ON ST. PAUL THE NEW, MARTYR,
AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
In the Year 766.
PRECEDING COMMENTARY.
Paul the New, Martyr at Constantinople (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. Cult; eulogies; relics; tortures; Acts; time of martyrdom.
Among the other victims which the savage barbarity sacrificed for the cult of the sacred images, St. Paul, surnamed the New, deserves a not last place. Nowhere in the sacred tables of the Greeks did I find his name on this day. The cult of St. Paul, But the surname nowhere else, except in our manuscript, which we are about to give, do I remember to have read. It is had from the Latin Martyrologists by the Strozzi codex, Bellinus, Molanus, Galesinius, Maurolyco, and Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints. But although all other monuments for proving the cult of the holy Martyr should fail us, it would be sufficiently proved brilliantly even from the sole solemn, public, and constant veneration with which he is honored at Venice, where in the church of the monastery commonly called St. George Major his body is kept enclosed. Concerning which matter at more length below, when it will be treated of the translation of the same body.
[2] who is different from another holy Paul, who is venerated on 17 March. Meanwhile it is well to remember that St. Paul, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the seventeenth of March, and, as is there reported, having suffered under the same Emperor, Constantine Copronymus, in the same place, and for the same cause, in which our Paul is handed down to have suffered in his Acts; it is well, I say, to remember that the one is distinguished from the other as different; as is gathered from the diversity of the death by which they consummated their martyrdom; as was shown long ago on the said seventeenth of March, where more; and among other things, to the Paul venerated on that day is assigned as the arena of martyrdom not Constantinople, but Cyprus.
[3] Both Martyrs also had rightly before distinguished Fortunato Ulmo, a Venetian, a Cassinese monk, in the annotations edited together with the passion of St. Paul our Martyr, in the year 1612, page 23. But in the Announcement which the printed Greek Menæa have on the twenty-first of October, in these words, Whether known in the Menæa. τῶν ἁγίων καὶ θεοφανῶν Μαρτυρῶν, Ἀνδρέου, Στεφάνου, Παύλου καὶ Πέτρου, Of the holy and God-illustrated Martyrs, Andrew, Stephen, Paul, and Peter, the other Paul cannot seem more aptly understood than ours. See what is said on the seventeenth of March concerning St. Paul, Martyr in Cyprus.
[4] The eulogy of our Martyr, or, if you prefer so to call it, His eulogy: the briefer Acts, Peter de Natalibus wrote, book 6, chapter 69, which thus have: Paul the Martyr, born noble at Constantinople, suffered there in the time of Constantine the Emperor, a heretic. Who, when he was a commander of the imperial soldiery, and truly a Catholic soldier of Christ, constantly rebuked the Emperor for the burning of the sacred images, which was done by him in the church at Blachernae, and effectually approved the reverend images of Christ and the Saints as to be venerated. For this, detained by the Emperor, and first cast into prison, he was bound with hard fetters. Thence, by order of Constantine, after some days he is led out; and while he pleaded for the Catholic truth, his nose is cut off, and again he is consigned to custody. Thereupon, after eight days, again brought forth, pitch and sulphur being melted, his head being drenched, when in his torments he gave thanks to God, his very eyes were plucked out. Lastly, his feet being bound, he is dragged through the middle of the forum, and, dissipated in all the members of his body, and thus sufficiently crushed, his brain being knocked out, he breathed out his spirit, on the eighth before the Ides of July; whose body, dragged to the parts of Aspar, and there left by the heretics to be devoured by dogs, was there buried by Catholic men. But the Emperor Constantine, for so great a crime and others committed, by divine vengeance swarming with worms, ended his miserable life. Whom Michael, his son, a man Catholic in all things, succeeded. But after 122 years, Christian and religious men, by divine revelation, translated the holy body, taken thence, to the monastery of Charmona, redolent with wondrous odors and glittering with miracles; which afterward, raised thence by the Venetians and brought to Venice, is said by the inhabitants of that city to rest in the monastery of St. George Major.
[5] Another and briefer eulogy is found in Ulmo, in the place cited above, page 18, from the Chronicle of Andrea Dandolo, in which manuscript he says he thus read, book 7, chapter 9: Paul, an orthodox man, resisting the edict of Constantine forbidding the veneration of images, is ordered to be afflicted with various torments: and when he persevered, his eyes being plucked out, he was only dragged through the forum, so that he gave up his spirit. And now dead, to the parts of Aspar, he was preserved for food for the dogs: by Catholic men he was preserved. Finally, under Doge Pietro Ziani, he was carried to Venice.
[6] Concerning the sacred remains of the glorious Champion, held in the highest veneration among the Venetians, The relics the aforesaid Ulmo hands down the following, page 27, and says that Now, namely in the year 1612, in which he published the little work mentioned above, it still exists incorrupt, as those who saw it, the venerable monks, testify, adorned with the ducal horn, deposited from his own head by Pietro Ziani, and humbly placed on the head of the holy Martyr; and clothed most recently with a stole, woven of gold, by Michael Alabardo, a Venetian, Abbot of our monastery. But of the arm, taken from the body, he thus pursues in detail: Yet it lacks one arm, now covered with a silver case, and openly exposed to each for veneration. We have heard men not to be despised, who asserted that that sign of religion came from the ducal horn, not from Pietro Ziani, but from Cristoforo Moro: which, however, the pictures, older than Moro himself as prince, do not admit.
[7] venerated with the highest veneration; We ourselves saw the icon, which still exists, of the most blessed Virgin Mary in the middle, blessed George, Stephen the protomartyr, and Cosmas the martyr on the right; blessed Benedict, Paul the martyr with the ducal horn, and Damian on the left. And at the feet of the most blessed Virgin Mary an Abbot, with the insignia of the mitre and the pastoral staff, clothed in a black cowl, bending his knees. And near were read the characters: To the Mother of God, Philip, abbot of this monastery. But Abbot Philip flourished about the year 1319, as may be seen in the history of our monastery, which will be published as soon as possible, and Doge Cristoforo in the year 1462. But the usage of depicting St. Paul with the ducal horn came from the narrated act of the religious Prince. For in that habit, and with those insignia, they are wont to paint the holy Martyr, as he rests on the altar. And since he says that the relics of the Martyrs are then chiefly venerated when they first arrive somewhere, religion growing tepid little by little with the lapse of time, hence the aforesaid Author judges that the mentioned piety must be ascribed rather to Prince Ziani than to Moro.
[8] the traces of the tortures left in the body; Among the other tortures inflicted on St. Paul by the tyrant's order, and endured with heroic constancy, of which in his Acts, it is read there at number 9 that the Emperor, angered at the Martyr's words, commanded pitch and sulphur to be poured over his head. To which place pertains the annotation of Fortunato Ulmo, page 26. He, when for the Martyr's body drenched with boiling melted sulphur and pitch he had adduced Peter de Natalibus as witness, adds that the elder monks, of no despicable authority, to whom it happily befell to see his body, affirm the very same; since here and there through the whole, signs of pitch of this kind still appear.
