Facundinus

ON ST. FACUNDINUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR OF TADINUM IN UMBRIA

At the beginning of the seventh century, or in the ninth or tenth century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

ON ST. FACUNDINUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR OF TADINUM IN UMBRIA

BY J. P.

§ I. The situation of the place; the Saint's life before his episcopate; whether St. Gregory the Pope wrote to him; his episcopate; he is said to have been a Canon Regular.

Tadinum, or the city of the Tadinates, as it is called below in the Latin Life of this Saint (in Italian Taino), once an episcopal city of Umbria in Italy, is illustrated by various notices by Ludovico Jacobilli before the Lives of the Saints and Blessed of Gualdo Tadinum on the Flaminian Way at Mount Apennine: and of the district of Tadinum, printed in Italian in the year 1638. In chapter 1, page 8, he reports that it was situated on the Flaminian Way in a plain between Mount Apennine and the cities of Gubbio, Assisi, and Nocera; that the church of St. Facundinus was afterwards begun there, two miles distant from the territory of Gualdo, which extended itself in the plain at the roots of the mountain which is over against the said church, that same Flaminian Way passing through the midst of it, as the same author gathers from the traces and ancient ruins; and he adds that among the other churches which he names there is now there a parish church of St. Facundinus, bishop of Tadinum. On page 11 he records that the last of the several bishops there was that same Saint; that in the year 546 the city was destroyed by Totila, king of the Goths; then by the Lombards in the years 591 and 740, by the Saracens in the year 840, by the Huns in 920; that it suffered ruin from the emperor Otto III in the year 996: that that diocese was in the year 1007 united to that of Nocera, and that out of its ruins Gualdo was for the first time built in the year 1180. These things, and many others, Jacobilli, upon whose credit I have reported the above.

[2] The writer of the Life in our text at number 1 says: In the city the Saint's life before his episcopate: which was called Tadinatum, there was a man … Facundinus by name; by which he indicates that he lived in that place. But Jacobilli, cited above, affirms in his Life, page 26, that he was born there. Concerning the manner of his life before he became bishop, the anonymous writer of that Life delivers these things at number 8 in our text: This man, as the ancients have reported, exercised in the eremitical life … they had as their bishop Facundinus. In the same place at number 15 he is said to have been shut up in a cell, a solitary hermit. But that writer of the Life does not deserve undoubted credit. Jacobilli in the Life of St. Facundinus, which is had among the others just indicated, page 26 and following, reports that from a tender age he led a perfect and exemplary life; and that when he saw his own fatherland left destroyed and desolate by the Goths, and a little afterwards by the Lombards, he withdrew to a solitary life on a certain mountain of the Apennine near Tadinum, which was afterwards called the Holy Mount (in Italian Serra Santa); where he lived many years with great sanctity. These things they relate of his solitary life: which, as we cannot deny, so neither can we confirm it from the words of more ancient writers. Let us therefore proceed to other matters.

[3] St. Gregory the Great is said Jacobilli, page 27, will have it that St. Gregory, Pope, the first, moved by the fame of the Man's sanctity, in the years of the Lord 596 and 598 sent him two letters, in which he commended to him the exceedingly great need of the holy Church from the persecutions of the Lombards, followers and abettors of the Arian heresy; and further, that the same holy Pontiff conferred upon the Man many things pertaining to the divine worship, and ordered him to be presented with a Crucifix and with some of his own treatises on penance, on the virtue of contrition and penance, and on the dispensation of clerics; and he cites at the beginning of this narration in the margin the Register of the Letters of St. Gregory, book 5, letter 28; book 7, chapter 59: but at the end, the Chronicle of Gualdo from an ancient manuscript. Let us pause here a little, and weigh this history of Jacobilli. In our transcript of the Life and miracles of St. Facundinus, which we shall below commit to the press, among other things which are appended to it after the said miracles, there are two letters, one of which was sent to Gaudiosus, bishop of Gubbio, in favor of the church of Tadinum; the other to the people of Tadinum themselves: in the former the holy Pontiff delegates the visitation of the church of Tadinum to the aforesaid prelate; but in the latter he admonishes the people of Tadinum to comply with that visitor, and to choose for themselves a fit priest. Each is extant in the Register of the letters of the praised Pontiff, in volume 2 of his Works, which are marked as published at Paris in the year 1705, columns 995 and 996, among others to which is prefixed the title of the ninth book, the month of September, the second Indiction. But that Indiction concurs with the year of Christ 599. The former letter therefore, the 87th in order, elsewhere 88, as it is there marked, records these things:

[4] Knowing that the church of Tadinum has long been destitute of the governance of its own priest, by Jacobilli to have written a letter to St. Facundinus, we solemnly delegate to thy Fraternity the task of the visitation of that church. Which it behooves thee so to exhibit that nothing in the promotions of clerics, in revenue, in ornaments and ministries, or whatever is in the patrimony of that church, be presumed upon by anyone. And therefore let thy Fraternity hasten to go to the aforesaid church, and with assiduous exhortations make haste to admonish the clergy and people of that church that, party zeal being removed, with one and the same consent they seek such a priest to be set over them as may be found worthy of so great a ministry, and may in no wise be rejected by the venerable canons. Who, when he shall have been asked for, let him come to us to be consecrated, with the solemnity of a decree strengthened by the subscriptions of all, and with the testimony of thy affection in letters. Admonishing thy Fraternity also that thou permit no one to be chosen from another church, unless perchance among the clerics of that city,

in which thou art bestowing the office of visitation, no one worthy of the episcopate could be found — which we do not believe will happen: taking care above all that no lay persons, of whatever manner of life or merit, presume to aspire to this, and that thou incur not the peril of thine own ordination, which God forbid.

[5] But the other letter of the praised Pontiff is composed in these words: and on the same occasion to the people of Tadinum: Knowing that your church has long been destitute of priestly governance, it has been our care solemnly to delegate the visitation of that church to our brother and fellow bishop Gaudiosus of the church of Gubbio. To whom we have given in charge that he suffer nothing of the promotions of clerics, of revenue, of ornaments and ministries, to be usurped by anyone. Whose assiduous exhortations it behooves you to obey, and, clamor being removed, with one and the same consent to seek such a priest to be set over you as differs in no respect from the venerable canons and may be found worthy of so great a ministry. Who, when he shall have been asked for, let him come to us to be ordained, with the solemnity of a decree strengthened by the subscriptions of all, and with the visitor's page accompanying it: taking care above all that you presume not to choose a lay person of whatever life or merit. And not only will he by no means be advanced to the summit of the episcopate, but know also that you can obtain pardon by no intercessions. But know without doubt that all of you who shall be established to have aspired to a lay person must be made strangers to office and to communion. Ughelli, volume 1 of Italia sacra, column 677, treating of Gaudiosus, bishop of Gubbio, marks the year 590, to whom, he says, Gregory the Great writes, and bids him visit the city of Tadinum, book 7, letter 89.

[6] various observations concerning these letters, These letters perhaps, because they were inserted into the Life of St. Facundinus, gave occasion for saying that this Saint received two letters from Gregory: nay, even a certain gap in the manuscript of his Life at number 15 could have persuaded it. For it is thus read there: Facundinus, shut up in a cell, a solitary hermit. But after the gap: clothed by blessed Pope Gregory with a tunic and strengthened by letters. If these latter words are said of Facundinus, there is no reason why we should deny that Gregory wrote to Facundinus, even though those letters do not appear. But indeed, since the biographer in various places makes this Saint several centuries younger than Gregory, they cannot be understood of Facundinus, unless we say that the biographer brought forward things manifestly conflicting. It must therefore be examined whether Facundinus was contemporary with St. Gregory the Great, as Jacobilli and Ughelli will have it. For if he was contemporary with him, it seems scarcely to be doubted that he was promoted to the episcopate by force of St. Gregory's letters, and roused by him with letters to discharge that office rightly.

[7] and concerning the Saint's The anonymous writer of the Life at number 50 records these things concerning the time of his death: He died on the fifth of the Kalends of September, at that time in which holy mother Church rested in peace, the tempest of the Goths and Lombards and of divers tyrants having been put to flight by the divine power through the hands of the Catholic emperors Justinian and Justin and Charlemagne and Louis, and their successors. This vague setting of the time leads us to the ninth or tenth century, since Louis the Pious reigned in the ninth century, and mention is made of his successors. Consonant with these things the same author wrote in various places. For at number 62 he intimates that he was bishop after the overthrow of the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy. At number 61 he says that there was no bishop of Tadinum after Facundinus. Whence it follows in his opinion that he lived several centuries after St. Gregory the Great, by whose labor he reports at number 71 that the divine worship and the bishopric of Tadinum were restored, adding these words: Through long courses of times (after St. Gregory) and hundreds of years the worship of God persevered and flourished in Tadinum, and very many bishops presided there. For if the last bishop was Facundinus, as Jacobilli and Ughelli also affirm, and there were several bishops there after Gregory through hundreds of years, then Facundinus was later than Gregory by several centuries. The same becomes probable from the time at which Jacobilli, above at number 1, reports that the bishopric of Tadinum was joined to that of Nocera. For who would believe that from almost the time of Gregory the Great, that is, from nearly the beginning of the seventh century until the year 1007, there was no bishop for the people of Tadinum; and that at last after four centuries that bishopric was joined to that of Nocera? But let us return to the writer of the Life.

[8] episcopate To the words just adduced he subjoins these: Although at intervals of time the Saracens, ranging through Italy, several times trampled and disturbed the peoples of Umbria and of the county of Spoleto and of Nocera. And when these had been driven out by the Christians, the Christian region (perhaps one should read religion) breathed again, and holy mother Church, being freed from the tempest, rested. In these times blessed Facundinus was bishop in that same Tadinum or Taino, where he lived in great sanctity. Further, the Saracens began to invade Italy in the ninth century, and their ravagings flourished most in the tenth, and were continued at the beginning of the eleventh. And so the opinion of that writer seems to be that Facundinus was not bishop until after Tadinum had been restored from the devastation and destruction by the Saracens, which Jacobilli says happened in the year 840.

[9] Nay, if that anonymous author deserved full credit, from all things taken together it would appear probable observations: that the death of St. Facundinus happened not long before the utter destruction of Tadinum wrought by Otto III, which Jacobilli attaches to the year 996. Thus also we should easily understand that that Saint was the last bishop of that city, and that the bishopric was joined to that of Nocera at the beginning of the eleventh century. This reckoning of time, I say, would please me most, if the biographer had been better informed about the time at which St. Facundinus flourished. But since by his vague determination of time he everywhere intimates that the age of the Saint was not sufficiently known to him, and since it is not otherwise clear on what foundation Jacobilli says that the bishopric of Tadinum was joined to that of Nocera only in the year 1007, we have judged that the Saint's death should be placed doubtfully at the beginning of the seventh century, or in the ninth or tenth century. The editor of the reprinted Italia sacra of Ughelli, volume 10, column 168, thought he had found a bishop of the see of Tadinum named Cyprianus in the seventh century, whom he places after Facundinus, for the reason that Cyprianus, as he will have it, is found to have been present from this see at the Roman council of the year 649; but without doubt he is deceived. For in the Acts of the councils in Harduin, volume 3, in the second session of the Lateran council held in the year already mentioned, column 749, is read Cyprianus … bishop of the holy church of Tadua. Among the indices to the councils in the same Harduin, volume 11, column 430, there is marked Cyprianus of Tadua, in the letter to Paul of Constantinople, no other among the several persons of the same name appearing there who pertains to that Roman or Lateran council of the year 649. Charles de Saint-Paul in the reprinted Sacred Geography, among the bishoprics of Africa Proconsularis, page 92, at the name Tadua writes these things: The synodal letter of the province of Proconsularis has Cyprianus as its bishop. Hence it comes about that I cannot doubt that the aforesaid editor of Ughelli was deceived by the likeness of the names Tadinensis and Tadduensis, and wrongly thrust Cyprianus, an African bishop, into the see of Tadinum. Something must also be said concerning the manner of life which St. Facundinus, when placed in the episcopal dignity, is said to have professed — that of the Canons Regular, as is gathered from the biographer's words.

