Martyrs Vincent

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS VINCENT, ORONTIUS, VICTOR, AQUILINA AND HER HUSBAND, AT GERUNDA IN SPAIN.

Under Diocletian.

Vincent, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) Orontius, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) Victor, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) Aquilina, mother of S. Victor, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) N., father of S. Victor, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain

From various sources.

[1] Ebredunum, or Ebrodunum, is the metropolitan city of the province of the Maritime Alps, now commonly called in French Embrun or Ambrun; situated on the river Durance, which plunges headlong into the Rhone between Avignon and Tarascon. Where the holy Martyrs suffered. In that city the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor are venerated: yet they did not accomplish their contest of faith there, but at Gerunda, a city of Tarraconensian Spain, as is evident from the Acts which we give here. From these Acts one may also refute the Spanish Chronicle falsely attributed to Flavius Dexter, in which under the year 308 the following appears: "At Pax Augusta, situated on the river Anas, the triumph of the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orentius, and others: whose bodies, by the ministry of Angels, came to rest at the city of Ebredunum, when Bishop Pontius Paulinus was divinely forewarned." But whether Pax Augusta was situated on the Anas, where today stands Badajoz, as many think, or whether it was the same as Pax Julia, placed in Lusitania by Pliny, book 4, chapter 22, which in modern times is Beja, in the earlier age Pacca—both are far distant from Gerunda.

[2] Their feast day, 22 January. Usuard celebrates the birthday of these Martyrs on this day as follows: "On the same day, in the city of Ebredunum, of the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor." The common Bede, Ado, Notker, Bellinus, and most others agree, except that they add "in Gaul," as does the Roman Martyrology: "At Ebredunum in Gaul, of the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor, who were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian." More explicitly the German Martyrology: "In Gaul, in the city of Ebredunum, of the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor, who in Spain, in the time of Diocletian the most cruel Emperor, were beheaded by Rufinus, the Governor of Spain." Felicius and the Gallo-Belgian Martyrology have them killed at Ebredunum, incorrectly. Galesinius writes ambiguously: "On the same day at Ebredunum in Gaul, of the holy Martyrs Honorius, Victor, and Horontius, who under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, by the command of the Governor Rufinus, were variously put to death and crowned with martyrdom." Others also vary in the name of Orontius, whom some call Horontius, Bellinus calls Honorius, others Oruntius, some Ornutius, Ornontius, Orentius, or Orantius.

[3] The feast of these Martyrs is celebrated solemnly at Gerunda on 30 January, as Antonius Vincentius Domeneccus attests, elsewhere on the 30th who records the decree of the Chapter of Gerunda on this matter, passed on 6 July 1522, being a Wednesday. Ferrarius records on the same day: "At Gerunda in Spain, of the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, Victor, and Aquilina their mother."

[4] The same Ferrarius also mentions Aquilina under 22 January: "At Gerunda in Spain, S. Aquilina, Martyr." And he notes: "She is said by others to have been the sister of S. Victor the Martyr; but to Juan Marieta, book 1 and 4, On the Saints of Spain, she is written as the mother of the same Victor." Maurolycus adds also the father of S. Victor: The memory of S. Aquilina and her husband in the Martyrologies. "In the city of Ebredunum, of the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor who had buried them, and of his father, beheaded under the Emperor Diocletian, under Rufinus the Governor of Spain." The manuscript Florarium: "In Gaul, in the city of Ebredunum, of the holy Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, Victor, Primitiva, and others, in the year of salvation 292, in the 16th year of the ninth persecution." It seems that Primitiva was written in place of Aquilina through a copyist's error. But who are these "others," besides the sole parent of Victor? Bivarius, in his commentary on Dexter's Chronicle at the year 308, no. 14, comment 2: "Even in the Martyrologies themselves, the brothers of S. Victor are missing, whom Dexter calls the companions of SS. Vincent and Orentius. See on these matters Morales, book 10, chapter 14, and Marieta, part 1, book 2, chapter 39." Morales has not yet come to our attention. Marieta at the place cited mentions only the parents of S. Victor, not his brothers.

[5] Andreas Saussay joins a single brother: "At Ebredunum in the Maritime Alps, the passion of the holy Martyrs Vincent and Horontius, who, when Diocletian and Maximian were raging, inflamed with the fervor of faith, voluntarily presenting themselves to the Governor Rufinus and magnanimously confessing Christ, were struck with capital sentence by his command. A certain Levite named Victor, who had received them with hospitality, buried their bodies: on account of which he too was seized by the wicked judge, had his arms cut off at the elbow, and was struck with the axe in the same place where they also had suffered, and was crowned. Seeing this, the father of Victor himself, who was also a Christian, secretly took flight, but when, at the entreaty of his wife Aquilina, he had returned home, he was slain shortly afterwards together with another son for the name of Christ." What Saussay writes—that Vincent and Orontius voluntarily presented themselves to the judge, and that Victor's arms were cut off at the elbows—he took from Peter de Natalibus, book 2, chapter 112, whom Marieta, Domeneccus, and others follow; but the Acts disagree, which narrate that this one's arms were only cut, not severed at the elbows; and that those two indeed set out for Spain from a desire for martyrdom, but did not voluntarily present themselves before the judge's tribunal. Saussay misunderstood Peter concerning the brother of S. Victor; Whether another of their sons was killed at the same time. for Peter, speaking of the father, says he was beheaded "together with his son"—meaning Victor himself. The same Saussay, in the Appendix to the Martyrology, from a very ancient manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of S. Savinus de Leuitania in the Pyrenees, in the territory of Tarbes, has the following: "On the same day at Ebredunum, the birthday of SS. Vincent and Victor, martyrs, who suffered at Grannopolis, a stronghold in the territory of Gerunda, but were buried at Ebredunum."

[6] Bivarius thinks the Acts of these holy Martyrs were written by Aetherius, Bishop of Ebredunum. By whom the Acts were written: The Author himself refutes him below at no. 17, writing thus: "For Aetherius, a man of complete prudence and piety, Bishop of the Church of Antintia, to whom, with God as author, I succeeded as unworthy successor." The manuscript of Ripatorium has "Antimia" for "Antintia." Both words are unknown to us, unless perhaps what was written was Dinia, or Sanicium, or Nicaea, which are Sees subject to the metropolitan see of Ebredunum: and from one of these Aetherius could have been transferred to Ebredunum, who is read to have subscribed to the Council of Chalon-sur-Saone around the year 650. These Acts we transcribed from an ancient codex of the monastery of S. Mary de Ripatorio, whence published here which we obtained through the kindness of our Pierre-Francois Chifflet; and we collated them with the manuscript of Nicolas Belfort, a Canon Regular of Soissons, and with the printed Agonies of the Martyrs. Vincent of Beauvais also treats of these same Martyrs in book 12, chapter 38.

ACTS FROM ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS.

By an anonymous Gallic Bishop.

Vincent, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) Orontius, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) Victor, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) Aquilina, mother of S. Victor, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain (S.) N., father of S. Victor, Martyr at Gerunda in Spain

BHL Number: 8670

From manuscripts.

CHAPTER I.

The journey of SS. Vincent and Orontius into Spain, from a desire for martyrdom.

[1] In the year from the seventh of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, a great persecution was carried out in the suburb of Gerunda, in the stronghold of Gratianopolis: and the Saints accomplished a worthy palm of martyrdom; Martyrs in Spain under Diocletian. whom the Divinity illuminated as they stood raised up to the summit of virtues; and just as stars shine with their setting or their rising, so throughout the whole world, in all cities, the faith of Martyrs and Confessors shines forth adorned, so that the Lord may bestow upon those who believe in Him the glory which He promised: that in ages to come many may rejoice, seeing the deeds of the just blazing forth in immense miracles, and may believe forever that they have received everlasting kingdoms. Nor could it in any way be unknown to the nations what was proclaimed by the thunder of the prophetic word: Psalm 18:5 "Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."

[2] Therefore, after the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the most glorious Apostles, namely Peter and Paul, had governed the primacy and the chair of the Catholic faith with love, and through the eloquence of their teaching the Italian kingdoms as far as Gallia Comata had received the Catholic faith; SS. Vincent and Orontius converted, the teaching of those same Apostles reached the most blessed Vincent and Orontius in the city of Cimera. Filled with this teaching, the love of religion and the ardor of Christ so pervaded them that not only did they themselves receive the sacrament of baptism, but they also delivered it to their pagan parents. they convert their parents: For their father, Vicarius, and their mother Aurelia were washed with the water of the sacred font and anointed with chrism.

[3] The aforesaid Vincent and his brother Orontius, desiring the palm of martyrdom, from a desire for martyrdom they go to Spain: sought to shed their blood for the Lord. But since, with the grace of Christ already shining forth, almost the whole world had been washed with the grace of baptism, the Saints of God, Vincent and Orontius, hearing that the savage commands of the cruel empire had been issued through Rufinus, the Governor of Spain, to the effect that the faith of Christians should be converted through his cruelty to the worship of idols; they convert many. strengthened by the Spirit of the Trinity, so that they might imbue the aforesaid city with the sacrament of the mystical Divinity and sprinkle it with the dew of faith, with God as guide, they hastened toward it: and when all had been strengthened in the faith, they at last received the palm of martyrdom which they desired. For when the wicked Diocletian, born of servile stock, had seized the empire, and raised an excessive effort of arrogance against the Lord, at the instigation of the devil; When the Governor Rufinus was raging, he gave this order to his officers, that whoever confessed himself to be a Christian and would not worship Jupiter, or Juno, or Venus, should be tortured with punishments and killed with the loss of life. And when the most savage Rufinus, Consular of Spain, had been instructed to rage against the servants of God, he so attacked them that daily he sated himself with the blood of believers.

[4] they approach Bishop Pontius in hiding: Then the aforesaid men, inspired from above, Vincent and Orontius, proceeded to the aforesaid stronghold of Gratianopolis, where the seat of the most cruel Rufinus was, and went there: and there they found Bishop Pontius, who was hiding himself on account of the horror of Rufinus through the caverns of rocks, engaged in the praises of God with most faithful Christians: among whom indeed the holy Levite Victor was providing examples of holiness through many miracles; so that he not only did not fear the persecutions of the aforesaid Rufinus, but even resisted him. They are made known by divine means to S. Victor the holy Deacon: With Christ's help, he fulfilled this office: that he ministered hospitality to Christians and the poor.

[5] To the fame of this man, therefore, the blessed Martyrs Vincent and Orontius came to the village of Rhodas, where the aforesaid most wicked Rufinus had established his seat of government. There the athlete of God, Victor, with an Angel of God instructing him, joined S. Vincent and Orontius to himself; and leading them to the estate of his villa, whose name is Julianum, showing hospitality to the Saints as was his custom, he received them with joy. he received them in his villa: And God willed such prudence to be in His servants, that while Blessed Vincent and Orontius and Victor the Levite were joined together in the name of the Trinity, they illuminated that region, with the mercy of Christ providing, with faith, so that almost the whole country resounded with divine praises. with him, they preach Christ.

CHAPTER II.

The martyrdom of SS. Vincent and Orontius.

[6] When the most impious Rufinus had heard this, filled with the fury of wrath and inflamed by diabolical counsel, he came to the place of the aforesaid lodging [Vincent and Orontius withdraw to the mountain, while the Governor searches for them:] which is called Julianum. Nor could it escape the servants of God that they were approaching the palm of glory and martyrdom. Going out therefore from their lodging, they proceeded to the mountain for the purpose of prayer, seeking the aid of that fortitude which never abandons those who hope in Him. Then the most impious Rufinus, coming to the lodging of Victor the Levite, addressed him with insolent words, saying: "Tell me, most faithless of men, you who not only withdraw yourself from the commands of Diocletian Augustus and confess yourself to be a servant of Him whom the Jews crucified, but have even received the seducers Vincent and Orontius with hospitality—tell me, I say, where do you conceal them? Or by what privilege do you presume to convert the people from the worship of the gods, Venus and Minerva, to Christ, whom you say is God? By the salvation of the gods, if you do not immediately tell me where those seducers Vincent and Orontius are staying, I shall afflict you with various tortures." But holy Victor, armed with the standard of the cross, they are defended by S. Victor, who denounces the gods: answered intrepidly thus: "Know that those whom you seek are not seducers, but lovers of almighty God: because they believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary." To whom the most wretched Rufinus said, adding these words: "Christ, whom you say is the Son of God, born of a Virgin, the Jews crucified and delivered to a most shameful death: and you and Vincent and Orontius do not worship my gods, which the most invincible Emperor fashioned from the purest gold?" S. Victor answered: "Those gods which your Emperor ordered to be fashioned are works made by the hands of men. Whence also it is written concerning them: 'Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.' Psalm 113:8 But from the Saints whom you desire to see, you will receive no answer concerning what you speak of. they were of royal blood: They are indeed noble men, springing from royal seed, and learned in the divine commandments and the holy laws, and they steadfastly worship their God on this mountain."

[7] When the Governor Rufinus had heard these things, filled with fury he ascended the mountain where the Saints were praying. But the Saints, seeing from afar the ascent of the crowd, on bended knees on the ground besought God, they fortify themselves with prayer for the contest. saying: "Eternal God, who are the knower of hidden things, who directed Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, conceived through the Holy Spirit, into this world, that He might undergo punishment for sinners, and by rising again might rescue us from the prison of hell: give perseverance to our heart, that confessing Christ Your Son we may not perish; but may be united to Him, confessing in Your holy name." And when their prayer was completed, when the Governor Rufinus reached them, he said: "Come down from the mountain and speak with me." The men of God, Vincent and Orontius, armed with the standard of the cross on their foreheads and strengthened in faith, said to Rufinus: "Our mountain is Christ the Son of God; on whom we always stand, and to whom we always ascend in our minds. Now, Governor, what do you wish to say to us?" Then the Governor Rufinus assailed them with boastful words thus: "It is not unknown to you that by the Emperor Diocletian my authority has been so enlarged that all tongues have been delivered to my power, and such a decree has been given to me that I should pursue everyone who professes himself a Christian. Wherefore I admonish your nobility, since you are joined to the Empire by kinship and are noble and comely youths, that you sacrifice to the gods of the Emperor Diocletian: because I swear by the worship of the gods, if you comply with my words, I shall make you greater with increased power, so that you may serve Diocletian Augustus in a higher rank than I." Then indeed those Saints said as if with one mouth: They scorn the blandishments of the Governor: "You most wretched Rufinus, why do you compel us to worship in vain? Those gods which you say belong to Caesar and to you were made by hand. For they are all of gold, or silver, or stone, or of some other metal. All these things are vain and shall pass away like a shadow. We believe in God, the creator of heaven and earth, the maker of things visible and invisible, who can both shatter the idols and lead us into the eternal kingdoms of the living, where neither an end of joy nor any boundary of the life of the just is found."

[8] The Governor Rufinus said: "I thought I was speaking with prudent men; but, as I see, you have no sound sense; wherefore I am vehemently angry. But again I am moved by consideration of your nobility, and I pity your beauty. Nevertheless I command you to worship Jupiter, whom the Emperor Diocletian worships and venerates with sacred offerings. nor do they attend to his words: But if you do not consent to my words, you shall suffer a most cruel death." But the Blessed now paid him no attention, but with one mind were chanting psalms, praying these and similar things: "Lord Jesus, good one, You are our intent, to whom we await to come: whose ardor desiring, all the languishing have been healed. You are the resurrection and the life: receive our heart, poured out and generous toward You: because those hoping in You shall not be confounded forever."

[9] they are punished with beheading. While they prayed these things silently, with a profound and humble heart, and no voice resounded outwardly, the Governor Rufinus said to them: "What are you thinking among yourselves? Declare it at once." To whom the holy men answered: "Do what is pleasing to you; but we trust in the living and true God and in Jesus Christ His Son, who redeemed us with His precious blood." At these words Rufinus pronounced sentence that both should be punished with the penalty of beheading. When therefore they had been led down to the plain, the heads of both were cut off, and thus they accomplished the palm of martyrdom.

CHAPTER III.

The slaying of Victor and his parents. The bodies of Vincent, Orontius, and Victor carried away to Ebredunum.

[10] The aforesaid Deacon Victor, whom we mentioned above, The bodies of the Saints are collected: with tears and great weeping collected the bodies of the Saints and hid them in his chamber. When the most blessed Pontius, Bishop of that place, had learned of these things, he blessed God, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God the eternal King, who said: 'I am, and there is no other besides me' Deuteronomy 32:39: reveal to me, Your servant, through Your servants who have completed the contest of their struggle, Vincent and Orontius, who received worthy martyrdom for Your name, where their bodies may be received." And while he passed the night in the praises of God, and a little sleep had crept upon him; they are ordered to be conveyed back toward Italy. he saw the Lord Jesus in a shining garment, saying to him: "I know that you have a devout mind: make a wagon for a vehicle, that the bodies of My Martyrs Vincent and Orontius may be brought back to their places in Italy." Holy Pontius then called Victor the Levite and said to him: "My petition which I made to the Lord has been heard. What I desired has been revealed to me. Go, my son, to the estate which is called Fontes; and prepare a wagon, so that according to God's good pleasure you may bring back the bodies of the Saints to the places assigned to them by God."

[11] But the Governor Rufinus was then staying in the city of Rhodas: who, when he had heard that Victor the Levite wished to carry out the command of the Bishop S. Pontius, immediately sent to the estate of Julianum and inquired where Victor the Levite was. While he was visiting the bodies of the Saints, Victor is captured while carrying this out, he was seized by the officers of Rufinus: and when they brought him before the Governor, the Governor said to him: "Hasten to sacrifice to the gods. Do you not also sacrifice to Christ?" Victor answered and said: "I sacrifice to my Lord, the Son of the King of kings, and not to your gods." The Governor immediately ordered his arms to be cut and his head to be severed, he is tortured and killed; and his head was cut off in the same place where the Saints had been beheaded.

[12] But the father of the Blessed Deacon and Martyr Victor, when he saw his son's blood poured out, likewise his parents. wished to take flight: but Aquilina, the mother of Victor herself, seized her husband and drew him to her, and covering his head with her cloak as she embraced him, said to him: "Let us stand firm in the faith and die for Christ." And there, bending their knees to Christ, they prayed. While they prayed, a swordsman, having been commanded, took off the heads of both. And thus the five Blessed fell asleep in the Lord with a blessed end. Rufinus then proceeded to the city which is called Gerunda.

[13] A certain man named Hactor, who was about to carry out the command of the Bishop S. Pontius, Hactor carries away three holy bodies: placed the bodies of S. Victor's parents in their resting place. And when the wagons had been prepared, placing the three most glorious Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor the Levite on wagons, with oxen yoked, with the road arranged, he set out with the three bodies on a journey hitherto unknown; and with the wagon, on an unaccustomed route, with the Lord's help, he proceeded until he arrived near the city of Ebredunum. But when he arrived near the walls of that city (which is situated at the head of the Maritime Alps), he caught sight of a small hut not far off. Then indeed it pleased the bodies of the Saints to rest in that place, and as yet no one had been buried in that hut.

[14] There was a Priest of that place, by the name of Arator, of venerable faith, the oxen near Ebredunum stand immovable: who was devoted to the Lord. He, seeing the carts and the oxen lowing, and the wagons unable to carry the bodies any further, turned over in his mind repeatedly what this might be. Running to his Bishop, who was renowned in that place for many miracles, named Marcellinus, he spoke in lamenting words, saying: "Your servant has seen a great miracle, which the Lord has brought to your holy See." To whom Father Marcellinus the Bishop answered: "What is it, brother Arator?" And he said: "There are three carts of oxen, loaded with the bodies of three Saints who accomplished martyrdom in the Lord. This is reported to S. Marcellinus the Bishop; Those transporting them say they are proceeding to Italy, to a certain city which is called Cimera. But when they came before the hut of the Jews, where a certain crypt has been constructed of squared stones and precious marble, the wagons became fixed in place, and the oxen, though lowing and wishing to pull the wagons, by no means prevail."

[15] Then the most blessed Marcellinus prayed, saying: "God eternal, Searcher of all things, who know and are able to rule all things, give great salvation to this city, and adorn the precincts of the city with the bodies of the Saints." And when the prayer was said, he came to the place before the hut. He asked Hactor who they were: and Hactor set forth what had taken place. Then the most blessed Marcellinus, resplendent with many virtues, bearing the likeness of Abraham—just as Abraham purchased the field from Ephron, so it was with this man's eloquence. For he asked Arrius for the hut, saying: "Receive double the price which this crypt is worth, duly weighed. For it is pleasing that the bodies of the Saints be buried there. For there they have chosen the place where they may rest in the Lord." at his request, they are buried there: Arrius, unable to refuse, said to the Bishop: "Receive this place without payment for burying the Saints of God, and pour over me with the dew of baptism, as I confess the Son of the living God, whose power you have shown in a chalice made firm by the standard of the cross."

