Maurus

ON ST. MAURUS, BISHOP OF CESENA IN ITALY.

Maurus, Bishop of Cesena in Italy (St.)

[1] Cesena, an ancient city of Umbria on the Via Aemilia (called by others Cesena, and by certain Greeks Kissene, Kisina, Kysine; by Blessed Peter Damian "the town of Cesena"), venerates St. Maurus, The feast day of St. Maurus, once its bishop, as its Protector and Patron. His feast day, January 20, is recorded in the Roman Martyrology: "At Cesena, St. Maurus the Bishop, renowned for his virtues and miracles." Galesius, Molanus, and Menard also commemorate him. But Ferrarius placed him on November 21. Perhaps one date marks the death and the other the Translation.

[2] His life, or such an encomium as was possible, was composed by Blessed Peter Damian, Life, who professed that he was unable to learn more about his deeds. Leander Albertus, in his description of Romagna, cites another life of his: "On the same Via Aemilia," he says, "at the foot of a hill lies the city of Cesena. Thus it is named by Strabo, Procopius, and Pliny in the eighth region, and by Ptolemy in Cisalpine Gaul. In the Life of its Bishop, St. Maurus, however, one reads that in ancient times it was called Flavia Curva Papia. Antoninus calls it Curva Cesena."

[3] In the times of which Roman Pontiff or King St. Maurus lived, Date. Blessed Peter Damian confesses he does not know. Baronius in his Notes to the Martyrology, and in volume 8 of the Annals at the year 649, no. 13, and Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, consider this Maurus to be the same one who attended the Roman Council under Pope St. Martin and who, together with Deusdedit the Presbyter, represented Maurus, Bishop of the Church of Ravenna. If this is so, how could he have been alive in the time of Blessed Peter Damian, however ancient, a very old man already trembling with a decaying body, who testified that he had seen a nephew of Blessed Maurus, namely one Constantius, Bishop of the Church of Cesena? For if Constantius was born from a son of Maurus, since Maurus was a bishop in the year 649 and had previously ascended to great heights by the steps of virtue and had vigilantly devoted himself to holy living, it follows that he must have dedicated himself to the continent life at least from the year 640, and that the father of Constantius was born before that year. Suppose that man begot a son at a hundred years of age, like another Abraham, and that Constantius likewise lived a hundred years: he would still have had to die before the year 840, two hundred years before Peter Damian, who is said to have died in the year 1072. If (more probably) Constantius was born of a brother or sister of Maurus, it would be possible to suppose him somewhat younger; but it will never be credible that four hundred years were traversed by the lifetimes of merely three men. Perhaps the old man whom Peter mentions called Constantius the "nephew" of Maurus because he was descended from his family line. Ferrarius, from the records and annals of the city of Cesena, writes that Maurus presided over that Church for nine years and was a nephew of Pope John IV, from which it would follow that he died in the year 650 or toward the end of 649, since John himself died on October 2, 641. But Hugh Menard says that St. Maurus lived a little before the age of Blessed Peter Damian. Hieronymus Rubeus, Book 5 of the History of Ravenna, writes that Maurus held his see in the time of Otto III, when Gerbert presided over the Church of Ravenna. That Maurus lived somewhat earlier is clear from Blessed Peter Damian's narrative, below at chapter 3, no. 11.

LIFE

By Blessed Peter Damian.

Maurus, Bishop of Cesena in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 5771

