CONCERNING SAINT THEOPHILUS THE PENITENT, VICE-DOMINUS OR STEWARD OF THE CHURCH OF ADANA IN CILICIA,
About the year of Christ 538.
Preliminary Commentary.
Theophilus the Penitent, Vice-dominus of Adana in Cilicia (S.)
By the author G. H.
Section I. The place and time of this history. The dignity of Vice-dominus, or Steward.
[1] Cilicia, a region of Asia Minor, neighboring Syria and, along with it, assigned to the East according to the ancient Notice of the Empire: it was divided into two provinces, of the twofold Cilicia Campestris, which is properly Cilicia and was called First Cilicia, formerly governed by a Roman Proconsul; and Trachea, which was called Second Cilicia, ruled by a Praeses. The metropolis of the former is Tarsus, the homeland of the Apostle Saint Paul; of the latter, Anazarbus — both most ancient cities, Metropolises; and seats of Metropolitans under the Patriarchate of Antioch. Present at the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon were Theodore of the city of Tarsus, metropolis of the province of Cilicia, and Cyrus of the city of Anazarbus, metropolis of Second Cilicia. In the heart of this Cilicia, upon the river Sarus, is seen the city of Adana, in which this history and the conversion of Saint Theophilus took place, there is the city of Adana. and it flourishes even at this time, called Adena or Adna, the seat of Turkish Satraps and of the Maronite Patriarch. The first ecumenical councils record its ancient Bishops: Paulinus of Adana at the first Council of Nicaea, Cyriacus of Adana at the first Council of Constantinople, and Philip of the city of Adana at the Council of Chalcedon. Moreover, according to the variety of times, Adana was sometimes subject to Second Cilicia, sometimes to First, being on the border of each; or even made autocephalous. Both Acts certainly assign it to Second Cilicia; first to Second Cilicia, and Theophilus, while he was being sought as Bishop of Adana, would have been brought to Anazarbus, a city nearer than the other metropolis, Tarsus. There survives, together with Georgius Codinus Curopalata's work On the Offices of the Church of Constantinople, and with the Sacred Geography of Carolus a S. Paulo, a published Notice of Greek Bishoprics, made, as indicated at its end, in the year of the world 6391, under the Emperor Leo the Wise and under Patriarch Photius. This corresponds to the year of the Christian era 883, according to what is set forth below on this day before the Acts of Saint Nicholas the Studite. then to First Cilicia, In that Notice, Adana is numbered among the sees of First Cilicia, subject to the metropolis of Tarsus. Aubertus Miraeus, book 3 of the Notice of Bishoprics, chapter 4, following a manuscript codex of Cardinal Sirleto, among the autocephalous Metropolises — that is, those subsisting independently — after becoming autocephalous: in the Patriarchate of Antioch places Adana, commonly called Adna, in the eighth position. This is also read at the end of the books on the Holy War in William of Tyre, who in book 3, chapter 19 and following, relates that Cilicia was wrested from the Turks by Tancred in the year 1097, and in chapter 20 that Adana was obtained by Guelfo the Burgundian.
[2] In this city of Adana, Theophilus was the oikonomos of the most holy Church of God — a Greek word retained as "Oeconomus" by Gentianus Hervetus: in this city Theophilus was the Oeconomus, or Vice-dominus, but Paulus Diaconus translates it as Vice-dominus. Thus Theophanes calls a certain Peter, directed by Pope Adrian to the Second Council of Nicaea (the Seventh Ecumenical) to preside in his place, Oikonomos, while Anastasius Bibliothecarius in his History translated from Theophanes calls him Vice-dominus of the Roman Church. That the dignity of both names is the same, we are taught in the Decree of Gratian, distinction 90, chapters 3 and 4: where, under the title "What is the office of the Vice-dominus," the words of Pope Saint Gregory are cited from book 1, letter 11, to the Patrician Clementina, where these words are found: "We have appointed Anatolius as Vice-dominus, a dignity of great importance in the Church: to whose judgment we have entrusted the governance of the episcopal household." Then in chapter 4, under the title concerning the same, namely the Vice-dominus, these words are given from canon 26 of the Council of Chalcedon, session 15: "Because in certain Churches Bishops handle ecclesiastical affairs without an Oeconomus, it has been decided that all Churches having Bishops should also have an Oeconomus from their own clergy, who may govern the affairs of the Church with the judgment of his Bishop," etc. The same provisions are established in the Seventh Ecumenical Synod held at Nicaea, canon 11. Behold: the Vice-dominus in the Roman Church and the Oeconomus among the Easterners hold the same dignity and grade of ecclesiastical office. When Pope Vigilius was about to sail from Sicily to Constantinople to the Emperor Justinian, he sent back to Rome the Presbyter Ampliatus, his Vice-dominus, "to guard the Lateran and to govern the clergy," as is read in the book On the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs. Moreover, the foremost of the clergy, and generally Presbyters, were usually chosen for this role. Thus the aforementioned Peter, sent to the Council of Nicaea, is called at the beginning of each session "the most devout first Presbyter of the most holy Church of the holy Apostle Peter at Rome," Presbyter, and is rendered in Latin by Anastasius Bibliothecarius: "Peter, the most religious Archpresbyter (sometimes Protopresbyter, or first Presbyter) of the most holy Church of the blessed Apostle Peter which is at Rome." Indeed, that the Archpresbyter was formerly regarded as the natural Vicar of the Bishop is observed, after other Doctors of Canon Law, by Augustinus Barbosa, book 1 of Universal Ecclesiastical Law, chapter 25. In the Eastern Empire also, in the time of Zeno, John the Tabennesiote was made Patriarch of Alexandria from being a Presbyter and Oeconomus, and under Heraclonas, from the same office and the dignity of the Presbyterate, Paul was likewise elevated to be Patriarch of Constantinople, as Theophanes relates, cited by Jacobus Goar in his Notes on Chapter 1 of Codinus Curopalata's work On the Offices of the Church of Constantinople. Later Greeks wished the Oeconomus to be only a Deacon. Thus the above-mentioned Anatolius, Saint Gregory's Vice-dominus, was a Deacon. Concerning the Great Oeconomus of the Church of Constantinople in later times, more is treated in the Euchologion of the Greeks, illustrated by the same Goar and others. or a Deacon.
[3] When this conversion of Saint Theophilus occurred depends on knowledge of the Persian kingdom. And first, from the time the Persian kingdom was restored under the Roman Emperor Alexander, about the year of Christ 226, until the fall of that same kingdom — when Yazdegerd, the last King, was deprived of life and rule in the year 632 — Among various Persian incursions, very many wars were waged between the Romans and Persians in every century. And so these words of the Author below, number 1: "Before the incursion of the Persians into the Roman Republic took place," are not to be understood simply of some first irruption in which, for example, under Shapur I either Antioch was plundered or the Emperor Valerian was captured and held like a worthless slave, upon whose neck Shapur would place his foot when mounting his horse. But the Author specifies a certain Persian incursion which had occurred after the death of Theophilus, well known to all those for whom he was writing his history — after the Churches, established under Christian Emperors, were being governed peacefully through their Bishops and Metropolitans. this penance occurred around the year 538, Albericus, a monk of Trois-Fontaines, in his manuscript Chronicle at the year 538, treats of Theophilus the penitent, reconciled through the Blessed Mary. Sigebertus in his Chronicle at the preceding year 537, as also in the Flowers of Histories of Westminster — namely when the Caesar Justinian held power, under whose reign Canisius and Bredenbachius (to be cited below) report these events took place. under Justinian, And the Persian incursion that followed agrees with this. Certainly Vitiges, King of the Goths, in the waning fourth year of the Gothic War — which corresponds to the year of Christ 539 — having sent ambassadors to Khosrow the Elder, King of the Persians, incited him to violate the peace with the Romans, though he was already sufficiently incited of his own accord and envious of Justinian's successes in Africa and Italy. the Persian war followed. The Persian war was therefore resumed in the thirteenth year of Justinian's reign, the year of Christ 540, in which, with the Roman frontier left without any garrisons, Khosrow suddenly invaded the East, devastated Syria, captured and burned Antioch, and spread his depredation far and wide, which neighboring Cilicia suffered considerably — until truces were restored around the year of Christ 545, then extended in the year 551 with still greater ignominy for the Romans, who were compelled to pay tribute to the Persians; and finally a fuller peace between them was concluded for seventeen years in the year 562. All of these events are read more fully in Procopius's works On the Persian War and On the Gothic War, in Agathias, and in other writers of those times. Martinus Polonus places this history of Theophilus somewhat later, under the Emperor Justin II and Pope Vigilius: which we consider less probable.
Section II. Various accounts of the penance of Saint Theophilus: his sacred commemoration.
