Maximus

CONCERNING SAINT MAXIMUS,

BISHOP OF TURIN IN PIEDMONT.

AFTER THE YEAR 465.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On his age and cult, and the Legend collected after the eleventh century.

Maximus, Bishop of Turin, in Piedmont (S.)

BY D. P.

Gennadius, Priest of Marseilles,

who toward the end of the fifth century collected

as it is published by Miraeus,

chapter 40, praises the aforesaid holy

Bishop, Famous for his writings, almost

his contemporary, in these words: Maximus,

Bishop of the Church of Turin, a man in divine

Scriptures sufficiently intent, and able to teach

the people extempore; he composed in praise

of the Apostles treatises, and on the nativity of John

the Baptist, and a general homily on all the Martyrs.

But also on the Chapters of the Gospels

and the Acts of the Apostles he expounded many things

wisely. Then, several other lucubrations of his being enumerated, the elogium of the man thus

concludes the same Gennadius: He flourished while Honorius and

Theodosius the Younger reigned. But they reigned,

Honorius indeed, he flourished, not died, under Theodosius the Younger, until the year 423;

but Theodosius, his nephew by his Brother Arcadius,

already from the year 402 called

Augustus, until the year 450. After that

year the same Maximus, Bishop of the Church

of Turin, to all the writings of Eusebius Bishop

of Milan to Pope Leo, as regards his faith

directed to the East, consented and

subscribed; saying anathema to those, who concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's

Incarnation thought impiously,

to Nestorius and Eutyches. That Epistle of Eusebius,

thus subscribed by Maximus, survives after the 52nd

Epistle of Leo, ascribed to the year 452 by the

Collections. Nay, Pope Hilary in the year 465

celebrated a Synod at Rome, in the first place after himself,

as to the senior of all the Bishops, still surviving in the year 465. sitting

Maximus, of the city of Turin of the Province

of the Gauls. It is certain therefore that the transcribers of Gennadius erred,

however ancient, in whom, "he died,"

or "he dies" crept in for "he flourished": whence

it came about that Peter in the Catalogue book 2 chapter 9, Gennadius being cited,

wrote; But he rested while Honorius

and Theodosius the younger reigned.

[2] His Life no one of the ancients wrote, but first

in the thirteenth century or later some Monk of Novalesa, The Life from a Ms. of his own church

in the farthest Piedmont toward Savoy,

composed a Legend for the use of the church of S.

Maximus of Collegno, extracted from diverse

places, as is read at the end of the copy, sent to our Bolland

in the year 1654 by the Rev. Father John

James Turinetto, then Rector of our Turin College.

And the aforesaid church was called by his name

in the very same place, where had stood

distant about five miles

from the city of Turin, in which he was once buried, which the crowd-shunning Saint

often frequented; and in which,

as he had chosen, he was buried by the Clergy and people;

which also, as is said in number 8, was afterward

by the devout people wonderfully endowed and enlarged,

and notably distinguished by the name of the same holy man.

This I would believe in course of time

came into the power of the Monks of Novalesa,

and was administered by them; which cause

existed for one of them to compile the Legend.

[3] To one inquiring what now is the condition of that church,

answered in the year 1691 the Rev. Father Charles Francis

Genta, Rector of our Turin College,

that the town of Collegium commonly Collegno, now almost desolate it is far from the much restricted town, in former

centuries far greater than at present

it is, extended in circuit, and into three

parishes was divided: of which that of S. Maximus

was one and indeed the chief; but now

from the town, more restricted and within the limits of one parish

contracted, it is distant farther, with the dwellings scattered

all around, a rural chapel, to which however every year the people of Collegno

come together on the feast of that

Saint, as of their chief Patron, to celebrate a solemn

Mass there. where the body has been sought in vain But neither there nor in the Parochial

