Ansovinus

ON SAINT ANSOVINUS, BISHOP OF CAMERINO IN ITALY.

AROUND THE YEAR 840

Ansovinus, Bishop of Camerino in Italy (St.)

[1] Camerino is a most ancient city on the borders of Picenum and Umbria, beneath the ridge of the Apennine mountain; its people are the Camertes, very well known in Roman history and friendship. Ansovinus born at Camerino, Although these may deservedly glory in the warlike faith and fortitude of their Ancestors, they have yet a juster matter of glorying in this, that their city produced for heaven the holy Martyr Venantius and the holy Prelate Ansovinus: for that it was already customary to write so four hundred years ago is witnessed by a silver coin struck at Camerino before that time, and to be seen in Ferdinando Ughelli, volume 1 of Italia Sacra: one face of which shows the Protector of the city mitred, in the priestly chasuble, with the Pallium and the Archiepiscopal Cross, and in the gesture of one blessing with the right hand, with these letters running round: S. ANSOVINVS; and the other face a Cross with these: DE CAMMERINO. But Acts two centuries older than that coin have Ansuinus, or Ansuinus, which Baronius followed in the Roman Martyrology on this day. Whichever way you write it, you will find a word of Lombard origin, which the Germans a little older than these our centuries, with an aspiration unwelcome to the Italians prefixed, would have written Hanse-win, that is, the delight of the Society, or, the love of the companions.

[2] Acts and miracles written around the year 960, The measure of which name the shepherd, lovable to his whole flock, not only equaled but surpassed by a long interval, as the Acts of his Life declare; which, bearing Eginus the monk as their author, and dedicated to Bishop Peter, who flourished around the year of the Lord 963, we received from a very ancient Codex written on very large parchments, at Rome, from the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Mary in Vallicella: which same Acts Jacobilli testifies that he read in the very ancient Legendaries of the Church of Perugia and of Assisi: would that those Codices could also have been found by us, for in them perhaps we would have found a great part of the miracles worked after his death through his intercession, which the prolixity of the preceding prologue seems to suggest is missing in the Vallicella manuscript; perhaps mutilated, but we also suspect, by no vain conjecture, that some deeds before the Episcopate are missing at the beginning, which can in some way be supplied from the Lessons which the Church of Camerino recites, approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1642, of this tenor.

[3] Ansovinus, born at Camerino in Umbria, devoted to ecclesiastical offices from a boy, since he was not moderately learned in letters, was at length initiated into the Priesthood. He lived in that rank with outstanding modesty, admirable abstinence, and integrity of life. Then, and to be supplied from the lessons. that he might be more freely at leisure for God, he came to love solitude, which for many years near Castel Raimondo he cultivated with every kind of virtue. Hastening to the church for the purpose of offering sacrifice, he crossed a river by spreading his cloak upon the waters: and when the rays of the sun troubled him while he was offering sacrifice, a little linen cloth being hung up in the air itself, he wonderfully found shade.

[4] Sought by his people as Bishop, he went to Rome; having returned, it is difficult to say with how great praise he discharged the office imposed on him. Nothing milder, nothing more temperate than he could be imagined. In him was the highest zeal for prayer, the most careful diligence in feeding the flock, a lavish kindness toward the poor. Being accustomed to empty the very granaries with alms, when once the servants had reported that no grain was left, he ordered them to search again, not without result. And so the granary which beneficence had emptied, faith filled.

[5] He restored health to very many sick: with the sign of the Cross alone he extinguished the burnings of a spreading fire. Nor was the holiness of the man perceived only by men or held in admiration; but even dumb animals seemed to understand it with such earnest veneration as they could. Illustrious for these and other virtues and ornaments, long-lived in age, he flew to heaven on the third day before the Ides of March: whose body, honorably buried in the Cathedral church of Camerino, is most devoutly venerated; and the miracles that followed, both many and great, testify that his death was precious in the sight of the Lord.

[6] A similar compendium of his life can be read in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy of Filippo Ferrari, taken from the records of the Church of Camerino, in which he sufficiently intimates that only the first chapter of the life, as far as number 14, which we shall advise in the annotation is found separately in various manuscripts, was found and read by him, the year of his Ordination was 822, when he adds: How long Ansovinus lived in the Episcopate his history does not teach; but it teaches that he shone with many miracles after his death: namely, these things are found in the first chapter; which, written long since by an older author, Eginus the monk, at the exhortation of Bishop Peter, made fuller, adding the narration of many miracles in his life and after it, in a style neither concise enough nor polished enough: but, as those times allowed, half-barbarous with an affectation of eloquence. In this supplement of the first Acts, at number 18, it is read that the holy Prelate, when he was now nearly passing the eighteenth year of his Ordination, full of days, that is, of the fruits of good works, passed from the pilgrimage of this mortality to Christ. But whence Jacobilli took the 24 years of Episcopate he himself does not say, nor have we been able to discover: this is certain, if St. Ansovinus died in the year 840, if of death 840. as Ughelli wrote, and Jacobilli transcribed from him, that his Ordination belonged to the Pontificate of St. Paschal, who held the Apostolic See from the year 817 for seven years.