By Blessed Peter Damian.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] Desiring to write something to the glory of our God concerning the blessed Bishop Maurus, we wish to satisfy the desire of our hearers in such a way that, according to the manner of an ordered account, we may in all things serve the truth. A cup-bearer is contemptible, after all, who, while boasting of an abundance of wine, It is wicked to fabricate falsehoods for the praise of Saints. with reprehensible rashness also pours out the dregs. He is an improper cook who prepares a banquet for others with such ambition that he allows the fire of burning hunger to rage against himself. He is likewise a reckless narrator who, while striving to extol others with praises of commendation, does not fear to be plunged himself into the abyss of falsehood. For some think they are doing honor to God if, in order to display the badges of His praise, they compose the arguments of falsehood. If they would carefully attend to the words of the eminent preacher, they would not think thus. For he says to the Corinthians: "But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:14, etc. We are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise." According to these apostolic words, therefore, he is rightly called a false witness of God who, indiscriminately wishing to praise Him, tells lies; and he certainly bears testimony against God, whoever in His praise contrives a perverse fabrication. The Prophet also thunders terribly, saying: "You hate all who work iniquity; You will destroy those who speak falsehood" -- clearly declaring that just as it is a lesser thing to hate than to destroy, so too it is more tolerable to perpetrate iniquity from weakness than to fabricate lies from deliberate purpose. Psalm 5:7. Hence it is that through Jeremiah it is said of liars: "They have taught their tongues to speak falsehood; they have labored to do evil." Jeremiah 9:5. For those who could easily have set forth the simple truth that was freely offered, exert themselves to concoct lies with great labor.

[2] If someone here should perhaps reproach us for a lengthy preface and, as a stern critic, cast against us what is written in the Book of Maccabees, saying: "It is foolish to overflow before the history and to be concise in the history itself," we offer this reason: that where an abundance of material is at hand, the very length of the style forbids us to linger on such matters. 2 Maccabees 2:33. But here, Little is known about St. Maurus, where so few things about the blessed man's virtues are available to be written, we deem it more useful for the edification of the hearers -- toward which all ecclesiastical writing is directed -- to write against falsehood in the preface than to extend the history itself into the territory of lies for want of material to narrate. Therefore, what was able to come to our knowledge about the life or miracles of Blessed Maurus, insofar as we were able to ascertain from the account of certain monks of no contemptible standing, we faithfully communicate to the faithful of Christ.

CHAPTER I.

The Episcopate of St. Maurus. What He Accomplished in It.

[3] At that time, then, when the Roman Church still extended its jurisdiction far more broadly than now, and among other territories also possessed the town of Cesena, it happened that Cesena was deprived of its bishop. When the Roman Pontiff saw that his nephew, the blessed Maurus, was ascending to the heights by the steps of virtue and was not sluggishly devoting himself to the pursuit of holy living, St. Maurus is made Bishop of Cesena: he deemed it fitting to promote such a man to the summit of the priestly office, so that the lamp of the Holy Spirit might not lie hidden under a bushel but, placed upon a lampstand, might illumine with the rays of sacred teaching all who are in the house of God. What more? At length the blessed Maurus, by the disposition of divine providence, received the chair of the Church of Cesena. We have omitted, however, to interpose here the names of the King who then reigned or of the Apostolic Pontiff himself, because we, along with those who dictate the rest to us, are equally ignorant of these names. For they recall having seen their names in certain ancient volumes, but since the city had previously been consumed by flames, they report that the records too were consumed along with it.

[4] When therefore the man of God, Maurus, saw that the burden of so lofty a charge had been placed upon him, he by no means, as is written of Blessed Paul, yielded to flesh and blood, but began to make himself all the more vigilant in divine service, the more he knew that the custody of so many subjects was incumbent upon him. Galatians 1:16. For understanding that the governance of souls is the art of arts, he judged it fitting neither to diminish the care of inner things by the occupation of external matters, nor in turn to utterly neglect the provision for external things through solicitude for the inner; He watches over the salvation and welfare of his people. lest, being devoted to external affairs, he should utterly collapse from within, or, occupied solely with interior things, he should more negligently supply to his neighbors what he owed them outwardly. For some men, as if forgetting that they were placed over their brethren for the sake of their souls, serve secular cares with such concentrated effort that they rejoice in attending to these things when they are at hand and pant after them with turbulent surges of thought even when they are absent; and they find it a hardship if they are not burdened with activities. They consider it repose when they are pressed down by earthly business; they count it labor when they do not labor in worldly affairs. On the other hand, some indeed undertake the care of the flock, but so desire to be free for spiritual matters that they are by no means occupied with external things. And since they utterly neglect to care for bodily needs, they do not attend to the necessities of those under them. Their preaching, therefore, is for the most part despised, because while they rebuke the faults of the erring, they do not provide them with the necessities of the present life, and so are not willingly heard. For the word of doctrine does not penetrate the mind of the needy person if the hand of mercy does not commend it to his soul. The seed of the word then germinates easily when the kindness of the preacher waters it in the breast of the hearer. We say these things about the different types of pastors, however, in order to demonstrate how prudent and how temperate was the discretion of the blessed Maurus. For he, while neither by pursuing the leisure of the contemplative life entirely abandoning the active, nor by freely running about through the weariness of the active withdrawing from contemplation, penetrated, so to speak, the heights of the heavenly kingdom by the golden mean.

