Eugendus of Condat

ON SAINT EUGENDUS, ABBOT.

[1] Concerning Saint Eugendus, Usuard writes: "In the territory of Lyon, Saint Eugendus the Abbot, Saint Eugendus the Abbot. whose life shone full of virtues and miracles." Nearly all other Latin Martyrologies agree, and especially the Roman one. Peter de Natalibus also mentions him, Book XI, chapter 130. Miraeus in the Belgic and Burgundian fasti. Notker records him on January 2. Some call him Augendus; Galesinius calls him Eugenius.

[2] Arnold Wion, Book 3 of the Lignum Vitae, makes two Eugendi: one Abbot of the Jura monastery, the other of the Condatense monastery; Wion is corrected. when in fact the Condatense monastery, or as Gregory of Tours calls it, Contatiscone, is the same as the Jura monastery (not, as some write, Virense, Virens, or Lorense), because it is situated on Mount Jura in Burgundy. It is now called Saint-Claude after Saint Claudius, Archbishop of Besancon, who is celebrated on June 6.

[3] The life of Saint Eugendus, written by an anonymous disciple of his and published by Surius, I have collated with the ancient manuscripts of the monastery of Sainte-Marie de Bonnefort and Sainte-Marie de Ripatoire, and have corrected in many places.

LIFE.

PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] How much, most blessed brothers, I have supplied from the sum of my debt to your desire and fervor, as I am in part already confident, with the Lord's help, from the account of these pages, yet uncertain of my own conscience and of external judgment, Apology for the unpolished style. I do these things that you enjoin, not by the presumption of an unlearned man, but by obedience, as you see, to the Rule. May the Divinity so grant its favor that human frailty, more prone to judging -- while it delights in melody and music, and marvels at oratorical elegancies, marked by the precise propriety of words and tenses -- may by no means trample upon this * lowliness of ours with the vainglorious superfluity of proud critics. Moreover, we (as we have already said) have dedicated these little works properly to you, whom we know to be disciples not of orators but of fishermen, and who look for the Kingdom of God not in the philosophy of speech but in power, and who prefer to entreat the Lord by pure and constant observance rather than to plead by vain and perishable eloquence. Let our narration therefore now take its beginning from the account of the life of this most blessed man.

\* MS. Bonif. lowness.

CHAPTER I.

The homeland, upbringing, and signs of the future life of Saint Eugendus.

[2] The holy servant of Christ Eugendus was not only a disciple of the blessed Fathers Romanus and Lupicinus in religion, but was also a native and fellow citizen by birth and province. The homeland of Saint Eugendus. He was born not far from the village to which ancient paganism, on account of the fame and the most strongly fortified enclosure of a most superstitious temple, gave in the Gallic language the name Ysarnodori, that is, "of the iron door." At which place even now, with the shrines partly torn down, the pinnacles of the celestial kingdom shine most sacredly, dedicated to the followers of Christ. And there the father of the most holy offspring held the office of Priest in the dignity of the Presbyterate, by pontifical judgment and the testimony of the people. When, therefore, the most blessed child was growing up from his very cradle, as it were, Paternal upbringing. by a certain instinct and course of felicity and of light, with divine power, as I believe, portending the future, one night the venerable father himself, or the holy child, were held in uncertainty about the affection and the future progress of his blessedness. In a vision the holy boy was lifted up by two religious men and set beyond the threshold of his father's house, so that he might view the Eastern region and the stars of heaven, as once the patriarch Abraham of many nations, with attentive gaze; A vision inviting him to the worship of God. and it was as if already in some typical fashion being said to him: "So shall your offspring be." Gen. 13:14. For after a short interval, first one from here, then another from there, and still another from yonder, until the growing multitude became innumerable, surrounded the blessed boy -- or undoubtedly the holy Fathers Romanus and Lupicinus, who had led him forth in spirit from the mire of his father's house -- like a vast swarm of bees in the manner of a honey-making cluster in a certain tight formation. And suddenly from a visible direction he sees the celestial heights opened like a most ample gate, and also, with a gentle and extended slope reaching from the summit of heaven down to him with light, in the manner of a reclining stairway, a descent with a crested incline, and snow-white and radiant Angelic choirs advancing to him as companions, dancing in the praises of Christ. Yet so that, as the company in the place continually grew, no one at all, struck with awe at the divine majesty, was moved either by word or * gesture. And when the Angelic multitude had gradually and cautiously inserted itself among the mortals, having gathered and joined the earthly ones to themselves, the singing Angels, as they had come, ascended back to the heavenly sanctuaries. This alone the holy boy perceived amid the modulation of the songs, which, about a year later, having been admitted into the monastery, he recognized as being recited from the Gospels. That verse, indeed, as a kind of antiphon (as I well remember, from his own worthy account) the Angelic multitude was singing in alternating voices: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." Therefore, after the vast multitude was received, and after a long contemplation, the starry vault also closed, and the boy, finding himself alone in the place, was shaken from sleep, jolted, and struck with terror at the vision, he immediately reported the event to his father. For the holy Priest immediately recognized to whom his most holy offspring ought most properly to be dedicated.

