Theotonius

CONCERNING ST. THEOTONIUS, PRIEST, PRIOR OF THE MONASTERY OF THE HOLY CROSS OF THE CANONS REGULAR AT COIMBRA IN PORTUGAL

Year of Christ 1166

Preliminary Commentary.

Theotonius, Priest, Prior of the Monastery of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, Coimbra in Portugal (St.)

By G. H.

Section I. The Priory of the Holy Cross. The sacred veneration of St. Theotonius. His Acts recorded.

[1] Coimbra, a city of the Portuguese mentioned by ancient writers, was so destroyed by the Alans that nothing but the wretched ruins of antiquity remain at the place now called Old Condexa. From the ashes of this Coimbra another illustrious city was then raised, commonly called Coimbria, or, as in the formerly royal city of Coimbra the authors of the Life of St. Theotonius and others prefer, Colimbria, the seat of the first Princes and Kings of Portugal, as it lies in a most pleasant location on the river Mondego, which a bridge of most beautiful workmanship joins the two parts of the divided city.

[2] in its suburb, the monastery of the Holy Cross In the baths of this city's suburb, a most august monastery of Canons was begun to be built in the year, as will be shown below, 1134, and was named after the Holy Cross. It was fortified with the greatest privileges of Supreme Pontiffs and Kings of Portugal and other Princes, endowed with towns, villages, castles, and estates with full jurisdiction over temporal and spiritual affairs, the head of the Congregation of Canons Regular produced men illustrious for outstanding sanctity and learning, and has been held in veneration among all the Portuguese and Spanish above the other monasteries of this Order to this day. Indeed, all the other monasteries in Portugal that observe the institute of the Canons are all subject to the most illustrious Congregation of the Holy Cross of Coimbra, of which the said monastery is the head, in which its Prior, or Abbot General, resides, and which has under it in Portugal eighteen other illustrious monasteries, which Gabriel Pennottus lists in Book 2 of the History of Clerics Regular, Chapter 32, numbers 4 and 5, adding that in the kingdoms of Spain, among the order of Canons Regular, that Congregation of the Holy Cross alone is found in which regular institutes most flourish.

[3] To this monastery were brought the sacred bodies of five Saints of the Order of Friars Minor, who in Mauritania earned the crown of martyrdom by shedding their blood for the confession of the name of Christ in the year 1220, on January 16; on which day we illustrated their Acts, In it lived St. Anthony of Padua and said that St. Anthony of Padua, then a Canon in that monastery and called Ferdinand Martin, inflamed with the ardor of martyrdom, entered the Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis and died holily therein on June 13, as will be related more fully in his Life on that day. Finally, as Antonius Vasconcellius writes in the Anacephalaeosis of the Kings of Portugal under Alphonsus I, number 25, and from its revenues the University of Coimbra was founded the monastery of the Holy Cross was enriched with such ample revenues that from them the University of Coimbra, second to none of those in Spain in wealth, was afterward endowed.

[4] That monastery is said below to have been begun by the authority of Prince Alphonsus and the Bishop of Coimbra by St. Theotonius and eleven other illustrious men, St. Theotonius its first Prior to whom, when within a year their number had grown to seventy-two, the same St. Theotonius was given as Superior, who wished to be called Prior, not Abbot; and in it he died holily on February 18, inscribed in various Martyrologies on that day. Ferrari in the General Catalogue has this concerning him: "At Coimbra in Portugal, St. Theotonius, Priest, of the Order of Canons Regular." inscribed in Martyrologies on February 18 But Ghinius in the Feasts of the Canonized Saints of the Canons adorns him with a long eulogy drawn from his Life. John Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology records his memory as follows: "At Coimbra in Portugal, St. Theotonius, of the Order of Canons Regular, who, when he was known as the first founder and Prior of the monastery of the Holy Cross of that city, renowned for miracles, illustrious in character, celebrated for works, and conspicuous in the exercise of the pastoral office, putting off this miserable life, the celebrated Confessor donned the peaceful one in heaven." His name is likewise inserted with praise in the Portuguese Martyrology published at Coimbra in 1591, and the Portuguese Hagiology published by George Cardoso in 1652, in which most elegant summaries of his deeds are contained in the Portuguese language.

[5] The Ecclesiastical Office of the same Saint with proper lessons is recited in the Cathedral Churches of Braga, Evora, he is honored with an Ecclesiastical office Coimbra, Leiria, and Viseu, which, having assumed him as its Patron Saint, celebrates his day with the greater solemnity. The existing proper Offices of the Canons Regular of the Congregation of the Holy Savior, published at Rome in 1613, prescribe that he be venerated with the rite called semi-double, using the common office of Confessors not Pontiffs. Prudentius Sandoval in the History of the Church of Tuy, folio 124, reports that the deeds of St. Theotonius are related most fully in the Breviary of the Canons of St. Augustine, where he primarily means those Canons who are subject to the Congregation of the Holy Cross, in whose Office particular Hymns are also sung concerning his acts. From the one read at None, Tamayo Salazar cites these words:

"And Theotonius the high walls Of the Holy Cross establishes."

[6] Cardoso writes, in his Commentary on February 18, and Tamayo Salazar, that the Life of St. Theotonius exists in manuscript in a very ancient codex of the monastery of the Holy Cross and in the royal archive and the index of the foundation of the same monastery, and Tamayo Salazar asserts that he obtained the complete Acts of this most holy man through the kindness of the Most Illustrious Lord, Dom Hieronymo Mascarenhas, the ornament of Portuguese nobility and the untiring patron of students, the Life is published from John Tamayo Salazar a Knight of the Order of Calatrava, whose history he contemplates, a most vigorous Director in the royal council of the Orders, Sub-Minister of the curtain to King Philip IV the Catholic, Prior of the Church of Guimaraes and Bishop-elect of Leiria, who faithfully extracted them from a very ancient manuscript codex of the monastery of the Holy Cross of Coimbra. So says Tamayo, who published the Acts drawn from that contemporary manuscript codex, as he calls it, which we give, as is our custom, divided into chapters and illustrated by us numbers, and illustrate with our annotations and a brief summary of events indicated in the margin. The author of the Life was a Canon Regular of the same monastery of the Holy Cross, and a subordinate of St. Theotonius: thus in the Prologue he indicates that he is a Cleric, and in Part 2, number 3, he says: "I give thanks written by a Canon of the same monastery that in our times we merited to have such a Father -- and indeed we still have him." Hence, as is said at number 13, "he often exhorted us, on occasion, with the fatherly affection of our Father, to perseverance in our vocation and the chain of obedience." And at number 22: "As a good pastor of souls," he says, "bearing the solicitude of the whole flock, he himself chose for us a Prior in the common Chapter." And at number 23: "While we were eating, he took something." And at number 24, he calls "our monastery of the Holy Cross." Hence in the Prologue he says it would be a crime "to suppress in silence a man unique in our times, and not to make manifest the light that was among us." Furthermore, for the certainty of the history, an eyewitness there are those words in Part 2, number 9: "we have experienced many benefits and remedies for various diseases from him." And at number 1: "things which I saw or heard in him." Number 21: "I saw very many prostrate themselves at his knees." He says that from the dying man he received a blessing and saw him die with a joyful countenance. He narrates other things "as the Saint related to us," as he says in the Prologue, and in Part 1, number 11, and Part 2, numbers 21 and 28. Other things he writes, in Part 1, number 4, as heard from religious men, or at number 11, "as was most certainly proved." Finally, when the Priest Honorius had been freed from Saracen captivity, he passes over telling how it happened, "since it is widely known on the lips of all the people" -- showing that he brings forward rarer examples of virtues and miracles that were less known to the public.

[7] Tamayo Salazar says that other Acts of St. Theotonius, written in an ancient Legendary of Evora, were received by him from Emmanuel Faria de Sousa, a Knight of Christ and the foremost historian of all Portuguese history, another Life is given from the same Tamayo; another from the Breviary of Evora and that he publishes them because they breathe great antiquity. We append them -- not, as he does, in first place, but subordinate to the more ancient ones; and in third place we add the epitome of the Life found in the Breviary of Evora, published in 1648, divided into nine Lessons. Similar Lessons, but somewhat shorter, from the Breviary of Braga were published by Sandoval in the History of the Church of Tuy, folios 125 and following. He says that the Lessons in the Breviary of the Canons of St. Augustine are more ample than these, the beginning of which he gives at folio 129, as follows: "A man of a truly venerable life, Dom Theotonius, the first Prior and Father of the Colimbrian monastery of the Holy Cross, was from the province of Galicia, the city of Tuy, the village of Gamfey."

[8] The same Life exists in the History of the Lives of the Saints by Didacus de Rosario, of the Order of Preachers, published in Portuguese in 1585, the deeds of the same described by others and the author asserts that he collected it from the Breviaries of the monastery of the Holy Cross, of Braga, and of Evora. Some epitome of the Life of the same Saint was published by John Marieta in his Ecclesiastical History of the Saints of Spain, Book 6, Chapter 42; Alphonsus Villegas in the Flower of the Saints, in the Appendix concerning the Saints of Spain; Thomas de Trujillo in Volume 2 of the Thesaurus of Preachers at February 18. Other writers of Portuguese affairs also treat of him throughout. And indeed Vasconcellius in the Description of the Kingdom of Portugal, page 522, pronounces the following: "Among the Prelates of the Regular Orders, Dom Theotonius, Prior of the most illustrious monastery of the Holy Cross at Coimbra, left outstanding monuments of sanctity."

Section II. The age of St. Theotonius and his Relics. The year in which the monastery of the Holy Cross was built.

[9] Vasconcellius, about to begin his Anacephalaeoses of the Kings of Portugal from Count Henry, the parent of the Kings, deplores the obscure history of those times, the beginning of the kingdom of Portugal is obscure since their ancestors, intent on the war against the Moors, were more concerned with the sword than the pen, and preferred to perform illustrious deeds rather than to write them. The contemporary author of the Life of St. Theotonius supplies very many things pertaining to this Count Henry and his son Alphonsus, the first King of Portugal, illuminated in the Acts of St. Theotonius whose periods of rule are connected and here to be reckoned by the same calculation -- and all the more carefully, because some numbers both of years and of persons have been confused here and there in the Acts by the fault of copyists. Thus in Part 2, number 3, while the increased number of Canons within the first year of the begun monastery is indicated, some numbers are confused therein these words are read: "No longer twelve (as they had begun) but nearly eleven armed soldiers of Christ professed to live together in the manner of the Apostles," where in place of "eleven" Didacus de Rosario has "seventy-two," so as to allude to the number of the Apostles and Disciples. But Didacus drew that number from the Breviary of the Holy Cross, which is nowhere expressed in other Breviaries.

[10] St. Theotonius was born in Galicia around the year of the Christian Era 1080, St. Theotonius is born around 1080; Count Henry governs Portugal from about 1089 or somewhat later, as will be clear below when we treat of his death. The kingdom of Portugal grew up with him. For Count Henry governed it from about the year 1089; his wife Theresa is called below in the Acts "most noble Queen," because she was the daughter of Alphonsus VI, King of Spain. These nuptials are indicated in a Fragment of French History from an ancient manuscript of Fleury, extending from the year 997 to the year 1109, published first by Pithou and then by Chesne in Volume 4 of the History of the French from page 85, where the following is read on page 89 concerning Alphonsus, or Andephonsus, the King: "He married a daughter of Robert, Duke of the Burgundians, named Constantia, descended from the Dukes of Burgundy by whom he begot a daughter whom he gave in marriage to Count Raymond, who held a county beyond the Saone. He gave another daughter, but one not born of the conjugal bed, to Henry, one of the sons of a son of the same Duke Robert. And he placed both of them in the very borders of Spain to rule against the Agarenes." This Robert, Duke of the Burgundians, and grandfather of Henry, and descended from the Kings of France was the son of Robert, King of France, and grandson of Hugh Capet.

[11] At that time Pope Urban II presided over the Catholic Church, consecrated in the year 1088, on the fourth day before the Ides of March, a Sunday; who then, coming to Gaul in the year 1095, Under this Count held the most celebrated Synod at Clermont on November 18 for the recovery of the Holy Land. "Then," says Rodrigo of Toledo, Book 6 of Spanish Affairs, Chapter 27, from Gaul was brought by the Archbishop of Toledo, Burdinus "Bernard, Archbishop of Toledo, provoked by his indulgences and marked with the sign of the Cross, went to Rome to cross over into Syria. But the Lord Pope Urban (who had returned to Rome from Gaul in 1096) forbade him, lest the new planting be exposed to danger by the Pastor's absence. He returned through the regions of Gaul, where, choosing honest and learned men from various places, he brought them with him into Spain." And as he adds in Chapter 28, "he also brought from Limoges Burdinus, whom he first made Archdeacon made Bishop of Coimbra of Toledo, then Bishop of Coimbra, and afterward Archbishop of Braga; who, having been made Bishop, caused himself to be called Maurice." He was later created Antipope under the name Gregory VIII by Emperor Henry V. He is said by Rodrigo, Book 7, Chapter 5, to have been the first Bishop consecrated at Coimbra. but not the first But before him, Bishop Cresconius of Coimbra was the uncle of St. Theotonius, Cresconius preceded him, who died in 1098 who died in the Hispanic Era 1136, on June 22, as Sandoval reports from the very ancient codices of the monastery of the Holy Cross in his History of Tuy, folio 128. This is the year of Christ 1098, when Burdinus cannot have been made Archdeacon of Toledo until the following year at least, and then, as should be read in Rodrigo, he was first made Bishop of Coimbra, and then Archbishop of Braga; and Gundisalvus succeeded him, who is mentioned below in Part 1, number 6.