[7] Further, the Cathedral church, in which the body of St. Ansovinus rests, Cult of the Relics, raised by the Lords of the Varano family, who held the Duchy of Camerino by Pontifical favor, rises proudly in magnificent work, says Ughelli; and, as Jacobilli testifies, it displays an honorable monument of the same Saint of elegantly sculpted marble, and likewise on a marble tablet exhibits the principal heads of his life and miracles to be seen. A part of the shoulder at Rome in the Vatican: That some of his Relics are preserved at Rome in the Vatican Basilica is indicated by the printed order of the Office to be recited for that same Church, which prescribes a commemoration of St. Ansovinus to be made on the 13th day of March, with a Mass after Prime before the Mass of the Feria: and we learned that these Relics are part of the shoulder from the Catalogue of Relics of the same basilica, faithfully written in the year 1617 under the care of Paolo Bizoni and Marco Aurelio Maraldi, the major Sacristans, which we transcribed from the Archive there. There is also, on the borders of the Florentine and Sienese states, a hill which the little river Esa washes, running down not much after into the Chiana, and on the hill a town of the diocese of Arezzo, a fortified town named after him: commonly called Monte San Savino: which might seem to be the same as the Mount of St. Ansovinus: whether from some Relic of his there, or from some other particular cult, we cannot divine.

[8] where was his hermitage? Castel Raimondo, of which the lessons speak, is distant from Camerino seven miles beyond the river Potenza toward the north: near which, Jacobilli writes in the supplement, is a village named Torricella, in which St. Ansovinus led the eremitical life: whence it is easy to determine what that river is which he crossed with his cloak spread over it, when he was going to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass. We have found the same miracle of his in other three lessons somewhat more prolix, used perhaps for a while after the reformation of the Breviary, Other Lessons. which Father Henry Lindanus, a Belgian of our Society, formerly Penitentiary at Loreto, transmitted to us from the Manuscripts of that Church; he is now to be numbered among the victims of Christian charity, on account of the death he met in Denmark, by which he spent himself and his life for the Catholic sailors there laboring under a malignant plague, after he had first given up to them all his belongings and even his bed.

[9] Whether he was a Canon Regular, Gabriele Pennotto, in the tripartite history of his Order, book 3, chapter 50, numbers Ansovinus among the Saints of the Lateran Congregation, adding that on old coins which were struck under the Lords of Camerino, on one side the image of St. Ansovinus was seen, with an inscription which showed him to be a Lateran Canon Regular: which the citizens of Camerino even now everywhere and unanimously profess from the tradition of their ancestors. and whether this is proved by a coin struck after the 12th century? I have myself a coin, he says, with an inscription of this kind, sent by Claudius, Provost of St. Catervus at Tolentino, which is kept as a witness: but I fear whether it is faithful and old enough; or lest a forced interpretation has made this sense for the inscription: for you will neither find Lateran Canons Regular named anywhere before the twelfth century, nor did Gentile da Varano obtain the Duchy of Camerino before the year 1258, as a reward for having saved the citizens and restored the city: and Jacobilli says that the coin which Pennotto alleges for himself was struck by the Varano Lords: if this however is true, it is older than that which Ughelli has and has reproduced, struck by the people of Camerino in the fifteenth century, after they had asserted their liberty, in the time of Eugene IV or a little before.

LIFE By Eginus the Monk From the Vallicella Manuscript

Ansovinus, Bishop of Camerino in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 0555

BY EGINUS THE MONK

PROLOGUE

[1] I am compelled, Venerable Bishop Peter, by the frequent commands of your highness, which it is in no way expedient to oppose, The Author at the exhortation of Bishop Peter, to narrate, to the praise and glory of Ansuinus, the most blessed Prelate and Confessor of Christ, the ^a memory of his deeds while he still lived in the flesh, adding to the work in my style a discourse on the miracles which he worked after his death. But my sluggish mind once often tried to struggle against these precepts and to put them off for a long time: not as if unwilling to obey the pontifical commands, but hindered by very many difficulties; forestalled no less by the tumult of secular affairs than also by the littleness of my very little wit, and constrained above all by this: considering, namely, on the one side the impossibility of its sloth, and on the other the greatness of the matter and the affliction of evil times; or rather fearing lest perhaps, by obeying the pontifical precepts, it should succumb to the fault of rashness.

[2] For which of the lesser would not dread to presume anything great of himself? Ps. 68, 6. when even the most sagacious Prophet himself pronounces of himself, saying: O God, thou knowest my foolishness. And elsewhere: I was brought to nothing, he says, and I knew not. Ps. 72, 22. And the blessed Apostle Paul, showing us examples of humility, says: he humbly undertakes it I speak in foolishness. And elsewhere: I am become foolish, you have compelled me. For in another place the same intimates that he is wise, when he says: We speak wisdom among the perfect. 2 Cor. 11. 21 & 12, 11 And: But if I will, he says, to glory, I shall not be foolish; or that terrible threat by which it is said: 1 Cor. 2. 6., 2 Cor. 12. 6 Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight. Where it is to be noted that it was not said simply: Woe to you that are wise and prudent, but pointedly and with an addition, in your own sight and in your own eyes: otherwise it would no longer behove anyone to be wise or prudent, which seems altogether absurd and wholly beside the point. Isa. 5. 21 But as the Apostle says: Do not become children in understanding. For it is clearly understood from these words that he wished the same men to be children and wise; whence, when he said: Do not become children in understanding, he at once added, but in malice be little ones. 1 Cor. 14, 20 Or that prophetic word: Behold, I will catch, he says, the wise in their own craftiness; and Blessed Paul, saying: Be not wise in your own conceits. 1 Cor. 3. 19 And elsewhere: Not minding high things but consenting to the humble. Rom. 12, 16

