to seek ecclesiastical orders wherever they shall know a Catholic bishop to be; nor let that wicked man presume to inflict any injury upon them for this: for if any man, of whatever order or power, which we do not believe, shall try in anything to break those things which have been granted by our aforesaid Brother to the aforesaid monastery, and shall wish to take them from the right and dominion of that monastery, unless he repent, let him be excommunicated from the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and anathematized by all the holy fathers and by us, and let him not communicate at his life's end, and even when he is dead let his name in no way be recited among the solemnities of Masses. But whoever with pious regard shall be the keeper and procurator of this our precept, let him deserve the grace of blessing and life from the same Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen. Written by the hand of John, notary and regionary ^e and keeper of the archives of the sacred Lateran palace, in the month of April and the second Indiction: but given on the seventh Kalends of May, by the hand of Gregory, bishop of the holy church of Porto and librarian of the Apostolic See, in the fourth year of the Pontificate of our lord John, the most holy Pope.

XVI.

XVII.

[15] But among the other relics of the Saints which that Pontiff had given the blessed Man, which, lest the Romans pursuing him should seize them, he also bestowed on him the head of the most holy Pope Gregory ^f: but only a few, and those most intimate with him, knowing of it. But the Man of God, having received so great a gift,

anointed with the greatest joy, hastily goes out of the City, fearing that which would indeed have happened, had he not set out by divine ministration. For the Romans, learning that they were deprived of so great a pledge, as though bereaved, groaning, went out of the city and with one accord pursue the Man of God. Perceiving which, he took to flight, and fleeing came from Piacenza ^g as far as the river Po, which he found to have risen to an immense height, and grieved that the boat stood on the other side of the river; and when he saw that no one was at hand who could bring the boat across, and feared that his pursuers were even now coming up, he fled to the only aid he then knew, the arms of prayer, and gave himself a suppliant to God on the bank of the river; whom presently, as he called upon him, Christ enlarged in tribulation: because the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers; and while he was still crying out he said: Behold, I am here. For as he prayed and implored the mercy of almighty God that, if it were his will that those spoils of the Saints should reach their appointed place, he would come to his aid in this crisis of need — wonderful to tell, the Po sank down, and through its own midst opened an excellent way for the most holy Man; and as the Psalmist sings of the people of Israel: The sea saw and fled, Jordan was turned back; and again: You led your people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron* — so we too can proclaim of him: that the Po saw him and fled, and was turned back from its course, and the Lord led his faithful ones through many waters by the hand of his servant Gebhard.

[16] And the Man of God himself, as soon as he saw the way opened to him by the Lord, he crosses the Po dry-shod. entering with all his company, passed over with all eagerness. But one worthless man of that Saint's retinue, being made the last of those crossing, when all the others had gone out, was found alone in the channel of the river, and, being overtaken by the waters rushing together, was drowned, according to that which is written: Woe to him that is alone, for when he falls he has none to lift him up. When this was announced to the Man of God, he said: Do not be sad at this; for we ought to have paid a fare in this place, in payment of which let us believe that this man has been taken by the Lord; and giving thanks to Christ with gladness, let us go on our way. But those who had pursued the Man of God thither, seeing what had happened, return to their own homes. But who, hearing these things, would not be amazed; and who, amazed, would believe that out of the barren land of the Alemanni so great a Man shone forth, through whom God in these times deigned to renew ancient marvels? For as Moses with the people of Israel passed dry-shod through the Red Sea, and Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha through the streams of Jordan, so this Beloved of the Lord, shutting up the swift waves in the channel of the Po by faith, passed with secure steps along a path until then not granted to human feet.

XVIII.

XIX.

XX.

[17] But when he had come home, the relics being placed with all diligence and twelve brothers appointed to the place, as was said above, he established Periggerus ^h as the thirteenth ⁱ, to hold Christ's place among them. After this, having called together his servants, he chose out the best of them and appointed for them cooks and bakers, With singular care he provides for the monks of Petershausen: innkeepers and fullers, cobblers and gardeners, carpenters ^k, and masters of the several crafts, and appointed for them that on the day on which they served the brothers they should be fed of the brothers' food and bread, because the workman is worthy of his food. And that they might serve their lords with a good will, he heaped upon them a gift of this kind: namely, that when any of those present, or of their successors who should be of their stock, died, no death-dues ^l should be taken from them, but the heirs should possess the inheritance left them undivided: but if anyone of another stock succeeded, he should be a stranger to this gift. He appointed also other retainers who should serve on horseback, namely, that they should always be ready to ride wherever need required, and to lend the brothers their horses whenever they should ask. And these things the man of the Lord provided, as a winged living creature full of eyes before and behind, that, namely, the brothers there serving Christ, being sufficiently furnished with spiritual and bodily necessities, might, unencumbered, be at leisure with Mary for the contemplative life at the Lord's feet, and that the solicitude of Martha in the active life might not now and then trouble them; and that it might be, as it is written: Nothing is wanting to those who fear him: for he knew it written: Through want many have sinned; and therefore he provided them inwardly and outwardly with all that was necessary, lest, need pressing them, they should seek the help of this life with peril to their souls, and he himself for this should have received not a blessing but from God the strict judge the punishment of hell.

XXI.

[18] When therefore on a certain day he was walking in the oft-mentioned place, he heals a lame man: he met a certain lame man, an inhabitant of that place, who with knees bowed to the ground, and with little stools which he carried in his hands, held his head up from the earth, and walked bent in his whole body after the manner of a four-footed beast. And he was most skilled in every carving of wood, as may be better learned from the doors of that same basilica. When therefore the venerable Pontiff had seen him, he said to him: Man, why do you press the earth with hands and knees, and not walk upon upright feet? You know, he says, you have long known, my Lord, that, being made weak by God's judgment, I cannot move a step anywhere upright. But he held out to the lame man the staff which he carried in his hand: Take it, he said, and support yourself on this, and walk henceforth with a straight course. And he, taking the staff, raised himself upon it, and, rejoicing and praising the Lord, began to run with new steps. O unspeakable Man, and to be compared with the princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul! of whom the one raised up the lame man lying and begging at the Beautiful gate of the temple ^m; but the other restored alive and safe Eutychus who was sleeping and fell from the third loft to the lower parts ⁿ: so this Beloved of the Lord made a lame man — not lying, but crawling on hands and knees — to walk on his own feet, and restored alive and unharmed a man who had fallen from the height of the walls; in which matter it must be considered how holy and of how great merit with God he was, through whom Christ deigned to show things not less than those he showed even through his own Apostles. For in our modern times, even when the charity of many grows cold, the Truth deigned to fulfill in his Faithful one what he promised to his disciples, saying: If you shall ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you.

XXII.

[19] But when the rewarder of good works had determined to bring his Servant out of the troubled sea of this world to the harbor of perpetual rest, being struck with bodily trouble, he dies, he was not found sleeping, but with lamp lighted, going to meet the Lord as he came and knocked, he opened to him with joy, saying with the Apostle: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ; and when the weakness of the body grew heavier, and he had a presentiment that he would soon pass from this world, he asked to be buried in the church which he himself had built: for at that time he was staying in the city of Constance, in which also that same sickness had seized him. And when the sickness reached his vitals, in the sixteenth year of his episcopate, on the sixth of the Kalends of September, he entered upon the way of all flesh; and, being borne up, as must truly be believed, by angelic hands, he presented to the Lord the talent entrusted to him doubled, and deserved to hear from the Author himself: Well done, good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful in a little: I will set you over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord. When therefore he had been washed and clothed in priestly garments, as is the custom, and laid upon the bier and carried to the church, a dissension arose whether he should be buried in that church, namely his own spouse, or, as he himself had asked, in that which had been built by him. And while they wrangled thus among themselves, some desiring to fulfill his request, and others grieving to be without the remains of so great a pastor, at length the greater part overcame the lesser, which cried out that it would not be robbed of its father's relics. And they decreed that he should be buried in that same place.

