Ramuoldus

ON ST. RAMUOLDUS, ABBOT OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT

AT RATISBON IN BAVARIA

>A.D. 1001.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

On the Life written by an almost contemporary author, the year of death, and the cult.

Ramuoldus, Abbot at St. Emmeram of Ratisbon (S.)

AUTH. D. P.

Concerning St. Emmeram, Bishop of Ratisbon and Martyr, who is to be treated on the 22nd of September, many things about the city itself, Life written among the miracles of St. Emmeram, many about the monastery founded under his name, will have to be said; the subject being by no means to be anticipated now, since the only matter to be treated is the Blessed Ramuoldus, kinsman of St. Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon: the first Abbot instituted there, after an interval of about a century and a half, during which the Abbey had been in the power of the Bishops. Concerning this, meanwhile, let Wiguleius Hundius be consulted, in the Salzburg Metropolis. Concerning him, that is, holy Emmeram or Haymeran, many have written: of his Miracles two books were published by Arnulfus of the Counts of Cham and Vorburg, a Monk, Provost and Master of St. Emmeram, as Henricus Canisius names him, when, beginning the second Volume of his Ancient Lections from the Monuments concerning that Saint, and placing in the second place the aforesaid two books; the first of which has a notable passage about the Blessed Ramuoldus, blinded and cured; the second, woven together in the manner of a Dialogue, pursues the death and miracles of the same Ramuoldus, inasmuch as all are connected with the praise of St. Emmeram himself.

[2] We shall here give the Acts of Blessed Ramuoldus collected from both sources, whence the collection here given. the form of the Dialogue being stripped away—the Dialogue running between Admonitius and Collectitius, and serving only to introduce moral and doctrinal digressions; which now indeed it is enough to be able to read in Canisius, perhaps not to be omitted on another occasion, when the whole work is given. These things excepted, that the form of a History may be had, the words of our Matthew Rader will make the beginning, in the first volume of Sacred Bavaria, beginning the Eulogy of Ramuoldus; that Eulogy is fittingly concluded with this Epitaph of his, which, although it is not very ancient, is yet fittingly read here, as a synopsis of the whole history. Blessed Ramuoldus, cousin of the Lord Wolfgang by relationship, brother by love, piety, and order, a man whole in life and conduct and most holy, summoned from the city of Trier and the monastery of St. Maximin by St. Wolfgang in the year 975, is constituted Abbot of this place: where, sweating diligently in the labor and solitude of pastoral life, with great ardor and effort he opposed his adversaries, and labored greatly for the liberty of this monastery. To Otto II, Roman Emperor ever Augustus, The more recent Epitaph contains a synopsis of the Acts. exceedingly dear, by a wondrous judgment of God blind for two years, by a miracle of the Crucified he recovered his sight at the sepulcher of St. Emmeram: he raised up this crypt from its foundations for the memory of the Saints and of Posterity, etc. At last, when he had ruled most holily for 26 years, 5 months, 17 days; seized by a slight fever in the year of the Lord 1001, the 15th of the Kalends of July, at the age of 100, he rested with a blessed end, renowned for miracles.

[3] If these times are correctly computed, the Blessed Ramuoldus was ordained Abbot at the very beginning of the aforenoted year, whence he is said to have been made Abbot in the year 975, on the Kalends of January, festive enough in themselves, though falling then on the sixth feria (Friday) of the week, with the Dominical letter C current; so that, in the meantime, the very memory of Christ, crucified on such a day, might be a presage of those calamities, in the endurance of which he was to be fixed to the cross with Christ: but his birth fell in the year 901—I do not know how far advanced, since the span of his life is not found expressed with the same accuracy as that of his rule. The year of death, expressed thus under the older Epitaph, Hundius represents on page 361:

Renowned by signs is this pious Ramuoldus, here buried, He shines in heaven, associated with the heavenly ones. He died in the year 1001, the 15th of the Kalends of July.

Arnulfus expresses neither the day nor the year, but left the year to be gathered from this, The older Epitaph notes the death in the year 1001, that he indicates the death to have happened before the death of Otto III (which occurred in the year 1002, the 28th of January), when, in num. 11, he describes by what reasoning Henry rendered his service to the funeral—Henry then perhaps holding the Principate of Bavaria, but after a few years to be King, not only of Germany or Gaul, but also Emperor of all Italy, and Augustus Caesar of the Roman city. The natural order of the words required, which the author of the Life confirms, that it should be written "but after a few years to be not only King, but also Emperor"; King, namely, in the year 1002; Emperor, in 1014. Such transpositions of words the text of Arnulfus frequently suffers in the edition of Canisius, whether he himself affected them, or the carelessness of the copyists introduced them. But thus, set in the middle of both titles, the "Not only" spread darkness over Baronius all the more easily, because in num. 9 he had read that Ramuoldus fell into his last illness after a five-year period from the Imperial departure, as if the departure were to be understood wrongly understood of the year 1007. of life, where there is expressly added the named "from Hiatospolis," that is, Ratisbon, the city. Thus deluded, a man otherwise diligent, wrote that the Blessed Ramuoldus died in the year 1007; and soon had Ferrarius as a follower, in the General Catalogue of those Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology.