[4] But all these things do not forbid speaking good things, nor restrain anyone from the praises of God and from the narration of the virtues of His Saints; rather they reprove the proud. The miracles of St. Ansovinus to be joined to the Acts of the Life; Nevertheless we also fear the Scyllaean mouths of our rivals gaping on every side, continually handling us with insane tooth. For they say that no one ought, after the sayings of the ancient holy Fathers, to narrate anything of newly done deeds: ignorant above all of that Gospel word by which it is said: My Father worketh until now, and I work: for in that He says, My Father worketh until now, and I work, He shows that He daily accomplishes new and recent works. John 5, 17 And to John in the Apocalypse: I, He says, am the first and the last. Apoc. 1, 17 For if He Himself, which no one dares to deny, is the first and the last; without doubt He works in the last, who has worked also in the first. And if He, which cannot be denied, works in the last who also works in the first; therefore He is to be praised by the last just as also by the first. And what is more absurd than that, when we see works of power accomplished even in our times, and know that very many have been narrated by others also (which they nonetheless had learned for certain, either by hearing them from those who had seen them, as these narrated the same), we should become mute or ungrateful while the ancients speak?

[4] For it seems exceedingly preposterous and unfitting if, through fear of men, we should keep silent about the praises of God and the virtues of the Saints. Ps. 13, 5. Since the Prophet openly rebukes those who fear what is not to be feared, saying: There they trembled for fear where there was no fear. It is understood: there fear was to be trembled at; and therefore he follows on, adding: The Lord scattereth the bones of them that please men, for it is understood, in flatteries. And Blessed Peter, seized and beaten with his fellow-Apostles by the Jews, who forbade him to speak of Christ, at once answered with great authority, saying: We ought to obey God rather than men. And his fellow-Apostle Paul says: If I yet sought to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Wherefore, considering all these things and making little of the entreaties of the rivals, although I saw myself less fit for so great a work, relying on the help of the Saint himself. I resolved to take the path of this bright journey (not however as is fitting, but as my strength allows; relying namely on the help of him in whose honor it is written), and not so much fearing the sluggishness of a small wit, as trusting that he who is known to be so ready to be present in the power of signs to those who seek him, is able also to obtain for one speaking of him an abundance of speech from Him who once filled with human speech the mouth of a stupid animal that had no nature of speaking. Acts 5, 29., Gal. 1, 10. But now, an end having been set to this little preface, let us come to the narration of the matter for which we have put these things first. ^b

CHAPTER I

The holy course of his whole life.

[5] Blessed Ansuinus, then (as we have learned from the report of very many, of whose testimony it is in no way expedient to doubt), was of Camerino by birth, Ansovinus, endowed with outstanding virtue and indeed not of the very lowest. But why should one inquire into the nobility of the earthly lineage of him whom we see to have already attained perfect freedom of birth, ^a so that he can no longer be darkened by the stain of any ignobility, however slight. He, then, from almost the very years of his earliest age, educated among the Orders of sacred Religion, ^b by whom he was also instructed in the studies of sacred letters, and advancing, ascending from good to better, supported especially by worthy deeds, merited to attain the dignity of the Priesthood. And now, raised to the Priestly honor, how worthy he was held to discharge it, it is not within our power to set forth; further, to those desiring to know, his deeds declare it more clearly. But of how great holiness and modesty, gentleness and continence, sobriety and piety, love and alacrity, and also abstinence of fasts and vigils, he was a cultivator in the time of his Priesthood, will be clear to readers from the text of the following discourse. ^c …

[6] Finally, strong in these and very many other works of virtue, Ansuinus shone among his contemporaries as quite worthy of veneration; and indeed, as his holiness grew, he was held a lovable Priest, worthy to be proclaimed; so that he was venerated not only by neighbors or by others from far away, whom the fame of his holiness had drawn to veneration of him, he becomes Confessor of the Emperor Louis, but also by the Caesar Louis himself, namely because he was most Christian, who at that time held the reins of the Roman Empire, above others, taking him to himself as his spiritual Father. And we have taken care to insert these things into this little work for this reason, that every occasion of scruple may be removed from the reader, and nothing may be supposed to have been mendaciously fabricated by us in this work; but that everything we assert in it is proved to have been ascertained by us by so certain a reasoning that not even an unbeliever ought to doubt of it. We have resolved also to add the time, which nearly all Historiographers include, solely for the certainty of this our narration: for in doing this we by no means proclaim Ansuinus a lover of secular things against the Lord's precept, because we record that he was loved by the Emperor and taken as Father; but, as we have said, so that the certainty of the matter may become more manifest, and it may be clear that already at that time the fame of his holiness had been spread far and wide.

[7] then Bishop; concerning immunity from military service, About the same time, therefore, it came about that the Church of the city of Camerino was governed for a while without a Prelate, its ^d Pastor having died; and when, as usually happens, many were trying (though in vain, because it was being kept for another) to attain the honor of the Pontificate of the aforesaid Church, Ansuinus was sought for this purpose: but when perchance he wished to resist, and, excusing himself, repeatedly declared that what he knew himself unworthy of such an honor could by no means come about; all persisting in the same opinion which they had long since begun, one and the same will and equal wishes demanded Ansuinus alone as Prelate, and altogether refused to elect another. But the holy Man, by no means elated by these favors, persisted immovable in his opinion, and wholly refused that this could be done by him, unless his petition had first obtained from the aforesaid Augustus the place of obtaining what he desired: for a most evil custom had already grown up, which compelled Bishops to serve in war after the manner of secular men; which Ansuinus altogether denied could be done by him: lest perhaps, on the occasion of the Pontifical honor, which seemed to him more a burden than an honor, he should be hindered from the journey of his intention, which he had long since begun to hold with Him of whom the Apostle says: Who, being rich, became poor in all things for our sake. 2 Cor. 8, 9

