Alexius

ON ST. ALEXIUS, CONFESSOR,

AT ROME, OR, AS OTHER ACTS HAVE IT, AT EDESSA IN SYRIA.

TOWARD THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY ON THE LATIN ACTS.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. The name of St. Alexius; homeland; parents; age and death; whether he is the same as or different from St. John Calybita.

In a twofold manner is written the name of this Saint; more commonly indeed they were wont to call him Alexius; but he is also called Alexis in a certain most ancient manuscript codex of ours, marked P Ms. 3, and in the Vaucelles codex, and elsewhere. That that name, written in the latter manner, was already then used by the authors of the golden age is an argument, The etymology of the name, that Virgil employed it: for his second eclogue is entitled Alexis, which name he repeats several times through the course of the same eclogue. Its etymology is Greek; not ineptly to be derived from the verb ἀλεξέω, I ward off, I aid, I succor. Whence Alexius can be said, he who wards off things contrary to himself, or who brings help or a remedy to another. Our Charles de la Rue, in the Virgil edited by him, and illustrated with interpretation and notes for the use of the Most Serene Dauphin of France, hence too almost deduces the etymology of the said name, saying that Alexis was so called because he was the delight and solace of his master; or because the boy warded off Corydon from himself, etc. Other nomenclatures our John Louis de la Cerda likewise adduces. The Golden Legend, edited in print, among many etymological comments with which it teems, here greatly trifles: "Alexius," it says, "is called from a, which is 'very,' and lexis, which is 'speech': whence Alexius, who is very robust in the word of God: or Alexius, as if from exius, or from ambio, ambis; and exios, which is a circle: and thence Alexius as it were compassing a circle beginning from the Creator, and ending in the Creator." Which nomenclature to have recorded is to have refuted; so that it is superfluous to castigate its several members. Let us proceed to more useful things, pertaining to the Saint's homeland.

[2] and the Saint's homeland. At Rome the canon or sacred canticle composed in his honor in the ninth century by St. Joseph reckons him, to be praised below; which canon is the most ancient and chief monument, to which the whole history of the Saint, as it is commonly circulated, must be tested, as will be said at greater length below in its place. There are added Lives both manuscript and printed, and the most received tradition of the Romans, and the common sense and persuasion of men. Tillemont, tome 10 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 666, daring here to decide nothing, considering the uncertainty of the Alexian history, asserts that there are those by whom it is believed that he rather lived at New Rome or Constantinople, and cites our Ephemerides, prefixed to the first tome of May. Bolder, in his manner, is the recent French Legendary, tome 2, column 269, where he relates that, from the great agreement which is found between St. Alexius and St. John Calybita, various learned men have judged that it may be that this is but one and the same Saint hiding under a double name; and he alleges the said Ephemerides, page 18. Then he brings forward the consonance of the Life of each Saint, as if the first exemplar of the Alexian Life were nothing but a copy of the Life of the other Saint, almost nothing changed in it except the names of the persons and places: among the marks of fraud left there, that one remained, by which our Saint is related to have been recognized after death by his own handwriting before the patriarch and emperor; which cannot pertain to anything else than to Constantinople. He adds that some are of the opinion that some part of the relics of St. John Calybita was brought from Constantinople to Rome by Greek monks under the name of Alexius, and placed in the monastery of St. Boniface, inhabited at the same time by Greek and Latin ascetics alike, and that thence the church of that monastery was called by the name of Sts. Boniface and Alexius. Thus he. But now, since the Saint's life spent at Rome, his death met at Rome, and Rome, his homeland, are at the same time historically connected, let no one wonder if, while we institute a discourse about this, we at the same time also make mention here of those things on the same occasion.

[3] The learned know that Papebroch, in the pretended Exhibition of errors It is proved that the Saint began to live at Rome, wrongly imputed to him by his accuser, was charged with this: that he supposed St. Alexius closed his life not at Rome but at Constantinople. He purges himself in part 1 of the Responses from page 248, asserting that in the Greco-Muscovite Ephemerides, since through lack of time it was not permitted to examine that controversy thoroughly, he had judged or supposed nothing over-hastily; but had suspended judgment, and professed that he wished the things there said in passing to be proposed for consideration to learned men, before he should establish anything about them, remitting the full decision of the matter to this day. Therefore he declares that then, when he wrote the Ephemerides, he had absolutely supposed nothing, nor even then, when he answered the objected accusations, did he suppose anything against the tradition of the Romans. The causes of doubting, which he had from the situation of new Rome and of old, from the names of the parents Euphemianus and Aglais, and of Alexius himself, which are merely Greek; to which can be added that the cult of the Saint seemed to have been instituted earlier at Constantinople than at Rome, he proposes there from page 249; the Life, written later, and therefore more obscurely, and not without defects, affording an occasion of doubting. The aforesaid accuser gave a handle to Papebroch of examining that controversy more diligently at that time, although even then prematurely: who, his judgment being trained after nearly forty years in matters pertaining to the affairs of the Saints, at last resolved for himself the old doubts, page 250, in the following words, drawn from the canon praised above: "I consider," he says, "reading over that very canon again and more diligently, that not only is Rome there simply named (which, if the author had understood new Rome, he would probably somewhere have named, as he is wont, τὸν Βασιλίδα, the Royal city), but also that in the noted Ode IX, Strophe V, it is thus sung:"

[4] "They came together to your burial, ὁ πρόκριτος of the Patriarchs, it is proved, and the most Christ-loving Emperor, and the Princes, young men and elders with choirs of monks"; where Πατριαρχῶν ὁ πρόκριτος, the chief of the Patriarchs, or the eminent one among the Patriarchs, can be understood of none more aptly than the Patriarch or Roman Pontiff; granted that the same epithet might also suit John Chrysostom as eminent or chief among the Constantinopolitan Patriarchs. But why would Joseph, the author of those Odes, not have more distinctly indicated him, by an epithet more proper to him, if he had wished it to be understood of him? For he himself was the sceuophylax of the great Constantinopolitan church, or keeper of the sacred vessels, appointed in the year 848, and lived in that dignity until the year 883; within which time, the cult of the Saints reflourishing under the orthodox Empress Theodora, that canon or hymn was composed, and perhaps then first the cult of St. Alexius was received at Constantinople, together with some Life or other brought from Rome.

[5] from St. Joseph the hymnographer or another: But since we contend that by "Rome," expressed in this canon by the praised, or by another (see no. 33) Joseph, old Rome, not new or Constantinople, ought to be understood, it is worth while to repeat these things a little more deeply, on which the state of the present controversy largely depends: for that author would have spoken otherwise, employing phrases used at that time, if by "Rome" he had understood, not ancient, but new or Constantinople. Let us weigh other passages of his. In the canon for the feast of the deposition of the stole or garment of the Mother of God at Blachernae (the place is at Constantinople), of which the Greek Menæa treat on the 2nd of this month, and we on that day in the Passed-Over ones; composed by the same Joseph as above, or by another of the same name, somewhat older, but living nevertheless in the same century; in that canon, I say, an acrostic is placed, in which the name is given to Constantinople τῇ πασῶν Βασιλίδι τῶν πόλεων, the queen of all cities. And at the end, where the canon is signed as with a seal by the acrostic letters of the proper name of the author Joseph, the same expression recurs. Thus Joseph spoke of Constantinople; thus other Greeks spoke, as is most well known to anyone even moderately versed in the histories. Of Constantinople, by order of Constantine called New Rome and second Rome, it is said from Socrates and Sozomen at the Life of St. John Calybita on the XV of January, page 1029. By "Rome" therefore simply, without any other distinctive epithet,

expressed above by St. Joseph, old Rome is to be understood, not New or Constantinople: and we have a testimony, written at least in the ninth century, for the Romans who claim the birth of Alexius for themselves; by which the common tradition concerning the homeland of St. Alexius is confirmed; which the critical observations of certain more recent men do not overturn.

[6] from which also it is asserted that he died at Rome. And from these it is concluded that St. Alexius began to live at Rome. From the same it is also proved that he ceased to live at Rome. St. Joseph, in the praised canon, ode 6, sings that the Saint was restored to his homeland; ode 7, that he sat at his parents' gates; ode 8, that, before unknown to his parents during the time of his pilgrimage, he afterward manifested himself to them, and that the Lord manifested to all Rome the hidden treasure, lying in a beggar's garb. All which sufficiently declare the holy man born at Rome, dead at Rome. I therefore think that nothing sufficiently explored can be brought forward, whether among Greek or among Latin authors, which certainly compels us to snatch Alexius from the Romans either in his birth or in his death. Both we have established from the most ancient author of all; let the adversaries bring forth even one single author of any note and antiquity, from which they may overturn our assertion. As long as they fight with mere conjectures, little quibbles, and little doubts, they advance nothing; possession will always prevail, strengthened by the authority of an ancient writer, until something of greater weight be brought forward for the opposite opinion. I indeed know that this my opinion, proved from a single author who flourished four hundred years after the Saint of whom he writes, all others earlier being silent, does not lack its own difficulties: but let the authority of Joseph prevail, let possession prevail, until it be overturned by more certain documents. These things about the Saint's birth; now let us speak of his parents.

[7] Certain things are proposed about the Saint's parents, Joseph the Hymnographer, or another of the same name, does not express their names; whether he did not find them in the history or Life from which he composed his canon; or, if he found them there, certainly did not approve them. Whence perhaps the names of Euphemianus and Aglais, which are read in the Greek and Latin Lives, may seem suspect, as thrust in by an author of the tenth or eleventh century, who dramatically adorned the deeds of the Saint; which the Roman Breviary also does not express. Matteo Vecchiazzani, in part 1 of the History of Forlimpopoli, edited in Italian, page 59, treating in passing of St. Alexius, affirms that Euphemianus was of the ancient family of the Savelli, most well known at Rome, adding to him the title of most powerful baron of the Aventine; thus catching the favor of the most Illustrious and Excellent Lord Bernardino Savelli, to whom he dedicates his book. That the Saint's father was rich and powerful is drawn from the oft-mentioned canon. Do not the three thousand slave-boys, who were girt with golden belts, and clad in silken garments, savor of exaggeration? whom he is narrated to have had in the Latin prose Life, no. 3, and in the metrical one at the beginning. But these things, I think, were devised for scenic apparatus, which is commended by magnificence. An addition to the Hagenau Usuardine codex thrusts upon us the name even of the Saint's own bride, saying that Euphemianus gave Marina as bride to Alexius. But on the XIX of this month it attributes to the praised Euphemianus the title of Saint, to be admitted only then, when it can be proved from better documents.

[8] If the author who wrote the Life of St. Alexius had a little more authority, and about the time in which he lived and died; it would be more certain about the time in which he lived and died. The Latin Acts, both prosaic and metrical, hand down that he lived under Pope Innocent I, who began to sit in the year 402, and ceased in 417. The same epoch is commonly adopted by all, which is also indicated in the modern Roman Breviary. The canon of Joseph expresses neither the name of the Roman Pontiff, nor of the Emperor, under whom the holy man lived, and the things which it has are so destitute of all characteristic marks of an individual time, that you nowhere strike any vestige of a determined epoch. The great printed Menæa of the Greeks in the Saint's elogium are silent about the Roman Pontiff, but express the Emperor Honorius. Constantius Felicius in his Calendar badly combines the times, when he places him under Innocent I and the Emperor Honorius in the year 397. More basely errs Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Equilio, connecting the pontificate of Pope Innocent with the Emperors Honorius and Arcadius, and the year of the Lord 388, in which he records the Blessed one to have rested about that time; Mombritius too erroneously connecting them with the year about 398. Tillemont, in the place cited above, says it is held that Alexius hid himself at Rome in the time of the praised Pope, in the year, as it appears to him, 409 or 408; but soon, in his manner, suspends judgment. The recent French Legendary marks the fourth or fifth century. Faultily the Roman Breviary, printed in the year, as is ascribed to it, 1522, page 372, says that the Saint died in the twentieth year of Innocent I; whereas that Pontiff sat only about fifteen years. Our Paul de Barry, in the French Life, of which below, places his birth in the time of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Honorius; and thus his death would have to be removed to the middle of the fifth century or beyond; which is repugnant to the common opinion of writers.

[9] If the Saint died under Innocent I and the Emperor Honorius, about which it is not sufficiently clear. he must be asserted to have flourished toward the end of the fourth century; but that he truly died then, however commonly it be handed down, is nevertheless in no way solidly enough proved from Greek or Latin monuments. This one thing cannot be denied, that the Saint died not only before the times of the aforesaid Joseph; but, if a Roman emperor was truly present at his funeral, that he did not survive beyond the fifth century, fatal to that empire, is ascertained. There will perhaps be those who object: A Saint so singular and admirable in all things, most well known to the highest and lowest of the whole city of Rome after his death, the century in which he is thought to have died most flourishing in writers, no record, so far as is known, found before the ninth century that treats of him; these do not cohere. I understand: but I answer; from the fact that no Life is known to have been written before that time, it does not at once follow that absolutely none was written: for it could have perished. Joseph certainly, when he composed his canon, received the material of his writing either from some written history or from hearsay and historical tradition. More things belong not to this but to another place, when we shall treat separately and expressly of that canon and of the Lives.

[10] It now remains to discuss a point touched in passing above; St. John Calybita different from Alexius. namely whether St. John Calybita, of whom we treated on the XV of January, is the same as or different from the Saint whom we here give. Tillemont roundly asserts, in the cited tome, in the notes, page 834, that "it can be presumed that he (Alexius) is the same as John Calybita of Constantinople; of whom almost the same history is narrated: and who could have had one and another name; or assumed the name of John when he hid himself." But that presumption is false, because founded on a false supposition: for so far is it from being the case that most points of the history of each Saint are almost the same, that some rather seem to be different by a whole heaven: for John illustrated Constantinople; he is venerated on another day among the Greeks and Latins; he has another name; but that he had a double name is denied with the same facility with which it is asserted by Tillemont. More pressing is that St. John was an Acoemete monk in Bithynia; that he had two brothers; that, having gone out from the monastery, his garments exchanged with a poor man; and, having returned home, dwelt for three years with his parents unknown; and, having exhibited the book of the Gospels which he had received from them before his departure, was recognized before death, and died between their hands; that his mother, clothing him now dead with a precious garment, struck with paralysis, but her old cloak restored to him, was healed: to say nothing of the temple built for him by his parents. And from these we think sufficient foundation is afforded us, that with Papebroch in the place cited, page 249, we should distinguish these two Saints. And truly he would be foolish who should soon confound two Saints into one, because similar in their manner of life. Thus wrongly might someone confound St. Symeon Salus, of whom on the first day of this month, with St. Theodore Salus on the XXV of February, page 508; and St. Thomas Salus on the XXIV of May, page 433, who lived in the same sixth century as the praised Symeon; to say nothing of more examples.

§ II. The cult of the Saint among the Greeks and Latins; elogia; relics.

St. Alexius is venerated on another day among the Greeks than among the Latins; The Greeks venerate St. Alexius with solemn rite on the XVII of March, on which the Typicon of St. Sabas thus announces him: "Of our holy father Alexius, the man of God." This title of "man of God" the Saint made so proper to himself, that all the Greek hagiologists everywhere conspire in attributing it to him, as by a singular idiom, by which he is distinguished from others. Occasion for this surname was perhaps given them by the canon of St. Joseph, to be produced below. In the Life, no. 4, and again no. 7, he is thus divinely handed down as designated: and in the homily of St. Adalbert, of which below, he is said to be named "man of God" as by a certain privilege; so meriting to be called by a special word by the Lord. Photius, however, in codex LIV, is known to have attributed the same title to St. Prosper, the strongest antagonist of the Pelagians. Besides, the Synaxarion collected in the tenth century from the Menology by order of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus marks him on the said day; likewise the great printed Menæa, which sing to him the following little verses:

Ἄνθρωπος ἐν γῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ κληθεὶς μόνος, Ἕξεις τι καινὸν κᾂν πόλῳ πάτερ μόνος. Ἑβδομάτῃ δεκάτῃ, Ἀλέξιε πότμον ἀνέτλης. Alone you bore here the name of man of God; now alone you shall bear a new one in heaven, father. On the seventeenth, Alexius, you endured your death.

Add Maximus, bishop of Cythera, both Horologia of the year 1601 and 1607, the Calendar of the Greeks published in Latin by Genebrard; likewise the Horologium printed at Rome in the year 1677 for the use of the Italo-Greek Basilians; to pass over the manuscript Greek Menæa of the Ambrosian library at Milan marked O 148, the Arabic-Egyptian Martyrology, translated from Arabic by Grazia Simonio the Maronite, and the Menæum of Chifflet. The Slavo-Russian Menology has these things: "Of the most blessed Alexius, the divine man, the Roman. He lived in the year 400 under Arcadius and Honorius." What the reason is why he is celebrated on that day among the Greeks, escapes us; unless perhaps it was then the day of his translation or of another solemnity; or that day was his birthday to a better life, and the XVII of July, on which the Latins venerate him, of his translation or of some other festivity.

[12] In the most ancient Latin Martyrologies I find nothing about St. Alexius. To pass over Bede augmented by Florus, passed over by the most ancient Latin Martyrologists, Ado, Usuard; I wonder that nothing is had about him in the ancient or Little Roman;

nothing in the Roman Calendar, edited by Jean Fronteau, as neither in that which Edmond Martène, a French Benedictine, published in the New Thesaurus of Anecdotes, tome 5, from column 63, which we do not think to be so ancient as he asserts, as perhaps on another occasion and time will be proved. But to those inquiring what the reason is why so late the Saint's name was inscribed in the Missals, Calendars, and Martyrologies, Papebroch indeed answers, yet does not fully satisfy, in part 1 of the Responses, page 251, saying that it was done because the cult of the Saint hitherto subsisted in one only church of Sts. Boniface and Alexius, named by the common name of both Saints in the tenth and eleventh centuries, as will appear from what will be said of St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, and the miracles wrought at Rome in the same place. For grant that the cult of St. Alexius subsisted only in that one single church, there still remains the difficulty, what it was, that the same Saint, so admirable and singular at Rome, a Roman by homeland, so honorable to the Romans, and dead and buried at Rome, had no public veneration at Rome, and that his memory is found consigned in no sacred tables even after many centuries elapsed from his death, and is altogether passed over even by the Little Roman Martyrology itself, written in the eighth century, and otherwise stuffed with the memories of so many foreign and less celebrated Saints. Meanwhile the silence of the classical Martyrologies has left us this remaining, that, the genuine sources failing, we should pursue the little streams; I mean the additions adjoined to the manuscript Usuardine codices, of whose age it is discoursed in the preface of Usuard not long since illustrated, article 4, §3 and 4. The codices of older note have these things: the Tournai one thus begins the present text: "Of St. Alexis the confessor." The Anchin: "The passing of St. Alexius the confessor." The Victorine and the Queen of Sweden's agree with the Anchin. The additions to the Usuardine codices of middle note you have among the supplements on this day; which I do not transcribe. Moreover in the Plantinian Bede too is noted "Of St. Alexius the confessor." I call it Plantinian, because it is now commonly held supposititious, as was indicated in the praised Usuardine preface, article 2, page XIII.

[13] Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy most basely hallucinates, [and is basely confused by Ferrari; the Latin hagiologists referring to him on one day and another.] when he confounds Alexius with Aletius; speaking of both as of one and the same person, and asserting that Rufina, the daughter of Paula, was given to him in marriage. See the notations of Baronius, and tome 4 of the Annals at the year 382, no. 44. In the same error fell Filippo Rossi in the description of modern Rome, edited in Italian in 1697, page 164. In our manuscript Florarium, written about the middle of the fifteenth century, is noted on the XXVI of February "Alexis conf.," the present one, as we said we think, in the Passed-Over ones on that day, page 626. But on the XVII of June is marked there the translation of St. Alexius C. In the Passed-Over ones on the XV of the same month we observed that he is indicated with an elogium in the manuscript Ado of the Queen of Sweden, and in another manuscript under the name of Usuard. In the Calendar of the Mozarabic Missal, ordered by Francisco Ximénez archbishop of Toledo, printed at Toledo in the year 1500, is marked "St. Alexis conf." on the XVI of July, and it has a Mass from the common; remitted thither perhaps on account of Sts. Justa and Rufina, Virgins and Martyrs, who are solemnly venerated on this day both there and in the Mozarabic Breviary of 1502 edited by order of the praised Ximénez. The announcement of the Roman Martyrology sounds thus: "At Rome, of St. Alexius the confessor, son of Euphemianus the senator, who on the first night of his nuptials, his bride untouched, departing from his house, and after a long pilgrimage returning to the City, was received into hospitality in his father's house for seventeen years as a needy man, deluding the world by a new art, and remained unrecognized. But after death, both by a voice heard through the churches of the City, and recognized by his own writing, under Innocent I the Supreme Pontiff he was borne with the highest honor to the church of St. Boniface, where he shone with many miracles." Which things contain a compendium of the history of St. Alexius, and in substance consonant with the elogia which we now subjoin.

[14] Elogium from the Basilian Synaxarion, The Basilian Synaxarion praises the Saint on the XVII of March; whose Greek text, edited in print at the end of the first tome of the same month, hands down these things: "This man was a Roman, son of Euphemianus the patrician, who gave him in marriage. But the nuptials being completed, at the time when he ought to have consorted with his bride, a ring being given to her as a pledge, he went out from the house, and, departing to the city of Edessa, remained for eighteen years in a church. But recognized from his virtue, he secretly withdrew, and again betook himself to Rome, and came to his own house; and remained unknown in the vestibule, seeing his father and mother, and mocked by his own servants; although his parents and his chaste wife assiduously grieved and wept for his sake. But when his death had drawn near, having asked for paper, he wrote all things which pertained to himself; which also he retained in his hand after death; and the Emperor Honorius received it and read it out, all hearing. Then the series of his affairs became known: and thus his holy body was buried in the temple of St. Peter the Apostle." Of the burial and other things here narrated it will be treated afterward. The same, almost, though a little more prolixly, the great printed Menæa narrate, which it would be idle to produce here.

[15] the sacred remains in Italy; Now concerning the relics of St. Alexius, various are commemorated by Panciroli in the index of relics, which is had at the end of the book entitled "Treasures of the City of Rome." Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza in the Roman Sanctuary, page 224, testifies that in St. Paul's outside the walls there is one arm of the Saint, another in St. Nicholas in Carcere; one rib at St. Praxedes in Montibus, and other relics of the same at St. Cecilia's beyond the Tiber; namely, as he relates in his Hemerology, page 50, a tooth and a bone; and he adds that in the temple of St. Ignatius of our Society a tooth and part of the jaw are exposed. See the third paragraph, where of the body preserved at Rome. In Antonio Masini's "Bologna Surveyed," third edition, page 381, where of the church of St. Alexius, which is also St. Louis', is noted a tooth of the Saint; in Carlo de Lellis in part 2 or the supplement to "Naples Sacred," page 315, where of the sacred remains of the church of St. George Major, a leg; in Antonio Casale, Celestine abbot, in the history of the basilica of St. Stephen at Bologna, page 454, relics of St. Alexius are mentioned indeterminately. In a manuscript note which we have, among the relics of the Saints of the city of Bergamo, in the chapel of St. Mary Major, is numbered a bone of St. Alexius. In the little book on Venetian Matters, edited by Nicolò Doglioni in the year 1675, page 345, is noted that in the church of St. Catherine there is an arm of St. Alexius; which was brought thither from the island of Lemnos in the Aegean sea, otherwise called Stalimene: but it may have been of another Alexius. To this pertains the stair, under which St. Alexius is said to have lain hidden, when he dwelt in his father's house unknown, venerable by the pious religion of the Romans: of which the more recent, but not the ancient, writers. The author of the description of modern Rome, cited above, page 164, treating of the church of St. Alexius, hands down that there is there a most ancient chapel of the Lords Savelli, Dukes of the Aventine, with the stair or staircase of the Saint, and this inscription: "Under this stair in his father's house Blessed Alexius, most noble of the Romans, received not as a son, but as a poor stranger, led a harsh and needy life for 17 years; and there happily rendered his most pure soul to his Creator in the year 414, Innocent I being Pope, and Honorius and Theodosius II reigning. There are added daily indulgences of a hundred years, and as many quarantines to those worthily visiting, and on every feast day and in Lent, double."

