ON SAINT TARASIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
IN THE YEAR OF CHRIST 806
Preliminary Commentary.
Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (Saint)
By G. H.
Section I. The time of the Patriarchate of Saint Tarasius. His written Life. His sacred veneration.
[1] Just as the holy Church of Christ, precisely when it seemed about to be overwhelmed by wicked men, tossed by the storms of various heresies, shone forth all the more brilliantly, defended and championed more vigorously by the holy Doctors, and in the splendor of its deeds and the glory of heroic virtues triumphed; so in the eighth century after the birth of Christ, when an impious and criminal war had been undertaken against the holy images, there were not lacking illustrious champions who would expose their bodies and lives for the defense of truth, Saint Tarasius was chosen to vanquish the heresy of the Iconoclasts and by shedding their blood would establish the cult of the sacred images. This sacred war, begun by others, was happily completed in his own time by Saint Tarasius, Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople. In which city the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, instigated by a Jew, having had the image of the Savior thrown down by his agents, inaugurated that wicked war around the year of Christ 726, and then, as the crime grew, issued a fatal edict against the venerable images, substituting a certain Anastasius in the place of the most holy Patriarch Germanus (whose sacred day is May 12). To the impious parent and architect of this heresy there succeeded an offspring contaminated with a still more impure crime, Constantine Copronymus, who also, having convened a conclave of impious men, caused the sacred images to be condemned. After him succeeded his son Leo, himself likewise an heir to his father's and grandfather's impiety. With the same fury of the Iconoclasts were inflamed those who afterward, under these Emperors, occupied the Patriarchal See at Constantinople: Constantine II and Nicetas, upon whose death Paul succeeded, who below in the Acts, number 6, after having abandoned the See, groans over the assent to heresy inscribed by his own hand and ink three times. Paul was ordained Patriarch in the month of February, on the second Sunday of the fasts, in the year 780, in which same year, on September 8, when the Emperor Leo died, his son Constantine ruled together with his mother Irene. By them Saint Tarasius, who had previously administered the dignity of Consul and was serving them as first secretary of their private affairs, was chosen as Patriarch, but he was unwilling to give his assent to their desire unless he had stipulated for the convening of an Ecumenical Synod, in which, with the heresy of the Iconoclasts condemned, the cult of the sacred images might be restored. Concerning the same heresy revived in the ninth century of Christ and at last vanquished, we treated on February 4 in the Life of Saint Nicholas the Studite, and more fully on February 11 in the Life of the Empress Saint Theodora.
[2] The most holy man Tarasius was therefore made Patriarch on the very day of the Nativity of Christ, the eighth day before the Kalends of January, in the fifth year of the Empire of Constantine and Irene, the eighth Indiction, the year of Christ 784 coming to its end, ordained Patriarch in the year 784, December 25 as our authorities are Theophanes (to be cited below), Cedrenus, and others. That he adorned the pontifical Chair for twenty-two years is reported in his Acts below, number 47. From that number of years ten months are lacking. For Theophanes also, in his prefixed Tables, counts twenty-one years of his See, and under the fourth year of the Emperor Nicephorus relates the following: He died on February 25 of the year 806. "In this year, in the month of February, on the 25th day, the fourteenth Indiction, Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch of Constantinople, gloriously closed his last day, and his body was carried out to the straits of the Pontus, and in the monastery which he himself had built, was buried on the Wednesday of the first week of the fasts." "And in the month of April, on the twelfth day, the great and holy Sunday of Easter, the most holy Patriarch Nicephorus was consecrated." These things stated there, which all agree admirably with the year of Christ 806, in which only the second month of the twenty-second year of his Patriarchate was flowing: and it was likewise the fourth year of the Emperor Nicephorus, who indeed, as the same Theophanes attests, stirred up his tyranny against the most pious Irene on the 31st day of October of the eleventh Indiction, which then began, in the year of Christ 802. Now in the said year 806, with the Solar Cycle III, Lunar IX, Dominical letter D, Easter was celebrated on April 12, on which day Saint Nicephorus, whom we shall treat on March 13, was consecrated as Patriarch, the successor of Tarasius, and Ash Wednesday, or as is said above, the Wednesday of the first week of fasts, fell on February 25, since, as the Acts below at number 52 state, the month of February held the fifth day together with a fivefold quaternion, or twenty days: which day has remained illustrious through his sacred veneration. Anastasius in his history writes that he died on the twelfth day before the Kalends of March, on which day we find his name inscribed in absolutely no calendars. From the cited passage of Theophanes, Cedrenus is more easily understood, with a certain punctuation that had crept into all printed editions, even the royal, being emended in the following manner: "In the fourth year, Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch of Constantinople, honorably closed his life: and was buried in the monastery which he himself had built at the Narrows, on the fourth day of the first week of the fasts. And on the great Sunday, Nicephorus the secretary was created most holy Patriarch," etc. Now the fourth day of the first week of fasts is for us Ash Wednesday; and the great Sunday is that on which the solemnity of Easter is observed. The latter pertains to Nicephorus, the fourth day to Tarasius: both had hitherto been inelegantly referred to Nicephorus alone. Zonaras records the day of death thus: "When the Patriarch Tarasius died in the first week of the fasts," in Greek "ton bion metellachotos," "the illustrious Nicephorus, the secretary, was elected Patriarch by common vote on the Sunday of Easter."
[3] Tarasius obtained as the writer of his life after death a disciple named Ignatius, and therefore one equal to him in times. How great a man he was, Suidas indicates in these words: "Ignatius the Deacon and Custodian of the vessels of the Great Church of Constantinople, His Life was written by Ignatius, Bishop of Nicaea afterward made Metropolitan of Nicaea, a Grammarian: he wrote the Lives of Tarasius and Nicephorus, the holy and blessed Patriarchs, Epitaphs, Elegies, Epistles, Iambics against Thomas the Rebel, and many other works." Concerning the dignity of the Sceuophylax or Custodian of the vessels, who yielded only to the Oeconomus and the Great Sacellarius, one should consult George the Curopalate on the offices of the Great Church, illuminated by the annotations of Gretser and Goar. Hypatius, Bishop of Nicaea in Bithynia, attended the Seventh Ecumenical Synod held at Nicaea; whether Ignatius immediately succeeded him is not clear. He himself attests below at number 56 that in the flower of his youth he had been trained by Saint Tarasius his disciple in trimeters, tetrameters, trochaics, anapaests, and heroic meters: and that he had taken down his sacred homilies with a swift pen, and having given them to the best scribes, had recorded them in a volume. And at number 48 he indicates that he was present at the death of Tarasius. And at number 1 he prefaces that he brings forth with pure and sincere truth into the light what he saw with his eyes, drew in through his ears, and knew from his own experience. This Life of Saint Tarasius written by Ignatius was inserted by Metaphrastes into his works at February 25, an eyewitness and the Latin version made by Gentianus Hervetus was published by Aloysius Lipomanus and Laurentius Surius at the same February 25 with this inscription: "Of the monk Ignatius, the detailed exposition of the life and miracles of our Holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople." But if credence is to be given to Suidas, when called from the monastic life he was then a Deacon and custodian of the vessels, or rather Metropolitan of Nicaea. We present the same Life divided in our customary manner into chapters and numbers, and illuminated with notes.
[4] He is venerated on the said February 25 in the Menologion of the Greeks published by Genebrard, and in another Horologion, as Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople. In another Menologion published by Canisius, these words are read: "Of Saint Tarasius, Archbishop of the city of Constantinople, Saint Tarasius is venerated on February 25 among the Greeks who, at the instigation of Adrian the Roman Pontiff, rendered outstanding service at the Second Synod of Nicaea in condemning the heresy of those who attacked the cult of the holy images." The Synaxarion manuscript of the Tilian Menaion, in the possession of Franciscus Combefisius, for the Acts of the Sixth Synod, chapter 1, section 6, celebrates him with this encomium: "The memory of our most holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople. He taught that the venerable images are to be adored, and through his efforts the royal Empire and the power of the Romans returned to the venerable traditions of the Apostles and the Ecumenical Councils, by right of return: and the holy Church was united with all the Patriarchates." The same things are reported in the printed Menaia; and it is added: "When, therefore, he had lived devoutly, and was in great veneration among the Emperors, and had built a monastery across the strait, and established a multitude of monks in it; and had also assisted the poor, and had splendidly administered the Church for twenty-two years and two months, he ended his life in peace, buried in his monastery which he had founded. As for his bodily appearance, he was most similar to Gregory the Theologian, except for the white hair (for he had not turned entirely white) and a less serene eye, which he had more hidden." "His feast day is celebrated in the great and most holy Church, which is surnamed the Church of Sophia." The same things are read in Maximus of Cythera in his Lives of the Saints, and in the new Anthologion of the Greeks approved by the authority of Clement VIII. That he governed the Church for only twenty-one years and two months we said above. The Menaia teach the day of death, February 25, in these prefixed verses:
"The tranquil harbor receives Tarasius, saved from the tumult and storm of the world. For on the twenty-fifth, from turbulence Tarasius took flight."
The same twenty-fifth of February is observed to be the day his nativity into heaven is recorded by the Greeks, as the aforementioned Combefisius notes. Galesinius, citing the ancient records of the Church of Constantinople and the Eulogion of the Greeks, reports the same. "In Greece, of Saint Tarasius, Bishop and Confessor." and the Latins Molanus in his Supplement to Usuard from the Menologion of the Greeks says: "On the twenty-fifth day, of the holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople." The same things are found in the German Martyrology. He is reported with a more distinguished encomium in the Roman Martyrology: "At Constantinople, Saint Tarasius, Bishop, distinguished both in learning and in piety, to whom there exists a letter of Pope Adrian the First for the defense of the sacred images." Baronius adds in his Annotations that he departed this mortal life after many labors endured for the Catholic faith, and in his Annals at the year 806, number 1, he writes that he died on February 25, illustrious for his holiness. In the Greek Menaia the memory of the same Tarasius and of Saint Caesarius is again found on March 9, as also on March 9 and May 7 as was noted on that day in the Life of Saint Caesarius, page 496, number 1. But on May 7 the name of Saint Tarasius, Bishop of Constantinople, is inscribed in the Florarium Sanctorum. In the Life of Saint Plato on December 16, Saint Theodore the Studite mentions the death of Saint Tarasius and calls him a divine man. Illustrious are the things we reported on February 21 in the Life of Saint George, Bishop of Amastris, page 273, numbers 18 and 19, which can be read there.
Section II. Various matters discussed in the Patriarchal election. The title of Universal Patriarch rejected.
[5] The things that were carried out concerning the election of Saint Tarasius as Patriarch of Constantinople, although they are explained in a fashion in the Acts below, we have nevertheless thought should be set forth somewhat more carefully from the rescripts and testimonies of the Emperors, of the Roman Pontiff, of Tarasius himself, and of others. And first, the Emperors Constantine and Irene, in their rescript inserted in the First Session addressed to the Fathers assembled in the Synod of Nicaea II Concerning the election of Saint Tarasius (the Fathers call it Sacra, venerating the Imperial Majesty), indicate the industry and effort they applied in promoting Tarasius to the Patriarchal dignity; the rescript of the Emperors and after narrating the abdication of his predecessor Paul, they add the following: "We took counsel together about what ought to be done. And we deliberated in our counsel that when a Patriarch was ordained, the things that had been spoken would soon reach their end. Therefore summoning men experienced in ecclesiastical affairs and calling upon Christ our God and taking counsel with them as to who might be worthy to be promoted to the sacerdotal Chair of this God-preserved Royal City. And when all had become of one mind and one counsel, the decree was given in favor of Tarasius, who now presides in the Pontifical dignity. Therefore, summoning him, we pronounced upon him the things that had been said and decreed, but he was by no means willing to assent, nor did he demand that consent to the things decreed be put into effect. And when we asked him for what reason he would least suffer himself to obey, at first he responded excusing himself and saying the yoke of the priesthood was above him. But we, understanding that he was making excuses by proposing that he need not obey, in no way withdrew from him, but persisted, trying to persuade him to accept the dignity of the supreme priesthood. He therefore, seeing our insistence, announced the reason for his refusal: 'Since I see,' he said, the demands of Saint Tarasius before the Emperors 'and I perceive that the Church, which was founded upon the Rock, namely Christ our God, is now torn and disrupted, and we are speaking one thing and another, and those Christians in the East who are of one faith with us speak differently; and those who dwell in the West agree with them; and I recognize that we are alienated from all of them, and daily anathematized by all. And because I demand that a universal Synod be held, while Vicars are found both from the Roman Pope and from the chief Priests of the East.' Making these things known in the presence of the Priests and our most glorious Princes and our whole Christ-loving people who were then present, we brought the man forth: and in their presence, whatever he had answered to us, he also addressed to them. But when all of them heard these things, they willingly accepted them, asking our peaceful and pious government that a universal Synod be held."
[6] What Tarasius said before the people, and especially that he accepted the yoke, or heavy burden, of that supreme priesthood unwillingly, is admirably narrated chiefly from Theophanes by Anastasius, where Tarasius proposes these things to the people: and to the people of Constantinople "Now, O men who fear God, and always have Him in your hearts, and who by the calling of Christ, that is, of our true God, are called Christians, I say, hear the account of a brief discourse from our lowliness and humility. For what have I responded to our pious and in all things orthodox Emperors, and what apology of my speech shall I answer in your sight? I am weighed down by fear to consent to this election, and I dread to run thus before the face of God, and however I look about me, I fear lest I fall under terrible damnation. For if the divine Apostle Paul, who heard the voices of God, and had heaven instructing him, and became an inspector of Paradise, and heard secret words, and carried the name of God before the nations and Kings, said: 'Lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself should be found rejected' 1 Corinthians 9:27; how can I, who have lived in the world and been numbered among laymen and served in Imperial administrations, thus without judgment and circumspection leap to the magnitude of the priesthood? A fearful attempt for my smallness and a rash endeavor. But the cause of my fear and refusal is this. I look and see the Church, which was founded upon the Rock, Christ our Lord, now torn and divided, and we speaking one thing and another, and differently those Christians who in the East are of one faith with us, and the Westerners agreeing with them: we alienated from all of them, and daily anathematized by them. A fearful penalty is anathema: it sends far from God and expels from the kingdom of heaven, leading into outer darkness. The law or boundary of the Church knows neither sect nor contention, but as it knows how to confess one God, one baptism, one faith, so also one concord in every ecclesiastical affair. For nothing is so acceptable and pleasing in the sight of God as that we be one, and that one Catholic Church be made, as we confess in the creed of our sincere faith. And we ask, brothers -- and you also, as I believe, especially that an Ecumenical Synod be assembled since I know that you have the fear of God -- from our most pious and orthodox Emperors that a universal synod be assembled, so that we too, who belong to the one God, may become one: and we who are worshippers of the Trinity may become united and of one mind and colleagues: and we who are of our head, Christ, may become one body, compact and connected: and we who are of the Holy Spirit may become not against one another but for one another: and we who belong to the truth may become those who think and say the same thing, and let there be in us no strife or dissension, so that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, may guard us. And if the champions of orthodoxy, namely our Emperors, shall deign to assent to my request, I too consent. But if not, it is impossible for me to do this, lest I be subjected to anathema and be found condemned in the day of our Lord and most just Judge, where neither Emperor, nor Priest, nor Princes, nor multitude of men will be able to deliver me. And whatever shall please you, brothers, give to my apology a response of your assertion, rendered in one word to my petition." And all willingly heard the things that were said, giving their consent that a Synod should be held... And so on the eighth day before the Kalends of January of the eighth Indiction, our holy Father Tarasius was consecrated Patriarch of Constantinople, who, having sent to Rome his synodal letters and the document of his faith, was received by Pope Adrian. So Theophanes in Anastasius. But those letters to the Roman Pontiff have perished, which we judge from the response of the same Pontiff to have been, with a few things changed toward the end, similar to other letters which exist in Session 3 of the Seventh Synod, with this inscription:
[7] "A copy of the letters which were sent to the chief Priests and Priests of Antioch, Alexandria, and the Holy City, from Tarasius, most holy and most blessed Patriarch of Constantinople." Synodal Letter to the Patriarchs of the East "With much and great providence the Lord God, governing the lives of men and extending them, and prudently directing the course of each one's life (for without Him nothing was made, because even the hairs of our head are numbered by Him), has raised me too, hitherto numbered in the order of laymen and deputed to Imperial ministries, by I know not what judgments -- He knows -- to the Pontifical Chair, by a powerful exhortation violently made upon me by the champions of truth, namely our most pious and orthodox Emperors and the most holy Bishops and Clergy, to which yielding I assented, and committed to them the fruit of obedience to be gathered.
And I ask you, most holy ones, that as fathers you support me, faint-hearted as I am, with the staff of your power, that is, with your paternal teachings: and as brothers, with your pure prayers, together with the armor of God, help us against the wiles of the ancient enemy, and guide us as we totter amid the waves that rise on every side, so that I may reach the harbor of the will of Christ our God... Now I proceed to another subject of discourse. For since a certain ancient, and, to confess more truly, Apostolic tradition has taken root in all the Churches, that those who are promoted to the Pontificate commend themselves to those who preceded them in the same order by setting forth what their faith is; it seemed good to me also, following this custom, to bow to you and clearly to pronounce my confession, as I have been taught from the trumpets of the Holy Spirit, whose sound has gone forth into all the earth and their words to the ends of the earth, and from their pupils and followers, namely our most sacred Fathers, from my very earliest beginnings. I believe in one God... Seeking also the intercessions of our most holy and inviolate Lady, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, and of the holy Angels, and of the holy and most glorious Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Confessors, and Doctors: saluting and venerating their images, and abominating every heretical contention... I also receive the holy and universal Six Synods, and their divine dogmas equally and teachings, as having been delivered to us by divine inspiration." I omit the rest, together with the response of the same Patriarchs to Saint Tarasius. Let a part of the letter of Pope Adrian suffice, in which he responds to him, which Pope Nicholas I also cites in his letter 6 to Photius. It exists in Session 2 of the Seventh Synod, also translated into Greek, with this title:
[8] "To our beloved Brother Tarasius the Patriarch, Adrian, Bishop, servant of the servants of God. With pastoral care... we have considered it fitting to address your beloved holiness with sacred concord Adrian the Pope in his response and to make the matter subtly clear. In the synodal letters of the confession of your faith, which were directed to our Apostolic See through Leo, your reverend Priest, we found at the beginning of the first page that Your Reverence had been elevated from the lay order and from Imperial administration to the summit of the sacred grade. And our soul was greatly astonished at these things. And had we not found that your sincere and orthodox faith, as expressed in the aforesaid synodal letters of the sacred Creed, was in accord with the rite of the holy six universal Synods he accepts his election and regarding the venerable images was sound, on account of his zeal we would in no way have dared to give heed to synodal letters of this kind. But as much as our heart was saddened by the inappropriate ancient separation from us, so much did our soul, finding the confession and right faith of yours, rejoice. We found moreover that in the aforesaid synodal letter of your holiness, after the fullness of faith and the confession of the sacred Creed, a wonder most worthy of praise and veneration concerning the sacred and venerable images was contained." And with many things interposed he adds: "Furthermore, after the confession of your faith, it was made known to us that your venerable holiness had demanded from the orthodox and zealous champions of the truth, namely our most pious Emperors, he commends the restoration of the sacred images who were made for the glory of God, that a universal Synod be held, and they had promised in the presence of all their Christian people, piously assenting to your supplication and decreeing that a Synod be held in the royal city. We, moreover, as was contained in their sacred command, have sent with great desire and the greatest joy our beloved and approved and prudent Priests for the matter of the sacred images, that they be established in those regions according to the ancient custom. But let your holiness eagerly suggest to the same most pious and triumphant Emperors that first of all that pseudo-synod, which was made without the Apostolic See, in a disorderly and illogical fashion against the tradition of the venerable Fathers and against the divine images, be anathematized in the presence of our Legates." He then concludes thus: "We ask that our beloved ones, namely Peter, Archpriest of our holy Roman Church, and Peter, monk and Priest and Abbot, who have been sent by us to the court of the most tranquil and pious Emperors, and his own Legates to the Synod be judged and held by you as worthy, for the love of Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and for our sake, of every kind reception and kindness; so that in this too we may be able to render great thanks. May Almighty God deign to preserve your love, if it shall steadfastly remain; and may He make the fruit entrusted to you abound beyond the measure of abundance, and make it pass over into everlasting joys. May God keep you safe, most beloved Brother."
[9] So writes Pope Adrian according to what is found in Synod VII, translated into Latin by Anastasius, and let them wonder at the greater reliability than what was read in another previously published edition, where the title is thus: "To our beloved Brother Tarasius, Universal Patriarch": where the word "universal" was appended by some Greek copyist. Thus the title of Universal Patriarch was attributed to him by certain Bishops subscribing to the Second Session of the Seventh Synod; the name of Universal Patriarch given to Saint Tarasius by some as Anastasius states in his preface before this Synod to Pope John VIII. "In this matter indeed," he says, "in which the Greeks frequently and improperly call their own Patriarch 'Universal,' let your Apostolate grant pardon to the flattery of those who not without blame strive to please their Prelates." "But when, stationed at Constantinople, I frequently reproved the Greeks concerning this word and censured them for pride and arrogance, they maintained that they did not call the Patriarch 'Ecumenical' -- which many have interpreted as 'Universal' -- in what sense it may be excused because he holds the chief authority of the whole world, but because he presides over a certain part of the world which is inhabited by Christians. For what the Greeks call 'Oikoumene,' by the Latins is called not only 'the world' (from whose universality 'Universal' is derived), but also 'habitation' or 'habitable place.'" So Anastasius. But since Pope Adrian in his letter to the Emperor Constantine and his mother Irene complains that the title of Universal Patriarch was wrongly attributed by them to Saint Tarasius, we rightly infer that he did not at that time confer such a title of honor on Tarasius. That letter exists in Session Two of the same Seventh Synod, in whose latter part he writes: "We have been astonished that in your Imperial commands directed on behalf of the Patriarch of the royal city, namely Tarasius, we found him there written as Universal; disapproved by Pope Adrian but whether this was written through incompetence, or schism, or the heresy of the wicked, we do not know. But henceforth we advise your most clement and Imperial power that he be by no means described as Universal in the course of their writings: because this appears to be against the decrees of the traditions of the holy Fathers. For in the second order, if not through the authority of our holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (as is evident in all things) he can never have the name -- which indeed, if 'Universal' is written above the holy Roman Church placed over him, which is the head of all the Churches of God, it is certain that he calls himself a rebel and heretic against the holy Synods. Because, if he is 'Universal,' he is recognized to hold the primacy even over the See of our Church, which appears ridiculous to all faithful Christians, because in the whole world the principality and power was given by the Redeemer Himself to the blessed Apostle Peter, and through the same Apostle (whose office, even if unworthy, we hold) the holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church holds until now and forever the principality and authority of power: inasmuch as, which we do not believe, if anyone shall have called him Universal or given his assent, let him know that he is alienated from the orthodox faith and a rebel against our holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Tarasius himself, Patriarch of the royal city, sent us his synodal letters, fulfilling the ancient custom, which we received and examined more clearly, and rejoicing at the confession of so right a faith, and of the dogmas of the holy six Synods, and of the venerable images. Yet again we were greatly troubled and distressed that, from the lay order and deputed to Imperial services, he suddenly attained the summit of the Patriarchate, and has been made Patriarch in an uncanonical fashion contrary to the censure of the holy Canons... And were it not for his faithful cooperation in the restoration of the holy images, we could in no way have given our assent to his consecration." Subscribed: "Given on the seventh day before the Kalends of November, the ninth Indiction," namely in the year 785.
[10] How far Saint Tarasius was from all pride and ambition for titles, his modest subscription at the Synod, always after the Vicars of Pope Adrian, even though they were not Bishops, sufficiently teaches. The modesty of Saint Tarasius in titles. There, at Session Four, he subscribed thus: "Tarasius, by the mercy of God Bishop of Constantinople the New Rome, confirming that the truth is thus, willingly admitting all things which are set forth above, have subscribed to these." Again at Session Seven: "Tarasius, by the mercy of God Bishop of Constantinople the New Rome, following the paternal dogmas and defining the tradition of the Catholic Church, have subscribed." In his Letters, however, to the Emperors, to Pope Adrian, and to others, he calls himself "unworthy Bishop." Those letters are found at the end of the same Synod of Nicaea.
[11] There exists an illustrious testimony about Saint Tarasius in the Prologue to the ascetic Institutions of Saint Dorotheus the Archimandrite, written by an orthodox and devout writer, perhaps a Studite monk, in these words: "Those holy men Marcus, the estimation of his doctrine Isaiah, Barsanuphius, Dorotheus, and Hesychius... having been proven by the examination of the most holy Patriarch Tarasius, who was then long since exercising the supreme priesthood, and also by the testimony of other trustworthy men, both native and Eastern, I embrace them from paternal tradition." The rest of this testimony we published above in the Life of Saint Dositheus, February 23, page 381, number 1.
LIFE
by Ignatius the Bishop, rendered from Greek into Latin by Gentianus Hervetus.
Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (Saint)
By Ignatius the Bishop.
PROLOGUE.
[1] About to swim through the vast magnitude of the sea of a renowned Father, who excels in an inaccessible life, I fear lest I stir up the adverse blasts of winds from a rustic tongue and the great waves of obscurity, and procure for myself the peril and tempest of a soul's shipwreck. For such is the rashness of ignorance, which pours forth speech as chaff, useful for nothing that is opportune, and brings harm to what ought to be done and is useful, and falls into the shipwreck of much speaking, which cannot possibly altogether escape sin, as is the admonition of Solomon and of God. Proverbs 10:19 This restrains my talent and terrifies my thought, and reins in my discourse, and retards me as I hasten to gaze upon the depth of the man's divine gifts. But since the deep silence of a long time covering his deeds was going to bring harm to many ears that are held by the desire of hearing the best and most excellent things that were done by him in his life, as being full of profit for the soul; the author's familiar acquaintance with Saint Tarasius come, bidding farewell to all hesitation, I shall now endeavor, if God grants it, to bring forth into the light with pure and sincere truth some few things about him, which I was deemed worthy to see with my eyes, and which I received through my ears, and which I knew from my own experience, and which I know remain in my humble and needy memory. For even if I cannot speak worthily, I shall not on that account abandon the whole: but because I do not wish to hide the talent, like that wicked and lazy servant, therefore what is pleasing to God I shall offer with a ready and eager spirit to the best of my ability, even if I cannot pay the debt with interest; in this at least, that I shall exercise and look after the principal, so that nothing be taken from it, I shall be in some part acceptable. Matthew 25:25
CHAPTER I
The integrity of the parents of Saint Tarasius. His pious education, his Consular dignity.
[2] This therefore sacrosanct and great Tarasius, who from infancy to old age beautifully expressed the meekness and humility of Christ in imitation, into whose sea of virtues, as I said before, I plunged myself to swim -- who he was, and from where, and from what country and parents he was born, it would be difficult to say, even for those who from knowledge are able to speak amply and magnificently, and not only for me, whose speech is clearly humble and lowly, to trace back from on high the greatness of so illustrious a lineage, and to review the stock derived from his ancestors, who never meditated on boasting in praises of that kind, nor on setting his heart upon flowing riches, in accordance with the divine Psalmist. Psalm 62:10 But this one thing we can say: the parents of Saint Tarasius were of Patrician rank that with every authority and the greatest eminence among those who held the empire at that time, George his father and his mother Encratia, who had received a name fitting to her character, obtained the first place on account of their supreme justice, derived from the line of the Patricians, and called Patricians. His father, when he had ascended to the height of the judicial tribunal and dispensed justice to all equally with integrity and incorruptness, was seen to be far more just than Solon and Lycurgus, those ancient legislators: who also once pronounced a right sentence in accordance with the laws, when those who seemed to hold the Empire at that time neither knew what was just nor wished to execute it. The difficulty of administering justice was in this: his father most upright in administering justice certain poor women had been accused of a most grave crime. What that accusation was I shall now tell.
[3] They had been accused of killing suckling infants, entering through openings of houses or even with doors shut, and killing the infants without warning. They were also dragged into court by those who believed in fables and were unwilling to follow the teaching of Christ our God, which is in no way deceived by phantasms and illusions. For among the Greeks there is in the fables a certain woman named Gello, who, it is said, when she had cut short her life by a premature death, approached newborn infants through certain specters and killed them. Seduced and deceived by the wicked spirit of this fable, those who related these things as probable also attempted to transfer this execrable crime to the poor women, he frees poor women from a grave calumny and to ascribe to them, as if they had been changed into spirits, the cause of those who died before their time. O stupor! O blindness of the eyes of the heart! If a body compacted and compressed in length, depth, and breadth proceeds dissolved into a spirit and is permitted to do these things, then Christ (who is the truth itself, saying, "A spirit has not flesh and bones") John 14:6 has been reckoned a phantom by those who assert these things. Moreover, Christ also, who took true flesh and truly affirmed to His disciples that a spirit has not flesh and bones, will be circumscribed by nothing that stands in the way of His being a phantom. Luke 24:39 Judging thus, therefore, and deciding without hesitation, George absolved the women from the charges. But he who then held power (for he was very much a defender of phantasm), when he perceived that George had so judged, ordered him to be brought before him. Having been clearly instructed by George about the true outcome of the sentence he had pronounced, he indeed struck him with the greatest ignominy; but he approved, even against his will, the sentence pronounced by George, inasmuch as he preserved the poor women absolved from the charges. And here let this part of the constancy and justice of George be set down.
[4] Saint Tarasius was piously trained by his mother. His mother, moreover, distinguished in piety, and seeing that which she herself was called prospering in her son, rendered her son venerable and a true temple of continence. And teaching him to have no association with those of his own age who were wicked, she counseled him to enter into friendship with those who love the beauty of virtue, and to be joined to them by the bond of spiritual charity. He is promoted to the consular dignity. Wherefore, having entered through every kind of virtue, he was reverenced by all, so that he was even honored with the consular dignity, and was chosen as the first secretary of the Emperor's private affairs, he is made the Emperor's first Secretary and shone like the morning star in the imperial court: inasmuch as he had abundantly embraced the divine disciplines and had gathered from secular learning what is most excellent. Psalm 1:3 Meditating upon the former for the ascent of virtue, and planted beside the streams of the waters of divine knowledge so as to bring forth rational fruits in their season; but sealing up in his mind, for attentiveness and caution, the usefulness of the latter, by which he could correct what is crooked and barbarous, and impose upon his tongue the law of speaking accurately. Having thus obtained praise through both, and having dedicated his whole self to God through piety and a pure conscience, he arrived at the state of spiritual perfection, and while performing worldly duties in worldly garb, he removed himself from worldly ambition, and adapting his soul to the spirit, he became a sacred vessel by the choice of the better part, even before the priesthood, and was foretold as the shepherd of the rational flock, though he was himself still being pastured: and it was hoped that he would undertake the entire governance of all, like a bright lamp already lit, illuminating the whole world with the fire of his virtues, and dispelling every heretical darkness, and procuring the light of right faith.
AnnotationsCHAPTER II
Saint Tarasius designated for the Patriarchate of Constantinople by his predecessor Paul.
[5] Nor did the people's hope deceive them, inasmuch as they soon received what they desired. For Paul, whom Salamis in Cyprus, his birthplace, had received, Paul, unequal to the heresy of the Iconoclasts governing the helm of the priesthood holily and with integrity, when the nefarious heresy that accuses Christians was still in force -- of those, I say, who abolish the image of the incarnation of Christ our true God, and of His Mother who truly and properly bore God, and of the incorporeal powers as they appeared -- and already all the holy opponents of the heresy had departed from this brief and perishable life, and had been translated to the discrimination which takes place there of the things done in their lives, and had vomited forth even after their departure the venom of the serpentine doctrine from the Church -- Paul bore it heavily and was distressed in his soul, since he had no one to bring him help and extend a hand for the correction of the right faith, because all adhered to the heresy and confessed and assented to it. He therefore took a counsel worthy of his prudence. For when he had fallen into an illness that was to bring him death and lead him to the long-lasting release that exists there, he secretly he withdraws into a monastery removed himself from the See: and having come to the monastery of Florus, he enrolled himself in the number of monks, having changed his garb. After it became known where the Pontiff had gone, and this had already reached the ears of those who held power at that time he satisfies the Emperors about his abdicated Patriarchate (for Irene and her son Constantine then admirably held the chief parts of power), they, because the event was new and unusual, not a little disturbed in mind, resolved to come to the said monastery. After they had recognized that the Pontiff had assumed the habit of humility, filled with anger and fear they asked him, who had given himself over to such boldness, what had been the cause of the Pontiff's flight and tonsure, reckoning that he would surely provoke the grave indignation of the Emperor. But Paul, with a mild and placid speech (for such he was, if any man ever was), soothing the imperial anger, persuaded them to cease being wrathful: and revealed the cause which had brought him to this, speaking in this manner:
[6] "Me, O Emperors, both illness and the unforeseen approach of death have compelled to do this, but much more did the deformity of the Church drive me to it, for she labors under heresy, and from the long-lasting evil opinion she receives so much pain that an incurable welt has adhered to her: and already three times the assent to the heresy has been inscribed by hand and ink. For it was not permitted me to escape the nets of the evil opinion: but it happened that I was entangled in it both by tongue and hand. Which also distresses me the more, in that it devours the senses of my soul. I see all parts of the world, which hang in your hand as in a balance, preserving the immovable scale of faith, and remaining in right doctrine and exulting, to be far in disagreement with our Church, and to be repelling us as alien sheep from the flock of Christ. And therefore I refuse to be the pastor of a heretical assembly, and have resolved rather to inhabit a tomb than to be subject to the anathemas of the sacred quaternion of the Apostolic Sees. But since God has delivered the power of the scepter into your hands, and you bear the Imperial care of the most Christian flock that is under the sun, do not despise the sadness of your mother the Church, but strive that she may again receive her former beauty. Do not suffer the abominable heresy even now, like a boar from the forest, as the saying goes, to devastate and destroy the vineyard of your imperial and faithful cultivation, and to be shamefully invaded by evil opinion, rough and untrodden by those passing along the way. You have a most learned cultivator, who has nourished the cluster of true confession, and pressed it out in the divine wine-presses of the one and only Church, and when he has filled the bowl of wisdom, has prepared for the most faithful people the cup of right judgment." "And whom do you mean by this?" the Emperors said to him. "My speech means Tarasius, he urges that Saint Tarasius be substituted for himself who is the first secretary of the private affairs of your divine empire. Him I know, and whoever thinks rightly knows, that he will opportunely undertake the Church, and with the rod of reason will drive away the trifles of heresies: but with the staff of teaching and pastoral office will lead in and lead out to the folds and enclosures of truth the most divine flock." When he had thus sown his speech in the Imperial ears and had made it fruitful, as one that had already borne fruit a hundredfold, oppressed by the gravity of his illness, he hastened confidently through death to the dissolution of his tabernacle, having obtained, as I shall say in Apostolic fashion, the building from God through incorruption.
AnnotationsCHAPTER III
The election and Patriarchal consecration of Saint Tarasius.
[7] And thus indeed Paul conducted himself: but the Emperors, having their minds occupied with the election of a Pastor and stimulated by the speech of Paul, openly fixed their eyes upon Tarasius: and wisely chose him, God willing, by common consent to preside over the widowed flock. He is chosen as Patriarch by the Emperor and the Clergy. Whatever was best and most excellent from the sacred senate assented to them -- a truly divine assembly -- inasmuch as they knew altogether that the man excelled in all things and was worthy to be entrusted with the pastoral dignity. But whatever was promiscuous and common, and smelled of the heretical lamp, holding the Father's holiness suspect even before he had received the sacred vestment on that account, as being a most vehement and sharp axe for reproving, did not wish to assent to the common votes, not wishing to repent of its ancient opinion: and preferred to be wrapped in the filth of the mire of heresy rather than to be watered by the life-giving stream of the pure and untroubled fountain of the doctrine of Tarasius. But what was just prevailed: and the decree which was made for the sake of piety was admitted. The Emperors therefore ordered that Tarasius be summoned immediately into their presence, so that what seemed fitting to God and to the Ecclesiastical laws might be confirmed in his person. He was indeed present with a pious and honorable appearance, and surrounded with the graces which he had from God: with whom, engaging in honorable and excellent discourse and taking counsel as if already with a Father about what was afterward to be determined, they used words of this kind.
[8] "We do not think your prudence is unaware that in past times the vertigo of heretical darkness invaded the Church, which covered it no more tolerably than a new Egyptian plague -- I mean palpable darkness -- and to this day creeps like a cancer through the flock: and through nearly the whole world has stirred up a tempest in the soul. But since God by His ineffable nod has brought it forth, and by a just judgment has removed from the empire and from life its leaders who had resolved unjustly to persecute the just, and has kindled our power as a lamp shining before, so that we may drive away the darkness of evil opinion and make the sun of knowledge to rise; behold, we summon you as a defender and champion and helper in this contest, with the hope of vanquishing the heresy through him inasmuch as we know that you can beautifully arm yourself for defending the right opinion, and with an army drawn up from the divinely inspired Scriptures, fight for it and distinguish yourself splendidly. Do not therefore turn your back on account of the things piously proposed by us, who with worldly resources and forces strive to procure the advantage of peace: but even with feet and hands lend your aid, and move every stone, as the proverb says, so that what is sought may be found and what is desired may be apprehended. It is time, therefore, that the splendid and much-desired tunic of the Church be woven together, which the plague of heresy has torn. Now the distinguished and salutary day draws near, in which Christ, causing the roaring of the error of images to cease, has nodded with His abundant mercies that His venerable image, insofar as pertains to His humanity, be raised up. Passing therefore to the fold of the Priesthood, when you have fought against the heresy, sing the song of victory against the enemies: go forth, about to receive from God the reward and the crown."
[9] Tarasius, however, stunned by the Emperor's address and struck as if by some heavenly sound, answered to the following effect regarding what had been said: "The tempest indeed, which violently assaulted the faith and the whole commonwealth, and shook the Church to its foundations with dangerous waves, he reluctantly admits the Patriarchate and brought shipwreck of soul upon many, there is no ear that has not received it, even if few have escaped the force of the storm. But to calm this whirlwind, and to pacify this storm of a nocturnal battle with the moon not shining, is greater than any forces can accomplish. For who will overturn the custom that has so wickedly prevailed and taken on the force of nature, and has almost compelled the world by oath against the divine power, and make it learn what is better, unless God shall look upon and defend your divine power? The Church, which was long ago stripped by the tyranny of impiety of the beauty of its ancient adornment, and endured being long clothed in ragged garments because of the rotten and feeble dogmas of heresy, let her now be adorned by God for you with pious varieties. Through you, therefore, let the commandments of the Apostles be renewed, he first requires the exact observance of synodal decrees through which the splendor of the true faith has shone. Let the pure decrees of the sacred Synods breathe again, which are preserved by the Evangelical traditions and do not suffer that they could ever in any way be stolen. Let the vestibules of the paternal dogmas be opened, and let the flocks of Christ's sheep pass through them, and as if from the divine paradise let them confess the doctrine of right confession. For through a Caiaphas-like council the abortive offspring of heresy was produced. Through an Ecumenical Synod let the children of the Church be born, and let them receive increase to the measure of the age of Christ. For if this shall have been done, and she shall have been adorned with the ancient and original dignity of her garment, and the pious daystar of true opinion's dogmas shall have illuminated her through your zeal, she will have all the faithful agreeing in the same opinion and pouring forth their souls, so that she, firmly founded, may be preserved upon the solid rock of faith."
