Erasmus

ON ST. ERASMUS, BISHOP, MARTYR AT FORMIAE IN CAMPANIA.

UNDER DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. Concerning the Acts, Translation, Cult, Relics, probably to be divided among several Synonyms.

Erasmus, Bishop, Martyr at Formiae in Campania (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H. & D. P.

The illustrious martyrdom of St. Erasmus the Bishop the ancient Acts declare, and the Martyrologies conformable to them. We have the Acts in very many Manuscript codices, of which one, written in a most ancient hand perhaps nine hundred or at least eight hundred years ago, is with us: of the rest we have received faithful transcripts; The ancient Manuscript Acts. namely from two Trier codices of St. Martin and St. Maximinus, from the parchment Passional of the Church of Fritzlar, and from the Utrecht Manuscript. To these are added the Acts published by Mombritius, and also a Greek Manuscript in the Vatican Library, marked 866, compared by us with the edition of Mombritius, to which also similar things are had reprinted in the third edition of Surius. Other Acts we have in another Manuscript codex of ours, which once belonged to the Utrecht monastery of St. Paul, but here and there set forth in other words. Others, in a fuller phrase, Gelasius the second, the Pope, composed, when he was still John Gaetano, Monk and Subdeacon of the sacred mount of Cassino, and dedicated them to his uncle likewise John, which, printed at Rome together with the Life of the Author in the year 1638, the reader will be able to find there. In a similar manner Michael the Monk, in the Capuan Sanctuary, alleges some Acts with this opening, "Triumphal victories"; which his nephew by his sister, Lord Silvestro Ajossa, submitted to us. Finally we have received still others, different from all these; but similarly interpolated by later writers. Therefore we give only a single set of Acts, from the chief and first indicated Manuscripts. For these too, however ancient they are, are nevertheless not of the first and better note, but composed several centuries after the Saint's martyrdom from tradition; nor are they free from just suspicion of gratuitous fiction. Yet besides those I would not omit to indicate also what Vincent of Beauvais in book 11, chapter 23, and the three following, and Petrus de Natalibus in book 5, chapter 75, have.

[2] Among the Martyrologies, that excels which is reckoned to have been written by St. Jerome, and in the Epternach copy, after various Martyrs already related, Elogia from Rabanus, has these things on this second of June, "In Campania, of Herasmus"; in the Lucca copy, "In Campania, of Erasmus the Martyr"; in the Corbie copy printed at Paris, "In Campania, of Erasmus the Bishop." Rabanus, Bishop of Mainz, in his Martyrology, adorns him with this elogium from the Acts: "On the same day, 2 June, is the birthday of Erasmus the Martyr, who on Mount Lebanon sought the desert, and there remained for seven years, where also he did many miracles. He, arrested by the Emperor Diocletian, on account of the faith of Christ suffered many things. Because the executioners, by the command of the most wicked Emperor, beat him with cudgels and leaded scourges, with lead and pitch and sulphur, with wax and boiling oil they poured over him: afterward, sent to prison, they weighed him down with a weight of iron, which by the Lord's power was turned into ashes, and harmed him nothing; but he himself raised the dead, and healed many weak. Then, moreover, admonished by an Angel of the Lord, he proceeded to Italy, where also under the Emperor Maximian, having suffered many torments, at last with the palm of martyrdom he passed to eternal life." Usuard, Usuard on 3 June refers to him in the first place in these words: "In Campania, the birthday of St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr. He under Diocletian Augustus, first severely beaten with leaded scourges, then with cudgels; afterward poured over with resin, sulphur, lead, pitch, wax, and oil, appeared unharmed. Then under Maximian, tortured with diverse and most monstrous punishments, at last, the Lord calling, rested in a holy end." I add also a third encomium by Ado, on the third day too, thus set forth: "In Campania, the birthday of Blessed Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr, Ado. under Diocletian and Maximian. Who by the command of the impious Emperor Diocletian, first cruelly beaten with leaded scourges, then for a very long time beaten with cudgels, afterward poured over with melted resin, sulphur, lead, pitch, wax, and oil, by an immense miracle appeared unharmed. Which when many saw, the faith of Christ, idols being left, they received. Thence bound with an immense weight of iron, he was shut up in prison under dire custody: from which by an Angelic visitation he is loosed and rescued. But afterward, the report spreading the most illustrious deeds of his miracles, he was seized by the other Emperor Maximian, by whom he was tortured with diverse punishments to such a degree, that he was clothed in a fiery bronze tunic; and again sent into a pot, which had been boiled with lead, pitch, wax, resin, and oil, by the Lord's power overcoming all things, he comes forth thence unharmed: and so at last, to confirm the rest, kept by the Lord, fortified by Angelic comfort he came to Campania. Where, when he had either strengthened very many in the faith, or converted them to the faith, the Lord calling, famous for martyrdom, he rested in a holy end." So Ado: Which, but contracted, are also in Notker and the spurious Bede. The later Martyrologists generally followed, whom we omit to enumerate. For the three illustrious Authors already related suffice, who flourished eight hundred or seven hundred years ago, that we may know what was anciently believed from the older Acts, though not the most approved, concerning the various torments, endured under each Emperor by the Saint.

[3] The arena under Diocletian was Antioch of Syria, in whose Province or Patriarchate he had been Bishop of some city. But under Maximian first Sirmium, the metropolis of Western Illyricum, The arena of the martyrdom. proved the constancy of the Saint; then Sidrugidum, or rather Sigidunum, or Singidunum, placed not far thence; both cities celebrated for other triumphs of Martyrs there, and in the Notitia of the Empire placed under the disposition of the Praetorian Prefect of Italy, and thus also numbered to Italy. Thence by Angelic comfort Erasmus was led to Curratium, which is an island of the Adriatic, in others Carricia or Carricium, now called Veglia. Hence it was sailed to Italy, and Erasmus, having put in at Formiae, there at last rested in a holy end. Formiae, mentioned by Cicero, Livy, and other ancients, was once an Episcopal city: but it, destroyed by the Saracens, the See was translated thence to the neighboring city of Gaeta, whence it is now called by the Italians Golfo di Gaeta, which to the ancients was the Formian Gulf. And Cluverius, his death at Formiae, in book 3 of Ancient Italy, "It clearly appears," he says, "that the very town of Mola is those ancient Formiae, situated 4 Roman miles beyond Gaeta. For throughout that whole space of the Appian Way there occur here and there very many monuments of Roman antiquity, here and there making some mention of the Formiani; one of which is exhibited from marble by Leandro Alberti in Latium, and from this in the Theater of Neapolitan Cities of Joannes Blaeu, which to Antoninus Pius, in his 11th tribunician power, 4th consulship, Father of the Country, the Formiani set up publicly. Now the name Mola has been made for the place from the frequency of Mills (Molae), which the waters flowing down from the neighboring hills turn with a most pleasing noise."