[9] The manuscript Acts of the Martyr. Concerning the Acts of the Martyr, receive these. We have them from the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, which had been of Paolo Rhamnusio and his friends. Above was written Burdelot; and it is an entire book concerning the Saints whose relics are at Venice in the most noble
and most adorned monastery of St. George Major, of which mention was made in tome 3 of April, in the preceding Commentary to the Acts of St. George the Martyr, number 62. Henschenius, treating of St. Paul the Martyr on the fourth of May, promised that he would give on this day the Acts of St. Paul, as they were illustrated by Fortunato Ulmo; perhaps for want of more ancient ones; which we give. By this title is marked our said copy: The Martyrdom and confession of St. Paul the New, who suffered under Constantine Copronymus, holding the empire. From the collation of our manuscript with the fragments, inserted in various places by Ulmo in the annotations to the passion of St. Paul (which he writes that he composed from a manuscript, anciently preserved in the monastery of St. George Major, and from Peter de Natalibus, and which he brought to public light in the year, as we said, 1612), it appears sufficiently that his manuscript and ours came from the same fountain. So great is the agreement on both sides. Moreover he says that it seems to him that the manuscript was rendered from the Greek into the Latin tongue. Besides other idioms savoring of the Greek phrase, such as seem to me at number 6, the colloquy concerning the COLLECTED, Greek ἀθροισμήνους, that is, those who had assembled. At number 7: But where enmity is exercised against the DIVINE: Greek κατὰ θεῖον, that is, against the numen, the divinity, God, or religion; besides these idioms, I say, savoring of the Greek phrase, he seems most openly to betray himself at number 12, where occurs: We have known ABOVE, Greek ἄνωθεν, ἄνω, from above, above; which, since here it is referred not to place but to time, ought to have been said in good Latin "in former times," "of old," or "anciently." And these, as I think, sufficiently prove a Greek source.
[10] The double chronological note, expressed by the writer of the Acts of St. Paul, The year of his death one indeed at the end of number 13, the other at number 14, does not cohere. For, after he had fixed his martyrdom in the fourth year of the reign of Constantine Copronymus, and had added another 34 years of the same Emperor's rule even to his death, proceeding to the narration of the finding of the sacred pledge, he reports that it was at last, after a hundred and twenty-two years, found by divine admonition, Antonius, surnamed Cauleas, occupying the patriarchal see of Constantinople, St. Ignatius being translated from it to the heavenly ones. For the rest, that our holy Athlete fell not in the fourth year of Constantine Copronymus, but the twenty-sixth, that is in the year of Christ 766, at least by relying on the chronological marks which the Acts designate, thus I show from the same Acts and from Peter de Natalibus. For since they relate that his body was found in the hundred and twenty-second year after the Martyr's passing, and indeed, as we said, the Acts add that this happened under the Patriarch of Constantinople, who at that time was Antonius Cauleas; and since this Patriarch, Baronius being witness, began to sit at Constantinople in the year 888; make the year 26 of the Copronymian rule concur with the martyrdom of St. Paul and with the year of Christ 766; then add the years 122; and you will have the number of years 888, rightly agreeing with the year of the passion, the twenty-sixth of Copronymus, and the year of the finding of the Martyr, of Christ 888, that is 122 after the Martyr's death.
[11] The writer of the Acts of St. Paul is besides caught in a lapse, chronologically ordered. first, when, the Martyr's death being fixed in the fourth year of the emperor Copronymus, he subjoins that he reigned another thirty-four years, as you have at number 14, at the end: and thus, according to his own reckoning, Copronymus ought already to have reigned in all 38 years; who yet, according to sound chronology, is placed as dead in the 35th year begun from the death of his father Leo the Isaurian. Secondly, the same writer is convicted of having erred, when he reports that Antonius Cauleas, mentioned above, succeeded St. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, taken from the living; whereas yet he was substituted in the patriarchal see not for St. Ignatius, but for St. Stephen, brother of the Emperor Leo, as you may see in Baronius, at the year of Christ 888; and he began to sit not under Basil the Macedonian, but only in the third year of Leo the Philosopher. Ulmo, for the year which was found expressed in the label once affixed to the chest of the sacred body, and by which it was designated that the Martyr suffered in the fourth year of the emperor Copronymus, would have, by error, the numeral ten omitted, and for the fourth year to be written the fourteenth year; rightly subjoining that the reckoning of 122 years from the passion to the finding does not allow to assert that Paul suffered in either the fourteenth or the fourth year. Meanwhile we have this convenience from the epoch of the death of St. Ignatius the patriarch, which is established to have happened while the Emperor Basil the Macedonian reigned, in the year 878; and after which the writer of the Acts of St. Paul places the finding of the body, namely in the time of Antonius Cauleas; this, I say, we have thence of convenience, that even by relying on his own chronological reckoning, one comes very near to the reckoning of time fixed above by us concerning the Martyr's death and the year of Constantine Copronymus in which it occurred, the combination of both epochs being made with the finding of the body, the Christian era, and the patriarchate of Antonius Cauleas, concerning which above.
§ II. The finding of the body; the translation, under what abbot made; when and by whom written; the writer of the martyrdom; the body enclosed; whether it was carried from Venice to Cologne?
Some things pertaining to the finding of the body The things which pertain to the finding of the sacred body, and its integrity, immune from corruption after a hundred and twenty-two years, are sufficiently recounted in the Acts from number 14. But it will not be beside the purpose to illustrate certain of its circumstances for easier understanding. Ughelli, in Italia Sacra, tome 5, reports that in the old tomb of the holy Martyr himself there was found this old manuscript note: The body of the most blessed Paul the martyr, who in the city of Constantinople, for the defense of the sacred images, being afflicted with various torments by the most impious Constantine Copronymus, on the eighth before the Ides of July received the palm of martyrdom. Then, when the aforesaid body of the Martyr had remained buried under the earth for a hundred and twenty-two years, the most Christian Emperor Basil the Macedonian reigning, an angelic revelation being made to Antonius, once venerable abbot of the monastery of Caleos, but then Patriarch of Constantinople, it was found in the monastery of Chaima, redolent with such sweetness, and so fresh, fair, and entire, that it seemed still breathing, then laid up. The following indicate the year of the translation, of which a little later: Afterward, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1222, it was translated to Venice, to this venerable monastery of St. George Major, on the twenty-first of July.
[13] pertaining circumstances Meanwhile observe a manifest error in this label; since Antonius entered upon this dignity only in the third year of Leo the Philosopher, and not under Basil, as is established from what was said above.
[14] Cangius, in Christian Constantinople, book 4, page 153, number 18, gives notice of the monastery of Caleos, or Callia, which he affirms is called μονὴν τοῦ Καυλέα by Leo the Grammarian, page 479; by others μονὴν τοῦ Καλέως, adding that Antonius Cauleas, Patriarch of Constantinople, built it, from Nicephorus Gregoras in his life. A few things being interposed, the same Cangius asks whence he received the name Cauleas; and hands down that it is altogether uncertain whether from this, that he was Hegumen of the monastery of Calea, or whether the monastery itself was called from his surname. Add, that, as is there read, there is mention of the Patriarch Antonius in a Greek inscription in Gruter, 1061.2. And that we may contract, both here and above, all that is said of him, let the reader see the twelfth of February, where he will find a fuller notice of his cult both among the Greeks and among the Latins. He will be able to learn thence, besides his life, in what year he began to preside over the patriarchate of Constantinople; whom he succeeded in that dignity; and he will see confirmed both those things which were determined above concerning the beginning of the see of Constantinople obtained by him, and concerning his predecessor in the same.
