ON BLESSED STILLA, VIRGIN,
IN THE MONASTERY OF MARIENBURG NEAR ABENBERG IN FRANCONIA.
PERHAPS THE 12TH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
The cult, genealogy, Acts, and miracles.
Stilla, Virgin, in the monastery of Marienburg near Abenberg in Franconia (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
At Marienburg, says our Gretser in the work on the Saints and Bishops of the church of Eichstätt, book 2, chapter 10, which is a monastery of virgins in the diocese of Eichstätt near the city of Abenberg, there is venerated a virgin celebrated by the reputation of holiness, The cult of Bl. Stilla named Stilla. Then he thus proves the cult of the same blessed Virgin: Furthermore, to the tomb of St. Stilla straightway, although the monastery was not yet raised, a concourse began to be made by the neighboring people of Nuremberg, Weissenburg, Ansbach, and by others, who testified to benefits obtained by the merits of Bl. Stilla by offerings and votive tablets, as of old too was wont to be done at the tombs of the martyrs. Then, citing a passage from Theodoret concerning the offerings anciently suspended at the tombs of the Saints, he continues thus: The like of which of old it was possible to see at the tomb of St. Stilla, nay even today it is possible: for the fountain of that heavenly benignity has not dried up. A certain German manuscript, after the miracles of Bl. Stilla have been narrated, testifies that the image of this blessed Virgin, placed on the altar, is even today piously adorned by the nuns, and that to it at set times of the year, and especially on the 19th of July, a great concourse of people is made, as also happened in the year 1670; nay, it adds that the aspect of this image, on account of impending calamities of the people, was sometimes prodigiously changed, the credibility of which miracle we leave with the authors. Arthur in the Gynaeceum on the 30th of May, our Lahier in the Menology of virgins on the 28th of August, and Castellanus on this day in his universal Martyrology honor the same Virgin with the title of holy or blessed. But because they drew their own from Gretser and Rader, I do not think their words need be adduced.
[2] The already mentioned German manuscript accurately describes the present burial of Bl. Stilla, and among other things records and burial. that her tomb, raised three feet from the ground, is surrounded by railings, and that her effigy is carved on it, which holds a church in its hand. In the same place her genealogy is expressed in ancient characters, and in the middle is seen a wooden statue of the same blessed Virgin, on either side of which is a place where candles and other offerings are offered. Furthermore the same manuscript narrates almost these things concerning the relics of Bl. Stilla. When in the year 1630 the church of the monastery of Marienburg was being enlarged and brought into a better form, there was a certain prioress, named Christina, who doubted whether all the remains of Bl. Stilla were still preserved there, because already some years before she had seen in the monastery of Mariastein a reliquary in which the relics of Bl. Stilla were said to be enclosed. And so, counsel being taken, it pleased the two confessors of the monastery of Marienburg to examine the tomb of Bl. Stilla: who, when they had diligently dug at night, could not find the head of this blessed Virgin. Hence it was believed that the nuns of that monastery, who formerly, on account of the fury of the heretics, had fled to the monastery of Mariastein, had carried away with them some relics of Bl. Stilla. And these are the things which I could uncover concerning the cult and sacred remains.
[3] Gretser, praised above, derives the name of Bl. Stilla from the German etymology: for the word "Stille" among the Germans and Belgians signifies modest, Her genealogy from Gretser, taciturn, calm, and other such synonyms. Then, in the place already cited, he thus explains the genealogy of Bl. Stilla: She is said to have been the great-granddaughter of Babo, count of Abensberg in Bavaria, to whom an admirable lot granted thirty-two sons, and that indeed so that he saw them all surviving together; one of whom was Wolfram, whom St. Henry the emperor is said to have endowed with the county of Abenberg in Noricum; who, having taken a wife, begot three sons, Otto, Wolfram, and Conrad. Wolfram II had a son, count Zelcho. From Zelcho were born two sons, Conrad and Rapoto, and one only daughter, Stilla, which two, with St. Otto bishop of Bamberg, founded that most celebrated monastery of the Cistercian Order, which they call in German Heilsbronn, the Fountain of salvation, between Nuremberg and Ansbach,
which was done in the year 1132. I suspect that Gretser found this origin of Bl. Stilla too in certain documents, as he testifies that he drew other things from them in these words: Thus far the collectanea concerning the Saints of Eichstätt; so I call them: for the things which we have brought forward in this second book, most of them are collected and culled from various monuments.
