ON BLESSED BERTHOLD, ABBOT OF GARSTEN
IN UPPER AUSTRIA.
IN THE YEAR 1142.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Berthold, abbot of Garsten, in Upper Austria (Bl.)
BHL Number: 1283
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
§ I. The Blessed one's cult from various monuments.
The celebrated monastery of the Benedictine Order, which in German is called Garsten or Steyrgarsten, and is situated on the river Enns not far from the city of Steyr, honors on this day its blessed abbot Berthold with a solemn and religious cult. Indeed I have not found his memory marked in the Usuardine supplements and other menologies of the Saints of this kind; The immemorial cult of the Blessed one is proved yet of his immemorial cult it is abundantly established from other monuments: for the first writer of his Life, who lived nearly contemporary with the blessed Man, everywhere gives him the title of blessed or holy, and in the Acts, number 67, testifies that public supplications of the neighboring parishes were instituted at his tomb. The same author mentions other signs of ancient veneration, which the curious reader will easily observe in the Acts, to be subjoined to this Commentary.
[2] from ancient Breviaries and other manuscript monuments, Moreover our Janning, who in the year 1688 traveled through Austria for the cause of the Saints, noted the following in the monastery of St. Florian: In a manuscript parchment Breviary in large octavo, in the month of July, in the Calendar is read: 7th of the Kalends of August, of ANNA the WIDOW. 6th of the Kalends, of Perthold the ABBOT. 5th of the Kalends, of Pantaleon the MARTYR. But that codex, to say the least, is 250 or 300 years old. Then, some things being interposed, he thus continues: There is there another Breviary likewise a manuscript parchment one in smaller octavo, which is even older than the above-said, and has some Saints, added by a somewhat more recent hand, among whom Berichtold the ABBOT and Pantaleon the MARTYR, namely the 27th and 28th of July. In the same papers he narrates that in the year 1688 he also turned aside to the monastery of Garsten, and there in the new and most beautiful church saw the ancient sepulchral inscription of Bl. Berthold, which even now, after the translation of the body, was thus read around the margin of the stone:
Most worthy shepherd, O kindly father Perchold, / rightly you ran, you greatly pleased the Lord. / You ought to be mindful of your promises. / Protect the living, lead the dying to heaven.
[3] There Janning reports these things: In the monastery of St. Mary at Garsten in the year 1688 we saw an ancient codex, which our Janning saw in Austria, which among other things has this: The Mass OF ST. Perichtold the ABBOT. But it is plainly a paradox, what he subjoins concerning the same codex with these words: But the Mass which is assigned is of Requiem. How, you will say, could the Mass of the Dead be celebrated for him who was held a Saint, as the very title of the Mass sets forth? Indeed I think it can be explained in two ways. First, if it be said
that this sacrifice is offered, as among the Mozarabs (in their Missal a Mass of deceased little ones is inscribed) it is celebrated for infants regenerated by baptism, who departed from this life with the innocence of baptism. In it the priest asks the fellowship of the innocent little ones, the pardon of sins, and for the deceased adult faithful refreshment, as may be seen in the most eminent Aguirre, tome 3 of the Councils of Spain, page 268. If this does not please, I will say that a Mass was celebrated every year for Berthold, until, on account of his coruscating miracles, by the common consent of the people he was reckoned among the number of the Saints or Blessed. For a Mass is wont to be celebrated for the deceased faithful, even if they died in great repute of sanctity. Thus for Augustine, when deceased, sacrifice was offered, as Possidius writes toward the end of his Life, who nevertheless there often honors him with the title of Saint. Whence also Cyril of Jerusalem, in his fifth mystagogical Catechesis, thus testifies: Afterward, when we offer the sacrifice, we make mention also for the deceased holy Fathers and bishops. Thus finally an anniversary Mass was celebrated for Bl. Pippin, as our elders on the 21st of February, in the preliminary Commentary to his Life, §5, number 52, observed.
[4] In whatever way this happened, at least the legitimate cult of Bl. Berthold, and it is confirmed by Hieronymus Pez the Benedictine, which our Janning had rightly gathered from the above-said monuments, is confirmed by Hieronymus Pez in his work on the Writers of Austrian affairs, tome 2, page 84, with these words: There exist moreover in the Garsten monastery (as we have received from the domestic documents of that place sent to us) ancient Breviaries and Missals, in which are contained a proper ecclesiastical Office and Mass of this blessed Abbot, chanted by the Garsten monks on his festive day, that is, the 27th of the month of July, for many past centuries. A copy of that Office and Mass, described by a fourteenth-century hand in a parchment codex now marked with the letter L, number 42, is preserved also in our library of Melk, from which we have published some things, as will appear from what follows. From the same notices of Garsten we have been taught that there are kept there authentic letters, given in the years 1443 and 1445 by two suffragan bishops of Passau, namely John of Utrecht and Sigismund, by which certain indulgences are granted to those who duly observe the feast of Bl. Berthold. Lastly, we Benedictines of Melk celebrate the festivity of the same most blessed Prelate likewise on the 27th of July under a double rite (as they say), and that from proper Offices granted or prescribed by Apostolic indult for the use of Germany, which in previous years, printed by the type of Jacob Kopiz, appeared at Krems.
[5] The praised Pez, in the tome just cited, from page 136, published from various manuscripts some things which more fully demonstrate the ancient veneration of Bl. Berthold. who published old epitaphs of Bl. Berthold, From these it has seemed good to excerpt some, and first of all two epitaphs, of which the first, in a manuscript codex of the monastery of Gleink, has thus:
This place contains your uncorrupted body, / gracious Father, although the earth wastes you for so many years: / Hence nature, changed, is astonished at her own laws, / marveling in you at the merit of a virginal trophy. / This is the law of things, of kinds and of species alike, / that the earth's censer consume the earth-born to earth, / and all that is mortal perish, returning to the void. / You alone know not to bear the contagions of the earth, / when with raw limbs you sport in the dust of the earth. / Hence, according to David, glorified flesh has proved, / showing in itself that it has now rested in hope. / So make us hope, after the course of bitter death, / to be with you at last, venerable father Berthold, / and, not forgetful of your promises, / protect the living, save too those in need of light. Amen.
But the other in the same Gleink codex sounds thus:
Behold that good man, that venerable Patron, / father Berthold, the light, the glory of the Church. / He shone by his word, he taught the doctrine of life *, / the hope and love of the people; of the rich, of the poor. / Rightly you ran, gracious Father, you pleased God. / May he too help us for your merits. Amen.
[6] hymns, Then, besides various hymns which the same Reverend Lord Pez published from a manuscript codex of Melk, a Prose or Sequence from the Mass of Bl. Berthold is read in this manner:
Increase faith, O devout people, / rejoice at the same time with your whole mind, / joining works to your voice. / Flee the realms of Babylon, / in which are false trifles; / pass over, run, hasten. / Within the forum of the Blessed / fill the couch worthy of praise, / true daughter of Zion. / Knocking at the ears of God above the heavens, / compose a new song / among the thousands of the Saints: / for everlasting salvation / has now, by his memory, / set Berthold on high. / Let the highest glory praise / the Founder of every thing / through the blessed Confessor. / The King in heaven gave a place, / which the just one of God has occupied, / entering without stain. / Such do those honor of the true life *, / who wish to possess / the bright tabernacles. / O good of great virtue: / because we have known the Father and Patron / in grace. / The light of the sun grows afraid, / where the star grows beyond / the many spaces of heaven. / The end of the world turns the hour / of sanctity into a dawn / under a new gladness. / Truly God is faithful, / who thus from heaven / pours a reward upon services. / We have hope on that day, / O Berthold, pious father, / under your presence; / when the Judge shall bring the whole world / to the last point / with a twofold sentence. Amen.
[7] Then is subjoined the following COLLECT or PRAYER: O God, and prayers who have evidently declared to us the glorious merits of blessed Abbot Berthold by virtues and miracles, grant us by his patronage the health of mind and body, that, devoutly following his examples, freed from all evils, we may deserve to attain to You. Through our Lord, etc. Secret: Grant, we beseech You, Lord, that this saving victim may, by the clemency of Your goodness and the merits of Bl. Abbot Berthold, profit us Your servants unto salvation: that by its powerful effect You may forgive our sins, direct our life, and grant us to attain to the vision of Your glory. Through our Lord, etc. The Complenda or Postcommunion: Having taken, Lord, the spiritual nourishments, we beseech Your clemency, Lord, that, Bl. Abbot Berthold interceding, You may loose the bonds of our sins, and, freed from all dangers, lead us to the heavenly realms. Through our Lord, etc.
[8] Finally, after two other collects concerning the same Blessed one, follows this rhythmic prayer: he recently published.
O Berthold, dear father, / make those to row to the harbor / in the dead hour of the night, / who seek you with sorrowful mind. / Gracious father, at the first hour / incline your ear to us here, / that we may feel you prompt in prayer, / while we praise you. / We beg you at the hour of Terce, / let the sorrow of souls / here withdraw, and purge / those whom now the fear of death urges. / Those who praise you at the sixth hour, / let their inward parts be full of good things, / and let them at the same time in the world / live piously with a pure heart. / O Berthold, at the ninth hour / confer on us the gifts of life, / that in the hour of our death / we may be joined to the gates of heaven. / Those who honor you at the vesper hour, / Father, as they wish, / be present to them *, if they desire / help for them in good gifts. / Father, the hour now being completed, / come to us with glad mind, / that, absolved from sins, / we may be always safe with you. / Those who salute you at these hours, / Father, within and without, / let them, rejoicing, ever feel / your help. Amen.
And let these things, said to show the immemorial cult of Bl. Berthold, suffice.
Annotations* perhaps "life."
* Here some things were transposed.
* that is, "be present."
§ II. Genealogy, Acts, and miracles, and their writers.
Although from the Acts, number 34, it can rightly be inferred that Bl. Berthold was born of a noble stock; yet I think it superfluous to inquire laboriously into his determined lineage, since already a hundred years ago the most reverend Anthony, abbot of Garsten, The Blessed one's uncertain genealogy answered thus to our Rader on this matter: Your very reverend paternity wished to be informed by me concerning the country, parents, age, and years of our holy father Berthold, in which he lived, and when he departed from this life, that the description of his life, to be inserted into the Bavaria Pia, might be the more exact. Having therefore brought together and examined the monuments of our monastery and of that of Göttweig, I could not have more of these hitherto than that our aforesaid holy Berthold lived beyond seventy years, presided over the monastery from the year 1110, and thus for thirty years, and in that very year 1140, on the 27th of July, happily closed his last day. Concerning his country and parents nothing is had, unless perhaps his family can be known from the arms, in which was a shield with a blue field and in it a moon, as it is said, horned, and a star opposite the moon. Rader inserted this epistle, given to him, into the Bavaria Pia, page 79.
[10] left to the disputation of the more recent, From these ancestral arms, which the most reverend abbot Anthony had assigned to Rader, and from other conjectures, some more recent writers gather that Bl. Berthold sprang, in trans-Danubian Austria, from the stock of the counts of Ragez. Others, however, hold that he descended from the lineage of the counts of Württemberg. Hence the History of Salzburg, printed in the year 1692, book 4, chapter 3, thus confidently pronounces concerning him: He was a man great both in nobility of birth (for he was the son of Ulrich, count of Württemberg) and in holiness of life, celebrated for prodigies. But Hieronymus Pez, in his preliminary observations to the Life of Bl. Berthold, section 1, thus prudently judges concerning this controversy: Concerning the country and parents of blessed Berthold, who by the ancients is written Berchtold, Perhtold, also Perchtold and Perichtold, neither the writer of his Life, nor other somewhat older authors, have committed anything to writing: and although some more recent writers have sweated much in inquiring into these, yet they have hitherto brought forth nothing of this kind on which you may safely set your foot. Then he reports various conjectures concerning this genealogy, which the reader desirous of such questions will be able to see more fully discussed there. Meanwhile we shall examine those things which pertain more closely to the Acts and miracles of the blessed Man.
[11] His Acts The most reverend abbot of Garsten, in the aforementioned epistle written to our Rader, and other more recent writers thought that Bl. Berthold undertook the office of abbot of Garsten in the year 1110, and, after thirty years' governance, in the year 1140 (the Chronicle of Admont notes the year 1141) passed to the heavens. But Pez, in the observations premised to the Bertholdian Life, section 3, rightly notes that this epoch is contrary to the older chronicles, in which it is said that he was elected abbot of Garsten in the year 1111, and died in the year 1142, after he had ruled that monastery with the highest fame of sanctity for thirty-one years. There is also in the manuscript monuments some discrepancy concerning the day of death: for the Necrology of Melk notes the death of Bl. Berthold on the 5th of the Kalends of August; but the Admont one marks the same on the 6th of the Kalends of August. In the Acts, to be given afterward, number 61, the day of death is indicated with these words: In the night,
which precedes the festive day of Bl. Pantaleon the martyr, a little before the nocturnal Office, the congregation being called, he himself began the litany, and chanted it with the others up to the rendering of his soul. Then, wishing to raise his hands, but by no means prevailing, he rested in the Lord. From these we could draw out the certain day of death, if it were established on what day the feast of St. Pantaleon was there at that time celebrated; but since St. Pantaleon is reported by Usuard and certain Martyrologists on the 28th of July, and by others on the 27th of the same month, we hitherto remain uncertain between these two days. Whatever be the case, the annual festivity of Bl. Berthold is celebrated on the 27th of July by the Garsten Benedictines, and therefore we too on this day illustrate his Acts.
[12] Great faith is deserved by the prodigies wrought by the intercession of Bl. Berthold, and miracles some of which, for the glory of God and the love of the same holy Father, are now to be commemorated by me, says the older writer of the Life in number 64, partly done in my own presence, partly established by an indubitable truth from others who saw them. Yet not all the miracles are to be attributed to this contemporary author which are read in the manuscripts of Vienna, Garsten, and Melk: for in these certainly some things are reported which happened after the lucubration and death of this biographer. The question therefore is, how far that nearly-contemporary author carried on his writing. Pez in his preliminary observations, section 4, thus discourses on this matter: Further, the same anonymous writer carried on his work no further than chapter 41: since Udalric or Ulric, to whose name we mentioned before that the history of the life of Bl. Berthold was dedicated, on the 4th of the Kalends of September of the year 1182, according to the chronographer of Garsten, met his last day. But Hadmar, to whose age the deeds contained in chapter 42 of the Bertholdian life are referred, was at last, in the year 1203, the same chronographer being the authority, hailed as abbot of Garsten. The things, therefore, which follow chapter 41 of the life of Bl. Berthold, were afterward added by other anonymous Garsten writers. Thus he.
