ON ST. Lidanus of Antena
YEAR 1118.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. On the native country of the Saint, the writers of the Life and their age, the Bishops of Sezze, and the present state of the body.
Lidanus, Abbot of the Order of St. Benedict, at Sezze of the Volsci in Latium (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR C. J.
Sezze, an ancient city, known to the historian Livy, the poet Virgil, the geographer Ptolemy, and other ancients, sits on a mountain so high that it looks down on the Pontine marshes, and looks out as far as the Tyrrhenian or Lower sea; The city of Sezze, by the more recent also called Setinum, by the Italians commonly Sezza. It was also praised everywhere by the ancients for the excellence of its wine, which Silius Italicus, book 8, judged worthy of the table of Bacchus himself, "Setia set apart for the tables of Lyaeus himself," on account of the goodness of the wine. And Martial, book 4, Epigram 64, "Pendent Setia, which looks upon the Pontine plains, has sent old jars from its small city." Yet it was afterward more praiseworthy for the presence of the body of the holy Abbot and confessor Lidanus, as he is now commonly called: Baronius calls him Lidganus; Ferrarius, Ligdanus; the manuscript Life often Ligdanus. That sacred body the city of Sezze has now for six hundred years honorably kept and religiously venerated in its bosom. Lidanus, brought up as a boy on Monte Cassino and instructed in letters, nay also having professed the Rule of St. Benedict of Cassino, possesses the body of St. Lidanus founded after the death of his parents, in the vicinity of Sezze near the Pontine marshes, from his inheritance, and by the will, as it is fitting to believe, of his Superiors, a new monastery under the patronage of St. Cecilia (of which name also his mother was), and chose companions to himself, with whom, under the same Rule, religiously serving God until a heavy old age, at length illustrious with the grace of virtues and miracles, he died about the year 1118, and, translated to the church of Sezze, was there deposited under the principal altar.
[2] Lidanus must have been born about the year 1026. For he is said to have lived on to the pontificate of Pope Gelasius II, His native country who presided over the Church only in the year 1118; and to have lived seventy-two years in his monastery: now he must have been about twenty years old when he began to inhabit it: from which it is gathered that the whole age of the man was ninety-two years: which subtracted from the year 1118, in which he died, he began to live in the year 1026. His native country, as is said in the Acts, was the city of Antena of the kingdom of Sicily of the province of Abruzzo. These things sufficed for the Sicilians to ascribe the birth of the Saint to their island; yet they do not find among themselves either the city of Antena or the province of Abruzzo: by which particular places the general appellation of the kingdom of Sicily is restricted to the province of Abruzzo, which was and is in the present kingdom of Naples, where formerly the Samnites, Marsi, Vestini, and other peoples dwelt: and also in their time the Sicilians, before they withdrew into their island. For it is established from the historians as well as the geographers, that the Sicilians once possessed a great part of Italy as far as the Tiber and beyond, from which, gradually forced to withdraw by new inhabitants, they settled in the provinces, now of the kingdom of Naples, between the Upper and Lower sea, namely in Abruzzo, Apulia, and Calabria. From which provinces at last also expelled, they crossed over into the island and propagated their name given to it especially to posterity. There are also several places in Stephanus On Cities which are attributed to Sicily, although situated in Bruttium or Calabria, and the neighboring mainland.
[3] Hence, at whatever time the life of St. Lidanus was written, whether it was in the island of Sicily, or in the province of Abruzzo, its author could ascribe the native country of the Saint to the Sicilians in the province of Abruzzo, in such a way that the Sicilians of today can derive nothing thence into their island. I confess indeed that the city of Antena is no less unknown now in Abruzzo than in the island of Sicily; yet it must have been there rather (if it was anywhere) than here: because the writer of the life places it in Abruzzo. John Rho, a learned man of our Society, in the life of St. Lidanus, printed in Italian at Rome in the year 1641, for Antena substitutes Atina, which is a town well known to this day, on the confines of Campania, Latium, and Abruzzo, about four miles to the north of Monte Cassino. And to confess what I think, that opinion does not displease. For since the city of Antena is altogether unknown to the ancient geographers as well as to the more recent; how did that name creep upon the writer of the Life of St. Lidanus, who gathered his materials from the relation of elders? Either therefore those elders, in rustic manner, suggested to the writer one name for another of the town, or the copyists, who transcribed it anew, changed it according to their disposition or negligence. Add that Atina is not far from the monastery of Monte Cassino; so that it may seem more probable that thence his parents sent their nine-year-old and only son to be instructed, than from the more distant region of the island of Sicily: and Lidanus himself, seeking a place to found a monastery from his paternal inheritance, more easily came from there to the Pontine marshes, not far removed from Atina and Cassino, where he found a place for the monastery.
[4] or was elsewhere. I have already said that the Sicilians (and among them the chief is Octavius Cajetanus, who in volume 2 On the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, in the Animadversions, page 47, treats that matter) claim the native country of St. Lidanus for their island, because in his Acts it is thus read: Here begins the legend of the Blessed Lidanus the confessor, of the city of Antena of the kingdom of Sicily of the province of Abruzzo. The appellation of Sicily certainly extends more widely, as we have already said, than the single province of Abruzzo, besides which the notion of Sicily embraces also several others. By what reasoning therefore is Antena, which is said to have been situated in the single province of Abruzzo, rightly sought in the island of the Sicilians, where there is no province of Abruzzo, nor ever was? To argue thus, therefore, is to be foolish. Cajetanus objects, that the author of the life, Dionysius, makes Antena a city of the kingdom of Sicily. What then? He determines also the kingdom of Sicily to the province of Abruzzo. Seek therefore first in another part of the kingdom of Sicily, and indeed in the island of Sicily, the province of Abruzzo, that you may be able to refer a city of the province of Abruzzo to the said island.
