Bassianus

ON S. BASSIANUS, BISHOP OF LAUS IN ITALY.

Around the year of Christ CCCCIX.

Bassianus, Bishop of Laus in Italy (S.)

From various sources.

[1] Laus Pompeia was a town of Insubria, the work of the Boii, but restored or enlarged by Cn. Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great, whence the name: in the twelfth Christian century it was destroyed by the Milanese, Laus Pompeia its inhabitants also being dispersed, lest they should reunite. But the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa rebuilt it in a more secure location on the River Adda, with its former name Laus, or Lauda, commonly Lodi. Three miles from there the village of Lodeue (as if you would say Old Laus) can be seen in the ruins of the former town.

[2] The feast of its patron S. Bassianus. The tutelary saint of that city is S. Bassianus the Bishop, and he is venerated on 19 January with solemn observance lasting eight days. On that day the Roman Martyrology reads: At Laus, S. Bassianus, Bishop and Confessor, who together with S. Ambrosius strenuously fought against the heretics. He is also mentioned by Molanus and the Cologne Carthusians in their additions to Usuardus, Bellinus, Maurolycus, Felicius, Ghinius, Canisius, Galesinius, and our Octavius Caietanus in his Plan of a work on the Saints of Sicily.

[3] Galesinius says his life and remarkable deeds were recently committed to writing by Hieronymus Rubeus in the volume of histories the life, which he elegantly composed about the city of Ravenna: as much earlier Mombritius, who drew it from a book once written by that Saint's disciples. We give it from Mombritius, a summary of which exists in the lessons of the Milanese Breviary for this day, in the Martyrology of the same Galesinius, in Petrus de Natalibus, book 2, chapter 101, and in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy by Ferrarius. We shall append the Lessons that are recited in the Church of Laus and the entire diocese, revised and reviewed by Cardinal Mellinus, by order of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and approved by the same Congregation on 12 July 1628. We obtained these through the kindness of the Most Learned Ioannes Petrus Puricellus, Provost of S. Laurentius Major at Milan.

[4] S. Ambrosius mentions Bassianus in his letter 60, in which he invites S. Felix of Como (about whom we shall treat on 14 July) to the dedication of a basilica elsewhere mentioned, which the same Bassianus had founded. The same Bassianus subscribed to the Council of Aquileia, held on the Nones of September under the Consuls Syagrius and Eucherius, in the year of Christ 381; and to the synodal letter of S. Ambrosius to Pope Siricius against Jovinian and his followers. Moreover in volume 1 of the Councils he is written as Basilianus; in the works of S. Ambrosius sometimes Basianus, the name; sometimes Bassianus; Bassanus by Felicius and Maurolycus; but that he is truly named Bassianus, Galesinius says, is shown by all the surviving traces of antiquity. Paulinus and Baronius treat of him in the life of S. Ambrosius; and the same Baronius in volume 4, year 381, no. 83, and volume 5, year 397, no. 31.

[5] The translation of S. Bassianus from Old Laus to New is commemorated by various writers on Insubrian affairs. For when Laus was destroyed around the year 1158 by the Milanese, it forbade its own being transported to Milan, a city itself near to destruction. So Petrus de Natalibus, book 2, chapter 101: In the course of time, when the city of Laus had been desolated by the citizens of Milan and totally consumed by fire, the body of the Saint could never be removed from there: indeed all who approached the place were struck down as if dead: and thus it was separated there. When the city was afterwards reconstructed in the place where it now is, by the Emperor Frederick, the body of the holy Confessor was brought there, where it rests, resplendent with miracles.

[6] When, therefore, under Frederick's auspices, Laus was restored in a more convenient location, it was decided to transfer the Patron from the old city: this was done more splendidly than devoutly, for the Antipope Victor was present; it is transferred to New Laus, but the Emperor himself placed his shoulders beneath the venerable burden. This was done in the year 1163, on the fourth day of November. For in that year the Emperor Frederick, as Otto de S. Blasio writes in his Appendix to the Chronicle of Otto of Freising, chapter 17, entered Italy for the third time, but without military equipment; and there, as also in Germany, holding various assemblies with the Italian Barons in various places, he conducted the business of the Empire by truce, and for some time remained at peace with them.

[7] Tristanus Calchus of Milan, in book 11 of his national history: While the Italian peoples were thus being tested, Frederick returned from Germany for the third time with his wife Beatrix through the month of October of the same year and betook himself to Laus, by Frederick I, Emperor, magnificently, and brought among his nobles the new Archbishop of Mainz, Conradus, brother of Count Otto Palatine. Victor the Pope, the Patriarch of Aquileia, and the Abbot of Cluny soon arrived there as well. By now the city had already received a convenient increase in both public and private buildings; and a suitable church was found to which the bones of S. Bassianus might be transferred from the old city; and the Pope, the Emperor, and all the nobles placed their shoulders beneath the sacred burden, and Barbarossa donated thirty pounds of silver for the construction, and the Empress five. The same more briefly in the Epitome: But fearing that the Lombard, and especially the Milanese, would tire and be ashamed of servitude, and in his absence would seek to recover the liberty of still recent memory, he soon returned to Italy. Arriving at Laus, while the relics of S. Bassianus were being carried from the old city to the new, he himself placed his shoulder beneath the pious burden.

