ON ST. MENELEUS, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR,
OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT,
IN THE MONASTERY OF MENAT IN AUVERGNE.
ABOUT THE YEAR 720.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
St. Meneleus, abbot in the monastery of Menat in Auvergne.
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. A survey of the place, its antiquity; the Saint's cult, eulogies, miracles.
Auvergne, a most well-known province of Gaul, and divided under the same name into two parts, namely the upper and the lower, has in this latter, toward the North and the province of Bourbon, a monastery in the diocese of Clermont (of whose holy patrons and protectors, The site of the monastery of Menat; whose antiquity as also of that most noble city, we made mention on the 1st of July at the Life of St. Gallus, bishop of that same city) which monastery is very ancient, and of the Order of St. Benedict, and is wont to be called Menat, anciently also Menate, commonly Menat, between the river to which it is adjacent, the Sicaula, Seulus, Seula (commonly Siole or Sioule), which by our biographer is called Sivolis; and the Bubula or Bulbula (la Bouble), concerning which the same biographer in chapter 3. But concerning these see the Notice of the Gauls of Hadrian Valois under the word "Sicaula." Menat, moreover, is distant from Clermont about 7 leagues toward the North.
[2] Very ancient I have rightly called it, inasmuch as already from the sixth century St. Carilefus, afterward abbot of Anisole, is sent for the sake of doctrine into the monastery whose name is Menate, from various as is said in his Life, published by us on the 1st of July, chapter 1. This monastery, moreover, still remains, Mabillon testifying in his preliminary Observations, to be cited hereafter, hitherto devoted to the same Order. In the beginning of the same century flourished St. Avitus, abbot of Micy, in whose Life, written by an author nearly coeval, and illustrated by us on the 17th of June, chapter 1, it is narrated that he devoutly undertook the yoke of the monastic profession in the praised monastery. Gregory of Tours, "On the Lives of the Fathers," chapter 12, records that "Bracchio the abbot … having returned to Auvergne … is ordained into the monastery of Menat, which through the carelessness of the abbot had grown lukewarm," namely that by his zeal that congregation might be canonically ruled. The same Gregory in the history of the Franks, book 5, says: "Bracchio, abbot of the little cell of Menat, passed away."
[3] monuments it is drawn out. From the Life of St. Benedict of Aniane, concerning which below, we have that twelve monks were directed thither by that Saint, Andoarius being appointed abbot over them; where there is also mention of a signal miracle and of the discernment of the secrets of the heart, while the Saint visited this monastery; and it is added that it was given to him by the emperor Louis the Pious. Meneleus likewise is said to lie there in body. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, at the year 801, says it was reformed by St. Benedict of Aniane; at the year 812, renewed by Louis the Pious. See Thegan the chorepiscopus of Trier in his Life, in Du Chesne, On the Writers of Gaul, tome 2, from page 725. In the Capitularies of the kings of France in Baluze, tome 1, column 591, among the monasteries which owe only prayers for the safety of the emperor or of his sons, and for the stability of the empire, there is noted in Aquitaine the monastery of Menadinium—is this the one of which here, or another? From what has been said, Jacques Branche, of the Order of St. Augustine, is convicted of a manifest error, who in the Lives of the Saints of Auvergne and of Velay, printed in French at Le Puy in the year 1652, where he wove the eulogy of our Saint from page 470, says that he was the first religious of the oft-mentioned abbey of Menat.
[4] But St. Meneleus deserved so excellently of the praised monastery, The Saint's merits toward it, and his priorate. and ruled it so wisely, and raised it to a signal splendor, that it is said to have been founded and cultivated by him; whose monastery, however, he seems to be called the restorer rather than the author; since we just now saw that it existed already from the sixth century. The Old Analecta of the praised Mabillon, reprinted in the year 1723, among the excerpts from the instrument of the visitation which Simon archbishop of Bourges instituted through the provinces of Bourges and Bordeaux, from the year 1284 and following, which is had in the same place from page 338, review at the year 1287: "On the 4th of April, on Friday, at Chambarande, the priorate of the monastery of Menat, distant 2 leagues from St. Gilbert." Likewise "in the month of May, on the 14th, on Wednesday, at Celville, the priorate of Menat." But among the places which the praised bishop of Bourges did not visit in that visitation, there is noted "the priorate of la Croisille and Douquart," which in the index appended to those Analecta are ascribed to the abbey of Menat. Finally among the places then not visited by him occurs "the priorate of la Mongie, of the abbey of Menat." Concerning which the Sainte-Marthes also treat in tome 4 of the Gallia Christiana, asserting that its privileges are confirmed by the rescripts of the supreme Pontiffs Paschal II and Alexander III.
[5] The cult of the Saint is very ancient; and this is established from this, The ancient cult of the Saint from the venerable sacred calendars, that Usuard inscribed his name in his Martyrology, thus announcing him on this day: "The 11th of the Kalends of August, in the district of Auvergne, St. Meneleus the abbot": in whose genuine text he is asserted to be retained from the consent of almost all the codices, as you have in the Observations on Usuard illustrated by us. In the Hagiology of Franco-Gaul and especially of Aquitaine, excerpted from the ancient Martyrology of the abbey or nunnery of St. Laurence of Bourges, in our Labbe, tome 2 of the new Library, page 701, he is marked in nearly the same words: "In the territory of Auvergne, St. Meneleus the abbot." Thus plainly report him Wion, in the Tree of Life; and the other Benedictine hagiologists Dorganius, Menard, Bucelin; Dorganius, however, omits the place of deposition.
[6] Of the other more recent Martyrologists, Galesini, Maurolico, and the more recent ones with the Roman Martyrology. and Felici, who mention him on this same day, it is of no import to heap up the announcements. Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology ineptly honors the Saint with the title of martyr, for the piety
of the glorious contest. Nor indeed does it come to pass as a wonder that the hagiologists so agree about the day which they set; for that was the day of death according to the author of the Life which we publish: for "he carried back the happy and blessed soul to the Lord, on the eleventh of the Kalends of August"; on which day also he merited to be inscribed in the Roman Martyrology in plainly the same words with which the Martyrology of Bourges above reported him. To these may be added, that in the order of the divine Office, of which we have a copy, for the use of the cathedral church of Clermont for the year, as is noted, 1656, there is marked "cō." (commemoration) "of Meneleus the abbot." And in the copy concerning the proper feasts, which precedes, it is again set down: "Of Meneleus the abbot, commemoration." Concerning the basilica built in honor of the Saint in the town of Mont-Luçon in the territory of Bourges, and honored with frequent miracles, it will be treated afterward among the miracles.
[7] There are not wanting ancient monuments embracing the praises of our holy Abbot; The eulogy of the Saint is produced from Bucelin, account of which can be had below from the fragments of the Lives of certain other Saints. One eulogy, however more recent, I here transcribe from Bucelin: "Meneleus, sprung of royal race, held rigor better than all the delights of this world; the monastic discipline better than the license of princes; poverty better than riches; the most humble institute of life and the constant yoke of obedience better than glory and authority, nay than all command; and, clad in a cheap cowl, thence far more illustrious than from purple, gold, gems, he shone forth. But he founded a notable monastery to the honor of St. Martin in the territory of Auvergne, at first Menat, thence afterward called from him the monastery of St. Meneleus.
[8] where a miracle is narrated: In which, when he had most holily planted the monastic discipline to the most exact sense of the rule, and had most firmly consolidated it by his own example, he was ennobled by admirable miracles from God; so that by their fame he was held most celebrated. Among these he most prodigiously recalled to life by his prayers a dead boy: but a demon, by the example of our most holy and admirable father Benedict, he most powerfully drove from the body of a possessed man by the mere infliction of a blow. He was illustrious, an abbot of royal virtue as of origin, in the year of Christ 700." Thus Bucelin from a Life, as he adds, in tome 2 of the Saints of the Order; (whether it be the same as that which we are about to give, or different, I have not whence to define), heaping up here indeed more names of authors—Galesini, Maurolico, Menard, Felici, Baronius, Usuard, and, he says, of the rest of the writers of French affairs, etc.—but of authority so recent, if you except Usuard alone, that they make number by themselves, not faith. As to the writers of French affairs; it behooved him to name them, that it might be discerned whether and of what mark, of what age, etc., they were.
[9] [on occasion of which, concerning other miracles of the Saint, suppressed by Mabillon,] The miracle certainly concerning the boy most prodigiously recalled to life by the Saint's prayers is not found among the very few miracles presently to be produced by us. Bucelin will have read that somewhere either in tome 2, which he cites, of the Saints of his Order, or elsewhere. Nor indeed is it doubtful that St. Meneleus was illustrious with many miracles, if we give credit to the things already said on occasion of his basilica, number 6. Further, that the book of miracles, which followed after the Saint's Life in the manuscript codex of Menat, was badly arranged, Mabillon affirms in his preliminary Observation to that same Life, Acta Benedictinorum, saeculum 3, part 1, page 404; from which therefore he confesses that he selected only a few; the rest, as I suspect, judging either wholly or at least for the greatest part not sufficiently worthy to look upon the public light.
[10] it is here discussed. For that the praised author is not scrupulously critical and sparing in the narration of miracles, an argument is the book concerning the miracles and translation of St. Bertha, abbess of Blangy, which he exhibits entire in the place just cited from page 454, and, what is worthy of note, not long after the miracles of St. Meneleus, although the encomiast of that Saint, the same anonymous author and writer of the miracles, as he had premised on page 451, was inept, fabulous, and faulty; yet more in these, as one who narrates things less remote from his own age, approaching to truth, than in the others which he wrongly heaped together concerning the Saint, as Mabillon there indicates. The writing of that author he ties to the beginning of the tenth century. But whether the things which Mabillon says about that one can be said in nearly the same manner about ours concerning the miracles, I do not divine, since he wholly lies hidden from us. However the matter stands, not for nothing did Mabillon suppress the greatest part of the miracles, culling from thence a very few, having also employed, as it is fair to believe, the utmost choice of them: so that we, following his example, do not think it necessary to inquire further into that book of miracles among the people of Menat, which we think can, without any loss to the Saint or to the learned, be excluded from our work.
§ II. The birth wrongly arranged by the writer of the Life; the time of death; the writer of the Life, and our judgment concerning him.
Now certain hallucinations of the author of the Life concerning the birth of the holy Abbot are to be indicated and emended. Although the most noble birth of the Saint is sufficiently established; "The origin," he says, "of blessed Meneleus flowed from a bright fountain." And presently, repeating the same, he speaks thus: "Sprung from illustrious birth … he rendered the ancient line of nobility splendid with the luster of his merits." Thus far the biographer rightly; which is confirmed from the Life of St. Benedict, abbot of Aniane and of Inde, written by St. Ardo or Smaragdus, his disciple, in the ninth century, and published by us on the 12th of February; but more fully printed in Mabillon, saeculum 4 of the Acta Benedictinorum, part 1; where, for our purpose, with us in chapter 7, but with him on page 209, it is said, "St. Meneleus, sprung of royal seed." And these things are sufficiently clear and certain. But a far more intricate question is, to what bright fountain of nobility, or to what royal seed, this birth is to be traced back, whence the Saint drew his origin.
