Philastrius

ON ST. PHILASTRIUS, BISHOP,

AT BRESCIA IN ITALY.

ABOUT THE YEAR 387.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Philastrius, Bishop, at Brescia in Italy (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

§ I. The ancient cult of the Saint from various monuments.

Brescia, a city fruitful of Saints (of it treatment was made at length on the XV of February in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of SS. martyrs Faustinus and Jovita, number 1), now for many centuries held its bishop St. Philastrius in such honor, From St. Gaudentius and Rampertus the cult of the Saint is proved, that the citizens of Brescia formerly abstained from all servile work on his annual festival, as Rampertus, bishop of the same city, testifies, who wrote the translation and miracles of St. Philastrius about the middle of the IX century, in the beginning of whose history he sufficiently indicates his ancient cult in these words: "There are thirty Brescian bishops whom we remember, who at the altar dedicated to the name of blessed Philastrius, and placed over his head, celebrated the prayers of the Masses, and, venerating the day of his passing, ordering the Brescian people to abstain from all earthly work, reverently honored him." Nay, St. Gaudentius, who was the immediate successor of this holy Prelate in the chair of Brescia, hints that his anniversary memory was solemnly celebrated immediately from his death, when he thus concludes a panegyric sermon, delivered on his annual feast: "These few things concerning the virtues of the man of God I have recorded in a very brief sermon, lest this day, on which our patron blessed Philastrius, whose feast we celebrate today, passed to the heights, should pass by inglorious in sad silence. For although, renewing the cult of this solemnity now for fourteen years, I have brought many heraldings of his merits to your hearing, I perceive many things which can still be preached to be untouched."

[2] Although these two witnesses would suffice to prove the antiquity of the cult, yet in our manner I shall add to them the testimonies of some Martyrologies. who in certain Martyrologies, Usuard and the genuine Ado did not mention him; but the appendix of Ado edited by our Rosweyde after Ado has a prolix elogium of him, or rather a summary of his Life, which in that edition, or in Usuard,

illustrated a few years ago, can be read. Peter de Natalibus, by whom he is corruptly called Filiaster, in the Catalogue of the Saints, book 6, chapter 115, wove a somewhat different synopsis of the same Life, which it is not worth while to copy here. Maurolico, on the fifteenth Kalends of August, announces him more briefly thus: "Likewise of Philaster, champion of the Christian faith and bishop of Brescia, who wrote against all heresies and especially the Arian, and served as a soldier by traveling, whom Augustine mentions, and whose Life Gaudentius his successor wrote." Galesini, on the same day, has thus: "At Brescia, of St. Philastrius bishop. He, led by love of God, traveling far and wide, bore many to Christ the Lord: then, beaten for the Catholic faith, was a faithful guardian of the Lord's flock." The Roman Martyrology explains the same in other words thus: "At Brescia, the birthday of St. Philastrius, bishop of the same city, who against the heretics, especially the Arians, from whom he suffered much, fought greatly by words and writings, at last, a confessor famous for miracles, rested in peace." And these things concerning the Martyrologies are enough.

[3] and in proper ones, The cult of the same holy Bishop endures in the ecclesiastical Offices, wont to be celebrated at Brescia now for a long time. But in the Breviary which exists among the nuns of St. Catharine of the Dominican Order, the following prayer is recited: "Grant, we beseech, most clement God, to the prayers of thy people, and grant that those whom thou hast made to be present at the celebration of thy most blessed confessor and pontiff Philastrius, by his prayers may enjoy eternal blessedness. Through the Lord, etc." It would not be necessary to copy the proper lessons of this Breviary, did they not contain certain peculiar circumstances of things, which are not read in the more ancient Acts. These therefore, such as they are, we here subjoin for the sake of the curious reader. Lesson I. "The most blessed Philaster was by nation a Spaniard, sprung from a noble stock, whose parents were most faithful asserters of the Christian faith. Therefore they were zealous to have their boy Philaster, baptized, publicly taught in the works of the Christian faith, and first in grammar." Lesson II. "But the divine grace worked in him wonderfully, so that he grasped and retained all that he heard, that, as a precious vessel, he might bear the name of the Lord in his time before kings and princes of the earth. But when the boy Philaster stood and prayed in his father's house, an angel appearing to him said: Be like Abraham, that thou mayest go forth from thy country, and, going to Athens, there give thyself wholly to studies." Lesson III. "Therefore Philaster, acquiescing in the admonitions of the Angel, came to Athens, where, having stayed a short time, he so profited, that there, as a master, he disputed most subtly in all sciences: whence he there converted to the faith of Christ many deceived by the Arian perfidy."

[4] of the Breviary, Lesson IV. "But, inspired by God, he came into Italy, to confute the heretics. Entering Rome therefore, he was honorably received by blessed Pope Damasus: whose eminent knowledge the most blessed Father knowing, exhorted Philaster to deign to teach the Romans the wisdom which he had received from God." Lesson V. "Therefore blessed Philaster, raised by the supreme Pontiff to cathedral honor, taught and lectured no small time in the city of Rome: to hear whom, when both young and old ran together, he made them in a short time perfect both in morals and in sciences: for great grace from above was diffused on his lips." Lesson VI. "Which the aforesaid Pontiff understanding, promoted him to the sacred Orders. Ordained therefore a priest, he was immediately changed into another man: for he began to consider the height of the Sacrament, and how great reverence was due to it. Wherefore, from the immense love which he bore to the passion of Christ, by leave of the supreme Pontiff he came as far as Jerusalem, to visit the places in which our Lord Jesus Christ worked our salvation."

[5] Lesson VII. "The year being completed, therefore, returning again to Rome, he perseveres in the lessons. leave being obtained from the aforesaid supreme Pontiff to preach, he traversed the whole circuit of the city of Rome, preaching everywhere. But when he heard that the faith was in peril at Milan on account of the Arian perfidy, with hastened step he came thither: who was gladly received by the faithful." Lesson VIII. "But there was, by the consent both of the faithful and of the unbelievers, a solemn disputation appointed, at which the disputants about the faith, blessed Philaster and Auxentius the heretic, were to be present. The time and hour of the disputation therefore came: and a common place being established, blessed Philaster came before all the multitude in humble habit, but full of the Holy Spirit, having confidence in the Lord of perfect victory over the Arians." Lesson IX. "And behold, from the other side came Auxentius the heretic, puffed up, with a crowd of heretics and Jews, who were prepared to dispute against the sayings of blessed Philaster. But there were many peoples of each sex standing, to see the end. And silence being made, Auxentius began to cry out: What wilt thou, Philaster, who triest to defend the Catholic faith? Then blessed Philaster, full of wisdom and of the Holy Spirit, opening his mouth, so insolubly argued against Auxentius the heretic, and so confuted him, that he knew nothing to gainsay. At last blessed Philaster, after many injuries inflicted on him and the passion of the cross, coming to Brescia, and there ordained bishop, rested in peace." Of the Saint's homeland, the angelic apparition, the Athenian studies, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the other things which are narrated in these Lessons, no mention is made in the sermon of St. Gaudentius, as neither in the ancient Sapphic poem, concerning which now a few things must be prefaced.

[6] The most distinguished Paolo Gagliardi, canon of Brescia, In an ancient poem, whose author does not seem to be St. Gaudentius, after the works of St. Gaudentius, printed with most beautiful type at Padua in the year 1720, edited, from a double manuscript codex of the church of Brescia, a poem once composed to the praise of St. Philastrius. Some thought that St. Gaudentius was the author of this poem; but the praised Gagliardi, by whose service the said works of St. Gaudentius came to us, in the admonition prefixed to this poem denies it to St. Gaudentius, both on account of the difference of style, and on account of the following testimony of Rampertus: "But also the rhythmic hymn," says Rampertus in the history of the Translation to be exhibited here a little later, number 24, "which therefore they report the bishop Gaudentius, a man of authority, to have made, he was diligently wont to sing concerning him. But that Gaudentius himself composed it I doubt, since the sense of the first line is far otherwise, and the rhythm itself, if anyone attend, has the letters of the name of its composer through the beginnings, so to speak, of the verses." It deserves to be noted that Lipomanus and Surius edited this testimony for the most part mutilated, and especially omitted those words by which the commonly believed author of the rhythm is called into doubt by Rampertus, which, however, Gagliardi asserts are expressly stated in the older Brescian codex.

