Marcellina

ON ST. MARCELLINA, VIRGIN,

AT MILAN IN INSUBRIA.

IN THE YEAR 398 OR 399.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Marcellina, Virgin, at Milan in Insubria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

§ I. The cult and elogia of the Saint.

The Roman Martyrology, which we use today, announces the annual festivity of St. Marcellina on the XVII of July in these words: "At Milan, of St. Marcellina, virgin, sister of the blessed Ambrose the bishop, who at Rome in the Basilica of St. Peter received the veil of consecration from Pope Liberius; whose sanctity also the same blessed Ambrose makes attested by his writings." The cult is proved from the Martyrologies, Maurolyco, Felici, Galesinius, our Canisius, and other more recent hagiologists inserted the same holy Virgin into their Martyrologies on this day. But, these omitted, I bring forward older testimonies of her cult. Besides our manuscript Florarium, written about the middle of the fifteenth century, the sanctity of this Virgin is testified by the Usuardine Supplements, whose words may be seen in Usuard, illustrated a few years ago. But the most ancient testimony of her cult which I have hitherto found exists in an Antiphonary written five hundred years ago, concerning all the festivities of the yearly circle of the church of Milan, of which codex the curious reader may consult Mabillon in his Italian Museum, tome 1, page 107 and following.

[2] The ecclesiastical Offices of the church of Milan confirm the same cult: and by proper lessons for the Breviary, printed at Venice in the year 1539, has of St. Marcellina the three following proper lessons: Lesson I. "For she was the sister of the most holy prelate and confessor Ambrose, born at Rome of honorable and most illustrious, and also religious, parents. Finally the venerable spouses devoted the first flower of their wedlock, namely the blessed Marcellina, as sacred first-fruits to Christ the Lord. After her was born the blessed Ambrose, and then Satyrus. The girl therefore, educated by her mother in sacred studies, her age urging [*], ardently began to demand the profession of virginity. Lesson II. Who at last, on the day of the Lord's Nativity, received from Pope Liberius, with the garment of religion, the virginal benediction, many virgins being gathered in the church. Then the holy Pontiff, ascending the pulpit, treated of many things concerning the spouse Christ, to whom she had adhered, concerning faith and the purity of virginity, of things to be used, to be avoided, and to be done, and at last solemnly blessed the virgin offered by the hands of her pious father and mother. Lesson III. But when her brother Ambrose and her brother Satyrus, by divine nod, warred for Christ the Lord at Milan, the one a bishop and the other a Levite, their parents being dead, the inheritance of the whole patrimony left behind, she betook herself to Milan to her dearest brothers; and there, content under their governance with simple clothing and the meanest food, in vigils and prayers or readings, she lived not a little solicitous for the Arian perfidy: but, the slipperiness of the time urging, her brother Satyrus first migrated from the world to Christ. Then her grief was doubled: the holy confessor Ambrose, after innumerable signs of virtues, bidding farewell to the world, passed to the Lord. At last she too followed her beloved brothers, whose virginal body the venerable prelate Simplician laid beside her brother's tomb on the XVI Kalends of August."

[3] The Milan Breviary of the year 1635, certain circumstances being passed over, of the twofold Breviary, contracted and altered the three preceding lessons into one in this manner: "Marcellina, a Roman virgin, born of a noble family, own sister of the blessed Ambrose the bishop and of Satyrus, from her first years piously educated by the care of her parents, and trained to divine virtue, at a marriageable age is betrothed to the heavenly Spouse: for the virgin, burning with the ardor of divine love, by the fullest will of her parents, on the birthday of Christ, with a very great concourse of virgins, is solemnly dedicated to religion by the Pontiff Liberius, the vow of virginity being pronounced. The manner of which virginal life being undertaken, both inflamed of herself to acting holily, and stirred up by the books of her brother the blessed Ambrose, which he wrote about virgins, she made wondrous progress in the way of the Lord. She was devoted to the studies of divine letters, frequent in vigils, fasts, and prayers, content with slender food, clothed in humble garb, desirous of divine things, and remarkable for her contempt of human things, whose sanctity also the holy Ambrose makes attested. But bereaved first of Satyrus, then of Ambrose, her brothers, wholly given to prayers and every office of piety, while she aspired to the heavenly homeland, at last, heaped with merits by the goodness of God, she rested in the Lord, buried by the blessed Simplician at the monument of her brother the blessed Ambrose." While in each Breviary you read the word "religion," do not suspect that St. Marcellina professed an institute of religious life, bound by three vows, such as we now commonly understand by this word: for this word, according to the custom of the Latins, here signifies nothing but piety, and from the Acts and other circumstances it appears sufficiently that St. Marcellina emitted only a vow of chastity.

