ON ST. MEDERICUS, PRIEST AND ABBOT,
AT PARIS,
About the year 700.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
His cultus; relics; Acts: the time in which the Saint flourished.
Medericus, priest and abbot, at Paris (St.)
BY J. S.
The Acts of St. Medericus, abbot and priest, Mabillon published and illustrated in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 3, The Saint's name in the ancient calendars: part 1, from page 8; where for his ancient cultus he adduces old Martyrologies both of the church of Autun and of the church of St. Laurence at Bourges, in which his memory is celebrated in these words: IV Kalends of September, at Paris, the deposition of St. Medericus the priest. With these the Roman agrees, in which on the same day it is read thus: At Paris, the deposition of St. Medericus the priest. The memory of St. Medericus Usuard also announced in his Martyrology on the aforesaid day; but it is not yet agreed among the learned with what title he adorned our Saint, since the editions of Usuard differ much in this matter. That he was called bishop by Usuard, Baronius says in his Observations on the Roman Martyrology; and he is indeed called bishop in the edition of Molanus, but faultily. No more rightly does the edition of Munerati give the title of abbot.
[2] The most ancient codex of Usuard, which is preserved at Paris in the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he is recorded by Usuard as a priest, although he was also abbot: and was published in print in the year 1718, has thus: At Paris, the deposition of St. Medericus, priest and monk. But our Sollier in his Usuard has only: At Paris, the deposition of Medericus the priest. Sollier was indeed not ignorant that in the Prés codex these words and monk were added; but he did not acknowledge them as Usuard's genuine words, both because they were absent from most of our codices, and because in the Prés codex an erasure had been made and these words written upon the erasure. Hence he says in his Observations: Medericus … is noted not as a monk, an abbot, or a bishop, as we showed above — although we do not deny that he was a monk and, if you will, an abbot — but as a priest, as our text exhibits. Yet nevertheless the editor of the Prés Usuard, James Bouillart, raises a dispute with Sollier in his Observations on this passage, and reasons thus: Before I depart hence, I suffer some difficulty, and I should like to know how Sollier extricates himself. In the same erasure in which St. Medericus is, St. Candida is also (whose announcement follows in Usuard's text); the writing of the correction is the same for both. Yet of St. Candida Sollier says thus: "Certainly our codices sufficiently prove that it is Usuard's." What therefore was added concerning Medericus is equally Usuard's. I answer that Sollier's argument was not taken from the erasure alone — for erasures are made for various causes — but from the erasure together with the disagreement of the other codices. His reason therefore for thinking that the whole announcement of Candida is Usuard's, even though it be written upon an erasure, is the agreement of the other codices; but the disagreement of those same codices, joined to the erasure, argues that all the words which are found in the Prés codex concerning Medericus are not Usuard's. And indeed I do not see why Usuard should have called him monk and not abbot, although otherwise we acknowledge with the Life that he was both monk and abbot.
[3] he is honored chiefly on the day of his death: Andrew Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology on the XXIX of August announces Medericus with the title of Abbot and confessor, weaving for him an ample eulogy which is a summary of the Acts. More briefly the Parisian Martyrology records him thus: At Paris, St. Medericus the priest, who, being abbot at Autun in his own city, while he meditated a more austere life and a more remote retirement, set out to Paris for the sake of prayer, and, being detained by sickness nearly three years, died and was buried in the suburban cell of St. Peter, now called St. Medericus's. Concerning his cultus the Mabillon praised before adds the following: On the same day (XXIX of August) his feast is solemnly celebrated at Paris in his own church; but through the whole diocese on the day before the Kalends of September, with a semi-double office, as they call it. He is honored also as patron in the collegiate church of the town of Linas, about three miles from the city of Paris; and in the parish church of Champeaux, of which afterwards.
[4] the feast of the translation: Besides the day of his death, the day of St. Medericus's translation is also celebrated on the XXII of January, as our predecessors observed among the things passed over on the same day. The praised Saussay on the XXII of January has thus: At Paris, the elevation and translation of St. Medericus the abbot. Yet nevertheless that translation, which is narrated in the Acts to have been made in the year 884, is there said to have befallen on the day of St. Medericus's deposition, that is, the XXIX of August. Hence on that passage of the Acts Mabillon observes the following: And yet the Parisian church of St. Medericus celebrates the day of the translation on the XXII of January, although on account of the feast day of St. Vincent it is deferred to the next following Sunday. Perhaps it commemorates another translation made on that day. Nay, Saussay writes this also on the 2nd of September: At Paris, the elevation of St. Medericus, abbot and confessor. Whether another elevation is here again designated, I do not know. Certainly only one elevation and translation of the body described has thus far appeared, which may be read at the end of the Acts. So much for the Saint's cultus.
