ON ST. MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE, IN PALESTINE.
After the year 60.
Preliminary Commentary.
Matthias the Apostle, in Palestine (St.)
By the author G. H.
Section I. The election of St. Matthias, his public veneration. A sermon written in his praise by Authpertus, Abbot of Monte Cassino: whether another is by St. Augustine?
[1] What various authors have said, written, and even published concerning St. Matthias the Apostle must be referred to different classes, according as they seem to approach the truth more closely, or to recede further and further from attaining it. Most certain is the election of St. Matthias to the Apostolate. Most certain are those things which, approved by divine appointment, are recorded by the Evangelist Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, and are reported below, interspersed among other deeds of the same Apostle. This election is assigned in the MS. Florarium of the Saints and in the Supplement of Grevenus to the twelfth day of May. Next comes the celebrated cult and veneration of the same Apostle, then sacred veneration: enjoined upon all who embrace the orthodox faith by the Church. The Latins celebrate this solemnity on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, that is, on the twenty-fourth of February, or, if the year is a leap year, on the twenty-fifth; the Milanese on the seventh of February. The Greeks, as will appear below, consecrated the ninth day of August to this holy commemoration.
[2] Baronius in the Notes to February 24 asserts that all the Latins treat of him on this day. His mention in the MS. Martyrology of St. Jerome is not on February 24. The copy of the MS. Roman Martyrology, or of St. Jerome, which is preserved among us, written about a thousand years ago, does not have the name of St. Matthias, either on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, or in the prefixed Notice on the resting places of the holy Apostles. For, as is read in the dedicatory epistle of St. Jerome to Bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, in the first part of the booklet the feasts of all the Apostles are recorded together, so that the various days might not seem to divide those whom the one Apostolic dignity has made sublime in heavenly glory. The said epistle of St. Jerome being concluded with these words, there follows this title: Notice on the resting places of the holy Apostles, and it is set forth thus: nor in the Notice on the resting places of the holy Apostles. On the third day before the Kalends of July, the Birthday of the Apostles Sts. Peter and Paul at Rome. On the second day before the Kalends of December, the Birthday of St. Andrew the Apostle in the city of Patras in the Province of Achaia. On the sixth day before the Kalends of January, the Birthday of the Apostle St. James the brother of the Lord, and of John the Evangelist. On the eighth day before the Kalends of July, the Birthday of the dormition of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist at Ephesus. On the twelfth day before the Kalends of January, the Birthday of St. Thomas the Apostle in India. And the Translation of his body to Edessa on the fifth day before the Kalends of July. On the eighth day before the Kalends of August, the Birthday of the Apostle James the brother of John the Evangelist, at Jerusalem. On the Kalends of May, the Birthday of St. Philip the Apostle in the city of Hierapolis in the Province of Asia. On the eighth day before the Kalends of September, the Birthday of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, who was beheaded in India by the command of King Astyages. On the eleventh day before the Kalends of October, the Birthday of St. Matthew the Apostle, who suffered in Persia. On the fifth day before the Kalends of November, the Birthday of the Apostle Simon the Canaanite and Simon the Zealot, read Jude Thaddaeus, because they were killed by the temple priests in the city of Suanis in Persia. These things are found there, after which the days of January are immediately subjoined: and then each of the Apostles is treated again on the days already indicated, without any mention of St. Matthias. In the History of the Contest of the Apostles that circulates under the name of Abdias, Bishop of Babylon and disciple of the Apostles, nor in the History attributed to Abdias, which is said to have been translated by Eutropius from the Hebrew language into Greek, and by Julius Africanus into Latin, the same aforementioned Apostles are treated of, again with no mention made of St. Matthias the Apostle: so that it is surprising that the writings about him attributed to Abdias are considered apocryphal by Galesinius and Baronius in their Notes to the Martyrologies, or rejected as spurious.
[3] The opinions of various churches of old concerning the deeds of St. Matthias are shown by the ancient Martyrologies. The Reichenau Martyrology, that is, the MS. of Reichenau, at the sixth day before the Kalends of March, after listing the names of other Saints of whom we shall treat below, has at the end these words: And elsewhere, of Matthias the Apostle. In the Martyrologies of February 24 the name of St. Matthias, So also the MS. of the Monastery of St. Cyriacus at Rome: And of St. Matthias the Apostle. But it is read in nearly first place in the remaining Martyrologies. The ancient Roman Martyrology of Rosweyde: On the sixth day before the Kalends of March, of St. Matthias the Apostle. The MSS. of Cologne at St. Mary on the Steps, and of Centula under the name of Bede: Birthday of St. Matthias the Apostle. In the MS. of Queen Christina of Sweden there is added: Who obtained by lot the twelfth place of the Apostolate in place of Judas, election to the Apostolate, for which in the MS. of St. Martin at Tournai these words are found: Who, chosen by lot from among the seventy disciples, was substituted as twelfth among the Apostles in place of Judas Iscariot. Nearly the same words are read in the MS. of Liessies. The Trier MS. further assigns the place with these words: In Judaea, of Matthias the Apostle, who, one of the seventy-two, was substituted in the place of Judas. St. Isidore, who flourished as Bishop of Seville in the seventh century of the Christian era, and, what is read in St. Isidore, in his treatise On the Life and Death of the Saints of the New Testament, chapter 80, adds a few words about the preaching of St. Matthias. Matthias, he says, one of the seventy-two disciples, and substituted as twelfth among the Apostles in place of Judas Iscariot, was chosen by lot, and alone without a surname: to him was given the Gospel to preach in Judaea. Preaching in Judaea: The same words are read in very many Martyrologies. The printed text of Bede: Birthday of St. Matthias the Apostle, who, from among the seventy disciples, chosen by the Apostles in place of Judas the traitor, was substituted by lot into the Apostolate, and preached the Gospel of Christ in Judaea. Usuard, however, reports the following: Birthday of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, who, after the Ascension of the Lord, was chosen by lot by the Apostles, and preached the Gospel of Christ in Judaea. The same words are read in the Martyrology of Bellini, according to the custom of the Roman Curia. Ado inserts: and substituted in the place of the betrayer of the Lord. Rabanus and Notker place the region first with these words: In Palestine, the birthday of Matthias the Apostle, who, from among the seventy disciples, chosen as Apostle in place of Judas the traitor, preached the Gospel in Judaea. Thus far these more ancient and more authoritative Martyrologies, without any mention of the death of St. Matthias. Similar things are contained in very many of our MS. Martyrologies.
[4] Authpertus, the seventeenth Abbot of Monte Cassino, has only the following concerning the death of St. Matthias in a sermon composed in his praise: Death according to Authpertus After Bl. Matthias the Apostle left Judaea, his homeland, and preached the Gospel which he had received as his allotted portion for preaching, and converted very many pagans to the Catholic faith, he departed to our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter the Deacon, in his work On the Illustrious Men of Monte Cassino, chapter 13, mentions this writer in these words: Authpertus, Abbot of the same monastery, a man of eloquence and great learning, among many illustrious monuments of his genius, composed very beautiful homilies in praise of St. Matthias the Apostle, and also on the Purification of the Holy Mother of God and of other Saints. In a sermon written in the ninth century He flourished in the time of the Emperor Lothair. Indeed, of the Emperor Louis the Pious, or at least of Lothair who was then thrust in after Louis had been deposed through the conspiracy of his sons. For Authpertus presided over the monastery of Monte Cassino for three years, having been elected in the year 834 and having died in the year 837. Joannes Baptista Marus, in his Annotations to Peter the Deacon, first published by him in the year 1655, asserts that the sermon in praise of St. Matthias the Apostle is still believed to be unedited. Baronius in his Notes to the Martyrology states that he had a copy written in Lombard script, found in MSS. and that he had read the same in a MS. codex of Santa Maria ad Martyres: that it begins, Inclytam gloriam, etc. We too have this sermon with the said opening in a certain very ancient MS. codex of ours. It also exists among the Lives of Saints collected by Mombritius, volume 2, folio 146, printed but mutilated in several places. edited by Mombritius, But neither in our MS. codex nor in Mombritius is the name of Authpertus, or of any other author, indicated, which perhaps Baronius read in some of his MSS., or else he conjectured it because a testimony is adduced from the Rule of St. Benedict, whence we too believe Authpertus to be the author of this sermon, and we present it here from the said MS. and from Mombritius: whose books, once printed among the first after the invention of the art of printing, became known to few, and are preserved in rarer libraries. From this sermon we learn of the solemn cult with which the Catholic Church venerated St. Matthias up to those times: and the author at number 2 asserts that he is drawing forth what the holy Fathers magnificently produced in his praise.
[5] Parts of this sermon in various Breviaries, The prologue that is prefixed to this sermon is read in MS. Breviaries and in others printed in the years 1479, 1490, and 1522, according to the custom of the Roman Curia. The Lessons likewise of the Breviary of the Church of Therouanne from the year 1542 begin from the same prologue and end with the same words as this sermon, with most of the intervening material contracted in different phrasing. But with that prologue omitted, the Lessons of the Breviary of Muenster, printed at Strasbourg in the year 1489, begin from the sermon itself. The earlier part of those Lessons used to be recited of old in the Church of Utrecht, which is contained in the Breviary published in the year 1508. The same opening and other material from this sermon are found in the Breviary of Evreux in France. But in the one which the Church of Saint-Quentin in Vermandois used to employ, the Third Lesson begins from the same opening, the first two being taken from another treatise on St. Matthias, which is more fully presented in the Breviary of Strasbourg from the year 1478, and of another attributed to St. Augustine. and that of Speyer from the year 1507, and is attributed to St. Augustine: concerning which Galesinius seems to have noted the following: There exists concerning his life a sermon which some attribute to St. Augustine, others to Bede: and the same is read in very many churches. And Baronius says: There is current a sermon on St. Matthias, which some attribute to Augustine, but others to Bede. These Lessons indeed begin thus: When the distinguished feast of Bl. Matthias the Apostle presents itself again through the revolution of the yearly cycle, it rightly multiplies for us the joys of the greatest gladness. With this same opening, but afterwards completely divergent, Lessons are found in the Breviaries of Amiens, Toul, Verdun, Lille, and others printed in the previous century, likewise of Bruges, and of Salisbury from the year 1491, although these again differ from one another, as from the preceding ones. Nevertheless, all the Lessons are taken from the homily that is contained in the Milleloquium of St. Augustine collected by Bartholomew of Urbino, under the word Matthias. The Lessons of the ancient Breviary of Tournai and of Saint-Omer are different, and they begin thus: Concerning Matthias the Apostle, antiquity has left us few records.
[6] In all the Breviaries enumerated thus far, perhaps with excessive scruple, there exists no trace of any martyrdom or death inflicted by violence. St. Matthias is said by others to have rested in peace. In the Breviary of Schleswig from the year 1512, after the election of St. Matthias is related in the first three Lessons, the fourth begins thus: When therefore Matthias had received Judaea as his allotted portion, persisting in preaching there and performing many miracles, he rested in peace. The same things are read in the Legend of Claudius de Rota, and of Jacobus de Voragine, and in the Viola Sanctorum reprinted at Hagenau in the year 1508: in which, however, as will be said below, the opinions of others concerning the death inflicted upon him are also reported. The MS. Martyrology of the Carmelites of Cologne agrees with the aforesaid: In Judaea, the birthday of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, who, chosen by lot by the Apostles in the place of Judas, preached the Gospel of Christ in Judaea: and at last ended his life in peace.
Section II. Reports concerning the preaching of St. Matthias in Ethiopia, at the Black Sea, and in Macedonia. Various torments are reported as having been inflicted upon him.
[7] Authpertus below at number 15 raises the same objections and replies to himself: For if, he says, his Passion is sought, to be held in the same manner as that of the other Apostles, it is most manifestly established whether the Passion of St. Matthias consists in the imitation of Christ: that he inflicted the passion upon himself, and by bearing his cross followed Christ, saying with the Apostle: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. The same words, together with several others excerpted from the sermon of Authpertus, are read in the Breviary of Langres, printed at the beginning of this century. Nor perhaps could any other passion (to use the same word) be required by anyone in the MS. Martyrology of Aachen, to which at the end of the entry for February 24 these few words are appended: The Passion of St. Matthias the Apostle. In the Book of Sacraments of St. Gregory the Great, published among his works from an ancient MS. of the Vatican Library, does it indicate martyrdom? as well as from the MS. of Corbie separately published by Menard, a proper Preface for St. Matthias is read in these words: Whose triumph of passion we solemnly celebrate. Here, that the word "passion" is to be understood as true martyrdom, the common authority of the Church persuades, and it will be evident below that St. Matthias is generally believed to have died thus.
[8] Having left Judaea, his homeland, we have said above from Authpertus that very many pagans were elsewhere converted to the Catholic faith by Bl. Matthias. The Greeks in their Menaea and in Cytheraeus assert that he went to Ethiopia, at August 9, in these words: Matthias was one of the seventy, afterwards numbered among the eleven Apostles in the place of Judas Iscariot. Whether he underwent this in Ethiopia? He preached the Gospel in outer Ethiopia, and there, tormented by many sufferings, gave up his spirit to God. Nearly the same things are read in the Menologion of Canisius: On the same day, the contest of the holy Apostle Matthias, who, one of the seventy, was numbered among the twelve Apostles in place of Judas Iscariot. He preached the Gospel in Ethiopia, where, having overcome many torments for the faith of Christ, he gave up his spirit to God. These things are there, but through the error perhaps of copyists are placed clearly at the end of August 8, whereas they pertain to the following August 9: on which day holidays are commanded by the constitution of Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of the East, as is read in Balsamon's exposition of the sacred Canons of Photius, title 7, chapter 1, and in Leunclavius, book 2 of the Augustal Novels, page 161. On the sixth day of August, he says, on account of the Transfiguration of our Savior Jesus Christ, and the ninth on account of the commemoration of the holy Apostle Matthias. Concerning his preaching in Ethiopia, Nicephorus, book 2 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 40, reports the following: Matthias, moreover, who had repaired the loss in the number of twelve Apostles, went first to Ethiopia, and there endured much at the hands of fierce, hostile, and savage peoples. When he had accomplished what was fitting both in words and deeds in proclaiming the divine Gospel, and had gathered a great multitude of men for Christ, with an intrepid and resolute spirit he received the crown of martyrdom.
[9] Ethiopia is assigned as the location in the supplement to St. Jerome's treatise On Ecclesiastical Writers, a Catalogue which, as Jerome himself attests at the end, was translated into Greek by Sophronius and afterwards augmented with many interpolations. In it the following is added at chapter 10: Matthias, who was one of the number of the seventy, was admitted to the rank of the eleven Apostles in the place of Judas Iscariot, who had been a traitor. In the further Ethiopia, where the gorge of the Apsarus is and the port of Hyssus, Whether he preached and died near the Black Sea? he preached the Gospel, since the people there were uncultured: and there he fell asleep, and there he was buried unto the present day. So it reads. This further Ethiopia is called in Greek en te deutera Aithiopia, which Nicephorus calls "the first," in Greek ten proten Aithiopian. The Menaea, however, assign his preaching to outer Ethiopia, te exo Aithiopia. In the Synopsis On the Life and Death of the Prophets and Apostles, published under the name of St. Dorotheus, Bishop and Martyr, these things are attributed to inner Ethiopia in these words: Matthias, who was one of the seventy disciples, was afterwards numbered as twelfth among the eleven Apostles in the place of Judas the traitor. He preached the Gospel in inner Ethiopia, where the port of Hyssus is on the sea, and the river Phasis, to barbarous and flesh-eating peoples. He died, however, in Sebastopolis, and was buried there near the temple of the Sun. These things are found there, from which places, whether they are true or false, Ortelius determined in his Geographical Thesaurus, under the word Ethiopia, that this Ethiopia was around Colchis, certainly near the Black Sea, near which Ptolemy places the port of Hyssus not far from Trebizond, and then toward Colchis the river Apsorrhus and its mouths, for which Pliny also reads Absarus, as does the supplement to St. Jerome cited above. Next to these in Ptolemy are joined Sebastopolis, and then the city of Phasis and the mouths of the river Phasis.
But St. Matthias could have been both in African Ethiopia and in these regions near the Black Sea: and the authors of the Synopsis of St. Dorotheus and of the supplement to St. Jerome may then have combined these places, calling everything far distant "Ethiopia," just as in the time of our forefathers the Americas and other distant regions in East and West were also called the Indies.
[10] The Greeks in their Odes allude to this conversion of the Gentiles to Christ, and among other things address St. Matthias thus: "And by the divine flash of your wise words, you put to flight the darkness of mad idolatry in the Spirit." Concerning his martyrdom, these verses are reported in the Menaea:
Judas departed, suspended upon a noose. Matthias entered, suspended upon a cross. The divinely-inspired Matthias was suspended on the ninth upon the cross. He is said to have been suspended on a cross.
In the same manner, that St. Matthias endured the gibbet of the cross and, crowned by such martyrdom, ascended to heaven, is reported in certain books by the Breviaries of Wuerzburg from the year 1575, Schleswig, and the Viola Sanctorum cited above.
[11] Others maintain that Macedonia also was illuminated by the preaching, miracles, and captivity of St. Matthias, as recorded in Equilinus, book 3, chapter 149, in these words: When therefore the Apostles had been dispersed to preach, Matthias the Apostle received Judaea as his allotted portion for preaching. He is reported by others to have preached in Macedonia, Yet, as is found elsewhere, he first preached in Macedonia. The Gentiles, wishing to test his faith and holiness, gave him a certain poisoned drink which deprived all who consumed it of their sight: unharmed by poison, he healed 250 blinded persons, which he drank in the name of Christ and incurred no injury. And when that potion had blinded more than two hundred and fifty persons, he, laying his hands upon each one, restored the sight of all. The Devil, however, appeared to them in the likeness of an infant before a dog, urging them to kill Matthias, who was destroying their worship. They searched for him for three days, and though he stood in their midst, they could not see him at all. On the third day, having voluntarily revealed himself to them, they bound him and locked him in prison: where demons appeared to him and gnashed their teeth against him, liberated from prison by Christ. but could not approach. The Lord, however, standing by him with great light, strengthened him, and opening the door, permitted him to depart freely. And when he was preaching again, and certain ones persisted in their obstinacy, immediately the earth opened and swallowed them all: the rest, however, were converted to Christ. After these things the Apostle, having returned to Judaea, was preaching the word of the Lord, etc. The same things are read in Claudius de Rota and Jacobus de Voragine. Very many details are also contained in the Breviary of Passau from the year 1505, and likewise that of Wuerzburg and the Viola Sanctorum, and it is said that with his hands bound behind his back, and a rope placed around his neck, he was grievously afflicted, and thus shut up in prison. The said preaching in Macedonia is also found in the ancient Roman Breviary and in various Martyrologies to be cited presently.
Section III. The Acts of St. Matthias translated from Hebrew. The manner of his martyrdom as reported by various authors. Writings falsely attributed to him.