[5] Against it the objections of Cajetanus. Cajetanus insists. The kingdom of Sicily was unknown before the twelfth century, in which the first Roger, son of Count Roger, seized the royal name, by permission of the pseudo-pontiff Anacletus, in the year 1130. Let it be so, in the sense of Cajetanus. Therefore it was not lawful for a private writer to call the kingdom of Sicily that region where the Sicilians are known once to have dwelt and ruled: and the Normans, the Saracens being expelled from the island of Sicily, themselves now made Sicilians, and soon advancing beyond the Faro, ruled powerfully there, St. Lidanus living? But the same Cajetanus understands and wishes to be understood another kingdom of Sicily, namely after the division was made into the kingdom on this side and beyond the Faro; of which matter the first mention, he says, is made in a diploma of Pope Clement IV about the year 1265. Let us grant that too: yet I find nothing in the objections hitherto made, from which it can follow that the province of Abruzzo and the native country of St. Lidanus at any time existed in the island of Sicily. But neither can the alleged division of the kingdom of Sicily, into the kingdom on this side and beyond the Faro, prevent the writer of the Lidanian life from having, according to that division, expressed his kingdom of Sicily, in which is Abruzzo. For he wrote after that division and after the year 1265, as to me at least is more probable.
[6] The text of Baronius concerning St. Lidanus, Baronius writes in the Annals at the year 1118: At the same time dies St. Lidganus, abbot of the order of St. Benedict, who in the monastery of St. Cecilia in the territory of Sezze led a life accommodated to sanctity; and he shone, living and after death, with miracles. Dionysius, a monk of Cassino, wrote the things done by him; but it happened to us to have read them beset with errors. In passing Baronius noted these things from the Acts of St. Lidanus, and makes the author of them Dionysius, a monk of Cassino. We too have all his Acts, which are known to be extant. Whether the author was only a monk of Cassino, as Baronius judges, or also bishop of Sezze, as the people of Sezze prefer to be believed, I do not investigate. In our manuscript, before part 2, and concerning the author of the Acts, and our number 4, it was simply thus read: Here begins the second Prologue of blessed Dionysius concerning the Blessed Lidanus. Nor is any other mention of Dionysius had elsewhere. But hence, since it is called the second prologue, it can be inferred, that the preceding parts, which contain few of the deeds of St. Lidanus, ought to be reckoned the first prologue of the same Dionysius. Nor shall I plainly deny that both the former Parts were written by the same Dionysius, on account of the mutual relation which those Parts have between themselves, as we shall observe a little later.
[7] Meanwhile, however, we deny that the third Part of the Acts, from number 14, who nevertheless is not the author of the third part; which describes the miracles of the holy Man wrought after his death, is owed to Dionysius. The author of them calls himself John, bishop of Sezze. All the Acts therefore of St. Lidanus, as we have them, copied in the year 1684 by me, then dwelling at Rome, from a Sezze codex of the college of the Society of Jesus (which Cajetanus too confesses he received from the same place, and, after his manner, many things being cut out, others changed, printed in volume 2 of the Sicilian Saints), I judge should be divided into three members. The third, but a certain John, bishop of Sezze: as I have already said, is of John, bishop of Sezze. The first and second are recognized to be of the same author, namely Dionysius. It is clear from the Acts themselves. For in the first member, number 3, it is thus read: Lidanus did many miracles in his life, as is contained below, and is narrated in the course of his legend; namely in member 2. It is also read in this very member 2, number 5, that in the borders of Sezze there was a man, Lidanus by name, of the nation narrated above, Of Parts 1 and 2, Dionysius is the author, namely in member 1, number 1. Which mutual relation of each member to the other, manifestly teaches that the author of both is the same. For if member 1 had had another author, how could he have cited member 2 concerning the miracles, as is contained below and narrated in the course of the legend?
[8] Greater is the difficulty in determining the time at which the first and second members (the third, At what time the Acts were written. which treats of the miracles done after the death of Lidanus and his translation, is certainly later) were written, or at which the author Dionysius lived. Those who think they were written in the year 1088, because such a year is expressed in a certain title, which in the Sezze codex is read prefixed to the Acts of St. Lidanus; those, I say, are to me vain. For that title can by no reasoning be referred to the particular Acts of Lidanus. The title has it thus: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And of the individual Trinity and of our Saviour Lord Jesus Christ and of the blessed virgin Mary his mother. Amen. In the year of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1088, Indiction XII, in the first year of the pontificate of Lord Pope Urban II, on the Nones of the month of March. Then follows, Here begins the legend of N. Ligdanus the confessor, etc. Such a preface before the particular lives of the Saints, or a similar one, I know not whether it be read anywhere else. The beginning of the lives is everywhere, Here begins the legend, or life, of Saint N.
[9] The title displeases Cajetanus; and it displeases me, placed in such a location: yet not because it swarms with errors, as he judges. The title prefixed to the Acts, For, he says, the Indiction is false, and for XII should be substituted XI. Moreover Urban was not yet Pope. For he was created in the same year 1088; but on the 4th of the Ides of March. Rightly these things indeed, if the discourse is of the beginning of Urban's pontificate. But whoever wrote that title wished to note the time at which he began to write his work, and rightly noted it by the Indiction XII and the Nones of the month of March, which concur with the first year of Urban, whether it pertains to them. not beginning, but ending. And therefore the year of Christ 1088, in which began the first year of Urban from the 12th day of March, should only be augmented by a unit, and be written 1089, so that the end of that same first year may be indicated. Which being done, without any other change, all is safe.
