ON ST. VICINIUS OF SARSINA, CONFESSOR
BISHOP OF SARSINA IN ITALY
After the persecutions, as is believed, of the heathen emperors.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The place, the cult, the miracles, the time, the copies of the Life.
ON ST. VICINIUS OF SARSINA, CONFESSOR
BY J. P.
Ughelli, in volume 2 of Sacred Italy, column 702 of the earlier edition, prefixes this topographical notice to the prelates of the see already mentioned: Sassina, which today the common people call Sarsina, Strabo places in the [ ] of Togate Gaul [], on the right of the river Savio, at the extremity of Umbria; but Pliny in the 6th region of Italy. Various matters concerning the place, It is a most ancient city of Flaminia, the native land of Plautus, prince of the comic theater …; but at this time so far cut down for the most part that it is said scarcely to support 400 mortals. There follow many other things which the same writer collected concerning that place. Add Leandro Alberti in his Description of Italy, printed in Latin at Cologne in the year 1566, page 461, and Cluverius in Ancient Italy*, page 622. That St. Vicinius was the first bishop of this see Ughelli records at column 704; but with how great praise, integrity of life, and the celebrity of miracles that followed thereafter, he presided over it and profited it, the following will teach.
[2] That word of Leandro Alberti at page 462 is brief: At Sarsina there was formerly a bishop Vicinus, a Ligurian, a most holy man, and famous for miracles. the Saint's public He is praised also by Ferrari in both Catalogues at this day, the XXVIII of August, on which Castellan inscribes him in his universal Martyrology. He is called the protector of Sarsina by Ughelli. Various things concerning his cult Ferrari succinctly delivers in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy in an annotation: The memory, he says, of St. Vicinius is celebrated also by the churches of Cesena and Parma, as we have seen in the Tables of those same churches; although at Parma it has been customary to treat of him on the XXVII. On the last Sunday of the month of May, at Monte Musella, his festivity is celebrated with a great concourse of the neighboring people, either because that is the day of the translation, when his body was translated from that mountain to Sarsina, or of his ordination. In the aforesaid Life (of which there will be treatment below at number 5) of St. Vicinius it is contained, among other things, that he is honored at Blera near Viterbo, because his head is there. But at Blera St. Viventius, not Vicinius, is honored. After Ughelli at column 705 had reported from Ferrari concerning the cult of St. Vicinius at Parma, and in the citadel, he says, beneath his effigy these verses concerning him stand:
While fastings, churches, chains, while the woods Wear down his sacred limbs, thou rulest him and the flock; While thou ascendest to heaven, the seventh summer turns four [] times,* Thou dost condemn us to our vow, thou puttest to flight the foul divinities [].*
[3] In an Italian letter, written at Sarsina, which I have before me, veneration is here gathered from various sources. it is narrated that our Saint is the titular of the church and protector of the city; that he is announced to the people according to the use of the basilicas of Rome; that his body is preserved beneath the altar of a certain honorable chapel which is dedicated to him; that besides there is there the chain which the Saint was accustomed to wear about his neck for the sake of penance, and that the same is carried in procession on his feast day, the XXVIII of August, with great splendor and concourse, on account of the very pious affection toward it in the diocese and in the surrounding places, and that it is exceedingly prodigious especially in the case of the possessed. Concerning this chain there will be treatment at greater length in the Life of St. Vicinius among the miracles. From these things his cult is abundantly established. It remains that we proceed to other matters.
[4] The time of his see and of his death uncertain: We do not know in what year he began to sit in his see, nor in what year he died. Ughelli at column 705 says: He is believed to have lived after the dire persecution of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, in the times of Pope Silvester. He sat from the year 314 of the common era until 335. That indeterminate placing of the time is conformable to the author of the Life which we are to give. For in it, next after the Prologue, these things are said: But blessed Vicinius, as it is reported, coming from the parts of Liguria at the time of an imminent persecution, sought the city of Sarsina … and there, preaching the word of God to the people, … was by divine providence ordained bishop. It is not said here what that persecution was, whether Diocletian's or another emperor's; but perhaps the author looked to the most famous Diocletianic one, and wished to indicate it by antonomasia. We, following Ughelli, who reported that it is believed that the holy Prelate lived after the said persecution, have indicated above that he also departed this life after it, since we are wholly ignorant how long he survived it. If nevertheless the biographer speaks truly among us at number 5, indicating that he lived in the episcopate for twenty-seven years, and three (Ughelli sets down 7) months … being called … by the Lord, then he could live until about the year of Christ 330, if he preached to the people of Sarsina when the persecution of Diocletian was imminent, and about the same time was promoted to the bishopric among them. But in so great an obscurity of the chronological matter we have fixed his death after the persecutions of the heathen emperors, at least by way of a chronological scheme, until someone teach us things better ascertained.