[12] Wolfgang Lazius, formerly councillor and historian of Emperor Ferdinand I, among other monuments of his genius published from various MSS. a poem by an unknown author on the Passion of Christ, Acts translated from Hebrew, and the aforementioned Abdias on the Lives of the Apostles: to which, he says in his Preface, in order that the edition might attain the proper size of a volume, I have added other histories of the Saints of God, which seemed to me to be true partly on account of the antiquity of the writing, partly on account of the continuity of the narrative. Thus it was pleasing to add the history of Matthias the Apostle, translated from Hebrew by an unknown author, and copied onto very ancient parchment and in very old script, published by Lazius, since it is not found in Abdias. We have the same Acts of St. Matthias from the MS. of St. Salvator in Utrecht, from another MS. of the Budicensis monastery of the Order of Regular Canons of St. Augustine in the diocese of Paderborn in Westphalia, and from a third MS. of the library of the Dominican convent of Soest, also in Westphalia, and finally from a fourth MS. of the Carthusian monastery of St. Alban near Trier. and found in various MSS. The one who translated from Hebrew into Latin was a monk of the Abbey of St. Matthias at Trier, and he lived in the twelfth century of Christ. Hence it is commonly called the Legend of Trier by the authors who either translated it entirely into other languages or published variously abridged parts. Among these are St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, part 1 of the Chronicle, title 6, chapter 15, abridged by St. Antoninus, Jacobus de Voragine, Claudius de Rota, and Bishop Equilinus, cited above. His words, because they are few and concern the death, we give here: The Apostle, having returned to Judaea, as we said above, by Equilinus, was preaching the word of the Lord and converting many through signs and wonders. The Jews, envying him, brought him before their council, and two witnesses who accused him were the first to cast stones at him: which stones he asked to be buried with him as a testimony. While he was being stoned, he was struck on the head with an axe and gave up his spirit to God. Nicephorus, as we said above, reports that he received the crown of martyrdom with an intrepid and resolute spirit, and indeed, as the translator Joannes Langus added, nearly buried under stones, by Perionius, and at last struck with an axe. Similar things are read in the Life of St. Matthias written by Joachim Perionius, a Benedictine of Cormeray, and published by Lazius. by Haraeus, by Lippelous, The same things, as more reliable, were also reported by Franciscus Haraeus and Zacharias Lippelous concerning the Lives of Saints, but the former transcribed St. Antoninus, and the latter Perionius.
[13] The most complete Roman Breviary, with the Offices of the Saints of the Order of Minors of St. Francis and of the Hermits of St. Augustine, printed at Venice in the year 1522, in Roman Breviaries and others. contains proper antiphons for Matins, Lauds, and the Hours, drawn from nearly the same Acts. From these same sources the Lessons are recited in the Breviary of Speyer from the year 1477, of Mainz, of Worms, of Erfurt, of Besancon in Burgundy, of Reims, of Rouen, of Coutances in France, of Evora in Portugal, and in the Ambrosian Breviary prescribed by St. Charles Borromeo for the Milanese, and likewise of the Order of Preachers from the year 1555, in which he is said to have been first struck with stones and then struck with an axe. The Breviary of Passau from the year 1505 adds that he was also suspended on a cross in this order: There were therefore two witnesses who accused him: these first cast stones at him, then crucified him. Finally, in the Roman manner, he is struck with an axe, and stretching out his hands toward heaven, he gave up his spirit to God. Whence it would follow that he was taken down alive from the cross: and thus the opinions of others reported above might seem capable of being reconciled. I omit many Breviaries for the sake of avoiding tedium, especially those which, neglecting his death, touch upon the earlier part of the Acts. I report only what is recited in the Roman Breviary composed by Cardinal Quignones, and permitted in the year 1535 by Paul III, concerning his preaching and death, in these words: This man (as certain authors report), after he had most widely spread the word of God first in Macedonia and then in Judaea, and had converted many to the faith of Christ through preaching and accompanying signs, was seized by the Jews, who bore it ill, and was nearly buried under stones, and at last struck with an axe on the sixth day before the Kalends of March.
[14] The Martyrologies written for several centuries contain similar things. The MS. Florarium: On the Birthday of Bl. Matthias the Apostle. He was chosen by lot by the Apostles in place of Judas the traitor, and in various Martyrologies. and most steadfastly preached the Gospel of Christ for thirty-three years or thereabouts. Afterwards, stoned in Judaea and struck with an axe, he departed to the Lord in the year of salvation 61. The Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490 has the following: Birthday of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, who, after the Ascension of the Lord, was chosen by lot by the Apostles and substituted in the place of Judas the traitor, and preached the Gospel of Christ in Judaea: who was formerly one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ. First he is seized by the Jews, and as a blasphemer is buried under stones: after this, like an ox he is struck with an axe and beheaded: having first fixed his eyes on heaven, by such martyrdom he gave up his spirit. Similar things are read in the Supplement of Grevenus printed in the years 1515 and 1521. Many further details are found in the Viola Sanctorum. But Maurolycus reports the following: Birthday of St. Matthias the Apostle, who, after the Ascension of the Lord, was chosen by lot by the Apostles, succeeded to the place of Judas, and preached first in Macedonia and then in Judaea, where, stoned and struck with an axe by the Jews, he perished. The same, but in different phrasing, is reported by Galesinius, and in the German language by Canisius, and in Italian by Felicius, but the latter makes no mention of preaching among the Macedonians. These things are briefly reported in the present Roman Martyrology: Martyrdom is indicated in the Roman Martyrology. In Judaea, the birthday of St. Matthias the Apostle, who, after the Ascension of the Lord, was chosen by lot by the Apostles in the place of Judas the traitor, and suffered martyrdom for the preaching of the Gospel. The same martyrdom is also indicated in the Roman Missal, where the red color is prescribed to be used in the sacrifice of the Mass.
[15] St. Bonaventure published two sermons on St. Matthias, and concludes the first thus: He was chosen for the observance of the commandments, as all the just are commonly chosen. He was chosen for the perfection of the evangelical counsels, in the sermons of St. Bonaventure as all disciples were. He was chosen for the endurance of martyrdoms, as the other Martyrs of Christ, as can be shown from his Legend, which could be recited here. He was chosen for the office of Prelates, as the other Apostles, who were appointed by Christ as Prelates over the whole world. He was also today chosen for the glory of the Blessed, which he entered through the consummation of martyrdom. This martyrdom is also indicated by Bl. Lawrence Justinian in his sermon on St. Matthias. The coming Paraclete, he says, filled him with charity, and gave him the ability to speak in all kinds of tongues, and of Bl. Lawrence Justinian. to perform miracles, to convert nations, to preach Christ, and to achieve the triumph of martyrdom. Finally, with his fellow Apostles he shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the tribes of Israel. So he writes. The Legend cited concerning his martyrdom by St. Bonaventure seems to be understood entirely of his Hebrew Acts, which we give below.
[16] Octavius Pancirolus in his Hidden Treasures of the City, region 2, church 45, on the occasion of the relics of St. Matthias, which are preserved in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, as will be said below, asserts that St. Matthias, elected Apostle in the place of Judas the traitor, received Judaea as his allotted field for preaching, and that, after he had made a certain Apostolic excursion through Macedonia and returned to it, he met his death there for Christ. How long St. Matthias lived in the Apostolate. And why could he not similarly have been sent at some time to Ethiopia, or toward Colchis, or to the inhabitants of the Black Sea, he who is reported to have lived to the thirty-third year after his election to the Apostolate? We have shown elsewhere that it seems more probable that Christ our Savior was affixed to the cross for the redemption of the human race in the consulship of Tiberius Caesar Augustus V and Aelius Sejanus. That year was the thirty-first of the common era, so that the death of St. Matthias would accordingly be referred to the year 64. In the MS. Florarium cited above, he is said to have departed to the Lord in the year of salvation 61, in which year St. James also, whose martyrdom below is joined with the death of St. Matthias, is inferred to have been killed from the Chronicle of Eusebius and Jerome by Petavius, Deckerius, and others: and we shall examine this more carefully at the Kalends of May, the day of his feast; we annotate some things below to the Acts.
[17] Baronius in his Notes reports that the Gospel which circulated under the name of Matthias was rejected among the apocrypha by Gelasius at the Roman Council, chapter Sancta Romana, distinction 15. But there, unless editions of the Decree vary, the Gospels under the names of Thaddaeus, A Gospel falsely attributed to him, Thomas, Barnabas, Bartholomew, and Andrew, and those which Lucian and Hyrcius falsified, are considered apocryphal, with no mention made of Matthias, whom book 1 of the Recognitions attributed to Pope St. Clement erroneously asserts to be the same as St. Barnabas: and perhaps by a similar error the same Gospel was circulated under the name of Barnabas and under the name of Matthias. Origen mentions this in Homily 1 on Luke, or in the Prologue to Luke. There are, he says, only four approved Gospels, from which doctrines are to be brought forth in the person of the Lord and our Savior. I know a certain Gospel which is called according to Thomas and according to Matthias, and we have read many more. Lest we should seem to be ignorant of anything on account of those who think they know something if they have learned these things. So it reads. Of the same class, says Baronius, were considered the traditions published under the name of Matthias, and traditions. from which Marcion built up his own heresy. Clement of Alexandria in his books of Stromata cites certain fragments from them, among which the following is from book 7: If the neighbor of a chosen one has sinned, the chosen one has sinned. For if he had conducted himself as the word or reason commands, his neighbor would have so reverenced his manner of life as not to have sinned. The other, from book 3, is as follows: One must contend against the flesh and abuse it, but the soul must be nourished and increased by the sustenance of faith and knowledge. Eusebius also treats of these writings falsely attributed to him in book 3, chapter 23.
Section IV. Relics of St. Matthias preserved at Rome, at Trier, and in other places.
[18] There remains another controversy, no less complicated, concerning the sacred relics of the Apostle Matthias, which are reported to be deposited in various places. And first, Nicephorus and the Greeks in the Menaea and the Menologion, whose words we have given above, assert that he went to Ethiopia and there, having endured many torments, received the crown of martyrdom. St. Matthias is said by some to have been buried in Ethiopia, The one who augmented the Catalogue of St. Jerome On Ecclesiastical Writers rendered into Greek by Sophronius writes, with the martyrdom omitted, that he fell asleep there, that is, in Ethiopia, and was buried there unto the present day. In the Synopsis On the Life and Death of the Prophets and Apostles, published under the name of St. Dorotheus, Bishop and Martyr, it is said that he died at Sebastopolis and was buried there near the temple of the Sun, at Sebastopolis near the temple of the Sun: near Colchis, as we said above. Hence Nicolas Serarius in his dissertation On the Apostles affirms the following concerning St. Matthias: In the further Ethiopia, where the gorge of the Apsarus is and the port of Hyssus (namely, at the Black Sea), he refined the most uncouth people with the most holy laws of Christ the Lord: where he was also killed, and in the time of St. Jerome, or rather perhaps of later writers who seem to have added these things to Jerome, was buried. For what Perionius writes, that he was killed in Judaea, is less well supported. So says Serarius, who, while he judges it not improbable that some of his relics were once brought to Trier, largely undermines the authority of the earlier account, as will presently appear. We acknowledge that St. Matthias, during the thirty-two or thirty-three years he spent in the Apostolate, rather, after the faith of Christ had also been proclaimed there, could have traveled both to African Ethiopia and to the regions near the Black Sea, which these authors by a manner of speaking unusual to others call Ethiopia, for the purpose of preaching the Gospel of Christ: yet we entirely judge that in the division of the world made among the Apostles, Judaea fell to him by lot: and that this land was cultivated by his labor and preaching during the principal period of his life, and he died a Martyr in Judaea: and was at last irrigated by his blood. We have provided the authorities above: from what follows, greater light will be shed.
[19] Christopher Browerus, in book 11 of the Annals of Trier, page 658, from a most ancient book, which he asserts was damaged by the blows of swords at the time of the martyrdom of St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, who was killed in the year 754, published the Notice of regions and cities in which the venerable bodies of the holy Apostles and Evangelists rest. This Notice begins thus: Bl. John the Baptist rests in the city called Sebaste. Bl. Peter the Apostle rests at Rome in the province of Tuscia. His body is reported to have been buried at Jerusalem, And so concerning the other Apostles, among whom it is said of St. Matthias: Matthias the Apostle rests at Jerusalem, in the province of Syria. In this Notice, therefore, the first, or at least a very ancient, burial is indicated. For the sepulchre of St. John the Baptist at the time of Julian the Apostate, as Rufinus says in book 11 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 28, Pagans in the city of Sebaste in Palestine with rabid mind and murderous hands invaded, scattered the bones, and again collecting them burned them with fire, and scattered the holy ashes mixed with dust through the fields and countryside. We have, therefore, from this Notice that the body of St. Matthias was preserved at Jerusalem, and brought to Rome by St. Helena; and that it could have been brought from there to Rome by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, which both the Acts of the Translation and various Breviaries and Martyrologies, to be cited presently, assert.
[20] But it is also disputed among writers whether the body of the Apostle remained at Rome or was carried to Trier. Peter de Natalibus, in book 3, chapter 149, cited above, adds the following concerning St. Matthias: His body, buried in Judaea, whether deposited in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, was then transferred to Rome, and is said to be in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, and there his head is shown to the people. St. Antoninus, Claudius de Rota, and Jacobus de Voragine, together with the Breviary of Schleswig, add that his body was buried there under a stone of porphyry. Onuphrius Panvinius, in his book On the Principal Basilicas of the City of Rome, says that in the seventh basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, under the high altar, is the body of St. Matthias the Apostle. under the high altar, He then enumerates twenty-two classes of relics which are both preserved there and shown to the people on appointed days, and at number 17 he lists the head of St. Matthias the Apostle, whose body, he says, is under the high altar of this basilica: and finally at the end he adds that these relics are customarily shown to the people on Easter Day. Attilius Serranus, on the seven churches of the City, Octavius Pancirolus in the Hidden Treasures of the City, and others, write similar things. But at what time and on what occasion the body was brought there is left in doubt. The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was built under Pope Liberius, who ascended the Pontifical throne in the year 353, on account of a miracle of snow, as will be related on August 5, because that day is solemn throughout the universal Church on account of the dedication of that basilica. It was called the Basilica of Liberius after his name, later restored and enlarged anew by Sixtus III, who was created Pontiff in the year of Christ 432, and dedicated to St. Mary, Mother of God; then called St. Mary at the Manger, and St. Mary Major. The apse of this basilica, Anastasius the Librarian reports, was rebuilt anew by Pope Paschal, who began to preside over the Church as Supreme Pontiff in the year 817. with an inscription placed in the apse, In this apse there is inscribed in mosaic work this inscription: In this sacred Basilica the bodies of Sts. Matthias the Apostle, Jerome the Doctor, Romula and Redempta, virgins, are deposited. So states Baronius in his Notes to July 23, on which day those Virgins are venerated who are mentioned by Gregory the Great, book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 15, who says that at the same time as he himself entered the monastery, they were living near the church of the Bl. Virgin Mary. Pancirolus, region 2, church 45, is of the opinion that either the body of St. Matthias was brought to Rome together with the body of St. Jerome, or else nothing can be known about the time of its translation. Baronius, in his Notes to May 9, on which day the translation of the body of St. Jerome is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, thinks this was done when the Saracens invaded Palestine: Pancirolus conjectures the year 1135, in which year Baronius describes in his Annals the miserable devastation of Palestine and even of the town of Bethlehem. Finally, among the indulgences and with indulgences granted on the feast day and its octave: conferred on this basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore by Pope Nicholas IV around the year 1290, the following are noted: on the feast of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, sixteen years and sixteen quarantines; and on the octave of the same, six years and six quarantines; but on the feast of the other Apostles and Evangelists (none of whose names is specified), of St. Lawrence, and of St. Jerome, two years and two quarantines. From which it is left sufficiently clear that the ancient opinion concerning the relics then preserved there was well established among the Romans. The same Pancirolus adds that certain particles also exist in various Roman churches.
[21] On the contrary, Browerus in book 11 of the Annals of Trier, page 659 and following, objects that the people of Trier do not deny that the body of the Apostle was translated from the Eastern provinces to the West and first deposited in the City of cities: [but Browerus asserts he can show by topical arguments that it was brought to Trier:] but that it did not remain so immovably fixed in that place that his bones did not at some time make their way to them: that such is the faithful tradition of their ancestors, since the discovery at Trier was subsequently confirmed and attested by splendid miracles, noted with respect to places and times: whereas elsewhere in the world these matters are not equally well established. Otherwise, he adds, could you believe it possible that a matter set before people's eyes, in the precinct of a most noble temple and under the care of a most noble city, could have escaped the attention of a Bishop intent upon and absorbed in this very consideration? Consult below number 3 of the later Acts of the Translation, where it is said that Eberhard, Archbishop of Trier, while at Rome, learned through reading that the body of St. Matthias had been translated by St. Helena from Judaea, brought to Trier by St. Agritius, ordained Bishop of Trier, and deposited beside the bodies of St. Eucharius and his companions. But Browerus continues: To say nothing of how childishly he would have acted, who considered that those very bones of St. Matthias which he held in his hands at Rome needed to be sought out at home with such clever diligence and tracked down by every trace. To be sure, let it be so: let a matter of such importance have escaped his notice, and let this ardor of inquiry have grown cold at Rome. What then? Could Eberhard have aroused such industry and zeal in his successors that the thirst for searching was not quenched in a period of nearly sixty whole years, until the desired treasure at last emerged from darkness into the sight of the people? But wherever the blessed Apostle was ultimately brought here from, the people of Trier do not allow this to be called into doubt or the possession of so venerable an antiquity to be disturbed by anyone's claim, and he gives these arguments in defense of the possession. For if you ask where the principal bones of the Apostle lie, where his venerable skull shines forth, they will bring you to the very spot, and will tell you that their household gods are made holy by these august ashes, and that the walls of their city stand safe under these lofty protections. And if you bring the matter to judgment and press them more closely, they would produce documents and sealed records, by which they demonstrate that these bones were brought by the favor and authority of the Empress Helena and Pope Sylvester, under the auspices of Agritius. They will show that in the narrow confines of the old oratory the monument of the Apostolic pledge was conspicuous with its inscription. They will further urge: why, with the name of the first Patron set aside (for who does not know that Eucharius formerly held that sacred enclosure and precinct?), did later generations wish that all the glory of patronage and of the place should yield and belong to the Apostle Matthias? They will inquire whence such great assemblies of peoples, concourses of pilgrims, vows and supplications of the inhabitants, and wonders of Apostolic patronage could have been aroused. Finally, with the case of both sides thoroughly known and debated, they will perhaps demonstrate not obscurely that, more justly and better for both parties, with the good faith of the ancients vouching for it, the people of Trier as well as the Romans may rightly claim and possess the glory and title of a pledge shared on both sides, yet not without the following praetorian exception: Unless the people of Trier are in possession of the august and Apostolic pledge, and have been for many ages, and thus still possess it even now: nor is there any cause why, as they possess, they should not be forbidden to be dispossessed. So says Browerus, whose final words the Romans would perhaps equally adduce in their own favor. Hence St. Antoninus, part 1 of the Chronicle, title 6, chapter 15, after narrating his martyrdom, adds: His body, translated from Judaea to Rome, was then brought to Trier according to that Legend: but according to others, it is commonly said to rest at Rome in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore under a stone of porphyry: the head of which is shown to the people. Thus in Claudius de Rota, Jacobus de Voragine, and the Breviary of Schleswig, concerning which we have treated above, both opinions are reported.