[16] Holy Bishop Marcellinus, having summoned the monks and fellow Christian citizens, they are famous for miracles. buried the bodies of the Saints with praise and psalmody in tombs, and entombed them in the hut. There the Lord performs such great tokens of miracles, and daily deigns to work wonders, that He grants medicine to the sick, and in the city where they are buried, the languishing rejoice that they have received health. Finally, the most blessed Marcellinus carefully sent Hactor back to S. Pontius. This Hactor recounted in order how the bodies of the Saints had been received by the Blessed Marcellinus.

CHAPTER IV.

Whence the writer of the Acts received them. Various miracles of the Saints.

[17] But what shall I relate, lest I generate tedium for sluggish readers? How great a grace of wonders the Lord has shown in the place where the relics of the Saints are said to be preserved, I am unable to express in words. But, as the Blessed John the Evangelist says, "What we have heard we speak, and what we have seen we testify." 1 John 1:2 Indeed the deeds of the most blessed Martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor the Levite (which became known to me, the least of all priests, through the account of those who succeeded) I dare not keep silent. For Aetherius, a man of complete prudence and piety, Bishop of the Church of Antintia (to whom, with God as author, I succeeded as unworthy successor), having learned of the frequent report of their miracles, desiring to have some portion of the relics of these same Martyrs, burning with the most ardent desire, sent to Abbot Beroald, who at that time presided over that place, earnestly imploring that he would willingly assent to his petition. To Bishop Aetherius Beroald, mindful of their former friendship, by which they had once been joined in the love of Christ, voluntarily promised to give his assent to his prayers, if indeed the Lord should permit it. When fasts and prayers had been duly performed, that he might satisfy the desire of the aforesaid Bishop, he entered with immense fear the place where the bodies of the blessed Martyrs had been entombed, praying that it might please them for at least the smallest particle of their relics to be reverently taken. With their favor, a portion of the relics given: he took away with him two particles from their fingers, and sent them as a great gift to the requesting Bishop. He therefore, hearing this, filled with immense joy, went out to meet them with a choir of psalmists in thanksgiving; and giving thanks to God, he honorably placed the long-desired pledges of the Saints in the place which is called Noviacus. they shine forth with miracles. There almighty God, to declare the merits of the Martyrs, has deigned to perform immense benefits of signs, so that not only those present but also those absent who faithfully seek are healthfully aided by their patronage.

[18] After a very long space of time had elapsed, it happened that one of the brethren, Astroaldus by name, driven by the instigation of the devil, attempted to steal those relics of the aforesaid Saints. Having at last achieved his desire, he perpetrated by his wicked deed what he had long wickedly attempted to do; He who stole the relics is divinely punished. and then taking the relics secretly stolen, as has been said, he came to Lyon. There, finding a certain religious man named Beatus, he cautiously confessed to him what he had audaciously done. Beatus, hearing this, rebuking him with a harsh reproach, admonished him that, doing penance for so great a transgression, he should humbly return the aforesaid relics to their proper place, from which he had recklessly removed them. But Astroaldus, making light of this and refusing to do it, was not long afterwards killed by a certain companion of his, about one mile from the cell of the aforesaid man of God.

[19] But when I, a sinner, who have presumptiously compiled this little page, was hastening by river journey down the Rhone from Lyon to the Prince, I turned aside for the purpose of prayer to the cell in which the man of God dwelt, The Author recovers them from Abbot Beatus: who had those pledges of the Saints, because it was located near the bank of that river. When I inquired where the servant of God who served there had had the beginning of his birth, and he had recounted to me in detail that he had been born and raised in the city of Orleans, and had afterwards lived in Spain for a long time, I curiously inquired whether by chance he had found or heard of the passion of the aforesaid Saints in the regions of Spain, inasmuch as the city of Ebredunum did not yet possess their deeds. And when he had recounted in order what was unknown to the clergy and people of Ebredunum concerning that passion, he also added in what manner the pledges of the Saints had come to him, which had been taken from the tombs of the Saints by Abbot Beroald and his monks, as we related above, and transported to Noviacus.

[20] Hearing this, I knelt with my priests and entreated the aforesaid man of God to order that those same holy remains be returned to us, so that they might be recalled to their original seat with great praises. He, hearing my entreaties, confessed that he wished to retain a portion of the same relics. When indeed we had uncovered the holy bones to view them, they breathe forth a most sweet odor; so great a fragrance of scent filled the cell that it blew all the way to the bank of the Rhone. Since indeed we were terrified with fear and no longer dared to scrape from those bones, wine with which they were washed turned to blood. the aforesaid Priest brought wine with which they might at least be washed, which he would store in a flask and keep as relics. When we poured wine over the aforesaid pledges, as has been said, we saw, in the presence of the Priest, the wine poured over them turned to blood, as if it had issued from fresh flesh. And when they were then wrapped in silken cloths, the aforesaid liquid so permeated those cloths that it flowed down into the vessel which had been prepared to receive it. Lest anyone think this incredible, the miracle accomplished in those cloths is demonstrated to this day in praise of the Saints.

[21] Whence these Acts were obtained: But when, according to canonical rule, a congregation of Bishops was assembling for a synodal council of Gaul, a certain Abbot from Spain was present there for the needs of the Churches. When I, a sinner, inquired of him where the passion of the most glorious Martyrs had been consummated, he set it forth to me in order and truth, and gave me the written passion. In which passion, as we mentioned above, it was found that the body of S. Victor, in the aforesaid city of Ebredunum, rested in the above-mentioned crypt with SS. Vincent and Orontius: although it had always been unknown to the inhabitants of that place whose body lay buried there.

[22] polished by this author. Therefore, receiving from that Abbot the deeds of the aforesaid Martyrs, composed in a very rustic manner, I believed these should be emended, as best I could, in the language of my simplicity, for the honor of these saints, so that whoever shall have learned from this account how great their merits are, and shall have endeavored to venerate them, may himself, together with me, deserve to be corrected from his depravities through them, with our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever, Amen.

ON S. VINCENT, MARTYR, ARCHDEACON OF CAESARAUGUSTA, AT VALENCIA IN SPAIN.

Under Diocletian.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

[1] There is a great contention among several celebrated cities of Spain concerning the birth of S. Vincent, the most glorious Martyr; while the Caesaraugustans claim him for themselves, the Valentians demand him back, and Osca loudly proclaims him to be its own. Nor indeed can this contest of piety be rightly criticized. S. Vincent's homeland, For if seven cities once contended over the birth of a profane poet, why should not most noble cities consider that much splendor and protection accrues to them from the cradle of so illustrious a champion? More writers, however, seem to pronounce in favor of Osca, with the Roman Breviary also lending its support. Somewhat more fierce is the contest between the Portuguese and the Gauls over the remains of the same holy Martyr, on which see below.

[2] Usuard proclaims his feast day thus: "At the city of Valencia in Spain, of S. Vincent, Levite and Martyr, feast day. whose triumph of his contest, in the times of Diocletian and Maximian, the text of his passion itself declares to have been accomplished after excessive slaughter and grievous torments, under the Governor Datianus." More fully the Roman Martyrology: "At Valencia in Tarraconensian Spain, of S. Vincent, Levite and Martyr, who under the most impious Governor Datianus endured prisons, hunger, the rack, the dislocation of limbs, red-hot plates, a fiery iron grate, and other kinds of torments, and flew to heaven for the reward of martyrdom. The noble triumph of whose passion Prudentius elegantly sets forth in verse; and Blessed Augustine and S. Pope Leo commend with the highest praises." The other Martyrologies agree, and indeed some present a very extensive eulogy and a sort of compendium of his life.

[3] The ancient manuscript Martyrology of S. Jerome: "In Spain, in the city of Valencia, of S. Valerius the Bishop, and Vincent the Deacon, other Martyrs joined in the Martyrologies. and 18 others: Quintilianus, Cassianus, Matutinus, Publius, Urbanus, Martialis, Faustus, Successus, Felix, Paulus, Petrus, Januarius, Primitivus, Ebotus, Cedianus, Optatus, Fronto, Julius." In the Dungal manuscript the same are listed. These are perhaps the eighteen holy athletes who on 16 April are said to have been crowned with martyrdom at Caesaraugusta, and most of the names agree; except that for Cassianus, Matutinus, Faustus, Petrus, Paulus, Januarius, there are listed instead Lupercus, Apodemius, and four named Fortunatus: for Ebotus, Cedianus, Julius, there are Eventius, Caecilianus, Julia. But those suffered not at Valencia but at Caesaraugusta. One might suspect these to be the executioners whom the Acts of S. Vincent record as converted by heavenly portents. On these again below, when we treat of SS. Orion, Memnon, etc. The same manuscript of S. Jerome under 20 January: "And in Spain, of Vincent." And again on 21 January it mentions a Vincent—whether this one or another, we do not know.

[4] The Greeks also celebrate him on this day with this eulogy. The Menaea:

"I shall worthily praise Vincent, As a Deacon and Martyr of the Lord."

He was born at Augustopolis, under the Emperor Maximian, under the Governor Domitian. Venerated by the Greeks on 22 January. Captured with Bishop Valerius, he was dragged to the city which is called Valantia, and thrown into custody. Thence, brought before Domitian, he is beaten with rods and torn with iron claws, and suspended, he is burned with torches, and pierced with iron heated spikes. But when the Saint remained uninjured and the executioners were failing, the Governor himself, in despair, tried to pervert him with blandishments. But the Saint, pouring himself out in prayers, gave up his spirit to God. His holy relics were buried there by pious and devout men. Maximus Cytheraeus has the same account, but not everywhere consistent with the Latin Acts.

[5] The same Greeks observe his memory on 11 November, on which day the Menologion records: "On the same day, the birthday of the holy Martyr Vincent the Deacon, who suffered at Augustopolis in Spain." and 11 November. The Menaea:

"Vincent, cast into prison, suffers, But freed from the prison of the flesh, he runs upward."

This holy Martyr Vincent was teaching the people at Augustopolis in Spain with Bishop Hilarius, and he himself was a Deacon. Both were seized and dragged to the tribunal of the Governor Datianus, who immediately ordered them loaded with iron chains, dragged to the city of Valencia, and consigned to a most foul prison. After some days he ordered Vincent to be brought out and torn, fixed to the ground in the shape of a cross, and tortured limb by limb. Then pulled from this he is racked and flogged, and his sides are burned. Then with all his limbs dislocated he again receives red-hot iron rods upon his chest. And then, cast into prison, refreshed by angelic and divine aid, he soon gave up his spirit to God. Cytheraeus has exactly the same account. Here from the first eulogy of the same Menaea the name of Bishop Hilarius should be corrected; from this one, the name of Governor Domitian in that one.

[6] Whence the Acts are published. The Acts of S. Vincent are pleasing in every way to Jan van Hessel of Leuven, a man of otherwise severe and fastidious judgment. They were not indeed taken down by notaries, but are nevertheless very ancient. These we give here, collated from the most ancient codices of Marchiennes, Saint-Omer, Metz (of which our Jacques Sirmond provided us a copy), Saint-Maximin at Trier, Saint Martin at Utrecht, Saint Mary de Ripatorio, and that of Marcus Welser, compared with the edition of Bonino Mombrizio and the Agonies of the Martyrs. Simeon Metaphrastes described the same in Greek, which, rendered back into Latin by Guglielmo Sirleto, were published by Luigi Lippomano and Laurentius Surius.

ACTS

from many ancient manuscripts.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

BHL Number: 8628

From manuscripts.

CHAPTER I.

SS. Vincent and Valerius are arrested.

[1] It is sufficiently probable, to the glory of the Martyr Vincent, The Acts of S. Vincent were forbidden to be written. that the enemy begrudged a title to the written deeds of his passion. Whence we give a full and faithful account of the deeds, which the Judge not without reason refused to have noted down in written characters, because he was ashamed to be heard as a defeated man. For it is a natural precaution of those who err wickedly to remove from their midst the testimony of righteousness.

[2] But since we are preparing to deliver the noble triumph of the Martyr to the knowledge of the faithful, His parents, it is fitting that the nobility of his family also be briefly made known. For he was the offspring of his father Eutychius, who was the son of Agrestis, a most noble Consul: his mother, Enola, is known to have been born in the city of Osca. He, having been given over from boyhood to the study of letters—by the foreseeing heavenly clemency, which foresaw that he would be a vessel of election for Himself—distinguished himself most effectively in twofold learning, under the Blessed Valerius, Bishop of the city of Caesaraugusta; Diaconate, from whom also, distinguished in holiness, he received the height of the diaconate. And since that same Bishop is known to have had an impediment of speech, having handed over the ministry of teaching to the venerable Vincent, preaching. he himself assiduously devoted himself to prayer and divine contemplation. The aforesaid Archdeacon, however, often diligently and opportunely performed the duties of the Bishop.

[3] When therefore, at the city of Caesaraugusta, as the sincerity of many and the attested words of truth declare, Arrested with S. Valerius. to a certain Governor named Datianus, a pagan and sacrilegious man, appointed by his lords and princes, namely Diocletian and Maximian, the occasion of raging against Christians had perchance fallen, and the madness of profane cruelty had breathed upon him as he barked; driven by the spirit of wickedness, he ordered the Bishops and Priests and the other ministers of the sacred order to be seized. Immediately therefore Bishop Valerius and Archdeacon Vincent, sustained by the firmness of their faith and the hope of enjoying victory, eagerly ran together to the confession of the Divinity, believing that they would be the more blessed the more severe the tortures of the tyrant they had striven to overcome with pious patience. Whence the delay of their contest and punishments seemed to them a diminishment of their reward.

[4] But the judge Datianus first ordered the Saints of God to be dragged to Valencia under prison custody, and the misery of hunger, and the clanking of chains, so that he might break them by the vexation of the journey and more easily subdue by injury those whom he saw could not be overcome by punishment. While they bore immense weights of iron on their hands and necks, he is led bound to Valencia: and were already enduring the torments of death through all their limbs; and when he believed they had already been broken down by continual injury, and that those who had been so long secluded from public life were prevailing neither in body nor in spirit, fearing lest he should suffer losses to his cruelty, he ordered them to be brought out of prison, not wishing them to end their lives before the torments: he is set before the Judge, proposing to them that he would not spare even the dead, if they had refused to accept the worship of his gods. Alarmed thereupon at the sight of them, because they were whole in body and strength, and stronger amid their sufferings, he said to his men: "Why have you indulged them with more generous food and drink?" For, blinded by fury, he marveled that those whom God had fed were more robust.

[5] And then turning to the Bishop: "What are you doing," he said, "you, Valerius, what are you doing in the name of religion against the Princes? Do you not know that those who spurn royal decrees endanger their lives? The Lords of the world and the Princes have commanded that you pay libations to the gods, not wishing the dignity of the ancient worship to be profaned by new and unheard-of laws. Therefore attend obediently to what we advise, so that your inferiors may easily accept, by your example, what they shall have seen you, who are perceived to be the Bishop of this religion, not to have spurned. But you also, Vincent, give salutary heed to my words, you whom both nobility of birth by whom he is urged to abandon the faith. and the grace of most pleasing youth commend. Therefore pronounce your sentence of decision in common, so that either by consenting you may be magnified with honors, or by scorning you may be subjected to the tortures of punishment."

[6] When the Bishop remained silent—for he was of wondrous simplicity and innocence, learned in knowledge, but, With S. Valerius's consent, he gives an account of the faith. as we said before, of impeded speech—Vincent said: "If you command, Father, I shall assail the Judge with replies." And the Blessed Valerius said: "Long ago, dearest son, I entrusted to you the care of the divine word; and now also for the faith for which we stand, I entrust the response." Then Vincent, whose whole mind was already conscious of the crown, turning to Datianus, said: "Your speech thus far has been arguing for the denial of the faith: but know that it is wicked in the judgment of Christians to blaspheme in any way by denying the worship of the Divinity. And lest I detain you longer, we profess that we are worshippers of the Christian religion, and servants and witnesses of the one and true God who endures forever. In His name we steadfastly take up spiritual arms to fight against the elaborate arguments of your cunning, not fearing your threats and punishments, but rather most willingly embracing death for the truth. For by your torments we are trained for the crown; by death we are led to life. Therefore let mortal flesh serve diabolical cruelty in its punishments, since the inner man will preserve inviolate faith to its author. For that most venomous serpent and insatiable murderer compels you to assail Christian innocence with torments and deaths—he who, envying the first humans the happiness of Paradise, stripped them of the dignity of immortality and miserably subjected and cast them down to death. He, by the craft of his malice, established idols to be worshipped in place of God, grieving that man might return by obedience to that place from which he himself is known to have fallen through pride. This is he whom, with his satellites, we cast out from human bodies by divine invocation; to whom you pay the rite of profane worship under the most vain fictions, and with a new madness prefer the creature to the Creator."

p. This first hearing, as the same author says, took place in the location called Saint Thecla.

CHAPTER II.

S. Vincent is cruelly tortured.

[7] With S. Valerius sent into exile; Therefore the devil burned with rage against the Christian faith, and seeing himself scorned and despised, he groaned. And now the Governor Datianus, almost beside himself with anger, said: "Remove that Bishop from here. For it is just that he undergo exile, since he has scorned the Imperial edict. But subject the rebel who has come to public insult to more grievous torments. For I see that greater punishments must be inflicted on his boldness; because whatever is coming to him as punishment, he himself presumes to count as glory. Apply him to the rack; he is stretched on the rack: stretch his limbs, and tear apart his whole body. Let him endure this punishment before the tortures themselves." Amid these things the Governor Datianus said: "What say you, Vincent? Or where do you see your now miserable body?" But he, strengthened by the presence of God, answered with a cheerful face: "This is what I have always desired: this is what I have sought with all my prayers. No one has been more friendly to me, or more intimate. You alone especially accord with my wishes. he mocks Datianus; Behold, I am now raised on high, and, higher than the world, I look down upon those very Princes of yours. I do not wish you to diminish my glory or bring losses to my praise. For the servant of God is prepared to endure all things for the name of the Savior. Arise therefore, and rage with the whole spirit of your malice; you shall see me, by the power of God, able to do more when I am tortured than you can who torture. By the cruelty which you breathe, you will bestow glory upon me, when you are conquered amid the more grievous deaths of my punishments. Wherefore I already rejoice uniquely, because while I suffer I shall be vindicated."

[8] Datianus began to cry out and to rage all the more against his torturers and executioners with rods and clubs. And so, while the Saint was gradually safe from punishment and secure in the help of God, he who strikes the very executioners, the devil was first tormenting his own; and truly, those whom he held in his power. Vincent therefore said: "What say you, Datianus? Behold, I am already avenged through your attendants. You yourself have wrought vengeance for me in punishment." But at the top of his voice the minister of the devil began to thunder forth more furious words, gnashing with the grinding of teeth; and while he tore at the Martyr of God, he was rather tearing himself. At last the twisted executioners ceased; and the exhausted hand of the torturers, while hanging from the sides of the Saint, gave out, overcome. The face of those who tortured grew pale, the strength of the strong withered, their limbs wasted away, melting in rivers of sweat: their breathless chests trembled in exhaustion; so that you would have thought they rather were being tortured in the torments of the holy Martyr.

[9] Datianus himself, drained of blood, with trembling breast and fierce and threatening eyes, began to cry out to his soldiers: "What are you doing? For I do not recognize your hands. then he rouses those same failing men. You have often conquered stubbornly resisting murderers; you have broken the deep silences of parricides and sorcerers; the very secrets of adulterers have been laid open with you pressing upon them: and whoever feared to die by confessing his guilt was led to death by his own confession. Today, I say, O soldiers of my Princes, what is said to the insult of our Emperors, we cannot restrain, so that silence may be kept at least for our own shame. And we who have compelled others to the confession of their death, cannot impose silence on this one for our dishonor. But hold back your right hands for a moment, resume your strength, so that as a renewed soldiery you may more harshly restrain the troublesome enemy with punishment. Let a sharper claw search the depths of his ribs; S. Vincent is scraped with iron claws, and let the pain, penetrating his inward parts, make him utter a groan, not contempt."

[10] Then again, smiling, Vincent the Deacon said: "This is truly what is read: 'Because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand.' Matthew 13:13 For I confess the Lord Christ, the only Son of the only most high Father, and I profess that He with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God alone. Because therefore I confess what is true, you claim I am denying. Plainly you ought to torture me if I were lying, and if I were to call your princes gods. But torture the one who confesses longer, he mocks Datianus: and I beg you, do not cease from my punishment; so that even thus you may be able to sigh for the proven truth, albeit with your sacrilegious spirit, and to recognize me as its unconquerable confessor. For those whom you order to be confessed as gods are wooden and stone idols. You are their witness, and may you become the dead priest of the dead: I sacrifice to the one and living God, who is blessed forever."