[10] When he had declared these mysteries, profitable for the soul, before the Emperor, the Emperor asked him to let the common assembly of the people also hear him discoursing on these matters. For the military crowd bore this as the chief point of right faith, since they did not think that the venerable images should be admitted and adored. Incited therefore by the counsel of the Church to do this, when he was in the famous palace of the Magnaura, with the whole city and the priestly multitude streaming together, he excused himself, demonstrating with strong reasons what the profession and dignity of the priesthood is, and to what height and magnitude it elevates the one who wishes to proceed to it; he first delivers a discourse to the people about it and that he was not fit to undertake it, as one who had long been entangled in the dignities of the world and had been very much involved in the turbulences and anxieties of this life, and had not yet tasted this mystical state. For the one who hastens to this calling and this grade, to spring quickly to it with unwashed hands, as it were, and to touch what cannot be touched,
is not safe: but that one who has been reared in the ordinances that lead to this, and directed by the Evangelical and Apostolic life-giving doctrines, as is fitting, to discern the straight way and the crooked -- so that he may pastorally lead the former toward better things, but decline and avoid the latter, in accordance with the divine admonition, as things that carry one far from God and His ordinances. One who is supported by these must be brought to this great dignity. As for me, as God knows, the Emperors have compelled me unwillingly to undertake this ministry, since this had never come to my mind, nor had I ever thought of this governance. As one therefore elected, I share my conscience with the people and flock of God, that if you wish to bind me to this most great office, and have determined that I should submit to its yoke, you also yourselves incline to the tradition of the Ecumenical faith, and do not be reluctant to follow the Fathers who have entered upon this way, and do not refuse to consent to the six holy Ecumenical Synods and to the things that were piously decreed by them. For they transmit to the heavenly inheritance those who obey them, and become the authors of a great and immortal reward.
[11] The people therefore received his admonitions as the voices of an Angel, when they promised obedience, he is consecrated Bishop and having promised that they would follow like sheep the one leading them pastorally, they affirmed that they would obey in all things as seemed right to God and to him. Then, by the inspiration of the sovereign and divine Spirit, with the counsel of the Emperor also concurring, the dignity of worldly clay having been exchanged, and his hair shorn after the manner of a Cleric, and another honorable and venerable garment having been assumed, by divine and spiritual invocations, like Aaron and Phinehas, he received the anointing of the honor of the priesthood, and ascended to the height of the pastoral Chair, adding light to light, and increasing virtue with virtues, and multiplying the most sacred talent with advancements surpassing measure.
AnnotationsCHAPTER IV
The exercise of virtues by Saint Tarasius toward himself, the Clergy, the poor, and monks.
[12] For he had so prepared continence for himself, as a son of self-restraint and one who had long since abundantly practiced it, He restrains gluttony from the fact that he was content with little, that his diet was entirely free from superfluous things and did not indulge to the point of satiety. He so moderated the reins of his life, and so repressed the tumults of the passions of the soul, the appetite for pleasure that he was set before all as a most divine example, who could never be persuaded to be moved to the appetite for pleasure. Moreover, since he had made wakefulness his domestic companion for the meditation of the divine Scriptures, drowsiness he dismissed sleep as a servant that loosens the limbs and is useless: and when necessity required, he again commanded it to be present. For who ever saw him reclining in bed, or wrapped in soft coverlets? Who ever received and prepared the tunic and belt upon his couch, that he might be more elegant and refined? Who ever drew the shoes from his feet and, having tied a sponge, as is the custom, smoothed and polished them? But he was, as they say, his own bath attendant, and served himself for the needs of the body: and every comfort of the body in this also imitating Christ his Master with divine zeal, who said: "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," giving an example of humility to His disciples. Matt. 20:28
[13] He had, moreover, a practice of prayer which bore his mind sublimely upward to the heavens, he prays unceasingly and rendered it familiar to God alone, and joined it to incorporeal beings, and expelled every temptation, in accordance with the Lord's saying. For there was no time in which one did not find him alone, bending the knee and rising, and lifting his hands to the heavens, and receiving illumination from above from God. Humility, moreover, since it had been familiar to him from childhood, he so embraced a lover of humility, he corrects luxury of dress in the Clergy that not only was it conspicuous in him, and from it he obtained praise, but it also passed to others who were formed by his example. For from many of those who had been enrolled in the number of the Clergy, who girded their loins with golden belts and were adorned with various and costly silken garments, he took away the gold; and he made them gird their loins with belts woven from goat hair. And for those who had garments of purple woven from the same threads for their whole body, he devised tunics removed from excessive refinement and luxury, as being an honorable vestment and befitting those who had resolved to serve God and profess humility. From which what happened? That whatever harm arose from that practice was removed; and frugality was honored as a most precious treasure. chastity is nourished by temperance Chastity, moreover, and temperance, which dwells together with it, since they procure sanctification, he called sisters: through which, exterminating the foul and adulterous thought that invades the flesh, and ravaging the passions of dishonor, he was crowned by God with the victorious crown of impassibility.
[14] merciful toward the poor Compassion, moreover, and most generous mercy toward the poor, he bestowed so cheerfully, as that one said, that he surpassed all who supplied the poor, and became a new Joseph, giving grain to the needy. For cutting the delicacies of his own table into morsels, he prepared a daily banquet for receiving those who were hungry. Moreover, witnesses of this abound to the present day: the designated shelters established for the sake of those who were received as guests and of our poor Brothers. Furthermore, he piously assigned to others a permanent distribution of money, noting the name of each one in his notebooks. But the daily distribution, which he placed with his own hand into the hands of the poor, what mathematician -- a Diophantus -- could have measured, or what multiplying arithmetician -- a Nicomachus -- could have numbered, which was more abundant than sand and refreshed the bellies of the needy? During the fast, moreover, which precedes the Passion of Christ, especially in the time of Lent he himself devised the giving of a great largesse in various places and dining halls to those who were pressed by great want, continuing until the light-bearing feast of feasts of Christ, the Resurrection. And I would need leisure and a long time to set forth in order the couches of the invited guests and proselytes, and following the ordered sequence of the lame and the blind and the maimed, and to give to posterity an example of a munificent and generous institution.
[15] Moreover, the winter season, which was most bitter, and bound the inner parts of the earth with snow and frost and ice, in extreme cold he bestows garments on the naked and laid upon those who were in it, like a collar, the chilling and most grievous affliction -- how did he drive it away from those who were shivering and clothed in torn rags and covered only their private parts, employing the devices of warming relief? For purchasing tunics, cloaks, and moreover coverings made from the thickest woolen threads and warps, and heavy with dense fleece, at great expense of gold, and distributing them to those who were miserably afflicted in the open air, he warded off the grievous affliction of the cold. On the previously mentioned saving day of the venerable Resurrection of Christ, after the completed mystery of the divine assembly and communion, still clad in his sacred vestments, he would come to the now-ruined site of the ancient basilica, which was called Estia. For there he prepared a most great banquet for the needy, on Easter Day he ministers to the poor by which they might be received. Having made them recline, he himself began to minister, pouring wine from the bowl and distributing drink to them. Then, when he had performed this duty, he went to his patriarchal house, not nourishing himself on the marrow of certain young deer, as the fable says, nor receiving a Sybaritic table, nor with sweetmeats that tickle and fatten the belly, but refreshing himself with frugal dishes and such as did not aim at luxury. Who is remembered as having been raised to so great a height of humility among those who ever lived? Phil. 2:7 Who so imitated the self-emptying of Christ, who, without emptying the greatness of His Father's bosom, assumed the form of our poverty, and teaching by ministering how to fly to heaven, made us sit with the Father's majesty?
[16] This very man who is now praised, even though he was tossed amid tumults, not only loved quiet and silence, but also abundantly supplied them to others, drawing them away from the world and making them familiar with God, and making them sons of virtue, as the begetter and producer of this holy life and work. Of this the monastery built on the left side of the Thracian Bosporus, he builds a monastery from his paternal goods from the inheritance of those things which came to him by right of dowry from his father's goods, gives complete testimony. In which, having planted noble shoots of trees endowed with reason, which grew fat with the streams of discipline and were increased by the abundant seasonings of abstinence, he made them the cultivation of Christ, faithfully producing the thirtyfold and sixtyfold and hundredfold fruit of virtues in holiness and justice. From these many were called by him to the pastoral dignity, and, as was fitting, they adorned the possession of the priesthood: and they were immovable pillars of the Catholic faith. Which indeed the dark flood of heresy showed, against which, fighting bravely, and enduring the cloud of many dangers in persecutions and afflictions and sufferings in the open air, they routed and dispersed it toward the splendor of the supernal light: in which they also made known their master, as an ever-shining Morning Star. And these things indeed happened afterward.
AnnotationsCHAPTER V
The Seventh Ecumenical Synod held at Nicaea. Images restored.
[17] He himself, having made use of perfected virtues to the full, since he had first exercised his mind in action so that it might ascend to contemplation, and had been a fitting receptacle for it, applied his mind harmoniously to those things pertaining to the right faith, and strove that those things which had seemed good to God and had been promised to the Emperors might come to effect. This was that an Ecumenical Synod should proceed, and that the Church should not at all deviate from what is just. Therefore, by command of the Emperors, all the Bishops from every region and city set out for the imperial city, He arranges for the Seventh Synod to be assembled at Constantinople and when the assembly had already been convened in the renowned temple of the divine Apostles, and the Bishops were already seated in the appointed seats, behold, a certain swarm of wasps -- I mean men who were of leonine spirit -- from the army of Constantine, who had formerly administered the scepters of empire impiously, rising as if from certain hives of evil opinion, approached the said sacred building, intending to barricade it with military arms. When they had drawn near to the porches of the venerable building, they filled the place with a disorderly clamor, saying that it was not to be endured that those things which had formerly seemed good to Constantine should be weakened and transgressed. For we will not permit, they said, his dogmas to be abrogated and images to be declared worthy of being set up. And if anyone shall have begun this, and we shall have seen before our eyes the synod which was assembled by him being abrogated, which was disrupted by the Iconoclasts we will make the earth purple with the blood of the Bishops. These things they said, and bursting through the doors, they wished to kill those who were within.
[18] Then, by the nod of imperial authority, the Bishops leave the session. The Emperors, however, raging with anger against those who had stirred up revolution, quickly came to their palace, considering their insolence and insurrection and the overthrow of the whole order. Tarasius, however, approaching the sacred altar, showing no sign of fear, began the unbloody sacrifice, and having completed the mystical communion, returned home: where he devoted himself to his former labors, namely in sacred Scripture and in constructing demonstrations from the sayings of the Fathers: and again he determined that it was necessary for a synod to be assembled, those men having been cashiered lest the heretical communion should grow worse. The Emperors, having stripped of their military belt and dignity those who had made that seditious conspiracy and had insulted the glory of their imperial majesty, and having rendered them destitute and stripped of all aid of arms, ordered each of them, branded with disgrace, to return to his homeland. For, they said, God does not endure that such authors of sedition should have as defenders and champions the palace that reflects His glory.
[19] When they had wisely determined these things with God's approval, and had judged it good that some time should intervene, by a fair mandate they again decreed that the assembly of Priests and Bishops should convene together in the renowned metropolis of Bithynia -- Nicaea, I say, in which the sharpest sword against the madness of Arius and his followers had been forged on behalf of the Trinity, transferred to Nicaea which is of one essence and free from all matter: in which the Trinity of hypostases shone forth theologically in undivided division and divided unity. And when the most holy fleet had come to the said city with all speed, Tarasius also came from the imperial city, taking with him from the Apostolic Sees certain distinguished and most excellent men: namely, from Adrian the Roman Pope, Peter the chief Presbyter and Peter the Monk and Abbot; from the Apostolic diocese, from Politianus, I say, the most sacred Pope of Alexandria, Thomas the monk and Presbyter; and from Theodoretus the Patriarch of Antioch, and from Elias the Chief of Pastors of Aelia, John the monk, Presbyter, and Syncellus: leading also with him certain of those who held magistracies, distinguished for piety and the grace of learning and eloquence: among whom was also Nicephorus, who was secretary to the Emperor: who, having lived in holiness and being adorned with divine virtues and learning and the science of speaking, received the honor of the patriarchal See of Byzantium after the holy passing of Tarasius; and whatever venerable and distinguished monks there were, who were moved by zeal for Ecclesiastical discipline and rule, and ever strove to follow synodal exactness, set out for Nicaea.
[20] On the appointed day (and this was the day on which Thecla opened the stadium for the contests of women Martyrs), each Bishop in his priestly rank and habit he inaugurates it sat in his seat. Tarasius first began to speak, and opened the door of discourse for the Synod. Then, when the imperial and divine edict had been recited in the hearing of all, which proclaimed the right and sincere faith with a great voice, after which there were also the vocal responses of the Apostolic Sees to those who held power, resounding through the synod in the order of canonical sequence, and exhorting all to assent to the sound doctrine and that each should state his opinion and reveal what judgment and will he held concerning this sound faith, the most sacred assembly acclaimed that it was so, and that they so believed concerning the ancient fashioning and adoration of venerable images, the cult of images having been decreed many books of the Fathers being brought forward and synodal decrees, and true judgments and demonstrations being adduced, and impressed upon the ears of all by diligent inquiry. This was seen to be done not once or twice, but up to the seventh session and hearing throughout the entire day: just as also the Acts committed to writing indicate through divine sequence and order. Finally, when Tarasius and the pious assembly of Fathers collected with him he concludes it had committed the venerable decree to the safe records of written documents, and had prayed that it might remain safe and intact, and had invoked God that the Fathers who had won the first victory against the mad Arius might have helpers and guardians of the things that had been rightly decreed, and had separated from the Ecclesiastical court by anathema the authors of this vain and empty opinion and the inventors of all heresy; they brought the orthodox dogmas to the imperial city and preserved them. The Emperors received them with the greatest benevolence.
[21] Therefore, when the chair of the Emperors themselves and of the entire God-chosen Synod had been erected in the already-mentioned renowned hall of the Magnaura, and the new decree had been recited, when the divine Spirit had filled the imperial ears (for they heard that they had come together into one accord by the aid of Him with great approval of the Emperor who contains all things, and had agreed upon one judgment), they admired the exactness: and wisely judging that the things which had been decreed by them were the doctrine of divine inspiration, they most excellently approved and confirmed them with the imperial pen and hand: and having honored the synod with no mean gifts, they sent each one to his own city and to his rational flocks.
Annotationsp. In the above-cited letter of the supreme priests of the East to Saint Tarasius, it is said that he who was allotted to govern the throne of James the brother of the Lord was made an exile: the Jerusalem patriarch whose role two other substitutes supplied.
q. Theophanes calls John a great and famous man, a participant in holiness by word and deed, who was also the Syncellus of the Patriarch of Antioch. The supreme priests of the East, in their letter to Saint Tarasius, call the God-beloved brothers John and Thomas "united by divine zeal for the orthodox faith," their representatives at the Synod and Syncelli of the two holy and great Patriarchs. At the beginning of each session they are called most reverend Presbyters, monks, and representatives of the Apostolic Sees of the Eastern diocese. And both Thomas and John subscribed as holding the place of the three Apostolic Sees of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. We shall treat of the Syncelli below.
r. Saint Nicephorus is venerated on March 13.
s. There are found to have subscribed to the fourth session by name one hundred and thirty, nearly all Hegumens of monasteries, which are also specified there. Among them, however, Saint Theophanes is not found, whom the Acts that we are to illustrate on March 12 report to have been summoned to this second Synod of Nicaea with other Fathers. monks in it
t. On September 24, on which day the Greeks venerate Saint Thecla, not on the day before, when the Latins do. The words of the first Session at the beginning agree, where they are said to have convened on the eighth day before the Kalends of October, Indiction 11, in the eighth year of the Empire of Constantine and Irene, that is, the year of Christ 787. Theophanes says "in the month of October," on the 11th day. In Greek, according to Francis Combefis in the History of the Monothelites for the Acts of the Sixth Synod, chapter 1, section 5: "The first assembly and session of the Bishops took place in the Catholic Church of Holy Sophia of Nicaea, in the month of October, the 11th day, Indiction 11." sacred memorial of the Seventh Synod On the same day, October 11 (the words are those of the Greek Menologion published by Canisius), "the commemoration of the holy Fathers who assembled a second time in the imperial city in an Ecumenical synod, which is called the seventh, held under Adrian the Roman Pontiff, in the reign of the Emperor Constantine and his mother Irene, Tarasius being Archbishop of Constantinople, Politianus of Alexandria, Theodoretus of Antioch, and Elias of Jerusalem. The holy Fathers were three hundred and sixty-seven in number, who assembled against the assailants of sacred images, who condemned every heresy and their authors, decreeing that whoever does not venerate sacred images is alien to the orthodox faith. These and other constitutions having been confirmed, each returned to his own Church: by whose intercessions may God have mercy on us." Nearly the same things are read in the Greek Menaea, but they report that the Bishops present were three hundred and sixty-five in number. In Greek, expressed in full words, "three hundred and sixty-five." Furthermore, in them the memory of the synod is observed on the Sunday nearest after October 2, regarding which day Molanus also observed that in the Supplement to Usuard. Authors do not agree exactly on the number of Bishops: some count only fifty beyond three hundred, while Photius counts seventy-seven: in the fourth session the names of about three hundred and thirty are expressed.
u. So at Session 1. The Bishops of Sicily requested, and the Synod agreed, that Saint Tarasius should make the introduction, open the door of discourse, and pronounce what was fitting. In Greek: "that Tarasius should make the introduction, and open the door of discourse, and as presiding officer, pronounce what was fitting." Which the Author copied from there, who also remembered well enough the day on which the Synod began.
x. The Synod calls it "the pious sacra," and recites it.
y. At Session 2, the letters of Pope Adrian to the Emperors and to Saint Tarasius are recited. At Session 3, the letter of Saint Tarasius to the Patriarchs of the Eastern Sees, and their response.
z. All these things were conducted principally at Session 4.
aa. At Session 5, at which the three Patriarchs of Constantinople -- Anastasius, Constantine, and Nicetas -- were also subjected to anathema.
bb. In the month of November, says Theophanes.
CHAPTER VI
The heresy and simony routed by Saint Tarasius: the immunity of the Church defended.
[22] Tarasius, moreover, and the distinguished Initiates of the Apostolic Sees, when they had come to the prefectures of the most sacred Church and had instructed and strengthened the people with divine doctrines, brought no charge of their former evil opinion against those who had been enrolled in the Clergy or held the Episcopate, whether before the Synod, or at the Synod, or after the Synod, nor did they segregate those who had been ordained by heretics from the Ecclesiastical pastures. But following synodal and paternal dispensation, He benignly sustains those who have repented those indeed who had deserted to the pious position they embraced with their hands as brothers and colleagues in the office of the Pontificate: those, however, who had faltered in some matter and had looked upon the things pertaining to the faith with perverted eyes, and had afterward repented of their fall and had renounced the opinion that was to be comprised in written statements, embracing these with the same affections, they placed in their seats: and in the peaceful breeze and tranquility disturbed by no waves, they preserved the Church of the whole world.
[23] And in those things indeed which pertain to the glorious faith, the great Tarasius, being so disposed toward explaining it rightly and openly, and toward persuading those who wavered and limped on both feet to walk with a straight foot, undertook a great contest and immense labor: daily indeed inducing with honorable admonitions those who approached: and if he saw any who were perverse in heart, he set them right through encounters of words, and binding them with the laws of truth, he led them as sacred offerings to the Church. He showed, moreover, that the abominations of idols had absolutely no agreement or compatibility, as it seemed to the accusers of the faith, [he teaches the distinction between the idols of the Gentiles and the sacred images of Christians] with the pious and divine forms of venerable images. For the production of the former, he said, is simultaneously polluted along with the original exemplars, and is made full of all turpitude; but since the original exemplars of the latter are venerable, necessarily those things also which are produced from them appear simultaneously venerable. And the former are indeed inventions of pagan false religion, fashioned from what nowhere exists; the latter, however, which are rightly made by Christian sanctity from what exists and directed toward what exists, possess the consequent holiness of the archetypal exemplar.
[24] For when he had found the Church affected and wandering like a juggler and mountebank upon the mountains of heresy, and enduring hunger and thirst -- not for bread and water, but a hunger of hearing the word of the Lord -- feeding it in the pastures of rest and leading it to the paths of justice, he made the flock most fat, fattened with salutary actions and spitting out the bitter harshness of heretical leaven with the sweet milk of faith, and made into a new lump. Amos 8:11 And first indeed, severing the bond of the Simoniac purse, by which the gift of the Holy Spirit is put up for sale, he decreed he routs simony that the ordinations and consecrations of Priests should be made freely: expelling every pecuniary custom from the ecclesiastical court, and casting out whatever was rough, he made straight the paths of faith, provoking the flock with many sermons, and ascending the most sacred ambo, he prepared the table of doctrine, hunting for delicacies useful for nourishing souls from the divinely inspired Scriptures. He expounds the Psalms of David Moreover, gathering in a scattered fashion the songs of David, through perspicuity and evident distinction of subjects, he clearly opened those things which were understood: so that they were as if in plain sight to those who were to read them, and straight to those who find knowledge.
[25] But what I had almost passed over, and what, escaping my memory, was not to be left unspoken, and was going to conceal the care of the divine Father which he bore toward those who labored, by which he himself relieved them, and of which, as I think, he himself was the first deviser -- since I have come to this place, mixing it in as a certain seasoning and sweet honey to the remaining body of the discourse, I resolved to insert the bowels of clemency and mercy into the hearts of those who are benign and merciful. For at a certain time, a certain man from among those who held magistracies, distinguished by splendor and glory and riches, who had also obtained the honor of bearing the Imperial sword, paying penalties for a great sum of money, when severe and bitter inquiries were being made about him, and no relief was given him, but affliction and torture pressed him on every side, was being cast down into the depths of despair through anguish of soul. This man, having watched for the dead of night, escaping the notice of those to whose custody he had been entrusted, betook himself to the divine refuge of the temple. When he was within the sanctuary, having seized the corners of the venerable altar with his teeth, he defends a defendant who has fled to the sacred altar he held it with great trembling and fear. When therefore they learned that he had escaped, fearing lest they themselves should undergo the same punishment, they came with swift feet to the divine temple, and seeing him clinging to the divine altar, they surrounded the circuit of the sanctuary, opening an entrance for the defendant at mealtimes but giving him no opportunity to avail himself of other necessities: they hoped rather that necessity would betray him, and would expel him even against his will. They therefore applied greater custody. For they entirely forbade access to the altar, so that no one might address him, or any word be transmitted from him to those who were outside.
[26] When these things therefore had come to the ears of the Pastor, they filled him with the greatest anguish of soul, inasmuch as he saw the contempt of the divine sacraments provoking the good-giving benignity of God to indignation. But behold the help supplied to him then by the merciful Father, and admire his prudence. he brings him food For at the time when it was necessary for the afflicted man to take food, putting on his sacred vestment, he would go to the sanctuary: and entering through the right door, he supplied what was necessary for the man's sustenance, bringing it abundantly from his own supply: and then he would depart, leaving him. If, however, the belly, which cannot be denied, compelled the man to do what nature requires, he serves him in the necessities of nature coming down again from above, and leading him to the privy and waiting, and then taking him by the hand, he would restore him to the altar. And this he did not once or twice a day, but as often as he was summoned to this ministry by the one who was gravely imperiled.
[27] The soldiers, admiring this insatiable condescension of the divine man, and thinking that it was impossible for the suppliant to be captured while the hand of the just man guided him, devised against him a wicked plan that surpassed all fraud and cunning. For secretly through another entrance to the sanctuary they set an ambush, having been captured through an ambush, he reclaims him so that when the Pastor drew the sheep from the sacred precincts to serve nature, they might snatch it like wolves: which was indeed done. For when the Saint was caring for the man as he was accustomed, and leading him to the requirements of nature, those who lay securely in ambush, bursting in through another door, seized him and dragged him by force to the palace. But when the most holy Pastor learned of the wicked machination of the wretches devised against him, seized with anger and grief, using no delay, he went to the imperial court of Eleutherius (for there it happened that the Empress was then residing). he excommunicates those who will not restore him When they, however, sensed the Father's arrival, and suspected that his presence among them would be full of zeal and like a sharp sword, they left him outside the palace, not deigning even to address him. But he, seeing that his arrival had availed him nothing, bound all in common with the chains of Ecclesiastical punishment, pronouncing them unworthy of communion in the sacraments of Christ, if they should inflict any grave harm on him who had fled as a suppliant to the church. When therefore he had spoken these things freely, as if from Apostolic authority, he returned. They, however, bound by the cords of the master, since they could not escape the sacred nets of Ecclesiastical punishment, no longer questioned the defendant with tortures, but emptying the scales of the monies in question by examinations of words alone, they acquitted him as innocent. Such was the divine man toward all, vindicating and defending divine things, and facing danger for the sheep of the flock.
AnnotationsCHAPTER VII
Saint Tarasius bravely resists the Emperor, who wished to repudiate his lawful wife and marry a chambermaid.
[28] Since he both held the laws accurately and was trained in every kind of canonical rectitude, he judged the disputes that fell to the whole commonwealth, and compelled the parties to agree with one another by the sharpest sentence he could pronounce: not swayed by compassion for the poor man who was summoned to court, nor gratifying the person of the rich man in anything: but in all things preserving the inflexible distribution of justice, he gave no place to those who wished to do injury to their neighbor. Lev. 19 But perhaps he maintained the straight and nowhere-inclining balance of the laws, In deciding Ecclesiastical cases, a most just judge yet despised the rights which are nobly established by the canons? By no means: but since he knew that the severity of the laws is in many things the sister and companion of canonical authority, as a prudent judge he tempered the one with the other, and showed that the legitimate exactness of the canons exists in those things which are canonically corrected; and that the rectitude of the laws in those things which are legitimately conducted is the canonical seal of confirmation. But that he did not betray this precept and divine commandment of God, but observed both canon and law equally, the witness is not obscure, whom the discourse is about to adduce in due course.
[29] The aforementioned Emperor Constantine was called a young man, his mother Irene having desisted from the joint governance of the empire with him, and he alone held the helm of administration. Though he was otherwise good, he did not altogether hold firmly to those things pertaining to the pure and sincere faith, and -- as often happens with the minds of the young -- puffed up with a vain conceit of himself, he deemed what seemed right to him more just than the written laws. He undertook to weaken the laws and that which was spoken by the Lord in the Gospels, using the patronage of his own power: and having determined to make a divorce from his wife, and having another in mind whom he wished to elevate to the height of Empire, the young man contrived a deed unworthy of his authority. Matt. 5:32 This was a deadly plot, prepared for him by his wife the Empress. To the Emperor Constantine, who wished to repudiate his lawful wife He affirmed that this was the poison which, drunk with a potion, would bring death along with it. He endeavored to prove this and to persuade anyone, as he thought. For he thought it impossible that he should not be believed, since he was Emperor and was speaking to those who were subject to his authority. But no one was persuaded, except the one who, currying favor with the Emperor, was induced for the sake of glory to take away the right from the just man.
[30] After the rumor had been raised and transmitted this as far as the courts of the Church, and the nefarious action had reached the ears of the Pontiff, it rendered him very doubtful and perplexed; as he considered within himself how he might arm himself against this contest, and hurl a javelin from quiver and bow against the Emperor himself, a man most skilled in the art of war and a most brave fighter, long since honored with the priestly nakedness of all these things. While the great Tarasius was revolving these things in his mind, and preparing himself to engage with the Emperor and contend with priestly arms, behold, a certain one from among those who held magistracies, instructed by the Emperor, reporting the poisoning that was said to have been fabricated and prepared in vain, approached the standard of chastity: and when he had woven together the matter as accurately and subtly as he could, he affirmed that everything was most true and admitted no calumny: and he urged that he should consent to allow the Emperor to enter into a second contract of marriage. When he had said these things, he waited to receive a response about them. To him, after sighing from the depths and smiling tearfully, he bravely resists the Saint responded: "If the Emperor, as you have said, has conceived these things, and has determined to cut off the flesh conjoined by divine law, which has been made one with him, I do not know how he will bear the most grievous reproach that is to be inflicted upon him by the nations? Or how will his authority compel the flock to temperance, and punish fornication and adultery, when he himself has been convicted of such shameful crimes? For even if we grant that the things adduced by you are worthy of belief, and the woman's misdeed were manifest, even so it would be necessary to guard against this on account of reverence for the voice of the Lord, which says: 'He who dismisses his wife, except on account of fornication, commits adultery.' Matt. 5:32 What person more excellent than the Emperor in authority did she wish to join to herself by the bond of matrimony -- she who proceeded to so great a crime? But this is alleged as a pretext, that the honorable marriage and the undefiled bed may be violated: but that the disgrace of fornication may be introduced, and the legitimate seed made adulterous, and that what is akin may be estranged by the introduction of a furtive and shameful concubinage. Receive therefore this response from us and those like us, and declare it to those who sent you. For we will not yield to those things boasted by you. We will rather undergo death and grievous punishments than wish to comply with him in such matters in any way. Let the Emperor hear that we will not obey this reprehensible counsel."
[31] The one who served the Imperial responses, stunned by these heavenly words, concealing his sadness with his countenance, came with all speed to the one who had sent him, bringing absolutely nothing of those things which the Emperor hoped that would be pleasing to his heart. But when the Emperor saw that the constancy of the most sacred Pastor was firmer than an oak which is not shaken by the assault of winds, he is summoned and goes to the Emperor he was struck with admiration at what had been done, fearing that the inflexible mind of the renowned Father might be terrified by no commotion. Therefore sending again, he ordered the Saint to be present, believing that if he were present in person, he would submit to the severity of his power. When therefore he had come to the palace and to the Emperor himself, and had sat down with him according to custom, having with him that old man John, whom the discourse, when it was dealing with the synodal account, mentioned as having been the legate of the Eastern diocese; and when the Chief of Pastors had used many salutary admonitions with the Emperor and had not persuaded him -- for it was, as the proverb says, to cut the Hydra, to free from his fall the one who was already wallowing in fornication like his own -- impelled by shamelessness, the Emperor used these words to the Pontiff:
[32] "I have indeed referred to your Holiness that which happened to me long ago. For I wished to conceal nothing from you, showing the affection and benevolence of a Father toward you. Moreover, now also through this imperial tongue, I have determined to plead my cause more clearly. unless the divorce is granted, he threatens death to the Empress That I may divorce the one who plotted against my sovereignty, who was not united to me by God, a helpmate, since the law plainly commands it -- no one will gainsay. For since her crimes are manifest, either death will receive her, or, what is more merciful, she will do penance for her whole life. For the crime that was contrived by her was not going to pass to some common person, but to her own husband, the most faithful Emperor, terrible to the nations, and the poisoning was going to pervade the entire world. What could have been more dangerous and more horrible than this, so that henceforth she may have recourse to no defense whatsoever? For she is deprived of all pleading and of the proofs that could commend her, since she has against her the truth of arguments that cannot be evaded, to her complete condemnation. But for the rest, the time calls for me to reveal the poisons of the lethal potion: so that when your holy Paternity shall have seen the magnitude of the crime, holding it as certain and established, you may no longer doubt, nor await any delay or postponement of time: but may as quickly as possible subject her to canonical yokes, and persuade her to choose the quiet and monastic life, if she wishes to remain among the living. on the pretext of a poison prepared for him by her For since this poisoning has been placed before my eyes, it is not possible for me to maintain any longer the rights of marriage with her, or to be amicably joined to her and enter into a covenant. For God too pursues the guilty, as the proverb says." He then nodded, and glass vessels were brought with a turbid liquid carefully composed for the false accusation: which those who carried them placed before the face of himself and of the great Father, by which he was saying that his wife had contrived either death for him or loss of his mind.
[33] The great Tarasius, therefore, seeing the Emperor caught in bonds that by no means fitted together, and wrapped in the labyrinths of falsehood so that he could not escape, slipping into the danger of sin, plunged a most sacred javelin into his heart, speaking thus: "Do not move, O Emperor, he refutes him; shows the crime to be fabricated deaf arms against the laws of God, nor on account of the transgression of these, secretly against your soldiers. For it is the mark of imperial authority to do all things with a free conscience, and to contrive nothing concealed or dissembled in the mind against Him who gave the crown, and especially by overturning His divine commandment and will. For it escapes no one that no crime has intervened to justify what is now wickedly contrived against the Empress, and what seeks to subject her to the poisons of sorcerers, and affirms that she has contrived a death incomparable to your Majesty. For who, as I said before, glorying in the appearance of youth, could have been compared with your beauty, so that the little woman, ensnared by fraud, might offer you poison, and lead herself away from the friendship and true ardor that is in you? Who appears glorying in greater excellence than the fourfold purple of your empire, whom, enticed by eyes and nods, she preferred to your supreme dignity? Who in so many battles against adversaries has borne himself so nobly above your more than Davidic valor, that he should be loved by her more than your imperial lordship? It is not so, it is not so. These things were invented and devised to be pretexts for every vice: proposed in order to brand the scepter of empire with a stain, grievously pressing upon you to make yourselves a parable among the nations and a shaking of the head among the peoples. he chooses to die a thousand times rather than consent to a divorce Therefore we do not dare to dissolve the legitimate rights of your conjugal and imperial union, fearing the sentence of God the Lawgiver: nor do we endure to believe the words that aim at accusing your wife, even if we were subjected to a thousand deaths and torments, since we know that your affection is held by a long-standing inflammation toward that little fornicating woman. Moreover, we also make this known before God to your most honorable purple, that within the enclosure of the unbloody altar, at which the sacrifice of the great victim of Christ is venerably performed, he threatens excommunication to the Emperor we will no longer permit your power to enter with us, lest we also hear what was said long ago to the Priests in the curses: 'You shall not continue to tread upon my court.'" These things Tarasius, who spiritually governed the sheep of Christ the chief Shepherd, having pronounced before the Emperor with contrition of heart, concluded his discourse with silence.
[34] The aforementioned John, when he too had used many admonitions to the Emperor, endured the greatest waves of ignominy from those who gloried in the dignity of the Prefecture and the honor of the Patriciate: with John the Syncellus who also threatened to drive a sword through the entrails of the old man, because he spat out words contrary to the imperial power and did not quickly acquiesce to the will of the Emperor. When, however, the Emperor perceived by these words and threats that the resolution of both men remained firm and stable, he suffers adversity inflamed with boiling anger and knowing that he could not speak against these things, he ordered them to be expelled from his presence -- victors without stripes, and Martyrs, as far as it concerned him, he proclaimed crowned with a crown. How far is this from the miracle of John? For John reproved Herod, who after the death of his brother was held by an insane love for his brother's betrothed; but this man, while the wife of the Emperor was still alive, and while she was adorned with the diadem of empire, and then after she had been expelled, judging what had been done intolerable, was, in the manner of the Psalmographer, a most sharp rebuke at the morning, although, as the saying goes, he drew with a sieve and inflated a grape seed, since the mind of the Emperor was wounded and flowing away. Matt. 14:3 Ps. 101:8
[35] For when he had immediately sent away her who was joined to him by the right of marriage, and had estranged her from the imperial court, and confined her in a private garment and place, he ceased from the tempest and that dark sea which his mind had undergone, through the separation from his own member. he refuses to crown the concubine he has taken When, however, he was wallowing in the mire of that introduced concubinage, and having done the greatest violence, he had repeatedly urged the Pontiff to weave a crown upon the head of that dark and secret contract, he did not obtain what he desired. For the rest, he went about seeking a Priest who would weave the crown, in order to celebrate that shameful nuptial.
AnnotationsCHAPTER VIII
The patience of Saint Tarasius in adversity: his admonition to the Clergy concerning restraining the illicit appetite of the senses.
[36] And concerning the Emperor's refusal to invalidate the commandment, and the brave and noble constancy of the divine Father, let this suffice. For it is not right to commit to the records of written documents the affairs of that man any further, which bring no benefit to those who hear them. But this ought to be commemorated: that from the time of that fall, the Emperor greatly oppressed Tarasius with many temptations, assigning to him guards who bore the name of Syncelli, but whose morals were far removed from piety. Unless he had taken these on, He endures injuries inflicted upon him with the greatest patience and unless he had passed through their eyes, it was not permitted for anyone to approach the divine and wise Chief of Pastors, and to speak the things that seemed fitting. I pass over in silence how great a cruelty the Emperor showed toward those who drew near to him and attended upon him with genuine service, afflicting them with blows and condemning them to exile for no just cause, striving to cast him down from the care of divine affairs and attempting to affect him with grief. But he, with a brave and constant and lofty and unbroken spirit, regarding the things that happened as profitable, endured those harsh Prefects, as Egyptian taskmasters, and in every trial and labor showed himself to be proven, armed as it were with the adamantine reasoning of Job, and imitating his unconquerable patience, to such a degree that he never weakly emitted a word of folly from his lips. For that just man did not have a humble and abject spirit in those things which befell him, but one sublime and lofty in virtues, and nobly raised by Pontifical canons and laws, and altogether free from every muddy wickedness.
[37] For nourished by the divine word, and irrigating every sense with clear and sacredly flowing streams, he teaches how to bridle the eye he taught them to have an eye seeing all rectitude, and to shun all theatrical display, restraining it from wandering about external things. Thus he restrained many of those who were in sacred orders, who were wonderfully delighted by horse races, and admonished them to keep themselves at home when these things were taking place, and to attend to themselves and the divine Scriptures: and he persuaded them to admit no shameful or dishonorable hearing whatsoever; but to open the door to the Davidic strings and take greater delight in them, the ears inasmuch as they contained weighty discourses profitable to the soul, rather than in indecorous and dishonorable songs which are sung with drums and flutes. He dissuaded them from admitting all sweet odor of worldly things, which draws death; but strongly encouraged them to attract that which preserved the Apostolic fragrance, hastening toward the scent of Christ's ointments, and to cry out that saying of the bride, which is nobly sung to the bridegroom in the Song of Songs: "I am wounded with love, the sense of smell and I run to the scent of your ointments." He abhorred the dead and foul-smelling abortions of unsound doctrine, as being the causes of the fetid odor of evil opinion -- for this he commanded before all other things -- to decline the rough ways of heresies: and at the same time to be borne without error along with the furrow-axles of the Ecclesiastical track, in accordance with the divine admonition of the proverb. Song of Songs 1:3 Touch, moreover, which is necessarily the minister of taste, he restrained with the bridles of the spiritual law, touch so that as a rational being one might partake of nourishment and saving food, and provide a perpetual feast for the soul: from which there proceeds the digesting distribution of those things which are gathered in immaterially: and all superfluity of evil habit which dissolves the habitation of the soul is excreted.
[38] But who in these things conducted himself so rightly, or better chastised their rebellions, than the pure and reverend conscience of Tarasius? Who was more frequently occupied in divine things than he? For he never gave rest to his ears when the time of prayer called: but always of his own accord promptly coming, he matches his deeds to his words he abundantly offered to God the first-fruits of divine hymns, like offerings of fruits: neither did sluggishness retard or soften him, nor was he drawn away from prayers by whatever multitude of public cares had come upon him: but when he never failed at the proper time for prayers, he would take up the press of external affairs. Thus initiated in the divine mysteries, and thus beautifully performing the sacred rites, the man is recognized as one of those who after grace, and of those who in grace and before grace, have shone in the Church.
AnnotationsCHAPTER IX
Comparison of Saint Tarasius with Confessors and Martyrs. The benefit of sacred images, against the Iconoclasts.
[39] And that our discourse may proceed by a certain method and course, and the rule of comparison may advance immovably, let the comparison take its order at once. For those who have been beautifully reared in holiness and action and contemplation, He attains the holiness of Confessors and who were almost without flesh and blood, he did not allow to have anything more than themselves, except that they dwelt apart in hope and in solitude and exercised only themselves: or that they are known to have kept even fewer: but the remaining privileges of virtue were partly neglected by them, and partly were far distant from them. But the distinguished and incomparable fortitude of the Martyrs, and the most noble phalanx, he invokes the Martyrs as Patrons which resisted sin even unto blood and lavished their bodies and souls for the sake of God -- not by presenting himself at the tribunal of a tyrant, nor going forth into the stadium and arena to contend, did he imitate them and raise the trophy of truth: but those who endured these and greater things than these, desiring them and extolling them with wondrous praises, and crowning them with, as it were, certain diadems of words signifying victory, and reverencing their saving intercessions before God, and calling to his aid the ready scroll and book that offered itself of its own accord in the sacred temples, having honorifically described their contests, he set forth: he sets forth their Acts in the temples that he might open for those who saw them the vestibules of compunction, and introduce athletes, inflamed by their zeal, to seize upon a similar blessed contest, if the time should call for it. For such a thing knows how to win over the eyes, which is a good argument attained, and to precede the hearing. For this sense has obtained the second place of honor after sight, and since the eyes receive evident figures without the exposition of the things set before them, hearing always holds the second place, as a certain wise man has said.