[8] But yet he was well conscious to himself that neither death, nor life, nor height nor depth, nor things present nor things to come, having first made a pact with the Emperor, nor any loftiness nor any honor, nor any Creature could separate him from the charity of Jesus Christ, to whom he cleaved untiringly, with Paul saying these things and desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ; or perhaps fearing that Gospel word by which it is said: No man can serve two Masters: since he was by no means ignorant that on the occasion of this thing he would be separated from the service of God, nay rather enslaved. Rom. 8, 38., Phil. 1, 23., Matt. 6, 24 He also set before himself that which the Blessed Apostle Paul says, writing in a hortatory epistle to his disciple: No man fighting for God entangleth himself with secular business, that he may please Him to whom he hath approved himself. 2 Tim. 2, 4 And while he was perchance meditating these things with himself, the choice was given to the holy Man by the aforesaid Caesar of approaching securely to the honor of the Pontificate, because no one would dare thereafter to compel him to serve in the warfare of secular affairs: ^e this promise, therefore, having been received, Blessed Ansuinus, secure now that he could not be torn away by the tumults of earthly things from the love of Christ, to whom, as has been said, he had long since perfectly cleaved, at length gave his assent to the faithful petition, all who longed that he should come to them as Pastor exulting and giving thanks to God.

[9] These things then having been so done, with the great joy of almost the whole people he took up the journey of going to Rome, namely for the grace of Consecration, and setting out for Rome, Clerics and nobles men accompanying him. On which journey the Lord Jesus Christ made him shine with so noble a miracle, that it was given clearly to all to understand that He Himself, the Pastor of Pastors, had chosen him by Himself as a worthy Pastor to preserve His flock. For when they had chanced to come to one of the Roman cities, which is called Narni, of a fraudulent innkeeper, he had occasion to buy something to drink. And at once the innkeeper, having fixed a certain price with him, offered wine. To him St. Ansuinus said: See, brother, that you have not perhaps mixed water with the wine, and we be cheated by frauds of this kind, while you receive from us the price that duly belongs to you; but afterward you rejoice at having deceived us, and we are compelled to suffer the loss of the money spent. But he, as if insulting the blessed man, said: Take it if you will; shall we be compelled by your ravings to change our business? And the Saint said to him: I will take it, but we lack a vessel for receiving it, unless perhaps the largeness of your kindness should abound toward us in this: for after the need of drinking is gone from us, then you shall receive what is yours.

[10] When he denied more stubbornly that he would by any means give him a vessel, Blessed Ansuinus said: who mixed water with wine, Pour the wine into the fold of this cope, for Almighty God, who created all things from nothing, is able so to make it stand by the command of His firmness that we shall by no means be compelled to bear the loss of our price over this. Hearing this, the tavern-keeper began the more to hold him as one babbling and not knowing what he said, and to mock him as some madman, whom indeed he thought to be insane. To him St. Ansuinus, more cheerful, said again and again: Pour, brother, he uncovers the wickedness by a miracle: pour without fear; why do you tremble, as if you were losing anything of yours? do you not keep our price with you: nor do you lose anything of your own if it perishes, since you seem rather to cause the loss of our property? Then, being at length overcome in these contests, the wine-dealer poured it upon the cope of St. Ansuinus, St. Ansuinus himself holding it. In which deed at once there appeared, I say, prodigies stupendous and very memorable: for the poured liquid was held with such tenacity in the cloth that it was thought to be of another nature, not its own; the fraud, on the other hand, of the seller shone forth manifestly, all marveling: for the wine was so separated from the water that even he himself who had mixed it, though confounded, confessed that it was not otherwise than Ansuinus had said before he received it.

[11] like Christ in such a beginning of his signs. Who, then, would think that the means of finding a vessel was lacking for any other reason than that the power, which had hitherto lain hidden from men in St. Ansuinus, though not from Him who had given it to him, should clearly appear; and that all should manifestly know that Christ, who works in the virtues of all His Saints, was with him, glorifying in the sight of men him whom He had long ago glorified with Himself, that he might be found worthy of the honor of the Pontificate? For who would think he could worthily narrate of what merit this man was, who began the beginning of his miracles from so great a perfection? since indeed he is known to have taken the beginning of his prodigies from the element of the same matter from which the miracles of Christ also are known to have begun. For so it is written in the Gospel, John saying of the water turned into wine by the Savior: This beginning of signs, he says, did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and His disciples believed in Him. John 2, 11. And Blessed Ansuinus wonderfully separated the elements of water and wine mixed together (He cooperating who in the beginning of His signs turned water into wine), so that it might most truly appear that he was the disciple of Him who showed the first of His marvels in wine and water.

[12] He too nourished him as a familiar pupil of His own, whom He deigned to make His imitator in the same element from which He Himself, as has been said, began the beginning of His signs. But now, the miracle having been accomplished, who, do you think, will be able to explain how great an exultation arose for those who had asked for St. Ansuinus as their Prelate, his virtues in the Episcopate when they saw him truly a nursling of Christ? He also, by increments and advances, went forward from virtue to virtue, so that he was held a most worthy Pontiff, strong in holy merits. And when he had now undertaken the Pontificate, how kind and mild, how sober and skilful, how quiet and cheerful, how modest and abstinent, how chaste and benign, how also vigilant and sagacious toward the flock committed to him, how frugal in food and drink, how most strenuous in labors, in vigils and prayers, how most upright in holding to justice, how ready in mercy he was, who, do you believe, could narrate in human speech?