[4] St. Gregory the Great offers illustrious testimony in book 1 of the Register, Letter 8, related also by the Author of the Life, John the Deacon, book 3, number 14; where the body, as St. Gregory testifies; when he writes to Bacanda, Bishop of Formiae, that to the Formian Church, in which the body of Blessed Erasmus the Martyr rests, the Church of Minturnae ought to be joined. But that it was then translated to Gaeta, whither also Gregory IV, the Roman Pontiff, transferred the Bishopric, the aforecited Leandro Alberti asserts. Gregory IV died in the year 844. Ughelli, in Volume 1 of Sacred Italy, column 579, about to treat of the Bishops of Gaeta, teaches, that, as in the times of Gregory the Great, thence translated to Gaeta in the 9th century. the fortune of old Minturnae being overthrown, Formiae grew, with that one diocese united to it, so that there was now one Bishop of both; so, Formiae being overthrown by the Saracens, Gaeta succeeded in the year 842, which was the 16th year of Gregory IV. Leandro from Blondus ascribes the destruction of Formiae to the year 856. I should think each can thus be reconciled, that the Saracens twice rushed upon Formiae; and at first indeed content with ample spoils, spared the sacred and profane buildings; yet struck such great terror into the citizens, that the Clergy and people resolved to migrate to Gaeta, and carried off with them the bones of their Patron: then the Barbarians returning after thirteen years, and finding the city almost desolate, turned the rage conceived from the frustrated hope of richer plunder upon the walls and roofs, and utterly overthrew what they could not carry off. Thus will be saved that in which all agree, about a new translation under the Pontificate of John VIII, made in the thirtieth year after the former translation. For that John was created in the year 872; and sat for 10 years, and between the last year of Gregory and the first years of John, thirty years altogether intervene. The people of Gaeta still glory that they possess the body of St. Erasmus the Bishop and Martyr: whose memory is celebrated in the Roman Breviary, and generally in various ancient Breviaries. But the Saint himself, on account of the frequency of his miracles and cult through almost the whole Christian world, is numbered among the 15 Helper Saints, as we said in chapter 7 of the miracles of St. George, on 23 April.

[5] The most holy Patriarch Benedict seems to have been devoted to St. Erasmus. A monastery of St. Erasmus built by St. Benedict among the Hernici, For in the Life of St. Placidus his disciple, to be elucidated on 5 October, Gordianus, or another under his name, writes these things: "Benedict began to proceed to the castle of Cassino, namely Subiaco being left. And when he had come near the city of Alaterna (Alatrina and Alatrium others call it, a city among the Hernici) … thence he came near the city of Herculana, namely to the place which was called Aureola by the inhabitants: into which when he had arrived, he recognized through the Holy Spirit, that a congregation of religious men was to be there: and laying the foundations himself for a Church to be built with his own hands; he commanded his disciples Placidus and Maurus, that they should bring to completion the same church, founded by him in honor of the holy Martyr Erasmus, and at Rome, and so should come to Cassino, which they did." And after some things interposed there are related possessions, handed over by Tertullus the father of St. Placidus to St. Benedict, and among those, "The house," he says, "in which Placidus his son had been born, in the city of Rome on the Caelian hill, dedicating it to the name of Blessed Erasmus, he granted wholly to the Most Holy Father": where a monastery was built for Benedictine Monks, and in it Pope Adeodatus was a Monk, Antonio de Yepes asserts at the year 531, chapter 1, and others. Adeodatus presided over the Church from the death of St. Vitalian, who died at the end of the year 671, by the reckoning of my Colleague Papebroch, enlarged by Pope Adeodatus: until 18 May of the year 677. Of whom Anastasius the Librarian, in his Life, among other things writes thus: "The monastery of St. Erasmus, situated on the Caelian hill, in which the aforesaid most holy man was seen to have grown up, he augmented with many new buildings, and acquired many estates there, and established an Abbot and a congregation there." So the Manuscripts. That scarcely any vestiges of this monastery exist, Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza indicates: but that the feast is celebrated, Relics at Rome: and in the neighboring church of St. Stephen the Round some of his Relics are kept; likewise in the church of St. Mary in Campo Santo, near the church of St. Peter, and there in the chapel dedicated to him is had his foot: some also are in the church of St. Mary Major, and in the church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus.

[6] Moreover the aforepraised St. Gregory the Great, in book 1 of the Register, Letter 23, treats of Paulinus, a monastery on Mount Soracte Priest of the monastery of St. Erasmus, which is situated on the side of Mount Soracte. Masini in Bologna Surveyed, on this 2nd day of June, asserts that in the church of St. James the Greater is the head of St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr, laid in the high altar, with various other Relics, received from Cardinal Alexander Riario. He was taken among the Cardinals by Gregory XIII in the year 1578. Relics at Bologna, Meanwhile Cesare Eugenio Caracciolo, in part 2 of Sacred Naples, page 315, writes, that half the head of St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr, and two arms, are kept in the church of St. George the Greater of the Fathers of the Pious Workers: and in part 1, page 71, he says, that some Relic of St. Erasmus is honored in the church of St. Mary of Wisdom. The Reverend Father Giovanni Filomarino of our Society, at Naples, on account of the friendship contracted with us at Naples in the year 1661, in the following year wrote about a notable Relic, that is, the cross of St. Erasmus the Martyr, given as a gift in authentic form at Rome by the Most Reverend Lord Vicesgerent to a certain most noble Neapolitan Lady, then living there: soon transmitted to Naples, where, the things to be observed being observed, by the authority of the Ordinary it was opened and exposed to the veneration and cult of the faithful. Pessina too, Dean of Prague, in the Phosphorus of his Metropolitan Church, page 511, counts a notable part of St. Erasmus Bp. M., brought by the Emperor Charles IV in the year 1370; and another smaller one, from Italy. But no certainty either then could be, or now can be given, that all the Relics everywhere are of the same St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr.

[7] Aegidius Gelenius, in the Agrippine Calendars, on this day too mentions St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr, at Cologne, whose Relics at St. Severinus of Cologne, on account of many benefits, are in great honor, and there exists a very ancient chapel. But the head is preserved in the Carthusian house of Cologne: and in greater Nazareth, among the Ubii, is the head of St. Erasmus the Theban soldier and Martyr. Why should not the Head kept in the Carthusian house have been some one of the companions either of St. Gereon or of St. Victor, or of other Martyrs of Cologne? which also seems to be said of the Relics of St. Erasmus, which there in the Collegiate Churches of St. Severinus and St. Mary ad Gradus, at Mainz, and in the Parish Church of St. Lupus, and the Abbey of St. Pantaleon, are said to be had. In a similar manner the body of St. Erasmus, which Serrarius asserts is in veneration at Mainz, may be of some Martyr of the companions of Aureus and Justina, or of the Martyrs of Trier, or taken from others. Jorge Cardoso, in the Lusitanian Hagiology, weaves a very long encomium of the martyrdom of St. Erasmus, at Évora in Portugal, and near the end adds, that his holy head is devoutly kept in the Carthusian house of Évora, with other Relics, received from the greater Church of Gaeta, namely, as is added in the Commentary, through Teotónio of Bragança the Archbishop, the Founder of that Carthusian house. And our Professed House of St. Roch at Lisbon, among many notable Relics brought there by Juan Borgia, and received with most solemn pomp in the year 1587 on the 25th day of January, attributes to the 8th Bier the Relics of this Saint, as was then said among those Passed Over. Likewise the College of the Monastery of Westphalia says that it has some part in Cupboard D of its high altar.

