ON THE HOLY ROMAN MONKS ANTHONY, MERULUS, AND JOHN.
In the Sixth Century.
PrefaceAnthony, monk at Rome (Saint) Merulus, monk at Rome (Saint) John, monk at Rome (Saint)
[1] Gregory the Great had built six monasteries in Sicily before his Pontificate, as John the Deacon writes in his Life, which we shall give on the 12th of March: The monastery of St. Gregory at Rome. A seventh, within the walls of the city of Rome, in honor of St. Andrew the Apostle, near the basilica of Saints John and Paul, at the Clivus Scauri, he built as a monastery in his own house; in which he himself also assumed the monastic habit. The Camaldolese monks now inhabit it, as Ottavio Panciroli attests, and it is called Saints Gregory and Andrew.
[2] The feast of the three holy monks. Here three most holy monks lived with him: Anthony, Merulus, and John; whose most happy departure he himself describes in the Dialogues. Their names are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the 17th of January: At Rome, in the monastery of St. Andrew, the blessed monks Anthony, Merulus, and John, of whom St. Gregory the Pope writes. The same are commemorated by Menard, Wion, Dorganius, Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy; Anthony and Merulus by Galesinius, Trithemius book 3 on Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapters 23 and 25. Peter de Natali, book 11, chapters 116 and 117, where he writes Merolus instead of Merulus. Trithemius in the cited book, chapter 21, does not treat of this John, as Wion supposed.
[3] Molanus in his first edition and the German Martyrology record Anthony and Merulus on the 15th of March. But a certain manuscript Calendar of Saints of the Benedictine Order relics. has Merulus on the 21st of January and Anthony on the 31st. Panciroli relates that the relics of these are preserved in the same basilica under the high altar.
LIFE FROM ST. GREGORY, book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 47.
Anthony, monk at Rome (Saint) Merulus, monk at Rome (Saint) John, monk at Rome (Saint)
[1] Sometimes Almighty God first strengthens the minds of the fearful with certain revelations, so that they may not be terrified in death. For a certain brother named Anthony lived with me in the monastery, who longed for the joys of the heavenly fatherland with many daily tears. And when he most studiously Anthony's piety. and with great fervor of desire meditated on the sacred Scriptures, he sought in them not words of knowledge but the tears of compunction; so that through these his mind, once stirred, might burn and, forsaking things below, might fly by contemplation to the region of the heavenly fatherland. To him in a vision by night it was said: His death foretold from heaven: Be ready, for the Lord has commanded you to depart. And when he said he did not have the means for traveling, he immediately heard a voice answering, saying: If the question concerns your sins, they have been forgiven. And when he had heard this once and still trembled with great fear, he was also admonished on another night with the same words. Then after five days, seized by fever, with all the brothers praying and weeping, he died.
[2] Another brother also in the same monastery was called Merulus, intensely devoted to tears and almsgiving. Indeed, psalmody from his mouth almost never ceased, as also to Merulus: except when he gave either food to his body or rest to his limbs. To him in a vision by night it appeared that a crown of white flowers descended from heaven upon his head. from his tomb a sweet fragrance. He was soon seized by bodily affliction, and with great security and cheerfulness of mind he died. When Peter, who now presides over my monastery, wished to make a grave for himself at his tomb fourteen years later, such fragrance of sweetness, as he asserts, emanated from that same tomb, as if the aromas of all flowers had been gathered there. From which it was manifestly clear how true was what he had seen in the nocturnal vision. To John, health unexpectedly restored;
[3] In the same monastery, moreover, there was another called John, a youth of great character, who surpassed his years in understanding and humility, sweetness and gravity. When he was sick and brought to the point of death, a certain old man appeared to him in a nocturnal vision, and touched him with a rod, and said to him: Rise; for you will not die from this affliction at this time, but be ready, for you will not have long to be here. And when he was already given up by the physicians, he was suddenly healed and recovered. He narrated what he had seen; and for two years, as I have said, he displayed himself in the service of God beyond his years. But three years before this, when a certain brother had died death foretold, and had been buried by us in the cemetery of the same monastery, as all of us were leaving the same cemetery, the same John, as he afterward indicated, pale and trembling, was found there when we had departed, having been called by the same brother who had died from his grave. Which the subsequent end also taught. For after ten days he was seized by fevers and loosed from the flesh.
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