\* MS. Rip. fear.

CHAPTER II.

He becomes a monk under Saints Romanus and Lupicinus. He lives most holily. Praise of Saint Leunianus.

[3] At seven years old he becomes a monk. He therefore immediately ordered him to be instructed in the elements of letters, and after a year had elapsed, like another Samuel of old, not to serve in a typical temple but rather to become a temple of Christ, he was offered to the holy a Father Romanus. 1 Kings 3:3. In him truly the twin fullness of graces of the blessed Abbots, who had led him in spirit from his earthly dwelling, so confluenced that succeeding posterity was uncertain in its judgment whether to admire Lupicinus or Romanus more in Eugendus. While those men frequently went out from the monastery on missions of mercy here and there, He never went out. this man, from the seventh year of his life to the sixtieth, in which he passed away, never set foot outside after his entry. Continually devoted to reading. For he gave and devoted himself so much to reading day and night, after completing and finishing all things enjoined by the Prior or Abbot, that besides Latin volumes, he was also rendered learned in Greek eloquence. Learned in Greek.

[5] In clothing, however, he never used two tunics, and never changed his single one unless it had first been consumed by great age; with a similar practice observed also for his cowl. He rested upon the unshaken straw of his pallet for a long time, held together with a cheap b blanket, with a sheepskin placed over it. In the summertime he used a caracalla or a cilician scapular, Austere in clothing and bedding. which a man conspicuous for sanctity, c Leunianus, Abbot of the city of Vienne, had sent him as a pledge of charity. For this Saint was formerly from Pannonia, and when the barbarians were spreading through Gaul, he had been carried off by the bond of captivity; and not only in Vienne but also in the city of Autun, he had long been confined in the enclosure of a private cell, so that for more than forty years, confined in both cities, he was known to no man from his first reclusion by face or body, but only by the familiarity of his voice. Leunianus the recluse governs monks and nuns. Governing a few monks near his cell and nuns enclosed in a monastery far within the city, numbering more than sixty, he ruled and nourished them with admirable governance; and he sent ahead very many great ones, while not dismissing meanwhile great and succeeding ones in spirit.

a Saint Romanus is celebrated February 28; Saint Lupicinus, March 21.

b Surius: strewn.

c variant: Leonianus, on whom see November 16.

CHAPTER III.

The austerity of Eugendus in clothing, food, and other matters.

[4] The footwear of Saint Eugendus. But I return to the matter above. For the most blessed Eugendus had strong and rustic shoes, his legs bound with leg-wraps in the manner of the ancient Fathers, and his feet with bandages. But at the nocturnal and matins assemblies, neither in the coldest frosts nor in heavy snows did he ever add anything to the bareness of his feet beyond * linen leggings and Gallic boots. And in this fashion too he very often walked a distance in the snow to the brothers' cemetery in the morning hours to pray. Constant in prayer. For no one ever saw him leave the daytime or nocturnal assembly before it was completed. For since at night he certainly preceded everyone to the oratory by a very long and secret prayer, after the departure of all he would likewise remain, applying himself to his formula and being nourished in spirit by a prolonged prayer. And thus, at whatever time, he would come out to the brothers with a cheerful and glad face, as satisfied ambition is wont to dissolve the faces of men with wanton delight. His meal at every time of year was once a day, Abstinence. which on summer days was completed now at the sixth hour with the other weary brothers, and now at vespers with those who took a second meal -- yet so that he never tasted anything at table except what was set before all the brothers.

