Leo

CONCERNING ST. LEO, CONFESSOR,

ABBOT OF THE MONASTERY OF LA CAVA IN ITALY.

In the year 1079.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

The cult of the Saint, his elogia; the time of his rule; his Life, and its Author; the monastery of La Cava.

Leo, confessor, abbot of the monastery of La Cava in Italy (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

La Cava is a notable city and monastery in the Salernitan territory among the Picentini in the Hither Principate of the kingdom of Naples, as was already long ago said on the 12th day of April on the occasion of St. Alferius, the founder and first abbot of that same monastery, The monastery of La Cava in the Salernitan territory had St. Leo as abbot; as also the predecessor and master of St. Leo, of whom we here treat, in the abbatial dignity. Concerning which place consult also Ughelli in volume 1 of Sacred Italy, column 645, and column 651. To which add its etymology from Baronius at the year 1050: But the Cavense monastery is so called from the place; namely from Cava Metelliana, which is distant five milestones from the city of Salerno toward the Amalfitans. Mabillon too may be seen, Acts of the Benedictines, 6th century, part 1, page 728, where he treats of St. Alferius.

[2] But that St. Leo is worshipped in the church of La Cava with the rite of a double Office, you will find already long ago observed on the said 12th day of April, [whom the church of La Cava worships with a double rite: the cult having been conferred on him from time immemorial.] page 97, in the Annotations, letter a. The Kalendar, a fragment of which Mabillon brings forth, and which in the Observations previous to the Life edited by him, part 2, Acts of the Benedictines, 6th century, page 366, he calls very ancient, thus indicates the death of St. Leo: In the year 1079 the deposition of Lord Leo the abbot. And in the brief Chronicle attached to the paschal Cycles, cited in the same place, it is said: In the year 1079 Leo, abbot of the Holy Trinity, died, and Peter is appointed abbot; who had as mother a niece of Lord Adelferius the abbot. Further concerning this our Saint have made mention Dorganius, Menardus; add Bucelinus, with a signal elogium from his Acts, and Ferrarius. At the end of the Life, described by Papebroch from the Ms. of Francesco Maria Fiorentini, concerning the cult of the Saint these things are added: By what Pontiff he was inscribed in the album of the Saints, antiquity does not suffer us to discern. Yet the venerable fathers of that same Congregation in a continued series beyond the space of three hundred years have celebrated in his honor the solemnities of Masses, and the divine Offices with proper lessons: from which in this our age they do not desist: who, referring to Sixtus V the supreme Pontiff for the confirmation of the aforesaid celebration, and showing the book in which the Lives of their holy Abbots are described on parchment in Lombardic letters, and distinguished into lessons, demonstrated that that of this venerable abbot needed no other approbation; and had a response from the Pontifical oracle, as is established from the decrees of the general Chapter, celebrated at Mantua in the monastery of St. Benedict of the Cassinese Congregation on the 9th day of May 1589.

[3] An indulgence granted by Clement to those visiting the church of La Cava. And Clement VIII granted to all the faithful of Christ a plenary indulgence of all sins, and remission to all of both sexes visiting the aforesaid venerable Cavense church of the most holy Trinity of that same Congregation on the festivities of St. Felicit… and of St. Leo the abbot, as is plain by the Brief given at Rome at St. Mark's under the ring of the Fisherman in the year of salvation 1597, in the sixth year of the pontificate of the aforesaid supreme Pontiff; which is preserved in the archive of the aforesaid monastery. His venerable body is preserved with the greatest honor in the chapel or rather the sacristy of the fathers, situated in the said church of La Cava.

[4] Certain fragments for the elogium of the Saint. Baronius at the aforesaid year 1050 says that he succeeded in the place of St. Alferius: his disciple and next to him in sanctity; after whom for many years the offspring of Saints set over that same monastery did not fail. In the Catalogue of the Abbots of La Cava in Ughelli, volume 7, column 520, he is honored also with a brief elogium: St. Leo of Lucca, disciple of St. Alferius, and companion in sanctity and the glory of miracles, second Abbot of La Cava, flourished from the year of the Lord 1050 even to the year 1079. The things said above concerning the cult can be confirmed hence: for in the same place it is said that on this day he is celebrated with a double rite in the church of La Cava: and that his body is venerably worshipped in the crypt of the church. To the praise of the Saint it also pertains, that for twenty-nine years by the probity of his manners and his prudence he holily shone before his subjects. Which is gathered from the verses ascribed to the said copy of the Life:

The Abbot Alferius, gleaming with divine virtue, The first founder and abbot of the house of La Cava. Him Leo follows, a man provident and kind; Who presided for one less than thrice ten years.

