ON THE HOLY MARTYRS
GEORGE THE DEACON, AURELIUS, FELIX, NATALIA, OTHERWISE SABIGOTHO, AND LILIOSA,
AT CORDOVA IN SPAIN.
In the year 752.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The order of the Saints, the day of their death, the cult, the Acts, and the translation of SS. George and Aurelius.
George, deacon, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (St.) Aurelius, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (St.) Felix, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (St.) Natalia, otherwise Sabigotho, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (St.) Liliosa, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
This glorious band of Martyrs, together with so many other Cordovans, we owe to their incomparable vindicator and encomiast St. Eulogius, The order of the Martyrs transposed by Usuard, who pursued their contests in book 2, chapter 10, of that excellent Memorial, from which alone so many most valiant champions of Christ became known. There he himself had arranged them in this order, forming the title of the said chapter thus: On the holy martyrs Aurelius, Felix, George, Sabigotho, and Liliosa; namely according to the series of his history, where certainly Aurelius holds the first place by his deeds and virtues plainly heroic, with his wife Sabigotho, herself a most choice and most holy woman; then Felix, having come back to himself from some lapse, with Liliosa likewise his wife: finally George, a monk, a stranger from Palestine, whom without doubt, because he was a deacon, Usuard thought must be preferred to the rest, setting men also before women, being surely the first and only, among the classic Martyrologists, to praise these Saints, to whom the things which we noted cursorily in an observation elsewhere, we shall here a little more fully deduce below from the narration of the translation of SS. George and Aurelius, in Mabillon in the Benedictine Acts, after the Acts of the Saints themselves.
[2] as also the birthday wrongly marked; Some things must here be explained, and first of all the day on which the most holy Champions completed their contest, marked by the praised Usuard on the 6th of the Kalends of September, contrary to what Eulogius most expressly wrote, the 6th of the Kalends of August, as Surius too read in his edition. That the Martyrologist likewise transposed the order is plain, when he announces thus: On the same day, the birthday of SS. George the deacon, Aurelius, Felix, Nathalia, and Liliosa, of whom the first, a monk of wondrous abstinence, coming from Jerusalem to Cordova, with the rest sprung of a noble stock from the same city, deserved to attain the long-desired martyrdom, foreshown to him by the Lord. Taking these things over, the bishop of Equilio in his Catalogue of the Saints not only noted the same day of the passion, but far worse ascribed everything to the Viennese Martyrologist, who neither knew these Martyrs nor anywhere reported them. These things, says he, Ado has in his Martyrology, whence also to our Andreas Schott, scholiast of St. Eulogius, occasion for erring was given, when he thought that the holy Archbishop had read these books of the divine Eulogius; where everything must altogether be referred to Usuard alone, who journeyed even to Cordova to collect the bodies of the Saints.
[3] Of these Martyrs Galesinius deserved not ill, as Galesinius rightly observed, placing them both on this day and on the 27th of August, and adorning them in each place with different eulogies, of which that one pleases which he has on the 6th of the Kalends of September, the order and propriety of St. Eulogius being kept in the names, in these very words: At Cordova in Spain, of the holy martyrs Aurelius, Felix, George, Sabigotho, and Liliosa. These, in the Arabic persecution, contending most fiercely for the testimony and faith of Jesus Christ, preferred nothing to His love, not parents, not kindred, not relations, not friends, not villages, not goods, not estates; but, all these being cast away, through martyrdom they attain to eternal glory. To these he also rightly observes on this day: Concerning them St. Eulogius writes very copiously and piously … Their birthday … Equilinus and Usuard ascribe to the 6th of the Kalends of September, and we likewise, following them, wrote of them more copiously on that day than on this. But if we hear Eulogius, whom, as a spectator of their martyrdom, we ought to follow, neither they nor we rightly assign the day and month to their martyrdom. And as for the fact that Surius and Usuard name Natalia, not Sabigotho, as the wife of St. Aurelius, this, like many other things, is far different from the narration of St. Eulogius, as Ambrosius Monalius rightly notes—he meant to say Morales, whom, if you please, you may see in the Chronicle, tome 3, book 14, chapter 13: for us it is enough to exhibit the fountain.
[4] Neither the order of St. Eulogius nor the names did Baronius keep, whom, however, Baronius did not here follow. when he wrote thus: At Cordova in Spain, of the holy martyrs George the deacon, Felix, Aurelius, Natalia, and Liliosa, in the Arabic persecution. Rightly indeed, in setting St. George the monk before the rest, inasmuch as he was a deacon, he followed Usuard; but why he preferred St. Felix to St. Aurelius, the standard-bearer of the whole cohort, I do not at all understand. The name Natalia pleased him too more than that of Sabigotho, which nevertheless Galesinius had judged must be more scrupulously kept according to the mind of St. Eulogius. Baronius does not greatly differ from Galesinius himself in his annotations, observing, besides the things already said, that the holy Martyrs suffered in the era 890, but in the year from the birth of Christ 852, where you see that the rule so often handed down must be kept, of subtracting thirty-eight years. There the same Eulogius, he says, recites the epistle of George to all the Christians dwelling in Spain, by which he strengthened them to undergo martyrdom. Its beginning is: Know, O most dear brothers, my entrance into Spain, etc. This namely is inserted into the Eulogian history of the holy Martyrs, which you will find in this our edition, number 31.
[5] Further, no doubt can arise concerning the complete sincerity of the Acts, The Acts are most excellent, the whole history breathes truth, inflaming even torpid minds to Christian virtues, nay to perfection, with examples surely worthy of the primitive Church, so that narrations of this kind by their simplicity more convince the understanding and nourish the mind than so many other Acts polished and adorned in the metaphrastic manner, from which for the most part, by I know not what means, those are compelled to shrink who are accustomed to unfolding and meditating the genuine and original deeds of the holy Martyrs. These surely, and those which Theodoric Ruinart published, and which he had found approved in our work, some recent Odoacer Ilbachius ought to have proposed to himself as just examples, who, with precipitate judgment and disturbed mind, defines many things wrongly, and wretchedly criticizes Acts, whose worth he most manifestly shows himself scarcely to have tasted with his first lips. Nor can the style of the holy Hagiographer displease, although sometimes rough, or too free in coining words: his oration, elegant for that age, certainly penetrates to the inmost parts, so kindled with zeal and a fervid apostolic spirit, rather than with rhetorical allurements, that it knows how to draw tears even from the unwilling. But of the excellent merits of St. Eulogius enough has been said by us elsewhere.
[6] to which is added the history of the translation of the two first. To the Acts themselves there had altogether to be subjoined the history of the translation of the two chief champions in this band, namely the holy George and Aurelius, and of the head of the holy Sabigotho or Natalia; which most precious relics the often-praised-by-us Usuard, monk of Saint-Germain, brought from Cordova into France, having set out into Spain with his companion Odilard to obtain the body of St. Vincent the martyr, as the monk Aimoin, writer of the whole history, narrates at length, inserted by Mabillon into part 2 of the fourth century of the Acts of the Order of St. Benedict from page 45, where he asserts that the festivity of the same translation is recalled on the 20th day of October. But for the rest, since in his preliminary observations he abundantly explains everything pertaining to it, and gives the whole text of Aimoin, which we have indeed in manuscript, but plainly mutilated, we have not thought it necessary to set forth more here. Have here, then, now the whole narration of St. Eulogius itself, from the well-known edition of our Andreas Schott, but in our manner dissected and divided into its chapters, all those things being passed over which, transcribed among us from various codices, were found to differ very much from the genuine text, so that accordingly we would scarcely have dared to cite them.
HISTORY
of the Life of each, and of their Passion. From the Memorial of the Saints of St. Eulogius, book 2, chapter 10.
BHL Number: 3407
From St. Eulogius
CHAPTER I.
St. Aurelius, excelling in virtues from boyhood, joined in matrimony to St. Sabigotho, is wondrously kindled by the examples of the Martyrs; and, she of her own accord consenting, is separated from her bed.
St. Aurelius secretly instructed in the Christian faith There was, besides, a certain young man, by name Aurelius, excelling in birth and in very many possessions. This one, in infancy deprived of a Christian mother and a gentile father, was most faithfully cherished under the guardianship of his aunt down to the years of adolescence, and was taught to believe truly that Christ is God: and he is imbued with the belief that outside the Church the way of salvation and the road of the heavenly kingdom cannot be found elsewhere. Which teaching the venerable boy thoroughly drank in, so that although he was handed over to be educated in Arabic literature, his kinsmen compelling it: yet no fictions of vanity could alter in his innocent mind the knowledge of the holy faith fixed from heaven: but ever retaining his Christianity in his heart, when he applied himself to the meditation of the perishing letters only for derision, he burned the more into love of the Christian faith, the more clearly he, proving the ravings of the perverse dogma, perceived the subtle deceit of that demoniac a man. And since he could not publicly practice the worship of the faith, yet everywhere commending himself to the priests of God, he asked that prayer be made more efficaciously for him.
[2] Meanwhile the vigorous youth advances in his youthful years, and, his cheeks blooming, his face is adorned with manly comeliness. he makes wondrous progress, and is destined for a worthy bride: Hence, at the exhortation of his kinsmen, he is compelled to seek a marriage worthy of his nobility. Hence each of his people, as best he knew, asserted that the offspring of this or that one was excellent: but he, inwardly ruminating otherwise, committed the affair of his marriage to Christ, entreating the heavenly Deity by frequent interposition of prayers, that a wife might be given him excelling in such vows, one who would strive to advance his secret for the better, and would favor with mind and body the hidden worshiper b. Aided at last by whose favor, he found a virgin surrounded with honorable stock, renowned in possessions, adorned in morals, and most beautiful in appearance. Who, although she was adorned outwardly with a special habit of loveliness, yet shone forth more excellently within with spiritual beauty. Because all the glory of the king's daughter is from within; that is, in the inner chambers of the mind. For there, in holiness, in golden fringes, clothed namely with the variety of virtues, she rendered service pleasing to Christ the King.
[3] For this girl, born of pagan parents, while still lying in the cradle, was deprived of her father. who also had been religiously brought up. Whose mother, marrying another man, who secretly retained the faith of Christ, rooting out her husband's error of impiety c, strove to assign her stepdaughter to Christ, and calling her from the Sacrament of baptism Sabigotho d; although publicly they mingled with the pagans, yet both bore in a firmer mind the religion of piety. This girl the venerable youth taking to himself by the right of conjugality, the ceremonies of espousal completed, and the pledge of earnest given, and the lawful mutual exhibition to each other delivered, at last they are consecrated by the ministry of priests according to custom, and thus, bearing the faith of Christ secretly for some time in equal partnership, they did not reveal the secret of their faith to all, being weighed down by the infirmity of the flesh, not indeed by any diminution of their vow.
[4] Now there was a certain man, near in kindred to blessed Aurelius, Thus also Felix was joined to Liliosa. by name Felix, moreover bound to him by holy affection, who, by the occasion of the devil wavering in the faith, when afterward he more deeply sighed over the lapse of his prevarication, could no longer practice the religion of Christ in open intercourse. He too, marrying the daughter of secret Christians, by name Liliosa, worshiped Christ more secretly in hidden places. Wherefore, adhering to each other inseparably, they always had one familiarity, bore the same sweetness, and, separating themselves neither in prosperous nor in adverse chances, the same affection remained in them: and so great a necessity of piety conferred on both brothers the perfection of charity, that they were divided neither in life nor in death, whom a like occasion of religion had gathered together, of whom it may deservedly be told: The holy, the lovely, and the comely, as in their life they loved one another, so in death they were not divided.
[5] By the passions of John and other Martyrs After not many years, then, had passed, it happened that on that day the venerable Aurelius went out to the market-place, on which that John e (whom we mentioned in the former book), for hatred of the name of Christ bloodied with blows even to death, carried backward on an ass, and constrained by the immense weight of chains, so that the straw f of the beast reclined on the side on which his legs hung; with their heralds going before, was dragged through the whole city, circling it about, by the service of officers, for the spectacle of the crowd. And when on this side and that the voices of those reproaching resounded, saying that he had by no means yet paid the penalty worthy of his crime, inasmuch as it was rather fitting that he, not fearing to attack with derision a prophet of such reverence, should be punished with the most shameful death: forthwith the future warrior, pricked with love of martyrdom, is in a certain manner breathed upon by a heavenly breath, so that he believed that spectacle to be made for himself, and that it was shown to him for the sake of admonition, namely that he ought not to fear those who slaughter bodies, since they can bring no anxiety to souls, but should rather greatly fear Him who can destroy body and soul, and send into hell.
[6] Aurelius, wondrously animated, Admiring the stability of his faith, he said: Truly, upon an angelic rock is the tabernacle of this man's belief founded, which so great a force of torments has not overthrown, nor the breeze of transient punishments shaken. But if he who bears the standard of Christ with open aspect endured so many grievous torments in zeal for the Redeemer, when surely he could have escaped the disaster of that punishment by prevaricating: and, judging the loss of his flesh better than the destruction of his soul, did not suffer himself to be drawn away from the religion of Christ under the space of a single word: with what reproaches shall I believe myself worthy to be instructed, or to what punishment ought I to deliver myself to be tried, that I may receive the vigor of that condemned man whom today I have beheld, and enjoy his constancy?