[16] While in the month of February in the year 1722 we were engaged in examining the manuscript codices of the royal Escorial library of St. Lawrence in Spain, Spain, a catalogue was exhibited of the Sacred remains, which are there kept in great number and with no less veneration, brought thither in the time of Philip II, King of the Spains, most magnificent founder of this monastery, royal among few and truly so, and most studious investigator of sacred treasures of this kind. It is a book of larger format, most elegantly written, and distributed into various classes of the delivered relics (the Spanish call them entregas), and containing chiefly those which were made under the praised King to the ascetics of that monastery, with most minute particulars added, which regard the quantity and quality of the relics, the form and ornament of the reliquaries, the time of delivery, etc. What things there are to our purpose, under the class of the first delivery, folio 45, I thus render from the Spanish: "A bone of the arm of St. Alexius, having the breadth of one fourth part, placed in a reliquary of gilded silver: which folio 42 states was sent to His Majesty by Maximilian the emperor, the second of this name, through the illustrious man Lord Diestristan (Dietrichstein; of whose most illustrious lineage Jacob Wilhelm Imhof treats in the Notice of the nobles of the Holy Roman Germanic empire, book 5, chapter 5), grand major-domo of the most serene Princes Rudolf and Ernest, his sons. They were delivered to the Prior Fr. Hernando de Ciudad Real, and to the deputies of this convent, by the hand of Ferdinand de Vierviesca, prefect of the jewels of His Majesty, on the 8th of April 1572."

[17] Among the Theatines at Paris remains are shown under the name of St. Alexius, Gaul and Belgium, as also in the church of the Holy Innocents, the French Legendary several times mentioned is the author. Of the relics in Belgium may be consulted Arnold Raisse in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium, pages 45 and 453. Various besides in various places at Cologne are enumerated in Gelenius On the Greatness of that city, pages 263, 264, 266; 310, 412, 442, and 543. There, page 509, where of the sacred treasure of the church of the Society of Jesus, are related a fingerbone, and two other smaller particles. And again in the sacred treasure of the Alexians, page 536, is placed part of the head of St. Alexius conf.; which also Erhard Winheim noted in the Sacrarium of Cologne, page 516. Among the sacred pledges of thirty-five Saints, carried from the royal chapel of Lisbon into France by Antonio the ex-king, and delivered in the year 1594 to his son Emmanuel, and by him in 1630 given to the Prelate of the abbey of St. Saviour at Antwerp, of which more on the 2nd of April, from page 72, is reckoned part of the backbone, and a smaller part of a rib of St. Alexius the confessor. Concerning these remains may also be inspected the supplement of the said tome, page 899.

[18] at Louvain, Maastricht, and Sint-Truiden. The following notices, besides, of the sacred remains kept in Belgium among the Alexians under the name of St. Alexius were transmitted to me a few days ago. The Alexians of Louvain received them from Lord Jacob Simon, of the chamber of orphans at Brussels,

of the register-office; who had received them from the ladies of the Beguinage of Aalst, the names of themselves being appended in the original exemplar: M. I. V. Meersche, Catharina de Schuutere. The most Illustrious Humbert William de Precipiano, archbishop of Mechelen, approved them on the XXVI of August 1705: and they consist of a particle from the bones of St. Alexius, which nearly equals the topmost joint of the common little finger. Moreover the Alexians of Louvain keep a copy of the authentic instrument, and are ready to exhibit it, who subscribe with their own hand the testimony concerning the delivery of that sacred pledge sent hither: P. Neefs, father of the Alexians and provincial, Augustine de Bleeckere, Alexander Geeraers. Relics from the bones, at the request of P. Brother Thomas of Spoleto, and P. Diego Duwainge, of the stricter observance Order of St. Francis, the Alexians of Maastricht also possess, given by the most Eminent and most Reverend Lord Fabrizio Paolucci, cardinal-presbyter of the Holy Roman Church of the title of Sts. John and Paul, by the mandate of our Holy Lord Pope Clement XI, on the VIII of December in the year 1711. The original letters of delivery the said Alexians of Maastricht keep, and are ready to exhibit, the testimony sent hither on that matter being subscribed: H. Kerckhoofs, father of the cellites, Johannes Raets, Andreas Gillissen. The Alexians of Sint-Truiden received as a gift from the most Illustrious Lord Lambert le Drou, bishop of Porphyra, a fragment from the bones of the oft-mentioned Saint, given at Rome on the XXIX of February 1708. The authentic instrument they keep, and are ready to exhibit: Cornelius Meermans, father of the Alexians, Dominicus Compeers, Ernestus vander Sminen, subscribed to the testimony concerning the delivery sent hither, as above.

§ III. The church and monastery of Sts. Boniface and Alexius at Rome; the ancient and modern state of the bodies; sacred buildings erected elsewhere in honor of St. Alexius; the confraternity at Avignon.

Pope Benedict VII, having succeeded in the year 974 to Boniface VII, the invader of the Roman See, and the perfidious deserter to Constantinople with many treasures carried off, Various things are heaped together, at the beginning of his Pontificate handed over this church to be cultivated by Sergius, metropolitan of Damascus, driven out by the Saracens, and received at Rome, which Sergius converted into a monastery under the rule of St. Benedict; and there, four years being completed, he rested with a holy end, as may be seen in Baronius at the year 972, no. 1. The deed is proved from his epitaph, related there. Peter Damian in epistle 9 to Pope Nicholas II, toward the end, has these things to our purpose: "Sergius came to Rome a pilgrim, and finding the basilica of the Blessed Boniface and Alexius almost destitute of priestly offices, went to Benedict; and obtained by prayers that he should permit him to institute a monastic rule there." Now the praised monastery lies on the Aventine hill; whose site Floravante Martinelli describes, page 10, adding that the memory of the divine Alexius is most celebrated there. If we believe Giovanni Severano in the Monuments of the seven churches of Rome, from page 368; in that place there was once the temple of Hercules Victorious, and a little before there was that temple of Juno the queen, and the armilustrium; concerning which last place our Alessandro Donati in the Rome ancient and recent, book 3, page 252. The same Severano, page 369, treats of the building of that church, once accomplished by Aglae (Baronius names her Aglais, at the year 305, no. 13), Boniface being translated hither from a certain cemetery of the Latin Way. Thus he; asserting besides that the name of St. Alexius was given to that church not only because it possesses his sacred body, but also because there was there his neighboring house, changed into the monastery which is seen to this day: of which matter what proof would you expect besides popular opinion? Page 370, from Baronius and Peter Damian he commends the place for the singular religion with which the emperor Otto III pursued it; and to be treated by us among the miracles. The aforecited Floravante Martinelli in the Rome Sacred, from page 27, reckons a well there celebrated and held in religion, and restored to obsolete veneration by the cardinal-titular of Balneum; the cause of the religious drinking among the faithful being added, which is sought from the history, to be narrated below among the miracles, nos. 7 and 8.

[20] That to the praised church is annexed a cardinalitial title named by the name of St. Alexius, things which pertain to the church and monastery of Sts. Boniface and Alexius, we learn from Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza's Roman Hemerology at the XVII of July, page 50, the body of the Saint resting in the principal altar, with plenary indulgences; and the governors of the City, for the sake of veneration, religiously offering (after the Roman manner) a chalice with paten of silver of thirty scudi, and four torches. Of this same church it was already treated on the XIV of May, page 280, no. 4, on the occasion of St. Boniface, resting there; nor did the monastery then slip out at the same time, named by the name of both Saints; and inhabited by St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, for five years at the end of the tenth century; of whose return to it Baronius treats at the year 990, no. 4: "For that place in the City was plainly a colony of Saints, where those who in these times flourished celebrated for sanctity dwelt. To pass over eight abbots distinguished for sanctity, four Greeks and as many Latins, in the same place, inhabited partly by Basilian monks, partly by Benedictines, each living by his own institute; concerning whom the same author from a contemporary writer, and inspector of the things which were done there." On the day just cited by us, no. 5, you have among the twenty privileged Roman abbeys enumerated by Onofrio Panvinio On the VII churches of the City, page 142, that this fourth is St. Alexius', where is his body, and St. Boniface the martyr's. What was said there by us, that afterward the Benedictines alone seem to have obtained the place until the beginning of the fifteenth century, (Panciroli confessing, page 646, that he does not find how long they remained there, unless it were about the year 1400) needs correction: for Jean le Paige in the Premonstratensian Library, book 3, page 656, produces a charter of Pope Gregory IX, by which he conferred and delivered the monastery of St. Alexius of the City to the Premonstratensian church; where among other things are these: "Attending therefore to the not slight decline of the monastery of St. Alexius of the City, of the special right of the Apostolic See, set in the place which is called Mount Aventine, and desiring that it, in spiritual and temporal things, as it needs, be reformed for the better … the monastery itself with all its churches, possessions, rights, and appurtenances … we have thought fit to grant to you (he addresses the Abbot and convent of Premonstratensians) and to your successors … Given at the Lateran, the VIII Kalends of February, in the fourth year of our Pontificate (of Christ 1230)." The praised author reckons it among the monasteries of the Roman or Tuscan and Calabrian circary, book 1, page 343. How by postliminy Lupo Olmeto, who died there in the year 1433, obtained it from the Supreme Pontiffs for his monks of the Order of St. Jerome living according to the rule of St. Augustine, you will find at the same day, the XIV of May, page 280, no. 5; where also authors are cited about this Order introduced there; which now inhabits the place. May also be seen Agostino Lubin in the Notice of the abbeys of Italy, page 328; and Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, tome 4, in various places.

[21] and to the ancient and present state of the bodies. Now let us inspect the ancient and modern state of the bodies of Sts. Boniface and Alexius. Rinaldi mentions their finding in the index of his first tome, marking the year 1217, no. 17; but perusing the text, I could find nothing in it. Our Pietro Benedetti, to be praised elsewhere at more length, most recently directed to us the following note, affirming that in a codex of our professed house at Rome, containing the Acts of St. Alexius, these things are written: "The same body of St. Alexius the confessor was afterward placed by Honorius III, in the first year of his pontificate (he began to sit in the year of Christ 1216), together with the body of St. Boniface, under the high altar of the same temple of St. Boniface. Lastly, by the order of the Supreme Pontiff Clement VIII, the most Illustrious and most Reverend Ottavio Paravicini, Cardinal of St. Alexius, placed it, with solemn rite, under the same altar more magnificently constructed, in the year from the birth of Christ 1595, on the XVI day of the month of July." In Aringhi, tome 2 of Rome Subterranean, page 18, no. 7, I do not find the year expressed; Panciroli, Region 9, church eight, page 647, marks the year 1603. The copy of Benedetti continues: "And thence, power being given him by the same our Holy Father Clement to take out some of the relics, he gave some particles also to the Roman college of the Society of Jesus: that is, from the bone of St. Boniface the martyr, but from St. Alexius a tooth and a bone, in the same year 1595, on the X of September: as appears from the instrument of donation of the same most Illustrious Cardinal, which is kept in the same college." To this year I judge should be reduced what is had about the said finding from the praised Panciroli in the preliminary commentary to the Life of St. Boniface the martyr on the XIV of May, page 280: for many particulars already mentioned persuade this epoch to be preferred to the other. Henschenius, having gone to Rome in the service of our Work together with Papebroch in the year 1660, confesses, in the place cited above, that he venerated those bodies in the year 1661, on the XXVI of July: and as regards their modern state, from him too it is permitted to learn that they are decently laid up in marble arks under the altar; the heads being removed, which (he says) enclosed in silver herms we beheld in a singular chapel at the left side of the temple, upon an altar, among other reliquaries beautifully arranged, through the crystal windows by which it was closed.

[22] The public veneration of St. Alexius did not stand within the limits of one Roman church, [St. Meinwerk, solicitous to found a monastery in honor of St. Alexius, builds and consecrates a chapel to him at Paderborn;] but flowed forth to several other sacred buildings founded in his honor. Among which by antiquity and religion the chief place claims for itself that which St. Meinwerk, bishop of Paderborn in the eleventh century, built among his own; who, as his Life relates, tome 1 of June, page 538, venerated St. Alexius with great devotion. There too, page 520, no. 25, when he dwelt at Rome with St. Henry the emperor in the year 1014, this deed is narrated of him: "But when the Bishop (Meinwerk), having stayed there (at Rome) some while with the King (Henry), was sad about the plague of most grievous mortality, which most cruelly ravaged the army; there came to him a certain one of the Romans, counseling him that, for the safety of his men, he should vow that he would make some veneration to St. Alexius in his own land. He at once, his hands and eyes raised to heaven, sincerely vowed that he would make a monastery befitting the honor and love of him, if by his prayers he should obtain from God the safety of his men: and he truly proved himself heard by God through his merits, by the recovery and preservation of the safety of all his beasts and men." St. Meinwerk paid the pledge of his vow:

which is thus narrated, page 537, no. 76: "But the Bishop, remembering his vow which he had vowed to St. Alexius at Rome, disposed to build a monastery with a congregation in his honor, in the place which is called Sulithe: but fearing the uncertainty of human mutability, meanwhile he caused a chapel of conspicuous work to be built for him at the entrance of the city (of Paderborn), next to the new monastery; and consecrating it on the XIII Kal. February, he deputed it to the provision of the same monastery: and in commemoration of Blessed Alexius he endowed and marked it with such a right of mercy, that whoever, convicted by forensic law, and adjudged to the sentence of condemnation, [which, burned in the eleventh century, and afterward repaired, gave occasion to the miracle which is here narrated,] had touched the chapel, should not be liable to the adjudged penalty."

[23] The same chapel was consumed by fire in the year 1058, together with Blessed Paternus, enclosed as a recluse near it; as you may see on the X of April, page 896. In the time of our Brower, as he himself testifies in the scholia to the Life of St. Meinwerk in the book entitled "Stars of illustrious and holy men, etc.," edited by him, page 107, this little shrine was thought to have perished. But in the year 1670 Henry VI, abbot of Abdinghof, began the structure of a new one, which in the year 1673, on the XVII of July, the most Serene prince Ferdinand von Fürstenberg, bishop of Paderborn, highest esteemer of our Work and of the good arts, dedicated and consecrated with solemn rite, a distinguished picture, splendidly adorned, being offered at the altar of the same Saint, and the privilege of asylum renewed, as is handed down in a singular little book, written about this solemnity, and edited at Paderborn, under the title "A Monument sacred to St. Alexius the confessor"; which the praised Henry, as vicar general in spirituals, approved. In the praised little book, paragraph 3, from a certain manuscript book, more than two hundred years old, as is premised, in the Abdinghof library under the letter A, no. 679, is narrated the following history, which on the occasion of the aforesaid little shrine will not unfittingly be here subjoined, some things being cut off for the sake of brevity: "In the monastery which, built of the Cluniac Order within the walls of the city of Paderborn, is entitled to the name of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, there was in ancient times a monk called Amo. He, being endowed with priestly honor, took care to adorn the holy office with holy morals, and celebrated the divine mysteries with the devotion which befitted a spiritual minister. But that he might, the more devoutly the more secretly, offer the uncontaminated sacrifice on the altar of a contrite heart; he was wont to frequent a certain chapel consecrated in honor of St. Alexius, and removed from the oratory, only the cemetery of the same place lying between, for the sake of saying Mass; whence he had need to tread the cemetery itself assiduously with reciprocal journey. But going to the sacred building, and returning thence, he extended the hand of devout prayer, without weariness of sameness, to the faithful departed … But it happened, while, the sacred mysteries being celebrated, he was returning, and, as he was wont, tirelessly paid the pledge of holy prayer to those to whom piety had made him a debtor, and, the prayer being completed, added in the conclusion, 'May they rest in peace,' he heard manifestly a crowd of a multitude answering him and saying, 'Amen, Amen.' Which when he heard, he wholly trembled, and, reckoning these to be the voices of the souls for whom he prayed, was amazed that they were so close to him visibly, and feared; and the use of the good custom, which hitherto he had devoutly kept, he thereafter pursued with the more fervent vigilance, the more he, glad at the novelty of so unusual a miracle, recognized that the homage of his devotion was acceptable to God, and welcome and fruitful to the souls of the faithful." And after a little, the error being corrected among certain authors who write Vamaneus for Amo, it is noted that his day of death occurs in the Mortilogium (or Necrology?) of Abdinghof on the eighth of the Ides of July, in an uncertain year.

[24] Other little shrines of the Saint. The cult of the Saint, amplified elsewhere in Germany through sacred places, took a greater increase with time; as is plain from the Work On the Affairs of Mainz, distributed into two tomes, and edited by the care of Georg Christian Joannis at Frankfurt-on-Main in the year 1722. In tome 1, book 1, section 4, page 83, is treated of the later temples of Mainz, and among the hospitals reckoned there, in the third place is put that which is St. Alexius'; the name given to it from a little shrine built adjoining; which was consecrated to the honor both of the same Saint and of other Saints in the year 1350, on the testimony of a tablet formerly affixed there next to the altar with this inscription: "In the year of the Lord 1350, on the Sunday on which is sung 'Misericordias Domini,' this chapel of St. Alexius conf. was consecrated. And there are added 40 days of indulgences." The beginnings and author of that hospital lie hidden; that it was restored by the most Eminent Elector Johann Philipp in the year 1665, the archiepiscopal shield set above the door of the little shrine indicates. In the description of the city of Venice, first edited in Italian in 14 books by Francesco Sansovino in the year 1581, page 11, mention is made of the ancient church of Sts. Alexius and Liberalis; then, the title being changed, called St. Marina's, on the occasion of the body of the same Saint translated thither in the year 1230. Add the little shrine dedicated to his name among the Theatine Fathers at Paris, on the testimony of the French Legendary mentioned above. It would be long to investigate other sacred buildings founded elsewhere in honor of the Saint; passing over which, let us proceed to the confraternity erected under his title at Avignon in Gaul.

[25] Our Paul de Barry, to the French Life of St. Alexius brought by him to light at Avignon in the year 1661, subjoins various incitements to promoting the cult of the Saint; The confraternity at Avignon. and relates that a sodality was instituted in his honor in the little shrine sacred to him, which is seen in the church of Jesus, by which he doubtless wished to indicate the Avignon church of our Society, noted among several others in the Avignon history edited in Italian in two tomes by Sebastiano Fantoni Castrucci, tome 1, page 62; where, the elegance of that church being indicated in passing, he says it was consecrated on the IX of May in the year 1655, and dedicated to the most holy name of Jesus. That we may return to the matter, Barry testifies that this sodality was enriched with plenary indulgences on the day on which one is adopted into it, and also on the feast of St. Alexius on the XVII of July, and at the hour of death; but he affirms that those which are not plenary are many. To these, page 105, he adds that the sodalists under the title of the Purification of the most blessed Virgin, to the number of a hundred, on the day on which they had themselves inscribed in that sodality, expiated by sacred confession and refreshed by the divine banquet, offered a silver heart to it, the name of each being expressed on a schedule, and the said heart being enclosed, in testification of their veneration and trust toward the Saint. It pleases here, by way of corollary, to add from the praised Barry, page 107, that St. Francis de Sales wished to inspire similar sentiments of piety into the nuns of the Order of the Visitation of the most holy Virgin founded by him, decreeing that on his feast they should approach the sacred communion; and that thence it happened that in several monasteries of those religious an oratory is erected on the same festive light of the Saint, and supplications instituted by them, that they may render him propitious to themselves, by a certain singular selected virtue, in which they exercise themselves through the octave which runs after it.

§ IV. The feast of the Saint among the Latins; the ecclesiastical Office; the proper Prayers; the Order of the Alexians or Cellites; a preliminary notion of the Greek canon composed in the Saint's honor.

Whether and how long before the twelfth century of Christ a solemn ecclesiastical feast of St. Alexius was instituted among the Latins, I confess I have hitherto found nothing whence I may here define anything. Certainly Bartolomeo Gavanti, thoroughly versed in matters of this kind, and no negligent scrutinizer of such things, [No memory of a feast instituted among the Latins before the 12th century; which the Dominicans afterward adopted.] in the Commentaries on the rubrics of the Roman Breviary, page 155, ingenuously confesses that the feast of Alexius was instituted about the year 1200, from a German Chronicle; and asserts that it is had in the Vatican Breviary, volume 4751; simple in a manuscript Breviary (whose age he does not determine) and of 1550, as today; that is, in his time, namely in the century just elapsed, somewhat advanced, in which he flourished. But indeed in the course of time religious Orders too perhaps, first in Italy, then elsewhere, wished this feast to be celebrated among their own with a peculiar rite in the canonical Hours, in the running thirteenth century, or the beginning of the fourteenth. For indeed that this was sanctioned in the Order of Preachers toward the beginning of the fourteenth century, we have from the New Thesaurus of Anecdotes cited above, no. 12, tome 4, where among the select acts of the general Chapters of the praised Order it is related that by the General Chapter celebrated in the year of the Lord 1305 at Genoa it was decreed that there be made a feast of three lessons of St. Alexius on the XVI Kalends of August, and that the master take care to provide for the Office.

[27] The ecclesiastical Office propagated, That this Office was once wont to be celebrated by the Romans with a semidouble rite of obligation; and that then, that rite being abrogated, it was extended to the universal Church, that it should be celebrated with a semidouble rite ad libitum, is plain from the rescript of Lord Pietro Paolo Bona, who, to the procurator general of our Society, inquiring by virtue of what decree the feast of St. Alexius was no longer to be celebrated at Rome of obligation, in the year 1678 thus answered, as is plain from the instrument found at Rome in the archive of the said procurator general; which, transcribed, P. Joseph de Reulx, historian of our Society at that time, sent hither, as is gathered from his letters given at Rome on the XXIII of July 1695; and which, rendered from the Italian, sounds thus: "When it had been petitioned to Pope Alexander VII of happy memory on the part of the Roman clergy, that, since at that time the Office of St. Alexius was of obligation for the same clergy, and simple in the whole Church, his Holiness would deign to extend the aforesaid semidouble rite of obligation to the whole universal Church; it pleased his Holiness to declare that the Office of St. Alexius should be henceforth, both at Rome and in the whole universal Church, semidouble ad libitum: as is plain to me from the registers of the sacred Congregation of Rites, which I wished to see; and thus, by virtue of the decree, the Office of the said Saint occurring on an impeded day, it cannot this year be transferred." If the new French Legendary had seen these things, he would not so confidently have pronounced these: "It was of a simple Office in the Roman Breviary before the pontificate of Urban VIII; but this Pope permitted it to be celebrated with a semidouble Office, yet not of obligation."

