Heribert

ON SAINT HERIBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF COLOGNE.

YEAR 1021

Preliminary Commentary.

Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne (S.)

§ I The Dignity of Chancellor conferred. The time of the Archbishopric of Cologne received and of death.

[1] Among the illustrious monuments that render Cologne, Colonia Agrippina, admirable above other cities, very many are brought to light by various writers and more recently by Aegidius Gelenius and Hermann Crombach: which the former accomplished in his commentary on the admirable, sacred, and civil grandeur of Colonia Claudia Agrippinensis of the Ubii, Among the holy Archbishops of Cologne the latter in his history both of Ursula and of the three Evangelical Magi, about to do the same in other treatises which he is still preparing for the press. We also consider this admirable, perhaps not noticed by others, that in each past century it merited to have in its Church Bishops or Archbishops inscribed in the Register of Saints: among whom the thousandth year of the Christian Era was closed by Saint Heribert, S. Heribert a man worthy of eternal memory for the nobility of his birth, his illustrious deeds, and miracles wrought both during his life and after his death. Among the first dignities which he held, it may rightly be considered that before taking up the Episcopate he was constituted Chancellor of Emperor Otto III. Thus in Johann Paul Windeck's treatise on the Electors of the Empire, before that, Chancellor of Otto III, printed at Cologne in the year 1616, chapter 12: in the letters of Otto III, Herbertus the Chancellor subscribed in the name of Peter, Bishop of Como, in the year 997 at Rome. Would that Windeck had published the imperial letters themselves; perhaps we would gather from the day and month, and the year of the Empire or Indiction, at what time he was still at Rome: for Lambert indicates below, number 6, that Heribert traveled to Rome with Otto III many times. For in place of Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz, the Archichancellor (which dignity for the German Empire pertained to the Archbishops of that See), Heribert himself subscribed, as found in Christoph Gewold, who in his additions to the Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 1, page 363, published the third privilege of Otto III, he recognized privileges at Rome in the year 999 granted to Bishop Christian and the Church of Passau, with this concluding formula: The Sign of the Lord Otto, most August Emperor. Heribert the Chancellor recognized it in place of Willigis the Archbishop. Given on the 3rd day before the Nones of January, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 999, Indiction XIII rather XII, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Otto III, in the third year of his Empire. Done at Rome, happily, Amen. A similar privilege was given at Rome to the Church of Utrecht on the 2nd day before the Ides of April of the same year, in Miraeus, book 2 of Belgian Diplomata, chapter 26, where Indiction XII is correctly written. At that time the Archichancellor for Italy was Peter, Bishop of Como or Cumae, when, at the supplication of the Lord Pope Silvester and with the intervention of Heribert, his most beloved Chancellor, Emperor Otto showed himself most munificent toward the Church of Vercelli, granting it the city of Vercelli itself with the County, as well as the County of Saint Agatha: which donation Heribert the Chancellor recognized in place of Peter, Bishop of Como, the Archichancellor, at Rome on the Nones of May in the year and Indiction already indicated. Consult Baronius at the said year 999, numbers 17, 18, and 19. In which same manner, on the 6th day before the Kalends of June of the same year, he recognized at Rome a privilege granted to the said Peter, Bishop, and the Church of Como, which Ughelli published in volume 5 of Italia Sacra, among the Bishops of Como, page 266.

[2] Neither Emperor Otto nor Saint Heribert the Chancellor appear to have remained longer at Rome: for the latter, sent by the former to Ravenna when he departed for the territory of Benevento, to reconcile those in discord, accomplished this successfully. Meanwhile, envoys came to the Emperor from Cologne, Archbishop of Cologne is ordained who requested Saint Heribert as Archbishop. He, summoned by imperial command, hastened to Rome, and since he could not refuse the Episcopate, allowed himself to be designated. He then remained for a little more than two months with the Emperor. Then having received the Pallium from Pope Silvester II, he completed in a short time the long distance of the journey, and on the vigil of the Nativity of Christ he was enthroned in his Cathedral at Cologne, on the vigil of the Nativity of Christ. as these things are precisely related by Lambert below in his Life. That the year of Christ was then 999 is so certainly established that there is no room for controversy. That year is prescribed by Rupert at the beginning, and indicated by Lambert in his earlier Life, when he asserts that he died in the twenty-third year of his Ordination. But because in Rupert it is read that he lived on the See twenty-three years, two months, and twenty-two days, Baronius wished to correct the earlier assertion of Rupert at the year 1021, where he treats of his death, and to establish the year 998 as the first of the assumed Archbishopric. But from Lambert the twenty-three years of the See should be corrected, in the year 999. and twenty-two substituted. For while at Rome, as we said, at the supplication of the Lord Pope Silvester and with the intervention of Heribert the Chancellor, the privilege was granted to the city of Vercelli on the Nones of May of the year 999: if he had been an Archbishop, that title would have been inserted according to the custom of that age: thus, by the intervention of Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, the holy Emperor Henry donated to Erluinus, Bishop of Cambrai, the County of Cambrai in the year 1007: as can be read in Miraeus in the Notitia of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 78. Furthermore, if, as was assumed, he had returned to Cologne in the year 998 on the vigil of the Nativity of the Lord, how could he on the 3rd day before the Nones of January of the following year, that is, nine days after Christmas, again recognize at Rome the privilege granted to the Bishop and Church of Passau? The errors of Sigebert and other chronologers we do not care to refute, since in dating the Apostolic See of Silvester II they deviate from the truth by four years, when both were elevated to their respective sees within the same year.

[3] That Saint Heribert died on the 17th day before the Kalends of April in the year 1021 is clearly stated by Lambert in his Life, and others generally follow: he dies March 16 in the year 1021 which date was likewise inscribed on a lead tablet deposited at his head when he was buried in the monastery of Deutz, on which the following is contained: In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand and twenty-one, on the 17th day before the Kalends of April, Heribert, Archbishop of the holy Church of Cologne, who built this monastery at his own expense. Another title, deposited at his feet in the sarcophagus, was found to be as follows: Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, builder of this church, in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand and twenty, consecrated it in honor of the Savior of the world and His Mother. The day of consecration is indicated in both Acts as the 5th day before the Nones of May, on the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross. But since Saint Heribert himself, in the diploma of foundation of this monastery, dated in the year 1019, affirms that on the 5th day before the Nones of May, on the very day of consecration, he conferred estates and revenues of fields, vineyards, and courts, tithes, and forests; we doubt the truth of the second title, which at least ought to be corrected to read the year one thousand and eighteenth, or if it was written in Roman numerals, the year 1015, from which the year 1020 could easily have crept in. The cited diploma of donation was published by Gelenius in his Colonia, syntagma 14, §1.

§ II The Life of S. Heribert written by various authors.

[4] Within a few days of his death, forty-five miracles had been wrought at his tomb, On account of the miracles, for promoting veneration as Rupert notes at the end of his Life. Hence, as Lambert relates in number 31, the city of Cologne established a custom throughout the entire Thirtieth, that is, the space of thirty days, to visit him daily and to frequent his memory. And the Metropolis of Agrippina Colonia had the Life of Saint Heribert written, and in its name dedicated it to the holy Roman Church and to all the children of the universal Church, a Life written at the behest of the Metropolis of Cologne asking that the 17th day before the Kalends of April be observed as a feast day in perpetuity. The said Life was written twenty or a little more years after the death of Saint Heribert, under Emperor Henry III, who succeeded his father Conrad in the year 1039 and died in the year 1056, under Herimann, Archbishop of Cologne, who presided over that Church from the year 1036 until the year 1055 or the following, and under Abbot Werimbald of Deutz, between whom and Fulbert or Volpert, who died in the month following the death of Saint Heribert, only Radolf intervened. The author who wrote in the name of the Metropolis of Agrippina Colonia is a monk of Deutz, named Lambert or Landbert. We give it from three illustrious manuscript codices: the first of these is from our Professed House at Antwerp, by Lambert, monk of Deutz, which was given to us in the year 1648 by the most distinguished Lord Gaule, Chancellor of Guelders; the second codex is from the Imperial monastery of Saint Maximin near Trier; and the third from the Canons Regular of Rouge-Cloître near Brussels. The monks of Deutz also have this same Life of Saint Heribert in a small but thick manuscript codex, together with hymns, found in 4 manuscripts. responsories, and antiphons composed by the same Lambert for the ordinary Ecclesiastical Office, and a Sequence to be recited in the sacrifice of the Mass: which, copied from the said monastery of Deutz, our Johannes Gamansius transmitted to us.

[5] Because this Life had not hitherto been printed, many fabrications have arisen concerning its author Lambert. Concerning Lambert the writer Trithemius led the way in the Chronicle of the monastery of Hirsau at the year 1048: Lambert, he says, a monk of our Order, of the monastery of Saint Lawrence at Liège, formerly a student of Adelmus the Grammarian, Bishop of Brescia, errors of Trithemius, a man certainly magnificently learned in every branch of knowledge, also in this time splendidly illuminated our Order by his erudition. He wrote the Life of Saint Heribert, Bishop of Cologne, and many other things, of which we have spoken elsewhere: namely in

the Catalogue of illustrious men. That he writes him a monk of the monastery of Saint Lawrence at Liège, we greatly fear that he was led astray by Rupert, who was initially a monk of Saint Lawrence's at Liège and afterwards Abbot of Deutz, and who, as will presently be said, also published a Life of Saint Heribert. We rather consider Lambert, the author of this Life, to have been a monk of the monastery of Deutz. Certainly the Metropolis of Agrippina Colonia says in the Prologue: Let this Life be titled with the name and memory of our Brother Lambert who has complied with our wishes. He whom Trithemius calls Adelmus the Grammarian, Bishop of Brescia, is, according to Ughelli in volume 4 of Italia Sacra among the Bishops of Brescia, number LVII, Adelmannus or Alamannus the Grammarian of Liège, created in the year 1048, dead after the year 1061. Whether the writer of this Life, Lambert, was a student of his, or another Lambert of this name, a monk of Saint Lawrence's at Liège, we leave for others to determine. Johannes Molanus, in his Annotations to the Martyrology of Usuard as augmented by himself, says this on the 16th of March: that Lambert of Liège, a monk of Deutz, of Molanus, at the command of the metropolis of Agrippina, wrote this Life, from which he published a large part of the prologue; but in wanting this and the miracles to have been written by him in two books, he errs with Trithemius, because below in the Epilogue he says that he left untouched the virtues of the Saint and the miracles which God wrought through him after his death, because both the writings sufficed for simple reading, and to mold them to the elegance of antiquity required more leisure and more laborious effort. Arnold Wion in book 2 of the Lignum Vitae, chapter 71, has these words: of Arnold Wion. Lambert of Liège; a monk of the monastery of Saint Lawrence of Deutz of the Cluniac Congregation, who flourished in the year of the Lord 1220, wrote two books on the Life of Saint Herebert, Archbishop of Cologne. These two books he could have taken from Molanus and Trithemius, Wion, that he was a monk of the monastery of Saint Lawrence from Trithemius; but the latter adds that it was of the monastery of Liège, not of Deutz, which Saint Heribert himself asserts in the diploma of donation that he constructed and dedicated in honor of our Savior Jesus Christ and the most pious Mother of God, our Lady, the perpetual Virgin Mary. But by what authority Wion errs by one hundred and seventy or eighty years in assigning the time at which the writer Lambert flourished, we cannot determine. Wion is followed by Possevinus in the Apparatus Sacer, Valerius Andreas in the Bibliotheca Belgica, Francis Swertius in the Athenae Belgicae, Gerard Jan Vossius on Latin Historians, and others. Possevinus says that more credence should be given to Wion testifying that he lived in the year 1220, of Possevinus, than to Eisengrein writing that he lived in the year 1147; indeed, Eisengrein in the Catalogue of Witnesses of Truth says he flourished a hundred years earlier still, which we also assert. Vossius very poorly confirms his error with these words: He surely belongs to this period if he lived under Werimbald, the third Abbot, as Valerius Andreas reports in the Bibliotheca Belgica. of Vossius, Rudolph was created second Abbot in the year 1021; if two hundred years are attributed to his governance, to reach the required year 1220, only one would be lacking. And lest an escape be found to a third Werimbald of that name as Abbot of the monastery of Deutz, it is safely objected that until now, among all the Abbots of that monastery, there has been only one Werimbald, whom we have discussed. We would abuse the reader's goodwill if we were to refute the library of Gesner, augmented by Simler and Fries, because they refer the date of the said writer Lambert to the year 1460, of Gesner. that is, a full four hundred years later than was proper. But it is not out of place to add that in the same library it is recorded that Lambert de Legia, a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, lived in the year 1480 and wrote on the Life and miracles of Saint Matthias the Apostle in verse, and on Saint Agricius. We treated of this on the 13th of January and of Saint Matthias the Apostle on the 24th of February, and we published the Acts of the Finding of the body of Saint Matthias and of miracles, authored by Lambert, a monk of Trier, who writes that he was freed in the year 1127 by the aid of Saint Matthias: but that he was surnamed "de Legia" we have not read except in similar library indices of Possevinus, Valerius Andreas, and Vossius. Whether any of these two was from Liège, whether both, or neither, we leave for others to determine.

[6] Among the Abbots of Deutz, Marcuard is numbered ninth, having died in the year 1117, to whom Rupert was appointed successor and lived until the year 1135. Another Life by Rupert, afterwards Abbot of Deutz, written How great this man was is known to the whole world from the very many books written by him and frequently printed at Cologne, Louvain, Paris, and elsewhere. At the request of the said Abbot Marcuard, he acknowledges having rewritten in a new style the Life of Saint Heribert, splendid with virtues but somewhat obscure from the rust of the earlier style, that is, by inserting spiritual counsels and piously interpreting various passages of Sacred Scripture. However, as regards the accurate narration of events, it must receive its force almost entirely from the earlier Life, or else he does not seem to have had the truth sufficiently investigated. What he intersperses here and there, or adds at the end, appear to be those things which Lambert neglected to mold to the elegance of style. The rest we note below in the Life itself, which was previously frequently printed among the works of Rupert and by Surius at March 16.

[7] Summaries of the Life of Saint Heribert have been published by many, among whom the principal are Zacharias Lippelous, Francis Haraeus, and before them in a particular booklet Matthias Agricius Witlichius, Summaries of the Life: who, besides the Life briefly excerpted from ancient histories, celebrated it in elegiac verses arranged in sixteen poems: in which it displeases that he frequently calls Saint Heribert the first Elector of Cologne, which some serious authors also did, misled by the Chronicle of Martin of Poland, when the origin of the Electoral college should be referred to the times of Pope Innocent IV, when at the Council of Lyon held in the year 1245 against Emperor Frederick II, seven Electors were constituted, and soon after the same ones who had hitherto held that dignity were confirmed. in these he is erroneously established as the first Elector. One may read what Bernard von Mallinckrodt learnedly discusses in chapter 3 of his additions to the book on the Archichancellors and Chancellors of the Empire.

§ III The Translation of S. Heribert: Canonization; Sacred Cult

[8] After the Life of Saint Heribert was written by Lambert and Rupert, there occurred the Translation of the body of Saint Heribert, which we have received as described by Theoderic, the Custodian of the monastery of Deutz, and it is as follows: In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand one hundred and forty-seven, Translation of the body made in the year 1147. Indiction ten, the venerable body of our most holy Father and Confessor of Christ, Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, Founder of the monastery of Deutz, was translated on the third day before the Kalends of September, Saturday, at the third hour of the day, by the Venerable Arnold the First, Archbishop of the people of Cologne, in the eighth year of his Episcopate; in the third year of the papacy of Blessed Eugene III; in the eighth year of the Empire of the glorious Lord Conrad the Second, and the first year of his son Henry; moreover, in the second year of Gerlach, the twelfth Abbot of the same place. Thus far from that source. The Bull of Canonization is as follows: Gregory, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the children of the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, or especially to the Cisalpine peoples, Canonization by Pope Gregory. most dear greeting with Apostolic blessing. Whatever is confirmed by divine testimonies does not need to be confirmed by human ones. Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, by the merits of his most holy life has merited to be numbered among the ranks of the Saints in the heavenly court: which is attested both by the miracles wrought through him while he lived in this world, and by the signs that followed after he was translated thither. We have seen his Life committed to writing, in which we learned of his great holiness. With the Lord's approval, therefore, by the Apostolic authority divinely bestowed upon us, we command that he henceforth be numbered among the Saints and inscribed in the catalogue of Saints, and celebrated by all as most holy on his birthday. For it seems fitting that he whom God the Father has honored in heaven should also be honored on earth by us, the servants of the same. Thus far the bull, submitted without a clause of time or place, from which we might judge which Pope of this name Gregory gave it. whether this was the VII of that name Theoderic the custodian conjectures that the Canonization was made by Gregory VII, who sat from the year 1073 until the year 1086, and therefore before the Life was written by Rupert, who does not mention it, in which some miracles wrought after death are narrated, which in the bull are called "signs that followed." or VIII or IX. If others judge that Gregory VIII should be understood, or, because he did not live long, rather Gregory IX, that too is permitted by us.

[9] The name inscribed in the sacred calendars The name of Saint Heribert is inscribed in the sacred calendars, both handwritten and printed. In the Cologne manuscript of Saint Mary-ad-Gradus: At Cologne, of Heribert the Archbishop — thus also without the title of Saint is he remembered in the ancient manuscript Calendar of Saint Maximin: but with the title of Saint, his death or birthday is indicated in the Trier manuscript of Saint Martin and another of Saint Paulinus, the Liège manuscript of Saint Lambert, the Prague manuscript, that of the monastery of Saint Maximin, the Brussels manuscript, and many others under the name of Usuard or Ado, but augmented. The Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490 has in the first place: At Colonia Agrippina, the birthday of Saint Heribert, Archbishop and Confessor of the same place, who sat for twenty-three years, two months, and twenty-two days, and rests buried across the Rhine in the monastery of Deutz: which that Prelate himself during his lifetime had built from the foundations and consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But we have demonstrated above that he should be read as having sat for twenty-two years. In the German Martyrology more is read, excerpted from the Acts. Galesius, citing Acts written by Rupert and Lambert, writes other things not read in them: that he was handed over by his parents for education to Gerbert, a man of proven probity and singular learning, who afterwards, created Pontiff, took the name of Silvester the Second, etc. These things were written with little consideration, if they are compared with what is related of Gerbert or Silvester II by Baronius in the Annals. In the Roman Martyrology the following is found: At Cologne, of Saint Heribert, Bishop, celebrated for his holiness. What is said in the Notes about the excellent miracles written by Lambert of Liège, and about the ordination related by Sigebert to the year 996, we have refuted above.

[10] The body in the monastery of Deutz. Saint Heribert is also inscribed in the Fasti Agrippinenses of Gelenius, who, in reviewing the sacred treasury of the monastery of Deutz, asserts in the first place the body of Saint Heribert enclosed in a silver sarcophagus, and his chasuble, staff, and comb kept in other reliquaries. But these sacred relics, when in the year 1376 the monastery was leveled to the ground by the citizens of Cologne, relics at Cologne, were carried to Siegburg: in the Collegiate church of Saint Cunibert there is a chalice and stole of Saint Cunibert the Patron; in the church of the Holy Apostles, also Collegiate, there are preserved a chalice with

two combs of the same Saint Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne. In the most celebrated monastery of Saint Lawrence of the Order of Saint Benedict, at the walls of the city of Liège, a rib of Saint Heribert together with one of his teeth was customarily exposed for veneration, at Liège, as Rayssius reports in his Hierogazophylacium: at Utrecht: who, from a letter of Frederick, Bishop of Utrecht, published by Wilhelm Heda, writes that there were some relics of Saint Heribert in the Collegiate Church of Saint John there. His name is also found written in the Calendars prefixed to the ancient Breviaries and Missals of the Church of Utrecht. Ecclesiastical Office: In the older Breviaries of the Church of Cologne, from nine Lessons, six are taken from the Life written by Rupert. In the proper Offices of the Church of Osnabrück, from nine Lessons three are recited about his Life.

[11] memory on August 30. The memory of the translation made on the 30th of August is also celebrated, on which day in the Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490, the following is read: At the monastery of Deutz on the bank of the Rhine, the translation of Blessed Heribert, Archbishop of Colonia Agrippina, which was made by Arnold the First, Archbishop of the people of Cologne, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and forty-seven. The same is read in the Doctrinale Clericorum printed at Lübeck in the said year 1490, and with a few words transposed in Greven's additions to Usuard, and somewhat more briefly in the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum, the German Martyrology of Canisius, and the Fasti Agrippinenses of Gelenius.

LIFE

By Lambert of Deutz.

From four Manuscript Codices.

Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne (S.)

BHL Number: 3827, 3828

BY LAMBERT

PROLOGUE

in the name of the Metropolis of Agrippina Colonia.

[1] To the Mother of Churches, the holy Roman Church, and throughout the whole world, to all the children of the universal Church, the Metropolis of Agrippina Colonia, with God as maker, every good gift and every perfect gift from the Father of lights.

God has wrought, O members of Christ, and continues to work among us by His grace great and wonderful things: which, although Christian warfare has long since recognized them (for the material of deeds accomplished is manifold), nevertheless we have judged it perilous to the soul to conceal them from posterity. The Dayspring from on high has exalted among us His high Priest, Heribert, chosen from His people: who, since he held the sum of living well, obtained the glory of those who live well. He was buried, moreover, in his own monastery, which he himself founded from the foundation, completed, and dedicated; The certainty of this history. where so many and such great marvelous things have been wrought through him by the gift of God, that immense volumes would be required if they were all to be described. We have committed the task of writing, by common consent, to one Brother of the same monastery, who, b with obedient service, wrote nothing other than what we have seen or heard from the faithful. For through him very many things were done among foreign and far distant peoples, which we have learned by hearing alone from competent witnesses. We have written these things for the benefit of readers, so that throughout all the land they might rejoice with us, and rejoicing together, transcribe them, and observe the seventeenth day before the Kalends of April as a perpetual feast day. These things were written, moreover, under the reign of Henry the Third, with Herimann as Archbishop of our metropolis, and c Werimbald as Abbot of the monastery in which he rests: and lest the page be reproached as mute because the name of the one who composed it is suppressed, let it be titled with the name and memory of our Brother Lantbert who has complied with our wishes.

CHAPTER I

Noble lineage: studies: the Office of Chancellor under Emperor Otto III.

[2] Born at Worms, his father Hugo, The most beloved chief Bishop, Heribert, predestined before the ages of the world in the wisdom of God, Creator of all things, brought forth into the world from the most illustrious stock of the people of Worms, illuminated his birth, under God's auspices, by his merits and character. His father Hugo, celebrated by a great name in the said city of Germany, but his mother Tietwidis flowed from the high mother Tietwide, who was born and noble blood of the a Alamannian b Counts, from Imma, daughter of a Count of Alamannia, having herself also a mother, Imma, born of the freeborn d Count Reginbald: who, with her sisters, though fortified by the strong protection of her father, by God's judgment was carried away captive by the e Hungarians, after the destruction of his castle: who, reaching the shores of Worms and, as is read in the Chronicles, captured by the Hungarians plundering everything without mercy, the little one was mournfully exposed for sale, and was redeemed by a certain upright and distinguished man, and after so many perils was restored by diligent care. and sold at Worms. No hope of recovering her remained for her relatives thereafter: and her father was going down to the court of the first f Otto on behalf of the state, when, making use of the respectable dwelling of the aforesaid man during his stay, he recognized his daughter by chance, by her appearance and conversation. An immense rejoicing arose on both sides: the benefit of heavenly clemency was magnified: which raises up the mourning with pious consolations, lest they be overwhelmed by too abundant sorrow. Heb. 13, 4 Immediately, according to the Apostle, a lawful marriage of a chaste bed and undefiled couch was arranged: the daughter was given by the father to that same householder in marriage: a dowry, census, household, and patrimony were gathered together, and thus with joy every good thing was accomplished.

With these ancestors, the aforesaid Tietwidis was born, and growing up with happy prospects, was given and joined in lawful betrothal and with a dowry to the Lord Hugo.

[3] After some days, the future mother of happy offspring, by divine dispensation became pregnant: both husband and wife walked in the commandments and justifications of the Lord without complaint, just as is told in the Gospel of Zacharias and the holy Elizabeth. Luke 1. 6 Insisting on refreshing the needy, laboring to support the poor and destitute, they devoted themselves to prayers and fruitful works, and heaped gifts and honor upon the altars: so that from the fruit of their womb there might come joy for themselves and their posterity, and the salvation of all might graciously bring this about. The time of birth was approaching with the months elapsed, which was preceded by revelations through the faithful in fitting visions, in which the chamber of the pregnant woman seemed to be filled with more than the rays of the sun, he is born with a light divinely spread through the chamber, about to bring forth at the same instant and moment a saving aid for the earth. Nor did the true reality fail the vision, for when the blessed mother had given birth to her blessed offspring, she burst into the praise and thanks of God: the midwives also enjoyed a honeyed light, as though where the ministration was rightly believed to be angelic. The maidservants came forth astonished and terrified to meet their Lord, and reported to him such great joy and an unprecedented gladness. The whole house resounded with voices and applause: it celebrated by repeating the given name of Heribert: a festive day was spent in jubilation: every burden and servile labor was set aside: a more copious table was laid and set before pilgrims for the first beginnings of the child. Nor from this point was there delay in being renewed through the hands of the Priests in the bath of sanctification: in which he merited to be filled and consecrated with such a multiplicity of the Holy Spirit that He would never thereafter depart from him offended, he is baptized: but, protecting his inviolable breast, would rest in him forever and beyond. He was received from the font by ecclesiastical and religious men, and by authorized and God-fearing matrons, lest any omen should be lacking to the heavenly counsel, which the ever-living and reigning dignity willed to be commended in him.

[4] Then, to be dedicated to the Lord's school, he was raised with the greatest sincerity and purity, piously educated: who was to become a living and God-pleasing sacrifice, holy among holy things. When he was removed from the breast of his parents, the desire and devotion increased, because they burned for their most beloved child to advance in age and literary study, and through this they entrusted him at Worms to qualified persons in the house of the Prince of the Apostles, where he was imbued with the pages of both Testaments along with outward discipline. he applies himself to secular studies Whatever is obscurely treated in poetry was quickly open to him: nor were the flights and knotty turns in Socrates and Aristotle and any other tortuous rhetorician hidden from him. With these meanwhile set aside to the left, he so excelled in sacred doctrine, divinely bestowed upon the Church, and sacred: that he was nearly able to eat the whole lamb, and little remained that the fire would need to consume. For the now grown young man, his native region no longer sufficed, in which he might thirstily drink what harmonizes with the service of divinity, but he was emboldened by the royal and narrow way to arduous heights, until, youthful infancy being worn through, he might possess the triumphal victory of virtues.

[5] For a long time already there flourished in g Gorze the fervent zeal of strict monks, and from them everywhere throughout the lands a sweet fragrance of good odor was spread abroad, because they excelled others in charity and religion, and abounded in a hearing-hall of honest learning. he dwells in the Gorzian monastery: When this seriously reached the ears of the faithful youth, he strove with every effort to reach that place, and did not desist until he accomplished his desire with effect. Soon in his own garb he was admitted to their h community, to be fashioned by them, like a diadem with flowers, by example and the pattern set before him. He observed in them how the soul thirsting for God is first pierced with fear, then kindled with love. He marveled that in them was fulfilled in reality what he held only from reading, how one surpassed another in vigils and abstinence, as that one outran this one in humility and obedience: and when, as has been said, divisions of graces flourished in them, in one spirit without envy they accomplished the consummate degree of perfection. All these things the admirable Heribert, like a prudent bee, gathered together in himself by action, and, superior to all yet declaring himself inferior to others, having returned he is loved by Hildebald, Bishop of Worms, he bound all to himself with indissoluble familiarity. He had utterly trampled the care of the flesh in its desires, towering over the world he had subdued its concupiscences; so that by a brief distinction from the servants of God, no longer a monk having soon professed, he would have returned, were it not that he was requested by envoys sent to revisit his father. Col. 3. 20 Who, according to the saying of the Apostle: Obey your parents in all things; he returned with the blessing of his Superiors and the permission of his fellow subjects. Immediately, upon learning of his return, i Hildebald, Bishop of Worms, then preeminent in the conduct of canonical regulation, at once placed him over all the others in his service: intending that after himself he should be elevated to the insignia of the Pontificate. But since the way of a man is not in himself, k shortly after he died, and contrary to his expectation, another was substituted in his place.

[6] l The younger Otto, the same and third in authority, was ruling the monarchy, and beyond his years he was seeking out servants of God everywhere, he is made Chancellor by Otto III, embraced and cultivated those he found, and exalted them with dignities according to the tradition of the canons. He summoned Heribert, more precious than a carbuncle, to himself m, and wished him to be his Archichancellor and the first of his inner circle. Without delay: he was advanced by the consecration of the Presbyterate, he is consecrated Priest: so that, as far as it is in a man, he might handle without offense the commemoration of so great a mystery, and so that counsels of salvation might be bestowed upon him from heaven, to whose enactments the Emperor might acquiesce together with the Roman court. At that time the Church of Würzburg was vacant, bereaved of its n Pastor's lot, and the Emperor desired this holy man to be placed over it: but, strenuously resisting, he obtained that his brother o Henry, younger than himself, should be elected, anointed, and sanctified he refuses the Bishopric of Würzburg: in place of the great Priesthood. He himself, however, adhered incessantly to the side of the Prince, and most acceptable to the Clergy, the Nobles, and the people, he vigorously carried out what was entrusted to him. How many times he went to Rome with the Emperor and returned, and how

the Emperor disposed of the stronghold of the Empire by governing the affairs of Italy, seems more fitting to be inscribed in the royal Chronicle than to be forcibly bent into praise of the Saint. The Emperor had once left him at Ravenna p to reconcile those in discord through his industry; he removes the discords of the people of Ravenna. he himself had hastened to Rome, to crush by force and arms the rebels and enemies. Here he overcame opposition by modifying mildness and justice: there no power remained, terrified by the contrary Majesty.

p Rather, he followed the Emperor to Rome, and thence returned to Ravenna: as is clear from the recognition of the privileges of Emperor Otto of which we treated above, if the following are compared with them.

CHAPTER II

The election and consecration of S. Heribert as Archbishop of Cologne. The death of Otto III, and the care of his burial.

[7] Meanwhile, the a Metropolitan of Cologne departed from this world, and after his funeral the Clergy and people investigate about appointing a successor, and not entirely according to God's cause through the decisions and traditions of the elders: in the schism of the people of Cologne and therefore the Church was divided on both sides, with these and those favoring their own party. Then the b Provost of the same Apostolic See, himself also elected by his supporters, offered himself as a mediator in the twofold schism; protesting himself to be unworthy and useless for so great a governance. But when all were calmed, he said that a sound and approvable opinion seemed to him to be that the Lord Heribert, the Archichancellor, should be elected, he is elected Bishop: and requested from the Emperor through that same concord: whose singular purity of life would shine with wisdom and the light of virtues above all others in this mortal condition. He had not yet finished speaking when the entire multitude jubilated from the mouth of the speaker, raising their voices on high: Thanks be to God, praises to God, who has looked upon his people and visited them, if they have merited such a Prelate from Him. The better among the leading Clerics are commissioned: who should carry the common decree to Italy with the pastoral staff to the throne of the Emperor; with whom, for the united assent of the whole army, a legation is sent to request him from the Emperor Count Hermann is sent, a man of probity and nobility. No delay was made by those hastening, lest anyone by the fraud of the wicked should forestall the salvation of the expectant citizens: and because it is the custom of Princes to accuse delays of those tarrying who bear such tidings. After so many labors of the journey were endured, they finally reached the Emperor, who had already c left Rome: they laid before him d the insignia of the prelacy: they humbly sought that their embassy, and that of their people, be graciously accepted, which was agreed to be arranged without fault and in complete faith. The Emperor raised them up with kind consolation and led them to the hope of their petition with a firm promise, and if there should be any who might attempt to obstruct this unanimity, they would assuredly be repelled, justly repudiated for their importunity. Thus departing from his presence, they retired to their lodging, committing their journey and cause to the judgment of the undivided Trinity.

