Morandus

ON SAINT MORANDUS,

MONK OF CLUNY IN SUNDGAU.

Beginning of the XII century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Morandus, Monk of Cluny in Sundgau (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR C. J.

§. I. On the Lives and day of the cult of S. Morandus: and whence these Commentaries are especially taken.

When in the year 1688, in early spring I and Fr. Francis Baertius having set out for Vienna in Austria, the Library of his sacred Imperial Majesty, indeed most furnished and most noble, From the Vienna journey perused; and there for nearly three months tarrying, having described many Acts of the Saints, especially Greek, for our use; on the return we turned aside to Constance; and thence from Basel to Altkirch, or rather to the monastery of S. Morandus we proceeded; about to inspect in person, if anything remained about that Saint, whose Acts were soon to be illustrated by us, pertaining to the Life, Relics, and cult of him. We arrived at the said monastery on the eve of the solemnity of All Saints, with so dense a snow already then falling through the middle of the day continuously, that for us setting out it was not allowed to distinguish the ways, or to see at a stone's throw. Toward evening having entered the monastery, turning aside to S. Morandus, which is now a Residence of our College of Freiburg, we remained there for two days following, most kindly invited and received by R. P. Superior Francis Marimont; meanwhile examining and noting those things which seemed to pertain to the Saint.

[2] We found his Life more recently written, There was offered to us among other few writings a codex, which contained the Life of S. Morandus, arranged and paraphrastically explained, from the older Life of the same, which we also have and shall give here afterwards. But that paraphrase was written by a certain one of the Society of Jesus, who suppressed his name, more than fifty years ago from now: for he says of more recent miracles and within his memory; The most recent is what happened at the end of the year 1629; so that a little after he must have written. containing various things about his cult, The Author divides the whole work into only three chapters: of which in the first he sets forth the older Life of the Saint paraphrastically, as I have said; in the second he pursues the virtues and miracles of the same, both ancient from the said Life, and more recent; finally the third he divides into altogether twelve paragraphs, and in them recounts the honors conferred on the Saint by the Roman Pontiff, through Canonization; by the Cardinals, through Indulgences granted; by the diocesan Bishop, through confirmation of the same; by the most Serene House of Austria, through votive offerings; by various cities, through a Congregation instituted under his patronage; by the Monks of the place, through restoration of the temple, henceforth to be called by his name, and elevation of the Relics; by all the Cluniacs, through solemn ecclesiastical Office; finally by the vintners through paintings and singular cult exhibited to him. He adds besides the vicissitudes of the monastery, as also of Altkirch, fires, devastations, repairs, and certain other things; from which these commentaries are arranged. from which we chiefly compile these Commentaries; owing and giving thanks not slight to the above-mentioned Father Marimontius, who kindly took care to have that whole codex described and sent to Antwerp at our request as we were departing thence.

[3] Two Morandi of his Order Bucelinus has, in the Benedictine Menology; the other an Abbot, of whom on the day of February 19, thus he speaks: from Notes of the Monks and the printed Index of the Saints of the Order: S. Morandus is venerated on June 3: On the same day of S. Morandus a certain Abbot in Burgundy, whose life we have not yet been able to investigate. The other a Monk of Cluny, of whom we here; as also he himself on the day of June 3 with Molanus in the Auctarium to Usuard, Wion, Dorganius, Menard, Ferrari in the Catalogue, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology: although the same (if however the same) in the Benedictine Ms. Kalendar is referred to the day of June 27 with the title of Abbot: although also, in our Ms., it is read thus; Here begins the Prologue to the life of S. Morandus, which is III Kalends of June. For III Nones should have been written: as all the enumerated Authors write with the ancient Ms. Usuard, augmented for the use of the churches of Alsace, where is read, On the third Nones of June. In the territory of Basel of S. Morandus, a religious man, and to be venerated for many miracles. whose ancient and fuller Life is given from our Codex, To these the Cluniac Library agrees in column 1642, reading thus: B. Morandus was also a disciple of our holy Father Hugh; whose deeds whoever wishes to know, let him read his Life described with us. But his solemnity is celebrated with us on the III day of June. That cited Life is to be read in the same Library col. 502 and following; but extracted and contracted from the more ample Acts, which are in our possession in a most distinguished Codex, once written in Westphalia, whence from the Library of our Paderborn College we redeemed it through the exchange of books. Those Acts indicate, that Morandus was sent by Hugh to reform a certain monastery in Auvergne, then at the prayers

of Constantius, sent by the same Hugh into Sundgau, that he might govern as Prior the Altkirch monastery of S. Christopher, with the Monks brought there from Cluny, was recalled from Auvergne, and was lent to Sundgau, on account of his skill in the language of that country: yet that the title of Prior, with Constantius yielding, fell to him is not sufficiently clearly indicated in the Acts.

[4] Who wrote the Life, a German by nation, and probably was a monk of S. Morandus. For he says at number 9, written by a German monk that the Monks sent before from Burgundy into Sundgau did not know the modes of our speech; and therefore Morandus was summoned there, who had his native soil near the Rhine, and at Worms had long been engaged in studies. He says besides at number 15; that to the obsequies of the Saint came all of our diocese of Basel; not obscurely indicating that he had lived and written in the same (and why not in the very Morandinian monastery?). The same Author indeed complains in the Prologue, that the Life, by the sloth of his Predecessors, was given to oblivion, nor handed down to posterity by writings, in the diocese of Basel, and at number 17 says, A long space of time having passed, occasion was given from a fire to raise the body: and yet at number 12 narrates how the Saint while still living healed of a quartan fever a certain Ulric of Karolspach, as he himself related to Brethren who still survive. Whence it follows that the long interval of time is estimated by the author at fifty or sixty years. Yet because the Saint was very aged when he died, never seen by the writer himself, he could rightly complain of his predecessors, that they had taken no care to commit to writing what they had seen, much less to investigate from Burgundy or Auvergne, where he had longer lived, anything of the acts of his earlier life.

[5] The same Life, written in a most elegant character in a single book, we saw in the very celebrated Library of the most August Caesar under number 268. The same Life in the Caesarean Library of Vienna, On the front of the book are seen depicted not inelegantly S. Morandus himself and another of the same Order and habit: with hands extended on high, the former with his left, the latter with his right, raising a two-headed eagle of black color on a golden field: to each are appended white arms on a red field, as you see here.

In the lower place in golden letters it is so inscribed: In the year of the Lord 1482, to the divine Frederick III, Emperor of the Romans always August, given to Frederick III as a gift: happily reigning, Paul de Stekeraw, Doctor of Theology, gave this work as a gift. We have sent to us from Vienna the lipsanographia of the Cathedral church of S. Stephen, and in it is noted that there is preserved the Head (or rather part of the Head) of S. Morandus: it is established, besides, that anciently there was erected an altar to his name there. Wherefore I have judged the present state of those things should be inquired about at Vienna, there in the Cathedral his Head with letters given on that matter to Fr. Mathias Soutermans of our Society, the very celebrated Preacher of the word of God, who on the fourth of September of the year 1689 in which I write these things, responded in these words.

[6] I inspected and went through the register or repertory of Relics of the Cathedral church of S. Stephen the Protomartyr, the most Reverend Lord Canon Custos handing it to me; which no longer exists. and although for certain other Relics it is noted whence they have come, or by what reason and cult they have been wont to be venerated, yet of S. Morandus I read or found nothing else than these words: The head of S. Morandus upon a silken cushion. The rest, namely whence it was brought, that his altar, or in what place it was placed, is altogether unknown. Nor is there any cult of him either in the Mass or in the Office: only the head of the Saint is honored, when with other Relics on the altar it is exposed for veneration. Meanwhile the Head of the Saint and the altar, which formerly was probably erected by reason of the brought Head, could have given occasion at the same time to the said Paul of inquiring into the Life of the Saint, of describing it when found, and of offering the description to the Emperor Frederick: whose uncle Frederick, called the Elder, Count of Tyrol and of Ferrette, in the year 1428 sent a silver statue of two feet of S. Morandus to this monastery as a gift; and his son Sigismund in the year 1463, benefactor to the same monastery, requested that the history of S. Morandus be sent to him; as in §. IV is more widely said. Why then should not either Frederick the Elder, or his son Sigismund, contemporary with the empire of Frederick his nephew, have donated the head of S. Morandus to him? why should he not have asked for the Life of the Saint for him and sent it to Vienna; and there by Doctor Paul of Stekeraw have it more elegantly described?

[7] We shall give this Life, hitherto unedited, from our, as we have said, In what order and from where the Life and Miracles are given. Paderborn Ms. Codex. We shall then give other miracles, done about the middle of the XV century in various persons, from the commentaries of D. Martin Granter, by country of Colmar, who at about the same times at S. Morandus's first as Custos of sacred things, then as Provost, with great diligence procured the divine cult; the prodigious benefits, by which in his age God made S. Morandus more illustrious, he assiduously consigned to writing; and to Sigismund of Austria asking seems to have sent his life. We shall give these things not in the original style, as they were written by him; but as by our Paraphrast they are more ornately amplified, when we do not have them otherwise. Finally we shall give certain most recent miracles or benefits, partly written by the Author of the paraphrastic Life at the beginning of this century, partly noted by our Fathers from the year 1682, and recently described by ourselves in that Residence.

[8] But that from the year 1683 [sic] miracles began to be noted again, seems to have been done on the occasion of a great prodigy performed in the little son of Nicholas Muller, The devotion of the people resuscitated by a recent miracle. called back from death to life through S. Morandus on the 22nd day of April of the same year, as the public testimonies, which after the narration of Nicholas the father among the miracles at number 35 we shall subjoin, declare. Hence again the devotion of the people toward that Saint was excited, trust and concourse: hence other and other benefits were obtained when he was invoked: hence the alacrity of the Fathers in noting down what had been obtained, to the greater glory of God and His Saint, was stimulated: as long ago the zeal of the Clergy of Basel had been stimulated, who among the proper Saints of their Diocese placed this one also, Proper Office at Basel and celebrating his feast on this third of June, recite an Office under the rite of a double, containing in the Lessons of the second Nocturn this compendium of his life:

[9] Morandus, in Germany, born of noble place, had parents no less distinguished by Christian piety than by the splendor of their lineage and riches: by whom consecrated to God, and commended to religious men at Worms, he made marvelous progress in letters and virtue. So spurning the allurements of the world, aspiring to the study of perfection, going to Cluny, he handed himself over to the discipline of S. Hugh the Abbot. Kindly received by him, he so lived that he was held second to no one in monastic profession. It happened at that age that Frederick Count of Ferrette, with this compendium of his life. asked from S. Hugh Abbot of Cluny several men of the monastic Order, who should care for the Church of Altkirch, built by his elders, and propagate in that place the institute of the monastic life. The Abbot assented to the pious Count's petition. But since those who had first been sent could not as well procure the salvation of their neighbors, on account of ignorance of the local idiom, he sent Morandus there, skilled in the Gallic as well as the German language. As he came to Altkirch, not only by word and example of religious life did he excite many men to a holier life; but also in his life and after death he became famous for many miracles. He extinguished a fire in the monastery; freed Frederick the Count from paralysis; restored to health Udalric the steward of the monastery, laboring with quartan fever; two women, miserably vexed by a demon, with the sacrifice of the Mass offered and exorcisms applied, he freed from all trouble. Worn out by long old age, he completed the laborious contest of life; and to many sick and energumens approaching his sepulchre, he brought present help. With which miracles proved by faithful witnesses, the Bishop of Basel, a legate sent to Rome, obtained from the Supreme Pontiff, that for his merits he should be venerated among the Saints with public rite.

[10] But before we come to the Canonization, let us pursue the rest of the Commentary, of which taking the principal part from the Life of which at number 2, we wish the Reader admonished of this in the first place; that whatever in this our Commentary printed in Roman characters is read with no Author cited, all that is taken from that Life, that it may not be necessary repeatedly with the weariness of the reader to allege that paraphrastic life.

§. II. On the Altkirch monastery of S. Christopher, then of S. Morandus; and the town of Altkirch, and their founders.

[11] The County of Ferrette or Pfirt, drawing its name from the town Ferrette, popularly Pfirt, seat of the Counts, Boundaries of the County of Ferrette was once contained in nearly the same limits in which Sundgau now is; namely enclosed by upper Alsace to the North, the Rhine and the district of Basel to the East, the dominion of the Bishop of Basel to the South, and the Counties of Burgundy and of Mount Belligard to the West. Principal in that County are the towns Ferrette with a noble citadel, whence the Counts have their name; four hours' journey distant from Basel; Altkirch, Mezopolis, Dela, Belfort, Seinheim, Diatannium, Florimontum, Lansera. Fishful in it are the rivers Larga and Ellus, towns and rivers: called by others Alsa or Illus, sprung from the roots of the Jura, in places so near, that rainwater from the roof of a certain villa Schlitz of the Lucellen monastery, hence into the Ellus, thence into the Larga flows down: presently with a contrary course the Larga tends to the West, the Ellus to the East, until after some meanders below Altkirch at the village of Ilfurtum they meet, and at the same time running through the middle of Alsace, near Strasbourg flow out into the Rhine.

[12] In this region anciently the Counts of Ferrette had built a sacred building, its Counts found a church to S. Christopher, midway between the citadel of Larga and the valley Caninam, which they had dedicated to S. Christopher the Martyr: and it, with the number of Christians gradually increased and new temples erected through the neighborhood, was called by posterity Altkirch, that is, the old Church. Its first founder which of the Counts was, or when he founded, is not known: yet it is known from the Life of S. Morandus number 7, that the most noble Count of the castle of Pfart, sprung from the lineage of the Kings of the Franks, by name Frederick (who lived at the end of the XI century and the beginning of the following, and reached at least his 15th year), built up more fully a certain church, called Altkilcha, first to secular Canons, in his allod, by his progenitors dedicated to the name of the most blessed Martyr Christopher, and amplified it with the largesse of estates. But the church was first ordained by the parents of the above-mentioned Prince to secular Canons; but with sins requiring, when they withdrew, almost desolated. The most prudent Count seeing the place, diligently constructed by him, deprived of inhabitants being desolated, then given to Cluniac Monks. sent to Cluny; and to the most holy Abbot Hugh and his successors to govern, and to institute there the monastic Order, in perpetuity donated.

[13] It could have moved Frederick, that the Cluniacs

he summoned especially; because these in the discipline of regular life, in the fame of holiness, and in zeal for souls at that time flourished eminently under S. Hugh the Abbot; Why these especially? under whom (as his Life published in vol. III of April in first place said at number 6) the religion of the Cluniac cenobium was increased from day to day; and the odor of its name was as the odor of a full field, which the Lord has blessed. Besides, Hugh himself could have moved him, who, as the same Life relates at number 27, had once turned aside to Altkirch, received in hospitality by Louis the Count and Sophia his wife, probably parents of the said Frederick: and there had left an illustrious memory of his sanctity, when he so drove off an impending tempest with the sign of the Cross, that, with rains and thunders raging all around, that place is said to have remained free from the storm and serene. Finally Burcard the Bishop of Basel could have moved Frederick, nay also did move (as Paschal II the Pope testifies in eloquent words, in the Diploma given in 1106 to Hugh the Abbot), who had summoned the Cluniac Monks to Basel and founded a monastery. For in that Diploma the Pope confirms to Hugh and his successors, and wishes to be subjected to them in perpetuity, the monastery of S. Alban, given by Burcard the Bishop, in the suburb of the city of Basel. In the same episcopate the monastery of Altikilcha, by Frederick the Count, through the solicitude of the above-mentioned Bishop, into your hands (he addresses Hugh) resigned and granted.