[4] The Acts of Theophilus, and especially his fall and penance accomplished through the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, Mary, together with his most pious death, were written by Eutychianus, The Acts were written in Greek by Eutychianus, Theophilus's disciple, his inseparable servant — as he himself testifies after the Acts, as found in Metaphrastes as published by Lipomanus and Surius, in these words: "But I, Eutychianus, humble and a sinner, who was born in the household of this most blessed Theophilus, and then became a cleric of this Catholic Church, having followed my Lord and served him in his affliction, an eyewitness, what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my ears from his blessed tongue, I have written confidently and certainly — the things that befell him — and I have set them forth for faithful friends and pious men, to the glory of Almighty God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is glorified in His Saints." Thus the Author: these words are omitted below in the other Latin Acts, translated by Paulus Diaconus, where the author Eutychianus is nevertheless named in the title. Some then report that he was elevated to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and they have been followed by Petrus Canisius, volume 2 of On the Corruptions of the Word of God, book 5, chapter 20, and Tilmannus Bredenbachius, book 2 of Sacred Collations, chapter 3. But these, as we fear, a different person from Saint Eutychius, Bishop of Constantinople, confused this Eutychianus with Saint Eutychius, who was born in Phrygia and led a monastic life at Amasea. From there, having been sent to Constantinople to the Fifth Ecumenical Council to serve in place of the Metropolitan, he was elected in place of the deceased Patriarch Mennas in the year 553. And again, after administering that See for nearly twelve years, he was sent back to Amasea as an exile in the year 565, because he refused to agree with Justinian, who denied that the flesh of Christ could suffer or be corrupted even before the resurrection. But after another twelve years, recalled from exile to Constantinople, he departed most holily from this life there in the year 582, on the sixth day of April, on which day we shall more fully illustrate his Acts. In these, concerning the devastation by the Persians made under Justin the Younger around the year 572, the following is read: "We all know of the assault of the impious Persians upon our Republic, before the year 572; when the new Nebuchadnezzar, Khosrow, came to Sebasteia and Melitene. Since affairs were then brought into great straits and peril, nearly all those neighboring Nicopolis, Caesarea, Comana, Zela, and other bordering cities betook themselves to Amasea as to a most fortified place," etc. These events present a certain likeness to the earlier incursion of the Persians into Syria and Cilicia under Justinian. Moreover, this history of Saint Theophilus was written in the time between both irruptions by Eutychianus, an entirely different person from Saint Eutychius, who was living at the same time but in the Patriarchate of Antioch.
[5] This history of Saint Theophilus, formerly translated into Latin but hitherto unpublished, we present from three ancient manuscript codices of Belgian monasteries, Translated into Latin by Paulus Diaconus of Naples, those of Aquicinct, Laetiensis, and Saint Ghislain. The translator, Paulus Diaconus of Naples, is indicated in the title. Sigebertus mentions him in chapter 69 of his work On Ecclesiastical Writers, in these words: "Paulus Diaconus of the Church of Naples translated from Greek into Latin the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt." In the preface to this work (which it is remarkable that Sigebertus did not notice), he writes thus: "To the most glorious Lord and most excellent King Charles. Knowing that your most glorious Majesty takes great delight both in Divine utterances and in the examples of preceding Saints, since I had already some time ago presented to my Lord a booklet on the conversion of Mary of Egypt, together with a small volume on the penance of a certain Vice-dominus, and since that same work was lost by some accident, I have now again been devoted to restoring it at your command." Vossius, book 2 of On Latin Historians, chapter 31, persuades himself that the King to whom Paulus dedicated his book doubtful whether under Charlemagne, was not Charles the Bald but Charlemagne, because Sigebertus, when he mentions Paulus, places him immediately after Bede and before many who lived before the year 800. But how fallacious this reasoning of Vossius is, is demonstrated by Anianus, placed by the same Sigebertus immediately after this Paulus Diaconus, who, as Chancellor of Alaric, King of the Goths, published the Laws of the Emperor Theodosius at Aire in Novempopulania in the year of Christ 506, nearly three centuries before the reign of Charlemagne. Sigebertus treats of Anianus in chapter 70, whereas conversely in chapter 62 he had treated of Saint Benedict, Abbot of Aniane and Inde, who at the command of the Emperor Louis the Pious wrote in the year 817 the Concordance of the Rules of the Fathers, about which more will be said in his Life on February 12.
[6] Who, therefore, was the Charles to whom Paulus Diaconus inscribed his work is not clear from Sigebertus's method. Both Charlemagne and his grandson Charles the Bald were great patrons of the finest studies and illustrious scholars. We incline more to the times of Charles the Bald, or rather under Charles the Bald. whom Hericus, a monk of Saint-Germain of Auxerre, in the Life of that saint composed in verse, addresses thus in the epistle inscribed to him: "Many are the monuments of your clemency, many the tokens of your piety. That above all prepares eternal memory for you: that you not only equally represent the zeal of your most famous grandfather Charles toward the immortal disciplines, but even surpass it with incomparable fervor — since what he drew forth from dormant ashes, you advance everywhere with the manifold encouragement both of benefits and of authority; indeed, to compare high things with high, you press them to the very stars. Thus in your time, the talents of men are supported by a double aid, since you allure all to the pursuit of the hidden things of wisdom by your example, and even invite some with rewards." Moreover, as regards those skilled in the Greek language, among whom Paulus must be numbered, the same Hericus adds shortly after: "Greece mourns (whose own inhabitants have long since scorned her, delighted rather by your magnanimity, attracted by your studies, trusting in your liberality); she grieves, I say, that she — once singularly admirable and admirably singular — is being abandoned by her own. She grieves indeed that her own privileges, which she had never before feared to lose, are being transferred to our climes." And he concludes at last: "Whatever learning can do, whatever talents achieve, they owe to you." To this same Charles the Bald, Anastasius, Bibliothecarius of the Roman Church, also directed the Hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite, which he had translated from Greek into Latin, as is read in the Life of Pope John VIII.
[7] Somewhat younger than Paulus Diaconus was Simeon Metaphrastes, who appended this account of Saint Theophilus's penance, written by Eutychianus, [The Acts published by Metaphrastes were translated by Gentianus; Lipomanus and Surius published them.] to the Acts of other Saints that he had composed, and placed it under February 4. Rendered into Latin by Gentianus Hervetus, it was published by Aloysius Lipomanus in volume 5 of the Lives of the Holy Fathers, and from him by Laurentius Surius on the same date of February 4. Let those who wish to show more copiously the magnificence of God toward the most holy Virgin Mother, and to gather more fully the praises and titles of the same Mother of God from both Lives, and to elucidate them against her detractors, consult these authors. It suffices here to bring to light for the first time the earlier Life, formerly rendered into Latin.
[8] We have a very ancient manuscript codex in which the following are contained in various heroic verse, and indeed in this order: The Passion of Saint Laurence. The same also written in verse. The Life of Saint Alexius. The Penance of the Vice-dominus Marvelously Saved through the Mother of God. The Passion of the Holy Theban Martyrs. A Poem on Gems. perhaps by Marbod, later Bishop of Rennes, An excerpt from the writings of Solinus, etc. No author is named, but we believe it to be Marbod, who from Archdeacon of Angers was created Bishop of Rennes in the year 1096 at the Council of Tours, held that March during the third week of Lent, by Pope Urban II. Sixtus of Siena, in book 4 of the Sacred Library, calls him "an outstanding poet of his times and a distinguished professor of sacred eloquence." From his illustrious pen we shall present several Lives of Saints, also composed in prose. Among the poems already enumerated, Sigebertus, in his work On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 158, recognizes this Marbod as the author of the Passion of Saint Laurence and the Passion of the Thebans, and following him, Trithemius, Possevinus, Vossius, Pitseus, and others. Gesner relates in his Bibliotheca that the Poem on Gems and Stones by Marbodaeus, or Merboldus (for the name is written variously), has been printed several times, and that it is sometimes cited by Vincent and Albert, and by other authors of that sort, under the name of Liliary or Lapidary, and sometimes even under the name of Evax — not because he was surnamed Evanx, as Balaeus, Pitseus, and others assert, but because of the opening of this poem, which runs thus:
"Evax, King of the Arabs, is read to have written to Nero."
Then, after twenty-eight verses, follows the beginning cited by them:
"That a ring might hold a gem fitted to the fingers."
We conjecture that the intervening poems on the Life of Saint Alexius and the Penance of Saint Theophilus are by the same Marbod. The former we shall present on July 17; the latter we add to the remaining Acts of Saint Theophilus, as worthy of publication for its gravity of thought and weight of language. More will be said about Marbod on February 13, in connection with the Life of Saint Licinius, Bishop of Angers, then perhaps while Archdeacon of Angers: which he acknowledges he wrote while Archdeacon of the Church of Angers — at which time, or even earlier when he was younger, we judge these and other poems to have been composed by him.
[9] Older than Marbod is Hroswitha, a nun who flourished in the monastery of Gandersheim among the Saxons in the tenth century of Christ. as also by Hroswitha the nun. Among her works, published in print by Conrad Celtes Protucius in the year 1501, there survives a poem on the fall of Theophilus the Vice-dominus and his penance, whose opening we transcribe here:
"After the growing light of faith through the regions of the world Had freed Sicily* from the dark shadows of errors, A man sufficiently illustrious was nurtured in those parts, Powerful in nobility, shining with the splendor of merit. This man had been called Theophilus by name, Washed in the sacred water of pure baptism: Whom the devout care of his parents Marked for divine service from his earliest years: And piously attending to their dear nephew, Entrusted him to a certain Bishop of great wisdom, That he might nourish him to be taught with flourishing study, And water his talent and the little field of his mind From the streams of wisdom flowing from a sevenfold spring."
We omit the rest, which can be read in the same Conrad. Trithemius mentions Hroswitha and her poems in his book On Illustrious Men of Germany, as do Possevinus, Vossius, and many others. An epitome of this history is contained in a manuscript Lectionary of the Church of Saint-Omer, from the Lessons read at Matins on the seventh day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Other abridgements of the Acts. we omit it, as it is drawn from the history translated by Paulus Diaconus.
