Benedict

ON SAINT BENEDICT, ABBOT AND FOUNDER OF HIS ORDER, AT CASSINO IN ITALY, YEAR 543.

Preliminary Commentary.

Benedict, Abbot and Founder of his Order, at Cassino in Italy (S.)

Section I. The sacred cult of St. Benedict. The Order propagated.

[1] This twenty-first day of March is adorned by the most noble and most widely known virtue of the Great Benedict, Founder of a most religious Order and one of the greatest merit toward the Church of God: Memorial in ancient calendars, nor have we found among so many various and ancient Martyrologies one that does not recall his feast day: with the sole exception of a handwritten Martyrology of Saint Jerome which is preserved at Lucca in Etruria. The genuine Bede and the very ancient Cassinese have this: The twelfth day before the Kalends of April, of Saint Benedict the Abbot. This is likewise added at the end of our manuscript Martyrology of Saint Jerome, and in the Corbie, Augsburg, and Labbe manuscripts. In another likewise very ancient Cassinese, as well as the Aachen and Saint Maximin manuscripts, it is indicated as the Birthday of Saint Benedict the Abbot. In the Vatican manuscript of Saint Peter's it is called his Assumption; in the Hieronymian printed at Paris, his Deposition, with no mention made of any place. In the ancient manuscript of the most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden, it says: At Cassino, the passing of Saint Benedict the Abbot. But the place in some calendars reads "On the mountain" or "Castle of Cassino," "At the mountain or castle of Cassino," with the location of Cassino: and then "In Beneventum" or "the Duchy of Beneventum, on Mount Cassino," etc. Concerning the Duchy of Benevento erected by the Lombards and widely extended, one may read what we have said on the ninth of February in the Life of Saint Sabinus, Bishop of Canosa, section 10, as well as what Camillus Peregrinus discusses in his History of the Lombard Princes: to whose times those Martyrologies look back. But to the ancient Romans, Cassino was a very well-known city of the Volsci in the new Latium, on the borders of Campania Felix: with which it is now placed in the Kingdom of Naples. But let us return to the feast day. In other Martyrologies some eulogies are added. Eulogy in others: In the Frankfurt manuscript, which is preserved at Cologne among the Carmelites, he is called the Father of monks, namely as Rabanus says, who wrote the rule of monks with great discretion. Usuard has this: At the castle of Cassino, the birthday of Saint Benedict the Abbot: whose life, glorious with virtues and miracles, Blessed Pope Gregory writes. The same is read in Ado, the printed Bede, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and others. Notker adds to these: Whom the same Gregory commends as having also written the rule of monks with great discretion and eloquent speech. Wandelbert adorns his feast day with this distich:

When the twelfth shines with the faith and name of Benedict, The cenobitic glory in which the world rejoices under his leadership.

[2] But above all other Martyrologies, the more illustrious eulogy is set forth in today's Roman Martyrology in these words: especially in today's Roman: On Mount Cassino, the birthday of Saint Benedict the Abbot, who restored and wonderfully propagated the discipline of monks, nearly collapsed in the West: whose life, glorious with virtues and miracles, Blessed Pope Gregory wrote. Meanwhile, from the time when Saint Benedict was born around the year 480, or even in the preceding century, as well as in the following sixth and seventh centuries, golden ages of holy monks seemed to have shone in the Western Church, of whom however many did not embrace the rule of Saint Benedict: many ancient holy monks concerning whom we treat passim throughout this entire work. Certainly when in the year 397 Saint Martin was buried at Tours, about two thousand monks gathered from nearby places, as his disciple Severus testifies in his letter to Bessula. Cassian, around the year 440, wrote of similar monks in the West, in book 2 of the Institutes of the Cenobites, chapter 2, that he had seen almost as many types and rules in use under various rules: as monasteries and cells he had observed. Yet the rules of some illustrious Fathers were adopted in many monasteries from that time, which either the Eastern monks had observed, or men illustrious in holiness and doctrine had established in the West: such as those which, together with the rule of Saint Benedict, the former Fabius Chisius, now His Holiness Pope Alexander VII, once collected from ancient manuscripts, and Luke Holstenius published in part 2 of the Codex of Rules: in which the Rules of Saints Caesarius of Arles, Aurelian also of Arles, Ferreolus of Uzès, Columban the Abbot, Isidore of Seville, Fructuosus of Braga, Paul and Stephen the Abbots, of the monastery of Tarnat or Agaunum, and of others are prominent. Baronius, who composed the eulogy of the Roman Martyrology, in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 716, section 7, having indicated the monastery of Cassino restored by Petronax, Benedictine monasteries multiplied in the 8th century adds in section 8: Wonderful to tell, how many seedlings of monks were soon propagated from the new planting of Petronax in that place, and their swarms increased, like bees which, emerging from swelling hives, flew to various places for the multiplication of offspring. Petronax was sent to Cassino by Pope Saint Gregory II, as we said on the thirteenth of February in his Life; he was succeeded by Saints Gregory III and Zachary, both singular patrons of the monastery of Cassino and the Benedictine Order. In the times of these three Pontiffs there flourished Saint Boniface, Apostolic Legate sent by them to Germany, who imbibed the same affection toward the Benedictine Order, and sent Saint Sturm, later to be made the first Abbot of the monastery of Fulda, to Mount Cassino, so that in the monastery which Blessed Benedict established, he might learn the regular discipline and monastic life and customs, and the future pastor might become a disciple, and in his subjection learn how he ought to preside over others. So from Rodulph, Candidus, Saint Ludger, and other ancient writers in book 1 of the Antiquities of Fulda, by Brower. The same Boniface presided in the year 742 over the Council of Leptines, in whose seventh canon it is established that monks and handmaids of God in monasteries should strive to order, govern, and live in their monasteries or hospices according to the rule of Saint Benedict, and not neglect to lead their own life according to the ordinance of the aforesaid Father. As these things are read in Sirmond, volume 1 of the Councils of Gaul, page 539. But more frequent machines of insistence had to be employed, so that the own rule hitherto observed in monasteries might be removed and another written by Saint Benedict might be adopted. In this matter, under the Emperor Louis the Pious in the year 817, very many things were accomplished in a council of Abbots assembled at Aachen: as was said on the twelfth of February in the Life of Saint Benedict, Abbot of Aniane and Inden, who was then regarded as a kind of General Master of all monasteries throughout Gaul and Germany, and wrote the Concordance of other Rules with the Benedictine: from whose collection Luke Holstenius, indicated above, published the codex of Rules found by Pope Alexander VII.

[3] The Greeks also celebrate the feast of Saint Benedict the Abbot with a very solemn rite, Sacred cult of St. Benedict among the Greeks, 14 March. but especially on the fourteenth of March, on which day in the Great Menaia a eulogy from the Dialogues of Saint Gregory, translated into Greek by Pope Saint Zachary, is set forth along with other illustrious hymns and odes. The said eulogy is repeated by Maximus of Cythera, and somewhat abbreviated in the Anthologion. In the Menologion published by Henry Canisius, the following is read: On the fourteenth day, of our Holy Father Benedict, most celebrated Father of many monasteries, illustrious for his piety and the multitude of his miracles. In the Menologion written by order of the Emperor Basil the Younger and transcribed in the monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome for the use of the choir, this solemnity is noted on the twentieth day of March, and is proposed in the first place, even before Saint Thomas, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Photina the Samaritan woman, concerning whom we treated on that day. But we fear that by the carelessness of the transcriber the order was changed, and that the somewhat longer eulogy which is read there, almost excerpted from the Acts, should be placed on the twenty-first day: for marginal notes indicate that some similar errors were committed there. In the manuscript Martyrology of Saint Cyriacus, which Baronius made great use of, at the ninth of February the building of Saint Benedict the Abbot is mentioned. Concerning the Translations of the Body we shall treat below.

*or dedication?

Section II. The Acts of St. Benedict, written by various authors.

[4] The most distinguished deeds of this Saint were embraced by Saint Gregory the Pope in the entire second book of his Dialogues, Life accurately written by St. Gregory the Pope: who asserts in section 1 that he learned the few things he narrates from four of his disciples: of whom in the year 593, when fifty years had elapsed since the death of Saint Benedict, and Saint Gregory was writing the Dialogues, one still survived, Honoratus: who in section 28 testifies that what is narrated there was told to him by the Brothers: as if at least some disciple had seen the rest. He inserts in sections 26 and 27 what he had learned from the illustrious man Anthony and his disciple named Peregrinus narrating.

But he soon returns to those things which he learned from his disciples mentioned at the beginning of the book. At the end of section 38 he narrates a thing recently done, as if he had not received it from those disciples. From which formulas of words we conclude that each and every thing was most accurately examined by Saint Gregory on the scales of truth. We therefore give this Life, excerpted from the second book of the Dialogues, and collated with the manuscript Dialogues and the Life found separately in manuscript Legendaries, divided in our manner, and illuminated with marginal additions and annotations, and we convert the chapters hitherto printed into numbered sections. From this narrative of Saint Gregory, very many have composed their summaries of the deeds of Saint Benedict, various summaries of it: of which we judge it superfluous even to compile a catalogue. We have one composed very extensively in the manuscript of Utrecht of Saint Savior and of the Cathedral Church of Prague, whose author is considered to be Bernard Gui, Bishop of Lodeve of the Order of Preachers: who especially rejected the interlocution of Peter the Deacon, and the various interpretations from Sacred Scripture. But we prefer to set forth the complete and unaltered words of so great a Doctor of the Church as Saint Gregory.

[5] Baronius observes at the Roman Martyrology that very many things about Saint Benedict are found in the Life of Saint Maurus, and also in the Life of Saint Placidus: concerning whom some things are related below by Saint Gregory. and contained in the Life of St. Placidus and St. Maurus, The Life of both is believed to have been written by an eyewitness: that of Saint Maurus by Saint Faustus his companion, and that of Saint Placidus by Gordian, the latter's servant; but both were interpolated by later authors and not a little defaced. The above-mentioned Camillus Peregrinus calls the author of Saint Placidus's Life throughout Pseudo-Gordian: Baronius relates that some falsehoods are found in it at the year 529, section 10. We gave the Acts of Saint Maurus on the fifteenth of March, but these have so lost their probability among some that they even dare to consider the arrival of Saint Maurus in Gaul uncertain: and to doubt whether before the monastery of Fulda, which we said above was founded by Saint Boniface, any more ancient monastery founded under the rule of Saint Benedict is found outside Italy; as we read in the Propylæum to the Monasticon Anglicanum, and as we have learned is murmured by some French Critics at Paris from Luke d'Achery, Benedictine of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, who was preparing for the press the principal Lives of Saints of his Order: from whose pen we await an illustrious apology for Saint Maurus, Patron of his Congregation. Meanwhile the Life both of Saint Maurus and of Saint Placidus must be illuminated from these Acts of Saint Benedict. Aimoinus in a sermon on Saint Benedict published in the Floriacensian Library asserts on page 280 that after Blessed Gregory, by Faustus the writer of the Life of Saint Maurus, a miracle performed by the kind Father Benedict but omitted by that same Pontiff as that of 2 demoniacs liberated, is related in this manner: At a certain time Saint Benedict was entreated by a certain man, most noble according to the dignity of the world, that he would deign to come in person to his house, in order that he might liberate his wife and her son, whom she had recently borne, from the demon by which both were most grievously tormented, through his holy merits and prayers. And the holy man of the Lord, because he was a familiar friend on account of some pious deeds done by him, did not delay to go, and restored them to perfect health. So much from that source. Concerning Faustus, the writer of this Life, Sigebert treats in his work On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 32; to which in chapter 33 is joined Marcus the poet, a familiar of Benedict of Cassino, poems of Marcus the disciple, who abridged the Life described by Gregory in a heroic brevity, and added a few things. That poem was printed at Rome in the year 1590, with the third book of poems of Prosper Martinengus. Aimoinus in the said sermon, pages 281 and following, quotes from the verses of Marcus four chapters, which may be seen there. Paul Warnefrid, monk of Cassino, besides other eulogies, those of Paul the Deacon, also composed individual miracles of Saint Benedict in individual distichs in elegiac meter, with this beginning:

Where shall I begin your triumphs, O holy Benedict? Where shall I begin the heaps of your virtues?

We have the said verses from the Marchiennes and Anchin manuscripts, but because they can be read in the said sermon of Aimoinus, pages 284 and following, we omit them; where also miracles of the same Father composed in Archilochian Iambic meter by the same author follow, as well as poems of Abbot Smaragdus, and of Saint Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne in England: which exist elsewhere also among their works, often reprinted. of Smaragdus, of St. Aldhelm, Other writers on the deeds of Saint Benedict are indicated by Peter the Deacon, monk and librarian of Cassino, in his little work on the illustrious men of Cassino, published with notes by John Baptist Marus, Canon of Rome. There in chapter 12, Saint Bertharius, Abbot and Martyr, is said to have written verses on the life, of St. Bertharius. death, and miracles of Saint Benedict: which the above-cited Martinengus published: and in chapter 18, Desiderius, from Abbot of Cassino called Roman Pontiff and Victor III, is indicated to have published four books on the Miracles which were done by Blessed Benedict and by the monks of Cassino: Miracles written by Pope Victor III: of which we have the first three handwritten, which the above-mentioned Canon Marus also published and illuminated with notes. There moreover in chapter 34, Bruno, Bishop of Segni and Abbot of Cassino, is noted to have written a homily on the feast of Saint Benedict, printed with his other works at Venice in the year 1651. Finally in chapter 44 are suggested verses on the Life of Blessed Benedict composed by Rainaldus, Subdeacon of Cassino, hymns of Rainald, and they are hymns in the Cassinese Breviaries, printed in 1568 and 1572.

[6] There exists also the Chronicle of Cassino divided into four books, of which the first three Leo Marsicanus, Chronicle of Cassino of Leo of Ostia, from a monk of Cassino made Bishop of Ostia and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church in the year 1101, composed. It begins indeed from the conversion, Life, and death of Saint Benedict, and inserts various of his miracles. The fourth book was added by the already-mentioned Peter the Deacon, who remembers him in his book on Illustrious Men, chapter 40. and of Peter the Deacon, At the end of this, Canon Marus compiled a catalogue of works preserved by him: in which this title is found on page 105: A singular sermon on the Octave of our holy Father Benedict, where concerning the abundance of miracles, with this beginning: "Of the distinguished and most precious Confessor Benedict." The autograph is preserved at Cassino in Lombardic letters: from which we found another copy at Rome in the possession of the most illustrious and most kind man, D. Joseph Costa, who has many illustrious codices from the collection of Cardinal Lucius Sanseverino. History of the finding of the body and miracles: To this copy was prefixed this title: Sermon of Peter the Deacon of Cassino on the Octave of the most holy Father Benedict, concerning the finding of the body and miracles. This previously unedited opuscle we append to the Life composed by Saint Gregory, and in the notes we cite the passages of Leo of Ostia and Pope Victor III, in which the things narrated here are sometimes reported more fully: the same Peter the Deacon also has some things in his book on the death and life of the Just of Cassino, which we have in manuscript in our possession. We add an Appendix from the Chronicle of Cassino concerning some Miracles and other things not contained in the said sermon. Then we begin the controversy about the body translated to Gaul. Arnold Wion on the twenty-first of March published other various hymns, and the first three from the manuscript Breviary of the Veronese monastery of Saint Zeno, another extending to many pages from a manuscript codex of the Mantuan monastery, which he believes was composed by Saint Bertharius. hymns published by Wion, Then are added another by Peter Maurice, Abbot of Cluny, and two others composed by a certain German monk: which the eager reader will find there. The same suggests poems of three authors, namely Lawrence the monk and Bishop, whom Peter the Deacon mentions in chapter 6, and indicated. then Angelo Sangrino the Abbot, whose works are preserved at Cassino, and some of whose poems are said to exist in the Mantuan library and that of Saint Justina at Padua: finally some works of Saint Alphanus, monk and Bishop of Salerno, have been published in the third book of poems of the above-indicated Martinengus: which it suffices to have indicated.

Section III. The time of the life and death of St. Benedict. His illustrious family.

[7] Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 529, section 11, judges it worthwhile to weave into the Annals the origins and progress of Saint Benedict, distinguished by chronological order: which was also done separately by others who formed the Annals of the Benedictine Order. Saint Gregory the Pope in the Acts supplies a single chronological note in the visit of King Totila to Saint Benedict, to whom the Saint then predicted that he would reign for nine more years and die in the tenth. Saint Benedict met with King Totila in the year 542, The epoch of these years depends upon the beginning both of the reign of Justinian and of the Gothic War. Justinian commenced his Empire in the consulship of Mavortius, in the year of Christ 527, crowned while Justin was still living on the very Kalends of April. In the ninth year of his Empire, Christ 535, the Gothic War was begun; in the seventh year of which, Christ 541, Totila was made King of the Goths, and removed from life in the eleventh year of his reign, not yet completed, at the beginning of Christ 552. The meeting therefore of Totila with Saint Benedict, noted by Saint Gregory, falls in the year 542. This Chronology is established from Procopius on the Gothic War. Meanwhile he who wrote the Life of Saint Placidus under the name of Gordian asserts that the most blessed Father Benedict, full of virtues and holiness, happily departed to the Lord in the five hundred and forty-second year of the Incarnation of the Word. But the author of the Life of Saint Maurus under the name of Faustus relates that he died on the twelfth day before the Kalends of April and on the Saturday of the Easter Vigil: all of which Leo of Ostia transcribed in book 1 of the Benedictine Chronicle, chapter 1, died 21 March, and they seem to need to be explained in this way. First, since Easter of the Resurrection of Christ did not fall on the twenty-second of March from the year 509 until the year 604, the first Easter must be taken, with Sigebert of Gembloux in his Chronicle, at the year 509. the day before the first Easter For since, as the Apostle Paul testifies, Christ our Easter was immolated, we call the mystery of our completed Redemption the Easter of the Resurrection of Christ, but the first Easter or beginning of our Redemption we call the Sunday of the Passion of Christ, from which day the standards of the Cross and Passion of Christ come forth. or of the Sunday of the Passion, Now the day of March 21 falls on the Vigil of the Sunday which is called of the Passion in the year of Christ 543, Lunar Cycle 12, Solar Cycle 20, Dominical Letter D, when the Easter of the Resurrection of Christ was celebrated on the fifth day of April: year 543, but March 21 was counted to the year 542 by those who took the beginning of the year from Easter, which was done at that time in Gaul, when the Life of Saint Maurus was interpolated. It is added in the Life of Saint Placidus that then

Saint Benedict had presided in the governance of the Cassinese monastery for fourteen years: He came to Cassino in the year 529, therefore we establish the beginning of his habitation among the Cassinese from the year of Christ 529. Finally, because in the ancient Chronicles of Cassino he is said to have lived in all sixty-two years, we believe he was born around the year 480, or at least very shortly after. born around the year 480, Whether, having reached the age of fourteen, he withdrew from Rome to Effide, and the following year to Sublacum, we find nothing in the ancient sources by which we might confirm or refute this.

[8] Many invent many things about the lineage of Saint Benedict. Saint Gregory, informed by four of his disciples, from what stock did he spring? wrote that he sprang from a freeborn family from the province of Nursia. Adreuald, monk of Fleury, in book 1 of the Miracles of Saint Benedict, asserts that the ruins of the palace of his parents, with a small chapel situated near the walls of the city of Nursia, testify from what great dignity of parents he was born. It is proved to have stood from its foundations of such great magnitude and intricate workmanship that it would have surpassed any palaces of the most powerful Kings, and could not be repaired at small expense. Adreuald wrote these things in Gaul three hundred and thirty years after the death of Saint Benedict. But whoever reads what stupid and putrid things the same author fabricated about his Frankish Kings, although they had lived scarcely a century and a half before him, will not attribute great trust to his excessive credulity in such great antiquity. Certainly Leo of Ostia, citing only Saint Gregory, indicates that he was a native of the province of Nursia, omitting even the freeborn family which Saint Gregory had noted. The father of Saint Placidus is called by the same Gregory "Tertullus the Patrician," who in the Life of Saint Placidus is added to have drawn his lineage from the blood of the Anicii. Cassiodorus in book 10, letter 12, affirms the family to be celebrated throughout the whole world. Whether the Anician with the House of Austria? It therefore pleased later writers to assert that both Saint Benedict and the House of Austria, with the present-day Emperors and Kings of Spain, descended from this family. But with the matter better examined, after the Life of Saint Deicola, Abbot of Lure, was published by us, and collated with the Acts of Saint Odilia the Virgin, the progenitors of the House of Austria are plainly established to be others distinct from the Anician family, who dwelt in what is today Alsace and neighboring places. We do not wish to diminish the nobility of Saint Benedict, but since the testimonies of ancient authors are lacking, we prefer to avoid these genealogical questions, and to refer the reader, if he perhaps takes delight in similar inventions, to the monastic history of Peter Ricordati and the Tree of Life of Arnold Wion, who at the beginning of volume one most extensively develops this controversy, inscribed to Philip II, Anician, Probus, Olybrian, Pierleoni, Frangipane, Habsburg, Austrian, Most Catholic and Most Invincible King of Spain. We also do not wish to weary the Reader here with long narratives about other founders of Religious Orders who served under the Rule and mastery of Saint Benedict. These are mostly enrolled among the Saints and on the day on which they are venerated, the due veneration in this work of ours will not be denied them. We have also endeavored to collect from everywhere the Acts of other holy monks, to be illustrated each on their own day.

LIFE

By Saint Gregory the Great, collated with various manuscripts.

Benedict, Abbot and Founder of his Order, at Cassino in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 1102

BY SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT.

CHAPTER I.

Birth, education, the grain-sieve repaired by prayers: Life lived in the cave at Sublacum. The governance of a monastery abandoned.

[1] There was a man of venerable life, blessed by grace and by name, who from the very time of his boyhood bore the heart of an old man. Indeed surpassing his age by his character, he gave his soul to no pleasure: but while he was still on this earth, where he could still have freely enjoyed temporal things, he already despised the world, as if withered, with its flower. He sprang from a freeborn family from the province of Nursia, Born in the province of Nursia, and had been sent to Rome for a liberal education: but when he saw many there going headlong through the precipices of vice, he drew back the foot which he had placed, as it were, at the entrance of the world: lest if he should attain anything of its learning, he himself too should go entirely into the immense precipice. Having therefore despised the pursuit of letters and left the house and possessions of his father, he abandons studies begun at Rome. desiring to please God alone, he sought the habit of holy life. He withdrew therefore knowingly ignorant, and wisely unlearned. I did not learn all his deeds: but the few things I narrate, I learned from four of his disciples who reported them: namely Constantinus, a very reverend man, who succeeded him in the governance of the monastery; Valentinianus also, who presided over the Lateran monastery for many years; Simplicius, who ruled his congregation as the third after him: and also Honoratus, who still presides over the cell in which he first lived.

This man therefore, when he had already decided, having abandoned his literary studies, to seek the desert, He departs to Effide with his nurse: his nurse, who loved him most dearly, alone followed him. And when they had come to the place which is called Effide, and were staying in the church of Blessed Peter, many quite respectable men detaining them there out of charity, the aforesaid nurse asked neighboring women to lend her a grain-sieve for cleaning wheat: which, carelessly left on a table, happened to break, so that it was found split into two pieces. When his nurse, returning soon, found it so, he restores a broken grain-sieve whole by prayer, she began to weep most vehemently, because she saw the vessel which she had received on loan was broken. But Benedict, the religious and pious boy, when he saw his nurse weeping, having compassion on her grief, took away both parts of the broken grain-sieve, and gave himself to prayer with tears: and rising from prayer, he found the vessel next to him so whole that no trace of the fracture could be found in it: and soon gently consoling his nurse, he returned to her the whole grain-sieve which he had taken away broken. This thing became known to all in that place, long hung up in the church and was held in such admiration that the inhabitants of that place hung this same grain-sieve at the entrance of the church, so that all present and future might know from what great perfection the boy Benedict had begun the grace of holy life. And it was there before the eyes of all for many years, and hung above the doors of the church down to these times of the Lombards. But Benedict, preferring to suffer the evils of the world rather than to be praised, and to be wearied with labors for God rather than to be exalted by the favors of this life; secretly fleeing from his nurse, he sought the retreat of a desert place called Sublacum: He flees alone to Sublacum, which, distant about forty miles from the city of Rome, sends forth cold and clear waters: there the abundance of waters is first collected in an extended lake, and finally flows down into a stream. While he was on his way there in flight, a certain monk named Romanus found him: he asked where he was going. When he learned his desire, he both kept the secret and afforded assistance, he lives in a cave for 3 years: and gave him the habit of holy life, and ministered to him as much as he could. The man of God, arriving at that same place, enclosed himself in a very narrow cave, and for three years, except for the monk Romanus, remained unknown to all men there. This Romanus indeed lived not far away in a monastery under the Rule of Father Theodat: but he piously stole hours from the eyes of his said Father, and on certain days brought Benedict bread which he was able to steal from his own meal for him. he receives bread daily from St. Romanus the monk: Now from the cell of Romanus there was no path to that cave, because a high cliff loomed above: but from that same cliff Romanus used to let down the bread tied on a very long cord: in which rope he also inserted a small bell, so that by its sound the man of God might know when Romanus was offering him bread, which he might come out to receive. But the ancient enemy, envying the charity of one and the refreshment of the other, when he one day saw bread being lowered, hurled a stone and broke the bell: yet Romanus did not cease to minister at the suitable hours.

But when Almighty God now wished Romanus to rest from his labor, and by God's direction, food at Easter from a Priest: and to demonstrate the life of Benedict as an example to men, so that a lamp placed on a lampstand might shine, and give light to all who are in the house of God: He deigned to appear in a vision to a certain Priest living at a greater distance, who had prepared a meal for himself on the Easter festival, saying: You are preparing delicacies for yourself, and my servant in that place is tormented by hunger. He immediately rose, and on that very Easter solemnity with the food he had prepared for himself, went to the place and sought the man of God through the steep heights of mountains, through the hollows of valleys, through the depressions of the earth, and found him hiding in the cave. And when they had prayed and sat down, blessing Almighty God, after sweet conversations about life, the Priest who had come said: Rise, let us take food: for today is Easter. The man of God answered, saying: I know that it is Easter: because today I have merited to see you. For being placed far from men, he did not know that on that day it was the Easter solemnity. But the venerable Priest again insisted, saying: Truly today is the Paschal day of the Lord's Resurrection: it is by no means fitting for you to abstain: for I too have been sent for this purpose, that we may take together the gifts of Almighty God. often also by shepherds and others whom he instructs: Blessing the Lord therefore, they took food, and when the meal and conversation were finished, the Priest withdrew to his church. At that same time also, shepherds found him hiding in the cave: whom, when they saw him clothed in skins among the thickets, they believed to be some beast: but recognizing the servant of God, many of them were changed from a bestial mind to the grace of piety. His name therefore became known to all in the neighboring places: and it came to pass that from that time forward he began to be visited by many: who, while they brought him food for the body, carried away from his mouth in their hearts the nourishment of life.

[2] But on a certain day, while he was alone, the tempter appeared: a flying bird put to flight by the sign of the Cross, for a small black bird, commonly called a blackbird, began to fly around his face, and to press upon his countenance so importunately that it could have been caught by hand, if the holy man had wished to hold it: but when the sign of the Cross was made, the bird departed. Then so great a temptation of the flesh followed, as the bird departed, as the holy man had never before experienced. he is vexed by a temptation of the flesh: For he had once seen a certain woman, whom the malignant spirit brought back before the eyes of his mind: and with such fire did he kindle the soul of the servant of God in the image of her that, while the flame of love gained strength in his breast, he almost deliberated, overcome by pleasure, to abandon the desert. Then suddenly, touched by heavenly grace, he returned to himself, and seeing thick growths of nettles and briars nearby, he rolls naked among nettles and thorns, he stripped off his garment and threw himself naked into those thorny prickles and burning nettles:

and rolling about in them for a long time, he came out wounded in his whole body, and through the wounds of the skin he drew out from the body the wound of the mind, because he drew pleasure into pain. And while he burned outwardly with good penal effect, he extinguished what burned illicitly within: he thus conquered sin because he changed the fire. From that time indeed, as he himself testified afterward to his disciples, he is freed permanently: the temptation of pleasure was so tamed in him that he felt nothing of the sort in himself. After this, many began to abandon the world and hasten to his monastery: for being free from the vice of temptation, he now by true right became a master of virtues: whence also through Moses in Exodus it is commanded that the Levites from twenty-five years and above should minister, but from the fiftieth year should become guardians of the vessels. Num. 2. he receives many disciples: Peter: Indeed some understanding of the cited testimony is beginning to dawn on me: but I ask that it be explained more fully. Gregory: It is clear, Peter, that in youth the temptation of the flesh burns hot, but from the fiftieth year the heat of the body grows cold: and the sacred vessels are the minds of the faithful. Therefore while the elect are still under temptation, they must submit and serve, and be wearied with duties and labors: but when the tranquil age of the mind has arrived and the heat of temptation has departed, they are guardians of the vessels, because they become Teachers of souls. Peter: I confess, what you say pleases me: but since you have opened the closed meaning of the cited testimony, I ask that you proceed through what has been begun about the life of this just man.