[5] Concerning the copies of the Life we observe these things. Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, suggests these notices to our purpose, the copies of the Life, asserting that the very brief collection which he has concerning the holy Prelate is taken from the monuments of the church of Sarsina, which, he says, we received thence: in which some things are to be corrected; and from his Life printed in the year of the Lord MDCIX from a most ancient codex of the church of Rimini, written DC years ago. We have seen neither of those copies. Ughelli writes thus concerning the copy which he uses: His deeds Gian Pietro Ferretti of Ravenna, bishop of Milos, transcribed from an ancient parchment codex, which stand among the monuments of that same most learned prelate in the Vatican library, volume 5834, in this manner which follows: "But blessed Vicinius, as it is reported, coming from the parts of Liguria at a time of imminent persecution to the city of Sarsina, etc." And they end with these words: Because, loosed from his flesh, he did not suffer death but escaped it: he did not cease [] to live, but began life; and, about to die, he found the death he asked for, being about to conquer.* The things there recorded concerning St. Vicinius agree in substance with another transcript of ours, which has a prologue and reports various miracles.
[6] It is prefaced with this title: Here begins the narrative of the life and miracles of St. Vicinius, bishop of Sarsina, ever to be recalled, as also that which we are to give. as it is found in the book which is in the possession of the illustrious society of St. Jerome of Rimini, from folio 145 to folio 154. The author is of uncertain time and name, and accordingly of unproved authority. He is more than fairly verbose at numbers 8 and 9. He wrote long after St. Vicinius, from number 10 at the end, and from number 31, where a prelate of the church of Sarsina by name Ubertus is marked by him; and he lived in the eleventh century, as we shall say in the same place in an Annotation. The manuscript to be published by us our Bolland received from Rome from Father Guillaume du Loroy, S.J., which we have endeavored to purge of various faults, the edition of Ughelli not being altogether neglected. Finally we have divided the text of our biographer into chapters, titles, and numbers after our accustomed manner, to which we subjoin Annotations.
Annotationsperhaps confinio* should be added
perhaps quater*
* that is, malignant spirits
perhaps destitis*
LIFE AND MIRACLES
By an anonymous author
From the book of the Hieronymites of Rimini.
ON ST. VICINIUS OF SARSINA, CONFESSOR
BHL Number: 8557
By an Anonymous writer.
PROLOGUE.
The deeds of the Saints It is not doubtful that it pertains to the worship of ecclesiastical religion whenever one of the skilled does not permit certain divine miracles, open to the world, to be hidden in the lurking-places of the earth, like the wicked servant hiding his lord's money, but, after the imitation of the doctors who went before, adapts them to be retained in the memory of human prosperity, that he may multiply them for the Lord's gain: especially when they are discerned to proceed from the merits of blessed men, whose bodies are honored on earth with due religion out of the zeal of ancient veneration.
[2] Hence it is that David says: to be handed on to memory The just shall be in everlasting remembrance. to be handed on to posterity. For the memory of the just cannot be everlasting among mortals unless it be committed by the writer's pen to a perpetual series of successors; since the mortal condition itself compels the human race suddenly and utterly to forget even most of those things which are now best known to it. It behooves therefore that the efficacy of the wonderful works which proceed from the merits of blessed men be noted in writing, that they may be able to endure in eternal memory among men. Which things, although they are proclaimed to be innumerable throughout the regions of the four-parted world, yet here let us report, as we can, a few out of many, which it is certain have come to pass wholesomely from the merits and prayers of blessed Vicinius, bishop of Sarsina.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's native land; his preaching among the people of Sarsina; his episcopate; his death and burial; the author's digression concerning the Saint's posthumous glory.
Notable But blessed Vicinius, as it is reported, coming from the parts of Liguria a at the time of an imminent persecution, sought the city of Sarsina, commonly called Bobium b, which is situated in the Apennine Mountains; and there, preaching the word of the faith to the people, on account of the zeal for good works by which he clung to the almighty Lord, and pleased all the people, he was by divine providence ordained bishop. Set at length upon the summit of which spiritual mountain, he began to pant with inexplicable desires for the heights of the heavenly summit. For he himself, lifted up on the mountain by his words, practiced whatever he taught to those subject to him who were set in the valley of lamentable corruption. To all the clergy a lovable master, to the people venerable, to the poor gentle as a Father, to widows rich, to himself poor, to orphans a guardian, to sufferers compassionate, he passed the nights in vigils, persisted in prayers, tamed pleasure by fastings, and by abstinences showed himself celibate.