He is praised also by Pope Victor III, in book 3 of the Dialogues, page 157.

[5] A discussion is held concerning the manuscript Lives. There is not one only copy of the Life at hand. One we have among others from the praised Ms. of Francesco Maria Fiorentini with the following testimony: The present Life of St. Leo, second Abbot of the sacred monastery of La Cava, is taken from the original book, entitled "On the Lives of the holy Fathers," written on parchment in Lombardic characters; which is preserved in the archive of the above-said sacred monastery, nothing being added or diminished. And in faith I, Daniel Camillo of Capua, archivist and Apostolic notary, by Apostolic privilege in the said archive have subscribed myself, and signed with my accustomed sign, being required. Given from the same archive, on the 12th day of January 1626, in the third year of the Pontificate of our most holy Lord, Dom Urban by divine providence Pope VIII. A little below is placed ✠ the place of the seal. This Life prefixes a brief prologue, far different from that which Surius edited. But, although the Life as to substance agrees well enough with those edited, and also with those published by Mabillon, it seems nevertheless to have been interpolated by a writer more recent than is the first and genuine Author: and this is an indication, that at the end there is the following clause after the day of the holy Abbot's death:

[6] He died in the year of salvation 1079, on the 10th of June [*], not to all equally ancient, which day is memorable for the death of Dom Paulinus; who was the first Bishop of Lucca, sent thither by Dom Peter the Apostle. Do you see that by the capital letter D., there twice placed, is designated the title "divus" (divine) for "sanctus" (holy) or "beatus" (blessed)? Which, as we noted on the 11th of this month in the preliminary Commentary of St. John, Bishop of Bergamo and Martyr, number 20; which, I say, was once unusual in Ecclesiastical matters; and is not read in the Roman Breviary, except perhaps in the most recent lessons. Add, that the aforesaid clause is found neither in Surius nor in Mabillon; and therefore must be reckoned as afterward added here. It lacks besides that brevity and simplicity, with which the other copy is written, which we are about to give. Yet that that same one preceded this other, I think is undoubted, the agreement of speech and matter in both being considered. And that what we give is indeed more ancient than that which we received from Fiorentini, is plain from his own words at number 1: For, as his disciples, who to our times were in the monastery, were wont to relate. Which the more recent interpolator thus brings out: For his disciples, monks of the same monastery, were wont to relate.

[7] But from the following fragment it is especially confirmed that the Ms. Life of Fiorentini was interpolated: and untouched by interpolation. in which, the things which here are most simply narrated, are there thus oratorically adorned: There was also a cave not very far from the monastery, which a dragon of wonderful magnitude held: which by its terrible aspect, bloody mouth, venomous tooth, infected eyes, and pestilent breath destroyed all things, and widely laid them waste. And when the inhabitants feared to approach the place through terror of that beast, they took care to intimate this to the venerable abbot Leo: who, the matter being known, with incredible constancy of mind and outstanding faith approached the place: he visited the dragon, besprinkled with gore, and defiled with black blood, lurking in the cave, threatening slaughter and plague not only by its breath and mouth, but also by its flame-bearing eyes; and as if he were descending into a single combat, intrepid he approached before the door of the cavern unarmed; but armed on every side with innocence, he gave himself wholly to prayer. The huge dragon therefore, armed with three-forked [*] scale, winding immense coils with its horrible tail, and hissing with its triple tongue, affected the breasts of all with icy fear. But Leo had his eyes raised, endowed with faith, his arms folded, not trusting in his own strength, his knees bent, conspicuous for humility, his breast kindled, fervid with charity, and at last kept his body naked. Yet fortified on every side with divine protection, he wearied heaven with his prayers. But what cannot the prayer of the just? Straightway at once the huge beast, its pestilent wings lowered, and its crest cast down before his very feet, by the words of his prayers, as if it had been transfixed by the strokes of javelins, was extinguished. Thus far the talkative interpolator, saying few things with many words, and affecting not so much the gifts of truth as of eloquence.