[8] Bernardinus Corius narrates the same events, and marks them with a precise date; namely that the Emperor came there on 28 October, in the year 1163, a Monday, with the Empress Beatrix, the Archbishop of Cologne, Herimannus of Verden, and other nobles: that on the following Saturday Victor arrived with several Cardinals of his faction: that on Monday the body of S. Bassianus, Confessor, Patron of the Laudensians, was raised with the greatest honor from the main basilica of Old Laus, and carried on the shoulders of Victor himself, the Emperor, the Patriarch of Aquileia, and other bishops, to New Laus: and that the Emperor departed from there to Pavia with his wife on 16 November, a Saturday.

[9] This Translation is inscribed by Ferrarius in the sacred calendar on the day before the Nones of November; on which day also our Caietanus writes: At Laus, 4 November, the Translation of S. Bassianus of Syracuse, Bishop of Laus.

[10] Peregrinus Merula in his Sanctuary of Cremona testifies that at Cremona there exists a parish church of S. Bassianus, and in it a magnificent altar erected by a certain Duke of Milan. Church of S. Bassianus at Cremona. In that church on the first day of the Rogation processions a Station is held: and some bones of SS. Gervasius and Protasius are also kept there.

LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,

From Boninus Mombritius.

Bassianus, Bishop of Laus in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 1040

By an anonymous author, from Mombritius.

CHAPTER I.

The upbringing and conversion of S. Bassianus.

[1] To relate in temporal fashion the virtues of the Saints, by which with God's help they constantly fought against the allurements of the flesh, and to commend them also to the memory of future generations, we believe to be beneficial to mortals in two ways. For when we faithfully recall their unconquered constancy in the present, It is useful to write the deeds of Saints, we do not doubt that they are mindful of us before God, and we present to the living a model upon which they ought to be formed. Therefore we endeavor to briefly sketch, as he himself may grant, the holy conduct and character of B. Bassianus, Bishop and Confessor of Laus, by which he merited to become a partaker of the heavenly kingdom.

[2] S. Bassianus is sent to Rome for studies: Bassianus, a man of venerable life, in the time of his boyhood exhibiting the maturity of old age, measured not by length of years or count of days, but by his character, was sent to Rome by his father Sergius, Prefect of the province of Syracuse, when he was twelve years old, for the purpose of liberal literary study, so that being fully imbued with liberal learning, upon his father's death he might prudently manage the prefecture in his place. While he was grasping the learning to which he applied himself with a skill marvelous beyond his age, hearing the name of the Christian religion, he strove to transfer himself to divine philosophy with incredible desire: and secretly from his attendants, to whom his father had entrusted him as one to be closely guarded, he constantly sought someone to whom he might more safely confide the secret of his heart.

[3] But the Lord, not wishing his future soldier to remain any longer without experience and knowledge of His saving service, deigned three times in dreams to reveal to the priest Gordianus, a man of great holiness, the desire and eagerness of the young Bassianus: He is sought by the priest Gordianus, divinely warned, who, rising from his bed earlier than usual, began to search the public places of the City, in case he might be able to meet the youth of whom the Lord had just a short while before been pleased to speak to him. When, wearied by his inquiries, he at last by the favor of heavenly mercy was able to find him, he carefully asked him where he was from, who his parents were, and for what purpose he was living in the City. He is found. To whom the noble-natured Bassianus, prudently recounting everything in order, struck the elder with great amazement at the elegance of his speech. Then the elder, lingering for some time in honorable embraces, urged him to come and visit his house, where he did not delay in revealing what the immense majesty had three times revealed to him in a vision concerning the youth, and how it had earnestly admonished him to persist in searching. At which report both devoutly gave due thanks and praise to God, who does not allow any feeling of piety to perish in anyone, and is accustomed to mercifully open the way of righteousness to those approaching Him in truth.

[4] The athlete chosen by God, immediately prostrating himself at the feet of the venerable elder, he is instructed in the faith, earnestly begged to be catechized by him in Christ, and that he would no longer allow him to be deprived of so great a mystery, desired for so long. To these most salutary entreaties the aforesaid elder, now surely aware of the divine arrangement, most devoutly agreed. Being instructed fully and catechized in Christ, he so strove to devote himself to sacred observances; first by cultivating frugality, that he lived on a third portion of his customary allowance, and with the other two he rejoiced exceedingly in feeding the poor: and he progressed so greatly in the degrees of virtue, that the religious cleric whom he had formerly cultivated as teacher and master, he afterwards had as disciple and emulator. Then, after the completion of a year's course, like a soldier fearlessly accepting the reward of a fiercer fight, he received the grace of baptism from the oft-mentioned elder.