[28] and at last extended to the universal Church; Thus therefore the oft-mentioned Office received with time new increases of propagation, until at last in the year 1697 it was prescribed to be celebrated by all clerics, both regular and secular, extended through the whole Church, under a semidouble rite of obligation; as is clear from the decree of that year, issued on this matter by the sacred Congregation of Rites; which I here transcribe: "Of the City and the world. The Congregation of Sacred Rites, at the pious instances of the most Eminent and most Reverend Lord Cardinal Pamphili, judged that it could be granted, that the Office of St. Alexius, hitherto in the universal Church either under the rite

of a semidouble of obligation, or of a semidouble ad libitum, recited on the XVII of July, its feast, from the Apostolic concessions, be henceforth recited by both clergy, secular as well as regular, of both sexes, under the rite of a semidouble of obligation, if it shall seem good to our most Holy Lord. On the XXXI of August 1697. Therefore, a relation of the aforesaid being made by me the secretary to our most Holy Lord, his Holiness kindly assented, on the IV day of the month of September of the same year 1697."

[29] The ignorance of the higher decree, issued in the year 1678, an error committed somewhere in the Missals and Breviaries. induced a manifest error into the Missals and Breviaries; concerning which Reulx in the aforesaid letters writes these things: "Lord Moret was the cause of a domestic dissension truly great on the Saturday and Sunday on account of the feast of St. Alexius, which in the Missals and Breviaries he puts to be here of obligation: on the contrary our directory said that on the Sunday only its commemoration was to be made, and in past years had distinctly said that everywhere it is ad libitum. Whence on the Monday some said the Mass of St. Alexius, others of St. Symphorosa. No less divided among themselves were the secular priests on the Sunday … but on the Monday it was decided, and done in St. Peter's and the other basilicas, of St. Symphorosa, but on the Sunday only the commemoration of St. Alexius was made. To those inquiring why a commemoration was made, since feasts ad libitum falling on an impeded day are omitted; it was answered that there is a decree not old … this is the privilege of feasts ad libitum which before were simple, that in that case they do not lose their commemoration." And these things it has been permitted us to heap together concerning the ecclesiastical Office of the Saint, and its rite: to which it pleases to subjoin the proper prayers, diverse in place, time, and argument.

[30] The manuscript Breviary of Speyer of the year 1478 has thus: Certain prayers proper to the Saint are brought forward. "Grant, O Lord, that we may be cherished by the supplications of thy holy confessor Alexius, that we may be aided by his intercessions with thee, whose deposition we celebrate with yearly homage. Through, etc." A parchment manuscript Breviary of the monastery of St. Gregory, of the diocese of Basel, of the year 1500, has another prayer: "Be present, O Lord, to our supplications, and by the intercession of Blessed Alexius thy confessor kindly bestow on us perpetual mercy. Through." In the Osnabrück one, printed in 1516, another again occurs: "O God, lover of holy humility and devout poverty, whom Blessed Alexius pleased in his voluntary poverty; by his intervention make us, we beseech thee, humble and devout, that with devout minds and pious acts we may deserve to please thee." Add the Roman Breviary, which is ascribed by hand as edited in print in the year 1522, containing a prayer again far different: "O God, who didst grant to Blessed Alexius thy confessor, both to delude the world by a new art, and wondrously to triumph over the enemy of the human race; grant propitiously, that we may always be defended by his aids, whose saving examples we are taught. Through." This prayer is there followed by six proper lessons, comprising the common history of the Saint. There had preceded a book containing the prayers or collects of the Church, printed at Strasbourg by Johann Knobloch in the year 1518; in which, folio 24 verso, is placed a prayer agreeing with this last. But the Secret prayer has thus: "We beseech thee, almighty God, that, blessed Alexius thy confessor interceding, thou mayest receive our gifts, and grant us to be made fit to receive these. Through." The Postcommunion or last collect is added in these words: "Refreshed with heavenly banquets, we beseech thee, almighty God, that, blessed Alexius thy confessor interceding, we may keep, thou preserving, the saving mystery which we have received by thy bounty. Through." Whence it is plain that the Saint did not always and everywhere have the prayer from the common of a confessor not a pontiff, such as he now has.

[31] Various things are given on the occasion of St. Alexius. Of the lay brothers Alexians or Cellites, whom the Flemish call Cellebroeders, the people of Liège Nollards, the History of the monastic, religious, and military Orders treats most recently of all, edited in French in eight tomes at Paris in the year 1714 and following. The author of that Work, not expressly named in the title of the tomes, I read elsewhere was Hippolyte Helyot, of the third Order of St. Francis in France, commonly called Picpus, the first four tomes edited in the years 1714 and 1715, snatched from the living at Paris in the year 1716, on the V of January, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, twenty-six years being passed in the religious state. Now the praised author begins to treat of the Alexians in tome 3, part 3, chapter 54, page 401; from which chiefly I shall here contract a few things, being about besides to add a few from elsewhere. Their founder is unknown. Our Étienne Binet, in the Compendium of the Lives of the chief founders, illustrated with elegant figures, and edited in the French idiom at Antwerp in the year 1634, page 231, suggests a certain Tobias; but brings no author. Now they were called Alexians, because they took St. Alexius as their protector and patron; but in no way because they had Alexius the Roman as founder, as Moréri wrongly fables in his great Dictionary, at the word Cellites; concerning the etymology of which appellation the praised Helyot disputes. Nicolaus Crusenius in the Augustinian Monasticon, page 146, refers their beginnings to the year 1309, at the beginning professing a secular life, and living together, and bound by no vow. But Miraeus in the History of the origins of the Order of St. Augustine, printed in French, page 52, relates that they lived in chastity, and that with the approbation of Gregory XI, Boniface IX, Eugene IV, and other Pontiffs, the rule of St. Augustine being afterward adopted with the profession of the three substantial vows of the religious state; and that Sixtus IV approved this in the year 1462 at the instance of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant; and that their first chapter was held at Liège in the year 1464. But indeed Sixtus IV began to sit in the year 1471, and Charles the Bold succeeded Philip the Good, his father, who died at Bruges in 1467, as Miraeus himself notes in the Belgian Chronicle, page 383; how these cohere with the epoch of the foundation and its circumstances just fixed by him, I do not see: unless you will that Charles the Bold, at the time when he was still Count of Charolais, obtained that favor from Pius II, in the year 1462.

[32] The praised Crusenius asserts that Heinrich Suderman procured that they should be joined to the rule of St. Augustine, things which pertain to the Alexian brothers. and their institute confirmed by the Apostolic See. Our Filippo Bonanni in the Catalogue of the religious Orders, part 1, no. 58, affirms that Pius II decreed, in the first year of his pontificate, that they should pronounce the vows of religious, by a constitution given in the year 1459, on the III of January; and that therefore twelve of them at Antwerp emitted their vows before the Father Prior of the convent of Mechelen in the year 1461, as he says is noted in a Flemish little book printed in the year 1637, in which is the constitution of Sixtus IV, of the year 1472, by which the rule of St. Augustine is prescribed for them and also privileges granted, confirmed by Julius II and Urban VIII. It is singular, what I read in Antonio Sandero about the Alexians of Ghent, book 3 of Flanders Illustrated, page 141: "Formerly they were of the brothers of the common life; but in the year 1459, on the XIV of November, they assumed the milder rule of St. Francis; and Pope Pius approved the deed." I pass over what he adds about the first stone of their little shrine laid in the year 1480. In the same place you will find, from the archives of the bishopric of Tournai, that at the year 1461 the vicars general of William, bishop of Tournai, on the V of September, give statutes and a rule to the brothers and sisters called "of the Cell" in the towns of Ghent, Bruges, and Oudenaarde. Now concerning that Order, extended through Upper and Lower Germany, its functions proper to it by virtue of its institute, the superiors to whom those religious are subject, their dress, and, not to be longer, several other things pertaining to it, may be consulted the praised Helyot; who of the Ghent ones, page 104; of the Liège ones, page 405; and Gelenius cited above collected many things about the Alexians from page 534; but of the Cologne ones singly, page 535. To these the general History of Belgium, to be cited below, tome 1, page 185, puts the Alexians established at Antwerp in the year 1460. But now these things more than enough. There must now be premised a notion of the sacred canon mentioned above, before we bring it forward in the following paragraph.

[33] That there flourished in the East two Josephs, both holy, A notion is premised of the Greek Canon, composed in honor of the Saint, both monks and poets and contemporaries, it is not necessary here to repeat; of whom the one was Bishop of the Thessalonians, own brother of St. Theodore the Studite, of whom we treated recently in tome 3 of July, page 710; the other is called by the surname Hymnographer; whom we gave long ago in tome 1 of April, from page 266. Both again occur in tome 3 of March, page 731, on the occasion of St. Hilarion the younger, abbot of the monastery of Pelecete; in whose praise a canon or sacred song is composed, drawn out through nine odes according to the laws of acrostic verses; concerning whose economy, wont to be observed by the Greek hymnographers, the reader may there be more fully instructed; as also from the onomastic Dissertation prefixed to the Acoluthia of the Greek Office, tome two of June, page XIX; lest we here repeat again those things which are sufficiently explained there. Some acrostics inserted in the great printed Menæa add the names of the authors who composed them; others not so. And Joseph has this indeed as a solemn practice, that he composes the strophes of the last ode with the acrostic signs of the letters of his name ΙΩΣΗΦ; by which mark, not otherwise than by a certain seal, the canons which have that author can be distinguished and separated from those which were composed by others. But to which Joseph the composition of those canons ought to be attributed, is disputed; nor is it prompt enough for me to define the matter: nor does it much matter to discuss it at length: for whether songs of this kind, all and each, are the work of one and the same author, or partly of one, partly of the other; whether of the prelate of the Thessalonians, who flourished toward the beginning of the ninth century; or of the other, surnamed Hymnographer, who flourished toward the end of the same century, it matters little to the present purpose. May meanwhile be seen concerning them the Marian Piety of the Greeks of our Wangnereck in the prolegomena, no. 22, page 70; Lambeck in the Imperial Library of Vienna, book 5, page 274, where in the 310th manuscript codex, theological, Greek, parchment, very ancient and of the best, as he says, note, in Octavo, he testifies that there are contained forty-eight canons or songs of Joseph the Melodist, each of which has its own peculiar acrostic, marked with the name of Joseph, with which also every ninth ode is noted. Oudin in the Commentaries on ecclesiastical writings and writers, not long since edited, tome 2, column 26, affirms that the aforesaid Canons are believed to be of Joseph the younger. Consult besides the places of our Work cited above.

[34] and soon to be given. The praised canon therefore has an author of the ninth century; so that of the then solemn cult of St. Alexius among the Greeks it is sufficiently established, even by the very name of Alexius several times repeated there. Whence he deserves the censorial rod, the recent French Legendist, ineptly

and boldly babbling that in the ninth century of Christ the discourse was perhaps not yet heard even about the very name of St. Alexius. But indeed, since I judge that this canon is the most ancient monument of all those which still exist, whether in Greek or in Latin, about the Saint; to whose norm, that I may say it again, the whole common Alexian history ought to be tested; I thought I would do a thing worth while, if I produced this from the Greek: the Latin acrostic letters being substituted for the Greek ones of which it consists; as you will see done in the next paragraph. Meanwhile, concerning the terms occurring through the course, may be consulted the said Acoluthia of the Greek Office: where the word "Canon" is expressly treated, no. 19.

§ V. The canon composed in the Saint's honor in the ninth century, translated from the Greek; the common Alexian history.

The title which precedes in the Greek the oft-praised canon sounds thus in Latin: This canon, At matins, a canon, whose acrostic:

Σὲ τὸν Θεοῦ ἄνθρωπον αἰνέσω, Μάκαρ. The man of God, O Blessed one, I will sing thee in metre.

Ode 1, tone 2, like Ἐν βυθῷ κατέστρωσε ποτέ.

You had a most narrow way, you ran an irreproachable and holy life from youth, O wise Man: therefore enlarge the straits of my mind; that it may celebrate thee, O Blessed one, who inhabitest the breadth of paradise.

O Blessed one, having dwelt outside the flesh and the world, thou didst offer thyself wholly to God: esteeming the heavenly and stable riches above the fleeting; and thou hast obtained the city Sion, which endures unto the ages.

Thou didst dissolve, O most Blessed man, the sterility of the maternal womb, brought forth into light like Samuel; but, fear being conceived in the most chaste womb of thy heart, thou didst bring forth by faith the spirit of salvation and of the divine virtues. Marian.

The Son without beginning had thee, O Virgin, as the cause why he became like us; who found thee alone pure, O immaculate one, above all creation: whence with all generations we celebrate thee, and proclaim thee blessed.

Hence one passes to ode 3; for the second is taken from elsewhere: concerning which matter see the praised Acoluthia, page L at the end.

Ode 3, like Ἐξήνθησεν ἡ ἔρημος.

Thou didst not refuse, urged by love of chastity, to exchange the earthly bridal-chamber for the heavenly, and the delights of a bride for the sweetest condition of the angels.

Made an exile from thy homeland, thou didst leave the tumults of this life and the pride of riches, father Alexius, imitating the poverty of Christ.

O Man endowed with the greatest wisdom, by hardships and continence thou didst seek whence the good light of knowledge should come forth, which should render thy heart immune from perturbations. Marian.

O immaculate Mother of God; he who in heaven cannot be comprehended by the angels, is beheld on earth born of thee, from the chief points a perfect man, restoring the lost world.

Many things which here follow being passed over, let us proceed to ode 4, and at the same time pursue the series of the acrostic, begun, expressed characteristically in the odes alone.

Ode 4, like Ἐλήλυθας ἐκ παρ.

Thou didst drain, like Lazarus, want, reduced to mendicity: for the divine love pricked thy heart, burning with desire of the heavenly goods.

In the week, O Alexius, fed with food only once, thou didst wish to cultivate a life empty of cares and things, for the desire of the love which endures, O most Blessed one, and does not flow past.

Taking pains to make thy heart a temple of God, thou didst choose, O glorious Man, to reside always in the house of the Mother of God, and to contemplate the heavenly beauties. Marian.

Blessed Virgin, sate now my heart, which hungers and groans, with every kind of knowledge and divine compunction, I beseech thee, who didst suckle the giver of milk.

Ode 5, like Μεσίτης Θεοῦ.

Thou didst cultivate the ear of grain, truly bearing fruit a hundredfold, preserved for the immortal husbandman, ever watering thy soul with the sacred streams of thy tears.

Thou didst appear on earth, O Father, imitating a life free of flesh, admirable for thy excellent continence, and for the perseverance of prayer, through which thou didst acquire the riches of light.

Thou didst deliver to the flames of prayer, O wise Man, the blemishes of sin; watchful in praying, thou didst lull to sleep all pleasures: but after death thou didst migrate to the light which lacks evening. Marian.

He was, O chaste Virgin, who inhabits the light, the inhabitant of thy holy womb, restoring the world lost in the darkness of ignorance; whom do thou supplicate, that he may enlighten all who celebrate thee.

Ode 6, like Ἐν ἀβύσσῳ πταισμάτων.

Thee lying hidden, who wast made a true temple of God, O Virgin not having known nuptials, and a tabernacle of Christ, he manifests, and renders glorious, though thou wishest to lie hid.

Thy prayers, O Blessed man, were received by God like incense: whence in thy life thou didst direct the counsels of the faithful through the grace of the spirit.

Thee, deserving praises by holy conversation, Christ, O glorious Man, restores again to thy homeland, though thou wouldst not, and didst flee temporal honor. Marian.

O Lady free of stain, the creator of the universe, designating in thee something new beyond the laws of nature, is ineffably born of thee. May he make me a partaker of his deity through his immense mercy.

There follows a contakion, most briefly comprising the virtues of the Saint, but teaching nothing worthy of note: then his announcement is repeated with a synopsis of the Life, and other things about an earthquake, and Saints different from ours. After which is continued our canon's

Ode 7, like Ἀντίθεον πρόσταγμα.

Thou, known to none at all, O holy Man, didst persevere sitting at the gates of thy parents, with the facts of the Alexian history receiving the insults of the servants, gravely mocked by them, and laboring in great want.

Thou didst repress the pride of thy flesh, when thou beholdest thy parents, nor art recognized by them. Thou didst conceal the repugnance of nature, O holy Man, and the contempt of thy own, innumerable servants afflicting thee.

O Miracle! how, begging, thou didst remain always in the riches of immense abjection, Alexius! how didst thou suffer thyself to be mocked and affected with injuries by thy servants, O most wise Man, ignorant of the institute of thy life. Marian.

Lacking defilement, O Virgin, thou wast made minister of a great mystery: for thou gavest a body to God, who redeemed us from great evils, we extolling thee with praises, O chaste Virgin, blessed, most gracious to God.

Ode 8, like Κάμινος ποτέ.

Before, thou wast unknown to thy parents in the time of thy pilgrimage; thou didst reveal to them the secret, to the glory of our God, O glorious one, manifesting thyself; who deemed thee worthy of great glory.

The Lord made known with a great voice to all Rome the hidden treasure, O thrice Blessed one, lying in a beggar's garb; and enriching with gifts of healings all those who in faith approach thee.

God assenting, there came together the princes of the peoples, Emperors and priests, to pay thee, O Blessed one, the due rites; and they saw a great spectacle, struck by the miracles which thou didst work, O holy Man, by the divine power of the spirit. Marian.

The merciful God, O Virgin free of fault, assumed flesh from thy womb without corruption, restoring us corrupted by the ancient transgression; and destroyed the sins of corruption, O most blameless one.

Ode 9, like Ἀνάρχου γεννήτορος.

Thou didst deserve to behold the glory of God, O holy Man: it is established, and he at last rendered thee, O Blessed one, glorious: for those who had not looked upon the light, saw; and they cried out that they spoke, who before had been mute, O most celebrated Alexius.

Thou art beheld to fall asleep and to be borne to the tomb, like the sun, O Father, wondrously darting forth the flashes of healings, and putting to flight the darkness of the passions; burning the demons and enlightening the pious faithful.

To pay thee the due rites there came the eminent one of the Patriarchs, and the Emperor by far most loving of Christ, the princes, old men and young; and also the choirs of monks, by the nod of God, O Blessed one, consecrated by the touch of thy body.

Thou wast carried up on high, snatched by the impetus of the virtues: where thou didst refresh the orders of the Blessed, of Apostles, Martyrs, Patriarchs, and of all the just. With whom be mindful of us, who venerate thee, Alexius. Marian.

Full of joy we direct to thee the voice of Gabriel, saying: Hail, earth untouched by the hand of the husbandman: hail, expeller of the curse: hail, fountain of living water, glory of the Blessed, Mother of God ever virgin. And here is the end of the canon, immensely how discrepant from the common history of St. Alexius; and weaving it in a far more tolerable manner, whether you regard the things themselves which are narrated, or their circumstances, or the persons and places, as will be plain to the eye from what we shall subjoin a little later.

[36] I forbear to inquire whence the author of the common history received his narration, and whether he read it thus composed by some other one somewhere, or learned it from the relation of others; The Acts of the Saint, as they are commonly circulated, in need of criticism, or rather, having seen or heard the substance of the matters digested in a simpler and more sincere order, such as we observed done in the canon just praised, so amplified it out of his own brain; this is certain, that he neglected nothing by which, through protasis, epitasis, catastrophe, and marvelous events, he might wondrously bend and move the minds of readers, snatched into admiration; seeming rather to exhibit a pious drama, scenically adorned, than a true history. But I would prefer, bringing forth the judgments of others, to speak with another's mouth than my own. Not to bring forward the recent critical authors, to whom the Acts of the Saint greatly displease, let Cardinal Baronius stand for all, who in the Notations on the Roman Martyrology warns that in some things they are to be corrected. Thus he, moderately enough and modestly: whom I cannot sufficiently wonder at, for not having corrected some of those things, and for having inserted them neither wholly nor in part into his Annals; whereas nevertheless at the year of Christ 31, no. 61, he cites them in the margin for the famous Edessene image. Galesinius in the Notations deservedly carps at what is read in the Life about the image sent by Christ the Lord to Abgar, as to be reckoned among the apocryphal. Ferrari in the Saints of Italy on this day notes these things: "There is extant a Life of St. Alexius written in the vulgar tongue, and edited in print, in which many apocryphal and improbable things are contained." Another censure you will find at the end of the Usuardine Martyrology, published by Molanus, in the first edition of the year 1568.

[37] But these things do not prevent the Life from bringing forth wondrous fruits, especially in the minds of the simple and unlearned, but accommodated to eliciting pious motions, which perhaps the writer solely intended. Let it be an example what is related in the History of our Society, part 4, book 1, from no. 41; where we have that James Cerrutus, a most religious priest of the same Society, drew his first light from the reading of that Life, so as to apply his mind to that institute; and esteemed his vocation so highly, that, using wondrous progresses in the offering of his vows, he at last brought the number to such a point that he renewed them three thousand times daily. Wondrous motions too from that reading felt Blessed Maurice the Hungarian, of the Order of Preachers. The deed is narrated on the XX of March, page 253, no. 3: "He begged him (a certain brother of the same Order) to recite to him something edifying from the Lives of the Fathers or Brothers. He, seeing indeed the devotion of the boy, recited the Life of St. Alexius the confessor, which he had never heard. And while that brother thus recited it in order, and he himself devoutly attended, the boy Maurice himself began so to weep, that in no way could he restrain himself from tears. Whence from that hour he conceived"

in his heart an entrance to religion; as afterward he himself confessed with his own mouth."

[38] But let us recall the Saint's Life, such as it is, to the balance. Of the names of the parents we already began to speak in no. 7: in some things they are corrected, although, as Papebroch rightly observes in the Responses cited above, it would be no more a wonder that there were then some Greek families in the Roman senate, than that there were Latin ones at Constantinople, brought over by the very founder of the city, Constantine, with part of the senate from old Rome to the new. In the same Life, no. 3, concerning the Saint's flight and the boarding of the ship, some difficulties offer themselves, which see weighed in the praised Responses, no. 70. Of the Edessene image of the Savior not made by hand, it was said in passing; it can be treated among the passed-over ones on the XVI of August, on which it is venerated by the Greeks. In no. 7 the author badly combines the matter, asserting that the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, the Saint's death being announced from heaven, who at the same time ruled the Roman empire, together with the Pontiff Innocent, began to go into the house of Euphemianus, and diligently to inquire about the Man of God: for Innocent I, created Pontiff in the year, as we said, 402, in the time of both those Emperors, could indeed have Honorius present in the years of Christ 403 and 404; but Arcadius he never saw; who, namely, from the year 395 already possessed of the empire of the East, is known never afterward to have returned into the West, which he left to his brother Honorius. This the one who, in the monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome, made that Life and several others Greek from Latin, noticed: for he indeed said the matter was done in the times of both Emperors; but he speaks only of a single Emperor, who heard the voice, and put his shoulders under the sacred bier: nor did he wish to name him; as Papebroch rightly observes, no. 67.

