Martyrs Lucianus

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS LUCIANUS, PAULA, CLAUDIUS, HYPATIUS, PAULUS, AND DIONYSIUS.

Lucianus, Martyr (S.) Paula, Martyr (S.) Claudius, a boy Martyr (S.) Hypatius, a boy Martyr (S.) Paulus, a boy Martyr (S.) Dionysius, a boy Martyr (S.)

These are commemorated in the Menaea of the Greeks, and by Maximus Cytherius, in these words: The memory of the holy Martyrs Lucianus, Paula, and the children with them, Claudius, Hypatius, Paulus, and Dionysius, whose celebration is held in the church of Anastasius the Patriarch in Oxeia. Our Raderus not improbably conjectures that Lucianus and Paula were the parents, and the rest their children. The Latins have nothing about them.

ON S. EUPHRASIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, AT NICOMEDIA IN BITHYNIA.

Under Diocletian.

Euphrasia, Virgin Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

Euphrasia is unknown to the Latin calendars, in which three heroines of the same name are celebrated. This one was crowned at Nicomedia, while S. Anthimus, Bishop of that city, was still alive, under Diocletian and Maximian, as will be said in the life of S. Anthimus on 27 April. The combat of Euphrasia was described by Nicephorus Callistus, book 7, chapter 13, and from him by Baronius, volume 3, year 309, no. 35, and in the Greek Menaea on this day, and by Maximus Cytherius. There exists an elegant poem about her by our Vincentius Guinisius.

ACTS FROM THE MENAEA.

Euphrasia, Virgin Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

By a wise stratagem escaping bodily violation, You are truly rewarded by the sword, Euphrasia.

She was a native of the city of Nicomedia, under the Emperor Maximian, illustrious in birth, continent and upright in life. When she could not be induced to sacrifice to the demons, she was cruelly beaten: and when she persisted in her resolve, she was handed over to a certain barbarian for violation: The holy stratagem of Euphrasia, for preserving her virginity: by whom her head was cut off, after she had deceived him by promising that, if he would abstain from violation, she would show him a remedy, by using which he would be harmed in war neither by swords nor by javelins, but would be entirely invulnerable; and that she would offer the proof of this upon her own body. She offered her head to be struck. He, believing her to be saying this in earnest, struck her neck with great force, and severed her head.

THE SAME ACTS FROM NICEPHORUS.

Euphrasia, Virgin Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

From various sources.

[1] A certain other maiden, bearing the most beautiful and inviolate ornament of virginity by the testimony of all, because when seized she had shunned the worship of the gods as the greatest evil, was handed over to violent and lustful men for mockery and base pleasure. S. Euphrasia handed over to the lustful. And she was already being led away in this manner, when by chance Anthimus, the Bishop of the Church of Nicomedia, happened to meet her along the way. And being asked by her which of two equal evils she should rather choose, she is advised by the Bishop to retain faith above virginity: he replied, saying: Daughter Euphrasia, the gift of virginity is indeed most beautiful, but the commandment of faith is far more excellent. For since, if some accident or necessity so required, it would be far better to give the garment itself rather than the body to those who would seize it; in the present evils and temptations also, one should consider the matter in the same way. And if it is not permitted for you to retain both, I think you should strive at least to keep your soul undefiled; that is, with your mind confirmed through faith, you should allow your flesh to suffer the injuries and insults of wicked men.

[2] Having learned the counsel of that man, with her mind still fluctuating in both directions, but finally resolving to keep both safe, she follows where she was being led. And when she was shut up in the same room with the wicked young man, she circumvented him with a certain trick: she offers the soldier an ointment against wounds: for she professed herself to be a sorceress, and promised a great reward for preserving her modesty, namely a drug, by which he, once anointed, could in the contests and battles of war be harmed or killed by no weapon or sword at all. And if you wish, she said, to make trial of such a remedy, I will immediately demonstrate it to you clearly. He immediately permitted her to prepare it. Then she, truly wise, melting wax in oil, and kneading it with her hands, anointed and smeared it around her neck on all sides. When she had finished this, she herself is killed, anointed with it, she told him to strike her throat with a sword driven with all the force he could muster, and to test the power and efficacy of that remedy. And he, with all the strength he could, plunged the sword into her, and severed her head with a single blow.

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.

ON S. CATELLUS, BISHOP OF STABIAE IN ITALY.

Year DCXVII.

Catellus, Bishop of Stabiae in Italy (S.)

[1] In the Campanian territory, Stabiae was a town, up to the consulship of Cn. Pompeius and L. Cato, on the day before the Kalends of May; on which day L. Sulla, as legate, destroyed it in the Social War. It has now been converted into country estates. So Pliny, book 3, chapter 5. In the time of Justinian it was a town, Stabiae, a city, or a village. The Historia Miscella, book 16, chapter 15: And also the Nolans and Surrentines, and from the estate which is called Stabiae. That designation of "estate" belongs to writers of the Middle Ages. Stabiae was situated on the sea in the innermost bay between Surrentum and Neapolis, closer to Surrentum. In that place, or at least nearby, two miles, as Leander writes, from the mouth of the Sarnus river, is situated an episcopal city, which is commonly called Castel a Mar di Stabia; Guilielmus Kyriander, the translator of Leander, calls it Castellum Almarinum, now Castellum ad mare, surnamed Stabiense, to distinguish it from another Castellum Almarinum of the Vulturnians.

[2] Leander writes that it lies in a corner of Mount Gaurus, where it begins to turn westward, forming the promontory of Minerva. The side of the city facing Surrentum is indeed a great and long hill, but it is not Gaurus, although it has been called by that name by other modern writers as well. But Gaurus, as Cluverius proves from clear testimonies of the ancients, was on this side of Neapolis, near Avernus, the Lucrine Lake, and Puteoli, at Mount Lactarius, which is now called Monte Barbaro, entirely barren, as if its ancient fertility had been exhausted. But the mountain to which Stabiae is adjacent was called Lactarius by Cassiodorus, Variae, book 11, letter 10, and τὸ Γάλακτος ὄρος (Milk Mountain) by Procopius; it is described more fully below: and it is part of a higher and greater mountain ridge, which extends from the town of Cava toward the winter sunset to the promontory of Minerva, as Cluverius writes, who carefully surveyed it.

[3] Moreover the Bishop of Castellum ad mare is still called Stabiensis in the Notitia of bishoprics. The feast of its Bishop S. Catellus. That city venerates S. Catellus as its tutelary Saint, its former Bishop, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February, as Philippus Ferrarius attests in his general catalogue and his Saints of Italy. We received a life of his, composed from the records of that Church by Fathers of our Society, at Naples from our Antonius Beatillus, the life, and translated it into Latin. We shall append another account of his deeds, from the life of S. Antoninus the Abbot, drawn from the manuscripts of the Church of Surrentum by the same most learned and inquisitive Beatillus, which we shall give in full on 14 February. David Romaeus also wove the illustrious deeds of S. Catellus into the history of S. Antoninus in his book on the five saintly patrons of the city of Surrentum, and Paulus Regius, Bishop of Vico: Ferrarius treated them somewhat more briefly in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy.

LIFE

from the records of the Church of Stabiae.

Catellus, Bishop of Stabiae in Italy (S.)

From an Italian manuscript.

[1] Catellus of Stabiae. S. Catellus was Bishop of Castellum ad mare (a city born from the ruins of ancient Stabiae), born there in the sixth Christian century of honorable parents, holy from boyhood, who are commonly said to have been of the Coppola family. He devoted himself to sacred religion from his earliest age, and discharged various functions of divine service. As a youth he avoided those whose manner of life was more dissolute, being himself a lover of seclusion and solitude. When he reached a more mature age, he was initiated into the priesthood: and then, when the Bishop of that city died, he was, though unwilling, elected his successor by the unanimous consent of the people. He becomes Bishop: Pelagius II was at that time governing the Roman Church. Catellus immediately embraced the care of his Church with inflamed zeal, devoting himself especially to the relief of the poor and to other actions of Christian piety.

[2] Perhaps at about the same time, when the monastery which S. Benedict had built on Monte Cassino had been destroyed, He receives the fugitive S. Antoninus from Cassino. the most holy Abbot Antoninus fled to Catellus, the one who afterwards governed a community of monks at Surrentum. Catellus received him with the greatest kindness, and asked him to remain in his diocese, so that he might seek both comfort from his companionship, and counsel in controversies arising in the administration of his Church. He kindly receives him. Antoninus therefore lived there for many years; then he asked the Bishop, and with great difficulty by many prayers wrung from him, permission to move to Mount Gaurus, now called Mount Aureus, six miles distant from Stabiae, where as a solitary he might lead a more religious and quiet life.