[8] But with further proof lacking, we admit indeed, but of other Martyrs of that name, that at Lisbon and at the Monastery some Relics, but at Évora the Head are had of Some St. Erasmus; not however necessarily of the Martyr of Gaeta; for that it no longer exists among the other Relics of his, hitherto kept at Gaeta, would first have to be demonstrated; and then that it was brought rather to Évora than to Cologne, Bologna, or Naples. The same in the same case, concerning the Relics of other Saints elsewhere, would have to be observed, before they are so assertively ascribed to some place, with prejudice to another, supported by surer possession; to say nothing of others, claiming the same right from homonymy alone. But this of the Relics, exposed at Gubbio and Verona under that name, I should say so much the more justly; the more are the bones which are had there. Francesco Corna, as also at Verona, in Augustinus Valerius the Bishop, among the monuments of the Saints of Verona, in the book which (as he says, page 1) he wrote in plain and native speech in the year of salvation 1477, about the antiquity of Verona and about the Relics of the Saints which are found in it, asserts (as the same Bishop has, page 83 verso) that in the church of St. Mary the Old are kept the bones of St. Erasmus.

[9] Jacobilli, after Volume 3 on the Saints of Umbria, in the Appendix on Relics, page 5, and especially at Gubbio, where the head and arms, "In the church of St. Secundus outside the walls of Gubbio," he says, "are had the head and arms of St. Erasmus the Martyr, brought there in the year 1620 from the Parish of St. Erasmus, which is distant a mile and a half from the city. In that town for many centuries now was kept the body of the Saint himself, and to the present day his tomb is shown, inscribed with Lombardic characters." But these ought to have been expressed at least in Latin characters, if they could be read; if not, the forms represented, perhaps to be explained by those skilled in such things. "This Saint," the same says, "is in the greatest veneration of the country people, held as patron against the diseases of oxen; which, as often as they are judged to be ailing, brought to his church and body, brought from the village of St. Erasmus, are said of their own accord to fall on their knees; and, their masters praying for their health, to recover it." To the honor of the same Saint is also consecrated the Parish church of Fratta (it is a town situated at the confluence of the Lesa and the Tiber, 10 Roman miles from Gubbio, on the borders of the Duchy of Perugia), which church is found to have been united to the table of the Bishop of Gubbio from the year 1499.

[10] But perhaps this Erasmus did not precede the Lombard irruption; but found near Gubbio, perhaps much younger, just as Venantius of Camerino, was torn apart with barbarous monstrousness by the same still Arian people, and on account of homonymy confounded with the former and older one. Certainly in his ancient Acts it is nowhere read, that his intestines were drawn out of his belly, in which kind of torment however, unknown to the Roman Tyrants, but not unusual to the Barbarians, Erasmus, placed, is everywhere depicted in Belgium and Germany; whose intestines were drawn out of his belly by the Lombards. therefore he is wont to be invoked against gripings of the belly and colic pains, but also is sought as Patron by pregnant and birthing women. Thus in the Borgerhout shrine of the suburb of Antwerp, a tablet is seen, representing the naked Martyr with Episcopal insignia laid on the ground, under a turned cylinder (others paint a spit), around which are wound the intestines slowly drawn from the belly: and a similar picture is in the diocese of Paderborn, still today celebrated for ancient cult and miracles, of which below. But on 7 November we shall treat of Blessed Ernest, Abbot of Zwiefalten in Swabia, who about the middle of the 12th century, having set out with the Crusaders to the Holy Land, and led away into Persian servitude, completed his martyrdom, his entrails being drawn out through the navel, to a stake fixed in the ground, around which scourged he was driven to run, until he should fall dead.

SUSPECT ACTS. From seven ancient Manuscript codices, Gelasius II the Pope, and Mombritius.

Erasmus, Bishop, Martyr at Formiae in Campania (St.)

BHL Number: 2578

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I. His life spent in Lebanon. The torments endured under Diocletian. The dead man raised, very many converted.

[1] A persecution of the Christians was made by the Emperor Diocletian, that if anyone were found who did not sacrifice to the gods, he should perish by many punishments. St. Erasmus is divinely preserved in the desert: Hearing this, Blessed Erasmus sought the desert for seven years, where he did many wonders, on the mountain which is called Lebanon, day and night entreating the Lord, for food also came to him by a raven. For many virtues the Lord did through him, so that the Angels spoke with him. Diverse beasts also came into his cell, returning to Antioch he frees the possessed: and prostrated themselves at his feet: and a voice came to him from heaven, saying: "Erasmus, descend to your city." And immediately he rose, and descended into the city of Antioch. And when he had descended, many who were vexed by unclean spirits ran to meet him. Then Blessed Erasmus laid his hands on them in the name of the Lord, and immediately they became whole: many also he converted to the Lord through baptism.

[2] Hearing this, the Emperor Diocletian ordered Blessed Erasmus to be held and presented to him. And when he was brought in, the Emperor sitting on the tribunal, he questioned him, before Diocletian he confesses Christ, saying: "What do you wish to be; or of what race are you?" Then Blessed Erasmus said: "I am a Christian and I confess Christ." Now Blessed Erasmus was beautiful, not only in spirit, but also in body, with even an Angelic face: his eyes like the rays of the sun, his speech without any offense. He answered secure, he did not tremble: to whom the Emperor said: "Comply, and sacrifice to my gods, that you may not die badly." Blessed Erasmus says to him: "This, he refuses to sacrifice to the gods: Emperor, I shall never do, that I should sacrifice to stones and graven images, to which you yourself are like; but I sacrifice to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things which are in them: him alone shall my soul serve, for to you I never consent."

[3] Then the Emperor, filled with fury, commanded his ministers, that his sides be beaten with lead. he is beaten with leaded scourges Who while he was being beaten, looked to heaven and said: "I give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, who are the way of those believing in you, because I have come to what my soul desired; help your servant, that the abyss of death may not swallow me." Then the Emperor said: "Erasmus, I see you a beautiful young man: take counsel for your soul, and sacrifice to my gods; and I will give you gold and silver, he spurns the offered riches and honors: and a garment beyond price, and I will make you noble in my palace." Blessed Erasmus says to him: "Rapacious wolf, seducer of souls, your rewards shall not separate me from the charity of Christ: your gold, and silver, and garments beyond price, be with you in the day of your perdition: but I have the breastplate of faith, which hell cannot corrupt: but you, with your father the devil, shall burn in eternal fire."

