Maximus

CONCERNING ST. MAXIMUS, OR MAXIMIAN, BISHOP OF NOLA IN CAMPANIA

A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Maximus, or Maximian, Bishop, at Nola in Campania (Saint)

By the author G. H.

Section I. The sacred veneration of St. Maximus.

[1] Nola, a city of Campania twelve miles distant from Naples, still renowned for many vestiges of its ancient nobility and greatness, St. Maximus, Bishop of Nola numbers among its ancient Prelates St. Maximus, or Maximian, to whose memory several days in the calendars of various churches are dedicated. For on January 15 the Roman Martyrology has the following: "At Nola in Campania, of St. Maximus the Bishop." He is venerated on January 15, Galesini adds, "and Confessor." Some Martyrologies call him Maximian. Ghinius, in his Birthdays of the Holy Canons, adorns him on the same day with this encomium: "At Nola in Campania, of St. Maximus the Bishop: who, while he labored in the Gospel, suffered many things under the idolaters; and when the persecution was growing severe, already weighed down by old age, thinking he could not endure the punishments,

he sought the glades of the forests; and while he was wandering through them, afflicted by hunger, worn by frost, he fell to the ground half dead; but by God's providence he was found by St. Felix the Priest, and somewhat revived by a grape divinely provided, and lifted onto his shoulders, was further restored to health in the home of a widow, and at last yielded up his spirit in peace." We treated of St. Felix on January 14. On the following day St. Maximus was annexed, whose feast day was perhaps unknown.

[2] We had at first, as we noted in the Acts of St. Felix, decided to treat of him on that same January 15: but afterward, having learned of the tradition of the Church of Nola venerating his birthday on February 7, we preferred to defer it to this day, on which Ferrarius also inscribed the same in the General Catalogue of Saints in these words: "At Nola in Campania, of St. Maximus the Bishop." He composes a longer encomium in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy, and adds that he flew to his heavenly fatherland on the seventh day before the Ides of February. The Church of Benevento, on February 7 and 8: being impeded on February 7 by the Double office of St. Hermold the Martyr, celebrates on the following day, that is, February 8, St. Maximus, Bishop of Nola, with a semidouble rite, as Marius de Vipera reports in his Catalogue of Saints of the Church of Benevento, and asserts that the sacred ashes are preserved in the church of Benevento under the high altar, ancient relics at Benevento, and that an inscription carved in marble there indicates this. But since the monuments have perished from the devastations of the city of Benevento, no record survives of how they were brought there: it is believed that they were carried away through the piety of the Princes of Benevento. He appends the remaining encomium transcribed from Ferrarius.

[3] The Acts of St. Maximus would need to be drawn from the Life of St. Felix the Priest, expressed by St. Paulinus in various birthday poems, had not the same Life been compiled in prose by St. Gregory of Tours, The Acts are given from the Life of St. Felix the Venerable Bede, and Marcellus, Priest of Nola, each of whose accounts we gave in triplicate on January 14, and here we excerpt what pertains to St. Maximus. We have received at Naples from our colleague Antonio Beatillo a Life of St. Maximus composed in Italian by Andrea Ferrario, but, as the author states in his preface, drawn from the Life of St. Felix. Omitting that, therefore, we give a miracle sent by the same Beatillo, and a miracle from a manuscript, from an old manuscript Breviary of the Church of Nola, customarily read for the lessons at Matins on the feast of St. Maximus. That manuscript Breviary is preserved in the Nola college of the Society of Jesus.

[4] The following also treat of the same St. Maximus, or Maximian: in the Martyrologies on January 14, the published Bede, reporting that St. Felix was distinguished with the honor of the priesthood by Maximian, Bishop of the city of Nola; his commemoration in other Martyrologists and in the Roman Breviary; Notker and Maurolycus, who also commemorate the story of St. Maximus half dead in the wilderness and revived by St. Felix, all of which Ado joins together. He is also treated in the Roman Breviary in the proper Lesson on St. Felix, and is called Maximian. Both Ferrarii and Vipera attribute that persecution to Diocletian and Maximian: Paulinus and the remaining ancient authors are silent.

Section II. An epitome of the Life, from book 1 of St. Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 104.