[5] While he was dwelling in his episcopal residence and capably governing the Church entrusted to him, he began to search with anxious investigation of mind for a place where he might for a time both withdraw from the crowd of secular people and adhere more especially to God alone -- being no sluggish imitator of his Lord, who preached by day in the cities but at night devoted Himself to prayer on the mountain. Luke 21:37. As the concern of this anxiety grew more and more from day to day, at last he fixed his eye upon a certain small promontory, roughly four stadia removed from the modest city. It was called the wood of Spatianus, a place that was neither thrust up higher by steep peaks toward the heights nor entirely depressed into the depths, leveled to the flatness of a marshy plain. Rather, it was so situated at a suitable elevation in a middle position that it both afforded to those placed upon it a free view of nearly the entire diocese and did not weary those ascending it with any excessive steepness of the slopes. For that mountain was clothed in a woody density of various trees. This mountain so pleased the eyes of the blessed man as if he were seeing the Mount of Olives adjacent to the city of Jerusalem, and he could not unfittingly sing with the Prophet this Psalm: "I will remember You, O Lord, from the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the little mountain." Psalm 42:7. He first petitioned this mountain from the Roman Pontiff, under whose authority it was held; He frequently withdraws to a nearby hill to devote himself to contemplation. then he built himself a small cell there with a small church, where he devoted himself to fasting and prayers during the Lenten season. And whenever he could steal time from ecclesiastical business, he would run back to that same cell as to a banquet of sweet delicacies. There he drank with the eager jaws of his mind the stream of divine contemplation, from which he afterward refreshed the parched hearts of his neighbors with the cup of holy preaching. He used that place as a kind of bath: there he took care to wash away whatever stain of word or thought he might have contracted from conversation with secular people, His tomb. and he expiated the dust of worldly intercourse -- without which this road of human mortality is not traveled -- with frequent fountains of tears in that place. That place, therefore, which was so dear and familiar to the holy man during his life, was also deemed worthy of being distinguished by his burial after his death. For his body, laid in a stone coffin, was placed next to the small basilica that he himself had built.

(a) Leander Albertus: "The people of Cesena in the time of the Lombards steadfastly held to their loyalty to the city of Rome."

(b) Ferrarius reports that this was John IV, as written above.

(c) Menard attempts to prove from this that Maurus was a monk.

(d) Surius reads "codices."

(e) Surius reads "breadth."

(f) Lama is a pool, or a collection of waters.

CHAPTER II.

Translation of the Body. Miracles.

[6] These, therefore, are the things about the life of the blessed man that were able to come to our notice -- not things seen by those who report to us, but things spread abroad by the well-known memory of succeeding generations. A certain very old man, however, already trembling with a decaying body, existed in our own times, who testified that he had seen a nephew of this blessed Maurus, one Constantius by name, Bishop of the Church of Cesena. But since we have set forth in a running style the things about the life of Blessed Maurus that we happened to hear, The death of St. Maurus. let us now briefly explain how Almighty God revealed his merits to the glory of His own name. There is now a celebrated monastery on the aforesaid mountain where the man of God was accustomed to pray, established in honor of the blessed Mother of God and Virgin, where "Monte Mauro" is the name given by ancient popular custom, because the place is not undeservedly adorned with the name of the holy man.