[12] "Namely from the great lineage," says our biographer, "of the emperor Heraclius." yet his genealogy Which he thus tries to prove: "For the emperor Heraclius begot Chobar and Modestus, bishop of Jerusalem. But Chobar begot Agor. Agor begot Amanulf. Amanulf begot Meneleus." But how could the Saint have as his great-great-grandfather the emperor Heraclius? Who had neither Chobar nor Modestus for sons; as is clear from Zonaras, book 14 of the Annals, where he reviews his offspring by name. But whether Heraclius, prefect of Africa and Libya, the father of the emperor Heraclius, of whom the same Zonaras treats, can here be understood, let those see to whom a little more light shines in these shadows. Truer perhaps are the things which he relates a little after concerning the Saint's grandfather, named Agor, and grandmother Raganild, of whom was born Amanulf the Saint's father; likewise the things which, some being interposed, he subjoins, introducing Meneleus himself narrating to St. Theofred, that he was born in the fatherland of Anjou, and in the village Priscinia; but also the father's name Amanulf, and the mother's name Docula, etc.
[13] Truer, I say, perhaps are these things; which can be confirmed from elsewhere. wrongly arranged by our biographer For the author of the Life of the praised St. Theofred, abbot of Calmeliac, in Mabillon in the cited place page 480 (which author, in his own judgment, does not seem to have written beyond the tenth century, as you may see page 476) introduces our Saint speaking thus with Theofred: "I am an Angevin, called Meneleus by name, born of Amanulf my father, in the village Passiniacum, and of Docula my mother, as both companions who were there present with him testify." In the Life of St. Vincentian the confessor, written by Herimbert the deacon, his preceptor, as Mabillon asserts page 404, and lent to him by Cointe, there is treatment of Meneleus, son of Amanulf, as we have from Mabillon's fragment among the annotations, page 406. But as true as it can be, that the father of our Saint was Amanulf, so most manifestly false is what our biographer presently subjoins: "The aforesaid Amanulf," he says, "under the times of queen Brunhild, honored the number of all his parentage, when … he procreated … Meneleus."
[14] it is castigated. A gross combination indeed of persons and times! For how could the Saint be born under Brunhild, and indeed, as is said a little before, in the second year (concerning which below) under that queen, the consort of Sigebert king of the Austrasians; when perhaps Heraclius was not yet born, emperor from the year 610 to 641; whom nevertheless he wished above to have been the great-great-grandfather of Meneleus? The Sainte-Marthes cited above, doubtless following the same biographer, a blind guide blindly, fell into nearly the same pit of anachronism, when they say that the Saint lived while Brunhild was reigning, who "enriched this abbey, as they add, with many goods, as is reported in an old manuscript legend concerning the miracles of this Saint."
[15] The age of the Saint The year of the Saint's death cannot easily, but his age can somehow more conveniently, be defined from the persons contemporary with him. Now there lived with him St. Bonitus, bishop of Clermont, whose Acts were illustrated by us on the 15th of January; in whose preliminary Commentary there is discussion of his age; but we, the biographer there not betraying the time of his cathedra or of his death, placed him at the beginning of the eighth century; and Mabillon in the Acta Benedictinorum ties him to about the year 709; you may see his note at the foot of the Life. Besides these there occurs St. Theofred, abbot of Calmeliac, whose Life the same author gave at the year 728; but with us on the 5th of June St. Genesius, count of Auvergne, both contemporary with our Saint; whose latter epoch is marked by us before the year 740.
[16] is determined from the persons Add St. Vincentian (saint Viants, or Viance), who was "most familiar with the blessed man Meneleus in all things," our biographer testifying, and whom Castellanus in the Supplement to his universal Martyrology on the 2nd of January calls a disciple of St. Meneleus, and marks about the year 730. That Saint, for want of knowledge doubtless then omitted by us, will be able to have a place in the new edition of the same month, and his Life to be given, if it can be obtained. Mabillon, who had it before his eyes, in his notes to St. Meneleus's Life observes that he survived St. Vincentian, who, he says, "is reported to have died in the 15th year of king Chlothar"; which, as he rightly observes, cannot stand. Chlothar, here designated, the third of that name, according to Pagi succeeded Clovis II, king of Neustria and Burgundy, who died in 656 after the second week of November; and was, according to him, king of Austrasia, and thus monarch of the whole kingdom from his father's death until 660 after the 25th of July, and departed from the living toward the end of the year 670. According to this reckoning of times therefore, arranged by Pagi, that cannot stand; because he is recorded to have gone to the oratory of St. Bonitus, who was not bishop until the twentieth year after the death of Chlothar the third, as Mabillon observes.
[17] contemporary with him, Yet our annotations may be consulted at
chapter 2 of the Life of that prelate, note b, where we said that it is difficult to define his times aptly. And indeed St. Bonitus himself dedicated the monastery of Menat, if we believe the Life of St. Meneleus, and made the Saint a clerk, that is a monk; as we have from the same place, before Vincentian departed from the living. We therefore with Mabillon tie the death of St. Meneleus, since the times are so disturbed and more certain arguments are not at hand, to about the year 720, eight years before St. Theofred the abbot was afflicted with martyrdom; but concerning Vincentian, whom the same Mabillon binds to the 15th year of king Childebert, it can be seen elsewhere; lest we here prematurely define anything out of its place.
[18] These things being thus set down above concerning St. Genesius, count of Auvergne, Branche hallucinating somewhere. the hallucination of the praised Branche is understood, when he records that the same Genesius expired between the arms of our Saint by a mutual pact; add that in the Office from the Breviary of the chapter of Chamalières, brought forward by us on the said 5th of June, it is said that this holy Count "increased the revenues of the monastery of Menat with munificent liberality, and with no less piety was present to St. Meneleus, the abbot of the same, when dying … and was delivered to burial by Savinian … the successor of blessed Meneleus."
[19] The name of the writer of the Life, his age, and the profession of his institute are wholly uncertain, The writer of the Life unknown; using frequent hallucinations, because they are neither mentioned by himself, nor do we know them drawn from elsewhere by others. Concerning himself indeed he makes mention in chapter 5, number 47, but so obscurely and covertly that even so he lies hidden from us no less than if none had mentioned him. For thus he says: "But with how much more laudable works of virtues almighty God honored him, remaining in the office of the clericate … we resolve … to write, that blessed Meneleus may deign to inscribe the memory of the writer of his Life in his memorial." He must have written sufficiently remotely and long after the death of the holy Abbot; because he committed such ill-cohering and gross errors concerning the Saint's origin, and the age of queen Brunhild, as we have seen; whom also several times afterward he as ineptly brings upon the stage, contaminating a good large part of his writing with hallucinations; whence it comes about that both the things which he there narrates with great effort are most trifling; and many things which elsewhere in the course are of weak faith and suspect; and finally the whole series of the narration, laboring with such great inconveniences, seem to be eliminated from the number of the genuine Acts, except where and insofar as it is established by the authority of better writers, with whom it agrees.
[20] But lest anyone deem me a severer judge of the Acts than is fair, and therefore the deeds which he narrates are to be established from elsewhere. it will be well to bring forth the criticism of others upon these things. Mabillon, in the Observations preliminary to the Life, argues that it is sprinkled with some faults concerning his genealogy, and the deeds which are related in it about queen Brunhild; rightly adding that it seems not wholly to be rejected, especially since he asserts that it agrees in most things with the Life of St. Vincentian praised above. The same judges Louis Bulteau in the Compendium of the history of the Order of St. Benedict, published in French at Paris in the year 1684, tome 2, where from page 242 he briefly reviews the Acts of St. Meneleus. The French legend-writer traduces them as plainly faulty, and having no authority except when they concord with other more certain and better-known authors, namely blessed Ardo Smaragdus in the Life of St. Benedict of Aniane, the praised Herimbert, and the biographer of St. Theofred. And since those three Lives are, not otherwise than three bases, upon which ours, however great it is, rests; it has seemed that nothing will be foreign to our design, if I scrape together certain fragments from them, whereby ours may be confirmed, deserving of little or no authority by itself alone.
§ III. The Life, needing authority, is established from elsewhere; certain things to be corrected in it are noted.
The most illustrious birth of St. Meneleus, as also the names of his parents, have already been established above from elsewhere out of the Life of St. Theofred: where our Saint himself there subjoins these things about his boyhood: "But when I had now touched the seventh year of my early age, [The things which our biographer narrates about the Saint's birth are established from elsewhere,] I devoted my chastity to the powerful God, which, while I shall live, by His help, I will not make void." The boyhood of the Saint our Life adorns with many things in chapter 1; in which it is also said sufficiently expressly that he vowed chastity; for the biographer indicates this by the expression "the inner chamber consecrated by divine espousal" (τὸ divino sponsalitio consecratum penetrale); and below more than once. Meneleus goes on in the Theofredian Life: "But a certain hero," he says, "Baronto, exceedingly supported by nobility of family and riches, was persuading me to the lawful embraces of his daughter, my father also giving his assent. But observing what I had vowed, my parents being left and my fatherland forsaken, as thou thyself seest, I traverse the deserts, yet assiduously seeking one who may instruct me in the dogmas of letters, that, when the time shall come, I may be able to devote myself to divine study." Thus far there; which in substance our biographer also relates in the same place; but circumscribing the marriage refused by the Saint with certain circumstances; concerning which let him himself see. Herimbert the deacon, in the Life of St. Vincentian, in Mabillon's notes to our Life, has thus: "Baronto betrothed his daughter, Sensa by name, to Meneleus the son of Amanulf. And when the day of the nuptials had come, Meneleus, refusing the wedlock for God's sake, going to the parts of Auvergne with two domestics, in the forest of Vabres upon the river Sioule desired the desert."
[22] flight, institute of life, "To whom Theofred," says again that Life, "'Come thou and thy companions with me, since I will satisfy your desire and petition.'" By which are confirmed the things which are narrated in the Life, number 9, concerning Savinian and Constantius, the companions of our Saint in his flight from the fatherland; in the Theofredian, here indeed tacitly, but a little expressly named. "Joyful therefore Meneleus," subjoins the same Theofredian Life, "is made for so great a gift, and follows the holy man even to Eudo, the father of the monastery of Calmeliac: whom he, as Theofred had made known, benignly received, and gave to be educated by more perfect men; but to his companions Savinian and Constantius he ordered food to be furnished through the huts of the same monastery." Which agree sufficiently in substance with our Life, numbers 13 and 14. But the Theofredian goes on thus: "For seven years also blessed Meneleus is there instructed, and strengthened in both erudition, divine and literal"; again sufficiently conformably to our Life, number 16.