[5] Concerning Felix of Nola, a Martyr, because the history of his passion is not readily at hand, it is a pleasure to insert a few things from what Blessed Paulinus wrote in verse, for this reading. St. Maximus ordains St. Felix a Priest, For he, having been endowed with the honor of the priesthood by Maximus, Pontiff of the aforesaid city, was shown to be of such great wisdom and learning, not only to Christians but also

[11] he is found nearly lifeless, When Blessed Felix the Confessor arrived at the place in the desert to which the Bishop had withdrawn, he found him drawing feeble sighs with a faint breath. And indeed he rejoiced that he had found him alive; but he was greatly saddened that he saw the one he found to be near death. And so he embraced and kissed the Father, and began to try whether perhaps by the frequent breath of his mouth and the warmth of his body he might bring some heat to his frozen limbs. But when, laboring for a long time, he could stir no vital sense in his mind or body either by shouting or by touching, and could find neither fire nor food nearby with which to revive him, stiff and wasting away; at last, having found a salutary plan, he bent his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, humbly beseeching Him to help him from heaven so that he might be able to fulfill the ministry of devotion which he had been commanded to carry out toward his Father. he is revived by a grape divinely provided, Without delay, his prayer was heard: he saw a grape hanging in the nearby brambles, and he recognized it as the gift of Him who, as Creator of all natures and Author of all things, both brought forth water from the dry rock and when He willed converted it into wine. Greatly gladdened by this gift of Divine mercy, he took the cluster and brought it to the mouth of the dying Bishop. But since the latter, with teeth clenched like one dead, lacking all sense of both heart and soul, knew not at all how to receive the taste offered to him, at last the holy Priest Felix, by the happy wrestling of his hands, opened his parched lips, and thus, having crushed the grape, poured as much healing juice as he could into his mouth. Upon tasting it, the Father immediately recovered sense of both soul and body; then his eyes were opened, and his tongue, which had been stuck to his dry throat, was loosed for speaking.

[12] previously taught by Christ of his coming, And when, fully reviving, he recognized that it was Felix who had come to seek him, he embraced him with paternal affection and complained that he had come so late, saying: "Where have you lingered so long, my son? For the Lord had long since promised me that you would come to me. You see, however, that although, overcome by the frailty of the body, I yielded for a time, I nevertheless preserved the solid constancy of a faithful soul, as the condition of this place to which I withdrew also indicates. For I could indeed have entered some village or another city where I would be safe from enemies, if faith had been cheap to me and this life had been dear. But now, declining all human refuges and fleeing to the mountain wilds, I committed myself solely to Divine grace and protection, so that He Himself might, by whatever manner or order He wished, either preserve me in this life or transfer me to the next. Nor indeed did the hope which I had in God deceive me, as your arrival manifestly proves, through which I have been recalled from the very threshold, so to speak, of death to life. Wherefore, my son, hasten to complete the work of devotion you have begun, and make haste to carry me home, placed upon your shoulders."

[13] he is carried home, With these words spoken, Felix very swiftly carried out what was commanded, and bearing the Bishop back on his shoulders, brought him to his own home, which a single old woman kept. So greatly had the venerable Bishop been estranged from the things of the world that from all the household crowd and the sum of his wealth, one old woman alone remained to him. Felix therefore knocked at the doors, roused her, and to her as she rose and opened the door he gave and commended the Bishop. Then the Bishop, he gives thanks to Saint Felix. for the service of devotion rendered to him, returned to Blessed Felix the due expression of thanks, and placing his right hand upon his head, bestowed upon him his paternal blessing.

Section IV. Another account of his Life by Marcellus the Priest in the Acts of Saint Felix.

By Marcellus the Priest.

[14] In the first years of his age, Blessed Felix received the office of Lector, In the persecution the Church is entrusted to Saint Felix; he flees, then he was allotted the grade of Exorcist with higher dignity, so that he who had already grown in faith might advance gradually in ordination. But while, established in that grade, he displayed very many signs of virtue in Christ, he arrived, with his service leading the way, at the worthy priesthood. And that a double crown of grace might encircle his most sacred head, a persecution of the Christian law brought this about. Armed with the fury of impiety, it disturbed the rights of piety and judged the faithful as perfidious and the holy as sacrilegious; and to exercise the hatreds of insane fury against the just, it destroyed the innocent with the lot of the guilty. At nearly the same time, Bishop Maximus governed the city of Nola with holy laws, who comforted the people of his Church now with the devotion of his mind, now with the solace of his speech; and consoling the great old age of his years with the staff of Saint Felix, embracing him with paternal affection as his heir, withdrawing out of fear of the persecution, he substituted him by the silent arrangement of his counsel; and without the knowledge of Blessed Felix, he departed for the mountain wilds. The venerable Confessor, seeking him out of compassion for the abandoned flock, around the precincts of the Church — the old man having fled — fulfilled the solicitude of a good Pastor. While he persisted in these most pious works, the pagan mob, incited by the devil, seized him, in solitude amidst prayers and fastening iron chains on both his holy neck and his hands, they shut up the free light of faith in the injurious darkness of the prison...

