Theodosius

ON ST. THEODOSIUS, BISHOP OF VAISON IN GAUL,

ABOUT THE YEAR OF CHRIST 554.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Theodosius, Bishop of Vaison in Gaul (St.)

By J. B.

[1] Vaison, formerly a city of the Vocontii, is now in the Comtat Venaissin, under the dominion of the Roman Pontiff, situated on a hill, fourteen leagues distant from its metropolis Avignon, as Claude Robert reports in Gallia Christiana. Theodosius, Bishop of Vaison Theodosius was Bishop here in the sixth century of the Christian era, the predecessor of St. Quinidius, about whom we shall treat on the 15th of February. His dates can be deduced as follows. Alethius, Bishop of Vaison, was present at the Fourth Council of Orleans, held in the year of Christ 541. when did he live? At the Fifth Council of Arles, in the forty-third year of King Childebert, the year of Christ 553, St. Quinidius subscribed as follows: "Quinidius, in the name of Christ, Archdeacon, sent by my Lord Theodosius, subscribed." Since, however, Theodosius, now burdened by old age and perhaps illness, unable to bear the burden of the episcopate, procured the same Quinidius to be joined to him as Coadjutor, or designated him as future successor, with the consent of King Childebert, who died in the year 558, one may conjecture that Theodosius himself died about the year 554 or 555.

[2] Andrew Saussay lists him among the Saints in the supplement of the Gallican Martyrology -- whether following the Breviary of Vaison, which we have not seen, or other records, I do not know. He placed him under the 14th of February, listed among the Saints on February 14 I believe in order to prefix the mention of the holy predecessor to the commemoration of the holy successor. He adorns him with this eulogy: "At Vaison of the Vocontii, St. Theodosius, Bishop and Confessor, who, full of the grace of God, governed that Church; and being forewarned by divine prescience of his impending death, now weighed down by old age, by a supreme inspiration he designated as his successor St. Quinidius, endowed with Apostolic charisms and radiant with every grace. When he saw his pious wishes confirmed by the consent of the Clergy, the desire of the people, the approval of the Primate of Arles, and the assent of King Childebert, like another Elijah, having left to this new Elisha his pastoral mantle with a double portion of his spirit, rejoicing over his selection and advancement and the future benefit of the flock having obtained so great a Pastor by his care, and finally over having completed his ministry according to the good pleasure of God, secure of his reward, having laid aside the burden of the flesh, he sent his spirit, to be glorified, to the ethereal seats." So writes Saussay, who prettily excuses what might seem contrary to ecclesiastical canons concerning the designation of a successor, when he writes that Theodosius was made divinely prescient of his impending departure and procured this by a supreme inspiration.

[3] This last point is indeed not expressly stated in the Life of St. Quinidius, but other things are said about his virtues which attest the public opinion of his holiness, so that one may also conjecture that his memorial was consecrated at the altars, since he is placed on the same level as Quinidius. Thus in chapter 2, number 5, the following is found: "At that time the venerable and God-beloved Bishop Theodosius governed the Church of Vaison. He adopts St. Quinidius as his Coadjutor The man of God, Quinidius, stood beside him in the most obedient manner... As age advanced and times succeeded one another, the man of the Lord, Theodosius, weighed down by old age, with the consent of the people and likewise of the Clergy, anxious for the custody of the flock of God, endeavored to leave the holy man as his successor. The common benefit of all in the holy man, the common need, had become the common wish of all. To the divine will the mind of the Bishop, the Clergy, and the people had submitted itself. That Quinidius was most worthy of the episcopate, that Quinidius alone was the one by whom Saint could succeed Saint -- with public approval the voice of the people's suffrage was made one. The neighboring cities consented; the Bishop of Arles also yielded to the wishes of the people; no one from the Clergy, no one from the laity contradicted."

[4] The Bishop of Vaison was a suffragan of the Archbishop of Arles, who is mentioned here and whom Saussay above calls the Primate; he is now subject to the Bishop of Avignon. The Archbishop of Arles at that time was Sapaudus, or Sabaudus. But let us recite the remaining information about St. Theodosius from the Life of St. Quinidius. Thus number 6 has: "The decision of Bishop Theodosius is confirmed; also of the King the wish and petition of the people is directed with pious solicitude to King Childebert, who was ruling the nation of the Franks... The ambassadors return swiftly and eagerly, bringing festive joy to their city. The Pontiff himself also is joyful, now leaving under the hope of a good Pastor the sheep committed to him; he approaches his last day, about to receive eternal rewards. he dies piously He sleeps in the Lord; his poor body is enclosed in a tomb; the fruit and profit of his good work shines in Quinidius. Among other merits of the grace of God in Theodosius, this also is rewarded: that out of love for his flock he chose Quinidius as Pastor. Although he died in body, in holiness equal to his successor since he left behind a blessed heir in whom the image of his own life shone forth, I would say he scarcely died at all. Who could separate the merits of these two? Who would not marvel at the temperance of the old man's rule, the ardor of faith and obedience of the younger? Who would not embrace the charity of the one and the humility of the other? I see Elijah and Elisha, Prophets of God, flourishing with diverse gifts of grace: Elijah seeking heaven, leaving to Elisha the grace of his gift. So altogether Theodosius and Quinidius, illustrious with the gifts of God, the one preceded the other, seeking the glory of Christ; the one sent his gift ahead, the other merited it by remaining."

[5] Whether, however, Theodosius is honored with the celebration of sacred rites, and on what day, is not established for us, since we have not seen the records of the Church of Vaison. Following the authority of the most eminent writer and moved by the things said about him in the Life of his successor, we have inscribed his name here.

[6] It seems worthwhile to append to the memory of the Bishop of Vaison the epitaph of the Senator Pantagathus, recently discovered at Vaison among the ruins of an ancient church; of the Senator Pantagathus which the Most Reverend Bishop of Vaison communicated to our colleague Jean Ferrand, who sent it from there to us at Chambery on August 20 in the year 1653. It may be debated whether he ought not to be inscribed in the list of Saints, especially on account of this verse of the epitaph:

(doubtful whether a Saint) "Whom the worshippers of Christ thus celebrate after he lies dead in his fate."

But this can perhaps be understood of the honor of the tomb with which the Christians celebrated him. I confess, however, that at first glance it seemed otherwise to us -- namely, that heavenly honors were held to be his. Perhaps there will be someone who will bring to light more certain facts about him. It is not incredible that he lived in the age of St. Theodosius, in which another Pantagathus also presided over the Church of Vienne, who is venerated on the 17th of April. Whether the Pantagathus "vir inlustris" who is found to have subscribed along with others after the Bishops to the Second Synod of Arles is this Senator of Vaison or the same Bishop of Vienne, I would not rashly conjecture. The latter, at least, held secular dignities before his episcopate, as is evident from his epitaph in volume 1 of the Frenchmen of Chesne, where on page 515 the following is said about him: an epitaph recently found at Vaison

"Whose life was exalted in a twofold honor, Distinguished by the fasces, powerful in religion. By the decision of Kings he assumed the belt of the Quaestorship," etc.

But the epitaph of Pantagathus of Vaison reads as follows:

"Illustrious in titles and not unequal in merits to his forebears, Pantagathus, when he was leaving the fragile use of life, Preferred to commit his body here to his own earth Rather than to have sought a place by prayers. If great repose Is to be sought from the Patrons, the Martyrs, behold the most holy Vincent with his companions and his equals attends These entrances and guards the house and protects the mistress, Providing light from the true light against the darkness. If perchance you ask what service he performed, And what good he offered, set in the light above, Whom the worshippers of Christ thus celebrate after he lies dead in his fate, You will find that he gave laws and sanctioned the most just; For called guardian and ruler of his country by the country's judgment, He governed because the citizens were most willing..."

[1] Sorrento, a celebrated city of the Kingdom of Naples and adorned with an archiepiscopal throne, venerates, as we have said elsewhere, five patron Saints: of the Bishops, four -- Valerius on the 16th of January, Athanasius on the 26th, Baculus on the 29th of the same month, and Renatus on the 12th of November; and of the Abbots, one -- Antoninus on the 14th of February. Concerning him the following is read in the Roman Martyrology: St. Antoninus, patron of Sorrento "At Sorrento, of St. Antoninus, Abbot, who, withdrawing from the monastery of Monte Cassino after it had been devastated by the Lombards, retired to the solitude of the same city and there, celebrated for his holiness, fell asleep in the Lord. His body shines with many daily miracles, venerated on February 14 and especially in the freeing of the possessed." The same passage was transcribed into their monastic Martyrologies by Arnold Wion, Hugh Menard, and Benedict Dorgani. But the matters pertaining to his date and the monastery in which he first embraced the monastic life will be discussed below. Antonio Caracciolus cites certain old Lombardic Martyrologies written by hand, and one printed at Florence in the year 1486 by the efforts of Antonio Vespucci, a Canon, in which the following is found: "On the Ides of February, St. Antoninus, Confessor." elsewhere the 13th The rest, inscribed by Cardinal Baronius in the tables of the Martyrology under the following day, followed authors who were not altogether reliable in all matters, whom we shall soon cite.

[2] These are indeed contradicted by the Life of St. Antoninus, written some centuries ago by an anonymous author and published from ancient copies by the same Caracciolus, who illuminated it with learned annotations, from which we shall extract some items. We have, moreover, received the same manuscript Life at Naples from our colleague Antonio Beatillo some time ago. The author's name is not stated in it. His Life written by an anonymous author Whether or not it can be discovered elsewhere, we do not know, since the same Caracciolus reports that so many ancient records of the city of Sorrento have perished that men from that city or region, far more illustrious than that Biographer, now lie entirely in obscurity. This deplorable calamity of ancient codices was produced by the many and great devastations and plunderings inflicted upon the Campanians and Picentines by the Barbarians -- that is, by the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Saracens, Normans, and finally by the impious Turks, who in the fifty-eighth year of the preceding century stripped the city of its citizens and fortunes and all but razed it to the ground. That the writer was, however, from Sorrento may be conjectured, from Sorrento not only because in chapter 7, number 33, he beseeches St. Antoninus to remember his writer and to protect this city with the help of his intercession, but especially from what the same writer says in chapter 1, number 3: "This our Patron, St. Antoninus, is said to have come to these parts." And in the prologue, number 2: "When he had come to these parts."

[3] The antiquity of the writer is proved by the following: he writes in chapter 1, number 5, that in the chapel of St. Michael, which St. Antoninus had once built together with St. Catellus, Bishop of Stabia, of ancient date "praise is offered daily to the Lord, the author of all good things, and to Blessed Michael the Archangel, the inhabitant of that place... People flock from near and far, and fulfilling vows made on account of various tribulations, they return home cheerful, having received consolation." But that frequent pilgrimage ceased long ago. That chapel is now called St. Angelo ad Faitum; but it has been ascertained that the celebrated devotion ceased some generations of men ago, says Caracciolus; and he adds that the Lombardic script in which the codices about the Life of St. Antoninus are written has been obsolete for many centuries, so that from this too the antiquity of the writer may be conjectured at about four centuries. The same anonymous writer in chapter 2, number 11, has the following: "In that very wall, now adjoined by a splendid oratory, the body of Blessed Antoninus is cherished." But no citizen of Sorrento, as Caracciolus says, however advanced in age, can remember having seen the church of Agrippinus and the oratory once enclosed in it or adjoined to it, built in the name of St. Antoninus, nor having heard from their ancestors who in their own time had seen it; so great a span of time has passed since that oratory was adjoined to the church of Agrippinus.

[4] To this Life Caracciolus appends -- and we following him -- the Ancient Lectionary of the Church of Sorrento, that is, the Life of the same St. Antoninus distributed through the Lessons of the ancient Ecclesiastical office. Other writings about him Another Legend of St. Antoninus exists, published at Naples in the year 1635, by Brother Antonio de Ebulo de Porta of the Order of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance, as he himself relates at the end of the last chapter, although he calls himself Antoninus there, but in the dedicatory letter to Marianus Branzia, Abbot of St. Antoninus at Sorrento, he is called Antonio, as others also call him. He used the old Life which we give; but he so interpolated that Life with many Latinisms that he frequently incurs the censure of the most learned Caracciolus -- from which neither David Romaeus Philocasius, who in the year 1577, in a style not inelegant, described the deeds of the five patron and guardian Saints of the city of Sorrento, is entirely immune; nor Paul Regio, Bishop of Vico in the province of Sorrento, who in the year 1593 published two volumes in Italian on the Saints of the Kingdom of Naples, in the second of which, page 611, the Life of St. Antoninus is also reviewed. Philip Ferrarius extracted a brief epitome from Romaeus in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. The same Life was more solidly composed in Italian in the year 1626 by Michael Laccheus of Campania, who confesses that he used the commentaries of Romaeus, Regio, and Caracciolus, and the ancient Lessons of the Church of Sorrento.