[15] The place in which the sacred body of the Martyr, God foreshowing it, illustrated, is said to have been found, in the label which we just now produced from Ughelli, is named Chaima; in our manuscript Acts it is written Chaioma; in Peter de Natalibus it is Charmona: but, if I am not mistaken, I think it must be written and understood the monastery of Cajuma, in Greek μονὴ τῶν Καιοῦμα, as Cangius calls it, in the place cited above, number 16: mentioning there nothing by which it may be known in what tract of the city of Constantinople it was situated. However it may perhaps be gathered from this, that from our said Acts, number 14, we have that it was situated at the parts of Aspar, or not far from that place. But Aspar was a Patrician, who in the time of Leo the Great, the Emperor, built a very great cistern at Constantinople, called by the name of Aspar, situated near the ancient wall of the city, as Cangius reports from the Alexandrian Chronicle, book 1 of Christian Constantinople, page 97, number 9; who also there, book 2, page 168, number 9, affirms that the house of Aspar was where the cistern, called of Aspar from his name, was built. And hence no doubt that part of the city of Constantinople was commonly called the parts or tract of Aspar. Of the cistern and house of Aspar Codinus also mentions, on the Origin of Constantinople, in the royal edition, page 29. Of Aspar the Ecclesiastical Annals of Baronius will give more, at the year 450.
[16] To the martyrdom and finding of St. Paul is subjoined in our copy the narration of the translation, The translation of the body with this title: The translation of the body of St. Paul the Martyr, from Constantinople to Venice, in the year of the Lord 1222, into the monastery of St. George Major, at which time the Venetians and the Nobles of France ruled at Constantinople. Most known are the expeditions of the Venetians and Franks with their confederates for the recovery of the Holy Land, attempted at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the chief part being played by Henry Dandulo or Dandolo, Doge of the Venetian Republic, a man most worthy of immortality for his illustrious deeds, and for the rare and excellent gifts of mind and body, few in number, even in his most advanced age. Andrea Dandolo, likewise Doge of Venice, dead one century and a half later than Henry, in his Chronicle left thus written to the present purpose, making mention not only of the translation of which we here treat, but also of the place from which it happened, saying in Cangius, book 4 of Christian Constantinople, page 80, that Paul, Abbot of St. George of Venice, from the monastery of Pantepoptis [*] of Constantinople, committed to him by the Doge, translated the body of St. Paul, who suffered martyrdom under Constantine Copronymus, with the favor of Marino Storlato, then Podestà for the Venetians there, into his monastery.
[17] It seems worthwhile to treat briefly of the aforesaid monastery, called by the name of Pantepoptes, τοῦ Παντεπόπτου, from which monastery it was made; from which the sacred deposit of the Martyr was translated to Venice. Cangius, in the cited place, hands down that it was built by Anna Ducaena, mother of Alexius, from Zonaras and Glycas, and although Anna retired into it, yet he would have it to have been not of women, but of men. Zonaras, tome 3, page 171, treating of the empire of Alexius Comnenus, thus has concerning it: To the mother of the Emperor, having long discharged the administration of affairs, as was said, evils,
by which the subjects were vexed, most people ascribed. Which thing the son, as one who perhaps reigned only in name, though he took it ill, yet would not, out of reverence for her, deprive her, unwilling, of power. Which the woman perceiving, fearing lest even unwilling she should be compelled to depart, having left the palace, yielded to him all authority, and migrated into the monastery of Pantepoptis, built by herself; where, when she had lived some years honorably and royally, she died in advanced age.
[18] another monastery The site of another monastery, called by the same name Pantepoptis, Ulmo produces from the old letters of Cristoforo Moro, Doge of Venice, in the annotations to the translation of the body of St. Paul, page 13. And so, on the back, he reports it written: To the Magnificent Lady, Consort of the late Magnificent Lord Francesco Crispo, Governess of the Duchy of the Aegean Sea, Cristoforo Moro, etc. Then he brings forth this fragment of the letter: For that monastery was wont, and so it is held for certain, in that island of Naxos, to recognize and possess, as a member and part of it, a certain church, named Pantepoptis, which partly by length of time, partly by ignorance, was as it were abandoned and alienated from this monastery and its head, etc. The same Author, describing Naxos, Naxos, he says, is that which they commonly call Nicsia. In Strabo, book 10, it is in the Aegean Sea between Paros and Amorgos. It is one of the Cyclades; he concludes: In this therefore the monastery and church of Pantepoptis was founded.
[19] of the same name: Let this monastery of Pantepoptis, named in the last place, therefore have been anciently subordinate and subject, as a member to its head, to the monastery of Pantepoptis at Constantinople. But nowhere does the author of the Translation in Ughelli, tome 5, assert that the church of Pantepoptis at Constantinople was dedicated to St. George, which Cangius erroneously fastens upon him, in the cited place, on the same page 80, thus correcting him: Moreover the author of the history of the same Translation of the body of St. Paul to Venice, in Ughelli, wrongly writes that the monastery of Pantepoptis was dedicated to St. George; upon whom he imposed what he had read in Dandolo, that it was translated by Paul, abbot of St. George of Venice, from the monastery of Pantepoptis at Constantinople.
[20] under what abbot the translation was made; Ulmo a accuses Arnold Wion, citing him in the Annotations to the Life of St. Gerard, that he reports the translation of the body of St. Paul to have been made under the abbot Marcus, yet in the same year in which it is commonly established, namely 1222. And certainly it must be clear to anyone reading with not dim eyes the history of the Translation which we here bring forward, that it happened not under the rule of Marcus, but of Paul, who succeeded him. To these things, that in the year 1222 Paul, not Marcus, was abbot, the same Author says he will show at more length in the History of the monastery.
[21] That the writer of the Translation was contemporary, the writer of the same translation was contemporary; Ulmo not badly argues from the following words of the same, which you have in our text at number 4: At the same time there ruled at Constantinople over the part which had come to the Venetians an illustrious man, Marino Storlato, namely over the half of the same city; which lord Marino, because his parents are anciently buried at the monastery of St. George, and he himself believes he will be buried there, loves the monastery and the brethren. Attend to the words, he himself believes he will be buried there; he loves the monastery and the brethren; and you will understand the author to speak of Marino as then surviving, in phrases expressed by the present time. But since the said Marino, as is there read, with great love gave counsel and help in bringing the body of the Martyr St. Paul, it follows that the writer seems to have been contemporary with Marino and thus with the translation itself.
[22] For the rest, the writer's name is as hidden from me as his condition and the manner of life which he professed. what he was; when the martyrdom was written? If we believe Ughelli, he was a monk in the monastery of St. George Major, who, as he has, tome 5 of Italia Sacra, column 1326, a monk of that same place, wrote the Translation of St. Paul in a simple indeed, but truthful style. Whence he himself so affirmatively declares concerning the state of life, is not explored by me. Moreover, the history of the translation published in Ughelli was a help to me for correcting the defects that had crept into our manuscript, from a collation made of that with this. And that, treating of the Author of the Translation, we may mention with a little word the Author of the Acts or Passion of the Martyr, the oft-mentioned Ulmo judges that he wrote those things who was present at the finding of the body, and thus composed the Acts about 122 years after the Martyr's passing; for that the Passion preceded the Finding by so many years is established from them. He proves his opinion from a fragment, placed among his annotations to the passion, page 17, which thus has concerning the aforesaid finding: Directed by divine grace, they saw the stone placed upon the tomb of the Martyr by venerable men, as was before shown to me; from which fragment, tasting and weighing these words, as was before shown to me, he argues that the Author of the finding, and at the same time of the Passion (since of both there seems certainly to be one and the same author), was himself present at the finding.
