ON ST. ROFILUS OR RUPHILLUS, BISHOP OF FORUM POPILII,
AT FORLÌ IN ITALY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The cult, Office, and Acts of the Saint are examined.
Rofilus or Ruphillus, Bishop, at Forlì in Italy (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
Forum Livii, commonly Forlì, an ancient city of Italy, of which we have already often treated in our Acts, today preserves the sacred remains of St. Rofilus or Ruphillus, bishop of Forum Popilii, and celebrates his feast every year especially on this day. Ferdinand Ughelli, volume 2 of Italia Sacra, column 637, teaches, St. Ruphillus, the city of Forum Popilii being destroyed, is conveyed to Forlì, that the relics of this Saint were translated thither from the city of Forum Popilii, and writes thus of both burials: "The sacred remains of the body, laid up in a church which is proud of his name, then translated to Forlì, rest there in the church of St. James. A church and abbey consecrated to his name was once held famous enough in the place where a very ancient shrine dedicated to the name of Hercules had been, which was afterward brought over to divine worship, and bore the name of St. Ruphillus, which, together with the city cut down (after the last ruin of the year 1360 the episcopal see was translated to Bertinoro), as we said, was overwhelmed, so that no traces of it, but certain ruins, survived, which are still seen in the public ditch, on the part which faces the south: for a pavement distinguished with various colors, wrought in mosaic work, is discerned, and there a marble was found inscribed with these letters: 'This is the church of St. Ruphillus, confessor and bishop.'"
[2] Matteo Vecchiazzani, in the history of Forum Popilii, edited in Italian in the year 1647, part 1, book 9 and following, adduces various diplomas of the XII and XIII centuries, and he is venerated in various places in Italy. which made mention of the monastery of St. Ruphillus. The same writer, part 1, book 4, page 58, testifies that St. Ruphillus was formerly honored not only in his own diocese, but also in that of Imola; and adds that churches were erected in his honor by the people of Bologna, and most recently a church built with beautiful mosaic work by the Florentine senate, in which even today is read: "St. Rophillus, bishop of Pompilii." That the feast of this Saint was once solemnly celebrated, I gather from the Acts of St. Maurus, written by St. Peter Damian, and illustrated on the XX of January by Bolland, where in chapter 3, number 13, the following are narrated: "A certain other woman, more intent than she ought upon the necessity of household affairs, did not fear to clean wheat on the festival of St. Rophilus;
but while she did not show the reverence of due honor to the blessed Confessor, she did not escape the sentence of due chastisement." Then follows how she was punished, and at last, repenting of the deed, recovered her health, as may be seen in the place cited. Now let us confirm the cult of our Saint from other monuments.
[3] His memory is made in Peter de Natalibus, Peter de Natalibus, after the middle of the XIV century, the first among the hagiologists whom at least I know, thus commemorates the deeds of St. Ruphillus, book 6, chapter 114: "Rophilus was bishop of Popilium, who, earnestly preaching the word of the Lord, and confirming what he taught by the example of his works, was distinguished by the glory of miracles. But when on the road placed midway between the town of Popilium and that of Livium a huge dragon had appeared, which devoured men and animals, and made very many sick by its poisonous breath, the holy Rophilus proclaimed to his people a three-days' fast and prayer, and persuaded the holy Mercurialis, bishop of Livium, to do these same things with his people; and then both these bishops, together with the clergy and people of each city, approach the place; and prayer being sent before, the holy prelates bring the dragon forth from its cave: binding it also by the neck with their stoles, like a most gentle lamb, they dragged it, and enclosed it in a very deep well: they also marked a memorial over the well in testimony of the miracle, which remains there to the present. But Rophilus, returning to his church, and long foretelling the day of his death, on the XV Kalends of August rested in Christ, and was buried in his church, famous for miracles." Philip Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on the XVIII of July, has a similar summary of the Acts. But both these synopses of the Life seem taken from fuller Acts, and perhaps from a sermon delivered on the annual festival of St. Ruphillus, which we shall give after this Preliminary Commentary.