[4] and of the Milan Missal. The Milan Missal, which is commonly called the Ambrosian, printed in the year 1522, celebrates the feast of St. Marcellina with the rite common to virgins; but recites the following proper prayers. Over the people. "May the intercession, we beseech thee, O Lord, of the most blessed virgin Marcellina, not cease to appease thy majesty for us, and may she who pleased thee by the integrity of her mind and body render our servitude continually devoted to thee. Through, etc." Over the shroud. "May the most blessed virgin Marcellina, we beseech thee, O Lord, intervene for us, who for the love of thy name kept the purpose of praiseworthy virginity with a body and heart ever undefiled. Through, etc." Over the offerings. "We render to thee, O Lord, the due homage of our servitude, suppliantly praying, that by the suffrage of the merits of the blessed virgin Marcellina thou mayest sanctify the gifts of thy people, since for her honorable confession among the holy virgins we immolate to thee victims of praise. Through, etc." PREFACE. "Eternal God, recalling the merits, to be preferred, of the glorious virgin Marcellina, whom thou didst deign to exalt with so great a gift, that she should not only keep the gift of integrity with an unstained mind, but also, shining with the Gospel lamp, should grow with increases of good works, and by the virtue of faith excel as a most prudent virgin: who also, ennobling the insignia of earthly nobility by the service of Christ thy Son, was made for the heavenly bridal-chamber with manifold

fitting adornment; insomuch that, by the company of her blessed brothers, as if supported by the rowing of two wings, she joyfully ascended to the heavenly glory, and with them received the unfading crown of perpetual life. Through the same, etc." Postcommunion. "Refreshed by the libation of the heavenly sacraments, and fattened with the joy of the present festivity, we suppliantly beseech thee, O Lord, that we may ever be protected by the aid of her in whose exultation we rejoice. Through, etc." From these it is plain that the cult of this holy Virgin is sufficiently certain and celebrated. Now let us excerpt some elogia of her from St. Ambrose himself.

[5] St. Ambrose, concerning the virtues of St. Marcellina his sister, St. Ambrose, in tome 4 of the Cologne edition, which I here use, book 3 On Virgins, page 225, indicates the profession of his sister Marcellina in these words: "Since we have digested in the two preceding books what we had, it is time, holy sister, to revolve those precepts of Liberius of blessed memory which you are wont to confer with me, that as the man was holier, so the discourse may become more pleasing. For he, when at the birthday of the Savior you signed the profession of virginity to the Apostle Peter, also by a change of garment (for on what better day than that on which a Virgin acquired posterity), and with many maidens of God also standing by, who vied with one another for your fellowship: 'You have desired,' he said, 'daughter, good nuptials.'" Then by the holy Doctor are related more copiously and elegantly those things which are read in our Acts from no. 6. Then on the following page, putting an end to the sermon of Pope Liberius, he indicates the virtues of his sister, and strives thus to temper her excessive fervor: "These things to you Liberius of holy memory: which, being with others greater in words, with you are lesser in examples, so that you have not only equaled all discipline in virtue, but even surpassed it in emulation. For we have fasting in the precepts, but of single days; but you, multiplying nights and days, pass innumerable times without food, and if ever you are asked to take food, that you may lay aside the codex for a little while, you answer at once: 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' The very use of banquets, the food at hand, so that by loathing of eating fasting is desired. Drink from the fountain, weeping in prayer, sleep upon the codex. These things befit the younger years, until the mind, mature in age, should grow gray. But when the virgin shall have raised the trophy of the subdued body, the labor must be moderated, that the mistress may be preserved under an equal age." Finally by various similitudes he persuades her to a moderation of her fasts.

[6] he recalls various things. The same Saint intimates that his sister was very solicitous for the Church, and sometimes foresaw evils impending over it, when he writes to her thus, tome 5, book 2, epistle 14: "Since in almost all your letters you solicitously inquire about the Church, receive what is being done. The day after I received your letter, in which you had signified that your dreams disturbed you, a mass of grave disquiets began to be stirred." How much St. Ambrose esteemed Marcellina is plain from book 7, epistle 55, which he thus begins: "Since I am wont to conceal nothing of those things which are done here in your absence from your holiness, know also, most beloved sister, that holy martyrs have been found by us." But with how great grief Marcellina was affected on account of the death of Satyrus, the holy Doctor expresses in tome 4, in the book On the Death of his Brother, near the end, page 151, in these words: "But concerning my holy sister, what will become of her, who, although she tempers her affection by divine fear, yet again kindles the very grief of affection by zeal of religion: prostrate on the ground, and having embraced the whole tomb in her bosom, wearied with laborious approach, sad in affection, she renews her grief days and nights. For although she often suspends her weeping by speech, she renews it in prayer; and although the memory of the Scriptures anticipates those who sow consolations, yet she compensates the desire of weeping by the assiduity of praying, then especially renewing the abundance of tears, when no one can interrupt her." And these are the chief things which St. Ambrose has concerning the virtues of his sister, although elsewhere he often mentions her. Now let us say a few things about the chronology of our Saint.

* Otherwise "a true nation."