[8] The Emperor, although somewhat sad over the death of the former, rejoiced in the desired appointment of Heribert as soon-to-be successor, who, as has been said, stationed at Ravenna to restrain the seditious, had made the whole region peaceful by the form and moderation of his conduct. He wrote to him a letter in his own hand in these words, promising Cologne as a gift together with the pallium: having received letters from the Emperor, he hastens to him: Otto the Emperor, by the grace of God alone, to Heribert the Archilogothete, grace and Cologne and one cubit of the pallium. The man of God was suddenly astonished at the unexpected providence of God, and straightway entering the house of the Lord, with prostrate reverence falling to the ground, he blessed His name and extolled it as praiseworthy and glorious in His magnificence. Then on the following day, taking his companions, he went with the e Bishop of the place to the court, and in his eyes humbler than usual, he revealed to none the mystery of his imminent exaltation, disclosing only to the Counts the recent death of the Bishop of Agrippina. Arriving therefore at the Prince, he was received with infinite love, embraced, kissed with the most intimate devotion, he is kindly received: as one upon whose most unshaken faith he almost entirely depended, and to whom he was to commit more especially the salvation of his soul in the future. The legates of the citizens were brought forward, and in the assembly of Bishops and Magnates they declared the concordant election of themselves and their people, requesting that the servant of the Lord Heribert be given and sent as the Vicar of Blessed Peter in his See. The Emperor assented to their prayer with gracious clemency: the whole court concurred in the same, proclaiming this most prudent and worthy man as the bishop of souls: upon whom the blessing of the Father and the Son should rightly be distilled from the Paraclete Spirit. The holy man, however, on the contrary, accused his own acts, with a conscience known to himself: that nothing of what befits a Bishop commended itself in him: that the burden of his life was most grievous to him: that he feared for the lapse and scandal of the people of God on his own account. he refuses the Episcopate: O pious defense of humility, which is raised aloft on the wings of high flight! He was overcome by all through the obedience presented to him, by the neglect of which offense is contracted, and by the fulfillment of which all guilt and punishment is abolished.

[9] For this reason the very staff of Peter was brought from Rome, and in the presence of the f Pope, the vessel of election Heribert was through him created Bishop of Agrippina Colonia: and fittingly the Mother Churches, which were of one patronage, were confederated by a marvelous bond of partnership. he is designated: Then for a little more than two months he spent time with the Emperor, and afterward was released from him with a great bond of mutual charity. Then he ascended to the confession of the heavenly doorkeeper, sought and received the Pallium from the g Lord Apostolic: he receives the pallium: and thus with his authority directed his steps toward his See. The long distance of the journey was quickly completed; God of salvation made his way prosperous: when the fellow-countrymen Bishops, having learned of his arrival, came far to meet him with a very great retinue of attendants. Already in the nearby vicinity of his metropolis, he sent ahead the insignia of the Pallium, he returns to Cologne: and the other pontifical vestments: he himself proceeded far from the city with bare feet in the harshest winter, and kindled with that fire which the Lord sent upon the earth, he enters the city with bare feet: he was utterly free from cold. His mind, fixed entirely upon heavenly things, blazed: his mouth was devoted to hymns, psalms, and prayer: transfiguring in himself the office of Christ which he was about to execute, and what care it befits such a Priest to have for his flock: with this bearing, this manner, he was led by the surrounding company of Bishops, faithful Samuel, to the threshold of Peter, where he was received with a plenary procession, and in that manner inducted into the house of the Lord, he was enthroned in his Cathedral, he is enthroned in his Cathedral on the very vigil of the Nativity of the Lord. God was praised according to the multitude of His mercy in choir and organ, with crowns, lamps, and every adornment of the decorated sanctuary. There was no similar joy in the Cologne populace: nor without reason, who are to be protected perpetually by such a Rector. and is consecrated: He was anointed by the Suffragans with the chrism of the principal oil: he was crowned with the ecclesiastical betrothal as the dowry of the Catholic faith: the stigmata of Jesus in his body were canonically completed in their entirety: the choir and the rest of the multitude were girded with litanies and supplications. And the signs of good testimony were consonant, so that when the text of the Gospel was opened by the Bishops, there was spontaneously presented the reading of the Isaianic prophecy: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because He has anointed me: He has sent me to bring good tidings to the poor. Isa. 61. 1

[10] Who can set forth what manner of life he led after his consecration, how much he watched over preaching for the preservation of his subjects in peace, how he came to the aid of the want of the poor and strangers: he excels in virtues: how from far and near he applied himself to consoling the distress of the sorrowful and the destitute. Job 29. 15 In him there thrived the living lesson of Job: I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, I was a father to the poor; my door stood open to the wayfarer; declining the work and company of those on the left, so that he might be united with those on the right, to whom the kingdom is promised and given with blessing. He was meanwhile Leah, dim-sighted, and Martha, laborious, so that through these he might afterwards become Rachel, beautiful, and Mary, with the part chosen that shall not be taken away. There was no end to his merit and virtues, especially since, desiring to please God alone, he hid his life even from his friends: fearing lest the oil of the sinner should fatten his head, and the tongue of flatterers should alter the glory of his conscience; and through this, like Blessed Cecilia, though she was covered outwardly with gilded and soft garments, inwardly next to her flesh she wore a hairshirt: and if she was necessarily occupied with outward things, she was always circumspect and well mindful of herself, and was not moved from spiritual things.

[11] h At last the Emperor entered Italy, not to return, and gathering a strong force from every side, he strove once more to attack and crush those rising against him. he goes with Otto III to Italy: He invited the man of God to accompany him on the same expedition, because, as has been said, he trusted more abundantly in him above all others for his salvation: so that if at any time arms should fail, he might profit by his counsel and prayer. While traveling, each discussed with the other the common welfare of the soul, what memorable thing according to God they might leave to posterity after themselves. on the way he receives from him estates for the construction of a monastery, It pleased both that whichever of them should return safely, if by whatever chance the other should be detained, he should build from his hereditary goods a fitting monastery, titled in honor of the Mother of God, Mother and Virgin of Virgins. Immediately for this work the Emperor handed over to the same Archbishop the finest estates of his ancestors, confirming the matter legally with document and ink under appointed witnesses. Then, approaching Rome and dividing the army, striking down and devastating the adversaries, not long afterwards in the i castle of Patyrna he perished by poison through a woman — which you will find more fully in his annals, if any exist, if anyone wishes to learn. the body of him who was destroyed by poison, Immediately among the Magnates a controversy arose about appointing a successor: whence they elected and substituted Henry, then Duke of the Bavarians, by settled agreement. The servant of the Lord Heribert was absent from this council, both because he was disturbed by special grief for his former Lord, and because, while the latter was still living, he had adjured him that he should be k carried to Aachen and there buried, he carries it to Aachen. and on this account he was occupied with how this might be accomplished. But God gave him virtue and fortitude, and against the will of the Romans who were pursuing him, he transported the corpse of the senior Emperor through iron and the blood of enemies, until, carried to Aachen as he wished, in the choir of Saint Mary, as is well known, he returned earth to earth. The imperial regalia that were in his possession he conferred upon the newly elected Prince, and to resist the unanimity of the Magnates in this matter, though he wished to do so for a time, he was utterly unable.

CHAPTER III

The pious works of S. Heribert: almsgiving, the monastery of Deutz constructed; miracles.

[12] He labored to be henceforth freed from the cares of this life, with which the profuse love of Otto had salutarily occupied him: and through this he attended solely to the causes of the Churches, reforming in them what was destroyed from his revenues, refreshing the poor with the remainder through pious affections. Gaul and Germany were imperiled by a devastating famine, and the servant of the Lord was greatly insistent In the public famine he succors the poor: on providing remedy for their want, to such an extent that Cologne was filled with an infinite populace of such people, and all were seen with the eye of his compassion, and through his faithful servants were fed with clothing, food, and drink: he arranged separate lodgings for them, and according to the variety of illnesses he instituted food supplies, and as was proper for each he applied solicitude; he himself, privately, would descend to them in secret, he erects a hospice: and washing and drying their feet, he deeply grieved for their infirmity: calling them lords and brothers, he inquired with his prudent shrewdness whether they lacked anything, he washes their feet: and thus made their attendants more diligent toward them. In other cities also he had intimate and capable Clerics of his soul, to whom he secretly sent a certain quantity of money, he sends money to other cities for the needy: so that it might be faithfully expended by them for similar purposes, and when it was spent, another sum would be again requested from him. And when in the following years the land was restored, and those who could returned to their own; they were asked by the kind father to seek from him whatever they wished and they would find it.

[13] It happened also at another time of year that the harvest perished entirely from drought, and a second Elijah, with all due respect to John the Baptist, taking refuge in the familiar resources, he admonished that help must be sought from God, in extreme drought he institutes public supplications, and urged the Clergy and people to wear themselves down with him in a three-day affliction, so that together they might daily frequent the intercession of the Saints with votive prayers, and their crushed and humbled merits might aid them. Thus the pastor and veteran led his flocks before him, himself following behind, lamenting his own and their sins: beseeching that they might obtain mercy and compassion from the Most High, and that so many groans and prayers might not be despised. On the second day of the procession, as they were going forth from a Saint Severinus, and turning aside to the illustrious b Martyr Pantaleon, the great Priest, in the fear of the Lord, was following as was customary, in these he was seen to be honored by a dove flying around, and a most white dove, hovering frequently over his head, was seen by certain ones, to whom it was given by God. But when they had reached the place where Saint Severinus c heard the ascent of Blessed Martin and the singing of the Angels for his exaltation; flying three times around his head, it appeared, and seeking the heights again, was no longer seen. It was believed and reported that in this there was a great mystery figured, so that through a bird familiar to Him, the Holy Spirit might reveal to men His own sanctuary. Then, holding Masses he imputes the evil to his own sins, with that noble assiduity of his with them, and when they were finished, dismissing the crowd with a blessing, returning home, he reclined at table with his household, and during the meal the entire conversation of himself and his companions fell upon the enormity of sin, attributing solely to himself the fact that the others were not being heard, and ascribing the inclement weather to his own guilt: therefore, inserting his hands between his fingers, he laid his head upon the table, and turning to God, he groaned sufficiently: but what his spirit spoke with God, no one could ever know. Soon, when he raised his head from the table, as with Saint Scholastica, he obtains rain: an overflowing rain burst forth, and the fertility of the crops of that year was immense. He never sought praise for these things, nor accepted it, but in all these things he proclaimed that the name of the Creator be magnified, and so he did.

[14] Moreover, remembering the pact of faith made with Emperor Otto for the construction of a monastery, with diligent persistence he was searching for a site in a suitable location. The matter was troublesome and a scandal to one seeking and not finding: when the Mother of the Lord herself appeared to him, saying, after prolonged vigils, a little before dawn as he was resting, that his prayers concerning this matter had been admitted within the sanctuary of hearing, and therefore commanding that a monastery be built in the castle of Deutz, he builds the monastery of Deutz; with the order of each habitation designated. Immediately the venerable father of the household was shaken from sleep, the Son of God and His Mother were adored and blessed by him, and the Officials were summoned and the same place was ordered to be cleared: and the public granary was demolished, the space was leveled and d extended broadly: so that where anciently the area of demons was cultivated, the beauty of God and all the Saints might arise. Foundations were laid and placed; the laborious masonry rose to a height, and more swiftly than anyone had expected, the work itself was adorned with the greatest beauty and was consummated under happy auspices. when no suitable wood was found for forming the Cross, In polishing one beam for the Cross of the Lord, there was a certain difficulty, and in whatever wood the craftsmen carved, it did not proceed: so that in this too the merit of the Saint might be revealed, since through him a suitable one would be found. He had gone forth a certain distance to visit some Brothers of his diocese, not far from the borders of his see: when, as he reclined at table in an orchard, an aged pear tree presented itself to his eyes: from whose trunk, with branches extended directly outward, a Cross was formed all the way to the tips. he finds one in a wondrous way: When this was more carefully inspected, he burst forth in gratitude to God for all that He had bestowed upon him: and had it cut down and directed to the carvers to be properly fashioned. Which, as is plainly evident, thereafter did not fail, and came forth perfect in every joint.

to be suitably fashioned. Which, as is plainly evident, thereafter did not fail, and came forth perfect in every joint.

[16] Moreover, in the same church, with the relics of the Saints having been accumulated, an altar was dedicated, so that consecration and a more devoted honor to God might be added to the progress of the walls. The chief Priest of the Lord placed e Fulbert as the first Abbot over the place, established monks there as guarantors for the soul of the third Otto and his own, and arranged an abundant provision for the use of forty Brothers at all times. But whether because by the envy of the devil death entered the world, or because in this mutability of things nothing remains unchanged; one night, he restores the collapsed structure: after Matins were finished and the Brothers had gone out, that same structure fell into one heap, utterly overthrown from its foundations. When the excellent Priest learned of this by a reliable report, and knowing how to bear adversity with equanimity, repeating from the beginning, he applied himself to the same work: and removing the former stones from the place, he designated them for the construction of the monastic offices. Then, having excavated the earth to a great depth, like the mast of a ship, he secured the foundation on solid rock, seeking out architects more skilled than the first from foreign regions, and entrusting to them the design of the entire structure. Therefore, with wonderful speed, with the Creator of creatures favorable, he completed the work and on the fifth day before the Nones of May dedicated it in the fullness of joy and exultation. In those walls and in that house, the Triune God is solemnly honored at all times, the holy Virgin of Virgins with all the Saints is venerated, so that by their intercession we may attain to their fellowship, where we may perpetually praise the Lord living and reigning for ages of ages.

[16] Concerning the miracles of the Saint, which God wrought through him during his life, some must be touched upon, by whose attestation unwritten things are to be confirmed and commended. On the holy Sunday of Palms, with the Clergy going before and the people following, he had come to the basilica of f Saint Mary: where, standing in a prominent place, A demoniac is freed: he had resolved to discourse to his flock about the most ruinous disobedience of the first man, and about the hope of the resurrection and glory; when from afar in the crowd he saw a chained demoniac, who, led around by his keepers for a long time through the patronage of the Saints across the land, had admitted no relief. He gazed upon the wretched man, wholly overflowing with the bowels of compassion, and interrupting his preaching, dissolved into weeping and groans: when the same chained man began to beg his guards to be loosened from iron and bonds, and to be freely fed and refreshed by the Saint's discourse. This was tried by them, and by the merits of Heribert he lived in his right mind ever after. The hour of compunction was faithfully noted, and that same was found to be the moment of liberation.

[17] The aforementioned Abbot Fulbert of the Church of Deutz was suffering uncomfortably from an ailment of the head and eyes. He, driven by his very pain, came to the Archbishop, simply professing that through him he could obtain a remedy, asserting that he had been admonished through a vision that if water that had slipped from his hands during the sacraments should be poured over his head, [Abbot Fulbert is healed by the water from the washing of his hands in the Mass from pain of the head and eyes,] he would be cured. He repelled the man from him with reproach, upbraiding him that he was not a blessed man who would look upon false insanities and vain things: the Rhine, flowing before his doors with its full channel, would suffice to wash his whole body. For thus, as it is written, he feared to lose the security of his humility, as the avaricious rich are accustomed to guard their perishable riches. The Abbot, bearing his rebuff patiently, though he blushed for a moment, nevertheless secretly obtained the water from the ministers of his service, washed, and recovered.

[18] Something similar happened also to a blind woman, and a blind woman similarly by the wine, who, when she saw in a vision that she should heal herself with the wine from his hands after the Sacraments, saw as soon as she made the experiment.

[19] by his blessing a paralytic woman; A certain paralytic woman, loosened in every joint of her limbs, deprived of the function and use of life, saw in her sleep that she would be healed by the blessing of the Saint: and shaken from sleep, she accomplished the business of her salvation through friends. She had herself placed in the path of the passing Prelate, and filling the air with her cry, she repeatedly begged to be noticed by him, just as the blessed Canaanite woman begged the Lord for her daughter, until by the intercession of the Apostles the wickedness of the devil was expelled. He had passed by, not despising the one praying, but avoiding the crowd that favored him for such things: whence someone inquiring from his attendants what she asks, what she wants; learning the cause, he made from a distance the sign of the Cross, and thus the sick woman came and was raised up healthy, and with no one assisting, she returned cheerfully.

[20] A certain noble person, his Cleric and Vicedominus, was walking with him to the court when he was suddenly and most sharply seized by the force of fevers. The sickness was most severe; a Cleric with a dangerous fever; so that no breath remained in him, and his life was utterly despaired of, and discussions were held about his funeral and obsequies. The Priest of the Most High entered to visit him: he placed his hand upon the head of the one lying at his command: he fortified him with the sign of the life-giving Cross, and gave him a healing drink of water: and going out immediately, he girded himself for the mystery of the Mass on his behalf. When these were finished, deeply compassionate for him, he returned, and finding him somewhat better, he was lifted by consolation: and going out again and reclining at the prepared table, he sent him some of the food set before himself. Abundantly refreshed by this, he left the bed of sickness, and going before in his customary manner, he performed the duties of his ministry in the affairs that were owed to so great a Bishop. The privilege of his humility and the prerogative of whose tongue, as is fitting, will be expressed?

[21] There was a poor man, burdened with an unbaptized infant, whom, carrying through the whole city, he could not prevail upon any of the Priests to deign to immerse in the water of salvation: a beggar child scorned by others because the former, in their pomp, did not attend to the penury of this man, while the latter pretended not to notice unless they received payment. It is wonderful that one who ought to have attended to his own need, forgetful of it, faithfully sought the font of baptism for his son: and who at the first approach could have given up on account of his being despised, importunately insisted that the guilt of his unbaptized child be removed from him. He was seen therefore, since others were not coming to his aid, to approach Heribert as he was proceeding, who was made all things to all, he baptizes him: to intimate the difficulty by which he was oppressed; that he alone remained who might come to his aid. He came: he spoke. He descended most readily to the brethren: he gave to the future son through baptism white garments: he immersed him in the baptistery, and he himself received him from the baptistery: he assigned a stipend for both, and while one was aided, it became the consolation of two: and to conclude the whole matter concerning the same, passing by the little table of the same poor man who invited him, he did not disdain to partake before all. Thus the Redeemer of the world would not descend to the son of the ruler, but was prepared to go to the servant of the Centurion.

[22] In the days of this man, Gaul was straitened a second time by the anguish of famine, kind to the poor: and they were dispersed in crowds wherever their own country was heard to be more fruitful: they especially looked to the paternal bosom of Heribert, long since proven familiar and domestic to them. On this account his name became celebrated throughout all the land, and the naked, the hungry, and the thirsty resolved to flee to him: among whom also a begging Cleric came to Cologne, to exhaust his poverty through him. He was mingled with those seeking the love-feast (for there was no question or delay for those wishing to enter), but he held himself in contempt, both because there was abundance in the larger crowd and because he was not received with private honor. Wherefore he was driven into further Saxony, having nothing of Heribert's alms, and reaching for the heights he fell from the heights: and with no one caring for him, he became the worst of thieves, violated sanctuaries, perpetrated sacrilege, and while fleeing the precious pearl, he underwent the sea as prey of demons. At night he took flight with his stolen bundles: he did not sleep: he rested in no place: he fled as though he were being pursued at his heels: he did not cease until he had disposed of the wickedly usurped g goods, as though he would no longer knock as a petitioner at any foreign door. But while he strove to escape the avenger, he ran into the judge, and near Cologne he was apprehended by a certain chief of the merchants, and immediately was consigned to custody, the robbery having been made public. The owners of the lost goods followed the trail of the thief, he reproves a Cleric guilty of a capital offense: nor did they stop anywhere until they came by means of evidence to where the man was in chains. The displayed goods were recognized, the recognized were reclaimed, the reclaimed were returned, the returned were carried off. Judgment revolved solely around the cross, nor was there hope of escaping danger: no delay until the morrow, but that he should perish by hanging. Knowledge of the events had reached the Lord Metropolitan; he ordered the judges and the one judged to be brought before him, pretending to direct his punishment against him, and by a marvelous pretense he frees him from execution: while in his heart he intended something else under the guise of truth. He was brought, placed before him, questioned about his craft; when questioned he confessed himself a scribe, and amid his words he begged for pardon, that he might have mercy on him. No, he said, vengeance does not permit you to live, who have most foully subjected yourself to infamy and violently turned the honor of the clerical state to dishonor, who, content with your own means, ought not to have coveted what is superfluous. He therefore handed him over to be kept by the steward of the poor; he himself reclined at table at the proper hour, pondering with himself in deeper counsel what he should do with the accused. Then, as is customary in that crowd when others were attending to other matters, he secretly summoned the keeper, and quietly whispered in his ear that the Cleric should be copiously refreshed: then, having given him a pound of silver, he should place him on the Bishop's riding horse, himself riding alongside, until he should set him on the road of safe liberty. Thus the Son of God used to loose those shut in hell from their darkness: thus He used to restore lost man, redeemed by the cross, to the heavenly realm: whence he too who could rightly have died for iniquity was preserved for penance by abundant charity.

CHAPTER IV

The quarrel between Saints Henry the Emperor and Heribert, arisen and removed. Comparison of S. Heribert with other Saints.

[23] It must now be told why Emperor Henry long held Christ's soldier suspect and hostile, namely, S. Henry the Emperor, incited by malicious persons, as they say, because at the first time of his election he conceded the imperial insignia to him with delay, and because he attempted to transfer the diadem to another. Between the servants of God there remained a long discord of feigned peace, and the lesser was borne by the greater with more than

just patience with long-standing enmity, because he was pressed by frequent insults from him, imposing gifts and mandates not pertaining to the matter. he suffers an adversary: At last he came to Cologne, exceedingly angry against him: whom the man of God received with the most dutiful welcome. For he had proposed to reprove him more severely, and, as it seemed to him, to afflict him for the cause of certain infidelity: when, as night fell, to the Emperor who was put to sleep by the Spirit, a figure clad in priestly insignia, divinely warned, terrible in aspect, appeared and, with authority, terrified him with threats lest he should contrive anything further against his servant Heribert. I conjecture this to have been Saint Peter, although I find it neither said nor written. Thus b Alexander the Great, when he endeavored to break into Jerusalem, was terrified by a similar image of the ancient pontificate, forbidding him to inflict any violence on his citizens, unless the present ending of his life should be agreeable to him. On the following day, when the Priest Jadus came forth to meet him with his stole, leaping from his chariot he adored him with prostrate reverence, saying: I do not adore this man, but Him who appeared to me in a vision in the same manner. On the morrow therefore the Emperor sat with a deliberately grave countenance, and through intermediaries he is summoned and comes: demanding an immense sum of money from the blessed Prelate, praised God in his heart that he had merited to be freed from his ignorance and indiscretion, and had learned to venerate a Priest worthy of heaven. There stood those who zealously accused him with many false charges, and the man of the Lord, no longer enduring the scourge of this persecution, entered before the Prince, suffused with tears, complaining in his presence of the wearisome inclemency of his suffering. That he knew of no offense of his against him, that no one could cast this in his face and define it from the truth: that it was better for him henceforth to abstain from the prelacy than to be pressed by so many evils and never to have rest.

[24] At these words the Emperor burst from the throne and reverently fell upon his embraces with kisses: he is reconciled by a triple kiss: confessing himself guilty and corrupted by the counsel of the wicked, and humbly seeking pardon for what he had done. This was not difficult labor for Heribert, just as it was not for Martin, and in the Gospel manner he forgave all offenses from his heart. Then they were bound together by a triple kiss under the testimony of the Trinity, with their adversaries blushing and hiding in headlong flight. Then the men of God were seated by his side on his throne, profitably discussing the highest matters concerning the state and the business of the Empire. That same night, after the vigils of Matins were completed, the living sacrifice of God kept watch alone in the watches of psalms and prayers; when the Emperor, accompanied by one Cleric, knocked at the door of the oratory, and when it was opened to him, he silently entered alone. he raises him up as he throws himself on the ground: With the two thus placed together, the Emperor cast off his cloak, and with all witnesses removed, he cast himself at the feet of the Saint, declaring that he had sinned, that he was guilty: let him forgive the memory of his error, knowing seriously that he would henceforth neither harbor any suspicion against him nor admit anyone's accusation. The Prelate quickly raised the Lord from the ground; he was amazed at the spirit and bearing of his humility; declaring that the reconciliation of the previous day had sufficed, and that no traces of past offense remained in him. He also added that after their parting from one another they would not see each other again, so that in this you might perceive the prophetic eyes that know the future. These things, that they may truly be believed to have happened, were related by the same man, so that they may truly be told. It is remarkable that Saints sometimes disagree with one another, as in the Acts of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, and very many of the Saints in the Scriptures do. Acts 15. 2 Concerning the perverse and the just, there is nothing remarkable if they are not bound together in one concord: since there is no agreement of Christ with Belial, nor fellowship of light with darkness, nor part for the faithful with the unfaithful. But these are the incomprehensible judgments of God and His unsearchable ways and hidden counsels: for who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has been His counselor, and who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him: because from Him and through Him and in Him are all things, to Him be glory forever.

[25] In this Saint, exterior miracles are not much to be attended to, which are more common to Egypt and to workers of iniquity excluded from the kingdom, who say: Lord, in your name we have prophesied, cast out demons, he excels with S. Martin in contemplation: and done many mighty works. Matt. 7. 22 And the foolish virgins are shut out from the hall of blessedness, who are both called virgins and yet are not received. So many and such great things are written that they suffice for faith in his merit; which, if all things seen and heard about him were written one by one, would exceed all measure. It was his most familiar and solemn custom, beyond all else, to celebrate Masses in commemoration of the Lord's Cross, so that his inner gaze might be more freely fixed, since by those who are pure of heart the divine contemplation is seen: where sometimes he was so rapt by the interior subtlety of the Holy Spirit that, what was never or rarely heard by a few, he could scarcely be perceived outwardly in the very humanity of his face. When Blessed Martin was offering the Sacraments, a ball of fire was seen above his head, with S. Lawrence in giving alms: and a sound of gems striking one another was heard on his fingers: but concerning his face, nothing similar to what was not seen is recounted. And since we have compared him in some fashion with Martin, it must be considered how he should be compared with the great Lawrence, whose righteousness endures for ever and ever, because he scattered and gave to the poor, and through him the resources of the Church were transported to heavenly treasures by the hands of the poor. What mourner and desolate person was not consoled by the relief of Heribert? Who, lacking any necessity, was not supported by his most ready aid? Most famous in the height of his name, surrounded by a dense multitude of attendants, he would descend, content with one boy, secretly to visit the registry of the poor, just as Lawrence on his gridiron visited Lucillus, illuminated by night, and the widow Cyriaca, and washed the feet of the poor who had gathered in his house with tears, and lavishly expended the ecclesiastical treasury upon them. Thus Heribert, the light of the world and the salt of the earth, content with what he had, most liberally dispersed the revenues of his own right and the costs of living for the use of those who had nothing. Before him, as one who believed in the light and was a son of light, clear lights burned through the night: and with him there rested Clerics, upright men, in all chastity and purity, who saw and recognized his ineffable virtues, and through them they became known to the world.

[26] It happened once by negligence that his lamp was accidentally extinguished, [in darkness he is illuminated by heavenly light, with Saints Vincent and Benedict:] and the chamber and those sleeping remained in darkness: but the man of God was bathed in rays of brightness around him, and reclining in his bed, he prayed to God with profuse prayers, with his eyes fixed on heaven and his hands raised. One of those present, awakened from sleep, saw this and turned pale, and bearing witness to the truth, he declared it, testifying that this had not happened once but many times, as it was well known that he had seen it. Thus the Archdeacon Vincent, magnificent in his victorious martyrdom, shut in the darkness of a dreadful dungeon, was illuminated by the Lord with light sent from heaven, and was cherished by the service and soothed by the speech of the venerable Angels. Thus Father Benedict, with transitory things beneath him, raised up in contemplation to the heights, had the whole machinery of the universe before his eyes, when he also summoned c Servandus the Deacon, a man of great perfection, as a witness of a wondrous vision, and merited to see the soul of Germanus carried to heaven in a sphere of fire by Angels. With whose virtues and manner of life, while placed on earth, would he not have shone, who so pleased the Almighty and His host? Let no one compare him with the exception of certain ones, who was full of the spirit of all the just. He is to be equaled, I say, with the Patriarchs and Prophets, with those who were just even before the law or under the shadow of the law, who although they foresaw the future in figures and enigma, yet did not know when the incarnate Truth would come and appear with manifest face. Blessed were his eyes, which saw what they could not see, and he heard what was consummated, which they did not hear: and on this account he did not sacrifice in dove, turtledove, and goats, things imposed until the time of correction, but in the calves of his lips and the sacrifices of a contrite heart. The speech is beyond interpretation, I say, to express perfect according to the prescription of both Testaments, how perfectly he lived according to both Testaments: one thing remained to be fulfilled in him, that the just should still be justified and the holy sanctified, which he also frequently insisted upon with sighing in his prayer, saying: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Ps. 22. 6, Ps. 41. 3 And: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God, he yearns for heavenly glory: and see Him? And with Paul the Apostle: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ: for this is far better, since our conversation is in heaven. Phil. 1. 23 He ardently desired the true land of promise; the land of the living, not that which Moses, Aaron, and Miriam did not receive by the lot of their inheritance, except that their sons, the Levites and Priests, served in the tabernacle of the covenant, and God Himself was their inheritance and possession. 3. 20

[27] Therefore, before his happy death is inserted, a mound grew up for his burial: let it be recalled concerning his tomb, which is held as handed down from the elders. In the earliest times a mound had grown up there, always green with living turf and completely free from every defilement: so that in it the tomb might one day be opened for him who would send the fruit of eternal growth to heaven. Do not his ever-green and most grateful fragrances with variety of flowers represent themselves when in the Church the acts and character of his life are recited for the edification of the hearers, while the faithful peoples carry away benefits through his prayers, when so many sick are given health and demons are driven from the possessed? And plainly the Fathers were diligent about burial, and they commanded their sons imperiously about it, as Scripture everywhere testifies, and is read of Abraham, Isaac, and Sarah; and Jacob shuddered at being buried in the land of Egypt, Joseph too adjured his brothers to carry his bones out of it: nor can the number of so many witnesses be briefly contained, when we also frequently read: Bury me, and he was buried, and that one, in the tomb of his ancestors: and it is not without reason commended concerning the Lord, that he was buried in a new tomb, hewn in rock, in which no one had yet been placed, just as Blessed Mary remained always a Virgin after giving birth. A long series of your holiness could have been woven in, O venerable Father Heribert, in comparison with the Blessed who were worn down in the commandments of the Lord before the law, under the law, and under grace, were it not that the tiresome discomfort of the hearers would rightly be avoided: nevertheless, you have fought the good fight, you have finished the course, you have kept the faith: in what remains there is laid up for you the crown of righteousness, which you now enjoy in the fullness of perfect rest

and fullness, and you shall enjoy in the immense length of days. d

CHAPTER V

Preparation for death: illness: death: burial.

[28] Visiting his diocese, The Priest of the Lord Heribert, therefore, reverend in glory and honor, knowing that the day of his departure was imminent, wished to increase the works of his consummation. Going around the holy places, he sought out the bodies of the Saints and their patronage, he revisited his sheep on every side: he armed them against the ambushes of wolves with preaching, and departing, fortified them with his priestly blessing. He was preparing provisions in advance for himself, about to travel abroad, so that they might suffice for the journey at Neuss he suffers from fever: and abound at his arrival. He had put in at the port of a Neuss, celebrated for the merit and name of the blessed b Martyr Quirinus, when he began to be assailed gradually by the troublesome force of fevers, and as the malady grew worse, he was daily wearied by sharp pain. Reclining on his bed, he was wholly intent upon heaven and did not relax his spirit, unfailing from prayer. Sensing, however, that he was suddenly deprived of his bodily strength, he retained an inflexible vigor of spirit, asserting that an example of sin would be left to his sons by a Metropolitan, if anything should be lacking to him which the Church owes to every Christian. he summons Abbot Elias: Whence he quickly sent envoys to Cologne, requesting the preeminent servant of God, the Lord Abbot c Elias, to hasten to visit him, he seeks the prayers of others: and he implored the aid of the Brothers of the city for his prayer, so that by such a defense he might protect his departure. The said Father, arriving, entered the chamber of the one lying ill, and a spiritual conversation concerning the consolation of the soul was exchanged between them: that if the prince of this world came to the Son of God and found nothing of his own in Him, those who are about to enter the way of all flesh must beware, lest by his obstruction they be deprived of the fruit of their salvation. It is also added that John the Evangelist, the beloved, was chosen by the Lord as a virgin, and remaining a virgin forever, at the very assumption of his dormition, prayed with prayer that the prince of darkness might not encounter him. Holy Severinus also, at the passing of Saint Martin, explained to the accompanying Archdeacon what he had seen: that the hostile party had attempted to obstruct him by standing in his way, and finding nothing of its own, departed in confusion. For all these reasons, as far as this mortal weakness allows, the way must be blocked for everyone in advance against the wiles of that one, and therefore through the Gospel the Lord frequently admonished them to watch, lest while the father of the household sleeps, thieves digging through could enter the house. Matt. 24. 43, James 5. 4 Therefore the letter of Blessed James the Apostle exhorts that the Presbyters of the Church be brought to the sick, he is anointed with the holy Oil, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him. Therefore, said the Archbishop, you, Father, sent to me by God, fulfill in me, I beseech you, the authority of this unction, so that whatever harmful thing has been contracted by my senses may be emptied by these sacred gifts of the Holy Spirit. and fortified with the holy Viaticum: The Abbot put on the vestments appropriate to this office; the Oil was brought with due honor: in the customary manner, the saving unction of God was administered on the body of the Saint, and at the conclusion of that same office he received the Body and Blood of the Lord.