[13] But I, for the same reason, contend that not even chapter 41 is to be ascribed to that author: they are examined, for in that forty-first chapter (according to our division of the Acts it begins at number 81) mention is made of Marquard, worthy of the memory of all good men, then abbot of the monastery of Gleink, but afterward taken up at Garsten as father. From which words I thus argue. Besides that the narrator of this miracle seems to speak of Marquard as already dead, he certainly wrote it after Marquard was made abbot of Garsten from being of Gleink: but Bernard the Norican hints that Marquard was still abbot of Gleink in the year 1182, when in the catalogue of the abbots of Kremsmünster in Pez, tome 2, column 61, after the commemorated death of Ulric III, abbot of Kremsmünster, a little before the year 1183, he thus writes: The suit is ended between abbot Marquard of Gleink and the parish priest of Syrnich over the tithe. Marquard could not therefore pass to the abbacy of Garsten except after the year 1182, in which Chunrad, abbot of Garsten of pious memory, on the 10th of the Kalends of November died in Christ, as the Chronicle of Garsten hands down. But at that time Udalric or Ulric III, abbot of Kremsmünster, to whom the anonymous writer is said to have dedicated his writing, had already died: the author of that lucubration could not therefore have mentioned a matter which happened only after the death of his patron. Further, the same Garsten chronographer, at the year 1195, has this concerning the death of Marquard: In 1195 Marquard of pious memory died, and Arnhalm is elected. Then a little below, at the year 1203, he adds this: In 1203 Arnhalm, abbot of Garsten of pious memory, died, in whose place Hademar is elected. Led by this argument, I have published the Acts and miracles of Bl. Berthold only as far as number 80 inclusive under the name of the nearly-contemporary anonymous writer, and distinguished them from the other miracles which were afterward collected by various anonymous writers. Whether I have done this rightly, let the learned judge, among whom I do not refuse Pez himself as judge.
[14] and their various editions are recounted. The Acts and miracles of Bl. Berthold have often been printed; and first indeed our Jacob Gretser published them in the year 1617 at Ingolstadt from the Vienna manuscript. Jacob Mosander the Carthusian followed the edition of Gretser, and inserted it into the posthumous collection of Surius on the 27th of July. Then our Rader in the year 1628 at Munich exhibited the Life of Bl. Berthold, adorned in his own style, in the Bavaria Pia from page 65. Afterward a certain anonymous writer, the original phrasing being kept, took care in the year 1634 at Salzburg to have the same printed from the Vienna and Garsten manuscripts, enlarged the miracles with certain chapters, and illustrated everything with little verses and notes. Finally, the often-mentioned Pez again submitted to the press the same Acts, collated with two Melk codices, at Leipzig in the year 1725, and, inserted in tome 2 on the Writers of Austrian affairs, learnedly elucidated them with preliminary observations. We have collated all those editions among themselves (except the Raderian, which differs plainly in style), and shall assign the variant readings of greater moment in the margin or in the Annotations. Now some things must be inquired concerning the writers of those Acts.
[15] By a certain scruple The most learned Pez, in his preliminary observations to the Life of Bl. Berthold, section 4, among other things gathers the age of the first biographer from the time of Udalric, to whom he thinks the Bertholdian Acts were dedicated: But Udalric, he says in tome 2, page 85, to whom he inscribed his lucubration, was the nephew of blessed Berthold on his brother's side, and, from being Prior of Garsten, was afterward proclaimed abbot of Kremsmünster, and held the government of the same monastery under the name of Ulric III from the year 1173 to 1182. But it could be doubted whether Ulric or Udalric of Kremsmünster is not different from that Udalric to whom the Bertholdian Acts are dedicated: for the first writer of that Life, in the prologue, where he offers his little work to Udalric, makes no word of the twofold benefit which Udalric, afterward abbot of Kremsmünster, obtained by the intercession of his blessed uncle, when he still lived in the Garsten monastery. But the author does not seem likely to have omitted that in that place, if it had happened to the patron of his lucubration; especially since afterward, in numbers 32 and 75, he reports those two miracles concerning Udalric of Kremsmünster as though they in no way pertained to the Udalric to whom he consecrates his writing. Would he not, someone will say, at least here have addressed the patron of his little book, and appealed to him as the most certain witness of both miracles? Would he not have mentioned that matter in the prologue?
[16] set forth for the censure of the learned, This scruple is increased, because the name Udalric was at that age common to many, as appears from the very Acts of Bl. Berthold, in which several of that name are mentioned. That little work could therefore have been dedicated to some Udalric, an abbot of the Benedictine order, whose age is hitherto hidden from us. That this could have happened thus I think; but that it did happen I do not contend: for I have only set forth this scruple, that it may be altogether dispelled by the Austrian investigators of monastic affairs. Nay, it would vanish from this, if the genuine reading of the Melk codices were established, since there the author in the prologue says to Udalric that he is writing the Life of his uncle. But since Gretser in the Vienna manuscript read, for the word "uncle," "father," it would have to be investigated which codex prevails by antiquity. Moreover, it seems rather that one should read "your father," namely spiritual, than "your uncle," since a little after, in the very Pezian edition, made from the Melk manuscripts, the same author says that he writes these things to show his devotion toward the same Father, which pronoun can be more aptly referred to the preceding word "Father" than to "uncle." Not yet, therefore, is every scruple plainly removed. Yet meanwhile I follow the opinion of Bernard the Norican, who at the beginning of the 14th century, in the catalogue of the abbots of Kremsmünster, asserts that the life of Bl. Berthold was written to Ulric III, abbot of Kremsmünster. This opinion, I say, I follow in the course of the matter, until someone from trustworthy monuments draws forth from somewhere another Udalric, and my doubt, confirmed by older testimonies, turns into a solid argument.
[17] For the rest, that the first writer of the Bertholdian Life was near the times of the Blessed one himself, the age of the first biographer is gathered is sufficiently gathered from these words of the prologue: Therefore how the blessed Man was first elected to the Garsten monastery, and how he lived there, and by what miracles the divine piety declared his holy merits, as I have received it from those who were present with him living, who, formed by his mastery, were present at his virtues and signs, I will now, the Lord helping, set about to bring forth. The same author clearly indicates that he lived very near to Bl. Berthold, when in the Life, number 56, he narrates the miracle of water turned into wine, which he affirms he heard from the very servant of the Blessed one, with these words: This the same Hiltibold expressed to me with tears, and asserted that it was in his soul as it has been set forth. But also that the same miracle, namely wine made from water, happened to him more than once, many testify even today. But although that writer nowhere disclosed his own name, yet he seems sufficiently to hint at his profession of the monastic life, when in number 70 he thus testifies that he was present at the deliverance of a possessed woman: Abbot Gunther is present, and we, and very many, both of secular men and of spiritual ones. Crosses and relics were brought from the altar, and among the blessings and exorcisms a litany was also said by us with devotion of great intention. From these I conjecture that the author was a monk of Garsten. Now something must be said concerning the other writer of the Life, or rather the abbreviator.
[18] Our Janning in the monastery of St. Florian in the year 1688 saw a parchment codex, which afterward another seems to have contracted, in which was briefly written, in ancient characters, the Life of Bl. Berthold, which on folio 21 began thus: The excellent servant of God Berthold from the first years of his boyhood, in the purpose of a regular life, strove strenuously to war for God, etc. And thus, according to his papers, it ends: In our times too a thing worthy of admiration happened; for when the whole neighborhood was solemnly venerating the anniversary of the blessed Man, a certain weaver, insisting on his work out of contempt, neglected to come to the solemnities of the Masses, when suddenly his left hand withered. Whence the wretched man ran to the church, confessing his contempt and asking pardon, and, the Gospel being read, and prayer made for him, the withered hand received health. Moreover, who would not marvel that the purple in which he was laid is preserved uncorrupted now for eighty and more years; and seems so sound and fresh, as if it had been laid there three days before. I think that Janning did not wish to transcribe the whole Acts, because he judged that in them nothing was contained beyond an exact compendium of the older life, which could not be of great help to us, ever seeking the fountain. But now from the beginning and end it appears that those are the same Acts of Bl. Berthold which the younger anonymous writer contracted from the older, as may now be seen in Pez, who gives the whole text of the Acts
and miracles, a synopsis from a manuscript codex of the library of St. Florian, first published, and inserted into tome 2 on the writers of Austrian affairs from column 130.
[19] whose age too is approximately determined, The praised Pez, in the same place, in a preliminary observation concerning the author of this second Life and his age, thus discourses: The deeds excellently done by blessed Berthold, more copiously narrated by the anonymous Garsten writer, we subjoin a compendium of the same, composed by a certain regular canon of St. Florian of uncertain name (as it seems): in which, although a few things occur which were not set forth by the earlier biographer; yet because from it, as written by a man of another order and institute, much strength accrues to the first Acts of Bl. Berthold, we have thought it wrong to pass it over entirely here. The author betrays that he lived between the year of Christ 1218 and 1227 of the same century, from the fact that toward the end of his writing he affirms that that miracle, which he commemorates as done when a certain weaver profaned the day sacred to Bl. Berthold, and was on that account divinely punished, was wrought in his time. But that happened, as the continuator of the Bertholdian life testifies, under Rembert, abbot of Garsten, who from the ancient annals of that place is established to have held the government of the monastery from the year 1218 to 1227. To these I add that the age of that abbreviator is more determined from his own other words, namely when to the last miracle he subjoins that the purple in which he (Bl. Berthold) was laid is preserved uncorrupted now for eighty and more years. From these I gather that this second anonymous writer wrote these things after the year 1222, since from the month of July of the year 1142, in which Bl. Berthold was buried, down to the end of the year 1222, only eighty years and some months elapsed. Further, although I would have nothing detracted from the authority of that writer, yet I do not think his compendium should here be reprinted, both because it can be read in Pez, and because he most probably drew his materials from the anonymous Garsten monk, whose little work we shall subjoin to this commentary.
[20] and from which is given a miracle which was omitted by the former. Nevertheless, from the Pezian edition I shall here report a certain miracle, of which the first biographer is silent, and which the second thus narrates: When the divine Man was giving his attention to hearing confessions, there came to him a youth of a rather mature age, to confess his sins: and while he too was pursuing his confession, the Man of God, having slept a little and awakened, offered him a penny, as is the custom, and asked that same youth to have his memory in his first Mass. Whence he, much amazed, affirmed that he was a layman and a smith, and had long since been bearded. But at the insistence of the holy Man he received the penny, and shortly transferred himself to the monastery of Kremsmünster, learned letters, and was promoted to the priestly grade. Since this youth calls himself bearded, I suspect that he was one of the lay brothers, whom in monasteries they commonly called "bearded," because, contrary to the monks, they nourished a beard, as is gathered from the Acts, number 18, and may be seen more fully in Du Cange in his Glossary. Meanwhile I know not whence the younger writer of the Life drew this miracle, which was passed over by the older biographer.
§ III. The Blessed one's relics and posthumous glory.
The ancient epitaph, which is reported in the Salzburg edition of the Acts, page 100, and which above in number 5 I exhibited from the Gleink manuscript, The relics of Bl. Berthold on occasion of a new church being built signifies that the body of Bl. Berthold was uncorrupted for many years. That it was divinely preserved from corruption for some years after his death I do not deny; but that afterward his sacred bones were dissolved will be established from the following narration of the translation, which the most reverend Anselm, abbot of Garsten, together with a most kindly letter, sent in the year 1689 to our Janning. And that document sounds thus: The church of Garsten had stood beyond the fifth century, when it seemed good to the most reverend abbot Lord Roman Rauscher, then happily ruling, to dig out a new one from the foundations, the old being leveled to the ground. So it was decreed in the year 1676, and presently in the following 1677, the altars were carried out, the walls for the greater part shaken: but lest the ruins should bury the best treasure, already before, that it might be lawful to inspect, raise, and decently transfer elsewhere the sacred relics of our first abbot and patron Bl. Berthold, faculty was most humbly asked, and granted, from the most reverend and most exalted prince of the Holy Roman Empire and ordinary of Passau, Lord Sebastian, of the counts of Pötting.
[22] The day appointed, then, was the 3rd of June of the same year, they are visited, the fixed time being the evening, as though then there would be a smaller concourse of men, and thence less impediment of the sacred business would be to be feared: but these counsels were in vain, for the more secretly held, the more swiftly it was after the fact made public, and the more eagerly received, a frequent people, I know not by what monitor, flowing together unexpectedly during the progress of the pious labor, from a neighborhood otherwise, as it seemed, not so populous. And this holy labor was begun, Compline being finished: where all the Brothers came together to the place of the sacred burial, the crypt being unlocked with the usual key, and the Reverend Father Prior of the monastery for the time being, girt with linens, was let down into it. Here he was almost terrified at first sight, when he found everything disordered and stuck with mud; for the inundation of the passing Enns, especially three notable ones, in the years 1167, 1210, and about 1570, had copiously penetrated before all the subterranean places of the church and monastery, and thus this one too. Yet he set his hand to the work, and at the entrance immediately dug out the sacred head, which the most reverend Lord abbot himself received with singular devotion, and, who for a whole year now had not the use of his right arm, recovered it most immediately by a pious sigh to the Blessed one, and by a confident touch of the most venerable head to his arm. O glorious help! deservedly stirring that no one should desist in investigating the treasure still remaining, which also was done, and several other particles were subsequently raised by the same Reverend Father Prior, until he, weakened by the earthly moisture and vapor occupying his brain, was compelled to ascend, another conventual priest being substituted in his place. This one, further, investigating everything most accurately, returned also so many sacred bones, that, when with the former they were most decently arranged upon a board into the form of a skeleton *, it was perceived that scarcely anything could be wanting.
[23] Hence indeed appeared more evidently the extraordinary divine goodness, to which it pleased to preserve for so long a time, and amid so many injuries of the times, the relics of His Elect for the memory and cult of posterity. and, decently gathered, are transferred to the parish church, Therefore all were reverently gathered again into a copper tomb prepared for it, and skillfully painted with flowers, and placed in a separate and well-closed place of the convent, a lamp burning continually near them that whole night. On the following day, at earliest morning, the bones were washed, and most carefully cleansed. That water some kept out of devotion, which we saw many years after, nay, even now in certain residual particles we hold it uncorrupted. This too not a few, afflicted with various languors and most acute pains, applying with confidence in the merits of the Blessed one, felt straightway to have been helpful and health-bringing. Then about the eighth hour the tomb was brought back to the crypt, and placed on a bier, and thence, amid the clangor of trumpets and drum, and the chant of litanies, the most reverend Lord abbot accompanying with his ministers, in the usual manner, in pontificals, and, besides all our religious, a most numerous procession, it was carried outside the enclosures of the monastery into our parish church by six priests clad in surplice and stole; where in the middle of the choir the sweet burden was set down, and at last, the Te Deum laudamus and the sacred solemnities being finished, committed to a crypt newly built there.
[24] where the faithful piously flock to them. Meanwhile, while it remained in the parish church, the singular piety of many was fervent, as before, especially in the year 1679, in which a cruel pestilence was depopulating these lands. A certain man then, when the evil had already poisoned his neighborhood, making a vow to hang a more notable offering at the altar of St. Berthold, not only escaped free himself with his people, but also the poison, which was beginning to creep among his neighbors, was a little after choked. But no less did this sacred pledge, placed in that spot, become a common asylum for us and for others, when in the year 1683 the rage of the Turks assailed Vienna, and the filth of the Tartars was already laying waste places not far distant. To his sepulcher we had fled after the necessary flight, forced upon us, of the invalid and aged-out—indeed jubilee priest already four years before—most reverend Lord abbot, all of us, and to our first Father we commended ourselves in prayers, daily promising a votive Mass at his altar too for obtaining singular help, and throughout that whole dangerous time discharging it at a set hour in great frequency of the people. Certainly our watchmen, going around the monastery by night, not rarely beheld a man in black garb, and walking in such a manner as is here the custom for abbots, who nevertheless, when they wished to approach and address him, vanished. Hence we were persuaded that the vigilance of the Saint, which dying he promised to the monastery with the words, I WILL NEVER FORSAKE YOU, was manifestly shown, that we were bidden to be secure of his patronage, and animated to a most firm confidence.
