ON ST. RUFINUS, MARTYR,
AT ASSISI IN UMBRIA.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Is one, or several, holy Rufini celebrated at Assisi?
Rufinus, Martyr, at Assisi in Umbria (St.)
BHL Number: 7369
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S., from Surius.
About to treat of St. Rufinus or Ruffinus the martyr, who in these very words is announced on this day in the Roman Martyrology, "At Assisi in Umbria, of St. Rufinus the martyr"; in investigating those things which might conduce at least to the illustration of the deeds or passion of the Martyr, From the sermon of St. Damian I met with none other than such as so involved and entangled the whole matter that what at last could be said by any tolerable reasoning concerning the aforesaid Saint, I did not at all understand: when I have spread out the web, whether the folds and refoldings are sufficiently explicable, I shall leave to be discerned by the judgment of the readers. What therefore is first for us in this matter, is that, when after the Martyrology I consult the notes of Baronius, I find these things set forth on this thirtieth of July and on the cited text: There is extant concerning the same a sermon of Peter Damian, and also a sacred hymn, all of which you have in Surius, volume 4, on this day. Thus indeed Galesinius had led the way for Baronius, in whose notes we are moreover warned of this, and that they are found also in Lipomanus, volume 8, which is true; and there also the hymn is attributed to St. Peter Damian, which nevertheless in his works it was not permitted to find so subjoined to the sermon; perhaps because the editor Caietanus judged it, from the number of the rhythms, to be of another and younger writer.
[2] I proceed therefore to the cited sermon itself, which in the edition of the praised Caietanus is in order 37, the question cannot be decided, where the holy Cardinal, treating in a long oration of the burials of the ancient patriarchs, at last slips down to these words: The body therefore of this blessed Martyr was afterward translated from the suburb of the town of Assisi, where it had anciently been placed, within the walls, by the terror of a gentile assault. Then he pursues the dispute between Hugh, then bishop, and the people of Assisi, concerning the transferring of the stone basin in which the Saint's body had once been placed; whether to the cathedral church, or to the basilica of St. Rufinus itself, where wondrous things are narrated, but which do not pertain to the Saint's life or passion: afterward other miracles, from which you may be taught just as much about the deeds of St. Rufinus. Then indeed he adds: When these things therefore had been transacted, no small inquiry began to be made on what day the martyrdom of the most invincible triumpher of Christ, Rufinus, ought to be celebrated. For since no monuments of history were extant among them, they had hitherto been content with the sole solemnity of the annual dedication. At last, God being the author, the history of the passion having been found, the venerable pontiff ordained—namely according to the tenor which the writings attested—that on the third day before the Kalends of August the festivity of the same glorious Martyr should be observed.
[3] which is elsewhere still further entangled From these things we are openly taught that in the age of St. Peter Damian, namely the eleventh century, in which also lived the praised Hugh, bishop of Assisi, the festivity of St. Rufinus was first fixed and established on this day, the third before the Kalends of August, since the people of Assisi had hitherto been content with the sole solemnity of the annual dedication (of the basilica, I suppose, of the Saint himself): so that it ought not to seem wondrous that no memory of this Saint was found among the ancient Martyrologists. Furthermore, this is most wondrous, that from the whole found history of the passion not a word is commemorated by St. Peter Damian, unless you should say that he wished to comprehend it in the said hymn, which I should by no means believe, since the whole hymn can easily be adapted to any other holy Martyrs whatsoever. These things I should now wish to combine with those which Ughellus relates in each edition of Sacred Italy, volume 1, concerning the Bishops of Assisi, namely that that Hugh, contemporary of St. Damian, translated the body of St. Rufinus in the year 1050, whereas St. Damian most expressly asserts that that same sacred body was translated, by the terror of a gentile assault, and therefore many centuries before, from the suburb within the walls; but that in the time of Hugh, as you will understand from the very discourse to be subjoined below, there was a most bitter tumult only concerning the translation of the stone basin.