[4] The Emperor, filled with fury, ordered Blessed Erasmus to be slaughtered with cudgels, and changed them thrice nine times: and when he saw his back, beaten with cudgels, no mark was seen in it: but all the people cried out, saying: "Truly great is the God of the Christians, who works such great virtue in him." The Emperor said: "You err, peoples, this man works the arts of sorceries." Blessed Erasmus said: "Are not you too a devil, like him who cast the first-formed man out of paradise? Impious executioner, dragon of iniquity, leader of sorceries, he urges the power of Christ: my sorcery is Christ, the Son of God, whom the Virgin Mary bore from the Word of God, whom the Prophets foretold would come, who looses the sins of the world, illuminating the darkness of our ignorance, who will strike you forever, to whom you will render account." he is torn with iron claws: The Emperor, filled with fury, ordered the flesh of Blessed Erasmus to be dug out with iron claws. But he, rejoicing and singing, sang to God a Prophetic psalm, saying: "They have set Jerusalem as a keeping-place of fruits, the dead bodies of your servants for the beasts of the earth." Ps. 78

[5] Then the Emperor, filled with fury, commanded his ministers that lead, and pitch, and sulphur, and resin, with wax and oil, be melted, unharmed by the burning liquid, and Blessed Erasmus be poured over with them. But an Angel of the Lord stood with him, who provided him refreshment. Then Blessed Erasmus said to the Emperor: "Where are your threats, and your great fury? Behold, you have provided great refreshment for my body." But all the people cried out, saying: "Release the just man and Bishop of his own city, because the God of the Christians works with him." And behold, suddenly there was a great earthquake, thunders and lightnings, so that nearly a third part of the people died. But the Angel of the Lord stood with Blessed Erasmus, and led blind men to the light of Christ. But the Emperor fleeing, thought the city was perishing from the wrath of the Gods. Who spoke to the people, and said: "This man, whom you have seen, blasphemed the gods; therefore is such a disturbance."

[6] Then the Emperor, filled with fury, ordered Blessed Erasmus to be brought into prison, and sixty weights of iron to be placed on his neck and on his hands: and he commanded his ministers, he is shut in prison: that if anyone were found giving him even water, he should die by death. But the Emperor sealed the doors of the prison with his ring: and about midnight Erasmus cried out, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, hasten and free me, lest the enemy glory over your servants, and the nations say, Where is their God?" And behold, suddenly the prison shone and was fragrant, as if it had been full of spices: and there were seen as it were twelve burning candlesticks before Blessed Erasmus the Martyr and Bishop. The Angel of the Lord had entered to him, saying: "Erasmus, behold I have come to you." And immediately the iron was melted like wax; and in the midst of them he stood singing, and blessed the Lord, saying: "Blessed are you, Lord, who made heaven and earth, by whom Angels and Archangels stand with trembling, and the number of Martyrs who have suffered for you; who did mercy with your servants, and freed Shadrach, Led out by the Angel, Meshach, and Abednego from the midst of the furnace of burning fire, and from the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar; and Daniel your servant from the den of lions, a meal being offered through the Prophet Habakkuk; and Susanna you freed from a false accusation, and with me you did mercy." And behold, the Angel of the Lord said to him: "Erasmus, arise, and walk into Italy: there the Lord will grant you eternal life forever and ever." And like a dove of Christ rejoicing, he set himself down at Sidugridum. he is translated to Sidugridum: But on another day the Emperor, running to the prison, found the seal of the ring: and when he had marked it, he commanded his ministers: "Bring the magician, who made our Gods as nothing." But having entered the prison, they found him nowhere: but the iron was found like ash. And there was a great cry: the Emperor and citizens being troubled, "We do not find the man: now even the iron itself seems to us to be ash." Which when the Emperor heard, he struck himself a blow on the forehead, saying: "Woe to me! my kingdom has been mocked. What shall I say to the people? For there came as it were forty thousand men and women, to the spectacle of the soldier of Christ: the whole city was troubled, set in great fear: the Christians sought the servant of Christ; the widows and orphans sought the Bishop, saying: What have you done with that man?" Then the Emperor, terrified with fear, said, that he had been snatched into heaven by his God, and redeemed himself with a great reward.

[7] But when Blessed Erasmus had come to Sidugridum, baptizing many in the name of Christ, he worked all things with virtues: for he saved the sick and blind by his prayers. Now there was a noble and chief man of the city, named Anastasius: whose son had died, and whose body was being led to the tomb. he raises the son of Anastasius, For it had been commanded by the Lord to St. Erasmus, that he should raise him and restore him to his parents. And Blessed Erasmus taking hold of his tomb, said: "Anastasius, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, you shall receive your son safe"; but a great crowd of the people marveled at these words. Anastasius said: "And can you raise my son?" Blessed Erasmus said: "Not I, but my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I serve." Anastasius said: "If you restore my son to me whole, I will believe, and my house, and all the people." Then Blessed Erasmus ordered his body to be laid down, and secretly ordered the father and mother to stand: and with bent knees over his body, he said: "Boy, in the name of Jesus Christ, arise." And when he had risen, he cried out with a loud voice, saying: "Truly great is the God of the Christians. Father, until now we have erred: the gods which we worshipped are nothing: and converts many, for I saw them in hell have no rest from the tormentors. But the one God of his servant Erasmus is great." And Anastasius believed, and his whole house, and all the people. Who in that hour were baptized there, are about forty thousand men. Then Blessed Erasmus cried out with a loud voice, saying: "I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who have gathered your people in the way of truth: for you said by the Gospel voice, Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. Bless, Lord, this your people, whom you have acquired for yourself." And there came to him a voice from heaven, saying: "Erasmus, good servant, who have labored for me on earth, all things whatsoever you shall ask shall be given you." And the Lord blessed this people, who also believed in that hour: and all the idols which they worshipped were overthrown. For seven years Erasmus, teaching the people and confirming them in the doctrine of Christ, said: "Keep his commandments which you have heard, and the great deeds of God which he has done among you. Clothe yourselves with faith, and be also faithful."

NOTES BY G. H.

CHAPTER II. The torments endured under Maximian. Various converted and made Martyrs. The death of St. Erasmus.