[40] For who, seeing one painted in colors who is contending, and despising fire, and surrounded by a cloud of scourges, and in the midst of these confidently yielding up his spirit to the Creator, is not bathed in warm tears and pierced with sighs and groans? Who, beholding one who has stripped himself for the grievous kinds of tortures and punishments, and was finally racked, does not depart beating his breast with contrition of heart? Who, seeing one who has delivered himself to the executioners for Christ's sake, and raises images that incite to virtue to be bound with fetters and manacles and cords, and then bravely to expire under intolerable torments, does not admire his patience and the unconquerable virtue and faith of his lofty soul? Who, beholding another who, lest he emit any word unworthy of piety, is lacerated both in his sides and in his back, is not softened with compassion? Who is not filled with admiration and shaken with fear, when he sees one who suffers for the faith distributing all his members; while he is cut apart, and has set apart for the sacrifice and oblation of God those which are mercilessly divided down to the muscles and thighs and ankles and tarsi -- does he not admire the most laborious patience in contending? Who, beholding one who is cast to lions to be devoured, and ground by their teeth, and sprinkled like heavenly bread upon the heavenly table, does not participate in the understanding of that martyric spiritual banquet? Who, contemplating one who, agitated by a bitter chain for God's sake, and raised on high, and has extended welts from straps and leather thongs, and at last undergoes death by the sword, does not altogether, contracting himself with contritions of the heart, turn to the pleasing glorification of God? Who, seeing one who is bound upright on the wood, and whose entrails are emptied out by the repeated blows of scourges, and who endures that long-lasting suffering on the wood, and entering without his viscera, dances a certain funereal dance, is not wounded in the heart by a divine javelin and made a tabernacle and temple of piety? Who, seeing one whose head was cut off by tyrannical sentence for Christ's sake, and who is carried in every kind of wave separately from the remaining bark of his body, and by the nod of divine aid these parts are reunited and proceed through the sea as through dry land in a straight course -- even if his heart is wavering in hardness -- does he not immediately come to the port of spiritual tranquility? Who, beholding one whose nails are pierced with sharp reeds, and who is plunged headlong into a boiling cauldron of pitch and again emerges, and is finished by the hostile sword, has not lifted his hands to God and not desired afterward to experience such a torment? Who, attentively considering those who freeze in the winter cold and the chill of the air, and fight naked, and who endure the breaking of their legs, and when they have escaped the burning coals by the strength of their nature, their remains are cast into the currents of rivers -- has he not desired to have them as Patrons, and to attract by prayers their keen and worthy defense?
[41] But you will see these things happening not only to men but also to women, especially of Virgins who contend in equal contests, and reckon the rack and the wheels and the other torments as nothing. For who, seeing these things being done to the most tender sex, if he reads the colors as if reading letters, would not cast off womanly timidity, and clothed with confidence -- though not rash audacity -- would sing a funereal praise to God and openly pronounce blessed this unconquerable fortitude? Who, seeing the age of immature boys swimming, as it were, in the most bitter pains, and of boys and like curdled milk drawn from the breasts of faith, and bearing every kind of torment and punishment at once for Christ's sake, would not conjecture that this is the work of divine aid, which has made womanly weakness stronger than manly virtue, and has shown youthful and childish imperfection to have been changed in spirit and understanding into the maturity of old age? Who, seeing Thecla and Stephen, who after Christ first opened the athletic gate for Martyrs -- the latter being pelted with stones, and through the intercession of prayers caring before God for his murderers; the former despising even the savagery of beasts, on account of her unfeigned love for Christ, whom she desired -- would not immediately learn not to curse his enemies, but to give thanks to them as benefactors, and to fight against every bestial and senseless heresy?
[42] But I pass to my God and Lord, who has been called a Martyr, and was the dispenser of victory to posterity: whom beholding on the wood, affixed with nails, and given to drink vinegar and gall with a sponge, and pierced in the side with a lance, and emitting life-giving streams therefrom, I shudder and withdraw from myself, and honor His inscrutable and stupendous self-abasement, and admire the sea of His supreme endurance of evils. and of Christ the Redeemer For on account of the greatness of His clemency and the ineffable goodness of His mercy, having taken flesh of the same essence as ours, by no means denying that He is God, He is indeed proclaimed by the word of truth, by the ministers of the Word, with colored ink, insofar as is permitted: but in truth He is circumscribed and depicted in colors by them and their followers, not mixing the simplicity and formlessness of His gross nature -- for He is neither circumscribed nor subject to passion -- but most excellently depicting and circumscribing what by its own nature can be seen and touched. Wherefore, guarding and embracing with all our soul, heart, and thought the things that have been decreed by them, and having the steps of our mind most clearly enlarged by Him who is from God, we strive with great zeal to receive and, as is right, to adore the image of Christ and His suffering, and to show ourselves worthy of the Saints who have been from the beginning of the world. How then is not someone made good from these things, even if his heart be stony in judgment? Who does not revere the painted picture, which bears examples of piety, through which the ancient deeds can be taught, the origin of the world, and the law and the Prophets, and make thought old and ancient? Through which one approaches the meditation of the divine and great miracles of grace, which lead the spectators to the glory of God, who made all things in wisdom and exalted His servants to the greatest honors through His benevolence toward them: and therefore He openly wished them to be depicted and described, and their memory to be perpetual in our hearts. Ps. 104:24 What harm from these things has ever returned to the soul? Who rather has not received benefit from them? Who from the frequent and diligent consideration of them has not acquired a perpetual memory that procures salvation?
[43] [The stupidity of the Iconoclasts who do not distinguish sacred images from the idols of the Gentiles] Tell me, you who praise the order of the infamous and ignominious party, O heretic -- for you have not learned to honor what is worthy of honor -- who willingly assign the same ignominy to idols and to venerable images: when will you know the difference between the profane and the sacred, and assign to the things derived from them what is fitting? For it is proper to law and learning to distinguish the sacred from the profane, and the unclean from the clean: just as, on the other hand, it is the mark of iniquity and ignorance to force together things that are at war with each other, mixing and confounding everything. For if, comparing Jupiter with the Savior in the point of the reverential depiction of the image, you affirm this without any distinction: would you not brand the sacred form of Christ with the contumely and disgrace that you attribute to the falsely-named Jupiter? For I have heard you bring forward and babble certain such empty things, and charge with the crime of idolatry those who are called by the name of Christ and who both sing and render to the glory of the Trinity the cult, honor, and sole adoration of latria invisibly, and maliciously mix together things which cannot agree with each other. Do you not grant a difference between the image of Christ and the statue of Jupiter? Do you not honor Christ because His exemplar is venerable, and abominate Jupiter on account of his execrable lust and wantonness? Do you not pronounce Christ to be God, on account of His incomparable holiness, and admit the likeness of the image which, expressed through matter, has been honored since antiquity, representing God and man; yet consign to the depths that fabulous parricide and the effigy of him who has fallen from divinity, in which image he hurled his father's genitals, which he had cut off? May you have Christ the Savior as propitious, who is delighted by the material representation of the Saints, but hates the abominations of Satan and his wicked satellites: who, when they see the images of Christ and His servants erected, are overthrown, groan and weep, and gnash their teeth against those who willingly do these things, and stir up the dust of calamities. With these words of praise Tarasius, stirring up and honorifically engraving upon tablets the contests and dangers undertaken by them for Christ, followed in their footsteps, even though he remained without stripes; yet he did not follow them from behind.
CHAPTER X
Comparison of Saint Tarasius with the Apostles and Patriarchs.
[44] Let us see, moreover, whether he also contended with those who were in grace. For since the disciples of the Word showed the immutability of their mind toward the Master He is to be compared with the holy Apostles through divine confession, he too preserved it whole and inviolate from his mother's womb, and proclaiming by his deeds Him to be the true God, who was born of Mary in the last times and of the Father before the ages, equal to the Father with regard to the virtue of the same glory of the Divinity. So with Philip and Thomas he brought forth the decree, calling Christ Lord and God, not by touching the hands that had been pierced with nails, with Philip and Thomas nor by seeking the punctures that had been made by the lance. John 20:27 Wherefore he also plainly received a blessed end through his faithful and fervent confession. So he followed the son of Zebedee, who was called the son of thunder: Mark 3:17 because he openly recalled that in the beginning the Word was, and was with God: and by teaching he made others Apostolic in spirit, with John the Evangelist because he commanded that the divinely inspired instrument of the Evangelists, through whose voice the salvation of the world resounds, should be expressed in material colors in the Churches that were throughout the world, in accordance with the divine and paternal tradition: John 1:1 so that the mind, pierced through the evangelical and sacred image and sanctity, might transmit honor in manifold ways to God who had inspired them, and become a receptacle of venerable teachings. with Andrew John 1:40 And of Andrew, who was the first called from among the Apostles, he was so near and joined by a kindred mode of life, that he held the reins of the same pastoral chair, after so many centuries, but greatly multiplied in number.
he received, and through virtue led the flock to the goal of the heavenly course, and was the cause of victory for them against their adversaries. With Paul he was linked in that he held the first place in teaching. For he wisely brought the whole world, enclosed in the bonds of the word, within the Ecclesiastical decrees: with Paul a people acquired for God and a royal priesthood. with Peter Peter, moreover, in that he was called the chief of many fathers, and in that it was entrusted to him to bind and loose whatsoever is worthy of binding and loosing, with John the Baptist he abundantly expressed. With the Forerunner -- in accordance with Him who was foretold by him, and who said that no one greater than John has arisen among those born of women -- it is not to be dared to compare him in many things, except only in the keen and unyielding freedom of reproof, and in the zeal that could not be restrained, it must be affirmed that Tarasius was not far distant. Matt. 11:11
[45] But that you may also see him deservedly following those with the holy Prophets who flourished before grace, you will know from this. With the divinely moved assembly of the Prophets he conspired, inspired by the divine spirit: since they indeed, after that divine contemplator of God, were divinely present as saving harbors for the people who had recently been freed from harsh servitude under the leadership of Moses through the Red Sea, and had admirably passed over from the insane worship of idols, loosing the anchors of prophecy, and binding with the strong cables of piety, and leading without error to the land of the knowledge of God. But this man, placing in port the Church, which was being tossed by waves like a boat in the sea and was in danger of losing those whom it carried, because it lacked a skilled helmsman to resist the waves, governing it with the helm of sound faith: and having preserved those who were in it, removing the idolatrous and vain opinion which they had on their tongues against sacred images, he fortified them with synodal, paternal, and upright decrees. With the most sacred psalmist David he concurred in innocence, with David and with him, loving the beauty of the house of the Lord, he did not give sleep to his eyes or slumber to his eyelids, or rest to his temples, until he presented himself as an exemplar to the Lord and a tabernacle to the God of Jacob, just as David did. Moved by zeal with Phinehas, he pierced through heresy and its lovers as if they were introducers of true fornication and begetters of adulterous dogmas. with Phinehas He surpassed the priesthood of Aaron. with Aaron For not bells and pomegranates, not the stones of the breastplate and the ephod, neither the mitre, nor the turban, nor the robe, nor the plate of gold, clothed him as they did Aaron in the manner of a Priest, nor did a sacrifice through the blood of bulls and goats expiate his own and the people's ignorances: but a moderate garment with a spirit of poverty rendered him splendid, and more sacred than the legal holocaust were the things offered by him: since he sacrificed through sacred invocations Christ, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and distributed Him into the hands of the faithful, and sprinkled all with that precious blood, which by showing it he gave for the payment of the debts of the soul.
[46] with Moses He expressed Moses in this, that he was meek, and showed toward none a trace of hatred and ill will, even though the furious and malevolent wrongly conjectured that Father Tarasius's freedom of speech, which aimed at the correction of the foolish, was anger and hatred. He tasted the trials of Job, even if not in similar circumstances. With Jacob as an Israelite of grace, with Job, with Jacob and called a mind that saw God, he was simultaneously purified and sanctified in soul and thought. with Isaac Together with Isaac he was sanctified by faith, even if not by a father, but himself offering his own heart as a holocaust: and having been both victim and sacrificer, he offered a most beautiful sacrifice to God as an odor of sweetness. With Abraham, with Abraham because he was the spiritual father of many tribes and peoples, and believed, and purely served Him who had made him, he attained the fruit of the divine promises. But why do I attempt to cross the Atlantic sea of his virtues? Let us therefore impose a conclusion upon our subject, and from the introduction let us fashion an ending, lest we be accused of not keeping our promise by extending the discourse more than is fitting.
AnnotationCHAPTER XI
The old age, illness, death, and burial of Saint Tarasius.
[47] For after very many contests, and a profound and boundless depth of doctrine, and the purity of an honorable life, and the confession of the true faith, and the leading of the rational flock toward those things which are more excellent and divine by his admonitions, and the abundant provision for feeding the poor, and the constant attention given to sacred things, and his long continuance in the pastoral office (for he adorned the pontifical chair for twenty-two years), an illness pressing upon him and bringing him very grievous pain did not persuade him Weighed down by illness and old age to forget his perpetual and divine duty. For though he labored under both illness and old age, he was by no means sated with the celebration of the most sacred mystery: but burning with intense love toward God, he does not cease to offer the sacrifice and reckoning the illness as nothing, leaning with his breast upon a wooden table which was placed before the divine altar, he performed the sacred rites. O faithful and wise diligence in divine things! O boundless love toward God! For he did not care for the body, so that when weariness of divine things had overtaken him, he might interrupt the divine mysteries, but strengthened by his labors, and crying out with Paul, "When I am weak, then I am strong," he keenly devoted himself to the divine worship. 2 Cor. 12:10
[48] The illness therefore prevailed, and henceforth causing him to cease from the performance of divine things, it prepared for him a bed of infirmity -- would that it had not done so before the eyes of those who had never seen him in bed. Then, then a new and terrible miracle occurs, which filled us who were present with admiration and fear, as we saw him as if in ecstasy, and struggling with adversaries who do not fall under sight. Eph. 6:12 For his contest was not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the spiritual forces of wickedness. For as though speaking with certain ones who were examining him and demanding from him an account of his life lived, so he pleaded his cause. Wherefore to many he seemed to be a debtor and to be rendering an account of the demand, on his deathbed he struggles with demons but the just judgment of the heavenly aid was to wash away every stain of his life, and to carry no fault from thence: but to be called a partaker of light, and to depart together with the heavenly powers that are free from matter. For as long as he had a tongue clearly explaining his thoughts to those who heard, he resisted with words and gave ready answers to those things which were objected, saying that he was not conscious of any of those things of which they had wished to accuse him. O union with God, akin to no fault! The malignant enemies could not catch him liable in even a small matter, nor contrive anything against him by their abominable crimes: but he reduced them to complete helplessness of counsel, through a general and terrible denial, so that they could not bring against him any charge that was even plausible in appearance. But when the instrument of his tongue grew numb, and he could not defend himself with words, with his lip, and hand, and nod he was overthrowing them, and did not cease to drive them away. For he seemed to us to be raging fiercely as against enemies, and to be repelling them with anger, until his senses began to close.
[49] Then, in a most tranquil state, while the Church was celebrating the evening praises and crying out, "Incline, O Lord, and hear me," he himself put off this garment of skin: and leaving the bonds of the flesh, he came to the luminous courts of the heavenly dwellings, He departs this life and he dwells in ineffable joy that is perceived by the intellect, bringing no mark of the wickedness that exists here upon his soul. For while he lived here, he had by his virtues put to death this mortal tabernacle, for he was ashamed to have a nature that was only half immortal. He died, however, and I think that the virtues too died with him -- unless perhaps I am mistaken, saying with remarkable boldness something great and terrible.
[50] with the great mourning of the Emperor Nicephorus The whole city, moreover, did not cease to bewail him with inconsolable grief and tears, as their Patron and defender. And he who then faithfully administered the scepters (and this was Nicephorus) did not cease to be tormented with grief. For falling upon the breast of the glorious body, and covering it with purple, he made a funeral lamentation, calling him Shepherd, Father, Helper of the empire, Morning Star that never sets, Guide of the commonwealth toward better things, and divine Master, the unconquerable bulwark of the army, the vigorous Rout of the enemies through his intercession before God. What finally did he not do, what did he not say, reckoning the loss of the Pastor as a loss to the whole world? And she who held the greatest splendor among the authorities and honors, desiring to prevent the departure of the Father, as one who could be held back, stained with tears, bitterly calling him back and embracing him, and as one suffering the loss of many goods, was watered with tears as though with streams.
[51] of the Clergy of Constantinople The joy of the Church was mourning its most useful Steward, Farmer, Planter, him who had given increase toward virtue to every age, who had preserved the priesthood liable to no stain, who had wiped away every wrinkle of evil opinion from the divine courts, who had fixed in the diadem of the Church words for the truth like precious stones, who was an incorrupt High Priest, who could not be enticed by gifts at the laying on of hands, who had shown the gold of Simoniac sorcery to be counterfeit, who was the successor of the Apostles in virtue, who sat and conversed with the Patriarchs and Fathers, who agreed with the chosen Synods, who became all things to all men, of the monks that he might by all means save some, in accordance with the great and divine Apostle. 1 Cor. 9 The most devout assembly of monks, moreover, showing grief toward him as their worthy awakener and supreme guide to abstinence, and weaving hymns with tears, accompanied to the fathers who had formerly shone in the practice of asceticism the father who was an unconquerable bulwark of continence. Those who were needy mourned of the poor their supplier; the blind, their eye; the lame, their foot; the naked, their garment; strangers, their host; those in chains, their visitor; widows, their defender; orphans, their helper. Every condition and every age flowed together like a river, touching the bier and piously striving to enjoy that sacred spectacle. And had not the Emperor quickly suppressed the tumult and rush of the people with a military hand, many would have come into danger of death, as they pushed and were pushed in turn, and showed a praiseworthy desire toward him who was desired.
[52] Therefore the glorious and renowned body, full of glory, is buried by the hands of holy men, [he is buried in a monastery on the Thracian Bosporus, in the church of All Martyrs] who had made the broad sea into solid ground with boats and barges, while they crossed over to the monastery built by him on the Byzantine Bosporus, in the venerable church of All Martyrs who shed their blood for Christ, when the month of February held the twenty-fifth day. But a long time will not be able to conceal him, for he is exalted above all time. For the nature of virtue does not endure oblivion: it is not blunted by the canker of envy: for it makes its memory immortal in our souls, and does not allow it to be scattered and covered with silence.
AnnotationsCHAPTER XII
Miracles performed at the tomb of Saint Tarasius.
[53] It is time, however, to set forth for you who are lovers of virtue the noble deeds performed by the Father at his tomb, which no monument will be able to prevent. For the tomb is not his monument: but he is the monument of the monument. For many come to him and are freed from the afflictions that vexed them. O miracle! Even after he departed from here, he cares for those who are here, and by those who seek he is found, He is renowned for miracles and to those who knock he opens the door of his healing visitation. For certain women, once severely afflicted by a long-lasting flow of blood, and undergoing great waves and storms, when they had consumed the greater part of their goods on medicines and could not find calm from the evil, imitating that Evangelical woman who suffered from a flow of blood with a praiseworthy shamelessness dysentery is cured by the oil of the lamp (for it was not permitted for a woman to touch the monastery, since the renowned Father had long ago established this), using womanly cunning most excellently, covering their feminine modesty with manly dress and presenting the appearance of eunuchs, they secretly fled to the casket of this excellent helmsman, which is tossed by no waves: and having drawn oil from the lamp that burns in it, they most swiftly put in at the port of healing. Mark 5 Moreover, a certain man, in one of whose eyes a film was causing blindness, a film of the eye when he had been near the divine casket and had used the aid of the saving unction, washed away the film not very long after, and openly received sight from God. The hand of another also, which was barking against the body and had remained for a long time in constant agitation by the operation of an evil demon, by the sole invocation of the most sacred body and the anointing of the oil of that wonder-working casket, demonic agitation of the hand even though it was far distant, the hand was restrained from that madness, and was rendered healthy like the other.
[54] For many others also who were vexed by evil spirits, the father was found to be a physician. the possessed are freed, even those made mute and deaf He both expelled the operations of the demons and relieved those who endured torments by the will and power of the Almighty. Moreover, certain ones who had been stupefied by apparitions from the adverse power, and who had endured the numbness which made them deaf and mute, and had then remained in faith at the tomb of the divine man -- through the beneficial and saving unction of the shining oil, God visited them, and having freed them from the vertigo of the apparitions, He granted that they might again use their hearing and tongue soundly in those things pertaining to them. Moreover, those parts that were grievously tortured by inflammation and brought intolerable pains to those suffering, through the divine invocation of the oil of the casket which purges and cleanses, obtained relaxation from pain.
[55] Indeed, even against heretics, after he had departed from here, he ardently showed his divine zeal. Saint Tarasius was seen by Leo the Armenian, sending Michael Balbus to kill him For Leo, while still administering the scepters of imperial glory and wickedly embracing the heresy of the Iconoclasts, when the end of his life was approaching, by which sword he was to be struck -- as he himself while still alive declared with his own voice -- saw the Blessed Tarasius in a dream approaching him, and with grave anger commanding a certain person named Michael to drive a sword into him. And that one, obeying the command, ran the Emperor through with a sword. Thereupon Leo was very occupied with this, striving by all means to find in the Saint's monastery the Michael who had wounded him in his dream. Wherefore, having ordered certain of the monks who were in it to be brought to him, he subjected them to prisons and torments, raging that his nocturnal murderer should be revealed to him through them: whom he also threatened would suffer the most extreme penalties as a subverter of the empire. For this persuaded him, even unwillingly, to narrate to the monks what had happened: from whom, since we also plucked the miracle like a ripe fruit, we come to you, the faithful, offering a bowl of joy. For not six days had passed when Michael received the scepters of the empire and slew him. Thus God glorifies His servants even after death, and destroys those who are unwilling to worship Him piously.
[56] But time will fail me if I narrate the great miracles of the renowned and divine Father, which, like roses in a meadow, spring up everywhere and urge us to be borne toward the selection of each one. But since we do not have a tongue that can measure and relate all the miracles performed by the Blessed one, finishing the course of the discourse begun thus far, we prefer to pass to silence, judging that rest removed from danger brings more profit than if we are defeated with danger. For the insatiability of a ready and eager spirit often tends to win arrogance. But you, O venerable foundation of the priesthood, do not censure the vomit of my rashness, who most boldly, but in a rough and unpolished style, relate such great narratives: but reckoning my intense benevolence and faith as a small gift offered, the author of this Life was trained in poetics by Saint Tarasius grant that my words may find a place to be received and rest. For I shall not forget the benefit of your teaching toward me, nor the modesty of my fervent service toward you: since I filled myself with the delights of the former in the flower of youth, and was initiated by you in those things which are best and most excellent from trimeters, tetrameters, trochaics, and anapaestics and heroics: he recorded his discourses in ten volumes but I performed this service in the sacred orations that were elegantly delivered by you daily, for the edification of souls and the increase of the whole venerable Church: which, receiving with a swift pen and noting in ink, and committing to the best scribes, I took care that they be skillfully transcribed into a codex. They are indeed of such a kind that through them the pious and pure worship and faith is set forth for all: and the dream of the heretics is publicly branded with ignominy. For if I forget you, let me fall from the memory of God: and if I do not remember you, let me be cast with stones into the deep: and let my tongue, as the divine Psalmographer says, cleave to my palate; for this is to me the most precious of all debts, always to have a memorial of you in my heart. Ps. 137:6
[57] For the rest, however, it is right that we turn our discourse to you, O servant of God, whoever you are, He wrote the Life under compulsion of obedience who incited me against my will to this contest and compelled me to undertake things that surpass my powers. Let my obedience be acceptable to you, and looking upon the humility and unadorned expression of my discourse, do not accuse me of negligence. For we have not brought anything worthy of the divine Father, nor were we able to approach closely the dignity of these virtues which are near at hand. For the subject surpasses all power of speaking, so that all panegyrists equally fail to attain in discourse the honor that is due to him. But I, who am the farthest of all from praising him as he deserves, offer a ready and eager will, that it may be accepted, as one who is broken both by the poverty of my speaking and by old age and illness. he acknowledges Saint Tarasius as intercessor, defender, champion But you will have received reward and recompense from God, having as intercessor, defender, and champion, and fulfiller of your hope, Tarasius, whom you have loved in God. Who also by his intercessions before God may abundantly and securely provide what is useful for this transient life, and grant that you may so render an account of your life there that you not be found guilty. Which may it be given to all to attain together with you, who have hoped in God purely and sincerely, by His grace and abundant mercies, through the intercession of the immaculate and chaste Mother of God and the heavenly beings and all the Saints. Amen.
AnnotationsCONCERNING SAINT GERLANDUS, BISHOP OF AGRIGENTO IN SICILY
YEAR 1101.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Gerlandus, Bishop of Agrigento in Sicily (Saint)
By G. H.
Section I. The life of Saint Gerlandus before the Episcopate: this was conferred upon and established for him.
[1] Agrigento, a city of the island of Sicily on the Libyan Sea, facing Africa, celebrated for its ancient splendor by most writers, called by the ancient Greeks "Akragas" and "the emporium of the Akragantines": of Agrigento in Sicily Diogenes Laertius, Book 8, relates that eighty thousand men inhabited it, explaining the poem of Empedocles concerning Agrigento: but at this time, Rocchus Pirrus, in his Sacred Sicily, notation 3, in which he treats of this Church of Agrigento, relates that more than eight thousand citizens are counted in it: which the inhabitants wish to have been founded there by Saint Peter the Apostle, and that Saint Libertinus was the first Bishop constituted by him, afterward crowned with martyrdom around the year of Christ 90 on November 3. The Cathedral church that existed there in the first centuries, the Cathedral church is dedicated to Saint Gerlandus consecrated by the same Libertinus or his successors to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God; after the Saracens were driven out, was dedicated by Saint Gerlandus, the first Bishop given to the people of Agrigento, to Saint James the Apostle, Patron of the Church of Agrigento, afterward named after Saint Gerlandus himself on account of his relics and the very many miracles wrought through his aid.
[2] Saint Gerlandus was of the Allobrogian race, born of illustrious parentage in the town of Besancon in Burgundy. So Pirrus, he was Burgundian by birth thinking that Vesontio, the metropolis of the Sequani, was in the territory of the Allobroges. Hence Saussay in the Gallic Martyrology adorns him with this eulogy: "On the same day, February 25, in Burgundy, the commemoration of Saint Gerlandus, a son of this province, an eminent Confessor, who, excelling in literary glory, but more remarkable for his religion, a learned and pious man out of the desire of embracing the solitary life, seeking the innermost retreats of the island of Sicily, cultivated the exercises of great virtue and sanctity: but when the sweet odors of his most pure life were breathing forth everywhere, snatched from his cell to the Pontifical throne, he was there created Bishop of Agrigento: and having for some time illuminated the Church he had undertaken with examples of heavenly conduct, he ascended through the well-spent steps of pastoral vigilance to the palace of eternal glory." So Saussay: which perhaps was excerpted from the Gallic Breviary: of which, as will be said below, Pirrus also transcribes a part, who has only these words about his life before he undertook the Episcopate: "He was a kinsman of the Norman Princes Robert and Roger; whether Roger's chaplain? summoned by them to Sicily on account of the merits of his virtues, the praises of his wisdom, the excellence of his religion, and the nobility of his birth, he was first made chief Chaplain (by which title he so calls himself when subscribing to the erection of the Church of Catania), then chosen by the Clergy and people of the city of Miletus in Calabria as Primicerius and Cantor of the cathedral church. Cantor of Miletus in Calabria But disdaining the depraved morals and licentiousness of life of the people of Miletus, he returned to his own people in Burgundy." So Pirrus. Concerning the kinship of Saint Gerlandus with the Princes Robert and Roger, no mention exists in the diploma of Roger himself regarding the privileges granted to the Church of Agrigento and its Bishop Gerlandus. He, however, who subscribes to the erection of the Church of Catania in the same Notation, folio 16 (as Pirrus here notes in the margin), is not Gerlandus but Geroldus: whose subscription there reads thus: "I, Geroldus, Chaplain of Lord Roger the Count, likewise." Miletum or Melitum, moreover, is a city of farther Calabria, adorned with an Episcopal See by Gregory VII, Roman Pontiff, who died at Salerno in Campania in the year 1085. In this city of Miletus, Roger the Count, who with his brother Duke Robert freed Sicily by driving out the Saracens, is reported to have died in the year 1101, according to Fazellus, Book 7 of Sicilian Affairs, the latter decade, chapter 1, Pirrus, and others.
[3] Concerning the recovery of Agrigento and the restoration of the Episcopal See, Fazellus writes at the indicated place: at Agrigento, the Saracens having been expelled in 1086 "In the year of salvation 1086, on the Kalends of April, Roger besieges Agrigento with a great army, and at length on the sixth day before the Kalends of August receives by surrender both the city and the wife of Tamictus the Saracen, who ruled over the cities of Agrigento and Enna, and their children. Having gained Agrigento, he fortifies the citadel and city with garrisons... He besieged Enna with a hard assault and took it... These things having been accomplished successfully, having now gained all of Sicily (except Noto and Butera), for some time he devoted his attention to dedicating sacred temples, Bishoprics, and Abbeys to God in most cities. At Agrigento he founded and erected a cathedral church most richly endowed: he is made Bishop around 1088 over which he placed Gerlandus, an Allobrogian by birth, a pious man, as the first Bishop: at Catania, Angerius; at Syracuse, Stephen; at Messina, Robert, transferred from Troina; at Mazara, Stephen of Rouen; and others elsewhere he established as Abbots and Bishops according to the condition of the places and men. Then in the year of salvation 1089 he prepared for the siege of Butera." So Fazellus: from whose account it appears that before that year Gerlandus and the other Bishops were established. Since, moreover, as Pirrus writes, Count Roger had turned his attention to restoring the collapsed prelacies of Sicily, he wrote to Gerlandus to return to him, and destined him to administer the Church of Agrigento. Pirrus deduces that the same was consecrated Bishop by Pope Urban II from a Pontifical diploma. consecrated by Urban II Urban II, moreover, was elected as Roman Pontiff on the third day before the Ides of March in the year 1088, in which year Saint Gerlandus could also have been consecrated.
[4] Lest, however, disputes should arise in subsequent times on account of the boundaries of his diocese and the properties liberally assigned to the Episcopal See, he procured that the foundation of the Church of Agrigento be established by a privilege of Count Roger and confirmed by a Pontifical diploma. The privilege of Roger was published by Fazellus, decade 1, Book 6, chapter 1, and again collated with the manuscript original of the Church of Agrigento, and published by Pirrus, which I subjoin: "I, Roger, Count of Calabria and Sicily, fortified by divine protection, girded with the sword of supernal grace, having obtained a diploma from Count Roger adorned with the helmet and shield of good and praiseworthy intention, sought Sicily to fight against the abominable ferocity of the Saracens, whom, with the sevenfold grace of God bringing it about and cooperating, nay rather with Divine mercy effecting all things, I conquered, and conquering, diminished their pride and the boldness of their men pressing against our faith, and, to speak more truly, reduced it to nothing. For who, having seen the wide and extensive ruin of their castles and cities, and having learned the vast destruction of their palaces, composed with wonderful skill, of the Saracens, to whose superfluous uses these things served, * does not observe that the inconveniences are manifold, the miseries great, and the losses innumerable? Their vehement madness and power against the Christians having therefore been annihilated, and all of Sicily obeying me and my commands in all things, I, the aforesaid Count Roger, in the year 1093 from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Urban II presiding over the Apostolic See, and Roger, Duke of Calabria and the Duchy of Apulia, reigning, in the conquest of Sicily I established Episcopal Churches. One of these is the Church of Agrigento, whose Bishop is called Gerlandus. To him I assign as his Parish whatever is contained within the boundaries written below, with all the rights of tithes and other parochial rights both of the city of Agrigento and of the diocese, the boundaries of the Episcopate, assigned in 1093 namely from the place where the river rises below Corleone to above the rock of Zineth, and thence it extends along the divisions of Iatina and Cephala and then to the divisions of Biccari: and from thence to the Salt River, which is the boundary of Palermo and Termini, and from the mouth of this river where it falls into the sea. And this Parish extends along the sea to the Crooked River, and from this and from where it rises, it extends to Pyra below the Rock of Elias, and thence to the high mountain which is above Pyra, and then to the Salt River, where it joins with the river of the Rock of Elias, and from this river, as it descends to Lympiadum, which place divides Agrigento and Butera, and thence along the coast to the river of Bilichi, which is the boundary of Mazara, and it still extends as this river runs to below Corleone, where the division begins, excepting Biccari, Corleone, and Termini. and possessions are established In the property, moreover, of Lord Bishop Gerlandus and of the other Bishops after him, is the Casale Cathal, with a hundred villeins, in which I grant him grain each week. If, however, anyone of all these shall have taken anything from the aforesaid Church and its Bishop, or unjustly condemned it, whatever person he may be, let him be condemned with an anathema." So Roger, on whose seal these words are read: "Jesus Christ conquers. May God aid His servant Count Roger."
[5] The Roger who is indicated as Duke of Calabria and Apulia is the nephew of this Roger, the son of his brother Robert, who had succeeded him upon his death in the year 1085, or perhaps earlier. Pirrus, on account of this privilege, suspects that Saint Gerlandus began to sit in the Chair of Agrigento in the year of salvation 1093. Saint Gerlandus was not consecrated Bishop in 1093 But in that year the boundaries of the diocese were prescribed for Bishops already previously established. A similar privilege was given to the Church of Catania and its Bishop Ansgerius on the sixth day before the Kalends of May, Indiction 15, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1091, to which Indiction 14 agrees, which should perhaps be substituted, or the following year 1092. In this diploma he asserts that he built churches in various suitable places in Sicily, and by the command of the Supreme Pontiff placed Bishops, with the same Apostolic of the Roman See both praising and granting, and himself consecrating the Bishops. Pirrus, having cited this diploma on page 10, notes that before Bishop Ansgerius of Catania, there had been established Robert of Troina around the year 1081, Gerlandus of Agrigento and Stephen of Mazara in the year 1091, where he departs from his former opinion nor in 1091 by which he had said that Saint Gerlandus began to sit in the year 1093, moved by the letter or diploma of Robert, Bishop of Messina and Troina, sent in the year 1094 to Ambrose, Abbot of Lipari and Patti, and cited in notation 4 of the Church of Patti on page 386, in which this order of the erected Bishoprics is indicated as observed: "First," he says, "he established the Church of Troina, in which he constituted the Lord and venerable Robert as first Bishop, then the Churches of Agrigento and Mazara, subsequently the Church of Catania, and lastly the Church and Bishop of Syracuse: who was Roger the Norman, to whom and to whose successors he granted and confirmed that Church to be governed, disposed, and propagated, by the authority of a privilege of Urban II, signed in the sixth year of his Pontificate, on the Kalends of December of the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1093, Indiction 2, which is erroneously transmitted as 15 in Pirrus, page 153. In which year Roger could already have been a Bishop for some years, just as Saint Gerlandus had administered his Episcopate for several years, when the same Urban II confirmed to him and his successors by a similar diploma all the goods donated by Count Roger, which I add here.
[6] "Urban, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our beloved brother Gerlandus, Bishop of Agrigento, and to his successors to be canonically promoted, in perpetuity. [he obtains confirmation of the division of the Episcopate and possessions from Urban II] By the disposition of Almighty God, times are changed and kingdoms are transferred: hence it is that we read of nations of great name being overthrown and brought low, while base and insignificant ones have sometimes been exalted: hence it is that in certain regions the ferocity of the Pagans has seized the power of the Christian name: while in certain others the dignity of Christian power has trampled upon the tyranny of the Pagans. Just as in our times, by the valor of the most glorious Princes, Duke Robert and Count Roger, the mercy of the supernal condescension has conquered all the trouble of the Saracens on the island of Sicily, and has recovered the ancient state of the holy Church according to the good pleasure of His will. Whence we also give thanks to His ineffable mercy, and implore His grace upon those distinguished brothers, the one now deceased, the other still surviving by His working, and we ardently desire, as is the duty of our office, the restoration or ordering of the Churches that are on the same island. Just as therefore, with God's assent, we have already arranged the parishes of the other churches; so also by the authority of the present decree we arrange the diocese of Agrigento. For we decree, Brother Gerlandus, whom the almighty Lord has deigned to consecrate in that very Church by our hands, as it were by the hands of Blessed Peter, that henceforth for you and for your legitimate successors there shall remain in perpetuity to be governed and disposed of by episcopal right, whatever is contained within the boundaries written below, namely from the place where the river rises below Corleone... In the property, moreover, both by your right and that of your successors, let the Casale Cathal with a hundred villeins be preserved, as it was delivered by the above-mentioned son, Count Roger. Furthermore, whatever in the future the same Church of Agrigento may justly and canonically be able to acquire by the generosity of Princes or the offerings of the faithful, let it remain firm and inviolate for you and your successors. We therefore decree that it shall be lawful for absolutely no man to rashly disturb the same Church... Given at Bari by the hand of John, Cardinal Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, in the year 1099 on the sixth day before the Ides of October, Indiction 8, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1099, in the eleventh year of the Pontificate of Pope Urban II." So Urban II, whose long clause we have omitted, as also the boundaries of the diocese of Agrigento, which were related in the same words with which Count Roger had previously described them. Fazellus also mentions this Pontifical diploma.
Annotation* Fazellus: "would not consider the great overthrows effected by me, and their immense losses?"
Section II. The remaining deeds of Saint Gerlandus in the Episcopate: his death, sacred cult, Relics, and the church and chapel dedicated to him.
[7] Regarding the deeds of Saint Gerlandus, Pirrus relates the following concerning the construction of the Cathedral church: "Moved by pastoral solicitude, distinguished piety, and admirable charity, Gerlandus, at the summit of the city next to the most strongly fortified castle, lest the sacred things and the Clergy should be invaded by the Saracens still dwelling at Agrigento, He builds the Cathedral church raised from the foundations an Episcopal palace and a Cathedral church of squared stone and noble construction, and consecrated it to the Blessed Mary (as it had once been dedicated by Saint Peter) and to Saint James the Apostle on the fourth day of April: he completed that work in the space of six years." The same Pirrus, at the end of Notation 3, page 320, writes that the church consecrated to the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, under Bishop Libertinus, was dedicated to Saint James after the Saracens were driven out.
[8] To the words of the Gallic Breviary customarily read on the 25th of February concerning Saint Gerlandus, Pirrus adds the following: "He was most eloquent in speech, tall in stature, most handsome in person, generous in poverty, splendid in charity, munificent in giving, distinguished in the propriety of his morals; he converted not a few of the better and wiser Jews to the faith of Christ: he converts Jews whom the pious Pontiff himself raised from the sacred font. After he had presided with great devotion for twelve years and was now an old man, returning from Rome, he passed through Balnearia, a town of Calabria: there finding Dragon, the Provost of that place, he foretells his own successor with a dove-like voice, as was his custom, he humbly asked him to pray for him after his death, and announced with a prophetic spirit that he would sit after him in the episcopal Chair. Having returned to Agrigento, after six months he rendered his soul to God on the 25th of February: he dies on February 25 his body, emitting a most sweet odor on every side, the Clergy of that Church and the co-Bishops established in Sicily, sometimes laying it down in the choir, on the fourth day with the greatest honor and reverence placed it in a sarcophagus between the two Tribunals of that church." So from the Breviary. Pirrus, page 318, asserts that the principal part of the Cathedral church is called the Tribunal.
[9] in the year 1100 Octavius Caietanus, our colleague, in the Idea of the Saints of Sicily in the Chronological Index, reports that Saint Gerlandus the Bishop died in the time of Count Roger in the year 1100, counting namely twelve years of his See from the year 1088 to this year 1100. But since in the said Breviary it is stated that, apart from the twelve years during which he had lived, when he returned from Rome, after six months he rendered his soul to God on February 25, the death seems rather to be assigned to the following year 1101, in which year Count Roger also departed this life. But Pirrus, or rather 1101 because he supposes that he was ordained Bishop only in the year 1093, and on account of the words of the said Breviary that he sat for twelve years, says: "Gerlandus (as the most learned and most noble Abbot Lafarina also holds) must be said to have prolonged his life to the year of salvation 1104, three years after the death of the Count": indeed, if the twelve years are to be taken as complete and six months are to be added to them, as we have already shown, not 1104 or the following years not the year 1105 but rather the following year 1106 should be established: if, as they maintain, he had only begun to sit in the year 1093, which we have shown is less probable.
