ON S. PECINNA OR PERSEVERANDA
VIRGIN OF THE COUNTRY OF POITIERS IN GAUL.
PERHAPS 8TH CENT.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On her varied cult over three days, the title of Martyr added in some places, and the Life written under the name of S. Perseveranda.
Pecinna, otherwise Perseveranda, Virgin in the Country of Poitiers (S.)
THE AUTHOR BEING D. P.
For three continuous days is found recorded in the sacred Calendars the name of the most noble Virgin Pecinna, by surname and by merits Perseveranda: The Life is given from 3 manuscripts. for by these titles she is called in the life, which we have described in a distinguished Passionary of large parchment, containing the Lives of the Saints of May and June, which, together with four other volumes of the same bulk and subject, containing the following months except August, we redeemed lest it be torn apart, as had been torn apart that one and the other first four months, likewise copied about three hundred years ago in the monastery of Vaucelles of the diocese of Cambrai. written 300 years ago. Another like it is found, perhaps even now, in the monastery of Arrouaise among the people of Arras, which, equally as that one, is of the Canons Regular; certainly at the beginning of this century it was found, when Joannes Bronier, a Canon Priest of that place, transmitted to P. Heribert Rosweyde a copy of the same Life described thence, who collated it with another preserved at the monastery of S. Foillan of the Premonstratensian Order, and which we have found to agree word for word with our aforesaid codex, except that where "Pecinna" is written it is "Picinna." Concerning this Life, however, before I treat of it, an account must be rendered by me of a cult so varied, that on this account, and on account of the doubled name of the Saint, she was by some divided into two; especially because to the name of Pecinna the title of Martyr also was found subsequently added, while Perseveranda was called simply Virgin.
[2] Molanus, I know not whence he obtained a copy of Usuard, less freely augmented than certain other more recent ones, found written there at the 24th of June and transcribed it: In the country of Poitiers, of S. Pecinna the Virgin: which Saussay following in his Gallican one, The Saint herself seems first to have been venerated on the 24th of June, having perhaps also read the aforesaid Life, thus extended the phrase: In the country of Poitiers, of S. Pecinna, Virgin consecrated to God, illustrious in angelic purity and innocence of morals and fervor of religion. But because in the aforesaid Life there are also named sisters, companions of the same purpose, inscribed in the Martyrologies, even as a Martyr, Columba and Macrina, or (as it is in the Foillan manuscript) Magrina, and they are likewise said to have been vexed for the cause of chastity, although none of them is reported to have undergone a bloody death: it pleased some to ascribe all of them together to the Calendars, and indeed as Martyrs; with some (as commonly happens) diversity in the order and lettering of the names. Hence in the manuscript of the Carmel of Cologne, which appears to have been taken from some Gallican copy, thus it is read: In the territory of Poitiers, of the holy Virgins Putina, Matrina, and Columba, Martyrs. with the sisters Macrina and Columba, In the Martyrology printed at Cologne and Lübeck about the year 1480, and also in the Auctaria of Grevenus on Usuard of the years of Christ 1515 and 1521: At Poitiers, of the holy Virgins and Martyrs Pectina, Matrina, and Columba: which words, slightly altering, Maurolycus says, In the country of Poitiers, of SS. Columba, Materna, and Picinna, Virgins and Martyrs. And this order and manner of writing the names, Ferrarius and Felicius follow: and Saussay, moved by such examples, in the supplement, as though about to correct the former, thus orders it to be read: In the territory of Poitiers, the birthday of the holy Virgins and Martyrs, Columba, Materna, and Picina.