[3] Nor could Catellus long endure his absence: he therefore besought him by letter to return to his former lodging. Rather Antoninus himself encouraged him he withdraws with him to the mountain, to retire himself also into solitude. Hence was born in Catellus the intention of abdicating his episcopate: which, when Antoninus did not approve, he nevertheless resolved to follow his holy companion onto that mountain, and thence to manage the governance of the Church, returning to the city from time to time, going back and forth to the city to perform his episcopal duties and settle controversies. From there also he himself was accustomed to fetch the equipment for sacred services whenever he wished to celebrate them: a cleric whom he had asked to procure it for him refusing to do so.

[4] There one day, while the Bishop and the Abbot were engaged in prayer, the Archangel Michael appeared to them, and commanded that a church be built for him in that place. They build a church for S. Michael: they bring forth a spring. The Saints obeyed: and lest there be delay, they set up a wooden one: afterwards another, built of stone, stands to this day. But while building it, they lacked water: the Saints elicited a spring by their prayers, which flows with a perennial stream to this day, and is called the Holy Water, salutary against diseases.

[5] They are refreshed by the singing of Saints. They were conversing in sight of the sea about heavenly things, when a vast throng of Saints, male and female, appeared to them, soothing their minds with the most sweet harmony of voices and instruments, and kindling in them a great and swelling desire to enjoy the delights of heaven as soon as possible.

[6] In this holy and pleasant repose, by the admonition of the Archangel Michael, Catellus is warned from heaven, the Bishop learned that a sad storm was threatening him, and that he would be dragged in chains to Rome, imprisoned there, but would finally return to his own with great honor. The author of the tumult stirred up against him was that rude and shameless Cleric he is accused of error, who had refused to bring the Bishop the necessities for performing the sacrifice when asked. He therefore spreads among the common people that the Bishop had both conceived and was teaching perverted opinions about religion, and was even worshiping idols after the manner of the pagans.

[7] Even before the Pope. The people, being incited, sent Tiberius, the Primicerius of the Church, to Rome, to denounce Catellus to the Supreme Pontiff: they say that Sabinianus, or Boniface III, was then in office. Tiberius so conducted the case that he was ordered to drag the Bishop whom he had accused to Rome in chains. He therefore rushed to Mount Gaurus with armed lictors. The lictors are checked by a twofold miracle; he is dragged to Rome. And when they were preparing to lay hands on the holy man, the attendants were held motionless by divine power, and Tiberius was struck with a paralysis that held him until his death. But the lictors implored the prayers of Catellus: these being sent to heaven, they were immediately restored to themselves, and with incredible and more than human ingratitude, they dragged him in chains to Rome.

[8] When they arrived in the City, the Bishop was given into the custody of a certain Chamberlain of the Supreme Pontiff, he is visited in prison by a Chamberlain of the Pope, whose name was Boniface. To him in his sleep a monk in Benedictine habit (it was believed to be Abbot Antoninus) appeared to stand by and advise him to visit the innocent Joseph, guilty of no crime, committed to prison. Another person in different attire likewise commanded him in his sleep. Waking immediately, he went to Catellus and asked for what reason he had been committed to custody. Catellus then briefly explained both the charge that had been brought against him by his adversaries, and by a conversation prolonged for several hours, instructed Boniface with spiritual precepts, he predicts the pontificate for him, and as he was leaving asked him to remember him when within a few days he would be elevated to the supreme pontificate. A certain youth of admirable beauty also predicted the same thing to him in his sleep, whom Catellus, when Boniface told him the story, interpreted to have been the Archangel Michael.

[9] Nor did the augury prove false in the event. Not long after, Pope Boniface III died, and Boniface IV, his Chamberlain, was appointed as his successor in the supreme priesthood. But neither the great cares, by which he had embraced the Church spread throughout the whole world, by him, warned from heaven, nor what providence of the great Deity permitted within some months, allowed him to remember his prophet. Again the Benedictine monk (the same Antoninus) warned him in his sleep that an innocent Bishop was being held in chains. Rousing himself from sleep, he remembered Catellus, learned from him who that man was whose image had now been presented to him a second time, he is acquitted, and having legitimately investigated the case, acquitted him, and sent him back to his own people adorned with deserved praises and precious gifts.

[10] He returns to his own. None of this was unknown to Abbot Antoninus from heaven, who went out to meet him at the Tower called Annuntiata, and conducted him to Stabiae, where he was received with great joy by the people. The dire death of his adversary. Tiberius lay confined to his bed, and when he understood the public rejoicing of the city and the cause, seized by a new frenzy, he dashed his head against the wall so violently that he knocked out his wretched spirit.

[11] Catellus, having returned to Stabiae, resumed the care of the Church entrusted to him: The death of S. Catellus. soon he also withdrew to the church of S. Michael on Mount Gaurus; but the people began to flock to him there in rivalry. Warned by a heavenly oracle that he would soon depart this life, he summoned Antoninus to himself from Surrentum, whither he had moved in his absence. Antoninus was at hand as Catellus died, around the year, as is commonly believed, 617.

[12] Having been entombed in his own church, he is said to have been afterwards translated to Surrentum by Antoninus; but this is not known with certainty and beyond doubt. A part of his skull is honorably preserved at Stabiae, or Castellum ad mare, in the college of the Society of Jesus, relics, enclosed in a gilded statue skillfully made, and is publicly displayed for veneration on 19 January, with distinguished celebration extended for eight days, the festivities, with an excellent musical concert and other incentives to piety.

p But the life of Antoninus, Romaeus, and Regius say he later withdrew to Surrentum.

ANOTHER LIFE

from the manuscript life of S. Antoninus the Abbot.

Catellus, Bishop of Stabiae in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 0582

From manuscripts.

[1] At the time when the savage cruelty of the Lombards devastated the province of Campania with hostile sword and fire, S. Antoninus is said to have come to these parts and to have attached himself to the Bishop of the Church of Stabiae. When the same Bishop had learned of his purity of life, his honest manner of conduct, and his deeds, S. Catellus, Bishop of Stabiae, he associated him more intimately with his company: with whom, since he thenceforward did nothing without him, he stood by him as partner in all his counsels, sharing in all his cares: he discharged the duty of a faithful friend and vigorous minister. Finally, with their similarity of character gradually increasing, they grew together so tenaciously that you would have said there was one heart and one soul in the two, as in twins: for in them you would have found neither any other will nor any other aversion.

[2] He commits the episcopate to Abbot S. Antoninus. Catellus, confident in the prudence and faithfulness of this companion, now his own son, or rather his only friend, committed to him entirely the governance of pastoral care. He himself, avoiding the waves of the worldly sea, sought the vast solitudes of forests among the cloud-capped mountain summits suitable for hermits. The mountain itself, to which the Archangel Michael gave its name for the reason soon to be shown, extends transversely, he withdraws to the mountain, and is washed by the sea waves at both extremities; while along its lateral length it separates the land of the Surrentines, like a tongue of land thrust into the sea, from the open world, and providing narrow paths to travelers along precipitous cliffs, renders it secure from all hostile tumult. At its summit, however, where the ridge is ending, it raises its continuing head more boldly toward the sea, so that its sides are frequently wrapped in misty vapors, while it looks down on clouds and rains in clear weather. From that place the entire landscape of Campania, its cities, towns, and castles, and likewise the expanse of the seas, as far as the eye can reach, can be seen and pointed out. The aforesaid servant of God then, judging that summit suitable for the combats he had undertaken, occupied it, and there, contemplating God with a pure mind, devoted himself to divine services.

[3] Antoninus comes there too. Nor did Antoninus endure the separation from his inseparable companion any longer, but hastened to him with swift steps, and just as in worldly occupation, so in divine service he clung to him inseparably. Their unanimity and equal manner of life was proved by an angelic vision demonstrated thus. For in the dead of night, one and the same figure appearing to both, said: I wish S. Michael appears to them, that in the place where you are accustomed to engage in prayer, and where you recently saw a burning candle, you build an oratory in my name. When asked his name, he answered, Archangel Michael, and vanished. They immediately awoke, and when each had heard and related the other's identical vision, confirmed by the authority of mutual testimony, they prepared to assent to the angelic command. Then the diligent builders of the divine edifice girded themselves, and with wooden joinings they built a small but grateful dwelling for the Archangel who had admonished them, with prosperous success. They build an oratory for him.