[39] and to the related Most basely of all here trifles our Greek biographer (why we do not here edit him, we give the reason below), so ignorant of matters and times, that he brings to the Saint's funeral a Roman Pontiff merely invented, and feigned out of his own or certainly out of the brain of a fabulist of the same wit: but of this I shall soon engage him. How much better St. Joseph, the composer of the above canon, when in the ninth ode, among the other persons whom he records to have come together to the Saint's funeral, he puts simply "Emperors"; by which name may conveniently be understood the Emperor Honorius and Maria, daughter of Stilicho and Serena, whom he married in the year of Christ 398; unless you prefer that Honorius alone is designated, the plural number being expressed for the singular. Certainly in ode 9 only a single Emperor is narrated to have come to pay him the due rites. This rock, on which, on the occasion of the two Emperors who are said to have come together to the Saint's funeral, one strikes, Felici on this day doubtless saw and wished to avoid, relating that he was recognized in death under Innocent I and the Emperor Honorius, the name of Arcadius being suppressed; as Ferrari also did. It pleases meanwhile now to weave a recapitulation from the historical points contained in that above canon; by whose aid it can be understood how far the history of St. Alexius, as it is commonly handled, can be tolerated, the scenic trappings being cut away, of which it largely consists.

[40] are tested by the canon of St. Joseph. He was born of a sterile mother, as is gathered from the first ode; he scorned the nuptial bridal-chamber and deserted his bride, an exile fleeing from his homeland, and bore narrow poverty, ode 3. He resided in the sacred building of the Mother of God, ode 4. Which manifested him, wishing to lie hidden, ode 6; then he returned to his homeland, in the same place. He lay hid in the house of his parents unknown, and was miserably vexed by the servants, ode 7. He manifested himself to his parents, ode 8; where also the deed is ascribed to Rome. Of the Saint's miracles it is treated in ode 9, as also of the Emperor and the Pontiff, their names not being expressed. But of the three thousand slave-boys or servants, serving his father; of the departure from his own and the return to them with circumstances so marvelous reckoned in the common Life; of the various apparitions at Edessa; of the voice several times repeated and heard at Rome; of the seventeen years spent outside the homeland, and as many with his own in his father's house; of the letter and its circumstances, again plainly marvelous, it records nothing. Nor yet can it thence be certainly concluded that all those things are false: for it could be that he wished only to narrate the history thus, expressing some things expressly and singly, leaving some to be understood; just as elsewhere we noted happened concerning the miracles of St. Hilarion the abbot, in the canon composed in his praise by St. Joseph (the same or a different one?), related almost only in general terms, as you have in tome 3 of March, page 733.

§ VI. A notice of the Lives; the Greek one passed over; which are here given.

A huge number of manuscript Lives offers itself. We have one from the manuscript of St. Saviour at Utrecht, Of the manuscript Lives, which is noted to exist also in the monastery of Anchin; another too is indicated to be had in a Prague manuscript, lacking beginning and end; to say nothing of our Vallicellian or Moretian codex of larger format, whose exordium is noted to agree almost verbatim with the Utrecht one. There is added the Saint-Bertin manuscript, collated with the Saint-Maximin of Trier and the Bonfontaine, also containing the Life of the Saint, which same is observed to exist in the manuscript of Monte Oliveto. At hand are two other codices written by hand, which we keep, treating the same argument; of which one, as far as the characters seem to indicate, could have been written about the eleventh or twelfth century; and begins the Life with these words: "In the times of the Lord Honorius and Arcadius, there was a man of God, by name Euphemianus, well trusting": with which for the most part word for word most perfectly agrees that which the praised Vallicellian codex exhibits. The other of the two said codices was given in the year of Christ 1648 to our Henschenius by Jerome de Gaule, chancellor of Guelders; concerning whom the general History of Belgium, reprinted in French in four tomes at Brussels in the year 1720, tome 1. Moreover that codex is of so good a note and so great antiquity, that the said Henschenius, in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Erasmus, bishop and martyr, on the 2nd of June, page 211, says it was written perhaps nine hundred, or at least eight hundred, years ago: for although he does not there name that codex expressly, I think nevertheless that among several other manuscripts, in which he affirms the Acts of the aforesaid Saint to be contained, he wished to designate this Gaulian one; as being written in most ancient letters, and containing the Acts of St. Erasmus, bishop and martyr. Now that Life agrees almost word for word with that which was edited at Rome in the types of Francesco Corbelletti in the year 1636.

[41] This one is noted as taken from an old manuscript of the venerable monastery of Sts. Boniface and Alexius of the City, and a series of the printed ones is enumerated. of the monks of St. Jerome, of the Congregation of Lombardy, and is dedicated by the Prior and monks to Francesco Cardinal Barberini, Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church; who is said to have recalled it to the memory of men by a dramatic poem, with harmonious concert, with most splendid apparatus. See the index of the Barberini Library, edited in print at Rome in the year 1681. Now that Life the Reverend Father Alexander Gottifredi had sent to Bolland in the year 1649, on the XIII of September, elected in the year 1652, on the XXI of January, in the IX General Congregation the tenth Praepositus General of the Society of Jesus, and in the same year, on the XII of March, prematurely snatched from the living. The text of the Life is short enough, and is marked by no indication either of author or of age; concerning whose age, however, Papebroch in the Responses freely enough establishes these things: "The Life of St. Alexius was either not written anciently at all, or perished: whence only that is found which the monks, keepers of the sacred body at Rome, wrote from tradition, perhaps in the eighth or ninth century; as we have it from their manuscript, printed at Rome in the year 1636." There is no need to warn that to it is subjoined a Life written in elegiac verse, ungraceful and in several places faulty, which the praised Gottifredi directed to us on the XIX of March 1650. Lives are met everywhere in Peter de Natalibus, Mombritius, Vincent of Beauvais in the Mirror, book 18, chapter 43 and following, Lipomano and Surius. This universally can be pronounced of all, both manuscript and printed, which I indeed have seen (and I have seen very many), that everywhere in substance the same history is related; which savors of one and the same source, the wit of the writer, the order of matters, and the symmetry of the parts. The same judge concerning the metrical manuscript Life, of which I now subjoin a few things, to be given in the second place after the Latin one.

[43] Observations on the metrical Life, We therefore here edit it, not because it suggests new notices about St. Alexius, but because hitherto, so far as we know, it has not been published. In tome 1 of February, page 482, no. 8, it was treated of a certain parchment anonymous manuscript codex of ours; which nevertheless we there then judged should be attributed to Marbod (otherwise Marbodaeus or Merbold), who from archdeacon of Angers was created bishop of Rennes in Armorica in the year of Christ 1096, in the Council of Tours, then held in the month of March in the third week of Lent, by Pope Urban II, praised by Sixtus of Siena, book 4 of the Holy Library. Several Lives of Saints proceeding from his illustrious pen we then promised we would give; where also we conjectured the poems on the Life of St. Alexius and on the penance of St. Theophilus to be of the same author; which last, on account of the gravity of the sentences and the weight of the words, we judged worthy of the public light, even in the concurrence of the Life of the same Saint, differing from the metrical only in prose style. But the poem on St. Alexius we promised to edit on this day. Since therefore we here publish two Lives, agreeing in argument, and diverse only in style, we have the example of our Elders which we follow, and a promise which we now fulfill. Meanwhile we said more about Marbod on the XIII of February, page 676, no. 3, in the Commentary on the Life of St. Licinius, bishop of Angers; which we have that it was written by him when he held the office of archdeacon of Angers, from the second Life, no. 24: at which time he could have composed the poem of which we here treat, and others. For indeed in tome 3 of April, page 316, no. 4, the praised author occurs on the occasion of St. Robert, abbot of Chaise-Dieu in Gaul, whose Life, first written by Gerald, he adorned, when he was still a deacon of the aforesaid place, and so before the year 1096.

[42] written in Leonine verses. But his little works, both edited and unedited, Antoine Beaugendre, a Benedictine monk of the Congregation of St. Maur, published in print in the year 1708; in whom I do not find the metrical Life of St. Alexius; whether he thought it to be of another author, or, which I would rather believe, did not find it, although, as he asserts in his premonition, he girded himself with what diligence he could to search everywhere for the works of Marbod, whether

edited or unedited works of Marbod he girded himself: concerning whom Oudin treats most recently of all, tome 2 from column 944, citing various others. Now the oft-mentioned poem consists of homoeoteleutic verses, or Leonine, as they call them, so called, as Du Cange will have it in the Latin Glossary, tome 2, from column 521, because they were invented by a certain poet Leo, who flourished about the times of Louis VII or Philip Augustus, kings of France, in the eleventh century. And let these things be said about the metrical Life; it remains that we subjoin some things about the Greek one here passed over by us.

[45] Leo Allatius in the Diatribe on the writings of the Symeons, page 125, relates the beginning of the Greek Life (of which we have a copy, The Greek one but judge it unworthy of the public light), attributing it to the Metaphrastic pen. And indeed if that, as in the exordium, so also in the course, wholly agrees with ours; from the idioms shining forth on both sides, anyone might not unfittingly judge it to be the offspring either of that author or certainly of a most similar wit of a historian, so much does the whole matter breathe the stage. Our exemplar of the Life was transcribed from a manuscript codex of the Vienna Library, theological, Greek, no. 88, below 153: which Lambeck in the Commentaries on the praised Library, book 4, page 138, where he mentions codex 153, also attributes to Metaphrastes. But what he says: "That Latin narration greatly differs from these Greek Acts, which Laurentius Surius … inserted on the XVII of July as taken from the Acts of the Saints of Symeon Metaphrastes," can be admitted; if he wishes this to be understood of an accidental difference only, otherwise if of a substantial one. He adds besides from the same codex the name of him who wrote it, and the place in which it was written, from a testimony, as he says, authentic, but the year not being expressed. Moreover the Life is entitled with this title: βίος τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἀλεξίου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τοῦ Θεοῦ. The Life of our holy Father Alexius, the man of God. But the author, from the very exordium, plays the orator, in the course the dialogist, everywhere the sacred actor: would that he were a historian of better note! But almost all the Alexian biographers have this same fault.

[46] I had already made Latin and prepared for the press the text of the same; Now translated into Latin and prepared for the press, why here passed over. but afterward, the matter being maturely weighed, I judged it more conducive not to recook the same cabbage, with an increase of our Work in no way necessary, and to the weariness of the reader; whom it interests not a whit to hear the same things twice in substance, and diverse only in dramatic trappings. Not to consume time in enumerating the several things which deservedly displease in it, the author goes to such a length of ineptitudes, that, since indeed no Roman Pontiff who occupied the chair of Peter at the time of the Saint manifested from heaven to the Romans was aptly enough at hand for him, he substituted an imaginary one, nowhere known even by name: for he says: τοῦ ἀρχιεπισκόπου Μαρκιανοῦ τὸν ἐκκλησιαστικὸν θρόνον τῶν Ῥωμαίων διέποντος: the archbishop Marcian governing the ecclesiastical throne of the City of the Romans, a voice heard from heaven: "Come to me all," etc. Among the Lives of the Saints selected from Metaphrastes, as the title prefixed to them indicates, and translated into the vulgar language of the Greeks by the monk Agapius, and edited in print, is given that which is of St. Alexius, from page 279, but of the same, if not worse, bran, as the preceding. Its exordium agrees neither with the Allatian nor even with the one just produced. It labors too with the grossest fault of ignorance, that it connects the Saint's death with the times of the Emperor Honorius, and of the archbishop Marian (he meant to write Marcian), as some write; but others, of Innocent. This, namely, is the lot of those who merely transcribe another's things, that, adopting whatever is at hand, they most basely strike into the same errors, and do not fear to sell as true and real the comments which were born in the brain of others, blind followers of blind leaders.

[47] And these indeed are the things which could be scraped together for illustrating the Latin Acts of St. Alexius; Which things, and with what fidelity, are given by us. not sufficiently on all sides approved by all, nor sufficiently accommodated to the merits of a great and memorable Saint, nor sufficiently propped by certain faith in all things; but, the contemporary authors being silent about him, and the others who followed him in the nearest centuries; what wonder? if posterity, so liberal in adorning his affairs, find little faith in some, if not the chief, deeds of the whole history, among critics of a fine nose, who would wish to see established by older and more certain documents the things which are so speciously circulated in it. I do not interpose myself as arbiter of the more rigid criticism of others, having defended the Acts of the Saint as I ought, as far as it was permitted to defend them from the canon of St. Joseph praised above; for others, whether additions, or at least not found in it, I dare not put myself as surety or sponsor. Moreover there remain certain gleanings, which will be given after the metrical Life praised above; then will follow the Life translated from Arabic into Latin, hitherto unedited; and, since it differs utterly in several things from the common Acts, elucidated by a new Commentary. There has seemed fit to be subjoined to the press, of the Latin exemplars, that especially which is found in the Gaulian codex, both on account of the brevity of the argument, and on account of the antiquity of the praised codex, reckoning the whole series of the history in these words, yet collated with other exemplars here. What is here enclosed in brackets [] we have supplied from elsewhere.

LIFE

WRITTEN BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

From our most ancient parchment manuscript codex of Jerome de Gaule, Chancellor of Guelders, collated with others.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

BHL Number: 0286

FROM ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS.

There was at Rome a great and noble man, Euphemianus by name, exceedingly rich, St. Alexius is divinely obtained by his parents through almsgiving and prayers; and first in the palace of the Emperor ^a. And he had three thousand slave-boys, who were girt with golden belts, and clad in silken garments. For he was just and merciful, distributing many alms to the poor. Three tables were prepared each day in his house, for orphans, widows, strangers, and travelers. But he himself ate at the ninth hour with religious men. But his wife, Aglaes ^b by name, was religious, and fearing God: and there was no son to them, because she was barren. Whence they were sorrowful and sad, that of such great substances and households they had no heir. And therefore they daily bestowed immense alms, and, insisting also on prayers and supplications, besought the Lord to give them a son, who should succeed them.

[2] Whose contrition God, according to his goodness, beholding, remembering their works, afterward he is instructed in the teachings and given to a bride; heard them, and granted them a son ^c. Who, rejoicing exceedingly, gave thanks to God, and resolved that henceforth they would lead the remaining time of their life chaste and holy, that God might rejoice over them, and over the son whom he had given them, and that they would no more come together with one another, but persevere in chastity. But when the boy had reached the age suitable for discipline, they handed him over to the masters of the ecclesiastical Sacraments and of the liberal disciplines, and, God bestowing, he was so taught, that he flourished in all the studies of philosophy, and especially the spiritual ones. But when he had come to the time of adolescence, and they had judged him fit for the nuptial fillets, they chose for him a girl of the imperial race, and adorned the bridal-chamber, and single crowns ^d were placed upon them in the temple of St. Boniface the martyr by the hands of most honored priests, and thus with joy and gladness they led a glad day. But evening being come, Euphemianus said to his son: "Enter, son, into the chamber, and visit your bride." But when he entered, the most noble youth, and most wise in Christ, began to instruct his bride, and to discourse to her of many mysteries; then he handed over to her his golden ring, and the renda ^e, that is, the end of the belt with which he was girt, wrapped in a linen ^f and purple cloth, and said to her: "Receive these, and keep them until it shall please the Lord: and the Lord be between us."

[3] After these things he took of his substance, and departed to the sea ^g: and coming to the sea, and boarding ^h a ship, which he soon deserts, seeking Edessa: where he lives most poorly, and lies hid, God prospering him, he came to Laodicea, and thence, taking his journey, went to Edessa, a city of Syria ⁱ, where the image of our Lord Jesus Christ was kept on a cloth without human work; coming whither, he distributed to the poor all that he had brought with him, and, putting on the meanest garments, began to sit with the other poor at the atrium of the holy Mother of God Mary. He also received the holy mysteries of God every Sunday, and of the alms which were given him, he reserved as much as should suffice him, but the rest he distributed to the poor. After his departure, a great inquiry was made at Rome, and not finding him, his father sent his slave-boys ^k to seek him through all parts of the world. Some of whom, when they had come to Edessa, saw him sitting among the other poor: and giving [him] alms, departed, because they did not recognize him. But the man of God himself, recognizing them, glorified God, saying: "I give thee thanks, O Lord, who hast called me, and made that for thy name's sake I should receive alms from my servants; I pray that thou deign to perfect in me the work which thou hast begun." But the slave-boys, returning, announced that they had not found him.

[4] His mother also, from the day on which her son departed, with the highest grief of his own: but manifested by a heavenly voice, spreading sackcloth on the pavement of her chamber, and sitting upon it, wailing and lamenting, said: "The Lord lives, for thus I will remain, until I know what has become of my son." But his bride said to her mother-in-law: "I will not go out from your house, but I will make myself like the turtledove, which is in no way joined to another, when its mate has been taken; so will I also do, until I know what has become of my sweetest spouse." For that man of God remained in the same atrium of which it was spoken, in holy conversation, and austerity of life, for seventeen years, unknown. But afterward God, wishing to reveal his cause, the image which was there in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary, said to the sacristan of the church: "Make the man of God enter, for he is worthy of the kingdom of heaven, and the spirit of God rests upon him; for his prayer too ascends like incense in the sight of God": and the sacristan, going out, sought him, and did not recognize him: and returning within, began to pray to the clemency of almighty God, that he would show him to him. Again the image itself said:

He who sits outside in the doorway, he is the one.

[5] [He is found by the sacristan of the church: whence, fleeing, he is carried by force of a storm to Rome.] Then the sacristan, going out in haste, recognized him, and, falling at his feet, begged him to enter the church; which being done, when it became known to all, and the same man of God began to be venerated by men, fleeing human glory, he secretly went out from the city of Edessa, and came to Laodicea, and there, boarding a ship, wished to go to Tarsus of Cilicia, that in the temple of St. Paul, which is there, he might remain unknown. But God so disposing, the ship was seized by the wind, and led to the Roman port. But when the man of God himself perceived that he had come thither, he said in his heart: "The Lord lives, for I will be burdensome to no one, nor will I go elsewhere, except into the house of my father, because there I shall not be recognized": and going out he came, and met his father returning from the palace, surrounded by a multitude of attendants; and began to cry out, saying: "Servant of God, look upon me, and do mercy with me; for I am poor and a stranger, and order me to be received into your house, that God may bless your years, and may have mercy on him whom you have abroad."

[6] He dwells unknown in his father's house amid very many injuries. But his father, hearing these things, was reminded of his son, and, compunct, ordered him to come to him, and said to his slave-boys: "Which of you will take care of this man? The Lord lives; for I will make him free, and he shall receive an inheritance from my house." And a servant being appointed for him, he ordered him to be received, and a pallet to be made for him in the atrium of his house, that going in and out he might see him, commanding that he be fed from his table. But being received, he persevered in the austerity of his life, in continual prayers, indefatigable in fastings and vigils. The slave-boys too began to deride him, and poured the water with which they washed the dishes upon his head, and inflicted many injuries; all which the man of God gladly bore for the love of the Lord; for he knew that the ancient enemy of the human race prepared these snares for him: and thus he lived in his father's house unknown another seventeen years. But when he had known the time of his life to be completed for him, he asked from the servant appointed to him a sheet of paper and an inkhorn, and wrote in order his whole life, how he had spurned nuptials, and how he had conversed in his pilgrimage, and how against his will he had returned to Rome, and in his father's house had borne many reproaches.

[7] Which being done, God wishing to manifest his combat and victory, By a heavenly warning he is thrice indicated, on the Lord's day after the solemnities of the Masses were completed, a voice sounded from heaven in the sanctuary, saying: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." Which voice being heard, terrified with exceeding fear, all fell on their faces, crying: "Kyrie eleison." Again a second time a voice was made, saying: "Seek the man of God, that he may pray for Rome; for as the day of the Preparation dawned he rendered his spirit to God." And then, going out, they sought him, and not finding him, they were all gathered ^l on the day of the Preparation at the church, imploring the clemency of God, that he would show them where the man of God was. Then a voice was made to them, saying: "Seek in the house of Euphemianus." And turning to Euphemianus they said: "In your house you had such a grace, and did not show it to us." He too said: "The Lord lives, I know not." And at once he called the steward of his house, and said to him: "Do you know anyone in my house having such a grace?" But he answered that he knew not. Then the Emperors Arcadius ^m and Honorius, who at the same time ruled the Roman empire, together with the Pontiff Innocent, began to go into the house of Euphemianus, and diligently to inquire about the man of God.

[8] But Euphemianus went before with his slave-boys, and is found by his father already dead, to arrange the seats, and to go out with lamps, and with incense too, and censers, to meet the Emperors and the Pontiff. And when they had come thither, a great silence was made. But the servant of the man of God went to his lord, and said to him: "See, lord, whether perhaps it be he whom you assigned to me; for I have seen him working great and praiseworthy things; for every Sunday he received the holy gifts of God, and tortured himself with fastings; and the many injuries and molestations inflicted by your servants he gladly received and bore." But Euphemianus, hearing these things, ran in haste to him; and found him already dead, and coming he uncovered his face, and saw his countenance like a shining lamp, or like the face of an angel of God: and he had in his hand a short writing, and he wished to take it from him, and could not. At which, stupefied and struck with fear, quickly returning to the Emperors, he said: "Him whom we sought, we have found"; and he narrated to them the things which had been recited to him about him by the servant, and how he had found him dead, and holding a sheet in his hand, and that he could not take it from him.

[9] Then the Emperors and the Pontiff with Euphemianus proceeded to the place, as also by the Emperors and the Roman Pontiff: the father lamenting, where he lay, and stood before the pallet, and said: "Although we are sinners, yet we bear the helm of the kingdom; and this Pontiff is the universal father; give us the writing, that we may know what is written in it." And the Pontiff, drawing near, took the writing from his hand, and gave it to the notary of the holy Roman Church, by name Ethio ⁿ, that he might read it; and, a great silence being made, it was read before all. But Euphemianus his father, when he heard the words of the writing, made lifeless, fell to the ground, and rising, tore his garments, and began to pluck out the gray hairs of his head, to pull his beard, and to tear himself: and, falling upon the very body, he cried: "Woe is me, O Lord [God] my God, why hast thou done thus to me, and why hast thou so saddened my soul, and through so many years struck me with sighs and groans? For I hoped some time to hear thy voice, and to have knowledge of thee, wherever thou wast, and now I see thee, the guardian of my old age, lying on a pallet, and not speaking to me. Woe is me! what consolation shall I put in my heart?"