[12] But how long Cresconius held his see, or when he was created Bishop, we have not yet read. He had been the teacher of St. Theotonius in spiritual and literary studies. But when the latter was midway between boyhood and adolescence, with whom St. Theotonius came to Coimbra perhaps ten or twelve years of age, he came with his uncle, already Bishop of Coimbra, to Coimbra, and under Archdeacon Tello fully learned the Ecclesiastical use of reading and chanting before the death of the Bishop, who died in the year 1098, as we said; at which time we believe St. Theotonius to have completed his sixteenth or seventeenth year. He then lived in the city of Viseu, and having received sacred Orders, both minor and major, he becomes a Priest was at length consecrated a Priest. Since the appropriate age of twenty-four years must be granted for this divine office, it cannot be considered to have happened before the year of Christ 1104. The sanctity of Theotonius shone forth so greatly in the dignity of the priesthood that, at the prayers of all the citizens and Prior of Viseu and by the command of Gundisalvus, Bishop of Coimbra, he was constituted Prior of the Church of Viseu. Sandoval interprets this as Dean; Tamayo Salazar as Parish Priest. In this office, St. Theotonius enriched the Church with temporal goods and the Clergy with upright morals. For the accomplishment of these things, some years again are required.

[13] Jerusalem had been conquered by Duke Godfrey of Bouillon in the year 1099, and the fame of this event, having spread throughout the entire Christian world, had excited among other Princes also Count Henry, he sets out for Jerusalem who, leaving Portugal, departed for that holy war. St. Theotonius likewise, having resigned the dignity of the Church of Viseu, departed for Jerusalem solely for the sake of piety, and after the passage of a long time returned to Viseu; neither the former dignity, which was offered to him, nor the Episcopate, which Count Henry and Queen Theresa offered, he refuses the Episcopate offered by Count Henry could he be induced to accept. These things occurred before the year 1112, in which Count Henry is said to have died, leaving as his heir Alphonsus, born, as they say, in the year 1094, whom the Acts below call the Infante of Portugal in Part 2, numbers 2, 8, and 9, but at number 10, on account of his most unconquered valor and illustrious nobility, deservedly call him King. In those same times St. Theotonius led an Apostolic life, under Alphonsus I, he lives in the manner of the Apostles bound to no Ecclesiastical dignity or pastoral charge, and a second time visited Jerusalem and other holy places of Palestine. And when he had resolved to spend the rest of his life there with the Canons Regular of the Sepulchre of Christ, he returned to Portugal to settle his affairs as he saw fit.

[14] But it seemed otherwise to Divine Providence. For the twelve men building the monastery of the Holy Cross were joined by a twelfth, the monastery of the Holy Cross begun to be built not in 1132 but 1134 and he was constituted the first Prior of that congregation. The only year of Christ that is read in his Acts, not without error on the part of copyists, is expressed as 1132, which was actually 1134. For in that year they began to build the monastery on the fourth day before the Kalends of July; and then -- whence the proof of the indicated error must be drawn -- on the sixth day before the Kalends of March of the following year, at the beginning of Lent, they professed under the habit and Rule of St. Augustine. These chronological markers do not correspond to the year 1133 or the following, but to the year 1135. For in that former year 1133, with the lunar cycle at 13, the solar cycle at 22, and the Dominical letter A, Easter was celebrated on March 26, and Ash Wednesday, or the beginning of Lent, fell on February 8, and the above-indicated sixth day before the Kalends of March fell on the seventeenth day of Lent, which is far from the beginning of the fast. Likewise in the following year 1134, with the lunar cycle at 14, the solar cycle at 23, and the Dominical letter G, the Paschal solemnity was observed on April 15, Ash Wednesday on February 28, and the sixth day before the Kalends of March was a Saturday before Quinquagesima Sunday, not at the beginning of the fast. But in the year 1135, which we substitute, with the lunar cycle at 15, the solar cycle at 24, and the Dominical letter F, [and the first profession is made in 1135, on the first Sunday of Lent, February 24] Easter fell on April 7, Ash Wednesday on February 20, and the sixth day before the Kalends of March fell on the first Sunday of Lent, from which the Ecclesiastical Lenten office, as they call it, begins -- and this is here called the "beginning of the fast" -- on which day they professed the monastic life by solemn vow, which in the preceding years would have been done on some secular day, either a Friday or Saturday, contrary to custom. All of which is confirmed in the year of death.

[15] St. Theotonius becomes Prior After this solemn profession was completed, St. Theotonius was elected Prior, but on what day or month is not expressed. He is said at number 22 to have governed the Congregation for

twenty years, and after the twenty-first year from his entrance into the monastery, having laid down the governance, to have chosen as Prior John Theotonius, and afterward to have lived ten more years with him. And so it is said at number 28 that he lived in holy purpose for thirty-one years, he dies February 18, a Friday and died on the twelfth day before the Kalends of March, on Friday, at the first hour of the day. In the shorter Acts at number 6, the day of death, February 18, and Friday are also indicated. in the year 1166 These chronological markers assign the year 1166, when, with the solar cycle at 27 and the Dominical letter B, the eighteenth of February fell on a Friday -- which had not occurred since the year 1155. Hence Didacus de Rosario must be corrected, 31 years having elapsed since the monastery was begun who conjoins February 18 and Friday with the year 1162, which year is also indicated by Sandoval, Cardoso, Tamayo Salazar, Rodrigo de Acuna, and others. But in that year, with the solar cycle at 23 and the Dominical letter G, February 18 fell on Sunday itself. Nor would he have lived in the holy purpose of monastic life for thirty-one years, even counting from the year 1132 and the day June 28, when Didacus de Rosario says the building of the monastery was begun, because only twenty-nine years, seven months, and twenty days would have elapsed. But from the year 1134 and the day June 28, which we have shown above to be the date when the building of the monastery was begun, until February 18 of the year 1166, besides seven months and twenty days, thirty-one years elapsed, which the Acts say he lived thereafter, ending with these words: "He completed, as he himself reported, the entire span of his life between forty and fifty, according to the written record." Where one should read "between eighty and ninety years"; and so in the other Acts it is said that as an octogenarian he surrendered his spirit to his Creator. He lived approximately 83 years In the Breviary of Evora he is said to have been approximately eighty years old; in that of Braga, nearly eighty. We believe him to have lived approximately eighty-three years, since we said he was born around the year 1080 or somewhat later, as one who before the death of Cresconius, Bishop of Coimbra and his uncle, had been instructed in various branches of learning and in Ecclesiastical chant, and thus is said to have lived between eighty and ninety years.

[16] Furthermore, in the Acts, St. Theotonius is reported to have died in the year of Dom Alphonsus I, King of Portugal, in what year of the king's reign did he die? under whom he received the vesture of Christ, the twenty-sixth, and of his reign, the thirty-first. From these the former year would be 1135, the latter 1140. Perhaps his mother, Queen Theresa, survived until the earlier year, from whose death Alphonsus may have counted the years of his reign. The victory narrated in Part 2, number 20, won by King Alphonsus in the field of Ourique in what year after the victory over the five Moorish Kings over five Pagan -- that is, Mohammedan -- Kings, on the feast day of St. James and by his patronage, is written by most authors to have occurred in the year 1139; after which, in the following year 1140, this second epoch of Alphonsus's receiving the vesture of Christ began. and of the reception of the vesture of Christ? But what kind of reception of the vesture this was, we have not yet read. The Portuguese interpret the insignia then assumed by Alphonsus and inserted into his garments as the five wounds assigned by Christ, who then appeared to him.

[17] St. Theotonius is said in the same Acts to have been buried in the Chapter House; in others, in the subterranean vault of the Chapter House. Tamayo Salazar, following Rodrigo de Acuna, writes: "The holy body lay beneath the cavity of the altar of the Chapter House, the body of St. Theotonius translated above the altar in 1630 until in the year 1630 the religious of that monastery translated it to another rich and majestic sepulchre, fashioned of jasper." Cardoso calls it a Mausoleum placed above the altar, and adds that the body of Blessed Tello, founder of that monastery, was placed at the Gospel side, and the body of Dom John Theotonius, second Prior of the same monastery, at the Epistle side. Both are treated in the Acts. The same Cardoso asserts that certain relics of St. Theotonius were given to other monasteries of the same Canons, one arm at Lisbon and that one arm of his is preserved at Lisbon in the monastery of St. Vincent; while another was sent to the Church of Viseu, another at Viseu which he had formerly governed as Prior, or Dean, or Parish Priest, as Tamayo Salazar writes, adding two poems composed by Emmanuel Pimenta for the honor of that translation, as well as two other poems attesting to St. Theotonius's singular devotion to the Cross of Christ, which the reader may see there.

LIFE

by a contemporary Canon Regular of the monastery of the Holy Cross, his disciple, discovered in the manuscripts by Hieronymo Mascarenha, published by John Tamayo Salazar.

Theotonius, Priest, Prior of the Monastery of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, Coimbra in Portugal (St.)

BHL Number: 8127

By a contemporary disciple.

PROLOGUE

[1] Since, as the Philosopher says, the Lord is to be invoked even in the smallest matters, much more must He be invoked by us in the loftier subject of men who, having trampled the devil, have already received the crown of security -- the author, grieving at the death of St. Theotonius among whose number who doubts that Dom Theotonius belongs? He indeed, now leaving us and ascending to the heavenly Jerusalem, which he sought and admired with all devotion on earth, has pierced us with an intolerable pain by the arrow of desire. Hence it is that, as often as I try to burst forth into words, so often are my eyes filled with tears and my voice falters. But the divine Scripture forbids it. I shall not therefore mourn the dying one, because I shall receive him rising again with Christ. I know indeed that he is with Christ; let me therefore rejoice and be glad, because he was snatched away lest malice should change his mind, because his soul was pleasing to God. But I cannot bear his absence, and the loss of so great a man breaks my spirit. For I cannot dissemble the grief, because the happier he is, the greater is my sorrow at being deprived of so great a good. I shall recall his memory in writing; yet I judge myself so unequal to the subject of so great a man he confesses himself unfit to describe his deeds that it would be more prudent for me to admire such a man than to speak of him. For great subjects do not bear small talents, and the more great and excellent is that which must be said, the more is he overwhelmed who cannot express the magnitude of the realities in words. And I fear lest perhaps I should do him injury, concerning whom I could not worthily describe so admirable a life. For what among Priests is more excellent than my Lord? Who illuminated these western regions of ours with his virtues as with so many stars. And what among Clerics is more feeble than I? Who have drunk in no irrigating streams of any learning; whom scarcely the attenuated drop of a poor trickle has moistened, breathing nothing from my own fountain.

[2] But although I despair of being adequate to these things, when I raise the eyes of my mind to the Bestower of gifts, through whom the tongue of the mute was opened, relying on the help of God who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, and who narrates His truth, when He wills, even through the mouths of beasts -- I am immediately made stronger for recalling his memory. For I judge it would be a crime and an envious act to be entirely silent about so great a Father, and to suppress in fruitless silence a man unique in our times. By the gift of grace, therefore, through which he was admitted to the choirs of Saints, I shall attempt to write a few things about his character, touching upon them in passing. he offers these things cursorily, to be polished by others For, conscious of my own lack of skill and measuring the brevity of my talent, I leave the most holy acts of that man to be more fully described in my words by wiser men. However, I am resolved to write this, though in unpolished speech, with Christ as my guide, both to satisfy my grief -- to soothe his sorrow the solace of which is the greatest and principal cause of the undertaken work -- and it will be, as I think, a consolation not to be despised, when the light that was among us becomes manifest to present and future generations through this reading. A mind occupied by the magnitude of grief has perhaps not maintained the order of the preface, about which let it now suffice to have said this much.

PART I

The deeds of St. Theotonius before the construction of the monastery of the Holy Cross.

CHAPTER I

The birth, studies, priesthood, and governance of the Church of Viseu of St. Theotonius.