[10] On the 25th of February, Maurolycus, Abbot of Messina, celebrates his sacred memory in his Martyrology with these words: "In Sicily, Saint Gerlandus from Burgundy, Bishop of the people of Agrigento, in the time of Count Roger." inscribed in Martyrologies Galesinius relates the same from Maurolycus, to whom, he says, "we greatly assent concerning Sicilian matters." Felicius, Molanus in his supplement to Usuard, and Ferrarius in the General Catalogue have the same. Octavius Caietanus in the Sicilian Martyrology presents him with these words: "At Agrigento, Saint Gerlandus, Bishop and Confessor, under Count Roger." Ferrarius, in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, from the Lessons that are recited in his celebration, excerpted this eulogy: "Gerlandus, born at Besancon in Burgundy, coming to Calabria of the Bruttii, having stayed at Miletus for some time, was created Primicerius of the Cantors. But since he could not bear the depraved morals of the Clergy, he returned to his homeland. When, moreover, Count Roger had expelled the Saracens from Sicily, to whom the learning and the probity of life of Gerlandus were well known, he summoned him to Sicily and arranged for him to be ordained Bishop of Agrigento, recently recovered from the enemy, around the year of salvation 1085. Although Gerlandus was unwillingly raised to this dignity, he nevertheless did not wish to resist the divine will. Wherefore, having undertaken the pastoral office, he took up especially the care of the poor, pilgrims, widows, and orphans. He converted very many Jews and Saracens who had remained in that city, both by public sermons and by private conversations, to Christ. At length, having fulfilled the office of a good Pastor, he flew to his reward in the heavens on the fifth day before the Kalends of March." These things are not there without the error of the year 1085, in which he could not have been made Bishop of Agrigento, if the city only began to be besieged on the Kalends of April of the following year and was wrested from the enemy on the sixth day before the Kalends of August, as we said above from Fazellus: indeed, Supreme Pontiff Urban II did not yet preside over the Church, by whose hands he is said to have been ordained. The eulogy from Saussay we gave above.
[11] The place where the body of Saint Gerlandus was originally interred is not sufficiently certain. In the Gallic Breviary it is said to have been placed between the two Tribunals of the greater church: but this was done after the Translation. Pirrus, page 276, treating of Bishop Gentilis, asserts that some relate that it was found by him in the lower part of the church when he translated it. But concerning the translation of the body he writes the following on page 274: "For Gerlandus was renowned for many miracles before and after death, he is renowned for miracles and he healed those who fled to his tomb from their infirmities. From that place where the sacred body of Gerlandus lay, on the 20th of March in the year 1159, the body is translated on March 20, 1159 Indiction 7, Bishop Gentilis, the successor, having been informed by a certain most pious Priest, who had been admonished three times by the same divine Gerlandus about the translation of his body, translated it to the great church with solemn rite, and most honorably placed it in a wooden ark erected in a lofty place between the two Tribunals of the most holy Sacrament and of the Blessed Mary." Bishop Gentilis sat from the year 1154, or perhaps the preceding year, to the year 1171 or the following. The same Gentilis, as Pirrus also attests, in the year 1170 gave permission to Ansaldus, Castellan of the Royal Palace of Palermo, to build the monastery of the Holy Trinity in the territory of Villanova, and to rebuild the church of Saint George the Martyr, and to build another in the place called Reffeses in honor of Saint Mary: the day of the Translation is celebrated provided that the Abbot or Prior render obedience to the Church of Agrigento, and visit it three times a year, on the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, on the feast of Saint James, and on the Translation of Saint Gerlandus. But Bishop Raynaldus of Agrigento, in the year 1261, in the month of June, Indiction 4, granted the said church of Saint Mary of Refesio, belonging to his Church, with all its rights, in emphyteusis to the Presbyter Matthew, Canon of Palermo, and Master Guido the Cleric and twenty other monks, to live there under the Rule of Saint Benedict, on these conditions: that every year on the feast of Saint Gerlandus the Patron they should pay one ounce of gold as rent, and that the Abbot or Prior should be bound, either personally or through another, to visit the Cathedral church of Agrigento on the Translation of the Blessed Gerlandus. So Pirrus, page 288, in the words of the donation taken from the Agrigentine archives. In the same manner, Bishop Urso of Agrigento in the year 1219 ceded to Prior Peregrinus of Saint Mary of Adriano and his Congregation a monastery that had been destroyed by the calamity of wars on the island of Vestica, likewise the church of Saint Nicholas, which is outside the city of Agrigento in the old city, with its lands, or the church of Saint Blaise in Camarata, provided that he and his successors render obedience to him and his successors, and come three times every year on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, on the Dedication of the church, and on the Translation of the Blessed Gerlandus, and pay three rotuli of wax as rent. So Pirrus, page 285, from the Agrigentine archives. inscribed in Martyrologies The memory of the Translation of Saint Gerlandus is inscribed at March 20 in the same Agrigentine archives and in the Sicilian Martyrology of Octavius Caietanus with these words: "At Agrigento, the translation of Saint Gerlandus, Bishop and Confessor." The same is read in Ferrarius's new Catalogue.
[12] As the veneration of the people toward Saint Gerlandus grew day by day, the Cathedral church itself took its name from Gerlandus, which Pirrus, page 320, asserts was done in the year 1305, when the church was dedicated to him on November 9. the Cathedral church is consecrated in his honor in the year 1305 But on page 291 he relates the following: "In the year 1305, on November 9, Indiction 4, Bishop Bertuldus consecrated in the Cathedral church the altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin by Blessed Gerlandus: in which he enclosed with solemn rite the relics of the holy Apostles James, Bartholomew, and Andrew, and of Vincent the Martyr, Gregory the Confessor and Pontiff, and Gerlandus, and he made that day of consecration sacred." This Gregory was the second Bishop of Agrigento, whose arm is preserved enclosed in silver caskets: he is venerated on June 22. But the citizens honor with particular veneration the body of Saint Gerlandus, and by his intercession, as the same Pirrus attests, they daily experience signs of divine power. Fazellus also, decade 1, Book 6, chapter 1, says: "Agrigento is ennobled today by its Cathedral church built of squared stone, and by the tomb of the blessed Gerlandus, the first Bishop of Agrigento after the Saracens were driven out, conspicuous for his miracles." In the 27th year of this 17th century, Francis of Trahina was consecrated Bishop of the Church of Agrigento, a chapel is erected in 1627 who adorned the Cathedral church, completed its principal part, which they call the Tribunal, and augmented it with three magnificent chapels, of which one was built and dedicated to the most holy Body of Christ, another to the Blessed Gerlandus the Patron, and he most richly founded, endowed, and adorned them, also establishing three Chaplains in perpetuity to celebrate the sacred rites daily. The third was dedicated to Saint Francis. So Pirrus, page 318. But on page 274 he repeats the following about the cult of the same Saint Gerlandus: his relics are displayed "At Agrigento they appoint a solemnity twice a year in the Saint's honor: on the day of his death, February 25, when also his arm enclosed in silver caskets and his pastoral staff are displayed for viewing, and on March 20 in memory of the Translation of his body: they are carried in procession but on the Sunday in White, in a more solemn procession of all the Religious through the city, the sacred body is carried around, and for fifteen days public fairs are held. some are at Palermo Finally, Pirrus adds that particles of the relics of Saint Gerlandus are preserved at Palermo in the great church and in the royal chapel.
BLESSED ROBERT OF ARBRISSEL, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF FONTEVRAUD
YEAR 1117.
The Life reviewed with a preliminary commentary.
Robert of Arbrissel, Founder of the Order of Fontevraud in France (Blessed)
By J. B.
Section I. The principal monastery of the Order of Fontevraud instituted by Blessed Robert, its name, holiness.
[1] Fontevraud is a noble monastery of women in France, from which the most celebrated Order derived its origin and name, which, divided into monks and nuns dwelling in separate monasteries, the Abbess of Fontevraud, as the General Superior, the name of the Monastery of Fontevraud governs. The name has been expressed variously by writers: more commonly it is called Fons Ebraldi, or Euraldi, in French Font-Eurauld. Others call it Fons Everardi; William of Newburgh, Book 1, chapter 15, calls it Ebraudi: King John of England in a diploma, dated on the 30th of August, in the first year of his reign, which was the year of Christ 1199, extant in the English Monasticon, page 193, now calls it Fons Ebraldi, now Ebrardi: Roger of Hoveden in the latter part of his Annals at the year 1177, Frunt Eueroit: John Bromton, Abbot of Jervaulx, in his Chronicle at the same year, Ebrardi and Embraldi: others otherwise.
[2] The name was given to the monastery from the spring of the place in which it is situated. About it, Baronius, volume 12 of the Annals at the year 1117, relates the following from popular report: "They say," he writes, "that a certain young man named Ebraldus, not from Ebraldus the bandit converted around the year 1100 noble in birth but corrupt in morals, attended by a great band of assassins, once infested the adjacent royal roads with robberies and occupied the then frequent forests, of which not insignificant remnants survive to this day. Afterward, a certain Parisian Theologian, a man of extraordinary learning and a distinguished preacher of the divine word, Robert of Abruscellis by name, came there, and by his holy exhortations not only impelled that young man to change his morals and life, but moreover moved many people of every kind to despise the vanity of the world and to submit to the laws of a more austere life: for whose habitation he founded separate monasteries within the same enclosures, building different ones for men, for Virgins, for the sick, and for the remaining women; and he placed an Abbess over the entire congregation," etc. So Baronius: which Miraeus transcribed word for word in Book 2 of Monastic Origins, chapter 10, without however citing him. Guerrosius narrates the same much more at length in his commentary on the sanctity of the people of Troyes at the year 1106, numbers 8 and following, and affirms it to be a true history. But to whom could this be proved, when Baldric, Bishop of Dol, formerly Abbot of the monastery of Bourgueil, a few leagues distant from Fontevraud, and indeed a contemporary of Blessed Robert, attests the contrary? For he writes at number 16 thus: "The place was uncultivated and squalid, overgrown with thornbushes and briars, called from antiquity the Spring of Euraldus, but the name was anciently given to that place sequestered from human habitation: it was distant about two miles from the cell of Candes, adjacent to the diocese of Poitiers." If when Blessed Robert came there the place was already called from antiquity the Spring of Euraldus, then it did not take its name from Euraldus, whom he himself converted there while he was still a young man.
[3] I would not, however, deny that there were perhaps once in those dense forests the hiding places of bandits. For it is commonly celebrated in the conversations of the local inhabitants Saint Martin is said to have predicted its sanctity that Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours, when he had come to the village of Candes in his diocese, asked what that place was, thick with trees, which he was beholding from a distance: and when he heard that it was a forest notorious for robberies and brigandage, he replied that one day that forest would be made illustrious by holy prayers and religious worship of God: and that this finally came to pass seven hundred years later. That narrative itself, however, is not confirmed by any ancient testimony.
[4] The village of Candes (now a town, which the French call Candes) lies at the extreme borders of the diocese of Tours on the river Vienne, which not far from there joins the Loire. Two miles from there, as Baldric writes, or a short French league, three from the town of Saumur situated on the Loire, lies Fontevraud. Francis Ranchinus writes that the principal abbeys of the province of Anjou are Bourgueil and Fontevraud. But when he treats of Poitou, it is on the borders of Anjou he says that Fontevraud is on the borders of Tours and Anjou, but in the diocese of Poitiers. Gervase, monk of Canterbury, in his Chronicle at the year 1177, calls Fontevraud "of Anjou." in the diocese of Poitiers And John Bromton at the same year: "The King," he says, "sent to Anjou, to Fontevraud, for a convent of holy nuns." But afterward at the year 1189: "Richard, Count of Poitou, proceeded with the body of his father Henry II, King of England, to Fontevraud in Normandy." Whether he placed that monastery in Normandy because Normandy was the chief of those dominions which the Kings of England possessed in France, or by a lapse of memory, it is superfluous to inquire. Miraeus writes in the previously cited place that in Fontevraud, within the circuit of what is practically one town, there are four monasteries, now a town with four monasteries three of nuns, who number about two hundred, and one of monks, who are about forty and have their own Prior. And a little below: "The high altar of the monks' monastery of Fontevraud is situated on the borders of the dioceses of Poitiers, Tours, and Angers." And he testifies that he received these and other things from the Reverend Father William Richer, Abbot of Saint Vincent of Le Mans, formerly Visitor of Fontevraud, in the year 1617.
[5] This is the head of that most religious Order, this is the seat of the Abbess who presides over the whole of it. For the Founder wished (as Baronius notes in the previously cited place, and as will become clearer below) that the Abbess should have the supreme authority over both men and women, decreeing that the men, following the example of Saint John the Evangelist, should obey the Virgins or women; the Abbess presides over the whole Order and that the latter in turn, following the example of the Blessed Virgin, should embrace the Religious as sons. Finally, he wrote statutes and constitutions separately for both groups. And a little later he says that the Order was approved by the authentic Bulls of many Pontiffs, who teach that it sought the origin and rationale of its institution from those words of Christ, "Behold your son," "Behold your Mother." Various diplomas of the Supreme Pontiffs have recently been published, who either praised the sanctity of the Founder or fortified the Congregation instituted by him with the privilege of Apostolic authority. it was approved and praised by the Pontiffs Thus Paschal II, by a diploma given on the seventh day before the Kalends of May, Indiction 13, in the year of Christ 1106, and likewise by another given on the Nones of April, in the year of Christ 1113, inscribed "To the beloved Sisters in Christ, the holy nuns serving Almighty God in the monastery of Fontevraud"; in which he confesses that he is provoked by the more ardent zealous efforts of their Religious life, etc.
[6] Callistus II, by a diploma given at Tours at the monastery of Marmoutier on the 17th day before the Kalends of October, Indiction 13, in the year 1119, speaks thus: "To our beloved daughter Petronilla, Abbess of the monastery of Saint Mary of Fontevraud, and to those who shall regularly succeed her in the same governance, in perpetuity. When we were passing through the parish of Poitiers in the service of the Church, Callistus II dedicates an oratory there at the suggestion of our venerable brother William, Bishop of Poitiers, we turned aside to the monastery of Blessed Mary of Fontevraud: where, recognizing through the mercy of Almighty God that the discipline of the monastic Order flourishes, we decided to foster the place itself with all its appurtenances under the patronage of Blessed Peter. Whence also with our own hands, as it were the hands of Blessed Peter, we dedicated an oratory in honor of the Most Blessed and Most Glorious Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary." And the same in another Bull: "At the monastery of Blessed Mary of Fontevraud, the discipline of the monastic rule, as we ourselves have observed in person, perseveres through the grace of Almighty God: whence the religious men who fear the Lord and who are around it, love the place itself." Gelasius II, also the predecessor of Callistus, says: "Where, the same Order praised by Gelasius II through the grace of Almighty God, from a long time past the greatest observance of religion has been maintained." Afterward also Innocent II: "How distinguished and famous the religious life of the monastery of Fontevraud is, by Innocent II and how much good, through the cooperation of His grace, arises from it," etc. Lucius II also, who held the See in the year 1144, says, addressing Abbess Petronilla: "Indeed, by Lucius II on account of the greater prerogative of the religious life, which is more widely spread abroad from your place through the grace of God," etc. The same Pontiff also, addressing the nuns themselves, says: "Since we have very great confidence in you, we beseech your charity through the Almighty Lord, that you yourselves may make special prayers to the Lord for me, and strive to have them made throughout all the Congregations of your Order."
[7] Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis, in a letter to Pope Eugenius III, which our Jacques Sirmond published from manuscripts in his Notes to the letters of Geoffrey of Vendome, among other things writes the following in commendation of the nuns of Fontevraud: "May it therefore please Your Excellency to rescue them from these troubles (which, of course, the Bishop of Poitiers, Gilbert de la Porree, as I believe, was causing them), and in the multitude of your mercy to provide for them that they may serve God in peace, commended to Eugenius III by Abbot Suger to foster and protect them under the protection of the God of heaven and your Apostolic authority: inasmuch as it is so great a place of so great a religious life, which, when we were in those parts at school, we saw had been newly begun, greatly expanded and which through God's will we have heard has already grown to almost four or five thousand nuns, and we rejoice." Suger died at the beginning of the year of Christ 1152, in his seventieth year, as Claude Robert relates.
[8] About two years before Suger, the already-mentioned Abbot of Saint-Denis near Paris, namely in the year 1150, second Abbess Mathildis on the eighth day before the Kalends of May, as is stated in the Necrology of Fontevraud, "there departed from this world the Lady Petronilla of pious memory, a venerable nun, our incomparable and irreplaceable Mother, constituted the first Abbess by our Lord Master Robert." The same Blessed Robert, moreover, as Baronius writes in the cited place, and Miraeus after him, had decreed that when the Abbess whom he had created should close her days, she should be succeeded by and the remaining pious and illustrious ones whomever the Religious women themselves should elect by their votes. Which was always observed by them, as long as the practice of elections persisted in the monasteries. Moreover, both as long as the power of electing lasted, and after Abbesses began to be appointed by the authority of the Pontiff, they always obtained the best and most memorable Abbesses, more illustrious for the integrity and holiness of their life than for their lineage: although most were the daughters of Kings and Princes, or certainly of the most noble Knights.
[9] From that time, the sanctity of this Congregation was widely celebrated, and nuns were even summoned from here to Spain and England, either to restore the relaxed discipline in certain old monasteries of other Orders, or to found new ones. Certainly in the year 1177 they were called to England, and the monastery of Amesbury in the territory of Wiltshire was given to them, which the stepmother and murderess of the holy King and Martyr Edward had once founded, as is related in the English Monasticon, page 191, from Roger of Hoveden. The monastery of Amesbury in England given to them His words at that year in the latter part of the Annals are as follows: "In the same year the same King Henry II, having expelled the nuns from the abbey of Amesbury on account of their incontinence, and having distributed them among other religious houses in stricter custody, gave the same abbey of Amesbury to the Abbess and house of Fontevraud to be possessed in perpetuity: and a convent of nuns having been sent from Fontevraud, Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, introduced them into the abbey of Amesbury on the eleventh day before the Kalends of June, being a Sunday," etc. The same is narrated in the Chronicle of John Bromton, and it is said that that Abbess was deposed by mandate of Pope Alexander III, and all the nuns there who were unwilling to abandon their error and the turpitude of their life and to observe the rule of Fontevraud were dispersed from that house. When they had been so dispersed, "the King sent to Anjou, to Fontevraud, for a convent of holy nuns," etc. Where you see the nuns of Fontevraud being called holy nuns. Gervase of Canterbury in his Chronicle also treats of this same colony of Amesbury.
[10] The same Bromton calls it "the famous and noble monastery of Fontevraud": William of Newburgh, Book 1, chapter 15, calls it "that most famous monastery of women of Fontevraud." And Book 3, chapter 25, "a famous and noble monastery," and then, "a monastery renowned for its title of most celebrated religious life." William of Tyre, Book 14, chapter 1, speaking of Matilda the Order praised by eminent writers (he himself calls her Mahaldem), the second Abbess of Fontevraud after Petronilla, writes thus: "She had been betrothed to the son of Henry, King of England (the second of that name): but before they came together, the bridegroom, sailing to England and suffering shipwreck, was drowned in the sea: his betrothed, however, vowing perpetual celibacy, led a religious life perpetually as a nun in the religious cloister of women at Fontevraud." A suffragan of William of Tyre was, and then a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, James of Vitry. He, writing about the black monks in chapter 20 of the Occidental History, speaks as follows among other things: "We have said the aforesaid things, however, with all due peace and reverence toward certain holy and venerable convents of this Order, who still persevere in the purpose of an honorable and praiseworthy manner of life and in the strictness of their religious life. Such are the Cluniacs at the head, and in certain of their members not discordant from the head: as at Saint Martin of the Fields in the city of Paris, among the most flourishing in the 12th century and moreover the religious monks of Canterbury in England, and those who are at Afflighem in Brabant, and the black nuns of Fontevraud, with certain other devout convents of the black monks: whose charity and humility, constant labors and almost insupportable burdens, He knows who supplies them with patience and perseverance; so that while others fail along the way, they, hastening to the prize set before them, may attain the desired end."
[11] William of Malmesbury also, slightly senior to both, in Book 5 of the Kings of England thus both describes the origin of Fontevraud and praises its sanctity: "Contemporaries and companions in religion of this Peter (Bishop of Poitiers) were Robert of Arbrissel and Bernard, Abbot of Tiron, of whom the first, the most famous and most profuse of all the preachers of this time, flourished with such great eloquence, not frothy but honeyed, that with people vying to heap up riches, he built that illustrious monastery of nuns at Fontevraud, in which, all worldly pleasure being castrated, the strictest silence there so great a multitude of women devoted to God, as exists nowhere else, burns in the service of God. For besides the renunciation of other allurements, how small a thing is it that they speak in no place except in Chapter, the rule of perpetual silence having been laid down by the Master; because once silence is relaxed, women are prone to whispering frivolities?"
[12] John Picard of Beauvais, a regular Canon of Saint Victor in Paris, however, warns in his Notes to chapter 15 of Book 1 of the History of Newburgh that these regular disciplines, otherwise somewhat too severe, were mitigated by the authority of the Supreme Pontiff around the year 1450... For Mary of Brittany, then a most pious and at the same time most noble Virgin, the Superior of Fontevraud, had arranged, with the help and counsel of prudent men, that chapters be selected from the Rule of Saint Benedict and the decrees of Robert the Founder, and more diligently observed in all the convents of her family; and that those things that seemed somewhat obscure be described more plainly. afterward mitigated Of those things, however, that were deemed harsher, namely the silence that forbade conversation everywhere except in Chapter, it was moderated so that it was permitted to speak after the prayers called Prime: then after the signal was given for work.
Section II. The homeland of Blessed Robert, the history of his Life, annual commemoration, and the prerogative appellation of BLESSED and SAINT.
[13] The founder of this most celebrated monastery and Order was therefore Blessed Robert. Authors vary regarding his surname, as Andrew Chesne observes in letter 17 of Book 2 of Peter the Venerable, our Honoratus Nicquet in Book 1 of the History of Fontevraud, chapter 3, and Jean-Baptiste Souchet in his Notes to chapter 11 of the Life of Blessed Bernard of Tiron. The surname of Blessed Robert He is therefore called by Geoffrey in the said Life of Blessed Bernard "of Arbrissel," "Arbressellensis," and in chapter 23, if there is no error, "Orbreselensis": "of Abrezello" in a certain inscription cited by Souchet, and in a Rouen manuscript, according to the same, "of Abrincello": by Peter, Bishop of Poitiers, in a charter given in the year 1106, "of Herbressello": by the Newburgh writer, "of Arbusculo": "of Arbrussello" in a Le Mans manuscript codex of the works of Geoffrey of Vendome: "of Brussello" by Peter the Venerable: by Jean Bouchet, "of Bruxelles": "of Bruxello" by Jean Hiret cited in Souchet: "of Arborecello" in certain public records in William Catel: "of Arbricellis" in the Chronicle of Saint-Aubin of Angers: "of Arbricel" and "Arbrisel" in Rouen charters: "of Arbeisel" by the Malmesbury writer: by Nicquet, "d'Abruissel": Souchet more correctly judges it "of Abrissello": we retain "of Arbrissello," which is the most common among writers.
[14] The name was derived from the place of his birth, a small village seven leagues distant from the city of Rennes in Brittany (Armorica), which was then called Arbrissellum, according to Baldric, Bishop of Dol in the same Brittany: now it is commonly called Arbesec. his homeland, not Champagne of Troyes But Guerrosius in his Commentaries on the sanctity of the people of Troyes at the year 1106, number 7, affirms that he was born in the territory of Troyes, two miles from the city of Troyes, in a village named L'Aubrussel: nor does he cite any author who assigns that homeland to him, nor does he bring forward any argument to confirm it, besides that one single word. Baldric, who both knew Robert and ruled the monastery of Bourgueil near Fontevraud, and was then Bishop of Dol in Brittany, says of him in chapter 1 of the Life, number 7, that he was "a son of Lesser Brittany, born in the district of Rennes, a native and inhabitant of the village that is commonly called Arbrissellum." And at number 8, Silvester, Bishop of Rennes, addresses the same Robert, whom he had summoned from Paris, thus: "You see, dearest Brother, how the holy Church of Rennes, your mother, wavers without governance." but Brittany in Armorica For by what reasoning could the Church of Rennes be called his mother, if he had been born in the diocese of Troyes, and had only previously lived in his homeland and at Paris?
[15] Guerrosius had not seen the twofold Life of Blessed Robert that we give here, a double Life, written by contemporaries one written, as we said, by Baldric, the other by a Religious of Fontevraud, a disciple of the same holy man, who is commonly believed to have been Andrew, of whom mention is made in Baldric. And mention of him seems to be made in a certain old Necrology thus: "On the third day before the Ides of August died Andrew the Priest, Chaplain of Master Robert." Both these Lives were first published from Fontevraud manuscripts by Michael Cosnier, Pastor of the same town: who then, having searched other records of the archmonastery, sent us not a few things that he had lacked in his earlier edition. Both Lives, after Cosnier's death, were more elegantly published at La Fleche in the year 1647, with an added facing lucid French paraphrase, composed by Father Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, a Priest of our Society. But most accurately of all, Honoratus Nicquet, our colleague, wrote the history of Fontevraud in French in four books: in the first of which he set forth the deeds of Blessed Robert, in the second his holiness, in the third the institutes of the Order: in the fourth he succinctly narrated the acts of all the Abbesses.
[16] She who now administers that most holy Order with equal praise of piety and prudence, the thirty-second from Petronilla the disciple of Blessed Robert, the Abbess Jeanne-Baptiste de Bourbon enhances his honor is Jeanne-Baptiste de Bourbon, daughter of Henry IV, the Great King of France. She both devotes herself with the utmost zeal to preserving the spirit that still flourished in the Order and the dignity of religious practice; and especially strives to amplify by whatever means she can the honor of the most holy Founder Robert. And for that reason she arranged for the twin Lives that I mentioned, published at La Fleche in the years 1641 and 1647, to be sent to us, together with other booklets composed chiefly by our Honoratus Nicquet: she communicates various records with us of which one embraces the testimonies of Supreme Pontiffs, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Bishops, Princes, and illustrious writers concerning the sanctity of Blessed Robert of Arbrissel: the other is entitled "The Glory of Blessed Robert of Arbrissel, Founder of the Order of Fontevraud, or an epitome of his life, virtues, and praises." Finally, out of the very great benevolence with which she honors our most humble Society, she deigned to commend to us by letter that in our vast work on the Acts of the Saints we should also give a place to the Life of Blessed Robert. This, however, we had already resolved to do of our own accord, as may be gathered from what was said on January 7 concerning Blessed Vitalis of Savigny: although at that time we had not yet obtained any Life of Blessed Robert, but only certain praises of him from various writers. We have plucked not a few things from these two booklets, and from the history of Nicquet, to illustrate the memory of the holy man.
[17] Robert has not yet been inscribed in the registers of the Blessed in heaven by the judgment of the Supreme Pontiff in such a way that an Ecclesiastical office could be recited and the sacrifice of the Mass offered concerning him; but the same Abbess Jeanne-Baptiste strains every nerve to obtain this. she urges his canonization For several years now, the Most Serene Queen of Great Britain has also urged that this public cult in the Church be paid to Blessed Robert, who wrote to the Pontiff on this matter more than once, and through her Ambassador in the year 1645 presented a petition, from which the following is reported in the cited Glory of Blessed Robert, from which anyone may understand by what reason she was finally moved to undertake the procurement of the honor due to Robert among the Blessed in heaven: as does the Queen of England "In the great tumult of Great Britain," she says, "by which almost the whole kingdom is being turned upside down... a remedy and the most present alleviation of evils will be mine, if I win for myself the grace and favor of some distinguished Servant of God by procuring honor for him on earth, so that he himself in heaven may exist as an advocate before God for the happy success of English affairs. Wherefore with all humility I humbly ask that through Your Holiness it may be permitted in the Order of Fontevraud to say the Office and celebrate the Mass of the Venerable Father Robert, Founder of the same Order: who was once most acceptable, and indeed a Counselor of Fulk the Younger, Count of Anjou, Tours, and Le Mans, afterward King of Jerusalem, one of the ancestors of the Most Serene King of Great Britain, my husband: whose other ancestors also, Henry II, Richard I, Kings of England; and several Queens of England, Eleanor, Elizabeth, and many Princesses, desired with the utmost piety to be buried in the same church in which the relics of the venerable Servant of God lie, and propagated the Order founded by him through various provinces of the English kingdom."
[18] So far from the petition of the Most Serene Queen. The Most Christian King also, as we have learned, the King of France wrote to Pope Innocent X about the same cause, and ordered the matter to be pressed by his Ambassador. The Most Excellent and Most Reverend Lady Jeanne-Baptiste de Bourbon also urges (as we have already indicated, and as is reported in the same words that we give here in the cited Glory), Abbess of the Greater Monastery and head of the whole Order of Fontevraud. The whole Order urges, together with the Chapter of Canons of Candes of Blessed Martin and others and other adjacent Chapters of Canons; that the same Robert, constantly distinguished by the name of Saint up to this point, as one most celebrated for the sanctity of his life and great merits toward the Holy Church, shining with Apostolic eloquence and constancy, most devoted to the Holy Roman See and most tenacious of Apostolic authority, a perpetual hammer of heretics; most eager for martyrdom, to whom it seems to be owed on account of his merits and one who suffered very many things from the impious for the cause of piety, noble by the commendation of Supreme Pontiffs, Bishops, and illustrious writers, the most unconquerable champion of all justice and holiness, the parent of so many Saints, having won so many thousands of people of both sexes for God, the most certain asylum for all wretched persons of every kind, whose sanctity heaven proclaims by frequent miracles and earth attests by daily prayers, vows, and offerings -- that it may be permitted by the nod and authority of the Apostolic See to venerate him as a Saint.
[19] The praises that are celebrated here in a mass are partly proved above, partly will be proved in their proper places in the Life and from the same booklet on his Glory. Bishop Baldric, a writer endowed with remarkable wisdom, who was called Blessed more than 500 years ago certainly already proclaimed him BLESSED about 537 years ago. So in chapter 1, number 7: "Therefore BLESSED ROBERT (about whom we have determined to speak) was co-heir and son of the Christian profession." And at number 24: "Besides those miracles that Blessed Robert performed." And finally at number 25: "As the years rolled on, by certain signs Blessed Robert sensed that his end was approaching."
[20] The Glory cited frequently, page 33, shows that not merely the title of Blessed but also of Saint has been customarily attributed to Robert from all time past: "The Ecclesiastical rite of the Order," it says, "also has in its ancient Litanies this invocation of Blessed Father Robert, after Saint Benedict: 'Saint Robert, good Master, pray for us.' and everywhere called Saint And indeed, up to now, that spring which was anciently called the Spring of Ebraldus, in honor of Blessed Robert, who drank from that spring and in the valley in which it rises established the head monastery of the Order, is called by no other name than the Spring of Saint Robert. So closely has this appellation of Saint adhered to the Servant of God that it is celebrated by the common voice of the peoples."
[21] But previously, on page 13, the following had been related: "The body was carried with great pomp to the monastery of Fontevraud, followed by Leodegar, Archbishop of Bourges. Coming to meet the sacred relics were Fulk, Count of Anjou, Ralph, Archbishop of Tours, Reginald, Bishop of Angers, and whose relics are publicly honored many Abbots, innumerable Priests, with an infinite multitude of the people. His heart was retained at Orsan, where it is enclosed in an honorific pyramid. The altar that is nearest is called the Altar of the Sacred Heart." And on page 29 it is said that Archbishop Leodegar of Bourges wished to be buried at Orsan, where the sacred heart of Blessed Father Robert is venerated with great devotion of the peoples. We do not fear, therefore, that anyone will reproach us for so freely adorning him with the title of Blessed, which was already attributed to him some 500 years ago and more by a most distinguished Bishop, and who has been called Saint from time immemorial by the unanimous piety of the peoples, even in the sacred Litanies.
[22] The annual commemoration of Blessed Robert is noted by Saussay in the Corollary to the Gallic Martyrology, page 1216, and our Jacques Rinaldus in the Lilies of Holy France, as needing to be recorded on August 30, and both celebrate him with a notable eulogy. he died February 25 in the year 1117 Our Jacques Sirmond in his Notes to the letters of Abbot Geoffrey of Vendome, page 84, reveals the true birthday of Robert from the Chronicle of Saint-Aubin, where the following is found: "Year 1116. Robert of Arbrissel died on the fifth day before the Kalends of March. He was the founder of the monastery of Fontevraud." Charles Saussay asserts the same in Book 9 of the Aurelian History, number 12. Our Nicquet also informed us of the same by letter: for what he had previously supposed, that Robert died on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, he would take care to correct in his History, Book 1, chapter 35. That it is sufficiently established, from the consensus of the whole Order, that he died in the year of Christ 1117, which according to the French reckoning of that era was called 1116, since the beginning of the year was reckoned from the solemnity of Easter, which was finally amended under King Charles IX; moreover, on the feast of Saint Matthias the following is read in the Martyrology of the Order of Fontevraud for the following day: "On the same day, in the country of Bourges, at Orsan, his eulogy on that day in the Martyrology of the Order the glorious repose of the Reverend Lord Robert of Arbrissel, Doctor of Theology, venerable Priest, and our most beloved Father: who was a most Christian man, a splendid Morning Star of the Holy Church, and in holy preaching in a way another Paul. He was a native of the diocese of Rennes in the province of Brittany, and thoroughly filled with the spring of heavenly doctrine, and creditably grounded in religion, from the first stone the author of Fontevraud, he founded, built, and multiplied the basilica and very many cells of the same basilica, and in those same places, by God's inspiration, faithfully united men and women to serve Almighty God: whom also, while he still lived, he fully instructed both by the examples and rules of the Holy Fathers and by every sound doctrine, both by word and example. This strong athlete, the most faithful steward of the word of the Lord, while according to his custom he was proceeding to foreign nations for the sake of holy preaching, at the aforesaid place which he himself had built with God's favor, which is called Orsan, and is separated from the city of Bourges by eighteen miles, that is, twelve leagues, at God's call, old and full of days, having entered upon the way of all flesh, with heaven rejoicing and earth weeping, resting in a glorious end, he returned his body to the earth and his spirit to heaven, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and seventeen."
Section III. The sanctity of Blessed Robert celebrated by the testimonies of illustrious men. His tomb.
[23] I think it will be worthwhile if I briefly collect here from both of the booklets already cited the praises with which eminent writers Blessed Robert praised by Supreme Pontiffs and other illustrious men, and especially the Pontiffs, have adorned the virtues and holiness of Robert. URBAN II, Supreme Pontiff, appointed him an Apostolic Preacher: for he understood, as Baldric relates in the Life, that the Holy Spirit had opened his mouth. PASCHAL II, while Robert was still alive, called him "a man of great religion, a venerable man." CALLISTUS II, after his death, called him "of blessed memory, of venerable memory": HONORIUS II, "of happy remembrance." LUCIUS II, "a Presbyter of blessed memory, of proven religion": delegates of SIXTUS IV, "a Father worthy of remembrance."
[24] Bishop Baldric, who as we said in the preceding section, several times called him absolutely Blessed Robert, by Bishops elsewhere calls him "a holy and just man." Elsewhere he writes thus: "May the Holy Spirit therefore assist my obedience, and may the holiness of Lord Robert support me." Then: "I would indeed call this man a habitation of Jesus Christ, and an organ of the Holy Spirit, the Respondent and Vicar of the Most High, anointed with His sermons." And afterward: "Lord Robert, a spring of preaching, a spring of religion, a unique sower of the word, a distinguished and eminent Doctor, admirable in words and works, a Man to be exalted and imitated." But these and other things may be read below in Baldric himself. Peter II, Bishop of Poitiers, in a certain document written at Poitiers in the year 1106, says: "A certain apostolic man, Robert of Herbressello by name, wisely devoted to the word of divine preaching, and by the thunder of holy exhortation recalling many persons, both men and women, from worldly luxury, founded in our diocese a certain church in honor of Saint Mary the Virgin, in the place which is called Fontevraud, which place Aremburgis, wife of Wido, son of Osmund, and Rivaria her daughter, gave him for the building of the aforesaid church." The same Peter in another document calls him "a religious man, devoted to the word of holy preaching": and the same elsewhere, "a man of great religion and good repute." Gerard, Bishop of Angouleme, a very great man, had he not afterward dishonored his distinguished ornaments of virtue by fostering the schism of Anacletus, called him "a man of blessed memory and great sanctity."
[25] Peter Abelard, the Abbot, called him "an illustrious herald of Christ." The records of the abbey of Sainte-Marie de la Roe call him "a man of great authority and infinite religion." Fulk, Count of Anjou, "a most distinguished man of great religion and probity." Fulk the Younger, likewise Count of Anjou, "a most religious man, whose admirable doctrine shines by the word of holy preaching and the thunder of holy exhortation through the whole Church with his eloquence." and by other illustrious men Aremburgis the Countess, wife of Fulk, "a man of great religion, a wise steward of the word of Evangelical preaching." Others finally, "a most holy man." Andrew, moreover, begins the Life that we shall give below thus: "By the interceding merits of the one about whom I am going to speak, may the grace of the Holy Spirit be present to me." Afterward he calls him "the Lamp of hermits, a man praiseworthy from every mouth." The Abbots whom Blessed Robert consulted when the election of the first Abbess was being discussed, said: "Your counsel, dearest Father, ought rather to be followed in this matter: especially since we know for certain that among all the other mortals of our age your counsel prevails: for God has given you to the world as a counselor of souls."
[26] If anyone should seek the testimonies of more recent writers concerning the same holy man, he has above in section 1, number 2, that of the great Cardinal Caesar Baronius: in the epitome of whose Annals at the year 1117, Henry Sponde, Bishop of Pamiers in France, also by more recent writers calls Blessed Robert "a man of extraordinary learning and probity." Anthony of Yepes, volume 7 of the Benedictine History, "a pious and holy man." Claude Robert in his Gallia Christiana, treating of the abbey of Sainte-Marie de la Roe, "a man of great authority and infinite religion." An excellent encomium of him was also composed by Andrew Saussay and Jacques Rinaldus, cited above, who call him absolutely Blessed Robert.
[27] Most of the praises of others were collected or surpassed by Leodegar, Archbishop of Bourges, who (as is said in the Glory of Blessed Robert), since he could not retain intact in his diocese, in which he had died, the relics of the venerable servant of God, by the funeral oration of the Archbishop of Bourges lest the diocese of Bourges should be utterly deprived of so great a treasure, at last obtained at least the heart from Petronilla, the first Abbess, who was present: and he himself followed the body of the deceased all the way to the greater monastery of Fontevraud: where he honored him with a funeral oration, which Father Yves Magistri published in French. From it the following is expressed in Latin: "'The Lord guards the bodies of His Saints': this is what their sacred relics attest. Your Father's body also attests this, which, although prepared with no spices, has exhaled no fetid odor to this day, even though it has remained lifeless for many days. Which is a most certain proof of his remarkable holiness, which he maintained only by abstinence from the pleasures of the world, fervor of spirit, and an austere manner of living," etc.
[28] "God had provided for this age the most pious Father Master Robert: that as long as he lived, he would be a lamp not hidden under a bushel, which would illuminate the minds of sinners with the rays of the Sun of justice, the darkness of wickedness being driven away. For which of you does not know that that eminent cultivator of the desert was to some indeed an odor of life unto life, and compared with the Patriarchs but to others a sharp arrow of the Mighty One? I dare say that this Reverend Father did not lack the patience of Joseph, the constancy of Jeremiah, the zeal of Phinehas, and the charity of Tobias. He recalled David, when he passed through the desert and pressed on through a thousand perils of life toward the kingdom. He was a sharer in the counsel and skill of Daniel, and obtained the equity of Samuel. Imitating the Forerunner of the Lord, he led an anchoritic life; he relieved hunger with herbs, thirst only with cold water, and covered his body with a hair shirt. I say that he was a partaker of Pauline eloquence," etc. "He was the foot of the lame, the eye of the blind, the consolation of the afflicted, the father of orphans, the bridegroom of holy widows, the guardian and paranymph of Virgins, the refuge of the wretched, the expeller of all vices, the author of virtues, the concord of the quarrelsome," etc. And this last thing is noted to have been remarkable in Blessed Robert, "as each one has his own gift from God, who distributes to each as He wills."