[11] But the Governor, boiling with excessive madness, and with the whole appearance of his humanity overturned, poured only the gaze of his eyes and the venom of his pestilential eyes upon the body of the blessed Martyr, seeing the blood flowing now not from his sides alone but from his whole body. For the inner parts of his viscera had been laid open. For the diversity of torments had separated the joints from their connections. he is tempted by him with blandishments: There was nothing left for which he could be angry at his own men, but he himself was now marveling that he was being conquered. He said: "Have pity on yourself, Vincent, lest you lose the flower of your now first blossoming youth, and, situated in your earliest years, cut short for yourself a longer life. Spare yourself from tortures, so that at least belatedly you may profit from the torments that remain." But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: "O venomous tongue of the devil, what would you not do against me, he ridicules him: you who wished to tempt God and our Lord? I do not fear whatever punishments you have hurled in your anger. What is more fearful is that you pretend to wish to have mercy. Let all punishments run their course: and if there is any trickery, if there is anything of your perverse art, if there is anything you can do by the powers of your malice, put it forth. For you must test the sweet faith and fortitude against the most bitter poison in a Christian soul. For He grants the endurance of fortitude who speaks to His own in the Gospel: 'Do not fear those who kill the body, but have nothing they can do to the soul.' Matthew 10:28 Therefore diminish nothing of the torments, so that you may confess yourself conquered in all things."

[12] After these things Datianus said: "Let him be transferred to the lawful examination, and let him pass through more grievous torments. And if his soul can endure so long, he is roasted on a gridiron: let at least his limbs fail amid the tortures. He cannot conquer me while he lives." Vincent answered: "O happy me!" he said. "These threats of yours are for my praise and glory; and the harsher the terror, the more abundant the blessedness. What therefore you think makes you more grievously angry, you now better begin to show mercy." Thereupon the Levite Vincent was taken from the rack and dragged to the gibbet of fire, almost outrunning his own torturers himself, accusing the delays of the executioners as he hastened eagerly to punishment. For the savage officer had already ordered a bed to be brought forth with iron ribs, and with a heap of coals added beneath, to apply the Martyr of God to be burned. The athlete of God therefore, undaunted, voluntarily mounted the engine of glowing iron: he is tortured, flogged, burned, and stretched upon his limbs he grows into punishment. The pressed roughness of metal plates is also inserted into his chest and limbs. And as liquid runs down between the edges of the glowing iron, the hissing flame is sprinkled with fat. Wounds are inflicted upon wounds; torments rage upon torments. he is sprinkled with salt: The crackling grains of salt scattered on the fires leap apart over his limbs: and now the weapons of torments are hurled not only at his joints but at the very hidden parts of his viscera. And since no part of his whole body remained intact, the wound that had first been inflicted was now itself renewed. The servant of God remained unmoved, and with his eyes raised to heaven he prayed to the Lord.

"The serrated frame roughens the bed with its frequent teeth."

CHAPTER III.

S. Vincent, variously refreshed by divine aid, having overcome the torments, dies.

[13] Meanwhile Datianus, not rightly anxious about the most blessed Vincent, kept inquiring of his returning soldiers what he was doing, what he was saying. It was reported by the afflicted men, who were almost grieving from their labor, that he had passed through all the tortures with a cheerful face, with a stronger spirit, and that he continued to confess Christ the Lord with a more stubborn profession than he had begun. "Alas," said Datianus, "we are conquered. But this alone remains of the tortures: if his stubbornness cannot be bent, let it at least endure forever in punishment; let the spirit which cannot be restrained be punished. Seek out," he said, [He is enclosed in a dark place, on a floor strewn with fragments of pottery, naked:] "a dark place, oppressed by an overbearing roof, set apart from all public light and condemned to perpetual night, peculiar to his guilt—namely, a prison beyond the prisons. There scatter everywhere rough fragments of pottery, so that whatever the badly cut fracture of the lying body touches, it may fix with unpolished barbs, and the very turning of his sides may be renewed for punishment: so that, clearly, whatever the limbs seek to escape by shifting their joints, they may always strike against. Moreover, with his legs spread apart and stretched, bind his feet to a wooden block, so that, with his limbs torn apart by the punishment, the rebel against the Princes may expire. Then leave him shut up in darkness, that he may not even refresh his eyes with light. Let no human being be left there, lest he be encouraged by the companionship of anyone's conversation. Let all be closed and barred. Only be diligent that it be reported when he has expired." The officers carry out without delay what the Judge had commanded; and they shut up the most valiant athlete of God in a horrible dungeon.

[14] But when the first rest had loosened the weary limbs of the guards, as sleep overcame them, what Datianus had inflicted as the punishment of a most grievous death was divinely transformed into glory. The night of that prison received an eternal light. Candles blazed, radiating beyond the splendor of the sun, and the stiffness of the loosened wood sprang apart, and the roughness of the pottery fragments became the pleasantness and softness of fragrant flowers. the prison is illuminated from heaven, the pottery fragments changed to flowers, Refreshed by these, the most invincible athlete of God, singing a psalm and hymn to God, exults with joy. And so the horrible solitude is relieved by the company of Angels. Surrounded by their host, the distinguished Martyr was comforted by their reverential attention and soothed by their conversation. "Recognize," they said, "O most invincible Vincent, for whose name you have faithfully fought. he is freed by Angels and praises God with them: He Himself truly keeps the prepared crown for you in the heavens, He who made you a conqueror in your punishments. Be therefore now secure of your reward, because soon, when you have laid down the burden of the flesh, you will be added to our company." Hence praises are given to God, and as the instrument of the angelic voice resounds, its melodious sweetness is diffused far and wide.

[15] The guards, suddenly disturbed, became afraid, and, as if thunderstruck with vehement astonishment, they strove to explore the miracle more closely; they approached the closed doors, the guards, converted by this miracle, and peering through the cracks they saw the ministers of the Divinity gleaming with starry beauty: the cavern, formerly horrible with Tartarean darkness, shining with immense light; the barbs of the pottery fragments flowering in abundance; and the holy Martyr of God, with all his bonds loosened, walking about and singing psalms. These men, presently pierced with divine terror and regard, abandoning the error of paganism, faithfully gave themselves to the Christian religion, desiring now, with changed minds, to offer the obsequies of their devotion to him against whose death they had formerly raged. and instructs other Christians: The nearby multitude of the faithful had also come, formerly sorrowful over his sufferings, but now joyful over the glory granted from heaven. To them the Blessed Vincent said: "Do not be afraid, and do not think the praises of God are to be contemned. Rather, rush in quickly, and drink in with your eyes, secure, the consolations ministered by angelic service. he orders this to be reported to Dacianus: Where you had left darkness, rejoice in the light; and the one whom you believed to be groaning in torments, rejoice that he exults in the praises of the true God. The bonds have been loosened, strength has increased, soft bedding has refreshed the body. Rather marvel, and declare with true praises that Christ is always the conqueror in His servants. Let it therefore be reported to Datianus what light I enjoy. Let him devise something if he can, and add to my glory, defrauding nothing from the title of praise, but exercising whatever the fury of his madness has yet found. For I fear only his mercy, lest he seem to wish to pardon."

[16] At this report, bloodless and trembling, Datianus burst forth into these words: "And what more shall we do? We are conquered. Let the body therefore be carried to a bed, and let it be nursed with softer bedding. For I do not wish to make him more glorious if he should expire amid torments. He is carried, at his command, to a soft bed: Let a little respite be granted; let the limbs worn down by punishments be refreshed; and when the gaping of the wounds has closed into a scar, let him again, renewed, be subjected to new and exquisite tortures." But while Datianus was vainly planning torture, Christ was mercifully arranging the reward. he dies. For the Martyr of God, carried to the bed and placed by the pious hands of the Saints in the softness of the bedding, soon, dissolved into a precious death, gave up his spirit to heaven. You might have seen the throng of bystanders eagerly kissing the footprints of the Saint, touching with pious curiosity the wounds of his entire lacerated body, catching the blood in linens, with sacred veneration for the benefit of posterity.

"He orders fragments of pottery, bristling with unpolished angles, sharpened, misshapen, to be strewn under the body of the one lying down. The whole bed anxious pains arm with spikes; which strike the sleepless side with an opposing point."

But these seem to be taken as referring to the point and edge of the pottery fragments themselves.

g. Thus Prudentius:

"Many dip a linen cloth in the dripping blood, Sacred relics. so that they may preserve a sacred protection at home for their posterity."

Let the newfangled impiety therefore be silent, and let it not rage against the pledges of the Saints.

CHAPTER IV.

The tyrant rages in vain against the body. It is piously buried.

[17] When therefore his departure was known, Datianus, now conquered and confounded, said: "If I could not overcome him living, I shall punish him at least dead. There is no spirit to resist, His body is exposed to wild beasts: there is no soul to strive to conquer: with an empty body there is no contest. I shall rage with new torments against the bloodless limbs of the abandoned body. I shall now be satisfied with the punishment, even if victory could not come to me. Cast him out," he said, "into an open field, with no obstacle to defend him, so that the lifeless corpse, lacking the honor of burial, utterly consumed by wild beasts and birds, may not be seen; lest perchance Christians, taking up his remains, may claim for themselves the dignity of a Martyr." The venerable body, therefore, exposed to torments without covering, is again honored by angelic watches and service. It is guarded by Angels and by a crow driving away birds and wolves. No human hand, which might perhaps have been corrupted, was guarding it; nor the pious compassion of the Saints themselves, though it rejoiced in common that so great a Martyr had come to it. And I think for this reason human service was denied by divine instinct, so that divine guardianship might not seem to be wanting in any way. A crow therefore, a slow and most sluggish bird, sitting not far off, as if displaying with its dark appearance the demeanor of one mourning, while it drove away from a distance with a certain rush the other approaching birds, fearful with their swift wings, it also drove away from the body with no sluggish charge a huge wolf that had suddenly arrived. The wolf, with its neck turned back, stood transfixed at the sight of the sacred body, and, as we believe, marveled at the angelic guard. The history of antiquity has now been restored to us through a similar bird. 3 Kings 17:4 For He who formerly had brought food to Elijah with full beak, now performs commanded service for S. Vincent the Martyr.

[18] sewn into a leather sack and tied to a stone, he is sunk in the sea: Terrified by this report, Datianus said: "I think that I shall not conquer him even when dead. For when I pursue him with harsher cruelty, I make him more glorious by my savagery. But if he could not be consumed on land, let him be sunk in the sea, lest we be put to shame daily before the eyes of all. The seas at least will conceal his victory. Let the corpse," he said, "be folded up and sewn into the leather sack of a parricide, and placed in a small basket; and when the sailors have proceeded to a greater distance, let it be pressed down into the waves of the deeper brine; so that the unfed fish, if anything remains of the lacerated body, may consume it at least by licking, or let it be torn by the bestial mouth, since the slowness of beasts did not touch it. Moreover, let a faithful officer not neglect to attach a millstone of no small weight, lest perchance the corpse, carried by the shifting wave to foreign shores, should in any way attain the denied burial. Rather let it be tossed back by the waves and frequently dashed against the rocks, and perish, so that not even in death may it rest among the stones." Behold what you do, most savage Datianus! You make our Martyr glorious in another element as well. Therefore, as had been commanded, the corpse of the just one is sewn up and, packed in up to the neck, is bound tight to the millstone with hard ropes. Then a certain Eumorphius, a man of profane mind and sacrilegious spirit, who had promised this dire service to Datianus for this very purpose, gathering nautical men from the city, was pressing on to accomplish the unspeakable crime: and forming a column and boarding a ship, faithful to the promised crime, he was exhorting his companions to cross the long and extensive stretches of sea. The roused sailors did not delay in carrying this out. But when the peaks of the mountains had been removed from their sight, and every shore had vanished, fearing lest perchance they should be carried off to another province, they cast the body into the middle of the sea and pressed it down with the waves. And returning to Datianus, joyful as if bearing the first glad tidings to their Governor, they were clamoring with discordant applause, shouting with nautical wantonness that Vincent had been removed from the eyes of all: and on this account, as first messengers all the more hasty, they were hurrying to return with the greatest speed.

[19] But those strongest rowers of Datianus had been outrun by the body of the blessed Martyr, with the hand of God at the helm; and what was believed to be held in the depth of the deeper brine by divine power it is carried back to shore: had already come to the port of its rest, somehow finding the honor of burial before it could be reported as having been exposed; so that, with divine miracles shining forth, the soldier of Christ might be shown unconquered even after death, whom neither tortures nor the seas had been able to overcome. For on the day of his contest he was not abandoned by his pious Lord, because He gave him power to crush the head of the ancient serpent, since he had faithfully striven to fight in His commandments.

[20] Meanwhile the holy Martyr, meeting a certain man in ecstasy, indicates that he has been carried to the shore and points out the place where he lay. This man, hesitating somewhat about the vision, while he was rather slowly preparing to show the indicated service to so great a funeral; a certain widow, admonished in dreams, named Ionica, most full of age and holiness, received the true signs of the resting body—namely, where the gentle sand had buried it, tossed back by the waves, and where the accumulating mass of the element itself had served in the office of burial. he is piously buried by Christians, She, not unaware that this had been manifested to her by divine means, was eager to make it known secretly to many of the Christian religion, and she carefully exhorted them to proceed together to the task shown to her from heaven. She therefore came to the place, and as if reading certain signs with her eyes, she was directed along the curved shore with focused attention. Soon they find the body of the Blessed Vincent amid the very exchanges of land and water—he whom divine miracles had glorified both on land and at sea for the merit of his holiness. And so, unable on account of the fury of the pagans to entomb him with worthy veneration, they carried him to a certain small basilica to be buried. But at length, when the cruelty of the perfidious had ceased and the devotion of the faithful was growing, the most blessed Martyr was raised from there for the honor of burial, afterwards more honorably: he shines with miracles. carried with worthy reverence, and placed to rest beneath the sacred altar outside the walls of the same city of Valencia. Where, through his merits, divine benefits are bestowed in manifold ways, to the praise and glory of the name of Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God forever and ever, Amen.

ON THE RELICS OF S. VINCENT.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

From various sources.

Section I. The stole of S. Vincent brought to Paris. A monastery dedicated to him, which is now that of S. Germain.

[1] Many were the Martyrs named Vincent, both in other provinces and especially in Spain: and there is in the very name a certain omen of happiness. Many relics under the name of S. Vincent: Hence the relics bearing that name which are kept in many places—the Acts of the others having been either destroyed or unknown in some localities—have been thought to belong to that most celebrated Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta. The principal things reported about them, however, we have decided to set forth here, and some are beyond controversy. Concerning those which were translated to Gaul, Saussay writes thus:

[2] Furthermore, the most sacred body of the same, for the greater part, together with the stole with which the blessed Archlevite was adorned when he ministered at the altar to Bishop Valerius, was brought by the most Christian King Childebert, champion of the orthodox faith in Spain, from Valencia, some translated to Paris, where he had completed his glorious contest, to Gaul for the greater part, and placed with immense glory by the same King in a new basilica consecrated to the sacred memory of that same Martyr near the walls of Paris, that it might be not only an ornament to the royal city, but likewise a perennial defense. The other part of his relics, however, was afterwards carried from Spain during the Saracen invasion to Italy for safekeeping, and deposited at Capua; to Metz; thence by the Blessed Theoderic, Bishop of Metz, by the favor of the Emperor Otto, his kinsman, it was conveyed to the city of Metz and most honorably deposited in that basilica which the aforementioned Bishop built and consecrated for the worship of so great a champion. Furthermore, the head of the same Martyr had long before been brought by S. Domnolus, Bishop of Le Mans (who merited to be presented with this precious gift by the aforesaid King Childebert) to the city of Le Mans, to Le Mans. and had been placed with fitting splendor in a suburban church which that pious Bishop had built for his veneration under the proper title of the same Martyr: which to this day thrives with the name of so great a patron, and glories in his happy patronage, supported by so distinguished a pledge.

[3] We shall treat of each separately; and first of those relics which Childebert is said to have brought to Paris. S. Gregory of Tours describes his Spanish expedition thus in book 3 of the History of the Franks, chapter 29. Childebert besieging Caesaraugusta, "After these things King Childebert departed for Spain, and having entered it together with Clothar, they surrounded and besieged the city of Caesaraugusta with their army. But those people turned to God with such great humility that, clothed in sackcloth and abstaining from food and drink, they went around the walls of the city singing psalms with the tunic of the Blessed Martyr Vincent. The women also, dressed in black cloaks, with their hair unbound and ashes sprinkled on their heads, so that you would think they were attending the funerals of their husbands, followed weeping. And so that place referred all its hope to the mercy of the Lord, so that it was said that the fast of the Ninevites was being celebrated there; the citizens carrying the relics of S. Vincent around nor was it thought that anything else could be done except that the divine mercy should be moved by their prayers. But those who were besieging, not knowing what the besieged were doing, when they saw the wall being circled in this way, thought they were performing some sorcery. Then, having seized one rustic from the city, they asked him what this was that they were doing. he is conciliated; He said: 'They are carrying the tunic of the Blessed Vincent, and with it they are praying that the Lord may have mercy on them.' Fearing this, they withdrew from that city: yet having acquired the greatest part of Spain, they returned to Gaul with great spoils."

[4] The same things are narrated in the abridged Acts of the Franks, but there the Franks are said to have entered Spain, devastating and burning the land itself, killing the people, etc. The Caesaraugustans, not only the women but also the men, are said to have sprinkled ashes on their heads: the Bishop, summoned by the Kings for a conference, came out with gifts: Childebert asked him to give him the relics of the Blessed Vincent: and coming to Paris, he built a church in honor of the same holy Martyr. Ado writes the same in his Chronicle under the year 527, and adds that he deposited the same stole in that same church. Sigebert refers this to the year 542, as does Baronius. a part being left there, Francisco Diego de Aynsa-y-Yriarte reports that Caesaraugusta was besieged for 18 days: that a part of the tunic was retained there, and is still preserved: that it is of fine linen, interwoven with gold, white, sprinkled with the blood of the holy Martyr.

[5] Aimoin also describes the same expedition and the Translation of the relics somewhat more distinctly in book 2, On the Deeds of the Franks, chapter 19. "King Childebert, who in earlier years had entered Spain and captured the city of Toledo, urged his brother Clothar, with whom he had made a treaty, to come to his aid; so that, relying on his alliance, he might attack and subdue the same province for himself. When a strong reinforcement of the army arrived, joining forces, they advanced as far as Caesaraugusta: denied entry to the city, they undertook a siege. And with the townspeople resisting and the utmost force being exerted on both sides, at length the Spaniards, terrified by the very disposition of the siege and the fierce boldness of the Franks, recalled their spirits from battle, and turning with the whole intent of their minds to imploring the mercy of Christ, taking up crosses, they began to walk around the wall in litany. The Kings, seeing this and suspecting they were practicing some sorcery, seized one of the rustics and more carefully asked what religion the inhabitants of the city professed, or what they were doing by going around the city with incantations. He said to them: 'The citizens are Christians; they are now praying that the Lord may have mercy on them.' To whom the Kings said: 'Go, tell the Bishop of the city to come to us without hesitation.' When he arrived, Childebert addressed him thus: 'Recognizing that you are worshippers of the Christian religion and of the one true God, we have decided to spare you, if you, from the Bishop who hold the office of the Bishop, giving assent to our petition, will bestow upon us the relics of S. Vincent: who (as the most blessed Germanus, Bishop of the Parisian—that is, our—city, has very often reported to us) in this city, as the sincerity of many and the attested words of truth declare, shone forth as an eminent Levite.' he obtains the tunic of the Saint, The Bishop without delay offered the stole—that is, the tunic—of the same renowned Levite and Martyr to the Kings. They, receiving it with fitting honor, raised the siege according to their promise, and, having devastated the whole province, returned to their native land with spoils and immense plunder."

[6] Then, after some intervening matter, in chapter 20 he adds the following: "But Childebert brought the accepted stole of the Blessed Vincent to Paris: and having built from the ground up, and placed it in a monastery he founded at Paris: according to the arrangement of the most blessed Germanus, a basilica, he had it dedicated to the name of the same holy Levite and Martyr: in which he devoutly bestowed a not inconsiderable portion of the vessels which we mentioned above he had carried away from Toledo, together with cases of the Gospels, crosses also of wonderful workmanship, and other most excellent gifts."

[7] Thus Aimoin, who appends the charter of Childebert, or, as he calls it, the pragmatic, by which he lavishes various possessions and privileges on this monastery. Concerning the dedication of that church, in book 2, chapter 29, he writes thus: "When the most glorious King Childebert had died, the church of that monastery dedicated: in the 49th year after he had begun to reign, the church of S. Vincent which he had built being not yet dedicated or consecrated, the glorious King Clothar, not deeming it fitting that this should be delayed, took care to confer with the most blessed Germanus, and together with Queen Ultrogotha, the wife of the aforesaid renowned Childebert, and also with Crothberga and Crothsinda, his kinswomen, so that it might be consecrated with fitting honor by the most blessed Germanus, and that on the day of the dedication they might from their own possessions honorably bestow a dowry upon that church. Which they both did and confirmed by their written document."