[4] Nevertheless our Rader in his Bavaria Sancta, volume 2, and from Rader. page 244, thus proposes another conjecture concerning the stock of Bl. Stilla: They think that Stilla received her name from silence (a rare virtue indeed in a woman), because "Still" in the native tongue means silence: unless (what appears to me quite near the truth) she drew her origin from the margraves and counts of Austria of Stilla and Hefft. For the rest, as Gretser hands down, she had as father Zelcho, grandfather Wolfram II, great-grandfather Wolfram I, great-great-grandfather Bobo II, great-great-great-grandfather Bobo I, great-great-great-great-grandfather Berthold, the petty king of Bavaria of Scheyern, whose father was Arnulf the founder of Scheyern, grandfather Arnulf duke of Bavaria, great-grandfather Luitpold, the head of the princes today holding Bavaria: so that Stilla the virgin was brought forth from the seed of Princes, whose great-great-great-grandfather was that πολύπαις (if the narration of the more recent writers be true) Babo, happy in the offspring of forty children, thirty-two males, eight virgins, of whom Hund treats copiously in the stemma of the Bavarians. The great-grandfather Wolfram, son of Babo II, Henry the holy emperor endowed with the dynasty of Abensberg in Noricum. Zelcho the father had sons Rapoto and Conrad, who founded the most noble monastery Heilbronn, the Fountain of salvation. Yet the memory of the sister Stilla is passed over by the genealogists, who for the most part are silent about the female sex, except when they narrate that this or that one was given in marriage. But neither is mention made of Zelcho in the stock of Babo and Wolfram; Gretser drew him out from the Eichstätt charters; Aventinus and Hund are silent. Lazius, on the Eastern march of Austria, records margraves and counts of Stilla, and it may be that St. Stilla sprang from them. This uncertain conjecture of Rader we leave to the genealogists to examine. We meanwhile bring forward the Acts, or rather the fragments of the Acts, of that blessed Virgin.
[5] The Acts of the same blessed Virgin, The same Gretser, from the Eichstätt papers, I think, narrates the following: But Stilla's mind was always to build a church or a monastery or both on a mountain near her father's citadel. And the church indeed she completed; the rest, that she might not complete, death intervened: and when they tried to conduct the funeral to Heilsbronn, where her brothers rested, by no means could it be moved from the place. The horses therefore being yoked to the wagon, they let them go free without any driver or guide. But they of their own accord carried the sacred burden to the church which she had built, and in which she had chosen a tomb for herself, and not without heavenly approbation: for when one day Bl. Stilla had cast down her glove from the paternal citadel with this addition: There let me be buried, where the glove shall be found; it was found nowhere but in the church founded by her; and indeed in that very place which it occupies as her tomb. The church stood alone up to the year of Christ 1382, at which time Wilhelm, bishop of Eichstätt, began to add a monastery of nuns, virgins being summoned from Mariastein near Eichstätt, who should lay the foundations of the religious life; which monastery afterward flourished greatly both in numbers and in piety, so that the chief patricians of Nuremberg used to send hither their daughters to serve God. These are all the things which are handed down concerning the deeds of Bl. Stilla.
[6] and her miracles. God after the death of Bl. Stilla wrought various miracles through her intercession, by the multitude and greatness of which Gundacar II, bishop of Eichstätt, is said to have moved, erected an altar in memory of that blessed Virgin. Although perhaps some one of the prelates of Eichstätt was the founder of this altar, yet it could not be Gundacar, as Gretser rightly observes, since Gundacar died in the year of Christ 1075, when Bl. Stilla perhaps was not yet born, certainly not yet dead, if the things which we gave above from Gretser concerning her stock and brothers stand, who in the year 1132 built the monastery of Heilbronn. Yet I would not, on account of this error, have doubt cast upon her ancient cult or miracles, of which the oft-cited Gretser thus testifies: I saw and read, written in German, fifty-five plainly manifest and evident miracles, wrought by the suffrage of Bl. Stilla: for sight was restored to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, pestilence driven away, headaches assuaged, the half-dead recalled from the threshold of death, and many other things done beyond the powers of nature, which clearly show this notable Countess of Abenberg to be most dear and most acceptable to Christ her Spouse. We have the same miracles, unless I am mistaken, and perhaps more, taken from the German manuscript of the monastery of Marienburg, and transmitted by our Fr. Christopher Offenhausen toward the end of the year 1670 from Eichstätt to Papebroch, which would that Gretser, or some other altogether skilled in the German tongue, had put into Latin. Since therefore I know this to have been done nowhere, for the glory of Bl. Stilla I will undertake this tedious labor, and render the benefits granted by her intercession from our German manuscript into Latin, the substance of the matters being kept.
MIRACLES
From the German Manuscript of the monastery of Marienburg, which we render into Latin.
Stilla, Virgin, in the monastery of Marienburg near Abenberg in Franconia (S.)
FROM A MS.
PART I.
The ancient miracles are recounted, which happened up to the restoration of the monastery.
A noble canon of Eichstätt, laboring under ophthalmia, invokes St. Stilla, and vows that he will restore the building sacred to her. A canon laboring in his eyes Soon, all pain of the eyes being driven away, he fulfills his vow, and afterward enters a religious Order.