[4] Dorganius, Menardus, Bucelinus, more prudently abstaining in their Calendars from noting the year, meanwhile refer to Ramuoldus himself as Blessed: The title of Blessed in the monastic calendars, although, beyond this title, attested by miracles, nothing else is at hand by which the ancient and present cult might be more distinctly proved: yet even the sole authority of Arnulfus suffices: inasmuch as he could have seen the miracles and the cult and public veneration of the sepulcher founded upon them, for about 40 years, writing in the time of Abbot Udalricus, the sixth from the Blessed Ramuoldus, elected in the year 1037, surviving up to the 45th year of that century. There are, moreover, in the diocese of Cologne, as I understand, and probably elsewhere throughout Germany, many called Remboldus, who seek the Patron of their name, and do not find him. To these I suggest this St. Ramuoldus. is the name the same as Remboldus? For originally it is the same name, signifying from the Teutonic roots "bold and energetic in deliberating," from the verb "Ramen," to deliberate, to come into counsel, and "Bold" or "bald," which in compounds is often rendered "Wold" and "Wald," as Rumboldus, Rumuoldus, Romualdus, "renowned by fame." Thus Rampertus and Rembertus are the same; "Prince of counsel."

LIFE

By the Author Arnulfus, Provost of the Monastery, In the Books of miracles of St. Emmeram, written nearly 40 years after the death of the Blessed.

Ramuoldus, Abbot at St. Emmeram of Ratisbon (S.)

FROM CANISIUS

CHAPTER I.

The beginning of the life from Rader's Bavaria, his two-year blindness in old age, his dealings with Otto III.

Ramuoldus, born among the Franconians in the equestrian rank, in the nine hundred and first year after the virginal Birth, having laid aside the apprenticeship of polite letters, applied his mind to sacred Letters and Orders. Excellently instructed at Trier For, having come out of the rank of the Ephebes, he sought Trier, and was a chaplain to the Bishop of Trier, at that very time when St. Wolfgang, his cousin, administered the Pontificate of Ratisbon. He was at that time the Bishop of the province, at the same time also Abbot at St. Emmeram, but hitherto so as to bear the name only, not the burden, nor to administer the office of Abbot: by which it came about that the discipline of the monastery languished, He is summoned to Ratisbon by St. Wolfgang and the very straying flock longed for a shepherd. This St. Wolfgang diligently observed, and, having summoned from Trier Romualdus, whose most correct life he had accurately learned, he set him in his own name over the monastery: and he himself henceforth, for all the rest of time, commended the administration of his office to the Prefects of the monastery, nor did he recall it to the Bishopric. Which turned out so happily that, drawn by the fragrance of Ramuoldus, which the virtue of the most religious man spread through all Bavaria, and he reforms the Abbey of St. Emmeram Swabia, and the German lands, not a few, born of good family, committed themselves to his discipline to be trained in virtue, and to seek immortal riches, the mortal ones being left behind.

[2] To him meanwhile was great care of the poor, for whom he established two dwellings: one, he builds for the poor a hospice and an infirmary. in which he might receive those coming from abroad; the other, in which he might cure those weakened in body: to whom he not only supplied the necessities for the use of life, but, where there was need, himself performed the lowest offices of servants. By which things he brought it about that, after the manner of St. Tobias, suddenly losing the use of his eyes, he might for two years prove his patience to God. Thus far Rader, whose last words let Arnulfus take up and explain, in his Admonition, responding thus to the one desirous of hearing fine and useful things:

"Let it be done," he says, "if it is possible, that what is so greatly desired by you may be written by me cursorily: nay, let the will of Almighty God be done, that human frailty, casting away these things which vanish, may will and be able to obtain to obtain those things which are truly called good and are so. For ardently striving after the affections of these things—very necessary—in his own times the most venerable Abbot Ramuoldus, in old age otherwise vigorous, but deprived of sight, when by the gift of the Holy Spirit he showed himself a spiritual Father to the worshippers of Christ not only in interior things, but also in exterior things stood forth as a most prudent dispenser; inasmuch as, through the adornment of the church, and the necessary furniture of the monastery, and the manifold administration of various things, he in a manner made his senile years grow young again; and from the treasure of wisdom brought forth new things with the old; according to this, that the whole present life is full of temptations, often tempted and proved through many things, at last fell into so grave a temptation under the vice of phlegm or scotomy, whereby, while his other limbs were performing their offices vigorously, he utterly lost the light of his eyes.