§ II. The epoch of the holy virgin, the place of her death, her epitaph, sepulcher, and Acts.

John Peter Puricelli, in the Nazarian Dissertation, chapter 46, no. 2, conjectures that St. Marcellina was born in the year of Christ 328. This conjecture would not displease me, St. Marcellina seems to have been born about the year 330, if he deferred the birth of St. Ambrose until the year 340, as Tillemont judges it should be deferred, tome 10 of the Ecclesiastical Memoirs, page 729. That controversy can afterward be more accurately discussed in the Life of St. Ambrose, to be illustrated on the VII of December. Meanwhile from the Ambrosian Acts written by the presbyter Paulinus it is established that St. Marcellina was already somewhat grown, while St. Ambrose still lay in the cradle. Moreover St. Marcellina did not emit the profession of virginity before the end of the year 352, since only in that same year was Liberius elected Roman Pontiff. Finally St. Marcellina, on the testimony of the same Paulinus, had already professed virginity, when Ambrose as a young lad saw his mother and sister and other virgins kissing the hand of the priest, and himself in play offered his right hand, saying that this ought to be done to him also by them (others prefer to read "by her"); since he recorded that he was to be a bishop. But this playful offering of the hand seems rather to suit Ambrose as a boy of ten or twelve years, as Tillemont rightly notes in the place cited above, than a young man of nineteen or twenty years.

[8] From what has been said it can be gathered that Marcellina was easily ten years older than Ambrose. and to have died in the year 398 or 399, Which being supposed, we shall say that she was born in the year of Christ 330, and in the year 352 under Pope Liberius emitted the vow of chastity, when she already had twenty-two years of age. But in what year she died, we cannot determine. Our Acts indeed assert that she died under Simplician, bishop of Milan and successor of St. Ambrose; but since, on the testimony of Puricelli in the Nazarian Dissertation, chapter 56, no. 1, some authors ascribe to Simplician two, some three, others four, others ten, others twelve years of episcopate, this epoch of her death is again not certain. Yet it is far more probable that Simplician, having succeeded St. Ambrose in the year 397, presided over the church of Milan only three years and some months, and did not live beyond the four-hundredth year, as the most eminent Cardinal Baronius shows in the Ecclesiastical Annals, tome 5, at the year of Christ 400, no. 3, and Puricelli proves at greater length from him in the Dissertation already praised, chapter 59, no. 8. On this epoch may also be seen the opinion of our Henschenius before tome I of April, page XXXVIII, in the singular Dissertation on the death of St. Ambrose, and the Exegesis of Papebroch on the bishops of Milan, prefixed to tome VII of May, page LXI. Hence therefore we conjecture that St. Marcellina, nearly seventy years old, more probably migrated from this life in the year 398 or 399.

[9] more probably at Milan than at Rome. There is a question between Baronius and the Milanese writers, whether St. Marcellina died at Rome or at Milan. Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 383, no. 17, after exhibiting the epitaph of St. Marcellina, intimates that she died at Rome, but that her sacred body was translated to Milan. Against this the Milanese rise up, and contend that she was not only buried but also died at Milan. Certainly, if we believe our Acts, she died and was buried at Milan. See the arguments against Baronius in Puricelli in the Monuments of the Ambrosian Basilica, from page 29, where he strives to establish his opinion from the very words of St. Ambrose, and asserts (yet without a witness) that St. Marcellina, after the death of her brother Satyrus, at which she was present at Milan, never returned to Rome. Peter Paul Bosca in the Martyrology of the Milanese church, page 196, tries to prove the same opinion from the ancient epitaph of St. Marcellina; from which, however, the place of death is not clearly enough drawn out, since Baronius, just cited, brings forward that very one, and explains it conveniently enough of a Roman death. Yet I judge, all things being weighed on both sides, that the Milanese historians have the stronger reasons for their opinion.

[10] The epitaph of the holy virgin, Now we give the very epitaph of St. Marcellina, which indeed is said to have been composed by Simplician, but is not solidly enough proved. But it, taken from the manuscript codex of the Basilica of St. Peter, and collated with the edition of Gruter, has thus:

Marcellina, when life loosed your limbs, you scorned to join your body to the ancestral sepulchers; since you hope for the pious fellowship of your brother's sleep, and desire to rest in the dear earth of the Saints. The far-off home plucked nothing from your chaste love; nor does affection perish by death: for by a joyful [*] gift, touched [] again, O sister, you are restored to the brotherly hall []. Although great Rome sighs with pious grief, that she now suffers a third loss to the sacred [] sepulchers []? Yet who would call this the seat of a narrow [*] hall? This is the house of the body: for you, pious Virgin, the supernal empire receives, and gently to the offices of life [*] Christ destines for you the price of the eternal hall, giving rewards to the chaste in the honor [*] of the undefiled mother. The midway course of July fervently passes over you, and your Spouse, O Virgin, has carried you to the heavens.