[10] For at number 10 he writes these things: He avoided sumptuous banquets and dainty foods, sustaining his poor little body with coarser foods fit for the poor and with watered and insipid drinks, living in common with Juventinus his archdeacon and with other fellow clerics. Jacobilli will have more: for he reports at page 28 that he brought into the cathedral and canonical church of Tadinum the Lateran Canons Regular, instituted by St. Augustine; and that he also made profession of that same Order, and, observing this rule with them, was not merely their bishop, but their abbot and Prior, leading a common life with them. Hippolyte Helyot, volume 2 of the History of the Monastic Orders, chapter 2, page 11, gathered many things concerning the origin of the Canons Regular; in chapter 3 he treats of the Canons Regular of the Lateran church, asserting at page 28 that those clerics lived in common under the pontificate of St. Leo I, who sat from the year 440 to 461. Which note of time can be reconciled with the life of our Saint, raised to the mitre of Tadinum at the end, as was said above, of the sixth century, or in the ninth or tenth century. But whether the earliest institution of the holy Father Augustine was of hermits or of Canons Regular is an intricate matter, and keenly disputed on both sides: for the deciding of which suit we do not wish to interpose ourselves as judges. Consult the preliminary Commentary in this volume on the Acts of St. Augustine, §14 and the two following.

§ II. The Saint's virtues and miracles; his cult; the writer of the Life.

What we could wish for in the biographer, who narrates the Saint's virtues, The anonymous writer fills the greatest part of the Legend or Life with the holy Man's virtues, many in number, eminent in kind, and most worthy of a most watchful prelate; I could wish he had done this more briefly and in better order. For, although he prefixes to the episcopal virtues, which he describes after the secular ones, titles by which he wished to distribute them into various classes, yet he would have done this with better success if he had distinguished some from others which look to almost the same thing; whereby it would have come about that he should not repeat the same, or nearly the same, distinctions of the Saint in different and sufficiently prolix words. Jacobilli certainly did this more briefly, from page 28. Further, I do not here record singly any of the Man's virtues, since they ought to be read in that place. If, however, anything occurs to be observed, account of it will be taken in the Annotations. Let the same be said of the miracles, concerning which I subjoin these things. As the anonymous legend-writer arranged the holy Prelate's virtues not opportunely enough, so in that same kind something is lacking in him regarding the miracles. For at numbers 58 and 59, two being related, he goes on at number 60 to the finding of the Saint's ancient Legend: but then at number 62 he leaps across to his death, which he reports to have taken place when peace had been restored to the Church.

[12] and his miracles: Hence at number 63 he returns again to the miracles which came to his knowledge from the report of the ancients. At number 65 he subjoins to these a few things concerning the sacred remains and the changed church of St. Facundinus, and at number 66 and following he again resumes the miracles. How much more orderly would he have narrated them in one stretch. But that many prodigies had been lost he had affirmed at number 61: Many miracles of blessed Facundinus, he says, and healings of infirmities … are not written here, because either through the negligence of the clerics and the rudeness and folly of the laity they were not written and noted down; or, if any were written, they were lost and destroyed and consumed through bad keeping. Exceedingly marvelous are the things which the Legend narrates at number 58 from ancient tradition, as he indicates: namely, that the holy Prelate, while he went up the mountain

… to pray, it happened at times that even hard rocks were softened beneath his soles, and the traces of his feet impressed in them showed, as though in sealed wax, the hollows of his genuflections on the rocky mountain, while he prayed with bended knees … to see and kiss which the peoples ran together for very many years, and we ourselves saw them and kissed them. These things, I say, are exceedingly marvelous; which I indeed do not deny; but I could wish for more ancient documents for them, that this tradition might be proved to be genuine and not popular.

[13] Concerning the ancient and public cult of the Saint it is established well enough: for, as the collector of the Legend reports at number 53, his cult is proved: a church was built in his honor, and a concourse of those who came was made; to which he adds marvels at number 59. Then at number 55 he affirms that it was appointed that his celebrated memory should be perpetually kept in his diocese and bishopric, and that his feast-day should be solemnly celebrated on the fifth of the Kalends of September: which devout festival, he says, we have heard was venerated through many hundreds of years …, and we hear it in our own times solemnly celebrated. Thirdly, at number 56 he treats of a proper prayer. Fourthly, he affirms at number 57 that the religious cult of the Man persevered, saying: In our times also we have seen the inhabitants of the surrounding places of the once Tadinate diocese go up into that mountain of Serra Santa, on account of drought and other tribulations. Fifthly, in the same place he writes of the translation of the body, the church being changed, and of the invocation of him who compiled his Legend. These things briefly; the texts themselves can be inspected in the Life or Legend which we shall give. It will not be foreign to our purpose if by some observations we make clear what has been said of the holy Man's two churches.

[14] That the first of them was founded outside the city of Tadinum, the Legend indicates at number 53, various sacred buildings under the Saint's name: where several things are said of it. On the ninth day of February, in the Annotations on chapter 1 of the Life of St. Raynald, bishop of Nocera, at letter f, page 373, we said that a temple was dedicated to him near the town of Gualdo: of whose situation we have also made mention above at number 1 from Jacobilli, who in the Life of our holy Prelate, pages 33 and 34, describing more closely the place of his first church, indicates that he betook himself outside the city of Tadinum to a valley, desiring to imitate Jesus Christ, who willed to die poor and in a horrible place; which valley was afterwards called Facundiana , near the river Castrianus, today, as he adds, called de la Vaccara, because the village di Vaccara is near it. Then, the marvelous revelation and conveying of the sacred body being narrated, concerning which the Legend, chapter 7, at the foot of a hill of the Apennine mountain, he indicates that the Saint's first church was there built between two rivers, whose names are Castrianus and Morus, today, he says, called della Vaccara and del Remori. The same Jacobilli at page 35 treats of another church of St. Facundinus, which he records to have been built in the year 1080 by Rudolf, son of count Monaldus, when the city of Tadinum and the said church had been destroyed by the Saracens, in that same place, about one mile distant from the city of Gualdo, and that thither were translated the bodies of the holy Prelate, and also of St. Juventinus the archdeacon, his disciple. Besides these two churches erected in honor of the Saint in the district of Gualdo, three others are set down by Jacobilli at page 38, namely one in the borough di Sassoferrato*, as he calls it; a second at Morano in the territory of Gualdo; and a third, finally, at the city of Nocera. The following also conduce much to proving the continuation of the holy Man's public veneration.

[15] Concerning another translation of those bodies Jacobilli treats at page 37, translations. narrating that on the ninth day of September in the year 1584 the bones of each Saint were found beneath the high altar of the church of St. Facundinus in a stone chest, and, with a solemn procession, Girolamo Mannelli, prelate of Nocera, consenting, were translated, and then laid in a wooden case beneath the new high altar. And presently the cited author adds that some years afterwards Virgilio Fiorenzi, prelate of the same see, took some relics out of that case and transferred them to his own cathedral, and that they are shown to the people on certain festivals. Jacobilli also proves the stable veneration toward St. Facundinus, and the propagation of the ancient cult even to more recent times, from what he subjoins: for he affirms that in the ancient place where his body rested, and in which there is a certain part of a round stone column with a cross, on every third Sunday of the month a procession is held by the clergy and people of Gualdo, by an ancient custom to the present, he says, time, on the day of St. Facundinus. From these things the most ancient cult of the Saint is proved abundantly and more; which accordingly Claude Chastelain deservedly thus announces on this day in his Universal Martyrology: In Umbria, St. Facundinus, bishop of Tadinum.

[16] The Saint is praised in the Life of St. Raynald: He is praised in our work at the ninth day of February, page 374, in the Life of St. Raynald, bishop of Nocera, on occasion of the severity which the latter exercised upon himself after his example. Here is the text: In this matter he imitated blessed Facundinus his predecessor, a man of great sanctity and eminent in perfect virtue, who was wont both to shun the softness of a bed, that he might be intent upon nocturnal prayers, and to lead a harsh life in solitude, where with greater liberty he might be at leisure for prayers. In our manuscript Legend our Saint is said to be praised also by Peter Damian; but this speaks in such a way that it is not certainly established whether this Facundinus or another bishop of the same name ought to be understood. For at number 60, Whom, he says, we believe to have been that venerable bishop Facundinus of Tadinum, whom the true priest of the Most High, Peter Damian, Cardinal of the holy Roman Church, and afterwards Prior of Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, commended with wonderful eloquence, and in the books which he dictated enrolled with other holy bishops …, commending that same blessed Facundinus for his admirable sanctity, and for his most happy solicitude and care for his people. If the collector of the Legend had distinctly indicated the passage of Peter Damian, I should have seen whether and what he says to our purpose. His Life has been illustrated in our work at the twenty-third day of February, page 406 and following; where there is treatment of his death, which is attached to the year of Christ 1072; of the hermitage already mentioned of Holy Cross of Fonte Avellano or Avellana; of the Blessed man's rule there and of his holy disciples; of his Cardinalitial dignity, and his return to the hermitage of the aforesaid Fount, and of other things illustriously done by him. I shall put an end to this Commentary when I have treated of the Legend so very often mentioned.

[17] certain remarks on the Legend which we publish, The transcript which we have is noted as taken from Vatican codex 5835, in which these things were transcribed from an ancient autograph, which seems in many places to have been scarcely legible, as is clear from the frequent correction by him who had it copied, and from the defects left. Those defects consist partly of not a few lacunae, or empty gaps: of which I have tried to fill up some by words enclosed in this sign []: but those which are greater could not thus be supplied, for want of another better copy, which is not at hand. Those defects consisted also partly of various words erroneously written and altogether omitted, but corrected and added by another hand in our transcript. But whether, and how much, in the said defects ought to be imputed to a perhaps unskilled copyist, is altogether hidden from me. But on this matter some things will be said in the Annotations. Nor further can I omit to append to these some observations concerning the writer of this Legend or Life.

[18] and concerning its That he used an ancient Legend the biographer indicates at number 60 in these words: The holy life and happy death of blessed Facundinus, as it was noted in brief discourse from his ancient Legend, which we found in the books of the ancient canonical church inserted with other histories of the Saints. But in what manner he used it he presently adds: From that, written in a simple style, we were able to investigate, expressing the sense of the words. To this he added other things, from the truthful tradition also of the ancients, as he has it in the same place: this copious Legend we have thence published. But he wrote a very long time after the Saint's death. For at number 54 he says: We have heard that blessed Facundinus the bishop presided eighteen years in the bishopric of Tadinum. And in the same place: Whom God through many hundreds of years has thus honored and honors upon earth. And again at number 55: Which devout festival of that same Saint we have heard was venerated through many hundreds of years …, and we hear it in our times solemnly celebrated. Long therefore after the death of St. Facundinus did the author of this Legend write. But in what century? Not before Blessed Peter Damian, from what has been alleged above, and therefore not before the eleventh century. But whether, and how long after, he wrote, I have not ascertained.