new and sufficiently elegant church, also dedicated to holy

Maximus, is his Body or Relics

found, he writes, nor is it at all known whither

they have come, amid the frequent warlike tumults

and the depredations of the heretics. That the most illustrious

Julius Caesar Bergera, made Archbishop about fifty

years ago, it is believed to lie under a certain tower. much

labor spent in vain in searching the earth around

that chapel, which popular rumor

celebrated for lights seen there by night and Angelic

songs heard. But now, says

Genta; most think, and affirm it handed down from

their forefathers, that within the tower, which overhangs

the castle of the town, the so greatly desired

treasure lies hidden: and so the Lord of the town and castle,

Count Provana, promises, that, when

the present wars have subsided, he will take care that, the tower being undermined,

the sacred relics may be dug out thence, if indeed

they lie hidden there, and be exposed to public veneration.

Meanwhile the feast there is observed by precept:

but at Turin, where a chapel of the same Saint

is in the Metropolitan church, and through the diocese

the rest of the Office is made with the rite of a Double

with an Octave. These things he.

[4] The Author of the Life cites in numbers 6 and 10 Peter

Damian in a Legend, Peter Damian is said to have written the Legend, which of B. Maximus in luculent

speech he compiled: in whose works although

no such sermon is found; yet it is not

improbable that he, who often passed through Turin,

sometimes also had a sermon about that Saint,

which now is not found: nor if it were found, would it be of the greatest

authority. For S. Peter Damian died

in the year 1072, when already concerning a Saint,

of whom no Life written anciently survived, certain narrations

not very solid could be circulated. Such especially

I think is this, and in it makes him the brother of S. Leo I. that S. Maximus is said to have been

the full brother of S. Leo Pope I; and so

(as our Author here assumes) born of Father Quintian

of Tuscan blood. This if

S. Peter Damian believed, he believed from the custom of his own times:

to whom it was already most familiar that by the Emperors

Bishops sought from elsewhere were designated, and by the Roman Pontiffs

either received or tolerated. It was not so done

in the age of S. Leo, when

scarcely otherwise were Bishops ordained, than by the free election

of the Clergy, and indeed for the most part from their own

body.

[5] The author added also a third brother,

S. Justus of Novalesa, Monk and Martyr, Was S. Justus also a brother?

Patron of the town of Susa, where his body

is kept, found about the year 1029, in which under

his name an Abbey was there erected. But this one I,

until the matter be more accurately defined on October 18,

would not say was slain by the Vandals, whom in the fifth century both

Gaul, Belgic and Celtic, I know they depopulated:

but that they penetrated to the Alps I do not believe;

but I would conjecture he was slain by the Saracens; namely those

who, having occupied Fraxinetum at the end of the ninth century,

wearied Provence and Savoy and Piedmont with predatory

excursions, is this one rather to be referred to the tenth century? for almost

when Henschenius shows them expelled thence by S. Bobo

on May 22. But in that century there were

at Rome four Popes Leo, V, VI,

VII, VIII, all Romans, of none of whom however

would I say Justus was a brother; but rather of Leo

IV, also a Roman and a Saint, and brother of Leo IV? who from the year 846

to 855 ruled the Church, and whose brother

easily could have survived to the time of the occupation by the Saracens of Fraxinetum

and the devastation of Novalesa. The Epitaph

certainly on which the author of the Life relied, making Justus the brother of Leo I,

by his own admission names Leo without a number.

[6] But that those three Saints should be compacted into one brotherhood

would be more tolerable, than that into this Legend of S.