A certain virgin of Nuremberg suffered great pains and terrors: and a woman obtains health first for herself, then for her son. for in time of sleep, suddenly awaking, she cried out, so that some feared lest she should be reduced to madness. Then, by the counsel of pious men, she promises a pilgrimage to the tomb of Bl. Stilla, and was soon healed. When the same woman, afterward placed in marriage, had borne a son, a horse so crushed the little son's face that the boy scarcely bore the figure of a man, and was thought about to die of the wound. She again implores the intercession of Bl. Stilla, and soon the boy was restored to his former form.
[2] A certain woman had a little son who for a long time had not been able to walk. A lame boy, The mother therefore commends him to St. Stilla, and carries him to her tomb. But on the way, when they were still half a league from it, the boy said: Mother, let me go. The mother answered: You cannot go. The boy again repeats: Dear mother, let me go. Then the boy, set down on the ground, began to leap for joy, and to run along the way up to the tomb of St. Stilla; and from that time nothing was lacking to him in walking. On the vigil of SS. Peter and Paul, when in the monastery the dedication of the church is celebrated, this miracle was done and became known to all.
On the same day came a woman having eyes so dim and a dim-sighted woman are healed. that she was almost blind. She had vowed a pilgrimage to St. Stilla. And when, about to fulfill her vow, she drew near the tomb of St. Stilla, with a loud voice she thus prayed: O holy Stilla, worthy spouse and friend of God, obtain from Almighty God the health of my eyes: for I am a wretched sinner, who can obtain nothing for myself. These things being said, she at once felt a remedy, and with so great a voice that the nuns in the choir heard, began to cry out: Praise, honor, and glory be to Almighty God and to St. Stilla: for I have received my sight. Then everywhere she made known how by the patronage of St. Stilla she had been freed from impending blindness. Wherefore, exceedingly rejoicing, she resolved for the rest of her life to venerate St. Stilla earnestly, and so afterward often visited her tomb. This woman was of Ansbach a.
[3] A woman with the French disease, Another woman was so laboring with the French cancer that it made in her arm a great and open hole. She vows therefore a pilgrimage to St. Stilla, and when she had undertaken it, was restored to her former health.
About the year 1494 God afflicted Nuremberg b, and the city of Nuremberg are freed from plague. a famous city of the Holy Roman Empire, with pestilence. But since at that time in the monastery of Marienburg, which is distant only three leagues from Nuremberg, there were very many daughters of Nuremberg sprung from noble and chief families, the senate asked by letter the nuns of the aforesaid monastery to implore the divine mercy by prayers, and to drive the contagious disease from the city. When this had been carried into execution, and the Magistrate clearly saw that by these and the prayers of other pious men the plague was stayed, it gave to the monastery a letter of thanks, and sent, to adorn St. Stilla, a red Damascene mantle, on which the insignia of the city, embroidered with the needle, are still seen.
[4] Two nuns by the aid of St. Stilla, A certain nun suffered great pains in her side. Invoking therefore St. Stilla, and applying earth taken from her tomb to her side, she is brought back to health. The same nun had fallen into a deep ditch filled with water, and was in the nearest danger of death. The aid of St. Stilla being implored, she suddenly so emerged from the water that she could be seen and helped. Another nun had her hand ill-affected, are wondrously helped. so that she could not conveniently take food. When no medicine profited her, she implores the intercession of St. Stilla, and praying at her tomb offers two waxen hands. After prayer poured forth and the offering made, she is restored to health.
[5] A woman gravely wounded by a fall of a ladder, When at Marienburg the choir of the nuns was being enlarged, a ladder, which two men could scarcely carry, fell near the tomb of St. Stilla upon the head of a woman, who at once, out of her senses, fell to the ground. The aid of St. Stilla being implored, the woman so recovered her former strength that she seemed to have suffered scarcely any harm. She firmly persuaded herself that she would have died on the very spot, had not St. Stilla interceded with God. Wherefore she resolved for her whole life to venerate St. Stilla devoutly.
An honorable virgin of Nuremberg had a swollen cheek; and a virgin afflicted with a double disease are restored to health. which by no medicines could be brought back to its former state. Invoking St. Stilla, she vows to her a candle and a cult as long as she should live, and without delay obtains health. The same virgin, afterward feeling great pains in her breast and shoulders, again implores the aid of St. Stilla, and at once experiences a relief of her torments.
[6] A matron of Nuremberg one night was overwhelmed by so great and so sudden a disease A certain matron is delivered from a dangerous disease, and the same that she believed she would soon be suffocated. But when afterward the physician could not help her, she took refuge in the patronage of St. Stilla, and vows to her a waxen image. Her health recovered, she carried this image to her tomb, and made public the benefit which she had obtained by the intercession of St. Stilla. The same matron was entangled in two lawsuits of great moment, which could not be expedited. She commends therefore her cause to St. Stilla, and promises her a certain gift.
Then all things succeeded according to her wish.
Many others, ensnared in most difficult lawsuits, came to the tomb of St. Stilla, with many others she happily ends difficult lawsuits. and, offering waxen tongues, narrated how God, through the intercession of St. Stilla, had helped them in their causes.