[4] while another history is put forward, The discourse grows, nay, the knot is rendered altogether indissoluble, if you have recourse to Ferrarius, inasmuch as on this very day, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, treating Of St. Rufinus, martyr, at Assisi, he brings forward a history, differing by the whole heaven from those things which are said in the sermon, which I here subjoin entire: Rufinus, a cleric, served a certain presbyter at Assisi. Now when that presbyter had committed adultery, fearing lest Rufinus, called into judgment, should betray him by the force of an oath, he cast him into a well, no one seeing. After a long space of time he was detected by those drawing water, and was found so whole and incorrupt as if he had been recently drowned. In whose mouth they say a flowering lily was found, in which the word "truth" was seen thrice impressed on the flower. These things Ferrarius testifies that he received from ancient tradition and from the pictures of the church, whence Jacobillus took his material to extend, a little more fully by his own effort, the history here related in a brief epitome; with what fidelity, I here do not dispute. But Ferrarius notes in the same place that there is extant a church outside the city in a place named the Citadel (Arx), dedicated to this holy Martyr, who is also wont to be surnamed St. Rufinus of the Citadel. And these things [are] in the greater Catalogue, or that of the Saints of Italy.
[5] From these things, unless I am greatly mistaken, it is plain to evidence which does not agree with the said sermon; that there is not now commemorated among the people of Assisi, nor on this day, the memory of that St. Rufinus the martyr of whom we have heard St. Peter Damian speaking, inasmuch as he made no mention even from afar of a cleric, but of a famous ancient Martyr, who was solemnly venerated not in the fortress of the Citadel, not in the cathedral church, but in his own basilica, and within the walls of the town, while Damian lived. Nor did Ferrarius elucidate the most entangled matter when in the general Catalogue he mixed all other things on the nineteenth of August, where, this announcement being prefixed in the register, "At Assisi, of St. Rufinus the martyr," he noted that he had received these things from the records of the church of Assisi. There is extant, he says, in the fortress of the Citadel on the M. (a mountain, I suppose) at Assisi a church dedicated to his own name, although his body rests in the cathedral church. He is venerated in Picenum, in the diocese of Fermo, because he was born in Picenum. Concerning him [see] in our Catalogue. Nay indeed, but on this thirtieth of July, on which day most certainly some ancient martyr Rufinus was venerated, when Peter Damian delivered an oration concerning the Saint, which entire, as also the hymn, I shall subjoin below; from which this at last will be the consequence: that there are venerated, or at least were once venerated, among the people of Assisi three different holy Rufini, martyrs, of whom today at least two are confused into one.
[6] but neither does it square with a bishop St. Peter Damian's Rufinus is not a Bishop with a Martyr, as Jacobillus badly combined them, in whom, while I sought light, I felt myself involved in new darkness. He narrates more fully, as I have already said, the history of the cleric drowned in a well by an adulterous Curate, and wishes first that that matter happened on the thirtieth of July about the year of Christ one thousand, namely before the death of St. Peter Damian the Cardinal, since he himself, who died in 1072, narrates that in his time was celebrated at Assisi the festivity of a single St. Rufinus the martyr on the very day of the thirtieth of July. But then he adds: But he himself (namely the holy Cardinal of Ostia) "concludes" (he means to say "confounds") him with the Life of another St. Rufinus, bishop and martyr, whose feast is kept on the eleventh of August. Much more rightly would the here and often elsewhere stumbling Jacobillus have said, that the holy Cardinal Damian in his whole oration did not even think of that holy Rufinus, bishop of Assisi, much less of any Cleric so treacherously drowned, and indeed about the time in which he himself lived, namely about the year one thousand, since he so depicts his Martyr that you clearly understand both that he suffered under gentile tyrants, and that by the fear of them the sacred body was translated from the suburbs into the city.