[3] The venerable man Theotonius was the first Father of the Colimbrian monastery of the Holy Cross. In order that we may be instructed to understand how, by the calling of Divine grace -- which summoned him to what was to come, not without the salvation of many -- he came to the regular profession and the governance of that same monastery, it is first necessary to consider somewhat more attentively whence and in what place he was born, by what teachers he was educated in letters, and also how he conducted himself in the world. He was therefore from the province of Galicia, the city of Tuy, the village of Ganfey, St. Theotonius born in Galicia born of honest and upright parents -- namely, his father Oueco and mother Eugenia -- whose most religious line of genealogy he exalted by his pious character and adorned by his upright deeds, so that it was not without some great presage of the Holy Spirit that he was called in Greek Theotonius, which in Latin signifies "Divine." Truly divine and holy was he, who, wherever he lived from his earliest age, always stood firm in the solidity of the Catholic faith; imbued with literary studies his life too was full of the most holy morals and virtues. Nourished with the most diligent religious care by his parents, when he reached the age suitable for instruction, he was committed to spiritual literary studies; then, after an interval of time had passed, when he was midway between boyhood and adolescence, he came with his uncle, Bishop of Coimbra, Dom Cresconius, who was his teacher, under his uncle the Bishop of Coimbra to Coimbra; and there, under Tello, Archdeacon of that city, a most prudent and discreet man, he fully learned the Ecclesiastical use of reading and chanting as conditions of the time permitted. and Blessed Tello

[4] Afterward, when the aforesaid Bishop had died, he went to the city of Viseu; and because of his simplicity and the favor of the deceased Bishop, he was received at the church of Blessed Mary Ever Virgin, he dwells at Viseu; he receives sacred Orders which at that time was under the diocese of Coimbra, where indeed he betook himself. It is now fitting, with the supporting grace of the heavenly Power, to demonstrate briefly what solicitude he had in his Orders and what conduct in that Church. Let it be permitted to me therefore to narrate what I heard from religious men. First he is ordained Doorkeeper; the keys of the Church are given to him, a diligent Doorkeeper which he piously closed, and likewise opened at the appropriate hours, and rejected infidels with Christian zeal. Reader He recited the Prophetic and Apostolic lessons faithfully and profitably; he performed the sacrament of sprinkling through catechumens; he performed exorcisms over unclean spirits, and by the grace of God and by virtue of his Order, cast them out of possessed bodies; Exorcist for he had the Spirit of God within him, and his life was not at variance with his office, and therefore he expelled the evil one from another's body, because he had already expelled him from his own heart through the purity of his life. Acolyte He carried the light for the Gospel, and showed forth the works of light to his neighbors, and so conducted himself in the office of Doorkeeper that he foreshadowed what he would be in the Priesthood, and in this he was always solicitous.

[5] Then, ordained Subdeacon, who can explain how, serving God in humility, he carried the vessels of the Body and Blood of Christ to the Deacons at the altar, Subdeacon and again carried them back; washed the corporals, palls, and altar cloths; and offered water to the Priests and Levites for the washing of hands before the altar. Deacon Moreover, devoutly, as they report, in his Diaconate, he admonished all with a clear voice to bend their knees, or to pray; he dispensed the Sacraments of God; he preached the Gospel; and he assisted in all the Sacraments of Christ pertaining to the Priesthood; at the altar he offered the oblations and arranged the Table of the Lord. Adorned with such character, as we have said, Priest through the individual grades he came to the Priesthood -- not according to the presumption of certain men, but according to the custom of the universal Church, emanating from the Apostles and the holy Fathers. For the Church sought him for herself; he did not impudently thrust himself forward. Ordained a Priest, therefore, he began to grow in great proficiency through the prudence and maturity of his good conduct, he exercises his duties in a holy manner and to live by more honorable morals among the people of God. For he so lived as to provide a good example for all. He carried out the office of his order wonderfully, catechizing all, baptizing them, and incorporating them into the Church. He called sinners to penance, prayed to God for the sins of the people, and brought the precepts of God to the people, preaching the truth and offering the prayers of the people to God, interceding for their sins, confecting sacrifices pleasing to God upon the altar, and always conducting himself with divine reverence in the church, he fittingly fulfilled the celestial office.

[6] Moreover, he spurned the allurements and blandishments of the perishing world; he was not puffed up by praise, not contracted by poverty; free from vices by day the sun did not burn him, nor the moon by night. Others praised in him that he never pursued curiosity, never served pleasure, never gaped after ambition. I will further proclaim that in all his actions he was circumspect and provident, always distinguished by the habit of prudence. For, as St. Gregory says, holy men have this as their own: that as they are always far from unlawful things, so they often cut off even lawful things from themselves. Therefore, lest he incur any fault through a woman, he never wished to have a conversation or even a private confession with them without a witness present. he avoids the company of women He loved all women as sisters, but, as we said, shunning them as enemies, he had cut off from himself such intimacies. By these means he had so attached to himself not only the Princes and all the citizens, but also all the people of the province, that they venerated him with wonderful affection, as a Father and revered Master of souls of both sexes. By the prayers, therefore, of all the citizens, and especially by the command of Dom Gundisalvus, Bishop of Coimbra, he is made Prior or Dean of Viseu to whom, as we said, the Church of Viseu pertained, he was overcome and, most unwillingly as later became evident, accepted the Priorate of that Church, which by his prudent discretion he enriched with temporal goods -- namely, books, sacred vestments, bells, crosses, and chalices, as well as with numerous endowments -- and wonderfully raised to the summit of honor which it possesses at the present time; supporting and honoring the Clergy, and, what is greater than all these things, enriching it with the upright morals of life.

a Tuy, Ptolemy's Toudai, an ancient city adorned with an Episcopal See on the river Minho, which separates modern Portugal from Galicia, and flows into the western Ocean about forty miles from this city. The city of Tuy. The antiquities of the city and the Cathedral Church of Tuy with its Bishops were described by Prudentius Sandoval, himself Bishop of Tuy.

b Gamfey in others. Sandoval reports that a celebrated monastery of the Order of St. Benedict now exists at the place where St. Theotonius is said to have been born.

c "Theotonius" signifies "divine" in its first part. But what does "Tonius" or "Otonius" mean? Is the word derived from "Antonius"?

d Concerning the Episcopate of Cresconius, we treated above.

e This is Blessed Tellus, the first founder of the monastery of the Holy Cross, whose body we said is preserved on the altar. Gabriel Pennottus, Book 2 of the History of Canons Regular, Chapter 32, number 4, calls him "the most holy man Tello."

f In the year 1098, as was said above.

g Viseu in the territory of Beira, with Coimbra, from which it is distant about forty miles toward the East.

h Sandoval says he was made Prior or Dean; Tamayo Salazar says Parish Priest.

CHAPTER II

The first pilgrimage to Jerusalem of St. Theotonius. His private life after his return. His sermons. The amendment of morals among the people. Examples of his chastity.

[7] But since temporal honor conferred upon him no delight (for he did not understand it as an honor, having abdicated the Priorate, he goes to Jerusalem but as a burden), he sought a most salutary stratagem for how he as a Priest of God might free himself from it. For, departing for Jerusalem, he peacefully relinquished the Priorate to his associate, the Priest Honorius; but upon returning, he refused to accept it again, although he was greatly entreated by prayers and by the supplications of Honorius himself. Nor did he thereafter wish to hold any other eminence of this world. For he was very often exhorted by the prayers and entreaties of Count Henry and his most noble wife, Queen Theresa, he refuses the Episcopate with the consent of the Clergy and all the people, to accept the office of pastoral care -- that is, the Episcopate -- but he never wished to give his consent. He reckoned all worldly things as base, fleeting, and even harmful, and therefore, fleeing temporal honors as a pestilence, he preserved himself conspicuous in a certain citadel of humility. Guarding the virginity of mind and body, and the penance of his faults, he preached; he delivers profitable sermons for he never ceased to sow among the people words of truth, overflowing with the fruit of faith. Now he reminded all of the pious work of the Christian religion; now he strengthened others in the confession of the Holy Trinity; now he invited the rest with the promise of the heavenly kingdom. But fornicators and adulterers and other malefactors he struck with the sword of anathema. he rebukes sinners Those who did not immediately amend themselves, or if perchance they sometimes refused to amend, withdrew to a distance from his sight. For so great was the authority of the Priest that even the Princes of the land feared to offend him. Indeed, fame reports that on a certain day in the church of Viseu, while he was preaching, the aforesaid Queen and Count Ferdinand, who at that time was her companion, even before the Queen not her lawful husband, left the church in haste, suffused with the blush of shame -- yet he was never thereafter rebuked by them for this.

[8] It is added moreover that, when on a certain Saturday, already vested in his sacerdotal garments, he wished to offer the salutary sacrifice in honor of the Mother of God according to custom, nor does he celebrate Mass hastily at her request and the Queen, who was standing before the doors, had sent by a messenger the request that he should strive to perform the Mass briefly, he is reported to have replied: "There is another Queen in heaven, far better and far nobler, for whom he had disposed to perform the solemnities of the Mass with the greatest reverence and beauty; it was in her power either to attend the Mass or to depart entirely." When this was reported to the Queen, she immediately recognized the fault of her guilt and proclaimed herself wretched and a sinner, but Dom Theotonius a true and just Priest and holy. he admonishes her now penitent When he was summoned to her after Mass and in humbled spirit she threw herself at his knees, at the exhortation of the holy Priest she was raised up and tearfully begged for penance; she humbly asked that prayer be offered for her by him, and, having been admonished by him that she should henceforth not utter such careless words regarding divine worship, she promised without hesitation to carry out everything with self-restraint. For the holy man never placed anything before the divine offices, that might cause him to celebrate them negligently, or indecently, or more hastily than usual. Truly with all his heart he loved the kingdom of Christ, who did not fear an earthly principality. Thus, as I said above, he admonished many, and thus he hastened to lead all into the kingdom of God, as if he had begotten them all.

[9] Nor was he a forgetful proclaimer of the word of God; he aided the poor, merciful to the poor visited the sick, attracted them with hospitality, soothed them with kindnesses; he strove to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice; and the greater part of his labor and all that he had he distributed to the needy, while the remaining part he moderately retained for the use of his clothing -- those very garments he afterward gave to widows out of compassion. And every Friday, according to his custom, in the church of St. Michael the Archangel, which is outside the wall in the cemetery of that city, he celebrated Mass for all the faithful departed; on Friday he celebrates for the departed to which on that day, both out of reverence for the Priest and for the memory of their dear ones, solemn assemblies of the peoples of the entire city flocked together, offering devoutly many and various things, as is the custom of that region; of all of which Dom Theotonius reserved absolutely nothing for himself, but after Mass and the general procession of the cemetery distributed everything to all the needy -- which was always his custom. In the exercise of good works, he also labored with all his strength to keep hidden what he was doing.

[10] If I should wish to commend chastity among such holy virtues, perhaps I should seem superfluous, since in him there was always a model of chastity. Only certain few things, he spits in the face of a woman who flatters him which seem to commend his purity, I ought not pass over. A certain woman, therefore, who appeared beautiful according to the corruption of the flesh, sought a private friendship from him and for this purpose quite carefully contrived a flattering speech; but when the servant of God perceived that a snare of deception was being prepared for him through the agent of the devil, his spirit growing fervent within him, he cast saliva with as great an effort as he could into the face of that wretched woman. The enemy of the human race very frequently laid traps for him on account of the beauty of his person. For his stature was so well formed that it appeared to have been fashioned with a certain becoming and admirable moderation; he was tall and most handsome in body, graceful of face and rather cheerful of countenance, displaying integrity more than wantonness. About the same time he was summoned by another woman -- one of great dignity -- to her home under a plausible pretext, as was believed, and he came, accompanied by his Clerics. But she, like a beast of lust, having called him apart as if under the pretense of religion into an inner chamber, he flees from another who entices him to sin, leaving his shoes behind began to beguile him with libidinous caresses, to hang upon his lips, to offer services, to loosen his shoes, and, as if to cool the fervor of God, to wash his feet -- whereas in truth she wished to drive him to an illicit act. But Dom Theotonius, whom no woman had ever touched -- indeed, whom none had ever approached closely -- amazed at the persistence of the shameless woman, when at length he understood what the woman sought, recalled to himself by the sign of the Cross, with feet now bare, hurling himself headlong out with great effort, he left his footwear behind, and, execrating that house, he summoned the Clerics who had come with him and betook himself to the church. he is preferred to Joseph Someone mindful of the art of Rhetoric compares him with the most chaste Joseph, and, if I may be permitted to say, finds him not inferior. For the one left his cloak, this one, escaping from a similar cause by the grace of God, left his shoe. The one, by distributing temporal grain, preserved a certain Egyptian nation that was perishing; this one, dispensing a goodly measure of the word of God and faith to the peoples, freed many from spiritual famine. The one had children of the flesh; this one, as it is reported, was spotless from his mother's womb; whence no suspicion of fault in such matters could ever be found in him, and he so conducted himself in the world that he seemed not to be of the world, but truly a Regular. Who could explain the magnitude of his good works, and how he lived distinguished by the ornaments of character in that city? I confess that with the brevity of my talent I am unable to unfold them; failing in the very attempt, I shall for the present pass them by, and now turn my hand to the second journey to Jerusalem.

a Others interpret this as the Episcopate of Viseu. For Count Henry himself, as Rodrigo says in Chapter 5 of Book 7, restored to Viseu, Lamego, and Porto their Cathedral Sees, and their Bishops were consecrated by the Primate of Toledo.

b She was made a widow by the death of Count Henry in 1112.

c Ferdinand Perez is called Count of Trastamare by Mariana, Book 10, Chapter 13. To the brother of this Ferdinand, Veremundo or Vermoino, Urraca, daughter of Henry and Theresa, was given in marriage.

CHAPTER III

The second pilgrimage to Jerusalem of St. Theotonius. A tempest calmed by his prayers. The holy places devoutly visited. His return to Portugal.