XXIII.

[20] But those who had been appointed to carry the bier, coming forward, and is buried tried to lift the coffin and to carry it to the prepared sepulcher: and when they stretched out their arms to the bier, they began to tremble in their whole bodies and to be shaken with immense terror, so that, almost losing human sense, they became senseless; and the bier itself was weighed down with such heaviness that it could not be moved by human strength. Then all who were present, terrified by this miracle, began to say that that place of burial had not been predestined for him by God. And at length, corrected by the divine judgment, they decreed that he should be buried where he himself had asked. And the bearers, coming forward again, lifted the coffin with all speed, and all its former heaviness was so wholly changed that they felt they were carrying almost no weight at all.

[21] But when they were going out of the door of that church, not without miracles the divine mercy deigned to show another miracle no less. For as they were going out over the threshold of the church, as has been said, a dove flew up in the sight of all, and settled — none doubting it — upon the aforesaid bier of the blessed Man, and did not depart thence until, having crossed the river, they had entered the church of St. Gregory. Which as soon as they entered, the dove which had been seen disappeared, and none was afterward able to see it; and so great a fragrance of sweetness received them there that all believed themselves as it were renewed, and none could recall that he had ever perceived anything of so great a fragrance. Which fragrance also remained over the holy body until they had given him to burial with the greatest honor in the southern part of that church: for because he had been of a dove's simplicity, rightly did a dove appear at his funeral; through which the sincerity of his mind and the innocence of his life might be shown: rightly at the obsequies of the merciful Pastor were the nostrils of his good sheep refreshed with a new fragrance of sweetness — those, namely, who before were always refreshed in their souls by his preaching and likewise by his prayer.

[22] wrought on that occasion: his epitaph: But whether in that dove his holy soul appeared, as is read also of other Saints whose souls have often been seen to pierce the heavens in the likeness of a dove; or whether some other spirit appeared, is indeed unknown to us; but it is known to God, to whom all things are naked and open: who by this very miracle deigned to show to men his Servant glorified in heaven. Therefore, the blessed Pontiff's soul being received into heaven, and his flesh honorably commended to the earth, they inscribed such an epitaph upon his tomb in golden characters:

O part owed to earth, despise deceiving times, And remember the way to which these ashes bear witness. Here lies the honor of our nation, and the nation's grief. He ruled over this city, but profited the whole world. And he founded for God this seat and the house of a temple. O God, pardoning, have mercy on the earthly part.

Render a just return, for this man had loved you.

[23] an apparition and a prophecy: After this, on a certain night the abbot of that same monastery, Periggerus by name, of whom we made mention above, entered the oratory for the sake of prayer: and while in that silence of the night he was applying himself rather intently to prayer, blessed Gebehard appeared to him and with cheerful countenance spoke to him: Know for certain that I have obtained from almighty God that none of the brothers now serving Christ in this monastery shall be hurt by the second death; but that all, undergoing temporal death, shall possess everlasting life with Christ ^o. Having said this, he vanished from his eyes, nor could he see him any more. For the Blessed one himself, having now won the victory over this world, did not forget the afflictions of his own still laboring in the world; but, as a certain writer says, True love of Christ is a true keeping of the law. And he who loves men fulfills the commandments of God: remembering his former love, he helped before God those who served him and still labored on the way, and consoled them about the prosperous accomplishing of their journey; that, namely, they might hasten the more ardently along the way of uprightness, the less they doubted that they would come to their country. Wherefore it befits us also assiduously to implore his help, that, aided by his merits, we may escape the perils of this exile and deserve the country of paradise.

[24] the time of his see and of his death. That same venerable Hero was also altogether bald of head: and he was wont to confirm his speech with this oath, as though he said: By my head that was not born: because, namely, he was not born but cut out of his mother's womb and wrapped in a warm mass of fat, on account of which also they said that he had a broad baldness. And he sat in the episcopate sixteen years: in the sixteenth [p] he died, on the sixth day of the Kalends of September, in the year from the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred and ninety-six: but in the thirteenth year [q] of Otto Augustus, the third of that name, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is one honor and glory through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Consult what was premised in the same place, §4, about the year of his death.

q. To Otto II when he died succeeded his son Otto III in the kingdom of Germany in the year 983; but not in the empire, which he obtained in the year 996; he died in the year 1002. See Baronius, Pagi, and Labbe's Chronological Compendium. Manilius therefore sets down the years of the reign, not of the empire, of Otto III.

perhaps persequuntur*.

MIRACLES

Apparitions and prophecies.

Gebhard or Gebehard, bishop and confessor, at Constance in Swabia (St.)

BHL Number: 3292

By Felix Manilius.

Book II, OF THE MIRACLES.

After therefore the Redeemer of the human race had brought over his servant Gebhard from the whirlpool of this world to the country on high, Among other miracles which the biographer passes over, many wonders are reported which the Lord deigned to show us through him, while his holy soul was being loosed from the bonds of the flesh and returned to the Lord who gave it: and how great power his mercy showed, and what grace the Lord bestowed on all who devoutly prayed at his tomb, it is not within our knowledge to make known to you as is fitting: yet some things we take care to commit to writing for the knowledge of posterity, as the Lord shall have deigned to grant; but some things we pass over in silence, lest we should strike the wearied reader with loathing, and that we may be able to satisfy only the studious. But the names of those by whom these things were handed down to us we suppress, as we have done, lest the very barbarity of the words should give offense, and lest Latin speech should lose its beauty. And so the Man of an angelic life in the flesh served God with the devotion of a contrite heart while he lived, and utterly crucified himself in this flesh; and therefore the Lord, because he was a partner of his sufferings, made him also a partaker of his consolations, not only by rewarding him in the seats on high, but also by making him illustrious on earth before human eyes with signs and wonders, as will appear clearer than light in the accounts that follow.

Chapter I.

[26] A certain brother of the oft-mentioned monastery applied himself to prayer at the tomb of the holy man Gebehard: his glory is made manifest in a cloud, and while he was commending himself the more intently to God in prayers, he saw a little cloud covering the whole compass of the sepulcher, and perceived a most sweet fragrance breathing from that cloud into his nostrils: which, having lingered a while, was gradually withdrawn from the eyes of him who beheld and was amazed. In which matter it must be considered with how great brightness and how great fragrance his holy soul enjoys itself in the city on high, whose very bodily corruption on earth was made illustrious with so great a fragrance. For because he had been of those whom the prophet Isaiah, foreseeing them, admires, saying: Who are these that fly as clouds? — rightly was his tomb visited by a fragrant cloud, whose conversation had always been in heaven, and who day and night had directed his prayers to heaven with the perfumes of good works, as the incense of the evening sacrifice; and that by these things it might be more openly shown that he inhabits a most glorious dwelling of eternal light.

[27] by an apparition; and by a possessed man, For thus, even in these times, when unlearned brothers were ignorant of his merits and detracted from his sanctity, he appeared in a vision to one of them, sitting in a most bright dwelling, clothed in priestly vestments, with a mitre set upon his head, sitting on a lofty throne with unspeakable brightness, saying to him: Behold, brother, with your own eyes you can prove that I stand before the sight of almighty God not so despicable as I appear in the esteem of certain of your brothers. For, taking thought in all things for the profit of his own, lest by detracting from him they should sin, he deigned, God helping, to show them his brightness, that they might know with how great honor he was worthy, and with what reverence he was to be honored by men on earth. But because that brother to whom he appeared, out of humility, had wished to make that vision known to almost no man, the divine clemency deigned to show another miracle at his sepulcher in a possessed man, all standing by and beholding it, as is afterward found more fully written. From which all, being corrected, thereafter honored the Holy One of God with due veneration, and most zealously commended themselves to him in their prayers.