[5] "To treat of the homeland or parentage of St. Antoninus," says the anonymous author in the Prologue, "since we have no knowledge of it, we consider not necessary." But the constant and by no means contemptible tradition is Born in Campania among the Picentines that he was a citizen of the city of Campania of the Picentines. On this matter Romaeus writes: "Campania is a town in the territory of the Picentines near the river Silarus, which is said to be thirty miles from Sorrento. In recent years Paul III, Supreme Pontiff, enrolled it in the number of cities. Here it has been celebrated by constant report and the conversation of all that Antoninus was born of an honorable station; his house is said to stand and to remain outside the town, having been made into a religious site and consecrated to the same Divine Antoninus; indeed, that field which is around the temple is today the territory of St. Antoninus. The Cacciotti say he was of their lineage." All of this is approved by Caracciolus, the Catellus family except that he calls them Cacciutti, in Latin Catelli, from whose stock Antoninus is reported to have sprung. "And so to the people of Campania," says the same author, "as citizens of Blessed Antoninus, the more exact knowledge of their fellow townsman must rightly be granted, which was not found in this foreign writer." As to the family from which he was born, that it was noble is indicated by the first Lesson of the sacred office in these words: "How noble the family from which our Antoninus proceeded, and from how honorable parents he was born," etc. And then: "An infant of excellent character, born of honorable parents," etc. noble Laccheus asserts that he was born of the noble Catelli family, which flourished until these times in Campania, recently extinct a city of the Principato Citra, as they call it, and was recently extinguished by the death of a certain young man, likewise called Antoninus. Caracciolus conjectures that St. Catellus, Bishop of Stabia, to whom Antoninus fled when he was expelled from his monastery by a hostile incursion, was his kinsman or at least his clansman.

Section II. The date of St. Antoninus.

[6] Concerning the date of St. Antoninus, the same Caracciolus reasons as follows: "Not long after the death of Blessed Antoninus, Sicardus, Prince of Benevento, he died shortly before Sorrento was besieged by Sicardus having subjugated the rest of the territories to his dominion, invaded the land of the people of Sorrento with the same intention." For so the anonymous author writes in chapter 3, number 12. Sichardus, or Sicardus, succeeded his father Sico in the year 832 and held the principate to nearly the end of the year 839, as we said on the 9th of February in the Life of St. Sabinus, Bishop of Canusium, section 2, number 68. If, moreover, he besieged Sorrento "not long after the death of Blessed Antoninus," yet after the year of Christ 832, it follows that the holy man died perhaps about 830, or not long before; under whose father Sico he had come to Stabia so that he came to Stabia to St. Catellus at the time when the bestial savagery of the Lombards, as is said in chapter 1, number 3, devastated the province of Campania with hostile sword and fire, under the Duke Sico, or Sigo, the father of Sichardus, who had been substituted for Grimoaldus, Prince of Benevento, after his assassination in the year 818. For it is manifest that certain recent writers who (as Caracciolus says in Annotation 3) wrote about the Life of this Saint, with great consensus but with absolutely no consideration of Chronology, which is the light of history, not under Zoto agreed upon a plainly absurd and self-contradictory opinion and asserted that Blessed Antoninus emigrated to Stabia at the time when Zoto, Duke of the Lombards, plundered and devastated the monastery of Monte Cassino. Caracciolus himself refutes this opinion at length.

[7] The matter can be briefly summarized thus: Zoto, or Zotto, the first Duke of Benevento, a cruel and impious man, died about the year of Christ 590, having devastated Cassino some time before. But let us grant that this was done in the last year of his life: who died in the year 590 if St. Antoninus died, as they claim, in the year 625 or 630, there will nevertheless be 202 years from his death to the beginning of Sichardus's reign. How then can what was done under Sichardus be said to have occurred "not long after the death of Blessed Antoninus"? 240 years before Sicardus Would anyone consider a period of 200 years to be short or "not much time"? Nor does Antonio a Porta sufficiently fill that immense gap when he writes in chapter 8 that Sorrento was besieged by Romualdus, Prince of Benevento, against the testimony of all ancient codices, which consistently retain Sichardus. For if he speaks of Romualdus I, in whose place Romualdus is wrongly imagined to have besieged Sorrento he succeeded his father Grimoaldus upon his death in the year 671 or 672 and held the principate for 16 years, having also governed it previously for 9 years in the name of his father who was reigning in Lombardy. From the last year of Zoto, therefore, the year of Christ 590, to the first year of Romualdus, the year of Christ 671, 81 years intervened, which do not seem aptly understood under the designation "not long." The interval of time will be even greater if it is understood of Romualdus II, the ninth Duke, who governed that province after the year 700. Antonio a Porta was the first to devise the opinion that St. Antoninus fled on account of Zoto's incursion; he was followed by Romaeus, Regio, Ferrarius, and Baronius himself. Laccheus recalls it to the times of Sico.

[8] Caracciolus explains the matter more fully in Annotation 3 with these words: "Since it is now sufficiently established [Antoninus came to Stabia in the year 818, when the Neapolitans were harassed by Sico in war] that Antoninus departed for heaven not long before Prince Sichardus, we are therefore compelled to place him about the year of Salvation 800. And so we do not hesitate to say that the blessed man withdrew to Stabia at the time when Sico, Prince of Benevento, the father of Sicardus, having ravaged Campania far and wide, also wearied Naples with a long siege, as Herempert in his fuller history and Leo of Ostia, Book 1, chapter 19, report. Since this occurred during the consulship and duchy of Bonus of Naples, as is established from an epitaph inscribed on stone -- and this Bonus held the Duchy for only a year and a half and died on the 5th of the Ides of January in the year of Christ 819, which is easily derived from the Indiction 12 that is read there -- it will necessarily follow that the said disaster inflicted by Sico and the withdrawal of Blessed Antoninus to Stabia must be fixed to the year of Christ 818. And this agrees well with the first year of Sico, whom the Annals of the Franks, written by an author of that time, report to have been made Prince of Benevento in that year, and not in the year 817, as Leo of Ostia, Book 1, chapter 19, proposed. Blessed Antoninus was already an old man at that time. For so an ancient painting of his image clearly indicates, so that it is no wonder he did not prolong his life beyond twelve years." So writes Caracciolus. It is indeed clear from Herempert, or Erchempert, that the war was initiated by Sico against the Neapolitans at the very beginning of his principate; the most learned Camillus Peregrinus, however, judges the death of Bonus, Consul and Duke, to have occurred in the year 834, in which year the Indiction 12 was equally current as in 819. Caracciolus nevertheless rightly establishes that St. Antoninus appears to have come to Stabia about the year 818; for in that year the war began, in which, as the same Erchempert says, the citizens and allies of Naples were oppressed most harshly by the father and son for sixteen continuous years. afterward by Sicardus Afterward, when the siege of Sorrento was lifted by the patronage of St. Antoninus, as were the people of Sorrento peace was granted for five years. "We promise, I, the most glorious Lord Sicardus, Prince of the Lombard nation" (so says Sicardus himself in his Capitulary, in the already cited Camillus) "to you, John, Bishop-elect of the holy Church of Naples, and Andrew, Master of the Soldiers, and to the people subject to you of the Duchy of Naples, and of Sorrento and Amalfi, and of the other castles and places in which you hold dominion by land and sea, to give you true peace and our favor from this fourth day of the month of July, in the year 836 peace was given to them, Antoninus having died not long before Indiction 13, for five full years." That was the year of Christ 836. Perhaps in the preceding year, or even the one before that, Sorrento had been besieged by him, and afterward discussions were held about granting peace -- not to that city alone but also to the rest of that Duchy.

[9] According to this standard, what we established on the 19th of January concerning the date of St. Catellus must be corrected, since we had followed Regio, Romaeus, and the Italian narrative sent from Stabia, not yet having seen the Annotations of Caracciolus nor having sufficiently carefully weighed the manuscript miracles of St. Antoninus. They established -- and we on their authority -- that Catellus was brought to Rome nor was St. Catellus, Bishop of Stabia, living around the year 605 by the command of Pope Sabinian or Boniface III and detained for a considerable time in custody. Now Sabinian held the See from the 1st of September 604 to the 11th day before the Kalends of March 605. Boniface III was substituted for him on the 15th day before the Kalends of March 606, after the See had been vacant for 11 months and 26 days; he died on the 12th of November of the same year. Boniface IV was created Pope in the following September, by whom they claim St. Catellus was finally sent back to Stabia. But during the entire time of Sabinian and Boniface III, and the first five years of Boniface IV, the Bishop of Stabia was not St. Catellus but Lawrence. For Caracciolus testifies that at Equa there survives inscribed on stone this epitaph: but Lawrence "In this tomb rests the man of blessed memory Lawrence, Bishop of the holy Church of the city of Stabia, who lived approximately 40 years. He sat in the episcopate 12 years. Deposited on the 4th day before the Kalends of March, Indiction 15, in the second year of the Emperor Heraclius Augustus." That was the year of Christ 612. He had sat therefore from the year 600 of Christ, under the Supreme Pontiffs Gregory the Great, Sabinian, Boniface III and IV. Therefore it seems more credible that St. Catellus was accused before Pope Paschal, who died on the 14th of May 824; and was sent back to Stabia by Eugene II, who was raised to the Apostolic throne four days after Paschal's death; or, he himself lived around 820 as Caracciolus and Laccheus believe, having been accused before this Pope, he may seem to have been absolved by his successor Valentine in the year 827. But since Valentine sat for only 40 days, I am uncertain whether the things narrated in the Life of St. Catellus -- about forgetting the captive prophet for some months -- sufficiently fit him.

[10] From what has been said, this too seems to be deduced with certainty: that Antoninus by no means fled from the monastery of Monte Cassino to Stabia. nor had St. Antoninus previously been a monk of Cassino Antonio a Porta was the first to devise this for the reason that he supposed it happened under the rule of Zoto. That foundation has now been undermined, and it has been shown that it occurred under Sico, in the year 818 or shortly afterward, when St. Apollinaris was successfully administering the monastery of Cassino. Nor indeed is it read that Sico harassed that district with arms, but rather Campania; and he is to be considered to have been favorable to the monks of Cassino for this reason: that Count Radelchis, who had established Sico himself as Prince after the killing of Grimoaldus, was a monk there under Abbot St. Apollinaris, as Leo of Ostia reports in Book 1, chapter 22, and in chapter 24 he relates certain donations made by the same Sico to Deusdedit, the successor of St. Apollinaris. Nor did Porta affirm with complete assurance that Antoninus had been a monk of Cassino. For in chapter 1 he writes thus: "In which the monastery of Cassino the Saint of God, Antoninus, was living the celibate life once offered to God -- as it is pious to believe -- with others who served God, and was saved by flight," etc. But what is "pious to believe"? That he led a celibate life? That is certain. That he lived in the monastery of Cassino, he says. Since this is established by no testimony, he deemed he could fabricate it by pious conjecture.

[15] What is here said about the refuge prepared at the church of St. Antoninus for the possessed is confirmed by the Roman Martyrology, from whose words, At his body demoniacs are freed cited above, it is established that his body shines with many daily miracles and especially in the freeing of the possessed. To which Baronius adds this note: "The wonderful things that occur in our age at his tomb, and which are repeated more frequently, I have received not as told by just anyone, but by the most sincere and prudent Priests who were present." Romaeus also, after relating the miracle mentioned in chapter 4, number 17, appends the following: "From this it comes about that at this time, when anyone is vexed by the ancient, wicked, and everlasting enemy, they bind him at the tomb of the divine Antoninus to the columns, bound to a column and wait for a brief time outside the door and threshold of the underground chapel; and opening the doors, they see him freed by Antoninus and delivered into liberty. Not only the people of Sorrento but all the neighboring inhabitants can be cited as witnesses of these miracles." Caracciolus also in his annotations, number 23, illustrates that custom in this way: "It is worth observing and learning about the ancient custom at this point -- that is, one practised for many centuries -- of binding the possessed before the tomb of Blessed Antoninus to the column nearest the altar and leaving them there with the doors closed, until the Saint should deign, if it pleased him, to display his heavenly power in freeing them from the demon. according to ancient custom That the same practice continued over the course of time is indicated by images painted on the wall of the underground chapel in ancient times. Histories also record that the same was practised elsewhere at the tombs and relics of the Saints... At Rome also, the possessed are bound, with salutary effect, to that column brought from Solomon's Temple to the Vatican."