[7] Nor indeed that St. Damian can be speaking of a bishop is plainly concluded from this: that in his age the holy martyr bishop Rufinus was almost unknown at Assisi, whose body was first found in the eleventh century. certainly where his body lay was altogether not known; of which matter I again have as witness Ughellus, in his account of Vido, the fifteenth (otherwise tenth) bishop of Assisi, who in the year 1204 ascended that chair, when he writes thus concerning him: And he merited to find St. Rufinus, the first bishop of Assisi and invincible martyr, who to that day had lain hidden from mortals, and, being found, to place him in the cathedral in a more honorable place on the third day of the month of August 1212; on which day Ferrarius, in the general Catalogue, speaks thus: At Assisi, the translation of St. Rufinus, bishop and martyr; but falsely does Jacobillus attribute to him that in the same Catalogue on the eleventh of August he celebrates the birthday of the same Saint, of whom he does not even speak: but in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on that eleventh of August he indeed commemorates Rufinus, with the Roman Martyrology, but him the bishop of the Marsi, to whom he not quite aptly ascribes the hymn of Peter of Ostia or St. Damian, which no more squares with the bishop than with the drowned cleric; to say nothing now that of the same St. Rufinus the bishop he himself treated in each Catalogue on the eleventh of February: but it is not so new a thing to catch a slip of memory in Ferrarius.
[8] A solution of the doubts is sought from the people of Assisi. You have here a labyrinth from which you will not easily emerge, unless the people of Assisi themselves furnish the thread, and distinguish for us more clearly, from the more distinct monuments of their church, which holy Rufinus they once venerated on this thirtieth of July, and which further today; whether on the nineteenth of August they venerate the Damianic or the Ferrarian one; and whether on account of the impediment which Jacobillus imagines for us, as if the Indulgence of the Portiuncula could stand in the way, that on the thirtieth of July—namely a whole three days before it—the accustomed festivity of the most ancient Martyr and once their patron should not be commemorated. Let them at last teach us whether they venerate another St. Rufinus the bishop besides him who on the eleventh of August is thus announced in the Roman Martyrology: On the same day, the passion of the holy Rufinus, bishop of the Marsi, and of his companions, under the emperor Maximinus? When they shall have explained these things a little more distinctly, I dare to promise that the monuments they suggest shall be most accurately discussed and illustrated by us on the said eleventh of August. Meanwhile, since now nothing else is at hand which can be predicated with any certainty concerning St. Rufinus, besides the so often praised sermon of St. Peter Damian, we here reprint it entire, with the hymn, as it was edited by Lipomanus and Surius.
The sermon of Blessed Peter Damian concerning St. Rufinus the martyr.
Taking his exordium from the resurrection of the dead You know, dearest brethren, as you have learned from the teacher of the Catholic faith, that in the examination of the last scrutiny, all together, both sinners and just, are to be presented with their own bodies before the tribunal of the eternal Judge, the Apostle attesting, who says: We must all be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may report the proper things of the body,
according as he has done, whether good or evil. And the reprobate indeed to this end, that because here they trampled the precepts of their Creator with flesh and soul together, they may there, with those same two substances, receive the sentence of just damnation, and thenceforth in both feel the bitterness of punishments, they who, while they lived, served their depraved delights with both: but the elect, to this end, that because they now cease not to crucify their flesh with its vices and concupiscences, they may, with their own bodies—which, namely, as tabernacles they used in the divine warfare—be advanced to the glory of the supernal brightness; so that, the belt of warfare loosed, the interior and the exterior man may then feel one citizenship of perpetual rest, they who through common wars arrived at one triumph, and whose was the same battle, whose likewise may be the same crown.
[2] That will plainly be our sabbath, that seventh year of the law, that truly year of Jubilee. For the sabbath is commanded to be kept as a feast, and from the care of burial and by it eternal rest is figured. Under the mystery too of the same eternal rest, or of the resurrection to be designated, in the seventh year liberty is restored. But in the Jubilee the trumpets are sounded, that each may return to his own possession. For the trumpet shall sound, as the Apostle says, and the dead who are in Christ shall rise. To their own possessions therefore all then return: because on that last day of resurrection each receives his own body, in which, while he led the present life, he dwelt. Then Adam, then Noah, then all the ancient fathers—nay, the souls of all mortals—return to the lost earth of their flesh: because, their bodies received, they will possess them forever, and, brought into the liberty of the sons of God, all will now securely rejoice, loosed from the servile bond of human corruption. Since therefore the bodies of the Saints are to be of such great dignity, as to receive in common with their souls both the crown of perpetual life and the robe of immortality: what wonder if now almighty God provides for them fitting places, and disposes their tombs not to be made anywhere, or by chance, but by the choice of his own will?