[22] The Acts of the translation of the body of St. Matthias to Trier, and of their twofold discovery, and the miracles wrought there through his patronage, we give in two versions: [Acts of the Translation and Discovery of the relics of St. Matthias, one by the author who is the interpreter of the Life,] the earlier by the same Trier monk by whom, as translator, we publish the Hebrew Acts of the life and martyrdom of St. Matthias. He prefaces his earlier prologue with these words: How he came from Judaea to Trier, as I have read in the History of Trier and in the records of Pope Sylvester, and his miracles, I shall subsequently set forth. We publish these from three MS. codices: of the Carthusians at Trier, of Budicensis, and of Utrecht, concerning which we have treated above. The author suggests his own date at number 4 when he produces these words: A certain devout old man related to me with tears that he had frequently seen this in a fellow-priest, namely the one who around the year 1050 had handled with his own hands the relics of St. Matthias, whose revelation, which was subsequently made in the year 1127, and the miracles wrought in the following years, he describes. The later Acts we give from the MS. codex of the monastery of St. Matthias itself; whose author Browerus, in book 13 of the Annals of Trier, page 739, suggests in these words: In the meantime, while Eberhard, Abbot of St. Eucharius, was diligently attending to the works of the monastery, it pleased the divine Will at last to bring forth into human sight, as if from darkness, the most precious treasure of the body of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, unknown for so many years, and by a repeated discovery to gladden the Church of Trier with a new kind of benefit. Which matter both produced immense cause for joy to all, and immediately, by the wondrous virtues displayed, summoned an incredible multitude of ailing persons, who all, having poured out their prayers at the sacred body of the blessed Apostle, another written by Lambert, a monk of St. Matthias: experienced undoubted help of healing: and indeed Lambert himself, a not unlettered monk, who in a written book also pursued the works divinely performed there, writes that he was freed by the aid of St. Matthias in this year. He reveals himself throughout his writing to be a monk of St. Matthias, and at number 9 a lay Swabian, as he says, indicated to us that he had known only the first letter, whom, as is said at the end of number 10, it seemed fitting to us neither for himself nor for this place to dwell any longer. The fire that arose in the year 1131 is discussed. The author then girds himself at number 12 to narrate the miracles, but these were not transmitted to us: we supplement some things not touched upon in the earlier account from the Annals of Browerus.
[23] Meanwhile, the construction of the new church begun by Abbot Eberhard, on the occasion of which the sacred bones of the Apostle Matthias were revealed, by Eugene III who went to Trier, was completed by his successor Abbot Berthold. At that time Pope Eugene III came to Trier with St. Bernard and twenty-four Cardinals, and in the year 1147, on the day before the first Sunday of Advent, he turned aside to this monastery of St. Matthias in the suburbs, being received there with honorable and splendid hospitality: from there on the following day, with a most solemn procession of Princes, Bishops, Clergy, and people, he entered the city, celebrated the Christmas festivities there, and at last on the Ides of January of the year 1148, Pope Eugene himself and Archbishop Albero consecrated the church erected in honor of St. Matthias the Apostle [and consecrated by Archbishop Albero, the church of St. Matthias in the year 1148.] with the greatest devotion to his honor and memory, and dedicating the high altar, they wished it to be sacred to Sts. John the Evangelist, Eucharius, Philip, James, and Stephen the Protomartyr. The altar that is at the tomb of St. Matthias they consecrated in honor of the Holy Cross and of the Apostles Matthias and James the brother of the Lord: the remaining altars were dedicated by other Cardinals or Bishops, and both they and Pope Eugene granted various indulgences to those visiting the shrine of St. Matthias: and there some portions of the relics of St. Matthias were placed in the two aforementioned altars, as also in the altar to the North under the tower and the altar in the crypt: and in the reliquary of St. Matthias is preserved his chin, together with diverse relics of other Saints. These things are confirmed below from the MS. account of the church's dedication. But that the arm of St. Matthias is customarily displayed is read in the Catalogue of relics of the Church of St. Matthias printed in the year 1515.
[24] The solemn revelation of the relics of St. Matthias was made on the Kalends of September: to which day was afterwards also assigned the Translation of the Relics: of which, however, some German Martyrologies and Breviaries make mention at February 24, and the MS. Florarium of the Saints at July 18. But for September 1, the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490 has the following: The Translation of the Relics assigned to February 24, July 18, and September 1. At Trier, the translation of St. Matthias the Apostle from Rome to Trier. And then many further details from the Acts to be given below are cited. These are also read in the German Martyrology of Canisius and the Supplement of Hermann Greven, and briefly in Molanus in his additions to Usuard and Ferrarius. In the three earlier Martyrologies the following is read for the same September 1: Likewise at Trier, the discovery of the same Apostle at St. Eucharius. And the Discovery of the same on September 1. This is reported in the MS. Florarium as follows: At Trier, in the Church of St. Eucharius, first Archbishop and Confessor of that city, the Discovery of the body of St. Matthias the Apostle beneath the altar of St. John the Baptist in the year of salvation 1126. But the year was in fact 1127, and it was the altar of the Most Holy Mother of God Mary, as is evident below from the Acts. The same Discovery is treated of in the Breviaries of Trier, including MSS., and in the recently printed Lectionary, where it is also noted that the monastery, which had borne its name from St. Eucharius, began from that discovery to be celebrated under the name of St. Matthias. Among the relics which are shown in the Collegiate Church of St. Paulinus at Trier on the Sunday nearest the third day before the Ides of May, some are of St. Matthias, together with the stone upon which the lot is said to have fallen at his election. There are also some relics among the nuns at Ponte Leonis.
[25] William, a monk of St. Maximin, in his MS. Gesta of Trier, under Archbishop Otto, near the end of the book, reports the following: The same Lord Otto magnificently translated and caused to be brought the head of St. Matthias the Apostle from the castle of Ehrenbreitstein to the church of Trier, his bride. Translation of the head from Ehrenbreitstein to Trier This Otto was born of the illustrious stock of the Counts of Ziegenhain, and governed the Church of Trier from the year 1418 to the year 1430 of the same century. In the diocese of Trier is the illustrious city of Coblenz, where the Moselle flows into the Rhine: opposite this city is the castle of Ehrenbreitstein, now called Hermanstein, and it is a very strong fortification: on what occasion the head of St. Matthias was formerly brought there, we do not read. The account of this is inscribed under August 11 in the Martyrology printed at Cologne in 1490, in the German Martyrology of Canisius, August 11, the Supplement of Greven, and the MS. Florarium, in these words everywhere: At Trier, in the cathedral, the translation of the head of St. Matthias the Apostle. In the Epitome of the Gesta of Trier, printed in 1517, booklet 3, title 2, the relics of the cathedral are listed, which are customarily shown twice a year, in Holy Week and on Pentecost, and in fifth place is set the head of St. Matthias the Apostle, whose body the blessed Helena, having translated it from Judaea, appointed to be brought to Trier through Bl. Agritius. Saussaius also treats of the same St. Matthias under February 24 in the Gallican Martyrology and reports the following concerning the head: Moreover, the head of this holy Apostle was formerly brought to France and remained deposited at Barbezieux in Aquitaine for a long time with due observance; relics formerly at Barbezieux in Aquitaine, burned by the Calvinists: until it was impiously snatched from the sacristy by the Calvinist heretics and cast into the flames. By this burning, just as those foul enemies of the saints revealed their hatred against so great a herald and champion of Christ, so the most holy Apostle himself gained new glory from this injury. For from this pyre and these precious ashes, as if from gems, there emerged, fashioned together, a crown that will ever shine upon his head, won by a fresh triumph. Bucelinus in the Benedictine Treasury says that the remaining parts of St. Matthias in the monastery of Santa Giustina at Padua are so great that they glory as if in the whole. Whether also at Padua; Scardeonius, book 2 of the Antiquities of Padua, page 90, enumerates the principal relics of Saints which rest in the monastery of Santa Giustina, and makes no mention whatsoever of St. Matthias.
[26] Aegidius Gelenius enrolled the same St. Matthias in his Calendar of Cologne, because he is venerated with particular devotion in various basilicas, and his relics are in several churches: Other relics at Cologne, namely, in the collegiate churches of St. Cunibert and of St. Mary on the Steps, and likewise of the Carthusians and the Crosiers, and in the chapel of Sts. Willibrord and Boniface, as the same Gelenius reports in his work On the Greatness of Cologne, pages 289, 310, 456, 501, and 616. There are also some relics of the same St. Matthias in the metropolitan church of St. Vitus in the city of Prague, at Prague, in Bavaria, and in Upper Bavaria in the monastery of Andechs in the diocese of Augsburg. A finger joint of the same is preserved in the Carthusian house of Ruremond on the bank of the Meuse near the town of Sittard, and two ribs of the same St. Matthias in the monastery of Liessies in Hainaut: of which Rayssius treats in his Belgian Sacred Treasury. Belgium, But Masinus in his Survey of Bologna asserts that in the church of St. Dominic a finger of St. Matthias is honored among the relics, and that some of his particles are with the nuns who have embraced the institute of the same St. Dominic, whose church is dedicated to St. Matthias. Italy, There are also some of his relics in the most celebrated monastery of Monte Cassino and in various other places.
Section V. An apparition of St. Matthias commanding a monastery to be built.
[27] When, in the thirteenth century of Christ, various priests entered into fellowship with one another as St. Louis, King of France, and other Princes set out for the Holy Land, in order that they might render zealous service to the people by land and sea as their pastors, the Order of Crosiers erected in the thirteenth century, they laid the foundations of the Order of the Holy Cross, with which their garments were marked, which soon spread widely in the Low Countries, especially between the Meuse and the Rhine, and the principal house of the whole Order was established at Huy, a town in the territory of Liege. Gelenius, mentioned above, explains these things at greater length in book 3, section 45, the devotion of the house of Merode, where at section 4 he says that the whole illustrious Merode family was always wonderfully devoted to the entire Order of the Holy Cross from the year 1340, in which Lord Werner, the illustrious Baron of Merode, admonished by a threefold vision from St. Matthias the Apostle, attended by a number of Brethren of the Order of the Holy Cross (as their habit indicated), erected and founded an oratory dedicated to the same St. Matthias the Apostle and a monastery of the Order of the Holy Cross, commonly called Schwarzenbroich. So says Gelenius. Now Schwarzenbroich, in Latin Nigra Palus (Black Marsh), on account of the foundation of the monastery of the Valley of St. Matthias. is a monastery of the Duchy of Juelich and the diocese of Cologne, distant about five miles from Marcodurum, from which both the monastery and the town are equidistant, with Merode, an ancient castle, long distinguished by the title of Barony, in the middle of the journey, whence we said on February 10, when treating of the Translation of the head of St. William, page 487, that the noble Merode family, divided into many branches, took its surname. The Life of the said Werner of Merode, together with the Origin of this monastery, which he calls the Valley of St. Matthias, was published at Cologne in the year 1627 by Franciscus Thomas Franck, a religious of the Order of the Holy Cross, from which we give here what pertains to the apparition of St. Matthias. These are as follows:
[28] The first origin of this monastery began in the year of human salvation 1340, In the year 1340 St. Matthias appears to Lord Werner of Merode, and how it happened, we shall briefly relate. When the most noble Baron and most illustrious Lord Werner of Merode was one day engaged in hunting, intending to refresh his weary body with the repose of sleep in the very heat of the day, he turned aside to a certain place of horror and vast solitude, which, because of the density of the woods and thorns, was at that time unaccustomed to the approach of men and was inhabited only by wild beasts. And when he had slept for a little while, he fell into an ecstasy of mind and saw a man of tall stature, handsome of face, with a long beard, and clothed in a mantle of snow-white color: and he saw a great multitude of Religious of the Order of Crosiers, which no one could number, standing by the aforesaid man. And when the most noble Lord was amazed at the novelty of the vision, the man, drawing nearer, said: Do you know me? And the nobleman said: Not at all, and who are you, Lord? And who are these Religious signed with the Cross, whom I see with you? And he said: I am Matthias the Apostle, one from the catalogue of the Apostles, chosen by lot by the Apostles in the place of the traitor. He commands a monastery to be built: I have been sent to you to make known to you the divine will. And the nobleman replied: Lord, what do you wish me to do? And the Saint said: Your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been commemorated in the sight of God. It is the divine will that in the place where you have reclined your drowsy limbs, you build a monastery in honor of my name, He also appears to his wife Elizabeth, and introduce the Religious of that Order whom you see present with me. And having said these things, he disappeared. Without delay: after this vision was removed from the eyes of the illustrious and most noble man, he appeared in a similar form to the most noble Lady Elizabeth of Merode, his consort, commanding the same things that he had also commanded her husband. And when evening had come, the illustrious and noble Lord returned to Merode castle with rapid pace: and as he pondered within himself concerning the apparition that had been made to him, he began to be wondrously saddened and sorrowful. But when his clouded countenance revealed the sadness hidden within the secret chambers of his heart, his wife began to inquire the cause of his sorrow. Why, she said, is your face sadder than usual? And why has your countenance fallen? And he began to relate what he had seen and what he had heard: and before he had fully completed the account of the apparition, she too began to relate the vision that had been shown to her. And so, taking counsel and with equal resolve, summoning their Chaplain, a man learned in divine and human law, they set forth the apparition that had been made and sought his advice concerning it. But he, as a man of very shrewd intelligence, knowing that many are deceived by sleep, said: It was a phantom. Not at all, they said; rather, it was a true apparition. If, he said, the apparition was true and from God, both of you pour out your prayers as suppliants, that the Saint of whom you yourselves speak, Matthias, may appear to you again and instruct you more fully concerning the building of the monastery.
[29] A truly marvelous prodigy and worthy of narration. In the silence of the dead of night, when sleep falls upon men, behold the Saint of whom I spoke, Matthias, appeared again to the illustrious Lord of Merode again to both of them. and to his consort Elizabeth. Why, he said, were you incredulous at my word? And why did you hesitate concerning the mandate received? And to the Lord he said: Arise with all speed, fulfill my desire, and build the monastery concerning which I commanded you, and place there Brethren of the Order of the Holy Cross, that they may render service to God day and night. And having said these things, he vanished from their eyes. Without delay: Bl. Matthias appeared to the Chaplain. and then to the Chaplain: By what temerity, he said, did you dare to judge as a phantom the apparition made to your Lord? Unless you desist, you will receive the due penalties for your temerity. When morning came, the Chaplain, bathed in tears, went to the Lord and narrated what he had seen and heard.
[30] And so in the same year, the noble and illustrious Lord of Merode, in the place of the first apparition, in accordance with the command received from Bl. Matthias, with joy for the Angels and dismay for the demons, having cut down and cleared away the density of the woods, founded a church in honor of the most holy Matthias the Apostle, a monastery with a church is built: and completed the remaining buildings of the monastery, introducing in accordance with the divine good pleasure religious Brethren of the Order of the Holy Cross living under the Rule of St. Augustine, and having offered gifts and annual revenues and delegated lands, having happily completed the course of his life, he fell asleep in the Lord. O ineffable man, though devoted to earthly activities and affairs, yet worthy of an Apostolic apparition and of the vision of an innumerable multitude of holy souls of the Order of the Holy Cross! Happy indeed the stock of Merode, which produced such and so many men of complete virtue.
[31] Moreover, the letters of foundation of this monastery, which are most diligently preserved by the Lords Barons of Merode, confirm this Apostolic apparition and the origin of the foundation of this monastery of the Valley of St. Matthias, which the noble Lord Philip, the current Baron of Merode, also caused to be dictated to me. The same is confirmed by a sermon delivered before the Venerable Chapter of Aachen at the Jubilee of Lord Arnold of Merode, where the same thing is commemorated as most certain and at that time well known to everyone. The same is affirmed by the constant tradition of the Brethren of this monastery and the letters of foundation of the same Convent. And the very name of the monastery approves the same, namely, the Valley of St. Matthias, and the continual commemoration of this Apostle in the divine offices. The well called after St. Matthias also confirms it, a procession in honor of St. Matthias. which flowed to relieve the thirst of the noble Lord Werner. Finally, what we have said is confirmed by the annual procession of the town of Duren in honor of St. Matthias the Apostle.
SERMON ON ST. MATTHIAS
by Authpertus, Abbot of Monte Cassino, from the Antwerp MS. and Mombritius.
Matthias the Apostle, in Palestine (St.)
BHL Number: 5695
By Authpertus, Abbot of Monte Cassino.
CHAPTER I
The election of St. Matthias as disciple and then Apostle of Christ.
[1] Matthias in Hebrew is rendered in Latin as "Given" (Donatus), that is to say, given in place of Judas Iscariot. For this man was chosen twelfth by the Apostles in his place, Prologue, when the lot was cast between two candidates. He alone is held to have no surname, and to him is given the preaching of the Gospel in Judaea: his feast is celebrated on the sixth day before the Kalends of March: for he was one of the seventy disciples.
[2] The illustrious and glorious feast of Bl. Matthias, Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, ought to be venerated and glorified with as great devotion as we know him to have been chosen, by the dispensation of divine grace, to the Apostolic dignity. But in what manner and in what order it was accomplished through the holy Apostles, St. Matthias and what the holy Fathers thereafter magnificently brought forth in his praise, we endeavor to unfold in the course of Sacred Scripture. For our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, by Christ, incarnate for our sake, the Creator and Redeemer of the human race, when by his more earnest and hidden counsel he had determined most mercifully to visit the languishing world and to marvelously snatch his creature from the power of diabolical fraud (which the devil had possessed for five thousand and more years), he who was King of kings and Lord of lords deigned to be born humbly under the power of a human king, namely Octavian Augustus: and he who was the Creator of heaven and earth did not disdain to take upon himself the frailty of our flesh. And therefore, growing through the stages of increase, in order to show the reality of his true Incarnation; since indeed he was the true day that shone with twelve hours, he determined to choose twelve Apostles: assumed among the 72 disciples, then, after the likeness of the seventy-two languages, he assumed seventy-two disciples and sent them two by two to preach. Among whom indeed Bl. Matthias, receiving the ministry of holy preaching, so humbly submitted his entire self to the divine precepts that by faithfully preaching he endeavored to lead the pagan people to the bosom of holy Mother Church. Whence, having become exceedingly acceptable and most devoted to Christ, chosen as Apostle in place of Judas the traitor, when that traitor Judas betrayed God in Christ and, having become his own murderer, lost the Apostolate, this man of the Lord was ordained as the twelfth Apostle in his place by lot and by the prayer of the holy Apostles: to whom is given the preaching of the holy Gospel in Judaea, just as to the holy Apostles in their several regions.
[3] Nevertheless, if in the land of Christians it is fitting that the feasts of all the Saints should be celebrated, how much more those of the blessed Apostles? Who specially clung to Christ, worthy of being venerated with great reverence held converse with him, ate and drank with him, and drank in all his efficacy with thirsting hearts: who also merited to be called brothers and friends by the Lord himself, when he said: I shall no longer call you servants, but my friends. And elsewhere: These are my brothers. John 15:15 And further, conferring upon them a great reward, he said: Rejoice and be glad, because your names are written in heaven. Matthew 12:49 Luke 10:20 Since this is so by his consent, on account of this excellence it would have been fitting that their solemnities be celebrated under one feast day, just as they had a common life and fellowship with the Lord. For Bl. Jerome also, asserting this in the Martyrology which he published for Bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, thought it proper to place them together, saying: Indeed, in the first part of my booklet we have most fittingly written the feasts of all the Apostles, so that by the various days they may not seem to be divided, whom the one dignity of the Apostolate has made sublime in heavenly glory. But since the custom has prevailed in the holy Church that the feasts of each Apostle be celebrated on the particular day on which he was born to heaven and crowned, we on this day ought to honor the birthday of Bl. Matthias, the twelfth Apostle, with as great veneration on the birthday, as, as has been said, we find him to have been miraculously chosen among the Apostles. But in what manner it was accomplished by the testimony of Bl. Peter the Apostle, or rather by the grace of the Holy Spirit, since it is a mystery of great authority and great excellence and was narrated by Bl. Luke the Evangelist, it is most fitting to tell for the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of that holy and glorious Apostle himself. For the aforementioned Evangelist says:
[4] And Peter, rising up in the midst of the brethren, said (now the multitude of persons together was about one hundred and twenty): Men and brethren, the Scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas: and following. The election is related from the Acts of the Apostles. who was the guide of those who seized Jesus, who was numbered among us and obtained his share of this ministry: and this man indeed acquired a field with the reward of his iniquity, and being hanged burst asunder in the middle, and all his entrails were poured out: and it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Acts 1:15 For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let his habitation be made desolate, and let there be no one to dwell therein, and let another receive his bishopric. Psalm 68:26 It is therefore necessary that of these men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, one of them be made a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph, who was called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And praying they said: You, Lord, who know the hearts of men, show which of these two you have chosen to receive the place of this ministry and apostolate, from which Judas transgressed, that he might go to his own place. And they gave them lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles.