[16] At Campania too, the birthplace of St. Antoninus, as Laccheus reports, many prodigies of this kind occur. "In the parish church of the Holy Savior," he says, at Campania too they are freed before his image "a pious image of Antoninus is visited at the altar of the confraternity of St. Mary of the Snows, which people from near and far frequent in crowds; very many who are daily possessed by a demon are brought to it, and having obtained their freedom, depart rejoicing; and very often, having scarcely entered the environs of the city to visit that image, they immediately escape free and unharmed."

[17] These are the benefits bestowed by the Saint on individual mortals; the following pertains to the entire city. Antonio a Porta writes about it in chapter 10, as something that had occurred in his own time. by his aid the Turks were repelled from Sorrento in the year 1534 "The Barbarian," he says, "terrified the commander of the fleet of the Grand Turk as he was attacking Tunis; for when he had dispatched two scouting triremes there, with the fleet not far away, he received them back as if driven in flight by pursuers, as though half-dead." That this occurred in the year of Christ 1534 is evident from the Supplement of Spondanus to the Annals of Baronius, who narrates that in that year Prochyta, Fondi, Terracina, and other places were disfigured by Barbarossa with fires, slaughters, and captivities, and that afterward the kingdom of Tunis was seized -- from which he was expelled the following year by the Emperor Charles V.

[18] It is also evidence that Antoninus watches over the safety of his citizens that the people of Sorrento attest, as Romaeus reports, that they narrated the following to him with the most faithful hearts when he inquired about it with curiosity. "Not long before Sorrento was captured by the Turks," he says, "there were truthful voices, both sent from a hidden place and heard from the church of the divine Antoninus, warning them to take counsel for themselves, to look to their country, and to provide for their safety -- that it would come to pass shortly, unless provision were made, that Sorrento would be captured. [in the year 1558, the citizens, neglecting a heavenly warning, were captured by the Turks on June 13, and the silver statue of St. Antoninus was plundered] This warning was neglected when it could have been heeded, and after the receipt of that most grievous disaster it was made plain. Three days later, that is, on the Ides of June 1558, the people of Sorrento were captured; the most holy images of God were cast down, the statues of the Saints overthrown, and the enemy carried off the silver image of the divine Antoninus from his most sacred shrine. Having melted it down, they turned it into money, and had necklaces, pendants, rings, and other tokens and insignia of flourishing and prosperous fortune fashioned from it."

[19] A Turk had a silver arm for sale at Constantinople, inside which were enclosed the bones of the arm of the divine Antoninus; he carried it around and showed it to all who were in the marketplaces. He could find no one to whom he might sell the silver. That silver lay unsold, the silver case with the relics of the arm wonderfully redeemed not on account of the scarcity of coins, but because all, moved by the divine Spirit, despised it as not suitable or fitting for themselves. When a certain citizen of Sorrento, who had served among the Turks and had freed himself from those troubles with money, was sent -- as I may piously say -- by the divine Spirit to meet him, he purchased it from him at no great price, and counted out a certain agreed-upon sum (unknown to us) and carried it back with him to his homeland.

[20] In previous years the people of Sorrento had contracted for a silver statue of the divine Antoninus to be made -- not solid, more than two cubits in height -- and placed in his church for 20,000 sesterces; a new statue commissioned but they had neither paid the agreed-upon price nor knew how to tell the goldsmith what the face and body of the divine Antoninus looked like. They promised, however, that in a few days, having collected the money, they would return to Naples and bring the coins with them and describe what the face of the divine Antoninus had been. The collection that was being gathered in the meantime was impeding and delaying their departure. When an unknown old man presented himself at the engraver's workshop at Naples, when the Saint appeared and paid part of the price he asked him whether he had engraved the likeness of St. Antoninus. "No," he said, "I have not seen an express image, nor has the money arrived." The old man laid out and counted the remaining 8,000 sesterces and asked that the engraver gaze at him intently as a model; and then he appeared no more. The people of Sorrento, having arranged credit and bills of exchange, brought the money with them; and they thus excused themselves, transferring all the blame to the money, which had caused the delay and tardiness. When they hoped they had proved their case, the goldsmith replied that he had been satisfied and paid by a certain old man unknown to him, and he related from the beginning how the matter had transpired. The people of Sorrento inquired of him who he had been, and with the most careful investigation along every trail, leaving no unusual paths untried, they searched out whatever they could and inquired into everything about who he might have been; but they could neither learn nor imagine anything about him, since those who had gone to the goldsmith could not have known. All believed that it had been the divine Antoninus, who always acts kindly and brings aid to his own, and whose care and zeal has never been lacking toward either the absent or the present.

[21] So writes Romaeus, who then explains the source of the funds for restoring the church of Antoninus. sailors cared for the maintenance of his church "At this time," he says, "the care of maintaining the sacred church of Antoninus in good repair falls upon the sailors, as far as their means allow. They have restored the sacred church -- apart from the bells and what we call organs -- with their own and others' money, and have had a panel painted and placed upon the altar. They do not let a day pass without sailing, except in the depths of winter, either to Naples or elsewhere; and before they reach the place to which the boat is headed, the captain brings out into the middle the box, which is also called a small chest, and collects a contribution from each of the passengers. After several months, they bring out the coins from the small chests filled with money and count them out to those to whom the care of the sacred church has been entrusted at that time."

LIFE

by an anonymous author of Sorrento, from an old manuscript and the edition of Antonio Caracciolus.

Antoninus, Abbot, at Sorrento in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 0582

By an Anonymous Author, from a manuscript and Caracciolus.

PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR

[1] The tradition of the orthodox commends to us that, for the increase of our salvation, the confirmation of faith, For the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors and the assurance of blessed hope, we should bring to light and propagate the notable deeds of holy works, or the miracles of their virtues, so that what is seen and heard may bear fruit in the harvest of the Lord, namely the Church. For these things, stored in the chamber of memory, confirm the watchful ministers of Christ in the custody of the divine Law, rouse those who sleep to carry out the precepts of God, promote the diligent, admonish the slow, increase the Catholic faith, and make known the divine glory. Hence the master of the most salutary doctrine and our Redeemer Himself, Christ Jesus, says: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven" Matthew 5:16. Such a judgment is indeed profitable for the common salvation of men and for every order of religion, inasmuch as through it human frailty is reconciled to the Divine Majesty in such a way that, while the glory of God is manifested and presented to us in the splendor of the Saints, due reverence is shown to Him by us, and His accustomed clemency is shown to us by Him; so that He who, working prodigies in His Saints, is always glorious, may be glorified by us who devoutly serve Him. We must also be associated with the communion of Saints in such a way that, while we do not doubt their magnified merits and their prayers before God -- as the signs of their virtues testify -- we render them due veneration, they render our frailty the consolation it needs; they bestow upon us the benefit of their aid, and we render them the service of our obedience. For this reason we undertake to pursue the merits of Antoninus with the pen of this writing, The Life of St. Antoninus had to be written because we judge it unworthy, useless, indeed pernicious and sacrilegious, for his notable deeds to be suppressed by silence or abolished by the envy of letters; and we give this account of our judgment: that as great a thanksgiving is rendered to God when His virtues are heard, so great a thanksgiving is denied Him when they are passed over; and as many as the examples of holy life can move to a better path when preached, so many can they, when consigned to silence, either detain in negligence or divert to a worse path -- although it is nearly the same thing to neglect as to err, just as to offend and to sin are not far apart; for to offend is not to do what you ought, and to sin is to do what you ought not; and by not doing what is commanded, you offend; by doing what is forbidden, you sin; that is, by avoiding justice you commit an offense, and by loving injustice you perpetrate sin. Therefore, if we do not offer to God the Giver the things that have been given, or what we ungratefully retain from His gifts, and if we deny by wicked parsimony the things granted to the Bestower, let us consider that we, heedlessly covetous, violently seize the same.

[2] Come then, let us take counsel for the common good, and for the praise of God and the edification of our hearers, let it be permitted me to speak what I have heard concerning the merits of this holy Father. And first, to treat of his homeland or parentage -- as we hold it to be unknown, so we deem it unnecessary. His homeland omitted For every race of men on earth arises from a like origin. For one Father of all things exists, one provides all things, before whom slave and free, noble and ignoble, rich and poor -- we are all one: since He is no respecter of persons, but an unerring judge of works. In vain, moreover, do you inquire into the quality of his lineage, when holy works attest true nobility. To no purpose do you set about investigating his condition, when you marvel at the blessed manner of his life. Superfluously do you explore the origin of his birth, when from his passing you possess the fruit of the richest benefit. Setting aside, therefore, those things which, since we hold them uncertain, we deem unnecessary, what the Author intends to say about him let us gird ourselves for the exposition of matters pertaining to the subject -- that is, when he came to these parts, with whom, or where, or how he lived; we shall also assign the end of his life and the place of his burial. Then, appending the virtues demonstrated through him to men, so far as they have reached our ears, we shall arrive at the conclusion of this work.

a So the edition of Caracciolus. The manuscript reads "hodierna."

b The manuscript reads "intimatur."

c The same manuscript reads "reuerentiam."

d Concerning what is handed down about it, we have spoken in section 1, number 5.

CHAPTER I

The arrival of St. Antoninus at Stabiae, and his life spent in solitude.

[3] At the time when the savage brutality of the Lombards laid waste the province of Campania with hostile sword and fire, this holy Patron of ours, Antoninus, is said to have come to these parts and to have attached himself to the Bishop of the Church of Stabiae. When the same Bishop had learned both the purity of his life and the honorable conduct of his morals and deeds, St. Antoninus comes to Stabiae to St. Catellus the Bishop he associated him more intimately with his own company, so that from that time forward he would do nothing without him. In all counsels he stood by as partner, in all the burdens of cares he shared equally as participant, and he observed the duty of a faithful friend and an energetic minister. At length, by an agreeable parity of character and mind, they grew together so firmly in a short time that you would have said there was one heart and one soul in two, as if in twins -- in whom indeed you would have found no other will or refusal.

[4] Catellus, secure in the prudence and fidelity of such a guest -- nay, now his own son, or rather his sole friend -- who, having entrusted the episcopate to him, committed to him entirely the governance of his pastoral care. He himself, avoiding the waves of the worldly sea, sought the vast solitudes of the forests, among the cloud-bearing summits of the mountains, fit for hermits. That mountain, to which the Archangel Michael gave his name for a reason to be demonstrated shortly after, extending transversely, is washed on both extremities by the morning waves. withdraws to a mountain near Sorrento But along its lateral length it separates the land of the Sorrentines -- like a tongue of earth thrust out into the sea -- from the wide world, and offering through precipitous cliffs narrow paths to travelers, renders it secure from every hostile tumult. Moreover, at the summit, its ridge having now ended, it continues to raise its head more boldly toward the sea, so that its sides are often girt with cloudy coverings, and serene it looks down upon clouds and rains. From that place, the whole situation of Campania -- its cities, towns, fortresses, and also the maritime plain -- as far as the eye can penetrate, is wont to be seen and pointed out.

The aforesaid servant of God, Catellus, then judging that peak suitable for the struggle he had undertaken, occupied it; and there, contemplating the Lord with a pure mind, he devoted himself to the divine offices.

[5] Nor did Antoninus endure the separation from his like-minded companion any longer, but with hastened step he hurried to him; and just as in worldly occupation, so in divine service he attached himself inseparably to him. Antoninus comes to the same place The following angelic vision demonstrated and confirmed their unanimity and equal manner of life. For in the dead of night, one and the same angel appearing to each, said: "I will that in the place where you are accustomed to engage in prayers, and where you recently saw a burning candle, both are admonished from heaven, separately you should build an oratory in my name." When, being asked his name, he replied "the Archangel Michael," he vanished. Having immediately awoken, when each had heard and reported the same vision of the other, confirmed by the authority of their mutual testimony, they prepared to consent to the angelic command. Then the valiant builders of the divine fabric set to work, and from wooden frames they constructed a dwelling small indeed, but pleasing to the Archangel who had admonished them, with prosperous success. they build an oratory to St. Michael O wondrous power of the just! O most salutary fortitude of the Saints! O ineffable virtue of purified prayers! O inestimable efficacy of a pure mind! Behold, through the merits of these Saints working, and their prayers as it were laying the foundations, in the lairs of wild beasts an oratory is built, in the dens of beasts an angelic habitation is erected, in an empty, waste, and uncultivated land a holy house is fabricated -- celebrated, and suited to human salvation. For there to the Lord, Author of all good things, and to Blessed Michael the Archangel, its inhabitant, praise is offered daily. celebrated for pilgrimages By his excellent benefits, no one fails to obtain what he worthily requests. From near and distant parts people flock together, and paying the vows promised for whatever tribulations, they return to their homes cheerful, having received consolation.

