ON SAINT VEREMUND, ABBOT OF IRACHE IN NAVARRE.
AFTER THE YEAR 1085.
Preliminary Commentary.
Veremund, Abbot of Irache in Navarre (Saint)
BHL Number: 0000
[1] The royal monastery of Irache, or Hiraxense, dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God, in the kingdom of Navarre near the city of Estella, celebrates with Ecclesiastical Office the feast of Saint Veremund, its Abbot, on March 8; on which day Benedict Dorganius inserted Saint Veremund the Abbot in the Benedictine Calendar printed at Saint-Malo. The monastery of Irache, made illustrious by the holiness of Veremund. Menard and Bucelinus in their Benedictine Martyrologies honor him only with the title of Blessed. Tamayo Salazar adorns him in the Spanish Martyrology with this eulogy: "At the monastery of Irache in the kingdom of Navarre, the celebrated memory of Saint Veremund, Abbot and Founder of that monastery, who possessed such charity toward the poor and such generosity that he poured out everything for their use, and, renowned for miracles, fell asleep in the Lord." So Tamayo; but how does he make him Founder, when he then asserts that he lived from his earliest youth under his uncle Munio, Abbot there, and received the sacred habit of the Benedictine Order? Prudentius Sandoval in the Catalogue of Bishops of the Church of Pamplona, under Valentinus the tenth Bishop, asserts: "In the Hispanic Era 966, or the year of Christ 928, the monastery of Irache of the Blessed Mary was then very illustrious and the foremost of all Navarre; to which in the said year the Lady Elio offered by a generous donation all her goods, vineyards, and inheritances, to Abbot Teudanus." More correctly, then, Arnold Oihenart in book 2 of the Notice of Both Vasconias, chapter 3, judges that the monastery of Irache was greatly made illustrious by the holiness of the Blessed Veremund, its alumnus and Abbot. Above all other writers, Anthony
de Yepez in volume 3 of the General Chronicle of the Order of Saint Benedict at the year 815, from folio 365 to folio 388, and in the Catalogue of Abbots, after the said Teudanus and Munio, he places Saint Veremund in the third position. About him other writers drew all their information from the said Chronicle, and we produce the following.
[2] Saint Veremund, sprung from a noble family in the kingdom of Navarre, on account of his holiness of life acquired disputants contending with one another about his birthplace. his homeland is disputed: For the people of Arellano show the house and in it the room of his birth out of a pious sentiment of devotion; but the inhabitants of the place Villa-torta, which is a Spanish league distant from the monastery and the city of Estella, claim his birth for themselves. Both, out of veneration, have in their church an altar dedicated to Saint Veremund a monk under his uncle Munio: and adorned with a painting of the same Saint. The names of his parents are unknown. His uncle was the already-mentioned Abbot Munio, who received his nephew among the monks, clothed him in the sacred habit, and exercised him in the holy works of prayer, reading, and mortification with such fruit that when Munio was taken from the living, Veremund was elected as his successor in the office of Abbot.
[3] He succeeds him as Abbot: Having been made Abbot, he strenuously promoted monastic discipline and by his own example incited the monks subject to him to the pursuit of perfection. He himself was devoted to fasting and vigils and afflicted his body with a rough hairshirt, while showing the greatest benevolence and generosity toward others. God made him illustrious with many miracles both in life and after death. We give the following selections from the old Breviary, which used to be recited at Matins in the said monastery and neighboring places, as found in Yepez: would that he had published the full lessons, or that Tamayo had sought them out. These read as follows:
[4] The Lord worked stupendous things through him, of which I have thought it right to relate only one, both on account of the greatness of the matter and the number of witnesses. It happened in those times that a great famine devastated the entire kingdom of Navarre, he feeds three thousand people by his prayers, and many, driven by this miserable plague, flocked to the holy man to beg for alms. As the famine grew worse from day to day, a multitude of about three thousand people gathered. But since there was nothing in the house with which so great a multitude could be fed (for the servants who had gone at the Abbot's command to buy food outside the province had not yet returned), a great outcry and wailing arose: for those consumed by hunger scarcely had the strength to go anywhere; therefore they were in danger of perishing unless the Father came to their aid. Grieving deeply at this pitiful spectacle, he approached the altar to perform the sacred rites: and behold, when the point had been reached a dove flying over their heads: at which the Priest prays for the people, and he was tearfully imploring help from God, a white dove descending from heaven flew over the heads of each one, as if touching them. And soon, in the sight of all, it ascended to heaven. And afterward each person felt in himself such strength and such fullness as if he had been refreshed with the most splendid and varied foods. "For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Therefore all, together with Veremund, giving thanks to God, joyfully returned to their homes.