[5] In this election of this most holy Apostle, the dispensation of divine power and of human glory is to be considered and admired: since indeed, St. Matthias as divine Scripture declares, God does not foresee as man sees. Job 10:4 For that Joseph, who was called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, was chosen by men: but Matthias, whose name means "God's little one" or "Given," because humble and little was made great by the election of the Holy Spirit. O truly little! O truly great, who is not great because he was exalted, but is great because he was made humble, following indeed the footsteps of his Lord who says: The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28 And that which he says in another place when he urged the sons of Zebedee to holy humility: He who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Luke 14:11 and 18:14 And the same Matthias is called "Given": by whom, or why? By the Lord Jesus Christ himself, of course: who, having foreknown him before the foundation of the world, before his holy Incarnation, ordained that when the fullness of time should come, when he should take flesh from the sacred Virgin, when he should be born, when after being betrayed by his own disciple, foreordained to the Apostolate the one Given by the Lord himself should be exalted and glorified in the number of twelve, and the number of twelve should be found perfect. Nor is this surprising, nor incredible: for nothing is believed to be impossible or unknown to the wisdom of God. For whatever he willed, he has done in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the depths. O how far human merits stand from heavenly and divine judgments! O how far human wisdom stands from that wisdom of which the Apostle says: O the depth of the riches of wisdom and knowledge, how incomprehensible are his judgments and unsearchable his ways! Romans 11:33 For we see this complete wisdom in the election of Bl. Matthias, whom the wisdom of God kept hidden in his treasury, humble and little: but yet wished to reveal him in the world as great and glorious, namely when he exalted him on the twelfth throne. Let us therefore receive him as one given by God, as one foreordained by him: let us venerate him also as one greatly glorified by him among the disciples. For that aforementioned Barsabas is not to be thought the same as that Barnabas, the companion of Bl. Paul the Apostle: for the one is interpreted "son of consolation," but the other "son of rest."
NotesCHAPTER II
The election of St. Matthias made by lot. The gift of tongues conferred at Pentecost. The privilege of judging the world together with Christ.
[6] And they gave them lots, says Luke the Evangelist, and the lot fell upon Matthias. Nor indeed on account of this example, or because the Prophet Jonah was detected by lot, Why he was chosen by lot, should lots be indiscriminately trusted: since the privileges of individual cases can by no means make a common law. For in the lot of the Prophet Jonah, the Gentiles, compelled by the storm, were seeking by lot the author of the danger: and here Bl. Matthias, beloved of God, is chosen by lot, lest his election should seem to depart from the law of the Old Testament, where the high priest was ordered to be sought by lot: as is said of Zechariah: According to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to offer incense. Luke 1:9 But this figure was permitted to be practiced until the truth was fulfilled through Jesus: whose sacrifice, immolated at the time of Easter, was truly consummated on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit appeared in fire. Hence it is that Bl. Matthias is ordained by lot before Pentecost: and not St. Stephen and the fellow Deacons? but the seven Deacons (among whom was the most blessed Martyr, the first himself, Stephen, who, by glorifying Jesus Christ, merited to see him standing at the right hand of God) were afterward ordained by no means through the casting of lots, but only by the election of the disciples, and indeed by the prayer and laying on of hands of the Apostles. But those who wish to follow this rule by the example of the Apostles, let them take heed and observe that the blessed Apostles did not do this except with the assembly of the brethren gathered and with prayers poured out to the Lord.
[7] For who can describe this perfect mercy of God, who can relate the grace of his dispensation? He himself indeed deigned to confirm the election of his Apostle through the fire of the Holy Spirit, who on the day of Pentecost miraculously consummated through the fire of the Holy Spirit the sacrifice of his body which he offered for us. For thus the order of Sacred Scripture declares through the blessed Evangelist, saying: And when the days of Pentecost were being completed, all the disciples were together in the same place: and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, at Pentecost he received the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in various tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak. Acts 2:1 For under the Law that sacrifice was acceptable to God which was consumed by heavenly fire: as we read was divinely done in the burnt offering of righteous Abel and of Manoah, the father of course of the most mighty Samson, and of Elijah and of the other Prophets, for where we read: God looked upon the offerings of Abel, in the Greek it is written: "he set them on fire." Genesis 4:4 Therefore the sacrifice of Bl. Matthias the Apostle's election, by the testimony of Sacred Scripture, has the greatest sanction and possesses the most holy firmness. Whence then and from what source? Because the Lord, confirming it, approves it from heaven by giving the fire of the Holy Spirit to all the Apostles, and certainly also to Bl. Matthias himself, so that they might perpetually speak in the tongues of all nations.
[8] But perhaps someone says: The Holy Spirit was surely given to the Apostles and to Bl. Matthias only at that time and in that place, but afterwards it was taken away, just as from all the Prophets and from Bl. Elisha, who says concerning the woman bereaved of her child about the boy: Leave her alone, for her soul is in bitterness: and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. 2 Kings 4:27 Far be it, I say, it was never taken away: far be this from the Catholic truth. For though the Holy Spirit was formerly given to Bl. Elisha and the other Prophets and taken away, it was by no means so with the holy Apostles and Bl. Matthias. For although to the former it was given and taken away for a time, it was thus expedient, it was thus fitting, since they were prophesying the Truth. But when Christ the Truth came, the Holy Spirit was given and confirmed to the holy Apostles in perpetuity, as also the grace of all tongues. And rightly so. Is there not a great difference before the Lord between the Apostles and the Prophets? For the latter as servants foretold the coming of the Lord and believed, yet did not see him incarnate: but the holy Apostles both saw and believed in his Incarnation, ate with him and drank with him, and, as has been said, merited to be called friends by him: moreover, they also shed their blood for love of him. Christ the Lord himself confirms this when he says: Many Kings and Prophets wished to see the things that you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things that you hear, and did not hear them. Luke 10:24 But those who would presumptuously wish to deny this, let them take heed entirely lest they resist the truth, and lest they depart from the truth, which is Christ. For he himself confirms this judgment, saying to the Apostles: If you love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. John 14:15 It should indeed be noted what it means to abide forever. For what does it mean to abide forever? It is that which never ends, which never departs, having no end nor setting. And truly he does not say today or tomorrow, or for so many days or years, but forever. Bl. Jerome, holding this view, affirms it without doubt in the Twelve Questions, saying: I indeed boldly and with complete freedom declare that from the time the Apostles believed in the Lord, they always had the Holy Spirit, he preaches Christ without an interpreter: nor could they have performed signs without the grace of the Spirit of God. And below, concerning the grace of all tongues, he says: It was all the more necessary for the Apostles to speak the variety of tongues of all nations, so that when they were about to proclaim Christ, they would need no interpreter. Whence in Lycaonia, when the inhabitants heard Paul and Barnabas speaking in their tongues, they even supposed them to be gods turned into men. And the same Apostle, confirming this in his epistle, says: I give thanks to God that I speak in the tongues of all nations. 1 Corinthians 14:18 We have brought this forward by way of suggestion, so that we may understand to what great grace of perfection Bl. Matthias was chosen, who among the twelve Apostles merited to ascend the summit of the twelfth Apostolate: and therefore, when the Lord shall come to judgment, he will appear sitting gloriously with him. Concerning the wondrous election of this Apostle Matthias and the casting down of Judas the traitor, continuing the text of Bl. Luke the Evangelist, Arator, Subdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, expressed what Bl. Peter the Apostle had taught in prose speech, in heroic verses, saying:
[9] The election described in verse by Arator. Peter was the first in the Apostolic company, called from a little ship. He by whom the scaly throng was wont to be caught, that fisherman, seen suddenly from the shore, rises and, setting forth divine affairs, thus speaks venerably before them: You know that the mad traitor has fallen, strangling his own voice in his throat. He paid himself the reward of his crime, the torments of his guilt, that he might place the penalty due in the middle of the air for the common enemy. Hated by heaven and earth, he perishes between both; his burst entrails fall, to be entombed in no graves, and he slipped away into the thin breezes. Now there is need of prayers, for the prophetic words cry out. Whom it may be permitted to fill the vacancy: then, praying for the highest things, they appointed two, Joseph surnamed the Just, and Matthias, a name which, as they say, in the Hebrew tongue means "God's little one," and by calling him humble, he proves it so. O how far human judgments stand from the heavenly! By the merit of the little one, he is surpassed who was just in the praise of men: the twelve signs shine, and the splendor of heaven casts its beam upon the choruses and the earth.
[10] Nevertheless, if some who are unlearned and less well furnished with the teachings of the Holy Scriptures should wish to raise objections concerning the election of this most holy Apostle, St. Matthias will judge together with Christ saying: If Bl. Matthias filled up the Apostolate of the number twelve and will sit as the twelfth with the Lord in judgment, then Bl. Paul the Apostle will be excluded from this session; let them know indeed that the number twelve in this matter and in other declarations of Sacred Scripture is, according to the trope called synecdoche, taken as a part for the whole: by which reckoning beyond doubt Bl. Paul the Apostle also, and the other Saints, will sit with the Lord in judgment. For Bl. Augustine most truly confirms this in his explanation of the Gospel concerning the steward, saying: We see that the Apostle of the Lord, Paul, said without any ambiguity: and St. Paul, Do you not know that we shall judge Angels? Luke 16 What angels indeed but the wicked? And he placed their very prince among them. 1 Corinthians 6:3 Therefore this Apostle himself will sit upon the twelve seats, concerning which the Lord says: You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matthew 19:28 But he was not among the twelve Apostles. Therefore I suggest that you should know how to understand the twelve seats. For we know that of the twelve originally chosen by the Lord, the traitor Judas fell away, and Bl. Matthias was substituted in his place. If indeed each will sit upon individual seats, the number is already filled: where then will the Apostle Paul sit? Or did he perhaps usurp for himself an undeserved seat, when he said: Do you not know that we shall judge Angels? The twelve seats, therefore, with other Saints. are universal seats, upon which both the Apostles and the other Saints will sit with the Lord in judgment.
Notesd. MS: confirmed.
g. Mombritius: his.
CHAPTER III
The remaining deeds of St. Matthias. His death.
[11] These things having been established, let us briefly and most devoutly return to the praise of Bl. Matthias the Apostle. Let us glorify him and venerate him, and proclaim him with perpetual acclamations of triumphal praise: On account of his humility, to be imitated by us, meanwhile imitating his holy humility, which is the mother of all holy virtues. Let us beware of pride, which is the root of all evils: by following which, he who was first cast out and became the prince of all evils was hurled into eternal damnation. Whence our merciful and omnipotent God, not suffering so great a ruin to remain in the heavenly homeland, creating new Angels and a new creature, deigned to form man in his own image and likeness: from whose progeny he determined that as many should ascend thither, namely with the restoration of the tenth order, as the holy Angels who remained there are believed to number, as the holy Prophet teaches: He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the Angels of God. The Lord Christ, taking care to rescue his disciples from this ruin of pride, when they said to him, Lord, even the demons are subject to us, said to them: I saw Satan falling from heaven like lightning. Luke 10:17-18 As if to say: Strive to live humbly in all things, and do not glory in miracles, lest you fall likewise as he who loved such things. Therefore, the most blessed Apostle of God, Matthias, embracing and holding fast to this precept of the Lord, grounded in the foundation of charity, St. Matthias numbered among the Apostles, bound together in the nectar of humility, so strove to live humbly that, chosen by divine grace from among the seventy-two disciples, he merited to ascend to the glory of the Apostolate.
[12] Therefore the glorious Apostle of the Lord has, he indeed has, the prerogative excellence of the Apostolic dignity, not above all, but with all: not more excellent than all, but coequal with all. Why is this? For the reason, of course, that when the Lord Christ granted to Bl. Peter the Apostle the power of binding and loosing in heaven and on earth, he obtained power equal with the others, he bestowed such a privilege not on him alone, but assuredly on all the Apostles and on all those placed in the Priestly dignity. Whence, just as at the rebuke of Bl. Peter the Apostle, Ananias and Sapphira, as the Rule of Bl. Abbot Benedict attests, died indeed in body, not in soul; Acts 5, chapter 57 Acts 13 so also by the rebuke of Bl. Paul the Apostle a certain Bar-Jesus Elymas the magician was deprived of his sight: 1 Corinthians 5:1 and the same Apostle, by the mere sending of a letter, delivered to the devil the man who had violated his stepmother, and again, when he willed, restored him, saying: Confirm your charity toward him, lest perhaps he who is such a one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 2 Corinthians 2:7 Similarly, he miraculously cast down that Simon the magician from the heights of the air together with his fellow Apostle Peter. Then, when Christ instructed them, saying: John 14:12 He who believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do, and greater things than these shall he do (which we read was afterwards accomplished through handkerchiefs and through the shadow, as Luke relates in the Acts of the Apostles), he did not prefer anyone, but bestowed that power equally upon all. Acts 19:12 and 5:15
[13] But if it is asked whether so great an Apostle of the Lord was especially distinguished by the powers of miracles, it must be known in all respects that he performed many and stupendous wonders together with the other fellow Apostles and Apostolic men. For he was certainly among those to whom Christ granted the power, saying: The signs that I do, he shone with miracles, you also shall do. And in another place: If you shall say to this mountain, Move from here, it will move from its place. Matthew 17:19 Likewise: Have power to tread upon beasts and scorpions. Luke 10:19 For if, with Christ attesting, who is truly the truth, it must be held concerning the powers of miracles that this man of the Lord wrought them among the other Apostles, how many miraculous powers must we believe he exercised in the province of Judaea, which fell to him by lot for preaching? For he could not have converted an unbelieving people to the faith of Christ without the performance of miracles, as we read of the holy Apostles. And by the hands of the Apostles signs and wonders were done. And of Bl. Stephen it is written: Stephen, full of grace and power, performed wonders and great signs among the people. Acts 5:12 Acts 6:8 But because the miracles of St. Matthias were by no means written down, they are not to be attributed to incredulity, but to truth, although these are not recorded: since of the Lord and Savior himself it is written: Indeed Jesus performed many other signs in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. John 20:30 And to bring forward more powerful arguments, it must indeed be known that he raised as many dead as he snatched from the death of eternal damnation by his saving preaching: which is judged in all respects to be more excellent and more glorious, to restore to Christ a soul dead from the death of sin, of these he performed the greatest, in converting souls: than to give life to a body that will die again. For what is more glorious and more excellent than to live eternally with Christ, to rejoice with Christ, to possess the heavenly kingdom with the Angels, with all the Saints? For how much better and more fitting do we see the most blessed Paul raised from the death of the soul, than Lazarus from the death of the body?
[14] Meanwhile, neither must this be passed over concerning the glory of this Apostle, since indeed, although all the Apostles are believed to have been chosen by the Lord before the ages, as the Apostle teaches and says: Who chose us before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and spotless in his sight, Ephesians 1:4 yet the Lord Christ did not make mention of just anyone, as he did of this holy Apostle, when he said in the Gospel: Are there not twelve hours in the day? signifying of course the holy Apostles, and Judas among them. John 11:9 For if they were hours, as St. Augustine teaches, he was chosen by the singular ordinance of God: they gave light: if they gave light, how was Judas betraying Christ, the day, to death? Therefore, he did not speak of Judas the traitor in this place, but of Bl. Matthias, his successor and preacher. This one therefore he foresaw, this one he indicated, whom he afterward marvelously ordained in the place of that other. For he himself, already reigning in heaven, appointed that Apostle who, when placed on earth, had chosen the other Apostles: for he was reigning with the Father in heaven even then, and on earth was governing them as sons, as he said in promise: Behold, I am with you all days even unto the consummation of the world. Matthew 20:28 And through this it is given to be understood: that, just as he restored the tenth order in heavenly glory from the human race, so also the number of twelve through the worthy election of Bl. Matthias.
[15] For if his passion is sought to be found in the manner of the other Apostles, it is most manifestly established that he inflicted the passion upon himself: and bearing his cross, followed Christ, saying with the Apostle: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, he suffered while being crucified to the world, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14 For since it is manifest that there are two kinds of passions, one in secret and the other in the open, it is certainly clear that the world was crucified to him, because it hated him and considered him as dead. Similarly he to the world: because the world could not draw him to its pleasures. For who that is wise does not know that it is a more severe torment to stand daily in spiritual battle, to resist the fraud of the devil, than to end one's life in a single moment by a tyrant's sword? Bl. Peter the Apostle, holding this view, he fought with the devil, took care to admonish, saying: Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, steadfast in the faith. 1 Peter 5:8 And Bl. Paul similarly: Stand, he says, having girded your loins with truth, that you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one: and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:14 and verse 17 Was not the great James slain by the sword of Herod; but the greatly beloved of Christ, John the Evangelist, his own brother, was called and crowned by Christ in the peace of the holy Church?
[16] Therefore, O exceedingly blessed Apostle of Christ, Matthias, exult and glory in the Lord Jesus Christ: rejoice now with gladness, with everlasting joy: and rightly so, since, called by a prophetic name and given by Christ, you are now not little but great, not the lowest in the world but glorious and powerful in heaven. And why is this? By what means? By what grace? For this reason, of course, The author exclaims to St. Matthias, that since you were humble in your heart, and desired neither the praises of men nor their favor, not gold, not gems, not the fleeting kingdoms of the world, in exchange for an earthly kingdom you attained the heavenly homeland; in exchange for perishing pleasures you gained the delight of paradise. For he called you wondrously, as he did the Apostle Paul, gently from heaven: for depriving Paul first of his illustrious sight, he sent him from heaven to the bosom of holy Church; you too, through the holy assembly, through the act of the Holy Spirit, he caused to ascend the lofty and Apostolic throne. He indeed chose you from the flock of disciples, who chose Peter and Andrew, James and John from the shore of the pagans. Rejoice therefore exceedingly, rejoice, blessed in all things: now joined to the angelic hosts, now satisfied with the nectar of Christ, exalted among the Apostolic seats in that great judgment, when he shall judge the world in equity, with Christ our Lord. But since the grace of Christ bestowed all this upon you, we humbly beg, we meekly beseech, that you deign to intercede with him for us: and implores his patronage. that he may mercifully hear us in our petitions and graciously reward us in our struggles. After Bl. Matthias the Apostle left Judaea, his homeland, by preaching the Gospel, which he had received as his allotted portion for preaching, and converted very many pagans to the Catholic faith, he departed to our Lord Jesus Christ on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God for infinite ages of ages.