Maximus should be inscribed fables, Certain fables about S. Leo here cut out. which I would deem a sin

to ascribe to S. Peter Damian. The first,

of the hand, which S. Leo himself cut off from himself, having experienced some motion of the flesh from the touch

of a reverent woman; then received it back from the Virgin Mother of God;

which fable we have already indicated and rejected on April 11:

another far fouler is here inserted, of a meditated

fornication, which his brother Maximus impeded,

being carried into the chamber of the Pontiff by the same

demon, whom he had seen boasting of the procured

shameful deed. From wherever the author wrote this,

confirming it from a similar case

related in the Lives of the Fathers, and read also in

Cassian Conference 8 chapter 16, it deserves no

faith at all. It pleases therefore to skip over numbers 3,

4, and 5; and to follow only the more probable, especially

since an entirely similar fable has already been exhibited

and rejected in the Life of S. Antidius. Most of the miracles

appear to have been taken verbatim, from the afore-praised

Legend under the name of S. Peter Damian:

but that others also were taken from elsewhere, a miracle proves,

done in the time of Bishop Gumbert, [Some things added from elsewhere by the Collector, as done about the end of the eleventh century;] and

related in number 11: for he flourished in the year 1098,

several years more than 24 after the death of S. Peter.

One thing therefore of those to be omitted we say is established for us,

namely that some Monk of Novalesa collected the Life,

because he thought thus to render the cause,

which Justus had, of going to the Novalesan

monastery.

[7] Furthermore the day on which S. Maximus died the Legend

does not explain; the day from the Roman Martyrology. yet we gladly receive with the Roman

Martyrology the present day, as celebrated at Turin

under that title. The words are these: At Turin the Birthday of S. Maximus,

Bishop and Confessor, most celebrated for doctrine and

holiness: but there had preceded, in referring the same

Maximus with the title of holy Bishop and Confessor,

Bellinus of Padua, and Greven

in their additions to Usuard. The Ms. Florarium;

I know not whence, on the 19th before the Kalends of January; Likewise,

it says, of B. Maximus, Bishop and Confessor of Turin,

who in composing Homilies and in

declaiming them in the church studied elegantly. He shone

in the year of salvation 415, otherwise December 14 where the collector probably

wished to write 65. Our Oldoinus, in his Ligurian Athenæum,

praises Francesco Fulvio Frugoni

of the Order of the Minims, than whom more eloquent

in the judgment of many our age has

seen none, because in Italian prose besides other things

he published in the year 1666 the Life of S. Maximus

Bishop; from which I would not unwillingly transfer hither,

if anything relating to the cult of the later time could be received

thence. Of this however I greatly doubt: for

he who bought the book for us at Genoa, to be transmitted by occasion,

forewarns that it proceeds in a style other than befits history,

and seems rather a sacred Romance.

[8] On his writings see Bellarmine, Labbe,

and similar elucidators of Ecclesiastical Writers,

who care to distinguish the genuine from the supposititious. his works.

They will teach, that many things which are of this Maximus,

are circulated mixed with the works of SS. Augustine and Ambrose,

which restored to their Author, and

aptly coordinated with others long since recognized, the Fathers

Benedictine of the Congregation of S. Maur promise.

The most diligent Mabillon prepared the way for them, beginning Part 2

of Tome 1 of the Italian Museum with twelve Homilies of Maximus

himself, not yet published, with a learned

preface to the same, to which it pleases me to refer the Reader.

Familiarity with S. Remigius probable Among the things hitherto unpublished perhaps will be found

something, by which is confirmed a certain great familiarity between

the Saints Maximus of Turin and Remigius

Bishop of Rheims; to which nothing

stands in the way from the age of either: since S. Remigius

received Episcopal Ordination about

the year 445, and lived until 533,

having completed in that office seventy or more

years, according to Gregory of Tours, which cannot

be extended beyond the term here noted, since his successor

Flavius is soon found subscribed to the Council of Auvergne. But a more just

monument of perpetual friendship is believed to be the brotherhood instituted between both

Churches, by which the Canons of either are permitted to sit among the other,

and to receive distributions,

if any chance makes a Rheims canon to be found at Turin, or a Turin one

at Rheims.

[9] But as there is here nothing of historical contradiction,

so there are many things in Ughelli tome 4 while

he says S. Maximus was a pupil of S. Willembegus

Bishop of Utrecht; for among the Utrecht

Bishops on the Meuse, neither the discipleship of any Utrecht Bishop, whose series

accurately set forth Henschenius gave, both alive

in a special Diatribe, and dead before tome 7

of May, there is none whose name even from afar reaches that far.