[29] Then, placed on a boat, he was transported by the Rhine to Cologne, and arriving in the deep evening, he ordered he is brought by boat to Cologne, that he be carried with his litter to the house of Saint Peter, before the Crucifix. There for a very long time he commended the cause of his soul to God, and repeatedly committing the flock entrusted to him to Him and to Peter, he finished his prayer. With what subtlety he was then rapt in ecstasy, whose mind can conceive, whose tongue can express? He was then brought back to the inner chamber of his bedchamber, and tempered the grief of those standing around with a better hope. He did not allow the aforesaid Abbot and other faithful ones, true sons of the Church, to abandon him, he aspires to heaven: persuading them, for his consolation, to engage in conversation from the holy Scriptures and the testimonies of the Fathers, and sometimes to apply themselves to prayer on his behalf. Despising this corruption, he now disdained to look upon the earth, having one desire: to stand before You, O Creator of all. Revelations were certainly intimated to the servants of God, he arranges for all his goods to be distributed, that he would soon be taken up among the congregations of the heavenly ones, nor were the visions of desired charity hidden from him. Whence also what remained of his treasure was immediately brought forth, and was distributed before his eyes for the service of God, lest after him anyone's avarice should wickedly usurp dominion over it. Certain things were given to the Saints for the adornment of his church; some things were bestowed upon relatives and friends as a final memorial of familiarity and friendship; others were assigned to wailing household members; the greater part was set aside for Christ and His poor. He remembered the Apostle saying: especially to the poor: We brought nothing into this world, and we can carry nothing out. 1 Tim. 6. 7, Job 1. 21 And Job: Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. There was mourning and grief among all, one voice of those lamenting: among whom his younger brother, himself also a Count, was tortured with inconsolable sorrow, and being apprehensive about the future and struck with grief of heart within, was intolerably afflicted. He had heard and seen the Emperor always hostile to his brother and his family; he consoles his brother, and therefore he feared that with this shield lost, the stroke of vengeance would be turned upon himself. Hence redoubled grief was emitting the most bitter tears, by which the affections of the onlookers were moved with compassion. Then the elder, moved by his tears: Withdraw, he said, my beloved brother, and be generous to the honest and the needy from those good things which God has bestowed upon you, and you will not fear the terror of power: d especially since, not long after, when he has been removed from the scene, another awaits the honor of the principate. Looking also at the steward of the needy, who was standing by, he asked whether the lords and friends of his had any need, on account of the occupation of those serving him: He said: The granary and money of them has run out, he commends the poor: my Father, and there is nothing left that can be given from this day on to meet their need. He immediately adjured the elders, to whom he was committing the care of the Bishopric, to see to it that no money should be lacking until the appointment of another Lord: he indicates his successor: and nothing was done contrary to his command, with any word of his order changed. And when he was asked by certain Provosts who would be substituted for him: None of these, he said, will succeed me, but Pilgrim will e preside over Cologne after me for a long time.

[30] With these things thus arranged in their proper order, he was to be gathered to his people, with the Angels awaiting. Therefore, having saluted those standing by with paternal kindness and more fully instructed them about the things of God, bidding them a final farewell, he entered upon the office of his departure, now loathing the delays of postponement by which he was held back from the sight of the divine vision. he dies piously: Thus that holy soul was released from the prison of the flesh, falling asleep in the Lord in the abundance of peace. The pearl, therefore, was taken up, which had been lying in the dunghill, and was placed in the adornment of the heavenly King: I call the dunghill this very corruptibility of the flesh, and I name it the abjection of human infirmity. Already he shines among the citizens above: already he gleams among those fiery stones of the eternal diadem. Mary had come to meet him with the virginal choir: so that, receiving him into the eternal tabernacles, she might present him to her Son. He was solemnly mingled with all the Saints, whose life he had shone in virtues: he exults in the company of the Patriarchs and Prophets, is placed in the midst of the number of the Apostles, is adorned with the victorious laurel of the Martyrs, rejoices in the justice of the Confessors faithful in the Lord's commandments, and blooms in the perpetual purity of the Virgins: following the Lamb wherever He goes, and in the white stone knowing the new name written, March 17, year 1021. The 23rd year of his Ordination. which no one knows except the one who receives it. O how blessed are the ranks of the Saints: with whom, O most holy Father Heribert, your blessed soul is joined in eternal glory! He departed to the Lord on the 17th day before the Kalends of April: in the twenty-third year of his Ordination, but in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and twenty-one.

[31] On the very night of his assumption, the truth of his dormition was f made known to Bishops and religious men far away. His body was then transported across the Rhine and brought into the monastery of the holy Mother of God, which he himself had founded, he is buried in the monastery of Deutz: and with the greatest honor of Clergy and people, it was interred before the altar in the same oratory, where what his living spirit had accomplished is testified to by his dead flesh: since through him so many wondrous signs and miracles happen there. For immediately at his tomb the languishing bodies of various people were drawn, and restored to health, receiving power from the deceased, they returned in the soundest condition. Whence the city also established the custom throughout the entire Thirtieth of visiting him daily and frequenting his memory, and renewing the celebrated joy for the wonderful works of God. For all of which blessed be God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, he shines with miracles. who alone does great wonders: whose kingdom is eternal, whose salvation is perpetual, whose honor is perennial, whose power is permanent, whose blessing is unceasing, whose glory is perpetual: whose essence neither begins nor ends, forever. Amen.

[32] g The virtues of the Saint and the miracles which God wrought through him after his death, I have left untouched, because both the writings sufficed for simple reading, and to mold them to the elegance of style was a matter of more leisurely time and more laborious effort. Epilogue. It seemed good to me after these things to add something of h musical symphony from my heart in praise of the man of God, and if not for any use of the Church, at least to offer the vow of my soul to the Saint. I also appended certain other things that seemed necessary, which I arranged as is plainly evident: which I also inscribed each one, just as I composed them, with my own hand in writing: whence even if they should ever be pleasing to anyone,

they will hold the memory of the sinner Lambert: and both this and the former letter will always be, at my request, the keys at the head of my little work.

SECOND LIFE, by Rupert, Abbot of Deutz

Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne (S.)

BHL Number: 3830

BY RUPERT, ABBOT.

You imposed this work upon me as a compulsory service, venerable Father Marcuard, The Life of S. Herebert is adorned with a new style: that I should rewrite in a new style the life of the holy Archbishop Herebert, splendid with virtues but, as it seemed to you, somewhat obscured by the rust of the earlier style, for the glory and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. For I was going elsewhere, where the ardor of study was leading me to write: and therefore I considered obeying you as if serving under compulsion. But when, with you constantly pressing and my own will tending toward other things, I was tormented for a longer time, at last there came to mind that saying which the supreme Master of true love, among other precepts of evangelical perfection, fittingly spoke on the mountain: And if anyone shall compel you to go one mile, He said, go with him also two more. But also that Simon of Cyrene came to mind, whom, as the Evangelist testifies, they compelled as he was passing by to carry the cross of Jesus. Matt. 5. 41, Mark 15. 21 Finally, the example of the same man, who indeed carried the cross of Jesus but was not himself crucified: and this very thing, that he carried a cross not his own, he did unwillingly and under compulsion — this vehemently reproaches the Christian, whoever he may be, who so preaches the labors of Christ or of His Saints that he does not collaborate by imitating: and this very thing that he preaches, he does more from the necessity of a precept than from a pious desire of the mind. I therefore acquiesced, and setting aside for the time being my proposed course, I turned aside here, no longer unwilling, but having good will, if the Spirit of our Father God should deign to suggest what or how I ought to speak. Behold, you have what you commanded, or rather what you compelled me to do more by asking than by commanding: you yourself judge whether by having it done you have gained anything, that is, whether this later writing is more or less suitable for the edification of hearers than the earlier writings which did not satisfy you. Moreover, both the witness of my conscience before God, and this present letter before those who deign to hear or read, can excuse me: because I did not place myself above the earlier writers in writing as though pleasing myself; but desiring to please your requesting charity, I submitted myself in obedience. For I deemed you worthy of being obeyed, even though I did not profess the monastic life under your governance. For you, taken from the a monastery of Siegburg, and as a green shoot transplanted from that garden of delights and planted in the church of the same blessed Confessor, brought forth the revived fruit of holy religion, which there had plainly withered: so that, with God's consent, you may deserve to say that Davidic verse: But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God; I have trusted in the mercy of God b. Ps. 51. 10

Chapter 1. On the birth of Blessed Heribert, and what signs appeared from God when he was born.

2. That the visible light which shone at his birth was a sign of the invisible light by which he was to be illuminated.

3. On his maternal lineage, and how the stock from which such a one was to be born was redeemed from captivity, with God providing.

4. How under Hildebald, Bishop of Worms, he advanced by the grace of God in the sacred studies of ecclesiastical discipline.

5. How through his good reputation he became known to Emperor Otto, and made Archichancellor, was persuaded by him to ascend the degree of the Presbyterate with his companion Bruno.

6. How by the concord of the Cologne people he was elected Archbishop.

7. How the Emperor rejoiced at his election, and how wisely he received the grace of his election.

8. How free he was from ambition, and on the death of the Bishop of Strasbourg.

9. With what humility he came to Cologne, and when he was consecrated.

10. How he endured the envy of some, and began to be suspect to Emperor Henry.

11. On the drought and how through the likeness of a dove the grace of the Holy Spirit appeared above him, and how he obtained sudden rain from heaven by his tears.

12. That by the common resolve of himself and Emperor Otto, he, the survivor, resolved to build a monastery.

13. That the holy Mother of God appeared to him, and indicated in what place he should build a monastery.

14. On the structure of the temple, how it fell and another structure arose, and what example can conveniently be drawn from it.

15. On the Cross of the Lord, which could not be formed from any wood whatsoever, but at last from one tree, and what example is in this also.

16. That in performing signs, he always fled fame or glory: and on Elisha, why he wished to do double signs than Elijah, saying: I pray that your spirit be double in me.

17. On the demoniac man, how he was freed while the Saint was making a sermon.

18. On Abbot Volbert, how, warned through a vision, he received health from the water with which the holy man washed his hands after Mass.

19. How a blind woman, warned through a vision, anointed her eyes with the wine with which he had washed his fingers after Mass, and was illuminated.

20. On the paralytic woman, how she likewise, warned through a vision, sought a blessing from him and was healed.

21. How a familiar Cleric, visited by him, suddenly recovered from the heat of fevers.

22. How he himself, praying amid the darkness of night, was illuminated by a divinely infused light, and that this same thing happened many times.

23. On his humility, by which he baptized the son of his poor man, scorned by all the Priests.

24. On his mercy: how he freed from hanging a Cleric condemned for sacrilege.

25. On the perfections of the holy man.

26. On Saint Henry the Emperor, who, badly persuaded by the envious, was hostile to the holy man.

27. How the Emperor kissed the holy man three times in the sight of his rivals.

28. How, when the Emperor humbly sought pardon again, he predicted his own death.

29. The holy man is seized by fever and fortified with the Ecclesiastical Sacraments.

30. Visions of Abbot Elias concerning the death of the holy man.

31. How the holy man consoled his weeping brother.

32. How he declared himself mindful of the poor in his last moments.

33. He predicts who is to succeed him, and dies.

34. A vision presented to Bishop Eppo after the death of the holy man.

35. On the miracles at his monument and a certain wondrous vision.

CHAPTER I

Noble lineage. Events before the Archiepiscopate.

[1] In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ nine hundred and ninety-nine, with Otto the Third ruling the Roman Empire, the renowned metropolis of Germany, Colonia Agrippina, was given by God the Pontiff Saint Heribert, and he lived laudably on that same See for a twenty-three years, two months, S. Herebert is born and nearly twenty-two days. To him the gift of grace which the Ascender of heaven was about to give — of whom it is written: Ascending on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men — He deigned to foreshadow at the very moment of his birth. Ps. 67. 19 For when he was poured forth from his mother's womb at night, an immense light shone from heaven in that place, with a light divinely shed, seen also by those sleeping: which some who were sleeping saw with the eyes of their heart, and those who were awake saw with their bodily eyes. The father of the same infant was sleeping, and with him a certain one of his friends, b a Jew, however, who had then come to him according to the custom of conversation or familiar business. These two, sleeping at the very hour in which the happy offspring came into the light, saw one and the same dream: and awakening, they immediately spoke to one another, as though each were about to recount his own private vision, not knowing that it had been a shared or single dream. He who, as already said, had come on account of familiarity, narrated first, and then the head of the household himself, greatly marveling, testified that he had seen the very same thing, and nothing different. The dream was of this kind: The chamber in which the woman was known to be lying, about to give birth, seemed to be opened from the front, and an admitted radiance to have shone forth like the noonday sun. Moreover, those awake at that hour around the woman in labor were the customary attendants of her sex, diligent as was fitting, and they themselves saw with their corporeal eyes, as has already been said, the miracle of the clarity infused from heaven. For while those two were still telling the dream they had seen, forecasting — not by vain conjectures — the miracle and felicity of the birth: behold, one of those women, astonished at once by joy and fear, announced the good news to the father, namely the birth of an elegant son, and in his birth the divine miracle of a wondrously sweet and all-encompassing great light.

had been the light of spiritual grace, which Jewish blindness does not know, in the most flourishing Church of Cologne, which he was to govern: it might rightly seem incredible or unworthy to anyone that a Jew had been a participant in the same luminous dream which his Christian father merited to see.

But that chosen and glorious son of light was destined to shine both with the interior gift of inner light, which the guileless Jacob most especially desired, and with the outward attainment of temporal glory, which the hunter Esau alone sought from his father's blessings. For who does not know how greatly the splendor of the great Church of Cologne shone, especially in those times, even in worldly wealth and honors? Since therefore he was to preside over so great a See, and since this lamp of the Lord was to be exalted upon so great a candlestick, possessing so many resources, possessing also an eminent name and right at the pinnacle of the earthly empire, as the following narrative will declare; it ought not seem unworthy that a Jew also received a presage of his future glory, who also said to his father: Know most certainly that what is born to you will fill you with joy, and will illuminate his birth with the great splendor of his name. This the Jew could say, looking only to the light or glory of the world: but Christ, the true light and glory of the heavenly fatherland, wonderfully fulfilled his wonderful presage. For on the night when, He having been born of the Virgin, a light arose in the darkness for the upright, and the glory of God shone around the shepherds keeping watch over their flock; whose Bishop was to be consecrated on the night of the Nativity of Christ: on that very night, indeed at the very dawn of the following day, during the sacred solemnities of the Masses, whose first words are, "A light shall shine today upon us"; he was consecrated Bishop, a true bearer of light, and obtained the ministry of those to whom it was said: "You are the light of the world," etc. Who would doubt that this came about through the providence or ordination of the Lord, with the same care or grace by which He sent forth the aforesaid sign at his birth? But of this matter more will need to be said in its proper place. Matt. 5:14

[3] With such a presage, as has been said, this boy, a son of blessed predestination, was born in Worms, born at Worms a city of the Gauls. Moreover, his maternal lineage had been diverted from an Alemannic source into that Gallic territory of Worms by adverse fortunes. For his maternal grandmother, named Emma, he had as grandmother Emma, daughter of a Count of the Alemanni, was the daughter of Regimbold, a most noble Count of the Alemanni, and was carried off by plundering Huns from her father's castle along with two sisters, and violently abducted as a captive into the territory of the aforesaid city: whom a certain noble man, as soon as he saw her, moved immediately by the prompting of God, without whom not even one sparrow falls to the ground, pitied the freeborn appearance of the captive and redeemed her. What more? By God's providence, sold at Worms: so that the root might be preserved from which the fruit that would endure in the acquisition of salvation was to be born, her father, while he happened to be traveling to the Emperor's court, had lodging in the house of that same noble man. There, amid much conversation, he recognized his daughter, rejoiced, and gave her as wife to the man who had redeemed her and who was requesting her in marriage, with a great dowry. From that marriage the mother of this Saint was born. This we chose not to pass over, because it pertains not a little to the praise and glory of God, that the bitterness was overcome by such great blessings of sweetness, so that a redeemed captivity brought forth by birth so great a citizen of heaven.

[4] Therefore, with God's purpose looking ahead, who both before the ages of time foreknew and predestined all the Saints to be conformed to the image of His Son, he is entrusted to literary studies: and in His own time called, justified, and glorified each one; this Saint, foreknown to be born, was called not only to be justified through the grace of baptism, but also to be glorified with the honor of Pontifical grace. The preparation for this magnificence consisted in the fact that he was entrusted to liberal studies in that same Church of Worms. Indeed, with such facility did he drink in the streams of both divine and human philosophy, that there was no reason to doubt that he had within him as teacher that One of whom the Apostle says: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase"; especially because along with the spirit of knowledge there shone in him the spirit of piety and the fear of the Lord, from which every saint begins to ascend to wisdom, as it is written: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." 1 Cor. 3:6 Observing this, the venerable Hildebald, who at that time was Bishop of that same Church of Worms, by Hildebald, Bishop of Worms, he is loved: knowing the prudent young man from his very studies, just as Scripture says: "By his studies a boy is known, whether his works are pure"; rejoiced in him with good hope, considering that this man would be useful to holy Church. Ps. 110:10, Prov. 20:11 For that same Bishop was of that benevolence which the Holy Spirit commends in the Prophet, saying: "Say to the righteous that it shall be well, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings." Isa. 3:10 And he knew that the Lord had said in the Gospel: "The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send laborers into His harvest." Luke 10:2 And so, desiring that holy Church be provided for, and hoping that God had already prepared for him a successor in the See over which he presided, he is made Provost of the Church of Worms: he strove to encourage the well-performing man with fitting praise. Finally, when the Provost of that same Church died at that time, he immediately appointed him as replacement. But that Holy and True One, who holds the seven stars, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, had disposed to fix this star in another place of His firmament, and to set this lamp upon the candlestick of another Church.

[9] Therefore, so that he who was to be sought from afar might become known from afar, Otto, the third Roman Emperor, heard of the illustrious man, who and what kind of man he was: then Chancellor of Otto III, Emperor: and as God inclined his heart, as it is written, "The heart of the King is in the hand of God"; the man's integrity so pleased him that he associated him to his own side, and appointed him his chief Chancellor. Prov. 21:1 Persuaded also by him, this Blessed man cheerfully took upon himself the yoke of the Lord, namely the honor of the Presbyterate, together with Bruno, who afterward held the dignity of the Roman Pontificate. However, that same Bruno did not quickly consent to become a Priest, humbly excusing himself as receiving a grace greater than his merits. Indeed both were praiseworthy—both this one who with a cheerful spirit quickly consented, and that one who, at first astonished, tried to flee the arduous matter. Matt. 8:7-8 For the Centurion also, who when the Lord said to him, "I will come and heal your servant lying paralyzed in the house," answered, saying: "Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed"; was immediately praised by the same Lord according to the humility of his faith: and Zacchaeus, who when He said, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house," immediately hurried down and received Him joyfully; was judged worthy according to the joy of his charity, so that the Lord should say: "For salvation has come to this house today." Luke 10:5 However, this man too, who when asked, quickly undertook the office of the Presbyterate, as has already been said, afterward humbly refused to accept the even more excellent degree of the Pontificate he refuses the Bishopric of Würzburg, offered to him. For when the Bishop of the Church of Würzburg died shortly after, the Emperor wished that he should be appointed as his replacement. He refused, as has already been said, professing himself unworthy, and obtained that the same election be transferred to his brother, named Henry, as one far more worthy than himself. And so it was done: his brother presided over the aforesaid Church; but he himself, in his humility and love, was reserved for the time and place predetermined for him by God. Meanwhile, when the Roman Pontiff died, the aforesaid Bruno obtained the Apostolic See, taking the name Gregory, and lived on it for nearly two years and nine months, the eleventh after the other Bruno, who was called Leo the Ninth. Concerning this man—how he was first expelled by the Romans rebelling against the Emperor, and then destroyed by poison—since it pertains less to the present matter, we now omit it and rather pursue our intended subject.

Bruno, according to Thietmar book 4, was the son of Duke Otto, grandson of Emperor Otto, or according to others, a cousin or kinsman. Bruno As a young man he studied in the city of Worms, the city of the Vangiones: hence in his epitaph it is said:

A Teuton by tongue, educated in the Vangian city.

CHAPTER II

The Election and Consecration of Saint Heribert as Archbishop of Cologne.

[6] in the schism of the Church of Cologne Not long after, the metropolitan church of Cologne was made a widow, upon the death of Everger, Archbishop of that city. But behold, while they were attempting to elect a successor, they tore apart their unanimity, and the Clergy and people grievously disagreed with one another. For the Clergy demanded one man, and the people demanded another by their election: and the conflict of the diverse parties proceeded to such a point that they nearly came to arms. And so, as if with Jesus absent, the little ship was tossed about by waves in the midst of the sea. But He Himself came to their aid more swiftly as they labored, and came to them over the sea. For the one whom the Clergy was electing despite the disapproval of the people, namely Wezelinus, Provost of the house of Saint Peter, suddenly demanding silence, by the will of God addressed them all thus: In this matter, Fathers and Lords, let each seek not his own interests but equally those which are the Lord's, and let us take the best counsel we can. For I neither desire to preside over you myself, nor do I envy another: but free from both in this matter, namely from envy and ambition, I designate to you another known man, who is worthy, namely the illustrious Heribert, strong both according to God and according to the world, inasmuch as he is devoted to Christ and dear to the Emperor. he is proposed and elected Archbishop. Let us therefore resolve the dispute, by conceding the election to this most worthy man. Scarcely had he said these things, when straightway from his mouth the entire throng acclaimed Heribert. One was the voice of all, one the will, whom until then discord had divided, but now in a wondrous way

the bond of peace bound together in one absent man. Thus, at the Lord's command, the wind ceased and a calm was made. The swift outcome of this tranquility is made all the more memorable for us by the storms sometimes heard or seen in other times or places, where with Jesus somehow sleeping or absent, the tumult of the sea was not stilled before a great number of souls—indeed of bodies and other things too—perished and was destroyed. Surely this must be ascribed to the just judgment of God on account of the sins of the inhabitants, wherever such a thing happens. For the fact that the little ship of the Church of Cologne, with the peace and concord of all: while it was tossed about by those waves of discord, was so quickly rescued before it came to arms, must be ascribed to the mercy of the Divinity. Moreover, the evident testimony of the blessed man's merits in this matter too is the fact that when his name was proposed for election, the fierce discord of Clergy and people was quieted and peace was restored. For to those attending with subtlety, the matter itself was speaking—that the Prince of Peace, the cornerstone, and Christ our peace, who made both one, who slew enmities in Himself and by His blood reconciled all things, both in heaven and on earth, was sending him.

[7] Therefore, with the Lord's presence, the election of the faithful servant was memorably celebrated, and this immediately merited testimony and praise both from God and from men. Indeed, the hand of the Lord had already touched the heart of the aforesaid Emperor, that through this man He might calm the civic disturbances that had already become known to him by report. For even when he was tempted with money by another, whom (as was said above) the dissension of the people had acclaimed; he himself, deferring his reply and concealing his contempt for the offered money, meanwhile wrote the following in his own hand from the territory of Benevento, where he was then residing, to the blessed man, then at Ravenna carrying out business commanded by the Emperor with the bishop of that city: "Otto, Emperor Augustus, by the grace of God alone. To Heribert, Archilogothete, grace and Cologne and one cubit of the Pallium." When the delegation of the citizens of Cologne arrived—a good number of honorable men, both from the Clergy and from the people, and those who seemed the most distinguished in both orders, together with certain of the greatest Princes of the land—they formally presented the election of such a person. Then indeed the same Emperor, greatly elated, gave no small thanks to the prudent counsel of the city, because what he himself desired and what seemed best to him, they too felt and chose, in one and the same spirit with him. Thus plainly evidently the doorkeeper opened for this one, about to enter the sheepfold of the sheep, pacifying all in his election so that no obstacle should arise. All these things the praiseworthy man truly received wisely: who meanwhile entering a church, greatly elated by this news, prostrate on the ground, gave thanks with the whole affection of his mind to the Lord God, the bestower of heavenly graces, not indeed exulting in temporal glory, but adoring the gift of heavenly blessing. For how should he not rejoice, who perceived by such evident proofs that he was in God's care? For he imitated the holy King and Prophet David: who, when he had heard the word of the Lord through the Prophet Nathan, saying, "When your days are fulfilled and you go to your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall be of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom; he shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever," etc., entered and sat before the Lord, and said: "Who am I, and after the example of David O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have granted me such things?" 2 Sam. 7:12 And he added: "Now therefore, Lord, let the word which You have spoken to Your servant concerning his house be confirmed forever, and do as You have spoken." When the strong, wise, and humble King said these and other things, he was exulting, not indeed over the temporal memorial of his house or the handmade temple which his son Solomon was to build in the name of the Lord; but over the eternal glory of Christ, his Son according to the flesh, and of the Church, which he understood by the prophetic spirit in the figure of that Solomon his son and his temple. he gives thanks to God: By this example indeed this Blessed man acted, and so should act everyone who is called by the Lord to be a ruler of God's house, or a Pastor to preside over Christ's sheep—not embracing human glory, but divine grace. Because it is truly a great grace to be a Pastor and Bishop of souls, to be counted among the greatest gifts which Christ, ascending on high, gave to men. For the Apostle also, after he had said, "He who descended is the same who also ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things," and "He gave some to be Prophets, and others Evangelists," followed and said: "And others Pastors and Teachers, for the perfection of the Saints." Eph. 4:10-11 Rightly therefore and wisely did he give thanks for the bestowed or soon-to-be-bestowed gift of blessing and pastoral grace.

[8] Now, concerning the vice of ambition, how free he was from it—though his whole life was a sign of it—that he defers the consecration is the memorable testimony: that on the 8th day before the Ides of July, which was a day celebrated for the martyrdom of Saint Kilian, when he was to be created Archbishop, he preferred it to be deferred to the next day, on account of the mournful funeral rites being conducted there for the Bishop of Strasbourg: namely, so that while others mourned and wept, he himself should not seem to be laughing with his own, mindful of Scripture which says: "An inheritance hastened to in the beginning, in its end shall want blessing." And indeed there was reason to mourn over the death of that same Bishop: because it had happened terribly, preceded by a sign of ill portent. Prov. 20:21 For when he, crowned with the miter, was entering to celebrate the solemn rites of the Mass, [so that he might attend the funeral of the Bishop of Strasbourg, whose levity is noted,] where he turned to the people, about to say according to custom, "Peace be with you," looking intently at the Emperor, he was so overcome with laughter that he seemed utterly to have forgotten for what purpose he had turned around. But when they came to dinner, with all seated together, he was struck with a pleuritic illness, and being carried by hand to his own lodging, he gave up his spirit on the fourteenth day. He had seen, however, seven years before—as he was accustomed to recount—a vision: so that he might attend the funeral rites: namely, that a certain old man, clothed in a purple garment and crowned with a pontifical miter, had stood before him, who, professing himself to be Kilian, said, that one poured out for me this oracle: "Conduct yourself throughout these seven years in works befitting a Bishop: for no longer span of life has been appointed to you by the Lord." However he may have received the vision, however he may have prepared himself, whatever his youth may have been at the hour of his death, rightly indeed to this wise man such a death, as has been described, renewed or increased his meditation on death, and it was a great proof of his temperance that at a time of weeping, by deferring to himself and his own a time for rejoicing, he preferred to attend the sorrowful funeral rites as a private person.

[9] And indeed the Pontifical honor was given to him at Benevento on the 7th day before the Ides of June. At Benevento he is created Bishop, at Rome he receives the pallium: And from there, having gone to Rome, he received the Pallium from the Prelate of the Apostolic See: but he entered the city of Cologne and sat in his See on a day not unknown to Christians, namely the Vigil of the Lord. When he was approaching, and was now close at hand, it is worthy of remembrance how he recalled the Apostolic teaching which says: "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and meekness"; for truly humble and meek, having sent the Pallium of Apostolic mission ahead, he himself, clothed in linen, he enters Cologne clothed in linen and barefoot: barefoot, followed with slow step, when the winter cold was exceedingly troublesome even for those wearing shoes in that season. Eph. 4 He also attended to his calling—that he was called not to the kingdoms of the nations, but to the ministry of the holy disciples of Christ. And although he was now coming to his own distinguished city of Cologne, by such an appearance he confessed with the blessed Patriarchs, whom the Apostle mentions, that he was a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth, signifying that he was seeking a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one, and that city which God has prepared for them. Heb. 11 He came therefore, led by the Holy Spirit, in a spirit of humility, with a contrite heart, yet not without holy and spiritual joy: and as was already stated above, on that very night of his joy, namely the Nativity of the Lord, he was consecrated during the solemn rites of the Mass, which are customarily celebrated a little before or around daybreak. For several Bishops had come with him for this very purpose. Now, who would not marvel at the divine ordination in his consecration? Who would not stand in awe here of the depth of divine counsel, he is consecrated Bishop by which it pleased God that it should happen thus? For the Holy Spirit composed that entire Matins office for the holy Pastors of Christ's sheep, whose mystical exemplar were those shepherds who, keeping watch on that night and guarding the watches of the night over their flock, with the glory of God shining around them, at the dawn of the Nativity of Christ: merited to see the good tidings, the great joy of the newborn Savior, which they had been the first to hear from the holy Angels, as the holy Gospel of that same Mass narrates. Luke 2 Indeed all the parts of that same office are the voices of the Pastors of the Church, such as they ought to sound forth to the rational sheep of their care—that the Savior was born of the Virgin for the salvation of the world. Plainly, unless the tedium of readers were to be avoided, it would be easy to expound the individual parts according to this meaning. Yet there is one thing which rightly should not be passed over, namely the prophetic chapter which in that same office precedes the Apostolic reading according to custom: especially because that passage wonderfully accommodated itself to the person of this holy Pastor. For while two Bishops held the book of the Gospels over his head and neck during his consecration, when the same book was immediately opened, this verse first presented itself: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: because He has anointed me: He has sent me to preach good tidings to the poor." Isa. 61:1 For this prophetic chapter of Isaiah is inserted into the Gospel writings in this manner: "And Jesus returned," says Luke, "in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and entered according to His custom on the Sabbath day into the synagogue, and stood up to read." Luke 4:14 ff. "And the book of the Prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me: He has sent me to preach good tidings to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, when the book of the Gospels was opened over his head, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense.' And when He had closed the book, He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them: 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.'" It is established, therefore, that

it is the person of Christ who speaks these things about Himself in His Prophet. But He indeed was not only anointed, but anointed above all, as another Scripture says: "God, Your God, has anointed You he had been anointed: with the oil of gladness above Your companions." Ps. 44 For all the Saints, all who are partakers or companions of that beautiful and gracious King, are anointed with the same Spirit, the same oil of gladness: since they can in no way be Saints without this anointing. Since therefore it is established that all His partakers are anointed with the same Spirit of the Lord, of whom that Prince and most powerful One says: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," etc., testifying and saying: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears": without doubt the Prelates of the Churches, whose task it is to preach good tidings to the poor and to proclaim release to the captives, and who have been anointed with holy chrism for this purpose—they each ought to know, and can say of themselves after Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me," etc. Therefore, while in the anointing of this blessed Bishop, when the Gospel volume was opened over his head, Holy Scripture first uttered this voice, truly all who were present rightly and reverently seized upon the statement as a true oracle of the Divinity, believing that the Lord had sent him, not doubting that the Spirit of the Lord had anointed him. Together with this prophetic reading, as is the order of that same Matins office, with the choirs harmonizing and alternating, divine voices resounded the sacred praises of the light and beauty with which the Prince of Shepherds, God and our Lord, clothed Himself, who on that night shone upon us: about which no explanation is to be continued at present, lest, as has already been said, prolixity engender tedium. This only will I say without hesitation: that these were certain signs of the abiding tenor of His own purpose and of God's, who both when this blessed man was born miraculously produced a splendor of light as a sign, and when he was being consecrated, so disposed the same consecration that the solemn praises of the true light, whose heralds all pastors of souls ought to be, were heard around him, according to the example of those shepherds whom the glory of God shone around on that night.