[4] Meanwhile I marvel that this Saint was unknown to Ado, Usuard, and other ancient Martyrologists. and more recent Martyrologists, and in a proper Office, Yet some more recent ones celebrate him, and among others Francesco Maurolico, abbot of Messina, in his Martyrology on this day has thus: "Likewise of Rofilus, bishop of Popilium, who overwhelmed a pestiferous dragon." Constanzo Felici in his Calendar announces the feast of this Saint in Italian in almost the same words. I do not understand what the Florentine codex among the supplements of Usuard means, which on this day pronounces thus: "In Tuscany, of St. Raphillus, archbishop of Ravenna." For neither Girolamo Rossi, nor Ferdinand Ughelli in the Catalogue of the archbishops of Ravenna, reckon a prelate of similar name. Certainly in the Calendar which was edited for the use of the diocese of Ravenna in the year 1660, no commemoration is made today of this Saint. Claudius Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology asserts, with the rest, that he was bishop of Forum Popilii, and adds that he is called in French Rufil or Roguil, and in Italian Roghiglio. At least in the manuscript Office which I have here, there is read such a title or rubric: "On the XVIII of July, on the feast of St. Ruphillus, bishop and patron of Forum Pompilii, double." Then this prayer is prescribed: "Almighty and eternal God, who among other distinguished miracles didst confer upon thy blessed confessor and pontiff Ruphillus the grace of destroying a huge dragon slaying men: grant, we beseech, that by his merits and prayers we may be freed from the deadly bites of the ancient serpent. Through our Lord, etc."
[5] To this prayer are subjoined three proper Lessons of the second Nocturn in this manner: Lesson IV. which he embraces in three Lessons, "Ruphillus, born at Athens in Greece, ordained bishop by St. Silvester the supreme Pontiff, is sent to Forum Pompilii to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to propagate the Catholic faith: who, as soon as he undertook the pastoral office, was most zealous in amplifying the divine worship. Wherefore the temple of Isis, the most noble of all, all the filth of idolatry being purged away, he changed into a church sacred to the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary Annunciate, and erected it into his cathedral. He flourished with such exceeding sanctity and innocence, that he deterred men from evil-doing, and inflamed them to keep the divine laws especially by his own example. What he taught for the instruction of the people, he began to fulfill by works, with so great an ardor of charity, that he continually afflicted himself, to implore pardon not for himself, but for the people subject to him, well knowing that unless the thistles of sins were torn out of themselves by long abstinence, the sacred seeds of spiritual gifts could never be grafted and planted; and although he so raged against his own body, yet he cherished the rest, especially the poor, with fatherly charity. He never ceased to direct the people committed to him into the way of salvation, both by word and by example. It is wonderful, therefore, how much he profited by the assiduous preaching of the word of God in reforming morals and removing abuses."
[6] Lesson V. "When midway between the town of Pompilium and that of Livium a huge dragon had appeared, the chief deeds of the holy Prelate, which devoured men and animals, and made several sick by its poisonous breath, Ruphillus enjoined upon his people a three-days' fast and prayer, and persuaded the holy Mercurialis, bishop of Livium, that his people should do these same things. Then both these bishops, together with the clergy and people of each city, approach the place, prayer being sent before, bring the dragon forth from its cave, and, their stoles being bound to its neck, all who were present marveling, cast it down and enclosed it in a nearby and deep well, and, triumph over the enemy being granted, Ruphillus, exulting with the people committed to him, returns to his see, and with thanksgiving all rejoiced in Christ, because they had extinguished the wickedness of the huge dragon, and delivered the people from the plague. While Ruphillus ruled the see of Pompilium, that miraculous thing came to pass, that at the same time he both was converting Germany to the faith, and was confirming peace among the citizens of Pompilium. In the council of Rimini, with Mercurialis of Livium and other bishops, against the Arians, for the Catholic faith he defended the Nicene council with singular virtue, and stood for it and subscribed."