[10] Yet I would not hence infer that the said title was once placed before the particular life of St. Lidanus. I would rather believe that the codex, in which the life of St. Lidanus was found, contained also other monuments pertaining to the church or city of Sezze, and that the first collector of them prefixed to the beginning of the codex the year 1088, or rather, according to the other chronological characters, the year 1089, in which he began to write the codex, into which afterward others and others, as happens, brought monuments of similar subject. But he who afterward transcribed the life of St. Lidanus separately from the same place, prefixed the mark of time placed at the beginning of the codex to the particular life of our Saint, thinking that all the things contained in the codex had been written there at the same time. Certainly such a title in no way pertains to the life of St. Lidanus. Wherefore we too shall henceforth pass it over. It is enough to have indicated these things.
[11] Whether the life was written before the times of Pope Gelasius II: Moreover member 1, or part 1, which briefly indicates the native country of Lidanus, his parents, his dwelling at Cassino, the construction of the monastery, certain religious exercises, his death and translation to Sezze, cannot have been written before the pontificate of Gelasius II, created in the year 1118, in the month of January, and dead after scarcely a whole year. Because it is there said that the Saint lived until the time of Pope Gelasius II. There is mentioned in the same place also the translation of the body to the city of Sezze by Drusinus, then bishop of the same city. Which whether it was done immediately after the death of the Saint, or many years after, cannot be defined; because that Drusinus, bishop of Sezze, became known only hence, without any distinction of the time at which he sat.
[12] it was rather written long after, Nay, because that part is so barren of the deeds of Lidanus, I would believe it was written many years after his death. Which can also be shown from the Acts themselves, and from the words of the writer, who in part 2, number 6, thus speaks: Certain elders relating, after the courses of a long passage of time, some of the many things, at that time neglected through the poverty of writings, we endeavor to write in a humble style. But when? In the dense darkness some light shines from a manuscript codex of our college of Sezze, embracing the lives of St. Lidanus and of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, Patrons of Sezze, and copied in the year 1602 from a more ancient codex; which codex I saw and examined in person. But in it the copyist thus noted: The old book (from which the copyist had his materials) was written on parchment before the year 1375, as is gathered from the end of the Calendar, written in the same book after the legends.
[13] yet before the year 1375. Therefore the life of St. Lidanus was not first written after the year 1375. But how long before it was written, I cannot gather, except from this, that the author confesses that he, after the courses of a long passage of time, certain elders relating, noted in writing some of the deeds of Lidanus, which through the poverty of writings had hitherto been neglected. That space of time therefore can have extended to a hundred or even two hundred years from the death of Lidanus; and so Dionysius can be judged not to have written except after the year 1265, in which Cajetanus said above that the first mention is made of the division of Sicily into the kingdom on this side and beyond the Faro. However it be, we are in darkness, not only concerning the age of Dionysius the writer of the life, but also, in that we are ignorant, in what century lived the bishops who are named in the Acts, Pollidius number 2; Drusinus number 3; John number 14; and are said to have been of the city of Sezze.
[14] I would wish to understand more closely from the people of Sezze, what they think concerning the proper episcopate of their city; and whether they can teach anything more certain concerning it from their archives. Whether Sezze had its own Bishops? Ughelli in his Bishops of Terracina, page 199, speaks doubtfully of those of Sezze: The report is, that Sezze was once distinguished also with its own episcopate, which afterward was united with the church of Terracina. Before, too, he had said in the preface, that to the episcopate of Terracina, before the year 1100, were united by the Roman Pontiffs the rights of the most ancient episcopate of Piperno and of the church of Sezze. Whether perhaps Sezze was once subject to the neighboring episcopate of Piperno, and passed with it to the jurisdiction of the bishop of Terracina? Certainly Ughelli names Piperno an episcopate, but not Sezze likewise. Yet Miraeus, in the Notice of the Episcopates of the Christian world, page 398, has Setinum, Sezza, an episcopal city of the Roman province, and refers the reader to page 159, where these things: Terracina and Sezze united. That author is recent, he indicates the episcopates only by a word; and since he alleges no authority, we stick at the threshold, investigating concerning the episcopate of Sezze.
[15] I think thus. However obscure the episcopate of Sezze may be among the Writers treating of episcopates; It is probable from the Acts of St. Lidanus. I seem to owe so much to the Acts of St. Lidanus, that I persuade myself that Sezze at some time had true and proper bishops. For there are named in the Acts of St. Lidanus three bishops, already alleged, and each is called Bishop of Sezze: and the writer of the last part, John, calls himself bishop of the city of Sezze. How therefore was he not? I was thinking that they perhaps were bishops of Sezze and Terracina at the same time. But while I survey in Ughelli the series of the bishops of Terracina, I find there no name of Pollidius or Drusinus, but neither of John for that time at which he could have been bishop there, who names himself bishop of Sezze.
[16] The Acts of St. Lidanus, as has been said, we give from a Sezze manuscript codex, Which Martyrologists mentioned our Saint. for the first Part collated with the manuscript of Ughelli, who had only that: the second and third Parts, as I copied them. There are no Martyrologists, unless perhaps the more recent, who mentioned St. Lidanus. Among whom Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy refers him to the 3rd of July, an elogium being added from the life, and indeed reviewing some things from its three Parts, from a certain manuscript, as he says, in the Baronian library. More correctly, in the universal Catalogue, he refers him to the 2nd of the same July, on which he died; in these words: At Sezze in Latium, of holy Lindanus the abbot. The name of the Saint, written with the same letters (whence you may conjecture it taken from Ferrarius, who alone thus writes) Claude Castellan, honorary canon of the church of Paris, thus adorns in his Universal Martyrology, lately published in French: At Sezze near Piperno in Italy, St. Lingdanus the abbot. Francis Carrera of our Society in his Sicilian Pantheon, on the 2nd of July, composed for the same Lidanus an elogium, taken from Cajetanus, whom we have already said above printed his life from the Sezze manuscript, many things being omitted and changed. We have also said that John Rho made the same into Italian from the Latin Sezze manuscript, and published it at Rome in 1641: who also thus concludes his Legend.