CHAPTER III

The Deeds of Saint Heribert at the Death of Emperor Otto III, and During the Public Famine.

[10] This is Your work, O Christ, whose word is true, indeed who are truth itself, whose sentence must stand, saying: "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." Likewise: "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light." Matt. 5:15, Luke 11:33 But what city so set upon a hill has not suffered envy and been assailed by the earthly city of Cain, set in the valley, whose prince is Satan? And what lamp so placed upon a lampstand Together with other Saints exalted by God, has no wicked eye envied it? To say this now more plainly, what Saint ever, built upon the mountain of virtues, shining by word and example for the edification of those who see and hear, has suffered no tribulation from the ungrateful and the envious? Who, amid the joys of heavenly graces, has not had his own measure of those tears which the inhabitants of Kedar—that is, of darkness—cause for the children of light? Ps. 119:5-6 For this is what each one says groaning in the Psalm: "Woe is me, that my sojourn is prolonged: I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Kedar: my soul has been long a sojourner. With those who hate peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them, they attacked me without cause." And although they are afflicted, they are not permitted to be afflicted beyond measure, that is, beyond what they are able to bear. Again they themselves say: "Lord God of hosts, You will feed us the bread of tears, and give us to drink tears in measure." Ps. 79:6 It was necessary therefore that this Saint also, he suffers adversity from the envious, whose soul was a city of the King God set on a hill, who was a lamp set upon the candlestick of a distinguished Church—it was necessary, I say, that he too suffer adversity amid the prosperity of virtues by which he inwardly burned and advanced, and amid the rays of signs by which he outwardly shone to the glory of God, as the following course of the narrative will presently show. But how, or through what occasion, did adversity find an entrance against him? Namely, through the immense ruin of his wall or lofty tower—that is, through the death of the aforesaid Emperor: whose friendship, while he was alive, could have been a wall for him against adversaries, whom envy afterward raised up against him. If that Emperor, as in other matters, had also in the affair through which he incurred death heeded the counsel of the blessed man, he would have come much closer to wisdom, and would not have repented, just as Wisdom herself says: "Do all things with counsel, and after the deed you shall not repent." Ecclus. 32:24 Because he did not do this, for after the death of Otto III he fell into the snares of an evil woman—namely the one whose husband Crescentius, who had rebelled against him, he had captured and ordered to undergo the capital sentence: and not being on guard against her, although he had been frequently warned by the holy man, he was infected with poison while sleeping in his bedchamber. He died therefore at Rome in the third year after the ordination of the blessed man. Now the Saint himself had also gone with him at that time, he held the regalia in his possession, being indispensable for arranging the greatest affairs of the realm. When on the following day the Emperor had confessed to him the pestilence he had contracted and perceived that he was dying, he also made this last request of him: that he transfer his body to be buried at Aachen. The faithful man, persisting in carrying out this task, also had the regalia in his possession, and was not present at the election of Saint Henry: and was not present at the election of the new prince, Henry, then Duke of Bavaria: whom the Princes of the realm elected as their King, being most wealthy in worldly dignity and not slightly instructed in literary studies. This was the occasion which his adversaries were able to seize against him—adversaries of the kind that have never been lacking in the Church from the time when Abel and Cain first offered sacrifices to God—namely, false brethren, of whom Scripture says: "because they have gone in the way of Cain," whose oppression the Apostle also especially laments among his other perils. Jude 11 And indeed the regalia that were demanded, he quickly returned: but because he was not present at the election of the new Prince, as has already been said, from that time he was suspect to him. Whence the same King lent a readier ear to the detractors of the Saint. Finally, he persecuted him with unrelenting hatred until he merited to be rebuked by the Lord shortly before the death of the Saint, which the present narrative will not pass over in its proper place. Now let us run through his memorable miracles to the praise of the Lord.

[11] The matter itself which is now to be narrated quite clearly commends the fact that it was not by chance but through divine dispensation that what we mentioned above came to pass: namely, that in the consecration of the holy Prelate, the first thing to present itself from the Gospel book was that voice of the merciful Bishop Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me." Isa. 61:1 For a drought that followed afterward While famine and pestilence raged vehemently accused the sins of the peoples, so that with almost every plant withered and every field scorched, it threatened not just any famine, but a mortal famine, now imminent. Finally, pestilence also raged along with the drought, and many were dying, while many others could barely drag their sickly bodies about. There was therefore for the most compassionate Bishop no small or ordinary concern: but also, in his concern, the tribulation of a compassionate spirit, and in his tribulation, constant and tearful prayer. Whence, because an iron was piercing his soul, and the Holy Spirit groaned in his heart, as the Apostle says: "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered"; he merited to reconcile the people to God, as a certain Wise Man said of the great and worthy Priest: "And in the time of wrath he became a reconciliation," he proclaims a three-day fast: and in the reconciliation he was glorified by a glorious miracle. Rom. 8:26, Ecclus. 44:17 When a three-day fast was proclaimed, the sorrowful people went through the city, rich with so many thousands of Saints, and at the patronage of each holy place faithfully and humbly poured forth tearful prayers, that they might be snatched from the imminent and now present evils. There was a public procession of Clergy and people, of monks and nuns too, and of every order of both sexes: with diverse tongues indeed, but with one intention and the same sentiment crying out "Kyrie eleison," the height of heaven was struck. Among all and above all, the Archbishop, mournful and suppliant, the hope and father of the sorrowful children and of the fatherland, proceeded, in a public procession with a heart so wounded and with such groanings that the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, judged him worthy of His consolation in a wondrous way. When therefore the solemn litany, having departed from the oratory of Saint Severinus, was approaching the oratory of Blessed Pantaleon, seen to be honored by a dove circling about him, behold, a dove of snowy whiteness, in the sight of many, flew about his head, and suddenly vanishing, again became visible. Many saw it, but not all: because it was not an earthly sight, but a heavenly grace, which was given to some to see. But when they came to the place where the aforesaid Confessor of the Lord, Severinus, at the passing of Blessed Martin, merited to hear the voices of Angels singing psalms, they see from a distance the same dove circling the head of the blessed man a third time, which, immediately rising aloft, sought the heavens, and was seen no more. Whence, who would doubt that the grace of the Holy Spirit, such as it dwelt in the house of his heart, appeared outwardly in such form, especially in such a time of sorrow? For the dove, like the turtle-dove, is a bird given to groaning, and is accustomed to utter a groan in place of a song: and just as the turtle-dove groans in solitude, so this bird is accustomed to groan in flocks. Most truly therefore, with such a sign, this grace of the Holy Spirit designated him above all others as both praying and

groaning above all, and concerning this one also was saying in a way the very same thing that the sacred page narrates was said of another not unknown but eminent Prophet: "This is the lover of the brethren and of his people: this is he who prays much for the people and for this city." 2 Macc. 15:14 Indeed this man also appeared most gentle among his people, according to the likeness of the gentle and simple dove, overflowing with the holy Spirit of piety: and therefore his groaning and prayer could not perish. For when they came to dinner, while he himself ate almost nothing of the food set before him, yet in his usual manner so as to conceal his fasting most especially at that time; when certain ones, looking at the sky and speaking with grief that on that day, despite the profuse tears of so many, heaven had not yet been opened since the Lord was not yet appeased, he attributes the public drought to his own sins: the Blessed man spoke a word worthy of remembrance, truly gentle, truly meek: "It is the fault, O dearest ones, of your pastor that heaven above is so iron-like, that the multitude of the Lord's mercies and compassions have restrained themselves over you. For unless the Lord had been provoked by my sins—I who ought to stand as mediator between Him and you—He would already have rent the heavens, and His bounty would have descended and dripped upon you." As he said these things, tears flowed from the eyes of his wounded soul, as it were a kind of blood: which, bursting forth and running with force before many, he indeed wished to contain but could not. Therefore, overcome by tears, he bowed his head upon the table in his hands, and wrestled with the most mighty God of spirits with strong humility and ardent prayer. with tears and prayers Now at that same hour there was so great a clarity of sky that no cloud appeared in the air: when suddenly, with a great crash, a mighty downpour of rain burst forth in flooding, he obtains rain. so that the noise of the showers was heard before the holy man raised his head from prayer. Immediately all those seated around sprang up from the table and rushed out to sound forth hymns in praise of Christ and of so great a Bishop, and to have the church bells rung. But that prudent man and most vigilant guardian of his humility, by terribly adjuring them, forbade this to be done, and barely succeeded in getting them to refrain for the time being from drawing attention to himself, while never ceasing to praise God and give thanks to Christ. Nor was the rain insufficient: but it so abundantly irrigated the earth that it restored the already withered roots of the crops to fruitfulness.

CHAPTER IV

The Monastery of Deutz, Built and Repaired After Its Collapse.

[12] Meanwhile, while he was occupied with many and great works of mercy as a father of the poor, On the Roman journey with Emperor Otto, a daily provider for widows and orphans, a continual concern weighed upon his mind to build a monastery for monks who would serve God: whose order indeed professes that they are poor, voluntarily poor, possessing nothing of their own in this world. Now he had had Emperor Otto, while he was still alive, as an encourager of this undertaking. For when he was entering Italy on his last expedition to manage the affairs of state, having the blessed man in his company, with everything going favorably, while discussing with the man of God the salvation of his soul, and in a way saying, he conceives the construction of a monastery: "What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me"; he received this counsel: that for his salvation he should build a monastery of monks in honor of the holy Mother of God and all the Saints. With this salutary counsel taken, he immediately delegated to Christ the estates necessary for this purpose, and gave them into the blessed man's hand, with a promise or pledge of this kind: that since the life of mortals is uncertain, if necessity of death should overtake either of them, whichever one survived would complete the vow. Such was the agreement between them, with Christ as mediator, and so these great men, heirs of eternal freshness, were mindful of the poor—men of whom the prophetic Spirit says in the Psalm: "The trees of the field shall be satisfied, and the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted." Ps. 103:16 For by this praise, he receives estates from him: under the names of the trees of the field and the cedars of Lebanon, the rich and powerful of the world are mystically promised by the Holy Spirit to be future hosts of the poor—that is, of the spiritual children of the Church—concerning which it immediately adds: "There the sparrows shall nest: the house of the heron is their leader"; because for His own sake they become poor, by preparing the hearts of secular men of wealth: so that just as sparrows nest in the branches of the trees of the field and the cedars of Lebanon, so they themselves may receive in the possessions or resources of those men the necessities of this life prepared for them. We have been pleased to recall these things so that whoever lives by the endowment of such benefactors, having professed the service of Christ and holy poverty, which Christ Himself taught, may likewise consider that he ought to fly like a sparrow—that is, to think of heavenly things—so that he may be worthy of the lodging or sustenance which has been prepared for the spiritual life of sparrows, that is, of the poor or humble. For this is why the same Lord Christ, instructing His poor, says: "Do not worry about tomorrow." Matt. 6:34, 25, 33 Likewise: "Do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or with what shall we be clothed?' For your heavenly Father knows what you need. Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you." Which is the same as if He should say: "Come to Me securely, O all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you": come securely and confidently to the rest of the contemplative life, anxious for nothing about tomorrow: because your heavenly Father, knowing what you need, has already long since promised and prepared for you food and clothing, saying through the Prophet: "The trees of the field shall be satisfied, and the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted: there the sparrows shall nest." Ps. 103:16 But leaving these things aside, let us return to the matter at hand: for it was not our purpose to teach monks that they ought not to receive their appointed stipends unless they fly with the wings of contemplation and are free from the servile work of sin, but to weave the narrative of the deeds of the blessed man.

[13] When therefore Blessed Heribert desired to build the proposed monastery in a chosen place and could find no place that he judged sufficiently suitable and fitting, turning to the Lord and His holy Mother in fasts and prayers, he requested that His will be revealed to him. He did this persistently, and as it is written of Saint Anna the Prophetess, "her countenance was no longer changed to different expressions": he did not desist [he is taught by the Mother of God appearing to him to build the monastery in the castle of Deutz:] until he received from heaven a reply worthy of his merits. 1 Sam. 1:18 For one night, after he had given his wearied limbs to sleep following the Vigils, behold, there was present in a vision that blessed Queen of the Angels and of all the Saints: who, sitting on a starry throne, possessing with her Son the broad and ample kingdom of heaven, did not think little even of this small dwelling that was being offered to her on earth with faithful devotion. And standing before him, she said: "Know, O Heribert, that your prayers have been heard: behold, I come to you now to show you in what place you should fulfill the vow you bear in your mind. For I am Mary, the Mother of the Lord. Arise therefore, and going to the castle of Deutz, command the place therein to be cleared: and there build a monastery to God, to me, and to all the Saints: so that where once sin abounded and the worship of demons, there justice may reign in a multitude of Saints." Having said these things, the Mother of mercy disappeared, with the blessed man awakening and thus falling back from the sweetness of so great a vision. Now in that same castle there was situated a farmstead belonging to the service of the Bishopric. Rising therefore and giving thanks to God most devoutly in heart and voice, and being not ungrateful to her who had deigned to appear to him, the Mother of perpetual salvation, he immediately summoned the ministerial of the aforesaid farmstead and ordered that the farmstead be cleaned at once, because it was now to become the court of the King of heaven and His Mother: so that all furniture be removed, making room for the coming and he arranges for this to be done. dwelling there of the name of the Lord. And so it was done, and with all the goods—of which there was a great abundance—removed, the place was cleared more quickly than could have been hoped. What more? With the foundations laid, a beautiful structure rose up swiftly and eagerly.

[14] But what shall I say? For when the work was nearly completed, and already, as had been intended, a community of monks serving God had been gathered together, The temple collapses, one night, after the solemnities of Matins had been finished and all had gone out, suddenly the entire structure collapsed so that not one stone remained upon another, except one small wall, which alone was found standing amid those ruins. What should the wise listener think of this event? For if the structure had not risen by heavenly authority, if the dignity of so great and sublime a person, who appeared as has already been described, had not commanded the work to be done in such a place, and if the founder of the work, this Bishop, had not been of known sanctity, we would suppose it had happened by chance. But now, considering the quality of the circumstances and persons, it is permissible to conclude whose mystical interpretation is indicated, that this was done by divine and just disposition. And indeed, since we cannot perceive the depth of divine counsel, we wish only to say that a terrible sign was given to all who inhabit holy places, and especially to those who would thereafter undertake holy service in that same place. For what was truthfully said of the Son of the Virgin: "Behold, this one is set for the fall and the resurrection of many"; the same can be said not unfittingly of this place, and of the same Virgin's oratory, and of every place of the Saints: that it is set for the fall and the resurrection of many. Luke 2 For whose fall? If not of those who lead a wasted life in a holy place, and therefore will bear a greater judgment? And for whose resurrection? If not of those who, departing from this wicked world and fleeing past sins, take refuge in a holy place to do penance, and thus rise again to a state of justice? Indeed, it is not absurd to understand the fall of those in the aforesaid collapse of stones, and the resurrection of these in the renewed construction, which immediately rose again in better form. For the man of God was indeed grieved at what had happened: but quickly resuming the strength of his holy desire, digging out the entire area of the monastery to be built to the depth of a ship's mast, he again laid foundations, and the monastery, completed more swiftly, he dedicated on the fifth day before the Nones of May. Moreover, from the stones of the first structure he restores and dedicates it, he built the cloister with its workshops. Therefore, whenever you read or recall a deed of this kind, you who with a studious mind

delight in searching out spiritual examples from the likeness of any corporeal things whatsoever, not caring by what end or from how humble a thing you may take instruments of your salvation, provided you can be profitably edified: at the same time, bring to mind also that which is written with manifest divine authority, where the Lord says to the Prophet: "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there you shall hear my words. And I went down," he says, "to the potter's house, and behold he was making a work upon the wheel." Jer. 18:2 "And the vessel that he was making from clay with his hands was ruined. And he turned and made it another vessel, as it pleased in his eyes to make." To pursue or discuss these and other things the purpose of the present narrative does not admit: this briefly intended zeal aims only to call to mind at this point that in every order both the proud fall or are ruined on account of their hardness, and the humble, converted to repentance on account of their meekness, are restored.

[15] for forming the Lord's Cross, There occurred also another thing which likewise ought not to be passed over, nor thought to be devoid of reason. For the man of the Lord, as soon as he laid the foundations of the church, ordered that a Cross of the Lord be fashioned to be set up therein. But the craftsmen, though they worked diligently to fulfill the command, were in no way followed by success. Day after day, rejecting some logs and cutting others, they were utterly unable to carry out the work of their craft from any wood, however well chosen. Wearied therefore by much labor and even greater tedium, they resolved to desist entirely from such a work. But on a certain day, the blessed man had come to a certain estate belonging to him, and a table was prepared for him at his command in an orchard adjacent to his house. Opposite him stood a pear tree, extending upward to a height, which with its branches drawn down—indeed, as if with arms stretched out—seemed in a way to imitate the likeness of the Lord extending His hands on the Cross. When therefore, sitting at table, he let his eyes wander with casual movements during the meal, behold, such a likeness in that tree suddenly presented itself, and in a wondrous way at first sight struck a certain divine awe into his soul. Without delay, making before his eyes that familiar sign of the Cross, wholly recollecting himself, he prudently understood that the thing had been divinely foreseen and presented to his eyes. Immediately therefore, summoning the craftsman, he commands that tree to be cut down, and from it the Lord's Cross and the image of the Savior to be carefully fashioned. The craftsman obeyed, and with dispatch the elegance of the work not any wood, but he finds a suitable pear tree. quite effectively followed the art. What can be inferred from such a deed? Does God care about logs or tree trunks, so that He should indicate what or what kind of wood the craftsman should choose or should have chosen for Himself? But truly there is something else that God cares about, which a prudent listener may not unprofitably contemplate according to this likeness. For the sign of the Cross or the image which the Christian people venerates in remembrance of the Savior, raised before their eyes, just as Moses in the desert raised the bronze serpent as a sign, ought to be imitated in honor by the secondary Pastors, whom the Holy Spirit appointed to govern the Church of God, which He acquired with His blood, so that they may be honored in Christ's place, since they are known to act in Christ's stead. Num. 21 Indeed, they are not to be intruded into the stewardship of God's house by human presumption, but called by God's election: so that the one whom God has chosen may be appointed, the one whom God has deigned to show forth as His worthy workman by the Holy Spirit, that he may merit to preside. Rightly therefore the matter itself makes us mindful of this truth, of this divine election, since it happened in almost the same way—that not just any wood, not whichever one the human craftsmen wished, but that which was pointed out by divine direction, could be brought to the completion of such a work.

CHAPTER V

Various Miracles Performed by Saint Heribert During His Life.

[16] This Blessed man received from the Holy Spirit, who distributes to each as He wills, the grace of working miracles, In miracles he flees glory: but he always fled glory: for he was an outstanding guardian of humility, and did not wish—indeed fled from—having his righteousness seen by men. For it is especially by the light of such works that the life of Saints becomes known to men. A clear and evident sign of this is the fact that, although he possessed this grace, as has been said, he is never found to have poured out a prayer to the Lord for the performance of any miracle: yet nonetheless through him several miracles of this kind were performed, sometimes against his will, sometimes even without his knowledge, as the following discourse will declare. Nevertheless, in this praise of his humility, nothing is derogated from the authority or glory of the great Saints, who are read to have obtained the work of this grace often by pouring out prayers. For all things have their time, says Ecclesiastes. Eccles. 3:1 For just as concerning the kinds of tongues, which are given by the same Spirit, the Apostle says, "Tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers"; nor did he seek the power of miracles by prayers: so also concerning the working of miracles you may rightly say that miracles are for a testimony, not to believers, but to unbelievers: and there they are especially to be desired by the Saints, where a people having ignorance of the true God is being instructed in the faith. 1 Cor. 14:22 Whence we note that Saint Elisha acted praiseworthily, who when Elijah said to him, "Ask what you wish, before I am taken from you," immediately asked, saying, "I pray that your spirit be doubled in me." 2 Kings 2 as some Saints, For he saw miserable Israel, following the fornications of the most impious Jezebel, limping between two sides, following Baal the idol of Jezebel and hesitating after the God of their fathers, who is the one and true Lord God: and that the same people could not be restored to their proper state except through the working of many miracles. Therefore he asked for a difficult thing indeed; yet because he sought not his own but God's glory and the common salvation of the people, what he asked for was done, and the double spirit of Elijah rested upon him. For he received a double gift of the spirit in the working of miracles. and Elisha, For if you consult Scripture and count carefully, Elijah performed eight miracles, but Elisha about sixteen. Therefore both those Saints are worthy of praise who, through charity or for the edification of unbelievers, worked miracles by pouring out prayers to God: and this man and all others are rightly to be honored who, for the sake of guarding humility, in a way strove to flee the same grace of miracles, given them from heaven and pursuing them of its own accord. But now let us enter upon the narrative of the miracles of this Saint.

[17] On a solemn day this Saint of God was delivering a sermon to the people according to custom. while preaching to the people Now that day was the one which Christendom calls Palm Sunday, on which day the King of heaven entered the holy city of Jerusalem, sitting upon the colt of a donkey—indeed out of contempt for the pride of earthly kings, of whom the Psalmist says: "Some trust in chariots and some in horses"; immediately adding, "But we will call upon the name of the Lord our God"—in which name He then came about to suffer, while the crowds cried out: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Ps. 19:8 His sermon therefore was fitting to the time and the occasion—namely, how the devil through the seduction of the first man had occupied the courtyard of this world as a strong man fully armed, and how the stronger Son of God, coming upon him, conquered that strong man through the humility of His cross and passion, and carried away all his vessels—that is, us men—from him by the right of victory. But behold, in the great crowd of hearers there was present a certain man, corporally possessed by that same strong prince of darkness, and for this reason bound with harsh chains; he had already been taken through many holy places so that he might be freed by the merits of the Saints, but the desired healing had not come to him: because his liberation was being reserved by God's providence for the merits of this most blessed man. When therefore a sermon of this kind was flowing from the mouth of the blessed man, the strength of the enemy could not endure the power of virtue; at each word, as if at so many blows, he howled more vehemently, and gnashed with the teeth of the wretched man as if with his own, hearing those stories in which he was told of being conquered by Christ. And so the captive man, already known to many, became known to all, as his cries disturbed the silence of all and alone troubled the multitude of the entire region who were intent on hearing the word of God. To his cries especially that man, a son of mercy, gave his full attention: and being unable to continue the sermon he had in his mouth, because he was seized by the greatness of his compassion, he prayed with a silent mind that in one man the power of the Liberator who freed the whole world might be made manifest. by prayer he drives a demon from a possessed man: Praying this silently, again and again he deliberately repeated the passage, proclaiming the glory of Christ the Victor and the ruin of the conquered devil: so that he seemed to have lost his senses, repeating the same sentence so many times, weeping at the same time, and beautifully adorning the eloquence of his speech with abundant tears. Therefore, as has already been said, that ancient enemy could not endure; but compelled by the power of the almighty Word, he fled and left free the man he had long possessed. For when he had been expelled, the one who had been held bound by many calmly said: "I beg you, release me, so that what the blessed Bishop is saying, I too may hear in peace." When he first said this, it was thought that the wicked enemy was still deceiving in him: but the man spoke more firmly, again and again asserting that he had been freed by the merits of the blessed Bishop, and uttering wholesome words. Therefore they released him, and he stood with a sound mind, listening more intently to the rest of the sermon with the other hearers. The witnesses and admirers of the miracle toward the blessed man were as many as those who stood around him preaching in that place, who had also carefully observed his gaze and tearful gestures—while he said nothing at all with his lips for the liberation of the captive, and yet accomplished his liberation by the power of silent prayer.

[18] he heals with the water from the washing of hands at Mass Another sign of his powers was performed around the same time, in which there shone forth more brightly from above what by the zeal of humility was pressed down within him below. For three of those who were ailing were directed to him by a heavenly vision, on account of the testimony of his merit, as to a physician of salvation. The first of these was Volbert, Abbot of the monastery already mentioned above, which the same Saint had built—a venerable man who was troubled by a hard and long-lasting affliction of the head and eyes. To him it was divinely made known one night in a vision that he should bathe his head and eyes with the water with which the holy Bishop of God had washed his hands after the celebration of Mass, according to custom, believing without doubt that he would immediately recover his health. He believed, for he was one who, more than many others, was familiarly aware of his most holy life. He came therefore, having first been summoned by the Bishop, as he was often accustomed

to be summoned and consulted about the necessary affairs of the aforesaid monastery. And when the Bishop was being prepared according to custom to celebrate the solemn rites of the Mass, approaching more closely as a familiar, he reported the vision, and asked that the water from his hands be given to him as had been shown, at the Bishop's command. But he, as if greatly agitated, the Abbot from a pain of the head and eyes, and in a way forgetting his own gentleness, in which he could truly say: "Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up; neither have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above myself"; repelled the man from himself as if he were delirious and demented, asking whether he did not know or had not seen the Rhine flowing past before his doors, in which he could wash not only his head and eyes but his whole body, as much as he wished. Ps. 130:1 Repelled, the man persisted, not incredulous of the vision, and secretly obtained from the Bishop's ministers that what he sought be reserved for him: and as soon as he bathed his head and eyes with that water, he received complete health.

[19] After him a certain woman, who had been blind for a long time, saw almost the same vision. a woman in a similar way from blindness, For she was told that if from the wine with which the same Saint of God had washed his fingers after Communion of the Lord's Body and Blood, according to custom, she should moisten her eyes, she would immediately recover her lost sight. She believed, and taking pains to obtain the remedy that had been shown her, as soon as she moistened her eyes with the wine, she received the desired light.

[20] Then another woman, long paralyzed, was admonished through a vision by the sign of the Cross a paralytic woman, to seek the blessing of the blessed man, trusting in the power of Christ, that through the merit of the blessed Bishop, with her infirmity driven away, health would immediately follow. She, doubting nothing, asked to be carried by the hands of men and placed beside the road by which the man of God would pass. And so, as he was passing by, she cried out, seeking a blessing in the name of the Lord. But he, pausing a little, when he learned from those present that she was paralyzed and that she was asking for a blessing, standing at a distance, raised his hand and made the sign of the Cross: and immediately her restored health solidified her loosened limbs, and she who had been carried by the hands of others, rising, went home unharmed. Thus in a wondrous way he who wished to be hidden within himself shone forth more and more from God, and the voice of truth was fulfilled which says: "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden," and "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden place, but on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light." Matt. 5:15, Luke 11:33

[21] Once a certain familiar Clerk, necessary in daily ministry, was seized with a violent fever and was most gravely afflicted, so that his life was almost despaired of by all. Now at that time the holy Bishop was on an expedition with the Emperor, and was traveling with him from the city of the Vangiones to Mainz, by a visit he heals a Clerk from a dangerous fever, having the aforesaid Clerk with him on the journey, and continually using his service both in public and private, as was customary. When therefore the fever had seized him during the expedition and was wearing him down almost to the point of death, the Father, who always had a compassionate affection for the afflicted, together with that compassionate affection also felt no small concern about the familiar service, arising from the circumstances and the need. He approached the bedside and visited his sick attendant more attentively, paternally inquiring whether he wanted anything, whether he could at least taste anything. The man, burning with the violent heat of fevers, declared that he asked for nothing but water. When this was granted with a blessing, he himself entered into the solemn rites of the Mass according to custom. He prayed nothing that could be heard outwardly for the working of a miracle, that the health of his sick attendant might be granted, as has already been said above; for he never poured forth an open prayer for such signs or miracles. He was praying, however, speaking indeed to God but silent to men, and especially in such matters he observed the evangelical counsel of the Lord who says: "But when you pray, enter into your chamber, and having shut the door, pray to your Father." Matt. 6:6 For with the door of his mouth shut, he prayed for such things, so that when the effect of the miracle came about, he himself would be thought to have done nothing: and thus his righteousness would not be seen by men. What more? When the solemn rites of the Mass were finished and he again visited his sick attendant, the man, now without doubt snatched by his merits from the great fires of fevers and the fears of imminent death, had so recovered that, having even regained an appetite for food, he asked that a dish be sent to him from the Bishop's own table provisions. It was done, and from then on, refreshed to satisfaction, he so recovered from his illness that on the following day he went ahead to Mainz with the others on the planned journey, and fulfilled the duties of Episcopal service entirely, as he had been accustomed.

CHAPTER VI

The Zeal of Saint Heribert for Prayer, Humility, and Kindness Toward the Poor and Afflicted.

[22] That same familiar Clerk, afterward Provost of the house of Saint Peter, Praying in darkness, knew and was accustomed to recount many great and magnificent things about the same Father; of which most have been passed over for the sake of brevity, but there is one that we did not wish to pass over in silence: because it is truly a great and evident sign that his prayer was truly fire, and before the eyes of the Divinity his charity was like a burning and shining lamp. One night, he is surrounded by light: with all those around him sleeping, the light which had been placed before him as usual, to shine throughout the whole span of the night, was extinguished. But that aforesaid familiar Clerk, suddenly awakened from sleep and rising, looking about here and there in the dreadful silence, while he anxiously trembled about recovering the light, he beheld a divine thing worthy of remembrance, as he himself testified with an oath. For amid the very darkness of night, behold, from the couch on which the blessed Bishop was praying with outstretched hands, keeping vigil, an immense light shone forth: by the increasing magnitude of which he could not even see or discern his hands, as the man himself admitted. By this sign it was clear enough that he was truly a son of light and a son of the day: and that his prayer truly consumed sins like fire and conquered the powers of darkness. Nor was it on that occasion only, but many times when, after the Matins hymns and the continuous chanting of psalms, the material light was put away somewhere, a spiritual light so surrounded the holy Bishop praying more privately that the presence of the noonday sun was thought to be at hand.

[23] perfect in humility, Now concerning his humility, glorious signs have already been set forth: that in the working of miracles he sought the glorification of the Father who is in heaven, and he fled from being known or seen by men as one who so worked. Moreover, the virtue of humility itself is then at last sweet and praiseworthy in its perfection, when he who inwardly, filled with God, subjects himself to his Creator in contrition of heart, outwardly also, the greater he is, the more he humbles himself in due time to condescend to the lowest of men for His sake. It is pleasing therefore to insert into this narrative a deed bearing a great example of humility and useful as a testimony, so that especially in sacred matters no ecclesiastical dignity should despise any poor believer. At the same time, because most ministers of the saving Sacraments sin exceedingly when they sell sacred things and do everything for the sake of gain, this example is willingly to be pressed upon them: because this deed also vehemently rebukes their sin, in which this Saint, as has already been said, shone with great praise. A little child had been born to a certain poor man, one of those whom the holy Father sustained with daily assistance; and because he was poor and had nothing of profit in hand, he was scorned by the priests, carrying his little boy throughout the whole city of Cologne and asking that the grace of regeneration be offered to his little son. Weary therefore and scorned, he baptizes a poor man's child, rejected by all: he had recourse to the holy Bishop and complained with a great and tearful voice that he had been scorned in such a matter. He, as a truly wise man, said: "Run, bring him to me, for I must baptize him." And the man said: "Then receive him also from the sacred font yourself, and deign to be my co-father." And so he baptized the little poor child, not weighing the Sacrament of our salvation according to persons: by his deed and example indeed rebuking so many priests of so great a city, for having dared to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons, judging, as the Apostle says, within themselves and becoming judges of evil thoughts. James 2:2 ff. "For if," he says, "there come into your assembly a man having a gold ring in fine apparel, and there come in also a poor man in shabby clothing, and you attend to the one who wears the fine clothing and say to him, 'Sit here in a good place'; but say to the poor man, 'Stand there,' or, 'Sit under my footstool': do you not judge among yourselves, and become judges of evil thoughts?" Now if in any judgment this Apostolic authority rightly rebukes respecters of persons, how much more in the dispensation of the Sacraments, which flowed freely from heaven, ought the holy man to rebuke by his example the contempt of poverty? Rightly therefore, walking according to the rule or counsel of Wisdom which says: "If you do good, know to whom you do it, and there shall be much thanks for your good deeds," he administered the Sacrament of salvation, attending not to the person but to the creature formed in the image of God: and he himself received the child from the sacred font, and becoming co-father, gave the father the means to nourish him. Ecclus. 12:1 On a subsequent day, when he was returning from a station held at Saint Severinus, accompanied by a great throng of Clergy and people, he was passing the small hovel of the aforesaid poor man. When the man saw him passing by, with no small cheerful confidence he burst out, seized the bridle of his horse, crying out and adjuring by the name of Christ and by the majesty of divine charity that he should stop for a moment and receive even a small portion of his co-father's provisions: mindful of the covenant he had made with him in the aforesaid regeneration and receiving of his little son. Let all those also hear this example, whoever gladly take provisions from the poor as if by priestly right, or even violently demand them: to whom the Lord said through the Prophet, "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion"; and followed up by adding: "Who eat the lamb from the flock and the calves from the midst of the stall." Amos 6:1 Let them hear, I say, he does not refuse the humble table of a poor man. and imitate this example, because the great Bishop, turning aside to the hovel of his co-father, took the best feast—namely, a crust of bread and a young chicken, together with a cup of thin beer. Let this be the motive, let this be the guardianship of piety, let this be the charity, wherever or whenever priestly dignity

stoops to the poor for the sake of receiving a gift. Let these things be said as a testimony or example of his humility.