[4] and a true prelate But what need is there to heap up in him by degrees of applause the ascents of charity and of the other virtues? — since it is agreed that he lacked no acts of rectitude, that he never grew lukewarm, given over to the vain pursuits of this world, but blazed with the odors of all the virtues in which almighty God takes delight. He indeed kindled himself not only as a sacrifice to the Lord, but even as a holocaust, inwardly and outwardly. And that surpassing teacher Vicinius exhibited to those subject to him various kinds of admonition, to each as was expedient. Those indeed whom he perceived swollen with arrogance,
he strove to recall to humility by the rigor of fervent discipline; but those whom he foresaw, by the cunning of the crafty serpent, given over to the vain allurements of this world, he compelled to obey the commands of almighty God, admonishing them in season and out of season, and pressing upon them.
[5] most worthily Persisting therefore unceasingly in such exercises, blessed Vicinius deserved to attain to the efficacy of admirable works, to such a degree that his presence, whose will ever clung to the Lord, put to flight by his prayers all onsets of sicknesses, and by threatening loosed those beset by demoniac spirits; and whatever of health he sought for the people, evidently obtaining it, he procured from the Lord by his prayers. Chiefly, however, among the rest, as hitherto, he prevailed in expelling demons from infected human hearts. And when he had toiled in the episcopate for twenty-seven years and three months in bodily labors for God, and never was at leisure from those things which he knew to be lovely to God, being called by the Lord whom he had loved, he received that sleep which almighty God grants to his beloved at the entrance of the true inheritance.
[6] virtues In which indeed he labored no further to cultivate it, but exulting received the rewards of his accomplished labor, to remain perpetually; in which, namely, while he beholds the manifold sheaves which, sowing for Christ, he reaped, he glories manifoldly in the Lord over the gains received. O how blessed an inheritance, which no son can obtain by succeeding, unless while the father lives [*]; which no offspring can possess, unless it first die for its begetter c! Wonderful indeed is that inheritance of the eternal Father, which he who was born for it there, dying, receives d; here, without it, living, he loses: whose possessor leaves it to no one, unless he pant toward this, who desires to share it with him while he survives e.
[7] But since Vicinius, a man beloved of God, after the goal of his bodily life, his soul exulting in the heavenly places, ought not to lack among men the gift also of earthly praise, are narrated: his death, his burial: there indeed where he toiled spiritually in the contests of fleshly labors against the invisible enemy; and after his triumphal obsequies, in which he was attended by ecclesiastical men with honorable watches, and adorned with the odors of fragrant incense, and with a most celebrated funeral of vigils, and, being buried, rested in a marble sarcophagus — not only did the accustomed power of miracles not forsake him, but he even wrought, dead in Christ, mightier and more famous ones than had shone forth as done by him while surviving. And justly indeed did the Creator of all things exalt him, not dead but departed, with a greater prerogative among the people than while he lived in the body; because then, loosed from the flesh, he did not suffer death but escaped it; he did not cease to live, but began; the life which, about to die, he sought, he found; the death which, about to conquer f, he feared in the body alone, he removed.
[8] For the just man cannot live in soul unless he die in body. his glory rightly and deservedly More fittingly therefore ought life-giving miracles to have accompanied him living, which with him ever subsisting would not cease to live, than him about to die, which, when he failed, would be unknown as unfailing. For we often remember to be found in ecclesiastical and secular books that certain men learned in magic arts, by the power of a nefarious discipline, wrought effects beyond human nature, and, living, worked certain things wonderfully; but, dead, failed inglorious together with those famous efficacies. Which we believe to happen for this reason, that those who follow such things, being inwardly dead, receive from the dead the work which they practice; but while they perish by both deaths, they unhappily lose even those things in which, living wickedly, they boastfully prevailed.
[9] It is clear therefore that these men, through the blessed life which begins after the death of the flesh, imitate from the merits of the failing life, in which they stand innocent, to the knowledge of posterity and heap up life-giving miracles when the body is dead, not extinguish them. After the burial therefore of blessed Vicinius, the cultivation of ecclesiastical vigor, which the fields of Christian devotion, fructifying, received from the ploughshare of his preaching as it broke them up, being watered with the shower of heavenly grace, grew up to the excellent heights of holy faith and pious working, the enemy of the human race being laid low.