[23] But since our copy differs from the aforesaid copy, Whether the writer of the martyrdom lived at the time of the translation. and, for "as was before shown to me," reads at number 15, "as was before shown to them," and I have not cause enough to discern which reading is to be preferred, as more emended and corrected, it follows that nothing can be certainly concluded from these for the presence of the writer at the finding of the sacred deposit. Meanwhile it seems somehow able to be gathered that a great interval of time flowed between the things written and the writer; and that this is established from more than one lapse committed by him in writing, as was said above.
[24] That the body of the holy Martyr was enclosed under Clement VIII, The body of the holy Martyr, as is asserted, enclosed at Venice. the supreme Pontiff, the oft-mentioned Ulmo relates in the Annotations to his passion, page 25: But also, he says, the venerable monks who were present in this monastery (understand the monastery of St. George Major), when lastly under Clement VIII, the supreme Pontiff, his body was enclosed in the altar, so that today it cannot be seen, assert that they before gazed upon it whole with its other members, yet testify that it most openly bears the cutting-off of the nose. Hence it is clear that those things are confirmed which Henschenius long ago said, treating of St. Paulinus, Deacon Martyr, on the fourth of May, where he asserts that that St. Paulinus is wrongly reported to have undergone martyrdom under Constantine Copronymus, and that it is gratuitously feigned that he was translated from Venice to Cologne; nay, that he was not even called by the name of Paulinus, some Martyr of a similar name being assumed, since no other was found. These things there; there also more things which pertain here may be seen; which are rightly reported on the said fourth of May, on which the cult of the same Martyr is established there from the Martyrologies; Castellanus, on the present day, the eighth of July, inserting him into his Universal Martyrology; on what occasion, I know not; unless perhaps because he thought Paulinus the same as Paul, who is venerated today. And behold now the
Annotated* Pantepoptis.
ACTS
From the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden,
Written by an Anonymous Author.
Paul the New, Martyr at Constantinople (S.)
BHL Number: 6591
FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.
CHAPTER I.
St. Paul, thrust into prison for the defense of the images, has his nose cut off; sulphur and pitch are poured on him.
Iconoclasm raging Now indeed the multitude of the malignant heresy had been dissipated, and the cause of piety had received its time, but every assailant of the truth blushed and mourned, and falsehood had no place, the divine truth glittering everywhere. But the envious and livid nature did not endure not again to tear the illustrious body of the church; but dared to stir up war unrenounced and without truces. Leo then, a Syrian by race a, having the care of eastern affairs, presumed to resist the empire. With a rebel hand b therefore he rose up against the Emperor Theodosius. But he, choosing the monastic life, permitted him to take the scepter, and to be established under his own desire. This impious man therefore, and would that he never occupied the Principality, straightway took up battle against God. For the venerable and divine images throughout the whole world which the sun illumines, respectively figuring, and adored by all, the impious man dared to deliver to fire and to melting. As therefore the divine vengeance passed upon this man for the deed: he ill leading his life, his malignant heir succeeded to the principality, as of the empire, so also of the impiety, and, begetting his father's cruelty, and bringing forth the malice which he had already conceived, gathers the council of Caiaphas, wishing to reproach and destroy Christ through his image, and, occupying the temple of the Mother of God, which is at Blachernae c, with very many others, meditated empty and vain things, according to the Prophet David.
[2] For entering the divine temple, once adorned with images, among others he stoutly opposes himself he saw through the paintings the venerable nativity of Christ, and all the miracles which he did, his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. These the impious man, digging out, makes the Church deformed, so to speak. To these things many indeed resisted for our cause, fighting even to blood and slaughter for the right faith. For so they had their mind and readiness, that they would easily endure all things rather than desert the divine altars, as had been commanded. With many others the faithful and champion of the truth, the most blessed Paul, when he heard this malignant edict, not to adore the image of Christ, lest they should undergo perils: he pined away with divine zeal, according to the Psalmist. Therefore, casting away all things which were at hand, and having laid down the burden of this life (for he excelled in riches, noble birth, and possessions), now naked he fights against sin, and, the Emperor Constantine d sitting, and gathering a multitude of the malignant and impious gentiles, and consummating base fairs, fearing nothing most difficult, not trembling at the Emperor's fury, the most blessed Paul, standing in the midst, cried out: If indeed in another, and not in you, the power lay: it were fitting to ascribe the fault to him, and not to you, O Emperor.
[3] But since, distracted in mind, by the counsel of a certain sinister demon, St. Paul you have abjured piety, and reproached the venerable name of the Church, taking away its adornment, and have stained its pure tunic, and shown it deformed and without beauty (so to speak), having wrought things unworthy indeed of imperial power, unworthy of your sublimity and your prudence, or do you not know how the divine nature appropriated to itself our whole mass of misery, and, wholly commingled with all humanity, rebuilt our things which had fallen, and saved those which had perished? Of this flesh, therefore, assumed for us, respectively figuring the likeness, venerably adoring, we cherish it, confessing the very Word of God incarnate for us, as having the very flesh, not circumscribing the divinity. The same divine, impassible, and incircumscriptible, with the assumption of flesh, we depict through image and likeness, forming it. These figurings of the venerable images, therefore, destroying by lightness of mind, or in a certain manner of savagery, do you reckon that you will escape those inevitable
punishments? At this constancy of the martyr, that haughty and seductive man, raging: Who, he says, and whence came this seducer, who has both despised the imperial tribunal and uttered so great a savagery of words, wishing to disturb this sacred assembly? I am not, he says—the martyr Paul subjoining—a stranger to the empire, but in it I was born, nourished, and instructed. But seeing Christ affected with contumelies through his image, I have come to this constancy, wishing to refute your great folly: for nothing of cruel things will terrify me, or of sweet things allure me: and to suffer and to die for the venerable images I have chosen promptly.
[4] The Emperor said: And what, finding us straying from the right faith, or before the Emperor himself; or from the divine sanctions, have you brought in a refutation, as you say? St. Paul answered: That the divine doctrine, once defined by the holy Fathers as twofold, you have moved to despise and dig up the law. The Emperor said: And how is it just, both to figure through matter and to depict through an image him who is neither comprehensible by the understanding, nor visible to the eyes, nor tolerable to the hearing, in no way existing within comprehension, save by infinity alone, as Gregory the Theologian said? St. Paul answered: Do we then reform and adore that unknown nature, and without form, through an imaginable painting? Far be it; but adoring the likeness of the flesh through … that is, through the image, which is in figures, we refer our prayer to the very (so to speak) God, the Word incarnate. The Emperor said: Therefore the divine is either immaterial, or subject to matter: for if immaterial, it is clear beyond doubt that it is without species and without form. But if it is possible, and this according to you, then it is altogether circumscriptible, and subject to form. If therefore you grant it, it is altogether also adorable in images. But if not this: how I should understand that, I have not.
[5] refuting his objections, St. Paul, subjoining, said: O Emperor, that according to the first and divine nature indeed, God the Word is both impassible and incircumscriptible: but in that he assumed our nature, he is both in time circumscriptible and comprehensible to sense. At this, therefore, the Emperor, hesitating, and able to contradict or gainsay nothing, was divided in mind with a biting fury; and the Martyr's confidence induced anger. But looking to the subtlety and authority of the words, and the sharpness of the sayings, he feared lest perhaps by much persuasion of words he should persuade all to learn religion, and straightway indeed he desisted from his madness against the Martyr; for an urgent amazement held him, and the colloquy concerning the assembled.