[5] Among other miracles, it is said that demoniacs were freed when the demons were driven out, he is renowned for miracles, the blind were illuminated with restored sight, and other sick persons obtained health. By which both the virtue of Saint Veremund was rendered so illustrious throughout the whole kingdom and the holy name of the monastery of Irache was so widely spread that more than twenty-five other monasteries wished by royal authority to be subjected to the governance of Saint Veremund, who and whose successors held supreme power and general jurisdiction. The names and location of each are described by Yepez on folio 371; he governs twenty-five monasteries. and the first of these he establishes as the monastery of Oguni, subject to Saint Veremund in the Era 1110, or the year of Christ 1052; the last, the monastery of Santa-Pia, entrusted to him in the Era 1123, or the year of Christ 1085; all the rest came to the monastery of Irache in the years between. During which times the Kings of Navarre, Sancho Garcia and Sancho Ramirez, held power; under the latter, around the year 1092, Saint Veremund happily departed from this life to heavenly and eternal felicity.
[6] While we were preparing this for the press, anxious whether in so celebrated a monastery any ancient documents might lie hidden hitherto unpublished, we wrote to the Reverend Father Francis Cachupin, Provincial of our Society for the Province of Castile extending through the kingdom of Navarre, through whose benevolent patronage we had obtained the Acts of Saint Rudesind, Bishop of Dumium, published by us at the Kalends of March. The most excellent and very Reverend Father Joseph Sainz Aguirre, Doctor and Professor of Sacred Theology, wishing to satisfy our desire when it was conveyed to the monastery, transmitted the following together with a most gracious letter, as also the Acts of Saint Rudesind transcribed from an older original, as we indicated above on page 103, number 3.
COLLECTANEA CONCERNING THE LIFE AND VENERATION,
Faithfully drawn from the archive and ancient monuments of the same monastery, and from the ancient Missal and Breviary of the Order.
Veremund, Abbot of Irache in Navarre (Saint)
BHL Number: 0000
CHAPTER I.
The more illustrious deeds of Saint Veremund and his death.
[1] Born of a noble family, Saint Veremund, a Spaniard by nation, was born in the kingdom of Navarre around the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and twenty, in the town of Arellano, at the foot of Mount Surra, or, as others contend, at Villa-tuerta. It is believed, however, with good reason, that both towns may glory in his birth, because he owed his father to one and his mother to the other, from a most illustrious stock, from which the Palatine house of Saureguicar and the noble family of the Formosos are said to have descended. The name Veremund seems to have been in him an oracle of future holiness, because throughout the whole course of his life he was truly clean ("vere mundus"), and so alienated from the world as if he were living his life in the heavens, and showed nothing that was not pure and spotless. as a boy he is renowned for miracles: Indeed, even in his infancy he is reported to have performed miracles among other little boys, by tossing a pitcher full of water down a slope without any of it being spilled, as the inhabitants of Arellano heard from their elders.
[2] But this is certain and beyond doubt: that while still a boy, leaving his home and all his possessions, he came to the monastery of Irache, two miles distant from each of the said towns, he becomes a monk at Irache in a celebrated monastery: to serve God and Saint Benedict under the obedience of Abbot Munio, his uncle and a most distinguished man. The aforesaid monastery is the most celebrated in all Spain, whether one considers its antiquity from the time of the Goths, signs of which survive today in a certain stone doorway of the church, declaring the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son against the remnants of the Arians, not yet eradicated at that time; or whether one considers the outstanding observance of the Benedictine Rule, which always flourished in it; or the sacred worship of God in the performance of the Canonical Hours, as a sign of which from all Spain the book of Antiphons and Prayers of Irache was selected to be carried to Rome, and was approved by the Pontiff around the year of the Lord 1070, in the time of Sancho Garcia, King of Navarre; or whether one considers the abundance of illustrious men; or finally the celebrated University, to which students come from all Spain for the literary degrees of Baccalaureate, Licentiate, Mastership, and Doctorate in all faculties, since it enjoys the same privileges as the Universities of Alcala and Salamanca.
