ON ST. Swithun of Winchester
YEAR 862.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Swithun, Bishop of Winchester in England (S.)
BHL Number: 7944
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. The cult of St. Swithun, the translation of his body, his miracles, relics, and proper prayers.
I would not here in heaping up the elogia of St. Swithun seem more prolix than is fitting. Along this course before me have run other authors, namely William of Malmesbury in book 2 On the Deeds of the Pontiffs of the English, John Pits in the appendix On the illustrious writers of England, century 4, The elogia of St. Swithun from the Martyrologies. Cardinal Baronius briefly in volume 10 at the years of Christ 847 and 862. Yet, that I may say nothing of his praises, I sample a few things pertaining to the present subject from the Martyrologies. A brief elogium of St. Swithun the Roman Fasti exhibit on the 2nd day of July in these words: At Winchester in England, of St. Swithun the bishop, whose grace of miracles shone forth. In the larger Antwerp codex, concerning which consult the preface to the new edition of the Usuardine Martyrology, thus briefly is the praise of St. Swithun completed: Among the West Saxons, in the city of Venta, the deposition of St. Swithun, a man of wondrous sanctity. The Altemps codex, of which there is treatment in the preface already mentioned, recalls the memory of our Saint on the 30th day of October, or rather his ordination: On the day itself of the ordination of the most holy bishop and our patron Swithun. Brief is that which Rudburn alleges from Lantfred, a distich poem concerning Swithun. To the poor you bestow food, to the naked clothing, and, pious, you divide large gifts to the wretched. But those little verses, composed by Wolstan, a monk of Winchester, and inserted indeed into the metrical Life of Swithun, but pronounced in praise of St. Adelwold, bishop of Winchester, concerning whom the discourse will recur below, no one will deny, who has inspected the end of the cited Life, printed in Mabillon, Annals of the Benedictines, century 5, page 634.
[2] I bid the reader note in passing, that even the Protestants themselves, as we call them, Cult among the Protestants. dwelling in England, always esteemed St. Swithun so honorably and distinguishedly, and held the annual memory of him in such value, that after the schism was introduced, and the canine rabidity against the Catholic Church and its Saints, they wished some vestiges of their veneration toward him to remain, by leaving his name written in the reformed Calendar of their new liturgy; just as I find observed by a certain more recent author.
[3] The history of the translation, of which Mabillon briefly gives the sum in the Benedictine Acts, century 4, Translation we shall produce entire from a very ancient Bigot codex, from whose copy perhaps, or at least a similar one, the aforesaid author too may have taken his own. But concerning the author of the history of the aforesaid translation we shall say a little more elsewhere. For it Mathew cites in the Benedictine Trophies, volume 2, on the 15th of July, these words of the Salisbury Missal and Breviary: The translation of St. Swithun, and of his companions. The aforementioned author judges that by the name of companions there are probably here designated all the Pontiffs and confessors of the aforesaid church or city, although perhaps it happened that their bodies were translated on different days. Meanwhile a convenient and opportune place here offers itself for treating of the humble and abject tomb, into which this holy Bishop ordered his body to be borne after death, until, a course of a hundred years and more being interposed, namely in the year of Christ 971, indiction 14, it was afterward uncovered and found by divine admonition, and solemnly borne into a more honored place. Those things which for the present subject Mabillon has gathered from Wolstan, I here transcribe.
There was a tower beaked with domes, since a certain very great and most beautiful one, before the threshold of that sacred temple, consecrated to God under the honor of the same hierarch. Between it, and the sacred hall of that most noble temple, the holy man of the Lord rested buried in body, whose name even yet in that very time lay hidden from us: nor were there but very few, who might be able to disclose either the name and merit of the Man, now for a long time being past, after that holy priest was buried there in body; for so humble in his own mind was that same renowned Bishop, so that, as all attest who knew him faithful, he would by no means allow himself after death to be placed within the inner sanctuaries of the Church of Christ in body: but neither in the chosen tombs through diverse places, in which the ancient fathers lay buried, where the rising sun sends its golden darts to the world, and where it scorches midday with fervent heat: but rather he commands himself to be placed in the western region of that illustrious hall, which we have often noted, protesting with weeping, that his body was not to be placed in the sacred house of the Lord, nor among the distinguished monuments of the ancient fathers: by the just governance of Christ it is so brought about, that the same holy Man, who, touched by humble virtue, spurned himself, and outside the temple as a vile and unworthy man was buried, illustrious with innumerable signs and flashing virtues, should afterward be translated into the Apostolic hall.
[4] from Wolstan And these things indeed Wolstan in Mabillon, after the same Wolstan had prefixed to the above certain little verses, which thus sound:
And with sagacious zeal seek out the sublime sepulcher of one holy Bishop, which you will find above the burial chapel placed, built with walls, and also covered with a roof, and set in the manner of a sarcophagus with a fourfold front. Between this and the sacred cross, which stands there of stone, little by little take your sleep-bringing rest.
Nor indeed did this translation lack its signs, its prodigies, but by him who deposes the mighty from their seat and exalts the humble, it shone resplendent, graced with a great multitude and variety of miracles, which Surius has thus summarily gathered from Gotzelin, and after him Mabillon.
[5] On the same day, that is, the Ides of July, he healed a boy contracted from birth; to three women deprived of the light of their eyes he restored sight; his miracles, a woman fettered in prison with iron bonds, the chains being broken, he freed; he cured a paralytic, he enlightened a noble but blind matron; twenty-five men, afflicted with various diseases, in one day he perfectly restored; some blind men, two contracted women within one day; thirty-six coming from diverse places, and laboring under diseases not of one kind, in the space of three days; and not long after, a hundred and twenty-four, within fourteen days, he cured. Thus there. To these one thing adds, as Mabillon has recorded in writing, William of Malmesbury, an eyewitness, in these words: I saw (which is a marvel) a man, from whom the violence of robbers had dug out his lights, receive by the merits of Swithun either those eyes or others (for they had been thrown a little way off); and it was an indication of the past calamity, that the pricks of the punctures deformed his eyelids. The Annals of Winchester in Wharton, in England Sacred part I, page 295, exhibit to us the most celebrated translation of St. Swithun in these words: In the year 1093, in the presence of nearly all the bishops and abbots of England, with the greatest exultation and glory, the monks came from the old monastery of Winchester to the new, on the 6th of the Ides of April. But at the feast of St. Swithun, a procession being made from the new monastery to the old, they brought thence the bier of St. Swithun, and in the new honorably placed it. And since on the occasion of the translation there had at the same time to be treatment of the miracles, a great aid and help to us in this part was both the said copy from the very ancient Bigot codex, and another taken from the most ancient membranes of the Queen of Sweden, which did not come to our hands except mutilated, inasmuch as truncated in head and tail.
[6] Certain things by which that defect can somehow be supplied, I draw out from the often-praised Mabillon, since they wonderfully make for the glory of the Saint and our purpose. and their supplement Thus therefore he speaks in the Benedictine Acts of century 4, part I, page 71. After the above translation the church of Winchester received a surname from his Swithun's name. Alfwold, from a monk of Winchester made bishop of Wilton, at Sherborne placed an image of the most holy Swithun, raised the torch of veneration, says William of Malmesbury in book 2 On the Pontiffs of the English. At this statue, as Gotselin relates, distinguished miracles were wont to be wrought: among these, a leper was cleansed from leprosy. Finally, Emma the queen, mother of King Edward, accused by Earl Godwin of violated chastity, when she had been thrust into the monastery of Wherwell by the command of her son, underwent the ordeal of the glowing iron at Winchester in the church of St. Swithun, to prove her own innocence and that of Alwin, bishop of Winchester (who was reported to be her paramour).
[7] received from elsewhere. Emma kept vigil the whole next night at the sepulcher of St. Swithun. Day being come, on the swept pavement of the church, nine plowshares glowing with fire are placed in order, over which, being briefly blessed, the queen's shoes are drawn off; then, her robe laid aside, girt up by two bishops on either side, she runs unharmed over the nine plowshares, the king being amazed, and all who were present astonished, as is read more fully especially in the Monasticon Anglicanum from page 33. She, not ungrateful to her deliverer, gave on that day in oblation to St. Swithun for the nine plowshares nine Manors, King Edward approving, and adding two manors of his own. Finally, in the year 1052, Queen Emma departed from the world, and was buried at Winchester in the church of St. Swithun.
[8] Relics, And indeed that the posthumous fame of St. Swithun, confirmed and propagated by signs and miracles, contributed not a little to promoting the Apostolic labors of St. Ethelwold, his successor in the episcopate of Winchester, is declared in honorific words in the life of the same Ethelwold, written, as it seems to Mabillon, by the monk Wolstan, his disciple, and printed in the same Mabillon, Annals of the Benedictines, century 5, page 616, where it is thus read: The preaching of which Athelwold the holy Bishop Swithun especially aided, at the same time declared by heavenly signs, and most gloriously translated within the royal precinct of the temple, and most fittingly placed. And therefore twin luminaries shone together in the house of God, set upon golden candlesticks; because what Adelwold preached by the salutary exhortation of words, this Swithun wondrously adorned to the praise of the name of Christ by the glorious exhibition of miracles. Certain miracles, written in bound speech, you have in the following paragraph, where concerning the writers. There is also to be said something concerning the relics of our holy Bishop. Edmer or Eadmer, the inseparable companion of St. Anselm the archbishop, described the ancient crypt of the church of Canterbury; from which description, other things being omitted which do not pertain here, I excerpt a few for our matter. Furthermore, another altar, set at a suitable space before the aforesaid altar, was dedicated in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ, where daily the divine mysteries are celebrated. In which altar the Blessed Elfeg had solemnly reposited the head of the Blessed Swithun …. with many relics of other Saints. Approach part 2 of the supplement of the month of June, page 114. Concerning the relics this little only is, which we have already said.
[9] For the proper prayers or collects have, reader, proper prayers from our manuscript codex those things which follow and are excerpted from a most elegant Missal, given for the use of the English church, to the monastery of Jumièges by Robert, who had once been its abbot, and was then bishop of London about the year 1050, and at last archbishop of Canterbury, etc. The paschal table of the Missal is from the year 1000 to the year 1005. Thus therefore it is there read: O God, who didst deign to reveal to the world in modern times the ethereal light, the bishop Swithun; as suppliants we implore thy omnipotence, that through the glorious merits of that same Saint, whom thou makest to flash with the signs of miracles, thou mayest afford to us thy servants supplicating thee the increases of all virtues, and the exultation of eternal felicity. Through, etc. There is no preface. The prayer for the Completion, or Postcommunion, thus has: O God, who through thy holy confessor the bishop Swithun healest the languors of the sick, grant us thy aid, that through his intervention, to those imploring it, we may enjoy the health of the present life and the society of the citizens above. Through our Lord, etc. The following little verses with the prayer I took from a manuscript containing the collects and antiphons of various Saints of England.