[7] When therefore that coffin in which the little body of the blessed man was enclosed was lying hidden next to the aforesaid church, with the accumulation of earth growing all around it so that scarcely the top of the stone was visible above the ground, it happened that a certain man, arriving with a litany procession, suddenly placed his foot there when the strap of his boot came undone and, suspecting nothing, A man's foot adheres to the Saint's tomb. bent down to tie it. With his ankle bound, when he wished to depart, he could by no means move his foot. Though he struggled for a long time and tried everything, turning this way and that, his foot remained motionless and was held fixed to the stone as if by certain nails. The wretched man stood there, guilty of an unknown offense, and he who had wished to tie his boot-strap lamented that he had rather tied himself to the stone. He wished to stand, but resting on one foot, he could not; he wished to lie down, but he was unable to fall from his own foot. The tomb becomes known. At length, with a sudden crowd rushing together, some with hammers, others eagerly with axes, they cut away part of the stone and after much effort barely managed to chisel the man free from the rock. Immediately a shout of joy arose from the exulting crowd, the wondrous power of God was exalted, and the tomb of Blessed Maurus was judged worthy of reverence.

[8] Likewise, a monk of the aforesaid monastery -- Teuzo by name, already of advanced age and venerable with hoary hair, from whose report we learned this -- related another miracle, which we by no means pass over in silence. Once this same brother was being oppressed by the most violent force of fevers, and since he could not be restored to a state of health by any medical treatment A fever dispelled through the merits of St. Maurus: or indeed by any human effort, Blessed Maurus appeared in the silence of the night to a certain maternal aunt of his, a devout nun, and said to her: "If you wish your nephew to recover from the illness he suffers, tell him to plant the sign of the holy cross upon my tomb and to vow to celebrate a solemnity for me every year." When the brother gladly carried out the oracle of the blessed man, which he learned from the nun's report, he immediately planted an iron cross upon the tomb; then, with his bowels stirred, he vomited precipitously, and thus at once cast out all the affliction of the fiery disease, as if the vomiting itself had expelled it. Now fully restored to his former health, he rendered fitting thanks to God the Savior and took care to make known to many the miracle of Blessed Maurus that he had experienced in himself, to the glory of the name of God.

[9] Various diseases cured: Now, as the celebrated report of both miracles flew through the people, many began to flock devoutly to the sacred relics of the blessed man, and to commend their souls more attentively to his holy merits. Indeed, some who were laboring under various afflictions of ill health, whether by drinking the filings scraped from the sepulchral marble or by merely imploring with poured-out prayers the mercy of the blessed Confessor, returned to their homes healthy and whole, no matter what bond of illness had held them. One could see the limp bodies of pitiable sick people, first carried with the support of others, who soon returned with great exultation and rejoicing, restored to their former health.

[10] The body is translated. As the distinguished fame of the blessed Maurus grew ever more brilliant with so many miracles, and the virtues that the Lord displayed through him resounded not only in the neighboring areas but also throughout more remote regions, at last, with the bishops of the neighboring cities convened and throngs of people flocking from every quarter in eager competition, that coffin in which the relics of the blessed man are preserved was dug up, and with the wall of the church pierced, it was placed with hymns and praises and the utmost care between the apse and the altar. In the course of time, the same basilica was made larger and, as is seen at present, more festively adorned; where, to declare the merits of the blessed Confessor, many miracles occur to the present day through the working of God. Of these we touch upon a few, which those who report them to us testify they have seen.

(a) Leander writes: "Inland from the Via Aemilia, on the first hills of the Apennines, which are thick with vines, fig trees, olives, and other fruit-bearing trees, near Cesena, there is a splendid monastery with a church sacred to the Queen of Heaven, whom they here call Saint Mary of the Mountain. The place is called Monte Mauro, from St. Maurus, Bishop of the people of Cesena, who lived there most holily. It faces west and north, and is the habitation of the monks of St. Benedict."

(b) Surius has Tenzo.

CHAPTER III.

Various Miracles at the Relics.