[7] he spurs himself on to perfection, When, the sighs of his heavenly vocation now increasing, he had begun to ruminate these things in his mind, returning home he reported to his pious partner all that he had seen, and with joyful spirit adds: You, sweetest wife, always, when I was living to myself and was dead to God, sedulously exhorting me, drew me to confession: you urged me daily, striving to tear me away from the pleasures of the world: you preferred the felicity of the eternal kingdom to the dark affections of the world, you persuaded me to leave all things transient, and all that is limited by an end: you preached the monks, you praised those renouncing the world; and, delighting in the conduct of religious women, you often sighed after the life of the Saints. But I, not yet purified by the compunction of heavenly grace, could not at all acquiesce in the salutary exhortations, or, perhaps not yet pressing on to the admonition of my correction predetermined by God the Father, deferred to carry out in works what, though feebly, I meditated in mind.
[8] exhorting his wife to the same; Behold now, most dear one, the acceptable time has come: the days of salvation are at hand, in which, springing back from things past and outward, let us extend ourselves to that which is before. And first of all, more perfectly zealous for purity and continence, let us give ourselves to prayer, that we may the more easily hasten to the rest by the industry of holiness. Let her now become a sister who was a wife: in the affection of a sisterly bond let the bed of our union pass away: let the offspring of souls increase: let the generation of spiritual things grow up, and, the muddy gluing of the members being spurned, let the mind know how more excellently (the delight of the flesh being removed) to bring forth the shoots of perpetual soundness. That in whatever way we may be held worthy of the reward of a fitting martyrdom by the meditation of such labors.
[9] The venerable woman receives with joyful mind the pious counsel of her husband, and rejoicing manifoldly at the suddenness of the unhoped-for salvation; but she, moved by the same spirit This (she said) is the change of the right hand of the Most High, these are now the auspices of our vocation: these are the dealings of the eternal King which I always desired: that, dying to the flesh, we may live in the spirit, that we may the more easily be united to Him of whom it is written: God is a Spirit, and those who adore Him must adore Him in Spirit and in truth. Wherefore, my lord, since this has been revealed to you not by man, but the heavenly Father, having long ago inscribed you for the eternal warfare, now wishes you to hasten with quickened steps, let us be loosed from all chains, let us be shaken from the dust, let us rise in desire of the everlasting life.
[10] There is made, therefore, a common assent of both in the service of God, she consents to the separation of the bed and all pious things. they are divided into separate beds, they are reconciled in their vows. The supports of their little beds gleam with the variety of garments and colors, by which they might hide their manner of life from the crowd. But they, in the inner corners of the tabernacle, lay apart on a bed built up over rough brick, furnished only with rough hair-cloths. They fasted often: without intermission they prayed, and whatever psalms they knew, they meditated by night. They conquered the chaos of darkness by the labor of vigils interposed, and by such pursuits they overcame every deceit of the demons. They ministered to the needy: they wholly bore the care of the poor. And since the aforesaid John was still detained in prison, we too, brought out from our cave, were detained in these chains: both virgins also, namely Maria and Flora g, then dwelt for the sake of the faith in the hiding-places h of the women: there was frequent running of theirs toward the fettered, from that time namely in which blessed Isaac i the monk, or the other Saints, who, about to confess the things which are true to princes and judges, had stood forth with a tongue endowed with the proclamation of truth, and had died for the same truth. By whose enduring constancy, and manifold strength of virtues, the powers of these were increased. For he, going about among the men, k she sought out the women kept in their cloisters.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Both, well taught by St. Eulogius, strive toward all-round perfection; and, the holy wife being refreshed by a vision, all things being renounced, they breathe nothing but martyrdom, the care of their two daughters being left to others.
Brought to the knowledge of St. Eulogius the captive There I recognized him: there I obtained his friendship, and there he entreats to be instructed by us what ought to be done both concerning his affairs and concerning the twin pledge which, by God's gift, he had received. Whether it were lawful to abandon such little ones, whom surely, after his death, he deeply grieved would have to be handed over to a profane rite: or whether it were fitting to leave that abundance of riches, to be at once heaped up for the treasury, in disorder. To whom, when I judged that all things, with a view to the heavenly kingdom and for the sake of eternal recompense, must not only be left but even fled from, and that provision must especially be made for the advantages of their own souls rather than of their children, to whom surely Christ is vindicator, father, and guardian, and that absolutely nothing of temporal things ought to be preferred to the desire of the Redeemer, or to the enjoyment of the fellowship of the Saints
I should teach, I immediately subjoined: If provident facility is at hand, by which all these things may be ordered, discretion being the guiding mistress; we judge it useful, first, that the offspring be transferred to a safer place, where they may be more freely assigned to Christ: and also that your goods, sold according to the Lord's command, be given to the poor, that thereafter a more unencumbered entrance may lie open to you after Christ. So finally the holy Truth to the young man inquiring how he might possess eternal life: If you will (He said) be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come follow me, and you shall have treasure in heaven.
[12] in the principles of Christian perfection But even if some part be left for the maintenance of the infants, it cannot be culpable, which many teachings of the fathers intimate. And therefore if you can attain to this arrangement, it is a most excellent thing and a more perfect work: which will compel you, all business being dispatched, to go more securely to the warfare of heaven. But if, through the barking bars of certain difficulties, this arrangement is torn away, and there is no liberty by which these things may be most indulgently supplied (especially since you rather fear that from some quarter disturbances may emerge which would resist your intention), one must not delay to spurn the patrimony, which is found much better and more amply in heaven, whither you strive to go. The affection of daughters is not to be preferred to the fellowship of the Saints, since God can nourish them too in the world, who compacted them in the womb, since He has provident care of all things. Not all little ones are cherished by the industry of parents, nor are all offspring brought up by nursing labor. A man is born, is deprived in the cradle of the solace of a father, yet is not left destitute of the governance of the Creator, who is the father of orphans, and the judge of widows.
[13] O how many little ones, more daintily brought up by the care of nurses, thus both are instructed, come to worse things! How many more wards grow up from horrible poverty into the affluence of great riches, and become the masters of many things, who were scarcely reared on the poorest bread? Many born of Christians, a lapse hindering, are deprived of membership in the Church. And some sons of pagans, the grace of the Lord going before, run back to the redemption of the saving faith. Neither does the sacrilege of parents harm these, nor does the religiousness of the begetters profit those. Since both these, departing from the faith, are estranged from God; and those, believing in Christ (through whom they are bidden to live), are snatched from the devil, cleaving perpetually to God. Of which thing the Lord is witness, who in the Gospel, rebuking the insolent vanity of the Jews, says: Broods of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Do therefore fruits worthy of penitence, and do not wish to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father: for I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise up sons to Abraham. And again: Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth.
[14] The venerable youth, therefore, instructed how he might meditate the process of the martyrial battle, so that they long to be joined to the fettered. imploring that he be comforted by the prayers of the fettered, departed in peace with a more joyful mind. And though we often did not cease to visit the same, as long as those horrible enclosures of the prisons held them: yet frequently the most prudent Sabigotho by night dwelt in that hiding-place of the women, in which the most sacred virgins Flora and Maria were detained, as though one of the fettered, that she might either console the contenders, or commend herself to the affection of the contenders. Nay rather that she might be imbued with the practices a of fighting for Christ the King, and might have the custom of doing battle. She pressed with prayers, she labored with entreaties, that they would be mindful of her, when after the triumph they had attained the fellowship of the Bridegroom, that at least by shed blood she might deserve to enter heaven. The holy virgins immediately give assurance of granting this benefit, who knew that their own prayers were in no way resisted b after victory, nor could they deny anything to their fellow-soldiers, who did not doubt that they were heard.
[15] While therefore the handmaid of the Lord Sabigotho, next after the martyrdom of the virgins, At this Sabigotho within her domestic walls, less suspected, paid her service to Christ, and, consulting her body wearied by the exercise of vigils, had rested a little, they relate that both virgins, namely Maria and Flora, clothed in snowy robes, bearing in their hands handfuls of various privet-flowers, with a choir of Saints carrying vials in their palms (in which, as I think, they bore into the sight of the Lord the prayers of those who had come to be instructed for the battle), all shining with the brightness of heavenly luminaries, stood by her in a dream.
[16] When she, as she thought, desired with most humble supplication to be reclined by them on seats c, refreshed by a vision of SS. Maria and Flora terrified by the majesty of the heaven-dwellers, she scarcely approaches with a slight address, saying: What confidence do you bid me to have, O most sacred virgins, in the entreaty formerly sent forth to you in prison? And if I am to obtain the advantages of my vows, unfold them with most welcome responses; lest, running in vain, we fall into emptiness, lest the powers of our effort be consumed with vain labor, while our intention seeks one thing, and our merits demand another. Because although God favors merits more than prayers, yet the same knows how to reject the doubling of entreaties which the dignity of merits does not aid. Therefore, my ladies, brides of Christ, if hitherto a faithful hope of enduring the reward of your promise remains to us, bid it be told: that we may more promptly tend to things above, that we may be more strongly strengthened for the contests. Then the holy virgins, soothing her with addresses endowed with a diffusion of heavenly graces: The advantages of your labor, they say, laid up in the ethereal places, to be measured out to you at the necessary time, are preserved. Nor shall the reward of the things prescribed slip away for the battle, which compels the most invincible athletes to go to the kingdom.
[17] she learns that martyrdom is destined for her, Martyrdom finally is divinely fixed for you from the constitution of the world, and predestined: which, since you are to fulfill it after a little while, it is fitting to press on with holier-than-usual pursuits of holiness. Wherefore add to your labors the libations of priests: implore the suffrages of the Saints: everywhere commend yourselves to the prayers of those serving Christ: with votive coursing dwell in the venerable sanctuaries of God, and seek the entreaties of all the religious. Because although the prescribed rewards are at some time to be yours, yet through this industry, leaning as it were on certain steps, it is true that you can attain the citadel of so great goodness, and that our discourse of this kind is certain, testifying by a token: when the contest presses upon you, we shall send our fellow-monk d, to cleave to your company, who has been ordained from heaven to obtain with you the palm of martyrdom.
[18] to which she disposes herself: After this vision was withdrawn from the eyes of the beholder, blessed Sabigotho is more vehemently stirred by the miracle of so great a thing to accomplish the wars of the Lord. Who presently, rising more cheerful from sleep, increases the works of holiness, raises her fragile sex to the battle, and by a heavenly gift strengthens her powers for contending. Hence now, made confident, forming her husband with firmer hope, she teaches that they must altogether be stripped of earthly things, since, dedicated from the beginning of the world to the heavenly warfare, they would immediately after victory be mingled with the heaven-dwellers.
[19] and she and her husband, stripping themselves of all things Hence, more and more burning with fiery desire of enjoying the Redeemer and their holy colleagues, setting aside the affection of their children, they spurn whatever the perishing appearance of the world contains. They sell everything, they put up all for sale, that they might be freer in attaining Christ. From which price leaving something to the little infants, they apply all the rest to the maintenance of the needy. They visit the monasteries of men and women, but especially the Tabanos e monastery, of which we have often made mention, because with the highest rules of monastic discipline it illumined the whole West with the reports of honest fame. Thence the strongest athletes draw teaching: thence they receive institutes: there they gorge themselves with the cup of everlasting life. There most holy Sabigotho frequently stays with the handmaids of God: there she learns the industry of all holy fear. There they place their twin pledge under the guardianship of the blessed women.
[20] to it alone they aspire, O astonishing renunciation of the world, and admirable divine ardor! by which the affection of children is rejected, by which the affluence of riches is resisted: by which the sweetness of kindred is refuted, by which death is chosen for life: by which all transient things are despised: by which, with a view to eternal felicity, chains, slaughters, crosses, prisons, blows, and torments are held for the highest delights. For one of the daughters was in her eighth year, the other was in her fifth. Of whom I, after the death of the parents, finding the younger, scarcely expressing eloquence with her most tender mouth, most instantly exhorts me to write the deeds of her parents, to publish their acts, to elaborate their trophies. And when I inquired what benefit I might expect from her for this (I am about to say a wonderful thing, that so tiny an age could readily perceive such things, unless perhaps it is to be believed that she was inwardly imbued by Him who out of the mouth of infants and sucklings perfects His praise), I will obtain, she says, father, paradise for you from the Lord.
[21] But since, on a fitting occasion, for the sake of discoursing on the littleness of the infant girls, the care of the daughters too being left. we departed from the direct order, in which we were to subjoin the matter accomplished after the ninth month of their martyrdom: now we have inserted it into the sorrowful history still laboring under worldly troubles. A brotherly reprehension ought not therefore to defame us, wherein we do not fear to be argued culpable by the Lord. Nor does it matter whether the truth be discoursed in the last, first, or middle place, since the asserter of truth is by no means deprived of blessing. Therefore, retracing our steps, let us run to report more diligently the remaining deeds of the blessed ones.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
To those animated and prepared for the contest for the faith there comes as companion and leader St. George, a Sabaite monk, himself too endowed with excellent virtues.