[7] Lesson VI. "To flee afterward the threats of the Emperor, it comprises, with the said prelates of Livium and Gaudentius of Rimini he betook himself to a nearby village, which from that time began to be called Catholica by the said Catholic bishops. Hence each returning to his own see, Ruphillus stood in his own. Finally, when he had most holily administered the church of Pompilium for forty-seven years, and had foretold the approaching day of his death, now worn out with age, the sacred rites being performed as usual, he thus addressed those standing by: 'Beware, dearest ones, of contentions, beware of quarrels, love peace, follow after charity, that, adorned with these ornaments, you may come secure before the power of the highest judge.' Afterward, joyful, on the XV Kalends of August, in the year three hundred and eighty-two after the birth of Christ, he poured forth his happy soul, laden with merits and with the trophies won in defending religion, into the hands of the Creator. The sacred remains, embalmed with spices, were buried in his own cathedral. War afterward flooding over the whole province, Forum Pompilii is leveled with the ground: so that the body of the same Prelate might be in safety, and might not be defrauded of its due cult, Rubertus, surviving bishop of the destroyed city, had it translated to Forlì, into the church of St. James, today St. Lucy, with great concourse of all the people; and, placed in a marble tomb excellently sculptured over the high altar of the same church, it rests."
[8] His age is uncertain, Many things asserted in these Lessons (understand the same of the Acts to be subjoined to this Commentary), to say it most mildly, are destitute of solid testimony of antiquity. First of all, those things are uncertain which are here so confidently pronounced concerning the age of St. Ruphillus: for the age of St. Mercurialis, bishop of Forlì, with whom our Saint is said to have been contemporary, altogether wavers, since Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals, volume 3, at the year of Christ 359, number 46, judges thus concerning it: "But whereas the holy bishops Rofilus of Popilium and Mercurialis bishop of Livium are said to have stood for the Catholic faith together with St. Gaudentius, concerning Mercurialis it is certain that it is false: for it is certain that he died in the year of the Lord one hundred and fifty-six, from an inscription found at his tomb a few years ago (as we said in the notes on the Roman Martyrology most recently edited at Antwerp)." Our Papebroch disputes at greater length on this matter in the Life of St. Mercurialis, illustrated on the XXX of April, where at the same time some things concerning St. Ruphillus are discussed. As some writers, to elude this difficulty, introduced two or three Mercuriales, so perhaps Giuliano Portaguerra invented two Ruphilli, when in the praised Matteo Vecchiazzani, part 1, book 4, page 57, he writes thus: "Two Rophilli flourished; one in the time of St. Peter, and this one was a German, and was made bishop of the city of Velletri by St. Peter; the other, an Athenian, was made bishop of the city of Pompilium by Damasus (in the Lessons it is said, by St. Silvester): at which time, when heresy was rampant everywhere, together with Gaudentius and Mercurialis he most greatly confuted [it]. While he ruled the see of Pompilium, at that time he was converting Germany to the faith, and confirming peace between the two of Pompilium; and his most distinguished works, lest the deeds of the Apostles be obscured, perhaps remained hidden. He cast the serpent on the road of Pompilium and Livium, with great destruction of the peoples, with his own hands into a well." These and other things were perhaps devised by more recent writers, to defend the popular traditions of their homeland. At least I could wish that the most distinguished works of this Saint, which, however, the cited author confesses were hidden, were confirmed by more ancient witnesses.
[9] Besides other things, the history of the dragon does not please me, which has already been described in the proper Lessons, and his Acts collected by an unknown and later author, and will further be related in the Acts from number 11; but it displeases not therefore because it is marvelous, but because such a prodigy lacks the desired testimony of antiquity. I suspect that it first came forth from the Life of St. Mercurialis, which was taken from paintings representing the deeds of that holy Prelate, as the writer of the Acts himself confesses, and may be seen in our Acts, volume III of April, page 752 and following. What if idolatry or heresy, creeping in those regions, and extinguished by those holy bishops, was represented by the painter's ingenuity through a dragon? What if the author of the Life crudely changed this spiritual victory over the infernal dragon, related and expressed in the paintings, into a corporeal one, the rude common folk especially so interpreting it? Whatever be the case with this conjecture of mine, at least no one would easily persuade me that St. Peter Damian is the author of the Life, or rather the sermon soon to be exhibited, even though Vecchiazzani, Ughelli, and others thought so. My reason is, both because this sermon differs from the rest of Peter Damian's style, and because Constantine Cajetan in the edition of his works does not ascribe this sermon to him, although he wrongly attributes not a few of the little works of others to him, as most who have more accurately examined the ecclesiastical writers have long since observed.