[23] by one angelic apparition Let the Theofredian be heard again: "But the course of the aforesaid time having elapsed, in the last repose of a certain night … an angel, gliding down from the ether, assailed him, slumbering in the oratory, with these words: 'With the companions who came hither with thee, return to the place where thou didst find the most blessed Theofred; and I will show thee what thou oughtest to do.' Awakened therefore, Meneleus sought out blessed Theofred, and faithfully brought forth the supernal sights and angelic admonitions. Which after it was made known to the most religious father Eudo, he gave immense thanks to God for the celestial vision, and, Savinian and Constantius being called together, committing them to the supernal piety, permitted them to depart in peace." And these things there briefly: which our biographer expands with more, adding besides another apparition of the angel, admonishing the Saint about building a house of prayer; which second apparition is again confirmed from the Theofredian Life, where it is thus read:
[24] "Blessed Meneleus's courier suddenly appears before the face (of Theofred) bearing holy letters, and likewise other apparitions and a continual prayer: 'Receive,' he says, 'most holy father, the words of thy praying son, and delay not to console him whom once thou didst satisfy with a divine breast. Hasten therefore, quickly …' These things said, he rises speedily, and, preparing all things, is set upon the enjoined journey. And when he had come to the Valley of Vabres … he found the man of God Meneleus, there building a house of prayer. Which seen, after holy embraces and kisses of peace, Theofred began to inquire about prosperous and adverse things. But he, relating that, having departed from the monastery of Calmeliac in the middle course of the past night … he was admonished by an angel to prepare there a house for the supreme Author of things." Our biographer presently begins to narrate to his own the history with the seven little pigs, from number 19; whether and how truly, I know not: since in this matter I do not find him supported by the authority of another writer.
[25] There follows in the history concerning the coming of the mother, sister, and betrothed of St. Meneleus into the solitude of Auvergne, and certain other deeds, where they embraced a more perfect institute of life. Concerning the betrothed indeed this seems to be indicated by Herimbert the deacon in Mabillon's cited notes, speaking thus: "Afterward Sensa, kindled with spiritual love, followed after him." Next is the wrath of Baronto, the father of Sensa; who, made more certain of this matter, and breathing the Saint's slaying, and boiling with vengeance, two hundred and forty-three soldiers being gathered together, sets out … to seek St. Meneleus. And now he had entered the bounds of the district of Exandon," etc. Which Hermenfrid (nay Herimbert, if I am not mistaken) more mildly in the cited notes thus sets forth: "But Baronto, hearing these things, was greatly saddened, and commanded all his household and horses together to go out into the territory of Exandon. But he himself, taking Vincentian and the nobler domestics, the journey being seized, came to that very place, in which the man of God Meneleus was dwelling in his simplicity."
[26] But if we believe our biographer, which elsewhere with greater simplicity and verisimilitude, "the brave Meneleus, armed with the protection of Christ, burst into the midst of the bands, and stood invincible amid the hostile bands of the enemy." And after other things, with which he draws out the narration at length, he affirms that Baronto wished to cut off the head of the Saint, and was punished with blindness and contraction of the hands. But those things Herimbert narrates far otherwise, and again with greater simplicity: "When," he says, "Baronto had come to Meneleus, he desired to recall him, and said: 'Meneleus, take my daughter to wife.' And he refused. But Baronto, hearing this, is made exceedingly sad. For, his hand being extended, he wished to seize him, and lead him away with himself: but by the nod of God it was brought about that his hand with the arm stiffened, with which he wished to hold him … Meneleus's prayer being completed, Baronto is made whole." Otherwise, I say, Herimbert narrates these things, and with greater simplicity and verisimilitude.
[27] But the things done after the healing of Baronto, and the gifts offered to the Saint for this cause, our author mentions from number 39; which Herimbert dispatches in another manner, and are narrated otherwise. pursuing his narration in these words: "But then Baronto offered him gifts … And he himself, rising at dawn, having Savinian with him, the journey being seized, returned to the territory of Exandon, and in the court of Avolca, then upon the bank of the river Vézère, ordered a church to be built, and sent Genesius the priest to the bishop of Limoges, Rusticus by name, that on his part he might ask him to direct relics by episcopal authority, in what manner the aforesaid place or that church should be dedicated in honor of those relics. Baronto, having received the relics, commended
them to Vincentian, and commanded him to carry them to Savinian the priest, and to have them planted in the temple which was then being built upon the bank of the Vézère in the place Avolca. But Savinian, having received the relics, in nowise inquired under whose name they were. Vincentian, on his return, came to the oratory of holy Bonitus," etc. We find no Rusticus among the bishops of Limoges in Sainte-Marthe; nor any contemporary of Meneleus in the sufficiently faulty catalogue of Bernard Gui, bishop of Lodève, composed about the year 1320, as is noted, and printed in our Labbe, tome 2 of the new Library of Manuscript books from page 265. Concerning the relics mentioned above it will be spoken a little after.
[28] The Saint seems to have been not only a clerk, Our biographer, number 46, says: "They chose Meneleus for the office of the clericate, and, cutting the hairs from his head, they numbered him among the sons of God." And presently he adds: "Meneleus received the office of the clericate." And from these we have nothing else than that the Saint was a clerk, or merely a monk, such as he is above indicated to have been; where it is said, "received by Eodo … in the congregation of the brethren, he began to be the example of all good things, and, the hair of his head not yet cut, he foreshowed by things and works the mortification of the flesh." And indeed that by "clerk" a monk is sometimes understood, we have from the Latin-barbarian Glossary of Du Cange; and above we saw that the word "clerk" was fitted to our Saint by Mabillon in that signification. Did he then not ascend to a higher grade? For my part I judge that he was not only a monk, and besides a clerk in the strict sense, but also a priest; as much as seems to be hinted in the praised Life of St. Theofred, abbot of Calmeliac; in which, in the cited place, page 481, it is said: "Eusebius the bishop of Auvergne came, whom St. Theofred with a kind prayer beseeches to consecrate and shear the hair of Meneleus; and so to teach him to live morally under the royal and PONTIFICAL kind."
[29] but also to have been a priest. And by these words certainly the above-praised Louis Bulteau, in a marginal note to the Life of the Saint which he abridges, says: "There seems to be indicated that St. Meneleus received not only the tonsure, but was initiated into the priesthood." Although that this can be certainly affirmed by force of those words does not appear to us clearly enough; especially if the things be true which our biographer relates, number 54, concerning our holy Abbot: "He sent Audoen to a certain priest of honesty and goodness, named Leopasius … to whom he commands that he come to his monastery, and, offering the sacred victims, be willing to commend them to God and to His Spirit … To fulfill therefore the obedience of the enjoined charity, Leopasius the priest of God more speedily presents his presence. For he performs the divine work, and makes the brethren more ardent in the service of almighty God." I suspect that the Saint would not have commanded that another priest be summoned, who should officiate at the altar for his family, if either he himself were a priest, or any one of his own could have rendered that kind of pious office.
[30] Behold now for thee a drama long enough, absurdly fictitious and most ineptly fabulous, The biographer's anachronism is censured. which our biographer exhibits from number 50, where, the hallucination being repeated anew, he makes queen Brunhild contemporary with St. Meneleus, painting various events upon both, which, resting upon a foundation so manifestly ruinous, cannot but collapse. And so whatever is obtruded upon the reader under this fictitious narration ought to be expunged as ἀσύστατον and ἀδιάθετον. That is: as inconsistent and disordered. This anachronism Cointe also rightly noted in the Annals of the Franks, at the year 696, number 29. Concerning the things which our author subjoins about the relics sought and obtained from Baronto, we have already brought forward some things above, number 27, from Herimbert, who, in the things which the same our biographer narrates, number 61, is noted to agree with him in Mabillon's notes, page 421.
§ IV. The exemplars of the Life illustrated with observations; miracles.
This Life, which we give, described in two books by an anonymous author of uncertain age, Certain things to be observed concerning the Life which we give; the first, as far as we know, to bring into the light by print was Mabillon, from the manuscript codex of the monastery of Menat, Acta Benedictinorum, saeculum 3, part 1, from page 404, having used a very few little preliminary observations upon it, in which he indicates that after the said Life there follows in the manuscript codex of Menat a book of the miracles of the same Saint, badly arranged; concerning which we have spoken above. Further, the same Life has several gaps, noted in the text by the sign "&c." Besides, chapter 8 of the second book is wanting. The praised editor of the Life added notes to it, which we have both now used for our purpose, and shall use afterward in their places. This Life Wion did not see, nay he did not even know that it existed anywhere, ingenuously confessing that he was ignorant of the deeds of the Saint and the reckoning of the times. A little more Menard knew, saying in the Observations to his Martyrology, among a very few other things which he there notes, that his Life exists written in two books. Some Life also Bucelin knew, which, as we said above, he cites. Besides the mentioned Louis Bulteau, who published a compendium of the Life, the French legend-writer, most recently of all, also collected and arranged the Life, purged of many fables.
[32] We have a copy, containing a fragment of the Life, from the manuscript, and another copy, as is noted upon it, of D. du Chesne, cosmographer of the most Christian king. It is inscribed besides upon this our copy that this Life exists with Father Thomas Aquinas of St. Joseph, a Discalced friar at Paris. Cointe, in the designated place, numbers 27 and following, contracted certain deeds of St. Meneleus into a compendium, rightly judging that Labbe found and published a fragment different from the Life written in two books, in the collection of Aquitanian affairs, tome 2 of the cited Library, page 591; which agrees with our said copy. But that this history is by no means entire, both appears at first sight, and is drawn from Savaron in the Origins of Clermont, pages 154 and 157.
[33] full of fables. But whether this was extracted from the Life above named, or be the compendium of some other, it labors with the same most gross anachronism, in that it makes queen Brunhild contemporary with the Saint. Further, however great that narration is (which is certainly short), it contains almost nothing except a fabulous texture, composed from the deeds and sayings of that queen and of St. Meneleus, or rather from the dreams of the author of that copy or of another whom he had before his eyes, and castigated by us a little before in the Life, although it commemorates that matter otherwise. Thus further our manuscript begins: "Blessed Meneleus therefore, having left his wife, the daughter of a certain Barnutus, sought the solitary life." And thus it ends: "Round about our cell she (Brunhild) gave license to enlarge, as far as our necessity supplies, and to have the bounds designated, and she bestowed on us the villa of Sigola, which she had for her own expenses"—on the Benedictine monks, of whose number that writer here indicates, not obscurely, that he was.
[34] The praised miracles, since they are few, The praised miracles, which Mabillon excerpted from the book of the miracles of St. Meneleus and published after the Life, since they are but a very few, will here conveniently be transcribed. They are therefore the following: "A certain man, named Robert, coming from the parts of Tours, whom a grievous gouty infirmity had contracted for almost two lustra, coming to the village to which antiquity gave the name Menat, after the nocturnal synaxis, merited to recover his health. A certain woman, deprived of the light of her eyes, was born in the village Carcentonium, in which the virtue of the holy Mother of God is adored. Keeping watch therefore at her hall by days and nights, when she could not there obtain the light which she sought, she goes to another basilica of the perpetual Virgin, called by all Aurea-vallis (Orcival). Then she came to the village of Menat; where she attained the health long desired. The same was experienced by one named Kerild, a certain blind woman, born in the most noble city of Paris.