[3] But, as I have already begun to say, it befell none of them to join the rose of Martyrdom to the lily of virginity, and just as concerning Pecinna alone is it narrated how and where she died and was buried and is venerated; meanwhile she alone, and only as a Virgin, is venerated on the 25th, so she alone can be referred by us in this work. But she could be referred to the preceding day, on which, for the greater convenience of the rustic common folk — that day being otherwise festive — I believe she was first venerated; unless, that same cult having been increased toward the end of the 11th century, when it also seemed good that an Ecclesiastical Office should be instituted for her honor in the churches dedicated to her, this day were preferred, as being next to it free from a more celebrated Office. And so at the end of the aforesaid Life, in the triple manuscript, thus it is read: among the people of Poitou and Vermandois: But the deposition of the Virgin herself is celebrated on the seventh of the Kalends of July 25 June. We have an old Breviary, without year of printing, of Saint-Quentin in the diocese of Vermandois: where, on account of the Relics brought thither (as I shall presently say), at the said day it is thus noted in the Calendar prefixed, S. Pecinna semidouble; and it is noted by a rubric, as a feast to be celebrated by the people keeping holiday, equally as the Nativity of S. John the Baptist and the next following feast of the Apostles. The same day is kept at Poitiers: as Henricus Ludovicus Castanaeus de la Rochepozay, Bishop of Poitiers, testifies in his Notes on the Litanies of Poitou published by him, in which also he had inscribed S. Picinna the Virgin.
[4] In all the manuscript Legendaries above
alleged and in very many others probably, thus it is read; and again she is referred to under the name of Perseveranda on the 26th Here begins the Life of S. Perseveranda the Virgin, whose festivity is on the 6th of the Kalends of July 26 June (although this seems to have been introduced through an error, contrary to the text itself), it happened that in most of the more recent copies, both manuscript and printed, of the augmented Usuard — even in those in which Pecinna with her sisters had been inscribed on the 24th — there was added also at the 26th day, after the memory of S. Maxentius: On the same day, of S. Perseveranda the Virgin. Those too have followed this who otherwise have nothing concerning S. Pecinna; among the manuscript Codices indeed, the Vatican one of S. Peter, the Centula one of S. Richarius, the Bourges one of S. Lawrence, as though distinct, but through error. our six parchment ones, the last of which, lately brought to us from Prague, bears the title of the Convent of Nystad in the Province of Denmark; but among the printed ones, Bellinus, Galesinius, Canisius, and finally the Roman of today: whom long since the preceding Petrus de Natalibus, Perseveranda the Virgin, says he in book II, chapter 180, rested in the Lord on the same day. But Maurolycus and Felicius and some manuscript Martyrologies call her Perseverantia. Notwithstanding all of which, I judge that the names ought not to be distinguished as of two Saints, nor the error in the day, which is manifest, to be followed.
[5] She is also venerated in a parish of her name near Niort, The place of her burial and cult, as is read in the Life at number 15, is situated in the country of Poitiers, and was then called Taurinicus (in the Foillan manuscript it is written Tauriacus), the name now also being changed, it is called by an honorable name "at S. Pecinna," commonly Sainte Pezaine, says Bishop Castanaeus in his notes on his Litanies, near Niort, the chief town of the little region of the same name, on the river Sèvre, distant from Poitiers about as much as from La Rochelle, namely twelve leagues from the one and fourteen from the other, and below the parish of S. Pecinna, looking out from the other bank of the river one league above itself. On the same bank, upward by four leagues, lies the town of S. Maxentius, who is commemorated on the 16th of July in all those same Martyrologies; so that on this account S. Perseveranda was joined to him on the same day. Castanaeus adds that there is another Parish church of the same name near Moustiers sur le Lay, and another at the river Lay. where likewise S. Pecinna is venerated as titular Patroness, in the diocese of Luçon: in which the Chorographic map of Poitou indeed names the river Lay, but nowhere Moustiers or Pezaine; so that I cannot say how far apart the two parishes of the same Virgin are; but can only show the distinction of the aforesaid rivers, whose mouths are eight leagues apart from one another; but where Niort is nearer to the Lay, at least twelve leagues are reckoned.