[11] Therefore, inflamed with virtues and with desire for the holy places, mindful neither of home, nor of kinsmen, nor of possessions, he goes to Jerusalem a second time nor of any thing pertaining to the world, with a considerable throng of pilgrims he departed from his homeland and once again took the long-desired road to Jerusalem. For the devout man had already made that journey before. When, after ten weeks, by God's leading, he had arrived at the port of St. Nicholas, he instructs others on the journey the favorable passage of the winds having ceased, he remained there for six continuous weeks -- not idle, however, but, as was most certainly proved, both while there and throughout his entire pilgrimage, he displayed beneficence to the poor, and by his example as well as by his word provoked the citizens going to Jerusalem to works of mercy. For all knew him to be a just and holy man. At length, then, with a favorable breeze blowing, he boarded the ship. Thereupon the sailors committed the sails to the winds, making for Jerusalem; but when they had sailed for some days, all began to be imperiled by a sudden tempest of the sea. How this came about, I wish to commit to memory, so that from this peril it may be known what great and grievous dangers so great a man endured on land and sea for the name of Christ. Accordingly, as the ship was sailing past he is tossed by a great storm the Gulf of Malea, suddenly the sky was darkened; and behold, clouds with a violence of winds overshadowed them from above, and, the sea being churned to its depths, they drove forth tempests hanging like watery mountains and now plunged the ship, shaken by the surging waves, into the deep, now raised it again from the sheer abyss to the upper crests, and again, the waves parting, cast it down to the lowest depths; and -- what is wonderful to tell -- they drew water from the sea, like a visible channel, which the sailors call a waterspout, into the heavens. But the sailors too, having already recognized the tempest, when the ship first began to be noticed amid the surging waves, with the utmost speed cut down the mast and cast it into the waves, began to take down the sails and to lash the yards, to secure all the equipment of the small boats and the ship lest they be swallowed by the force of the sea, and to lighten the ship by jettisoning their goods; yet they could not have even a little quiet. For the sea surged and swelled over them, terrified by the fear of death; but things more terrible than the terrible followed; for besides those things which increased the fear of death, there was seen by all who were in that peril of the sea a certain monstrous and very terrible beast, so fearful that the sailors could compare it to no beast; its eyes (as the Saint related to us) appeared like burning torches of fire; some called it a dragon, others a monster, others a demon.

[12] Why do I delay longer? Already all hope of safety had been taken away, he prays with the rest since the fierce waves raged at their death; and, their limbs dissolved with fear, all, either from the very presence of death or from the vision of the beast, had been thrown into confusion. And prepared to die, all gave one another peace, imploring with tears the help of the Almighty: that He who had delivered their bodies to so dreadful a death might most graciously receive their souls, or mercifully extend to them the aid of deliverance. Dom Theotonius, likewise prostrate in prayer with tears, and wholly turned to God, after psalms and litanies, invoked the Lord in this manner: he consoles the others "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Son of St. Mary, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit art one God in the supreme Trinity and true Unity, succor us who are placed in the utmost peril, that we may merit to see the glorious sepulchre of Thy holy Resurrection, for the veneration and kissing of which we have come from the ends of the earth, and may give thanks for Thy deliverance." He also exhorted all, and with whatever words he could, counseled them, consoling them, to confess to one another, to forgive one another from the heart what was owed, and to place all their hope in God, believing and praying, declaring to them that if they persevered, the mercy of the Redeemer would be at hand in a short time -- which indeed came to pass. the tempest calmed For while these things were happening at sea, Almighty God wonderfully showed them His mercy. For behold, unexpectedly, the blast of the breeze began to become calmer, and gradually, the masses of water being broken, the sea was restored to tranquility. A new light therefore began to arise; all, already given over to death, marveled, he gives thanks to God and, exulting, blessed the God of heaven, rendering the due praises to Him, and nobly singing "Glory to God in the highest," because He had mercifully deigned to liberate them from that crisis of death.

[13] Thus freed from the sea of Malea with all who were with him in the ship, after three weeks from the time he boarded the ship at the port of the city of Bari, he crossed the sea and arrived at the city of Joppa; and by very long circuits of the sea he went by way of the sepulchre of Blessed George the Martyr until he reached Nazareth, he visits the sepulchre of St. George, Nazareth, Tabor which nurtured the Lord and Savior. Thence he went by the road that leads to Tabor, where the Lord was transfigured, ascending to its summit and surveying most attentively the many places which the Lord had sanctified by His journeying. Descending thence, he went quickly to Samaria, and saw the sepulchre of Blessed John the Baptist; Samaria and with quickened step he made his way to the well over which the Lord sat, hungering and thirsting, and was strengthened by the faith of the Samaritan woman. And having adored the Redeemer of the world at each place, he joyfully ascended the most celebrated hill from which the long-desired Jerusalem is seen. the Mount of Calvary Here, on bended knees, the tears mingled with joy declare how greatly he exulted with gladness and what great thanks he gave to God. Joyful therefore, having entered the holy city, he resolved first to see the Cross on the Mount of Calvary, where Christ, the ransom of the world, was hung in the balance of the Cross; before which, prostrate with his whole heart and body, as if he saw the Lord hanging there, he adored. He recalled the sentence of malediction pronounced upon himself and upon every man through the disobedience of the first man, but also the mercy of the propitiation of the Son of God, who in that very place endured spitting, blows, the crown of thorns, scourges, the cross, nails, gall, vinegar, the lance, and death. And having offered prayer, he descended a little way to Golgotha, the place where, as fame has it, the blood flowing from the side of Christ broke through the hardest rock; the Sepulchre of Christ then, turning from there a short distance to the sepulchre of the Resurrection, and seeing the very place of the body where the Lord had lain, he licked it, as one athirst for the desired waters of faith. The fitting memory of meditating upon the Lord and Savior presented itself to him: how, after so great sufferings, He had rested in that very sepulchre, and through His descent to the underworld, he contemplated the ineffable and great joy of the wretched, whom Christ had led forth from the underworld, captives of the dominion of death. Thence, brought to the center of the world -- that is, to the place where Joseph of Arimathea had placed the body of the Lord when he took it down from the Cross, before it was placed in the sepulchre -- he prayed more attentively, remembering that saying of David: "But God our King, before all ages, has worked salvation in the midst of the earth." Psalm 73:12 At last he came to the place where Helena found the Cross, the place of the finding of the Cross and after he had prayed at the aforementioned oratories as devotion dictated, he finally retired to his lodging, although, since his mind was led all day and night through what he had seen, he slept

and rested in peace in that same place.

[14] On the following day, who could tell with what zeal and desire he traversed the holy places of Jerusalem in prayer? For having entered the Temple of the Lord, and after prayer having gone out through the gate called Beautiful, and of the Last Supper he ascended Sion to the place of the Supper, where the Lord washed the feet of the disciples, and said "Peace be with you," and offered His side to the doubting disciple to touch; there also the Holy Spirit descended upon the souls of more than one hundred thousand believers. And turning through the sacred way by which the Apostles carried the body of the Mother of God, he entered the church of Blessed Peter "of the Cock's Crowing," and went to the sepulchre of James, the Brother of the Lord, the Valley of Josaphat, Gethsemane and descended into the Valley of Josaphat, prayed at the sepulchre of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ascending from which he passed to the oratory of Gethsemane, where the Lord prayed to the Father at the foot of the Mount of Olives; the Mount of Olives thence going forward he came to the place of which Luke the Evangelist says: "He was parted from them about a stone's throw." And proceeding straight he ascended to the summit of the same Mount of Olives, from which the Savior ascended into heaven; thence through the village of Bethphage, and the place where the frolicking colt of the ass received the Lord's reins, he descended to Bethany, Bethany to the sepulchre of Lazarus and the hospitality of his sister. After this he went to Bethlehem, entering the sacred lodging of the Virgin Bethlehem where Christ was born, the stable where the ox recognized its owner and the ass the manger of its Lord, which as a wise animal he humbly adored. He also saw the place where the raging Herod slaughtered the little ones instead of Christ. the Jordan What shall I say of the devotion with which he hastened to the waters of the Jordan, stained by the corruption of the entire human race and cleansed by the baptism of Christ? Nor did he omit the place of Quarentena, the wilderness of Christ's fasting where the Savior of the world, tempted by Satan, willed to confirm the entire time of our warfare (in which we never cease to be tempted) by His forty days. Thence, passing through Jericho -- past the bitter spring which Elisha once adorned with his wisdom -- Jericho he saw near the road the places of the blind men who, having received their sight, promised the sacraments of both peoples believing in the Lord.

[15] It would take long if I wished to narrate with what ardor he visited Cana and Capernaum, familiar with the signs of Christ, and to tell with what admiration he saw the place of Tiberias, which the Lord sanctified by crossing over at the fare of a ship, and the wilderness where many thousands were satisfied from five loaves and two fishes. This alone I will say: that at each place he believed he was seeing Christ. Considering the reader's weariness, I have recalled but a few of the holy places which he visited with such great zeal. For many days he kept his dwelling at the Sepulchre of the Lord out of the ardor of his faith, not indeed in feasting but in prayer and the Lord's work. The Canons Regular of that same Sepulchre, he is invited to dwell at the Sepulchre of Christ observing his sanctity, commended themselves more attentively to his prayers, and in turn received him into their fellowship. They even offered him a common society of life, if he wished to dwell with them, and the guardianship of the Sepulchre -- which they knew he desired above all else. But he said that he could by no means do this unless he first returned to Spain to arrange his household affairs. he returns to Spain Therefore, commending himself again and again throughout all of Jerusalem to Almighty God, and bidding farewell to the Canons and all the servants of God, he returned to Joppa, where he had first landed; whence, carried by the extremity of the winds through the islands of Greece, having suffered many hardships on the journey, he returned home to Spain -- intending to return to Jerusalem shortly and to devoutly await the end of his life at the glorious Sepulchre. However, when he was received by his fellow citizens with great glory, I too will here conclude the first part of this work.

a Bari, a city called that of St. Nicholas. Below, at number 13, it is called "the port of the city of Bari," which is here called "the port of St. Nicholas." Bari is a celebrated trading city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in Apulian Peucetia, well known to ancients and moderns, after which the region is named, so that it is commonly called the Terra di Bari. It has a most celebrated church dedicated to St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, whose body is preserved there, from which a wondrous liquor (commonly called Manna) continually flows, whence the city and port are called St. Nicholas.

b The famous Malea, a promontory on the Laconian coast, terrible to sailors because of the frequent storms in the nearby sea, here called the Gulf of Malea. In the other Life, they are called "the rocks of Malea."

c Perhaps the name was given from the form of a cup.

d Joppa, well known in sacred literature, which the Christians recovering Palestine seized from the very beginning, and to which Christian pilgrims still generally land even now.

e The city of Lydda, or Lyda, quite near Joppa, is called "of St. George," because he is said to have been beheaded there and his sepulchre is shown. The sepulchre of St. George. Both Joppa and Lydda then had an Episcopal See. Hence, then, by long circuits of the sea, he traveled as far as Caesarea of Palestine and nearly Mount Carmel; thence to the city of Nazareth, from which Tabor is not far distant, in Galilee and in the former tribe of Zebulun.

f Concerning the sepulchre of St. John among the Samaritans, St. Jerome treats in the Life of St. Paula, January 26, Chapter 4, number 18: "She saw Sebaste, that is, Samaria... There are buried the prophets Elisha and Obadiah, and (he than whom there was no greater among those born of women) John the Baptist. Where she trembled, overcome by many wonders; for she perceived demons roaring under various torments, and before the sepulchres of the Saints men howling in the manner of wolves, etc." St. John the Baptist. Quaresmius, Book 7 of the Elucidation of the Holy Land, Peregrination 2, Chapter 2, reports that the place is still in veneration among the Saracens, where he describes the building and site.

g The following words are taken from the Life of St. Paula at the place just indicated, where it reads: "She passed through Shechem... and entering a church built on the side of Mount Gerizim, around the well of Jacob, over which the Lord sat, and, hungering and thirsting, was satisfied by the faith of the Samaritan woman." The Samaritan woman, called St. Photina, is venerated on March 20.

h Nicephorus, Book 8 of Ecclesiastical History, Chapter 30, reports that this was built by St. Helena in the palace of Caiaphas and dedicated to St. Peter.

i In the Roman Martyrology at the Kalends of May, St. James is said to have been buried not far from the temple, outside the city toward the Mount of Olives, on which St. Gregory of Tours, Book 1 of Miracles, Chapter 27, places his burial, of St. James the Less and St. Mary where are the Valley of Josaphat and in it formerly the sepulchre of the Mother of God, then the garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and beyond it Bethphage and Bethany. On these, consult the map of the city of Jerusalem by Adrichomius.

k Others call it Quarantane; concerning it, see the same Adrichomius in the tribe of Benjamin, where he also places the spring of Elisha near the mount of Quarantane, and indeed the places of the blind men healed by Christ.

l Concerning Jericho, then held by the Christians, William of Tyre, Book 11 of the Sacred War, Chapter 15, and elsewhere treats.

m Rather, Cana of Galilee is meant, where water was turned into wine.

n Canons were established in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Godfrey of Bouillon, the appointed King of Jerusalem, as Tyrius writes in Book 9, Chapter 9; Canons of the Church of the Sepulchre who in Book 11, Chapter 15, writes that in place of that Clergy, Canons Regular were introduced by Arnulf, constituted Patriarch in the year 1104.

PART II

The deeds of St. Theotonius after the construction of the monastery of the Holy Cross.

CHAPTER I

The monastery of the Holy Cross built. The governance imposed upon St. Theotonius. His singular gifts in governing.