[13] For of what piety and benevolence he was, can be most clearly known from his own miracles, which by the Lord's gift are incessantly worked in the place in which his most sacred body rests: and also by the testimony of many, and miracles. who have related the things told them by older men; the things which are said even while he still lived in the flesh. ^f But what need is there to seek the testimony of anyone whatever for this, when the Most Blessed himself is his own faithful and truthful witness, continually, with the Lord Jesus Christ helping, by doing new and recent miracles. For while he still lived in the body of this tearful and fleeting life, which he possessed by necessity alone, not by will, he desired with all effort and every longing to leave this one; but to find that which is true and eternal: for all the things which he seemed to have for the sustenance of bodily necessity he was eager to lay up as treasure not upon the earth, to be destroyed by rust and moth or by thieves; but above the heavens, so that here he might be in want, but there be enriched, where no one is found in need.

CHAPTER II

Miracles performed in his lifetime, and his pious death.

[14] In the use of the poor laboring with hunger, Wherefore, when at a certain time almost the whole province, with the neighboring regions, was afflicted by a great scarcity of food, the holy Pontiff Ansuinus took care most diligently to feed at his daily expense all the needy whom he could. In short, the love of the supreme fatherland had grown so much in him that he cared to possess nothing which smiles in a temporal way. Matt. 6, 25 But turning over anxiously with himself the precept of the Lord saying: Be not solicitous for your soul, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. The Prophet also saying: There is no want to them that fear Him; and therefore, joyfully giving all things, he fulfilled that which is written: Ps. 33, 20. Turn not away thy face from any poor man. Deut. 15, 9. For when on a certain day, namely in the time of the aforesaid famine, the poor had come to him as usual, asking that he would order something to be given them, he ordered with all alacrity that this should be done. And when it was said to him by those to whom it had been commanded that almost nothing was now left, because whatever provisions he had had were all consumed in the work of this matter, he began to admonish them more vehemently to be less anxious about themselves, to commit the care of themselves rather to God, the exhausted granary is filled by a miracle, and to give to the poor whatever they could find in the granaries: carrying out, therefore, the command of the one ordering, and sweeping the granaries, they offered to those asking that very thing, though little, which they found.

[15] A fully worthy recompense followed this deed, the ever-generous goodness of the Almighty granting it, plainly by the merits of Blessed Ansuinus. For, returning afterward to the granaries which they had left wholly exhausted, they found them full; without doubt that very hand cooperating which once in desert places had satisfied the crowds of five thousand men from five loaves. Therefore, from that day on, fearing the scarcity of no want, they began with all security, and it suffices for a long time, namely at the command of St. Ansuinus, to distribute food to the needy as was necessary: certain indeed that, through the virtues of Ansuinus, they would by no means be overthrown further by the scarcity of any want; for whom, from the very few remnants of provisions, mixed even with dust, the granaries were made full by him with so swift an outcome. O blessed Ansuinus, most wise lender at interest, to how good a debtor you lent your money, by whom it was so swiftly restored to you with so great usury, that it is proved by faithful narration that that Gospel promise was fulfilled for you, which the rewarder of all good things Himself by Himself promised to those who renounce for His sake and give to the poor, saying: He shall receive a hundredfold in this world, and shall possess life everlasting. Matt. 19, 29 For both came most truly to St. Ansuinus: the same both received a hundredfold in this world, and happily possesses eternal life without any ambiguity at all. For far be it that anyone should believe that by this recompense his eternal glory was diminished, for which he did not cease to do these things and whatever good things he could, but much rather increased. For as it is written of him and of all the elect, Therefore in their land they shall possess double, it shows the elect of God rewarded in both, that is, in this world and in the future: but in the verse which follows, adding, Everlasting joy shall be unto them, it showed that they would have everlasting glory without any contradiction at all. Isa. 61, 7. For which St. Ansuinus did not cease to labor with all his strength.

[16] liberal toward all So much indeed had the work of mercy and the love of bestowing necessities upon the needy clung to him, that however much he had given, he seemed to himself to have done a very small work and surely less than he ought to do; whence, if perhaps at some time he saw that the throng of the poor was lacking to him, or was less than he wished for the sake of receiving something, those wandering to seek food, sending men to explore the fields round about, and all whom they could find, men and women, of greater or lesser age (who, dispersed through the fields, wandering this way and that, were gathering herbs by which they might be sustained lest they perish by the want of famine), having taken away their implements which they used in the work of this matter, as if pledged, he compelled them to come to him. And having seen them, he often spoke as if exasperated: what did they mean by destroying his crops, continually gathering herbs? But if perhaps he saw some of them faltering with fear, he at once brought forth to them consoling words with a pleasant mouth. After this (namely at the command of the same holy Pontiff) they were led in one by one, and suitably refreshed, they were given back the things which had been taken away a little before, together with other necessary provisions; and so, glorifying God and wishing St. Ansuinus eternal beatitude, he gathers them into his house. those who had come sad went away joyful. Do you wish, my Brethren, to see Blessed Ansuinus an imitator of the Patriarch Joseph even in this deed? For as he once, ministering prudently, governed Egypt lest it perish by famine, so Blessed Ansuinus too, in the time of need, was found a most faithful administrator for his people. And as Joseph, pretending not to recognize his brothers, had them seized as if under the appearance of robbers, but afterward sent them away from him more joyful, filled and laden with timely provisions of food, whom he had first held back sad: so too Blessed Ansuinus pretended, that he might be able to help; pretended to take away, that he might be able to give more. O holy and praiseworthy violence of yours, most holy Pontiff Ansuinus, which, while it seemed to afflict, relieved.