[5] He is baptized, and refreshed by the sight of an Angel. Reborn in the holy font of baptism, he beheld a most beautiful youth shining in the manner of the sphere of the sun standing by; and also administering to him a white garment with which to be covered: whom when the man of the Lord, Bassianus, reverently asked who he was, and for what purpose he had come to that place, he answered that he had long since been sent from heaven, to direct his holy purpose prosperously, and to drive far from him whatever might be harmful. When this was done, he immediately vanished from their eyes, refreshing those present for nearly half an hour with such sweet fragrance that, with the burden of the flesh set aside, they seemed to themselves to be dwelling in the heavenly places.

[6] Signs foretelling his future sanctity: Meanwhile his attendants, from whom this mystery had thus far been hidden, except for the eldest, whom the servant of the Lord had taken as a companion of his most intimate affairs, anxiously asked one another in turns, why their master was being constantly weakened by unheard-of frugality and unusual all-night vigils. To them the eldest, his most faithful confidant, reported thus: Liberal learning customarily provides for those who diligently pursue it, that setting aside superfluous pleasures, it makes them content with the gifts of nature. Know that the same thing is happening in our master, when he devotes himself to a higher philosophy. They, however, recalling that when he was still being nursed in his cradle he would trace crosses in the dust with his finger, crosses which he had never seen, and would divinely arrange stalks of grain in their form, and was frequently scolded by his nurse, did not cease to investigate more curiously, until they discovered in truth that he had received the cleansing of regeneration. For on a certain day, when excessively fatigued by nocturnal vigils he had given himself to sleep, they heard him in that same sleep invoking the name of the Holy Trinity, a heavenly testimony in his sleep, that it might deign to direct him also to the glory promised to those who love Him. To which a heavenly voice replied: Rejoice and be glad, most faithful attendant of Christ, Bassianus, for your prayer has been accepted before the Lord, and a most pleasing seat has been prepared for you in heaven.

CHAPTER II.

Flight to Ravenna. Miracles.

[7] Warned by S. Ioannes the Evangelist. Having heard these things, the attendants of the blessed man secretly left the City, with only one faithful servant remaining with him, and quickly brought the most unwelcome news to his father. And while his anxious father was preparing the means by which he might recall his son from his undertaking, if not gently, then even by force; it happened that the Lord's Confessor entered the basilica of the blessed Apostle Ioannes at the first cock's crow; where, attending to his prayers as was his custom, he beholds his patron, adorned with venerable white hair, admonishing him: Know, most faithful Confessor of the Lord, that you must change this dwelling as quickly as possible, and proceed to Ravenna with your faithful companion. Your father does not cease to plot against your eternal salvation, so as to turn you from the path of righteousness even against your will: and therefore the mercy of the Divine Goodness, not abandoning the care of those who serve it, has sent me, an Apostle, to you, lest by being forestalled by the snares of the cunning enemy, the means of escape should be denied you. Having said this, he bade farewell to the holy man and departed.

[8] Then, kneeling very frequently, he did not fail to pour out most earnest prayers to the Lord, by whose help and grace he had known the impending danger would be averted: and when he made a brief pause in praying, he distributes his goods to the poor, having summoned his most faithful servant, he did not delay in conveying to him the sequence of the Apostolic command; and he also ordered whatever remained of his possessions to be distributed to those suffering from want, so that, having cast aside the burden of perishable things, he might more swiftly receive the prize of those who run well. He flees to Ravenna. On the following day, departing from the City, he went to Ravenna as he had been commanded.