II.

III.

[28] At another time also a certain blind man came from the district of Thurgau ^a, and by a blind man enlightened, and by possessed persons and stood in prayer at the sepulcher of the holy Confessor. Whom God — according to what he promised through his Prophet, saying: Call upon me in the day of tribulation, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me — in his mercy regarded as he called upon him, and, delivering him from the darkness of blindness through the merits of his servant Gebehard, granted him to see the light of the sun. But he, marveling who he was and who he had been, began to turn about the orbs of his eyes, wishing to discover where he was, and in what manner it had happened to him. At length, recognizing that he was restored to the sun, with a great cry he gave thanks to Christ and to his Confessor, and with vast joy made known to all that he had received the offices of his eyes. But those who had seen him come blind could believe only slowly that he saw: yet after they had proved the truth, with the greatest exultation they rendered thanks to the merciful God, who is always wonderful in his Saints, and because his mercy is for ever upon all who seek him with their whole heart. Besides this, many possessed persons were freed through him: certain of whom, when they were being led to the cave, said that they would go forth there *, but they cried out that they were to be cast out at St. Conrad's. And when they had been brought thither, they said the like, and, being brought back, they were for the most part freed in the middle of the river ^b, so that by these things it might plainly be given to understand that by the intercession of both they were freed from the calumniator.

IV.

[29] But a certain husbandman of that place, dissolved by paralysis, freed from the malignant spirit. lay long weak in his bed: who on a certain day, alone with only

his wife remaining at home, being suddenly seized by a demon, leapt out of bed, snatched up a club, made for the woman, and poised the club to strike her. But she, springing out, fled into a little room and by loud cries made the townsfolk come. For hearing the woman's cry they ran up, and found the man, whom they had long known to be a paralytic, utterly mad, whom with the greatest labor they scarcely held, nor could they by any means tame his rage; until, the strength of many men being gathered, they bound him to a chair and carried him to the church and laid him upon the tomb of the holy Confessor, who at once, according to that word of the Apostle, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear; but will make also with the temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it, was freed by the merits of the blessed pontiff Gebehard, and not long after was also taken from this life.

[30] A poor woman of the village called Schwindorf ^c, most cruelly vexed for the course of many years by a most hostile demon, A woman possessed was led about to very many places of the Saints, and was not cleansed. At length her friends said that they wished to bring her to blessed Gebehard. Hearing this, the demon was greatly saddened and said: And what profit is it if you bring me to that Man in whom it is agreed there is nothing of sanctity? For I can by no means be driven by him out of this vessel. For in his life he was a dissembler and a seducer; and how shall such a one be able to work any power upon me? While he was saying these things and worse than these, they, giving no credit at all to the inventor of falsehood, set out upon the road which leads to the place called Petershausen. When the demon had perceived this, he began to be disturbed and saddened, and to utter dire cries to heaven, and much more than usual to tear and vex the person. But when they had come to the place, she was dragged with great labor to the church. At once the demon through the woman's mouth began to curse the Holy One of God, crying out more often than he repeated it, and saying: Woe to you, wicked Gebehard, why do you burn me? Then, being led to the sepulcher and there miserably torn by the enemy, after a little she was led back. Likewise after Mass, the relics of the Saints being brought and by the strength of many men, some dragging and others driving her, she was brought forward, crying out with loud shouts and cursing the Holy One of God by name, and complaining with importunate cries that he burned her; and at length, though with labor, she was laid upon the tomb of the holy Confessor, and the exorcism was recited over her by a priest, all the brothers with many others standing by.

[31] restored to health And she, at once freed from the malignant spirit, fell silent, nor did she utter any more the voice of crying. The ancient enemy therefore withdrawing, the woman, whom a little before almost none dared to approach, now lay as though lifeless, nor could she move any member of her body. At length, her strength being recovered, she rose, and covered her uncovered breast, and with tears magnified with all the words she could God and the Savior, and his confessor Gebehard. What joys there, full of tears, who could record, who could utter? For there resounded divers voices of monks and of peoples, of every sex and age, with the sound of bells, all sounding together a hymn to God, who through his Servant snatched the work of his own hands from the hand of the proud calumniator, and cleansed the vessel washed in the sacred font of baptism but defiled by that most unclean invader — to the praise and glory of his holy name, and of his confessor and pontiff Gebehard. Then indeed, sent on with the standard of the holy cross and the goodwill of the peoples, she came to Constance, that mother church might rejoice with her daughter who was dead and raised again, and, rejoicing, might prepare a spiritual banquet, to which she should call her friends and neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost; and again: It behooved us to feast and to rejoice, because this my daughter was dead, and is come to life again; she was lost, and is found.

[32] is narrated. But on the following night the malignant tenant came again, and roused the woman who had been dismissed the day before, and poured such poisons into her ears, saying: O beloved vessel, why have you acted so wickedly against me, in that you have spat out me your ancient inhabitant, and have denied the fidelity long kept with me, for the sake of that seducer Gebehard, who drove me out of you? For know that this very man will profit you in no way. But return, I pray, return to me; for it is not fitting that you receive another in my place into your vessel, but I ask that you do not deny me the dwelling with you, for so long a time so much beloved of me. While with these and such speeches the ancient serpent hissed into the woman's ears, she roused the religious women among whom she was staying that night, and disclosed to them the troubles she was suffering from the adversary, and asked that they would make supplication to the Lord for her. Which being done, and on the next day, she being given and signed with an image of the Crucified and with the Gospel which blessed John wrote about the Word that was in the beginning with God, all that infestation of the unclean spirit so wholly departed that it never afterward troubled her: but most sound she went home with all joy, praising and glorifying him who showed mercy upon her, whose glorious name shall be blessed from this time now and for ever. Amen.

VI.

VII.

[33] In the same monastery was a certain monk exceedingly given to psalmody, [An apparition of the Saint and a prophecy, and also a punishment inflicted on a certain man:] to whom in sleep it seemed that he stood before the tomb of the most holy confessor bishop Gebehard: to whom, standing thus, the holy Pontiff appeared as though coming forth from the tomb, and uttered words of greeting to him, and to him trembling said thus: Do not fear, brother. For I am that Gebehard who built this house for Christ and for his confessor Gregory: go therefore and tell my brothers to be of good heart, and willingly to serve Christ and holy Pope Gregory in this my monastery. And to these he added: Know for certain that everyone whosoever * shall be found in this monastery serving willingly with a good purpose shall in every temptation and tribulation have me and holy Gregory as strong helpers before God, and at the last examination of judgment we shall bring him before the throne of the just Judge to be crowned with eternal life. Having said these things, he slipped away from the eyes of him who beheld. Nor do I think this should be passed over, that when a certain one of the keepers of that church was wont to put out before daybreak the light of the lamp burning at his sepulcher, on a certain night holy Gebehard appeared to him in sleep and touched his eye with his finger. Whom at once a disease invaded, and shortly made him one-eyed: and deservedly, that he who deprived in part the Holy One of God, glorified with eternal light in heaven, of a material light on earth, should himself also be deprived in part of the light by which he might guide his path.

VIII.

[34] There was also another young man in that same oft-mentioned convent, his arms and legs whose arms and shins a swelling and a very grievous scab had invaded, nor could he be helped by any medicines. And when he now despaired of human help, he betook himself to the protection of him who said: I will kill, and I will make to live; I will strike, and I will heal: but because he saw himself by no means fit to implore his help, he sought a surety, by whose aid also he obtained what he had wished. For when at the Masses which are celebrated at the sepulcher of the most holy pontiff Gebehard he often performed the office of subdeacon, he begged with the supplication of a devout heart that, since he could not be helped by human medicine, he might be healed by divine aid through the intercession of that Saint: and to this he most devoutly vowed to God and to his Saints that, if health were granted him, he would remain willingly in that same community to the end of his life.