\* MS. Rip. wooden. Surius: wooden.

CHAPTER IV.

He is placed over others in the Abbot's stead. He refuses the Priesthood.

[5] Let us therefore return to the beginning of his administration itself. When the Father whom the most blessed Romanus or Lupicinus had designated as successor for the Condatense monastery was broken not only by the labors and cares of the cenobium but also by the troubles of bodily illness, He is made Coadjutor of the Abbot. he called the brothers to him and so bound holy Eugendus with the solicitude of his office that he by no means diminished or withdrew from himself the right of paternal eminence. For the same Abbot attempted to bind the aforementioned holy Eugendus more tightly with the dignity of the Priesthood along with the burden of administration. He refuses the Priesthood. But he not only most frequently -- indeed most holily -- contradicted his will in this matter, but also, approaching the most sacred Bishops who had come there for the purpose of prayer, he carefully and diligently avoided the reverence of so great an honor. Yet to me he would often most secretly testify that it was much more useful for an Abbot, because of the ambition of the younger members, to preside over the brothers free from the Priesthood, and not to be bound by a dignity which it is not fitting for those who have renounced and withdrawn to seek. "For we know," he would say, "that besides this reason we have mentioned, many Fathers have also, after the heights of professed humility, become more seriously and more secretly proud through this office, and have exalted themselves more over the brothers whom it was fitting to precede in the example of humility." The Saint of God therefore accepted, as did Father Lupicinus also, the labor of the responsibility and partnership enjoined upon him without the priestly eminence, relying especially on the confidence that he was not uncertain about the paternal solicitude and provision; but soon he was struck by a most clear revelation, lest, as if uncertain about the full administration, he should be rendered doubtful.

CHAPTER V.

In a vision he understands that he will become Abbot.

[6] Another vision of his, in which he is designated as future Abbot. On the following night, therefore, suddenly caught up in a vision, he is presented to the most blessed Abbots Romanus and Lupicinus also, as in the beginning of old, in the sacristy of the oratory on the right side; and among the elders and surviving brothers themselves he also sees them carrying burning tapers and lamps. And when prayer and peace had been given to him by the holy Fathers, he immediately sees that blessed Abbot, his predecessor who was soon to be, brought in; and above his back and shoulders he observes a white cloak hanging, fastened by stiff purple nails. For the blessed Romanus, loosening the belt of that holy man, immediately girt the loins of Eugendus. Then, shaking off the cloak which, as we said, he wore over him, and likewise placing it upon the shoulders of Eugendus, he said: "Know that these are for the present assigned to you." And grasping with his fingers the Dalmatic of the aforementioned predecessor, he said: "Know that this too will be assigned to you once it has been proved in useful service." Soon the brothers standing with their tapers, one beginning first, then all together, pressed and extinguished the lights of brightness and comfort against the wall. And when the blessed man, constrained by the straits of darkness, was awaiting the outcome of the event, astounded in the vision, a voice came to him: "Do not," it said, "be saddened, Eugendus, by the fraud of those present and material lights. Attend to the eastern view of this cell, and you will immediately see light ministered to you divinely without human assistance." And he, immediately directing his gaze thither, beholds the ray of day and light gradually flowing toward him as dawn slowly brightened. And returning to himself, he rose joyfully from his bed. Nor was there delay: the effect followed the vision.

CHAPTER VI.

Illustrious in miracles, he is admired by all.

[7] He becomes Abbot. For when his predecessor migrated to Christ, willing and unwilling he could not escape the administration that had been pledged to him. But those who in the vision had withdrawn the comforts of light, having suffered some evil of human nature, inflamed by the zeal of envy, they swelled with the ardor of jealousy against the most blessed man, and allowed the holy Eugendus the Abbot to be subject to the contempt of both monks and laymen, He is deserted by brothers. now through disdain of spirit, now also through desertion of the monastery and the profession, as if he were a novice and a raw beginner.