[29] These and other things were said by that Archbishop at the funeral of Blessed Robert, whose mausoleum, as Baldric calls it, before the high altar, rested on four columns: his effigy was carved on the upper stone: His tomb honored his garb was sacerdotal, a pastoral staff, hands covered with gloves, a ring inserted on the finger. Moreover, that mausoleum was held in such veneration that the nuns formerly made their religious vows before it. In the year 1623 a new and much more magnificent altar was erected, consecrated on October 8 by Philip Cospeau, then Bishop of Nantes, who enclosed in it relics of the Virgin Mother of God and of Saint John the Evangelist (to whose honor it was particularly dedicated), as well as some of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Louis the King. On account of the construction of this altar, the tomb of Blessed Robert had to be moved a little further away, renewed placed likewise under a new mausoleum, most skillfully crafted: at the corners of which are various sentences from sacred Scripture, engraved in golden letters on black marble: his effigy of white marble, in sacerdotal garb, reclining in a likewise marble tomb. When the former tomb was opened, many whole bones were found: which were placed in a leaden casket, together with a not inconsiderable quantity of dust into which the remaining members had dissolved, and likewise with dust found in the tomb of Peter, Bishop of Poitiers.
[30] This inscription was added to that new tomb: "The Venerable Robert of Arbrissel of former times, with this inscription added a most pious man, and burning with zeal for souls, by the divine eloquence in which he was most powerful, led many mortals of both sexes, who followed him to desert places, to the service of God and the contempt of the world, and on that occasion was the first to establish the Order of Fontevraud: and he arranged for various dwellings to be built, especially for the devout female sex. He wished this monastery to be the head of them all: in which he placed an Abbess over not only the Virgins and women dedicated to God, but also the religious men; who approved this way of life by the holy Apostolic See from its very beginning to these times, and augmented it with various privileges and royal gifts. He died in the year 1117. Louise de Bourbon, Superior of this monastery and indeed of the whole Order, arranged for this mausoleum, adorned with a new frame, to be completed in the name of the whole Order, as for the best of fathers, in the year 1623."
Section IV. The first companions of Blessed Robert in the eremitical and apostolic life.
[31] Of those praises of Robert that were gathered in section 2, number 18, one thing remains: to show that his sanctity was confirmed from heaven by miracles. But first a certain supplement must be added concerning his deeds, which were passed over by both writers of the Life but have been related by ancient authors. Concerning the first companions and helpers of Blessed Robert in the undertaking of apostolic labors, William of Newburgh, who testifies that he was born in the year 1135, in Book 1 of English Affairs, chapter 15, already cited above, writes thus: "In the lands across the sea, Blessed Robert preaches with the Blessed Bernard and Vitalis as I have received from my elders, there were at one time three memorable men, namely Robert, surnamed of Arbusculo, Bernard, and Vitalis. These, not ignobly learned and fervent in spirit, went about through castles and villages, and sowing according to Isaiah upon all waters, they gathered abundant fruits from the conversion of many: having established among themselves by mutual agreement that Robert should bear the care of the common labor of women converted to better things, these of men while Bernard and Vitalis should provide more attentively for the males. Isa. 32:20 Robert therefore built that most famous monastery of women of Fontevraud and formed it with regular disciplines: Bernard at Tiron, and Vitalis at Savigny, having regularly established monks, each distinguished his own from the others by certain distinctive precepts. he establishes convents of women And when from these three roots religious shoots of servants and handmaids of God sprouted through diverse provinces, certain monks of Savigny founded our Byland." These things are indeed to be understood in this sense: that while Bernard and Vitalis established congregations of men, Robert also gathered women, and indeed with special zeal, inasmuch as he subjected men, and indeed himself, to the spiritual ministry of women: wherefore women especially, and perhaps even those who had been converted by those two, flocked to him.
[32] By what reason, however, friendship grew among those holy men is related thus in the Life of Blessed Bernard of Ponthieu, the first Abbot of Tiron, by Geoffrey Grossus, a contemporary author, in chapter 11. For Bernard, when he was administering the monastery of Saint-Savin with the title of Prior, since Abbot Gervasius had gone abroad and then died; having learned (as that writer says) the will of the monks, who were planning to make him their Abbot, Bernard fled lest he be made Abbot he secretly departed from them, intending to seek a thing he had desired for many years, namely the pursuit of the anchoritic life, and to acquire his sustenance by the labor of his hands. Not very far from the monastery of Saint-Savin there dwelt a certain venerable and religious hermit named Peter de Stella, who afterward became the founder of the monastery called Fons Gombaudi. To him Bernard turned, since he was already known and familiar to him, and revealed the reason he had come. he had fled to Peter de Stella Peter received him with great eagerness of soul: but because he was in the vicinity of the monks, who were striving to make him their Abbot against his will, he could not keep him with him for long, much as he desired it. Bernard, however, burning with desire for the poverty and solitude he had long wished for, and at the same time vehemently fearing that, unless he departed more quickly, he would be compelled to become Abbot, entangled in the cares of the pastoral office, at the urging of his Abbot or Bishop, earnestly begged Peter to remove him from there quickly and secretly, and to lead him to the unknown solitudes of a most remote region. Peter therefore, yielding to the prayers of the petitioner, became the guide of the journey and fulfilled what was asked. led by him into the desert to the Blessed Robert, Vitalis, and Ralph There were, moreover, on the border of the regions of Le Mans and Brittany, vast solitudes, which at that time, like a second Egypt, flourished with a multitude of hermits dwelling in various cells, holy men and famous for the excellence of their religious life. Among whom were the leaders and masters Robert of Abresello, and Vitalis of Mortain, and also Ralph of Fustaye, who afterward became founders of many and great congregations: to whom the Divine Providence, through Peter, who had known them previously, took care to add this fourth, so that with a fourth added to those three a firm square might be formed, which was afterward to bear great and broad buildings.
[33] He then continues in chapter 12: "Peter de Stella, having completed a journey of many days, arrived at Lord Vitalis, one of the above-mentioned, afterward founder of a convent of nuns whom we have already said were the leaders and masters of the hermits." So he writes. Ralph, moreover (who is here joined with those three holy hermits), was also a master of nuns, just like Blessed Robert. Concerning him, Jean-Baptiste Souchet, Canon of Chartres, in his Observations on chapter 11 of the Life of Blessed Bernard, page 187, writes the following: "Ralph was first a monk of the monastery of Hendion, which is now called Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes in Poitou; then a cultivator of the desert; and finally the director and procurator (by which name Robert of Arbrissel is also called in the index of the Le Mans codex in Sirmond's Observations on letter 47 of Book 4 of Geoffrey of Vendome, instead of 'founder') of Saint-Sulpice of the nuns: among whom he put off his humanity on the 17th day before the Kalends of September, 1129, and is buried in their church with a great reputation for holiness."
[34] That sojourn of holy men in the desert, moreover, took place after the Council of Clermont, which was held in the year 1095: but before the Council of Poitiers, which was held in 1100. Concerning this latter, Ivo of Chartres writes in letter 211 to Ralph, Archbishop of Rheims: at the Council of Poitiers in the year 1100 "The legates of Fulk, Count of Anjou, calculated the same consanguinity at another time in the aforesaid Court (namely of the Lord Pope, as he had said before), and proved it, when Philip, King of France, was accused of having taken away from the same Count, his kinsman, his wife, whom he also unlawfully retained. On account of which accusation and the proof of the crime committed, the King was excommunicated by the Lord Pope Urban at the Council of Clermont. And when after the divorce the aforesaid King had returned to the company of the aforesaid woman, he was excommunicated at the Council of Poitiers by the Cardinals John and Benedict." Ivo also mentions that council elsewhere: Baronius recites its Canons at that year in the Annals. Blessed Robert of Arbrissel and Blessed Bernard of Tiron were present at the same council, the Blessed Robert and Bernard are present as Geoffrey narrates in chapter 23 of the latter's Life: "At the same time," he says, "two Cardinals, John and Benedict, performing the legation of the Apostolic See, convoked a council at the city of Poitiers, at which 140 Fathers were present: who also struck Philip, King of France, with the punishment of anathema on account of the wife of Fulk, Count of Anjou, whom he was holding in adultery."
[35] When this excommunication was learned, William, Duke of Aquitaine, who was present, an enemy of all chastity and sanctity, fearing lest he should suffer a similar punishment for similar faults, nor are they moved by danger of death inflamed with excessive fury, ordered them all to be plundered, scourged, and killed. When his servants began to do this, the Bishops and Abbots fled here and there, and strove to seek safe hiding places in order to preserve their temporal life. But Bernard and Robert of Arbrissel, who were present at the council, most brave champions of justice and vanquishers of all iniquity and injustice, while others were shamefully fleeing, stood so immovable and constant that they neither desisted from the begun excommunication; but considered it most glorious to suffer death or insult for Christ: and although the persecutors did not inflict death upon them, these men, as far as it was in them, endured martyrdom.
[36] Souchet, from the Chronicle of Maillezais cited in Besly, notes the following: "On the 13th day before the Kalends of November there was a council, which two Cardinals, John and Benedict, held... to one of them, John by name, Saint Hilary appeared, and the Apostolic Legate, who was confirmed in a dream by Saint Hilary and said to him by way of confirmation: 'John, do not be afraid; act manfully; tomorrow I will be with you': and he excommunicated King Philip." Jean Bouchet, in the Annals of Aquitaine, part 3, chapter 2, relates that when the King learned that a council was to be held at Poitiers, he asked William, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers, his kinsman, not to suffer such an injury to be inflicted upon him in his city: that William immediately ordered the Legates and other Bishops to leave the city at once: that one of the Legates asked for a space to deliberate, and that on the following night Saint Hilary appeared to him and warned him not to be terrified by the threats of the Duke, for he would be present with him: that the Duke, when the Legate reported this to him the next day, permitted him to complete everything as he judged best. he excommunicates the King The same is narrated in Baronius from Bouchet, and in the Notes to the Council of Poitiers, volume 26 of the Councils, as published at Paris from the Royal press. The same council is discussed in a fragment of the History of France, volume 4 of Chesne, but no mention of the apparition of Saint Hilary is made there. That Duke William, of whom mention is made here, was the father of the William whom Saint Bernard of Clairvaux recalled from schism to render obedience to the legitimate Pontiff. We treated of the father on February 10 in the Life of Saint William the Hermit, section three, and afterward of the son.
[37] At the time of that Council of Poitiers, Blessed Bernard was Abbot of the monastery of Saint-Cyprian near Poitiers: Robert had perhaps already relinquished the abbey of La Roe, or certainly soon relinquished it, as did Bernard his own. Concerning the latter, Geoffrey writes in chapter 24 of his Life: "Burning with love of poverty and solitude, he returned to the seclusion of the desert, from which he had been drawn by fraudulent violence, and found his mind, which had remained there. Being joined Blessed Robert preaches with the Blessed Bernard and Vitalis through France with Lord Robert of Arbrissel and Vitalis of Mortain, of whom we have already made mention above, they traversed the regions of France with bare feet: in villages, castles, and cities they preached the word of God, snatching men from the errors of their life; like strong and most powerful battering rams, aided by the forces of Divine power, with the greatest fruit they struck and broke down the walls of unbelief and vices, tore out the hearts of men from the error of perishable things, destroyed their evil conversations that corrupt good morals, scattered the wickedness of evil works, dissipated the accumulated mass of all iniquity, planted virtues in their hearts with God as author, and built up and strengthened those that had been planted by their example: and although they were not raisers of dead corpses, they did what is greater, that is, they brought to life souls dead in sins, as if by miracle and joined those brought to life to God, the true life. Performing such signs, therefore, sometimes together, sometimes singly, they went about through diverse provinces: for whom, the devil contriving, tribulations were not lacking."
[38] The same writer, chapter 42: "While therefore Bernard was building his monastery in France, Robert of Arbrissel had built his in Aquitaine, Ralph of Fustaye in Brittany, while Vitalis of Mortain was constructing his in Normandy: each establishes his own Order in different provinces whose heavenly Judge wished them to remain far from each other and separated in different regions, because each one of them built so many and such great monasteries that one region could by no means contain them, one province would by no means suffice for the congregations brought together by them." So he writes. The monastery of the Holy Trinity of Tiron, founded by Blessed Bernard, is in the diocese of Chartres. Fontevraud, as was said before, is beyond the Loire, which is the northern boundary of Aquitaine. Savigny is in the diocese of Avranches, on the extreme coast of Normandy, afterward attached to the Cistercian institutes by the Venerable Serlo, with twenty-seven others, and this in the year 1153, by the authority of Pope Eugenius III. Ralph built the convent of nuns of Saint-Sulpice near Rennes. Souchet enumerates individually, in his Observations on the said chapter 42 of Geoffrey, all the monasteries that depend from Savigny, and those from Tiron and Fontevraud.
Section V. Miracles of Blessed Robert.
[39] We shall now come to the miracles. Rightly the author of the Glory of Blessed Robert says at the very beginning of the booklet: Blessed Robert distinguished by miracles "Supreme Pontiffs, Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Historians, and various writers have commended his holiness; the honor and veneration paid to the sacred relics testifies to the esteem of holiness in which he is held: the Miracles also testify."
[40] Bishop Baldric seems to have seen or wished to publish only those miracles that were performed by him in the healing of souls. "Let anyone express," he says in the Life, "what he has felt: I boldly say that Robert was abundant in miracles, imperious over demons, not only spiritual glorious over earthly Princes. For who in our time
has healed so many sick, cleansed so many lepers, raised so many dead? He who is of the earth speaks earthly things and admires miracles wrought upon bodies: but he who is spiritual in the healing of souls testifies that the sick and lepers and the dead too have been restored to health, when anyone cares for and heals souls that are sick and leprous and need to be raised." Finally, "(if I may say it with everyone's leave) through which of the Pastors has the Lord spoken so much, worked so much?" These words agree with what we reported above in section 3, number 37, from Geoffrey concerning Blessed Robert and Blessed Bernard, that they did something greater while they brought to life souls dead in sins and joined those brought to life to God, the true life, than if they had healed the most grievous diseases and wounds of bodies.
[41] But what more illustrious miracle could be desired than a religious Order conformed by his distinguished institutes and so expanded that while he was still alive three thousand members were counted, thirty monasteries, and, which is the chief thing, after so many centuries flourishing with a constant reputation for holiness -- not without the manifest patronage of its Founder before God? I remember that about forty-four years ago, when a conversation arose at the home of Matthias Hovius, Archbishop of Mechelen and Primate of our Belgium, and by the institution and wonderful propagation of the Order about enrolling our Blessed Ignatius, parent of our Society, in the register of Saints, and someone said that to accomplish this, miracles had to be produced; that most wise and most serious Bishop said that he desired no other miracles besides the Society itself founded by him: that he himself, supported by the revenues of a large Archbishopric, by the favor of the Princes Albert and Isabella of Austria, and by the favorable attentions of the Clergy and all the Orders, had labored for so many years in erecting a seminary; while Ignatius, relying on no resources of fortune, on no favor or commendation of Princes, in a short time had established so great a congregation of religious men, and had seen it confirmed with the best laws, propagated to the ends of the earth, and bearing the most abundant fruits. and by the persisting piety to this day The same thing can truly be said with merit about the Order of Fontevraud; that it could not have grown in so short a time by the industry of one man, without the special assistance of the Deity; nor could the pursuit of perfection have flourished so long in it, unless the Founder, received into heaven, were continually caring for it, arousing holy desires with heavenly aid, and advancing the labors of both the nuns and the monks.
[42] Nor were those external miracles lacking to Robert which mortals are especially accustomed to admire. but also by other external miracles In the Corollary of the Gallic Martyrology, Andrew Saussay writes thus about him: "Consummated in all holiness, he happily expired at the monastery of Orsan, afterward glorified by divine signs, with which he still shines." Jacques Rinaldus in the above-cited Lilies of Holy France: "From the monastery of Orsan, about to receive in heaven the crowns due to his battles and victories, he departed, while he triumphs here in miracles." Nor is it surprising that no miracles that occurred after the death of Blessed Robert are commemorated by Baldric, since he collected his Life most briefly after a short space of time had elapsed since his death. Andrew, moreover, pursued almost only those things that Robert did in the final period. his lifeless body does not smell foul for a long time It seemed to Archbishop Leodegar to have the appearance, not vain, of a miracle, as he himself testifies above in section 3, number 27, that his body, although prepared with no spices, exhaled no fetid odor, even though it remained lifeless for many days. "Which is a most certain proof," he says, "of his remarkable holiness."
[43] Nicquet narrates certain more recent miracles in his Fontevraud History: and this first from Book 1, chapter 36. As we have said, the heart of Blessed Robert was placed upon a marble pyramid in the church of the monastery of Orsan, three feet high, which is still seen there, sufficiently close to the high altar at the horn of the Gospel, as they say, against the wall of the church. It is not, however, intact now: for in the year 1570, when the Duke of Zweibrucken had come to France with German forces to aid the heretics, a heretic soldier who violates his relics is struck with blindness a certain soldier of his, wishing to break it, battered it with several blows. Nor was heavenly vengeance lacking: the sacrilegious man was struck with blindness and, as some have reported, with rigidity of one arm. But soon, as if the light were transferred to his mind, he recognized why that punishment had been inflicted upon him, detested the crime and the heresy from which it arose: he vowed to complete nine days of prayerful vigils there: converted, after nine days he recovers his sight and when these were finished, the faculty of seeing was restored to him. So the inhabitants of Orsan still relate, who received it from their parents, eyewitnesses.
[44] In the same church of Orsan in the year 1634, where the heart of Blessed Robert is preserved (which the people call the Holy Heart, and frequents and venerates with great piety), Masses of the Most Holy Trinity began to be celebrated, by which thanks would be given to God for the extraordinary gifts divinely bestowed upon that holy man. Then indeed the same church was spontaneously filled with a most sweet odor, a certain heavenly and invisible incense. a sweet odor at the Holy Heart The nuns of that monastery publicly testified to this, whose names are given in Nicquet, Book 2, chapter 15, as well as the physician Hugaultius and others, to whom it is permitted to enter within the enclosure of the monastery for the care of the sick. Louis Perrier, a Priest of the same order, testified that he had perceived the same fragrance, and at other relics of Blessed Robert both at Orsan before that holy Heart, and at Fontevraud when he had certain relics of Blessed Robert within his cell.
[45] In the same monastery of Orsan, both arms of Sister Gabrielle d'Assy were dissolved by paralysis from December of the year 1633 for five full months. by his aid, paralysis was healed Very many remedies were applied, to no avail. Finally, on the Monday of Easter, the 17th of April, it was decided that forty hours of continuous prayers should be made, by which the Divine goodness might be moved to come to the aid of the sick woman, and in that manner manifest the glory of the holy Founder: and when the sacred Eucharist had been received by all to that end, health was divinely restored to Gabrielle: and this is confirmed by the testimony of all of them and of the above-mentioned physician.
[46] A loathsome carcinoma on the left hand of Joanna Moussy, a religious woman of Orsan, the size of a walnut, had tormented her for several months. The aid of Blessed Robert having been implored repeatedly, a carcinoma no other medicine being applied, on the feast of All Saints of the year 1634, the evil subsided and entirely vanished. She herself and the physician testified to this.
[47] In the year 1635, at Caudenac in Bourbonnais, a severe fever had brought Henry Assius almost to the point of death: a malignant fever all the art of physicians was in vain: the mind of his mother, Margaret Lassaigne, was struck by the remembrance of miracles that were said to be worked through the merits of Blessed Robert: she made a vow to him: the fever instantly subsided, and health returned to the boy.
[48] I shall conclude this chapter with these words, which are read in the Glory of Blessed Robert, page 49: "How many, freed from various diseases by the invocation of the Servant of God, or by some act of devotion exhibited at his tomb, or by drinking the water of the spring other diseases that bears the name of Saint Robert, can be seen in the investigation made in June of the year 1644, concerning which a public investigation was taken at the monastery of Fontevraud, by the authority of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Poitiers. And since his canonization is now being urged at the holy Apostolic See, God continues to reveal the holiness of His servant by wonderful signs."
Section VI. A letter fabricated under the name of Abbot Geoffrey of Vendome against Blessed Robert is refuted.
[49] Before we present the Life of Blessed Robert published by two contemporary writers, I think one stain, which could obscure all the honors both already mentioned by us and to be mentioned in the Life, ought to be wiped off here in passing. It was cast by a reproachful letter, which appears in Book 4 of the Letters of Geoffrey, Abbot of Vendome, as number forty-seven, with this title: "Geoffrey, humble servant of the monastery of Vendome, Blessed Robert in a letter published under the name of Geoffrey of Vendome to his much beloved brother in Christ, to preserve the measure of discretion and to be content with the boundaries that the fathers have set." Then in the very body of the letter: "To act in nothing beyond what ought to be done is angelic perfection: which our condition can by no means have as long as we are here. Therefore, since we do not have the perfection of an angel, let us by no means have the presumption of the devil. We have proposed these things, venerable brother, because we have heard by circulating unfavorable rumor that you have done and still do such things: which, if they are true, we admonish your simplicity with the bowels of brotherly charity, not to defend them with any excuse, but to correct them with all speed. he is accused of excessive familiarity with women and of rashness For we have heard that concerning the female sex, which you have undertaken to govern, you make yourself solicitous in two ways, one entirely contrary to the other, so that in both you entirely exceed the measure of discretion. You permit certain women (as is said) to dwell with you too familiarly: to whom you speak private words frequently, and you are not ashamed to lie down with them frequently, even at night, and among them. Hence you seem to yourself, as you assert, to carry the Cross of the Lord Savior worthily, when you attempt to extinguish the wrongly kindled flame of the flesh. If you are doing this now, or have ever done it, you have found a new and unheard-of, but fruitless, kind of martyrdom."
[50] And with certain things interjected to the same effect, these words are added: "You have indeed ascended, as it were, a high mountain in the world; and by this you have turned the tongues and eyes of men upon yourself. Therefore, standing on the mountain, see that you do not fall: nor by a martyrdom utterly unknown to the holy Martyrs, leave a mark of infamy upon the beginning of your religious life. Also, let none of your actions stir up scandal for the world, which almost entirely follows you. For it would be a heavier damnation for you, the ruin of many. To certain of the women, as rumor has spread and we have said before, you often speak privately, and by lying in their company you torment yourself with a certain new kind of martyrdom. To them you always show yourself cheerful in speech and harshness against others and eager in action, and you exhibit every kind of courtesy, observing no restraint. But to others, if ever you speak with them, you always appear too harsh in speech, too strict in correction: those others you also torment with hunger and thirst and nakedness, all pity being abandoned," etc. And finally the writer concludes the letter thus: "Farewell, and we humbly beg you to make us partakers of your holy prayers."
[51] It has been the craftiness of the devil at all times that whenever he saw men outstanding in virtue and knowledge those who holily seek the salvation of others are always attacked by calumnies devoting themselves to the procurement of others' salvation, and unable to be circumvented by any of his frauds or recalled from their purpose of cultivating and instilling piety in others, he should try to brand them with some infamy, their doctrine or morals being called into suspicion: reckoning that if any opinion of error or even of ignorance, if any of cupidity, if any of lust, or certainly of levity, should be stirred up, they would immediately be despised, shunned, and the salutary counsels they had previously sown would be rejected. There is no need to confirm this with examples, since wicked men boasted that Christ Himself, the eternal Wisdom, the author of all holiness, was a drunkard and a blasphemer, and used the works of demons to perform miracles.
[52] Especially, however, if anyone has begun to devote his efforts to forming women for a holier life, the agents of the devil in this business are eager to brand him with the infamy of some turpitude. especially if they convert women to God For since women are by nature more modest and timid, immediately, if they have heard any such thing, they will fear lest by subtle speeches either a stain be gradually inflicted upon their modesty, or a reproach certainly be brought upon the respectability of their name. Saint Jerome, that supreme and most chaste doctor, because he was expounding the sacred Scriptures to certain Roman matrons and Virgins, whose zeal in the pursuit of piety was extraordinary, was denounced by many as a man of little modesty, especially when they had sent away luxury and the pomps of the world. He himself testifies to this and refutes the calumnies of the envious in this regard in letter 99 to Asella, where among other things he writes: "I lived with them for almost exactly three years. A great throng of Virgins frequently surrounded me. I frequently expounded the divine books, as I was able, to many: as Saint Jerome complains happened to him reading produced constancy, constancy familiarity, familiarity confidence. Let them say if they ever perceived anything in me other than what befitted a Christian. Did I accept anyone's money? Did I not spurn gifts, whether small or great? Did anyone's coin ring in my hand? Was my speech oblique, my eye wanton? Nothing else is objected against me, except my sex: and this is never objected, except when Paula and Melania set out for Jerusalem." And a little later: "Before I knew the house of Saint Paula, the attentions of the whole city were in agreement about me: by the judgment of almost everyone I was deemed worthy of the highest priesthood. Damasus of blessed memory was my discourse: they called me holy, they called me humble and eloquent. Did I ever enter the house of any woman of loose character? Did silken garments, shining gems, a painted face, the ambition of gold, captivate me? There was no other matron in Rome who could captivate my mind, except one who was mourning and fasting, squalid with filth, almost blinded by weeping, whom the sun often found beseeching the Lord's mercy through the continuous nights. Whose song was the psalms, whose speech the Gospel, whose delights continence, whose life fasting. No other could delight me, except one whom I never saw eating. But after I began to venerate, honor, and admire her for the merit of her chastity, all virtues immediately deserted me. O envy, first biting of yourself! O cunning of Satan, always persecuting holy things!" He adds more to the same effect.
[53] But if any such mystagogue's virtue has been so publicly proven that no suspicion of crime can fall upon him, wicked men contrive something by which they may at least fasten upon him some mark of rashness and excessive self-confidence. Well known in our annals is that professor of a most religious order who, being of no very favorable mind toward our men, and unable to bear that their integrity and their circumspect manner of conversing with every order and sex should be celebrated in the talk of all the people, such a calumny fabricated against Blessed Robert spread abroad among the common folk that they suppressed the stirring of lust by the aid of a certain exotic herb. More atrocious was the calumny that was cast upon that most holy man Robert of Arbrissel, either by sinister rumors dissipated through the mouths of men, or by the letter fabricated under the name of Geoffrey, that most weighty man, which we have mentioned. The author of this letter says that he heard what he writes by circulating unfavorable rumor. But how could that rumor circulate, when the nuns are so strictly kept from the sight even of the religious men of the same institute it is refuted from the constitutions of the Order that not even the Abbess, Deaconess, or Prioress, if she wishes to confess when seized by illness, can summon a Priest to her bed; but it is prescribed in these words in the constitutions, according to Nicquet, Book 3, chapter 12, that "whoever she may be, being transported to the Chapel, she may confess and communicate there, and after communicating, the Priest having departed, she may be carried back to her bed." How then could Robert approach women so enclosed, or they approach him? Or who could believe that one who wished to provide for the security of their modesty with such great care, was himself conversing with them even at night?
[54] If, moreover, that rumor had spread widely, so as to reach Geoffrey in Chartres, how did it not reach the neighboring Bishop of Poitiers, from the favor of the Bishops toward him and cause him not to commend Robert so handsomely before the Pontiff, or even to tolerate him in his diocese? How did that rumor not then reach the court of the Pontiff in some other manner, and of the Pontiffs where rarely are unknown those things which are narrated as worthy of censure about Ecclesiastical men, especially those not far removed? But they would not have favored Robert with such great esteem, nor adorned the Order with such ample privileges, if anything similar had even slightly come to their notice. Such honorable matrons and Virgins would not have dedicated themselves to this Order in such great numbers, from the accession of many to him if any of them had heard that any such thing had occurred: nor would so many pious men have wished to adhere to him, if they had felt themselves cast into such allurements by his example. What about his holy companions Bernard and Vitalis? Would they have especially entrusted women to be instructed by him, as one divinely endowed with a special talent for this, if they had suspected him of such great imprudence, or rather impudence? Or would not the same rumor have reached them too, and roused them from their monasteries to resist him to his face? and by piety For he would truly have been reprehensible if he had attempted any such thing. How could the spirit of piety and the fear of God be kindled and fostered in the souls of women, very many of whom he had extracted from the mire of sins, if he did not abstain as far as possible from all such blandishment? Away then, sons of Belial, if any, even in jest, have said any such thing about a most holy man. Nor do I think anyone is so ignorant of Christian discipline as to think that such things could have come into the mind of a pious and wise man.
[55] What then of Geoffrey, why does he reprove his friend with such weighty words, if he did not believe it? Why did he not rather write is Geoffrey the author of the letter, perhaps too credulous? that he had heard such a reproach, but could not believe it? I do not deny that certain men endowed with vehement zeal, even though otherwise learned, sometimes give credence to crimes fabricated against pious men, even if they have heard them from only one or two persons; or at least, because they fear they may be true, they are more severely disturbed when they hear them. I could, if the reverence we owe to religious antiquity did not forbid, bring forward some who, upon the report of even one person, even a false or rashly exaggerated one, directed a violent pen against certain persons. Perhaps this writer too suffered something human, and called a witticism of some impudent man "a circulating rumor." Certainly he seemed rather harsh to some.
[56] I shall say plainly what I think. That letter was not written by Geoffrey: it could not have been nor will anyone easily show a time at which it could have been written by him, or an occasion given by Robert for it to be written. In the time of Urban II, Robert's eloquence, joined with the highest piety, was so celebrated by favorable talk of men at least before the year 1100 that the same Pontiff summoned him to himself, ordered him to preach before himself at Angers to an almost infinite multitude of people, and then appointed him an Apostolic Preacher, or, as Baldric says, "a second Sower of God's word after himself." Therefore that unfavorable rumor about Robert had not yet reached Geoffrey: otherwise, because of his great familiarity with the Pontiff, he would have warned him not to arm a man with such authority whose public behavior was so dangerous. And how could that charge then be brought against him, when no women yet followed Robert: nor indeed in the years immediately following, when he established and governed the abbey of La Roe for regular Canons?
[57] The Council of Poitiers was held in the time of Paschal II, in the year 1100, as we said above: "Not long afterward (as our Sirmond notes at letter 32, Book 4, of the same Geoffrey, from the Chronicle of Tours) the abbey of Fontevraud was built in the diocese of Poitiers." not immediately after that year At that time, you will say, even if this was not done by Robert, it was certainly spread and reported to Geoffrey; since the nuns were not yet so strictly enclosed. at the beginning of the Order But there was no reason for Geoffrey to write to Robert at that time, since he himself was frequently at Fontevraud, even before the nuns were so enclosed in the cloister, utterly removed from the sight of men. He himself testifies to this in the same Book 4, letter 32: "The reason," he says, for why would he write when he himself was frequently at Fontevraud? "that I was not with you at Easter was the infirmity of our body. For a hump grew on my back, from which I had to be cut. And although among the hands and tearful voices of the beloved nuns of God of Fontevraud, with the razor writing its letters in our flesh, our body was not a little wearied by infirmity and wound alike; neither the infirmity, nor the cruelty of the cutter, nor the harshness of the salt immediately applied, could cause me to forget you even for a moment." Geoffrey was so familiar at Fontevraud that he wished to have his hump cut away there, at the very beginnings of the monastery, as I think, since the nuns are said to have ministered to him, and he calls them "beloved of God." Why did he not then warn Robert, who was also beloved of God, if he had heard anything about him of the kind described? Why was it necessary to send so sharp a letter, and to preserve it in his papers so that posterity too might know of it? The same writer, Book 1, letter 24, writes that he came to Fontevraud to converse with the Bishop of Poitiers there. Then in letter 26 he says that he cannot safely proceed beyond Fontevraud. Therefore he was frequently there and familiar, no more with the nuns than with Robert.
[58] Nor can it seem to anyone that the letter was written after the Order was already founded and formed by its own laws: for how could the same Geoffrey have wished to enter into a most holy association with Robert and the nuns at that time, [not when the Order was mature, for he entered into an association with it in 1114] when he should rather have shunned both him and them on account of such great rashness, and the violation if not of modesty, certainly of the luster of modesty? That association, moreover, is found in the Chartulary of the greater monastery of Fontevraud, charter 27, in this formula: "We make known to future generations as well as to those present, that Lord Geoffrey, Abbot of Vendome, has the familiarity and benefice of this place called Fontevraud, before all and above all Abbots: and when he shall have died, we shall solemnly celebrate his anniversary every year. Concerning the Brothers, moreover, of the monastery of Vendome, of whom we shall have received notice, we shall do as much as for ourselves. The Lord Abbot himself, moreover, donated in perpetuity and granted to our monastery the share of the toll which he had at Saint-Florent from the sale of salt. These things were done in the Chapter of Fontevraud, in the presence of Lord Geoffrey, Abbot of Vendome, and Lord Robert, our Master, in the year 1114, Indiction 7."
[59] Is it not already sufficiently clear that neither could that rumor have been spread about Robert, nor the letter written by Geoffrey? And indeed, not even in the monastery of Vendome, in the manuscript codex of Geoffrey's works and letters -- the Abbot of that very place -- does that letter exist: nor is that letter in the Vendome manuscript codex which the Prior and Subprior of the same abbey testified and subscribed with their own hand, at the request of the Most Excellent and Most Reverend Jeanne-Baptiste de Bourbon, General Abbess of the greater monastery and of the whole Order of Fontevraud, as we said before; and it is preserved in the archive of the same monastery. Since, however, what is at stake here is a notable calumny inflicted upon the most holy Founder, and indeed upon the whole Order, many have wondered that our Father Jacques Sirmond, when he published the letters and other small works of Geoffrey from two manuscript codices, one from the monastery of Saint-Pierre de la Couture in Le Mans, the other from the monastery of Vendome, did not at least note that in the latter codex the letter is not found: from which at least some doubt could arise in the reader that it is not truly Geoffrey's. He confesses, indeed, that in the edition of Geoffrey's letters he followed principally the Le Mans codex, because not all were found in the Vendome codex. But from this we conjecture that the one who first copied the Le Mans codex compiled into one volume letters collected from everywhere that seemed to be Geoffrey's, and also this one, which bore his name. I also learned from a certain authority that Jacques Sirmond himself (for although there was frequent and familiar exchange of letters between us while he lived, it did not then come to my mind to question him about that letter of Geoffrey), Sirmond had resolved to expunge it in a second edition but I received from another sincere and serious man of our order, that he afterward judged entirely that the letter was not a genuine offspring of Geoffrey, the matter having been more maturely considered and the letter of Peter Abelard, which we shall soon cite, having been weighed; and that he had resolved, if he should again send Geoffrey's works to the press, to expunge that letter.
[60] Who then at last is the author of the letter? It might be suspected that when Robert stood so bravely for the authority of the Apostolic See at the Council of Poitiers in the year 1100, someone among the subjects of King Philip, angry with him for that reason, written perhaps by someone angry on the King's behalf directed this venomous writing against him while he was living in Aquitaine under the dominion of Duke William: or that some member of the sacred Order, goaded by the sting of envy because, as is said in the letter itself, the whole world was going after him, fabricated this calumny. For certainly in many monasteries as well, as James of Vitry complains in the place cited above, piety was extinguished and discipline dissolved: while secular Priests in Brittany, as is gathered from Baldric, and in Normandy, as Geoffrey writes in the Life of Blessed Bernard, (perhaps elsewhere too) were polluting the dignity of their state with the most shameful vices: or by an envious Ecclesiastic and therefore the Norman Priests and the wives of the Priests (for so he calls them) conspired to kill Bernard. Therefore someone of that kind of men could have devised this calumny against Robert, who was too unlike them in morals.
[61] But (as Sirmond also felt) Peter Abelard in letter 21 to G., Bishop of Paris, seems to me to indicate the true author: namely Roscelin, or Roscelinus, indeed the letter seems to have been fabricated by Roscelin, a wicked man who was condemned at the Council of Soissons in the year 1140, and was compelled to hand over his writings to the fire. Concerning him, Abelard writes among other things in the cited letter: "I give thanks to God... that I now seem to be numbered among good men, from the attacks of one who is known always to have been hostile only to the good, and whose life and doctrine are manifest to all. This man dared to FABRICATE A CONTUMACIOUS LETTER against that illustrious herald of Christ, Robert of Arbrissel: and against that magnificent Doctor of the Church, Anselm, Bishop of Canterbury, he burned to such insults that by the command of the King of England his shameless contumacy was ignominiously expelled from England, and he barely escaped with his life. For he wishes to have a partner in his infamy, so that through the infamy of good men he may console his own infamy: nor does he hate anyone but the good, who cannot endure to be good." So Abelard, and other things, against the frauds and fallacies of the wicked man. That word is especially to be weighed, that he writes the letter was "fabricated": because the slander was not composed in just any manner, but in the form of a letter, and because it was under another's name, it is rightly called fabricated, not simply written: and perhaps neither while Robert was alive, nor while Geoffrey himself was alive (who died in the year 1129), but afterward, so that a stain might be branded upon the name of both, which would redound to the contempt of the whole Order and the detriment of public piety, had not the deceit of the shameful man been timely detected and suppressed: which Abelard rightly calls a contumacious letter, because while the innocence of the Order and the sanctity of the Founder were celebrated in the talk of all, with a certain obstinacy of malice it impudently detracted from both.
LIFE OF BLESSED ROBERT
by Baldric, Bishop of Dol, published from old manuscripts of Fontevraud at La Fleche in the years 1641 and 1647.
Robert of Arbrissel, Founder of the Order of Fontevraud in France (Blessed)
BHL Number: 7259
By Baldric, Bishop.
PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.
Baldric, by the grace of God Priest of Dol, though unworthy, to Petronilla, the Venerable Handmaid of Christ, Abbess of the monastery of Fontevraud, and to all the nuns of the same monastery under her governance, Greetings.
[1] By no means without you, indeed for your instruction, Petronilla who are the bride of God, I think this was said: "Hear, O daughter, and see," etc. Ps. 45:12 For you have heard, and truly you have heard, the voice of the one who announces: "Go forth from your land and from your kindred." Gen. 12:1 You went forth from whatever household was yours: you fled from your father's home: you abhorred the seductive allurements of the flesh that flattered you, and you came to Fontevraud: where you found and drank from an abundant spring, a spring of preaching, a spring of religion: namely Lord Robert, in our times a unique Sower of the Word, a distinguished and eminent Doctor, a disciple of Blessed Robert admirable in words and works, a man to be exalted and imitated. Here, having dwelt for some time among the Sisters and being instructed in holy conversation, having forgotten your people and the house of your father, with the Holy Spirit leading the way and the Lord Robert cooperating, previously married you were promoted to the office of Abbess: although you had previously served the unrest of the marriage chamber. For the necessity and benefit of the Holy Church frequently, and not without reason, obscure human institutions. God therefore raised you then Abbess of Fontevraud to a lofty throne, and set you over His people, with Pope Paschal approving. For that people -- a begging people, an orphan people -- needed such a Mother. By such a woman, I say, the women, who had accepted poverty solely for God's sake, were to be sustained as by a caretaker. And you shall have done well if you extend yourself entirely to their care: if you sacrifice yourself as a beast of burden to the burden undertaken: if you consider yourself the lowest of all.
[2] For the aforesaid Robert has entered upon the way of our Fathers: so that of the same Robert, now dead and, as is believed, having put off mortality, he has obtained from God the robe of immortality, crowned with it. What, however, should chiefly be done in his remembrance -- whether to weep or to rejoice -- can be determined with difficulty: since our humanity compels us to weep for the absence of our dearest friend; and since our Robert has flown away to the court of our God, about to intercede for us, security bids us to rejoice. Since, however, we do not yet know which of these two things should chiefly be done, let us in the meantime extend ourselves to both, and exercise ourselves in both until we are gradually drawn out of the valley of tears. Therefore let our eye weep and flow, because a good and eloquent doctor and friend of God has departed from us. Let our heart rejoice, because our Robert has preceded us from the filthy exile of this world to the dwelling place destined for us. His manner of life while he lived on earth, she urges him to write the Life how far it was removed from the common manner of life of men, most beloved Mother, you have commanded our littleness to describe, so that it might be committed to the record of letters, in order that the benefit of human frailty might be attended to in some way in the future. For if we find the footsteps of the Fathers written down, we much more readily imitate those whom we trust to be intercessors praying for us. This work would indeed require a Virgilian or Ciceronian style. You have imposed a great and heavy burden upon our weakness, Lady Petronilla: since both many a storm of the unstable world disturbs me, the author excuses his own slightness and especially the bestial and twofold ferocity of Lesser Brittany, in which I dwell with scorpions, has surrounded me. Finally, how will he keep the polished art of writing, whom no drop from the Sallustian bucket has ever moistened? I ask, with what rash audacity, with what gaping mouth shall I name Robert, a holy and just man, I who am overburdened with manifold sin? In the end, what shall I say? You gave me certain notes, which contained almost nothing about Lord Robert, except that they reported him to be a native of our Bretons.