[1] In the preceding part of this work I briefly touched upon the origin and career of the aforesaid venerable man, and how he lived in the world; now henceforth I shall relate how he came to the habit of Christ and how he lived in the community. However, I invoke the Holy Spirit, the giver of every good, [St. Theotonius, when Blessed Tello and ten other men were building the monastery of the Holy Cross] that I may carry out this task in such a way that I neither offend the truth nor seem to defraud the clarity of those things which I saw or heard in him. When, therefore, with an indefatigable mind, he was already arranging to return for the third time -- for he burned to see Jerusalem and the holy places -- he was forestalled by the divine will through religious men of the city of Coimbra, whom the Divine Providence of counsel had already inspired to this very thing:

that, leaving the world with all devotion, they should establish a monastery in the suburb of that city, toward the north, for the service of God. Of these, the first was Tello the Archdeacon, a man indeed of great discretion and prudence, who by his example invited the rest to so useful a plan and so illustrious a work, and by whose resources and counsel the entire fabric of the monastery arose from its foundations; and who, as I said above, was the teacher and instructor of Dom Theotonius. The second was Dom John, who at that time was Master of the schools, who afterward was made Bishop of Porto, and those who dissuade his return to the Holy Land and after the death of Dom Pelagius was appointed Bishop of Braga. The third was Dom Honorius, a man of great authority and Provost of the Church of St. James in the suburb of Coimbra. Also the Prior of St. Mary of the Castle, of Montemor, Dom Sesnandus, a man most revered, and other religious men, who together were all eleven from the beginning. By these, therefore, Dom Theotonius was forestalled and completed the number of twelve. These were the principal men from the beginning of this monastery. However, before he agreed to the common manner of life, he is said to have piously resisted for a long time, asserting that he had long since made a vow to go overseas and to await his end at the Sepulchre of the Lord. But they on the contrary argued that it was more useful, in this western part of the world where the name of Christ had scarcely been restored, for him to live according to the rule of the holy Fathers and to show ignorant men the pattern of an honorable life, than to go to Jerusalem, to which the Lord had shown His presence and healed the entire region from every ambiguity of faith by innumerable miracles.

[2] he joins as the twelfth Overcome by these arguments, the man of God at length gave his assent and promised to make himself their leader and companion in all things. Without delay, he faithfully dispensed what he had justly acquired in the world: for he distributed one part to the poor, conferred another upon the Church of Viseu, and joined another part to the resources of the future monastery, so that he might minister to the poor from it; whence he too might live as a voluntary pauper, who was establishing himself in the number of poor Brothers out of love of poverty; for poor in spirit he was following the poor Lord, disinheriting himself on earth that he might be found an heir in heaven. Therefore, in the year of the Incarnation of the Son of God 1132, they came together -- namely, with the approval of the most dear Infante Alphonsus, with the approval of Alphonsus, afterward King, and the Bishop, and others son of Henry and Queen Theresa -- but in the course of time and by the generosity of God, the aforesaid man became the illustrious King of nearly all of Portugal and part of Galicia; by whose authority and that of the venerable Bishop of Coimbra and the counsel of the entire Order, in the baths they began to build a monastery in honor of the Holy Cross and of the Blessed Mother of God Mary on the fourth day before the Kalends of July, the vigil of the Apostles Peter and Paul. And on the sixth day before the Kalends of March of the following year, at the beginning of the fast, no longer twelve but nearly eleven armed soldiers of Christ professed to live in common under the habit and Rule of Blessed Augustine.

[3] When the Brothers had therefore been assembled, one counsel and one voice was, with all congratulation, to commit the care of the entire congregation to Dom Theotonius. he is elected unwillingly as Prior of the monastery And when he again and again proclaimed himself unworthy of the burden of so great a governance, yet by the power of obedience applied, he accepted unwillingly and reluctantly, while the rest under him confirmed their stability in the same place. Under this new Father, the generous piety of God in a short time illuminated the new monastery with great gifts of His grace, ennobled it with good and religious men, and rendered it ample no less in possessions than in virtues. For in his days it was of the most celebrated fame and very conspicuous for its religion, in which Dom Theotonius grew wonderfully to the summit of sanctity; concerning whose holy deeds, lest so great a man remain hidden, I shall briefly touch upon a few out of many. In setting them forth, I add nothing, I exaggerate nothing in the manner of those who praise, nor do I seek to earn favor from men; but I give thanks that in our times we merited to have such a Father -- and indeed we still have him. For all things live unto God, and, as Blessed Jerome says, whatever is transferred into God is counted in the number of the family. Accordingly, from the very beginning he surpassed the rest in the great merits of his life, in the gravity of his conduct, in the singularity of his abstinence, he leads others by his example and in the power of continual prayer.

[4] For he very frequently besought God with prayers without cessation of prayer, devoted to prayer and if ever he paused from the contemplation of prayer, sacred reading was never laid aside from his hands; above all, however, he gave himself to the Psalms, since every day, besides the Canonical Hours and the divine office, which he fittingly fulfilled with fear and reverence, to humility he went through the entire Psalter; then he devoted himself to the other exercises of good works or the business of the monastery. He never applied himself to any allurements of vice or pleasures of the world, but there was always in him retirement, gentleness, silence, and peace. Indeed, beyond the custom of his time, he had learned to be in such great humility that he appeared openly the least of all and the last of the servants of God; to the canonical institution and, moreover, such a fervor for the Canonical institution had inflamed him that he seemed to pursue that very Order, as if it were fleeing throughout the whole world. Hence it was that for this purpose he sent Brothers to Compostela, and more frequently to the monastery of St. Rufus, to learn the Rule of St. Augustine more exactly, that he might more exactly direct his own in the Lord. In the community, moreover, the man of God so lived, and was so tempered and regulated, that neither in his habit, nor in his actions, nor even in his very gait did he appear blameworthy -- to such an extent that not even the most critical eye could note in him anything, either before or behind, that was not in accord with the Rule: so perfectly had he become an executor of his Order.

[5] Many praised in him many occupations: some his humility, which is the first virtue of Christians; he governs his subjects with great charity and prudence others his sanctity, innocence, gravity, religion, and ardor of faith -- all of which had made their dwelling in him. I will praise more greatly in him that he was always bound to his Brothers by the bond of charity, as by a certain brotherhood. For he did not remember to treat them as his own, but as the Lord's flock; he served all with the office of charity. If there were things to be done, he did not command them but demonstrated them with all humility and reverence; he anticipated them in mutual service, kindness, and honor. He did not demand the first place; he governed without pride; he never rashly rebuked. However, if he found any delinquent, or acting otherwise than was fitting, or engaging in vain conversations, he corrects delinquents with the zeal of righteousness he would privately admonish them. If he learned that some had been moved against each other, according to the Gospel he reconciled them with the gentlest speech. For if necessity of discipline compelled him to speak harsh words to someone for the correction of his morals, at once before sunset he made peace with him with fatherly affection, and thus he shaped all by the example of his life. But also, as a good exhorter in the camp of the Lord, he did not cease to anoint them with the oil of exhortation and edification for living well, so that those who had already abandoned the warfare of the world might hold to the straight path of Christ.

[6] The gift of religion divinely bestowed upon him he defiled neither with vices nor with base thoughts; rather, he adorned it with humility, sobriety, he inculcates the gift of vocation and the other ornaments of holy virtues. He urged the Brothers to perform the work of divine service with all devotion and reverence, so that not only toward God but also from those who are outside they might have good testimony, and faithfully serve their Lord, for whose honor they were gathered together, in all things -- each one, namely, in his own office, for the praise and glory of the name of the Lord God, and the benefit of his neighbor; mutual service so that, according to the Apostle, they might individually be members one of another, Romans 12:5 and so truly strive to be poor of Christ, that they might become the poor of true blessedness;

that all should show religion to all, guard peace and concord inviolably, and so persevere to the end in holy purpose. He often also turned his speech, saying: "Come, my little children, the body must be afflicted, which in the world gave itself over to many vanities; mortification and the tongue must be restrained, which at all times falls prone to sin unless it is diligently guarded; for death and life are in the hands of the tongue." He also constantly admonished that laughter should be compensated with weeping, "so that we may laugh," he said, "on the last day." He frequently urged them to restrain their hearing from idle conversations, and to each of these matters he added examples of divine authority. He used to say also that through hatred the profit and delight of which Blessed David says is lost: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity"; and through that hatred, Christ is expelled -- He who is true wisdom -- because this "will not enter into a malicious soul." Psalm 132:1 With such exhortations, therefore, the spiritual Father unceasingly fortified the minds of his subjects, he uses simple speech and made them ever more prompt and devout in rendering the divine praises and in keeping their Order. All of which he expressed not with grand eloquence but with simple speech, and, so to speak, with a holy rustic plainness, which is sometimes more efficacious than worldly philosophy and more necessary for the edification of the Brothers.

[7] Nor did he maintain so outstanding a solicitude only in spiritual matters, but in temporal matters also he diligently and with charity provided the Brothers with many proofs of his solicitude and providence and earthly supports, at the opportune time. provident in procuring necessities To touch upon the sum of this matter briefly: with manifold solicitude he managed the household of Christ, and so administered both kinds of nourishment -- spiritual and bodily -- that he already appeared in every way to be that Evangelical servant, faithful and prudent, whom the Lord set over His household. Matthew 24:45 assiduous in helping the elderly What shall I say of the pious consideration with which he commanded the old and infirm to be supported, loved, and honored according to the weakness of their strength -- and by commanding, himself supported and honored them? the young The boys and adolescents who were being raised in the community he fostered with the greatest kindness, corrected without insult, disciplined without cruelty, and so bound them with ecclesiastical disciplines that their age could find no place for wantonness. the sick What shall I recall of his clemency and attentiveness to the sick? He had them comforted with wonderful acts of service and attention; he raised them up by the grace of his visits and the sweetness of his lips; he gave them watchful care and served them as if serving Christ. For whatever was necessary for the sustenance of their various infirmities, he willed that all these things be faithfully and diligently ministered to them with all care; and he frequently used to say to the Brothers: "O my little children, the sick of this world must be borne, because from such things heavenly reward is undoubtedly acquired." Nor was there any respect of persons with him, but a pious and necessary consideration of infirmities. a sick man refuses delicacies And while he generously provided all things for other ailing Brothers, if ever he himself fell ill, he did not indulge himself: he did not crave delicate or unusual kinds of food, nor such as were too elaborately prepared, but with great constancy he spurned the delicacies and luxury of food.

a The city of Porto, on the Douro river at its mouth, whose first Bishop after the expulsion of the Moors was Hugh, Porto, the city from which Portugal is named whom Pope Paschal II in a diploma sent to him in 1115 also calls Bishop of the Church of Portugal; as does Pope Calixtus II in a diploma sent to the Bishop of Braga, and the same Hugh himself in a donation made to the monastery of Lecia, in Rodrigo de Acuna, On the Bishopric of Porto, Part 2, Chapter 1.

b John succeeded Hugh in 1137. For in the Hispanic Era 1175, on January 3, he subscribes with this formula: "I, John, humble Bishop-elect of the Church of Porto, confirm." So Acuna, Part 2, Chapter 2, who says he was surnamed Peculiar.

c Made Bishop of Braga in 1140, he governed that Church for thirty-seven and a half years; he died in 1177, December 1. So the same Acuna.

d Rather, the year 1134 should be substituted, as we proved above.

e These appear to be read in the singular number as follows: "The most dear Infante Alphonsus, son of Henry and Queen Theresa."

f For when Alphonsus died, the Moors still held the kingdom of the Algarve and other places in Portugal.

g Ptolemy divides the Galicians into the Bracari and the Lucenses; the former dwelt between the rivers Minho and Douro, whose region was also called the province of Braga, now part of the kingdom of Portugal.

h He is called Bernard by Didacus de Rosario.

i The first Sunday of Lent, the sixth day before the Kalends of March of the year 1135, as we proved above.

k Didacus de Rosario writes seventy-two; perhaps "nearly seventy" should be read.

l The Compostellan monastery -- its foundation is erroneously attributed to Charlemagne by Turpin in his Life.

CHAPTER II

Captives freed through the intercession of St. Theotonius. His care given to the King and Queen. Demons put to flight.

[8] What compassion he had for the wretched, this one thing alone shows. When therefore Alphonsus, the noble Infante of Portugal, having led an army toward the remoter part of Spain called Seville, had plundered nearly the entire province of the Saracens, the Mozarabs captured in war his men of war, amid their infinite plunder, captured along with the rest a certain Christian people, whom they commonly call Mozarabs, who had been detained there under the rule of the Pagans but were nevertheless somehow observing the practice of the Christian faith, and subjugated them by the right of warriors. Hearing this, the man full of God was deeply grieved; and he who had never gone outside the cloister to the outer gate of the monastery, burning with the zeal of God, went out to meet the King and the entire army, saying: "O he endeavors to have them freed by Alphonsus and the others King, and all you Barons who are sons of holy Mother Church, why do you subjugate your Brothers as your slaves and handmaids? For you have sinned against the Lord your God in this matter." And when he had briefly addressed them as was fitting, and told them that unless they released them, the great fury of the Lord would come upon them, the King and all the warriors released that entire people and permitted them to go free in his presence. Therefore, through his efforts more than a thousand men were freed from servitude, he himself feeds many of them not counting their wives and children; and whoever of that people wished to remain at Coimbra, the Saint gave them a place to dwell near the monastery, and fed them for many years from the monastery's stores, as they were weak and unfamiliar with the land.