[3] Gregory: When the temptation had departed therefore, the man of God, as if from tilled land cleared of thorns, bore more abundant fruit from the crop of virtues. he reluctantly accepts the care of a nearby monastery: And so his name was held famous through the renown of his outstanding way of life. Not far away, however, there was a monastery whose Father of the congregation had died: and the entire congregation came to the same venerable Benedict, and with great entreaties asked that he should preside over them. He refused for a long time: he predicted that his manner of life would not agree with theirs: but at length, overcome by their entreaties, he gave his consent. And when in that monastery he maintained the observance of the regular life, and no one was allowed, he is not tolerated by dissolute monks: as before, to turn aside from the path of holy life to right or left through unlawful acts, the Brothers he had received, raging insanely, began to accuse themselves first for having asked him to preside over them, since their crookedness was offended by the standard of his uprightness. And when they saw that under him unlawful things were not permitted, and grieved at having to abandon their customary ways, and it was hard that in their old minds they were forced to meditate on new things, and because the life of the good is always burdensome to the wicked; some attempted to plot his death, and having taken counsel, they mixed poison in wine. And when the glass vessel, in which that deadly drink was contained, he breaks with the sign of the Cross the vessel in which the poison was, was presented to the reclining Father to be blessed, according to the custom of the monastery, Benedict extended his hand and made the sign of the Cross, and the vessel, which was held at a distance, was broken by that same sign: and so it was shattered as if he had given a stone instead of the Cross to that vessel of death.

The man of God immediately understood that the cup held a drink of death, which could not bear the sign of life: and rising at once, with a placid countenance and tranquil mind, he departs: he summoned the Brothers and addressed them, saying: May Almighty God have mercy on you, Brothers: why did you wish to do these things to me? Did I not tell you beforehand that your ways and mine would by no means agree? Go, and seek a Father for yourselves according to your ways: because hereafter you can by no means have me. Then he returned to the place of his beloved solitude, and dwelt alone with himself in the eyes of the heavenly spectator. Peter: he dwells with himself. I understand somewhat less openly what it means that he dwelt with himself. Gregory: If the holy man had wished to hold under himself for a long time those who unanimously conspired against him and were far unlike his manner of life, forced against their will; perhaps he would have cut off the use of his vigor and the manner of his tranquility, and would have turned the eye of his mind from the light of contemplation; and while, wearied daily by the correction of those men, he would have cared less for his own affairs, he would perhaps have abandoned himself and yet not found them. For whenever we are drawn too far outside ourselves by an excessive motion of thought, we exist and yet we are not with ourselves: because, not seeing ourselves at all, we wander through other things. Do we say that he was with himself who went to a far country, consumed the portion he had received, attached himself to one of the citizens of that land, fed pigs, having returned to himself not like the prodigal son, and watched them eat husks while he himself was hungry? Yet when afterward he began to think about the good things he had lost, it is written of him: Having returned to himself, he said: How many hired servants in my father's house have bread in abundance? If therefore he was with himself, whence did he return to himself? I would say therefore that this venerable man dwelt with himself, because being always circumspect in his own guard, always seeing himself before the eyes of his Creator, always examining himself, he did not divert the eye of his mind outside himself. Peter: What then of what is written about the Apostle Peter, when he had been led out of prison by the Angel: Who, having returned to himself, said: Now I know truly that the Lord has sent His Angel and delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews? Acts 12 Gregory: In two ways, Peter, we are drawn outside ourselves: for either through a lapse of thought we fall below ourselves, or through the grace of contemplation we are raised above ourselves. That man therefore who fed pigs fell below himself through the wandering and uncleanness of his mind; but the one whom the Angel freed and whose mind was caught up in ecstasy was indeed outside himself but above himself. Both therefore returned to themselves, but like St. Peter led from prison by the Angel: when the one collected himself from the error of his deed to his heart, and the other returned from the height of contemplation to what he had been before in common understanding. The venerable Benedict therefore dwelt with himself in that solitude, insofar as he kept himself within the enclosures of thought: for whenever the ardor of contemplation caught him up on high, he no doubt left himself below himself. Peter: What you say pleases me, but I ask you to answer whether he should have abandoned the Brothers whom he had once received? Gregory: As I see it, Peter, he could lawfully abandon the ministry he had undertaken. the wicked must be endured with equanimity where there are some who are found to be good and are helped. For where there is absolutely no fruit from the good, the labor on the wicked sometimes becomes empty; especially if nearby there are opportunities which can bear better fruit for God. For whose sake would the holy man have stayed to guard those whom he saw all unanimously persecuting him? And it often happens in the minds of the perfect, which should not be passed over in silence: when they consider their labor to be without fruit, they move to another place for labor with fruit. Whence also that distinguished Preacher, who desired to depart and be with Christ, for whom to live is Christ and to die is gain, who not only himself desired the struggles of sufferings but also inflamed others to endure them; having suffered persecution at Damascus, sought a wall, a rope, and a basket in order to escape, and wished to be lowered secretly. Do we say that Paul feared death, By the example of St. Paul fleeing Damascus for better fruits. which he himself testifies he desires for the love of Jesus? But when he saw that less fruit was available to him in that place and great labor, he preserved himself elsewhere for labor with fruit. For the brave warrior of God did not wish to be held within enclosures; he sought the field of combat. Whence, if you listen willingly, you will quickly recognize that the same venerable Benedict did not so much abandon the unteachable as raise many from the death of the soul in other places. Peter: That it is as you teach, both clear reason and the fitting testimony brought forward declare. But I ask you to return to the order of narration about the life of so great a Father.

CHAPTER II.

Twelve monasteries built, a demon put to flight, a spring brought forth: other miracles. Departure from Sublacum to Cassino.

[4] 12 Monasteries built: Gregory: When the holy man for a long time grew in virtues and signs in that same solitude, many were gathered to the service of Almighty God by him in that same place: so that there, with the help of Almighty Jesus Christ the Lord, he built twelve monasteries, in which he assigned twelve monks to each with appointed Fathers, and retained a few with himself, whom he judged it more fitting to be further instructed in his presence. Then also the noble and religious men of the city of Rome began to flock to him, and to give their sons to be nurtured for Almighty God. Then also Eutychius gave his noble offspring Maurus, and Tertullus the Patrician gave Placidus: He receives SS. Maurus and Placidus as disciples: of whom Maurus, the younger, since he excelled in good conduct, began to be the helper of his Master; while Placidus still bore the years of a boyish nature. In one of those monasteries which he had built all around, there was a certain monk who could not stand still at prayer; but as soon as the Brothers bent down to the pursuit of prayer, he would go outside, he reproves a monk who wanders during the time of prayer: and with a wandering mind would engage in certain earthly and transitory things. And when he had been very often admonished by his Abbot, he was brought to the man of God: who likewise vehemently rebuked his folly, and upon his return to the monastery he barely kept the admonition of the man of God for two days: for on the third day he returned to his own habit, and began to wander during the time of prayer. When this was reported to the servant of God by the Father of the same monastery whom he had appointed, he said: I will come and correct him through

myself. When the man of God came to that monastery, and at the appointed hour, when the psalmody was completed, the Brothers gave themselves to prayer, he observed that the same monk who could not remain at prayer was being dragged outside by the hem of his garment by a certain little black boy. Then he said secretly to the Father of that monastery, he sees with St. Maurus that the same monk is drawn from prayer by the devil, Pompeian by name, and to Maurus the servant of God: Do you not see who it is that draws this monk outside? They replied and said: No. To whom he said: Let us pray, so that you also may see whom this monk follows. When they had prayed for two days, the monk Maurus saw it: but Pompeian, the Father of that monastery, was unable to see. On another day therefore, when the prayer was finished, he frees him from the demon by chastising him with a rod, the man of God left the oratory and found the monk standing outside, whom he struck with a rod for the blindness of his heart: and from that day he suffered no further persuasion from the little black boy, but remained immovable at the pursuit of prayer: and so the ancient enemy did not dare to dominate his thought, as if he himself had been struck by the blow.

[5] Of those monasteries which he had built in that place, three were high up on the rocks of the mountain: he consoles monks complaining about the lack of water, and it was very laborious for the Brothers always to have to descend to the lake in order to draw water: especially because from the steep side of the mountain there was a great and frightening danger for those descending. Then the Brothers, gathered from those same three monasteries, came to the servant of God Benedict, saying: It is laborious for us to descend to the lake every day for water, and therefore it is necessary that the monasteries be moved from that place. He consoled them gently and dismissed them: and on that same night with a small boy named Placidus, of whom I made mention above, he climbed the rock of that mountain, and there prayed at length: and when the prayer was completed, he placed three stones in that same spot as a marker; and returned to his monastery, with all of them unaware. When on the next day the aforesaid Brothers returned to him for the need of water, he said: Go, and in the rock and he draws forth a spring from the rock by his prayers: in which you find three stones placed one upon another, dig a little: for Almighty God is able to produce water even on the top of that mountain, and deign to remove from you the labor of so great a journey. They went, and found the rock of the mountain which Benedict had described already sweating. And when they had made a hollow place in it, it was immediately filled with water: which flowed so sufficiently that even now it flows abundantly, and is channeled from the top of that mountain all the way to the bottom.

[6] At another time also a certain Goth, poor in spirit, came for his conversion: whom the man of God Benedict most gladly received. On a certain day he ordered an iron tool to be given to him, the iron of a billhook fallen into the lake, which is called a falcastrum from its resemblance to a sickle, so that he might cut down the briars from a certain place, so that a garden might be made there. Now the place itself which the Goth had undertaken to clear lay on the very bank of the lake. When the same Goth was cutting down the density of the briars with all the force of his strength, the iron sprang from the handle and fell into the lake, where the depth of the water was so great that there was no longer any hope of recovering the tool. So when the iron was lost, the Goth trembling ran to the monk Maurus; he reported the damage he had done, and did penance for his fault: which the monk Maurus also quickly took care to report to Benedict, the servant of God. The man of the Lord Benedict, hearing these things, came to the lake: he recovers it by also casting in the handle: he took the handle from the hand of the Goth and threw it into the lake: and immediately the iron returned from the deep and entered the handle: and he promptly returned the tool to the Goth, saying: Behold, work, and do not be sad.

[7] On a certain day, while the same venerable Benedict was staying in his cell, the aforesaid boy Placidus, a monk of the holy man, went out to draw water from the lake: and incautiously lowering the vessel he held into the water, he himself also fell in after it: whom the wave immediately seized and drew him inward from the land almost the distance of an arrow's flight. Saint Placidus having fallen into the lake The man of God, placed within his cell, immediately knew this, and hastily called Maurus, saying: Brother Maurus, run, because the boy who went to draw water has fallen into the lake, and already the wave draws him far away. A wondrous thing, and unprecedented after the Apostle Peter! For having asked for and received a blessing, Maurus hastened at his Father's command to the place where the boy was being carried by the wave, thinking himself to be going over land, and ran upon the water, and seizing him by the hair, returned with rapid speed. he orders him to be pulled out by St. Maurus running over the water: As soon as he touched land, he came to himself and looking behind him, recognized that he had run upon the water: and he was amazed and trembled at the deed which he could not have presumed to do. Returning therefore to the Father, he reported what had happened. But the venerable man Benedict began to attribute this not to his own merits but to the obedience of Maurus; while Maurus on the contrary said it was done by his command alone; and that he was not conscious in that miracle which he had done without knowing. But in this mutual and friendly contest of humility the boy who had been rescued came forward as arbiter; for he said: When I was being drawn from the water, I saw the Abbot's sheepskin cloak above my head, and considered that it was he himself who was drawing me from the waters. Peter: The things you narrate are truly great and likely to be profitable to the edification of many: but as for me, the more I drink of the miracles of the good man, the more I thirst.

[8] Gregory: When those same places were burning far and wide with love of our Lord Jesus Christ, he suffers injury from Florentius the Priest, and many were leaving the secular life and taming the neck of the heart under the easy yoke of the Redeemer; as is the way of the wicked, to envy in others the good of virtue which they themselves do not desire to have; a Priest of the neighboring church, Florentius by name, grandfather of our Subdeacon Florentius, smitten by the malice of the ancient enemy, began to rival the pursuits of the holy man and to disparage his way of life, and to deter whomever he could from visiting him. And when he saw that he could not obstruct his progress, and that the reputation of his way of life was growing, and that many were being unceasingly called to the state of a better life even by the renown of his reputation; inflamed more and more by the torches of envy, he became worse: he receives from him bread infected with poison: because he desired to have the praise of his way of life but did not wish to have a praiseworthy life. Indeed, blinded by the darkness of that same envy, he was brought even to the point of sending to the servant of Almighty God bread infected with poison, as if for a blessing: which the man of God received with thanksgiving: but the plague hidden in the bread did not escape him. At the hour of his meal a raven was accustomed to come from the nearby woods and receive bread from his hand: and when it came as usual, the man of God threw before the raven the bread which the Priest had sent, and commanded it, saying: In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, take up this bread and cast it in such a place where it can be found by no man. Then the raven with open beak and spread wings began to run around the same bread and croak, he orders it to be carried by a raven to a hidden place, as if openly saying that he wished to obey and yet could not fulfill the command. The man of the Lord kept commanding it, saying again and again: Lift it, lift it safely, and cast it where it cannot be found. After lingering a long time, the raven finally seized it, lifted it, and departed: and after the space of three hours, having cast away the bread, it returned and received from the hand of the man of God the food it was accustomed to. The venerable Father, seeing the soul of the Priest burning against his life, grieved more for him than for himself. But the aforesaid Florentius, because he could not kill the body of the Master, [on account of tempting the disciples by displaying naked girls, he migrates from there:] set himself to extinguishing the souls of the disciples; so that into the garden of the cell where Benedict was, before their eyes, he sent seven naked girls, who, extending their hands to each other before them and playing for a long time, might inflame their minds to the perversity of lust. When the holy man saw this from his cell, and fearing a fall for his still tender disciples, the enemy being punished by sudden death from God, and considering that this was done for his persecution alone, he gave place to the envy: and having arranged the oratories and everything he had built under appointed Superiors with Brothers assigned, and having taken a few monks with him, he changed his place of habitation. And as soon as the man of God humbly avoided his hatred, Almighty God terribly struck that man. For when the aforesaid Priest, standing on a balcony, learned that Benedict had departed and was exulting, while the entire structure of the house remained immovable, the very balcony on which he stood fell, and crushing the enemy of Benedict, killed him. Which the disciple of the man of God, Maurus by name, he laments: immediately thought should be announced to the venerable Father Benedict, who was not yet ten miles distant from that same place, saying: Return, because the Priest who was persecuting you has been killed. When the man of God Benedict heard this, he gave himself over to heavy lamentations: both because his enemy had perished and because the disciple had exulted at the death of his enemy. For which reason he also imposed a penance on that same disciple, because by sending such a message he had presumed to rejoice at the destruction of the enemy. Peter: The things you say are wonderful and greatly astonishing: for in the water produced from the rock I see Moses; in the iron which returned from the depth of the water, Elisha; in the walking upon the water, Peter; in the obedience of the raven, Elijah; but in the mourning for the death of an enemy, the spirit of the just David; and I consider that this man was full of the spirit of all the just. Gregory: The man of the Lord Benedict, Peter, had the spirit of one God, who through the grace of the redemption granted and of God endowed: filled the hearts of all the elect, of whom John says: He was the true light, which illumines every man coming into this world: of whom again it is written: From His fullness we have all received. John 1 For the holy men of God were able to have virtues from the Lord, but not also to transmit them to others. Matt. 12 He gave those signs of power to His subjects who promised the sign of Jonah to His enemies, so that He might deign to die before the proud, and to rise before the humble: that the former might see what they would despise, and the latter what they ought to love with veneration. From this mystery it came about that, while the proud beheld the contempt of death, the humble on the contrary received from death the glory of power. Peter: I ask you, after this, make known to what

places the holy man migrated, or if he afterward showed any miracles in them, make known. Gregory: The holy man, migrating to other places, He goes to Cassino: changed his location, not his enemy: for afterward he endured all the heavier battles because he found the very master of malice fighting openly against him. For the fortress which is called Cassino is situated on the side of a high mountain (which mountain indeed, with its extended bosom, receives that same fortress, but rising three miles in height, extends its peak as if toward the sky), where there was a very ancient temple in which, according to the custom of the ancient pagans, Apollo was worshipped by the foolish rustic people. All around also, groves had grown up for the worship of demons, in which even at that time the insane multitude of the unbelievers toiled at sacrilegious sacrifices. The man of God therefore, arriving there, smashed the idol, overturned the altar, set fire to the groves, and in the very temple of Apollo he built an oratory of Blessed Martin, and where the altar of the same Apollo had been, he overturns the altar of Apollo. he built an oratory of Saint John, and by continual preaching called the multitude dwelling all around to the faith.

CHAPTER III.

The illusions of demons overcome: absent things known and future things foreknown, even in King Totila.

[9] But the ancient enemy did not bear these things silently, not by a hidden dream, He erects oratories: but by an open vision he thrust himself before the eyes of the same Father, and with great cries complained that he was suffering violence: so that the Brothers even heard his voices, He sees the Devil raging against him: although they could not see his form at all. For as the venerable Father told his disciples, the same most hideous and inflamed ancient enemy appeared to his bodily eyes, who seemed to rage against him with flaming mouth and eyes. And now all heard what he said: for at first he called him by name. And when the man of God would not answer him at all, he soon burst into insults. For when he cried out, saying: Benedict, Benedict, and saw that he was in no way answering him; he immediately added: Cursed one, cursed one, and not Benedict! What have you to do with me? Why do you persecute me? But now new combats of the ancient enemy against the servant of God are to be expected: to whom indeed he willingly brought the battle, but unwillingly furnished occasions of victory. he makes a stone made immovable by the devil movable by a blessing: On a certain day, while the Brothers were building the dwellings of that same cell, a stone lay in the middle which they decided to lift for the building. And when two or three could not move it, more were added: but it remained so immovable as if it were held by roots in the ground: so that it was clearly given to understand that the ancient enemy himself was sitting upon it, since the hands of so many men could not move it. When difficulty arose therefore, word was sent to the man of God to come and repel the enemy by prayer, so that they might lift the stone. He came at once, and making a prayer, gave a blessing: and the stone was lifted with such speed as if it had never had any weight.

[10] Then it pleased the man of God to have the earth dug in that same place: he removes other illusions of demons: and as they penetrated deeper by digging, the Brothers found a bronze idol there: which, thrown by chance into the kitchen for the time being, fire suddenly seemed to come forth, and in the eyes of all the monks, it appeared that the entire building of the kitchen was being consumed. And when the Brothers, throwing water on the fire as if to extinguish it, made a great commotion; the man of God, drawn by that tumult, came: and seeing that the same fire was in the eyes of the Brothers but not in his own, he immediately bowed his head in prayer: and calling the Brothers whom he found deceived by an illusory fire, he told them to sign their eyes, and to see the sound building of the kitchen standing there, and not to see the flames which the ancient enemy had fabricated.

[11] Again, while the Brothers were raising a wall somewhat higher, as the situation required, a boy crushed by a wall overturned by the demon, the man of God was staying within the enclosure of his cell in the pursuit of prayer: to whom the ancient enemy appeared with insults, and indicated to him that he was going to the laboring Brothers. Which the man of God most quickly reported to the Brothers through a messenger, saying: Brothers, act carefully: because the malignant spirit is coming to you at this hour. The one who brought the message had barely finished the words when the malignant spirit overturned the very wall that was being built; and crushing a certain young boy monk, the son of a certain court official, ground him with the ruin. Saddened all and greatly afflicted, not by the damage of the wall but by the crushing of the Brother, they hastily reported to the venerable Father Benedict with heavy mourning. Then the same Father Benedict ordered the mangled boy to be brought to him: he revives him alive and well: whom they were unable to carry except in a blanket, because the stones of the collapsed wall had crushed not only his limbs but even his bones. The man of God ordered him to be immediately placed in his cell on the mat, commonly called a matta, on which he was accustomed to pray: and having sent the Brothers outside, he closed the cell: and he applied himself more intently to prayer than usual. A wondrous thing! At that same hour he sent him back sound and as strong as before to the same labor, so that he too might complete the wall with the Brothers, at whose death the ancient enemy had thought to insult Benedict.

[12] Among these things the man of God began to abound also in the spirit of prophecy, to predict the future, [While absent he knows what foods and where monks had eaten and how often they had drunk:] and to announce to those present things that were absent. For it was the custom of the cell that, whenever the Brothers went out on any errand, they should by no means take food or drink outside the cell: and when this was carefully observed from the usage of the Rule, on a certain day the Brothers went out on an errand, and were compelled to tarry to a later hour: and they wished to stay with a devout woman, whose dwelling they entered and took food. And when they had returned rather late to the cell, they asked the Father's blessing as was customary. He immediately questioned them, saying: Where did you eat? They replied: Nowhere. To whom he said: Why do you lie thus? Did you not enter the dwelling of such and such a woman? Did you not receive such and such foods? Did you not drink so many cups? When the venerable Father told them the house of the woman, the kinds of food, and the number of drinks, recognizing all that they had done, they fell trembling at his feet, and confessed that they had sinned. But he immediately forgave the fault, judging that in his absence they would do no more, since they knew him to be present to them in spirit.

[13] The brother also of Valentinian, that monk of whom I made mention above, was a layman but religious: who, in order to receive the prayer of the servant of God and to see his blood brother, was accustomed each year to come to his cell from his own place, fasting. Section 1. On a certain day therefore, while he was making the journey to the monastery, another traveler joined himself to him, who carried food to be eaten on the way: and when the hour had grown late, he said: Come, brother, let us take food, lest we grow weary on the way. To whom the other replied: God forbid, brother; I will not do this: because I have always been accustomed to arrive fasting at the venerable Father Benedict. At this response, the fellow-traveler fell silent for the time: but when after this they had covered a certain distance of the journey, he again urged that they eat. He who had decided to arrive fasting would not consent: the one who had invited him to eat did indeed keep silent, and consented to go still a little further with him fasting: but when they had gone a longer way, and the later hour wearied them as they walked, they found along the way a meadow and a spring, and whatever could seem delightful for refreshing the body. Then the fellow-traveler said: Behold water, behold a meadow, behold a pleasant place, in which we can refresh ourselves and rest a little, so that we may afterward be able to complete our journey safely. When therefore both the words were pleasing to his ears and the places to his eyes, he reproaches a certain man for what he had done by eating while absent. persuaded by the third urging, he consented and ate: and at the evening hour he arrived at the cell. But when presented to the venerable Father Benedict, he asked for his prayer: but the holy man immediately reproached him for what he had done on the way, saying: What is it, Brother, that the malignant enemy, who spoke to you through your fellow-traveler, could not persuade you the first time, could not the second time, but the third time he persuaded you, and overcame you to do what he wished? Then he, recognizing the guilt of his weak mind, prostrated at his feet, began all the more to weep for and blush at his fault, because he recognized that he had sinned even while absent in the eyes of Father Benedict. Peter: I see that the spirit of Elisha dwells in the heart of this holy man, who was present to his absent disciple.

[14] Gregory: It is fitting, Peter, that you be silent for the time being, so that you may learn still greater things. For in the times of the Goths, when their King Totila heard that the holy man had the spirit of prophecy, going to his monastery, he stopped a little way off and announced to him that he was coming. And when a message was immediately sent from the monastery that he should come, as befitted his treacherous mind, he rebukes a servant sent by Totila in the guise of a King for his pretense: he attempted to test whether the man of God had the spirit of prophecy. A certain sword-bearer of his was called Riggo, to whom he gave his own footwear and had him dressed in royal garments, and he ordered him to go to the man of God in his own person: in whose attendance he sent three Counts who were accustomed to adhere to him above all others, namely Vultericus, Rudericus, and Blindinus, so that before the eyes of the servant of God, feigning that he was King Totila himself, they would walk at his side: to whom he also gave other attendants and other sword-bearers, so that both from those attendants and from the purple garments he might be thought to be the King. And when the same Riggo, adorned with garments and accompanied by a crowd of attendants, had entered the monastery, the man of God was sitting at a distance: and seeing him coming, when he could now be heard by him, he cried out, saying: Put aside, my son, put aside: what you wear is not yours. Riggo immediately fell to the ground, and was terrified that he had presumed to mock so great a man, and all who had come with him to the man of God were prostrated on the ground. Rising however, they did not presume to approach him: but returning to their King, they reported trembling with what speed they had been detected.

[15] Then Totila himself in person approached the man of God: He raises Totila prostrate on the ground, predicts his future and his death: and when he saw him sitting at a distance, he dared not approach, and threw himself to the ground. When the man of God

said to him two or three times, Rise; but he did not dare to raise himself from the ground before him, Benedict the servant of Christ Jesus deigned to approach the King himself, and raised the prostrate man from the ground, and rebuked him for his deeds: and in a few words foretold all the things that were to come upon him, saying: You do many evils, you have done many evils: now at last cease from your wickedness: indeed you are going to enter Rome, you are going to cross the sea, and reigning nine years, you will die in the tenth. Hearing these words, the King, greatly terrified, having requested a prayer, departed: and from that time forward he was less cruel. And not long after he went to Rome, proceeded to Sicily: and in the tenth year of his reign, by the judgment of Almighty God, he lost both his kingdom and his life. Moreover the Bishop of the Church of Canosa was accustomed to come to the same servant of God, whom the man of God loved greatly for the merit of his life: and when he was having a conversation with him about the entry of King Totila and the destruction of the city of Rome, He indicates that Rome will perish by storms and earthquake. he said: By this King that city will be destroyed, so that it will no longer be inhabited. To whom the man of the Lord replied: Rome will not be exterminated by the Gentiles, but worn out by storms, lightning, whirlwinds, and earthquake, it will wither in itself. The mysteries of this prophecy have already become clearer than light to us, who in this city see dissolving walls, overturned houses, destroyed churches from the storm, and we see its buildings, wearied by long decay, prostrated by ever more frequent ruins: although Honoratus, his disciple, by whose report this is known to me, declares that he never heard this from his mouth: but the one who said this testifies that it was told to him by the Brothers.

[16] At that same time also a certain Cleric of the Church of Aquino was tormented by a demon, and had been sent by the venerable man Constantius, Bishop of that Church, to many places of the Martyrs, so that he might be healed. But the holy Martyrs of God did not wish to grant him the gift of health, He frees an energumen Cleric in order to demonstrate how great was the grace in Benedict. He was therefore led to the servant of Almighty God Benedict: who, pouring forth prayers to Jesus Christ the Lord, he predicts that if he receives Holy Orders he will be possessed by a demon. immediately expelled the ancient enemy from the possessed man. He commanded the healed man, saying: Go, and henceforth eat no meat, and never presume to advance to Holy Orders: for on whatever day you presume to advance to Holy Orders, you will immediately be handed over again to the power of the devil. The Cleric therefore departed healed, and as a recent punishment is wont to terrify the mind, he kept for the time being what the man of God had commanded: but when after many years all his superiors had departed from this life, and he saw his juniors placed above him in Holy Orders, he set aside the words of the man of God as if forgotten through long time, and advanced to Holy Orders; and immediately the devil who had left him seized him, and did not cease to torment him until he shook out his soul.