[4] O wondrous power of the righteous! O most salutary fortitude of the Saints! O ineffable virtue of pure prayers! O inestimable efficacy of a pure mind! Behold, through the merits and prayers of these Saints, as if laying foundations, an oratory is built in the lairs of wild beasts, an angelic dwelling is erected in the dens of animals, a holy house, celebrated and suited to human salvation, is constructed on empty, desolate, and uncultivated ground. For there to the Lord, the author of all good things, and to the blessed Archangel Michael its inhabitant, praise is offered daily: through whose outstanding benefits no one fails to obtain what he worthily requests. Afterwards renowned for miracles. They flock from near and distant parts, and fulfilling the vows promised for every kind of tribulation, they return cheerfully to their homes, having received consolation.

[5] The enemy of human salvation, already foreseeing what sort of benefits for the sick would be granted there and what joys of the faithful would be multiplied, strove, according to his habitual envy, in vain (thanks be to God) to overthrow Catellus is accused by envious persons: what was being founded for the praise of God and the advancement of men. He therefore stirred up his familiar detractors, who murmured with superfluous complaint that Bishop Catellus had deserted his See and his flock, and, what was worse, was celebrating all the rites of Christian Masses through the horrid dens of wild beasts and the pathless mountain summits, and was indeed sowing a most dangerous heresy.

[6] What more? Catellus was seized and brought before the Rector of the Apostolic See. When he responded that the dominion of God is in every place, and that the secret place of a pure heart is a dwelling pleasing to Christ, he is cast into prison: the latter, examining the matter inconsiderately and judging without due counsel, thrust Catellus into prison: and (by the Divine will, as it is worthy to believe, as the subsequent outcome of the matter proved) a certain one of the clerks of the Pope was assigned as his guard. He predicts the future: To whom shortly after Catellus, filled with the spirit of prophecy, said: Remember me when it shall be well with you, and bring me out of this prison, for I have been violently taken away. For soon, when the Pope has died, you will succeed to the Apostolic See.

[7] He is absolved and returns to his own. Elevated to the supreme pontificate in accordance with the word of the prophet, and overflowing with the abundance of prosperity, he consigned the one who had foretold his dignity to oblivion. Whom, however, shortly after he led forth and bestowed upon him such an accumulation of honor that he promised he would without doubt grant whatever he might ask. When all expected him to ask for something great, he, devoted only to Christ and to his monitor the Archangel Michael, said: I ask only that you grant me as much lead as I shall request. This done, returning by a prosperous voyage to his own, he rebuilt from the foundation in stone the oratory that had been constructed of wood, and covered it with the lead he had brought. Antoninus, moreover, during the time of his exiled friend's absence, served the Lord no less diligently than usual in the same place; for he prayed not for himself alone but for both, offering prayers and libations to the Lord in common.

ON S. LAUNOMARUS, PRIEST, ABBOT OF CURBIO IN GAUL.

SEVENTH CENTURY.

Launomarus, Priest, Abbot of Curbio in Gaul (S.)

From various sources.

[1] The Durocasses were a people of Celtic Gaul, in a middle region between the Seine and the Loire, which is now called Beauce; neighbors of the Carnutes, and perhaps, when Gaul retained its liberty before Julius's campaigns, their clients; mentioned frequently by Antoninus in the Itinerary. The district of the Durocasses. They are now contained within the narrow boundaries of the territory of the Carnutes, with the title of County: the capital of the people is now Drocae, commonly Dreux, on the River Blaise, believed to be the seat of the ancient Druids, and perhaps the Durocasis of Antoninus, or the Durocases, or the town of the Durocasses. The rest is the forest of Particus, which is now the territory of Perche, commonly Le Perche, divided into Upper and Lower. Here is the Corbionense, or Curbionense monastery, called by others Carbonis, and erroneously Turbionis, built by S. Launomarus in the sixth century, In it the Corbionense monastery: during the reign of Chilperic, son of Chlotarius, grandson of Chlodoveus the Great; which Claudius Robertus also mentions in his Gallia Christiana. The Martyrologies place it in the district of the Durocasses, others Dorcassinus, others erroneously Dorcaffinus, Dorecalinus, Trecassinus; others Cornotinus; Ferrarius in the district of Dreux.

[2] The feast of S. Launomarus (whom the French commonly call Lomer, or Laumer) is observed on 19 January, on which day Usuardus writes: In the district of the Durocasses, S. Launomarus the Priest. The same is found in the edition of Bellinus The feast of S. Launomarus, its founder: published at Paris in 1521, and in many manuscript Martyrologies. Molanus in his Additions to Usuardus, and certain older manuscripts: In the monastery of Curbio in the district of the Durocasses, S. Launomarus the Priest, whose illustrious deeds are recorded. Nearly the same in Galesinius and Maurolycus. Benedictus Dorganius: S. Launomarus the Abbot, who, filled with the spirit of prophecy, distinguished coins unjustly acquired through usury from others. Nearly the same in Hugo Menardus and Wion. The Cologne Carthusians in their additions to Usuardus and the German Martyrology: In the district of the Carnutes, S. Launomarus the Priest. This Launomarus, as a little boy tending his parents' flock, distributed his food to the poor and to pilgrims, often extending his fast until sunset himself. Then, having been committed to the liberal study of letters, and having become a priest, he went to the desert. Where, among other wonders of virtue, he healed a lame man, extinguished the force of fire with the sign of the cross placed against it, and transplanted an aged oak by the power of the same cross to the place where he wished. Saussaius also treats of him at length. The name. His name moreover is wonderfully varied in different manuscripts: shall we say corrupted? For Launomarus is called Launoniarus, Launomarcus, Lamouiarus, Launomarius, Launomacus, Launoniaricus, Lauriomarus, Lounomarus, Landomorus.

[3] An ancient author, and (as one may conjecture, and Surius judged) nearly a contemporary, composed his life, a monk of Corbio. This he himself implies in the Prologue: The life, by whom written. whose examples have edified us, and by the outcome of whose manner of life we have been delighted. And more clearly in chapter 4, no. 17: As one who wishes to know can fully find in the archives of this holy monastery. And chapter 5, no. 25: From there assist us with continual patronage, that in this fold, which you illuminated by your examples and adorned with your virtues, there may be continual peace, etc. Because he mentions only Ragnobertus, When written. or Regnobertus, as Abbot (who in the life of S. Batildis the Queen is called Legobertus, and in Surius Lagobertus), it becomes probable that he wrote this life under him. Whence published. Surius had published this life, but in a more polished style: we give the genuine text from an ancient codex of S. Maria de Ripatorio and another trustworthy one.

[4] The era of S. Launomarus needs to be elucidated. To the Chronicle of Sigebertus at the year 495, the following has been added in the edition of Laurentius de la Barre, which however Miraeus noted is not by Sigebertus: At this time flourished Launomarus of Chartres, founder of the monastery of Curbio, and Maximus of Orleans, founder of the monastery of Micy; whose disciples were the Abbots Carilefus and Avitus. The time of his birth. But the author of the life records that he was born under Chlotarius I, began the monastery of Corbio in the second year of Chilperic, and died shortly before Bishop S. Malardus. Chlotarius succeeded to a fourth part of the kingdom with his brothers in the year 511, and having finally survived them all and their children, obtained the monarchy, and died in 562, having divided it fourfold among his sons. To Chilperic fell the kingdom of Soissons, and after the death of his brother Charibertus in 570, part of the kingdom of Paris; he was murdered in 584, leaving behind a four-month-old son Chlotarius. The second year of Chilperic was therefore either 564, if you count from the death of his father, The year the monastery was built. or 572, if from Charibertus's death. Launomarus must then have been not much less than thirty, having been long since ordained to the priesthood with the highest praise, and having for a considerable period managed the economic affairs, either of a monastery, or, as Yepes thinks, of a college of clerics (for this is not clearly distinguished: and Marchantius testifies that it is handed down among the people of Chartres as a tradition from their ancestors, that he presided over the house of the wardens of the principal basilica, and over the common treasury of the clergy); and having then in the very desert established a monastery, and fled from it because he detested the celebrity of his name. Therefore he had been born well before the year of Christ 550.