[8] The Emperor Maximian, hearing what had been done in the city of Sidugridum, from Probus, a most wicked and sacrilegious man, saying: "Hear, pious Emperor, what has been done in your city. By Maximian's command Erasmus is beaten Your kingdom has been mocked, and our Gods have been overthrown by I know not what man and sacrilegious Antiochene: who confesses that that Jesus Christ, who was crucified by men in Judea, is the Lord." Which when the Emperor heard, he ordered Blessed Erasmus to be held, and ascended the prepared tribunal, and Blessed Erasmus entered: to whom the Emperor said: "Tell, you wicked man, what is your religion?" Then Blessed Erasmus was silent, but looked with his eyes to heaven. The Emperor said: "Do you say nothing?" And he ordered his jaws to be beaten: Then Blessed Erasmus said: "Rapacious wolf, sorcerer full of iniquity, why do you persecute the servant of God?" The Emperor said: "Whom do you confess?" Blessed Erasmus said: "Jesus Christ the Son of God." The Emperor said: "Is not this the very one who was crucified by men in Judea?" Then Blessed Erasmus said: "His servant I am." The Emperor said: "May you be such as he is, and so may you die." Then Blessed Erasmus, smiling, he eagerly confesses the faith: said to him: "Most excellent Emperor, you have spoken well to me, that I may deserve to follow his footsteps: and the shedding of his blood is our illumination, whom if you wish to recognize and to believe in him, you shall be saved." The Emperor said: "May you believe in him, and your race." Blessed Erasmus said: "You have spoken excellently to me: plainly, because thus we believe, and offer victims of praise and gifts of jubilation to him, who saved his world from their sins." The Emperor said: "Take counsel for yourself, and comply: and sacrifice to my gods." Blessed Erasmus said: "If I see your gods, perhaps I will do so."

[9] Then the Emperor, filled with joy, with all the people proceeded as far as the temple of Jove, and ordered the man of God to be led to the city of Sirmium; and commanded organs and every kind of music to be prepared in the temple. And Blessed Erasmus seeing this, he is brought at Sirmium to the statue of Jove: groaned in his heart; and looked with his eyes to heaven, saying: "Christ, Son of the living God, be present in this hour; and send your Angel, who may help me and confirm me in this combat of the devil, which he has prepared for me." And when Blessed Erasmus had come into the temple, turning to the Emperor he said: "What is this, Emperor? Where is the God whom you bid me adore?" But the Emperor, taking hold of his hands, entered the temple, and showed him a bronze statue of the size of twelve cubits, and said: "Behold, here is my God, whom I serve." soon collapsing: As soon as the devil looked into the face of the Martyr of Christ, the statue fell, and was turned into ashes, and there went out from it a great dragon, and it killed nearly a third part of the people. The Emperor, seeing himself mocked, mounted his horse, and proceeded to the palace, striking his breast, and saying: "Woe to me! my kingdom has been mocked, by I know not what Antiochene man." But half the people cried out: "Holy servant of God, pray for us, that we may not perish from this dragon." Then Blessed Erasmus said: He restrains the Dragon: "Believe in the Lord, in whom I believe, and you shall be saved, and do not be seduced." Then Blessed Erasmus commanded the dragon, that it should no longer defile any of the men.

[10] But all the people of the Christians, seeing how great virtues God worked through his servant, began to praise Christ. Then Blessed Erasmus said: he converts many, "Behold, what virtues he works, who believes in him." And then were baptized about forty thousand men: for there was a contest in heaven and spectacles of the Angels, and the part of the devil somehow fought. Then Blessed Erasmus cried out with a loud voice, saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." But those who had been converted to the Lord answered: "Amen." The whole city of Sirmium was disturbed: but the Emperor, terrified, sent armed men, and ordered all who had been converted to God to be punished with the sword. And they martyred three hundred thirty men, who commended themselves to the prayers of the holy Martyr Erasmus: to whom he said: "Go in the name of the Lord happily into the holy city, of whom 33 are crowned with martyrdom: which the Lord has prepared, and I after a little time will go." But the Angels were running through the clouds of heaven, receiving their souls; and the Martyrs triumphing through their glorious passion, up to heaven was heard the voice of those singing, "The way of the just is made straight, and the path of the Saints is prepared." Which Blessed Erasmus seeing, rejoiced, as a good Shepherd over his sheep, which he handed over to Christ.

[11] Then the Emperor, filled with fury, ordered Blessed Erasmus to be held, clothed in a bronze tunic, and tortured with diverse torments: and commanded his ministers to bring a bronze tunic according to his stature, and to clothe him strongly with it fiery, saying: "Now I shall see, if your God will rescue you from my hands." Then Blessed Erasmus said: "Executioner full of iniquity, son of the devil, I praise your shamelessness, because you are worse than a dog: I told you, and now I tell you, I do not fear your threats: and if you should do greater punishments, my heart will not tremble." And signing himself with the sign of the Cross, he clothed himself with the fiery tunic, singing a prophetic Psalm, saying: "We have passed through fire and water, and you have led us into refreshment." Ps. 65. Likewise, "as gold in the furnace you have tried all who believe in you, and as victims of holocaust you have received them." Wisd. 3 Immediately the fiery tunic, with which he had been clothed, was made cold, like snow; so that no mark was found upon him. Then Blessed Erasmus said: "Behold, Emperor, you are confounded, and with your father the devil you shall burn in fire." But the people cried out: "Truly great is the God of the Christians, who has worked such great virtues in him." The Emperor said: "They are arts of sorceries, that he commands the fire and mocks our gods." Then Blessed Erasmus said: "Foolish Emperor, with me is Christ the Son of God, who commands the fire and mocks your gods; stones and deaf bronzes, forged by men, to which you yourself are like. For my Lord Jesus Christ is living, and conquers by virtues." The Emperor said: "How long can I tolerate your insults?" Then Blessed Erasmus said: "I too marvel at the shamelessness of your forehead, and put into a boiling pot he is kept unharmed: because you do not blush."

[12] Then the Emperor, filled with fury, ordered his ministers to prepare a pot of twenty urns, and lead and pitch, together with wax and resin and oil, to be melted; and to fill it and set it on fire. And the ministers did as had been commanded them: and the pot was made boiling, and surging like the sea. Then Blessed Erasmus said to the Emperor: "This pot is my refreshment." And, the seal of Christ being made, he descended into it: and immediately the voice of the Lord upon the waters, the Lord of majesty thundered, and poured out one wave from the pot, and scorched the Emperor. Who cried out: "I burn, man of God, pray for me." Then Blessed Erasmus said: "Woe to you, rapacious wolf and son of the gehenna of fire, which God has prepared for you, together with your father the devil and his ministers: I know that your heart is hardened, but on account of this people standing around it shall be well with you." And that pain ceased for him; but many in that hour believed.