[11] and the sepulcher Concerning the present sepulcher of St. Marcellina, Puricelli, in the Nazarian Dissertation, chapter 56, no. 16, writes thus: "The tomb of Marcellina is still seen placed in the subterranean confession (commonly scurolo) of the Ambrosian basilica, next to the sepulcher of St. Ambrose, set beneath the primary altar, and it is distant about ten paces or cubits from it." But that the verses already related no longer exist there, the same author confesses near the end of the same number in these words: "The epitaph therefore which Simplician placed upon the tomb of Marcellina, this very one he certainly set forth in that same church: but afterward it was removed thence; and then perhaps, when, the earth being dug out beneath, they built the present confession and scurolo underneath." Mabillon too in his Italian Journey, page 15, thus mentions in passing the present state of the same sepulcher: "Meanwhile we survey the church, to make our vows to God at the tomb of St. Ambrose, whose body is believed to lie hidden in the subterranean crypt under the high altar. In the same place is buried his sister Marcellina, virgin, in a prominent tomb, whose old epitaph has been related by Gruter: for that which is now read affixed to the gypsum sepulcher is more recent." I suspect that Mabillon here at the end speaks of the inscription which the praised Puricelli, at the chapter and number just cited, brings forward thus: "In that tomb therefore the mortal remains of Marcellina were believed to rest: and not even the tomb itself now lacks testimonies of letters. For on its hinder part, turned toward that old wall, thus is incised on the overlaid plaster: HERE LIES ST. MARCELLINA, SISTER OF ST. AMBROSE, and again on the back of the tomb thus is inscribed in ink: THE VIRGIN MARCELLINA, SISTER OF THE DIVINE AMBROSE, AND BY THE DIVINE SIMPLICIAN HERE BURIED."

[12] It remains that, concerning the Acts to be subjoined to this Commentary,

to be subjoined, The Life, or rather a discourse on her deeds, is examined, we premise some things. The Life of St. Marcellina, which we shall give from Mombritius, is truly a panegyric sermon, delivered at Milan on the anniversary festivity of the holy Virgin, as becomes manifest to the reader. But who is the author of the discourse, or in what century he delivered it, we plainly do not know. We only know that Mombritius, in the time of Sixtus IV the Roman Pontiff, edited the Acts of the Saints from an ancient parchment manuscript Passionary, which was preserved in the Lateran Archive, as Dominic Macri teaches us in his Hierolexicon, page 83, at the word "Birrus." Hilarion, a Benedictine monk, in the Supplement to the Lives of the Saints written by Jacobus de Voragine, reduced the same discourse, the exordium omitted, into a compendium, and published it in print at Milan in the year 1494. Silvanus Razzi, abbot Camaldulensis, among the Lives of women illustrious for sanctity, tome 4, folio 52 verso, edited the same Acts, adorned in his own style, in Italian. But the preacher, from whom all these drew their materials, has scarcely anything peculiar, besides the elogia related above from St. Ambrose, into which he mingled two palpable errors, which we shall now detect.

[13] Besides innumerable faults, whether of the copyist or of the typesetter, in which one, which crept into the Mombritian edition of these Acts, a twofold error concerning the substance of the narration occurs in it. The first is read in no. 11, where the preacher asserts that St. Ambrose was born only after St. Marcellina had made the public profession of virginity under Pope Liberius. But we said above that this could not have been done before the year 352, in which Liberius succeeded the Pontiff Julius on the XXII of May. If therefore St. Ambrose was born only after the year 352, and, according to all writers, died in the year 397 or 398, it follows that he completed only 45 or 46 years of life. Meanwhile St. Ambrose, in book 4, epistle 32 to Severus the bishop, writes thus expressly about himself: "Since I have now passed my fifty-third year, placed in the body, in which we have long since sustained such grave groanings, how do we not pitch our tents in the tabernacles of the Ethiopians, and dwell with the tents of Cedar?" From these I think the preacher is sufficiently manifestly convicted of error, whom nevertheless Hilarion and Razzi followed in his error.

[14] The other error offers itself in the same discourse, no. 12, and another gross error is corrected. where it is said that Satyrus was born after Ambrose. But this hallucination again is sufficiently refuted from St. Ambrose himself, who in the book On the Death of his Brother Satyrus, praising his virtues, has these words to our purpose concerning him, tome 4 of the Cologne edition, page 150: "Who therefore would not wonder that a man, between two brothers, the one a virgin, the other a priest, midway in age, not unequal in magnanimity, so acquitted himself between two greatest offices, that he reflected the chastity of the one, the sanctity of the other, not by the bond of profession, but by the office of virtue?" Do you see Satyrus called midway in age between Marcellina the virgin and Ambrose the bishop? Nevertheless the Milanese have long adhered to this error in the proper Lessons transcribed in no. 2. The reader, forearmed with these preliminary observations, may now have the very Life of the holy Virgin, or rather the panegyrical discourse of the annual festivity, edited by Mombritius, which we have been compelled here and there to purge of typographical faults.