[7] A certain woman was so vexed with a headache A woman with a headache, that she seemed about to lose the use of reason. Then in sleep St. Stilla appeared to her, and persuaded her to undertake a pilgrimage to her tomb. This being accomplished, she recovered her lost health.
Another woman had long been afflicted with the French disease, and another are freed from the French disease. and by no arts of medicine could be recalled to health. To her also St. Stilla appeared in sleep, and bids her make a pilgrimage to her tomb. But since this woman had never before heard of St. Stilla, she came to Nuremberg and sought the burial-place of St. Stilla. Thence she is sent to Amberg, where there was a hospice sacred to St. Stilla. When she had come there and attentively poured forth prayers, she began to be healed. Wherefore, thanks being given to God and to St. Stilla, she publicly narrated this wonderful benefit conferred on her.
[8] While a certain woman was spinning, her little grandson by her son, running about the distaff in a boyish manner, so fell Two boys that the spindle was fixed in his neck, and the boy, like one dead, fell to the ground. Terrified by this spectacle, the woman began thus to cry out to St. Stilla: O Almighty God, by the intercession of your handmaid St. Stilla, snatch this boy from death. Soon the boy raised himself, drew out the spindle with his own hand, gave it to his grandmother, and obtained his former health. Then she at the tomb of St. Stilla rendered thanks, because God had deigned at her prayers to work so great a prodigy.
When a certain boy had thrust a stalk together with an ear into his throat, are delivered from a dangerous mishap. which no one could extract, the parents grieved vehemently at this misfortune. But the mother carried her son to the tomb of St. Stilla and placed him on the altar. This being done, the stalk of its own accord fell out, and the boy was freed from all trouble.
[9] A certain woman was laboring with so great a defect of the eyes that she scarcely saw. A dim-sighted woman, While she fulfills a vow offered to St. Stilla, she received the entire use of her eyes, and rendered thanks to God for the benefit received.
A citizen of Weissenburg had a boy a mute boy; who for a long time had not been able to obtain the use of his tongue. The boy is by vow brought to the tomb of St. Stilla, and obtains speech.
Another citizen of Weissenburg was captured by two of his enemies. and a man captured by enemies are freed. These placed the captive in the middle between them, that he might not escape. But while they slept, he himself fled, and hid himself in a cornfield. They, awaking, ran crosswise through that whole field, and could never find him. At that time his wife at home had invoked St. Stilla for her husband's safety, and had promised her a pilgrimage. Thus that man was withdrawn from the vengeance of his enemies.
[10] A priest recovers health, A disease had so weakened the limbs of a certain priest of Weissenburg that he could scarcely say Mass. A vow being made, he came to the tomb of St. Stilla, and at once was so restored to health that at her altar he conveniently celebrated Mass.
When a certain baker from the castle of Winsbach was carrying bread to the town of Abenberg, a baker's horse is suddenly cured, his horse on the way so began to be sick that he thought it now about to die. Nevertheless he promises to St. Stilla four Nuremberg measures of grain, and at once the horse recovers its former strength. Not only this man, but also many others, whose cattle were sick, St. Stilla helped by her patronage.
Two brothers persecuted each other with deadly hatred on account of an inheritance. and hatreds of enemies, Their mother went to the tomb of St. Stilla, and ordered Mass to be celebrated at her altar, that her sons might be reconciled. Soon they exchanged hatred for love. Two men of Nuremberg were also greatly hostile to each other; are extinguished by the intercession of St. Stilla. and while one vows a pilgrimage to St. Stilla, on that very day they returned to favor.
[11] Three women, of whom one with the pains of a hernia, A noble woman felt great pains from a hernia. Invoking St. Stilla and promising an alms to her sacred hospice, she is at once freed from that torment.
Another noble woman had long lived with her husband without hope of offspring. She asks therefore St. Stilla another with barrenness, to obtain for her from God an heir. Afterward, having attained her desire, she came to the tomb of St. Stilla, and offered a golden ring.
A certain honorable matron, having used baths, was seized with a hidden disease, the third afflicted with a hidden disease, are helped by St. Stilla. so that she not only endured great pains, but also bore no living offspring. Wherefore she promises a pilgrimage and her best garment to St. Stilla. Restored to her former health, she not only carried to her tomb the promised garment, from which ornaments of the altar were made, but also brought with her a little son, whom she believed she had obtained by the merits of St. Stilla. Afterward every year she visited her sacred hospice.
A certain religious person had been deaf for two years. St. Stilla heals a deaf person, The aid of St. Stilla being implored, she recovers her hearing.
In the year after the birth of Christ 1503 a grave war had blazed up in Germany, in which by plunderings and burnings great damage was inflicted in many places. she preserves a village from fire, In a certain village called Trommetsheim and situated on the river Aleman or Almon, dwelt certain pious men, who prayed to St. Stilla, and in the name of the whole village vowed to her a great waxen candle, that she might preserve this place from plunderings and fires. The neighboring places being burned on every side, the inhabitants of the village of Trommetsheim were afflicted with no harm. This candle is even today seen at the tomb of St. Stilla: for the people of Trommetsheim, before they passed from the Catholic religion to the new sect, used every year to offer two pounds of wax, that this candle might be preserved.