[18] Peter: This man of God, as I see, he himself was one spirit with God, penetrated even the secrets of the divinity: because he perceived that this Cleric was given over to the devil for this reason, that he should not dare to advance to Holy Orders. 1 Cor. 6 Gregory: Why should he not know the secrets of the divinity, who kept the precepts of the divinity, since it is written: He who clings to the Lord is one spirit with Him? Peter: If he who clings to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord, what is it that the same distinguished preacher says again: Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Rom. 11 For it seems very incongruous to be ignorant of the mind of Him with whom one has become one. Gregory: Holy men, insofar as they are one with God, are not ignorant of the mind of the Lord: for the same Apostle also says: For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? 1 Cor. 2 So also the things of God no one has known except the Spirit of God, who, to show that he knows the things of God, added: But we have received not the spirit of this world but the Spirit which is from God. Whence he says again: What eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him, He has revealed to us through His Spirit. Ibid. Peter: If therefore those things which are of God were revealed to the same Apostle through the Spirit of God, how did he preface with the words he set forth, saying: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how incomprehensible are His judgments and how unsearchable are His ways! Rom. 11 But again, as I say these things, another question arises: for the prophet David speaks to the Lord, saying: With my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth. Psalm 118 And since it is less to know than even to declare, what does it mean that Paul asserts the judgments of God to be incomprehensible, while David testifies that he not only knew them all but also declared them on his lips? Gregory: To both of these I have already answered you above briefly, saying that holy men, with the Saints he knew the various judgments of God: insofar as they are one with the Lord, are not ignorant of the mind of the Lord: for all who devoutly follow the Lord are even by their devotion with God; and still burdened by the weight of corruptible flesh, they are not with God: and the hidden judgments of God, insofar as they are united, they know; insofar as they are separated, they do not know. For since they do not yet perfectly penetrate His secrets, they testify that His judgments are incomprehensible: but since they cling to Him with their mind, and by clinging, insofar as they receive it, they know through the utterances of Sacred Scripture or through hidden revelations, they both know and declare these things. For the judgments which God keeps silent, they do not know; those which God speaks, they know. Whence the Prophet David also, when he had said: With my lips I have declared all the judgments: immediately added, Of Your mouth: as if he were to say openly: I was able to know and declare those judgments which I knew You had spoken: for those which You Yourself do not speak, You without doubt hide from our knowledge. Therefore the prophecy and the Apostolic statement agree: namely those which are revealed by God. both the judgments of God are incomprehensible, and yet those which have been uttered from His mouth are declared by human lips: since those uttered by God can be known by men, and those hidden cannot. Peter: In the objection of my little question the reason became clear. But I ask you, if there are still more things concerning the power of this man, to add them.

CHAPTER IV.

Future things, absent things, secrets of the heart recognized. Appearance made to those absent. The contumacious punished.

[17] Gregory: A certain nobleman, Theoprobus by name, had been converted by the admonition of the same Father Benedict: He predicts the destruction of the Cassinese monastery by the Lombards. who because of the merit of his life had great confidence of familiarity with him. When on a certain day he had entered his cell, he found him weeping most bitterly: and when he waited for a long time and saw his tears not ending, and yet the man of God was not weeping in prayer as was his custom but in mourning; he inquired what was the cause of so great grief. The man of God immediately replied: This entire monastery which I have built, and all that I have prepared for the Brothers, have been given over to the Gentiles by the judgment of Almighty God: and I was barely able to obtain that the souls from this place should be granted to me. Theoprobus heard his voice then, but we see it now, who know that his monastery was recently destroyed by the Lombard people. For at nighttime, while the Brothers were resting, the Lombards recently entered there: and plundering everything, they were unable to hold even a single man there: but Almighty God fulfilled what He had promised to His faithful servant Benedict, that even if He gave their property to the Gentiles, He would guard their souls. In this matter I see that Benedict held the place of Paul, whose ship endured the loss of all things, but he himself received in consolation the lives of all who accompanied him.

[18] At a certain time also our Exhilaratus, whom you yourself know as a Conversus, had been sent by his master to bring to the man of God in the monastery two wooden vessels full of wine, which are commonly called flasks: he knew of a flask of wine stolen and hidden, and he brought one, but while going on the way he hid the other. But the man of the Lord, from whom deeds done in his absence could not be hidden, received one with thanksgiving, and warned the departing boy, saying: See, my son, that you do not drink from that flask which you have hidden: but tilt it carefully, and you will find what it contains. He left the man of God greatly confused; and returning, wishing still to test what he had heard, when he tilted the flask, a serpent immediately came out of it. Then the aforesaid boy Exhilaratus, through what he found in the wine, was terrified at the evil he had done.

[19] Not far from the monastery there was a village, in which no small multitude of people had been converted from the worship of idols to faith in God by the exhortation of Benedict: He sees from afar napkins given to a monk: there also were certain consecrated women, and Benedict the servant of God frequently took care to send his Brothers there for the exhortation of souls. But on a certain day, the monk who had been sent, after giving the exhortation, accepted napkins from the consecrated women at their request, and hid them in his bosom. As soon as he returned, the man of God began to reproach him with the most vehement bitterness, saying: How has iniquity entered into your bosom? And he was stupefied, and having forgotten what he had done, did not know why he was being corrected. The man of God said to him: Was I not present there when you received napkins from the handmaids of God and placed them in your bosom? He immediately prostrated himself at his feet, was sorry for having acted foolishly, and cast away the napkins which he had hidden in his bosom.

[20] On a certain day also, when the venerable Father was already taking the nourishment of the body at the evening hour, he sees the hidden thoughts of a monk. a monk of his, who had been the son of a certain Defensor, was holding a lamp before the table. And when the man of God was eating and the monk was standing there with the service of the lamp, he began through

the spirit of pride to revolve silently in his mind and to say in thought: Who is this man, whom I serve at table, hold the lamp for, and render service to? Who am I that I should serve him? The man of God, immediately turning to him, began to reproach him vehemently, saying: Sign your heart, Brother. What is it that you are saying? Sign your heart. And immediately calling the Brothers, he ordered the lamp to be taken from his hands: and he commanded the monk to withdraw from his service and to sit quietly there at that same hour. When he was asked by the Brothers what he had in his heart, he narrated in order how greatly he had swelled with the spirit of pride, and what words he had been saying silently in thought against the man of God. Then it was clearly evident to all that nothing could escape the venerable Benedict, in whose ears even the words of silent thought had sounded.

[21] At another time also, in that same region of Campania, a famine had settled, in a general famine, as he had predicted, and a great scarcity of food was pressing upon all: and already in the monastery of Benedict the wheat had run out, and the bread was almost entirely consumed, so that no more than five loaves could be found for the Brothers at the hour of the meal. When the venerable Father saw them distressed, he endeavored to correct their faintheartedness with a gentle rebuke, and again to lift them up with a promise, saying: Why is your spirit saddened by the scarcity of bread? Today indeed there is less, but tomorrow you will have it in abundance. he receives flour divinely brought for his own: On the following day, two hundred measures of flour were found in sacks before the doors of the cell, and it remains unknown to this day by whom Almighty God had them delivered. When the Brothers saw this, giving thanks to the Lord, they learned not to doubt about abundance even in want. Peter: Tell me, I ask you, should it not be believed that the spirit of prophecy could always have been present to this servant of God, or did the spirit of prophecy fill his mind at intervals of time? Gregory: The spirit of prophecy, Peter, does not always illumine the minds of the prophets: for just as it is written of the Holy Spirit, He breathes where He wills; John 3 so it must be known that He also inspires when He wills. Whence it is that Nathan, when asked by the King whether he could build the temple, first consented and afterward forbade it. Whence it is that Elisha, when he saw the weeping woman and did not know the cause, said to the servant who was preventing her: Let her be, because her soul is in bitterness, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. The spirit of prophecy is sometimes withdrawn from the Saints. This Almighty God arranges by the dispensation of His great mercy: because when He sometimes gives and sometimes withdraws the spirit of prophecy, He both raises the minds of those who prophesy to the heights and guards them in humility: so that receiving the spirit, they may discover what they are by God: and again, not having the spirit of prophecy, they may know what they are of themselves. Peter: Great reason proclaims that this is as you assert: but I ask you, continue with whatever else comes to mind about the venerable Father Benedict.

[30] Gregory: At another time also he had been asked by a certain faithful man to send his disciples to build a monastery on his estate near the city of Terracina. He consented to the request, and having assigned Brothers, he appointed a Father and ordered who should be second to him: and as they were going, he made a promise, saying: Go, and on such and such a day I will come and show you in what place you should build the oratory, in what place the refectory of the Brothers, in what place the guesthouse, [He promises to come on a certain day to arrange everything for building a new monastery:] and whatever else is necessary. Having received his blessing, they went immediately, and greatly expecting the appointed day, they prepared everything that seemed necessary for those who might come with so great a Father. But on the very night before the promised day dawned, the man of the Lord appeared in dreams to the same servant of God whom he had appointed as Father there, and to his Prior, and subtly designated the individual places where they should build each thing. When both arose from sleep, they related to each other what they had seen: not entirely trusting that vision however, they waited for the man of God to come, as he had promised. When the man of God had by no means come on the appointed day, he does this in a dream, they returned to him with sorrow, saying: We waited, Father, for you to come as you had promised, and to show us where we should build each thing, and you did not come. To whom he said: Why, Brothers, why do you say these things? Did I not come as I promised? When they said to him, When did you come? He replied: Did I not appear to both of you while you were sleeping, and indicates that he did it: and designate each place? Go, and just as you saw through the vision, so build the entire habitation of the monastery. Hearing these things, they were greatly amazed, and returned to the aforesaid estate, and built all the habitations just as they had learned from the revelation. Peter: I would like to be taught in what order it could happen that he should go far away, and speak a message to those sleeping, which they themselves would hear through a vision and recognize. Gregory: Why is it, Peter, that in scrutinizing the order of events, like Habakkuk to Daniel, you are in doubt? It is surely clear that the spirit is of a nobler nature than the body. And certainly, as Scripture testifies, we know that a Prophet was lifted from Judea and suddenly set down with a meal in Chaldea, and having refreshed the Prophet with that meal, immediately found himself again in Judea. If therefore Habakkuk was able to go so far in a moment bodily and carry a meal, what wonder if Father Benedict obtained the ability to go in spirit, sent to them in spirit. and to narrate necessary things to the spirits of the Brothers who were resting: so that just as the former went corporally for the food of the body, so the latter might go spiritually for the instruction of the spiritual life? Peter: The hand of your speech has wiped away (I confess) the doubt of my mind: but I would like to know what this man was like in ordinary conversation.

[23] Gregory: Scarcely his ordinary conversation itself, Peter, was empty of the weight of power: because, since his heart had suspended itself in the heights, He threatens consecrated women with excommunication for their insolent tongues, words never fell in vain from his mouth. If indeed he ever said anything not already as a decree but as a threat, his speech had such force as if he had uttered it not doubtfully and in suspense, but already as a definitive sentence. For at a great distance from his monastery, two certain consecrated women, sprung from a nobler family, lived in their own place, and a certain religious man provided service for the needs of their external life. But as the nobility of birth is wont to produce an ignoble mind in some, so that those who remember they were something more than others despise themselves less in this world; the aforesaid consecrated women had not yet perfectly restrained their tongues under the bridle of their habit, and they often provoked the same religious man who rendered service for their external necessities to anger by incautious words. When he had long endured these things, he went to the man of God and narrated how many verbal insults he was suffering. The man of God, hearing these things about them, immediately sent them a message, whom, dead, others saw leaving the Mass for that reason, saying: Correct your tongues: because if you do not amend, I excommunicate you: which sentence of excommunication he imposed not by pronouncing it but by threatening. But they, changed in nothing from their former ways, died within a few days and were buried in the church. When the solemnities of the Mass were celebrated in that same church, and the Deacon cried out according to custom, "If anyone does not communicate, let him make room," their nurse, who was accustomed to bring an offering to the Lord for them, saw them come forth from their graves and go out. And when she frequently observed this, that at the voice of the crying Deacon they went outside and could not remain within the church, she recalled to memory what the man of God had commanded them while they were still alive: for he had said he would deprive them of communion unless they corrected their ways and words. he absolves them by offering prayers: Then it was reported to the servant of God with heavy grief: who immediately gave an offering with his own hand, saying: Go, and have this offering offered to the Lord for them, and they will no longer be excommunicated. When that offering had been made for them, and the Deacon cried out according to custom that those who did not communicate should leave the church, they were no longer seen leaving the church. From which it was indubitably clear that since they did not withdraw among those deprived of communion, they had received communion from the Lord through the servant of the Lord. Peter: It is very wonderful what you say, that a venerable and most holy man, yet still living in this corruptible flesh, could have freed souls already placed in that invisible judgment. Gregory: Was he not still in the flesh, Peter, who heard: Whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven: power given by God to absolve even spirits. and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven? Matt. 16 Whose place in binding and loosing those now hold who occupy the position of holy governance with faith and morals. But that man might have such great power over the earth, the Creator of heaven and earth came from heaven to earth: and that flesh might judge even concerning spirits, He deigned to grant this to it, having been made God in flesh for men: because our weakness rose beyond itself from the place where the strength of God was weakened beneath itself. Peter: The reason of the words agrees harmoniously with the power of the signs.

[24] Gregory: On a certain day also, when a certain young boy monk of his, [the body of a monk who died visiting his parents is cast out of the grave; he retains it there by sending the Eucharist:] loving his parents more than he should, and going to their dwelling, had left the monastery without a blessing; on that same day, as soon as he reached them, he died: and when he had been buried, the next day his body was found cast out. They took care to commit it to burial again: but on the following day they again found it cast out and unburied, as before. Then running hastily to the feet of Father Benedict, they asked with great weeping that he might deign to bestow his grace on the dead man. The man of God immediately gave the communion of the Lord's Body with his own hand, saying: Go, and place this Body of the Lord upon his breast with great reverence, and so commit him to burial. When this had been done, the earth received his body and held it, and did not cast it forth again. Do you perceive, Peter, before Jesus Christ the Lord, of what merit this man was, that even the earth cast forth the body of one who did not have the grace of Benedict? Peter: I perceive it clearly, and am greatly amazed.

[25] Gregory: A certain monk of his was given to instability of mind, [he dismisses an unstable monk: terrified by the appearance of a dragon, he receives him back.] and did not wish to remain in the monastery. And when the man of God was constantly correcting him,

and frequently admonished him, but he would by no means consent to remain in the congregation, and pressed with importunate requests that he be released; one day the same venerable Father, wearied by his excess, angrily ordered him to depart. As soon as he left the monastery, he found a dragon standing against him in his path with its mouth open: and when the same dragon that had appeared wished to devour him, he began to tremble and shake and cry out with great voice, saying: Help! Help! For this dragon wishes to devour me! But the Brothers, running to him, did not see any dragon; but they led the trembling and shaking monk back to the monastery: who immediately promised that he would never depart from the monastery, and from that very hour he kept his promise: since by the prayers of the holy man he had seen the dragon standing against him which he had previously been following without seeing.

CHAPTER V.

Various miracles, including the raising of the dead.

[26] But I think this also should not be passed over in silence, which I learned from the illustrious man Anthony narrating it; He drives away the elephantine disease, who said that a servant of his father had been seized with the elephantine disease, so that already with his hair falling out, his skin was swelling, and the growing discharge could not be hidden: who was sent to the man of God by his same father, and was restored to his former health with all speed.

[27] Nor should I keep silent about what his disciple, Peregrinus by name, was accustomed to relate: that on a certain day a certain faithful man, compelled by the necessity of debt, believed that his one remedy would be he helps one pressed by debt, to go to the man of God and disclose to him the necessity of debt that was pressing him. He came therefore to the monastery, found the servant of Almighty God, and made known that he was grievously afflicted by his creditor for twelve solidi. The venerable Father replied that he by no means had twelve solidi, but consoling his need with gentle speech, he said: Go, and return after two days: because what I ought to give you is not available today. During those same two days he was occupied in prayer in his usual way: and when on the third day the one who was afflicted by the necessity of debt returned, above the chest of the monastery, which was full of wheat, thirteen solidi were suddenly found: which the man of God ordered to be brought and gave to the afflicted petitioner, telling him to return twelve and keep one for his own expenses. But let me now return to those things which I learned from his disciples, mentioned at the beginning of this book. A certain man was suffering from a very bitter rivalry of his adversary, whose hatred burst forth to such a point that he gave him poison in a drink without his knowledge. And although it was unable to take away his life, it changed the color of his skin, he heals one infected by poison: so that the mottled appearance spreading over his body seemed to imitate the manner of leprosy. But being brought to the man of God, he quickly recovered his former health: for as soon as he touched him, he drove away all the mottled appearance of his skin.

[28] At that same time also, when the scarcity of food was severely afflicting Campania, generous to the needy: the man of God had given away everything in his monastery to various needy persons, so that almost nothing remained in the cellar except a little oil in a glass vessel. Then a certain Subdeacon, Agapitus by name, came, urgently requesting that a little oil be given to him. he ordered that oil be given to the one asking: But the man of the Lord, who had determined to give away all things on earth in order to reserve all things in heaven, ordered this same small amount of oil that remained to be given to the petitioner. But the monk who kept the cellar heard the words of the one commanding but delayed to fulfill them. And when after a little while he inquired whether what he had ordered had been given, the monk replied that he had by no means given it: because if he gave it to him, absolutely nothing would remain for the Brothers. with the glass vessel unharmed, Then the man of God, angry, ordered others to throw that same glass vessel, in which a little oil seemed to remain, through the window, lest anything remain in the cell through disobedience. And it was done. preserved with a miracle, Below that same window, however, a great precipice opened, rough with masses of rocks. The glass vessel, thrown down, came upon the rocks, but remained so unharmed as if it had not been thrown at all, so that neither could it break nor could the oil be spilled: which the man of the Lord ordered to be lifted up and given intact to the petitioner as it was. Then, having gathered the Brothers, he rebuked the disobedient monk for his faithlessness and pride before all.

[29] When that rebuke was completed, he gave himself to prayer together with the same Brothers. In the place where he was praying with the Brothers, by his prayers he obtains the filling of a barrel with oil: there was an empty barrel covered over, empty of oil: and as the holy man persisted in prayer, the cover of that same barrel began to be lifted up by the oil growing within: and when it had been moved and lifted, the oil that had grown, passing over the rim of the barrel, was flooding the floor of the place where he had been praying. When Benedict, the servant of God, saw this, he immediately completed his prayer, and the oil ceased flowing on the floor. Then he admonished the distrustful and disobedient Brother more broadly, to learn to have faith and humility. The same Brother, wholesomely corrected, blushed, because

the venerable Father showed by miracles the power of Almighty God which he had communicated by admonition: nor was there any longer reason for anyone to doubt his promises, since in one and the same moment he had returned a full barrel of oil in place of a glass vessel that was nearly empty.

[30] On a certain day, as he was going to the oratory of Blessed John, which is situated on the very summit of the mountain, the ancient enemy met him in the form of a physician on a mule, carrying a horn and a tripod. When he asked him, saying: Where are you going? He replied: Behold, I am going to the Brothers to give them a potion. he drives out the demon with a slap: And so the venerable Father Benedict went on to prayer, and when it was completed, he returned in haste: but the malignant spirit found one of the elder monks drawing water; he immediately entered into him and threw him to the ground and tormented him most violently. When the man of God, returning from prayer, saw him being so cruelly tormented, he merely gave him a slap and immediately drove out the malignant spirit from him, so that it did not dare to return to him again. Peter: I would like to know whether he always obtained these great miracles by the power of prayer, or sometimes produced them by the mere nod of his will. Gregory: Those who cling to God with a devout mind, when the necessity of affairs demands, He works miracles, are accustomed to produce signs in both ways, so that they do some wondrous things sometimes by prayer, sometimes by power. John 1 For since John says: To as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become sons of God: those who are sons by power, what wonder if they are able to work signs by power? That indeed they produce miracles in both ways, Peter testifies, who raised the dead Tabitha by praying: but Ananias and Sapphira, lying, he delivered to death by rebuking. For he is not read to have prayed for their destruction, but only to have rebuked the fault which they had perpetrated. It is established therefore that they sometimes produce these things by power, both by prayers and by the power received: and sometimes by petition, since he took away life from the former by rebuking, and restored it to the latter by praying. For I now relate two deeds of the faithful servant of God Benedict, in which it may clearly appear that he could do one thing by power received from God, and another by prayer.

[31] A certain Goth named Zalla was of the Arian heresy, who in the times of their King Totila burned against the devout men of the Catholic Church with the fury of the most savage cruelty, [thus he most swiftly dissolved the straps with which a peasant had been bound by an Arian Goth] so that whatever Cleric or monk came before his face would by no means escape from his hands alive. On a certain day, inflamed by the heat of his avarice and gaping for the plunder of possessions, while he was afflicting a certain peasant with cruel torments and tearing him with various tortures; the peasant, overcome by the punishments, professed that he had entrusted his possessions to Benedict, the servant of God, so that while this was believed by the torturer, his cruelty being suspended for the moment, his life might be restored for the time being. Then the same Zalla ceased to afflict the peasant with torments, but binding his arms with strong straps, began to drive him before his horse, to have him show who this Benedict was who had received his possessions. The peasant, going before with bound arms, led him to the holy man's monastery, and found him sitting alone before the entrance of his cell, reading. To the same Zalla, following and raging, the peasant said: Behold, this is the one I spoke to you about, Father Benedict. And when he stared at him with a burning spirit and the insanity of a perverse mind, thinking himself about to act with his accustomed terror, he began to cry out with great voice, saying: Rise, rise, and return the possessions of this peasant which you received! At his voice the man of God immediately raised his eyes from his reading, and looking at him, then also turned his attention to the peasant who was held bound. And when he turned his eyes to his arms, in a wonderful manner the straps that had been bound around his arms began to dissolve themselves with such speed most swiftly dissolved: that they could not have been dissolved so quickly by any human haste. And when the one who had come bound began suddenly to stand there freed, Zalla, trembling at the force of such power, fell to the ground, and bowing the neck of his rigid cruelty at his feet, commended himself to his prayers. But the holy man did not at all rise from his reading: but calling the Brothers, he ordered him to be taken inside to receive a blessing: and having him brought back to him, he admonished him that he should cease from the madness of such great cruelty. And he, broken, departed and presumed to demand nothing more from the peasant, and restrains the ferocity of the Goth: whom the man of the Lord had freed not by touching but by looking at him. Behold, Peter, this is what I said, that those who serve Almighty God more familiarly can sometimes work wonders even by power. For he who, sitting terribly, repressed the ferocity of the Goth, and dissolved with his eyes the straps and knots of the binding which had bound the arms of the innocent man; by the very swiftness of the miracle he indicates that he had received by power what he did. Again I shall also add what and how great a miracle he was able to obtain by praying.

[32] On a certain day he had gone out with the Brothers to the work of the field: and a certain peasant, carrying the body of his dead son in his arms, burning with the grief of bereavement, came to the monastery, a dead boy and sought Father Benedict. When he was told that the same Father was staying in the field with the Brothers, he immediately threw down the body of his dead son before the gate of the monastery, and disturbed by grief, gave himself in haste to a run to find the venerable Father: and at that same hour the man of God was already returning from the work of the field with the Brothers. As soon as the bereaved peasant saw him, he began to cry: Give me back my son, give me back my son! But the man of God stopped at this voice, saying: Did I take your son from you? To whom he replied: He is dead: come, raise him to life. When the servant of God heard this, he was greatly saddened, saying: Withdraw, Brothers, withdraw: these things are not for us but for the holy Apostles. Why do you wish to impose burdens on us which we cannot bear? after a humble refusal But the man, whom excessive grief compelled, persisted in his petition, swearing that he would not leave until he raised his son. The servant of God then inquired of him, saying: Where is he? He replied: Behold, his body lies at the gate of the monastery. When the man of God arrived there with the Brothers, he bent his knee and lay upon the little body of the child, and raising himself up, stretched his palms to heaven, by his prayers he restores him to life: saying: Lord, look not upon my sins but upon the faith of this man who asks that his son be raised, and return to this little body the soul which You have taken away. Scarcely had he completed the words of prayer when, with the soul returning, the entire little body of the boy trembled, so that in the sight of all who were present it appeared that it had been shaking with a wondrous convulsion: and immediately he took his hand and gave him back to his father alive and well. It is clear, Peter, that he did not have this miracle in his power, since he asked prostrate that he might be able to perform it. Peter: It is plainly established that all things are as you assert: because you prove by deeds what you had set forth in words. But I ask you to indicate whether holy men can do all they wish, and obtain all they desire.

CHAPTER VI.

Conversation with St. Scholastica. Her soul and that of St. Germanus seen being carried to heaven. The death of St. Benedict.

[33] Gregory: Who, Peter, will there be in this life more sublime than Paul, He visits St. Scholastica when she comes to him each year in some nearby house: who asked the Lord three times about the thorn of his flesh, and yet was not able to obtain what he wished? From which it is necessary that I narrate to you about the venerable Father Benedict that there was something he wished but was not able to accomplish. For his sister, Scholastica by name, dedicated to Almighty God from the very time of her infancy, was accustomed to come to him once a year, and the man of God used to descend to her, not far outside the gate, on the property of the monastery. On a certain day she came according to custom, and her venerable brother descended to her with his disciples: and spending the whole day in the praises of God and sacred conversations, when the darkness of night was already settling in, they took food together. And while they were still sitting at the table, and the hour was growing later amid sacred conversations, the same consecrated woman, his sister, asked him, saying: I beseech you, do not desert me this night, so that we may speak until morning of the joys of heavenly life. To whom he replied: What is it that you say, sister? I can by no means remain outside the cell. There was indeed such serenity of the sky that no cloud appeared in the air: but the consecrated woman, when she heard the words of her brother refusing, [wishing to return, he is prevented by a storm obtained by the prayers of St. Scholastica:] placed her clasped hands upon the table and bowed her head upon her hands, to beseech Almighty God. When she raised her head from the table, such a force of lightning and thunder and such a flood of rain burst forth that neither the venerable Benedict nor the Brothers who were with him could move a foot beyond the threshold of the place where they were sitting. For the consecrated woman, bowing her head upon her hands, had poured a flood of tears upon the table, through which she drew the serenity of the sky into rain. Nor was the inundation a little later than the prayer: but there was such a correspondence between the prayer and the flood that she raised her head from the table already with thunder, so that it was one and the same moment to raise her head and to send down the rain. Then the man of God, seeing amid the lightning and thunder and the vast flooding of rain that he could not return to the monastery, began to complain sadly, saying: May Almighty God pardon you, sister: what is it you have done? She replied: Behold, I asked you and you would not hear me: I asked my Lord and He heard me. Now therefore, if you can, go forth and leave me, and return to the monastery. But he, unable to go outside under the roof, remained in the place unwillingly, since he would not remain of his own will: and so it happened that they spent the whole night awake, and through sacred conversations about the spiritual life they satisfied each other with mutual narration. For which reason I said that he wished something but was not able: because if we consider the mind of the venerable man, there is no doubt that he wished the same serenity to continue in which he had descended: but against what he wished, he found a miracle from a woman's breast by the power of Almighty God. Nor is it wonderful that the woman, who had long desired to see her brother, was more powerful than he at that time: for since, according to the voice of John, God is love; by a most just judgment she who loved more was able to do more. Peter: I confess, what you say pleases me greatly. 1 John 4

[34] Gregory: When the next day the same venerable woman had withdrawn to her own cell, he sees her soul in the form of a dove seeking heaven: the man of God returned to the monastery. Behold, after three days, staying in his cell, he raised his eyes to the sky and saw the soul of his same sister, having departed from her body, penetrate the secrets of heaven in the form of a dove. Rejoicing at such great glory of hers, he gave thanks to Almighty God in hymns and praises, and announced her death to the Brothers. He also immediately sent them to bring her body

Give me back my son, give me back my son. But the man of God stopped at this voice, saying: Did I take your son from you? He replied: He is dead: come, raise him to life. When the servant of God heard this, he was greatly saddened, saying: Withdraw, Brothers, withdraw: these things are not for us but for the holy Apostles. Why do you wish to impose burdens on us which we cannot bear? after a humble refusal But the man, whom excessive grief compelled, persisted in his petition, swearing that he would not leave until he raised his son. The servant of God then inquired of him, saying: Where is he? He replied: Behold, his body lies at the gate of the monastery. When the man of God arrived there with the Brothers, he bent his knee and lay upon the little body of the child, and raising himself up, stretched his palms to heaven, by his prayers he restores him to life: saying: Lord, look not upon my sins but upon the faith of this man who asks that his son be raised, and return to this little body the soul which You have taken away. Scarcely had he completed the words of prayer when, with the soul returning, the entire little body of the boy trembled so that in the sight of all who were present it appeared that it had been shaking with a wondrous convulsion: and immediately he took his hand and gave him back to his father alive and well. It is clear, Peter, that he did not have this miracle in his power, since he asked prostrate that he might be able to perform it. Peter: It is plainly established that all things are as you assert: because you prove by deeds what you had set forth in words. But I ask you to indicate whether holy men can do all they wish, and obtain all they desire.