[6] The enemy of human salvation, already foreseeing that benefits of this kind would be granted to sick people there and that the joys of the faithful would be multiplied, according to his customary envy strove in vain to subvert the grace of God -- that which was being established for the praise of God and for the advancement of men. He therefore stirred up his familiar detractors, Catellus is accused by rivals and seized who complained with groundless murmuring that Bishop Catellus had abandoned his See and his people, and -- what was worse -- that contrary to the rite of Christians he was celebrating the solemnities of Mass through the horrid dens of wild beasts and the pathless mountain summits; and finally, that he was sowing a most dangerous heresy. What more? Catellus is seized, and brought before the Rector of the Apostolic See. When the latter wished to examine the matter strictly, Catellus is thrust into prison, and by the divine will, as it is worthy to believe (as the subsequent outcome of the matter proved), a certain one of the Pope's clerics is assigned to him as guard. He predicts the Pontificate for a certain man To him shortly after, Catellus, inspired by the spirit of prophecy, said: "Remember me when it shall be well with you, that you may bring me out of this prison, because I was taken away by force, and here, innocent, I have been cast into a pit: for soon, when the Pope is dead, you shall succeed to the Apostolic See."

[7] Elevated to the Supreme Pontificate according to the word of the prophet, and flowing over with abundance of prosperity, he at first consigned the one who had signified his dignity to oblivion. by whom he is freed But shortly after, having brought him out, he endowed him with so great a heap of honor that he promised he would give whatever he asked, without doubt. When all expected him to ask for something great, he, devoted only to Christ and to his admonisher, the Archangel Michael, said: "I ask that you grant me as much lead as I shall request." he obtains lead for roofing the oratory Having received this, he returned with a prosperous voyage to his own land, rebuilt the oratory constructed of wooden material from its foundation with stones, and covered it with the lead he had brought.

a We have shown that these events took place at the beginning of the ninth century from Christ's birth, when Sico, having killed Grimoaldus, seized the principate of Benevento -- not indeed at that time when that barbarous people first invaded Italy, when also the monastery of Monte Cassino was plundered and burned by Zoto, the first Duke of Benevento, the monks being saved by flight.

b St. Catellus is the one who is venerated on January 19, where we treated of him, though without having satisfactorily ascertained the chronology, as we here acknowledge in section 2, number 9. Concerning Stabiae, David Romaeus writes thus: "This city, The city of Stabiae situated on the shore within the borders of the territory of Mount Gaurus, they call Castellammare di Stabia." We have said elsewhere that Mount Gaurus was on this side of Naples; the one that extends to Stabiae and Sorrento was formerly called Mons Lactarius.

c Romaeus, Regius, Ferrarius, and the Life from Stabian documents want Antoninus to have withdrawn first. We prefer the authority of the ancient writer, whom Laccheus also follows.

d The manuscript reads "separationem." We have left it as Caracciolus published it, for we conjecture that it was originally so written, because Antonio a Porta, who also used this Life, has "disperactionem."

e Romaeus and others write that a burning torch was seen twice by each, and indeed while praying; and that on the second occasion the Angel stood before both together, in the likeness of a distinguished young man.

f The vision was therefore not presented to them while praying, as Romaeus, Regius, Antonio a Porta, the other Life of St. Catellus, and even Laccheus have it.

g Antonio a Porta and Romaeus write that Catellus wanted the building to be constructed quickly out of wood, while Antoninus, serving posterity, wished it to be built of stone; but that the latter yielded to the former, as was fitting.

h Romaeus writes that while they were building that chapel, a multitude of wild beasts frequently gathered there, as if congratulating those holy builders. Antonio a Porta says this happened after the chapel was already built. A spring elicited by SS. Antoninus and Catellus The other Life of St. Catellus, at number 4, states that when water failed the builders, they elicited a spring by their prayers, which still flows and is called Holy Water, salutary against diseases. Also that the Saints were refreshed by visions and singing.

i Caracciolus writes that that great concourse of pilgrims ceased. Romaeus reports that that church still stands and is called St. Michael "at the beeches," because there are very many on that mountain; and that the people flock to that church especially on May 8.

k The manuscript reads thus: "When he, not considering that the dominion of God is in every place, and that the secret of a pure heart is a habitation pleasing to Christ -- he, I say, examining the matter inconsiderately and judging rashly -- Catellus is thrust into prison." Caracciolus enumerates several Saints who were accused of heresy, even before the Apostolic See, but were afterwards absolved; and he adduces in excuse for the Pontiff those words of St. Gregory, Book 1 of the Dialogues: "It is indeed very necessary [How it can happen that in the Holy Roman Curia judgments are slow or insufficiently equitable?] that the density of cares devastates the mind of each Prelate; and when the mind is divided among many things, it becomes lesser for individual matters, and so much is taken from it in any single affair as it is more broadly occupied in many." He acknowledges, however, that he has corrected certain words here in the Life of St. Antoninus which corrupted the sense. Romaeus ineptly exaggerates the negligence, if there was any, or at least the tardiness of judgment, as follows: "The Pontiff, informed about these matters by the adversaries and detractors of Catellus's praises, recklessly, inconsiderately, and negligently handling the affair, inflicted injury upon him, abrogated his pontificate, ordered him seized and cast into prison, and did not accept his defense." Who the Pontiff was at that time has been stated above.

l Antonio a Porta, Romaeus, and Laccheus say that the new Pontiff saw in a dream a Benedictine monk (that is, Antoninus himself) pleading the cause of Catellus; St. Antoninus, though absent, pleads the cause of St. Catellus and that even before this, while his predecessor was still living, he had likewise been admonished in a dream, had gone to the prison where Catellus was detained, had learned from him that he would become Pontiff, and had promised him his freedom. They add that it was also divinely revealed to Antoninus that Catellus would soon be absolved, and that he himself seemed in a dream to be pleading on his behalf before the Pontiff. Whether these details, omitted by the ancient writer, were fabricated by Antonio a Porta, or drawn from other ancient documents, we do not inquire.

m Romaeus, Antonio a Porta, and others say that he asked for more than lead -- namely, as many tiles as would suffice for the chapel of St. Michael, to be built of stone and roofed with tiles of lead.

CHAPTER II

The deeds of St. Antoninus at Sorrento: the governance of the monastery, buildings, and burial.

[8] Antoninus, meanwhile, during the time of his exiled friend's absence, was serving the Lord in the same place no less diligently than usual; he prayed no longer for himself alone but for both; he offered the libations of his prayers to the Lord for them in common. But because a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, Antoninus migrates to Sorrento at the citizens' request nor is a lighted lamp placed under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, that it may give light to those dwelling in the house, Christ willed to place so great a man as a pillar beneath His

Church. And behold, the citizens of Sorrento, struck by his most celebrated fame, providing most wisely for their commonwealth, honorably invited him within the walls of their city and received him with the greatest care. But he, tenaciously clinging to the profession he had undertaken, even in the secular whirlwind, associated himself with the man of blessed memory, Abbot Boniface, at the oratory inscribed with the title of St. Agrippinus. There, with a truly remarkable manner of life and a most illustrious combat of works, he strenuously contended, holding out to all an example of the blessed life.

[9] Not long after, the above-named Abbot, brought to the end of this life, persuaded the Brothers to appoint Antoninus, a man of proven life, as his successor. When he was dead, therefore, the Brothers, acquiescing in the Father's counsel, with one voice, he is made Abbot with equal consent and unanimous judgment, acclaimed Antoninus as worthy to take up the governance of the fallen summit of authority. To them he at first indeed protested, with tempered contradiction, out of humility; but at length he consented and accepted the abbacy according to their will. Elevated to this degree of dignity, he lived he stimulates his own by example and word toward virtue what was said of him: he who was called Father by title was truly father in the office of mercy and piety, benevolent to all, compassionate to all, gentle to all. He himself, distinguished by the preeminence of all virtues as their master, commended to his disciples the rule of blessed doctrine by word and deed, admonishing, correcting, insisting, in season and out of season, reproving, rebuking, beseeching; he poured oil and wine into the wounds of the foolish. he recalls them from vices To the Brothers, either by providing necessities in common, or, if there was nothing from which to provide, by setting forth the virtue of patience through pious words and examples, he removed the occasion of the peril of murmuring. Moreover, the bites of detraction and envy, and likewise other pestilences of vice, just as he himself avoided, so he admonished others to avoid.

[10] Among other monuments of his works, he also built an oratory in honor of St. Martin, he builds a church of St. Martin the entrance doors of which, sculpted with no ignoble workmanship, he is said to have fashioned with his own hands; for he was reputed a praiseworthy master in the architectural art. No time, therefore, ever slipped away for him in that idleness which is the enemy of the soul, for which he did not render to Christ a service owed. he flees idleness For he was found either as a useful craftsman doing something pertinent, or as a spiritual denizen of heaven contemplating Christ with a pure mind in prayers, or as a frugal farmer tilling the earth to provide for the common need. Thus at last he judged himself blessed and that it was well with him, if, having first fed his spirit with its nourishment, he himself also ate the labors of his own hands. He planted, therefore, in uncultivated land, a vine, he plants a vine which, its head joined to the atrium of his basilica, terminates its extremity at the very precipice of the seashore. This vine produces wine remarkable in virtue and flavor, which preserves for its discoverer Antoninus a memorial even now in its own name -- wine better than every condiment, inasmuch as nature, not art, and vines planted by holy hands, not foreign spices, have tempered it. yielding excellent wine Because this wine is most widely celebrated, it is customarily mixed as a gift given to Princes and Magnates; you would say that Antoninus himself, with ineffable generosity, had bestowed this upon his citizens for their praise and benefit, and had left it as a perpetual pledge of his memory.

[11] Persisting indefatigably in these and other such works of virtue, [when about to die, he commands that he be buried neither within nor outside the city] he spent the days granted to this life. When at length the span of this corruptible life was completed, the Brothers and the people asked where it pleased him to be buried; he begged them to bury him neither within nor outside the city, and with this word he expired in the Lord buried in the wall on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Probianus. But they, uncertain about this ambiguous oracle-like saying, and pondering with hesitation what space of ground, neither within nor outside the city, could remain, at length, with prudence showing the way, in the very side of the wall surrounding the city, at such a height from the ground as a human stature can be, facing the East, they hollowed out a place, and there they laid the holy body. But behold, his relatives, searching all around for him with curious investigation, at length, guided by report, arrived at Sorrento, his relatives are thus deceived when seeking his body asking the citizens with suppliant voice that they might be allowed to bring back at least his lifeless body to their homeland. Hearing from them -- with truth preserved, indeed -- that they had buried him neither within nor outside their city, they departed, deceived not by harmful but indeed by beneficial fraud, not by false assertion. This search by his relatives the man of God foresaw in his last moments, the Holy Spirit revealing it, and provided for it by paternal deliberation: so that those who had cherished him as a citizen and Father while alive should neither be afflicted with grief at the loss of his body, nor incur the guilt of falsehood or perjury by retaining it -- since at the boundary between interior and exterior, his body had been placed not within and not without. In that wall, then, as we have said, with a handsome oratory now adjoined, the body of Blessed Antoninus is cherished. By his excellent merits, benefits worthily sought are bestowed on natives and visitors, and remarkable miracles of virtues are frequently demonstrated. Because it is established that these are many and illustrious, we can neither speak of them fully nor pass them over in total silence.

a We have found nowhere the name of this Boniface recorded in sacred tables.

b St. Agrippinus, Bishop of Naples and one of that city's Protectors, is venerated on November 9.

c The Bishop of Eboli adds (where he got it, let him say himself) miracles: "Often from heaven," he says, "the paternal clemency of the Savior, never thought of, supplied what was needed. And when human industry did not suffice, divine mercy came to the aid of want."

d Caracciolus, in Note 12, says that both this oratory of St. Martin and the church of St. Agrippinus itself were long since destroyed, as we have also reported above from him.

e Laccheus says that Antoninus carved in marble the mysteries of the Lord's Passion. Romaeus reports nearly the same. Antonio a Porta speaks obscurely.

f Certain Martyrologies, as Caracciolus attests, have it that he died the day before. He himself suspects that the death occurred on the Ides and the deposition on the following day.

g "Of the city of Sorrento," says the same author. Romaeus says this occurred in the year 625. Baronius in his Notes to the Martyrology writes: "He departed this life (as they report) in the year of the Lord 625." Antonio a Porta, chapter 7, has it that he was entombed in the year of Salvation 825 -- which does not accord well enough with what he says in chapter 1 about the times of Zoto (whom he calls Zatus or Zato), although it comes closer to our chronology.

h Enclosed in a marble casket, as Laccheus says.

i That is, blood relatives. So commonly do writers of the Middle Ages speak.

k Romaeus writes that the people of Campania desisted from seeking the remains of Antoninus, even though they could readily enough have found his tomb, because they easily foresaw that they would lose their case.