Since therefore, intent on heavenly things, they applied themselves at all times to vigils, prayers, alms, and fasts (yet frequently they were sprinkled with a heavenly star in their bedchamber, Aurelius, stirred by new goads in which they meditated these things, so far that the ethereal radiance gliding in, interpolating all the appearance of the present luminary, compelled it to be reckoned a horrid chaos in comparison with itself), they are often raised by divine revelations: they enjoy the colloquies of angels, united in joy to the heaven-dwellers in mind and spirit, and not without grievous trouble they bore the corporeal burden. For on a certain day, when I had sought the hall of our most serene teacher Alvarus of Tovar a, praised throughout the whole West in the knowledge of the Scriptures; for the sake of mutual conference and, by our alternating proposition, of instructing the mind in the problems of the Scriptures: I found before him the soldier of Christ Aurelius, seeking counsel about contending, and imploring how he might seize the auspice of martyrdom. Whom that same excellent teacher, and flowing fountain of the wisdom of our time, instructing him by the examples of the fathers, bids first to weigh the powers of his constancy, to perceive his secret, to consider his inner mind, and whether he knew better how to bear the impending punishments than to shun them, being at last about to receive the sword on his delicate neck. And whether he strove rather to attain the merits of the Martyrs than to be called a martyr. And whether, more unknown to the earth, with merits blooming in heaven, he desired to be inscribed in the catalogue of the elect, than among things above , with diminished reward, he panted to have the famous name of a temporal martyrdom.
[23] he exults in the hope of torments: Then he, promising that he would fight even to death, professes that his intention was to be overcome by absolutely no force of torments. To me, to me, he says, Christ is the greatest solace of life, and to die is gain. To whom earthly conduct is the gloom of a most hideous night, and the memory of the worldly passing breathes the fragrance of perpetual light. Thenceforth there is common joy on account of our coming: we rejoice greatly in our mutual gaze. We believe that the Word of the most high Father is present at our council, who has testified that He glides into every company dedicated to His name, saying: Wherever two or three shall be gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And when we reported many things suited to his contest, and he received our teaching with most grateful mind: sufficiently, as I think, aided by our conference b, about immediately to enter upon the wars of the Lord, he returns to his own home.
[24] But blessed Sabigotho, strengthened by a new vision But blessed Sabigotho, some days before the passion, while she sat alone at home, and was entreating Christ, with what complaints she could, for the perfection of her martyrdom: suddenly she perceives a virgin of wondrous beauty standing by her, invigorated with angelic grace, bearing, as it seemed, the first flower of adolescence. To whom, when she said: Who are you, daughter? And if you come from the neighborhood, tell the causes of your coming. Straightway the notable virgin: I am, she says, the offspring of your friend Montesius, whom you know to have been long ago taken away from worldly hardships, and whom, at that same hour in which she was vexed by the final straits, before you visited more closely, you found lifeless. And though I, being almost banished from the world, did not know you, yet at the very moment of my death, the Lord revealing, I recognized who you were, and now, He sending me, I have come as the foreteller of your palm.
[25] she follows in the footsteps of her husband. For the time now presses upon you of accomplishing the victory: the days are at hand of publicly professing the Catholic faith, and of repelling the most hideous enemy. Which strifes being appeased, the inner chambers of heaven will take you up to be crowned, founded thenceforth in perpetual peace. Therefore the venerable woman, searching her heart, and meditating with herself the speech of the one standing by, immediately, her memory turned back, recognizes the deed, and before she could render thanks to the girl announcing good tidings to her, that virginal appearance, herald of heaven and forerunner of her martyrdom, slips from her sight. She is made glad by such a proclamation: she is animated by the heavenly oracle, and is stirred to the battle with a hope the firmer, the more she perceives herself informed by the truth of an accomplished action.
[26] Meanwhile the promised leader is present But that they might tend more and more toward the goal of their predestination, and be not doubtful of the reward laid up, or that the edict of the holy virgins might be fulfilled, eight days before their capture, that long-promised confessor is joined to their company, and, bound to them in a certain manner inseparably, all are crowned together in one moment by a happy martyrdom. Therefore we have judged it fitting to set forth the account of that same monk, since a choice intervened, and that which by vehement admiration shook our age on his account, we should commit to be reperused by succeeding generations as a work worthy: that in him the religiousness of Catholics may be increased with growth of faith, in whom it perceives the oracle of its Redeemer to have been fulfilled in a certain special truth. For our Master and Lord had foretold that many coming from the East and the West would recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Which testimony we behold, with the effects revealed, altogether fulfilled in that same monk and levite George.
[27] To this man the Bethlehemite country gave birth and habitation, foreign shores an ethereal one: a Sabaite monk sent into Africa. this man, I say, born beyond the seas, from adolescence delighted in the service of God. Twenty-seven years at the monastery of St. Sabas c, which is distant from Jerusalem on the southern side by eight miles, united with five hundred brothers (as he himself professed to us with his own mouth) who dwelt in the same monastery, he lived under a regular mastery. Whom the venerable abbot David, then the procurator of his monastery d, sending into Africa for the maintenance e of the monks, he in no way deferred to undergo so many intervening dangers of lands and seas, by which surely he knew that without hesitation he would earn the advantage of the highest virtue of obedience. But when he found there the Church of God more harshly beaten by the incursion of the tyrants, he approaches Spain also, by the counsel of those to whom he had been sent. For he was, as we ourselves most certainly proved concerning him, a man of the highest humility and of great abstinence. In all his speech, word, and answer the fear of the Lord resounded: ever more swiftly drawing charity from the pure fountain of his heart, he brought forth the honeycomb of love. He preached that the compunction of heavenly desire must be sought: he bade to mortify the members with the vices and concupiscences, that at the coming of the Lord, animated with the reviving vigor of the virtues, they might appear more glorious with Him.
[28] Thus endowed with sober holiness, he too much refused to seem or be called just, Concerning his country, his excellent virtues, very pleasant, cheerful, modest, and abstinent, thus he used the world as though he used it not. And when perchance, at the entreaty of brotherly charity, he was compelled to take food, he ate more sparingly, drank soberly, so that you would judge him rather abstaining than eating. He tempered wine with water so long, until the color was tinged, the taste was gone. For that insipid taste (thus he related) allows a guest neither to drink too much, nor to become drunk: more frequently he ran to pray, kept vigil more attentively, more often meditated the divine song in his heart, and said: I will bless the Lord at all times, always His praise in my mouth. And though he was skilled in various tongues, namely Greek, Latin, and Arabic: he did not affect even any glory whatsoever on account of these. From the day on which he entered the monastery, and was received into the cohorts of the monks, down to the crown of his martyrdom (as he himself related more secretly to some), he neither washed with water, nor used baths. As long as he lived with us, he revealed his rank to no one at all, until he was now detained in prison.
[29] He composed for the brothers, and his kinsmen, and all the citizens of his country, a summary f of his martyrdom: concerning his coming into Spain, which he transmitted to me for the sake of polishing it: lest the ruder speech should take away the credit of the deed from those to whom it was sent. There in the beginning of his discourse he testified that he was a monk and a levite. But what need is there to protract the discourse at length? As if the martyrial blood did not confer the highest reverence on the life of the man of God, especially since how great and of what sort he was, poured out for the justice of God, his martyrial blood itself intimates, and that, a stranger to the world, not refusing a strange burial, he wholly repelled all affection of his native soil and of his kindred. Or what praise will rather extol the soldier of Christ than to have given death for the Lord, his soul for life, his blood for the Crucified? that the same might be the servant's repayment which was the victory of the Crucified.
[30] and his approach to the Martyrs is treated. But how the blessed minister was gathered to the company of the Saints, we believe can better become known by the mouth of the holy George himself, that either the series of our discourse, the Martyr's own speech being interposed, may as it were be seasoned from above with the salt of blessing, or that the more excellent intercourse of his connection with the other Saints may be learned, himself narrating it. For in those very days in which he had converse together with the Saints; setting forth his own deeds and those of the aforesaid Martyrs in a rather brief style, he at last directed them to us to be approved. From whose words we have taken care to insert into this work those things which we sufficiently foresaw for intimating their union. But the rest, which follow after the failing of the discourses of the Servant of God, we have investigated with the purpose with which we began. And he speaks in this manner.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The summary of the martyrdom described by St. George himself: to which the holy narrator of the whole history adds the palm obtained and the burial.
George invited by Sabigotho In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. To the whole catholic Church, from me, the unworthy and sinful George, monk, and also deacon, brother and colleague of the servants of God, the five hundred sons of St. Sabas, perfect salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Know, O most dear brothers, that my entrance into Spain was nothing else but for the sake of seeking your maintenance, you who live under the most strict rule and governance of the holy father David at Jerusalem. By whom, sent into Africa, I thereafter migrated into the Spains. But finding this same island afflicted by threats, I began to be tossed with various thoughts, whether to revisit my own soil, or to seek the kingdoms of the Christians, that is, France. And when I consulted my nearest and dearest on this matter, some bade me travel on, most compelled me to return to my monastery. Here, as it were doubtful, endowed with divergent counsel, I knew not to which thought I should first submit myself. But going from Cordova to the Tabanos monastery, that the blessing of the brothers and sisters might accompany my journey, that abbot Martin said to me, and his sister the lady Elizabeth: Come, brother, and receive the blessing of the handmaid of God Sabigotho. Who, as soon as she beheld me, said: This monk will be the promised companion and colleague of our contest.
[32] But I, her cause being known, and her reason ascertained, he joins himself to the Martyrs, immediately falling at her feet, asked her to entreat the Lord for me, that perhaps, illumined by the regard of the Holy Spirit, I might deserve to attain to those things which she awaited. And she: Whence is this to us, she says, father, that you should go with sinners? And when I had stayed there that same night, that venerable woman Sabigotho appeared to me in a vision of the night, and, applying I know not what kind of fragrance of most precious wood, related: A richer treasure is mine from this. But when morning had come, we both went down into the city to her husband Aurelius, and I prostrated myself at his feet, asking of him that he would pray for me, that I might be a companion to them in martyrdom. Who, at once giving assent, the heavenly fire blazed up in me through their prayers, and I became one of them, and from then I was not separated from them, but all gathered together alike in the house of holy Aurelius, we render b
to the Lord with gladness the vows of praise. There among them I found blessed Felix with his most holy wife Liliosa, who too had already sold all their goods, and had bestowed them on holy places or on the poor, ready to undergo every kind of torment for the Son of God and His love. That same hour I went out from them, and with all haste I settled the affairs by which I was hindered. And so at last, now greatly strengthened, I returned to them. Who, glad and exulting at our return, render thanks to God, saying: We know, most dear brother, that the Lord has sent you to us.
[33] After these things we all in common began to consider how we might attain to the desired crown, who, recognized as Christians and thus, the Lord disposing, it seemed good to us that our sisters should go with unveiled faces c to the church, if perchance an occasion of binding us should be given, and so it was done. For as the women were returning from the church, a certain provost standing in their way, when he recognized the cause of religion in the women, immediately asks the men what that recourse of the women to the sanctuaries of the Christians should mean. Who answered: It is the custom of the faithful to visit the churches, and to seek the halls of the venerable Martyrs out of devout affection. Wherefore, since we are Christians, we therefore profess to bear the standard of that faith. And immediately an informer, approaching the judge, sets forth our whole account before him with deceitful tongues. After these things lord Aurelius goes to visit his daughters, and bidding them farewell with the kiss of peace, armed with heavenly virtue, he hastened to the battle. But here now the holy George, checking his pen, let us pursue what remains, as we began.
[34] Strengthened by Aurelius Afterward, on the very day on which blessed Aurelius knew that he was to be seized, before the twilight of dawn breathed, revisiting us at home for the sake of bidding farewell, he entreats us to pray the Lord for him; and demands that brotherly charity be made through us the favorer of his contest. There we commended ourselves to him. There we obtained, his hands being kissed d, that his patronage be made for us and for the whole Church. After these things, kisses being given to each other, we are separated in peace.
[35] they are ordered to be seized, Therefore, when the judge pressed the inquisition brought against the Saints of God, and knew that Aurelius was the author of this thing: grievously wounded within on this account, he commanded that they be presented to his sight as speedily as possible. Then the soldiers, occupying with rapid course the house of blessed Aurelius, in which all the Saints remained gathered, began to shout before the doors: Come out, wretches: come out to die at close quarters, to whom the present life is a weariness, and death is reckoned for glory. Behold, the judge calls, the decree presses to pour out vengeance: he wishes to crush those who withdraw from the worship, ready to cut off the rebellious necks: go now to pay the already owed debt of death, and the pending sentence of your committed prevarication.