[10] But his mother, hearing these things, like a lioness bursting a net, and by the mother and the bride. thus, her garments torn, going out, her hair loosed, raised her eyes to heaven, and, when on account of the exceeding multitude she could not approach the holy body, cried: "Give me, men of God, access, that I may see the consolation of my soul, that I may see my son, who sucked my breasts." And when she had come to the body, leaning upon it, she cried: "Woe is me! son, light of my eyes, why hast thou done thus to us? Thou didst see thy father and me weeping miserably, and didst not show thyself to us; thy servants did injury to thee, and thou didst bear it." And again and again she prostrated herself upon the body, and now spread her arms over it, now handled the angelic face with her hands, and, kissing it, cried: "Weep with me all you who are present; for seventeen years I had him in my house, and did not know that he was my only son, but his servants did injury to him, struck him with blows, and cast spittle in his face. Woe is me! Who will give my eyes a fountain of tears? that I may bewail day and night the grief of my soul." His bride too, clothed in an Adriatic ^o garment, ran weeping, and saying: "Woe is me! for today I am made desolate, and appear a widow. Now I have no one on whom to look, nor on whom to lift my eyes. Now my mirror is broken, and my hope has perished; from now grief has begun, which has no end." But the people, seeing these things, wept tearfully.

[11] The burial illustrated by miracles. Then the Pontiff with the Emperors placed the body on an adorned bier, and led it into the middle of the city, and it was announced to the people that the man of God was found, whom the whole city sought, and all ran to meet the holy body. But if any sick person touched that most sacred body, he was at once cured. The blind received sight, demons were cast out, and all the sick, detained by whatever infirmity, the holy body being touched, were cured. But the Emperors, seeing such great wonders, began themselves with the Pontiff to carry the couch, that they too might be sanctified by the same holy body. And they ordered a quantity of gold and silver to be scattered in the streets, that the crowds might be occupied with love of money, and might allow him to be led to the church; but the people, love of money set aside, rushed more and more to the touch of the most sacred body: and thus with great labor they led it to the temple of St. Boniface the martyr, and there, for seven days persisting in the praises of God, they made a monument of gold and precious gems, in which they placed that most sacred body with great veneration on the XIV day of the month of July [p]. From the very monument too so sweet an odor was fragrant, as if it were full of all aromatics. Then the peoples, rejoicing, gave the greatest thanks to the Lord, who deigned to confer such a help on his people, through which everyone whosoever shall have prayed with sincere intention of mind, may without doubt obtain the effect of his petition. Through our Lord.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. The Bertin: "they placed the body on the XVII day of the month of July, [XIV]." The manuscript codex with the Vallicellian mark the Saint's deposition on the 17th of the said month. But if he died as the day of the Preparation dawned, as is said in no. 7 here, how was he buried on the 17th of July? For this whole matter seems to be narrated as accomplished within seven days after death.

* Otherwise "mysteries."

* The Bertin "annuncium."

METRICAL LIFE

From our most ancient anonymous parchment manuscript codex, marked ✠ Ms. 33.

By the author, as is believed, Marbod, first archdeacon of Angers, then bishop of Rennes in Armorica.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

BHL Number: 0293

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

Excelling among magnates, a man of highest nobility, Euphemianus had shone forth, a Roman by lineage, St. Alexius, by his parents' virtue, great possessor of great riches, equal to kings, leader of the imperial court. Enriched with thrice a thousand slave-boys he was illustrious, whom probity commended, whom gold and silken raiment adorned with festive delights. Himself a most great worshiper of God, hope of the poor, whose heart was the keeping of kindly morals. While with clement zeal he wholly serves the needy, as the matter demanded, he distributed his goods liberally. And at his expense, tables being set three times, the pilgrim throng, or the destitute, the widows, three times a day came to be refreshed, as friends; yet he himself, about to dine, waits for the ninth hour: to whom, worthy of the marriage-bed, Aglaes is joined in honor, like her husband in praise, of the blood of a lordly stock: indeed, blessed, thoroughly adorned with the dowry of virtues, she lived a follower and lover of religion. Nor was there a child to them; denied by a barren lot. Hence, living, with sad breast they weep sighs into the ears of Christ, and pray with holy acts, that God might have mercy on them, and an heir be given, to whom such an abundance of riches might pass.

[2] Nor did the glory of the just, God [*], despise them, [and, obtained by prayers, is piously educated, joined to a bride, whom he secretly deserts.] when he gives a dear offspring, the sun after the clouds of weeping, when he gives the pledge which highest grace crowns. From the father, therefore, the son stands called Alexius. So too the honor of the name and of the omen was joined. Because from heaven the author, to whom he is given, loved him, and the Paraclete himself consecrated this hope to himself, thence a follower who had surpassed his father's morals, a boy of excellent character, as … of philosophy, he grew in studies, and grew up in virtues. At the time of marrying and now of enjoying wedlock, a girl of royal stock from the palace of kings is chosen for him, and he is bound by betrothals. Therefore they are crowned and all festive things are prepared. After the glad banquets had been completed, the youth, burning with the chaste flames of his mind, entering, a fit time of secrecy being seized, gave sacred admonitions to his bride for a celibate life: to love the modesty of virginity and integrity, so to have the brightness of probity as of piety. Such a vow the benediction of the priests sanctioned: hence he gives to his bride the renda of his own belt to keep, whence she may preserve for herself a mindful love of faith, and the heavenly King, he asks, that he be witness to all things.

[3] After these things he departs, as he entrusts himself and his to the Lord: He sets out for Edessa, which he illustrates by his virtues. thus he crossed the sea and sought the Laodicean city, carried by the winds, nor tarrying there, he sails to Edessa of Syria, and soon enters it too; where was venerated, where was given to be beheld, not the work of an artificer, the sacred form of the Mother of God ^a, shining on a pure cloth. For future salvation, here he sold his own and distributed it to the uses of the needy; thus touched, and one of them, daily he sat at the very threshold of Mary, taking from the people slender food and clothing. And thence he gave to the wretched what remained over to him. And thus, bearing the cross, he accompanies Jesus his leader: which hunger, thirst, and leanness testify: with continual prayer he meditates under continual hope: he despises the things below, he looks up to the other joys in the heavens. Whom the rest pleases, and the fair face of Rachel ^b. And on the first day of the week ^c, which is called holy, according to the custom of the altar he is refreshed with the sacred banquets. Meanwhile with a thousand efforts he is sought after, nor is it known at Rome in what land he is, nor is he found.

[4] Sent therefore to distant places and near, they search for him in vain, the regions are thus traversed. Sought by his own, he is not recognized, his parents and bride lamenting. Of these some came to Edessa; whom they had desired, they discern found, nor among the crowds of the needy; him they recognized, but, giving alms, departed. Whom nevertheless he had recognized, and, moved, Alexius prays: "My mind praises thee, most high God, for thy piety, who deignest me worthy; who art proved to will me worthy, by which I am changed, by which I am associated with the poor: needy, I am helped (behold) by the gift of my servants; perfect clemently for me the things begun, to be borne gladly." But those who had been dispersed in seeking, returning, complaining that nothing was accomplished, sadly report back their gifts. Sadder therefore the father groans, and the saddest mother: who, spreading sackcloth, walks: spurning joys, "Thus," she says, "will I do; until I become conscious of my son." But the new bride, struck by the evil in a special manner, tears her hair, and repels every solace. While she offers to her mother-in-law the pious solaces which she owes, she checks her mourning, yet knows not to spare herself from mourning: each multiplies it; whatever she says for [*] relief, each rouses thence a greater grief. The mother weeps for her son, the bride for her widowed marriage-bed, and swears to him that the promised faith shall be firm, after the manner of the turtledove, which keeps its first love; of which if it is deprived, it is joined again to none.

[5] But the aforesaid blessed man, at the accustomed thresholds, Manifested from heaven at Edessa, and declining glory, stands [*] devout, wholly in praises and prayer, passing thus thrice three years and four. When a voice is sent, which thus speaks from the image: "Now let the holy man be demanded, that he may enter, worthy of the kingdom of the heavens, and of the number of the pious." That sound struck the ears of the sacristan exceedingly: he goes out in haste, nor does the pilgrim man move at this, and his life is believed of no account. Then God is prayed, that this be reported more certainly. Again the voice teaches with repeated warnings from the shrine, of whom it is spoken, where he is, or what he deserves. Now, by such a witness manifestly designated, all entreat him, they venerate and honor the Just one: but he fears, the breeze of favor blowing about him outside, lest it wickedly snatch him away, and he become less than his grace; but that all things may please the all-seeing Almighty, he flees from Edessa: to whom help being sent from heaven, he goes with silent hope: thus, Laodicea sought again, the city is offered him, nor was there here a place of rest.

[6] Hence he boards a ship, and spreads his sails to Tarsus, He sails to Tarsus; and, tossed toward Rome, hides unknown among his parents, where had been the see of Paul, now a temple of his name. And he desires to dwell well under that patron: but a wind arising tosses him, unwilling, to the places of the Roman port: there he ponders many things with himself, whither he should turn aside, or what rather is to be done; lest he undergo the evil losses of his proposed life. And soon it is revealed to him by him who governs the heart, that he should cover his secret, and dwell under his father's threshold. Lest another's threshold burden his dwelling. This, therefore, chance brought about of its own accord in fair order. He saw and recognized his father, nor did glory move him. He saw, a crowd of his servants thronging, him returning from the royal court, and, addressing the ignorant one with such a voice, the son thus spoke: "Pious man, for the Lord's sake have mercy on me, a pilgrim, that the order of your years may be long and safe: nor let all the goods contemporary with old age fail you. I will not be burdensome: I do not seek great places of the house. If I am fed with little, I reckon it a banquet; with crumbs may the mercy of Christ cherish me, thus estranged from you, whom you have long since wept, born long ago."

[7] When the just old man hears these things, as if burned with fire, ordered to be kindly kept by his father, but he is mocked by the servants. (for he remembers his son) and at the same time having pity on him, he says these things to his servants: "Let this grace come to me through you; I shall find grateful the service of any of you toward this man. He who will be pious in the care of this poor man, a reward will be added, for he shall enjoy liberty, an heir of many of our riches." He said: and one of the servants undertakes this office. On him the master, as a true follower of the Lord, urges that the poor man be not saddened, and whence he may be fed: where he is to be placed: to be seen by him as he passes by: for, being received, unknown to all in the same place, the holy needy one remained, dwelling in the path of the right: he intends heaven, he counts earthly things as nothing: chastening he rules the flesh, and subjected it to the mind: he fasts, he sings psalms, he watches; thus he beguiles the times: nor does he seek praise, and for praise he receives fraud: for the things which the servants see done, they laugh at as impious: they cry that he is delirious, which ought to be a marvel: whose washing of dishes, not well pure, they pour on his head, and are skilled in reproach.

[8] But the gentle Man bears all these things glad, [After 15 years, now about to die, he is indicated by his own writing and by a heavenly voice, and is sought:] because he knew these things to be stirred by the art of the fierce demon. Thus he passes there six years and nine ^d. When he had completed them, and the time of mercy was come, that it might be answered to his merits, and it be given to know, who he was, or what the virtue of his works, and the order of things, having got a parchment, he writes out the aforesaid acts, how he spurned his homeland, how he was wont to beg, how he dismissed his flourishing possessions and his parents, how the bride's wedding-torches, and thou, O God, who givest good things to the world, for the hope of the greater goods which are given in the ether. Then, after the sacred Masses and the first of the week, a voice from the shrines of the peoples, of the Holy of Holies, touched the ears, which, thundering greatly, said: "And you who labor, and bear the burden of the world, come now to me to be refreshed, friends, by merit." Such things the voice speaks, and stupor accompanies the voice. Then the people wonder, and pray Kyrie eleison: which while it is cried, this voice is repeated, saying: "Let the holy one be sought, by whose prayer Rome may profit." But when he is sought, and no such one is found, the people gather at the temple, and suppliant pray, that a certain thing may be revealed, so that they may be able to venerate the holy one.

[9] Then a voice of plain speech: "Let the house of Euphemianus be observed, and at last he is found, with the highest grief of his father, where such a one shall be found." Who, being questioned, and declaring that he knew not; then the servants are inquired of: they say they know not []. After these things, on the day on which Christ died crucified, that man fixed on heaven in mind, crucified to vices, to whom he truly lives, the servant of the Crucified died. The kings Arcadius, and Honorius his offspring ^e, despise pomp, and become seekers too. Then he came forth, whom care of the Saint attended, narrating the deeds of the Man, what of marvel could be weighed in these, since he was wont to be a partaker from the altar: and, often derided, was seen patient to all things. While all hastened, to prove the sayings; they discern him dead, now as it were joined to the heavens. And the sheet of paper, which he had grasped skillfully with his fingers, which they tried to pull away, and could not. All relax their minds, amazed at these marvels []; the Roman prelate, the two Kings, Euphemianus stand by, they wonder: they pray that the writing be given. The writing is given; it is read: in order the matter is disclosed. Straightway the father Euphemianus grew stiff and was amazed, prostrate on the ground, crying: "Woe is me!" The gray hair is torn from his crown, the torn garment is cast down. Indeed grief, and no color: the mind lifeless gives signs of pious sadness, after the manner of a parent. What he could, he then fell upon the very limbs of the one lying. "Behold lying," he says, "and silent, my son, you are seen, who ought now, late, to have been for your parents a staff, a strength, and an eye, but you had been for me a cause of groaning. I endured; but I did not deserve the hope of possessing you. That I should grieve and ever weep is made abundant; it is necessary, since I am not worthy that a pledge alone should survive, when I see my son precede the fate of his father. Nor let me doubt that I shall soon be his companion in black mournings."

[10] While he relates these and many more words of piety enough, the grief of the mother and bride, when the mother heard, she went thither with garments torn; but whither she wished, she could not go for the crowds. "You, allow me access," she cries, "the cause of my life, my son, whom I bore, permit, I pray, to be seen by the excelling ones." Then she rushed, embracing, upon him lifeless, saying: "Woe! sweetest son, why in an old woman's age am I thus driven? Thus, as a mother, am I rewarded by you? As long as I sought, I could not recognize you. By a supreme lot do I now behold you such? O whom I loved above all things, sweet Alexius; O to whom I offered milk from my breasts, sweet Alexius; O whom I reared, flourishing into strength, Alexius: all things I despised for your sake, sweet Alexius: in you I directed my only hope, sweet Alexius: soon I looked about, and you were not discovered, Alexius: now I console myself with the funeral of my son embraced, Alexius: it is a consolation, if it is, to behold the funeral of a son."

[11] "You, O present ones, I beg, weeping bewail with me and with lamentations. a lot so much to be wept, and by me his mother so much to be groaned over. Is it not to be wept? that he offered himself to be afflicted by such great adversities, and kept silent, often struck by the palms of his own servants. Yet, affected by these, as if often refreshed by dainties, he applauded adversities, and increased his own labors. And here he saw his father, he saw me his mother lamenting: but he scorned his father, he scorned me his mother lamenting, present so many years, while by no sign did he betray himself to us, nor wished his deeds to be known. Fitting to these therefore, I ask, what mourning is found?" Complaining many such things, she stretches herself over him, and clinging, does great things, the whole throng of the people joined to her; and "Woe is me!" she repeats, whether she acts, or says sad things. In like manner the wife laments, whom equal grief torments, mournful, and clad in garments, witnesses of her mind, she urges "Alas, alas, what solaces to me, or what hope can be to me? My spouse lived with me so many years as a guest, nor told me who he was. I pressed in vain with vows through six lustra too; deprived of my vows, now I am utterly widowed: whom now shall I behold, on whom lift my sad eyes? For this one was my mirror, and the same my love. Thou, O God, attend to the appearance of a lot to be pitied, for it lacks an end; and this grief knows neither manner nor mode nor way, which by failing grows again."

[12] Thus weeping she speaks; with whom the people also weep together, The body honored by prodigies, and magnificently entombed. the body therefore is soon placed on an adorned bier. Which, as they ought, the Prelate and the Kings bore; in the midst of the throng with applause it is set in the city, and suddenly rumor makes these deeds manifest. All run, desiring to see these things. The earth resounded with crashes, the ether with praises: behold recent signs, bearing gifts of health. The silent mouths, not speaking again, are speaking for the mute. The tottering legs earned their former offices, and the sick thousands, threatened by fate, grew strong. Whoever are burdened with deafness, with blind face, are relieved with the sense of hearing or of seeing: each so desires to touch the holy body, the Prelate, and the Augusti, laden, serve the bier. It is surrounded by troops: for a way is denied. Therefore it seems good to them that a great abundance of treasure be scattered in the streets, that even thus a way may be granted. While the greedy people is snatched away for the dear appearance. Yet the gain is set aside, and the holy one, obtained, is scarcely at last borne to the temple through the same throng, here filling three days and four with praises, while precious metals set up a fair sepulcher.

ANNOTATIONS.

* In Greek Θεός, God.

* "for" (pro).

* "perstat" (stands).

* "they speak."

* Read "all amazed at these marvels."

GLEANINGS.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

Besides a fragment of the homily of St. Adalbert about our Saint, I now come to the gleanings. We have a copy, from tome, as it is marked, 109 of the manuscript Monte Cassino library, in letters, as is ascribed, Lombardic, with this title: "On the birthday of St. Alexius the confessor. A reading of the holy Gospel according to Matthew: At that time Simon Peter said to Jesus: Lord, behold we have left all things, and followed thee; what therefore shall be to us? and the rest. A homily of the venerable bishop Adelbert." His Acts were illustrated in tome 3 of April, from page 174. He flourished at the end of the tenth century; he died in the year 997, as we there then said. But page 178, this homily is deferred to the present day together with various miracles of St. Alexius; which, according to promise, will now be printed, more on account of antiquity than on account of merit, since it teaches us nothing new about the Saint, cut off being those things which in the beginning the author writes about the reward of those who follow Christ in voluntary poverty, and which pertain to ascetics rather than to historians. Baronius mentions it at the year 1001, no. 19, and adds that it was delivered in the church of Sts. Boniface and Alexius at Rome, which he repeats at the year 1004, no. 8. And indeed that it was delivered in that place, is gathered from the words with which the author addresses his hearers at the end.

[2] After the homily follow in the praised codex the miracles, various miracles of his are given. of which partly Baronius too speaks at the said year 1001 and 1004, written, as he says, by an author of that time. The second miracle he narrates as an ear-witness: at the third he was present: from another, which is related in no. 9, it is gathered that he did not write before the year 1004; as is an argument the Roman plague, which he reckons, and Pope John; to which from Baronius can be added the epitaph of the most noble and richest John Canaparius, monk of the said monastery. May also be seen concerning these Severano, part 1, from page 371, no. 13. From the characterization which shines in no. 16, of Benedict, bishop of Porto, it is drawn that the author did not write before about the year 1012, in which he is noted to have subscribed the charter of Benedict VIII in Ughelli, tome 1 of Italy Sacred, column 108; whose pontificate's beginning, however, others defer to the next following year. But our copy, as far as it could, was collated with the edition of Baronius and corrected. The same was done concerning the miracle which is narrated of the mantle (this word can be elucidated from what was said of the mantle of St. Henry the emperor in tome 3 of July, page 782, no. 71) offered by the emperor Otto III to St. Alexius, etc.; of which narration we also have fragments, taken from the manuscript of the monastery of Sts. Boniface and Alexius at Rome; which, faithfully transcribed by himself, our Henry Lindanus sent hither from Rome on the XXV of November 1650, formerly a Belgian papal penitentiary (as far as I gather from his letters) at St. Peter's; who is noted in the copy of the Necrology of our Flemish-Belgian province of the Society to have died at Copenhagen on the 2nd of May in the year 1659. Whence besides he described those things which we shall give thence from no. 14; where an eyewitness is noted, the same, as I conjecture, as above; having perhaps discharged some office in the Roman curia; since in no. 16 he says he was hindered by the service of the Supreme Pontiff.

HOMILY

Of St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague and Martyr,

From tome 109 of the manuscript Monte Cassino library.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

BHL Number: 0298

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

Part of this homily we cut off, and part we give, St. Alexius, having followed the footsteps of Christ, as we have just now warned. Of St. Alexius follow these things: "We too in ourselves, most dear brothers, have often taken an example of this matter, when, digressing somewhere for the necessity of affairs, we knew all the dwellings of the monasteries to lie open to us as if our own. We beheld all prone to our service with most sincere devotion, and especially in our Father Alexius of blessed memory, whose venerable day of assumption we today commemorate with due solemnity, we see the whole tenor of this reading most perfectly fulfilled. For, all things being left behind, he followed Christ, when, all things being spurned, namely father and mother, and also his bride with carnal love, and the servants and handmaids, and all his substance, the sea-waves being overcome with exceeding labor, he came at last to Edessa, a city of Syria; where he learned by long use the perfect norm of living,

and, the world despised, injuries and reproaches, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, his body being mortified, he followed Christ with all his desires.

[2] in ignominy, For he knew that he himself had said in the Gospel: "Unless anyone renounces all things which he possesses, and follows me, he cannot be my disciple." And when for a long time he executed these Lord's precepts in that place, he is manifested to men by a divine voice: and lest he incur the fault of vainglory, he disposed to depart thence; and thus, while he set out to Tarsus for the cause of hiding himself, God willing, he was returned by force to his homeland. And when he had been received by his father as a poor man, as you have heard, in his own house, as a stranger, he remained. O how great his constancy, and how great his patience! For who could narrate how great temptations, or how great waves, he bore in the secret of his most sacred breast, while he beheld his father afflicted for his sake with such great grief, and knew also that his mother continued night and day in weeping and groaning? He saw besides his own servants abound in dainties, and go clad in precious garments, and himself held in contempt by all: he tolerated moreover their reproaches and mockeries, and, as if now dead to the world, he lived to Christ by the spirit alone.

[3] borne for God, he deserved to be named Man of God, For how could he himself, still surrounded by a fragile body, be able to bear these so many discomforts, unless his heart within, kindled by divine love, burned? But all these things were done by divine prudence, that glory might increase for him, and that he might instruct us by the example of his patience to follow the same things. For it befits your brotherhood to know how great glory he had earned with God through patience, so that he was called by a divine voice "Man of God," and his prayer was said to be accepted for the crime of the whole Roman people. For it is of great merit, my brothers, for a man to be called Man of God by a divine voice, since, whereas the prophets were called by the same Lord "sons of man," and not "Men of God," this man, as by a certain privilege, was named "Man of God." As he fought a singular combat above the rest, so he deserved to be named by a special word by the Lord.

[4] endowed with a singular word on account of singular merits, For since, inflamed with divine love, he despised carnal nuptials, he deserved to be joined to the Lord's bridal-chamber, and to be numbered among those bands of the Innocents, following the Lamb, who sing a new song before the throne of God and of the Lamb. For these are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he shall go. Deservedly he was made a Man of God, that is, a temple of God, a guest of Christ, a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. By right he was said to be heard praying for Rome, who at Rome studied to lead a singular life: and well suits him the Lord's word, who says: "He who shall have left wife or children for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess eternal life."

[5] For what he left for Christ, this he received a hundredfold: because, namely, the merit of his chastity was a hundredfold greater among the continent for the fruit of the Spirit, and with the Gospel hundredfold. than once among the wanton for the desire of the flesh: and the children too, whom he then despised to have carnally, he now deserved to receive a hundredfold, spiritual. For the number one hundred, as has often been said, figuratively announces perfection. For we, although not worthy to be called even servants, are nevertheless his children; because a pious intercessor with God gathered us into this his house under monastic profession ^a. We are his children, whom, born of diverse parents carnally, he does not cease spiritually to unite into one family of holy profession. We are his children, if we hold the way of his virtues by imitating; if we do not deflect by slothfulness from the patience which he showed in himself.