[10] But since, as we plainly see, when a little planted tree, surrounded by frequent waterings, has escaped the heat of the burning summer, and, aided year by year by human supports, has stretched out its fruitful branches into the air, the busy cultivator, resting secure from watering, exults in gathering and reaping its fruits: so also the frequent miracles of blessed Vicinius, because his church, raised up by the zeal for holy faith and holy working, had less need of them, ceased to appear for some spaces of extended time. propagated. But after these things, the hearts of the faithful growing lukewarm about their former zeal for good acts, again almighty God stirred up the former benefits of miracles by the merits of blessed Vicinius, which the memory of older men has made known to our younger folk, and which, as we are able, we shall the more earnestly set forth.
ANNOTATIONS.
mansura*
Ughelli, patri viventi*
CHAPTER II.
Demoniacs freed; goods restored to their owner; the Saint's prodigious chain.
A possessed man, the help of other Saints having been implored in vain, A certain husbandman of the country of Arezzo, Bonizo by name, being seized by a demon, was miserably vexed by him, as by one ever the enemy of the human race; whom, when his kinsfolk, afflicted with tearful sighs, carried about on every side through very many places of the Saints, imploring the Lord's clemency for him, they labored in vain about his relief. And when he was being abandoned by his attending kinsfolk, now almost despairing, with fruitless weariness a, he was brought to Arezzo to the sepulcher of blessed Donatus the martyr b, whose ancient prodigies had shone forth to the great honor of the growing Church. There indeed, when all had trusted that by the merits of blessed Donatus he would presently receive health after his manner, the voice of the demon cried out from the mouth of the vexed man: Why do you most wretchedly carry him about through innumerable places of the Martyrs with doubtful labor? To none of the Martyrs, to none of the Confessors am I bidden to yield, save to blessed Vicinius, bishop of Sarsina, who withstood me and my companions always, even while he lived in the body.
[12] Which being heard, those who loved the wretched man took care to inquire who blessed Vicinius was, he is led to the sepulcher of St. Vicinius, or where he abode. At length, the place of the church of Sarsina being found out, over which the venerable body of blessed Vicinius presided, they began to hasten swiftly to him. But the demon, binding the wretched possessed man with inward bonds and hindering him with abominable strength, struggled unceasingly: for indeed he feared to be brought into the neighborhood of St. Vicinius. At last, since he was utterly unable to resist God's command, he was constrained and led as far as the places nearest to the aforesaid bishopric. And when they strove to bring him to the sepulcher of the blessed Man, the wicked spirit resisted with such strength that scarcely could a great multitude of men move him to the tomb; but he gave forth barkings of dogs and gruntings of swine, and terrified the bystanders with cries, with bites of his teeth and blows of his hands, and, prostrate on the ground, was thought by those dragging him to be of marble weight.
[13] Roused therefore by these tumults, the priests of the aforesaid church and by the same one's chain ran to the wretched man, fortified with the Lord's body. And when they beheld him raging with an insuperable commotion, sending for, in the name of the Lord and of St. Vicinius, the chain which of old had been forged for the putting to flight of demons, and placing it about his neck, they commanded him, on the part of almighty God and of St. Vicinius, that he delay no more to hasten to his sepulcher. Which being heard, like a wicked servant, however unwilling, he came into the presence of his Lord without difficulty to those who drew him.
[14] While the priests therefore were celebrating Mass for his deliverance, he is freed. and devoutly beseeching the Lord, that wretched man, falling to the earth, began to vomit foam from his mouth, and to shake his head, turning it hither and thither; and so, little by little dozing, he rested. At length, scarcely the space of one hour having passed, being raised up by the priests, he cried out with kindly voice that he had been made whole, giving thanks to Christ the Lord and to St. Vicinius; who afterwards lived whole for very many years, and for a long time in the service of St. Vicinius carried the processional cross through very many places wherever it was expedient. After this, returning home, thereafter, rendering glorious proclamations to blessed Vicinius, he yearly and very often frequented his services.