[24] Moreover, concerning mercy—how great a house it built for itself in his breast, Kind to the poor, how truly merciful and a son of mercy he was—witnesses were the multitudes of the poor and the nearly innumerable throngs of the hungry: whom not in one time or year only, but through many years of his episcopate, while famine raged throughout almost the entire world, coming together from many regions, he received with paternal affection and maternal piety in the great breadth of his most kind heart; distributing them throughout the estates of his Bishopric, according to how much he judged the resources of each estate could sustain. But beyond these daily proofs of his piety, he once performed a certain deed worthy of remembrance, in which, on account of his abundance of mercy, he might be thought to have nearly incurred the sin of falsehood or dissimulation and duplicity. But as we recount such a deed, let us at the same time recall that saying of the Wise Man: "Better is the iniquity of a man than a well-doing woman." The matter was conducted in this way: A certain Clerk, one of the poor who, as has already been said, had flocked to the care and alms of the blessed Bishop, not content with the stipend of charity that was offered to him each day, had flown all the way to Saxony, and pursuing idleness, which, as Wisdom says, teaches much wickedness, had committed theft. Ecclus. 42:14, Ecclus. 33:29 For, breaking into three churches by night, with sacred vessels and vestments taken from them, the sacrilegious man had made his way back toward Cologne. There he was apprehended; indeed, with those who had suffered the loss following close behind, the accused was presented to the judge of that city. Nor was there any doubt about the sentence: that, as the civil law requires, the convicted sacrilegious thief should immediately perish by hanging. But then the holy Father was present in that very city. Hearing therefore what had happened, he immediately summoned the judge and commanded, as an energetic avenger of the theft, that he bring the thief with him into his presence: "I will not," he said, "take any food or drink today until that man, guilty of death, appears before me." And so it was done, and looking upon the man brought before him with fierce eyes, though in fact with feigned severity, he said: "It is not right that you should live, for whom death, earned by so great a crime, by a wonderful pretense he frees the Clerk, guilty of death, from punishment: is already owed and already prepared." Having said these things openly and threateningly before all, he committed the accused to the best guardian, namely the caretaker of the poor, and privately ordered that he be abundantly restored with necessary provisions. He himself, reclining at dinner—the only thing that seemed to be delaying the man's punishment—with the whole company seated beside him and everyone intent on eating, he, not forgetting his purpose, secretly summoned the aforesaid caretaker of the poor and, whispering in his ear, said: "Lead out the Clerk, and immediately saddle my horse for the weary man, and riding alongside him, escort him beyond the nearest forest: and giving him a pound of silver, send him off to safety, and then returning as quickly as possible, stand before me." It was done as he commanded. And with the servant who had returned standing before him, he himself, with feigned severity, said: "Well then, where is that accused man?" Saying this, he seemed—indeed wished to seem—to be deliberating about the hastening of his punishment. But the servant, aware of both his will and of what had been done, feigning sadness and fear alike, said: "He has escaped by flight, my Lord." Then he too, running about and expressing feigned alarm in words and complaints, rendered all who were present astonished. The holy Bishop, as if vehemently reproaching and threateningly rebuking him, turned to the people flowing together for the spectacle: "Behold," he said, "that accused man has fled, escaped. Go, run, so that, dragged back from flight, he may pay the penalty he owes at once." This remarkable deed of compassion was performed by this memorable artificer of a brother's salvation, a faithful dissembler, and, if it may be said, a splendidly mendacious man: concerning whose such a device, if it should seem to anyone not free from the stain of falsehood, one may chant again and again what was already said above: "Better is the iniquity of a man than a well-doing woman." Ecclus. 42:14 For that man is one who strives toward virtue, and in all that he does is intent on the kingdom of charity. But whoever in any sex intends evil and is given over to the kingdom of cupidity is judged a woman—that is, weak. Therefore this man in his deed, although he may seem to have incurred the vice of dissimulation, is a man, and this iniquity is better than the good deed of one who, while feigning the zeal of justice, exercises cruelty.

CHAPTER VII

Enmities Procured by the Envious Between Saint Henry the Emperor and Heribert, and Divinely Removed.

[25] Amid so many and so great works of piety, the servant of Christ, as if an evildoer, was not free from persecutions, as has already been indicated above. Nor is this surprising. For the Apostle says—indeed Christ, who speaks in His Apostle: "All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12, Ps. 106:23 ff. And in the Psalm the prophetic Truth, after saying about the holy Rectors of the Churches: "Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing business in many waters, they have seen the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep," immediately added: "He spoke, and the stormy wind arose, and its waves were lifted up: they mount up to the heavens and descend to the depths," etc. It was necessary therefore that this man too, because he lived piously in Christ, should suffer persecution: and because he had undertaken to govern a ship on the sea—that is, the Church in this world—it was necessary that he be troubled and moved by the waves. He suffered persecution from the envious, with whose ways he in no way agreed: He suffers hostile attacks from the envious: for he was a burden to them even to look upon, and where he proceeded or stood before the Lord more holily and reverently, humble and small in his own eyes, there he displeased the envious all the more. He was indeed very venerable in countenance, and a certain majesty his countenance shines with majesty during the sacrifice: of the virtues that reigned in his mind was outwardly in a way visibly felt in his face, especially when he stood at the holy altar, intent upon the sacred solemnities of the Mass. For then he appeared so venerable that those wishing to look into his face were frightened by a certain dignity of authority as if over subjects, except those whom love gave strength—which alone is worthy to behold God and His Saints. This the envious execrated all the more indignantly, insolently speaking to one another and saying he was a demon, when it was established that he was an Angel of the Lord, according to the truth of Scripture which says: "The lips of the priest guard knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth, for he is the Angel of the Lord of hosts." Mal. 2:7 "Look," they said, "at the demon, how he transfigures himself into the likeness of an Angel, so that none of us can look upon his face." And what wonder, more hateful to his adversaries, if the Truth spoke truly, and the household of falsehood spoke according to His word? For He said: "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household?" Matt. 10:25

[26] provoked by these, he suffers the adversary Saint Henry the Emperor: Moreover, the contrary wind stirred up greater waves against him in the Emperor's mind, because the suspicion which he had conceived in his mind against the holy man at the beginning of his reign, as has already been said above, the aforesaid envious ones were always laboring to increase by detracting whispers. Finally, the matter proceeded to the point that the aforesaid Emperor, inflamed with excessive fury against him, headed for Cologne, with this intention: to remove him from the Pontificate, or certainly, if this could not reasonably be done, to treat him in some injurious and unworthy way. But God, the Lord of the sea and the waves, who speaking mystically to blessed Job said: "I have surrounded the sea with my boundaries, and set a bolt and doors, and said: 'Thus far shall you come, and here you shall break your swelling waves'" Job 38—did not permit this storm to proceed so far that the Emperor should accomplish what he intended: but coming to meet them, He helped them both, namely both the one who suffered undeservedly and the one who, thinking ill of an innocent conscience, was sinning through an error of deception. The reason the Emperor was hastening to Cologne with such a disposition was this: The Emperor, having mobilized an army, had besieged a certain Count Otto, preeminent in worldly dignity, in the castle called Hammerstein, situated on the bank of the Rhine. For this Otto, ravaging the Bishopric of Mainz with great frequency and devastation, was pillaging it with fire and sword, greatly inflamed with hatred against the Prelate of that city: for he had been excommunicated by him on account of an unlawful marriage, by the judgment of a general Council. When therefore the Emperor, stirred up by the complaint of that same Prelate, had besieged him in the aforesaid castle, he sent word to this venerable man ordering that he too should come quickly with his men for this business. But he was then racked with immense fevers and therefore was unable to fulfill what was commanded. When the Emperor heard him pleading this impossibility, when, being called, he did not come on account of fever: he did not believe it, having been pre-occupied by the old suspicion and thinking that he always held the times of his empire in hatred. Responding therefore with fury and a great spirit of wrath: "If he disdains to come to me," he said, "I myself, since he is sick, shall visit him": and with this anger, as soon as he had defeated the enemy, he was hastening to Cologne, as has been said, with the aforesaid envious ones pressing too much and obtruding themselves, who were fanning the already burning fire of his fury more and more with their malicious tongues, detrating from the innocent man of God. But because the time had come to console and to set a limit to those waves and the long storm of adversity, the Lord, looking down from heaven, turned his storm into a breeze, and its waves were silenced. For on that very night when he had entered Cologne and had been most graciously received by the man of God, when he had given himself to sleep, he saw in a dream a certain venerable man, adorned with Pontifical garments, who addressed him thus: the Emperor is admonished from heaven, "Beware, O Emperor, lest henceforth you sin any more against my fellow servant Heribert. Know that he is acceptable to God: if you do anything against him, you shall without doubt bear the judgment." Surely the grace of the merciful God, by thus forewarning the Emperor, spared his ignorance: because in the fact that he held such a man in suspicion, he was sinning not from malice but from ignorance. For the fear of the Lord possessed the soul of that same Emperor, and he did not knowingly wish to arrange or judge anything in the kingdom by which the heavenly Majesty would be offended. For whenever he intended to arrange or judge something concerning the affairs of the kingdom, he preceded all his arrangements and judgments with prayers and almsgiving: so that his mind and actions might be governed by heavenly guidance, lest he should ever go astray in acting or judging contrary to the divine laws. Rightly therefore, according to his own intention, he was, as has already been said, prevented and preserved by the divine oracle, lest by injuring a Bishop of such great merits, as he had intended, he himself should be guilty before the judgment of the Divinity.

[27] What more? When morning came, the Emperor

with changed mind had summoned the man of God, and what had happened from heaven, he finds him clearly changed and confessing his error: what the King had been compelled by the gaze from above, the holy man still did not know, and accordingly, with tearful eyes, he was laying his complaint before him, asking the reasons why the Emperor had been hostile to him for so long. Suddenly—what was not expected—the same Emperor rose up and embraced the man of God. The latter, marveling, received at the same time these words of consolation from him: "Since I ascended to the height of the kingdom, by God's gift, I confess, venerable Father, that I have held you in hatred, having been too credulous of the tongues of detractors, and bearing this beam of hatred in my eye and therefore seeing nothing, I have had an unjust judgment of you and have not merited to see your justice, or rather the grace of God shining in you. Moreover, while you are silent, heaven cries out on your behalf and defends your cause before me. For He who always has and has had care of His Saints, as it is written, 'He did not allow any man to harm them, and He rebuked kings for their sake, saying: Do not touch my anointed ones, and do not do evil to my prophets'; He Himself has rebuked me for your sake, and is reconciled with a triple kiss: so that I might know that you are counted among His elect." Ps. 104 "Pardon me, I pray you, for having acted maliciously against you, or for having deliberated to lay hands on you, a servant of God: because I acknowledge my sin, nor will I any longer oppose your Holiness." Having said these things, he kissed the holy Bishop once and a second and a third time, tying indeed a triple knot of love, of which the Wise Man speaks: "A threefold cord is not easily broken." Eccl. 4 Surely an Emperor so worthy and churchly a man—being, as he was, learned and perfectly accomplished in literary knowledge—may be thought to have been mindful of the Gospel, where the chief of the Apostles, Peter, wiped away the guilt of his triple denial by a triple confession of love, answering for the third time: "You know, Lord, that I love You." John 21:17 Beautifully therefore and worthily he gave a triple kiss of love and peace under the testimony of the Holy Trinity; and with this sweetness of grace and honor he overcame the bitterness of past hostility: and without delay he made the man of God, now a friend to a friend, sit near him. Seeing these things, the adversaries, who had come together against him as if having found an opportune time, and had long sharpened their tongues to accuse him, were confounded and immediately turned to flight. Prov. 21:1 But the rest blessed the Lord, magnifying the truth of Scripture which says: "The heart of the King is in the hand of God."

[28] Nor content with this satisfaction, the religious King was still anxious about the divine judgment. For indeed, the one against whom some sin has been committed has the evangelical precept or counsel to forgive from his heart the one who sins against him: but He who gave the law is still to be feared, who said through the Prophet: "He who touches you touches the apple of my eye." Matt. 18:35 And of whom it is likewise written: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord." Zech. 2:8 Well therefore was he anxious, and moreover not content with the reconciliation; the following night, after the solemnities of Matins were finished, taking one of his Clerks, the same Emperor went to the chamber of the holy Bishop: but he found him not resting there, but keeping vigil as was his custom in the nearby oratory of Saint John, throwing himself on the ground, he lifts him up, and intent upon his prayers. Rom. 12:19 Immediately casting off his cloak, prostrate on the ground before his feet, in a spirit of humility and with a contrite heart he asked to be received, and that by the power which the Lord conferred upon His priests, pardon be given him for all things he had committed against him. Without delay, the servant of almighty God lifted the prostrate Emperor from the ground, and with Christ as mediator, who said: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in their midst." Matt. 18 And further: "Amen I say to you, whatever you bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven: and whatever you loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven": absolution from guilt, according to the King's faith, was accomplished in heaven and on earth. Now this was for the servant of the Lord the beginning of everlasting consolation, since he who was from this valley of tears was about to ascend shortly to the joy of the divine vision, he predicts his own death to him. as the Psalmist says: "Blessed is the man whose help is from You: he has disposed ascents in his heart in the valley of tears." Ps. 83 And then: "They shall go from virtue to virtue: the God of gods shall be seen in Zion." For indeed the man of the Lord, foreknowing this by the revealing Spirit, said in that private conversation among other things to the same Emperor: "Know most certainly that after our departure, by which we are now about to be separated, we shall nevermore in this world see each other's faces." The Emperor, all the more moved in heart, again fell into embraces and kisses, weeping at the same time and caressing almost all his members, hands and eyes, and also his neck, with fixed kisses. This done, he returned secretly to his chamber, carrying back the sorrowful memory of the prophecy of the blessed man, which he later found to be true when the death of the same man followed, and he himself, as he had heard, recounted it with his own mouth. Nor was this Saint of God foreknowing by prophetic spirit only of his own passing, but also of the Emperor's death, which the present narrative will not pass over in its proper place hereafter.

CHAPTER VIII

Preparation for a Happy Death: Illness, Death, Burial.

[29] Therefore after the Emperor's departure, Blessed Heribert, a citizen of heaven, wearied by a long pilgrimage in this world, He is seized with fever at Neuss, while sighing looked toward the eternal dwelling of the heavenly fatherland, and at length was seized with a fever: and behold, the servant of the Lord, ever-watchful in his very expectation, believed he perceived that the Lord was now coming and now knocking, so that He might be let in. At that time he was in a certain town of his diocese called Neuss. When therefore he was afflicted with the increasing and worsening illness, sending quickly to Cologne, he summoned Abbot Elias. When he arrived, he himself, according to the precept of the Apostle, was anointed with holy Oil in the name of the Lord, and likewise strengthened with the Sacraments of the Lord's Body and Blood, The dying man receives Extreme Unction and the Eucharist: and then was placed in a boat to be conveyed to Cologne. James 5:14 Then, carried at his command into the oratory of the Prince of the Apostles, and laid down before the altar of the Holy Cross, which is situated in the middle, as best he could, with head and eyes and hands stretched toward heaven, he prayed at length. For very many were present, both from the Clergy and from the people, marveling at the same time and moved to compunction by the sweetness of his prayers and the devotion of the suppliant, to whom truly at all times and then especially in his last moments those words of David were fitting: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in Your sight, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Therefore, when the prayer was completed with its good fragrance and religious example, he was carried into the chamber adjoining the oratory. Ps. 140:2 The aforesaid Abbot, retained by him for consolation, on two successive nights, whenever he had taken a little sleep, was instructed by most clear visions that by this same illness the Bishop would without doubt depart from the body.

[30] Now one of these visions was of the following kind, which he related to the blessed man the next morning in this manner—the man who desired the dissolution of his flesh: "I seemed," he said, "to have entered the oratory of Blessed Peter: and behold, it was as if full of a great and solemn assembly, he joyfully hears of visions seen in sleep concerning his death: with splendid choirs of Clerks and nuns standing, and as if prepared to go forth in procession to meet some great personage, so that he might be honorably received by them: which honor, namely to greet illustrious and sacred personages in due time, is a custom of the Church. I did not know," he said, "who that person was to be; nevertheless my dreaming consciousness held that some great and remarkably revered person was to be received. Therefore, though trembling, standing unmoved in my rank, I called to the one who seemed foremost among them and asked who was to be received by them. He answered: 'We have come to receive one beloved of God and all the Saints, namely Archbishop Heribert.' I, greatly marveling at the festivity of so great and splendid a procession, then heard from the same man: 'If you knew how and by whom he is to be received afterward, you would by no means marvel at this procession of ours, which is in reality far less.'" The one who had seen this vision, reporting it to the blessed man at the break of day, truly brought joy to his holy soul, as with good news, desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ. For it promised a swift fulfillment to his expectation and yearning desire, and confirmed the foreknowledge of his departure about which it has already been spoken above. And before this vision, the aforesaid venerable man Elias had seen another thing which undoubtedly pertained to the signification of the same matter. The dream had been of this kind: that the same Bishop, adorned with sacred and festive vestments, was proceeding as if to celebrate the solemnities of the Mass, yet alone and unaccompanied, while the Clergy waited in silence, from whom the same Bishop, as if about to depart on a pilgrimage to Rome, was requesting a blessing: and he alone, as it seemed, withdrew and was nowhere to be found. When Elias sadly reported such things, having no uncertain interpretation, the blessed man received them in an abundance of joy: for having long known his end in advance, he was still helped by the present testimonies, so that he might say: "Break my bonds; to You I will sacrifice the sacrifice of praise." Greater things than these, by which either from afar or from near the passing or merit of this blessed man was signified, have been reserved for another place: now let the discourse already begun pursue his passing.

[31] When therefore the Lord was without doubt knocking through the affliction of the present illness, [this faithful servant, about to die, was hastening to open to Him, and distributes all his possessions to the poor:] with his loins already girded and his lamps burning brightly. Everything that remained was being distributed to the poor, so that, about to depart to the eternal tabernacles, he himself as a poor man might be received in grateful return. Now his brother, a Count named Gezemannus, sat at the head of his bed, pouring forth deep tears and most bitter groans, as one who, seeing a storm on a great sea, with the rudder broken, was in danger of shipwreck. To him the most compassionate man said: "Why, my brother, do you afflict yourself with such pitiful wailing? Spare, I beg, your tears and groans: for God will not fail those who hope in Him as counselor and comforter. Cast therefore your care upon Him: and because for all living in this world the time of life is short and it is necessary to depart, prepare now in the meantime and have mercy on your soul, so that you may be deemed worthy of the world to come. This manner of preparation is most necessary and best for you: that from your possessions, as much as you can, he gives the best counsel to his brother, the Count. by sharing with the poor, you make friends for yourself: so that when you fail, as our Lord says, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles." To him who was giving these and similar salutary admonitions, the brother replied: "These things, my Lord, with God's inspiration, I

will gladly take care to do with a willing spirit: but your departure from this life is the orphanhood of your brother and the inconsolable widowhood of my soul. You know moreover that the Imperial Majesty has always been hostile to all your kindred, and while you were alive, our condition in this present life was dangerous even then on his account. Luke 16 Behold, our refuge, our wall and rampart falls, when you depart from this life, whose virtue and grace protected us, and whose great merits were widely known before God and men." he predicts the death of the Emperor, To these things the man of God, instructed beforehand by the prophetic spirit, said: "Strive to make the immortal King favorable to yourself by the means I have already described: for as to this mortal man, the common necessity will make an end, so that he too will enter the way of all flesh. For know that after my death, he will not complete the course of three years."

[32] After this, as the illness grew worse and his passing was no longer uncertain, spiritual funeral rites were begun by the Brothers at his command with the chanting of psalms. He himself also stretched the harp of his panting breast as far as he could, singing psalms and in a way saying: "I will enter into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even unto the house of God, with the voice of exultation and confession." Meanwhile he saw near him, among the crowd of mourners, the caretaker of the poor, to whom he himself had entrusted their care: he calls the poor his brothers and lords. "And what," he said, "are my brothers doing now? Ps. 41 Is anything lacking in their service?" He was speaking of the poor: for he had been accustomed with a humble conscience to consider them his brothers, indeed his lords and patrons before God. When that man replied that he had spent everything that had been assigned to him and that now nothing remained, he immediately summoned the Provost of the Church and the advocate of the city, and addressed them with these words: "You have heard, dearest ones, and you ought to hear attentively the Scripture which says: 'He who has mercy on the poor lends to the Lord': and 'As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving resists sins.' Prov. 19:17, Ecclus. 3:33 If I have set any good example for you according to these words, if I have sown anything among the poor, now the reward that was stored up will be repaid, and the harvest that I have acquired must then be received, as it is likewise written: 'He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly: and he who sows in blessings shall also reap from blessings.' 2 Cor. 9:6 For I shall no longer be with you here where sowing is done. I must depart, and the hour is now at hand for me to go there where the reaping is done, to receive what is proper to my body, according to what I have done. You therefore, as a dying father drawing his last breath addresses his dearest sons, he commends the poor to the leading men. I charge you by this last testament to be mindful of the poor, and to provide this consolation for my soul: that until a successor Bishop is appointed, the sustenance I established for the poor may not be lacking through your supplying care." When they heard these things, they were greatly moved: and they pledged that they would most willingly do this, all the more lamenting his departure, because from his past deeds they perceived that his last words were consistent, considering what kind of man he had been, how he had lived, with what constant zeal he had always treasured up mercy for himself, and how wisely he had provided for the necessity of the present hour and its end, in which all praise is sung.

[33] And because he had mentioned a successor, they were stirred to deeper lamentation, as orphans already abandoned, and they inquired and sought to know who would receive their Mother Church, widowed of so great a Bishop. "That man," they said, "is venerable in virtue, and that other one is somewhat suitable": and thus weighing the qualities of various men, they breathlessly conferred their anxieties with one another. But he, taught beforehand by the prophetic spirit, as has already been said above, he predicts his successor: said: "Neither the one he dies piously: nor the other whom you suppose: but you shall have Pilgrim as Bishop, and he will administer the office of the Pontificate in this Church for a brief time." Having said these things, released from the flesh, from the straitness of the present life he ascended to the everlasting consolation of the eternal fatherland, receiving the fruit of perpetual joy. He departed on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of April, he is buried. and was buried in the castle of Deutz, in the oratory of the holy Mother of God which he himself had founded, shining thereafter with many miracles in that place, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. When his holy body had been buried there, then at last the one who had been the steward of the holy Bishop on the very farmstead in which the aforesaid oratory had been built through the revelation mentioned above, marveling at divine providence, said: "This place in which this holy body is buried was at all times a grassy mound, always clean and pleasant, and continually pleasing to the eyes of all." This indeed contributes to the praises of the most blessed man, for whose future obsequies and relics to be preserved, the face of the place, at God's command, so prepared itself that that green bosom of earth should always be kept, in which the possessor of eternal freshness was to rest, for whom an incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance had been stored up. 1 Tim. 1:17 Therefore, with the Apostle, let us say honor and glory to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, forever and ever, Amen.

CHAPTER IX

The Various Apparitions of Saint Heribert After Death.

[34] At the same time the memorable man Eppo, Bishop of Bamberg, In a vision flourished with distinguished character and not inconsiderable virtues. He, though situated so far away, on the same night on which the man of the Lord, Heribert, after his meritorious service of this life, received the heavenly reward, as has already been said, saw a vision of this kind. He seemed to enter a certain great and splendid Capitol: and behold, therein sat an innumerable assembly of venerable persons—Bishops, Abbots, Kings, and Emperors, and other illustrious men of every order, each clothed according to his rank, and all beautiful and reverent, as if gathered to hold a general Council. shown to the Bishop of Bamberg at the hour of death, Moreover, in the midst of those seated, in a prominent place, an Episcopal chair was seen, not yet having an occupant: but prepared for someone to sit in it. When therefore, looking into the place of such amplitude and the gathering of so venerable a multitude, he stood—as he himself reported—overcome at once by wonder and fear, and by no means dared to enter. For he hastened to report this vision to Emperor Henry at daybreak. For the Emperor was then residing there and observing Lent. He said therefore: "While I stood thus astonished, behold, one of that holy senate, that great assembly as it were of patricians, rising and coming forth to me standing at the doors—one whom I had known for a long time—took me by the hand, led me in, and motioned that I should sit on the vacant seat, in a most noble assembly as has already been said. I, fearing, refused to do this. For I knew that the same seat had been placed not for me, but for another—one whom I did not yet know—a man of greater reverence and ampler dignity. And without delay, he who appeared to hold the primacy of that assembly gave a command to two venerable Bishops from the same gathering that they should go out and bring in the first one they found standing ready, and place him worthily in that middle seat, since it had been prepared for his session. They did as they had been commanded: and behold, the one they were bringing was the Lord Heribert, Archbishop of the people of Cologne, the chief one appears without a belt, adorned with sacred vestments, as on a solemn day for celebrating the solemnities of the Mass. They seated him in the middle of that seat, as they had been ordered. However, one thing—namely the belt—seemed to be missing from his adornment. When therefore the Princes seated there had seen him and noticed that the belt was missing from him, as if stirred with great wonder, they asked who it was that had presumed to diminish the adornment of so great a Bishop. To this, while he himself remained silent, one of the Chief men spoke and said that it was the Emperor Henry." These things, as has already been said, the venerable Bishop reported to the Emperor the next morning, and at the same time, which was taken by Saint Henry the Emperor, as he was certain of the truth of the vision, affirmed that the Holy man of the Lord, Heribert, had already been separated from earthly things and translated to the immortal Senate of the heavenly court. Nor did his steadfast conviction deceive him: for after some days a messenger came who announced to the Emperor, then celebrating the sacred Lent as has been said, the death of the Archbishop of Cologne. not honored according to his merit: When diligent inquiry was also made as to when he had died, and whether he had departed from the body by night or by day, when the answer was given as the facts stood, both the Emperor and the Bishop who had seen the vision marveled that the Lord had deigned to reveal such things to those situated so far away: for it was established that the Saint of the Lord had departed on that very night on which the Bishop had seen the vision. But even before the aforesaid messenger arrived, the Emperor, not incredulous of the vision, had answered the Bishop who was relating it: "If that holy and venerable man lacked the belt, through my robbery; with the Lord's help and my effort, this plunder shall be restored to him." He recalled also his last conversation, in which the Emperor had made satisfaction before him for his offense, and had heard from him that they would never again see each other's faces. Likewise, the prudent conjecturer was not unaware of this in the matter, he is honored after death with alms, sacrifices, and prayers: that what was said to be the great man stripped of his belt was this: that he had not been worthily honored by him according to his merits. Therefore, extending his Imperial hand more generously, he distributed gifts of Christ to churches and the poor, and ordered the passing of the blessed Prelate, whose belt he himself had taken away—that is, whom he had honored in his lifetime far less than was fitting—to be celebrated with the sacred solemnities of Masses, psalms, and prayers. Truly, he acted as a wise man, because there was no better way he could restore his plunder than by producing fruits worthy of repentance for himself. Wherefore it is permissible to think that a vision of this kind was celebrated not only for the honor of the blessed Prelate, but also for the improvement of that same Emperor: since he, by his satisfaction mentioned above, had merited that just as no person accused him, so no surviving trace of the matter should accuse him. For in the aforesaid vision, when the holy Council asked who had diminished his adornment, it should be carefully noted that the blessed Prelate himself did not answer, nor did he accuse the Emperor: because indeed, while alive, mindful of the Gospel precept, he had forgiven him everything from his heart. Matt. 18:35 And so, the slightest remaining trace of the matter, lest it accuse him, was beautifully aided by such a vision, stirring his soul to works of mercy.

[35] Meanwhile, the tomb of the blessed man appeared to be a place of refuge for those with faith and those fleeing from whatever necessity to the protection of the God of

heaven: he shines with miracles. and like a certain stream of paradise, the grace of healings flowed from it abundantly. The sick were healed, the blind were given sight, the crippled were raised up, the lame ran, the paralyzed were cured, demons were driven from possessed bodies. Now one thing among others happened within the thirty days of the funeral, which, on account of its magnitude, ought not to be passed over—indeed should be narrated first and foremost. For the deed was truly marvelous, and would be nearly incredible if it did not stand attested in the holy and canonical Scriptures that Angels too, who are indeed spirits and are not covered with flesh, have sometimes been seen and heard by men with their bodily senses. For it happened He appears to Abbot Volpert, a holy man, that the spirit of this blessed man, now freed from the flesh, visibly appeared to a living man and held conversation with him: the truth of which conversation that followed testifies that what was shown was not phantasmal but true and divine. The matter happened in this way. The venerable man Volpert, the first Father of the monastery which had been built by that same holy Bishop, stirred all the more by the recent death of so great a Prelate, was persisting in his daily and especially nocturnal prayers with wakefulness. He was the Father of many monks, for on account of the outstanding manner of his life, and also his knowledge and abundance of love, he had been entrusted with the care and governance not only of the aforesaid monastery but also of the monasteries of Saint Pantaleon and Saint Vitus. Throughout his whole life his nearly constant practice had been to anticipate the Matins hymns and to chant the Psalms of David in solitary vigils: and the grief that had come from the death of so great a father had made this holy fervor of his, as has already been said, all the greater. When therefore one night he was attending to this same work more ardently, and was burning the incense of holy prayer with a great fire of charity, truly the smoke of his spices rose higher and reached all the way to heaven before the eyes of the Lord. For as he prayed at length, the gaze of the Divinity came upon him, and the place trembled, according to what is written in the Psalm, saving a deeper meaning: "He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble." Ps. 103:32 Now he himself was standing near the sepulcher of the blessed Bishop, and him whom he had loved while living, to him buried he ardently clung in mind and body. seen to come forth from the tomb: When therefore the place had trembled so violently that the entire fabric of the monastery seemed to be shaken from its foundations, being mortal, as he was a man, he shuddered indeed, but having no small faith, he continued the prayer he had begun, grasping the horn of the altar. Again from the eastern side the wall of the temple trembled with a great noise and everything around seemed to move. And behold, the sepulcher of the blessed man was opened, and the Saint of God was seen to come forth. And standing near the aforesaid man, gently touching him, he asked what he was doing. This, as has already been said above, would seem utterly incredible if it were nowhere contained in ecclesiastical writings that some spirits of the dead had been seen corporeally by God's will; if it were not also read that Angels had been received as guests by men who were pleasing to God. Gen. 18:8, 19

And Daniel too, troubled in an Angelic vision, was strengthened by the same one who had appeared. When therefore the blessed Bishop began to address him, first touching his sides with the Pontifical staff with which he had been buried, the man regained his strength and was able to answer the questions. Dan. 10 For he had been so terrified by the vision and the aforesaid crash that he was unable to stand, and scarcely had the strength even to sit. When therefore he had briefly answered the one asking what he was doing, he predicts the day of his death to him: immediately the one who had appeared spoke these words: "Brother, be diligent and attend persistently to your prayers, and praying for the salvation of your living and dead parents and friends, have also a more abundant remembrance of me. For know, and give faith to me who speak the truth: on the thirtieth day of my death, which now approaches, you shall dine with me." Hearing this, the man sat down in that same place nearly lifeless. But at length, gradually drawing in his breath, he recovered, and leaning on his staff, he rose, and trembling in body and mind, barely reached his bed. When morning came, he went as usual to the assembly of the Brothers, delivered a sermon of edification quite eloquently and with spiritual adornment of great beauty: among other things especially exhorting that which is the outstanding glory of monks—namely, that they should keep guard over their mouths unto silence: because as the Prophet testifies, the cultivation of justice is silence. Isa. 32 Moreover, the vision he had seen he kept silent about for the time being. But when the assembly was dismissed, he called apart only the elders and those who seemed more spiritual, and related in order everything he had seen and heard. They, not attending to the matter as it truly was, and esteeming it far less than it deserved, spoke according to their own judgment, telling him it had been nothing other than what is common to human experience: namely, that the one he had loved while living, the same one he was revolving before the eyes of his heart in constant thought even after death, and the thoughts of his waking life and the care of love which he had for him were followed by dreams of this kind. But hearing these things, he nonetheless knew what and how he had seen, and trusted his own conscience more than the opining ignorance of others. What more? The thirtieth day from the death of the blessed man was approaching, and the aforesaid Father of the monastery prepared copious provisions for the poor for that same day. Now it was necessary for him to go out for this very purpose to a certain town of his or the Church's estate, which was about ten miles distant from the monastery, where he personally and promptly ordered the things necessary for the coming day to be prepared. This done, he boarded a ship and was returning swiftly through the channel of the Rhine to the monastery. At the sixth hour he was asked by his companions to take his midday meal: and since it was agreeable to them as was customary, and the sufficiently opportune hour prompted it, he too did not decline, but out of charity condescending to the young men who were serving him, he first performed the Work of God and began to sing the Sixth Hour according to custom with the two Brothers who were attending to his service. But when they came to the reading who suddenly falls asleep in the Lord: which we call the Chapter—and it was this: "Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more: death shall no longer have dominion over Him: for in that He died," etc.—when they responded, "Thanks be to God," he immediately breathed forth his spirit. When the Brothers who were present, together with his companions and escorts, saw this, greatly astonished and struck by sudden amazement, they attended for a little while, then immediately raised their voices with wailing—joyful a moment before, but now sorrowful; for they saw that their harp had been turned to mourning, and their instrument to the voice of those who weep. One went out to go ahead by land to the monastery, to report the news to the Brothers. But at the very hour when this messenger entered, they had sat down to eat, cheerfully awaiting the arrival of their Father and the spiritual joy of the following day, which was the thirtieth day of the blessed Prelate. When therefore such news was made known to those seated, all together groaned not lightly, stricken in mind and almost all thrown from their seats, with so pitiful a bearing and so tearful a procession that no abundance of words could sufficiently express it. For upon a wound still fresh—that is, the grief that had come from the death of the blessed Prelate—this other wound had been added. And so the hearts of the sons were not slightly touched by funerals of their Fathers so close together and so contiguous. But that venerable Father who had now departed in this manner had truly proceeded happily to the dinner of eternal life and the supper of immortality, proving by his death that his vision was true and the oracle of the one who had said to him true: "On the thirtieth day of my death you shall dine with me."