[25] The monastery church being built, For the rest, after the new church had been so far completed that the accustomed sacred rites were now performed in it, there was again thought concerning the bringing in of the sacred relics of our Saint. And it happened directly in the year 1686, that on the vigil of Pentecost a chapel with an altar dedicated to this Saint was completed, and on that same day on which the translation had been made nine years before, namely the 4th of June, fell the third feria of Pentecost, on which every year the parishes incorporated into the monastery are wont, from time immemorial, to come processionally to the Saint's sepulcher: to which one or another of them had moreover bound themselves by a peculiar vow, because, on the day once sacred to Bl. Berthold, neglecting the festive cult and working, they had experienced thunders, hail, and other kinds of heavenly vengeance. And so, on the 4th of June in the year 1686, license having again been obtained from the most exalted Lord ordinary for this solemnity, chosen by the present most reverend abbot Lord Anselm Angerer, the tomb having already some days before been raised from the crypt, to explore in what state the sacred bones were. And on this very day of the solemnity the same ceremonies as in the first translation were employed, yet much more splendidly. There was carried to the altar in the parish church, erected over the crypt of the Saint after the first deposition there, from the sacristy the bier with the tomb, sealed with the twin seal of the most reverend Lord abbot and of the venerable convent, about the eighth hour; then namely, when from the incorporated parishes the last procession had arrived from the neighboring imperial-provincial city of Steyr.
[26] Presently the two most reverend Lord abbots proceeded with their ministers to the altar in pontificals: the sacred bones are honorably brought back into it, the litanies of all the Saints were begun, the drum and trumpets sounding, and when three times "St. Berthold, pray for us" had been sung by the choir, the tomb
was raised onto the shoulders by eight priests, our parish priests, dressed in priestly vestments, and in good order was brought into the new church, in the company of all the parishioners gathered under their distinct banners, and of very many strangers, and of the imperial governor of our own Austria above the Enns, and of other nobles. Placed there in the chapel sacred to this our Blessed Patron upon a table most decently spread, our most reverend Lord abbot began the Te Deum laudamus, which being pursued through the choir and completed, and the collect of the Saint being subjoined, the tomb was most devoutly placed within a hollow of the wall at the epistle corner, and there, after the solemnities of the Masses first and a sermon, it was enclosed and shut up with marble. Here it was a solace to see with what eagerness some strove to touch the tomb with images or rosaries, others to snatch for themselves the flowers scattered there, and thus to anticipate the enclosing, that they might have with them, as it were in perpetual memory, something which participated of the sacred qualities, while the hard marble was to intercept the sacred treasure itself.
[27] And these things concerning the deeds about the twofold translation of St. Berthold our Patron it has seemed good briefly to touch upon. whence the posthumous glory of the Blessed one is increased. From the monastery of Garsten of the Order of St. Benedict of Upper Austria, on the 12th day of September in the year 1689. This document, fortified with the abbot's seal, was subscribed by an eyewitness, namely the Reverend Lord Roman Wall, doctor of both laws, apostolic protonotary, and parish priest of the city of Steyr. For the rest, from these it is plain how great is the veneration of the Austrians toward this Blessed one, and how great his posthumous glory, which is not a little increased by the most beautiful altar which the Garsten monks erected in honor of their blessed Patron, and in which the principal miracles of Bl. Berthold are represented. Our Janning received an artistic picture of that altar from the same most kindly abbot Anselm, which we have taken care to have engraved on copper here, contracted from a larger form. Now nothing remains, but that we set before the learned reader the repeated impression of the Acts and miracles, collated with the other editions and the Melk manuscripts.
[28] But it had almost slipped my mind to give warning beforehand that we here reprint the Salzburg edition, in which the order of the events is more aptly disposed. Yet the first writer of the Life seems not to have observed this order, The reason and method of our edition is rendered. if indeed those things were written by him which in the Gretserian edition, number 46, are read from the Vienna manuscript in this manner: Nor should it seem beside the point, if, after the description of the miracles which were done at his sepulcher, I now insert into the narration those things which he did while living. [Since, just as the persons are various from whom these things were ascertained by me, so also it was necessary to write the particulars, as I could meet each of them for questioning.] Nor indeed does it much matter in what order the deeds of the holy Father are written, concerning which I have engaged myself only for this, that they should not be kept silent. The things which in this text I have enclosed in brackets are wanting in both Melk codices, as Pez noted in the variant readings. But in the Salzburg edition no trace of that whole text appears, because perhaps in the Garsten manuscript it was not read. Pez indeed, in his preliminary observations, section 5, thinks that the series of the narration was somewhat changed by the editor himself; but he in the end of the preface thus protests: In the very context and thread of the narration nothing has been changed, lest we should seem to have had more regard for oration and elegance than for truth and candid antiquity. However these things may be, we follow the mentioned edition, in which the deeds and miracles of Bl. Berthold are narrated in a more congruous order, and we divide it in our manner into larger chapters, the signs or numbers of the older chapters being left in the margin.
Annotations* read "of the skeleton" (sceleti).
* elsewhere "mine" (mea).
LIFE
by an anonymous nearly-contemporary author, perhaps a monk of Garsten. From the Salzburg edition collated with others.
Berthold, abbot of Garsten, in Upper Austria (Bl.)
BHL Number: 1274
By an anonymous writer
PROLOGUE.
The author to Udalric Since the ancient favor of your esteem, venerable father Udalric a, and the purity of your conversation kindled in me the fervor * of a devotion never to be abolished, I glow with desire to do something, by which both this devotion may become known to you, and to me from the unshaken confirmation of your grace felicity may accrue. For I esteem myself happy, if the esteem of a pious and religious father embraces me, because truly it is no contemptible portion of sanctity to be loved by those who, with the blessed Apostle, are the good odor of Christ to God in every place. Of whose number, since we hold you, beloved father, consigned to us with a desirable divine blessing, deservedly must he be called happy, whoever deserves to be exalted by the honor of your love.
[2] Since therefore I assiduously considered he offers his lucubration, in what manner I might honor your venerable sweetness, or what of the sacrifice of my service I might worthily present to your sight, or offer to the hands of true nobility; suddenly it came to my mind that nothing was so consonant with this affection as if I should commemorate in writing even some little thing of the Life and acts of your blessed Father b, namely the abbot Berthold of holy memory, and, if not for any edification, yet for the commendation of truth, or certainly to show my devotion both toward you and toward the same Father; so that in this I might both serve you according to your wish, and not endure that so glorious a matter should perish, as it were, in silence: since I vehemently marvel and grieve that the venerable deeds of the blessed Man, and his great miracles, are left so long to neglect, and I esteem it a grave loss that so negligently there be hidden what can never be uselessly published.
[3] And indeed this very little thing wholly exceeds my powers: and excusing his unskillfulness but I am kindled to the same labor with so great love, that, as if on certain wings of heavenly help, I am most easily raised on high. For it is high and arduous enough for an unlearned sinner to wish to raise the praises of a wise and holy Man: but yet no fear can deter charity, which hopes all things. It is charity which, according to blessed Gregory, supplies the powers which unskillfulness denies. Under its guidance surely it seems easy to me to undertake an arduous purpose, and especially for one looking to the suffrage of the divine piety, and of the holy Father himself. And perhaps the simplicity of the composition will be more pleasant to the humble, to whom God gives grace, and for whose sake alone this labor was undertaken by me, than if it were proud with the profundity of a weighty veil. But why do I say that this labor was undertaken for the humble, since only to serve you alone, gracious father, the intention of the laborer seeks here? For I know that it will by no means be reckoned contemptible by you, even if it be told contemptibly, that which is perhaps to you a cause of honor; and without doubt it will be the fruit of perpetual salvation.
[4] Therefore how the blessed Man was first elected to the Garsten c monastery, he sets forth the method of his writing. and how he lived there, and by what miracles the divine piety declared his holy merits, as I have received it from those who were present with him living, who, formed by his mastery, were present at his virtues and signs, I will now, the Lord helping, set about d to bring forth: yet in such a way that your venerable paternity may deign to be content with brevity, most beloved father.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The beginning of the Garsten monastery, its change, the prefecture and government of Bl. Berthold in it.
Chapter I.
The founder of the mentioned monastery was the venerable margrave of Steyr, lord Otacher a, who also rests there in Christ in the church of St. Laurence, Ottocar, margrave of Styria, for the clerics, the grandfather of that Otacher b who last died in Hungary on the journey which, devout, he undertook to visit and honor the holy sepulcher of the Lord. This foundation or beginning was at first instituted through clerics c, under a provost, by name Eberhard. When he had died, on a certain day, while the clerics were bathing in the river flowing before the place *, some of them were drowned, and by such levity or misfortune of theirs, they changed the will of the founder. For that excellent founder was a most memorable man; and, although a secular prince, yet very unlike other potentates, a cultivator of peace, a lover of justice, and against the enormity of persecutions an impregnable tower of the church. For he received the archbishop of Salzburg, of praiseworthy memory, lord Conrad d, who, fleeing persecutions, had lain hid for many days in the woods and hiding-places of the mountains, coming to him, with great honor, and held him by the hand, which none of the princes dared to do. This was done under blessed Berthold, who himself too devoutly received the pontiff, and kept him in his monastery with reverence as long as he wished.
II.
[6] But that I may return to that from which I digressed: the clerics being drowned, the mind of the founder was, as I said, changed. dwelling in the Garsten monastery, On a certain day, then, when, to celebrate the anniversary day of the lady Elizabeth e, the margravine, who is buried in the choir, many clerics had come together according to custom (for every year for the same cause, at the prince's request, they had been wont zealously to be present), the venerable margrave from an eminent place addressed them thus through another: "I wish you to know, who have come to this anniversary for the sake of God and of us, that in this place, which I have undertaken to raise for the service of the Lord and of His holy Mother, for my salvation and that of my beloved wife, I have disposed, the divine grace bestowing, to change the state of religion for the better: and to provide for this new plantation the suffrage of the desired advancement through monks, whose blessed reputation breathes on every side a life-giving odor. Wherefore I wish you to be admonished by no means to gather any longer for this anniversary day: for it ought, if it please the Lord, henceforth to be celebrated in another manner. Therefore desist altogether from this concourse from now on: because we know that such a custom does not befit the monks who are to dwell here."
[7] he substitutes monks, These things being thus concluded, and all hastening to their own homes, he himself went to Göttweig; and by the help of his friend the Austrian * margrave Luitpold g, whose sister, namely the lady Elizabeth h, he had had to wife, he subjected his foundation to an abbot to be governed, and most diligently commended it; and brought to Garsten a Prior, by name Wirnt i, obtained with other monks. Now at that time there were in this province very rare dwellings of monks, and the Göttweig church still rude: but by divine blessing so illustrated and elevated with prosperous successes, that both in monks and in possessions, but especially in holy reputation, it was in a short time excellently multiplied and glorified. Thus therefore the clerics,
through whom at first the divine service was instituted in the Garsten monastery, on the coming of the monks, withdrew. But some of them, pertaining to the margrave by right of ownership, were not dismissed, but compelled to remain. For the most noble man said that he would not dismiss them, but rather wished that they should remain with him, as friends and beloved, and become monks, and serve God almighty in so good a conversation, about to win the kingdom of heaven. Now those who were compelled to remain were lord Oudalric k, afterward abbot at St. Lambert, and his namesake l, to be abbot at Gleink; and lord Eberhard, afterward the faithful fellow-laborer of Bl. Berthold in the Lord and his devout chaplain; and certain others, whom I do not think it necessary to name here.
[8] Therefore, when the lord margrave held discourse with these about the renunciation of the world and he compels the clerics to embrace the monastic life. and the undertaking of conversion, they all refuse, especially lord Eberhard, saying that such a purpose had not yet settled in their mind, that it was an arduous thing, that no one should be compelled to this, that here only the inspiration of God was to be awaited. To this the margrave: You are mine, he said, and ought to agree with and obey my will in all things; if therefore you will hear me, and willingly and sweetly apply your mind to what I advise, you will ever find me more ready and more benevolent toward you. But if not, I do not wish to drag you; you will at last, even unwilling, do what of your own accord and voluntarily you refused; because, whether you will or will not, you will be monks. What more? Seeing that it was fixed with him that they be either converted or afflicted with adversities, they consented. But lord Eberhard remained immovable in the pertinacity of his obstinacy. He is therefore ordered to be bound and compelled by blows m to consent. Then this blessed one too acquiesced: having indeed a hard and in a manner forced beginning of his conversion, but thereafter, in the advancement of his conversion, showing an indubitable token of heavenly illumination. For none of those who were thus compelled to enter advanced so much in the fear of God and the advancement of religion, although all advanced, and laid hold of the happy fruit of their conversion, or rather of their compulsion.
III.
[9] These things being thus done, the Göttweig monks acquired for themselves lord Berthold of St. Blasien n, where he then discharged the office both of armarius o and of claustral Prior [p], as Prior in the place of lord Wirnt, The margrave sets Bl. Berthold over the monastery, a man of holy testimony, and providing good things, not only before God, but also before all men. But when the same Wirnt had been taken up as father to the monastery of Vornbach [q], then lord Berthold was elected abbot by the Garsten monks and by the margrave himself, with the best omen indeed, since from then and thenceforth that place was never destitute of divine solace. Coming, therefore, to the place destined for him by God, with every effort he applied himself to the divine service and the profit of the church. For God almighty deigned shortly to show, both by the multiplication of monks and brothers, and by opulence of possessions, that he had by no means been elected without His will and providence, on whom He conferred such happy successes. Lord Eberhard, of whom mention was made above, he at once at his first entrance appointed his chaplain, nay his inseparable companion in the work of God and in the labors of spiritual studies.
[10] Of the rigor of the Order he relaxed nothing; and he so watched over the salvation and necessity of his subjects, who with great zeal for discipline that he neglected himself in nothing, and always set the care of them before all outward occupations. The multitude of those serving God was increased without ceasing, because such was the custom of the Man of God, to admit all who, out of desire of Christ, wished to cast off the burden of the world, and to take up the sweet yoke of the conversion, about to live justly. Now the place abounded in monks, and yet very rarely did any of them appear outside the enclosures of the cloister, except the dispensers [r], to whom that care was entrusted. And although he showed himself a father, both in word and in deed, yet certainly whoever abused the father's clemency experienced a master. Every unfitting thing, or contrary to the Order, he by no means dissembled: but at once, as soon as he had seen it, directed it with worthy rebukes to due correction. Even light things, and which you would scarcely, or by no means, judge worthy of reprehension, for example, if anyone, the convent sitting at reading, began to carry a garment through the cloister; he immediately cried out that the Order was being confounded, the holy custom destroyed: and thus he chid the doer of those things as if he had grievously transgressed. Let these things be said to show the Man's rigor, especially against those who say that he indeed abounded in the pious affection of a father, but lacked that of a master. He overflowed, surely, in both senses; who, according to place and time and diversity of merits, now cherished this one, as a father; now terrified that one, as a master, which in this is clear enough; because, as is most well known, as sweet and pious he was loved by all, and yet in things which are against God, to be attempted or sought, he was feared as fire.