CHAPTER III

Sorrento defended from the enemy by St. Antoninus.

[12] Not long after the death of Blessed Antoninus, Sicardus, the Prince of Benevento, having subjugated the remaining territories to his dominion, invaded also the land of the Sorrentines with the same intent. All the surrounding borders having been laid waste by hostile hand, Sicardus besieging Sorrento he undertook to storm the aforesaid city, having drawn up his battle line in a circle. Military instruments are soon erected: siege shelters rising high approach close to the wall; from their ramparts, armed men looking down upon the city attack the buildings with stones, and the wretched citizens from above with stakes sharpened at the point or hardened in fire. Meanwhile inside, the frequent battering ram pounds the wall; the hostile phalanx, having formed a testudo, pushes forward; missiles fly thick, nor does any type of weapon cease. Meanwhile, throughout the entire city there is panic: both sexes, every age, every order is struck with terror. The wailing of women together with the crying of infants strikes the stars, and whatever remnant of last hope remained, they run to the churches, he batters in vain the wall in which St. Antoninus is buried divine clemency and the intercession of the Saints are implored. Meanwhile, a stone launched by a siege engine was hurtling with vast force and whistling through the air, and flew toward that place in the wall where the holy body is cherished -- but did not violate it;

it struck, but did not shatter it. The clamor of the raging attackers rises; meanwhile applause breaks out, as they believe they will soon use, as a gate, the breach made through the stone. But when the vast mass, repelled with a mighty crash, had left not even a mark of collision, while all indeed marveled, but in blind fury were refitting the engine to repeat the blow, drowsy night arrived and ended the battle.

[13] Thereafter, as the leader lay with his weary limbs dissolved in sleep, the holy Confessor of Christ, Antoninus, standing over him, said: rebuked by him in a dream "Have you come even to scatter the bones of those who rest in Christ? And having seen and heard the miracle of God, have you still not wished to desist from your wicked undertaking? While you contumaciously confound and violently disturb right and law, we are not permitted to rejoice in our resting places? Learn now, you who spurned a gentle admonition, to come to your senses at least when chastised by a severe correction; and having received a punishment not yet worthy of your severity, learn to correct your errors, learn henceforth by making satisfaction to Christ to conduct yourself with discipline." Saying this, and beaten with the rod that he carried in his hand, tracing back and forth the course of salutary instruction over his back, he severely drew the wanderer back to the right path.

[14] When morning came, reporting the things he had seen in order, and showing to those who were less inclined to believe the livid marks of the blows on his skin, he asked what was to be done. While they were pulling their counsels in different directions, disagreeing about staying and departing, about war and peace, behold, messengers arrived, scarcely breathing from their headlong course, who asserted that his lord's daughter had been most violently seized by a demon, understanding that his daughter was possessed by a demon that she was fleeing human touch and speech, tearing her own limbs with her teeth, and both doing and suffering horrid things. When he learned from them that the very hour of his daughter's first loss of reason was the same as that of the stone striking the holy tomb the day before, all ambiguity concerning the offense committed and the Confessor provoked being now removed, he immediately abandoned the camp and returned to his own lands. he departs Having found salutary counsel, he sent his sick daughter, clothed in garments gleaming with gems and gold, and adorned with the most precious apparatus of metalwork, to the judgment of his admonisher to be governed. He begged pardon from him to whom he had recently done injury. He commended his daughter to the entombed Saint for the recovery of her health -- and sends his daughter to the Saint's tomb she whose father had recently inflicted violence upon that very tomb with his stone.

[15] Nor did Antoninus, accustomed to succoring the wretched, despise the prayers of the suppliant; he expelled the enemy, restored her mind, put the foe to flight, there she is healed and made the person whole again. She who had come unknowing of reason and of herself returned composed with the most tranquil mind; according to the command of her father, she surrendered the entire adornment with which she had come prepared to Antoninus, the mediator of her salvation. offerings are presented She also gave him a cross set with gems and gold, in the middle of which a particle of the wood of the Lord, covered with the most brilliant crystal, shone as if naked; she had brought it hung about her neck as a guardian of her breast and her whole body. It would have been efficacious enough in itself to restore her health, had not Christ preferred to ascribe the cure to the glory of His Confessor. Having left all these things there, she returned healthy and joyful, leaving behind her possessions and recovering herself.

[16] although God and the Saints regard the spirit of the giver more than the gifts What then? Did the holy Confessor of God, generous to all in common and benevolent beyond what can be believed, sell the benefit of health? Did he, contrary to the Apostle's teaching that those justified freely by the grace of God, expose divine grace to be redeemed under the exchange of commerce? Far from the hearts of the faithful be such a thought, horrible to utter. Let this wicked opinion be eradicated. Let Simoniacal avarice, once condemned by the sentence of the Apostle Peter, wither henceforth, torn out by the roots. When therefore you hear of such compensation, O faithful one, believe that it is Christ who principally receives the devotion: it is He who embraces a pure faith, who preferred two tiny coins of a poor but devout widow to all the gifts of the rich. He does not regard the gift, therefore, but the spirit of the giver; He receives you, not your possessions -- or you together with your possessions, but not your possessions without you -- as He Himself testifies: "If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother; and then come and offer your gift." Matthew 5:23 As if He had said: "If you wish Me to accept your things, first prepare yourself for Me, and offer yourself prepared; because without you I will not admit your things; but once I have accepted you, then at last I will receive your things." Moreover, by this reception, so that from the called they may be made predestined, and from the predestined justified, and made worthy, in diverse ways some willingly, others even unwillingly, are directed to the nod of truth. For we do not doubt that the judgments of God are many and hidden, who through innumerable paths of mercy, unknown to men, draws wanderers to Himself, as the Truth itself says: "No one comes to Me unless My Father draws him." John 6:44 Therefore every son whom He receives, He scourges, chastises, and mortifies; He likewise mortifies and gives life: He gives life in spiritual things, He mortifies in carnal things, as the Apostle says: "Mortify your members which are upon the earth: fornication, envy, avarice," etc. Colossians 3:5 So too now this servant of God, Antoninus, by the instruction and assent of Christ, without whom His own can do nothing -- by His example and aid, I say -- first chastised, then soothed; he corrected the erring Duke, by correcting him provoked him, the provoked one he mollified; from the foolish man he took away his daughter, to the repentant he restored her -- for the renunciation of error, not for the offering of gilded garments; for the amendment of faults, not for the glittering splendor of gems; for the devotion of faith, not for the possession of earthly dignity.

a Caracciolus has: "Here ends the Life. Here begin the miracles of St. Antoninus the Confessor." But the manuscript reads: "The Finding of St. Antoninus the Confessor." The text appears to be one continuous work, by the same author.

b Antonio a Porta writes: "The Beneventan Prince. Romualdus by name." Regius writes: "Romualdus, or Sicardus, son of Grimoaldus, who ruled at Benevento." The one who ruled at Benevento was Sicardus, who was the son of Sico, not of Grimoaldus. As for his addition that this occurred, with some intervening years, around the year 745 -- certainly in that year, as we said on February 9, it was not Romualdus but Gisulphus II, son of Romualdus II, grandson of Gisulphus, who was governing the Beneventan province. And indeed by what reasoning can one say "some years" when he writes "St. Antoninus" and wishes these events to have taken place in 745?

c "Siege shelters" here are military machines.

d Antonio a Porta amplifies this hyperbolically: "The city being almost entirely abandoned by all, individual men and women fled to the churches for the intercession of the Saints, and specifically to the merits and promised patronage of St. Antoninus."

e The printed text had "mosa"; in the manuscript it was corrected to "machina," as follows shortly after.

f Romaeus: "touching and striking his shoulders with the staff on which he leaned, he departed."

g Romaeus and Antonio a Porta call her Theodata, and add that at Taranto, from the spoils of her father's victory, she built from the foundations a temple in honor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, to which she added a distinguished convent of virgins, and there consecrated herself to the Lord. Antonio a Porta adds: "Therefore Romualdus appointed Grimoaldus his brother as his heir; when this man died without male offspring, Gisulphus, the son of his brother, succeeded him." These things are said ignorantly. Romualdus the first of that name, Duke of Benevento, son of King Grimoaldus by Theoderada, had three sons: Grimoaldus, Gisulphus, and Arichis. Gisulphus, his brother, succeeded Grimoaldus; then his own son Romualdus II, after whom Gregory, grandson of King Liutprand; after him Godeschalcus; and finally Gisulphus II, son of Romualdus II, held power. Neither Romualdus, therefore, lacked male offspring. Sicardus did, and so the principate was divided between Radelchis, his own treasurer, and Siconolphus, brother of Sicardus himself.

CHAPTER IV

Various ailments cured by the aid of St. Antoninus.

[17] Antoninus does not heal only the noble or the rich; he is accustomed to heal the poor as well. For behold, he who recently healed the daughter of a most wealthy Prince, now has undertaken the care of a poor rustic. He who shortly before healed the offspring of a glorious Duke now cured a similar madness in a despised countryman. For a certain man who had been tormented by the malignant enemy for a full five years was brought by his fellow countrymen, another demoniac cured in the church of St. Antoninus animated by firm trust in their patron Antoninus, to his church; and when night came on, lest he commit anything either harmful to himself or unlawful within the holy of holies, they bound the wretched man's hands and feet more tightly to a column, and having barred the doors, left him inside alone, to enjoy the company of the kind and health-giving host. When the signal was given for the nocturnal vigils, and the door, which they themselves had closed at the evening hour, was reopened by them, they entered and hurried to the column, witness of what had been placed there. When they found only the bonds undone, and his garments there, but rolled up separately, they were astonished and turned their minds through various conjectures. Meanwhile, at a distance, they caught sight of him sitting naked upon the bare rock, his arms tightly folded and his body contracted into a narrow form. Hesitating to approach him, because they believed he was still unmanageable, with his former madness merely disguised, they explored his mind from afar through various remarks and roundabout conversation. When they rejoiced to find that he was thinking sanely and speaking sanely, emboldened by his most placid responses, they proceeded to the point of touching him. Then, when they perceived that all was safe, tranquil, and fully composed about him, they rendered thanks with deepest devotion to God the Giver and to Blessed Antoninus, the procurer of his health; and with joy they led back the one who was now master of himself, whom they had dragged there bereft of mind and reason.

[18] Hear now, with no less wonder and amazement, the sequence of a benefit and the health-giving medicine of Antoninus, and receive it gratefully. Stephen, a holy Priest There was a certain Stephen, a devout Priest, who was also the Superior of the holy place and the solicitous guardian of the venerable body, a man of rigid abstinence, to such a degree that throughout the entire year, on the three appointed fast days of the week, content with bread and water, he refreshed himself once a day. But if perchance a more solemn festival prescribed relaxation, he feasted with the admitted delicacies of legumes or vegetables, and water flavored with a little wine. He, for the Sorrentines and likewise for others imploring aid for whatever ailment, on account of the merits of his proven life was sent as a messenger to the benevolent Patron, and was accustomed to bring back the mandate of consolation in the following manner. He made a cerate, or ointment, with an ointment placed on the altar of St. Antoninus the composition of which, though more diligently sought out, I would not be reluctant to write down, if I had known the operative virtue of healing to be ascribed to his medicament rather than to Antoninus the healer, or if the compounder himself appeared to have placed his confidence in this alone for curing. For he placed the prepared medicament, carefully sealed in an ivory box, in the very ark of the altar; and after three days had been spent in fasting and prayers, he retrieved what had been deposited. and divinely signed, he heals many And if, upon unsealing it, he found it inscribed with the sign of the Cross, clearly impressed through the mark of a thumb, he, confident of an efficacious medicine, applied it to the ailing members and consequently drove out all pain. But if he found the smooth surface without the sign of the Cross, he had no confidence whatsoever in its power to heal.