[3] In this monastery, therefore, it is wonderful with what integrity of character, with what perfection of virtues, he accurately observes the Rule: even in his very boyhood, Veremund surpassed the rest of his time. With hairshirt, fasting, vigils, and prayers he subdued his body lest it weigh down his soul. Never did either the watchful solicitude of the Abbot or the curiosity of his companions find in him anything childish or alien to regular observance. Whence it is a tradition of the monastery that even in his youth he worked miracles. For when he was porter and could not set a limit to his charity by the frequent alms which he distributed by virtue of his Office, but still longed to help the poor even more generously, one day he hid some pieces of bread in his tunic itself and went out to distribute them as alms. When the Abbot saw this he holds pieces of bread turned into splinters of wood: and asked what he was carrying there, the blessed youth replied: "They are splinters of wood" — as though pieces of bread, like splinters, might serve to warm the poor within. But when ordered to open what he was carrying with him, the pieces of bread were found, by a remarkable miracle, to have been turned into splinters of wood, God showing through this prodigy that Veremund's generosity toward the poor was pleasing in his sight, and that the ambiguity was not a lie but a mystery.
[4] When through the frequent exercise of virtues he became daily more illustrious and venerable to all, upon the death of Abbot Munio he was appointed in his place, not without the special counsel of God. For it was evident that this election had been most pleasing to God, since as soon as he appeared as Pastor of the Lord's flock, he is made Abbot, he had not changed his character but with fervent and restless efforts had ascended more and more to the mountain of perfection. This the frequent signs of miracles made manifest: whether when he extinguished the monastery's harvests burning on the threshing-floor by prayer alone, as if rain were falling from heaven; or when he made robbers, driving off herds and flocks by night, stand motionless; or when he banished demons from possessed bodies; or when he obtained health for the sick, sight for the blind, rain for a thirsty people, and various benefits from heaven; or finally when he predicted future events. he works various miracles: Indeed, when the river Ega, which divides the city of Estella in the middle, was swelling with pride, and a certain man was being swept away amid the waves, already facing imminent death, upon invoking the name of Veremund he was miraculously snatched from the waters. The Kings of Navarre, attracted by the fame of his virtues and miracles, venerated the man of God most highly he receives lavish donations. and sought his familiarity. Among these, Kings Sancho Garcia and Sancho Ramirez were especially devoted to Veremund, and for his sake donated so many churches, towns, estates, gifts, and privileges to the monastery of Irache that scarcely any other in all Spain at that time could be found equally illustrious and wealthy. Among which it must not be passed over in silence, nor is it a slight indication of the regular observance then supremely flourishing, that in disputes pertaining to the monastery they conceded that the word of a single monk, even in his own cause and without an oath, should suffice and constitute full proof in judgment, as the original privileges of those same Kings declare. Certainly the occasion for such great esteem on their part could have been nothing other than the outstanding holiness of Veremund, flowing over into his subjects and descending, as it were, from the head into the beard of Aaron.
[5] But he regarded nothing as more important or dearer than the purity, reverence, and worship of the divine Office. Wherefore, when the Spanish Missal and Ceremonial were finally called into judgment by the Pontiff, he is careful in Ecclesiastical ceremonies: of the three Bishops going to Rome in defense of both, Munio, Bishop of Calahorra and a kinsman of Saint Veremund, brought with him the book of Antiphons and Prayers received from him. This was praised and commended by the Pontiff with notable eulogies, not without great glory for Veremund,
glory, that he offered so pure and refined worship to God in the sacred Offices with his monks that he was deemed a spectacle worthy of admiration at Rome and deserving of all veneration.