[7] But if all these are the words of Rampertus, someone will say, the name of the author seems to be able to be drawn out from them, since he says but another unknown writer, that "the rhythm itself has the letters of the name of its composer through the beginnings, so to speak, of the verses." This matter is subject to greater difficulty than appears at first sight. The same Gagliardi in the place already cited accurately discusses that difficulty, and clearly explains it thus: "From the initial letters of each quatrain nothing else is produced but Filastrius Bricsiensis Præsul (Philastrius, Prelate of Brescia). Wherefore if anyone solve this knot, he will be to me a great Apollo: for I would not believe that Philastrius himself could compose this rhythm in his own praise. Perhaps Rampertus understood that the author's name is contained in another poem, which was added at the end of that rhythm by the author himself, and is had in the former and older of the two manuscript codices of the church of Brescia … in this manner.

Perfect once wast thou, dear Father Philastri, In genius, life, in senses, and in faith. A perfect nerve I strove to set for thee a poem, Devoted, humble, and thy little servant. Intercede by thy merits, praying for me, O ever Perfect, through the Lord and God.

If anyone perhaps could prove that the author of that rhythm was someone by name or appellation Perfectus, and therefore that word repeated at the alternate beginnings of the verses in this poem, I would not much resist."

[8] This conjecture of the learned man does not displease me; the praises of St. Philastrius are celebrated. but since he himself confesses that all things in this place are obscure and uncertain, without further reasoning I subjoin that ancient poem (by whomsoever at last it was composed) collated with our manuscript.

Sing with me the fruitful song, every dweller Where Cleosa flows, and where the Mella flows, Where the curving Oglio runs its circuit round.

Let the modulator of this song be present, Dwelling by the shores of our Benacus, And let free man and slave sing back to all, Odes with their voices.

Let all the glad people of the folk resound, Whoever is born at Brescia, and the stranger, The clergy and the phalanxes of the lay people; Both sex and age.

Let us be roused to the melody of so great a Father, Whose bones we enjoy forever; A prelate, and whoever was in this City, In ancient time.

Seventh he sat upon the throne of the see, This good and blessed man of Brescia, Noble and prudent, who Philastrius Is called by name.

From what towers he was here born, None of us remembers, nor knows; But this we know, that he followed The blessed Abraham.

His goods and acquaintances and homeland left behind, And faith accompanying him always, He sought continually the heavenly doctrine, With his inmost senses.

He, watchful, reading again the sacred books, As though he alone had been continent, Instructs himself, wise in love, Exceedingly heavenly.

A good and simple man, stuffed with goodness, Who believed the Lord and God to be His own portion and his lot, By perennial destiny.

By divine lot he is a sacred priest Consecrated; then afterward he was zealous, To the ends of the world, to teach the peoples, By holy doctrine.

The barbarous nations bent back to idols, And the Jews, wicked men, Perfidious, against the heavenly admonitions, He himself withstood.

The lovable Minister of the eternal King, But the admonitions of the perfidious sect, Of the Arians, he said to be false, Always and everywhere,

As if opposing them with his inmost sense. With diligent scourges they pour out his limbs, The beaten flesh often the running blood Of rosy color.

While, careful, he continually admonished: So much was permitted to the impious against him, That in his limbs he bore exceedingly The stigmata of Christ.

But thee, O Auxentius, wretched, unskilled, He withstood, strong in the vigor of faith, Refuting the people from your bites, Even bloody ones.

In the faith he will establish many cohorts Of the people through the circuit of the City; Until he came to Brescia, the King Of the peoples willing.

And the rude, but then eager to be admonished, Though unknowing, yet for teaching Firmly ready, with sagacious zeal, And with genius.

For the rude people, having many stains, He stripped off many old ones: and with new, Clothing it, by recreating it in Christ, With nourishing morals.

This holy seer was of this age, Ignorant of pomp, of the Lord's honor A lofty worshiper, not seeking his own. Well done, faithful one.

The empty honors of this world He believed to be of vile price, Who meditated under the law of Christ Night and day.

Whatever things of this world were great and precious He scorned; as small and as nothing he reckoned: But sellers of a lesser price The buyer increased.

With a father's affection patient, to anger Slow, and moreover easily remitting: Sweet, humane, sober, kindly, All things to all.

An upright judge, and a prudent physician, Who savored the spiritual remedy: He mingled the streams of oil with Bacchus, Curing wounds.

And though he was a Father to the least, Ever more closely bound, yet himself the bond, Of sex, of age, of service, And of nobility.

Well done, admirable, and to be imitated, He was of a cheap and grateful habit: His cheapness lacked the filthy gesture, His grace lacked pride.

Six times threefold the day of July's month Snatched him away, the clergy weeping; But the throng of the people weeping much, With lofty voices.

Whence we believe that we are ever relieved Of the burden of our sin by his blessed merits, And that we can hold a place Of pardon.

Of the Light of the Father, and if there be, of the Begotten, Of the Holy Spirit, having mercy on us, May the grace be perpetual with continual remedies, In all years. Amen.

* that is, initiated by mastership (i.e. into the office of teacher)

* Manuscript: Clesis

* Manuscript: noster

* Manuscript: Decimus (Tenth)

* Manuscript: sapitve

* Manuscript: agilis

* Manuscript: magisque

* Manuscript: polorum.

* Manuscript: illam

* Manuscript: maximus

* Manuscript: minimus

* Manuscript: voluit videri (wished to seem)

* Manuscript: Filii (of the Son)

§ II. The homeland, writings, chronology of the episcopate, Acts, and posthumous glory of St. Philastrius.

Bernardino Faino, in his notes on his Brescian Martyrology, page 100, affirms The homeland of St. Philastrius is uncertain. that St. Philastrius was by nation a Spaniard, and indeed by homeland of Cordova. But Ughelli, volume 4 of Italia Sacra, column 729, calls him simply a Spaniard. Tamayo and other more recent writers commonly assign him Spain as his homeland. Cave, however, in the Literary History of Ecclesiastical Writers, page 159, suspects that he was perhaps by race an Italian. But both this one and those lack solid reasons for asserting it: for how would the certain homeland of St. Philastrius have become known to the more recent writers, which the more ancient were ignorant of? But that it was anciently unknown, is clear from these words of the Sapphic poem, which we edited in the preceding paragraph:

Hence it is clear that now for many centuries nothing else was known, but that Philastrius, after the example of Abraham, left his native land and kindred. But if St. Gaudentius, as could easily be, knew the homeland of his predecessor, at least he did not express it in this panegyric sermon. Wherefore the above-praised Paolo Gagliardi, canon of Brescia, in his notes on the twenty-first sermon of St. Gaudentius, page 240, thus prudently and candidly confesses: "Of what country Philastrius was, is altogether unknown to us." Now let us examine his writings.