CHAPTER VI.

Conversation with St. Scholastica. Her soul and that of St. Germanus seen being carried to heaven. The death of St. Benedict.

[33] Gregory: Who, Peter, will there be in this life more sublime than Paul, He visits St. Scholastica when she comes to him each year in some nearby house: who asked the Lord three times about the thorn of his flesh, and yet was not able to obtain what he wished? From which it is necessary that I narrate to you about the venerable Father Benedict that there was something he wished but was not able to accomplish. For his sister, Scholastica by name, dedicated to Almighty God from the very time of her infancy, was accustomed to come to him once a year, and the man of God used to descend to her, not far outside the gate, on the property of the monastery. On a certain day she came according to custom, and her venerable brother descended to her with his disciples: and spending the whole day in the praises of God and sacred conversations, when the darkness of night was already settling in, they took food together. And while they were still sitting at the table, and the hour was growing later amid sacred conversations, the same consecrated woman, his sister, asked him, saying: I beseech you, do not desert me this night, so that we may speak until morning of the joys of heavenly life. To whom he replied: What is it that you say, sister? I can by no means remain outside the cell. There was indeed such serenity of the sky that no cloud appeared in the air: but the consecrated woman, when she heard the words of her brother refusing, [wishing to return, he is prevented by a storm obtained by the prayers of St. Scholastica:] placed her clasped hands upon the table and bowed her head upon her hands, to beseech Almighty God. When she raised her head from the table, such a force of lightning and thunder and such a flood of rain burst forth that neither the venerable Benedict nor the Brothers who were with him could move a foot beyond the threshold of the place where they were sitting. For the consecrated woman, bowing her head upon her hands, had poured a flood of tears upon the table, through which she drew the serenity of the sky into rain. Nor was the inundation a little later than the prayer: but there was such a correspondence between the prayer and the flood that she raised her head from the table already with thunder, so that it was one and the same moment to raise her head and to send down the rain. Then the man of God, seeing amid the lightning and thunder and the vast flooding of rain that he could not return to the monastery, began to complain sadly, saying: May Almighty God pardon you, sister: what is it you have done? She replied: Behold, I asked you and you would not hear me: I asked my Lord and He heard me. Now therefore, if you can, go forth and leave me, and return to the monastery. But he, unable to go outside under the roof, remained in the place unwillingly, since he would not remain of his own will: and so it happened that they spent the whole night awake, and through sacred conversations about the spiritual life they satisfied each other with mutual narration. For which reason I said that he wished something but was not able: because if we consider the mind of the venerable man, there is no doubt that he wished the same serenity to continue in which he had descended: but against what he wished, he found a miracle from a woman's breast by the power of Almighty God. Nor is it wonderful that the woman, who had long desired to see her brother, was more powerful than he at that time: for since, according to the voice of John, God is love; by a most just judgment she who loved more was able to do more. Peter: I confess, what you say pleases me greatly. 1 John 4

[34] Gregory: When the next day the same venerable woman had withdrawn to her own cell, he sees her soul in the form of a dove seeking heaven: the man of God returned to the monastery. Behold, after three days, staying in his cell, he raised his eyes to the sky and saw the soul of his same sister, having departed from her body, penetrate the secrets of heaven in the form of a dove. Rejoicing at such great glory of hers, he gave thanks to Almighty God in hymns and praises, and announced her death to the Brothers. He also immediately sent them to bring her body to the monastery, and to place it in the tomb which he had prepared for himself: whereby it happened that those whose mind had always been one in the Lord, their bodies also were not separated even in burial.

[35] He receives the Deacon and Abbot Servandus with holy conversation: At another time also Servandus, Deacon and Abbot of the monastery which had once been built by the Patrician Liberius in the region of Campania, was accustomed to come to him for a visit according to custom: for he frequently visited his monastery, because the same man also flowed with the teaching of heavenly grace, so that they might pour sweet words of life into one another, and might at least by sighing taste the sweet food of the heavenly homeland, since they could not yet perfectly enjoy it. When the hour of rest now demanded it, the venerable Benedict placed himself in the upper parts of a certain tower, and the Deacon Servandus in its lower parts: in which place an open staircase connected the lower to the upper parts: before the same tower there was a rather large dwelling, in which the disciples of both were resting. While the man of God Benedict, with the Brothers still resting, was pressing forward with his vigils and had anticipated the time of the nightly prayer; standing at the window and praying to Almighty God; suddenly at the dead of night, looking out, he saw a light poured from above that had put to flight all the darkness of the night, and shining with such splendor that the light which had radiated in the darkness surpassed the day. he sees the soul of St. Germanus, Bishop of Capua, being carried to heaven. A truly wondrous thing followed in this contemplation: because, as he himself afterward narrated, the entire world also, as if gathered under a single ray of the sun, was brought before his eyes. When the venerable Father fixed the intent gaze of his eyes upon the splendor of this shining light, he saw the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, being carried to heaven in a sphere of fire by Angels. Then, wishing to have a witness of so great a miracle: he called the Deacon Servandus, repeating his name twice or three times, with great loudness. he takes Servandus as witness, And when the latter had been disturbed by the unusual cry of so great a man, he ascended, looked out, and saw only a small remaining part of the light: and to him, astonished at so great a miracle, the man of God narrated in order what had happened: and immediately in the fortress of Cassino he sent word to the religious man Theoprobus, to send someone that same night to the city of Capua, to learn and report what was happening with Bishop Germanus. And it was done: and the one who was sent found the most reverend man Bishop Germanus already dead, and inquiring carefully, he learned that his death had occurred at the same moment in which the man of the Lord knew of his ascent. Peter: A truly wondrous thing and greatly astonishing! But as to what was said, that before his eyes the entire world was brought as if gathered under a single ray of the sun, since I have never experienced this, I do not know how to conjecture by what means it can happen that the whole world should be seen by one man. Gregory: Hold firmly, Peter, raised up in God, he saw the world gathered under a ray of the sun: to what I say: for to the soul that sees the Creator, all creation is narrow. However little it may have glimpsed of the light of the Creator, everything that is created becomes small to it: because by the very light of the vision, the bosom of the inner mind is expanded, and it is so enlarged in God as to be superior to the world. Indeed the soul of the beholder becomes even above itself; and when it is caught up in the light of God, it is enlarged within itself above itself; and while it sees itself beneath itself, in its exalted state it comprehends how small is that which it could not comprehend in its humbled state. The man of God, therefore, who in the tower saw the fiery globe and also the Angels returning to heaven, could without doubt see these things only in the light of God. What wonder then if he saw the world gathered before him, who, lifted up in the light of the mind, was outside the world? But when the world is said to have been gathered before his eyes, not heaven and earth were contracted, but the mind of the beholder was enlarged: who, caught up in God, was able to see without difficulty everything that is beneath God. In that light therefore which shone before the outward eyes, there was an inner light in the mind, which, when it caught up the mind of the beholder to the higher things, showed him how narrow were all the lower things. Peter: It seems to me that I have profited by not having understood what you had said, since from my slowness your explanation grew so much. But since you have clearly poured these things into my mind, I ask you to return to the order of the narration.

[36] he writes a rule outstanding in discretion, Gregory: I would like, Peter, to narrate still many things about this venerable Father; but some things of his I purposely pass over, because I hasten to turn to the deeds of others. But this I would not have hidden from you, that the man of God, among the many miracles by which he shone in the world, also shone not a little in the word of teaching. For he wrote a Rule for monks, outstanding in discretion and eloquent in speech: whose character and life, if anyone should wish to know more subtly, he can find all the acts of his mastery in that same institution of the rule: because the holy man could by no means teach otherwise than he lived.

[37] he predicts his death: In the same year in which he was to depart from this life, to certain disciples living with him,

and to certain others living at a distance, he announced the day of his most holy death: to those present he enjoined them to cover what they had heard in silence, and to those absent he indicated what and what kind of sign would be given to them when his soul departed from the body. Six days before his departure he ordered his sepulchre to be opened: he orders the tomb to be opened: and soon being seized by fevers, he began to be wearied by a fierce burning. And as his illness grew heavier each day, on the sixth day he had himself carried by his disciples into the oratory, and there he fortified his departure with the reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord, and sustaining his feeble limbs in the hands of his disciples, he stood with his hands raised to heaven and breathed out his last spirit amid the words of prayer. On that day indeed, having received the viaticum he dies: a revelation of one and the same vision appeared to two of his Brothers, one staying in his cell, the other placed at a distance. For they saw that a road, strewn with cloths and gleaming with innumerable lamps, stretched from his cell all the way to heaven by the straight path toward the East: at which a man of venerable appearance, shining from above, standing by, asked whose was the road they were looking at. They declared they did not know. To whom he said: This is the road he is shown to have ascended to heaven: by which Benedict, beloved of the Lord, ascended to heaven. Then the death of the holy man, as the disciples who were present saw, so those who were absent recognized from the sign which had been predicted to them. He was buried in the oratory of Blessed John the Baptist, which, he is buried. having destroyed the altar of Apollo, he himself had built: and in that cave also, in which he had first dwelt, he shines with miracles even to this day, if the faith of those who ask demands it.

[38] A deranged woman returns to health. For something happened recently which I narrate. A certain woman, seized in her mind, had completely lost her senses, and was wandering day and night through mountains and valleys and woods and fields, and rested only where weariness compelled her to rest. On a certain day, while she was wandering too much in her roaming, she came to the cave of the blessed man Benedict, and entered and remained there unknowing. When morning came, she went out with such a restored mind as if no madness of the head had ever seized her: and she remained in the same health she had received for the entire time of her life. Peter: What shall we say about the fact that in the patronage of the Martyrs themselves we often perceive that they do not show such great benefits through their own bodies as through their relics; and that they work greater signs where they are by no means present in their own persons? Gregory: Where the holy Martyrs lie in their own bodies, there is no doubt, Peter, that they are able to demonstrate many signs, as they do, and show innumerable miracles to those seeking with a pure mind: but because it could be doubted by weak minds whether they are present there to hear, where it is established that they are not in their bodies; it is necessary for them to show greater signs there where weak minds may doubt their presence. Saints can hear those who invoke them everywhere. But those whose mind is fixed in God have all the greater merit of faith because they know that they do not lie there in body and yet are not absent from hearing. Whence the Truth itself, to increase the faith of the disciples, said: If I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you. For since it is established that the Paraclete Spirit always proceeds from the Father and the Son, why does the Son say He will withdraw so that He may come, who never departs from the Son? But because the disciples, seeing the Lord in the flesh, always thirsted to see Him with bodily eyes, they are rightly told: Unless I go away, the Paraclete will not come: as if it were openly said: If I do not withdraw the body, I do not show what the love of the spirit is: and unless you cease to see me carnally, you will never learn to love me spiritually. Peter: What you say pleases me.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

concerning the body of St. Benedict at Cassino

By Peter the Deacon of Cassino

From the manuscript of Cardinal Sanseverino.

Benedict, Abbot and Founder of his Order, at Cassino in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 1142

BY PETER THE DEACON OF CASSINO

CHAPTER I.

The finding illustrated by miracles; robbers of the monastery's goods punished.

[1] We celebrate today, dearest Brothers, the eighth day of the feast of the distinguished and most precious Confessor Benedict, and the finding of his most sacred body; and therefore we must rejoice and exult, so that the joy of Christ and of His Saints may be in us, and their joy may be fulfilled in us. For he worthily rejoices over the feasts of the Saints and the finding of Relics who strives to have in his mind the joy which he shows outwardly in his body. But now let us briefly run through the finding of so great a body, so that no one may be able to doubt about this any further. For from the time when Abbot Desiderius was renovating the apse of that same church, after they had dug not quite three ells deep, The body of St. Benedict is found under Abbot Desiderius: on the day of the Octave of that most holy Father, suddenly without anyone knowing, the sepulchre was found, in which the treasure of so great a Father was kept buried. Immediately there was a great earthquake, and there was such a great sweetness of fragrance that all at the same time were stunned with the greatest awe. The entire mountain also was shaking from the bottom to the top: for it was shaken by an earthquake seventeen times on that day. Above the tombs also, on the right side of the altar, they found a brick containing the name of the same Confessor. A certain demoniac from Cominium was healed there on that same day: 2 demoniacs are healed: for immediately, as soon as the sepulchre of so great a Father was found, the devil began to cry out through his mouth, saying: Benedict casts me out! Benedict casts me out! When he had frequently repeated this, through the intercession of the most holy Benedict, the same peasant was healed from the devil. There also a certain man brought from the city of Bari, who was tormented by a legion of demons, was immediately cured. The Brothers seeing this began to glorify God for so great a treasure found in their times, and also for the liberation of those men.

[2] At evening, many Brothers were appointed by the Venerable Father Desiderius to celebrate vigils all night beside the body of the most holy Benedict: at night a monk, and when all the others had gone out, George, the Sacristan of that same church, said: If it seems right to you, let us examine the sacred relics before the Lord Abbot comes. When this suggestion pleased all, approaching the place, they found above the tombs a most white linen cloth spread out, which vanished when it was touched. Lifting the stone, they found two burials, in which the relics were placed in this order. the position of the bodies of SS. Benedict and Scholastica, There was a marble chest on the right-hand part of the tombs, four feet in length and nearly two in width, in which the bones of the most holy Benedict and his sister were placed. They had been placed in this manner: their heads toward the choir, their feet toward the altar of Saint John the Baptist. Near their feet they found tombs in which Carloman and Constantinus and Simplicius rested. On the right side of the altar they found the most Blessed Father Benedict, and examines those of three others, and on the left, Blessed Scholastica. The above-mentioned George, when he saw the bodies of such great Saints, rejoiced with great joy, and immediately taking one tooth of the most holy Father, he takes a tooth. he placed it in a silver vessel and returned to his own bed: but immediately he was struck with so severe an illness that he could neither eat nor drink nor even sit at all. When the entire venerable community was exceedingly saddened by his illness, He is stricken with severe pain, at length, considering what was really the matter, they said he was suffering this for no other reason than that he had presumed to take a tooth from the sepulchre of the most holy Benedict. When the above-mentioned George, remembering, realized this, led by repentance, he placed the tooth he had taken, the tooth being returned, he is healed. together with the silver vessel, beside the holy body, and was immediately made well.

[3] On the very day on which the body of the most holy Father Benedict was found, a monk of the same monastery, Benedict surnamed de Baruccio, who had found the body of that same Father, was overcome by sleep, and he saw himself going to the church of Saint John the Baptist, and wishing to enter there, the Virgin Mother of God and the Apostles are seen approaching, two Angels standing before the doors of the basilica and asking where the monk was going. When he said he was going to the church, they replied: Do not enter there. To the one asking the reason they added: Because the Queen of the world, the Virgin Mary, has now come with the twelve Apostles to the body of the most blessed Benedict, and together with the aforesaid Apostles she praises the eternal King for the finding of his body. When the light was restored to the earth, Desiderius, summoning to himself the Cardinals of the Roman Church together with the monks of Cassino, came with them to the sepulchre: which being opened, and the bodies of the Saints having been shown, he made both those present and those to come certain and undoubting about the holy bodies. But now let the present pen turn to recording the miracles which the Divine Majesty has worked through him.

[4] At the time when the most holy Pope Leo was still a boy lying in his cradle, a toad coming out of a hole in the wall bit him on the throat: Pope Leo, still a boy, is healed from a toad's bite: when the nurse saw this, she began to weep and to beg the help of the most blessed Father Benedict. The boy, awakened and frightened, saw the most blessed Father Benedict coming to him through the window in monastic garb, who coming, visibly healed the boy: and for so great a benefit bestowed on him he chanted all seven Canonical Hours in honor of the same Father Benedict.

[5] On a certain occasion, when certain pilgrims were coming to Cassino to the body of the most holy Father Benedict for prayer, St. Peter accompanies those making pilgrimage to St. Benedict, a certain Canon met them, whom they asked, saying: Who are you? And he answering said to them: I am Peter the Apostle. And they: Where are you going? To which the Saint also replied: I am going to my brother Benedict, to celebrate with him the day of my passion. Then they said: Why do you not remain in your church? And the holy Apostle said: I am not able: for my church is pressed by various storms. For it was the day on which he ascended to heaven through the passion of the cross.

[6] Furthermore Burellus, Count of the Sangro; he who would plunder the monastery's goods is struck by lightning, when at a certain time, for the purpose of plundering the possessions of the monastery of Cassino, he had come between Saint Elias and Saint Germanus; immediately lightning coming from heaven split his lance from head to foot. Then he, terrified with fear, departed, and all the days of his life he remained devoted and faithful to the same monastery.

[7] At the same time also in Apulia, a certain herdsman guarding horses, while he was greatly burning with thirst, went to the river to drink; a demoniac is freed: into whom the devil immediately

entering, began to torment him most cruelly. He was then led to the tomb of the most holy Father Benedict, and the impure occupant departed with blood.

[8] On the very day on which the church of the most holy Father Benedict was dedicated, certain men from the city of Fondi, returning home from the aforesaid celebration, a deaf man is healed: when they were asked by the citizens what had been done at Cassino, they replied that the church of Father Benedict had been dedicated. And when all were giving praise to God for this, a certain deaf man was standing among them. When he also saw the people and asked what it was about, through the intercession of the same Father, he immediately received his hearing.

[9] At that same time, when the wine in the Cassinese monastery, which served as the supply for the entire monastery, was at the level of one and a half palms in the vessel, the Brother who was then guarding the wine-cellar went to report to Abbot Desiderius. wine is not diminished over a long time of use: But the Abbot said to this: Before we go to the court of Duke Robert, come to me, and I will give what is necessary. But the next day the monk, forgetting what Desiderius had said, did not come to him: and the Venerable Father, setting out on his journey, went to the court of Duke Robert. But He who fed the people with Manna in the desert region for forty years; He Himself for three months and a half caused the wine in the small vessel, from which all drank, to increase. But a certain boy from the servants of the monastery, ignorant of heavenly mysteries, greatly wondering that the wine had lasted so long in the vessel, went to the wine-cellar, measured the wine, and it stopped at that hour and ceased to increase further. Then going joyfully to the Master, he said: I have now measured the wine, which is as much as it was three months ago. But the monk, hearing this, beat him most severely: and the boy, fleeing before his Master, entered the cloister of the Brothers, and related in order what his Master had done to him: and the Brothers, summoning the Master, said: Why did you beat the boy so cruelly? Then the Brother said: What the most blessed Benedict has now done in the wine through his merits, he has already done many times: but this boy, going to the vessels, measured the wine, and it increased no further in the vessel.

[10] At that same time the most blessed Father Benedict, together with Saint Anastasius and Saint Pantaleon, appeared to a certain monk of Valle-regia; A Count is warned to return what he had taken; and commanded him, saying: Go to Count Berrardus of the Marsi, and tell him quickly to return promptly the land which he took from our monastery: because unless he does so, he will be extinguished from life this year. But the monk, awakening, began to ponder anxiously in his mind what he had seen: and discrediting the vision, he did not go to the Count, as he had been commanded. On another night the most holy Father Benedict again appeared, rebuking his stubbornness, and struck him in the face, and threatened him with death unless he quickly carried out his commands: warned by the command of St. Benedict, and rising, he found half of his face leprous. Immediately, trembling, he went to the Count. When asked why he wished to come there, he uncovered his face, and revealing how this had happened to him, he disclosed without delay what the most holy Benedict had commanded. But while he was reporting these things to the Count, he immediately left the palace. When he was returning to his place, some struck him on the head with sticks, others with stones. He, enraged, cursed the city together with its inhabitants, and in that same year half of the city was burned by fire. The Count however, thinking little of what the monk had said, neglecting to do it, did not wish to return the invaded land to the monastery. But on a certain day, while he was walking in health, he was suddenly struck and brought to the point of death. When hope of living was promised him by physicians, the Count replied: that he knew most certainly that he would not rise from his bed again. For while he lay pressed by illness and was afflicted with thirst, he heard a voice saying to him: If you drink water, you will soon be well. But when another wished to give him water, he is punished by death. Blessed Benedict, appearing with another monk, forbade him to give water. When the Count had said these things, according to what Father Benedict had told the monk, he departed from the world.

[11] At another time a certain one of the magnates of Capua, Pandulf by name, having gathered from everywhere horsemen who were joined to him by friendship or proximity, and having assembled no small force of his own soldiers, instigated by diabolical persuasion, attempted to attack and capture the castle of this monastery: Those setting out to plunder Cassino, who, having left the city of Capua with his followers, with the day already turning toward evening, set out on his journey to accomplish in deed the crime he had conceived in his mind: turning this over in his mind, that with the speed of the nocturnal darkness he might make the journey so quickly as to forestall the rustics rising from sleep; and thus, while all were resting and ignorant of the matter, assailing the castle with an unexpected encirclement, finding no one there prepared for resistance, he might break into the place with an easy invasion. Having left the city therefore, they advanced a little, and arrived at the place from which they had planned to continue their ride no longer by day but by night, so that their tricks might be hidden from all; where, while they tarried a little, the desired night came. The sons of darkness therefore, loving darkness more than light, and not at all fearing what the Truth cries out in the Gospel, "He who walks in the night stumbles," went out through the field of a certain estate: and began to hasten with much speed to the invasion of the aforementioned castle. John 11:10 But in the nocturnal darkness outside, the whole night they make no progress, and blinded within by the fog of their wickedness, thinking they were going by the direct path to the destined place, they did not cease to spur and bloody their horses while circling the aforesaid field throughout the entire space of the night. Moreover, by the wonderful disposition of the Creator, who repays each according to his own work, they found the end of the night in that very same place where they had had the beginning of the same night: and so, frustrated in hope, deceived in expectation, since permission to invade the property of others was not granted to them, they returned home confused and most greatly wearied.

[12] At another time also, the fishermen of the Cassinese monastery had let down nets for a catch, so that they might bring the fish that were caught for the refreshment of the Brothers. But behold, a certain Norman, proud of mind, with an insolent mouth, threatening face, and furious spirit, came upon them: and as all that barbarism is greedy for plunder and insatiably anxious to invade what belongs to others, he immediately seized one of the fishermen by force: and having violently taken from him the garment with which he was clothed, he promptly put it on himself: then entering the little boat, he began to apply force to the fisherman, about to seize the monastery's fish by force, so that without delay he should pull back the nets from the deep, so that whatever fish were found there he might carry them all away with him. Moreover, when the fisherman delayed to obey the command of the one ordering, and warned the madman not to transfer the fish assigned for the refreshment of the servants of God to his own use, thereby provoking upon himself the fury of divine anger; the Norman replied that he knew him as a fisherman, but not at all as a preacher: and that he had not come to seek fruit from his preaching but from his fishing: and that he should fish in the sea, while priests should preach in church. What more? When by no threats or commands could the Norman bring the fisherman to satisfy his will and pull the nets from the deep, he seized him, beat him violently, and threw him into the sea: and the same man, wanting to pull the nets from the deep by himself, he drowns: suddenly fell from the little boat, and, closed in by the sea, breathed his last; and the sea returned him dead to the land before the fisherman who had been thrown into the sea by him could arrive alive by swimming at the land.

[13] At another time also, thieves entering the cellar of this monastery at night, stealing meat, cheese, and bacon from there, thieves cannot move their filled sacks, filled their sacks with these goods. But having gone outside, trying to lift the sacks they had filled, they were completely unable to. Then, leaving the load and attempting flight, going around through all the enclosures of the monastery, they were utterly unable to obtain any means of getting out. When morning came, seeing themselves within the enclosures of the monastery, with frightening dread and the gnawing of a guilty conscience, turned into a stupor and almost into madness, they did not know what to do. At length, returning to themselves somehow, they concluded that the plan of escape could be having difficulty getting out, if, making their faces as cheerful as possible, they mixed themselves in with those who were going out through the gates for some task, as if innocent and conscious of no crime to themselves. When they did this, having gone through the gates, so that no suspicion might arise in the minds of those watching, they did not take to the road at a faster pace: but keeping the same moderation of walking that they saw in the others. But all that malice was in vain and held for nothing: for according to the truthful saying of Solomon, neither knowledge, nor prudence, nor counsel have power against the Lord: nor can he be covered by any wiles of human cunning whom the Lord has decreed to be revealed by the deserving merits of his own malice. Prov. 21:30 For when they were still separated from the gates of the monastery by a short distance of ground, their progress stopped and they halted. the theft discovered, Meanwhile, when the cellarer entered the cellar to provide the customary rations for the Brothers, he found the sacks piled up before the doors of the cellar: and while he was astonished at this sight, he did not first take care to see what was contained in the sacks before entering the cellar and searching through everything stored there with studious diligence. When this had been done, and he found that a great loss had been made in all the stored goods, he left the cellar, and opening the mouths of the sacks, found contained in them everything whose loss he had mourned. Greatly amazed, and now understanding what the matter was, he arranged to send certain of the monastery's servants, whom he judged capable by swiftness of foot and strength of body for doing this, down the slopes of the descending mountain to search for and capture them, if by chance they should find them. They, fulfilling their orders, when they had left the monastery and gone a little way, found them joined to them by their standing position on the very path of the mountain. But since they were known, suspecting nothing of their having committed so great a crime, passing them by, they began the journey they had started with their initial speed. betraying themselves of their own accord, But behold, the thieves, moved inwardly by what hidden force I know not, unable to conceal themselves any further, began to send out a shout of great outcry behind the backs of those running, and to reveal by open voices that they were the ones being sought by their running, and to beg with earnest prayers that they have pity on them: adding that they carried absolutely nothing with them of what they had taken from the cellar, but had left everything in sacks before the entrance to the cellar. Moreover, those who had been sent, hearing these things, immediately laid hands on them, they are captured. and having bound their hands behind their backs, endeavored to lead them back to the monastery. But as in so large a multitude it is very rare for all to be found of one mind, there were some of the Brothers who thought they should be afflicted with blows and then dismissed. But a portion

the greater part by no means acquiesced to their counsel: indeed, having freed them from their bonds, they did not allow them to go free until they had both copiously refreshed them with food and drink, and with fraternal kindness admonished them to cease from their thieving ways.

p Leo relates the same briefly in book 3, chapter 63, and Victor in almost the same words.

CHAPTER II.

Various miracles: the sick and dying aided. Lamps preserved.

[14] Antonius, a monk of this Cassinese monastery, had ruptured himself in the more private parts, A hernia cured: and had arranged to hire a physician by whom he would be cauterized in those same parts. He was however struck by the fear of death from being cut, which he had learned had happened to some from a similar operation: but if he postponed the operation, he considered the unbearable and worse than death agonies of that pain to be absolutely intolerable. Therefore, struck on both sides by fear, with his mind wavering on both sides, this plan finally occurred to him: that prostrating himself before the body of the most holy Father Benedict, he should ask for the restoration of his rupture through the heavenly intercession of his merits. When he had done this, after finishing his prayer, he collected dust from the base of the altar, tied it in a cloth, and placed it on those parts of his body, and the next day he possessed a full return of health until the very last breath of his life.