[5] Of the relics of St. Medericus Mabillon records this in his notes on the Translation: his relics, and his church, famous for votive pilgrimages: They say that the sacred body was first buried in the underground crypt of the more recent church of St. Medericus. Part of his relics, in a silver casket set upon the altar of his own church, and his jaw in a special shrine, are at Paris; part at Champeaux in the parish church, namely the greatest part of the skull with two ribs and the sacrum, as they call it; part finally is preserved in the collegiate church of Linas. The two former churches, which are built in those places which the Saint himself inhabited in his Life, will be illustrated in the notes to the Life; the third, which is also sacred to Medericus, has already been said above to be nearly three miles distant from Paris. Du Breul in the Antiquities of Paris, book 4, page 1195, says that this church of St. Medericus is celebrated for three causes. Among these the second is on account of pilgrimages. It is wonderful, he says, to see the people from all the neighborhood and from other more remote parts flocking to invoke St. Medericus, since experience has found that very many sick, especially those suffering from a pain of the bowels which they commonly call LA MARY, are healed by the intercession of St. Medericus, God so disposing to prove his sanctity and merits.
[6] The Life of St. Medericus was written by an anonymous author, and indeed after the translation of the body the Acts, and their various copies: made in the year 884, the occasion of writing being taken perhaps from that very translation, by which veneration toward the Saint was doubtless increased. Baillet in the Critical Table prefixed to the month of August, on the XXIX day, says that perhaps this Life was drawn up after the X century, that is, three centuries after the Saint's death. But I find nothing in it which compels us to believe that it was written long after the translation, so that it appears more likely to have been written about the end of
the IX century or the beginning of the X, that is, about two hundred years after the death of St. Medericus. It must, however, be confessed that this writer has no great authority from his age; but he may have had older monuments from which he drew the Saint's deeds. Mabillon published this Life from manuscript codices of the libraries of Saint-Germain and Saint-Victor at Paris; but he cut away here and there the moral digressions with which the Life abounds. The same Life, copied from a manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloître, Michael Jacobs of the Order of Canons Regular sent hither in the year 1608. The same also we have from a Chifflet manuscript. Moreover these two manuscripts of ours agree entirely both with each other and with Mabillon's edition, if we regard only the Saint's deeds; yet in words they differ somewhat here and there. The Chifflet manuscript is preferable, because the other is mutilated at the end. That one, therefore, collated with Mabillon's edition and with the other manuscript, I shall commit to the press with all the digressions, noting, where need is, the differences of the other copies.
[7] Mabillon in the preliminary Observations, number 8, thus inquires into the time in which the Saint flourished: At what time St. Medericus lived can be certainly determined from no head. the time of his death not sufficiently certain; Stephen Ladoneus, a citizen of Autun, in the work already cited (On the Antiquities of the Ædui) says that he flourished about the year seven hundred. And certainly the death of St. Medericus can scarcely be put later, since he has a place in the Germain Martyrology of Usuard, in which scarcely any of the Saints is found inscribed who died after the year 720. The matter assuredly does not seem thereby sufficiently certain. But nothing in the Life or elsewhere presents itself by which it may be more firmly established. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology on the XXIX of August noted about the year 750; but more follow Mabillon's opinion, which we too follow until something more certain shall occur. Peter de Natalibus in the Catalogue of the Saints, book 8, chapter 25, when he attaches the death of St. Medericus to the year 984, seems to have confused the death with the translation of the body, which in certain manuscripts had been set down in that year 984, although it befell in the year 884, as is rightly read in our manuscripts.
[8] the translation made in the year 884, although various writers by error set 984. In Vincent of Beauvais, in the Speculum, book 24, chapter 92, there is a summary of the published Acts, such as we have two others also in manuscript. These are conformable to the Life and drawn from it, if we except the chronological errors which are found in them. For in Vincent of Beauvais, and in one manuscript summary of the monastery of Böddeken, the translation is fixed in the year 984; but in the other manuscript summary of Rouge-Cloître the death is attached to that same year, as is done in Peter de Natalibus. The same error concerning the year of the translation occurs in Trithemius, book 3 On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 231, where he has thus: Medericus, abbot of the monastery in the city of Autun, a man of such holy conversation that both living and dead he was famous for countless miracles, as is found in the History of his life diligently written. He lies buried at Paris: whose feast is kept on the fourth of the Kalends of September. His body was raised from the earth in the year of the Lord 984, on the fourth of the Kalends of September. Hence we gather that that error concerning the year of the translation, which is found also in the Life itself in Mabillon, is ancient. Yet nevertheless, from the bishop appended, in whose time the translation was made, it is certain that it befell in the year 884.
