CONCERNING ST. FAUSTUS, CASSINIAN MONK, AT ROME.
ABOUT THE YEAR 507.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Faustus, Cassinian monk, at Rome (Saint)
By I. B.
[1] Although Faustus, disciple of St. Benedict and companion joined to St. Maurus in leading a colony of the Cassinian institute into Gaul, has not yet been honored with the dignity of the sacred liturgy and the Ecclesiastical Office, Faustus the monk was already formerly regarded as a Saint, he has long been enrolled among the Saints and entered in the registers of the Blessed. Vincent of Beauvais, who lived more than four hundred years ago, thus inscribed the title of chapter 68 of book 21, if the titles of the chapters are his own: "Concerning the formation of Saints Faustus and Maurus under the blessed Benedict." Peter de Natalibus, Bishop of Equilo, who completed the Catalogue of Saints that we have in our hands in the year of Christ 1371, prefixed this title to chapter 128 of book 3: "Concerning St. Faustus, monk and Confessor." John Trithemius also, in his work "On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict" (which he composed before the year 1505), inscribes chapter 3 of the third book, which is "Concerning Saints and Canonized Persons": "Concerning St. Faustus the Monk."
[2] Hence his name was inscribed in the Martyrologies. Hermann Greven in his supplement to Usuard, published in the years 1515 and 1521, writes at February 15: "Of Faustus, monk and Confessor, disciple of the blessed Benedict, who wrote his Life." Constantius Felicius has the same, and Francis Maurolycus in slightly varying words. Inscribed in the Martyrologies on February 15. But Galesinius: "At Monte Cassino, likewise of St. Faustus the monk. As he was a disciple of the most holy Abbot Benedict, so he was illustrious for his eminent imitation of him." Arnold Wion and Hugo Menard in the Benedictine Martyrology celebrate him with this eulogy: "At Monte Cassino, of St. Faustus the monk, disciple of our holy Father Benedict, who, having lived religiously for some time in the monastery of Angers under the discipline of St. Maurus the Abbot, returned to Rome after his death and rested in peace, full of good works." Benedict Dorgany has at the same day: "Of St. Faustus, disciple of our holy Father Benedict, a man of great obedience, whom the holy Father specially loved for his regular observance." Saussay also celebrates him with an outstanding encomium in the Supplement to the Gallic Martyrology: "The deposition," he says, "of St. Faustus, Cassinian monk and disciple of St. Benedict, who, having lived for some time in the monastery of Glanfeuil in the territory of Angers on the Loire, under the discipline of St. Maurus, afterward returning to Italy, finished his course at Monte Cassino and, abounding in good works, attained the desired prize of eternal happiness." He is mentioned on February 13 in a manuscript Calendar of the Order of St. Benedict in these words: "Of St. Faustus the monk, disciple of St. Benedict. And on February 13. He wrote the Life of the same and was a companion of St. Maurus the Abbot."
[3] What various writers relate concerning the deeds of St. Faustus is drawn from the Life of St. Maurus, which Faustus himself composed and Abbot Odo of Glanfeuil interpolated in the ninth century of the Christian era; we published it on January 15. He thus relates in the Preface: "When, At age seven he is given to St. Benedict to be formed as a monk, having been given at age seven by my parents to the blessed Benedict for nurture in the service of Almighty God, according to the norm of the regular institution, in his most holy monastery which the same man of all holiness had built at the fortress of Monte Cassino, according to the piety of the merciful God, who brings to completion in us both the willing and the doing, for His good purpose -- His free and all-powerful mercy going before us so that we may will, and His most merciful grace following after, lest we try in vain to undertake the good things He deigns to inspire; that rather, believing in Him with right faith and thinking of Him in the goodness and simplicity of heart, we may hope to receive from Him the rewards of eternal joys for what He Himself bestows and inspires -- if only we keep the rigor of our resolution and faith firm and unshaken to the end. After, however, as it pleased the Supreme Craftsman, I had passed through the years of boyhood and had begun to exercise free will; I wholly dedicated myself, as far as I was able, to monastic observance, as I was then able and knew how -- so much so that I wished in no way to be separated from the sight of the most blessed and most holy Benedict even for a moment, but always desired with the most ardent love to be instructed by his teaching, pleasing to God and worthy of imitation by men, To whom he listens assiduously, and to be edified by his radiant examples."