A certain noble of a place commonly called Kidlspurg, having wholly lost the use of his ears, and she frees a nobleman from deafness. invokes St. Stilla, and is freed from deafness. Therefore with his family he went to her tomb, ordered Mass to be celebrated at her altar, and, thanks being given to God, narrated this miracle.
[13] A nun of the monastery of Marienburg, where St. Stilla rests, A nun is delivered from a present danger of death, wishing in the upper story to shut the door of a certain chest, had come into a present danger of life. Since no one was present who could help her, she implores the aid of St. Stilla and is wonderfully snatched from the danger of death. She firmly persuaded herself that she would have died from the fall, had not God suddenly succored her on account of the intercession of St. Stilla.
The son of an honorable citizen of Weissenburg had an eye almost wholly corrupted. and a boy's, When that man devotes the boy together with an offering to St. Stilla, the ill-affected eye is wholly healed.
On a virgin of Nuremberg a swelling like a fist had grown up about the eye. and a virgin's eye are healed. When no one could disperse it, she took refuge in the patronage of St. Stilla, and soon experienced her aid.
[14] Certain religious persons were being torn to pieces by slanderous tongues in a grave matter; Religious persons in disgrace, and although they declared their innocence, yet they could not wholly extinguish the suspicion conceived of them. And so by common consent they invoke St. Stilla, and offer her a waxen tongue. Then soon their innocence appeared, and all the infamy was turned into glory.
A certain man had in vain led his son, seized with madness, to the various relics of the Saints. and a young man are freed from madness. At last that wretched one is also brought to the tomb of St. Stilla, and recovers a sound mind. Perhaps God wished to reserve the glory of this miracle to St. Stilla, his singular friend. Afterward that young man often came to the tomb of St. Stilla, and gave thanks to God for so great a favor.
[15] A certain pious lover of St. Stilla frequently came to her tomb and hospice, A pious devotee of St. Stilla receives consolation in death, and followed her with the highest veneration, and diligently cherished her. When now she was ill and prepared for death, she said: Withdraw: for St. Stilla is coming, who wishes to be present with me in this last hour. Which said, she died most piously.
A noble woman was afflicted with so great torments of body and a noble woman in a grave disease, is helped. that she was in danger of death. Counsel was given her to commend herself to St. Stilla, and to promise her a certain offering. Although she had never else heard anything of St. Stilla, she went to her burial-place to fulfill her vow, and, her health recovered, praised God in his Saint.
These miracles, Testimony concerning the miracles hitherto narrated. which St. Stilla wrought by divine aid, we found in the ancient papers left with us. Furthermore, of those prodigies which, from the restoration of the monastery of Marienburg and its renewed habitation c, happened at the tomb of the holy virgin Stilla, and which we saw with our own eyes, we shall now note some.
ANNOTATIONS.
PART II.
Miracles wrought from the restoration of the monastery of Marienburg up to the year 1603.
By the aid of St. Stilla ghosts are put to flight, At Abenberg, not far from the monastery of Marienburg, in the house of a certain noble, tumultuous specters and ghosts were heard. Among other things a certain spectre with a horrid crash was breaking the doors; but when the inhabitants wished to eat, it fouled the table, overturned the drink and food, and at last showed itself so terrible that no one any longer wished to inhabit this house. The parish priest of Abenberg, this matter being understood, complains of it to an ecclesiastical man. But when that ecclesiastic had scattered through that house a little earth taken from the tomb of St. Stilla, and had poured forth prayers, no tumult was thereafter heard there.
[17] a woman's injured hand is healed, A certain woman, wishing on the Friday of Holy Week to gut a pike, transfixed her hand with a sharp knife. Then counsel was given her to offer a certain vow to St. Stilla together with a waxen hand and knife. And thus by the divine mercy it came about that without any medical art the wound was cured, and she herself in the year 1587, for the sake of fulfilling her vow,
came to the tomb of St. Stilla.
Two honorable persons, and to others of the shins, afflicted with great pain of the shins, promised waxen shins to St. Stilla, and, the promise fulfilled, felt a mitigation of the pain.
Two other ecclesiastical persons, and pain of the arms is relieved. afflicted with a bitter torment of the arms, came to the tomb of St. Stilla, and prayed that by her intercession they might obtain a relief of their pains. As soon as they had poured forth prayers, they were made partakers of their vow.
[18] In the year 1588 a contagious disease raged among the cattle, St. Stilla stays a plague among the cattle, and among others had infected the ox of a certain priest. It had now been decreed that the dying ox should be dragged out of the stable, before the priest returned home. Meanwhile he on the way commends the rest of his cattle to St. Stilla, and offers her two candles and celebrates Mass at her altar. Returned home, he found the same ox safe and sound in the stable.