The following conclusion is appended: "By such deeds, therefore, it is proved that the Mother of the Lord is everywhere sovereign, everywhere magnificent: certainly she to whom it is easy to send holy Angels in ministry, and to annul at her good pleasure the pacts of the underworld ... Let sinners come with Theophilus, beating their guilty breasts with inward weeping; they too, if they truly repent, shall obtain the desired pardon." Another abridgement is offered by Zacharias Lippeloo on February 4, but contracted from the version of Gentianus Hervetus. The same history is related by the Bellovacensis in book 21 of the Mirror of History, chapters 69 and 70. Petrus Canisius, about to recount the same in book 5 of On Mary the Virgin Mother of God, chapter 20, prefaces it thus: "Since we have begun to treat of the miracles of Mary, come, let us proceed to adduce several histories that are neither suspect nor ambiguous, by which not only may the zeal and ardor of the ancients in invoking the Mother of God be confirmed, but also certain and evident testimonies of that same invocation, sealed by divine miracles, may shine forth more and more. When the Caesar Justinian held power, a certain Theophilus in the town of Adana in Cilicia," etc. The same history, contracted by Canisius, is given by Bredenbachius, book 2, chapter 3. In the Palace at Brussels, among the manuscript codices left by the ancient Dukes of Burgundy, there exists in the French language a notable work on various miracles wrought through the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, in which the first and most prominent is the benefit bestowed upon this penitent Theophilus, and the history is related at length.
[10] Very many illustrious writers have mentioned this conversion: and first of all Saint Peter Damian, who flourished nearly six hundred years ago, mention of this history in Saint Damian, writes thus in his sermon On the Nativity of the Blessed Mary: "What will be denied to you, Mary, to whom it was not denied to recall Theophilus from the very jaws of perdition? That unhappy little soul, denying by his own signature all that was done in you, you raised up from the mire of filth and misery. Nothing is impossible to you, for whom it is possible to recall the desperate to the hope of blessedness." Saint Bernard, in his sermon on the words of the Apocalypse, Saint Bernard, "A great sign," concerning the Blessed Mary, concludes with these words addressed to her: "You do not shrink from the sinner, however foul, you do not despise him, if he has sighed toward you and with a penitent heart has sought your intercession. You draw him back from the abyss of despair with a loving hand, you breathe in the medicine of hope; you cherish him, you do not despise him, until you reconcile the wretched one with the dread Judge. A famous testimony of this your kindness is Theophilus, restored to grace through you." Saint Bonaventure, Blessed Albert the Great, Thus Saint Bernard, whom Saint Bonaventure almost copies in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary, lesson 9. Blessed Albert the Great also treats of the same in his Bible of the Blessed Mary, chapter 9 of the Canticle, and on that passage of Jeremiah, "Go down to the potter's house," where he says: "The potter's house is the Virgin Mary," and below: "This is the house in which the wretched Theophilus was reformed, as is sung in his praises in the sequence: 'Reforming Theophilus to grace.'" Moreover, as Colvenerius attests in his Marian Calendar, February 4, section 3, number 3, in ecclesiastical hymns, this is the sequence for the feast of the Annunciation, which begins: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, serene Virgin." It survives, as the same author reports, among the Hymns and Sequences that Hermann Torrentinus published, at the end of that work, and in his notes he explains the history. The same sequence is attributed to Hermann Contractus, after Durantus, by our Antoine Balinghem in his Marian Parnassus, part 2, hymn 39, published from eleven Missals; likewise another hymn, number 43, from the Cluniac Missal, which begins: "Look upon us, O Angelic one," in which mention is made of the same Theophilus and of Mary of Egypt. A third is also added, number 67, from an ancient Roman Missal, which begins: "Sweet hail of the penitent." In it is said: "You are the advocate of the guilty; through you, pardon was restored to Theophilus." The same history is acknowledged by Fulbert of Chartres, sermon 1 On the Nativity of the Blessed Mary; Honorius of Autun, sermon On the Assumption of the same; Saint Antoninus in the Summa Theologica, part 4, title 15, chapter 45, section 6; and passim by more recent authors. The Magdeburg Centuriators also touch upon this history, says Canisius, "but they narrate the matter so coldly that they deign to pay no honor to Mary, studiously suppressing the truth, which nevertheless, unless they are utterly shameless, they cannot deny."
[11] That Theophilus departed this life in holiness to the Lord, all individual Acts of his relate. Canisius and Bredenbachius add that he eventually reached such a point that, on account of his holy life, he was enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints, and that his solemn commemoration is celebrated annually in the Church on February 4: and in the sacred calendar on February 4, on which day we have said this history was related by Metaphrastes, Lipomanus, Surius, and Lippeloo. Our Rosweydus, in book 1 of the Lives of the Fathers, in his Notes on the Acts of Saint Mary of Egypt, number 4, says that the feast of Theophilus occurs on February 4, on which day this recall and penance of Theophilus is also commemorated by Molanus in his Supplement to Usuard. Constantius Felicius celebrates him with a longer eulogy in his Martyrology published in Italian, but erroneously adds that he was of Persian origin. Ferrarius, in his new Topography for the Roman Martyrology, under the entry Adana, notes on February 4 "Theophilus Oeconomus." October 13, In the German Martyrology, when on October 13 the entry for Saint Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, had been given, the following is added: "Likewise in Cilicia, of another holy Confessor Theophilus, who first, after denying Christ and His Mother, dedicated himself to the devil by his own handwritten document; afterward, having done penance for his sins, he was freed by the most holy Virgin Mary and received back his written bond. Three days later he departed to Christ, at whose passing the singing of Angels was heard, and God worked many wonders through him." and October 14. In the manuscript Supplement of the Carthusians of Brussels to Usuard, under October 14, the following is read: "Likewise of the Blessed Theophilus, Confessor, Vice-dominus of a city in Cilicia, wonderfully penitent for the denial he had made of God; but through the Blessed Virgin obtaining pardon and saved — because through her he received back the written bond by which he had done homage to the devil, and as a sign of gratitude he composed the Sequence: 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, serene Virgin,' etc. And after three days he fell asleep in the Lord, an example of penance to all, and of trust in the Mother of Christ."
Note* read Cilicia
MIRACLE OF SAINT MARY
CONCERNING THEOPHILUS THE PENITENT,
BY THE AUTHOR EUTYCHIANUS,
translated by Paulus Diaconus of Naples. From three manuscript codices.
Theophilus the Penitent, Vice-dominus of Adana in Cilicia (Saint)
BHL Number: 8121
By the author Eutychianus, translated by Paulus Diaconus, from manuscripts.
CHAPTER I
Theophilus's departure from a pious life; Christ and Saint Mary abjured.
[1] It happened, before the incursion of the accursed Persian nation into the Roman Republic, that in a certain city called Adana, in the second region of Cilicia, there was a Vice-dominus of the holy Church of God, named Theophilus, distinguished in his conduct and manner of life, who with tranquil and complete moderation governed most excellently the affairs belonging to the Church and the rational flock of Christ; Theophilus, a faithful administrator of the goods of the Church, so that the Bishop reposed in him with cheerful confidence, and in every arrangement of the Church and the entire people. Whence from the greatest to the least, all gave him thanks and loved him: for he ministered provisions to orphans, the destitute, and the needy with the greatest foresight.
[2] It happened then that, at the call of God, the Bishop of that city ended his life, and immediately the entire clergy and all the people, lovingly attached to the same Vice-dominus and recognizing his industry, by common counsel decreed that he should be made Bishop. And when the decree had been celebrated, they at once directed it to the Metropolitan Bishop: who, having received it and learned of the man's virtues, the offered Bishopric assented to the petitioners' wish, and sending word to promote the aforesaid Bishop, he commanded the Vice-dominus to be summoned. But he, upon first receiving the Metropolitan Bishop's letters, delayed going, begging all not to compel him to become Bishop; but asserting and protesting that it was sufficient for him to be Vice-dominus, and that he was unworthy of the office of so great an honor. Yet with the people pressing upon him, he was lifted up bodily, he steadfastly refuses. carried to the Metropolitan Bishop, and received with joy. The consecration was imminent: but he, prostrating himself on the pavement and grasping the feet of the Bishop, prayed that no such thing be done to him, proclaiming himself utterly undeserving of the grade of the Episcopate, and that he well knew his own sins. And since he clung long to the pavement and rolled at the feet of the Bishop, he received a space of three days to deliberate with himself. But after the third day, the Bishop summoned him and began to admonish him and to praise his diligence: yet he no less cried out that he was unworthy to ascend the grade of so great a See. Therefore the Bishop, seeing such constancy in his refusal, and that he was utterly unwilling to consent, dismissed him and promoted another worthy man to discharge the office of Bishop of that Church.
[3] He is deprived of the office of Vice-dominus: Now when the Bishop had been ordained and they had returned to their own city, certain of the clergy instigated him to remove the former and appoint another Vice-dominus of the Church. This being done, the one who had been removed from his former office attended only to the care of his own house. Then the cunning enemy, the envious foe of the human race, seeing that man living modestly and engaged in good works, began to beat upon his heart with wicked thoughts, sending into him jealousy over the Vice-dominatus and the rivalry of ambition, and turned him to these abominable and wicked counsels — by which he desired not divine but human glory, and craved vain and transitory rather than heavenly dignity — to such an extent that he even sought the help of sorcerers.