[6] But at a great interval of a hundred Gallican leagues at the least, from Niort is distant the town and monastery of S. Quentin, a third in the town of S. Quentin, in Vermandois, neighboring Belgium; whose Lord and Abbot, and likewise Count of Vermandois and of Crispiniacum, Hugh the Great, in that battle which he waged victoriously against the Count of Anjou, also depopulated the people of Poitiers; and running out as far as Niort, in the year 1090, carrying off thence the pledges of Pecinna the Virgin, introduced them into the church on account of the Relics brought thither in the year 1090, which even now obtains the name of the Virgin; in which were instituted twelve Canons, distinguished into Presbyters, Deacons, and Subdeacons, subject to the jurisdiction and patronage of the greater church of S. Quentin, with several Chaplains. Thus Claudius Hemeraeus at the aforesaid year, in his "Augusta of the Vermandui," which is commonly called the city of S. Quentin; adding that this was done, the Magnates of that age judging that their victories should be crowned with an illustrious crowning point, if they had despoiled the churches of the conquered province of the Relics of the Saints, that they might adorn their own with the same. on the 24th of July, But the Arrival of the Relics of the holy Pecinna, says he, we celebrate on the 24th of July. What sort or how great these are, since he himself does not explain; it is permitted to suspect The Body found among the people of Poitou in the year 1098. that these are only those which had been reserved for public veneration, and placed in silver reliquaries, at the time when the church of Tauriacum was first founded or restored under the name of the Saint herself, the body very likely being placed beneath the altar. Thus will be saved that which Castanaeus recites from the Malliacum manuscript Chronicle in these words: In the year 1098 the body of S. Pecinna was found: God indeed consoling the inhabitants after the former disaster, and, the rest of the body being brought forth into the light, compensating the loss of perhaps one arm or some other part: until, among the people of Poitiers as well as of Vermandois, the Calvinist fury, raging, dissipated in both places these sacred pledges.
[7] But I should believe that not long before the middle of the 11th century was made either the building or the restoration of the church, and that at the same time was composed, by some Ascetic of S. Maxentius or of another nearer monastery, The Life seems to have been written in the 11th century: the Life, which we have and are here about to give, in a style indeed elegant enough for that age, but with very little knowledge of true and certain history, as being received not through the writing of a contemporary relator, but very likely through the tradition of the common people alone. To this, nevertheless, we seem able to give credit that the Saint was indeed born in certain parts of Spain, namely not far from the Pyrenees, but not also that she died there, which Hemeraeus suspects, leaving it undecided whether Childebert carried her Relics from Spain into Gaul, or by some other chance they were brought into the country of Poitiers. Rather I should believe that, alive and flourishing in her first age, she crossed over from Spain, for the love of God, with her Sisters into Aquitaine; and, the Garonne being crossed, came into the country of Poitiers or the neighboring Saintonge; this makes her herself a Spaniard where she lived with them in some monastery, until a certain Barbarian pirate took possession of the Western, that is, the Maritime parts; whence he held the inland parts also infested with his incursions. The Life names a King Oliverus or Oliverius, by a name neither plainly Latin, nor altogether barbarous, and familiar enough to the Britons, which we should more in Latin style call Olivarius: the name of Pecinna is itself also barbarous, (nor does the name disagree) but such that it may seem to be derived rather from the old language of the Spanish Celtiberians before the Romans, than from another introduced after them, just as today among the Spaniards "Peqeño" and "Peqeña" are said, for "small" (masculine and feminine), a word referring back to an origin neither Latin, nor Gothic, nor Moorish, and accordingly more ancient: unless you prefer to suspect that the name of Pecinna signified in the native dialect the same thing which in Latin sounds "Perseveranda"; and that on this account both were in use.
[8] However it be, the monastery of Pecinna, twenty leagues at the least, yet not much more, distant from Niort, and he places the monastery not far from Poitiers, he must have conceived it to be, who speaks of her being buried, as known and very dear to the whole region; and yet he says that she arrived where she died only on the seventh day, namely by moderate journeys, suited to her sex and weakness. But if from the silence of Ado and Usuard, who in their Martyrologies are silent concerning Pecinna, anyone should wish to conjecture that she flourished in their own age; he might also conjecture that that leader of the Barbarian pagans, who was inflamed with desire for the Virgin, was some one of the Normans, who in the age of Charles the Bald, that is, in the 9th century, began to ravage Gaul far and wide, [in which time perhaps she lived, of the Normans laying waste those regions in the 9th century.] mostly by yearly incursions, sometimes more persistent from some more fortified place occupied. It can also be conceived that the island of Uliarum or Oléron was held by them, subsequently for a longer time, whence it was permitted them to dominate as it were even over the people of Poitiers, and in a manner to command tributes and services; so that, the tyrant ordering her to come, Pecinna could not but obey, nor could anyone oppose himself to the impious violence on her behalf: in which case you may fetch the name of the Leader from that same source whence Olavus has his, most well known to the Danes and Norwegians: but the nearer the Norman irruptions approach to the times or rather the Saracen, about the year 727. in which we judge the Life to have been written, the less of probability the conjecture seems to have. And so, since I have already shown that the Martyrdom of S. Æmilianus can be referred to the time of the Saracens, ravaging through Gaul about the year 726; my mind inclines the more to refer to the same the death of S. Pecinna; and the name of King Oliverius, and the care of establishing idolatry, I shall be of the opinion were added by the author for the sake of gratuitous ornament; so that the whole Life has very much of fiction, very little of truth; placed in this, that the Virgin died, when she was being led to him from whom she feared that force would be inflicted upon her chastity, her sisters being divinely preserved from the same, with life unharmed. Read and judge.