[9] When he was still three days' journey from the city to which he was heading, he caught sight of a doe with two fawns, which the snares of hunters had so afflicted he summons a doe, that they robbed her of all hope of deliverance. He was moved to piety toward her, and kindly resolving to sympathize with her peril and that of her young, he commanded her in the name of the Lord to approach him without fear: and she, immediately shedding all ferocity, came to the holy man, and as he stroked her with his own hand, she gratefully began to lick his feet, as if she knew she would find through him the way of her salvation. he saves her from capture: Meanwhile the hunters, hoping for the reward of their labor, stood close around, hesitating briefly at what it might mean that the doe, just now so fierce toward them, had suddenly become most gentle to a single traveler. Then indeed one, more impudent than the rest, said: O most foolish men, what madness has perverted the state of your mind, that you hesitate to seize the prey offered to you? And saying this he attempted to tear it violently from the hands of the man of God; to whom the venerable Father said: Not I, but the heavenly power commands you not to dare to harm or harass this animal or any such offspring. the impudent hunter is seized by a demon. But the man, seized with insane fury, arrogantly thrust the pious and merciful man. But divine vengeance immediately decided to punish his arrogance: for being pervaded by a demon, and long tormented, deprived of both eyes, he nearly gave up his spirit before his companions. Whereupon the rest, prostrating themselves at his most holy feet in fear, with flowing tears begged for pardon, lest they suffer similar things for their offenses. Then he commanded them to withdraw from there, and he himself approached with only his companion to the place where the dying man lay prostrate on the ground, and directing all his strength toward God in prayer, frees him by his prayers, he began with these words: O God, the wondrous creator of the universe, O God, most merciful repairer of the human ruin, who rejoice not in the destruction of the dying, but especially in the salvation of the living, pardon the wretched man lying here for what in ignorance he rashly committed against your holy name. And seizing the right hand of the prostrate man, he said: Demon, He who cast you down from your heavenly seat when you were proud, commands you to abandon the form of his likeness and swiftly proceed to the seat of Tartarus, where you know you are to be punished forever. He recovers. He had not yet finished the course of his prayer, when the enemy of human happiness, though possessing the man for a short time, yet shaking him to the point of death, sadly and confusedly departed. The body, however, as if lifeless, with the eyes still condemned to blindness, appeared immobile: but when the darkness was put to flight by the sign of the holy cross from the holy man, as if freed from bonds, he leapt up sound at the saint's command, and being restored in health to his companions, who were summoned back, they all, terrified by the wonder of such power, giving thanks to God who wished to be seen as wonderful in His Saint, and to the nourishing Confessor, returned to their own homes, where they joyfully narrated to all, to the honor of God and His Confessor, what they had seen. Meanwhile the doe, still awaiting what the Saint might command her, at his nod with her young returned to the lairs from which fear had driven her. He, not forgetful of his journey, directed his steps where he had been heading, where he preferred to establish his dwelling near the basilica of B. Apollinaris, so that, away from the bustle of the townspeople, he might more freely attend to God.

CHAPTER III.

Other miracles. The episcopate.

[10] At that time, under the Emperor Valentinian, when the reputation of the Saint had already become celebrated, He aids a Judge who invokes him, though absent: a letter from the same Emperor was directed to the Governor and all the citizens of Ravenna; which ordered Bithynius, a Judge of the same city, who was accused of treason, to undergo capital punishment; who, being bound in the place where he was to be punished, resolved to pour forth this prayer: Servant of the Lord Bassianus, by the grace which you have obtained before God, be my present refuge. Immediately, when the executioner was aiming his blow with the utmost force, the axe sprang far from his hands. The Governor, thinking this was done through the trickery of the executioner, substituted another for him, to whom the same thing happened when he tried manfully once and then again. By which sign the Governor, terrified, with the people's approval, ordered him to be released and held in custody, until a report about him could be sent to the Emperor. And when what had been done reached the Emperor's ears not long after, Valentinian ordered him to be released from custody, and thenceforward held immune from the charge of which he had been accused. Having been restored to his own possessions, he renounced worldly affairs, and devoted himself entirely and most fully to God and to his faithful servant Bassianus.

[11] He is made a priest. At that time, under the compulsion of the clergy and people, he was promoted through the individual ecclesiastical grades to the dignity of the priesthood. Shortly after, his servant, having completed the course of a religious life, obtained the palm of running well; and on the seventh day after his burial, when the Saint was most devoutly offering the sacrifice of the Mass, with Bithynius assisting in prayer for him, a voice from heaven was heard: He for whom you pray with such concern, it said, already enjoys the delights of the righteous, because what he received by faith, he did not refuse to exercise in deed. Which the man of the Lord, the victim of our redemption having been offered, joyfully communicated to Bithynius: he learns divinely that his servant has been saved. and Bithynius too, saying that he had heard it, began to rejoice with him.

[12] At that time the people of Laus, deprived of their own Pastor, had proclaimed three days of public prayers, that the Divine Goodness might make known who was suited to preside over their Church as future Bishop. Graciously inclining His hearing to their devotion, He is divinely designated Bishop of Laus. He announced to Clemens, a venerable Priest of that Church, as he was resting his limbs, what was sought in these words: Know that Bassianus, adorned with heavenly gems, is to be divinely set over you, who, now free from care for his own affairs, does not cease to pray for the transgressions of others, and strives to train many of the Ravennans, among whom he serves God, in upright morals.