[35] But on a certain day, after the groans and sighs of his prayers, are healed: weary, he laid his head upon the tomb. And when, sleep stealing over him, he had fallen asleep, he saw blessed Gebehard as though coming forth from the crypt which is nearby, clothed in pontifical ornaments, and touching him with the staff which he carried in his hand, and he heard him saying to him: Be sound in arms and shins. This he said and disappeared; and seeing it he awoke, and in that hour felt himself relieved, according to that which the Psalmist says of the Lord: He will do the will of those that fear him, and will hear their prayer, and will save them. Therefore from that hour, as he himself afterward reported, his arms and legs began to be tempered with health, until in a short time his whole body was restored, like a newborn child's, to the most perfect health.

IX.

[36] But since we know that it is good to hide the secret of a king, a paralytic boy but that of God's marvels, which are exceedingly unspeakable, it is best to tell openly and to preach the more zealously to Christians, we too shall by no means keep silent what the divine goodness lately deigned to work at the sepulcher of the oft-mentioned Confessor of Christ. For in the city of Constance there was a poor woman, very poor in riches, but full of the faith of Christ, as afterward appeared, having a little son a paralytic from his earliest years. For he had never sat upright, never walked on his feet; but always lay sick upon his side, and for nearly five years, being thus weak, wearied his mother: whom that pitiable mother carried with her in her arms, when the people flowed together from every side to celebrate the feast of blessed Pope Gregory in the place of the most merciful prelate Gebehard.

[37] is restored to his former health. The aforesaid poor mother therefore came weeping to the tomb of the blessed Prelate, laid the little one beside the Saint's shrine, and herself stood praying beside him. When suddenly the little boy raised himself and then for the first time sat up by himself: seeing which, the poor woman was made exceedingly glad at the grace of the Almighty granted her, and running in haste took up her son in her arms, carried him to the altar of St. Gregory, and with most joyful voices praised the mercy of the Lord, and so returned home rejoicing. From this the boy began daily to be strengthened, and after a few days to ask his mother for two staffs: which when he had received, he supported himself upon them with either hand, and for some days walked here and there by himself about the house. After this he began to ask that shoes be procured for him, and that he be brought again to the physician. And his mother gladly performed the errands which her little son demanded. Then, shoes being given, the woman took her son to the Saint, went thither, and prostrated herself in prayer before the bier. Then after a little while the boy threw away his staffs, and by himself with firm steps returned home joyfully with his mother.

[38] The author's address to the Saint. Behold, Father, as I could, I have gladly performed your commands, nor have I written with my hands anything but what I have heard with my ears from most truthful men, and approved elders too; nor can the reader blame me that in my conscience I am in any point a transgressor of the truth: yet if anything be blamed in my unskillfulness, let it be defended, Father, by your authority, and let the error kindly

be corrected, if any reader catch me in it. But at the last we piously beseech Christ that, by the intercession of blessed Gebehard, he may grant pardon for our offenses and make us enter the heavenly kingdom, where he himself with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

that they would not go out*

every*

RECENT MIRACLES

Rendered into Latin from the German printing.

Gebhard or Gebehard, bishop and confessor, at Constance in Swabia (St.)

FROM PRINTED SOURCES.

Notices of the following document. To the summary of the Life, printed at Bregenz in the year 1730, as we said in the preliminary Commentary, there is annexed a short Summary of certain special miracles, and of the notable help which those who had true trust have lately experienced, and still experience, through the patronage of the holy bishop of Constance Gebhard, at Pfannenberg near Bregenz, where this great Saint was born of illustrious parents, counts — or rather was cut out of his mother's womb — and brought up: who now is venerated there with a great concourse of the people amid daily sacrifices of the Masses and other divine Offices. Which miracles were examined under oath, approved, and written down by episcopal commissaries specially appointed for this, according to the tenor of the episcopal decree of commission here printed, which will presently be given. But the German booklet of both the aforesaid summaries the Reverend Father Maurice Chardon of the Society of Jesus sent hither — once confessor to the most reverend and most exalted prince and bishop of Constance and Augsburg, of pious memory, to be praised below, and one who has deserved well of us by other services most courteously rendered to our Work: but the Latin translation Father Alexander de Cock, priest of the same Society of Jesus in our Flemish-Belgian province, procured. Before the miracles, or heavenly favors, obtained by the Saint's patronage, are prefixed in Latin the following decree of the praised most exalted bishop, and the approbation of the Ordinary, in these words:

[2] A decree of commission of the most exalted and most reverend father in Christ and lord, lord The decree of commission is produced John Francis, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Constance, prince of the Holy Roman Empire, lord of Reichenau and Öhningen, etc., and also coadjutor of the diocese of Augsburg, etc., etc., vicar general in pontificals and spirituals, etc. To our beloved in Christ the Reverend Don Laurence Hofflin, former dean and beneficed priest at Bregenz, greeting in the Lord, and to apply faithful diligence to what is committed to him. Whereas it has been humbly set forth to us by Brother Gebhard, hermit at the chapel of St. Gebhard on the mount of Pfannenberg near Bregenz, that many who were vexed with divers weaknesses and most dangerous, nay incurable, diseases have received health by the miraculous aid of God, through the intercession of St. Gebhard the bishop, whose patronage they had implored with humble prayers, etc.: We, being intent upon propagating the worship of God and of the Saints, yet not wishing that any feigned miracles be spread among the people to the mockery of heretics, do by these presents commit and command to you that you hear those who assert that they were thus miraculously freed from their diseases, an oath being taken, if their age permit it, and diligently examine them. 1. Concerning the very state of the disease. 2. Concerning the medicines applied and their effect. 3. By what impulse they betook themselves to invoking the intercession of St. Gebhard the bishop. 4. Whether they received health without any further natural means being applied. 5. In what manner they were restored, whether by intervals of time or all at once in a single moment: and you shall add many other questions to be drawn from the very circumstances of the fact.

[3] concerning these miracles: Concerning the same fact you shall hear at least two witnesses upon oath, and shall carefully examine what they know of the state of the disease, of the medicines applied, and of the health received, and whether they were present at the asserted miracle: whether health could not have been received in a natural way, and be judged to have been so naturally received; and you shall skillfully discuss all other things which shall seem to you to avail for drawing out the truth of the matter. The examination of the parties and of the witnesses, thus duly carried out as is set forth above, you shall put into writing and send to us; upon all which we charge your conscience. In witness whereof we have subscribed these letters, sealed with the seal of our office of the vicariate. Given at Constance on the XXIV day of the month of March MDCCXXVII, Indiction V. Francis John Anthony, bishop of Ulthin, suffragan and Vicar General. (L.S.)

[4] the approbation of the Ordinary. After this decree there follows the approbation of the Ordinary expressed in these words: These miracles, duly examined and approved according to the tenor of the commission given, I judge may safely be published in print, to the greater glory of the divine name and to the increase of the cult of St. Gebhard the bishop. At Constance, XXX June MDCCXXX. Francis Anthony Rettich, Doctor of Theology, Ecclesiastical Councillor, and ordinary censor of books. To these two documents is subjoined the narration of the miracles, which I set forth translated from German into Latin; but distributed by me into four parts and as many titles, with Annotations added.

PART THE FIRST.

The Saint a healer in ailing feet, in perils of shipwreck, and in violent fever.