[15] The Brothers of this monastery were building a church at Gaeta in memory of the holy virgin Scholastica. A certain workman then, on the top of a cliff which rises above the sea at the head of the city, was breaking rocks from which the walls of the church would be built. iron fallen from its handle into the sea, While the workman was pressing more intently at his task, suddenly the iron with which the rocks were being broken fell from the handle, and having slipped over the great precipice which opened there, fell into the sea. He, mourning the loss, came to the place where the Brothers were giving their labor to building the walls, to inform them of what he had suffered. When they heard this, the Brothers decided to have another hammer made for the completion of the work begun. And already someone was about to be sent to the blacksmith to produce it more quickly, when one of them was divinely inspired to say that this should by no means be done, but rather they should go with a believing mind to the place where the iron had fallen; that the handle should be thrown into the water; and that the miracle which was performed through Father Benedict with the axe of the Goth should be expected with undoubting faith to happen also with the hammer through the same Father. In the Life, section 5. The Lord brought it about that what he had said displeased none of the others. it adheres of its own accord to the handle: Going down to the sea therefore, they entered a little boat, and circling around the bay, they arrived at the place where the iron of the hammer had sprung from the handle: in which place the depth of the water was so great that they clearly saw it was completely impossible for the iron that had fallen to be recovered there by any human art. What more? The handle is thrown into the sea, and the metal, perceiving the heavenly command, drawn from the depths of the waters, adhered to the handle at that same hour.

[16] A monk in this monastery was called Angel, the soul of a dying monk is carried to heaven: whose life indeed did not seem unlike his name: who, when he had closed his last day, overtaken by illness, a certain man possessed by a demon happened to have entered the kitchen: who suddenly began to make a great noise with shouts, and leaping furiously from the ground, to raise himself in the air; complaining with great cries that Benedict was doing him violence: O what, he said, have you done to me at this hour, Benedict? Taking from me the soul of Angel to be carried on account of his small cowl, you have mixed it into your flock in the heavens. And when all who were present were amazed at these words and did not know what he was saying this about, suddenly the bell by which the death of Brothers is customarily announced rang out: and hearing it, all the Brothers went as usual to the infirmary, and found the aforementioned Angel already dead. From the words of the demon complaining so monstrous and so mournfully, and especially from the innocently and religiously spent life of the monk, it was clearly evident to all that from the soul of the aforesaid Brother, all condemnation by the adverse party was repelled by the intercession of the most holy Father Benedict.

[17] In the diocese of the Bishopric of Chieti, at the foot of the mountain called Maiella, is situated a monastery which is called Saint Liberator, subject to this monastery of Cassino, monks forewarned by St. Benedict escape the collapse of the dormitory, in which a not small multitude of Brothers served in the strictness of monastic discipline: in whose old dormitory, as they were resting one night, the most holy Father Benedict, clothed in monastic garb, appeared to one of them, and commanded him to rise most quickly. At this command the Brother immediately awoke and rose: and Father Benedict said to him: Shout with all your might, and send forth great cries of voice, and urge the Brothers by the insistence of your voice to hasten their rising and departure from the cell; knowing beyond doubt that the cell in which you are resting will fall most quickly and with all speed. The Brother was terrified at what he heard, and unhesitatingly believed the words: he obeyed the one commanding, he shouted, he cried out, and did not cease urging all, if they wished to escape the impending fall and death, to go out: and lest anyone should wish to resist his urging, he revealed what he had seen and what had been commanded to him. As in mortal danger faith is wont to be given more quickly, all believed, they rose immediately, and went out with marvelous speed of running. All had gone out, and the nocturnal office had already been begun by them: when behold the crash of the falling cell struck the ears of those chanting the psalms. And when, after the collapse, they entered and carefully searched lest the falling building had perhaps crushed anyone remaining in the cell, they found one of the Brothers who, burdened with old age, had not been able to hasten his departure, enclosed in the ruins of the cell. under which an old man is preserved unharmed. But when they saw him not only not crushed but not even slightly touched, they were amazed and asked what could have been the cause of such great protection. And he said: When the house, crumbling to its foundations, was falling upon me, suddenly a Monk of incredible brightness stood beside me, and sustaining with his arm the ruin threatening to crush me, he preserved me unharmed, as you yourselves see.

[18] A certain Brother in the same place was called John, who, pressed by age and illness, a dying man is called to heaven: was not far distant from death: to whom, when on a certain day some of the Brothers had come to celebrate Matins as usual, the old man checked them, saying: It is not necessary, he said, that the Brothers labor further for me in performing these duties of divine praises: for the Lord Abbot, with a not small multitude of Brothers, all clothed in white garments, has just now deigned to visit me, and in my ears with them he has performed the duty of the morning office; and he has promised to return with those same persons after a little while, and to take me to the home which they themselves inhabit. While the Brothers, astonished at these things, were gazing at the face of the speaker, and anxiously waiting to see whether what he had reported was true, scarcely one hour having elapsed in the meantime, the Brother breathed his last with an incredible cheerfulness of countenance: so that from the very joy which the dying man displayed on his face, all who were standing by easily judged that the Lord Abbot, that is, the most holy Father Benedict, had come to fulfill his own promise.

[19] When one day one of the Sacristans had raised a lit lamp before the body of Blessed Benedict almost to the very ceiling, a lamp falls without damage: suddenly the lamp slipped and fell on the floor: the Lord, wonderful in his deeds! not only was the lamp that had fallen not broken, but neither was the oil spilled nor the fire extinguished.

[20] At another time George the Sacristan had come to fill a lamp hanging before the image of the Savior, another lamp hangs in the air: which was painted above the doors of the church: and behold, he saw it hanging in the air with its hooks extended, with absolutely no material except the air itself supporting it. George, having called the Brothers who were not far away, showed them what he marveled at: and they themselves afterward were equally witnesses of this miracle with him.

[21] On the night which preceded the festive day of the passing of our holy Father Benedict, when one of the guardians was filling a lamp hanging before the image of the same Father Benedict at the vigils, a lamp falls three times without spilling oil. the lamp suddenly slipped and fell to the floor, and remained unharmed: which being raised again, fell again: and raised a third time, it fell a third time, and in none of those falls did the lamp suffer any damage either of breakage, or of oil being spilled, or of fire being extinguished. Moreover, on very many other occasions signs of this kind of preservation have been demonstrated in the lamps of the Cassinese church.

[22] Normans hired for defense, How the Lord, through the intervening merits of the most holy Father Benedict, often rescued this place from persecutors, must be revealed. When in the time of Abbot Atenulf the insatiable greed of the Gastald of Aquino was fiercely infesting the estates of the Cassinese monastery, and neither by the prayers of the servants of God nor by the reverence for the most holy Father Benedict, who had been the first Founder of this monastery, was his spirit softened to apply even the slightest moderation to his infestation; the Abbot, compelled by necessity, took unto himself some of the most robust Normans, who would be protectors of our goods against the aforementioned Count in mutual combats. While Atenulf lived and during his immediate successor, the Normans kept the integrity of their faith, and proved to be the most faithful and most valiant protectors of all our goods against all.

defenders. When the aforementioned Abbots had entered upon the way of all flesh, and the fortune of our Princes, who had brought these same Normans here, had begun little by little to diminish, the Normans who had been summoned for our defense began gradually to plunder our goods, and their fury, creeping daily like a cancer to our ruin, carried off now this, now that. They had pillaged, seized, and taken away everything; only the city situated at the foot of this mountain, with four or five country estates, remained for our use. With what spirit the most holy Father Benedict, then usurpers as well, guardian and perpetual defender of this place, bore so great a vexation of his people, he deigned to show by appearing in a vision to one of our peasants. The Father Benedict, then, presenting himself to the sleeping peasant, as Saint Benedict foretold, commanded him to go out and follow in his footsteps. Obeying the command, the man went out and accompanied the holy Father's steps. And behold, he beheld him striking all the Normans, inhabitants of these territories, with hard blows from a rod that he appeared to carry in his hand, and utterly driving them out from the territories of this monastery, empty of possessions, laden with beatings and disgrace. Now in that very year in which this vision occurred, when the Normans had seized the fortress called Saint Andrew's, they are repelled, and now confident and secure that they would never be expelled from these borders, one day they gathered together in a body and entered this city of ours called Saint Germanus, which, as I said, alone remained to us, intending to appropriate it for their own uses, as they had done with everything else. Then the holy Father wielded the rod he had shown the peasant, and what he had demonstrated through an image in dreams, he fulfilled in very truth. For such spirit, such vigor, such strength was given to our citizens — those who were thought by the Normans to be effeminate — that they captured some of them and slaughtered many by the edge of the sword. The rest, put to flight, took refuge with the swiftest speed in the fortification of the aforesaid fortress. And they are forced to abandon their own fortification: But not even then did Benedict's rod spare them. All the inhabitants of this land, emboldened and forming an army, hastened to besiege the aforesaid fortress. I am about to tell marvelous things, yet most true. When the siege was made and missiles were fiercely hurled from both sides, the javelins of the Normans, as if driven back by a blast of wind, returned upon themselves and wounded the throwers. Why say more? Seeing that it was hard for them to kick against the goad, and that the divine right hand was fighting on our behalf, the Normans surrendered the fortress and committed themselves to the hands of the Abbot and monks. Barely defended by them from the multitude that breathed slaughter against them, they hastened with all possible speed to their companions dwelling in the town of Aversa. And to this day some inhabitants of that fortress survive who assert that in that fierce conflict of both sides they saw a certain monk fighting manfully against the Normans and most earnestly encouraging his own people, though none of the monks then present had involved himself in that battle.

[23] Radelchis, Count of Compsa, was a most wicked man, filled with the stain of every vice, the penitent is received who, having left the world, came with his neck bound in a chain to the body of the most blessed Benedict in devotion. The devil, envying his exceedingly austere and therefore fruitful penance, and grieving at the same time, very often cried out with a loud voice near the cloister of the monastery, with many hearing, saying: Woe is me, woe is me, Benedict! Why do you so wickedly prejudge against me? Why do you so relentlessly persecute me? Was it not enough for you while the devil raged that you expelled me from here? And now you do not cease to claim the unfaithful from every quarter for yourself? Woe is me! Woe is me!

g Victor adds.

He is believed to have been Blessed Benedict himself, who had previously with paternal love rescued the Lord's flock serving under his teaching by his admonition and protection, and defended with the hand of his solicitude an old man unable to flee.

p The city of Compsa Compsa, now Conza, in Hirpinia, now the Principato Ulteriore, on the river Aufidus, now the Ofanto, an archiepiscopal city. His penance is described by Leo, book 1, chapter 22.

CHAPTER III.

Other miracles. Evildoers punished. The dying aided.

[24] When Emperor Henry, during the time of his Duchy, was making a journey Emperor Henry and had been lodged in a certain monastery dedicated to the name of Father Benedict, since the stables alone did not suffice for his great number of horses, his grooms boldly and obstinately dared to stable horses in the very Chapter House of the brethren, punished with colic which was next to the church. That same night Father Benedict appeared to that Duke with an exceedingly stern and terrible countenance, and threatening him greatly because his servants were treating his house in such a manner, struck his side with a rod that he carried in his hand, and from then on he began to be tormented most violently with colic. Healed at the body of the Saint: Afterward, coming to Cassino to the body of the same Father, he was healed by that most holy Father.

[25] A certain demoniac from the city of Bari, Andrew by name, came one day to Cassino, and, a demoniac is freed: as is the custom, was laid by the relatives who had brought him before the body of the most blessed Father Benedict. While the brethren were chanting psalms in the choir, that wicked spirit uttered through the mouth of that wretched man certain foolish and horrible cries. Adam the Sacristan, standing to one side and praying, suddenly saw the most holy Father Benedict before his own altar, who, striking the cheek of the afflicted man with a considerable blow, immediately expelled the evil spirit from him. And so that man, healed, returned home with his kinsmen, giving thanks to God and Father Benedict.

[26] Meanwhile, when the Gastaldi of Aquino were harassing the monastery of Cassino in their customary manner, the people of Aquino and the venerable Abbot Richerius was strenuously defending the possessions of the monastery, he was at length captured by the same Gastaldi and confined in a prison cell at Aquino. All the brethren who could travel on foot, after the Abbot was captured and violence done to Cassino, hastening together to Aquino, tearfully petitioned that their Abbot be restored to them. But their prayers were poured out in vain, and with no opportunity granted to see or speak with him, they returned home without result. The Abbot, however, released from his chains and abandoning the care of the monastery, departed across the mountains. But the merciful Creator of the world, not suffering his beloved Benedict to be grieved even in the slightest, sent a most grievous plague upon the city of Aquino, and when Sinconolfus, the Gastald of that city by name, they are punished by plague, who had been the author of so great a crime, was killed, two thousand five hundred died in that same plague. Therefore the brothers of the aforesaid Gastald, Adenulfus and Lando, seeing that they were being struck by God on account of the injury to the Abbot of Cassino, hastened at once to the monastery of Cassino with the people of that city, their necks bound with ropes, weeping and wailing, and confessing with loud voices that they had grievously offended against so great a man and wickedly despised so venerable a place. And in this way the Abbot returned to the monastery.

[27] Moreover, Count Rodulfus of the Normans, summoning his companions to him, the Normans are chastised by various deaths: resolved to plunder the land of the most blessed Father Benedict. When this had been firmly decreed among them, on the very day on which he had prepared to carry it out, by the terrible judgment of God he was found dead in the morning, struck by sudden death. At this, so great a terror seized the remaining Normans that they resolved no longer to come into this land for the sake of either invasion or plunder. Indeed, as a manifest vindication of this place, one hundred and fifty Norman soldiers of that same Count were consumed in various places by various deaths within nearly two years.

[28] Furthermore, in the time of Abbot Desiderius, when the monastery of Cassino was very frequently struck by lightning, Cassino struck by lightning through the devil: and the aforesaid Abbot often pondered and prayed to God and the most holy Father Benedict to deign to reveal to him what it could mean that this scourge so frequently struck this place, one night the most holy Father Benedict appeared to him and, among other things, when he anxiously inquired about this, taught him that it was nothing other than the snares of the devil and his ancient envy against that place.

[29] A monk at night by the devil A certain brother in the monastery of Cassino was called Maius, and how he was killed by the devil, and how he was rescued by the most holy Father Benedict, the present testimony declares. While he was staying in the infirmary, worn out by old age, on Christmas Day he was going to the privy on account of the weakness of his body. And as he was heading toward the quarters of the elderly, the devil, assuming a human form and appearing to that brother, said to him: I know where you are going; but since, worn out by decrepit old age, you cannot make your way there through the darkness of night without help, I will be the guide of your journey. Cast down and killed, When the aforesaid brother heard these things, thinking him a man and not the devil, and suspecting no deceit in his words, he began to follow him. When he had reached the great window that is in the middle of the palace, the ancient enemy of the human race, throwing the old man down from there, killed him. The brethren, not knowing what had happened to him, when

they searched for him everywhere and did not find him, a certain monk named John, brother of Leo Bishop of Ostia, approaching that same window from a distance and looking down, saw him lying dead at the foot of the wall. Calling the brethren to him, he related in order what he had seen. When the brethren heard this, they immediately sent to the place where the dead man lay, and carrying him into the monastery, buried him with great sorrow. On the following day, Oderisius, the most reverend Father of that place, calling the brethren to him, admonished them to importune with prayers the Father Benedict, opener of eternal justice, that he who had once revealed profound mysteries to Daniel might deign to reveal to them how and in what manner the aforesaid brother had departed from this world. Therefore, while the brethren, in accordance with the command of so great a Father, besought God and Father Benedict for the resolution of this matter, the same old man appeared in a vision to Placidus, a devout monk of this monastery, and said to him: Why, Brother Placidus, are you sad? To whom Placidus replied: Not only I, but the Lord Abbot together with the rest of the brethren are greatly saddened by your death, and they do not cease to pray to God for you. Appearing to those mourning his death, he reveals it, Wherefore, by our Lord Jesus Christ I adjure you to relate in order how this happened to you. To this he replied: When I was making my way to my bed, the devil, assuming a human form, appeared to me and placed me in the great window that is in the middle of the palace, and thus casting me down from it, killed me. And as he led me along a road full of burning coals and that he was freed from punishments through Saint Benedict and rolled me repeatedly in that fire, the most holy Father Benedict appeared to us as we went. At the sight of him, the demons immediately abandoned me and fled. Then the most holy Father Benedict, taking me up, led me with him and placed me in a place of refreshment. And saying these things, he vanished. When the aforesaid brother had narrated this, immediately the lips of all were opened in praise of Christ, and they gave thanks to God and Father Benedict.

[30] One night when George the Paramonarius, whom I mentioned above, was lying awake in his bed, singing is heard at night in the church when no one is there: he heard two boys singing in the church with wondrous sweetness. Knowing for certain that there was no one among the monks in the monastery who had a boyish voice, he began to wonder, and rising quickly entered the church; finding no one there and perceiving what the matter truly was, he wondered all the more.

[31] When the solemnity of the dedication of the church of Cassino was being celebrated according to custom, they celebrate the dedication of the church one of the brethren, John surnamed Cominensis, wearied by the office, left the church during the second watch, and, to refresh himself a little, sat down near the seat of the Abbots, which is situated next to the Chapter House in the cloister. When he happened to turn his eyes toward the dormitory, he saw Abbot Desiderius (for he knew him better than the others) emerging from it with a great company of monks and proceeding through the part where the refectory is into the church. While John was watching intently what was happening, he saw one of them coming toward him. In a vision Saint Benedict and the Abbots appear When that one had come to him and was asked whether he recognized him, he replied: I recognize you; for I know you to be Lord Mirandus, who died not many years ago. But I ask you to tell me who it is that walks beside Lord Abbot Desiderius. That one, said Mirandus, is the most blessed Father Benedict, and those who go with him are all who succeeded him in the governance of this monastery, with the monks, and each of them is followed by the monks who lived in his time. We have come to render praises with you to our Creator and Redeemer. I beseech you, said John, to deign to tell me who that one is who walks as if lame and cannot approach you. There follows, limping, one who died under excommunication, Know him to be Lord Landenulfus, who cannot be joined with us because by his prayers and counsel that Antenulfus was received in this monastery, whom, as you know, Lord Abbot Desiderius excommunicated on account of what he had done regarding the monastery of Tremiti, and by excommunicating forbade that he ever again be received in this monastery. But if you wish, you can unite him to our company. For if you go to his tomb and pronounce absolution over him for this matter, he will immediately be freed from this punishment and joined to the company you have seen. Having said these things, the one who was speaking withdrew, and the vision vanished. John returned to the choir, and when day came, he reported what he had seen and heard to Abbot Oderisius, who, being merciful in all things, from which he is absolved, having first asked pardon before all — because he himself had also given assent to that matter and had received that excommunicated man — went and offered the sacrifice to God for the imperiled brother's soul, and proceeding as he was, vested in sacred garments, pronounced absolution over the tomb of the aforesaid brother.

[32] In the region of Liburia there is a monastery built in honor of the blessed Father Benedict and subject to the monastery of Cassino from the very beginning of its foundation. When a certain brother had been sent there to receive wheat from the country folk, a certain peasant from whom the wheat was demanded, in the silence of the dead of night, having stolen a sack of wheat filling a sack with grain and placing it on his shoulders, took flight. But — O true sentence pronounced through the heavenly King: He who walks in darkness does not know where he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes — for he who by the command of the prince of darkness strove with every effort and all persistence to complete the journey he had begun to travel the road, thinking he was proceeding straight ahead with the wheat, walked in circles the entire night. But when the light of the sun shone upon the fields, he can neither flee nor set down the sack, the peasant, coming to his senses and perceiving how matters stood, wanted to return with the wheat but could not; he wanted to set the wheat down from his neck but was utterly unable to do so. The monk, however, coming out of the church after completing the morning hymns, and seeing him bound by divine power, after he learned the entire sequence of events from him, poured out a prayer to God and the most holy Father Benedict, and quickly freed the peasant from the bond that held him.

[33] There was a certain brother in this monastery of Cassino, a dying monk strenuous in character and life and distinguished by his religious way of living. Seized by a most grievous illness, when all the physicians despaired of his recovery, the aforesaid brother, conscious of his sins, began to say these things with the greatest weeping: Behold, my end draws near; behold, the appointed limit approaches; behold, the boundary that cannot be passed; behold, intolerable death is at hand. All speak of me, all grieve for me, all at last despair of my life and think only of burial. Woe is me! How have my days vanished, he performs acts of sorrow, like smoke! Like the flower of the grass my life has suddenly fallen, and like the thinnest shadow my time has passed away. Unexpectedly I am cut off as by a weaver, and without warning, while I was still laying the warp, I am severed. Woe, wretch that I am! What shall I do now, what satisfaction shall I make? For although I have often and many times resolved, yet never begun, to change my life, to correct my ways, to amend my negligences — but sloth, but forgetfulness, but negligence have prevailed over wretched me up to this day. Behold, the command has come, the order has arrived. Woe is me! What shall I do now? There is no longer any counsel for delay, no room left for making satisfaction — and justly indeed and deservedly so: for since knowledge, and understanding, and ability, and place, and every opportunity whatsoever was granted me for this, what excuse is there? O wretched me! O how I grieve! What shall I do? What shall I do now? Behold the time, behold the day, behold the hour, which I, miserable wretch, had never feared, but had always neglected in idleness. The command to depart has come; there is no counsel for refusal; the one who commands must be obeyed, the one who summons must not be contradicted. Behold, I am about to enter upon the way of all flesh, the unavoidable journey. Do you think an Angel of light — which I desire more — or perhaps an evil spirit — which I dread more — will be the first to meet me there? O fearful day! O dreaded hour! of the fear of God, What shall I do then? Where shall I flee? Whom shall I call upon? O the terror, O the dread that then awaits me! The soul must be separated from the body, the spirit must be sent forth from the flesh. How many hosts, do you think, will then be present, whether of holy Angels or of most wicked spirits, contending either to receive or to seize my wretched soul? But strengthened by the refreshment of the Lord's Body and Blood, of trust in God, armed with the triumphant banner of the Cross, the sign of universal redemption, and finally commended and accompanied by the intercessions of holy men — what malice of demons, what violence of evil spirits, though they bark on every side, though they try by every means to terrify, will dare to touch me? The most blessed Archangel Michael will be present for this, to whom the most merciful God has entrusted the care of receiving the souls of the faithful. The Prince of the heavenly host will hasten with his legions, he considers the patronage of Saint Michael, fiercely to defeat the hordes of most wicked spirits, should they attempt any violence. Nor indeed, as I hope and trust — nay, truly believe — will the Angel of light abandon my soul even before the Majesty of the most just Judge. Behold, my end hastens. But what fear then, what terror, what trembling at the remembrance of my sins! Again, what hope, what great confidence in the mercy, the kindness, and the clemency of the most benign Judge possesses me — who, do you think, could sufficiently estimate? Lord, of the Guardian Angel, what consolation, what help, what protection do you think will be conferred upon me by the Angel assigned to me, to whom from the day of my birth you have more especially entrusted the care of my soul? How, do you think, will he conduct himself regarding the soul committed to him? Will he joyfully and eagerly accompany, strengthen, protect, and cherish it even before the presence of the most sublime Majesty, or perhaps — which I fear more on account of the immensity of my sins — unable to withstand the innumerable objections of the demons, will he follow breathlessly from afar, sad and sorrowful? How, do you think, will the most holy Father Benedict intercede for me? How will he receive me? O unhappy me! of Saint Benedict, Indeed I fear that not only will he bring me no help, but rather, on account of my innumerable offenses and negligences, and also the daily transgressions of the commandments of his Rule, he will despise me and turn the eyes of his fatherly care away from me. Yet I hope and trust that, if I am unworthy of his grace on account of my crimes, he will at least, moved by the satisfactions of my fellow brethren, spare me and be appeased, and deign to open upon me the bowels of his fatherly love, and will entreat the most merciful Lord on my behalf. Do you think that then either the most holy Mother of God, Mary, or any of the Saints (in whom, while I had strength, on account of the very great love I bore them, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I greatly hoped, and in whom I placed all my trust)

will be present to me when I am placed in such great need? Do you think they will deign to bestow the solace of their consolation upon me when I am placed in such great distress, or to repay me in any way some measure of their love? Do you think that, moved by some compassion or pity over me, and mindful of my devotion, they will approach the lofty throne of the strict Judge as intercessors or advocates on my behalf, and bring back for me the grace of reconciliation? But since I know myself to be altogether unworthy, on account of the immensity of my wickedness, of the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom and the society of the elect, may they at least obtain this for me: that I not be condemned with the wicked in hell; that even at the last judgment I may merit to rise not with the damned on the left, but with the saved on the right; that I may be found, even as the very last of the elect, in the kingdom of heaven.

[34] In a vision he beholds Saints Benedict, Maurus, and Placidus, While he had been tossed by such thoughts for some days, meditating on these and similar things day and night with exceeding trembling, and while prayers were ceaselessly offered on his behalf, the most holy Father Benedict, together with his disciples Maurus and Placidus, stood in the midst of an assembly of Saints and, opening his mouth, addressed them briefly thus: Since I have no doubt that you know well and perfectly what I have risen to present to your holiness, setting aside the narration itself, I invite you to hasten to bring aid in what is at hand. It would be fitting, if it pleases you and seems opportune, that we first — whom the special devotion and great love of this brother about whom we speak held in particular honor while he was well in the world, and in whom, after God and his Mother, he placed all his hope and trust — should hasten to the court of the said Mother of God, Mary, most full of kindness and power, and humbly beseech her to deign to petition her most loving Son together with us on this matter. Father Benedict had not yet finished speaking when behold, first of all the most holy Evangelist John, beloved of God above the rest, immediately rose up and declared that he would not only willingly go with them, with Saint John the Evangelist and the Baptist, but urged that what had been said should be done at once and without any delay. All assented to this opinion, and there rose first he than whom none greater among those born of women has arisen, as Christ attested — John the Baptist. Him the princes of the Apostles and lights of the world, Peter and Paul, followed, with Bartholomew joined to them. Peter, Paul, Bartholomew These were accompanied also by the chief Martyrs and Levites, Stephen and Lawrence, Apollinaris, Sebastian, and other Saints: Gervasius and Protasius, John and Paul, Nicander, Martianus, and Maurice with his companions, Martin, Ambrose, Paulinus, Nicholas, Hilarion, Severinus. To these lastly were joined Scholastica, Agnes, Cecilia, Lucy, Agatha, and Sabina. All these approached the Queen of the world, the Virgin Mary, and prostrated themselves in supplication before her, exalted above the choirs of Angels. Then Father Benedict, drawing nearer, who, approaching the Blessed Virgin, said: Your kindness is not unaware, O my most blessed Virgin, that this brother for whom we have come to intercede, although he conducted himself rather negligently and childishly in regard to his religious profession, nevertheless many times strove to correct himself, many times to change his life, and by most frequent corrections endeavored to amend his negligences. Moreover, that he was most faithful and most useful in our house is confirmed by the testimony of his Abbot himself and of his fellow brethren and of the whole community. This too is no small testimony in the matter: that all grieve and groan immensely for him, that all alike pour forth for him sighs, tears, and manifold prayers. All together supplicate me most urgently, they implore his patronage, and ceaselessly beg day and night that I obtain for him his former health from the Lord. What shall I say? I can scarcely recall so many vows and so many prayers ever being offered for any other person in our house. To despise their tears and groans, and finally to disregard the welfare of the monastery, would in some measure be imputed to inhumanity and cruelty. Wherefore we have come with full confidence to your most powerful kindness, and we pray that you may deign to approach the throne of your most merciful Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and intercede with him on this matter. For we know with certainty and are confident that he will deny you nothing, but will immediately grant whatever you ask. And not undeservedly, since he himself by whom health is obtained from the Son for the sick person who created you deigned to be born of you, and therefore he hears no one more willingly than you. Having said these things, the loving mother assented, and all approached the throne of her blessed Son, and the sweetest Virgin set forth her petition. The bowels of mercy of our God could not restrain themselves at this; but immediately, by his gratuitous goodness, he granted all that she had asked. And so that brother, restored to his former health, openly recounted to all what the Lord had done in him through the intercession of his Mother and of blessed Benedict.

CHAPTER IV.

Various sick and dying persons aided: a captive freed.