[3] How patiently the man of God bore for a time this sad defect, worn out by the harshness of affliction, he endures this calamity most patiently; he disclosed in words of this kind to certain persons complaining and even weeping in his presence about this matter. "Let a man cease to weep for the loss of failing light, who has the certainty of the ever-abiding one in hope, from the truthful promise of the Savior. We who have eyes already illuminated through faith are not blind: but he is blind and remains in darkness who has not the faith which illuminates. Whence also to those walking in faith it seems very unworthy to set great store by the use of the present light, which is common to them with flies and the basest living creatures, even serpents. Therefore let it be pleasing with all our strength

to attend to Him who says: John 8 'I am the light of the world; he who follows me does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life': to whom, if it shall please Him, the light of the body, which He gave and took away, He will easily restore and present: but if He shall not will to do so, He shall be blessed without murmuring; and, as the King of justice, ever to be feared; and as the father of mercies and of all consolation, to be loved with the whole mind and the whole strength."

[4] When these things had been said and heard, not of that kind which a little before, but of another kind, tears began to flow, the more abundant, the more useful. For they remembered, but in his second year both from Paul's saying, and from the man of God's worthy patience, that virtue is most certainly perfected in infirmity: which afterwards, in the venerable old man, the divine virtue, kindly and at once powerfully, deigned to declare. For when he had completed nearly two years living blind in the smiting of blindness; on a certain night, running about among the altars, as he was wont before, a frequent d "venipeta" (suppliant), he was vigilantly persisting in the sacred labor; he saw his eyes struck by Christ; nor was he willing to spare his decrepit age before he knew, through the spirit, that the grace of God was present. 2 Cor. 12 Then prostrate before the holy Cross, and humbled enough by tears and prayer, with the fatigue of his body as it were demanding rest, he was suddenly put to sleep, in body, not in mind. And behold, the image of the crucified Lord our Jesus Christ seemed to him to descend from the cross, and to come up to him. Which, standing before him, with both hands, as it seemed to him, took burning candles from the candlestick set close upon the steps, and violently struck them into the eyes of the old man.

[5] He at first, on account of the descent of the Lord's image e, enduring no small weight of agony, then perceiving through the fire that something glorious was being signified, and feeling them illuminated, and through the light feeling the darkness put to flight; rose up, drenched with tears and sweat: and instantly turning his eyes to their former uses, he began at once to wonder, and at once to scrutinize more deeply with the interior man, what it might mean that after so long a time he had received the use of his eyes, despaired of by many. And when in a short time reason satisfied the man concerning this matter, then with the office of his mouth rejoicing together with the dwelling of his heart, he gives thanks to God. he magnificently gave thanks to God, who deigned thus to visit His servant, that both in the bodily chastisement there should be correction for him, and by the revelation of his eyes the affection of many should be provoked to holy or honest things. For the sake of which thing, that it might be the more tenaciously held in the memory of the good, the man of God ordered, among the other signs or tokens of miracles, that eye-shaped rings be hung up in the church; which church, dowered with the sacred body of the Blessed Martyr Emmeram and his merits, and furnished also with the patronages of other Saints, like a heavenly watchtower let down to mortals, is wont to minister very many benefits. Thus in book 1 Arnulfus, whose book 2 begins from the Life and Miracles of St. Wolfgang, who died in the year 993, the 31st of October, and then proceeds:

[6] After the death of St. Wolfgang, denounced to Otto III the Emperor. After the death of Wolfgang the Pontiff, servant of the Almighty God, Ramuoldus, Abbot of distinguished memory, in the governance of the monastery or the management of the convent, through various temptations, endured many adversities. Which grew to such an extent that, under the first f Gebehardus, Bishop of this See, the servant of God was defamed before Otto III the Emperor, by the detractions and at the same time the accusations of certain persons. Whence it came to this, that the same Prince, by believing what he ought not to have believed, made doubtful and uncertain about the religion of the man of God, while he was coming to St. Emmeram after the manner of the Emperors, with embittered spirits, was willing neither to address him nor to turn his eyes upon him. And when prayer had been made by him in the sacristy of the altar, before Him who made the engine of heaven, earth, and sea; there came to him g a certain Despot, a fellow-initiate h of his, by name Heribertus, then perhaps Chaplain, as though he had spoken ill of him; but afterwards Bishop of Cologne i. He of set purpose said to him: "Lord, you ought not to be indignant against the man of God." To these things the Emperor began: "Since it is written, 'You shall not curse the prince of your people,' I know that it does not befit me to detract from or curse the man of God; especially since I myself have never done him anything that is worthy of cursing." Exod. 23, Acts 23. Then the Lord Heribertus, a good and faithful counselor, replied: "If the principate of the empire wishes, as it ought, to prosper; it is fitting that in your presence the venerable Abbot be interrogated about this matter, before the holy congregation, with St. Heribertus interceding, and thus, whether the things which are objected against him be true or false, be proved. I believe in God and hope that so venerable an old man—both the maturity of old age, and the wisdom and humility divinely granted—never permitted him to have said such things as have been said about him by enemies, or fabricated."

Then the Emperor, relaxing his mind to the beck of the divine dispensation, having taken with him the lovers k of peace, entered the cloister humble and meek. There, seeing the venerable Father prostrate with the Brethren upon the ground, he was alarmed and said, he clears himself to him; "Great evil has he done me, who, from the legation of Bishop Gebehardus, by reporting these things instilled into my ears such as might move me, unwary, against this Abbot and the college of Saints committed to him. I know indeed that no small penance must be done by my life, for this incautious credulity in falsehood. Now therefore, since my sins have bared your footprints, I beseech you, put your shoes on again, and so return to us." Which being quickly done, with the Brethren the venerable hero Ramuoldus, having returned, spoke confidently to the Prince, saying: "We know indeed, that the empire which you have is given and constituted from above; and that, whom God has blessed, let him be blessed. Of this matter too, since throughout we have not been without taste, nay are still in part somewhat learned, whence to my littleness such temerity, that I, a vile little man, utterly forgetful of my measure, should dare to curse Your Highness, whom the King of kings and Lord of lords has already made worthy of His blessing? By whatever judgment therefore it shall please Your Majesty, I am ready to clear myself of the charge, and also to give satisfaction to all by the affirmation of the truth concerning this matter." But the Emperor, deliberating his reply, proposed words of this kind: "As we are delighted by truth, so on the contrary we are embittered by false speakings; whence we judge the judgment of God to be set above the judgment of mortals, who easily deceive and are deceived. I prefer indeed to believe good things of the good, than evil things of the perverse. For it does not befit anyone to believe anything rashly from anyone. Whence the excuse of the charge, brought forth verbally by your own self, is to me a very great satisfaction from so great a man; by which, now equally as by the evident judgment of the other kind, being appeased, O elder dear to God, I desire to be conferred with [or] consoled by spiritual address and likewise admonition concerning yourself in some secret place; and I desire the burden of the kingdom, which I unworthily received, to be relieved through him who says in the Prophet Isaiah, 'The yoke shall rot away from the face of the oil l.'"

[8] The glorious Emperor therefore, the aforenamed and oft-to-be-named Otto III, in many things religious, and he absolves him humbled before himself, entered with the venerable Abbot the church of St. Benedict, devoted in manifold ways to divine services. Greatly humbled there, and prostrated through the medicine of Confession, between two altars set up under the figure of twofold love, and consecrated in honor of the same most venerable Father and the illustrious Martyr of Christ Kilian, ordered by the spiritual father, like a most vile little servant, he sat before him on a lowly three-legged stool m, accompanied by humility, the best mother. There he heard many things which are wont to destroy foolish works, and also very many other things, which the hearts of the stupid refuse to receive with a most hard neck. At last, made another man through conversion, and inwardly touched through the admonition of the man of God, he felt the grace of God present to him, which conferred on him most abundant compunction, by which the exterior man not only most subtly agreed with the interior man but also most usefully. And when he had in that time satisfied this human frailty, going out, he said to his men: "Truly the Holy Spirit has spoken through the mouth of this man: today in his discourse I have proved that saying of Solomon to be true: Eccl. 12. 'The words of the wise are as nails fixed deep on high.' For the divine commandment most certainly renders to those who observe it a free spirit." And when his attendants gazed diligently at the Caesar, with the admiration of the courtiers; they wondered at the change of his countenance, saying: "Lord, what has happened to you, that you are so drenched with tears and sweat?" To whom he replied: "Do not wonder that I am wet with sweat, but because I live in fear. May it never befall me to fall into such a questioning, except for the salvation of my soul. In this holy elder I have manifestly perceived how great honor ought to be shown to the chosen servants of God." After these things he ordered the Bishop of Ratisbon to be summoned to him. And standing before the altar of St. Emmeram, under threat he said to him: "Beware lest henceforth, while I live, you do any evil to the Abbot of this Convent and the brethren n, who serve God and Saint Emmeram here. Let the things rightly pertaining to the Bishopric be yours; and he warns the Bishop not to harass the Monks. let the goods of the Monks remain fenced about for them, under the protection of all good men. On whatever day therefore you shall have transgressed in these things which you have now drunk in with your own ears, know without doubt that, whether divinely or humanly, for the evil of so great a crime it will be dealt with you harshly and bitterly." Then the Emperor, turning to the Abbot and Brethren, bidding them farewell with his customary piety, said: "May the merciful Lord deign to preserve you so interiorly and exteriorly, that in your prayers you may be able to be mindful not only of us, but also of all the Christian people." Which being said, commended to the Lord with psalms and canticles, the most pious Augustus, with the holy and Cross-bearing o Imperial Lance going before according to custom, went out of this city, about to seek Italy, and also to approach the most powerful city of Rome, which some are wont to call the mistress of the world or the greatest of things p.