[13] But the Emperor, seeing himself to be false, ordered the Martyr of God to be received, and kept in narrow custody, and bound with an immense weight of iron. And when he had prayed, there appeared to him a young man like the Son of God, calling him, and said to him: "Erasmus, arise, freed from prison by St. Michael, I am Michael the Angel, sent to you that I may lead you into the province of Campania, into the city which is called Formia, to teach the people." And taking hold of him he cast him out of the city of Sirmium: and coming to Curratium, he found a little ship prepared by the Lord, and conveyed him into the province of Campania. But on another day the Emperor was troubled, because he had not found him, saying: "Because God has rescued him." But the servant of God, the Martyr of the Lord, came and sat in the city of Formia; and for seven days by divine grace he rested. But the Angel of the Lord ministered bread to him daily. And there came to him a voice from heaven saying: "Blessed Erasmus, come and rest in the city, which God has prepared for your brothers the Martyrs and Prophets; and receive the fruit of your labor: for through you I have been honored in heaven and on earth." And Blessed Erasmus, looking to heaven, saw a crown unspeakable, and a beautiful multitude of Apostles and Prophets about to meet him; and he bowed his head, and said: "Lord, receive the soul of your servant": and the prayer being completed, he gave up the spirit. And his soul was seen white as snow, and how it was led by the Angels with great glory, he dies at Formiae. and with them joyful penetrated heaven on the fourth of the Nones of June. Then Blessed Erasmus prayed for widows and orphans: "Lord, only-begotten of God the Father, who have made me rest in my place, which is the place of your habitation, grant, that whoever shall ask me in your name, may receive from you his reward on Saturday and Sunday. But I, Erasmus, will not withdraw from this place." Now the most blessed Martyr Erasmus suffered in the times of Maximian and Diocletian, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen.

NOTES BY G. H. AND D. P.

APPENDIX D. P. A censure of the Acts: other torments ascribed to the Saint: certain miracles.

Erasmus, Bishop, Martyr at Formiae in Campania (St.)

BHL Number: 2586

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[14] Whoever shall compare these Acts with those few which are found taken from the Proconsular examinations of the Martyrs on public faith, These Acts, though ancient, withdrawn from the hands of the tyrants who wished all ecclesiastical writings abolished; will recognize well enough with me, that these are not of that first note; nor of the second, which, fixed for some time in the memory of the faithful, were handed down written without disguise and simply; but altogether of the third, in which the Passions of Martyrs, celebrated for cult and veneration, are held adorned with those circumstances which the writers judged opportune for themselves, being more zealous of stirring admiration than of explaining the truth. Hence those many voices fallen from heaven, hence the altercations of the Emperors themselves present at the individual examinations, for the most part below the dignity of their persons, the penalties inflicted on the same, and at the prayers of the Martyrs taken away; yet less sincere; hence things accumulated upon diverse things; hence the number of the present people, either divinely prostrated, or converted to the faith, increased beyond probability, and other similar things; all which you may find in the foregoing Acts, the more difficult to believe; because the things which are said to have been done at Antioch and Sirmium, ought to be reckoned written at Formiae; whither that so distinct a knowledge of the same came, from places so remote, is hardly credible; especially after the lapse of several centuries, in which nothing was written about that matter.

[15] Yet not content with these, anciently written and in part fabricated, posterity, prone to augment those narrations which seem to conduce to exciting piety and adorning religion; and the more credulous of the same so augmented, the less it esteems it lawful to doubt of such things; ascribed other and other torments to the passion, already more than enough exaggerated, in the pictures exposed at Gaeta. The series of these, together with the whole prior Legend, which was taken as the argument of nineteen painted tablets adorning the Church of Gaeta, is seen around it, with these inscriptions transmitted by our Nicolò Beatillo once to Bollandus: I. Brought forth to the world, he is washed in the sacred font of baptism, and handed over to the study of letters. II. Blessed Erasmus preaches the faith of Christ to the Gentiles, and is consecrated Bishop. III. Bound, he is presented to the Emperor Diocletian, who orders him, confessing the faith of Christ, to be beaten with fists in the face. That Maximian commanded this at Sirmium, the Acts have. IV. Beaten with leaded scourges, he is immersed in a boiling pot (this too is said there to have been done at Sirmium), and the unfaithful people standing by is prostrated by a thunderbolt. they are variously augmented: V. By the command of an Angel he announces the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles; and again arrested, he is cast headlong into a very deep pit; but is drawn out by an Angel: the Acts do not say arrested again, but consigned to prison after the first examination. VI. He is tortured in oil, pitch, and resin, at number 5, under the first examination; then he is placed under a burning bell, which by divine will is broken. This is pure fiction: for that age did not know bells, and indeed such great ones that they could cover a man placed beneath; but the Acts are silent about such a torment. VII. Blessed Erasmus by his preaching converts many to Christ, at number 7. and they are altered: VIII. Those whom he instructed in the faith of Christ, he baptizes, and departed thence to preach the Gospel of Christ to other Gentiles, namely from Antioch. IX. While he was preaching the word of God to the Gentiles (namely at Sigidunum) he is seized by the satellites, and shut in a most dark prison. The Acts are silent about this, as also about what follows. X. He deserved to be consoled by an Angel, and freed from his chains: but he is taken again, now the fourth time according to these pictures, but according to the Acts only the second; and is brought before the Emperor Maximian, at number 8. XI. By the command of the tyrant he is clothed in a glowing iron tunic: but is cooled by heavenly dew, and kept unharmed, at number 11.

[16] What further follows is ascribed to no certain place, and is not touched in the Acts. XII. Diocletian, blushing to be conquered, ordered Blessed Erasmus to be exiled. with torments added that are not written elsewhere. XIII. Put into a barrel, filled within with sharp nails, he is rolled down from a mountain: and drawn out by an Angel, is bidden to announce Christ. XIV. He is most fiercely beaten with rods and scourges, his teeth are knocked out; and at God's command he again went to preach. XV. He is roasted, coals being placed beneath, and afterward sharpest nails are fixed into the nails of his hands. XVI. He is torn apart by four horses, but is again cured by Christ and restored to health. So torn apart, he was not to be restored to health; but, the parts being brought back together when already lifeless, to be recalled to life. XVII. His intestines are drawn out: but Christ, preserving him in life, ordered that he should announce his name to the Gentiles. Under this torment indeed the Saint is now generally painted, but perhaps another Erasmus completed his martyrdom by this kind of punishment; which would have given cause for mixing many things. XVIII. Constantly preaching he converts many to Christ, and baptizes those stable in the faith. XIX. An Angel announces to him the day of his death. He beholds a crown sent to him from heaven, and thus praying gave up his spirit to heaven, and that at Formiae, according to the Acts.