[4] Now there was in that same city a certain most wicked Hebrew, he implores the help of a Hebrew sorcerer: an operator of entirely diabolical art, who had already plunged many into the pit of perdition by the arguments of unbelief. Indeed the Vice-dominus, inflamed by vainglory, fell wretchedly into the brooding of undigested cupidity for this world, and was burning with the desire of ambition. Whence he hastened by night to the aforesaid Hebrew, and knocking on his door, begged that entrance be opened. Therefore that Hebrew, hateful to God, seeing him so stricken in heart, called him inside the house and said to him: "For what reason have you come to me?" And he, falling prostrate at his feet, said: "I beg you, help me, for my Bishop has heaped reproach upon me, and he has done this to me." That execrable Hebrew answered him: "Come to me tomorrow night at this hour, and I will lead you to my patron, and he will help you in whatever you wish." And he, hearing these things, was delighted and did so, and at midnight came to him. The wicked Hebrew led him to the Circus of the city and said to him: "Whatever you see, or whatever sound you hear, do not be frightened, and do not make the sign of the Cross upon yourself." And when he had pledged this, suddenly he showed him figures clad in white with a multitude of candelabra, shouting, and in their midst a Prince seated. he is led to a diabolical assembly: For it was the devil and his ministers. And that unhappy Hebrew, holding the hand of the Vice-dominus, led him to that abominable assembly; and the devil said to him: "Why have you brought this man to us?" He answered: "He has been wronged by his Bishop and seeks your help, my Lord; I have brought him." And the other said: "What help shall I give him, a man who serves his God? But if he wishes to be my servant and to be counted among our soldiers, I will help him, so that he can do more than before, and command everyone, even the Bishop." The Hebrew turned and said to the wretched Vice-dominus: "Did you hear what he said to you?" He answered: "I heard, and whatever he says to me, I will do: only let him help me." And he began to kiss the feet of that Prince and to beg him. The devil said to the Hebrew: "Let him deny the Son of Mary and that woman herself, who are hateful to me, and let him put in writing that he denies them utterly; and whatever he wishes, he will obtain from me: only let him deny them." Then Satan entered into that Vice-dominus, and he said: "I deny Christ and His Mother," he denies Christ and His Mother: and making a written bond, he set wax upon it and sealed it with his own ring; and both departed with immense joy in their own perdition.
[5] On the next day, the Bishop, moved as I believe by divine providence, with all honor recalled the Vice-dominus from his retirement, shamefully ejected the one whom he himself had promoted, and appointed the former as Vice-dominus. He bestowed upon him before all the clergy and people the authority of administration of the holy Church and its possessions, and of the entire people, and he was raised to twice as much honor as he had held before, restored to his former administration, so that the Bishop publicly declared he had sinned in having subjected so suitable and perfect a person to the governance of others, and in having promoted that useless and less suitable man. And now the same Vice-dominus, being installed, began to manage affairs and to exalt himself above all, with everyone obeying and serving him with fear and trembling for a short time. And that execrable Hebrew frequently went in secret to the Vice-dominus and said to him: "You see how quickly you found benefit and a swift remedy from me and my patron, in those matters for which you prayed?" And he replied, he gives thanks to the sorcerer. "I confess it, and I give hearty thanks to your assistance."
Notesd. Gentianus: "widows."
CHAPTER II
The penance of Theophilus. The hope of pardon obtained from the Virgin Mother of God.
[6] And when he had remained for a short time in such boasting and in the pit of his denial, our Creator and Redeemer God, who does not will the death of sinners but their conversion and a life, remembering his former manner of life and in what ways he had served the holy Church of God — He comes to his senses: that he had excellently ministered to widows and orphans and the needy — did not despise His own creature, but gave him the conversion of penance. And having come to himself from such great elation and denial, with sobriety restored, he began to humble his own thoughts and to afflict himself over what he had done, devoting himself to fasts and prayers and vigils, turning many things over in his mind, and seeing himself defrauded of salvation, considering the eternal fire and the unquenchable flame, the torments and the departure of the soul, the gnashing of teeth and the worm that does not die. Setting all these things before himself, terrified with an evil fear, with groaning and bitter tears he said: "O most wretched am I! What have I done, and what have I wrought! Where shall I go now, heaped with sins, he bewails his fall: to save my soul? Where shall I go, I, an unhappy sinner, who have denied my Christ and His holy Mother, and have made myself a servant of the devil through the written bond of a wicked denial? Who among men, do you think, will be able to wrest that document from the hand of the destroying devil and help me? What need had I to become acquainted with that most wicked and accursed Hebrew?" For indeed, a short time before, that Hebrew had been condemned by law and by b a judge.
"What honor comes to those who, abandoning God and the Lord, run to the devil? What has temporal advantage profited me, and the vain arrogance of this world? Woe to me, a wretched sinner and dissolute man — how I have been tripped up! Woe to me, a wretched sinner — how I have lost the light and gone into darkness! I was well off when I had c withdrawn to my own private affairs. Why did I desire, for the sake of vain glory and an empty reputation, to hand over my wretched soul to hell? What help shall I seek, who have been defrauded of help by the devil? I am the author of this guilt; I am the architect of the perdition of my soul; I am the betrayer of my own salvation. Woe to me — I know not how I was seized! Woe to me — what shall I do? To whom shall I go? What shall I answer on the day of judgment, when all things shall be naked and d laid open? What shall I say in that hour when the just are crowned and I am condemned? Or with what confidence shall I stand before that royal and terrible tribunal? Whom shall I entreat, whom shall I beg in that tribulation? Or whom shall I implore in that necessity, when all will attend to their own affairs and not to those of others? Who will have mercy on me? Who will help me? Who will protect me? Who will be my patron? Truly no one there — no one helps; but all render an account for themselves. Woe to my wretched soul — how have you been taken captive? How have you been demolished? How have you been e estranged and weakened? By what a ruin have you fallen! In what a shipwreck have you been submerged! In what mire have you been rolled! To what port will you flee? To what remedy will you run? Woe to me, a wretch, who, having been tripped and plunged into the abyss, cannot rise!"
[7] While he was holding this colloquy within himself with his own soul, and these seeds of salvation were being sown in his heart, the only merciful and compassionate God, who does not despise His own creature but receives it, encompassed him with this thought. Then the Vice-dominus said: "Although I know that I have denied the Son of God, born of the holy and immaculate ever-Virgin Mother Mary, our Lord Jesus Christ, and her through him — that Hebrew whom I wrongly sought out — he resolves to take refuge with the Virgin Mother of God, Mary: nevertheless I will go to that same holy Mother of the Lord, glorious and radiant, and I will entreat her alone with all my heart and soul, and I will make prayers and fasts in her venerable temple without ceasing, until through her I may find mercy on the day of judgment." And again he said: "But with what lips I may presume to beseech her kindness, I do not know. For I know that I have most wickedly transgressed by denying her. Or what beginning shall I make of my confession? With what heart and what conscience shall I attempt to move my impious tongue and polluted lips in confession? Or for which sins shall I first do penance, or seek remission? Wretched am I — and if I rashly presume to do this, fire descending from heaven will consume me, for the world will no longer endure the evils that I, most wretched, have committed. Woe to my wretched soul — arise from the darkness that has overtaken you! Fall down and entreat the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, for she is truly powerful to apply remedies to this guilt."
[8] And thinking these things within himself, mightily encouraged, having put aside the laborious stumbling-blocks of this world, in her temple he prays and fasts for forty days: with all zeal and a ready will, proceeding before the holy and venerable temple of the immaculate and glorious ever-Virgin Mary, offering petitions and supplications unceasingly day and night, he devoted himself to fasts and vigils, that he might be received and redeemed from so great a guilt, and that he might be rescued from the pernicious deceiver and the malignant dragon and from the denial he had committed — performing fasts and prayers for forty days and nights, beseeching our protectress, the Mother of the Lord and Savior.
[9] After the completion of those days, in the middle of the night, there appeared manifestly the universal help and ready protection of Christians who are watchful toward her — the true refuge of those who run to her, the way of the lost, the redemption of captives, the light of those in darkness, the truest refuge of the afflicted and the consolation of the distressed — by the Virgin Mother of God our Lady and true Mother of Christ, saying to him: "Why do you persist so long, O man, rashly and presumptuously asking that I help you — a man who denied my Son, the Savior of the world, and me? Or how can I petition Him to forgive you the evils you have committed? With what eyes shall I look upon that most merciful countenance of my Son, whom you denied, and presume to intercede for you? With what confidence can I petition Him, when you have apostatized from Him? In what manner shall I stand before that terrible tribunal and presume to open my mouth and beg His most clement goodness? For I cannot bear to see my Son insulted with wrongs. Understand, O man: he is sternly rebuked: the sins you have committed against me may perhaps receive some indulgence, because I so lovingly cherish the Christian people, and especially those who run to my temple with right faith and a pure conscience — to all such I nod assent and give aid, and I cherish them in my arms and embrace them in my heart. But the provocations of my Son I can neither bear to hear nor to see, because they need much struggle and labor and contrition of heart to be able to receive His benevolence. For He is exceedingly merciful and also most just and gracious as a Judge."
[10] But that man, answering, said to her: "Indeed, my Lady, ever blessed; indeed, O protection of the human race; indeed, O Lady, harbor and refuge of those who flee to you! I know, Lady, I know that I have greatly sinned against you and against Him who was born of you, our Lord, and I am not worthy to obtain mercy. But having the example of those who sinned before me against your Son, our Lord, and through penance merited the forgiveness of the sins they had committed, I therefore presume to approach. [he expects the remission of sin with great confidence from the example of others:] For had there been no penance, how would the Ninevites have been saved? Had there been no penance, Rahab the harlot would not have been saved. Had there been no penance, how would David, after the gift of prophecy, after the kingship and the Lord's own testimony, falling into the abyss of fornication and murder, and showing his penance by a word, have not only merited the forgiveness of such great sins but even received again the gift of prophecy? Jonah 3:10. Joshua 6:25. Had there been no penance, how would the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, first of the disciples, pillar of the Church, who received from God the keys of the kingdom of heaven — denying Christ the Lord not once or twice but three times — afterward by weeping bitterly have merited forgiveness of so great an offense, and having attained a greater honor, been appointed shepherd of the Lord's rational flock? 2 Kings 12:13. Had there been no penance, how would He have received Zacchaeus, himself a chief of the tax-collectors and an oppressor? Had there been no penance, how would the blessed Paul have been made a vessel of election from being a persecutor? Had there been no penance, how would the Apostle have ordered that man who had committed fornication among the Corinthians to be received, saying: 'Lest he be overwhelmed by Satan'? Had there been no penance, how would that Cyprian, who had perpetrated such great evils — who even cut open those with child and was entirely clothed in crimes — having been more powerfully strengthened by Saint Justina, and fleeing to penance, have not only received remission of so many evils but also obtained the crown of martyrdom? Whence I too, a wretched sinner, confessing the proofs of the penance of such great men, approach beseeching your kind mercy — that you may deign to extend your right hand of protection to me and to bestow the forgiveness of sins, through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, against whom I, a wretch, have sinned."