[14] Count Frederick had donated, and moved perhaps by the reasons which I have said had donated Altkirch to the Cluniacs; and to Hugh himself, the most holy Abbot, and his successors to govern, and to institute there the monastic Order in perpetuity had donated; Repeating what was given is punished as has been said at number 12. But as the minds of men are inconstant, after that first ardor toward God and his servants had cooled, he presumed to pluck for himself I know not what right in things once donated; and exacting tribute from some estate of the monastery, he cast the colonist into chains. Hence divine vengeance was present, paralysis invading the Count, and twisting his mouth in a wondrous manner; until the medical hand of Morandus, to him much entreating and promising better things, and the penitent is restored, brought help. The Count, restored by this benefit, that he might pay his promises, is thought to have again confirmed all things to the Venerable Abbot Pontius, Successor of S. Hugh, and to the Cluniac monastery through the following writing:

[15] In the name of the holy and individual Trinity, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Be it known to all, both present and future, and the things given again he confirms. that I Frederick, knowing God to be the giver of all goods, whose wisdom reaches strongly from end to end, and disposes all things sweetly; wishing so to dispose the honor entrusted to me by Him, that in it I may be able to merit the gain of the eternal kingdom; the church of Altkirch, as far as pertains to me, I have procured to be reformed by the institution of religion and monastic discipline. Therefore under the Father of holy memory of the Cluniac Congregation B. Hugh, through messengers with our words and entreaties, we received from the same Father of the same Congregation Monks in the said church to dwell. But after his decease, when his successor the venerable Abbot Pontius had come to our parts to the same place for the cause of visitation, the aforesaid Altkirch church by the present writing to the same Abbot, and to his successors and to the Cluniac monastery, into subjection and into obedience and ordination, in perpetuity we confirmed; in such manner however, that if the place should so grow, that a Congregation of Monks according to the norm of the Cluniac Cloister there the Order be kept; an Abbot there, by the institution and disposition of the Cluniac Abbot, if utility shall require this, be placed in charge. Witnesses of this our act are Rembald the Presbyter, Azo the Presbyter, Frederick the Advocate, Azo Canon of Basel, Werner the Cleric, Rembald Advocate of the same place, Rembald the Soldier. This was done in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1115, with Paschal II presiding in the Apostolic See, but with Rudolph as Bishop of Basel; with Emperor Henry V praising and confirming. Written by the hands of Albert of Trier, the 19th Kalends of January, the third feria, the 24th day of the moon.

[16] The more distinct site of Altkirch is indicated: It has been said above that Altkirch was built midway between the citadel of Larga and the valley Canina. Of which places since not enough expressed notice is now found, I think its site is more accurately assigned, if it is placed at the river Ellus, nearly one league above Ilfurtum, where the Larga flows into the Ellus. With the Monks introduced there, solemnly performing the divine office, frequent inhabitants flowed there; so that in a short time a populous village arose around the monastery: which when it was consumed by fire, its village, consumed by flames, several of the colonists, partly led by the amenity of the neighboring hill and the salubrity of the air, partly that they might be less exposed to plundering and robberies; transferred their things and roofs to the hill next to the old citadel, which they think was anciently called Larga in the Antonine itinerary. To these then with others and others approaching, the place grew up so much, that to the new Prince Albert of Austria, is transferred to the neighboring hill, son of Emperor Albert (who through his wife Joanna, daughter of Ulric the last Count of Pfirt, deceased in the year 1324 without male offspring, had been made Count of that dominion) the village seemed worthy of civic right. He therefore first surrounded the new village of Altkirch, and in 1330 was made a town, situated scarcely a quarter of a little hour's space above the old burned one on the same river, with a wall about the year 1330, and reduced it into the form of a town.

[17] Yet the same name of Altkirch remained, which formerly the village had drawn from the old Church of S. Christopher. This is found from public and private instruments and letters, retaining the name Altkirch; in which before the year 1326 no mention is made of a town. As when it is read written without addition; The Provost of S. Morandus in Altkilchen; A colonist in Altkilchen; Done in Altkilchen. But after the thirtieth year of the said century the monastery so ceased to be called, and the town retained the name Altkilchen. Hence those letter-formulas; Provost of S. Morandus near the town Altkilchen; Citizen of the town Altkilchen; Done in the town Altkilchen. The new town thus girt with walls, soon in it a temple or chapel built to the most blessed Virgin Mary, and by John de Senna, Bishop of Basel, in the year 1345 was consecrated; as is plain from the inscription of a stone in the vault of the temple, which afterwards augmented began to be a parish for the citizens.

[18] Not useless to the townsmen was that their religion toward the Mother of God. For scarcely had the town been born, it would in its cradle have been extinguished, had it not herself protected it when the inhabitants were asleep. For there had devastated whatever it met with fire and sword in Alsace and Switzerland, bursting forth from France, an English army, which the Mother of God defends from destruction, under Coucy as leader: who at length sorely punished by the Swiss, with many of their own lost as they were returning through Sundgau, the last cohort of fugitives, in obscure night with ladders applied scaled the walls of Altkirch, penetrating into the forum before any of the citizens could come up. They had stopped before the temple of the Mother of God, some prepared fire for the buildings, some ladders and iron: when unexpectedly a huge brightness flashing from the chapel of the Queen of the Heavenly Ones, so dazzled the eyes of the soldiers, that with troubled minds they turned their arms against themselves, and with the citizens roused by the tumult gave the penalty. Many were killed; the rest, turned to flight, even with the monastery untouched, left rich plunder. Some hand down that the blessed Virgin, in that place where now her stone statue is seen, as if a battle-line of camps was seen drawn up, and struck fear into the enemies, and with the splendor of the radiating arms reverberated their eyes, blinding the eyes and minds of the enemies. and as if star-struck turned them to mutual destruction and flight. Whatever of these be, the elders certainly established the fourth feria before the feast of the Purification each year to be celebrated with solemn rite in memory of the matter, and the younger today diligently observe. This happened in the year 1375 at the end of January, namely according to the Helvetic Chronology of John Henry Suizer, although according to Josias Simler in the Republic of the Swiss and others, it happened two years later.

[19] Another not dissimilar invasion of soldiers afflicted Sundgau after about seventy years thereafter, Another invasion of soldiers. but more calamitous to the people of Altkirch than the prior; as is learned from the following narration: In the Council of Basel Amadeus Duke of Savoy, the Pseudo-pope elected against Eugene IV in the year 1440, gave cause to a pernicious war. For Basel, Solothurn, Bern from a league entered with the son of Savoy, were defending the Pseudopope. The Dauphin of France, son of Charles VII, with great forces attacked the people of Basel and the Swiss, Altkirch and the monastery is overthrown, with the leader of the forces Count of Armagnac, from whom the Armagnac war was named, which for several years afflicted gravely the Sequani and neighbors, and among them the people of Altkirch. The monastery and temple utterly overthrown, was not restored before Martin Granter, by country of Colmar, after John of Lucerne, who in this calamitous time presided, was declared Provost of Altkirch. and by Martin Granter is restored. He built the temple from the foundations and the bell-tower (it is established from his commentaries and signs) the pronuntialem (so he calls it) turrim against the incursions of the enemies. The same hay-loft, ox-stall, horse-stall, and part of the monastery, whose length tends from East to West, he repaired with little expense for the facility of the times or workers; and the relics of S. Morandus, crushed and scattered by the immanity of the impious soldiers, he placed back in his monument.

§. III. The Canonization of S. Morandus. The Indulgences granted, and their Diplomas.

[20] Toward the end of the Life, which we shall give, is read that the zeal of the Monks burned so for S. Morandus, on account of multifarious miracles, Act about the canonization of S. Morandus before the Bishop of Basel, both at other times, and most greatly performed in the Translation of the Relics; that they began to treat of his canonization, first indeed before their Ordinary the See of Basel; where an examination of the deeds of the holy Man was instituted, witnesses brought who would confirm those, and his merits proved to be so singular; that further a Legate was sent to Rome, instructed with the diploma and testimony of the Bishop of Basel, who would signify to the Supreme Pontiff, then before the Roman Pontiff. what had been done in order to the canonization of S. Morandus, and from him would procure that he be referred by supreme authority into the Album of the Celestial Ones. Which he did procure as desired, and returning glad, filled all the widely spread Sundgau region with joy. But in what year, with what Bishop of Basel, with what Roman Pontiff these were procured, the Life does not express; nor will it be easy from elsewhere to fish out anything certain.

[21] Yet it is credible, that in the same XII century, in the beginning of which Morandus lived, he was deemed worthy of divine honors. For the Author of the Life, who treats of the Canonization, must have written in the same century; since between that writing and the death of the Saint, in the twelfth century, as it seems. the space of only one man's life intervened; as the same writes at number 12, that Ulric of Karolspach, freed from fever by S. Morandus still living, related this very thing to the Brethren who still survive. And that very solemnity of Canonization and public joy seems to have given the cause for writing the Life, the more and more the zeal

and religion of the people might be sharpened toward the new Saint. This is proved by the indulgences granted in the 13th century: That the same Canonization was made in the XII century, the Indulgences granted in the following century to those visiting the church of S. Morandus confirm: similarly the Confraternity confirms, of which presently, erected under his invocation in the XIII century. And about the Indulgences anciently granted, two diplomas are found; of which the one, given at Rieti in the year 1289, from the autograph Lawrence Lergsfelder, sworn Testamentary and public Notary, described; and is of the following tenor:

[22] To all Christ's faithful, to whom the present writing shall come. We by the grace of God Peter of Arborea, through this Brief. Philip of Salerno, Theoctistus of Andrinople, Joannine of Metrice, Roger of Severino Archbishops; Peter of Tarazona, Conrad of Toul, Petronus of Larino, Divitaus of Plotz, William of Dion, William of Cales, Leoterius of Verulam, and Marcellinus of Turtubulum by the same grace, eternal salvation in the Lord.

[23] Since, as the Apostle says, we shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, to receive according as we have done in the body, whether good or evil; it behooves us to anticipate the day of the last harvest with works of mercy, and with the gaze of eternal things to sow on earth, what with the Lord rendering with multiplied fruit we may be able to gather in heaven, holding firm hope and trust, since he who sows sparingly, sparingly shall reap; and he who sows in blessings, of blessings shall also reap eternal life. Therefore desiring that the Monastery of Saints Morandus and Christopher in Altkilchen, of the Cluniac Order, of the Diocese of Basel, be frequented with congruent honors, and continually venerated by all Christ's faithful; to all truly penitent and confessed, who shall have come to the said monastery on the days subscribed, namely of the Nativity of the Lord, of the Resurrection, of the Ascension and of Pentecost, and on the individual feasts of the glorious ever Virgin Mary, on the feasts of all the Apostles, on those of the Blessed Nicholas and Martin Confessors, on the feasts of the Blessed Morandus and Christopher Confessors and Martyrs, on the feast of the Blessed Catherine the Virgin, on the feast of all Saints, on the day of all souls, on the Dedication of the same monastery, and through the Octaves of all the feasts before said for the cause of devotion; or who to the fabric or structure, or lights or ornaments, or to the other necessary things of the same monastery shall have extended a helping hand; whether laboring in extremis, or in life shall have bequeathed any of their faculties, or in any other way given, or sent; We, trusting in the mercy of Almighty God and the authority of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, mercifully relax in the Lord for each of the said days each forty days from the penances enjoined them, provided that the consent of the Diocesan of the place be added. In testimony of which matter we have caused our seals to be appended. Given at Rieti in the year of the Lord 1289, of the Pontificate of Pope Nicholas IV the II year.

[24] Similar is the Diploma which follows, given in the year 1326: To all the sons of the holy Mother Church, to whom the present letters shall come, and through another of the 14th century. we by divine commiseration Esger of London, and Rostangnus of Neopatra Archbishops, Peter of Nazianzus, Egidius of Andrinople, Zacharias of Suacium, Andreas of Croen, Francis of Sagitanum, Peter of Newtown, William of Luteolanum, Lampridius of Trauris, and William of the Tartars Bishops, eternal salvation in the Lord.

[25] The pious Mother Church of the faithful, solicitous of their salvation, has been wont to invite the devotion of the faithful people through certain spiritual gifts, namely remissions and indulgences, to the honor of God and to be imposed on the sacred buildings themselves; that the more frequently the Christian people flows there, devoutly imploring the Savior's grace, the more they may merit to obtain both the pardon of their debts and eternal joys. Wishing therefore that the Parochial church of S. Morandus in Altkirchen and the chapel of S. Mary, in the same place of the Basel Diocese, be venerated with congruent honors, and more zealously frequented by Christ's faithful; to all truly penitent and confessed, who on the Dedication of the church and chapel themselves, also on the festivities of the Lord our God Jesus Christ, namely of the Nativity, Circumcision, Epiphany, Palms, Parasceue, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost, on all the Lord's days, on the individual feasts of the glorious Virgin and Mother of God Mary, on the days of John the Baptist, of BB. Peter and Paul, and of all the other Apostles, of B. Morandus and BB. Laurence, Vincent, Dionysius, and Valentine the Martyrs. BB. Nicholas, Augustine, Martin and Gregory Confessors. BB. Catherine, Agnes, Margaret and Cecilia Virgins, in the Commemoration of all Saints, and on the Octaves of the said festivities and feasts, shall have come yearly to the said church and chapel for the cause of devotion and prayer, or who shall have reverently followed the Plebanus of the same church, in the carrying of the sacred body and blood of our Lord God to the sick, and on the return of the same Plebanus to the church; or who at the elevation of the same body and blood of our Lord within the solemnities of the Masses there with bent knees and clasped hands shall have humbly adored; or who to the books, chalices, chasubles, albs, or other vestments and preparations of this kind of the Priests and altars, or to the fabric, ornament, lights, or other necessaries of the said church, shall have extended their helping hands, or in the end of theirs shall have bequeathed any of their faculties, or who shall have gone around the cemetery of the same church, praying the Lord's Prayer and eternal rest for those buried there and the salvation of all the faithful departed; as often as they shall have done the premises, or any of the premises, we trusting in the mercy of Almighty God, and the merit and authority of His Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, each of us, mercifully relax in the Lord each forty days of Indulgences from the penances enjoined them, provided that the Diocesan of the place shall give consent and assent to this. In testimony of which matter we have ordered the present letters to be fortified by the appending of our seals. Given at Avignon in the year of the Nativity of the Lord 1326, the Kalends of April, of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and our Lord Pope John XXII in the fourth year, nay the tenth; unless you would rather it were given in the year of Christ 1320.

[26] confirmed by ordinary authority. There are besides letters of the Ordinary, appended to the said Diploma, by which he gives consent and assent; and are such: John, Prior of the Monastery of S. Alban outside the walls of Basel, and the same Vicar General in spirituals and temporals of the Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, Lord John, by God's grace Bishop of Basel, to all Christ's faithful, to whom the present Letters shall come, salutation from Him, who is the true salvation of all.