O Swithun our father, most gentle bishop, through whom God the Lord works wondrous signs. We, frail of soul, ask you to defend us with paternal care, and protect us by your holy merits. That, you interceding for us as patron, we may be able to ascend to perpetual life.
Pray for us, etc. O God, who dost grant us to celebrate this most sacred day in the deposition of thy Blessed Swithun, thy confessor and pontiff; be propitiously present to the prayers of thy church, that it may be defended by the suffrages of him in whose merits it glories. Through Christ our Lord.
§ II. On the writers of the life, miracles, and translation of St. Swithun.
Three instruments are at hand for us to illustrate concerning St. Swithun; namely the life, the miracles, and the translation. The Life of St. Swithun Those things which the writers committed concerning them to writing for the memory of posterity we shall produce in their place, and, so far as necessary, illustrate with notes, a brief discussion concerning their authors being first premised. The life is had described in a legend, printed in ancient types, which is commonly and everywhere wont to be ascribed to Capgrave. There are those who think the author of this legend was John of Tynemouth, a monk of the order of St. Benedict at St. Alban's, which John flourished in the year 1366, and, having searched the libraries of the ancient monasteries, applied his mind to composing an ecclesiastical history, and the lives of the Saints. From his Sanctilogium, or history of the Saints of both sexes, John Capgrave is reported to have transferred either all, or most things, into the aforesaid legend of his, and to have used them for his own. Consult the note of John Bolland, volume 2 of February, page 308, letter a.
[11] The same life, which we too are about to give here, with a few things changed and the style corrected here and there, whence drawn. Surius printed on the 2nd of July under the name of Gotzelin, concerning whom presently. Furthermore, the life published in Capgrave and intimated by us agrees too much with that which, as we have said, the said Surius polished after his manner, than that they can be drawn from diverse sources, as is settled from the collation made by me of the two with each other. It will be useful to hear what John Mabillon commented concerning the author of the life in the Benedictine Acts, century IV, page 69. This, he says, Goscelin the monk first at length attempted to draw out from darkness toward the turn of the eleventh century, translated from the monastery of Sithiu into England with Herman, bishop of Salisbury: which Goscelin, as William the monk of Malmesbury relates, in book IV On the Kings of the English, in the last chapter, set forth with his style innumerable lives of the Saints of the ancients, either lost by hostility, or informally published, and renovated them more elegantly. From this author the same William borrowed the things which he related concerning Swithun, in treating of the bishops of Winchester. In the footsteps of both followed Harpsfield, and after him Thomas Maihew, and other more recent ones. Concerning Gotzelin, Vossius thus speaks in book 2 On the Latin Historians: He flourished in the year 1110. He marked the life of St. Swithun, bishop of Winchester, which itself, or at least an epitome of it, is extant in Surius, volume IV, July II. Since therefore it is sufficiently agreed among the learned that the often-mentioned Gotzelin committed to writing the life of St. Swithun, nor can any author hitherto, so far at least as I judge, be assigned earlier than he, who ran the same course of this literary stadium before his times, it remains that whatever either John of Tynemouth or Capgrave published in subsequent times seems to be referred to this one Gotzelin, as to the first source. Unless perhaps to Gotzelin himself too some light was afforded by Lantfred, and perhaps also Wolstan, concerning whom we shall now treat.
[12] Whence the history These words being weighed, which the author of the translation of the body of our holy Bishop inserted into the history written by him: We saw it thus done, just as the present little codex demonstrates; and these moreover, which he there says: Who in our time deigned to make his Saint wondrous by signs and virtues, these words, I say, being weighed, it is clear that the aforesaid author was contemporary with the translation of the body of St. Swithun, nay even an eyewitness; but now since it is sufficiently agreed among the learned that Lantfred consigned the history of the aforesaid translation, or the miracles wrought after the death of the Saint, in loosed speech; and since from elsewhere it is no less certainly established that he flourished about the year 980, I for my part do not see to whom this our manuscript, which we give to the types, seems able to be attributed more probably and with greater verisimilitude than to the same Lantfred; at least in this sense, that ours was taken and extracted from his writings, other miracles being omitted, which that he wrote in a greater number will be made plain from those things which will afterward be said from Mabillon. And why should not this same be identical, or at least drawn from the same sources, with that which Mabillon omitted to bring to light, content to have related the miracles of St. Swithun only summarily, thinking, he says, that the works of Lantfred and Wolstan, which we have in our possession, are not of such value as to merit public light. In them I find only certain things worthy of observation, which at the end of this summary I shall relate.
[13] Of the Translation? We, saving the peace of the learned man, judge on the contrary, that it is especially befitting to a searcher of antiquity, nor at all foreign to his purpose, to draw out from darkness the monuments of venerable antiquity, and to bring them forth into public light, and also to set to profit whatever of this kind, provided it be genuine and authentic, can be transmitted to posterity, of which often the sole and only value is a candid, ancient, and primitive simplicity. Perhaps this our manuscript coincides with that other, which, as a certain more recent author writes, is extant in a codex of exceptional antiquity and beauty of the Cotton library under Nero E. I. To the aforesaid history of the translation and miracles, as it is in our copy, being attributed to Lantfred as author, these words of the same copy conduce not a little. Yet the life and ancient conversation of this wonderful Bishop are unknown to us, because writings are by no means had of them: from which it appears that there befits the author of this our copy that which I find asserted concerning Lantfred and Wolstan in Mabillon, who complain that, on account of the sloth of the writers, nothing concerning his St. Swithun's life has been transmitted to posterity. I for my part do not conceive how these things can cohere or be reconciled with the opinion of Pits, who, according to Mabillon, in his book on the ecclesiastical writers of the English, attributes to Lantfred two books on the life and miracles of St. Swithun, although, says Mabillon, I find only one, on the translation and miracles, nor does Lantfred seem to have written anything concerning his life, who complains that the deeds of St. Swithun were unknown on account of the poverty of writers.
[15] That last thing remains, that we here produce those miracles which Mabillon excerpted from the writings of Wolstan and Lantfred. His miracles The first is concerning a parricide, for nine years, on account of that crime, bound with iron chains, and loosed from the chains, which miracle, as the aforesaid Mabillon hands down, Lantfred narrates in chapter 24 (and in our work is related among the miracles taken from the ancient membranes of the Queen of Sweden, number 32). This kind of penance, such as we have observed rather often elsewhere, Wolstan thus describes in the following little verses, book 2, chapter 7.
It happened meanwhile that a certain man had committed a crime, for he slew his own parent by a cruel death. Whence to the guilty man straightway the bishop of the city ordered, that an iron circle should sharply constrict his whole belly, and that his arms should suffer a like penalty: and for nine continuous years, tormenting himself, that he should often traverse the halls of the sacred places, and visit the most beautiful thresholds of the holy Peter. That so he might merit to receive the pardon of so great a fault.
The said Mabillon proceeds. Likewise another, done in the following chapter, is related concerning the slave of a certain Flodoald, a most wealthy merchant of Winchester, which slave, before Eadric the governor accused of an uncertain crime, is ordered, that he should
Carry with bare hand the reddening coal, the ignited steel: and if he should be blameless, he should proceed unharmed: but if he were guilty, the torturer should strike this man with the sword, his neck laid bare.
[15] The third is in chapter II, concerning the restored eyes of Birferth, a monk of Abingdon, some things from Lantfred and Wolstan. Otgar being then abbot of Abingdon, whom Wlfgar succeeded, who flourished when Wolstan was writing these things. The fourth is in chapter 12, concerning a blind man enlightened, who, coming to Winchester on a fasting day, made it a matter of religion to break his fast before the solemn hour of None. The fifth is concerning a certain Frenchwoman, who, while one night she yawned, and did not imprint the sign of the cross, was suddenly struck with an infirmity of the jaw. The sixth is concerning the law of King Eadgar, established against robbers, that whoever should be caught guilty of this crime, his lights being blinded, his hands truncated, his ears torn off, his nostrils cut, and his feet withdrawn, should be tortured a long while, and thus at last, the skin of his head with the hair being flayed, be left half dead in the fields, to be devoured by wild beasts and birds and the dogs of the night, which last thing Lantfred commemorates in the last chapter. Whoever shall compare these miracles of St. Swithun just now commemorated with those which we are just about to give, will easily observe that almost all the things are described there which are here reviewed. We have thought it of interest to the reader that all things here, which were excerpted by Mabillon from the writings of Wolstan and Lantfred, should be set down, since they can serve, if not for the knowledge of those miracles which are had from elsewhere, yet they will be able to serve for the greater confirmation of them.
[16] The letter of Lantfred As for our copy, treating of the miracles of our Saint and extracted from the most ancient membranes of the Queen of Sweden, I have nothing either concerning the author who wrote it, or concerning the time at which it was written, certain or ascertained, so that I have nothing at all ready to say, besides the few things which on that occasion we said in the preceding paragraph, to which I refer the reader. Let there here also be given its own place to the letter of Lantfred, which, published by him as author, is read in England Sacred in Wharton, part I, page 322, under this title: The letter of Lantfred prefixed to the history of the miracles of St. Swithun, bishop of Winchester. I hope that it will be inserted here with the reader's approval, because although it has no great affinity with those things which have been treated here and there through the course of this paragraph, in that it affords nothing at all of new light or historical erudition, nevertheless it will be able to serve in place of a prologue, to be prefixed to the history of the miracles wrought by St. Swithun. This letter thus sounds: To the most beloved brethren dwelling at Winchester in the monastery of St. Peter, which is called the Most Ancient, may perpetual concord, health and everlasting glory, unspeakable joy, splendor without end, eternal peace, continual charity, here and in heaven be multiplied by the Lord. Although, dearest and affable brethren, throughout nearly all Europe there are thoroughly divulged the miracles which the preeminent author of miracles deigned to bestow on the nation of the English through the merit of St. Swithun; nevertheless, lest so great benefits of God should be able to lie hidden from succeeding posterity, I, the most worthless of all by the depraved acts of men, as one supported by no prerogative of divine knowledge, by no authority of goodness; yet obeying your commands, trusting in your prayers, trembling I have approached so great a magnitude of the sea, and as a drop from the waves of the Ocean, so from the very many miracles of the Saint I have plucked a very few.