[36] George too, provoking the soldiers Thereupon the men with their women go forth as if invited to a banquet: they go exulting: they leap forth glad; you would think they were now going to find their gifts at the judge's, who could have nothing else but torments. And when the holy George perceived that he was not held by the soldiers, immediately, relying on holy boldness, turning to reproach the lictors, said: Why do you inflict this privilege on the faithful, and violently compel to worship a vain deity, those whom the holy faith has hitherto claimed as its own? Why do you, aliens from the true God, strive to gather to your perdition those predestined to life? Can you not go to the infernal enclosures unless you have us as companions? Will the eternal torments not burn you without us? Go you, go you thither to perish, where together with your leader you may enjoy the delights of the lower regions. For what have we to do with Tartarus, which Christ our God has penetrated, absorbed, despoiled, and conquered: so that it dares no longer to condemn the faithful, which formerly was wont by its privilege to snatch away the Saints?
[37] by whom he is harshly received. Scarcely had he completed his speech; and now the raging right hand of the officers labored to injure the monk: whom, lacerated with various goads, dashing him to the ground, they beat most fiercely also with heels and fists. To whom, when holy Sabigotho (now thinking him dead) cried out: Rise, brother, let us go: he, as if he had suffered no evil, answered: All these things, sister, profit the advantages of merits, and increase the crown. And thus, raising him half-dead from the ground, they made him stand before the judge with the same escort as the Saints. When they were presented, when he first asked of them with a bland address, for what cause they withdrew from their worship; refused to live; and strove to lose the advantage of temporal things, blooming with the manifold flower of delights; whom surely afterward in the future not only admirable womanly delight, but also an abundance of dignities and dishes awaited to soothe? Straightway, as if with one mouth:
[38] No affluence of time, they say, judge, is to be compared with eternal gains, Laughing at the blandishments they are consigned to prison; for whose sake, despising this life through the faith of Jesus Christ, by which every worker of holiness is justified, we finally trust that we shall obtain the rest of His blessing in the future, which is promised to the Saints. But every worship which dissents from the divinity of Christ, and does not profess the essence of the holy Trinity, refutes baptism, defames the worshipers of Christ, disparages the priesthood, we judge altogether reprobate; reckoning as nothing the transient things, which do not long subsist. But the things which Christ has promised to those who love Him, since they are ineffable, yet always endure with unwearied perpetuity, and are neither beheld by the eyes, nor caught by the ear, nor weighed by the heart. But, as I believe, while the Saints asserted also something else more religious with copious mouth before the judge, and strongly overcame the sect of the impious, the judge is stirred to the greatest fury, intimating that they were to be consigned to prison with rapid dragging, and decreed that they be burdened with the weight of intolerable chains.
[39] Immediately the blessed Martyrs, with exulting minds, going to the prison, where they cease not to praise Christ. rejoice at the auspice of their passion, make light of the punishment, resound hymns, sound forth praises; they discharge psalms; they insist on prayer, by which, the Lord favoring, they might prevail to attain victory: and they are visited by angels; they are illustrated by miracles; the chains leap apart, and dare not bind those whom Christ had loosed. There too, God revealing, they recognize what lot they had in heaven. Hence, remaining secure of the palm, and more hastily panting to behold Christ, whom they faithfully served, they defer their death even to the fifth day, and think it too late that they are longer removed from that sweetness of the kingdom of heaven, which by frequent bodily experiences they now almost beheld.
[40] But when they were now led out to be prostrated in the market-place, the venerable Sabigotho began to arm her husband with holy addresses, George refuses to be separated from those about to be slain, she comforts, instructs, and confirms him. They are brought into the palace, they stand before the consuls, wealth is offered, the fasces are exhibited, which, if they believed, they would enjoy. But when these greatly persisted in their profession, the consuls appoint them to be slain by the lictors: decreeing that holy George should go away safe, because those same nobles and chiefs of the palace had heard him utter no reproaches against their prophet.
[41] But that excellent master, as soon as he learned that he was being left behind, and was not appointed to be slain with his companions under one stroke of the sword: Why, he says, O princes, do you doubt of my profession, which I did not utter before you; or think that I meditate anything favorable concerning the disciple of Satan? For I, that you may more truly recognize it, believe that angel who appeared to that same teacher of yours, transfiguring himself into a spirit of light, to have been a demon, and I adjudge this man baser than all men, inasmuch as one credulous of the devil, a minister of antichrist, and a labyrinth of all vices, who not only immersed himself in the whirlpool of the pit, but also dedicated us, his followers, to the eternal fires through his vain institutes. Then the nobles, stirred to mighty madness, order him to be slain by one and the same sentence together with the rest. And thus, slaughtering first blessed Felix, then holy George; after them the venerable Liliosa, last they kill the excellent contenders Aurelius and Sabigotho, on the 6th of the Kalends of August, in the era 890.
[42] The various burial of the Saints. Whose bodies our Christians, stealing them, hide in various places. For George with holy Aurelius are kept at the monastery of Peñamelaria e. Blessed Felix guards the hall of St. Christopher f, which is beyond the river. Holy Sabigotho was united with the ashes of the three Saints g. The venerable Liliosa rests with the martyr Genesius h. But the heads of George and Sabigotho dwell in * i. These are they who, for the testimony of God and the faith of Jesus Christ, contending even to death, preferred nothing to His love, not sons, not parents, not relations, not neighbors, not friends, not goods, not villages, not possessions, not estates. But casting all things behind their backs, their bodies being mortified with the vices and concupiscences, they were brought forth to eternal immortality: our Lord Jesus Christ reigning unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE HOLY MARTYRS GEORGE THE MONK, AURELIUS, AND NATHALIA, FROM THE CITY OF CORDOVA TO PARIS,
By the author Aimoin, monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, From a very ancient manuscript codex of Saint-Germain at Paris, number 653.
BHL Number: 3409
By Aimoin, from Mabillon.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS OF MABILLON.
Aimoin, monk of the monastery of Saint-Germain at Paris, whose books on the miracles of St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, we have reported elsewhere, Aimoin the author of this narration. committed to writing the history of the translation of the holy martyrs George, deacon and monk of Bethlehem, Aurelius, and Nathalia his wife, in one book, to which he added two on the miracles of the same done during the translation. These books, mutilated in many places, Jacques Breul, a monk of the same monastery, published, which we here give in full from an old codex, which was written in the age of the Author, it has seemed good to represent.
[2] The Acts of these Martyrs St. Eulogius, priest of Cordova, described in book 2 of the Memorial, chapter 10, Eulogius the Writer of the Passion; where he calls Nathalia Sabigotho. She, with her husband Aurelius, distributed her means among the poor, and both were wont to visit the monasteries of men and of women, but especially Tabanos, which was held most famous in those parts, suited to both sexes. Thither Nathalia frequently withdrew, who there handed over to God her two daughters, Felicitas and Maria. Afterward, at the request of Maria, Eulogius reported the Passion of Aurelius and Nathalia her parents, which Aimoin, as I think, reduced to a compendium under the name of Eulogius, such as it is had in our manuscript codex. To these two, that is, Aurelius and Nathalia, was joined as a companion George, a monk of Bethlehem, who, from his adolescence embracing the service of God, lived twenty-seven years at the monastery of St. Sabas, which is separated from Jerusalem toward the south by eight miles, under a regular mastery with five hundred brothers. He, directed into Africa by the venerable abbot David of the same monastery, for the maintenance of the monks, when he had found there the Church of God beaten by the incursion of the tyrants, set out into Spain with the counsel of the bishop of Carthage. Then, coming to Cordova, he afterward went to the Tabanos monastery, that he might be fortified in his return (for he was preparing his return to his country) with the blessing of the brothers and holy sisters dwelling there; where the abbot of that place, by name Martin, and his sister Elizabeth, consecrated to God, presented him to Nathalia, with whom on the following day he returned to Cordova.
[3] At last, seized with them and with Felix, and also with Liliosa, here a brief compendium of it. he was slain with the sword together with the same in the year 852: whose bodies were buried in various places, and indeed those of George and Aurelius in the monastery of Peñamelaria, from which place this translation was made. The series of the translation Aimoin learned from Usuard and Odilard, monks of Saint-Germain, its authors: of whom Usuard himself is the writer of the Martyrology. The miracles done at Esmans (which is a village of the diocese of Sens subject to the monastery of St. Germanus, whither at that time the monks of Saint-Germain, for fear of the Normans, had fled with the body of St. Germanus), Aimoin himself beheld with his own eyes, according to book 3, chapters 16 and 29. Mention of this translation is made by the Annals of Saint-Bertin at the year 858 with these words: A certain monk from the monastery of St. Vincent the martyr or of St. Germanus the confessor, returning from Cordova, a city of Spain, brought with him the bodies of the blessed martyrs George the deacon and Aurelius, and the head of Nathalia, and placed them in caskets at the village of Esmans to be kept. These relics are hitherto preserved among us in the monastery of St. Germanus.
PREFACE.
If it is impossible to explain in words all the miracles which God and Lord of all has granted to His faithful to do; it is many times believed to be even beyond laborious to wish that all these be comprehended in writing, the Apostle and Evangelist John testifying, who asserts that Jesus did many other signs also in the sight of His disciples, which are not written in the book of the Gospel. But since those things which pertain to belief and to eternal life are declared to be inserted there, it is thought a fault if all the works of the Saints, flowery with miracles, be covered with silence, and as if the mirrors of divine instruction be obscured by the cloud of greedy taciturnity. Therefore, to explain the acts of the translation of the holy martyrs George and Aurelius, although unworthy, as one laboring in the house; yet deservedly I approached, being asked, that I might be able, for the domestic animals bearing Christ by faith, at least to strew branches in the way. Nor provoked by presumption or sophistic rashness, but rather by the imitable example of the canonical Writers, and led by the reverend admonitions of the Fathers with their most sweet commands, which it appeared to me by manifold inquiry a crime to resist in any way whatsoever. And the divine cooperating majesty is exalted, the divine flock resounding, and with the Psalmist saying: Wonderful is God in His Saints, and holy in all His works; if those acts are recounted by which the holy friends of God, even after the triumphal exit of the flesh, are proved to have shone with laudable virtue, who also, after the momentary wars of their passions, as those who toiled in the camps of the heavenly warfare, rewarding them with the prizes of perpetual consolation, grants that, crowned with the victorious prize, they may rejoice, glad with everlasting pleasantness, to be there where the Same is.
FIRST BOOK OF THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION
CHAPTER I.
Frustrated of the hope of obtaining the body of St. Vincent, Usuard and Odilard find a means by which they may be safely conducted to Cordova.
IN THE YEAR 858.
In the course of the years of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ the eight hundred and fifty-eighth, and the eighteenth of the reign of Charles, son of the glorious emperor Louis, the bodies of the holy martyrs George and Aurelius, brought out of Cordova, Hilduin with the King procuring it, were carried into Gaul in a memorable manner. For at the monastery of the Holy Cross and of the blessed martyr Vincent, where the precious confessor of God, St. Germanus, Pontiff of Paris, shines with the honor of his virtues, it was noised abroad that the body of the same holy martyr and levite could easily be had from Valentia, the city in which he suffered, namely on account of the wretched desolation of that city made by the Saracens or Moors: whereupon the brothers of our aforesaid monastery, with the favor and consent of lord abbot Hilduin the second, ordain, royal authority also being obtained, those whom they should send thither, panting to transfer to themselves, Christ granting, the so long and so greatly desired pledge.
[3] And having undertaken the journey, the brothers a came to Humfrid, marquis of Gothia , then ruling in those parts, [they are sent to seek from Spain the body of St. Vincent; which they learn has been carried off.] by whose help, when aided, they were to set out on this pious business. When he had nobly received them, presented to him in the district of Beaune , after the manner of nobles, not unmindful of his promise; presently, calling his men, he began diligently to treat concerning the cause of their coming, how and in what manner it ought to be done. Among whom some confessed that the places of that road were everywhere hindered by such difficulties, that no one, though guarded by a great retinue, could safely undertake that journey. But our men, striving against this, and setting forth that saying of the Apostle: If God be for us, who is against us? and also that: For by faith we walk, and not by sight; going on thence together with him, at length enter the district of Uzès , where from the bishop, a religious man named Walefrid, they learn (which they had already heard also in the city of Viviers ) that the body of the aforesaid gracious martyr Vincent had been transferred from the above-said city of Valentia to Benevento, which indeed was otherwise. For it had been taken by force from a certain monk in the territory of Aquitaine (who, warned by a divine revelation, as he himself narrated to us, hastening to Valentia, had brought it thence with him), by the elder b, bishop of the city of Saragossa *, and at the same Saragossa, under the reverence of a certain martyr Marinus, it was held, shining forth with miracles of no small veneration. This name the monk had professed: nor was the bishop able, even by afflicting him with torments, to extort the proper name of Vincent from him. But he knew that he had been archdeacon of that same city: therefore he feared him the dearer to the bishop, but to himself irrecoverable. Wherefore it was hidden in every way from our men, as also from the bishop, that his holy body was present there. For Marinus was esteemed among them a martyr of illustrious merit. Yet this they knew for certain, that it was now in no way held at Valentia. But how this came to pass, and how, after years, it was received back by the monks of the monastery of blessed Benedict of Albi, and translated to the same place; may be seen set forth with sufficient narration by us c also in the translation of the same holy Levite and Martyr.