[9] That the grace of healing was likewise in him, we now plainly recognize from the fact that, besides the many benefits and remedies for various diseases which we experienced from him, when on a certain occasion the aforesaid Infante of Portugal was burning with tremendous fevers he heals the ailing Alphonsus with holy oil and had begun to be severely pressed by the extreme anxiety of the fevers, and was crying out -- no longer with full voice but with shrieks -- that he was at the point of death, he at last anxiously sought a final remedy in the visit of the man of God. When he had been anointed with the oil of divine exhortation and touched by his merciful right hand -- a wondrous thing! -- immediately, as the heat gradually subsided, he received the refreshment of health; and so great was the power of God divinely bestowed upon the man in his presence that at that very hour he received food in good health, food of which he had been deprived for many days.

[10] Moreover, when, on account of his most unconquered valor

and illustrious nobility, he was now deservedly called King, and his wife, Queen Machalda, the daughter of Amadeus, was in mortal danger on account of the difficulty of childbirth -- as she was a wise woman and grounded in the firmness of faith, the only counsel she found for herself after God was this: he makes the Queen's childbirth easy by the sign of the Cross that if she should merit to be signed by the holy man, the remedy of the Almighty would immediately come to her aid. Summoned therefore through noble men, he came to her, and when he had signed her with the sign of the Cross in the power of God, she immediately

gave birth to a son at his feet, and the joyful mother, made happy at the gift of the newborn son, was wonderfully restored to health.

[11] Nevertheless, he sometimes endured grave persecutions from her, because he had denied her entrance to the cloister, he bars her from entering the monastery observing in every respect the rigor of his Order. For when one day the Queen had come to see him and wished to see the interior of the cloister, the Prior only gently resisted, saying that there was another Queen within, and that it was neither of the Order nor of approved custom for a woman to enter the dwelling of Brothers fleeing the world, unless she were dead; nor was it the Queen's duty, because it would not be reckoned to her glory by the Lord God. He set before her the example of King Uzziah, who, because he wished to enter the Temple of the Lord, was immediately struck with leprosy and remained a leper until the day of his death. 2 Chronicles 26:21 So great an emulation for the Order possessed his mind that, with the vigor and authority of the Holy Spirit, he fearlessly opposed the presuming Queen; and the most blessed man preferred to succumb to her hatred rather than that such an abuse of the cloister should ever occur. In this deed, therefore, he left us as a hereditary profession and pattern of an honorable life.

[12] He was also of such great sanctity that even the evil spirits sometimes visibly feared him. I shall speak of a thing indeed wondrous but nonetheless true. A certain monk from England, named Samuel, had once been present at a naval battle of the Frankish army which, by his presence he puts demons to flight together with the King of Portugal, captured the city of Lisbon by God's gift. He, however, struck with bodily illness, was brought to this Colimbrian monastery of the man of God; and, coming to his extremity, he saw pitch-black spirits cruelly and unceasingly hurling darts at him. He turned this way and that, and often fell from his bed with fearsome looks, unable to bear their sight, and with distraught cries reported this to those assisting him. But when the servant of God came, since the evil spirits could not behold him, they fled his presence in the fear and trembling that disturbed them; and immediately hiding and vanishing through the thin air, they never appeared while the Prior was present -- from which it may be plainly gathered that the demons dreaded his presence.

[13] Often, moreover, on occasion, he exhorted us with the fatherly affection of a father to perseverance in our vocation he exhorts his own to perseverance and the chain of obedience, for he used to say: "If this monk, who came by whatever kind of permission from his Abbot -- for he had commendatory letters with him -- was thus torn from the dwelling of his flesh, what then will become of those who, giving their hand to fickleness and instability of mind, are divided by quarrels and scandals, and through disobedience depart from their monastery? Therefore beware, O my little children, and do not revile the gentle yoke of the Lord; for the devil goes about seeking whom he may devour, and those who flee from their community he miserably tortures and destroys through their disobedience."

[14] A certain lay brother who had taken vows was afflicted by a similar punishment in the monastery; for he saw continuously and without ceasing the shadow of a certain pitch-black Ethiopian who vehemently tormented him with an outstretched bow; and he indicated his enemy across the way against the wall with incoherent cries from the infestation of the devil he discerns the layman's fall and also pointed with his finger, although the Fathers could not see the enemy at all. The wretch was tormented more by fear than by illness. But whenever the Saint came to him, the devil immediately relaxed his bow and at once hid himself, nor in his presence did he dare to shoot at him. Perceiving this, the man of God, as if knowing for what cause such horrible punishments were assailing him, said to him: "Confess, wretch, confess the iniquity of the adultery by which you fell." Which matter was afterward made evident and clear, just as the Prior had said.

[15] There was moreover a certain Brother in the monastery, very devout, whom the enemy of the human race had been accustomed to vex from the very beginning of his conversion. It happened one day, when the Father was sitting outside the choir in the church because of weakness, and perceived that the aforesaid Brother was being vexed by his enemy, that he went to him, and taking the Brother's right hand, said threateningly to the wicked spirit: he frees another from vexation "Depart, unclean spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit I command you, that you no longer disturb the servant of God." Immediately, therefore, the ancient enemy departed, and from that hour never again dared to tempt the servant of God. he heals the sick by his prayers We have very often seen certain ailing Brothers who were restored to health when he prayed and bent his knees for them.

[16] It is scarcely possible to know how great a solicitude he bore even for those who were sent on journeys, or how powerful his prayer was before Almighty God. When the Priest Honorius, Honorius the Priest, captured by Saracens one of the first elders, of whom mention was made above, was being sent to Lisbon, carrying with him a sum of six hundred shillings for building the church of Blessed Vincent the Martyr, which is outside the walls of that city, as he had been commanded by the King, he was captured in the wilderness between Coimbra and Santarem by Saracen raiders and led to the city of Elvas. And so, by the murmuring report, the harsh rumor struck all the Brothers of the monastery; but throughout the entire city there was no small grief. The Saint, however, who was most greatly surrounded by anxiety, addressed all the Brothers, urging that they be solicitous in every way for their companion, and, compassionate according to the Apostle who says, "When one member suffers, the other members ought to suffer with it," that they should faithfully seek him in prayers from Him who said to His disciples: "Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive" -- knowing that the Lord would hear their prayers by his own prayers and those of his community if they persevered in prayer in the sight of God. Romans 12:26 Mark 11:24 They should also remember the Apostles of Christ, who by their holy prayers in their upper room merited to deliver the Prince of the Apostles from the chains of Herod, "and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews." Acts 12:5 At this exhortation, therefore, all the Brothers, imploring God with public and private supplication, remained in the presence of the Lord. The aforesaid Prior, moreover, with all his heart poured forth continuous prayers and devout petitions to God, which it would take long to set forth now, beseeching that those who were so sorrowful at the captivity of the elder might merit to be consoled by his liberation through the mercy of the Redeemer. And while these things were happening in the monastery in a wondrous manner, behold, unexpectedly, the elder Honorius was present on the fifteenth day of his captivity, safe he is freed and free, with great glory, without any loss or diminishment of his property. But how the Almighty liberated him from captivity through the most salutary ruse of a certain Pagan, I pass over telling, lest the size of the book be extended, especially since it is widely known on the lips of all the people. Do you see, then, of what great merit this man was, whose pious solicitude and prayer availed so much before God?

[17] He also had this custom: that he would not admit more Brothers to the community than the resources of the monastery could support. But for those whom he received, how many monks he would admit he took vigilant care to provide the consolations of soul and body, imitating the practice of a most skilled physician, so that, applying great discretion of care, he would diligently apply to each what was suitable for him. This he also considered most carefully in the correction of morals: namely, that according to the magnitude of the wounds he should apply the remedies of healing, being always merciful and kind.

a These Mozarabs still maintain their ancient manner of praying in the territory of Toledo. For when this city was taken from the Moors in 1085, Mozarabs it was decreed that in the ancient churches of the city the old method of prayer should be retained, which is still done on fixed days of the year, as Mariana reports, Book 9, Chapter 18. The Moors were commonly called Arabs; hence the Christians who lived mingled among them were called Mozarabs.

b Machalda is called by Mariana, Book 10, Chapter 17, Malfalda, but erroneously said to be the daughter of Manrique de Lara, Queen Machalda Lord of Molina, by the favor of the Kings of Castile most famous for his wealth and nobility. The same is reported by Duarte Nunes, Censura 12, but he corrected this in the Genealogy of the Kings of Portugal.

c He is called by Rodrigo of Toledo, Book 7, Chapter 5, Count of Maurienne. This is Amadeus II, and the first, as they say, to be created Count of Savoy by Emperor Henry V. Peter, Abbot of Cluny, appointed in 1122, calls him "most noble Prince, Count, and Marquis" in a letter written to him, which is number 32 of Book 2. He set out for the Holy Land in 1147, the year in which Emperor Conrad and Louis VII of France departed; daughter of Amadeus, Count of Savoy on his return he died in Cyprus and was buried in the monastery of the Cross near Nicosia.

d Vasconcellius says a fleet was gathered from the peoples of Germany, Gaul, England, and Flanders, in which many nobles and grandees under one leader, William Long-Sword, all animated by a single zeal to fight for God and in His service to pursue the Moors overseas. Lisbon taken from the Moors John Bromton in his Chronicle writes that a great part of them were "of the spirited English nation." Helmold, Book 1 of the Chronicle of the Slavs, Chapter 60, says the leaders of the expedition decided to send one part of the army to the East, another to Spain, and a third against the Slavs who dwell near us.

e Lisbon is called by John Bromton "Ulixis bona" the good city of Ulysses. In the continued history of Simeon of Durham at the year 1149, it is called Holisiponis; by others Olysippo, Olisipo, Ulyssippo, Ulyssipona, and Lisbona. It was captured on October 25, 1147, a Saturday.

f At the place where the King's camp had been, a monastery of Canons Regular is said to have been built at the King's expense in the year 1178 in honor of St. Vincent the Martyr. the monastery of St. Vincent

g Santarem, or Santarena, is a very ancient town situated on the banks of the Tagus, Santarem fifty miles from Lisbon, formerly Scalabis and Scalabiscus and Presidium Iulium; it was called Santarem from the sepulchre of St. Irene the Martyr. See Ludovicus Nonius, Hispania, Chapter 36.

h Elvas is a town on the borders of Portugal near the river Guadiana, Elvas which, along with neighboring Andalusia, was still under Moorish control.

CHAPTER III

The great union of souls between the King and St. Theotonius. Victory obtained for the King through him. The monastery endowed.

[18] This too must not be passed over in silence: that it was always his custom to commend the approved practice of visits and the company of secular men who, on account of the celebrity of his name, wished to see him, he admits the visits of the King, Princes, and others with humble generosity. For since his sanctity was so manifest and so celebrated, not only men of lower rank but also the King, Princes, and men of power flocked to him; and those who merited to see him, prostrate at his knees and humbly kissing his hands, earnestly sought to be blessed by him. Yet although he did not seek out the rich and powerful, if nevertheless he sometimes joined himself to them as time and place required, he satisfies them with pious conversation he seasoned them with the salt of wisdom. If they were poor, he sustained them; if rich, he urged them to do good, exhorting all to hold the true faith, to cast off their depravities, and always to fear the Lord. Speaking these and similar things to them, he refreshed and renewed their souls. pleasing to all For the Lord had bestowed upon him such grace that whoever saw his person or heard the words of his mouth, rejoiced as if they had seen an Angel of God, and showed him the fitting veneration. He always spoke few and reasonable words, and kind ones besides; whence his speech always found favor with all, according that saying of Solomon: "A sweet word multiplies friends and mitigates enemies." Sirach 6:5

[19] Moreover, so great was the tranquility of his soul, and so great the affection of goodness that had grown strong in him, and he was so purified from every suspicion of malice, that it is justly believed to be said of him: "Great peace have they that love the law of the Lord." Psalm 118:165 On account, therefore, of his exceeding sanctity, it came about he enriches the monastery by the generosity of others that the King, the Princes, and the entire people of both sexes deemed the Colimbrian monastery worthy of the greatest honor and reverence, and distinguished it with the greatest gifts, and enriched it with temporal goods, to such an extent that it wonderfully excelled above all the congregations of this Order in all of Spain. Thus the King bestowed there very many gifts from his own possessions, both movable and immovable; he loved and honored him above all crowned personages, a friend of the King confided in him more than in any other person, and commended himself and his soul to him. Blessed Theotonius likewise loved him above all men who were in his kingdom, and therefore frequently corrected and admonished him with fatherly affection to fear Him through whom Kings reign and in whose power are all the rights of kingdoms, he urges upon him the fear of God and justice and to keep His commandments, because for this is every man; to dispose the kingdom committed to him according to equity; to preserve justice inviolate; and that his secular judge should not lay hand upon an Ecclesiastical person or undertake to examine Ecclesiastical affairs; nor permit sacred places to be violated, or even that violence be recklessly inflicted upon those who fled to them, however guilty and condemned for their crimes. reverence for sacred places He should never unjustly condemn anyone; but a King must have justice, virtue, faith, good works, and reverence for holy places; otherwise, he said, a King differs not at all from the chief of robbers -- for whose presumptuous audacity he marveled that a penalty should be imposed by his simple word. When the King asked what penalty, he said by his interpretation it was Gehenna, in which, he reminded him, the powerful would powerfully endure torments, and all malefactors would burn forever.