[8] But the gaze of divine piety did not suffer His servant to be vexed with a prolonged harassment. For He immediately extended to him the right hand of His power and virtue with a most abundant outpouring of signs, He shines with miracles. giving and showing through His servant the gifts of healings and many prodigies, so that the highest powers of the world frequently begged to be healed and blessed by his letters, and did not believe they had the divine clemency appeased unless they first obtained the grace or the intercessions of the friend of Christ either by sight or by letter. Bishops too and the most admiring Priests made it their chief concern, if they could behold him bodily He is admired by all. or had obtained a more familiar address by letter. Even those very false brethren, who the day before had departed puffed up with the buskin of pride, were denounced by the laity as unfortunate and degenerate, unless they laid down the poison of envy and returned as quickly as possible to the holy servant of Christ.

CHAPTER VII.

By his letter a demon is expelled and a sickness cured.

[9] While these fragrant things were happening, a certain girl, not of the lowest rank in worldly dignity, in the parish of Secundiacum, seized by a cruel demon, was not only confined behind closed doors but also held bound with iron chains. When, as is usual, many had written exorcisms and tied them around her neck for the purpose of healing, and she, through the unclean spirit, would reproach persons unknown to her with their names -- A demon reveals the hidden sins of men through the demoniac. which is lamentable -- and their vices, asserting that she rather possessed those who had written, who had long been lurking in this and that sin with clues hidden from human eyes: then one of those standing by said to the demoniac: "Why do you terrify us with the faults of others -- or rather our own -- you unclean one? Truly in Christ's name I will so bind the writings not only of these men whom you defame, but of all the Saints I can, around your neck, that you may either be overwhelmed by the multitude of those commanding, if you despise and scorn these few." "You may place upon me," said the devil, "Alexandrian loads of paper, if you please; yet you will never be able to drive me from the vessel I have obtained, so long as you do not bring me from this place the writing of Eugendus alone, the Jura monk." Immediately the neighbors, seizing upon this statement, ran with the fullest faith to the most blessed man, and prostrating themselves at his feet, narrating the event, they testified that they would not return unless Christ's mercy, once he was entreated, should be granted to the oppressed woman. Conquered therefore either by reason or by prayers, the Father, briefly with a long prayer, writing and signing in this manner, as Gregory the Great once did to Apollo, sent a letter to the most filthy one: "Eugendus, servant of Christ, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, I command by this writing: spirits of gluttony, and of anger, and of fornication, and of love, and Lunatic, and Dianatic, and Meridian, and Diurnal, and Nocturnal, and every unclean spirit, go out from the person who carries this writing with him. Rufinus, Book 7, Ecclesiastical History, chapter 26. Through Him I adjure you, the true Son of the living God: go out quickly, and take care that you never again enter her. Amen. Alleluia." And praying and folding it, he gave it to the supplicants to carry. What more? They had not yet covered the distance of half the journey He is expelled by the letter of Saint Eugendus. when behold, that villain, gnashing and wailing, went out of the possessed woman before those returning had trod the threshold of the house.

[10] From about this time the fame and name of the blessed man shone far and wide, so that he who was already held to be holy by the locals was also considered powerful and truly Apostolic by those farther away. A certain matron, Syagria, now also a mother of churches and monasteries through her almsgiving, Syagria is healed by his letter as well. when she was held gravely ill and had already been given up by the doctors, ordered a letter of the blessed man which by chance had been brought to her to be touched from the cupboard in place of the blessed man's right hand, so that she might kiss it. And when, having grasped it and touched her eyes from it with prayer and not a few falling tears, she then inserted it into her mouth and pressed it between her teeth with prayer for some time, she immediately rose with her health restored. At which joy and miracle not only she and her own, but also the great city of Lyon was uplifted and gladdened with wonderful exultation.

\* variant: of those working.

\* Surius: of Alexandrian papers.

CHAPTER VIII.

He cures the sick, even those absent, by writing and blessed oil, and through his monks.