But of the Lower Utrecht on the Rhine the Bishop

indeed first was S. Willibrord, of the Frisians

until then Gentiles the Apostle, but only in the year

694 consecrated, and until the year

714 survived, three centuries almost younger than S. Maximus.

whose name was Willembegus, He could, says Ughelli, already from

the first times of the preached Gospel, have had the Church of Turin

successors, whose series

up to Maximus envious antiquity destroyed;

and some of them could have received the same Maximus,

probably born in the same diocese, to be

instructed and made him a Cleric. But it is difficult

to grasp, how for the title of Bishop of Turin,

that of Utrecht sought from Belgium crept in;

nor less, how among those there was in the fourth

century some one with the Frankish name Willembegus,

the Franks not yet having crossed into the Gauls.

THE LIFE

By an Anonymous Monk of Novalesa.

From a Ms. of the Church of S. Maximus.

Maximus, Bishop of Turin, in Piedmont (S.)

BHL Number: 5858

FROM THE MS.

[1] The blessed Maximus, excellent Doctor and

glorious Confessor of the Lord, of the region

of Tuscany and of Father Quintian, namely from the noble

blood of the Tuscans was propagated. For three

brothers from both parents are said to be, He is said to have been the Brother of SS. Leo Pope I and Justus of Susa.

namely B. Leo the first, Justus whose body

rests in the city of Susa, and B. Maximus.

The first indeed, that is S. Leo, on the throne of the Apostolic

summit, as in honor, so in doctrine and virtue surpassed all;

the second, that is

S. Maximus, the Church of Turin committed to him

governed with wonderful providence: but the third,

that is S. Justus, not inferior to these two,

what they themselves taught in word, in life and works

he fulfilled. Of B. Maximus Peter

Damian says: What wonder, and was famous for miracles, if the Blessed Pontiff Maximus

shines forth with miracles, glitters with the splendors of signs

and prodigies, while he now reigns in heavenly

beatitude? who even while he lived in the body

appeared wonderful and distinguished. For of the blessed

Leo, supreme Pontiff and most fruitful

Doctor, he was the full brother; whom having succeeded he equaled,

both in the fullness of abounding eloquence,

and in the dignity of Episcopal excellence.

Hence it is that the flowers of his eloquence,

throughout the meadows of the church unfadingly bloom:

and because, while he was in this life, he sought not his own,

but God's glory; now by God, conversely,

he is remunerated in heaven, is honored on

earth.

[2] This B. Maximus, when he had spent the study of Philosophy,

at last deserting it gave himself to divine

readings; made Bishop of Turin and while B. Leo

was raised on the throne of the Apostolic summit,

he splendidly pleaded the causes of the Roman Curia, all

acceptance of persons being driven far off.

Meanwhile the Bishop of the city of Turin by

death being taken from the midst, B. Maximus through B.

Leo to the Church of Turin was destined Bishop;

and not without great joy of the people

and praises, within the city of Turin

was received, and placed in his see. And he himself

followed in all things the same humility and gravity

of manners as before. he was resplendent with virtues, In prayer

he watched, his body he macerated, the company of women

he fled. He was humble in receiving all,

efficacious in speaking, alert in exhorting:

whence the people, on account of the sermons which in the Church

he made, loved him greatly. Nor

whole in body, holy in work,

great in counsel, catholic in faith, most patient in hope,

diffuse in charity. And he was of wonderful liberality

and largess to the poor: for all things

which he could have, to the Churches and Poor,

retaining nothing for himself, he gave; who so much

loved him, that if anyone sought Maximus, he was sent

to the house thronged by the poor. And

while one day with his own hand he gave alms

to the poor; one of them, he healed a withered hand, having a contracted

hand, extended the other; to whom S. Maximus.