[8] That charter of Childebert was given in the 48th year of his reign, which was the year of Christ 559, on the 6th of December; he himself died the following year: and then Clothar held the monarchy of the Frankish kingdom for two years, during which time the dedication of the church was performed. Usuard, a monk of that same monastery, inscribed the anniversary commemoration of its dedication in his Martyrology, Anniversary commemoration of the Dedication. under 23 December: "At Paris, the dedication of the basilica in honor of the Holy Cross and S. Vincent the Martyr: and the burial of the Lord King Childebert." Galesinius, Canisius, and the Florarium have the same. Saussay likewise: "At Paris of the Parisii, the dedication of the suburban basilica in honor of the Holy Cross and S. Vincent the Martyr, founded by the most Christian King Childebert, who, returning from Spain in triumph, reverently deposited there for the worship of God the stole of the same blessed Archlevite, which he had brought from Caesaraugusta, together with a not inconsiderable portion of the vessels which he had carried away from Toledo, with cases of the Gospels and crosses of wonderful workmanship, and other most excellent gifts. S. Germanus, Bishop of Paris, consecrated this illustrious basilica, at whose urging King Childebert himself had built it with royal magnificence. In which finally S. Germanus himself, having been entombed, shone forth with such wonders that he claimed the church, with its monastery and suburb, now illuminated, as his own title and protection." We shall give the Life of S. Germanus himself, Bishop of Paris, on 28 May.

[9] Whether Childebert brought to Paris from Spain any relics of S. Vincent besides the stole, or tunic, or part of the tunic, the ancient authors do not relate, Whether other relics of S. Vincent were brought to Paris at that time. as far as we have seen. Childebert himself in his charter says only that he brought the relics of the Saint from Spain; nor does he specify what they were. Saussay asserts above that the most sacred body was brought for the greater part, together with the stole, and indeed from Valencia, where he had completed his glorious contest; although none of the ancients relates that he took the relics from Valencia, but rather when Caesaraugusta was besieged. For as to his calling Childebert the most Christian King, champion of the orthodox faith in Spain, this is a more splendid praise than can rightly be attributed to a king stained by fraternal hatreds and the murder of his nephews. The first Hispanic expedition was indeed undertaken by him to avenge the injury done to his sister Clotild, whom her husband, the Arian King Amalaric, was vexing in unworthy ways on account of her constancy in the Catholic faith. The causes of the second expedition S. Gregory of Tours does not reveal; Aimoin writes that there was only one, so that he might attack and subdue the same province for himself.

Section II. Other relics of S. Vincent in Gaul.

[10] Nevertheless the head of S. Vincent was brought to Gaul, whether by the same Childebert, as Saussay claims, or by someone else, certainly in his time. This is established from the Life of S. Domnolus, Bishop of Le Mans, which we shall give on 16 May, in which the following is found: "The most devout lover of holy Church built a certain monastery in the suburb of his city; both so that it might be a defense for that city, and so that he might win souls for the Lord: and he consecrated it in honor of the holy Martyrs Vincent and Laurence. The monastery of S. Vincent at Le Mans: He wished the aforementioned Bishop Germanus to be present at the consecration itself, so that by the solemn dedication of both, the people might be spurred to greater devotion. In its consecration, from the property of his Church, he bequeathed and confirmed many things to it by testament, with the permission and favor of Chilperic, King of the Franks, and his Princes; many Bishops also suggesting this, but especially S. Germanus; the clergy and people also encouraging him to do it. The Blessed Germanus and many other Bishops subscribed with their own hands and approved. his head there. Furthermore, in the same church he honorably deposited the head of the Blessed Martyr Vincent and a large part of the gridiron on which S. Laurence was roasted: he also wished monks to live there and serve the Lord under the care and governance of Abbot Leusus, whom he himself appointed, according to the prescription of the rule. He embraced the most blessed Bishop Germanus with such great love that in that very church of the Martyrs SS. Vincent and Laurence he prepared a burial place for him: where however afterwards, for certain reasons, not S. Germanus but Domnolus himself was worthily buried." Thus far from that source. But either the head of the holy Martyr was not complete there, or it was afterwards carried to the monastery of Castres, since Cardinal Conrad of Porto had it transferred from Castres to Clairvaux, where it is still preserved, as Jacques Breuil proves by authentic testimonies, and who also recites the charter of Conrad, given in the year 1224, on the day before the Kalends of May. We shall speak of other relics of S. Vincent given to Le Mans in the following section. Francisco Diago, book 6 of the Annals of the Kingdom of Valencia, chapter 6, contends that the head of another Martyr named Vincent was brought to Le Mans to S. Domnolus.

[11] Elsewhere also in Gaul some relics of S. Vincent are held in veneration. For S. Gregory of Tours, book 1, On the Glory of Martyrs, chapter 90, writes thus: Other relics of his at Poitiers; "Vincent the Levite and Martyr consummated his martyrdom among the Spaniards. In the territory of Poitiers there is a village in the Arbatilicus, named Becciacum, in which his relics are kept. His solemnity is celebrated on the 11th before the Kalends of the 11th month. But the inhabitants of the place, and especially the Archpriest, suffering I know not what error, wished it to be celebrated before that day. When therefore, after the Masses had been said, they were sitting down to dinner, behold one of the demoniacs began to cry out and say: 'Run, citizens, go out from the village, go out to meet the Blessed Vincent: behold, he comes for the vigils: at which demoniacs and paralytics were cured: behold, you are to have his feast on the morrow.' When he had said these things, they renew the solemnities and keep watch all night in vigils. When morning came, while the solemnities of the Mass were being celebrated, both this demoniac who had predicted the coming of the Saint, and two others with him, were cleansed. Two paralytics also were made straight on that same day, and so they departed from the feast with joy."

[12] as also elsewhere. "When his relics were being carried by certain pilgrims, they came to the village of Ceratense in the territory of Tours, and there, carrying them, they were received at the hut of a certain poor man. On the morrow, two paralytics received the ability to walk upon these pledges, and one blind person received sight."

[13] "Not far from that village there is another village, which they call Orbaniacum, Others, stolen, are divinely ordered to be returned: in whose church relics of this Saint are kept: which, when they had been stolen by thieves, and the very one who had taken them had left them with a certain Abbot in the Bourges territory for a price, it was revealed to the Abbot that he should restore them to the place from which they had been removed. Likewise it was manifested to the Archpriest near this monastery through a vision, that he should make no more delays in restoring them. When he had received them and was carrying them with psalmody, a certain man a sick person healed by them. who for a whole year had lain oppressed by a grave illness, carried in the hands of his people, reverently kissed in adoration the veil with which the sacred ashes were covered, and soon, his illness being checked, he was healed, and followed the martyr's procession with the rest."

[14] Thus S. Gregory. The printed books have the 12th before the Kalends of the 11th month as the day when his celebration is usually held: we have restored the 11th before the Kalends, on the authority of the Martyrologies and the usage of all the Churches. The village of Ceratense in the territory of Tours is called Ceratinsim in the Ripatorium manuscript; Orbaniacum is called Orbani.

[15] Theoderic, Bishop of Metz in Gallia Belgica, having accompanied Otto I into Italy, brought thence, among other relics of Saints, those of S. Vincent; in whose honor he also founded a monastery. Concerning this, Sigebert writes under the year 970: "Theoderic, Bishop of Metz, bound to the Emperor more closely than others by blood, affection, Some relics of S. Vincent at Metz, and familiarity, while he served under him on the Italian expedition for three years, gathered bodies and pledges of Saints from various places in Italy by whatever means he could: first from Marsia, S. Elpidius . . . from Cordunum, pledges of Vincent the Martyr and Levite, formerly brought from Spain to Capua by two monks, and thence transported there . . . All these, together with part of the chain of S. Peter the Apostle, with hairs of the same, and the blood of S. Stephen the Protomartyr, and part of the gridiron of S. Laurence the Martyr given to him by Pope John, together with many other pledges of Saints, Bishop Theoderic transferred to Gaul in this year, and placed them in the church of S. Vincent the Martyr which he had built on the island of the city." Hence one may refute what Saussay wrote above, that they were taken from Capua by Theoderic himself. Furthermore, concerning Theoderic, whose birthday is commemorated on 18 July, more will be said elsewhere.

[16] Jean Cousin, in book 3 of the History of Tournai, chapter 36, attests that some relics of S. Vincent are also preserved in the cathedral church of Tournai. At Tournai, There were also in the chapel of our glorious and most pious Princes Albert and Isabella at Brussels, At Brussels. some remains of the same holy Martyr. Glaber Rodulphus, book 3 of his History, chapter 2, writes thus of Robert, King of Gaul: "King Robert offered," he says, His tooth given to the Emperor S. Henry. "immense gifts of gold, silver, and precious gems to Henry; a hundred horses besides, most handsomely caparisoned. But the latter, seeing the liberality of his friend, accepted from them only a book of the Gospels, set with golden and precious stones, and a phylactery of similar workmanship, containing a tooth of S. Vincent the Levite and Martyr." Whence Robert received this tooth, and where S. Henry placed it, we do not know.

Section III. Relics of S. Vincent brought to Castres: parts of them to other places.

[17] Castrum, or Castra, or Castras, is a city of Occitania situated on the river Agout; formerly a celebrated monastery of the Benedictine Order, The relics of S. Vincent translated to Castres. under the Bishop of Albi; but Pope John XXII raised it to a cathedral church; Paul III on 22 November 1536 decreed that the monks should become secular canons. That the body of S. Vincent the Martyr was brought here from Spain in his own time is attested by Aimoin, who lived in the time of Louis the Pious and his sons, and described the Translation itself in two books, which Jacques Breuil published in print. This history is wittily mocked by the Portuguese Andreas Resendius in a letter to Bartholomew Kebedius: but aside from his jests, which are at times not very modest, he scarcely adduces any argument by which he undermines its credibility. Whether, however, one or the other possesses the body of the holy Martyr, or whether each possesses only a part, or whether each has a complete body but of different Saints of the same name, we do not wish to inquire, much less to pass judgment on the whole controversy. Certainly we shall show below that his relics were not carried in their entirety from Valencia to Castres or to Lusitania, since the Bishop of Valencia donated his arm to the church of Bari in Apulia.

[18] The anniversary commemoration of the Finding of S. Vincent is recorded in the Gallican Martyrology by Saussay under 27 October, with a lengthy eulogy. On the same day, Molanus and the Carthusians of Cologne in the additions to Usuard, The anniversary commemoration of his Translation. Canisius, Galesinius: "On the same day, the Finding of the body of S. Vincent the Levite and Martyr." An ancient copy of the Martyrology of Usuard, which, written about 400 years ago, is preserved in the monastery of S. Germain at Paris: "On the same day, the Finding, or Translation, of S. Vincent the Levite and Martyr." Galesinius in his Notes and Ferrarius declare that they write of the Translation carried out through Audaldus. Otherwise the same Galesinius under 23 September: "At Valencia in Spain, the Finding of S. Vincent the Martyr." He cites in his Notes the records of the Church of Bergamo. But Ferrarius, likewise citing the records of the same Church, which we have not yet seen, and Galesinius: "At Bergamo," he says, "the Finding of the body of S. Vincent."

[19] That the relics of S. Vincent are preserved at Castres has been attested for many centuries past, both by public documents and by the splendor of miracles. A part of them given to the son of the King of France. Louis, son of King Philip Augustus of France and father of S. Louis, sought and obtained a small portion of them. There exist letters of Simon de Montfort, the most pious and invincible Count, on this matter, in the archive of the monastery of S. Germain, published by Breuil: "To all who shall inspect the present letters, Simon, Count of Leicester, Lord of Montfort, by the providence of God Vicar of Bourges and Bayeux, greeting in the Lord. Since our most dear lord Louis earnestly besought us with many prayers that we should cause to be given to him something of the relics of the Blessed Martyr Vincent, whose most holy body is in a certain church which was founded in his honor at Castres, a certain town of ours in the diocese of Albi, as is attested by the authority of the books which are in the aforesaid church, and by the frequency of miracles which frequently occur there through the glorious merits of the aforesaid most blessed Martyr: we, considering the devotion of the aforesaid Louis, and the usefulness and advancement which he has conferred in the business of Jesus Christ, caused to be given to him a bone of the jaw of the aforesaid glorious Martyr. In testimony whereof we have caused the present letters to be sealed with our seal. Given at Toulouse, in the chapel of the house of the Knights of the Temple."

[20] There also exist letters of William, Abbot of Castres, on the donation of those same relics, in the same place, which Guillaume Catel also cites in book 2, chapter 23. They read as follows: "William, called by the mercy of God Abbot of Castres, and the whole convent of the Brethren, to all the faithful of Christ who shall inspect these letters, eternal greeting in the Lord, and a worthy reward for their good works. Considering the constant devotion and the pious affection of good character of the noble lord Louis, son of the illustrious King of France, namely lord Philip, in requesting the relics of the most glorious Vincent, Levite and Martyr (who suffered under the Governor Dacianus in the city of Valencia in Spain), we gave him our ready assent; wishing to fulfill charitably his desires, which did not stray from the path of reason, with attendant affection: we gave to him freely and of our own will a certain part of the jaw of the head of the most precious Martyr, for the honor and reverence of his just petition and of the royal dignity and majesty. Given at Castres, where the body of the aforesaid Martyr is preserved, on the Sunday within the Octave of the Lord's Ascension, in the year of the Incarnation of the same 1215, in the reign of the lord Philip, the illustrious King of the Franks named above. Seal of the monastery of Castres. Appended to these letters are the seals of the Abbot and the Convent of Castres; the first contains this inscription: S[EAL] OF GUILLAUME, ABBOT OF CASTRES. The second has the figure of the head of S. Vincent impressed, with this inscription around it: SEAL OF S. BENEDICT OF CASTRES."

[21] The bone of the throat of S. Vincent, which was probably connected with that jawbone, A bone of the Saint elsewhere. is attested by Breuil to have been found in the monastery of S. Germain; and a part of it, no larger than the first joint of the thumb, was given in the year 1602, after many prayers, to the illustrious lady Marie de Boussu, to be shared with a certain Spanish Duchess; and a part of that bone, long since promised, was finally on 21 April of the same year 1602 handed over to the monastery of S. Vincent at Le Mans.

[22] The heart of the same Saint was preserved in the town which they call Dun-le-Roi, The heart preserved at Dun-le-Roi which Theobald, Count of Sancerre, had formerly ordered to be adorned with silver. In the year 1562, heretics besieged and took the town by surrender, and soon, contrary to the faith given, they stripped the small church of S. Vincent, the only one existing in that town, which is subordinate to the parochial and collegiate church of the Blessed Stephen situated in the suburb, of all its ornaments and sacred furnishings. A certain man was secretly keeping the heart of S. Vincent, which had been entrusted to him by the Prior of the Church of S. Stephen: but having been betrayed, and subjected to many beatings, he was at last compelled to hand it over to them; they indeed seized the silver, burned by heretics. but they publicly burned the sacred pledge itself in another town, from which a most sweet odor emanated. Thus Breuil, more or less, in his Notes on this Translation. That the relics of S. Vincent were translated to Castres is professed by the Valentians themselves, as Resendius also attests, and Francisco Diago, book 6 of the Annals of the Kingdom of Valencia, chapter 6, where he writes that not only is the birthday of the holy Martyr celebrated on 22 January, but also the translation of the relics to Gaul on the following day; both with a double office, in the church of Valencia.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION

BY AIMOIN THE MONK.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

BHL Number: 8644

By Aimoin the monk.

PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.

To the holy Fathers worthy of remembrance, the Lord Abbot Berno, and the other Brethren serving God under him with regular zeal in the territory of Albi, in the monastery of the Blessed Benedict which is surnamed Castrum, under his governance: Aimoin, a sinner, the least of the monks of the blessed Germanus, Bishop of Paris, wishes present prosperity and an eternal crown in Christ.

At the request of the monks of Castres Having learned of your prudent and also imitable simplicity, O most loving Fathers, I do not wonder that it pleased your holiness to impose upon me, though of small account, so great a task, this history written for the monks. namely that I should commit to writing the coming of the blessed Levite and Martyr of Christ, Vincent, to you, and the cause of the heavenly admonition of that coming, and offer it to be known by posterity and future ages. In this you also fittingly require that I elucidate great things in few words, or that I contract extensive matters in a brief discourse to avoid tedium; so that this work, with Christ's favor, may be proved more acceptable to all readers. Also, in the same way, concerning the miracles of the same Saint, displayed on the journey or among you in manifold abundance, I shall touch upon them only so far as his Finding and his Translation to you may be certainly known. But since you have graciously approached me on this matter, although I am unworthy; may the pious will of the Lord be done always, and may the consequent and frequent prayer of His holy and distinguished witness be made on my behalf before Him. Nor should it be right that I be found disobedient to so many and so great Teachers requesting worthy things, though from one undeserving; while your holiness also supplicates the divine clemency on my behalf; so that what I do not presume upon by my merits, lifted up by the aid of holy prayers, not I indeed but the grace of God with me may accomplish.

BOOK I.

Collated with the ancient manuscript of Ripatorium.

THE RELICS FOUND. RECEIVED ANEW.

[1] In the year 855 of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the reign of the orthodox Prince of the Franks, Charles, son of the Emperor Louis, in a certain part of his kingdoms, namely in Aquitaine, in the monastery which is commonly called Conques, a vision was shown to a certain monk named Hildebert, which the following will declare to have been divinely manifested. The monk Hildebert is admonished in dreams to search for the body of S. Vincent: This man was simple, past the age of youth, old in character and trained in the pursuits of holy patience. Having also attained the monastic habit (which he had ardently desired especially from the time of his priesthood), he had shown himself to be such in the activities of the entire religious life that he himself, following in the footsteps of the preceding Fathers of this life, would be an example to many. When he had once given himself to sleep after discharging his duty of the night office, a divine voice sounded thus to him, saying: "Brother, are you awake?" When he answered, "Lord, what do you want of me?" it said: "Arise, go, and make your way to Valencia in Spain: and search for the place of the burial of Vincent the Levite and Martyr outside the walls of that city. His body, the church which was above it having been destroyed by pagans on account of the wicked behavior of the evil citizens and the surrounding inhabitants, lies there without any honor of religion, with no covering except the earth, drenched by the rain of the sky. For know that it is fitting, and the Lord's will, that the same glorious friend of God, having been carefully dug up from there, should be transferred to a place of peace and legitimate worship." When these things had been declared, soon the heavenly form of the one narrating such a vision, together with its voice, was withdrawn from the sight of the beholder. He, having shaken off sleep, and turning over in his waking mind what he had seen, arose, prostrate to beg the clemency of God, that the Maker of all things might deign to accomplish through him what He had shown.

[2] he takes Audaldus as a companion. There was another monk in the same monastery, a truly religious man, equally a priest and convert, named Audaldus, joined to him by special friendship, nearly the same in age and manner of life: from whose mouth we trust that we have received in faith what is related, and much more besides. To him the aforesaid fellow-priest Hildebert first went; and revealing what had been shown to him in secret conversation, he sought him as a companion in this matter, encouraging him in many ways: he urges his friend, entreats his beloved: he promises the aid of God and the holy Martyr will be at hand; and he also pledges the reward of eternal recompense for the sweat of their labor. Hearing these things, the devout man, having received them in the secret of his attentive heart, immediately favoring the words of his companion, gave his assent most willingly: especially since he had frequently heard from a certain noble Spanish man named Bera that the body of the same holy Levite and Martyr could easily be carried away from that place, abandoned by its caretakers, in any direction by anyone. And the mind of both was agreed, most ready to traverse such great distances of lands, and most prepared to endure any obstacles that might arise. And so they reveal the matter of their intention to Blandinus, Abbot of that place, With the Abbot's consent, and to the other Brethren: from whom they needed to seek counsel for undertaking or accomplishing this. There proceeded indeed a common and strong ardor of spirit among all who had assembled: whose minds the heavenly power had illuminated and the joy of equal hope had breathed upon.

[3] they set out on their journey. Having therefore received this approval, with ardent spirits at least, and (what is more to be acknowledged) by divine counsel, having prepared all things, they set out with only two servants, proceeding joyfully to the place and work made known to them from heaven. But as they were traveling and hastening their way along a quick path, Hildebert, being ill, stops behind: Hildebert, pressed by bodily affliction, though unwillingly abandoned the journey he had undertaken. Audaldus, however, saddened, and then content with one sole companion, after many ambushes of the pagans (which it would be tedious to relate), as well as the pressures of various tribulations, boldly making his way with Christ as his guide, at last finally reaches the above-named city of Valencia. Where, having lingered for four days in its suburb, already entirely abandoned by Christians, anxious and uncertain what to do, on the fifth day meeting a certain Moor named Zacharias, with whom he was staying, Audaldus finds the tomb of S. Vincent: he inquired of him privately about the matter for which he had come, and, revealing his secrets, asked whether he could help him in this. When Zacharias replied that he very well could, and that he knew well the place where the precious Martyr of the Lord lay, and that the tomb of his monument was still intact, Audaldus said: "Let us go and see whether it is so, as you attest." When the other said, "What will you give me in money, if I show you what you seek?" the monk said: "I have little indeed: but all of it, or certainly however much you ask from it, I shall weigh out without delay." Whereupon the aforesaid Zacharias, moderated by heavenly instinct and (as we believe) by the intercession of the holy Martyr, demanded no more than forty silver coins, that is, five solidi. When these had been willingly given, they went together to the place, where only the ruins of the walls of the church lay open, and they found the site of the tomb itself uncontaminated and marked with an inscription, just as it had been. On it was written above that there rested the holy Levite and Martyr Vincent. The names also of his illustrious parents—of his father Eutychius and his mother Enola—from whom such a champion had come forth into the world, shone forth among other things inserted in the same epitaph. Therefore, having ascertained or noted the place of the sarcophagus, they returned home while the day was still long, with Audaldus glorifying and blessing God, who had so prosperously directed the course of his journey.