[17] prefixed to the miracles. Wherefore I entreat the Creator of things, that he regard not my merit but the affection of those commanding. I pray you too to pray for my beloved prayers, lest the spirit of falsehood seduce me. Assuredly a mind ensnared by earthly cares will be able to devise nothing of truth, unless first the spirit of knowledge and piety have expelled the mists of deceitful error. And since we know very little of the wondrous signs, prodigies, and virtues which this Saint performed in his life by his prayers: assuredly, as Priscian says, the most skilled author of the grammatical art, the studies of letters passing over into negligence through the poverty of writers: let us come to those things which after his death were undoubtedly performed at the tomb of the man of God. And therefore we have approached especially to unrolling the miracles of this Saint; since, as it is most worthy to praise the benefits of God, and most just to proclaim him to those who know not; so it is most impious to deny them by keeping silence, and most worthless not to narrate them to the ignorant. The human mind is of this nature, that as often as it has learned by reading, or by hearing, the sacred acts of the ancients or the manners of the fathers, it leaves the hardness of heart, and forsakes the obstinacy of mind that is a follower of vices, and is inclined to mercy, and follows humility the mistress of virtues. Nothing, as you have seen, reader, of new light, nothing of knowledge does the aforesaid letter supply, yet nonetheless I have judged that it should be inserted here, lest perhaps some learned person might miss it here.
§ III. Reply is made to certain questions pertaining to the life and death of St. Swithun.
In what place he was born, of what family descended, what manner of life he professed, before he wore the sacred mitres of Winchester; St. Swithun before his episcopate I do not think it is distinctly defined anywhere in the ancient monuments. That he sprang from a noble stock of parents, Florentius of Worcester writes, in the year of Christ 827, as can be seen in Maihew: whence he drew this parachronism, I do not discuss. As to the manner of life before the episcopate of Winchester, Mabillon answers: That he was a monk at Winchester in the old monastery is the opinion of Harpsfield and Maihew; whose opinion accordingly is this. That the cathedral church of St. Peter of Winchester, cultivated in the middle of the ninth century by monks, afterward passed to secular canons, whom King Eadgar, after the middle of the tenth century, changed into monks. And indeed Maihew so distinctly explains his mind, that he thinks even the principal church of Winchester, which was afterward called the old monastery, from its very institution by the blessed Birinus the bishop, was subject to Benedictine monks. Concerning which matter we shall discuss more fully in the following century. We have from the life of Gotzelin, to be produced by us afterward, his boyish simplicity, the innocence of his morals, his clericate, his priesthood, the instruction of Adulphus or Ethelwlf, son of King Egbert, and nothing besides that would suggest to us a more distinct and explicit mention of the things done by St. Swithun before his episcopate. Pits indeed asserts, from Leland, that Swithun was a monk of the order of St. Benedict; but he would merit greater faith, if he proved as probably as he says it roundly.
[19] These things notwithstanding, his monastic profession before the episcopate what it was, is not obscurely drawn out and asserted in Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, volume 3, page 98, from an instrument which without doubt he did not yet have at the time when he was engaged in composing the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, but afterward obtained; when he applied his mind to composing the aforesaid Annals. That instrument is brought forth in the greater history of Winchester, in the first volume of England Sacred, concerning which above, page 201 and following, in which is cited the profession of our Saint, made in the hands of Colnoth, archbishop of Dorovernia, before he was to be consecrated bishop of Winchester, where among other things which he declares, in express terms he professes that he had before been a monk: I, he says, Swithun, a monk, a little servant of the servants of God, though unworthy elected to the episcopal see of the church of the city of Venta, in the first place I confess to you, most reverend Father, Celnoth archbishop, my continence, which formerly in the monastic profession I expressed, and my love toward you, which is without the scruple of ambiguity, and without any invention of falsity. I believe in God the Father, etc. And so it can by no means be doubted that St. Swithun, before the episcopate, was a follower of the monastic institute, but what that was, whether Benedictine, or another, is not expressed by the ancients. Mabillon seems tacitly to suppose that he was a monk of the Benedictine institute; since in the Benedictine Acts he grants him too his own place, no otherwise than to other followers of the aforementioned order.
[20] in what year It could moreover be asked, in what year our Saint came to the administration and possession of the see of Winchester. That this happened in the ninth century the authors sufficiently agree, but in what year of the aforesaid century it happened, there is greater dispute and controversy among them. I set it down as certain and undoubted, that he had not yet been promoted to the bearing of the pastoral crosier in the year 833. My assertion I thus establish. In the year 833 Withlaf, king of the Mercians, when, as our Alford relates, he was tarrying a fugitive in the retreat of Croyland, sanctioned by a royal diploma, that he, if he should recover his kingdom, would do well by that place; which indeed he abundantly and amply performed, and subscribed in the Council of London a public instrument, which, related by Ingulph, abbot of the aforesaid monastery, can be seen in the same Alford and other writers. To this royal privilege there subscribed, in the first place indeed Celnoth archbishop of Dorobernia, and afterward the other archbishops in their order; bishops, and abbots; nay, and after them King Egbert himself, and his son Adelwlf, and also three dukes. And at last, after all these mentioned, Swithun also subscribed in these words: I Swithun, priest of King Egbert, was present. And so in the year 833 St. Swithun was only a priest of King Egbert, and thus was not yet a bishop. I assert moreover, that he did not shine with the episcopal dignity before the year 837, and it is clear from this, that Helmstan his predecessor in the episcopate departed from life only in the year 837.
[21] consecrated To this make those things which the aforementioned Alford has in the Annals of the church at the aforesaid year of Christ: Helmstan, bishop of Winchester, dies this year, having governed the church for five years. Concerning him Godwin has these things in the catalogue: "Helmstan died in the year eight hundred and thirty-seven, and lies buried upon the northern wall of the presbytery." Then Alford proceeds: The same year of death Worcester consigns, which is therefore to be noted; because there are not lacking even noble historians, who think that, Helmstan being dead, Ethelwolf succeeded as king of the west. But he who entered upon the kingdom on the 4th of February, could not occupy the see of the bishop for seven years, as some authors seem to wish. Well therefore did Godwin write: "About this time not a few of our historians contend that Athulf, or Athelulf, who afterward was king, was created bishop of Winchester, Simon of Durham, Henry of Huntingdon, Roger Hoveden, and others, and that he presided over this see for seven years. Which is by no means proved to me." Thus Alford from Godwin.
[22] bishop. Let it therefore remain fixed, that the see of Winchester of Helmstan was not occupied before the year 837, whom Helmstan, not Athelwlf, as it pleased some historians otherwise of no mean note to fabricate, but St. Swithun succeeded; and that either in the year next following, namely 838, which the aforepraised Alford says is noted in the fasti; or in the preceding year 837, as Maihew says in the Benedictine Trophies of England on the 2nd of July: That, Ethelwulf being now constituted king, and therefore after the beginning of that reign, which happened in 837, he was set over that episcopal see, all agree. For indeed Malmesbury agrees, book 2 On the Deeds of the Pontiffs of the English: Ethelwolf, he says, receiving Swithun as his fosterer and teacher (for so he called him), did not desist until he honored him with the episcopate of Winchester, the clergy consenting, the archbishop of Canterbury Ceolnoth ordaining. Moreover Florentius of Worcester harmonizes, who at the year 837 thus has: But King Ethelwlf reigning, St. Helmstan the bishop departed from life; whom, by the command of the king, the Blessed Swithun succeeded.
[23] Thomas Rudburn mentioned above asserts indeed that the ordination of St. Swithun was made when Helmstan, Of Thomas Rudburn and others bishop of Winchester, was dead, and Athulf or Ethelwolf reigning, but he removes and defers it as far as the year 852; but on what foundation he relied, I do not sufficiently understand. And indeed the same author just before produces a privilege, or charter of donation, which was written in the year of the Lord's incarnation 844, indiction 4 (which is the seventh), where Swithun is named bishop in these words: But it pleased then afterward the bishops Alstan of the church of Sherborne, and Swithun of the church of Winchester, with their abbots and servants, to enter upon the said counsel. Wharton, the commentator or scholiast of the cited Rudburn, judges that the entry of Swithun to the episcopal see is rightly placed by Rudburn in the year 852; but that an error crept into the aforesaid diploma or charter of donation, and that for the year 844 there should be substituted 855; because the indiction 4 there appended exactly agrees with that year (in which it was indiction 3, not 4), but disagrees with the year 844, upon which fell not the fourth indiction but the ninth (seventh). The same Wharton argues that Godwin slipped from carelessness, because he consigns the death of Helmstan to the year 837. But whether his judgment in this matter ought to be of such value, as to outweigh the authors before alleged? The contrary is clear even from the errors of the indictions.
[24] A greater and more manifest slip Ussher committed, hallucinations when in his Chronological index he states that Swithun succeeded Helmstan in the episcopal see in the year 937, in these words: 937. To Helmstan in the episcopate of Winchester succeeded Swithun, whom they would have to have been a professor of sacred theology in the chair of the academy of Cambridge; their contemporary, Bonagratia de Villa Dei, in a letter to the black monks of England attesting that. This Ussher in the index, after in his history On the origins of the British churches, page 340, he had said the following: The Swithun who survives, seems to have been that very one, whom Florentius of Worcester notes in his chronicle to have succeeded Helmstan in the episcopate of Winchester in the year 937. But there the year 837 is expressly marked, and no mention is made either of Helmstan or Swithun in the year 937. Then the aforesaid Ussher proceeds: For they would have this one too to have been of Cambridge, and that on the authority of Bonagratia de Villa Dei, from whose letter to the black monks in England these words are produced by Thomas Rudburn in the third book, chapter II, of the greater History, and writer of the little history of the church of Winchester: "When, exiling from my own country, I was dwelling in England among the most holy and religious monks of your whole kingdom in the city of Venta, Helmstan the venerable abbot of the cathedral church, and the venerable Swithun the provost of the same church, and enthroned in the profession of sacred theology in the study of Cambridge, cherished me amid the wretched perils of exile by a special grace of restoring recreation."
[25] in this matter Upon which words Wharton comments in this manner: I fear lest Swithun the elder, also bishop of Winchester, the familiar of SS. Dubricius and David, and most celebrated for the fame of letters, has been badly confounded with the younger. Concerning him see Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of Britain, book IX, chapter XII, and Giraldus Cambrensis in the life of St. David. Concerning the antiquity of the academy of Cambridge Rudburn had splendidly fabled in his lesser history in these words: "In the year of the Lord 871 was burned the university of Cambridge, which was built in the year from the creation of the world 4815 by the duke Cantaber, and frequented by Philosophers before the incarnation of Christ for 314 years." Thus he. Which things being attentively weighed and considered, it follows that in these and similar matters, as also in the higher chronological epoch, one must not too much defer to the authority of Rudburn, and therefore in admitting the provostship of Winchester, and the professorship of the academy of Cambridge, with which the aforesaid author would have St. Swithun to have been invested, I shall not be very easy, unless I see this proved and established from more ancient and more certain arguments.