[4] The most blessed Father, seeing that I applied myself in all things to my own salvation and to the regular institution, very often endeavored to test the purpose of my mind by many trials, even in those things which he himself knew to be in every way impossible and insupportable for a man. But when, by the grace of Almighty God, And he is tested by him in various ways. who wills all men to be saved, he perceived that I was most ready and most prompt to undertake and attempt whatever it might be, or even to endure it, immediately he began to make special use of my services beyond all others, And seriously instructed: and to instruct me with paternal affection in certain secrets which, as he himself declared, he had entrusted to almost no one before, and to fortify me against the temptations of vices. Whence it came about that, together with his most blessed disciple Maurus, who had been most religiously nurtured and educated by him and who had been the cooperator of the Master in the merit of his life and the perfection of his virtues, he directed me to the regions of Gaul, He is sent with St. Maurus to Gaul, so that my companionship might provide some consolation to him (for I was the only survivor of the earlier monks who had been educated by him, among the new recruits), seeing that he was being sent to such distant and foreign regions for the purpose of founding the monastic Religious life.
[5] And a little later, Faustus himself indicates what place he held with St. Benedict, relating what was divinely impressed upon Benedict, who was grieving after the predicted destruction of the Cassinian monastery had been foretold: "Do not, O most proven and God-beloved Benedict, bear a sorrowful mind in any way on account of what you have learned shall happen to this place; When St. Benedict was divinely warned, for what has once been determined and decreed by the inscrutable counsel of the Supreme Deity shall without doubt be accomplished, being immutable and irrevocable, only the souls of all the inhabitants being granted to you by your merit. But the propitious consolation of the Almighty will very soon be at hand, which, by your merits nonetheless, will restore this place to its former -- nay, to a greater state than it now appears; and will radiate the light of this religious life from this same place to other nations as well. For which purpose, as soon as you have been besought -- or rather, importuned -- To send some proven monks, hasten to send those whom you have as the most proven in the flock of this holy congregation, wherever you are asked, knowing without doubt that the most abundant fruit of their labor shall be increased for you also as an accumulation of rewards to be received, and shall lead them to the habitation of perpetual blessedness." The most holy and God-beloved Father, therefore, having been made certain by this response, as soon as he was met and besought by the embassy of the Bishop of Le Mans, immediately summoned Maurus, a man of the highest religious life, and with the counsel of the entire congregation, assigned him to the legates of that Bishop, giving him as companions and fellow workers Simplicius, Antonius, and Constantianus; and also appointing me as a companion of their labor and pilgrimage, though I dare not say of their perfect works.
[6] The Bishop of Le Mans mentioned here is called Bertigrannus in chapter 3, number 16. At the request of the Bishop of Le Mans. But we briefly noted at chapter 6, annotation 2, that Abbot Odo seems to have been mistaken in his memory when he polished the Life of St. Maurus in his own style, since St. Bertigrannus presided over the Church of Le Mans much later, as we shall show in his Life on June 6. St. Maurus had therefore been summoned by St. Innocentius the Bishop, who is venerated on June 19, and was refused by the one who held that Church between him and St. Domnolus. On this matter John Bondonet learnedly and solidly discusses in the Acts of the Bishops of Le Mans. To the legates of the aforesaid Bishop (Faustus says in chapter 3, Maurus placed in charge of the others: that is, of St. Innocentius) he assigned both the most blessed Maurus and us four, whose names we have inserted in the preface, commanding us to obey the most blessed Maurus, whom he appointed our Master, no less than himself. The things accomplished on the journey and in Gaul over forty years by St. Maurus, Faustus himself describes in the Life; and a share of the glory must be given to him and to his three companions as well, since they assisted him in all things with faithful counsel and labor.