[11] Many are cured by him. When therefore the fame and life of the man grew by the report of his virtues, so great a crowd of wretched people began to flock to the monastery in heaps that the multitude of secular people, indeed of the afflicted, almost seemed more numerous than the companies of monks. Meanwhile, while some received their wished-for blessings immediately, others after two or three days, and some after months, the Saint of God, putting his hand to a salutary shortcut, removed the weariness for the miserable. Even those absent, by blessed oil and writing. He therefore gave to the supplicants and the healthy, to be carried and bound upon the sick, written instructions against evil spirits and miseries, together with a quantity of holy oil. Which things, with faith cooperating, so provided medicine in far-off provinces that those too obtained it who were presented to his sight in the monastery.

[12] Nor was the most blessed Father alone in the monastery, but also the Priests and many brothers there possessed the most illustrious power of merits. And with the zeal of ambition ceasing, the man of God delegated to them rather than to himself Even through his monks. the office of healing. And he strove by all means that each one should serve in the monastery in that matter or pursuit in which he perceived him to excel more eminently by the gift of the Holy Spirit; and therefore he appointed the gentle and mild to serve in that office or place where the good of gentleness and patience would not be discolored by the disturbance of another. Conversely, he did not allow those perhaps marked with the vice of pride or vanity to be set apart, He assigns offices suited to all. lest, puffed up by the judgment of a poisonous and personal elation, they should fall more deeply and seriously, when they had not recognized their faults and vices, having been frequently rebuked in public. If, indeed, as human frailty has it, he meanwhile knew that some were wounded by the bites of gnawing sadness, he would come upon them too, unexpectedly, spiritually and purposefully bland and cheerful, and would cherish them with a holy and sweet address, so that, with the most pernicious poison of sadness wiped away, as by a certain anointing of salutary oil, the aggravated severity was healed. To the more dissolute and frivolous, however, he always showed himself sharper and sterner. To the Priests themselves, by whose office he had often been bound by the Bishops and, out of humility, as we said, had not wished to be entangled, he always so granted, on account of the ministry of the saving sacrifice, by a certain work of separation, the faculty of a pure conscience, that when he was perhaps biting someone sharply for a fault, as is usual -- while they, however, were ignorant of the guilt -- they, without knowledge of or participation in another's guilt, would deliver the Lord's Body from the altar, so that they would neither consciously punish themselves by sharing in another's offense, nor seem to have subtracted anything from another by paternal severity, before his amendment, through the indulgence of the sacraments.

CHAPTER IX.

Saints Peter, Paul, and Andrew appear to him; their relics are brought there.

[13] He hated detraction. For this was, indeed is, before Christ, a most blessed man, from whose mouth (I call God to witness) no slander ever proceeded; whose ears were never polluted by the deadly contagion of a slanderous mouth. For he detested this vice -- indeed, this crime -- as much as anyone dreads not only the venom of a deadly serpent, but even avoids and shuns its very encounter and sight.

[14] To such a degree did his mind, pure from hidden vices, prevail that he was even favored with the conversation and sight of the most blessed Apostles of Christ, Peter and Paul, Saints Peter, Paul, Andrew, and Martin appear to him. and of the holy and equally Apostolic and distinguished Bishop Martin. For at a certain time, before the burden of administration was laid upon him, while on summer days he was resting as usual under a tree beyond the monastery, near the path by which one crosses to * Geneva, suddenly in his sleep three men presented themselves as approaching. When, after prayer and peace, he contemplated their unfamiliar faces and dress with astonishment, he also asked who they were, those venerable ones, by whose arrival he had merited to be blessed. Then one said: "I am Peter; and this one here is my brother Andrew, and this is our brother Paul." And he, immediately prostrating himself in spirit at their feet, said: "And what is it, Lords, that I see you in these woodland wilds, you whom we read to be contained bodily in great cities, at Rome and at Patras, after your holy martyrdom?" "It is true," they said, "and there indeed, as you say, we are; but here too we have now come to dwell." And with these words the vision and the sleep ended.