[26] set forth. Furthermore, the things which Rudburn relates concerning monks inhabiting the church of Winchester from the very year 169 are mere trifles, as it is said in Wharton in the succession of the Priors of the church of Winchester, and from it is gathered that he stuffed his writings with more than one fable. But what of the fragment of the letter, brought forward and cited above, as written by Bonagratia de Villa Dei? Receive this answer thereto. To say that that fragment is altogether supposititious and adulterine, seems an assertion of somewhat hard digestion. What then? Perhaps some particles were thrust in here by the interpolator out of a particular affection and disposition; or, if this seem not likely, the confusion of the elder Swithun with the younger could have been a mother fruitful enough to have given birth to the aforesaid fable. This last, however, does not seem sufficient to settle the present controversy, because there is the adjoined name of Helmstan, the venerable abbot of the cathedral church, which Helmstan lived with the younger Swithun: unless perhaps there were two Helmstans also, of whom the first was only abbot of the cathedral church, but the second bishop of the same church and contemporary with our Swithun. Which there is no leisure to investigate. But of these more than enough. Now let us hasten to other things.
[27] St. Swithun Let the last labor now be, to discuss in what year the holy Bishop departed from among the living. Concerning this time the authors sufficiently agree, only a small difference of one year being left among them. His death, says Mabillon in the summary of the life of St. Swithun, now cited several times, Gotselin, Matthew of Westminster, Florentius of Worcester, and with them Cardinal Baronius, refer to the year of Christ 862. The following year prefer William of Malmesbury in the Pontiffs, Simon of Durham in his book On the Deeds of the Kings of the English, and Roger Hoveden. The sixth day before the Nones of July the same Gotselin assigns, and with him the Roman Martyrology, and other more recent ones. Far errs Egilward in his book On the life of St. Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, who calls Burchard the own brother of this same St. Swithun, since Burchard preceded Swithun by a hundred years.
[28] To the authors enumerated last, but consigning the death of Swithun to the year 863, in what year he died. adheres Mabillon at the place just cited; where he too notes the same year. What forced him to recede from the opinion of Gotzelin, praised above at number 11 at length from the same Mabillon, I confess I do not know; nor do I sufficiently see what cause there is why, his opinion being left, which fixes the death of our Saint in the year 862, I should conform myself to the pleasure of the other more recent authors, who annex the said death only to the year next following, namely 863. I therefore judge that the year 862 is to be preferred, following our Elders, who long ago on the 11th of April, page 54, in the Annotations, letter l, were of the same opinion: St. Swithun … sat from the year 838 to 862. From what has been said, the too-often hypercritical Baillet is convicted of a slip in error and merits criticism, when in the life of St. Swithun he asserts that he spent almost forty years in the episcopal office. In place of a corollary I add those things which the scholiast of the History of Winchester noted in the first part of England Sacred published by Wharton, who upon these words of the aforesaid history, But St. Swithun departed, in the year of the Lord's incarnation 863, thus comments: So indeed Hoveden, the Melrose writer, and several others. But truly he died in the year 862, on the 6th of the Nones of July, on Thursday; which is established from Worcester and Westminster. So also the manuscript little History of Winchester, which records that Swithun died in 862, in the third year of King Ethelbert. Grossly err the brief Annals of Winchester, which extend the birth of Swithun to the year 826, his death to 872. These things being premised for the reader's instruction concerning the matters pertaining to the life and miracles of St. Swithun, I subjoin our copies.
LIFE By the author Gotzelin in Surius, collated with that which is in Capgrave.
Swithun, Bishop of Winchester in England (S.)
BHL Number: 7949 a
BY THE AUTHOR Gotzelin.
While the glorious king of the English Egbert b reigned, who succeeded eighth e in the administration of the kingdom to King Kinegilph c, converted from idolatry through the blessed Birinus d, The clericate and virtues of St. Swithun, the blessed Swithun, destined to be father and pastor in the Church of God, received, the divine mercy ordaining, the beginning of his course to be run in the stadium of this world. But his boyish years being passed in pious simplicity, he wished the yoke of the Lord's service to be imposed upon his shoulders, and, received, he humbly and manfully bore it. And so, admitted into the clergy, from step to step, from virtue to virtue, God directing his steps through all things, ascending, under Helmstan f bishop of Winchester, he was advanced to the honor of the priesthood. Moreover he took care always to exhibit himself a minister fit and approved to God, to treat the word of truth rightly and catholically, to be zealous for kindness and gentleness, to exercise the works of piety before all things, to correct with the rod of chastisement those living not rightly nor in order, and humbly to serve all.
[2] When his fame reached the ears of the king, he was summoned by him, and numbered among his chief friends. the episcopate of Winchester, And the king commended to him his son Adulphus g to be instructed in the liberal disciplines, and formed in holy morals: whom afterward he ordained subdeacon. Nevertheless, his father departing from this life without an heir, since besides him no other heir survived, Pope Leo h dispensing, he took a wife. But Bishop Helmstan being dead, Swithun was elected by the votes of all. King Adulphus, moved by his prayers and exhortations, benignly gave to the churches of God the whole tithe of the land of his kingdom, and freely granted them to claim it for themselves. The same holy Bishop built the bridge of Winchester, which is to the East. And when he was giving solicitous labor to building it, on a certain day, he sitting at the work, a certain poor little woman came thither, carrying eggs for sale in a vessel: whom the workmen, wanton and playful, seizing, afflicted with great harm, all the eggs being not snatched away, but broken. She therefore, for the injury inflicted and the damage done, complaining before the Bishop with tears and wailing, the holy man, moved by piety, took up the vessel in which the eggs were placed, expressed with his right hand the sign of the Cross, and restored the eggs uncorrupted and whole.
[3] distinguished examples, a blessed death, Now he was wont zealously to build churches in those places where they were not: and to restore those ruined and broken. About to dedicate the sacred houses, he was not carried aloft on a horse, nor did he employ for himself the apparatus of secular pomp: but, his clerics and familiars accompanying him, he went on foot humbly with bare feet. To his banquets he summoned not the wealthy, but the needy and the poor. His mouth was always open to exhort sinners to do penance. He admonished those standing, to give heed lest they fall: those fallen, to rise again. Food he took not to stuff his belly, but for his sustenance, sparingly and moderately. After many vigils and many labors, lest he fail, he admitted a little sleep, always intent on psalms and spiritual canticles. To his neighbors always, just as to himself, he proposed, in modest and humble speech, what was useful, what was honorable, pious, and holy. The blessed man lived until the exit of his life in the true observance of the commandments of God, keeping his heart with all custody in all cleanness and spiritual purity, an entire guardian of catholic and Apostolic doctrine, an ever-watchful instructor and master of the sons spiritually regenerated in the zeal of holy conversation. Humility and gentleness he more carefully followed. Finally, following peace and holiness, he thirsted for the fountain of life and everlasting beatitude. And thus he happily departed from this world to the starry mansions on the sixth of the Nones of July, in the year of salvation eight hundred and sixty-two i. But he ordered himself to be buried not within the church, but outside its enclosures, in an unworthy and lowly place k.
[4] miracles, After his death he flashed with many miracles: among which he appeared to a certain man l, laboring with an incredible infirmity of all his members, admonishing that he should go to Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, and say to him that it had thus seemed good to divine providence, that his body, taken up from the place in which it had been buried, should be more honorably entombed within the church in a worthier place. If he should distrust and hesitate, he would have as a testimony the health which, the disease being routed in that same hour with which he had long labored, he would straightway recover. He added also, that he should come to the place of burial, and would draw out one of the iron rings, which even now are seen fixed in the stone, without any injury to the stone, and would again with equal ease, the stone being nothing injured, replace it in its own place. He rises perfectly healed: as had been foretold, he finds all things, and narrates all in order to the Bishop. A certain bent man, and after the manner of cattle, with face downward looking at the earth, he rendered whole and sound. A certain noble and rich man, when at midday he was walking on the bank of the river, saw suddenly appearing to him three exceedingly horrible ones, as if women of immense stature. They, seizing him as he fled, and afflicting him in many ways, and with their pestiferous breath almost suffocating him, rendered him, affected with incredible horror, like a madman. But being brought to the church, at night St. Swithun appeared, and, all pain being driven away, restored him to health.
[5] When Bishop Ethelwold raised the body of the blessed Man from the earth, the translation illustrious with new prodigies. a wondrous fragrance of odor pervaded all, a blind woman received sight, and many afflicted with various sicknesses were cured by his merits. That translation fell in the one hundred and tenth year from his death, but the nine hundred and seventy-first of the Lord's Incarnation, and on the Ides of July. On the same day he healed a boy marvelously contracted from birth: to three women deprived of the light of their eyes he restored sight: a woman fettered in prison with iron bonds, the chains being broken, he freed: he cured a paralytic: a noble but blind matron he enlightened: twenty-five men afflicted with various diseases, who had come from diverse places, in one day he perfectly restored: some blind men, two contracted women within one day: thirty-six coming from diverse places, and laboring under diseases not of one kind, in the space of three days: and not long after, a hundred and twenty-four, within fourteen days, he cured.
[6] King Edgar, for the coercing of thefts, sanctioned by law, Other miracles of St. Swithun, that one caught in theft should be deprived of his eyes, his ears, hands, and feet being cut off, and the skin of his head be stripped, and thus be cast forth to be torn by wild beasts and birds. But it happened that a certain innocent man, punished with that penalty, almost lost his hearing, the passages of his ears being obstructed with blood. Carried by his parents into the oratory of St. Swithun, that his hearing alone might be restored to him, he not only obtained that, but also other things which he had not asked. A certain woman sleeping, the door being open, in a village of the city of Winchester, a wolf carried off from her bed into the forest, and with a horrible howl called other wolves to itself. The woman, weak both from want of food and from age, knew not what to do. She turns to prayers, implores divine aid, calls upon St. Swithun. The wolf, his name being heard, fell asleep: the woman withdraws herself: the wolf, awaking, with his companions pursues her, but could not harm her, whom the mercy of God and of the blessed Bishop had undertaken to deliver.
[7] A certain statue of St. Swithun, acquired from the brethren, the bishop of Sherborne and his statue. honorably placed in his church, where distinguished miracles were wont frequently to be wrought. To this statue a certain leper came, not for the sake of obtaining a cure, but that from those who poured forth prayers in that place he might receive alms. And when he had slept there a little, it seemed to him that St. Swithun was present, wiped away his leprosy with his hand, and suddenly drove all that disease from him. Waking, joyful before all, he loosed his girdle, and showed himself cleansed.
ANNOTATA.
HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION AND MIRACLES By the author, as it seems, Lantfred, a monk of Winchester in England. From a most ancient Bigot manuscript.
Swithun, Bishop of Winchester in England (S.)
BHL Number: 7948 a
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
CHAPTER I. The body of St. Swithun divinely shown, and miracles.