[5] But he lived until the time of S. Malardus, Bishop of Chartres, and, if we are not mistaken, his last years. Sebastianus Rouillardus writes that Malardus died in the year of Christ 615, having held office for fourteen years. Nor does he deny that he attended the Council of Chalon; which was celebrated on the eighth day before the Kalends of November in the sixth year of Chlodoveus II, the year of Christ 650. The same Malardus, or Malehardus, subsequently subscribed to the Privilege of liberty which Landericus, Bishop of Paris, granted to the monastery of S. Dionysius, in the year of Christ 658; and to the Precept of King Chlodoveus concerning the same liberty in the year 659. His predecessor Bertegisus attended the Synod of Reims in the year 630. But Rouillardus makes many errors in the chronology of the Bishops of Chartres, and disturbs their order; for he says that the sixth after Malardus was Pappolus, from the year of Christ 657 to 664. But Pappolus attended the second Council of Macon, which is known to have been held in the year 585, The time of his death. and the fourth Council of Paris in the year 573. It is now clear how far those erred who wrote that Launomarus flourished around the year of Christ 495, since he appears to have died, more than a hundred years old, not far from the year of Christ 650; unless one posits two Malarduses, which is perhaps not improbable.

[6] Who else have written about him. Baronius also treats of him in volume 7, year 567, no. 22 and following. Vincent of Beauvais, book 21, chapters 83 and 84. Petrus de Natalibus, book 2, chapter 104. Trithemius, book 3, on the illustrious men of the Order of S. Benedict, chapter 251, although perhaps one might doubt whether, at least in the beginning, he adopted Benedictine statutes and bound himself and his followers to them. Marchantius writes that Wulfrada and Crenulfus wished to place monks of the Order of S. Launomarus at Ebritnogil. And the Order of S. Benedict was scarcely yet known, and certainly not widely propagated, when he undertook the monastic life: other institutes of ascetics flourished in Gaul. Nevertheless he could later have embraced the Rule of S. Benedict, outstanding for its discretion, and prescribed it for his followers. Antonius Yepes in the Benedictine Chronicle, century 1, at the year 567, narrates his deeds, but does not indicate which order he belonged to. At Blois on the Loire there is a Benedictine monastery of S. Launomarus, noble and wealthy.

LIFE

By an anonymous monk of Curbio, from two ancient manuscripts.

Launomarus, Priest, Abbot of Curbio in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 4734

By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] God is to be praised in His Saints. David the Prophet, when he had urged all creatures to the praise of their Creator and Governor, at the beginning of the hundred and fiftieth psalm, says thus: Praise the Lord in His Saints: in those, that is, whom He has glorified, and made to overflow with diverse gifts by the great grace of His favor. And therefore I think it a worthy undertaking, if those things are treated by faithful narrators which the soldiers of Christ each severally wrought in their own cells: or rather which the Author of all wonders Himself wrought in them and through them, from whom all holiness and the sum of faith proceeds. For He Himself says: Without me you can do nothing. John 15:5. Which the faithful servants and ministers of the grace of God also confess, and always keeping before their eyes the overthrow of Satan, whom the Lord saw falling like lightning from heaven, they attribute to Him whatever good they do, from whom they have both the will and the power: nor do they presume upon their own strength for a moment, All good things are to be ascribed to Him, lest while they enjoy the field of evil liberty, they incur the pit of unforeseen damnation. We therefore praise the Lord, the guarantor and giver of rewards, in His Saints, while we bring to the knowledge of very many what He gloriously administered through His servants, how they lived both inwardly by the virtue of continence in their own persons, and outwardly enlightened others by the lamp of good works. After the glorious combats of the Martyrs, therefore, we recall the illustrious merits of the Confessors. For they too, bearing off the victory over the ancient enemy, because for them to live was always Christ and to die was gain, were made heirs of the heavenly Jerusalem. Behold, on every side the camps of Christ's soldiers shine: everywhere that singular King has set up the standards of His Martyrs and Confessors, through whose lifeless ashes He triumphs over the enemy of the human race. Finally, from among the numerous host of athletes we have chosen him by whose examples we have been edified and by the outcome of whose manner of life we have been delighted, namely the Blessed Launomarus, that we might hand down to posterity something useful in memory concerning his holy manner of life and miraculous deeds; so that the zealous may have something to emulate, and the negligent something by which, through divine inspiration, they may be aroused to the fervor of good action.

CHAPTER I.

The youth and priesthood of S. Launomarus.

[2] When S. Launomarus was born. After the Frankish nation had occupied the Gauls, and brought the kingdom, the cities, and the territories under its dominion on all sides; and had now passed from the impurities of idolatry to the worship of the Christian religion; at that time when Clotharius, son of Chlodoveus the elder, who was the first among the kings of that nation to receive baptism from B. Remigius, Bishop of the Remi, administered the kingdom of the Franks; his country: within Gallia Lugdunensis, Launomarus, a citizen of the territory of the Carnutes, was born of most Christian parents.

[3] He tends his father's flock. While he was still being reared as a little boy in his father's house, he began to tend his father's flock in pasturing, like another Jacob, or one of the other Patriarchs. Among these occupations this boy, dear to God, showed the beginnings of good promise: generous to the needy: because whatever the solicitude of his parents provided for his daily sustenance, he himself distributed either to the poor and pilgrims he encountered, or to his companions of the same age performing the duties of shepherds. And although he did not yet possess knowledge of the divine precepts, yet the divine grace shining in him had rooted a mature heart in his childish body. For while he burned with such love toward his needy companions and the poor, even in childhood he already devoted himself to the practice of frugality. Overflowing also with the depths of charity, he was solicitous for the poor, and, kind, though still a little boy, he afflicted his body with excessive fasting. He was not harsh or difficult to his companions; but affable in speech, gentle in character, cheerful in countenance, and most outstanding in charity according to his means. He did not yet know the Gospel, devoted to fasting: but he rejoiced to bear the mortification of the cross, often extending his fast until sunset.

[4] When his parents saw him in the first flower of youth neglecting the care of his body, breaking the luxury and allurements of pleasures by the rigor of abstinence; they began to marvel in astonishment, whence such gravity of character had suddenly grown in the boy. But secretly and gradually testing the boy's manner of life, because he indicated that his mind was raised above the defilement of the world, they also took care to clothe him in a suitable habit. He is trained in letters and virtue: And so during his boyhood years he was committed by his parents to literary studies, and entrusted to a certain Priest of venerable life named Cherimirus, who, serving the Lord within the town of Chartres, was held in celebrated repute for his religious life. Receiving the little boy, he tenderly nurtured him, and gradually encouraged him toward the knowledge of letters and the norm of holiness. But the divine grace, which had produced the maturity of mind from childish limbs, seemed to have established in the adolescent the diligence of learning that usually requires years. The aforesaid Priest, observing in him the desire for religion growing along with his advancing age, and the capacity of his mind becoming greater for learning, congratulated himself, prompted by the signs of good hope, because he believed that through him the salvation of others could be procured in the following age. Which the truth of the matter proved not long after.

[5] Indeed as soon as he had grown to the years of understanding, the most blessed man, hearing the voice of the Savior with the ear both of body and heart, he renounces all things: that which the divine power had inspired through the unknowing solicitude of his parents, he himself renounced all his possessions, so that in the land of the living he might merit a portion subject to no end. Nor did he wish to return to worldly tumults, because as the Lord says: No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62. Meanwhile the servant of God, thirsting for the food of doctrine and the heavenly word, adorned his youth with its constant meditation and chaste morals. Already at that time set aflame with the fires of divine love, he had begun to desire the solitude of the desert. He becomes a Priest, and steward of the Brethren: Therefore concealing for a time the purpose of his mind, while he still remained in the same city, he obtained the priestly office with divine grace accompanying him. Not long after, he was appointed there by the brethren, with whom he aspired to heavenly things, as steward of their temporal goods, and carefully provided their substance and entire storehouse; and with the greatest discretion and paternal affection he ministered the bodily necessities to all the brethren, so that he diminished the due portion of no one by even a small amount, nor lavishly wasted it on anyone. For founded by long training in spiritual exercise, this man served God worthily in his priesthood. Taught also by the example of the Apostles, he strove to imitate the pattern of the primitive Church, of which it is written: distribution was made to each one, as each had need. Acts 4:35.

CHAPTER II.

The solitary life. The founding of the monastery.