NOTES D. P.

Rader names Henry: but he first became Bishop at Trier in the year 956, when Ramuoldus, who counted the years of his life with the century, was already an old man: the same Henry also died indeed in the year 964, that is, two years after St. Wolfgang had begun to administer the Pontificate of Ratisbon; but yet much earlier than he was ordained Bishop; for this alone was done in the year 975, and then first could the same man think effectively about giving a proper Abbot to the monastery of St. Emmeram. But who would believe this man was not also taken up from some monastery: but from which? Bucelinus, in tome 2, page 230, names the monastery

of St. Maximin, where, at the name of Abbot Oggo II, elected in the year 983, he writes that under him lived St. Romualdus (thus some more recent authors invert the name of Ramuoldus; for, as I said, the etymology of both is the same)—but here, when that man was being elected Abbot, he was already living at Ratisbon as Abbot for the tenth year. I would supply Rader's text by conjecture thus: Having come out of the rank of the Ephebes, he sought Trier around the year 920; The first Life of B. Ramuoldus chronologically ordered, and there joined himself to Amalarius Fortunatus, disciple of the great Alcuin, a learned man and likewise holy, and was a chaplain to him and to his successor Hatting for some years: then renouncing the world, he put on the habit of a Monk at St. Maximin, under Oggo the first, around the year 930, the energetic restorer and reformer of that monastery; and as age advanced, there either as Master he directed the studies of the younger ones, or as Provost the discipline of the Monks, or he held both offices in succession, and held them up to an age beyond the seventieth year, at the very time when St. Wolfgang, etc. Meanwhile, at St. Maximin after Oggo I the Abbots are numbered: William up to the year 957, and Wikerus up to 966, then Asolphus and Thietfridus: but under Wikerus, says Bucelinus, St. Adalbertus lived as a Monk at St. Maximin, afterwards Abbot of Weissenburg, Albert Archbishop of Magdeburg to be distinguished from St. Adalbert. and by the zeal of Otto the Great Archbishop of Magdeburg, the great Apostle of the Russians. We know Adelbertus or Albertus as the first Archbishop of Magdeburg in the year 971: who, when he is here called holy and Apostle of the Russians, I fear lest this be done by confusion with St. Adelbertus, Apostle of the Prussians and glorious Martyr around the year 997, who indeed studied at Magdeburg, but was Bishop in his own country at Prague: and a Monk, the Bishopric being for a time laid down, at Rome. But that Albert, Archbishop of Magdeburg, was a Monk at Trier, and afterwards Abbot at Weissenburg, I have not yet found whence I might prove; much less the title of saint or any day of cult.

k Otherwise, "few."

p Here again the Admonitius gives the Author occasion for discoursing about the city of God and the city of the devil, according to Augustine.

CHAPTER II.

Ch. 2. The last illness of B. Ramuoldus, his death, his Burial cared for by St. Henry, Miracles.