[35] here are reviewed, In a certain town, situated in the territory of Bourges, which is called by the common name Mont-Luçon from an ancient time, there is a certain basilica built in honor of blessed Meneleus, and gleaming, or supported, by his frequent miracles or merits. The inhabitants of that town relate that, if any man there presumed to receive by force an oath from anyone, he departed not with impunity. And indeed within the dwelling of this church a certain soldier, named Dagobert, rashly entered, holding a certain little man violently captured: for he was a greedy plunderer of goods. And so, approaching before the venerable altar of St. Meneleus, he began wantonly to compel the aforesaid captive to make an oath to him upon the altar of that Saint. Then that captive, although bound, awaiting to comply with the precepts of such an exactor, stretched out his right hand toward the aforesaid altar; but the compeller Dagobert altogether lost the office of his tongue," etc.
[36] with notes. Tours is a most well-known city of Gaul, whose territory is designated above; in which died St. Clotild the queen; see tome 1 of June, page 297. For the village Carcentonium, I suspect that one should write and understand the village Carentonium (Charenton), which lies in the province of Bourbon on the river Milmandra, not far from the shrine of St. Amand. Aurea-vallis, under the name Orcival, is noted in the territory of Clermont. "Parisius" for "Parisiis" is here put according to the most received ancient form, concerning which formation something was said in passing among the various readings on Usuard illustrated, the 3rd of January. Mont-Luçon (Montluçon) is exhibited by the geographical maps in the province of Bourbon on the river Cher toward the limits of the duchy of Bourges, at least as they are today noted on the maps. It remains that I now subjoin the Life of the Saint, in plainly the same manner in which it is read in Mabillon; except that it has been distributed into new chapters and titles after our custom. The ancient chapters also will be assigned after the prologue, their original place being indicated besides by the Roman numerals which are noted in the course along the margin.
LIFE
BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR OF UNCERTAIN AGE,
Published from the manuscript codex of the monastery of Menat in Mabillon, Acta Benedictinorum, saeculum 3, part 1, from page 404.
St. Meneleus, abbot in the monastery of Menat in Auvergne.
BHL Number: 5918
FROM THE PRINTED SOURCES.
PROLOGUE.
The origin of blessed Meneleus flowed from a bright fountain, namely from the lineage of the great emperor Heraclius b. The author sets forth the illustrious genealogy of the Saint. For the emperor Heraclius begot Chobar and Modestus, bishop of Jerusalem. But Chobar begot Agor. Agor begot Amanulf. Amanulf begot Meneleus. At a certain time therefore the religious man Modestus the pontiff went out from the city of Jerusalem, having Chobar and Agor accompanying him, and, having proceeded to Rome for the cause of prayer, they made their way to the basilica of blessed Peter c. On that same night Modestus the bishop, weighed down by an affliction of the body, ended his life. Then Chobar and Agor went on with a great company as far as the city of Tours. And when they had come thither into the church of blessed Martin, they sought spiritual comforts. But after a space of time, as they went, robbers rushing upon them, with wicked mind laid upon them
—with their hands, and extinguished them with the sword, and only Agor, bereaved of the fellowship of his father and brothers, remained alone. He, prostrate in mind, began to weep most bitterly: yet, supported by the divine protection, having received strength, he was brave in war. Then the supernal Consoler, unwilling that His servant should be tormented with excessive sorrow, sent to him a man named Arimund, who began to console him with bland discourses, and said to him: "Do not be saddened nor be sorrowful, but come with me into the parts of the illustrious city of Anjou, and I will give thee my daughter to wife, named Raganild; and I will enrich thee with great riches, that ye may together enjoy good things." And so Agor, having taken Raganild to wife in wedlock, begot of her a son named Amanulf, who, having received one named Docula, begot Meneleus, on the fourth day of the week, in the first year, but in the second year under queen Brunhild d.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's birth, education, progress in virtue; his flight from marriage, his colloquy with St. Theofred.
Book I, Chapter I.
Sprung from illustrious birth, blessed Meneleus rendered the ancient line of nobility splendid with the luster of his merits. He, descending from the genealogy of that emperor Heraclius, had a father named Amanulf, The illustrious birth of the Saint who also had as his great-great-grandfather that same emperor Heraclius. And of this blessed Meneleus the aforesaid father Amanulf had a begetter named Agor. He, from Jerusalem, for the love of God, seeking the suffrages of blessed Martin of Tours, after some days arrived at the borders of the lands near the district of Anjou: where, as a noble man nobly leading his life, and joining to himself in wedlock the noble spouse Raganild, he begot of her the aforesaid Amanulf, the renowned father of blessed Meneleus. And the aforesaid Amanulf, not degenerating from the renowned series of his parents, under the times of queen Brunhild, honored the number of all his parentage, when by the mercy of God he procreated the true friend of Jesus Christ, Meneleus: who, leaving his father and mother, vowed himself to serve the Lord forever.
[3] This blessed Meneleus, therefore, prevented in his mother's womb by the Spirit of God and furnished, while still in the seventh number of years, with the sevenfold gift of merits, with a good education bound himself wholly under that discipline, of which it is said: "Blessed is the man who has borne the yoke from his youth." Taught by this celestial mastery, he governed the ways of his infancy by senile institutes, and, like the good earth, rendered a hundredfold fruit, since he was a prompt hearer and doer of the Gospel word. For, leaving his father and mother while still a seven-year-old, the pious infant with pious zeal clung to the neighboring doors of the churches. But on one of the days his father Amanulf, hearing that he exercised himself the more attentively in such a pursuit, and that, like a certain wise architect, he had vowed his will to serve the Lord, commanded that he be drawn back from such a work, and, ignorant of the divine secrets, ordered that the divine wise one be beaten with rods, and enjoined him that, returning to his own house, he should not leave his carnal mother, until she should receive her last day by the common death of all the living.
[4] After therefore suffering the blows of the rods, having heard the paternal threatenings, blessed Meneleus returned to his mother, and adorned with the splendor of virtues. who was in all things obedient according to God to his parents and to strangers. But when his mother heard this business, not only from the pious infant Meneleus himself, but also from the father Amanulf himself, she understood that her son was divinely seeking the future grades of sanctity, and, for attaining these, confirmed her son with a heartfelt blessing. The qualities of his laudable mind were multiplied according to the multiplied rollings of the days, and, still a little boy, he surpassed the old age of certain ancients by a certain masterly gravity of morals.
II.
[5] But when blessed Meneleus had arrived at that boundary of age, at which in the transitory manner he ought to receive the laborious burden of wedlock, very many of the nobles sought him, Bound by the vow of chastity and, a wife being received, expected that he should keep for them the pact of family. But that animal of purity, chastity, and innocence, the inner chamber of his heart consecrated by divine espousal, could not suffer to be willing to be obscured in the darkness of a diseased wedlock. But among others there was present a certain man of great nobility and spacious power, named Baronto a, who, for accomplishing such a business, came as quickly as possible to Amanulf, the father of the blessed man, at the village of Priscinia b. For he was not hoping that the marital embrace of his daughter would be despised, whom both the bright comeliness of her parents and the ample multitude of riches ennobled.
[6] by his father Amanulf Amanulf, therefore, the father of blessed Meneleus, persuades his son that he incline a willing mind toward the marriage of Baronto's daughter, and defer not the prepared honor, which smiling fortune thus unexpectedly prepares. Over this business too the will of the mother is inquired. But she, who remained sufficiently well conscious of the good secret of her Son, answered that she did not hope that it would ever be the will of her son Meneleus to be willing to be entangled with the delight of carnal wedlock: because still while he was seven years old he watched so willingly at the doors of holy prayer. Her wise counsel rendered the mind of Amanulf very turbid, either because he distrusted that he could incline his son to the desired bond of such wedlock, or because he heard for certain that the mother divined this beforehand. Inflamed therefore at the mother's response, he struck her with his fist on the jaws, whispering that such a business did not pertain to her, for which he weighed that he could prepare his Son in the near time.
[7] he is in vain forced to marriage: Then that Baronto, whose daughter was rejected, not disagreeing from the will of blessed Meneleus's father, and showing again to pious Meneleus the ring by which his daughter was chosen to be betrothed, promises that he will be enriched with infinite wealth of goods, and foretold that he could hold the primacy of all his affairs after him. But he, whom the zeal of established perfection hardened, could accommodate his ear to accomplishing the wedlock neither by promises nor by persuasions. Whence, greatly embittered in his exasperated heart, Amanulf the father of blessed Meneleus struck pious Meneleus with a staff; and, being proud and following vanities, he cowardly threatens the humble one, holding established gifts, that he follow not frivolous things. But at length, to satisfy and to accomplish the will of his father, blessed Meneleus received the ring from the hand of Baronto, as if he seemed to wish to become a carnal husband. Thus therefore at last St. Meneleus betrothed the daughter of Baronto c, chaste in the espousal of Christ, and remains void, and firmly keeps for his spouse the offered gift of virginity.
III.
[8] On the seventh day at length, after blessed Meneleus was in such manner made a laudable bridegroom, to extricate himself from which, Baronto, the father of the betrothed, begins to prepare the various expenses of the nuptials: to look upon which a very great assembly of nobles is invited, and this a copious number of both sexes accompanies. But blessed man Meneleus, hearing that for such a work of assembly both a copious affluence of things was being prepared, and the presence of many peoples was assembling; the veteran soldier of Christ was neither softened by the affluence of copious delight, nor broken from the begun desire of supernal perfection. Whence he renders manifest the secret treasures of his heart to a certain messmate, named Savinian d; to whom also he foretold that he wished to spurn the earthly apparatus of the nuptials, since indeed he had already devoted himself to serve the Lord celibate: and if he remained there, he feared lest, not obeying the paternal will and the petition of friends, he should incur fault.
[9] But he indicates that he would rather choose that among the mountainous and sloping crags of the rocks he should give his eaten body to beasts and birds, he flees from his fatherland; rather than make void, by the diseased touch of carnal wedlock, the vow of chastity promised to the Lord Jesus Christ. To Meneleus, heart-troubled over these things, there was present near at hand that Author of all consolation, who suggests to His servant that he ought to follow that worthy memorial of the obedience of ancient Abraham, that he be willing to go out from his land and from his kindred. And so the pious deliberation of the most pious Meneleus, made the executrix of that divine command, going out from the fatherland of Anjou on the first of the days at high dawn with Savinian and Constantius his companions, fled. After long and rough windings of the ways, in the fatherland of Auvergne, in the district of Viciacum e between the river Sivolis and the Bulbula f, he determined to set an end.
IV.