[27] Desiring that Christ's faithful work the salvation of their souls by votive works of piety; and to this with true paternal solicitude, by which we are moved not undeservedly to the effect of the salvation of the faithful, solicitously turning ourselves; all and each of the graces or Indulgences graciously granted to the Parochial Church of S. Morandus in Altkirch of the said Basel Diocese, by the venerable Fathers Archbishops and Bishops in every manner, form, and tenor of the letters of the same Fathers, to which our present Letters are affixed, holding as ratified and pleasing, by the tenor of the present we ratify, approve, authorize them, and in the name of the Lord by ordinary authority confirm, and to the aforesaid Indulgences forty days of enjoined penance under the same manner, form, and tenor, and on the same days or feasts in the Letters of the aforesaid Fathers expressed, by Ordinary authority we add and grant favorably in these writings: not wishing these our Letters to be carried in any way by the hands of questuarii. Given under the seal of our Vicariate, in testimony of the premises, in the year of the Lord 1342, on the fifth feria after the Feast of all Saints. Let no one further be moved by the peregrine titles of the Bishops granting Indulgences: for those are either received from the parts of the Infidels; or depraved among the hands of librarians; in correcting which through conjectures we have not thought we ought to labor on this occasion, since many other things remain to be said. He who above in the first diploma is Nerulanus is without doubt Verulanus in Latium, in Ughelli called Loterius, here Leoterius: who in the second is William Luternalensis, is Puteolanensis in Campania; and so of others.

§. IV. The cult of S. Morandus among the Cluniacs, through the Double Office; among the House of Austria, through votive offerings; among the vintners, through paintings.

[28] Oddo Abbot of Cluny from the year 1424, Oddo the second of his name, the forty-first in order of the Abbots of the Cluniacs, from the year 1424 even to 1457, in their Chronicle praised for the perpetuity of vigils and silence, for benignity toward the poor, for zeal of monastic religion, for construction of buildings; could besides be most rightly praised for the singular zeal with which he was carried toward S. Morandus, and tried to propagate his glory. That zeal shone forth especially in the year 1437, when in the solemn Comitia of his Fathers he decreed the said Saint to be honored throughout the whole Order with ecclesiastical Office, of twelve Lessons under the rite of a double, thus establishing:

[29] The King of immense Majesty, of eternal glory, whose virtue, operation, force, munificence are wondrous and of wondrous prudence; whose ineffable height of providence enclosed in no limits, comprehended in no bounds, Devoted to S. Morandus, by the censure of right judgment disposing celestial things equally with earthly; even though He may magnify all His ministers, decorate them with high honors, and make them possessors of celestial beatitude; yet the most blessed Morandus, claustral Monk of the Cluniac church, through our most blessed Father of consummated sanctity Hugh, sent to the reformation of the Order, he variously praises him, into the parts of Germany, He decorated with the gift of special sanctity. Which most blessed Morandus indeed, sprung from illustrious lineage in Gaul, in marvelously past times, and still daily, has shone and shines with multiple miracles. Which to the glory of Almighty God and to the fame, honor, and manifold utility of the whole Cluniac Order does not doubt to redound.

[30] and establishes him to be venerated, Therefore, because the Prophet David exhorts all of us to praise the Lord in His Saints; We Brother Oddo, Minister and humble Abbot of the Cluniac church, led by pious counsels and excited by worthy zeals, the said B. Morandus prosecuting with the affection of special devotion, by the counsel and unanimous consent of the Reverend Fathers Lords Definitors of the General Chapter, will, decree, and ordain, through all and each Abbey, Priorate, Deaconry, throughout his whole Order. and other benefices whatever of our Cluniac Order, every single year in perpetual times, on the third day of June, on which day the said Saint happily migrated from the misery of the present life to the Lord, the feast of XII Lessons, as of one Confessor not Pontiff, Office of 12 Lessons in the recitation of the proper or common Office, as of B. Gervald the Confessor, to be indefectibly celebrated: so that the said most glorious Saint, in life as well as in death, to us all and our successors, by his holy merits and prayers, may perpetually deign to be a suffrage; and after the present hardships to the joys of paradise, with our Lord Jesus Christ granting, may faithfully bring us. Amen. Given in our Monastery and General Chapter of Cluny 1437, on the Lord's Day Jubilate, the 21st of the month of April.*

[31] About these very times he signally declared the affection and trust of his mind toward S. Morandus, that

I touched in §. 1, The religion of the Austrians toward the Saint declared, the most Serene House of Austria. For (to be silent of others, men of every order and sex through Sundgau and Alsace, who gave manifest signs of their veneration toward the Saint, which both very many votive offerings and the very stones, inscribed with the names of illustrious families and family arms, declare) I shall produce only the more memorable of the Austrian Princes, who, that they might render S. Morandus benevolent to themselves and their own, with royal munificence affected the sacred building and its inhabitants. Among these the old Ms. Codex names Frederick the Elder, son of Leopold the Pious, nephew of Albert the Wise, uncle of Frederick III the Emperor, than whom no one after Augustus Caesar reigned longer. He in the year 1428 sent as a gift a silver statue of S. Morandus of two feet in height, which holds a book in the left hand, with the right with the first fingers raised bears the effigy of one blessing the people. This escaped the hands of so many harpies in turbulent times, and on more solemn feasts exposed on the chief altar excites the piety and cult of the approaching people. The same, that his and his most serene consort Anna of Brunswick's memory might be perennial in the annual sacred rites, bequeathed to the religious a certain number of grain for each year. Frederick the Father was followed by the most serene Sigismund Duke of Tyrol, Landgrave of Alsace, and Lord of the other anterior provinces, who in the year 1463 sent a messenger to Martin Granter of Colmar, at that age the restorer of the monastery and temple, who in his name should offer a waxen arm of six pounds, and many gold coins, to the ornament of the temple; at the same time he requested that the history of S. Morandus be transmitted to him.

[32] Here can seem to have shone forth wondrously the providence of God around the glory of His Saint Morandus: when others tried to abolish it. which when wicked men greatly wished abolished, He himself, through other most illustrious Princes and Prelates of the most holy Order, in a wondrous manner increased and rendered clearer. For about that time the Armagnac war flared up, which we have said in §. 2 had utterly overthrown the monastery and temple of S. Morandus, so that one example of Austrian veneration toward the Saint (as also the granting of Indulgences) happened somewhat before, the other somewhat after that war; than which the minds of the people could never have been more powerfully moved, to establish in S. Morandus their trust, than in those most afflicted times, in which they most needed help, by the example of Princes to be implored and expected for themselves from the Above. Similar trust in him from the memory of men placed they had in Sundgau the vintners; among whom he was always in singular veneration.

[33] Paintings express him with a cask, For to touch nothing of other temples, altars, and statues, in which everywhere among the Sequani the memory of the holy man endures; in the Parish of Steinbach S. Morandus and the Virgin Mother of God, long since chosen Patrons, are placed before the high altar. There again S. Morandus is seen depicted on the wall, and a third time in the wing behind the high altar; here indeed most elegantly, there with rude minerva and coarser brush. On the altar he has a great wine cask before his feet, into which the holy man presses a grape, and the purple liquor flowing through the spigot purples the foaming lips. The same is indicated in the painting in which the series of his whole life is: for it represents S. Morandus tarrying in the vineyard, and beside a huge bowl or vat: as patron of the vintners. over this hangs a vine, from which a cluster plucked he presses with his hand into the bowl beneath. The farmers being asked what the painting meant for itself, responded, from the tradition of the elders, that S. Morandus anciently was the Patron of the vintners: that they trust in his merits and prayers, by which their elders received the most heaped harvest, that they too with God well favoring will enjoy. But although from monuments of letters nothing certain is established, in what matter S. Morandus once did well to their elders: yet a probable conjecture is taken from the paintings, that in some scarcity and want of wine, God by his merits and prayers granted to the cultivators a more abundant vintage than for the fertility of the vines; whence they began to venerate and cult his sanctity.

[34] His death depicted there. There also the holy death of Morandus is so represented on the wall. The Monks surround him dying, and one of the Celestials of the same Order, as the monastic garment indicates, by a blandishing gesture calls him forth. (I would believe perhaps Hugh his Abbot and master is represented in this schema.) He, with all looking on, embraces with both arms the soul of S. Morandus leaping from the body, and translates it with himself to the supernal joys. Another monument also of his sanctity and ancient veneration, not very far from the monastery, remains in a rock, which is said to have yielded to his head; and in a chapel, which over that rock was afterwards built, in memory of so admirable a matter. For fame relates, and even today endures, that B. Morandus, that he might profit not only at home, but also abroad as many as possible, often visited the neighboring villages, with a book in one hand, The Rock remains which yielded to his head, bearing a staff in the other, with head nearly bare, so that not without cause he is everywhere painted with a dark face. The inclemency of the air, or the frequent snares of the evil demon did not retard him from this laborious institute. It happened at some time that he returned home from the village of Walheim, after sacred things performed, when unexpectedly, among horrendous lightning and thunder, the greatest rain fell; and caught in the open field, when there was no covering or refuge from trees or huts, he sees beside the way a huge rock: to this he so accommodates his body, that in some way he might avoid the rage of the raging rain and hail. But behold the most rigid rock, and it defends him from the storm. like soft wax, recedes; and to the head, which most the storm raging from the North was infesting, gives opportune covering; for the rest of the body more easily sustained the storm. Lest the memory of so prodigious an event perish, the elders built a chapel over that rock: and even today is seen in that rock a hole, like the trace of a great head; into which pilgrims insert their head, and proclaim they have experienced relief of pains.

§. V. The Confraternity erected under the invocation of S. Morandus, and its laws: the merits of the Cluniac Order communicated to the same.

[35] Another argument of ancient cult bestowed on S. Morandus is, that about the year 1280 the Sequani, that they might more render their Saint propitious to themselves, instituted a Confraternity under his and the most blessed Virgin Mary's protection, with the Provost of the Morandine monastery as leader and Author, and bound themselves by written laws to the principal cult of the same. Into this enrolled first, not only the people of Altkirch, but also the colonists of Steinbach near Senheim, The Confraternity of S. Morandus instituted and those who at S. Morandus the lesser in Alsace at Rapesvilum (each place depended from the Provostry of B. Morandus as an appendage) dwelt. Then were ascribed (as is clear from the Album of the Sodality) several others farther distant, and among these also Noble men and Counts, besides citizens of various towns. The Laws, by which that Republic stood hitherto, are at hand; from which it seems worth the trouble to transcribe some, that they may be an example and incitement for posterity to cultivate the Celestial ones. Over the Fraternity with the highest power will preside a Priest, who in place of the Provost bears the care of souls at Altkirch. He will have as administrators of the governance two Prefects, by what laws? to be chosen each year by the Sodality: these will observe the morals of the Sodales, whatever they note worthy of censure, they will refer to the Priest. The office of Questors they will perform, will collect the offerings, and render account to the Sodality of expenses. Whoever shall wish to give his name to the Sodality, will speak a solemn oath, that he will keep all its decrees. With similar religion, who shall offend against the decrees, summoned will present himself to the Priest, and pay a fine at his discretion. But no one shall be received at death; that the living and healthy, if they shall think it worth the labor, may ask spontaneously to be admitted.

[36] In each season of the year they shall extraordinarily meet in the temple. They will read the Statutes of the Congregation; what is each one's office, they will understand: on the morrow funeral Sacred rites, and indeed each Priest each one, they will perform for the deceased Sodales. At the same time, the divine matter being completed, a gift will be given to any of the poor for alms. Under those expiatory Sacred rites and solemnities, in which the assembly of the people is bound to offer, besides on the four solemnities of the Blessed Virgin, and also on the day of Dedication, twenty lights upon the hanging crown of the Mother of God shall burn, two on each altar of D. Nicholas, six at the matutinal Office and Vespers. Every Sodalis dying shall bequeath to the Congregation the best garment which he had, and three solidi; but every Sodalis female five solidi; half part for repairing the lights of the temple, the other half part for the uses of the Sodality. Whoever of their number having died from the houses to the temple, thence to the sepulchre, the Sodales will accompany with burning candles: each one will offer a lighted candle and coin at the altar to the one performing for the dead: but each of the Mystae will perform, as soon as they shall have known that a Sodalis has departed. If anyone for poverty could not procure his sacred rites of the deceased, the Sodality at common expense will see to its being done. If anyone elsewhere shall have chosen burial, all the Sodales from the temple of B. Morandus will accompany him to some point. If anyone within the compass of three milestones shall die, nor by his own expenses be able to be carried to the monastery, it shall be asked of the inhabitants of that place, that by their benefit he be conveniently brought. If anyone farther shall die, nor be it advised to bring him here, nevertheless for him funerals shall be made. Finally both Priests, as well as the Religious and Sodales mutually all may rejoice and enjoy perpetual mutual society and participation of all good works.

[37] To the Sodales are communicated the merits of the Cluniac Order. Thus far the laws of the Morandine Sodality; of which the last about the mutual participation of all good works among the Sodales, a huge addition was made through the liberal benignity of the Cluniac Order; when the same Sodales in the year 1491 it deigned to honor with the communion of indulgences and their merits, through the following decree: We the Definitors of the general council of the sacred Cluniac Order, elected and deputed by Apostolic authority, representing the whole Cluniac Order, to all about to inspect the present letters, eternal salvation in the Lord. The splendor of paternal glory, through a special decree. who illuminates the world with His ineffable brightness, pursues with great favor the pious vows of the faithful, hoping in the clemency of His Majesty, especially when their devout humility is aided by the prayers and merits of the Saints.

[38] Since therefore in the chapel of the inviolate and perpetual Virgin Mother of God Mary, of the town of Altkilch of the Basel Diocese, looking by full right to the monastery of S. Morandus of our Cluniac Order, a certain devout Fraternity, from the alms of the faithful in each season, for the salvation of the living and the redemption of the deceased, with the office of Vigils, Masses, prayers, alms, and the frequentation of other works of piety is celebrated; We, desiring the said Fraternity to be augmented with all our efforts, for the praise of God, of the Queen of heaven, and of S. Morandus, in whose honor it is celebrated, by Apostolic authority, which we exercise in this part, to all and individual faithful of Christ, who shall have associated themselves with the said Fraternity, or for the maintenance of lights, ornaments, or other necessary things shall have given anything of the goods conferred on them by God, or in their last moments bequeathed; of all good works and spiritual exercises, which by God's

clemency are done in the sacrosanct Cluniac monastery, and in all other monasteries, churches or chapels, in various provinces and kingdoms wherever established and subject to the said Cluniac monastery, also of Indulgences and spiritual remissions, mercifully granted to the benefactors of our Order by the supreme Pontiffs, Cardinals, Legates, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, or General Councils, which are many and wondrous, in life as well as after death, we bestow and grant participation; that, through these and other goods which they shall have done, and with the Most High granting shall do, they may merit to obtain grace in the present, and glory in the future. Amen. In testimony of which matter we have caused our usual Seals to be impressed on these present letters. Given at Cluny in the Chamber of definitions, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1491, the 7th Kalends of May.

§. VI. The later desolation of the monastery of S. Morandus: enumeration of some of its Provosts.