[9] The Office from the Parisian Breviary, Like the summaries just reported is that which is found on the XXXI of August in the Parisian Breviary printed in the year 1636, but without chronological errors. Take it, that it may be compared with the fuller Acts: Medericus, sprung from the city of Autun of a distinguished family, when he had completed thirteen years, went, his parents unwilling, to the monastery of that same city; and embracing the religious manner of life, in the very beginnings of his conversion he excelled in such holiness of life and manners that he drew all into admiration of him: of so great abstinence that in a week he took nothing of food save twice, and that only of barley bread; with a little water he tempered his thirst; beneath the monastic habit, which he wore like the rest, he wore down his body with a most rough haircloth; and he displayed nothing in words or deeds which did not show forth the appearance of a chastened mind devoted to God.
[10] which contains When he shone with these marks of sanctity, and the head of the monastery departed from the course of the flesh, the worthier he was, the more he resisted; yet he so took up the office of abbot, laid upon him by the wishes of all, that, thinking that he had received not an honor but a burden, he showed himself to all committed to his care not a lord but a true father. Over whom he so presided in the fear of God that not only by admonitions and examples but also by the help of the heavenly power implanted in him he wondrously profited them. For a certain monk, inflamed by the demon with the torches of lust, he freed from the deadly heat by clothing him with his own tunic. But another was so overcome by diabolical illusion that whenever he ought to attend to the divine work, straightway, when the customary prayer of the assembly was to be ended, he would go out of the church; and although often admonished of this matter, he was nevertheless not amended: at last the holy abbot took bread and, blessing it, gave the blessed portions to the brother, and presently shut out the enemy from him.
[11] But indeed when, his fame being spread abroad, many hastened to him from different regions, A summary of the Life. the servant of God, that far from the noise and flattery of men he might serve Christ more freely, at length sought out a desert place, and there clung wholly fixed upon divine meditations, until, being recalled to the monastery not only by the insistence of the brethren but by the bishop's command, and shining with greater glory of signs, leaving the monastery again and setting out for Paris, he hid himself in a wood near the city, after he had wrought great miracles on the journey. And when he had built himself a cell at the chapel of St. Peter founded in that wood, having spent there two years and nine months in diligent service of Christ, having called his disciples (to whom he foretold the day of his passing), in devout adoration of the eternal Godhead he sent forth his most holy soul; and he shone after death with such wondrous signs that the very little shrine in which he was buried, changed by his obtaining into a notable basilica, stripped of its former name, obtained the appellation of his patronage: with which it still shines, and enjoys the precious pledges of his love.
THE LIFE
By an anonymous author,
From a Chifflet manuscript codex, collated with the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître and the edition of Mabillon.
Medericus, priest and abbot, at Paris (St.)
BHL Number: 5875, 5876
By an Anonymous author.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's birth, monastic life, abbatial dignity, various virtues and miracles.
The reason for writing this Life: If the writers of secular letters have striven to set forth the famous deeds of certain men in a pompous style, and have contended to carry down their fame at length to the knowledge of posterity in prose as well as in metrical eloquence — wishing forsooth to display their own wisdom and eagerly to catch for it a popular breath like a shadow — we, the most faithful worshipers of the one true God and the most ready lovers of true wisdom, ought much more to bring the deeds of the Saints, as being exceedingly wonderful, to the knowledge of the faithful, in a truthful and compendious narrative, though in unpolished writing; that the hearts of hearers may be kindled to the imitation of the Saints, and to the praise of Him who is wonderful in His Saints, and who has deigned to promise His fellowship not only to His Saints a, but also to those who piously imitate their examples, saying to the Father in prayer: Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me. Who also with desirable voice cries to all: Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and you shall find rest to your souls.
[2] the Saint's noble birth, Hearing which voice, Medericus, born in the district of the city of Autun b of very noble parents, when he had completed thirteen years of age, his parents being unwilling yet not unconquered, went to the monastery c of the said city, which was conducted with a company of fifty-four monks, seeking to be mingled with the assemblies of that holy congregation: that, namely, he might press on the more unencumbered in the service of almighty God, the more he hastened, by denying himself and bearing the cross of Christ and following Him, to turn away from the allurements of the world the back not only of his body but also of his mind; according to that word of the psalmist: Be still, and see that I am God.* For when a man has ceased and rested from worldly works, he will be able more rightly to direct the eye of his mind toward God.