[6] he is cast into prison. But he commanded him publicly forthwith to be sent into the prison of the praetorium. And the holy Paul had indeed his feet bound in the stocks in the prison, but he had not his mind fettered with fear of the tyrant; for the hope of better spectators persuaded him to despise the assault of evils. Whence he did not desist from hymn-singing; but bound and detained in custody he said a psalm suited to the time and to his passion; namely: In the way of your testimonies I have been delighted, as in all riches: and I spoke of your testimonies in the sight of Kings, and was not confounded. Direct my steps according to your word, and let no injustice have dominion over me, and the rest. And indeed he held unfailing hymn-singing, enduring the unjust detention through eight e whole days; which he endured rigidly and nobly, not as in a prison, but as one reclining in a garden, setting hymn-singing in place of food and drink and of the other bodily pleasures. After the passing of those days, therefore, the same Martyr is exhibited to the imperial tribunal, the Tyrant commanding him to be presented, and the Emperor says to him:
[7] The madness of your mind, as I judge, has moved you so far to an unbridled tongue, then he is set before the Emperor; that you hold the imperial commands for little. And although you have before fallen into so great elation by the rottenness of your thoughts; at least now become watchful with us, and, submitting, succumb to the imperial sanctions. St. Paul answered: Emperor, we Christians, obeying the sacred commands and the Apostolic rules, are subject to the powers. But where enmity is exercised against the divine, we not only resist and oppose; but we are adverse both to you and to these, according to the Prophet, saying: Did not I hate them, O Lord, who hated you, and pined away over your enemies? With a perfect hatred I hated them, and they became enemies to me? The Emperor said: Do you say that we are enemies of the divine, because we turn from the adoration of idols against Christ? St. Paul answered: And how then, you who dissolve the adoration of the venerable images, shall I not fittingly name you not only this, but also a consort and partaker of the Jewish perfidy? For they, tearing away the honor of the Son and of the Holy Spirit from the voice of God, fell from the divine grace. But you, dishonoring the adoration of the image, and profaning the dispensation of the flesh, have fallen from God, made partakers of the evils prepared for them.
[8] These things were proved and said by holy Paul. But the tyrant, hearing, and kindled with a movement of fury, by whose order his nose is cut off; commanded the nose of the Martyr to be cut off, and thus him to be received into the praetorium. But this being done, and sooner than said, one might see a certain admirable and superhuman endurance: for no groan, nor lamentation, nor voice mingled with tears; nor weeping tempered with wailing; nor any other of those things which men badly suffering utter, was heard uttered by the Martyr; but he so endured the pain as if he suffered nothing in the body. As therefore after that bitter and torturing pain, the prison likewise received him, neither after the tribulation did he depart from hymn-singing. Likewise singing that Prophetic word: I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to blows: I turned not my face from the shame of spittle. And likewise: The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man may do to me. The Lord is my helper, and I will despise my enemies. My lips shall exult when I shall sing to you, and my soul, which you have redeemed. Not yet had three days passed, when the Emperor, sitting before the tribunal, commanded holy Paul to be presented to him, and said to him: Have these torments, though very small, persuaded you to change to the better f, and to transfer your mind to what is useful; and to depart indeed from that useless perseverance; and to desist also from the rite of the idols; or do you hold your first superstition and temerity?
[9] St. Paul answered: O Emperor, neither long detention, nor the cutting of parts, nor anything else of those things the Martyr enduring it with unshaken constancy. which deform and reproach the body, will be able to separate me from the adoration of the venerable images. And if it seems good to you, beat me with scourges, bring irons, kindle every fire: if, I say, you have a terrible kind of torments, devise it, and you will learn by the very experiment that you will not be able to expel me from this fair confession. And saying these things, and looking to the earth, he raised his voice, and stretching his hands to heaven, cried out: Far be it from me, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, to profane the adoration of your sacred image, and of your Mother, or of the Saints: for through it, as through a certain way, we are led to your adoration. The Emperor, indeed angered at the Martyr's words, commanded pitch and sulphur to be poured over the Martyr's head. But even this punishment being brought upon him, the same perseverance was his, and not even the least alteration of his countenance appeared.
ANNOTATED.
* indeed
CHAPTER II.
He confutes the Tyrant; to be deprived of his eyes, he is condemned to death.
[10] The Martyr praises God. To this punishment also succeeds the prison, and holy Paul was condemned, yet not thus ceasing from the divine praise, but clearly singing psalms, and saying: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? etc. And again, The Lord rules me, and I shall lack nothing: in a place of pasture there he has placed me. Upon the waters of refreshment he has brought me up, he has led me upon the paths of justice. For though I shall walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for you are with me. You have anointed my head with oil, and your mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And here indeed he thus endured his detention, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, and nourished by the divine words. As one says, Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. But madness inflamed the Tyrant the more, nor was he restrainable, unless he should persuade to his own impiety; although he could not put an end to his will: for the martyr Paul was firmly supported by the rock of confession.
[11] The Tyrant's discourse with the Martyr; Whence also again, as he saw him, summoned from the praetorium, he began to attend to the case, and only that he came and stood by, much madness filled the soul of the tyrant, so that he looked upon him with a more savage eye. And a hostile voice is uttered: How long, wretch, do you desire death, and hasten to leave this desirable life, provoking us to anger; calling us transgressors, and enemies of the higher and divine substance, and profaners, in a manner, of the established legal traditions? St. Paul answered: Not I, Emperor, but the very facts accuse you. For, profaning the higher tradition of the fathers, you are fittingly reproached by those things which they preached. For if he who dishonors the established laws of a King knows how to endure punishment and penalty: how much more he who depraves the divine ordinances? The Emperor said: And what then of the things which were assigned by the holy Fathers, by the doctors, have we filched? St. Paul answered: Because those effigies of the saints, which were shown and adored by them, these, eliminating from the churches, you have anathematized. The Emperor said: Evil head, and is it sanctioned for you by the holy Prophets, or Apostles, or Fathers, that a human form be depicted and kissed?
[12] St. Paul answered: We have known of old a that a divine image b was placed by the woman with the issue of blood, who touched the fringe
of Christ, and was healed of the flux of blood, who preserved the figure of our Savior; but also the figure of the Mother of God, again formed by Luke, is received and accepted and adored by all, and these the holy and universal synods sanctioned. Finding these, they strengthened them rather than repelled them. These things, therefore, thus done, and received by all, the venerable things of the Saints you did not shrink to destroy, O wretch, and most foolish of all men. To me indeed it befalls even to weep, that through these things you hasten to treasure up eternal fire for yourself: and to take us as consorts of your madness and temerity, and indeed to tear us away from God, and to hand us over to the sinister demon. But these things filled the soul of the tyrant with darkness and dizziness, and sharpened him to the death of the Martyr. Whence, omitting to answer these things, he turned to sentence. Straightway therefore there is an assembly of indiscreet judges and a turning-over of the laws, and he scrutinized and investigated what punishment it were just for him to undergo who scatters the Emperor with reproaches. For he pretended himself a Catholic, and sought a law consonant with the facts and avenging of the empire.