[36] a cripple and The body of the deceased was therefore brought and laid near the sepulcher of that same seer of his, namely the holy Prelate, with the bier set down. And behold, amid the vigils of the funeral rites, a certain poor man, crippled from the cradle, whom the same holy Bishop, while he was still alive, had nourished, had crept between the sepulcher of the saint and the bier of this deceased man, sorrowful, and lying between the two dead men, the patrons of his needy life, he lamented through the whole night that he survived them. They who lived before God saw him, and with the same clemency with which, while living in the flesh, they provided him with nourishment for his body, another 45 are healed. these same men, now dead, worked a marvelous healing of his entire body. For around daybreak, while the Brothers were completing the Matins hymns, suddenly the one who had lain crippled cried out vehemently, as if for help—shaken by an invisible power, with his sinews loosened and stretched out to full length. When his cry was heard, several of the elder Brothers ran to him and saw him lying stretched out, with a stream of foul blood on the pavement. Water was quickly brought, he was revived, and after a little while he rose up healthy and remained well. The work of this miracle rightly ought to be ascribed to the merits of both men. Moreover, from the passing of the blessed Prelate, within the course of a few days, about forty-five men and women were freed from various afflictions at his glorious sepulcher, praising the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages, Amen.

CONCERNING BLESSED JOHN, BISHOP AND MARTYR, AT VICENZA IN CISALPINE GAUL.

YEAR 1181

John, Bishop of Cremona, then of Mantua, then Martyr of Vicenza (Blessed).

[1] When we were examining the sacred monuments of the city of Vicenza in the year 1660, among other ornaments of the Cathedral church, we were shown an elevated chest above an altar, in which the body of Blessed John, Bishop and Martyr, is reverently preserved and presented for the pious veneration of natives and visitors: Veneration at Vicenza, concerning whom, lest we should seem to need much inquiry, the diligence of Francesco Barbarano de Mironi was helpful, who is said to have most accurately collected everything that could be had, and to have distinguished it through several chapters, and to have inserted it into book 2 of his ecclesiastical history of Vicenza, composed by him in the Italian language and published recently, eight years before. However, since we ourselves seek the primary sources of whatever narratives and more gladly present them to our reader, we took some pains whence is the Life given here? to find the inquisitions which Ughelli cites, drawn up in the year 1223 by the mandate of Pope Honorius III, both at Vicenza and at Cremona: we then asked the Vicentines to be willing to send them to us: but frustrated in hope and expectation (since the pressing print could not tolerate longer delays), we were compelled to render Barbarano's text

into Latin from the Italian, and to bid the reader be content with this, unless someone should send that document in time, to be appended at least in an appendix.

[2] Year of ordination and death Meanwhile, the veneration of this Blessed one remains certain from what will be presented here in chapter 2, and from what we ourselves saw with our own eyes: and the same things are presented by Ferdinand Ughelli in volume 1 of Italia Sacra under the Bishops of Vicenza. We believe Barbarano that the year in which he entered the See of Vicenza was 1179, since he, against the different calculations of others who write the year as either 1174 or 1176, appeals to authentic and public documents of the Church of Vicenza, from which in book 4 of his History, variously recorded by various authors. not yet seen by us, he is going to demonstrate that Aribert, John's predecessor, lived until the year 1179. Indeed, we also believe the same author in referring the martyrdom of Blessed John to the year 1181 of the same century, as one who scrutinized everything more closely than the aforesaid Ughelli: who therefore, just as he is said to be convictable of error in assigning the beginning of the Episcopate, so he may be believed to have followed no more certain guide when he wrote the year 1185. However, this controversy, now only recently known to us, makes the aforesaid inquisitions all the more eagerly to be desired. For just as through them it is clearly seen with what piety and sanctity he lived, and that from eyewitnesses, so it is permissible to suspect that something more certain could be had from them concerning the beginning and end of the Episcopate administered by John.

[2] He does not seem to have succeeded Garsiodorus as Bishop of Mantua at his death, What may be even more suspected concerns the Bishopric of Mantua, which we also learn was held by this John from the Epitaph inscribed on the chest after the translation beneath the high altar, made perhaps at the time of that Honorius who ordered inquiry into his life and character; and therefore not long after the year 1223. For concerning the years of the Mantuan governance, authors vary considerably, and not all without chronographic errors. For Hippolytus Donesmundus writes that after Garsiodorus, Bishop of Mantua, long since excommunicated because he was a follower of the Emperor Frederick, but reconciled with the Church after peace was concluded at Venice, and finally dying around the year 1170, Guido succeeded him, and that seven years after Guido's death John was substituted: and that upon John's similarly dying (with no mention made of Vicenza or of Martyrdom) Sigisrid was appointed by Clement III; and therefore after the year 1187. But on the contrary, the Venetian pacification indisputably belongs to the year 1177, a full decade later than the date Donesmundus writes. And much more so because this Garsiodorus is said by Ughelli to have been numbered as a Catholic among the Fathers of the Lateran Council in the year 1179, and to be found subscribed after the Patriarch of Aquileia.

[4] And so Ughelli takes a different path when treating of our John, or was he substituted when the other was deposed? weaving his eulogy and chronology thus: "He was a distinguished preacher and a tireless champion of ecclesiastical liberty: for in that most foul schism, stirred up against Alexander III, having embraced the side of Alexander, he set himself like an impregnable wall against the schismatic Frederick and his supporters for the liberty of the Holy Roman Church... for which reason, by the same Pontiff, when Garsiodorus, Bishop of Mantua, a follower of the schismatic Octavian, was deposed, and Guido had died, he was appointed Bishop of Mantua, and governed that Church for several years: during which time, since he had brought the people of Vicenza to favor the side of Alexander, when the Bishop of Vicenza passed away, he was acclaimed Bishop of that city in the year 1176. Moreover, when peace was concluded between Pope Alexander and Emperor Frederick, and Garsiodorus, released from censures, had returned to his Mantuan see, in the year 1179, John remained Bishop of Vicenza. When he had governed that Church most holily, finally, for defending the liberty of the Church and the rights of his Bishopric... pierced with a sword, he flew to heaven as a Martyr, in the year 1185."

[5] We have nowhere seen the Acts of the Lateran Council and the subscriptions that Ughelli alleges, or rather did he govern the church of Mantua as Administrator? nor have any of those who have thus far compiled the corpus of Councils: nor the Letter of the Council of Pavia to the Emperor, to which the aforesaid Garsiodorus is said to have subscribed as Count of the Imperial Chamber in the year 1160. This much we see in the meantime: that it is no less certain that the Bishop of Mantua in that year, by whatever name he was called, was excommunicated for adhering to the schismatic Victor, than it is difficult to believe that Alexander ordained other Bishops in place of those he had excommunicated, unless this is proven by other more certain examples. Wherefore, if Garsiodorus survived until the time of the peace: it would seem most probable to us that both Guido (if indeed there was any Guido then at Mantua, concerning which no public documents have yet been produced) and John were given only as Administrators to the Bishopric of Mantua, desolated by Garsiodorus's excommunication, with Episcopal power and character: and that when this office was rightly performed, and peace was concluded between the parties, John merited to be inducted by the grateful Pontiff into the Bishopric of Vicenza, then perhaps first becoming vacant through the death of Aribert, as Barbarano promises to demonstrate.

LIFE

From the Italian of Francesco Barbarano de Mironi.

John, Bishop of Cremona, then of Mantua, then Martyr of Vicenza (Blessed).

BY FR. BARBARANO.

CHAPTER I

Blessed John, from Prior of Saint Victor, becomes Abbot of Saint Lawrence, and Driven into Exile, is Created First Bishop of Mantua, then of Vicenza.

[1] Blessed John, a native of Cremona, was assigned to the people of Piacenza by Giovanni Pietro Crescentini in book 15, chapter 5, of his work on the nobility of Italy; Born at Cremona of a noble family, perhaps deceived because another of the same name and family, also a Bishop of Vicenza, around the year 1386, was born at Piacenza. His father was Evangelista de Surdis, of a most noble family, and one of those which in the year 531 from the founding of the City were sent here as a colony by the Consuls Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Gaius Cornelius Scipio Calvus. His mother, from the illustrious family of the Persici, was named Berta or Alberta: who, after the birth of John, passing to second nuptials, was joined to Adam Cacciafronte, himself also a native nobleman of the same city: whence it happened that the infant stepson began to be called by the surname of his stepfather rather than his father.

[2] Instructed in piety and letters, His upbringing, befitting his birth, had much of piety, to which John seemed as if made by nature: so much so that, fleeing all the blandishments of boyhood, whatever free time he had from his studies he would spend in prayer either at home or in church. Moreover, marvelously devoted to exercising works of charity toward his neighbor, he dispensed with a generous hand whatever means he could to the needy: toward himself, however, already austere, he fasted three days of the week: and it was a great delight to his stepfather and mother to foresee his future sanctity from such beginnings. Then, when he had been sufficiently instructed in humane letters, wishing to transfer his mind, wholly withdrawn from the world, to the safe harbor of religious life, he becomes a monk at Saint Lawrence, he chose the Benedictine Order, and in the monastery of Saint Lawrence, built of old around the year 990 by Oldoric, a Frankish Bishop of Cremona, he received the sacred habit in the sixteenth year of his age, that is, the year of Christ 1141. There he progressed so greatly in religious virtues—namely, humility, patience, silence, and prayer—that in the year 1159, which was his twenty-fourth year of age, he was appointed Prior of the monastery of Saint Victor: which had been founded in the year 1024 by Laudulph, Bishop of Cremona, and then in the year 1085, through Hubert Zenobonus, Bishop of the same city, was annexed to the Abbey of Saint Lawrence. In this Priorate, then Prior at Saint Victor, which numbered only eight monks, he held the governance for three continuous years, shining before all in word and example toward true perfection; until, drawn from his Priorate by his own Laurentian monks, he was ordered to preside over the Abbey: a duty he refused to accept except by the proven virtue of his obedience, having to be compelled by the express mandate of the same.

[3] Consecrated Abbot, among other things he laudably ordained, he established regular alms to be distributed to the poor, and these many and great, which were testified to have remained in use up to the year 1223 by Odo de Comitibus of Cremona. His mother, moreover, emulating the virtues of her son, and at last elected Abbot by his own monks: devoted herself to the divine service in that same sacred house, in which she also ended this temporal life with a great reputation for virtue, about to begin the eternal one. Now as much as John gained in eminence of dignity, whom he governs with great example. so much did he add to the pursuit of consummate virtue, and a witness is Peter Arvituanus (who rendered personal service to John), questioned juridically twelve years after his death, that wearing a woolen undergarment next to his skin, he would not put it aside until it fell apart from wear; that he never used linen; and that beyond the ordinary foods of the other monks he was willing to admit none, intent day and night on prayer to be pondered both by voice and by mind, in which alone he placed all his delights.

[4] While John was occupied with these things and governing his monastery with great praise for his prudence and virtue, In the schism Frederick, the first of that name as Emperor, in the year 1164 caused a mandate to be published at Cremona, by which under threat of severe punishment all were compelled to recognize as Vicar of Christ the Antipope Victor, created by him against the right of Alexander III, legitimately elevated to the Apostolic See. This was for the blessed man both an immense matter for exercising zeal and for patience: for while he exhorted his monks and the people to render obedience to the one true Pope, Alexander, he acts boldly for Alexander, the true Pontiff, and strove to hold fast to the side of the faithful those failing through hope or fear to the Emperor's party, he endured with singular meekness the Imperial ministers who publicly contradicted him, as John Bonus, the Massarius of the Church of Cremona, testified he was present and heard: moreover, Raimund de Hortica says he was present when, to Anselm de Douaria reviling him to his face, he generously responded: "Say whatever you wish: I shall hear injuries with the meekness of a lamb, but from defending ecclesiastical liberty and justice I shall never desist."

[5] and therefore driven into exile The faithful Abbot's preaching and example prevailed so greatly among the citizens of Cremona that those who before had inclined considerably toward the Emperor's favor—not only the Clergy but also the entire common people—embraced the side of the true Pontiff quite openly. Wherefore the indignant Frederick ordered him expelled from all Cremonese territory. The blessed man yielded to the violent tyranny and chose a habitation in the territory of Mantua near the Oglio river, in a small hut adjoining a not-large church of the Blessed Virgin Mary: he withdraws to the territory of Mantua: and there he resided for some years in peace, awaiting the end of that storm: until the matter, brought to the attention of Pope Alexander, moved him to assign to him the monastery of Ulmineto, as we know from the testimony of Lanfranc, Abbot of Saint Peter de Montirone, formerly Prior in the monastery of Saint Lawrence.

[6] where he becomes Bishop. Meanwhile it happened that the Church of Mantua, deprived of its

Pastor, sought another, and by common votes John was elected, in the year, as some hold, 1167, but according to Joseph of Brescia, 1169: which election was wonderfully pleasing to the Pontiff, and was therefore immediately confirmed by him, and John was ordered to accept the Episcopal dignity. In which he soon so shone with virtues that all congratulated themselves on such a Prelate, and Peter de Tinctis, formerly his close associate, said that he was accustomed to devote days and nights solely to prayer and the reading of Sacred Scripture, and to distribute all the annual revenues of his Bishopric to Christ's poor. Then, when Aribert, Bishop of Vicenza, died around the year 1179, the citizens of Vicenza (who, having long detested the tyranny of the Fredericians, had entered into a league at Verona with the Paduans, Trevisans, and Veronese for the vindication of the liberty of the Church in the year 1164, and had substituted Consuls to govern the people in place of the Imperial ministers by whom they were plundered in monstrous ways, and from there he is transferred to the See of Vicenza, and daring to take the field with them—with the Emperor retreating to Pavia—had also drawn several other cities of Italy, namely Brescia, Bergamo, Milan, Modena, Bologna, and Arezzo, into the League of Verona) the citizens of Vicenza, I say, requested John as Bishop from Alexander; and easily obtained him on account of his immense merits toward the Church, in the year we have stated, although Joseph of Brescia writes the year 1174—to be refuted from public documents which establish that Aribert presided from the year 1172 to 1179 of the same century: and by similar instruments the Mantuan historian Hippolytus Donesmundus is refuted, who seems to assert that John died at Mantua.

[7] Having entered the Bishopric of Vicenza, John maintained the same rigor of a stricter life that he had observed before, his private virtues in the Episcopate, always dressed in monastic garb under his Pontifical habit, with a cowl, without the use of linen; and he girded his woolen undergarment with a coarser cord, as Sir Henry de Creazzo (who lived in his household for a full four years and was accustomed to render daily service in dressing and undressing the blessed man) testified: adding moreover that he was accustomed on Good Friday to purchase whatever garments could be had for covering the poor, and to distribute them to the same with his own hands: to whom he also often washed their feet, summoning sometimes five or twelve, sometimes even twenty-five and more, upon whom he would pour out every kind of generosity, as much as he could have from the Episcopal revenues. A witness also is John de Malaterra de Mandalbertis, who lived in his house for five years, that he was accustomed to carry food prepared with his own hands to the sick and to women in childbirth, and that he omitted nothing of that solicitude by which he exercised paternal charity toward his flock: most gentle toward all except toward his own body, which he was not content to cover with cheap garments unless he also macerated it with a rough hair shirt next to his skin.

[8] Observing moreover that the religious devotion of the citizens of Vicenza toward the holy Martyrs Felix and Fortunatus had greatly declined, and zeal for the public good. whose temple and holy relics he himself, a frequent visitor, rejoiced to visit, and that this was because of the mud covering the street leading from the Gate of the Castle to the aforesaid temple; he had the same street cleaned and paved at his own expense, and reaped from that expenditure a great fruit of increased piety among the people. Also observing that there was a great deficiency of necessary learning among the Clergy, because of which the parish priests of his diocese were not sufficiently competent to govern souls, he likewise at his own expense engaged a Lecturer in Theology to teach the Clergy sacred letters. Finally, fulfilling every part and requirement of the most vigilant Pastor, he was giving the Church of Vicenza a new face, and in those most turbulent times, as if in the security of a quiet peace, he preserved and fostered his people as best he could.

CHAPTER II.

The Martyrdom of Blessed John for Ecclesiastical Liberty: His Burial and Translation.

[9] Peter, a scorner of ecclesiastical jurisdiction It was a frequent occurrence in past centuries, and can be proven by innumerable public documents, that Bishops, in order to support the weakness of spiritual jurisdiction against heretics, schismatics, and other rebels against the Church who would not suffer it to enjoy its rights and laws in peace, with men conspicuous in power and authority, would invest well-deserving or potentially well-deserving men with the beneficial ownership of ecclesiastical estates: who, having thereafter taken an oath into the hands of the Bishop, were called his liege men and feudatories, and forfeited the right granted to them if they were found to have failed in their sworn fidelity and obligation. By this arrangement, a certain Peter (some would have him a Bolognese) had obtained from John's predecessors, who were arming themselves against Frederick, various estates of the Castle of Malosco (which formerly belonging to the Episcopal possessions is now held by the city of Vicenza itself) under the bond and obligation of a fief: which he then began to administer as his own, and to refuse the fixed census of the Church which he had agreed to pay: indeed, he even began to make other feudatories in the same castle subject to himself, and to rule over them as lord.

[10] John deprives him of his fief and communion: The bitterness of complaints brought concerning this injustice stirred the zealous Pastor's spirit, and finding Peter hardened against all admonitions, he declared him deprived of his fief and separated from the communion of the faithful. He was so far from being bent to repentance by the magnitude of the penalty that, breathing nothing but vengeance against the most holy Bishop, he began to focus on every occasion for contriving his death. the other meditates revenge, Thus disposed, he gathered accomplices for the crime and placed himself in ambush, waiting for the Bishop to go out as was his custom to inspect a building which he was constructing for the purpose of teaching and learning Theology, in the place where the church of Saint Anthony now stands. As the Prelate went forth from the episcopal residence, the aforementioned Sir Eric de Creazzo went as his companion, and afterward recounted and on account of almsgiving that they had chanced to meet a poor man, half-naked, begging for something in the way of clothing as alms: to whom, although the Bishop ordered that provision be made immediately, Eric said he delayed, lest at such a time he should desert his Lord, for whom he feared violence not without reason. But when the Bishop said he would not leave that spot until Eric returned, Eric indeed went, and returning found the Bishop in the same place: and thus more confident, he went away again, on account of some duty, into the wine cellar.

[11] Thus unaccompanied, when the Bishop was remaining there, having no one with him except the aforementioned John de Malaterra, finding him unaccompanied. the assassins, thinking this their opportunity, leaped upon the unarmed man, and Peter drove his parricidal sword into his breast. The innocent victim of barbarous fury fell at once, and (as the servant who was present testifies under oath) forgave his enemies the deed, and having many times prayed God's blessing upon them, he rendered his soul to the Creator. In memory of this event, and so that posterity might know more certainly the place where the holy Prelate died, he kills him as he forgives his enemies. a column was placed there, which remains to this day in the area of the Cathedral church, opposite the church of Saint Anthony the Abbot. The report of the atrocious crime, quickly spreading, summoned the people to arms and vengeance, and when a rush was made to Peter's house, they found it firmly barred: wherefore, thinking it slow to force entry by digging through walls or breaking down doors, they set fire to the roof, and the entire house was consumed by flames—but without its master: who, having escaped by flight, it is uncertain what end he had to his wicked life, but he must be believed to have paid the fitting penalty, either in this world or the next.

[12] the Pontiff forbids the forfeited property to be restored to his heirs. Nevertheless, his kinsmen attempted to enter into the fief he had possessed: to prevent which, Pope Innocent III sent a reply, which is recorded in the sacred Canons in these words: "It has come to the ears of our Apostolate that when certain parishioners of yours, by diabolic audacity, wickedly slew John, Bishop of Vicenza of good memory, your predecessor, the fiefs and benefices which they held from the Church of Vicenza were taken from them by sentence with much deliberation. Since therefore they are to be punished with greater severity, we by Apostolic authority forbid both you and your successors to restore the aforesaid benefices to them or their heirs; or to confer any others upon them anew."

[13] The body of the Bishop, slain in the year 1181 This murder was committed in the year 1181, on the 17th day before the Kalends of April, when John had governed the Bishopric of Vicenza for about two years: not seven, as Joseph of Brescia writes, incorrectly placing the beginning of his Episcopate at the year 1174: nor does the aforementioned martyrdom fall on the 20th day of April, as Julius Carcanus permitted to be printed

in the table of Vicentine Patrons: which we prefer to attribute to a typographical error, unless perhaps the day of the translation to be mentioned below gave him occasion for the mistake. For that sacred body, immediately after death, was honorably entombed in the Cathedral church, and afterward, as miracles multiplied, was exhumed and placed in a marble chest, transferred to the principal altar and deposited in the place where the choir now stands, but which was then the principal altar: resting beneath which, who and what kind of man he had been in life was set before the reader for recognition with the following inscription:

Here lies the true Pastor, John Cacciafronte, Who in the schism once defended the honorable side Of Father Pope Alexander; when as a holier Abbot Cremona joyfully obtained the monastery of Saint Lawrence with an epitaph As his native house: soon Mantua, happy with so great a Prelate, Rejoices, as now Vicenza does. The orphan and the widow and the wretched, the despoiled, the destitute Are fed, clothed, and loved by the Bishop's hands. While he defends the rights of his Church, by the unjust Sword of a vassal, by the axe of a Cimbrian, he is slain. After death, miracles show by clear signs Him conspicuous in virtue and blessed in the merits of heaven. The parched and the blind, the deaf, fever and pain Depart, and he who had come sick goes away well. Here is the blessed John Cacciafronte, translated.

[14] then in the year 1441 to a chapel, Afterward, when the larger chapel of the Cathedral church, which is now seen and called the choir, was to be built in the year 1441, the treasure of the sacred body was transferred to the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, formerly called the Assumed, now the Crowned, where above an altar elevated by many steps it is seen and honored, entirely intact and free from corruption, with this inscription: "John Cacciafronte, full of piety, justice, and a wondrous zeal for God, first resisted at Cremona the Emperor Frederick when he attacked Apostolic liberty: then, as Bishop of this city, a champion of his Church, pierced with a sword, he purchased the triumph of martyrdom, the glory of immortality, the eternal rewards of his labors, by a happy labor. His pious bones were devoutly transferred here in the Year of the Lord 1441, the 12th day before the Kalends of May." Beneath this epitaph, carved from life in stone, is seen the likeness of this Blessed one, as well as iron fixtures set into the same stone, designed, as far as one may conjecture, for supporting candles which the faithful were accustomed to light there. and in the year 1482 it is shown to the people for 16 days. It is found moreover in a certain ancient manuscript, entitled "Chronicle for the Memory of Past and Future Times," that in the year 1482, on September 18 and for sixteen continuous days thereafter, the holy body was shown to the people, and on that occasion many miracles were performed, which will be reported presently. It should be noted moreover that the translation just mentioned was of the holy body alone, and that the marble chest, inscribed with the verses we produced above, was left in its place. At the beginning of this century, however, when a crypt was being constructed beneath the choir in the year 1606, the same chest, removed from the ground, distinctly exhibited the same epitaph, and is now found in the church of Saint Justin de Monticello near Lisiera.

[15] Summary of miracles from a tablet hung at the altar. At the aforesaid altar of the Blessed Virgin and the sacred mausoleum of the blessed Martyr, such a summary of miracles is read inscribed on a tablet. Ten persons, maimed or disabled in various limbs throughout their whole lives, were suddenly restored to health. Two deaf persons, upon making a vow to the Blessed one, were immediately granted the faculty of hearing. Two blind persons were given sight; one of whom is also said to have had a cloud removed which obstructed his eye. Two sufferers from arthritis, one of whom was also paralytic, were cured at the Blessed one's tomb. A certain man, pressed by a mortal illness, who had mocked and disdained the exercise of religious veneration toward the Blessed one, recovered his health at the same tomb. Two persons in peril from pestilence were saved by making a vow. Sixteen recovered their health, which had been despaired of on account of fevers or other lethal diseases, through the merits of the Blessed one. Five persons suffering from headache, or mortally wounded in the head, recovered through the intercession of the same blessed Bishop. Three were healed of the pain of abscesses and of the sides, after making a vow. A certain man, brought to the point of death by the torment of kidney stones, preserved his life by a similar vow. Two others likewise, whose festering and cancer-eaten wounds had taken away hope of a longer life. There was one who immediately upon making his vow felt himself freed from an oppression of the heart: another who was healed of sciatica in the loins; a third whose mind, which a phrensy combined with fever had unsettled, was restored to its proper state, and at the same time the use of his tongue, impeded by that illness, was restored to him.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles and Graces Received, from the Process Drawn Up in the Year 1223 by the Mandate of Pope Honorius III.

[16] Nicholas de Piano-del-Lago was confined to bed for a full twelve years, A paralytic of 12 years is healed, deprived of all use and feeling of his limbs from the waist down, so that he could not move himself in the slightest except by grasping a rope hanging from the ceiling above his bed; and he was utterly unable to turn to the other side unless others came to his aid. Learning how many miracles God was working through Blessed John, he made a vow to visit the tomb and had himself conveyed there on a beast of burden by his two sons. After he had continued praying in the church for two nights, he received perfect health of his entire body and survived for a full two years: fit for all the work and labor of agriculture, as well as any other farmer, living with his wife Bertha and two sons. This event occurred on Good Friday.

[17] Corbellus of Barbarano, deaf for many years, after making a similar vow, while standing at the tomb, one deaf for many years, seemed to himself at twilight to be called by his name, as if pronounced by many voices at once: and when he answered, he was amazed that he could hear, and by his answer astonished the bystanders, who had heard no calling voice. A Vicentine physician, called Burgensis, a blind boy; had a son who was completely blind, and to his wife, who greatly lamented this calamity, he used to insist that our will must be conformed to God's will. But the woman, never fully placated, at last vowed to offer two eyes made of silver, and immediately beheld her son seeing.

[18] one mocking those praying at the Blessed one's body Albert, son of Bonacurtius, passing through the church, saw some women kneeling before the body of the Blessed one, and mocking them said they would accomplish just as much if they prayed before a piece of wood. God did not leave the blasphemy unpunished: for going to the market and buying fish there and returning home (for it was a Wednesday and also a Vigil), meanwhile, while his wife named Maria was preparing them, he went to the house of a certain neighbor of his: where he was suddenly oppressed by so dire a malady that, unable to move, he stood like a dead man until Friday, with no food meanwhile to sustain him. On the said day, divinely enlightened, he recognized his fault, and vowing a candle to the Blessed one the length of his body, he is punished and recognizing his fault is healed. he ordered himself carried by two friends of his on a chair to his tomb, where upon arrival he began to pour forth such copious sweat over his whole body as if he had been drawn from water. He remained there the whole night praying, and at dawn he felt himself restored to perfect health: and wishing to test it, he walked by himself to the church of the Holy Savior, to attend the sacrifice of the Mass, which is celebrated by the Friars Minor at first light in the morning; and wishing to be grateful to God for the benefit, with the good grace of his wife, he took the habit and rule of the same Friars Minor.

[19] likewise one miserably suffering from arthritis, Martin, a tailor of Vicenza, was afflicted with so cruel an arthritis that he had lost the use of all his limbs from the waist down; so that not even in bed could he move himself: and he remained in such a state for seven months. One night he seemed to himself to be in the greater church of Vicenza, and in the western part of it, around the tomb of the Blessed one, to see many lights and many Priests and Clerics vested in sacred garments, singing praises and hymns to God there. While he marveled and sought in his mind the cause of the unusual ceremony, someone stood by him saying that vigils were being celebrated in honor of Blessed John, formerly Bishop of Vicenza. And so great was the delight of this spectacle [and twice admonished in dreams to approach the Blessed one for the sake of health.] that Martin began to weep copiously for joy: and then he was told by the same one standing by him that it was best to shed tears for sins. Awakening then, he began to think that the said Bishop was a saint, and therefore through his merits to ask God to restore his health. Without delay he felt the efficacy of the intercession he had sought, and such strength was infused into his limbs in a moment

that he was able to turn from one side to the other, and gradually recovering, on the third day he rose from bed, and leaning on two supports he proceeded to the tomb of the Blessed one, carrying many candles as an offering: which he lit at the time when None was being chanted, at which time he had arrived, and he remained there in prayer until Vespers: because this was unusual among the common people, he was regarded by some as a fool; but returning home he found himself completely healed, nor did he ever again suffer such an illness as long as he lived.

[20] Health is restored to an infant immobile from birth, Tofania, the wife of John, a citizen of Vicenza, gave birth to a male child, whom on the ninth day after delivery such cold and with the cold such rigidity invaded through all his limbs that neither the mother nor the midwives were able to move any part of his body—not a hand, not a foot or finger: and to get any nourishment into him, his mouth had to be opened by force. Then he began to swell so in the chest and back that he seemed more like a monster than a human being, and remained in that state for twenty days. His mother, in the company of her husband and another woman, carried him with an offering of candles to the tomb of the blessed man, and having spent that night there in prayer, the boy received perfect health and opened his mouth as if to give thanks to his benefactor.

[21] Martin, surnamed Carpus, a Vicentine, was so afflicted with the double malady of arthritis and paralysis to an arthritic and paralytic, that he was contracted for two and a half years: so that he could neither raise himself up nor bring his hands to his head, with all his limbs meanwhile trembling with continuous motion. In that state he lived for some time at Vicenza and Padua on alms which certain pious persons contributed for his sustenance. But learning what great miracles God was working through His servant, on the Wednesday after Easter of the Resurrection he went to his sacred body, and there persevering in prayer until the time of Vespers, he felt himself weighed down by great pain in his whole body, and at the same time his bones and sinews being stretched: whence he immediately exclaimed with a joyful voice that he had been healed by the merits of Blessed John: nor did he profess to have suffered anything similar, testifying under oath as a witness of the same three years after the miracle was performed, together with many others attesting that they had seen the same.