In the times of the most happy Eadgar [*] b King of the English and most glorious Emperor of the whole island of Albion c, in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour of the world Jesus Christ 971, The miraculous body of Swithun, indiction 14, the all-powerful Deity deigned to show to the Anglo-d-Saxons the holy body of the blessed bishop Swithun, through whose merits as many languishing ones were, by God's favor, restored to their former health, as no living person ever heard, even by spreading fame, nor beheld with bodily sight, nor learned by reading, to have been cured at the tomb of any Saint. Yet the life of this wonderful Bishop, and his ancient conversation, are unknown to us: because writings are by no means had: but the clemency of Almighty God deigned most evidently to manifest his merits by flashing miracles.
[2] Three years therefore before the holy relics of the aforesaid Bishop were taken up from the mausoleum, is divinely manifested. in which they had once been buried, by the most reverend bishop of the same place Athelwold and his brethren, the Saint himself appeared in sleep to a certain truthful smith, distinguished with an angelic effigy, saying to him: Do you know that canon, who with the rest living depravedly was lately expelled from the old e monastery? That you may recognize him clearly, Eadsin is his name by appellation. The smith answered: I once knew him, Father, but now I know not where he is. To whom the Bishop said: Now he dwells at Winchcombe f. And he added: I ask you, and command you in the name of Christ, that you go speedily to him, and tell him my commands: This to you, Eadsin, the bishop Swithun enjoins, that you hasten to the city of Winchester, and say to the Bishop, who now at length rules the diocese over which I once presided, that he raise my body from the sepulcher, and place it in the church; since indeed it has been granted him from heaven, that in his time I am to be manifested.
[3] But the smith said to the Saint: Lord, by no means will he be willing to believe my words. It is explained, The holy man said: That he may believe your speech, tell him to go to my tomb, and draw one ring of these three, which are fixed to the cover of my sarcophagus: if it forthwith follows him, let this be truly manifest to him, that I sent you to him. But if he shall by no means be able to pluck it out hence, then by no reasoning ought he to believe you. You can then without doubt report to him, that if he desires to enjoy the safety of both lives, he ought to change his manners and acts for the better, and unceasingly to hasten to the beatitude of the heavenly country. Nay even, prophesying, disclose to all, that as soon as they have opened my burial, they will find treasures so inestimable, and so precious, that whatever of gold and gems is anywhere, will grow cheap in comparison of these. After the holy Prophet had delivered such commands to the smith, he sought the heavens, flying aloft. But that smith, at first fearing to seem a liar, dared by no means at the first time to indicate this vision to any living person.
[4] Who, admonished a second and a third time, is sharply rebuked by the same holy Bishop, how it was done. why he would not obey his precepts. At length he came to the tomb of the gracious Bishop, seizing one of the aforesaid rings, and with such a voice, he says, to the Lord the creator of things: Lord God, creator of all creation, grant to me a sinner, that if this Saint, who here rests in body, has thrice appeared to my sight in the sleep of night, I may be able to pluck out hence this iron globe; just as lately in the vision of a dream the same man of God was at pains to unseal to my ears. Who, as soon as he drew the orb of steel, it so followed him from the stony mass, as if it were fixed in sea sand. Which, replacing it in its own little crevice, so it remained fixed, a little pressed with the heel: that after this it can by no means be plucked thence by anyone.
[5] Various things which But on the same day, while he traversed the market, he found a certain little servant of the aforesaid cleric coming to Winchester for the sake of a necessary purchase, to whom he intimated those things which he had seen through dreams, and humbly entreated him, that he would narrate such things to his Lord. Who, after he came to his own master through a long interval of time, forgetful of that matter, was silent: but afterward, moved by repentance, diligently narrated to his lord all the things which he had heard from the smith. Which cleric at that time not only held wearied the Bishop of the diocese of Winchester, but also all the brethren dwelling there, on account of the expulsion of the Canons, who used nefarious manners and most filthy ones, for which the venerable Athelwold had expelled them from the aforesaid monastery, surround it, rather than that he should be zealous to fulfill the commands of the holy Father, refused to hear. But afterward, the course of two years being completed, the clemency of the supernal Creator favoring, who leads freely to his grace all whom he pressed into the Lord's vineyard to labor; the same Cleric who lately was, was made ….. a venerable monk. For we ourselves saw it thus done, just as the present little codex demonstrates. Blessed be Almighty God, who justifies sinners, who saves those hoping in him, who humbles the proud, who exalts the humble.
[6] Therefore two years before the finding of the sacred body, a certain hunchbacked man, and on account of a huge tumor very bent, heard through a dream, that he should come to Winchester, and there through the merit of St. Swithun receive health. Who rising in the morning, as best he could, sustained his hump with twin crutches g, and came to Winchester, and dwelling there a long time, admonished again by an angelic visitation, went to the tomb of the holy bishop Swithun, and on bended knees, asked the Lord that he might there be healed by the merits of that Saint, just as he had heard in dreams. Who, as soon as he rose from prayers, was so divinely cured, that nowhere did the place of the deformed hump appear. miracles, But the most sacred solemnity day drawing near, on which the venerable bishop of God Swithun, loosed from the bonds of the body, departed from this world to the Lord, a certain man was miserably weakened in all his members by demoniac deceptions. Who, when he had long been tormented, his neighbors and kinsfolk led him to the tomb of the Saint of God, and passed that wakeful night with the languishing friend in assiduous prayers. But the sick man in the morning, oppressed by sleep, slept a little, and it seemed to him as if certain ones came to him, and drew off one shoe from his foot. Who straightway returned home whole with his friends. His slipper, however, was much sought; but nowhere found. Eight other weak persons were cured at the mausoleum of the holy man, before his bones were raised thence.
ANNOTATA.
* Eadgar.
CHAPTER II. The translation of the body, other miracles.
These things being past, on the Ides of July the venerable bishop Athelwold, with other fellow-bishops and abbots, and with several monks, raising up the holy relics from the monument, by the command of the glorious King Eadgar [*], placed them in the basilica of the Apostles Peter and Paul with great veneration. Many miracles, Where benefits are afforded to all asking with true faith. But afterward four sick received healing at his tomb in the interval of three days. Then through the space of five months there was rarely any day on which the languishing were not healed at the honorable relics of that Saint. Sometimes three, sometimes five, now seven, now ten, now twelve, and now indeed fifteen. For we saw more than two hundred sick cured in ten days through the merit of the Saint, and in the circle of a year, those who are without number. Wherefore let the incredulous come to the Saint of God, that they may recognize the benefits of the Creator, and praise the creator.
[8] Let the faithful, finally, know that our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of God, who at the beginning of this age, veiled with the garment of flesh, by himself enlightened the blind, gave to the lame the office of walking, restored hearing to the deaf, cured paralytics, raised the dead, walked upon the sea with dry footsteps; the same in our times, to glorify the omnipotence of his Majesty, and to manifest excellently the merit of the priest Swithun, confers the benefit of health upon the bodies of the sick, by their multitude innumerable and like the sand of the sea, of which there is no number. Blessed be Almighty God, who in our time deigned to make his Saint wondrous by signs and virtues; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through all ages. Amen.
[9] At that time, in which the Lord of things manifested to men his Saint Swithun, Many sick, languishing, a blind man healed. it happened that there came to Winchester in one day twenty-six sick, for the sake of recovering health: of whom some were blind, some deaf, some mute, some also paralytic; who, when they had approached the monument of the holy Bishop and poured forth prayers before God, through his intervention all were cured in the space of three days, and thus joyful they returned home with immense joy, magnifying and praising the Lord. And not long after there came to the same Saint, from diverse borders of the Anglo-Saxons, a hundred and twenty-four sick constrained with manifold languors: these all through the merit of the holy Bishop were, by God's will, cured of various sicknesses in the revolution of two weeks, and blessing the Lord, they returned home unharmed, who had come weak. A certain man too was blinded in the Greater Litany on account of robbery: but because being innocent he was blinded, he came on the Epiphany of the Lord to the mausoleum of St. Swithun, humbly pouring forth prayers. And his eyes, which had been extinguished by iron, and wholly plucked out, were enlightened. And he had afterward clear eyes all the time of his life. Therefore, because we are by no means able to enumerate all the miracles which the Lord deigned to work through St. Swithun, let us ask that same holy Bishop, that he may deign to heal the languors of our souls, by interceding for us with the Lord, with whom for his good works he merited to remain without end. Therefore, when the Saviour of the world had decreed to show such signs at the tomb of the venerable Father Swithun, Athelwold, bishop of blessed memory, commanded the brethren dwelling there, that always, when any sick person through the merit of the holy Man received healing, forthwith all should go to the church, and glorify God with hymns and praises.
[10] But it happened that certain ones after some days took it grievously, St. Swithun appearing that they were roused through the night sometimes four times, sometimes three; and they began to persuade the rest depravedly to leave off what had been piously commanded them by their Bishop. exhorts the Monks Which when it was carelessly omitted for the interval of fifteen days, St. Swithun himself appeared to a certain faithful man through a dream, saying to him: Go to the old monastery, and tell the brethren, that their murmuring greatly displeases Almighty God, since daily he works many miracles before them, and they act so unjustly, that they render him not praises, but set frail pursuits before the divine works. Add also to these, that if they cease from praises, forthwith the great works of God will cease: but if they do not cease to glorify God, he will there work as many wonders as no living person remembers anywhere performed. But the aforesaid man, waking after the Saint's departure, to the praise of God. hastened to bishop Athelwold, and intimated to him all things which the Saint of God had commanded. Who, moved in mind, why the brethren had not acted according to his precept; again commanded the monks with great threatening, that at all the healings which happened at the Saint's tomb, a sign being made, all should go together to the church, and sing praises to Almighty God with hymn-singing voices; which we have heard was thus observed thereafter until now. To whom be glory and praise, to Almighty God, who thus deigned to glorify his Saint, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Annotation* Eadgar.
MIRACLES OF ST. SWITHUN From the most ancient membranes of the Queen of Sweden, in Codex number 769.
Swithun, Bishop of Winchester in England (S.)
BHL Number: 7945
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
CHAPTER I. The first part of the miracles.
After the body of the most holy Bishop was placed within the church, as aforesaid, four sick, Sick persons or five, received healing at his tomb in the interval of three days. But the three days being completed, for nearly the interstice of five months, there was rarely any day on which, in the basilica in which the relics of the holy man are reposited, the languishing were not healed, sometimes more, sixteen or eighteen, but sometimes fewer, five or three, most frequently also seven, eight, ten, twelve, fifteen. We saw more than two hundred in ten days cured through the merit of the Saint, and in the circle of a year, those who are without number.