[17] Thus far the ancient monuments, scanty relics, The translation of the body to a new altar, preserved as if from an almost universal shipwreck. The body of the holy abbot lay for five hundred years under the altar, where it was first buried: but when that church was changed into a better form, and a new principal altar was there built, the body, by Lord Fabrizio of Perugia, bishop of Terracina and Sezze, Lord Brusco of Sezze, bishop of Litterano, assisting, was with solemn pomp translated to the new altar and there deposited, in the year 1606 on the 18th day of June, where it is preserved to this day, as a dear pledge, heaping heavenly treasures upon those who invoke his holy name. Thus John Rho about the year 1641.
[18] most beautifully adorned, I saw the place in the year 1686, and noted these things in person. The head of the Saint, enclosed in a silver head skillfully made, was then kept in the sacristy of the church of St. Mary, which is the cathedral: but the body under the high altar; which, then recently, as it seemed to me, made, sustained in the midst of itself a wooden statue of the Saint, reddening with a coppery color, which four fluted columns of the same material and color encircled, above with arms as it were raised and joined, committed to one another, in the manner of the confession or ciborium (if it is permitted to compare small things with the greatest) of St. Peter at Rome. The epigraph which after the last translation of the body was placed there, with an inscription. I copied, and it is such: The body of Blessed Ligdanus, Abbot and Confessor, Patron of the city of Sezze, for five hundred years preserved with the greatest veneration in this temple, Fabrizio of Perugia, Bishop of Terracina, translated to the high altar, built in a more distinguished place, for the sake of increasing devotion, by apostolic authority, with most celebrated apparatus and pomp, at public expense, on the 18th day of June, in the year of the Lord 1606, the 2nd of the Pontificate of Pope Paul V. The public instrument of this translation, which certainly was made, I diligently sought at Sezze and did not find; going the next day to Terracina, I met the Bishop, who was then the most illustrious Lord Dominic Monanni, and inquired into this very matter, but he doubted whether it was in the archive of the church; he would send it to me, if he found it.
LIFE AND MIRACLES From a manuscript codex of the College of the Society of Jesus, at Sezze; Collated in part with the manuscript of Abbot Ughelli.
Lidanus, Abbot of the Order of St. Benedict, at Sezze of the Volsci in Latium (S.)
BHL Number: 4919, 4920, 4921
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PART I. BY THE AUTHOR DIONYSIUS. His parents, native country, monastic life, the new monastery, religious exercises, death, translation.
Here begins a the legend of Blessed Lidanus the confessor, of the city of Antena b, of the kingdom of Sicily, of the province of Abruzzo, of a father by name Gentilis, The parents and native country of the Saint, one of the Lords of the said city; and of a mother by name Cecilia, of noble progeny of the house of the Avelari c. Which Lidanus, since he was the only-begotten of his aforesaid parents, and of the age of nine years, his heart being kindled by the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the will of his father and mother, entered the Order of Blessed Benedict of Cassino, and there completed his profession. When therefore he came to the age of seventeen years, his parents died, all their patrimony and a part of the said city being left to him by them. Therefore, that same Lidanus returning to the aforesaid city, and the grace of the Holy Spirit being infused into his soul, and the discourse of blessed John the Apostle, recited to him by Christ, having been heard, saying: Whosoever wishes to be saved, it behooves that he hold the Catholic faith and sell all his goods and give to the poor and deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Christ.
[2] Which Lidanus, the pomps and riches of this wretched and frail age and of the false prophets being spurned and totally neglected; The monastery at the Pontine marshes. sold all his goods, and the part of the said city touching him, and instigated by the divine Spirit, desiring to leave earthly things and possess eternal ones, directed his steps toward the coastal parts d of the territory of the city of Sezze; and, the woods, places, marshes, and groves of those parts being inspected, in which he might better, more conveniently, [*] and more honorably remain in the service of Almighty God; it was divinely revealed to him, that he should draw out his stay in a place which is commonly called At the Three Arches, near the mountain of Antonianus e by a few furlongs: near which arches, out of reverence for Blessed Cecilia the virgin and the name of his mother, with the license of Pollidius, then bishop of the city of Sezze, he caused a certain monastery of monks of the Order aforesaid to be built, under the title of Blessed Cecilia the virgin, with money laid up from his patrimony. The abstinence of the monks. Which being alike constructed and completed, in which were most arduous places, namely groves, woods, and marshes: there he began to do most arduous penance together with the monks his brethren; at all times eating and drinking bread and water without any other food of flesh: fasting at fitting times and days, according to the institutes of the holy Fathers and of the divine Scriptures.
[3] And at each holy time and day, the celebration of Masses and the divine Offices being completed in the choir of the said church with the mentioned monks, The religious exercises of Lidanus, before the taking of food he entered his secret cell, and, stripped, with bare flesh struck himself with a scourge f of pinligia out of reverence for the passion of Christ, recalling the word of the Apostle Paul in the 12th chapter: I chastise g my flesh and bring it into subjection, and, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Now this life he kept in the aforesaid monastery for seventy-two years, until the time of Pope Gelasius II h. Who, when he did many miracles in his life i, as is contained below, and is narrated in the course of his Legend k … When therefore he closed his last day on the sixth of the Nones of the month of July, death on the 2nd of July, his body was carried back to the city of Sezze by Drusinus, then bishop of the same city, with the clergy and people, translation to Sezze. with the greatest honor, solemnity, and devotion, and was buried under the high altar of the church of St. Mary of the city of Sezze. But the head of his body was laid up in the holy church mentioned, for the sake of showing it devoutly to the men and people of the said city, every year on the day of his death.