The use of her feet In the year MDCCXXVIII, on the XXI of July, there appears before the episcopal commission master Francis Fischer, cooper and citizen of Bregenz, and, an oath being taken that he would narrate the matter not otherwise than as it really happened, he affirms that his own little daughter, Helen by name, three years before, although she was then already four years old, had until that time never been able to stand upon her feet; but that, as often as they tried to set her upon her feet, she always began to tremble and to weep in a pitiable manner: so that he and her mother rightly feared that their little daughter would remain deprived of the use of her feet all her life long. And when they had long and much deliberated between themselves what should be done, and what remedies should be applied to this evil, they resolved with all trust, after God, to flee to St. Gebhard, the patron of that region; and on that very day, no other remedy being applied, they handed their little girl to Ursula Badstuberin their servant and to Walburga Muxlin their neighbor, charging them to carry her to the chapel dedicated to St. Gebhard at Pfannenberg ^a, and there to pour forth prayers.

[6] But they found the chapel shut, and the hermit who had the care of the chapel absent; given to a girl, wherefore they set the child in the open little window beside the chapel door, with her feet stretched through the lattice, and, the psalter having been piously recited with the litanies ^b of St. Gebhard, they carried the child home with them and set her upright on her feet in the middle of the room. And she, helped by no support, stood upright, and presently, smiling, ran to her father, her parents marveling and being filled with joy, and all the others who were present. And from that time that little girl was always able, without any hindrance, to walk and to run, like others. Her parents, full of comfort, presently in thanksgiving for so great a benefit made a pilgrimage to St. Gebhard, offered a votive gift in his chapel, and had two Masses said. That all these things happened as they have been narrated the aforesaid Ursula Badstuberin and Walburga Muxlin testified upon oath, who carried that girl, as was said above, to the Saint's chapel and thence home again, and saw all these things with their own eyes.

[7] Not unlike this is what, under the same date, master Charles Andrew Mattburger, and to a boy, a dealer in merchandise, affirmed upon oath, and likewise Michael Berchmann, citizen and dyer at Bregenz: namely how the upright married couple Jacob Nagel, citizen and mason at Bregenz, and Anna Maria Dissortin, both now deceased, had a little son, Benedict by name, who until the fifth year of his age could never stand upon his feet, but who always held his legs crossed in the manner of a cross and quite powerless, so that, sitting on the ground, he had to crawl hither and thither with his hands. Which was a sad sight. Those anxious parents, solicitous for the health of their little son, all other remedies being neglected, ordered their wretched boy to be carried to Pfannenberg to the chapel of St. Gebhard, and had a pilgrimage made thither by vow, and a sacrifice of the Mass offered there. Scarcely had some days passed but the boy was seen sound and whole running about the streets with the others, very many who saw it marveling. In thanksgiving these parents, now dead in the Lord, before their death had a votive tablet painted and hung up in St. Gebhard's chapel: which is still seen there today.

[8] John George Brun, a boatman at Hard in the territory and lordship of Bregenz, as also a boatman's power to walk restored, had lain for three weeks disabled in feet and legs up to the upper part of his body, so that he could neither stand upon his feet nor walk, but was compelled to crawl on the ground with his hands. Besides this he was tormented with the sharpest pains. He had indeed called in a surgeon, but one who could apply no remedy to an evil which did not appear outwardly; and so he had used no means, except that the sick man anointed his limbs with burnt wine, from which however he perceived no benefit at all. After some days brother Gebhard, hermit at St. Gebhard's on Pfannenberg ^c, happened to visit that sick man, who, when he had learned of his disease, urged the sick man to flee with sure trust to St. Gebhard the bishop: and that he might comply with his counsel, the aforesaid Brun, binding himself by the religion of a vow, promised that he would send his wife with two children on nine following days to St. Gebhard at Pfannenberg, that they might thus nine times make a pious pilgrimage; and he ordered that two Masses be said in the holy chapel there.

[9] St. Gebhard being invoked When his wife and children had now made the fifth pilgrimage, as was said, before they had returned home the sick man suddenly felt that his strength was somewhat restored, and tried whether he could stand upon his feet: which succeeded so happily that, going out with great joy to meet his wife and children as they arrived, he was able to unbar the door of the house: and from that time his strength so increased that on the ninth day he himself, sound and whole, was able with his wife and children to make the ninth pilgrimage to Pfannenberg, a place distant thence one league; nor did he afterward feel even the least pain.

[10] and also favorable in perils of shipwreck. All these things the aforesaid John George Brun testified and confirmed upon oath on the XXII day of April MDCCXXVIII. The same likewise, with all

the circumstances, the upright John Greyszing of Hard, John Brun, and the very reverend and most distinguished Don John Peter Reich, doctor of sacred theology and most zealous parish priest there, testify upon oath in writing. Besides this the oft-named John George Brun adds that he several times fell into most manifest peril of shipwreck on the Lake of Constance; but that each time he fled to his patron St. Gebhard with a vow of one Mass to be said in his chapel at Pfannenberg, and so was always happily snatched from the danger.

[11] A man laboring under a violent fever At the same time, namely on the XXII of April MDCCXXVIII, master Martin Steur, citizen and cobbler of Bregenz, narrated under oath to the lords commissaries how he, in the Lent last past, had been seized by a fever no less violent than painful, and, after he had labored under it for fourteen days, how a certain young man, who at the chapel of St. Gebhard at Pfannenberg was accustomed almost daily to serve the priest celebrating the sacred mysteries, came to him by chance to have his shoes mended: who, seeing him — the cobbler, namely — sick, told him that brother Gebhard, the hermit dwelling at Pfannenberg, had certain small loaves blessed in honor of St. Gebhard, which he distributed to the people, and which very many had used and had experienced help in their needs.

[12] is healed. Hearing this, he presently sent the young man back to the hermit, asking that he would send him some of those loaves: which also he received that same evening; and having taken one of them with trust, he promised that he would make a pilgrimage in St. Gebhard's honor to his chapel, and would see that a Mass was said there. After this he fell asleep until the second hour of the night, at which time, by his own reckoning, the fever was about to seize him; whereupon he renewed with trust his vow made to St. Gebhard, and fell asleep again: and, using no other remedy, he never afterward felt the fever. All these things his wife Barbara Brustlin and Michael Steur, his servant, a youth of twenty-two years, also testified upon oath.

ANNOTATIONS.

PART THE SECOND.

Dangerous walking in sleep, a rupture, a paralysis of one side, tumors, and pains in childbirth are cured.

A man walking dangerously in his sleep Master Martin Kientz, cobbler at Schwarzach in the parish of Wolfurt, testifies that his son John Conrad Kientz, sixteen years old, had for some years been accustomed almost every night to rise from his bed in sleep and to walk here and there outside his chamber, not without manifest danger of a fall or of some other mishap. Besides this he was wont to cry out pitiably in his sleep, thinking that he was drowning in water, or being butchered by robbers, or imagining to himself some other terrible thing while he slept. Whence his parents, greatly anxious, often poured out prayers for him and admonished their son about this matter: but in vain.

[14] Until, understanding that very many men were helped in various mishaps and needs by the intercession of St. Gebhard at Pfannenberg near Bregenz, is preserved by the Saint's patronage, they promised that they too would make a pilgrimage thither: which the mother with her four children also at once did. And when in St. Gebhard's chapel they had piously attended some Masses, and had communicated, sacramental confession of sins going before, they invoked the Saint with the greatest trust and fervor, and with such prosperous success that his aforesaid son from that time never again rose in his sleep, and has been wholly freed from that so dangerous evil to this day. This the aforesaid father with his wife Agatha Wurthin, an oath being taken before the Lords commissaries, testified on the XIII day of May MDCCXXVIII.