[2] We saw also around the aforesaid a monastery the streets so filled on both sides with throngs of the sick, very many, that a traveler could scarcely find a way of walking to it; who after some days were so cured, by God's favor, by the merits of the Saint, that even within the basilica scarcely five languishing ones were found. Wherefore let the envious be silent, and the reprobate, who either deny the glorious miracles of this Saint, or, what they cannot deny, turn to the sinister side. Let the incredulous too come to the holy Servant of God, that they may recognize the benefits of the Creator, and praise the Creator. Let the faithful finally know b, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of God, who at the beginning of this age, veiled with the garment of flesh, by himself enlightened the blind, gave to the lame the office of walking, restored hearing to the deaf, cured paralytics, raised the dead, walked upon the sea with dry footsteps; the same in our times, to glorify the omnipotence of his majesty, and to manifest the merit of the excellent Priest, confers the benefit of health upon the bodies of the sick, innumerable by their multitude, like the sand of the sea, of which there is no number.
[3] In those days three women dwelt blind in the island of Wight, one had never beheld corporeal light with her eyes; three blind women, but two had been blinded for a space of nine years. Who, when they heard that at the tomb of the holy Bishop the blind were enlightened, and that through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ the sick too were cured, asked their kinsfolk and relatives, that they would as soon as possible convey them across c the island, which is everywhere surrounded by the waves of the ocean, whence they might more easily be able to come to the place in which the Bishop of Christ rested in body d. And when they had been set outside the island, and were tossing without a guide, and were wholly ignorant what they could do; the clement Creator of creatures, pitying their want, bestowed on them a certain youth mute from birth e, about 20 years of age. Who, when he had come to that same place, the women began to entreat him with one voice, that he would lead them to the city of Winchester, where the holy Bishop was strong in wondrous signs; who, by the wondrous disposition of God, yielding to their prayers, led the blind women by a winding path to the aforesaid place. But that very night, on which they entered the basilica in which the bones of the Servant of God rested, the aforesaid three blind women, through the merit of the holy Bishop, merited from the true Light, God, to receive the light of their eyes.
[4] one mute, But the youth, the guide of the women, the dawn of light growing bright, was rightly able to speak whatever he wished, and soon made a sign to the keeper, that he should go outside the church, so that he might be able to speak to him; who, marveling what he wished to say, came to him, asking why he called him. The youth said to him: Know most truly, that now I am able to speak rightly. The keeper said: Could you speak before? Who answered: Never before this have I spoken, and now you have heard the first words which have come forth from my mouth. But I, yesterday mute, led hither three blind women, who, by God's help, are now seeing. Wherefore go, call the brethren, that after the accustomed manner they may render thanks.
[5] a woman to be cruelly tortured, At the same time, finally, a certain little handmaid, for a small offense, was bound by her own master at Winchester with iron fetters and execrable manacles: she was being dragged on the morrow to be tortured with dire scourgings and several stripes. She the whole night ceased not, with tears poured forth, to entreat God, that he would free her from the worst torturer through the intervention of the holy Bishop. But at the reddening hour of day, on which she was to be afflicted with grievous torture, amid prayers and groans, the fetters fell from her feet, who, straightway escaping the peril, her masters sleeping, fled to the tomb of the sacred Bishop, still bound with manacles. Then it was intimated to her master by certain persons, that the aforesaid little maidservant had fled to the holy Servant of God, and by his benefits had been loosed from the fetters. Which when he had heard, moved by anger, with the greatest haste he went thither, and not of his own accord, but God compelling, unlocked the manacles, and let the aforesaid depart unharmed, and inflicted upon her nothing of evil for that deed.
[6] a paralytic, But a certain man, paralytic for many years, dwelt in a province of the English, which in their tongue is called Ham, so weakened in all his members, that from the bed on which he lay he could by no reasoning prevail to rise. He, hearing the miracles which the Lord did at Winchester through the merits of the holy Prophet, began with sagacious mind to premeditate, that it would be sweeter for him, if before the salutary relics of the Man of God he should at least pass one wakeful night. Who, calling together his kinsfolk and friendly neighbors, whom he charged, entreating exceedingly, that they should caparison their horses, and place him on a bier f, and carry him to the little body of the holy Bishop. Who, obeying the words of the sick man, quickly did what he charged them. But before the sick man finished his speech, through the piety of the glorious Bishop being cured, rising from his little bed, he set out on the journey on foot, and outstripped all his companions the horsemen in his course, who journeyed with him, several of them, and with winged step came unharmed to venerate the relics of the gracious Bishop, his fellows still remaining far behind, though aided by horses and supports.
[7] A certain very powerful matron too dwelt in another province of the English, which in their tongue is called Bedfordshire g, a blind matron, are cured. she had been blinded for a space of three years so that she could not behold even the splendor of the light-bearing sun; who, when she was tormented with immense pains, promised the Saint that she would give many gifts to the holy bishop Swithun, if through his merit she should receive the light of her eyes. And when she had been led by little servants to the bones of the most blessed man, she gave to God and to holy Swithun a certain garment, which, when she placed it under the altar, straightway she merited to receive the light which she had long ago lost. Who, with devout mind rendering praises to God, and after the received health taking food, returned home most joyful, who had come to the monument of the holy Bishop most sorrowful, through the power of the all-creating God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
[8] Another mother of a family too began to be sick with a violent sickness at that same time. Another very ill woman is healed; And so all her relatives and servants in turn coming to her, exhorted her, groaning, to dispose of her own possessions, before the destruction of death should come, since they judged her about to die quickly. But when the intolerable languor increased day by day; placed in despair of this life, by the nearness of approaching death; she promised to God and to the holy bishop Swithun, that if she should merit to receive through his intervention any remedy of her sickness; with many gifts, as quickly as she could, she would come to his mausoleum, and would pass one night in vigils before the most sacred little body of the servant of God. Which when she promised, she obtained health of body; but she lost vigor of mind, since indeed, forgetful of God's benefits, she did not observe the promises by which she had obligated herself; and did not repay the thanks due to God, as was fitting.
[9] She, when after some time she was meditating with her own husband to ride to a certain wedding; but ungrateful commanded her ministers to prepare the best horses. Who, after they were most fittingly adorned with trappings; her husband, with fewer servants, went before, whom she with more followed more quickly. Who, when she mounted the caparisoned horse, and while she rode after her husband, felt no pain, nor at all any trouble of sickness. Finally, when she had come to the aforesaid wedding, at which several magistrates were present, and many powerful attendants of the king; suddenly that same languor seized her, from which she had lately been healed through the holy Servant of God. she relapses into the disease, Then she at last, understanding that she had acted unjustly; since, cured by God through the merit of the Saint, she had not rendered glory to the creator, soon, as much as she could, doing penance, calling to herself her little servants, whom, according as she was able to speak, she suppliantly entreated, that they would as quickly as they could carry her to the place in which the holy man rested, that through God's mercy she might again receive health. and again is cured. Who, when she had been carried thither by the aid of her servants, on the following night again received cure. But the next day, unharmed, she returned to the aforesaid wedding, rendering most just thanks to Almighty God.
[10] Certain slow Monks While the Lord of the world and glorious Saviour was making his Saint wondrous with prodigies and virtues, the venerable bishop Adelwold, who presided over the diocese of Winchester, in those days commanded the brethren dwelling there, that whenever any sick person, through the power of the Lord and the merit of the holy Bishop, received the desired healing of body, forthwith all the brethren of that place should leave their necessary tasks, and whatever they held in their hands, go to the church, and fittingly glorify God. But it happened that certain ones, enticed by the frauds of demons, took it grievously, that they were so often roused from their nocturnal rests, namely sometimes three, sometimes four times in one night; and persuaded the rest depravedly to leave off what had been piously commanded them by their Bishop.
[11] Which when it was carelessly omitted for the interval of fifteen days, to glorifying God in St. Swithun, the holy Servant of God, grieving that the aforesaid brethren made little of the good work, and did not obey the commands of their Bishop, nor render the due praises to God; but fell into the pernicious snares of Satan, appeared in sleep h one night to a certain venerable matron, clothed in a snow-white sheepskin and an ankle-length garment, wearing on his head a golden crown, fittingly adorned with precious gems and beautifully decked with Indian pearls, and also shod with most beautiful sandals, and said to her with most soothing words: As soon as you see, beloved of God, the Bishop of Winchester: tell him to command the monks dwelling there, that they cease not to glorify Almighty God as often as any sick person receives cure at the tomb of the bishop Swithun: rebuked for it greatly displeases Almighty God, the author of miracles, that daily he works innumerable miracles before the eyes of the Saints, and they act so unjustly, that they render not praises to God: but frail evil pursuits, which is a wickedness to say, they set before the divine works. Let it not be grievous to them, I beseech, for each of the powers of the all-creating King; to glorify the author of all powers, lest they feel the angered judge of the living and the dead. What more?
[12] with which by threats, Henceforth if anyone shall cease from praise; filled with the blemish of envy, of sloth, and of pride; unless he shall have blotted out this offense by penance, he will by no means lack the deceit of vices. For this reason indeed God, in the latest times, affords to the world so many and so unheard-of miracles, that the stony hearts of men may soften, and the hearts of the depraved come to their senses, and hasten to the heavenly joys by good works, since signs are to be granted to unbelieving peoples, but to the faithful are by no means necessary. Do they obey God the creator of things, who make light of his benefits? Do they not provoke the Lord to anger, who by silence deny his magnificence? Add also these things; that if the brethren cease from praises, forthwith the great works of God will cease.
[13] with which by promises, But if they cease not to magnify the heavenly King, the Lord of all will there work so many and so great miracles, as many and as great as no living person remembers to have been performed hitherto anywhere upon the earth, since the divinity, which in the one person of Christ joined a twin powerful nature, God and man, servant and lord, creature and creator, carried our humanity to the heavens. The holy Servant of God, as soon as he had gloriously delivered such commands to that matron in the vision of sleep; removing thence his Angelic countenance, with quivering light ascended Olympus. But the mother of the family, waking after the Saint's departure from the heaviness of slumber; began greatly to grieve, that she lacked the brightness which through the dream she had beheld, ineffable, who as quickly as she could rose from the bed on which she lay, and, the venerable Bishop being summoned, was at pains to intimate whatever in dreams she had received from the Angel of Christ.
[14] Who, moved a little, as befits a wise man, the bishop of the place striving, why the brethren had not acted according to his precept; again commanded the aforesaid monks from the palace of the King, in which for the common utility of the kingdom he served the all-thundering God in those days: that if anyone were present who rendered not praises to God, and did not go hastily to the church straightway, as soon as any sick person through the power of the holy Trinity received health, he should do penance for seven days, day and night eating nothing, nor drinking, save water and bread. From which time it was by no means omitted, whenever at the little body of the blessed Man, either in the day, or in the middle of the night, some miracle was wrought, the sacristan a little sounding the bell, that the brethren should go to the monastery to glorify the Almighty Lord; to whom be honor, power, and dominion, glory i, majesty, and peace, they praise God. exultation through the immortal ages of ages.