ANNOTATA.
* perhaps, more stably.
PART II. BY THE SAME AUTHOR DIONYSIUS. The miracles wrought by the Saint while living.
The second prologue is omitted, I ought to preface, that only in this place in the manuscript codex is placed a title, thus conceived: Here begins the second prologue of blessed Dionysius concerning the blessed Lidanus. The present-day citizens of Sezze are of the opinion that he was bishop of their city; Baronius in the Annals at the year 1118 calls him a monk of Cassino: the cited title has neither; yet it calls Dionysius Blessed. The cause of which matter I desire to learn from the people of Sezze or of Cassino. I find no indication of his blessedness in all these Acts. Furthermore that second prologue, which contains nearly as much writing as the whole first Part of the Acts, here already premised, I judge should be passed over, because it makes nothing for the life of St. Lidanus. For it begins from the creation of things, narrates the transgression of Adam, the incarnation of Christ, the election and mission of the Apostles to preach the Gospel, and other things; and at last, the writer coming nearer to the matter, thus begins his second paragraph.
[5] except the last part, These things and more, which sacred Scripture teaches, considering, the holy Martyrs, leaving the darkness of unbelief, led and admonished, with the arms of light established the contest of souls; spurning the commands of Princes, with joy taking up the punishments of their bodies, desiring to please God alone; to whose command all things are subject. After these the distinguished Pontiffs and Confessors, though not outwardly, yet inwardly were not without martyrdom, crucifying their members with vices and concupiscences. But who is able to explain, what tongue or what voice? how many of both sexes there were, who did not neglect for themselves this good purpose. Of whom one (if it is lawful for me to say it) shone forth in the borders of Sezze, which leads nearer to the miracles of St. Lidanus, by name Lidanus, of the nation narrated above: who, the wanton allurements of human misery being cast off, took up his cross and followed the Lord: and lest anything of abomination should seem to remain to him, he coveted the desert and hastily went to it.
[6] But what and how great miracles and virtues, through his merits in that same conversation, the Lord deigned to show to mortal men, received from the relation of elders. it is not of our ability to explain one by one. Yet, certain elders relating, after the courses a of a long passage of time, some of the many things, at that time neglected through the poverty of writings, we endeavor to write in a humble style, although we may seem presumptuously to snatch at what we know to have been granted only to the most learned and skilled. But who, doubtless not unmindful of him who ordered water to be abundantly produced from the hardest rock; and commanded the ass of Balaam to address her rider in direct speech; and rendered a barren old woman fertile; and who satisfied five thousand men, besides the female sex and the little children, from five loaves and two fishes; and wrought many other wonders in the old and new testament, which none suffices to record: but not distrusting that mercy, whom I trust to have with me as my guide, shall I not, in propagating the memory of so great a man, as the Lord himself shall grant, recount it in a lowly manner, not as divine Scriptures?
[7] Therefore, lest his name should seem to remain without some presage; what is estimated by us, we take pains first to show. A comparison of Lidanus with a lamp. For Lidanus, as in Sedulius b, is set for a lamp, which, wax or oil being applied, emits light, and is set upon a candlestick, that light may be ministered to those entering and walking about: so too Blessed Lidanus, when he had seen himself unfruitful in the world, took up the oil of mercy and humility, and put on the armor of God, fleeing the obscurity of the darkness of hearts, and did not cease assiduously to show to all the light of truth by words and examples. Who also in a certain Trisarcus c (Three Arches), situated in marshy places, distant from the city of Sezze by nearly thirty-two furlongs, toward the mountain of Antonianus, built a basilica of the venerable virgin Cecilia. In which place the confused voices of the little frogs brought some hindrance to the ears of the inhabitants. Concerning the croaking frogs, ordered to be silent. Which the servant of God beholding, trusting in the name of him whom, the world being spurned, as a recruit in the soldiery of St. Benedict his most blessed father, he had committed himself with all intention, holding a staff in his hands, struck the marsh, saying, Give honor to God and be unwilling to bring so great confusion to our hearing: since we believe the Lord to be more delighted by the voices of men than by yours. But from that day their voices, so troublesome in that place, were not heard: which is seen to be observed there to this present day.
[8] At a certain time, finally, there was a certain man for three years wearied by his sickness with sleeplessness, who by no experience of the physicians could take the sleep of the body; A sick man wearied for three years with sleeplessness, whom his parents, in whose ears the fame of so great a man had resounded, the journey being undertaken, lead to him as hastily as possible. Who also, dwelling in the aforesaid dining-room for three days, when they had seen that it conferred nothing of health on the sick man, indignant began to say among themselves; why have we suffered so great a weariness of coming hither? Alas, what has it profited us! we hoped that he would come out and impose his hand upon him, and, prayer being made in the name of the holy Trinity, restore him to health. Which being heard by the servant of God from certain monks, he came out and asked them. But they, narrating all things in order, how that sick man had suffered sleeplessness for three years. To whom the Abbot himself, giving consolatory words, greatly exhorted them, excusing himself as not availing in the business of this merit (for it is the custom of the holy Fathers, that they do not presume of themselves what they feel of God). Then he began to lead him by the hands before the altar of the aforesaid blessed virgin Cecilia, the Saint praying, and ordered him to be prostrated before it: and when the man of God tarried longer in prayer, the Lord overshadowed the sick man with so great a sleep, that from morning until evening he could by no means awake.