A certain countryman, now old, long vexed with intolerable headache, at last vows to St. Stilla she frees a countryman from a headache, that on three Fridays between Easter and Pentecost he will go to her tomb. While there, during the most sacred sacrifice of the Mass, he pours forth prayers, he returns home healed.
[19] When a certain poor widow could not procure sustenance for herself, and she converts a heretic and raging widow. she fell into such despair that twice she wished to take her own life. But then, hindered from heaven, she is again instigated by the demon to her own slaughter. Then, full of despair and rage, she began to run like one furious, and at last came to a place near the monastery of Marienburg, where her own uterine brother dwelt. But since he was absent from home, and the neighbors saw this woman raging and threatening those who met her, they bound her with a chain. The brother, returned home, with great sadness indicates the misfortune of his uterine sister to a certain ecclesiastical man, who out of Christian charity visited her once and again, although the demon had stirred up so great a stench about her that the neighbors could no longer bear it. Finally, on the Friday before Pentecost in the year 1589, the woman is led to the tomb of St. Stilla, and after making a profession of the Catholic faith, is absolved from heresy. This being done, she confesses her sins, devoutly receives the most august sacrament of the Eucharist, and returns home altogether tranquil.
[20] In the year 1590 the honor of a certain illustrious person was gravely detracted from. She blots out infamy inflicted on an honorable person, She, free of the criminal charge laid on her, prays at the tomb of St. Stilla, and offers a waxen tongue, that she may be freed from slanderous tongues. Soon this unjust detraction ceased to harm.
In the same year, in the monastery of Marienburg, something in the wheel of a deep well had been broken. and withdraws a nun from the danger of death. When a sister of the same monastery wished to repair it, she so fell that without doubt she must slip into the well. Set in this danger she cries out to St. Stilla, and her body is prodigiously so twisted aside that she did not fall into the well.
[21] In the year 1591 the rain at harvest time was so continual [By the intercession of St. Stilla an impious youth renounces the demon and heresy,] that the cut grain sprouted in the field: whence the son of a certain greedy peasant, twenty-two years old, cried out thus continually: We are lost; all must die of hunger: for all the grain in the field is spoiled. One day, going to his father's field, and seeing that the grain had already sprouted, he began to utter blasphemous words against God. But while he looks about, there stands by him a black man, who thus questions him: Leonard, why do you grieve so? The impious youth answers: Should I not grieve, when all the grain is spoiled, and we must die of hunger? To this that black man said: If you will serve me, I will bring it about that in your whole life nothing be lacking to you. When that wretch had consented, at once, possessed by the demon, he began to wander everywhere, and wished to bring death upon himself, as he often tried in vain. At last the parents go to a Catholic priest, and complain of their son's misfortune. The priest first sharply reproves them for their avarice, and admonishes them to take example from their son's calamity, and to learn how great a sin it is to distrust the divine providence, and to loosen the reins to avarice, which is the root of all evils. Besides, he asked why they did not have recourse to their little ministers for the sake of aid. At last the priest, after six weeks moved by the graver danger of the possessed youth and the daily entreaty of the parents, ordered him to be led to the tomb of St. Stilla. And when he had been brought there not without difficulty, it pleased the divine clemency (doubtless through the intercession of St. Stilla) at once to free him, and so to restore him to his senses, that on the same day he could confess his sins and be absolved from heresy: for before he had been a Lutheran; but afterward, a good Catholic, he diligently frequented the sacred Eucharist.
[22] A nun in the utmost peril of the throat, When in the year 1592 the nuns of this monastery had supped on the commemoration of the faithful departed, and that sister who had read at table was eating after the others, it happened that, not noticing, on account of the dimness of the light, a fragment which had leapt from the fire, she swallowed it together with her food. But this fragment so adhered crosswise in her throat that it could be neither expelled nor thrust down, and the wretched sister seemed about to be suffocated from the anguish. But when the physician, hastily summoned, could not help her, the nuns have recourse to a surer remedy, namely to the tomb of St. Stilla, from which, plucking a particle of earth, they mix it with drink, and give it to the afflicted sister to drink. At the same moment the fragment passed through the throat without any injury, and the sister is freed from all anguish.
[23] and a baker-woman is freed from weakness of hands and feet. A baker-woman of Spalt had been reduced to such weakness of feet and hands that she had to be fed like an infant. It is suggested to her in sleep that she go to Abenberg and venerate St. Stilla. But since she had never heard anything of this Saint, she narrates to certain women how she had dreamed of St. Stilla. Then, instructed by those women, she vows to St. Stilla a waxen image; but deferring the fulfillment of her vow too long, she is afflicted with such ophthalmia that she was not far from blindness. Then at last she ordered the promised effigy and two waxen eyes to be made, and coming to the tomb of St. Stilla, after prayers poured forth and the gift offered, she was restored to health.