[10] Add to these, that the same history of the dragon is so
variously narrated, they betray from time to time a fable. that it seems to have been changed and embellished at each one's pleasure. In the sermon soon to be subjoined, number 14, SS. Mercurialis and Ruphillus are said to have bound the throat of the dragon with their stoles, and both to have cast it down into the well. But in the Acts of SS. Gratus and Marcellus, which we gave in volume III of March, page 85, the dragon is said, before the coming of St. Ruphillus, at the prayer of St. Mercurialis with his companions, to have miraculously expired. Then this episode is subjoined: "And when Gratus had approached the dead dragon, and had bound it with his stole, and had thence cast it into a certain well nearby on the road, immediately, the deed being done, he lost the sight of his eyes." Finally, after the removal of this blindness is narrated, it thus concludes: "When, after the aforesaid things thus done, St. Rofillus had come with the clergy and his own to the appointed place, and had seen the dead dragon, he grieved very greatly for St. Mercurialis, bearing ill such an injury, and then they returned to their own places." Nay, the author of the Life of Mercurialis in our Acts, volume III of April, page 756, writes that St. Ruphillus took it so ill, that St. Mercurialis, to appease him, gave him two baptismal churches. But that you may know the credulous disposition of the same writer, receive what, among other things from the tradition of the country-folk, he there adds thus: "They relate also, that on the birthday of the Prelate himself the dragon shuts itself up in the well." It is wearisome to linger longer over these various and inept little narrations. Wherefore we subject the sermon itself, such as it is, to the judgment and eyes of the reader.
Annotations* perhaps "presence" (præsentiam)
* elsewhere Robertus
THE ACTS, BY AN UNCERTAIN AUTHOR
From a manuscript of the Vatican Library, number 6074, collated with the edition of Vecchiazzani, and another manuscript.
Rofilus or Ruphillus, Bishop, at Forlì in Italy (S.)
BHL Number: 7283
FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.
CHAPTER I.
The beginning of the sermon, an etymological explanation of the name of St. Ruphillus, and the virtues and admonitions of the same Prelate.
The celebrity of the Saints, especially of provincials, is to be recalled with the very greatest devotion by nearly all: The author, having begun the sermon, for our praises do not bestow upon them the honor of eternal glory, but heap up for us the profit of the heavenly fatherland; and whoever hastens more readily and more carefully to be present at the same, will here obtain benefits for the services rendered, as he asks, even as those which he bears in mind. God also does not regard the applause of ostentation, or of human favor, but bends his ears to the intention of purity a. But the Creator of all looks down ineffably from the heavenly citadel upon the end for which each one's action is put forth, and measures to each, before the eyes of the mind, rewards with wondrous dispensation. Some therefore came together to this festival of blessed Rofilus with various affection of zeal, but by human sight it is hidden with what intention they are present, which is clear by demonstration to the provident eyes of the Creator. God attends especially to the acts of those who with a mild and contrite heart offer him sacrifices; and he rejects those who, as from a lofty and proud brow, for the favor of praise stretch out their hand and offer gifts, of whom David: "For the Lord is high, and looks upon the lowly, and the high he knows from afar." Let us take care, therefore, that God, by his free piety, repel from us proud and high things, and grant us the lowly, pleasing to himself, not to the world, by the intercession of his holy confessor Rofilus, whose feast we celebrate today b, so that we may both lack the evils of the present life, and be able to obtain the rewards of eternal blessedness.
[2] We ought therefore to transfer the illustrious name of blessed Rofilus, he explains the name of St. Ruphillus from the Greek etymology, which is imposed on him in the Greek tongue, to the use of our Latin speech: for Rho in the Greek alphabet holds the nineteenth c place, and in the same Greek reckoning contains the number one hundred d. Rofillus therefore, in the same order which we have said, is derived from the Greek etymology in our speech, because "phylis" in Greek is "love" in Latin. Whence it seems to us that Rofillus is resolved in our speech as "the hundredth lover": for truly he had the love of the hundredfold fruit, as Truth in the Gospel says: "The seed fell into the good ground, and yielded some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold." Rofillus, the confessor of Christ, loved the hundredfold fruit, because by assiduous preaching he was zealous to recall, through pleasant green pastures, the hundredth lost sheep, carried back on the shoulders of Christ, to the fatherland of eternity: for Christ carried the sheep on his shoulders, when for the sin of Adam he performed the mystery of the incarnation, and mortifying the same on the cross, hanging on the cross, he condemned the sin of the whole people: for the hundredth sheep is the offspring of the human race, which the Creator handed over to be nourished to the sacred doctors, namely the Apostles, that the diminished angelic number might be reformed by the offspring of that same hundredth sheep.