[15] At the city of Reggio [d], which is situated in the province of Liguria, A deacon deprived of his goods there was a certain man noble and rich in earthly means, who, as human cupidity demands, being greedy in the heaping up of goods, began to be hostile to a certain deacon of his, who was of middling birth and of simple purity, to such a degree that, all his furniture being plundered, he took away the mill by whose help he cherished, by cultivating it, his own life and that of his household. And when the deacon could neither bend him, inflexible, by softening him with pious supplications, nor, exalted as he was, compel him to the censure of the law by his own protection or that of the other nobles his peers, and sorrowing and lamenting his own destitution, he chose to make known his troubles to the King of kings and to his Saints, to whom they were known, and to beseech him with due prayers.
[16] And so he found a counsel of salvation: he went forth to the thresholds of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, after various Saints invoked, he visits the body of St. Vicinius, asking his suffrages, and again visited one by one the basilicas of the Saints which he could. At length, as he returned from the City, it was revealed to him in a dream that, if he should ask the consolations of blessed Vicinius, bishop of Sarsina — who, namely, is wont to succor all who ask — he would have deserved to receive them. While therefore, anxious and trembling, he wavered as to who Vicinius might be, he learned by more diligently inquiring of very many. At last, walking anxiously through the byways of the places and through the steeps of the Alps, he came to the unknown places of the region he had chosen.
[17] Having entered the church therefore, he sought the chapel of the inner recess, where the body of blessed Vicinius rests, he visits the body, and, cast upon the ground, he assailed him importunately with these words: Hither to thee, O blessed Vicinius, beloved of God, have I, most wretched of all men, come; here I devoutly entreat thee that, imitating thy former ways, thou wouldst come to meet me, and wouldst not cease beyond thy custom to succor me in my need. For I do not demand that unjust things be granted me by thee: that my own
things taken away be restored to me, I beseech. I know indeed that thou canst obtain from God even if thou shouldst ask greater things. But if, my sins requiring it, thou shalt refuse for the present to incline thine ears to my prayers, may I never go forth hence: here will I besiege thy face with earnest supplications, until either I unhappily fail, breathing out my spirit, or I prove whether thou art moved by the unhappinesses of the wretched.
[18] and recovers them, the same Saint appearing: While therefore he asked unceasingly for these and very many other things, heaping them up through many days, blessed Vicinius, constrained by his accustomed compassion, appeared in the sleep of night to the noble man of Reggio, commanding that he should not delay to restore to the deacon the mill together with the other things carried off. And when he inquired who he was, I am Saint Vicinius, he said, bishop of the church of Sarsina, stirred up indeed by the assiduous lamentations of that same deacon. And when the aforesaid man neglectfully passed this over, on the second night blessed Vicinius, again repeating the same things, commanded more sharply. But on the third night he tore with stripes as well as with rebuking words the man who resisted his commands. Straightway the man, amid the frequent stripes, began to promise under oath that he would perform without any obstacle whatever he bade, asking this also, that he would deign to direct the aforesaid deacon to him. And so blessed Vicinius commanded the aforesaid deacon in his sleep that he should return secure to his own country. And when he had done this, he was restored to his former means; and, so long as he lived, together with the aforesaid noble man he rendered immense thanks to blessed Vicinius, and thereafter visited his church the more frequently.
[19] certain marvels In the church of the aforesaid bishopric there stood, by ancient custom, a chain which was called St. Vicinius'. The uses of which chain the priests employed, by the merits of St. Vicinius, only in driving off demoniac spirits, as often as it was expedient. This a certain man of the deuuittones c, who go about the earth begging [], while he was ignorant of so great a sacred power in it, stole, and began at first to flee with it. And when he had run swiftly as far as the river Savio [], which is nearest to that same city, almighty God wrought upon him what he threatened to the reprobate by the Prophet, saying: I will send upon them a spirit of dizziness, and I will make them wander as blind men; through the whole circuit of the night, along both banks of the aforesaid river, through tilled ground and byways, through the difficulties of the valleys, he went on, stumbling upon thorns and rocks, hoping that he had escaped his pursuers by a great space of journey.
[20] are reported But when the dawn grew light, the unhappy man, stricken with a twofold blindness, found himself beside the river in the same place where he had been in the evening. Marveling therefore, astounded, hesitating, he was violently afraid lest he should be taken by his pursuers. Again attempting flight in vain, hindered by headlong falls, he labored. And when he saw that all help of flight was wanting [] to him, he cast the chain into the midst of the whirlpool, and immediately, returning, betook himself to the church; and remaining there three days, while begging [] he put on the front of innocence. Meanwhile a certain man seized by a demon was brought to the tomb of blessed Vicinius: immediately the priests busied themselves to seek the chain with which after the custom they might bind his neck; and, the man being apprehended upon the report of the spirit, driven by terrors, they compelled him to disclose the crime.