[11] When he had thus confessed, our holy and venerable Lady, the Mother of God — alone chaste, alone holy, blessed in both soul and body, who alone has eloquence before Him whom she bore, Christ — the consolation of the afflicted, the compassion of the distressed, the garment of the naked, the staff of old age, the strong protection of those who run to her, who cherishes all Christians in her holy heart — said to him: "Confess to me, O man, that He whom I bore as my Son and whom you denied, the Virgin Mother of God requiring it, is Christ the Son of the living God, who is to come to judge the living and the dead; and I will intercede for you, and He will receive you." And the Vice-dominus answered her: "And how shall I presume, my Lady ever blessed — I, unhappy and unworthy, having a filthy and polluted mouth, who denied your Son and our Lord, and was tripped up by the vain desires of this world? Not only that, but even what I had as a remedy for my soul — I mean the venerable Cross and the holy baptism which I received — I polluted through the written bond of most bitter denial." The holy and immaculate Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, said to him: "Only approach and confess Him: for He is merciful and will accept the tears of your penance, as He accepts those who approach Him purely and sincerely. For this reason, being God, He deigned to take flesh in me, the substance of His Deity not being g weakened, in order to save the human race."
[12] Then that blessed man, with reverence and fitting h prayer, with lowered face and wailing, he makes a profession of faith: confessed, saying: "I believe, I adore, and I glorify i one of the Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, ineffably begotten of the Father before all ages, but in the last days descending from heaven and incarnate — true God — of the Holy Spirit and of you, holy and immaculate ever-Virgin Mary; who came forth for the salvation of the human race: Him I confess to be perfect God and perfect man; who for us sinful men deigned to suffer, and to be spat upon and struck with blows, and to have His hands stretched out upon the life-giving wood, as a good shepherd laying down His life for us sinners; and was buried and rose again and ascended into heaven with the flesh which He received from you, most chaste and true Mother; and is to come with His holy glory to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works — not needing an accuser, but with conscience itself accusing or excusing us from our very deeds exposed, and fire testing what the work of each may be. These things I confess with my soul, I worship with my heart and body, I adore and embrace them. And with this my petitionary profession, offered with all the effort of my mind, present me, holy and immaculate Virgin Mother of God, to your Son, our Lord; and do not abhor or despise the prayer of a sinner who has been seized, tripped up, and deceived; but free me from the iniquities that have overtaken me and from the whirlwind of the tempest that possesses me — I who have been stripped of the grace of the Holy Spirit." And when he had said these things, the holy Mother of God — as though receiving some satisfaction from him — the hope and support of the Christian people, the redemption of the wandering and the true way of those who flee to her, the fountain of the storm-tossed, who intercedes for sinners, the refuge of the poor, the consolation of the fainthearted, the mediatrix between God and men — said to him: He has the promised help of the Virgin Mother of God. "Behold, I, on account of the baptism which you received through my Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and on account of the exceeding compassion which I have toward you Christians, trusting you, will approach and petition Him on your behalf, prostrate at His feet, that He may receive you."
NotesCHAPTER III
Sins forgiven. The written bond returned. The death of Theophilus.
[13] And when this vision had appeared and day had come, the immaculate Virgin Mother of God departed from him. And for three more days the Vice-dominus, continuing to beseech and to beat his face upon the ground more earnestly, remaining without food in that venerable temple, and flooding the place with tears, did not withdraw — gazing upon the bright light and the ineffable countenance of our glorious Lady, the Mother of God, Mary, he awaited from her the hope of his salvation. Whence again the only true protection, the only consolation of those who flee to her, from a the only light-bearing cloud that was nurtured in the holy of holies, appeared with a cheerful face and joyful eyes and a gentle voice, saying to him: "Man of God, your penance, which you have shown to the Savior of all and Creator God, is sufficient. For the Lord has accepted your tears and has assented to your petitions on my account — provided that you also keep these things in your heart toward Christ the Son of the living God until the day of your death." And he answered: "Indeed, my Lady, I will keep them so as not to transgress your words, for I have you after God as my protection and patronage; and trusting in your help, I will not abandon what I have promised and confessed. For I know, Lady, I know that there is no other protection for men than you, ever blessed. For who, my Lady, immaculate Virgin, has hoped in you and been put to shame? Or what man has besought the omnipotence of your help and been abandoned? Whence I too, a sinner and dissolute man, beg the perennial fountain of your kindness to bestow the heart of mercy upon me, erring and deceived, who am submerged in the depths of the mire; and command that I may be able to receive back that execrable document of denial and that wicked b sealed bond, from him who deceived me, the devil — for this is what utterly torments my most wretched soul."
[14] Again, therefore, that aforesaid man, grieving greatly and weeping excessively and earnestly beseeching the one and only hope of all and the salvation of our souls, continued to implore the holy and ever-Virgin Mary. After three more days, as though in a vision, Saint Mary presented to him the document of the bond, bearing the seal of wax, just as he had given that apostate bond. he receives back the written bond of abjuration: And rising from sleep, the aforesaid Vice-dominus found the document upon his breast, and being filled with joy, he trembled so violently that even the joints of all his limbs were nearly loosened.
[15] On the next day, which was the Lord's Day, going to the holy Catholic Church, after the reading of the holy Gospel, he cast himself at the feet of the most holy Bishop and recounted in detail everything he explains to the Bishop his sin and its remission: that had been done through the execrable and pernicious Hebrew sorcerer, and his own elation and denial and the writing of the bond, on account of the vain glory of this world; then his confession to God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and his penance through miracles, and the unfailing fountain of the immaculate Mother of God, through whom he had also received back the written bond of his most wicked denial. And extending it, still sealed, he delivered it into the hands of the most holy Bishop, and while all the clergy and laity together, women and children, marveled, he asks that everything be made known to the people, he requested that the most wicked and horrible written bond be read publicly before all. And all the people learned what had befallen him and how the document of his denial had been returned to him.
[16] Whereupon the Bishop also cried out and said: "Come, all you faithful, let us glorify our true Lord Jesus Christ! Come, all of you, see the stupendous miracles! Come, all you beloved of Christ, and see Him who does not will the death of the sinner but his conversion and eternal life! Come, see, my Fathers, the efficacy of penance! with an illustrious encomium of the mercy of God, Come, see tears washing away sins! Come, dearest ones, see tears erasing the wounds of wicked deeds and rendering the soul whiter than snow! Come, see tears flying upward, bearing souls to the Lord! Come, see tears obtaining the remission of sins! Come, all Christians, consider tears that turn away the wrath of God! Come, behold how much the groaning of the soul and contrition of heart avail! Who would not marvel, my brothers, at the ineffable patience of God? Who would not be amazed at the indescribable compassion and love of God toward us sinners? Exodus 24:18. For even the lawgiver Moses, fasting for forty days, received from God the inscribed tablets; and this our brother, remaining for forty days in the venerable temple of the immaculate and glorious ever-Virgin Mary, and of the Virgin Mother of God: recovered by fasting and praying the former grace which he had lost by his denial. Let us therefore give glory together with him to our God, who has so mercifully heard the penance of the one who fled to Him through the intercession of the immaculate ever-Virgin Mother of God, Mary — who is between God and men the powerful and truest hope of the despairing, who is the refuge of the afflicted, who has restrained the curse of human nature, who is the true gate of eternal life, at which all we sinners knock and it is opened to us; and she offers our petitions to Him whom she bore, our Lord, and receives the forgiveness of our sins. Remember us also, holy Mother of God, who watch toward you with pure faith and flee to you; and do not abandon your poorest flock, but intercede for it before the merciful Lord, and act as mediator, that it may be preserved from adversities and without harm. For in you all we Christians hope; to you we flee; to you we extend our eyes day and night. For we salute and glorify both you and Him who was born of you and who received flesh from you, our Lord Jesus Christ. And what more shall I say or speak, or what praise or glory shall we offer to the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ, who was born of you? Surely your works are magnified, O Lord, and the tongue does not suffice for the glory of your wonders. Truly your works are magnified, O Lord. Surely the saying of the Gospel is fitting here: 'Bring the finest robe and clothe him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf and kill it; and let us eat and rejoice, for this our brother was dead and has come to life, he was lost and has been found.'"
[17] But after the Vice-dominus had risen, the Bishop asked him to burn that most wicked document. This was done, and the people, seeing the execrable written bond and the document of denial consumed by fire, began to cry out with a multitude of tears: "Kyrie eleison." And the Bishop, motioning with his hand for silence, said: "Peace be with you." And he began to celebrate the solemnities of the Mass, and after the completion of the sacred mysteries, when the sacred mysteries had been received, immediately the face of the venerable Vice-dominus shone like the sun. Having received the Eucharist, his face shines: And all who saw the sudden transfiguration of the man glorified God all the more — He who alone does great wonders.
[18] And going to the venerable temple of the Mother of God who had freed him from that execrable error, dhaving tasted a little, he was dissolved in body and fell ill in that place, he dies and is buried in the temple of the Blessed Virgin, in which he was also buried — where he had also seen that blessed vision — reclining as though fixed to that spot. And after three days, having kissed the brethren, he delivered his blessed soul into the hand of the Son of God and of the immaculate ever-Virgin Mary. He distributed all his possessions to the poor, and having arranged everything excellently, and glorifying God with such a confession, he departed to the Lord — to whom is glory now and always, through all ages of ages. Amen.
NotesTHE SAME HISTORY IN VERSE,
by the author (as is believed) Marbod, Bishop of Rennes. From a manuscript codex.