[3] Yet when I remember that God bestows His grace even upon the undeserving, which I have heard; and I recall that I have read that the supreme Maker lent for a time to a brute animal, yet with hope of divine assistance namely a she-ass, the faculty of a human tongue; I do not doubt that He who makes the tongues of infants eloquent will inspire in me that eloquence, not on account of my merits, but on account of the merits of Robert who must so often be named: and that if He wills, He may pour through my leaden pipe the most limpid water, profitable for the succeeding age. to be obtained through the prayers of the Sisters I shall therefore attempt, most holy Sisters, assisted by your prayers, to which I specially commend myself, to say a little something about our Master, for whom you continually sigh: but I fear lest I, a wandering traveler, may fail along the way. If in this endeavor I shall have said anything well, he begins the work I ask you to attribute it to the gift of God; if otherwise, which I fear, impute it at last either to our decrepit age, or to our trembling hand, or to my sluggishness, or to my manner of life grown old in sins. Remember, however, that all men, except one, have lived subject to sins. Farewell.
AnnotationsCHAPTER I
The birth, studies, archpriesthood, public professorship in the sciences, and penances of Blessed Robert.
[4] Let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who to this day has not ceased to visit us, like the morning sun rising from on high. Nor is it a wonder, since He Himself
Truth Himself has foretold, since Jesus Himself promised this very thing in these words: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." But if God is with us as Emmanuel, how could the Maker and Ruler of all be idle among us? How could there be day without light? Matt. 28:20 How fire without heat? Will there be ice without frost? Sun without splendor? Blessed Robert, given to men as a light And since God can never and nowhere be idle, yet in our days He has worked before us more manifestly, when He gave to the world the venerable Robert of Arbrissel as a mirror, a suffocator of vices, a propagator and nurturer of virtues, the consolation and forerunner of all desolate and erring persons. For this Robert, a ray of the Rising Sun, an unreflected Morning Star, an authoritative Preacher, illuminated the western region of the world, and dispelled the darkness of ignorance with his authoritative voice.
[5] I, Baldric, Metropolitan of Dol, Baldric writes the Life though unworthy, yielding to the wishes of the nuns of Fontevraud, have undertaken to commit and promulgate his admirable manner of life among mortals in my style, however unpolished: so that in future ages the fragrance of his examples may be redolent, and the doctrine of the Christian school may benefit from it. For any material of a history of deeds accomplished will be of greater value that it may profit many than the sequence of reading will commend. Very many things remain about Robert, to be related by a more celebrated pen, which my great inexperience greatly hinders: my advanced age also hinders, which dulls my talent, and old age, that rival, which has turned into forgetfulness. I therefore undertake this work not supported by the props of literary learning, since I trust solely in the Lord. May the Holy Spirit therefore assist my obedience, and may the Holiness of Lord Robert support me. Amen.
[6] About to respond concerning the venerable Robert, I implore the Holy Spirit, the prompter of truth, to supply what is worthy of this subject, without whose aid the very loquacity of the Dialecticians is mute, the very deliberation of the Philosophers is dull. he divides the subjects to be discussed Therefore, that we may more deeply revolve the foundation of his history, let us treat briefly from what country, from what parents he came, and in what times he flourished: that we may bear testimony to the truth concerning each point. For we shall not seem to wander, if we first discuss his origin.
[7] Therefore Blessed Robert, about whom we have determined to speak, was co-heir and son of the Christian profession, a child of Lesser Brittany, which province the Priest adorned, born in the district of Rennes, a native and inhabitant of the village commonly called Arbrissellum. Blessed Robert born in Brittany His father was named Damalioch, and his mother Orguendis. Robert himself, from his very boyhood, began to grow in mature morals: nor, as is usual, did he as a youth follow the wantonness of that age: but he embraced, as far as he could, a bright chastity, and loved purity inwardly. He seemed to pursue through the world the letters that were fleeing, since from his infant years he had been devoted to literary studies he learns letters that he could not attain. He wandered restlessly through regions and provinces, and could not but be anxious in literary studies. And since France at that time flourished more abundantly in scholarly advantages, he left his father's borders, he goes to Paris as an exile and fugitive: he went to France and entered the city called Paris: he found the discipline of letters, which he had above all requested for himself, as he wished conveniently available: and there he began to sit as a constant reader. where he studies and conducts himself well He sweated entirely over those exercises: nor on that account did he neglect the observance of an approved way of life. Among his fellow students he displayed a certain majesty of measured severity: and what was to become of him, he clearly signified by certain signs. At that time King Philip, son of King Henry, was ruling the colonies of the Franks: and Gregory VII held the Papacy of the city of Rome. We have said these things for this reason, that we might plainly indicate in what times Robert grew up and studied. For he rendered to scholars what belonged to scholars, and did not thereby adapt himself less to the service of God. Those who knew him were already surmising something about him, since they beheld in him something great.
[8] Meanwhile the city of Rennes, deprived of its Patron, turned again to God, and after prayers had been offered, chose a certain Silvester as Bishop, whom the sincerity of his morals and his nobility recommended: he is summoned to Rennes by the Bishop who, as he was noble in blood, was still more noble in merits: and although not very learned, he nevertheless eagerly embraced the learned. For spiritual discipline flourished in him, so that what flesh and blood had not inspired in him, divine doctrine clearly distilled. He therefore summoned from elsewhere, if he could, any learned men: a type of person which Brittany then had most rarely. It was reported to the inquirer about Robert, and about his severity and diligence, and they said: "The Robert of whom we speak, Lord, is your natural subject: for he is also a man of Rennes and well suited to your needs: he is indeed pre-eminently learned in the liberal disciplines, vigorous in body, and composed in propriety of morals." The venerable Bishop, having prepared transportation, sends to Paris, and addresses the one summoned thus: "You see," he says, "dearest Brother, how the holy Church of Rennes, your mother, wavers without governance, especially at this time, when it happens that I, almost a layman, preside over it. Be therefore, I beg, our interpreter in Ecclesiastical responses: he is asked to help him I will listen to you, and you shall speak through me. You will doubtless be able to benefit the people of God, if, having zeal for God, you are willing to serve with us for a while."
[9] Robert yielded to the entreaties of the speaker: and was now busily occupied with Ecclesiastical occupations and necessities. he becomes Archpriest of Rennes In all matters to be handled he had God before his eyes, he was idle in nothing, he extricated from himself the desire for base gain, and in each matter he lawfully commanded himself. He faithfully assisted his Bishop in everything: for the Bishop, though he was the patron, did not disdain his patronage. Having therefore remained with the Bishop for four years as Archpriest, restoring peace among the discordant, freeing Churches from the infamous servitude of laymen, he roots out vices dissolving the incestuous unions of Priests and laymen, he utterly abhorred Simony and manfully resisted all vices.
[10] After two twice-repeated years had elapsed, the Reverend Bishop, touched by a grave infirmity of body, put off his humanity, and, as is believed, departed to the stars: the Bishop having died and Robert remained alone among orphans as an orphan: alone, I say, because the Brothers envied his good deeds, detested by the Canons whose envy had already begotten hatred against him. He therefore decided to yield to envy, and in accordance with the voice of his Master, to flee from city to city: for he did not wish to be a scandal to anyone, which he knew to be a great and grave sin. Matt. 10:23 He therefore came to Angers, and there he devoted himself to scholarly studies: nor on that account did he grow tepid in religion, since after study he applied himself to divine philosophy: he goes to Angers he avoided being idle, now devoted to prayer, now to reading. Determining therefore to dominate the allurements of the flesh more austerely, he put on a coat of mail next to his flesh underneath: clad in a coat of mail which garment he wore for two years, before he went to the desert. To the desert indeed he afterward went, and dedicated himself entirely to contemplation. During the two years, moreover, in which he was taming his flesh with that iron garment, he was covered above with fine clothes, under elegant clothing hiding himself from the eyes and favor of men, but manifesting himself only to the sight of God. For in all his life he despised the trifles of human favor: and like poison, he spurned all flattery. He sometimes used rare and cheap foods, and sometimes occupied himself with vigils. he lives austerely
AnnotationsCHAPTER II
The austere life of Blessed Robert in the desert: many converts: the foundation of the abbey of La Roe: the distinguished office of Apostolic Preacher nobly discharged.
[11] The day came on which, having enlisted a certain Priest, He withdraws to the desert renouncing the world, he hastened to the desert he had long desired: he turned aside into a forest, having spurned the company of men, and became a companion of beasts. There, with what inhumanities he raged entirely against himself, with how many and how great crosses he sacrificed himself, with what dire torments he exhausted himself, who could worthily recount? For besides those things that were visible externally, such as wearing a hairshirt made of the bristles of swine, shaving his beard without water, scarcely knowing any bed except the ground, being utterly ignorant of wine and refined and fattened foods, rarely taking the most scant sleep, when natural frailty compelled it; he mortifies himself with rough clothing, abstinence, and vigils there was a certain inward conflict in him, a certain roaring of the mind, a certain sobbing of the inner parts, which you might have deemed cruel and pitiless, for which no terminal remedy could occur, which many whispered was impossible and excessive for earthly weakness. For he contended with God with incomparable wailing and devoted himself entirely as a sacrifice. Gentle and modest to all, he was hostile, obstinate, and unsparing only to himself alone.
[12] To the crowds of those who came (for great crowds came to him for the sake of seeing him), he was cheerful and eager, affable and discreet, consulted in doubtful matters, by his kindness prompt in answers. There breathed in him in some manner the fragrance of divine eloquence: for it was rare to find one of similar eloquence. and eloquence he converts many Whence it happened that upon hearing him, many struck their hearts and renounced their evil ways of life. Some returned to their homes, improved by his preaching: others wished to remain with him, and to devote themselves to his service, and begged to adhere to him as inseparable companions. He would have fled such crowds voluntarily, and would have hidden alone, had he not feared on that account to incur guilt: for he had read, "He who hears, let him say, 'Come.'" Rev. 22:17 He therefore applied himself to distributing the talent committed to him, which the Lord, returning from the wedding, would demand with interest. he gathers companions It therefore seemed good to him that he ought to gather many and give them food, lest perhaps they should faint on the way, for some of them had come from afar. Those gathered were called Regulars, who strove to live regularly in the manner of the primitive Church. whom he calls Regulars That swarm flying from the allurements of the world became therefore a Congregation of Canons. Robert presided over them, teaching them in the honeyed manner of a most prudent bee. he builds a dwelling for them They therefore built a common dwelling, and they eagerly embraced the teaching through his admonitions.
[14] It happened in those days that the Roman Pontiff Urban II, pressed by the necessity of the time, came to France and turned aside to Angers. summoned by Urban II He heard about Robert: for so great a lamp ought not to be hidden under a bushel. He ordered him to be summoned, and eagerly desired his conversation. He had to celebrate there the solemn dedication of a certain church, to which you would have thought the entire breadth of the world had flowed together. he preaches before him In so great an assembly he commanded Robert to speak: "And ordered him to use no unusual words." He therefore spoke brilliantly to the people: his words greatly pleased the Lord Pope. For he understood that the Holy Spirit had opened his mouth. He therefore commands and enjoins upon him the office of preaching: he is appointed Apostolic Preacher and to the one somewhat resisting, he commends the ministry of this obedience. He established him as the second Sower of God's word after himself: and he exhorts him to hasten everywhere to this study.
[15] From that time he began zealously to engage in the legation of the Supreme Pontiff, he preaches everywhere and to traverse the regions of the neighboring Bishoprics. He was honored by all, since he was indeed worthy of honor, for the grace of God evidently walked with him. Nor was his speech barren or idle, with great fruit which the praiseworthy companionship of both his words and his deeds commended. What he preached he fulfilled with works, lest perhaps, when he preached to others and did not practice, he himself should immediately be considered a reprobate. So great a multitude of newcomers adhered to him that the number of Canons was almost considered excessive. very many join him For the number would soon exceed the number, if he had added to the Canons even a tenth part of the supplicants. He himself, however, being of generous heart, would have wished to fail no one, if the will and rule of the Brothers had permitted. He therefore thought of departing from them. He considered, moreover, how he could accomplish this without causing them trouble. They came before the Bishop of Angers, in whose diocese the Canons were dwelling: and according to the consideration of the matter and the command of the Lord Pope, by the counsel of the Bishop and the permission of the Clergy, he departs from them Robert freely departed, so that he might more freely devote himself to preaching, and unencumbered might advance wherever and to whomever he could.
AnnotationsCHAPTER III
The preaching of Blessed Robert: the construction of the monastery of Fontevraud and of others: the institution of the Order and its governance.
[16] Torn away from the Canons not without common tears, he began to traverse regions and provinces, and at first accompanied by a few followers, to sow everywhere through streets and crossroads the seed of the word of God. with a few he more freely preaches everywhere In a short time, more persons of both sexes were joined to him: because he did not dare to repel anyone upon whom God had breathed. He still had no place where to lay his head, unless necessity compelled him. without a fixed home, with men and women following him After he had departed from the Canons, he had not yet wished to choose any place: so that free, and without a staff and without a bag, he might proceed. But seeing the multitude of followers growing, lest anything be done without deliberation, since the women had to dwell with men, he resolved to seek a place where they could live and associate without the scruple of scandals, and to find a desert if one should happen to occur. he establishes a seat in the forest of Fontevraud The place was uncultivated and squalid, overgrown with thornbushes and briars, called from antiquity the Spring of Euraldus, sequestered from human habitation, and about two miles distant from the cell of Candes, adjacent to the diocese of Poitiers. He chose this small forest, or thicket, in which God's new family and new army might dwell and labor, and received it as a gift from certain landowners: and he led into it the miscellaneous recruits of Christianity.
[17] They therefore made there, as time allowed, certain little huts, which would merely protect them from the untimely inclemency of the weather. he builds huts there They had also constructed there some kind of oratory, in which God might be invoked, and might be lodged in the midst of His encampment. Those camp-dwellers desired to converse privately with their God, and longed to be refreshed by His colloquy. From there they went forth to their works, so that they might live by the labors of their hands and never presume to live in idleness. He separated the women from the men, however, and enclosed them within a cloister, he encloses women in a cloister, to pray as if condemning them to it, whom he assigned to prayer: but the men he subjected to labors. He did not seem to do this without discretion, because he commended the more tender and weaker sex to psalmody and contemplation: but the stronger he applied to the exercises of the active life. Laypeople and Clergy walked together in a mixed fashion: except that the Clergy chanted the psalms and celebrated Masses; the Laypeople voluntarily submitted to labor. what rules he prescribed for them and for the men Silence was imposed upon all at certain times. They were ordered to respond gently and not to swear: and all were bound together with fraternal love. There was no bitterness among them, no envy, no discord. With bowed neck and lowered countenance they walked; they avoided garrulity; they knew nothing of vain talk. This was the covenant of the subjects: this was the law under which they served. he himself is called Master by his followers Their superior they called only Master: for he did not wish to be called either Lord or Abbot.
[18] For a long time he did not ride on any beast of burden: nor did he taste wine or savory foods. more austerely in himself He himself always walked with bare feet, and wore tunics and sackcloth that were very rough: until by the counsel of Priests, his body now failing, shod, he mounted a beast of burden, and indulged his poor body a little, not that he might be delighted, but that he might be strengthened in some way for labor: for he was careful not to make provision for the flesh in its lusts. He often continued fasts, frequently spent the night in prayer, wore out his members with prolonged fasting, and troubled no one with any vexation. He utterly uprooted hypocrisy from himself, cheerful and joyful of countenance, simple and gentle in responding, abundant in distributing, indulging himself little, kind toward his own but his Brothers and Sisters much. In preaching he seemed invective against sinners, but those who had deserted sin he consoled with paternal affection: and all penitents whence it happened that many publicans, both men and women, adhered to him and obeyed him with all their might. For he sent away no one who was wandering: but at last he cherished the penitent placed in his bosom. His discourse could not fail to be effective, because, if I may so speak, made all things to all he was all things to all: gentle to the penitent, austere to the vicious, kind and accessible to the mourning; a rod to the irreverent, a staff to the aged and wavering; groaning in heart, tearful in eye, serene in counsel. I would indeed call this man a habitation of Jesus Christ, a temple and organ of the Holy Spirit, the Respondent and Vicar of the Most High.
[19] Anointed with His discourses, so great grew the swarm of those renouncing their sins that their number was almost innumerable: whom he wished to be called by no other name he calls his followers the Poor of Christ: he admits very many, men and women than the Poor of Christ. Many men of every condition flocked together: women came together, poor and noble, widows and Virgins, old and young, prostitutes and women who spurned men. Nor could the prepared huts now contain the innumerable abundance; rather, the recruits of Christ needed more capacious dwellings. He who fed the children of Israel in the desert with His savory abundance supplied them with all provisions. He also sustained this little family of His, needy and begging, in these thickets with His food: when they had not yet plowed, not yet sown, not yet harvested. For God of all inspired all the indigent people dwelling around them, with the necessities for feeding them that they might send them daily food and prepare for them a daily feast: nor indeed could this happen without God, who continued in the surrounding settlers the will to send bread. Whatever there was, was received with thanksgiving, and God was praised with thanksgiving when anything was lacking. They wished to be ungrateful in neither direction, because for present things they joyfully rendered thanks, and being more certain and robust in hope, they awaited future things: they received abundance and without murmuring endured want: and in both, blessed be God. To seek food Robert went out, a mother bee, a most prudent bee, and conversed with all: he himself procures and to God's family were now sent not only dishes, but any gifts of clothing to protect their nakedness, and gifts were lavished for the construction of dwellings. All had one will, all had unfailing means: the money of those who sent seemed to be increased, since no poverty afflicted those who sent on this account. Princes and peoples came, many sending of their own accord intending to visit God's new family, pale and wasted from regular parsimony. Nor did they depart fasting, since there they first heard a word of edification, and tasted the bread of charity for their communion.
AnnotationsCHAPTER IV
Various monasteries built and sustained by Blessed Robert: his piety, miracles, and death.
[20] he builds various convents, some for women, others for men Now therefore it was being urgently pressed to enlarge and raise the walls of the oratory: abundant funds were given, necessary supplies were offered: cloisters upon cloisters were being prepared: and yet three or four did not suffice for such great colleges of women. The men were separated from the women: and separately, in more remote places, houses upon houses were prepared for them. The sagacious Master again segregated the women from one another: and again distinguished them through cells and divisions: he placed them and them in groups, since each number was extending into simplicity. In the greater cloister he placed more than three hundred together: others he assigned in groups of a hundred or sixty, or in troops of another quantity, elsewhere more, elsewhere less: and he also delegated the men into separate companies.
[21] He neither wished nor could be present with the workers, because he had to preach to many nations. He therefore appointed from among the Sisters one to be the Assistant and Mistress of responses and works, he places Hersende over the building Hersende by name, who, having despised the nobility in which she excelled, had adhered to the choirs of women -- indeed, she had been the first to convert. Hersende lived as a woman both of great religion and equally of great counsel. who with Petronilla presides over the Sisters To this Hersende he also joined Petronilla, who was skilled in household management, whom Robert himself later chose as Abbess, for Hersende had already departed to the heavenly ones. These two women therefore, since he knew them to be prudent, industrious, and persons of great circumspection, he had set, as has been said, over the other Sisters. But enough of these matters. Lord Robert, moreover, was never torn away from either preaching or prayer by any petty occasions: he himself preaches but entirely devoted to his strenuousness, he traversed the neighboring and distant regions. He was accepted by Kings, Bishops, and Princes, Clergy, and all sorts of common people.
[22] Kings and Counts sent generous gifts into the treasury of the most poor monastery of Fontevraud. Princes and almost all gave what seemed necessary. Others gave their own estates and whatever stipends each might choose: the place having been enriched whence it happened that in a short time that place grew in houses and oratories and also in household furnishings. Moreover, from what was sent he amply assists the poor they gave abundant alms: they received the poor and did not repel the weak: they did not refuse the unchaste, nor concubines, nor lepers, nor the powerless. For he built for the lepers their own little dwellings and monastic cloisters, and Master Robert established the means by which each might be fed: and very often, as long as he lived, he visits lepers: he adheres intimately to God he himself visited such persons most humbly. He attended the celebrations of Masses with full devotion and with sobs, and, if I may so speak, knowingly admitted nothing that was irreligious. The Lord alone was his concern; he was wholly anxious, because he was thought to be at peace in a crowd. Any conversation of his was a moral edification: for whatever he said savored of God. Although he needed many stonecutters and masons and various craftsmen, nevertheless that care seemed to him the last: since his soul was anxious only in holy religion. and he speaks of him Whose pen, do you think, will explain Robert to perfection, whose mind, whose conscience, whose soul always adhered to God? When I say more about Robert, I am the more astonished; because I find more abundantly what is still to be said about him: but since I am by no means equal to those things that ought to be said, behold, as though I had said nothing, I succumb and desist, and blushing, I am compelled to exclaim: "Abundance has made me poor."
[23] Behold, we have discussed for some time the praiseworthy manner of life of Robert, and although we may seem to have said something, yet we have said almost nothing, we who desire to express with what familiarity he flourished before God, but we cannot sufficiently do so. For through whom in our days has God worked more abundant miracles? Did not Robert clearly shine as an imitator of Him who said, filled with the Spirit of God "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; He has sent me to preach to the poor"? Luke 4:18 He truly evangelized the poor, called the poor, gathered the poor. For if any woman hastened to him from the nobility, to the wise observer he likened Nicodemus and Jesus there, Cornelius the Centurion and Peter there: for the affluence of the graces of God allures all and repels none, because He wills all men to be saved. 1 Tim. 2:4 Let anyone express what he has felt; I boldly say that Robert was abundant in miracles, imperious over demons, he works many miracles glorious over earthly Princes. For who in our time has healed so many sick, cleansed so many lepers, raised so many dead? He who is of the earth speaks of the earth and admires miracles in bodies: but he who is spiritual but spiritual ones, in the healing of souls testifies that the sick and lepers and the dead too have recovered, when anyone cares for and heals souls that are sick and leprous and need to be raised. Finally (if I may say it with everyone's leave), through which of the Pastors has the Lord spoken so much, worked so much?
[24] We, our contemporaries, we too, Bishops and Abbots, Clergy and Priests, have entered into the labors of others: and from the penury which our predecessors endured, we have been fattened: and perhaps we have profited little, and, what is to be feared, perhaps it has been said as a reproach to us: "Their iniquity has come forth as from fatness." Ps. 73:7 This Robert, this Robert, I say, impoverished in every way for Christ, an exile from his homeland and from his own kindred; surrounded by the crowds to whom he had preached, though poor himself, he builds many convents in the wilderness lest he should seem to fail them, in the solitude of Fontevraud, without the money of any revenue, he built many dwellings for the poor for Christ's sake. There he arranged for oratories to be built: he laid the first foundation and the first stone: he gathered servants and handmaids of God to more than two, or about three thousand: he sustains about 3,000 through cells and regions he placed such great armies of Christians: he prepared the means by which they could be sustained: to such a degree that in so short a space of time this work would have been most difficult for great Kings. Come now, who would not testify that this beggar, this needy man, this poor man, was rich? Rich indeed he was, to whom nothing that would suffice for many was lacking: rich, I say, he was, who was able to prepare so many and such great works, which now survive, not for himself but for God Himself: who was able to feed such great multitudes of people in the deserts. But, to speak more truly, he himself could not do these things, but he evidently earned that they be done. or he obtains that they be sustained by God God was the giver and master: Robert was the steward and minister. The one poured forth abundantly, the other faithfully divided the drops. They seemed to have had a certain friendly contest between themselves, which of them could do more: whether He by presenting, or he by distributing? Truly God knew Robert to be a faithful steward, to whom He had committed His family, and He increased the money. For we have it written, "A faithful and prudent servant, whom the Lord has set over His household." For how could these things be done without God? I confess, and I confess truly, that the vows of those did not disagree, whose works so most certainly agreed. And these are, if you do not know, besides those miracles that Blessed Robert performed: to love God, to serve God, for God to respond so effectively to the wishes of Lord Robert: and to provide through his hand all things that his followers needed. Matt. 24:45 He knew his faith, whose will he was unwilling to offend. Finally, as long as he lived, God always exalted His Robert, so that His family might be daily increased in his hand, and the means by which each thing might be completed might be constantly bestowed.
[25] Times succeeded times, nor did Robert ever grow cold from the pact which he had struck with God, always more fervent in the love of God, always fresh, always more devout. As years revolved upon years, Blessed Robert perceived by certain signs that his end was approaching, he has a presentiment of his death: he visits his followers because as his members failed, he began to be destitute of bodily strength. He resolved to go and visit and greet his Brothers and Sisters: and he went. He comforted all in the Lord and addressed each with a benevolent voice. He commended his passing to his fellow disciples: and he exhorted them never to grow tepid from their good practices.
[26] Having delivered discourses to both sexes, having received the sacred Communion, in a praiseworthy consummation, having received the Eucharist expending himself in such salutations, that is, and in good exercises; as his infirmity grew worse, or rather as God was inviting His foster child, in the place called Orsan, among the hands of his sobbing flock, he breathed forth his spirit, and, as is believed, departed to the stars, there to enjoy as a citizen of the heavenly region in perpetuity, he dies piously at Orsan or rather, according to the Apostle, having been made an heir of God and a co-heir of Christ, to enjoy eternal joys. Rom. 8:17 To the well-provided family of God, and especially to the Handmaids of Christ, his little body, moistened with tears, was returned to the monastery of Fontevraud, and was buried in a fitting mausoleum: he is buried at Fontevraud while Louis was reigning in France, while Paschal was administering the Papacy of the city of Rome, while Jesus Christ our Lord reigns for infinite ages. Amen.
Annotationsb. That is, abundantly.
ANOTHER LIFE OF BLESSED ROBERT,
OR HIS FINAL MANNER OF LIFE AND PASSING,
by a monk of Fontevraud, Andrew, as is believed, his disciple and Confessor.
Robert of Arbrissel, Founder of the Order of Fontevraud in France (Blessed)
BHL Number: 7260
By his disciple.
CHAPTER I
The illness of Blessed Robert, and his deliberation concerning the election of an Abbess.
[1] The Life of Master Robert having been described by the Venerable Baldric, Metropolitan of Dol, in an elegant discourse; his manner of life and the propriety of his morals also having been described and recited in brief; it is pleasing also to recall briefly for the remembrance of posterity how he conducted himself near the end of his life and how he departed from this world. [The author narrates the deeds done by Blessed Robert near the end of his life, but briefly] I make known, however, to the reader of this work that I shall not note in this treatise all the things that ought to be said; but rather I shall briefly indicate the things that are to be said: for if I wished to recount in detail all the things that the Lord deigned to work through him in the last year of his life, I confess that, pressed by so great a weight, even unwillingly I would succumb. But since for investigating these things my poor little talent has almost no little knowledge, by the interceding merits of him about whom I am going to speak, may the grace of the Holy Spirit be present to me.
[2] In the first place, however, it must be said why he was called Robert: whence is Robert so called? for not without divine dispensation did he obtain such a name. For he was called Robert, as if "roboratus" (strengthened), or "certain in strength." For in truth he was strengthened, because the Holy Spirit certainly strengthened him always to act well. He was also certain in the strength of faith, and persevered in holy religion to the end. Of whom a certain religious versifier not unworthily says:
"If you seek his like, none will be found. How great he was, the fruit, bearing witness, teaches."
[3] This Robert, therefore, an indefatigable preacher for very many years already, had distributed the words of God not only to the adjacent but even to foreign nations: sick, he asks the monks whether they wish to persevere in obedience to the nuns when, as his bodily infirmity grew worse, together with other previous ailments, he suddenly began to be destitute of strength. At length, at Fontevraud, compelled by the necessity of his infirmity, reclining on his bed, he ordered all the Brothers dwelling in the same place to be summoned to him. When all had been quickly assembled, he said: "Behold, my dearest sons, whom I have begotten in the Gospel, struck by bodily affliction, I am entering upon the way of all flesh. Wherefore deliberate among yourselves while I still live, whether you wish to remain in your resolve; namely, that for the salvation of your souls, you should obey the command of the Handmaids of Christ. For you know that whatever I have built anywhere, with God's cooperation, I have subjected to their power and dominion. But if you do not wish to remain with them as you have begun, I give you permission, but with my counsel, for another religious life." Upon hearing this, nearly all said with one voice: "Far be it from us, dearest Father, that we should ever leave them: since, with you as witness, we can in no way do better elsewhere. Far be it from us," they said, which all vow "that we should forsake your counsel: rather, we all unanimously and spontaneously promise Stability and Perseverance to the Church of Fontevraud, before God and His Saints, into your hand."
[4] The congregation of our Brothers and Sisters having thus been brought to agreement, he wished to provide for the benefit of his posterity, taught, as I think, by divine inspiration. For after a few days had passed, he consults Bishops and Abbots about the election of an Abbess since he was daily burning with the heats of fevers, he summoned several Bishops and Abbots to himself, and notified them through messengers that he wished to seek a certain counsel. And since at the same time the Church of Poitiers, widowed of its own Patron, was laboring under Prince William, he ordered certain Primates of that Church to be summoned to his counsel. Finally, when a not inconsiderable assembly of religious and noble persons had been gathered, he disclosed to them the reason for his counsel, for which he had caused so great a multitude to be assembled. "I sense," he said, "my brothers, that my end is near: and therefore I have summoned you, so that by your counsel I may wholesomely provide for the benefit of our Church concerning the election of an Abbess." To whom all unanimously who commit it to his own judgment and reverently said: "Your counsel, dearest Father, ought rather to be followed in this matter: especially since we know for certain that among all the other mortals of our age your counsel prevails. For God has given you to the world as a counselor of souls: and with His help, it is very easy for you to provide counsel for the future life of your followers."
[5] Then he said to them: "You know, my most beloved, that whatever I have built in the world, I have done for the service of our nuns: and I have given them power over all my resources: and, what is greater than these things, I have subjected both myself and my disciples to their service, for the salvation of our souls. Wherefore I have resolved, with your counsel, to appoint an Abbess for this congregation while I am still alive: lest perhaps (God forbid) after my death someone should presume to contradict this decree of mine. Eccles. 32:24 And therefore, according to the admonition of the Wise Man, I wish to do all things with counsel, so that after the deed I may not have to repent. For he who does his works without the counsel of his elders shows himself to be indiscreet. [he asks whether he should not rather choose a converted laywoman than a cloistered Virgin] One thing I ask of you: whether it is permitted me to appoint an Abbess from among the converted Laywomen? So that when it has been done, our authentic authority may restrain the detractors (if there be any). For I know the dignity of this Order, I know it demands a Virgin. For it is written, 'She who guards Virgins ought herself to be a Virgin.' But how will any cloistered Virgin be able suitably to administer our external affairs, who knows nothing but how to sing Psalms? For what earthly things will she reasonably manage, who has always been accustomed to work spiritual things? In what way, I say, will she bear the weight of the practical life, who knows nothing but the joys of contemplation? By what reason will that tongue respond concerning external matters, which from childhood has been accustomed to speak with the Lord in praying, singing, and reading? It is also most difficult that she should be compelled to put back on the tunic of temporal affairs already removed, who rejoices that she now has clean feet. For I have read that 'a wise woman builds her house: but a foolish one destroys what has been built.' Prov. 14:1 For which reason I do not wish to commit this prelacy to any cloistered Virgin, lest perhaps I seem (may it never happen) to destroy what I have built: since I can be accused of what I have built with God's cooperation, if I knowingly commit this care to one who does not know it. Exod. 26:7 Let therefore, if it please you, a goat-hair covering be chosen, which may cover the tabernacle of the Lord on every side and manfully endure the storms of external affairs: so that the scarlet may be able to glow within with perfect color. Let Mary be permitted to gaze continually upon heavenly things: and let Martha be chosen, who knows how to minister diligently to external things."
[6] Upon hearing this, the elders who were present gave their assent, which they approve and affirmed that all things he had said were true. And that this opinion of Master Robert might be held firm and inviolable in perpetuity, a certain Archpriest of Angers, a man of good character, was present at this counsel, affirming that when he was once at Rome, he heard the Lord Pope Urban (namely he who had enjoined upon our Robert the office of Preacher) granting that a certain matron, who had had four husbands, might for the time being and on account of the necessity of a certain Church, be made Abbess. The man of venerable life knew well that what the necessity of our human frailty compels, the faith being preserved, the divine piety, maintaining its moderation everywhere, does not punish. When this was known, those Senators rejoiced, and they said universally that a prudent man wished to act prudently. But after the venerable assembly was concluded, they confirmed by praising the counsel of the skillful man, and returned from him to their own homes with twofold joy.
AnnotationsCHAPTER II
The election of Abbess Petronilla. The statutes of Blessed Robert.
[7] When the seventh month had passed since the aforesaid senate had been assembled, and the end of October was now approaching, on the fifth day before the Kalends of November, our foster child completed, not without the counsel of religious men, what he had sought from the said senate. He therefore chose for the dignity of so great an honor Petronilla of Camilliac, who, having left her father's goods, had been his disciple from almost the beginning of his way of life, he appoints Petronilla as Abbess with the prior sound counsel of several wise men, saying: "It seems worthy to me that she who has borne with me the labor of pilgrimage and poverty should also bear whatever burden there may be of our consolation and prosperity. For although she was once married, a widow compelled by necessity, none seems to me more suitable for this prelacy. Phil. 4:12 For she knows above others our gifts, and, according to the Apostle, how to abound and how to suffer want. For she knows how to give a timely response to the wise, and she knows also how to condescend fittingly to the unlearned."
[8] After what the distinguished Doctor had done was heard abroad, not only our Brothers with all approving but also seculars praised this kind of election. Finally, also after the Election had come to the notice of the same Petronilla, it would take long to discuss how she wished to flee, she herself most unwilling or in what ways she tried to decline her election. For she feared, not unreasonably (as was indeed to be feared), to undertake the inestimable burden of so great an honor of state. She feared on the one hand, as a wise woman, her own weakness. On the other hand she considered the inestimable magnitude of that prelacy. What more? Although greatly resisting, at length, with God's assent, overcome by the prayers of her followers, or, what is truer, she acquiesces constrained by the obedience of Master Robert, she acquiesced. Many things worthy of relating I could narrate about her manner of life. But since I confess myself to be her son, although unworthy, I am silent for the present: lest (God forbid) I be judged to be anointing her head with the oil of flattery. The election of our dearest Mother having been thus accomplished by the common consent of religious men, each returns to his own place.
[9] Afterward, not long after, when the often-mentioned Robert had begun, God being propitious, to improve somewhat from his infirmity, he endeavored to have the election we described confirmed the election is confirmed by the Apostolic Legate by the authority of the venerable Gerard, Legate of Angouleme: who not only granted on his part the deed of the skillful man, but also, what is greater, and by the Pope himself caused a privilege of Paschal, Pope of Rome, to be obtained through his messengers concerning the election that Robert had made. Hence it happened that our Robert gave a general precept to the Abbess whom he had elected, statute concerning the election that no cloistered woman should ever become Abbess in the Fontevraud monastery. The holy man knew well that many Churches have been ruined through the carelessness and inexperience of Abbesses who were reared in cloisters. And, that this precept might be inviolably observed by successors, it was committed to the custody of written documents, among his other mandates, which are written at Fontevraud and are preserved to this day.
[10] For the lamp of the Hermits, the aforesaid Robert, gave to his religious people certain precepts: other precepts of Blessed Robert namely, that both men and women should unanimously guard the sanctity of their religious life, in speech, in action, in food, and in dress. The man praiseworthy from every mouth knew truly concerning silence that religion is vain which immoderate speech constantly accompanies. He also knew that anyone who boasts of having faith glories in vain unless he follows the same faith with good works: for, as the Apostle James testifies, "Faith without works is dead." James 2:20 The benign man had also read: "It is good not to eat flesh." Rom. 14:21 And therefore he wished himself and his family to abstain from such food for the love of God. abstinence from meat, cheap clothing He knew, finally, how a cheap tunic demonstrates contempt of the world: and for this reason he wished both himself and his subjects to be clothed in cheaper garments. For he used to say to us that those garments could suffice for all Religious which could expel the cold of human frailty, not those which could adorn a body that would one day die; which is without doubt worthy of reproof and worldly. This rule concerning garments, however, was established by him in our religious life: that according to the teaching of Saint Benedict, neither our Brothers nor our Sisters should be blamed for the natural color, or coarseness, or width of their garments. Rule, ch. 55 If anyone desires to know these mandates in full, let him humbly inquire at Fontevraud, where they are written both for love of so great a man and as a great gift.
AnnotationsCHAPTER III
Peace reconciled between the quarrelsome through the work of Blessed Robert. New monasteries built and visited.
[11] This Robert, of whom we speak, had built, with God's cooperation, a number of dwelling places in various provinces, in which he enclosed companies of nuns Other colonies led forth from Fontevraud: who had been tested by long practice of the religious life in the Fontevraud cloister, according to the suitability of the places, and he assigned some of our Brothers to their service. Moreover, this was his inflexible custom: that wherever he had caused monasteries to be built for his nuns, [The Sisters' churches dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, the Brothers' to St. John the Evangelist] he would construct them in honor of the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin. And because St. John the Evangelist devotedly and diligently served that same Virgin at Christ's command, as long as she lived bodily in the world, the prudent man decreed that the oratories of the Brothers should be dedicated in his veneration: which I consider to have been done not without divine inspiration, so that the Brothers might have as the Patron of their oratories the very one whom they had as an example of serving the brides of Christ. Yet I do not say such things because I wish to equate our service with the delightful ministry of John: believing without doubt that that most excellent Virgin, placed in heaven beside her Son, is alone without equal.
[12] Those dwelling places, in which the memorable man enclosed the Lord's sheep with the counsel of the neighboring bishops, he frequently visited in the manner of a good shepherd: so that if at any time, by the devil's persuasion, Blessed Robert visits his foundations: any incentives to vice should spring up, he might uproot them as far as he could. It happened, moreover, that a certain deserted place was given to him in France, with the concession of Louis, King of the Franks, which to this day is commonly called Haute-Bruyere. He truly disdained to have convents of his holy religious life within towns or villages, plainly recognizing that such things are harmful to the purpose of holy religion. When the place of which we speak had been built, within a few years he sends nuns to Haute-Bruyere: he sent ahead of himself to that same place, through our Abbess Petronilla whom he had chosen, some of our Sisters, on whose account especially the place had been built: whom that man of venerable life followed with great diligence and without delay.
[13] One day in the territory of Chartres they came for the sake of hospitality to the town of Bonneval, in which there was a certain abbey of monks, at the same time when Ivo was governing the bishopric of Chartres, who had quarreled so severely with Bernard, the Abbot of this Bonneval, over certain matters, Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, and the Abbot of Bonneval gravely at odds that their discord was nearly irreconcilable: for many religious persons had attempted many times to make peace between them, yet they were unable to restore peace between them. After the pious Master unwillingly heard of so great a discord, he grieved deeply for those quarreling parties, and began to consider within himself how he might reconcile them. He therefore sent ahead of himself, through Angardis, a devout nun who was then Prioress of Fontevraud, his nuns to their appointed place: and he himself, having joined to himself the religious Abbot Bernard and his Abbess Petronilla, hastened to Chartres for the reconciliation of the aforesaid discord. For the man of peace grieved that Masters of the Church were faithlessly subjected to the license of detestable dissension: and, to speak the truth, he reconciles them: after the prudent preacher, impelled by charity, came to Chartres, although he labored greatly, he not only utterly destroyed that diabolical discord, but also, what many had already suspected to be impossible, restored them to their former friendship.
[14] When peace had been restored between the Masters of the holy Church, as the Lord's Nativity drew near, the aforesaid mediator of discord proceeded to the place of Haute-Bruyere, he visits the convent of Haute-Bruyere: of which we made mention a little before: and there, celebrating the Lord's Nativity with the daughters dear to him, whom not long before he had sent to that same place through Angardis, assiduous in fasts, foremost in prayers, insatiable in reading,
keeping watch through the night, overflowing with tears, admirable in teaching -- by how many ways he immolated himself for God upon the altar of his heart, or what fruit he acquired for the Lord among those of his household or among the crowds flocking to him, remains, I believe, unknown to other mortals to this day.