[19] Jacobilli at page 32 attributes the notices which he had concerning the Saint to a certain Franciscan father, author. whom he reports to have been the author of the Chronicles of Gualdo and of the Lives of many Saints of Umbria, and that he wrote down his documents about the year 1310, and says that he found them in an ancient book of the cathedral church of Nocera, and also learned them from a certain aged person. These documents are of small authority, regard being had to the seventh century, at whose beginning our holy Prelate is handed down to have died. But whether our Legend was also transcribed from these documents, I neither affirm nor deny; but what forbids us to suspect it? Jacobilli at page 35 indicates other authors who have treated of the same Saint, namely Gregorio Lazzari, book 6 On the Lives of the Saints, in the Life of this St. Facundinus, to whom he adds Ambrogio Candido, On the Lives of the Saints. In Ughelli, volume 1 of Italia sacra, column 1065 of the later edition, there are these words in a marginal note: The Life of this Saint Giuseppe Valentini published at Macerata in the year 1660. You have, reader, the chief things concerning which I have judged that you should be forewarned: there remain others which will be given in the Annotations after the Life, to which in our Ms. this title is prefixed: Here begins the Legend of blessed Facundinus, bishop and confessor, of his perfection and virtues, and of his end and holy departure. Then through the course of that same Legend there follow other titles, but not distributed into chapters; which, if they had been noted, and if a prologue had preceded the Life, they could have been transcribed after it, as is otherwise our custom. The whole division of the narrative, therefore, is our own. According to the chronological marks which I gave at number 9 from Ughelli and Jacobilli, who attach the Saint's death to the year 607, I have placed above that he died at the beginning of the seventh century, since our Legend marks no determined year, nor do I find elsewhere whence I may confirm it or define it more closely.

perhaps Facundiniana*

THE LIFE

By an anonymous author

from a Vatican codex.

ON ST. FACUNDINUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR OF TADINUM IN UMBRIA

BHL Number: 2819

By an Anonymous author.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's virtues diligently preserved by hatred against sins; the episcopate adorned by his merits.

The Saint's virtues, In the province of Umbria, which is now called the duchy of Spoleto ^a, in the city which was called Tadinatum ^b, there was a man of venerable life and conspicuous in virtue, Facundinus by name, in the words and discourses of God fluent and eloquent, filled with the true grace and humility of God. This Man from his infancy began to fear God, and from his infancy mercy grew with him. But passing his time in the first and second watch in holy manners and works, he drew back his mind from wantonness and avarice, and always kept himself in true innocence. And although he was in this life, and could freely have used temporal riches, he despised the vain delights of the world, and, desiring to serve God alone, cut away from himself all allurements; and truly laying hold of a celibate and spiritual life, and according to the holy teaching and perfect life of our Lord Jesus Christ and the examples of the Saints, he prudently and faithfully ordered his life; and taking upon himself the yoke of the Lord, which is sweet to those who fear him, and his burden, which is light to those who love him, he bore it with true charity.

[2] that he might preserve which, And from this he found true peace and rest for his soul, and studied to observe and fulfill the commandments of God in his first simplicity and innocence, cleaving with all his strength to Christ; and truly establishing his faith and hope in God, he deserved to be made a son of the true light, and, being truly illumined by the sun of justice, who is Christ, truly a servant of God, Facundinus, faithful and prudent, built his house upon the firm rock, setting his whole intention and hope in the goodness of our Redeemer. And because he fixed and held himself continually in the fear of God, he could never be overturned by the wind of vainglory, and the many waters of temptations and vexations could not extinguish his charity, firm in the Lord; for as the Lord proved and tried the other Saints as gold in the furnace, so he tried and approved this his servant Facundinus also, and always found him firmer and more faithful.

[3] in austerity of life And lest the enemy should overcome him through the temptations of lust, that Servant of God, afflicting himself with hard abstinence, prayers, vigils, and disciplines, compelled the rebellious flesh to serve the spirit. And lest the Servant of God should be overcome by the vice of gluttony and by voracity, despising dainty foods and shunning sweet wines, he sustained his poor little body with bread and water, herbs and soaked pulse; and lest the man of God Facundinus should be deceived by the heat of avarice for gold and silver and by desire of possessions, he despised gold and silver as mire and dust, giving out all superfluities to the poor, content with a modest food alone and a poor man's clothing; with Christ the poor man, Facundinus, an evangelical poor man, rejoiced in penury, and on this account happily gained the heavenly kingdom. But lest at any time he should be burned with the goads of envy or with the vice of spite, the Servant of God, being fortified by much assiduity of prayer, the affection of divine sweetness poured into his mind conferred divinely upon him, which drove from him all bitterness of hatred and spite of envy, and he truly thirsted after and inwardly loved the good of his neighbor and the salvation of his soul as his own.

[4] And lest at any time the Man of God should be troubled by the goads of anger, and by the rooting out of vices he, prudent and provident, by the kindness and gentleness given him by God, wisely repelled kindled anger and disturbances, shunning all occasions which could provoke neighbors and spiritual brethren to anger; nor did he suffer the sun to set upon anger stirred up among neighbors, but first recalled them to peace and concord. If also the holy Man was at any time shaken by the vice of sloth and by sadness, he at once repelled idleness and laziness with a fervent spirit, and idleness too, the bilge of all evil thoughts. Now by reading, now by praying, now by doing some good thing and by exhorting his neighbors, the man of God Facundinus repelled the vices of idleness and sloth with fervor of spirit. And lest the Man of God should in any way be shaken by the vice of pride or by swelling of mind or by elation on account of his own perfection and cleanness of life, and be incited to despise weak and sinful neighbors, the Man of God, at once calling to mind the fall of Lucifer, and the pride and reprobation of the just Pharisee, and the contrition, humility, and justification of the Publican, and that God resists the proud, but gives his grace to the humble:

[5] Turning over such things deeply in his mind, seized with divine fear, he diligently exercised himself: he feared his own fall, and, esteeming himself unworthy of God's grace and benefits, accused himself before God as a sinner with groaning and sighs. But Almighty God, who regards lowly things, who regarded the profound humility of his handmaid, the glorious Virgin Mary, and caused her to be proclaimed blessed through all ages, regarded the true humility of his servant Facundinus, and not only filled him with his grace and blessing; but, lifting him poor and needy from the earth, and snatching him from the dung of the world, placed him and made him sit with the princes of his Christian people, namely with the holy bishops, and made him hold the throne of pontifical glory, being enrolled by God in the book of life. The holy Man therefore, being made free from the vice of temptation, was by right made a master of the virtues, and was appointed by the Lord as head of the nations, and shepherd and bishop of souls; so that he who had before been exercised in spiritual things in a solitary life knew in what manner amid the wars of temptations a man ought spiritually to fortify himself with the arms of the virtues and to protect himself with the shield of faith, and to drive off enemies with the javelins of prayers, and with what remedies souls languishing in sins ought to be helped, and the wounds of mortal crimes healthfully cured.

[6] But this venerable man Facundinus, on account of the horrible and terrible tempests most worthy of the episcopal honor and the darkness of the errors of the Arian heresy and the dangerous schisms by which all Italy was shaken, supplanted, and darkened by the Goths and Lombards and Vandals ^c, by whom the peoples of the Latins were exterminated with their lands — this Facundinus, arising as it were a most bright star in the midst of a cloud, the remnants of the peoples being found, and those born and propagated from the dead and scattered peoples, gave to the city of Tadinum ^d the light of salvation and brought the gift of spiritual joy. Truly there was fulfilled in him what the Savior said: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hid, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light to all who are in the house.

[7] to the see Since therefore this holy Man was a true lamp shining before God with true devotion and grace, never turning aside from the commandments of God, but for the sake of the words of God keeping hard ways, meditating on the law of the Lord day and night, and he prospered * from God in all that he did: God dispensing and inspiring it, this holy Man was set upon the candlestick of the holy Church, that he might give light by word and example to all who were then in the house of God in the church of Tadinum; and he was exalted in the church of the canonical congregation, and raised by the faithful to the chair of the elder bishops who had gone before, so that that holy Man might water and pour forth the saving waters of the grace of God, which that same Servant of God drew with joy from the fountains of our Savior Jesus Christ by praying and contemplating, and might send them into the minds of his disciples and subjects by preaching and exhorting; so that of the fullness of the divine blessing, which the Man full of God had received from Christ, all might receive whom he had undertaken to govern and guard. And so, since the man of God Facundinus was already dead to the world through true penance, he bore the cross of Christ in his body, and, crucified with Christ in mind through true compassion of charity, by the power of the holy passion and cross of Christ he raised up many from the death of sin to the life of grace, and happily gained for himself and for many the fruit of eternal life; and thus he profited whom he profited, both peoples present and to come.

[8] of Tadinum But when the city of Tadinum, its bishop being dead, lacked a shepherd, and both the clergy and the people of Tadinum were seeking who might be worthy of so great a priesthood, God inspiring it, the minds and eyes of all turned themselves wholly to procuring to have the Servant of God. For when the clerics and priests and the people desired a venerable man adorned in manners, resplendent in sanctity, and instructed in letters, this man, as the ancients have reported, exercised in the eremitical life, God providing, they had as bishop, Facundinus: and when the Man of God proclaimed himself unworthy and insufficient and refused, yet, the people and clergy insisting that he should accept, the holy Man, inspired inwardly by the Lord with the pleasing will of God, and moved by the pious prayers of his people and clergy — since he was a kindly and pious Man — humbly condescended to them, and undertook the office of the episcopate with much fear of God; and he went humbly to Rome with devout brother clerics, and, being received in charity by the lord Pope ^e and the Cardinals, was confirmed and consecrated bishop: and the devout Man of God, devoutly visiting the churches of the Apostles and other holy places, and with reverence commending himself to blessed Mary ever Virgin and to the blessed Apostles, returned to Tadinum, and was received with joy and reverence by the clergy and by the ordered * people.

[9] he is promoted after a solitary life, Which blessed man Facundinus, being raised to the episcopate, was not lifted up in human glory, but, humbly acknowledging God's goodness in himself, preserved the same gravity of manners and holiness of life which he had before, and held it in true humility. And with Juventinus ^f, the servant of God, his archdeacon, he faithfully guarded and governed the people committed to him, and, solicitously watching, took heed lest rapacious wolves, heretics, should invade his flock, and lest any malignant person infected with the Arian heresy or with any condemned heresy should corrupt his clergy and people, or any other evil sect of hypocrites. For as this Servant of God in the solitary life, in abstinence and vigils and silence and prayers, had devoutly imitated the holy fathers Paul ^g and Anthony ^h, Hilarion ⁱ and Arsenius ^k; so also he humbly followed blessed Martin ^l and blessed Nicholas ^m in charity and hospitality and virtues. For he refused to enlarge possessions and to build great edifices and to embrace the pomp of the world. This man, simple and upright and fearing God, did not go after gold, nor did he hope in money, nor did he wish to gather treasures,

but gave out to the poor whatever he had superfluous beyond a religious and poor man's clothing and a slender food.

[10] He avoided sumptuous banquets and dainty foods, and he shines forth with virtues. sustaining his poor little body with coarser foods fit for the poor and with watered and insipid drinks, living in common ⁿ with Juventinus his archdeacon and with other fellow clerics; with whom he dedicated his whole time to the Lord in a religious and poor manner of life with peace and tranquillity. Mindful of the admirable humility of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, a true poor man, led a poor life with the poor Apostles, that Servant of God also, as a stranger and a devout pilgrim, abstained perfectly from carnal desires, which war against the soul; and that he might always preserve his humble and tranquil soul … from every vice, he ever made a fast acceptable to the Lord, abstaining from all sin; and he mortified his body with abstinence and fasting not only in the Lents instituted by the holy fathers, but at every other time also he remained fasting and truly sober, carefully taking heed lest he should be devoured by the roaring lion, the devil; and he performed that fast most devoutly which the Redeemer performed without food and drink in the desert among the wild beasts of the woods, fasting for forty days.

ANNOTATA.

perhaps prosperaretur*

perhaps omni*

CHAPTER II.

His guardianship of the orthodox faith; his care and charity toward his subjects, and other virtues worthy of a bishop.