[9] Furthermore I do not think that the fashioner of the pseudo-chronicle of Dexter had any knowledge of that Life, Pseudo-Dexter feigns her born at Caraca, in which the Spanish origin of S. Perseveranda is so plainly asserted. For if he had had it, under the same guide he would doubtless have invented something also concerning the sisters, and concerning King Oliverius, and the place of burial Taurinicus; and perhaps would also have transferred the country of Poitiers into Spain, with the same confidence with which he transferred many like things. As it is, to vindicate her for Spain it sufficed him that the bare name was found in Petrus de Natalibus, and in the Roman Martyrology without designation of place, since he had as his purpose to assign to all of this kind a fatherland among his own people; who were never more basely deceived, than when they were persuaded to mingle with so many of their true Saints many more, drawn thither by the sole lust of feigning. With this mind, therefore, at the year 360 Pseudo-Dexter thus wrote; and ascribes her to the 4th century, At Caraca in Carpetania (some maintain it to be now Guadalajara, at the 12th milestone above Complutum), Perseveranda, a Virgin devoted to God, flourishes. Nor was there lacking one who should add a lid worthy of the dish, a poetaster, under the name of I know not what Aulus Halus, who, as for many others, so for that Saint, patched together an Epitaph in three badly turned distichs; of which receive this first one, read the rest in Tamaius Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology, at the day of the 26th of June.
Under the hollow marble, full of virtues, of Caraca with thy burdens, behold, O Virgin Perseveranda, thou liest.
LIFE
From three Manuscript Codices.
Pecinna, otherwise Perseveranda, Virgin in the Country of Poitiers (S.)
BHL Number: 6604
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
CHAPTER I.
The monastic institution of the three holy sisters; Columba's readiness to go to meet the tyrant.
[1] To set forth in light the excellent triumphs of the holy Virgins, and to raise their deeds to the knowledge of posterity, Prologue. is the proclamation of the eternal King; who even in the frail sex perfects the agony of praiseworthy victory. Therefore how the renowned Virgin Pecinna, who by a just surname is called Perseveranda, from the infancy of her earliest age strove to fulfill the precepts of Christ; and, his clemency aiding, overcame the temptations of the most wicked enemy, we desire to commend to the memory of the minds of the faithful with most humble discourses of words.
[2] The most noble Virgin Pecinna, then, by surname and merits Perseveranda, Nobly born in Spain, was born in certain parts of Spain of illustrious lineage. Who, although she was noble by birth, and nobler by faith; yet in her girlish years loved the service of divine servitude. For from the very
cradle she was imbued with the teachings of the Christian religion. For, adorned with the dignity of her lineage, and also with the beauty of Virginity, and the magnificent sanctity of her morals, she went, according to the word of the Psalmist, daily from virtue to virtue, so that by the exhibition of good works she might deserve to have a heavenly spouse. Ps. 83:8 For almighty God joined to her two religious girls … sisters, of whom one was called Columba, and the other indeed was named Magrina.