[17] At Rome he raises up one languishing with fever: Nor does it seem that this should by any means be passed over, which St. Ansuinus did before the gate of the city, when he was hastening to Rome, namely for the sake of supplication. For a certain man languishing with fevers lay beside the entrance of the gate, asking those passing by to have pity on him. When, then, Blessed Ansuinus had looked on him, at once knowing the desires of his petition, he laid his hand upon him, and, the name of Christ having been invoked, raised him up sound. By this deed it at once appeared manifestly to all what great virtues and holiness accompanied Ansuinus as he went to receive the honor of the Episcopate. Truly wonderful is God in His Saints, who ceases at no time to glorify them everywhere, fulfilling for them that which He promised through the Psalmist, saying: To the Saints who are in His land, He hath made wonderful all my desires among them. Ps. 15, 3. And elsewhere: Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be base. 1 Kings 2, 30 Could not, Brethren, the loving Lord have relieved this feverish man from the languors of fevers through His Blessed Apostles or Martyrs, of whom innumerable sacred bodies rest within the walls of the aforesaid city? But He preferred to show of what merit this man was held with Him, who was hastening to receive the Pontificate. But let it now suffice to have touched upon these things of those which he did while still living in the body, though the miracles which he did are more: wherefore let us come to those which were done after his most sacred death: which nonetheless are so splendid and manifold that scarcely one in a thousand can be comprehended by us.

[18] He, then, when he was now nearly passing the eighteenth year of his Ordination, full of days, that is, and in the 18th year of the Episcopate of the fruits of good works, as is read of the holy Fathers, in this order, which he had always desired, passed happily from the pilgrimage of this mortality to Christ. While, then, he was staying in one of his Diocesan houses, seized perhaps for some days by sickness, he began to burn with the force of fevers. Then indeed, calling to himself the assembly of the Clerics, whom he always loved with pure affection, and with whom he also assiduously applied himself to holy meditations, he indicated to them that the time of his calling was at hand: Then indeed, beyond what can be believed, great grief and consternation struck heavily the minds of all who heard these things: whom the Saint himself, he falls into sickness, eager for the shortcut of his revelation, soothing their laments with exhortations, ordered to prepare with all speed the journey of returning to the See of his Episcopate; and when they wished him to be brought back there perhaps carried by men, because he was destitute of strength in the faculty of riding; he altogether forbade it, lest perhaps he should be burdensome to anyone, he orders himself to be brought back to Camerino: and what seemed a help to him should seem a burden to others. Wherefore, relying on the help of the Almighty, by whom he knew he would by no means be deserted, he ordered a horse to be at hand. A very wonderful thing! for as soon as it was brought to him, it submitted itself to him with such gentleness and reverence that, bending its knees to the ground, it plainly gave to understand what holy members it was receiving to carry.

[19] And after they had come to the See of his Episcopate, at once the holy Pastor ordered the whole flock to be present, where he dies piously, whom, as long as he survived, he did not cease to admonish to preserve the concord of charity and peace toward one another. For while all mourned and grieved to be deserted by the bodily patronage of so great a pastor, he, secure of the mercy of Christ, as one about to receive the rewards of his works and to return from exile to the fatherland, rejoiced in the hope of good remuneration. When, then, he knew that the hour was near at hand at which he must leave the burdens of the flesh; having given the holy kiss of peace to all who were present and who also desired to be blessed by him, and having received the food of eternal life, he went to the Lord, to exult forever with the rewards of great works. For it can be affirmed not unfaithfully that St. Ansuinus by his departure brought great grief to the earth, but carried off the greatest joy to heaven. The offices of the funeral rites having then been duly performed, he is famous for miracles, they delivered the holy body to burial quite becomingly, with pontifical honor. O how noble the funeral of your departure, most holy Pontiff Ansuinus, at which the choir of the heavenly powers exults, the order of the saints rejoices, and the earth also is relieved by miracles. And that almighty God might show to all what place of holiness and virtue he held with Him, He showed him more glorious after death; as it is written, When He shall give sleep to His beloved, this is the inheritance of the Lord. Ps. 126, 3 For the things which he did while still remaining in the body are quite praiseworthy: but we shall tell only those which after his death are proved to be both more illustrious and also multiplied.

CHAPTER III

Miracles of St. Ansovinus after his death.

[20] The true and first testimony of this thing, then, is believed to have been a certain widow woman, A boy deprived of the use of tongue and feet who had an only son, and he himself not whole; since for almost seven years from the time of his birth the faculty of speaking and walking was altogether lacking to him. And when she assiduously wept for him as if dead, and sought that he be restored to her by the suffrages of many Saints, she made no progress through any, because he was being reserved to be healed by St. Ansuinus. Finally, when perchance these things which we have related above were being done, it was revealed through a dream to the aforesaid woman that she ought to carry him to the tomb of St. Ansuinus, and be restored to health by him. Admonished, then, by this revelation, the woman made no delay, but, having at once taken up her son, approached St. Ansuinus to entreat him, and, not unmindful of the promise heard, throwing him down before his holy tomb, he is healed at the tomb of the Saint, she began with voices of great devotion to demand what had been promised her, and to exact this thing of the holy Pontiff as of a debtor, and with unwearied prayers to ask that her son be given back to her by him. While, then, the woman persisted in these petitions, the boy was raised up from the infirmity by which he had been held, the bond of his tongue loosed, and the soundness of his steps restored to him, above all by the merits of Blessed Ansuinus.