[15] Meanwhile Blessed Maximus, in the mountain solitude to which he had come by fleeing from the hands of the executioners, was leading a life of suffering in afflictions — bound not by the hard iron of chains, but tortured solely by his longing for the flock he had left behind; he is exhausted by hunger and cold, and now he endured the desolate fasting of hunger, now the chill of old age and cold. Continuing in sleepless prayer through the hours of night and day, prostrate in prayer among the rough mountains, he sought consolation for his tribulation with tearful supplication. A stronger pain of heart had driven out the pain of his limbs. But although the solid constancy in Christ strengthened the mind of the most faithful old man, nevertheless the weak frailty of the flesh, worn out by cold and hunger, by Saint Felix for his consolation was leaving its vital substance, with the bodily frame giving way.

[16] The Heavenly Father, moved by this compassion, did not suffer the life of His Pontiff to pass away in the obscure harshness of the mountains — although He could have sustained him, as He did Elijah, by the service of birds, He who also nourished the Prophet with spiritual food amid the ministering mouths of lions. Therefore God, looking upon His Priest and Confessor with serene countenance, did not allow the old man to waste away in solitude; but, so that He might visit him with a worthy companion of consolation, by an Angel He freed Blessed Felix from the custody of the prison, through whom He could recall the proven Pastor in faith to the astonished flock, and placing the holy weight as a burden upon his shoulders, bring him back to the precincts of his own Church. But in the nearly silent night the Angel came, and among the afflicted whom the tight bonds of custody had constrained, he looked upon Felix alone, whom the cause of piety had made a prisoner. Then, with the Angel speaking to him, the pain of sorrow departed from him, and the withered darkness of the prison together with its guards shone with sudden light; and though disturbed by so great a messenger, yet with faithful ear he caught the words of the Angelic power. But at first, believing everything to be happening in dreams, he replied that he could not follow, being held back by a chain, led out of prison, because he was held by both the prison's lock and the terrors of the guard. The divine voice, rebuking his delay, dissolved the bonds of the chains, and while the guard slept, the Angelic power kept watch for the aid of Blessed Felix. By whose doing, free opportunity was given to the fugitive, nor could he be held by the lock, since Christ stood as his door. A way was made through those very guards by whom access is usually denied to prisoners. For Christ Himself freed the footsteps of His servant Felix from the iron of chains — He who freed His Apostle Peter from prison to snatch from Herod his bloody prey. When the Angel departed, the blessed Confessor of Christ, keeping his commands, arrived at the mountain wilds and the dwelling places of the exhausted old man, though by an unknown road, he is found half-dead, yet with the Lord guiding him. He found him among the last gasps of life, pressing his soul forth with failing breaths. When Blessed Felix recognized the limbs of his dear parent, kissing the well-known features, lying upon the breast of the old man, he sought to recall warmth to his frozen limbs and the ardor of faith by his loving embraces. But neither sense remained in his tepid body, nor did his pulse move. Lying like one dead, with a slight breath he retained a trace of hidden life on the very threshold of existence.