[4] Then, while the quiet of night especially soothes human limbs, By night he takes the body, taking a light, they rise alone and secretly return to the tomb: and they find a marble vessel of wondrous beauty, carefully secured on every side (as was fitting), which, with unexpected ease beyond what can be believed, they both open, pressing together with their strength. What further wonder he felt at its incredible integrity, what compunction or tears breathing forth a most sweet fragrance: on account of the joy and the hitherto unexperienced fragrance of aromatic sweetness diffused there—the aforesaid monk, the discoverer of so great a good, felt at that time—is held to be inexpressible, as he himself attested under oath. This, however, shines forth more clearly than light: that by such signs, as if by certain voices, it was proclaimed that the Martyr of God and Levite Vincent who was sought had been found. He, beyond the manifold and wondrous injuries of his torments, was found (as we mentioned) so intact and free from the taint of corruption that he could by no means be arranged, with his sinews still rigid, in the sack prepared for carrying him: unless (necessity itself compelling this) he was folded up by being separated at the joints. When these things had been accomplished with reverence and fear, the body is carried to the lodging, and the time and opportunity of departing and revisiting the homeland are awaited day by day.

[5] he wraps it in palm branches, Having purchased palm branches and tied them around the body, as if a treasure acquired for this purpose were being concealed, lifting up so great and venerable a prize, laden with this gift, enriched with this pearl, that poor merchant, now made most rich, resumes the desired journey when he sees the time is right. To him the Lord, wishing to show again that he had found the sought body of Vincent the Levite and Martyr, on a certain night when a sleep more violent than usual had fallen upon everyone including Audaldus himself; shining with a nocturnal splendor: suddenly a brightness, undoubtedly fallen from heaven, filled the entire dwelling in which the Saint was: so much so that the host, lying apart, thought nothing other than that his house was burning with the turning of a consuming fire. And while he was fearfully crying out asking who had started the fire, Audaldus, as if weary from the journey, barely rises from his shaken sleep, and hearing the cries of the shouting host, perceives the matter administered from heaven, himself bathed in that splendor, silent and afraid. But when, having collected himself, he recognized the power of the Most High, he soothes the host—who, being fierce according to pagan custom—with gentle words lest he fear, declaring that the fire had undoubtedly been started by himself. Hearing this, the host confined himself within the enclosures of his own room; nor was he permitted or found worthy to deserve to know the mystery of the miracle that had occurred.

[6] The monk, rising in haste at dawn, hastens to complete more quickly what remained of the journey. he comes to Caesaraugusta: Whence after some days, hastening to the city of Caesaraugusta, he is received by a certain woman devoted to God, who had a house near the walls of that city, out of the mercy of hospitality, as a pilgrim, for that night. She, while anxiously keeping watch in silence in a more hidden part of her house, observed the aforesaid monk standing before the body of the Saint with lit candles, singing psalms. And so, when the bell for the night office sounded, she hastens eagerly to the church: and through a messenger she made known to the Bishop of the city what she had seen. the body is taken from him by the Bishop, He, hastening, ordered the bundle together with the palms to be carried away to himself without shame, and commanded the monk to be seized. But the latter, shortly before meditating about the necessary expenses for the journey, had gone to the market to buy bread, leaving his servant (for he was mute) at home. The Bishop, dividing the bundle and exposing all the contents before everyone, found within it the holy pledge carefully sewn into a sack. Marveling greatly at this and judging rightly that it was clearly the body of some holy Martyr, he ordered it to be taken away and reverently deposited in the church of the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin (which is the mother of the churches of that city): in which formerly, under Bishop Valerius, the same Martyr and vigorous champion had held the distinguished office of archdeacon.

[7] When these things had been accomplished by deceit, Audaldus, unaware of them, returns home with his purchase of bread: he demands it back, pretending it is a kinsman's: and finding (alas!) this sad fact, stricken with grief of soul, he went to the same Bishop, named Senior, full of tears, complaining to him about the body unjustly taken from him. "He was mine," he said, "he was my kinsman, recently dead and buried in the regions of Spain. Wishing to lay his corpse among the lifeless remains of my other relatives, I traversed these stretches of land, vexed by many calamities, with Christ's favor: and I redeemed it, having given no small gift, from the pacified ferocity of the pagans. But (O outrage!)," he said, "I have found a Bishop more cruel than the pagans. For what their austerity, humanly softened, granted to one piously seeking, this your violence, improperly aroused in every way, seizes, and impudently presumes, and like a madman you call the body of a sinful man holy." Then the Bishop, moved to anger by these and other exceedingly furious words, ordered the monk to be held: he is badly received: promising him strange kinds of torments and the bruises of rods, unless he should reveal from what city or place he had stolen it, or by what name the same Saint was known. When he began this, and persisted more cruelly than an executioner in shamefully carrying it out, Audaldus, willy-nilly, beaten for a very long time, and finally suspended by his testicles, seemed more or less to confess that he was carrying him from the regions of Spain, he admits it is the body of a Martyr: and that S. Marinus the Martyr (having invented this name) was his name. And so (to pass over the rest), with the Bishop, the wicked seizer of the sacred plunder, partly deceived, the monk, with great weeping of heart and much lamentation, driven out, returns sad and bruised by blows to his own place. When the Brethren of his monastery heard this, not believing it, they accused Audaldus of lying, and giving him the name of vagabond, he is expelled from his own monastery, sequestering him from themselves, and now also with him voluntarily departing, they drove him out: and wherever he pleased they gave him leave—nay, rather necessity—to dwell. He, arriving at the monastery of the Blessed Benedict, surnamed Castrum above, explained in order to the Abbot of that congregation, a religious man, the Lord Gislebert, and to the other Brethren dwelling there, the whole course of his journey and deeds, he is received at Castres: and how the body of the holy Levite and Martyr had been taken from him. They, indeed astonished and greatly rejoicing at what was being said, first receive Audaldus according to the regular manner: and then grant him a place to live with them for as long as he should live: and at the same time they deliberate, awaiting a suitable time for this, so that they might strive to translate so great an honor to themselves, with the heavenly grace assisting, at some point.

[8] When the time had at length passed, namely eight and a half years having elapsed, they send Brethren of their own to Caesaraugusta, at the command of Solomon, the very intimate Count of Cerdanya, who would receive the body of the holy Levite and Martyr with the same Solomon arranging for this, again he goes to Spain, and, with Christ having mercy, would bring it back with them. For this had long since been known to Solomon: and (since he was a prudent man and desirous of good) having taken the opportunity, he had gone to the greater King at Cordoba, pretending among other things that a kinsman of his, named Sugnarius, had been violently seized and was being detained at the city of Caesaraugusta by Senior, the Bishop of that city, while being carried from the regions of Spain. With the King of Cordoba and the King of Caesaraugusta conciliated, The King, besides other gifts voluntarily offered, in order to command the body to be returned, demanded a hundred solidi, and ordered a charter to be drawn up to the petty King of the aforesaid city, named Abdila, commanding that he too, taking the same number of solidi, should order the body of Solomon's kinsman Sugnarius to be restored to Count Solomon. When these things had been arranged, and the minds of the Princes won over by the assessed sum of money, the Bishop is summoned, and he is strictly investigated as to why he had exercised such iniquity against a dead man, he demands the body back from the Bishop: with Imperial reverence set aside, as if guilty of treason, and as one who had not even respected himself. When the Bishop denied everything, and affirmed with many oaths by God and the Saints that he had not done it, Audaldus came forward and prepared with a resolute spirit to convict the Bishop firmly. But when they had long contended without result, and, as they say, in a womanish manner, after long conflict and even after he had been provoked to confess by gentle invitations, the Bishop was at last destined for torments as a rebel, and it was promised him that, with a rope bound to his feet or neck, he would be dragged around the circuit of the city, and that, mocked, he would finally be torn apart limb by limb, and extorts it by fear of torments. unless, giving the truth and taking counsel for himself, he should recover from the hardness of denial. For the miracles, though under the name of S. Marinus, frequently displayed there during the aforesaid period of time, had drawn his heart into so great a love for the Martyr. S. Vincent works miracles there. Terrified, however, by the horror of such threats, he not only confesses what had been done, but also opens up, not without sorrowful groaning, what had been unknown to many but was known—namely, where that sacred body had been buried. Made bolder by this, the monks who had come, taking also the strength for digging, approach to search the designated tomb of the Martyr. And they, being instructed for the labor, as it were competing, find and raise up the precious talent of the heavenly gift. When one of them, A pain in the foot healed. named Ratbert, hesitating in doubt whether it was the same or another, contended that this should first be carefully ascertained by opening the coffin with certain signs known to Audaldus; immediately the foot which he had moved forward for this purpose became infirm, his knee and shin tingling greatly. When he remained behind, the rest, made sufficiently certain by this sign, attend only to the body that had been found and arrange it fittingly for transport. And having obtained so great a desire, and shortly afterwards the monk having fully recovered the strength of his foot, going out with hymns and praises of thanksgiving (as reason and the character of the place dictated), they prepare, with the Lord leading, to return to their own place; to whom is honor and power, virtue and dominion, forever and ever, Amen.

BOOK II.

THE RELICS BROUGHT TO CASTRES. MIRACLES.

Thus far concerning the finding, or recovery, of the holy body: now what remains—of the translation and the miracles performed during it—the following little book, with its appended prologue, shall take up.

PROLOGUE.

Since thus far we have set forth in a faithful style, with Christ as guide, what was done concerning the finding or bodily recovery of this holy Levite and Martyr: let us now carefully examine what remains of the translation itself and the miracles performed during it, in a brief treatment as we have begun. For the reader must not be driven away, but rather invited to what is being said, so that even if the uncultivated discourse may irritate, at least the concise one may soothe. And therefore we have also wished to divide this whole work into two parts, though small in quantity. And we ask that whatever we have exceeded in passing in these matters be pardoned us, who, reading a few things out of many, have taken care to write, with the diligence of pious labor, those very things which we found worthy of faith and report, in the presence of those who had seen them and bore witness.

[1] When they had arrived at a run at the town of Balaguer, near the river Segre, they rested on a certain island adjacent to the land: On the journey, a blind woman illuminated at the relics of S. Vincent: and immediately it was made known that the body of the noble Levite and Martyr was present. Then several people gathered, offering gifts and services as they could. Among them a woman, long blind, was brought: who, prostrate on the ground before the relics themselves, begged that sight be given to her: and weeping for some time and persisting in prayer, she received her vision, with all who were present watching, and marveling at herself as to how she had come and what she had become, she said: "Thanks be to you, God, and to you, holy Martyr, who have deemed me worthy of the abundance of your power."

[2] Setting out from there, they directed their course in swift travel to the fortress of Berga: where the Lord likewise, by granting a miracle, mercifully showed what merit and what grace the holy Levite and Martyr held with Him. For among the rest, seeking the most pleasing gifts of the Saint, there was brought a certain lame man, sick in his whole body: a lame man cured: who before the relics (as usually happens in such cases) began first to be afflicted by severe pain and to roll on the pavement; which seemed wonderful to the bystanders. But shortly afterwards, with God taking pity, through the intercession of the Blessed Vincent, the bases of his feet were strengthened and his steps made straight: so that, accompanied by the joy of friendly health, he returned well to his own people on his own.

[3] Since indeed a lamp must not be hidden, but placed on a lampstand so that it may give light, fitting that holy body, now shining with such great splendor of virtues, to a bier, with Count Solomon going before as a peaceful guide, they came as far as Cerdanya. For there, on account of those coming to meet them and the necessary rest of the journey, they had decided by salutary consideration to remain for a while. And entering a certain town of that same province, which received the name Albis from its former inhabitants, they placed it upon the altar of the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When an innumerable multitude of both sexes gathered there over two days, the crippled, the lame, the blind, the possessed are healed: among them were found two with contracted knees, and one disabled woman, one blind man, and those with fevers, or the possessed, freed from every burden of infirmities by the merits of that Saint. Nor did we hear that anyone attacked by any disease of disability (if he came faithfully) grieved that he had either come or certainly departed without the medicine of a remedy.

[4] Miracles having been performed at almost every stopping place on the journey—for example, at Llívia two lame men raised up, at Carcassonne outside the city in a church sacred to the same Levite and Martyr, with other miracles performed, not a few demoniacs and other sick persons healed—they now joyfully approach Castres, where they were headed, the monastery of the special Father Benedict. But what the splendid array of monks was like, worthy of so great a reception, with crosses and candles and all fitting ornaments, and also the most devoted concourse of the people, I think it superfluous to attempt to describe. They therefore placed the body of the Martyr to be preserved and venerated in the church of the blessed Mother of God, Mary, before the gate of the monastery itself, the relics are brought to Castres. especially on account of the devoted throng of women, to whom entry to the monastery itself is denied by the ancient custom of the Fathers of that place. They decided, however, to build a new basilica in his honor near the monastery, to which devout persons of both sexes might have free access.

[5] But since there could be doubt about the aforesaid finding and desired transportation, almighty God wished this to be confirmed by such a miracle, as a crowning proof of His goodness. In the town of Vidcelles, distant only three miles from the monastery, a certain woman still living there, named Aitrudis, was admonished by her neighbor to put aside her spinning work A woman mocking them is punished with contraction, then healed. and hasten with others to meet the reception of the Blessed Martyr Vincent. She, refusing to do this, said with a laugh that it was rather the body of some Moorish pagan or Spaniard than of a Martyr. And immediately, deprived of the function of all her limbs, she was contracted and, miserably prostrated on the ground like a corpse, she cried out in a terrible voice that she would soon expire, and begged her people to carry her to the temple of the Saint. There, having been brought by cart, for nine days, with many watching, she endured the same disability of her affliction: and after another nine days, restored to health, she went out well, as she is still well today.

[6] Robbers of pilgrims are involuntarily brought back to the same place: Indeed, with the populace frequenting the place, or the infirm oppressed by various languors seeking the remedy of health, certain men coming from the regions of Cerdanya, not far from the monastery, having been stripped of their own possessions, arrived at the Saint's shrine naked, groaning, and weeping. But in a wondrous manner it happened by the grace of heavenly justice that the plunderers, attempting to flee elsewhere, were miraculously compelled by a journey adverse to them, with all they had stolen, to hasten to that same place. And looking at one another—the robbers and the robbed—the latter began to fear, but the former to marvel much more: and as the people wished to rise up against the guilty, they begged as suppliants that no harm be inflicted on them for the love of Christ and the holy Martyr. Having obtained this, they restored everything: and praising God and S. Vincent, each returned to their own homes; the latter joyful over what they had found, the former over the pardon freely obtained.

[7] Nor should it be passed over in silence, as it is worthy of equal admiration. A certain man from the territory of Cahors, coming for the purpose of prayer as the day was already declining, left his lance leaning against one of the trees A lance stolen from a pilgrim is brought back home. which are before the entrance of the aforesaid basilica, preserving the honor of religion. When he had entered the church thus disarmed and was devoutly engaged in prayer, a certain thief, snatching his lance, fled, making for his own house, which was not far away. But with his mind disturbed, he arrived at the hut of that very man whose lance it was, about thirty leagues away, exhausted by fasting and the journey through the whole night. When, being thirsty, he asked for a little water, the wife recognized her husband's lance and recovered it, and spared the thief who confessed his guilt, not without admiration for the power of S. Vincent, who took care that the injury to his pilgrim be repaired in that manner.

[8] Since we have made mention of the new church of S. Vincent the Levite and Martyr to be built, it is fitting to relate a new miracle in this place. For at this construction, more than two hundred men came together with gifts, A blind man is illuminated: besides women, children, and the infirm. Among them was a certain man, blind and poor in possessions, who, lest he should appear empty-handed in the service of the Saint, asked his guide to give him a not inconsiderable stone from the road, and immediately lifted it up and placed it on his neck. When he was reproached by the people for folly, as one attempting something impossible on account of the weight, he declared that he would never rest from what he had begun until he had carried the gift of the stone he had taken up to the construction of the new church of S. Vincent. Without delay, amid these words, his blindness was driven away and he received his sight.

[9] The venerable man Elisagar, Bishop of the city of Toulouse, having heard of these signs of power, by his pastoral authority exhorted the clergy and people that those who wished should prepare to go with him to the prayer of the holy Martyr. When at the appointed time the good shepherd, surrounded by the flocks of his sheep, having also gone barefoot from the ninth milestone, being made an example to his flock, had reverently arrived, a certain one of them, having the fingers of both hands so contracted from birth itself and sticking to the palm a contracted hand is healed for a certain man: that they could never be unfolded or stretched out, after prayers and tears poured out before the holy Martyr, felt them loosened, though with living blood flowing from the places where they had previously adhered. Seeing this, the Bishop and all who were with him burst forth into divine praises, singing with tearful voice litanies, hymns, and the Te Deum, and now with great joy kissing those hands stained with blood.

[10] A certain man had hidden silver needed for some purpose in his bosom. one who wished to steal is punished, healed by the aid of S. Vincent: A woman skilled in the art of thievery shamelessly extracted it. But her hand, containing the silver, immediately stiffened, so that she could neither open it nor (with all watching) draw it back to herself. She, however, taking refuge at the sacred relics of S. Vincent and there praying devoutly with the Brethren and other faithful, was cured, and with her hand relaxed, she returned the stolen silver.

[11] Another man, having a daughter blind from birth, relying on confidence in healing, decided to bring her to the widely proclaimed patronage of S. Vincent. And coming all the way to the monastery, where he learned that the sacred body itself had been transported to a more remote and safer place on account of fear of the pagan Northmen, a blind woman is illuminated. he said with frequent groaning: "Have mercy, O Christ, have mercy, O most blessed Vincent. Have mercy on me, a wretch, have mercy on this daughter of mine." By these voices of tears, the heavenly clemency, which does not slumber, being roused to compassion, immediately, by the prayers of the great champion and the faith of the parent, sight was restored to the girl.

[12] When the Northmen, who had come to besiege Toulouse, had departed, The relics are carried away for a time to another place: the monks bring back the holy body and place it to be venerated with fitting services in the place where it had been before.

[13] Again, a certain girl, blind from birth, believing without doubt that through the intercession of so great a Martyr she could receive sight, asked her sister to be brought to him as quickly as possible. While they were traveling together, they heard that he had been carried to a far distant land. another blind woman is illuminated: Unable to reach it because of the severity of winter and the rough mountain ridges, the blind girl urged her sister to make candles from the wax they had brought with them, and to carry them at least to the place where the holy body had paused for a while on its journey. For she had heard that the place was famous for miracles, so that even animals lacking reason, if disabled, were healed upon touching it. When they had done this, and both had prostrated themselves there groaning, after prayer was poured out, the woman who had come ignorant of light began to cry out that she could see clearly.

[14] a blasphemer is punished, In the same territory of Albi there was a certain fisherman named Ubidandus, who, seeing his companions going to fish lingering at the aforesaid place for the sake of veneration, rebuked them saying: "I would rather you worshipped all the trees of this forest; you who, by your indiscriminate consideration, consecrate all the open spaces of the roads with the religion of a prayer chapel." At these words, immediately his insolent mouth was twisted upward toward his ear, and became more monstrous than can be described. Then, repenting, he ran to the aforesaid place and, stretched out with his whole body, confessed that he had been insulting and blasphemous. Then he went quickly to the church he is healed by the intercession of S. Vincent. in which the body of the holy Levite and Martyr was being honored: and he visited it at every hour of the day and night until he was healed.

[15] Other miracles. With this light thus spread far and wide, even those blind from birth were illuminated when brought, the functions of the senses were restored to the deaf and mute, the lame were cured, the possessed were cleansed with their demons driven out, and those burdened by the affliction of any other infirmity, both present and absent, were made whole. Whence a certain poor woman, deprived of sight for a long time, when she was being led to the holy Martyr, was abandoned in the middle of the journey by her guides, weary with tedium and labor, and asked one of the bystanders A blind woman receives her sight, to at least offer candles (the small gifts of her blindness) lit before the altar of the holy Martyr. When he wished to receive them with extended hand, they were seen by the woman herself; and drawing back her arm, she now seeks neither a guide nor a bearer of them, but cheerful and seeing more clearly day by day, she completes the journey she had begun, even outrunning many, and at last arrives at the tomb of the Blessed Vincent. Where, with her burning candles offered not through another but by herself, she received full power of sight.