[21] I have acted, said the man, as a robber; and, what I think worse and irrevocable, concerning the Saint's chain. I have cast [] the chain into the depth of a monstrous whirlpool.* Immediately, running with the man to the river, they saw the chain floating near the bank on the surface of the water. Praising therefore almighty God and the merits of blessed Vicinius, bringing forth the chain, they drew it out with easy effort; and by it the aforesaid demon, being bound, swiftly forsook the possessed man; and thus from one thing two miracles shone forth.
ANNOTATIONS.
perhaps ope* should be added
perhaps peccatis* should be added
perhaps mendicando*
elsewhere it is called Sapis*.
read abesse*
read mendicando*
read projeci*
CHAPTER III.
A woman irreverent toward the Saint punished, and afterwards healed; a horse dead because a vow made for it was not kept; a false accusation driven away.
A woman profaning the holy Bishop's feast About these times, when the birthday of blessed Vicinius, which is yearly honored by all in that same country, was drawing near, a certain woman of that same country, making little of the most happy day, and despising the office of the venerable solemnity, took up a millstone with which to grind grain. And when she was turning it round with manifold rotation and bared arms, another woman, who seemed sounder in the understanding of her mind, rebuked her with reproving words, because forsooth on so great a solemnity of blessed Vicinius she had not rested from these works: to whom indeed the woman, insulting, is said to have answered: He that has a good neighbor, let him rejoice with him evening and morning. But presently divine vengeance followed upon the voice of this insult and upon the shamelessness of the obstinate woman.
[23] For her hand and arm, with which she was then plying the unlawful work, is punished, and afterwards restored: suddenly so clung to her breast beneath the pap, that they could be separated neither by her nor by any others striving, as though they were joined by birth; but after the manner of a dry stick, the sinews of her fingers being without feeling, the bloodless right hand languished upon her breast. Straightway the woman, calling with tearful voice, summoned the neighbors; and, showing the portent, made known the affection of her mind, which she could not hide. The cause of the prodigy being known, therefore, since it proceeded from the merits of St. Vicinius, the women her kinsfolk and the neighbors brought her, mourning, on the eighth day of the birthday to the sepulcher of blessed Vicinius; for remaining there two days, while the priests besought the clemency of the Lord and the peoples asked the suffrages of blessed Vicinius, she received health; and so thereafter the yearly nativity of blessed Vicinius was celebrated with a still greater veneration.
[24] At the same time also a certain noble deacon of the church of Ravenna, by name Honestus, while for the sake of prayer he was going to Rome, a lame horse piously prepared himself a lodging in a place nearest to the aforesaid bishopric of Sarsina. Whose horse indeed so limped upon one foot that, though driven with blows, it could not go one step further. And in this manner he and his company, being monstrously hindered, having sunk into sadness of heart, toiled vainly about the healing of the horse. Then the aforesaid deacon with the affection of a devout mind asked the help of blessed Vicinius: O Saint Vicinius, he said, now, taking pity on me, hindered in thy own country, come to meet me: restore health to my horse.
[25] is restored whole; but, the vow not being kept, afterwards dies. And if thou shalt do this, I vow to thee that I will offer yearly a candle of the height of my own body, so long as I and that same horse shall live. Which speech was scarcely ended, when the horse began to advance in such health that, going before the rest, it seemed to have had no mark of lameness. So at length the deacon, accomplishing the journey he had begun, returned home briskly. For two years indeed he paid the vow which he had vowed to St. Vicinius; but in the third year, on the day on which he broke the vow, the horse died in the hands of those holding its reins; and so it was plain that that man received what, solicitous, he asked of blessed Vicinius in his vow; and because after this he neglected to pay it, he lost it.
[26] A priest by the help of St. Vicinius The bishop of the aforesaid city of Sarsina, by name Benno a, being stirred up by the persuasive accusations of informers, seized a priest of his church by name Pertarus, when the informers laid a crime against him, though he was guiltless. And when he, worn down for XX days with fastings and vigils, bound with the chain dedicated in the name of St. Vicinius, complained that he was continually afflicted with the noose of an inescapable custody, he asked the guards on a certain day that it might be permitted him to enter the church, and at least for some little space to stand present at the sepulcher of blessed Vicinius. The guards indeed, because without the bishop's permission they did not dare to do this, having received his leave, led him, chained with the same bond, before the tomb of blessed Vicinius.