[15] When the glorious feast of the Lord's Incarnation had been celebrated at that same place with the highest reverence, and the community of that place, the Lord's sheepfold, had been arranged both internally and externally, he came again to Chartres at the request of others. When Geoffrey, Bishop of Chartres, was expelled, For the Bishop of Chartres whom we noted above had already died, and in his place another had been enthroned by the common election of the clergy. But so great a sedition raged between the clergy and the Count of that city, that some of the Canons, having lost their possessions, the Canons cruelly harassed, feared being torn limb from limb by the Count's order. On account of this matter a number of powerful persons had assembled at Chartres. There came also Abbot Bernard, worthy of the memory of all good men, whose praise resounds to this day through all the Churches of France. But all to no avail: they could no longer quell that dissension; rather, at the instigation of the enemy of all good, it increased daily. For the Prince of that same city had already plundered the houses of the Canons and had shut them up in their cloister: and, what is also unspeakable to relate, he had driven from the city that illustrious man named Geoffrey, whom the clergy had canonically enthroned in the episcopal chair in place of the deceased.
[16] But why do I delay? Now for the Canons themselves, after God, their sole hope rested in our Robert: summoned to Chartres, whence it came about that, sending their legations, they sought his eminence with every supplication. For the Canons knew well that God had given so great a grace to the man of whom we speak, that what was utterly impossible for others, through him He for whom all things are possible would deign to accomplish. He, however, detained by a very great infirmity, when he was asked though ill, he goes there: whether he could come to Chartres, replied that all things were possible for him even unto death. Upon his arrival, how truly he was a servant of God, even if our tongue be silent, the outcome of the affair plainly manifests. For the Lord had conferred upon him so great a grace, that not only did all religious persons venerate him, but even Kings and Princes most willingly obeyed his authority. For it was fitting that the creature should love him whom it did not doubt to be loved by the Creator, from the evidence of his works. he reconciles them with the Count: He, speaking to both parties according to the wisdom granted to him by God, with the cooperation of God's grace, uprooted from the foundation that entire diabolical machination. For at his admonition, the Count of the aforesaid city restored to the clergy everything he had taken away: and he consented to the election of that Geoffrey who had been canonically elected to the governance of the bishopric, allowing him to return to the city: and, what is also delightful to relate, he bound himself to the Canons in their former fellowship. For I believe that the Lord wished to extinguish this murderous hatred through his beloved Robert for this reason: that it might become known to those who did not know, how great were the merits of our Robert in His sight. What and how great were the benefits that the Lord deigned to bestow upon the aforesaid city in those days through his servant, it is not within my ability to investigate. Yet it is pleasing to report that the heresy of simony, which had for the longest time defiled the basilica of the Canons of Chartres, he uproots the stain of simony: with the concession of Bishop Geoffrey, whose life even in our own age has a most sweet fragrance, and with the concession of the Canons of that same community from the greatest to the least, was extinguished in perpetual condemnation through our Robert. And so that this execrable pestilence might be utterly condemned in that same Church for all time, they confirmed the vow they had made with an oath.
AnnotationsCHAPTER IV
Captives visited by Blessed Robert, robbers won over by his kindness, deeds at Ursanus and in the abbey of Deols.
[17] When the people of Chartres had been pacified, the faithful dispenser of the word of the Lord left the city of Chartres, never to return to it again: and having joined to himself Bernard, the venerable Abbot of Tiron, He goes to Blois, whose companionship had always been most agreeable to him, they both came together to the town which is popularly called Blois. In that same town William, the devout Count of Nevers, was held imprisoned, because he had defended the cause of Louis, King of France, for the sake of maintaining peace against the Count of Chartres. he visits with Blessed Bernard the imprisoned Count of Nevers: This William also was held dear by both men on account of the merits of his life. It is surely apparent how great the honorable dignity of that Count was at that time, whom these two pillars of the holy Church came to visit in prison. He is reported to have been so comforted that he said: "Who would not rejoice to be long imprisoned, that he might be visited by such men?" I have said these things to show that our Robert did not devote himself to idleness, but now, according to the Gospel precept, visited the imprisoned, and now recalled the quarreling to peace. When the Count dear to him had been visited and comforted beyond what his prison sentence required, those two visitors, never again to see each other in this life, most dear to him: were inseparably, so to speak, separated: for they were inseparably separated, because those whom charity joins, the distance of lands does not divide. For the bond of perfect charity is indissoluble: since, as Blessed Augustine says, "Charity that can be divided was never true." O if only these men could have known then that they would never again see each other in this mortal flesh! I truly believe that they would hardly ever, or never, while living in the flesh, have parted from each other, especially if they had known that their death was so near at hand.
[18] Abbot Bernard then returned to his own home. But our Pastor directed his journey to the province of Bourges, dispensing in manifold ways the talent entrusted to him. For the provident man knew well that for however many a person shall have edified by his example, for just so many and so great he will receive the reward of recompense from the Lord on the Day of Judgment. For just as a fertile apiary disperses its swarms in every direction, so our most pious Father distributed the honey-flowing companies of nuns from the Fontevraud cloister to other places. he goes to Ursanus: From this mystical apiary of venerable bees, therefore, he had long ago distributed a great number of our Sisters to the district of Bourges: and in the place which is called Ursanus by the people, having first prepared a wooden cloister, he had settled them, and it was doubtless out of love for them that he was now preparing to visit those parts while catechizing.
[19] But if we wish to recount one thing that happened to him on the journey,
we will make plainly known to our successors how great his patience and how great his holiness were. For as a certain one of our Brothers, Peter by name, resplendent in the dignity of the priesthood, faithful in word and life, who was with him at that time, related to us: while they were making their intended journey, he falls among robbers, one day they fell among robbers, who, after their custom, filled with a malicious spirit, not only took away the beasts of his companions, but also, what is worse, seized by the bridle-straps the very mount on which that most gentle man was sitting, and, after heaping insults upon him, cast him to the ground. he is treated with contumely by them: But he, being kindly as he was, began with a dove-like voice to rebuke them gently: and he exhorted them with mild words to restrain themselves from robbery. I truly believe that the merciful man grieved more over their perdition than over the disturbance done to himself or his companions.
[20] But Peter, his companion, from whose narration I learned this, not bearing with equanimity what had been done to the Master, spoke in these words to the brigands: "Tell me, wretches, where will you flee? You who were not afraid to disturb so great a man? but they are rebuked by his companion, Consider, I beg you, consider how great the reverence that should be shown to holy men, so that at least your madness may cease to be hostile. For, as the holy Scriptures say, holy men are temples of God. For 'the temple of God is holy, which you are' 1 Cor. 3:17. Wherefore, when any holy man is provoked to anger, it is certain that God, the inhabitant of that same temple, is provoked to vengeance. Let your fury cease, therefore: and let fruitful penance blot out the evil you have done against the holy one of God. Do you not know that this man, whom you have just now unjustly pulled from his horse, is Robert of Arbrissel, whose sweet fragrance is renowned throughout the whole world?" Upon hearing the name of Robert, the band of robbers was immediately terrified with fear, when they learn who he is, and prostrated itself at the feet of the holy man, beseechingly asking for pardon. they seek forgiveness: He, rejoicing at their repentance and graciously pardoning their petition for whatever they had done amiss against him, raised them from his feet and kindly kissed them. To them he not only granted the pardon they sought, and he even does them good, but also, what they less deserved on account of their sin, he made them sharers in all his beneficence.
[21] O ineffable man, overflowing with admirable piety, whom neither prosperity, with God's help, deceived, nor adversity overcame! For since, as it is written, "The learning of a man is known through his patience," it is surely clear how great the patience and how great the excellence in teaching this Robert possessed, wonderful charity: who in the manner we have described even rewarded his enemies. Prov. 19:11 Let us consider, if we can, with what fervor of love this man of blessed memory loved his friends, who according to the Lord's precept, of his own accord bestowed such great benefits even upon his adversaries. Prov. 12:21 For since the Scripture says, "Whatever befalls the just man will not sadden him," it is plainly clear upon what a summit of justice this man stood, who, neither provoked by injuries nor on account of friends, deviated from the straight path of his course. It is permitted to me, Brothers, to say that this man in this deed was comparable to the holy Samuel, who, wishing to repay his enemies, promised to offer prayer for them. 1 Kings 12:21 For he was not different from him who said: "With those who hated peace, I was peaceable" Ps. 119:7. What then shall we wretches in his congregation say before God, who do not even love our friends as we ought?
[22] After the lover of peace had departed in a somewhat peaceful manner from the enemies of peace, what he did at Ursanus! he arrived at the place of Ursanus, to which he was heading, not without the preceding dispensation of faith. In which place, having dwelt for about fifteen days with the sons and daughters dear to him, he devoted himself tirelessly to reading and prayer, and to preaching, and to the other exercises of the virtues. For he was waiting there for the Abbess Petronilla, who was due to come to him from Fontevraud. When she arrived, it pleased him to go out to the outlying places for the benefit of preaching: for certain people, no little hungry for the words of his preaching, had asked him he goes out to preach: to deign to bestow upon them the benefit of holy preaching. He, acquiescing to their pious entreaties, and desiring, with God's cooperation, to satisfy their admirable hunger, he turns aside to the monks of Deols: when he was already making his intended journey, having joined to himself Petronilla and certain others, one day he arrived at the abbey of Deols for the sake of hospitality. The monks of that same monastery, joyfully receiving him, honorably provided him the rights of hospitality, and most humbly requested that he deign to refresh their souls with the nourishment of holy preaching.
[23] Moved by their prayers, the generous sower of the word of the Lord, on the following day, entered the Chapter house of the monks with some of his companions: where, delivering at length the last sermon he was to make to the people, how sweetly, how piously, how mercifully, at their request he preaches how devoutly, how prudently, how charitably, how simply, how discreetly, he taught his hearers, by rebuking, beseeching, and reproving, to turn from evil and do good -- even those who had the privilege of being present confess that they are unable to narrate it. But what wonder, if he fulfilled this discourse so excellently, he through whom God had given the world so many and so great discourses, almost beyond comparison, very fervently as those who had the privilege of hearing them testify? For the Lord had given him so great a grace of holy preaching, that when he gave a general discourse to the people, each person received what was fitting for himself. His preaching was not ineffectual, and efficaciously: but it so pierced the hearts of the hearers that it was plainly given to understand who was present there. For surely the Holy Spirit was present, without whose aid the word of the teacher labors in vain from without. Of whom it is also written: "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father" Matt. 10:20. After he had finished that sermon, he completely reconciled at that same place those monks he reconciles those at odds who had a certain complaint against the Church of Fontevraud: and he also brought to concord a certain Prince of that land, Alard by name, with them.
AnnotationsCHAPTER V
The last illness of Blessed Robert, the reception of Viaticum, and sacred anointing.
[24] When these things had been accomplished, he urged Petronilla and Angardis, the procurators of Fontevraud who were with him, to go visit the Brothers and Sisters: and he himself with Andrew, his Chaplain, set out to the people who eagerly desired his preaching, as we said above, and desiring it, requested it with many prayers. On that very day on which he departed from the monastery of Deols, which was a Friday, on the journey itself he began to dismount more frequently from his mount, He falls ill on the road:
and to make known to his companions that he was very seriously ill. When they said to him, "Dearest Father, return, we beg you, return, lest you be more gravely burdened by the illness," he said: "Do not, sons, do not say such things to me: but let us go as far as the town he is carried to Gracay, called Gracay, so that when the people to whom I promised my arrival hear that I have come there, if I cannot complete the journey I began, they may at least believe that I turned back compelled by necessity." Coming then to the aforesaid town, they took lodging there.
[25] On the following day, Saturday, our Teacher was so greatly weighed down by his illness that he could no longer ride at all. When he perceived this, he said to his companions: he orders himself to be carried back to Ursanus, "Prepare for me, my dearest ones, a certain wooden bier, and carry me back to the place of Ursanus, for I know that I shall die of this illness." When his host learned of this, he said to him: "Please, Master, do not do what you say: but rather rest here until you see whether you can recover from this infirmity." But he said, as if privately, to his companions: foreseeing his approaching death: "Whatever others may say, do not heed them: but do what I have commanded you, and quickly." It is surely apparent that he sensed his death was imminent: but lest his people should labor over his body, he wished to return to Ursanus while he was still alive. When the wooden bier had been prepared, as he had commanded, they carried him to the town called Issoudun, and there they took lodging. The host who received him began to entreat them in many ways to allow their sick man to be cared for at his house. When this came to the ears of Master Robert, calling his companions, he said to them: "Do not, sons, acquiesce to the counsel of our host, but, as I have already told you, rather carry me back to Ursanus. he summons Petronilla there: And since he himself, as we said above, had sent Petronilla and Angardis to visit the Lord's flock at other places, sensing that his end was drawing near, he sent a messenger after them, that they should come quickly to Ursanus to visit him."
[26] The people of Ursanus grieve at his peril: In the morning, leaving Issoudun, they carried the most holy invalid to Ursanus (as he himself had commanded). At that same time a certain noble nun, Agnes by name, held the Priorate of Ursanus, who was very exceedingly dear to him, because she, on his counsel, had left behind the deceitful riches of the world, which had greatly flattered her, and had chosen poverty for Christ's sake. When she learned of the Master's so grave infirmity, how great was her grief is not easily told. Who could also relate how great was the sorrow of the Brothers and Sisters of that same place, upon hearing of our Teacher's so severe infirmity? he yearns for Fontevraud: For they truly feared to be widowed of so great and such a Pastor. As the Lord's day drew toward evening, the day on which the sound invalid had been carried to Ursanus, he himself began piously to repeat the name of Fontevraud, saying: "O Fontevraud, Fontevraud, I had so hoped to lie in you!" When Andrew, his faithful companion, said to him: "Good Master, what is it that you say? If you sense that your end is here, at least do what is yours to do: command your body to be carried to Fontevraud after your death." He replied: "And why should my corpse be carried from here? For through all the thickets (to use his own words) it would have been taken from you."
[27] On the next day, Monday, he asked that the Viaticum of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ be given to him: he asks for Viaticum, for since he foresaw that he was about to set out on a longer journey, he asked with most humble devotion that that most salutary Viaticum be given to him, without which any traveler goes entirely astray, wandering. When the Lord's Body had been brought to him, he began with inner groanings and deep sighs to beg His gratuitous mercy, sorrowing over his sins, and to call himself an unprofitable servant, and to accuse himself in all his works. But the prudent reader knew that God had so commanded: "When you have done all things that are commanded you," He says, "say: We are unprofitable servants, etc." Luke 17:10 For he was imitating that Just One who, though he was perfect, confessed that he dreaded all his works. For he waged a twofold lamentation: he grieved greatly because he had sometimes neglected the Lord's commandments; he repented on the other hand because he had not observed all the commandments. And, to summarize all his words, he lamented with wailing that he had been in all things an unprofitable servant. humbly he receives it, After he had accused himself innumerable times, having received his penance, presuming nothing of his own merits but continually beseeching mercy, he received the Lord's Body. not rashly, as some do: Let those hear this who dare to receive the Lord's Body indiscriminately to their own damnation: so that they may either blot out their sins through holy penance while there is still time, or at least, if they are unwilling, let them fear to receive so admirable a Sacrament unworthily. 1 Cor. 11:29 For the Apostle openly proclaims that "he who eats and drinks unworthily, etc." For if so great and such a man received the most sacred Body of the Lord so fearfully, how much more ought we sinners approach trembling and weeping: who, even if we have made great progress, do not dare to make our end equal to his merit.
[28] When Monday had passed, because the good man did not doubt that his departure was near, he is anointed with sacred oil: he wished, as a most devout Christian, to receive all the Sacraments of the holy Church upon himself. He therefore devoutly asked on Tuesday to be anointed with blessed oil: believing indeed in the words of the Apostle James, that through the operation of this mystery sins are forgiven to men James 5:15. Anointed then with the salutary ointment, he again fortified himself, not without inner groaning, with the Lord's Body: and not only on those two days did he fortify himself with the Eucharist of Christ, but also on all the days he communicates daily, during which he lay in that infirmity. But who could narrate in what manner or by what ways he always strove to accuse himself before the Lord's Body? Those who had the privilege of being present confess with the greatest sorrow over his sins. that they do not at all know whether he ever accused himself more than he did before the Lord's Body. There is none, indeed there is none, not even a robber, not even a thief who thus accused himself: for since it is written, "The just man is first of all his own accuser," it is surely clear that he was just, who, although he had lived a life of singular devotion, nevertheless accused himself in so manifold a manner. Prov. 18:17
AnnotationsCHAPTER VI
The burial sought by Blessed Robert at Fontevraud.
[29] At that same time Leodegarius, a man flourishing in life and age, held the Archbishopric of the diocese of Bourges, whom, unless I am mistaken, an inseparable affection bound to Master Robert: for they were joined, I believe, by so great a love for each other, he asks Leodegarius, Bishop of Bourges, to visit him: that what the one wished, the other would scarcely deny. Of this Leodegarius I could relate many praises of his virtues: but since he still navigates amid the innumerable storms of this exile in uncertainty, that very human ignorance compels me, whether I will or no, to be silent. For not everyone who has begun, but he who shall have persevered to the end, shall be saved. To this man, Robert of blessed memory sent a certain messenger, and begged him by entreaty to deign to visit him. He, upon hearing of his infirmity, hastened devoutly to visit him. After he arrived, he ordered the small village itself to be carefully guarded by his servants day and night: for he feared to be widowed of so great a patron,
and therefore he commanded the village itself to be diligently watched. And not only did the Archbishop of Bourges then visit our Robert, but also a number of Princes of that land came to visit him with care. Likewise also the people of Ursanus themselves diligently fortified their town with guards, he is visited also by others, and instructs all with his admonitions: saying that they were blessed if they should be deemed worthy to be honored with so great a patron. And all who came to visit him received from him the prize of consolation. For although he was infirm in body, he strove nevertheless, according to his custom, to bestow the salutary admonitions of preaching upon the people standing about.
[30] Meanwhile the messenger who had been sent after the Abbess arrived as far as Puye: and finding her there, Petronilla arrives: and revealing why he was following her, he immediately announced and urged her to return swiftly to Ursanus. She and Angardis who was with her, terrified by so sad a message, knew no delay in going, but set out from Puye before daybreak. At last, wretched and tearful, they came to Ursanus. Coming before the invalid who was still sound in mind, Petronilla cried out and said: "Alas, good Master! You will never again do us any good henceforth!" But Angardis who had come with her, gently rebuked her, saying: "Cease, good woman, to speak such words: but rather pray God that he may deign to restore health to him yet. For He who gave him this infirmity, when it pleases Him, will also give him health." Some were also saying that he would not die from that infirmity: but he himself affirmed otherwise.
[31] It would indeed be long to recount in detail how the prudent invalid strove in this infirmity to admonish visitors of both sexes with speech seasoned with salt: but since I do not wish to weary my reader, I wish to pass on to the things he did on the third day before his end. On the Wednesday before his death, therefore, he ordered the venerable Leodegarius, Archbishop of Bourges, to Leodegarius the Bishop who had come to visit him, as we said, to be called to him, and said to him: "O dearest Father, you are my Archbishop, my Primate, and Patriarch. You know how I have always loved you until now, and how I have been obedient to you. You know also that for the sake of your sweet love I first came to these parts. For you asked me to hand over to you some of my good women: and I handed them over. At your counsel and request I sent them to this province. I did not have, as you know, houses here, no possessions, who had founded Ursanus, no fields. You prepared for them, for the salvation of your soul and your people, this place: you built for them, at God's inspiration, this dwelling where they could perform God's service day and night: they brought no possessions here, not gold, not silver, not even furnishings: you acquired for them lands, food and clothing, and all other necessities, in deed and word. You rejoiced greatly at their coming, and until now you have honored them in many ways and kept them well. Behold, therefore, by God's will, I am entering upon the way of all flesh, and now the time of my dissolution is at hand: for I am not better than our Fathers. he commends the nuns dwelling there: Wherefore, as long as breath remains in me, as long as I can speak, I commend my daughters and all that is theirs to your love, that you, who caused them to come here, may piously guard them and henceforth take solicitous care of them."
[32] "I wish moreover to tell your friendship the desire of my heart: I wish to reveal to your holiness my longing. he asks him, Let it be shown at the end whether you ever truly loved me while I lived: let it be manifest whether, as you used to say, you ever held me dear: for you are not ignorant that true love does not consist in words alone, but, as the holy Scripture testifies, 'The proof of love is the display of works.' 1 John 3 'Let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth.' I make known to you, therefore, dearest Father, that I do not wish to lie in Bethlehem, where God deigned to be born of the Virgin, that he should bury him in no other place, even a holy one, nor even in Jerusalem at the holy sepulchre: I do not wish to be buried in Rome among the holy Martyrs, nor in the monastery of Cluny, where beautiful processions take place: yet I do not say these things because I despise most holy places, which I know are truly to be loved, remembered, and venerated out of reverence for the Lord's Incarnation. For all the faithful ought to venerate holy Bethlehem magnificently, which, praised by the Prophets, was deemed worthy to be adorned by the Lord's Nativity. Although God is everywhere, all should nevertheless honor blessed Jerusalem with a certain special love, in which the Son of God deigned to redeem the world through His death. Nor should anyone despise blessed Rome, which, purpled with the precious blood of so many Martyrs, as the sacred Scripture testifies, surpasses all the beauty of the world. Who, lastly, being of sound mind, would dare to depreciate the supreme monastery of Cluny, where daily by God's grace so great a benefit is wrought?"
[33] "Lastly, I do not wish to be buried in any other place, save only in the place of Fontevraud. For you know, my Father, that I established the place of Fontevraud as the head of all my other places: but at Fontevraud there also is the greater part of our Congregation, there also is the foundation of our religious life. I do not ask you to bury me in the monastery or in the cloister; but only among my humble brothers in the mud of Fontevraud. There also are my Priests and Clerics: there also are holy Virgins, widows, and continent women, persevering day and night in the praises of God: there are my most beloved sick men and sick women: among his Brothers, and the sick, there are my dearest lepers, both men and women: there are the good companions of my pilgrimage: there are those who long endured poverty and toils for Christ with me: there are those who patiently endured cold and heat, miseries and tribulations for the salvation of their souls: and his old helpers who at the voice of my preaching, by God's inspiration, left both themselves and their possessions: of whom some live in the body, while others have died persevering in obedience. There lies Hersendis the nun, my good fellow worker, by whose counsel and labor I built the buildings of Fontevraud. and fellow workers: There lie my good sons, by whose prayers before God I trust that I am aided. There sleep my good nuns, by whose merits I believe I am helped before God. This is the reason, dearest one, why I refuse burial in the most holy places: that I desire to be buried among my humble little Brothers and Sisters in the mud: for I know that the living desire me to lie there, so that on the day of holy resurrection, in this same flesh, I may be able to go with them to the judgment of God.
[34] For if I shall have been buried there, both the living will love the same place more, and those this will be profitable for the lapsed whom the devil captures through disobedience will come seeking mercy. For they will hear it said that I lie in Fontevraud: and when they recall to memory that God through me rescued them from the wicked world, and that He distributed many good things to them through me, constrained by love of me, they will hasten to return to their obedience. For who of my Congregation bears bowels so hardened that, when he has perfectly remembered me, he will not soften himself, either by groaning or by sighing? When therefore they recall to mind how I always loved them, and how I instructed them, or how God through me satisfied them with His teaching, some, summoned by divine inspiration to so many benefits, and moved to penance, will come before my tomb to seek mercy from God. And since I sense that this will come to pass, I commend to my posterity that the benefit of reconciliation should be denied to none who seeks this mercy. whom he wishes to be received: If, moreover, it shall please the Author of mercy that ever, not by my merits (of which I presume nothing), but by His gratuitous goodness alone, He should deign to bestow something upon me, I will strive to intercede perpetually with that very fountain of mercy for my entire congregation: he pledges to pray for the whole order: for there is no life where true love is absent. As far as I can, I will love: since in this life I will not be able to love them. For I know that any burial does not harm the dead: I believe without doubt that the Lord can provide help everywhere to whomever He wishes: nevertheless, this is the reason I have described
why I ask to lie in these places: this is the occasion why I order my corpse to be interred in the cemetery of Fontevraud. For which reason I humbly implore the reverence of Your Holiness by prayer, that you return my body to our nuns, and conduct it all the way to Fontevraud, and there with your holy mouth perform the office of my burial. Now it will be shown at the end whether you ever truly loved me in life. If therefore you were a heartfelt friend to me, if I was ever a friend to you, grant me, I beseech you, what I have asked."
[35] He, however, not wishing his diocese to be despoiled of so great a treasure, the Bishop hesitating, answered him and said: "I, dearest Master, as I have long since begun, love you greatly with a sincere mind: but what you ask of me is not entirely in my power, but for the most part in the hands of the Princes of this land. For you know that this place is in the territory of a certain Prince, named Alard, who also himself built it for the most part. I do not wish to make you a rash promise which I could not afterward fulfill: but allow me to take counsel on this matter tomorrow."
[36] Upon hearing this, Andrew the Priest said to the Master: "Let your love know, good Master, that Agnes, the Prioress of this place, he commends this to Agnes, Prioress of Ursanus. will be able greatly to help or to hinder your petition. Wherefore beseech her to carry out your petition on her part: for she is a native of this land, and Alard was her husband, who is the lord of this village." The prudent man therefore called her and said to her: "O Lady Agnes, I command you by beseeching, and beseech you by commanding, as my Lady, daughter, and disciple, that you do whatever you can in this matter, which I have requested to be done by the Archbishop." To which she replied: "Good Master, do you wish me to do this?" He said: "I wish it, daughter, absolutely, and desire it: and on this condition I command you to kiss my hand." She then, kissing his venerable hand, promised to do what his desire had sought.
Annotationsb. In French, La Puye.
CHAPTER VII
The prayers of Blessed Robert near death, his profession of Faith, and his public sacramental Confession of sins.
[37] After these things, those who stood around began to say to him: "O good Master, you ought to pray to God, since you feel yourself so near to death." All having been dismissed from his presence, To whom he replied: "I certainly desire very much to pray to God: but because of you, who hinder me, I am entirely unable: withdraw and go away, that at least I may henceforth be able to pray to my God." When all had gone out, he himself began humbly to beseech God he prays for the Church, that in His goodness He might deign to preserve the Roman Pope and all the Doctors of His Church in the purpose of holy religion to the very end. Then also he began to name his hosts one by one, and to offer prayer to God for each of them. for his benefactors, He also prayed then for all his benefactors and enemies: and for all the faithful, living and dead. At last he also began to beseech the Lord for William, Count of Poitou, who on account of his own sins was then wounded by the sword of excommunication, that if it should be within His providence, and for his enemies: He would deign in His benevolence to recall him to the way of truth. It is surely apparent how full of great charity this man was, who persevered to the very end in praying with such devotion for his friends and enemies. It is plainly clear that he loved his enemies as himself, who prayed that they be given by prayer what he himself desired to receive from God: moreover, it is even more clearly evident how wisely he loved his friends, for whom he sweetly offered to the Lord God the gift of prayer. Let us consider, if we can, with what vigilance he observed the other commandments of the law. Indeed, what is usually more difficult, he returned good to his enemies: for although he, by God's will, fell asleep in peace, I believe nevertheless that he did not lose the palm of martyrdom. And lest perhaps what I say should in any way displease, let him hear the holy Scripture thus affirming and saying: "Martyrdom is fulfilled not in the shedding of blood alone, but in abstinence from sins and the practice of God's commandments." Again it is written: "The whole life of a Christian man is a Cross and a martyrdom."
[38] After he had poured forth prayers to the Lord for the whole Christian people for a very long time, when almost all had already withdrawn from him, in the silence of the deep night he called to himself a certain lay Brother named Peter, who was constantly with him, and said to him: "Call Andrew the Priest to me." When Andrew came, he said to him: "Bring me, I beseech you, the wood of the holy Cross." before the holy Cross. When the holy Cross had been brought, from his bed, with whatever strength he could summon, he leapt up joyfully, and before the Cross bent his knees with great reverence, and revealed to those standing about what he believed within himself about God. Then he confessed that he believed he professes that he believes all things created by God, that Almighty God, one in Trinity and three in Unity, had made heaven and earth and all things that are in them by the command of His will. He confessed also that God had placed Lucifer, who rose in the morning, who is the beginning of the ways of God, bearing the seal of the likeness of God, full of wisdom and beauty, adorned with every precious stone, in Paradise. He related also that he believed how that one, with no one persuading him, fell of his own accord through his pride: and how, the fall of Lucifer, for his restoration, God wonderfully fashioned man from the clay of the earth in His own image and likeness. He recalled and of man, how through the envy of the devil death entered the world, and how the deceitful enemy expelled man from Paradise. He also called to memory how great were the shadows of blindness and how great the miseries that the human race endures until the end of the world, because the first man transgressed the Lord's commandment. To these he also added the flood, etc. how the human race, as its sins deserved, perished in the waters of the flood: and how God saved eight souls in Noah's Ark. To these he adjoined how gloriously God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian servitude, and how wondrously (while the murmurers perished in the desert) He led the believers into the promised land.
[39] He also said, prostrate before the holy Cross, how the Son of God, descending into the womb of the holy Virgin, made, as He had promised, a new heaven and earth: and how He willed, for our salvation, to be born in Bethlehem the Incarnation of the Word. and to be placed in a manger and to be wrapped in humble swaddling clothes, with no preceding merits on our part, but by His mercy alone. He professed also that not only did God deign to become man for men, but also (what is more wonderful) to be circumcised, baptized, and to fast. He recalled with sighing that the Living Bread, who descended from heaven, hungered so that He might satisfy us; that the Living Spring thirsted so that He might free us from perpetual thirst. He also called to memory, groaning and sighing, that He who created all things by His will, having been made man for men, the Passion, deigned voluntarily to endure mockeries and spittle, blows and scourges, injuries and wounds, and at last the death of the Cross for the redemption of men. To these the pious man joined the Lord's Resurrection and His Ascension into heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit: to these he likewise adjoined the judgment to come at the end of the world, in which God will render to each according to his merit.
[40] At last he appended to these how Almighty God
had caused him to be born from a certain old man and from a certain poor woman: and how He had afterward bestowed upon him innumerable goods, without any preceding merits. After these things he rendered manifold thanks to Almighty God for these and other innumerable benefits gratuitously bestowed upon the human race: he gives thanks for the benefits conferred upon him by God: he also gave magnificent thanks to God because He had, by the merits of others, bestowed so many and such great benefits upon him.
[41] After the Catholic man had fully narrated his faith before the holy Cross, in the hearing of those who were there, he then made public the confession of his sins, accusing himself in an unprecedented manner, saying: He confesses publicly to a Priest in the presence of others "Hear, O Priest, my sins; and also hear, heaven and earth. The Son of God came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Behold, in iniquities I was conceived, and in sins I was nurtured; in innumerable ways I have sinned through my own fault." Then he confessed before all, reproaching himself, that when he was a little boy old and trivial sins. and ate with his mother, he took the fairer foods: and that when it rained, he wished for fair weather, and contrariwise. He also related, accusing himself, that while he was still a layman, at the ordination of a certain Bishop of Rennes, he once fell into the poison of simony: he confessed also that God had freely bestowed upon him a great knowledge of letters and the grace of preaching. He repented that he had not multiplied the talent entrusted to him by God as he ought. Then he said that he himself had gathered together a religious community of women, who bore the labor of holy religious life for God with excellence, but he alone had received their praise.
[42] Here indeed is the place for speaking, if I wished to narrate one by one in what manner or by what ways he accused himself before the holy Cross. greatly accusing himself: After he had accused himself beyond measure by reproaching himself, naming each sin, he sought with humble supplication the absolution of all his sins from God; and after this he prayed that He would deign to grant him his end in the near future. It is certain he dies piously. that God heard His servant in this prayer: whom He shortly after, released from the bonds of the flesh, drew away from the exile of this world.
AnnotationsCONCERNING SAINT AVERTANUS, A CONVERSUS OF THE CARMELITE ORDER, AND BLESSED ROMAEUS, AT LUCCA IN ETRURIA
FOURTEENTH CENTURY
Preliminary Commentary.
Avertanus, Conversus of the Carmelite Order. Lucca in Etruria (Saint) Romaeus, Lucca in Etruria (Blessed)
By G. H.
Section I. The ancient memory of Saint Avertanus: his suburban burial. Three churches of Saint Peter at Lucca.
[1] Lucca, an ancient city of Etruria and celebrated for its defense of liberty, besides its native and domestic Patrons, also rejoices in holy Protectors who, having come there from elsewhere, at Lucca in Etruria happily completed their lives there. Of these was Saint Richard, a man of the first rank among the Anglo-Saxon nobility, father of the most holy Virgin Walburga: of him we treated on February 7, and of Saint Walburga on this the twenty-fifth, on which she departed this life. Another patron from abroad came to the people of Lucca from the Carmelite Order, Saint Avertanus is venerated, Avertanus from transalpine Gaul, called by others Albertanus and Alvertanus, or even Averardus: whose sacred bones, as will be more fully related below, were brought to the cathedral church of the city of Lucca in the year of Christ 1513, having previously been preserved with honor in the suburb.
[2] The people of Lucca, intending to render eternal thanks to Peter, Prince of the Apostles, on account of Saint Paulinus, their Bishop sent to them by Peter, are said in the year 1301 to have built a church in his honor in the suburb toward the south, in the ancient suburban parish on the road to Pisa. That it was also formerly a collegiate church with the title of a Priorate is clear from a certain privilege granted by Pope Alexander III to the Cathedral Church of Lucca in the year 1172. Furthermore, because two other churches under the title of the same Apostle had been built in the city, this suburban edifice received the honorific name of Saint Peter Major, called Saint Peter Major, where he was buried: and it is so indicated in ancient records dated to the year 1266: and that it then had nearby a hospice for receiving poor pilgrims, in which Saint Avertanus, denied entry into the city, after struggling with illness for some time, returned his most holy soul to his Creator. Whose body, on account of the many miracles soon wrought through his intercession, was buried, with great solemnity as is likely, in the said church of Saint Peter Major: in tracing the origin of which we have followed the author Caesar Franciottus, a priest of the Luccan Congregation of the Blessed Mary, in his treatise on the Churches and Relics of Lucca, appended to his most accurate study of Luccan Affairs, published in the Italian language in the thirteenth year of this century.
[3] At what time this pilgrimage of Saint Avertanus to Italy and his blessed departure to eternal salvation among the Luccans occurred, there is by no means agreement among the authors. whether around the year 1366 or 1380 The older writers pass over the year in silence; the modern ones assign various dates, some 1366, others 1380 above the one thousandth and three hundredth. Among the former are Bzovius in the Annals at the year 1366, number 14; Alegraeus in the Carmelite Paradise, state 4, age 15, chapter 125; Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, February 25. The eightieth year of that century is set by the above-mentioned Franciottus in the Life of Saint Avertanus, Peter Thomas Saracenus in the Menologium of the Carmelites in the Life of the same, and below, the author of the Life, number 13. Aubert Miraeus in his booklet on the Origin and Progress of the Carmelite Order states that he flourished in life and miracles around the year 1370. John Grossius, who lived at that time, or perhaps much earlier, elected Master General of the Carmelites in the year 1389, and the first of all to mention Saint Avertanus, moves us especially to believe that he died long before, since he confirms his miracles from ancient paintings, not from the more certain report of men then living. This man, therefore, in the Carmelite Garden, which exists in manuscript in the library of the Carmelites at Frankfurt, writes thus: "Saint Albertanus, a Conversus in the Order, from the parts of Gaul, in the diocese of Limoges, a native: who for the sake of pilgrimage, with the permission of his superiors, visited very many places, and at last came to the city of Lucca, on account of ancient paintings about him then extant? where he closed his last day, renowned for many miracles both in life and after death. Whose glorious body is buried in the church of Saint Peter outside the wall of the city of Lucca, where very many of his miracles are depicted in ancient paintings, and especially in the cathedral church of the same city of Lucca." Thus Grossius.
[4] Some of the ancient paintings from the said suburban church of Saint Peter Major, when that church, as will be said below, was to be destroyed in the year 1513, were brought into the city, and to this day one is seen hanging in the new church of Saint Peter Major: to which the following poem, inscribed upon it, indicates that some solemn elevation of the relics of Saints Avertanus and Romaeus was once performed. whether then a solemn elevation These are the verses:
Once of Carmel, now Avertanus, tiller of Olympus, of Saint Avertanus dying here, left his bones in this earth. John the Greek, of Luccan origin, recently unearthed them, and raised them to a lofty place. And he gave Romaeus as companion, that one honor might join them and of Blessed Romaeus to the urn, for whom heaven is one home. And because they reign with the Prince of eternal life, Lucca, safe beneath their divine protection, flourishes.
We hardly doubt that this John was the Provost of the church of Saint Peter Major, whom they themselves called Prior: but at what time he lived is not certain. which cannot be regarded as sufficiently distinct from the first burial? Did the solemn elevation of the sacred relics perhaps occur at the time when the more recent authors place his death? Did Paul Gabriel of Gubbio, Bishop of the Church of Lucca, whom Saracenus records as having decreed by statute that the sacred body of the most poor Carmelite should be placed in a nobler location in the city with great solemnity, rather sanction or permit by his decree this elevation of the body which remained in the suburb? He was elected Bishop, according to Franciottus and Ughelli in volume 1 of Italia Sacra, in the year of Christ 1374, and died at Perugia in the year 1380 of the same century. Did, finally, that painting which Grossius recognized around that time as being in the cathedral church lead posterity into error, so that they wrote both that the body was then translated into the city and that Avertanus died in that year? In a doubtful matter, how can we determine anything certain?
[5] Moreover, the sacred relics of Saint Avertanus had not yet been brought into the city by the year of Christ 1500, as two men testify the body was present in the suburban church in the year 1500. who then lived in Italy, illustrious writers of the Carmelite Order. The first is Baptista of Mantua in his Poem on the Life of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, book 1, where he writes thus:
You also, whom Lucca encloses in Lunese marble, Father Avertanus, nor do you wish to be carried within the walls:
namely, content with the honor of the suburban church. The second is Baptista of Venice, of the Catanei family, in the Mirror of the Carmelite Order, printed at Venice in the year 1507, who on folio 103 records this: "Saint Albertanus, from the parts of Gaul, namely of the diocese of Limoges, who died on his pilgrimage at Lucca, and was not buried in the Convent, but in the church of Saint Peter Major outside the walls of the city of Lucca." These things are read in the Mirror of the Order, from which Saracenus professes to have organized the Life of Saint Avertanus: and yet he writes that immediately after his death, on a day appointed by the Bishop of Gubbio, with an incredible throng of people, which other urban parish of Saint Peter was also taken for one and the same. the sacred relics of Lord Avertanus the Carmelite were most devoutly translated by the whole Clergy into the city of Lucca, and placed in an honorable tomb in the parochial church of Saint Peter. At the time when Saint Avertanus died, there was within the city of Lucca a double church dedicated to Saint Peter, one surnamed Somaldi, from the illustrious Somaldina family, which claims that one of its ancestors was the founder of this church. That a certain restoration of it was made in the year 1199 is indicated by an ancient inscription still preserved there: various donations made to it before the year 1300 are attested by ancient documents. This was a parochial church, with the title also of a Priorate, just as that one, and the other suburban church of Saint Peter, would have been easily taken for one and the same.