[39] The tumult of the peasants, which in the year 1525, with Luther the trumpeter and his standard-bearers, In the year 1525 the peasants pillage the Priorate, disturbed the whole of Germany, was nearly exitial to S. Morandus. The monastery once and again was plundered, pillaged, and in part destroyed. One Priest in the inner parts of the temple the raging peasants killed. Henry Goldelin, made Provost of the monastery by Pope Leo X, by swimming through the bed of the river Ellus, escaped. With the tumult quieted, by the order of Emperor Ferdinand I, punishment was taken from the rebels: and among these five, who confessed about S. Morandus despoiled and pillaged, paid the penalty with their head: Morandus Fromman, Nicholas Betlerus, Peter Schad, John Eberlin, Anthony Rieberg. But the damages inflicted could not so easily be repaired. There are seen even today sad monuments, ruins especially of the buildings, nearest the cemetery; then part of the monastery, and miserably devastate. which from the East turns to the West, formerly inhabited by Monks, now so devastated, that it is of no religious use; then the storage of sacred things, even to the lower consignment, dispersed. Finally, that nothing might be left to posterity, they tore apart the grammatophylacium archive; letters, and public instruments of all fortunes through the meadows (so the citizens recall from the mouth of their parents) they scattered: by which it happened that today many lands and revenues are occupied by unjust Lords, since their instruments are either taken away by theft, or torn apart, with the most ancient account-tablets, from which the clear right and ancient possession of the Monastery is gathered, in vain protesting. So the residue of the caterpillar the locust ate, and the residue of the locust the bruchus ate, and the residue of the bruchus the rust ate.

[40] Its state in the year 1549. What thereafter the state of the Monastery was, is clear from Philibert Poissenotus, Cluniac Monk and primary Rector of the Hieronymian College of Dôle; who in the year 1548 made Provost of S. Morandus, in a dedicatory letter, prefixed to William of Tyre published by him in the year 1569, and inscribed to the Reverend Lord Christopher Coquille, the major Cluniac Prior, among other things writes thus: Otherwise here I was very doubtful, whether I ought to enumerate among the benefits which you have conferred on me, the collation made to me of the Priorate of S. Morandus of the Cluniac Order, of the Basel Diocese. For if you regard the opinion of those who describe a benefice for this reason to be called such, because it does well; I have not experienced how I can say this; so much have I found that house desolate in many parts, in many places of the buildings next to ruin, and besides subject to much foreign debt; and this by the act of the next Administrators, of whose debts not small I am compelled to pay almost every moment of time, from when sent by you I obtained possession of that place, and this by the authority and consent of the Roman royal Majesty, and of the most celebrated Senate of Ensisheim. …By the authority of this Senate I am greatly aided in restoring the rights of the Church: which thing has brought about, that I have not long since deserted that Priorate, subject to such great miseries: which yet I know you to have conferred on me, as a sufficiently fat benefice, following common opinion, by which most of us are deceived; not weighing the vicissitude of things, and the diminution of charity; which all, more truly than I would wish, have happened to that cenobium from the year 1525, in which that most dangerous tumult of the war of the peasants broke out. …For in this execrable war the peasants destroyed a great part of the buildings, took away all the documents of Rights and Censuses they had found, and tore them apart, for whose all restoration I have now begun greatly to labor. Thus far Poissenotus.

[41] Some Provosts are enumerated. Besides this there were other men distinguished in virtue and doctrine in the preceding century, Provosts of S. Morandus, whose names I shall subjoin. First occurs, John Jacob de Morimont, Free Baron of Belfort and Morsperg: he restored that part of the Monastery, which turns from the North to the South, and alone is believed to have surpassed the violence of the peasants, with the granary and the bronze bell. To him succeeded, in the year 1520, Henry Galdelin of Constance: in 1528 Peter Gauvandus, who, as the cited Poissenotus testifies, first established as Rector and Primary of the Hieronymian College of Dôle, then obtained the Priorate of D. Morandus, and most beautifully after the peasant war repaired. 1532, D. John Burcardi; 1540, John Tulleri, twice constituted by the general Chapter Visitor of the Order; 1548, Philibert Poissonotus, Doctor, before Rector of the College of Dôle; 1552, John de Junchiere; 1561, Peter Garre de Cæcilus; 1573, Hugh de Granmont; 1581 Nicholas Vieille, first Abbot in Val-de-Dieu. There exist letters by which Nicholas Vieille, Abbot of Val-de-Dieu and Prior of S. Morandus, through D. Christopher Vallot the sacristan, sold something to Peter Ekert of Altkirch, for 3 pounds annual on December 2, 1586.

[42] He having been taken from the living, the Provostry from Sixtus V the most Reverend and most Serene Andrew of Austria obtained, S. R. E. Cardinal, The Provostry passes to the Austrians, Bishop of Constance; and entered into its possession in 1585, and administered it almost through the lofty government in the city of Getvilers. After in the year 1600, on the 12th day of November, at Rome that star set, S. Morandus looked to the Emperor Rudolph; from whom Philip Lang de Langefels, follower of the Imperial court, obtained it as a benefice. He demised the usufruct to Henry Bryms, Dean of Murbach, then to Caspar Grunenwald Licentiate of Law. With Philip deceased, the Provostry returned to the Lofty government of Ensisheim in 1608, from whom is given to the College of Freiburg of S. J. and was exercised by various Procurators for a decade; then to Paul Windek, emeritus Professor of Theology at Freiburg in Breisgau, it was donated. At length in the year 1620, when the most Serene and most Powerful Archduke Leopold had happily introduced the Society of Jesus into Freiburg in Breisgau, this Provostry among other things to its professors he most fully transcribed, and in the following year ordered them to set foot in it.

[43] It is read besides in Basilea sacra, published in the year 1658, with Urban VIII confirming. where on the Episcopate of Rudolph the second of his name, toward the end; that Urban VIII confirmed that translation by his own Bull, in the year 1625. Which matter, as elsewhere in similar cause has often happened, was the seminary of great dissidio and altercations, even among religious men; envy stirred up against the Fathers of the Society, because many disapproved this translation; this change, and its causes and the monuments of reasons, either not penetrating with equity, or with mind turned only to the long-standing possession of years, deeply turned away from; though they themselves also, if they should reflect their eyes to former times, similar vicissitudes also have experienced, and the very Priorate of S. Morandus their ancestors, from the Canons to themselves transferred, once received.

§. VII. The present state of the Residence, Church, tomb, and Relics of S. Morandus, under the Fathers of the Society of Jesus.

[44] That was the state of the Morandine monastery, which we have described above at number 39 from the Author of the paraphrastic Life, compiled at the beginning of this century, State of the Monastery before when our Society was ordered to enter possession: namely besides the ruins of the buildings nearest the cemetery, only there was seen the part of the monastery, which from the East turns to the West, formerly inhabited by Monks, but so devastated, that it was of no religious use. But thence with the solicitous care of our Fathers the temple was repaired, and after the Society of Jesus was admitted there. and the buildings repaired or rather newly built, which offer not inconvenient habitation, both for the few Fathers staying there, and for guests coming from time to time from the College of Freiburg, either for the sake of mind or of health.

[45] The first tomb of the Saint having been destroyed, But about the temple and the monument of S. Morandus our chief treatment is here. The ancient Life says at number 14, that they enclosed the cadaver of the holy man in a gypsum tomb, with his image decently expressed above, in the middle of the basilica with worthy honor. That tomb perished, with the roof and beams falling, burned by the voracious fire, as at number 17 the Life narrates; and there was then built another more excellent monument, similarly decorous with his image, which there even today is seen (and we ourselves saw) in the middle of the temple raised above the ground, under which is also another excavated within the earth: and this, they say, is the very same one, in which the Saint after death was deposited. The whole, as far as that cavity goes, is covered with a single, very great, ancient sepulchral stone, which is thought to have been placed from the beginning, exhibiting in the middle of itself the figure of a Priestly chalice; above and below which two holes are bored in a circle, so ample, that the head of a man however large can be inserted through them into the underlying space, and indeed most frequently is wont to be, by those wishing to obtain through the intercession of the holy man any benefit; especially however the lightening of pain torturing the head.

[46] At the four corners of the just mentioned stone four lions, which four lions support, each standing on its own pedestal, of as rude as ancient work, supporting on their back the coffin, in solid stone, a foot and a half thick, excavated: on whose extreme sides around various figures, of little elegant, not to say insipid workmanship, are seen sculpted. And in the lower part indeed which looks toward the door of the temple, is represented an Angel, announcing to the Virgin Mary the incarnation of the Divine Word: in the upper toward the altar, with various figures sculpted around: is shown John the Baptist, showing Christ the Lord, the Lamb of God. Each side is adorned with twelve icons of men, sitting on stools and bearing a book with one hand: we think they are the Apostles, both from the twelvefold number which is expressed, and from the books which seem to mark the promulgation of the Gospel, and finally from the key which the first icon besides the book holds in its hand, as representing S. Peter.

[47] on whose cover is the statue of the Saint This solid and excavated stone is closed above with a cover, similarly of solid stone, one foot thick, bearing on itself the extended statue of a man of just size sculpted; under whose head is a small laurel-wreath, but at the feet a cushion lies. The statue itself is expressed in Priestly habit, namely in alb, stole, and chasuble of ancient form, on every part nearly equally pendant without any lateral slit; which the arms extended on either side, with hands raised to the belt and breast, the left moreover holding a book, raise. The face is altogether beardless: around the head a monastic crown, not continuous, but at the

forehead on each side cut off; so that in the middle of it a tuft of hair, more slender however than on either side hangs down. There are also in this cover its own icons around and other sculptures, representing miracles performed by the Saint: and the various miracles of the same. among which this is most manifest; that the right hand of the statue, which we have just said to be extended from beneath the chasuble raised up to the belt, is grasped by either a man or boy, in his whole body monstrous, with twisted legs, with gibbous breast, such as is nearly described in the Life at number 15, and is said to have recovered every kind of soundness. In another place a demon grasps the bed of a sick man; whom himself elsewhere he expels from the body of an energumen, as in the same Life at numbers 9, 13, and 16. Elsewhere also three men seem to come forth from a sepulchre, as if raised from the dead through him.

[48] And thus far indeed about the ancient state and ornament of the tomb, A new ornament added to the tomb in the year 1688, to which in the year, in which we ourselves were present, 1688, was added a new one by R. P. Francis Marimontius, Superior of the Residence. He, namely, in an octagonal space somewhat more elevated than the rest of the pavement, ordered four small columns, or rather stone pillars, to be erected, to the height of nearly three feet; namely at the head, at the feet, and at both sides of the monument: on the four pillars he placed as many Angels, fabricated from wood; and inserted into the hands of each, in one indeed a tablet, as a shield, with each its own epigraph; in the other some symbol, referring to the principal works of the Saint. The symbols moreover are these, with four angels, with symbols and epigraphs decorous; a staff, a book, a sun, a cluster: which through the appended epigraphs on the shields — Apostle of Sundgau, Powerful in word, Illustrious in lineage and virtue, Powerful in work — are not incongruously explained. The staff, namely, with which elsewhere also he is painted everywhere, expresses his Apostolate, traversing Sundgau for the cause of the salvation of souls: the Book indicates his wondrous faculty of speaking and persuading the unbelieving and perverse men of evangelical truths; the Sun, as it illustrates all things, so represents the clarity of his lineage and virtues; the Cluster finally signifies his power, with which he is said above at number 29 to have especially aided the vintners.

[49] Bearing such things, of which we have just made mention, the Angels stand in a nearly square space, except that the lateral ones are less distant one from the other than those at either end placed. These support with backs turned to each other and to the tomb a wooden machine not inelegant, whence gradually ascending in four directions it is arched and finally at the summit is joined, and above is closed bears the statue of the Saint. and bears on its eminent top the statue of S. Morandus, with his right hand a staff, with his left a book for the causes already explained bearing, in Benedictine Cluniac habit, on every part black, except that its outermost limb shines with golden color; while the Angels, and the rest of the superimposed machine, is white, with green and golden color here and there laid on. Through the whole temple are represented in various paintings, above indeed the acts and virtues of the Saint, below the miracles performed by him. And these as we ourselves noted on the spot.

[50] It will help also now to hear the author of the paraphrastic Life speaking about the Relics of the Saint and the ancient ornament of the tomb (for a new one most recently has been added). Another description of the ancient tomb. After he had treated of the fire which devastated the church in the century, as we think, first after the Saint's death; and of its repair (of which also the ancient life at number 17) he thus continues: Therefore, that the bones of the blessed man should not any more be moistened by an unworthy pit, the Monks unanimously decree to raise the same from the earth, and to set them forth to the vows of suppliants in a more elevated place; and they construct a Reliquary from solid marble, and on its upper part they sculpt his body, with such likeness, as living he is believed to have expressed. On each side of the coffin the artist sculpted every kind of disease, which S. Morandus invoked cured. The whole mass of the tomb four lions support. In this the Relics of the saint, if you except the head, which enclosed in a silver case is preserved separately, rest. From the ground the tomb is distant by three palms: below it is a stone with two holes, into which the sick piously insert their head and praying ask the present remedy from deafness and other diseases. Beneath it the first and genuine sarcophagus of S. Morandus, of oak, with the sacred ashes is preserved.

[51] Of this sarcophagus the same our Fathers reported to us by mouth: of the Relics, enclosed in the marble tomb, What Relics survive. they did not similarly dare to affirm; unless perhaps by Relics the Author understands two very great bones, which then were enclosed in that tomb; but now in a more decent coffin, cut in the wall near the corner of the Gospel of the principal altar, are preserved deposited together with the head, or rather half cranium, enclosed in a silver statue, which above at number 31 is said to have been donated by the Austrian Princes, to have escaped the hands of the harpies in turbulent times, and on more solemn feasts exposed on the altar to excite the piety and cult of the approaching people. Besides these Relics, which we ourselves saw and venerated, none are known to remain there, at least notable. About the part of the Head, translated to Vienna in Austria, has been treated in §. 1.

* Geraldo Oct. 13.

LIFE,

Written in the first century after the death of the Saint by a Monk, as it seems, of the Morandine Monastery itself.

Morandus, Monk of Cluny in Sundgau (S.)

BHL Number: 6019

FROM MS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] To hand down to letters the sayings or deeds of the holy Fathers who preceded, The Acts of the Saints read excite man, and to commend them to the memories of those succeeding, is most useful. Especially since in them, as in certain little gardens of flowers, it is permitted to pluck the seasonings of various virtues; from which man, although corruptible or fallible, is by a certain divine vigor made immortal and unpolluted. Who although prevented by the manifold fraud of the enemy, with his own temerity deserving, has been compared to brute animals; yet has not been utterly cast away by the pious Creator. Nay, if he shall recede from his iniquity, and shall study to bring back his talent to the benign Giver with gain; not only will he be restored to the dignity of his former condition, but also will be donated with the palm of ampler grace; when made a little less than the Angels, in the heavens he shall rejoice without end. But because we have said the weight of only one talent is to be multiplied, that he may rightly spend his talents. we send the minds of the hearers into anxiety of consideration: since in the Gospel we are commanded to be merchants of five talents. But this conclusion is easily solved, if the prerogative of the single talent is more diligently discussed. For by the name of five talents, the five actual senses of the body are signified; namely Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, and Touch; which by the principal, which is the Intellect, each in its property are ruled and directed: to which subsist four accidents, necessary to the uses of the rest — Memory, Will, Reason, and Wisdom; that with equal number any of these may be ruled by the judgment of its own right and property. For the Intellect rules Sight, when it represses the unlawful, as the Psalmist says; Turn away my eyes, that they see not vanity: Ps. 118, 37 but it directs Gait, as you read in the Apostle; See, how cautiously you walk. Eph. 5, 15 But Memory acts, that what you have heard good, you may retain: Will, that what you have already heard as good, you may hasten to fulfill and love: Reason, that what you hold right, you may announce and persuade your neighbor: Wisdom, that you may know what or when you may rationally bring forth.