[11] he administers the office committed to him. In such an arrangement the place was set, that the brothers indeed should receive necessaries from the cellar; but the guests should find all things prepared in the guest-house. Which the prudent Man had so arranged for this reason, lest, on account of the frequency of comers, the claustral quiet be disturbed, but there all things should be ready, and they should have no need to come to the cloister for particular things. And although guests were almost never lacking, especially because they were diligently instructed to salvation by his counsels and teachings, yet, serving the Lord, they abounded in all good things, according to what is written: "Nothing is lacking to those who fear God." And they indeed enjoyed their consolation with thanksgiving; but he himself rarely added to his bread anything, beyond one food of whatever kind: but the good foods which were set before him he always sent, either while the brothers reclined before him, or out to the lepers and poor. He did not suffer a special bread or a peculiar dish to be made for him: but was always sustained with the same bread and dish as the rest. By his merits and blessing, the scarcity of fish or wine sometimes so grew in the distribution, that no one was deprived of his portion or measure, when at first it was altogether despaired of that this could happen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The miraculous multiplication of fish: the Blessed one's mortification, liberality toward the poor, and zeal in procuring the salvation of his neighbor.
IV.
At Pöchlarn a, sitting at table, he divided fish from one dish among many banqueters, and yet, the division being made, that fullness seemed in no way diminished. He himself neither used fish, as has been premised, The Blessed one, the fish being miraculously multiplied, nor foods prepared with any care; but with one cheap, or sometimes two dishes, which the servants b too used, he was wont to sustain his feeble limbs. Rarely did he rest, both on account of the desire of the eternal fatherland, and on account of the possessed persons brought to him, to whose deliverance he attended, serving the Lord with fasts and entreaties day and night. But when weariness commanded rest, he lay upon his bed so negligently that you would say he neither lay nor sat, his feet hanging down and always clothed in his cowl. No one ever saw him idle, and free from spiritual studies c; but only at the hour of sleep or food
being excepted, now reading, now praying, and now writing, or hearing the confessions of men, not knowing how to take holiday, he shunned that idleness which is the enemy of the soul.
[13] he harshly afflicts his flesh, In the time of winter, sitting by the fire (for he was wary of entering the stoves d, perhaps, or heated chambers, whether on account of his head, or rather out of a zeal for afflicting his body), he always had a thick and broad wheel e set, as it were for a screen, between himself and the fire, and thus was almost never warmed, and afflicted his flesh so greatly with cold and want of food, that what is written, "No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it," had scarcely any place in him. Whence he was of a body so attenuated that, so to say, the squalid skin scarcely clung to the bones, all marveling that, so exhausted, he could discharge those labors of the divine service. Sitting at table, when he had eaten a little, he was wont to sleep: but when the Prior would make him awake by the noise of feet, presently, snatching up his spoon, he indeed feigned himself a strenuous eater; but again, at the Prior's departure, he showed himself a very negligent helper of the body.
[14] and procuring many gifts for the temple, In the beginning of the foundation, and when the holy Man first came to the place of his calling, the substance of the church's possession was very slender; but through him it was magnificently enlarged, and beautifully raised up from its slenderness, because both the powerful and the middling so loved him, that for love of him they abundantly enriched the place with their estates. Therefore by a celebrated and irrefragable edict he established, out of charity, that nothing of those things which could be had should be denied to anyone, but that all should be helped in their necessity according to the necessity of the place. Whence it is not doubtful that it sometimes happened that what had been denied and hidden away, being afterward detected, was cast into the river as though unclean and useless.
[15] I am about to tell a thing perhaps incredible, but nevertheless true, God being witness. two monks, There came to him a certain poor man, deploring his misery, and asking something of him; whom he made to wait before the monastery, until he should console his desire. For he had nothing at hand, because it was never his custom to carry money, or even to receive it: but whatever was given by others, being received, was dispensed according to his command. He carried a purse indeed, but within it had nothing except the brief lists of the dead. And so he ordered the chamberlain f to give three denarii to the poor man. He answered that he had none. Give, said he, to the poor man what I have said. Again he asserted that he had none. Then the holy man: I do not wish, said he, to hear these things, nor to know that my chamber g is without coins. But when the chamberlain persevered in his denial, he had the keys given to himself, and sent the brothers, ordering them to see what was there; who, coming, found a bronze basin full of denarii, which, just as they were found, together with the basin he ordered to be cast headlong into the river Enns h, where there was the greatest depth.
[16] But those brothers began, as far as with saving of reverence they could, who declined to give alms to the poor, to resist, saying that it was better that so great a store be preserved, even if for nothing else, at least for the consoling of the poor, than that it be consumed by the river. But the Man of the Lord, persisting in his own opinion, could by no reasoning be turned from it, asserting that money to be unclean, and therefore fit for no useful purpose. Who, I ask, would do this in such a manner? Who would cast away even three denarii for a cause of this kind! It appears therefore in this memorable deed how great was the holy Man's authority both in commanding, and how untouched from every contagion of avarice he always kept his heart. But the chamberlain, as he deserved, being vehemently rebuked before all, he absolved from that same obedience i and substituted another.
[17] Likewise on another occasion, a poor man approached him, to receive alms. he sharply rebukes. He sent at once to the brother who was set over the bakers, ordering him to give bread to the poor man. He denied that he had loaves. Then the Man of the Lord sent a certain monk, by name Erchenger, to see whether it were so: and thirty loaves were found there. Immediately, the brothers being called together, he with his own hand, another helper being taken up, rebuked the disobedient one with dire blows k, and had all the loaves cast into the river.
VI.
[18] For the sake of confession many came to him, He instructs his subjects in regular discipline, offering very many gifts, of which he himself touched nothing, but, they being placed at his feet or at the altar beside which he had sat, after he had withdrawn thence disengaged, he had some one of the monks receive all, and distribute them among the obediences l, as seemed good to him. Which offices of the obediences were arranged through the unlettered of the monks and the bearded brothers m. But the lettered n and those raised up by the order conferred were held specially engaged in the divine offices: over each obedience two brothers presided, both for the sake of testimony and for the sake of solace. Among whom, if by chance any rivalry or improbity of love arose, it was without delay corrected in the regular manner, and at once they were reformed to the good of peace by the Father's command.
[19] Now the fame of his sanctity was declared far and wide, promptly and eagerly so much so that even from very remote parts many came to him, confessing their sins, and receiving from him the remedies of penance. These too, who for the Lord's sake desired to make pilgrimage for a time, in no way left their land, unless they first saw the holy one of the Lord: esteeming their journey to be nothing, if it had not been commended to his prayers, and fortified with his blessing. For with ever ardent love he attended to the salvation of men, omitting nothing which he saw to pertain to making this fruitful. When those coming to confession were announced to be present, at once, dismissing all, he hastened to hear them. About to celebrate Mass (which indeed he did daily with great devotion and desire), when he was already being made ready to go forth, if any meanwhile were present about to make confession, he deferred the Office and gratified them: and on such occasion or necessity the most clement Man was many times compelled to defer the celebration of Mass beyond the accustomed hour, sometimes even almost until the ninth hour, being wary of holding them longer drawn out; of whom some, coming from afar, desired to be dispatched to their return as quickly as possible: and lest he should seem to seek his own things rather than the things of others, that they might be saved: but however long the delay was protracted, yet at the last he did not omit the fruit of the most sacred Office.
[20] he receives the confessions of penitents. The most blessed Man had, in the hearing of confessions, the custom of searching out with most diligent investigation all things which a man had done against God; whether he held the Catholic faith; whether he knew the Lord's Prayer. And although there was a great multitude of those waiting, and necessity invited him to do other things, yet he dismissed none, before he was directed to profit by a most eloquent examination. And wherever the simpler ones, as is wont, stumbled in the Lord's Prayer, they were detained, until by pious insistence they laid hold of what they were ignorant of. So he did to those receiving alms from him: being asked whether they knew the Lord's Prayer, if they did not know it, they were most kindly taught; and thus they received what they had asked, happily aided by the alms of both the inner and the outer man.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
Zeal in administering the sacrament of penance, predictions, the efficacy of prayer, and the prodigious obtaining of fish.
VII.
But, to return to the confessions (for on these he spent the greatest part of his time), he had the practice of chastising all a without acceptance of persons, With great zeal suffering absolutely no one to pass by unwounded. There for the most part he knew through the spirit those who, with changed habit and feigned voice, had pretended to be what they were not. There was at Kremsmünster a certain priest, by name Henry, Prior there, but somewhat secular. This man came to him by night among the other confessing, himself also about to confess, having for the hour laid aside the habit of a monk, lest he should be recognized. But when he had risen from the place, and had now begun to depart, glad that he had lain hidden, the Man of the Lord followed him with this voice, in that his own sweetness: "Come now, lord Prior, see that you dispose all things well." Hearing which, the Prior, vehemently marveling, was astounded; and he himself afterward related that he had thus been detected against his hope and will.
[22] But he was so occupied at home and abroad with this occupation, and was held impeded, that he could do almost nothing else, He administers the sacrament of penance, having pity on the multitude ceaselessly flowing together for this cause. Whence also the monks, exasperated with foolish indignation, alleged that this same occupation was very useless, and the cause of grave loss; that all things lay as though neglected which pertained to the disposition of the Man of God. But he dissembled these things as though unknown, caring nothing for such accusation of theirs; since he knew his necessary and incontestable occupations to be of no loss, but rather
the cause of many good things, in that his Prior, and the other dispensers, had, by his own committing, full power of the whole administration; and those to whose salvation he devoted his counsels and teachings, existed as the cause of great felicity both to himself and to the whole congregation and place. He was loved by all, honored by all, but he himself, wholly given over to humility and simplicity, was not in the least moved by that display of honor. Never was there anything in his mouth, as is written of St. Martin, but peace, but Christ, but mercy; so that, sitting in the pleas b, he would utter with simple mouth certain sacred recitations, suited to the causes present, his disciples, who were together present, sometimes saying that he had come for other causes, to the dispatching of which he ought rather to attend, than to expound his readings.
VIII.
[23] Now he was preeminently learned in the divine law, illustrious in eloquence, pure in innocence, most becomingly adorned with venerable manners, and among the other gifts of graces not at all lacking even in the spirit of prophecy. he foretells many evils to his immodest nephew, He had with him in the monastery a certain youth, the son of his own brother, by name Berthold, restless, given to fickleness, and, in the hope of consanguinity, wishing more freely to go out of the cloister and to do what pleased him. Whom therefore the Man of the Lord took pains to rebuke and chastise more frequently and more vehemently than the rest. But when, long and much rebuked and borne with, he appeared incorrigible, the Father, moved, sent him into Göttweig, where both the rigor of discipline might urge him, and no hope of nearness of kin might smile upon him, thus saying: "Come now, brother, go now: you have often troubled me, and greatly vexed me; you too shall be troubled, and shall never be without adversities." So it was done: for it is most well known that the same man, afterward surviving a long time, was never without adversities. For, driven out from his own cloister, and long going about without a congregation, wandering and a fugitive, he at last made the end of his life in exile; and would that of his labors too!
IX.
[24] At a certain time the torrent which is called Garste c, from which also the place received its name, and he restrains an overflowing brook by prayer. running beyond its bound, as it is wont, had covered the whole site of the place, so that, occupying even the cloister and its workshops, it compelled the monks to have their going through the waters. Whereat afflicted, while they spoke with the blessed Man, grieving over the same inconvenience, he gently consoled them, saying: "Go to the refectory, and refresh yourselves, and be of even mind, because you shall as quickly as possible be freed from this invasion of the water, and what this torrent has now done, it shall never do again." The convent went to the refectory. But he himself entered into the oratory. And after his manner prostrate in prayer, he obtained so swift and so wonderful an effect of his prayers, that the brothers, rising from the table, found nothing of all that water which before the meal they had left in the cloister. Turned therefore into stupor, with admiration and joy they venerated so great a miracle in the holy Man: which invasion of the water never afterward happened.
[25] On a certain day he announced to the brothers that a certain man, greatly distressed, would presently be at hand, The conversion of a robber being foretold, whom they ought to receive, and to free from imminent peril. And when they asked who he was, he answered only this: that he was a man in need of mercy, and set in the utmost necessity, to be consoled with a view to piety. On the next day there flies in in haste a certain soldier, Leo by name, who by robberies and brigandage, and very many works of cruelty, had forfeited his life, and, set under prosecution, had even been condemned by sentence of hanging. And when he was now being sought for punishment, he made for the monastery at a rapid run, and, prostrate before the brothers, beseeches and adjures them that, the habit of conversion being given, they free him from instant destruction. There is a running to the Father, that he may decree what is to be done. He orders the man to be swiftly shorn, and received into the congregation. That fugitive therefore, giving thanks to the divine clemency by which he had been freed, was thus converted to the Lord, and, his habit being changed, lived a good life among his liberators. This being done, immediately he was demanded for punishment. But those demanding were not heard, because they, serving God almighty, had now associated him to themselves. Nay, He Himself had taken him up, who came to seek and to save that which had perished.
[26] On the feast of St. James, when the congregation had not had fish (as by his own statute it had been wont to have on similar feasts), there arises a grave complaint before him on the following day in Chapter, he wonderfully obtains fish for the brothers and so great an uproar of those making tumult, that the pious Man was compelled to ask pardon at the feet of all, since he could not check the rancor of the murmurers: but when they proved too importunate, and made tumult beyond measure, greatly saddened: "Well," said he, "keep yourselves well, and be quiet; today I will give you the desired sufficiency of fish." And although he said this, yet there was not yet at hand whence he might discharge what he promised. When after a little while, as he was going out of the cloister, there was met to him a certain man carrying a huge coracinus d, making him a true promiser, and by this benefit greatly commending the heavenly Consoler, repeating the ancient counsel, by which He filled the unhappy assembly of the murmurers in the desert. For just as Moses then, certain of the Lord's power, promised them the flesh which they had desired: so to these the Man of the Lord Berthold, confident of God's mercy, pledged the fish which they loved. They ate therefore, and were satisfied, and did not omit, as was fitting, to give thanks to Him who had brought them their desire. Truly pious is the Lord, truly merciful, who, lest He should seem to desert one presuming upon Him, deigned even clemently to satisfy His enemies and murmurers.
[27] At another time guests were present, who, because they were friends and venerable, and for guests, were to be honored with more diligent care and ministry. But when again fish were lacking, and the dispensers complained of this to the Father: "Go," said he, "to the water: seek. Great is God's clemency." They answered that they had labored enough in seeking, but had profited nothing. "Again," said he, "go: what harm is there in trying?" And he himself went forth with them as far as before the gate which looked toward the river: and there halting, he awaited the outcome of the matter. As they approached the river with the drag-net, behold—wonderful to say—a fish which is called the grayling e, with a "rufus" f pursuing it, driven into flight, all marveling, leaped from the water onto the land. Both the pursuer and the fleeing one were caught, exhibiting a desirable spectacle, not for their own usefulness, but for the undoubted sanctity of the blessed Man. And they indeed hastened to proclaim this deed for a miracle: but the Man of the Lord, wishing to hear or know nothing of this kind, repressed them, saying that it was not to be wondered at if what could not be done on one occasion could be done on another, the Lord providing. So truly did he fear that his merits be published, as thieves are wont to fear lest their thefts be detected. Yet they were published. For how could that be hidden from the peoples which was continually betrayed to the eyes: since scarcely, or never, can that be kept silent even by one who sees, which can be heard by no one without admiration and jubilation?