NotesTHE ACTS OF ST. MATTHIAS,
formerly written in Hebrew by an anonymous author, augmented by the translator, a monk of Trier, from four MSS. and the edition of Wolfgang Lazius, and various Breviaries.
Matthias the Apostle, in Palestine (St.)
BHL Number: 5699, 5701, 5711, 5713
Translated by a monk of Trier.
FIRST PROLOGUE OF THE TRANSLATOR.
[1] When I was burning with great zeal and solicitude to find the deeds of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, The translator is anxious about the Acts of St. Matthias, which are found in none of the ecclesiastical writers, a certain priest named Theodoric, seeing me wavering and sorrowful, inquired of me and learned the causes of my sadness. Whence, filled with the greatest exultation, because he had found this zeal in me, he said: That, if I wished to be the translator of those same deeds, he would arrange with a certain Jew who was his acquaintance to have this Jew present to me the book which he himself entitled "The Book of the Condemned," because it contains the condemnation of those who acted against the Law, he receives them from a Jew: namely of Matthias, of both Jameses, and of Stephen. At that time I had learned the Hebrew letters from one of the Jews. He came therefore, bringing a booklet, and when I read its title, I found it inscribed Sir Hasirim, that is, the Song of Songs: and I was moved with such indignation that I could hardly restrain my hands from him. For with that hatred of Christians inborn in him, he was eager to deceive me. And I said: You, most foul deceiver, do you attempt to trick a cleric who has received the fullest knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin literature? There is certainly nothing in your library, whether Greek or Latin, that I do not know. Seized therefore with fear, especially lest I should harm him before the Prince, he receives them from a Jew: in whose favor I then stood, he promised with an oath that he would satisfy me, which he also did. For when I read the title of the book which he subsequently brought, Ay Mathay, that is, the Life of Matthias, I found it to be the right text. Finally, supposing that I understood everything that was written below, although unwillingly, he nevertheless opened to me the whole truth in order, having received from us a payment of twenty-three shillings. After this, in the following year, my lord the Archbishop discovered from another Jew, who was placed in danger regarding his property, that he had all the same things, except that he said he had alluded to his own name in a verse of a Psalm. Afterwards, to a certain recluse who had undertaken a three-day fast for this very purpose, the same thing was revealed. Let it therefore be read without any scruple of doubt, he appends the Translation and miracles: since it has been ascertained to be true by such certain proofs, because the Holy Spirit has abolished all ambiguity. How he came from Judaea to Trier, as I have read in the History of Trier and in the records of Pope Sylvester, and his miracles, I shall subsequently set forth.
NotesSECOND PROLOGUE OF THE TRANSLATOR
[2] To his most reverend Lord, truly most worthy Abbot of the Church of St. Eucharius at Trier, his humble Levite, the last of all the Brethren committed to him, offers the devoted obedience of due submission. Since you excel, most blessed Father, in word and deed alike, you have drawn back very many from worldly frivolity to the cloistral society of the contemplative life, among whom you have bestowed that special effort of your solicitude. Your persistence, your daily admonition and correction bear witness to this: which, although out of youthful levity I do not receive willingly enough, yet from what piety it proceeds, when I recall my mind from vanity, I am not ignorant. Nor ought I to pass over the fact that you continually command and exhort me to apply myself to reading, at the command of his Abbot he publishes it in Latin: lest the enemy find me idle, lest murmuring occupy my mind, lest detraction hold sway on my tongue, lest my hands apply themselves to work that does not pertain to the matter. Your Blessedness therefore commands that I set forth more fully the Life of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, over whose bones you worthily preside, taken from the Hebrew volume (which is entitled the Book of the Condemned, because it contains the judgments of those who acted against the Law), and sets it forth more fully. following the whole truth of the matter which was discovered, or rather extorted, by an eager inquirer. This I have done, though I may rightly be charged with boldness, yet as best I could. Accordingly, it will be permitted for another to explain it more fully and more eloquently, and to polish the rustic style more fittingly with an urbane file. May the Lord keep you safe for us, dearest Father. Amen.
NotesPART I.
The Life and death of St. Matthias.
CHAPTER I
The birth, education, and election of St. Matthias as disciple and Apostle of Christ. His preaching in Judaea.
[3] Therefore the most glorious Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthias, of the tribe of Judah, from the city of Bethlehem, was descended from an illustrious lineage. His parents, St. Matthias is born of noble and pious parents: distinguished by great wealth and nobility of birth, were eminent for a great beauty of character before God and men. Whence it is truly believed to have been divinely granted to them that religious parents should beget a still more religious son from themselves. And so, having named the boy who was born Matthias, which in our language means "God's little one" or "given," they also from his earliest years devoted him to the teachings of the divine Law. At the feet, therefore, of Simeon, the high priest and incomparable man, he is instructed in the Law: and at that time the most learned in the Mosaic Law, he received the first elements of the Law, and with divine grace working with him, he comprehended in a short time all the knowledge of the Law and the Prophets. Already in his tender years he strove to imitate the pursuits of his elders, to apply himself continually to divine reading, not to devote his mind to wantonness, but to overcome his boyish years by the maturity of his character. And so, having become a young man, tested in frequent disputations, he was held to be remarkable not only by his fellow students but by his very Master. learned and humble, For although he was most erudite, he was by no means puffed up, but in accordance with the etymology of his name he strove to show himself truly little and humble, often recalling the words of the Wise Man: The greater you are, humble yourself in all things. Sirach 3:20 And also: Ignominy follows the proud, but glory follows the humble in spirit. Proverbs 29:23 The blessed man was therefore most pure of body, pure of mind, most acute in resolving questions of Sacred Scripture, provident in counsel, plain and ready in speech. he excels in every virtue: His mind was gradually formed to virtue, so that he was apt in understanding, easy in mercy, not elated in prosperity, constant and intrepid in adversity. He endeavored that what he had perceived by thought he might fulfill in deed, and might prove doctrine by the assertion of his hands and mouth. O blessed man, whose praise resounds not only in the Church of the Saints, but, what is more wonderful, in the synagogue of the Jews. For how great must he be thought to have been, whom the rivals of all good, and indeed his very condemners, do not cease to extol with praises?
[4] In order, therefore, that the lamp might pass from the bushel of the Law to the candlestick of the Church, he was held worthy of the calling of Christ, and being poor himself, followed the poor Christ, and was appointed by the Lord himself to the lot and number of the seventy-two disciples. He is adopted by Christ among the 72 disciples: Then, when the mystery of the Lord's dispensation was completed, namely the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven, Peter, rising in the midst of the brethren, said (now the multitude of persons was about one hundred and twenty): Men and brethren, the Scripture must be fulfilled concerning Judas, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David, who was the guide of those who seized Jesus, who was numbered among us and obtained the lot of this ministry. Acts 1 In the place of Judas the traitor, And this man indeed acquired a field with the reward of his iniquity, and being hanged burst asunder in the middle, and all his entrails were poured out: and it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that field was called in their language Haceldama, that is, the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let their habitation be made desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein, and let another receive his bishopric. Psalm 68:26 and 108:8 It is therefore necessary that of these men who have been gathered with us during all the time that our Lord Jesus Christ went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, one of them be made a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph, who was called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias, chosen Apostle by lot: and praying they said: You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to receive the place of this ministry and Apostolate, from which Judas transgressed, that he might go to his own place. And they gave them lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven Apostles. When therefore the days of Pentecost were being completed, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire, the Apostles were dispersed throughout the whole world. The blessed Matthias therefore, by the decree of the same Holy Spirit, he preaches in Judaea: received Judaea as his allotted portion for preaching, in which how greatly, enlightened by the light of divine grace, he kindled the envy of his rivals against himself, the following pages will declare.
NotesCHAPTER II
The miracles of St. Matthias: the inquiry held concerning him. The blasphemies of the Jews against Christ.
[5] Therefore, in approximately the thirty-third year after the Passion of the Lord, the younger Ananus, who had obtained the Pontificate from Caiaphas, believing that he had found a convenient opportunity, this same Pontiff, inflamed against the disciples of the Lord, with the Governor Festus dead and Albinus still on his journey, convoked a Jewish council, and bringing certain persons before him, among whom he also handed over James, the brother of Jesus, to be punished. At that time the blessed Apostle of the Lord, Matthias, was proclaiming the word of eternal life to the Jews throughout the region, He shines forth with miracles: and was converting many of the children of Israel to the Lord by signs and wonders. For he gave sight to the blind, cleansed lepers, drove demons from possessed bodies in the name of Christ; he restored the power of walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, and even life to the dead. He instructed them as to what pertained to life, to morals, and to religion, preaching that Moses was indeed holy and the Law most worthy of all worship, but that under the chaff of the letter it contains within itself the greatest mysteries of Christ and the Church. He proved by the testimony of divine Law that Christ, prefigured by Moses himself through signs and enigmas, announced by prophetic words, sent by God the Father for the redemption of the human race, had become known to the world through the Virgin, and setting forth and interpreting very many things for them, he confirmed all by most powerful signs.
[6] While he was thus going about through villages and towns, doing good and proclaiming the word of God, he came to a city of Galilee which is called in Latin Giscala: and entering into the synagogue, he began to preach Christ from the Scripture of the Law. But they strove to oppose his words with blasphemies and execrations, cursing the holy name. And when he was speaking more urgently about Jesus, He is seized by the Jews: they, filled with zeal, led him away, and binding him, reported to the High Priest and the elders, saying: We have seized a disciple of that condemned Jesus, who called himself the Son of God, whom we caught subverting the people through the synagogues and crossroads. He is accused: Advise what should be done. For we have examined him with many questions of the Law, and we have found a man acting indeed against the Law, but most skilled in the Law itself, who also boasts that he had Simeon as his Master. He is of noble birth, illustrious and accepted among the people, wherefore we have decreed to presume nothing against him without the authority of your command. Certain ones from the synagogue of the High Priest said: Our Law, brethren, as you know, does not condemn except upon his own confession or the assertion of truthful witnesses, as it is written: By the word of two or three witnesses shall every matter stand. And without witnesses no one shall be punished. But they said: We found him through the synagogues subverting the people throughout all Galilee, holding assemblies, carrying about the teaching of Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified by the judgment of the rulers. Deuteronomy 19:15 There is no city or village in which this most wicked man has not introduced a new sect, and who did not fear to blaspheme against Moses and the holy place and the Law. We are witnesses of this matter.
[7] The Pontiff Ananus said: State his name. They answered: Matthias, born of Bethlehem of Judah. The Pontiff said: Since it is not expedient for us nor for our race that the doctrine of Jesus be spread, let him be brought, so that, if he has uttered anything rash through ignorance, he may wash it away through repentance: but if otherwise, let him incur the penalty for transgression. Going therefore with the ministers of the Pontiff and other leading magistrates, He is brought before the council. they brought the blessed man into the council. The Pontiff, looking upon him, said: This whole council knows, and the entire world, to what degree of reproach our commonwealth has come, The Pontiff Ananus deplores the misery of the Jews: not indeed because our faults require it, but through the perversity of the few who have gone out from us, and through the avarice, or, as I should more rightly say, the severity of the Roman Governors. For certain men, desirous of revolution, introducing sects, by which so many thousands of Jews were perverted and as many slain by the Roman armies, were not to be named, as you know. For such things could not be hidden because of their very magnitude, and by their very proximity, or rather by the sight of them, they terrified us. Nevertheless, the vanity of those men, together with their authors, perished utterly, not without great reproach to our race. Nor has anyone been found who, after them, has ensnared the people in their superstition or heresy, for they were Judas the Galilean and Theudas the magician, whom after their destruction no one remembers, no one strives to venerate or imitate.
[8] The greatest of these heresiarchs, Jesus the Nazarene, arose, who, proclaiming himself God and Son of God, counted the observance of the Law as nothing, He rages impiously against Christ: enticing and turning away the eyes and minds of many by his signs and illusions. He did, however, receive upon himself the decrees of the Law which he despised, approving in reality what he forbade in words. But to what end do I say this? We know that the Law was given by the Lord to the holy Moses, approved by the Patriarchs in words and deeds, likewise observed by the Prophets: to whom God also gave the power to work miracles, such as Jesus was unable to perform. For who does not know that Moses conversed with the Lord as with a man? Who does not know that Elijah was carried to the stars in a fiery chariot? Who does not know that the dead body of Elisha, brought from the sepulchre, raised the dead? Who doubts that the other saints of God performed very many miracles: of whom, however, none usurped this dignity of the divine name, none invented a new Law. Finally, the holy Prophets, in humble garb and with a lowly voice, by which alone it is understood, spoke not of their own will but impelled by the torrent of the Holy Spirit. But this man, doing everything for ostentation, cast about vain words everywhere. His madness proceeded to such a point that he even tore the High Priests with his insults and called the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. Which of the Prophets presumed this? But he found an end worthy of his presumption: and would that his memory had perished with him, and that there were no one to revive the error of his teaching, once dead! But it has happened contrary to our wish. Behold, the holy temple, the holy city, the ancestral laws are laid open to the Roman Governor and to Roman laws. There is no one who grieves, no one who has pity, no one who judges, no one who considers. We are dragged to judgment and we endure it: we are seduced and we consent: we are in the midst of plunder and we keep silent. These Galileans especially deliver us into the hands of the Romans, while they do not blush to pour back upon us and upon our race the blood of Jesus, as if of an innocent man. It is therefore expedient for us that a few perish, lest the Romans destroy the whole place and the nation. Of two evils, if neither can be avoided, the lesser and more tolerable must be chosen. Yet to look after those who err and to bring the remedy of salvation is better than to rejoice over their voluntary destruction or perdition. Nor do we, placed in dangers ourselves, desire anyone's peril: but what pertains to our office, we strive most earnestly to reform the fallen, correct the erring, and assist those in danger. Let him therefore consider the gentleness of our spirit: he has time, delays are granted, in the interval of which he may recall his mind to religion. He has the power to allege what is expedient in his own behalf, and to refute the charges with words of defense.
NotesCHAPTER III
The constancy of St. Matthias in the faith. His martyrdom.
[9] Then Bl. Matthias, stretching out his hands toward heaven, said: Concerning the charges, St. Matthias professes the faith of Christ: brethren, which you call crimes, it is not necessary for me to say much, since to be a Christian is not a matter of crime, but of glory. For the Lord himself says through the Prophet: I shall call my servants in the last days by another name. The Pontiff Ananus said: How is it not a crime to count the holy Law as nothing, to dishonor God, and to occupy oneself with superstitious and empty tales? Bl. Matthias replied: If you will give ear to my words, I shall show you how what we preach is not fabulous, He shows that Christ was promised to Abraham: but approved from the beginning by the testimonies of the Law. The God of our fathers brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, promising to give to him and to his seed as an inheritance the land of Canaan, when he had neither sons nor daughters, and Sarah his wife was barren: of whom nevertheless it is written: Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as justice. And the Lord spoke to Abraham, saying: At the appointed time I will return to you, and Sarah shall have a son. Genesis 15:6 Genesis 18:14 By the promise, therefore, a son was born to Abraham our father, whom he called Isaac. From him was born Jacob, who stole the birthright of his brother, chosen by the Lord: in whom the promise might bear fruit, as the Scripture says: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Malachi 1:2 And when Esau was jealous of Jacob so as to kill him, Jacob went to Mesopotamia of Syria to Laban, and served for wages, until God spoke to him, saying: Return to the land of your birth, and I will be with you, and I will rescue you and set you free. Genesis 13 When therefore he had departed with a great household and possessions, and had come to Penuel, a man came down to him who wrestled with him until morning, and said to him: Let me go, for the dawn is breaking. and to Israel He answered him: I will not let you go unless you bless me. Genesis 32 And he blessed him and said to him: You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. When he inquired the man's name, he said: Why do you ask my name, which is wonderful? And Jacob departed, and with him those whom he had begotten, and in the land of Canaan were the twelve Patriarchs: from among whom God sent ahead to Egypt a support and Savior, who might be present to them and to their seed in the time of affliction. When a famine subsequently arose in the land of Canaan, Israel went down to Egypt, numbering seventy souls, and our fathers dwelt in the towns of Goshen, and they multiplied exceedingly. And when they had endured many afflictions from the Egyptians, Moses arose, a powerful and learned man, who, fleeing from Pharaoh who pursued him, came to Midian. Whence, while he was tending the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro in the desert of Midian, the Lord appeared to him in the fire of the flame of the bush. and to Moses And when he drew near to see the wondrous vision, the Lord said to him: Loose the shoes from your feet. Exodus 3:5 Which indeed, brethren -- I speak to those who know the Law -- was a sign of repudiation. Understanding which, the same holy man said: I beseech you, Lord, send him whom you will send, signifying of course what the same man afterward writes to the children of Israel, saying: awaiting another who was to be sent. The Lord will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren like myself; him you shall hear, according to all the things that he shall say to you. Exodus 4:13
[10] And the Lord, angered at Moses, said: Behold, Aaron your brother comes to meet you, showing that the fullness of time was not yet completed: in which that true messenger would be present, who would free his people not from the hand of the figurative Pharaoh, but from the power of the intellectual and signified one, who is the devil. Deuteronomy 18:15 For all the other things that were done were figurative: your Passover is a proof, [He shows the Jews that all these things happened as a figure of the coming Christ:] which, celebrated by the fathers according to the letter, manifestly contains within itself the greatest mysteries, for clear and evident reasons. For what did the eating of the flesh of the lamb profit the conscience? Why do you gird your loins? Why do you hold staffs in your hands and shoes on your feet? All these things, brethren, although you have the knowledge of the Law, as it is written, unless you shall believe, you shall not understand. For how would the blood of the lamb sprinkled on both doorposts and on the lintel deliver us from the destroyer, unless it signified the Cross of Jesus, who is called Christ? For of him Isaiah says: He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter. And among other things: He was reckoned among the wicked. Isaiah 53:7 and 12
[11] When therefore the Pontiff heard the name of Jesus, he was filled with fury and said: Do you pursue these things, then, to the destruction of the Law? Deuteronomy 13:5 Do you not know that it is written: If any prophet or dreamer shall arise in Israel to turn you from the Law of the Lord your God, that man shall die? St. Matthias replied: The Prophet of whom we speak is not merely a Prophet, but also the Lord of the Prophets, and God, the Son of God, whose divinity is declared by true proofs. Led therefore by this reasoning, I have believed in him, hoping that I shall persevere in the confession of his name. The Pontiff said: If time is granted, do you wish at some point to repent? St. Matthias replied: Far be it from me that I should depart from the truth, which I have once found, not through repentance, He professes Christ as true God: but through apostasy. Jesus the Nazarene, whom you delivered up and denied, the true Son of God, consubstantial and coeternal and coequal with the Father in all things, I confess with my heart and proclaim with my mouth. I am a servant of Christ; I cannot be anything else.