[13] They condemn therefore holy Paul to death, and presently he received the sentence of consummation: and this indeed they declared as the punishment. Condemned to death, he is crowned with martyrdom. But the Tyrant defines a crueler death: for he commands the eyes of blessed Paul the martyr to be plucked out. Then, he says, it is good that, bound by the feet, he be dragged through the middle of the forum, until he renders his unhappy soul. Afterward, and after death, let the unhappy body be given as food to the birds and dogs, that it may also lack due burial. The Emperor saying these things, the wicked promptly overfulfilled the command, and those who were deputed for these things, taking him, and binding his hands behind his back, and a rope to his feet, dragged him through the middle of the forum, and thus holy Paul, suffering, prayed, saying: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help shall come to me. My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The martyr therefore, dragged, dragged through the forum, and striking his head from stone to stone, rendered his holy soul to God. The impious, therefore, dragging him, and being dead, scourged him, until, taking him away to the parts of Aspar c with the condemned, for food for the dogs. But certain God-fearing men, taking the body of holy Paul the martyr, laid it in a sequestered place, placing a great stone over the tomb, lest the remaining bones should be harmed. But Paul, the sacred martyr of Christ and Confessor, died on the eighth day of the month of July in the confession of Jesus Christ, under the empire of the most impious Constantine Copronymus, in the fourth year d of his reign, who, reigning another thirty-four years e, then paying the penalties of his own iniquity, and swarming with worms, broke off his life, and became the food of perpetual fire.
[14] The body of the Blessed Martyr Nor was the intervening time the least, and all the tyranny of the iconoclasts fell. But Michael f, son of the most pious Theodora, obtained the empire, who renewed the temples, and dilated and augmented the Catholic faith, and raised the adornment of the venerable images, giving to the Church a fitting and befitting ornament. After which (but by what judgments God knows) he himself too departed from human affairs g. Ignatius therefore then ruling the throne of the Pontificate, the most pious Basil the Macedonian took the scepters of the empire. But in the times of this empire the holy Ignatius himself left human life h, and Antonius the Abbot i of the most venerable monastery of Caleos k took the helm of the church, a man of venerable life l, graced in reason, act, and adornment. To this holy presbyter Antonius, therefore, a certain divine apparition, coming, made a manifest showing of the body of the most blessed Paul the martyr. For an angelic apparition, appearing to the Pontiff, said to him: Rising in the morning, and taking a God-fearing clergy, go to the parts of Aspar, and coming to the monastery of Chaioma m, and seeking there, you will find the body of the most blessed Paul the martyr, who, consummating many combats for the truth, received the crown of immortality. Presently therefore the Patriarch, urging the Emperor's command, according to the former bidding of the Angel, related it to the whole sacred synod.
[15] It seemed good therefore to all, both the God-fearing clergy and the crowds, and the monasteries, divinely shown; to occupy in litany the place which was shown to the Patriarch. Which they did, kindling candles and bearing before them the armor of the life-giving Cross, and with psalms and hymns they came to the sought place, where, celebrating the sacred mysteries in the temple of our Lady, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, at the aforesaid monastery of Chaioma, after the completion of the sacred mystery, digging, they investigate the place shown beforehand, and seeking, they found and discovered, directed by divine grace, and the stone placed upon the tomb of the Martyr by venerable men, as was before shown to them n, they saw being great, and such as could scarcely be raised by human hand. This the Patriarch, praying long, and trusting in the intercessions of the saint, dared to remove with his own hands. The stone therefore being rolled away, and the sepulcher appearing, where the sacred body lay, and it being wholly opened, one could see a certain terrible and great prodigy.
[16] For a hundred and twenty-two years he had been dead, placed in the sepulcher, and after 122 years found incorrupt. yet he seemed as though breathing and animated, whole, sound, perfect, bearing no stain in his body: but so breathing with the brightness of countenance, that he himself outshone the solar rays. Whom the most holy Patriarch Antonius kissing, with all the clergy and people, lifting up the very body of holy Paul, and bearing it, they laid it in the temple of our most holy Lady, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, honored in the aforesaid monastery of Chaioma; and even now the holy and venerable body of the Martyr is seen so whole and sound, working cures, and granting healings to all who invoke his aid. For who, seized by diseases, or surrounded by adversities, then imploring the name of the most blessed Paul the martyr, does not straightway find the loosing of his difficulties? For he is a harbor to all the sick who are in tribulation, a most prompt helper and aider. But, O martyr, splendor of the just, companion-leader of the Patriarchs, partaker of the heavenly act, be present now also to us, who need your aid and help; and snatch us from the snares of the malignant one, which it is scarce possible to escape. Calm the disturbance of this life, and soothe the mind both in tempest and in worldly confusion, and make us superior, that, directed by the helm of your intercessions, we may both pass tranquilly through the present life, and obtain the everlasting goods, which may it befall us all to attain, by the grace and benignity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom is glory and dominion, honor and supplication, to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATED.
THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY
From Constantinople, to Venice, to the monastery of St. George Major, collated with the things published in Ughelli, tome 5 of Italia Sacra,
By an uncertain Author, perhaps a monk of the said monastery.
Paul the New, Martyr at Constantinople (S.)
BHL Number: 6592
FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.
The writer sets forth The glorious martyr Paul, my most beloved brethren, I have believed it just to write with the pen how he came from Constantinople to Venice, and at what time, that his blessed memory may be perpetually preserved for us and for posterity. The nation of the Greeks, which ruled the empire of Constantinople, despised and abominated nearly all the nations which were in the world, both in secular and in spiritual things. There came, as I reckon, their pride and contempt into the memory of the just God, and, on occasion of the Holy Land, the most noble and God-devoted nation of the Venetians, with some Ultramontane counts, prepared an army to lay waste the Saracens and barbarians. But almighty God rather willed to punish the pride and contempt of the Greeks through the said nobles, than to avenge the injury of the Saracens and barbarians. And when the Doge of good memory, Henry Dandulo b, a very famous man and adorned with wisdom, was at Zara [], there came a certain son of Chersach [] c, whose father, his eyes being plucked out by his own uncle, had lost the empire, and he asked the Doge and the counts who had been with him, that for the love of God, to whom he had devoted himself to serve, they would avenge him of so great an injustice, and restore to him, through mercy, the empire which his father had ill lost. Who, condoling, and leading him with them, gave him the empire.
[2] But the Greeks, having him as Lord, killed him, on what occasion and those who had led him they labored to burn with their ships. And behold, whence grew the occasion, that they who despise all should, above all, by the power of almighty God be given over to contempt. We have said these things, my most beloved brethren, that no one may dare to be proud, or to have anyone in contempt; because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The empire of the Greeks from then onward became of the Latins, and in the church of Constantinople, which had long resisted the Roman Church, was ordained a certain noble of Venice, Thomas Morosini d by name, a most learned Patriarch. Then also the monastery of St. George began to possess a Constantinopolitan monastery, named Pantepoptis e, in which the most blessed and most holy Paul the martyr was gloriously venerated: and in which the Lord had done many signs and miracles through him: and expelled many sicknesses from sick bodies through his merits. At the same time there presided over the monastery of blessed George a man noble by race, the Lord Marcus, who from his congregation sent a man adorned with the morals of wondrous sanctity, the Lord Paul, who, serving God with assiduous fastings, and in chastity with humility and patience, awaited the blessed end of the present life for the desire of true blessedness, uncertain and not knowing when it should be.