[28] There were present without ceasing multitudes of diverse men seeking his counsels and blessings, and for the fame of his sanctity he is visited by various kinds of men. And unless he were compelled by piety and mercy to meet them and to counsel them, surely the sight of no man would have beheld him. Considering therefore, as a Man of perfect piety, that it was better to be of profit to many than to oneself alone, or to a few, setting the common advantage before the private, he wished to repel no one, because, as much as was in him, he would have wished to do good to all. Therefore, the power of his goodness being everywhere divulged, throngs both of the languishing, and of those suffering nothing in body, and of those who were vexed by spirits, came to him, seeking the remedies of soul and body, and frequently finding them. Truly the Lord deigned through him, both while remaining in the body and while resting in the dust of the earth, to show such great good things, that I greatly marvel that all of them are up to now so suppressed in silence, as if either they had not been done at all, or had been seen by no one.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The deliverance of the possessed, the wonderful obedience of a boy, the flight of a demon, and the foreseen glory of the Blessed one in heaven.
XII.
Toward the demoniacs he was endowed with no mean affection of deliverance; whom he always commanded to be kept in the guest-house with those who were together present, Various demoniacs being delivered, and to be kindly treated, until, health being obtained by fastings and prayers, he permitted them to return with joy. Before the altar of St. Peter the blessed Man was wont frequently to pray; there to celebrate Masses, there to hear confessions, there he was accustomed more familiarly to cleave to divine contemplation. Thither a woman possessed by a demon, brought to him, was freed with all speed. And although not a few found with him the grace of the same salvation, yet we do not say that a cure indifferently was at hand for all. Some were cured; some could not be cured. He indeed bestowed on all the affection of pious compassion, having there, where God deigned, the effect of relief.
[30] he compels a possessed woman to be silent, There was, not far from the monastery, a certain woman filled with a demon, by name Haiza, for whom he labored long and much: but he could not drive the wicked spirit from her: yet, while he lived, he prevailed that it should not speak, except in a manner by barking and yelping. But, after his passing, becoming garrulous beyond measure, she showed that the Master had withdrawn, in whose presence it had not opened its mouth. On a certain day lord Adelram a, who afterward was made abbot at Kremsmünster, having taken with him certain brothers, approached for the sake of questioning:
and he began to address it with these words: "Tell," said he, "what cause has now made you so talkative, since we all know that before these days you were utterly mute ?" It said: "He who lies buried in the monastery, while he lived, had by his command taken from me the power of speaking. But now, because he is dead, I am restrained by no fear from being silent." With immense adjurations therefore he compelled it to answer him to the things asked.
[31] Now under that same time two monks of the same monastery had died. which after his death reveals various things. One was called Erchenger, father of two boys offered there by him, and in old age softly converted to God from the voluptuous life of the world. The other, Dietmar, was called cellarer of the monastery; and reprehensible indeed in his way, but nevertheless very charitable. Lord Adelram therefore asked of that possessed woman, nay of the spirit which dwelt in her, terribly adjuring it to speak the truth, and by no means to presume to lie. "Where," said he, "is lord Erchenger?" It said: "Him we have." He asked also concerning the other, that is, lord Dietmar, where he too was; concerning whom it thus answered: "He was assigned," it said, "to our lot: but, as that monk was saying, while he was dying, 'May God almighty repay you all the good things which you did to me,' and another, 'May the pious Lord recompense you the good with which you frequently sustained me,' and others imprecating the like, while we thought that he had already come to our part, he suddenly slipped away, and ceased to be ours. Him too, whom we have, we shall not long possess b; since we are as quickly as possible about to lose him through two religious daughters whom he has at Admont c." These things that woman uttered, just as they have been set down, constrained by excessive conjurations, but before her death she herself was not freed from the demon; nor yet could she hinder the consolation of others, whom the almighty Lord willed to restore to salvation through His Beloved.
XIII.
[32] The man was of such great simplicity, that he spoke with little children as though they were old men: A boy from wandering rovings and those who knew nothing at all of the virtue of obedience, these through obedience he either compelled to something, or recalled. For lord Oudalric d, abbot of Kremsmünster, the son of his brother, when he was first presented to him in the monastery, to be reared in the divine service, his mother offering him, was by him restrained from a certain childishness by a wonderful command. For while daily he ran to his mother's table, being, as it were, a boy not yet tonsured, nor yet received into the congregation, into the guest-house: on that day on which she herself withdrew, the boy, after his wonted manner, went out as though to dine. But when he did not find her, grieving, he hid himself. Now the master of the guests, having pity on the boy, would not betray him; but, foods being set before him as he slept, which he himself, waking, consumed, he thus kept him for some while.
[33] But the blessed Father, while he grieved for the boy, and had him diligently sought everywhere; then that brother, he wonderfully restrains by the injunction of obedience, taking his hand, led him to him as he was intent on prayer before the altar of Bl. Peter. Whom, leading him into the auditory e; (for in the oratory, besides confessions, he spoke nothing at all), he thus addressed: "Unfaithfully," said he, "you have acted toward me, in that by hiding so long you have presumed to disquiet me; I command you, through holy obedience, that you no more do what you have now done." Behold with how simple an edict he forbade to a simple boy the hiding-places of flight, who nevertheless, boy though he was, although he had not even understanding of obedience, by the virtue of obedience, and without doubt by the sanctity of him who commanded, was so confirmed to obedience, that in this command he never appeared disobedient: for he never again withdrew from the monastery.
XIV.
[34] At a certain time a certain nobleman of Rachez f, a kinsman of this holy Father, and a demon lurking in the form of a sow wont often studiously to ask, with many prayers, that he would deign to come to his house, obtained his wish. Now he had, whom he singularly loved, a little son, by name Oulric: in whom the things which follow were then seen and afterward related. For when the Man of the Lord had laid himself down to rest, his limbs being a little refreshed with sleep, he rose, and began to serve the Lord. And behold, through the flue, that is, the chimney, the enemy of the human race, as it were in the manner of a sow, cast himself down, seen by none save the blessed Man alone, and the little one lying beside the Father.
[35] he drives out with a handful of straw. The boy therefore began inconsolably to make a din with immoderate weepings and cries, and to be to all a cause of disquiet. But when that weeping could be checked by no one; the Man of the Lord, understanding the devil to be the cause of so great a wailing, went to the place in which it had lain, and, taking a little straw, as it were for a whip, began to will to eject that diabolical sow. And when for some while, turning aside hither and thither, it tried to refuse to go out, at last it was compelled to leap out by that part by which it had entered. Which matter then indeed presented to that boy a dreadful spectacle; but afterward was the matter of an admirable narration, and an example of worthy veneration: for deservedly worthy to be venerated is he who, it is established, so lords it over the devil, that with a little bundle of straw he takes from him all the strength of his might.
XV.
[36] The Man of the Lord had a certain servant, by name Siboto, whom from boyhood up to manly age he had reared, strong in good manners, Two Brothers, and not at all lacking in desire of the heavenly fatherland. This man, when he ought to have been girded with the sword, being about to be a soldier, at the admonitions of the blessed Man left the world and took up the habit of conversion. But no long time being passed after his conversion, he began to be sick, and with frequent straits to draw near to his end. And when he was now near to death, he asked the holy Father to come to him. His soul therefore being commended to him, and the necessity of his departure: "O how happy," said he, "are they who obey you, venerable Father; who, following your paths, love your will, neglect not your commands! Happy, I say, since without doubt they lay hold of the joys of perpetual felicity! O how comely is your seat, prepared for your expectation with unspeakable adornment!" Which the venerable Father suddenly interrupted, and, as he wished still to speak, checked him with a rebuke, saying: "Be silent, Brother, you know not what you say." And he: "I," said he, "am silent indeed, yet I know what I speak, and I say true things: most beautiful is your seat." These things being said, he rested in a blessed end.
[37] A certain other, Embich by name, snatched from robbery, and, so to say, from the very jaws of death, who had been converted under the Blessed one, he consigned to the Lord well converted and holy. This man, when, having taken companions to himself, he assailed merchants as though to plunder them, was sorely wounded, and thence carried off half-alive, but, health being attained through the divine mercy, ready to be converted, nay burning with desire of conversion, he flew to the man of God, humbly demanding that the aid of salvation be given him, and the faculty of serving the Lord in spiritual conversation. All resist, all contradict, fearing, because he had been a plunderer, and had taken away many things, that they would have to render account for him to those who demanded it back. But he, who had determined to repel none, but to admit all, did not suffer this one either to be frustrated of his hope; but, the gainsayers being broken by his sweet speeches, he was associated to the congregation, about to answer with the utmost humility to the heavenly calling. For He who calls those whom He predestines, and justifies those whom He calls, truly deigned to show in this one also, that He wills not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.
[38] He would gladly have learned letters, but he had not the grace of learning. and had served God in humility, Yet he lacked not the mastership of the Holy Spirit, whom he had as the moderator and inhabitant of his humility. He undertook the care of the sick from the Father devoutly indeed; but more devoutly administered it, unable to be overcome by any labor by which he could provide for their conveniences and utilities. He himself carried wood on his own shoulders from the forest, with which he built up a fire for them, and heated the stove, on which journey he ceased not from prayer. He himself carried food to them with his own hands, and, standing before them, or cutting up what they should eat, said the Lord's Prayer; never tasting anything of those things which he set before them. What was left over, bringing to the claustral boys g, he asks whether they had any psalter to chant at present. And when they answered, yes: "That," said he, "you may take me up too and make me a partaker, receive this and eat." And standing before them, and breaking the flesh, he did not let the Lord's Prayer go from his mouth. The convent indeed, by the authority of the Order, used lard h in food; but this man, although he was even compelled to this by command, yet, having scarcely tasted it, lest he should prove disobedient, shrank from touching it further: yet he feigned to eat, for the sake of others, lest he should be marked, and his abstinence be proclaimed.
[39] Thus in humility and true contrition of spirit, after he had served the Lord for two years, from a robber a monk and a holy one, now near to death the Lord willing to magnify His mercy with him, nay also to declare that He came not to call the just, but sinners, he was seized with infirmity. He sat therefore continually on his little bed, unwilling to lie down, lest he should seem to indulge too much in bodily rest; and neither by day nor by night did he cease from divine colloquies and prayer. After not many days, the languor growing heavier, he asked the holy Father to be called to him; who, when he was present, certain of the Brothers also being present, "May the Lord," said he, "reward all the good things which your clemency, lord Father, has hitherto imparted to me. Now already the good work profits which you began in me, that, the offices of the last necessity being completed, I may be directed whither I am to go." And when the venerable Father blandly consoled him, promising him from God's mercy still a space of living, and that he too would not be lacking to his necessity when the time should be at hand: "Now," said he, "is the time of doing, because I am as quickly as possible about to depart."
[40] Now he named certain monks who would follow him in death, saying to the Father: "Exhort them to be ready: they see the seat of Bl. Berthold prepared in heaven. because they are soon to follow me." But when the Man of the Lord wished to suppress this saying, and altogether to check words of this kind, saying that he had no knowledge at all of those things which he mentioned: "Nay, I know," said he, "what I speak. Seven without delay shall die: four shall precede your death; three shall follow." So it was done. Thus all departed from this life, as they had been designated by him by their names. First those four; after whom the venerable Father: then three others, as they had been ordered in the naming. But concerning the Man of God he said that his seat was prepared, and beautified with glorious comeliness *. Thence, the Viaticum being taken, he happily proceeded to the fatherland from exile. It is clear therefore, that not only did the Father himself, with prophetic spirit, as has been mentioned above, foreknow things to come; but also that his disciples, surely by his merits, truly presaged true things concerning the future.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
The unexpected finding of bread, the impeding of fornication, the conversion of water into wine, the expulsion of a demon, munificence toward brothers and the poor.
XVI.
There was a certain servant in the blessed Man's familiar attendance, by name Adelbert, who for a long time after his death lived in the conversion, A servant of the Blessed one testifies, having lost the light of his eyes, living simply, and thinking not negligently of the salvation of his soul. This man knew many things concerning the blessed Father worthy of narration, inasmuch as he was continually present, and, as has been said, cleaving familiarly to his services. But he was very religious, and rarely spoke anything, studiously kept silent about all things, especially because he feared that he would not be believed. For he said this: that if faith were given to his words, he could tell many things, whereby the credulity of the hearers might be usefully instructed to profit. By his assertion became known the thing which I am about to tell.
[42] The monks are wont, through the whole summer, to celebrate the "mandatum" a of three poor men, daily after supper, with the washing of feet and hands, and the giving of alms. To which, although the Father himself, by custom and the authority of the Order, was always assigned on the Lord's Days, yet continually, out of love of the same office, he anticipated the appointed * priest. For he deliberately observed that hour at which it ought to be done, if perhaps that priest, whether by negligence or by necessity, should be late: and thus, occasion being got, he himself celebrated that "mandatum" with the utmost devotion. For many times, piously and forcibly excluding the one present, by the work of piety he cultivated his holy desires.
[43] It happened therefore on a certain day, that, coming after his wonted manner, he did not find those three loaves, the rest of the apparatus being set out in full. that he miraculously found three loaves. But asking why the loaves were lacking, he heard that there was none at hand, but nor indeed could any be found elsewhere. He ordered loaves to be brought quickly; and it was sought diligently in the chest where they were wont to be laid up, with the little fork which lay there continually, and nothing was found. And when they had done this even a second time, the holy Father, grieving that that work of mercy should thus remain imperfect, sent a third time, and commanded three loaves to be brought to him. Then they were found there, where at first, diligently sought, they could not be found, because in truth they were not there: for if they had been at hand, without doubt they would have been found; but now by God's omnipotence, lest His beloved should be saddened, or be deprived of the fruit of piety in this work too, they were mercifully and at the same time wonderfully provided.
XVII.
[44] A certain noble and rich man, by name Wolric * of Bernecke, A noble man hearing that the man of God was at Göttweig b, sent to him, that he would deign to come to him. Who, although he was somewhat infirm, nevertheless set out, lest so great a man should be frustrated of his hope. Coming therefore, he found in the man's house twelve ladies, adorned with womanly ornament to please the world, and rather ambitiously arrayed for their temporal lord; each of whom, because his wife had died, that man always ordered to be present at his bed at his pleasure. These being seen by the Man of the Lord, and having heard from the host himself who they were, and for what cause they stayed with him, although he was glorious and of great power, yet he received in answer what he deserved to hear. For the holy Man vehemently rebuked him for so great incontinence: cutting off from him all hope of salvation, if the last sentence should find him such. Moreover he foretold to them likewise that such a life would be the cause of certain perdition: and forbade them, under the threat of grave vengeance, to approach him further.
[45] he draws him away from concubinage by a miracle: But that man, although he had vowed the same intemperance toward the blessed Man c; yet that very night ordered one of them to be present with him. Who, going, halted in the middle of the way, prohibited by divine power from proceeding further. Being asked therefore the following day by the man why she had not come as he had ordered, she said that in going she had suddenly stuck fixed, as though she were bound tight by a strong ligament. Then he understood that so great a miracle had proceeded from the presence of the blessed Man, and that he could not attain the effect of his desires while he was present. He began therefore to venerate the holy Man more than usual, and now to believe that those things concerning him were true, of which he had before doubted; and, that multitude of women being repudiated, he took one as lawful wife, with whom he closed the remaining course of his life without hazard.