[22] to a woman deprived of the use of her limbs, A certain woman, named Osanna, incurred such a debility that she could neither dress herself nor bring food to her mouth, and although the force of the illness would sometimes remit somewhat, she nonetheless remained useless for all functions of her limbs. To this infirmity another considerably graver one was added, five years before she heard anything about the miracles of the blessed man; by which infirmity all her limbs trembled in a horrible manner, not only during the day while she was awake but also at night while sleeping, so that her hands were continually striking against her breast. During all that time it was necessary to feed her like an infant. After she heard what was being reported about Blessed John, she visited his monument and persevered in prayer the whole night. Meanwhile an intense pain invaded her entire body, while her limbs and sinews and the joints of her fingers were stretched, with such a cracking noise that it could be heard even by those positioned at a distance. Thus from Friday after Easter until Saturday she remained in the church, and then returned home healthy, and when she was brought forward for examination three years later, she testified that she had never been ill from that time, but had been fit for all manner of women's labors in the fields.

[23] and to another woman Gisla, surnamed Tonsa, from Alonte in the diocese of Vicenza, lay bedridden for two years, unable to move by herself or be fed: in the third year she lost the power of speech, so that most thought she would soon die: although she heard everything that was said, and demonstrated by signs and nods that she understood it, and indicated what she needed. Then, seeming to recover somewhat, she soon fell back into the former illness, and relapsed and lay bedridden for another four years. And again she was healed to the extent that she could rise from bed and sit in a chair, but not raise her body, and she was so hunchbacked and bent that she could barely spin thread without great difficulty, and could not dress herself unless helped by her daughter, nor raise her hand above her head. For five years she remained thus infirm: then around the feast of Easter she heard of the prodigies occurring at the tomb of Blessed John, infirm for very many years. wherefore, inflamed with a great desire to see his holy body, with many tears she besought God and His Saint to help her in whatever best way possible, since she could neither go there on account of her debility nor be carried on account of her poverty. Therefore, on the Wednesday following the Octave of the Resurrection, when she wished to rise from the bench on which she was sitting, she cried out with a deep groan: "O Blessed John, have mercy on me, destitute of all help: for I have neither bread nor any other necessary thing, and in this state I cannot even help myself." Having said these things, confidence came into her soul, vigor into her limbs; and suddenly she stood erect upon her feet with a straight body, and with hands and arms extended above her head she moved herself in every direction, and full of amazement, she called to a certain neighbor woman of hers, and bade her come and see how she moved about by herself as she pleased, and she declared she would go to the tomb of Blessed John. The report, spread through all the neighboring villages, drew many out to see the woman, formerly known to be sick, now perfectly healed: and she herself came to Vicenza on the following Friday to give thanks to the Saint: and lived many years afterward in good health.

[24] likewise to a man blinded by a blow, Albertinus Morcoffus of Vicenza, struck in his left eye by a certain enemy of his, felt a white spot forming on it and gradually lost all vision, not without notable disfigurement of his face. Then, fifteen years later, while traveling to Verona with some companions, he also lost the sight of his right eye: and so had to be led by hand to Verona and brought back to Vicenza: where he stayed in the hospital of Saint Nicholas from the feast of Saint Andrew until Palm Sunday. On the following Monday he was brought into the Cathedral church, called Santa Maria Maggiore, and there he persevered in prayer with many men and women before the tomb of Blessed John, until he fell asleep: but waking from sleep around midnight, he felt his eyelids opening, and looking toward the western windows of the church, he saw the moon shining: afterward he began to count the candles burning at the tomb and the windows of the church, and to tell those standing by that he had been given sight. They tested his claim by showing him garments, and when he perfectly distinguished the colors of each one, the report of so prodigious a cure was spread through the city, and a great crowd of people flocking to the spectacle praised God, glorious in His Saint, through whose merits light had been restored to eyes that had been deprived of it, one for four years and the other for fifteen.

[25] and to two contracted, bent boys, Palmeria, wife of Gerard of Fontaniva in Vicenza, had had her son Ugolino sick for six continuous months: who afterward remained hunched over and could not walk without a cane because of his horribly distorted legs and feet: until she, hearing of the miracles of Blessed John, devoutly visited the tomb of the Blessed one together with her son, and persevered beside it for nine days, during which time the boy, falling asleep, began to sweat vehemently, and uttering a cry in his sleep, showed himself perfectly healed, as he was. Beatrice, wife of Otto of Montecchio, bore a son who, when after a year he began to walk on his feet, became hunchbacked, so that he could neither raise himself up nor get out of bed by his own strength: and so he remained hunched for a year and a half, until carried by his mother to the tomb of the blessed man, he recovered his health there, with both parents praying together there through the merits of the Saint. A certain inhabitant of Montagnana, and finally to a man and a woman deprived of the ability to walk. unable to move without supports, having visited the same tomb and prayed at it for three days, obtained the ability to walk in the presence of many. Dina of Costoza lay sick for seventeen months, unable to move except by crawling on the ground with two stools because of the curvature of her body: but she was helped and raised up, persevering for several days before the tomb, to which she had been brought tied upon a beast of burden.

CHAPTER IV.

Other Miracles Taken from an Ancient Manuscript of the Cathedral Sacristy, and Recorded in Writing in the Year 1441 by the Priests Gasparo de Porta-San-Pietro, Germano de Cogolo, and Master Nicolaus Ciroicus, Stewards of the Confraternity of Saint Mary and Blessed John Cacciafronte in the Cathedral Church.

[26] Andreas Solizzus, a citizen of Vicenza, in the year 1439, stricken with a pestilent fever together with stomach pain, Blessed John, invoked, heals a pestilent fever, was turning black like an Ethiopian, and therefore his mother, believing him near death, vowed him to Blessed John, and for obtaining her son's health visited the tomb of the Blessed one, and furthermore promised to visit the same for fifteen days, with a certain daily offering of candles added, and the recitation of the Lord's Prayer to be repeated several times: and when these were completed, she had him healthy and well. A certain daughter of Thomas the Scrivener, a citizen of Vicenza, was brought to the final extremity by a most severe fever and diarrhea, fever and diarrhea, and was at the point of death: her father, going to the market to buy what was necessary for her funeral, passed through the Cathedral church, where, remembering the miracles of Blessed John, with a vow and tears he prayed him to preserve his daughter alive, and returning home with great confidence that his petition had been granted, found her out of danger.

[27] Catherine, wife of Master Marco de Cogolo, a wool-worker, suffered an infirmity of the head, severe headache, by which she was tormented every week with such pain that the skin above her brain would rise up at least two fingers' breadth. Meanwhile, remembering the miracles of Blessed John, she began to feel most devoutly toward him, and merited to obtain health, having made a vow to arrange a solemn sacrifice at his tomb: which was immediately fulfilled. Dorothea de Bozo, tertian fever, struggling with a cold and hot tertian fever, vowed with great devotion to offer a wax statue at the altar of Blessed John, as large as the measure of her body: and immediately rose from bed in good health. Peter, son of Ascanius of Barbarano, a boy of ten years, pains from kidney stones,

was suffering from a kidney stone, and for a full ten days had been unable to pass urine; wherefore from his stomach to his hips he was entirely inflamed and shiny as a mirror, and was approaching death; not ceasing meanwhile to commend himself to Blessed John and repeatedly to say, "Blessed John, help me." His parents, however, observing their son's devotion toward the Blessed one, made a vow to offer a wax statue the size of the sick boy together with a small silver cross, and immediately the stone shattered into tiny pieces and came out in fragments together with the urine, and the parents fulfilled their vow with great joy.

[28] and of the brain, Elizabeth, wife of Bartholomew de Squarzis, a nobleman of Vicenza, was tormented by so vehement a headache that she thought her brain would burst out, and having made a similar vow to offer a wax statue of her own size, she felt herself free from all evil. an ulcerated breast Flora, a Tertiary of the Order of Saint Francis, wife of Master Martin the Furrier, bore a long-standing sore on her breast which often brought her fever and sometimes even the danger of death: and by a similar vow of a similar statue she recovered her health, and before night fell she marveled that the sore was completely healed. Zilia, wife of James de Carpi, a schoolmaster, continual fever in several persons, fell sick with a fever together with her son, and when it had continued for three whole days, she believed she would die: and so she too vowed such a statue, and immediately obtained perfect health for herself and her son. Alexander Pigafetta of Vicenza obtained the same benefit by the same means, being gravely ill with a fever.

[29] Marcus Coldognus, a nobleman of Vicenza, suffering from the same disease together with a severe headache, to such a degree that he could not stand on his feet, vowed to offer four gold coins at the tomb of the Blessed one as a remedy: and immediately had his vow fulfilled. Bartholomew Baldo, a Venetian, had a tertian fever which he had endured for an entire month changed into a continual one, and assuming various forms from time to time, it deprived the physicians of the ability to determine anything certain about the cause and remedy of the disease: with great effort therefore he approached the tomb of the Blessed one, and vowing a statue of one gold coin, he rejoiced to be free from all discomfort. Bartholomea, the three-year-old daughter of Marcus de Chianon, a citizen of Vicenza, was suffering from a violent fever: her mother vowed to Blessed John a Mass to be sung and a statue to be offered upon the altar for her daughter: through whose merit the girl immediately recovered, and went with her mother and other girls to the church to give thanks.

[30] Lucia, wife of Anzolino the Baker, residing in the hospital of Saint Peter, plague, was struck by the plague in her left hip in the year 1418, and with many tears and fervor of devotion she sought health from Blessed John, offering a silver statue valued at two gold coins, and immediately her vow was answered. Clement Garzadorus, a nobleman of Vicenza, lumbago, was held bedridden from a severe pain of the head and loins at the time when the translation of Blessed John took place. Hearing what was commonly told of his miracles and the integrity of his sacred body, and thereby raised to hope of recovering his health through his merits, with hands lifted to heaven and weeping eyes, he asked to be freed from that illness so that he too might be able to see and honor such venerable relics: and at that very moment he was well. On the day the body was shown to the people, a certain Cecilia, the ten-year-old daughter of Thomas de Oleo, a citizen of Vicenza, was likewise lying in bed with a fever, and was so shaken by the cold accompanying the fever that she could not stand on her feet unless helped by others: unusual trembling, who, upon similar report, conceiving a desire to see the Saint, burned so with that desire that she felt she would die unless she could see him immediately. Wherefore the mother, overcome by her daughter's importunate cries, brought her to the church, and when she kissed the cloth that had been placed over the body, her health was restored.

[31] infirmity of the arm, Crespina of Venice, a kinswoman of Baptista Leone, had lost the use of her right arm: but hearing of the miracles of Blessed John, she vowed an arm made of wax to him, and felt her arm as healthy as never before. fever, A certain son of Bartholomew de Scrofa, a nobleman of Vicenza, reduced to extremity by a burning fever, recovered his health through the vow of both parents to offer a wax statue the size of the sick boy. Antonia of Lonigo, immobile in bed from a severe oppression of the heart: oppression of the heart, she vowed to Blessed John a silver heart together with a wax torch of four pounds, and immediately recovered. Dominic de Pilla, a priest and Mansionary in the Cathedral church of Vicenza, having completely lost all use of his left arm, likewise of the arm vowed a wax arm of equal size, and recovered its use. Corona, wife of William de Mezza, and ailments of the loins, suffering from sciatica, was wailing and crying out day and night from the vehemence of the pains, and near death; she vowed a wax likeness of a leg, and was restored to health.

[32] Pascha of Zuannis Vertenae, residing in the house of Master Marius de Cogolo, abscess in the side, bore a hard abscess in her side like a stone: from which, because she suffered severe torments, under the condition of a certain offering she asked and obtained healing. Stephen of Verona, as soon as he vowed a wax head to Blessed John, was freed from the torment of one ear, which on that side had been preventing his hearing. Master Nicholas the Physician, son of Master George, was enduring such intense fevers and headaches arising from them lethal fever, that, considering death easier, he would have killed himself if he were not prevented by the fear of God: and in the very paroxysm of the fever he spoke deliriously, bereft of his senses. To him one night Blessed John appeared in a vision in splendid attire, with a crown on his head and many gems in his clothing: around whom in the Cathedral church he seemed to see such a press of people running together that he could scarcely force himself an opening; which at last having overcome, he seemed to hear from the Blessed one: "Nicholas, bring a wax head to my chest, and you shall be freed from this illness." Nicholas awoke at this voice and thought the dream was born of the feverish heat: but the following night the Blessed one again appeared to him in a similar guise and with a surrounding throng of people, and rebuking him said: "You neglected to do what I said, Nicholas: nevertheless, because you have been singularly devoted to me, come tomorrow and you shall have your wish." The sick man was amazed, observing that the Saint spoke to him alone in so great a multitude, and awakening said: "Certainly I heard his words directed to me: I will go and fulfill his commands": and while he did so, he was cured.

[33] Matthew Paletronis of Lonigo, a tailor living in Vicenza, pains of the hip, enduring such torments in the hip that he was forced to cry out day and night, unable to move his body even in bed; since he could be helped by no remedies of physicians, he was helped by the vow by which he promised to offer to the Blessed one a wax image the size of himself. and of the side, The priest Zavinus de Gardelinis, suddenly oppressed by a pain in the side, could neither undress himself nor place himself in bed without the help of his two brothers who had quickly run to him: wherefore he commended himself to Blessed John and promised to offer the sacrifice of the Mass once upon his body and to give some alms in his honor: and when this vow was made, the pain ceased and he performed the votive sacrifice the next day, healthy and joyful. lethal fainting, Blancaflora, daughter of Matthew Zenari the physician, one evening suddenly seemed to be dying, as she no longer even recognized her parents: but her father, seeing the human remedies of his art availing nothing, hastened to the tomb of Blessed John and there vowed a statue of one gold coin, if upon returning to his daughter the next day he should find her with hope of life. He returned and found her healthy, and cheerfully fulfilled the vow he had made.

[34] Dominic, the four-year-old son of Benedict Triveri of the Porta-San-Pietro quarter, bruise of the head, having fallen upon a stone with a broken head, was thought to be about to die: but a vow made by his parents to offer a wax head rescued the boy from danger, and he also quickly recovered from the wound. Honesta, wife of the late Simon Casolini of Vicenza, cast down from the state of a sound mind, was placed upon the chest of the blessed body madness, when it was shown to the people on April 18, 1441; and she immediately recovered the use of reason, and offered a wax torch, and kissed the cloth which for more than two hundred years had covered the sacred body: and so she returned home with her daughter-in-law and daughter and other relatives, conversing with full judgment; and within a few days she felt all remnants of her former illness wiped away. Gualterus, the four-year-old son of Martin della Seda, epilepsy, from a severe illness developed epilepsy, so that he was frequently thrown to the ground during the day. His father vowed to have the image of the Blessed one painted in his chapel, and immediately tranquility returned to the boy and remained thereafter. Elizabeth della Soga, wife of Jerome Verlati, a nobleman of Vicenza, dire torments, was brought to such a state by great pains which forced her to wail day and night that the blessed candle was often lit for her as if she were about to die; when she vowed a large wax image worth forty soldi to be offered to Blessed John, the pains suddenly ceasing, she recovered. a mortal wound to the head,

[35] Mariottus of Tuscany, a servant of Dominic, a soldier of Pius of Novara, mortally wounded in the head by a certain peasant of Valdagno, from which wound the doctors had extracted five small bones, was preparing himself at their order for death by receiving the last sacraments: while this was being done, the priest who had heard his confession gave the advice of invoking Blessed John with a vow to offer a statue worth one ducat, and another ducat for the ornamentation of the altar, and never again to take up arms. The wounded man obeyed and fell asleep, and seemed to see in Pontifical garb a splendid Bishop: to whom, when he asked, "What are you doing here, Mariotto?" he answered: "I lie in bed on account of a wound inflicted on my head": and the Bishop replied: "You shall not be ill," and having said this, disappeared. But Mariotto, waking, put his hand to his head, felt all pain removed, and the wound was shortly healed: moreover, Master Venciguerra testifies that the wound was humanly incurable. A five-year-old boy, fever with flux, the son of Louis Luscus, a nobleman of Vicenza, suffering from fever and a violent flux, had swollen up like a drum, and whoever saw him thought he would die soon: his parents vowed to Blessed John a wax statue equal to the boy, and immediately, as the force of the disease remitted, he recovered full health within a few days.

[36] another with headache, Imperatrix, wife of Pius of Organo, a citizen of Vicenza, brought to extremity by fever and headache from which she had suffered for two months, was freed by a vow made to place a wax image at the Blessed one's tomb. Camillus de Clericatis, a nobleman of Vicenza, bitten by a small dog in Altavilla, was deprived of the ability to walk, gangrene from a dog bite, and gangrene attacking the wound defeated all the industry of the physicians, and was even opening sores elsewhere: in that state the sick man remained from

the feast of the Holy Cross in May until the middle of July, but upon making a vow to offer a wax leg, he immediately recovered. Francis, son of Bartholomew Balastrazzi, a citizen of Vicenza, afflicted with a flux of blood and a severe fever, flux of blood and brought to the point of death, was saved by his father's vow on his behalf to Blessed John of a wax statue his own size, freed from both maladies.

[37] Baptista of Saint Paul, a Vicentine priest, was suffering from a continual fever: a certain clerk of his, visiting him as he lay in bed, said: "Sir, remember the great miracles that Blessed John works, and commend yourself to him." and again continual fever in several persons. "You have rightly advised me," the Priest replied; "go to the tomb and pray there for me, that he may hear the vow I am about to make." While the Clerk prayed, the Priest vowed a fine wax statue, and was found healthy by the other when he returned. Venturinus, son of Octavian Garzadori, vowing a similar statue to the Blessed one, also recovered from a continual fever which had brought him into danger of imminent death. John, son of Hubertinus Barbarani, a nobleman of Vicenza, a young man of twenty years, from a fever first lost his sound mind, and then on the sixth day also his speech and movement, and was placed beyond hope of life by the physicians, and was watched for several days and nights by those who, with candles lit, were awaiting his death. But the father and mother of the dying man turned themselves to Blessed John, and vowed a large wax torch of ten pounds, if their son should be preserved alive for them: and soon speech and health returned to him. The young man testified moreover that he knew nothing of the remedies applied throughout the whole period of his illness: although his head had been shaved and live pigeons, split open, had been applied to it; and cupping glasses had been used, and they had blown through a tube into his nostrils many times; and indeed they had prepared him for death with Extreme Unction and the frequent commendation of his soul: so great was the vehemence of the disease.

CONCERNING BLESSED BENEDICTA, ABBESS OF ASSISI, OF THE ORDER OF SAINT CLARE, AT ASSISI IN UMBRIA.

YEAR 1260

Benedicta, Abbess of Assisi, of the Order of Saint Clare in Umbria (Blessed).

Ludovico Jacobilli in volume 1 of his Saints and Blessed of Umbria has the following for March 15: Benedicta, Blessed in fact and in name, born at Assisi; around the year 1214, as Wadding testifies in the Annals of his Order, She succeeds Saint Clare in the monastery of San Damiano she took the monastic habit in the monastery of San Damiano under the discipline of Saint Clare, the first Abbess there: and she so excelled above all in sanctity and prudence that after the death of the holy Foundress, in the year 1253, she was appointed her successor as Abbess, governing the sacred Virgins there with a wonderful example of regular observance and holy poverty for about seven years, and distinguished by several miracles, she departed this mortal life in the same monastery in the year 1260, [she dies in the year 1260, March 16. Her body is transferred to Assisi the following October.] on the 16th day of March. Her body, shortly afterward in the same year, in the month of October, together with the bodies of the other nuns who had died there, was translated into the city of Assisi itself to the monastery of Saint George, dedicated by Pope Alexander IV to Saint Clare herself: and, as Wadding asserts on the authority of Marcus of Lisbon, it was honorably placed in a stone sarcophagus. It remained in the choir of the said monastery until the year 1602, when Marcellus Crescentius, in 1602 it is placed under an altar Bishop of Assisi, transferred it to the chapel which is to the right of the main altar, together with the bodies of Blessed Agnes, who was the sister of Saint Clare herself, and Blessed Amata, niece of the same Saint, where it is held in honor and veneration.

These things from Jacobilli, whom we believe to have received the year and day of death from the documents of the monastery itself: but Arthur from the monastery, who deferred this Blessed woman to the 19th day of October, seems to have been looking to the first translation: on account of which, and the special veneration of her among the nuns serving God there, although she may seem to be enrolled among the Blessed by Rudolph de Tossignano in the History of the Seraphic Order, and by the aforesaid Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology; to be publicly honored, these alone would not have sufficed for us unless we seemed able to receive a more certain indication of public veneration from the last translation made in this century. For since previously the body was reverently kept in the choir, to which the public veneration of the faithful could not penetrate, it still remained doubtful whether by the judgment of the Church and the Pontiff, either permitting or commanding the first translation, she had been numbered among the Blessed, or had only been permitted to be honored privately: but the later translation removes the doubt: especially since the Apostolic Visitors under Urban VIII, with Blessed Agnes, who were sent to regulate throughout Italy the veneration of Relics, and to restore everything to the state which it had either by express license of the Holy See or by usage proven for more than a hundred years, are not found to have changed anything concerning the bodies of these Blessed women. Arthur placed the memorial of Blessed Agnes on November 16, and that of Blessed Amata on February 20.

and Blessed Amata: her eulogy, On which same day the same Jacobilli also recalls the last translation of the three aforesaid bodies, and says they were placed in a stone receptacle under the altar of the chapel which is to the left of the main door; and in the margin he cites a tablet hung in the chapel of the aforesaid church. Moreover, the eulogy of Blessed Amata, passed over in February, from Wadding at the year 1209, receive here: "Blessed Pacifica was followed by Clare's niece, Sister Amata, daughter of Sir Martin de Corano. Her parents were preparing her for a husband, and were vainly adorning her for this purpose. Her wanton age, as is usual, took pleasure in the luxury and excess of garments, and the insane greeting of suitors pleased her. Clare grieved over the danger of her kinswoman, and earnestly prayed that she might be freed from it and might rather strive to love God than men. She obtained her wish: for when one day Amata came to visit Clare, she was so moved by her words and holy exhortation that she immediately sent a bill of divorce to the world, nor could she any longer be torn from her kinswoman. Her, weakened by excessive rigor of penance, laboring with dropsy and excessive coughing for a whole year, Saint Clare suddenly healed with the sign of the Cross and the imposition of hands. She was very dear to her mistress, and Clare often made use of her services in her illnesses; and in her last moments she showed her Christ standing by her, to whom the Lord deigned to display Himself for her contemplation. Of known virtue and sanctity, she died after Clare. Her body was interred together with that of her own sister, Blessed Balbina."

and sister Balbina. Jacobilli asserts that both survived their maternal aunt by a short time, and places Balbina on March 11, as does Arthur from the Monastery: but we do not find where the latter obtained the information that she too was distinguished by the renown of miracles. If her body had been placed under the altar by a translation similar to that of Sister Amata, she would not have been listed by us among those passed over for that day: but for now it suffices to have said here from Tossignano that four years after the entry of Saint Clare she assumed the habit and reformed the monastery of Arezzo.

CONCERNING BLESSED TORELLO, SOLITARY, AT POPPI IN TUSCANY

YEAR 1282

Preliminary Commentary.

Torello, Solitary, at Poppi in Tuscany (Blessed).

[1] Poppi, a town of the Casentino district, in the diocese of Arezzo, is one of the smaller towns (the Italians call them Terre), overlooking from a modest hill in every direction a pleasant plain irrigated by the river Arno; The Acts were described by us at Poppi. near whose castle the Abbey of Saint Fidelis de Strumis, burned or destroyed in the seditious upheavals of Italy (as it seems), was transferred after the year 1200, after it had been for about one century aggregated to the Vallombrosan Congregation; distant ten thousand paces from the principal monastery of that Order; which distance we covered on foot on January 17, 1662, and were received by the Very Reverend Father Dom Sabino de Bonzi, Abbot of the place, with that kindness which the studious commendation of the Vallombrosan Fathers bade us hope for, and the patent letters of the Abbot General himself, Dom Daniel de Sersanis: by whose prescription all the monuments of that monastery, as many as the injury of time had left, were immediately shown to us. And among these, the ancient Acts of Blessed Torello (whom, from the Italian custom of truncating proper names and especially diminutives—such as they everywhere delight in using—at their beginnings, we suspect is so called for Victorello), transcribed in the year 1541 by the hand of a public Notary from another more ancient copy: which we ourselves transcribed that very night, lest any delay be caused to us who were hastening elsewhere.

[2] Blessed Torello, a solitary, From these Acts, moreover, at number 3, we have so clearly that Torello was attached to no religious institute, which his friends tried in vain to persuade him to join, that it is not necessary for us to involve ourselves in that empty contention in which the Vallombrosans and Franciscans contend to which Order he should be assigned: to the Vallombrosans, however, something more of right seems to be attributed, not only by the possession of the body and a certain voluntary subjection of the living man regarding spiritual direction to be received from the Abbot: but also by the fact that, discussing his plan for undertaking the solitary life, he sought and received from the Abbot a habit suitable for his purpose. What indeed that habit was is carefully described at number 21, and it has much in common with the Franciscan habit: but whoever would wish this to suffice of no Order having professed vows: so that he be called a Tertiary of that Order, must by the same reasoning assign to it all the barefoot men he finds girded with a cord, since the great number of those who, in no way pertaining to Saint Francis or his institutes, assumed a similar habit of penance at their own discretion in those times—and who were commonly called Fratercelli—created for the Franciscan Order the necessity of seeking a remedy from the Supreme Pontiffs: and even today solitaries using such a habit by the indulgence of Bishops are found everywhere in the world, who yet consider themselves neither Franciscans nor Tertiaries of that Order. Whoever wishes to see the authorities adduced for each side, let him consult Arthur from the Monastery in his Order's Martyrology: it is not worth our while to name those who, by their own assertion alone, so long after the fact, and indeed subject to the opposing party, contribute nothing of authority to the matter.

[3] the body honorably buried, It pertains more closely to our purpose to demonstrate its true and

legitimate veneration: which first indeed we find in that tomb which the Abbot had constructed for him, elevated from the ground; under which all who entered were freed from their ailments: as is read at number 17, and which stood for many years in this manner, in the Abbey church itself, as is credible. Another Abbot then transferred the blessed body to another place: I believe because the frequency of visiting pilgrims was interfering with the monks' quiet and the proper performance of the Divine Office. The same Abbot seems to have disapproved of that rite of passing under the tomb, good and pleasing to God indeed; then interred in its own chapel, but which gradually (as such things usually tend) was turning to ridicule and abuse on the part of the not very devout populace, and therefore he judged it better and more fitting to place this holy body under an altar, according to the most praiseworthy custom of the Church. When, however, it was withdrawn from the people's sight, the celebrity of the cult also seemed to diminish: which was not without cost to the author; although he seems rather to have deserved praise for having had a chapel of its own either built or adapted for the Blessed one, at the foot of the Abbey, as will be said below: into which it is credible that the sacred relics were translated not without a processional ceremony.

[4] After this, on account of various (says Luke Wadding) vicissitudes of war, pestilence, and long time, it was not known where these sacred Relics had been deposited: concerning whose discovery and elevation we found the following observation appended by the same hand to the old manuscript, and discovered again in the year 1507 which we render from Italian into Latin as follows. Note that in the year 1507, on the 9th day of August, by the grace of God and the virtue of a certain good Religious, then Prior in the Abbey of Poppi, whose name has slipped from my memory, the bones of Blessed Torello were miraculously found, hidden under the stone of the altar which is in the chapel at the foot of the Abbey: in which chapel his miracles are depicted in a panel which is in the said chapel under the said stone: which holy bones, as is reported, had been hidden there for more than a hundred years, so that no one knew where they really were. About which discovery the whole Town experienced the greatest joy and festive celebration; when by the hands of the Most Reverend Father in Christ, Blasius, they were brought out from the panel of the aforesaid Altar, placed in a new chest. and with solemn ceremony placed in a casket made and prepared for this purpose, under two keys: which casket was placed within another larger one locked with three keys, by the mandate of the aforesaid Vallombrosan General and the Community of Poppi; as is apparent from the public instrument drawn up thereon by Ser Pietro Antonio Cor. Honilli, Notary of Poppi. Which caskets with the aforesaid bones are now within the altar of the said chapel; which has always been called and is called the chapel of Saint Torello: and at the same time as the sacred bones were found, this epitaph was placed upon them.

[5] Here rest the sacred bones of the divine Torello of Poppi; Bend your knees, O citizens of heaven. Epitaph: For he can drive far hence both sword and famine. And by his prayers remove the plague from here.

Somewhat differently concerning this translation, Wadding at the year 1282 writes: In the year 1507, from a revelation made to a certain monk, the Relics were found in the Altar called that of Saint Torello, enclosed in a chest and silk wrappings; and they were transferred and more fittingly placed in an honorable location, by the license of Cosimo de' Pazzi, Bishop of Arezzo (Ughelli calls him Cosmus Pastius in volume 1 of Italia Sacra, Second translation, and says he was created in the year 1497 and translated to the Archbishopric of Florence in 1508), with the General Superior and certain of the more senior Fathers of that institute present; the Camaldolese General and others being present: concerning which a public instrument was drawn up by the notary Laurence Bonelli, Notary of Poppi. From which it seems to follow that the first instrument was about the discovery and placement in new caskets; and the later one about the solemn ceremony of the translation.

[6] It is certain that the body of Blessed Torello was again translated before the year 1583, when Eudoxius Loccatelli wrote his history: for he writes thus: "Today his body is placed in a sufficiently fine altar in the church of the aforesaid Abbey": and a third, around the year 1570. and so we found it, and we celebrated the sacred rites at it the day after we arrived: and then we examined the altar itself, made of the larger blue-gray stone of which there is great use in Florentine territory for buildings and ornaments of churches, not inelegantly sculpted; so that the sculpture serves as a frontal panel (according to the usage of this time, now quite common throughout Italy), and through a large oval opening, by means of fitted grilles closed with two locks, it transmits the eyes of the beholders to an inner chest of considerable size: Image of Blessed Torello: that, perhaps, of which mention has been made above. We saw moreover on the same wall (which is to the right for those entering the church and has the aforesaid altar) a cubit-tall image near the Gospel corner, sculpted with ancient simplicity, in roughly the same habit and color of habit in which we commonly depict Saint Anthony—in a black cloak and reddish garment: whence no assistance can accrue to either of the contending parties; especially since it does not entirely correspond to what is described in the Acts. In addition, the sacred head of Blessed Torello, enclosed in a larger silver reliquary bust, the head in a reliquary. we venerated in the sacristy; which Loccatelli also mentions, as does Wadding: but the latter says the separation of the head from the rest of the body was done by that Abbot who transferred the body from its first tomb to the chapel: about which we find nothing elsewhere.

[7] Moreover, since no mention of that chapel was made to us by the Religious, we believed that it had collapsed from age, giving occasion for a new translation to the church; and perhaps also for enclosing the head in silver: for the work we saw did not represent more than one century's age. Some light on these matters may be shed by a note, appended in a different hand to the booklet we transcribed, in these words, rendered from Italian to Latin:

"In the name of God. Amen. The 26th day of August, in the year 1608.

"A memorial and record, Public instruments concerning the cult by the mandate of the Very Reverend Father in Christ, Dom Arsenius Crudelius of Poppi, Master in Sacred Theology, and at present most worthy Abbot of the Abbey of Saint Fidelis of Poppi. How the process sent to Rome to His Holiness, for obtaining confirmation of the Relics of Blessed Torello, appears registered and authentically transcribed in the very Register of the Magnificent Community of Poppi, from the Register of the Community, F.C., from folio 43 to 49: and in the same book appear many letters sent and received to various persons regarding this matter: and in particular, at folio 110 appears a letter of such veneration: at 193 appears the instrument of translation of the sacred bones and head of the aforesaid Blessed one: and at 208, pages one and two, appears the Brief of Indulgences, granted for seven years by His Holiness Paul V, to those visiting the church of the Abbey on the feast day of Blessed Torello: in witness whereof,

"I, Marianus, son of the late Peter Marianus de Catanis, of Poppi, public Florentine Notary and Scribe, and at present Chancellor of the said Abbey, have written the above-mentioned memorial by mandate of the Very Reverend Dom Arsenius Crudelius, Abbot, and in witness thereof have subscribed with my own hand."