* Gruter: "of death."

* Gruter: "victa," otherwise "juncta."

* Gruter: "of the shade."

* Gruter: "sacri."

* Gruter: "of the sepulcher."

* Gruter: "narrow."

* Gruter: "gently, after the offices of death."

* Gruter: "the honor."

ACTS

From Bonino Mombritius, tome 2, folio 95 verso.

Marcellina, Virgin, at Milan in Insubria (S.)

BHL Number: 5223

FROM MOMBRITIUS.

PROLOGUE.

The author excusing his slenderness, To fraternal edification, although not impudently [*], but yet not wholly improbably, to the glory of our God and the praise of the most sacred Marcellina, my mind suggests to weave some things; to which assent would never be given, unless your unwearied affection of highest devotion toward the same Virgin of God had compelled me. For which cause it befits you to have assembled, not that you may refute the ignorance of my brow, but that you may solicitously represent your homage to her most sacred merits. Draw now, if you please, from a leaden pipe a drop of the distilling liquor, and do not wonder if a dry and useless trunk bear a cluster not its own; although he who bade the dry rod of Aaron put forth leaves will also, if he wills, make our trunks grow green again: nor is it to be doubted that he who bestowed on the blessed Marcellina the palm of perpetual virginity will grant a workshop of speaking to us who desire to tell in part the proclamations of her virtues.

[2] by the example of Jephthah, We read written in the old history that Jephthah, once leader of the Israelite nation, after he had offered to God the votive blood of his only daughter, in order to celebrate fittingly the virginal funeral, roused from every side mournful bands of virgins, that in this way he might both temper the very grave grief of paternal love, and might leave to posterity the inevitable obsequies of his daughter beloved beyond measure; and that from this it became a custom for the virgins of that place to bewail the daughter of Jephthah with yearly mourning, nay to dedicate to the virgin of excellent memory seven days of threnodic song throughout the several courses of the succeeding years. That therefore from old things we may forge new; if a virgin of ancient observance, in a manner bound by her father's vows, and lamentably slain by her father's sword, obtained among her foster-sisters and fellow-countrywomen so much honor, that not only her recent but also her ancient tomb was frequented after long times with yearly obsequies, and honored with sevenfold watches; why should not much more by us, for whom the old things have passed away, and behold all things have been made new through the coming of the Lord, the festivity of the most blessed virgin of Christ be cultivated with fitting honor, and venerated with condign memory?

[3] What does it profit, O citizens, to pay to holy martyrs or venerable virgins of a foreign region the due solemnities of vows; he exhorts the faithful to celebrate the annual feast of St. Marcellina. and by derogating to despise our own, or those who are at hand, such as the fathers of the homeland, and the propagators of this our church, and in no way to venerate them with due homages? Let therefore the aforesaid examples of the Israelite virgins inform us, and, as he with devout homages, though with vain rewards, mournfully bore the obsequies to the famous virgin with yearly festivity, do you exhibit cheerfully and purely to the spouse of Christ, and virgin dedicated to God, Marcellina, whose day of festive migration the orbit of the year, recurring into itself, has brought back today; that, aided by her assiduous intercessions, exalted by proclaiming her merits, you may sound forth praises to Christ the Lord with sweet strains: although the cause of our solemnity and of theirs be unequal, yet the form of virginal affection and piety is alike.

* Perhaps "prudently."

CHAPTER I.

The birth of St. Marcellina, her pious education, and her public profession of virginity after the exhortation of Pope Liberius.

That Marcellina, the most glorious virgin of Christ, was the own sister of the distinguished pontiff, patron, and founder of churches, Ambrose, almost the whole world recalls: St. Marcellina, sprung from pious parents, the origin of whose blessed stock, how illustrious even among the imperial records, is known to so many, that for the harmony of the deed it is thought superfluous for our relation: since Ambrose their father, an illustrious man, was sprung from a lineage of Roman blood, who, having first obtained no inferior seat in the Roman senate, was preferred by the judgment of Cæsar as guardian and most useful defender of the commonwealth. Thereafter, the merits of his highest eloquence and industry advancing him, he is set by decree of the senate over the prefecture of the Gauls; whose probity of morals and discipline can be conjectured in the offspring procreated from him. But that their most illustrious mother, herself also noble by a generous stock, but far nobler by the nobility of virtues, and full of religion and faith, is clear, by whose instructions the blessed virgin Marcellina, formed in chaste morals, both desired Christ, the Son of God, as a spouse, and loved him as a lord.