[10] His writings; of which Gregory the Great makes mention, Some think that the Acts of SS. Faustinus and Jovita, and also of St. Afra, were written by Philastrius. But others rightly doubt of this matter, as may be seen in our Acts on the XV of February, page 806, and on the XXIV of May, page 274. But certainly our Saint composed a book On Heresies, of which St. Gregory the Great, in the Paris edition of the year 1586, epistle 5, writing to Cyriacus bishop of Constantinople, thus makes mention: "Moreover, since the right faith has been truly and subtly set forth by you, among those whom you judged should be condemned through the most holy general synods, we have found that you condemned a certain Eudoxius, whose name, in the Latin tongue, neither in the synods, nor in the books of the bishops of blessed memory Epiphanius, Augustine, and Philaster, whom we know to have disputed especially against the heretics, do we find placed." Then in epistle 15, which he wrote to Theodore, deacon of the church of Constantinople, he speaks thus: "But lest I detain your charity in my disputation, learn what Philaster said of this heresy in the book which he wrote on heresies; whose words are these." Then he subjoins the text of Philastrius, which is found in the Library of the holy Fathers, edited at Paris in the year 1589 by Margarin de la Bigne, volume IV, column 40. According to Gagliardi, Johann Albert Fabricius a few years ago was meditating a new edition of this little book of Philastrius; we have not thus far seen it. It would indeed be difficult to vindicate this book from various errors, and to illustrate it with learned notes.

[11] St. Augustine, in the epistle to Quodvultdeus, and St. Augustine passes judgment, which in the most recent edition of the year 1700 is found in volume 2, column 622, thus judges of this work of St. Philastrius: "A certain Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, whom together with St. Ambrose I myself also saw at Milan, wrote hence a book; not omitting even those heresies which were in the Jewish people before the coming of the Lord, and he commemorated twenty-eight of these, and after the coming one hundred and twenty-eight. There wrote hence also in Greek the Cyprian bishop Epiphanius, laudably renowned in the doctrine of the Catholic faith: but he, collecting the heresies of both times, comprised eighty. Since therefore both wished to do that which you ask of me, yet how much they differ among themselves as to the number of the sects meanwhile, you see: which certainly would not have happened, unless one thing seemed to be a heresy to one of them, and another to the other. For it is not to be thought that Epiphanius was ignorant of some which Philastrius knew, since we have found Epiphanius far more learned than Philastrius, so that we ought rather to say that very many escaped Philastrius, if indeed the former comprised more, and the latter fewer. But without doubt in that question, where it is disputed what a heresy is, it did not seem the same to both: and truly this is altogether difficult to define: and therefore it is to be guarded against, when we try to reduce all to a number, lest we omit some, though they be heresies, or reckon some, when they are not heresies. See therefore whether perhaps I ought to send you the book of St. Epiphanius: for I think he spoke of this more learnedly than Philastrius." Moreover the holy prelate of Hippo in his book On Heresies, volume 8 of the edition already cited, column 10, hints that certain heresies were wrongly distinguished by Philastrius.

[12] The more recent critics who have treated of ecclesiastical writers, relying on the authority of so great a Doctor, freely brand this holy Writer with the mark of gross error. by more recent critics he is here and there charged with error. Among others Cardinal Bellarmine, in the book On Ecclesiastical Writers, page 147, thus warns concerning it: "But this is to be observed, that many things are numbered among heresies by Philastrius, which are truly not heresies: therefore he is to be read with prudence." Our Labbe, in the Work On Ecclesiastical Writers, volume 2, page 213, thus pronounces of the same: "Although St. Philastrius was distinguished for sanctity and doctrine, yet this work of his on heresies is to be read cautiously and with judgment in certain places, because it contains some things not sufficiently coherent with the tenets of right theology." Sixtus of Siena, book 5 of the Holy Library, annotation 27, and others cited in our Possevino in the Sacred Apparatus, volume 2, page 273, observed singular errors of Philastrius, which Ambrose Rusconus, a Cassinese monk, in his Triumph of Catholic Truth, edited at Venice in the year 1619, strives to excuse by this response: "Although in some things he (namely St. Philastrius, of whom there is discourse) erred, he did not do this from malice and with obstinacy, nor after the definition given by the church: nay, he always submitted himself to the mandates of the Church. Moreover, although he is reprehended by St. Augustine in the preface of his book on heresy, namely that he was too ready to note others for heresy, this is attributed to the great zeal which he always had toward the holy Catholic Roman Church." I here pass over the chronological errors, which perhaps by the negligence of copyists or typesetters crept into the same little work.

[13] He was the seventh bishop of the church of Brescia, Another question here occurs concerning our Saint; namely, in what place he was bishop of the church of Brescia. Ughelli, volume 4 of Italia Sacra, column 729, Faino in the Heaven of the holy Brescian church, page 20, and others, place St. Philastrius tenth in order in the Brescian chair. To this opinion perhaps the second of the two Brescian manuscript codices, namely the more recent, gave cause, which in this place is corrupted: for where in the Sapphic verse given before is read "seventh he sat upon the throne of the see," was substituted "tenth he sat upon the throne of the see." Was this perhaps done by some forger, that the antiquity of the Brescian church might be traced higher? However it be, this fraud is easily detected: for in the older codex the sincere reading persisted. Moreover the change of the later codex elsewhere manifestly betrays its own falsity, since the very law of the poem is repugnant to this corruption, and the name Filastrius, which we said above is expressed by the initial letters of each quatrain. Finally the history of the Translation written by Rampertus, which in that same codex to which the corruption was inflicted is prefixed to the poem, in us number 5 has thus openly: "For this Seventh bishop, gathering the Brescian church then by preaching Christ, kept the holy doctrine." This information about the Brescian codices I report as received from the most learned Gagliardi, who thus concludes his preliminary admonition on this poem: "But to what end this fraud, or whither it tended, I shall say in brief. There had begun then to prevail among some of our idle men a more recent opinion, that Philastrius was the TENTH bishop of the city of Brescia, who before had been held SEVENTH, when perhaps some smatterer, perceiving the note of this poem very inconvenient to his opinion, deleted it, and smeared it over with more recent ink and vermilion, the sermon of Rampertus and the older codex being left untouched, which escaped the violating hand."

[14] and he seems to have died about the year 387. Of the chronology of St. Philastrius we have very little ascertained. From the Labbean collection of councils, volume 2, column 978, it is only established that in the year 381 he was present, as bishop of the church of Brescia, at the synod of Aquileia. From the sermon of St. Gaudentius, which he delivered on his own ordination, it is made manifest that he died before St. Ambrose. Most writers consign the death of St. Philastrius to the year 387. Faino, however, anticipates it by two years, thus writing in his Heaven of the Brescian church, page 20: "Philastrius, a Spaniard, and famous for the vexation of the Arians, was placed in this see in the year 354. At Brescia he rested in the Lord in the year 385." According to this reckoning St. Philastrius must have held the Brescian see for thirty years, whereas meanwhile Ughelli, in the Catalogue of the Brescian bishops, in the place already several times cited, writes thus of him: "He presided eight years, and died on the Kalends of August, St. Ambrose still living, as the same Gaudentius relates in the sermon on his own ordination." The rest that pertains to the chronological series of his life is altogether uncertain. Wherefore we do not delay here over those who in Ferrari relate that St. Philastrius was present at the council of Nicaea, which was celebrated in the year 325.

Such conjectures indeed, which are as easily denied as asserted, we do not value so much as to spend time and effort in refuting or explaining them. Now we must briefly discourse of the Acts of our Saint.