[15] Don Francis Joseph Kayser, councillor and merchant of Bregenz, as also a boy and his wife Maria Clara Mattin, on the faith of an oath narrated in the year MDCCXXVIII, on the XXVIII of July, how their little son Joseph Andrew, now seven years old, in the first year in which he was born into the world labored under a dangerous rupture, so that not only were his parents much distressed and feared for the boy's life, but all who had seen the little boy were touched with compassion. When the parents, unwilling to consent to cutting, the last and dangerous remedy for this evil, wished to procure a bandage with which to bind the little boy's ruptured little body, behold, it came into the mind of the mother, who suffered with her son, that it would be better if she did not torment her little infant with this painful means, but if with firm trust she should flee to the holy bishop Gebhard, of whose help, often granted to those oppressed by some necessity, and of whose wonders she had already heard much before.

[16] This counsel pleased his father also. laboring under a rupture. Both therefore, having made a vow, promised a pilgrimage to the holy chapel of holy Gebhard at Pfannenberg, and a Mass to be said there, and also a votive tablet and a gift to be offered there: all which without further delay they carried out most devoutly, and at the same time ordered the little boy to be carried thither by their maidservant, with such longed-for success that from that day the rupture wholly vanished, and the beloved little boy never afterward needed a bandage, although neither before nor after had they applied any other medicine to this evil. The most noble and worthy lady Maria Helen of Aach, born Prechtin of Hohenwarth, testifies that she saw the aforesaid boy's rupture.

[17] A nobleman Help miraculously received from our holy patron Gebhard is also acknowledged, and first confessed in writing, subscribed with his own hand and seal, and afterward also by word of mouth before the lords commissaries, on the pledged faith of his illustrious person, by the most noble and worthy Don John Anthony Yelin of Cronhalden, captain of the Roman imperial and royal majesty, dwelling at Bregenz, who says that on the XXV day of March in the year MDCCXX he was seized by a most dangerous paralysis of one side, so that his right side was quite powerless, and he could not hold a spoon in his hand, nay, for eight days he could utter no word. In so pitiable a state he used no medicine except some pills prescribed him by a physician, which he took only once, but without effect.

[18] in a most dangerous hemiplegia Afterward, since at that time especially there was much talk among the people of a pious pilgrimage to St. Gebhard, which very many made not without present help in their needs, placing firm hope in the help of this holy Patron, he promised: first, that if he were restored to his former health he would order a votive tablet to be made and hung up in the chapel consecrated in his honor; secondly, that he would make the pilgrimage thither nine times; thirdly, that all his life long he would celebrate this Saint's feast, falling on the twenty-seventh of August, with special worship and devotion.

[19] experienced the Saint's help: This vow being uttered, on that very day he was able not only to move the arm which before was powerless, but altogether to raise it on high, and gradually the evil so lessened that within five days he recovered his speech together with the memory he had before lost, and little by little learned to walk again. Only when fourteen days had passed after this, when he had already recovered the use of his feet well enough, did he by the counsel of some use a liquor of black cherries, that by washing his limbs with it he might be strengthened. All the above his wife Maria Magdalen Yelinin asserted, and Anna Maria Haiteringin, her maidservant, testified upon oath on the XXVI of August MDCCXXVIII.

[20] two others Upon the two sons of Anna Sohmin of the parish called Hard, John and Joseph Hermann, in their first years a tumor grew on the neck, which increased daily in such wise that in the space of three years it equaled the size of two fists. To their mother and to the sons, therefore, exceedingly anxious, no remedy for this evil occurred. Yet since at that time very many pressed by some necessity fled to St. Gebhard, imploring his help, their mother likewise placed her hope in this Saint's patronage in the year MDCCXXII, when the elder son was fourteen and the other eleven years old, and she set out with her sons to St. Gebhard's chapel at Pfannenberg; there she attended three Masses, and with the aforesaid sons recited three times the psalter of the Bl. Virgin Mary with the litanies of St. Gebhard along the way.

[21] freed of a great tumor on the neck, When they had returned home, of the tumor of both, before so great, nothing at all any longer appeared, nor for six years until now has anything appeared, no remedy having been applied to this evil. All which the mother herself confirmed upon oath on the III of September of the year MDCCXXVIII, as also her aforesaid elder son John, who on the III of December was also questioned upon oath on this matter, adding how on the day after the pilgrimage was made the people, full of admiration, asked who had healed them. Anna Moklin, questioned there by her Parish priest, Don John Peter Reich, doctor of sacred theology, testifies: that it is true that the two sons named above had a great tumor on the neck, and that she saw it; secondly, that it is true that they were freed of it, as is plain to the eye; thirdly, that the whole community is firmly persuaded and believes that they were healed by the patronage and help of St. Gebhard.

[22] The same Anna Sohmin on the day named above testified upon oath and a woman from the pains of childbirth. that six years before she had been tormented for five whole days with the greatest pains of childbirth; when she sent her children, namely her two sons and one little daughter, to St. Gebhard's at Pfannenberg, and gave them six batzen ^a, that a Mass might be said there and three small candles lighted, admonishing them to pray fervently with firm trust in the holy Patron: and behold, at the time when these things were being done, before the children had returned home from the chapel, she happily brought forth a little son. For which benefit she said she could never in all her life be sufficiently grateful. All which Anna Mockin, the midwife, who was present while these things were done, also testified before her lord parish priest John Peter Reich, doctor of sacred theology.

ANNOTATION.

PART THE THIRD.

A distorted boy, a dropsical man, and women in childbirth are delivered.

A distorted boy is healed: How astounding and threefold miraculous a benefit was conferred, by the intercession of St. Gebhard, upon the lady wife and the little son of the most illustrious lord free baron Louis Ignatius von Bodmann (Titles *), councillor of the most serene prince of St. Gall and supreme prefect of the territory of Neu-Ravensburg, is plain from the letter here subjoined

of attestation, fortified with his own hand and seal: whose tenor the aforesaid most illustrious lord also confirmed by word of mouth before the lord commissary, upon the faith of a most illustrious man ^a. Besides this, being asked by the lord commissary whether they had applied any medicine to this evil, he answered that some medicaments had before been applied to his little son, but without any effect: and that (Titles) his lady wife had in her needs, expressed in the attestation, used no other remedy but a great trust in St. Gebhard; adding that his first infant, when the hour of birth was at hand, was in the mother's womb with its limbs folded crosswise, and was so brought forth into the light, and that it was a true miracle that his wife brought forth her child so happily. Besides this, that his little son Anthony is still sound and whole, and shows his constant health by his very countenance and by the constitution of his whole body: that the holy bishop Gebhard was present to the boy, and anointed his sick limbs and restored them to health.

[24] likewise a dropsical man I, John Louis Ignatius, free Baron of Bodmann, lord in Mocklingen and Liggeringen, etc., councillor of the prince of St. Gall, supreme prefect of the lordship of Neu-Ravensburg, do hereby attest and publicly confess by the force of this attestation, that my eldest little son John Leodegar Anthony, in the seventh year of his age, reading the life of St. Gebhard, was kindled with a special zeal and devotion toward that great Saint, and persevered in it with constant trust. A few weeks after, and indeed in the year MDCCXXIV, about the XV day of June, it happened that this little son labored under a dangerous dropsy, so that his whole body was swollen and the swelling grew daily; and the physician and the surgeon, visiting the sick boy, despaired of his recovering health, and went home sad and dismayed.

[25] by St. Gebhard appearing to him: But on the next day, when the physician and the surgeon came to the sick boy with both his weeping parents, "Do not, O mother," said the sick little boy lying there, "do not weep for me; I shall not die. This night I saw St. Gebhard in episcopal habit, holding in his hand a staff and a book, upon which a skull was set: he anointed my body." And at the same time the sick boy earnestly asked his parents that they too should choose St. Gebhard as their patron, and should promise that they would offer a votive tablet and would make a pilgrimage to Pfannenberg. Which also was done. And when the physician and surgeon wished to inspect the sick boy's malady, they found that the tumor was diminished by half, so that in a short time it wholly vanished, and the sick boy was restored to his former health. Then a votive tablet was offered, and a pilgrimage made in due thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity, to the immaculate Virgin Mary queen of heaven, and in honor of St. Gebhard. Again the little son urged and earnestly besought his mother that she too should choose holy Gebhard as her patron: which she promised she would do.