[9] he falls into sleep, and is fully cured. But his friends, seeing that the day had now declined, knocking, roused him, saying: Rise, tell us now what seems to you; will your health flourish henceforth? But he began to rebuke them, why they made this disquiet for him: for he confessed that he had never perceived a sleep of such sweetness and a rest so pleasant of heart and body. But rising, he cast himself at the feet of the most holy Father Lidanus, asking that he would grant him the habit of his holy religion. But he, refusing, said: No, son; it is not lawful for a man, as sacred Scripture declares, to separate those whom God has joined, according to the Gospel doctrine. Go in your peace and carefully take care of your wife and your sons. But he, not acquiescing in such words, composed his testament before his aforesaid parents, preordaining his substance, as befitted one who had before been rich in the world; and he would by no means depart at all from that same blessed Lidanus, until the goal of his body should be terminated and he should close his last day.
[10] Three worthless men, lying about their nakedness, When the aforesaid venerable Father blessed Lidanus was one day, after his accustomed manner, laboring in the aforesaid monastery by doing penance; behold three poor men, naked, their garments hidden among the thickets; that he might clothe them with his accustomed piety, come, crying out: Most merciful Father, poor and naked we come to you, that you may have compassion on us with the bowels of your mercy, and what you have been accustomed to do for others, we most earnestly ask, that you deny not to us most wretched. they ask a covering from Lidanus; Whom the venerable Abbot, diligently regarding, began to comfort them, and, they sitting down, ordered fitting food and drink to be set before them. Moreover, they taking the necessaries of the body, the gracious dispenser cautiously sent to the place where, through the Holy Spirit, he knew them to have concealed and hidden their garments. Brought to him, he, the fraud being divinely known, after the refreshment of food, he bestowed on each what was his own. Which poor and naked men, refreshed by the taking of food, having received a humble blessing from him, departing, came joyful to the place, thinking to find their aforesaid garments first hidden. [the very garments being brought which they had hidden, he clothes them with them.] And when they found nothing there, suddenly saddened, they began to look at one another, and, gazing again and again, recognized their garments, and marveled that they had received from him from whom they knew they had not entrusted them. Soon, led by repentance, they returned to the dispenser of truth, and with confounded faces prostrated themselves on the ground at the feet of Blessed Lidanus, demanding pardon for their lies and mercifully asking it. Whom, when he saw them, again with joy he received, and moreover strengthened them with the honey-flowing document of the heavenly word, and, blessing them, let them depart d.
[11] A certain woman of the city of Ninfa, who was said to be joined to Blessed Lidanus by consanguinity, A woman, her infant extinguished at her side in the night, when one night she had found her infant extinguished or dead beside her, weeping and wailing, in the morning took care to hasten to the venerable abbot Lidanus for the sake of doing penance. Soon the holy Man, having conceived it in mind by the Holy Spirit, understood that his kinswoman was coming to him; he sent to meet her, that she should not presume to approach further. Who, when by no reasoning she would acquiesce in such precepts and words alike, the holy Man through the Holy Spirit recognized this very thing, and again sent against her, that she should not approach any more to him and his monastery; since he affirmed that the examination of this judgment hung upon the scale of bishops, not of monks. And even as those went, the unbelieving woman did not turn back, but hastening with firm step, said: Whether I die or live, I will not cease to come to him. Whom, when the venerable Father and Abbot had seen, rebuking her he broke into these words: she obtains life through the Saint. This is the pride of women, who know not how to be ashamed. But she, suspecting, said: My Father, disdain not to afford help to a sinful woman. Whom the modest Abbot, instructed with salutary admonitions, sent back with the blessing of God: Go, for you will find your son alive. And straightway she, departing, and fervently bearing faith in the servant of God, immediately, when she reached the city of Ninfa at her home, found her little son infant, suffocated by the aforesaid accident, alive by the prayers and orations of the aforesaid Abbot.
[12] How praiseworthy is this Man, in whom the spirit of prophecy seems to dwell, To one unwilling to pardon his neighbor who at a fitting time declares present things, foretells future ones! Behold another Elisha, behold another Elijah, behold another Jeremiah. For when there was a certain man, by name John the Holy, of the city of Sezze, who with a certain neighbor of his, who was called Benedict the Black, exercised enmities and quarrels on account of one ox, which, left in the field outside by his boys, was devoured by wolves, concerning which they had a great lawsuit e. And when in the aforesaid place, on account of this matter, all alike, friends and neighbors, had gathered, the aforesaid John did not cease to take personal vengeance on Benedict. Blessed Lidanus therefore said to the same John: I beseech you, St. Lidanus foretells a grievous evil, son, forgive him, that God may forgive you. For thus it is written by the most sacred Scripture; Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you. And plainly in the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And perhaps you owe something, which you are to forgive f, and God will forgive you on this account. But that John would not consent to the sacred admonitions of Blessed Lidanus, but rather said to him; If you should command me, holy Father, to be cast down from that arch, I would fulfill it, before I forgive this man this. Whom the Saint, reproving and rebuking, foretold him the things which were to come to him in the course of time upon his family: O son, how badly you speak! know this one thing, that whoever disposes himself to obey the devil rather than God; sorrow and persecution will come upon him, which will so infect him; as if each thing of the whole world were yours, and with a stroke of great grief you should suddenly lose it. Which, a little time having elapsed, according to the word of the Abbot, came to him without doubt, namely in this order. which is fulfilled in the death of his son. For when on a certain night the son of the same John, disobedient to the Holy Spirit and to Blessed Lidanus his servant, by name Marius, with other herdsmen and shepherds, stood in the field near the fire in guarding the oxen, and had lain down there, as is the custom of shepherds, struck by a sudden sickness he fell into the fire and was dead. By whose noise his companions, awakened, cast him out of the fire, which being cast out, that burning ceased.
