ON BL. JOHN, HERMIT ON THE URTICENSIAN MOUNTAIN OF SPAIN.
IN THE YEAR 1143.
A little Preliminary Commentary, on his cult and life.
John, Hermit on the Urticensian mountain of Spain (Bl.)
D. P.
That the Royal seat of Old Castile, commonly called Burgos, was anciently named Auca, Villanovanus in Ortelius asserts: but the latter wishes, that he had produced his Authors, In the celebrated place of his anchoritic life, whom that man most zealous of ancient Geography could nowhere find. That that Auca was not very far from Burgos, the Mountains prove, running through the northern part of the same diocese from West to East, commonly the Montes d'Oca, retaining the ancient nomenclature. In these mountains, where they are rougher, is situated a village called from the Nettle (Urtica), only 12 miles from the city, the eremitic arena of the aforetitled John, and the seat of the monastery erected there either by him while living, or for him already dead and declared by miracles. Here he wished to die: here his sacred body is held, here his chief cult, but in the whole diocese by no means common. Since indeed the Calendar of the Breviary of Burgos with us prescribes for this 2 June the feast of John of Ortega, of 9 Lessons, 4 copes, Double: but the Lessons themselves, to be recited consecutively, he was venerated with a proper Office throughout Castile. the Breviary sets forth from the beginning of the Life soon to be set forth, with this proper Collect: "Almighty everlasting God, who didst associate Blessed John, thy Confessor and Priest, to the college of thy Saints; grant us, still laboring in the valley of tears, that his prayers and merits may furnish safe helps for obtaining thy grace." Nor by the reception of the Roman Breviary was the feast abolished, but the Office changed. Similar, or perhaps all the same things, will be found in the Breviaries of Compostela, Salamanca, Calahorra, Palencia, Sigüenza, and others, from some of which Philippe Ferrari received him in the general Catalogue of the Saints.
[2] The Life, whence we said the Lessons were taken, from three ancient Legendaries, of Burgos, Astorga, and Segovia, diligently (as appears from the margin) compared among themselves, Tamayo published, yet augmented with a few miracles, taken from our Ribadeneira: who, like also the other publishers of Lives of this kind rendered in Spanish, The Acts are given by Tamayo from 3 Manuscripts. in his Flos-Sanctorum set it forth in his own style. We give it here from Tamayo, after labor spent in vain to obtain a more faithful and nowhere interpolated copy. And in those Manuscripts indeed which Tamayo saw there is one common error, that he, all of whose deeds take their beginning from the year 1111, as will appear from the Notes; is read to have died in the year 1063, which Tamayo judges to be evident through the mere carelessness of an older copyist, the letter of the number of the hundreds C being omitted: nor is the conjecture far from probability that the Saint lived until then, since at number 10 he is said to have come to old age. But if the last two sections are by the same author as the former, those cannot, however much they are said to be taken from ancient Legendaries, much exceed the age of two hundred years; for those sections were written, after the Urticensian convent in the year 1434 came to the Hermits of Jerome, those yielding place who before held it, the Canons Regular. And so I greatly incline to believe, that to the old Legend, ended at number 12, and perhaps composed in the 14th century by one of the Canons Regular, that little Appendix of the Hieronymite author was afterward added. Perhaps too Ribadeneira had a fuller Legend, in which the miracles related by him were. It is not necessary to premise more about John, since the rest which make to this can more conveniently be noted at the Life itself.
ACTS From the Manuscript Legendaries, published by Juan Tamayo de Salazar.
John, Hermit on the Urticensian mountain of Spain (Bl.)
BHL Number: 4443
FROM TAMAYO.
[1] The holy Church keeps the solemn memory of the Saints for this, From the usage of the church of writing the Lives of the Saints, that their pious deeds may become to the less learned models of a pious life. For as the depraved doctrines of the depraved imbue their imitators with depraved doctrine; so the pious deeds of the Saints show to the faithful the footsteps of the truth of the holy Church. Hence it is, that the Christian Religion has been wont to commend to memory, by means of writing, what it shall have known to be helpful for the increase of faith, according to that of the Apostle: "Whatever things are written, are written for our instruction." Rom. 15 From this commendable custom therefore, occasion being taken, we have proposed to commend the Life of Blessed John, Priest and Confessor of Christ, the Author undertakes to publish this also. compendiously to writing; not so much relying on the presumption of our knowledge, as leaning on that divine eloquence, by which it is said: "Open your mouth etc." Ps. 80:11 Presumption therefore being removed, and the devotion of a pious mind being applied, using that Prophetic eloquence: "I will hear what the Lord speaks in me," we begin a matter arduous beyond the powers of our genius. Ps. 84:6 But if perhaps the reasoning of our understanding fails, let the intent devotion of a pious mind suffice.