XVIII.
[46] Under the same time he was invited by the countess of Wilperga (Wildberg) d, because the count had lately died, he converts water into wine: that he might commend his soul, and herself, since she was pregnant, to his prayers. Now there was at the approach to the castle a fountain adjoining the wall, of great amplitude and pleasantness, and delightful to drink; from which the Man of the Lord asked that it be brought to him at table. When therefore he had drunk, and had set it before him, the countess said that, if it could be done with his favor, she would drink with him of his drink. Which when he had kindly granted, she drank, not the water which he had tasted, but the most excellent wine. She was silent, and the vessel was set back before the Servant of the Lord. And when, wishing to drink again, he had found wine, he would not touch it further, but it was given back to the countess; and she sent it to a certain chief man reclining before her among the rest. And when they had drunk in order, and all had studiously kept silent, last of all it was handed to a certain blind man; but he too, in silence, offered it to his leader. Then by him it was cried out that it was the best wine that divine power ever produced from the earth. There, if he had wished to receive, he would have returned enriched with many gifts; but he received only those things which on the following day were offered in the celebration of Mass; and which the countess took care to bestow for the salvation of her husband's soul. Having therefore heard there the confessions of many, and received them into his prayers and brotherhood *, he was dismissed not without great joy of edification.
XIX.
[47] The eastern margrave Luitpold e had a provost by name Anselm, a man of great wealth a demon, and ample possession, but as full of vices as of riches. This man, when he had administered the provostship for many years, was struck with paralysis, wholly made powerless in one part of the body. But although another now discharged the same office, this man could by no reasoning be convinced to resign. The holy Father was therefore asked by the margrave himself to visit the sick man, and deign to give him counsel of salvation. He proceeded; but by no device could he turn the wretch to the knowledge of his guilt, or to the resignation of his culpable office.
[48] When therefore, night coming on, all had given themselves to rest, infesting the soldiers, the Man of God lying below in the heated room f with his monks, but the soldiers who were in his company sleeping above in the upper chamber; behold, "carti" g of diverse color and size so filled that same upper chamber, that it was not hoped it could hold. Four of whom, assailing one of the soldiers, by name Ournich, somewhat merry and marvelous, and who after satiety had forgotten to sign himself, dragged him from his place into another, unable to say anything at all, or to move himself: except only that with his tongue he formed a cross on his palate, as he had heard ought to be done in mockeries of this kind of demons. And so he was let go, scarcely breathing for fear, and drenched with sweat.
[49] But one of them all, having assumed the form of an asp, and demanding many things descended below to the holy Man, and, beginning to speak with him in Latin words, used against him a complaint of this kind: "What," said it, "are you doing here? or, what fellowship have you with my affairs? Was not this house founded in my keeping, and sealed among my treasures? Whence therefore is it for you to dwell in it? Withdraw hence; and beware to occupy further those things which are of our part, lest we oppose you with all our strength, as we have just now done to one of the two, deferring worse things on account of your presence." Now there was present a certain monk, by name Frederick, who had withdrawn from the Garsten monastery, and, meeting there the servant of God, spent that night with him. This man, waking, heard that altercation of the devil with the blessed Man: and afterward, as they were departing thence, related all in order.
[50] Therefore the Man of God commanded the unclean spirit to desert that habitation as quickly as possible, and, lest it should presume to inflict any harm on anyone, he casts out of a certain house: enjoined it with powerful authority: "The strength of your God and the greatness of your holiness compel us to yield to you and now to withdraw from this place," said it; "but you departing, it shall be established that we are powerful here." Immediately that unhappy assemblage of infernal dogs vanished, proved by the testimony of the monk who was by no means sleeping, as also of the soldier lying apart. And so on the following day, when his discourse took no hold on that provost, he began to instigate his men to withdraw thence with speed; by whom he was scarcely, until they had taken food, compelled to wait. After no long time, that provost was deserted by his provostship, which he himself had been unwilling to desert. And when they had put him in a coffin to be conducted to burial, that coffin gave forth such immense crackings, as if it were compelled so to crackle by the movements of the one lying within.
XX.
[51] As often as the holy Man, some necessity urging, he divides among the Brothers the gifts given to him, had need, going forth abroad, to conduct external affairs, rarely or never could he return to the monastery at his own will, but was always compelled to tarry outside longer than he wished. So great was the insistence of those inviting him, so great the love of those desiring to see him: but he was held chiefly by spiritual occupation, since each reckoned himself unhappy if he had not heard his counsel, had not made his confession to him. Returning therefore to the cloister, the gifts with which he had been honored by those inviting him, he always presented all in the chapter to the brothers, reminding them that they had been visited by these, their friends and familiars, to whom they ought faithfully and untiringly to respond with prayers and services. Now there were so many and so great things which he frequently brought, that from them he conferred much profit on each obedience; in the presenting or dividing of which, or as often as the opportunity of remembering the givers admonished, wonderful to say, he so remembered the names of all, however many they were, as if they were all written down before him. Moreover among these he by no means forgot the poor, clemently reserving for them their part, to be multiplied a hundredfold for him in the future.
[52] and he heals the withered hand of a poor man. On a certain day, while he was making a journey, many pilgrims met him, all going with bare feet, although everything was filled with immense snows. To whom, when he had ordered coins to be given one by one, and had commended them to the divine protection with great sweetness, one of them, animated with such great piety, offered him his feeble hand, useless for many days, to be blessed, having great hope of receiving health, if it were touched by his holy touches. Then the holy one: "Would," said he, "good man, that it were useful to you; how gladly would I do what you ask!" And taking his hand, he began most kindly to bless and handle it, and forthwith it was healed, becoming to all who were present a cause of admiration and exultation.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
The deliverance of a possessed woman, the healing of a lame man, the repeated transmutation of water into wine, prophecy, sickness, and pious death.
XXII.
A certain soldier, by name Thiemo of Hovestetin, had a daughter, vexed by a demon, He delivers a possessed woman lamentable to all her kindred. When many tried to free her, but could by no means prevail, the demon saying that it need have no care of any of them, that Berthold of Garste alone availed more than all: This one, unless he came, would for no one desert his place: the holy Man deigned to come thither, the father inviting him diligently and simply. For whom, when he had sent, that woman began as it were to reproach her father with fraud, saying: "Unfaithfully have you dealt with me, in that you have sent for him who pleases me not." And upbraiding other like things, she could not conceal the fear which she had of the coming of the holy one. Coming therefore, casting out the malignant spirit from her without delay, he made great joy indeed to her parents and friends; but to himself, by such great powers of miracles, he wrought a cause of blessed memory and perpetual veneration, according to what is written: "Beloved of God and men, whose memory is in benediction."
[54] Which words, how aptly, and nay how especially, they suit this blessed Man, Berthold beloved of God and men: it is not necessary to prove by writing, since assuredly the whole fatherland cries it, and the throng of all the surrounding region are wont to declare it by their assiduous concourse at his sepulcher. For as, living in the body, he was frequented by all, invited by many, so much so that he was even the special confessor and dear friend of King Conrad a; which he proved also by his lavishing of gifts and estates: so also even now unceasingly, beside his holy bones, it is shown by the many vigils of the faithful how much he is loved, and of how great veneration he is worthy, whose memory so lives in benediction, that he would by no means be so loved by men, unless he were also happy in the love of God almighty. Let it therefore be rightly said of him: "Beloved of God and men, whose memory is in benediction." Truly his memory is in benediction, while by the faithful God is blessed, who made him like in the glory of the Saints, while to his very venerators there is given, by heavenly benediction, an insuperable power against enemies.
XXIII.
[55] The Man of the Lord was proceeding toward Melk b, for the sake of praying, that he might venerate the merits of blessed Coloman c, he sets a lame man on his feet: and implore his suffrages. On which journey, when he needed lodging, he sent his messenger to a certain man of great activity and liberality, who was called Meginhard, asking him to show the care of hospitality to himself and his company that night. Which when that man had most gladly received: (for who would not reckon himself happy and worthy of benediction at his reception?) he entered into the man's house, and was received with great gladness. There there came before him a certain poor man, feeble with a contracted foot, scarcely going, a staff supporting him, hoping that he would receive something from him. Whom the man of God, seeing, moved with mercy over him, began to speak with him concerning that same his infirmity: "Why," saying, "good man, do you not seek aid for your weakness? Come in the morning to the altar, when I am about to celebrate Mass, and weigh yourself * there, as is the custom, and permit yourself to be sprinkled with holy water: perhaps the divine mercy will be magnified by your consolation." So it was done. When the holy Man in the morning blessed the sick one as he came, and sprinkled him with holy water, immediately he was made whole, and, his foot being raised up, sound and glad he goes forth from the church.
XXIV.
[56] The blessed Man was sick, and asked the chaplain adhering to him, namely lord Eberhard, again he converts water into wine: to have water brought him to drink from the nearby fountain. He sent therefore a servant, by name Hiltibold, reared by the Father himself, and then remaining familiarly in his service, to bring water. The water being brought therefore, he gave it to lord Eberhard, and he himself handed it to the sick one. When the venerable Father drank: "I," said he, "asked for water." To whom when lord Eberhard said that it had already been brought by the servant, the Man says, "Bring it to me yourselves also." The chaplain and the servant proceeded together; and, water being drawn as before from the well, they offered it to him who asked. He drank: and, as before, it was wine. Then, dissolved into tears: "What," said he, "do you do, Savior? Am I not an unworthy sinner, for whom you should do signs?" He ordered therefore these things to be altogether kept silent; and, lest they be made manifest, forbade it wholly by his authority. These things the same Hiltibold expressed to me d with tears, and asserted that it was so in his soul, as they have been set forth. But that the same miracle, namely wine made from water, happened to him not once, many even today testify. But now the words are to be turned to his blessed passing, which he himself, the Lord revealing, was not ignorant of. Then the healings and miracles which were seen to be done at his sepulcher are to be commemorated.
XXV.
[57] Not long before his death, the Admont father of holy memory, he foretells a longer life to a sick abbot, lord Godfrey e, was very sick, and it was sent for him, that he might be present at his obsequies, nay that he himself would deign to commend him to the earth. But when the envoys had delivered their embassy, the holy Father consoled them with this reply, saying: "Return: your lord has begun to be better, and will well recover. But ask him that, if my messenger come to him, he not be slow to come to me." So it was done: that father recovered, and after a little while, this man inviting him, he came, and buried him.
[58] and himself knowing death to be imminent for him, But before he died, the whole congregation being called to him, he heard the confessions of each, and, scourges being given to all with his own hand, both absolved them, and humbly asked that there be remitted to him by them whatever he had offended against them. There is made much weeping, sorrow, and mourning seizes all; unwilling, forsooth, to be without him, whom to have had was the salvation of those having him. Then the venerable Father, moved by their great sobs, desiring that they should be consoled: "The time," said he, "has come of passing hence, and it can no longer be deferred, long desired, scarcely awaited; but know that I will never desert you, and will be to this place a faithful and devout fellow-worker in perpetuity. By bodily division indeed we are to be separated; but in spirit I shall always be with you. Yet I say that after my departure this place will by no means be without adversities, and, less and lower than itself, will seem to have retreated much; but nevertheless, through the grace of God, it will quickly rise again, and resume the dignity of a better state."
[59] he persuades the monks to elect Eberhard as his successor, They ask then that counsel be given them for electing a father, likewise promising that whomever he himself should designate by name, this one without doubt they would have, whoever he might be. Then he: "If," said he, "you follow my counsel in your election, you will see that you have done well, and will rejoice: but if not, it will be manifest that you have acted wrongly." Therefore he judges that Eberhard, his chaplain, a man approved in the things of God, should undoubtedly be substituted for himself; "If," saying, "you receive this man, the honor of God will stand in this place, and this your state, while he lives, will not be able to totter." But since the same Eberhard, being of impeded tongue, had not the gift of eloquence; concerning this very thing too he did not leave them unconsoled, thus saying: "There is indeed there a small defect; but this the divine providence will supply with a more useful munificence, and it will harm less that he is not eloquent, whom it is established to be approved by a heavenly sentence." All praise the counsel, promising that they will gladly do so.
[60] But amid these things Eberhard himself, holding the feet of the holy Man in his hands and lap, because they were cold, complaining much on account of that counsel, gently cherished them after his manner;
caring nothing for that talk of theirs concerning the governance. But when, all having departed, those two alone remained, he addressed the Man of God with these words in sorrow. "Come now," said he, "what have you done? What counsel have you given concerning me? Is this the recompense which you render to my labors and service? Is this what by serving you for so long a time I have deserved? A pious reward, a clement retribution, that you make for rest, and plunge me into tribulations. You proceed to Christ, and strive to impose on me a burden, under which even they who bear up the world must needs be bent. Another retribution I hoped was reserved for my fidelity and devotion." With reproaches of this kind the oft-mentioned chaplain chided the pious Father, weeping abundantly, and with all the affections of his heart desiring either to depart together, or to follow with all speed. Which also he besought with many adjurations, namely that he not be left here longer, bringing back to his memory, and insistently urging upon his recollection, if he had served anything, if he had done anything worthy of favor, that this whole should be recompensed by this one granting of his prayer.
[61] Therefore, when, the languor growing heavier, several days had passed for him without food, and at last the blessed Father piously dies, and he had now almost failed; the same Eberhard, approaching, performing everywhere the office not so much of a chaplain as of a most pious foster-father and provider, began to put something into his mouth for refreshment. Which being received, his strength being collected for these words: "O," said he, "why did you do so? It ought to have been for me as a penance to remain thus without food, until the feast of St. Peter in Chains, that thus, absolved from the chains of the flesh, I might, as I vowed, celebrate the feast of those same chains. But now, because I have been fed, being soon to depart, I cannot await the appointed day." Nor was there delay. On the night which precedes the festal day of Bl. Pantaleon the martyr f, a little before the nocturnal Office, the congregation being called, he himself began the Litany, and chanted it with the others up to the rendering of his soul. Then, wishing to raise his hands, but by no means prevailing, he rested in the Lord.
[62] Then it was sent, as we said before, for the Admont father, and he is prodigiously carried to the tomb. that he might come, and show the offices of humanity to his deposition. He came, and commended to the earth him who, himself sick, had before called him to his own commendation. Therefore, when he was carried to the church, the more honorable persons who were in the congregation going beneath the bier, a great miracle appeared to them; because that same bier, raised up by divine power, in no way touched their shoulders; they marveling at first, and, before the perceiving of the matter, thinking it to be done by one or the other, while this one believed the bier to be lifted higher by that one, and that one supposed the same to be done by this one. They look at one another, and evidently recognize the grace of God almighty present before their eyes.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VII.
The apparition of the Blessed one, and various miracles wrought at his sepulcher.
XXVI.