[2] By these grades of virtues therefore the raging world is conquered, The life of S. Morandus, neglected to be written by his elders, by these good exercises the number of the Saints is enlarged: of whom to us by God's grace has been given Blessed Morandus, on earth a most pious consoler, in the heavens a most certain patron: on whose Birthday today the devotion of the faithful has decreed to be gathered in the Lord, and to be commended by the proclamation of the same blessed man: whose life was full of sacred virtues, but by the sloth of his predecessors has been given to oblivion, nor is established to have been handed down to us by writings. But why do we accuse others, when in our times many and immense benefits, about the infirmities of various people, have been worked by divine clemency through His servant, which by us in a certain madness of scruple have been concealed. How many sicknesses of bodies, how many energumens or paralytics, have been freed at his memory, is not for our eloquence or possibility to relate each one: but lest of so great benefits we may seem to be ungrateful servants of God, let us gather a few from the many. Although unskilled, with whatever scheme yet, from his infancy let us begin to write the deeds of the man, by the Author is brought forth, and let us leave them to our posterity to be read; admonishing especially this, that those hearing may give faith to what is said.

CHAPTER I.

Morandus's birth, boyhood, pilgrimage, monastic profession, virtues.

[3] Blessed Morandus therefore, from the parts a of Gaul, sprung from most noble b birth. His parents distinguished primates among the throngs of the powerful, Sprung from noble lineage; as in the Christian religion, so in the abundance of temporal things had been more fully enriched, because they deserved to have an heir of all their felicity. Not much later, imitating the example of the ancient Fathers, they decreed to bear him, like most chaste Samuel, to the Lord, to serve Him in perpetuity. Finally seeking the town of Worms, they entreated divine aid, that a suitable place be shown to them, At Worms is offered to God by his parents, in which their son might be consigned to the Lord. Nor did the Most High fail the prayers of the just, desiring to fulfill pious vows: and soon entering on counsel, divinely instilled in them, that they should seek the highest hall, which is decently built there in honor of the holy Mother of God; and there hand over the said boy, to be imbued with sacred letters. To which when they had come, and to the more reputable men had indicated the cause of their coming; by the same they were most officiously received. And the blessing received, of a colleague, although modest, many exulted in the Lord. The parents, with estates and serfs; having attained their holy desire, calling together the whole Church, commending their son to all, as powerful, with the greatest gifts of estates and serfs, blessed God, and rejoicing returned to their own.

[4] where in sacred letters Blessed Morandus therefore, voluntarily and salutarily forsaken by his progenitors, but assumed by the Lord, and in the house of God, like a young and new little tree, afterwards about to bear much fruit of justice, planted, was initiated in sacred letters; and not much later, like grassy earth, suffused with divine dew, was made fruitful with the fruit of all the liberal arts. and imbued with good morals, For truly in learning there is no delay, where the Holy Spirit is present to the teacher. So with the servant of God growing, he daily studied to fulfill what was prophesied in the Psalm, revering the old, anticipating the young in honor, and so passing from virtue to virtue. With such, as we have said, B. Morandus shone with virtues; not, as is wont in the younger age, was his mind extolled, but he always remained cheerful and quiet; and, is made a Priest; like the youth of the great David, in the justifications of the Lord he meditated. By these, I say, grades of humility the emeritus athlete of Christ trampled the assaults of the world, made a most worthy Priest of God. But by how much greater

[5] But in those parts is held a most beautiful village, which is called Cluny, suited by amenity, fruitful in fertility; and, what is much more happy, distinguished with the names of the Apostles Peter and Paul, marvelously governed by Monks fighting under the Rule. Over these presided Father Hugh, he comes to Cluny; surnamed Most Pious, illustrious in lineage, eloquent in speech, eminent in sanctity. To this place therefore B. Morandus with his companions came, about to pray to the patronage of the Apostles, and to seek the suffrages of the servants of God. Why say much? Brought to the notice of the most pious Father, by his salutary admonitions, like the best earth, he was so irrigated, that he said he would be a Monk, if with the pilgrimage completed the Lord should grant him to return. With the blessing therefore of the pious Father and the prayer of the Brothers fortified, where with the pilgrimage completed, the eminent exile, with his companions, began to journey more swiftly; and with the Lord leading, where he had proposed, he is brought into the parts of Galicia: and the pledge of B. James adored, swiftly he returned, and came to Cluny: and soon bidding farewell to his companions, with all rejoicing, he is duly consecrated a Monk. Who soon grew up so much in sacred exercises, that in monastic profession he was held second to none. In vigils, he restrained the lasciviousness of the flesh; he becomes a monk: he obeyed the one commanding, consoled the fluctuating with pious exhortation, brought the discordant into concord, with continual prayers put demons to flight.

[6] He is sent into Auvergne, When B. Morandus shone with such virtues, he was venerated by all, and was now diligently inquired after by the cultivators of Auvergne. For from those parts a certain most renowned one, incited by his fame, came to Cluny; and asked the venerable Abbot Hugh, that the same memorable man might be granted to him for a short time for the edification of his own: which, with the blessed man assenting, he also obtained. Whom soon receiving and leading into Auvergne, he hastily returned, and commended the venerable man to all his Brothers. to reform the Monks, Marvelous with how many signs the man of the Lord there shone. The frequent throng of those on pilgrimage for the grace of his blessing, even from our parts, and flowing to him declared: who exalted him in our parts with no common praise: for they said, they had often escaped danger through his suffrage. Many therefore and almost innumerable were the signal virtues of the man of God, which if they should be spoken of one by one, no page will suffice for the writer. and he becomes famous for miracles. But lest we cause weariness to the hearers, let us tend to the end of our narration: and how the beloved of God by supernal providence was conferred on us, with what virtues of his living and deceased he was crowned, let us briefly say.

[7] There was therefore in the territory of Basel from the Castle of Pfert c a most noble Count, sprung from the lineage of the Kings of the Franks, by name Frederick. He built up more fully a certain church, called Altikilcha d, in his allod, The Cluniacs called to Altkirch, by his progenitors dedicated to the name of the most blessed Martyr Christopher, and amplified it with the largesse of estates. But the church was first ordained by the parents of the above-mentioned Prince to secular Canons: but with sins requiring, when they withdrew, almost desolated. The most prudent Count seeing the place, diligently constructed by him, deprived of inhabitants being desolated; sent to Cluny, and to the most holy Hugh and his successors to govern, and to institute there the monastic Order, in perpetuity donated. The venerable Father, gratefully receiving the vow of so great a Prince, immediately to the said place first sent a few Brothers; proved indeed by long monastic discipline, but utterly ignorant of the language. Over these he had set a Prior, by name Constantius, eminent in religion, provident in counsel, by S. Hugh are sent there, with Constantius as leader, in the utensils of the Brothers a most prudent dispenser: who when, the Brothers delegated to him being summoned, eminent exiles, committing themselves to the prayers of the holy Father and all the Brothers, and bidding farewell to all, are brought from the parts of the Gauls e: and soon presenting themselves to the sights of the said Count, with all rejoicing, they are led with the company of Princes to the cenobium, bearing with them the privilege of their confirmation. Who forthwith, but unskilled in the German language: like good cattle, most diligently repairing the collapsed place, flowed to the herding of divine repair, in which not much later they bore the cleanest offspring of spiritual sons: but in this only were they impeded, because the manner of our speech they did not know.

[8] Whence it seemed best to Constantius the most skillful Prior, to return to Cluny with the letters of his Prince, therefore one skilled is sought: and to ask aid on this from the most holy Father Hugh. And soon with the necessary things of this journey disposed, and the letters of the said Prince received, he hastily returned to Cluny, and humbly suggested to the most holy Abbot the cause of his opportunity; asserting that he and his Gallic companions without an interpreter could in no way profit Alemannia. Whom the most pious Father, with the most powerful counsel with which he was always full, blandly counseled; and directed him into Auvergne, and recalled from Auvergne that he might bring back the Blessed Morandus, whom he had German. Immediately Constantius hastens into Auvergne, and with the Brothers of that place gathered together, more swiftly sets forth the mandate: with all saddened, with the blessed man he bade farewell to all, and returned to Cluny as quickly as possible. Whom forthwith as he presented to the sight of the holy Father, immediately into the embraces of the blessed man the holy Father offered himself; and would have detained him with him, had not the necessity of this legation pressed. And no delay, Constantius, with the blessings of the holy Father confirmed with the blessed man, returned to the parts of the Gauls, and brought the venerable old man, angelic in countenance, Morandus is sent: sprinkled with swanlike whiteness, into the sights of the said Count, and at length opened his lips in this manner. Behold, he said, Lord, our Morandus, whom the pious affection of your Excellency was demanding. Immediately the most devout Prince, with his Nobles, most humbly bent himself for the blessings of the blessed man; and so enjoys his salutary discourses, and instructed by his many sacred admonitions, commended himself to his holy prayers; and at length with Constantius, to console the other Brothers, desiring his coming from their inmost heart, sent to the cenobium. They running to meet the blessed man, as a most worthy consul, together with Constantius the reverend Prior, joyfully receive him, and with worthy reverence prefer to all.

[9] Finally of what goodness, of what benevolence this blessed man was, who can enumerate? who flourishing signally in virtues, Marvelous was his benignity to all, marvelous his charity. Always cheerful, always serene; never envious, never severe. In teaching prudent and eloquent; in correcting modest and discreet; in counsel provident; in the universal honesty of morals illustrious. Truly B. Morandus was worthy of all veneration, and lovable in aspect, affable in conversation, had a right conversation, and stood as a form of perfection to all; and desired all to become the same, and admonished: and so daily approached the dignities of the Saints. But, tempted by the demon visibly. since the devil, envious of all goods, in the advances of the Saints is more sharply kindled, he envied the holy labors of the blessed man; and him, as those who were with him related, more frequently on various, nay nearly single nights, attacked with his phantasms. On a certain night, when the man of God after labor had given himself to rest, in a most foul appearance the devil was present, and began most vehemently to draw off his covering. By which the man of God awakened, immediately when he saw the horrible monster, recognized it to be a diabolical force, and unterrified with hand thrown in most strongly drew back the covering. And so contending for a long time, at length the man of God brought in the sign of victory; by which the enemy conquered, vanished like smoke. There was on the same night a certain penitent, with the man of God (since he had been separated from the college of the Brothers on account of the trouble of his infirmity) for the sake of salvation lodged: who saw these things which we have said trembling, With the Cross he puts him to flight, and narrated to all under the testification of faith. But to these marvels more marvelous succeed.

[10] At a certain time, when the blessed man sat alone in the caminata f, deputed to him on account of the inconvenience of his infirmity, it happened that this was wholly inflamed with fire, and the man of God and the other Brothers were ignorant of this so long, extinguishes also fires of others. until the men of the whole village, seeing the fire outside, ran more swiftly to extinguish it. And when by their noise the Brothers were struck, and ran swiftly to take away the man of God; the blessed man asked, what it was, that they so impetuously had run to him. Who when they had said, that the fire was now consuming all things: forthwith the man of God blandly restrained them from fear, and soon with hand raised he opposed the triumphal sign of the Cross to the fire, and this like an inundation of waters he utterly extinguished. From which deed clearly it became known to all, of what merit before God this blessed man was. For from the confines of our whole Gaul, all crushed by various infirmities, for the grace of salvation flowed to him: hence the powerful, hence the powerless asked his suffrage. Whence to this our little edition it seems worthy to insert a certain marvel, about the often said Count, the founder of this place, and which is established to be very useful to the correction of our Princes.

ANNOTATIONS C. J.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles before and after death. Translation and canonization.

[11] The Count unjustly vexing the bailiff is punished, At a certain time it happened that the same Count compelled a certain bailiff of this church to give an immoderate tribute, and on account of the same captured tormented him more sharply. For whom while the man of God was greatly saddened, nor on account of this was the Count bent from his austerity, immediately divine vengeance pursues. For forthwith he is invaded by most grievous paralysis, and with the sickness growing strong, his face is so contracted, that his mouth contiguous to the ears contracted seemed. Who soon acknowledging his guilt, went to consult the blessed man, and most humbly asks him to come to his help. But, since proved virtue corrects the foolish, he rebukes the Count more harshly like a foolish man. How, he says, do you ask me to come to your help, who detaining ours unjustly, are yourself contrary to your own salvation? Truly you should know

that you are to be struck with a graver penalty, if you do not more swiftly dismiss our bailiff. Hearing these things, the Count is struck with excessive terror; and not only promises to dismiss the bailiff, but also professes with clear voice that the same will be free from all tribute, if he should be restored to health. The servant of God placidly receiving his pledge, immediately placed his hand on his face, and restored him to complete health. and reconsidering is healed by the Saint, This sign therefore performed, the voices of all who were present are extolled in God's praise; and they proclaim with clear voice that the holy man, placed on earth, is now consul of heaven. But around the holy man the affection of the Count of such great piety grew, that he chose him for his spiritual Father, and presumed to do nothing without his nod and counsel.

[12] But to blessed Morandus divine virtue conferred so much, that by his most holy interventions he cured every infirmity from sick bodies. who also drives away fever For however many paralytics, or fever-stricken, or energumens, or held by any other infirmity came to him, with the infirmities loosed they received remedies. But lest we cause weariness to readers, if we impress each one in this little work: let us take only one of many, namely Ulric of Karolspach a: who, as he himself related to the Brothers who still survive, was laboring most grievously long with quartan fever, nor could be cured by any medicine. He, when he had come to the man of God; and, that he might consult him on this infirmity, had tearfully implored; immediately the man of God, having grasped the man's hand, compassionating the gravely fever-stricken, taking his hand, blessed him, and restored him to complete health. Who joyful returned to his own, announced to all that by the merits of the blessed man he had been healed. But, since we have proved that the blessed man cured every kind of fevers or various infirmities by true indications; it remains that we briefly say how he commanded demons in energumens.

[13] At the same time, when on a certain day the servant of God in the usual manner had celebrated the solemnities of the Masses, and frees two women from demons: two women, miserably infested by unclean spirits, for the commerce of salvation, were led to him from far. In whom, as has been said, with the unclean spirits raging immanly, so that by several they were scarcely restrained; immediately the man of God, as he was most pious, mercifully compassionating the wretched, by exorcizing agitated the malignant spirits, and by the flux of the belly compelled them to go out. The said women, restored to complete health, blessed God: and rendering thanks to the servant of God, as they could, joyful returned to their own. But let no one be moved, why this is not eminent in writing, that the text of our narration above resounds with the multitude of signs; you should know that the holy man in this life performed very many signs, which with God alone as witness within his conscience he preferred rather to conceal, than to perish from the eternal gift by human favor. Besides it should be known, that on account of the weariness of hearers many things have been passed over; lest, while similar things should be joined to similar, very many wearinesses, as has been said, should be brought to the disgusted. Wherefore lest we be accused of excessive speed, let us return to those things which remain, with these so arranged; and what after his death the blessed man shone with multi-kind signs, let us set forth a few from many to the faithful.