[12] Then the Pontiff, stopping his ears and gnashing his teeth at him, cried out with fury, saying: He has blasphemed! And he added: Let him hear the Law. He is adjudged guilty of death: And it was read as pertained to the case: The man who shall have cursed his God shall bear his sin, and he who shall have blasphemed the name of the Lord shall die the death: the whole people shall stone him: your eye shall not spare him, that you may remove evil from Israel. Leviticus 24:15-16 And when the holy man could be neither turned aside by blandishments nor shaken by threats, the Pontiff pronounced sentence against him, saying: Your own mouth has spoken against you; your blood be upon your own head. Thereupon he was led away to punishment. And when he had come to Bethlaskila, that is, the house of those who are stoned, he called for silence and said: Why, He is led to the place of execution: brethren, do you kill Adamhay, that is, a living man? For it is written: When I shall see the face of the Lord of Hosts, does not my soul live? Or as it pleased another Jew more skilled according to the Hebrew truth: When shall I come and appear before the face of God? Psalm 41:3 For he says that the first and last letters of the name, which are Mem and Yod, when joined together resound "when," and that he himself alluded to his own name through these letters in a verse of the Psalm. And the holy man added: Hypocrites, well did David prophesy of you, saying: They shall hunt for the soul of the just, and shall condemn innocent blood. Psalm 93:21 And Ezekiel says: They put to death souls that do not die. Ezekiel 13:19
[13] He is stoned, Two witnesses therefore, according to the commandment of the Law, placed their hands upon his head and cast him down upon a heap of stones, and they were the first to hurl stones. Leviticus 24:14 He is killed with an axe: But Matthias asked that two stones be buried with him as a testimony against them. And he was stoned by them, and also struck with an axe in the Roman manner, as if in this some deference were shown to the Governor of the Roman majesty. Then, stretching out his hands toward heaven, he gave up his spirit on the sixth day before the Kalends of March. And his disciples came forward and honorably buried him He is buried by his disciples. in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom is honor and glory with the eternal Father and Holy Spirit for ever and ever, Amen.
NotesPART II
On the body of St. Matthias among the people of Trier, and various miracles. By the same monk of Trier, from three MS. codices.
CHAPTER I
The body of St. Matthias translated from Rome to Trier.
[1] Having touched upon these things concerning the passion of the blessed Apostle, we shall now proceed in due order, according to the capacity of our powers and the gift of the Holy Spirit, to set forth how his body was translated to the city of Trier, where it now rests with honor. When Constantine, the father of the Augustuses, had obtained the monarchy of the Roman principate, and had been established in the religion of Christ, his mother Helena, at first indeed seduced by Jewish impiety, but afterwards corrected by divine dispensation, went to Jerusalem: where, having fulfilled her vow through the finding of the Holy Cross, she returned to her son, and then went to Rome to Pope Sylvester: with whom, having taken counsel, she confessed that she grieved greatly over the ruin of the city of Trier, of which she herself was a native. [St. Helena, having obtained from St. Sylvester St. Agritius for the conversion of the people of Trier,] Whence she begged most earnestly that he might send preachers to the aforesaid city. But the most blessed Pope Sylvester, considering the ancient dignity of that city, which had formerly merited to be called a Second Rome, hesitated as to whom he might send as a suitable extirpator of deep-rooted superstition. For this reason, the devout woman, devoting herself to fasts and prayers, obtained the fulfillment of her holy petition. For by divine inspiration, Bl. Sylvester summoned to himself St. Agritius, Patriarch of Antioch, a learned man distinguished by many confessions of faith, and committed to him the preaching and the Archiepiscopal dignity of Trier. And when he refused, as a man already broken by long old age and labor, at length overcome by the prayers of both, he consented and set out to go to Trier.
[2] To him Bl. Helena entrusted, through the hands of Pope Sylvester, magnificent relics, she entrusted the seamless garment of Christ, etc. namely the seamless garment of the Lord, together with one of the nails and the knife of Jesus, and also the holy Apostle Matthias, translated from Judaea, for the defense of her city. The same Apostolic See also restored to him the privilege of the ancient dignity, which is still preserved in public records. and the body of St. Matthias: And so Agritius, arriving at the city of Trier, recalled it from its former error, and having washed it with the saving waters, devoted it to the Christian religion. He also distributed the sacred relics in various places according to the petition of the faithful: but the Apostle Matthias he buried deeper in the ground, placing him beside the bodies of the holy Fathers Eucharius, Maternus, by him buried beside the bodies of Sts. Eucharius, Maternus, and Valerius. and Valerius, in the suburbs of Trier to the south. In which place, after many labors undergone for Christ, he himself also rested, led out of the prison of the flesh on the Ides of January. After his death, when the city had been destroyed five times by barbarians, it was consigned to oblivion where the blessed Apostle was hidden.
NotesCHAPTER II
The twofold discovery of the relics of St. Matthias: Negligence in his veneration punished.
[3] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and twenty-seven, in the reign of Henry, Roman Emperor, second of this name, Eberhard, Archbishop, governed the See of Trier. When the Emperor Henry requested the relics of St. Matthias To him the Emperor Henry directed his sacred embassy to the whole Church of Trier, in which he not only requested but also commanded that a portion of the body of Bl. Matthias, and the complete body of Bl. Valerius the Archbishop, be sent to him. Concerning this matter, when counsel had been taken and the whole city was in turmoil, they sent back the messengers and put forward this excuse, namely that they did not know where the holy Apostle was deposited: that it would be at the risk of their lives if they wished to approach the place where he was believed to be hidden against the will of the people. But when the King's command pressed urgently, and especially the promises, which he himself devoutly fulfilled afterwards, soothed the hearts of the people, the Archbishop, having summoned his suffragans, sought the place itself and found it. When therefore, vested in sacred vestments, when exhumed, it emits a sweet odor: they had opened the grave of Bl. Matthias, all those standing around drew in so great a fragrance through their nostrils that they thought themselves refreshed by the scents of paradise. But Theodoric, Bishop of Verdun, surnamed "the Saint," when he bent down to take something from the holy body for the King and for himself, was divinely restrained, and falling downward, lost in the very sarcophagus a piece of his purple cope, which had been cut off because it had touched the sacred bones.
[4] Now there was there a certain man, a priest by office, to whom alone St. Matthias permitted himself to be reinterred. This man, by the counsel and command of the Bishops, whom an enormous terror had seized, divided the Apostle Matthias into three portions placed in three altars by the priest, and carefully and secretly deposited them in three altars, with very few of the faithful aware, lest afterward by someone's violence the city of Trier should be deprived of its own Patron. Nor was the Emperor entirely frustrated, but in what manner his will was satisfied, God, the arbiter of ages, knows. The priest, moreover, who had touched the sacred bones, merited to have this singular gift all the time of his life, that wherever a discussion concerning Bl. Matthias took place in his presence, whose fingers drip with oil: the fingers of both his hands, which we call the middle fingers, dripped with oil. A certain devout old man narrated to me with tears that he had often seen this in his fellow priest, to the astonishment of many. Nor is it surprising if the oil of piety flowed from this pious man: would he withhold oil who has read of, attended to, the piety which he exercised toward the many infirm?
[5] After these things, in the bishopric formerly of Tongeren, but now of Liege, there is a certain place called Susteren, In the monastery of Susteren because nuns dwell there, whom the common people call Sisters. In the same place the Mother of the monastery was devoting herself to religious life, and, as is customary, she decided to choose one of the Apostles as her Patron by lot of candles. She therefore inscribed on twelve candles the names of the twelve Apostles, and placing them upon the altar, proclaimed a three-day fast and mortification for the entire congregation. On the third day, when all had prayed, she herself, raising her head from prayer, approached the altar, St. Matthias is repeatedly chosen as Patron by lot, seized one of the candles and read it, and found the name of Matthias written there: whence she was greatly displeased, because she had found the least, as she thought, of the Apostles. She went away and spurned the result: and having again proclaimed a fast, she received Matthias by the same outcome and lot. And when she had done the same thing a third time, she nevertheless chose Matthias. Fearing therefore that by repeatedly casting the lot she might provoke God, she embraced with all zeal the Patron delegated to her by God, and appointed two priests to celebrate Masses three times a week in honor of the Apostle. One of them indeed carried this out with all solicitude, but the other, whether through negligence or contempt it is uncertain, did not fulfill the office enjoined upon him. [He who was negligent in celebrating Masses for him is corrected by St. Matthias appearing in a dream,] And so on a certain night, when he was snoring heavily, overcome alike by wine and excessive sleep, St. Matthias stood by him in a vision and inquired why he was neglecting the said office. And when he had nothing to say, the holy man said: You were indeed worthy of death, but I patiently bear for a time the injury inflicted upon me. Yet lest you think this vision false, and brands a mark upon his forehead, I have determined that this mark shall be burned upon you, so that by this scar all may recognize both your laziness and our correction. He spoke, and touching him on the forehead, suddenly withdrew. In the morning, when the man counted the vision as nothing and supposed himself, as is usual, to have been deluded by the vanity of a dream, he went out to attend to some business. And when he greeted one of his household members who came to meet him, the latter, marveling at the scar, inquired what had happened to him. But this man, being vain as he was, said nothing and passed on: but when he was confronted about the mark by another, and then by many more, at last he began to recall his vision and to consider that it had not been in vain. Seized therefore by a salutary fear and corrected, he thereafter held St. Matthias the Apostle in the greatest honor, and strove with all diligence to amend what he had failed in through negligence. left upon him for his whole life. Nevertheless, he bore the scar all the days of his life, for the correction and amendment of many.
[6] At that time a certain priest, a monk of the church of Eucharius, first Archbishop of Trier, where the Apostle Matthias, as we have said, lay hidden with very few aware of it, The hidden bones of St. Matthias are indicated in a vision by a shining star, saw a vision portending the future. For he saw himself seeing in the middle of the church a certain star shining, which, surpassing the brightness of the sun with its splendor, illuminated not only Gaul but the whole world. And when, having awakened, he fell asleep again, a gushing spring, he saw from that place where he had seen the star a spring of the most limpid water gushing forth: which, flowing out in different directions, irrigated the bounds of the whole world with its health-giving streams. He saw, and he understood.
[7] Moreover, a certain man in the lay state, whose custom it was at night to go around the cemeteries of the Saints in order to devote himself more freely to prayer, since that time is removed from business affairs, came one night to the church of St. Eucharius. There, while running from place to place as was his custom, he prostrated himself before the oratory of the Blessed Mother of God, Mary, and while he was supplicating God with great contrition of heart, at length overcome by human frailty, he began to drowse, and fell asleep by divine intent, as was later evident. For he saw the altar of the Blessed Mother of God as if cleft into two parts, and in the middle of it he saw a man of medium stature and age lying asleep. St. Matthias was seen sleeping, From beneath him, moreover, a spring of the purest water was bubbling up, to draw from which an innumerable multitude of every sex and age was hastening. Whoever had drunk of it or anointed their body were restored to their former health from whatever infirmity held them. He therefore also approached, in order that he might merit to become a partaker of the same blessing and grace. Then the man lying on the altar, as if awakened then speaking, by the noise of the crowd around him, turned toward him and asked what he was seeking. At first he was stupefied, but when questioned repeatedly, he confessed that he had come with the others for the sake of healing. Indeed, he said, I see what great participation in joy and grace those receive who are refreshed by the fountain of this blessing, undoubtedly yours. I therefore approach also, especially drawn by your presence, in whom I perceive something divine, both from the appearance of your body and from the abundance of your virtue. And the other said with a gentle countenance: I am Matthias, and promising patronage. long hidden here: but know that the time of my revelation is at hand. Know also that a very great reward awaits you, and the grace of salvation will follow those who, by your example, wish to come to me. No one's prayer will be in vain, no one's petition empty, but a fuller effect will follow each person's desire.
And he, awaking, reviewed within himself what he had seen, and afterwards joyfully disclosed to a few of the faithful what he had beheld.
[8] When the fullness of time had come, in which divine Providence had decreed to reveal again the treasure hidden in the field which the Lord had blessed, Abbot Eberhard planned to enlarge the church of St. Eucharius. And as the work itself was growing with prosperous results from day to day, The principal bones are found it was necessary that the aforesaid altar of the Holy Mother of God Mary, where the relics of the holy Apostle had been more secretly hidden by the above-mentioned monk, be entirely removed, so that the space for the new structure might be clear. On the Kalends of September. Counsel therefore having been taken, at the first hour of the day that dawned on the Kalends of September, in the presence of religious men, the altar itself was broken open, from which emanated a fragrance of marvelous sweetness. Invited by this delight, since previously by the same sign they had found portions of Matthias, one in the month of January and another in the month of March, just as he had been divided into three parts by the priest, they again drew nearer. They found therefore a leaden chest of moderate size, and a title inscribed upon marble in Greek letters indeed, but in the Latin language, with an inscription. in this fashion: St. Matthias the Apostle. Weeping therefore with joy and great exultation, they brought the principal bones of Bl. Matthias the Apostle, together with the sarcophagus itself, into the aforesaid church, and placed them for the time being in a wooden case carefully bound with iron: where how many tears were shed and thanksgivings rendered, I leave to the reader's diligence. From that day, moreover, peace began to prevail, so that the discord of all the Princes was turned to concord, anger to mercy, hatred to charity. This is truly the change of the right hand of the Most High God: these are the wonders of the Almighty. This discovery, the greatest and more illustrious than the rest, was celebrated on the Kalends of September, to the praise of Almighty God.
NotesCHAPTER III
A drowned person recalled to life by the aid of St. Matthias: the sick healed. Relics rendered immovable.
[9] At that time there was a certain miller, A boy drowned in the Moselle, named Lambert, a citizen of Trier, who, taking with him his little son in a boat, was hastening to sail to the mill situated in the middle of the channel of the Moselle. And when he had entered the small building of the mill itself, he carelessly left the boy in the small boat, who, holding a stick in his hand, began to play with the waters and in childish simplicity to try to catch whatever was flowing past. And when he plunged his hand into the flowing water up to the elbow, he himself followed with his whole body. His father, moreover, having completed the business for which he had come, returned to the little boat and did not find the boy whom he had left there: whence, seized with excessive grief, he filled everything with querulous wailing and gathered a very great multitude of country folk on the bank of the river with his cries. And when he wished to throw himself into the water, in order to die with the boy himself, those standing by begged him not to allow, driven by despair, a double triumph over himself to the ancient enemy: upon the father's invocation of St. Matthias, the boy is found, but rather, placing his hope in God, to take thought for himself and the boy, and to know that the Apostle Matthias had been revealed for the salvation of all. Comforted by this consolation, having invoked the name of St. Matthias, he found the boy floating on the surface of the water, but dead, and drawing him out, brought him to the bank of the river with incredible grief: where the little body, received with the tears of all, is prepared by the undertaker and made ready for burial, lest it be corrupted and dissolved by the heat. Yet, frequently invoking Matthias with great groaning of heart, he began to demand the boy back from him, saying and resuscitated, that he should revive him to serve him henceforward. And so it was done. Finally, among the hands of those who were wailing, at the name of Bl. Matthias the boy rose up, devoted to the service of St. Matthias. vomited out the excess of water, and, free from all pain, lived for a long time afterward in the service of St. Matthias.
[10] At that time a very great desolation almost followed upon the supreme joy of his discovery and miracles. For in the same monastery of St. Eucharius, a certain Swabian hypocrite, although unlettered, nevertheless assumed the monastic habit, and, as that kind of people is wont to do, cloaked himself most cunningly in a pretense of religion. He served all, not before God, but for show, that is, not so as to please God, but men. Through the carelessness of the sub-guardian, Whence, because we are deceived by the appearance of right, he quickly gained the great favor of all, so that in a short time the office of sub-guardian was committed to him, although he cunningly feigned reluctance: and almost everything that pertained to the guardianship was left to his power and arrangement. When therefore space for the new building was being prepared daily, and altars were being moved from their places or broken, he cast his eyes upon the sacred relics, seeking an opportunity to steal something great for himself, which he might carry to his homeland for profit. He attempts to steal the relics of St. Agritius by theft, And so he came to a certain altar, in which he found the name of St. Agritius, whom we mentioned above, inscribed in marble upon his bones: but since he did not fully understand the inscription itself, he began to search whether he might find anything similar elsewhere, which he did. For finding something similar written in the codex of his life, by frequent inquiry he gained knowledge of this name. Therefore, at the instigation of the devil, he violated and broke the aforesaid altar, and carried away with him the relics of the sacred body: which he deposited among the bones of the common and ignoble dead in the cemetery, until he should prepare what was necessary for his journey. After three days, moved by repentance for having placed the sacred bones unworthily, he transferred them again from there, and deposited them, with as much dignity as he could, in the spiral staircase of a certain tower, covered with wood and tamarisk branches. But one day, when he had lit a light there out of veneration for the holy relics, while he was attending to something else, the light itself suddenly fell, whether by chance or rather by divine intent is uncertain, a fire having broken out, and the voracious fire seized upon the small building itself. Whence, when a great conflagration arose, people soon ran there from the whole city. The brothers were carried here and there. When the Swabian saw this, he climbed the spiral staircase, from which, when he wished to remove what had been deposited, he was entirely unable to move it. He attempted to open the small chest, to steal even a small portion: but immediately fire leaped out from the bones themselves and singed his face and cheeks, and he, as if driven mad, slipped from step to step and barely escaped the flames after coming to his senses.
[11] Meanwhile, certain malicious persons, having taken counsel, wished to carry Matthias away from there, asserting that the monks, black in morals as in their garments, were unworthy of Matthias: that on account of their sins so holy and celebrated a place was being burned. Those attempting to carry away the relics of St. Matthias And when they had vainly fabricated very many things in this fashion, they led the minds of very many persons like themselves into the same crime: and applying ropes, they attempted to drag away the chest of the holy body: but iniquity lied to itself, and the hope of the impious was frustrated. are unable to move them. For there is no wisdom, there is no counsel against the Lord. Finally, when a hundred men and more had come forward, they could not move the place itself: terrified by this miracle, they desisted. The chest, however, was afterward carried away from there by twelve men without labor, and to the present day gleams with many and great miracles. That Swabian, therefore, not a monk but a demoniac, when he saw that so enormous a crime of his could not be hidden, disclosed the course of events to the Brothers, and with great disgrace, as was fitting, departed: the bones of Bl. Agritius, half-burned, were collected and replaced.
[12] At that time a certain paralytic from the forest of the Ardennes, A paralytic healed at the relics, which is the largest in all of Gaul, having heard the fame of the Apostle, animated by hope of healing, made a vow, and immediately feeling somewhat better, fitted staffs to both his sides, and set out to go to the city of Trier. He scarcely completed the journey in three weeks: and coming to the holy place, he gave himself to prayer. But when he was unable to pray because of the multitude of people, he withdrew a little: then, having found silence in his withdrawal, he devoted himself entirely to prayer. When the prayer was completed, he came away healed.
[13] No less, a certain paralytic widow who had been brought there, a paralytic woman, having likewise seen a revelation, when she prayed with most devout prayer, merited to receive the use of her body.
[14] Another widow who had a daughter, the comfort of her old age, bore her poverty the more patiently as she was supported by the care and diligence of her daughter. a woman driven mad. By divine judgment, therefore, her daughter, tormented either by a demon or by frenzy, struck intolerable terror into her mother. And when the fame of Bl. Matthias had reached her ears, she bound her neck with heavy chains and brought her there. And when they had prayed for three days and obtained nothing, on the fourth day at last the mother received her daughter healed, and they returned, giving magnificent thanks to God.