[13] Then Clemens, rejoicing in the revelation, summoned religious men from the clergy and people, and reported what he had heard. They immediately chose two men eminent in eloquence and manner of life, through whom they might confidently convey their sacred embassy to the man of the Lord. On the very night before the following day on which they would meet the Saint, the Father was informed by the Spirit that twin men from the region of Liguria would come to him on the morrow at the Lord's prompting, and that he should kindly receive them and not refuse to acquiesce to their words. And when they came to consult him in the morning, having requested the opportunity to speak, they solemnly reported the substance of their embassy. He is led to Laus. To whom the servant of the Lord replied: God created man immortal, so that he might diligently attend to obeying His commands; but after he proved negligent of them, he prepared death for himself and all his descendants: it therefore seems inconsistent that human presumption should dare to resist the will of God, when the Apostle says: For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I do not want to do, I do. Rom. 7:19. We therefore, while refusing the pursuit of honor, nevertheless willingly undertake the burden of labor for our brethren. Afterwards, bringing them into his lodging, he urged them, since they were exceedingly weary from the journey, to refresh themselves at leisure: but they, having achieved the object of their desire, refused to indulge in a longer rest, and rejoiced to set out for home with their desired treasure in the dead of night.

[14] He heals a paralytic. It happened, when he was being most devoutly received by the people of Laus, that a certain man of noble birth, long since deprived of speech by the disease of paralysis, approached to kiss him; and after the kiss, his speech was so completely restored that he was perceived by all to speak more fluently thereafter than he had before he lost his speech.

CHAPTER IV.

The basilica dedicated. A dead man raised.

[15] As Bishop he shines in abstinence, almsgiving, etc. Not much later, having summoned his fellow provincial bishops, with the praise and honor of God he was elevated to the episcopal See; thereafter appearing the more humble, the higher the rank he had assumed. His table provided refreshment especially for strangers and the poor, whom he had always placed beside him and to whom he was accustomed to serve the more lavish dishes himself. He adhered to daily frugality to such an extent, in order to suppress the superfluous pleasures of the flesh, that he was believed even to transcend the condition of nature. He never touched wine or the taste of anything by which he could become intoxicated, except on the day of the Lord's Resurrection or on the principal feasts of the Saints. He devoted himself unceasingly to sacred readings and devout prayers.

[16] He dedicates a basilica to the Holy Apostles. At a certain time, while he was revolving in his mind what acceptable offering he might present to the Lord beyond the customary ones, it pleased him to build an oratory in the eastern suburb, in honor and reverence of the Apostles; and having provided the funds for the construction, he did not long delay in completing the work he had begun. For its dedication he persuaded the most blessed Ambrosius of Milan and Felix, Bishop of Como, to come: and the same B. Ambrosius did not fail to mention this dedication in his book of Letters. Ep. 60. And it happened that during the consecration, the voice of a demon was heard through the mouth of a girl, saying: Why have you men of God undertaken so unfair a battle against me, as to prepare three against me alone with intolerable weapons? Is it not enough for you that you have taken away my power to harm, unless you also strive to drive me out from those whom I possess? But if you compel me to depart from here, taking two or more with me, I shall occupy another place, to which you will not have the ability to reach. He frees a girl possessed by a demon. Then the Saints, prostrating themselves together, earnestly implored the help of the supreme goodness, that with the demon put to flight, the power of His greatness might be made known to those present. But when the adversary of the human condition felt the unconquerable power present, for a long time tearing and twisting the girl, he was finally compelled to leave her in confusion. The Saints, rising from prayer, immediately committed the girl, now whole, to her parents, and exhorted them to give ceaseless thanks to the Lord, the author of her salvation. When the mystery of the consecration had been duly completed, they unanimously approached the table with thanksgiving, where they desired not only to be refreshed with bodily food, but much more to exchange opinions on sacred scripture. On the following day, when they sought leave to return, the man of the Lord Bassianus obtained their agreement to break their fast together first: then, bidding each other farewell, they proceeded to their own seats.

[17] He raises a boy killed by a serpent. Moreover, at harvest time, while a certain little boy was walking among the sheaves of the reapers, he was killed by the bite of a serpent. When he was being carried to the church of the Apostles, which the Bishop of the Lord had founded, it happened that he himself was there, as he frequently was, rendering praise to the Almighty, but the wretched lamentation of the parents completely disrupted his constancy of singing psalms and his devotion of mind. The holy Father, ordering them with the rest to leave the church, prostrated himself alone in prayer beside the little corpse; and while he persisted in prayer for some time, watering the pavement with tears, the limbs of the lifeless child were seen to shake three times, and then the entire little body to move. When the Priest of the Lord rose from the place where he had devoutly petitioned the power of the Almighty for the boy, the boy, restored to life, rising with him, with his first words began to call for his mother as if nothing had happened. When the parents and others who had been waiting at the doors heard this, unable to bear the delay of unexpected joy, they burst into the church, and could not sufficiently marvel at the power of God, which He had willed to declare through His Priest. Then the man of the Lord, kindly inserting salutary counsels into the ears of the people who had gathered in great number, exhorted them to strive to serve the author of that and all virtues, at whose nod and command the boy had merited to be given life. The people, thus animated in Christ by these and many other things, unceasingly magnifying God, departed with exultation together with the boy restored to life, and did not cease to proclaim the holy Bishop, whom they had known to be the effective agent of so great a miracle.