[14] So B. Morandus, now affected by long old age, most gloriously completed the course of this laborious life; and exempt from corruptible flesh, having died is honorably buried, he penetrated the starry heavens. To whose obsequies came nearly all the Religious of our diocese of both sex and grade; and with the highest reverence, together with the Brothers, bearing forth the body of the blessed man, with divine praises in a gypsum tomb, with his image decently expressed above, in the middle of the basilica with worthy honor they enclosed. But although the authority of the elders sometimes rejects human infulae; yet Christian piety is not confounded with greater vow to venerate those, whom worthier to God, after the weariness of this life, the morality of signs has proved. Whence also the devotion of all the faithful cultivates B. Morandus the more diligently, the more supernal piety has glorified him with frequent miracles. For not long after his passing, with an immense miracle the same divine clemency made his memory celebrated to all, which fraternal devotion has determined to set forth to the faithful.

[15] There was therefore at that time a certain woman of Karolspach, who had a son sufficiently elegant, who had now filled the eighth year of his age. healing a boy miserably contracted for three years, He on a certain night, by the secret judgment of God, was wholly contracted, and not only deprived of the actuality of every work, but also weak in every body; with hands, feet, and limbs stiff he is reclined utterly on the ground, and supported by hands by tripetia b, was seen to creep a little only. And when through nearly three years he was useless, nor could be cured by any remedy; on a certain night his mother sleeping is admonished by a certain voice, that she should bring him to the memorial of S. Christopher the Martyr, and with the patronage of the Saints there implored, place the weak one at the sepulchre of B. Morandus. And should not cease to supplicate the Saint for her son. Nor does the woman delay to fulfill the precept divinely instilled in her, and immediately on the feast of the said Martyr, which was held next, she came to the cenobium of the Saint: and to all, the precept which she had heard setting forth; at the tomb of B. Morandus, as she had been taught, she placed her son. For whom while divine aid is asked by all, and while the Brothers sing the third oracle of the holy Spirit; wondrous to say! they saw the lame one little by little going around the sepulchre of the Saint, and with arthritic hands palpitating the tomb, and immediately raising himself from the ground; with limbs wondrously cracking, vital vigor filling the bases and soles; with all seeing, the lame one most sound leaping forth, and in the praises of God and the Saint, with the other faithful, going around the compass of the church. To this miracle it pleased divine clemency to add another not less marvelous, by the merits of the blessed man.

[16] and a man besieged by a violent demon. Finally at the same time a certain demoniac, with hands bound with the strongest strap behind his back, was led to the same memorial for the grace of salvation. He when at the sepulchre of the Saint, utterly out of his mind, had been bound by his brother, and now for two days day and night most diligently guarded, and the same had given himself to sleep on a certain Lord's night, immediately the energumen sees the enemy coming anxious; and the blessed Morandus, with white stole shining brightly, as if proceeding from the sepulchre; and swiftly driving away the foe, lest he should injure him. And soon made most sound, he called his Brother more frequently; and the bonds as if iron broken, with hands divinely loosed, with all standing by with prophetic voice he sagaciously related, how through the blessed man he had been visited and freed from the enemy. But who would not judge this blessed man, worthy to be compared with the ancient Saints; who so powerfully, living and deceased, commands all demons, and supplies most full solace to the labors of all? Therefore the devotion of all the faithful seeks him to aid them, to him with pious affection let supplicate, whoever needs help.

[17] These few from many things excepted, about the life and passing of the man of God, let suffice. But what supplies about the revelation of the Relics of the man of God, let our little pen run through, and immediately put an end to the work. A long space of time having passed, After fire restored to the church, with sin requiring much, in our little village a fire arises, from whose immanity the building of the whole cenobium is burned; and from the collision of the beams, the epitaph of the holy man is destroyed. But when now the fabric of the same church had been fully restored with the aid of the faithful; the devout hearts of the Brothers no small sadness made sad, that the reverend bones of the blessed man were moistened by so unworthy a pit, in which they were more given to being trodden upon, than held with due veneration. Whence unanimously they determine rather to raise the same from the earth: and soon they busy themselves to sculpt a most worthy receptacle, and above a ciborium with polymitic work most strongly cemented, in a new tomb the Relics are placed, lest as before it should be destroyed by any injury, they place. This therefore being prepared, on the appointed day very many Leaders, and all of both sex come together: and soon putting on sacred vestments, with the greatest reverence they bear forth the spoils of the blessed man; and, with divine harmonies all resounding, they place them in a most decent sarcophagus.

[18] Nor did supernal piety delay to glorify the Relics of the holy man, as before, with divine miracles. For at the same hour two blind men, long deprived of sight, with 2 blind men healed in the translation, and 3 lame. the brightness of the desired light received: likewise three lame men, the venerability of the Saint gave to health: but of the others a copious number is established; which, lest the charity of the hearers should grow weary or cold, fraternal sagacity passed over unnamed.

But that so great piety should not be vain, The charity of the Prelates and Confrères decreed this, That the great and illustrious merits of the holy man, The Apostolic See should confirm and consecrate.

Soon the testimony of many asserters of truth, Before the See of Basel and those obedient to it, Is presented, proved the merit of the holy man. Hence a legate is made ready through the autograph of the Prelate To Rome he proceeds and meets the Apostolic countenance. And soon is given what is desired, he completes the business. The cult of him is approved by the Apostolic See. And so he returns and gives the Apostolic sign, That the merit of the holy man should be made known and venerated: Nor is it concealed, but is proclaimed such a privilege, From which the Saint is to be venerated by the phalanxes of the faithful.

Therefore let us praise Christ together and joyful let us jubilate With divine harmonies: Through whom the world was spurned by our Adam here the second With his princes: And whom, though worldly, not deadly but vital He admitted to vital ones; Within the Choir of Confessors now shines forth with merits Adorned with flowers; Which the throngs of his many oppressed, here loosed from bonds, prove.

Hence let us rejoice and pray, through his suffrage, To be cherished and to merit the reward of perennial life. Through our Lord etc.

ANNOTATIONS C. J.

MIRACLES.

About the middle of the XV century done, most in those raised from the dead, and noted by D. Martin Granter, Provost of S. Morandus.

Morandus, Monk of Cluny in Sundgau (S.)

FROM MS.

[1] It has been said in our Commentary §. 1 number 7 that by D. Granter were gathered the miracles of S. Morandus, S. Morandus excelling in every kind of miracles, which in his time God deigned to work through His Saint; and that these in the beginning of this XVII century by our Paraphrast were amplified, as here, with the primitive context lacking, are subjoined. How dear to God and familiar S. Morandus was, the benefits witness, which he obtained for himself and others. For God in every order of created things at his prayers performed wonders. Dead persons, with him invoked, revived from water and earth; fire yielded to his command; he calmed the storm of troubled air; the hardest rock, forgetting its native rigidity, in the manner of pliable clay, gave place to his sacred head; he prayed well for the vines, and they returned a copious vintage; the benefits conferred on brute animals

very many votive offerings of rustic men attest, which as things of vows from wax, wood, iron, they hung at his tomb and the iron railings: in men he cured any kind of diseases, to the dumb speech, restored life to the deaf hearing, to the blind sight, to paralytics gait, to the phrenetic and demoniacal a more sound mind and liberty he obtained, as will be demonstrated below by examples set forth one by one, from the Commentary of Martin Granter Provost of the cenobium, very deserving of S. Morandus: from which it is established that very many men of either sex, with the patronage of S. Morandus invoked, returned to life.

[2] In the year 1450, a few days before the birth of Christ, in the village of Wallbach a, Elisabeth Lessinger, the wife of Leonard Stosser, having brought forth dead offspring, herself also approached the nearest peril of life; the maternal womb was for a tomb; an infant in the womb, yet the fetus was drawn forth into the light, but without sense and soul. Wherefore the parents, with Anna Herman the godmother, with the midwife Anna Moumlin, invoke the aid of S. Morandus, and dedicate and commend the lifeless birth to him. Not vain were the prayers: the infant divinely animated revived, that they might learn life given back to the offspring by his benefit, to whose patronage they had commended it.

[3] In the 55th year of the same century, in the village b Sundusdorf, S. Morandus conferred a like benefit on another infant on the day which precedes the feast of the Mother of God greeted by the Angel. The mother having completed the pains of birth bore not joy, another scarcely born but grief for herself and her husband: for at the very threshold of life it deserted the infant. S. Morandus called to aid, changed grief into joy: for immediately the infant, devoid of life, began first to breathe, then to move and emit weeping; and dipped in the sacred laver, obtained the right of eternal life. The same year coming to a close, on the day sacred to the memory of all Saints, in the village which they called Under-Michaelsbach c, an infant had lain lifeless and bloodless for an hour and a half: and a third dead for an hour and a half restored to life: the mother Elisabeth Schurer, with other women present — Agnes Bilbil, Margaret Voardenberger, Anna Hirsinger — gave prayers and vows to the said Patron; and immediately the infant was restored to life.

[4] What happened in the year 1450 nearly exceeds faith, but not the merits of S. Morandus. A carter was traversing the village of Siren d, he had loaded his wagon with fifty urns of wine, and as that kind of men is wont now with great cries to incite the horses, now to advance with thong and whip, now to stop and look around the wagon with vigilant eye, he seemed to perform all parts of his office, likewise a girl, crushed by the wheel of a wagon. yet nonetheless fell into the gravest danger. Elisabeth Flachsland was a little girl in the forum, as is the custom at that age, intent either on play or on running about, certainly negligent of her own safety. When the wagon was passing by, with childish temerity she rushed in, and with foot slipping fell; soon the wheel ran over the fallen one. The wretched accident Anna Brottbach first noticed, and with feminine wailing filling the neighborhood ran up, drew off the lifeless girl, now devoting the carter to curses, now compassionating the calamity of the parents. Immediately the parent himself John Flachsland most sad was present; embracing the dead offspring, he wearies heaven with sighs; by the most bitter accident no less lifeless, than if he himself had gone under the wheel. Meanwhile the clamor stirred up several of those near: who when they aided neither by deed nor counsel, unloaded their stomach upon the undeserving carter; crying out that he was worthy of the wheel, that he was worthy of the cross. Inept, who thought the misfortune of one was to be lightened by the death of another. Far milder, when he came to himself, was the mind of the parent: for to consult both for the carter and for himself, he wished not the death of the carter, but the life of his daughter: he propitiated B. Morandus with the most intense supplication he could, asking that the little daughter, having deserved nothing such, by the authority which he has before the supreme Judge, he should will to be safe and whole to him. The holy man heard the one supplicating for the daughter: immediately the girl returned to life and strength, on the Wednesday next preceding the birthday of S. John the Baptist; with so much greater joy of the parents and neighbors, as less was the hope of most for recovering life.

[5] In the year 1454, in the village Uberstrass e, Elisabeth Marti, daughter of Henry an honest and wealthy citizen, was so pertinaciously vexed by the force of disease, Those praying for a sick girl he does not hear, that she could neither take sleep, nor take any food and drink. The domestics thought rather of the sepulchre, than of health to be recovered: the parents however, relying on greater faith and hope, asked vicarious work from kinsmen, who had a journey to Altkirch for the cause of business; and they obtained that at S. Morandus's, for the salvation of the daughter, they should be suppliants to God. But they returned not having attained the vow; perhaps for this reason, that as the place of a greater benefit they should place, if she dead with the four-day Lazarus should return to life; or God was unwilling to be entreated through friends, but through the parents themselves. So on the 7th of the Ides of December, the girl expired. Then at length the parents, neither the trouble of the journey nor domestic business retarded them, from running themselves; and what before through messengers in vain they had hoped, he hears for one already dead. with importunate prayers they extort. For the daughter, by evident miracle restored to both life and health, thereafter continued to eat, and after the manner of others to drink. You see, says S. Ambrose in book 7 on Luke, that this one, who went on at midnight, asking three loaves from his friend, and persisting in the very intention of asking, was not defrauded of his prayers.

[6] At Basel, the Metropolis of the Rauraci, a mother had laid down her infant on a bed, An infant with the mother absent and occupied with household cares had gone farther away: meanwhile the infant, impatient of longer delay, began first to whine, then with hands and feet, finally with every effort of the body, to seek liberty. Somehow free from the swaddling-bands, when he tries to go out, he falls from the bed; and the little body striking heavily on the pavement by his fall, before anyone came to help he gave up the spirit, and the blood diffused through his limbs blackened the corpse. At length the solicitous mother according to custom returns to her offspring. As soon as she went into the cot, and saw all things cast down to the ground; mad with grief herself, fallen from the bed dead, she also throws herself to the ground; stretching both palms, now she complains of the deserted infant, now her own absence, and damns her work spent on other matters; finally she rolls the lifeless body weeping, and scarcely recognizes her offspring confused by the bruise and cloud of clotted blood. At length she herself becomes the author of best counsel to herself: she calls upon S. Morandus on bent, as she was, knees, that for his merits he would conciliate equal glory to himself before the Rauraci, as by his glorious works he had merited before the Sequani. And behold the soul returned into the workhouse, the blood within the veins and marrows withdraws itself, and the native color succeeds life.

[7] At the beginning of the year 1451, in the place of Frederick zu Rhyn f was declared Bishop of Basel Arnold of Rotberg g, Doctor of Decretals, a man most worthy of all praise. He had educated his nephew Ludmann from his brother, a young man blessed both by the nobility of his ancestors and by the eminence of his uncle. But brief was his happiness: for with his uncle extinct in 1458, after a septennium spent in the Episcopal court, Ludmann returned to his father Bernard of Rotberg. Four months later, on the feast of S. Matthew the Apostle, jocose with his younger brother, under the castle of Rhynwyler h, he entered a boat hanging at the bank: and long with feet straddled and with agitation of his whole body alternately shook the sides of the boat, that one side might leap higher, The son, submerged in the Rhine, the other sink down; and at length with one or the other too greatly pressed down, was shaken out into the Rhine. No one was present, who would extend a hand to the one in peril. The brother gazing from the bank, [saw] his brother now by the vehemence of his spirit raised up and his head lifted, now submerged in the waves; he hastens home wailing, and with great cry, witnessed that his brother was swimming, was being submerged, and suffocated. They run up, as each one armed his hand in the waves with a pole or stake, the father barefoot carries on shoulders from Basel to S. Morandus and receive Ludmann from the waters and the mockery of the waves, but extinct. Bernard, trusting in God and the patronage of the Saints, naked of foot and clothed in dark garments, the dead son on his own shoulders himself bore from Basel to S. Morandus i, that to the parent the son of twelve years and uniquely dear might be restored. But with what outcome? Here the historian suspends his pen, nor does it please to divine: if the outcome did not respond to the vow, the will certainly and piety of the father was to be praised.