Theophilus the Penitent, Vice-dominus of Adana in Cilicia (Saint)
BHL Number: 8124
By the author believed to be Marbod, from a manuscript.
CHAPTER I
The piously begun life of Theophilus: his fall into wickedness after abjuring Christ and Saint Mary.
[1] A certain Vice-dominus there was, of great merits, Theophilus by name: Theophilus the Vice-dominus, he held also the omen of his name, For he shunned evil and loved the worship of the Deity: a man of distinction, Wholly devoted to the affairs of the Church, wholly to contemplation, He rejoiced in poverty, and through him no needy person was in want. The Bishop, the clergy, the people — he was the public hope of affairs, Sustaining all, and attending to all that was holy. Then the Bishop died, and he was mourned; an assembly was held For a successor, to find one worthy of that honor. The sacred man pleased them, as he deserved, the one mentioned above: He refused, for he feared the heavy burden of the Episcopate. While he was sought, he would not comply; they went together: he refuses the offered Episcopate: He was chosen, because he was loved, because his merit was known. The sound counsel came to the Metropolitan, Who ordered him to come, that confirmation might be made. The Vice-dominus was compelled; he excused himself and refused to go: But he could not prevail, for the people had willed it and raised up the good man; As was fitting, they brought him; nor did he fail to say a psalm. Then by the supreme Bishop he was kindly asked To bend his mind, to praise the Almighty more, To change his counsel, and not refuse to serve as Bishop. The clergy also came forward and pressed the same exhortation; The people said the same, yet their words did not sway him: And stubbornly alone he resisted all, Saying that it was not necessary for him to take on more, But that it was enough for him to hold well the trust given him, And that he should not attempt what he feared would overwhelm him. Therefore, since he resisted and would not follow the Fathers' commands, They dismissed him and appointed another in his place, Who was invested with the office and anointed in the rite of a Bishop.
[2] When the new Bishop began to administer and review the affairs of the Church, By the malice of envy and by the cunning of the demon, The Bishop was urged — since many observed That in every respect the honor of the Vice-dominus surpassed his — And that his dominion was too exalted, And that unless he were stripped of it, anyone could quickly find he is deprived of the benefit of the Vice-dominatus: That the summit of the Episcopal office would be thereby degraded. By these arguments broken, the Bishop examined the Vice-dominus's acts, And as though blaming them, removed him from his office, Promoting a worse man as his successor. Then the fortunes of Theophilus, reduced to nothing, wasted away: By an unequal turn, and unstable, because all things revolve, *While his abundance and his former favor grew thin. Thus wealth and power attend each other: Where resources fail, strength withers at once; Fate gives servants, and favor follows dominion. Remembering these things, the aforesaid Vice-dominus Groaned in his wretchedness and grieved at being despoiled; He now repented that he had formerly declined the Episcopate. What had once pleased him, when he was supported by prosperity, now displeased; Now he was in want and was a reproach to the people, as though a fool. So he was stunned, so he lost his wits amid his misfortunes, Whom the fraud of demons had harmed and robbed.
[3] Now a certain man — pestilent and a sorcerer in one — A Hebrew by race, filled with the demon driving him, When he saw him afflicted and as though bereft of his mind, Straightway approached and urged him to relate the trouble pressing on him, he implores the help of a Hebrew sorcerer: That perhaps he could help, and that no harm could come even if he told. That man, in sorrow, recounted the causes with the beginning of his complaint: How great his wealth had been, how great his honor before, And how, deprived of these, he languished, reduced to nothing — And that this man would restore him, or else he would soon perish. The other, now more cheerful, agreed to give counsel, Agreed and swore that (provided he took care that it was certain, And himself swore fidelity to the pact he would deliver) He could thus obtain the rights of his former rank, So that the Vice-dominatus would outweigh even the Episcopate — Supreme among the supreme, how much more among inferiors! The other pledged his faith, only asking that he not render The promises of things to be vain, nor waver with a slack mind. "Now," he said, "listen to what I, trusting you greatly, command. My king is Satan, not accustomed to give empty things, But accustomed to succor the wretched, giving also certain rites To be observed by those whom he leads as beloved: He supplies them with goods, enriches them with possessions and honor. In the darkness of night — remember this time and keep it — he is forbidden to make the sign of the Cross: I will present you to him. But do not be alarmed — I warn you — At that procession: it will come with shining trophy. Only stand and believe; do not make the sign of the Cross upon yourself, By which sign you would be unable to find him gracious. You will find a good patron then for your prayers." So the wretch, cheered and relying on this consolation, Promised to obey his commands and keep them diligently; Thus the sorcerer sends him into his power.
[4] Then through the horror of night, while all things Were steeped in sleep upon the earth, and no light shone From stars or moon, he is led to the assembly of demons: the said wretch and the sorcerer together, As they had met, went to the appointed place. At the sorcerer's cry, Satan the King, image of death, With his signs, accompanied by a malign host — Himself foul and dark, yet glowing with the fire of the abyss, Shining just a little, as befits a King of Darkness — Arriving, sat enthroned. The sorcerer spoke to him: "Behold, Father, with what care and how special a devotion I strive that your praise and honor and your rights may grow. It is right to serve lords and to carry out their commands. It is good to serve lords and to strike down adversaries. The glory of the great is the numerous host of their people. Therefore I win your share by every art, Drawing men away from Christ — as you see in this one. This man, stripped of his power, seeks help from you; Greatly wronged as he is, I beg you to favor him with your customary aid; By his example there will come to you a harvest Which so increases whenever anyone follows your gifts." "Present these things now mercifully, reverend Father: You will be his perpetual master if you show mercy." "My son," fierce Satan said, "he wrongs greatly Who favors the unworthy with gifts owed to the gracious, And harms himself, as you know, who aids the enemy. And this man is my enemy, nor is it right that he bear my gifts. It is not lawful for me to have those marked with Christ's brand brought before me; I can give nothing to them, because I detest them utterly. But if this man wants anything bestowed and himself aided, Let him deny Christ, with the baptism of Christ and the Mother of Christ; Let him depart from them and willingly believe in me, So that he may then rejoice in me as his Prince, when he enjoys The lot of my kingdom under the eternal seat of Hell — Delighting in me when he bears torments, Let him endure gladly the worms, the fires, the weeping. By this pact anyone can become my fellow citizen. Then he will bear my gifts, if he faithfully cleaves to us. But this faithless sect is too suspect to me, The sect of Christ's worshippers, because anyone among them Obeys me when broken by adversities; but having obtained his wishes, He departs from me and again obeys Christ, Who vehemently presses upon my rights and favors this man by recalling him; Whom gracious mercy compels to save all things by loving." Theophilus said: "Him whom the people crucified, he denies in writing Christ and Saint Mary: Christ, with the baptism of Christ and the Mother of Christ, I deny: I believe in you, Satan." At once such a covenant He ordered to be written, and, setting his seal, received it. When this was accomplished, both departed in exultation. The demon then exercises his deceit: not only to restore the former things But to add more that would please, he is made Vice-dominus again: As the Prince of this world, dispensing the joys of this world.
[5] Nor was it long: the stricken Bishop and all the people together, For the one formerly rejected — not justly, nor in right order — Proclaimed that they had sinned, and restored the Vice-dominatus. He, at once elated with sudden pride, exercised The right of dominion, renewing all things as he pleased: All obeyed him, all feared him. The sorcerer frequently visited this man, to whom fortune so smiled, To congratulate him, because he was held as a companion in death, To remind him of the pact made with Satan as Prince, And lest he be forgetful of his gift and his patron — Rather, for the gift, let him serve the Patron in all things. The wretch heeded these admonitions and returned thanks: he gives thanks to the sorcerer. He swore that the covenant would be kept and remain inviolate.
Note* variant: "For"
CHAPTER II
The Penance of Theophilus.