[20] What solicitude the man of God had for the King, or how much the King always trusted in him, can be seen in that one miracle of Santarem. For when the King wished to attack that city by a new method of fighting -- namely, by stealth and as if by brigandage (for he could never do it by other military means, since it was impossible because of the layout of the terrain he learns that the King intends to capture the city of Santarem by stratagem and because of its exceeding fertility and the dense population) -- he came to the man of God and disclosed his plan to him alone, and commended his soul, as if about to depart this world. He also indicated under seal of silence the day on which he planned to carry out his intent, and earnestly begged him to make a common prayer with the Brothers on that day for him, and departed. Therefore, on the appointed day, having assembled all the Brothers in the Chapter House, the Prior set forth the matter, and barefoot performed Litanies and public and private supplications. He himself, moreover, beyond the greatness of these prayers, prayed thus: "Lord, Lord, he obtains success by his prayers who caused the walls of Jericho to be overthrown without sword or bow, and who also at the prayer of Joshua commanded the sun to stand still over Gibeon, we beseech Thy ineffable mercy that Thou wouldst deign graciously to grant victory to our King, Thy servant, under whose shadow, with Thee protecting, we live, over this city most hostile to the Christian people; so that, once the abominable rite of Mohammed is expelled from there, Thy name may be praised there, Lord God." And immediately, behold, a good messenger from among the Lord's messengers was present, bearing good news, joyfully announcing that the city had been captured. For on the night following the noted day on which these things were done in the monastery, the King wonderfully captured the city in the middle of the night. as also frequently in other campaigns He did the same when in the field of Ourique he routed five Pagan Kings with their innumerable barbarian multitude, who, in order to destroy him utterly, had united and fought against him; but with divine assistance given to him and by the patronage of Blessed James, whose feast day is said to have been on that day, he emerged victorious. But also when, with the naval army of the Franks, he captured Lisbon; and likewise when he conquered Alcazar after a long struggle.

[21] And what need is there to go through them one by one? Whenever the King was about to do something with great courage, he always came to the man of God and more attentively commended himself and his soul, as was said, to his prayers. stricken by a false report of his death He indeed loved the King so much that he seemed more solicitous for him than for himself. Hence, when at a certain time a false rumor went out that the King had departed this world, as the Saint related to us, grief of heart struck him so severely

that he thereafter always lived with a debilitated body -- and yet in the service of God no young man of sound body could be compared to him. I have lingered long, in order to show how sincerely he loved the King and how great a confidence the King had in him, he is honored by him and by the Princes to whom the aforesaid Lord so often commended his soul -- which he would by no means have done unless he believed him to be a holy man. So all the Princes and the faithful of both orders, bowing before him and showing him veneration, acted. I saw very many, and especially those from the kingdom of the Franks, who understood his sanctity more deeply, prostrate themselves at his knees. Moreover, while he embraced all with the ardor of charity, as if he were the common Father of the entire people, he never disdainfully despised anyone, however proud. Only Jews and heretics, and also Pagans, he abhorred to such a degree that he would not admit even a salutation from them.

a The King himself, in the letter by which he informed St. Bernard that the city had been captured, attributes the successful outcome to his prayers: "Because," he says, "we first commended ourselves to you the prayers of St. Bernard and promised that we would build for you a monastery of your Order." That letter is found in Manrique, Volume 2 of the Cistercian Annals, at the year 1147, Chapter 9, number 4.

b Manrique says it was intercepted on March 15, and cites Brandao. Vasconcellius asserts that this victory was won on the Nones of May, which precede the sacred feast of St. Michael. Then, when monks were sent by St. Bernard, the most august monastery of Alcobaca was built with truly royal munificence. The monastery of Alcobaca

c Vasconcellius calls it the field of Ourique, and describes that victory.

d He thus calls the Mohammedans, although Pagans were originally a term for idolaters.

e In the year 1139, or certainly the following year, from which the King began the new epoch of the reception of the vesture of Christ, as we showed above.

f Alcazar of the salt-works, commonly Alcacer do Sal, a town in the territory of Trastamare, Alcazar roughly midway between Lisbon and Beja.

CHAPTER IV

The governance of the monastery relinquished by St. Theotonius. His various visions, death, and burial.

[22] He had also placed himself in so great a citadel of humility that he never even wished to have the name of Abbot, whence to this day this monastery bears the name of a Priory. What devotion of faith there was in him, what adornment of deeds and morals, he does not accept the title of Abbot what execution of divine worship, and how, applying pure diligence and firm perseverance to his profession, he governed the congregation committed to him with the fear of the Lord for twenty years, I think deserving of record; and so we must come to his end. In the twenty-first year, therefore, from his entrance into the monastery, he began to contract a long illness of the body; he abdicates the governance whence, as a good Pastor of souls, bearing the solicitude of the whole flock, he himself in the common Chapter, according to the will of God, as we believe, chose for us a Prior -- namely, Dom John Theotonius, a discreet, prudent man, adorned with the common kind of virtues, his successor and son in merits and name -- to whom he committed the governance of the entire monastery by a kindly vote, with all the Brothers applauding in this. he anticipates their affections With him, during the ten years he lived thereafter, he was in such peace of heart that on each and every day, indeed each hour and almost each moment, they anticipated each other both with the blessing of sweetness and with the sign of the Holy Cross. He also blessed and absolved all the other Brothers every day, and, like another Job, offered holocausts for each; and he, out of the gift of humility, daily commended himself in the prayers of each one.

[23] Therefore, free and released from the solicitude of pastoral care, he gave his mind thereafter solely to contemplation, he devotes himself to contemplation remaining always in prayer and the compunction of tears, for the miseries of this world and the desire of the heavenly Jerusalem. He constantly declared this to be full of Angels and Archangels, adorned with Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles; there, he said, are the faithful, who are living stones gathered by the center of love. And he would repeat: "There no wretch is found, no one hungers, no one thirsts, because there the living bread refreshes all, and the eternal and living fountain extinguishes the thirst of all." Whence, very often rapt in love of it, he would say with exultation: "I was glad when they said unto me, we shall go into the house of the Lord." Although confined within the narrow limits of one cloister, he already enjoyed the spaciousness of paradise. Hence it was that he no longer felt hunger, for he was satiated by the Lord Jesus Christ; yet he took something with thanksgiving, although not the desire of eating but the human confession of the need for food drew him to eat, frequent in church and this never before the lawful hour and while we were eating. According to his custom, he always hastened to the threshold of the Church for the sake of praying more freely, where even in his own place, praying and always sighing as one truly solitary, his own solicitude kept him.

[24] When, however, any of us appeared in his presence, immediately with a cheerful countenance he mixed sweet conversations with him, he speaks piously with others although his spirit was already united with God. Christ was always on his lips, and examples of the holy Fathers; always peace and the sweetness of charity, without ceasing murmuring most sweetly: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house and the place of the habitation of Thy glory." When the first Abbot of Clairvaux, a man of God, heard of his sanctity, he sent Brothers to him from Burgundy, and frequently conversed with him; he is visited by monks sent from Clairvaux by St. Bernard from which time a society and pact of fraternal love was established between the monastery of Clairvaux and our monastery of the Holy Cross -- associated, namely, and written down in all benefits and prayers, so that from each Order a general service is rendered mutually each day with the greatest devotion.

[25] Many learned many things about this man through visions. For a certain monk, rapt in ecstasy for three days, saw himself in a vision translated to heaven. There he saw certain men whom he knew well, seen in heavenly glory through a revelation who were still in the flesh, and some already dead, standing before the tribunal of Christ, praising God. But above them all Dom Theotonius appeared to him standing and closer to God, clothed in incomparable whiteness; and when that blessed man himself adored God, he was granted a greater glory before God than the rest. By a certain religious man of the Order of Clairvaux, he was seen in a certain most beautiful ark in the midst of the sea with no small throng of men in white, likewise seen in a tempest helping others surpassing all, directing all, whom as a good charioteer he governed ineffably;

and the ark was surrounded by the most fierce waves of the sea, and lest it be broken anywhere, he strove with every effort. It happened, moreover, that the monk afterward came to the Colimbrian monastery, and immediately recognized Dom Theotonius, whom he had seen in the sea in his dream. But to comprehend infinite things briefly: if anyone desires to know how he spent his time in the monastery, let him know that he always persevered in divine matters and holy meditations until the day of his falling asleep, which was consummated in the following manner.

[26] A few days before he walked the way of the fathers, a vision of this kind appeared to him. He saw himself placed in a certain lofty tower, admonished by St. Peter of the glory prepared for him which from the middle of the cloister rose higher above all the roofs of the monastery; he also seemed to himself to carry in his hand a spear without a point, very long and white; and opposite him there appeared a man of venerable and radiant garb, who testified that he bore commands from the Lord to him. Then, consoling him with a most gentle voice, he said: "Man of God, you labor greatly and have long been a pilgrim, weighed down by the burden of the flesh; but be of good courage, for it is near that you shall enjoy eternal blessedness for your brief labor. For you have now fought well in this world, and have conquered all that was permitted without the sword: for this is what the spear without a point signifies. Give thanks therefore to the Bestower of all good things, because you will soon be healed, and after a long pilgrimage you will ascend to the ancient possession; you will also soon foreknow that

Almighty God has done and will do many good things for this place through you." He showed him moreover a ladder set upright to heaven, by which, he said, those who depart from the community more purified ascend to heaven; a ladder erected to heaven but some, he said, who are still to be purified, are similarly in the monastery, having less of perfection. When therefore he had recounted these and very many things, and said his name -- that he was the Apostle Peter -- he ascended to heaven and disappeared.

[27] The man of God therefore, awaking and knowing that death was coming to him most certainly, received the Sacrament of Unction; and what he did almost every day, he fortified himself with confidence with the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood, he is fortified with the Last Anointing; he exhorts his own blessing us again and again and admonishing us not to lose the labor of so great a time. "Today, my little children," he said, "consider that you have just now taken up the religious course." And he consoled all the Brothers who loved him. But why do I delay and shrink from coming to his final moments, making my grief the longer? When he had blessed us more abundantly, suddenly he inclined his head a little upon his shoulder; then, placed in the Christian manner upon ashes and a hair-shirt, sound and whole, he looked upon death with joy. We saw him with a joyful countenance, he receives death with joy as if raising himself to meet someone, so that from the joy of his face we did not doubt that the presence of the holy Angels was there. No terror changed anything in his face, but a certain dignity and gravity filled his countenance, so that it was clearly to be understood that he was not dying but migrating, and as it were changing friends, the citizens praising him not leaving them. The degree to which the entire city held him while living as a miracle, it demonstrated at his death; for all commended their souls to him, all rejoiced for him in the glory of blessedness. This one voice sounded on the lips of all: that his happy soul was being transferred to heaven. and the King The King also, deeply affected with grief, is reported to have said: "His soul will be in heaven before his body is in the sepulchre."

[28] It must not be passed over that, when that holy soul was freed from the flesh, the enemy of the human race was indeed present; the devil confounded but because he found nothing of his own works in that soul, he immediately rushed in a frenzy upon a certain man from the household of the monastery and miserably vexed him for nearly half an hour; then, confounded, he departed, heaven exulting giving all a sign that the blessed soul of Theotonius had freely ascended to heaven. But before the Father departed from the world, a certain cluster of stars was seen to descend from heaven to the middle of the cloister, so gleaming with a starry light that it turned everyone to wonder.

[29] But I shall come to the conclusion, for now the book must be brought to an end. When therefore all things that seemed necessary for the preparation of the dead had been duly performed, the body was carried into the Church according to custom he is honorably buried by the Bishop by the hands of the grieving and mourning Brothers; where not wailing and lamentation, as is wont to happen among worldly men, was heard, but for two continuous days, with choirs chanting psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles; then he was honorably buried in the Chapter House by the venerable Michael, Bishop of Coimbra and Canon of the Holy Cross, with a crown of Brothers standing around and performing the due office of religion with the greatest diligence. He fell asleep, conscious of a good life and of the reward of his merits, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of March, Friday, at the first hour of the day, at which Christ rose from the dead. He was buried on the eleventh day before the Kalends of the same month, in the year of the aforementioned Lord King Alphonsus I of Portugal -- under whom he received the vesture of Christ -- the twenty-sixth, and of his reign the thirty-first. He lived in holy purpose for thirty-one years. He completed, as he himself reported, the entire span of his life between forty and fifty, according to the written record.

a The body of this John Theotonius was said above, on the authority of Cardoso, to have been placed above the altar together with the bodies of St. Theotonius and Blessed Tello.

b St. Bernard died on August 20 of the year 1153, when St. Theotonius was still Prior. His monks came to Portugal on December 24 of the year 1147, and on the feast of the Purification of the following year they laid the foundation of the monastery of Alcobaca. So Jongelinus, Book 6 of the Account of Cistercian Monasteries.

c Therefore in the year 1166, as was proved above.

d Concerning these chronological markers, we also treated above.

e Rather, "between eighty and ninety years of age" should be read, as was also said above.

ANOTHER LIFE

published by John Tamayo Salazar.

Theotonius, Priest, Prior of the Monastery of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, Coimbra in Portugal (St.)

BHL Number: 8128

By an anonymous author.