[16] Similar to this is the miracle performed in the territory of Rodez, which is commonly called Rodinigus. a cripple receives the ability to walk and strength. A certain man with contracted knees, when being led to S. Vincent, was left alone and weeping in the middle of the journey by his cowardly, lazy, and inhumane guides. But because the Lord does not cease to mercifully hear the prayers of those crying out to Him from whatever strait of necessity, He immediately takes pity on the wretched man, and drenching him with heavenly medicine, makes the prostrate and disabled man stand upright: so much so that, walking with great strides, he soon overtook his deserters. They, thunderstruck by so great a miracle, began to accuse themselves and vehemently reproach themselves for having so lazily and mercilessly deserted one worthy of the benefit of the heavenly remedy.

[17] It was the custom, as we have mentioned, of the aforesaid Congregation that all women should be barred from entering the monastery. Therefore the Brethren of that same monastery had prudently provided that the body of the Blessed Vincent, Levite and Martyr, should be placed in the basilica of Mary, Mother of God, to which women had free access. But indeed, in the course of time, as this gathering ceased over the days, they brought it into the older church of the monastery and placed it behind the altar of the Blessed Benedict, until his own temple should be completed. After this, a woman who had been blind for many years attempted to enter all the way to the place where the Saint lay: but someone meeting her pushed her back and forced her to go away sadly. She, sighing and raising the eyes of her mind to heaven, prayed as a suppliant that the consolation of the holy Martyr might come to her. And thus amid floods of tears she expelled her blindness.

[18] In a certain place adjacent to the same monastery, which is called Waldarius's cell, this memorable proclamation of power shone forth. For when troops of soldiers were spread out near that same place, the monks approached Ermengaud, Count of Albi, a sacrilegious man is punished: enemies are kept from the crops: praying that he might protect their crops from the invasion of the enemy and the grazing of their horses. For in those parts there are very few meadows. He ordered four altar cloths of the church of S. Vincent, offered by poor women, to be taken and tied to the same number of staffs or poles, and fixed in a circle around the flourishing field, so that by that sign the enemies might refrain from plundering the harvest. But one of them, despising such a sign, struck one cloth with its staff to the ground, and was struck on the forehead by the hooves of the horse which he was striving to lead into those very crops, and breathed his last. When this was heard and spread among the enemy, fear fell upon all, and the evident judgment of God and the prevailing merit of the holy Martyr were proclaimed everywhere by all.

[19] Nearly similar to this deed is what follows. For when the lord Alberic the monk had set out with Brother Helia to the territory of Empúries and was staying in the town of his obedience, called Garricula, enemies came upon them, robbers of horses are punished: who plundered the territory and town, sparing no one. They even led away the horses of Alberic himself, and he could not obtain that at least one, which he knew to be the stronger, might be returned. But that very horse which was requested, as if the avenger of a double injury—namely, of the robbery and of the just demand for return—struck the robber with its hooves on the bare head and delivered him to death. At this the terrified accomplices of the iniquity, leaving behind not only the horses but also whatever they had plundered in the same town, fled.

[20] a mute and deaf man obtains speech and hearing. The following example of a mute and deaf man cured will bring this to a close. A certain illustrious man named George had a servant who was mute and deaf: when he was being led to the tomb of S. Vincent the Levite and Martyr, being no more than about twelve miles from the monastery, he began to speak and to hear those speaking without impediment. Then he asked his companions to bring him quickly to the place, in order to give thanks to the holy Martyr. Which they did, to the glory and praise of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who makes His Saints triumph everywhere with wonderful power; whose honor and dominion remains without end forever and ever, Amen.

THE SAME HISTORY DESCRIBED IN VERSE

By the same Aimoin.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

BHL Number: 8646

By Aimoin the monk.

PREFACE TO THE MONK THEOTGER.

To the chief of the Levites, the Lord Theotger, who, in accordance with the consonant etymology of his name, bears God, Aimoin his fellow minister sends greeting.

To your praiseworthy charity, my sweetest Theotger, who with frequent zeal busies yourself with my care, being devout in obeying you in all things, I, your camel, willingly bend myself to bear the burden imposed upon me by you. These following verses were written at the request of Theotger. For your affection compels me to make, after the prose work has been completed, a new thing and one wonderful for its brevity: two little books again concerning the coming of the blessed Levite and Martyr of Christ, Vincent: which I shall enclose individually in thirty verses each, with ten headings placed in each. Whence I prefer to seem as a fresh writer rather than to absent myself in any way from your love, sweeter to me than honey, on any occasion.

BOOK ONE.

1. When twice four hundred and ten times five cycles had revolved, And four more besides, from Christ the Bishop, Audaldus sets out for Valencia: Born of the ever-sacred Virgin seed, Audaldus, known by such a name, Was a monk at Castres, approved by the common rule, And a priest bearing the honor of holy Aaron. He, with one companion taken, endured Many bitter things; but turning all to sweet savors, Boldly he pressed on, until Valencia the city Should receive him, having undergone a pilgrim's contest. 2. Which the host of the Moor Zacharias's dwelling did: He reveals the secrets of his breast to that one: with the help of the Moor Zacharias he finds the tomb of S. Vincent: That for the love alone of God's Levite and Martyr Vincent, he had come down to the lands of Spain: Hence with gentle prayers caressing his mind and heart, He purchases the Moor with coins of desired silver. At length arising they seek the enclosures of the monument: Which shine forth openly with this inscription: HERE LIES VINCENT

THE LEVITE, FOUNDED IN THE HONOR OF MARTYRDOM.

For names inscribed marked the lineage of his parents. 3. These signs of evidence having been revisited by night, With strength applied they dig and open the tomb. by night he takes the body; And they bring forth the sacred body, with a lantern serving, By heavenly indication of the sweetness of the accomplished truth, Which, growing above, surpassed all aromatics. And when for these bindings there was need of wrapping, Audaldus uses his cowl sewn of linen. Thence they return home joyful under the shining stars, With Audaldus awaiting the day of returning to his homeland, Which he did cheerfully, having found a favorable time thereafter.

BOOK TWO.

1. Caesaraugusta left behind through the fraud of Senior, he brings it to the monastery of Castres. And other things omitted, as it would take long to tell, To Castres, the fair cell of Father Benedict, The Martyr and holy Levite of Christ arrived. What joys there were at his coming, no one Bearing a hundred mouths could express in words. What the reception was like in beautiful array by the monks, Only Jesus, who was witness, knows: With fitting golden ornaments poured out everywhere, With gem-like verdure radiating all the way to heaven. 2. Then there was cause to laugh at the woman of such pride, Who refused to believe in the body of the holy Levite; Contending rather that it was perhaps a stinking Moor: Immediately she was contracted, prostrated on the ground With her failing limbs, the hope of fleeting life removed. A doubting woman is punished with contraction, But brought to the Saint, with faith being born, she is healed; And she who came by cart departed cured on foot. First by this sign, performed with such great power, Afterwards also many more followed, which number cannot know, Noted also partly in the prose account. She is healed by the invocation of the Saint. 3. For before the doors of the monastery, in the hall of the Mother of God, These things were being performed under the immense gift of Christ, While a temple was being built for the Saint under his own honor; To which the peaceful one might at last deservedly migrate when buried, And which both male and female coming together might visit. The body of the Saint is honorably deposited. Meanwhile, as the urn of time flowed by, it pleased them To raise the sacred body from there, and worthily to place it Behind the altar of the pious holy Father Benedict: Where he is venerated with the full worship of due honor, Shining duly with continual signs of powers.

Through the granting of the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, the good and benign Savior of the world: who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God forever and ever, Amen.

ON THE RELICS OF S. VINCENT

Translated to Lusitania.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

Year of Christ 1173 15 September.

From various sources.

Section I. The relics of S. Vincent brought to Lisbon.

[1] "Lisbon is noble for many things," says our Antonius Vasconcellius, "but especially for the body of the most invincible Martyr Vincent; which Alphonsus Henricus, the most pious King of the Portuguese, That the relics of S. Vincent were translated to Lisbon, deposited in the principal church, for both its safeguarding and adornment, not without a celebrated ceremony." Very many writers agree, although Diago and others object. And Resendius indeed rejects Aimoin's narrative as fabulous. But we by no means doubt that either a part of the body of the great Vincent, or the complete body of some Saint of the same name, fell to each of them; especially on account of the illustrious miracles performed in both places by the invocation of the Saint: without which neither would entirely certain faith perhaps be given to the monk Audaldus, narrating nearly incredible things about the cruelty of the Bishop of Caesaraugusta; nor to the Mozarab monks, recounting a matter received solely by the tradition of their ancestors.

[2] Concerning these relics and the whole translation, Resendius writes thus: "We shall not adduce monastic thefts, but the public annals of the kingdom, and the history of Alphonsus Henricus, the first King of the Portuguese—not only that which circulates in the Portuguese language, by Duarte Galvano, a noble man of varied learning, Resendius proves it from the Annals of Lusitania; not so much composed as reduced to an epitome, but also the ancient one, written in Latin from the times of that King himself, as those times allowed, which is reverently preserved by the Canons of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, where the same King is buried. In these, then, we read that Alphonsus Henricus in the memorable battle in the territory of Ourique routed Ismar and four other Kings of the Saracens, and put them to flight, stripped of their camps, with many thousands killed. When he returned to Coimbra, S. Theotonius met him, offering congratulations. When Theotonius had seen among the captives a considerable number who said they were Christians, called Mozarabs—that is, as they interpret it, 'mixed Arabs'—he asked the King that they be given their freedom. When the King had called them to him and asked who they were and from what nations, they replied that they were indeed Valentians by origin, but had been inhabitants of that promontory which juts out into the sea at the borders of the Algarve. Their ancestors had fled from Valencia together with the body of the most sacred Martyr Vincent, out of fear of the approaching Abd al-Rahman, and had settled on that promontory and built poor dwellings there, by the indication of Mozarabs next to a chapel where they might guard the body of the holy Martyr. And there they had remained until a certain powerful Moor, coming there for the purpose of hunting, had killed their parents, and they as children had been carried off as captives. As a certain sign of the matter, they said that they could point to the fact that, if the little houses still remained, at least the crows, which had frequented that chapel in a familiar manner from the time when the most blessed Martyr had been brought there—whence it had come about that the Moors called that promontory the Mountain of Crows—they are sought, would still be doing so according to their former custom. The King, hearing these things, inflamed with desire, entered into deliberation and approved that a truce of some days be made. And when he had gone there in vain, the appearance of the place being already disfigured by neglect, he then indeed returned with the matter unaccomplished."

[3] "But when the Saracens had been gradually defeated afterwards and Lisbon captured, his desire to find the Martyr burned, and for that reason he built a monastery of Canons and named it for S. Vincent. Finally, in the twenty-sixth year after the capture of Lisbon, when Allibo Jacob, the King of Seville, was requesting a truce for five years, he granted it solely for the sake of this matter, and sent to the promontory, now empty of Saracens, armed men in a ship, and together with them the elders from among those Mozarabs; who would better remember the places. There, having humbly adored the Divinity, they are found, they finally found, by the indication of the crows, traces of the little houses and the chapel, and with many excavations having opened the earth and the rubble cleared away, they found a wooden receptacle for the sacred body beneath the ruined altar of the chapel. And when, in the process of collecting the half-decayed receptacle, one of those present had secretly hidden a small bone, he collapsed as if deranged and blinded, until he produced what he had hidden in his bosom. Then, when the body had been placed in the ship, two crows, one on the prow and the other on the stern, settled there, as familiar nurslings of the Saint, and did not fly away from there, but accompanied the holy relics of their Patron in the ship. At last they landed at Lisbon, with crows accompanying near the shrine of the Saints Justa and Rufina, at which place a gate of the city still exists, called that of S. Vincent. For the sea extended that far at that time, though it was gradually pushed back afterwards, leaving room for the city to be enlarged. Then in the silence of the night, to avoid a disturbance, the body was carried to the shrine of Justa. they are brought But when day broke and the report had spread, an armed multitude gathered with diverse enthusiasms, and it was not far from coming to arms. Then Gonsalvo Viega, the prefect of the royal militia, hurried up and settled the sedition, and persuaded them that the will of the King, who was absent at that time, should be awaited. Finally Robert, the Dean of the principal church, in his own name and that of the Chapter, secretly met with Munio, the Rector of S. Justa, and obtained permission for the body to be carried to the principal church. The King did not disapprove of what had been done, although he had it in mind to place it in the monastery of Canons named by himself for the holy Martyr. Nor was the King content, but sent again to the promontory for those who might more diligently search whether anything yet remained. A part of the skull was still found, and some fragments of the receptacle. The King, as a memorial of what had been accomplished, gave to the city of Lisbon its arms: a ship bearing the image of the holy Martyr near the mast, and two crows, one sitting on the prow and the other on the stern. And in the place where the holy body had long been hidden, he had a noble church built, and he changed the name of the promontory and brought it about that after this it should be called that of S. Vincent." This is the summary of the Portuguese history.

[4] Thus Resendius, who adds that the insignia and ancient paintings, witnesses of the event, are seen everywhere; and he adduces another testimony of the Arab Rasis: "Rasis the Moor," he says, "the historian of Dalharab, Miramamolin of the Moroccans and King of Cordoba, began to write the antiquities of Spain, so as to compile the annals of the Saracen Kings who had reigned in Spain, which still exist. The title of the book is: 'Here begins the book of Rasis, the historian of Dalharab, Miramamolin of the Moroccans and King of Cordoba, which he composed at his command. It was translated into the Portuguese tongue from the Arabic he proves it likewise by the testimony of the Moor Rasis, by me, Master Mahomet the Saracen, a noble architect. And Aegidius Petri, Clerk of the Lord Peter, son of John of Portello, father of the Lord John Avolinus, was writing with me.' This Rasis, then, concerning the mountains, rivers, and cities of Spain, concerning the ancient Kings of Spain before the Romans, concerning the Romans and the Goths, writes some things aptly, very many ineptly, in the way that pagan writers and poets have spoken, as if in a dream, about the sacred things of divine Scripture, wrapping everything in fables. Yet when he comes to the times of the Saracen Kings, which are better known to him, he is to be judged a not contemptible writer. Therefore, concerning Abd al-Rahman the fourth of this name, the nineteenth of the Saracen Kings, these are his very words:"

[5] "In the year 138 of the Arab era, Abd al-Rahman, son of Muawiya, as Rasis narrates, when Abd al-Rahman was raging came to Spain. And having defeated and killed Joseph, he seized the kingdom of Spain. Abdelmelich, son of Abib, said that he had questioned the tutor of Abd al-Rahman and sought the truth about him from him—who his father was and from what family he sprang. The tutor had replied that the father of Abd al-Rahman had been Muawiya, a rustic farmer. When the Miramamolin had by chance stopped at his home, he had been cheerfully received as a guest, and, moved by the host's humanity, had taken him with him. Muawiya had conducted himself so industriously and wisely that in a short time he was first among the intimate friends of the Miramamolin." Then after some intervening matters that are not relevant, it continues: "This Abd al-Rahman brought all the cities and towns which the Saracens held in Spain under his power. He also waged war on the Christians. And setting out from Seville, he conquered Beja, Evora, Santarém, Lisbon, and the whole Algarve. And he afflicted the Christians of Spain in a remarkable manner. Nor was there any city or fortified town that could defend itself against his power. But the inhabitants, deserting the cities, fled to the mountains of Asturias. He destroyed all the churches of Spain which he still found intact. There were many and magnificently built, from the times of both the Greeks and the Romans. many bodies of Saints burned, He caused all the bodies of those in whom the Christians believe and whom they venerate and call Saints, seized from the churches, to be burned. Seeing this, the Christians, as each was able, fled with such possessions to the mountains and safe and inaccessible places. And so almost everything in Spain that was religiously maintained according to the faith of the Christians was carried away to the mountains of Asturias. That of S. Vincent carried to Lusitania. When however he had approached Valencia, the Christians who lived there had there the body of a certain dead man whose name was Vincent; and they worshipped him as though he were God. And those who had the body in their power persuaded the common people that this man made the blind to see, the mute to speak, and the lame to walk straight: and so they demented the foolish people. But when they learned of the approach of Abd al-Rahman, they feared that this deception would be uncovered, and they fled, carrying the body of that man with them. And Allibohaces, that good horseman of Fez, said that when one day he had come with his retinue to the seashore in the Algarve for the purpose of hunting, at the end of the mountain that enters that sea, he had found there the body of that man, with those who had fled with it from Valencia, who had made there little houses in which they lived. And the men he had killed, but the boys he had led away as captives, and the body of that man he had left there." Thus Rasis.

[6] Our Mariana also uses the testimony of this same Rasis, in book 7, On the Affairs of Spain, chapter 6. "In the year of salvation 759, in the 142nd year of the Arab Empire, John Mariana also proves this; all the Moors in Spain were recalled under the rule of one, and a new kingdom was founded, by Abd al-Rahman Ibn Umayyah, who was afterwards given the surname Adahil, as its founder; and the yoke of empire was thrown off which the Caliphs of Syria and the Miramamolins of Africa had imposed on Spain when it was first conquered. Valencia alone, a city of the Edetani in Tarraconensian Spain, persisting in the old faith, worn out by the arms and siege of Abd al-Rahman, at last submitted to the yoke of the new King. The Christian citizens of that city, out of fear of the barbarian conqueror, and lest religion should be a mockery to enemies of the Christian name, carrying away in their flight the bones of the Martyr Vincent, which they worshipped as God and which were celebrated by the fame of miracles (so speaks Rasis the Arab, a Moorish man), transported them to that part of the extreme of Lusitania where the Sacred Promontory runs out into the sea. Allibohazes of Fez, while pursuing hunting, found them and killed them: he led away the boys as captives: by whose indication it was afterwards shown where the sacred bones had been left. The name of the Promontory of S. Vincent was certainly given to the place from this event." The same Mariana, on the relics translated to Lisbon, book 11, chapter 16: "The Lusitanian King, mindful of Christian piety amid the tumults of war, himself from the Sacred Promontory—where, to inspect the place in person, he betook himself twice—took care to have the bones of the Martyr S. Vincent transferred to Lisbon in the principal church, and accomplished it in the year 1183." That it was done ten years earlier will be said below. The same Mariana, book 4, chapter 12: "His body (S. Vincent's) was translated from the Sacred Promontory, where it had been taken for fear of the Moors devastating all Spain (whence the name of the Promontory of S. Vincent), by Alphonsus, the first King of Lusitania, to Lisbon, the principal city of that province."

[7] In the Life of S. Anthony of Padua, which we shall give on 13 June, the following is found: "In Spain, in the city of Lisbon, and others. which is situated in the western region of the kingdom of Portugal, at the extreme boundaries of the earth, a certain very large church stands, built in honor of the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in which the precious body of the Blessed Martyr Vincent rests with honor." Juan Marieta, book 2, chapter 12, Carrillo, Aynsa, and many other writers on Spanish affairs subscribe to this.

Section II. The history of the Translation; the anniversary feast.

[8] The history of the translation was written by Stephen, the Precentor of the Church of Lisbon, By whom the history of the Translation was written: while Alphonsus Henricus, the first King of the Portuguese, who had arranged for it, was still living. This history, transcribed from an ancient codex of the most celebrated monastery of Alcobaca, entitled "The Third Part of the Passions," was sent to us from Madrid by Don Thomas Tamayo de Vargas, Historiographer of the Catholic King, a most distinguished man, who attested that it also exists in the archives of the principal Church of Lisbon.

[9] The anniversary commemoration of that Translation is observed with the solemnity of a double office on 15 September, the anniversary feast; which Pope Sixtus V approved on 24 March 1590, together with other proper offices of that Church, which Pedro Lourenco de Tavora, Canon of Lisbon, had arranged according to the norm of the Roman Breviary, by the mandate of the diocesan synod and his Bishop George de Almeida; who in his preface to Sixtus V himself writes among other things thus: "Since indeed the Church of Lisbon, by particular and most ancient use and right, celebrates a feast day each year on the 17th before the Kalends of October under a double office, for the translation of the same most holy Martyr Vincent, and on the same day another solemn procession of priests and all the people takes place in honor of the same Martyr; I have also composed a proper office of this feast, another ancient one having been set aside, its office, with such diligence as I could, for the slenderness of my talent (after the reformed Breviary), both to revive the nearly extinct memory of the translation and to again arouse, raise up, and increase the ancient devotion of all the people toward their Patron, now almost extinguished. Wherefore in the Responsories we have made mention of certain miracles of this holy Martyr, as is the custom of the Church; for these miracles are not indeed apocryphal, but preserved on parchment in the archive of the Church, confirmed by most ancient and trustworthy testimonies, and excellently depicted on an ancient panel of the altar and written out in gold letters. The Lessons we have taken from the history of the most religious and devout Andreas Resendius, who, by the consensus of all, was the best investigator of truth and antiquity, who also sang the triumph of Vincent in most elegant verses. The Hymns we have taken partly from Prudentius, with a few additions and changes; partly, however, they are composed in keeping with the faith of the history, with slender skill indeed, but in the meter which the Church also sometimes uses. Since indeed on the vigil of these two feasts, by the custom of the Archbishopric, under penalty of mortal guilt, a fast is enjoined on all, we have added the office of the Vigil, to preserve the custom of the Roman Church, and have taken it from the vigil of S. Laurence."