[3] For indeed this too is often not idly asked: Why did Abraham, in Abraham, Jacob, who confesses himself, as to a part of his body, to be dust and ashes, have so ambitious a provision for his own burial, that out of all the breadth of his pilgrimage he chose Hebron alone, of the region, namely, of Canaan, in which also, for no small sum, he purchased for himself a double cave? Jacob too adjures his sons, and Joseph his brothers, entreating them to transfer their bones to the same cave after death. What is it therefore that holy men, who had despised both the present and all the glory of the world from the lofty citadel of their mind, so eagerly, so anxiously, so studiously disputed concerning the place where their ashes should be laid, unless because through the spirit of Prophecy they knew that the Savior of the world was there to be born of their seed, and that the blood which should wash away the sins of the world was in that region specially to be shed? as is said through the Psalmist: For our God before the ages wrought salvation in the midst of the earth. Which indeed, although it can specially be understood of the very body of the Lord, yet also of that region where he deigned to suffer, which certainly is the center of the world, it seems not incongruously to be said.
[4] In the land of Canaan, therefore, our holy Fathers chose their tombs, and the ancient patriarchs; that they might there merit at some time to rise again, where, namely, that author of the rising, Christ, the firstborn of the living and the dead, deigned in himself to declare the glory of the resurrection. And what more shall I say of the honor which God, the rewarder of the good, exhibits to the bodies of his Saints, when almighty God himself deigned to bury the body of Moses, and is read to have raised the dead corpse of Elisha? Nay, to confess the truth, what he by no means conferred on the Saints living in the flesh, this the divine dispensation often granted as a prerogative to the dead. Which, namely, is clearly weighed in Abdo, the man of God, whom indeed, while living, the lion could assail to slay, but was by no means permitted in any way to violate his corpse. Precious indeed in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. It is therefore no wonder if the divine dispensation distributes suitable places to the bodies of the Saints, and now commends them to the earth as a certain deposit, which it may afterward restore, to be transferred into the heavenly kingdoms. But now, on account of that for which we have premised these things, let us briefly touch upon some of the miracles of blessed Ruffinus.
[5] he treats of the sepulchre of St. Rufinus, The body therefore of this blessed Martyr was afterward translated from the suburb of the town of Assisi, where anciently it had been placed, within the walls, by the terror of a gentile assault. But the stone basin, in which the aforesaid body had before lain, had for a long time been left outside the walls. Concerning which, indeed, between the people and Hugh, then bishop of that see, a grievous sedition arose. For the bishop judged that it ought to be carried to the church of blessed Mary ever Virgin, which is the first see of that place, with this counsel, namely, that whereas the mother church did not have the body of the martyr, it might at least compensate by some solace of the empty sepulchre. On the contrary the people asserted that between the sacred relics and their proper tomb no division ought to be made, nor now by human contrivances ought to be changed what, from the very consummated triumph of the glorious Martyr, seemed to have been divinely instituted. So then, as they contended on this side and that, the basin is brought within the walls of the city, and by the parties of both together it comes to the crossroads of a certain fork.