[4] Concerning another Saint's body they treat at Barcelona. Our men indeed grieved, weeping anxiously together; that, so great a space of the journey having been labored, they would return empty, by which disease of sadness, while staying at the castle of Barcelona * (to speak thus in their words), they were being wasted as by a lasting languor, and could not deliberate with themselves how it were fitting to judge more prudently on this matter; at last they approach a certain man familiar to them, by name Sunifred, then first after the count of that same city d, suppliantly consulting him on this matter, as he had thought necessary for himself. And since they could in no way obtain the body of blessed Vincent, for which they had come; they confess that they had resolved to seek the limbs of some of the Saints, whom both his deed and his passion should commend, and to endeavor to carry it with them to the place, that they might not return empty.
[5] they give attention to obtaining the relics of St. George and St. Aurelius, Meanwhile it happened that the same Sunifred took up a discourse concerning the enormous slaughter of the faithful, made lately in the persecution of Abd al-Rahman, king of Cordova, setting forth that some of them, and especially those whom we hold, George and Aurelius, having nobly suffered in that very tempest, and, their blood gleaming in the triumphal battle-line of the passion, magnificently laureated, had victoriously entered the palace of the eternal King. To which, he said, if they could in any way (which was not believed) get through, let them trust that they had undertaken a prosperous journey, with a happy outcome. This account being received by our men, they are so gladdened with immense joys, as if they now possessed the desired advantages; and they believed that this had been reported to them from no other source than heaven. Their mind burns, and, with quick haste, the course of going thither is arranged. Plainly the fervor of this love, the bitterness of the former sadness set aside (so great had it grown to their desires), was such that they could in no way (as they said, testifying) either hear or name the name of Cordova, without at times an accompanying effusion of tears. For, out of regard for the Divinity, they rejoiced that they had been made more even-minded.
[6] their friends dissuading in vain, from whom they receive letters. Accordingly father Usuard (for the other of them was called Odilard) approaches Athaulf, bishop of the same Barcelona, and the aforesaid Sunifred, opening to them the secret conceived in their mind, that they would in no wise rest until they broke through even to Cordova, if the Lord should deign to stretch out to them at any time the hand of His bounty. They, hearing it, were altogether terrified, wondering: and asserted that this could by no means be done, both by adducing the causes of the impossibility, and even by protesting. And Sunifred said that he was their destroyer, by whose words, kindled to this, they ran on. But when they could not call them away from this determination of mind; We fear, they say, for you. Yet they suggest to them a freer entrance to Cordova, and to whom especially there they should turn, or with whom they should more safely stay, if perchance they reached there, one Leovigild, a friend of theirs, not that parricide Arian king of the Visigoths, but a man learned in Christian laws and holy morals. And when this thing, thus fixed, had been intimated in order to the aforesaid Count Humfrid, a letter is composed, at his bidding, to a magnate of Saragossa, by name Abd al-Wahar, that, mindful of the treaty made between them, he should keep the brothers of whom we speak, dwelling with him, and thence afford them, as much as he could, comfort for going to Cordova. Thus, after they had traversed, the heavenly clemency helping, the track of the long and exceedingly laborious journey, they are presented together with the directed letter to the above-written prince Abd al-Wahar, who, an interpreter being called as reader, while he learns the friendly matter, prepares, although a barbarian, religiously to obey the commands of his friends; and he bids them stay in the city until the time for counsel about it. For his ability did not permit him to accomplish it at once, it being denied him for the present by many and various impossibilities.
[7] After these things it happened (which had by no means occurred in the revolution of a circle of eight years and more) that some men of Saragossa, they go to Cordova. an occasion of setting out being seen, arranged to go thence to Cordova. Which the aforesaid prince Abd al-Wahar knowing, immediately asked them to come to his presence, and commands, asking, that they keep with civil affection the men entrusted to his good faith, going with them to Cordova: hoping thereupon for favor from him and the due recompense of a reward. As they went out together from the city, certain of the Christians, weeping, follow our men as though condemned to exile, exhorting them that it was good that they should dedicate their hope to Him who does not give wavering to the just, and who is ever at hand to all who invoke Him in truth, and knows, most kindly, how to give better things than are asked or hoped for. And so, reading along the journey begun together, by what and how great perils they were straitened on the way, and by what necessities accompanied, since it is very long to tell, likewise weighing the course undertaken, we have determined to pass over more quickly: lest it happen that these things, though astonishing, as full of wonder, cause us to deviate from the proposed compendium of the narration.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Kindly received at Cordova by the bishop Saul, they obtain the bodies of SS. George and Aurelius, and happily carry them off into Gaul.
[There they go to the church of St. Cyprian, then disclose their secret to Leovigild.] After many days, then, had passed, they come, Jesus going before them, snatched from countless storms of worldly billows, to Cordova, the city to which they tended. Those two go to the church of the blessed and great witness Cyprian, in which the bodies of the holy martyrs Adulf and John lie entombed. And this by a careful consideration, according to that saying of the Lord: First seek the kingdom of God and His justice, and all other things shall be added to you. For the servants and that baggage they had left, partly at Barcelona, partly at Saragossa, going alone. There, received with pious devotion by a certain principal deacon of that place, by name Jerome, they remained there: and fame flew, running about, spreading abroad that certain men had come thither from France. There is made an eager gathering of the faithful, venerating them with wonderful and incredible affection, who, astonished at their great constancy, likewise admired the ineffable clemency of the Almighty toward them. There was present also the aforesaid Leovigild, surnamed Abadsolomes, of whom from the above-said men familiar to them, namely bishop Athaulf and Sunifred, they had received only the knowledge of his name and religion. He took care to search out the cause of their coming, and, according to the manifest etymology of his name, to inquire more vigilantly. And when they had more secretly unfolded to him the words of the well-being and acquaintance of their friends, and by the manifest disposition of God had shortly perceived that he was the one to whom they ought in every way to trust themselves; they open themselves and their mind to him, giving manifold thanks to Christ. The secret is received, and remains buried within the man's breast, but thence a fitting outcome of the sought thing is awaited: and they meanwhile, under his protection, are nourished with convenient supports.
[9] The matter is committed to the priest Samson, At length, after some days' space, the aforesaid Abadsolomes, having taken as an aide a certain priest of the same city, of good character, by name Samson, began carefully to investigate with him how he might accomplish the work delegated as it were to his providence by God (as certainly it was thought). He was procuring, therefore, that to them, according to their vow, the bodies of the Saints, distinguished by the palm of noble triumph, should be given; who, having crossed so many bounds of lands by the ardor of faith, had come forth to lay hold of this: he indeed had compassion both on their minds and on their long enough journey; nor was he forgetful of his friends bishop Athaulf and the honorable man Sunifred, who had sent him many prayers on this matter. Whence, the enclosures of the secret being disclosed to the priest, it pleases both to take, if however it should prove possible, the relics of the blessed George, monk of Bethlehem, and Aurelius, a citizen of Cordova, whose souls, adorned by a happy war, they had learned had passed to be joined to the company of the Martyrs in the heavens, the most beautiful text of their passion confirming it: which the memorable and God-worthy priest Eulogius, who himself too was afterward endowed with a glorious martyrdom, the consummated soldier, exulting, sought Christ the King, informed by a truthful account in writing, very many things (as he himself related to our men) being passed over.
[10] While these things are revolved, it happened, divinely, which without doubt must be confessed, who, as abbot of Peñamelaria, has the monks resisting. that the aforesaid priest Samson was set as abbot over that same place, by name Peñamelaria, in which the bodies of those holy Martyrs lay entombed, and which was separated from the city by about five miles. And behold, as if facility were obtained, being summoned by Leovigild, they unanimously deliberate, because the time was at hand and the place open, to bring the desired matter, Christ favoring, to the height of accomplishment. And when for a very long time, some brothers there in certain places being associated, they insisted by counsel that it be done; they find the rest so adverse to their attempts that they sadly thought this could by no means be granted. Yet acting importunately, and inculcating with many arguments that this was sought in order that the bodies of the blessed Martyrs might be held with more celebrated cult, at last, by common deliberation, it pleased all that it be done, provided only that the assent (as was fitting, and was done) of their own bishop be given. But the bodies of the Saints, until the time of returning should come, lay buried in the same place, as they were, under this concession. Accordingly, what difficulty befell them at the time of departure from the city, from which they dared not go out except relying on much comfort, I think must be told.
[11] For the king of that same Cordova, first and excellent city of the Saracens, Muhammad, hastening in hostile manner against the tyrant of the city of Toledo, rebellious to his decrees, Saul, bishop of Cordova, favors them. ordered all to be present. And by public edicts he commands that neither citizen nor stranger, except the guard, who would not go with him, should remain in the city. Meanwhile our aforesaid brothers, when they had begun to speak to the monks of the above-named place Peñamelaria about the granted bodies of the Martyrs (since a place of going out from the city lay open), they again utterly refuse that they would do anything of this, especially in the absence of the presence of their venerable abbot Samson. For it had happened that he was absent: wherefore, made exceedingly sad, they direct certain of the faithful to the bishop of that same city, a modest man, by name Saul, asking that he would deign by his own coming to obtain the bodies of the Saints, which had been granted to them by the kindness of abbot Samson and his own, from the inhabitants of that place to whom they should there be given: who, receiving a request of this kind, at once hasten, and carry the entreated command to the pastor, and demand that the pilgrims be succored, and at the same time that the desolate be helped. They say therefore to the bishop: Father, we beseech your piety with a suppliant vow, that the bodies of the blessed Martyrs George and Aurelius, as you once sanctioned with abbot Samson, be given to the Gallic monks. Why, then, wearied by the vexation of the journey, they are vexed by the unjust delay of the granted pledge, is not fitting for the knowledge of your religion, which can be defamed by such a calumny. And without delay, they hasten to the place. And when there had been a lengthy contention, and much struggling by prayers with the bishop, there is granted indeed hardly, as from the unwilling, a consent scarcely to be gained.
[12] For then our own petitioners, summoned, approach with brisk step, The sacred remains are raised thence, and together with the rest, yet no more slowly, hasten to dig up the bodies of the Saints, the altar above being torn away. But when it came to the opening of the sepulcher, the others being removed, only the priests designated by the bishop are present, by whom, he himself indeed receiving them, the sacred limbs are raised from those tombs with hymns and litanies. Who, wrapping them always in clean linens, placed them also in fitting satchels for carrying. Thus, the divine aid favoring, the secret work is honorably accomplished: and, lest their integrity be violated by any petitioner, on whatever occasion, until the destined place, they ask the bishop to close them under the assignment of King Charles with his own seal. Which when he had done, they are given to be carried and to be venerated with manifold testification, yet secretly on account of the pagans. For the Saracens do not permit those whom they make Martyrs to be venerated. Who, joyfully taking up the prize of so great a gift, some brothers accompanying them thence, hasten back to the city, desirous to return there together with certain going to Toledo.
[13] yet not the head of St. Aurelius but of St. Nathalia. Besides, what was, in a memorable manner, provided for this deed also, if it be kept silent, I doubt not it is a crime. For when the ministers of the devil had laid low with the sword those bodies of the Saints, strong in the contest of the heavenly battle, punished with death; the Christians, while they could, stirred by the wonted office of love, came by night; and, snatching them for themselves by stealth, divided them. And indeed, taking up the body of blessed George entire, but Aurelius' without the head, they buried them in the place of the church under the altar, as we have signified. But the body of holy Nathalia, since her trunk had been taken up elsewhere by others, her head was brought together into the same church where the man's body was. Whence it happened that, at the time of digging them up, the head of the blessed athlete Aurelius was by no means found with his body, and it was not known where the body of holy Nathalia had been buried. But that it might be fulfilled in them even after death, because they shall be two in one flesh, to the body of blessed Aurelius the head of Nathalia his wife was substituted, and given with exceeding wonder to those seeking, which, done in a divine manner, we think is hidden from no one who hears; so that, since living they had been of one conjugality, and also companions of an equal martyrdom, dying they might be of the same merit of veneration on earth, just as they are also partakers of a single felicity in heaven. And since we have digressed a little from the beginning, as it were, by the mystery of the sacrament, said indeed συνεκδοχικῶς (that is, by synecdoche), it pleases to bring the hand back to the very point.