[9] After a five-year period too from the Imperial a departure from the city of Hiatospolis b, of which we are the inhabitants, In the year 1001 gravely sick; the Blessed Abbot Ramuoldus began, by a long-lasting languor, to be deprived of the strength of body, rejoicing spiritually that the interior man was being instructed through this infirmity, according to the Apostle, namely, who says: "When I am infirm, then I am stronger and powerful." 2 Cor. 12. By this infirmity of the flesh indeed he was led to the last light of the present life. Is. 9, On which day the venerable hero, raising himself from the little bed, which already through fourteen continuous days he could not desert because of his sickness, clothed in the tunic of holy profession, he commends obedience to the Brethren, and through spiritual medicine somewhat relieved of the fever; having received the stole, and the company of the Brethren being assembled, sat down in the midst; and used a powerful discourse, in this manner:

"God the Father, with great love and great counsel, sent His Only-begotten, to save the human race: whence also through the Prophet He was foreordained the Angel of great counsel. Who, though He could through divine power snatch us from the power of the devil, was unwilling to use this by His mere beck for the redemption of the human race, on account of the justice most proper to the holy Trinity; but by His ineffable mercy offered to the Father the man whom, incarnate of the Virgin, He took up with a soul, hanging on the cross; reconciling the world to God, through His most holy blood; opposing this also, in the form of humility, to the ancient enemy, whom he boasted to have overcome by the most wicked homicide of pride. For Christ on the wood of the cross was made obedient, even unto death, to the will of the Father; whose most precious obedience healed the wounding disobedience of the first man. This virtue, brethren, obedience, by which Christ wrought the elegant continence of human redemption, love with the highest devotion, follow, cherish. Praise the holy Trinity, which fashioned us to its image and likeness, in intellect, memory, and will, with the most diligent veneration of fear and love. Eccl. 12. Therefore emulate with devout mind, according to the Apostle, the greater charisms; and ruminate in your heart that saying of Solomon: and he foretells that they will soon be scattered, 'Fear God, and keep His commandments: this is the whole man.' Behold I, decrepit with age, also catholic in faith, and (to confess the truth) most slight in the virtue which ought to be supplied to this faith, with the day of my calling at hand, enter the way of all flesh; hoping that I shall come to the joys of the heavenly fatherland, through Him who is the wondrous liberator, in His many mercies. But you, my own bowels in Christ, love this Father, whose paternity can place your souls, with their bodies, among the number of the sons of God: And this shall be a sign to you of things to come, though brought forth through me unworthy, that in this place you will suffer many adversities after my departure; by which you will be so embittered that you will even be compelled to give up the place c. But the commotion of so great a tempest will quickly be calmed by divine solace: whence I give counsel, that each one of you hasten to return hither to the place of profession, where he may continually hear or exercise the harmony of spiritual voices. Matth. 10, As for the rest, in this conclusion I now make an end of the fraternal admonition, that you may so study to have the cunning of the serpent, which is the lesser among the virtues; that you do not, through incaution, lose the golden humility of dove-like simplicity, which is the greater: but in every way take up this, which Christ in His Gospel commanded the disciples, saying: 'Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves.'"

[10] Then, with the highest humility, mutual Confession having been made between the Abbot and the Brethren, and the most necessary indulgence of sins sought or implored from the heavens, and he bids farewell: the venerable hero, as it were touching heaven with his inmost sighs, first commends to the highest Shepherd the flock committed to him; then bidding farewell to the Brethren, now scarcely able to speak for tears and sobs, he said: "Depart, dearest Brethren, and prepare yourselves to celebrate the divine Office, and with the highest haste run together to complete according to custom the sacred order; and have this as the last memorial of the old man for a blessing: In the name of the Lord, the salvation of us all." And when all together said "Amen," and went out mournful, about to seek solace from the holy Spirit, truly the Paraclete; the man of God, foreseeing through the spirit that the soul was being quickly dissolved from the body, ordered himself to be carried by those who were present into the oratory near his cell, and to be laid down between two altars; his head turned indeed to the altar of the holy Father Benedict, his feet to the altar of St. Kilian, Martyr of Christ: and carried into the church, a centenarian, he dies during the Mass; in whose name, as in the omen of the salvation of all, placing his hope most firmly, he ordered Masses to be celebrated there, and the memory of the Lord's Passion to be most intently performed. Which being completed, when it had come to the Communion, the man of God himself, as he received the Eucharist of the body and blood of the Lord, soon sent forth his soul from the prison of the flesh to the eternal fatherland; thus in the last agony holding his hands stretched out beside his head, as he had been wont to do before in prayer. Then the religious elders, namely Gotahardus d, Abbot of the monastery of Altaich, and Adalpertus, Father of the Convent of Seeon e, running up with the rest of the Brethren, and rendering hymns and praises to God with devout mind, strove to commend the spirit of the pious Father to the mercies of the Almighty grace. Which things being duly and dutifully finished, those whose hearts above the rest the divine inspiration deigned to visit, lifting up their voice with faith, said: "Lord, as we hope, this man of yours has by no means in vain consummated in the present age the so many years of his life granted, whom today, a centenarian by your calling, we rather marvel at than grieve that he is taken from our midst."