[35] A certain Transalpine knight named Hugo, surnamed Whitethorne, serving with his arms among several Counts in these parts and earning rich stipends, was enjoying the pleasures of sweetest youth amid quite prosperous circumstances; for he was both ready of hand and eloquent of speech. Coming to this monastery with considerable devotion along with Rao, son of Rachis, Count of the city of Teano, to celebrate the holy Easter at the very solemnity of the Lord's Supper, while riding down the rough road of the descending mountain, he fell most horribly, suffered a fracture of both legs, and could only be carried here on a litter. A fracture of the legs healed He immediately begged with most urgent prayer to be placed before the body of Blessed Benedict, and there, crying out with great shouts, he spent the entire day weeping. When the darkness of the following night put an end to the day, the Sacristan of the church ordered some servants to carry him outside. But he began to protest with solemn oaths that he would by no means leave that place unless he recovered, and he said: Here, here before the body of him whose court I was visiting with burning desire when I suffered so great a misfortune to my body — here, I say, lying continuously at his feet to his dishonor, I shall close my last day unless he soon brings me the help customary to him. Having said these things, as all withdrew, he himself, half-asleep, fell silent for a little while. Then behold, he saw the most sacred altar, in which the body of the blessed Father is stored, open as if by divine power, and from it emerged a man of venerable white hair, in that very habit which Abbots are accustomed to wear in festive processions. Drawing nearer and touching the place of the fracture with a kind hand, he said: Behold, you are made well; cease now your crying. The sick man, rising immediately, spent that night sound and whole in the praises of the Almighty. When morning came, he made known what had happened, and rendered most magnificent thanksgivings to God and Father Benedict. After the feast, therefore, celebrated with no less joy of heart than was fitting, Hugo returned to Teano, and burning with the fire of heavenly love, bidding farewell to the world and all worldly things, and even denying himself according to the Lord's command, naked and unencumbered he followed Christ. Soon he built a hospice at Fons-de-Corrigia, and began to run toward the heavenly fatherland by so religious a path of life that he wore no footwear at all, using only woolen garments. And the same man, coming here again after fifteen years, as a repayment for the health he had obtained, gave himself in perpetuity as a servant to Blessed Benedict, and with truthful lips repeatedly avowed the things told above.

[36] One day, by a hidden judgment of God, the city of Capua was given over to fire. When the entire city was consumed, a fire is warded off: fire threatened the monastery of Saint Benedict from every side. But the brethren, distrusting human resources and hoping in the help of God alone, took the corporal of the chalice and placed it outside the wall of the monastery in the midst of the fire. Wondrously, the fire turned back and dared not come closer. All the citizens also saw a certain hand repelling the fire from the monastery. The corporal itself remained completely unharmed by the fire, and afterward, as a testimony to the event, a small hole was made in the middle of it.

[37] A certain lame man from the territory of Tours had resolved to go on pilgrimage to Mount Gargano. When he had come to the city of Aquino, the most blessed Father Benedict appeared to him as he rested in the silence of the dead of night, the lame man is admonished by the appearance of Saint Benedict, saying: Rise quickly and seek the fortress of Cassino, and there before the presence of my body you will without doubt receive your health. Then the lame man said: Who are you, who promise us such great things? And the lawgiver replied: Setting aside all doubt, know that I am Father Benedict, founder of the monastery of Cassino. And having said this, he vanished. The lame man, rising at once, related the matter in order to his companions. Coming to Cassino he is healed, But they, withholding faith from the vision, had diverse opinions, as different people think differently. For some said that no one should believe in deceptive dreams, for dreams have led many astray. But others, whose faith was sounder and more devout, judged

that this was by no means to be disregarded, but that the benefit promised by the most holy Father Benedict should be sought. Then the lame man, rising, ascended Mount Cassino with swift step and such effort as he could manage. And when he had entered the church consecrated by the body and name of Father Benedict and had come before the silver column on which the great candle is placed, immediately, through the interceding merits of Benedict, the lame man began to be restored to his former gait. Then Andrew the Sacristan, who had charge of the church that day, hearing the lame man crying out, came to him with swift step. Seeing the calluses that had formed during the contraction of his limbs broken open, and blood flowing from the joints, he went with hurried step to the brethren to relate the sequence of events. The lame man, however, leaving the church, returned with swift step, unknown to the brethren, most joyfully to his companions who were at the city of Saint Germanus. They, witnessing such great marvels, went to Abbot Gerard and related the matter in order. The venerable Abbot, made most joyful at his recovery, gave thanks to almighty God and immediately sent him back to Cassino to the body of Father Benedict. What joy of heart and what exultation there was then, because all who saw it are still alive, I omit to relate. After this, certain Senators, coming out from the city of Rome, and the miracle is recognized by Roman Senators, arrived at Mount Cassino, and seeing the same lame man whom they had previously known to lie before the Lateran Palace, they inquired how and in what manner he had been healed. When he had recounted his recovery in detail, the Senators, giving no credit to his words, stripped the covering from his limbs and, seeing the calluses broken into pieces, rendered the greatest praises to almighty God and Father Benedict. As a perpetual sign of this event, the crutches of that same lame man remain suspended before the doors of the church.

[38] Arderardus, the doorkeeper of this place, while making his way at midnight through the plains that lie below Mount Cassino, A light appears above Cassino: turning his eyes toward the monastery of the most holy Father Benedict, saw above that place a very great light ascend, like the splendor of the sun, which first covered the church and then the entire monastery, and remained for nearly the space of half an hour. And then the light that had appeared before his eyes was withdrawn.

[39] In the city of Salerno there is a monastery consecrated to the name of Father Benedict and subject to the monastery of Cassino from the very beginning of its foundation. From the household of this monastery, a ravenous wolf secretly attacked a small boy, a boy is released from the wolf's jaws, seized him, and went off. After him the mother, pierced with grief, cried out, saying: I adjure you, beast, by Blessed Benedict, whose servant he is, that you carry my son no further, but release him at once. When the wolf heard this, he immediately opened his mouth and set down the one he was carrying; but he sprang suddenly upon another boy, and quickly tearing him apart, spurned the truncated corpse, and seizing the severed head in his jaws, carried it off to his lair.

[40] In the city of Campania called Frosinone, a church of Blessed Benedict has been built, The dying are healed from a fall: where his name daily receives renewed increase. For at a certain time the aforesaid church was by divine judgment given over to fire in such a way that, apart from the walls, nothing remained from the flames. A certain cleric, therefore, having climbed to the higher part of that church for the sake of restoration, slipped and fell to the bottom, and immediately, having lost the use of all his limbs, he appeared entirely like a dead man, except that the breath still fluttered in his chest. For he lay thus for three days, continuously watched over by his relatives as one about to die. When suddenly, rising up whole, to the amazement of those present, he declared that he had been saved by the prayers of Blessed Benedict and his sister Scholastica, whose feast was being celebrated that day.

[41] At another time, a certain priest of the aforementioned church, likewise another: when he had ascended the tower he climbed the tower that is commonly called the bell tower, to re-hang the bells that hung from it, standing carelessly, fell to the ground. And when no hope of survival remained either for him or for anyone, aided by the merits of Blessed Benedict, he found himself healthier then than when he had climbed up. When a certain woman living in that same city heard this, who had been so deprived of the ability to walk by a long illness that she could not move for any bodily necessity, persuaded by the counsel of that same priest, and a paralytic woman: and promising amendment of all her former deeds, she began to implore the help of Blessed Benedict and his sister. On the very Kalends of September she was restored to health and went with great devotion to the church of Blessed Scholastica, situated at the foot of Mount Cassino, and as a sign of her devotion she surrounded the walls of the church with silver thread and promised to celebrate the feast of that same Virgin there annually. This was done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and thirty-four, as above.

[42] A certain knight in Apulia, captured in a certain conflict by a most wicked man and bound with chains, a captive is freed by the appearance of Saint Benedict: was thrown into a pit. When he had been held fast by the same bond for many days, and was anxiously imploring the help of the most holy Father Benedict day and night, one night he appeared to him, saying: Are you asleep or awake? And he replied: As you see, Lord, I am thinking more in the secret of my mind about death than about the repose of sleep. But who you are, who have deigned to come to me, I humbly beseech you to make known. And the Saint said: I am Brother Benedict, whom you asked to come to your aid. Now rise quickly. As for the chains with which you are bound, since on account of the length of the journey you cannot bring them to my body at Cassino, hang them at the tomb of Brother Otto the recluse, who kept my Rule most excellently, and for the sake of your liberation, do not delay to go to Cassino to render praises to God. When he had said this, the soldier immediately rose, and invoking the name of our Redeemer and of Blessed Benedict, the chains that were on his feet were at once loosened. Rising immediately, he took care to fulfill with all diligence what had been commanded him. Finally, coming to Cassino, he rendered the greatest praises to God and Father Benedict.

[43] When people of every class had been assembled at the instance of Abbot Desiderius for the renovation of this monastery, a Saracen baptized during illness, it happened that a certain Saracen was among the hired workers. For him, even the hearing of the Christian name was burdensome. After some time, because he had carried water and stones in the raising of the buildings, he was seized by illness and brought to the point of death. Then the cleric Stephen went to visit him and began to persuade him to reject the error of unbelief and believe in Christ. When the Saracen promised that he would believe in Christ if he could know for certain that he would be saved thereby, Stephen replied: Without doubt, brother, and without any scruple, every human being must believe that salvation is placed in the faith of Christ alone, and that without him absolutely no way of salvation can be found. He dies upon the appearance of Saint Benedict. Then, with his consent, he was baptized, and immediately he began to cry out: What you said, Stephen, is true. Behold, I see Saint Benedict, who has become my guide to Christ, in whom I have believed. And having said these things, he was taken from this life.

[44] Let us therefore, dearest brethren, celebrate with all joy the finding of him whom we may deserve to receive from our Lord Jesus Christ as Patron while we live in the body, Epilogue, and as guardian and defender of our souls when we depart from the body: to whom be glory, praise, honor, power, and dominion for ever and ever.

APPENDIX.

From the Cassinese Chronicle of Leo, Bishop of Ostia, and Peter the Deacon of Cassino.

Benedict, Abbot and Founder of the Order, at Cassino in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 0000

FROM THE CASSINESE CHRONICLE

BOOK 1

CHAPTER 15

[1] A certain man of the English nation, mute and deaf, came with certain companions of his people to the thresholds of the Apostles. A mute and deaf man is healed, When he saw his companions hastening to the shrine of the Blessed Archangel Michael, which is situated on Mount Gargano, joining them on the journey, he came to this monastery. When they had entered the oratory and prostrated themselves together to pray before the body of the most holy Benedict, while the others rose after a short time, they began to urge him likewise to rise and depart with them. But he, touched by a heavenly visitation, with the groans of his heart and the cries of his mind, as best he could, prolonging his prayer, was seeking the help of the holy Father Benedict with a heart full of confidence. Then, after nearly one hour, raising himself from the place where he had been prostrate — blessed and wonderful is God — having received both hearing and speech, he began to speak most fluently not only in his native tongue, that is, English, but also in the Roman language.

CHAPTER 35

[2] While the walls of Eulogimenopolis, that is, the city of Benedict, were being constructed, a certain man who had been afflicted with so severe an illness for seven years that he had completely lost the use of his tongue, so that he could not utter a single word, was serving in the work of that same construction along with the others. another mute man, One night, therefore, while the brethren were offering their customary praises to the Lord, this mute man, sitting near the base of a certain column in the church itself, fell asleep. Immediately Blessed Benedict appeared to him in his slumber, and striking him lightly on the head with the staff he carried, said: Have you come here to sleep? Rise at once and spit on the ground three times. When he awoke and did this, he immediately began to give thanks to God in a clear voice and to the most blessed Father Benedict, through whom he had merited to recover the former use of his tongue. When all had witnessed this miracle and learned how it had happened to him, they blessed the Lord and his faithful servant Benedict.

BOOK 2.

CHAPTER 44.

[3] Emperor Henry was afflicted with sharp pains, and (as he himself afterward related), although he was very much affected by the monastery and confessed that nowhere had he seen a more awe-inspiring or venerable oratory, yet often

he was troubled by no small scruple as to whether Father Benedict rested bodily in this place. Saint Henry the Emperor. When therefore, on account of his pain, neither fully awake nor entirely asleep, he was experiencing a certain ecstasy, Blessed Benedict appeared to him and, approaching him as if to visit him, asked where he was suffering. When Henry immediately confessed his ailment, Benedict said: I know that you have hitherto doubted whether I rest here; but so that you may no longer be troubled by any such scruple, and may know more certainly that my poor body rests in this place, this shall be a sign to you: Freed from the pain of kidney stones: When you rise in the early morning, in the passing of your urine you will expel three rather large stones at once, and from then on you will never again be afflicted by this pain. I am Brother Benedict. Having said this, he vanished. The Emperor, waking, immediately rose, and restored to his former health according to the sequence of the vision, gave thanks to God and Father Benedict. When morning came, entering the assembly of the brethren, after the customary words of the Chapter, he said: What, my lords, do you bid me give to the physician who healed me? When they answered that he might take whatever he wished from the monastery, with all willingly consenting, and give it to the physician, he said: Let it not be so; but since the holy Father Benedict healed me this night, it is fitting that a reward be made to so great a Father from our own substance. And saying this, with tears mingled with joy, now made more certain of the presence of the body: he related to all what he had heard in the vision, adding: Now indeed I know that this place is venerable, and no mortal should doubt any longer that Father Benedict rests here with his sister. As further proof, he openly showed to all those three small stones which he had shortly before passed in his urine. And so, with all rejoicing and marveling both at the wonderful vision and at the swift recovery of the Emperor, and giving thanks to God, that same day the royal munificence offered gifts to the holy Father Benedict...And so, commending himself greatly to Father Benedict and to all the brethren, he departed with their blessing to his own lands. And lest he should seem to forget in any way the benefit of so great a Father, as soon as he returned home he took care to send here to Blessed Benedict, with the greatest thanksgivings, a chasuble of rose-colored fabric most beautifully adorned with gold embroidered borders, together with an alb and a cincture, stole, and maniple — a truly royal gift. And he was afterward of such devotion toward this holy place that, had he lived somewhat longer, he would have promised to serve God in the habit of holy religious life at this place, leaving behind the summit of empire.

CHAPTER 45

Indeed, since concerning the body of Benedict, he had been made most certain through the vision and his recovery that it truly rests in this place, he orders the writings of the Translation to be burned, wherever afterward he could find any writing about the Translation of that same holy Father, he consigned it to the flames, telling everyone what the Lord had shown and done for him at this place, and from the account of that false translation, reasonably demonstrating that these things were frivolous and fabricated.

CHAPTER 48

[4] Since mention was just now necessarily made of the body of the most holy Father Benedict, Adam, custodian of the church, it seems proper to relate in this place what that same most blessed Father deigned to show to Adam, a most devout man, custodian of his church. This Adam, having at a certain time gone to Rome as was customary to purchase certain things necessary for the use of the church, lodged, as he was accustomed to do, at the monastery of the Apostle Saint Paul, over which Lord Abbot Leo then presided. When one day those most reverend men were exchanging certain spiritual words with one another, the Abbot began to inquire whether the things that rumor had then spread through the mouths of many were true or false — namely, that the body of Blessed Benedict no longer rested here, but had been furtively taken away and translated to Gaul. He added: And, as he says, to lend credence to this matter, those who spread this say that no sign, no miracle occurs in our place, but that there, where they claim it was brought, innumerable signs are wrought daily through his merits. At this, Adam, sighing deeply, took the Abbot's hand and led him to the altar of the Blessed Apostle Paul. And there, when they were alone, Adam placed his hand upon the altar, saying: By this body of the teacher of the nations, the most blessed Paul — which the whole Christian world believes without any hesitation to rest here — I will relate to you what I am about to say most truthfully and without any suspicion of falsehood. When I once learned of these things and not only hesitated but almost despaired about the body of the most blessed Father Benedict, so that I felt scarcely any devotion, scarcely any reverence near his altar, fluctuating thus for some period of time, and walking with a sorrowful mind and downcast face, one day after Compline, having poured out my prayer more intently than usual at his tomb and having settled myself there, by the appearing of Saint Benedict, he learns that his body is there, that same most holy Father appeared and deigned to console me, saying: Why, Brother Adam, do you walk about so downcast and sad? And why are you led to think so ill of me, as if I did not lie bodily here? Yet, because your service and devotion are very pleasing and acceptable to me, from now on be most certain that I rest here with my sister Scholastica, and that I, together with her, must rise in this place on the day of the last judgment. Know also that I am present with you alike when you sing the psalms day and night, and when you pray more attentively and process with fitting devotion. And so that all doubt on this matter may be removed from you, when at the morning hour you enter the church first, as you usually do, if you see rising from my sepulcher something like a slender column of fragrant smoke, believe that all I have said is most true. Having said this, he vanished. Waking then immediately, and pondering within myself the mystery of so great a vision, filled at once with joy and tears, I began to bless the Lord and the most holy Father Benedict. And soon, though trembling and fearful, I entered the church: I looked, I saw, and I believed, according to what had been revealed to unworthy me. Furthermore, what they say about no miracle occurring in our place, know that it is utterly false. For if it were permitted to relate everything that I have heard from our elders, or that I myself have witnessed at his tomb in our days, you would certainly recognize that this was said from nothing but envy, or surely from ignorance.

Book 4, chapter 5.

Pope Urban, when he had come to the monastery, began to be most grievously afflicted with a pain in his side that was habitual to him. And so, while he was tormented by the same ailment during the vigils of the holy Father Benedict, and while he doubted concerning the presence of his body, the Saint appeared to him in a vision, the same is taught to Pope Urban, who is healed: saying: Why do you doubt the presence of my body? To whom he said: Who are you? I, he said, am Brother Benedict. So that you may no longer doubt in this matter and may know most certainly that I rest here, as soon as the brethren rise for the nighttime synaxis, you will immediately be freed from the pain in your side. And having said these things, he vanished. At the appointed hour, restored to health, he called Abbot Oderisius, explained his scruple, and revealed the miracle, saying: Let us rise and give thanks to God. And with these words he disclosed what Father Benedict had revealed to him. An incredible joy immediately arose among all, and for the health of so great a Pontiff, achieved through so great a miracle and such a vision, they gave abundant thanks to God with tears. Pope Paschal, entering Gaul for the affairs of the Church, came to the monastery of Fleury, consecrated to the name of Father Benedict.

Chapter 31.

The feast of the false Translation of Blessed Benedict was then being celebrated by them. But the Pontiff, affirming that Translation to be false, began to celebrate not the festal but the ferial Office with the Cardinals. When the monks, however, together with certain Bishops and French Cardinals, began celebrating the Translation, the Pope poured out a prayer to the Lord: that he might deign to make manifest the truth of this matter by clear signs. While they were celebrating the nocturnal synaxis, so great a stupor and dullness of mind seized them all that they had no idea what they were saying. Astonished by so great a miracle, they began to chant the regular Office without faltering. But as soon as they resumed the Office of the Translation, they were filled with both horror and stupor. The most reverend Pontiff, observing this, began to glorify and bless God and his servant Benedict. In the morning, summoning the Abbot and the chief men of the monastery to him, he commanded that the altar be removed, so that all might openly ascertain whether that translation was true or false. He declared that no one should any longer be deceived by their ambiguities concerning the body of Blessed Benedict, which he himself knew had been discovered most openly in the monastery of Cassino in the time of Pope Alexander. They, prostrating themselves at his feet, began to beg him not to destroy the altar, for it would be the desolation of the monastery. They had received nothing certain about the body of blessed Benedict except the tradition from their predecessors. If, after the altar was destroyed, no relics were found, the monastery would surely be destroyed and its possessions plundered by anyone. Then the Pope, moved by their prayers, fell silent, commanding and enjoining by Apostolic authority that they should no longer presume to celebrate the utterly false translation.

ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY OF SAINT BENEDICT INTO GAUL TO THE MONASTERY OF FLEURY

Benedict, Abbot and Founder of the Order, at Cassino in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 1130

Preliminary Commentary.

Section I. The controversy stated. The sacred bones preserved at Cassino.

[1] The mind shrinks from entering the dense thicket of this controversy, A difficult controversy. which it dreads to gaze upon even from afar. These words, uttered by Cesare Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 666, number 24, we repeat here, clearly foreseeing that the end of this controversy cannot be imposed by us. We touched on some things in the Life of Saint Scholastica on the 10th of February; the rest we deferred to this 21st of March. Meanwhile, for the sake of piety and studies, we toured some of the more illustrious libraries and holy places through Germany, Italy, and Gaul, as well as the monasteries of various founders. Returning from Naples to Rome, we arrived at Cassino on the 16th of March in the year 1661, and as Leo of Ostia writes of Saint Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, in book 2 of the Chronicle, chapter 54, so we too could say: As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, and on his holy mountain. It is not our task here to describe the structure of the monastery and the church; nor to indicate to the reader the extraordinary charity with which we were received, or the sacred splendor of virtues which we observed shining forth in the most devout monks. Certainly we were not surprised that to this mountain the founder of our Society, Saint Ignatius, had made pilgrimage for the sake of piety, and there, amid sacred exercises, his mind withdrawn from the senses, he saw the soul of James Hozes, one of his first companions, depart to heaven. All these things we saw depicted in the small monastery of Albaneta, not far distant, for the memory of the event and the praise of the Saint.

[2] But setting these things aside, we present what we observed regarding the relics of the Saints in the church, and regarding the ancient codices and documents in the library and archive. The location of the bodies of Saints Benedict and Scholastica at Cassino What is related above in the History of the finding of the bodies of Saints Benedict and Scholastica, the subterranean crypt showed us, excavated beneath the very choir, where beneath the high altar a mausoleum is visible in which the relics of the said Saints are preserved with great veneration. And beneath that mausoleum is an altar at which we ourselves offered the sacrifice of the Mass to God in honor of this most holy Founder. We read there also, by the light of a candle admitted through an opening in the marble in the form of a star, the names of Saint Carloman, King and monk, and likewise of Saints Simplicius and Constantinus, whose bodies still rest there, as indicated above in the History of the finding. And of other Saints: Other relics are preserved in the sacristy above the altar, among which are three thorns from the crown of Christ the Lord, which visibly change color on Good Friday, that is, the sixth day of Holy Week; of which matter there are said to be as many eyewitnesses as there are religious in the monastery. Concerning other relics, there will be a more opportune place to speak elsewhere. Conducted to the archive, we saw in it all the documents, and the original instruments themselves, neatly and conveniently arranged in their respective boxes, documents in the archive, and among other things the Bulls of the Supreme Pontiffs, which, drawn forth from there by Lauretus, are extant in published form, by which it is proved that the said bodies of Saints Benedict and Scholastica are preserved there. We spent most of our time in the library, in which ancient codices written in Lombard script were arranged all around, and there were among them not a few things that we noted as serviceable to us, and afterward, having sent a copyist from Rome, we had them transcribed. In all these matters, D. Franciscus Romanus, the Archivist and Apostolic Protonotary, and D. Maurus of Naples, the Librarian, provided us with continuous assistance and their presence.

[3] The Most Reverend Abbot D. Angelo of Naples was then absent, having gone to Rome, that the sacred bones there are not all complete, and from there intending to depart after Easter for Parma for the general Chapter of the entire Cassinese Congregation. We also visited him when we returned to Rome and gave thanks for the extraordinary charity shown to us in his monastery. And when the conversation turned to the controversy about the body of Saint Benedict, among other things he said that he was sorry he had not been there at that time; he would have seen to it that, having opened the coffers, we could have viewed the sacred bones that remained. These had certainly been seen by him twice, once when he was Prior and then when he was Abbot; yet they were not so complete that a part might not also be elsewhere. For this reason he had already long ago taken care to have an inscription introduced asserting that the relics of Saint Benedict were intact. And the skull was crushed. The skull also, from the fall of a marble slab that had tumbled into the coffer, had been partly crushed. The rest can be read in Lauretus, who demonstrates at length the existence of the body of Saint Benedict in the monastery of Cassino.

Section II. The history of the Translation to Fleury: by whom it was written; the memorial in the sacred calendars.

[4] In the year next following, 1662, when we were traveling through Gaul, in the month of July we withdrew to Cluny, In Gaul the feast of the Translation is celebrated: experiencing again the greatest charity there. While we spent some days examining ancient codices and transcribing and collating certain Acts of Saints or Martyrologies, we observed that the feast of the Translation of the body of Saint Benedict into Gaul was celebrated there with great solemnity. John de Bosco, a Celestine monk, in his Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, page 414, observes that in the sacred diary of the Cluniac Order the feast of the reception of the relics of Saint Benedict is noted and observed among the Cluniacs. In the said Bibliotheca Floriacensis, the first and nobler part pertains to elucidating the history of this Translation. First of all, the narrative of the Translation is presented, faithfully transcribed word for word from the most ancient membranes of the monastery of Fleury, which, The history of the Translation contained in ancient manuscripts, as he adds, is commonly recited in the sacred nocturnal vigils in the most noble churches of Vienne, Narbonne, and many others throughout Gaul. We have the same history in our ancient codices, and received it from our colleague Chifflet from a manuscript of Val-Luisant of the Cistercian Order in the diocese of Sens, collated with a codex of Gigny; we also found it repeatedly in the codices of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, as also in the manuscripts of Bodeken, Anchin, Cysoing, and Marchiennes, and most especially in the most ancient manuscript of Saint Bertin, from which we have noted various readings. The name of the author is commonly omitted in the manuscripts; not correctly attributed to Theoderic the German, in the Anchin codex he is called Theoderic the German, whom John Molanus also considers the author of this narrative in his Notes on the Martyrology of Usuard, augmented by himself, at July 11. He adds that the same person wrote the second Translation, whose beginning is "Cum Caelestium." Trithemius, cited by Molanus, in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, says of him: Theodoric, a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, German by nation, a man learned in the divine Scriptures and nobly educated in secular letters, subtle of intellect and distinguished in eloquence, is reported to have written some works of not inconsiderable reading, of which few have come to my attention. I have read only: To Richard, Abbot of Fulda, On the Life of Saint Benedict, one book. "Cum caelestium Sacramentorum." On the Translation of the same body, one book. "Cum diu gens Longobardorum." Letters to various persons, one book. He also composed many other works in both verse and prose, which have not reached us. He flourished under King Henry III in the year 1040. So Trithemius, but from limited knowledge; and first corrected rightly by Molanus, or Diederic, since what Trithemius had called the Life of Saint Benedict, Molanus more correctly called the second Translation. In the title of John de Bosco, page 219, it is written: Of Diederic the monk, On the Bringing or Return of the body of Saint Benedict the Abbot to Orleans at Fleury, one book, to the Venerable Richard, Abbot of the monastery of Marbach. And after the Preface, he begins the narrative thus: "Cum caelestium," or, as printed there, "Ut caelestium Sacramentorum limpidissimus speculator Propheta David." He is therefore the same person called by some Theoderic, by others Diederic, author of the Bringing or second Translation. Concerning him and Abbot Richard, Brower in book 1 of the Antiquities of Fulda, chapter 20, writes: a monk of Hersfeld, Richard's name was also honored by Theodoric, a most learned monk of the neighboring monastery of Hersfeld, who wished his works on Saint Benedict, composed with the talent of his mind, to be inscribed to Abbot Richard. He is also called Abbot of Marbach or rather Amerbach, because, as the same Brower indicates, he founded the monastery of Amerbach, which in a remote area of Franconia not far from the Main he dedicated to Saint Simplicius. Writer of the Bringing of Saint Benedict He died in the year of Christ 1039. We have this history of the Bringing much more fully from manuscripts of the Queen of Sweden, of Bernard Rottendorff, chief physician of the city of Munster in Westphalia, and also from a manuscript Passional of the monastery of Bodeken of the Canons Regular near Paderborn, in which the Preface was lacking and it began with the words cited above.