[13] Wine, hidden by a guest on the way, Again on a certain day, when a certain poor man desired to go down to the aforesaid Abbot for the sake of visiting, he brought with him one little vessel full of wine. It happened, when he drew near thither, and had learned that a multitude of peoples was there present to visit the man of God on account of the multitude of his miracles; fearing lest he should be thirsty, he hid his little vessel full of wine, and empty came to the Abbot, the man of God. taught by God where it was; But after many colloquies of the divine ministry, they seek the table of the fare of fishes: and, the wine failing, he called his cupbearer and cautiously sent to the place where, through the Holy Spirit, he knew the wine vessel to be, and ordered it to be brought to him. he orders it brought to the table. Which being brought, he ordered a drink to be handed from it to all standing round. But that brother, who had concealed the vessel there, went to lead him to the Abbot; but there found nothing; which the Abbot himself had miraculously caused to be taken away. Which being made manifest, all with one accord began to render thanks to God, who works wonders in his servants the just and holy, as was the servant of God Lidanus.
ANNOTATA.
PART III. BY THE AUTHOR JOHN, BISHOP OF SEZZE. The miracles wrought at Sezze after the death and translation of the Saint.
Simple truth, the more simply, the more fittingly and worthily it is believed to be announced: since every simple thing is judged more worthy than its compound. The Preface of the Author. Nor therefore are divine miracles to be colored with rhetorical inventions, which are known to obtain the splendor of their light from him who is light and the author of light; lest the sequence of truth be withdrawn under the cloud of circumlocution, and grow pale, being overcast; which, content only with its own vigor, shines clear. And certainly he labors with superfluous expense, who strives to aid the sun with torches. Wherefore Solomon also says; For every word of God is fire-tried, a shield to those hoping in him; add not anything to his words, lest you be reproved by him, and be found a liar. Proverbs 30. For that reason certain glorious miracles, which the Lord deigned to work through his said confessor Lidanus after his pious death in the church of Sezze; I shall be zealous to relate, for the memory of the future, not in a pompous ornament of words or a prodigal diffusion of the same, but in a simple and brief narration, as they were faithfully recited by many worthy of faith, who then rejoiced in the eyewitness a sight of them. To which although I may seem imprudently to thrust myself, as insufficient and wholly unskilled; yet, Almighty God and the conscience of my soul being witness, not the rashness of presumption, but the devotion of that same St. Lidanus compels me to this, John, bishop of Sezze.
[15] When therefore, by divine judgment, the whole city of Sezze was endangered by a fire of raging flame, The head of the Saint with its wooden case, it happened that the wooden case b in which the head of the most blessed Lidanus was laid up remained upon the altar of the church of the blessed Virgin Mary: and when that church was totally burned, so that nothing was preserved except the unburned walls, there the Lord, who guards all the bones of his Saints, the whole church being consumed by fire, that not even one of them be crushed, so preserved that case unharmed from the abyss of fire, while it stood upon the high altar of the said church (and the cloths of that altar being unburned c), as if it had never been near the fire. For we who glory in so great a miracle of his, and are strengthened by the example, let us humbly implore the divine mercy, that through the intercession of his most blessed confessor Lidanus, it is preserved unharmed in the flames. just as he preserved his most sacred relics untouched by the fire itself; he may extinguish in us the flame of vices, lest, if it fall upon us, we be hindered from seeing the sun, and thus at last be cast down into the fire; and lest we abide in miseries: but may he breathe in us the fire which he came to send upon the earth, and willed it to be vehemently kindled, that to his joys, his mercy going before and following after, we may be able to come as desired, who among his Saints exists glorious forever and ever. Amen.
[16] A certain poor woman, Caracosa by name, sprung from the parts of Tuscany, A woman paralytic in her whole body, coming to the city of Sezze, and visited by the Lord, incurred the paralytic disease, and so long was miserably held by that disease, that she was deprived of the office of nearly all her members; lying sick in the bed of her sickness, so that she could not move herself, nor by any means be turned over in it, unless others turned her over together with the sheet in which she lay. But the compassionate Lord, pitying the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor, and willing nonetheless to make his Saint wondrous, afforded her the occasion of recovering health in this manner. For blessed Lidanus, appearing to her in sleep, said to her: Caracosa, if you desire to be freed from this sickness by which you are held; to the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the city of Sezze, where my body is known to lie, on the day of my solemnity cause yourself to be carried, hoping in the Lord, who heals the contrite of heart and binds up their bruises, he himself will restore you to your former health. And when she, as the Saint had told her, carried to his sepulcher on the feast of St. Lidanus, caused herself to be carried to the aforesaid church, and to be set down before the altar under which the most glorious body of Blessed Lidanus is known to lie buried; and lying there a little while, she entreated the Lord in tears and sighs, that through the intercession of Blessed Lidanus he would deign mercifully to free her from this sickness. But the Lord, whose mercies are over all his works, magnifying his mercies, and who saves those hoping in him, deigned so to free her, that he might publish the glory of his Saint on earth, and she might bring back the desired reward for her faith. in the sight of all the people she rises healed. For while she thus lay squalid, publicly deprived of the actions of all the powers of the body, and contracted, by him who raises the fallen and looses the fettered, being raised, leaping through the mentioned church, the crowds looking on, she walked: but the people, who had come together to the solemn feast of that Saint, rejoicing together with joyfulness at so great a miracle to be celebrated, ceased not that day to exult with hymns and canticles to the Lord, who alone works wonders, rendering the due praises. But she, by name Caracosa, thus healed through Blessed Lidanus, is reported to have lived for several years.