[8] sent to us, they did not arrive: The public documents cited here, when the Very Reverend Dom Sabino de Bonzi, the above-named Abbot, had at our request arranged for them to be copied and sent to us at Florence, we lamented all the more that they had been lost in the hands of the bearer, inasmuch as from them we could have been more surely informed of the order and rite by which the Relics were examined, and at what time the translation was made with Roman approval: about which, however, it is possible to conjecture from the Pontificate of Pius V, which began in the year 1566 and ended in the year 1572 of the same century. The feast of Blessed Torello, as Loccatelli attests, is also celebrated in the church of his Hermitage, his hermitage. which is in the Avellaneto, a thousand paces distant from Poppi, as we found in Wadding: which Hermitage the aforesaid Loccatelli numbers among the places of the Vallombrosan Order in the diocese of Arezzo, at the end of his work.

[9] Among how many does the Life exist? Luke Wadding in his Annals of the Friars Minor relates the Life of Blessed Torello, with modified style, at the year 1282; at which date he writes he died, on the authority of Jerome Loccatello. The same Life in Italian had earlier been translated by Silvanus Rassius into his collection of the Saints of Tuscany, received from an old Latin manuscript: from which a century before him Jerome Radiolanus took a compendium, which we found in the Florentine Library and transcribed. The reader will find similar epitomes in Loccatellus, Ferrarius, Bucelinus, and Arthur from the Monastery. Arnold Wion also commemorates on this day "Saint Torello, Conversus and Hermit, most famous for the glory of his miracles": which words Dorganius transcribed in the Benedictine Calendar. But while we would wish that the epithet of Conversus, false, had been omitted by both: so we would wish that Arnold had taught us what those Vallombrosan tables are Is Abbot Laetus among the Blessed? from which on this day he gave Saint Laetus, an Abbot, as having some veneration in the monastery of Vallombrosa; which is so far from the truth that not even in the monastery of Passignano, over which he had been placed as Abbot by Saint John Gualberto, is any memory of him found, except in the charters concerning the estates acquired by him. Loccatellus assigns the year of death as approximately the one thousand eighty-third; he is silent about the day: and he asserts that he is numbered among the Blessed of his Order, but gives us little confidence; since by Jerome Radiolanus, who studiously composed the eulogies of all the Blessed of his Order, his name is nowhere—let alone his deeds—found: and in Vallombrosa itself we inquired about him in vain.

ACTS

From the Ancient Manuscript of Poppi.

Torello, Solitary, at Poppi in Tuscany (Blessed).

BHL Number: 8305

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT OF POPPI.

CHAPTER I

The Conversion and Austerity of Life of Blessed Torello.

[1] Torello, after his father's death, Torello, son of Paul, of the town of Poppi, which is in the province of Tuscany, in the Casentine district, had his origin there; his father, while he was still a boy, instructed him in the faith of Christ, and so that he might better absorb the teachings, he placed him for learning. He grew up therefore a wise young man; wherefore his father, rejoicing, daily instructed him in good works and God's commandments. He shrank from the company of the wicked, led astray from virtue, and followed in the footsteps of the good. When his father Paul had entered the way of all flesh, the son clung all the more to the service of God, until the devil, envying his holiness, began to bend him from his good purpose and fraudulently led him to the enticements of this world. He therefore strayed from what he had begun, ensnared by the trap of diabolical fraud, following the company of young men: and where the entire region had spoken of his good reputation, it now held conversation about his vanity. But God, seeing him so changed and entirely removed from His service, wished to draw him back lest he perish, from the mouth of the demon, in this way.

[2] moved to repentance by the crowing of a rooster: As Torello was going with certain neighbors and frivolous young men for the sake of amusement (as it pleased the Almighty), a certain rooster, perched at a window on a rod, immediately flew onto his arm, crowed three times—as if to awaken him from the sleep of vices—and having uttered its song, flew back to where it had come from. Moved by this sign, Torello stood motionless and was astounded, pondering within himself as if he had been divinely admonished. He repented therefore, and recognizing himself, left his companions, departed, and threw himself with tears at the feet of the Abbot of Poppi: who, marveling at his swift conversion, exhorted him to persevere in his good purpose. Again Torello threw himself at his feet, asking he receives the hermit's habit; to be clothed by him in the manner of a poor little brother. The monks together with the Abbot urged him to take the monastic habit of that same Abbey; but disregarding this, the Abbot clothed him as he had requested.

[3] Torello then, having received a blessing, left the town of Poppi secretly from all its inhabitants and betook himself to wild and deserted places. Inflamed therefore by divine grace, he walked alone through the forests; and wherever night found him, there he lodged. After eight days of searching the said places, he at last came to a certain huge rock, under which he was received for lodging; which place is called the Avellaneto, and he stayed there for eight days, he builds a cell. eating herbs and three small loaves which he had brought with him, bewailing his sins; humbly asking God to grant him pardon for his omissions; and taken with the site of the place, he resolved in his mind to build a little cell upon that same rock, in which, as long as he lived, he could be free for the service of God. After eight days, returning to the Town of Poppi, he went to his relatives, by whom he was urged not to wish to live like a wild beast, but to enter some Religious Order; he refused what they advised, and selling all his goods, he distributed them to the poor; reserving for himself a small amount with which to have his cell built.

[4] and harsh toward himself Returning therefore to his solitude, he sought a builder to make him a small dwelling; which he built so small that it barely held him. When the habitation was built, he purchased a small piece of land for a garden: and in this place the man of God did most severe penance: for he wore upon his flesh the skin of a half-shorn pig, so rough with bristles that it cut his body; no one knowing this except his friend who had made what he wore. Each day he took four ounces of bread and one measure of water of two cups. At night he slept for three small hours in this manner: for having made a bed of five small boards, he would go there for rest: this was the length and breadth of his body: upon it he had placed deadly thorns with vine shoots, and held under his head a hard stone for a pillow: nor did he rest there unless he was weighed down by the heaviness of sleep. Sometimes he would sleep naked upon the ground, to afflict his body.

[5] he conquers temptations of the flesh. And the devil envied him as he thus persevered: for he began to vex him with carnal temptation, appearing to him in the form of a most beautiful woman. But Torello repelled the diabolic temptation thus: for he chastised his naked body with a certain iron discipline so severely that blood flowed to the ground. At times he would throw himself into cold water and remain there until he trembled from the cold. Sometimes he would go without food and drink for two days. He would pluck the beard and hair from his head, and by such bodily pains he overcame the temptations of the body. Through such severity of penance the regimen of his fasting over 80 years. he incurred many illnesses, and wasted away so much that nothing but skin and bones remained: for in fasting he would eat only four ounces of bread with some herbs sprinkled with a little salt, but without oil: and he ate no meat, cheese, or eggs at all. This penance he practiced for thirty years. After the thirtieth year he was so oppressed with bodily weakness that, taking compassion on himself in every way, with holy discretion he began to eat herbs with a little salt and oil and only four ounces of bread per day, and thus he lived for twenty years. Afterward he began to drink a little watered wine when he ate, and he ate legumes. He led this life until his death, which he met at the age of eighty.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles in Life, Power over Wolves, Death, Burial.

[6] While he was still living Thus far we have spoken briefly of his life and penance: now it remains to see how abundantly God filled him with grace while he lived in the world, and after He drew the spirit of the holy man to Himself. Seeing therefore that the Son of God had served Him so devotedly and faithfully, He sent an Angel to tell him that whatever grace and miracle he asked from Him, he would obtain: and from then on He visited him every day. The servant of God therefore, comforted and filled with divine grace, began to pour it forth and to work miracles: wherefore people began to have devotion and faith in him.

[7] he rescues a boy from the jaws of a wolf, The first miracle which God showed during his life on his behalf was this. A certain poor woman of Poppi, having an only son of three years, had gone out of the Town of Poppi to wash clothes and was keeping him beside her. Behold, a wolf—which the common people call a Monino, that is, one that feeds on human flesh—snatched the boy: and the mother cried out with lamentation and a querulous voice, so that the cry was heard all the way to Poppi. The wolf, fleeing, came by God's will to the cell of Saint Torello: who, when he saw it carrying the little child in its mouth, commanded it on God's behalf to put him down: and the ravenous beast, obeying the man's command, heard him humbly and laid the infant at Torello's feet, and stood by abashed. Then he commanded it on behalf of Jesus that henceforth neither it nor any other should dare to eat any person from Poppi and returns him safe to his mother. or from the surrounding district. The wolf bowed to him and retreated into the wilderness. Torello, having carried the almost-dead boy into his cell, prayed, and he was immediately healed. His most wretched mother, following the wolf's tracks so that she might at least find his bones and little garments, at length reached the hermitage: and when he was asked whether he had seen a wolf carrying a child, the man of God returned him safe and sound, with the wounds which the biting teeth had inflicted healed: and Torello commanded her not to tell anyone of this deed. The woman, however, returning, spread the miracle everywhere.

[8] A certain Count Charles of Poppi, well known to Blessed Torello, when Carnival evening had come, sent him a squire with a basket filled with meats and bread, and as he was going, the ladies of Poppi gave some edibles to be carried to the brother. He therefore offered what they had given him; he feeds a wolf, and Torello, kindly receiving them, returned the basket empty to the young man: who, marveling how he alone could consume so much in one evening, said to Torello: "When will you eat so much, being alone?" To whom the brother responded: "So, I am alone now: but shortly my companion will be here, who is a great eater; for he has gone out through the forest. Depart, son, before it gets late." Having taken the basket, the young man pretending to leave, hid in the forest near the door, saying to himself: "From here I will see if he expects a companion," for he wished to know who it might be. Meanwhile Torello prayed, asking God that his companion would come. While he was thus praying, a wolf approached, howling at the door with open mouth. Torello opened it and brought the meats that had been brought to him. and commands it not to harm anyone. After the wolf devoured them, it began to fawn upon the servant of God, placed its paws upon his chest, and licked the Brother like a dog, on account of his holiness, and seemed as if asking for more. Torello said to it: "My brother, withdraw and return to the forest, and there I command you on behalf of Christ that from now on neither you nor any other presume to harm anyone from Poppi or its territory; at least as far as the bell of the Abbey can be heard." Hearing which, the wolf bowed its head and departed. The young man, however, who had been hiding to see what would happen, marveled, withdrew, and recounted to everyone what had happened.

[9] To this I will add two persons healed by a draught of water. A certain Bolognese matron, very noble, named Victoriana, going to La Verna out of devotion to Saint Francis, took her two sons with her: and when she had come to the said place, two boys near death accompanied by a large company of men and women, both fell sick and were so oppressed by fevers that the physicians despaired of their recovery. The mother lamented so that she moved everyone to tears. Certain women from Poppi who were there for the indulgence, having recounted the holiness and miracles of Saint Torello, took her with the boys to Poppi, and from there set out for the Avellaneto. And then the grieving and most sorrowful mother, anxious about her sons' illness, threw herself weeping at the feet of the Saint, saying thus: "Most holy man of God, lest today I remain bereaved and deprived of my dearest sons, I beseech your holiness: I commend them to you, that the efficacy of your prayer may return them to me safe, that your wonderful piety may preserve them for me." By this lamentable cry she moved her companions to tears. Then the humble servant of God, taking compassion on the afflicted and grieving mother, gave himself to prayer with great fervor of heart, saying: "My Lord Almighty, who rules heaven and earth, who conquered death, who are a merciful judge and physician of human infirmity: help these boys: relieve, Lord, the grief of the afflicted mother, and for the sake of faith lift her sorrow, and free her sons—You who raised Lazarus, he heals them with a draught of water. who opened the eyes of the man born blind, who cleansed the leper, and made the paralytic whole: You,

good Jesus, I pray You by Your immense power, restore these boys healthy to their mother." Having finished the prayer, he rose and gave them water drawn from a certain spring to drink; which, once it had entered their inmost parts, with the languor of the fever driven out, they were healed, and the spring from which he had drawn the water was from that hour efficacious for healing those pressed by a hot fever: the drink of which very many have experienced and been freed by its remedy.

[10] I will add the miracle of a nine-year-old boy who escaped from the jaws of a wolf, a truly beautiful one. A certain woman, named Doratia, of the city of Arezzo, while making a journey toward Bibbiena, was taking her son with her. A wolf coming toward them another boy snatched by a wolf snatched the boy: the mother pursued it with cries and most miserable lamentation. On that day Torello had happened to go to Bibbiena: hearing the cry, he asked what it was, and after he learned the cause of the crying, he prayed apart: "Lord, who rules over all creatures and whom they obey; I beseech You that the wolf may not have the power to kill the boy; I humbly beg Your power to grant me this grace." When the prayer was completed, he suddenly heard a voice from heaven: "Blessed Torello, your prayer has been heard; command the wolf whatever you please and it will obey you." Then he commanded the wolf on God's behalf to release the boy at once; he recovers and heals him. and the beast, obeying, dropped him from its mouth: but the men who had followed the beast brought back the boy as if dead. The mother, overwhelmed with grief, looking upon her sweetest son so mangled by the wolf's bites, went to the doctors. When they despaired of his recovery, on the advice of the women she brought her son to Saint Torello, who was still there; and he helped with compassion at the mother's prayers: for he smeared and anointed the wolf's bites with the spittle and saliva of his mouth, saying: "Lord, who anointed the blind man with spittle, now by Your grace free this boy": and so he returned the boy safe to his mother.

[11] I will briefly tell of the builder's fall: for while he was covering the cell of Blessed Torello with a roof, he helps a builder who fell from his cell. the devil, out of envy, cast him headlong from the top of the roof, and from the severe fall he fainted. When the man of God learned of this, he prayed with tears: "My Lord, who rescued Jonah from the mouth of the fish, who led Moses from the hands of Pharaoh through the midst of the sea, defended Anthony in the desert from the violence of the demon, and delivered David from the forces of Saul, and made John come forth unharmed from the cauldron of boiling oil, deign to free this man." And when the prayer was finished, rising, he called the man, and with his health recovered, he completed the work he had begun.

[12] He frees a bewitched woman. It will not be unfitting to add to this the miracle of a bewitched woman. For when a certain young man was held by love for a certain woman and could in no way have her, he had her bewitched by a man skilled in the art of magic, so that day and night, crying out, she constantly called the young man by his own name. When her father could find no remedy for so terrible an infamy, he brought his daughter to Saint Torello, who, after he learned through the spirit that she had a demon, adjured it thus, saying: "Malignant spirit, I command you on behalf of Almighty God to depart from here": and making the sign of the Cross, he compelled it to leave. The woman, with the demon expelled amid great shrieks, was restored to her former freedom.

[13] When Torello was in his eightieth year of age, God wished to make known to him the end of his life: warned of the time of death He therefore sent an Angel bearing these tidings: "Rejoice, Torello; now the time has come in which you must receive the crown of glory which you have long desired: now you shall receive the longed-for reward of your penance, and you shall be rewarded for every labor: you shall leave the prison of this world thirty days hence: and on the sixteenth day of March you shall be placed in the seat of Paradise, among the holy Fathers, whose life and abstinence you have followed, and you have merited the diadem of glory." Rejoicing at these things, the servant of God began to redouble his penance, wholly devoted to the contemplation of heavenly things. But when the end drew near, he prepares himself for it. ten days before, he went to the Abbot, and having confessed, he received Communion from him, and told the Abbot in Confession what the Angel had foretold. Having exchanged the kiss of peace, he returned to his cell, and there doing the harshest penance, he bore before himself the Lord's Passion. Here he remained for twenty days, during which he ate nothing except on one out of every three days, and then only perhaps two ounces of bread: and he always kept silence.

[14] And when the last day of his life had come, he called his disciple, named Peter, and said to him thus: he gives his disciple final admonitions. "My son, I make known to you that God will today separate me from your company, and today will put an end to my labors and my pilgrimage. I ask therefore that you be strengthened and persevere in God's works and service: despise the praises and honors of men, and the other transitory things of this world, which destroy the fruits of our good works and draw our minds from the contemplation of God"; and when he had said many more things, he made known what the Angel had announced. Peter, hearing this, was deeply grieved: "Alas! my father, what are you saying? What have I heard? What shall I, abandoned, do without so good a master? What relief will there be for my labors? To whom shall I tell my temptations? Who will console me after I have lost my father?" And so he bathed his face with tears. But Blessed Torello, on bare knees and with hands raised to heaven, prayed: he prays for the people of Poppi. "O God, I pray that You deign to hear my prayers; graciously grant this favor to Your servant: that the man-eating wolf may not be able to harm or inflict damage on anyone from Poppi, nor from the surrounding district, at least as far as the bell of the Abbey can be heard." When the prayer was finished, an Angel came saying: "Blessed Torello, whatever you asked in your prayer, the Almighty has heard": and while he prayed again in silence, his soul departed to the Lord.

[15] After he had thus come to rest, so that the people might come to honor the sacred body, his death is made known by the miraculous ringing of bells. God wished to make his death known in this way: for all the bells of Poppi and of the surrounding district rang of their own accord, without anyone pulling them. The priests marveled at this miracle: then, remembering that no one in the land had a reputation for holiness except Torello, they hastened with the people and biers to his cell; and when each wished to convey the body to his own church, a great contention arose among them. While they were all contending, the Abbot arrived with all his monks: and seeing such a contest, he spoke thus: "My sons, let us proceed in this way: let each Priest try by himself to place him on his bier, and whoever is able to put him on by himself, let him carry him to his church." there is a contest over the body, Then all the Priests agreed to what the Abbot had proposed, and each one from first to last, having tried three times, attempted in vain to place the body on his bier: for there was none who had sufficient strength to accomplish what was desired.

[16] which allows itself to be carried only by the Abbot. The Abbot, however, seeing this miracle, prayed thus: "Most holy Father, I beseech you to allow this sacred body to be brought to the Abbey of Poppi, and do not reject me, I pray, although I am a sinner." When this prayer was completed, he alone easily placed that venerable body within his own bier. The Priests, marveling at so evident a miracle, were content: and together with the monks and the Abbot they carried it: but when they had reached the gate of Poppi, there they stopped. Meanwhile another marvel presented itself to the eyes of all: for a wolf, carrying a piglet in its mouth, came among the people who were there, amazed at the novelty of the thing, and brought it up to the bier of the sacred body and set it down there, and immediately vanished from their eyes. They then entered the Town of Poppi with the body of Blessed Torello: miracles at the bier and the sick, flocking from every side to the bier, touched it and were healed of their ailments.

[17] A certain man who had been contracted for seven years was brought to touch the bier and immediately received his health. There was a certain woman who had suffered a flux of blood for six years and could be cured by no remedy of physicians: but when she touched the garments of the body of Blessed Torello, she was immediately healed. The Abbot then had a tomb constructed, elevated from the ground, and whoever went under it was freed from their ailments: and so it stood for many years: but another Abbot transferred the aforesaid blessed body to another place: and that same Abbot who had hidden the said blessed body, having fallen ill, died in great suffering and pain.

CHAPTER III

Miracles After Death.

[18] a wolf passes by four men of Poppi untouched. Let the other miracles which he performed after death be added to these. This was the first: for four young men set out from Poppi to Lucignano, which is a town in the County of Arezzo: they went there for the purpose of reaping the harvest. While they were in a certain field, together with certain other young men from the same Town of Poppi, behold, a man-eating wolf came among them and bit all the men of Lucignano: but when it came to these four it left them untouched; indeed it sniffed and licked them all. The locals were amazed at this miracle and asked them: "Why did the terrible beast bite us rather than you?" They answered: "This happened because we have Saint Torello, who asked God on our behalf that the man-eating wolf should not be able to harm anyone from Poppi: and so it would by no means harm us, nor anyone who devoutly commended himself to him." Wherefore many, hearing this, commended themselves to Saint Torello, and were not touched by wolves thereafter.

[19] another is commanded to release the son of a woman of Poppi: This was a miracle for men; what follows was for a woman, and no less marvelous: for she, from Poppi, compelled by poverty, had gone to the plain of Arezzo to reap, and while she was there with other local women and they were reaping together in the field, a wolf came upon them; and the first one it encountered was this woman of Poppi: and after sniffing her, it left her untouched without any harm: but departing from her, it snatched a boy who belonged to the other women. The woman of Poppi said to the wolf carrying him off: "I command you on behalf of my Saint Torello to put the boy down": and the wolf, obeying her command, set him down without the slightest injury.

[20] boys commended to Blessed Torello are licked by a wolf The following narrative will not be incongruous with the preceding one. A certain young man of Poppi, having gone to San Miniato al Tedesco to reside, took his two small brothers with him. At that time a man-eating wolf was prowling around the area of San Miniato and inflicting harm on people: the young man, fearing that the wolf might harm his brothers, vowed them to Saint Torello, promising that if he should protect them from the wolf, he would celebrate his feast each year: and although he had thus vowed, he still did not trust sending them outside without a good escort. Saint Torello, seeing his little faith, appeared to him in a vision and rebuked him, saying: "O you of little faith, why do you not let your brothers go where they wish, after you have entrusted them to my care? Do you not believe I can protect them from the wolf?" The young man, awakened by this vision, gave thanks to him, and from that hour he no longer worried about them. And although the wolf often encountered them, it licked them like puppies raised from infancy. The locals were amazed at this miracle; and when the young man was asked why the wolf fawned on his brothers rather than on others, he explained the reason: wherefore all commended themselves to Blessed Torello, who rendered them unharmed by the terrible beast.

[21] What I will add to this will have something of wonder. A certain man of Siena, Sir Estagius by name, For a nobleman restored to his homeland having fallen into the disfavor of his Count, was banished and sent to Poppi: where, when he saw the miracles of Saint Torello, he devoutly commended himself to him, promising that if he should return to the peace of his Count and be able to reside in his city, he would celebrate his feast each year; and would have him painted in his chamber. When this vow was thus made, not long afterward he obtained what he had asked for. Having received the grace, he wished to fulfill the vow: and summoning a painter, he said to him: "I wish you to paint for me a certain Saint Torello of Poppi, who obtained for me the grace of returning to the favor of my Count." Then the painter said: "Do you have the history in mind?" The nobleman answered: "Not very well." "Send then," said the painter, "for it, so that I may know the appearance of his body and habit, and then I will paint." The nobleman therefore wrote a letter for the purpose of sending for his habit and figure.

[22] a painter about to paint the image of Blessed Torello, But that very night, on the day following which the letter was to be sent, Torello appeared to the painter in a vision in this manner: clothed as a little brother, in a tunic over his skin, covered with a cloak, and for a head covering he had a skullcap, such as Brothers of this kind wear; girded with a cord, barefoot; and between his arms he seemed to hold a certain wolf. His head was in this manner: his hair between curly and straight, white however with age: his forehead broad, bald, and flat with few wrinkles; his eyes between small and large, and between white and not translucent, of a sky-blue and dark color: his nose neither too thick nor too thin, his form and habit narrowing however toward his mouth: his eyebrows with few hairs, sparse and short: his teeth white, small, and close-set: his ears small and thin with some wisps: his chin small and curved toward his mouth, having at the tip a shape like a small dimple: the skin and color of his face between whiteness and redness, neither too fleshy nor too lean: his speech between thick and thin; inclining however more toward thinness than thickness: broad in the shoulders: his body five feet long, his feet the length of one man's span: his gait moderate: his gaze between dark and mild; and when standing he became lively, lovable, kind, and gracious: his hands long, his fingers thin; his arms so long that when he stood erect and extended them, he easily touched his knees with his hands.

[23] learns it in a dream. Appearing therefore in this form and habit, this little brother turned to the painter and said: "My son, would you dare to paint a Brother in this form in which you now see me?" The painter answered: "Indeed, my Lord." Again the Brother said: "So paint Saint Torello of Poppi, for I am of this form and habit." And he stopped; and having said these things, he immediately vanished. The painter, awakened by this vision, promptly went to Sir Estagius; then related what he had seen in his dreams, and completed the painting he had promised, free of charge.

[24] To these is also added the seventeenth miracle. A certain well-known man of Poppi, named Jacobus Antonius, being a soldier, companion of Lord Capitaneus Castricani in the regions of Romagna, in the year of our salvation one thousand four hundred and seventy-three, at which time a certain town was oppressed by great fevers, assistance obtained against fevers. so that almost all the inhabitants were sick, and many were dying, and when all the household of the said Lord Capitaneus had fallen ill, the said Ser Jacobus, remembering and humbly commending himself to Blessed Torello, made a vow to have a feast of five Masses celebrated in the oratory of Saint Torello, to the end that by his merits he might be preserved in health: and he was preserved: and discussing the aforesaid matters with the Notary of criminal cases, who was lying in bed sick with a severe fever: wherefore that same Notary, who was called Ser Aloysius de Pontesaevis, also made the same vow; and upon making the vow, the fever left him, and he immediately rose from bed in good health, through the intercession of Blessed Torello.

[25] attestation of the Notary. I, Stephen, son of the late Ser Francesco Stephani de Morandinis of Poppi, of the Casentine part and Florentine district, Notary by Imperial authority, have transcribed and copied the above-written exemplar from a certain copy in the hand of Ser Francesco Ser Angelis de Lapuccis of Poppi, adding or diminishing nothing that would change the meaning or alter the sense, unless there should have been an error of the pen or the carelessness of sight: in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1541, indiction 15, and in the month of February, in the time of Dom Philip of John of Florence, Abbot of the monastery of Saint Fidelis at Poppi.

COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE

by Jerome Radiolanus, Vallombrosan Monk

From the Manuscript of the Medici Library at Florence.

Torello, Solitary, at Poppi in Tuscany (Blessed).

BHL Number: 8306

[1] Blessed Torello of Poppi, whose father was named Paul, was indeed a man of most proven character. Blessed Torello, from a dissolute life When, being naturally docile, his father took care that he be not only instructed in letters, but also

instructed with good actions and the best admonitions and teachings: all of which he strove to carry out without any reluctance of spirit. But after his father died, by the company and association of wicked companions he turned his mind, inclined from virtue, to wantonness; and captivated by the love of a certain girl, he began to spend the whole day, as they say, in games, to feast his eyes, and gradually to slide toward worse things: and the Lord Jesus, who wills all men to be saved, thus snatched him from the jaws of the demon. When, as we said, he was spending an entire day in games and courting with dissolute young men, a rooster, leaping from a certain window onto his arm, crowed three times: and then flying down from him, it returned to its place.

[2] conversion to the hermit life, Torello, struck with incredible amazement, was unable to discern sufficiently in his mind what this prodigy or portent might mean. At length, to one pondering and revolving many things in his mind, with the grace of Christ Jesus illuminating him, this alone occurred: that he should look to the salvation of his soul: to embrace which wholeheartedly the rooster had divinely aroused him. Whereupon, hastening home and leaving his companions, he arranged for his property to be divided according to his judgment among the poor and his relatives: then he went to the monastery of Saint Fidelis to consult the Abbot Dominic, a most religious man, and told him everything in order: and having put aside all else, he said he desired to enter the religious life and to be with him and, as they say, to live with him. The Abbot, marveling, praised the fortitude of his spirit and instructed him to keep and observe the commandments of Almighty God. Torello then, humbly laying open his sins and offenses to him through Confession (as is the custom of Catholic Christians), and devoutly receiving from him the most sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, departed with his blessing and permission: and thereafter he led a hermit's life.

[3] miracles Through him God worked many outstanding deeds and miracles while this most blessed man lived this life, as is clearly declared in his history; and even after, we have received from trustworthy men and moreover have often seen with our own eyes; of which many I think it useful to insert one into this little work, by which anyone may perceive that the Saints, at every time and age, by the will of Jesus, work miracles. For there is a certain dreadful and cruel kind of wolves, which in the vernacular tongue we call man-eating wolves, because they devour men, of which Pliny makes mention in his Natural History: one of which, when it had cruelly attacked a certain boy near the town of Poppi, and many people from every part of the town were pursuing it with shouts, cries, and dogs to kill it, it happened to pass by the hut of Blessed Torello: roused by these shouts and the wailings of the women, especially of the mother, the most blessed man, opening the window and then going outside to free the mangled and half-dead boy from death, commanded the wolf to release him and henceforth to harm no one. At once the cruel animal, obeying the divine power, at the command of the most blessed man set down the child, wickedly and savagely mangled; and then, having laid aside its ferocity—which is more remarkable—it wished to live with the most blessed man like the gentlest lamb; accustomed to roam in the forests by day and to return again to the familiar threshold at late evening. Then another miracle: that, having offered a brief prayer to the Lord Jesus, he caused the boy to be returned safe to his mother, in the sight of all who were present.

[4] death Moreover, by the virtue of the man of God, our Lord Jesus preserved not only the province of the Casentino but also other neighboring places from such beastly bites and the ferocity of such wolves: and in this a place was given to Sacred Scripture: "No evil beast shall ascend into your borders." Isa. 35:9 He finally, in the eightieth year of his age, having most devoutly performed every act of worship and devotion to Christ Jesus, breathed his last in happiness: and no one was able to place his most sacred body from the ground onto a bier (though many religious men made the attempt) except the Abbot of Poppi: which indeed, carrying it honorably from the hut where he had lived all the way to Poppi, the religious men committed to a venerable burial on that day, with many miracles shown through him by Jesus Christ.

In the year of the Incarnation of Christ Jesus one thousand two hundred and eighty-two, the seventeenth day before the Kalends of April.

CONCERNING BLESSED HERIBERT, HERMIT, IN THE COUNTY OF NAMUR.

Heribert, Hermit, in the County of Namur (Blessed).

[1] Raysssius, Fisen, and Willotius celebrate the hermit Heribert on this day; the last writes: "In the forest of Marlagne near Namur, Saint Heribert the hermit." Heribert held to be a Saint, And the other two also honor him with the title of Saint. This day seems to have been adopted for his veneration because Saint Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, is venerated on this day: indeed among the unlearned common people the two have been considered one and the same—both the Archbishop, whose body is preserved in the monastery of Deutz near Cologne, and this hermit, whose body exists in the territory of Namur. Raysssius asserts, not by improbable conjecture, that he may have lived around the year 1210, in the time of Philip, the noble Count of Namur, as Aegidius du Monin of the Society of Jesus communicated to him by letter, who published for the second time with great diligence and care the Sanctuary of the most ancient County of Namur: and in this Sanctuary he celebrates the same Saint Heribert the hermit. The same Aegidius du Monin, or Monaeus, composed a History of the Saints of Namur, but as yet unedited, and in chapter 20 treats of Saint Heribert: from that work we give the following.

[2] In the forest of Marlagne, in the County of Namur, there is an oratory, small indeed but excellently adorned, consecrated to God in honor of the Virgin Mother of God, At Marlagne the body is in an oratory of the Blessed Mary: not far from the village commonly called Bois-le-Villers. At this place there constantly resides a religious from the monastery of Moulin of the Cistercian Order, who takes careful charge of it. In this hermitage is preserved the body of a certain Saint, named Herebertus or Heribertus, decently placed in a reliquary which is elevated behind the altar. Most eager to investigate the truth, I visited the aforesaid place, conferred with the aforementioned Religious, who is a Priest, an honest man and of somewhat advanced age; I inspected everything that was kept there in writing, read through it, and even copied out some of it. And when all these things had been thus done, I learned that he had been celebrated for the austerity of his life and the sanctity of his character: a life formerly led there in the hermitage: (whose deeds have perished through the long passage of time or the negligence of men) who led the hermit life in that solitude, and there ended his days with a blessed death, and is said to have received a place of rest in the chapel which Baldwin, Count of Namur and Emperor of Constantinople, had built in honor of the ever-blessed Virgin Mary. So states a handwritten tablet which, hanging from the wall in the aforesaid chapel, contains whatever I believe to exist anywhere concerning the life and deeds of this Saint. When Anthony Havetius, the first Bishop of Namur, visited the shrine of Saint Heribert in the forest of Marlagne, having inspected it somewhat, he said nothing more than that the Saints ought not to be disturbed, and that the people should be left in their devotion toward the same Saint. No particular Office exists for this Saint Heribert, no special commemoration is made of him: yet that the Saint was of great merit and most famous in these parts, where the frequent imposition of his name in baptism still continues, is clear testimony. Moreover, certain relics of the garments of Saint Heribert which are kept in the Cathedral church of Saint Alban at Namur, relics at Namur, namely part of the cloth of his pillow, his glove, and one shoe—whether these belong to this Heribert or to the one who was Archbishop of Cologne, or partly to one and partly to the other, I leave to the careful investigator of antiquities to determine. These things from Aegidius Monaeus. Moreover, Baldwin II, the Emperor, having returned to Belgium, the time in which he lived. obtained the County of Namur which was due to him around the year 1237. Whether Heribert lived after the oratory was built there by the said Baldwin, or whether the oratory was raised on account of his holy life and most pious death, is not clear.