[24] St. Stilla dissolves a spell inflicted on the cattle of the monastery, Certain evil men in the year 1593 had bewitched the cattle of the monastery, so that they fled to the woods, and within many days could scarcely be brought back to the monastery. The religious persons, to hinder this, vowed to St. Stilla a waxen image or candle, and at once the cattle were tamed and returned home of their own accord.
and she succors a novice laboring under weakness of feet and hands. In the year 1594 a certain novice for the space of half a year labored under great weakness of feet and hands, and could be healed by no arts of medicine. Then her confessor enjoined her to beg only as much wax as would suffice to make a candle, and then to have herself carried to the tomb of St. Stilla with this offering. The nuns therefore carry her to the tomb of St. Stilla, where after fervent prayer she was healed, and she who had been brought, leaning on supports, among the hands of the sisters, returned to the monastery without anyone's aid, and from that time felt no infirmity in feet or hands.
[25] In the same year 1594 a certain peasant boy had a long splinter so fixed in his eye St. Stilla being invoked, a boy is healed of a dangerous injury of the eye, that his parents could in no way pluck it out. Then his mother remembered that she had once heard a sermon in the monastery about the miracles of St. Stilla. Wherefore she soon brings the boy to the monastery, and offers him to St. Stilla. As soon as they place him on the altar, the splinter of its own accord bursts out of the eye, and all pain departs.
In the autumn of the same year 1594 among the inhabitants and a plague among the cattle is stayed. of Stopfenheim a contagion had invaded the oxen. Meanwhile it came into the mind of the parish priest of this place to undertake a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Stilla with seven little maidens, and to celebrate Mass at her altar. While he diligently carries this into execution, at once that disease ceased to rage.
[26] A widow of Abenberg had for some years suffered great pain of the eyes. By the invocation of St. Stilla a widow, The labor of physicians being applied in vain, at last in the year 1595 she vows to St. Stilla a silver gift; which offered, she obtained health.
In the year 1595 a certain novice of the monastery of Mariastein had so great an inflammation in her arm and a novice find a remedy for their diseases without medical art. that from it a graver evil was expected. But when human remedies profited nothing, the reverend mother Prioress had recourse to the intercession of St. Stilla, and among other things promised that the name of Stilla would be imposed on this novice, if ever she should make religious profession. This being done, she soon began to be better, and in the same year made her religious profession.
[27] On the 24th of October, in the year 1595, the reverend lady Clara, [The Prioress of Mariastein narrates in a letter a benefit granted by the aid of St. Stilla to a certain nun.] prioress of Mariastein, gave a letter to the nuns of Marienburg, in which she narrates a miracle almost in this manner: Reverend mother, I cannot but write to you and the other sisters the miracle which was lately wrought in our sister Euphrosyna. When a piece of food adhered crosswise in her throat, she was reduced to such anguish that, like one dead, she fell to the ground. I and the procuratrix and the other sisters ran to her, and thought her about to die soon. Meanwhile it occurred to me and the procuratrix to implore the aid of St. Stilla. Wherefore we cried out thus: O holy virgin Stilla, succor us in this necessity. Then I added this: O holy Stilla, to you I commend her body and soul. Sister Euphrosyna, hearing the name of St. Stilla, groaned, recovered her breath, came to herself, and without any other remedies began to speak, and among other things said that of all the things which had been said she had understood nothing except the name of St. Stilla. Then we with great joy gave thanks to God and St. Stilla. But now, that I may satisfy my vow, I send in the name of sister Euphrosyna a crystal rosary, which I wish to be hung on the statue of St. Stilla. For the rest I pray, reverend mother, that together with your dearest sisters you may praise God for this miracle, and signify this benefit granted to our sister to the reverend lord dean, that he may with us glorify God, and offer our prayers to Him in the most sacred sacrifice of the Mass.
[28] A certain woman for her little son, In the year 1595 a woman, keeper of the cattle in the village of Trommetsheim, had a little son wholly contracted and distorted, whom no one could heal. While the mother therefore promises that she will every year bring half a pound of wax to the tomb of St. Stilla, the boy day by day came to a better state.
another for her little daughter In the year 1596 the baker-woman of Spalt also had a distorted little daughter, who gradually obtained health, because the mother had devoted her with an offering to St. Stilla.
and obtain health for a sister, St. Stilla being invoked. The same baker-woman had a sister, who in one foot suffered such pains that she could not lean on it. While on three Fridays she offers a waxen foot at the tomb of St. Stilla, she felt no more pain.
[29] Two persons In the year 1595 a certain lady in the monastery which is commonly called Holtz labored under a great and incurable infirmity. Wherefore she vows to St. Stilla a waxen candle, and commends herself to the prayers of the nuns of Marienburg. After these things she gradually returned to her former health, so that afterward she adorned the image of St. Stilla with a coral rosary and a garland.
dwelling in the monastery, In the year 1596 in the same monastery a certain secular person was pressed with so great an anguish of heart that, on account of a present danger of death, she was fortified with the last Sacraments of the church. When she had received earth taken from the tomb of St. Stilla, she was healed, and afterward offered a candle.