CHAPTER V.

The death of S. Ambrosius, and his own death.

[18] He foretells the death of S. Ambrosius. At that time B. Ambrosius, detained by a long bodily illness, saw, while S. Bassianus was praying with him, God approaching him with a smile, which he did not delay in intimating should be attributed to his most faithful brother Bassianus. The man of the Lord Bassianus, revolving in his mind what he had learned from him, with flowing tears predicted to those faithfully serving him that the departure of the man of the Lord was imminent: which, a short time later, just as he had predicted by the Divine Spirit, the Milanese people found had come to pass, mourning with him. He tends the funeral. Having most honorably arranged the rites of the blessed funeral and composing the most holy limbs in the sarcophagus, he returned to the See of Laus: where, diligently commending the virtues and manner of life of the Saint, he rejoiced exceedingly to celebrate them: for he always bore the holy man on his lips, always in his heart; the memory of him never departed from him even in sleep. For frequently, when fatigued by reading or prayer he gave himself to sleep, he was heard conversing with him as if present, and most fully congratulating himself on so pleasant a vision.

[19] In a balance he sees the form of an Ethiopian, the devil, deceiving. Also at a subsequent time, when setting out for Milan in order to seek the suffrage of the same holy Confessor at his tomb, it happened that, upon entering the city, he saw a certain man fraudulently using a balance, and perceived a small Ethiopian in one of the pans. When he asked those who were with him whether the same thing was visible to them, they said they had seen nothing of the kind that the Saint had merited to see. Then the Lord's Confessor kindly exhorted them to strive with him with a sincere heart to implore the mercy of the divine goodness, so that it might deign to add faithful witnesses of the same vision, who would unceasingly proclaim His magnificence. Prayers having been offered to God, heavenly mercy granted to the Priest Clemens and the Deacon Elbonius the same thing that it had granted the holy Father to see: and summoning the shopkeeper, he carefully asked him what dishonest weight in the balance was deceiving the buyer. But when the man persistently denied that anything of the sort had occurred, the holy Father narrated to him what the Most High had deigned to reveal to him and his companions for his correction and salvation. Immediately the seller, prostrating himself at his knees, he admonishes and converts the man, groaning, confessed the fault for which the Saint had predicted he would be punished: to whom the Confessor, skilled as a physician of spiritual medicine, offered a salutary remedy, commanding that whatever accumulated money he had stored beyond what due usage required, he should hasten to distribute to those suffering want: and he, converted to God by holy admonition, did not cease to proclaim to many the manner of his salvation, prudently recalling them by his conduct and example from wickedness, so that where sin had abounded, grace might superabound; and those who had hitherto been cast as fruitless trees into the fire, might thereafter be deemed worthy to bring forth acceptable fruits to their Creator.

[20] An abundant supply of material for speaking about the blessed deeds of the holy man presents itself: but lest a more extended account generate tedium for readers, or somehow weaken the faith of the hearers, we have preferred to keep our discourse about him concise. For the speech of narration less burdens the hearer, which, avoiding prolixity, fully conveys the truth of the events, than if, by prolonging it through digressions, it presents it as something tiresome. Therefore we have hoped it opportune to briefly append what remains about the blessed Priest, from whom, if anything good has flowed, we do not doubt that the power of speaking well is granted. He foretells his own death: Who, when he had learned by a special presage that the course of his life was to be completed, announced to those religious persons standing by from the clergy that the day of his dissolution was at hand: and on the seventh day after he had predicted this, seized by excessive weakness, he gave the following counsel to those miserably mourning on account of the desolation of so great a Shepherd: Do not, my little children, be troubled at my departure, for I have served a faithful Prince, from whom I know most certainly that I shall receive the reward of service. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; He comforts his own. He Himself will restore my inheritance to me. I kept the Lord always before my sight, because He is at my right hand lest I be moved: nor will He deprive you of His present consolation before He whom I have undertaken to guard you. For I have obtained this from the Lord, that He Himself may guard you, lest the world with its blandishments corrupt you unwarily along with its lovers: and when I have laid aside the burden of flesh, in the basilica of the Apostles which I myself founded, restore my corruptible limbs to their origin, as the mortal condition demands: for I have desired them as pious intercessors, and believed that I would always have them.

[21] It happened that on the eleventh day after he had predicted this, his holy soul, leaving his limbs to the funeral, was carried to heaven amid the exulting of Angels. His holy body, of the dying man, as he himself had commanded, was placed in the church of the Apostles with due honor of funeral rites: where through his intercession many benefits are bestowed, and limbs weakened by various diseases are restored to their former uses, to the glory and honor of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is equal honor, praise, and power, with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever, Amen.

CHAPTER VI.

His timely protection of a poor man.