[5] But with the good leave of Trithemius, Brower, and others, we judge that this history of the Bringing, patched together by the said author from mere conjectures, is not worthy of being reprinted; and that the author of the first Translation could in no way be identified as the said Diederic or Theodoric, perhaps Adrevald? being guided by the authority of Adrevald of Fleury, who, about to treat of this same Translation in his book of miracles, has these words: Since the history of this matter is ready at hand, it is superfluous to insert it in the present work. On account of which words, perhaps, that history was attributed to the same Adrevald in the edition of John de Bosco. Adrevald wrote his book of miracles toward the end of the life of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, when the Normans, as he asserts, had afflicted Gaul for nearly the space of thirty years; and then in the Appendix the death of Charles the Bald is narrated by Aderitius. Thus, by a hundred fifty or sixty years, Adrevald preceded in life the aforementioned Diederic or Theodoric; and the style or manner of writing of each does not seem to agree sufficiently with the manner of writing used

by the author of the history of the Translation. Certainly the location of the monastery of Fleury, indicated in chapter 4 of the Bringing or second Translation by Diederic, ought rather to have been described in the history of the first Translation, where the occasion of the founding of Fleury is narrated. In the same way, Adrevald, since he digresses so widely in his book of miracles through the times of Saints Benedict and Maurus and the succession of Emperors and other Princes, does not seem likely to have omitted inserting the history of the Translation if it had been his own work. Another author is therefore suggested to us by Rudolf Tortarius, himself also a monk of Fleury, or better, to Adalbert? about whom more below, in his poem on the miracles of Saint Benedict drawn from manuscripts, where he begins the history of the Translation thus:

Father Adalbert teaches that the limbs were translated, Setting forth certain deeds in a polished style.

These are then adorned in condensed speech by Rudolf. Sigebert on Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 100, and after him Trithemius, assert that Adrevald is also called Adelbert or Albert, by whom they report the miracles of Saint Benedict were written. It is therefore the history of this Adalbert which, because it was ready at hand, Adrevald seems to have deemed it superfluous to insert in his work, on account of the memory of this illustrious man, perhaps still living. Yet if others should judge that the same person is the one called Adalbert above, we do not wish to pull the rope of contention, Is Adrevald the same as Adalbert? because we put forward these things only for the sake of investigating the truth, especially since Aimoinus below, in his preface to the miracles of Saint Benedict, asserts that Adrevald inserted in his writings both the order of the translation of the sacred body and the signs wrought through Gaul. And Tortarius also does not mention Adrevald when he touches upon the miracles.

[6] In Rome, in the library of the Queen of Sweden, we found and had transcribed an elegiac poem consisting of two hundred and fifty-seven distichs, The same Translation set forth in verse by Gerald, in which the same history of the Translation is narrated, by Dom Gerald, a monk of Fleury. This poem, lest the bulk of the work increase, we omit, but willingly share it with others should they wish to publish it. Its beginning is as follows:

When the wicked Lombard race, in the darkness of the reprobate's Perfidy, refused to abandon their ways, And long of stiff neck, fleeing to bear the venerable Yoke of Christ, impatient of it, Had resolved to attack with the wicked Darts of their malice those who bore it with willing mind. Etc.

The same Gerald wrote a poem in praise of Saint Benedict extending to seventy distichs, A poem also written in praise of Saint Benedict whose beginning also it suffices to have indicated, which is as follows:

In praise this entire day is now spent Of the King of heaven and of you, Benedict. The holy limbs of the righteous Prophet were moved: The bones of the Father were moved from their own place.

And thus the first words of the heroic verse are frequently repeated in the last hemistich of the pentameter, as long before Paul Warnefrid, Deacon of Cassino, had played in praise of the same Saint Benedict, whose poem, inserted in the Sermon of the monk Aimoinus, is read in Boscius, page 284. And of Saint Mary. Finally, there followed verses of the same Gerald, nearly one hundred, on the Blessed Virgin Mary, with this beginning:

Duly the festal day of Saint Mary the Mother, Who, illustrious, ascended to the lofty throne of heaven.

[7] The feast of the Translation, July 11 In the aforementioned history of the Translation, at number 9, the bodies of Saints Benedict and Scholastica are said to have been received at old Fleury on the fifth day before the Ides of July, and that solemnity to have been carried out with immense joy, which was afterward customarily celebrated each year on the same July 11. Adelerius in the Appendix to Adrevald writes that at that solemnity sixty persons of both sexes and ages were healed. Aimoinus in book 3 of the Miracles, number 2, asserts that to this feast of the Translation, which returns in the summer months with annual succession, there come from various places men of distinction, many Abbots and monks, that the adornment of the churches was costly, and that a fire in them was extinguished by two doves flying around. Again at number 19, Aimoinus affirms the fire was extinguished when the celebrated day of the Translation of the Supreme Confessor himself had dawned, which on the fifth day before the Ides of July is accustomed to represent the annual and delightful feast. Likewise, those who violated this feast are reported to have been divinely punished in the last book of miracles, numbers 12 and 32, by an author not anonymous, as Boscius wrote, but the aforementioned Rudolf Tortarius, asserting that the Translation of Saint Benedict is celebrated with renown inscribed in the sacred calendars, not only among the Gauls but also among many nations; indeed, the power of fire was suspended on the same feast, as is recorded at number 42. The same solemnity is mentioned in very many Martyrologies at the said 11th day of July. In the genuine codex of Bede one reads: The Deposition of Saint Benedict the Abbot. Usuard however has it thus: The Translation of Saint Benedict the Abbot. The same is inserted in other Martyrologies. Ado and Notker add more from the history of the Translation. Wandelbert comprises the matter in these verses:

Then the tomb of the blessed Father Benedict, translated from The Beneventan mountains, the deep Loire now honors.

[8] From old Fleury, the body of Saint Scholastica is said to have been brought to the city of Le Mans; another feast on December 4 but the body of Saint Benedict was first placed in the church of Saint Peter at Fleury, afterward, on account of a light appearing before the front of the church of the blessed Mother of God, Mary, it was buried there on the day before the Nones of December. Concerning the devout observance of this day, Adrevald relates at number 22: The solemn feast of the holy Confessor of Christ, Benedict, was at hand, which by ancient custom is celebrated each year on the day before the Nones of December, when a gathering of many peoples, on account of the memory of so great a Father, is accustomed to stream to the monastery. Behold the ancient custom of this celebration, whose origin the above-indicated Diederic, asked by Abbot Richard of Fulda, wrongly transferred to the time when, after the incursion of the Normans, the body was brought back from Orleans to Fleury. The very day, he says in chapter 8, concerning this return, is known to be the day before the Nones of December, on which, as long as the sphere of this world revolves, the honor and memory of so great a glory is solemnly celebrated throughout all Gaul. And in chapter 10, this festivity is called the Bringing or Return. But why should it not be so called because the body was brought by Saint Mummolus, after the appearance of the light, into the church of the Mother of God, Mary? This solemnity, after two hundred years — when Adrevald was writing during the time of the Norman persecution — ancient custom could have introduced. Rudolf Tortarius, book 5 of the Miracles, number 33, calls it the entombment of Saint Benedict, which in the days of the Lord's Advent is annually observed with reverence throughout all Gaul. So too Diederic in his Preface testifies that this festivity is celebrated in the days of the Lord's Advent. The sacred observance of this day is inscribed in many ancient Martyrologies, such as those of Corbie, Centula, Liessies, also inscribed in Martyrologies, Liege, Reichenau, Labbe's, and various ones under the name of Usuard and Bede, in which it is generally called the deposition, arrival, or translation of Saint Benedict. In a manuscript of Ado from the monastery of Saint Lawrence at Liege, our opinion is confirmed thus: On the same day, the translation of Saint Benedict to Fleury from the church of Saint Peter, in which he had been brought by Mummolus. In a manuscript of Anchin: At the monastery of Fleury, the second entombment of Saint Benedict the Abbot. So also in the manuscript of Usuard of the Queen of Sweden it is called the entombment. A manuscript Florarium has this: On the same day, the translation or bringing of Saint Benedict the Abbot at Fleury from the church of Saint Peter, in which he had been brought by Mummolus in the year of Salvation 651, concerning which bringing miraculous deeds of his are written and a solemnity is celebrated. A manuscript of Saint Martin at Tournai: On the same day, at Orleans in the village called Fleury, the bringing of Saint Benedict, Abbot and monk, at whose coming the trees there are reported to have blossomed. Diederic adds a second miracle about ice spontaneously melting beneath the body of Saint Benedict. Both prodigies are related below by Rudolf Tortarius after the first Translation. Content with that narrative, we omit what was written by Diederic, since it is mostly fabricated and can be read in Boscius. Arnold Wion and others consider the said December 4 to be sacred to Saint Benedict because a part of the body of Saint Benedict, brought from Cassino to Gaul by Aigulf, as Wion had said at July 11, was returned to Cassino. Since these things are not approved by the Cassinese themselves, we have judged they should not be refuted by us at greater length.

Section III. The history of miracles that occurred at Fleury, written by various authors.

[9] The history of miracles wrought at Fleury through the invocation of Saint Benedict, The history of miracles was written: book 1 by Adrevald, around the year 870, Boscius divided into four books; we add a fifth. The first is attributed to Adrevald, written after the year 870, as we demonstrated a little above. The second and third were composed by Aimoinus, himself also a monk of Fleury, with a preface addressed to his Abbot Gauzlin, ordained around the year 1005, and then in the year 1013 created Archbishop for governing the Church of Bourges. This is that Aimoinus who composed the History of the Franks in four books, 2 and 3 by Aimoinus in the year 1005, and ends it with the Translation of Saint Benedict from Italy to his monastery of Fleury, appending a poem in heroic meter in which he comprises the entire history of the Translation; all of which are published in volume 3 of the Writers of the History of the Franks edited by Chesne. His also is the sermon to be read on the feasts of Saint Benedict, inserted in the Bibliotheca Floriacensis from page 270 to page 298. It contains various testimonies of others concerning Saint Benedict. But the fourth book of miracles, which we give in fifth place, Boscius calls the work of an anonymous old author, a learned monk of Fleury, 4, for us 5, not by Aimoinus, which book he found after the first three without the author's name in a very ancient membranous codex of the monastery of Fleury. He adds, however, at the head of chapter 22 of book 2, that some conjecture that Aimoinus is also the author of this book; which cannot in any way be sustained, because at number 22 of the said book 4, the Crusade of the Count of Poitou, undertaken in the year 1101, is reported, and at number 27 the fire at Fleury in the year 1095 is narrated, when Aimoinus had already been dead for seventy or eighty years. But the author of this book reveals himself as the above-indicated Rudolf Tortarius in his Poem on the miracles of Saint Benedict, but Rudolf Tortarius, where he has all the same things with this preface:

What recently in prose, I now set forth in verse, The deeds by which our Father has shown his glory.

[10] We found this poem and various other works of his in a very ancient codex of the Queen of Sweden, the same published poems on Marvels, marked number 1640. Prefixed were nine books on Marvels, composed in several thousand distichs on kingdoms, wars, triumphs, on examples of virtues and vices, on things wisely said and done, and the like, of all of which we give the Prologue here:

While leisure permits and the mind is not driven by greedy cares, While the spirit is withdrawn from sluggish waves, I have resolved to pluck flowers from the vernal meadows in verse, With my thumb, my friend, for you. Here I have written for you prodigies, miracles, dreams, Here I have written of memorable things. Things rightly, perversely, or craftily said or done I have told, which have happened by varied fate. You urge to fame, O Clio, who first the poet,

Be present from Helicon at my beginnings.

There followed eleven letters to various persons, of which the first, to Guarnerius Burdo, begins thus: and various letters,

Receive the written greeting, Guarnerius Burdo, Which Tortus directs to you, bearing his name.

The second is to Bernard, with this beginning:

For your merits, Bernard, a few words of greeting Rudolf himself, your own, notes down.

[11] In third place were read the Acts of the life and martyrdom of Saint Maurus the African, The Life of Saint Maurus the Martyr, of which Boscius published the last part on the Translation of the body to the monastery of Fleury, from page 349, with this concluding formula indicating the year 1117 in which these things were written:

Sacred Maurus, in merits, hear the prayers of the suppliant, What the humble Tortarius gave, accept the gift, May a thousand of his verses cancel a thousand of his sins, And seven and ten with a hundred cleanse the rest.

There was added a hymn in Sapphic meter on the same Saint Maurus, which Boscius confesses he could not read in the Fleury codex on account of the thinness and antiquity of the membranes, page 355, where he makes Rudolf of Fleury the author of the hymn — wrongly considering him different from Tortarius, under whose name he published the aforementioned Translation of Saint Maurus. Finally, in the last place were the Acts, Translation, and Miracles of Saint Benedict, whose excessive bulk prevents us from giving them here. And the Life of Saint Benedict, Their prologue begins thus:

Receive, my Fulco, the quatrains I send to you; Read through the deeds of the Lawgiving Father. These I, Rudolf, have written for you, my delightful friend, That mention of you might be made in my books.

From this poem we give the fourth book of miracles, number 46, from which we give the fourth book of Miracles, which Andrew, a monk, had previously composed in prose, and which we have found nowhere until now. Rudolf Tortarius makes mention of this Andrew in book 5, chapter 35, with these words: In the not inconsiderable portion of the Father at Castellio, where the blessed Confessor Possennus (about whom Andrew also reported many things in his writings) ... the clemency of the Almighty demonstrates many miracles. Then follows the fifth book of miracles, written by the same Rudolf. We have collated the miracles published by Boscius with other manuscripts. The remaining books collated with manuscripts. The narrative of Adrevald we have had in manuscript codices and in various places more correct, especially those of Marchiennes, Gigny, and Patriziacum. Some things are in the codex of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden marked number 1466. But the miracles written by Aimoinus, which are published as books 2 and 3, we give from the manuscripts of Patriziacum and Fleury; and from the latter the final book, to which we add an Appendix from the said Patriziacum codex. Finally we subjoin both what Boscius left in writing about the Preservation of the body when Fleury was plundered by the Calvinists, Other things are subjoined here. and what was done in the new Translation of May 13 in the year 1663; and lastly, with the letter of Abbot Oderisius of Cassino to Abbot William and the monks of Fleury, written six hundred years ago, we conclude the entire matter.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION

Of Saints Benedict and Scholastica into Gaul.

By Adalbert, a monk of Fleury.

From various manuscript codices.

Benedict, Abbot and Founder of the Order, at Cassino in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 1117

BY ADALBERT. FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

The occasion of Saint Aigulf and others sent to Italy. The journey to Rome and Cassino.

[1] When the Lombard nation had long refused to abandon the darkness of its unbelief, and, refusing to bear the yoke of the Lord, had resolved to attack those who bore it, By the pagan Lombards, it came to Italy for the purpose of attacking the name of Christ and subjugating it to its own dominion. The hidden judgment of God delivered its inhabitants to its sword to be struck down. This nation, extending the cruelty of its slaughter far and wide, set about attacking the province of Benevento, leveling its cities to the ground, depopulating monasteries and estates, and inflicting no small slaughter on Christians. For, tearing the Lord's sheep, driven from their folds, with various slaughter, it overthrew the Lord's sheepfolds, so that places formerly desirable seemed to have been turned into the desolation of a wilderness. The monastery of Cassino devastated, Whence, among its other crimes, devastating the monastery of the illustrious Father Benedict, stripping it of all its possessions, it rendered it uninhabitable. How this happened is clear to anyone who reads the second book of the Dialogues of Blessed Gregory, who, having pursued all the works of this most holy man in a lucid style, among other things narrates that he knew by the spirit of prophecy and foretold that the same monastery would be overthrown, all its possessions having been taken away.

[2] In Gaul, with the support of Clovis II After this overthrow had been accomplished, and many years having elapsed, the same place, reduced to a desert, began to be the habitation of wild beasts rather than of men, until the governance of the kingdom of the Franks was obtained by Clovis, son of Dagobert, who, as he was a most noble man, was remarkably skilled in the administration of public affairs. This same King, since he excelled in distinguished character and gave assent to just petitions and those suited to the service of God, was petitioned by Leodebodus of blessed memory, father of the monastery of Saint Anianus, which is situated near the walls of the city of Orleans, that he be permitted to construct a monastery suitable for the monastic Order in the territory of Fleury, giving in mutual exchange for the same territory estates which he possessed by hereditary right, left to him by his parents; for that same territory, namely that of Fleury, was then a royal estate. Having heard these things, the King most willingly assented to his requests and ordered that his desire, which had long grown through delay, be fulfilled. Therefore mutual exchanges were made by both parties, the aforesaid Abbot giving what had been left to him by his parents as an estate, and the aforesaid King, in reciprocal exchange for it, a certain small field called Fleury with its dependencies, not far from the bank of the Loire; which document of mutual exchange is preserved to this day in the public archives of our monastery. The monastery of Fleury is built: The aforesaid man of the Lord, Leodebodus, having accomplished this business, by no means forgetful of the purpose of his desire, began to build on the aforesaid small field dwellings useful for monks. Applying himself to this work with sagacious industry, he completed it with wonderful effect, and building there a church in honor of Saint Peter and another in honor of Saint Mary, he wished them to be dedicated to the Lord. Soon then, lest the prepared habitation be empty and without inhabitants, he gathered there a great many persons ready to live under the norm of the Rule in the service of the Lord, and appointed over them a Father and Abbot named Mummolus, who, as long as he was among the living, as a fitting shepherd diligently showed care for the flock committed to him.

[3] Therefore, with the passage of time and the rolling of the years, when the above-mentioned Leodebodus, freed from the body, had departed, as we believe, to heavenly abodes, [The aforementioned Abbot Saint Mummolus sends Saint Aigulf to Cassino by divine revelation:] the aforementioned Mummolus, keeping most excellently the watch over the flock committed to him and assiduously devoting himself to reading, found among other things in the books of the blessed and most excellent Gregory, Bishop of Rome, how the holy and God-beloved Benedict had completed the course of his struggle in the province of Benevento. Remembering that the same venerable Father, admonished by a divine oracle and foreseeing future disasters, had predicted that that monastery would be utterly overthrown — and what that one had seen with spiritual eyes, this one beheld accomplished with fleshly vision — he sent to the aforesaid province one of his fellow soldiers named Aigulf, a monk. For he said that it had been divinely revealed to him that the aforesaid man should go there and transfer the body of the said Benedict. For this same Aigulf was a venerable man and eager to please God in every way; and how great his sanctity and virtue were, his end proved, in which all praise is safely sung. For, while he excelled in good works, and was sought at the monastery of Lerins on account of his devotion to good works, to remain there for some time as an example, he suffered attacks from enemies of the divine religion and attained even the palm of martyrdom, whose Passion is also in our possession.

[4] Meanwhile, a vision not unlike this one appeared in the city of Le Mans, Some companions from Le Mans are joined to the journey, namely that they too should go to the same province and transfer the body of the sister of Saint Benedict, named Scholastica, so that those whom one urn held together might be shown to be transferred together. When therefore both sides labored so that they might not be found sluggish executors of this manifest vision, after only a few days the hearers of the divine oracle, having departed from the aforementioned city of Le Mans, were making their way on the road leading to Italy. Turning aside to the monastery of Fleury for the sake of lodging, they found the aforesaid venerable Aigulf, obedient to the commands of his Abbot, about to undertake the same journey. Therefore, by common decree, they resolved to accomplish together the work they had begun, and, joined together, they adhered inseparably to one another until, arriving at Rome, they entered the church of the Blessed Apostle Peter to pray. But when in the same city they separated from one another under the pretext of visiting the holy places — but, as the truth of the matter has it, intending to accomplish the business they had begun — He comes to Rome, the aforementioned Aigulf, meanwhile setting aside those things he had openly shown he wished to do, namely the tours of the holy places, applied himself to the expedition, striving to accomplish as quickly as possible the holy command that had been entrusted to him. At length, therefore, he arrived at the place of the fortress that is called Cassino, and, separated from the others, to Cassino, and there, putting an end to his journey for a short time, he awaited the outcome of the matter, praying to him who had deigned to reveal the vision set forth above, and who had destined him for this work, that he would not wish so great a journey to be undertaken in vain, but as he had promised, would deign to reveal to him the container of his treasure.

a Around the year 589.

d In the year 644.

Benedict expunged as fictitious; which however is found complete in Surius under the 3rd day of September, on which Saint Aigulf is venerated.

CHAPTER II.

The bodies of Saints Benedict and Scholastica received and brought to Gaul.

[5] While he wandered about the area, therefore, looking for some sign, and the keen observer rolled his gaze hither and thither, Instructed by an old man, a certain man of many years, seeing him frequently doing this, first addressed him thus: Ho there, he said, from what shores have you come to our dwelling, and for the sake of what business? To this the man did not dare to reveal to his questioner the secret entrusted to him; but when he was questioned a second time about the same matter, yet feared to divulge the business, he heard these words from the same old man: Why, he said, do you not make me a partner of your secret? For if you fear the scandal of a betrayer, be at ease; in me you will find sure fidelity. And if you lend credence to my words, it will perhaps also be profitable to your business. When the aforesaid servant of God had taken these things in with his ears, considering that in the aged is wisdom and knowledge of past things, and also reckoning — as the outcome of the matter afterward proved — that the Lord had sent him ahead for this very purpose, he wove for his questioner in order the history of the matter: why he had come, and what vision had been shown to him on account of this affair. At this the old man, fixing his gaze on the ground for a short time and suppressing his voice within his throat, at last opened his lips thus: If you repay me the fitting rewards that are owed for such a service, with God's favor I think I can quickly bring the business to a successful conclusion, so that, having accomplished the things for which you undertook the labor of so great a journey, you may return triumphant to your own land. When the man of the Lord had heard the words of this speaker, he said: There shall be no difficulty in giving the reward; I will certainly give everything you ask of me. Only remember your promise and repay your words with deeds. To this the man replied: When you see the hours of the light-fleeing night and the boundary of the dead of night approaching, do not indulge in rest even for a moment; but leaving the hidden parts of your shelter, be an untiring watchman under the naked vault of the sky. And when you see some place of this solitude shining with the brightest light, like a snow-white mountain, mark the place with a sure mind; for there is to be found that which will put an end to your quest.

[6] The aforesaid man therefore, giving faith to the words, but burning with desire, having taken a first rest of sleep on his bed, shook himself awake and proved himself no sluggish obeyer of the old man's instructions. For gazing toward the region of the aforesaid wilderness, he saw in the distance a place gleaming with bright light, as when some place is flooded with lights and dense torches. At the sight of these things, the reverend hero, filled with great joy, blessing the Governor of the world and Ruler of the ages, awaited the end of the night amid those same praises. When he had waited long He sees the place of burial illuminated by a nocturnal light: and the sun's globe had not yet filled the broad spaces of the world with its radiance, he hastened intrepidly to the place whose location he had noted. There, finding everything as he had long desired, he rendered innumerable thanks to the Prosperer of his journey. For coming to the place, he found there a coffin, outwardly indeed plain, The bodies of Saints Benedict and Scholastica recognized by their inscriptions, but inwardly containing pearls of great price. On the outside, moreover, inscriptions had been affixed to the stone placed over it, identifying those whose remains lay within. Having found these things as he had long desired, with the side opened and the casket emptied, he enclosed the discovered treasure in the fold of a single basket, He places them in a basket, which basket is kept among us to this day as though new. When all these things had been accomplished, his companions, whom our account above mentioned had set out from the city of Le Mans, unexpectedly arrived, seeking for themselves and not long frustrated of the blessing they sought. Then for the first time they revealed to each other the reason for their journey — namely that they too, admonished by divine revelation, had gone to bring back the body of Blessed Scholastica. And returns with the people of Le Mans to Gaul. Then, immediately setting out on the return journey with haste, they took care to go back together quickly, carrying the most precious pearls they had found by divine gift.

[7] As the bearers of the sacred bodies of Benedict and his sister Saint Scholastica were swiftly returning and now approaching the borders of their own territory, a voice brought from heaven through the deep silence of the night forbade them to make delays in their journey. At the same hour, a certain attendant appeared to the Roman Pope in a vision and seemed to address him thus: Why does idle sleep deny you, The Roman Pontiff pursues them with the Lombards, in these pressing times, leaving your bed, the guardianship of your province? And why, neglecting public interests, do you involve yourself in private affairs? For, as I say, and that it may be evident, know that you are lacking the patronage of great men — namely Benedict and his sister Scholastica, whose bodies certain men, having come here from the shores of Gaul, are carrying there to be buried. Having heard these things, the Roman Pontiff immediately left the choir, called for arms and companions, and attempted to pursue those departing, joined by the auxiliaries of the Lombards. Therefore the servants of God, having received this vision and fearing the sorrowful approach of some calamity, looked back and saw themselves being followed by enemies. Then, filled with fear and cast down upon the ground, they besought him who had deigned to reveal to them the bodies of his servants, that he would command them to be carried to the appointed place. To their prayers the divine mercy was pleased to assent; for the power of the Almighty so concealed them in the density of darkness They are protected by interposed dense darkness: that while nothing could harm them, their pursuers were deprived of every ability to find them. And thus the servants of God, with the fear of evil removed, quickly returned.

[8] At last, therefore, although laboriously yet safely, the great journey having been completed, they turned aside at a small estate called Bonodium, situated in the territory of Orleans, compelled by weariness. At Bonodium, a blind man is given sight. At this place, while they indulged in a little rest, behold, a certain person born without eyes from his mother's womb arrived and with loud cries of mouth and faith implored the Saint to grant him the light that nature had denied. While he persisted in these cries, at a brief interval and scarcely one hour having passed, the darkness of blindness was dispelled and he began to behold the light long denied him, and to extol with great cries of praise the Giver thereof and at the same time Blessed Benedict. It pleased the divinity also to add another miracle in the same place, to show how great the sanctity of him whose body was being carried. For a certain cripple, who could not walk upright And a cripple healed, but dragged himself crawling along the ground (since he was deprived of the use of all his limbs), came imploring help from almighty God through his servant Benedict. And so in a wondrous way the sinews, long contracted, began to stretch out, and the long-dry channels of the veins began to be moistened by the flowing of blood. And thus, by God's will, having received strength, he joyfully stood upon his feet and blessed his Healer with loud cries. This place retains to this day a church dedicated to the Lord in honor of Blessed Benedict. A church is built in honor of Saint Benedict:

[9] When they decided to move from that place, they came to another small estate, about fifteen hundred paces from the monastery to which they were heading, called Novavilla. At Novavilla a blind man sees. There also, when they chose to rest a while, a certain blind man came to meet them, who with great and fierce impetuosity seized the basket in which the ashes of the blessed man were being carried. The man of the Lord, Aigulf, endeavored to correct him with moderate reproof and to recall him from his unlawful presumption. But that man, saddened by the loss of his sight, replied that he could in no way be torn from it until he recovered his sight at once; and he declared that he was of such great faith that whatever he asked, Saint Benedict, with the Lord granting it to him, could bestow. And so it happened; for the glorious merits of so weighty a faith and so exalted a man were not absent. After this, when no delay was made in their journey, companies of monks with the people of the territory of Orleans came to meet them, At Old-Fleury on July 11 the solemnity of the Translation is celebrated. a mile from the monastery in the village called Old Fleury; and there with joy and gladness and great honor they received the bodies of the aforesaid Saints on the fifth day before the Ides of July. In that same place on that day they celebrated that same solemnity with immense joy in the praises of God.

CHAPTER III.

The dispute over the body of Saint Scholastica. It is brought to Le Mans. The body of Saint Benedict is deposited at Fleury.