[19] In this manner, then, as has been said, when the impression of the saving sign and the holy thumb had been made, he understood the virtue to have been infused from heaven into the ointment, and the medicine to have been compounded by the pious art of Antoninus the healer, and he promised health to those who sought it. But if not, he urged patience upon the sufferers, he exhorts others to patience so that those whom he could not heal because the heavenly judgment stood in the way, he might instruct with salutary admonitions. "God," he said, "the omnipotent and merciful physician of souls, wills all men to be saved -- not that they may recover to fulfill the desires of illicit pleasure, but that they may come to the knowledge of the truth, namely by faith and works, because faith without works is dead. That this may come about, by a diverse order, the clemency of the divine dispensation tempers the diverse appetites of men and the manifold wills of individuals toward one path of salvation: this one He humbles, and that one He exalts; one He scourges and then heals, another He scourges while healthy; and to scourge is itself to heal, as it is said:

'While you heal wounds, pain is the medicine of pain.'

Therefore when we implore divine aid, we are mercifully heard, and mercifully not heard.

If we ask for harmful things, if we pray for what rightly ought to be denied, we obtain mercy by not being heard. If we ask for beneficial things, we obtain mercy by being heard; for the Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth. Psalm 144:18-19 "He will do the will of those who fear Him, and He will hear their supplication, and He will save them." If therefore we do not call upon Him in truth, how do we fear God? If we do not fear Him, how shall we be heard? If we are not heard, how shall we be healed? Wherefore, that these things may follow, the affection of true invocation must necessarily precede. And we employ true invocation if we pray not that our own will, but that God's will alone, may be done in us. Therefore, brothers, commit yourselves entirely, by true invocation, to the judgment of the true and righteous Judge; and banish far from your hearts all murmuring against God or Blessed Antoninus. Rather, according to the Apostle, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation," preserve the virtue of patience; and await the Divine clemency with equanimity, as it is written: "It is good to wait in silence for the Lord." Romans 12:12; Lamentations 3:26 These and similar words the Blessed Antoninus's interpreter, the Priest Stephen, was accustomed to repeat, and he made both those who were not healed and those who were healed cheerful alike -- those whom he anointed, as it were, with salutary admonition in place of the virtue of the medicament, and to whom, instead of bodily health, he applied spiritual care through exhortation.

a Antonio a Porta, chapter 9: "Approaching more closely, they learned from him that St. Antoninus of the Lord had, with his own hands, loosed him from his bonds and restored him to his former health." Romaeus reports the same in other words.

b Antonio a Porta says that he was taught by St. Antoninus the method of preparing this ointment.

c Romaeus: "He kept it in the sepulcher of the divine Antoninus." Antonio a Porta: "Within the casket in which the sacred body was preserved."

CHAPTER V

Victory over the Barbarians achieved with the help and exhortation of St. Antoninus.

[20] Moreover, as time advanced, an infinite multitude of Saracens, conspired against the tranquility of the Christian peace, ground down and left devastated all the places they touched, in the manner of the most violent hailstorm. When at length those hostile pirates had traversed the expanse of the sea, they put in at an island subject to Neapolitan authority, which is called Aenaria, but by its more common name, Against the Saracens, raging after the capture of Aenaria the Greater Island. Having left their ships in the deep, they sought the land in light vessels, and having pitched their camps, they settled down, laying waste the cultivated lands with fire and plunder, slaughtering the inhabitants without humanity and without piety in a pitiable manner, or dragging them bound to the ships to be led away into captivity and exile. The inhabitants of the neighboring cities -- namely the Sorrentines, Neapolitans, and Caietans -- the Sorrentines conspire with their neighbors not enduring their most savage cruelty and moreover their secure position, conspired by a fortunate alliance and under a prosperous omen to liberate the Christians who had been captured and were about to be captured, to defend their homeland, and to repel the wicked race.

[21] Here, with Antoninus as leader, as will shortly appear, and with the other Saints whose bodies Sorrento cherishes as companions, the glory of the Sorrentines shone forth. To them victory is not undeservedly ascribed, since by their Patrons as standard-bearers the hostile fury is vanquished. For three days before the coming battle, five men, whose names will be made clear later, St. Antoninus and four others appearing in the enemy flagship were seen walking about in the flagship of the Gentiles; against whom the enemies, suspecting that they were either captives who had freed themselves from bonds and were attempting flight, or intruders who had secretly boarded to steal the ship, rushed in blind fury. But when the Saints were suddenly withdrawn from sight, they desisted from their attempt, not without amazement. Again, positioning themselves more covertly in hiding places with weapons for those lurking, and attacked in vain and keeping a more vigilant watch, behold, they saw the Saints of God again, walking about in the same place in their former guise and gait. Assailing them with sudden terror and shouting, one attacked with a pole, another with a sword, another with a stone, in their fury; but when the Saints likewise vanished, and the blows had fallen on nothing but the ship, they were astonished that they had been thwarted in so marvelous a manner.

[22] But when, blinded in mind again and again and having attempted the same assault, they were deceived by the same illusion, their leader, who was also their soothsayer, considering the course of events from a distance, said: at the counsel of the lots "These are gods of the Christians, who have assembled, as I believe, for their defense or vengeance." Then, when the lot was consulted, after the manner of pagan superstition, and it portended things adverse for the pagans and favorable for the Christians, he cried: "Let us hasten our flight, and having quickly armed the ships, the barbarians flee let us fly away." According to the word of the one commanding, his companions, scattered all around, were assembled with their heaps of plunder, and when everything had been arranged, as they were hurrying back to offer sacrifice to their gods with fasting, behold, the allies of the aforementioned conspiracy suddenly attacked; but are overwhelmed by the fleet of the confederates all whom they could overtake were killed, and ten ships with their armaments, plunder, and captives were seized, while those that remained barely and uselessly escaped, without oars, without rudders, without supports.

[23] Moreover, in the final part of the night preceding the battle -- that is, in the morning hour, at the very moment, I say, of the imminent engagement -- the five men previously seen on the ship appeared to a certain elderly Neapolitan citizen, whose name was Sergius Pipinus, in the following order, just as he himself later reported. St. Antoninus appearing to the old man with Saints There went before them one venerable in the garb of a monk and reverend in holy white hair, who, when asked his name, said he was Antoninus; the remaining four accompanied him as if following his lead in order and, as will soon appear, in speech. Of these, one was bald, with a long beard, grey-haired, mature, and venerable, and called himself Renatus; two others accompanying them, both aged, both with shaven beards, but one bald who called himself Athanasius, and the other curly-haired who called himself Baculus; the fourth, flourishing in the grace of youth, named himself Valerius. With them so arranged, Antoninus, just as he had come and stood first, so he discharged the office of a more eminent person also in speaking, he rebukes the sloth of the Neapolitans and thus addressed the drowsy old man with severe reproof and friendly exhortation: "You, inhabitants of this city, now lie securely at rest upon your most soft beds, and you do not even think to come to the aid of your fellow citizens who are laboring for the safety of the commonwealth in the very crisis of extreme danger. who do not help their own, even with prayers Sluggards, lazy, inert ones, who aid your own neither with prayers nor with your strength; who care not to bring them either divine or human help; who neglect to implore those many defenders granted to you by God and solicitous on your behalf, ungrateful though you are. For I myself was just now calling upon your own patron, the Lord Januarius, and just as we have not abandoned our own people in peril, so I was inviting him to come to your aid. When, with the danger of your people pressing, I urged him to come to their help more quickly, and affirmed that unless he hastened, some of his own would fall, he said: 'Wait a little; whence St. Januarius, coming to the aid later, and some killed by the enemy for when the mystery of the sacrifice which I am offering has been completed, I shall come without delay.'" With these words, Blessed Antoninus with his accompanying companions departed; and the old man, released from sleep, reported what he had seen in order. The confirmation of his vision soon followed. For when the battle was over, men came who reported that the enemy had been routed, put to flight, or captured, that victory had been happily achieved, and that of the Neapolitans only seven had fallen in the first encounter, while of the Sorrentines not a single one had even been lightly wounded. In this assertion the words of Antoninus are proved true, for he and the Saints named above, continually assisting their Sorrentines, brought all alike to the harbor of safety. But while Blessed Januarius tarried in the offering of his sacrifice, seven, as we said, out of the whole multitude of Neapolitans fell. But when he arrived, all the rest who were found escaped all danger unharmed.

[24] It came to pass after these events that one of the nobler Neapolitans, Gregorius Prancacius, was banished by civic decree into exile at Sorrento; he brought with him one of the Saracens captured in the battle, a Saracen testifies to having seen the Saints on the ship now baptized. From his account, and from his assertion that he was one of those who had pursued them, we learned that the five Saints already named had appeared on the royal ship in such a habit and form as we have taught above was assigned to each of them in the vision to the old man.

[25] O happy Sorrento! O happy inhabitants of Sorrento! O secure tranquility of the Sorrentines, for whom God has appointed five Patrons -- as it were five Doctors of the Law -- as their defenders! Defenders, I say, if they are heeded, if they are loved, if they are venerated in worship; accusers, if they are neglected, if they are despised, if they are rejected. Truly the Sorrentines are proved blessed -- yet only under this condition: Saints protect those who worship them if they guard justice and do judgment at all times, heeding the five Fathers whom they have; if they venerate and cherish their bodies by most carefully repairing and adorning their altars and oratories; by advancing their service in Priests and Clerics; by providing lights during the nocturnal hours; by each one diligently offering gifts according to his own means; by imploring the protection of God through their intercession for their own and their divine Protector's defense, and by saying: "Unless the Lord guards the city, those who guard it watch in vain." Doing these things and saying them from the heart, they will continually hear the Lord promising to their city: "You shall no longer be called forsaken, and your land shall no longer be called desolate; but you shall be called the holy city, because My delight is in you, and your land shall be inhabited, because the Lord has been pleased with you." But if, with their pursuits turned to the contrary, they neglect their ruined churches, they desert those who neglect their worship scorn the holy relics by denying them veneration or due service, they condemn themselves by their own judgment, since, forgetful of the benefits so often conferred upon them through them and daily bestowed, they repay good with evil. They pierce themselves with their own sword if they are impious toward their fathers, if undutiful toward their guardians, if stingy toward the generous, if ungrateful toward their benefactors. They consign Sorrento to the condemnation of Jerusalem for its repudiated Saints, if they reject the Savior who likewise, through His Saints, wishes to guard them -- who will say, for just cause: "How often I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!" Matthew 23:37 He rebukes the hardness of those who protest against Him who comes to save them, and thus He judges: He sets forth the fault first, then introduces the sentence. First He accuses, then He condemns. "Behold," He says, "your house shall be left to you desolate." It is established, therefore, both by reason and by the authority of Sacred Scripture, that the Sorrentines -- nay, all Christians -- are advanced by happy prosperity through the veneration and love of the Saints, and conversely, by their contempt, are cast down in adversity; for it is fitting that where through observance you ascend, there through negligence you fall; and where obedience lifts you, there pride plunges you down. Whatever, therefore, we expend in promoting the service of the Saints, we not only do not lose, but by believing we lay it away to be returned with manifold profit, since we know by many proofs that it is pleasing and acceptable to them for our devotion.

a Antonio a Porta ignorantly refers these events to the times of King Desiderius and the year of Christ 776, since, as we have said several times elsewhere, the Saracens did not occupy Sicily until the last years of Michael the Stammerer, that is, in the year of Christ 828 or 829; and they reached Lipari and the other Vulcanian or Aeolian islands in the time of Sicardus, when from there the body of St. Bartholomew was translated to Benevento in the year 839. Caracciolus in Note 25 conjectures that these events occurred around the year 849, and has much to say about the alliance against the same Saracens entered into by the cities and peoples of Campania; Baronius likewise has much at the same year from Anastasius Bibliothecarius in the Life of Pope Leo IV.

b Aenaria, now Ischia, lies opposite the promontory of Misenum.

c It was perhaps so called because between it and the mainland another island lies. The latter was formerly called Prochyta, now Procida, perhaps torn away from Aenaria, or rather both from the mainland.

d These were named by us above: Valerius, Athanasius, Baculus, Renatus.

e Antonio a Porta says "a Patrician." But Romaeus praises him thus: "Whose life and reputation were most holy."

f Romaeus and Antonio a Porta say that he had a lighted lamp in his chamber, so that he could easily recognize them.

g St. Januarius is venerated on September 19.

h Such mention of "the sacrifice" is frequently made in the acts of the Saints -- not that the Saints, who truly enjoy God in heaven, offer the unbloody sacrifice as we do on earth, How do the Saints in heaven offer the holy sacrifice? but that they represent the merits of Christ's Passion before God the Father. So Caracciolus writes substantially.

i "To the Bishop and the other Patricians," says Antonio a Porta, and Romaeus.

k So the manuscript. But Romaeus and Antonio a Porta have "Pancratius." Caracciolus acknowledges that those formerly called Pancratii are now called Brancatii. And indeed the holy Martyr Pancratius himself is called "St. Brancatius" by Giovanni Villani in his Florentine Chronicle, Book 3, near the end of chapter 2.

l "He purchased a boy from among the captured enemies," says Romaeus, "which boy, having been enrolled in the number of Christians," etc.