Now it happened that a certain pilgrim, coming up unexpectedly at that same hour, The Blessed one frees a pilgrim from toothache, and beholding the holy one being borne away, asked who indeed was the deceased who was being carried. But he had before received knowledge of the blessed Man from confession. Therefore when he heard that he had died, grieving that the solace of the fatherland was withdrawn, and drawing deep sighs: "May God almighty be propitious to you, holy Father," said he, "you were a good man:" and approaching the bier, he anointed his own chin and face with the pall which lay over it. Which being done, he was rid of the toothache which he had brought: and gladly rendered thanks to the divine piety. There assembled therefore the whole household of the church, having their hearts wounded with griefs. Nor is it a wonder. For, bereaved of such a patron, than whom no other had a better. He was buried therefore with so great a lamentation of all, that the magnitude of the grief and tears seemed as though it could not be ended.
XXVII.
[64] But when the monks would not elect lord Eberhard, as they had approved; appearing to Eberhard, he calls him to heaven, and he himself, caring nothing at all about such rejection of him, panted with all desire to follow his Lord and master; and, that this might be done as quickly as possible, begged it with continual prayers and laments at his sepulcher; the blessed Man appeared to him, bidding him to be ready, and, as he had asked, while they were still together, to come to him swiftly. The vision being passed, he began to be sick, and, lying on the pallet on which the Man of the Lord had died, for love of him, being made in ecstasy, he saw on a certain day the holy one of the Lord at the altar of Bl. Peter, as though celebrating Mass; and, leaping up, he began to run, that he might help him. And when he had run as far as the door of the monastery, being asked by those who saw him whither he thus hastened? "Do you not know," said he, "that our Lord is celebrating Mass at the altar of St. Peter? Thither I hasten, that I may help him." Then he was led back to bed, and after a little while withdrawn from this light. Not therefore were the merits of the holy Father hidden from the sons of men: but by the illustrious signs of miracles, thenceforth and for the rest, it is established that they were manifested clearer than light. Some of which, for the glory of God and love of the holy Father himself, are now to be commemorated by me, partly done in my own presence a, partly established with indubitable truth by others who saw them.
XXVIII.
[65] There stayed in the guest-house a certain poor man, by name Luitold, lame for a long time. This man, when for a long time, all supporting him with props b, he had dragged himself, most well known through the cell c, he restores a lame man, on a certain Saturday night it was revealed to him in dreams that at the sepulcher of Bl. Berthold he ought to seek the aid of health. He neglected it, and a second time that same night received the revelation. Then he tells certain persons what he had seen, and began to ask of them what he might offer. Which, placing upon the tomb, and prostrating himself there in prayer, after he had lain for a while wearied with torments, the holy Man's merits assisting, he rose sound; and, leaving his props in the same place, without the support of staves, he went forth from the church. Which ancient props are seen to hang there continually at his holy sepulcher in testimony of the truth.
XXIX.
[66] A certain woman, greatly afflicted with pain of the head, when she had a rather becoming head of hair, he heals a woman's headache, the straits pressing, vows to the Lord and Bl. Berthold the cutting off of those same hairs, if she should attain the escape from her infirmity. Therefore, when she prostrated herself at his holy bones, about to seek and to find aid, the things which she was able to have being offered, she felt the grace, and, her hair being laid down, glad with the gift of health, she returned to her own home.
XXX.
[67] On a certain day, when the peoples of the neighboring parishes visited the Garsten monastery with their wonted devotion with crosses, and he chastises the pride and irreverence of another. and diligently honored the body of the Bl. Man with their offerings and the payment of their vows d, there was present among them one of the foolish women, according to the vain and most wicked custom of this world, studiously clad and bound in tight garments. Who, driven nearer to the holy sepulcher by the multitude, was, by a divine nod, sharply, as an unhappy and unworthy one for such a station, seized. For, standing before the tomb, suddenly, her garments being torn apart, and her silken bands quickly overthrown, she appeared naked before all, and, falling to the pavement, a pall being cast over her, she was carried out of the monastery as though dead: and when they had at length sprinkled her, lying thus long, with holy water, she began to breathe, and after a long delay, her strength for going being scarcely recovered, she departed, not to return further with a like intention. Which matter afterward was a great occasion of discipline to those coming, especially to women, while each feared that it might come to pass for her irreverence, because she remembered the deed of this wretched one.
XXXI.
[68] A certain brother, by name Wolfker, a simple and truthful man, when on a certain day he sat outside at the gate of the monastery, Angels exult at the sepulcher of the Blessed one, the doors being everywhere diligently made fast, and no one being within, as he himself is wont to affirm with many oaths, a wonderful thing appeared to him. For when, sitting thus, he had reclined his head to the door; suddenly a multitude of little boys, running from the sepulcher of the holy Man up to him, with clapping of hands, as it were, celebrated a great gladness. Which when they had done several times; the man, understanding that there was something of a divine secret, and at the same time seized with horror, rose and departed.
XXXII.
[69] On the same day a woman, feeble and bent, lacking the going of her feet for many days, was brought by a conveying carriage from the territory of Hadegersperge, there too a feeble woman recovers her step, and carried into the monastery to the memorial of the holy Man. She asks therefore that a priest be procured for her, and Mass celebrated in honor of Bl. Berthold. Within which Mass, nay before the Gospel was read through, she was healed; and so restored, her limbs being in a short time made firm for walking, that without human support she came to make her offering, and returned from the church to her vehicle. e
XXXIII.
[70] A certain other woman, of an honorable family, and herself honorable enough, if she were not possessed by a demon, many kinsfolk and friends accompanying her at once, another woman possessed by a demon was brought to the sepulcher of the man of God, in hope of consolation. There is present Abbot Gunther, f and we, and very many both of secular men and of spiritual. The crosses and relics were brought from the altar, and, amid benedictions and exorcisms, a litany also was said by us g with the devotion of great intention, that the Lord would deign to free His creature from so miserable a tyranny of the enemy. She began therefore to be vexed beyond measure, and to endure more than usual the most cruel wearyings of the adhering enemy, all grieving and instantly beseeching the Lord for her deliverance.
[71] she is delivered, She was scarcely held by many; and was heard complaining, with this sole voice, that she had come: "Woe, why did I come hither? Woe, why did I come hither?" After she had cried this out innumerable times at the head of the holy sepulcher, the merits of the most pious Patron helping, the enemy departed. And she who before could not be held by many, the enemy deserting her, was by no means able to stand, but at once collapsed, and in the manner
of a cross prostrate before the holy one, giving thanks to God, and to her present Deliverer. The clamor of the peoples, praising together the divine mercy, is raised to the stars. For many were present whom that Lord's Day held occupied about the monastery. Therefore the abbot, who had employed as much diligence as he could in her deliverance, sitting beside the woman, admonished her concerning confession; which being heard, and penance enjoined on her, he dismissed her to her own home with the great joy of many.
XXXIV.
[72] A certain soldier, by name Ludovicus, dwelling beside the water which is called Rubenecke, and an unjust possessor, restitution being made, is healed. had drawn to his own property, by iniquitous domination, a certain estate adjacent to him belonging to the Garsten church: which, when for some while the divine patience had borne with it, and he, as a fool and unwise man, so abused the clemency, being willing by no reasoning to give up what he had invaded, he was struck with paralysis, and cast into long affliction. He did not give up the allodium h, nor did the trouble of the crushing penalty give up him. At length, returned to himself, he was compelled to reflect that it is hard to kick against the goad. Therefore when he was so weakened by the attrition of continual sickness, that he was utterly useless, and had no hope of life, his people advising him, he had himself led to the monastery, and, in the sight of abbot Conrad i and the monks, his guilt being made public, he resigned that same estate upon the relics beside the tomb of Bl. Berthold, asking with weeping that clemency be shown him, in that for so long a time he had presumed to possess by violence the goods of St. Mary k. Therefore, pardon being received from the abbot, from the presence of the Holy Spirit and the connivance of the brothers present, offerings being placed at the memorial of the Man of God with a weighing of himself l, and a little refreshment being taken, he was led back home, and in a short time so bettered, that he obtained the faculty both of walking and of riding.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VIII.
Diverse benefits conferred on those imploring the Blessed one's aid.
XXXV.
A certain man of Zwettel, whose name, although he named himself, does not now occur to me, was for four years oppressed with a grave infirmity; Two men, a vow being uttered, are restored to health; able to dispose nothing of his affairs, nay, not even to rise from his little bed unless helped. When therefore he was miserably straitened, and it now pleased him rather to die than to lead a tormented life; he made a vow to God and Bl. Berthold, that he would visit his sepulcher with all devotion, if in his consolation he should declare his holy merits worthy to be commended. Which when he vowed, the divine piety forthwith was present to the man, bringing the desired consolation, and clemently directing him to the payment of his vow: for he recovered from his infirmity, and, being made strong, he went to the memorial of the blessed Man; and related to the keeper of the church, and to others who were present, what good things the holy one had done for him. Therefore, an offering being placed, he returned, with gladness of heart and exultation, saying: "Wretched was I, and miserable; now I am powerful, and strong."
XXXVI.
[74] A certain soldier in the valley of the Enns a was grievously sick. [but one, neglecting his vow, relapses into sickness, and, repenting, is again healed.] This man, out of desire of health, made a vow to Bl. Berthold. Immediately he obtained health, but, unmindful of his promise, nay forgetful of his faith and of his beneficent Consoler, he lied concerning what he had promised. There followed therefore a worthy vengeance of a relapsing infirmity, convicting the wretch of infidelity: and manifestly setting before his eyes that no one ought to lie to God. The transgressor therefore returned to his heart: and hearing that abbot Gunther b had come to those same parts, he studiously besought him by a messenger to deign to visit him. He confessed therefore his guilt; and again, if he were restored to health, promised that he would most devoutly seek out the memorial of the holy Father. He sent also, by the same father, the coins which he had before promised, earnestly demanding that he would deign clemently to be mindful of his anxiety. The abbot, returned home, placed the offering of the sick man upon the sepulcher of the Man of God, and, expounding the matter to the brothers, admonished them to help the sick man with prayers. After some days the same soldier came, no longer sick, but bettered and whole, and, prostrate, gave thanks to the holy one of God for his fatherly compassion.
XXXVII.
[75] Nor is it to be passed over in silence, what condescension of grace the Man of the Lord showed to the abbot of Kremsmünster, lord Oudalric c, in his infirmity. The Blessed one's nephew, grievously injured in the foot For when still in the Garsten monastery, before he was received as a brother d, he served under the abbot, on a certain day, going out of the refectory, he unexpectedly fell down its steps, not indeed by a high fall, yet a grave and dangerous one, because, his ankle being moved out of its place, he began to be in such grave pain, that he could not depart thence except carried. Which fall a swelling forthwith followed, and denied the man going for many days; but when he failed alike with sorrow and pain, and profited neither by bleedings e nor by medicines toward recovery, he said to himself: "Have not the sick frequently experienced at the sepulcher of my lord and uncle how much he is to be honored, and how much is to be presumed of his holy sweetness? Why therefore do I neglect myself? Why do I not there, like the rest, seek the aid of consolation? Perhaps this too will avail me specially at his mercy, that he is my uncle, that from boyhood, reared in spiritual studies, he was wont to cherish me with a singular and unique piety."
[76] is cured at the tomb of his uncle, Revolving these things with himself, and at once, propped on staves for seeking a suffrage at his holy bones, he tried to go out. Coming therefore to the threshold of the house, and finding it too high for himself, when he lifted his infirm foot, he struck against the very threshold, and again fell, lying in the same place, utterly powerless over himself, until the fathers *, rising from the table, found him lying thus, and carried him back to bed. Afterward, the same threshold being cut down even to the ground, and leveled for the going out of the sick man, he came to the tomb, with difficulty however: and, his foot being placed upon the tomb, when he had prayed briefly, he felt the power of heavenly solace, and, returning thence, and from this beginning to be better, in a short time was restored to walking and the integrity of health.
XXXVIII.
[77] It happened also that a certain woman brought her blind daughter to the monastery on the most sacred day of the Assumption of holy Mary. there too a blind girl And when she would by no means withdraw from the memorial of the holy Father with the same little child, and, little offerings being placed, consolation did not immediately follow, but was somewhat deferred, the woman, fearing herself not heard, and grieving to be deprived of the fruit of her labor, when she now thought to depart: "O," said she, "holy Father, why do you not hear me, wretched, greatly presuming upon your kindness? Why do you permit me to depart, my hope frustrated? With much confidence of your fatherly consolation I came: and behold, full of sorrow, with confusion I return."
[78] As the mother followed on with groaning; the girl took with her hand a candle sent from the sepulcher. is enlightened; And as she asked whether she saw what she held, she answered that she saw well. Presently, taking her in her arms, and running into the choir, with gladness she presented her with immense joy to the lords who were singing the public Mass: "This girl," said she, "my lords, utterly without light, I brought hither; and behold, by the patronage of the holy one of God deserving it, she gladdens my heart with her desirable enlightenment." All rejoice, all exult, being magnificently assured of the power of their patron, namely blessed Berthold, in this illustrious miracle, and because this grace could not lie hidden from the great throng which had assembled for the feast day, being, as it were, exhibited in the presence of all, all returned most joyful to their own homes with this, as it were, desirable fruit of their labor.
XXXIX.
[79] Likewise on the Assumption of the holy Mother of God, another woman came with her daughter, who for nearly two years spoke nothing, to venerate the sepulcher of the blessed Man, a mute woman receives speech, and at the same time to seek the mercy of that most holy Virgin herself. Who, when she had weighed her mute daughter beside the tomb, as is the custom f, and, prayer being poured out, the hearing was somewhat deferred, she carried her also to the principal altar consecrated in honor of our most sacred Lady, and there likewise, having weighed her, left her, as it were for an hour, to await the solace of the heavenly gift. After a little while, the Lord having mercy, and declaring His grace, the girl was consoled; and beginning to speak: "O," said she, "how great is the beauty here, how great the comeliness of the house of God?" Which hearing from nearby, her maternal aunt said to the mother that the girl had spoken. There are present brothers and several others still surviving, not contemptible witnesses of this same miracle. The mother therefore of the young girl, and those who were together present, rendering thanks to the highest piety, returned to their own homes with joy, desirably consoled.
XL.
[80] The roof of the greater church had need of repair, because, dissolved by age, by the inundations
of rains it could not resist. and a workman fallen from a high place is wonderfully preserved. When therefore it was being roofed, a ladder was set up from the lower flooring to the upper roof, by which the tiles were carried up. There among the carriers, the enemy lying in wait, buffoonery found its kindling, one pushing another, and compelling him to run down the ladder. In which running down, one of them fell from the ladder onto the flooring, and, it being broken through, down onto the bare pavement, so horribly that, the fall being heard by the monks, they ran from the cloister into the choir, and carried out the wretch, now turned into blackness and beset with swellings, fearing lest he should expire between their hands. And when the enormity of the fall was so great that it seemed a great wonder that death did not immediately follow; he yet lives unharmed to this day, so that he both rejoices in the soundness of all his limbs, and altogether lacks any signs of so dreadful a ruin. To what is this to be ascribed, save to the exalted and unthinkable piety of the Mother of God, watching over us, and unable to neglect the life and salvation of those serving her? For, falling before her most sacred altar, being her servant, and in that very service, he deservedly felt the grace of protection, aided doubtless also by the merits of her blessed Chaplain buried in the same monastery, and manifoldly declaring the power of his virtue g.
ANNOTATIONS.
OTHER MIRACLES
Added little by little to the former lucubration by various anonymous authors.