[6] devoted to the Virgin Mother of God and to her image Among the other virtues of the man of God, his wonderful devotion to the Blessed Virgin shone forth not a little: by whose most ardent love he was rapt as it were into ecstasy, uttering tender colloquies and sending forth inflamed flames of affection before that image which is seen today in the principal and most splendid altar of Irache, formed from pure silver, and most celebrated for nine centuries past. King Sancho of Navarre, the first of this name, came to implore the help of this image when he was on the point of conquering the remnants of the Saracens and driving them from the castle of Monsardin; which enterprise, undertaken by divine inspiration, he happily accomplished through the benefit of the same Virgin, and donated to the monastery of Irache together with the whole valley of Saint Stephen. Before this image, therefore, Veremund burned with the fire of devotion, and not very long after his death the feast of the Immaculate Conception began to be celebrated in the same monastery on the eighth day of December. For it is established from the most ancient writing, composed in Gothic characters, that not long after the death of the same Saint, that day was solemnly celebrated every year throughout the whole kingdom of Navarre, and that a judicial sentence in a certain lawsuit of this monastery was deferred until the ninth day of December out of reverence for the feast of the Conception.
[7] It is also likely that in reward for Veremund's devotion to the Blessed Virgin the wonderful discovery of an image of her occurred at that time. an image found when stars appeared For when he was Abbot around the year 1080, it happened that a thousand paces from the monastery, Shepherds guarding their flock observed most brilliant stars fallen from heaven upon a hill, which is therefore called in the Cantabrian language Iricarra, that is, Stellatus (starry). When the rumor of this marvelous novelty spread, and the stars of extraordinary splendor were still visible, in the place where they fell from heaven to earth, in a pit obstructed with brambles, an image of the Mother of God was found, holding her infant Son upon the palm of her hand, endowed with great beauty, which neither the obscurity of the place nor the changes of times had defiled. he gives the King a place for founding the city of Estella: In view of this marvelous novelty, Sancho Ramirez, King of Navarre and most devoted to Veremund, erected the city of Estella around that same place, with its name given from the stars that had appeared; the holy man granting the land, the monastery's own property, that houses might be built there and a new city arise in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Whence today there is scarcely a street, portico, or house in the whole city that does not acknowledge by an annual payment this benefit granted by Veremund, as the authentic documents in the archive declare. It is also read that he received very many benefits from the same Virgin, which through the injury of time have fallen from the memory of men.
[8] There is one thing, however, which no oblivion will be able to bury: namely, the most ardent charity of Veremund and his wonderful generosity toward the poor. For the exercise of this, heaven itself seemed to grow harsh upon the kingdom of Navarre, so that the holy man might receive occasion to assist either the pilgrims flocking in crowds to Compostela, for whose reception, care, and lodging most devoted to the poor, Abbot Munio had built a spacious hospice at the doors of the monastery; or also the inhabitants of the same province. For he not only abundantly supplied the poor with food and grain stored in the granaries of the monastery, but also when these ran out at home, he sought them from a foreign kingdom, to provide for the want of the wretched. In this the Lord worked through him things wonderful and astonishing. Let it suffice to narrate a single prodigy, perhaps never seen before or since, and indeed in the very same words in which it is found in the lessons of the second nocturn, he feeds three thousand people by his prayers, customarily recited on March 8, the day sacred to Veremund. They are as follows: "Among many other things, it happened that a great famine devastated the entire kingdom of Navarre. Driven by this miserable plague, many flocked to the holy man to beg for alms. As the famine grew worse from day to day, a multitude of about three thousand people gathered. But since there was nothing in the house with which so great a multitude could be fed, a great outcry and wailing arose: for those consumed by hunger scarcely had the strength to go anywhere; therefore they were in danger of perishing unless the Father came to their aid. Grieving deeply at this pitiful spectacle, he hastened to the altar to perform the sacred rites. And behold, when the point had been reached at which the Priest prays for the people, and he was tearfully imploring help from God, a white dove descending from heaven a dove flying over their heads: flew over the heads of each one, as if touching them, and soon, in the sight of all, returned to heaven. Whereupon each person felt such strength and such fullness as if he had been refreshed with the most splendid and varied foods. For which reason, giving thanks to God, they joyfully returned to their homes." Thus far the reading.