Extend to me indeed the other. Wherefore

when he extended it as far as he could, he began to feel it

and to extend it: and so anointing it with oil, he healed it.

And when all praised him, he beautifully

covered himself. I thought, he said, that he feigned, that

he might more easily obtain alms.

[6] Certain other miracles done by him recites

Peter Damian, he frequented a solitary church, in a certain Legend,

which of that Saint in luculent speech he compiled

in these words: This blessed Priest of the Lord

Maximus, that he might flee the whirlwinds of pressing

affairs, and adhere more peculiarly to divine contemplation, had made it his custom,

that a certain tiny basilica, built in

honor of B. John the Baptist, he often

frequented: which basilica indeed about five

miles from the city of Turin seemed

distant. But since between holy men and reprobate

men there is often wont to arise the tinder of hatred and the envy of rivalry;

the Governor of that province held the blessed

man wholly odious: and because his brightening

and conspicuous fame whence

he could cloud he had not, of snares

little nooses he secretly built under for him. To a certain

Cleric therefore, subject to the same Pontiff of the Church of Turin by necessity, whence a suspicious Cleric secretly following,

not by fidelity, he unfolds the mystery of his cunning;

and to investigate the journey of the Bishop, while to the aforesaid

Church he went, he directs him: for the hateful

and slippery man supposed, that the holy Bishop,

rather for the pleasure of fulfilling lust,

sought the lair of a more secret place; than for the sake

of familiar prayer there he wearied himself, namely

by so long a journey.

[7] When therefore the Blessed Priest with simple heart,

as he was wont, and failing with thirst he asks for help, proceeded singing, but the Cleric

after his footsteps a cunning explorer

anxiously hastened; at last wearied with the labor of the journey

he thirsted so gravely, that by the excess of thirst

his throat became dry, and as if about to lay down

his life he panted with squalid jaws. What should he do?

whither turn himself? what counsel of his deliverance

find. If by stopping he restrained his step,

the ardor of thirst he could not bear;

if flying ahead to the holy Priest he had asked help,

he blushed exceedingly to be detected. The force of necessity

aids the trouble of shame; and hastening

he became more manifestly known to the holy man,

by what destruction he was burdened he did not deny, and for the thirst to be extinguished

he asked whatever remedy at least.

But he, as he was mild and placid,

clemently pardoning the detected perfidy, [and at the Saint's command of a doe standing still, he is refreshed with her milk.] began to be anxious

and skillfully to inquire, how to the imperiled

brother, in the straits of so great necessity,

he could succor. Under this motion or look of piety,

while he turned his holy eyes here and there, but whence

he might succor the brother, he saw nothing at all;

at last beholding a doe,

having an udder full of milk; Go, he said,

and milk the udder of that doe, and so the ardor of thirst

with which thou art burdened extinguish. At the command therefore

of the man of God forgetting flight the doe stood still, offered

herself to a fawn of an alien kind; and so to the thirsting man

drink, not as a wild beast, but as a tame sheep

granted. In this therefore indication of divine power,

both the man of God escaped the mark of false guilt,

and the Cleric returned to the seal of his violated faith,

and the Governor cut off by the roots the sentence

of his false opinion.

[8] At one time, the rains being wholly withdrawn, for

almost three years the heat of dryness had oppressed the earth,

and all the people labored with the want of a most bitter famine.

A not small part therefore of the clergy

and of the people being gathered, the fields drying up for three years he obtains rain, having gone to Rome. the Blessed Pontiff Maximus

for the sake of prayer sought Rome, to ask tearfully

the suffrages of the blessed Apostles

Peter and Paul: and so through them the wrath of God almighty,

which was owed to the sinning world,

he averted. By the merits of his servant the divine clemency,

not only averted the sword, but

also wonderfully bestowed the benefit of a copious gift.

For from the time the man of God going forth from the Roman

walls, with the people who followed him,

returned to the Cathedral of his own see;

both daily with poured-out rains it rained abundantly,

and yet upon him or his companions not even one

drop of rain descended. These things Peter

Damian.