Besides other virtues there shone in the Saint While therefore blessed Facundinus followed the perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ by observing the evangelical and apostolic life, running the way of God's commandments, with an enlarged heart illumined by the Holy Spirit, he had the light of life and gained eternal life: because he truly loved Christ, having his commandments in his heart and keeping them in all works of charity; and because he studied truly to be meek and humble, and learned this from the good master Jesus Christ who teaches it, therefore he had and possessed true rest and peace in his soul, and held and ruled the ecclesiastical office with true tranquillity. Among the good shepherds and holy father bishops of Italy he was numbered by God and joined with them, and among them he shone with much sanctity, and stood firm as an immovable column in the true Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and clave firmly with the holy Roman Church, following the footsteps and embracing the teaching of the holy fathers and doctors Athanasius ^a, Ambrose ^b, Jerome ^c, Hilary ^d, Augustine ^e, and Gregory, approved in the sacred Council of Nicaea ^f, shunning and fleeing the death-bearing and poisoned teachings of the Arian bishops, and of heretical priests and laymen, whom the enemy of the human race sowed in the bosom of the holy Church and brought forth as harmful tares among the pure wheat of truth: which heretics and schismatics, often confuted and as it were rooted out, being often reborn and kindled by the devil's blowing, ran hither and thither in hiding, entangling the minds of the simple in their cities.

[12] a mighty care But blessed Facundinus, drawing back and guarding his clerics and people by his sacred admonitions from their perversity and malignity, did not suffer any evil heresy, nor any perverse dogma or schism, to dwell and be born in his church and people; and if anyone was found infected with any such leprosy, he was cut off from the sight of the holy Church like a rotten member. But false prophets and hypocrites and feigned Christians, who by name only and by outward habit make a show of sanctity, while within in conscience they are full of vices and iniquity, continually intent upon the voracity of the belly and the gains of avarice, and often turning aside by various opinions from the way of the Saints and from sound doctrine — such little foxes blessed Facundinus shuddered at as at vipers, fleeing their familiarities and conversations; he did not permit any sect of such hypocrites and imposters ^g and of false spirits to enter and stay in his church and diocese. For the servant of God Facundinus knew, an eminent contemplator of the divine secrets and truly instructed in spiritual exercises, that in false brethren and feigned spiritual men there are many dangers, and that the angels of Satan, transfiguring themselves into angels of light, delude incautious and proud spiritual men with false revelations and visions, and lead them into false opinions, and divide them from the bosom of holy mother Church.

[13] And therefore the holy Man permitted no solitaries or other religious to dwell in the mountains or among his peoples who were of another opinion than that which the holy Roman Church teaches and holds, and who in any way halted from the unity of the holy Church. Blessed Facundinus therefore, the priest of the Most High, was found without stain of vices, of persecuting heretics: by his good example and clean from the perversity of errors: who, while he prudently guarded the five senses of his body, lest through the windows of the body malignant suggestions and vices should enter into his mind, kept his soul in true cleanness and peace, and possessed his soul in true patience; and by reason of the cleanness of his heart and the innocence of his purity he contemplated God, admirable in his works, and the divine light continually illumined his soul, and he spiritually saw in the divine light God the King, the creator of all. Let us therefore praise him in the Lord, because he did marvelous things in his life and signs of powers among the people: among whom he shone forth like a heavenly light. But his fame of goodness was spread abroad on every side; to good minds it gave the fragrance of devotion and piety, and all who heard and saw the holy life and conversation and the perfect works of blessed Facundinus the bishop glorified God and praised him in his servant Facundinus, and were moved and stirred to acting well and to living in an ordered way without sins, and charitably and with reason with their neighbors.

[14] Truly therefore there was fulfilled in him what our Savior admonished, saying: he gives light to his subjects, Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven; for the faithful Servant of God studied to edify all alike by word and by example, visiting and comforting the sick and the poor, and piously and charitably helping them, and causing them to be helped so far as he could; and in tribulations and straits he consoled the afflicted, and those detained in prisons for their faults, whom he faithfully sought to bring back to a state of salvation and to lead by his pious admonitions to holy confession and penance. But those whom he saw running along the broad way of the world without the bridle of the fear of God, sinning and living ill, he rebuked more harshly, and resisted them in their evils so far as he could, reforming them by episcopal authority, and dissolving and scattering their evil thoughts.

[15] And many such returned, being led by the admonitions of God's priest Facundinus; and profits and although at that time the Officials of the Roman commonwealth, and the patricians and proconsuls and prefects of the Church, appointed in the aforesaid cities and provinces, preserved perfect justice according to the imperial edicts, the holy bishops and good priests in spiritual matters more perfectly procured the things opportune for the salvation of souls and befitting the divine worship, and watched solicitously in the care of the flock of the Apostles committed to them, lest want of food should kill any of the poor, and lest the intense cold of snows and winds should destroy the naked. Thus the blessed Pope Gregory, shepherd of the holy Church, took pains … all spiritual poor persons, religious men and women, hermits and solitaries: Facundinus, the servant of God, shut up in a cell, a solitary hermit, … clothed by blessed Pope Gregory with a tunic and strengthened by letters. But all the holy bishops in their bishoprics had a special care of the poor and the sick, of pilgrims, of wards, of orphans and widows and of those shut up in prison, giving out all that they had to the poor, and themselves also humbly serving the poor and the sick, and more attentively watching over the salvation of souls.

[16] excellently: Such shepherds did the churches have before, who refused to gather monies, and were unwilling to glory in horses and precious garments, but, truly gentle and humble, devoutly and humbly followed the gentle and humble Christ. But blessed Facundinus the bishop, being joined to the holy shepherd bishops and numbered with them, because he lived justly and holily and exercised the holy works of mercy toward his neighbors so far as he could, therefore deserved to be made a member of Christ; and there was truly fulfilled in him what the Savior himself asserted, saying: He that abides in me, and I in him, this man bears much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. But the Servant of God Facundinus, innocent in hands and clean of heart, who truly loved Christ and his neighbor as himself, abode

in Christ, conformed in all things to his most holy will, and nothing separated him from the true charity of Christ. Nay rather, the more he was outwardly vexed and persecuted and afflicted by malignant spirits and by depraved men, the more cheerfully and fervently did he rejoice in Christ, and was kindled with his most holy charity.

[17] lowliness of mind But this blessed Man brought forth much fruit, who in his life was gentle, and by his preaching drew back very many from evils into the way of salvation and led them back to Christ; and Christ absolved many in heaven whom his faithful servant and priest Facundinus absolved on earth. Truly there was fulfilled in him what God himself foretold through the prophets, saying: Upon whom shall my spirit rest, save upon the humble and quiet and him that fears my words? But although blessed Facundinus was adorned with every virtue, yet holy humility above all shone in him, because he was truly humble in mind, fearing God, and continually trembling at his judgments, reckoning himself viler than all, wearing lowly and rough religious garments, a pilgrim and poor in this life, riding not on horses and palfreys *, but humbly on his own feet, alone, praying in fear, going on his way, and by day sometimes walking and speaking of God with his spiritual disciples. But the good custom of holy exercise had, from much assiduity and continual devotion of mind, been turned as it were into nature for this blessed Man: for he could never stand idle without doing some good thing, either by reading or by praying or by exhorting Christians, so that there passed not an hour or a moment of time which was not wholly turned to the praises of God and to his own salvation and that of his neighbors.

[18] But the canonical Hours blessed brother Facundinus said devoutly with much devotion of mind, the pious recitation of the canonical Hours, lifting up and directing to the Lord his understanding and the desire of his heart, uttering the words well, and listening carefully, and so attentive, as though God were present, he recited the psalms and prayers: for the spirit of the Lord was present to his Servant, and filled his mind within, blessing it, and truly illumined it; and thus, withdrawn from all care and din of earthly things, with jubilation of mind he praised God, who made all things, being now spiritually associated with the heavenly angelic choirs. He wished also and admonished his clerics to say the canonical Hours devoutly and at the appointed times; and, that he might the better lead them to it, that holy Father himself, coming together with them in the church, very often performed the divine Offices with them more devoutly, kindly and charitably admonishing them that they should never omit any Hour, lest for any Hour omitted and lost they should be bound by mortal guilt.

[19] But from the perverse voracity of the belly and from the heat of avarice he restrained his clerics, the best admonitions given to clerics and priests, ordering and binding them by admonitions and rebukes to a sober and ordered and religious life: from harmful familiarities he drew them back so far as he could, lest in idle talk and in kindly companionship with women their minds should be dissolved and likewise deprived of devotion and cleanness. He admonished also the priests who were confessors that they should have no familiarity with women, nor foolish and superfluous conversations, save in hearing their confessions and in conferring on them the divine Sacraments, according as is expedient for salvation and befits honorable conduct; asserting that the sight of women is to be dreaded by weak minds, and often blackens the strong hearts of spiritual men; and those whom he found faulty in such matters he punished sharply, enjoining upon them salutary penances; but the incorrigible he separated from the Church and the Sacraments as rotten members.

[20] This therefore was a shepherd of mercies, the bishop of God Facundinus; his solicitude in worthily administering the Sacraments, and in clerics nor did he rule and feed his sheep for temporal advantages and earthly gains, but without any vice of simoniacal depravity this Priest of God, a worker of virtues, administered the ecclesiastical Sacraments with devotion and reverence, which he himself had freely received from God, and out of love of God he humbly gave freely to his subjects; and the efficacy of divine power which the Man of God received from the Lord in the most sacred Sacraments was due in the minds of those who received the most sacred things from his holy hands; and he cleansed very many from sins and joined them to Christ, made partakers of eternal life. But when clerics came to him, the Priest and pontiff of God, at the time of ordination to receive orders, he, kindled with the zeal of God and with the salvation of souls, examined their life and conscience, whether they were worthy; in no way permitting that those should be received to sacred orders who were of evil life and carnal and incorrigible; and he wished to be certain that those whom he ordained and took up to the holy priesthood were well confessed and disposed and of good repute.

[21] For the holy shepherd Facundinus knew that clerics unworthy of the priesthood, to be promoted to the priesthood, handling the ecclesiastical Sacraments unworthily, are reprobated by God, and handle sacred things to the ruin of their own damnation, and kill the souls of their neighbors by evil examples: and that just as from the good life of ecclesiastical and religious priests, and from their holy words and examples, simple and faithful laymen always profit, so from the evil life and examples of evil priests and clerics the souls of their subjects are killed: so that they disdain to confess to them and to receive from them the Sacraments of the Church, and to come to the divine offices: being embittered by their evil examples they are drawn back; and because they crucify Christ, receiving him unworthily, and kill him in the hearts of their neighbors, they bind themselves to eternal damnation and to the inextinguishable fire, to be punished eternally.

[22] and his singular preparation for Mass But when the Man of God Facundinus wished to celebrate Masses, although he was truly clean in mind and body, and truly chaste — since he had acquired and preserved honorableness and purity by much abstinence, vigils, prayers, and disciplines — yet he first prepared himself by watching, praying, and confessing purely; and through holy compunction and contrition he first offered himself and his heart to the Lord in sacrifice, and God wonderfully accepted his troubled spirit and his contrite and humbled heart. And although his mind, pure and innocent and devout, clung as it were continually to the living God through holy desires and holy meditations, conformed in all things to his most holy will, yet in that most exalted Sacrament, while blessed Facundinus celebrated Masses, he was more copiously filled with heavenly gifts, and more perfectly clave to and was spiritually united with the spotless Lamb, Christ the Son of God, whom in holy communion he received with true devotion of heart.

[23] are praised. And because he himself often reverently ate of the living Jesus who came down from heaven, he lived a peaceful life, and the grace of God was always in him. For truly he could say, as the Apostle says: I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me. This Servant of God Facundinus therefore, having eternal life abiding in him when he ate the true Bread of angels — devout, I say, both for himself and for the many for whom he offered this most sacred sacrifice — obtained from God the remission of sins and graces; and for the souls which were in purgatory he obtained, by his merits and prayers and by the power of the precious body of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they should happily end their punishments and pass over to everlasting joys. But blessed father Facundinus admonished the priests and his clerics, as was fitting, that they should devoutly prepare themselves for celebrating the divine mysteries, so that none should presume to receive the holy body of Christ unless well confessed and bound by no mortal guilt. But to his subjects and to the laity he preached that they should not receive the sacred communions unless first well confessed and disposed and contrite.