[2] This blessed John therefore, Confessor and friend of the Lord, a Spaniard by nation, in the territory of Burgos, in a country place, The young John initiated into sacred Orders, called Quintana Fortunii, was sprung from parents not of the lowest. Who when he was still of tender age, declining the useless exercises of human mortality, and as if offering himself to God, clung to the study of letters; that with the Psalmist he could say: "These in chariots, and these in horses; but we will be magnified in the name of our God." Ps. 19:8 Hence it is that the Lord fulfilled his petitions. Then the course of time passing, persisting in his holy purpose, now a young man, having put off the boy, he was promoted to sacred Orders; to which enrolled, more attentively than usual, with heart, voice, and work, he obeyed the divine service.
[3] But it happened in those days, that, discord being sown, almost all Spain was turned into war. For after the death of Alphonso, the most powerful King of the Spaniards, who had died without a male heir, a certain King arose from Aragon; who, having the daughter of the aforesaid King as wife, wished to subjugate all Spain to himself, since there was none who could resist him in war. Which the lover of peace Blessed John attending to, on account of the affliction of his fatherland, shedding (if I am not mistaken) some tears, grieved. And when he considered the dispersion and extermination of the agricultural people, the soldiery rushing on, knowing that in the tumult of wars, from a similar cause, he could lose his own substance; determining within himself, that whatever little of it weary of his fatherland thus disturbed, would much more rightly be spent in the works of mercy, he said within himself: "Woe to me! Why is the people of God afflicted? Why does the perverseness of pride offend the bounds of innocence?" Here that poetic figment is true:
"Whatever the Kings rave, the Achaeans are punished."
[4] he sells his goods; And thus abounding with the bowels of piety, he disbursed part of his substance to the poor, whose possessions the hostile harshness would overthrow; retaining part for himself, not for avarice, but rather for obtaining the grace of the Almighty. Because when he saw that he could in no way dwell in the land of his nativity, counsel of divine contemplation being taken, he proposed to set out for Jerusalem. The aforesaid part of his substance therefore being taken, which was as it were liable to temporal destruction, and spending it on the journey of his holy pilgrimage: he placed it in the treasures of knowledge, where rust nor moth destroys; he makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem: and thus the man of God, leaning on the virtue of faith, seeking peace, fleeing war, visited the place of peace Jerusalem; that, according to the Psalmist, he might adore, "where the feet of the Lord stood." Ps. 131:7 His purpose therefore being completed, and his vow obtained, making some little delay of time at Jerusalem, he determined to return to his own home.
[5] And when he was returning, with urgency having entered the sea, with a great throng of pilgrims, on his return he escapes the peril of shipwreck, a pestilent wind disturbed the seas, so that their ships were almost broken. Which the man of God attending to, asking the mercy of God for himself and the other pilgrims, the prayer scarcely completed, suddenly the pestilence was calmed. For which reason he proposed with devout mind, that if God, with prosperity, should bring him back to the kingdoms of the Spaniards, he would build a church in honor of Blessed Nicholas, by whose prayers he believed he had escaped the contumacy of the sea. St. Nicholas being invoked, What more? He escaped the sea, took his way by land, Christ leading and the Blessed Confessor Nicholas, and with the utmost safety returned to his own home. Which done, he preferred constantly to be at leisure for divine contemplation, than to gape after earthly convenience; according to that which is written, "He who shall persevere to the end, shall be saved." Matt. 24:13
[6] But because sometimes earthly cares, and the frequent urgency of the people, and he betakes himself to a hermitage, draw back the mind from divine contemplation; he chose a hermitage, in which to God, the rewarder of those hoping in him, he wholly dedicated his life. But there was in the Forest of Oca a terrible place, near the road of St. James, called Urtica, in which the robbers of the whole forest had their hiding-places; and there lying in wait for those passing by night, by the cupidity of temporal money, which always blinds the greedy minds of men, they killed very many, suffocated others, and despoiled others; so that not even the natives dared to approach that place. beset by robbers. This place the man of God chose to inhabit, with this affection and desire, that, the robbery of the perverse being excluded, he might there be at leisure for the divine service; recalling perhaps that which is read of Blessed Boniface, who, the multitude of demons being excluded from the Roman temple Pantheon, built it in memory of all the Saints.