[17] Thus far about the pictures to be seen at Gaeta, and representing such a history of the life, which by John of Cassino, afterward Pope Damasus II, The body translated from Formiae to Gaeta, about to come to the history of the Translation made to Gaeta, is thus concluded: "Now St. Erasmus was buried on the Western part of the same city of Formiae, near the Amphitheater, by Probus the Bishop, known hence only: and in the same place for many times, namely until the destruction of the same City, he rested. For after the courses of very many years revolved after his passing, when Formiae had been destroyed by the army of the Agarenes; the citizens of Gaeta, fearing lest, either by force or by theft, they should lose the precious body of the blessed Martyr, if it were left there; translated it within the walls of their city, and laid it away in the shrine of the holy and glorious Mother of God and Virgin Mary. After thirty years, when the Supreme Pontiff and universal Pope John presided over the Holy Roman and Apostolic Church, Bonus, and after 30 years, being sought, it is found. Bishop of the city of Gaeta, together with Docibilis the son of John the Patrician now deceased, sought the remains of Blessed Erasmus the Martyr. And finding them, in that place in which we mentioned above they had been placed, the earth being dug deeper he hid them, and above, toward the aspect of the southern climate, in honor of the Martyr he built an altar: a stone also was placed in the steps which are near the altar, marked with certain characters, in which are contained these writings: 'In this place was found the body of the Holy Martyr Erasmus, undefiled and whole, in the times of Pope John, by Bonus the Bishop of Gaeta.'"

[18] The same things from the already mentioned Life, found at Gaeta, the aforepraised Beatillo transmitted to us, but somewhat interpolated. For at the words, Under Pope John IV, "The courses of years revolved," is added, "namely from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the year eight hundred and fifty-six, in the times of Pope Gregory IV, and John the Great Patrician of Gaeta"; where it appears that the year of Formiae utterly destroyed is wrongly joined with the Pontiff, who died twelve years before. With probably surer knowledge at the second is added the Translation made, "on the seventh of the Kalends of November." But at the third, the number X added to the name of Pope John could not have proceeded from the prior error, by which the second Translation after 30 years ought to have been made in the year 886: for in such a year all agree that Stephen V sat. But John X, and thence there he shines with miracles. according to our Chronology, first began to sit in the year 915. But I return to the Gelasian text, which is thus continued: "But in what ways up to this time (say up to about the year 870 or 80), in what ways, I say, the blessed Martyr patronizes the citizens of his city, and with how great signs of virtues he always shows himself present to them, it is not for this writing to unfold. But there are done both in the place where he now rests, and in the place where before he had been placed at Formiae, frequent miracles by his merits and intercession: and to all worthily knocking it is opened, and those worthily asking receive what they pray for. Our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages. Amen."

[19] Yet of these miracles none came to our knowledge; Of these one is written, except a single one, in a certain collection of sacred monuments, left by the Cardinal of S. Severina to his nephew by his Sister, the Most Illustrious Lord Giuseppe Costa, with whom we saw it at Rome in the year 1660; where among other things was read what follows, under this Title, "A new miracle of St. Erasmus done, in the reign of our Lord Charles II the son": who was the son of Charles of Anjou, first King of both Sicilies from the Frankish nation, who died in the year 1285, surviving his father until 1309. The aforesaid Title was followed by such an opening: "Our God, the true light, who illumine every man coming into this world, so hate the works of darkness, that, about to send your Apostles into the whole world, to preach the gospel to every creature, you commanded them, saying: What I tell you in darkness, speak in light, and what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops. As often therefore as he who is glorious in his Saints, and wonderful in majesty, deigns to adorn his Church, by the merits of the Saints, with miracles; such things are not to be placed under a bushel, or left in darkness; but rather to be divulged with the herald's voice upon the housetops, and as much as possible daily inculcated into the ears of each; that the most beautiful hope may cherish us, in him who is the true salvation of all.

[20] Truly, by the merits and virtue of the wonderful Martyr and Pontiff of Christ Erasmus, related in the year 1300 a miracle to be admired by all the senses happened in recent days in the greater church of Gaeta, where his most holy body rests; the venerable Father Lord Matthew, then by the grace of God Prelate of that City, presiding; and before several Clerics and Priests of Gaeta it was divulged in order, as will be described below, by a certain Catalan: who with a certain galleon of the Provencals had come to the port of Gaeta, on the second day of the month of September, of the fifteenth Indiction, in the sixth year of the Pontificate of Lord Boniface VIII. All these things mark the year 1300, when in the month of September the 15th Indiction began, and that Boniface still counted the 6th year of his Pontificate, to which he had been ordained on 23 January 1295: by that man who, unjustly hanged; from which it is understood that he erred who wrote in the title that the miracle was done in the year thirteen hundred and one. For he related, on that same second day of the aforesaid month, the said Catalan, with a tearful face, pious affection, and devout mind, offering first before the relation itself, on the altar of the said Church, as if fulfilling a vow, certain waxen gallows, on which gallows a certain statue of a man of wax hung suspended: because lately the relator himself had been unjustly condemned in the parts of Provence to hanging on a gallows, and after the sentence was passed had been led there to be hanged: but before he was hanged, he invoked Blessed Erasmus the Martyr to assist him, and to deign to help him by his merits and divine protection. And after these things he was hanged by the throat in the usual manner, all who had been present at the place of hanging going away from it. But God, having invoked St. Erasmus, he had been preserved by him. the giver of pardon and lover of human salvation, whose benign ears heard the Prophet crying from the depths in the belly of the whale after three days not without mystery, heard the cry of the hanged man by the merits of Blessed Erasmus, at the point in which the imminence of death refused distance. And so, the aforesaid man standing hanged, and abandoned by all as dead, there immediately appeared above the gallows of the one invoking the invoked Prelate Erasmus, in the appearance or form of a man, holding in his hand a drawn sword: and with the said sword he cut the rope, on which the hanged man hung; and the rope being cut, the hanged man himself, falling to the ground, escaped unharmed; magnifying God and the glorious Martyr Erasmus, at whose invocation from so cruel a death he was thus suddenly and wonderfully freed. O blessed city of Gaeta, which deserved to have so great a protector, may he protect the writer of the aforesaid, together with the reader, and also the hearer."