[15] The deeds accomplished by St. Philastrius were so distinguished and so copious, His Acts are vindicated to St. Gaudentius, that his successor in the episcopal see, Gaudentius, who every year was wont to preach the virtues of his holy predecessor before the people, confesses that, after fourteen sermons delivered on his annual festival, he had left many of his praises untouched. Of all these sermons only one survives, which even two French hypercritics would gladly deny to St. Gaudentius; but we have arguments at hand by which we may vindicate it to that holy Prelate. First of all, according to Gagliardi, this sermon is had in two Brescian manuscript codices, with this title prefixed: "The sermon of blessed Gaudentius the bishop on the Life and death of blessed Philastrius the bishop, his predecessor." Moreover Rampertus, who before the middle of the IX century ruled the church of Brescia, ascribes the same sermon to St. Gaudentius in the History of the Translation, number 12, in these words: "For even as it is read in the sermon published by the prelate Gaudentius, namely of the Life of the most blessed pontiff Philastrius, that he was, with stupendous kindness, common to every age and condition and sex." Then in number 23 of the same sermon he thus mentions it: "Of whose life and sanctity his successor bishop Gaudentius so savored, that for fourteen years, and perhaps more, he kept the day of his passing as a feast, making a sermon to the people concerning him." In these ancient testimonies Baronius, Labbe, and other learned men acquiesced. Wherefore I marvel that by Dupin, in the New Library of Ecclesiastical Authors, volume 3, page 84, and by another writer of the same bran, a Frenchman, in the critical table prefixed to the Lives of the saints of the month of July, page 15, this sermon is called into doubt. Lipomanus and Surius edited the sermon already mentioned under the name of St. Gaudentius. We shall give the same, emended by Gagliardi according to the Brescian manuscripts, noting the various readings of the codices and other things worthy of note in the margin or in the annotations.

[16] To the posthumous glory of St. Philastrius pertains the threefold translation of his sacred body. and the threefold translation of the sacred body is briefly related. The first was made in the year 838 by Rampertus, bishop of Brescia, who left the same, together with the miracles then wrought, in writing to posterity. We shall exhibit it after the sermon of St. Gaudentius, from the more emended edition of Gagliardi. The second happened in the year 1456, which, excerpted from the book of provisions of the city of Brescia, we shall print according to our manuscript. The third finally was made in the year 1572, when the sacred body of St. Philastrius was translated to the altar of the most holy Trinity. Giovanni Francesco Florentini, in the chronological Index of the Brescian Bishops, thus briefly describes these three translations: "His body, in the year 838, on the V Ides of April, was translated from the hidden cave of St. Andrew outside Brescia, where it had lain hidden nearly five hundred years, together with his wooden crozier, famous for several miracles, into that winter cathedral church, over which afterward was built the church which is commonly called the Rotunda. Six hundred years and more after, some fearing lest it should be taken away thence, but not a few striving on the contrary lest by the inconvenience of the place and the injury of the flowing waters it should take harm, by public counsel it was sought there and found in the year 1456, and more decently laid up by Paganinus bishop of Dulcinum, and at length in the year 1572, on the V Ides of July, carried out from the subterranean cave, and enclosed in the altar of the most holy Trinity." Of these three translations Faino treats singly in his Brescian Martyrology; namely of the first on the IX of April, of the second on the XVI of February, of the third on the XI of July. Now it only remains that in editing the monuments of the Life and translation of Philastrius we free our credit.

THE ACTS

By the author St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia.

From the edition of the most distinguished Paolo Gagliardi, collated with the Brescian manuscripts.

Philastrius, Bishop, at Brescia in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 6796

BY ST. GAUDENTIUS.

St. Philastrius, compared to the son of the patriarchs, Dearest ones, we today, mindful of the promises of Christ, render the due honor to our blessed father Philastrius, as to one truly living: for he is a son of the Patriarchs and a companion in faith, and an emulator of their manner of life; to whose sincerity he was most like, and such as Christ pronounces to live to God, refuting the incredulity of the Sadducees with a valid demonstration, when he says that he who is called the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is not the God of the dead, but of the living. "For all," he says, "live to him." And certainly the divine Scripture had foretold that they died according to the condition of the flesh, though in a good old age, and were buried, as their existing tombs demonstrate. What therefore was permitted to blessed Peter to say boldly of the patriarch David, that he died and was buried, though he knew that he had by prophetic faith presumed life after death—for he had said: "My soul shall live, and shall praise thee," and other things of this kind—let it be permitted to us also to say boldly to you of the legitimate son of the Patriarch, and the high priest, Philastrius, that he is indeed dead and buried, and his tomb is among us: but his life is in Christ with God. Therefore when Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall this one also appear with him in glory.

[2] he leaves his homeland, and after various journeys and contests for the faith, But that he is the legitimate son of the most blessed Abraham, the examples of his faith and works testify. For believing God with a most full faith, he too went out from his land, and from his kindred, and from his father's house, and followed the word of God, stripped of all the impediments of the world: and therefore he deserved quickly to attain what, unencumbered, he was zealous to follow. For exercising singular continence, watchful in the holy Scriptures, he coveted the wisdom of God, reckoning Christ his portion, as Lord: in whom are all the treasures of heavenly wisdom hidden. With which when the Man had filled his desire of heavenly desires, and by the imposition of the hand of the presbytery had been chosen a dispenser of the divine word, he by no means suffered himself to neglect the grace of God. But going around nearly the whole circuit of the Roman world, he preached the word of the Lord, being a fit imitator of the Apostle Paul. For full of the Holy Spirit, not only against the Gentiles and Jews, but also against all heresies, and especially against the Arian perfidy then raging, he fought with such vigor of faith, that he was even subjected to scourges, and bore in his body the stigmata of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in the city of Milan too he was once a fit guardian of the Lord's flock, resisting the Arian Auxentius, before blessed Ambrose was elected. Staying also at Rome no small time, he gained many for the faith by public and private disputation. But neither, passing through the villages and fortresses of various regions, did the faithful disciple of Christ ever cease to preach the word of God.

[3] After those circuits, therefore, salutary for very many souls, he comes to Brescia, where he instructs the rude people, Brescia, once rude, but eager for doctrine, deserved him; ignorant indeed of spiritual knowledge, yet praiseworthy in zeal for learning. The good husbandman immediately cut down from the lowest roots the bristling forest of various error, and, bending forward on the plow of doctrine, turned over the raw earth with all his strength, and converted the squalid ground into fruitful fallows by assiduous furrows, plentifully insinuating into its bosom the seeds of the life-giving commandments. He also planted a vineyard, of whose fruit he might rejoice: since "wine gladdens the heart of man." He grafted also the olives of peace upon the wild oleasters, and inserted into the harshness of the wild fruits the shoots of fatness and sweetness, that the Apostolic man might have some fruit in you also, as in the other nations. And he indeed now rejoices before God in the fruits of his completed work: for the laborer is worthy of his hire, and the laboring husbandman must first take of the fruits. But I, the least part of him, with all vows desire that I may somehow be able to protect the field, well planted by the father, and received by a not sufficiently fit succession. His zeal of faith, and the greatness of his labors, we have touched upon a little before.

[4] Now let us recall, dearest ones, how great a gentleness that vehement ardor of soul possessed in his holy morals: and full of the merits of the virtues how sublime in humility was that loftiness of knowledge: how ignorant of earthly things was that skill in heavenly things. For he was ignorant of human glory, and a keen exactor of divine honor: not seeking the things that were his own, but the things of Jesus Christ. Despising the friendships of the world and worldly offices, continually adhering to the service of God, continually occupied amid human conversations: assuredly there was his heart, where his treasure was. What too is this, that when he despised whatever things of this world were laborious and precious, he, a buyer poured out with merciful ambition, increased the poorest sellers of cheap things? Reckoning it little, forsooth, that he bestowed on the openly needy. The same holy man was short in anger, easy in indulgence, surpassing in patience, overcoming by kindness. Strict in reproving, absolving in relaxing, free in acting. Common to every age and condition and sex with stupendous kindness, and then more closely joined to whatever humble ones. He too, in that habit of clothing, was most clean with all cheapness. Grateful without contrivance, contemptible without deceit, and plainly such that, himself caring for nothing, it laid open the purity of his mind.