[14] From Cordova they go to Toledo. But when, on the vigil of the Ascension of Christ, the day, its chariot washed, now flowed into the lands with rosy radiance, they think to go out from the city of the above-mentioned king Muhammad, the army proceeding, no small company of catholic brothers, desiring to bid them farewell, being gathered to them, who, with how great charity they treated them through the fifty-six days in which they stayed with them, no one could tell. Yet their present devotion, or their tearful sending-off, showed what anyone might perceive, that they never wished to be parted from them by any agreement whatever. For thus, having gone out from Cordova, the most renowned of the cities of the Spaniards, and fruitful both in citizens and in wealth of possessions, under the protection for a while of certain of the faithful going with the king to battle, being entrusted, they briskly resume their journey. Thence, after some days, Leovigild found them amid the array of the army, a man worthy of frequent memory, who at the time of their departure from the city, occupied with royal affairs, had not been present; and he, embracing them with the most sweet bond of his heart, did not thenceforth suffer them to be without his company as far as Toledo (which is held illustrious from the confession of the blessed virgin Leocadia). For Babila his sister, a virgin consecrated to God, had abundantly prepared for them whatever seemed necessary on the journey, as far as her means availed; also two cloths, with which the bodies of the Saints might in turn be covered.
[15] At length, the king of Cordova hastening the forces of war against the tyrant of Toledo, adverse to him, on account of which he had set out, Then to Alcalá, and Saragossa, many way-liers-in-wait of that same city return to the same city, taking care to be fortified as quickly as possible by the protection of the castle: the roads are rendered peaceful, and the progress of travelers becomes secure everywhere. Then our men, with great affection of kindness, the campaign being ended, parted from the oft-said Leovigild, approached the town of Alcalá *, distinguished by the trophies of the glorious martyr brothers Justus and Pastor. Thence they reach the citadel of Saragossa, most noble and laureated with the triumph of the Saints, and especially of the eighteen Martyrs, where, received humanely again, as when going, by the above-named elder bishop, they were granted excellent rest with him, as long as it pleased. Nor even then could they either ascertain anything more certainly, or hear, concerning blessed Vincent, whom the same bishop (as we reported above) kept under the name of the martyr Marinus. For there was no one, Audald the translating monk having fled, who would disclose the knowledge of this deed. They are presented also to Abd al-Wahar, the aforementioned prince of that same city, giving thanks that they had been aided by his help in going and returning. From whom, on departing, they received salutations to Humfrid, and letters to the guards of the castles: that without impediment or any discussion they might pass through the fortified places of his power. For, lest perchance for them unforeseen either a deceitful embassy be made, or certainly rather a hostile onset come upon them, they take pains to secure the approaches of all the roads to themselves with continual guards, and especially those places which, from the narrow track of the path, they call defiles.
[16] And so, setting out to the walls of Barcelona, though manifoldly wearied, soon to Barcelona, Gerona, Narbonne, Béziers. they arrive in the city smeared about with the moisture of the blood of the holy martyrs Cucuphas and the virgin Eulalia. But what joy there was over the rewards obtained, and what admiration over their sudden and, so to speak, unexpected return, on the part of bishop Athaulf and Sunifred, the aforementioned venerable men, it is wonderful to tell, very many also glorifying God and blessing Him, who thus wonderfully, to the praise and glory of His name, protects those who hope in Him. And the prosperities of their friend Leovigild being heard, and his ready benefits to them, they rejoiced in all things, from whom, twelve suns having elapsed, dismissed glad, they come with hastened course to Gerona, wet with the blood of the holy martyr Felix: leaving whose confines, they approach the metropolitan city of Narbonne. Where, turning aside on this side of its walls to the sepulcher of St. Paul the confessor, they afterward enter the city of Béziers, illustrious from the limbs of the blessed prelate Aphrodisius, in which, gladly received, as by a known and kindred man, and the chief of that same city, by name Gerin, they lay the bodies of the holy Martyrs to be kept in the oratory of the blessed Mother of God Mary.
Annotations* Alcalá de Henares
BOOK II,
which is the first on the miracles of the holy Martyrs, which happened from Béziers as far as the district of Auxerre.
Chapter I.
Hence, then, we are compelled, with a worthy account of the deeds, to note in writing, to be remembered by the following generation, the things which in that same city of Béziers, At Béziers the cupbearer of their host Gerin is healed, and those which through them on the subsequent journey, the heavenly clemency working, we have learned were accomplished. Now while, that aforesaid Gerin detaining them, they stayed there for a while for the sake of rest, a certain man, by name Brictius, for nearly half a year lay wholly ulcerous with the incurable elephantine disease in his shins or upper genital members: who not only, by that debility, seemed useless as to the body, but also destitute of the solace of life, such an affliction raging in him. He, being permitted to lie for the space of one night in the church in which were the bodies of the holy Martyrs, is by their intervention so cured by divine compassion that at once on the morrow, restored to health, he stood to his own office, all being astonished. For he was the dear cupbearer of his lord, the same Gerin.
II.
[18] The things which are said, or are to be said, we have learned by the account of those same men who, as present during the doing, beheld them with their own eyes. Moreover, by these sacred miracles there seemed already to be foretasted what marvels the Lord was to confer on the peoples through them. another laboring with fevers, For on that same night, by a doubled proclamation of the holy Martyrs, this virtue too is known to have shone forth. A certain youth, by name Gisandus, grievously laboring for three months with the type of fevers, could truly suspect nothing else concerning himself than the event of death. For he was urged by the sharpest goads of cold and heat by turns, now by these, now by those. He, permitted to keep watch by the aforesaid bodies of the Saints in the space of the night with a like faith of healing, was cured by no dissimilar virtue, the fever being driven away. For, giving thanks, he too, made not moderately whole, returns.
III.
[19] Although we know that others there too were cured of various languors of infirmities by their holy merits, we have thought it right, hastening not to leave out things worthy of narration, to relate one more miracle, which there shone forth more laudably. The aforesaid Gerin, then, the viscount of that same city, when suddenly he was tortured throughout his whole body with the most grievous punishment of pains, and Gerin himself most grievously sick. having taken two candles of his own stature, and one cloak (which is still in testimony) of no mean value, orders himself, distrusting greatly that he would live, to be carried to their presence: and thus lying, and rolling himself on the ground, and publicly confessing with humbled spirit what he had committed against them, whence his trouble, in the first sleep of the night, by the health-bringing visitation of the gracious George, he obtained a sudden remedy from heaven in that same church. For he said that the same holy Martyr, in a monastic habit, as he once had been, bearing a golden pyxis in his hand, stood before his sight, and, from it pouring out ointment of snowy color, gently poured it over his head, eyes, and hands, as it was perceived. So entirely, in such a way that he afterward asserted himself ignorant whether he was still gathering placid sleep to his eyes: for health is diffused through his limbs, and Gerin, refreshed in his whole body, returns home rejoicing, no longer doubting them to be Martyrs, nay proclaiming them most powerful of the Martyrs.
IV.
[20] They go to the district of Viviers, then of Beaune, At length, after a time of about two months, their strength being recovered, and the things which were necessary on the journey being prepared, our aforesaid brothers, departing thence from the city, come, not indeed without miracles, into the district of Viviers *, the same Gerin himself accompanying them; where, the revelation being heard of the body of the holy martyr Andeolus, disciple of the great Polycarp, who is known to have been a hearer of the blessed John the Apostle and Evangelist, since the approach to this was not longer, they betook themselves thither with the zeal of praying: from which also, relics of his proper body being received, they return to complete the journey which remained, and, days having passed thence, the district of Beaune received them safe, where in the village which is called Arcelia, gladly received by Humfrid, they set forth this, to him surely thirsting much to hear, what had happened on the way, or what had been obtained by the gift of divine bounty: which things being known, the count himself too, giving thanks with admiration, having bidden necessaries be given, dismissed them rewarded.
[21] But since the Lord had decreed to magnify with virtues His servants proved by faith and confession, where a thief is compelled to restitution. and to show by the tokens of signs of what merit each was with Him; that miracle which occurred in that same district of Viviers and in the very village Arcelia, it was worthy to relate. A certain widow, then, by name Theothildis, losing her horse by the wicked violence of a certain robber swollen with the spirit of pride, mournful, wringing herself with weeping, languished with despairing contrition. And when she thought that by no device, and by no one's solace, it could be restored to her lamentation, she betook herself to look for the suffrages of those same holy Martyrs, with all confidence of the hope of recovery: and there she remained, weeping and persevering in asking God, who does judgment for the one suffering wrong, so long, until on the third day the robber, struck by the terror of a heavenly inspiration, making satisfaction, was compelled willingly to restore to the widow what he had been seen wickedly to take away. Thus faith merits, and thus divine fear works.
VI.
[22] Hastening therefore, and wishing to reach the end of this little book, [In the district of Auxerre a robber of the cloak of the holy Martyrs is punished.] let us narrate, in commemoration, what happened in a certain village which is called Cora *, in the district now of Auxerre. Now when they had been brought into the church of that same place, and moreover reverently displayed on the altar, a certain youth, the keeper being absent for a little, secretly entering, suddenly stole by stealth the cloak with which their sacred relics were covered. But the most just working of supreme rectitude suffered neither this man to go unpunished any longer, nor the holy Martyrs to endure injustice. For, struck with the disease of pustules on the shoulder under which he had hidden it, presently returning, he secretly threw the cloak down at the door of the church: and thus, seeking the impunity which he did not deserve, he lay hid by fleeing. Yet, the trouble of the arisen ulcer growing worse, being compelled by the swelling, admonished by despair of life and by the pain of the torment, he confesses his fault: which being disclosed and laid bare to all who heard, he obtains the help of full health, though long vexed, by their holy benefits, God and our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who lives and reigns almighty through the infinite ages of ages, Amen.
ANNOTATIONS* Le Vivarais
* Core
BOOK III OF THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION,
which is the second of the miracles.
PROLOGUE
to the following book.
Since hitherto we have run through in part the order of the translation of the holy martyrs George and Aurelius, and the miracles which, divine grace bestowing, they did on the way, their merits interceding; now let the pen, though unskilled, yet faithful, be turned to that which remains: which it pleased on this account to be divided into two little books, that neither to eager readers might they be superfluous, nor to pious hearers might the things which were said be burdensome. For also in prolix narrations, a certain relief is as it were afforded, when one volume is finished and another begun; and that the preceding little book is illumined not by human, but I confess by a predetermined arrangement, with only twice-three titles of miracles, how much it may intimate the perfect consummation of those same holy Martyrs, the very reckoning of the number six, known to arithmeticians, declares.
PART I.
Continued miracles at Auxerre and elsewhere, until the sacred remains were brought to Esmans, whither the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés had fled on account of the harassments of the Normans.
Chapter I.
In the aforesaid district of Auxerre, then, when they had begun to approach the village of Bazarnes, At Auxerre the crowds pressing together on this side and that, certain of our men came out to meet them, receiving them there most attentively, as was fitting: whose exultation of soul, or tears of gladness, divine thanksgivings being hymned, answered to their desire. Whence, on the following day, setting out together, the Saints being raised in that same place on the biers of the Saints' bodies, they come to the city of Auxerre, distinguished by the trophies of very many Saints. Which being learned, the monks of the gracious Confessor of Christ Germanus, once prelate of that same city, received them most honorably with the memorials of the Lord's passion and every worthy apparatus, placing the same bodies of the Martyrs upon the altar of the blessed Maurice, martyr, chief of the Theban legion, to be kept that night: at whose entrance we have learned that one man was cured of lameness, but at their departure another man of a continual headache in the same place. But on the morrow (for the time did not permit them to stay there longer) not otherwise than they were received by the aforesaid holy brothers, or honorably escorted by the citizens of that place, they enter the district of Sens, with what and how manifest miracles they adorned which too, I think it wholly laborious, but pleasing if in part it be narrated.
II.
[25] For while, for the sake of performing the solemnities of the Masses, he had turned aside into the village which in that same district is called Puteoli *, and in the district of Sens a certain little infant, among the rest seeking benefits, came sick. Then some, exhorting the boy, admonished him that, for obtaining the remedy of health, he should approach the patronage of the Martyrs, as best he could. Which when he had done, and, creeping rather than walking, had cast himself prostrate before their relics, forthwith, all who were present seeing it, he obtained the medicine of fullest soundness. Nor otherwise, I say, than that he, who had come lame with the weakness of both feet, followed them thence upright.
III.
[26] Nor let it be irksome to hear the things which it pleased Christ, the cooperator of goodness, to work for the merits of His soldiers. various miracles For we make another's good our own, if it pleases us. A certain old woman, then, by name Tedelgrimnis, from childhood (which many of her neighbors knew) lay both deaf and mute. For she was sustained out of the mercy of a certain religious man by name Bovo (into whose house also the same bodies of the Saints had by chance turned aside to remain). She attended to the fact that the alms which is given on earth to the poor is received in heaven by Christ, as the half-cloak of Martin testifies. She, carefully meditating with herself concerning the remedy of the health to be desired, went up to the place where the bodies of the blessed Martyrs were venerated. But immediately, as she poured forth prayer, she is endowed with the grace of health: so that, the Gospel miracle being renewed in one and the same hour, she deserved both to speak and at the same time to hear; and she went out rejoicing, bringing joy to the whole house.
IV.