[8] A boy submerged beyond an hour revived, In the year 1456, in the village Zamesswyler, an incautious boy, while he played at a stream, for I know not what cause having gone farther, fell into the waters; submerged, beyond the space of an hour, lay devoid of life. The parents pour prayers to S. Morandus, and vow each year in which they should be given to live to visit his sepulchre in the old church; and to bring a votive offering of grateful mind, by which what had happened to them they would attest. Effective were the prayers: the boy revived. Further the said boy, on the day which precedes the next birthday of SS. Peter and Paul, lifeless without any hope of life, attested John Schnevelius, John Callus, and Henry Werner the Major of the monastery, and likewise the wife of John Flachsland.

[9] In the year 1460, in the village Blozheim k, the midwife Margaret Kremet received the infant from birth, vigorous and with weeping after the custom throwing about his limbs. as also an infant, while being washed after birth, dead. His first bath, with which from the filths contracted in the womb he ought to be washed, by I know not what fortune or imprudence extinguished him, with the danger of temporal and eternal life: for no vital motion in hands, feet, or other members could be detected by those curiously exploring. The midwife therefore, and as many as were present, call S. Morandus into vows; that he would deign to join his prayers to their prayers, that the use of life might return to the infant, while with the salutary bath he could expiate the stains contracted in soul: their faith then they bound that he, if he should survive, every year would come to the tomb of S. Morandus with a living victim (they understand a chick, a hen, or some other bird) according to these things the infant returned to life, and the parents of the bound vow without procrastination brought the infant in his cradle here, lest they should be slower in executing the vow, than S. Morandus in bringing aid.

[10] The year 1454 gave a tragic spectacle, but signal to the glory of S. Morandus. The monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin of Feldbach, two hours' journey distant from Altkirch l, had a wealthy farmer, his name was Leonard Weber. He at the time when the fields are manured industrious before others, A four-year-old girl, had perhaps loaded a four-wheeled wagon with dung. He had a little four-year-old daughter Barbara, who blandishing pressed both her parents, that she might be allowed to accompany her father leading the cart outside. Leonard, as is the blind love of parents for children and improvident of the future, complies with the girl; places her on the wagon, with the mother in vain protesting, foreboding imminent danger. So she was being carried on high in the dung, but the wagon striking against stones in the rut, with frequent jolting little by little drew her from the lap in which she had been placed; and at length with the greatest nodding and inclination cast her headlong to the ground. Here the unhappy father at the unforeseen accident of his daughter froze, and his hairs stood up:

of Barbara neither voice, nor sense; from the fall her breast had been broken, fallen from the wagon, and her prominent eyes had foully deformed the sockets of their orbs. He took from the mud the lifeless pledge, but with what eyes, with what face? Fearing to carry her home on account of the grief and furies of his wife, whose counsel he had spurned, to the houses of his father-in-law Leonard Müsoli he bears her. He, struck by the heat of love, falls on his knees, beseeches S. Morandus with most humble prayers, and with breast and brain injured, dead, that he should succor him wretched; if he should restore the life of the daughter, to all his services himself and his he offers, and pledges that he will at once bring his daughter to his church, and mindful of the benefit will crawl there with knees bent on the ground. After these things copious blood broke forth from the daughter's nostrils and mouth; and she who had been lifeless more than an hour and a half, with breast broken and brain comminuted and dispersed, again drew breath, and saw the light. So the man of the vow, after an hour and a half at his father's vow returns to life. kneeling, dressed with the thinnest stockings Leonard, performed the pilgrimage from the vow; and no thorns or stones offended him so dressed as he was on pilgrimage, the sense of joy surpassing every pain.

[11] In the year 1472 the maternal womb poured out Morandus Butz, shapeless and like to a trunk. He lay three hours laid down, plainly despaired of by the midwives. At length some persuaded the father John, the smith of horse-shoes in the village Hirsingen m, that with the help of S. Morandus invoked he should promise, A shapeless fetus without spirit that he would each year approach his sepulchre for the cause of veneration, if the son should revive. He vowed; and behold the infant opens his eyes, and sees the light. So one born the Parish-priest John Faber washes in the sacred font: although two godparents, as that age bore, had received him from the laver, of whom to one Burcard, to the other John was the name, yet neither's, but the name of Morandus pleased; by a vow made by the father is animated. nor did the boy respond to any other, or seem to be moved. Morandus had not yet completed a year, when by his five-year-old brother, on whose indication and public faith both into the records the Actuary referred, carried within his arms, fell through the steps of the stairs. Terrified by the fraternal accident John, that was his brother's name, After a year from a fall dead with weeping called forth the parents: who as they took up Morandus from the precipitous fall, from the steps at the same time, and from the station of life cast down, they were converted to prayers and vows; the mother carries the dead with four accompanying women straight to the tomb of S. Morandus, that there either he should revive, or be entombed. At the bridge where they came, while being carried to the tomb of the Saint he breathes again; the boy revived. They having attained their vow, did not return home, but pursued the remaining journey, paid thanks to God and to their Patron. The same John Butz affirmed, that when in the river Ellus during the summer he had washed with his fellows, and according to custom had leapt from the bank into the flowing water; by whom also submerged in water again is saved, that his brother Morandus by his example had also leapt down (he was perhaps then five years old and unskilled in swimming) and submerged had remained under the waters, until by himself he was drawn back; at home indeed when he had narrated all things, that his father not at all angered had smiled, and admiring the fortune of Morandus, had said: S. Morandus does not allow the boy devoted to him to be suffocated by waters. Certainly already he has attained virile age born 56 years, as he himself afterwards often testified: with wondrous affection toward S. Morandus; and the same things which I have said, often heard and inculcated to him by his elders, he holily confirmed before the public Notary of the Court of Basel.

[12] A dying man vows to restore the church John Wild, the Butcher of Altkirch, with age growing heavy, bereaved of his wife, and seized by a lethal disease, vowed, that he would come to the aid with liberal hand of Martin Granter, the most skillful of the Provosts, who at that age was striving to restore the temple of S. Morandus, profaned by the Armagnac war and almost utterly overthrown; vowed, I say, if by the merits of S. Morandus he should recover. That the prayers had been heard, and that the restoration of the sacred building was pleasing to God, the outcome proved. John Wild revived, and indeed (as the words of the said Provost's Commentary have it), was recalled from death to life. So the chapel of the Most Blessed Virgin, and with the vow paid which beside the building of S. Morandus is on the left (there are those who think it to be that, which in the cemetery is now for the ossuary) the man of the vow built a great part with his own money. This Nicholas, by God's grace Bishop of Tripoli, consecrated on the third feria of Pentecost, in the year 1451, in honor of the Angelic Salutation, in the presence of John Brand, Provost of S. Alban of Basel; Peter Leulin, Prior in Chossesheim; and Martin Granter himself, Provost of S. Morandus. near the temple he passes the remaining life in quiet. Wonderfully restored by that benefit of health, John Wild transferred his domicile to the first entrance of the cemetery, perhaps that the very nature of the place, and the daily funerals of his fellow citizens, might supply abundant matter for meditating on death. Further that he might be more free from the care of present things, he distributed his lands to his children, and kinsmen; the money, with which thereafter he would live, by certain laws bequeathed to the monastery.

ANNOTATIONS C. J.

MORE RECENT MIRACLES.

Performed at the beginning of the XVII century, and described by someone of the Society of Jesus.

Morandus, Monk of Cluny in Sundgau (S.)

FROM MS.

[13] In the year 1614, George Oswald Streitfelder, of Ensisheim, a twelve-year-old boy, was so for a whole six months seized in the use of his tongue, A dumb boy that he was difficultly heard, and not at all understood. The ingenuous boy grieved that he could not expound the senses of his mind to the domestics; nor less had the parents, born of an honest place, anxious about the long silence of their son; who, despairing of the help of physicians, thought he should be fled to who makes the tongues of infants eloquent. First they approached the temple of the Virgin Mother of God at the roots of the Vosges, celebrated through Alsace for three spikes; then they sought the Hermitage of the Swiss, where the same Queen of the Celestials is venerated with the highest religion: But it was decreed by God, who is present everywhere, in another place, with another patron intervening, to succor the wretched. Wherefore in a dream He set before the boy the sepulchre of S. Morandus; in a dream he is admonished to approach the sepulchre of S. Morandus, there he seemed to insert his head into the holes of the stone (which is seen beneath the tomb of the holy man): then to come into a gathering of men, and to speak whatever in his native language. This the boy as he could indicated to his parents; who therefore, as if admonished by a celestial oracle, set out for Altkirch. There at the tomb of S. Morandus they give themselves to their knees, the prayers being paid a blue smoke shaded the boy's face; at the same time from the sepulchre a most sweet odor breathing wonderfully refreshed him. The parents then, because domestic business called them home, returned to Ensisheim, leaving the son with his uncle Arbogast a citizen of Altkirch.

[14] After their departure, again to the boy S. Morandus in monastic garb was seen, certainly promising the faculty of speaking within three weeks. So daily he descended from the town to venerate the sacred relics. On the 8th day of August, the day before his tongue was loosed, with great confidence by familiar nods and the stridor of his throat he declared, by whom speech is promised him: that he would compensate his long silence with much speaking. They gave little faith to his vaticination, because no indication betrayed itself, from which they could hope so happy an outcome. The following night to the boy S. Morandus, gleaming with much light, clothed in sacrificial garments, now for the third time becomes visible. The boy, terrified at seeing him, closed his eyes; but the holy man approaching closer, takes his hand, places his finger into his mouth, and again gave deep sleep: in which he thought through the dream that his mouth, suffused, was wet with much blood. The mother of the family at early morning approaching the litter, as she noticed that he with mouth open was sweetly sleeping, said nothing and proceeded to the early Mass. Returned home, and intent on some household business, the said Oswald comes upon her; and with clearest voice wishes her a happy day; reiterating these words again and again: Good day. Intent on her work the mistress neglected to look back or respond to the one well-wishing, thinking that her daughter, and is given. whom she had at five years, had hastily snatched herself from bed. Then Oswald says; You are deceived, Mistress, did I not say I would speak today clearly and distinctly? and again with high and sonorous voice Good day, with tears flowing for joy, he wishes. Anna Kofer (this was the name of the mistress) marveling at the new and unexpected thing, joyful immediately announces to her husband. He, rejoicing at the miraculous benefit, with the young man straight to the building of S. Morandus descended, about to give due thanks to God and to His faithful servant. But how great a pleasure of joy the parents took from the safety of their son, can be more easily estimated, than expressed in words. They vowed a Chalice for the use of the Sacred rites, and appended a silver circle to the greater statue of S. Morandus; that, since they recognized themselves unequal to giving thanks, as often as the Chalice should serve the Mystes sacrificing the Host, so often infinite thanks should be paid to God.

[15] In the year 1626 in the month of September, Barbara Wolina, born near Lake Constance, before the Official of the court of Basel holily and constantly affirmed, that she had cared for her husband Melchior Darlin (with vicarious power he presided over the garrison cohort of Breisach) oppressed with pains of his whole body, A daughter falling beneath her sick father, with all duty and faith; but at length so wasted away with the long disease, that he could not rise on his feet and sustain himself. Wherefore she was compelled, when she would make the bed and change the pillows, to put under the back of the father her ten-year-old daughter Elisabeth in place of a support. When this had succeeded conveniently several times, it happened at length, with the force of the disease and the languor of the body predominating, that the sick man falling heavily struck the daughter's head with the mass of his body. with head injured she grows deaf; Hence she heard more heavily day by day, and within eight days became completely deaf. Then with her husband dead, when through her faculties she had not what she could pay to physicians, she sought help from heaven: especially the Mother of the true Samaritan she supplicating approached, on the very night, on which the Church venerates Elisabeth visited by her. When she passed the night in the village Battenheim, she was divinely admonished, that she should approach the old church and tomb of S. Morandus. Never had she

heard the name of S. Morandus, the mother divinely admonished to approach S. Morandus, never had she heard Altkirch: nonetheless after three weeks she gave herself to the way, and by chance or by the silent guidance of the Deity came to Eschensvila a. There she exposed to James Knafft, or rather to his wife, her own and her daughter's calamity, and reports where she was ordered to go. She bids her to go forward with confident mind, and to follow God calling: Do you see, she says, Adam this my son? This one received the lost faculty of hearing this very year by the benefit of S. Morandus.

[16] After they had come to S. Morandus's, for her daughter the mother and with the mother the daughter becomes a suppliant, offered small coin in the sacred building, then strove toward the town of Altkirch. On the journey while they ascend the slope, the sacristan with the bronze bell gives the signal of greeting the Mother of God. Here the daughter raised her hands to heaven, and again with hands clasped for joy cries out; Mother, with prayers there poured forth with the daughter, what do I hear? I hear the sign, by which we are admonished of salvation recovered, and I moreover of my health. The mother, forgetting hunger and necessary refection, which she was going to seek; on her track returned to the sacred building with the daughter, about to give thanks for the freshly received benefit. While with bent knees they pour forth prayers with thanksgiving at the monument, the custodian of sacred things there with sound three times also repeated admonishes that the Queen of heaven be greeted. he restores hearing to her. Then the daughter, whose internal whisper of the ears had hitherto disturbed her head, and impeded the use of her ears, distinctly perceived the sound and the three turns; and in a short while, with the ringing of her ears calmed, recovered. So in memory of the present benefit she promised that she would daily through all life, in honor of S. Morandus, recite three times the Lord's Prayer with the Angelic salutation; and as long as she should inhabit that region, would each year approach the monastery, to render thanks to her benefactor. likewise another deaf man for himself. The same year a son of the sacristan in Haimerstorff b for a long time deaf (as the Parish-priest of the place and other eyewitnesses confirm), with a vow conceived to S. Morandus, recovered the perfect faculty of hearing.

[17] In the year 1627 John Fiey, a youth of slender fortune, when in the month of April he was burning with the Hungarian fever, and at the same time was tormented by assiduous pleurisy, was reduced to madness. from fever by a vow made the youth is cured; A Priest from the building of S. Morandus from the Society of Jesus was called, that he should procure the sick man with the last Sacraments; he warned that no other remedy remained, than that he should take a vow of confessing sins, and of paying certain prayers at the sepulchre of S. Morandus, as soon as he could through health of mind and body. He through madness thinking the Priest spoke of the sepulchre of the Lord to be visited at Jerusalem, and of I know not what victims to be immolated, yet was vowing, he was saying, in hope of recovering health: and within three days, free from all disease, he walked around the streets, and on the Lord's day in the said building refreshed by the body of Christ, paid his vows rightly.

[18] The same year three from the Society of Jesus, on the Ides of May, to the Illfordian mill on the river Illus, which augmented by rain waters had widely exceeded its bed, with the cart in which they were carried, drawn by the horses into the whirlpool, entered manifest danger of life: from the river three Fathers are rescued, yet with the help after God of SS. Ignatius and Morandus invoked, safe and unharmed they touched the bank, with only two horses lost. Most recent is what happened at the end of the year 1629. Nicholas Zelet, in the village Walheim c, a man of mature age, and among his own of good fame and wealthy, in the month of November had suddenly grown deaf: and groaning at the sudden misfortune; What, he said, will become of me, if this evil should endure? Soon with a vow conceived of approaching the tomb of S. Morandus three times, he began to hear a little better; another obtains the faculty of hearing. with the third pilgrimage completed he received complete health. Wherefore on the III Lord's Day of Advent to one of our Society, before many others, having duly confessed of his sins, he easily understood one speaking even with subdued voice; and refreshed with the heavenly Bread, promised that he, with some eucharistic gift brought, would attest the memory of the benefit received from S. Morandus.