[8] Which is here given: But that Mabillon saw another Life besides that which he edited in print, is plain from the notes added to the printed Life. Whence also I gather that that one differs from the Ms. which Fiorentini sent. The Life which is here given was edited by Surius and Mabillon; and it seemed worthy of the press beyond the rest, as more ancient and genuine. The edition of both those Authors agrees: if you except a prologue long enough, prefixed by Surius to the Life; which you would wonder at: since it is the prologue of the Life of St. Alferius, edited by us on the 12th of April; and therefore not to be repeated here again; composed by the same Author; for in the same prologue it is read that he proposed to write the Lives and miracles of the venerable Fathers Alferius, Leo, Peter, and Constabilis, abbots of La Cava. But now of what kind of profession he was, he indicates not obscurely, when he says that he, gone out from that cloister (of La Cava) as from the land of promise, undertook in a far-off region flocks to be pastured and multiplied.

[9] [written by a contemporary Author or at least one near his time; where also concerning his profession.] Finally, that he was contemporary with those whose Lives he writes, or certainly near their time, he indicates by these words, with which he concludes the said prologue: Because likewise new times of writing are wont to be despised, let the reader ascribe the faith of the things said to the relators, not to the writings: because although at this time we write; we narrate those things which were told to us by the ancient old men of the monastery. But indeed in the Life of St. Peter written by him, and edited by us on the 4th of March, he explains himself more clearly, when he acknowledges Blessed Simeon, the fifth abbot of the monastery of La Cava, at number 27, as his abbot; between whom and St. Peter, from the death of the latter, Constabilis lived only 11 months and 13 days, as Henschenius observes there in the preliminary Commentary, number 2; adding that the same Author at number 31 asserts that he came from La Cava to the monastery of Venosa, where that he was abbot or father

of the monks of the monastery of the Holy Trinity, which was then subject to the Cavense congregation, he asserts is handed down in the Ms. Cavense Chronicle, and that he, illustrious for erudition, described these lives graphically and clearly. But since the aforementioned Blessed Simeon, as Ughelli testifies, volume 7, column 521, flourished from the year of the Lord 1124 even to the year 1141, in which he happily rested in Christ, on the 16th of November; we are abundantly instructed concerning the age of the writer of the Life of St. Leo, a subject of Blessed Simeon; whom Mabillon rightly, in the previous Observations to the Life of St. Alferius in the place cited above, number 1, reports to have written in the course of the twelfth century.

[10] A fuller account of the monastery of La Cava is given. Whoever desires accounts of the site, beginning, consecration of the monastery of La Cava, of the perpetual indulgence granted to those visiting that same monastery; of the episcopal jurisdiction and dignity of the abbot of La Cava, as also of the origin of the Cavense Congregation; let him go to the Chronicle of the Anonymous in Ughelli in the same volume 7, from column 511; where also from column 517 he will find the title and episcopal Order of that same monastery; its basilica erected into a cathedral; the monastery given in commendam; united with the Congregation of St. Justina, a most flourishing monastery of the Order of St. Benedict, and freed from the commendam; finally the second erection of the bishopric of La Cava, and its separation from the monastery; at last the names and places of the Roman Pontiffs who made mention of it. After which a catalogue of the Abbots is subjoined. See the things which Mabillon relates in a compendium at number 3. The Bull of Pope Urban II in its favor, most rich in privileges, prerogatives, and graces, Ughelli printed in volume 1, from column 646; but that of Boniface IX concerning the institution of the bishopric of La Cava, from column 652; which it would be long to relate.

[*] July.

[*] or three-forked?

LIFE

Edited by Surius and Mabillon, collated with other Lives, the Author being an anonymous abbot of Venosa nearly contemporary.

The master of the Saint; his virtues; his miracles.

Leo, confessor, abbot of the monastery of La Cava in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 4840

from Surius and Mabillon

The second father of the monastery of La Cava, Leo, was a man greatly venerable, a disciple of the most reverend man Alferius in instruction, Leo, disciple of St. Alferius, and companion in raising a dead man; but a companion in spirit and virtue; because he brought forth the fruit of that same mastership in the perfection of the highest and most holy manner of life. For he, a Tuscan by birth, a citizen of Lucca, coming into the parts of Salerno, where he learned the celebrated fame of that same father, forthwith gave himself to him to be instructed in the most holy manner of life. In which indeed he is known to have so profited in a short time, that he seemed to be not only an emulator of the labors of his master, but even a cooperator in his wonderful works. For when the venerable man Alferius proposed to pray for the raising of a dead man, he retained this one alone of all his disciples with him, with whom he likewise gave himself to prayer: which indeed the holy man would not do, unless he gathered from the perfection of that same one's life, that he could afford him aid for obtaining things so great. Who, although in the time of his master he was held great, yet after his death he shone more. For, as his disciples, who to our times were in the monastery, were wont to relate, he profited to such purity of heart, that at the time of prayer he deserved to see the venerable Mother of our Lord.