[7] But because, without Royal counsel and aid, such a thing to be begun seemed presumption; There he builds an oratory of St. Nicholas, counsel being taken from industrious men, to Alphonso the most honored King of Aragon, who by long exercise of soldiery had now subjugated the kingdom of Spain to himself, he proceeded: whom the man of God approaching with just prayers, obtained from him the desired place. Thence returning with the utmost gladness, that God might appear to be the foundation of his work, in his honor and in memory of Blessed Nicholas, he began to build an oratory. But because, as was said above, a very great multitude of robbers lay hidden there; whatever the man of God did by day, the perverseness of the robbers tore down by night; because they feared the work of the holy man would be harmful to their iniquity, those striving in vain to hinder it: they seized by fraud the vehicles and the things which were necessary for the work, and with rash audacity broke them; and threatened death to the body of the holy man, burning to the work, dispersion to the substance: all which the man of God despised, knowing that the consummation of a good work is not from man, but from God.
[8] And when the church was completed, he built also near it a refuge, in which pilgrims might have a refuge, to whom he himself ministered necessities according to his power. Which the faithful attending to, flowed together to him, and with the utmost devotion offered him of their goods: likewise a hospital for pilgrims, whom also they had as it were the vicar of Christ, a reconciler in their penances. Nor only the common people, but also the Princes, and even the Emperor of Spain, who succeeded the aforesaid King in the kingdom, placed him as a mediator between themselves and God: and by divine grace favoring there were to him sheep, and oxen, and sufficient money. from the alms flowing in for the work: But lest perhaps he should be thought to wish to gather all these for avarice, on the river which is called Ebro, from which all Spain is by another name called Iberia, he made firm a bridge in the village which is called Logroño, on which he is known to have spent a not small part of the substance committed to him by God. Similarly in the city of Nájera, he built anew a bridge; which, often broken by the force of the water, with the utmost labor and expense, was often restored by him. and by building bridges he consults the public good, Near the village of St. Dominic he made a wooden bridge, over a torrent descending from the mountains of Cuculsa, whose length extends to the space of five hundred paces. Between the place of his habitation also, and the town named Octaporca, with his own hands he laid a paved road, in damp and watery places, and he paves a road. that those going to St. James, wearied by long labor, might have an easy passage.
[9] By these and other works, to which the man of God devoted himself, his fame sounded in the borders of Spain; whence the Rectors of holy houses and hospitals flowed together to him, He governs all the Hospices around, that he might teach them the way of life and discipline, and instruct them in the government of holy houses. Who subjected themselves with their possessions to the judgment and determination of the holy Man: and almost all the houses and hospitals, from Logroño to the city of Burgos, were governed by his counsel and aid. For he was of such abstinence, from the time that he began to inhabit the hermitage, that in a day he took food only once. Each year too he fasted three Lents, abstaining from all foods, himself a man of great abstinence. which can excite illicit motions of the flesh. But in gesture, habit, and person, even to strangers he appeared a true Hermit.
[10] Then when the man of God had come to old age, and dwelt in the city of Nájera, it happened that the donkey, An eye extinguished by an awl he receives by a miracle: which he had for a vehicle, broke the halter made of leather; which when the man of God repaired with his own hands, the awl pierced the pupil of his eye. Who, when he felt the light gone, and the misfortune had sounded in the ears of Bishop Rodrigo, a man of the highest honesty, who at that time bore the care of that diocese; he came to the holy Man, whom he had for a Patron. To whom when the holy Man, weighed down as much by old age as by infirmity, wished to rise, the light being restored to him from heaven, he beheld him.
[11] Illustrated by these and other virtues, the man of God was invited by the Lord to the heavenly banquets. Feeling himself to fail, But before he came to his death, the Lord corrected him with a bodily infirmity: and when he sensed his death, and to speak more truly foreknew it; the Consul Lupus being called, who held the dominion of the city, and the whole Council, he besought them in common, that they should send him, now near to death, to Urtica, where he had had his own habitation. he asks to be carried back to Urtica: Who honorably, with the utmost grief and sorrow, led him out from their city; and prayer being made for the peace of the Church and the fruits of the earth, and for the living and for the faithful departed, he blessed the city, and likewise its inhabitants. Then by his fellow-servants and several others he is carried to the desired place; and there having died in which living a few days, his affairs being benignly disposed, he fell asleep in the Lord, in the year of the Lord 1163, on the fourth of the Nones of June.
[12] After whose death, the fame of miracles increasing, a concourse of many peoples was made; among whom a certain girl of Burovia, tortured by a malign spirit, was present; he becomes famous for miracles, who, after she approached the sepulcher of the holy Man, the crafty enemy feeling that he could not resist, as if jesting, said that he bore the image of a certain perverse man, who by his Castilian name had been called Garsias Pelictri. But because it is not lawful to be taught by the enemy, we can judge that these things were said not without divine will; namely that the perverse may beware, lest after their death they form their image to the devil. On this account therefore all Spain rejoices with exultation, which deserved to have such a Patron in glory.