[11] With the report flying about that the man of God had died, since believers held it for certain that he had lived in favor with God, and before St. Henry, then only Duke of Bavaria, the ministry of things proceeded to this fixed result, that in haste there was a running together by many to the obsequies of so great a father, with the highest devotion of heart. Among whom was Henry the Hypatos f, then perhaps holding the principate over the Norican and Carinthian peoples, but after a few years to be King, not only of Germany or Gaul, but also Emperor of all Italy, and Augustus Caesar of the Roman city. He, having taken with him Bishop Gebehardus, who had before been in part opposed to the holy man, but then, the fountain of his tears bearing witness, came changed in mind, by humbly performing the obsequies for the servant of God in his burial, showed himself a servant to the most humble Lord of Lords. For when they were gathered into one, and keeping for himself the key of the coffer, and almost all those serving God at Ratisbon were dutifully chanting at the funeral of the pious Abbot

the Prince himself was not ashamed to carry the bier on his own shoulders, and also to prepare the burial more carefully. At last he entered the pit of the sepulcher, and himself closed the coffer, which had now received the body of the man of God; and chose for himself the little key of the same coffer as a most dear pledge; and nonetheless afterwards, when established in the bundles of the kingdom, he always kept or retained the same with him as an emblem of triumph g.

[12] in the crypt, which he had dedicated with the Relics brought from Trier, Nothing on earth happens without a cause: which especially ought to be noted in the deeds of the Saints, and can most truly be proved. For that the most blessed Abbot Ramuoldus was for a time compelled to desert the Convent of Ratisbon, and to seek again that of Trier, the cause was the civil war which h was between Duke Henry and the Margrave Perchtolf, and among the other nobles of Prince Otto then besieging the city of Ratisbon. When this was settled and, as it were, Blessed Emmeram beckoning, that he should return through the provider of his place the venerable elder returned from the city of Trier to Hiatospolis; bringing with him from there many Relics of the Saints. The salutary bringing of these became also the cause of the crypt built at St. Emmeram: whose building, ordered by the man of God with much artifice, exhibits to those beholding it a threefold and also fourfold appearance: And that the author of this work loved the holy Trinity, and firmly held the faith of the four Gospels, it presents as credible by a kind of testimony. The columns, moreover, which support that crypt-church, by their duality most beautifully fit together the twofold love, namely of God and of neighbor. But the five altars, in which were placed as many little boxes with relics, which the aforenamed hero brought from Lorraine, he is buried. admonish that the principal observance of the five books of Moses be held in memory, and exhort that the fivefold prudence in the five senses of the body be always had. The sixth altar indeed, which is called "At the feet," announces by the perfection of the number six that all things are concluded. In this so figure-bearing Basilica, then, dedicated by B. Wolfgang in honor of the holy and undivided Trinity and of all the Saints, the most venerable father Ramuoldus, in the sepulcher which he had already prepared for himself fifteen years before, on the Southern side of the same crypt, beside the altar of B. Pope Gregory, was deposited, and magnificently buried; with the order of Clerics standing by and likewise chanting, and the flock of Monks no less chanting together, and the threefold assembly of Virgins or Nuns also, commending the soul of so great a father to the highest Father.

[13] There a man possessed is cured After these things a certain man came to St. Emmeram, to seek the suffrages of the Saints. He, because he was possessed by a demon, was exceedingly tormented before all. Then the Brethren, recalling what manner of Father they had newly buried, had the man led, nay dragged, into the crypt, endowed with the body of the man of God. Where, long rolled about and more than badly torn by his possessor, he began to hiss and with a snarling to cry out, and also with reproaches cursing to make a din, saying: "Woe to you i, Ramtolt, because you did many evils to my lord, and through you he lost much of his right: for this also you labored day and night, that you might do him injury, and gather to your God whomever you could. Ah! beyond all these things you now burn me, and bring great force upon me." And when, under torments of this kind, the demon dashed the head of the wretched man against the pavement so violently that he almost compelled him to die; those present, running up, lifted him, and dragged him to the tomb of the confessor of Christ. And there, when by the powers of the devil dangerously resisting they scarcely compelled him to bend his head, and to place it upon the sepulcher, he was freed by the grace of God. By which sign those who before had been saddened through compassion were gladdened, and rendered magnificent thanks to the Redeemer; not so much for this, because a man was snatched from the power of the devil, as for this, that through the present great deed it was revealed of what merit was the Father, who had lately been buried therein.