[15] Among these and other astounding and manifest works of divine power, which shone forth in manifold ways through Bl. Matthias in those times in the city of Trier and in this region, the Jewish envy and the jealousy of the Pharisees blinded the minds of certain persons to such a degree that they did not fear to disparage the magnificent works of the Lord. A malicious detractor of the miracles of St. Matthias, On account of such persons, we wished to relate the case of a certain one of their company, as a warning to our hearers: namely, how his impiety was rebuked, for the correction of many who harbored a similar presumption against the Saints. For on a certain day, as some were leaving the city who had devoutly venerated Bl. Matthias with their offerings, others with the same spirit of piety and desire met them, more curiously inquiring whether the report was true that had gone forth concerning the oft-mentioned glorification of the Apostle through miracles. To whom one man, full of a malignant spirit, as shortly became clear, said: All these things are full of deceit and fraud, new inventions of monks and clerics; this fabrication of theirs is detestable and alien to all truth; unless it is exposed to their confusion, their insatiable avarice, gaping not for salvation but for gain, will ensnare under this false appearance of sanctity the souls of many simple faithful. When he had inconsiderately poured forth these and very many similar things in the ears of all, nearly all were consternated in mind, and began in their minds to desist from so holy and salutary a renewed veneration of the Apostle; except that by certain members of the same company they were persuaded by more wholesome words not to believe the most false things that man of insane mind had put forth. For his wife and son, as if by the affection of kinship, tried as much as they could with words to recall him from such great iniquity, asserting that he had spoken all these things far too rashly; that concerning the hidden things of others nothing should be affirmed; that it looks back upon the heads of those who do such things; that all sin harms the deceiver rather than the deceived, the doer rather than the sufferer, and does not remain unpunished before God. When words had thus been put forth on both sides according to the zeal of each party's intention, at last, by the just judgment of God, since he refused to abstain even when begged by his wife and son, he is miserably snatched away by a demon and perishes. he was delivered to the malignant spirit at whose instigation he had spoken such perverse things: laying hands upon himself, he tore his garment from his breast downward; then, mounting his beast while his household pursued him, he escaped to the pathless mountains and forests. He was sought for two days and not found; the beast on which he sat they found stuck in a muddy swamp up to its sides; but that unhappy and wretched man, though they searched every hidden place, they did not find.
NotesOTHER ACTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF ST. MATTHIAS AND OF THE MIRACLES,
by Lambert, monk of Trier, from the MS. of the monastery of St. Matthias at Trier.
Matthias the Apostle, in Palestine (St.)
BHL Number: 5697
By Lambert the monk, from MS.
PROLOGUE
[1] We believe it is fitting and right, and will not be displeasing, if in the glory and honor of Bl. Matthias, Apostle of the Lord, beyond that reverence which is rendered to him throughout the whole world on the sixth day before the Kalends of March by the faithful of Christ, the city of Trier, which contains his blessed bones, should also solemnize another day. For it is indeed pious and fitting that those to whom, by the grace of the Lord our God, it has been given to enjoy, more than other peoples, his familiar converse, as it were, and to be comforted by his daily blessing, should reverence him with more earnest honor than those to whom this grace has not fallen. This, moreover, we have judged to be especially appropriate on the day of his saving revelation. Concerning the joyful translation together with the discovery, and also the revelation, and also the glorification of such and so many miracles, with which we have been gladdened, with the Lord's help, we shall speak in order as best we can. But in the beginning of all things, it is necessary that we pray to Bl. Matthias himself through the Lord Jesus, that by his intercession we may not, led by our folly, put forth anything other than what is worthy of him and pleasing to God.
NoteCHAPTER I
The twofold discovery of the body of St. Matthias brought to Trier.
[2] Therefore, in the three hundred and sixty-eighth year of the incarnate Word of God, when Constantine the Great, the father of the Augustuses, The body of St. Matthias, by St. Helena, as the most Christian Emperor, was happily governing the scepter of the Roman name, Bl. Helena his mother, the Empress Augusta, herself also firmly established in the profession of Christianity, after the discovery of the Lord's Cross, mindful in her piety of this her homeland (for she was a native of the city of Trier), sent hither through the Patriarch of Antioch, Agritius, with the blessing of Bl. Sylvester, then Roman Pontiff, Bl. Matthias the Apostle, translated from Judaea, together with other magnificent relics, of which there is no discussion at present. sent to Trier through St. Agritius: This we have learned by reading the instruments of the same Bl. Sylvester given to the same Agritius. Not long after, the faithful people who were then at Trier, with cautious consideration, for the joy and gladness of future sons to come, on account of the persecutions of the churches that the Arians and Pagans were stirring up, buried in the earth: placed Bl. Matthias, venerably buried deeper in the ground, beside the bodies of Sts. Eucharius, Valerius, and Maternus, in the suburb of Trier; in the joyful participation of whose now-revealed treasure we, by the grace of our God, delight.
[3] After that, much time had passed, nearly six hundred years, and Eberhard, an industrious Archbishop, was governing the Church of Trier. He was urgently requested by the King, when the Emperor Henry requested his relics. who reigned at that time, namely Henry, the son of the Emperor Conrad II, that he might share with him, for the adornment of his church which he was building at Goslar, some of the relics of St. Matthias the Apostle, and also some of the bodies of other Saints, with whose fame his Church of Trier was reported to abound above all those on this side of the Alps. The Bishop, however, denied the relics to the one requesting them, because he doubted whether they were there: indeed, even if they were there, he did not know where they were. In the midst of this, on a certain occasion, when, as he often did, he had come to Rome, whether for the sake of prayer or compelled by some other cause, he chanced to find there a book containing information about the places where each of the Apostles had preached, where and how they had suffered and rested: and he learned by reading that St. Matthias had preached and rested in Judaea, and had afterward been translated by Helena, the mother of Constantine, from Judaea, and being made more certain about the place of deposition, and sent to Trier through the Patriarch of Antioch, Agritius, and there had been deposited beside the bodies of the disciples of Christ, the Son of God, on the left side between the north and the south. Seeing this, he rejoiced with joy, and showed it for the sake of congratulation to certain persons standing by him who were not sufficiently faithful to this Church of Trier. These persons afterward, flattering the King's favor -- who, on account of what we mentioned above, would not rest, but was pressing more and more urgently from day to day that his desire be fulfilled -- became betrayers of the magnificent and precious and most sacred treasure of that Church, and revealed what they had learned by reading. And so when the King heard that beside the bodies, as we said, of the disciples of Christ (and there is no doubt that they were those of Bl. Eucharius and his companions), pressing even more urgently. the bones of that one had been deposited in ancient times, he demanded, with the threat of withholding his grace and affection, that together with even the smallest quantity of relics of St. Matthias, the body of Bishop St. Valerius be given to him, promising, as he indeed did, to give magnificent benefices from his revenues to the honor of God and as a kind of appeasement to the patron of that monastery, the above-named Bl. Eucharius, so that he might permit his brother and fellow soldier to be separated from him. Therefore, by the persuasion of the suffragan Bishops, Adalberon, surnamed "the Saint," of Metz, and Theodoric, surnamed "the Great," of Verdun, and others who happened to be at Trier at that time, the Archbishop, though unwilling, permitted the excavation from the very deep depth of the earth.
[4] Finally, when the aforesaid Bishops and others from the clergy had opened the sepulchre, so great a sweetness of fragrance suddenly emanated from it found: it emits a sweet odor: that all, struck with admiration and fear, and, as we believe, divinely inspired, determined by no means to defraud this region of so great a treasure, but to close the sepulchre with its cover as quickly as possible. There Theodoric, Bishop of Verdun, lost the edge of the cope with which he was solemnly vested that day: because while he was more curiously intent upon the holy relics, to steal something from them if he could, when the sepulchre was quickly closed, it happened that part of the cope was shut inside, which, against his will and resistance, immediately had to be cut away with iron. The venerable priest, moreover, who merited to handle the bones of the Apostle, was distinguished by such a testimony for all the remaining time of his life: the fingers of the one who touched them dripping with oil: that whenever he had mentioned those same relics with anyone, immediately the fingers of his right hand, consecrated by the touch of the holy bones, began to drip in a wondrous manner, as if imbued with oil. Furthermore, by the petition and counsel of the aforesaid bodies and of the whole Church, the most sacred bones of Bl. Matthias the Apostle were not henceforward buried in the earth, but placed above ground, yet, lest they be stolen by theft, they were hidden in the walls or in the altars within the precincts of the same basilica, hidden in the altars. where the faithful might render to them the services of pious devotion, and yet they could not easily be carried off by anyone's violence: and thus it might come about that the city, fortified by this Patron, would never be defrauded of his benefit. But where those sacred pledges were then deposited, when the old people had died, it was unknown to the sons who succeeded them.
[5] But when nearly eighty years had passed from that time, it pleased the Lord to inspire Eberhard, Father of the same monastery, namely that of the holy Confessors Eucharius and his companions, during the building, to destroy the old walls of the monastery and build new ones. By whatever occasion this work was begun, it was not done without divine dispensation, especially since no pressing ruin of the old buildings prompted such a work, which demanded so costly and inestimable an expenditure. But what God intended was hidden until that time which he himself foreknew and predestined. A preliminary vision of a shining star, Moreover, there was in the same monastery a certain man, praiseworthy for the holiness of his life, endowed with the honor of the priesthood, angelic of countenance, old and worthy of God, full of days, who saw in his dreams a vision portending the future. It seemed to him as if from the middle of the monastery a shining and most serene star arose, which with its immense splendor illuminated not only the city but the entire province. Again he saw, as if from the middle of the altar that was set apart there in honor of the Holy Mother of God, of an overflowing spring, a most limpid overflowing spring bubbling up, which with its copious streams irrigated the whole city. Again, a certain citizen was accustomed at nighttime to visit the places of the Saints and to frequent the monastery of Bl. Eucharius more than the rest. When therefore on one of the nights he was keeping the vigils of this blessed custom of his, and was praying there beside the altar, which was set apart opposite the feet of the Confessors, consecrated in honor of the Holy Mother of God Mary, as we said above; while praying, as happens, he suddenly fell asleep, and saw in the interior of the altar, lying crosswise, Bl. Matthias as if sleeping, clothed in a mantle woven with gold: of St. Matthias lying there, and it seemed to him that from beneath him a most limpid spring was bubbling up, from which an innumerable multitude of both sexes was coming and drinking and washing themselves, and whoever among them were sick became well. Seeing this in the vision, he arose and came nearer. As he approached, St. Matthias turned to him and addressed him thus: What do you seek? And he said: Just as I see from the throng running together, those who come sick, having drunk of this spring or bathed, are made whole; I too come for the sake of obtaining the same salvation. Indeed, since I see you, Lord, reclining here, I approach more eagerly: for he knew that it was the Apostle. and of the one who speaks to him, And Matthias said: You do well and wisely in visiting me here so often. For I say to you that whoever shall come to this place, truly repentant of his sins, with faith and devotion, and shall pray to the Lord through the merits of the Saints resting here, God will be propitious to him. For indeed very many bodies of God's elect are hidden here: and promising patronage, with whom I also lie. And he, having awakened, took care to relate with reverence what he had seen.
[6] Meanwhile, the construction of the new building was growing and being carried forward with very great haste, while the former tabernacle still had its standing. And so it happened that when summer was over and autumn was beginning, the principal bones of St. Matthias are found while they were constructing scaffolds for the altar of the greater arches which are in view of the sanctuary, they judged it expedient to remove the altar of the Holy Mother of God which we mentioned above. While this was being done, a thing worthy of joy, with an inscription, more precious than any precious stone, shone forth: a faithful saying. There they found a small chest in the form of a leaden ark containing the principal bones of the body of Matthias the Apostle, and also a marble slab about a palm's breadth, on which was scratched St. Matthias the Apostle, placed inside together with the relics. What more need be said? Indeed that building resounded with the exultation of all and the voice of those praising the Lord. The chest containing the sacred relics was borne into the middle: a wooden case, prepared for the time being, most firmly bound with iron, and other arrangements: for the reason we briefly indicated above, it was kept under the most careful guard, until, the new work that was at hand being completed, it might be decided by common counsel where it should be placed in a fitting location. When a few days had then passed, many sick persons began to flock together, they shine with miracles, and the grace of the Lord followed upon the prayers of the Apostle. For the Lord blessed his land and turned back the captivity of Jacob: because after long years of barrenness, want, and famine, the land gave its fruit, and the Lord prepared a table for his people, and the violence of tyrants and robbers being driven away, pleasant times of peace and quiet succeeded, so that truly we could say with exultation: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has visited and wrought the redemption of his people. This discovery occurred in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and twenty-seven, the fifth Indiction, in the reign of the most serene and God-fearing Lothair the Saxon, in the year 1127, on the Kalends of September. under the Pontificate of the Martyr of Christ, Bishop Meginerus, on the day of the Kalends of September, at the first hour of the day, to the praise and glory of Christ.
NotesCHAPTER II
In the fire of the monastery, the relics of St. Matthias are preserved; those of St. Eucharius are scattered.
[7] But just as, with no preceding merits of good works, but rather by the gratuitous mercy of God, we were magnificently gladdened, advanced, and consoled by the unexpected discovery of this most holy Apostle, so also, with our sins deserving it and the causes that we mentioned above impelling, we were afterward grievously saddened and endangered. In the fifth year from that time, which is the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and thirty-one, when the old structure of the monastery of St. Eucharius was already being most zealously repaired to its new state, In the year 1131, when a great fire broke out, and the part on the side of the sanctuary had been completed and stably covered with beams and tiles; on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of June, when the Brothers had passed the midday hour and had already begun Nones in the customary manner, suddenly and unexpectedly in the building of the sacristy, which on the north side adhered to the same monastery, a very great fire was kindled, raised threatening flames on high, and, quickly seizing the roof of the sanctuary, threatened a fatal destruction to all. Sooner than can be said, the whole city was aroused and, gathered together as one, they ran to put out the fire: opposing themselves to it from every side by climbing upon the building itself, they vainly attempted to extinguish the conflagration, which raged, as the outcome of the event afterward showed, by the divine will. But with the fire falling upon their heads, for they could not climb the burning roofs, and with the entrance by which they had entered already nearly blocked, when no exit for escape lay open and they were pressed on every side by the imminent danger, they unwillingly yielded to the raging flames, and some, slipping through the windows onto the nearest lower roofs, and others, lowering themselves by ropes, barely escaped unharmed. Again, vying with one another, they tore down the roofs of the dormitory and cloister with all speed, lest the fire, falling from the monastery, should render the place entirely uninhabitable. This would certainly have happened had not the merciful compassion of God been present. For from the fire that broke out, a house at the farthest extremity of the village was set on fire; how much more would the roofs nearest to the building have been nearly consumed, had not God's protection been present. Whence we may rightly cry out: Unless the Lord had helped, perhaps the fire that arose would have swallowed us alive. How many tears were shed there, how much weeping, how many sighs, who could worthily narrate, when they thought that a place most beloved, and throughout the whole kingdom most renowned by the grace of God from the discovery and miracles of Bl. Matthias, was to be destroyed by fatal flames. But what the Lord of mercy and consolation deigned to show, it seems most just to make known.
[8] First of all, the solicitude incumbent upon us concerned the relics of the Saints, and especially the pledges of St. Matthias the Apostle, with which the Lord had deigned to illumine the place, lest men of malevolent mind should contrive any schemes by which the place would thereafter be subjected to mockery and contempt. And this would indeed have happened in every respect, had not, as I said a little before, the mercy of God been present. For when the fire, as we said, was consuming everything contiguous on every side by licking at it, and the fire was already threatening the small building in which the high altar with the sarcophagus of the Saint was contained, the relics cannot be moved from their place by the impious. certain men of malignant mind, gathered together, were deliberating in common council how they might labor to extract the same sarcophagus, by whatever art they could, so that, having stolen it from there, they might bring it into the city, saying that he had declared by manifest signs that it was not his will to remain there any longer, whose protection the monks had in every way been unworthy of. Surrounding the sarcophagus therefore with a very long rope, extending all the way to the outer gate, they attempted with every effort to rescue it from the fire, but with what intention they did this, the evident outcome of the matter declared. For a hundred men and more, now pushing with their arms, now striking with clubs, could scarcely move it from its place, until men of sounder counsel and greater authority arrived, annulled their plan, and thus at last with immense labor extracted it and placed it before the very doors of the oratory. They are easily carried back. This, however, when the fire was afterward ended and it was being carried back to its former place, was found to be of the lightest weight, so that what a little before could not be moved by a hundred men, was now most easily carried back by twelve.
[9] For those who wish to know from what cause it arose, or why God permitted this fire to prevail, let us explain as best we can: for the matter is not to be suppressed in silence, because the cause of the fire was greater than the fire itself. There was there a certain monk, coming from elsewhere, A monk of evil life, who had long since been received there, who dwelt there not according to the rule of promised obedience, but without subjection, and everywhere displayed so much of the most false fidelity that not only were the smallest matters entrusted to him, but even the charge of the cellar was unworthily imposed upon him. When at last this was taken from him, though unwillingly, because he had been of a most restless life, at the instigation of the malignant devil he seized, unbidden, the office of guardian, so that by the voluntary assistance he provided he might be judged fit for this charge as well. What more? As was his will, having been appointed assistant guardian, he immediately placed a bed for himself in the monastery, against the will of the Brothers and even despite their frequent protests, that he might more conveniently find opportunity for carrying out his madness. For there was in him a desire to depart, on account of which he was striving by every means, though furtively, to acquire relics of the Saints, with which, coming to another place, he might be more honorably received. Now there remained there from the structure of the old monastery a very large tower, wishing to steal the relics of St. Agritius, opening the entrance for those entering the church, once most carefully constructed by the venerable Abbot Bertulsus: in the ascent of which he had set up an altar, which, although it had recently been violated by those whom we noted above and emptied of relics at its summit, was nevertheless, as later became clear, most copiously marked with the bones and ashes of St. Agritius, Patriarch of Antioch and Archbishop of Trier. Although he had been kept there through so many ages with no one knowing, yet we have heard it handed down by the elders that the aforesaid venerable Abbot from time to time secretly ascended the tower and devoted himself entirely to prayer there for the whole day, and very often also spent the whole night prostrate and wakeful before the aforesaid altar. It happened therefore that the plan of the work required from the altar in the tower that the same tower be destroyed, so that room might be given for the new structure. And when its buildings and ceilings had been nearly all removed, the aforesaid monk, impelled by I know not what spirit, when the dinner hour had already passed and the workers had gone home from their work, seized a tool and began to break open the aforesaid altar. And when he had labored for some time in breaking it, he found a reliquary most carefully concealed with a seal placed upon it: which seal, because he did not know letters, he could not know whose it was, but he told us that he recognized only the first letter, which is the initial of the above-mentioned Abbot Bertulfus, and it is therefore judged to have been his, who, having built the tower, had likewise set up the altar. Bringing the reliquary out therefore, and removing the seal, he did not scruple to open it with a rash hand: and removing a brief title inscribed on marble placed over the bones themselves, because it was clearly written, he read as best he could and recognized that it said: St. Agritius, Archbishop. Made glad, therefore, he descended carrying the reliquary with him: and because he did not have a safe place to keep it, he deposited it in the cemetery among the bones of the dead in the crypt, until at last he might find a suitable place where he could keep it without fear and without anyone knowing. It lay hidden there for three days, until in the sacristy, since, as we said, he was the guardian's assistant, he most cautiously found a suitable place for keeping the relics. carried into the sacristy. The lower part of the sacristy building is vaulted in stone, while the upper part is covered with wood, to which one ascends from the lower by a spiral staircase. In this upper part, therefore, he prepared a place between the beams and the roof, and there he placed the sacred bones brought back from the crypt, and heaped around them a great pile of wood from the old building, and did not cease to frequent the place by going there often, and sometimes even sleeping there. Meanwhile, he prepared his journey, having obtained permission, and sent a messenger to a certain faithful friend of his, earnestly asking him to come to him, adding that he wished no one else at all to be present at the matter he wanted to discuss with him. Having placed a portion of the relics from the reliquary upon cloths he had prepared, he was most zealously contriving that nothing should obstruct his departure: so that, with everything duly prepared, he might freely depart on whatever day he pleased.