[3] and his entrance into the monastery: Where, the youth of good disposition being offered by his parents d regularly and solemnly, of how great abstinence, humility, obedience, charity, and chastity he was, the following page will make manifest: although no tongue, were it three-forked, nor voice of a thousand sounds, could avail to narrate all his deeds. But let it suffice us to have told a few out of many; as if one entering a very great wood should be zealous to carry off a few branches thence; or, entering a most fruitful cornfield, should busy himself to bear away even scanty sheaves. Let there be, then, for the studious reader satisfaction in few things, lest perchance, as is wont to happen, he incur weariness in many. For often in the scarcity of foods there is greater eagerness in those who take them, as also in their abundance their appetite is sometimes lessened.
[4] The Saint's austerity in fastings The aforesaid boy Medericus, therefore, having entered the monastery, was held wonderful to all with no undeserved honor on account of his exceeding abstinence; which he so possessed that in a week he took nothing of food save twice: which was only of barley bread, or of whatever meaner thing he could find, and of a little water; the man of God prudently recalling that the fall of the first-formed man came about through the food of the forbidden tree, and that in no other way, save by pursuing frugality, could the return of eternal happiness be earned. And since the Apostle forbids to make provision for the flesh not in necessity but in its desires, the religious servant of God renounced even things necessary to him, as a diligent worshiper of God, that his very going beyond what was required might become an abounding recompense at the return of the just Judge.
[5] and in haircloth: his notable fame: But his body was secretly covered with a most rough haircloth; and above he seemed like the other brethren, clothed in the same garments, in the same habit in which the others were covered, as is the regular custom: desiring, if he could, to do this secretly, lest perchance he should be lifted up by human praise or earthly favor; turning over in mind what is said by the voice of the Savior: When thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; but let thy alms be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. But according to the Lord's word, a lamp set upon f a mountain could not lie hidden. For his fame, flying about the mouths not only of those dwelling near but of those dwelling far off, spread his name far and wide, and it appeared who was there;* insomuch that from different provinces they flowed to him, desiring to be instructed by his teaching and wisdom, imitating the queen of Sheba, who came from the ends of the earth to hear
the wisdom of Solomon; and also that very great crowd which, as is read in the holy Gospel, leaving their cities, hastened by the proper service of their feet to hear the Savior's doctrine. But the more the shining lamp wished to hide* its rays, the more the Author of light made it profitably shine forth.
[6] Meanwhile the father of that place is seized with a bodily ailment, he is elected abbot: and, laboring under a long sickness, passed to the Lord. Then the bishop of that city, intent upon the religious duty of his prelacy, ordered the inhabitants of that place to seek out for themselves a pastor who might snatch the flock of Christ from the bite of the ravening wolf, and might guard the sheepfolds of Christ inviolate, and present them unharmed to his Lord, bringing back to the Redeemer the gain of souls. And so it came to pass that the dwellers of that place, and the neighbors who for the sake of this matter flocked to the monastery, demanded blessed Medericus as their father, and all cried out that he was worthy to preside over them. Since that same blessed man, according to what the Apostle says of choosing a bishop, had a good testimony from those who are without, for the merit of his sanctity; and therefore in his election the assent of all was equal. Assenting to whose voices, the blessed bishop, royal leave having been granted him, committed to the most blessed man the care of that monastery, saying to him: O lamp of Christ, and chosen vessel of the treasure of the Most High, receive the measure of the dispensation of the eternal God, for the feeding of the flocks of the Creator, instructing them with thy holy admonitions and likewise with thy precepts, that thou mayest deservedly merit to hear from the merciful Judge: Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many; enter into the joy of thy Lord.
[7] Blessed Medericus therefore, being made a minister of religion, with his tunic sent to a monk he drives out a demon: considering that he had received not an honor but a burden, according to that word of the Savior: He that is the greater among you shall be your servant — setting Himself as an example, saying: As the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister — he strove to show himself to all committed to him a father not only carnal but also spiritual: so much so that he even secretly reproved their thoughts, teaching that they should not only cut away evil works but should also shut out wicked thoughts from their hearts. Whence it happened that at the very time when he took up the care of governing, a certain monk of that place was grievously burned with the heat of enticing lust, and made known the manner of his infirmity to the most holy father. Which being learned, he sent the tunic with which he was clothed for him to put on. Which being put on, straightway the demon, the kindler of that evil, hid himself in flight, crying out with a loud voice: Holy Medericus, why dost thou burn me with thy prayers? Thou hast taken away the little vessel which I long possessed, and hast consigned me to unquenchable burning. Then the Saint, rebuking him with a divine voice, said to him: Be silent, devil, going out from him; for thou shalt not possess a treasure for which Christ shed His blood. And so the enemy departed, and the monk afterwards so continued in sanctity that very many miracles were afterwards wrought by him.