[3] By the apostolic tradition therefore, and by the dignity of the prelates of the church, it is established that by their doctrine the hundredth sheep, for love of the heavenly fatherland, should despise earthly things, and he relates his singular virtues, and lay hold of heavenly things; of whose most sacred college Rofillus, confessor and Prelate of Christ, instructor of the people of Pupilium, governed the church of the same by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Finally, the blessed confessor, ordained by divine nod to the summit of the priesthood, did not cease, so that what he taught by words, he might fulfill by pious works, recalling the most sweet eloquence of the apostle Paul: "Lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself become a reprobate"; and therefore blessed Rofillus, lest he should seem a reprobate to his hearers, began to fulfill, by deeds, the things which he taught by words, for the instruction of the people. How great his ardor of charity was, can be known from this, that while he continually afflicted himself, he continually implored pardon not for his own, but for the subject people. He diligently afflicted his flesh, that he might fatten the souls of his subjects with the divine precepts, applying that of the apostle, who said: "But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection."
[4] Truly the confessor of Christ Rofillus chastised his body, while he subdued the enticements of the flesh by long fasting; and his pious admonitions, because he well knew that unless the thistles of sins were plucked out by long abstinence, the sacred seeds of spiritual gifts could by no means be grafted and planted. Whence the Lord to Jeremiah, when he sent him to crush the Israelitic cunning, says: "Behold, I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, and to build and to plant": for first he said to root out and to destroy, and afterward to build and to plant. So, so indeed the confessor of Christ Rofillus rooted out the thistles of sins, built up the sacred seeds of spiritual things, scattered the depraved thoughts from the hearts of the faithful, planted kindly consciences pleasing to God: for this too the holy Confessor was zealous, that when he rooted out the vices of the mind, he might scatter the rising clouds of the heart; and dissipated the thoughts lurking in the breast by spiritual doctrine, built up the virtues, the vices being rooted out, planted works worthy of the Creator of all; so that, lest the secret ambusher should sow tares, he fortified the church with a spiritual shield of divine protection.
[5] So Rofillus, the truthful confessor of Christ, acted, by which he made the people subject to him, thus among his subjects, that they should rather far and wide discern his deeds, than perceive with their ears words put forth into the wind without fruit. Therefore, while he offered the sacred victims of Christ, he preached this to the peoples: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate you, that you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven. For if you do these things, you will truly be the sons of God; but if (which God forbid) you do otherwise; whose sons but the devil's will you be? For it is written: Whose works one does, his son he is called. But he who does not love his enemy for God's sake, will be a stranger to the joy of paradise in the kingdom of God. For Christ hanging on the cross so loved his enemies, that even to those who wished to be converted from their depravity he gladly rendered benefits for the insults offered. As to blessed Paul and others of the Israelitic people after their conversion he granted eternity in the heavenly kingdom: for by the divine voice it is commanded: Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate you."
[6] For this Christ did, fixed on the gibbet of the cross, when he said: "Father, forgive them, to the love of enemies, for they know not what they do." If Christ, dearest brethren, did this for those slaying him, what ought we to do with our neighbors, who either provoke us with words, or inflict losses, or, if they do not prevail, try to do so? Assuredly from the heart and a pure conscience we ought to forgive them, that we may be able securely to say: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." Hear what Truth again says: "If you forgive not men their sins, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your sins." And elsewhere: "Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you." Therefore, most beloved and most dear to Christ, with the inmost love of the heart forgive those who sin against you, that you may be able securely to come to the tribunal of the eternal judge, other good works being applied.