[13] A wonderful light of this patronage breathes in him, especially in spouses; granting offspring to the sterile. that those who for many years have lived together sterile and childless, and have commended themselves, may obtain offspring. Namely just as the parents of St. John, who for many years had lived together in matrimony unfruitful, afterward, prayers being poured to God, obtained a son; so the Lord wills, that the same holy Hermit be both recognized and venerated as the Patron of similar benefits.
[14] preserving those fallen in water, A certain sterile wife had obtained by the merits of the holy Man an unhoped-for daughter; who when she had grown up somewhat, the mother washing lettuces on the bank of the river, not far from a mill, fell headlong into the waters; snatched by the whirlpool and force of them, she ran into the wheels of the mill. But the mother immediately cried out; "May St. John of Urtica preserve you": which said, the little girl passed and escaped the wheels of the mill unharmed, gleaming with a cheerful face. An infant of two years, likewise born at Urtica, on the day before the Lord's Ascension, having fallen headlong into a deep well, had been suffocated; who carried by his father to the chapel of the holy Man, was by his patronage recalled to life.
[15] On a certain feast day of the same holy Man, someone took care to shear his flock; and being admonished not to take care that any such servile work be done for then, punishing the violator of his feast; he neglected it, but not unpunished. For when on the next day, near the church of that monastery, two hundred ewes were being led from that flock, which had been sheared the day before, all falling down were at the same time killed. Each year the solemnity of his feast is celebrated, with the greatest frequency of the people; who from all those borders, and other more remote shores run together to that solemnity; and bring many funeral garments, its immense celebration. which are hung in the church like votive offerings; in everlasting memory of those who, either recalled from the threshold of death to life, had been clothed in them; or had already had them prepared for the dying, and afterward by the prayer of the holy Man recovered their former health.
[16] In this dwelling of St. John of Urtica there long lived Canons Regular, until the Christian year 1431, over whom Priors elected by themselves presided. But the Bishop of Burgos Paul of St. Mary, The place passes from the Regulars to the Hieronymites in the year 1431 who, having execrated the Jewish impiety had given his name to Christ, a man by far most learned, afterward granted that dwelling to the cenobites of St. Jerome on certain conditions, those assenting who were still surviving, the Canons Regular; by whom at last all right was resigned, in the Christian year 1434, on the sixth of the Ides of January. Fr. Alphonsus de Bonilla was set over the convent, and thus all right of that dwelling passed into the order of St. Jerome: which Pope Eugene IV confirmed by Apostolic bulls.
[17] Then in the Christian year next counted, on the day after the Kalends of March, who in the year 1434 strive in vain to translate the body, when they wished to translate the body of the holy Man, from the chapel of St. Nicholas, to the church of the monastery into the elaborate mausoleum which they had built for him; and many Prelates and chief Men had come together, to honor that solemnity; at the very time of the procession to be instituted, suddenly the church and chapel were filled with little birds, whiter than snow, never elsewhere seen; which flying around here and there with a joyful concert, breathed a heavenly fragrance of most sweet and most pleasing odor, they strive in vain, and refreshed the people. But the Body itself of St. John remained immovable: and so the Lord signified; that he wished those sacred remains of his servant to be left there; and thus they remained immovable.
[18] A few years ago the same holy Body, into another more elaborate mausoleum, yet in the same chapel, then they build a more elegant Mausoleum in the same place: was translated; and all his flesh was found consumed, except the heart itself with the bones; which was wholly fresh, whole, undefiled, and pure of decay. And in this dwelling great glory accrued to God, after it was handed over to the Cenobites of St. Jerome; not only because divine worship was increased, but because by the rare example of their religion and virtue, they incited all those inhabitants to the studies of virtues (as they love), and because they disburse many alms to guests of every nation, making pilgrimage to St. James in Galicia: for as often as there was labor from the dearness of provisions and pestilence, they were always the only refuge for the wretched in all that region. to which under them great splendor accrued. Which office of Christian and Religious charity God, who is charity itself, often proved by a miracle; and increased their revenues, although slender, if they be compared with so many and so great expenses, liberally; namely for the great trust in St. John, who founded this Convent for that end.
NOTES BY D. P.
p Since Tamayo premises that these miracles were added by him to the ancient Acts: he seems to indicate that the following too he took from the old Legendaries which he alleges: yet it can be that the Acts of the life are one century older than this little appendix.
q Because at number 11 the Saint is said, by his fellow-servants to have been carried to Urtica, Tamayo thinks it consequent, that Hermits, instituted there by John, held that place before; which I would not deny, yet I should prefer it to be strengthened by surer testimony.