[15] A certain man of London, finally, was at that same time so weakened in all his members, The weak and the distracted are cured, that he could now hope for no healing at all. But the same, hearing the report of the miracles which were performed at the mausoleum of the prophet through the piety of the Saviour of the world k, was carried by his kinsmen to Winchester according to his desire, desiring to approach the holy little body of the Servant of Christ, and there to pass one night keeping vigil, but he was by no means able, on account of his excessive pain. Where, when after some days he was carried, on that same night he was cured from heaven. For that man himself was struck with so grievous a sickness, that his hands and feet were seen turned behind his back. But Almighty God, merciful and clement, who does not forsake all who hope in him, through the merit of holy Swithun, had mercy on his creation, granting to the sick man the former vigor of body to the glorification of his name, that, made whole, he might magnify the Lord, who alone works great wonders, all the days of his life.
[16] Finally, from the aforesaid city there once came together to Winchester blind persons to the number of sixteen, of both sexes. as also sixteen blind persons, Of whom fifteen were divinely enlightened on the first day; but the sixteenth, another morning growing light, with many other languishing ones, merited to receive cure through the merit of the holy Bishop, and so afterward, rendering most just thanks to God, joyful, they returned seeing to London, who had lately come blind. A certain man too, lame in both feet, dwelt in the same city of London, a lame man, who, seeking health through diverse provinces, had almost consumed all his substance. He at length, carried on horseback to St. Augustine l, Archbishop of the people of Canterbury, through his intercession merited to receive the soundness of one foot, who after a little interval of time; hearing the report of the miracles, coming to Winchester m; approached the little body of the holy Man; on that same day was cured of the other foot; and forthwith joyful returned home on foot, magnifying the Lord with his words.
[17] and those afflicted with various languors, There came at one time to the holy Servant of God from diverse provinces of the English twenty-five sick, constrained with various languors, namely blind, lame, deaf, and mute, who in the revolution of one day all through the glorious intervention of the excellent Priest merited to receive cure from the Lord. and a blind man. A certain Count too, very rich, had a son, who from birth for five years used corporeal sight, which being completed he lost it, and for another five years was blind, who, when one night he was kept in vigil by his mother, with a very great multitude of servants in the temple in which the relics of the venerable Man rested; the dawn leading in the day, the cataract receded from his eyes, and, by God's will, he was able to see clearly.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER II. The second part of the miracles.
But it is not to be passed over in silence, that before the finding of the most sacred body of the bishop Swithun, Another blind man, a certain man sprung of noble lineage, abounding in very many riches, dwelt in that same region of the English, who was blinded by a chance happening. He therefore went to Rome with all devotion of mind, that there he might be healed through the blessed bodies of the Saints, which there rest innumerable. Who for nearly the interval of five years remained in prayers, and by no means obtained the medicine of his own blindness. Who at length, while he dwelt there, heard from pilgrims coming from the borders of the English to the thresholds of the Apostles at Rome, that the Lord healed the innumerable languors of the sick through the merit of holy Swithun, quickly deserting the aforesaid city, and returning to the region whence he had sprung, sought out before the sepulcher of the holy Bishop that nay, the part of the kingdom in which he had been born. When he came thither; on that same night he merited to receive his former light, and, enlightened by the Lord the creator of the world, returned home unharmed, glorifying the King of the heavens, and praising the all-creating God.
[19] In those days, a certain man dwelt in a city which is called Brofeceaster by its proper name, blind and paralytic, blind and paralytic on both sides. He was led by his kinsmen to Winchester, where he received health through the omnipotence of the holy Trinity. For after he approached the church, in which the limbs of the holy Man rested; for three days and nights he persevered in vigils and prayers, which being completed his eyes were opened; and the former vigor returned into his arms and hands, and soon, blessing God, he departed thence whole.
[20] A man too dwelt in a province of the English, which is called Hunum …. blind for a space of seven years. another blind man, He, while he had a guide going before him, as those deprived of eyes are wont to have; who might lead him either to the church, or wherever it was necessary for him; and then lead him home whenever he wished: at a certain time the guide, angered, left the blind man too far from his lodging, who, since he was wholly ignorant how he might return home: prayed to God the ruler of things with earnest cries, that he would regard him more clemently; pouring forth such prayers: O Lord, ruler of angels and of men, I know that nothing can lie hidden from thy providence, thou seest me captured of light, far removed from my own dwelling, and deserted by a stubborn guide. Regard my humility; dispose my own acts in thy will, direct my steps to thee, and to me most worthless grant in the heavenly seat everlasting light with the Saints and Elect. Have mercy on me, Lord, according to thy will, and do with me according to the clemency of thy piety; forsake me not, Lord, any longer in the hands of the malignant; but either receive my soul from this little body, or through the merits of holy Swithun restore clear light to my blindness; thee too I ask, most clement Bishop, through whom the magnificent author of things affords healing to the diverse languors of the sick, that thou succor me with thy sacred prayers. For I believe that thou wilt straightway obtain whatever thou shalt ask from the Lord. Wherefore ask the Prince of light, that he restore to me the light of my eyes.
[21] they receive sight. And when that blind man had poured forth such prayers with immense groaning, forthwith in that same place his eyes were opened, and he was able to behold the brightness of the air; which he had not been able to see in the seven years past, and without a guide he returned home unharmed; his neighbors and kinsfolk, more than can be believed, marveling, how their kinsman, who a little before had departed thence deprived of light, was evidently enlightened by the Lord. Who, when they had learned how through the venerable Bishop of God their friend had recovered health, with one voice glorified the Lord, who alone works great wonders, whose name and dominion remains without end forever and ever.
[22] Two blind men, weak and lame women, In those days too four persons of both sexes dwelt in a part of the British region which is called Eastsexan a, who through the revolutions of many summers were tormented with pains and diverse languors, namely two men dwelt blind, and two women weak in both hands, and limping in their feet. Who, hearing the benefits of God, which through his Servant Almighty God deigned to bestow on the loosened limbs of the languishing, came to the mausoleum of the sacred Bishop, entreating with suppliant prayer the three and one God of heaven and earth. When they had come there together, straightway the eyes of the blind were opened, and sincere health was forthwith restored to the hands and feet of the women, and they began to walk before all standing round, and to imprint the sign of the holy Cross with their hands upon their foreheads, and to perform all things which were necessary: and thus returning home, they blessed the Lord, the author of healings.
[23] a handmaid At that same time, indeed, the little maidservant of a certain man had been stolen in the Northern climes of the English, and led by greedy slave-dealers to the city in which the holy Bishop of Christ rested in body, and sold to a certain man of the aforesaid city of Winchester. She, while for a long space of time she dwelt there under another master, it happened that the same man, from whom she had before been withdrawn by theft, came to Winchester, that he might buy for himself things necessary. Which when the maidservant already aforementioned heard, boldly she came to speak to her former master without the leave of him to whose command she was then subject. When therefore the mistress whom this maidservant served learned this, that she was conversing with a man of another province, she ordered her to be bound with fetters, exceedingly hostile, lest she could in any way return to her old patron.
[24] withdrawn from her master, But it happened on the following day, that the same woman went forth in the growing morning, to a certain business that would profit herself, and left the maidservant fettered at home. Who soon, as she could, went outside, and beside the very threshold of the house sat down miserably. Then with all intention of mind she began to entreat the all-creating God, that he would free her from the dire bonds of her worst mistress. But turned to that temple, in which the body of the holy Bishop was venerated with worthy honors; diligently through his intervention she entreated the benefit of God, and forthwith obtained the desired suffrage.
[25] Meanwhile a certain priest venerable with white hair, adorned with most white garments, hastily came to the chained little woman, asking with sweet addresses what ailed the graceful one b, whose arm seizing with his right hand, he carried her to the Saint's tomb in the twinkling of an eye, wondrously and among the innumerable multitude of the people, which like a fortification walled the threshold of the monastery, within the entrance, still bound with the fetter, he set her beside the sacred altar, upon which the holy Man rested in body. For it was a marvel and marvelous, that none of those standing round saw her, nor the priest who bore her thither, until she was set forth in the chapel, which, being locked with a key by the keepers, the people present then beheld. But her mistress, as much as she could, in haste followed the footsteps of the maidservant.
[26] But when the monk who guarded the Saint saw her, to the sepulcher of St. Swithun and had the little key of the chapel in which the little body of the bishop rested; marveling greatly, he said to himself: Who has shut this woman within the chamber of the Saint, which I behold? Do you think she found the door open, which a little before I myself shut, the key being turned? Who, coming to the little door of the chapel, the people hearing, said to her: Who, tell me, woman, introduced you within the venerable little place in which you now are seen to stand? By what confidence of rashness did you presume to penetrate the enclosure, in which the Bishop of Christ rests in body? By what reasoning could you lie hidden, since I by no means saw you when I shut the door? Then she, beholding a certain young cleric standing behind her outside the barrier c, answered indeed to the sacristan, saying: Against my will, that cleric raised me upon his shoulders, and carried me to his place, and just now set me forth before the Saint. Who on the contrary answered with an oath: nowhere before this have I beheld you with my eyes.
[27] The woman said; you yourself indeed carried me hither. divinely The cleric answered, I would rather that the dogs of the night had you, torn with dire bites, than that I should place on my back so unseemly a weight. Who, returned to herself, related these things: A certain white-haired priest, and very venerable, clothed in splendidly gleaming garments, found me weeping on the threshold of my Mistress, and consoled me with a most sweet address, who, seizing the right sleeve of my garment, soon carried me to this basilica, with such swiftness, and suavity of body, as I cannot narrate in speech: and since, after he set me down in this entrance, I saw no other cleric standing round, save that youth; therefore I thought that it was he who had carried me hither.
[28] And when the crowds of the peoples heard these things, who were present from diverse parts of the English, the crowds being amazed; marveling greatly they glorified the Lord King of all, and Saviour of men, who deigned to work such unheard-of miracles through the glorious merits of his holy Priest. To him be glory, praise, and dominion, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit d lives one, and reigns God through the infinite times of ages.
[29] a blind and a mute woman, But at that time from the far western borders two women came with prayers to the mausoleum of the Man of God; of whom one could not behold light with her own eyes, the other was mute from birth, until nearly old age. For the mute one directed the blind one the whole journey, who as guide sought from passersby the path of walking. And when they had come together to the place in which the holy Bishop rested; the blind one received light, and the mute the faculty of speaking. Who, healed from heaven, through the merit of the glorious man, soon returned home, glorifying the Almighty Lord.