[3] But when the memorable Virgin of Christ, Pecinna, had obtained their venerable fellowship, what mortal tongue can tell she consecrates herself to God with her sisters, how much they strove to fulfill the Lord's precepts? They certainly loved God with their whole minds, and loved the goods of their neighbors as themselves. There was in them true faith, firm hope, and perfect charity. They spurned all things which they knew to be contrary to God: they accomplished all things which they had read in the Scriptures to be commanded. They exercised fasts manfully, they sedulously persisted in almsgiving, they were instant every hour in psalmody, they attended without ceasing to the divine praises, they offered to the Lord the incense of most constant prayer; they kept vigil, strong in the assiduity of watchings. Who, although, the nature of their sex prohibiting it, they did not celebrate the solemnities of Masses; yet, fervent with the flame of entire love, they immolated themselves to the eternal King as victims of most sweet odor; and wished to become, according to the sayings of the Apostle, a host living and pleasing to God. in a monastery built by themselves: But that they might be able more freely to fulfill an office of this kind, they had built for themselves a certain monastery, where they might dwell as it were of one mind in one place, and might gather to Christ other Virgins like themselves in life and religion.
[4] Finally, when they were instant in such reverend acts, namely that they might resist the devil, and desire to please God alone in mind, where, while she excels the others in virtue, in act, and in habit; the fame of their reputation spread itself through the neighboring regions, because the light of so great religiousness could not be hidden in darkness: at which the holy Church rejoiced, and proclaimed the glorious merits of the most blessed Virgin Pecinna. She indeed, among the companies of the Sisters, shone with as great elegance of morals as Lucifer in the morning time goes before the other stars in excellence. For she instructed the other Sisters by examples, and strengthened them by consolations and doctrines. In whose school chastity and frugality shone, humility and obedience abode.
[5] In those days, then, a certain petty king named Oliverius held the scepter of Royal power in the western parts. Who, drunk with a diabolical spirit, there came into those regions a certain tyrant, and inflamed with the cruelty of fury, began cruelly to persecute the Christians, and to torture them even unto death. Whence he slew many Martyrs with his sword, whom almighty God crowned in the kingdom of eternal brightness. But while he exercised the rabid fury of his persecution through divers places, and tortured those who believed in Christ with various pains of torments; he heard the fame of the aforesaid Virgins, and groaned greatly that they served almighty God. Inquiring more certainly into their chastity, and more attentively investigating their beauty; he began to seethe toward them with all the senses of his impiety, and ordered that they be quickly presented to his sight. and, having heard of their beauty, he orders the Virgins to be brought. And so, the soldiers having received the embassy of the King, whom he sent to the most sacred Virgins, proceeded to their monastery, that they might apprehend the aforesaid handmaids of God, and lead them in haste to the hall of the impious King.
[6] Meanwhile the happy Virgin Columba, serving God with her most blessed sister Pecinna, and also with the devout congregation of the other Virgins, Her sister Columba, foreknowing the matter, understood by the grace of the Holy Spirit that the struggles of her passion would more quickly be at hand. Finally, filled with the Holy Spirit, and divinely strengthened with a manly courage, she had foretold to both her sisters what was afterward to come upon them. Behold, she said, most sweet sisters, I know that the time of my dissolution is imminent: and pray with me, I beseech you, that I may deserve to rest in the Lord our God. To you also I truly announce, and most certainly foretell, that King Oliverius is directing his officers to this Congregation, who are to apprehend us, and lead us even into his presence. and of the desolation imminent over the monastery, Yet for certain, sisters, know, and without doubt believe me, that we shall come to the abundant mercy of the heavenly Spouse, and shall cleave with the Elect in the heavens to him whom we serve with all our intention on earth. This whole Congregation, moreover, will be dispersed, because the perfidious King lays much snare for us. Yet it does not become us at all to fail from what we have begun, She forearms her Sisters for the struggle, and him to whom we once offered ourselves we ought by no means to deny, since he is able even with the temptation to make also the issue, that we may be able constantly to overcome the savagery of the impious King, and happily to receive the crowns of perennial glory from his hand.