[26] a woman in different childbirths And when a few weeks after my wife was near to childbirth, and was struggling with the gravest pains of labor for forty hours and more, and with full trust commended herself to St. Gebhard's patronage, the little boy newly brought into the light gave manifest signs of life and was washed in the sacred font of baptism. In the next following year, when again the time of bearing was at hand for my wife, St. Gebhard being invoked and a gift promised in his honor, she, beyond all men's hope, happily brought forth a little son, upon whom, as he received the most sacred Sacrament of baptism, the name of Gebhard was bestowed, in perpetual memory of the benefit conferred and in thanksgiving.

[27] helped by him: But after the birth she was distressed by the gravest and likewise most dangerous pains, lasting more than twenty hours, so that all despaired of her life. But when her eldest little son together with the mother had placed all his trust in the most powerful patronage of holy Gebhard, his help being invoked, the mother, freed from those pains, together with the newborn little boy escaped all danger. In witness of which things, for the greater glory of the Most Holy Trinity and of the ever immaculate queen of heaven the Virgin Mary, and also for the increase of the cult and veneration of St. Gebhard, and for due thanksgiving, we have wished to confirm and strengthen this threefold attestation with the greater seal of our free barony and with a subscription made by our own hand. Given at the castle of Neu-Ravensburg, XIV June MDCCXXVI. (L.S.) John Louis Ignatius, free baron of Bodmann.

[28] Although holy Gebhard's patronage is most powerful in every necessity, another woman, after various yet since he himself was cut out of his mother's womb, most astounding is what he is wont to grant to women in labor: which, besides very many others, Matthias Müller, under-baker, that is servant of the baker in the most celebrated convent commonly called Weingarten ^b, and Catharine Rundlerin, husband and wife, especially experienced. These lived together most honorably in matrimony for twenty years, and at first brought up seven children happily born into the world. But afterward in the births of five following children they were so unhappy that three of them, projecting only with some part of the body from the womb, were baptized by the midwife, and then, that the mother's life might be saved, were cut out piecemeal from the mother's womb by a most expert surgeon; but the other two, dead, were drawn out by force from the mother's body by the midwife.

[29] After this, when the aforesaid woman in this current year MDCCXXVIII felt herself again with child, unhappy births, and therefore was not without reason distressed with the greatest cares, behold, by God's special providence it came about that another woman, Maria Frances Locherin, dwelling at Baienfurt, a place not far distant from Weingarten, speaking with her, related that she too had been so unhappy in the birth of some children; but that this year she had borne very happily: which, after God, she ascribed to St. Gebhard. She added besides in what manner she had experienced the patronage and help of St. Gebhard (of which mention will be made below). Rundlerin, full of solicitude and anxiety at her approaching labor, at first received this narration with a careless ear, persuading herself that, since in the year last past she had out of devotion made several pilgrimages, even to the wonder-working Virgin of Einsiedeln ^c, had often visited the sacred blood ^d at Weingarten, had caused very many Masses to be said, had used the sacred oil of holy Walburga ^e and all other means which seemed capable of being devised to this end; and since notwithstanding these she had remained equally unhappy in bearing, it was all over with her, and everything else would be in vain.

[30] Yet, having heard these things from the aforesaid woman Locherin, she began little by little to weigh them more attentively, imploring especially because she had heard that this Saint had been cut out of his mother's womb: and, moved by that thought, she determined to visit the sacred blood at Weingarten again, having also conceived no small trust in St. Gebhard's patronage; which her husband by his exhortation strove not a little to increase. Accordingly, even before her delivery she sent two florins to the Brother hermit dwelling at Pfannenberg, with two candles to be lighted at the holy Bishop's altar, earnestly beseeching him to pour forth prayers for her intention in St. Gebhard's chapel; asking likewise the lady Prioress of the monastery of Hirschthal ^f, of the Order of St. Dominic, scarcely one league distant thence, in which her husband's reverend sister lives as a nun, to send two consecrated virgins of that convent with some of the pupils to St. Gebhard's at Pfannenberg, to pray there to God for the same intention: which also was done.

[31] Besides this, she and her husband promised that, the Saint's help, if a happy birth should follow, they would make a pilgrimage of ten leagues from Weingarten to Bregenz to St. Gebhard's chapel, and would offer the child himself with some votive gift, in thanksgiving for the benefit received, upon the altar of the aforesaid chapel. Meanwhile brother Gebhard the hermit sent her some small loaves blessed in honor of St. Gebhard; of which the pregnant woman each day, with firm trust and on bended knees, took some morsel in the morning. And when the time of bearing drew near, she again asked the hermit to see that a public common prayer be made in St. Gebhard's chapel. Being now close to her delivery, she felt by night the usual pains of women in labor; but the mother, after she had again commended her unborn child to the Saint's protection, fell peacefully asleep, and thereafter experienced no pain until the following noon, when she again felt slight pains of labor.

[32] in a wonderful manner The midwife Theresa Keglin, being accordingly summoned, perceived that the child, as unhappily as the preceding ones, wished to come forth in a reversed order, with one foot stretched out from the mother's womb. Wherefore, marvelously dismayed, she ran out of the room to seek water and witnesses, that before the infant died it might be baptized: but behold an astounding thing — returning to the woman in labor she found that the mother, without human help, in scarcely a single moment and almost without any pain, had happily brought forth a boy, and that the little infant himself lay by his mother's side. As many as were present there and were visiting the woman in childbed proclaimed this so happy and unlooked-for birth as a special favor and a manifest miracle obtained from God through the intercession of St. Gebhard.

[33] she bore a living child. Wherefore all, at the mother's demand, falling upon their knees, in thanksgiving and in honor of holy Gebhard recited five times the Our Father and the Hail Mary. The little infant, baptized in the church with all the accustomed ceremonies, lived on nineteen days more, after which he was taken up into heaven to praise God. All these things the aforesaid husband and wife on the III of November MDCCXXVIII, when they had made the pilgrimage promised by vow to holy Gebhard's at Pfannenberg, testified upon oath before the Lords commissaries, saying that not only the aforesaid sworn midwife but the whole neighborhood also could testify this: as also Theresa Keglin, the sworn midwife, who was present at that event, being questioned on this matter by the very reverend father Longinus Fessler, capitular of the most celebrated imperial monastery of Weingarten, subdelegated on account of the distance of the place, confirmed the same upon oath.

[34] Another woman after four unhappy childbirths Something like this, or even greater, is what the woman named above, Frances Locherin, born Nusserin, dwelling at Baienfurt near Weingarten, on the XXVII of August MDCXXIX *, narrated on the faith of an oath, and testified before the commission: namely, that at the beginning of her marriage she brought up with her husband three children whom she bore in gladness. But the fourth little infant came forth unhappily from the mother's womb with its little body crosswise, nor could it be washed in the sacred font: and thus she bore in succession six children unhappily, none of whom could be baptized. Being marvelously afflicted by this misfortune, when she felt herself again with child, she was bidden by the honored Don Joseph Locher, her father-in-law, a venerable old man of seventy, to be of good heart, who exhorted her that in this extreme necessity she should implore the help of the holy bishop Gebhard, should devoutly venerate him, and should bind herself by a vow that she would go on pilgrimage into his own country to the chapel consecrated in his honor at Pfannenberg, that by his intercession she might thereafter obtain from God a happy birth.