[15] And when he had rubbed his face and expelled the torpor of sleep from his countenance, he saw in the distance two brothers who had departed about two years earlier approaching by that same path by which he had seen the holy Apostles arrive in his vision. And springing immediately to meet them and greeting them as was customary, he asked whence these dearest brothers were returning to the monastery after so long an absence. "We," they said, "having journeyed among other places all the way to the City, and having also obtained the patronage of the Saints under the threefold, late but faithful, intercession of the Martyrs, are returning. For, enriched with relics of the Lord Apostles Peter and Paul and of Andrew, we are returning to our old fold." In the place, therefore, as is customary, The relics of the Apostles are reverently brought into the monastery. while they paused, the holy Eugendus ran to the monastery and himself became the messenger to the Father and brothers of the arriving Saints, he who was shortly before their beholder in vision. They immediately sprang out to meet them, and having greeted the brothers and kissed the vessels of the relics, and having with dancing, exultation, and the sound of psalms placed them under the altar, they now patronize with unfailing power those who beseech them, whose praises and merits cannot be locally confined.

\* MS. Rip. Genoa.

CHAPTER X.

Saint Martin appears to him; he brings his monks back safely.

[16] For let us speak of the holy and most blessed man Martin, whose face and appearance he used to describe to me most secretly along with those mentioned above; let me not be loath to relate a little to you. The fierce customs of the Alemanni of that age. For at a certain time, while they feared the fierce and nearby incursions of the Alemanni, who were accustomed to fall upon unwary travelers not in close combat but in the manner and fashion of beasts, in order to entirely avoid death or the suspicion of death, which so often kills with the dart of fear as often as it is feared, they resolved to seek salt from the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, He seeks salt from the Tyrrhenian Sea. rather than from the nearby places of the Herienses. But all this was done because the counsel and direction of the blessed man had urged it. And when, having spent two months' time, they gave no sign of their own arrival, the imputation of the brothers turned upon the Saint, that while others had returned safely from nearby, having feared what they had feared, he had given not so much exile as a foreign * death to the brothers sent out by his own persuasion.

[17] But he, uncertain of his guilt, because he had * drawn them away to an uncertain outcome, yet fearing to be unjustly rebuked at least, implored the mercy of Christ for their safety day and night. And when, weary after tears, Saint Martin appears to him. he had fallen asleep on his bed, he was suddenly so surrounded in his couch by a sudden brightness that he saw himself more bathed in light than if he were illuminated by the approach of the purest sun. Immediately the most blessed Martin, standing beside his bed, also greeted him and asked how he was. And he said: "I would be well, if I were not uncertain about the safety of the brothers, whom, as I am rebuked, I made exiles." And he said: "Do you not remember that as they departed, you specifically commended them to me, that is, to Martin, in prayer? For on this very night they are staying in the parish of Pontianensis; and tomorrow one of them will come here to the house, to remove all suspicion." Awakened therefore, the man of Christ, as if he were visibly pointing out the aforesaid brothers to all, so predicted the day and hour of their arrival, as the holy man of God had announced, or as they themselves immediately returned.

\* Something like "death" seems to be missing.

\* Surius: had obligated.

CHAPTER XI.

His monastery is consumed by fire, with the oil of Saint Martin remaining unharmed.

[18] His monastery is consumed by fire. For this too, which I am about to relate next, although no one doubts that it should be attributed to the miracles of the most blessed Martin, I know not who would be so ignorant and brutish as not to recognize that the gifts of virtues shine forth more especially there where the grace of merits, concordant through the unity of faith, is more familiarly known to reside. For the Lord permitted on a certain night the aforementioned and holy Martin to be tested by fire in the sacristy, but also to be proved. Thus indeed the Condatense monastery was once consumed by flames, yet the oil of Martin was consumed by no blaze of flames. Which the blessed Eugendus received with such patience and equanimity that divine Providence soon not only returned him double for simple in food and clothing, but also restored the buildings themselves far more usefully and fittingly than they had been for their former uses. For one evening, all that monastery, as I said, because it had been built of wood in ancient times, and was not only connected with undivided cells but had also been beautifully doubled with upper stories, was so suddenly reduced to ashes that in the morning not only did nothing remain of the buildings, but by the swiftness of the dry fuel, the fire itself was almost entirely extinguished.