[7] When such discourses of the holy Virgin Columba had been finished, at once there arrived the soldiers of the impious King, she herself ready to go first to the tyrant. bearing a little writ of letters, that the most chaste Virgins should hasten of their own accord to the Royal hall, and give assent to his pleasure. And so the holy Virgin Columba, receiving the letters which the Royal impiety transmitted, read them in the presence of the girls, that they might fruitfully know that those things were to be fulfilled which she herself had foretold to them before. Then, very strong in mind, and wishing to act manfully, they offered to our Lord Jesus Christ with tears the vows of their prayers, that he might bring them aid, in the peril of great tribulation.
CHAPTER II.
The leading of the Virgins to the Tyrant; the death of S. Pecinna undergone on the journey.
[8] Meanwhile the strong and most beautiful Virgin of the everlasting King, Pecinna, by surname and by her chief acts Perseveranda, Pecinna exhorts the others to constancy: neither terrified by the King's command, nor shaken by the dread of death, with constant heart poured forth such words: Come, most loving sisters, a temple, as I believe, inviolable, of the Holy Spirit, do not, I pray, fear the threats of the wicked King, for this is the day which we desired; behold, the glory of passion is at hand, which we always wished for. Wherefore be comforted in the Lord, and in the might of his power, since he himself crushes the arm of the sinner and the malignant one, and is a strong helper in opportunities, hearing those who cry to him in the breadth of his mercy. For, as the Psalmist testifies; The Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth, and never forsakes those who hope in him. Ps. 114:18 (LXX) But if at some time he permits those who believe in him to be tried for an hour, he does not therefore do it that they may perish, but that he may receive them purer as it were through fire, whom he grants to reign with him in the glory of eternity. Wherefore let us offer ourselves before the presence of the most pagan King, that he may know that even in the frail sex there is the virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ. these being well animated At these things too the whole company of the sacred Virgins, rejoicing, rendered praises and thanks to the one God, who filled his precious Virgin Pecinna with the spirit of fortitude, and through her so wholesomely strengthened his handmaids.
[9] Then said Blessed Columba: You meanwhile, sheep of the Lord's flock, Columba bids farewell, hear the counsel of your salvation. Appeal to the merciful God with prayers, and knock with the weepings of tears, that we may deserve to be guarded by him who is the one King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Now indeed I alone will approach the presence of the wicked King, and will diligently try to learn what he contrives to do with us. The ministers, then, raging, and by God's disposition compelling her alone to go, she sang that Davidic verse with mind and mouth alike, saying: Direct my steps according to thy word, O Lord, and let no iniquity have dominion over me. And adding, she said: Keep me from the hand of the sinner, that my heart and my body may be made spotless, she is set before the tyrant, and professes herself a Christian. that I be not confounded forever. Ps. 118:113 & 139:5 (LXX)
[10] When, therefore, the virgin Columba had been presented to King Oliverius, he said to her: By what name art thou called, young woman? or whose religion dost thou hold the institutions of? To this the handmaid of Jesus Christ, answering, said: By name I am called Columba, but by religion I am a Christian. To this the petty king himself, answering, said: Thou shalt be able to live and reign amicably with us, if thou wilt forsake the Christian faith, and adore the gods, and give assent to our will. Then a certain one of the attending ministers said in the ears of the King: By no means can the beauty of this virgin be likened to the two others, whom we left in the same place, where we found them likewise dwelling. To this the said King, glad at the presence of one and sad at the absence of two, thus answers the soldier speaking to him: Go, I beg, more quickly, He orders the others also to be brought, and present those to my sight. Yet I swear by the power of the gods, and by the glory of my Kingdom, that I myself will not delay to go thither, that I may be able to be delighted by their beautiful embraces. Let this one also meanwhile be guarded with diligent care, until the rest are brought to the hall of our palace.
[11] Meanwhile the memorable handmaid of Christ Pecinna, and the excellent virgin Magrina, prayed to God with tears and fastings daily, concerning which Pecinna, warned by a vision, that he would guard them by his protection from the wicked and crafty Prince. And when by prolonged prayers, and by the long wearings of fasts, they were exceedingly fatigued, the clemency of almighty God favoring them, both together saw in a manifest vision the presages of things to come. For indeed there seemed to them as it were a multitude of a raging people cruelly entering the holy place, and compelling them to go out from the Church, and audaciously dishonoring them with many mockeries of injuries. together with her sister Magrina, Wakened by the terror of this vision, they related the dream to one another, and most certainly knew what was to come.