[6] the cause of grievous contentions, There, therefore, when the supporters of the Bishop strove to drag the sacred little vessel to St. Mary's, but the rest of the people to the basilica of blessed Ruffinus, these and those straining in different directions, the quarrel growing, it proceeded so far that, raging, they seized arms, and, the reason of a peaceful mind lost, exchanged mutual blows among themselves. With swords brandished and* drawn, they rush together hand to hand on both sides, and fiercely, with burning spirits, they rave to inflict mutual wounds. But—O divine clemency to be proclaimed, which has mercy on human errors, and often so opposes our depraved wills that it brings even ill-begun things to good ends! Why should I delay with many words? No one is there wounded, no drop of blood, not even a thin one, is at last shed; and, that still more wondrous things may succeed the wondrous, about sixty men on the Bishop's side tried to drag the aforesaid little vessel to the church of blessed Mary, but by no efforts could they move it from the fixed station of its place. They therefore, when now broken with weariness they altogether failed, and utterly despaired of the conveyance of the stone; then from the other side scarcely seven men, seizing the urn, were permitted to convey it to the basilica of St. Ruffinus with such swiftness that they seemed to carry not a stone, but rather a little bundle of chaff. Straightway the shout of the exulting people is raised, glad thanksgiving is rendered to God the favorer, and, because the pious God agreed as one with his people, it is briskly proclaimed by all. Then at last it was proved to be true what is said: The voice of the people is the voice of God.
[7] which the Saint takes care to settle, There was added, moreover, to the certainty of the matter, a certain presbyter, sent, namely, to the Bishop by blessed Ruffinus himself. For when the aforesaid Bishop was not slightly moved against those who had resisted him, and they were preparing to make him worthy satisfaction, and to appease him with devout humility, to the presbyter whom we have mentioned the blessed Martyr appeared in a vision, and said to him: Go, and tell the Bishop, if he does not wish to offend me, let him receive no satisfaction whatever from the people: but let him freely render to it the pure grace of his love and blessing: for by my will was this done, that that little vessel should be carried to my church, that my poor body might therein be laid away anew. He also knew that, unless I had been present at their tumult, and had opposed myself to their weapons, a great slaughter of men would lie shed. But when the bishop, still hesitating, was not disposed to lend faith even to these words of the presbyter, behold, a certain man who had been crippled, glad and exulting, confessed that on the same day he had been raised up by blessed Ruffinus, and testified that this command had been enjoined upon him by the same blessed Martyr, that he too, no less, should announce to the bishop in order all these very things which the presbyter asserted. At last the bishop, every scruple of doubt removed, without delay executes what was commanded him, and, his offenses forgiven, is joined in favor with his people.
[8] But lest perhaps in anyone's eyes the bishop incur the blemish of reprehension, and excuses [him by miracles.] because, departing from his church for the hour, he felt against the judgment of God, Isaac is to be recalled to memory, who blessed not Esau, chosen namely by himself, but rather Jacob, substituted by his wife. And there therefore the carnal wife, and here the spiritual spouse, prevailed over her men in the diversity of her own opinion: because he who chose the weak things of the world, to confound the strong, God consented to each. The prophet David too wished to build a temple, but the supernal disposition did not permit this to him. Between Paul and Barnabas too we read that a dissension intervened concerning a certain John: on account of which, nevertheless, not only was the merit of each Apostle not diminished, but the disciple himself too did not stray from the line of Apostolic discipline. It is no wonder therefore if now a man sometimes unknowingly dissent from the truth, since the authority of the Scriptures proves that even to the Apostles and Prophets themselves something happened after the manner of men. But these things elsewhere. Now let us return to the things proposed. Furthermore, on the same day, two blind men were enlightened at the altar of the blessed Martyr. But also another, weakened in his limbs and hunchbacked, was made erect, and restored in all things to health. Concerning which miracles, moreover, let it suffice us to report only what was done, lest, if we strive to relate how each thing was done through the order of the deed, we perhaps burden our hearers (which be far from us) with the prolixity of a shredded style. To pursue by enumeration all the miracles themselves we also neglect, but, as if drawing a cupful from some great river, we draw one which we may healthfully offer to those feasting at the table of Christ: lest the stomach of the mind be burdened by gorging, but by a sober draught only the thirst be taken away. Let us therefore proceed to narrate still other miracles, which through the same most blessed Martyr were divinely shown.