[8] Let the Godhead therefore be acknowledged as working in His servants, which the author compares with the miracles of the Apostles: as He once promised in the words of the Gospel: Amen, amen, I say to you, he that believeth in Me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do. For we read of no one healed by the shadow of the Savior, as we read of the shadow of Peter. But He worked in Peter who says in the Gospel: Without Me you can do nothing. It is read also that the handkerchiefs or aprons of blessed Paul the Apostle were carried from his body to the sick; and the sicknesses departed from them, and wicked spirits went out. Since therefore the servant of Christ Medericus, by leaving his own and following Him, stood forth an imitator of the Apostles, he deservedly was also a partaker of their working in the showing of signs. Whence, O good Jesus, we render immense thanks to Thy loving-kindness, who hast reported to us the miracles of the handkerchiefs or aprons of Paul in the tunic of Thy most faithful Saint Medericus. For Thou art the same in the later as in the earlier; and although Thou art great in great things, yet Thou dost not cease to be glorified in the least things to the praise of Thy most holy name. And what wonder if Thou permittest Thy faithful Saints to be made equal to the Apostles, when Thou dost mercifully grant that Thou Thyself, as a kind and clement master, not envying signs to Thy disciples, be imitated: as the demons cried out when cast by Thee from possessed bodies, saying: What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of the living God? Art Thou come to torment us before the time? — so in the miracles of this Thy servant the demon uttered great cries, being unwilling to leave a vessel long possessed. But both those and these things are through Thee, who dost not disdain to show in Thy Saints also how wonderful Thou art in Thyself. Such things holy Medericus did, because he had received them from Thee, and, doing them in Thy name, remembered that he had them from Thee, and therefore attributed nothing to his own strength.
[9] another he frees from the demon's temptation by blessed bread. About the same time another disciple of the aforesaid father was so overcome by diabolical illusion that whenever he ought to attend to the divine work, straightway, when the customary prayer of the assembly g was to be ended, before he bent his knees he would spring out of the church. For which cause, being often admonished, he was nevertheless not corrected. Then the Saint of God, seeing the enemy of prayer thus vexing the monk, took bread, and hallowing it with a blessing, gave the blessed portions to the brother; and presently he shuts out the enemy from him. Well did the servant of God shut out demons from others by the power of the deifying Trinity, who suffered them to have no power in himself. For that kind of demons, as the holy Gospel says, can go out by nothing save by fasting and prayer. But how intent blessed Medericus was upon these, the foregoing text of this little page sets forth; and therefore he rightly commanded demons, who had learned to rule himself by maceration of the body and humility of mind, and to be subject to the Creator by the practice of true religion and sincere service.
ANNOTATIONS.
elsewhere fidelissimi.*
Mabillon, deducamus.*
in the other manuscript fifty*, faultily, I think.
Mabillon, trisulca.*
Mabillon, ac.*
elsewhere sicut* is omitted.
elsewhere esset.*
elsewhere abdere.*
Mabillon, eaque.*
Mabillon adds, omnes.*
elsewhere confluxerant.*
elsewhere acclamarent.*
Mabillon, denique; the other manuscript, imoque.*
elsewhere electionis.*
elsewhere spiritalis.*
elsewhere secreta.*
in the other manuscript is added, ei.*
elsewhere possederam.*
Mabillon, distulisti.*
elsewhere exi, or et exi.*
elsewhere per eum.*
elsewhere qui.*
elsewhere ita.*
elsewhere exiret.*
elsewhere exclusit.*
CHAPTER II.
His withdrawal into solitude: his return to the monastery: his pilgrimage to Paris: miracles: his long infirmity and blessed death.
From love of hiding he withdraws into solitude: At the aforesaid time, therefore, when the said blessed confessor was in his desires a martyr — since martyrdom consists not in the slaying by the sword alone, but also in the mortification of one's own body a and in the crucifying of vices and concupiscences — not believing that his reward would be entire if he had led his life amid so great a multitude (because, as we have already said, both from near and from far regions they hastened to him), he sought out a desert place and shut himself up in the long-desired state; so that whatever was to be taken as food b he wrought with his own hands. It is unknown to none of the faithful that the Savior of all came as an example for the human race into the exile of this pilgrimage. Of Him it is read in the Gospel that, when the crowds wished to seize Him and make Him king, dismissing the crowd He fled alone into a mountain to pray, that He might teach His own to turn aside from the glory of the world and to seek the height of the heavenly country. By this example, then, the servant of Christ Medericus turned aside from the tumultuous crowds, out of desire for friendly solitude, that in some manner he might merit to have secret converse with the Lord. In the miracles also with which he shone by the power of Christ he desired in every way to lie hidden, after the example of the Savior, who bade the signs of His miracles be kept silent: not that He feared thence to incur vainglory, being without sin, but that He might give His own the pattern of willing to lie hidden in miracles, yet that for the profit of others they should sometimes be revealed unwillingly. For his own miracles too, the more they seemed to be pressed down by silence, the more amply were they brought forth in public. Whence with the highest thanksgiving it must be recalled by us that what went before in the Head of all the elect followed also in His members, He co-working: for it is fitting that the members cleave to the Head.