ANNOTATA.

a palafredus* is a kind of horse.

CHAPTER III.

The Saint's care for nuns; his pastoral solicitude for his flock; spiritual conversations; St. Juventinus his disciple; fruit among his neighbors; the mixed life; chastity.

He bids the recluses and nuns beware of familiarity with men: The venerable priest of God Facundinus, and faithful shepherd of the peoples of Tadinum, while he faithfully ruled the sheep committed to him, and with much fear of God cherished clerics and laymen, guarded with special care the enclosed nuns and religious women, lest the rapacious wolf should snatch and scatter them; and lest he should break their unstable senses, and lest the ancient serpent should infect and kill their souls with the poison of false allurement and sweetness, he denied them harmful familiarities with men, lest the fragile female sex should be drawn and broken by deceitful talk and fraudulent friendship, lest through the windows of the five senses death should enter into their souls; and lest, while they were thought to live in sanctity in the sight of men, they should before God's eyes be proved spiritually dead in vices. And because any human mind whatever, spiritually speaking, unless it be held in the true fear of God, is quickly overturned by the wind of vainglory, by praisers who extol an upright life and good works with flattering tongues; and as several foolish spiritual persons and foolish virgins, when they are lifted up in the human praises of those who praise them, and glory in seeming and being held holy before God's presence, are deservedly deprived of the reward, and are reprobated with the foolish virgins, nor are they let in to the banquets of the bridegroom and the bride.

[25] For this reason Facundinus, as he himself wisely shunned the praises of men, various things are reported so he admonished his spiritual sons to flee the vice of vainglory, that they might be joined with the wise virgins: and therefore he had them cleansed from vices through holy confession by good priests, and by visitation corrected and reformed those who were disordered, casting off all bitterness of hatred and reforming themselves to true peace and concord with their neighbors. But to those who were held ensnared by rapine and thefts, by usuries and by things evilly taken away, he in no way granted that the benefit of absolution and the mystery of holy Communion should be given, unless they first perfectly restored them, or made a firm compact of restoring them.

But those who were wrapped in the mire of lust, and defiled with fornications, and sprinkled with the leprosy of uncleanness, abominable to God and the angels, rotten and stinking, he in no way permitted to approach the sacred mysteries, unless they first washed themselves through penance and humble confession and contrition, and reconciled themselves to God by true and bitter penances.

[26] And the holy Shepherd, a good and prudent physician, healed the wounds of languishing souls, concerning his pastoral solicitude: and faithfully bestowing on them the remedy of salvation, restored them safe and cleansed to the good Savior Jesus Christ. And kindly and charitably he brought back the sheep straying from the way of God's commandments, by pious admonitions and exhortations, to the fold of Christ, and solicitously guarded them in the bosom of holy mother Church: and when in the care of the flock and people committed to him Facundinus, worshiper of the Trinity, labored faithfully all day as it were in the Lord's vineyard, rooting out vices and bringing in virtues, in Christ's name he cast out demons from the hearts of sinners, extinguishing evil desires and wills and the depraved purpose of doing ill: he healed also the spiritually sick of divers infirmities in the name of the Lord, plucking out divers vices and sins from the minds and hearts of very many. But to the blind, and to those darkened in the gloom of ignorance, he restores the light of conscience by the words of God and the commandment of holy Church, sowing Christ in their minds, who is the true light illuminating holy souls, and the sun of justice, enlightening holy hearts with the ray of his truth. The Man of God Facundinus, as he was wholly evangelical and devout, so observed a holy and evangelical silence, so that there never proceeded from his mouth an injurious, foolish, or wanton word, or one which might beget disturbance and bitterness in a neighbor's heart.

[27] spiritual conversations: And thus he, truly a good man, always brought forth useful and edifying words out of the good treasure of his heart; and also with the devout Juventinus his archdeacon, and with other devout disciples and spiritual brethren, in divine conversations and readings, at table while they ate, and at other times when they were at leisure, being withdrawn from the care and din of their subjects, they were exercised and refreshed in the spiritual delights of the Lord's table: but those wanton in words, and speaking foolishly, and disturbing their neighbors with injuries, and rashly defaming the life of others, the man of the Lord Facundinus rebuked more harshly, and corrected those subject to him with grave discipline: but the incorrigible he altogether shunned, and by no means admitted into his fellowship and within his bishopric.

[28] Juventinus his disciple: But concerning the food opportune and necessary for the body, the servant of Christ Facundinus cast his thought upon the Lord, whom that pious God nourished solicitously through his servants, who were moved with wonderful devotion toward him, drawn by his kindness: among whom the chief was the servant of God, his archdeacon, and other devout brethren, who carried out external business and procured necessaries, that their master and father Facundinus might be more freely at leisure for prayers and divine contemplations: which Juventinus indeed was truly the dearest disciple and spiritual son of blessed Facundinus, and privy to his sanctity and his chief imitator among the rest. Exceedingly happy and blessed was the assembly of the canonical brethren, and the little gatherings of religious, and the society of the clerics of the churches of Tadinum, over whom so holy a father bishop, the servant of God Facundinus, kindly and pious, presided; and they themselves spiritual sons in the Lord, and devout and humble and honorable disciples, in the midst of whom Christ was Lord and master. O how good and how pleasant it was that such brethren should dwell in unity, who performed the divine worship with much veneration and drew the people to the praises of God and of the saints, and invited their fellow citizens to act well and to live purely; so that the congregations, as we piously believe, of so great a Father, and disciples so perfect and so holy, being stirred by the bright examples of good fellow brethren, despised the world with its vanities and led a celibate life, offering themselves to the Lord.

[29] But we believe that there were many servants of God and fearers of God in that same city of Tadinum, both clerics and laymen, and throughout the region round about, many enrolled in heaven through him: his contemplative and active life: and in those same Apennine mountains ^a: whose names, although unknown to us, are yet written in the book of Life of God and of the Lamb, with whom they reign for ever. But the Priest of the Most High, Facundinus, who had already with blessed Paul ascended the citadel of heavenly contemplation and had tasted the gifts of divine wisdom, being constrained by his episcopal care to direct and sanctify marriages, gave himself [to] the cares of his neighbors, and as the patriarch Jacob saw. Sometimes through the zeal of charity, like another Elijah, he ascended into God and was kindled with the charity of him whose inestimable goodness willed his Son to be made flesh and crucified, that he might redeem from death those whom he had made flesh ^b, condescending by degrees of piety to his neighbor. He bore the want and tribulations of his neighbors as though his own, helping them and relieving their miseries and penuries, now by preaching, now by visiting the sick and the oppressed, bringing them back to Christ in the active life; like a most faithful Martha he served the Lord faithfully and fervently. At last, unto the death of the Lord … he wiped away with tears, vigils, prayers, and fastings whatever of the vanities of earthly dust had clung to him.

[30] But the servant of God Facundinus, rigid and severe toward himself, watched more attentively over the keeping of his purity: he keeps watch for the preserving of chastity for he prudently shunned familiarities, conversations, and the sight of women, not daring to look upon what it is not lawful to desire. And although, being often compelled by the necessity of his episcopal care, he was constrained to speak to women, as a pious father he condescended to them by hearing their confessions in fitting cases, and by conferring on them the divine Sacraments, and by admonishing them healthfully concerning the salvation of the soul; and so cautiously that he fixed the gaze of his eyes for no long while on the face of any, lest he should in any way becloud the serenity of the cleanness of his soul, and lest in his flesh, tamed and subject to the spirit, he should stir up a little fire, and should in any way disturb the true peace given him by divine grace.

[31] And although the holy Man, bound by the outward cares of the pontifical office to the people committed to him, was constrained to go forth outwardly from the inward quiet of prayer and devotion for the carrying out of its duties, and for the cherishing of divine grace. yet, being always solicitous for his own salvation, when the cares of his people were finished with peace and charity, he ran back swiftly to his prayers and inward quiet, shutting himself in his little cell to pray to his father and creator God: and therefore he hastened so quickly to run back, lest in his soul and heart he should extinguish the warmth of his devotion, and empty his mind of divine sweetness and gladness; and he prudently shunned the sad businesses and grievous cares of this wretched and slipping life, which scatter and confound the peace and inward joy of the mind, and turned aside from them: and thus it came about by God's grace and power that, while the holy Man wisely preserved God's grace in himself, firm in the faith and hope of our Savior, rivers of living water of holy doctrine and exhortation flowed forth from his heart through his tongue upon his disciples and peoples, watering them with holy conversations of eternal life.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER IV.

His singular gift of prayer, and the manifold fruits reported from it.

The Man of God prays in secret But when the holy bishop Facundinus had spent the whole day in the praises of God and in holy works in the active life, like blessed Martha, at the coming of night, after the example of our Redeemer, he went up alone into the mountain to pray, and carefully took heed lest he should do his righteousness before men, to be seen by them: for first, with Juventinus his devout disciple as companion, he laid himself down on his little bed and slept a little, and, sleeping in body, yet watched in mind, as the bride says in the Canticles: I sleep, and my heart watches. Then, being roused by the divine spirit, rising in haste, since he could not exercise and spend the fervor of his heart within himself in the bishop's house, lest he should rouse Juventinus the archdeacon and his other fellow brethren from sleep, and chiefly lest they should extol and magnify him among the people, he therefore went out secretly and in silence from the bishop's house and from the city, and set out to praise God.

[33] and with fervent spirit: But so great was the fervor of devotion and of love toward our Lord Jesus Christ in the servant of God Facundinus, that it did not suffice him to render praises and thanks within his own church only; but, fervent in spirit, he went through plain and mountains praising God, and his beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom love made man; whom, devoutly meditating, he had first sought upon his little bed by night, and had sought by praying through the streets and squares, and had not found as he wished, being checked and drawn back by fear lest a rumor of him should arise among the people; at last passing beyond them, leaving the city and the peoples, alone and freely, with psalms and hymns, often bending his knees, lifting his palms and his face to heaven, he passed through the plain and went up into the mountain alone to pray; and through the steep places of the mountains, through the hollows of the valleys, and through the pits of the earth, with an excessive fervor of spirit he sought his beloved, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who out of unspeakable charity was pleased to be crucified for us.

[34] the fruits And because that servant of Christ Facundinus was truly innocent in hands and clean of heart, he was drawn by the Holy Spirit into the mountain of divine contemplation, and through holy desires was lifted on high; and his mind, illumined by divine light, saw God in the mirror of the pure intellectual light: and then he adored God the Father in spirit and in truth: and as holy Moses, so this faithful Shepherd most devoutly entreated God for his people. He received therefore blessing from the Lord and mercy for his people, and that humble Man was filled with blessings and gifts from the Lord; and, being made familiar with the living God in prayers and contemplation, this faithful servant spoke with his Lord as a friend with a friend; and, being now made one with God, the wall of the flesh alone parted him from God.

[35] To the blessed Man the night was so devout an illumination in his spiritual delights, manifold and in the silence of the night, while all things were still, the word of God

of the Almighty, coming from the royal seats of heaven into the mind of his Servant, filled it with his grace, and on his account bestowed many benefits upon the people of Tadinum. And this blessed Man, being forestalled by the Lord in the blessings of sweetness, as he was raised on high by the zeal of charity, was held by the power of true humility lest he should fall from divine grace. For, being enlightened by God, he knew that God's judgments are just, when he scatters the proud in heart and exalts the humble: and therefore, holding himself in the fear of the Lord, he served the Lord unceasingly in fear, in the active life, working good works toward his neighbors; and he exulted in the Lord, praying with trembling in contemplation. Thus therefore this holy Man, like Moses in gentleness with faithful pastoral care, and like holy Elijah in the zeal of true charity and justice, a humble imitator of blessed Peter in the priesthood, and of the holy Apostles in the apostolic life, deserved to see in this life, in clear contemplation, Christ transfigured and glorified, sitting at the Father's right hand, and often to be refreshed by his gracious presence on the lofty Apennine mountain.