[10] But the bounteous mercy of almighty God looked with a propitious regard upon the pilgrimages of His servant. but, falling in with St. Theofred, At length, while blessed Meneleus was wandering in that same fatherland with the aforesaid companions, and had not yet determined a firm place of habitation, he found in the place which is called the Valley of Vabres g a certain man of great religion named Theofred h, who, bearing the yoke of the Lord under Eodo i, the religious abbot, did not
he did not study to labor in vain nor to no purpose. He ruled the monastery of Calmeliac k, and there daily sowed the profitable fruits of religion. The aforesaid man of the Lord Theofred, at length, in the aforesaid valley under a dense oak was fleeing the excessive heats of the burning, and took the joyful banquet of refreshment with his own at a suitable time. And blessed Meneleus, having taken counsel with Savinian, hastened to come to him with a well-pleased mind, wishing to seek from him a salutary counsel, so profitable to himself for the future both of soul and of body. But placed in a more secret spot of the aforesaid valley, whether to flee the concourse of passers-by, or to escape the peerings of the burning sun; when he sees the blessed man Meneleus with his own most promptly coming to him unexpectedly, he fears lest some adversity befall him through them.
[11] But seeing that most blessed Meneleus, whose mind, the cause of his flight as the Scripture says, his countenance declared, held between his two companions the mastery both by the shapeliness of his beauty and by the gravity of his moderation, he did not doubt to expect from the men something of perfect reason. Whence, addressing them standing nearer with a sweet address, the sweet Theofred says by name: "Whence," he says, "have we your coming? For the cause of what business do you seek through these hidden parts of a remoter place? Are you investigating the stations of places; or, uncertain, do you wander through these ways of solitude?" After the Christian question of colloquy, blessed man Meneleus rendered the present, truthful, and necessary agreements of his journey, and opened all things necessary to holy Theofred. He indicates therefore that he was born in the fatherland of Anjou and in the village Priscinia, and does not keep silent the name of his father Amanulf, and the name of his mother Docula, and is not ashamed to be called Meneleus.
[12] and his desire for a more perfect life Seeing therefore the son of so great persons walking with so great a poverty of humility, blessed Theofred both greatly valued the noble nobility of his parents insinuated, and did not doubt to believe the causes of his reason insinuated. For after the insinuated name of his fatherland and parents, blessed Meneleus declares that vow of his deliberation, whereby he had devoted himself to serve the Lord celibate, when he was still seven years old. But arriving at that boundary of age, at which he could be exhorted to lead home the wedlock of a wife, weeping he relates that there arose a certain Baronto by name, who, his father Amanulf consenting, resolves to give him his daughter in temporal wedlock: but, being unwilling to be forgetful of his promise toward God, having spurned the bond of carnal wedlock and forgotten his fatherland and parents, he goes to seek where he may freely serve almighty God.
[13] he manifests to him; by whom he is led to Eodo the abbot. Hearing therefore the laudable desire of this blessed man Meneleus, Theofred the lover of God, and the hearer of the prudent man, praises his affections, and announces to him that the effects he had followed after would attain near at hand. "Go on," he says, "with us, and let not the comfort of thy companions remain behind; the charitable hand of the lord abbot Eodo will bring this deliberation of thy heart to perfection." Thus, going together to the monastery of the aforesaid abbot, consecrated in honor of God and of St. Peter, the happy pilgrim insinuates the necessary things to that same father, and that he seeks his manifest counsel with a good will. And having heard the desire of his good will, the man of God was filled with great joy, and commands him to come before his presence, that through him he may hear whether the things announced be true.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The institution of the monastic life; an angelic apparition about changing place; a miraculous feeding.
When before the presence of the blessed man Eodo he had repeated the causes of the aforesaid reason, Enrolled in the monastic company and had intimated the cares of his will and deliberation; this he repeated with earnest prayers, that, commending him to God and to His Spirit, he would join him to the body of his monastery. Accommodating his ear therefore to his prayers, abbot Eodo associates the devout Meneleus to his congregation there serving God, and commends him to hold the example of obedience which he should see there, and eagerly commands him to take the supplement of earthly food with them. But after rendering indeed thanks for his private reception and for his sole consolation, he was not forgetful of the cares of the brethren accompanying him, Savinian and Constantius. And while for them, before that same father abbot Eodo, he asks a reward with charitable affection, he is not frustrated in his prayers: since they too, by the command of the aforesaid abbot, are joined to the rest of the brethren.
[15] But blessed Meneleus, received in such manner into the congregation of the brethren, he excels in various virtues. began to be the example of all good things, and, the hair of his head not yet cut, he foreshowed by things and works the mortification of the flesh. For in all matters enjoined upon him the wise man opposed the zeal of obedience, and, as is said of David, that wheresoever he was sent he behaved himself prudently; so here too blessed Meneleus, with the astute prudence of the serpent and with the sweetness of dove-like simplicity, finished every summit of his labor; and as he kept a humbled heart before God, so he foreshowed to men the supplement of bodily humility. For with an exceeding bond of love he bound to himself all those with whom he unfolded the colloquy of any reasoning. Thus, beloved of God and of men, afflicting his body with excessive fasts, feeding his mind, he destined his days to works, and passed his nights in prayers and in readings.
VI.
[16] Almighty God, satisfying blessed Meneleus with these and innumerable fruits of praise for the number of a seven-year period, An angel admonishes him extended the fame of his praise in the places of many lands, and, lest the illustrious candle, according to the Gospel saying, should lie hid under a bushel, He set him upon the candlestick of brightness—that true and burning Lamp, which enlightens every man coming into this world—that he who had been instructed in the ample way of the sciences of God might for the future instruct the peoples with the salutary doctrine of instruction. But when the silence of night was given, while that same blessed man Meneleus had given himself to fit slumber, an angel, the envoy of the supernal messenger, stood by him neither sleeping nor slumbering, and called him thrice by his own name, saying, "Meneleus, Meneleus, Meneleus." Roused by the threefold angelic visitation, he wondered at the unaccustomed sounds, nor yet could it be weighed that to the presence of so humbled a person an angelic messenger should be sent, who commanded only the assemblies of the perfect.
[17] about returning to the place which he had left: But terrified by the unusual calling, holy Meneleus answered: "Who art thou, that callest me?" The angel said to him: "Fear not, but when the dawn of the illustrious day shall come on, fulfill the standing mandates of my command. But dismiss not Savinian, the comforter of thy labor, who may finish with thee the ways of the goodness begun. But hasten to come briskly to the boundary of the named place, where thou didst find the man of religion Theofred to rest: and there either what the secret of my threefold calling requires I will show thee; or what the supernal Artificer wishes to do for thee I will insinuate." After this command of the angelic admonition, and after he had rolled round the number of seven years in the monastery of Calmeliac, filled with the sevenfold gift, he went back with joy to the aforesaid Valley of Vabres: and there, attending for some space of time to the admonition of the angelic precept, he remained in sanctity and justice before God all his days, whence he merited to be revisited again, joyful.
[18] [and when he had obeyed, he is again admonished by the angel to build there a house of prayer.] For on a certain day, giving his wearied bodily limbs to rest, he fittingly fell asleep under the leaves of a leafy oak with the slumber friendly to a tired body; and again the angel visits his friend Meneleus, and, speaking, insinuates the causes of his promise: "Meneleus, in the place in which thou sleepest, prepare by the zeal of thy labor a house of prayer, where the frequented sublimity of angelic visitation may open to those praying the gates of eternal consolation." He was zealous to indicate the heard causes of the awaited angelic promise to his companion Savinian, forgetful of the delays of slumber. But Savinian, pondering in his mind the vision insinuated of this blessed Meneleus, did not doubt to believe that the assemblies of visitation could come to him, who, keeping the angelic life while placed on earth, ever remained praying to almighty God: and while he recalls the doubled comings of the angelic visitation, he exhorts him to make haste to do the commands as quickly as possible: since indeed such an injunction of such a work worthily befitted such a messenger.
VII.
[19] But indeed before they began to do the work of the celestial command, and were treating within themselves with subtle mind about completing such a structure, In a wondrous manner He rendered them consoled with a supplement of temporal food, who does not give forever
—the just man to wavering. For from the neighboring forest a a certain wild sow of ample body and dilated fatness came out, and, as if it beheld a household member of ancient acquaintance, came before the blessed man Meneleus: and, casting off and laying aside its ferocity, it began to lick the feet of that same blessed man with the fawning strokes of its tongue. Blessed Meneleus, therefore, seeing the bestial motions of this beast changed, weighed that from such a sign something of profit was coming to him: and so he admonished his companion Savinian to be willing to bring something from the provision worked by his own labor, whereby he might feed the neighboring sow. And the sow, fed with such food, brought to fitting perfection the obedience commanded by Meneleus, the friend of charitable gladness.
[20] For to this the Saint commends by a joyful command, God feeds him. that on the following night it should return to him with some gift of obedience. And neither transgressing the term of the enjoined night, nor coming empty to the man of God, it brings no foreign gifts, but those which it had nourished, it carried. For it brings with it seven little pigs, whose multiplication through a long space of years was not diminished; but it gave help in the various expenses or necessities of things, which the holy man Meneleus, always patiently bearing his own, mercifully consoled in others.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
The solitary life of his mother, sisters, and betrothed; the death aimed at the Saint by Baronto, the father of the betrothed.
VIII.
Meanwhile, dwelling in that same valley of Vabres in a more secret place, and not yet having ready the supplies fit for the enjoined work, on one of the days from the western part of the region blessed Savinian saw coming Docula the mother of the Saint, The mother, sisters, and betrothed seek and find St. Meneleus, his sister Bocula, and the betrothed named Sensa, whom while still a boy Meneleus had betrothed in the chaste espousal of Christ. For the sweetness of the mother, the loveliness of the sister, and the charity of the spouse had moved them to seek him out, and to them, by the zeal of unconquered love, it was granted to prove that Gospel saying to be true, wherein it is said: "For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." The mother therefore seeking her son, the sister her brother, the spouse in name only her husband, after some courses of days found in the fatherland of Auvergne him whom they had petitioned, sought, and knocked for—the true friend of God, Meneleus. Blessed Meneleus, seeing these come unexpectedly with that same Savinian, stood still, stupefied with fear, either because his mother of decrepit age had presented herself; or because he saw that his noble spouse, known by the sole love of Christ, had for his sake set behind her the comely progeny of her parents; or because for his love they had resolved to take the ways of so great a labor and so great a journey.
[22] and he is not softened by his mother's words, At length, overcome by the sweetness of his soul, the son addresses his mother with sweet affability. "Why," he says, "mother, forgetful of the gray hairs of thy snowy head, forgetful of the ancient days of thy broken old age, but shows himself tenacious of the purpose he had seized, dost thou journey in an unknown land, comforted by the presence of thy daughter and thy daughter-in-law?" After the tears of maternal sweetness were wiped away, blessed man Meneleus hears from his mother the causes of the journey performed. And the mother relates, among other things, the paternal constraints of Amanulf concerning the taking of Baronto's daughter in wedlock, and relates concerning that business the agreement of her maternal estimation. Yet she indicates that she could never have weighed this, that for fear of a spouse unwillingly betrothed, a son should have to leave his father and mother, brother, sister, his kinsfolk, and a man his own fatherland. But blessed man Meneleus, kindled with the fire of divine love, was neither softened by his mother's weepings, nor did he repent to have made the former agreements.