[30] Thirty-six sick, There came then to Winchester thirty-six sick, for the sake of recovering health, of whom some were blind, some deaf, some mute, some also paralytic. Who, when they had approached the monument of the holy Bishop, and poured forth prayers before God, through his intervention all were cured in the space of three days; and thus joyful they returned home with immense joy, magnifying and praising the Lord.
[31] Again another 124 And not long after there came to the same Saint, from diverse borders of the Anglo-Saxons, a hundred and twenty-four, constrained with manifold languors. These all through the merit of the holy Bishop were, by God's will, cured of various sicknesses in the revolution of two days, and blessing the Lord they returned home unharmed, who had come weak and sick.
[32] A parricide direly tortured, they are made whole. I judge it indeed unworthy to pass over in silence, that a certain man, for a parricide which he committed unlawfully … had been most direly bound with steel, who bore nine circles of iron mass on his body, tormenting himself abroad for the crime for as many years; hearing, by flying fame, the renowned wonders of God, which through the merit of his Saint were performed in the province of the English, came to Winchester from heaven — that is, from the parts beyond the sea. Who, while with submissive prayers he entreated God a long while; that through the healing intervention of the holy Bishop he might cool the intolerable pain of his torment, by God's favor the iron circle, which cut his belly, insomuch that it now penetrated the innermost vitals, burst and leaped forth outside the man's viscera, whom a penalty of immense magnitude had tormented. Another little circle, finally, which afflicted the man's arm with grievous torture, since, the wound of the flesh swelling, it was now wholly covered with corruption and blood, forthwith fell before his feet, and the sharp torment of pain immediately departed from him. For that ring was so tight, that it scarcely seemed capable of holding three fingers, and therefore it was a marvel that it leaped forth whole from the man's arm, and in testimony of this miracle was hung up in the same monastery.
[33] At the aforesaid times, finally, a certain merchant, by name Flodoald, Condemned to the ignited iron a man prudent in secular affairs, abounding in very many riches, had a certain servant, whom he loved exceedingly. He, seized for a certain crime by the King's Governor, was ordered to be guarded by the royal servants, until his master should come, and the same should forthwith carry the iron ignited with coals in his bare hands; and if he were blameless, he should be left unharmed, if he were found guilty, he should be beheaded. Hearing therefore his lord e, that his servant was held in chains under dire keepers, more hastily than he could he went thither, demanding of the King's prefect, that he would dismiss the judgment; and would possess, on the aforesaid condition, the servant of his little slave unharmed.
[34] Who by no means favoring his pledges, being proud beyond measure, to be carried in his hands, for worldly power ordered the servant to carry the hot mass of iron. But his lord, hearing this concerning the servant, grieving exceedingly for the one about to perish, again promised to the royal prefect; to give a pound of pure silver, and likewise granted that he should possess the aforesaid servant, entreating that he would dismiss the iniquitous judgment, since he could by no means endure the loss of so great a disgrace, that his slave, for a vile crime and offense, should be put to death. The friends too and kinsfolk of the accused man, sorrowful, promised to the king's steward f immense gifts, greatly desiring to free their kinsman from a contumelious death.
[35] The prefect nevertheless refusing their prayers, men striving in vain compelled the aforesaid man to carry with bare hand the steel of exceptional mass, boiling, and reddening with much coal. Which when that man, compelled by the Governor, timidly carried in his hand, forthwith a huge burning filled his palm, scorched on the surface. And his hand was sealed after the accustomed manner, until the third day. But Flodoald on the following day summoned the man, and found him condemned and guilty. Nay rather, moved with grief for the man about to perish, to free him calling together his brother and companions who were present, he was disposing to return home, since, as we said before, he could not endure to see the patient one, that his slave should undergo a capital sentence in his presence.
[36] What more? The lord himself, accompanied with all his multitude, entreated the Author of things with suppliant prayer, that he would free that man from a contumelious death through the intercession of holy Swithun; turning his prayers to the Saviour of the world, with all effort of mind saying: Free, Lord God Almighty, this slave, striving, through the intervention of the glorious Bishop, and I will hand him over to that same Saint, through whose merit thou healest the dire languors of the sick, if thou shalt from heaven snatch him from the nefarious hands of those putting him to death. The second day being past, finally, after he carried the steel, and Phoebus repeating the third day g, he was led to the Governor, that, if he were clean of the crime laid upon him, the little servants standing round might behold. Why do I pursue with manifold words at greater length?
[37] And when they had come before the lawgivers, the enemies themselves judge the man blameless, he is divinely freed from death. and his foes assert that he would be unharmed, whom the lord himself deemed worthy of punishments; and the friends believed him about to be forthwith condemned to a cruel death; and thus the mourning of the friends was turned into joy. For indeed it was a marvel beyond measure, that the well-wishers beheld the burning and the swelling; the accusers saw his palm so whole, as if the iron had not touched the servant at all. Which when the companions had seen, all rendering praises to Almighty God, and glorifying the Saviour Jesus, returned rejoicing, whence they had come sorrowful; believing without doubt that their kinsman had been divinely freed, and all with one voice confessing, that through the prayers of the holy bishop Swithun heard on high … But the man, whose that aforementioned little servant had been, conferred him on the aforesaid blessed Bishop, who had withdrawn him from the dire peril of a pestiferous death.
[38] The provost of the monastery of Abingdon h was made blind for the interval of fifteen years. He, when he was tormented with excessive blindness, A blind man, several remedies having been performed; his head was cauterized with twelve burnings, which profited him nothing at all, but much rather harmed him. Who at length hearing what and how great miracles the most clement Author of things deigned most benignly to afford to men through his languishing servant, coming to Winchester with bare feet, approached the body of the holy Bishop with assiduous prayers. Where, when he had come, and that same night kept vigil there, the next dawn whitening, he merited to behold light with his eyes, and, returning home safe, was zealous to glorify the Almighty Lord.
[39] another blind man In that same year, moreover, a certain blind man from the far borders of the English, hearing the report of the prodigies; with a boy as guide hastened to the Saint's healing; who, while he drew near the city of Winchester, came to a certain place in which, wearied from the journey, he began to rest a little. Now there was, where they rested i, a huge cross of stone, nearly three miles distant from the aforesaid city. And when they rested there a little; the boy, hungry, said to the blind old man: Let us eat something, Father; for now I suffer great hunger, and we are near the city, to which when we come, we shall not have the possibility of eating. The blind man answered, son, the fitting time is not yet at hand. The boy said; surely, Father, the hour of dining is already past. The blind man answered, how much of the way still remains hence to the city. The boy said to the sick man: We shall come quickly to the Saint. Wherefore let us take food, before we enter within the wall of the city, since great is the tumult.
[40] Of St. Swithun The sick man answered the boy, None has not yet sounded: let us wait therefore until the hour, I beseech you, of None, and after we have come to the little body of the Man of God, there with the blessing of the Lord Christ, let us break our fast. The guide again asks importunately. When therefore they were disposing such conversations between themselves, that blind man heard men hastening to the Saint for the sake of keeping vigil, whom straightway he asked the guide whither they were going. And he said: They direct their steps to Winchester, to the venerable tomb of blessed Swithun, that through his intervention their languishing ones may receive the medicine of health. The old man said, what sort of place is this in which we sat down. The boy answered, a cross l is here of stone, gleaming, great, most lofty, set up to the praise of Christ; who rising quickly, prayed to Christ with prayers, that he might be healed from heaven through the merit of the great man.
[41] imploring aid, Lord God Almighty, hear my prayers, he said, restore light to my own eyes, the merits of the holy bishop Swithun aiding. O if some day I may merit joyfully to behold this city with clear light. O glorious confessor of Christ Swithun, pray for me a most wretched sinner, let it not be a grievous offense to me, that I break my fast before the hour. And when that blind man nevertheless had poured forth prayer with groaning, he was there enlightened through the intervention of the sacred priest; and as soon as the cataract m fell from his eyes, looking up he beheld not far off Winchester, which with all ardor of mind a little before he desired to see, and unfed, is cured; as he desired, hastening he approached the relics of the holy Prophet, magnifying the omnipotence of the Saviour. Where, when he had come, he intimated to the brethren of that place how he had been cured through the servant of the creator of the world; who, coming together to the temple, with hymn-singing voices praised the author of virtues.
[42] There came, finally, in those days to the Saint of God a certain weak man, lame in both feet, and so bent with sickness, as also a man lame in both feet, that he could not at all move himself from the place, unless supported by two stools. He forthwith, as he approached the tomb of the holy Bishop, received soundness of body, but in mind remained weak, since he rendered not thanks to God the creator, as the other sick had done. For indeed, as soon as he was raised up divinely, leaving the Saint, forthwith he snatched at flight the more quickly, and was afterward seen by no one in that monastery; the stools, however, on which he was supported, betrayed his sickness, that being cured he departed thence through the merit of holy Swithun. The throngs too of those standing round, whoever were present there, constantly asserted that it was so done in all things, as is contained written in this page.
[43] At that same time too a certain magistrate of the King, exceedingly beloved, and a boy powerful in frail things, with a huge retinue, as is the custom of the Anglo-Saxon, hastily rode to a certain village, in which a great apparatus for the necessary uses of feasting had been sumptuously prepared for him. But it happened on that very journey, that a certain boy of excellent disposition, whom the same count loved more than the rest, by a hastening fall, fell from his horse, who soon, as he fell, broke his leg and arm, and was so loosened in all his members, that all who were present believed him forthwith dead.
[44] But the master of the house, when he saw the boy beloved to him, fallen from his horse dying, grieving greatly at the mishap of his friend, with earnest prayers entreated the Lord, that he would have mercy on that dying boy through the venerable intercession of the glorious Bishop: Holy Swithun, he said, entreat the Redeemer of the world with suppliant prayer, that he grant life and health to this boy, who, if he shall grant my petition, will have me more faithful all the days of my life. Since also, most high Priest, I will lead the innocent child to the salutary mausoleum of your body, that through your healing intercession he may feel the benefit of Christ.
[45] they recover And when that man entreated God with such words, suddenly the boy leaped up whole, who a little before lay preoccupied by the ruin of death. Which, when the magistrate beheld, beyond what he could utter, he was made joyful, and with all devotion of mind began to glorify God, who despises not a contrite and humbled heart.
[46] Other miracles wrought elsewhere. And not only in the borders of the English, but also in the province of the Franks miracles were performed through the merits of this Saint. In that same region, as those relate who had seen this, a certain thief n, caught in a most monstrous crime, was guarded in a dark prison, bound with nefarious chains and a dire fetter, until on the rack the next day he should be hung for that crime. He had heard from merchants crossing the ocean for the sake of commerce, that a Saint had been found in the parts beyond the sea, through whose intervention the sick were healed of manifold languors, of whom recalling in the darkness of obscure night, he entreated the incomprehensible power of Almighty God, that…
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