[3] He sent also with him two other monks, that they might honor the monastery of Pantepoptis together with him, to Venice it was translated:
nay under him, with divine offices, with the veneration which it deserved. The rule of the aforesaid monastery being taken up, therefore, among other things he found the most glorious body of blessed Paul, at which he rejoiced with as great exultation as no one could more rejoice at the acquisition of an immense treasure. And deservedly; for that treasure surpassed all the treasures of this world. It had been a temple of God, and had been a habitation of the Holy Spirit, and for the name of the Lord lay dead in body; but living in soul, in the heavenly fatherland, joyful and victorious, he reigned with Christ. By the cooperating grace of the Holy Spirit the same Lord Paul returned to Constantinople, and not long after, the Lord Marcus, burdened with old age, resigned the abbacy of St. George which he held, and he himself (as he was most famous for all honesty) was made abbot. But not unmindful of so great a treasure which he had left, he sent to the Prior who at that time ruled the monastery of Pantepoptis, with the assent and will of the same abbot of St. George a lord, Marcus by name, a monk and priest of St. George [f,] that he should, as he could, secretly send to him the same most holy body, lest it should suffer the violence of so great a treasure. The same Prior had need to obey the commands of his Abbot: nay, he was bound by law.
[4] At the same time there ruled at Constantinople over the part of whom it was asked; which had come to the Venetians an illustrious man, Marino Storlato, namely over the half of the same city; which lord Marino, because his parents are anciently buried at the monastery of St. George, and he himself believes he will be buried there, loves the monastery and the brethren. To whom, when the aforesaid Prior had come, and had opened the secrets of his heart, with great love he gave counsel and help in bringing the body of the martyr St. Paul. The said Prior had a faithful friend, Jacob Grimaldo by name: him he asked that he would carry the precious gem to his Abbot, which would adorn by its presence not only the monastery, but all Venice. For as innumerable men and women come to visit blessed Mark from nearly all parts; so a glorious custom of seeing blessed Paul was made. Besides, the Prior prepared a little chest, in which he laid the body whole and entire, as it was.
[5] Afterward the Prior asked the said Prince that he would ask Peter Ingoso of Constantinople to whom it was committed. that in his ship g he would receive the chest with the body; but what was inside, he in no way opened to him, and that he would command that it be placed in such a place that no one could walk over it. That man heard the prayers of the Prior: he heard also what he had asked, namely to carry the body. The skipper also did what the Podestà asked. The sailors, ready to come to the ship, drew the chest, bound with ropes, and, as had been said, it was placed in a place to which no one had access. The sailors wondered at the chest, which was bound around, and asked the porter what it had inside. But he, compelled by fear, said that glass works, painted with gold, were within. And truly the chest bore glass works, in figure I say, not in nature. For this is of the purity of glass, that we can say that things which remain shut within we recognize from without. And the holy man Paul, martyr of Christ, kept in the work of his passion the sanctity which he had in the voice of confession. He had in himself nothing of duplicity, nor works of fraud, as Scripture speaks of certain men, saying: There are those who wickedly humble themselves, and their inward parts are full of deceit and fallacy. They had been painted with gold, that is, adorned with virtues; namely with these, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice; or because Scripture says: Receive wisdom, as gold. Therefore we say that he was adorned also with wisdom; not earthly, animal, and diabolical wisdom, nor, according to the Apostle Paul, the wisdom of the princes of this world, which are destroyed; but the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which God prepared for his glory. Commending this very wisdom, James says:
[6] A grievous tempest arising The wisdom which is from above is first indeed chaste, then peaceable, modest, persuadable, consenting to good things, full of mercy and of good fruits, not judging; without dissimulation. The sailors began to sail, and came with a favorable breeze even to the parts of Cephalonia h. And because the light could not lie hidden in the darkness, the Lord prepared a strong wind and a great tempest of the sea; so that the ship was submerged by the waves. Then they lost the helm; they cut the mast, wholly despairing of themselves, they did not believe they would live any longer: they also lamented over their sins, fearing exceedingly lest, as their bodies to the waters, so their souls should be given over to eternal punishment. Meanwhile, as it pleased the Creator, into the mind of the skipper came the little chest in which lay hidden blessed Paul, martyr of Christ, and what the Podestà had said to him, that it be placed in such a place that it might not be trodden by anyone; and he began to suspect that some Saint lay hidden within, and that therefore they suffered shipwreck. That this was so, we too believe: for when the Lord was asked concerning the man born blind, whether he had sinned, or his parents, that he should be born blind? He answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God may be manifested in him. So these, for the glorification of the martyr blessed Paul, suffered not shipwreck, but an intolerable punishment of sea and wind; as for the glorification of the Only-begotten of the most high God, the blind man suffered the blindness of which we spoke. O wonderful and stupendous! He who glorified the head does not cease daily to glorify the members also; he who glorified his Son Jesus, glorified also his martyr Paul. All the sailors therefore being called, he narrated to them in order how the Podestà had asked him to receive the chest, and that it be placed in such a place that it might not be trodden by men, and because he had believed the body of some Saint to be in the chest, Jacob Grimaldo was asked to open the chest, that they might be able to know the truth.
[7] on the journey He answered that he could in no way do this; for a certain cleric, Dominic Caravello by name, who is canon of the church of the holy Apostles and deacon, had the key in another ship, lest anyone should make any diminution of the holy body. O right intention, O holy disposition [*] of his martyr's body! which the Lord had preserved whole to the praise of his name through so many courses of years, as hitherto appears, and put it into the heart of the sender not to send in that ship the key of the little chest in which he had placed the most holy gem of the aforesaid body. For that its integrity is preserved, we believe to be not by our merits, but by the grace of the Lord. All things truly cooperate unto good for those who, according to purpose, are called holy. So also for blessed Paul, of whom we speak, for his glorification, the same integrity of members which we have seen was preserved for him, on account of his exceeding sanctity. O sailors, why did you fear to perish? You were carrying the one who carries, and knew it not; you had the one who saves, and were ignorant of it; therefore you feared to perish, but Christ Jesus disclosed that his lamp, that is his martyr Paul, whom through past times he had illustrated with many miracles, was not extinguished, nor placed under the bushel of oblivion, whose name is written in the book of life. It is also placed upon the candlestick, reigning with Christ, for whom he took the punishment of death, that it may shine to all who faithfully venerate him. The body being revealed, therefore, a dispute arose among them.
[8] Some wished to cast him into the sea, as once the sailors did to Jonas. calmed by the sacred body; Others said, By no means, but let us pray God that we may be freed from the peril of death by his holy intercession. For not from the face of the Lord, like Jonas, had blessed martyr Paul fled, but, like the sharer of his name and the teacher of the nations, blessed Apostle Paul, he had appealed to Caesar: knowing through the Spirit that he would profit many at Rome in the faith of Christ: so this blessed Martyr suffered himself to be led to Venice, about to do, if not by preaching, by miracles many like things. According to God's good pleasure the good will prevailed in all, and they began to venerate the Saint whom some fools thought to submerge. For immediately on that day or hour, so great a tranquillity of sea and wind was made, as great as no mortal could better conceive. So great a miracle being seen, could they not say: Who is this, that the winds and the sea obey him? It was truly a member of the body of which Christ eternally does not cease to be the head. Christ, who once by himself saved the little ship of Peter, lest it be submerged by the waves, himself through his faithful martyr Paul gave the long-desired aid of safety to those leading him.
[9] The sailors therefore, joyful, came to Otranto i, with the ship and its deposit and there, taking for themselves and for the ship the necessaries which were lacking, and a favorable breeze blowing, they came even to Venice. But, because we said that Dominic Caravello the deacon, by divine disposition, as we believe, had the key of the incomparable treasure in another ship, the Prior himself came with the key, and announced that joy would be at hand, which would gladden not only those receiving, but also many foreign nations, which were to come to him, to adore him, as we see. But afterward it was announced to the lord Abbot and the Monks that those had come who had brought the holy body of the most blessed Martyr Paul. But they, rejoicing and cheerful, then with great joy and exultation prepared a ship, and placed within not a few banners, and, the bells ringing, with most worthy honor, the most worthy body, a pearl (so to speak) precious, nay more precious than all pearls in sanctity, cleanness, and the power of miracles, they brought to the bank of the monastery, in the year of the Lord 1222.