[22] Moreover, we think it will by no means seem burdensome to the ears of the faithful, if we take care to insert among the things already recounted one virtue out of many, which, through the merits of the same Saint, the heavenly majesty disposed to make manifest after his passing. To a farmer praying at his tomb. For through those things which we contemplate being divinely done among mortals to their amazement, we worship the incomprehensible omnipotence, and venerate it without doubt, and more willingly hastening to submit ourselves to His easy yoke, we never waver at any time in the efficacy of His promises. It happened, then, not long after the passing of the blessed Priest, that a certain man who had a pair of oxen, upon whose sole assistance, after God, he had resolved to sustain the life of himself and his family, leaving them grazing on the annual feast of the same Saint, most devoutly went to the oratory in which the most holy body was venerated. Meanwhile a thief, harboring a contrary concern, when he saw the oxen wandering without a shepherd, the oxen stolen by a thief, at the prompting of the enemy of all good, boldly set about leading them away; and grievously injuring the kindly devotion of the man to whom they belonged by the damage inflicted upon him. And when the aforesaid farmer, having humbly completed the sequence of his sincere prayer, hastened to check on the oxen he had left, and could find them nowhere by any trace, having traversed the pastures in which they were accustomed to roam and the places adjacent to them, he quickly returned to the tomb of the Saint, where kneeling he spent that night in vigil, as if demanding them back from him as things entrusted in due time: and while with unfailing voice he begged for them to be restored to him, the agent of the theft, hoping that he had now escaped the danger of his plunder, being tormented by the punishment of a most laborious journey and by a very long wandering divinely inflicted, arrived fearlessly and without awareness of his crime at the doors of the church of the nourishing Confessor: and turning aside to a house which he noticed was near it, he deposited the plunder, which he believed he had obtained with impunity, there, saying that he had purchased it at a market: then, refreshing his exceedingly weary limbs with a little sleep, the thief being punished, he resolved to proceed to the same church under the pretext of respectability. But when he tried with the utmost effort to enter the basilica, of which he had shown himself unworthy, he was repelled from the threshold by a lofty judgment, and began to roll terribly before the doors like a madman, nor did he merit the liberty to rest until, rolling about for a long time, he frequently cried out to the Saint in the presence of the bystanders: Behold, yet in the nearby house, behold, the oxen are there! And while those present wondered at one another, miraculously restored, what such an utterance might mean, the man whose they had been, marveling among the others at what he saw happening before the doors by heavenly power, at the voice of the thief recognized that the prayers he had faithfully poured forth had come to fulfillment, and that he had obtained from the Lord's Confessor what he had requested: thence he ran eagerly to the building in which he had learned the oxen were hidden, and having found them, rejoiced to lead them back within his own enclosures: afterwards returning to the church, he narrated in order to those whom he had left in astonishment the great deeds of God which He had deigned to perform through B. Bassianus. The people present, having observed what was said by him, hasten to celebrate praises to the author of all virtues, and also to his illustrious Confessor, who destines to declare to mortals through mighty signs the glory which He has conferred on His own in the heavenly places. The thief also, repenting of the crime he had committed with all the intention of his soul, strove earnestly to merit pardon, and from whose hope and consideration, confounded, he obtained easy entrance to the church which had previously been denied to him on account of his guilt: the thief reformed, in which he devoted himself for the rest of his life to serving God and His faithful servant Bassianus; and he did not delay in renouncing, with heavenly mercy assisting, the former wickednesses in which he had entangled himself: moreover after his conversion he used to testify, not without sighs, that on that very night in which he had stolen the oxen, he had seen most foul birds flying as guides of his wandering, which he asserted had vied to disturb the keenness of his eyes; nor had they departed from him until before the altars of the tower-bearing Virgin they compelled him to begin his course. In this matter the heavenly dispensation is most carefully to be considered, which employs those same ones as most savage torturers of the offender whom he strives to have as counselors of his wickedness: but to those to whom He grants the pleasantness of heaven, He Himself divinely forms them to merit it: which may He deign to grant us, through the intercession of him whose deeds we have narrated, who, remaining unchangeable, disposes changeable things forever and ever, Amen.

[23] He governed the Church of Laus for thirty-five years and twenty days. In the ninetieth year of his life he left to the earth what was its own, and joyfully ascended to heaven in the eighth consulship of Honorius and that of Theodosius.

EPITOME OF THE LIFE

From the Office of the Church of Laus.

Bassianus, Bishop of Laus in Italy (S.)

[1] Signs foretelling Bassianus's sanctity. Bassianus, born of noble family at Syracuse, son of Sergius, gave evidence of his future sanctity from his earliest age: for as an infant he traced the Cross in dust with his finger, formed the image of the Cross with joined stalks, and more frequently fortified his forehead with that saving sign, disregarding entirely the scolding of his wicked nurse.