[21] Behold how powerful a worker the happy Bishop Ansuinus shone forth after the death of the flesh; if indeed anyone of less understanding dares to declare those dead who, after they have gone out of the body, are able even to give life to the dead. For this boy is known by the truest reasoning to have been for the greatest part dead before he was given life by Blessed Ansuinus; since indeed he bore almost dead in his jaws the tongue, which in a certain way holds the primacy among the other members: and no one doubts that he had his ankles also and soles dead, since they could fulfill nothing that was theirs. In this he is made like the Holy Apostles: If, then, Ansuinus was able to give life to what was dead in him, he is proved without any contradiction whatever to be living, enjoying true life. For it is pleasing, Brethren, to behold the most blessed Ansuinus as heir of the blessed Apostles, namely Peter and John, in this miracle, as it is written in their Acts: for so it is read there, that a certain lame man, asking those entering the temple that alms be given him, heard from Peter that he could not receive from him earthly wealth, which he by no means possessed; yet he gave back to him what he needed more, the freedom of walking, by which he might thereafter more easily acquire for himself whatever things were expedient. Acts 3 Behold how fitting are your miracles, Blessed Ansuinus: for in the first miracle which you performed living in the body, you held to the norm of the supreme master, and likewise in this first after death you shone forth as the successor of the Apostles.

[22] From that time on, therefore, all of the neighboring regions with one mind, and also many from distant provinces, began to frequent the place in which his holy body rests, with worthy offerings and prayers: the sick, indeed, receiving the benefits of many healings for diverse languors to the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ, a blind man is enlightened, and by the patronage of St. Ansuinus, as the following discourse declares. For a certain monk, who was deprived of the light of both eyes, going about the thresholds of many Saints, was seeking to recover the lost light. He came to the temple of St. Michael the Archangel, which is situated on the mountain which by its ancient name is called Garganus: in which, when he was staying for a long space of time, there seemed to speak to him in sleep someone who asked him the cause of his petition. And when he answered him that he was seeking the healing of his lost light, at once he heard from him that it had not been granted to him, but to St. Ansuinus; and that he must hasten to his house, and ought to receive the light from him.

[23] sent to Camerino from Mount Gargano, When morning came, then, the aforesaid blind man began to relate to those standing around the things which had been revealed to him, and to inquire from where he ought to seek him to whom it had been granted by the Lord to be able to give back his light to him. And when it had been told him where he ought to seek St. Ansuinus, Confessor and Pontiff, at once taking a guide for the way, he came to his house. And when he had remained in it for some time asking that pity be shown him; the divine mercy doubtless regarding him, he was wonderfully enlightened by St. Ansuinus. Then, all exulting and giving thanks to the Almighty, it was published everywhere how great a prodigy had been worked at the tomb of St. Ansuinus. For who of men ought not deservedly to exult in the virtues of one whom he sees honored even by the Angels? Let no one, therefore, my Brethren, think that almighty God sent this blind man from the very temple of the Holy Archangel (in which He doubtless could have enlightened him if He wished) to St. Ansuinus to restore his eyes, for any other reason than to give to understand by manifest reasoning that he was held worthy to enjoy the fellowship of the Angels in the heavens, by whom, the Lord dispensing it, he was so honored even on earth.

[24] And now the fame of the virtue of the same holy Pontiff had spread far and wide, many reporting it who were healed by him, Hearing and speech are restored to one deaf and dumb: whence it came about that crowds of the languishing ran together in throngs to his sepulcher, from which also they very often returned sound. Among whom another monk too, deaf and dumb, came from the parts of Ravenna, who nonetheless, with a certain space of time, when he had stayed there, merited to receive perfectly hearing and speech together; by the interventions, indeed, of Blessed Ansuinus, the greatest Pontiff. For at once a great exultation arose among those who saw these things; because St. Ansuinus showed two wonderful prodigies in one and the same man, when he rendered him speaking from dumb, hearing from deaf; so that he deservedly shone forth as a cooperator of the Gospel. For so it is read of the Savior, that, passing through the borders of Tyre and Sidon, He made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. Mark 7, 37 And Blessed Ansuinus, passing from this mortality, which can be interpreted as Tyre, straitness, or as Sidon, hunting, that is, captivity, to joys that will always abide, made the deaf hear; that he might fulfill what is written in the Apocalypse: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit saith to the churches. Apoc. 2, 7 He also made the dumb speak, so that in the praises of God he might be able to say with the Prophet: O Lord, thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise. Ps. 50. 17

[25] But, this miracle having now been so set down, let us follow the rest, and, if we can, by the help of his merits, let us loosen our mouths more broadly in the praise of St. Ansuinus; although his most sacred deeds are so innumerable that it is more pleasing to admire them than that I could say anything worthily: and as if it had once befallen someone to come upon infinite abundances of precious gems, he would scarcely know which he ought to judge the better, since he would wish to choose this one, and yet would by no means wish to let that one go. So I too, wherever I turn, find more things about the virtues of Ansuinus which exceed the sense of my powers, and cannot be explained by me as they deserve. But the works of the same holy Prelate are so wonderful that they seem in no way to be kept silent; wherefore let us follow the order.