[19] The oil of Saint Martin unharmed in the midst of flames. And when the brothers, as each had set down his hoe or axe, were searching through the fanned embers for the iron -- the only thing indeed that could not be burned -- behold, the holy Priest Antidiolus spotted the flask with the oil of Blessed Martin, which hung by the head of his bed for the sake of health, full and sealed as it had been, after vast conflagrations and after the ruins of the upper stories falling and burning from above, sitting so whole and stable among the smoking embers of the fire, as we read that the three youths shone with dewy refreshments in the Persian furnace. Dan. 3:50. This flask also, with the oil itself, is preserved to this day in the same monastery as a testimony of virtues. Whence I believe that under the holy Eugendus the destructive fire was not permitted any further than, as I said, it once yielded to the most blessed Martin, or than we remember the Condatense monks afterward escaped together with the oil and the power of Martin.

CHAPTER XII.

He knows and reveals hidden and future things.

[20] He predicts death to the Priest Valentine. For besides these things which we have briefly touched upon as testimony of his merits and virtues, those things which he foreknew by purity of spirit and divine illumination are so extraordinary that, while placed in the body, he seemed already in some way to shine with the heavenly Powers; to such a degree that on one occasion he secretly admonished the venerable man Valentine, a Deacon of the same monastery, saying: "It is established, dearest brother, that within about these twenty days you will migrate from this world to the rewards prepared for you; and therefore, however free from the bonds of sins, be prepared to go to the Lord. I admonish you, however, that you so enrich yourself around the close of life by the contribution of good works, while there is time, that you may be able to be taken from the altar of Christ as a worthy, as I have seen, and more acceptable offering. For on this night I saw you, clad in snow-white linens, placed by the holy Fathers upon the altar of this oratory with the sound of a psalm." He therefore said: "Although you know and recognize the quality of your assumption, yet I advise you to add meanwhile what you can possess there in perpetual happiness." And when they had completed their conversation with tears of joy and prayer, after about ten days he was seized with a slight fever, and gradually vexed with illness, he completed the course of his present life. Moreover, from the arrival of any person whatsoever, He knows hidden things. He predicts the future. he so discerned the marks of merits through the fragrance of a scent or the affliction of a stench that he foreknew immediately what virtue or vice each was subject to. For he often predicted the arrivals of brothers and of secular people * seeking the faith before any presence of an arriving person was shown to the brothers.

\* MS. Rip. seeking.

CHAPTER XIII.

His humility, cheerful gravity, and piety.

[21] Yet abounding in such great and extraordinary goods, he never judged himself better or more eminent than another Always humble. even slightly; but filled with piety, he weighed not what he presently was, but how far he was still from perfection, as though he were the most abject and lowest of all. He had, moreover, Cheerfully grave. a great joy in his countenance, undoubtedly because the indwelling One illuminated him. For just as no one ever saw him sad, so no one beheld him laughing. The deeds and customs of the blessed Anthony and Martin never slipped from his mind. Never did this man, as is reported of Anthony, suddenly break patience with anger or raise humility into glory; never, when praised and called blessed, was he puffed up; never, when censured, was he broken or saddened. For he was so refreshed by reading that when it was read aloud at table, He was often rapt. he was very often overcome by the emotion of things to come and, as if placed in ecstasy, forgot what was set before him. For, astonished with joy, despising the pilgrimage of this present life, he sighed for the citizenship prepared in heaven. For this man, after the ancient Fathers, was the one who properly introduced to that place the practice of reading.

CHAPTER XIV.

He cares solicitously for the brothers, especially the old and sick; he eliminates private property.

[22] He introduces cenobitic cohabitation. This man also, rejecting the custom of the Archimandrites, more usefully united all together in community. For having destroyed the little buildings of private dwellings, he caused all to rest with him in one hospice, so that those whom the custom of united refection enclosed in one room would also be surrounded by one dwelling, though with separate beds. To which, however, as in the oratory, an unfailing light was provided at night. This Abbot, I say, never set apart his own little table, as I have recently heard certain others do, nor his food from the brothers: all things were absolutely common to all. He never taught by command what he had not previously fulfilled by example or deed. He cares solicitously for the sick and elderly. He always most mercifully arranged for the sick or very aged to be served, adding also that those brothers should serve them in their need whom the sick had most especially chosen; and he not only had suitable food provided for them, but also, on account of the labor of their infirmity, granted them to eat and stay separately until health returned.