[2] Besides he is said to have been a man of such humility and mercy, with how great humility, that from the hermitage adjoining his cell he carried bundles of wood on his own shoulders to Salerno, and selling them, bought loaves, which he distributed to the poor. In no other way indeed did he know that he merited the sight of the Mother of the Lord, than if he abounded in great virtues, and cast himself down with great humility: so that despised outwardly, he might within no wise swell up, but might solidify the tender building of the virtues upon the rock of the highest humility. And perhaps the holy man joined himself to that ministry, because he disposed to go to eternal life through temporal labors. Therefore he approved that work of mercy, which he knew to accord with the sacrifice of bodily labor, that from both there might be made, as it were, a fat holocaust of almighty God, namely the flame of love so wholly overflowing, that he dedicated his whole body to labors, and his whole mind to piety.

[3] his mercy toward the poor, divinely honored: They relate also, that on a certain day when he came from the aforesaid city, and divided the price of his wood in bread to the poor, to Gisulf too, the prince of Salerno, he offered the bread of his sweat; who, when at first he despised the bread offered him, being reproved by the soldiers, that he spurned not bread, but in the bread a man of God, forthwith turned back; from the hands of the man of God he received the bread and ate it, and from that day was familiar with so great a father. From which abundance of grace indeed it came about, that into a great harvest of gifts that bread offered in vain, as it was thought, to the rich man grew, and as good seed poured out abundantly the abundance of its fruit. For when the same Prince, swollen with secular power, proposed many cruel and savage things, he alone dared to withstand, alone to go against his depraved arrangements with free authority, whom indeed often soothing with humble prayers, often assailing with threats, sometimes he rendered subject and obedient to himself, so that he obtained sometimes what he asked; sometimes what he was unwilling to expend, he extorted from him unwilling by authority not by prayers; for it is written of powerful men of this kind of holy Church: The just, like a lion, is confident. And again the sacred Scripture speaks, saying: The lion, strongest of beasts, will fear at the encounter of none.

[4] his constancy in adversities; The man of the Lord therefore exhibited the signification of his name by the virtue of great constancy: poor indeed in things, rich in the desire of the heavenly patrimony, he could the more freely withstand the rich of this world, the more in the world, which he loved not, he feared to lose nothing: for at that same time the aforementioned prince had moved war against the Amalfitans, against whom he seemed so to rage, that whomever of them he captured, he assigned to great torments of tortures. But who could suffice to explain with how great authority of headship, with how great liberality the venerable father Leo then succored them? how liberally he fed the imprisoned, clothed the despoiled, loosed the bound, rescued the tortured, and freed them from the near amputation of their limbs? For with such freedom for those who were led to punishments he withstood the same prince, that he violently took them away from the very tortures, and unbidden loosed them.

[5] [his mercy toward captives, the prince's cruelty being rebuked, and exile being foretold him;] For on a certain day, while he sat at table with the brothers, a sad messenger was present, who indicated to the venerable man that three men had been ordered by the prince to be deprived of sight, and wailing and crying out he added, saying: Run, father, run, for now the wretched ones are being led forth. Then the venerable father, rising from the table, and like another Tobias deserting his meal, hastened to Salerno with a swift step: and finding those men already led outside the city, he held and loosed them, and ordered them to depart free. And when the executioners were greatly afraid, he himself promised to render an account for them to the prince: which indeed, as he promised, he exhibited: because, as he said, he offered himself as surety for them; but concerning the cruelty which he exercised against the faithful of Christ, he vehemently rebuked him, not as a vessel of punishments, but as a guardian of justice. To whom also at some time being indignant, and by the swelling of pride despising the admonitions of salvation, he pronounced through the spirit of prophecy the merited reward of his cruelty, saying: For your cruelty, after a little time, you will not be lord of this land. Which when the prince heard, he feared; but yet did not leave his ferocity: whence not undeservedly he experienced the threats of the man of God. After not much time at last, the city of Salerno being besieged and captured by Duke Robert, as the holy man had foretold; he lost the rule which the prince was unwilling piously to moderate. By which right the venerable father is acknowledged to have flourished with the grace of three fathers: namely of Tobias, who, that he might bury the dead, left his meal: of St. Nicholas, who, that he might snatch the innocent, held the hand of the executioner: of St. Benedict, who announced to King Totila his future death, and by terrifying diminished his ferocity, which he could not wholly take away. For he shone with the splendor of the just, who after the manner of the Saints was full of the grace of the Paraclete Spirit.