[36] But how many and how great consolations, illuminations, and spiritual gifts that holy soul of blessed Facundinus received * from Christ on that mountain and singular and in those desert places, and how filled it was with them, that Holy Spirit is witness, who breathes where he wills, and makes heavenly those whom he fills: which gifts and spiritual visions the holy Man, coming down from the mountain, never disclosed to anyone; and therefore that mountain was called Serra ^a santa, because it was sanctified by the prayers and vigils of this blessed Pontiff and of other servants and handmaids of God: on whose summit the holy Man very often remained in a little cell hollowed out in the hard rock, in holy prayers and spiritual delights, having found by true experience that it was good for him to be there. But to so great a fervor was the holy Man of God kindled, and in prayers set on fire with a living charity of God and of his neighbor, in which the holy Man was exercised, being illumined with a fiery seraphic love, that the multitude of flies, of malignant spirits flying through the air, could in no way draw near or settle, but ran back to the lukewarm hearts of useless hypocrites, and could in nothing harm the blessed Man.

[37] Thus therefore, the silence of the night being spent in holy vision and prayer, from prayer the man of God Facundinus came down from the mountain, and before dawn and sunrise entered silently and secretly into the city and into his bishop's house; and, that these things might be perceived and seen by no one, he lay down again on the little bed from which he had before risen. But because at that time very many cities and castles were not surrounded with walls nor were their gates shut, being upheld and secure by the great power of the Romans, and abode in peace; and the villas, cities, and castles which had been destroyed by the Goths and Lombards in time past, the citizens returning from their ruins and reborn from the dead and the fugitives were restoring the cities, if they could not surround them round about with walls, being previously oppressed by exceeding poverty from war *, and being intent and occupied with the tillage of the lands; therefore, restoring that same ancient city of Tadinum out of the ancient ruins, we neither read nor believe that it was surrounded with walls: and therefore the way of going and returning to the mountain was free for blessed Facundinus; and because the vexation of the Goths and Lombards had now ceased ^b, and they had been converted ^c to the faith of Christ and likewise yoked to the Roman empire, therefore the peoples could freely go about their business by day and by night, and the holy religious and the holy hermits of the mountains, performing sacred vigils, praising God together and apart, went to the holy places, and each according to his measure offered a sacrifice of praise to the Most High, and the morning office, and the faithful Christians to be present at the praises to praise God. Such a devout custom, begun of old by the holy prelates, that faithful laymen should be present at matins and at the other Hours, lasted for a long time.

[38] into the Saint But the man of the Lord Facundinus, judging it good to conceal the secret of his king Christ, wished not only to be hidden from other clerics and fellow brethren and subjects, but hid himself even from Juventinus his devout archdeacon, lest he should be able to perceive the devout state of his contemplation, lest he should receive from Juventinus the empty fruits of human praise. But truly this servant of God Facundinus had felt in his soul the unspeakable glory and sweetness of the age to come, who so knowingly and studiously avoided hearing praises and honors of sanctity concerning himself, who in the silence of the night went out alone from the city and penetrated the woods and groves with the praises of God, with psalms and hymns. But because an evil fear, drawing men back from holy fastings and vigils, and hindering them from serving God, holds a religious lukewarm and slothful * in God's service: such a fear therefore is not in charity, and in no way blackened the mind of blessed Facundinus: but perfect charity, which casts out fear, truly illumined the soul of the Man of God, and strengthened it with an admirable spiritual security and constancy, so that he neither greatly feared the crowds and snares of malignant spirits, nor was terrified by the untamed beasts lurking in the woods and running about on every side by night to seize their prey; but, as with domestic animals, he conversed with them, and, as we piously believe, the man of the Lord invited them to praise God.

[39] by God But those wild beasts and animals — bears, wild boars, wolves, roe deer, and unknown animals — in no way harmed the man of God Facundinus; but as gentle sheep they consorted with the Man of God in the mountains, and feared, according to their understanding infused into them by God, the divine power in God's Servant. For the kindness and sweetness of benevolence, joined and infused into creatures by the divine goodness, perceived beforehand in God's Servant, by a certain natural subtlety of knowledge ^d by which it is illumined by God, the mind of creation living in true innocence and purity and in no way discordant from the Lord's will, and the right order of living and his unstained life, and they were moved with a certain marvelous love toward him.

[40] heaped up. While therefore this blessed man, bishop Facundinus, led an angelic and apostolic life not only among men but among wild beasts, and preserved with them by humility and gentleness his spiritual manner of life and the dignity of a priest and a life of perfection and sanctity; and, being drawn back from earthly desires, clave with his mind to God, as a pilgrim and stranger he continued his devout pilgrimages by day, attending to the advancement of his subjects and procuring their salvation; and by night, after the example of Christ our Redeemer, he went up alone into the mountain to pray; and as our Redeemer in excessive charity prayed for us, that he might reconcile us to God the Father and gain for us the heavenly kingdom, so this faithful Servant of his and good shepherd offered most devout prayers to God for his people, like another Moses, that those whom he governed in Christ by word and example he might by his prayers defend from spiritual enemies and lead to the promised fatherland of eternal salvation.

ANNOTATA.

perhaps receperit*

* that is, by war

that is, acediosum*

CHAPTER V.

Froward men envious of the Saint; his flight from vainglory; other virtues; his death.

The holy Prelate's virtue odious to the froward: the vice of vainglory Since faithful Juventinus knew that certain malignant clerics and laymen envied the happy deeds of blessed Facundinus and held him odious, because he reproved their vices and kept them from evils, they would gladly have defamed him in something, that he might seem like themselves: because the holy and upright life of blessed Facundinus showed the evil life and depraved manners of the wanton, and of dissolute clerics, a reprobate and depraved thing … But when Juventinus, his devout archdeacon, on a certain day took the shoes of blessed Facundinus, which in the evening he had well cleaned and laid beside the humble bed on which the devout father rested — rising in the morning at the first hour, wishing to prepare them for the Bishop as he rose, that he might go shod into the church with his disciples to celebrate the divine offices and mysteries; and when faithful Juventinus saw by touch and sight that the shoes were soiled with mud, he began with anxiety to wonder what this might be. But since he knew the celibate life of blessed Facundinus, and that he was adorned with holy manners, and his holy and perfect works, and his heavenly words, he did not dare to inquire of the venerable Pontiff, his spiritual father and master, what this might be; but going with him into the church they celebrated the divine offices with the clergy and people, and no murmur proceeded from Juventinus's mouth, nor did he inquire of his fellow brethren; but, faithful and devout, on another night he watchfully and solicitously observed, desiring to be more certainly informed of this, bringing no other to it, lest a murmur should arise and something sinister be suspected concerning the father bishop.

[42] But when on another night blessed Facundinus, at the first stillness of the night, being roused by the divine spirit which rested in his humble and quiet mind, the vice going out in silence from the bishop's house and from the city, passing through the plain, went up the mountain with psalms and genuflections, the devout Juventinus devoutly and humbly followed his Master in silence. And when blessed Facundinus, praying, had come almost to the summit of that same mountain, being turned about by a divine nod he saw behind him the disciple following; and the holy Man, who always desired secrecy — and would not have wished the secrets of his subjects to be so hiddenly and subtly investigated by him — grieved inwardly, knowing himself discovered, fearing lest he should lose the treasure of heavenly desire and contemplation, and the gift of the most high God, through the breeze of favor and of human praise, or be in some measure hindered in his soul; and, being charitably indignant, he reproved the disciple, that he had acted less well; and Juventinus, terrified and stricken with compunction, feared greatly, and humbly asked pardon, and said why he had done this

his good faith and intention.

[43] and he avoids human praises: But blessed Facundinus forgave the disciple his fault, and accepted his good intent. And because charity is patient and kind, the man of God Facundinus, full of charity, pondering and bearing with him, wisely knowing that he could no longer conceal the fervor of his spirit, served Christ with one mind together with Juventinus, charging him that he should manifest to no one the devout exercise of his spirit; and thus he persevered in God's service to the end. The Man of God took heed to himself against the praises of men, lest the wind of elation and the slippery report of vainglory should overthrow his mind, and make him empty of his merit before God; and lest in another's praise his mind should be dissolved, and his heart swell up with pride, and he should be numbered among the foolish virgins when he came before God in judgment; and because he knew not at what hour his Lord would come, he watched solicitously, that his mind might always be attentive to flee vices and to lay hold of virtues; and he prudently kept by him a lamp full of the oil of devotion and piety, kindled with the fire of charity, so that when Christ the Bridegroom came he might enter with him to the everlasting nuptials.

[44] his various gifts The faithful shepherd Facundinus therefore ruled and nourished the people in Christ, and the priest and archdeacon Juventinus; and they stirred up their fellow clerics and religious and the people to the praises of God and to good works. But the people of Tadinum and those dwelling in the region round about praised God and gave many thanks to Jesus Christ for the good shepherd Facundinus and for the faithful archdeacon Juventinus, whom God in his kindness had given them, who poured forth the fragrance of sanctity and of a perfect life throughout the whole region, so that there was truly fulfilled in them what the Apostle of Christ said: We are a good odor to God in every place: for even as stars in the midst of a cloud, so these shone forth among a people clouded in vices and wrapped in sins, enlightening them by holy admonitions and examples, and drawing them back from evils. And the holy fellow bishops and good shepherds of the city of Perugia, of Gubbio, and of Assisi ^a rejoiced together with the clerics and laymen of Tadinum, and with that pious shepherd Facundinus their fellow brother and fellow bishop: for although diversity and distance of places may part and separate the friends of God, yet the true charity of Christ holds them of one mind and joined and bound in the true love of God — that holy peace and concord which flourished especially in those times among holy bishops and religious, because they sought not their own things but the things which were Christ's, reckoning all temporal things as dung, that they might gain Christ.

[45] For such holy men received the holy monastic order and the holy episcopal prelacy for the love of God alone, he narrates here and there and that they might serve Christ perfectly, that from this they might gain eternal life; not that they might live daintily and wantonly, and endow their kinsfolk, and receive the glory of the world as their reward: which many do today, wrapped in darkness and deprived of spiritual light and grace, who are numbered among the foolish virgins, to whom God will say in judgment: I know you not; depart from me, all you that work iniquity. But because the priest of the most high God, Facundinus, was gracious and acceptable before God for the innocence of his heart and the sanctity of his life, and by the observance of the evangelical life was worthy of so great a priesthood, imitating Christ and blessed Peter, therefore Christ fulfilled in him what he promised to his disciples: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose you shall retain, they shall be retained.*

[46] Whence, when the priest of God Facundinus absolved sinners confessing to him, the biographer. God in heaven absolved them and rendered them absolved, whom his faithful Servant and minister and holy priest, set on earth, faithfully absolved, and for whom he offered the holy Sacrifice and most devoutly besought God: and because he was a true member of our Redeemer, whatever he asked of God the Father in Christ's name he obtained from God, since he asked no other things than those which would please Christ. And therefore we believe that many souls were saved by his prayers and absolutions, and we hold it approved that many who were dead in sins were raised by his holy admonitions to the life of grace. But so great a cleanness of mind and most perfect chastity of body shone in the man of God Facundinus that there was truly fulfilled in him what the holy doctor Jerome said: To live in the flesh beyond the flesh is not an earthly life but a heavenly one. Whence also to gain angelic glory while in the flesh is of greater merit than to possess it. Which purity of life the holy Man kept with much guarding of his senses, lest through the windows of the body he should violate the integrity of his soul, and the subtlety of his understanding be deprived of the light from above.