[6] After some years had elapsed from the time of his ordination, what he had long concealed and conceived in his heart as the vow of his desire, he fulfilled with the Lord as author and helper. At last in the dead of night, he seeks the desert: while all were sunk in deep sleep, he took his staff in his hands, and casting off the duty of managing earthly goods, he flew to the coveted desert. And when he was in a place where his mind could find delight, and as it were fix the foot of transitory rest, with the ardor of impatient zeal he spurned the world with its luxuries. And trampling underfoot the waves of the world, withdrawing himself from the company of men, he resolved to seek the fellowship of Angels through the heights of contemplation. Just as the Prophet Elijah once, dwelling in the cave of solitude, after he had seen the Lord passing by, and the earthquake shaking the mountains and the fire melting the rocks, yet testified that the Lord was not in these things; he was able to feel this rapture in the whisper of a gentle breeze, that is, raised above himself by the subtlety of contemplation. 3 Kings 19.

[7] For he withdrew far from the city, and shut himself up in the most remote solitude of the forest called Particus, and there with the whole intention of his heart and with the very marrow of all his thoughts he more intimately commended himself to the Lord. Where, in a hut woven with branches, while one night amidst the blind silence he was rendering hymns to God in devout meditation, he is long sought in vain by robbers, he perceived the hostile fury of robbers, who endured long wanderings of the way that night in order to reach his death. For they thought he was keeping some money in the desert. But when dawn came, they suddenly saw themselves in the sight of the one they had so eagerly sought: he exhorts them, divinely struck, to repentance: and struck with divine fear at the sight of him, they fell at his feet, crying out: Spare us, man of God, spare us; we recognize our guilt, and therefore we ask pardon. And the man of God, astonished at this, said: What, brothers, what is it that you ask of me? Or what reason has driven you all the way to us? And they confessed what they had planned, and what they had resolved against him. Then the man of God said to them: I was not ignorant of your plots, sons. May the Lord have mercy on you. Return in peace, and cease to sin. Desist from robbery, and restrain your hand from plunder, that you may be worthy to find the mercy of the Lord. For I have no money on earth. Our wealth is Christ. And they, edified by his words, scarcely returned to their own homes after three days.

[8] From then on the name of the blessed man became famous: and many began to flock to him, he instructs disciples: desiring to be renewed into the new man, who was created according to God, by his examples and teaching. Not much time had passed, and behold, in the form of a monastery, they placed dwellings in the midst of the vast and dense desert: where through His servant the almighty God performed very many miracles. He builds a monastery. For many by his prayers and the help of his intercession were relieved from the affliction of bodily infirmity; many, recalled to the health of the inner man, he is renowned for miracles: learned within the camps of God to fight bravely against the fiery darts of the ancient enemy.

[9] For on a certain day a man from the neighborhood offered his lame son to the Saint for healing at the gates of the monastery, he heals a lame man: and he himself, prostrate at his knees with tears, said: Man of God, have mercy on me, and restore to this boy his former health by your prayers; or at least while he lives, let him be fed here at your expense for the sake of the work of mercy. Then the man of God said to him: Whence is it mine, O man, to restore health to your son? This is the work of the Creator, not of a creature. Yet God is able to grant to your faith what you ask. Wait a little, and together with the child receive a blessing; afterwards return together by the way you came. When the Priest of the Lord had interceded for the health of the boy during the sacred offering of the Mass, after the solemn prayer was completed, he refreshed the father with a fragment of blessed bread, and healed the son of his disability, and sent them back to their home.

[10] He opens the doors of the church by his prayers. At another time the venerable Father was working with his monks to cut down the forest, so that he might prepare some flat ground suitable for sowing seeds: but by chance it happened that the doorkeeper of the Lord's house lost the key to the oratory. When the servant of God, withdrawing from the Brothers for the sake of prayer, with his attendant accompanying him, sought the oratory and did not find the key, he prostrated himself on the ground before the doors and prayed for a while. And immediately the door opened of its own accord for him. Having entered the oratory, he continued his prayers to the end. And when he had risen from prayer, he charged his attendant not to reveal to anyone during his lifetime what he had seen; and orders it to be kept silent: following the example of the Lord his God, who forbade those whom He healed by His own power to tell anyone.

CHAPTER III.

His various miracles.

[11] He extinguishes a fire with the sign of the Cross. At the same time, something similar happened in the monastery of the man of God through negligence. For when after the harvest the sheaves of the new grain were to be stored in the barns, the monks, driven by necessity, placed what they had harvested on a frame made of wicker, and applied fire to it; which gradually gaining strength, while all were attending to other things and no one was concerned about this, suddenly the fire seized both the grain and the building. When the man of the Lord learned of this, he threw himself with all his soul and body against the violence of the fire. Thus the man of the Lord Launomarus prevailed against the fire, and making the sign of the Cross against it, he overcame the force of the fire with his prayers. What shall I say? For he immediately extinguished the crackling fire as if with a violent rainstorm.

[12] On the following night, when he had risen early for prayer, during the sacred vigils the envy of the devil tried to disturb him, for he who had fallen from the heavenly light a lamp extinguished by a demon, three times relit by his prayers: three times extinguished the light of the lamp. But he felt that the soldier of Christ had prevailed against him. For as often as the enemy of the human race removed the light from that dwelling, the servant of the Lord did not desist from his duty, but rather pouring forth prayer before the Lord, through the true and eternal light, Christ, he restored the rays of the lamp. Clearly a Confessor of great faith, whose birthday we have received with devout minds, to whom it was granted that, just as other Saints by faith conquered kingdoms, so also he by the firmness of faith might command created things. Heb. 11:33. For thus the Lord of hosts glorifies His Saints, who serve Him with their whole heart, so that through Him they may triumph over the one who once held the principate among the choirs of heavenly dignities, and that the creature may serve them at will. For the venerable man in one case extinguished the harmful balls of flame, and in another rekindled the fire: and thus in both the author of darkness was confounded, and he who was preeminent in his manner of life was shown to be venerable also in the power of signs. That this may appear more clearly, I shall relate yet another thing that he did at a subsequent time.

[13] A certain man, named Sicaptus, born of noble stock, and very wealthy in the ample possession of estates, he heals a demoniac anointed with sacred oil, was tormented by the black impulse of a demon, insomuch that, persuaded by the devil, if he could lay his hand on any weapon or club, he would immediately attack either himself or others, whomever he encountered. When he had for a long time raged with such madness, and was most atrociously shaken by the furies of Satan, he was shackled by his servants, his neck and hands burdened with chains, and dragged with great roaring and clamor into the presence of the man of God: and immediately in the sight of the most holy Father, he began to rage and gnash his teeth, and his face to change to pallor. But when the man of God looked upon him, recognizing the wiles of the ancient serpent, he groaned, and immediately had recourse to the familiar weapons of prayer: and having completed the prayer, anointing the wretched man with sacred oil, he poured it over his entire body. And when the man of God laid his hands upon him, he emptied him of the unclean spirit, and said to the crowd of companions who accompanied him: Remove from him the weight of chains, and allow him to depart unharmed. God is powerful, whose creation this is, to put the demon to flight, and to rescue the wretched soul from the power of the dire plunderer, so that you may rest from such labor. In that very hour the man was made whole, and with a sound mind he turned the horror of his countenance and the grinding of his teeth into gentleness; and as if awakening from the sleep of death, he said to his own: Why do you vex me with these bonds? Release me, and return to your homes: for I shall spend some time with the man of God, who has healed me. And he exhorts him to fasting and prayer. They therefore released him and returned each to their own homes. And B. Launomarus kept the man, and exhorted him to apply himself to fasting and prayer. He, obedient to the Father's precept, after some days returned to his own home in health.

[14] The holy man exercised this work of piety not only toward men, but also toward wild and brute animals. He drives away wolves by his word; a doe rescued, then released. For one day, while walking near his monastery in the solitude and silently considering something from the Scriptures, he encountered a doe fleeing from the harassment of wolves. When he saw them, like one who sympathized with the beast, the man of the Lord cried out: Away, most savage beasts, always rapacious, cease to pursue this little animal: and go to the places of your solitude: and alluding to the meaning, Behold, he said, a most wicked and harmful kind of beast. For just as these never cease from plundering, but always devour the flesh of others with their bites, so also the devil, the most ferocious wolf, going about daily seeks whom from the Church of Christ he may destroy and strangle. At this word of the man of God, they immediately turned their course from pursuing, and entered the not unfamiliar concealment of the forest. The doe, however, fearing to go back the way she had come, accompanied her rescuer, and entered before the oratory itself. The man of God stroked her with his hand for about two hours and then sent her back to the places of her solitude. O Lord Jesus, here too in the spirit of His gentleness You so glorified Your Saint, that even the ferocity of beasts obeyed him, through the terror of Your name.