[19] These are the principal things, which either dug up from old monuments of letters, More miracles daily happen at the tomb of the Saint, or learned from witnesses worthy of faith of more recent memory, sufficiently show how well they consult themselves, who in afflicted matters piously ask for the prayers and help of S. Morandus. Besides, what the old writers of his Life once affirmed, that very many signs of virtues were performed by him to the praise of God, of which many were omitted on account of the weariness of the hearers, many also concealed; the same can truly be said in our age. For scarcely a day, on which some do not approach his sepulchre by vow. But the simplicity, by which they think what they themselves know to be known to all; and the ignorance, by which they do not know that it is honorable to reveal the works of God, makes that many hidden things are not known, nor see the light.

[20] Those of the Society of Jesus who from the year 1621 have inhabited the cenobium, attest that they have heard very many, both as to bodies, who assert, that after prayers and vows conceived to S. Morandus they were with incredible swiftness freed from pains of the head, ringing of the ears, heat of fevers, fastidiousness of stomach, and other troubles of that kind. The same can easily be gathered from iron rings, and little crowns, and ears, feet, hands, heads made from wax, and similar votive offerings; which the men of vows bring here in such number, that, with the sacristan attesting, they suffice for the lights for performing the divine service. Besides bodily health, which most have most in their vow, no slightly greater benefits from the building of S. Morandus very many daily report — I mean purity of soul through sacred exomologesis, the liberty of the sons of God, deliverance from the tyranny of the evil demon and vices, strength and help against the frauds and terrors of hell, increase of faith, hope, charity, both as to souls. and the other virtues, while with minds expiated they frequent the sacred Synaxis. There have been found some, who having undertaken long pilgrimages, even to Compostela in Galicia, denied they had found the quiet of mind sought, which S. Morandus had most fully conferred on them. Of the multitude of those who for the cause of piety approach this place a conjecture can be made, from this, that in the year 1628 were numbered two hundred above eight thousand, who in the building of S. Morandus were fed with the sacred Body of Christ.

ANNOTATIONS C. J.

MOST RECENT MIRACLES

From the year 1682 collected by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus.

Morandus, Monk of Cluny in Sundgau (S.)

FROM MS.

[21] In the year 1682 in December a citizen of Hirsingen exempted himself from the religion of a vow, after sacramental confession, A foot entangled in a wheel is broken three ways, the most holy Eucharist having been taken, and Mass in honor of S. Morandus having been seen to. He, when he had fallen asleep in a wagon, so unhappily entangled his foot in the rolling wheel, that it was broken into three parts: so committed to the care of surgeons, after many and various poultices applied, came to such peril, that by the judgment of all the foot necessarily was to be cut off from the rest of the body, if the rest of the man should wish to be safe. Hearing this the good man shuddered, and in vows began more ardently to implore the suffrages of the Saints, and especially that he would undertake a pilgrimage to holy Petra to the great Mother: and by the help of S. Morandus is restored. but another, to S. Morandus. Scarcely was the vow made, the purulent tumor began to subside, the scars to come together, and the medicines to exercise their force, with the admiration of all. Then a little later restored to himself and to his foot, although still lame and leaning on a staff, he flew here, a grateful client to his archiater; presently at holy Petra about to attest the series of the matter with a hanging tablet: for so he said he had vowed.

[22] About the end of December 1682, by the carelessness of a certain citizen of Altkirch, who had bought oxen at Pose, a certain malignant plague was brought in, was eating the cattle everywhere through the city. The plague is driven away from the cattle: To avert the evil, through nine weeks, on Wednesday, on the altar of S. Morandus a votive Mass was sung: in which his sacred Head was set forth, and at the beginning water consecrated in his honor, and at the end, after the Lauretan Litanies recited, was blessed for the people. There was always a great influx of men, and a great abundance of water carried away for the cattle: and many ascribed the safety of their cattle to the suffrages of the Saint.

[23] In the year 1683 in February, a certain old woman from Walheim, on three continuous Fridays, approached the sacred tomb of S. Morandus, and after confession reclined at the divine Table. She reported to her Confessor, A woman recovers gait. that when after a long sickness she had altogether lost the use of her feet, so that she could neither lean on a staff, nor walk; in sleep she seemed to herself to have ascended to S. Morandus's. There then released from sleep she vows, if she could walk, that she would go three times: which soon on the following Friday she could do, and always with the little staff left at the sacred tomb she returned home well, and at length completely restored to herself. On the Feast of S. Mark April 25, which this year fell on Sunday in Albis, came five Parishes, of Altkirch, Alpach, Witterstorf, Wahl, and Doglas. The Ilfurt did not come on account of the encaenia. A sermon was held under the Office, which the Fr. Superior chanted. On the third feria of Rogations came the Parishes of Altkirch, Aspach, Witterstorf, Wahl, Daglas. No sermon: but the Office Fr. Superior chanted.

[24] A fetus, with the testimony of six persons dead, There was present this year 1683 on the 29th day of May a citizen of Richseim Nicholas Muller, with his wife Margaret Graserin, and son Morandus, who seemed nearly one year old. Asked, why he had come here on pilgrimage; he answered, that this present little son had come forth dead from the maternal womb: that so he himself, and the mother, and four women, who had stood by the woman giving birth, had altogether judged, since no sign appeared by which he could be baptized. So the midwife pouring forth in lamentations, among other things exhorted the mother, that she should conceive a vow to S. Morandus; for it would be certain that the infant would live: for eight years ago similarly a dead infant had come forth, who, with a vow conceived by the parents to this Saint, had begun to live, and even now lived, and that to the grace of his Thaumaturge was called Morandus. This heard from the midwife the parents animated, conceived a vow, that if the present infant should receive life, similarly Morandus he should be named; and for seven years they, each year once, with a vow made by the parents, he begins to live; with their little one would revisit the buildings of their holy Patron. So now for the first time they exempted themselves from the religion of the vow; and added, that in memory of the matter they would hang a tablet, and (if it should be necessary) they were prepared, both by oath, and by public letters to attest the matter. This history was approved by the secular Judge on the 19th of August 1682, as follows.

[25] I Joseph Meusilin, Advocate of the Royal Council, and Fiscal of the Prefecture of Londsera, by these present letters make testimony, that, which witnesses legitimately examined confirm. after it was being spread here at the place Richshemium, and was being celebrated by the mouth of all everywhere, that the firstborn son of Nicholas Muller a citizen of Richshemium (whose name is John Morandus) had been drawn forth dead from the maternal womb; nay also it was being announced to the Religious themselves, that the said infant for so long without any sign of life had lain for dead, until to the great Thaumaturge S. Morandus this lifeless little body had been commended with the most ardent prayers and vows; I was required by the said Religious that, for the greater praise and glory of the said S. Morandus, I should exactly inquire into this rumor, and examine witnesses, and consign the whole matter authentically by written instrument. About to satisfy therefore this most equitable petition, I cited and examined the following witnesses, and the testimonies written, as follow, transmitted to S. Morandus's.

[26] Margaret Sybilla Lipsin, born Wildsin, attests in conscience in place of an oath, that on the 22nd of April of the year 1682 about the second hour after midnight, John Morandus the little son of Nicholas Muller, citizen of Richsheim, was born legitimately of Margaret Graserin, wife of the said Muller; and that he was already then from the maternal womb without any breath altogether dead; and so, with mortal pallor over him, lay lifeless for at least half an hour; until the father, mother, the mother of the woman in labor, and the others who were present, bound themselves to the Thaumaturge Saint Morandus by a vow, of bringing the little son once each year to the tomb of S. Morandus, and continuing this for the seven years next following: and that the vow having been made the little infant began to breathe, and to move the little body. All these things to be entirely so Agnes Mullerin, who stood by the woman in labor, attests under oath. Anna Rickhlerin, mother of the woman in labor, confesses that all these things stand, as above reported; and adds that she herself had burned the brow of the little one (when he was drawn forth from the maternal womb), that she might experience whether at least some life were in the little body; but could detect no trace at all of present life; until the vow, of which above, to S. Morandus was uttered. These testimonies therefore, about to support the truth, were collected and written in the presence of the very Rev. D. John Maximin Schweizer, Parish-priest of Richsheim, as also of Leonard Beckh and Ludovic Schmids, Jurats for the same place, who also all subscribed with their own hand. Given at Richshemium on the 19th of August of the year 1683.

Meufllin Fiscal. John Maximin Schweizer, Parish-priest of the same place. Leonard Beckh. Ludovic Schmids.

[27] In the same year 1683, on the 4th day of June, there was present, for the cause of paying a vow, The insane pains of the head are lightened. Mary Urban of Rheinfeld, wife of the Schoolmaster of Handsbad. She reported that she was long agitated by insane pains of the head, especially on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, so that she feared lest she be reduced to insanity. Admonished by another woman, that she should devote herself to some Saint, S. Morandus occurred to her first. To him therefore she vows, if from that insane pain she should be freed, that she would soon approach his sacred tomb with a gift; and, with sacramental Confession preceding, would take the most holy Eucharist. Scarcely had she said and vowed; and behold immediately all the pains, with herself and the rest marveling, ceased: and so she today presented herself to her archiater. The pains were created from some defluxion, which from the left part of the brain was being derived to the left nostril; and thence, as if it boiled, again ascended to the eye and caused wondrous torments.

[28] On the 5th of June of the same year, a citizen of Walthen, Fridolinus Schmudlin, Are cured deafness, brought his little son, that he might give thanks to S. Morandus, to whom he had devoted him on account of lost hearing; which after the vow made he had received, and now conveniently hears those speaking. On the 25th of the same June, Magdalene Dammerin, from Pallerstorf, began to exempt herself from the religion of a vow. For she had lain down a long time from a grave disease, and when at one time amid the highest pains, pains of the head, and especially of the head, she invoked help from her own, and no one to the cry of the one invoking appeared; with trust in S. Morandus conceived, she vowed, if by his holy suffrages she should be aided, that she on three consecutive Fridays would approach his sacred ashes. From which immediately the pains remitted; and today, although weak, yet leaning on the patronage of her holy archiater, on this first occasion she undertook the pilgrimage.

[29] Magdalene Wammerstin, from Charspach, vexed with long disease, had so lost her strength, that she was altogether useless for all rustic labors. After many medicines applied in vain, paralysis, in familiar conversation, from a certain old woman visiting her she learns, how propitious to herself she had felt S. Morandus, by whose patronage she had received lost hearing, and limbs broken by paralysis, and at the same time had been freed from frequent fainting or vertigo; and for that cause each year she devoted to him, at least once, presented herself at his sacred tomb. Magdalene felt herself gradually inflamed with love of him. So she vows on three Fridays, if through strength it should be allowed, to run there, and to merit S. Morandus by triple Confession and Communion, besides other prayers and some oblation. Scarcely the vow made she noticed her strength growing, ran once and again so happily, bodily weakness, that on the third returning home she was equal to any rustic labor, and all the neighbors with her praised God in His Saints, and many were inflamed for the more frequent cult of S. Morandus. So the same old woman reported on July 22, 1683, and affirmed that that benefit had happened to her nine years before, ordered by her Confessor that in thanksgiving she should induce many to his cult: and that she does this strenuously, and therefore today she had brought her sick daughter, whom she hoped by the help of S. Morandus would soon be restored to her former health. Wholly wondrous is that, what the old woman repeatedly affirmed, that she, when from Charspach to S. Morandus's for the cause of devotion she would run, or rather crept leaning on a staff; very often compelled to rest on account of weakness of strength, had consumed nine hours on the journey; but on the return, with the staff left at his tomb, in the space of half an hour had retraced the way: although the said village is one hour distant from S. Morandus.

[30] On the 19th day of August of the same year, there was present an old woman from Nidersteinbach, who being asked the cause of her devotion, asserted the sickness of a dying man, that yesterday Lord Schultheis in Lanseren, in a grave disease brought to extremes, could no longer give any sign. By which state the family struck called S. Morandus into help, on the morrow immediately destined to undertake a pilgrimage to his sacred sepulchre. Scarcely she vowed, and the sick man gradually began to come to himself, to give signs, and to be better. She was now destined in his name, that she might give thanks to S. Morandus; and, if he should obtain former health for him, the said Lord Schultheis himself would come, and would testify the series of the matter with a tablet. This old woman on September 4, 1683, after Confession.

[31] Christina Begerrin from Charspach related to her Confessor, that from invoking S. Morandus she had received an immense benefit from God, to whom therefore she acknowledged herself most obligated; and therefore to relate this matter for the sake of gratitude, that to others it might be related, and as true be manifested, pains of the head. and others might be moved to his cult. But she said that for a long time she had been so greatly vexed by the gravest pains of the head, that she was nearly reduced to insanity: but stimulated by the exhortations of others she had conceived a vow of approaching his sacred tomb, and his patronage, with Confession paid and the sacred Synaxis taken, she vowed to merit; and on the 31st of July on the feast of S. Ignatius in the temple of S. Morandus duly paid the vow: and from that day always she began to be better, and now altogether freed from all pain, ascribes her safety to no other than to S. Morandus.

[32] In the year 1686 a certain rustic woman, and an old one, coming on pilgrimage and on foot here to the tomb of S. Morandus from a vow; besides others, The use of members is restored, which she had already received before from S. Morandus, declared, that she this year, by the help and intercession of the same Saint, had received the use of all her members, of which for some months she had been deprived; and had obtained for her daughter the hearing which she had lost. A certain noble virgin, devoted to S. Morandus, as long since her Thaumaturge, with peculiar cult, life despaired of, this year received double, for a double vow uttered for herself and her brother, both signal benefits. For her brother also, who oppressed by sudden evil, was in peril of life, with the Saint's help implored, was rescued from the peril of death; and the arm, health of an arm in which she herself for some days was suffering the gravest pains, with no other remedy applied, was wholly healed. Another woman, who had swollen up in her whole body like a drum, with a vow conceived of pilgrimaging to the tomb of S. Morandus, and of the whole body. received her former health; and the vow paid, presented herself grateful to her preserver.

[33] The following in the very year 1688, in which we tarried for two days at S. Morandus's, as has been said in the preliminary Commentary §. I, were the benefits conferred; and these from the mouth of the deponents noted R. P. Francis Marimont, then Superior of the Residence. A rustic woman, who in the town called Penisa, and neighboring to the city of Belfort, A dead boy is given life: had brought forth a little son dead by an unhappy birth, as soon as with a vow made to the tomb of S. Morandus, implored the help of the same Saint, obtained life for the offspring, and brought him from the vow to the tomb of the Saint. The testimony of the Parish-priest of that place is expected for greater confirmation, Pain of the head is driven away and a painted tablet, which the mother will spontaneously have made. Another woman in the vicinity, on account of acute pains of the head reduced to madness, at the very moment she vowed a pilgrimage to the tomb of S. Morandus, felt herself freed from those most vehement pains of the head. A certain rustic, and tertian fever. suddenly seized by tertian fever, with a vow uttered to S. Morandus of three days' devotion to be performed at his tomb, was immediately freed. A citizen of Soleure, deprived of all use of his members, as soon as he vowed a Mass, The use of members is restored. to be read in honor of S. Morandus in the temple of the same, immediately received the former use of his members.