[5] Finally, the parents, beholding that this daughter had come forth to them in the first flower of their pleasant wedlock, she desires to profess virginity publicly, which by Pope Liberius, devoted her, after the manner of first-fruits, to be consecrated to the giver of all good things. Thus nourished by the ever-watchful care of her most holy mother, and thus grown up with girlish increases, purer and cleaner than refined gold, she grew up without all the enticements of human life. What more? Before the most beautiful virgin had reached the sight of men, and knowing not to love anything but Christ, she began suppliantly to implore her parents for the hastening of the profession of virginity. Her tender breast was greatly anxious, and unceasingly heaved frequent sighs. At last she obtained that on the coming birthday of the Lord she should receive the pledge of the heavenly Spouse. And how fittingly the virgin longed to receive the ring of Christ on that day, on which the Virgin, prince of undefiled virginity, acquired the new fruit of her womb with eternal posterity. The undefiled modesty of the virgin to be consecrated is proclaimed among the people; there is a concourse of innumerable maidens to the church, vying with one another for her fellowship. There then presided over the chair of the Roman Church Liberius of blessed memory, to whom, celebrating the solemnities of the Lord's birth in the church of Peter, prince of the Apostles, the vows of the most illustrious parents are announced, and the unwearied ardor of the Virgin, loving Christ alone, is disclosed. The distinguished pastor consents to the pious prayers, and judged that the devout affections of both should be fulfilled.

[6] before a great multitude of the people, in faith Therefore, before the celebration of the Masses was ended, ascending the pulpit, he prudently began the word of admonition to the Virgin as well as to the people standing by: "You have desired," he said, "O daughter, good nuptials. You may see how great a people has assembled at the birthday of your Spouse: and no one from this number shall depart unfed. For he who, being asked to the nuptials, turned water into wine, will confer on you too the sincere sacrament of virginity, you who before were subject to the base elements of material nature. This is he who with five loaves and two fishes fed four thousand of the people in the desert: he could have fed more, if there had been more then to be fed. Finally, to your nuptials he has called more. But now not bread of barley, but a body is ministered from heaven. Today indeed, according to man, a man is born of a Virgin, but before all things begotten of the Father: who reflects his mother in body, the Father in power; only-begotten in heaven, God from God; born of the Virgin, justice from the Father, power from the powerful, light from light; not unequal to his begetter, not divided in power, not confused by the extension or utterance of the word, or mixed with the Father, but so as to be distinguished from the Father by the right of generation. He is your brother-in-love, without whom neither the heavenly, nor the sea, nor the earthly things subsist. The good Word of the Father, which was, he says, in the beginning: (You have his eternity.) And it was, he says, with the Father: (You have his power, undivided and inseparable from the Father.) And the Word was God: (You have his divinity.) For from a compendium is faith to be drawn by you.

[7] and instructed in the love of God, Him, daughter, love, because he is good: no one is good, but one God. For if it is not doubted that the Son is God. But God is good: surely it is not doubted that the Son is good God. Him, I say, love. He is he whom

the Father begot before the morning star, and eternally generated from the womb, as a Son; belched forth from the heart, as the Word. He is he in whom the Father was well pleased. He is the arm of the Father, because he is the creator of all; the wisdom of the Father, because he proceeded from the mouth of God; the power of the Father, because the fullness of divinity dwells in him bodily, whom the Father so loves that he carries him in his bosom, places him at his right hand, so as to call him wisdom, so as to know him as power. If therefore Christ is the power of God, was God ever at any time without power? Was the Father ever at any time without the Son? If always the Father, surely always also the Son. Of a perfect Father, therefore, perfect is the Son: for he who derogates from the power, derogates from him whose the power is. Perfect divinity does not admit inequality. Love therefore him whom the Father loves; honor him whom the Father honors: for he who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father, and he who denies the Son, has not the Father either. These things as regards faith.

[8] But sometimes also, when faith is safe, youth is suspect. and to temperance, Use therefore a little wine, lest you increase the infirmity of the body, not that you may excite pleasure: for two things kindle equally, wine and youth. Let fasts also curb the tender age, and let parsimony of food restrain untamed desires with certain bridles; let reason recall, let hope soften, let fear restrain: for he who knows not how to moderate his desires, is whirled, crushed, torn, and afflicted, as if snatched by untamed horses. I think also that all foods which generate heat in the members are to be used sparingly. Even flying eagles lay aside their flesh: in you too let that inner bird, of which we read, "Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle," holding aloft in virginal soaring flight, know no appetite for superfluous flesh. The frequented gatherings of banquets are to be avoided, salutations to be fled; the very visits I wish to be sparer in the younger, if perhaps deference must be shown to parents or equals: for modesty is worn away by such offices, boldness flashes forth, laughter creeps in, modesty is loosed, while urbanity is affected. To one questioning, not to answer is infancy, to answer is a tale.