[6] Whence it is necessary, most dear brothers, that as good sons, and worthy of so great a parent, we take care to follow the examples of his most holy life. The author exhorts the hearers to imitate the Saint. Let no enticement of soul or of flesh call us back from following the footsteps of so great a Father, so that we too, who have left carnal affections and earthly substance; who have disdained to take wives, and to procreate children carnally, for the love of the angelic conversation, may deserve by the merit of the spiritual virtues, both in the present to receive a hundredfold from the society of the Saints, and in the age to come to possess eternal life. That we may be able to obtain which, with the whole affection of our mind let us implore the patronage of him whose birthday we celebrate ^b. He gives us confidence of imploring this, who promised that he would hear him praying for Rome. For he himself who admonished us to seek his prayer, through his merits deign to hear us. Who, threefold in persons, and one in substance, lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

MIRACLES

WRITTEN BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR OF THE 11TH CENTURY,

From the same Monte Cassino codex, collated in part with Baronius at the years 1001 and 1004, and the manuscript of the monastery of the Hieronymites of Sts. Boniface and Alexius at Rome.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

BHL Number: 0299, 0300

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR OF THE 11TH CENTURY.

A certain incurable little boy, Since the things which can illustrate the context of the miracles have been brought forward a little before, we remit the reader thither, and subjoin the very context of them. A certain little woman, an inhabitant of Cere Vetus ^a, having a son so oppressed by infirmity, that by no means could he be cured by the physicians dwelling round about, tearful sought Rome, thinking to find someone in this most learned City, by whose sagacious work he might be healed. Who, trying not a few of the physicians, could find no bestower of the wished-for health. And when, now exceedingly wearied, she knew not what to do, it was said to her by her hostess: "Why do you not, sister, lead your son to the oratory of St. Alexius, whose feast day is celebrated ^b? Many sick, given to health by his intercession, I have seen and heard." And "Because," she says, "I know not where I may seek this." And she: "I will send with you one who may lead you thither." Soon the woman, made too credulous, bought oil with her poor denarius. She had perhaps heard, "You shall not appear empty in the sight of God." Which she kindled by night before the altar of the Venerable one, and made her son lie beside it.

[2] He is healed by the aid of St. Alexius appearing to him. Passing the night there, the sick one earned no sign of health; and thus, the Mass being completed, she returned in despair with her son. But on the following night both ^c were seen by the boy, saying: "Little son, be well, and run more quickly back to our house, and there give thanks to God, as much as you are able." Who, waking his mother, said: "Mother, arise: let us go to the church of the Saints, where we were yesterday: for by their word I am made well: for here they were and are still near." And when the mother discerned that what the little boy said was true ^d, she said with tears: "Arise, let us go, son: for I know for certain, that therefore they did not cure you yesterday, that the future ones might not be broken, if, as soon as they ask, they do not obtain the benefits asked." Coming together thither, they gave thanks to God and his Saints; and, vowing her son, she departed glad, spreading abroad and proclaiming through the whole City, in the name of the Lord, what had happened to her. Amen.

[3] A merchant captured by pirates, Moreover, a certain Leo ^e, whom many of you have known with me ^f, relating it, I learned what I narrate. There had been a fellow-villager of his, a certain George called de Antia ^g, devout enough toward the monastery of these; who very often was wont to set forth ^h to him what had happened to himself. At a certain time, for the sake of trade, he was cleaving the deep seas with his ship: where, while he wandered, a contrary wind driving, pirates, coming upon him unexpectedly ⁱ, took him with his companions. Whom, depriving of all their goods, as befitted, they divided, and, that they might not enjoy free life, they were inhumanly bound with thongs, and carried over to Spain, a province once subdued to the yoke of the Romans, now, its grown-up grandsons ^k kicking back. But here, the greater he is known, the more he is given to a stricter guard: the richer he is recognized, the more solicitous a keeper is set for him. Then indeed he first experienced that riches harm their possessor, and honors are a hindrance to him who has them. Macerated beyond measure by this custody, tortured by hunger and thirst, he knew not what to do, or what counsel to take. Far off was his dear wife, the inmost of all his counsels; far off were his children, neighbors, and kinsmen. Only the vital spirit was in the wretched man: by whose impulse he remembered these Saints, and of what power they were, having experienced it, he thus began:

[4] "My lords Boniface and Alexius, to you I have ever commended myself: Invoking Sts. Boniface and Alexius, he is freed. help me." To whom at once such ones appeared, as he had seen them painted in the church; saying: "Behold, we are here; go glad." And, shaking off the chains, they publicly drew him from the prison. Who, taking an unknown way, without error most swiftly came to Rome; and, that we might have whence we could rejoice more in common, he was not asked by anyone whence he came. And entering the City, he sought not his house, or his children, sooner than the holy monastery; relating with tears and inevitable sobbing how visibly the Saints had freed him, to the praise and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, l of the living and reigning God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen.

[5] Nor do I think it should be passed over, what, though at the last ^m, shone to me in modern times. A servant guilty of homicide, captured and to be punished, Certain German brothers, well religious, hearing the fame of these most Blessed ones, bound by pure charity, resolved to seek the aforesaid place, and there to end their life. Whose vow the most pious Creator, foreknowing, brought to effect. For he permitted them to come, but did not prolong their living into length, that they might quickly be with those in the heavens, whom on earth through the ridges of mountains, through the hollows of valleys, they sought with unfailing desire. But these led with them a certain servant, Vizolus [*] by name: whom, departing, they left in the monastery: where, not tarrying long, by the abbot's leave he revisited his own and dear ones. But before he came to them, he fell into the hands of a rich man, whose kinsman he had once with impious hand slain: who, taking him, gave him to close custody; ordered him to be bound with iron fetters and manacles, that after three days he might punish him with the judge's legal sentence. But the accused himself, all these three days, invokes the holy Boniface and Alexius as favorable.

[6] But on that night, in whose morning he was to receive sentence, he invokes the Saints; and by them is wondrously freed, he saw two white-robed men stand near him, whom when he asked, who they were; they say: "We are those whom"

you invoke as favorable. But tell, come, with what face? you who wished to go out from our monastery by fleeing." To whom he: "I, wretched, in no way prepared to sin." And the Saints: "You certainly sinned, and it would pertain to our injury, if this passed unavenged: but because, vengeance being taken, you wish to be helped by us, go out safe from the chains ⁿ, and be, as long as you live, an inhabitant of our monastery." Raised into hope by whose promises, that he might be certain ^o, he shook off the chains from himself, and, going out after them through the half-open door, his parents set aside, went to the monastery, never to return to them.

[7] [having returned to their monastery, which before he had deserted, where he lived exemplarily:] Here therefore, as much as he recognized himself to have sinned, so much the more gladly and devoutly he served: who, often calling himself a runaway, most studiously tended the horses: on his own shoulders he carried water to the kitchen for the use of the brothers: through whom too it happened, what I narrate. On the feast light of these Saints, for the cause of charity, bishops, abbots, judges, and some of the Roman clergy sitting—of whom I had been one—at the abbot's table, it seemed fit that the wine should be tempered with cold water: on the one hand because it was warm, on the other because for its natural strength it seemed undrinkable.

[8] honored by a distinguished miracle at the invocation of them. By custom indeed it is ordered to Vizulus [*] standing by, that from the well of the church, because it was colder, he should most quickly bring water: who, obeying, in haste filled the flagon [p], and carried it on his shoulders up the stair which leads to the dormitory. At whose summit the devil, envying the charity of those sitting and the obedience of the brother, cast the flagon from his shoulder, and drove it through the steps down to the ground. Wondrous faith! For, as he cried, "St. Boniface and Alexius, help me," the falling flagon, receiving blows on as many steps as the stair rested on, was not injured in anything, and, that the hearer may be the more amazed, none of the water was spilled. Which again taking up, he brought to us [q], and, his pallor betraying it, set forth to us in order the event of the matter; which being heard, we all drank it, not mixed with wine, but pure, glorifying the Lord: who is always wondrous in his Saints. Amen. There followed here in our copy the history of a certain Franco Maringus, converted to better things by the patronage of Sts. Boniface and Alexius, and having enjoyed a happy death in the monastery of those Saints at Rome. But since that, with some things cut off here and there, was produced in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Boniface, on the XIV of May, page 280, no. 4, after Baronius, tome XI of the Annals, at the year 1004, no. 8, who relates the same more fully; thither we remit the reader. Yet the same history is not part of the homily, as is intimated in the same no. 4, but, as there Baronius, it is found … after that homily. Our copy proceeds.

[9] [The cloak offered by the Emperor Otto III to St. Alexius, but alienated by the abbot Adalbert,] Otto III of divine memory [r], Augustus emperor of the Romans, loved this place with the whole affection of his mind, on which he bestowed many gifts, not doubting that he would receive recompense from the most just judge God, the merits of the Saints, Christ's martyr Boniface and confessor Alexius, suffraging. Among which he suppliantly offered to them the mantle [s] with which he was covered when crowned, in which the whole Apocalypse [t] was marked in gold, and most fittingly fitted it to the altar of St. Alexius, wishing it to remain there perpetually. Whose vow the abbot Adalbert—of whom I do not now think it worthy to say much—esteeming of no account, as he was impudent, gave that garment, not for the cause of the monastery's profit, but, his wickedness compelling, to some as a pledge []: with whom it remained; until, his crime demanding, he deserved to be deprived of life. Which garment at last then came [u] into the hands of a certain primicerius of the judges, most noble and most prudent: who, fervent rather with secular prudence, does not, recognizing it, restore it to the Saints [x], but as if his own treasure thrust it into a chest to be kept [].

[10] God, having pity on the nakedness and despoiling of that most illustrious Confessor, as the event of the matter afterward proved, granted to the most wicked minister the power of scourging him: God avenges it by a grave sickness in the primicerius judge: who, knowing the penance of the King for the wife of Abraham designated through the scourges of possessions, took the scourge not from the possessed things, but from the possessor himself, preferring to extinguish him unexpectedly, than [y] that he, scourged, should return to penance. For he met him [] near his own house and among the troops of accompanying horsemen, harshly [] cast him down from his horse, and, dashed down, wore him away with paralytic infirmity. He becomes bloodless, becomes almost lifeless: the anxious wife runs, the brothers run, and the whole tearful house wonder, and bewail the wretched corpse: a din of those running together is made, a very great mourning is made. At last by their hands he is brought into the house, not that he [] might be healed, but that the dead might obtain his dues. Soon the immense piety of God was present, wishing to show him [] more clearly why it happened, and preserved life for him [*], and forced him to gasp [z]. Deep silences are made, a measure is put to the groans; physicians are sought; nor are found any who can profit. Therefore the sole healing of God was awaited for some days.

[11] When behold, in the silence of the untimely night, that it might be more firmly held [aa], [by whom he is declared not to be healed, by Sts. Boniface and Alexius appearing to him,] not to his wife, not to his sons, not to his kinsmen, but to him the paralytic, to him the mute, to him loathing all food, appeared the holy Boniface and Alexius (as the same man related), looking sternly at him [*], and shaking their heads and saying: "Did you think yourself to use our garment in health, we being despoiled?" Whom when he asked with trembling voice, who they were, or whence: they say, "I am Boniface; but this is the man of God Alexius, whom you have despoiled." And turning, holding up the pallium marked with gold and gems, with which he was covered, he showed the shoulder of St. Alexius, confessing his modesty by a blush, naked; which when he had seen purer than glass, whiter than milk, he began to fail more from the very vision than from his sickness: and again to hear [bb]: "From that bed you shall not rise strong, before I am clothed with my garment, for which you have been struck."

[12] Who, waking glad with mild voice, stammering, unless it be restored; calls his wife—who hitherto could not even open his mouth. "Dear wife, make my gossip Leo, and my spiritual father Benedict [cc], bishop of Porto, come to me most quickly"; for Benedict [dd] was most eloquent in divine and human matters. Whom being summoned, he set forth in order what he had heard. Then the Bishop, filled with pious gladness, began such things with tears: "Glory to thee, O Christ, glory to thee, O Lord, who art angry, that thou mayest be appeased; scourgest, that thou mayest pardon; strikest, that thou mayest heal. Glory to thee, good Jesus, who makest me hear the one speaking: whom I dismissed almost dead. Manager of souls and bodies, thy medicaments heed not the critical days [ee], seek not Indian pigments." And turning to the sick man, wet with tears, he said: "Son, restore the garment, that you may be restored to health; believing that what the friends of God have threatened you will not remain unaccomplished."

[13] To whom the sick man: "Father, now I would wish that the garment should lie upon the body of my lord Alexius. which being done, he recovered his health. For even the very time in which it is done seems to me greatest [*]." And at once the garment was brought, which they, taking, came to the monastery at the cockcrow of the same night, and placed it upon the venerable body of St. Alexius, and thus, returning, they found him whom they had left lying, sitting and glorifying God with living voice [ff]. These things from the said Monte Cassino codex; the rest from the manuscript of the monastery of the Hieronymites at Rome, as we premised; subjoined to the fragments of which mention was made; by the same author, as we think.

[14] Adhelelmus, abbot of the monastery of Sts. Boniface and Alexius, But since they quickly succor those who seek them with whole trust, or how mercifully they hear those presuming of them, I will relate by a miracle not related by anyone, but seen by myself. Over the same monastery a certain fourth Abbot presided, Adhelelmus [gg] by name, of good quality, and of pious cheerfulness, as I knew, a man who, placing after the Lord all trust in these two luminaries of this nourishing city, Boniface and Alexius, so that, if anyone asked any charity, blessing, or any help, he promised to do it only with their aid. If anyone perhaps laid snares for him, he confidently said that he esteemed them of no account through the merits of these; these he sought in prosperity, these in adversity, to these he supplicated in glad things; these he asked in sad events too: for he, seized by the force of fevers, and also failing from the heat of the Dog-star, when with almost all his strength, and all the offices of his body, he lost even the ministry of his tongue; suffering also lethargy, he lost the use of his own mind for ten days. His face grows pale, his arms stiffen, and vying with one another all the acts of death give indications. You would judge the body lifeless, unless something palpitated in the breast. The brothers made the funeral rites, and others prepared the tomb.

[15] laboring under a most desperate infirmity, There was at last in them both sadness at losing their shepherd and a miserable weariness at the prolonged expectation of his death. After which days therefore, as he often related, he was clemently roused by the same Saints, and restored to his mind. Which being received, with a languid voice, and scarcely able to disclose his wishes, he asks me to be summoned. Whose messenger when I had perceived from afar anxious, I am affected with grief, thinking him dead, whom he announced living, and asking me to go to him. I ran at last rejoicing, coming unimpeded even to his bed, I poured out tears for joy: for he was benevolent to me, and for the love of his Lords I was very obedient to him. To whom, wishing to relate to me his passion, I began to suggest that he take some food for his refreshment, since failing intercepted his breath. Who suppliant returned such words: "Know, most blessed one, that I loathe all foods, nor desire anything for my refreshment except one, namely a pheasant, which if you could have, would be to me a saving antidote, and a most firm hope of recovering health."

[16] Believing his words vain, that without much labor it could not even be found, I say: a pheasant, "Do you think you speak in your mind?" And "Whose?" he says. "Mine, then." To whom when I wished to resist, because, hindered by the service of the Supreme Pontiff; where they could be found, I had not been able to go farther; where I could go, it was not found, he began to urge me with such things: "Why, not presuming on the power of my Lords, do you not go yourself in haste, and confidently seek what I desire? Is not God able, by their merits, to give even in your house what I wish? Why do you not, with Jacob, under haste strive for the recompense of the blessing, to offer the sought thing to your father? But with Esau, slow in doing the hunting, do you loiter?" And thus

having chided me, he strove to urge me [*], saying in jest: "Go, son, go quickly, since in this labor of the hunting my Lords will be companions to you."

[17] This command received, not that I should go for a pheasant, ordered to be sought, but only that I might not provoke him to anger, I yielded. And when, the ninth hour past, I had returned home, I began to relate to those standing around what he had said and asked. Then one of them said: "We know, Lord, that you can by no means so quickly have a pheasant. Take my counsel, and let us go hunting a partridge; this if the Lord give us, let us offer it to him boiled in water, feigning it a pheasant, which, being weak, he will not at all distinguish." Whose counsel received, I went down the Appian Way; and coming where the Lord appeared, where none of our age had seen a pheasant, mine began to seek with the dogs, and, seeking, they raised troops of partridges. After they let loose the hawk, which, as it was still untaught and untamed, did not go after them, but, turning back, sat on a very high wall. And when it was called after the manner of hunters, it deferred to return. Again and again called, it did not even turn its eyes. We came down, we sat, we waited for nearly two hours.

[18] Again it was called, and did not return. Which, and wondrously found, as we afterward proved, was sitting and waiting. And behold, a single pheasant from afar came, snatched by so great a flight, that it would fail of itself, even if the hawk were absent, and as if it said: "Come down after me." Under its very breast it ran across, making for a certain thicket of brambles. By whose flight, nay by the impulse of the Saints, the hawk, made active, came down, and, the like of which it had never seen, seized it in the very thicket of brambles. Which we seeing ran, seized both: and, kissing the earth, for one hour we gave thanks to God; and we proved it to be, as I said, in all things. "If you have faith, as a grain of mustard, you shall say to the mountain, Remove yourself, and it is removed."

[19] The pheasant therefore we joyfully carried to the asking father, he receives it, and recovers. and narrated all things in order: who, receiving it, rejoicing more at the benefit granted to him of God and of his Lords, than at the eating of that bird, was refreshed. And it was to him a miracle, as long as he lived: but to us, and to our posterity, a praise of almighty God, and glory of these Saints, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

[20] To this therefore like, what happened to the same father; Fish failing, and related to me both by himself and by others, I will proclaim another miracle. At which time the rector himself, curious, solicitously visited a cell of his monastery, situated on an island which is called Astura [hh]; coming near which, carried in a small skiff, he swims across, wet, the middle of the river: for, divided in two, it embraces the whole island, and, as if filled with a certain Parisian [*] pleasantness, renders it delightful. Where when he had come down, entering the oratory of the holy Mother of God, his knees bent, he poured out a solicitous prayer. Which being completed, the father rises wholly calm, and festively heaps the sons dwelling there with a paternal benediction. Whence going out, before the doors of the church near the bank of the river he sat down together with them; to whom he ministered many salutary admonitions, and offered many teachings pigmented with the examples of the ancients.

[21] [the said abbot, relying on the aid of the holy Boniface and Alexius, foretells that they will be brought:] Among which one of them, who presided over the rest, burst into such a voice: "At your coming we rejoice more than can be said, best father, but this grief afflicts us, that for your refreshment we have no fish, not knowing that you would come; on account of this we have not at all labored, nor did the time even give it." To whom the father, smiling, said such things: "Little sons, are you still also of little faith? Cannot Christ, without your labor, by the merits of my Lords Boniface and Alexius, refresh us with fish? They endured great things for him, but earn greater": for he committed himself always and everywhere, as I remember to have said, to his special Lords, and, trusting in their power, adding, he said: "I will not first seek the sacred table, than that from the innumerable multitude of the Lord's fish his very friends confer some on us."

[22] at whose feet one is wondrously brought from the river: Which not rightly understood, thinking that he had brought fish with him, the brothers turn to other useful things of the cell, and regularly seek the counsel of this prudent shepherd. Which received, they resolve to go to sing the sext Hour, and by common consultation hasten to prepare the table. When suddenly in the middle of the river a fish was seen leaping out; and as if fishing with a hook, sent to the feet of the abbot. The examples of the Woman with the issue of blood, of the Centurion, of the Canaanite woman, briefly inserted here to excite faith, we pass over: and proceed with the author.

[23] which, beyond its natural capacity, sufficed several for refreshment. What the Abbot did, I will pursue with running pen. Taking the fish in his hands, he went into the church; prostrated himself before the altar, and, praying a long time, poured out many tears deservedly; and rising, offered a sacrifice to God for thanksgiving: which done, he came, greatly asked, to the table, on which when the fish had been brought, which naturally was sufficient for two, at most three, against nature, to make clear the merits of the Saints, and of sincere faith, gave to twelve a most full refreshment. There could be added to these another miracle, by which St. Frances of Rome was healed of a long and incurable disease by the aid of St. Alexius appearing to her: which is briefly touched in her Acts on the IX of March [], page 92, no. 2. But in the Life rendered into Latin from the Italian the deed is connected with the year of Christ 1398, and a little more fully set forth from page [] 175, nos. 6 and 7: which Severano too inserted briefly in the Sacred Monuments, part 1, page 374, and Odorico Rinaldi mentions it at the said year 1398, no. 41.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. In Du Cange "laguna, laguenna, languena," commonly "lagena."

q. The author indicates that he relates the things which he narrates as an ear-, and as it were an eye-, witness.

r. Otto III died in the year 1002 at Paterna or Paternum, a castle of Campania; consult tome 3 of July, page 732; and Baronius at that year, no. 2.

s. For this word, we have remitted the reader to the Acts of St. Henry the emperor.

t. Baronius reads "was in Phrygian work, etc."

u. Here and in the Hieronymite fragment barbarously; Baronius has "came."

x. Baronius: "did not, recognizing it, restore it to the Saints": the Hieronymite fragment: "did not restore it, recognized, to the saints."

y. Baronius: "than, after being scourged."

z. Baronius: "began."

aa. Baronius: "that the sick man might be freed."

bb. Baronius: "he heard again."

cc. Of his age it was treated above.

dd. The name enclosed in brackets Baronius repeats; not the Hieronymite fragment.

ee. They are the judicatory, so to speak, or decretory days of a disease: of whose difference may be seen the Medical Definitions of Jean de Gorris, page 249.

ff. Here is the end of the present narration in Baronius; who warns that Benedict, Cardinal of Porto, was afterward translated from the bishopric of Porto to the chair of Peter, as you have at the year 1001, no. 20.

gg. Adilelmus, abbot of the monastery of St. Boniface, is noted to have been present together with other abbots when it was treated at Rome of certain pleas in favor of the Farfensians under the Emperor Henry and Pope Benedict in the year 1014; as you may see Mabillon, Annals of the Benedictine Order, tome 4, page 240; the instrument is produced there in the appendix from page 704.

hh. It is a place and a river, called by that name in Latium or Roman Campania, adjoining the Mediterranean sea.

* The Hieronymite: "Wizolum."

* so too the Hieronymite for "suscepturus."

* The Hieronymite: "Uuizolo."

* Baronius: "as a pledge" (in pignus).

* Baronius: "to be kept, thrust into a captured chest."

* Baronius: "him."

* Baronius: "harsh."

* Baronius: "might heal."

* Baronius: "for him."

* Baronius: "for him," as several times below "to him."

* Baronius: "against him."

* Baronius: "farther."

* "Than."

* "to urge."

* Or "paradisiacal"?

ON ST. ALEXIUS, CONFESSOR,

AT EDESSA IN SYRIA.

ABOUT THE YEAR 412 OR 435.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY ON THE ARABIC ACTS.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. Their occasion, notice, author, age.