[11] Pope Gerbert had pitched camp near Cesena and was surrounding the town with the siege of his encircling army. At that time a certain peasant was brought to the tomb of Blessed Maurus, burdened by a twofold affliction of diseases -- namely, both contracted in his limbs and blind. But after prayer was offered, both the lost light returned to his eyes and the stiffened members were released from the disease that had fled them. A man both contracted and blind is healed: The man, seeing himself so miraculously restored to health, giving such thanks as he could, surrendered himself to Blessed Maurus as a servant in perpetual right and vowed to remain in his service as long as he should live. When his vow is broken, he becomes blind again: Enjoying the gift of health he had received for nearly ten years, he afterward yielded weakly to the frailty of the flesh and joined a wife to himself in an inauspicious marriage. For as soon as he indulged in the pleasure of lust, he utterly lost the light of his eyes and remained in that same blindness as long as he lived. And indeed it was fitting that he who, from the authority of Blessed Maurus to whom he had given himself, shamefully bowed his neck to the yoke of lust, should lose the gift with which he had been enriched by one Lord, and that he who had voluntarily fallen into inner darkness should involuntarily incur outer darkness.

[12] A demoniac woman is delivered. At another time, a woman possessed by a demon was brought to the altar of the blessed man, whom the pestilent spirit had filled with such frenzy that, making her an instrument, as it were, for itself, it uttered many sacrilegious and insane things through her mouth, emitted dreadful cries, and barked with frequent baying like a rabid dog. On the third day after she was brought there, she vomited blood with a certain violent force and thus expelled the malignant spirit by which she was held.

[13] Another woman, too intent on the needs of her household, did not fear to winnow grain on the feast of St. Rophilus; A contracture of the arms healed: and since she did not show the reverence of due honor to the blessed Confessor, she did not escape the sentence of fitting punishment. For immediately, struck by divine judgment, she stiffened with her arms drawn up and began to tremble wretchedly, in the same manner as if she were still seen to be winnowing grain in a winnowing basket. She was therefore brought before the altar of Blessed Maurus, and on the aforesaid solemnity she most earnestly promised never to do anything of the sort again. The most generous mercy of Almighty God soon graciously came to her aid and fully restored the numb arms of the woman to the freedom of their proper strength.

[14] A hemorrhage, Again, another woman was suffering from a hemorrhage of blood; and since she was continually afflicted by this incurable wound, and trying this and that, she could find no remedy for her health, at last, reduced to the utmost straits, necessity itself found a plan. She covered the mausoleum of Blessed Maurus with a clean linen cloth as fine as she could afford, and thus, divinely freed, she escaped all further trouble from this foul disease. Acts 15:9. Indeed, since the Apostle says, "purifying their hearts by faith," because with a pure heart -- that is, with full faith -- she touched the tomb of the blessed man, she worthily merited to be freed from the uncleanness of the flowing blood.

[15] Likewise, another woman was so contorted by the savagery of a most violent disease that, with the order of nature reversed, she kept her face turned backward and bore her neck turned forward. She similarly placed a linen cloth upon the memorial of Blessed Maurus, and immediately, with health restored, contorted limbs: nature returned to each member its proper right, and the organs of the sinews were adjusted to maintain their proper vigor.

[16] blindness, Another woman, having lost her sight, was brought from the regions of Aquitaine. Preserving the spirit of Gallic determination and, after the manner of her country, pronouncing words forcefully, she most obstinately declared that she would never leave that place unless through the merits of Blessed Maurus she recovered the light she had lost. And so, inflamed by a great fervor of faith, she put together a crude little hut next to the wall of the church, so that she seemed to be preparing a dwelling rather than a lodging. After eight days of most earnest prayer, by the gift of divine grace she recovered the light she sought and rendered fitting thanks to God her Illuminator and to Maurus, His servant.

[17] A crowd from the diocese of Forli was making its way to the shrine of the blessed Arduinus for the sake of prayer; and since their route passed through the oratory of Blessed Maurus, it happened that a certain woman among them, having humbly kissed the knee of the Abbot of that very monastery, asked permission to continue on her way. She had scarcely gone the distance of a single arrow's flight when, suddenly seized by a demon, she was thrown to the ground, shaken, rolled about, and poured out many insults against the same Abbot with biting words. She was therefore brought before the altar of Blessed Maurus and, not long after, was freed by the command of divine power, A demoniac woman healed. so that when her companions returned, now restored to herself, she went back to her home with them, healthy and whole.