[6] Nor do I think that must be kept silent, that the Prince Gisulf, by authority and justice in keeping another's deposit. when he had learned of the wealth of a certain Amalfitan deposited at Salerno in an obedientiary of the monastery, namely of St. Nicholas de Palma, went to the place, and attempted to draw out the deposit: which when it became known to the blessed man, he strove to forestall the prince, namely that he might sit upon that chest, lest the deposit which lay hidden within could be brought out without injury to himself. Then the prince, who feared to inflict injuries on so great a father, as if in jest began to stretch his hands to the chest, and to ask that he rise from the same chest. But the man of God wished by the art of exterior cunning to mock the one flattering with the same art, so that the intention of the depravedly cunning one could by no means have effect: for as often as the prince stretched his hand to the chest in jest, the man of the Lord as if playing holily threatened to strike the prince's hand with his staff: and when this was done often, and the same prince now not in jest but seriously and importunately demanded the things lying hidden in the chest, the man of God not only did not yield to the angry prince, but even vehemently rebuked the rashness of the deed. Then the prince, overcome as much by the constancy as by the shrewdness of the holy man, withdrew, and left the man's deposit untouched. But let it suffice to have touched these things concerning the authority of so great a man: for if anyone should describe all things one by one, namely how often he set himself against for the loosing of the bound; how often, that he might rescue others, he offered himself; with what or how great blandishments and prayers, with what threats and terrors, and how many times and by what arts he assailed the same prince; he would fill not a page, but an enormous codex. Which indeed, how much the purpose of the Blessed man pleased the Lord, was shown by open facts.

[7] His garments untouched by rain; a serpent slain by prayer: For the feast of the blessed virgin and martyr Cecilia, for the affection which he had toward her merit, he was wont solemnly to celebrate. But on that day which preceded the feast of that same virgin to be extolled, he was so occupied with the oft-mentioned prince for the release of the bound, that he could in no way return to his cell, unless the darkness of night already impending. His business therefore being accomplished, and the prisons plundered after his manner, when he had been unwilling to remain outside the cell, by the light of a wax taper, the brothers following, he took his way, and began to return to the monastery. Then, a storm arising, amid immense blasts of winds and the inundation of a huge rain, he is said to have carried the burning taper, and to have come with garments as dry as if he had come in a serene and tranquil air, or a covered portico. There was also a cave not far from the monastery, which a serpent of wonderful magnitude had held: and when through terror of that beast the inhabitants vehemently feared to approach the place, they took care to intimate this to the venerable father Leo: which when he learned, the man of God gave himself to prayer, and in that place

in which he was, the dragon was so extinguished by his prayer, as if he assailed it not with words, but had struck the secret places of its inward parts with a beam-like weapon.

[8] His bier, after the Saint's death, unharmed by a taper. Illustrious therefore for these and virtues of this kind, when he was now weighed down by an old age full of days, the burden of the flesh being laid aside, he was received by the solace of eternal rest. Whose merit indeed, that it might shine forth even by his very death, the power of the fiercer element being withdrawn, was shown not without immense astonishment of all minds. For the venerable body of the holy man was kept in the oratory by the weeping and praying disciples. When one of the tapers had fallen upon the bier, and lay upon the pall with which it was covered, as it was burning: but that it might disclose the merit of so great a man, it had the force of light without the burning of combustion. For when to that couch certain of the brothers raised their eyes, and beheld the fire burning in the cloths; they believed that the damage of combustion had happened: and when they hastily lifted the same taper, the covering of the holy body appeared so unharmed, as if no fire had fallen upon it. Then all the brothers at the immense miracle and wonderful gladness began to be astonished and at the same time to exult, while by the cessation of its nature the mute elements preached the merits of the holy father. Which perhaps was therefore shown outwardly, that even the dignity of the spiritual man might be spiritually signified by a fitting miracle. Openly indeed we recall, that the bush in which the Lord appeared in fire was illumined and did not burn; it had light, it lacked burning; but that the seat of God might have the merit of light, not have the defect of diminution. The venerable father therefore was shown by signal and fitting miracles: because the divine light always inhabited him as its own place, whom it illumined as one having merited it; and what in him might be punished by burning, it in no wise found. Whose merit also if anyone should wish otherwise to know by this showing, he easily can: for to the more perfect elect the Truth by himself promises, saying: A hair of your head shall not perish. His covering therefore could not be corrupted by fire, whose labor none perished, but merited the best fruit of eternal reward.

ANNOTATIONS.

[*] Mabillon: little cave.

[*] that is, the bier.