[10] its commemoration in the sacred Calendar. Under the same day, the Lusitanian Martyrology compiled by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus: "In the city of Lisbon, the Translation of the body of the renowned Martyr Vincent, from the promontory which took its name from him in the kingdom of the Algarve, to the same city of Lisbon, accomplished by the zeal of Alphonsus Henricus, the first King of Portugal, who ordered that sacred treasure to be placed in the Cathedral church of the same city, shortly before wrested by him from the Moors; which, since it venerates the holy Martyr as its particular patron, assumed as its insignia, as a perpetual monument of so great a benefit, the ship in which the sacred body was conveyed thither."

[11] Furthermore, while it was well established that the remains of S. Vincent were preserved in the principal church of Lisbon, in what part of it they were deposited was unknown to all, whether through the negligence of their ancestors or rather through the excessive care with which knowledge of the location had been communicated to only a few; who, having died, an ignorance had crept in. But when in the year 1614, in a certain chapel of that church, it was necessary to renovate something, the receptacle of the sacred pledges was found, with an inscription which testified that the relics of S. Vincent, brought there by ship with two crows following, had been deposited there. Then, with great applause and triumph, a celebration was held for three weeks, which the above-cited Francisco Diego de Aynsa-y-Yriarte describes at length and elegantly in book 2 of the Antiquities of Osca, chapter 18.

MIRACLES OF S. VINCENT PERFORMED AT LISBON,

By Stephen, Precentor of Lisbon. Extracted from ancient manuscripts by D. Thomas Tamayo de Vargas, Historiographer of the Catholic King.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

BHL Number: 8654a

By Stephen of Lisbon, from manuscripts.

CHAPTER I.

The relics of S. Vincent found.

[1] The Scriptures declare that Kings are happy who command just things; and they say nothing is more beneficial to human affairs than if, by God's mercy, those who have attained the knowledge of governing peoples hold the power; and that the power of those who fear, love, and worship God; who love more that kingdom where they do not fear to have companions; who make their power serve the divine majesty especially for extending the worship of God: is bestowed not so much for themselves as for their subjects. In these declarations of praise, the vigor of King Alphonsus has especially shone forth, who exercised his power for the expansion of the Church with such frequent wars that now, since he is mature in age and judgment, he sits formidable not only to his neighbors but also to other Kings; and his enemies prefer to try peace or friendship with him Praises of King Alphonsus I. rather than war; and he has so increased Lusitania with titles that its most important part, free from the enemies of the faith and filled with faithful peoples, pays abundant thanks and sacrifices of praise to the Lord. If any diligent observer examines the places which the illustrious King has either bestowed for divine worship and religion, or which he has enlarged or built anew with walls and peoples for the strengthening of the kingdom and the weakening of the enemy, he will surely confess, as far as human judgment allows, that a happy divine grace has been his lot. Since therefore the task of writing about the benefits which the homeland has received by the nod of God, while he reigned, surpasses me in my endeavor; setting aside other matters for which the capacity of my talent is by no means sufficient, I shall in the meantime touch upon in the narration of simple speech a few things which in his days exalt the city of Lisbon, through the regard of divine piety, beyond what can be believed.

[2] As therefore it has been most certainly believed through the writings and the narration of our ancestors, the most blessed athlete of God, Vincent, was crowned with martyrdom at Valencia and was buried there. But when, under King Roderic, Christianity was being destroyed through almost all of Spain The relics of S. Vincent brought to the Sacred Promontory: with the Saracens invading, certain religious men, seeking safer places, in a most remote place toward the West, which in Latin is called "Ad caput S. Vincentii de Corvo," but in Arabic EL KENICIET AL CORABH, that is, the church of the Crow, buried the aforesaid bones of the Martyr; and built cells, as many as that narrow place extending into the sea could accommodate; in which the glorious Martyr was served for some time by religious men, for the honor of God, and his service was performed, not without divine benefits, with much devotion. But when the aforesaid King Alphonsus, already from boyhood an exceedingly commendable and renowned young man, having often defeated enemies, overcome kings, and also devastated and captured cities, had begun to be a terror to the Moors, he approached the aforementioned place, armed with the power of both faith and nation, to bring the most blessed body away with him. sought by Alphonsus, but not found: But the King's pious devotion was rendered void not so much by carelessness or insufficient labor as by the will of the Martyr himself. It is fitting therefore to attend to the reasoning of the King himself on this matter, who says that the blessed Martyr did not wish to be found by the King because it was his pleasure to be venerated rather by the people of Lisbon; whereas the King's intention, if he found and brought it back, was to deposit it at Braga or Coimbra: especially since the divine mercy had not yet bestowed Lisbon upon him.

[3] Yet the care of his pious labor was not fruitless for the King. For he offered to the Lord a pleasing sacrifice of devotion and prayer, in memory of the most high Martyr: by whose aid and intercession it is credible that it came about that at the same time that the aforesaid King restored to Christian land very many Christians, who were called Mozarabs, as it were "mixed Arabs," from the servitude of the infidels: among whom were two brothers, religious men, of advanced age and monastic habit; who had spent their lives harmoniously in the aforesaid place by the indication of Mozarab monks, and in the service of the most blessed Martyr. Who, while they had lived honorably and devoutly at Lisbon, most diligently taught to very many who were especially eager to know, the knowledge of where they had learned from their predecessors that the Blessed Vincent had been placed. Whence after some time, when a definite knowledge of the places had been obtained, and at last, God willing, peace treaties between the oft-mentioned King and the Moors would make the journey to the aforesaid place safer, certain men, animated by good spirit and driven by divine impulse, prepared ships, and having gathered necessities, attempted the seas, overcame dangers, found, and arrived at the desired place by a happy voyage: where, persisting in vigils and prayers, they opened the earth around the designated places, and after much labor, through divine revelation, they found the much-desired body, translated. and placing the longed-for burden on the ship—with what joys, with what acts of thanksgiving, how glad, how cheerful they returned—it is not easy to recount.

CHAPTER II.

The relics translated to Lisbon.

[4] FIRST MIRACLE. It should not be passed over in silence that one of the companions who was present confessed that what happened had befallen himself: One who stole some is punished with blindness. namely, that while the sacred bones were being hastily collected amid great fear of the enemy, he had secretly stolen something from them. After which deed he remained deprived of sight until, quite trembling and sorrowful, he joined the part he had taken to the remaining parts, and immediately the office of his eyes was restored, with pardon obtained.

[5] SECOND MIRACLE. But certainly this too must be reckoned as not having happened without divine favor: that the sea around those parts always bristles with winds and waves, yet at that time it showed itself so mild and calm to those returning as if it had never been accustomed to be agitated by any disturbances. They come therefore to Lisbon, They are carried to Lisbon over a calm sea: and with God's guidance, entering the longed-for port, they touch the shore with joyful oar, and placing the most holy burden on pious shoulders, they bring it down from the ship. But lest the rash violence of certain people prevail to do harm, it was secretly carried in the night, as if with stealthy steps, to the shrine of the Blessed Virgin Justa. But when the event of so excellent a matter became known to the city, a concourse arose of both unarmed and armed. Some contended and argued violently that it should be deposited at the monastery of the regular canons dwelling outside the city: others, with a sounder opinion, cried out that the most holy body should be carried to the cathedral church. But Gonsalvus Ege, whom in those days the aforesaid King had appointed commander of the militia of Estremadura, a truly vigorous and discreet man, orders the violence and quarreling to be removed from the midst, and that the King's good pleasure on so great a matter should be awaited. Then finally Robert, Dean of the mother Church, a man acceptable to God and the people of the city, gathering his fellow Canons, lest the agitation of the populace should turn the matter otherwise, having disposed of matters here and there, gladly honors M., the Person of that church, they are carried to the principal Church. where the most holy body had first been deposited in the city; and they receive the body itself, advised by divine favor, with pious and joyful hands, and with the veneration of the whole city and divine hymns and praises, they carry it to the principal church, rejoicing indeed at the heavenly gift, and they honor it, placed with due veneration, with pious affections, with unceasing services, and finally with as much as human power permits.

[6] Therefore the aforesaid regular canons run to seek something of the relics of the precious Martyr, and reach the royal ears with such joyful reports that among those things which, by the favor of God, had been accustomed to go well for him while he lived, The King exults at the news, they said this had especially happened. You could therefore note the tears of his joy on the royal countenance: you could detect the pious soul in this Catholic man and commend the faithful one, whom you would see so joyful paying such great thanks, so greatly extolling and praising the divine clemency; and rightly: for he believed all this was done for the increase of his happiness. He rejoices that his city, namely the land of blessing, restored by the nod of God to Christian power by his special military service, is exalted in his times by so great a Martyr. He rejoices furthermore that the Church, which he himself established and enriched for the honor of God and the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded with his own hand and expense, and having been built, he endowed with more ample benefices in the course of time; this Church, I say, he rejoices is to be most excellently preferred over the other neighboring Churches by the many gifts of divine grace, and especially by these relics of the glorious Martyr now present.

[7] Therefore, moved by true piety and prudence in the highest degree, he urges and commands that commendable and vigorous men should hasten with swift step to the place where the sacred body had been found, and whatever dust or apparatus of the tomb, or bones, had been left behind through the carelessness of others, they should bring back with vigilant care and all diligence. he orders the remains of the tomb to be sought out; All of which was accomplished with the haste and success with which it is known that he who gave these orders had desired it. For those who had been sent return, and they compose the sacred ashes, the wood of the tomb, a part of the skull, and with the remaining parts, at Lisbon, with the immense veneration of the citizens. But how great is the sweetness of the wonderful odor of the wood even to the present day for those wishing to experience it: whence a sweet odor emanates. if they are admitted closer, a wonderful fragrance and most sweet odor meets them.

CHAPTER III.

Various miracles performed at the relics.

[8] THIRD MIRACLE. But this should not be passed over, which Master Benedict, our Precentor, a man serious in life and character, recently experienced. The same fragrance perceived afterwards. When, according to his custom, he had approached rather closely to the altar, next to which the most holy bones are placed, with the intention of praying, he felt himself drenched with such great fragrance and sweetness of odor that, as if touched by a stupor of mind and ecstasy, he gave himself to prayer for so long until that odor, like the brightness of some smoke, departed.

[9] The day is therefore recorded, and the grateful memory is happily celebrated, on which the body of the most blessed Vincent is established to have been translated to the Church of Lisbon: which joyful translation is fixed as the 17th before the Kalends of October, in the year of the Lord 1173, in the 45th year of the reign of King Alphonsus, and in the 67th year of the life of the same Alphonsus, with Sancius, the son of the same King, reigning jointly, a youth of 19 years of wonderful character; The time of the translation. and the 26th year from the capture of the aforesaid city.

[10] Since therefore the presence of so glorious a Martyr pertains to the happiness of the whole kingdom, the people of Lisbon above all are held by a constant obligation to bless the divine clemency for so excellent a benefit with unceasing praises, to extol it with many acts of thanksgiving, and to proclaim it in all things with magnificent speech. For although they have a land incomparably good by divine power, a land, I say, commendable for the fruits of every kind, abundant in oil, wine, and grain, most healthful in its air, copious in the blessing of its waters; yet by this present gift of heavenly origin it can, in our judgment, be placed before the other cities of its neighborhood. For on account of this present gift, He who is wonderful in majesty and glorious in His Saints performs wonderfully great and magnificently wonderful things, through the grace of His accustomed goodness, every single day. For demons are driven out from possessed bodies, the mute are made to speak, the ability to walk is restored to the lame, those in peril at sea are aided, the blind are illuminated, money stolen by theft is wonderfully returned, women are healed of a prolonged flow of blood, those with twisted limbs are made straight, various diseases are expelled from human bodies: Very many miracles at the relics. those who do not ascribe these to the divine grace or the merits of the most blessed Martyr Vincent are to be considered not only ungrateful for God's benefits, but also utterly alien from the number of the faithful. Therefore, being about to treat in order of the aforesaid miracles, lest the divine benefits escape the knowledge of posterity, although the abundance overwhelms me in my undertaking, nevertheless, as these and very many deeds are known to have occurred, I shall relate them as briefly as I can. When therefore, with so great miracles heard of, fame drew peoples from here and there, and summoned some to see the wonderful things, others to glorify the name of the Lord; hope, however, hastens most of them even more, that through the divine mercy and the merits of Vincent, health may be restored to sick bodies or to minds vexed by an evil spirit.

[11] FOURTH MIRACLE. I myself saw, and the very great multitude that was present, a girl already of marriageable age, born of parents in Lisbon, carried by the service of others to the church in which the aforesaid Martyr Vincent is honored. While by the gesture of her disabled body and with the obstructed function of her throat she was indicating that she wished to be placed at the altar, the surrounding crowd asked her parents by what disease so great a misery fatigued the girl. A sick, mute, frantic girl is healed. They reported that she had been burdened for some days by a great affliction of sickness; that at last, touched by madness, she had lost her speech, and that therefore they wished, since human aid was failing, to implore the divine mercy. As they were saying these things, the girl was placed before the sacred relics in prayer. While the surrounding people prayed for her with pious tears and common vows, an unusual quiet and a certain sweetness of slumber soothed the limbs of the girl; yet so that with a gentler motion she seemed to the bystanders to be moved here and there: whence she was soon roused, stronger than herself, and with the function of her limbs restored, with all stupefied at the wonderful event, she rises, and the mouth, which had been bound by the exacting fault, is immediately made free by the Lord's loosening, and ready for the praise of Him and the most glorious Martyr. She cries out therefore and testifies that, while she lay half-asleep, a man in white had appeared to her, and when she asked who it was that approached so beautiful, "I am," he said, "Vincent, who have restored you to health": and seizing the girl's hand, as it had seemed to her, he raised her up, commanding her to rise and declare what she had felt bestowed upon her by the gift of divine goodness. What praises therefore, what voices of exultation, what tears of joy, with the bells of the city sounding everywhere, man, woman, every age, and finally the whole city running together poured forth to the divine goodness—it is all the less possible for us to express adequately, the more the great works of God surpass the human breast in excellence.

[12] FIFTH MIRACLE. About the same time a certain Canon of our Church had reached such a degree of affliction and weakness from the heat of fevers, already for many days, Fevers driven away. that he could scarcely approach the church, drawn by the hope of salvation: in which, having passed the night, with the vigils completed in prayer, he returned home strong, his health restored.

[13] SIXTH MIRACLE. In a similar manner a certain little boy, the son of the master of the aforesaid works, obtained health through the most blessed Martyr. Such a deformity appeared on his face from an injury that A boy's injured and deformed face is restored. the injuries both struck horror into his parents and the despair of healing saddened them not a little. The pain of their son therefore moved the devotion of the parents, and as is the custom, when human aid is despaired of, they as suppliants implore the divine aid. They come therefore to S. Vincent, carrying a light with both faith and hands, they set the three-year-old boy before the sacred relics, they teach the little boy the words with which he should ask Vincent for healing. You could be moved in spirit, you could be pierced in mind, seeing the tongueless and stammering child on bended knees, with tears poured out, standing and repeating these words with his parents: "O S. Vincent, give me health; and I shall be your servant as long as I live." When these words had been repeated several times, a healthy and beautiful face was indeed restored to the boy, nor was the tender face any further marked by any spot of disease.

[14] SEVENTH MIRACLE. Meanwhile a certain woman, truly faithful and God-fearing, dwelt near the aforesaid church, who for many years had labored with a flow of blood and great affliction; A woman healed from a flow of blood. besides which, her money having been spent on the ignorance of physicians, she had learned there was no help. With faith and prayer she approached Vincent, asked for health, and received it in this manner: after making her prayer, S. Vincent appeared to her while she slept, commanding her to put on washed and clean garments; that she would have no further evil which she had suffered for ten years. The effect of the promised healing followed these words. For thenceforth the woman, freed from the aforesaid misery, glorifies the clemency of God and the benefit of Vincent with grateful speech, confesses to the people that she is well, proclaims the heavenly mercy, and extols the grace of the health given today.

CHAPTER IV.

Other healings of the infirm.

[15] EIGHTH MIRACLE. In those same days a certain little girl, said to be about eight years old, arrived at the protection of the most glorious Martyr, accompanied by her parents, to be freed from a demon. A possessed girl is freed. In her dwelt an enemy so troublesome and severe that he tormented her with such a laborious attack three or four times a day that her sick limbs could scarcely be sustained by her own breath. It is credible that He who raises up those who are falling and lifts up all who are cast down looked upon the afflictions of this suffering girl, and after some vigils and prayers at night, with the violence and insolence of the oppressing enemy driven away, through the prayers of the most blessed Martyr, He restored the girl to health and preserved her safe and sound thereafter.

[16] But concerning the two crows, which have now been seen often by many arriving with eager flight under the arch and vault of the front of the church, Crows in the church of S. Vincent. certain scoffers ungrateful for divine piety mock. But I indeed consider it to have been much more incredible—indeed more incredible because more wonderful—and yet it is most true, that a bird of insatiable voracity and devoted to gluttony, forgetful of its voracious nature, was able not only to refrain from touching the flesh of the most holy Martyr, worn by iron, flame, and manifold punishment, but also to guard it uninjured from other birds, and, what is more to be wondered at, from wild beasts. Could not this bird, even fasting, by the divine will feed a holy Prophet for forty days, and could it not fly to the aforesaid church, even as testimony of the holy body? Wherefore, so that those who with more open madness envy the divine powers may go more widely astray, let the narrative follow the order of the proposed account; and those whom neither things wonderful to hear or to see incline to the praise of the divine majesty, may a greater cause of harshness...

[17] NINTH MIRACLE. There was at Lisbon a seven-year-old girl who was paralytic, whose face was drawn with such great deformity that, having lost the passage of the natural airway, her mouth, twisted by the force of the disease toward one of her ears, barely emitted the breath of drawn air approximately at intervals. Whence her parents, having heard that the aforesaid glorious Martyr was relieving many such from their infirmities, brought the girl to the oft-mentioned church; A girl's face, hideously distorted, is restored. and they laid down their offerings at the sacred relics with much groaning and contrition of heart: and lest I hold the narrative longer than necessary, they present the girl to the divine clemency and to the most blessed Vincent, admonished to pray as a suppliant as much as she could. Without delay: as if stupefied and terrified by a new sight, and rising in an office truly not her own, yet cheerful and whole, with her mouth restored and returned to its place, she speaks, and before the wondering people who were present, she confesses in order how the Blessed Vincent appeared to her, and by the touch of his own hand applied to her sick jaw, restored the face and health of the girl. Therefore a joyful shout rises to the stars in the whole city, and in the highest the Clergy with the people raise glory and praises of acclamation to the Lord; they bless the God and Lord of Israel, who visits His people through such great miracles and deigns to show such admirable mercy to the nation in the glorious Martyr. The people marvel at and proclaim the blessed face of the girl, which merited to be touched by so great and sacred a hand, and to have health by so happy a touch.

[18] TENTH MIRACLE. The mind hesitates, and while very many things worthy of memory and greatly to be wondered at rush before my eyes, I confess I do not know which of these many should especially be preferred to the others. For as to the present, it will perhaps seem to many to be superfluous to commit to writing very many things which are celebrated, being most well known, by the mouths of all in recent memory. For it can be sufficient by common knowledge that the master of the works of the aforesaid church rejoices, and by himself, with as much eloquence as he can, proclaims how he was given health by the Blessed Vincent. But nevertheless, because the glorious Martyr must be believed to have taken care not only for the master but also for the aforesaid work, therefore I seem to owe a fuller explanation of the gift of the divine clemency given to this man. He, having set out by royal command to search for a place A certain man miserably crushed by a fall, from which stones might more easily be quarried for building the church (for it happens that squared stones are obtained at Lisbon with the greatest difficulty and at much expense)—with this purpose, I say, while he was going around the more suitable places for stones, the mule on which he was riding, passing through rough and pathless stretches of the mountain, slipped by so sudden a fall that it hurled its burden far from itself, and the thrown man, crushed between the stones, was compressed by its own mass rolling upon him from above. Those who were nearest therefore ran up, and lifting the half-dead man, freed him, and changing the Master's name ask whether he is fully alive. He, while he hesitates and marvels whether he is alive, at last answers those asking that he does not know which part of his injured body a greater distress was afflicting; for an equal pain had, as it were, worn down his body as if by a single injury; yet he complains more about the loosened structure of his ribs. After two days, therefore, brought back to Lisbon, quite ill, by whatever means, and with the skill of physicians despaired of, he is presented to the most blessed Martyr by the hands of others. Where, having spent one night in suppliant watching, he is healed by invoking S. Vincent. when morning came, with his limbs restored and the affliction driven away, he returned home healthy and sound with a firm step; and with grateful spirit and joyful speech he declares to his wife and rejoicing household how great a grace he received from the divine goodness.