Taken from the Salzburg and Leipzig editions.
Berthold, abbot of Garsten, in Upper Austria (Blessed).
BHL Number: 1275, 1276, 1277, 1278, 1279, 1280, 1281, 1282
FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.
XLI.
There was at Wolvaren a certain free peasant man, Rudolph by name, A mad peasant who was seized with such madness, that his kinsmen guarded the wife and children of the aforesaid peasant, lest they should be slain by him. This man, laboring day and night through the steeps of the mountains, through the hollows and byways of the woods, did not rest, save where weariness of body compelled him to rest. Now it happened that this man on a certain night remained with the servants of lord Marquard, worthy of the memory of all good men, then abbot of the Gleink monastery, but afterward received as father into Garsten, who were keeping the watches of the night over the horses of the aforesaid father. Which servants, on account of the terrors of the night and the madman likewise dwelling with them, drew around themselves a boundary in the manner of a crown; which boundary they more diligently signed with the sign of the holy Cross.
[82] And behold, in the dead of night most foul dogs came, after various and gave great barkings into the signed place; but by no means presumed to transgress the boundary. But as the servants beheld these things, and awaited the end of the matter, that man, leaping from among them, transgressed the signed circle, and was infested by those same assemblages of infernal dogs, in the manner of a hare or other wild beast. This infestation they heard as far as the length of the land permitted them to hear. And so on the following day, the cellarer b of the aforesaid Gleink monastery, for the sake of the care committed to him, went out of the cloister at earliest dawn; he found the madman himself before the doors, and a tree of a thorn of tall stature, which that madman had carried with him: "O lord cellarer, mount this horse: for it is fit for all gentleness." Again he said: "How many untamed horses have I guarded this night? If it please you, I will give you two; but no one may know this, save us." Which gift the cellarer refused, and bade him go and dine. For all feared his madness; and therefore all repelled him. But he, though mad, yet compelled by the necessity of the body, approached the father, as all the needy, so he too, without intermission.
[83] The same madman again, one night, entered into the house of a certain citizen of that region, wiles of demons endured, and sat quietly with him for a time. But the lord of the house being laid down c, and his household laid down for the sake of sleep; the aforesaid madman entered the stove-room, kindled a copious fire before the oven. In that stove-room several men had laid themselves; and, beholding his acts, they marveled, and feared. But when a small time of the night had passed, and he sat over against the fire; suddenly a certain one entered the house on horseback, dusky of body; having on his head a cap divided into two parts; one part black, and the second part red. With whom also a multitude of sheep came, so that they filled both the house and every dwelling-place. And, a soft whisper being given into the ears of the aforesaid wretch, he went out. After which that man, rising, full of fury, casting those men from their couches, and taking their bedding, put it in the fire. Which being done, all cried out together. By which cry the lord of the house, awakened, leaping from his bed, ran to him, saying: "What is it, lord Rudolph? What do you do?" "You had a great complaint that you were without sheep; why did you not take these sheep, which had filled all your dwelling?" And this being said, he withdrew from him more swiftly. And that phantasm followed him.
[84] Now it happened that the same Rudolph came on a certain day to his house; and many signs of madness exhibited, and found it deserted, and nothing except only the boy, of whom he himself was the father. Whom, seizing, he put into an enclosure then fitting for him. But that enclosure and the doors of the house and himself within the house he shut fast with firm bolts. Which when the inhabitants of that place had learned, they ran up as quickly as possible, and hastened to open the doors of the house, and to snatch the boy from his hands, but they could not, the lock and the madman himself resisting. At length they climbed onto the house, and broke the roof; and thus, lowering to the ground with a ladder, they open the doors, enter the house, and, looking about hither and thither, they did not see the boy. Presently they asked him: Where is the boy? He answered them not a word. Again and again they asked him, where he was? The boy, placed in hiding, gave deep sighs with weeping. Which when they had heard and understood that he still lived, approaching, they took him from the place in which he was hidden. Which being done, approaching again, they asked him: "What did you wish to do with your son? But he said to them: I desired to offer him in sacrifice." But they: "Cursed be your sacrifice made in such a manner." For such a custom was in him, that wherever he had come to sacred places, prayer being made there, he offered whatever he could have.
[85] at length by the merits of Bl. Berthold he returns to his mind. But these things are written to the glory and praise of the name of God, whose care is of all; how He freed the aforementioned boy from the peril of death, and guarded this man from parricide and homicide at once, and from how great miseries He afterward saved him. But the aforesaid Rudolph, as I said above, often approached the thresholds of the Saints: but by no means received health: not that God almighty, who disposes all things mercifully and wonderfully, denies anything to His elect; but that it might be more manifestly given to understand that He had reserved him to be cured by His beloved Bl. Berthold. And so on a certain day, coming from Salzburg to the sepulcher of the blessed Man, he prayed, and, prayer being made, he sought with himself what he might offer, but found nothing: at length, his shoes with his hose being taken off, he offered them to God and Bl. Berthold: whose merits assisting, he was at once restored to health.
XLII.
[86] A woman admonished in sleep obtains health, In the time of Hadmar d, the venerable abbot, about the year of the Lord 1205 e, in the presence of many, at the working of Bl. Berthold's prayer, we saw a miracle worthy to be commended to memory. In the territory of Admont there was a certain woman, who, several years having flowed by, was held by so great an infirmity of the head and of the whole body, that, destitute of strength, she was utterly deprived of the office of her feet. But on a certain night, when the aforesaid woman, whom the anguish of excessive pain had long rendered sleepless, was being refreshed by the benefit of a little sleep, a voice thus addresses her, as she supposed herself to be lying in a green and flowery meadow: "Come now, break off delay: propped by the staff lying near at hand, turn your step to Garsten; and there, prostrate at the tomb of holy Berthold, you shall implore aid: despair not of being healed; his prayer assisting, you shall spring back sound: and if you neglect to obey these admonitions, you shall doubtless consume your days in this pain." The voice therefore being heard, the woman, awakened, is astounded. What she should do she revolves within herself many times over; she proposes to inquire where Garste is, who the holy one is, whose name or fame of sanctity had not hitherto reached her ears. At length, made cheerful by the promised health, she does not refuse to comply with the exhortation of the voice. She vows presently to visit the holy one's sepulcher. And so, the vow being made, that she might give surer faith to the promise, she felt the soles of her feet partly made firm, and recognizes that she is somewhat relieved from her infirmity. Therefore, the relief of her infirmity being perceived, she at once takes the road, and, leaning on her staff, arrives at Garsten, and, having entered the church, at the sepulcher of the holy Man pours herself wholly into prayer. But God, looking upon the prayer of the humble, and not permitting the hope which the poor woman had placed in His holy Berthold to be made void, granted her to return home whole, and as though she had never been struck by the trouble of any infirmity, at the prayer of His Confessor, giving to those ignorant of the matter a token of her recovered soundness by her hair cut off there and her tresses suspended.
XLIII.
[87] Another miracle indeed, which it is not lawful to pass over in silence, and a girl brought to the sepulcher shone forth evidently at the sepulcher of St. Berthold, a great throng of the people being present. A demon, by a cunning and fraudulent deception, drawing the soul into an affection for malice through the thoughts and incitements of the vices, of which it is full, into a certain girl of the district of Hall f,
instilled the force of its malice. And so the girl, bereft of her senses, deprived of the benefit of a well-disposed mind, was led about by her father and very many kinsfolk to the churches of the province, labor being spent in vain. The demon indeed, as though glad at the frustration of their labor, and not silent about its own loss, spoke thus through the possessed girl: "Fools, why do you wash a brick? Why do you beat the air? This is my possession, as long as I am not compelled to be driven out by Berthold of Garsten." Which being heard, those in charge of the girl busy themselves to come to Garsten; and there, tarrying three days in prayers g, they awaited solace from Bl. Berthold.
[88] But on the fourth day, despairing of obtaining grace from the holy Man, she is snatched from the demon's power. they intend to lead the girl back. But since on that very day the dedication of the church was to be celebrated, until the offices of so great a festivity should be performed, they delay their return. When therefore the Introit had been begun, "Terrible is this place," the possessed girl, compelled to lie beside the sepulcher of the holy Man, gave forth horror-bringing wailings and cries. And while the holy Gospel was being read, the demon, unaccustomed to hear such holy words, cries out horribly, and, feeling its extermination to be near at hand, through the possessed girl loosed its mouth in such words: "I still inhabit my dwelling: but by the prevailing prayer of Berthold, forthwith, though unwilling, I will make my departure." What more? Within the Canon, the demon being put to flight, the girl, made mistress of a sound mind, ceased not to magnify God in His holy Berthold. But the girl's father, to whom the long madness had annulled the hope that she should recover her senses h, rejoicing greatly [ob] at the outcome of the desired thing, made his daughter, freed from the spirit of blasphemy, a tributary i of the church of Garsten. For the girl, taking care in future not to relapse, cheerful and devout, has hitherto not omitted to bring the promised tribute yearly k.
XLIV.
[89] When the venerable lord Reinbert l presided over the Garsten place with the abbatial dignity, A certain weaver, violating the feast of Bl. Berthold a wonderful sign shone forth before our eyes to the declaration of the sanctity of the man of God St. Berthold. Lest therefore the miracle of so virtuous a sanctity, like a grain crushed by chaff, remain extinguished unless it be sought out, the smallness of my poor wit determines to unfold that same thing. Therefore, when now, the circle of the year being revolved, the memorable day of his deposition offered itself to be celebrated, as is the custom, by the brothers serving God in the aforenoted place, it happened that a certain parishioner m of that church sat at the weaving work by which he was wont to work out for himself the sustenance of daily food, and did not show worthy veneration to the holy Man, as befits him; whence it came to pass that, when he now was beginning the aforesaid work, and wished to insert the weft into the warp, his left hand began to be constricted to the marrow through all the joinings of its junctures, and to be held with the great trouble of pain. Who, immediately returning to himself, revolved to the depth of his soul that by a presumption of this kind, by which he had profaned the celebrity of the memory of the holy Father, he had provoked upon himself the judgment of divine vengeance, and thenceforth knew himself to be restrained by the heaviness of so great a defect.
[90] Nor was there delay; with all speed he comes to the Garsten monastery, and, falling down a little, is prostrated before the tomb of the blessed Man, [is punished, and, repenting of the deed, is healed at the tomb of the Blessed one,] with copious weeping and simple prayer seeking the aid of the divine piety. Who, long before the solemnities of the Masses pouring out prayers without intermission to the Lord, when now the words of the Holy Gospel had been completed, while I, together with the brothers dwelling there, and the other throngs of the peoples who had come for the veneration of St. Berthold, looked on n, God almighty and merciful, who despises not the groaning of the afflicted, and spurns not the affections of the mourning, to show the miracle of His power, and to exhibit greater glorification to His Priest, freed the aforementioned man from the mass of his pain, and his hand received the benefit of its former health o.
XLV.
[91] which happened also to a peasant Likewise in the year of the Lord 1248, on the 6th of the Kalends of August (July 27), that is, on the day of Bl. Berthold, a similar miracle happened, but more famous, because things like themselves are more lovely. A certain peasant dwelling on the mountain Zanberg went out early from the town of the monastery on the day above said, to cut flax in the wood there: who forthwith was bent double, with both hands held fast by the axe: at length the neighbors coming, condoling with the wretch, on the same day, with great lamentation, led him to the Garsten monastery, where no small throng of the people had assembled for the praise and glory of the blessed Man, leading * him to his tomb. There is made a cry and great weeping, both by the brothers and also by the seculars, all earnestly, both laity and confrères, beseeching the clemency of God, that God, by the merits of the Man of God, would clemently free the afflicted one from the pain of his hands. But when very many approached, who tried to take the axe from his hands, that poor man answered, with intense cries, that he was the more tormented. After this, a suitable interval, through the prayers of the brothers and of the faithful there present, the wretch is loosed from the pain of his hands; the axe, all seeing it, falling to the ground, which in the monument, in testimony of the Man of God, was hung around his sepulcher, columns being erected and a vault supporting it.
XLVI.
[92] In the year one thousand three hundred and nine, on the 6th of the Kalends of August (July 27), in the parish of Molln [p] belonging to the church of Garsten, in the offering of spiritual gifts and in the paying of tithes, a grave vengeance, which I am about to tell, happened wonderfully to that same parish. and to certain others. For, the sun shining more clearly, and men frequently laboring in the fields, in a short time there followed a very great storm of hail, so much so that the storms and hail totally uprooted all that parish, nor did any harm seem to threaten the other surrounding parishes. Which being done, on the following Lord's Day, the parishioners assembling in the church, vowing to God and blessed Berthold to offer him a wax candle to his tomb, to burn during the time that the divine offices should be performed, which candle, moreover, they piously wished to renew every year, that it should not fail. Which parishioners, coming within the octave of that same harm with the cross and the solemnity of chant, to the Garsten monastery, on bended knees, and prayers being poured out, offering a wax candle to God and Bl. Berthold, to remain perpetually about his sepulcher: they also proclaimed that they wished his day to be observed with all their efforts, free from every work. But this harm has not happened again to this parish up to the present day.
XLVII.
[93] Likewise in the year one thousand three hundred and twenty-five, a certain Friar Minor, by name Otto of Sturenbergh, was a terminarius [q] in the city of Steyr [r] and in its confines for more than ten years: a hearing is restored to a deaf Minorite, it happened that he was struck with the plague of deafness to such a degree for many days, that he could in no way perceive with his ears either the voices of those speaking with him, or the sound of the greatest bells; who, going into the church of Steyr, sad and grieving, and both men and women approaching him, wishing to bewail their sins, made signs to him with their hands, but suffered a repulse. He, making a vow to God and Bl. Berthold within himself, and coming to the tomb of the Man of God with tears and prayer, there, his vow being promised, that as long a time as by the grace of God he should live, he would not cease to pay it. * Whom the divine clemency, by the merits of His servant the blessed Father Berthold, restored to his former health, conferring fully the use of hearing [s].
[94] Likewise in the year of the Lord 1345, there came abbot Siegfried of St. Benedict, of the diocese of Esztergom in Hungary, from the court of Avignon, and the Legend of Bl. Berthold is carried into Hungary. making a stay, on account of weariness, in the Garsten place for two nights. Who, seeing and reading the Acts of the blessed man Perchtold, asked with the utmost humility from the brothers of that place that the aforesaid Legend be copied out for him: because the lord abbot Michael, on account of external affairs, was not at hand. At length, lord Siegfried, abbot of St. Benedict of the diocese of Esztergom, withdrawing from the Garsten place, then immediately lord abbot Michael came up to his monastery of Garsten. Hearing from the brothers that the venerable father lord abbot Siegfried had asked for the Legend of the blessed man Perchtold to be transcribed; he, with hurried course, sent him the Legend, the journey passing not far from the monastery: which the venerable father lord Siegfried, receiving with great reverence, said that he would carry it to his monastery, and there keep it above gold and topaz, to be read again perpetually [t].
[95] Moreover, what and how great signs and powers God has wrought in His beloved chaplain blessed Perchtold from the writing of his Legend up to the present day, two volumes of greater size, God being witness and our consciences, could not contain in full. But these things are written, that to those believing and piously venerating him, salvation of soul and honor of body may happily deserve to increase here and in the eternal life: our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, world without end. Amen [v].