The same here, as above, and one single St. Alexius is given, not another or a double; yet you would call him new and another; so new and diverse are the things which are narrated of him in these Acts. Lest therefore it seem a wonder to anyone, The Arabic Life our Pietro Benedetti rendered into Latin, and sent hither; that a double commentary, beyond custom, is fitted to the same Saint. Why this is done, I already touched in passing above, being about here to draw out the matter at more length. For while I was wholly engaged in collecting the Alexian documents, I understood that an Arabic Life of St. Alexius existed at Rome. Therefore I began to burn with desire of it; if perhaps in so great and so ill-cohering a concord of the others, something of new and better light could be drawn thence. Relying on this hope, I thought nothing should be held by me more important than that I should be made more certain of this matter. Therefore it pleased to address by letters our father Pietro Benedetti, a Maronite by nation, prefect for directing our men in spirit in the Roman house of the Professed, and to ask that, by the effort of the most distinguished man Giuseppe Simone Assemani, to be praised at length, whom he used most familiarly, a copy of the same Life might be made for us; if indeed he judged this to be worth while according to the conditions proposed by me at that time. Nor did the aforesaid Father fail expectation: for on the I of July of this current year 1724, answering my letters given on the XX of April of the same year, "I write back," he says, "sending the Acts of St. Alexius, translated from the Syriac autograph into Arabic (by another translator) and by me from Arabic into the Latin tongue, from the Vatican codex, no. 55, written by a certain Abraham, a monk at the village of Saded in the Damascene territory, in the year of the Greeks 1856, of Christ 1545." Nor did Benedetti send only the version, but also the Arabic text itself; not fearing the judgment of others on the fidelity of the version.

[2] of which a notice is given, Now it is a panegyric or homily, as is clear from

no. 1 and 2, adorned in praise of the Saint from his deeds, with this title: "Acts of the holy Man of God, who is also Mar-Riscia, son of Euphemianus, of the city of Rome." Now concerning the writing Benedetti thus warns: "The letters in which these Acts are found written in the Vatican codex are Syriac, but the language is Arabic: for the Syrians, when they write Arabic, do not for the most part use other letters than their own." Moreover the argument of the Life, for the most part, proceeds, at least as regards the substance of the matter, with the same tenor as the common history; but, to pass over some lighter things in which it differs from the others, behold for you a wholly singular point; when the Saint is written, no. 14, to have remained in the city (Edessa) intent on fastings and prayer even to death; and afterward is narrated to have dwelt eighteen years at Edessa, and to have died and been buried at Edessa. If this is true, what and how great a part of the Acts, as they were produced by us above, falls, is plain enough; the return to his own at Rome, and the deeds done there in his father's house, being turned upside down.

[3] the objections which can be made from it being resolved, But now, lest it move a difficulty for anyone, that the Saint in that Life is named Mar-Riscia, or Riscia, or cast a suspicion that the deeds of another Saint hiding there under that word, and not of St. Alexius, are set forth; it may help to hear Benedetti in the above letters: "Nor let it make a scruple, that in these Acts he is called not Alexius, but Riscia: for thus St. Artemius, because he was prefect of Egypt, the Syrians name Mar-Scialitha; and they write in their Calendar under the day 2 of August, 'Of the holy Prefect of Egypt.' And with the Calendar agree the Syriac Offices, edited and manuscript. So likewise the Greeks the handmaid, who for chastity was slain by her master at Nicomedia, St. Dula: (in Greek δούλη is a handmaid, of whom on the XXV of March, page 554; where you have our doubt about that supposed name on account of ignorance of the proper name). So finally the Latins called St. Adauctus by names born and circulated from a casual event; (of whom it will be treated on the XXX of August.)"

[4] Now the Syrians named St. Alexius Riscia; because perhaps they could not at all find out his proper name: which the Saint in that Life, for neither in the Acts written by the sacristan (of whom below), nor in the Arabic version of them; but neither in a certain Arabic hymn, which everywhere today in Syria is sung by boys and women, is it anywhere read. I suspect the name was invented by the people of Edessa; who, when they had heard from the sacristan, conscious of the secrets of St. Alexius, that this man was a Roman patrician, son of a most noble senator, began to call him Riscia, that is, prince, and under this circulated name afterward inserted him into their fasti of the Syrian church; as he adds is observed by Assemani in the notes on the Edessene Chronicle, soon to be cited; where the Saint is besides designated by another name, which he drew from the title of our history, as Benedetti affirms. To these Benedetti too, where Mar occurs, a Syriac word set to St. Riscia here and elsewhere, warns that it should be known that it is a common title, "My Lord," which usage afterward made proper to holy men, or to those established in some sacred dignity. See Assemani, tome 1, and in various other places.

[5] To this pertain those things which Benedetti had premised in the said letters, and by which the above are confirmed: "That the cult of St. Alexius under the name of Riscia was most ancient and solemn to the Syrians, by another name, their most ancient Calendars testify under the day III of November: and although those edited by Genebrard have neither the name of St. Alexius nor of St. Riscia, yet others, edited and manuscript, have it. And indeed that those Calendars of Genebrard are maimed and imperfect, is certain to me from elsewhere. But neither does the perpetual and, to these times, continued tradition, not only of the Syrians but also of the Armenians, allow us to doubt of this matter. Wherefore in these days Father Andreas Scandar, a Maronite archpresbyter, related to me that in the years just past, when he stayed at Edessa, he observed that by the Armenians, lords of the church in whose portico St. Alexius lived, a certain chamber, situated in the vestibule of the same church, is daily after Vespers honored with burnt incense on account of the memory of St. Alexius, or, as they name him, Alexianus, whom they affirmed to have dwelt there, and to have been wont to pray."

[6] Andreas Scandar is celebrated with deserved praises, on account of his laborious and likewise perilous journey into the East by order of Clement XI, is called. of glorious memory, and the treasures of Syriac, Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew erudition sought out and carried to the City, in Assemani, tome 2, page 485 of the Work to be praised at once, where first, in confirmation of the name of St. Alexius, changed into Riscia, we may have noted from the note of Benedetti, which I received on the XI of August of the passing year 1724, that in the Syriac Calendar of the Maronite Missal, lately printed at Rome, the memory of St. Alexius is indicated on the day III of November, enounced by these words, which sound thus in Latin: "Of the Lord Riscia, son of Euphemianus." To which he adds that in the Vatican codex the Calendar of the Armenians has "Alexianus" for "Alexius."

[7] Its author; Concerning the author of the Life, the mentioned letters of Benedetti thus instruct us: "But at what time the author of this history lived and wrote, he warns must be learned from the reading of it: for Rabulas," he says, "named in the Acts, began to preside over the church of Edessa at the beginning of the fifth century, that is, in the year 407 or 408 (nay rather a little later, as will be plain from what is to be said). But he presided twenty-three years: (for which he cites Assemani, tome 1, pages 401 and 424.) There is besides an evident argument for the antiquity of our author from the antiquity of the Scetic codex containing the aforesaid Acts, which, as the praised Assemani, an eyewitness and present, affirms, was written in the year of Christ 584, namely in the second century of St. Alexius: whence too I gather that Rabulas mentioned in the Acts can be no other than Rabulas surnamed the Great, the greatest defender of the Catholic faith against the Nestorian perfidy: for no other bishop of this name before the epoch of the aforesaid codex does the Edessene Chronicle exhibit." And indeed the surname "the Great" is expressly set to him below in the aforesaid Acts, nos. 20 and 27, so that that collection for it was not here necessary.

[8] when he lived, But the Work, to which both here and elsewhere above Benedetti several times remits us, is entitled "Clementine-Vatican Oriental Library," printed in the year of Christ 1719 in the types of the sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide at Rome, in which Giuseppe Simone Assemani, a Syrian Maronite, doctor of sacred theology, and scriptor of the Syriac and Arabic languages in the same Vatican Library, reckoned, digested, and separated genuine from spurious writings, the manuscript codices of twelve Oriental languages altogether, enumerated on the front of the book, carried from the East by the order and munificence of Clement XI, Supreme Pontiff, and assigned to the Vatican Library, the life of each author being added. Of this most distinguished and most laborious work's four tomes, which the author promises to edit in his preface, there have hitherto come forth the two former tomes, which we have; and in the first of them, chapter 14, page 197, he hands down that the praised Rabulas presided over the see of Edessa from the year of Christ 412 to the year of Christ 435, producing the Edessene chronicle, whose author, indeed not sufficiently known in name and age, as you have, chapter 30, page 387, seems to have lived about the year 550, he draws from this, that he brought his history down to the year 540; and that he described it from the archive of the Edessene church, he asserts is shown from the beginning, from the progress, and from the end of the same; and briefly then proves it.

[9] from the epoch of Rabulas, bishop of Edessa, That chronicle therefore in him, page 401, no. 51, has these things: "In the seven hundred twenty-third year (of Christ 412) Rabulas received the episcopate of Edessa." And page 403, no. 59: "In the year 746 (of Christ 435), on the VIII of August, he migrated from this world." Here is marked the era of the Greeks, which is also that of the Seleucids and of the Syro-Macedonians, preceding the common one of Christ by 311 years. The same epoch the praised Assemani affirms to be handed down by the patriarch Dionysius in the Chronicle: of whom he himself treats, tome 2, chapter 16, from page 98; and we among the Antiochene Patriarchs before this tome. Rabbulas himself the Acoemete monk, writer of the Life of St. Alexander, founder of the Acoemetes, names, chapter 2, in Bolland at the day XV of January; where through the course of the same Life you will find several things which pertain to that Prelate, and among others thirty years passed in the episcopate. That Life Tillemont accuses in many things, and, as it appears, not undeservedly, in the Ecclesiastical Monuments, tome 12, from page 490; not otherwise than the title of Saint attributed to him by Bolland: whom he says seems to him, in the Preliminary Commentary, §3, page 1020, to have been still for some time alive after the year 435.

[10] marked in the same Life, But Tillemont, page 494, binds his death to the year of Christ 436, or a little after. And tome 14, article 140, page 667, treating of Rabulas on the occasion of St. Cyril of Alexandria, he composes his life with the year of Christ 437, from the Breviary of Liberatus the Deacon, edited at Paris in the year 1675, and in Labbé, tome 5 of the Councils, from column 740. An excerpt from the letter of Rabulas to St. Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, is read there, column 469; and his rescript to him, column 468. Of the canons sanctioned by Rabulas in the Edessene synod, and praised by Gregory Bar-Hebraeus in the Work entitled "The Book of directions," may be seen Assemani, page 199; where too he enumerates certain of his predecessors in the episcopate down to the year 412; in which he began to sit, and continued the see only twenty-three years down to the year 435, relying on the chronicles adduced above, he repeats; whom if you think should be followed, now the Acts cited above will have to be corrected, and Pagi in the historico-chronological Critique of Baronius at the year 435, no. 34, following them. But so slight a difference of time ought not here to detain us. Let it suffice to have indicated it. Now the author of the Syriac Life of St. Alexius lived under Rabulas, as we just said; the Saint himself lived under Rabulas, it is shown; as will be said presently, and under him he died.

[11] But what you should establish concerning the praised Syrian author, and the time of the Saint's death, which is expressed by him, greatly conduces the note of Assemani, subjoined to the cited place of the Edessene Chronicle: to which Benedetti above remitted us. Thus therefore it has: "Under Rabulas flourished St. Alexius the Roman, whom the Syrians name Mar-Riscia, and Gabra D'Hallaha, that is, holy Prince, and Man

of God; as I read noted in the title of the same Life in the most ancient codex of the Scetic monastery of the Syrians, written by Thomas the deacon of Edessa in the monastery of Guba Baraia, on the XXIX of July, in the year of the Greeks 895, of Christ 584, which it was permitted to extract at no price." The author of that Life, anonymous, is said to be the sacristan of the Edessene church both in the praised codex, and in the Arabic Vatican LV, page 53; where also another Life of the same St. Alexius, described from the Latin exemplars, is read, in which the holy man is narrated to have migrated to heaven not at Edessa, as wrongly in the earlier Arabic Life, translated from the Syriac, but at Rome, as really happened.

[12] These things are to be briefly illustrated. Of the name of St. Alexius among the Syrians we have said enough. which by opportunity, Of the Scetic monastery of St. Mary of the Syrians the same author treats in his preface, nos. 7 and 11; and we shall give more of the Scetics on the XIX of this month at the Life of St. Arsenius. But now mention is here made of three Lives; namely the Syriac, the Arabic translated from the Syriac, and the Latin. The title of the Syriac, and the whole context of the same, whose several circumstances he reckons so accurately, that most distinguished Man had read with his own eyes, namely at the time when, to search out the codices of the Oriental languages of the Vatican Library, by order of Clement XI, he set out into Egypt in the year 1715. See below the Roman responses to the doubts proposed by me. Now Guba, as he says in tome 2 in the notes from page 74, at the word Guba Baraia occurring in the text there, is a castle in Mesopotamia situated on the bank of the Euphrates; where the patriarchs of the Jacobites had their see about the year of Christ 700; as is clear from the twofold inscription which he produces.

[13] certain other things are noted. But that codex it was permitted at no price to extract for that curious investigator: who without any doubt would have been among those of whom he says these things in the preface, in the same no. 11: "The codices found (in the monastery of St. Mary of the Syrians) (nearly two hundred) I reckoned; the selected ones, about a hundred, I sought; but by no prayers, except a few certain ones, which nevertheless I myself had selected as most excellent (which he enumerates), the price being paid, was it permitted to obtain them from the monks." But to that which he noted above; "the author of that Life, anonymous, is said to be the sacristan of the Edessene church both in the praised codex, and in the Arabic Vatican marked above"; and also that which he subjoins about the earlier Arabic Life, translated from the Syriac, add the surname Mar-Riscia noted the same in both, which persuade me for certain that it is one and the same Syriac exemplar, assigned above by Benedetti; and that, translated from Syriac into Arabic by another, he himself gave it Latinity, and most recently sent it to us. Thus I indeed reasoned: and that reasoning the Roman responses to my doubts, to be set forth in the next paragraph, afterward confirmed. But of the Life described from the Latin exemplars, as Assemani just now, enough has been said in the earlier commentary: from whose source the Arabic Life is most basely corrupted, as we now go to show.

§ II. The Arabic Life corrupted, corrected from the Syriac text.

The Arabic Life, from the history of the Saint narrated by the Syrian author, The author of the Syriac Life writes, on the testimony of Assemani, that the Saint met death at Edessa: but behold, by a comment to be relegated to old wives' tales, the Arabic interpreter of the same, or some other insipid and ill-employed interpolator, soon exhibits to us the same restored to life at Edessa, then returned to Rome, and, after several deeds done there, which are read in the common Life, dispatched by a second death there, and at last buried. Let the ineptitudes of this wondrous metamorphosis be heard: "But what we have hitherto related concerning the great holy Man of God, we received from the testimony of the venerable Pirmunara: who was familiar to St. Riscia, and from the same most holy Man understood the series of his whole past life, and wrote his history. Which indeed comprises only those things which preceded and followed the first death of the holy Man, which happened at Edessa. The rest which follow, we shall subjoin from the history of the same holy servant of God written at Rome." Here Benedetti puts an end to his version, thus warning: "The compiler of these Arabic Acts proceeds to copy out the rest which he had read in Metaphrastes, and, that he may reconcile them with the most true narration of the Edessene sacristan, feigns that St. Alexius, dead and buried at Edessa, revived, and did all those things which are related in the said Acts of Metaphrastes: namely that he came to Laodicea; thence, sailing to Tarsus, the winds blowing against, was carried to the Roman port: whence he sought Rome and his father's house, and there again died and was buried … But I judged it superfluous to translate these, since I both believe them to be feigned, and, a collation being made, have found them most exactly to agree with the edited ones."

[15] Of the origin of a figment so inept it may be permitted to conjecture. and basely mixed with the common history, He doubtless saw the Syriac Acts, concerning the Saint's death and burial, to conflict with the Greek, or with the Latin translated from the Greek: and, that he might either extricate himself from that difficulty, or make himself agreeable to the Edessenes as well as to the Romans, by so attributing his death to those, as not to take it away from these too; behold, as it is said, a god in the machine, he represents him as dead and buried in both places: which hitherto it has come into no one's mind even to dream. And so, not sufficiently skilled to distinguish Acts from Acts according to merit, he adopted both, agreeing in great part with each other, not without manifest rashness, and a most patent loss of truth, having wandered beyond the bounds of sincerity. However it be, truly he deserved most ill of the literary world by a depravation so ill conceived and stitched together. Benedetti thinks that the occasion for this fable was given by the translation of the body made from the city of Edessa to Rome: which nevertheless, he says, considering the epoch of Rabulas, which in this matter we have as the single torch of truth, under Innocent I (as the edited Acts have it) does not seem to me to have been able to happen. But from the epoch of both, fixed above, it is clear that both lived together for some years, and so here the times do not conflict, so as to prevent that translation from having then happened; of which would that it were established to us from somewhere! Yet far be it that on that account we should wish even the least to be detracted from it: which we altogether suppose to have happened. But let us return to our interpreter.

[16] He indeed seems less learned and grave, as Benedetti rightly observes in his letters; to be referred to the first source. adding that this matters little: since the credit of the history rests not on the testimony of the interpreter, but of the Syrian author: who, since he was the sacristan of the Edessene church, and most familiar to St. Alexius, his statement, he holds it certain, is to be preferred to the authority of any others whatsoever. And in another note, to the objection sent hence, namely that that narration was the offspring of some more recent author, he answers that he does not doubt of this: for this is manifest both from those things which he describes from Metaphrastes, and from the very style and dialect of the Arabic speech which he uses. He therefore refunds the whole authority of that writing into the testimony of the Syrian author, against whom he says he can find no exception, but that he was a present witness. But that that Arabic encomium was drawn from the Syriac Acts, besides the testimony of the encomiast himself, the errors admitted by him in the version sufficiently prove, he argues, since they plainly savor of a Syriac version. To which if you add, he says, the assertion of our Assemani, an eyewitness, of the Syriac writing still extant, it does not appear by what reasoning or with what face the authority of our encomiast can be dashed or rejected, at least as to those things which pertain to the death of St. Alexius. Thus Benedetti.

[17] And these things are clear and plain enough in favor of the Edessenes: yet I did not yet acquiesce in them; but directed the following doubts to him on the VII of September of this current year 1724, Certain doubts, to be discussed with his Assemani: who, writing back on the XIII of the next following month of October, signified that his Assemani thus answered them. I asked, I, whether Assemani had not read the whole context of the Syriac Life, whose title he affirms he read, tome 1, page 401? To the 1st he answers, "Not only the title, but also the context of the Syriac Life of St. Alexius I read in the Syriac codex of the Nitrian monastery (above he wrote the Scetic)." To the 2nd, Whether the Arabic Life, of which he there treats, was translated from that very Syriac one, whose title he read, and whose codex it was permitted him at no price to extract? He answers: "The Arabic Life, which was described from the Vatican codex, does not correspond to the aforesaid Syriac except as to the substance of the history of St. Alexius down to his death in the city of Edessa. The rest, which are subjoined about the resurrection of the same holy Man, and his coming into the City, I did not at all read in the Syriac, nor did they exist."

[18] proposed by us, To the 3rd, where I treated of part of the clause which was added to the Life sent to us, and which you have at the beginning of the present paragraph, beginning from "But what," etc., down to "wrote his history" inclusive, he answers: "That clause was added by the Arab paraphrast. In the Syriac it does not exist, but only in the title it is expressly said that that history was described by the sacristan of the Edessene church." To the 4th: What has the Syrian author to do with the Greek word paramonarius? from which the Arab interpreter renders his "pirmunara," which he did not at all understand. (See the annotations to chapter 3 of the Life, letter a.) He answers: "The word paramonarius, and, as the Syrians express it, pirmunara, although it is Greek, was yet used by the Syrians from the beginning of the Church, not otherwise than the words bishop, archdeacon, etc. Edessa was a city most frequented by Greeks even under the Abgar kings, whose coins have Greek inscriptions." May be consulted the things which Tillemont collected about those toparchs or kings, tome 8, page 279, and the note of Assemani, tome 1, page 261.

[19] and resolved by Assemani. To the 5th, Whether no mention was made in the Syriac exemplar of the body of St. Riscia, not found in the sepulcher by Rabulas the Great, bishop of Edessa? he answers: "In the Syriac Life nothing else is read, than that (the Saint), having died in the city of Edessa, was buried in the cemetery of the poor: and it is subjoined that the sacristan learned the Life of St. Alexius from himself narrating it, having been forewarned by the Mother of God, and communicated it to Rabulas, bishop of the city. But of the body not at all found in the sepulcher, or of its translation into the City when already dead, or of his coming while living, not even a word." Then Benedetti concludes his letter with these words: "These things Assemani to me; the same I render back to your Reverence with the highest fidelity, from Rome, from the house of the Professed, the XIII of October 1724."

[20] The Acts of St. Alexius being now produced and discussed on both sides, it remained that concerning his death, here most controverted, The point here most controverted is not decided. and just now proposed from the Syriac author,

and established, we should give sentence: but it seemed good to leave the decision of a matter so grave and odious to the judgment of the learned. Both Acts are had, Latin, and Arabic, drawn from the Syriac source, and rendered into Latin, and so more recent and ancient, edited and unedited; let them see which are to be preferred to which for the decision of the present controversy. We have produced the whole matter with arguments on both sides: from settling the dispute we abstain: let the equitable arbiter of things establish that which, all things weighed, shall seem to approach nearer the truth. Lastly, it remains that I exhort with all the earnestness I can all the curious clearers-away of ancient monuments, that at least on that title they at last unearth from the shadows the most precious and most esteemed treasure of the original Syriac Life, because hitherto not seen by the Latins, and now detected to the literary world, and bring it into the public light; to whose credit whatever in the following Arabic Life is interpolated, whatever depraved, whatever corrupted, ought to be brought back as to the pure and unmuddied waters of the primeval source; which, augmented and infected by the muddy filth of the common history, we think afterward grew, and flowed down to us.

ARABIC LIFE

From the Syriac narration of the original and contemporary author, interpolated from elsewhere, and rendered into Latin from the Arabic Vatican Ms. LV, page 53, by Pietro Benedetti, S.J.

Alexius, Confessor, at Rome, or as other Acts have it, at Edessa in Syria (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE.

Brothers of Benedict, may God the most high, by his strong right hand, keep you from the snares of the devil and the wickedness of impious men, The author, a brief prologue being premised, and make you worthy to dwell in his church, and to do what is pleasing to him according to his will, and join you together with those who obey him, and with all his Saints. But now may he render you worthy of the blessings of this most noble Saint, to whose church you have assembled today, about to celebrate his great feast ^a, and to hear his deeds, and to entreat his grace from the Lord who chose him. His blessing, I pray, and prayer, may remain always with us and with all of you. Amen.