[2] His conversion. Sent to Rome for study at the age of twelve, he was baptized in the Christian rite by Gordianus, a man of great holiness, whom the Lord had informed about Bassianus. When his father took this badly, he fled to Ravenna, his flight, at the admonition of S. Ioannes the Evangelist, in whose church he had prayed. On this journey he defended a doe with two fawns that had taken refuge with him from hunters, the devil tormenting one of them, whom Bassianus also freed.

[3] His virtues. He was constant in prayer, content with the most meager food, of which he distributed two parts out of three to the poor, distinguished for charity and humility, winning favor not only among his neighbors but even among foreign peoples.

[4] His episcopate. The episcopal See of the Church of Laus was vacant, and after prayers poured out by the people for three days, it was revealed to the Priest Clemens that Bassianus, then living at Ravenna, had been designated Bishop by God. Legates were sent to him: coming with them, in the suburbs of Laus he healed a paralytic, and a mute one at that, cleansed innumerable lepers, and was most vigilant for the salvation of souls. This was the year of our salvation three hundred and seventy-eight, on the first day of January of which he was ordained Bishop.

[5] His notable deeds in the episcopate. In the episcopate no one was more humane, no one more temperate: he abstained from wine almost always, more generous to the needy and poor. He built a basilica in honor of the twelve Apostles, which he dedicated to God together with Ambrosius of Milan and Felix of Como. Miracles. Together with the same Ambrosius he strenuously fought against the heretics, and was renowned for miracles. While at Ravenna, when Bithynius the Judge, accused of the crime of treason and condemned to death, was being struck, with the axe springing from the executioner's hands three times at the invocation of his name, he freed him: he restored to life a youth killed by the bite of a serpent: he freed a girl possessed by a demon.

[6] Prophecies. He was present at the death of Ambrosius, and predicting the day of his death to his household, he attended to the pious funeral: indeed after some days he returned to Milan to piously venerate the tomb of the most holy Doctor. He also foreknew his own day: as it drew near, having comforted his own about his certain rest, in the ninetieth year of his life, death, and the thirty-fifth year and twenty days of his pastoral care, having administered the Church of Laus with great praise, he departed to the Lord in the year four hundred and thirteen after the birth of Christ, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February, under Pope Innocent I, and the Emperor Honorius. He was buried in the basilica of the Apostles, afterwards named after him.

[7] But when Old Laus was afterwards destroyed, his body was translated to the new city, translation, with the highest prelates and the Emperor Frederick bearing the pious burden, and was placed in the great church, in the year of salvation one thousand one hundred and sixty-three, on the day before the Nones of November: where it is venerated with the greatest devotion. Pope Ioannes of Rome, when he had devoutly visited his altar on his feast day together with the Emperor Sigismund, indulgences for his feast, granted a perpetual plenary indulgence of all sins.

ON S. AMMONIUS, BISHOP OF DERTONA,

From the Catalogue of Saints of Italy by Phil. Ferrarius.

Ammonius, Bishop of Dertona in Italy (S.)

From various sources.

[1] Ammonius presided over the Church of Dertona, and administered it with such a reputation for holiness that after his death he was reckoned among the number of Saints. His Acts do not exist, nor is it known for certain what number Bishop he was. Nevertheless his memory is celebrated with a double rite by the Church of Dertona. The feast of S. Ammonius. And his relics, which are preserved in the Cathedral church, are exhibited to the people of Dertona, who venerate them, on his feast day. Relics.

ON S. CONTEXTUS, OR CONTESTIUS, BISHOP OF BAYEUX IN GAUL.

Contextus or Contestius, Bishop of Bayeux in Gaul (S.)

S. Contextus was a Bishop of the Baiocasses in the second province of Lugdunensis, which is now Normandy; in the catalogues of Claudius Robertus and Ioannes Chenus, but faulty ones, he is listed as the sixth. Molanus records his feast in the Additions to Usuardus, The feast of S. Contextus, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February: On the same day, he says, at Bayeux, of B. Contextus, Bishop and Confessor. He is also mentioned by the Cologne Carthusians, Ferrarius, the German Martyrology, and Saussaius, who says he succeeded S. Manneus, and calls him Contestius, the name, others Concessus and Contestus. We have found nothing more about him.

ON S. ARSENIUS, BISHOP OF CORCYRA.

Arsenius, Bishop of Corcyra (S.)

Corcyra is an island of the Ionian Sea, under the dominion of the Republic of Venice, commonly called Corfu; and in it a city of the same name, distinguished with archiepiscopal dignity, formerly subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Ferrarius writes in his general Catalogue of Saints that S. Arsenius was the first Archbishop placed over it, and that he is venerated there with great devotion, especially by the Greeks, on 19 January, and that his body is preserved in the Metropolitan church. We are ignorant of his era and his acts. There is no mention of him in the Greek Menaea.