[14] As pilgrims and citizens, after the usual custom, flowed together from everywhere to the festivity of St. Emmeram, among the rest who had run up, a certain poor little woman, a blind woman is illuminated, once deprived of the light of her eyes, came; who at night-time entered the blessed crypt, and adored at the sepulcher of the Confessor of Christ Ramuoldus, and poured forth prayers with tears. Then the almighty Lord, willing to glorify His servant among mortals, through ineffable power restored light to her who had been blind. But the woman, rising, called her husband, saying into his ear: "Lord, thanks be to God; for I have received sight." When he did not believe, and she on the contrary showed sure signs, he says: "You must suppress the deed in silence; because it must be done secretly by you and me, that we may go out of the city before daylight; for I am a Cleric, and therefore I am ashamed to remain with you in so great a multitude." And when the woman, recently illuminated, consenting to the counsel of the darkness, returned to her home with the Cleric without caution, and again. immediately, through misfortune, she was struck with a blindness very alien to her. But the grace of our Redeemer knows not how to lack abundance of remedies. Trusting in its fullness, the aforesaid woman, in hope of perceiving light, came again to Ratisbon: and approaching the place of the sepulcher, where she had before felt great benefits, she first cleansed herself through Confession before the Priests, and openly reported what had happened to her; then, prostrate to the ground, and likewise humbled in mind, and quickly aided by the prayers of the Confessor beloved of God, through the fountain of all good things she merited to receive the light of her eyes, badly lost. Then they rendered immense thanks to God, both she and the rest who had heard and seen these things; and so each one revisited his own home with joy, carrying with him a threefold miracle, by which the holy Trinity deigned to declare that the pious Abbot Ramuoldus had been its most faithful servant, inasmuch as he had loved the true Lord.

[15] At another time too, summoned by the fame of the miracles, and two women possessed are cleansed there came two women to St. Emmeram, both most wretched with diabolical vexation; whose cleansing or liberation, granted by the divine pity, from the charity of the Saints, to the venerable father Ramuoldus, was made manifest most evidently in this: that the same poor women [before led to the memorials of other Saints and not redeemed, but afterward, not at one and the same but at] different times entering the famous crypt, and exorcized at the sepulcher of the blessed man, were mercifully liberated from their most evil invader through one and the same lord. The faithful Brethren of our congregation are wont to bear testimony of this matter, who then perhaps were present, and—what is wonderful to say—had seen the unclean spirit go out of one woman through a misty foulness, but out of the other through the foul deformity of a beetle. At a certain time, when by Christian men, not only from the city of Ratisbon itself, but from its suburban places, a contracted hand is straightened, there was a running together to the church of St. Emmeram the Martyr; among the rest who had assembled, a certain woman approached, with the pledge of a recent miracle. For a spindle had clung to her hand, packed with the twisting of threads: which, when she could in no way tear away from her palm, nor in any manner repel from herself so great an evil; anxious at last she came to the sepulcher of the most venerable Father Ramuoldus. Where, when she adored, and poured forth prayers with tears, as soon as she placed, in hope of healing, her trembling hand upon the tomb of the blessed man, soon through the power of the Lord's hand she lifted hers thence healed. Then those who happened to be present at this deed, and the sacristans who had run up, giving thanks to God and the blessed man, hung up the same spindle, to be shown to posterity as a great deed, in a little silver crown which hung over the same sepulcher. This sign we ourselves saw, and felt with our hands, and we know that our testimony in this part is true; nor are we ignorant that through this recent miracle, as also through the other benefits of healings, the Almighty Lord willed to magnify His Saint.

[16] But first I wish it to be known that the benefits of healing, The Author himself as a boy is freed from a fever. which I noted a little before, at the sepulcher of the blessed Ramuoldus, Confessor of Christ, I experienced in the removal of my own infirmity. For when I was a boy, and had heard that very many had been restored to health in the place of rest of the blessed man, being exceedingly affected with a fever, and for the relief of this thrown down upon the pavement; persuaded by the counsel of a certain Priest, who while the same pious Father lived had been his familiar, I attempted to give myself to sleep there. And when I had slept somewhat, I saw through sleep the Reverend father, clothed in the monastic habit, as it were sitting at the right of the altar of the blessed Emmeram the Martyr. Gazing at his venerable hoariness, I marveled at the beauty of his countenance, and also at the whiteness of his other limbs. Greatly gladdened by this vision, I who before was worn out, rose up healthy k, rendering thanks to God, because I felt the relief of the saving hand. l

NOTES D. P.

hope, namely, that He whom he himself, while he lived, was wont to feed and clothe from the same chest, in the flock of the poor, would not disdain to raise him up among the number of the elect.