IX.
[23] Holy man Meneleus, therefore, preserving virile strength from the sight, and, an angel showing the place, prudently investigates from his beloved companion Savinian what he ought to do concerning those women who had followed him, not forgetting that written saying, full of wisdom, that safety is where it has befallen many counsels to reign. And that Savinian chose the part of the better counsel, and opens that a little cell should be built for them, where they might serve the eternal Spouse. But how this counsel pleased did not lie hid from Savinian for a long time: for on the night following the counsel given, there appeared to that same Savinian an angel of the Lord, who showed the place of a vast solitude adjoining the river Sivolis, where he ought to complete, for the love of the mother, the sister, and the chaste spouse of the chaste Meneleus, as he had given counsel, a house of prayer.
[24] he leads them to cultivate the solitary life. He showed also that the Most High required them for a special work of His virtue, since, the garment of the old man being cast off, He wished to clothe them with the man who is created according to God in justice and sanctity. Savinian briskly indicates the vision of the angelic command to blessed Meneleus, and over their establishment no doubt any longer creeps in. Then together the worshipers of the true God, with glad minds, go to see the fit sites of the suggested place: and so at length, supplies being prepared and craftsmen sought, they fervently begin the pre-chosen work of the angelic showing. Which almighty God brought to such perfection in the number of forty days, approving the grace and merit of blessed Meneleus, approving the vows of the pilgrim women, and they cause that house to be dedicated in honor of God and in memory of blessed Mary ever Virgin a, where they also lay for sanctity, by faith and work, a foundation established and confirmed in the heavens forever.
[25] He therefore, the mother, sister, and spouse in name only being placed in a fit station according to God's will, Which done, he returns to his former solitude; by the accustomed admonition of angelic familiarity the lovers of the true God, Meneleus and Savinian, learn that they should return to the aforesaid valley of Vabres, and there apply labors profitable in the long run to posterity. Which, receiving with a fervent mind, they themselves prove fervent in the labor commended from heaven. For, the lukewarmness of the mind being shaken off and the rest of their own body forgotten, they cut down great forests; and, now with the iron tool, now with fire applied, they render the shaggy and rough places of the valley of Vabres shortly fit for a level walking.
XI.
[26] And when the multiplied fruit of the begun work pleased not only God, but also men, but Baronto, the father of the betrothed, that artificer of evil, the crafty depraver of the right work, wished to disturb this very thing in such a manner; but the eternal Consoler rendered his crafty attempts vain, empty, and shattered. For one of the servants of that Baronto, above named, coming to that same lord of his, opened to him the various works of blessed Meneleus, saying to him: "That former acquaintance of thine, the betrother of thy daughter Sensa, Meneleus by name, bewitching his own mother and sister, has fled from the fatherland of Anjou with thy daughter, and now lurks in the fathers of the region of Auvergne and in the upper places of the desert of Viciacum, and there, by a certain pretext of enchantment soothing very many, proclaims himself to do the highest powers of miracles." Baronto, believing the conjectures he had heard, mixed with truth, grieved, groaning, over the withdrawn presence of his daughter, either because the boy Meneleus had not held her in marital manner as he had betrothed her, or because he had unexpectedly lost them both.
[27] Stirred in this variable manner, he rends the garments bearing this most grievously, with which he was clothed at such a message heard, and, broken amid sobs, he repeats his griefs for the lost presence of his daughter, and repeats the mockeries for the betrothal of that same daughter now taken away. Seeing at length his lord Baronto affected with so great sorrows, the aforesaid servant promises him that, if he would follow him, he would show the presence of that Meneleus and the place of his station. The evil man, believing the evil man, and, as is commonly said, every animal loving its like, lord Baronto binds his informer with many promises, and promises that he will even break for him the knot of his bound servitude, if he does not cause the deeds to disagree with the words of his promise.
XII.
[28] Supplies for the named journey being thereafter prepared, and two hundred and forty-three soldiers being gathered together, he seeks the Saint, and breathes his death: Baronto, embittered with the gall of his heart, sets out to seek St. Meneleus. And now he had entered the bounds of the district of Exandon b, and trusted that from a certain monastery, by name Tresfagium c, he could draw out the necessary supplies, panting with his Angevin satellites to extinguish the holy man, who, living according to God, neither did guile, nor ever wished to consent to those who did it. But to this blessed Meneleus, laboring in the aforesaid valley of Vabres, it was made manifest by angelic command, by the relation of very many, that the presence of his enemy Baronto was at hand in a neighboring place: and this did not lie hid from the blessed man, that he sought to demand him to death, because he weighed that he had caused the presence of his daughter, whom he had betrothed to himself, to be withdrawn from paternal eyes.
[29] but he, undaunted, receives the enemy, But neither by terrors nor by threats could the athlete of Christ, Meneleus, be broken, but, clad in the breastplate of justice, and protected by the helmet of eternal salvation, and taking the shield of faith and the sword of salvation, which is the word of God, together with Savinian, the partaker of his labor, he hastens to meet, where he heard that Baronto was with the troops of soldiers. At length, when now they had drawn near to the streams of the Bulbula, and had seen Baronto armed with warlike arms, the brave Meneleus, armed with the protection of Christ, burst into the midst of the bands, and stood invincible amid the hostile bands of the enemy: and then not only by name, but also by the pointing finger, a certain scout shows him to his lord Baronto, and insinuates that Savinian is present with him, who, favoring the precept of blessed Meneleus in all things, undertook the pilgrimage with him with an intrepid mind.
XIII.
[30] For the pact therefore of the former agreement, and for the present sign of the servant who showed him, Baronto, recognizing the blessed man Meneleus, and to his queries and himself puffed up by a certain wind of power, commands him to come to him, and thinks by a hiss to make the column of firm stability of reedy nobility take fright. "If," he says, "perverse Meneleus, the kinship of parents, if the familiarity of neighbors, if the vicinity of the fatherland displeased thee, wouldst thou not dismiss to see the paternal and maternal doors? Or didst thou fear to be reproached for such a marriage of her, who was confirmed both by the signal glory of her parents, and comely with the beauty of loveliness?" To these interrogations, exceedingly fasting from the salt of wisdom, blessed Meneleus, to whom to live was Christ and to die gain, answered cheerfully:
[31] he answers aptly. "The transitory affections of paternal and maternal sweetness, and the amicable concourses of neighbors, and the paternal hearths of the district of Anjou, the love of that Father made me leave, who promised to His faithful, saying: 'Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.' Why dost thou complain of the presence of thy daughter, in Christ my spouse, withdrawn from paternal and maternal eyes, who, leaving the doorposts of this world, has acquired celestial seats and angelic citizens? Her earthly glory and her carnal beauty He specifies, who, brighter than the sun and higher than the angels, resides in His seat. But the slight labor of the journey had no savoring at the beginning, nor will it have an end according to thy will, as thou hast observed [*] hard by."
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The punishment of Baronto; health obtained through the Saint; gifts conferred upon him.
XIV.
By such responses of the blessed man Meneleus the mind of Baronto being exasperated, brandishing with his hand the sword with which he was girt, he vomited forth frivolous and empty threatenings, saying: Baronto aims a fatal blow at the Saint, but is punished by God: "Who is he that could snatch thee from my hands?" But the blessed man Meneleus, fearing neither the various flourishings of the sword, nor the windy verbosities of the appearing threats, says that the presence of his Deliverer is at hand, who will labor nothing in his deliverance. And so, sharpening at each of the responses of the wise Meneleus the teeth of his embittered heart and bared jaw, Baronto unsheathes the sword, and wishes to cut off a the angelic head of holy Meneleus. But the presence of the promised Deliverer, going before, struck the bared sword from the right hand of that Baronto, and, for the pride of his puffed-up heart, covered his eyes with a cloud of blindness, and the flexible fingers of his hands felt the lamentable knot of a bent contraction. Baronto grieved that he had received such a bodily affliction, because he had burned toward the slaying of the holy man Meneleus.
XV.
[33] But the long-suffering of the pitying and merciful Lord, which does not reserve His wrath forever, but when, at the persuasion of St. Vincentian, nor takes vengeance twice for the same thing, prepares for that same Baronto a salutary counsel. And so, his soldiers being terrified over the blinded and contracted man, each one feared that same labor and grief to come upon himself, because, following the will of their elder, they had determined with him to persecute the deiform simplicity of Meneleus. But among them a certain Vincentian b by name was present, who, knowing it to be true that it is hard to kick against the goad, persuades his lord Baronto to the all-conquering arms of humility, and insinuates that he vomit forth the swelling and pride of his former venom. And this he especially suggests to him, that the bitterness of bodily affliction may not make him forget the salutary ways of the soul; but that he send to the man of God Meneleus, to whom it may please to watch over the business of his salvation.
[34] [he resolves to have recourse to St. Meneleus himself for recovering his former health,] The counsel of Vincentian which he heard did not displease Baronto, and that same blinded and contracted man admonishes Vincentian himself to go as quickly as possible for such a bargain to the man of God Meneleus: to whom he commands that he is willing to honor him with many goods, if he can restore him to the former health which he had lost. The words of that command Vincentian hastens to perform the more gladly, the more he considers it to be sought or necessary for his lord Baronto. But, having well known the familiarity of the holy man Meneleus, for accomplishing such a business he seeks the counsel of Savinian. He indeed was the most familiar in all things with the blessed man Meneleus. To whom, opening the sharp stings of his lord's griefs, which for the blindness of his eyes and for the knotty gout of his hands he daily lamented, he suppliantly demands that he be willing to come with him to Meneleus the physician of salvation, to whom he may open the utmost necessity of Baronto, and before whom he may be able to lament his great fault.
XVI.
[35] The man of God Savinian therefore, receiving the prayers of Vincentian, Savinian being brought in to commend the matter to the Saint, suppliantly opened the blindness and contraction of the condemned body of Baronto. And in what manner the crookedness cast upon the blessed man displeased that same Baronto, he does not keep silent, and insinuates the acknowledgment of that vassal, and, over the case of his presumed presumption, what amendment he would wish and be able to make. Yet in the meantime let him have mercy over the condemnation of that Baronto's body, and be willing for him to interpellate the friendly ears of the Lord for himself, that he might be able to return to the soundness of his former health, and that, health of body being recovered, he might be able to repent the neglect of hostile vanity. Blessed Meneleus, receiving the suppliant legation of Vincentian the man of God and of Savinian, fitted to each of their prayers responses of charity and compassion, saying:
[36] and by his prayers for it, "If the bodily blindness and the temporal contraction of the members displeases Baronto at present, yet the acknowledgment of that vanity and the deliberation of that amendment pleases me exceedingly. But the restoration of his health remains in Him alone, who as the humbler of puffed-up pride and the exalter of unfeigned humility reigns. Obeying the admonition of your entreaty, I am prepared to visit the bed of grief and infirmity of brother Baronto: and if the hand of our medicine can help him, the eye shall see me prepared for this in all things. Then for the same we pour forth prayers to God, that the pests of Baronto's crimes may be diminished, and that he may be restored to his former health, and that he may rejoice as much for the alacrity of the soul as of the body."