[5] These few things concerning the virtues of the Man of God I have recorded in a very brief sermon, he dies holily and is venerated with an annual festival. lest this day, on which our patron blessed Philastrius, whose feast we celebrate today, passed to the heights, should pass by inglorious in sad silence. For although, renewing the cult of this solemnity now for fourteen years, I have brought many heraldings of his merits to your hearing, I perceive many things which can still be preached to be untouched. But on the fifteenth of the Kalends of August he put off the man and passed to him whom he loved. Let us therefore venerate the memory of so worthy a Priest with due affection, that by his suffrage also we may the more easily obtain the good things which we ask, the eternal Son of God bestowing them, to whom is all honor, power, and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto all the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* elsewhere "in the woods" (silvis)

* elsewhere "professed" (professus)

* elsewhere "supreme" (supremus)

* elsewhere "it may behove" (oporteat)

THE TRANSLATION AND MIRACLES

By the author Rampertus, bishop of Brescia.

From the edition of the most distinguished Paolo Gagliardi, which he collated with the Brescian manuscripts.

Philastrius, Bishop, at Brescia in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 6797

BY THE AUTHOR RAMPERTUS.

CHAPTER I.

The ancient cult of St. Philastrius, the translation of the body, and a double miracle done in that translation.

There are thirty Brescian bishops ^a whom we remember, who at the altar dedicated to the name of blessed Philastrius, The Brescian bishops always venerated the relics of St. Philastrius, and placed over his head, celebrated the prayers of the Masses, and, venerating the day of his passing, ordering the Brescian people to abstain from all earthly work, reverently honored him. These are: the third from him and second from Gaudentius, Paulus, then Theophilus, and Sylvinus and Gaudiosus, Optatianus and Vigilius, and Ticianus, Paulus, Cyprianus, Herculanus, Honorius, Rusticianus, and Dominator. And likewise Paulus, Paterius, Anastasius, and Dominicus, Felix, and Deusdedit: likewise Gaudiosus again, Rusticianus, Apollinaris, Andreas, and Theodaldus, Vitalis and Benedictus, Ansoaldus, Cunipertus, Amfridus and Petrus, bishops of venerable memory. Whose last in order and in merits, I, Rampertus, unworthy bishop of the holy church of Brescia, since there were not the constant assiduity of office and abundance of lights in that venerable place where the body of Philastrius of most blessed memory lay, not presuming on my slender merits, but in the service of God, desiring to serve so great a Father with a more honorable ministry, all my priests being consulted, fasts and prayers intervening, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and thirty-eight, in the first Indiction, on the sixth Ides of April, digging not without fear, those priests being joined to me of whose life I was confident, finding the venerable body, with the greatest fear, as one so unworthy touching so venerable a clod, I raised it, placing it in the little chamber of a bier.

[2] Then on the fifth Ides of April, the Clergy being gathered, which at last Rampertus, also bishop of Brescia, translated immense throngs of each sex thronging, with the greatest awe of fear and the highest reverence, we translated the same body into our winter mother church ^b of Brescia, beside the altar of the holy Mother of God Mary, where was the seat of the aforesaid Pontiffs. And this, the divine grace providing, not without a miracle (as present examples betray), was done by us. Where on the fourth Ides of May, the church being gathered, offices and fasts with prayers going before, with the greatest devotion, laying it up in a marble cave, we buried it: so that where the seat of the pontiffs now was, there the body of so great a Father and Pontiff might lie: that the seat by honor, and the people by devotion, and the clergy by suffrage, by the intervening merits of the same, Christ favoring in all things, might enjoy it: for we hope that we are all cherished by the merits of the Saints, and especially of those whose bodies we embrace, and whose either birth or dwelling was with our fathers. For by their doctrine we are instructed, or by the example of their martyrdom we are strengthened. For although men, whose life or passion is known to us, while they lived in this wretched fluctuation of the stormy sea, above all imbued our people with holy doctrines and wondrous examples, and protected them by their suffraging continual prayers, imploring the heavenly clemency, yet we hope that the same, dead for us, are no less our patrons, by their intervening merits, under the protection of the divine piety.

[3] Although therefore it is certain that present examples of divine miracles shone by heavenly providence in the translation of our venerable Bishop, [not without wrought miracles, which he himself determined to leave in writing to posterity.] yet our people has need of the writing of them. For these, escaping everywhere and abundantly, the crowd of the sick common folk gathering from all sides, and returning with health received, proclaim with a thousand voices. These the villages of the neighboring places, whose infirm, having various and secret languors, approaching the venerable body among so great a multitude, by the procuring mercy of God, the merits also of the same Saint deserving, and their faith suffraging, recovering from their sicknesses returned, report announcing to us, they narrate to those the heavenly miracle who the day before had known their infirmities, and so many witnesses of the miracles of God exist, who before had known the sick, unless the wavering faith of the sick be in the way. But because the due death of their witnesses, and of ourselves generally, is impending, for the ignorance of future men, whose affection of faith toward the services of our Father we hope will be studious, and most ardent to hear, not only by the report of the line and generation narrating, but also by the writing published by us, to whom God granted to see this, testifying, at least a few of the many miracles which Christ mercifully wrought, the throngs flowing together to the bier of blessed Philastrius, his confessor, lover, and preacher, we believe it best to write truly and compendiously.

[4] A great people running together to the translation of the sacred body, When therefore, as was foretold by us, being furnished with many phalanxes of each sex, the clergy being first sanctified and clothed with sacred vestments, the hidden cave being dug out, which, holding the most blessed body nearly a hundred lustres ^c, had concealed it, astonished at the revelation, we had reverently borne the most holy and dearest treasure on the shoulders of the priests, we came with the highest devotion to the house of the holy and ever Virgin Mary. But the clergy not yet reaching its venerable altar, the first of the people already holding the sacred folding-doors of the hall, the priests also, who, bending under the vehicle, rendered the service around the bier, stopping by chance at about the seventh step within the thresholds of the temple, with this vow especially, that the coming devout people should pass afterward under the bier, and being unable to go from the place where they stood, the people being terrified and repeating "Lord, have mercy," an incredible and ineffable sound resounded from heaven. Of which sound we are as many witnesses as we then were there.

[5] a woman having a withered hand is cured, At which moment a certain woman, terrified by the crash of the sound, having a dry right hand, and so rigid and hanging down, that it was unable to touch her mouth or breast, immediately extending it, marked on her forehead the sign of the cross of Christ under the name of the supreme Trinity, giving thanks to him who is blessed unto the ages, who is wonderful in his Saints. Oh, how wonderfully he acted! at the entering of the body of his Saint into the church, blessed be God. For this seventh Bishop, gathering the Brescian Church then by preaching Christ, kept the holy doctrine, and wonderfully strove to reform the withering right hand of the Catholic faith of the Church, the left hand of the Arian perfidy sprouting everywhere as much as he could. But now at about the seventh step of the entering priests carrying his body, he reformed it in the church, and likewise the dry right hand of the Christian woman.

[6] and another paralytic, But first, as we were entering Brescia, and now holding some part of the city as we went, in the carrying of the taken-up bier, striking the air with the praises of the High-Thunderer, among those sick who were led forth, so that, the coffin of the imitator of the Apostles passing by, even his shadow might overshadow any of them, was carried a certain three-year-old sick girl, whom the corruption of bile had so soaked, that lying on the bed of her little couch, she could in no way turn herself to the other side, nor with one bearer in any way, unless she were gravely transposed. Who, when she had felt by the overshadowing of the bier a certain breeze salubrious to her health, began to make signs to her bearers, and to beseech them, advising, that they should carry her thither, whither the holy body was being conducted, whose counsel, we assenting to the petitions brought to us, we granted our assent.

[7] Being therefore carried near the bier, she lay in the basilica of the holy Mother of God, the perennial Virgin Mary, she is healed. where we had deposited the bier of the most blessed body. And while daily she professed that she was better, giving thanks to the Almighty, and beseeching him that by the intervening merits of his Saint he would grant her the restoration of health, on the sixth day, recovering, she raised herself, and, taking a staff, began to walk to and fro through the vault of the temple's circuit, not needing the accustomed help of a companion and bearer. And thereafter, continually restored for the better, growing in her recovery, without the support of a companion and without any help of a bearer, she returned home.