[12] Finally the spouse of Christ Pecinna, invigorated with a manly spirit, and trusting much in God's mercy, that she might deserve to be dissolved and to rejoice with Christ, is said to have besought the Lord with most humble prayers: Thou, she commends her virginity to God, she said, O Lord God the Father, who willedst thine only-begotten Word, through whom thou createdst all things out of nothing, to come to the earth in the last times, through the womb of the most fruitful Virgin Mary; that he might reconcile to thee the human race, lost by the fault of the first man, through the trophy of the cross; through him, O highest Father, the mediator of thee and of men, the man Jesus Christ, we humbly ask thee; that thou wouldst snatch us from the present tribulation, and make us persevere in the confession of thy name, and grant us to come to the fellowship of the citizens above with the integrity of virginity, to the praise of thy name, which is blessed unto ages of ages. And when all who lived in that same congregation had answered, Amen: May God do this, and may he add this; the glorious Virgin Pecinna signed herself with the sign of the holy Cross, saying: To thee, O Lord God, and she with the same sets out on the way; Redeemer of the world, I offer my soul, which thou hast redeemed; and I commend my body, which thou hast made of the earth. These things said, they began to make the journey together, asking the Lord to show them the guidance of the way whither he willed.
[13] At length the glorious Virgins, namely Pecinna and Magrina, making the journey through the courses of seven days, on which, failing on the seventh day, implored the suffrages of the eternal King, that with the right hand of his protection he would defend them from the imminent blow. Wearied especially
by the harassment of the very great journey and the long labor of fastings, both sat down for a little while, as the Arbiter of every creature disposed. And so the holy Virgin Magrina, when she saw the pale countenance of the precious Virgin Pecinna, drew deep sighs from the bottom of her breast, saying: Alas, dearest Sister and Lady, what fear or what sadness has changed the countenance of thy beauty? To her the most constant Virgin Perseveranda answered: Not the terror of the ill-omened Prince, nor the dread of passion, has taken from me the appearance of beauty; but, I believe, he disposes to call me, who has guarded me from my youth, and granted me to serve him even until the present. Behold, holy Sister, I desire to be dissolved, and long to be with Christ; that he may receive my soul into paradise, and guard my body unspotted until the day of his coming.
[14] But thee, sweetest sister, I adjure by the Redeemer of the world, that if thou shouldst fall into the hands of the most fierce King Oliverius, she animates her sister to constancy, thou wouldst not, through the dread of torments, forget the faith of the undivided Trinity, but believe in God, and confess him three and one, who created thee from the slime of the earth, and redeemed thee with his precious Blood, and will enrich thee on the heavenly throne with the reward of perpetual felicity. I exhort, indeed repeating and again will I admonish, that thou humbly seek the suffrages of the Saints, by whose prayers and merits thou mayest come to the delights of the heavenly paradise with the palm of martyrdom. When such discourses and mutual consolations had been finished, the dearest Virgin Pecinna, and she dies, remaining in mind and body of most entire faith, and in work catholic, the struggle of her course being ended, breathed forth the spirit of life. Whose happy soul, plainly stripped of the body and carried by the Angels to the heavens, was joined to the sacred choirs of Virgins, that, rejoicing and exulting, she might live forever, having the perpetual reward of most delightful Virginity.
CHAPTER III.
The honorable burial of the deceased Pecinna, and the miracles at it.
[15] To declare indeed the dignity of this holy young woman, A dove appears above the body, to commend her precious merits to the minds of the pious; soon, coming from heaven with great splendor like a dove, it began to flap its wings over the limbs of the most holy Virgin Pecinna. Then, flying from head to foot, it showed to all the bystanders what glory her soul possessed in the heavens, whose body the Angelic spirit served on earth with the whiteness of a dove. We believe indeed that it was her Angel, who in the form of a dove descended upon the Son of God in the Jordan; that it might be made plain to all believers, that she was openly visited even after death by the same spirit whom she constantly served in life. But the Christians coming, both men and women, who knew the nobility of the deceased and the sanctity, that it was reverently received by the Christians, and had venerated her as a Lady and dearest mother; gathered the venerable body, anointing it with spices after the manner of the worshipers of Christ, as was worthy of so great a Virgin. Then, lifting it upon a wagon, and covering it with silken garments, with psalmody and the harmonies of hymns, they led it to the place of burial, it is borne to Tauriacum to be buried. of old destined for her by Christ. For the place itself was situated in the country of Poitiers, and was then called Tauriacus; which, the name now also being changed, is called by an honorable name "at Saint Pecinna." The ministers, therefore, of King Oliverius, whom we said above were directed to apprehend the sacred Virgins; when they had arrived at their monastery, did not find them at all.