XVII.
[37] After therefore the necessities of Baronto were announced, the man of God Meneleus came to him as quickly as possible, wishing through him to learn again after Baronto had asked pardon of the Saint for his offense, in what manner he himself would be willing to attend to the legation of Vincentian and Savinian. But the aforesaid Baronto, hearing that the blessed man Meneleus stood nearer to him, fell upon his face and groaned, saying: "I have sinned before the Lord and before thee, Servant of Christ; I ask that thou pardon my own crimes, and dissolve the crimes of my guilt by thy prayers." Seeing and hearing his acknowledgment, blessed Meneleus, and recognizing the savage minds of his former life to be changed into the magistracy of a better deliberation, proclaimed joyful and eager, saying: "This is the change of the right hand of the Most High"; and so much the more willingly he rendered prayer for him to the Lord Jesus Christ, as he saw it to be expedient for him who bewailed the condemned members of blindness and contraction.
[38] But for obtaining health there was not wanting the compact of the former agreement, he recovers the former faculty of sight, which both acknowledged, when that same Baronto had wished to join his daughter, Sensa by name, to that same boy Meneleus in earthly wedlock, and had betrothed her to him in the chaste espousal of Christ. But after this prayer which he said in the spirit of God: "The Lord God open thine eyes to know the way of truth"; and after he had affirmed it a second time with the affirmation of the Gospel word, "Amen, Amen," Savinian being the faithful witness; immediately the eyes of Baronto were opened, and he begins clearly to see the angelic face of Meneleus. And for rendering thanksgivings that same Baronto fell to the ground, and with tears said: "Thanks to Thee, O God, who dost the will of them that fear Thee, and resistest the proud, but exaltest those who love Thee with a humble heart."
XVIII.
[39] The sight of his eyes therefore being recovered, Baronto persisted so much the more urgently in the recovery of the health of his hands, and the health of his hands: the more he saw it to be necessary for himself, and the more he trusted that blessed Meneleus could obtain it with God. But holy Meneleus of God, seeing that Baronto wished to hold the ways of an amended life, gave to that man such a response: "I pray for sinners and for those who persecute and calumniate us: and therefore be it done to thee according to thy heart, unto good." But after the end of the prayer which Meneleus, the son of true charity, had poured forth to the Lord Jesus Christ, the hands of Baronto begin to feel the nature of motion, and the pain began little by little to be diminished, and the sinews of the veins to be more solidly firmed.
XIX.
[40] Blessed man Meneleus therefore, seeing Baronto restored to perfect health of body, admonished him the more urgently to watch over the profitable health of the soul. afterward he expiates his fault, But, by the grace of God, the continual labor of the sower Meneleus, not sowing the divine seed beside the way, nor upon the blocked rock, nor among thorns, brought his labor to the fruit of multiplied increase. For as the good earth the late season, so Baronto, receiving the word of the man of God Meneleus, commends a certain priest of good religion, named Leopasius, to come to him, to whom he commits the eradication of his negligences, that he may be able to have in his heart the abundant fructification of the admonition of his father Meneleus. For that Leopasius, a man of great compassion, praising the humbled mind of the penitent Baronto, with a charitable hand broke the knot of his old negligences: and the priest returned joyful to his own places, and dismissed Baronto the more joyful both for the health of his body and for the salvation of his soul.
XX.
[41] By the grace of the mortifier of death and the vivifier of life Baronto, remaining in perfect health of body, and heaps the holy man with gifts, multiplies the better works of an amended life; and how much he desires the good of celestial honor, he demonstrates by distributing his earthly good. For to that same blessed man Meneleus he persuaded with many prayers, that he would receive certain gifts c of his power, and retain them in his own right and dominion. For a monastery, named Trisfagium, consecrated in honor of God and in memory of the holy martyr Saturninus, pontiff of Toulouse, with lands, forests, meadows, male and female servants, and forty-six clothed cottars, he conferred upon that same blessed man.
XXI.
[42] But after some space of time the mind of Baronto, kindled to better things, to which he then adds other possessions, began to revolve within himself how he ought to increase what he had given before. And opening that will to certain of his chiefs, he had thus the beginning of conversation with them, saying: "Honored by the multitude of earthly power, and enriched with the spacious amplitude of riches, I see myself, by divine predestination, to lack the progeny of sons, who could receive the earthly goods of a father, and hold them through certain seasons of years." But among the chief counselors of Baronto a certain man was present, Helias by name, who upon the arms of his deliberation wisely received what counsel of salvation it was fitting to make. "Thou seest," he says, "how much this blessed man Meneleus is beloved of God and men," etc. "Whence it seems to me salutary and healthful that to him the inheritance of very many of thy goods ought to be given, through whom thou hast recognized the case of thy crookedness, and through whom thou hast returned to the measure of health," etc.
[43] he adjoins. He gives therefore, by the counsel of Helias, to that same blessed Meneleus these villas, Avolca and Varicium in the district of Exandon, with the aforesaid monastery, named Trisfagium, under the testament of the laws and under the testament of charters, and subscribed with his own hand, and delivered that same writing of cession to the blessed man himself. But that same blessed man Meneleus, taking precaution for the future against the frauds of crafty men, and, as a wise man because he sees far and well, wishing to confirm the donations of Baronto, sends to that same man a certain one of his own, named Constantius, to whom he commands and exhorts that, after the little charter of cession, there be sent to him a certain messenger d, who might invest him with the given things. And that good counselor Helias, to accomplish this work,
he sends, who delivered the aforesaid things to Constantius, the legate of the holy man Meneleus, and caused that donation to be seen with the charter of those villas and of those possessions.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
The proved constancy of St. Meneleus, his clericate, the consecrated church; the conversion of many to a more perfect life, accusations.
The monastery burnt. As much therefore as almighty God caused the blessed man Meneleus to be praised on earth for his virtues, so much did that same man of God exercise himself in all goodness, and diligently watch over the fitting structure of his monastery. And now he had well brought it to a good completion. But that artificer of evil, the devil, begins to envy this, and, God permitting, fulfills his will for an hour: since indeed on one of the nights the whole building of the blessed man remains burnt to ashes. But the man of the Lord, who in the adversity of worldly loss did not diminish the intention of celestial desire, sends Constantius to the aforesaid monastery Trisfagium and to the aforesaid villas, and commends to him that the men of those powers should come to rebuild the begun monastery. For this enjoined work each and all prepare a willing mind, and to each is divided a portion of the work, which each one completes, lest, being lukewarm, he be reproached in the working of his labor.
[45] In the construction therefore of his monastery blessed Meneleus, applying zeal of pious labor, the Saint takes care that it be restored; did not lose the steps of his hours; because almighty God led them to the multiplication of good things. But very many come to see the structure of that monastery and the fitting building of the wise architect, and by that example can better their own several buildings. Whence to that same man there came on one of the days the abbot of the valley of Vabres a, that blessed Theofred, ever to be glorified in the heavens and to be venerated on earth, and who led that same holy Meneleus of God to Eodo the abbot of great religion, as our rustic [*] pen described in the foregoing: and he rejoiced with much joy both over the recognized goodness of the blessed man and over the apt structure of his monastery.
[46] Then on the following day the illustrious and magnificent Eusebius b, bishop of Auvergne, arrived, and while he had been made a clerk and these three true lovers of the holy Trinity, after the joy of salutation, after the kiss of pious love, sate themselves with the banquets of divine eloquences, and confirm one another by their hands to remain in all goodness. Thus confirming one another in the love of almighty God, to consolidate this they entered among themselves such a counsel, and chose Meneleus, the Israelite man of God, for the office of the clericate, and, cutting the hairs from his head, they numbered him among the sons of God. This device they resolve to carry out, which brought not only to themselves boundless rejoicing, and gladdened the country-folk with much alacrity, but innumerable strangers blessed God over hearing such deeds.
Book II, CHAPTER I.
[47] After therefore blessed Meneleus received the office of the clericate, in the mortification of his body he ever made himself a living incense of Christ Jesus. had been done, How this pleased the celestial divinity, the frequent works of miracles wrought through him demonstrate, which laudable deeds he performed while still remaining in a lay body, as the preceding little book resounds in its simple series. But with how much more laudable works of virtues almighty God honored him, remaining in the office of the clericate, in the following book we resolve to write, in whatever manner we can, that blessed Meneleus may deign to inscribe the memory of the writer of his life in his memorial.
[48] the church is consecrated in honor of St. Martin. On the second day therefore after receiving the office of the clericate, blessed Meneleus admonished with many prayers the lord Eusebius, pontiff of the people of Auvergne, that he would make the house which he was building a house of God by the ministry of his consecration. Whose petition he received with a willing mind, and consecrates that house of new building in honor of God and in memory of St. Martin the supreme pontiff, and out of his relics and of others of incomparable price honors the consecrated and blessed place. Thus they led that same day joyful together, and, all things being well composed, each and all returned joyful and eager to their own places.
II.
[49] Thereafter the man of God Meneleus began to exercise himself more solicitously in the zeal of divine working, and here to construct seats fit for monastic strictness, Many by his example embrace the monastic life, here to build useful divisions for the guests arriving. And when not only the fatherland of Auvergne, but also very many more remote, heard the good fame of his conversation; many resolve to come to him, and some choose to dismiss the worldly burdens of superfluous curiosity. To confirm this therefore, as a wise man he opens ways: and for the good example of his conversation, and for the mastery of his condition, very many, leaving the world, took up in life and morals the monastic habit, the worthy garment of true salvation and true honor.
III.
[50] But the increase of the constructed monastery and the augment of the good flock, the devil envying, who had bound themselves under the one bond of charity and peace, and by the regular path had abdicated from themselves the proper uses of things and of wills, now the devil, the enemy of all the perfect, begins to envy. Whence over the disturbance of the blessed man Meneleus he ruminates much machination of evils; and over this he chooses a certain chief, who, wasting with the zeal of envy and with anger, blasphemes the praiseworthy works of the blessed man before queen Brunhild c, saying: "A certain man of unknown parentage and unvalued person from uncertain parts of the earth has crept into thy kingdom, who by the simulation of whitewashed sanctity has associated to himself certain men of vain reason, and, the glory of thy power being despised, to cut off certain glades of great extent through the better forests of thy hunting.
[51] and the devil striving to disturb the matter, After therefore so great a disgrace, thy honor will see a great damage creep in upon itself, and if this crookedness be not repressed by the grave loss of interdiction, there will grow in the more precious defense of thy affairs a despite frequented and not terrified, without number." Brunhild, receiving the sharp accusations of the accuser, who was wont to add iniquity upon iniquities d, at once sends to the holy man Meneleus, and without weighed reason presumptuously commands him to come to her. And so the messenger, commended to the blessed man, coming, and concealing the poisoned minds of the wrathful queen, announces on her part such mandates, saying: "The magnificence of queen Brunhild commands thy presence to come to her within no prolonged time." The man of God, hearing the abridged causes of the crafty mandate, opened to the messenger by his simple response the ways deliberated by himself. "Go," he says; "and as speedily as I can I will fulfill the queen's mandates with a good mind."