[1] St. Theotonius, a Galician Theotonius, from the province of Galicia, the city of Tuy, the village of Ganfey, of an honorable family, born of his father Oueco and his mother Eugenia. From them his uncle Cresconius, Bishop of Coimbra, took the boy and gave him to the Archdeacon Tello to be raised. educated under the Bishop of Coimbra, his uncle There, under the instruction of the Bishop and his teacher, he so progressed that he memorially and fully retained every Ecclesiastical order established for use in the choir. Upon the death of his uncle Cresconius, he went to the Church of Viseu, where he was gradually promoted to the priesthood. As a Priest, daily confecting pleasing sacrifices for the people by his work and word, at Viseu, he lives holily as a Priest he devoutly fulfilled the burdens and duties. He was not puffed up by anyone's praises, not inquisitive about others' offices, indulging neither curiosity nor pleasure; he so despised the ulcers of ambition that he never felt the blister of such contagion. He was not swollen by riches, if there were any, just as he was not depressed by poverty. Aspiring to the divine, he was disturbed by no worldly attachment. he avoids the company of women He so restrained his interactions with women that he never spoke with them without witnesses present; indeed, he never even heard their private confessions alone.

[2] When therefore he was benevolently regarded by all on account of the sanctity of his life -- not only by the provincials he is made Prior of the Church but even by the Princes -- at the prayers of all, and especially by the command of the Bishop of Coimbra, to whom the Church of Viseu at that time was subject -- which was later restored to its former Episcopal status -- he accepted its Priorate, which he enriched not only with ornaments and temporal possessions but also saw enriched with the worship of God and upright morals. But since the honor of this office was reckoned as a burden by the most holy man, by a good stratagem, without anyone's knowledge, he goes to Jerusalem he threw off the burden of the dignity. For having set out for Jerusalem, he yielded both the duties and the burdens of the governance of the Priorate to the Priest Odoric. Joyful and devout, St. Theotonius visited the places of our redemption, on his return, he lives piously traversing them with spiritual affection and affliction of soul; and having returned to Spain after a long time and reaching his Church, he could not be compelled by any prayers offered by Odoric to return to the heights of his former Priorate. Thus free from the burden of governance, he so ardently devoted himself to prayers and meditations that he dwelt only in body on earth, but in mind in heaven. His constancy in matters pertaining to the worship of God and to the aid of the people, especially in preserving the rites of the Church, was such that when on a certain Saturday he approached the sacristy of his church to celebrate Mass, it happened nor does he celebrate more quickly at the Queen's request that Theresa, wife of Henry, Count of Portugal, hastily came to the church to hear the sacred rite and asked the holy man through a messenger to perform the sacrifice as quickly as possible. "Tell Theresa," he said, "that there is another Queen in heaven, better and nobler, for whom I, Theotonius, am preparing a sacrifice to be performed; one who is troubled by neither delay nor pleased by brevity. Therefore Theresa may either watch or withdraw." The Countess, struck by these religious admonitions, did not move a step but heard the holy Priest's Mass, and afterward gave thanks for the rebuke of her haste.

[3] Since therefore he held nearly his entire soul at the stones of the holy places to which his spirit clung, he yearned with all his strength to return to visit them, and, seizing the opportunity, leaving Spain and boarding a ship, he returns to Jerusalem a second time he undertook once more to experience the inconstancy of the sea and to enjoy the discomforts of pilgrimage, so that he might receive the fruit of his burning love. But not long after the beginning of the voyage, a violent storm arose, he calms the tempest by his prayers which God calmed at the prayers of St. Theotonius, so that the ship, almost crushed to the point of shipwreck amid the rocks of Malea, proceeded freed, with no trace of the storm appearing in sky or sea. Going to Jerusalem therefore a second time, he again beheld and visited the sacred places; and when he reached the church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the most holy congregation of Canons Regular then persisted, he resolved to join himself to them. To accomplish this more freely, he resolves to remain at the Sepulchre of Christ he was compelled to return to his homeland, to render an account to his Superior of the church of which he was Parish Priest, and to provide for the poor, who were the creditors of his goods, from his small patrimony of which he was master.

[4] Inflated, then, with the deliberation of this intention, Theotonius arrived in Portugal at the time when Tello, who had raised him, had resolved to build the Colimbrian monastery of the Holy Cross, on his return and when the sanctity of Blessed Theotonius was made known to Tello, he opened his entire mind to him -- on this condition, however: that he should leave the entire burden of the work to be accomplished through the hands of the holy man. he is made the first Prior of the monastery of the Holy Cross The blessed Priest refused not the office of pious duty, but rather the obstacle of delayed payment to the Clerics of the Sepulchre of Jerusalem. But since God was fashioning Theotonius as a stone with wondrous skill for the illumination of the entire Hispanic world, He disposed that he should neither return to Jerusalem nor lay down the entrusted burden of the work. enriched by King Alphonsus Immediately girded for the work of the ministry, he at length saw the perfection of the monastery, in which, designated as the first Prior and Father of the entire religious community, he breathed forth rich fragrances of virtues from himself. They came into the presence of King Alfonso and his wife Malfada, who wished not only to supply his needs but also to assist the magnificence of the new monastery with the most ample donations and to establish it with royal gifts.

[5] In return for the support of such great benefits, he obtains victories for the King by his prayers the blessed man poured forth continuous prayers to the Lord with a contrite heart for the Kings' victories; attending to the tokens of which, God granted them the triumphs of Ourique, Leiria, Santarem, and Lisbon, despite Moorish resistance, and others. The most pious Alphonsus therefore began to build another monastery of that same institute near Lisbon, which he dedicated to St. Vincent the Martyr, freedom for a certain one for the arrangement and direction of which building Blessed Theotonius, at the King's request, sent from the monastery of the Holy Cross the Canon Regular Honorius with some money to Lisbon; who was captured by Saracens and brought to Elvas, and placed there in the dark dungeon of a prison. When this misfortune reached the hearing of St. Theotonius, he immediately summoned the Brothers and went to the church, and with fervent prayer and tears poured forth, he begged the Lord with wonderful humility for the freedom of Honorius. The Almighty assented to the prayers of His servants, because at once, with no one pressing the matter -- though God was disposing it -- the Ishmaelites who had led Honorius captive generously offered him to King Alfonso, along with twelve other Christians and all his money without any reduction.

[6] Afterward, when, three years before his glorious falling asleep, Theotonius while at prayer saw the Apostle Peter, informed of his death by St. Peter, he resigns the governance he fully learned of his death from him, an embrace having been given. So that he might more freely devote himself to the Lord, having renounced the Priorate and freed from its burden, he began to lead a new and Angelic life. For studying contemplation and prayer by day and night, he received the sweetest favors from the Lord through the grace of ecstatic operation. he receives a staff from St. Bernard Lured by these, he scarcely recognized the ways of human intercourse, inebriated as he was with celestial conversations. The fame of his sanctity had now occupied not only the boundaries of Spain but had even reached as far as Citeaux; moved by which, Blessed Bernard sent him a staff as a symbol of friendship. He performed innumerable miracles, which cannot be comprehended within a brief page.

[7] Finally, when the hour of his passing drew near -- for on Friday, February 18, when the burden of years (he was now an octogenarian) was striving to dissolve the frame of his body, he dies as an octogenarian the rigid paralysis so crushed his limbs that it permitted not the slightest movement. Then the blessed man ordered his poor body, scarcely held together by the thinnest matter, to be placed on the bare ground; and covered with a hair-shirt and ashes, he lay there for several hours, until he surrendered his most holy spirit to his Creator. For two days the holy body lay without the benefit of burial, because the throng of common people, citizens, nobles, and kings rushed so to kiss his feet that the cloisters and workshops of the monastery could scarcely contain such a multitude. At length it was placed in the subterranean vault of the Chapter House; and God imparts innumerable wonders through the intercession of St. Theotonius, he is buried; he is renowned for miracles He who, wondrous in His Saints, reigning with the Son and the Holy Spirit forever, preserves their names for eternity. Amen.

a There had formerly been Bishops at Viseu, among whom Remisol, Bishop of Viseu, subscribed to the Second Council of Braga, Hispanic Era 610, Bishops of Viseu year of Christ 572; and Sunila to the Third of Toledo, Hispanic Era 627, year of Christ 589.

b He is called Honorius in the earlier Life.

c In the earlier Life, nothing is said about the disposition of the church, which he had long since resigned before the first journey, but it is only said that he returned to arrange his household affairs.

d The chronology is confused here; it is correctly ordered in the other Acts.

e Nothing about a staff being sent is in the earlier Life.

ANOTHER LIFE

from the Breviary of Evora.

Theotonius, Priest, Prior of the Monastery of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, Coimbra in Portugal (St.)

From the Breviary of Evora.

[1] The venerable Theotonius, first Father of the Canons of the monastery of the Holy Cross of Coimbra, St. Theotonius, a Galician from the province of Galicia, the city of Tuy, born of honest parents -- namely, his father Oueto and his mother Eugenia. Raised with the most diligent religious care by his parents, and committed at the proper age to spiritual literary studies, he grows up under Cresconius, Bishop of Coimbra in his early adolescence he came to Coimbra with Cresconius, Bishop of Coimbra, his uncle and teacher; where, under the Archdeacon Tello, he memorially and fully learned the Ecclesiastical use.

[2] Afterward, when the aforesaid Bishop had died, he was received in the Church of Viseu, and, gradually promoted to sacred Orders, in each grade displaying a remarkable simplicity of soul and remarkable humility in his ministry, he lives holily as a Priest he at last arrived at the priesthood -- not thrusting himself forward impudently, but called. Ordained a Priest, therefore, fulfilling the office of a Priest not sluggishly by word and deed, spurning the luxury and enticements of the perishing world, he prayed to God for the sins of the people and confected pleasing sacrifices upon the altar.

[3] He was not puffed up by praise, was not swollen by riches, was not depressed by poverty; for one aspiring to the divine, no worldly attachment disturbed him. he avoids all suspicion of sin He never pursued curiosity, never served pleasure, never gaped after ambition. He avoided all suspicions and whatever could plausibly be imagined; and that he might be far from the illicit, he even cut off some lawful things from himself. and conversations with women He never spoke with a woman without witnesses present, nor received their private confession.

[4] When therefore the religious Priest of Christ abstained from every appearance of evil, and most ardently carried out every good work, he is honored by all he had so attached to himself not only the Princes and all the citizens, but also all the provincials,

that all pursued him with great benevolence and revered him with great respect. Overcome by their prayers, and especially by the command of the Bishop of Coimbra, to whom the Church of Viseu at that time, not yet reformed to its former dignity after the disasters of Spain, was subject, he is made Prior of the Church of Viseu he accepted the Priorate of that Church; which he not only wonderfully increased in morals and the worship of God, but also greatly enriched with other things necessary for its ministry and adornment and with many possessions.

[5] But since he considered this honor to be a burden, he devised a most salutary stratagem to free himself. For having departed for Jerusalem, he yielded the Priorate to the Priest Honorius. having left it, he goes to Jerusalem; he refuses the Episcopate Returning thence, he could be compelled by no one's prayers, by no entreaties of Honorius himself, to take up that burden again. He was also often entreated by the persistent prayers of Count Henry and his wife, Queen Theresa, to accept the Episcopate of that Church, but he never gave even the slightest consent.

[6] Although he was held in such great veneration among the Princes of Portugal, he never in any way flattered them. nor does he celebrate more quickly at the Queen's request It happened on a certain Saturday, when he was already vested in sacerdotal vestments to perform the sacrifice in honor of the Blessed Virgin according to custom, that Queen Theresa, who was present, sent him a request through a messenger that he should celebrate the sacrifice hastily and briefly. "Go," said Theotonius, "and tell the Queen that there is another Queen in heaven, far better and far nobler, for whom I am preparing mysteries to be performed deliberately and with fitting delay. But it is in her power either to wait or to withdraw."

[7] Some years later he departed again for Jerusalem, now renowned for miracles. For by his prayers a most fierce tempest, which would have wrecked the ship amid the rocks of Malea, was calmed. he calms a tempest by his prayers And after his return, when he was held by desire for the holy places and was thinking of setting out a third time, to die there at last, he was forestalled by certain religious men who wished to renounce the world, and in a suburb of Coimbra at the royal baths began to construct the monastery of the Holy Cross, he builds the monastery of the Holy Cross with others all having pooled their resources; into which, having entered with twelve proven men under the Rule of Blessed Augustine, he quickly made it renowned both for the number of Brothers and for regular observance.

[8] He lived in the monastery for thirty years, illustrious for miracles, notable for the gift of healings, formidable to demons, held in such veneration by the first King of Portugal, Alphonsus, and Queen Maphilda renowned for miracles that, admitted to the kiss of his hand at their request, the King and Queen knelt before him.

[9] When the fame of his sanctity had also filled Gaul, Blessed Bernard sent him a staff as a sign of friendship. He performed wondrous deeds he receives a staff from St. Bernard which cannot be comprehended in the brevity of a limited time. He died at approximately eighty years of age, and divine portents made even his passing celebrated. he dies as an octogenarian

a This is the same Life, but somewhat abbreviated, published from the Breviary of Braga by Sandoval in the History of Tuy.

b The reading in the other Lives is "father Oueco."

c The Breviary of Braga reads "Visensi."

d Sandoval reads "Odorius," as in the other Life, supposing him to be the man who was afterward Bishop of Viseu. But the earlier Life, as also Didacus de Rosario, also has "Honorius."

e So also the Breviary of Braga. But the earlier Life says "with eleven, to whom he himself joined as the twelfth."

f The Breviary of Braga reads "nearly an octogenarian"; concerning his age, we treated above.