[18] These things, therefore, dearest brothers, about the virtues that the Almighty Lord deigned to work through His blessed Confessor Maurus, Epilogue. we have briefly recorded, so that we might incite the zeal of your charity toward glorifying the power of the Divine Majesty. For when He deigns to display to us who are still placed on the way the power of His miracles, through these He invites and urges us toward the inheritance of the heavenly homeland, as the Psalmist testifies, who says: "He declared to His people the power of His works, that He might give them the inheritance of the nations" -- so that when we see the very tombs of the Saints shining with so many miracles, we may not in the least doubt the immense glory in which they now reign with Christ; so that, despising earthly things, our mind may already transfer itself there by desire, where it hopes to rejoice forever; so that the spirit may freely direct itself there where the Emperor of heaven, Christ, reigns ineffably with the Senators of the supernal court; to whom be glory and dominion with the co-eternal Father and Holy Spirit, through all ages of ages. Amen. Psalm 111:6-7.

(a) Gerbert was first Archbishop of Rheims, then of Ravenna; he became Roman Pontiff in the year 999 and was called Sylvester II. He died in 1003.

(b) Rubeus, Book 5: "The following year (1000), Sylvester besieged Cesena with an assembled army." What cause impelled the Pontiff is uncertain. Sigonius, On the Kingdom of Italy, Book 7, in the same year: "Sylvester, having set out for Orvieto, strengthened the government of that city with many salutary laws, and besieged Cesena with an assembled army."

(c) "Withdrawing himself" or something similar seems to be missing, as Surius noted.

(d) The printed text in Surius had "naubatibus," by the copyist's error. Baubant or baubantur -- Greek: bauxousi and bauxousi -- refers to the barking of dogs.

(e) St. Rophilus, or Rofilus, or -- as Leander Albertus writes -- Rofillus, is venerated on July 18.

(f) An old manuscript Glossary: "A capisterium is a certain vessel with which grain is purified." The word is also used by Columella, Book 2, chapter 9.

(g) Forum Popilii is a town on the Via Aemilia, called by others Forum Pompilii, corruptly Forum Populi in itinerary tables; in the vernacular, Forlim-populo and often Forli piccolo, that is, the lesser Forum Livii -- and not without reason, since, as Leander attests, it was utterly destroyed around the year 1370 and was rebuilt twenty years later by Sinibaldo Ordelaffo, Prince of Forli, in the form in which it is now seen. It is six miles from Cesena. The episcopal see of Forum Popilii was transferred to Bertinoro, or Forum Fruentinorum or Druentinorum, a nearby city.

(h) We shall treat of Blessed Arduino, a Presbyter of Rimini, on August 15.

ON BLESSED BENEDICT, HERMIT OF THE ORDER OF VALLOMBROSA, IN TUSCANY.

Benedict, Hermit of the Order of Vallombrosa, in Tuscany (B.)

[1] Arnold Wion celebrates Benedict, formed by the institutions of Vallombrosa and illustrious for a most holy solitary life, on this day as follows: "In the monastery of Coltibuono of St. Lawrence, The feast day of Blessed Benedict. the deposition of St. Benedict, a monk and hermit of the same place, of the Order of Vallombrosa; at whose holy death the bells gave a sign, destitute of human aid; and the snows, by an unheard-of miracle, melting of their own accord only in that part where the sacred body was being carried, furnished a path for the bearers; in whose mouth also, after a span of three hundred and twenty years, a lily was found, as if freshly sprung, whiter than snow." Menard celebrates nearly the same things, and Dorganius more briefly.

[2] Wion writes that he learned his feast day from the records of the Reverend Fathers of Vallombrosa in the territory of Bergamo. This gave Ferrarius the occasion to write: Where he lived. "In the territory of Bergamo, of the Blessed Benedict, Hermit of the Order of Vallombrosa." But the monastery of St. Lawrence of Coltibuono is situated not in the territory of Bergamo but in the diocese of Fiesole, Acts. as Eudosius Locatellus writes in the History of Vallombrosa, who in Book 2, chapter 14, recounts the deeds of Benedict, which we give here. Whether he was solemnly enrolled among the Blessed we have not ascertained. Locatellus himself calls him Blessed and writes that his body was translated about two hundred years earlier and placed more honorifically; as does Silvanus Razzi in the Lives of the Saints of Tuscany.