[35] She without delay followed the counsel of her excellent father-in-law, who had already twice visited the aforesaid chapel and was marvelously affected toward this Saint, binding herself by a vow to the Saint, she is granted a happy birth, and at once promised that, if through the intercession of this holy prelate Gebhard she should be blessed by God with a happy birth, she would with her little son and three other persons go for devotion's sake to Bregenz to this Saint's chapel, and there, a votive gift being offered, would see that three Masses were said. Shortly after, when the time of bearing had come, without great pain and altogether happily, and without human help, she joyfully brought forth a male child, who even now lives sound and whole.

[36] In the next following year, when she was again with child, and then another no less happy. again fleeing to holy Gebhard's patronage, she promised a pious pilgrimage as before, and three Masses with a gift to be offered in the holy Wonderworker's chapel, and likewise obtained a glad and happy birth, so that, as on the preceding occasion, within a quarter of an hour, without a midwife, she joyfully bore a boy, who likewise still lives. Which she and her husband Don Anthony Locher, as also all others, acknowledge as a special grace miraculously obtained by St. Gebhard's help, and, while they live, will gratefully acknowledge. The aforesaid lady Locherin adds that formerly, when she bore so unhappily, she had spent more than a hundred florins on Masses, pilgrimages, and other means, and yet all in vain and unhappily. Yet at the last happy birth she also drank of the sacred blood ^g preserved in the most celebrated monastery of Weingarten.

ANNOTATIONS.

perhaps Titiæ*

* read MDCCXXIX

PART THE FOURTH.

Sickness, a contracted foot, pains of the leg and arm, and violent vomiting are healed.

A sick boy restored to health, The above-cited Don Joseph Locher not only confirms all these things which were related above about his son's wife Frances Locherin, born Nusserin, but also causes it to be attested through the very reverend and most religious father Longinus Fessler, capitular of Weingarten, that his little grandson of four years fell into a deadly disease, in which dangerous case he urged the child's parents, namely his aforesaid son Anthony Locher and Frances Locherin born Nusserin, that they should promise a pious pilgrimage to Bregenz to holy Gebhard's, with a certain fixed devotion, for obtaining the boy's safety: which vow being made, presently, to the amazement of all, the boy began to be better, and was even restored to his former health. But when the parents had put off too long the promised pilgrimage, the little infant fell back into his former sickness. When this came to the grandfather's ears, he presently again went to the sick boy's parents, saying that this sickness of the boy was nothing else than a serious admonition from God, that they should without delay fulfill the pilgrimage and the devotion promised in honor of St. Gebhard. And as soon as the anxious parents had carried this out, the boy was restored to his former health, and even now lives sound and whole.

[38] The upright Don Gall Ignatius Keller, bookbinder and citizen of Bregenz, as also a girl's contracted foot. having taken an oath to speak the truth, testified before the lords commissaries the following: namely that his little daughter Anna Maria, four years before, being at that time five years old, from smallpox under which she had labored, had kept one foot so contracted that that leg could never be stretched out straight, nor be touched by anyone even lightly without her crying out pitiably from pain. Which evil having lasted eight days, the father together with the mother (because at that time there was much talk among the people of pious pilgrimages made in honor of the holy bishop Gebhard) placed their hope in his patronage, and promised a like pilgrimage to the Saint's chapel at Pfannenberg, and feet of wax, and a Mass to be said in his honor: and behold, next morning the little daughter, no medicine and no other means being applied, stood upright on her feet sound, so that on that same day she went with her parents to Pfannenberg, and herself set the promised gift upon the altar, and attended a Mass there; nor from that time did she feel anything of evil or of hindrance in her foot. All which her mother Anna Catharine Hartmannin testified, an oath being interposed, on the IV of September in the year MDCCXXVIII.

[39] Master Ferdinand Bernath, mason at Lochau in the parish of Bregenz, A man, having promised various things to St. Gebhard, in the past month of September had for four weeks been tormented with such pains arising of themselves in one leg that, supporting himself on a staff, he could scarcely lean even lightly on that foot without the greatest pain. With burnt wine and various other ointments applied to the leg he had indeed tried to ease the pain, but in vain, the evil increasing daily. At length, seeing all to be in vain, and ascribing his evil to sorcery, he determined to apply spiritual means. And when he had learned that very many in their needs had experienced the longed-for help of holy Gebhard, applying no other remedies, he too fled to that Saint's patronage, promising first a pious pilgrimage to Pfannenberg; secondly, a candle to be lighted on the Saint's altar; thirdly, a Mass to be heard there.

[40] On the next day he made the aforesaid pilgrimage, using only his sound foot and a staff. is freed from the pains of his leg: After three hours at length he reached the Saint's chapel, distant only one small league from his own village, fulfilled his vow, and while he attended some Masses gave himself diligently to devotion, imploring with great trust the help of his holy Patron. Wishing to depart from the chapel, he scarcely felt any more pain, so that he hardly needed a staff to support his body; at length, standing upright on both feet and returning home sound, he called to his wife and said: Thanks be to God and to holy Gebhard; I am sound and whole: now I am again fit for the work by which I may earn our living. To which work he returned on the third day after, and gave himself to his accustomed labor without any pain or hindrance, as before. All which he himself testifies upon oath to be so, on the III of February MDCCXXIX, saying that he will while he lives give thanks to God and to St. Gebhard for so great a benefit.

[41] a nun, from pains in her arm and hand, At Bregenz, in the celebrated monastery of St. Anne of the Order of St. Francis, dwells a nun called Bernardina Schmidin, who from rheumatism was vexed with great pains in her right arm and hand, and lay for five months with her sinews as it were unstrung, so that she could hold nothing with that hand. At the beginning indeed she used certain means and medicines to heal the evil; but when she profited nothing by them, at length (doubtless at the inspiration of her guardian angel) she determined to flee to the holy bishop Gebhard. With her superiors' leave therefore she caused nine Masses to be said on nine successive days in the Saint's chapel at Pfannenberg, and a nine days' devotion and common prayer to be made by some boys chosen for it: on the first day also, having confessed her sins, she was refreshed with the sacred Eucharist.

[42] various exercises of piety being performed in the Saint's honor, recovers: On the first two days of this devotion she still felt great pains. Yet by these she was not only not terrified, but was the more confirmed in the trust she had conceived in the holy Patron's help. On the fourth

day she began to be much better. On the eighth day not only had all pain departed, but the arm which before was powerless recovered such strength that she could lift very heavy things, her fellow sisters being amazed thereat and crying out a miracle. On the ninth day she was again refreshed with holy communion in thanksgiving, and resolved to venerate piously her patron St. Gebhard as long as she should live, longing to be able to propagate his cult in every direction. All these things she herself affirmed, being questioned and examined by the commissary at her superiors' bidding; as also the Reverend mother superior of this celebrated monastery, with five other nuns, testified the same on the VII of March in the year MDCCXXIX.

[43] another is healed of a violent vomiting To the things recounted above must be added what the illustrious free lord Victor von Thurn made public in honor and praise of our holy Gebhard in the following attestation, fortified with his own hand and seal: I, John Victor, free lord of Thurn, hereby confess that about three years ago, from a most acute fever, I suffered before every paroxysm so violent a vomiting that each time I feared lest through excessive violence a vein should burst in me. Although I applied many medicines to this evil, yet by them I profited nothing at all.

[44] is healed. But when it was unexpectedly told me that the loaves of St. Gebhard had often helped many in these and like cases, I procured some of those loaves for myself from brother Gebhard of the Order of St. Francis, and took them before the paroxysm, saying each time seven Our Fathers and Hail Marys. And when I had used them the third time, vomiting after my accustomed manner, I cast up — saving your reverence — as it were a little bag equaling an egg in size; which being done, I obtained my former health very easily. Which I hereby testify, in honor of almighty God and of holy Gebhard, with my own hand, with the seal of my free lordship added, at Rorschach on the XXIV day of June of the year MDCCXXX. (L.S.)