[9] About the same time, therefore, a certain man of unbearable madness, Things violently taken away are restored, cruel and rigid, had made out a deed against a poor little woman concerning a field of her own right, which then with a great impulse of fury he obstinately demanded back: whence he had also violently taken from her an ox and one axe, the strength, namely, of her domestic resources, and the hope of managing her household. Which she, not bearing for grief, with the bitterness of a troubled spirit hastily enters the church of blessed Ruffinus, prostrates herself before the altar: and that he would help her in the crisis of so great a calamity, she tearfully entreats. What more? At last there is present
the divine mercy, and, as soon as she rises from prayer, astonished she beholds her axe lying on the pavement before her feet. Straightway her grief indeed is turned into joy, and worthy thanksgiving to God is unanimously exhibited by all who were present. But behold, the plunderer still pursues the business of his perversity, and threatens the aforesaid woman with punishment unless she returned the deed: who nevertheless, as soon as he learned that the axe had been so wondrously restored, confounded and stupefied, was afraid, restored the ox, did penance, and, the fierceness of his mind calmed, laid to rest all the complaint which hitherto he had held against her.
[10] and the oxen carried off by theft return: Moreover twelve thieves, conspiring together, hostilely rushed into the house of a certain peasant. Who, binding him first, then plundering the oxen and the other animals of the house, forthwith departed. Meanwhile the peasant cried out tearfully, and, groaning, said: O holy Ruffinus, look upon a wretched man, relieve one depressed by calamity, and let it not please you that robbers and most wicked men be enriched by the poverty of my little means. At this voice therefore (wondrous thing!), when now the robbers, driving on the animals, having passed nearly twelve miles, had gone far off, behold, all the flocks that had been plundered come running, bleating and lowing, and betake themselves within the folds in their accustomed manner. And so it came to pass that both those men bewailed together the things which they seemed to have in hand, suddenly taken away; and that man, receiving the things which he bewailed as lost, the turns being reversed on both sides, exulted. Having seen therefore so many powers and such evident signs of miracles, the aforesaid Hugh, venerable prelate of the same see, from the small basilica in which the holy body had before been received, built a great church, and, according to the possibility of expense, decorated it not ignobly. Then he laid the body of the blessed Martyr in the very basin which had been the matter of the contest, and, with a great throng of the whole diocesan people, consecrated the altar above it. Furthermore, how many blind men were thereafter there enlightened, how many snatched from demons, how many freed from various sicknesses, it is too long either to commit to letters or to bring forth in speech.
[11] The festivity is established on this day, When these things therefore had been transacted, no small inquiry began to be made on what day the martyrdom of the most invincible triumpher of Christ, Ruffinus, ought to be celebrated. For since no monuments of history were extant among them, they had hitherto been content with the sole solemnity of the annual dedication. At last, God being the author, the history of the passion having been found, the venerable Pontiff ordained—namely according to the tenor which the writings attested—that on the third day before the Kalends of August the festivity of the same glorious Martyr should be observed. But some, kindled against the bishop with the torches of envy, and implacably incited by the spirit of madness, raised a tumult, saying that it was burdensome for the people to keep holiday with the doubled solemnities of one Saint, and that it was superstitious that festivities, devised by domestic zeal, should be newly introduced: in sum, that this was fabricated not from love of religion, but from ardor for money. But especially certain insolent men, who from the name of the place which they inhabit are called Islanders, irreverently abusing the very day of the illustrious festivity, began, with their women, not only boldly to apply themselves to weaving works, but also more freely to sweat at rural labors.