[9] By these and other miracles, therefore, the monastery, which Veremund had received already quite illustrious, he made more august by the celebrity of his name. At last, having completed more than forty years of his Prelature and being renowned for a prophetic spirit, he departed to the Lord in the Era of Caesar one thousand one hundred and thirty, he dies in the year 1092, which corresponds to the year of Christ one thousand and ninety-two. On the precious chest in which his holy body was preserved, to this day three Angels are seen, bearing in their hands as many crowns and placing them upon Veremund just as he was breathing out his soul — which is likely to have been done by divine revelation, with Angels bearing crowns. the Angels visibly appearing, about to crown the dying Veremund with a triple crown: as a monk, as a virgin, and as a prelate.
CHAPTER II.
The veneration of Saint Veremund. Translations. Miracles.
[10] Immediately from the time of his death, as undoubtedly a Saint and one canonized by heaven even while he was alive, he began to be celebrated with divine honors. For the Supreme Pontiff had not yet, but only seventy years later, reserved to himself the Canonization of Saints — namely, in the time of Pope Alexander III, around the year 1163, as is established from the chapter "Audivimus" in the Extravagantes concerning Relics and the Veneration of Saints. Soon honored with the cult of Saints: Saint Veremund, however, died around the year 1092. Whence, just as the cult of sanctity was accorded not only in Benedictine monasteries but throughout all Spain to Saints Rudesind, Dominic of Silos, and Adelelmus of Burgos, his contemporaries, although they had not been canonized by the solemn rite of the Roman Church, so too the same honors were paid to Veremund from the time of his death, with the consent, no doubt, of the Bishop, as was the custom at that time. Therefore the venerable body of the same was placed beneath the slab of the principal altar, where the sacred Eucharist was preserved, with the body deposited on the altar, until the year of the Lord 1582. Which was formerly done in churches only for holy Martyrs and outstanding Confessors. From that same most ancient time also, a Mass of the same Saint was sung every year, which survives in a very old Missal written by hand on parchment; and by its arrangement, characters, and unpolished style, on account of the lack of care of those times, it conveys a venerable antiquity. It is as follows:
[11] Introit: Let us celebrate solemnly, exulting in the Lord, this present day on which the excellent Veremund is crowned in heaven. Verse: Let us most devoutly venerate the feast of the holy Confessor Veremund. Glory, etc.
Prayer: A proper Mass. O God, who willed that the Blessed Veremund, Abbot and thy Confessor, should preside as Pastor over thy Church, and exalted him with the magnificent powers of miracles: grant to all thy servants who celebrate his feast to be fortified with that blessing by which he merited to be made equal to the celestial choirs of Angels. Through Christ, etc. Epistle: Beloved of God and of men, etc. Responsory: O Christ, to thy servants... whom thou protectest for the honor of the Venerable Veremund, from all dangers. Verse: Who by his worthy merits deserved to ascend above to the blessed seats. Tract: O Fountain of light and true wisdom, most high God, and right doctrine. Verse: Who hast adorned Veremund with frequent virtues, now hear the prayers. Verse: Of thy people, supplicating thee, that thou mayest cleanse them from all sins. Alleluia, Alleluia: When he is crowned with the heavenly ones of Christ, a man praiseworthy in merits is made their equal. His celebrated Translation, by whose ministrations may he bring us to be placed together with him. Gospel according to Luke: No one lights a lamp. Offertory: Shining in life, the glorious Veremund in this world, has now been made a throne of heaven, interceding for the people: that he may be devout in the love of Christ forever. Secret: We humbly offer venerable sacrifices in the sight of thy Majesty, O Lord, aided by the prayers of the Blessed Veremund, Abbot and thy Confessor, who by his merits deserved to obtain the glory of the heavenly kingdom. Through our Lord, etc. Communion: O citizen, make us happy with all citizens, make us companions of the heavenly ones, Veremund, through the Empyrean. Post-communion: May the mysteries celebrated profit thy faithful, O Lord, by the merits of the Blessed Veremund, Abbot and thy Confessor: that those who seek to be honored by his benefits may be able to be exalted in the kingdom of heavenly glory. Through our Lord, etc. Thus far the Mass transcribed word for word from the said Missal. other signs of public cult. That this and a special divine Office of the same Saint were customarily sung from time immemorial, very many testimonies in the archive declare; just as that from the city of Estella and the whole territory an innumerable multitude of people used to flock to the said festivity, that solemn processions were made, that the name of Veremund was given to men and women, that altars were erected in his honor, that his name was invoked in the public litanies, and that the other signs of cult were displayed which are customarily accorded in the Church to the most celebrated Saints.