[8] Oh, wonderful and praiseworthy medicine of God! A digression of the author. who in the beginning, all things being created together in matter, through six days produced them into the proper work of each form, and on the sixth day formed man to his own image, whose sick daughter, whom he could have made whole in the twinkling of an eye, he disposed by his secret judgment, gradually, by the reformation of the limbs, recreating their vigor, lying near the body of his fit witness, our father Philastrius, on the sixth day of his coming, to recall to the former state of health. What the physicians for three years could not carefully do by their art, this the almighty Trinity accomplished, which Philastrius everywhere preached as inviolate: for the ardor of whose faith the abiding stigmata were marked on his body by the Arians in scourging. Whose wounds now, by the providence of God, make a salubrious medicine, necessary to those desiring health.

ANNOTATIONS.

* elsewhere "of the martyrs" (martyrum)

* elsewhere "carefully" (curiose)

* elsewhere "only to be placed" (tantum poni).

CHAPTER II.

Many afflicted with various diseases prodigiously obtain health at his tomb.

A paralytic girl, After that finding and conveyance of the clod of our most blessed Father, guards being appointed to watch over the coffin of the venerable pledge, an immense crowd of the sick gathered, awaiting the breathing of the heavenly divinity. When on a certain Lord's day one of the subordinates of the guards passed, without a witness, among the lying bodies of the sick, and saw a little girl lying near the altar, and, ignorant of her languor, commanded her to rise; immediately she rose, holding the altar with one hand, with the other making signs to her father rejoicing, and said in the vulgar tongue: "Daddy, daddy ^a, give me a stick, that I may walk." The father, the miracle being seen, not acquiescing to the prayers of his daughter, but with palms spread out to heaven, with the voice he could, suddenly, though boldly, yet repeating thanks to the Almighty, said: "Lord, thanks to thee, Lord, thanks to thee."

[10] Terrified by which voice, the guards ran to him, inquiring the causes of the thanksgivings. who had never walked on her feet, suddenly obtains her step; Who, testifying, answered: "This girl, whom you see holding the altar, is my daughter, seven years from her birth, who never, except now, stood upon her feet, and moreover asks from me a stick, that she may go."

Then one of the bystanders, running, a staff being found, gave it to the rejoicing girl, and she began to walk about the altar. Whom we, coming at the same hour to pray in the church, saw walking about the altar. And thereafter, going on for the better, the girl began, with the support of the staff, to try her unaccustomed step step by step here and there, we and all the people giving thanks to the merciful God, who heals those hoping in him not only in soul, but also in body.

[11] from which miracle the author digresses to the praises of St. Philastrius. Well done, O incomprehensible and immense one, how, among the many miracles which can be comprehended, this miracle he measured by his own disposition, full of the sevenfold Holy Spirit, dividing to each as he wills! Who gave to Philastrius the spirit of the knowledge of preaching, granted also to this girl of seven years, and lying near the body of his preacher, the restoration of the joints of the feet and legs and thighs, on that day to which he himself by his resurrection gave a name. And that it might be given to understand that this was done by heavenly grace, first she extended to heaven the due hand: then, as if descending, the whole body: after these, he heals the joints of the feet. And it is to be noted that he cured the feet of the girl, and the hand of the young woman. What else, but that he did this wonderfully, who wonderfully made man, more wonderfully redeemed him? Who gave to human nature in boyish years the step, and in youthful ones the exercise of work, himself reformed the step of the girl, and restored the withered hand of the young woman.

[12] To a lame boy For even as in the sermon published by the Prelate Gaudentius, namely of the life of the most blessed Pontiff Philastrius, it is read, that he was, with stupendous kindness, common to every age and condition and sex, nay more closely joined to all humble ones: so now to all ages of the sick (his merits suffraging, Christ mediating) he profited, and to both sexes. For among the lying wedges of the sick a boy was led by his father so maimed ^b, that without his bearer he could not stand or walk, and while, accompanied by the faith of his parent and his own, frequenting near the bier of the most blessed Philastrius, he awaited the help of the divine mercy, the reins of the sinews and the gaping of the fibers began, the Lord restoring the thighs and legs of him, to be reformed, until, recovering, he stood upon his feet, and alone tried gradually, the divine suffrage helping, his unaccustomed step, so that he traversed the walls of the hall without anyone's help, giving thanks to his Maker.

[13] Then one of our presbyters, whom we had set over the guards, the faculty of walking is restored to him; the father being summoned, said: "Son, lie not, but confess to us the truth of the cause of the languor of this boy, thy son, whether from birth, or afterward, his thigh withered?" Who, testifying God, and giving thanks to him with tears rejoicing, confessed: "This my son, in the accustomed manner of human nature, in his infancy received from God the step, which he used for some years. But when on a certain day I was driving my own animals out of my house, he began, against my will, for love of me, to run here after me. By which running there came to him a pain of the top of the thigh, and after a little, flowing down into the knee and leg, he was so made maimed, that now for two years he could by no means walk, unless now, by the intervening merits (which I firmly believe) of the Lord's holy Philastrius, the mercy of God pitying us."

[14] How good is God, the God of Israel, to those who are of a right heart! whence Rampertus again slips off to other matters. by whose meeting the joint of his thigh withered, and his offspring limped, until the coming of the Son of God. But he who through himself and his messengers reformed the maimed Israelitic people, which, deviating from the right path, had limped, he, for the reformation of our faith, by the merits of the most blessed Philastrius, raising the maimed boy, piously reformed by bringing health. For Jacob had limped all the time of his life, since his race, living in the legal precepts according to the letter, which kills, not according to the spirit, which quickens, remained maimed until the perfection of evangelical grace. But this boy, stripped by baptism of original crimes, dwelling under the grace of evangelical doctrine, at that time when, moved to the tears of penance with his parents, he went to the frequented church, came near the most holy bier, and, faith accompanying, the merits of the aforesaid seer cooperating, the divine mercy healing, is held unharmed.

[15] But since, with many miracles divinely everywhere fragrant around the venerable urn, A certain young man, we may recall some by remembering, and it is most difficult to comprehend all with our pen, at least somehow, as on the margins of the shore of the sea, gathering with the little hoe of a small talent the collected pebbles into a mound, in a rough form, it pleases to lead out a rivulet, which we would wish the meadows to drink, and to note this, so far as the diverse deeds of the eternal Maker have wonderfully shone in it. There was brought therefore among the rest (so to speak) the well-known corpse of a young man of our people, reclined among the coverlets, lacking indeed, except taste, the senses of the human body, wont to lie on a bed placed on a wagon, his parents using the half-alive service of a driver, and of the suffraging animals in making the journey.

[16] destitute of the use of almost all his senses, Not only with that ardor with which they might ask for food, but rather, that it might happen to the son by the merits of the Saints, by the grace of the Almighty, which happened to him who, from those entering the temple for the grace of prayer, the most blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, and John, had asked alms. But these, with the cot, being left by the parents at the discretion of their Maker around the urn, that the Worker of the work might take care of the tearful parent, and, industrious, of the long and odious burden returning, the industry of the pitying guards was applied to the wholly destitute body in feeding, and in bringing to it what it had need of, and especially in praying for it, nay, for all the sick placed there. Wherefore we had decreed, by the counsel and consent of the good judgment of our fellow-priests, daily to ask for them the heavenly remedy. For he was so dead in his bodily senses, that he could discern nothing by sight, chew nothing except when another put it in, walk with the step of neither foot, having no hand fit for his own or anyone's use, so that even some, raving, mocked him, believing that he could now obtain the health only of the soul, by no means of the body.