[47] But when Facundinus, the servant of God, had spent the whole time of his life in the service and praises of God and in the salvation of his neighbors, The Saint, in a solitary place, Almighty God concluded his life with a holy end; and because he persevered to the end perfectly in good works, therefore he was saved. But when a little time had run out, in which the holy man Facundinus was secretly followed by Juventinus and had been discovered to him alone, when the Man of God the bishop was at leisure for prayers on the mountain, he was inspired by the Lord and called to the everlasting nuptials; and, fervent in spirit, that he might flee the glory of the world, he did not return to the city; and when he began suddenly to be forsaken by his bodily strength, he came down with slow step into the valley of Facundiana beside the stream of the town of Castrianus ^b; and because Facundinus, the servant of God, had truly denied himself and bore his cross following Christ, and was perfectly dead to the world and lived in Christ through grace.

[48] Who at the time of death, when even holy and perfect men are wont to have pity on their own body, and after the pattern of Christ, forsaken, and to receive the aids of physicians and of medicines, and to be comforted by the presence and address of brethren and disciples, and to rest on a softer bed: this Servant of God, however, already spiritually crucified with Christ, for whom to live was Christ and to die was gain, wished to imitate his master Christ not only in living but also in dying: for as our most kind Redeemer, in the fervor of his charity with which he loved us, willed to die for us naked and poor in a horrible place and outside the city, forsaken by his disciples; so this faithful Servant and friend of his, in those places where he had been exercised in prayers and had received from the Lord the spirit of grace, there willed to render the spirit of life to God his Father and creator. For, praying and commending his soul into the Lord's hands, upon the dry earth and the bare dust, as though prostrate in prayer, he fell asleep in the Lord, covered and wrapped only in a rough and despised religious habit: where, since he was cherished by no human presence or help, the spiritual presence of God and of the holy angels was with him and comforted him, and by them he was led with jubilation to eternal things.

[49] and, like St. Martin, poor And that blessed Man, half-naked and poor in that last hour in which the enemy could still rage, a beggar and destitute, fought constantly with the devil, and thus bore off a true victory over his flesh and the world and Satan; and so fervently did he run to the prize, temporal things being cast off, that he happily gained the incorrupt crown of eternal life: and, like blessed Martin, that man of God Facundinus died in ashes and haircloth, poor and a beggar, and entered heaven rich, honored with heavenly hymns. And because the malignant spirits found nothing deadly in him nor any mortal crime, therefore they withdrew terrified. Blessed Facundinus the bishop, a true poor man of Christ, made no will, because he had not whereof to make one. He gathered no monies or horses or any other precious things, but sent on all superfluities, beyond a poor man's food and rough clothing, into the heavenly glory through the hands of the poor while he lived: but he left behind in his bishop's house and cathedral church only poor vestments and humble books, and the things which were necessary for divine worship, and left to his clerics the example of true perfection, that they should always hold to the spiritual life, that they might pass over by departing to the heavenly glory.

[50] he departed from this life on the twenty-eighth of August. From this we understand to what a height of sanctity and of virtues the man of God Facundinus had been raised, who not only in his life avoided being praised and exalted by men for his sanctity and perfection, but even in dying truly refused worldly favors and honors, passing over to Christ solitary and quiet, removed from the presence of clerics and disciples. Now the venerable priest and bishop of God, Facundinus, father and shepherd of the peoples of the diocese of Tadinum, died on the fifth of the Kalends of September, at that time in which holy mother Church rested in peace, the tempest of the Goths and Lombards and of divers tyrants having been put to flight by the divine power through the hands of the Catholic emperors Justinian and Justin, and Charlemagne and Louis, and their successors ^c.

ANNOTATA.

understand therefore* in a sound sense.

CHAPTER VI.

The revelation and translation of the body; his public cult; Blessed Juventinus buried with the Saint; miracles; the church changed; the sepulchre commanded by God to be honored; the Saint's Legend.

The body divinely revealed But God, willing that the holy body of blessed Facundinus should be venerated with fitting honor and worthy reverence, revealed it to a certain faithful man of that country in this manner: for at that time in which the holy man Facundinus departed from the world, and his spirit returned to the Lord who created it, our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself or by his angel, revealed in a vision to a certain faithful Christian the death of St. Facundinus, and the divine spirit enjoined upon him that he should yoke two untamed bullocks to a cart, and go to the place where the holy Man's body lay, and reverently lay the body of the holy Bishop upon it, and that wherever the divine providence should direct and destine them, there a sepulchre and oratory should be built for the holy body. But that man, awaking and marveling, rose very early in the morning and fulfilled the admonition of the divine oracle as one truly obedient, and, yoking the bullocks to the cart, set out for the place shown him by the Lord: and, looking about, he saw St. Facundinus lying on the ground, sleeping in the Lord: whose soul lived in God,

to whom all things live.

[52] And, being amazed, with joy he adored, prostrate upon the ground, and in a marvelous manner and, devoutly blessing and praising God in his Servant, he devoutly kissed the holy limbs of his Bishop, and, reverently taking them up, laid them on the cart; and, the holy Trinity being invoked, he let the bullocks go. But by the will of God, at whose nod all things are disposed, those bullocks, being made gentle, took the road and went cheerfully by a straight path: not kicking back, they bore the chest of the sacred body of bishop Facundinus, in whom and in which the sacred commandments of God of the old Law and the counsels of the new Testament had been laid up and wisely kept by that same holy Shepherd and priest of the Lord. When therefore they had come to a place as it were midway between the river of the town of Castrianus and the stream of the wall of Castellulum, there they stood still immovable, showing not by voice but by act that God's Servant ought to be placed in that very spot.

[53] But the men of that place and those set round about through the region, running together at the report of so great a miracle, were gathered of either sex and state, translated, and outside and, marveling and amazed, they praised together with veneration God and blessed Mary and blessed Facundinus, kissing the holy limbs and with much devotion venerating the body of their holy Bishop and shepherd; and they spoke among themselves and considered in what manner and in what place they should lay up and set the holy father Facundinus. And, being inspired by God, both clerics and people, having learned God's will by the revelation of that faithful man and by the immobility of the bullocks, did not dare to carry back the holy Bishop resting in the Lord to the city of Tadinum and to his own church: and therefore in that same place, the earth being dug out, they built a sepulchre and a small chamber, and with lights and praises and solemnity and reverence they laid the holy body of their Bishop in it; and thus they built that church in honor of St. Facundinus, bishop and confessor; and devout persons and clerics and religious, coming and remaining there, performing vigils and watches, more devoutly rendered praises to God and psalms.

[54] his episcopal church he was buried, So it came about that the holy Man's fame flew far and wide: and many peoples flowed together to his relics, God glorifying his Saint, and through him many … From a certain spiritual man we have heard that blessed Facundinus the bishop presided eighteen years ^a in the bishopric of Tadinum, and ruled the church of Tadinum. From this we know and devoutly weigh that unto unspeakable glory … Christ had taken up the soul of St. Facundinus; concerning the gathering and placing and venerating of his body, thus the Lord took care and truly fulfilled for his faithful Servant what he made manifest through David concerning this his servant Facundinus, saying: Thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honored; their principality is exceedingly strengthened: for with immense honor God honors in heaven, among his friends, Facundinus his servant, whom also through many hundreds of years he has thus honored and honors upon earth.

[55] the memory of the holy Prelate handed down to posterity. For whereas the names and deeds of all the nobles and common folk, clerics and laymen, of Tadinum have been given over to oblivion, and of none is there memory, of St. Facundinus alone are the name and holy works remembered, and of his archdeacon St. Juventinus; so that there is truly fulfilled in him what the Psalmist said: The just shall be in everlasting remembrance. He therefore is held in the memory of men who passed over to the joy of the angels. It was fitting therefore that, as the name and memory of blessed Facundinus is with God for ever imparted among the blessed, so holy mother Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the good pontiffs with the assembly of the faithful appointed that the celebrated memory of this venerable bishop Facundinus should be perpetually kept in his diocese and bishopric, and that his feast-day should be solemnly celebrated on the fifth of the Kalends of September; which devout festival we have heard from the inhabitants of Tadinum and from the country folk * of Nocera to have been venerated through many hundreds of years: and we hear it in our times solemnly celebrated to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.

[56] Afterwards Blessed Juventinus buried in the same place. But the servant of God Juventinus, archdeacon of blessed Facundinus, the days of his life being consummated in sanctity and good works, faithfully departed to the Lord, associated with his Father and master in the place of his sleeping, and laid up in the same church, as the certain tradition of the ancients has handed down, and as their prayer contains, which is sung at their veneration: this we say because it is thus pronounced: Be propitious, we beseech thee, to us thy servants through the merits of these thy holy confessors, Facundinus the pontiff and Juventinus the confessor, who rest in the present church, their precious merits, that by their pious intercession …

[57] St. Facundinus beneficent: his church changed: In our times also we have seen the inhabitants of the surrounding places of the once Tadinate diocese go up into that mountain of Serra Santa on account of drought and other tribulations laid upon them for their sins; and by the great mercy and kindness of our God, and by the merits and prayers of blessed Facundinus the bishop, we have known that they were heard and delivered: and they received from God the most kindly Father saving rain in fitting season, and serenity of the air at an opportune time. But in that same church many benefits of God abounded to the peoples, and miracles of blessed Facundinus, through many courses of years; until his holy body was translated thence, and his church was changed to a higher place at the roots of the mountain. Concerning this venerable brother bishop Facundinus thus wrote in ancient times that wise and devout man who compiled his Legend, as is most certainly noted, saying: O blessed Facundinus, kindly confessor, hear thy faithful ones who beseech thee now and always. O blessed Pontiff, thou didst forsake the world, thou didst cleave to God with all thy strength, thou didst furnish an example of justice in all thy works, thou didst show the way of life, thou didst not forsake the valley abounding with the Lord's grain, and yet thou didst ascend the mountain to the contemplation of God.

[58] Concerning this holy bishop Facundinus great marvels are related both by clerics and by laymen the traces of his feet impressed on the rock are recorded: who have heard this from their elders with sure faith and report, as those also received it from their more ancient forebears: that the venerable father Facundinus, while he went up the mountain with fervor of spirit to pray, was at times raised by Christ to such grace that even hard rocks were softened beneath his soles, and the traces of his feet impressed in them showed, as though in sealed wax, the hollows of his genuflections on the rocky mountain, and represented him praying with bended knees and with hands and eyes directed and lifted to heaven: to see and kiss which the peoples ran together for very many years, and we ourselves saw them and kissed them, when with the clergy and people for the sake of religion, with sacred litanies, we had gone up to his cell, beseeching God in our tribulations: since through true devotion we believe that this blessed man Facundinus turned the hard hearts of sinful men to contrition and penance. Truly God is kindly and merciful, who thus softened hard rocks beneath his feet and knees.

[59] Another great miracle also concerning blessed Facundinus is most certainly related by the ancients in this manner: his sepulchre commanded by God to be honored by passers-by: When the holy Man's body had been placed in the sepulchre, and many benefits of God were bestowed through him, no person could pass, either riding, or wearing shoes, or trailing garments along the ground, from the spring of the stream of Castrum Muri as far as the river of the town of Castrianus, or the other way, unless he first came down from his horse and put off his shoes, and thus passed with reverence before the oratory of the holy body. Which miracles, when his church was changed and the holy body translated into it, the devotion of the peoples growing cold, disappeared. For while the minds and hearts of men are emptied of devotion and charity, they are also deprived of God's grace and blessing. And thus, as wretched men who seek and love only transitory things receive in them the wage of their recompense, because they are not worthy to come to eternal rewards; and while they forget and despise the examples and teaching of the Saints, they are justly deprived of the patronages and benefits of the Saints; so the wretched citizens and country folk of Tadinum, reborn and propagated from the ancient people of Tadinum after the harsh tempest of the Goths and Lombards, when they had restored the city, and the blessed father Facundinus the bishop had devoutly fulfilled the office of the pontificate in that same city and had departed to the Lord, and Juventinus his holy archdeacon after him — after his happy passing those same people of Tadinum, forgetting the admonitions and examples of so holy a Father, and not following his life, and rendering themselves ungrateful for God's benefits, a division and discord having arisen among them, destroyed and exterminated themselves together with their city by intestine war, as firm assertion has handed down to us ^b.