[6] Thus ensnared and enjoying the flower of fortune, The fool exults — now that Lazarus lies buried, Now desperate, and lies fettered and stinking. But the true Physician said: "My friend sleeps; Let my power rouse him." O sweet grace of Christ! Roused by the grace of God, He does not will the death of the sinner, but that the one converted To the pursuit of a better life should live rightly. He did not despise the good works of this man's former life — How eagerly he used to help anyone in need, How well he used to administer what he owed. Useful in all things, prudent for himself and for the Church. God regarded these things — He who repays a hundredfold — Truly gracious, who saw Peter, and saw the heart of this man, Touched it, and fixed His arrows in it. He fixed them, and the wretch returned to his heart; at once he uttered The grief of his heart; he was stunned and redoubled his sorrow. he is led to repentance for his deed: For he began to recall his former state in a sane mind. He weighed, confused, how foully deceived by the demons, How he had fallen from his height, since it profits nothing To begin well without a blessed end. And he remembered at the same time eternal torment: The unquenchable fire that resounds within the abyss, And the gnashing of the damned, and the lamentation of the guilty, And the impure stench, and the worm that does not die. He pondered these things in his mind, then grieving from the depths of his heart, He lay sleepless, no longer caring for his pleasures. Where before he had swelled with immense pride, now, stricken with fear, He cast down his senses in affliction, like one stunned by a blow: And he believed himself lost. Then he turned such thoughts over in his mind:
[7] "Behold, through my admitted crime — alas, wretch, alas, what am I! While I stood safe, to what have I been tumbled by my fall? Where shall I go? What shall I do? I who bear a deadly wound. There is no Savior but you, God, the Creator Himself. Therefore, having denied the Son of God together with His Mother, he bewails his fall: Who will save me and reconcile me to the faith? What good are honors obtained through the wicked wiles of the demon, Thus acquired, thus depending on the demon Prince? Behold, I have been made a servant; behold, by an everlasting pact I am bound to be a citizen of Satan for the sake of an empty name, And I wrote the pact, which by delivering I obligated myself to him. Woe to me — what I wrote, who mightier will wrest it from him? O if only I had not known, if only I had never consulted That detestable sorcerer, to be tormented in the abyss — Long since condemned by a judge as a criminal! Why is he who betrays you, why is anyone who hates you, O God, So exalted and enlarged with honors? What good was it to me, what pleased me, what I sought from the enemy? Indeed it flows away, what gleamed in the morning, what I craved at dawn. Only guilt endures, nor does any sin perish, unless it be One that was venial — as my own special guilt strikes me. Judgment, not escape, at last remains for me. Who will offer me help or counsel he dreads the judgment of God, Before God, when my case will summon me as the guilty one? And since my crime is such, no hope will expiate it before Him. And since I know that my case merits no pardon, What shall I do, to whom no hope seems to offer a way? Everyone there ponders for himself how he may purge himself, And scarcely suffices for himself; there, fear presses even the just. No one will stand for me, when I am joined to the wicked. Woe to me then, wretch! For then it will be lamented, but too late: Here is grief eternal, nor does hell end its mourning; and the punishments of hell: Here are cruel faces, nothing is heard but 'woe, woe.' He who is tortured is renewed for this: that he may suffer here; And while he prays to be received, to be rescued, No one is helped, no one is relieved, the punishment is renewed; Death reigns, and the punishments of the underworld: nor pities, nor is sated. Alas, defrauded, I am stripped of the light of God! Beset with enticements, and surrounded by darkness! Foolish, therefore, I am the betrayer of myself and of the faith. For he loses his mind who denies the Almighty. Alas, how I have sinned, who have put myself to death! Chiefly with the vices of the soul, wretched, I have entangled myself, And it is scarcely given that tears should come; but even if copious ones Should come, they would not suffice to wash away such great evils: They would rather stain more, and make evil *sting the heart. Of my own will I fell, nor did I fear to subject myself to filth. Wretch, I lost my wits, for I tasted evils sweet to the heart. My very being is given to be guilty — alas, it hurts to exist! So pitch-dark, so hellish, while one lives, is one's being; And then an everlasting existence is prepared in the fire of Gehenna.
[8] "Alas! What shall I do? How shall I become part of Christ? That I may be joined to the just, and restored to faith and merits? Alas, where have I come, having slipped into the depths of the mire! It is not right to rise, but not to will to rise is wicked. Yet this I shall attempt, and I shall beg the help of whomsoever. Although I have sinned, although I have denied you, O Christ, And your Mother, Queen through the ages; he resolves to implore the help of Saint Mary: Yet I shall go swiftly, seeking her aid, Asking without end the help of the heavenly Queen, Taking neither food nor drink, nor shall I rest. My nourishment shall be weeping, and restless grief, Pouring out my prayers with groaning, with my whole mind fixed on God. Yet to dare these things, I think, is an accumulation of crime, Since the prayer of a sinner's mouth is foul. One who is angered is more provoked when he is entreated. And if I presume, what sort of beginning shall I take? Lest heavenly vengeance shatter my words? Lest avenging fire thunder at my unworthy cries? Both penalties are heavy — to pray and to be silent are grave for the wicked. Terror dissuades, hope urges, and sighing becomes confusion. But I will transgress what is lawful; though reckless, I will go: I will do what I can, by knocking, by beseeching Mary." Thus the aforesaid Vice-dominus exhorted himself, in her temple he fasts and prays for forty days: And, strengthened, he departed and prostrated himself also in the temple Of the Consoler of the world, the Mother of the Lord, Fasting, weeping, praying through the night and through the day, And completing thus forty full days, He persisted unmoved, wholly with a contrite heart.
Note* variant: "commemorate."
CHAPTER III
The rebuke of Saint Mary appearing, and the hope of obtaining pardon given to Theophilus.
[9] Then the loving Virgin Mary stood before him and said: "Why are you so vexed, O man, nor do you moderate your weeping, Vexing me, the Mother of a Son denied by your writings? And do you seek this through me, when you have equally betrayed me? Or is it the custom that an enemy can be placated through an enemy? It will rather offend, and his case will be aggravated. Why then do you entreat those whom you know you have so rashly outraged? But since you cry to me, the Mother of mercy, he is rebuked by the appearing Saint Mary, It cannot be that I should be unable to show pity. For the nation of Christ's worshippers is not unpleasant to me; Above all, if anyone gratefully honors my feast-days And is mindful of my name with a heart full of faith — Such a one, by every means, I benignly strive to save, By exalting, by cherishing, by admonishing, by guiding. But it is a labor to approach my Son when He is angered; His offense moves me likewise, even more. Yet now I will approach, nor will I withdraw from embracing Him, Until I placate the aggrieved one, until I bring you peace. He is indeed a gracious Judge, but also most just, Giving what is owed: He presses some, He pities others. He strikes, He pardons, as the matter and grace demand. It is therefore fitting that, leaving sins behind, Each guilty one should diligently attend to how he may please Him. Yet if the cure is matched to the wound, it heals well: A milder pain cures some; a sharper one rightly burns others. Now ointments are needed, now strong remedies: What unction cannot do, cautery often calms the swellings; Cutting heals the pains that compounding does not; So correction makes better those whom persuasion does not; Punishment corrects some; mercy guides others."
[10] She had spoken. The man, encouraged, replied thus: "Illustrious Queen of heaven, salvation of peoples, he confidently seeks the remission of sin, Glory of the Saints and mirror of their beauty, Most elect, most exalted Mother of honors, Most loving Virgin, you, the surest hope of the wretched, You, the bearer of better counsel and zeal, At once the safeguard against shipwreck and every toil. I have sinned, Lady, exceedingly, and this ruin presses me. O how I have sinned, who denied you and the Lord! I confess, for I am held by sins, deserving pity; And I fear, because — behold — I shall be carried off to be burned, as I deserve. Indeed this crime lacks pardon, my holy Mary, by the example of the Ninevites, But there are many enough examples of mercy given To the offending and the wretchedly fallen. Thus the Ninevites prolonged their days of life. Thus Rahab is saved and joined to Israel. Rahab, And thus David, the mighty king, defiled himself with the crime of death, Which he doubled with one greater; David, But what he sinned he repaired by weeping, and regained his station: Thence famous for prophecy and also for psalm-writing. If I may dare to speak, Saint Peter, my fault can be compared To that of steadfast Peter, denying the Lord twice or thrice, Whom, because the Savior looked upon him, straightway he went out, Worthy to make amends by weeping and to see the Lord again — The Prince of the Church, and thereafter the pattern of forgiveness. Pardon was also granted to Mary Magdalene, Saint Magdalene, Who, by weeping well, abolished the stains of her sins, Now pleasing to the Lord, now celebrated through the ages. And so, at the Lord's call, that guilty Zacchaeus found favor. So grace, which struck Saul down, established Paul. Saint Paul; He who fell grievously — Corinth saw such a one: Hence Paul writes: 'That such a one may perish in the flesh, That his spirit may live better, being saved.' Such also was the deranged sorcerer a Cyprian: Saint Cyprian: As many were his defilements as — perhaps more than — his hairs. For, given over to malice and allied with demons, He profaned marriages and slew infants in the womb. At length, stricken with compunction, he returned and was joined to the Church Through Justina, changing his savage mind. Hence, made a Bishop, he corrected the deeds of others, Worthy of martyrdom. The gracious God did these things: As He wills, as He foreknows — He who knows nothing, except, I know not what. The examples of such great men also sustain me, Lest I despair wickedly, for by despairing I would remain lost. For the Lord is able to have mercy on me, a wretch, If you, O Holy One, will intercede, if you will compel your Son to spare me. He will spare at your request — compel Him to spare, I beg you. Your Son will do your will: command, and it shall be done. For it is within your right to extend your hand to those about to fall. Since a natural and special piety is yours, And such a conditional grace is given to you: That you may aid the fortunes of the human race As protectress, as mother, and as mediatrix. God Himself surely becomes man here for us through you. Therefore, as the one who offers Mary as mediatrix between God and man, That Father gave you, whom the whole world obeys. It is lawful for you to speak to Him, and to pray to your Son; And since eloquence before your Child belongs to you alone, Entreat the holy heart of that beloved Child."
[11] The Virgin at these words said: "My Son, now with manly courage, Return to your former good; believe also what must be believed; And with the voice of sincere faith and mind, confess by the Mother of God he is raised to the hope of pardon, That He who was born of me and denied by your writings Is truly the Son of the ever-living Father Almighty, Christ, who knows no end; And who is to come and to render judgment To those who will live with Him, and also to those who will perish from Him." To such words the man, trembling, replied, drawn by them: "How, by daring and confessing the Lord and God, Can I now open a mouth so horribly defiled — Which I wickedly defiled when I denied you, Most Holy, And Him born of you, and the rite of the Sacrament, The grace by which baptism saves each one, and the Cross? The whole salvation of man resides in these two things. By abjuring I scorned them; so I have grown toward my own ruin, Exalted by the fasces of office, but cast headlong by my crime." "Away with a doubting mind," the holy Mary replied; "Only approach with constancy, and believe what must be believed, And confess the former blessings of salvation. For God, mighty and merciful in all things through His goodness, Will receive you weeping and making satisfaction thus."