[17] he recovers his health. But his clemency pitying him, with whom nothing is impossible, strengthening the hearts of the faithful and instructing the wavering, and that he might be made a witness of other miracles, the merits, as we believe, of the most blessed bishop Philastrius intervening, for the testimony of whose revelation we believe him to have flowed away in languor up to that time, so that in him might be manifested the glory of him whose faithful preacher through the cities of the world Philastrius remained—by the heavenly light his sight, and by the breath his speech, and by the remedy his touch with his step, so, before the venerable bones were buried, he received from the Lord through him, and in his church is held unharmed, so that he walks with his accompanying eyes through his cloisters, and can bring food to his mouth, and the standard of the cross to his forehead, and with his tongue put forth the faith and the Lord's prayer, and pronounce whatever is necessary for him. Of which miracle we are as many witnesses as we then dwelt at Brescia, and knew him formerly sick. But how the formerly sick man was before, not only the Brescians, but also from Pavia to Venice ^c, all the doorkeepers of the religious places, and the nearest houses of the priests ^d, can testify, if they retain it in memory.

[18] The author from that cure It now pleases to remember attentively, and it is given to believe, that he who, the Lord saying, found half-alive between Jerusalem and Jericho, a remedy being applied, commended to the innkeeper that he should take care of him, and who, for the death committed by the first-formed man, snatched the human race, bound to the condition, by the piety of his grace, dividing judgment to the deceiver, mercy to the deceived, which afterward he committed to the disciples to be cured, from whom arose the origin of pastoral care, filled the seas and lands through the universal church. The care of which office and honor the bishop Philastrius of most blessed memory, undertaking, faithfully and skillfully exercised, and strengthened the people for the Lord our God by good exercise with unspotted faith, and now, lying at the coffin of the faithful servant, weak in the whole body, and deserted by his parents, through all the bodily senses, so moderating restored him, that he might live to himself, not to the world.

[19] For he opened his eyes, that they might be guides of the walker, draws moral lessons. not that they might behold the vain glory of the world: he opened his ears, whereby he might understand useful things, not that he might hear the whisperers of detraction. He loosed his tongue, that he might profess the faith, and that he might confess what he had sinned, which is man's part, and seek things necessary for himself: but so he left it bound in the other part, that it could not break forth to cursing and detraction. He extended his dry arms, to nourish and protect his own body, but that they might not be fit for rapine. For the joints of the lower limbs he so reformed, that he could go to the things necessary for himself, but might remain weak to run to evil, and maimed. O Philastrius, skillful innkeeper, by thy merits and the grace of our Maker, in the stable where thy body lies, he thus escaped half-alive, that he might become a mirror to the human race. For it is given, unless I am mistaken, to understand, that we should moderate our senses after the manner of the aforesaid sick man, using them in the necessary utilities, both of the interior and of the exterior man, so moderating, that they exuberate not to perform any evils. O admirable Maker of the human race, who in the restoration of our sick man instructest us so to use the senses of the body, that we may be able to keep the senses of the interior man inviolate, and to become like the prudent virgins.

[20] Since indeed all the things which the divine immensity accomplished in the translation of his Confessor, The dry hands of two young men are healed; it is difficult to comprehend, at least one, which was done after the day of his burial, I shall try, as I can, to bring back to the memory of the charity of the faithful. For on the ninth day after the reclining of the venerable clod in the burial of the aforesaid winter church, at one and the same hour, wonderfully, in the crowd of the sick, the dry hands of two adolescents were extended. Whom the subordinate guards of the officers, knowing before that they had flowed away in dryness of hand, when they had seen them extend to whatever they wished, inquiring, finding a twin miracle, laid it open. Setting them before them, they said in the vulgar speech: "Do you not see our palsied ones ^e extend their hands, which both today, as yesterday and before, we saw contracted?" This not only the guards themselves and the rest placed there, but also their neighbors and acquaintances, because for a long time they had dry hands, testified. And on that day, since they believed that the Almighty could do this, not presuming on their own, but on the merits of the most blessed bishop Philastrius, they professed themselves made whole by the remedy of God. Whence for joy the tearful church rendered manifold thanks to God, since he saves those who hope in him.

[21] Yet I think it skillfully necessary for us to scrutinize, which miracle Rampertus mystically interprets. so far as the human sense, the Lord bestowing, grasps, the quality of this miracle, because we believe this was done for the instruction of the whole Church. Whence it is to be noted

that, faith accompanying, to two at once the dry hands were reformed. By the faith which they had in the Lord, two at once deserved to be saved: whereby we are urged to trust and hope in the Lord, and to love our neighbor. By the restoration of the hands we are admonished, that with the love of God and of neighbor we should unceasingly exercise good works. But let us see for what reason it was done on the ninth day ^e. For this number, by force and nature, is the second square, which is made by the ternary, and is resolved into it. Do not three times three make nine? And nine cannot equally be divided, except into three times three. Whence we are taught to believe the Trinity in one divinity, and that we were formed by it, and justly resolved through it. Behold, in the second square, in the second burial of our Bishop, we are taught, stuffed with the good works of the love of God and of neighbor, to believe that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God: Who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* elsewhere "without" (sine)

* that is, paralytics

CHAPTER III.

The obliteration of the ancient prodigies, the highest veneration toward St. Philastrius, and three miracles wrought before his translation.

[That anciently also several miracles were wrought by the intercession of St. Philastrius,] But lest any rival object, and if any desirable investigator should stipulate from any of us, whether without any miracle the limbs of so great a seer were secretly laid to rest in the cave, or whether he to whom the faithful angel always testified had done anything at all there before, who could tell all things for their multitude, since the linear narration ^a was obliterated by diverse enemies, the barbarians and Goths and Lombards and the rest rushing into Italy? But lest by our sloth, as if dumb, we should seem to have left the former times, consider attentively, my dearest fellow-brother, whoever thou be that inquirest, a few of the many, partly by reasoning, partly as they themselves reported to us, who once used the conversation of those who either had seen on his annual feast day, or had felt at the tomb, by the providence of the Almighty, a miracle or consolation.

[23] What kind of man the bishop Ambrose of Milan, of most holy memory, understood him to be in the times of the wicked storm of the Arians, the author gathers from his celebrated cult; who had him for his colleague? And of how great merit the neighboring bishops esteemed him to be, if the fourth bishop of Bergamo [*] in the epitaph of the third bishop, that is, of his predecessor (unless I am mistaken), was zealous to mention, that Ambrose consecrated the same bishop ^b, Philastrius consecrated him deacon? Of whose life and sanctity his successor bishop Gaudentius so savored, who for fourteen years, perhaps and more, kept the day of his passing as a feast, making a sermon to the people concerning him? Likewise the thirty Brescian bishops after him, by what causes dost thou think they were conscious of his merits and miracles, who, an altar being placed over his tomb, celebrated the divine mysteries, keeping the annual feast day of his passing?

[24] For our predecessor, that is, the bishop Petrus of venerable memory, then he narrates how Petrus, bishop of Brescia, was freed from a fever, showed that he was of so great veneration, that, panting with his grief, he testified that in the time of his presbyterate he was so oppressed with fevers, that no potion, and no unguent, could snatch him from the fever, although he himself was skilled in that art. But when after some time he had come to the tomb of the most blessed Philastrius, and had there implored God that by the intervening merits of the same health might be granted him, he professed that he had risen from prayer so healed, that no rigor of the paroxysm touched him any longer. But also the rhythmic hymn, which they report the bishop Gaudentius, therefore a man of authority, to have made, he was diligently wont to sing concerning him ^c. But that Gaudentius himself composed it I doubt, since the sense of the first line is far otherwise, and the rhythm itself has the letters of the name of its composer through the beginnings, so to speak, of the verses, if anyone attend.