[17] Another woman a demoniac, But very unlike was that which the Lord, by the merits and intercessions of St. Lidanus the Confessor, deigned to grant to a certain woman, by name Agnes, of Sezze. For when she was vexed by a demon, believing that through the experience of physicians she could in some way be cured or her suffering mitigated; she made over to them for this nearly all her goods, nor could she find thence any remedy, which is not given to them from above, that they can by their art put demons to flight; since only by the finger of God are unclean spirits cast out and the aerial powers subdued. persisting the whole night of his feast at the sepulcher, But she, on the day of the vigils of St. Lidanus the confessor already mentioned, being led to the church of the blessed Virgin Mary of the city of Sezze, where his most holy body rests, and introduced by violence, is said to have passed the whole night there together with a copious multitude of men devoutly solemnizing to that same Saint, and to have made a stay there until the morrow, namely of that same feast day, until, the solemnities of the Masses being celebrated, the people should take the straight way of returning home. But it happened that she, with a most sweet sleep, contrary to her custom, rested for some time asleep, and afterward, waking, is found foully defiled with her own excrement: whose horrible and unheard-of stench there was scarcely one who could in any way endure. Wherefore it was firmly believed that the demon, put to flight thence by the power of Blessed Lidanus, went out through the lower parts. But Agnes herself firmly asserted that she was instantly freed from the demons by the merits of Blessed Lidanus; she is healed, free from the demon. and thus returning to her home, and renewed with other garments, unharmed, exulting in the Lord, who wrought his mercy with her by the prayers of Blessed Lidanus, she returned to the aforesaid church, to hear Vespers; and without any blemish of body is said to have lived for several years.
[18] Moreover, when a certain woman of the castle of Sermoneta was given in marriage, A third woman, deprived of all her senses straightway when, corrupted by her husband, she lost the flower of her virginity, she so wholly stiffened, that, greatly disturbed in her sensation, and having lost her speech for very many days, by no sign could she intimate her will to anyone, nor understand another's. And when, the feast of Blessed Lidanus drawing near, the kinsfolk of the aforesaid woman, who by the spreading fame had learned the virtues of so glorious a Confessor, said to her, whether she would wish to come to his so celebrated feast, hoping for the help of health from him; she with bowed head affectionately intimated that she would. But it happened that, in a contrite heart and humbled spirit, bearing a stone on her neck, she was led to Sezze and presented, where the body of Blessed Lidanus was known to lie buried in the church of the city of Sezze before the high altar of that church. she is likewise cured. And when she waited there a little while in expectation, straightway she recovered the lost office both of her tongue and of her other members. Who, exulting in the Lord her Saviour, returned home unharmed with her kinsfolk, joyful and healed, reciting the miracles of Blessed Lidanus to everyone willing to hear with devotion.
[19] When a certain young man, Peter Saladinus by name, A young man, wandering by night in the field, of the city of Sezze, by chance lost a certain ox of his, and diligently sought that ox by night from way to way; our adversary the devil, who like a roaring lion goes about, seeking whom he may devour, taking a human form, offered himself in the way to the aforesaid young man Peter: from the peril of death, to be inflicted by the evil spirit, who, desiring wickedly to destroy him and blot him out from the earth, made an onset upon him, handling him with an evil suffering: whom certainly he would have destroyed, had not the power of the Most High, who is near to all who invoke him, succored him as mercifully as wondrously. For when he was set in so great a peril, and, the name of Blessed Lidanus being invoked, had asked him to assist him; straightway he appeared to him in the monastic habit, as he had used it before he passed from the world; and thus snatched him from the power of the raging enemy. But that enemy, confounded, St. Lidanus visibly appearing snatches him away. forthwith vanished, because he had no power to resist the divine, since from God is all true power. But Blessed Lidanus, like a pious father, animatedly comforting the young man so terrified, led him back near the walls of the city of Sezze.
[20] him hungering he refreshes with food, and leads home; But that young man, stupefied and greatly weakened, for fear of the aforesaid things, asked of the most blessed Lidanus that bread be shown him. Who showed with paternal affection a morsel of bread, not, as was believed, made by human hand, but the bread of Angels. Which when he had received, he was comforted. Indeed, when he wished to depart from him, he said to him: My son, go in your peace; the Lord is the defender of your life, it behooves you not to tremble any longer. But the young man said, trembling, where there was no cause of fear, saying tremblingly to him; Do not forsake me, holy Father, for still peril remains to me on the way. But he said; Do not fear, son, I will provide you a fitting companion, who will never leave you until you reach your home: and thus, a certain one returning from the field being awaited, he gave him a companion, who conducted him safely as far as his home. But it happened that this man afterward, at length falling from the conceived fear into a sickness as being faint-hearted, incurred so great a stupor of mind, that, his speech lost, he lay as it were half-alive, nor could he in any way recite his suffering. But afterward, somewhat roused, he intimated that he would be carried to the church of the blessed Virgin, in which the body of Blessed Lidanus lay. And when he had been brought thither, before his tomb is thoroughly healed. straightway the bond of his tongue was loosed; and he faithfully recited all the aforesaid things which had happened to him. But the crowd of men and women, so great a miracle being seen and heard, wrought by the most blessed Lidanus the confessor, protector, and defender of the city of Sezze, magnified and glorified for him the Lord, who thus visited his people in the aforesaid city. Thanks be to God. Amen.