CHAPTER VI

Divinely inflicted punishment, especially upon perjurers, and its removal, at the command of St. Antoninus.

[26] I am also able to demonstrate this: that we see the Saints inspect and guard not only the greater ornaments of their house, but even the smallest utensils, so to speak, as the outcome of the following matter proves. The bolt, which is commonly called a padlock, with which the main doors of the house of St. Antoninus were closed, St. Antoninus punishes a thief with madness, then heals him worn thin by long use, was easily carried to the exit, and appeared not so much fastened as merely hanging. A certain young man, perceiving this -- since youth is fickle, prone to evil -- drew near to the door, and with crafty dissimulation, as though leaning against it, tried to work the bolt; and since it yielded easily, he pulled it out with a bold hand, and, filled with mischievous joy, tucked it into his bosom as though placing fire amid straw. For immediately, set aflame with the heat of madness, he put off his humanity and through the most savage frenzy lived as a beast for so long, until the benevolent Antoninus, rendering evil to no one for evil, visited his master -- the same man being also a Priest -- while he slept, and warned him to return the bolt that his disciple had stolen from his house. The master, awakened, presented the thief with the stolen property before Blessed Antoninus, and having soon recovered his health, led him back happy and cheerful.

[27] Observe also another sign, which likewise indicates that the Saints take care of their belongings. A certain man, having secretly opened the door on the side of the church, entered by night, and having scraped together with grasping hands and avaricious clutches what goods he found, he does not allow a thief to leave the church prepared with trembling haste to exit by the way he had entered. But against his intention, since a delay impeded him, he was forced to wait there for daylight. For a darkness having been cast by Antoninus upon the eyes of his mind, he could find neither the door that was witness to his entrance nor any exit anywhere. Therefore, by a pardonable error -- nay, by a confessedly good one -- wandering around the holy house for the entire night and groping the walls, since he came upon nothing anywhere but solid wall, he was caught at morning time. When he was pressed to show the place of his entry, he pointed out, by visiting it, the door that had admitted him -- standing wide open with the same opening and in the same manner in which he himself had unlocked it. Then, having received a fitting punishment and having made satisfaction to Blessed Antoninus, the way at last being opened, he departed.

[28] Nor do I think it should be passed over that among his other signs this attribute ascribes to Antoninus himself a certain special prerogative not so much of miracles as of justice, and enjoins a caution of useful observance upon all who hear it. For they say -- and the truth itself, as you will soon hear, testifies -- he punishes perjurers through his relics that no one has ever perjured himself upon his relics with impunity; but, struck by some scourge of severe punishment, he either succumbs to the vengeance at once or soon after, and atones for the boldness of falsehood before Christ and Antoninus. Recently, two poor women, one of whom denied having received a loan from the other, having clashed in prolonged altercation, broke forth to the testimony of an oath before Antoninus as judge -- the one prepared to swear that she had lent, the other that she had not received. The Archpriest Peter, guardian of the Church, seeing this obstinacy of the contending parties and knowing the strict censure of Antoninus, terrified by the danger to either of them out of humane condescension, begged the creditor to reduce somewhat from the loan. And following the counsel of his persuader, when she had remitted a third part, the other woman, among them, a certain woman denying a debt not even then softened from her wicked obstinacy, approached the altar with bold step and brazen face, and with stubborn mind and pernicious tongue abjured the debt. But not with impunity; for as she was preparing to leave, as though the exaction of the debt were now settled, she was suddenly dashed to the ground and fell, shrieking, foaming, convulsing, and gnashing her teeth in a bestial manner. Then, when she was already all but dead and giving her last gasps, drawing rare sobs, with her breath clinging to the tip of her tongue, the aforesaid Archpriest dropped holy water, poured into a sacred chalice, drop by drop into her open mouth, she is healed by holy water and meanwhile he prayed incessantly for her together with those standing by. When this refreshment was administered to her, her soul returned to its proper seat, restored life, and warmth gradually spreading into her bones restored sensation. Punished by this sentence, the perjurer established an example for all, that no one should presume to confirm a lie by oath in the presence of Antoninus. For Antoninus reigns present at all times in his court -- a defense for the just, destruction for the unjust, a refuge for the wretched, a stumbling block for the proud, an overthrow, as you have heard, for the wickedly obstinate, and a hope and consolation, as you will soon hear, for those who rightly supplicate.

[29] That same Archpriest Peter, about whom we have just been speaking, from whose own account we have learned what follows, contracted the most horrid leprosy of elephantiasis, one suffering from leprosy to such a degree that on the entire surface of his body you could not have noted a single mark of natural color. His entire skin, furrowed with roughness, scored like the bark of an oak, inspired horror in those who wished to touch him and horror in those who merely saw him. All fled from him, everyone avoided him for fear of contagion; eating, standing, resting, sleeping -- in all things he remained untouched by all. When the medicine of the most skilled physicians had not brought even relief to so intolerable an affliction, since the only remaining hope lay with his Antoninus, he ran to him -- or rather crawled painfully -- and with hands stretched toward heaven (hands, for his eyes, because of the severity of the pain that pressed upon his eyelids, he could not open), with palms, I say, and heart directed upward, he stood before the altar and said: "O most merciful Father Antoninus, look upon me in my misery, look upon me at the point of death, have pity on your servant, remember your former minister. Behold, with punishment pressing upon me for my sins, all flee from me as from one profane; I am horrible to all, and since I am entirely useless both to myself and to my own, I am permitted neither to enjoy heaven by living nor to enter the earth by dying.

"Father Antoninus, pity the labors of your servant; Take, I pray, this wretched life from such a prison,

or restore me to myself as one dead." Antoninus heard, and on the following night, standing over him as he dozed, he stripped him entirely, as it seemed to him; then, with an ointment which he applied, beginning from the crown of his head, with both hands extended, he not so much anointed as drenched his entire body. Upon awakening, his ulcers dried up by the potent medicine, he shed that horrible tunic appearing in a dream, he heals him and came forth a new man -- not otherwise than if you were to strip the bark from a young tree and see the resisting brightness of the white wood appear to the eye. On the following night again, as he was drowsing in the first part of approaching sleep, Antoninus appeared and said: "Behold, you are made whole; now sin no more, lest something worse befall you. Restrain your wandering mind, curb your slippery youth, appearing again, he reveals the cause of the affliction banish transgressing pleasure, and turn your eyes away lest they see vanity, always bearing in your heart that saying of the Gospel: 'Whoever looks upon a woman

to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' " Saying this, he reminded him of a certain error of human frailty which he had indeed intended to commit, but which, by the watchful piety of his master's care, he did not carry out, prevented by the aforementioned plague. Corrected by this discipline, henceforth with every offense of slippery recklessness tempered, he served as a diligent head of household in his dwelling place for Antoninus, with continence as his companion -- where Antoninus himself, as has been said, is always present and dwells, which is further affirmed by the following proof.

[30] On the side of the wall where his holy relics are contained, in a depiction of his image, when a painter was preparing to place a gilded crown around his head, he was hollowing out the wall as was necessary. And behold, through the cracks made, an inestimable and indescribable light suddenly shining forth struck the face of the carver. he preserves a painter from a fall Unable to endure it, as the keenness of his eyes was repelled by the intolerable rays, he was threatening to fall to the ground; but nevertheless, strengthened by the intention of his devotion, he quickly completed the work. We therefore openly pronounce that Blessed Antoninus is always found in his tabernacle, where, just as he condemns robbers, so he accepts and rewards the votive offerings of those who bring them; just as he repudiates the proud, so he relieves the oppressed. There benefits are bestowed daily through him upon those who ask. There through him Christ unceasingly displays the miracles of His virtues to the faithful, for the assurance of hope and the confirmation of faith.

a Antonio a Porta retains the same word. Romaeus has neither "pessulum" nor "catenatium," but "repagulum" [bar].

b Romaeus amplifies: "Not otherwise than if her limbs had been crippled by clubs, her hands bruised by blows, her fingers broken by stones, her sinews cut by rods, she fell down dead;" and afterward: "and reviving, the disease expelled, she was snatched from death, from every peril, from miseries," etc.

c So the manuscript, correctly. The Caracciolus edition had: "commotione fecit" he made by agitation.

CHAPTER VII

Epilogue of the Author.

[31] But what am I doing with these things? I who am guilty, polluted, numbered among sinners -- with my polluted mouth I profane the power of one who is innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners. the writer excuses himself for praising a Saint though he himself is a sinner Terrified by the consciousness of a perverse life and the sentence of the true Judge, I fear lest from the very source where I intended to seek a remedy, I incur a dreadful judgment; where I aspired to make God propitious to me, there for just cause I may hear Him angered and saying: "Why do you declare My just statutes, and take up My covenant in your mouth? Psalm 49:16-17 For you have hated discipline, and cast My words behind you." Truly, Lord, I confess, I assent, nor would I, stubbornly mendacious, dare to deny it before You who search the heart and the reins. "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words" -- when I hear You saying this, my conscience accusing me, I already know myself condemned, who, by casting Your words behind me, have not loved; by not loving, I have erred; by erring, I have perished, like a sheep that was lost. What profit is it then to the sinner to praise You with words alone, when, conscious of no merit, I hear You with trembling: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven -- he shall enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 7:21 And again: "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Mark 7:6 I plainly confess that my sins are greater than to merit pardon, because, polluted by every kind of impiety, I have presumed to touch with my criminal tongue the works of Your piety demonstrated to men through Your servant; I have not shuddered to produce smoke from splendor by obscuring the miracles of Your power with discordant measures.

[32] But among other examples of Your mercy, encouraged by the example of the sinful Priest who was rejected by the hermit, I have burst forth to such audacity as to prefer, in whatever manner, to hand down Your virtues to posterity rather than to conceal them entirely. It is certainly a greater proof of mercy that a sinner who handles Your body with his hands is not punished, although he trusts this is no hindrance to His praise than that one who speaks about You is not condemned -- and it is more to touch You than to speak about You. For we read that a certain hermit, accustomed to having a Priest celebrate the solemnities of the Mass for him, repudiated that Priest as unclean and no longer worthy to serve God -- because fame proclaimed himself holy but the Priest entangled in worldly defilements. But the Angel of the Lord, leading him through the trackless parts of the forests in a vision, brought him, reduced by the burning of thirst to the very extremity, at last above a well, the rim of which was surrounded with gold, whose water was purer than amber, drawn up with a golden pail on a golden chain -- but hauled by a leper. When the hermit, admonished to drink, explained that only the uncleanness of the one drawing prevented him though he wished to drink, he heard from the Angel: "Just as all these things which pertain to the use of drinking are in themselves most delightful and are not defiled by the leprosy of the one administering, so the divine Sacraments, in themselves most salutary, are in no way violated by the guilt of the Priest." Awakened, he learned that the efficacy of the divine mystery is in no way undermined by the fault of the minister; he believed that the power of the supreme Majesty can in no way be weakened through slippery frailty. In such a manner, a discourse that preaches Christ and usefully instructs its hearers is in no way contaminated by the vice of the speaker; nor do the sins of the writer impede the efficacy of his writings for edification, just as we see that the nature of pure material is in no way corrupted by the fault of the craftsman.

[33] I also believe, Father Antoninus, that you regard not the wicked conduct of your writer but his dutiful devotion; and just as the things I have written were accomplished through you as mediator, so through you as intercessor they will not be punished, if I have sinned in any way in the writing. Indeed, by your ineffable benevolence, I do not despair of being endowed with a reward -- which, however, I prefer to be reserved for me at the future judgment, where I do not doubt that, with truth alone accusing my guilty life, I may be imperiled, yet with mercy alone aiding, I may be delivered. He invokes St. Antoninus Remember, I pray, your exiled writer; for you too were once made an exile in this world, and you are not ignorant of the tumult of afflictions that surrounds the heart of one in exile; and having experienced evil, you know how to succor the wretched. With common supplication and unanimous entreaty, we ask you, holy Father, you, kind Patron Antoninus, that you protect this city with the aid of your intercession, and make its people devoted to Christ and to you, so that by serving God and by loving and venerating you, fulfilling their duty, they may receive their reward both here and hereafter from Him who is the recompenser of all good things, Christ Jesus our Lord, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, forever and ever. Amen.