[15] At another time a certain man of noble birth, named Leudocramnus, when he was afflicted with the most grievous paralysis, he heals a paralytic with the sign of the Cross and sacred oil, so that all his limbs refused their function and the motion of their vigor, was placed by the hands of his servants upon a vehicle drawn by horses, and conveyed in a litter to the man of God. What shall I say? He lay nearly lifeless in every part, except that in his breast alone he seemed to gasp for breath. But when the holy Father signed him with the standard of the holy Cross and anointed him with sacred oil, at the touch of his hand suddenly, as the man himself used to testify under oath, he was sprinkled with such an excess of cold from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, that he marveled within himself at what had happened to him. For with a sudden shiver his whole body trembled, and he expected nothing other than approaching death, since his innards scarcely provided even the smallest portion of vital warmth. Then, as his limbs gradually grew warm again, the paralytic immediately regained his former health, and lived many more years. He himself afterwards governed the cell called Carbonaria, and through him this miracle was made known.

CHAPTER IV.

The monastery of Curbio. Miracles performed there.

[16] He withdraws to another place. It happened after some years, when the fame of his virtue had spread far and wide, that the holy man, always fleeing human praise and desiring to be hidden and unknown to mortals, leaving his cell, withdrew with his fellow soldiers to another place, which the hands of former inhabitants had once built up, but which the growth of dense foliage and briars had now entirely covered.

[17] At the same time there was in the same province an illustrious man, very wealthy and possessor of very extensive estates, named Ragnosointhus. When he saw that the soldier of God was undertaking something in the roughness of the aforementioned place which would be profitable to posterity in future times, having investigated the reputation of his holiness and his indefatigable service in divine matters, he began to venerate the man of God and to embrace him with all his desire. Thenceforward, touched by the fire of his love, which he perceived more deeply as he venerated the man of God more closely, he handed over to him the very place of which we speak, into which the holy man had entered, and from his own right transferred it perpetually to him and his successors. He also marked it out on all sides with its own boundaries in the best way, as anyone who wishes to know can fully find in the archives of this holy monastery. He builds the monastery of Curbio. Where the man of the Lord began to labor, and aided by the protection of the Divine Majesty, endeavored to clear the place, the former name of Curbio remaining, and he established an oratory there, and with huts for dwelling he sketched with his followers the form of a monastery. In those days Chilperic, son of the aforesaid Clotharius, was in the second year of his reign.

[18] On a certain day therefore, to build the oratory, the monks of the venerable Father felled an aged oak with repeated blows. But when the regular hour admonished them to withdraw to take their meal, the man of the Lord dismissed them, but he himself, keeping his attendant with him, continued in the labor. He transfers an immense oak by his prayers. Now the tree itself was not in a suitable place where it could be hewn or cut up by the Brothers. But the servant of the Lord, having recourse to his customary secret place of prayer, trusting in divine aid, by the power of the Cross transported the tree of immense bulk to where he wished: for where human power was lacking, he merited to have divine assistance. For the same tree was said to have been of such weight that it could scarcely be carried by forty men. Then he commanded his attendant to tell the Brothers when they returned that passers-by had given them the help. He skillfully conceals the miracle. For in all his works he shunned the eyes of men and the swelling of boasting, and admonished that God alone should be praised, whose was entirely whatever good he had merited to do. And therefore rightly, O Lord, You gave to Your servant the rest prepared for him, who in the power of signs assigned nothing to himself, but always proclaimed You as wondrous and the author of all grace.

[19] There was after this a noble man, Ermoaldus by name, who, having reached the end of his life, was in peril from the anguish of death. He recognizes and rejects money unjustly acquired. He sent to the man of God forty solidi, earnestly requesting that he would come to the aid of him who was now nearly dying, so that by the merits of his intercession, the hope of salvation from the Almighty might be granted to him. But the devout soldier of the Lord refused to accept it. Finally, with the bearer insisting, he accepted the money: and entering the oratory, he poured forth prayer, that the offering of the man might be acceptable in the sight of the Lord, and he placed the money upon the altar: and with great care he weighed each coin, turning it over by hand, and frequently bending his knee, he prayed. After much examination, he retained for his own use one solidus, which he recognized in spirit to be clean and not acquired by plunder. The rest he handed back to the bearer, and said: This money, O man, is unjust; it cannot change the Divine sentence, nor extend the span of life, he predicts the death of the donor: nor obtain the remission of sins. For it is written: The sacrifices of the wicked are abominable to the Lord; the prayers of the just are pleasing. Prov. 15:8. Hence the Prophet reproaches, saying: Offer up leavened bread as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Amos 4:5. He offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving from what is leavened, who prepares a sacrifice for God from plunder. Therefore, brother, hasten to announce to your master, that he should labor for himself, and restore what was unjustly taken. For by this very illness he will end this temporal life. We, with Christ being propitious, abound in all good things, and if we are not weakened in faith, nothing will be lacking to us. And after this he said: The Lord be with you, my son, go in peace. And he, having received the commission, returned to his master, and found him still living; but as the sickness grew worse, he was taken from this light.

[20] Once thieves came to the cell of the same Father, and entering by night, which is always their friend, they loosed an ox from the manger and led it away. When the monks learned of this early in the morning, he consoles his own about a temporal loss, they brought the complaint to the most holy Father. To whom he, fearing lest on account of some temporal inconvenience the state of their minds should be shaken and they should break forth into impatience, said to them: Preserve patience, brothers, and do not corrupt for a perishable thing that which God made in His own likeness. For B. Job also, when he had lost all his outward substance, and after the death of his sons had at last himself been struck with the most cruel wound, as it is read: In all these things Job did not sin with his lips, nor did he impute anything foolish against God, but said: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1. But neither should prosperity, if outward wealth is at hand, exalt us; nor should earthly loss cast us down, so that we may be like him of whom the Psalmist says: As is his darkness, so also is his light. Ps. 138:12. Now the robbers persevered the whole of that night and the following day in their wandering labor, and could nowhere find an exit by which to extract themselves from the trackless solitude. The thieves, after a long wandering, return with the stolen ox. On the second night, worn out by the extreme wandering of body and heart, they discovered that they had been brought to the place where they had committed the crime of theft, and at the sound of the monks singing psalms, struck with amazement of mind, they murmured to one another, saying: What is this that has happened to us? Behold, we are in the very place from which we removed this animal. When they saw that their hope had been frustrated, and that what they had attempted was not succeeding, they chose one course, to return the ox to its masters. When therefore the matins hymns had been completed by the Brothers, the man of God went out according to his custom to make his rounds about the cell. The men came to meet him, and revealed the cause of their crime both by their words and by showing it with their hands. The man of the Lord granted the pardon they sought, and said to them: He gives them food. You have done well, sons, that even after great labor you have come to the recognition of your guilt. Henceforth refrain from such things; and because you have labored, refresh your bodies, and so return more quickly to your own homes. But take care not to show yourselves to the shepherds or monks. After they had departed, he consigned to the Brothers that very ox which they had anxiously sought: and dissembling, he did not reveal the truth of the matter to them, but, as if it had strayed in the forest through the shepherds' negligence, he pretended that he had found it wandering before the gates. He conceals the miracle from his own. This, however, was made public by his attendant after his blessed death, to whom he used to confide many things in familiar intimacy.

[21] There was likewise a certain matron, distinguished by the title of nobility, he heals a paralytic woman with the Cross and chrism: named Wulfrada, who within her years of adolescence was wasting away from a most grievous infirmity and the destitution of all her limbs, so that the vital warmth of the spirit seemed to pulsate only in her little breast; and, as she herself reported, she could not stand upon her feet, being nearly lifeless, broken as she was by a long bodily affliction. Raised therefore in the arms of her servants, she was brought to the man of God for the purpose of healing. When he had anointed her with the blessing of chrism, impressing the standard of the holy Cross upon her, he restored her to her former vigor. She afterwards, by the Lord's mercy, prolonged her days in peace for a long time, and after the passing of the venerable Father, nobly enriched his cell with her property as a gift. And so she gave, with the consent of her husband Chramnulpus, from her estate the estate of Lontueus, and Brituogilum, with this vow, that a rule of monks and servants of God be established there, and the place be made renowned in divine praises. From whom various things are given to that monastery and to another to be built. And so it was done. For in the governance of Christ's flock, the memorable Father Launomarus had as his successor a most modest man, named Ragnobertus, who from the community of the same congregation sent Brothers well suited for this work, and by God's grace going before, brought the desire of the aforesaid couple to fulfillment. The devotion of the same couple also added, for love of the most holy Father, an estate situated across the River Loire, which is called Fagia, so that through the intercession of B. Launomarus it might be for them a perpetual remedy of the soul, and according to their hope, a full remission of sins.