[60] The ancient Legend of the Saint: The holy life and happy death of blessed Facundinus, the kindly confessor, as it was noted in brief discourse from his ancient Legend, which we found in the books of the ancient canonical church inserted with other histories of the Saints; thus from that Legend, written in a simple style, we were able to investigate, expressing the sense of the words, and we were able to gather also from the truthful tradition of the ancients — this copious Legend we have thence published, to the praise and glory of Almighty God and to the reverence of our blessed father and shepherd Facundinus: whom we believe to have been that venerable bishop Facundinus of Tadinum whom the true priest of the Most High, Peter Damian ^c, Cardinal of the holy Roman Church and afterwards Prior of Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, commended with wonderful eloquence, and in the books which he dictated enrolled with other holy bishops and prelates and servants of God who flourished about those times, commending that same blessed Facundinus for his admirable sanctity and for his most happy solicitude and care for his people.

[61] his miracles either not written in ancient times, or lost: But many miracles of blessed Facundinus, and healings of infirmities which the Lord wrought through him to the praise and glory of his most holy name, and through the invocation of his most holy servant, the bishop Facundinus, are not written here, because either through the negligence of the clerics and the rudeness and folly of the laity they were not written and noted down; or, if any were written, they were lost and destroyed and consumed through bad keeping. For, as the Savior said of himself, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered, so also, the good shepherd Facundinus departing from the world and being taken up into heaven by Christ, the sheep of his flock were scattered on every side, the city being consumed, nor did another after

him sit in the bishopric on the chair of the elder bishops who had gone before ^d; and this seems to have been the cause, that that city, having been often oppressed and trampled by the Goths and Lombards from the year of the Lord five hundred to the year of the Lord six hundred and three ^e, was afterwards, while blessed Pope Gregory lived, restored ^f, and the bishopric in it; and when for three hundred years the Italians had brought back ^g and restored the lands, at last the Saracens, coming forth from Africa and ranging through Apulia, Sicily, and the Roman parts, oppressed Rome, and, supplanting the city of Spoleto … and the regions of the duchy and of the March, the inhabitants being slain and put to flight, that ancient city of Tadinum was wholly consumed, and that region stood desolate for many years ^h.

[62] the Saint died when peace had been restored to the Church: But in those times in which the holy Roman Church and the Christian religion rested, and the peoples of the Latins had as it were breathed again from death to life, the tempest of war being put to flight, and the deluge and infestation of the barbarian Goths and Lombards withdrawing, who for more than three hundred years had supplanted them by their ranging — God arising, they were scattered and put to flight, and failed like smoke, and were confined within the utmost bounds of the earth by the emperors of Constantinople and of Rome, who also were solicitous to restore the cities and everywhere to reform the divine worship and the churches. In this peace, therefore, of holy mother Church and of the Roman emperor, in the ancient city of Tadinum or Taino, there presided in the bishopric the peaceful servant of Christ, blessed Facundinus, the adoptive son of God, and in true peace he departed to God; and the peaceful king, our Lord Jesus Christ, received him hence into the kingdom of his brightness, where is undivided peace and everlasting charity.

ANNOTATA.

* that is, the country folk of the territory of Nocera

CHAPTER VII.

Other miracles; relics; the changing of the church.

Other miracles As we have heard by the firm and true tradition of elder men whose ancient parents and kinsfolk dwelt near the church of blessed Facundinus, and as they testified to us that it had been so: who, among the other great things which they recounted to us concerning St. Facundinus, said these: A certain queen, passing through Italy with her soldiers, when she had come to the river near the oratory in which blessed Facundinus rested, they could not go further, being held back by an invisible power and might. And when the queen and her servants were amazed, they asked the men of that place what this might be, and why. And they were admonished by those who answered that they should come down from their horses and go unshod to the oratory of the blessed father Facundinus, and afterwards freely pursue their journey. And that queen, puffed up with the spirit of pride, said: Have we not passed through many places of the Saints, and were neither admonished nor compelled to do such things?

[64] We will go therefore on our way, as we have been accustomed in these past days; concerning the Saint and thus, urging on her horse, the queen crossing the river at a leap straightway fell to the ground, and by the heavy fall her arm was broken, and she began to cry out with groaning and pain; and, coming back to herself and being humbly stricken with compunction, she besought God and blessed Facundinus that he would deign to grant her the remedy of health, and would suffer her, unworthy, with her soldiers to come to his church, vowing to God and to his Saint that she would thenceforth be devoted to him and would everywhere venerate the places of the Saints. And straightway by God's clemency the queen recovered, and, walking on foot with unshod feet together with her vassals, came to the church of blessed Facundinus; and remaining there in devotion and prayer, with much devotion she reverently kissed the sacred relics of blessed Facundinus, and offered gifts to the church and to the clerics; and, commending themselves to God and to blessed Facundinus and bidding the clerics farewell, they set out in peace.

[65] are narrated: relics: the church changed. This miracle, as we have heard from the ancients, we have written; and those same ancients also related to us this miracle which we subjoin, saying: A certain nobleman, while he was passing through the region with his servants and soldiers, came to the river and was forewarned by those who met him that he should not go further, but should pass devoutly on foot and unshod before the oratory of blessed Facundinus. But he, despising this, began to urge on his horse with spurs; and when he had crossed the river at a leap, straightway he fell, and, his leg being broken, stricken with compunction he invoked with tears the mercy of God and of blessed Facundinus; and thus his men, unshod, led him on foot to the church in which the precious bones of blessed Facundinus were, and there, prayers of the cross being sent up, he was restored to his former health. And that nobleman, considering that there was a marvelous power in the sacred relics of blessed Facundinus, effectually asked that a particle of his sacred limbs be given him. But the clerics and laymen serving there, not being able to refuse so great a man, gave him some part of the sacred relics, and he, joyfully receiving it, returned to his own place. A certain particle also of the holy body of blessed Facundinus the ambassadors * of the city of Ancona are said to have obtained and received, who, returning from Rome, were passing that way. And therefore the inhabitants of the region of the once Tadinate bishopric and of the county of Nocera, fearing lest the sacred body should be wholly taken from them, resolved to translate it into a church ^a; and thus with clerics and laymen fearing God they built a church higher up at the roots of the hills, lest those passing along the Flaminian Way and by other roads could so easily come to it.

[66] Other But when the faithful wished to translate the coffer ^b, or stone chest, in which the holy Man's body lay, to the church built higher up, they could move it thence neither with ropes nor with instruments nor with their hands for three days, by God's just and hidden judgment: either because those men were not without grave sin, and were unworthy to draw so precious a gift with their arms and hands; or because the spirit of the holy Man Facundinus was unwilling that his body should be translated from where the Holy Spirit, and that Bishop of God himself, and the Lord Jesus Christ had shown the place of burial by the bullocks, and where it had now lain through many courses of times, and where God had shown very many miracles through him; or because the gifts of God and great benefits cannot at once be obtained from God, unless fasting and devout prayer have gone before, and penance been done for faults committed. But when the faithful persisted in prayers with tears and in vigils, God being as it were compelled to grant what they asked, and blessed Facundinus, overcome by the devotion of his faithful ones, permitted himself to be moved thence and translated with hymns and praises; and the faithful so secretly hid his tomb in the church that it could not easily be found and taken thence. But when afterwards the devotion of the peoples ceased, God, on account of their ingratitude, ceased to show great miracles.

[67] A certain rustic, a parishioner of the congregation of the church of blessed Facundinus, while his mind was intent upon blessed Facundinus with marvelous devotion and faith, certain miracles and he loved with pure charity blessed Facundinus his spiritual father, and desired to know him, God consoled and gladdened his simple and pure soul with such and so pleasant an oracle. For while that same faithful rustic, after the labor of husbandry by which he lived, ate the labors of his hands, and out of love of God and of blessed Facundinus gave alms; while, being weary, he slept, he saw in a vision in those valleys of the mountains above the church of blessed Facundinus two eremitical cells near to one another, which a little valley divided: and while he wondered what those cells might be, and of what servant of God, behold, he saw the venerable servant of God Facundinus going out of one cell, and passing through the little valley, and entering into the other cell.

[68] And after a little while he again went out of that cell are narrated. and entered the first cell; and when this was done and repeated several times, at last blessed Facundinus entered into the cell on the right side and remained in it: from which cell so great a splendor shone that, like the light of the sun, it lit up the whole enclosure ^c with a comely light. But that simple and upright Man, awaking, related what he had seen to a certain religious priest, and that priest wrote these things. And by this we understand that the man of God Facundinus began indeed at first to serve God in lesser things, but afterwards was raised by Christ to so great grace and divine charity that by word and example he enlightened all the peoples of the region, and shone as a burning lamp, and shines for present and future generations.

[69] But the city of Tadinum, built in ancient times in the plain beneath the Apennine mountains, To these the author subjoins the conversion of the people of Tadinum through whose midst passed the royal Flaminian way of the commonwealth, on which the passing soldiers and armies of the Romans rested — since that city was pleasant, watered with streams, endowed with pleasant mountains and places and groves and fruit-bearing lands, filled with nobles and common folk, and more dearly possessed by the Roman emperors and senate, and was ruled by the patricians and governors of the Romans — it held the idol-worship of the Romans, venerating their false gods; and those pagan people of Tadinum held the impious laws handed down by the Romans against the Christians, persecuting the Christians; and the people of Perugia, of Gubbio, of Assisi, of Rosella, and of Camerino, and the inhabitants of the citadel of Nocera, and of Forum Flaminii, and the people of Spello and of Spoleto, and of Bolsena, and the other inhabitants of that same Umbria, to whom blessed Felicianus ^d preached the faith of Christ, and converted many in the time of Decius the pagan Caesar, in the year of the Lord two hundred and fifty-two.

[70] But when, as time went on, the infinite mercy of God through blessed Pope Sylvester, to the faith of Christ, Constantine

had converted to the faith of his Christ … in the year of the Lord three hundred and twelve ^e, Christian preachers preached the Gospel through cities and castles and converted many, and the people of Tadinum were converted to Christ, forsaking idols; and there shone forth in Tadinum the true faith and worship of our Lord Jesus Christ among clerics, religious, and laymen, churches being built. But in the course of time, about the year of the Lord five hundred and sixty [e], first the Goths and afterwards the Lombards, trampling Italy *, that city of Tadinum was plundered and oppressed by them, as were other cities; and when it had long lacked a bishop …, blessed Pope Gregory in the year of the Lord 602 ^f, in the more than fortieth year from the slaying of Totila ^g, sent that letter to Gaudiosus, bishop of Gubbio, and to the people of Tadinum ^h.

[71] and the restoration of the church of Tadinum. As therefore is clear from the words of the letter of blessed Pope Gregory, the divine worship and a bishop in the ancient city of Tadinum, restored from its ancient ruins, was anew reformed and restored, blessed Pope Gregory commanding it, and the venerable Gaudiosus, bishop of Gubbio, procuring it; and through long courses of times and hundreds of years the worship of God persevered and flourished in Tadinum, and very many bishops presided there ⁱ; although at intervals of time the Saracens, ranging through Italy, several times trampled and disturbed the peoples of Umbria and of the county of Spoleto and of Nocera; and when these had been driven out by the Christians, the Christian region * breathed again, and holy mother Church, being freed from the tempest, rested. In these times blessed Facundinus was bishop in that same Tadinum or Taino, where he lived in great sanctity ^k.

ANNOTATA.

* that is, envoys

* it is a nominative for an ablative absolute.

perhaps religio*