[12] The deposition of his body seems to have lasted beneath the sacred pyx for four hundred and ninety years. For around the year 1583, the Reverend Father Brother Anthony de Comontes, Abbot of the same monastery, when he was almost fatally ill, promised the Blessed Veremund a precious chest in which his venerable body might rest, to obtain bodily health for himself. In the year 1583 the body is placed in a new casket: And behold, he immediately began to change for the better and to recover, to the amazement of all who were present, who thought of nothing other than that health had been obtained through the intercession of Veremund. Wherefore the Abbot, mindful of so great a benefit, built a precious chest, into which the body of the Saint was translated to the right of the principal altar, with an innumerable multitude of people concurring — except that the venerable head and one arm are preserved in precious silver caskets outside the chest. What and how many prodigies have occurred since that time (to pass over the more ancient ones) no one could suffice to narrate. Let us, however, relate what the Reverend Father Master Brother Lawrence de Frias, Abbot of this monastery, Rector of the University, and Deputy of the kingdom of Navarre, attested juridically. For when he was Sacristan of the monastery, a sweet fragrance he, together with other monks, frequently perceived flowing from the sacred head a wonderful and most fragrant odor, especially on Fridays, when the passion of Christ is commemorated, and still more especially on Thursday and Friday of Holy Week.
[13] Many others also deposed that often in the midst of a storm's whirl (to which this province is very much subject) terrible hail was seen falling through the air, which, however, before the relic of Veremund placed out
the body, immediately turned into water. And indeed from time immemorial it has scarcely, or not even scarcely, been heard that the harvests of the monastery suffered any grave injury from the daily storms of the sky even once, provided that the monks had timely recourse to the relics of Saint Veremund. storms driven away: For as soon as they are brought out from the church and raised on the shoulders of the monks in the cloister against the threatening cloud, either all the hail is suddenly changed into water, or it gradually diminishes, and the desired serenity of the sky returns. Nor will there be anyone who can remove from our hearts the undoubted faith by which we believe these benefits are obtained through nothing other than the merits of Veremund: especially when we see the surrounding towns everywhere devastated by terrible hail, and their pleasant fields, already close to harvest or vintage, assuming a wintry face within the space of one hour, their leaves and fruits reduced to dust. On the other hand, whenever an excessive serenity of the sky is prolonged and the earth desires rain, although the heavenly powers invoked by other towns remain deaf and refuse to grant mortals an abundance of waters, yet when recourse is had to the invocation of Veremund, when it is pressed, and he is entreated with public prayers, immediately the heavens distill at his presence. Which is so manifest that it is observed every year with one's own eyes. rain obtained: And indeed, to omit other instances, around the year 1650, in the greatest scarcity of water, when the prayers sent up to God by the surrounding peoples had not sufficed, the Reverend Father Master Brother Martin Izquierdo, Professor of Sacred Theology and Abbot and Rector of the same monastery, instituted a solemn procession with the body of the Blessed Veremund to the little chapel of the Virgin of Rocamadour, a mile distant, near the walls of the city of Estella. And while at the beginning of the procession there was no human hope of obtaining rain, before it ended the sky was so disturbed and its cataracts so opened that the monks returned home not only drenched on the outside but overflowing in the inner garments of their bodies.