[6] There was another church of Saint Peter in the city, called Cigoli, or Cicoli, from the founder Peter Cigoli, a third church of Saint Peter in the city, who is said to have built it in honor of Saint Peter. We gather its antiquity from records drawn up concerning it in the year 1187. It was afterward obtained by the Carmelite Fathers, who call it Saint Peter Civilis, or Caelicola, but at what time they entered into possession is uncertain. What is certain and indubitable, Franciottus affirms (whom we follow here as our authority), is that by the year 1381 the Carmelite Fathers were dwelling within the city of Lucca. whether this was the Carmelites' before the arrival of Saint Avertanus? Indeed, since Saint Avertanus was buried outside the city walls and not in the Carmelite convent, the above-cited Baptista of Venice, of the Catanei family, a member of the Mantuan Congregation, supposed that the latter then existed at Lucca. That Congregation is celebrated among the Carmelites, formed from various Italian convents into one body in the year 1425, at a Chapter held at Mantua on August 18, over which a Vicar General, Stephen of Toulouse, was placed by the authority of the Apostolic See in the year 1445. The constitutions of this Congregation survive, printed at Bologna in the year 1602, with a prefixed catalogue of all the monasteries of the same Congregation, preserving, as is asserted, the order of antiquity: in which, after the Mantuan monastery (the head of the Congregation), those of Selve and Ferrara, the Luccan monastery, called Saint Peter Civilis or Caelicola, is placed in fourth position. The said monastery of Selve is seven miles distant from Florence, in which Saint Andrew Corsini offered the firstfruits of his priesthood before the year 1330, having been admitted to the Carmelite Order at the Florentine Convent around the year 1317, as we accurately showed in his Life on January 30. However, since the same Florentine Convent occupies only the twenty-sixth place in the aforesaid Mantuan Congregation, preserving, as they claim, the order of antiquity, it follows that the Luccan monastery of Saint Peter Civilis was built long before. nor is it sufficiently distinguished from the suburban church: This church of Saint Peter Civilis is not distinguished from the suburban church of Saint Peter Major below in the Life, numbers 10 and 14, and by Saracenus, who in the Life of the same records: "Saint Avertanus predicts that the Carmelites will thereafter live gloriously in the church of Lord Peter Civilis, where that same Carmelite happened to breathe forth his spirit in obscurity and extreme poverty in the hospice of Lord Peter."
Section II. The relics of Saints Avertanus and Romaeus brought into the city.
[7] Contemporary with the aforesaid Italian writers Baptista of Mantua and Baptista of the Catanei family are two writers of the same Carmelite Order from Belgium: to whose knowledge came the memory of Saint Avertanus, which they commended to posterity in their writings. One of these is Arnold Bostius, buried among the Ghent Carmelites in the year, as they say, 1499. The body of Saint Avertanus in veneration among the Luccans, He writes thus in his Marian Patronage, chapter 9: "Albertanus, a Frenchman of Limoges, a man of sublime holiness, whose relics the city of Lucca venerates, became known to many through the glory of his miracles." Thus he: and rightly does the city of Lucca venerate the relics, then still preserved in the suburb outside the walls, though the painting of his miracles was displayed in the cathedral church. That the citizens once wished to bring these same relics into the city, but were prevented by divine power, was first written by John Palaeonyderus, or de Aqua Vetere, a Batavian, whom Saracenus followed as a second authority in writing the Life of Saint Avertanus, concerning whom Seger Pauli the Carmelite, to be more fully cited by us below, thus judges: "The Tripartite Chronicle of Palaeonyderus, although it was once held in esteem by many historians of no small reputation, is nevertheless now recognized as needing great chronological correction." In book 3, chapter 12, of this Chronicle, Palaeonyderus records the following: "Saint Albertanus also, a Frenchman of Limoges, a man of sublime holiness, on the twentieth day of February, renowned for the glory of great miracles, went to Christ at the city of Lucca. When he perceived whether it was divinely prevented from being brought into the city? that he was about to depart from this world, desiring to enter the city of Lucca, having met with refusal from the guards, he said: 'A time will come when, though you wish to bring me in, the power to do so will not be given to you.' Therefore withdrawing a little way, and yielding his spirit to God, he shone forth with such brilliant miracles that the Clergy with the people rushed to bring the relics of so great a man inside. But since the body remained fixed and entirely immovable, they built there with the greatest reverence a vast basilica." Thus Palaeonyderus: and first, the day of death he assigns, February 20, is the same day put forward by Didacus de Coria in the Carmelite Chronicle, published in Spanish in 1598, book 11, chapter 13; he adds that a feast in his honor is celebrated by the Carmelite Religious on that same day: which it will appear below was either (which is remarkable) a lapse of memory on this point, or certainly the errors of both should be imputed to the printers.
[8] whether a new basilica was built for him, Second, the basilica which Palaeonyderus believed was built at the same place where the body had remained immovable outside the walls, the same Coria believes was built within the city walls. We add the words from the Chronicle of that Order, faithfully drawn out, as he says, by Alegraeus, a Spanish Carmelite, in the Life of Saint Avertanus, inserted in the Carmelite Paradise, state 4, chapter 166, published by him in Latin. After the refusal received from the guards, he says, "After a few moments, the spirit of Avertanus flew upward to heaven beside the walls of the city, while his body remained there, surrounded by celestial splendor and breathing forth wondrous odors. When he had shone with many wondrous miracles, the city with the Bishop and Clergy, amazed, flocked to the place, and upon seeing so great a marvel, all repented of having denied Avertanus entry; and when they attempted to bring the body inside, to be entombed in an honorable sepulchre, the body of Avertanus was found to be immovable. Wherefore they resolved to erect a church and a bridge built over the walls on the inner side of the wall, facing the place of his glorious passing. Since, therefore, they could not introduce the body through the city gate, it was introduced over the top of the walls by means of a bridge erected for the purpose, and whether it was formerly brought into the city in this way? placed in a celebrated church at Lucca, in a raised sarcophagus, and is preserved with the great veneration of the faithful. There, most illustrious for miracles to this day, he is honored with a great throng of people." Thus from the Chronicle of Didacus de Coria by Alegraeus: before whom, from the same Chronicle of the Order, the same narrative, but more briefly, was published by Abraham Bzovius in the Annals, volume 14, at the year 1366, number 16, and by Philip Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, February 25. But since from the things said above and those to be said hereafter, it is clearly established that the body of Saint Avertanus was both committed to burial in the suburban church of Saint Peter Major immediately after his death, and afterward honorably elevated there, and was preserved with the greatest reverence until the year 1513, the entire narrative of these more recent writers just adduced is justly rendered suspect. The suburban church itself, as we reported above from Franciottus, is believed to have been built five hundred years before Avertanus came to Lucca as a guest. But leaving these matters, we hasten to things more certain.
[9] The same Franciottus, the Luccan author praised above, reports that for the greater security of the city of Lucca, various suburban buildings had to be destroyed in the year 1513, When the suburban church was destroyed lest, should war break out, some greater detriment to the city should arise therefrom. Wherefore the Luccan Senate, having first obtained permission from the Roman Pontiff, also destroyed the church of Saint Peter Major; but with the obligation of erecting another church for these parishioners, also under the title of Saint Peter Major, in a suitable place within the walls: and the place assigned for this church to be built in the city was named from an ancient but then ruined edifice of Saint Peter de Cortina; which is to be reckoned there as the fourth church dedicated to Saint Peter: and the ancient painting of Saint Avertanus and Blessed Romaeus, to which the poem we gave above concerning the elevation of their sacred relics is inscribed, is still to be seen in the new church erected there. [The bodies of Saints Avertanus, Romaeus, and Senesius are deposited in the cathedral church.] The bodies of these saints, as well as of Saint Senesius the Martyr, whose feast day is May 4, were then translated from that suburban church which was to be demolished into the city, and deposited in the cathedral church, with public documents drawn up asserting the right of the Clergy and people of the church of Saint Peter Major to reclaim those sacred pledges at any time. Peter Thomas Saracenus testifies that while he was performing the office of Lecturer in sacred Theology at Lucca in the year 1597, he saw those documents in the possession of the Excellent Lord Joseph Altogrado, and that in the following year he publicly made known in a sermon at the cathedral church the documents he had seen: and that the bodies of Saints Avertanus and Romaeus, enclosed in a single leaden chest, are preserved in the sacristy of the same church. A copy of these documents, transcribed and signed by his own hand, John Baptist Lezana, most distinguished from the same Carmelite Order on account of his published books, sent from Rome to Belgium, and it was communicated to us by the Reverend Father Daniel of the Virgin Mary, then Prior of the Carmel of Brussels, afterward Provincial of the Belgian Province: of which no mention is made by Didacus de Coria, Alegraeus, Bzovius, or Ferrarius, perhaps supposing that the sacred body had been brought immediately after death to this church of Saint Peter de Cortina by means of a bridge laid over the walls.
Section III. The public documents concerning the relics deposited in the cathedral church.
[10] In the name of the Lord, Amen. Since the venerable bodies of Saint Senesius and Blessed Romaeus and Avertanus, which had been committed to burial in the church of Saint Peter Major outside and near the gate Authentic document: called Saint Peter's, of the city of Lucca, had been translated from the said church of Saint Peter to the cathedral church of Saint Martin of Lucca, with the consent and authority of the Reverend Lord Vicar of the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Bishop of Lucca, and also of the Chapter of the said cathedral church, as well as of the Magnificent Lords of the Magnificent City of Lucca, on account of the demolition to be made of the said church of Saint Peter, because of the necessity of an impending war which was feared to be declared by the Florentines against the city of Lucca, as could easily be understood from the invasions, incursions, and plundering which were being carried out daily by the soldiers and forces of the Florentines in the Luccan countryside. And since the said bodies had been brought processionally the relics were honorably brought to the cathedral church, and with honor to the said cathedral church, and the below-written Lords Canons, the Warden, and the Parishioners of the aforesaid church of Saint Peter wished diligent care to be taken of them, as was fitting and as befitted the reverence due to those bodies; therefore, after the Chapter of the Reverend Lords Canons of the aforesaid cathedral church had been convoked and assembled, by the mandate of the interior sacristan, at the request of the Acolytes of that church, and at the sound of the bell, according to custom, in the below-written place, which they chose and designated as their chapter room for the carrying out of the below-written business especially for this occasion, in which Chapter so assembled there were present the below-cited, namely: Lord Francis Gigli, Archpriest; Lord Sebastian Menochius, Primicerius; Lord Dominic Sinibaldi; Lord Ginforts de Ginfortibus, interior sacristan; Lord John de Giglis; Lord Peter de Pinis; Lord Michael de Orsucciis; Lord Peter Angelo Baldassaris; and Lord Jerome Philippi Petri; in the absence of Lord Nicholas de Thegrinis, Archdeacon, Ambassador to the Pontiff; Lord Robert de Guinigi, who had been summoned and was awaited for the proper time; and Lord Matthew Ghiova, who was ill. All of whom, as stated above, being assembled, constitute the greater and sounder part of the said Chapter, and make up and represent the whole of the said Chapter.
[11] To which Lords Canons and Chapter, assembled as stated above, the venerable men, the Priest Pantaleon de Silico, the Priest Olivus de Massagrogia, and Francis Laurentii Barsantis, Cleric of Lucca, Canons of the said church of Saint Peter, Francis, formerly of Philippus Massei, Warden of the works of the said church, and Francis Melchioris, Parishioner of the aforesaid church of Saint Peter, acting in the name of and on behalf of the whole Parish of the said church, in the absence of the Prior of the said church presently residing at Rome, by this public instrument consigned and released the said Bodies to be held on deposit
and to be faithfully guarded in the aforesaid cathedral church, to be returned at the pleasure of those making the deposit, at the pleasure of the same depositors, in the manners and with the designations prescribed above. Which Lords Canons, assembled as stated above in Chapter, and that same Chapter, received the aforesaid bodies on deposit from the said depositors, and declared that they had and held them with themselves, etc., renouncing etc., and promised to guard and preserve and keep them honorably, to the aforesaid depositors above named, present, stipulating, and in the manners and with the designations aforesaid, and to me the Notary as a public person, etc., and to return to the new church of Saint Peter Major. and restore them to the Rector, Canons, Wardens, and Parishioners of the aforesaid church of Saint Peter, at their every wish and request, under the penalty of one thousand gold ducats of the full amount of that which would be in question and dispute, by a special pact and solemn stipulation promised, which penalty whether incurred or not etc., and should be incurred as many times, etc., under the promise of restitution, restoration, etc., for which etc., they obligated to the said depositors and to me the Notary as a public person, etc., the said Chapter and its goods present and future by right and in the name of pledge and mortgage, renouncing etc. Done in the choir of the aforesaid cathedral church, in the presence of Lord Caesar de Bonvisiis of Lucca, Priest, James formerly of James de Carraia, Pastor of the Parish of Saint Paul and Priest, Torrignano formerly of Thomas de Scotia, citizen of Lucca, witnesses, etc. In the year of the Lord's Nativity 1513, Indiction 1, on the 31st day of the month of August. At folio 104.
I, Peter, formerly of John Paul de Piscilla, Notary of Lucca, was present at the aforesaid and, being requested, subscribed.
I likewise make it known, the undersigned, that I have in my possession a copy of this instrument. At Rome, at the Carmelite church of the Traspontina, October 9, 1649.
I, Brother John Baptist de Lezana.
The Bishop of Lucca at that time was Sixtus Gara della Rovere of Lucca, nephew through his sister of Pope Julius II, Cardinal of the title of Saint Peter in Chains, who died in the year 1517. On the cathedral church of Saint Martin, Franciottus should be read. He, in the catalogue of Saints whose sacred bodies are preserved there, inserts thus: "The body of Saint Senesius on deposit for the church of Saint Peter Major... The bodies of Saints Avertanus and Romaeus only on deposit for Saint Peter Major." And having listed the relics of the church of Saint Peter Major, he adds: "Hither should in due course be returned the three aforesaid holy bodies, namely of Saint Senesius the Martyr and Saints Avertanus and Romaeus."
Section IV. The cult of Saint Avertanus confirmed. Written Acts.
[12] In the year following the translation of the body of Saint Avertanus to the cathedral church, the Missal of the Carmelite Order was printed, which still survives at Cologne among the same Carmelites. The feast of Saint Avertanus in Missals In its Calendar one reads at February 25: "Avertanus, Confessor of the Carmelite Order." Likewise in the Breviaries and Missals of the Order, published at Venice and Lyons in the years 1572 and following, this inscription appears at February 25: "Saint Avertanus, Confessor of our Order. Double." And proper prayers are added to be recited at Mass and at the Canonical Hours. and Breviaries of the Carmelites, Pope Sixtus V granted to the Discalced Carmelites, who had adopted the Roman Breviary in place of their own, permission to recite the Ecclesiastical Office by a diploma issued in the year 1589, approved by the Pontiffs: on June 27, for both Saint Avertanus and other Saints of the same Order, whose proper offices exist published at Venice, Evreux, and elsewhere, as Miraeus also observed in his book on the Origin and Progress of the Carmelite Order, in which he also mentions Saint Avertanus, illustrious for miracles. That Pope Paul V granted the same privilege again in the year 1609, on June 20, is recorded by Franciottus, Saracenus, Bzovius at the place cited above, and Ferrarius in the Notes to the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this day: the name in Martyrologies: whose eulogy taken from Coria we have already in part rejected above. The same Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints writes: "At Lucca in Etruria, the deposition of Saint Avertanus, Confessor, of the Carmelite Order." In their Martyrology published at Bordeaux in the year 1624, the following is read: "At Lucca in Tuscany, Saint Avertanus, Confessor of the Carmelite Order, illustrious in life and in the glory of miracles; whose body is honorably preserved in the same city in the cathedral church." The Prayer customarily said at the Canonical Hours and in the Sacrifice of the Mass, and anew approved under Urban VIII by the Congregation of Sacred Rites in the year 1628, on June 12, is of this kind: "Grant us, we beseech You, O Lord, Prayer: perfectly to follow the religious life of Blessed Avertanus, Your Confessor, under the standard of Your Mother Mary of Mount Carmel; and by his interceding merits to be confirmed in all perfection. You who live, etc."
[13] Saracenus in his Life of the same, together with the Menologium of the Carmelites cited above, published in the twenty-eighth year of this century, places the birthday of Saint Avertanus on the following day, February 26. commemoration on February 26, Saussaius in the Gallican Martyrology at the same February 26 transcribes Saracenus. We would here subjoin the Life of Saint Avertanus published by the said Saracenus, recently Lecturer in sacred Theology at Lucca, as we have related; had not another, Life written in Italian, brought from the General Chapter of the Carmelites in the year 1645, written in Italian by a certain Father of the Luccan Carmel, and translated into Latin by another, translated into Latin, but in a style too concise and faulty. Wherefore the same, arranged in a more convenient method and a more elegant style, was communicated to us by Seger Pauli, a learned man of the same Carmelite Order: judging that from this same Italian Life Saracenus had published the deeds of Saint Avertanus in an abridged form, but here more reliable and more accurate than usual in writing the Acts of other Saints of his Order. Of him we treated on January 29, in the Life of Saint Peter Thomas, sections 2 and 3. Seger had added his own Annotations, and various testimonies of other Writers, some of which we have adduced from him in this preliminary discussion. Let the Reader bear in mind that many of these Acts rest on the authority of this modern writer: to be corrected in places. which are to be corrected in places from the above-cited authors, more proximate to the age of Saint Avertanus.
Section V. The Memory of Blessed Romaeus.
[14] The most ancient memory of Blessed Romaeus is found in the poem given above, number 4, concerning the relics of Saint Avertanus elevated by John, to which he joined the sacred bones of this man, or, as the poet says:
And he gave Romaeus as companion, that one honor might join them to the urn, for whom heaven is one home. The relics of Saint Romaeus honored, And because they reign with the Prince of eternal life, Lucca, safe beneath their divine protection, flourishes.
That the relics of both were brought from the suburban church to the principal church of the city in the year 1513 is established from the manuscript records of the same church already cited. In those records the venerable bodies of Saint Senesius and Blessed Romaeus and Avertanus are said to have been translated from the church of Saint Peter Major outside the gate to the cathedral church of Saint Martin. translated, Furthermore, Saracenus, cited above, writes that the bodies of these Saints, enclosed in a single leaden chest, are preserved in the sacristy of the same cathedral. These things are certain. But who this Blessed Romaeus was, or at what time he lived, is uncertain. He who is named Saint Senesius among the three Patrons of the suburban church is believed to have been one of the ancient Martyrs and to have given his life for Christ in the year 316, which is to be examined on May 4. Did Blessed Romaeus live at some intermediate time between Saints Senesius and Avertanus, that the second place should therefore be assigned to him? He was made the companion in burial, or of the leaden urn or chest, of Saint Avertanus, so that the same honor might be shown to both: which we likewise do on this day. Saussaius in the Gallican Martyrology joined both on the following day.
[15] Some make Romaeus the companion of Saint Avertanus on his Italian journey, others Henry: and in order to reconcile these authors more easily with one another, others determine that Romaeus and Henry are one and the same. What is recorded about Henry is roughly as follows. whether another Saint Henry is distinct from him First, Baptista of Venice, of the Catanei family, in the Mirror of the Order mentioned above, writes thus: "The seventeenth was Saint Henry, whose body rests at Lucca in a certain parochial church, where many miracles are wrought through him." Next, they report that Henry's
commemoration is assigned to the seventeenth day of January in a certain manuscript Calendar of the Carmel of Mechlin. Moreover, this eulogy is said to be brought by Philip Metius in his Catalogue: "Blessed Henry, a devout, good, and religious man, setting out from the province of Tours to Rome for the purpose of visiting the thresholds of the Apostles. buried at Lucca? Where, having acquired the public title of sanctity on account of his wondrous deeds, he went to Lucca: where, living holily for three years and dying most holily, he now dwells in heaven. His body is now preserved in the cathedral church at Lucca. From the archive." Thus Metius, whose words Seger Pauli has in his Annotations. Franciottus, a diligent investigator of the Luccan archives, reports that twelve bodies of Saints are preserved in the cathedral church, besides various heads and other bones of very many Saints; nor does he mention any Henry: indeed, not even among the relics which are honored with public veneration in other churches of the same city does he list any of Saint Henry. Much here is indeed perplexing and intricate: first, whether any Henry among the Carmelites lived and ended his life at Lucca with a reputation for sanctity; second, whether he should be considered the same as Saint Romaeus, or different from him. Peter Thomas Saracenus in the Life of Saint Avertanus, number 7, writes in the margin these very words: "Concerning the infirmity of Blessed Romaeus, others say Henry," regarding Romaeus and Henry as one and the same.
[16] Third, since the Carmelites have hitherto not celebrated the feast of Blessed Romaeus, the question arises whether he should be ascribed to their Order. So indeed judged John Carthagena, book 17, [whether Saint Romaeus was a Carmelite and a companion on Saint Avertanus's journey?] homily 3, in a sermon delivered on the feast of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel: "Blessed Avertanus," he says, "a Frenchman, and Blessed Romaeus, the bodies of both of whom are venerated at Lucca in the cathedral church, flourished in that Order." In the catalogue of Confessors of the Carmelites published by Laurence Beyerlinck in the Theatre of Human Life, there is recorded "Blessed Romaeus, an Italian, whose relics are held in veneration at Lucca." The same Romaeus is joined to Saint Avertanus as a companion on the journey by Franciottus, Saracenus, and the author of the Life soon to be given. Because this is neither sufficiently confirmed nor refuted by the testimony of the ancients, neither shall we decide the matter. Let the most religious Carmelite Fathers venerate, together with the people of Lucca, Saints Avertanus and Romaeus: and let those whom one honor of the urn has joined be considered to have been joined also by one profession of the Carmelite institute.
LIFE OF SAINT AVERTANUS, by an Italian Carmelite, translated by Seger Pauli of the same Order.
Avertanus, Conversus of the Carmelite Order. Lucca in Etruria (Saint) Romaeus, Lucca in Etruria (Blessed)
By an Italian Carmelite, translated by Seger Pauli.
CHAPTER I
The holy childhood of Saint Avertanus: his entry into the monastery.
[1] Avertanus, the glorious offspring and splendor of Mount Carmel, a Frenchman by nationality, a Limousin by birthplace, Saint Avertanus of Limoges, was born of parents modest in fortune but richest in virtues. His name Avertanus was not without mystery; for he was to liberate very many sinful souls from the hellish maw of Avernus. From his very infancy he began to enrich his soul as a treasury of heavenly virtues. For his mother observed not infrequently of the infant he refuses to suck on fast days: that on certain solemn fast days, after the fashion of the most holy Bishop Nicholas, he refused to suck his mother's milk before sunset, to the great wonderment of his parents, so that when his mother sometimes tried to give him food, with cries directed toward heaven he seemed to summon the very angels to his aid. Nor did he supply his parents with less cause for wonder, when they saw him staring with fixed eyes at the sky for whole hours at a time, as if he were to be enrolled in the future possession of the heavenly city. In spiritual discourse (if any occurred) the divine child, still lisping, a boy who loves the virtues: lent attentive ears, suggesting by a wonderful propensity, as one well instructed in the school of divine love, that he delighted in such conversations. In short, there was scarcely any virtue which he did not seem to possess even in his tender age, always surpassing his parents' expectations of him.
[2] Growing thus in wisdom and age, the boy Avertanus was inflamed with a vehement desire to consecrate himself as a victim to God in religious cloisters. Whence he would sometimes spend entire days in prayer and fasting, beseeching the Divine Majesty most earnestly, and also imploring the patronage of the most worthy Empress of heaven, that she would make known to him the will of God and direct him on the right path of perfection. When one night, the greater part of which had been spent in tears and prayers, he had more earnestly made this petition, God, wishing to console him, sent to him a Seraph Angel, By angelic counsel he is ordered to enter the Carmelite Order: addressing him with these words: "God console you, fortunate youth, beloved servant of the Most High, from whom I have been sent to fulfill your desire: in whose name I announce to you that, stripped of all worldly attachment, without delay early tomorrow morning you should go to the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, and there, living piously with those devout Religious, offer yourself as a holocaust to the Divine Majesty." With these words spoken, the celestial messenger vanished, leaving behind a most sweet fragrance. The holy youth, entirely astonished, and at the same time filled with internal consolation and spiritual joy, shedding tears of gladness, gave God the greatest thanks he could, saying: "I give You thanks, eternal God, for such great favors shown to me. And whence have I merited them, with so many sins, so many errors, by which I have offended You?" (although he himself shone with nearly angelic purity.) "I acknowledge all these things as shown to me from Your goodness. Blessed be Your Divine goodness forever. May Your most holy name ever be praised. I will follow You, I will follow Your most loving voice."
[3] At the first appearance of the dawn, therefore, rising from his most humble bed, he approached his father, narrating on his knees with tears the wonderful vision he had had, earnestly and humbly requesting his blessing and permission to fulfill what the heavenly messenger had commended to him. It cannot be believed his parents saddened by this, how great then were the sobs and tears of his aged parents, what pain they felt within their breast. The father said with sighing: "So then, my son, my only hope, will you forsake me in my great miseries? You are the sole relief of my decrepit old age and unhappy grey hairs, and will you now frustrate my hope and desire? In losing you, I shall lose life: when you depart, my unhappy spirit will depart." His mother was similarly distressed, scarcely able to speak: "My son, my son," she said, "from you alone I expected the reward for the milk I gave you for so many months, and will you leave me desolate in the midst of my needs? Let a mother's love move you, with which I have always pursued you. Without your presence, pain lives within me, life will die, that mortal light will be unhappy to me, and life tedious." Wholly afflicted and distressed, therefore, Avertanus gave them this response amid sighs and tears: "Dearest parents and progenitors, do not afflict me, I beg you, by casting up your sorrows; he consoles them and makes them peaceful: but grant me to show myself obedient to the Divine will. I do not forsake you; but with all the affection I can, I hold you imprinted in my breast and heart. I will surely help you more, enclosed in some hermit's hut and in the poor garment of a religious institute, though removed from your sight, than if I were always present to you in a royal palace and on an august throne. Greater joy and gladness will come to you upon seeing me in a rustic sheepskin and wrapped in rough sackcloth, than crowned with a royal diadem and dressed in purple and fine linen." Moved by this pious response of the holy youth, the devout parents
answered with tears, saying: "We cannot, dear son, fail to subscribe to your pious petition. Go then, go with our blessing: do what pleases, what the Lord commands. Our sorrows over the loss of your presence will be well borne, provided you achieve your purpose with affection. Bear with patience whatever adversities may befall you: for all those things will be turned into sweet consolation."
[4] Upon hearing this, Saint Avertanus, humbly kissing the feet of his pious parents, thanked them for the permission thus granted to him. He therefore hastened to the Carmelite monastery of Limoges, at that time very celebrated for the holiness and learning of its men: and at the very entrance meeting the Prior of the house, prostrate before him, having related the angelic vision and command, with many tears and profound humility he earnestly asked of him the habit and institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. admitted to the monastery, The holy Prelate, already well instructed by divine revelation as to what should be done, consoling the weeping youth, promised to grant what he asked. To him Avertanus, after kissing the ground and his feet, gave the greatest thanks for the promised favor. When the pious youth's petition had therefore been set before the Fathers by the Prior, all, divinely inspired, admitted him with favorable votes, to his great joy and inner sweetness. Stripped therefore of his secular habit and surrounded by the ineffable light of the Divine Spirit, he puts on the habit, he was adorned and enriched with the precious habit of the Religious life with great solemnity. Present at his investiture was a certain devout contemplative, together with many other pious persons, by whom were then heard angelic harmonies and seraphic voices, with heavenly favor. resounding with the sweetest melody among other spiritual hymns, "Glory to God in the highest." The heavenly Empress of the Angels was also seen to bless him with outstretched right hand and to accept him under her filiation and most secure patronage.
AnnotationsCHAPTER II
The monastic life of Saint Avertanus.
[5] Already clothed in the sacred habit of religion, and wholly renewed in God and recollected in himself, after various conversations held with his own soul concerning the manner of sincerely serving God, of eradicating vices, of implanting virtues, and especially of fulfilling the vows of the religious life, He suffers an ecstasy of mind, his spirit was rapt to God, and he remained in ecstasy for not a few hours, that, as far as is granted to mortal man, he might enjoy God. Having returned to himself, he put into execution with such affection and fervor the works of virtue which he had formerly conceived in his mind, that he surpassed all the Brothers, even the seniors, of his monastery, and drew them to love and admiration of himself. He did not spurn the lowly tasks of the monastery, but embraced them with immense charity. He did not wait for a second command from his Superior, supremely obedient, but as soon as the Superior opened his mouth, he immediately put what was commanded into execution; so much so that he often asked his Prelate to enjoin upon him certain tasks in which he could give proof of obedience and humility. Whence he was commonly called by all "the Son of obedience." In like manner he was most devoted to poverty, to such an extent that it was observed that he never touched or even named money; indeed, he turned his eyes away from the very sight of money as from the most pernicious plague of the soul. His Superior sometimes offered him, by way of assistance according to the custom of the religious life, clothing and other necessities: yet he could not be induced to accept them. he loves poverty, For with tears and sighs he begged his Superior not to oblige him by a precept of obedience to accept those things: citing as an example of poverty and want Christ our Redeemer and the great Prophet Elijah, the founder of his Order. There also shone forth in the holy youth a wonderful chastity. For he was adorned with the most beautiful bodily gifts and delicate features; he lives chastely: yet he did not permit these to serve sensuality; rather, his outward beauty was conjoined with great majesty and spiritual comeliness, so that it was a cause of admiration and devotion to all who beheld him, nor was he ever tempted by any person to any illicit act.
[6] The most perfect charity of Blessed Avertanus must not be passed over in silence. For in this virtue he showed himself so eminent that he would almost lead any beholder to believe that he was gazing not upon some simple man, but upon those great and divine Prophets Moses and Elijah, or the Apostle Paul. he burns with charity for his neighbor: For with such love did he converse with his neighbor, with such affection did he discourse, with such ardor did he seek his salvation, so did he thirst for the sinner's conversion, that he showed himself ready to go to a thousand deaths, provided his desire might achieve its effect. He could not see a sick pauper without being immediately moved to compassion, feeling his infirmities in himself, and seeking by every means the necessities to relieve his want, he helps the poor even depriving himself (with the Superior's permission, however) of his own necessary food. And if sometimes he could not succor a wretched person in need with his own temporal resources, he would approach the wealthier citizens, and prostrating himself on the ground before them, would cry out with tearful eyes in these words: "Give what is necessary to the unfortunate pauper!" Moved by the holy man's manner of supplication, the rich not only gave abundantly, even by begging alms, but were themselves bathed in devotion and tears: indeed, some of them, bidding farewell to the world and abandoning avarice, bestowed their opulent patrimonies upon the poor servants of God and, following his example, entered religious cloisters.
[7] In the virtue also of prayer and contemplation, the illustrious servant of God Avertanus was so celebrated that he would often spend whole days fasting, without any care for his own body, in prayer; rapt in ecstasy while praying, and with such an alienation of spirit that when some of the Religious, by the Superior's command, came to his cell and raised great cries and disturbances, he could scarcely at last return to himself. This served no small benefit to those same devout and contemplative religious brethren of his. It was his custom on certain feast days throughout the year (even in the deeper tranquility of sleep) to rise at midnight, without any noise, from his hard and poor bed, on account of long kneeling to ascend on bended knees the hills near the monastery, to pray upon hard stones with arms extended in the form of a cross and with weeping eyes, and also with a very hard stone to strike his breast until it bled, until the dawn broke. It is related with astonishment concerning the glorious Apostle James, Bishop of Jerusalem, that from the constancy of his praying, the skin on his knees so hardened that it appeared harder than a camel's hide. But let that amazement and wondrous portent now cease. For the servant of God, Avertanus, had skin so hardened from excessive genuflection that the skin on his knees the skin hardening: appeared like iron. Nor should this seem so impossible to anyone, though perhaps difficult to believe; since he would very often spend entire days from his very boyhood on bended knees in prayer, and from the constant effusion of blood upon the hardest stone, as was said, the hardness of his most tender flesh increased. This angelic Saint Avertanus ought therefore to be a mirror for all Christians and Religious in our times to imitate.
[8] In this manner the holy man grew in virtue and perfection. Whence there was also in him a great desire to visit the sacred places and the relics of the Saints resting therein, especially the nourishing city of Rome, illustrious with the treasure of very many relics. about to venerate the relics of the Saints For which journey he also obtained permission from his Superiors, with a companion of his Order, Blessed Romaeus, assigned to him, a great servant of God. In the year of Christ, therefore, one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine, after the solemnity of All Saints, they set out upon their journey. But there is no need for me to weary myself in describing the devotion and affection with which those two earthly Angels performed their loving piety. he makes the Roman journey in a holy manner. There was no church in the cities through which they passed that they did not visit with the greatest affection. Their conversations were not filled with idle tales and lies: no unseemly comedies were staged, nor ridiculous stories narrated, as is the custom of some modern pilgrims. Nothing else issued from their mouths except evidences of the love of God and love of neighbor. Their ears were delighted by nothing except the sacred Scripture and heavenly words.
AnnotationsCHAPTER III
The pious death of Saint Avertanus, his burial, and miracles.
[9] Having therefore happily completed a good part of their journey, when they arrived at the Alps, or the borders of Italy, at that time infected with pestilence or some other pernicious disease, they were compelled to endure the most grievous troubles and sorrows of heart, Excluded everywhere by the raging plague, because they could enter no city of Italy, being suspected of the pestiferous disease: whence they were everywhere repulsed with disgrace. Yet the holy men bore this repulse with great patience, giving thanks to the Divine Majesty for having made them worthy to suffer such tribulations for love of Him. Blessed Avertanus could not, however, fail to be saddened at being deprived on this occasion of the sight of the bodies of so many holy Martyrs and of the enjoyment of so many other precious spiritual treasures. stricken with fever, Whence, seized by a slight fever, he was compelled, together with his beloved companion (who himself was also exhausted by the long and laborious journey), to turn aside to some place for the sake of rest. Therefore, divinely inspired, as is believed, they directed their way toward the illustrious and noble city of Lucca. in the suburban hospice at Lucca Near the walls of this city was a hospice, called Saint Peter Major, in which pilgrims and travelers were customarily received. To this same hospice both turned aside, and were received charitably and kindly, and remained there the whole of that night. On the following morning Saint Avertanus, rising and recognizing that the time was at hand when he would render his soul to his Creator, approached the gates of the city, humbly asking the guards to permit himself and his companion to enter the city. But his petition was in vain: for they were suspected of the plague and were repulsed. Afflicted therefore on every side, the holy man he remains: was compelled to remain in the same hospice of Saint Peter Major.
[10] As the illness of the fever took daily increase, he panted in expectation of the fortunate day on which, leaving this mortal life, he might enjoy the joy of eternal glory promised to all faithful servants of Christ, not without the grief of his companion Romaeus and all those standing by. fortified with the last Sacraments, Having been duly fortified with all the Sacraments of the Church, when his holy soul was preparing itself for the presence of its Creator, in the greatest ardor of the fever, wholly absorbed in God with pious meditations, he somewhat relieved his exhausted body in this manner. God, wishing (in reward, I believe, for so many sufferings which he bore with patience) to honor him with the gift of Prophecy, on a certain day of his more intense illness, his spirit being rapt to heaven, he perceived and predicted three wonderful events. he predicts three future events: First indeed, that by the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, Queen of heaven, the fierce and general schism of the Church would be ended. Second, that his body, which the citizens of Lucca had denied entry to while alive, would be placed with great honor in a more worthy place of the city when dead. Third, that his brethren the Carmelites, with the greatest observance and perfection, would possess the church of the aforesaid hospice of Saint Peter Major outside the city, in which he himself was about to render his soul to his Creator.
[11] As the fortunate hour drew near in which he was to bid farewell to this mortal life, when he felt his spirit gradually failing, wholly dissolved in tears and sighs, he began to bewail his faults, although he was most clean from any stain of graver sin. And with his eyes fixed upon heaven, he said: "Come, come, sweet Jesus, with Your infinite mercy, succor this soul devoted to You. he humbly implores the mercy of God: I do not deserve glory, since I have offended You with so many faults: but trusting in Your loving-kindness alone, I dare to offer You this unhappy spirit. Let grace superabound, my sweetest Jesus, where malice has abounded; You who said with Your own mouth: 'I do not will the death of the sinner; but rather that he should be converted and live' Ezek. 33:11. I do not deny that I have sinned: but behold, now with tears at the most benign feet of Your mercy I seek remission. Place now, beloved Jesus, Your ineffable pity upon this unworthy sinner, who acknowledges himself deserving of perpetual fire in punishment of my sins: yet I do not despair of Your paternal love, with which, though most unworthy, You have always loved me, and I securely promise myself heavenly glory." Present at his death was his most faithful companion, Blessed Romaeus, who, with the others standing by, perceiving and seeing the devout sighs, sufferings, and tears of this soul, having already well understood his sanctity, yet hearing such most humble words and the abject and lowly opinion he had of his own person, he himself could not restrain his tears.
[12] Scarcely at last had the holy man finished his aforesaid prayer, when, behold, suddenly the entire place where the dying Avertanus lay was filled with a certain divine splendor and the sweetest heavenly fragrance. Nor is it a wonder: for Christ Jesus the heavenly Creator came, with the most serene Queen of heaven, the Virgin Mother of God, surrounded by an innumerable multitude of angelic spirits, called by the appearing Christ, from whose glorious wounds most brilliant rays shone forth, for the consolation of His beloved servant. Who also addressed him with the sweetest words, saying: "Come, come, beloved soul and devoted to me, into the rest of your Savior: enter into this open side, to receive the reward befitting your labors. Come now gloriously with me into paradise, to enjoy the glory promised to you." he dies, With these words spoken, blessing His beloved servant, He received his most pure spirit, that He might glorify him forever in heaven with the other citizens of the celestial Paradise. That Almighty God might openly declare that the glorious Confessor Avertanus, now dead, lives for all eternity, immediately in the surrounding area the bells were heard divinely resounding, the bells ringing of their own accord: not without a miracle, without any human effort. Whence, when the passing of the holy man was made known, an innumerable throng of people rushed to visit his sacred relics.
[13] God, wishing also to further glorify His beloved servant on earth, whom He had made to reign in heaven, bestowed upon his sacred body the power of working miracles, and those stupendous and unheard of. illustrious for miracles, There was no one, laboring under any infirmity, however severe, who, upon visiting that body, did not return healed. All stood amazed, seeing the marvels that were wrought: the blind illuminated, the lame walking, the deaf hearing, the paralyzed rising, and the dead raised to life. Wherefore all praised the Almighty Creator for all the wondrous works of this heavenly pilgrim. The report of such great marvels reached the ears of the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Paul Gabriel of Gubbio, the Most vigilant Bishop of Lucca. he is transferred to the principal church of the city. He, informed of the whole course of events, with the pious consent of the Most Excellent Senate, by a decree and command enjoined that the sacred body should be transported with a solemn procession to the noble parish of Saint Peter in the city, and there placed in a more elevated location. When the said procession had been arranged, therefore, with the greatest concourse of people weeping from devotion and honoring the sacred relics with garlands and fragrant flowers, the same sacred body was translated with royal pomp to the aforesaid church, and enclosed in the purest crystal, to the honor and glory of Almighty God and of His glorious Confessor, Saint Avertanus: who died in the year of our salvation one thousand three hundred and eighty, on the twenty-fifth day of February.
[14] The Divine Majesty had honored His beloved Avertanus with the gift of prophecy, According to the prediction of the dying man, the schism ceases, by which he had first predicted that by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary the schism of the Church would be ended, which, introduced by certain malicious persons, had grievously afflicted it. And this indeed came to pass happily. For when the feast of the Visitation of the Mother of God was instituted by Pope Urban VI, the Church rested in its former peace and quiet. He had predicted secondly that his body, though repulsed by the people of Lucca while alive, the body brought into the city. would be carried with honor when dead to the more distinguished basilica of the same city. And this too came to pass: for when his death and the holiness of his life were spread abroad, it was placed with sumptuous display in the greater parochial church of the same city. Finally, he had predicted thirdly that the Brothers of his Order, the Carmelites, would possess with the most perfect observance the place where he was to render his spirit to God. And this also came to pass: for shortly afterward the most Serene Republic of Lucca assigned the same place to them.
AnnotationsCHAPTER IV
The death of Blessed Romaeus.
[15] Blessed Romaeus, wholly afflicted and desolate at the loss of his companion Avertanus, exhausted also by the labors and austerities of the journey, when the illness of the fever supervened, to the dying Blessed Romaeus he remained confined to his bed until the seventh day, the disease increasing daily: on the eighth day, coming to his last extremity, having received the Sacraments of the Church, and absorbed in the divine mysteries then shown to him, he sought from the Divine Majesty the grace of attaining to the enjoyment of heavenly glory and the presence of his dear companion, Saint Avertanus, who had been taken from him. Moved by the devotion and desire of His servant Romaeus, our Redeemer came to him as he was now dying, accompanied by an innumerable multitude of the Blessed, Christ appears with Saint Avertanus. together with the glorious soul of Saint Avertanus, on the very eighth day after his death, to receive the spirit of Blessed Romaeus, adorned with the whiteness of virtues, that He might glorify him for all eternity in the celestial paradise.
Annotations This chunk contains only website footer text from the digital source and has no Latin content requiring translation.