[7] the cleanness of conscience, Meanwhile, when the prophet Isaiah, our Evangelist, was being read, where this lesson was contained: "Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your thoughts from before my eyes: cease to do perversely: learn to do well"; immediately the blessed Pontiff Rofillus, with hand extended enjoining silence, made a sermon of this kind to the people: "Attend, most beloved brethren, to what the prophet Isaiah commands to be done: Wash yourselves, be clean. Washing profits no one, if he is not clean. Many, indeed, wash themselves, but there is in them no cleanness; there is not, indeed, there is not pure water for washing to perfect cleanness, because it washes off the outer filth, while they nourish inward uncleannesses by vices in the secret of the heart: for the body is washed by water, the heart is defiled by threatening vices; therefore for true cleanness water alone does not suffice, which the prophet well perceiving said: Wash yourselves; then added: Be clean; and truly he washes himself who, by a silent or open conscience, bewails past sins, lifts not his heart to the joys of the world, tramples on vices by the help of the Holy Spirit, and inclines himself to lamentations for the crimes committed, and makes the fruit of penance, never afterward defiling himself in past sins. He truly washes and cleanses himself, who surrounds himself with such continually watching guards."
[8] Hear, brethren, the rest of the prophet's words also: "Take away the evil of your thoughts from before my eyes." If he said to take away evil thoughts, and he exhorted to the flight of sins. then it is not right to do evil. Therefore, if for thoughts punishment is given, for evil, for sin, what will be repaid? Certainly, brethren, at the last examination all things will hang in the balance of justice; acts, thoughts, and good and evil words. Wherefore, dearest ones, put on the armor of God, that, being sealed, you may be able to repel from yourselves the suggestions of the crafty enemy, so that, washed from the crimes of the flesh, we may be found clean before the eyes of the divine arbiter, and may deserve to be enrolled in the assemblies of the Saints, so that both to us for our exhortation there may remain the reward of salvation, and to you for your obedience perpetual joy.
ANNOTATIONS.
* elsewhere "made a beginning" (ortum fecit)
* elsewhere "then" (tunc)
* elsewhere "perpetrated" (perpetrato)
CHAPTER II.
Other virtues of St. Ruphillus, victory over the dragon, pious death and burial.
The venerable confessor of Christ Rofillus and distinguished Prelate did not cease to satisfy the people with divine banquets, always recalling that which blessed Paul had enjoined: The holy Prelate, burning with zeal for souls, "Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season." Now not only was there in him the doctrine of the word, but also a wondrous doctrine a was strong in him. Chastity too, the titillations of the flesh being expelled, shone in him, aided by divine supports b. Kindness so diligently radiated in him, that all the faithful rejoiced to flow together to him, even those who were strangers; but meekness, the opposers being set afar, flourished in him c, so that all did not cease to run together to his blessedness through long spaces of land. What more? So had he heaped up all the virtues in himself by the gift of the Holy Spirit, that nothing adverse opposed him against the divine precepts; so did he show himself merciful to all, that all cherished him as a most dear father.
[10] and shining with various virtues, Blessed and truly a Prelate was Rofillus, modest to the old, gracious to the young, kindly to the adolescents, most patient with infants and all, a consolation to the infirm, a treasury to the poor, a support to widows, a protection to orphans, a remedy to captives, a help to the shipwrecked. Those who sinned he reproved so gently, if he saw them mild d; that the penance imposed by him felt no weight; and he showed himself such with sinners, as if he himself bewailed the crimes committed; always retaining that which Paul had said to the Corinthians: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?" Adorned with such gems, as we have said, he awaited the promise of the truthful Gospel: "Come, ye blessed of my Father; receive the kingdom, which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
[11] The dragon, harmful to his people and to his neighbors, Human sense cannot recall to memory what the blessed confessor of the Lord Rofillus wonderfully accomplished in the times of his most sacred life: for while he admonished to beware the snares of the ancient serpent and of the crafty and cunning devil, he corporeally showed that pestiferous serpent to all the peoples over whom he presided, and to very many others. In the space which is passable to those going from the town of Popilium to that of Livium, a great dragon had settled, which by its very breath made all sick, which it did not cease to do to souls from the creation of the first-formed man, and did not withdraw itself from inflicting continual languors and deaths on bodies. But it came to pass, by the mercy of the Lord, that what the confessor of Christ Rofillus foretold concerning the invisible dragon, this he manifestly showed to all beholders, when he corporeally showed the same dragon. For how great virtue was in him against the spiritual and airy wickednesses, shone with the most evident indications from the destruction of the huge dragon e.