[7] After the death of St. Maurus and of Antonius and Constantianus, Faustus returned to Italy with Simplicius. Thus chapter 10, number 68: "Finally, after the death of the holy man himself, After his death, Faustus returns to Italy as he had commanded. when I had resolved, together with Simplicius, to return to our monastery, as he himself had commanded us on the very day of his burial, the man of the Lord, Bertulphus, entreated us by his protestations not to desert him as long as he lived. And since we did not dare to offend him on account of his holiness, we remained with him for the two years that he survived. After his death, when Florianus, a man of complete religious life, the son of our leader Harderadus, who had been nurtured by the blessed Maurus, had succeeded him in the government of the monastery and wished to retain us with many prayers, we returned to you, O most holy Fathers, under God's guidance; and obeying your commands, we have written down these things concerning the life, manner of living, and virtues of the blessed Maurus, though in unskilled speech."
[8] What Faustus here says about himself, others also relate, though somewhat more briefly: Vincent of Beauvais, Mirror of History, book 21, chapters 67 and 68; Trithemius, On Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, book 2, chapter 2 and book 3, chapter 3; Antonius Yepes in the Benedictine Chronicle at the year 606, etc. Trithemius writes that he returned from Gaul to the Cassinian monastery; Equilinus also says he died there, as do Saussay and others previously cited, along with Ferrari, Not to Monte Cassino, who in his general Catalogue has: "At Monte Cassino, of St. Faustus the monk." But Peter the Deacon, in his book On the Origins and Lives of the Just Men of the Sacred Monastery of Monte Cassino, chapter 6, says: "Faustus, offered at age seven to the blessed Benedict at Monte Cassino, and sent by him to Gaul with the blessed Maurus to build a monastery, remained there for forty years. But to Rome, Thence, after the death of the blessed Maurus, having returned to Rome, he died full of days. He was buried in the Lateran monastery." He rightly says he died full of days, since he appears to have reached his eighty-eighth year of age or even surpassed it; for he was given into the discipline of St. Benedict at age seven, lived with him for twenty years, spent forty-two or forty-three years in Gaul, and easily twenty at Rome, since he returned there before 587 -- yet he testifies that he showed the Life of St. Maurus written by himself to Pope Boniface: not the second, who died in the year 531, when Faustus was about seventeen years old. Furthermore, Boniface III was created Pope on February 15 of the year 606 and died on November 12 of the same year, and was succeeded the following September by Boniface IV. Faustus therefore lived at least until the year 607.
[9] These facts refute what Leo of Ostia writes concerning the time of St. Faustus's return in book 1 of the Chronicle of Monte Cassino, chapter 3, in these words: "Meanwhile, when Boniface III presided over the Apostolic See, the aforesaid Faustus, who had gone to Gaul with the blessed Maurus, returned to the aforesaid Lateran monastery; Not in the year 606, and having been asked and compelled by the blessed Theodore (who at that time, as the third after the saintly Valentinianus, governed the same congregation), he wrote in verified truth the history of the life of the blessed Maurus, which the same Pope Boniface, approving, strengthened with his authority." He seems to have returned when Pelagius II was governing the Apostolic Church. Antonius Yepes follows Leo in the reckoning of time in the Benedictine Chronicle at the year 606, writing thus: But before 590: "St. Faustus at this very time returned from Gaul to Italy, an old disciple of our holy Father Benedict... In the course of the year 606 he went to Monte Cassino, and seeing the place in ruins, the aged old man immediately went up to Rome... And having spent his years and strength for the glory of God and the increase of the sacred order, he breathed forth his blessed soul at Rome, whom the Church venerates on February 15."
[10] Concerning the Life of St. Maurus which he wrote, the same Faustus thus recalls in the Preface: "I therefore, long after the passing of the illustrious Confessor of Christ Benedict our Master, the worker of wonderful deeds, the most blessed Maurus being now buried, along with our two companions -- namely, Constantianus and Antonius -- There, at the request of the Brothers, having returned to our monastery, already in nearly the last stage of life, together with Simplicius, according to the command of the blessed Maurus; compelled by all the Brothers of the Cassinian monastery from which we had set out, and especially by the most religious man, to be named with honor, Theodore, who as the third after the saintly Valentinianus governed the congregation of the Lateran monastery for a considerable time, I undertook to write, He wrote a careful Life of St. Maurus, beginning from his very infancy, the history of the life, manner of living, and also of the departure of the same most blessed Maurus, as well as of the construction of the monastery which, with God's help, he strenuously and most elegantly built, and also of the miracles which the Lord deigned to work through him to the praise and glory of His name, which we ourselves, being present, beheld with our own eyes -- for the edification of all monks. Moreover, I advise no one to doubt the truth of the deeds and narrative, because I know it is much better to be wholly silent than to relate anything frivolous or fabricated. Approved by Boniface III, Finally, I showed this little work to the most blessed Pope Boniface, who, the most holy Pontiff, approving it, deemed it worthy of praise and strengthened it with his holy authority."