[9] That speech therefore be wanting to a virgin, I prefer, rather than that it abound: and stirred to virginal modesty, for if women are commanded even to be silent in church about divine things, and to ask their husbands at home; what do we think is provided about virgins, in whom modesty adorns the age, taciturnity commends modesty? Or is it a mediocre example of modesty, that Rebecca, when she came to the nuptials, and had seen the bridegroom, took a veil, lest she should be seen before she was joined? And surely the beautiful virgin feared not for her comeliness, but for her modesty. What of Rachel, how she wept and groaned at the kiss extorted: nor would she have ceased to weep, had she not recognized her kinsman. Thus she both kept the office of modesty, and did not omit the affection of piety. But if it is said to a man: "Do not consider a virgin, lest at any time she scandalize you"; what must be said to a consecrated virgin? Who, if she love, sins in mind; if she is loved, in deed also. Greatest is the virtue of keeping silence, especially in church. No sentence of the divine readings will escape you, if you apply your ear, restrain your voice, utter no word from your mouth which you would wish to recall. But let the confidence of speaking be sparer: for copious is sin in much speaking. To the murderer it was said: "You have sinned, be quiet." But to a virgin it must be said: "Be quiet, lest you sin ^a."

[10] These and innumerable other things Pope Liberius, having prefaced with clear doctrine, she attains her desire. the virgins standing by, and all the assembly of the faithful people, impressed upon the ears of the venerable virgin. Then indeed he solemnly blessed her, offered by the hands of her pious father, watered by the prayers of her most holy mother mingled with weeping, and, in a manner betrothed by the veil ^b of the sacred garment, made her the immaculate spouse of Christ Jesus, whom she had desired with her whole heart. But, filled with the pontifical benediction, she strove to exhibit herself such to Christ the King of kings in preserving the chastity of mind and body, that without doubt she is now believed to be joined to him in the heavens, to whom she vigilantly reserved herself undefiled on earth. Plainly blessed the parents, who dedicated such a first gift of their offspring to God, through which a twofold posterity was doubled, not lost; yet this much more blessed, whom, placed in an earthly body, the heavenly King desired with pure love. That daughter of the prince Jephthah, of whom we spoke before, about to be slain by the victorious right hand of her father, is described to have first wept her virginity for seven months; but this our virgin much more excellent, in that she fulfilled the vows of her parents by the free holocaust of good will. But, these things which arise from the side being omitted, let us return to the matters proposed.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The two brothers of St. Marcellina, her various virtues, her grief at the death of her brothers, and her pious death.

Ambrose, moreover, the father of this holy virgin, of whom we spoke before, St. Marcellina was the sister of St. Ambrose, a man in all things most noble both with Cæsar and with Christ, and conspicuous for the brightness of his faith, having become possessed of his vow which he had promised, rejoiced with immense exultation, trusting without doubt that he would not be dismissed by Christ without a mighty reward, to whom with so devout a homage of mind he had pledged his only daughter. Soon at last, heaped by Cæsar with greater honors, he both strenuously obtained the prefecture of the Gauls, and received from Christ, for the interest lately offered, the amplified emolument of his posterity ^a. For, while he dwelt in the Gallic regions, another Ambrose was born to him, equaling his father in surname and form of body; but by the honest dignity of morals and the distinguished proclamation of merits, about to surpass almost the whole origin of the Roman stock. Concerning which admirable man, he who wishes to know may run through the Annals of the Greek or Latin Cosmographers ^b, or also the little book of the venerable bishop Paulinus ^c, which he wrote about his Life. There he will find how, from the cradle, designated by heavenly auspices, he grew up, and how, grown up, he reached [*] the highest citadel of philosophy; for whose cause first chosen to give counsel, thereafter he obtained the consular fillets; from which, summoned by divine providence to the pontifical summit of the church of Milan, he irradiated it with the greatest splendors of apostolic virtue. We omit these things, because we hasten to others.

[12] There was added to Ambrose another son also, Satyrus by name ^d, and of St. Satyrus; a man after a little while magnificent both with the world and with God, who, most illustrious in the whole Roman world for his singular skill in settling and executing matters both human and divine, was held worthy of perpetual memory in the judgment of many wise men. His life too and devotion of mind the books on his death, composed by his brother, wondrously reveal, and most faithfully confess. To these two brothers, therefore, after the death of both her parents, the virgin of Christ Marcellina, as if supported by the oars of two wings, flying past all earthly things with swift pinion, daily sighed for the entrance of the heavenly homeland; aided by their protections, and instructed by their admonitions, there was now nothing which the living world might find in her; but, according to the Apostle, crucified to the world, and the world to her, she sought nothing besides simple garb and cheap food from the whole inheritance of her father's possession: with continued fasts and most frequent vigils she never ceased from intent prayer or from meditation of the divine Scriptures; and especially she used the reading which the distinguished prelate and her brother Ambrose had directed to her, writing it with his own hand with sweetest affection, being not a little solicitous for the Arian perfidy.