[19] ELEVENTH MIRACLE. At the same time there was a certain young man from Guimaraes, so long worn out by quartan fevers with such great weakness that, with physicians availing nothing, he was yielding to his final collapse, A long-standing quartan fever driven away. and was fearfully awaiting the hour in which he would close his day. Yet having heard of the wonderful works of God and the Blessed Vincent, he gathers hope in his mind, and proposes and vows to visit the glorious Martyr; and while he hastens his way, before he arrives at the desired place, he is freed from the long affliction of fevers. He completes the promised journey, his grateful mother accompanying him, and having presented the gifts of the offering of the Mass, he declares before the people, glorifying the Lord, what the most blessed Martyr had done for him today.

[20] TWELFTH MIRACLE. At that same time also a young woman, given in marriage a few days before, suffered a dissolution of the sinews; and having lost the use of one side, she was carried to the church by the service of her parents and prostrated before the sacred relics, One laboring with contraction of the sinews is cured: in the hope of obtaining health. While her parents offered prayer and tears for her, the girl gradually recovered herself, and raised her limbs more strongly from the places where she had lain, and with the hand which had formerly been useless for action she placed her fallen mantle back on her shoulder, and with the rest of her limbs restored to their accustomed use, to her mother's inquiry she replies that she is cheerful and well through the Blessed Vincent: she extends her hand as proof of health, and rising with her step restored to her feet, she says she has been healed and wishes to go home, with the crowd of those present marveling.

[21] THIRTEENTH MIRACLE. She is warned, however, by the clerics who were present, to abstain for three days, and is enjoined not to use the embraces of her husband until, with vigils and prayers, she should make a fitting memorial to God and the glorious Martyr for the remembrance of the health given. Refusing to hear them, indulging untimely in pleasure, she is seized by the same affliction: while a feast was being prepared by her parents with joy, she mingled with her husband in forbidden kisses. Whence, defrauded of the gift of health conferred shortly before—no doubt, as I judge, as evidence of disobedience—she even lost her speech, with her tongue impeded. Sadder therefore, she is led back to where she had come with health; and after a short delay, with a vow of a better life made, she is healed again. she returned, made well again by a renewed gift of divine goodness. But although the most blessed Martyr is certainly very beneficent in the miracles of granting healings, he is also a consoler of the poor who are oppressed in things stolen by theft or taken away by other means, and a useful restorer of lost property.

CHAPTER V.

Lost property recovered by the aid of S. Vincent.

[22] FOURTEENTH MIRACLE. For a certain man dwells in our neighborhood, a man without reproach, God-fearing and his friend, rich some days before and abounding among his peers, the soldiers of Estremadura, in necessary things. But, as the lot of the present life entangles most mortals, poverty and old age had also overtaken his final days as things turned out badly. A certain man recovers a lost ox by invoking S. Vincent. Yet the moderation of a prudent man makes his poverty, while he bears it patiently, milder. But the misery of the man proceeded in the course of time to such a point that he lost one ox, the best particle of his entire little estate, while it wandered through the mountains without a keeper. After the aforesaid man had anxiously searched for it for some days, scouring the land through road and pathless ways, touched by the weariness of his misfortunes, broken by winter, fasting, and fruitless wandering, on bended knees, with tears and groaning impeding his words, he spoke thus: "O glorious Martyr Vincent, if it is a constant and undoubted truth that the most holy relics of your body are at Lisbon, by looking upon my misery, I beseech you, restore to me what I seek." At these words he immediately heard the lowing of a cow, as if coming from nearby, and as very thick mists were snatching away his sight, hearing the repeated sounds, he proceeded with a better step, and recognized the cow presented to his eyes, very happy and joyful, and giving thanks to God and the glorious Martyr, he led it back home.

[23] FIFTEENTH MIRACLE. But no less remarkable was the proof of piety which a certain man dwelling at Lisbon experienced in those same days. He had received from a friend a deposit of money, four gold coins, to keep safe: he was a man of slender means, but abounding in faithful character and life. He and his wife prepared sustenance for their children and themselves by the labor of their hands, possessing nothing except the house in which they sheltered. It happened however that a certain man, knowing him familiarly, came to the place, already known and noted, where the aforesaid money had been placed: and having stolen the gold coins secretly, he took to flight Money deposited with him, and crossed the Tagus to Almada. He who had committed the money to what he thought was faithful keeping, after a few days, at the pressing of necessity, asks for the gold. secretly stolen by theft; When the aforesaid citizen thought he had it ready at hand and did not find it when sought, with a bloodless face and his tongue failing from grief, he answers that the money had been stolen from him by theft. His wife immediately with a mournful wailing moved the neighborhood to tears and with a miserable voice cried out that she was wretched and would never again rise above the discomforts of poverty. The wretched man is therefore led before the Magistrate into court, and because he had lost nothing of his own property along with the lost money, he is judged, according to the custom of the land, to repay it. Anxious therefore amid such great troubles, he asks for a delay: he returns home sad, having little counsel about what he should do with his wife. She, having consulted soothsayers, says the money had been carried all the way to Francosa, a town seven days' journey from Lisbon. (After consulting fortune-tellers in vain,) Despairing therefore of pursuing the thief across so great a distance, they proposed to sell their house for whatever price they could get, intending to dwell afterwards under some cave, to beg for sustenance and bread from door to door in their ultimate misery.

[24] The husband returns, however, to his wife, and with tears welling up addresses her thus pitifully: "O wife," he says, "behold, S. Vincent bestows consolations on the wretched who ask, and before our eyes no one approaches the presence of his relics with a suppliant heart and a pure mind who does not carry back the desired remedies with him. Let us therefore arise, and, as our means allow, offering a gift and rather our spirit, let us lay the tears of our complaint before him; and unless hope deceives the mind, a swift remedy from his piety will be at hand for our grief." This speech pleased both, and having presented the gifts they had prepared for the offering, they celebrate vigils; and after spending part of the night in prayer, they receive certain knowledge about the lost money. by the aid and admonition of S. Vincent, For someone appearing to the husband in a vision said: "Go to Almada, and the person who meets you first, coming from the fortress, will give you certain information about your money." He therefore sails at dawn, and arriving quickly at the indicated place, he immediately encountered a man carrying gold coins, and is first greeted by him in a friendly manner. "I know," said the one who had committed the theft, "that you are seeking your gold coins; but if you will always keep silent about my name and keep secret what I shall confess to you about this matter, I will send you back happy to your wife with the money returned." Having given his word and promised silence about the ill-done deed, the other also promised with a willing spirit to give him part of the money. But the other said, "By no means will I any longer keep back anything of it; he recovers it, because from the moment I wrongly took these, my mind, driven by harsh terrors, as if by a new alienation, with the thief divinely compelled to restore it. with rest removed, was violently stupefied." The man therefore receives the gold rejoicing, and returns home most happily, and brings his consolations with him to his wife, who was to rejoice at so great a benefit from the most pious Martyr.

[25] SIXTEENTH MIRACLE. By a similar grace of piety, a certain very poor woman, Another receives back cloths that were stolen: finding that cloths she had taken in for washing had been stolen and could not be found, returning from the Martyr whom she had besought, found them placed at home and fully restored.

[26] Another woman also, very wretched, who lived in the suburb of Lisbon, had received ten gold coins from the alms of the above-mentioned King for ransoming her son, another, money: and not finding them after they had been taken away, she poured out a prayer with tears and asked the Blessed Vincent for mercy, and returning home, she met a piglet she had raised, presenting the aforesaid gold in its mouth at the feet of its mistress.

[27] SEVENTEENTH MIRACLE. A certain man at the same time had bought rabbit skins, and hoping for profit, had spent all he had in purchasing them so that he might work on them. another, skins. While he devoted his attention to preserving them with somewhat negligent effort, he lost them to another who was more careful about attending to the possessions of others: for which, having searched nearly the whole city, he at last had recourse to better counsel and to imploring the mercy of the blessed Martyr. The Master of the schools of the aforesaid Church was present at that time and was keeping his vigils, and as we learned from the same man's confession, he and his company laughed at the words of the aforesaid trader when he was present; for, fixing his eyes and moving his face, he said: "O S. Vincent, I shall by no means depart from your presence until you command my skins to be returned to me." Before midnight, therefore, rising in haste, he wakes his companions, saying that through the Blessed Vincent he had been made certain in what house and with what man he should find his skins: which we know the man found with that same certainty with which, from firm trust and constancy of faith, he had prayed the glorious Martyr for the lost property. But surely it must be kept well in memory and carefully considered how great the merit of the spirit of this most blessed Martyr is with the Lord, and how much his prayer avails for the remission of the sins of souls in heaven, who is shown to have such great power on earth not only for healing bodies from manifold disease but also for things necessary for sustenance.

CHAPTER VI.

Storms calmed. Other benefits granted to mortals.

[28] But the seas are also shown to be by no means devoid of his benefits by the occurrence of wonderful events. For certain persons dwelling at Lisbon would today be by no means witnesses of what we are about to relate, unless they owed their present lives to the glorious Martyr through the health given from such great perils. Since they were already promising themselves the shore and port at the boundary of sea and land with easy navigation, A storm calmed when the Saint is invoked: a great force of winds and the contrary action of violent waves, having broken the ropes of the anchor, enveloped the wretched sailors far out to sea, far from the sight of land, with their oars laboring in vain: the arriving dark night moreover doubled the storms, and with the darkness redoubled the helmsman was utterly ignorant where to steer the boat. One part therefore, weeping, bailed out water and emptied the ship, burdened by rain and sea: another part recalled what sweetness they had left at home, and wished that someone would attend to their funeral rites. For three nights and days, indistinguishable in the winter and darkness, without food or drink, by no means uncertain of death, they were buffeted. Indeed, although delayed by the storm, they expected certain death through long fasting. Then at last they cry out to S. Vincent with pitiful voices, they make vows to Vincent with one accord: and immediately they receive a favorable breeze, with the sea restored and the air cleared, and beyond their hope they are carried with wonderful speed into the desired ports; and before they approach their homes, they first fulfill their vows to the Blessed Vincent, testifying to his grace and ineffable piety, with the people marveling, that they had been saved from the immensity of the dangers. But the wives, and those who had been closest to the endangered, with disfigured faces and hair according to the custom of their nation, had performed dirges, and having the Masses sung according to custom, they had commended the souls of their husbands. When these appeared alive again, they turned all mourning into joy, and showed by many acts of thanksgiving how much they owed to God and the most blessed Martyr for the safety of their people.

[29] EIGHTEENTH MIRACLE. It is indeed worthy to attribute to the merits of this glorious Martyr that a ship of Alcobaca escaped the disasters of the sea from a similar peril. For the Lord Abbot, providing for the common use of the Brethren, had ordered a cargo ship to be filled with salt, which is very abundant at Alcobaca, and to be carried to another port where it is sold at a higher price. The ship, therefore, with a deceptive breeze favoring it, had left port, and while it was driven much farther from land, again others. a suddenly swelling contrary wind rushed upon the sails; and enveloped the ship, struck by so great a whirlwind, so that by the terrifying assault of the waves the ship was carried headlong to the windings of the rocks, and to places from which no one could escape. Then indeed the religious men who were present, terrified by the immediate peril, crying out with one voice, sent forth their prayers to S. Vincent, and with great wailing cried out that he should rescue them from the presence of death. In a wonderful manner therefore, when the prayer was finished, with the storm ceasing immediately, the wind turned to the most gentle breeze; and the ship was brought with great tranquility to the port where the Blessed Vincent is honored. Where, secure from such great fear, they hasten to the presence of the blessed Martyr, and give him many thanks for their emergence from the perils, and in grateful speeches they tell the people how near the death was from which they escaped through his merit.

[30] A successful catch of fish obtained: But also many others, who earn their livelihood and clothing by fishing, having very often made vows to the Blessed Vincent, bring back their boats from the deep, loaded with an abundance of fish. By these and many other signs of powers, sailors call Vincent the mighty one of the sea, and whoever makes the glorious Martyr propitious to himself by frequent remembrance fears the dangers of the sea less. But let us turn our narrative to those things which the Lord works through him for the wretched.

[31] NINETEENTH MIRACLE. A certain man had lost the sight of his eyes for a long time, and when he supplicated God and the glorious Martyr, sight recovered: the health long lost to his eyes was restored. This he himself, who had been blind, confessed in the presence of the aforesaid Lord Gonsalvus, Tribune of the militia, who was then celebrating his vigils at the blessed Martyr's shrine.

[32] a possessed girl freed; TWENTIETH MIRACLE. On that very same night a certain little girl, mute and possessed by a demon, was granted restoration of health.

[33] TWENTY-FIRST MIRACLE. But also after a few days another man, often tormented by a demon, was healed by a wonderful and memorable grace. He had come to seek remedies at night, on the same night perhaps in which the Lord Galdinus, Procurator and Master of the Knights Templar throughout the kingdom of Portugal, likewise another: a man truly gracious and illustrious, was keeping his vigils together with many other knights in a spirit of great devotion. It happened that the aforesaid sick man was placed before the sacred relics in the presence of the aforesaid Master: and when the usual sign of the approaching disease was perceived, he began to cry out with a loud voice and to seek help from those sitting around against the violence of the invading enemy. To whom the Master said confidently: "Do not fear, good man, but have good confidence, and stretching out your hand, touch the chest"; for the man who was tormented by a demon said that the evil spirit was accustomed to seize him through the little finger of his right hand. Stretching out this hand, therefore, he touched the chest in which the sacred relics are kept, and had some respite from the enemy. Three times therefore on that same night the enemy terrified the wretched man, and by the touch of the holy chest at the command of the aforesaid Master, with safety given through the Martyr, he thereafter escaped the destructive power of the enemy, healed.

[34] TWENTY-SECOND MIRACLE. Another young man also, infirm for many days, had lost the use of all his limbs from the navel downward; and with the physicians despairing of his health, he was led by better counsel a sick man healed: to the presence of the most blessed Martyr by the hands of others. When he had very often offered the tears of his devotion and his prayers to the most blessed Martyr, he departed so well restored in his limbs as if he had never been burdened by any affliction.

[35] TWENTY-THIRD MIRACLE. Similarly another, frequently seized by a demon during the day, labored intolerably, and watching many days and nights at the holy Martyr's shrine, a possessed man freed: and with vigils and prayers made for a very long time, at last he promised to the glorious Vincent perpetual service of his body for as long as he should live, and remaining with us for a longer time, he was entirely freed from the aforesaid misery.

[36] TWENTY-FOURTH MIRACLE. Another man likewise, dwelling at Torres, had so failed in his vital spirit through the long affliction of a feverish disease that he was fearfully awaiting the final limit of the fatal hour. A man despaired of is healed. When the last pain, as he feared, was afflicting him, in the presence of neighbors he vowed himself to S. Vincent, that he would go there if he lived: and immediately, when the vow was made, with all who were present marveling, he was restored to the most perfect health. The grace of which benefit he himself afterwards, and others to whom the gift of the most blessed Martyr had become known, when they came to Lisbon, did not cease to publish with due thanksgiving the merits of the blessed Martyr.

c. Perhaps "is bought."

ON THE RELICS OF S. VINCENT

Translated to Bari in Apulia.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

Toward the end of the 11th century.

From manuscripts.

[1] When the relics of S. Vincent were translated to Lusitania and then to Gaul, Valencia by no means retained no pledge of his for itself. For since various churches of that city, as happens, had claimed some portion of his remains for themselves, there was something that in the eighth century was carried to the Sacred Promontory, and a hundred years later to Castres, and then also to Italy, as we shall presently say, unless one wishes that something was afterwards returned to the Valentians by the Castrenses. For the argument of certain disputants, After two translations there were still relics of S. Vincent at Valencia: that if they were carried away to Lusitania out of fear of Abd al-Rahman, Audaldus could not have found anything afterwards—for the fugitives, they say, would not have taken only a part, leaving the rest as prey for the Barbarians—this does not greatly move us. For not all citizens fled from Valencia at that time, nor did those who fled have in their power the sacred objects and furnishings of all the churches, but of one perhaps, or of one monastery. And what Aimoin writes to the contrary—that the body was found intact by Audaldus, still bound by its sinews—is not of such a nature as to compel us to admit that no part of it was absent. We have often seen skeletons of an apparently complete human body, held together, even though parts of the arms, some ribs, and other bones were missing.

[2] Not therefore does Italy too lack every pledge of so glorious a Martyr, though rich enough in her own, indeed enriching other provinces with her treasures. Some formerly at Capua, now at Metz: We related above from Sigebert that some relics of S. Vincent were carried to Capua by two monks: but the city of Metz in Gallia Belgica now possesses them. At Rome there are three basilicas dedicated to SS. Vincent and Anastasius, as Octavius Pancirolus attests; and in one of them, which is seen in the 9th region called Ripa, some at Rome, there are some relics of S. Vincent: whence, when, and through whom they were brought, neither he himself reports nor have we read elsewhere. Peregrinus Merula in the Cremona Sanctuary writes that in the parochial church of S. Vincent there, a notable bone of his chest is preserved. At Cremona, At Bari in Apulia there exists an arm in the most celebrated basilica of S. Nicholas the Bishop, known throughout the whole world. By what means it came there, At Bari. our Antonius Beatillus transcribed for us from the ancient Legendary of that Church, to whom his fellow citizens of Bari owe much for his most accurate illustration of the history of S. Nicholas and S. Sabinus.

NARRATIVE OF THE TRANSLATION

Of the arm of S. Vincent the Martyr, extracted from a Bari manuscript by Antonio Beatillo of the Society of Jesus.

Vincent, Archdeacon of Caesaraugusta, Martyr at Valencia in Spain (S.)

BHL Number: 8652

From manuscripts.

[1] Not many years after the deposition of the body of the most blessed Nicholas in his Bari basilica, it happened that the Bishop of the city of Valencia came to Bari, The Bishop of Valencia, heading for Jerusalem, in order to travel with some ship of that city, together with his compatriots, to visit the tomb of Christ, for which reason he had come from his homeland. When this was announced to the Lord Elias, Archbishop of the See of Bari and Canosa, summoning his Archdeacon, he ordered the aforesaid Bishop to be honorably hosted at the honored lodging of a certain fellow citizen.

[2] Indeed, while the ships made delay in crossing, the Bishop fell sick with a grave disease. he falls ill at Bari in Apulia: The Lord Elias very often sent his physicians to him, and ministered to him daily from his own goods. The Bishop is judged to be at the point of death: seeing that he remained at the article of death, he sent with reverence and had the aforesaid Lord Elias summoned, that he might commit himself and his possessions into his hands. The aforesaid Lord, hearing this, did not delay to visit him: but accompanied by a crowd of clerics, arriving at the house where the sick man lay, after the manner of such occasions he extended his blessing with the sign of the Cross over him. The infirm Bishop, seizing his right hand and kissing it with extreme devotion, addressed him thus: "My desire, venerable Father, to go to Jerusalem has lasted through many years; having received the Sacraments from the Bishop of Bari, but both because of the greatest dignity of my episcopate and the various intervening duties of our province, and the obstacles of my kinsmen and the fear of the long journey, I have not yet been able to begin. But I see that I am so tightly gripped by the harshest infirmity that what I have long desired I can by no means accomplish. I confess therefore my sins before your presence, Father and Lord, and from your sacred hands I shall now devoutly receive the body of Christ."

[3] When this was done, he said in a clear voice before all, though his infirmity was resisting: "By my dignity and greatest devotion, I am carrying the arm of S. Vincent the Levite in a small silver casket, which I hold more precious than all my treasure. But since I recognize that the time of my dissolution, which I have desired since I was sixty years old, he gives that Church the arm of S. Vincent; that I might be with Christ, is approaching, it pleases me that the aforesaid arm be kept in the church of the Blessed Nicholas; and I wish it to remain here always as a memorial of me, so that my soul may always enjoy the prayers and sacrifices of your Church." Having said these things, he delivered it into the hands of the Lord Elias, saying: "If, Lord Father, I should die, let it be as aforesaid; but if I should return to health, let there be no delay in my taking it with me." This the Lord Archbishop promised before all with a firm will.

[4] which, after his death, is honorably translated. On the third day after these things, the spirit of the Bishop flew to heaven. The body was led to the church of the Blessed Nicholas with exceeding honor; and when the offices had been celebrated, as is the custom of Christians, he was buried in peace. Immediately the Lord Elias, having solemnly prepared a procession, with the bells ringing loudly, with that multitude of clergy and laity, taking the arm of S. Vincent, placed it together with the arm of S. Thomas the Apostle, in the place where the body of S. Nicholas rests, where they now remain more honorably, to the praise and glory of the most high God.