[12] He answered: before her he professes his faith, "I believe, and I give myself entirely to you as well. I confess God, baptism, and the trophy of the Cross: that the Majesty of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is equal in Deity, and their power is not unequal but one; and He who knows neither end nor beginning is nevertheless both end and beginning of all things — through whom the elements subsist, and none resist. Hence the eternal offspring of the Father, coming from His heavenly seat at the end of the age, invested with the nature of genuine flesh, comes forth from you, pure Virgin — you, of such beauty, of such royal lineage, of such divine merit, beyond what any abundance could express. As One who searches the heart and tests the innermost parts — Him whom you bore, whom you pleased, O woman of Christ. Thus God, made man, pitied men, enduring mortal fate without sin. Hence, dying, having broken the gates of death in the underworld, He shone forth desirable to the Saints, whence He led back with Himself a captive people; soon showing Himself risen to the disciples; hence the Victor ascends to the stars, where He sits at the right hand, sharer of the almighty Father. And hence He is to come, and to render judgment to those who will live with Him and also to those who will perish from Him — with no one accusing or justifying: here fire will prove every work by sure signs. For the conscience of each, whether of the just or of the wicked, will here accuse or justify them, giving to each his own: condemning or crowning. Believing these things in my soul, having confessed them, for this reason first of all I seek your patronage, Mary. That I may be helped, that I may be raised up, that in this trial I may be preserved — do you, loving one, offer me as a suppliant to the goodness of your Son. he implores her help, Nor let it be too hard for you that a mouth badly defiled entreats: rather purify it, together with its words, lest my great offenses impede my prayers. And you, Mother of God, make the dark Satan give back the testament I wrote, the memorial of my crime: for such a bond terrifies me as fatal. I pray you, as you know, take it from the enemy, since you have the power. For He gave you the power, before which every opposing force yields. Exert your power, my hope, my defense, my shield; exert your power, showing yourself a good patroness. I shall perish or be saved, whoever I may be reckoned as yours."
[13] Then the loving Mother of mercy, born before all men, pitying him as he spoke such things and made satisfaction, said: "As I have said, you worshippers of the Crucified One — one faith, one Chrism, one spiritual gift — however many the sacred worship rightly consecrates, it makes them friends to me: she grants the help promised: especially those who are outstanding in their worship. Therefore I will humbly address my Jesus on your behalf, though so greatly offended, and prostrate I will pray at His feet, that you may be restored to the rank from which you are held to have fallen." When she had spoken these words, she disappeared and withdrew.
Notes* variant: "That you may be gracious to that lot."
CHAPTER IV
Theophilus's sins forgiven: the written bond restored: his death.
[14] Then the man, deeply moved, trembles entirely at this utterance. And he persisted there for three days, devoting himself to prayers, flooding his face with tears and beating the holy places — nor did he turn his eyes from the image he loved. Again the Virgin of gentle countenance stood before him, and consoling him said: "Your constancy has now prevailed, he understands that his sins have been forgiven: so that the Savior, truly merciful, may pardon you, granting forgiveness of your offenses on my account, Mary's. Keep this therefore, and do not heap up evils again. May your death be blessed, as the end of a good life. A work is established by its end — what each one shall reap without end. Do not yield, therefore, for whoever yields is struck more shamefully from behind; so, fighting, do not give way." He replied: "Certainly, my Holy One — to God and to you I dedicate myself entirely; may your grace confirm my vow. Under your leadership, with you as my companion, may I be guided to the very end of life. he gives thanks to the Mother of God: There is no other hope besides you, Holy Mary; you are the first to protect the lot of the human race. No one has hoped in vain, no one has called upon you in vain: you save those who seek you and hear those who petition you. I entrust myself to you alone; do not spurn me. And may the care of me, who follows your laws, be yours. And what still remains, what still greatly troubles me — I mean the parchment that was formerly given to the enemy, by which I am held bound, by which my mind is struck and tormented: make it be returned, for my mind is tortured by it." Thus repeating, he weeps, again prostrates himself, and prays that the charter of his proscribed faith be returned to him.
[15] Again the next day, the shining person of Mary extends in sleep the written bond to the Vice-dominus, he receives back the written bond, secured with sealing wax, as it had been before. But he, awakened, trembles at this sign of newness — one whom, as is usual, the stupor of excessive joy oppresses. He leaped up, and then composed songs such as that hope inspired. Songs such as these, which testify to great deeds: "O wisdom, which rules all things and all that is created, accompanied by magnificence and supreme power: it calls the unworthy, whence it places leaders of churches, giving its covenants and also the gifts of righteousness, setting in order with the Holy Spirit those of souls. Let it be venerated, glorified, magnified!" Therefore on the day that is kept holy for the Lord's rest, a thronging crowd, following the laws of piety, gathers at the temples. And when the praise of the sacred offices is celebrated, he brooked no delay but, prostrate before the Bishop, made known everything that had been done: read aloud to the people in the temple how, trusting in magical arts and giving himself to the enemy, he had been deceived while seeking the joys of the world; how he had sworn to the enemy and denied the Lord; and had written the pact, sealing by this the crime committed; and how he had been stricken with compunction thereafter and reunited to the faith through the Mother of Christ, who had restored the written charter to him. The charter is displayed; he asks that it be read to all. It is read; after the reading, the deeds are revealed.
[16] At once the praise the people sing touches the heavens. And the Bishop himself, pious precentor of this song, with the Bishop praising the mercy of God, thus speaks: "Hear, all of you, and come see what the Lord has done — He has done great things, which He knows; the Mighty One has done great things, and has restored even the weary soul — indeed, He has given life to the one whom fierce death had struck down. Hence exult and sing praise to the Lord God; prove how He does not will the death of the sinner. For, recalling him, He moves and cherishes him with His accustomed mercy, and gives a pious companion to the Saints and to the life of blessedness. Seeing these things, marveling at them, glorify Him; magnify such gifts, such loving heart. Behold, see how this penitent now shines; consider the power of fruitful tears. For by tears, the swelling and wounds are healed in souls; hearts washed from crime are cherished by their flow; by this medicine, everything is relieved and restored; the diseased, the filthy, the swollen, the ghastly — thus are they abolished; and the punishment of the Avenger and the wrath of the Judge are escaped. Which true compassion and remission will follow; merited sorrow and destruction are removed by tears; through groans and tears, a return above the stars is merited. Therefore it does not suffice to wonder and to venerate — it cannot be told, cannot be equaled in praises — what wisdom, what patience belongs to the Almighty, what compassion, what love belongs to the Merciful One toward sinners and those enslaved by crimes. But now I perceive the traces of former signs. For Moses, the sacred lawgiver and mediator between the offending people and the commanding Lord, while he abstained from food and from all things for forty days and devoted himself to prayers, well pleased the Lord — angered at the people — and merited the law a second time. By a similar example, this pious man with manly mind, in the temple of Jesus's Mother, without bodily food, completed the same number of days with weeping, that he might render propitious the One he had formerly denied, with merciful Mary also interceding."
[17] "Let us praise, venerate, and glorify the Most High, who bestows such things and who also calls back the fallen of His own accord — and His Mother, because she has restored our brother: and the kindness of Saint Mary: she who is the fount of light, she who is the bridge to the courts of light, she who cherishes the afflicted, those overcome by the tempest of sin. She raises the weary, pressed by the weight of vices; she is the hope of the desperate, who offers the aid of her goodness. The gate of God — she is the opposite of the gates of death, accustomed to open to the prayers of a sincere mind. All who stretch toward her and humbly seek her, she admits and sends on to the Lord and to heaven. To her we knock, to her we lift our eyes and hearts; to her we knock, humble, and beg for entrance; to her we cry with our souls, keeping watch with prayers; to her we cry, lest we remain shut out. May she strengthen us as she wills and as is fitting; may she protect us and also remember us; and may she make us, mindful of her, rejoice through ways pleasing to her in constant effort at her service. May she grant that we can, and grant that with what we can, we may also will. For whom we serve — if she should spurn us, do we not perish? Her we seek, whose praises we know; to her we flee, a flight we cannot fail to make. For indeed we see, through her, from what disaster this same brother has been snatched, and what merit he has attained beyond this. At this the Father rejoices, and that good one declares: 'Now in festive rite let the ring and the robe be at hand; and let the feet be shod; and the slaughter of the fatted calf give us a feast, to rejoice and to banquet. For to you, O Christ, this guilty brother, the sinner, had ceased to live — but now after his death he lives again. And he has been found who was held under perdition.' What then shall we say, since we are not equal to these things? But we fear punishment if we remain silent. Therefore, bending our minds to this sweet song, let us sigh for what we cannot utter."
[18] These things the sacred Bishop sang with joy, and when he finished, the Vice-dominus, who had been prostrate on the ground, arose and beseeched him that the wicked charter not be kept but burned. And as it was being burned, the praise was repeated by the people, fortified by the Eucharist, and "Kyrie eleison"; and the Canon of the Mass was also completed in order. And the Vice-dominus, refreshed by the Sacraments in the power of God, shone through the splendor of his face, in no way less than a ruddy sun. All marveled at this and reverenced it with awe. Thus with hymn-singing applause he was led to the temple of the Mother of Christ, where, after his past sorrows, though now wavering in his sick body, yet saluting those familiar and sacred places with constant, devoted prayer and hope, he endured for three days, and now no longer cared for mortal things. And when he had saluted the brethren, he dies in holiness. and had distributed what remained of his possessions to the servants of Christ and to the wretched throngs, he died blessed, without end. The places where formerly he lay prostrate, now, entombed, he blesses — where he is praised and where God works miracles, granting solace to just prayers. Amen.
CONCERNING SAINT JASIMUS THE WONDER-WORKER.
CommentaryJasimus the Wonder-Worker (Saint)
I. B.
In the Menaea of the Greeks and in the Life of the Saints by Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, the name of Saint Jasimus the Wonder-Worker appears, unknown to the Latin Calendars. Maximus declares this one thing about him: "The holy Jasimus, that is, worker of miracles, the Wonder-Worker, ended his life in peace." The Menaea add that from his mere and mute ashes, a healing grace is distributed to the sick — Miracles through relics. iasimos charis. Nothing else is yet known to us about him.