[13] But it is narrated that it was the custom of Ambrose, the man of God, with whom afterward dwelling at Milan, that if perchance, she being absent, it happened that he wrote or did anything new, soon he directed it to her, written with the marks of his own hand, that she might receive it with undoubted faith; and thus it was obtained, that while by her care the insignia of spiritual dishes were continually supplied to the most sacred virgin, by the vigilance of the other also the homages of bodily necessities were procured, and the mind dedicated to God, as in a mirror-stone always intent on divine contemplation, by looking at herself circumspectly and providently, might represent herself irreproachable and unspotted [*] to the sight of the heavenly Spouse. Meanwhile, when the cause of the episcopate undertaken had compelled the nourishing prelate Ambrose of pious memory into the aforesaid city of Milan, and had made her beloved brother, dearer than the light itself, held by the glue of love, to dwell with her, the virgin of the Lord Marcellina, not suffering to be torn any longer from her dearest brothers, her father's house and possessions left behind, betook herself to Milan, thinking it better to lead a pilgrim life with them, than, deprived of her two lights, to possess the Roman riches, a wretched woman. In them she confessed, her eyes suffused with tears, that all the confidence of her life after Christ, all her hope, and all her brightness resided.

[14] Nonetheless she was also loved by her brothers, as the spouse of their Lord, with exceeding affection, she exercises various virtues, and assiduously venerated with homage, and was to them now not as a sister, but as an elder-born mistress and spiritual mother, so loving them as dearest sons, so loved, embraced, venerated by them, as a mother. O happy times, in which from one womb so great a sanctity of virginity and piety came forth! There shone in the three, as in heaven with glittering stars, the brightness of all virtues, so that if perchance any were lacking in one, it was supplied by another. O the times and O the manners! If you weighed their humility, you would swear that nothing more humble, nothing more gentle could anywhere be found than these three. Again, if you inspected the rigor of their mind in bearing any adversities whatsoever, or even in correcting the morals of the depraved, you would think them harder than iron and fiercer than beasts. But if you sought perhaps in them the bowels of piety toward the delinquent and the confessing, or those suffering any necessities and straits of various tribulations, you would see them so mourn with those who mourn, as if either they themselves were equally stained with such a blemish, or bound by equal anguishes and necessities. Very often, whatever they could have from their estates, they lavished on the redemption of captives, frequently imparted to exiles. What shall I say? For time fails me, wishing to measure the heap of such great virtues.

[15] and on account of the death of Satyrus, But because the world was not worthy of such, gradually withdrawn from the body, they are summoned to the palace of heaven: and first the admirable Satyrus, with immense grief not only of his brother and sister, but of almost the whole province, migrated to the heavenly ones; concerning whose death his brother Ambrose, watering with weeping two little books for the solace of his grief, filled them with mournful complaints, in which the pious affection of the blessed Marcellina toward her brother is wondrously revealed in these words: "O holy sister, who, destitute of the solace of a brother, solicitous about your modesty, lately blessed with two brothers, now of two brothers can neither follow the one, nor forsake the other; to whom your lodging is the tomb, and the sepulcher of your body is a house. And would that this were even a safe lodging, your food in weeping, your drink in tears." But it is established that this was, from that, the custom of the venerable virgin,

that continually, kneeling upon her brother's tomb, she commended his holy soul to the Ruler of all with assiduous prayers. Very often too, passing the day without food and the night sleepless, she could scarcely for a moment be torn from the place of the sepulcher.

[16] and afflicted with great grief on account of Ambrose, But not after many years the distinguished prelate of Christ and supreme confessor Ambrose, after innumerable miracles of virtues, after the snares of the Arians overcome by the arms of wisdom, after the western churches solidified on the foundation of the Catholic faith, passed to the Lord, to receive the perpetual rewards of his labors. Then thereafter grief was doubled, sadness renewed, and nothing else but to die pleased the sister, exceedingly anxious. What should she do? Whither should she turn? Now to that tomb, now to this cast down, she hesitated: converted to Christ, she inconsolably complained that she was left alone without a companion, alone without a helmsman. "Here," she said, "let me die, O Christ; here let me lay down my last breath, panting: receive, I pray, this old woman, for whom alone thou hast reserved the solaces of thy piety. Receive her bereaved of her two lights, and mercifully join her to the blessed spirits of her brothers." But this most blessed Virgin groaned tearfully, not because she had lost her brothers, but because they had passed away without her.

[17] she piously dies, and is buried in the same place. Therefore she dedicated the last time of her life to the venerable tombs, before which keeping watch, and paying day and night her consecrated vigils, she rendered her spirit to heaven, joined to Christ forever. But the most excellent virgin Marcellina died on the sixteenth of the Kalends of August, when the dawn was passing the bounds of night, clerics being placed before her, and the elders of the people of this city of Milan: but her body was laid up by the venerable prelate Simplician, and to the brother's tomb the sister's tomb was set beside, in which place, by their pious interventions, the Lord Jesus repays his accustomed benefits to his faithful, that it may easily be plain to all that their spirits rejoice together in the heavens, whose sublime virtue shines with equal rays on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Read "he reached" (pertigerit).

* Read "and immaculate" (immaculatamque).