[11] But the brethren of that monastery, made sorrowful by the departure of their father, [but at the monks' request and the bishop's command he returns to the rule of his own:] through the vast wilderness
sought him far and wide, and at length by frequent solicitude found him. And being greatly entreated by them to return to his former monastery — they saying that he would receive a greater crown if he afforded to others an example of life than he would profit himself for his own merit alone — he utterly refused, and would not give heed to their prayers. Whence it came about that they went to the blessed bishop and, weeping, made known the departure of their lost father. Then the prelate, seeking blessed Medericus along with them, found him shut up by himself in the wilderness; and thus binding him with the bond of excommunication c, he led him back to the monastery: where he afterwards flourished with such sanctity that he bestowed upon many infirmities the healing of spiritual medicine, restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walking to the feeble; and all to whom he administered bodily care outwardly he healed inwardly with the word of salvation. Thus the glorious confessor of the Lord, adorning his life with divine virtues and governing the rule of that place by the straight path, how he closed his last day we shall take care to write in brief style.
[12] journeying to Paris, he stays sick in the monastery of Champeaux, Saint Medericus, therefore, having been ordained priest of the city of Autun, at the compelling — or rather the exhorting — of Frodulf d, a man of wondrous sanctity, whom he himself had received from the holy Font with his most holy hands and had raised to the summit of all perfection, when he wished to set out to Paris for the sake of prayer, being constrained by infirmity he came to the monastery which is named Champeaux e. And abiding there a long time, being set in infirmity and warring for God, he lived religiously, in prayers, in fastings, and in frequenting the church, giving himself to God day and night.
[13] At Melun he frees prisoners from the jail: Meanwhile, desiring rather to attain a hard life, he began to go about places in which he might implore the mercy of the Lord. He came therefore to the castle of Melun f; and all the prayers appointed there being performed, he heard of prisoners shut up in the jail; whence, desiring to come to the judge under whose jurisdiction they had been placed there, and not finding him, prayer being made to the Lord, the doors being opened, they leapt out and were saved. To no one is it doubtful that an angel came to help the servant of God and afforded the prisoners a going forth — he who of old in the Acts of the Apostles is read to have opened the doors of the prison and to have led out thence the apostolic band. This being made known to the many bystanders, and to those who gave thanks to God, returning again he came to the aforesaid monastery of Champeaux.
[14] he goes to Paris, and untamed beasts draw his vehicle; Abiding there also a long time in the same feebleness, he ordered a vehicle to be built, being anxious how he might be drawn to Paris to go about for the sake of prayer, as I have reported above. Setting out thence, a multitude of men, hearing his fame, came to meet him, offering him various gifts, which, not refusing, he received, distributing all to the poor. But among the rest there came certain men, thinking and planning together to offer him animals which should draw his vehicle. Whence one indeed with simple mind offered a tame cow; others, as if mocking, an untamed bull, wishing to try, when they were yoked together, whether that opinion which was told of him were true — whether those untamed animals would draw it of their own accord. But straightway, when they had been yoked, without a driver (as is read of the ark of the Lord at the time of its captivity and its return), willingly they came to Paris. Nor is it strange if the creature served him who with all the affection of his heart obeyed the Creator. For then indeed does a man well preside over his inferior when he has rightly learned to be subject to his superior. For we read that to the dwellers in the wilderness — namely to blessed Antony and Paul and very many others — lions and bears and she-wolves rendered the service of obedience at the divine nod. To Elias too the ravens brought bread and flesh in the morning, and likewise in the evening. For He indeed made the animals gentle for the help of His servant Medericus, who once, by the wild beasts of the woods and the birds of heaven obeying them, afforded unwonted comforts. For He is ever the same, and the same power stands forth in modern times which stood forth of old in ancient ones. And to the honor of the divine working the last correspond to the first.