[9] About the same time, a certain man having caught a fish

which is called Sturgeon in the Po,

devoutly presented it to B. Maximus. Giving the fish offered to him to a poor man, Who,

when it was cooked, and the whole set in

man at the door demands that that especially be given to him,

which was set before the Bishop: and

the holy Bishop of God sends him the whole fish.

Immediately the poor man with the dish full of the fish

lifted himself on high, and penetrated heaven all seeing.

Perhaps in testimony of this miracle, understanding it given to an Angel, as

is piously to be believed, it has been brought about that if a Sturgeon

is caught in the Po, it is immediately presented to the Bishop:

for it is established that not without virtues did he live

ingloriously, who shone with virtues and miracles.

At last the Blessed one, approaching death,

admonished the Clergy who had been committed to him, about three things;

that among themselves they should have charity, their Churches

govern more diligently, and the flock from

the bites of the wolves guard. After these things, illustrious with many

virtues, in the Lord he happily fell asleep, dead, he is buried in the aforesaid church.

and in the above-said tiny basilica of B. John the Baptist,

as he had chosen, by the Clergy and people

was buried with frequent devotion: which

basilica was afterward by the devout people wonderfully

endowed and enlarged, and by the same holy man's

name notably distinguished.

[10] Of the miracles with which he shone, after

he attained the heavenly seats; A soldier having stolen the bell from there, the same Peter

Damian in the Legend, which of that Saint and

kindly Confessor B. Maximus in luculent speech

he compiled, continues. At one time

namely an expedition of a conspired soldiery was carried on,

and whatever in the fields or villas could be found

of plunderings and rapines, as

by a certain raging tyranny, lay open. It happened

therefore that the church, which we related above

was frequented by the frequent prayers of B. Maximus,

which now also is by the same holy man's name

nobly distinguished, a certain one of the conspired

soldiers broke into, and the bell, which

there hung for gathering the people,

the bearer of sacrilegious rapine carried off: which indeed

as long as he had with himself, he the more frequently

shook, and often with the clapper here and there

striking and ringing; but from it a ringing, namely in the manner of bells,

he could in no way bring forth: he finds it mute, and being punished with contraction of body,

soon also into a grave sickness of contracted body

he fell; and spending much of the goods

of his gifts on physicians, not even to a little

remedy of recovered health did

he attain. But after much time B. Maximus,

in a vision, while he slept, appeared;

and added, that from the sickness, by which he was held,

molestation, even to death he would by no means recover,

unless to his church the bell

which he had taken away he carried back. and repenting he is healed. Awakened

at once he ordered two carts to be prepared for him with all haste;

in one of which he placed the bell,

and loaded it with the rest of the gifts of his goods,

in the other he himself was carried;

and led to the Church, the bell which he had taken away

he restored, prayers with gifts

he offered, and so restored to his former health,

to his own with the joy of himself and of all his

he returned. In this manner therefore while he held another's,

he lost himself; but as soon as he restored the rapine,

he recovered himself.

[11] At a certain time, the venerable man

Humbert the Bishop, who then the same, namely of the city of Turin, A feast being appointed by the Bishop

Church, God being the chief, ruled,

had commanded all in common,

that to the solemnity of B. Maximus, which then

was at hand within a few days, they should devoutly come together,

and celebrate it with a festive frequenting as was worthy.

A certain rustic, those violating it are punished esteeming little

the holy Pastor's edict with insolent spirit, the oxen

yoked; and loading the vehicle with hay, to the cart

conveyance gave his attention. But suddenly from that very

heap a sudden fire broke out, and not only

the cart and hay it seized, but the very oxen

with devouring fire it consumed. Fulfilled

therefore was what by the Prophet is said, And

now fire has consumed the adversaries. Deservedly

therefore alone he mourned, who in common with the people

of God would not keep the feast.