[10] The wretched man had planned such things, not considering the divine correction: but Almighty God, who did not wish St. Agritius to be separated from his most holy Apostle, whose bearer he had once been across such vast stretches of land, revealed and annulled his impious plan. For when, as we said, he had frequented the same place for some time with unceasing solicitude, on the day mentioned above, descending from there in his usual manner, he prepared to go I know not where: when suddenly the building itself, a fire having broken out from an uncertain source, was burned together with the relics and the monastery, after various attempts although some assert that he had a light there in honor of the relics, which he himself completely denied: or again others say that this happened from the fire by which candles were prepared there, which seems incredible, because the fire had entirely gone out there three days before: but in truth this was decreed by the divine will. When the fire was casting its flames on high, that most wretched man, anxious about the relics, hastily running up, climbed the building: he is impeded by the said fire, he seized the cloth with the relics already close to the fire, and wishing to drag it with him, he was entirely unable: nor did it any longer yield to his wicked hands as he tried to handle it, but rather remained there to be burned. When he had labored long in vain at dragging it, despairing, he opened the reliquary to take at least some limb from it that he might preserve unburned for his purpose. But when he looked inside, suddenly fire, like lightning shot from the sacred bones, so inflamed his face that he fell backward and was nearly killed. But not even then did he open his mouth to reveal the matter to any of those running up with equipment and water: for if he had done so, the relics, still unharmed by the fire, would have been rescued. Thus, by God's arrangement, the bones and dust of Agritius remained in the place from which they had been unjustly stolen from their resting place: the sacred bones being found among the coals. which were afterward most diligently searched for bit by bit among the coals and were found in great part, so that we do not doubt that we have the greater part of his body. The dust, together with the ashes, most carefully sifted through a sieve, was deposited there in one place to be preserved, with some advising that an altar be set up there in honor of the same St. Agritius and a church be dedicated. Blessed in all things be God, who did not wish us, though unworthy, to be deprived of such a Patron: in whose aid we everywhere rejoice to share. After these things had been done, the author of this crime, seeing that what God wished to be made manifest could not be concealed, brought forth into the open everything that he had done or planned: he also showed the place where he had deposited the relics: which the Brothers, carefully searching, as we have already said, gathered together the half-burned bones as much as they could and preserved them to be honorably kept. But that wretched man, by the unanimous verdict of all, departed with permission, because it seemed good to us that neither for himself nor for this place should he dwell here any longer.
[11] But if anyone is moved to wonder why God permitted the bones of his Saint to be consumed by fire -- for there were not lacking those who would not cease to murmur enviously and accuse us of falsehood, saying: If those relics had been holy, they would not have perished in the fire -- to such persons, setting them aside, if any of the faithful is moved, a brief answer must be given. God permitted the relics to be scattered by fire for various reasons. First, because just as God, wonderful in his Saints, invisibly rescued many of them from the hands of the impious, so he sent very many of them through temporal torments to the heavenly kingdoms: protecting the former mercifully, but by his hidden judgment permitting the latter to be cruelly tortured, who in the eyes of the foolish seemed as if to die, but were translated in peace. Daniel 6 The sacred Scripture indeed reports that the three youths cast into the Babylonian fire sang a hymn to God unharmed among the flames, but the Evangelist testifies that John the Baptist was beheaded as the reward for a dancing girl, whose bones also the eleventh book of the History of Eusebius of Caesarea reports were dug up by pagans and burned with fire. Mark 6 And who does not know that the Lord's Baptist rose up greater not only than the three youths, but even than all those born of women, according to the voice of the Lord? Matthew 11:11 Daily also we see that the body of the Lord is burned together with churches by unfaithful Christians on account of the sins of the people, than which nothing holier can ever be said or conceived. Secondly, we answer those who have doubts about this matter, as we said above at the beginning of its description, that this happened on account of our sins, and that we were not worthy for the Lord to deign to gladden us with the proof of a greater sign. Indeed, to us who were lazy and living badly, whom he had supported with the staff of paternity, namely the joy of the discovery of Bl. Matthias, making no effort at a better way of life, it was just that the rod of sharper correction be applied, as the Scripture says: The Lord scourges every son whom he receives. Hebrews 12:6 If therefore we are sons of the supreme Father, or if we are not and wish to be, let us accept the Father's scourges as sons; in accepting them let us recall the evils we have done; in recalling them let us wash them away with tears; in washing away the past, let us guard against the future. Although, even if we wish to think more deeply, we could not fail to recognize that this fire did not pass without a miracle. For apart from what clearly appeared -- that the Lord's Apostle did not wish to be separated from St. Agritius, or again that St. Agritius refused to be carried away from here -- this seems sufficiently marvelous to me, that in so great a danger of fire and conflagration, in so great a concourse and multitude of people of both sexes, no one at all incurred any loss of life or health, and none of us at all lost any of his possessions.
[12] Let these things, however they have been said, suffice; now let us relate some miracles of Bl. Matthias, which many still living in the body attest to have occurred before his discovery, from whom we happened to hear these things. The author resolves to narrate the miracles of St. Matthias. For if it is honorable to make known and narrate the works of the most high God, which will profit many and are to be admired by all in his veneration, transmitted by fathers to sons, they must certainly be transmitted by them to posterity, so that the devotion of the faithful may always remain active and ready to render thanks to him, and through our little and almost dissolved faith, and, so to speak, already completely torn apart in every way, he does not cease by divine miracles to restore and recover.
NotesCHAPTER III
Some miracles supplemented from the Annals of Trier by Christopher Browerus.
[13] But the Apostle's ready zeal for giving aid shone forth no less in the case of a certain youth who in those same days in the village of Temmels was snatched away by the blind torrent of the Moselle, and long and much searched for, and extracted, was at last found lifeless. A drowned man is resuscitated. Since, in the great heat of the year, the neighbors were offended by the odor of the corpse, they hasten to perform the funeral rites; but his mother, already broken with years, struck by her bereavement and stubborn in her grief, wishes the dead man to be carried home, that at least with her tears and last act of piety she might do right by her son. A bier therefore being prepared and strewn in the customary manner, the sad and weeping neighborhood gathers around, and with constant prayers implores the Apostle. When therefore the whole night had been spent in vigil and prayers, the linen cloths being removed, they perceive the dead man gently breathing, and vital spirits gradually entering the body, already given up for dead with its stiffness. What more? He who had lain dead for a day and a night, with the Apostle as his guide, returned to the light of the life he had forsaken.
[14] And also a boy in the diocese of Cologne, in the village of St. Severin, dead from a serious illness, when, having been washed and adorned, and another dead person. a vigil having been kept, his mother had prayed to the Apostle Matthias with prayers full of confidence, the boy (wonderful to tell), to the alarm and readiness to flee of all who were present, immediately came back to life.
[15] And these are very few out of a great many, for the purpose of asserting the discovery of the Apostle. For why should I recall the various battalions of grievous diseases, various diseases dispelled: which were put to flight and driven from their seats at this memorial? Wasted limbs restored to their former vigor; nerves flowing with paralysis, bound fast by prayer alone; and those deprived of the function of ears, tongue, feet, and other members, restored to their former state according to their prayers? Why mention demons driven from possessed bodies, those struck with madness and fury restored to the accustomed tranquility of mind, the shipwrecked endowed with harbor and safety? It would be infinite if I were to enumerate these things now.
[16] The diocese was still burning with the devastation and ravaging of the Luxembourgers, on account of the castle of Bommagen built on the land of St. Peter: and Brunicho, the tyrant, a townsman of the place, intent upon every opportunity for plundering, was ranging through the province: when Immo, a farmer of the village of Punderich, who at the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, with his son and wife, was sailing upstream to honor the memorial of the Apostle, falls into the hands of the tyrant; a captive is marvelously freed: and the tyrant quickly binds him and carries him off to prison and loads him with iron fetters, dismissing his wife and his son having escaped by flight. But his wife, anxious for her husband's fate, wearied the patronage of Bl. Matthias the Apostle with constant prayers and vows, and the captive no less, enduring daily heavier trials, employs the same advocate for driving away his servitude; behold, when with the summer sun the sky was most burning hot and the guards were lulled to sleep, Immo applies himself more urgently to prayers. Immediately the fastenings of the fetters crack, and the iron, loosened of its own accord, leaps into the air. Then fear soon surrounds the man, and tossed by conflicting thoughts, he wonders whether to throw himself down from the highest battlements of the walls, or to make his way to safety through the midst of the guards. At last, invoking the blessed Apostle with more intent devotion and commending his head and his safety to the immortal God, he throws himself down from the height, and carried to the bottom without harm, safe and joyful he escapes the hands of the brigands.
[17] Nor did this man find the Apostle's aid in vain, who, matched against a very powerful antagonist even against his will, descended into the arena for the sake of a duel. He was a nobleman, whose name they deliberately spared, savage and excessively cruel to his subjects. He, having gravely aroused the hatred of all against himself, when he had afflicted many with plunder and injury and had utterly ruined others, at last, the spirits of the injured being provoked, compelled to fight in single combat, firebrands were secretly piled against his granaries and buildings, and vengeance was directed to the place from which that cruelty had taken its beginning. But he, unable to bear so unexpected a blow, while the author of the fire remained hidden, accused his innocent neighbor, and overwhelmed him with false charges, and compelled him to choose one of two alternatives: either to undergo trial as a defendant, or to settle the case in single combat with him. At this, the wretched man trembled at the mere words of the champion, and was ready to devote himself and all his possessions to servitude without refusal, if only he might free himself from so great a false charge, and he interposed the prayers of friends to obtain this. But the implacable man could not be prevailed upon or moved. Then that innocent man, as if consecrated to death and a victim destined for the arena, came forth covered with only a shield and armed with a club. But against him the noble champion advanced not without an escort, well equipped also with a breastplate and diverse kinds of weapons. Great was the expectation of the men surrounding the arena in a ring. When they closed foot to foot and joined hands, the nobleman, swinging a very large axe, shattered the shield of his adversary into pieces with a single blow. Then the unpracticed gladiator, trembling with exposed flank, was about to offer his throat or look around for flight and hiding places. By the aid of St. Matthias he conquers. But the voices of the bystanders encouraged him as he lay nearly fallen, and at the same time they asked whether the wretch, about to receive the sword, would not pour out prayers to the Apostle Matthias? Therefore, having resumed his stance and gathering himself more strongly into his arms, about to launch his hand not in vain, he invoked Matthias the Apostle and struck his adversary with a blow of the club so that he immediately knocked the breath out of him as he fell, and the weaker man, now more powerful, took up the arms of his foe. Thus under the peril of single combat, though little praised, the Apostle nevertheless protected the innocent; and did not wish to be absent from the prayers of the people, and from the fame and safety of the combatant.
[18] And these things concerning the glory of the blessed Apostle Matthias, recently discovered and illuminated by miracles, reliable writers have handed down in writing from this very age. At what point in the course of time the bones of the great Patron were likewise publicly exposed for veneration, I should report as established. But the original shrine, The earlier tomb of the relics, which, of most noble workmanship, constructed of multicolored metal and silver plates, gleamed with ornamental designs and images, perished either through wars or through the injuries of men, and some of its crust and fragments are believed to have been inserted into the tablets of the relics. The small chest in which the sacred bones of the Apostle are preserved of cedar, is believed to be of cedar wood, whose length is one and a half ells, and whose breadth is measured as a quarter of the length. The form of the tomb now visible to the eyes of men, now of stone. of white stone, has been remade with statuary work, not inelegant indeed but by no means ancient, with the inscription:
IN THIS TOMB IS PRESERVED THE BODY OF ST. MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE WITH HALF THE BODY OF ST. PHILIP.
NotesCHAPTER IV
from the Trier MS.
The Basilica of St. Matthias at Trier, dedicated by Pope Eugene III: various indulgences granted: relics of various Saints preserved.
From the Trier MS.
[19] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and forty-eight, the ninth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the eleventh Indiction, under the presidency of the Apostolic Eugene III, Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Church, in the third year of his Papacy, the second year of the empire of the glorious King Conrad III, In the year 1148, the church was dedicated by Eugene III. the eleventh of his reign, and the sixteenth year of the venerable Adalberon, Archbishop of this city, this monastery was dedicated by the same venerable Apostolic and by the Archbishop Adalberon, on the Ides of January, at the request of the venerable Abbot Berthold, in the twelfth year of his ordination. The principal altar was consecrated in honor of St. John the Evangelist and St. Eucharius, the Apostles Philip and James, and St. Stephen the Protomartyr, whose relics are also contained there; moreover there is there a piece of the rock upon which the Lord was born, Relics in the high altar: of the Lord's manger, of the rod with which the Lord was scourged, of the Lord's sudarium, of the Lord's sepulchre, of the rod of Moses, of the garments of St. Mary the mother of the Lord, of the mantle of St. James the brother of the Lord, relics of the holy Apostles James the brother of St. John the Evangelist, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthias, Urban the Supreme Pontiff, Marcellus the Supreme Pontiff, Sixtus the Supreme Pontiff, the Holy Innocents, Adalbert, and Wenceslaus the Martyr, the forty Theban Martyrs, the holy Martyrs Blaise, Cyprian, Maurice, Cyriacus, Vitalis, Boniface, a tooth of St. Hippolytus, Leander, Alexander, Justin, Crescentius, Maxentius, a tooth of Lazarus and a piece of his sepulchre, Pancras, Hermes, Gangulphus the Martyr, Severa the Virgin, Eustace, Thyrsus Duke of Trier, Boniface the Duke. Relics of the Bishop Confessors Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, Agritius, Cyril, of the stole and mantle of St. Maximin, Magneticus, Modestus, Auctor, Marus, Modoald, Bonosus, Felix, of the holy Pontiffs of Trier, Nicholas, Remigius, Augustine, Medard the Bishops, Benedict, Eusebius, Celsus, Felix in Pincis, Gallus, the Eleven Thousand Virgins, Vincentia a Virgin of the Eleven Thousand, Martina the Virgin, Praxedis the Virgin, Benedicta the Virgin.
[20] The altar which is in the middle of the monastery at the tomb of Bl. Matthias the Apostle was consecrated by the same Pope Eugene and Albero, Archbishop of Trier, in the altar at the tomb of St. Matthias, in honor of the Holy Cross and of the holy Apostles Matthias and James the brother of the Lord. There are also contained there relics of the Lord's sepulchre, relics of the Apostles Matthias, James, Bartholomew, of the holy Martyrs, Cornelius the Pontiff, Stephen the Pontiff, Pancras, Gangulphus the Martyr, Severa the Virgin, the Theban Martyrs, Thyrsus Duke of Trier, the Eleven Thousand Martyrs, relics of Sts. Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, Agritius, Remigius, Eusebius, Celsus, the Eleven Thousand Virgins, Vincentia the Virgin, Martina the Virgin. This Pope Eugene and Albero, Archbishop of Trier, conferred upon the dedication of our monastery and of the two altars, namely the principal altar and that which is in the middle of the monastery at the tomb of St. Matthias, thirty years and eighteen Lenten periods of indulgence.
[21] The altar which is to the north under the tower was consecrated by Hamedeus, Bishop of Lausanne, in honor of St. John the Baptist in the altar to the north and all the Patriarchs and Prophets. There are contained there relics of a tooth of St. John the Baptist, Stephen the Pope and Martyr, Matthias, Eucharius, Valerius, Auctor, the Theban Martyrs, Boniface the Martyr and Bishop of Mainz, the Martyrs George, Marcellinus and Peter, Nabor, Nazarius, Eustace, a tooth of Hippolytus, Thyrsus the Duke and Martyr, Alexander, Crescentius, Maxentius, Constantius the Martyr, the Eleven Thousand Virgins; who also conferred one year of indulgence and four Lenten periods.
[22] The lower altar was consecrated by the same Bishop in honor of Sts. Gregory the Pope, Nicholas, and St. Benedict the Abbot, and all the holy Confessors: in the lower altar; there are contained relics of Sts. Benedict, Nicholas, Valerius, Maternus, Agritius, Auctor, Clement of Metz, Maximin, Modoald, Sigismund the King, the Eleven Thousand Maccabean Martyrs and other Martyrs and Confessors and Virgins. The same Bishop conferred upon the dedication of this altar one year of indulgence and four Lenten periods.
[23] The altar which is to the south under the tower was consecrated by Hymerus, Bishop and Cardinal of Tusculum, in honor of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, St. Lawrence, and all the holy Martyrs. In the altar to the south, There are contained there relics
of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, St. Clement the Pope, St. Cornelius the Pope, Sts. Lawrence, Vincent, Blaise, George, Christopher, Gangulphus, Eustace, Oswald the King, Sigismund the King, the Theban Martyrs, the Eleven Thousand Virgins, and many other Saints. Which Cardinal conferred upon the dedication of this altar two years and eight Lenten periods of indulgence for those seeking and approaching the shrine of Bl. Matthias.
[24] The altar which is nearest the door of the monastery was consecrated by Henry, Archbishop of York, in honor of St. Agatha the Virgin and all the holy Virgins. In the altar near the door, There are contained there relics of the holy Virgins Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Odilia, Anastasia, Barbara, Scholastica, Eugenia, Concordia, Columba, Euphraxia, Praxedis, Prisca, and others. In addition, also a very large leaden pyx, which was found in the ancient altar full of relics of Saints: who also conferred one year of penance and four Lenten periods of indulgence.
[25] The altar which is in the crypt was consecrated by Hartwicus, Bishop of Geneva, in honor of Sts. Peter and Paul in the altar in the crypt and all the Apostles. There are contained there relics of the holy Apostles Andrew, Bartholomew, Matthias, Eucharius, Valerius, Agritius, Martin, the Theban Martyrs, and similarly of many other Saints. Who conferred one year of penance and four Lenten periods of indulgence.
[26] Almost all the aforesaid relics were conferred by the Lord Pope Eugene from the City of Rome. These, moreover, are the Cardinals who were present at this consecration: Hymerus, Bishop and Cardinal of Tusculum; Humboldus, Cardinal Priest of the title of John and Paul; Cardinals present with Pope Eugene. Wido of Summa, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Lawrence and Damian; Gisilbert, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Mark; Hugo, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Lawrence in Lucina; Julius, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Marcellus; Wido, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Potentiana the Virgin; Heribertus, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Anastasia the Virgin; Wido, Deacon Chancellor of the title of Cosmas and Damian; Octavian, Deacon and Cardinal of the title of St. Nicholas in the Prison; Wido of Crema, Cardinal of the title of St. Eusebius; Gregory, Cardinal of the title of St. Angelo; John of the title of St. Mary the New; and the Lord Hyacinthus of the title of St. Mary in Cosmedin; the Lord Otto of the title of St. George at the Golden Veil.
All these Cardinals, each of them, conferred upon all who visit the shrines of the holy Apostles John and Matthias, Philip and James, and of the holy Confessors Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, Agritius, and of the many other Saints who rest in our monastery, one year of penance and one hundred days and one Lenten period of indulgence.
Notesp. Many things done in subsequent times were added, which we omit. Concerning the sacred relics of the same monastery, there exists a catalogue published in the year 1515.