[17] When the servant of God, Felix, beheld his mouth failing from hunger, he groaned in sadness, because he had neither anything with which to warm the freezing man nor any means in the desert for restoring the old man. he is refreshed by a grape divinely offered, While he was thinking on these things at that hour, Christ set food before him, for He allowed a grape to hang over the head of the just man from thorny brambles in the middle of winter. Blessed Felix gathered it with swift devotion. He squeezed its liquid over the frozen mouth of the old man, and with the dripping must he diffused the juice of life upon the dying lips. Refreshed at once by this pleasant and heavenly remedy, he opened his eyes — nearly closed by death — to the door of salvation. Soon a living voice returned, sounding through the familiar throat, and rejoicing in mutual embrace, the old man, previously informed of his coming, rebuking Blessed Felix for his tardiness, gave back these words: "Tell me, Felix, chief pledge of grace and faithful remedy in Christ, what delay held you back from coming? The Lord announced long ago that you would come to me. For if I departed for a time in frail body, I nevertheless endured with firm heart, as the place teaches, and the conquered frailty of my limbs, in which you see me drawing out the last of life. Therefore complete the work entrusted to you by God, and placing me upon the shoulders of your devotion, carry me, dear son, borne along to the common dwelling of the sheepfold." he is at last carried upon his shoulders. Blessed Felix, rejoicing at so great a gift, placing the dear burden upon his devoted shoulders, was made so much lighter that he seemed rather to be carried than to carry, whose feet devotion had made swift to hasten. He soon brought him to the roof of his own cell, which a single old woman kept, commending the merit of so great a Priest, and for all the crowd of servants or pomp of possessions, she alone sufficed for the servant of Christ. Blessed Felix, knocking at the doors and rousing her, commends the dear pledge of his burden under the adjuration of Christ, that she might preserve so great a gem of faith unharmed at the Lord's judgment.

Section V. A miracle performed by Saint Maximus, from the manuscript Breviary of Nola.

[18] When the wondrous fragrance of the miracles of the most holy Maximus was spreading most sweetly throughout almost the entire world, the relics of Saint Maximus, famous for miracles, and there was no place or province that did not rejoice in his aid, and no one was afflicted by danger, no one shaken by illness, who did not find the remedy of his benefaction, at length at some point the fragrance of his fame reached the knowledge of the lover of the Divine law, Damasus, Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman Church are visited by Pope Saint Damasus, and universal Pope of the Church, at the time when he was suffering from a great bodily illness and was greatly oppressed by the infamy of his impious rivals. For, as is read in the Pontifical Book, afflicted by illness which Saint Jerome composed for the same Pope, while this Damasus was about to be ordained to the most sacred See of Blessed Peter, and infamy, "under contention with a certain Ursicinus, a council of Bishops having been held, they established Damasus at Rome, and ordained Ursicinus as Bishop of Naples." And because, as it is written, "the evil hate the good," Micah 3:2 the impious rivals, by the fame of their impiety, attempted to defame the aforesaid Damasus with the charge of adultery. When therefore he was placed in such affliction and was wearied by the burden of his infirmity, having found a certain occasion for traveling as a solace for his vindication, he took care to hasten humbly to Nola, to the most blessed Maximus the Confessor. And entering his temple, falling prostrate before the tomb where his most sacred body was seen to rest, he prayed to the Lord, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, God, who deigned to redeem the human race with Your precious blood, and wonderfully freed the illustrious Susanna from false reproach, help me and have mercy on me, and through the merits of Your most holy servant Maximus, destroy the snares of death and shatter the nets of my adversaries, who attempt to defame the most sacred Chair of Your beloved Apostle Peter. For You are the Lord, the maker and knower of secrets, You the searcher of minds and hearts, and is freed by his patronage. You raise up all who fall and lift up all who are cast down; You command to fight and cause to conquer, and after lamentation and weeping You pour in the rain of help; also through the merits of Your holy Confessor Maximus ... and by confessing or conferring advantage." This Pope, consulting as a supreme and, as it were, heavenly oracle, obtained what he had asked concerning his health; and he excellently overcame what he had wished concerning his adversaries, and was made the victor. For indeed, a synod having been held in the city of Rome by forty-four Bishops, he was vindicated. They condemned Concordius and Callistus and cast them out of the holy Church. Moreover, lest these things seem impossible to anyone, they are attested by the verses composed by the same Pope, which were inscribed in mosaic work in the basilica and church of Saint Felix, where the body of Saint Maximus lay, and which he himself took care to prepare or to have sung for the sake of his health from illness and the purgation of the false charge:

"In body, mind, and soul, likewise in name, O Great One, Associated in the triumphs of Christ among the number of the Saints, You who grant all things to those who come to you with zeal, Nor do you suffer any traveler to depart in sadness. Under your guidance, saved, I also broke the bonds of death, My enemies destroyed, who had spoken false things. By these verses Damasus, a suppliant, repays his vows to you."