[12] Another while on the festivity of the same blessed Confessor he constructed and packed together a heap of hay; in collecting hay,

suddenly a vehement whirlwind burst in, and all

the hay, even to one stubble of the sheaves,

through the fields and country dispersed. a whirlwind being sent into it, What therefore

that one, contrary to the holy festivity, into one

studied to gather, the air stirred with wind dissipated;

the Lord saying, He who gathers not

with me, scatters. Luke 11:23 In each therefore set-forth

miracle clearer than light it is discerned, that to the solemnity to be celebrated

of B. Maximus the very elements

minister; and in those despising it is plainly

gathered, how great a grace is owed to those celebrating.

when to the church a multitude of devout people

flowed together, he himself with a haying scythe began to cut the meadow, but (O the hastened severity of divine

vengeance!) immediately,

his arms being stupefied and his legs, almost his whole

body grew stiff, until he lived he did not escape

the sickness of continual numbness. Let us weigh,

most beloved, with how great glory of dignity the supreme

remunerator raises this one, to whose solemnity

undevout men he so violently

impels; and when so severely is struck,

he who fears not to despise him, how great

hope of divine mercy could he have,

who honors him reverently as is worthy?

[14] A certain man while on the day of his festivity he was intent

on work, that for domestic use he might cut wood,

he poised the stroke: but while incautiously

he let it down, with a wound inflicted on himself, the shin of his leg with a grave wound

he wounded: then for a long time after, the wound

refusing the physician, he lay in bed, nor

did any medicine while it was applied profit him.

But on the Vigils of the same festivity after

two years to his church with offerings

he came, in prayers and groanings keeping watch

he passed the night, morning being come cured and composed

he found himself; and so no longer by vehicle,

but with his own steps, joyful and alert to his own

he returned.

[15] A certain young man, since on the festivity

of S. Maximus, the bonds of the gathered crop being broken, while another's green standing crops

he gathered in a heaped bundle, and a nocturnal robber

what had been heaped, attempted to bind:

through almost fifteen times he repeated the same;

and frustrated from the begun work, as often as to weave

the little bundle into a binding he had begun, the knot

immediately dissolved itself, nor could he obtain the effect of his

effort in any way; until,

recognizing the judgment of divine power, the crops being left

empty and wearied in vain

he departed.

[16] with deadly lightning. Two young men, while the solemnity of B. Maximus,

with the most frequent devotion of their fellow-villagers

they despised, and gave themselves over

to the labors of collecting hay;

the evening hour now approaching, immediately

the air with raging wind is shaken, the serene face of the sky

is covered with the density of clouds, and with flashes

and whirlwinds the tranquility of the summer heat is changed.

Soon therefore all those, as in the exercise of labor

they had been found, under the structure of a hay

heap take refuge, and so to protect themselves

from the inundation of the impending rains they strive.

But behold upon those two, who the holy

festivity to celebrate despised,

lightning rushed; and them, the others escaping, terribly

killed. By such a sentence therefore worthily is he struck,

who is found contumacious to B. Maximus.

So indeed against those, who the memory of B. Maximus

to celebrate despise, the very

elements of the world contend; so that fulfilled seems

to be what is written, The world

will fight against the senseless. Wisdom 3:21. Behold, dearest Brothers,

Pontiff we have succinctly described.

These things Peter Damian.

[17] The deceased is proposed to all to be venerated. The same at the end of the Legend thus says; Let us venerate,

Brothers, the solemnities of so great a Father, and of the excellent

Doctor let us follow the footsteps; and against

all the battle-lines of the raging vices, according to B.

Maximus the so great Doctor's venerable precepts,

let us receive the arms of the virtues. His life surely to

the rectitude of holy work provokes, his doctrine

to the composing of the manners of our life invites:

This therefore, most beloved, salubriously admonishing,

let us imitate him, through the line of the divine will

unswervingly walking: that

where now, he provoking, we despise the world,

there afterward, he preceding, we may come to

Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit

lives and reigns God, through infinite ages of ages.

These things he.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.