LIFE

From the Italian of Eudosius Locatellus.

Benedict, Hermit of the Order of Vallombrosa, in Tuscany (B.)

[1] In the time of Bernard, the seventh General of Vallombrosa, Benedict was illustrious for the holiness of his life as a monk in the monastery of St. Lawrence of Coltibuono; and just as the previously mentioned Blessed Peter, after spending some years innocently in the common life with the other brothers, Blessed Benedict lives a holy life in the forest: with the Abbot's permission he withdrew into a forest not far distant, to lead a solitary life. Here, having fashioned for himself a humble little hut, inflamed with the ardor of the Divine Spirit, he mortified his body with long vigils, frequent flagellations, and incredible abstinence.

[2] He revisits the monastery: If any necessity compelled him, he would from time to time revisit the monastery, especially on the days of Easter and other feasts customarily celebrated with outstanding devotion and ceremony, so that he might enjoy the spiritual fellowship and charity of the brothers. In the year in which he departed this life, when he had come there as usual around the Christmas holidays, he confessed his sins with a singular sense of piety and was fed with the sacred Eucharist; then, warned by a heavenly admonition that his end was near, He is warned of approaching death from heaven: he remained there until the solemnity of Epiphany, stimulating all by his outstanding exhortations and examples to holiness of life.

[3] At last, having returned to his beloved cell, with his knees fixed to the ground, as some report, He dies. and his hands raised to heaven, he breathed forth his soul. At that moment, the bells of the monastery, with no one ringing them, sounded of their own accord, the bells ringing of their own accord: in the manner and mode in which they are customarily rung to honor funerals. This prodigy did not deceive the Abbot and the monks, who immediately made their way to Benedict's dwelling and found him dead; and they composed the body, not without tears, to be carried thence to the monastery, where they would lay it in a devout tomb and perform the funeral rites.

[4] He is carried to the monastery, the snow miraculously melting: At that time, it being midwinter, the ground was covered with deep snow. But as soon as the bier was carried forth from the hut, by the will of God Almighty, who desired to attest the innocence and holiness of His servant by a wondrous testimony, the snows, dissolving and dispersing in an instant, provided the procession with an ample and convenient path. The body was first buried beside the church, He is buried: where the cloister is now seen; and not long afterward it was translated into the church. It is transferred elsewhere, his holiness divinely attested; Then indeed (lest anyone should doubt that his most holy soul was now enjoying the delights and rewards of heaven) a fresh lily was found in his mouth, exhaling a wondrous fragrance, while all who had seen and heard of the miracle were struck with astonishment and vied with one another in singing praises to the gracious Deity. Blessed Benedict died in the year 1107.

[5] Then, 323 years later, when the Abbot Paul de Monte Mignaio was administering the monastery of Coltibuono, who restored a great part of it, He is translated again. especially the cloister, the bones of Benedict were translated within the sacred church to a more honorable place. The body was found intact and sweetly fragrant, and with the greatest reverence, with many bishops, monks, and laypeople present and the Bishop granting authority, it was placed to the left of the altar within a chest enclosed within the wall.

(a) From whom Razzi drew his account.

(b) St. Bernard, from being General of the Order of Vallombrosa, became Bishop of Parma and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. He is venerated on December 4.

(c) It is situated in the County of Florence, as Razzi writes; in the diocese of Fiesole, as Locatellus says in the catalogue of monasteries of that Order -- not near Bergamo, as Ferrarius says above.

(d) Of whom the same Locatellus treated in the preceding chapter.

(e) Wion, Dorganius, and Menard are therefore mistaken, who write that this happened 320 years later.

(f) This should be understood of the bones -- that is, that none was missing, since he expressly says that the bones were translated, as does Razzi.