[12] and its violators are divinely punished, But straightway the sentence of divine chastisement avenges them, and, instructed by scourges, they return to the heart, who in prosperity would not have a heart. So that there seems most aptly to fit them what is said through the Prophet: Return, transgressors, to the heart. And also that: And now the fire consumes the adversaries. For flame suddenly seized their cottages, and burned up with inextinguishable balls of fire not only all their domestic goods, but also all that was in the fields; so that those unhappy men, now placed in the last dangers, flocked from here and there to the river, and cast all that was kindled into the very channel of the current. But that it might be clearly proved that this was not chance, but a sign of divine fury, whatever was plunged in could not be extinguished. In a wondrous manner, therefore, that element both partly held the powers of its own right, and in part had lost them: for the water was liquid, so as to receive whatever was immersed, the wave gaping open; and in a certain way it was not moist, so as to be able to extinguish burning things. But why do I linger over the smallest matters, when the leaping flame seized even the very limbs of the men, and, whithersoever they turned, they could not find the remedy of extinction? At last, scorched, smoked, and burned like a firebrand, with great shrieks of howling they flee to the altar of blessed Ruffinus, seek indulgence, and promise for the future the amendment of the committed offense by penance. Freed therefore by the prayers of the most blessed Martyr from the pains of the burning, they returned safe to their own homes. From that time, therefore, without any obstacle of hesitation, the martyrdom of blessed Ruffinus is venerated, and on the day which we have foretold, with the insistence of great devotion, the peoples assemble from every side at his church.
[13] I do not think that this too should be passed over: that certain men were trying to convey to the church of blessed Ruffinus a beam smoothed from the forest by laborious labors; as also those who tried to snatch away things destined for the Saint. to whom, indeed, certain of the Perugians, bringing violence, hostilely wrested away the timber. But when the robbers were dragging the tree with the anxiety of most insistent effort, and now approached the walls of Perugia, scarcely one mile lying between, suddenly the vehicle stuck, and by no efforts of strength could be driven further. Meanwhile the neighboring men too flock to help, and not a few yoked oxen are added. They arrange the machine more diligently, exhort one another, gather themselves into strength, set their shoulders, cry out, push; yet the timber remains immovable, as if held fixed by roots. At last mistress necessity taught what the blind perversity of the men did not know. For their mind, conscious of the perpetrated crime, though late, clearly recognized that, because they had committed robbery upon the substance of the blessed Martyr, the divine power deservedly opposed them. Their counsel therefore suddenly changed, they straightway direct the vehicle toward Assisi, and, the faculty of hastening received, humbly restore to the most blessed Martyr what they had proudly snatched away.
[14] Let us therefore give thanks to our Savior Christ, and render worthy proclamations of praise: Peroration. who, while through the citizens of the supernal Jerusalem he grants us such benefits as a prerogative, as though through small and thin crumbs, invites us to the full banquet of the heavenly table: and while he abundantly satisfies those now resting after their labor in the fatherland, he also sustains us, on the journey of this pilgrimage, as it were somehow with certain leavings of food: nay, he who refreshes them with the solid food of his vision, when he nourishes us, like little ones, with the milk of his signs, until we all meet in the perfect man, in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ: who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.
A hymn of the same author concerning St. Rufinus himself, briefly comprehending his martyrdom.
Let the throng of the faithful sing The great merit of Rufinus, Whereby he stood forth conqueror of the world, And, free, sought the stars.
The most invincible warrior Offers his face to the stones, But the hail of blows imposed No silence upon his words.
Then he is beaten with leaded scourges; Now, now he is believed to have died: But he who is thought dead Rises the more readily to arms.
He is thrust into a furnace Raging with the flames of fire, But the oven of the burning Becomes a grove of refreshment.
For into the crackling flames A bright angel plunged, At whose command soon The burning loses its powers.
The excellent martyr contends, Like a lion that knows not to be conquered: All kinds of punishments He tramples with intrepid mind.
A stone is hung upon his neck; Thus he is plunged into the waves: He whom the water begot to Christ, Through it comes to Christ himself.
Now free from the burden of the flesh, He is clothed in a red robe, His head bound with a crown Of precious stone.
You, O kindly Martyr, we seek With the inmost parts of a bowed mind, Let your merits absolve us, Whom our debts weigh down.
Let there be praise to the Father unbegotten, Let there be honor to the Only-begotten, Let there be the highest majesty To the equal Spirit of both.
Notes* Or "and not therefore"?