[12] prayers and fasting being first proclaimed, Finally, the disease of the foul dragon being discovered, the holy Man addresses the people with such words: "Turn your minds, dearest brethren in the Lord, for according to the Apostle, We have not a wrestling against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the world of these darknesses. Therefore against spiritual and airy battles it behooves us, most beloved brethren, to take up invisible and heavenly arms, in such wise that against the invisible one there be an invisible fighting. Hence let us take up the renowned fast proclaimed by Jonah, and ask the heavenly help, that by its aid we may escape the death of the visible and invisible dragon. I trust in the Lord, that by these aids we shall be saved in bodies and souls: to accomplish these same things let us send admonitions to our brother Mercurialis, that, in common, pardon being asked of the Lord, we may take victory over the enemy, so that the faithful people may perceive how much common prayer avails with God."
[13] and having exhorted St. Mercurialis to proclaim the same, Meanwhile, as the holy Confessor of Christ had foretold, he directed to the venerable Mercurialis, prelate of the church of Livium, such mandates: "Although we are separated by no small space of lands, yet we are connected by the one and inexplicable bond of brotherhood; yet in such wise that what one suffers, may become a united compassion to both. From the present crisis, and from every business always, let prayer be directed more readily to God by both, with the subject people, so that the disaster and deadly disease may be driven farther off by common petition. A three-days' fast being likewise performed, protected by the shield of spiritual salvation, let us crush, by the help of the Lord, the most wicked venom of the serpent and dragon f."
[14] These things being foreknown by the distinguished bishop Mercurialis, he sent his prayers and laments with a suppliant mind, with tears, farther to God. But the confessor of Christ Mercurialis, as he was solicitous from the readiness for the war, before the arrival of his brother Rofillus set his constant step forward with the people he had projected. he slays it prodigiously in the sight of the people. And now the time of the contest was at hand, and had covered the place of the dragon, when the holy Rofillus had come; although, because the confessor of the Lord Mercurialis had come before, Rofillus was a little saddened at this thing g. The blessed men, having kissed each other in turn with much mutual honor, approached the pit of the dragon, both weeping long and asking for the people the things necessary. Then the most blessed men bound the throat of the dragon with their stoles, all who were present marveling, removed it from its lair, drawing it out together: finding a certain well, enclosing it in it, they placed a memorial over it, rejoicing, and, triumph over the enemy being granted, dancing, returning to their own with the safety of the people, all rejoiced in Christ, because they had extinguished the wickednesses of the enemy and huge dragon, and delivered the people from the plague.
[15] From that time therefore the most blessed father and bishop Rofillus foretold that the day of his departure was at hand, Knowing that death was upon him, he bids farewell to his people, because "after the machinations of the ancient serpent are laid bare, O dearest sons," he said, "I must enter the most narrow way of the whole earth. Remember my littleness." Using a brief speech, he said: "Let the mutual love of charity bind you together, lest the secret enemy creep upon any of you, the Lord saying: Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart; then he added: And thy neighbor as thyself. He who loves his neighbor as himself, brethren, there will be for him no opportune fulfillment needed of this commandment, because what each spends upon himself, he will not deny to his neighbor, if he loves him as himself. Beware of contentions, beware of quarrels, love peace, follow after charity, that, adorned with these ornaments, we may come secure before the presence of the highest judge."
[16] and, having died holily, is buried and invoked. Instructed by these and other addresses, refreshed with spiritual food, those who were present, all weeping at the departure of so great a father, signing himself around with the sign of the cross, he invited all to a kiss. Afterward, joyful and exulting, he rendered his vital spirit to heaven. Whose body the pious people, embalming with spices, wrapping in priestly linens, delivered to a most worthy burial with hymn-singing melody; where to his praise many benefits continually abound, especially among the faithful. Thy suffrages therefore we beseech, O most blessed confessor and pontiff of Christ, Rofillus, that thou be mindful of our condition and salvation, obtaining for us profit with the reverend judge of all, so that by the obtaining of thy petition we may be able to be partakers of eternal joy, that at the last and dread examination we may be presented together with thee before the eternal arbiter without confusion. This most blessed Confessor of Christ died on the fifteenth Kalends of August, with whom, our Lord Jesus Christ granting, may we take the eternal kingdom through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
* elsewhere "to remove" (amovere)
* elsewhere "struck against" (offendit)
* perhaps "had opened" (aperuerat)