[21] There is at Naples a notable castle, built on the top of a mountain by the Emperor Charles V; which, overhanging the city, The Neapolitan castle commonly called Sant'Elmo is a curb to the common people prone to seditions, commonly called Castel Sant'Elmo, of which Leandro Alberti, speaking of Campania, names it the Santeremense castle, as if from Sacred Hermitage (Sancta eremo): for thus the Italians pronounce the penultimate shortened, from the usage of the Greeks, whose language and accent also prevailed throughout the Neapolitan kingdom, for many centuries after Christ's birth. Summonte, the Italian writer of Neapolitan history, bids it be pronounced Sant'ermo, and in the Index Sant'eramo. About this I do not greatly labor, since I know how easily by the usage of the common people the liquids l and r are interchanged, and the reverse. But since I see the name of Sant'Elmo extended even into the maritime parts of Portugal, and that by that name long ago, at the port called after St. Sebastian, there was a church, and a church in Portugal, which then yielded to the newly born Order of Preachers; I rightly judged, on 15 April at the Acts of St. Pedro Gonzalez, of that Order, to whom the common people attribute the surname Santelmo; that from such a surname it is not proved that he belonged to the Santelmi family in Portugal; but that it was adapted to him by sailors, accustomed to experience his present help when invoked amid storms, a little flame appearing above the ship, which the ancients called Helena, but they themselves learned to call Sant'Elmo, from the sailors of the Neapolitan shore, accustomed in such necessity to call upon St. Erasmus, most famous at the shore cities of Formiae and Gaeta. Indeed no less Ἔρασμος (for thus it is written in Greek) than Ἔρημος (Eremos, Hermitage), could be contracted into Ermos by the usage of the common people, and then pronounced Elmos. For Ἔρασμος is a Greek name, from ἐράω, I love, the same as Ἐράσμιος Lovable, a participial contracted from ἐράσιμος, to be loved, from this St. Erasmus they are thought to be named. just as from γελάω I laugh, γελάσιμος to be laughed at is derived. But it is more natural to happen, that the title of Saint be prefixed by the usage of the common people to Erasmus, famous for so many miracles, who on that mountain had some chapel or even a parish; than to Eremo (Hermitage), having no sanctity except from inhabitants suited to it. Let it remain therefore, as I said elsewhere, that that religion of sailors, invoking Santelmo, has its origin rather from Erasmus the most ancient Saint, than from another of a wholly different name and far more recent; nor hitherto proved to belong to the Santelmi family, who brought the equally noble surname Gonzalez into the Order. Wherefore let no one wish to carp at a conjecture so reasonable, as proposed from envy, toward the ornaments of the Order, which has the greatest part in this work of ours and so also derives praise from it.

[22] Moreover, to prove that the cult of St. Erasmus spread itself through the whole Christian world, although, besides the Roman Breviary now everywhere published, the old Breviaries of the Spanish, French, German, and Belgian Churches, heaped up with us, make for this; yet it is pleasing to set forth from Warburg, a not ignoble town of the Paderborn part of old Saxony in Westphalia, At Warburg in Westphalia. a description of the chapel and crypt there dedicated to the Saint, as I received it from our Missionaries through that diocese in this tenor. "At Warburg, on a mountain enclosed by the same walls, a chapel is now seen dug out from the earth, by which it was almost concealed, only a narrow entrance being allowed. Once indeed a notable church had stood over it, of which now, besides the accounts of the elders, scarcely anything is left: A boy brought to the chapel of the Saint except that very rude chapel or crypt once consecrated under the name of St. Erasmus, so stripped in the previous age of all ancient use of religion, that only women, by a custom received from their forebears, sought thence health for sick and maimed boys, and brought it back both secretly by some, and openly; and plainly three years ago some one woman. She in that place, having at once performed a three-day prayer of vow, saw suddenly raised on his feet, and running before her out of the chapel, her twelve-year-old son, who for the space of six months, destitute of all office of his feet for moving himself from a place, had until that day needed and used the benefit of those carrying him on their shoulders; having before awaited help in vain from the surgery of mortals. The matter, as it happened in the eyes of the city, receives the faculty of walking: so it both made great admiration for her, and a name for the chapel, and by report and by oath more clearly confirmed, drew calamitous men from elsewhere to Warburg; and moved also our Missionaries, that finally this year, by the kind leave of the Most High Prince, for the illustrating of the Thaumaturge St. Erasmus and his clientary place, they should appoint some day, on which, more celebrated and more opportune for the pious vows and petitions of men, a supplication should be held at that place.

[23] wherefore a procession being instituted thither, It was decided for the purpose on the Sunday of the Holy Trinity nearest after the feast of the Saint, on which the solemnities of supplication, beyond what could be expected for an auspice, were religiously and magnificently held; with so great a number of men flowing in even from afar, that there was need of sudden and mutual help of the Fathers Preachers from the town, who, to the three Priests of our Society, sent two of their own family as aid in the secret expiations of those confessing, the rest in their own church being occupied with the same matter. And the aforesaid Fathers deserved well, both on this account, and because they honored our erected station with the divine service which they performed: presently, an order being composed to their familiar banner, they officiously bore themselves as companions into the sacred procession; but for a more fitting circuit and passage of festal piety, they permitted the walkways of their monastery, and offered all other things, which seemed either to make for increase, or for ornament. To both, the town of Warburg, the religion of the place is restored in the year 1679, with their own and each of their two Churches' cult, came forth honorably; at our invitation from the neighborhood the villagers, arranged to their sacred banners, added themselves, and went distinct under the leading of the Parish priests and the approval of all; so that they who much praised that rare and orderly continuation in so numerous a confluence of men, and far preferred it to others certainly on this head. A large and not of light price banner, depicting the martyrdom of the Thaumaturge disemboweled into a ball, and another conspicuous statue of the same Saint, which were carried for splendor: likewise also a not inelegant Missal book, which not long ago arrived, the money for this chapel being collected from elsewhere by the Missionaries, all new, fell to its lot. But lest, while the additional cult of the chapel is instituted, the chapel itself remain uncultivated, and stripped of its roof as hitherto: the Most High Prince, asked most modestly through the Missionaries, most clemently assented, the Bishop of Paderborn notably favoring it. that, the more the conveniences of those concurring in administering and using the divine and sacred rite may be served; not only a roof, but before the roof another gable of equal dimension with the vaulted chapel, like a chapel upon a chapel, at the Prince's expense and to the direction of the Missionaries, should next spring be placed.

[24] Thus far to me one of them, in the year 1679, three years before he himself died, the Most High Prince, Ferdinand von Fürstenberg, The case of St. Erasmus there once with 3 holy Virgins. Bishop of Paderborn and Münster, singular Patron of our work; by whose liberality also at Warburg the convent of the aforesaid Fathers Preachers stood erected; and in each diocese very many other pious places, either raised from the foundations, or splendidly restored, or notably adorned and enriched, are counted: the merit of so many benefactions followed his soul, departing from this mortal life in the year 1682, on the 9th of June, and the reward will remain forever. The Paderborn Sanctuary which I have, once compiled by our Father Johann Gamans, from a certain Werner's book 3 on Westphalia, chapter 8, which is on the Saints of Westphalia, suggests these things: "At Warburg is the case of St. Erasmus, with three sacred Virgins, namely Alheide, Armgarde, Gertrude." Hence I suspected, that there was once a nunnery in that place, in which those three shone with notable sanctity, and were buried, and perhaps also, their bodies being raised from the earth, were laid together in one case, and venerated as Blessed. But the Reverend Father Johann Kloppenborg, whom the aforepraised Prince used for pursuing and bringing to light the Westphalian history, and whom even now his most worthy successor in the See of Paderborn uses, removed that suspicion, firmly asserting, that there was never any nunnery at Warburg, and so that the Relics of those Virgins were brought there from elsewhere.