[25] But also in the times of Ansoaldus the bishop, of holy memory, and a certain guardian of St. Peter's, when a certain guardian of the title of St. Peter, which is situated in the greater castle, in a suburban estate of the possession of that title, called Baronica, not rightly celebrating the deposition of the most blessed Philastrius, and dishonoring so great a day, had compelled his household to labor in the threshing-floor, so that, wearied with their sweat, they beat out the wheat from the chaff with flails, saying, "It is the feast of St. Philastrius, we ought to rest as usual": and he the more, threatening, terrified them, that they should press on the work, immediately, seized by a spirit, he began to be tormented through the threshing-floor, out of his mind. Who, seized and bound by his astonished servants, and in an unaccustomed manner shamefully led to the aforesaid title, was so long bound with chains, until he professed that he had sinned in dishonoring so great a festival, and was made both a witness of his own offense, and of the honor of the most blessed Philastrius.

[26] But after some space of this time a certain rich man of Brescia, on the same feast day of the deposition of blessed Philastrius, incautiously sent workmen into his suburban farm ^d, which is called Caloniola, for the collection of hay, [and another Brescian citizen paid the penalty for the violated feast of St. Philastrius;] and, the hay being already dry, and partly gathered into wagons, partly into stacks, so stormy and so headlong a flashing suddenly came on, that, like dust, all the collection of that day slipped from before their eyes, so much that not one sheaf remained. Whence it happened that the aforesaid rich man after this venerably observed the annual festival of St. Philastrius, and, confessing his loss, was made a witness of our Prelate. For to him David sang, "Mercy and judgment I will sing to thee, O Lord": and he who by just judgment reprobated the enemy of the human race, and who, as pious mercy condoling, that he might redeem his degenerate creature, that is, the human race, assumed the form of a servant, that is, almighty, eternal God, who in one and the same essence, omnipotence, eternity, divinity, lacking beginning and end, increase and diminution, variation and division, both begetting, and begotten, and proceeding, that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, by whose counsel the person of the Begotten was perfected in humanity, which mercifully, judgment being suspended over our people, so also in all, and with all, in this matter wonderfully wrought.

[27] and finally he explains the causes of these three miracles. O most beloved Brescians, of whom one, afflicted with fevers, humbled in mind, he snatched away: another, knowingly and arrogantly sinning, he corrected in himself: a third, as a common man, perhaps sinning in ignorance, he afflicted in his goods, that is, in the matter of the offense: since one obtained by prayer what he believed by faith: but the other, because, urgently compelling by force, he yielded neither honor to the Servant of God, nor mercy to his own, being shamefully and publicly seized inwardly, was brought to a pure confession, that amendment might cling to himself, and an example to others: but the third, who indeed hired workmen for a price, and sent his servants with a sober will, suffered loss outwardly. For he lost all that which he strove to work in the unlawful time, together indeed with his matter. For he had green grass, and could, as is fitting, have it dry without sin: but because he wished to dry it unlawfully, he lost the very material utterly, the providence of our Lord Jesus Christ disposing or permitting, whose lover Philastrius was, and whose love it behooves us all to seek; who consubstantially and coeternally and equally, undividedly, lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit through all the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* is it not of Bergamo?

* elsewhere "celebrated" (celebraret)

* elsewhere "substantially" (substantialiter)

THE SECOND TRANSLATION

From the books of provisions of the city of Brescia.

Philastrius, Bishop, at Brescia in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 6798

FROM A BRESCIAN MANUSCRIPT.

In the year 1456, on the 26th of January, in a special council. Likewise with all their strength the Lord Councilors were disposed to honor the body of St. Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, In the year 1456 by the Magistrate of Brescia were deputed, which, as is said, lies in the subterranean chapel of the church of St. Mary the Rotunda, which is called St. Philastrius's, though it is even doubted that it is there: for by some it is said that in the time of the dominion of the magnificent Pandolfo Malatesta it was carried away. And since waters gush up in the aforesaid chapel in the time of rains, and the said venerable body stands submerged in the waters, which by all Christians is deemed abominable, by ballot-box and ballots ^a it was provided and ordained that Lord Jacopo Saiani, doctor and advocate of the city, and other chosen citizens, together with the most reverend Lord bishop of Dulcinum, Vicar and suffragan, and with his authority and good pleasure, should excavate

under the altar of the said chapel in this dry season, and dig so deep that it may clearly be seen whether the said venerable body be present, or some beautiful chest: and in case they should find it, as, the Lord helping, is hoped, that they should raise it with its chest, and bring it back with all honor above the ground in the same place, so that it stand in no way in the waters, nor under the earth; and finally that they should inform the Lord Rectors and the council of whatever things found, and of the ways deliberated and executed by them, so that provision might be made for opportune solemnities for so great a preciousness found.

[2] In the same year, on the 6th day of February, it being set forth by Lord Jacopo of Saiano, advocate of the city, who should seek and dig up the body of St. Philastrius, that in the execution of the commission made to him and other citizens on the 29th day of the month of January, the aforesaid went with the most reverend Lord bishop of Dulcinum, Vicar, etc.; and, the name of God being invoked, devoutly and reverently they entered the subterranean chapel of the Duomo, in which, as is publicly reported, lies the venerable body of St. Philastrius, bishop of Brescia; and with some masters they entered, and broke the great altar which was there, and found nothing in it: but, proceeding further, they had digging made under the said altar, and, the earth being dug through, about two arm-lengths or thereabouts, they found a marble chest, and around it a most strong wall of most tenacious lime, which they wholly broke, until the whole chest was uncovered, in whose cover there had remained a little window, through which, looking in with lights, they clearly saw that in the aforesaid chest many bones lay: from which they held it to be true that in it was the aforesaid venerable body, attending especially that on the said cover are sculptured two great final syllables, E and B, which signified "bishop of Brescia" (Episcopus Brixiae). Likewise on the said cover there is a silver ring, which signified the eminent dignity. And they would not proceed further, until they should lay open all these things to the Council.

[3] which, being found, and laid up in another chest, The aforesaid Lord Councilors, giving thanks to God, praised the skill of the aforesaid Lord advocate and his companions, who so diligently and accurately fulfilled the things committed to them by the council with great prudence and discretion: and at last, after many conferences and counsels held, they deliberated by ballot-box and ballots, that, the feast of the blessed martyrs Faustinus and Jovita being past, namely on the 26th day (perhaps the 16th, as from the circumstances it seems it should be read), the aforesaid chest should be uncovered on all sides by tearing away the cover, prudently however, lest it be broken, and that with all veneration the venerable body of St. Philastrius should be seen by touch: and this in the presence and according to the orders of the most reverend Lord bishop the vicar, and the Lord prelates of the Greater church, and the magnificent Lords the Podestà and the Captain, and the citizens deputed to the aforesaid, and with opportune solemnities, etc.

[4] it is honorably translated. In the year 1456, on the 20th of February, in general council. The Lord Councilors, considering that the marble chest, in which was found the venerable body of St. Philastrius bishop of Brescia, was found subterranean, and now on all sides bared or wholly separated from the earth, stands in evident peril of a thievish crime: and desiring to provide for the honor of the aforesaid relics, by ballot-box and ballots ordained, that the distinguished citizens, elsewhere elected, together with the most reverend Lord bishop of Dulcinum, suffragan and Vicar general in our bishopric, with all due reverence and befitting solemnity, should take all the said venerable relics out of the aforesaid chest, which consists of several marble pieces ^b, and should honorably and devoutly lay them in their leaden coffer, which the said citizens should immediately make honorable: and then should lay the said leaden coffer, ornately fashioned, in a chest situated in the sacristy of the Duomo, surrounded with iron-work, in which are laid up the holy golden Crosses of the flame and the field: and that after these, and as soon as could be done, a solemn altar should be made and fashioned in the aforesaid subterranean chapel, in which were the venerable relics or venerable body of the aforesaid most blessed bishop Philastrius, and in that altar should be placed the aforesaid marble chest, which now is under the earth, from which earth let it be raised and drawn out, and placed above the earth in the aforesaid altar, in which chest let the aforesaid leaden coffer be laid with the aforesaid sacred relics, that it may remain there, as there was the aforesaid venerable body by divine disposition.

ANNOTATIONS.