LIFE OF THE SAME SAINT

from the ancient Lessons of the Church of Sorrento, published by Antonio Caracciolus.

Antoninus, Abbot, at Sorrento in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 0583

From Ancient Lessons.

Since a tree is known by its fruit, just as we know a cause from its effect, we should not hesitate to believe that good fruits proceed from a good root of the tree, according to the Lord's saying, as we see solar rays shining forth from the light of the sun. Our Antoninus, therefore, from how noble a family he descended and from how honorable parents he was born, he manifested both by the gravity of his character and commended most highly by the holiness of his life. For as a child of the best disposition, born of honorable parents, he lived so

honorably from boyhood that he was not only pleasing to the world as a young man, St. Antoninus, as Barbarians raged but also most pleasing to heaven as an old man. For, illuminated by heavenly light, he immediately consecrated his heart as a sanctuary worthy of the Holy Spirit. Under whose guidance, like another Patriarch Abraham, going out from his land, from his kindred, and from his father's house, at the time when the savage ferocity of the Lombards and the bestial cruelty of the Winnili was setting fire to nearly all the towns of Campania he flees to Stabiae and laying them waste with the sword, he entered the fields of Parthenope, where he attached himself most intimately to the most distinguished Prelate of the Church of Stabiae, by the name of Catellus, a man indeed renowned in learning and illustrious for the fame of his holy life.

Lesson II.

Since he was joined to him just as a shadow to a body, there was one spirit in two bodies, an equal will, the same zeal for advancing from virtue to virtue, no disagreement in the duty of reaching the blessedness of the kingdom. The Bishop loved Antoninus not as a cleric, but as a bishop and colleague. The cleric venerated Catellus with St. Catellus the Bishop he lives harmoniously as the Pontiff of Christ and vicar of God. They vied in surpassing one another in honor, embraced one another in love, instructed one another in virtue; so piously, devoutly, and in a Christian manner did they lead their common life that, each having become the other's master and disciple, both strove with equal zeal to imitate Christ. They contended in mutual humility, each striving to surpass the other in reciprocal services; they labored without hatred or envy to edify the people of God by the examples of their holy life. Having become one heart and one soul, they had the same will and the same refusal in their holy manner of life: burdensome to none, harsh to none, inhuman to none, agreeable to all, urbane to all, kind to each. In their human intercourse they displayed an angelic life to all; strengthening their spirit by reading and prayer, they subdued the flesh by fasting and vigils, having become no less the salt of the earth than the light of the world.

Lesson III

They were not ashamed of the word of the Cross, but openly preached it to all with unveiled face, by voice and deed. Bearing the Cross of Christ not as that Simon of Cyrene in his agony, but like the athlete Paul, expressing the Cross and the stigmata of Jesus in their own bodies -- crucified to the world, dead to vices and concupiscences, beloved of God and men -- they lived among men on earth; and in holiness among the Angels, like heavenly Angels, they dwelt in mind in heaven, as fellow citizens of the Saints and members of the household of God. Meanwhile, Bishop Catellus, wishing to devote himself more quietly to sacred contemplation, and having no other to whom he might more confidently commit his pastoral care when Catellus withdrew into solitude, Antoninus governs the episcopate than Antoninus, forthwith summoned him and exhorted him to undertake the burden of the episcopate; then he immediately withdrew into the wooded recesses of the forests and the vast heights of the mountains, where, as though having traversed the waves of the sounding sea and arrived in a safe harbor, he lived the anchoritic life alone for a long time. At length he ascended a certain mountain, pleasant both for its view of the sea and for the amenity of the level fields, to which the name "Michael the Archangel" was commonly given, on account of the nocturnal apparition of the Archangel Michael and the vision of a burning candle seen there by him and Blessed Antoninus from heaven, and on account of the oratory erected in that same place in honor of the Archangel Michael.

Lesson IV

Not long after, Blessed Antoninus, having dismissed the care of the episcopate and despising the favors of the world, proceeded there; where, like a city set on a hill he too withdraws and a lamp lit upon a lampstand, he not only made himself daily more and more a citizen of heaven by purity of spirit, but also so presented himself as an example to be imitated by the peoples of all the surrounding towns through the holiness of his life and the examples of his good works, that he was loved as a father and venerated as a saint by all peoples without exception. Among these, the people of Sorrento, moved by a greater love toward him and zealous with a more outstanding office of piety, having found the opportunity, approached him, addressed him with due deliberation, humbly asked, earnestly urged, and persuaded him by their prayers that, for the love of Christ and the salvation of men, setting aside the lairs of wild beasts and the squalid caves of the mountains, he would descend to the city of Sorrento, there to dwell among men and to attract them to the fruit of a better life by the example of his holy way of living. To them, since he was pious and kind, he graciously assented; the city became his desert, invited to Sorrento and he carried on as a hermit under the monastic cowl. As a monk, under Boniface, Abbot of the monastery of St. Agrippinus, he lives in the monastery a man indeed outstanding in learning and distinguished for the gravity of his character, he began to serve God, desiring rather to be subject than to preside, and seeking rather to learn what he did not know than shamelessly to teach what he was ignorant of.

Lesson V

Here, devoting himself to vigils and prayers, he not only wrestled with the Angel, like another Jacob, until morning, but, reclining in the mouth of a cave like Elijah, he tasted the whisper of a gentle breeze -- joined not so much to blear-eyed Leah as united to beautiful Rachel. The handle of the plow he had received he did not release, but having set his hand to the plow, forgetting what was behind, he stretched forth hour by hour to what lay ahead. devoted to piety and mortification He was then least idle when he was most at leisure. Bridling the enticements of gluttony and the wantonness of the flesh by reading and prayer, he subdued them by fasting and daily manual labor -- not only feeding Christ in the poor with busy Martha, but also sitting at Christ's feet with Mary, poor himself but richly nourished. He used the hoe and the axe no less than the builder's trowel and plumb line...

Lesson VI

...so that his wine, on account of the virtue of its excellent flavor, is commonly called by the name of Antoninus. He also built a certain oratory and dedicated it to St. Martin, he builds a chapel with his own hands and its doors he skillfully hewn, sculpted, and artfully fashioned, driving away idleness -- the stepmother of all virtues and the nursemaid of all vices -- by such daily labor, that he strenuously ascended from virtue to virtue and frequently walked among the Angels.

Lesson VII

When Abbot Boniface, afflicted with a grave illness, was nearly at the point of death, he summoned the Brothers to himself and persuaded them to elect Antoninus, whom he judged most worthy above all others, as Abbot after his death. This all the monks immediately carried out most willingly, with common consent, equal desire, and unanimous zeal. He is elected Abbot But Antoninus himself, with the humility by which he excelled, long resisted, considering himself rather one to be governed by others than one to govern others; at length, overcome by the importunate prayers of the Brothers, he most humbly consented. Having been installed as Abbot, he so presented himself to all that he was loved by each as a father, feared as a master, cherished as a companion -- he governs the monastery excellently using the rod no less than the staff, he both aroused the sluggish to good by the scourge of correction and sustained the infirm by the office of charity lest they fall into vice, pouring oil and wine into their wounds. He commanded nothing to others without deliberation that he himself had not first done with deliberation: he taught by deed rather than by word. He so conducted himself as Abbot toward his monks as he would have wished a monk to act toward himself if the monk had been Abbot -- hostile to none, affable to all. He envied the virtues of others only to surpass them, not to neglect them; he so pursued vices that he did not exasperate but converted the vicious. He wept over the faults of others as though they were his own, and observing his own wretchedness, he kindly tended the defects of others -- made all things to all, that he might win each for Christ. By deed rather than by word he made himself an example to be imitated by the Brothers, and he strove to be loved rather than feared, and to excel others in humility rather than to surpass them in arrogance.

Lesson VIII

In one and the same man he both exhibited a devout monk and humbly acted as Abbot, not seeking what was his own but what was another's. He so exercised zeal that he felt no bitterness; he so wrought justice that he was affected by no hypocrisy. Overflowing with charity, a stranger to possessiveness, he orders his own and his monks' life to all holiness he cared for his own things that all might be held in common; he provided for common things that he might reserve nothing for himself; he was always vigilant to be of service to all and to harm no one. He honored his elders as fathers; he loved the younger

in the love of Christ as sons. Esteeming nothing dearer than heaven, he regarded all the pleasures of the world as dung. What a happy Pastor, what an illustrious one, who sometimes so preceded his flock as a model that he kindled the slow to virtues by the light of his works, and turned the swift from vices by his word; he fed the infirm with manna, nourished the little ones with milk, and refreshed the strong with bread and solid food. The temptations of demons, the allurements of the flesh, and the provocations of the world he overcame by firm faith, sure hope, and unfeigned charity -- assaulting the suggestions of demons, subduing the enticements of the flesh, despising the luxury and sport of the world -- truly an Israelite in whom there was no guile. A faithful and prudent servant, whom the Lord set over His household: who did not tie up his received talents in a napkin nor bury them in the earth -- a diligent vinedresser, a vigorous farmer, who labored no less in the vineyard of the Lord than in His fields.

Lesson IX

Devoting himself finally to these pursuits, the man of God, Antoninus, not like the unjust steward but as a servant who, having been faithful in a few things, was to be set over many and was about to enter into the joys of his Lord, was soon afflicted with a grave illness and lay upon his bed, about to rest from his labor indeed, what he decreed concerning his burial and shortly to receive his reward for talents doubled. The monks, observing that the Abbot was failing moment by moment and gradually drawing near to death, after hearing his divine admonitions and counsels of salvation, most humbly inquired where he wished to be buried after his death. To them he replied sagaciously: "I beg you, devoted sons, most pious Brothers, bury me neither within nor outside the city." With this word, cheerfully committing his body, which was to be entrusted to the earth, and happily sending forth his spirit above the sky to Him who had given it, he died on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of March. He dies on February 14 and is buried in the city walls The monks, however, having diligently and carefully examined the last words of the Abbot, decreed by the consent of all that the venerable body of the Abbot should be honorably entombed within the walls of the city. This they piously and devoutly carried out at once, with the grace of the Holy Spirit breathing upon them, who with the Father and the Son reigns as God forever and ever. Amen.

a Paul the Deacon writes thus concerning the customs of the Lombards, Book 1, chapter 9: "It is certain that the Lombards were so called afterward from the length of their unshaved beards, when at first they had been called Winnili. For in their language, LANG means 'long' and BAERT means 'beard.'" In chapter 8 he relates a ridiculous fable, as he himself admits, about the origin of that name, and elsewhere frequently states that they were named from their long beards, as do certain other writers. Lombards called from their long "bard," that is, axe or spear Some affirm that they were named from the Bardi, a people of Saxony. I am uncertain, however, whether they ought not rather to seem to have been named from their long axes or lances, or even large swords. That they were called Langebarden in the language of that people is not in doubt. It is likewise clear that in the Teutonic language, which they also used, "Langli" means "long." I would prefer, however, to derive the name from the old word "Barde," which signifies a double-edged axe, hatchet, or adze, rather than from "Baerd," that is, "beard." Thus we call a "Hellebarde" a war-axe, from "hel," which means bright, clear, or lofty, and "barde." Thus "Haeghebarde" is an axe or large shears with which hedges that have grown too shaggy are trimmed. "Ysenbarde" is an icicle frozen into a long, sword-like shape. It would be easy to find more words of this kind, especially ancient ones. I conjecture from this that the Lombards were so named because they carried and deftly wielded poles with long points. which they used in wars I deduce this from Paul the Deacon himself, who writes in Book 5, chapter 10: "Then one of the King's army (of Grimoaldus), named Amalongus, who was accustomed to carry the royal pole, striking a certain little Greek with that same pole with both hands, lifted him from the saddle on which he was riding and raised him into the air above his own head." What else is this pole but a kind of spear or lance, long and strong, such that by it a horseman unhorsed could be lifted into the air? Nor should it be thought that only the King was accustomed to use such a pole. For the King himself did not take part in that battle, so that his pole need not have been brought there. But the man who was accustomed to carry that pole, or "bard," for the King -- a man of the greatest bravery -- had gone down into the battle line armed with another bard, to prove his valor to Prince Romualdus.

b It should have been written "angaria," from the Greek aggareia, meaning violent and forced service. This is clear from Matthew 27:32 and Mark 15:21, to which places the author of the Lessons alluded.

c Some text is missing here.