[16] Then a certain one of them, named Austorgius, returned raging to the King, and announced to him that the sacred Virgins had fled, seven days now having passed. Hearing which, the impious King Oliverius was vehemently angered, The tyrant, grieving that he had been mocked and said to his soldiers with anger and indignation: By the sun and the moon I swear, and by the glory of my kingdom I affirm to you, that if I do not overtake them, and do not violate their Virginity, I shall thereafter by no means wish to live. Wherefore now let a most swift horse be prepared for me, on which I may run after them with the utmost speed, that, taken, I may mock them in a brothel-fellowship; and since they would not come to me, seeks the absent ones in vain. after the mockery, I shall afflict them with the pains of torments even unto death. While he said such things, leaving the column of his army, he himself, with a few, about to seek the said Virgins, raging began to go off this way and that. For the most wretched King, bereft by the flame of his lust, was ignorant that already almighty God had crowned Pecinna in a heavenly seat, and could defend Magrina by his protection.
[17] For while the faithful were carrying the precious body to be entombed, His minister, daring to halt the body and the unbelievers were seeking her round about, there came one of the King's attendants, who attempted to retain by the force of power the limbs of the Virgin Pecinna, that he might be able at least to dishonor the dead body — he who had too much desired to mock her living. But he who overturned the chariots of Pharaoh in the sea, did not delay to glorify wondrously the limbs of his Virgin. He blinded his eyes at once, with which he should not enjoy the ray of the sun; but, condemned by the audacity of his presumption, should remain in the darkness of his iniquity. But he who says, is deprived of sight, I will not the death of the sinner, breathed into him the gift of conversion; that, purged by the humility of confession, by the intervention of the glorious Virgin Perseveranda he might receive the light of his eyes in the body, having obtained the light of faith in the mind: and, repenting, is enlightened. glorifying also God with the others, he hastened to the place of burial, having the joy of both kinds of health. And when they had begun to dig the earth, where they wished to lay the precious body; immediately the dove returned, and designated another place to be dug for them; and it sat on the earth, wondrously flapping its wings a little over that same place.
[18] When, therefore, they had begun to dig there, and were praising God wonderful in his Saints; The aforesaid dove shows the place of burial: immediately so great a fragrance of odor emanated from it, that it surpassed the spices of unguents, and all the perfumes of balsam. The most chaste Virgin's body being at length entombed, and most honorably composed, the dove returned to the heavens, which had furnished them the guidance of the way, and divinely shown the place of burial. In which place precisely, miracles grow frequent. the loftiness of almighty God gave very many benefits to his servants, and granted abundant joys to the sick. The deaf there receive hearing, the blind receive light, The speech of the mute is restored, their bonds loosed. The paralytic receive their step, the weak the desired strength of health.
[19] But if it delights anyone to behold the marks of divine works, let him devoutly approach her revered shrine, The Author invokes the Saint. and there he will be sufficiently able to contemplate what dignity she has in the kingdom of God, who through the grace of Christ on earth flashes with such great miracles. By whose intercession and prayers we earnestly beseech that pardon of our offenses may be obtained for us as suppliants, that by her help and merits we may be rescued from all imminent evils, and led to the rewards of eternal felicity. Where, the Lord God aiding, and blessed Pecinna interceding, may we deserve to be made partakers of her glory, and possessors of most delightful blessedness forever. And the deposition of the Virgin herself is celebrated on the seventh of the Kalends of July 25 June, almighty God reigning, in the Trinity of persons, and the Majesty of unity, through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.