[15] But in the midst of the journey there came to meet blessed Medericus a certain man, Ursus by name, afflicted with a violent fever. he works divers miracles: And when he had drawn near to him, he was restored to health. Hence also there came a certain woman, Benedicta by name, set in infirmity and vexed by a demon. When he besought the Lord's mercy, she was made whole. In the village also of Bonneuil g, hearing that two thieves had been thrust into the stocks by the judge, at his bidding they were loosed from the bond of prison. Meanwhile, being about to come to the Bridge of Charenton h, he heard that a certain thief had stolen by night and had broken down the bridge, and for this had been thrust into prison; before he crossed, the prison being opened, he freed him. Let these few of the holy man's miracles suffice for those who esteem in the Saints rather the sanctity of the inner life than the outward working of signs. For the miracles of the Saints are not to be taken as an example, but rather their works of sanctity are necessarily to be imitated. For thus must we needs consider how the Saints of God accomplished their course in this world, that we may reflect how, in imitation of them, it must be accomplished by us also, if we wish to attain their fellowship. Nor does it profit to honor the Saints and to despise sanctity; because it is not the Saints before sanctity, but sanctity before the Saints.
[16] These aforesaid things being accomplished, the holy man Medericus he dwells in the suburban cell of St. Peter, and foretells his death: came to the suburbs of the city of Paris, to a cell which had been consecrated under the name of Peter i, prince of the Apostles: in which, being weighed down by the said infirmity, he warred for God two years and nine months; the man of God well recalling that he could be cherished by the protection of him by whose help and merit a man lame from his mother's womb deserved to receive walking, and Tabitha too, he stretching out his right hand, to return to the airs of life after her deadly funeral. Fittingly too did he obtain the end of his life in the church of him whose examples he had followed, and to whose everlasting fellowship he was joined. And when that blessed man, weighed down by long age or by infirmity, perceived that the end of his fleshly life was near at hand, the Lord saying to him more frequently: Come, my beloved, possess the place prepared for thee from the foundation of the world, for now it is time that thou receive the reward of thy labor, feasting with thy brethren who strive in like labor, having called his disciples he indicated the last day of his death.
[17] Behold, holy Medericus, fighting the good fight, finishing his faithful course, keeping the right faith, deserved to hear from the just Judge of the crown of justice laid up for him, and to foreknow the day of his death. and he dies piously. He strove lawfully, and therefore received the rewards of eternal blessedness. Warring a good warfare and leaving an upright example to posterity, how great glory he deserved in heaven he showed also on earth in his end. All things, therefore, which pertained to so most sacred a departure being fulfilled, bidding them farewell, amid words of prayer he happily passed to the Lord, on the fourth day of the Kalends of September, joined in heaven to Him whom with his whole heart he loved on earth, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and is glorified, God in perfect Trinity, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
[c.] In the other manuscript, Terrifying him with the bond of excommunication: in which sense the passage is to be understood. Moreover the place to which the Saint had withdrawn Mabillon illustrates in the preliminary Observations, number 5, writing thus: Some years after he had ruled his monastery, the holy man, from a desire of hiding, withdrew into a desert place three miles distant from the city, which posterity called the Cell la Celle of St. Medericus. Of it Stephen Ladoneus, already cited, page 183, thus sported, with this title prefixed: To St. Anianus, under whose patronage is the village commonly surnamed Cella.
I will not leave thee unmentioned, most holy prelate Of the people of Orleans, nor will I be silent of thy venerable Temples, which Medericus of old duly dedicated to thee. He, when he had known how fleeting is wealth, and how much Of emptiness there is in things, straightway departed from the city of Autun, And seeking a monastery, utters three vows to the one and threefold God. Then his companions with one accord chose him Their leader and father: but the abbot, renowned for piety, Hated such honors, and, delaying no longer, Goes forth from the monastery and leaves the reins of affairs. Then at last in the woods, amid the dreadful lairs Of wild beasts, long he led an untroubled and inglorious life, And dwelt in a humble Cell, its roof heaped with turf, Beneath an airy mountain by the water of a desert stream. This place, called the Cell of Medericus, Keeps through the ages the eternal fame of both.
To these Mabillon adds: The village of Cella is set by a certain stream which flows into the Arroux below the city.
Mabillon. It is marked on the Blaeu maps a little above the confluence of the Seine and the Marne, with a bridge over the Marne, and there also it is called Pont-Charenton: which name the biographer expressed.
in the other, reclusit.*
elsewhere cohæreant.*
Mabillon, absentia.*
elsewhere simul* is omitted.
in the other manuscript redderet.*
in the other manuscript, cœnobium.*
add loca*, as in the other manuscript.
in the other manuscript vinctos.*
add, cum esset.*
* elsewhere this word is omitted.
elsewhere forte.*
the other manuscript illum.*
elsewhere enim.*
in the other manuscript Majestatis.*
elsewhere exempla.*
Mabillon, ipsos.*
elsewhere recipere.*
Mabillon, carnis.*
Mabillon, recipias.*
Mabillon, bonumque.*
Mabillon, regnat.*
CHAPTER III.
The elevation and translation of the body.