[27] But what the same Bovo said had happened to him at the coming of those Martyrs, with the faith of an oath, a thing worthy of a miracle does not suffer to be passed over. When, therefore, the monks who bore these Saints had been received that night together with their nearly thirty companions from the same lodging; the not-deaf apostolic hearer, distributing with cheerful mind, furnished them with necessaries. But that the superabundant work of so great and so copious a charity might be rewarded; the little casks of his wine-store were in the morning found as though nothing had been drunk from them in the evening. For to all, and to the whole household of his house and to the comers, on account of the holy Martyrs, so plentifully had drink been served, that all, according to the measure of sobriety, satiated to the full with wine, rejoiced. For the cellar was under that same upper room (drinking blessing from above) in which the bodies of the blessed Martyrs had that night been admitted to rest.
[28] This Bovo too often, admiring, related a deed not unlike this. which here From whose house, finally, the bodies of the Saints being brought out, it happened on the fourth day after, that men from the army of Louis, king of the Bavarians, entered into it, and, staying there for some days, inhumanly laid it waste. Therefore, though deservedly frustrated of this hope, Louis had come out for this same purpose, invited by certain nobles, that, usurping the kingdom, he might invade the realm of his brother lord Charles, then contending against the Danes with a naval fleet in the Seine; but also the victory, alas! as if now suspected to be at hand, he seemed to have put off by this most unhappy tyranny. For, the king being left unsaluted with a few men in a ship, all treacherously adhering to him depart, and, the ropes of that same ship being cut, lest the king should be helped by any protection, they go to the same Louis, making him their king; which fell to them for a worthy disgrace. Therefore the king, divinely freed, at once, a small army being gathered which fidelity had retained for him, nobly expelled his brother from the kingdom; and, though he could take him alive, tenderly granted him a place to depart, and his fugitives (when he could have avenged himself on them by royal censure) returning to him in a lofty gathering, he received with his wonted piety, possessing the scepter and kingdom. And so the above-said enemies, exterminating beyond measure the substance of the house which they had entered, took away of the wine of the above-mentioned man Bovo no less (as was reckoned) than sixty measures. But when they had withdrawn, again by the merits of the Saints, Bovo being witness, the whole quantity of the wine is found entire. Nor is it to be doubted that it thus grew, charity increasing it, which, diffused in the man's heart, was strong with a twofold good.
VI.
[29] in order There was in Villeneuve * of that same district of Sens a certain girl, by name Arohildis, condemned for eight years by the loss of blindness, who, being led to the Blessed ones conspicuous with the light of virtues (of whose benefits is our discourse), thus consecrating herself to them by a vow of perpetual service, was suddenly cured, so that all who were present marveled, astonished at this deed. And when she thereafter wished to carry out the service of her profession, being sharply upbraided by her father as for the presumption of rashness, she was compelled to change the resolution of the promise which she had vowed for her health. And so, when she begins, favoring rather the words of her father, to return home; she incurs both the disaster of her former blindness, and moreover much force of fevers. Her father and the other kinsmen become tearful, and she herself lying exceedingly pitiable, and they return swiftly to seek again the pious suffrages of the Martyrs. But when, her father himself now in every way compelling, she vowed that she would never again fail in what she had promised; the fullness of health which she had before deserved being received, she is likewise made whole, and remained there, and afterward gladly discharged the task of her service at the appointed times in the worship of the church.
VII.
[30] they are enumerated. For, going to Esmans *, a village of our possession (in which then the greater part of the brothers dwelt on account of the hostile persecution of the pagans), they are received by them with great thanksgiving and rich praises, worthily enough: which reception the Lord willed to be adorned with the flowers of virtues, so that to no one was there doubt that not just any or uncertain, but precious patronages of the witnesses were brought to them. Now a certain nun, by name Leutgardis, while, mingled with the assembly of the peoples going to meet them, she too raised a candle kindled in honor of the Saints, suddenly laments it deprived of the honor of its light; who, touched by shame at the neglect, put it away meanwhile in the secret of her cloak, snuffed out. But what Christ thereupon worked for the manifestation of His Martyrs, ought in no way to be left out. For while she thus walks, the time awaiting to re-illumine it, presently in that very place in which it was hidden it is kindled, and seized the part of the garment with which it was covered. Which being seen, the woman was terrified, raising the praises of so great a virtue with what voice she could: and thus it came to pass that, even the woman being silent, the burned part of the garment, astonishing, plainly declared to the beholders what had been done.
VIII.
[31] A paralysis is healed, Then Boso from the village of Alseium lay so dissolved by the disease of paralysis from the kidneys downward, that to him was denied the faculty not only of walking, but even of sitting. And it was possible to see the toil in him. He, having heard of the gifts of such notable ones, carried among many in the hands of his kinsmen, came as a suppliant, and, approaching the relics of the holy Martyrs so near to infirmities, is at once so poured over with the remedies of the health he asked, that, walking by his own effort, he did not leave them until the church into which they were to be brought. And thence, more fully made whole after some days, he returned to his own home with rejoicing mind: at whom his neighbors, congratulating, marveled that health had so quickly befallen him.
IX.
[32] On that same day, nonetheless, a certain woman is brought from the village of Rethica, a flux of blood. called from the appellation of her name Ragina. She, for twelve years, not, like that Syrophoenician woman, flowing with blood, but lying contracted in the kidneys, seemed as if now destitute of vital solaces, was oppressed, and by the too great want of poverty, being, as it were, idle in the work of her hands. But when, among the rest of the crowd's assembly, she is offered to the patronages of the blessed Martyrs to be healed, she received before them, in the presence of the crowds that were there, the use of her former felicity. Therefore, walking and joyfully rendering thanks to her healers, she restores herself, with the step of soundness as companion, to the point to which she had come, aided by the hands of others.
[33] Adalbert of the village of Talsiniacum, greatly fearing a hostile encounter, A peasant's beehive is preserved. vowed with full faith one vessel of bees to the lights of the holy Martyrs, for the protection of the rest: when suddenly certain men from the army of the aforesaid Louis, king of the Bavarians, bursting into his house, greedy by the nature of honey, tried first to carry off that very beehive, because it was greater and better than the rest, which, wonderful to say, remained immovable while they labored in vain, as if it were fixed to the very bottom of the place in which it was; which done, the enemies, troubled and greatly astonished, learned at last that it was dedicated to the holy Martyrs for the preservation of the rest. Whence not only this, but nothing further in the same house did they presume to take, reverencing the Saints, having perceived that divine protection was in it by their merits.
ANNOTATIONS* Puteaux
* Villeneuve-l'Archevêque
* Esmant
PART II.
Aimoin proceeds to set forth the praises of the miracles one by one.
XI.
[34] Because the venerable praises of the miracles increase, let the number of the little pages be increased with glory. To three blind men For many years Ingalbert of the village of Vimpopulus, being deprived of the gift of light of both eyes, having learned of so many and so wondrous virtues of the Saints, ordered himself to be led thither as quickly as possible. And so, walking with the help of his wife and moreover with much confidence of his company, he came even to the place. And while, entering the church for a long time, prostrate on the ground he insisted in prayers, groaning, he prayed, demanding with mournful voices that the holy Martyrs might have mercy on him, though unworthy. Then, the fountain of heavenly piety flowing into him by their intercession, he deserved at once to be so healed that, magnifying God and the Saints, he returned thence strong and seeing, having forgotten his wife's hand.
XII.
[35] Two blind men also are brought, inhabitants of the village which is called Sinportus, sight, to ask the excellent clemency of the blessed Martyrs. Their entire devotion the goodness that gives light to the blind, no small one, of divine compassion followed. But when, entering the house in which the sacred relics of the Martyrs were worthily venerated, they gave themselves to prayer; the darkness drawn over them being driven away after a little, they deserved to be able to receive sight: and rising from the pavement, the guide being removed, they run about here and there of themselves, seeing clearly. And so, praising together the provident kindness of God and the holy Martyrs toward them, they depart glad, as those once in the Gospel who were enlightened by the Savior and Son of David.
XIII.
[36] to a fool a sound mind is restored. This fame of the miracles, then, being widely spread through the districts, hastening to precede one another, very many flow together. Whence a certain youth, Acleulf, from the village by name Laudradus, out of his mind, when it now happened for a year and moreover that he was atrociously insane, which is commonly called lunatic, is led to the oft-mentioned bodies of the holy Martyrs, though bound with chains, by the faith of his parents, who, though they had not that voice, "Lord, if you can do anything, help us, taking pity on us"; yet asked that their sick one be healed. There, being detained a little while for the remedy of health, he deserved to obtain fully, by their pious merits, what was sought by the devotion of another's faith. And so, the vigor of his former senses being recovered, he departed brisk, and for the rest, as he had been before, remained in possession of a sound mind.
XIV.
[37] The punishment of an insolent girl. From the same village a certain insolent girl, by name Teutberga, quarreling by chance as she was wont with her mother, did not fear to attest her impudence by the pledges of the holy Martyrs, namely George and Aurelius. And when, being rebuked by some for why she acted thus against her parent, and why she thus rashly swore by the names of the Saints, she by no means rested; by a present vengeance the very hand which she had raised to swear is drawn together. Thereupon indeed, she is compelled to seek by earnest asking the Saints, by whom, swearing through the untamedness of her tongue, she had wickedly presumed, and to demand of them without hesitation the cause of her remedy, as a debt owed. And when, repentant of the deed, she betook herself most devoutly to their threshold, her disabled palm, quicker than can be told, healed, is extended, and the woman, made whole, returns to her mother, about to serve her for the rest of her life.
XV.
[38] A blind woman healed There was also a certain woman from the village by name Casellas, by name Amaluvara, remaining in the mists of blindness for a hundred * and forty-four months: nor did any medicinal hand profit her, whom the divine power reserved to be healed by these Saints. She was admonished by a certain most beautiful woman in the dead of night (as it seemed to her), that for obtaining the use of light she should diligently take pains to cleanse with brooms the pavement of the church, where the bodies of those same holy Martyrs rested, until the Saints should look upon her with pity. Which when, being brought once, she had accomplished, she received so much sharpness of eyes as suffices for her to this day, nor, though made a nun, does she need, as before, the help of a guide.
XVI.
[39] she is refreshed by a vision. But what was revealed to the same woman, keeping watch one night in that same church with the rest, we think it a neglect to keep silent. Where, while, others sleeping, she alone (as she was certain, and related to us) sat as if awake, she looks toward the window behind the altar of that same church, considering through it as it were a very great ray of the sun shining, and through the ray a boy, covered with the light of an inestimable appearance, descending to the very bottom of the altar, who, stretching out his hand where the bodies of the Saints rested, the cloak with which they were covered being lifted a little, began diligently to look within: when behold a dove, whose brightness was wonderful, appearing on the right horn of the altar, stood flitting above them, gazing intently at that youth, and as if contemplating something of divinity in him, watching what he wished to do: by which vision terrified, as if wearied by anxieties, she more fully fell asleep: and she sees, through an ecstasy of mind, two venerable men adorning that same church with certain and very precious ornaments, who also say to her: Go hastily to the keepers of this holy house, and tell them to adorn it more diligently, since the Saints who are round about will now come hither for the grace of these Martyrs. For we too have come forth from the parts of the Spains, whence they were lately brought, to visit them, how they might be here. Which being thus spoken, the vision being taken away, the woman wakes, and, revolving these things with herself, hesitates greatly, being ignorant what the boy, or what the dove signified. Yet the prudent reader or sagacious hearer (we believe) will understand the boy to be Christ, but the dove the Holy Spirit, sharer of the Father and the Son, breathing about the relics of the holy Martyrs.
XVII.
[40] Teutlindis from the girls' monastery of Dedentium, because it was the Lord's Day, Curiosity punished, and she was at leisure from work, as if out of idleness gave herself girlishly to the threshold of those same holy Martyrs out of curiosity to see. Others too went, devoutly moved: and although unlike in mind, yet with companionable step they arrive at the church, and gave themselves together to prayer before the altar: and, raising themselves, and hastening to go to the station of the rest who had gone before, in the place where she had stood, the others departing, the aforesaid Teutlindis so stuck fast, that, remaining immovable on the pavement, she raised all to no small admiration by this new miracle. Where, all beholding, she remained made immovable in both feet so long, until she confessed the guilt of her depravity; namely, that she had come less religiously, rejoicing in enticements, and that she had entreated less than she ought for those very faults. And so, the brothers who were present praying for her, and performing litanies, she deserved to be absolved by the ineffable suffrages of the holy Martyrs.
XVIII.
[41] Likewise a certain man, Altcarius by name, from the village of Scau, a contracted man restored. contracted in the kidneys, lay grieving for a long time. But hearing that many of the sick were cured by the merits of the Saints, taking (as he afterward related to the same) a certain hope of obtaining health, he destined himself to their compassion under the leading of his kinsmen or friends. And when, rising, he had tried somehow to sit, in order to shape with his own hands the wax candle which he should carry with him to the lights of the Saints, in his own house he suddenly received the desired strength of his lost health. For, raising himself, and finding himself whole, the work which before he tried as a weakling, now, God having mercy, made sound, he accomplished. He therefore met the holy Martyrs with the offering of light, rejoicing, and setting forth to all with joyful mouth what had happened to him.