[23] For he also offered himself to secular people without regard for personal status. To the poor he gave the same kiss, table-fellowship, and seat as to the rich, keeping all caution according to the rule of the Fathers that no monk should present himself to the sight of arriving laymen or even relatives without being ordered. If anything was perhaps offered to anyone by relatives, He prohibits all private property. he would immediately bring it to the Abbot or Steward, and never presumed anything from it without the father's command. No one there ever had a cell, a cupboard, or a chest; no one was given any occasion for possessing property from even the slightest need. For down to the very needle, and even the spun wool for sewing and stitching, everything was provided in common, so long as the most subtle occasion for monks to deviate might be removed. Among all these things, however, on account of property, each was allowed only to read or pray. Moreover your brotherhood knows all that I say: there are never lacking the greatest reasons for deviation in a monastery, where even the smallest are not driven out.

[24] On the monastic institute of Saint Eugendus. And because the discourse has brought us to touch upon something of the institutes of the Fathers through the imitation of Blessed Eugendus, according to the promise which I said I would keep in the third little work, as memory suggests with Christ's inspiration, we first make known the beginnings of those who renounce the world. For we do not at all trample with fastidious presumption upon what the holy and distinguished Basil, Bishop of the city of Cappadocia, once established, or what the holy Fathers of Lerins, or the holy Pachomius, the ancient Abbot of the Syrians, or what the more recent venerable Cassian published; but reading these daily, we strive to accomplish these things rather than those of the Orientals, according to the quality of the place and the unconquered constancy of labor: because undoubtedly the Gallic nature or infirmity executes these things more effectively and easily.

CHAPTER XV.

The death of Eugendus.

[25] Since, therefore, this little prayer of ours, like a trembling helmsman contemplating the sea of the institutes and looking about on all sides, rejoices to reach the port of silence, let me relate a little concerning the deeds around the passing of the most blessed man. For when the aforesaid Father, beyond his sixtieth year, had suffered bodily illness for about six months -- yet so that he never failed to be present for the canonical course up to the hour, nor was his weary little body compelled to take anything twice in the day -- he called to himself one of the brothers, to whom with particular freedom he had formerly also entrusted the task of anointing the sick, and most secretly also asked that his own breast be anointed, as is customary. He is anointed. And when, after the night had passed, he was asked by us at dawn about his nocturnal rest as well, breaking into tears and sobs, he said: "May almighty God spare you, who do not permit me, so constrained by illness, to be released from bodily bonds." On his deathbed, Romanus and Lupicinus appear to him. And when we, trembling amid flowing tears and sobs convulsed also in our hearts, were silent, he said: "My lord Abbots Romanus and Lupicinus, presenting a bier on their own shoulders before this bed and kissing me and composing me, lifted me up and placed me on the litter. And when, having lifted me up, they were carrying me into the oratory, Finally he admonishes his own. as you all came running to the entrance, I was violently shaken off and was carried back by you to this bed. And therefore I ask, if you grant anything to an old man, if anything indeed to paternal affection, do not keep me here any longer, but at last permit me to pass on to the Fathers. I therefore beg and beseech you all, my little children, that you bring the accepted and transmitted institutes of the Fathers inviolably in all things to my joy and that of all the Saints and of yourselves, to the palm of victory."

[26] When, therefore, he had completed his words amid our lamentations, on the fifth day he placed himself upon this very bed, and suddenly, as though seen to be sleeping, he breathed out his spirit. He dies. His holy and blessed little body was reverently buried in Christ's name, amid the companies of sons and brothers, with the service of posterity also assisting.

[27] Meanwhile, O most holy brothers, refresh your thirst of faith and fervor with these satisfied desires. But if, with philosophy long since despised, The author's book on the institutes of the monastery of Agaunum. even this rustic chatter could not satisfy your hearts, the institutes also which we have composed concerning the formation of the monastery of our Agaunense cenobium, with the holy Priest Marinus, Abbot of the island of Lerins, urging us, will abundantly fulfill your desires, both for the insignia of the institute and for the authority of the one commanding, with Christ's help.