CHAPTER V.

His death and that of S. Malardus.

[22] Meanwhile the venerable man, filled with these fragrances of virtues and grace, was governing the flock of monks in long peace, he exhorts his own to perfection: which he had acquired for the Lord by words and virtues. But hastening in his mind to other things, and concerned about his calling, he exhorted them daily to be more and more ready for the divine commands, and not to slumber, nor to slacken from the course begun through the relaxation of sloth, but to be watchful at every hour, so that they might be deemed worthy to flee the wrath of final damnation, and to stand before the Son of Man. With such admonitions of holy and unconquered exhortation he protected the sheep entrusted to him against the snares of wolves.

[23] At that time Malardus was Bishop of the Church of Chartres. Who, having learned of the fame of the man of God, and rejoicing at the merits of his faith, he is summoned by S. Malardus to Chartres: desired to be refreshed by the frequent sweetness of conversation with him. For this reason, summoned by him, the venerable man, knowing also that the end of his days was approaching, now an old man, hastened to the city for the purpose of visiting. Where, after staying some days, afflicted by the onset of fevers, he began to fall ill. He is visited by him while sick. When the Bishop of that place learned that he was gravely ill, he rose and hastened to the man of God, and accompanied the grief of his heart with tears, saying: Alas! Alas! venerable Father, and one to be recalled with the most brotherly affection, why do you desert your friend and companion in the faith of Christ, alone amid the shipwrecks of the world? Great indeed was your consolation to me, great the warmth of your love, by which I rejoiced to be relieved amid the buffeting waves of worldly cares, by whose pleasant and gentle conversation I restored my mind to heavenly things. He comforts him. Then the old man spoke thus to the Bishop: Cease, most blessed Father, and desist from weeping: such is the human condition and the end which cannot be passed by. I for my part look with joy and exulting mind upon the ineffable mercy of my God, that He may deign to open for me the door of His mercy, and to recompense the certain reward of His promise to my hope, which He has promised to all who love His coming. For how lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord: for one day in your courts is better than a thousand. Therefore my soul has thirsted for you, my God: when shall I come and appear before your face, O Lord, my hope and my strength, my life and my salvation?

[24] He predicts future disasters. But even if the option of remaining here longer were to be given, know, my venerable Father, that it is bitter to live here and to see the devastation of this region, to behold the deaths and torments of its citizens, and the holy places profaned by hostile nations. For all these things shall come upon this place, and hostile devastation will give understanding to men that they have grievously sinned against Him; by whose permission they will endure the harshest masters. It is therefore more blessed to die now than to see the destruction of our province already near at hand. For death is truly sweet, through which we hope to attain the glory of immortality. And the death of S. Malardus. But you, O man of God, do not be terrified: you will not see the evil which the Lord will rain upon the inhabitants of this land, because before the days of siege you will complete your life in good service, and you will be gathered to your fathers. But those who shall remain will see this entire city and the whole surrounding region laid waste. Behold a true Confessor of Christ, whom the grace of God had so filled, that in that same spirit by which he foretold death and plunder to the man offering silver, from which the money had been acquired, he also foreknew the hostile attack that would follow long after, and knowing it, predicted it. For the Holy Spirit, just as from the past He infused knowledge of absent things, so also from the future He touched his mind, so that he might discern with the eye of the mind adverse calamities coming from afar.

[25] When the duties of mutual friendship had been completed, the venerable Father awaited the day of his calling, trusting in the mercy of God, without fear. And as from day to day the force of the fevers weakened his body, he died in that same city, an old man and full of days. He dies piously. His soul entered the tabernacle of his God, was taken up with the Angels, called to the wedding supper of the Lamb, and reclines with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. For you have fought the good fight, O athlete of Christ, you always bore Christ in your breast, and therefore you have happily entered into His glory. O how blessed you are, pious Confessor! For the joyful chorus of Angels hastens to meet the one returning to his homeland. And because the Lord was with you, you have left this habitation secure, and penetrated even to the throne of the eternal vision. From there assist us with continual patronage, so that in this fold, which you illuminated by examples and adorned with virtues, there may be continual peace, the longed-for remission of sins, and the constant exercise of the Christian religion, through the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through infinite ages of ages, Amen.

[26] S. Malardus dies. After those days the Bishop of that town also entered the way of all flesh. Then, according to the word of the man of God, the predicted desolation of the region came, and when a barbarous army besieged that same city, it diverted the water by which the citizens had been sustained through hidden conduits from its course. The city of Chartres is captured. And so it happened that the inhabitants of the fortress, overcome by the want of thirst, voluntarily opened their gates to the enemy, and surrendered themselves as prey to the hostile sword.

[27] The burial of S. Launomarus. The aged servant of God rested on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February; and he was buried in the basilica of S. Martinus, where also B. Leobinus, Bishop of the same city, is interred.

ON S. MALARDUS, OR MALEHARDUS, BISHOP OF CHARTRES IN GAUL.

AROUND THE YEAR DCLX.

Malardus or Malehardus, Bishop of Chartres in Gaul (S.)

From various sources.

[1] The name Malardus is common among the French and Belgians: the origin of the word is Teutonic, Mallaerd, or Mael-aert; with various significations: for the former means petulant or given to luxury; The name of S. Malardus. the latter moderate, or fond of banqueting. We have sometimes heard very serious men inquiring whether there was a Saint of this name whom they might adopt as their patron. There is indeed; namely the Bishop of Chartres in Gaul, about whom fuller treatment has been given in the deeds of S. Launomarus; who subscribed to the Council of Chalon in the year 650; his era. to the Privilege by which Landericus, Bishop of Paris, granted liberty to the monastery of S. Dionysius, in the year 658; and to the Precept of King Chlodoveus II concerning the same liberty in the year 659: and he appears to have died shortly after: unless, however, this was a second of his name, much later than the Saint.

[2] Public veneration. Sebastianus Rouillardus, Hist. Carnot. part 2, chapter 1, writes that his body is preserved in the monastery of S. Martinus in the valley, and that his memory is annually celebrated by that Church, with a solemn procession instituted to that church, and with hymns and antiphons composed in his praise as a Saint being sung. He does not specify the day. Galesinius, Ferrarius, Saussaius inscribe him in the roll of Saints on 19 the feast, January; and Galesinius cites a manuscript Martyrology and the Calendar of the Church of Chartres.

[3] The era in which he lived has been discussed in the life of S. Launomarus. He is mentioned by Ioannes Chenus, Claudius Robertus, and Demochares in their catalogues of the bishops of Gaul, and is always written as Malardus, his acts, as also in the Council of Chalon; in those Privileges of S. Dionysius he is written Malehardus. He rescued the body of S. Launomarus, which had been stolen from the monastery of S. Martinus, from the sacrilegious thieves, having summoned the citizens to arms, as Rouillardus relates. The rest of his acts are hidden, except for what is known from the acts of S. Launomarus.

ON S. REMIGIUS, OR REMEDIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN.

AROUND THE YEAR DCCLXXI.

Remigius, Bishop of Rouen in Gaul (S.)

From various sources.

[1] Claudius Robertus, Ioannes Chenus, and Antonius Demochares list Remigius, or Remedius, as the twenty-ninth Bishop of the Church of Rouen. He was the son of Charles Martel by Suanichilde of Bavaria, The family of S. Remigius. or by another wife or concubine (for the authors differ), and the brother of King Pippin. His feast is celebrated on 19 January in the monastery of S. Audoenus at Rouen, as we learned from our Fredericus Flouetus. We are surprised that his name was omitted by Saussaius in his Gallican Martyrology. In the MS. Florarium on 11 May the following is found: At Rouen, the deposition of the holy Bishops Robertus and Remigius, brother of Pippin, King of the Franks. Nowhere else have we found the name of Robertus, or Ratbertus, in the roll of Saints.