[10] arrived at Venice. The lord Abbot k, adorned with sacerdotal garments, and mitred, with all his monks and nuns, himself took the chest with the body in his own arms, the brethren helping him, and singing with worthy praises, with voice and mind, joyful, led it into the church of St. George the martyr, as he desired, God granting. He can, as we believe, rejoice at such a dwelling, where he is joined with the most blessed Stephen, most worthy protomartyr, Cosmas and Damian the martyrs, and also with Cosmas the most holy Confessor. There are also, as is shown in the same place, by divine disposition, little gems more precious than all the most precious of gems, as is a particle of the wood of the Cross, the sponge which was applied to the most sacred mouth of the Lord: as also of the Apostles Philip and James, and of Thomas the confessor, a quantity of Martyrs and Virgins, of whom it would be long to speak one by one. The men and women of the city of Venice, learning it, joyful and glad, came to see the most holy body of blessed Paul, and to ask his suffrages. Finally, we have learned that many sick, by his merits, the Lord helping, recovered health at his coming; and because it would be too laborious to tell of all, we will tell of some, for the edification of the faithful, as we heard from the reporters; but because we have not yet finished the present little work, we reserve to tell his miracles hereafter. For faithful merit and devotion, his body of leaves
the Abbot caused to be covered with gold and painted, and most worthily placed it in a most excellently painted little coffer, and ordered a lamp with oil to hang before it, as a sign of reverence. And the Brothers, up to now, unanimous, with equal exultation, celebrated with their Father as festive the very day of the coming of the same Saint, namely the eleventh day of the departing month of May l, and also with one vow, every day and every night, through nearly the whole course of the year, they do not cease to ask his suffrages, and to honor him with what praises they can, to the praise and glory of the Only-begotten of the most high Father, who lives and reigns God through the infinite ages. Amen.
ANNOTATED.
* otherwise Zara.
* Isaac.
* with.
* otherwise dispensation.
A MIRACLE.
A woman, by the patronage of St. Paul, freed from a spell.
Paul the New, Martyr at Constantinople (S.)
BHL Number: 6593
FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.
Since the clement and merciful Lord is ready and prompt, not only to that woman of whom we are about to speak, but also to all who shall seek the patronage of his illustrious martyr Paul with sincere faith and devotion of heart, to impart his benefits by his merits; therefore we have resolved to narrate how that woman, whom we both knew a, and often saw vexed by demons, was freed by the merits and intervention of the said Martyr. This woman, therefore, having been possessed by demons while still a girl of five years, when she had come to adult age, and had been given to a lawful husband, was not permitted by the demons, who so [*] secretly harmed her, to use the marital intercourse. And when the fame of the most blessed martyr Paul grew far and wide, the said woman, coming with others, with what faith and devotion she could, approached the body, there to entreat the Martyr and the Lord that she might be freed from the demons themselves: who, as hitherto they had done, desired to lie hidden, and secretly to slay her body and soul by their spells. But the intercession of the martyr Paul, poured out to God for her, prevailed; for they were detected, and how pernicious and harmful they are became manifestly clear, to our profit, if we weigh it well. For who would not be amazed, seeing his passion, and them do such manifest works?
[2] For, alienating her mind, the demons made her run here and there dishonorably, miserably vexed by a demon, and through her mouth, crying out, brought forth base words: and also, shaking her body, and casting out from her bowels no small blood, and pouring it out through her mouth, they asserted that with that blood, in the praise of the Martyr, though unwilling, they would go out from her. And so, seeing that by the prayers of the most powerful Paul they could not remain longer in her, they caused the house and the chamber to be shut, and the keys being fastened [*], the doors being as strongly as possible barred, they tried to kill her by hanging. But the holy Martyr, by no means suffering his handmaid to endure such things, revealed by an unknown voice to her neighbors what the demons wished to do secretly. Then the women who were present ran together most swiftly. But when they could not enter, they devoutly asked Blessed Paul; and straightway the doors were wonderfully opened. But that woman had a certain monk, familiar to her, in the monastery of St. George Major, in which the venerable body of the said Martyr rests: who with charitable affection assiduously entreated the Martyr for her, and, as much as he could, comforted her in the Lord, saying that most truly, and if not straightway, yet soon she was to be freed by the patronage of that blessed Martyr: as also by the grace of God it was done.
[3] healed by the aid of St. Paul; For after long and excessive fatigue, as she hoped, and as had been said to her, by the grace of the holy martyr Paul, many prayers being poured out to him for that end, at last she was healed. Who, feeling herself healed, and desiring to know by what means she had been cured, and whether that health would last with her all the time of her life, took care to inquire this of the Lord, to whom nothing is hidden. And so, while by night she was alone in her chamber, she prostrated herself in prayer with great devotion. As she thus prayed before the picture of Blessed Paul, there was present the blessed Mother of God, the Virgin, whom the Archangel Michael preceded with a lighted candle, and also the venerable martyr Paul, bearing in the picture all that punishment which he had suffered for Christ, as the aforesaid religious had narrated to her: and whatever she desired to know concerning her health, he fully opened to her. But the panel, on which the picture of the blessed Martyr was depicted, began to move itself, and, though it was a thing insensible, showed in this its motion, to his glorification, that it felt the coming of so great a Lady. But the aforesaid woman asked the venerable Virgin why the demoniacal passion raged so greatly. She answered: Because a son scarcely keeps faith with his father. Therefore many who are to have this passion are saved by the prayers of blessed Paul; that he may be venerated in the name of Christ by many nations of foreign peoples. And thus the vision itself withdrew.
[4] But that woman went to the aforenamed monk, she is refreshed by a heavenly vision and narrated to him all the aforesaid (as she had seen): who admonished her to persist in the prayers begun, and if she should afterward see like things, to ask that they should say the Office of the blessed Virgin; which if they did, she should thenceforth in no way doubt of the vision. And so she did as she had been admonished by the monk. But as she prayed, the blessed Virgin, as before, came with blessed Michael, and the martyr Paul, blessed Peter and John the Evangelist accompanying them, who, at the woman's request, devoutly celebrated the Office of the venerable Virgin. Which being done, the woman asked the blessed Virgin whether she would have marital intercourse with her husband. To whom the blessed Virgin: This, she says, is in the power of Paul who stands by, that he who expelled the demons may himself restore to you the marital wedlock: yet I will that this night in my veneration you bend the knee fifty times, and fast on the seventh of the Sabbath, and on the vigil of St. Paul, while you are well; but every day say seven times, in my memory and honor, the Lord's Prayer, with seven genuflections; likewise five times the aforesaid prayer with a genuflection, to the glory of your Helper Paul; and three times the same Lord's Prayer with as many genuflections, to the exultation of St. Michael. And thus she withdrew, this rule of salvation being proposed to her. But the woman, comforted in the Lord, to the confusion of the enemy, obtained these things which she desired, both the carnal wedlock and the long-desired deliverance. Thanks be to Jesus Christ our Lord, who everywhere does not cease to glorify his martyr Paul b.
ANNOTATED.
* perhaps "her."
* or "fastened together"?