[11] I beseech those who shall take this up to read, Though he himself excuses his lack of skill: not to disdain what has been written in a rustic and unpolished style; but rather to grant me pardon, who, although I was unskilled and instructed with no prerogative of literary art on which I might rely, nevertheless did not allow to be hidden in silence those things which the Lord willed to work through His servant and at which I myself was present -- especially since I was provoked to set these things down, in whatever way I could, both by fraternal charity and entreaty and by the command of holy men, which was not to be disregarded. So far Faustus; who, when he writes that he returned to his monastery, means not that on Monte Cassino which had already been destroyed by Zoto, Duke of the Lombards of Benevento, but that which had been built at Rome -- or rather, the Brothers themselves of the Cassinian congregation who had taken refuge in Rome. So Marcus Antonius Scipio of Piacenza explains in his Eulogies of the Abbots of the Sacred Monastery of Monte Cassino, and others. That Faustus returned from Gaul to Rome, Wion and the others previously cited agree, although they indicate that his memory is observed chiefly at Monte Cassino.
[12] Sigebert of Gembloux, in his book on Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 32, relates that Faustus wrote the Life of St. Maurus. Peter de Natalibus and the previously cited Maurolycus, Greven, and Felicius also assert that he composed the Life of St. Benedict as well. This is not clear to us. Abbot Odo of Fossatum admits in his first preface to the history of the Translation of St. Maurus, number 3, that he found Whether he also wrote a Life of St. Benedict is uncertain. in the bag of a certain Cleric, who, as he said, was called Peter, and who, as he admitted, had two years previously gone to Rome from the district of Avranches, from the place of the holy Archangel Michael which is called At the Two Tombs, small notebooks almost consumed by extreme age, once written by an ancient and blunt hand, containing the Life of the blessed Benedict and of five of his disciples -- namely, Honoratus, Simplicius, Theodore, Valentinianus, and Maurus -- which he scarcely managed to redeem by giving a not inconsiderable sum. And because they seemed corrupted both by the uncouth style and by the faults of copyists, he endeavored to correct the Life of the blessed Maurus as best he could, Abbot Odo interpolated that of St. Maurus. and having spent a labor of twenty days more or less, while preserving the fidelity of the statements and miracles found therein, rendered it, as it now stands, clearer and more express for readers. Odo would indeed have earned greater gratitude from a curious posterity if he had published it as he found it, or if he wished to add anything, had done so in a separate commentary. What happened to the other four Lives -- whether they were neglected by Odo and afterward perished, or lie hidden somewhere in old codices -- we cannot conjecture, nor whether Faustus was their author. The Life of St. Benedict certainly seems different from the one that St. Gregory published in book 2 of his Dialogues, for that could not have been unknown to Odo. Peter the Deacon, in his book on the Illustrious Men of Monte Cassino (recently published at Rome with the excellent annotations of Giovanni Battista Maro), chapter 2, does not list any other composition by Faustus besides the Life of St. Maurus. He thus writes: "Faustus, a disciple of that same Father (Benedict), offered at age seven at Monte Cassino and directed by the most holy Benedict to Gaul with Maurus, the Cassinian Provost, after his return composed the Life of the blessed Maurus, most lucidly, at the command of Abbot Theodore." What Gerardus Johannes Vossius relates concerning the writings and age of Faustus in book 2 of his Latin Historians, chapter 24, and what Giovanni Battista Maro says in his annotations to the cited chapter 2 of Peter the Deacon, are thoroughly solid.