[27] is wonderfully freed from calumny. And he, on bended knees kissing the earth, asking that help be granted him by the Lord, and prostrate for a little space — since he was not permitted to persist longer — raised himself up amid tears. Immediately, by God's mercy and at blessed Vicinius' asking, the chain by which his neck was bound slipped off, and the priest, while the eyes of the guards looked on, appeared loosed: with swift running they hastened to announce it to the bishop. Which being heard, the bishop ran to him in great haste; and, seeing the priest loosed, immediately proclaimed him guiltless; and so at last, cast down at his feet, he tearfully asked that he would forgive him. But the priest, praising God and extolling St. Vicinius with loud cries, forgiving his bishop, was thereafter joined to him beyond the rest in great familiarity.
ANNOTATION.
Credulous, he tortures a guiltless priest and binds him with a chain; At the commands of the Holy One that chain falls away. On the solemn feast of Vicinius he takes away the gifts Offered to the ministers; the horses pay the penalty for the crimes.
A notable eulogy indeed, as Ughelli called it. Of the money or gifts offered, and of the horses, there is treatment below at the beginning of chapter 4.
CHAPTER IV.
Avarice punished; limbs broken by a fall healed; a wonderful history concerning a lost relic of the Saint; his innumerable beneficence toward the wretched.
The punishment of a bishop greedily claiming for himself money offered at Mass: At that same time also, when the birthday of St. Vicinius was being kept by the whole people, the aforenamed bishop Benno solemnly celebrated Mass. In which, when after the custom the whole people of both sexes had offered various gifts with their own hands, a certain rich man bestowed gold solidi upon him. Which the bishop, led by cupidity, taking away from the priests, to whose uses after the custom all the oblations were distributed, reserved for his own private advantages. But the priests, grieving more vehemently over the gold pieces taken away, by no means received the other oblations of loaves. Which loaves indeed, after some days, the bishop, seeing them rotting with age upon the pavement of the church, took away; and because he found them unfit for human eating, moved with anger, he commanded them to be set before his horses to be eaten. The sacred loaves therefore being consumed by the horses, all the horses which tasted any part of them swiftly died; and so the bishop, corrected by such a prodigy, no more approached to do violence to the oblations.
[29] After these things a certain man of the rustic folk, sprung from the country of Arezzo, A man fallen from a tower, and for seven years fell from the steep summit of a tower over which, by the commands of his elder, he often diligently kept watch; in which fall, his arms being broken and his knees and legs shattered, a little of the breath of life remained in his panting breast. And so, some days having passed, the divine compassion did not deny him life; but it did not grant the former state of his limbs: for there was in him a winding crookedness of the loins, a knotted joining of legs and hips, a feebleness of arms and hands, to such a degree that he could in no wise walk except by creeping like some nerveless four-footed beast. Beset therefore with such miseries for seven years, when now death rather than life
was rather what he sought, he enjoyed continual lodging with the canons of the aforesaid church, by whose alms he sustained his wretched life.
[30] But meanwhile the hope of health, which always administers some solace to unhappy minds, most miserably afflicted, is healed: entered his wavering mind: that if he should seek the protection of St. Vicinius, perhaps, God taking pity, he might be able to obtain it. Coming therefore, creeping on knees and hands, to the most sacred tomb of blessed Vicinius, with tearful complaints and huge weeping he asked the remedies of health. And when he most patiently sighed that the coming of the Lord's cure was deferred to him, he attended to the words of the divine admonition which our Lord Jesus Christ concluded under the example of the friend who importunately offers loaves to a friend asking, while he lay at night with his children; and, embracing the marble tomb of St. Vicinius at all the hours of days and nights, beating his breast with feeble fists, he sought, he asked, he knocked at the door of divine mercy, that from the Lord's promise he might find the gift of health. Almighty God therefore bent, at the prayers of St. Vicinius, the approachable clemency of his mercy. When now the unhappy man, amid wretched lamentations and frequent groanings, on a certain day was striving to lay hold of the shrine with both hands, being wholly sound, he raised himself to the upper height of the marble; he understood at once that, beyond his custom, the joints of his whole body were now on every side in harmony in the lost order of his stature; he began to try whether he could walk upright. His steps therefore being straightened, having proved the health he had long most desired, he praised then and thereafter the clemency of almighty God and the merits of St. Vicinius. And those who knew him and his neighbors, beholding him in the health of tall stature, moved with exceeding wonder, favorably narrated the power of the divinity.