[14] What more? In the immediately preceding year 1664, in the month of May, the kingdom of Navarre and Castile was suffering most gravely from a scarcity of water: for nearly all the crops and the grain, mostly close to harvest, were so short that they scarcely rose above a span, so weak that they were crowned with thin and nearly empty ears. The peoples cried out with vows and sighs sent up to heaven: as in the year 1664 there was no celebrated image of the Virgin, no body of a Martyr or Confessor, no sanctuary of any kind to which they did not have recourse for a remedy; yet meanwhile the sky, miserly of dew, denied mortals the desired water. The peoples added private and public mortifications of fasting, prayers, and scourges, with so many signs of grief and penance as to strike one with stupor. in the greatest drought For we saw, and we pitied, entire populations in which day and night public processions were held, far more severe than those which Christian piety introduced in Holy Week. One could see very many, not only men but young men, and even boys, especially little children, laden with iron weights and conformed to the figure of the Cross, with hands bound and feet bare, proceeding for several miles, clothed in ankle-length linen, their faces veiled with a cloth; others crawling on hands and feet like snakes, with nearly their whole body bare, through brambles, mud, and hard stones, all the way to this monastery; others still, invoking divine clemency in the very solemn assembly with a bloody whirl of the cruelest lashes. after various afflictions We saw then, both in other churches and in the church of Irache, thousands of people, of every condition and sex, around midnight sending up groans to heaven, uttering cries of contrition, and with the lamps extinguished before the altar of Saint Veremund, producing such a sound of lashes that it seemed impossible for it not to penetrate to the heavens and reach the ears of the most gracious God. We all marveled, having witnessed such a prodigy of public, wonderful, and constant penance, and the image of the Ninevites appeared before our eyes. given At last, after prayers had been sent up to Saint Veremund, they returned to the city of Estella and the other towns, and shortly afterward, when a solemn procession had been made with the body of the same Saint, the sky generously dissolved into waves and watered the lands with the desired flood.
[15] Finally, a second most celebrated translation was made by the Abbot, Reverend Father Master Brother Peter de Vriz, in the year 1657, to a new and most beautiful chapel, in the year 1657 and into a precious urn of admirable construction, formed of pure silver, which four strong young men can scarcely carry, with the greatest multitude of peoples converging. the body translated into a silver urn In the said urn, beneath a new altar of great splendor, radiating with gilded images and columns, the venerable body of Veremund rests today. Certainly this worship is unequal to so great a man; but the greatest we can render, at least in testimony of gratitude, because he has constantly protected, guarded, and with special providence delivered from innumerable dangers this house of his, both while he was on earth and after he was blessed in heaven. Concerning which, although we have daily proofs, what we heard from the Reverend Father Brother Peter de Ayala, formerly Provost of the same monastery, a man of outstanding virtues and most proven observance, and excessively devoted to the contemplation of divine things, must not be passed over. For around the year 1597, when he was younger (for so we are accustomed to call the recently professed), and was pressing with the craftsmen in erecting the dome of the church, a danger averted by a heavenly voice: he embraced a great stone set as a cornice to place it in a more suitable location. When behold, a voice sounded from behind, as of a man saying: "Brother Peter, come; for the Abbot is calling." He, being obedient, immediately left the stone to fulfill the superior's command. And behold, immediately the summit of the very high dome fell to the ground, the monk himself remaining unharmed; and what is more remarkable, no person was found through whom he was called by the Abbot. Wherefore he persuaded himself that that safety and preservation from the fall had occurred through the special protection of Father Veremund. Twice also, as he himself juridically attested, when he was pressed by grave illnesses, having drunk water flowing through the arm of Saint Veremund, he immediately began to recover. And when he was performing the office of Provost and wished to walk around the cells of the sleeping monks in the middle of the night, as is the custom, he saw a monk walking gravely in the cloister. Wishing to recognize him, he suddenly stiffened, seized with trembling. the care of monastic discipline indicated by his apparition. Recovering himself, however, he wished to examine more carefully who he was, entering the rooms of each and every one who was at home, and having inspected them all sleeping in their beds, he again proceeded to the cloister. And when he wished to recognize the monk still walking, he again withered with fresh amazement and with a shuddering of the scalp. Wherefore, having returned to his cell, he could only think that Saint Veremund had appeared to him to show that even in heaven, still glorious, he had a special care for his monastery and for regular observance.
[16] So indeed we believe, so we experience. It is little that we invoke so excellent a benefactor and outstanding friend of God with daily prayers, Epilogue, honor him with solemn worship, and celebrate him with lavish praises. Our hearts ought to burn with the fire of charity in which he burned, to embrace the heavenly virtues which he practiced, and to run with fervent desires in the fragrance of his ointments. Grant, O most pious God, through the prayers of Veremund; and abundantly pour forth his spirit upon us. And thou, most brilliant lamp of the heavenly court, illuminate our minds, kindle our wills, and to the most unworthy sinner, of the lowest vileness, burdened with the heavy load of sins, grant pardon and obtain eternal salvation.