XIX.
[42] This too is worthy to be set down, which brings at once both admiration and terror. Another punishment; For some are corrected by the fall of others, David the prophet being witness, saying: The just shall rejoice; when he shall see the vengeance, he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner. Therefore a certain servant from the same village of Esmans, by name Ingalsard, was himself indeed the gardener of the Brothers. He, having received the corn of his prebend, went to the mill of that same village for the sake of grinding, and thus there, proud in mind, eager to snatch away the place of some poor woman, obstinately threatened to throw his own corn upon hers, which was already being ground; which she, resisting with what strength she could, when, the weaker, she could not overcome the stronger, with hands raised to the church said, weeping: I adjure you by these holy Martyrs of God, George and Aurelius, that you do me no violence. Which wretched adjuration being spurned, when he had begun to go out of the place, immediately, struck, he understood that, on account of so great contempt, a near danger threatened him: and scarcely entreating, as one dying, with the faint voice he could, he begged the overseer of that same mill to throw off in haste the corn cast over hers; who, after this voice (which is a matter of admiration and fear), falling, became mute, and, evidently given over to present death, expired. Very many run together (for it was the Lord's Day), and, moved by such a spectacle, are astonished: which nevertheless we exhort must be believed to have befallen him by the just and hidden judgment of God, not to the event of future damnation, but rather (as we have foretasted) to correct the rashness of such men. For the death of the impious, to speak in the words of blessed Gregory, is to the good for a help, but to the evil, that they may beware, for a testimony.
XX.
[43] an inflation is healed, Afterward, finally, a certain woman from the village which is called Civiacus, by name Godohis, was held by so great and so terrible a disease of pellucid inflation, that, destitute of the fitting office of all her members, she seemed pitiable. She suffered also another evil within, namely of a cardiac infirmity, which, assiduously choking her, exceedingly gasped her breath away. And while, moment by moment, she was being led to death as by a disaster bordering upon her, she is at last placed in a carriage by the hands of her kinsmen, and thus is brought to the merciful help of the Saints. For she kept watch, oppressed by such bitterness of pains, before the doors of the church, so that scarcely could even breath be perceived in her. Yet after three days, her stomach being calmed, she is (which is wonderful and true) so healed, that she deserved thence to return glad on her own feet, the vehicle of the carriage being removed.
XXI.
[44] an unknown disease, We know also a certain man by name Jerome from the neighboring district of Gâtinais cured by a like virtue of the Saints. He, for nearly half a year overwhelmed by the anguish of debility of his whole body, is by the piety of his kinsmen brought to the solace of the blessed Martyrs, whose infirmity was more unknown than cured by the physicians. Who, counsel being scarcely found how, for the health of all his members, they might place him on a wagon in a certain wine-cask, which is called a "tonna," doing this, came to their sacred presence: and there, many who still survive beholding, he is so strengthened with the soundness of his former vigor, that, made whole for himself, he rose, and, the mercy of God being wrought upon him (as he had hoped), ran back home rejoicing.
XXII.
[45] likewise a deaf and mute man. Likewise a certain woman, grieving that she was deprived of no small solace in her offspring, taking with her a son mute and deaf alike, led him to the relics of the Saints shining with miracles. And when, prayer being made, she herself had stood far from the altar, she nodded to her son, as to a deaf one, to approach nearer, and to offer to the Saints at the altar the votive candle which she bore in her hand. Then suddenly the mouth of the infant, which had been closed from birth, is opened, and, uttering that first voice, he asks his mother to whom he should hand the lamp. And, the mother's answer being received, that he should bring it to the altar, by the execution of the work he shows that he also hears clearly. Which being known, those who had known him the day before yesterday mute and deaf alike, proclaim with admiration that the Gospel miracles have revived through the merits of the Saints. Nor is it a wonder, since the Savior not only did such great things, but moreover promised to His disciples that they would do greater.
ANNOTATIONS* Here there seems to be an error.
PART III.
Hence the relics rendered celebrated, of whose truth Charles the Bald is made more certain, and some portion is granted to the count Eddo.
XXIII.
We do not therefore believe it displeases, if what is useful and honorable be narrated. For faith is nourished, growing by the works of faith. Heavenly music is heard. Now when on a certain day of the Lord's resurrection certain women kept vigil at the door of that same church, some out of desire of health, others of the holy Martyrs, a wonderful and astonishing vision is shown to them: not, as once to the shepherds to be taught of the nativity of Christ, but to women devoted with praiseworthy virtue. And so, in the first watch of the night, they look through the little chinks of the door of that same church, and see a very great splendor of light proceeding from within even to them. Then one of them, approaching nearer, and striving to inspect more diligently what it was, perceives the whole church radiant with the gleam of incredible brightness, so that by that very light the outer porch, in which they sat, partly shone. And behold, they hear within various voices and a song of wonderful sweetness, as of a multitude congratulating and melodiously jubilating hymnic praises to God, which they confessed they had heard in a low voice by turns so far, until, the signal being struck for the due of the nocturnal Office, the brothers awoke. Whence, if we consider the causes of the miracles disposed by an orderly providence, that former vision is judged fulfilled, in which we have shown it was manifested, that for the grace of these Martyrs the Saints who were round about would come thither, joyful with an angelic escort at least.
XXIV.
[47] From the district of Paris and the village named Teodasius
* a certain youth bearing (as was said) five years in blindness, Another blind man is cured, lamented that he would be in cloud for all time. He therefore supplicates, so many and so great virtues of the holy Martyrs being learned, that he might be led to their pious help. For already, as if catechized by the light of faith, he had begun to see, which when it had been done, quickly, by their kind intervention, he deserved to obtain what, trusting, he had sought. For not long after, tearful vigils being completed there at the health-bringing threshold of those same holy Martyrs, by their excellent merits (which must be confessed), the unseen darkness being driven away, the heavenly virtue straightway made the light of day too shine again for him. He returned therefore seeing, magnifying God and giving thanks, a man renewed, reporting a new miracle to his neighbors.
XXV.
[48] likewise a distorted man, There was, then, from the district of Angers a certain man, by name Adalsad, for nearly five years so infirm with a vitiated frame of members, that his very heels were most tenaciously held bound to his hinder parts, who, the virtue of such miracles being known (for they were spread abroad by very many), transferred himself to the grace of those Martyrs on a certain night of the Lord's Day, as best he could: where, the nocturnal time coming, and the brothers now celebrating the same office with angelic reverence, he began, the bonds of his members loosening (as is wont to happen in such cases), to emit such cries that, wailing, he wholly broke through the voices of those chanting. Meanwhile, the remedy of health being presently in part recovered, after a few days thence restored to his former soundness, he is so raised by their prayers and set upright, that, walking erect of himself, he returned to his own home with sound step.
XXVI.
[49] and likewise a lame man. Ramnold, finally, from the village which by common appellation is called Fontenay, lame from the year's circle from the kidneys to the foot, came pitiable to the flourishing clemency of those same Martyrs. He came, I say, not by his own step, but carried by another's device, so plainly pitiable, and so thin with the wondrous debility of his whole body, that, infirmities being multiplied upon him, he was thought rather to be dying than able to be healed. Yet approaching with faith, and set before the ashes of the holy Martyrs, by whom he was carried, at once, looked upon with the gift of health by a heavenly regard, made whole by their pious suffrages, he is healed, the contagion namely of the kidneys and shins, and also of the feet and of all his weakness, being driven away, as his present alacrity still testifies. Thus he is rendered strong, so that, suffering nothing thereafter from that same infirmity, he serves God continually in that same place.
[50] Therefore, because it is wont to be possible, as blessed Gregory writes in his sacred Dialogue, that greater miracles are sometimes done where a smaller portion of the relics of the Saints is had; we think it will be pleasing if this too, which was done concerning their relics, be inserted.
XXVII.
[51] Charles the Bald examines the holy relics. The glorious king Charles, then, how greatly he rejoiced at the coming of these Martyrs, the titles of their Passion having been reread to him, it is not ours to set forth. He rejoiced that in the time of his reign Gaul had deserved such flowers: of whom, that he might possess the whole from a part, relics being taken, he showed that this too must be done by the faithful under the example of religion. Nor did he forget, sending Mancio to Cordova, to inquire the truth of this deed from the place: from whom, on his return, he learned that too, mutilated from their deeds, which is held worthy of memory and inscription. For, the bodies of the holy Martyrs having been slain and scattered in the street, the tyrant Abd al-Rahman had ordered them to be kept there, burial being denied, that the dogs and the birds of heaven might devour them: which we certainly see was done, so that in them too the psalmody of David might be fulfilled singing: They have set the dead bodies of Your servants as food for the birds of heaven, the flesh of Your Saints for the beasts of the earth. But that their dignity and the loftiness of their merit might be declared, they were so divinely guarded from all rapacious animals, as once Daniel from the lions, that they were defiled by not even the appetite of a fly through the three days in which they thus lay. For this the same Mancio said was true, and testified that he had most truly heard it from the faithful citizens of the same Cordova. Likewise that he had seen two noble girls, sisters in the flesh, in his presence, contending, complete their martyrdom for Christ. And when the elder wished to drink the cup of passion before the younger, No, said she, sister, thus it is not fitting, I will follow you, my mistress, to the prize whom I have followed to the spectacle: fear not, I will not forsake you. For dying I will show faith and love, as living I was wont. Thus, the heads of both being cut off, their souls, borne up by the solace of the angels, passed to God, to live perpetually.
XXVIII.
[52] For the rest, when to the count Eddo (that we may return, for it is time, to us) the requested part of the relics of the holy Martyrs was being carried, A portion of the relics granted to Eddo. it happened on the way that a certain priest, asking that it be granted him to pray longer, entered the bedchamber of the house in which they were kept, and presumed to steal those relics, no one meditating this: and taking what first met his hand, namely whatever there was of the hair of the blessed Nathalia, hastens in that very darkness of the night to return, joyful with his theft, to his lodging. But before it was granted him to go far, in the middle of the streets he presently fell down out of his mind, horribly, deprived of sense and all vigor. Then, as if after an hour, recalled to himself and repenting of his fault, he rises, and, returning as one who had gone out for some necessity, replaced the relics of the holy Martyr in their place, again feigning prayer out of desire: who, if by loving he offered well, yet because, by committing the fraud to those to whom they were owed, he did not divide well, likewise, before all who were present, suddenly falling, is again tortured, rolling on the ground. All rise, struck with horrible fear, and lay hands on him by which he might be held. They saw him out of his mind, and thought him at once dying: and, lest a matter of so great a miracle be concealed, he is afterward, his mind recovered, compelled to confess what he had committed. Thus, the compassion of the Saints being first invoked by father Usuard the bearer, the fault forgiven, the priest, reanimated, returns more cheerful.
XXIX.
[53] Therefore, very many things being passed over, let an end of writing be set, A man contracted in his members is set upright. that one being admitted by which it may shine forth that the blessed prelate Germanus rejoices not only over the eternal, but also over the present fellowship. A certain Teutgaud in Neuvy, which is situated upon the river Loire, when he had lain infirm with adverse health, this calamity moreover befell him, that from the thighs downward he was contracted: in which bond of contraction, for nearly two years, the office of walking being utterly denied him, he remained. Then, fame teaching, when he learned that he could be succored by the merits of these venerable Martyrs, he entreats, supplicating, to be carried thither by the hands of his friends or kinsmen; which was so done, and in haste. And when he had come, and remained there for a while, living in prayers, he awaited the predetermined day of his health. The sacred festivity of the translation of our most blessed patron the lord Germanus now pressing, he came more early, about to find more quickly what he had sought by devotion. And, placed before the altar of that same great Prelate, on which the bodies of those same holy Martyrs were kept placed above, he stood, so that by their intervention together (as we believe) the sick man might obtain a speedy health. Made whole therefore, as we saw, he went resounding with great thanksgiving: and, all acclaiming to the omnipotent God and holy Germanus and the Martyrs the greatness of the virtues, he remained there serving even to death, his country and his kinsmen and the friends who had brought him being forgotten. Nor undeservedly did blessed Germanus wish to be on earth the partaker of the miracle wrought by those in whose fellowship, exulting, he rejoices in heaven; in that desirable fatherland, in that splendid joyfulness, in that wholly honey-flowing region, in that land of the human portion of the living, in that our heavenly mother Jerusalem, in those most pleasant pastures of eternity. For there the spirits who, ever living and desiring to look upon Him, stand before God, applaud, in one and the same glory, to the Saints now associated to them from this mortality, and rejoicing together they also congratulate those, though still pilgrims on earth, whom they know and understand, through Him who knows and understands all things, to become after a little while their fellow-citizens in the common company, whose refreshment will be one and highest, the contemplation of the one and full inaccessible God, contemplation because a vision, inaccessible because impenetrable. For, says the Psalmist: Man shall come to a deep heart, and God shall be exalted; because the more they search out the secrets of the divinity, the more the depths are beheld.
Annotations* Thiais