The translation of the body: But in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ eight hundred a and eighty-four, a zealous worshiper of God, a priest of the said church named Theodelbert b, went to the venerable Gozlin, abbot and prelate of the city of Paris, and suggested to him how due reverence ought to be shown to so great a patron, Medericus, in his holy little body. For that same priest had prepared a fitting place where his most holy limbs might most becomingly be laid [c], being translated from the place where they lay beside the wall. Hearing this, therefore, the aforesaid bishop rejoiced with joy; and coming himself to the place, with thanks he praised the deed of the said priest, and promising himself a kindly rewarder for such things, he said he would benevolently accomplish this work in person. When therefore the day of St. Medericus's deposition, above set down d, came — on which the aforesaid priest had arranged to do it — the oft-named bishop, being occupied with various affairs of the kingdom, could by no means be present. He commanded, however, a worthy gift being sent thither, his archdeacons and the whole college of the servants of God, both monks and canons dwelling at Paris and round about, that they should accomplish this business with worthy honor: which they took zealous care to fulfil. For the clergy assembling, and all the people of the city of Paris, on the aforesaid day, with all religious observance approached the holy limbs, glowing like gold and gems, and raised them with great fear and trembling, and with the chanting of the hymn Te Deum laudamus and of the rest of the hymns and psalms, all the people rejoicing with great exultation of heart; and they laid them in the place formerly prepared for him, as we reported above, where now, as we believe, praying to the Lord for us, he rests with due honor e. Nor is it to be doubted that the nearer he is to us in body, the nearer he will be in prayer; and the more devoted we shall be to him in zeal of pious veneration, the more abundant will he be to us in benefits, as a neighbor, assiduously praying for us.
[19] the author teaches that the Saints must be honored and their examples imitated: This f nevertheless is greatly necessary for us: that if we venerate the Saints of God by frequenting their thresholds and by commemorating their solemnities in the yearly course, and by asking their intercession, we should also imitate their acts by living soberly and justly and piously. For we read that the Lord said to His prophet concerning a stubborn people unwilling to be converted to Him: Do not pray for this people, and take not up praise and prayer for them, and withstand Me not, because I will not hear thee. And again: If Moses, He says, and Samuel shall stand before Me, My soul is not toward this people. From this example we have gathered that neither the prayer of St. Medericus nor of the other Saints for us will avail anything with the Lord if it should befall that we impudently persist in sins. For it is one thing to sin through human frailty, another to remain in sins through diabolical hardening. For to sin is human, to persist in sins diabolical; because from the beginning the devil sinneth. The Apostle Paul cries to us, saying: Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. Let us imitate the Saints, then, as they imitated Christ.
[20] an exhortation to imitate the Saints, and drunkenness Behold, we have heard that blessed Medericus left the world and followed Christ, and was given to humility, chastity, sobriety, and the other fruits of good works; and while the world was flourishing in itself, in his heart it had already withered. If therefore we by his example are not fit to leave the world, let us so hold the things which are of the world that we be not held by the world: for, as the Apostle James says, Whosoever will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God. Let earthly things, then, be for our use, eternal things for our desire. Let us use food and drink in necessity, not in the excess of revelling and drunkenness; as the Lord Himself commanded: Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness; and the Apostle says: Be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury. Solomon also says that wine goeth in pleasantly, but in the end it will bite like a snake. And truly a snake, which by the venom of excessive drinking makes men without walking, hearing, sight, touch, and utterly without any natural sense. And when they have fallen into the pit of luxury or of homicide, they put forward an excuse, saying that they did it at the persuasion of wine — whereas there is no fault in the wine, but the guilt is the drinker's. And in like manner drunkenness takes away the kingdom of God, as does fornication also.
[21] And what is yet worse, men get drunk in the names of the Saints; especially to be shunned. and when they ought to show them due reverence, they seem rather to inflict an injury; because these tipplers do in their name what those Saints never wished to do, but are rather proved by their words and examples to condemn such things: as one of them says: Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till evening, that you may be inflamed with wine. Wherefore, so long as, dwelling in the body, we are pilgrims from Christ, let us follow the examples of the Saints by living well, that we may be able to be joined in the heavenly kingdom to those whose merits we venerate in the present world. For if we suffer with them, we shall also reign with them. If we shall be companions of their suffering, we shall be so also of their consolation. If we shall be sharers in the keeping of the commandments, we shall be partakers in the receiving of the rewards, by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
Mabillon, quin.*
Mabillon, convertere.*
Mabillon, sint … terrena.*
Mabillon, commessationibus.*
Mabillon, se fecisse.*
Mabillon, in omnibus solemnitatibus.*
Mabillon, Domino.*