[26] At another time, then, a certain man was brought by his parents, whom they held as if dead, because he was drawing out unwelcome delays, cut off from almost every usefulness of this life. crippled in the feet For he was weak in both feet, so that unless he was carried by another, he could by no means in any way move from the place where he was seen to lie to another. When, then, as we have said, his parents saw that he could be relieved from his sickness by no one else, and would be of little profit to them, they committed him to St. Ansuinus. Being altogether certain that he could, if he willed, relieve him from whatever infirmity he was held by, they committed the aforesaid sick man to St. Ansuinus on this condition, that if he healed him, they would no longer seek him further for any business of secular affairs; but would wish him to cleave unceasingly to the holy ceremonies in the house of his healer. Under this promise, then, the aforesaid sick man remained in the house of Blessed Ansuinus: where, when he had stayed for a certain space of time, he was restored to such perfect health that not even a small trace of any paralysis seemed to have remained in him. he is raised up: But when for some time they were rejoicing in the health received, both he himself and also his parents, forgetting the promise of his condition and also the benefit of the healer, he tried to return to the secular habit. When this had been done, having incurred the punishment of his excessive rashness, he began to suffer worse: but now he did not know what to do; knowing that he could be relieved by the help of no one else, unless St. Ansuinus should deign to pardon him the transgression of his rashness. What more? he returned to the house of the aforesaid Pontiff and was healed anew. but, once breaking his vow

[27] Yet not even so content to keep his promise, up to a third time he tried to flee the author of his health: in which he always found the virtue of Blessed Ansuinus opposing his perverse attempts: and again he relapses into sickness, and therefore as often as he tried, things quite worse always befell him. But when he now saw that all the approaches of his pleasure were shut off, he returned, and, now healed inwardly and outwardly, he persevered, cleaving immovably to the salutary services, never thereafter to leave them: in which also, imbued with sacred letters, he merited to attain even to the dignity of the Priesthood. This miracle too can well be fitted to that which our Redeemer performed upon the paralytic, whom the Evangelist Luke relates that He cured when he was brought to Him lying on a bed; seeing, namely, their faith, He said: Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. For this man sought only the health of the body, but the Savior, to show that He is the restorer of souls and bodies, nor does he receive the health of the body before that of the soul: healed him in both. Luke 5, 20 Yet, to show that the health of the soul is to be sought before that of the flesh, He said: Thy sins are forgiven thee; and so He bestowed both. But the deeds of Ansuinus differ from those of our Savior in this, that the Savior did them without Ansuinus; can Ansuinus do anything without the Savior? Far from it. For so He says to His disciples: If you abide, He says, in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you; for without me you can do nothing. John 15, 7 And therefore Blessed Ansuinus, following His footsteps, healed the aforesaid paralytic, by the help of the same Savior, in body and mind. Nonetheless that prophetic word also seems to be able to fit this man most rightly, by which it is said: Behold, I will hedge up thy ways with thorns, and I will hedge them with a wall: and, Go after thy lovers, and thou shalt not overtake them; thou shalt seek and shalt not find them. Job 15, 7., Hos. 2, 6. For without doubt, unless St. Ansuinus had restrained him, even after he had been healed he tried to follow those things which seemed not to be expedient for him.

[28] About the same time also a certain monk, who lacked all ability of usefulness in one side, the dead side of a monk so that he bore one of his hands almost dead and bloodless, and was also seen to carry one of his feet withered and insensible. And when he, wandering about, had gone round the places of many Saints for the sake of his recovery, he could be helped by none, until he betook himself to the refuge of St. Ansuinus: before whose altar, when he frequently prostrated himself, asking that pity be shown him, he too at length merited to receive the health of his lost side from the same holy Pontiff, whom thereafter he also venerated as the author of his health. By whose help and merits alone, so to speak, he was able to prove that he had been restored to himself.

[29] Moreover, a certain woman, one of whose hands clung fixed to her breast, and who bore her whole side quite numb, seeking a remedy for her sickness, and a contracted woman is healed: came to the solace of his powerful healing. And, now distrusting all the solace of others, the hope of recovery remained in the merits of Blessed Ansuinus alone, by whom she too was saved with such powerful virtue that, for joy at the health received, almost all the troubles of the infirmity she had previously suffered were forgotten.

[30] Another pitiable woman also was brought, who, her nerves contracted and dead before their time, likewise another contracted woman. bore both her feet withered and pressed against her buttocks. She, then, through many years, had suffered much by the art of physicians, and yet could receive no cure from anyone, except from the most blessed Ansuinus: and, the Lord also having pity, she began, having indeed obtained the fullness of gladness, to render to the Almighty, as we have said, thanksgivings in his praise. Nonetheless also all who were present, seeing so wonderful a prodigy, began to render quite worthy honors to the Almighty in the work of His blessed Confessor Ansuinus.

[31] For I confess that as often as this is turned over in my memory, I am vehemently astonished before the greatness of such virtues. For who could not deservedly marvel when he sees him exalted by the chief signs and virtues of our Savior, the dignity of these miracles is weighed, which our Savior Himself, conversing on earth, worked by Himself: and in this He is the more to be glorified, who granted him such virtues that He deigned to bestow upon him too, to be done for the glory of His name, the wonderful things which He Himself had done. For as He Himself, God walking among men, made man for men, enlightened the man blind from birth, so He has deigned to do also through His servant, namely Blessed Ansuinus, in modern times. For indeed we see fulfilled for him in this the Gospel promise by which our Redeemer granted to His Apostles, and through them to those who would believe in Him, the power of doing His works. For He Himself by Himself, the author of all good things, through whom all good things are effected, and in whom perfect things consist, deigned to show with what great virtues of rewards He had exalted His Priest, namely Ansuinus; since He is known to declare him by His more excellent miracles. And in the Almighty Himself this seemed as it were more wonderful than the rest, although all His works without doubt are altogether to be magnified and admired by all; for so the Gospel of John relates: Jesus, he says, passing by, saw a man blind from his birth.