IV.
[52] For, the messenger of queen Brunhild being heard, blessed Meneleus commits the care of his monastery to blessed Savinian, through queen Brunhild, whom he strives to appease with gifts, the most familiar partaker of his former labor; but he commands Audoen to be the companion of his journey, that he may see to what end of utility the queen's command would draw him. But that he might more amicably stand before the queen's gaze, poor in earthly things, rich in celestial, the holy man Meneleus prepared certain gifts, namely of wine, of fish, and of honey: and these he carries with him, that he may find a better place for his reception. And he commands the ass of his accustomed burden-bearing e to be saddled for him, that he may more briskly complete the course of his inspired journey. And thus, the journey begun, he came before the presence of queen Brunhild, who at that time in the court of Vinciacum f was fanning the mortal splendor of her honor and power. Wishing therefore blandly to offer the gifts g he had carried with him, he perceived the queen's mind exceedingly wrathful; and, weighing her gifts of charity as nothing, she vomited upon him such words of wrathful interrogation, etc.
[53] To the wrathful interrogations therefore of the queen the man Meneleus rendered responses of great humility. and busies himself with words; "Neither by the arbitrament of presumption," he says, "nor for the wind of vanity have we built ample houses in the forests of thy power, O queen, nor will any case of damage thence befall thee, if thou deign to hear the recurrences of our discourse. I was once wandering through the groves of the vast forest of Vinciacum, and, from the weariness of my tired body, I fell into slumbers friendly to rest: and there an angelic messenger commands me that, in the place where I was sleeping, I should there make to the divine piety a house of prayers," etc.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
The care of the monastery, the persecution of Brunhild; her punishment, liberation, and munificence; relics procured by the Saint, the angelic visitation, the announcement of the day of death; a successor substituted for him; his death.
VI.
Then the holy man, strengthened by the constancy of faith, went out from the sight of the queen, saying: "I do not fear thy slaying, [but in vain. Therefore, Leopasius the priest being called in, he consults for his monastery:] and I count thy threats as nothing." Thus he returns to the ministry of his own labor, and briskly sent Audoen the companion of his journey to a certain priest of honesty and goodness, named Leopasius: to whom he commands that to the monastery
should come, and, offering the sacred victims, should be willing to commend them to God and to His Spirit, lest any disturbance or adversity might befall them. To fulfill therefore the obedience of the enjoined charity, Leopasius the priest of God more speedily presents his presence. For he performs the divine work, and makes the brethren more ardent in the service of almighty God. And while he desires to gain them for God in the present, he loves to have gained himself with a spiritual blessing.
[55] who also becomes a monk. For, himself beholding the fraternal love of those same brethren and the amicableness of their unanimous conversion, he began afterward to ponder within himself how, for the love of the eternal God, he might dismiss the world, how he might join himself to the number of that same congregation. But He who fulfills the will of those that fear Him opens ways to Leopasius for following this. And that same priest Leopasius, afterward wishing to exchange the burdens of worldly labor and the files of the biting court, out of the abundance of celestial delight received the monastic habit with a whole mind, and honors the holy monastery with much honor: and likewise gives a certain church of his own right in honor of God and in memory of St. Gervasius a, dedicated.
VII.
[56] By the command sometimes of queen Brunhild certain officials [b] are chosen, who should take precaution In vain again queen Brunhild attempts to overthrow the work begun by Meneleus; that the holy man Meneleus might not be able to labor in the aforesaid place of Vabres, and who should utterly annul the work which they see thus unexpectedly coming to completion. Whence on one of the days a certain messenger of the queen, seeing that same blessed man laboring with the rest of the brethren in the aforesaid place, assails him c in a furious onset, and wished to disturb the good worker, and accused him of holding the aforesaid queen's threats as nothing, since, remaining in that place after the mandate of her interdiction, he madly did not fear to undergo death.
VIII & IX.
[57] The man of the Lord Meneleus therefore, seeing the work of divine mercy done in himself, does not abandon the course of the way begun, who is loved by some in the court, and honored by God with a miracle: but comes to the palace where queen Brunhild resided. And so the coming of the blessed man in the court some men of good testimony loved, and the cultivators of perversity envied. Almighty God therefore, wishing to demonstrate the merit and grace of His faithful Meneleus, freed by his continual prayer a certain girl oppressed by a demonic enemy, etc.
[58] But wishing to soften the hard knots of the queen's heart, her sister named Dotiva d persuades her that the sign of the virtue she had heard of is not to be believed frivolous, Brunhild being most adverse to him; and affirms that the Blessed one could not have done so great a good by any mockery of diabolical incantation: but she proclaims that blessed Meneleus loves from a true heart that almighty God, who by His virtue treading down the proud exalts the humbled. And not even by this does she prepare the poisoned arteries of Brunhild's ears to believe, who always loved discords: but, filled with malign indignation, she commands St. Meneleus to be killed without any reason assigned. Whence, adjudged to an undeserved death, St. Meneleus does not keep silence about the harsh curses of prophetic interdiction. "Let the deceitful lips be made dumb," he says, etc.
XI.
[59] She gave also to that same holy man a villa named Sigola with its appendages, and a church founded therein in honor of God and consecrated in memory of St. Martin the supreme Pontiff: but at last she favors him: she gave also by perpetual right license to enlarge the bounds of his monastery according to his will. After therefore the number of the donation was confirmed, queen Brunhild indicates to that holy man Meneleus, sets out on the way tending to France, and blessed Meneleus joyfully returns to his monastery, and makes the brethren glad and rejoicing on account of his coming.
XII.
[60] The venerable man of God Meneleus, therefore, returned to his monastery, inquires of Savinian the partaker of his labor [he signifies to his own, being well, that favor, and sets Savinian over the monastery:] in what manner his congregation had hitherto held the stability of good conversation. And having heard the good example of them, he praises it, and thence does not delay to bless the almighty Lord God. Then he indicates to them the prosperous outcomes of his labor, and how by the benevolence of queen Brunhild e he holds his monastery honored. Thus he makes the brethren more fervent in the service of Christ Jesus, because each one of them recognizes the good. But he sent the venerable Savinian to the district of Exandon (Issandon), and, commending him to God and to His Spirit, commits to his authority the estates and the monastery f which was in that same district: he commands also that he send back to him the brother Constantius more speedily.
XIII.
[61] Savinian therefore receives the command of the holy father Meneleus, and by the labors of his hands procures the fruits of celestial abundance. But on one of the days he sees that Baronto, of known friendship, who obtains relics from Baronto, often named in the previous little book, who had come from the village Nantiniacum g to see his fellow-brother Savinian, and was revolving amicable reasonings with him. But amid the amicable recurrences of conversation blessed Savinian asks Baronto to transmit to him some precious relics of the Saints h, which he might place in the monastery which he was building. Baronto receives the just petition of the just man, and transmits to him precious relics of the Saints. But Savinian, intent on the various occupations of blessed Meneleus's affairs, neglected to inquire the portion [*] of what Saints he had brought the relics. But that same carrier, returned to his own places, after a short time had passed, was deprived of the life of the body. Whence a heap of grief grew the more.
[62] whose they were, marvelously made manifest. Nevertheless such a sorrow of anxiety did not displease the Lord, who more marvelously made Savinian certain, approving his faith and merit. For blessed Savinian, going where he was buried who had brought the relics, there pours out the tears of manifold prayers: and while he complains over the case of his doubt, by divine predestination he is made certain. For, the multitude which was present there hearing, he who had lately been dead proclaims that they are of the holy Mother of God Mary. Blessed Meneleus therefore, hearing so admirable a sign, briskly sends a messenger to blessed Savinian; commanding that he come to him, and make him certain concerning the sign of virtue he had heard. The good son Savinian obeys the command of the good Father, and briskly returns to him, and relates the true accounts of the manifested relics.
[63] St. Meneleus is visited by an angel, and taught the day of his death: Over the merit thus demonstrated of brother Savinian blessed Meneleus rendered many thanks to almighty God, expecting from Him the solace of a firmer help, whereby he did not remain frustrated at the end of his days. On one night therefore an angel of the Lord visits blessed Meneleus, and calls him thrice by his own name, and does not delay to insinuate to him how great grace and merit he has with the almighty Lord. "Thou art," he says, "a holy man, and hast merited the fellowships of the Saints, whence thou wast meriting to receive the celestial kingdoms. But on the following night thou shalt see a troop of angels come to thee, who, for the innocence of thy sanctity, with brightness and with angelic modulation, shall introduce the blessed soul of thy body into celestial glory." Blessed Meneleus therefore, rejoicing together at the angelic sights, said: "By the hearing of the ear I have heard thee, but now my eye sees thee."
[64] Savinian being substituted for himself, O peaceful man, whose eyes were ever looking to heaven, and his hands to good! Truly blessed, who so very often merited to look upon the faces of the angels, and to enjoy their converse, and foresaw the day of his death, and, if through fire, yet was able to believe it a fire of perennial joy. The company, indeed, who were in the house, heard the angelic discourse, but could not see the messenger of the supernal decree. But blessed Meneleus, not forgetting his death, asks of the celestial messenger a salutary keeper, whom the Lord God might be willing to choose over that business. For that charge the worthy Savinian is suggested, who is approved by life and morals. Whence the man of God commands that he be called to him, and opens to him the care of the enjoined obedience, which, undertaken, he worthily adorns, and gathers the sheaves of manifold increase through the manifold courses of the days.
XV.
[65] The man of God Meneleus therefore, seeing the term of his suggested death to be at hand, commands the brethren, whom he himself had gained for God, and the monastery being enlarged with new possessions, and whom he had gathered into the one bosom of the sacred sheepfold, to stand by him, and foretells to them the approaching term of his life. And he admonishes them to keep the warfare of peace and charity, persuades them to obey the precepts of Savinian the future father. For while he watches over the advancement of his sons, there approaches to him Genesius i, the religious count of Auvergne, from the village Combronita k, who among other gifts of donation gives to the blessed man, with good will, the fortress Mount Maurus l, between the river Sivolis and the river Circiae m. And there came from the parts of Auvergne a certain Romendric, who, a price being received for certain lands of his possession, transferred them into the right and dominion of the monastery of Meneleus the lover of God.
[66] All things therefore being well composed, that holy Meneleus hears the promised concerts of the angels, amid angelic concerts he departs from life. who visit their familiar friend, and represent to God the works of his good action. Whence now secure of receiving the penny of reward, and the goad of infirmity being aggravated, and afterward, the service of perfect Christianity being consummated, he demands the delectable cup of charitable love, and commands it to be offered after him to the brethren. But after both the father absolves the sons, and the sons the father, and they receive the blessed hands of their father Meneleus in their own hands, fortified with the standard of the Savior's cross, he rendered the burden of his flesh to the world, and carried back the happy and blessed soul to the Lord, on the eleventh of the Kalends of August n.