[30] and the priest of Herrieden, When the priest of Herrieden in the year 1596 was suffering vehemently from his feet, there occurred to his mind the prodigies which were wrought at the tomb of St. Stilla. Wherefore he promises to St. Stilla a pilgrimage, a Mass, and a waxen candle of one pound. After this vow he began to be better, and undertook the promised pilgrimage.
besides the little daughter of a senator of the same town, In the year 1597 the little daughter of a senator of Herrieden was so terrified in sleep that she often cried out with a loud voice. The parents devote her to St. Stilla, and while the mother performs the pilgrimage, the girl was freed from all terror.
and another priest, are healed of various diseases. In the year 1597 the priest of Herrieden was tortured with vehement pains of the gout. While he promises to St. Stilla two waxen feet and a Mass, the pain is mitigated, and at least the gout did not return so often as before it was wont.
[31] St. Stilla in a difficult childbirth, In the year 1597 the wife of a certain vine-dresser near the monastery commonly called Holtz was in danger in a difficult childbirth. As soon as she had received earth dug from the tomb of St. Stilla, she was snatched from this danger.
with toothache In the year 1597 a certain noble had an only little son, who was tormented with toothache. While he is offered to St. Stilla with a silver gift and a waxen spoon, all pain of the teeth departed.
and gives aid in infirmity of the eyes. In the year 1597 a certain matron of Herrieden labored under great infirmity of the eyes. Her confessor persuades her to promise St. Stilla an offering and a pilgrimage. While she carries this counsel into execution, her sight is restored to her.
[32] To two matrons In the year 1598 the wife of the secretary of Ellingen had fallen into a grave disease, so that she was in danger of life. In this crisis, thinking of St. Stilla, she commands her maidservant to bring her earth from the tomb of St. Stilla: and when she had received this with great confidence, and placed it under her head, she recovered, and for the benefit received undertook a pilgrimage.
In the same year the sister of the aforesaid matron, detained by a dangerous disease, was vexed with great torments through the whole body. gravely ill Her sister therefore persuaded her to promise St. Stilla a pilgrimage; which undertaken, she obtained health.
In the year 1598 a widow of Spalt had a contracted hand, and to a widow suffering from a painful arm she succors. and felt great pain in her arm. She, by another's counsel, promised certain gifts to St. Stilla, and these offered, obtained her former health.
[33] A citizen of Herrieden and his wife were gravely ill. Two spouses laboring under a grave disease are cured, When the wife thought death imminent, she calls her sick husband, commends her children to him, and asks pardon for the faults committed by her. To this the husband, not sufficiently in his senses, answers that she will not die, and admonishes her to invoke St. Stilla. While the wife hears St. Stilla named, and, overcome by the force of the disease, cannot invoke her with her mouth, she promises with her heart a silver gift with a pound of wax, and a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Stilla. After these things she gradually recovered, and the following year fulfilled her vow.
The wife of a miller of Tauttwind, pregnant, labored under frenzy, and the wife of a miller, brought back to a sound mind, dies piously. which could be cured by no remedies. It was persuaded to the miller to commend her to St. Stilla: which being done, this disease departed, and she afterward died piously and peacefully. The husband after her death offered a silver gift, and narrated this miracle to us.
[34] A certain citizen of Spalt had an infant who day and night cried out miserably. Four boys As soon as the parents devoted him to St. Stilla, the infant grew quiet, and thereafter no disease was found in him.
devoted by their parents The boy of another citizen of Spalt also made tumult night and day. But when the mother offered him with a waxen candle to St. Stilla, he ceased to rage.
to St. Stilla The wife of a certain miller had a boy laboring under frenzy, who, offered to St. Stilla, recovered.
On the boy of a certain honorable matron of Spalt a huge hump was growing. When the mother devoted him with a waxen offering to St. Stilla, recover health, this deformity was so removed that thereafter it could not be observed.
[35] and, her aid being implored, a fire is prodigiously extinguished. In the year 1603, on the 1st of May, between the eighth and ninth evening hour, not far from our a monastery there broke out so vehement a fire that it consumed eight chambers. But when now water was failing, and the fire was kindled more and more, that whole place seemed doubtless about to be burned. When the flame, urged by the wind, was devastating the eighth chamber, the parish priest of Abenberg, who with many others was present at this sad spectacle, in the name of the inhabitants of the place vowed to St. Stilla five Masses and as many pounds of wax, that the fire might be extinguished. At once the wind subsided, the flame stood still, and did no further harm. Afterward the aforesaid priest celebrated these Masses at the altar of St. Stilla.
Epilogue. In our time similar benefits are more often granted, as votive Masses and various offerings sufficiently show. But these miracles we would gladly note, if those to whom they happen would indicate them to us b.