[2] Brothers, we are now about to make words concerning this admirable Man, He briefly touches the virtues of the Saint. most illustrious for nobility of race, probity of morals, virginity and abstinence: inasmuch as, having undertaken to cultivate religion and piety, he rejected all the delights and pleasures of the world, and emulated the morals of the angels; and, the fleeting and noxious felicity and opulence of the world being despised, he loved poverty, humility, and a needy and solitary life; besides, persecutions and injuries; by these morals repressing the inborn pride of nature. For indeed by meekness and humility he so excelled that he deserved to be equaled to the Apostles. To these he joined fastings and the other austerities of life, esteeming that the enticements of the present life and splendid nuptials were to be postponed to the integrity and beauty of his body and mind. Having therefore fallen in love with virginity and the celibate life, he deserted his race and his homeland, about to follow the proper norm of living of the ascetics. For he took care that his name should be written in the tablets of the supernal Jerusalem, and busied himself to attain the lot of our father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But indeed who could equal by speaking the deeds and praises of this Man? For my part I think that by no eloquence of men can his patience and combats be set forth according to their dignity, so far does the greatness and glory of his virtues surpass all abundance of speaking. But we, thinking that few things should be selected from many, will first speak of his race and homeland.

CHAPTER I. The Saint's birth; education; nuptials.

Obtained from God by prayers, and born of a barren mother, He had for his homeland elder Rome, and parents most distinguished for wealth, nobility, and honors borne. His father was Euphemianus, his mother Aglamades ^b. Both spouses, since they knew that nothing should be preferred to God, busied themselves to observe his precepts perfectly, and studiously to obey his will, being wont to dine with the needy, strangers, and pious men after the ninth hour of the day. But since Aglamades labored under the vice of sterility, although they had most ample wealth, yet to these there was equal grief, and perpetual mourning, while they sought an heir. "If Abraham, the father of all believers," they said, "was for this cause so greatly troubled, that he prayed God with those words: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go childless: (Gen. 15, 2) what must be said or thought by those who beheld such great wealth flowing to them?" Therefore they did not cease to pray God, and to solicit him with tears, groans, supplications, and vows, that he would deign to grant them a son, to be a subject of perpetual gladness. On account therefore of their very many alms to the poor and strangers, and their charity and mercy toward the needy and other miserable persons, they obtained this holy son from God; whom therefore they called the Man of the most kind and most liberal God ^c.

[4] He shows from his tender years a distinguished character. But the boy was most acceptable to God and to men of every condition or state; for to his parents, at an age now declining into old age, he had fallen beyond all hope. Therefore, thinking that they had obtained that offspring by a divine benefit, their mourning being suddenly changed into joy, they did not cease to give the greatest thanks they could to God, the founder of all things. Moreover the Boy showed a distinguished character from the very cradle of his life. Wherefore, when his age allowed, he is handed over to masters to be instructed in letters and morals. As he went to the school, a throng of servants carrying a chair followed him: but the Boy was in no way moved by that honor of the passing age, but, diligently and assiduously applying himself to letters and wisdom, busied himself especially about humility and modesty. Wherefore to his equals and familiars, on account of his singular affability and lowliness of mind, he was dear among few.

[5] [When he had grown up, and abhorred the things of the world, his mother tried to change his mind:] And now he had reached the bounds of adolescence, and seemed abundantly instructed in letters; when he began to deliberate with himself about flight from the world and his father's house. But his parents, who did not at all understand that that vessel was set apart for God, complained that their hope was baffled, and said that the counsels of perpetuating the stock in him had fallen, since they beheld the morals and character of the Youth in no way agree with the pursuits of this perishing world; nay on the contrary most averse from them. They had therefore commanded the servants to draw the Young man to the theaters and spectacles, and to strive to allure him by games, jests, and other amusements to softer counsels, and gradually to lead him away: but he stood most constant in his undertaken purpose, and not only did not at all yield to the arts of the servants, but even did not hesitate to reprove and sharply chide their levity and license.

[6] When therefore this in no way succeeded, the mother tried to break the son's resolve by the enticements of handmaids and attendants: but in vain. whom therefore, elegantly adorned, she sent into his chamber, thinking that by their blandishments the rigid character of the Youth would be softened. Nevertheless the Young man, tenacious of his seized purpose, was captured by no blandishments, nor by any enticements; but repelled the wanton girls modestly indeed, but no less strongly, testifying that solitude was dearer to him than any amusement. But the mother asked the handmaids whether the Youth, soothed by their addresses and blandishments, was wont to relax his mind for a while. To whom they: "Neither has he ever addressed us," they answered; "but when he is silent we in no way dare to address him; so great a majesty and modesty does he show in his countenance and morals." By these arts the virtue of the Youth was long tried; nor yet could they extort from him even the least word for the importunate woman.

[7] His age being now mature, the parents began to deliberate among themselves about his nuptials: Now mature in age he is destined for nuptials, wherefore the father, making words to his wife about the son's marriage: "Does it please you," he says, "to give a wife to this our son? For I hope indeed that this will be happy and fortunate for us, and will bring the greatest gladness before our death." Which words of her husband affected the mother with incredible joy, and, interpreting this mind sent divinely to her husband, she proceeded to give thanks to God, and to proclaim his providence: and at the same time addressing her husband: "But I," she says, "again and again pray God, that what you yourself have determined he may bring into effect, and grant what you say you hope, and that you may rejoice over this your son, and happily attain what you have hitherto sought: and therefore that you may increase your liberality toward the poor and needy."

[8] Then indeed the father summoned to himself certain prudent men, it is ordered that a bride be sought from anywhere, and, about to send them to lead a bride worthy of his race, and pleasing to the family, for his son; "Go," he says, "and whatever places chance shall offer you, survey, and for my son seek a woman, upright, prudent, most excellent in nobility of race and in beauty. For you see that I have this one son, on whom therefore all the hope of my house rests. Wherefore I have determined that nuptials must be procured for him quickly; but to me and his mother a most pleasant delight."

[9] With these admonitions dismissed the men departed; and accomplished the matter according to the master's wish, and brought to Rome a girl found at Constantinople ^d. and found at Constantinople. Which filled Euphemianus, and his wife, and all his familiars and kinsmen with incredible delight. The nuptials therefore are celebrated with the presence of all the Roman patricians, all desiring to put on the crown together with the bridegroom, and to come into the census of the companions. The Youth therefore was crowned ^e in the church of St. Peter ^f, the whole city applauding, and poured out into dancing. But the father prepared a magnificent banquet for the people, set up six hundred tables besides those things which he distributed among strangers and the needy, the flower of the Roman nobility flowing together to his house with the promiscuous common people.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II. The Saint secretly deserts his bride, carried first to Seleucia, then to Edessa; where he excels in virtues: he is sought, but not found.

The Saint, on the first night of the nuptials deserting his bride, And now the first day of the nuptials had flowed by, and the bride, gleaming with gold and gems, had entered the house with solemn pomp: when Euphemianus: "Enter," he says, "son, the bridal-chamber, and visit your bride ^a." The Youth obeyed, and, entering the chamber at the same time, sees his bride most adorned with all the woman's finery ^b. He nevertheless, in no way moved by that appearance, his eyes at once raised to heaven; "Recognize," he says, "my soul, the frail form, and this vain pomp, which after a day will go into ashes." Then suddenly rising, he took off the ring and pallium, and, handing both to his wife, at the same time commending his parents to her, he subjoined: "To you, wife, may God be present, I pray, and help and protect you," and, taking a purse of gold, with quick step he snatched himself away thence ^c, as if about to do some business urgently, and soon to return.

[11] he falls in with a companion: who, To him going out there met opportunely one of his

companions. Him, summoned apart to a secret meeting, he addresses with these words: "I am thinking of the neighboring port; wherefore, I ask you, do not be reluctant, having mounted a horse, to ride thither with me: for there will not be a long delay for us there; but when for a while we have stood there for the sake of relaxing the mind, we shall thence return as quickly as possible." The companion thought these were said by him in jest; nor was it easy to smell out at once the virtue and purpose of the Youth hidden under these words. But when he heard him again seriously affirming the same: "This plainly," he says, "in no way befits, that, when you have the whole city at your house, and sitting at your tables, and exulting at your nuptials, we should disturb the banquet, the games, and this festive day by that importunate departure."

[12] he tries in vain to call him back from the undertaking. "Who, I pray you, would assent to those thinking such things, or approve the deed; nay who would not reprehend and censure it? Consider, lest you turn joy into mourning, and the common gladness into grief, and baffle the hope and vow of all who flow together to this celebration, and desire to obey and serve you." With these and such words the companion pressed, and persuaded the Youth, not to desert his bride, parents, and guests. He on the contrary earnestly urged that he should mount the horse on the spot, and follow him about to depart for certain. But this one, because it grieved him to offend his friend, demanding it again and again, at last assented; and both, none of them noticing the departure from the City, with hastened horses sought the port.

[13] When they had come thither; the Youth, handing the horse to his companion: There therefore the Saint, pretexting a return, prepares his flight, "But you," he says, "await me here for a while; while meanwhile it pleases me to walk for an hour on the neighboring shore: soon after, returning to you, we both together will seek the City again." He, in no way having attained the mind of the Youth, assented to the speaker, and subjoined: "I pray you, brother, do not tarry there longer (for you see the day now verging to setting), lest perhaps, unable to return home, the darkness hindering, we have all the household, and the whole people, solicitous and anxious about our safety." Then indeed the blessed Youth, snatching himself from the eyes of his friend, and having found a certain secret place, his knees bent, and tears rising from the inmost compunction of his heart, thus prayed God:

[14] "God, bestower of good things, and knower of minds, [and, prayers being poured out to God, he boards the sea, and is carried to Seleucia, then comes to Edessa:] open to me, I pray, the door of thy mercy, God of powers; and grant me in this hour what I ask, nor confound my hope and my expectation." A sudden rumor seizes him praying, that a ship, just brought into the port, stands at anchor. Wherefore, interpreting that occasion as given him from heaven, he at once flies thither, where, received by the sailors among the other passengers within the ship, the favorable winds blowing, he came, divine providence so disposing, to Seleucia. But having tarried there a little while, he sets out for Edessa, where the image of our Lord Jesus Christ is kept, in which city, intent on fastings and prayer, and the other offices of the orthodox religion, he remained even to death.

[15] Hence moreover we undertake to set forth the pious conversation of the blessed Man in the city of Edessa. which by rare virtues For there, having distributed his gold and precious garments to relieve the want of the needy, he fixed his seat among the poor and needy at the doors of the church, sustaining himself on the alms of the pious flowing together thither. Sometimes entering the temple by night, there before the sepulchers of the martyrs he protracted his vigils even to broad day, accepting no food from anyone until the setting of the sun; for he prolonged his fast daily to that hour: content with slender fare, what remained over from the collected alms, he dispensed to the needy. It happened sometimes that after he had received alms someone came up from the surrounding throng of the poor, to whom he, without delay, gave back what he had received; as one who continually thought of the profit and health of body and soul. Meanwhile, tried variously by many, he yet in no way changed his purpose of living among the beggaries of the city.

[16] And when, night falling, the rest, according to custom, went to bed; he illustrates, unknown to men. he, either prostrate at their feet, or leaning against a wall or column, took a little sleep, most sparing of rest and sleep. Day with night, standing before the Lord, he joined in prayer, being wont to anticipate the throng coming to the church in the morning. This course of life he held most constantly even to death; nor was there anyone who perceived his acts and the inmost feelings of his soul. Nor did he himself ever open his race and homeland, or his name, to anyone, nor did anyone perceive the same from elsewhere. But now let us turn our discourse to the companion of the blessed Man, to whom, as we mentioned above, he had promised that he would immediately return, and would make his return together with him to his parents and bride.

[17] The father, made more certain of his son's flight, When therefore he thought that he had suddenly disappeared, and after a long while scarcely hoped that he would now return, having wandered through the whole port, he at last found that, a ship being boarded, he had gone away to other lands. Trembling therefore he flies back into the City, and reports to the parents the issue of the departure that had been made, that, if perhaps any way lay open, they might at once, a band of couriers being sent, recall the one departing. It can scarcely be said how greatly that unforeseen chance struck the parents and all the household. Suddenly joy passed into mourning, gladness into grief, the pleasantness of the banquet into the sadness of a funeral; all things were mingled and disturbed upside down.

[18] he orders him to be investigated everywhere among the nations, Yet in that perturbation of affairs the father, intrepid, at once calls together a select band of servants (they say there were three hundred), and, the sum of two hundred denarii being counted out to each, thus addressed them: "Go, and survey all the lands which heaven encircles, and seek my lost son. Search the groves, mountains, plains, seas, ports, trackless and passable places; go singly, let no one seek his companion, until it be found in what place the son's affairs are, or what issue he has borne of his flight. But also I wish the villages and lanes and crossroads, and whatever hiding-places of the lands, to be explored: and, that God may assent to my vows and yours, remember, from the assigned money, to help the needy and destitute, and the poor of the places to which you shall happen to come."

[19] [but he is not at all found; not even by his father's servants; whom, given alms by them, he knows, is not known:] These things said, the expedited servants, their bands divided, took various ways. And it happened that certain of that number, carried to the maritime shores of the East, sought also the Mediterranean lands, and entered Edessa (in which city we related above that St. Riscia had fixed his dwelling); who, having seen his servants present, went straight to them, stretched out his hand after the manner of the needy, asked alms, and, having received it, looking up to heaven, "Thanks," he says, "I have to thee, my Creator, who through the servants of my father hast brought me my own wealth." And he indeed recognized his own and his father's servants, but by them on the contrary was in no way recognized. Wherefore a certain one of that number of couriers determined to consult the bishop: and, access being obtained, he unfolded to him in order the cause of the journey undertaken; and said that he was indeed vehemently troubled, that he had not found the only son of his master; but that it happened to him much more grievously that this chance had cast the parents into immense mourning, and now held them in the highest anxiety and distress.

[20] who at last, having discharged a diligent search, return to their master. At these things the father bishop Rabulas the Great stuck, revolving with himself the deed of the holy Youth, and amazed; but he answered that nothing about that matter had hitherto been ascertained by him. Wherefore, when they could learn nothing from the bishop, they wandered through the city, and, the Servant of God himself beholding and hearing, frequently coming to the church where he was wont to sit, they questioned all whom they met about him. But there was neither one who satisfied the askers, nor could they themselves ever recognize their master present: for it could not come into their mind that he was the son of their master, whom they saw begging alms from them; for all the flower of his former beauty and comeliness had flowed away, and, if any indication of his former dignity still remained, all that a ragged and sordid habit had covered. However the matter was; this is certain, that he was in no way recognized by his servants, nor did the presence of the holy Man make any suspicion of the matter to them. Therefore, thinking that they had discharged the province committed to them, as having surveyed all places widely, and moved every stone, as they say, at last, the matter unaccomplished, returned to their master, and reported the vain issue of the labor undertaken.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III. He is mourned by his own; he is indicated from heaven to the sacristan of the Edessene church; to whom he manifests his whole self. His death, burial.

Here the father, his mind rising to heaven, gave thanks to God, and blessed him, and said: "I will go on mourning my son, Meanwhile, while absent he is mourned by his own, and my only-begotten, until I be made more certain of his safety, nor will I spare tears and groans, until I see my son, and my beloved. I will not eat nor drink, except in the midst of the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the calamitous men; until the only-begotten come, and through him my joy be fulfilled in gladness and delight." Likewise the mother, having entered her chamber, the doors being barred, a window being left to receive a little light, put on sackcloth, and, sitting in ashes, prayed: "The Lord lives," she said, "and my God, for I will not change my garment, until my son come, and my heart rejoice in him." The wife likewise: "The merciful God lives," she says, "for I will not go out nor depart from this place, nor seek another seat, except at the doors of my mother-in-law and my lord, until my husband return to me, and my Lord, whom I had hoped would be my protection in this my age, and in my last days."

[22] Meanwhile the Man of God, who by another name is called Mar-Riscia, [and continues to lead a most sparing life, is indicated from heaven to the sacristan of the church:] sat in the vestibule of the church of St. Mary the Mother of God; in which place he remained eighteen years, most sparing of sleep and food, as I said above, content with an ounce of dry bread for his daily food; to which he added lentils and beans softened in water for his relish. In drink he held the same measure, being wont to quench his thirst with simple water. This conversation and norm of life St. Riscia pursued even to the end. If moreover anything happened to be received from the charity of the pious, he distributed it to the beggars of the neighborhood. It happened that after these things, to the sacristan of the church sleeping, an unknown voice with an uncertain sound related these words: "Arise, and forthwith bring the Man of God into the church with honor: since his prayer ascends into heaven, like pure incense, and like most sweet frankincense: and"

was heard by almighty God; and the Holy Spirit rested in him, and he was made a chosen vessel." But that sacristan was called Pirmunara ^a: who, soon awakened, set to reconsider that oracle, and to seek with himself whom in so great a throng of the poor, sitting round the doors of the church, that voice had designated. But all doubt was removed by the voice sent in on the following night, indicating the appearance, habit, and prerogative of the designated Man: and, again commanding that he should meet the man as soon as possible, and introduce him into the temple.

[23] who, having fished out all his secrets, When therefore the day dawned, the sacristan, secretly surveying the vestibule of the church, recognized the Servant of God from the given marks; and when he had found him praying, he stood by for a while: then interrupting; "Guest," he says, "set forth, I pray, what is your homeland, or what matter or business detains you here." But when the Man of God was silent, nor seemed willing to answer the inquirer, the sacristan courteously and kindly pressed, asked, that he would not be reluctant to make him some reply. Then indeed the holy Man; "Why do you ask me?" he says. "Ask those whom you have present: they will tell and indicate to you whence I am, and that I am one of them." But indeed the sacristan could in no way acquiesce in these words; but, recalling what he had heard through the dream, he was wholly boiling in mind, desiring at any cost to find out the sense of the oracle. Wherefore, turning to the Servant of God, he bound himself by a horrible oath, that he would never desist from the undertaking, but would continually press, until, overcome by the importunity of his prayers, he should solve that question.

[24] [and, an oath of silence being interposed, learns at last the whole matter, not without fruit;] Thus at last, the constancy of the Servant of God being stormed, and, reverencing the name of God and terrified by the terrible adjurations by which he had been adjured by the sacristan, he at once laid open to him the institute of his life, hitherto known to none, and the other secrets of his soul, again and again beseeching, that he should promise to cover that secret with perpetual silence, and confirm the credit of his promise by an oath. From that meeting the sacristan, wondrously affected toward the Servant of God, at once prayed that he would enter the church with him: yet him refusing he did not wish to compel, but, withdrawing thence at once into his cell, he did not cease to weigh and admire the matter with himself. "If this man," he said, "held wealth, parents, and wife in hatred, and fell in love with poverty and humility, and chose for himself want and abstinence; why should I not fear to neglect the salvation of my soul, nor strive with all my might, that on the supreme day of retribution and vengeance I may find a place among the just?" Thence the sacristan, turned with his whole heart to procuring the business of his soul, so profited that the external appearance of the man testified the grace of his internal conversation.

[25] A long time after, the humble St. Riscia began to be tried by sickness. [and the Saint, laboring under sickness, and by his care brought into the hospital, he frequently visited.] By which at last prostrated, having found a certain space interposed between the columns, he lay down there. Wherefore the sacristan, coming up to visit him according to custom, in no way found him: having sought and at last found him, he asked that he would come to his chamber. "I pray you," he said, "since you have fallen into this sickness, that you turn aside into my little house, thence, after you have recovered, to return at your pleasure to the seat appointed for you." Yet the holy Man in no way acquiesced in his prayers, nor could be induced to desert the place fixed for himself in the vestibule of the church. Nevertheless the sacristan pressed, and, "To the hospital," he said, "allow yourself, I pray, to be brought; there I will frequently revisit you, and busy myself about your affairs." So at last he assented, that he should suffer himself to be carried to the infirmary; meanwhile content to have bound the sacristan by an oath, that he should remember that he himself was a poor man; and therefore should think that he was to be preferred in nothing to the other poor. By this contrivance the Man of God was carried to the hospital: where by the sacristan he was most frequently visited with the highest charity.

[26] These were the last days of the blessed Man: in which the Lord, Death; burial in the cemetery of strangers: who does the will of those who fear him, determined to crown the pious, immaculate, and humble conversation of St. Riscia, and to place his virtue in safety. Therefore, the holy Man's migration from this fragile world being at hand, it happened that the sacristan, hindered, it is uncertain by what cause, did not come to the sick man, as he was wont. When therefore the attending curators of the hospital had beheld the Servant of God to have now breathed his last, they took care that the corpse, placed on a bier, should be carried to the cemetery of strangers, and committed to the earth. To the sacristan coming afterward, and solicitously inquiring about the departure of his sick man, they answered that he had now breathed out his last soul, and had been laid in the cemetery. The sacristan, hearing these things and reconsidering the unexpected death of the man most dear to him, and the burial unworthy of such a Man, stricken with incredible grief, filled the house with tears, sobs, and lamentations.

[27] Thence, at once going to the bishop Rabulas the Great ^b, [that thence he may be transferred to a more fitting place, the bishop of Edessa is asked;] he fell at his feet; and, stirred by vehement affection, cried: "Have mercy on me, Lord, and hear my prayers, and, I pray, console the sorrowful." At once the prelate, breathed upon by a divine light, as if he foresaw the matter itself, began kindly to address the man, and to relieve the mourning one; "What is the cause of your grief? Speak, son," he said; "or what calamity and misfortune stirs these tears for you?" By these words somewhat raised, the sacristan proceeded to narrate to the prelate the acts of the servant of God Riscia: at last he asked that he would order the immaculate and venerable body of the blessed Man to be transferred from the cemetery to a more fitting place. For indeed the bishop burned with divine fire, when he had heard the sacristan narrating such things, so that, tears bursting from the inmost feeling of his soul, he wept most abundantly. And without delay he determined himself to go to the tomb of the holy Man, and to explore the deed. Nor had he yet come to the place, when he met those returning with the bier from the care of the funeral. Being asked, where they had laid the body of the poor man just dead; they answered that they had buried it in the cemetery of strangers: and that it would certainly be found there.

[28] [who, going to his sepulcher in which he had first been buried, does not find the body:] To whom the bishop; "But you," he says, "now lead us to the sepulcher of that stranger." When they had come to the place, the prelate ordered certain of his company that, the tomb being dug up, they should draw out the corpse of the blessed Man, which when they had done, except for the cloths ^c with which the body of the Servant of God had been wrapped, and which were placed apart, nothing appeared. Wherefore the bishop, and all who were present, vehemently stupefied by the novelty of the matter, at last, when he returned from that, as it were, alienation of mind; "Let us pray," the prelate exclaims, "and let us implore aid from God." But the bishop Rabulas wept, and said: "Far be it, Lord, that, distracted by the care of any business, I should henceforth neglect hospitality toward strangers and thy chosen ones": for he was not ignorant that several men like St. Riscia had fallen in love with humility, and greatly desired to lie hidden as men. And indeed, made more cautious by such a chance, the blessed prelate began to embrace guests and the needy with special charity and immense care, and to omit nothing for the sake of relieving their want. Which likewise toward monasteries and churches he proceeded wondrously to perform, and toward widows and orphans, and other needy and destitute persons.

[29] thereafter wondrously beneficent toward guests and the poor. Nor indeed was that care of the bishop contained within the bounds of the Edessene church; but extended itself to the neighboring places also. And thus began, and accomplished what he had begun, the father Rabulas, the venerable bishop, and most excellent in every kind of virtues. May his prayer, and his blessings, embrace us and all of you. Amen ^d.

ANNOTATIONS.