[2] His deeds. The Acts of Remigius do not exist. We shall gather a few things about him from various writers. Ioannes Dadraeus confuses him with his brother Carlomannus, when he says that, having renounced the part of the kingdom that had fallen to him to govern, he became a monk on Mount Soracte, established a church there for S. Silvester; then migrated to Cassino, and finally was named Archbishop. The Annals of the Franks by an unknown Author, edited by Andrea du Chesne his promotion to the episcopate, from the manuscripts of Tilius and Petavius, mention his election at the year 755: In this year the Lord Remedius obtained the See of the Church of Rouen. The Chronicle of Fontenelle: The aforesaid Raginfridus, on account of his insolent behavior and depravities, was also accused by the clergy of Rouen before King Pippin; in the thirteenth year after he had lost the governance of this monastery of Fontenelle. When he was ejected from the episcopate of that Church, it was given to Remigius, brother of that same glorious King Pippin, in this year, which is the seven hundred and fifty-fifth from the Incarnation of the Lord. To whom, Ragenfridus, however, out of mercy, certain estates from the same bishopric of Rouen were assigned.

[3] What Remigius did before the episcopate, we have not discovered. He was afterwards sent by Pippin to arrange for the return of the relics of S. Benedict from Fleury to Cassino, as Adreualdus relates in book 1, On the Miracles of S. Benedict, chapter 16. But when the monks turned to prayers and tears along with Abbot Medo, the most omnipotent Majesty, Wishing to carry off relics from Fleury, he is divinely prevented, as the same author writes in chapter 17, was pleased to resolve so great a dispute of danger with His accustomed mercy. For Bishop Remigius, having entered the church with his men, as he approached the sacred sepulchre, was so struck with a sudden blindness of their eyes that they could neither see one another's faces, nor discern by touch in which direction they wished to proceed. Likewise covered with powerful terror, they expected nothing other than the loss of their lives. Some therefore were cast to the ground, intending to await the Lord's mercy; others, planning to find safety in the remedy of flight, ran hither and thither, crying out and begging for help to come. While these were thrown into confusion by excessive tumult, the Abbot was summoned and hastened with the Brothers: and giving them his hand, he led the violators of the sacred temple out of the church, they feeling quite sufficiently and abundantly the divine vengeance. Then he graciously pardoned those prostrate on the ground and seeking pardon: and from the body of that most precious Confessor of Christ he most kindly bestowed relics. He obtains some. Having refreshed them, and having generously provided all necessities for the journey, he sent them back to their own. And they, returning to the palace, made known to the most excellent King Pippin the very great power of God, flourishing in this place through the merits of the holy Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary, and of B. Petrus, Prince of the Apostles, and also through the intercession of the distinguished Father Benedict, and by their exhortations diligently made him generous to this sacred monastery. The same events from Adreualdus are commemorated by Carolus Sauffeyus, Annals of the Church of Orleans, book 4, no. 33, and more briefly book 5, no. 38; Vincent of Beauvais, book 23, chapter 155; Petrus de Natalibus, book 6, chapter 81; Sigebertus at the year 753, who attributes this to Carlomannus, the brother of Remigius. But Matthew of Westminster at the year 748 relates that the monks of Cassino obtained letters from Pope Zacharias to Pippin; that Remigius was sent by Pippin. But Zacharias had died three years before Remigius became Bishop.

[4] He arranges for stolen property of the Roman Church to be restored. Remigius was then sent as legate by his brother the King to Desiderius, King of the Lombards, together with Duke Autcharius: they prevailed upon him to restore the patrimonies of the Roman Church: for which Paul I, the Pontiff, gives thanks to Pippin in his third letter, given in the year 760, in which Remigius is called God-beloved Remedius.

[5] Concerning this same S. Remigius, Sigebertus, or his amplifier, writes thus He introduces the Roman chant into Gaul at the year 751: Remigius, brother of the same King Pippin, Archbishop of Rouen (thus the old manuscript of Lobbes, which we used; the edition of Miraeus has Rodomensis) is famous in Gaul. King Pippin improved the churches of Gaul with chants of Roman authority through his own efforts. There exists a letter of Pope Paul I to King Pippin, given in the year 767, in which the following is read, indicating the outstanding zeal of S. Remigius: Wherefore, having received in the present the communications from your Excellency, protected by God, monks sent to Rome, we promptly fulfilled all that was contained in them. In them we found it written that you wish the monks of your God-beloved brother Remedius, who are present, to be handed over to Simeon, the Prior of the school of singers, for them to be instructed in the modulation of psalmody, which they had been unable to learn from him during the time he was there in your regions; on which account you assert that your said brother has been made very sad, in that he had not perfectly instructed his monks. And indeed, most kind King, we satisfy your Christianity; because had not Georgius, who presided over that school, departed this life, we would by no means have sought to withdraw the same Simeon from the service of your brother. But when the aforesaid Georgius died, and the same Simeon, as next in line, ascended to his place, for that reason, for the teaching of the school, we summoned him to us. For far be it from us that we should in any way do anything that is burdensome to you and your faithful ones. Rather, as has been said, remaining firm in the love of your charity, we most willingly strive, insofar as our strength suffices, to comply with your will. For which reason we have also handed over the aforesaid monks of your brother to the oft-mentioned Simeon, and lodging them excellently, and instructed by the orders of Pope Paul I, we have ordered them to be instructed with diligent industry in the same modulation of psalmody, and we have arranged, for the most ample love of your Excellency and of your most noble brother, that they remain in the teaching of ecclesiastical song with effective care until they become perfectly trained, frequently in the same, desiring for the rest that your Excellency prosper in healthy and favorable times in the Lord, and enjoy the scepter of the kingdom, and through the intercession of B. Petrus, achieve triumphal victories over your enemies. May heavenly grace keep your Excellency safe.

[6] He introduces Roman Rites. Renatus Choppinus, Monasticon, book 2, title 3, no. 25, also mentions this: King Pippin, he says, first introduced the ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies of the Romans, with Aegidius, Archbishop of Rouen, managing the affair, around the year 755. Paulus Aemilius also calls him Aegidius.

[7] In the year 769, Charlemagne celebrated Easter at Rouen, as the Annals of the Franks record, He dies, and the ancient life of Charles. There at last, in the year 771 or 772, S. Remigius, his uncle, died. His relics translated to Soissons. His body and that of S. Gildardus, together with the head of S. Romanus, were at one time translated from the city of Rouen to Soissons, to the monastery of S. Medardus. This is supported by the passage in Nithardus, book 3, which Pithoeus considered corrupt: When he (Charles the Bald) was heading for the city of Soissons, the monks of S. Medardus came to meet him, begging that he translate the bodies of the Saints Medardus, Sebastianus, Tiburtius, Petrus and Marcellinus, Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abacuc, Onesimus, Meresina and Leocadia, Marianus, Pelagius, and Maurus, Florianus with his six brothers, Gildardus, Serenus, more honorably placed with others. and of the Lord Remigius, Archbishop of Rouen, into the basilica where they now rest, and which was at that time already for the most part built. Acquiescing to their request, he remained there, and, as they had asked, translated the bodies of the Blessed with his own shoulders with all veneration. Moreover he added to the property of that Church the estate called Bernacha.

[8] Returned to Rouen. The relics of S. Remigius were then brought back from the aforesaid monastery at Soissons to Rouen in the year 1090, as is evident from an ancient codex of S. Audoenus, but unfortunately that very part is torn. This Translation is recorded in the MS. Florarium on 15 May in these words: At Rouen, the translation of B. Remigius, Bishop and Confessor of that city. 15 May.

[9] In the year 1520 a book was published in German, written by Doctor Iacobus Mennelius by order of Maximilian I, and printed at Freiburg in Breisgau by the press of Ioannes Woerlinus; in which, after the Author has commemorated the ancestors of the August House of Austria and where each was buried, he also adds the Saints related to it by blood. Among these he numbers S. Remigius, Archbishop of Rouen, First buried in the basilica of S. Maria at Rouen, whom he says died, distinguished for many virtues, in the year 771, and was honorably buried at Rouen in the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary; afterwards translated to Soissons to the church of S. Medardus, and venerated there with singular piety. He was unaware that the relics of the holy Bishop had been returned to Rouen. These facts were communicated to us from that book by our R.P. Theodorus Rosmerus.