[31] a wonderful But what wonder if from the presence of the whole body of blessed Vicinius marvels have proceeded, since we know that something great shone forth even from a small particle of his bones. For the prelate of the aforesaid church of Sarsina, by name Ubertus a, for the sake of devout prayer purposed to set out to the oratory of the holy archangel Michael, which is situated on Monte Gargano b, whose memory, by the custom of ancient time, is most famously venerated throughout the world. On which journey, however, that he might be protected from the assaults of adversities, he carried a small bone of the body of blessed Vicinius, enclosed in a seemly little box, placed in his wallet. And when, by God's help, he had prosperous successes in his going, on a certain day he lodged in a place which is called [ ]. In the evening therefore, those things being accomplished which were needful for himself and his company, the woman who had received him into her lodging bestowed upon him her own little bed; in which at length the wearied bishop, lying down, hid the wallet with the relics of the aforesaid St. Vicinius beneath the pillow which was at his head.
[32] the bone being lost To this man in the night, while he was oppressed with a heavy sleep, St. Vicinius appeared, and said: Foolishly, bishop, hast thou done, in that thou hast placed me in a woman's bed. Which having said, he departed. After this the bishop, being awakened by the shouting multitude of his fellow-travelers, his eyelids still drowsy, and having nearly forgotten the venerable and nocturnal vision, set out with his companions, and, deprived of so great a defense, went on as far as the third hour. Meanwhile, when it was still night, the aforesaid woman, unaware of the treasure left behind, approached the bishop's [bed], which she thought empty: immediately so great a pain of the inner parts seized her that, made like a woman in labor, she seemed to be tortured with an intolerable torment of pain.
[33] a story is told At length amid those very sufferings, rising from the little bed with feeble effort, she went out, that perchance by a slight movement she might be more lightly tortured. Presently — wonderful to relate — her former health followed upon her going out. After this, a little space intervening, a certain servant of the same house, coming wearied from a night journey, driven by pressing sleep, cast himself upon that same bed: whom suddenly the woman's sickness invaded, and with sorrowful voices he began to cry out that he was wretched. Hearing this, the woman, terrified, anxiously revolved in her inward mind both the sorrowing man's pains and her own sudden ones; and, suspecting that something great had flowed from the bishop's merits, she set about admonishing the man to rise from the bed.
[34] history: And as soon as he left the bed, suddenly, after the likeness of the woman, he was made perfectly whole. Marveling therefore and astounded, both withdrew from the little bed, and dared neither to touch the bed nor to try what this might be. Meanwhile the bishop, perceiving that he had now left the wallet behind, being made grieving and sad, commanded one of his attendants to go back quickly for it: who indeed, returning by a reciprocal course to the house of the aforesaid lodging, found the wallet untouched there, and learned of the twofold pains from the very persons who had suffered them. Which the bishop hearing, being seized with terror, thereafter guarded the relics of St. Vicinius with a greater zeal of veneration.
[35] But how much St. Vicinius prevailed with God in obtaining the expulsion of demons and other remedies for men, benefits conferred upon the wretched by the Saint it is not within our ability to relate one by one, since it is agreed to be known from an innumerable multitude of witnesses that all who raged with the vexation of malignant spirits were freed by the presence of his sepulcher, that all onsets of sicknesses were put to flight by his help; that none, subdued by the sorrow of any oppression, entreating the approachable clemency of his aid, has departed without his protection. For indeed he still furnishes bodily healths to the needy; and, what is more excellent, he grants to those who ask the vigor of the spirit, by which minds kindled with the flame of divine love, and performing the things that are pleasing to God, are set together in the walls of the Jerusalem above; and whatever things, while still surviving in the world, he preached to the faithful with living voice, the same things, dead in body and living in the heavens, he pursues with the protection of his prayers, to be bestowed upon those who ask.
[36] are innumerable. Which things indeed, since they are manifold and cannot be comprehended by any number, let it now at last suffice us to have drawn a few little drops from the immense whirlpool for the faithful to drink. For these things concerning his life and miracles … we have reported, lest we should seem in writing either slothful by too compendious a silence, or wearisome by immoderate eloquence. Let there be therefore to the eternal almighty God, who grants these things to blessed bishop Vicinius, incomparable honor of praise, unending favor of glory, unfailing glory of power, now and hereafter, from all creatures, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
* perhaps the name of the place has been omitted