[10] While they were lingering there, the people of the city of Le Mans (whose citizens, as we said above, The people of Le Mans seek the body of Saint Scholastica, had gone to bring back the body of Blessed Scholastica) arrived, going out to meet their fellow citizens, whom they rejoiced to have sent for carrying back the heavenly treasure. But when, coming to the aforesaid place, they learned the truth of the matter and all the deeds of the venerable Aigulf, they asked him to grant them the promised gift, shown to them by God. But that same venerable man replied that he by no means wished to separate the bodies of the holy siblings from each other; but as they had been known to have been buried together in the first tomb, so he testified that he wished to place them inseparably in the second. Then all the nobles and wise men contradicted these words, saying it was not just that those whom the divine will had made participants in the heavenly oracle, and who had gone together to the resting place of the holy bodies, and who had been equal in undertaking the labor, should not also share equally in the fruits of that labor. Above all, they said it was not fitting that the narrow confines of one place should contain two great luminaries, when each place could be content with one. At length, therefore, the oft-mentioned venerable Aigulf gave assent to the counsels of the venerable men and decreed that he himself with his companions should keep the body of Saint Benedict, while he would send his companions with the body of his venerable sister. But since it was uncertain how the bones could be distinguished, The sacred bones are separated, which the fold of one little basket held in a jumbled state, the difficulty of distinguishing them having arisen, they came to this plan: that the smaller bones should be placed separately, while the larger ones should be gathered on the other side. When therefore

the one making the division hesitated and nothing certain could be determined, it pleased the Divinity to put an end to this uncertain judgment in the following manner. A boy is raised to life at the bones of Saint Benedict For when both peoples had besought the Divinity with continuous prayers throughout the night for the resolution of so great a matter, in the morning the funeral rites of two small children's corpses were seen in the distance, of whom one was of the male sex, the other female. Therefore, taking salutary counsel, they ordered the lifeless bodies to be brought to them. When this had been done, they had the body of the male child placed near the bones that appeared to be of greater size. And in wondrous fashion, as soon as the dead touched the dead bones of the deceased, through the dead person life was restored to the dead. They likewise decided that the body of the dead girl should be placed near the smaller bones. But God, wishing to demonstrate that those who were being carried were truly siblings, And a girl at the bones of Saint Scholastica, just as they were equal in the one generation of the flesh and in one and the same time, so he willed them to be equal in the miracle — so that the girl rose from the office of burial at the same hour, and she who was being carried to the grave by weeping friends returned home with those same friends now rejoicing. For this ancient and unprecedented miracle after the deed of Elisha is known to have been recalled, because the hand of almighty God, in order to show that Blessed Benedict was not inferior in merit to either new or ancient Fathers, raised him to equality with the works of the Prophets; and the truthful voice of Truth is fulfilled as it promises: He who believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do. 4 Kings 15:21 John 10:12 All therefore with joyful hearts and great voices blessed the Lord, who had deigned to reveal what had been hidden from them more clearly than light. Therefore, with all ambiguous judgment about distinguishing the bodies, which had long occupied their minds, removed, the people of Le Mans turned with salutary intent to the body of Blessed Scholastica. Lifting it up with the greatest speed and placing it on their shoulders, they carried it with joy to its proper place. These are brought to Le Mans There a church was built at great expense, and when all things necessary for women serving God had been arranged, within a short space of time very many noblewomen were gathered in that same monastery, who, having left the world, devoted themselves to the Lord's service. And that same monastery is honored by the Lord to this day with great displays of miracles.

[11] But Abbot Mummolus and the venerable Aigulf took up the body of Saint Benedict, The body of Saint Benedict is placed in the church of Saint Peter at Fleury: which they held to have been given to them by God, as appeared from certain signs, and deposited it in the church of Blessed Peter for safekeeping. Keeping it with the greatest care, they conferred among themselves in what place of the same monastery they should bury it, in accord with the divine will. No small doubt had seized their minds about this matter. But God, who in his kind mercy had decreed that the body of the holy man be transferred from the former place, provided a suitable place for burial in the next. For when, as has been said, the blessed Mummolus had long been thinking about this matter and seeking useful counsel, in the dead of night, seeking the customary stolen moments of prayer, leaving his bed, going out of the dormitory as was his habit, he began under the open sky to pray among other things that divine mercy might suggest to him a salutary plan as to in what place he should lay the most holy remains. The merciful ear of the Almighty, which is accustomed to hear his servants when they ask for just things, was present at these prayers. For a light suddenly sent from heaven, burning like a torch before the front of the church of the blessed Mother of God, Mary, was seen to extend to that place where the body is now buried. On account of an appearing light, it is buried in another place, When the man of the Lord, Mummolus, saw this sight, setting aside all doubt, he most certainly believed that this was a suitable place for laying the remains of the holy man. Therefore, setting aside gnawing cares and giving full faith to the vision, in the same place that had been shown to him, with great care improved and adorned, on the day before the Nones of December, with immense honor and divine praises, he took care to render humble earth to earth of great value, and covered with a poor urn the heavenly treasure. It shines with miracles, For how beloved to God and how precious that treasure is, the innumerable healings of the weak in body and especially the cures of souls testify, which to this day are granted by the Lord to mortals in honor of so great a man. But that very place also — what its nobility is — can be understood from the deeds of the blessed man. For when the same man had shown him a machine in the shape of a sphere, it must be believed that he loved above all places the one to which he foreknew his own bones would be transferred, leaving their own abode; in which place so many miracles are known to have been shown to this day that, if they were written, they would require their own book, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In a hymn of the Cluniac Breviary, page 378, two miracles are appended, as also in the manuscript poem of Rudolf Tortarius, from which we give them.

After the entombed remains, what our pious Patron accomplished, Here likewise I gather on this one little page. The river Loire, bound by ice in the season of winter, Provides a shifting path for the holy Lawgiver. A ship carries the body over the ice without an oarsman. They place on a ship without an oarsman the remains of the Master, Which cuts through the opposing river and ice. Fleury blossoms, a village beautiful to behold. At the Father's entrance, the light was a refuge. Trees blossom in winter. Hence it took its name; whose former appellation Was Golden-Valley, because it is rich in soil.

MIRACLES OF SAINT BENEDICT

Benedict, Abbot and Founder of the Order, at Cassino in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 1123, 1124, 1125, 1129

BY ADREVALD.

BOOK I.

By Adrevald, monk of Fleury.

From manuscripts and John Bosco.

PROLOGUE.

That the supreme and illustrious glory of the Kingdom of Italy was treated and published with such earnestness by the most powerful intellects of ancient authors is established, Description of Italy so that nothing can now be found that the diligence of our predecessors has not already anticipated. For to the most outstanding writers, the excellent subject matter of that praiseworthy land seemed to supply abundant material: namely, the mildness of the sky, the healthfulness of its locations, the fertility of the soil, the most abundant shade of its forests, the sunniness of its hills, the overflowing abundance of olives and vines, the charm of its new cities, the beauty of its ancient towns, the fortunate flow of its noble rivers, and the most opulent glory of all things together. But although so great an abundance of power and most fitting vigor was attributed to Italy by the efforts of the ancients, yet the extent of the whole country, stretching out in various directions, demands to be observed with careful consideration. For the blessings of not merely one single region seem to be encompassed by so great praise; rather, all the beauty of the country and the felicity of the kingdom is perceived in a brief summary, as if in a kind of compendium, bound together. And since the very magnitude of the Italian kingdom, which was once called In it the Roman Empire, Magna Graecia (because its cities and strongholds for the most part owed their origins to Greek founders), estimated in an equal balance of length and breadth, exceeds its breadth by no small measure in length, it is like an oak leaf, which exceeds its breadth in height. Yet, having become the mother of very many provinces, it embraces them all in its most sweet bosom. But the distinguished power of the Roman Empire, The Roman Empire in it, while wishing to restrain the subjugated world by the law of conquest from rebellion, deemed it fitting to divide the most ample territories of kingdoms, which extend considerably through Asia, Europe, and Africa, into provinces and colonies, and so to establish them as tributary by interposing legions. Among which Italy also, the greatest of the kingdoms of the Western zone, having undergone division, produced from itself eighteen provinces, of which the most distinguished of all, Valeria, and Nursia adjoining it, lies between Umbria, Campania, and Picenum, looking eastward toward the border of the Samnites, but marking its own boundary with Etruria. Since therefore, as we have mentioned, it superabounds most richly in singular nobility and in the produce of all good things, and is found in ancient times to be the nurturer of most exalted men, yet it was able to surpass itself by one most lofty offspring, Happy in the birth of Saint Benedict, when it produced the birth of the most blessed Father Benedict, to be desired by all mortals.

PART I.

Life and history of the Translation of Saint Benedict.

Kind Reader, we divide this book of Adrevald into two parts, of which the first contains seventeen chapters according to the division of Boscius, in which are described the Life of Saint Benedict with the appended mission of Saint Maurus to Gaul, where many digressions in no way coherent with each other or with the Life of Saint Benedict, about Supreme Pontiffs, Emperors, and Kings, are inserted; all of which are evident to the eyes of all scholars. Let them only consider the miserable condition of the last kings of the Merovingian dynasty — that these, placed under the Prefects of the Palace, went wherever they needed to go in a cart, drawn by oxen yoked together and driven by a cowherd in rustic fashion. Thus they would go to the palace, thus to the public assembly of the people, which was celebrated annually for the welfare of the kingdom, thus they would return home, etc. Who does not see how stupid and rotten these fictions are? That in chapter 14 he reports that Saints Eucharius and Boniface showed to Carloman in bodily visions the damnation of his father Charles Martel — we refuted this as an old wives' tale in the Life of Saint Eucherius on February 20, section 5. Omitting therefore this part, which can be read in Boscius, if indeed it ever deserves to be examined, we begin with the miracles with a new chapter division, because we could not find in the manuscript codices the one that is read in Boscius.

PART II

Miracles of Saint Benedict.

CHAPTER I.

Counts Rado and Hodo miserably perish for afflicting Fleury: a privilege defended.

[1] When King Pippin had departed to heavenly things, as we believe, his sons Charles and Carloman assumed the administration of the kingdom. Then Charles...having entrusted the care of the kingdom to certain of his servants, freed from the debt of the treasury, and first of all he appointed Raho as Count over the people of Orleans, Sturminus over those of Bourges, Bertmund over those of the Auvergne, and placed others over other places as he saw fit. But Raho, as the obligation of his nature demanded, Raho summons the Abbot intending to kill him: growing insolent with excessive

cunning and rendered even more cruel by greed, when he saw that all things that the territory of Orleans seemed to contain were subject to him, with only the monastery of Saint Benedict excepted, which was then governed by Abbot Radulfus, he formed a plan, having killed the Abbot, to seize the aforesaid monastery — which he would have carried out in haste, had not the most indulgent mercy of the Creator disposed to set himself against so great a crime. Relying, therefore, on confidence in accomplishing his wickedness, he sent one of his retainers to the King to announce that Abbot Radulfus was dead; and almost immediately afterward sent another to summon Abbot Radulfus to a mutual conference. The envoy directed to the King hastened his journey and came to the palace, carried out his orders, and then lingered at the palace for some time while the business was still unfinished. But Abbot Radulfus, mounting his horses, hastened with a few companions to the conference with his deceitful friend. But while the Abbot was making his way, the Count had entered the bath and was attending to the care of his body. While he was still sitting in the bath, the Abbot entered the monastery of Saint Gundulf, for the Count was then staying there, and happened to meet a certain dwarf named Guaringisus, who served the Count with jests. This man, indicating to the Abbot the Count's ambush with both gestures and words, urged him to seek the help of flight. And so the Abbot, turning his step, Upon whose flight spurring his horse and racing at full speed, made for the bed of the Loire, and boarding a boat, crossed to the nearer bank and was most quickly received at the monastery. Meanwhile the Count was informed that Abbot Radulfus had been present there but had swiftly departed. The Count, seeing that he had been most keenly forestalled by the Abbot and that no room remained for his malice and deceit, stirred by excessive gall, like a wicked servant leaped from the bath, wrapped himself in a linen cloth, and threw himself on his bed to rest for a little while, with his concubine Deutheria sitting at his head. As he sank into a deeper slumber, a certain old man appeared in a vision, wearing the monastic habit, followed by a boy of the same habit, Struck by the appearing Saint Benedict and addressed him thus: O Count, what have I deserved that you wanted to kill my Abbot? When the Count responded with a denial that he had ever wished to kill his Abbot, the other, looking at him with a stern countenance and striking his head with the curved staff he carried, said: By this head I swear, you will repent of this deed, to no avail, most quickly. Roused by this blow, he leaped from the bed, furious in spirit, and burst out saying: Woe is me, woe is me! Now I am dying. When the terrified bystanders asked what reason there was for his uttering such words as if out of his mind, pale and trembling he replied to those who inquired: While I was resting in bed, Saint Benedict appeared, adorned with venerable white hair, followed by a small boy, himself also a monk, and began to complain against me, asking why I wished to kill his Abbot. When I replied to him that I had in no way wished to kill his Abbot, he struck my head violently with the staff he carried and rendered me close to death, also threatening that I would very quickly repent of this deed, to no avail. Saying these things, as the pain quickly penetrated his innards, on the following night, he dies miserably, joining the death of the soul to the death of the body, he hurled his most wretched soul to the depths of hell by the ministry of the shades. But Abbot Radulfus, having learned of his swift yet belated death, sent an envoy to announce to the King both his own survival and the fatal obsequies of Raho, giving thanks to God and to his benefactor, guardian, and protector, the most holy Benedict.

[2] By royal munificence, a privilege had been granted to this most sacred monastery by the earlier Frankish Kings, through the instrument of their own decree, A ship of Fleury forcibly detained, that four ships, immune from all debt to the treasury, might travel along the bed of the Loire. When, therefore, in the time of the aforesaid Count, one of these ships, for the purpose of transporting salt, had reached the city of Nantes, and on its return, safe by royal decree, was passing through all the ports and cities of the route, it arrived at the city of Orleans. There the ship was detained by the toll-collectors of the city, and the captain was subjected to questioning for the sake of the duty. When he protested the royal grant, the tax collector, contemning the royal authority, subjected the ship laden with salt to the treasury and committed it along with the other ships to the harbormaster. The day on which these things were taking place was a Sunday, but around the third hour of the day, while everyone was occupied with the celebration of Mass, the ship, which was being held with the others in the royal harbor, suddenly, without a human oarsman, moved from the harbor It is directed without an oarsman. and made for the middle of the Loire, where the stronger force of the water is accustomed to run. There, strongly swimming against the opposing current, it arrived at the Postern, which to this day is called Saint Benedict's, and there it landed. People ran together from every side of the city to behold the unheard-of miracle, and marveling, they raised cries of wonder and encouragement: See, O citizens, behold how the new sailor, the Lord's beloved Benedict, without a mortal oarsman steers his own ship amid the waves! The audacity of all the collectors of the treasury was thereupon confounded, and they restrained themselves from this folly in the future.

[3] When Charles Augustus, the Great Emperor of the Franks, departed this life, his son Louis assumed the governance of the empire, Under Emperor Louis, in whose time, the kingdom of the Franks being worn down by various upheavals, the state of the Church seemed to be shaken by a great and heavy storm. For while the sons plotted various things against their father, as far as the appearance of the entire kingdom was concerned, an internal conflict arose. And while the father strove to deprive some of their honors on account of their merits and to heap others with wealth, and the sons in turn against their father endeavored to raise up those he had cast down and to cast down those he had elevated, they scattered their subjects hither and thither like a maritime tempest. For this reason the property of various Churches of Christ happened to suffer the most grievous losses. Among these, the Church of Orleans, with the adjacent holy places that seemed to exist under the governance of the Lord's clergy or monks, was afflicted with no small vexation. For when Count Matfrid, formerly Count of Orleans, had been deprived of his own honors on account of his fault of sluggishness, Hodo was substituted in his place. Count Hodo attempts to subject the Abbey of Fleury to himself: He, puffed up with grave insolence beyond his nature, endeavored to bring under his own power everything that was subject to the law of the Church of Orleans, excepting only the Cathedral, and also the Abbey of Saint Anianus and that of Saint Benedict. Seeing this, the monks of the monastery of Saint Benedict, having taken counsel and committing themselves solely to the mercy of the Lord, sent the greater part of their brethren to the aforesaid Count, who was raging with excessive tyranny, with the relics of the Saints, supplicating with every kind of prayer that he not incur so great a crime, and that he not transfer the properties assigned to the sacred Order to wicked uses, but rather that he permit the servants of God to freely administer the properties entrusted to them by the Lord. This petition availed nothing with him. At that time he had begun to prepare an expedition, with forces assembled from every quarter, against Lambert and Matfrid and their allies, residing in the region of Neustria, who had defected from the Emperor to Lothar. He had also ordered the venerable Bishop Jonas of Orleans and Abbot Boso of Saint Benedict's to participate in this expedition, whose properties he had unjustly claimed for himself. Meanwhile, auxiliaries from Upper Burgundy, hastening to that war, holding both banks of the Loire, were devastating everything with plunder. Abbot Boso, opposing their frenzy, ordered the boats of the port to be prepared and ready, so that if the people arriving from the upper regions held the nearer bank, the boatmen should carry all the property of the community of the monastery — consisting of larger and smaller livestock and other movable goods — across the river in the boats; but if they took the further road, the same thing should be done in reverse with the aforesaid goods, that is, carrying everything across to this side of the river. A man named Hercambaldus, a priest of good life and reputation, The Priest Hercambaldus who also led the Regular life in this same monastery, was put in charge of this business. He publicly professed with attestation of truth the things I have set myself to write, stating that he had learned them by his own most certain sight. For during the three days that the march of the army continued, the labor of the boatmen — or rather of the animals themselves — grew excessively, and likewise the fatigue from the sleepless watch prevailed greatly. The priest, worn out by the continuous vigils, around the twilight of the third night hurried home, and on the straw of a certain bed, overcome by the inability to resist sleep, threw himself down. As soon as he could snatch a little sleep, he saw in a vision someone standing before him in monastic garb, Saint Benedict appears: carrying a staff in his hand, followed by a boy of the same garb. The person kindly addressed the astonished priest: What is the matter, brother? Why do you lie here in such a way? The priest, gazing at the face of venerable aspect, said: Lord, it is known to you and to all how much Count Hodo and the people who support him inflict evil upon us and our household. Therefore, while I diligently watch over the task assigned to me by command of the Abbot with vigilant care, so that by the refuge of boats our household may be able to preserve its goods from plunderers, I threw myself, weighed down with sleep, upon this straw. But the elder, favoring the words of the priest, replied: I know what you say is true; but before I satisfy your most truthful complaints with a promise, I wish to raise a small objection. It is very remarkable why our brethren should reproach me with the fault of indolence, as if I had no care for their affliction and, as if oppressed by lethargy, were asleep regarding their relief — which certainly cannot be the case. For if you apply care to obeying the precepts of the Almighty and carry out the commands of the Rule given to you through me by God without sluggishness, He commends the mandates of the Rule, all adversities will become prosperity, enemies will be made friends, and the Bestower of all good things will deny his grace in nothing. Concerning this present injury of yours, know that the most merciful sentence of the Creator of all things has already been made favorable toward you, and that he who has unworthily taken up arms of tyranny against the Church shall not see the seventh sun pass He foretells that Hodo will be punished: before he incurs the penalty for this deed. Have confidence therefore in the Lord, and be strengthened in him. While the elder was uttering these delightful words, the priest was asking the boy by whatever gestures he could what the identity of this person of such great veneration might be. The boy, in a low voice, said: This is our Father, Saint Benedict.

[4] The oft-mentioned priest, therefore, when he realized that the most blessed Father was conversing with him in a vision, began — while all who were present watched — to stretch out his arms from the same bed, as if he could grasp the footsteps of the one he saw standing there; and at the same time he emitted anxious murmuring sounds that the bystanders could in no way understand. At last, awakened, darting his gaze hither and thither, in a suppliant and almost tearful voice he repeated once and twice: Where has my Lord, the holy Father Benedict, gone? I call to witness the Lord who knows all secrets: just now I saw him here in bodily form and he spoke to me. Without delay, the same priest, coming to the monastery, carefully related to the Fathers of that place everything he had learned by sight, the counsels of the most loving Father, and his exhortation. Who is killed in battle with others. Cheered by this report, the sorrowful brethren encouraged one another to give thanks to God, who protected those abandoned by human help with his accustomed defense. The promised days had not yet completed their course when behold, from the military camp a certain cleric named Hierardus, having escaped by flight, arrived at the monastery on the day after the exhausting battle, around the eighth hour of the day, and struck the entire community with terrible news. For he reported the most bloody slaughter of our men, that the hand of the adversaries was pressing on as victors, that all the troops with the auxiliaries assembled from all sides had dispersed hither and thither in flight, and that the leaders of the war — Hodo, his brother Count William of Blois, Teuto the Abbot of Saint Martin's, Count Guido of Le Mans, along with many other men of high reputation — had perished. Grievously afflicted by this news, the brethren devoted themselves most intently to beseeching the Lord for so great a slaughter of the Christian people. For although some of those who had been involved in so great a disaster and grave misfortune not merely oppressed but utterly appropriated in pagan fashion the properties subject to the law of the Church, nevertheless, by the affection of human nature, the hearts of the servants of God were shaken with grief, recalling what souls persisting in evil to their last light suffer among the dead, and by what torments those are tortured whose end of life merited a fatal reward. Wherefore, mindful of the divine precept that says: Pray for those who persecute and calumniate you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust — by common counsel they resolved to pour out prayers to the Lord for these persons, that even if they did not deserve to be freed from eternal punishments, at least they might be visited with milder penalties by the strict Judge.

CHAPTER II.

Fish obtained, a lame man healed: wicked judges and thieves punished.

[5] The solemn feast of the holy Confessor of Christ, Benedict, was at hand, which by ancient custom is celebrated each year on the day before the Nones of December; when a gathering of many peoples, on account of the memory of so great a Father, is accustomed to flow to the monastery, and in addition no inconsiderable number of servants of God and devout men. A custom proceeding from ancient times had held sway for a long time, For those celebrating the winter feast of Saint Benedict, that out of generosity, after the most abundant gift of spiritual refreshment, they would also most carefully refresh their bodies with earthly food. But while the preparation of various provisions suitable for this purpose flowed in from all sides, there was a complete lack of fish, which might add some grace to so great a celebration. The Abbot was very anxious, and so too the brethren assigned to provide for this duty. They sent in every direction, if somehow by any help they might be relieved from so great a shortage of fish. But human industry failing, and all being now in despair, In a time of scarcity, with downcast spirits having nothing to hope for, they were roused from this slumber of grief through the merits and intercession of the most renowned and truly Blessed one. For on the vigil of the aforesaid feast, a certain brother, lying according to custom on his own bed at night with the brethren, saw himself in a vision placed across the river Loire, and standing above the bank of that same small river at the place where a stream, called Obla in the common tongue, flows into the Loire. On the other bank of the aforesaid river he saw a certain cleric standing, of a face unknown to him but nevertheless venerable, who with the curved staff he carried, in the manner of ancient bishops, was driving out from the deep water a very great herd of swine and driving them with much noise toward the side where the aforesaid monk seemed to be standing. A vision made in sleep, The brother, awakened, after the completion of the nocturnal office, called the Dean of the monastery aside in secret and related the dream, and urged him to seek the river with the brethren, eager to fish; he said he knew for certain that the beloved soldier of Christ was about to bestow upon his fellow soldiers a most abundant catch of fish — for this is what the vision signified, since without doubt the swine meant fish, while the unknown person of venerable appearance portended the supreme Benedict. With the spirits of the brethren strengthened by this vision, they raced in eager competition with nets prepared to the river, and spreading their nets on all sides, a shoal of scaly fish was abundantly drawn from the water. An abundance of fish is procured. So great was the abundance of the fish caught that their transport required a wagon. And indeed the blessed Father knew how to relieve his recruits, clinging untiringly to the Lord's commands, with such benefits as these — he who, still burdened with his mortal load, was able to bring help to his disciples when they were suffering from a shortage of bread, by a gift of two hundred bushels of flour. If, therefore, he comforts bodies so greatly with earthly nourishment, how greatly do we suppose he strives to assist the salvation of souls, so that, laden with the fruits of good deeds, they may merit to enter rejoicing into the joys of eternal happiness?

[6] As the report spread throughout the world that the effectual grace of Christ would be present to all mortals suffering bodily infirmity In the concourse of cripples and the sick, a man lame from birth is healed, at the shrine of the Confessor of Christ, Benedict, people began to flock to the monastery from every quarter, that they might be able to obtain the health they desired. Meanwhile, among the rest, a certain man, crippled in both feet, to whom it had never been granted to travel on foot but who rather knew how to drag himself along the ground on his knees with the help of little stools, was present. This man, keeping vigil for a long time in the church of the holy Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary near the sacred ashes, at length, by the regard of divine mercy and through the intercession of the Lord's beloved Benedict, was restored to health, and did not delay to give thanks to the Lord and to his Intercessor as best his knowledge allowed. Indeed, because the unaccustomed pain and considerable labor involved in the stretching of sinews long contracted had grievously afflicted the cripple, he was by no means able to walk the unfamiliar path with sudden speed, until his tottering knees, with the pain removed, were more firmly established. He was therefore kept in the house assigned to the lodging of the poor, He is brought into the Chapter carrying a pitcher of water. and there he received sufficient sustenance with the others residing in the almshouse. After some days had passed, the sick man grew stronger, and his steps, formerly splayed in every direction, learned to proceed more correctly. Finally, as the brethren were sitting together at the third hour of the day after the reading of the regular Chapter and the commemoration of the Saints, he was ordered by Abbot Adalgaudus, formerly a sick man, to present himself to the sacred assembly; and to remove the doubt from the hearts of some who thought he had not yet received full health, to carry a bucket full of water — which was immediately done. It was therefore a marvel to behold: you would have seen the man who formerly clung to the ground on his knees now standing with a steady and firm step, and running about in every direction with swift and straight gait, who recently, with stumbling leg and scarcely supported by a staff, could barely proceed anywhere. But what joy, what exultation could the hearts of mortals then possess, seeing by the demonstration of his works the Patron of so great a flock and Guardian of so great a place show his presence? But minds burning with heavenly desire could not cease from the praises of the Almighty; indeed, at that time they rejoiced more abundantly in celebrating Christ with hymns of exultation, as they recognized themselves to have been endowed with so great a gift.

[7] When Abbot Boso, having received the governance of this monastery by regular election, was administering it not ingloriously, a very great dispute arose between the Advocate of this church, named Eptagius, and the Advocate of another sacred place, on account of a complaint about a not inconsiderable number of bondservants. The name of the other was Teodoinus, Vicar of Mauriac, A corrupt judge, in whose jurisdiction the intermingling and cohabitation of these persons from their progenitors had existed. The Advocate of that other place, going to him and corrupting him with a gift, deflected him from the path of justice. The day was now at hand on which the lawsuit was to be settled at the fortress called Nandonis. But Abbot Boso, lest he appear less cautious, sent two monks to the aforesaid Vicar and sent him as a gift two silver vessels of no inconsiderable weight, beseeching him that, favoring justice and equity, he should in no way harm our Official. But the man, already corrupted by the gift of the other party, spurning the monks and rejecting the gifts, swollen with pride, mounted his horse and said to the servants of God: In contempt of Saint Benedict, Depart, O monks, with your little vessels, to the monastery from which you hastened here. I swear by this sword, from this day not one of these bondservants shall serve Saint Benedict. Having said this, spurring his horse, he began to ride away most rapidly. He had not yet gone far from his own house when behold, the foot of the horse on which he sat slipped, Punished by death, throwing its rider from its back. Falling to the ground, with his shoulder broken and almost his entire body crushed, he was carried back to his own house by the hands of attendants; then, as the pain grew worse, on the third day thereafter he reached the end of his life. The Advocate of Saint Benedict, however, coming to the fortress of Nandonis, depositing the complaint before the Judges, and receiving the bondservants by their legal judgment, returned to his own lands.

[8] After no small time had passed, another dispute arose between the aforesaid Advocate of this place and the Advocate of Saint Denis. Very many masters and judges of the law were assembled from both sides to contest for the parties. Moreover, present at the same hearing were envoys sent from the King's side: Bishop Jonas of Orleans and Count Donatus of Melun. But since they could not conclude the lawsuit at that hearing, because the judges of the Salic law could not perfectly adjudicate ecclesiastical matters established under Roman law, it seemed best to the royal envoys to transfer the hearing to Orleans. Coming therefore to the appointed place, masters and judges contended fiercely on both sides; for there were present doctors of the law from both the territory of Orleans and the territory of Gatinais. When the judges had prolonged the lawsuit for rather too long, since neither side would yield to the other nor would the others give assent, it was finally adjudged that witnesses should come forward from both sides who, after the pledge of an oath, should settle the dispute by contending with shields and staves. But when this had seemed just and right to all, a certain doctor of the law from the region of Gatinais (to whom, by a kind of omen, a bestial name had been given instead of a human one, Like the adviser, he stammers, and who had come from the side of Saint Denis, corrupted by a gift), fearing that if two should fight between themselves, their witness might be found to be unworthy, pronounced the judgment that it was not right for witnesses to decide by combat over ecclesiastical property; rather, the Advocates should divide the bondservants between them. Genesius the Vice-Count, supporting this opinion, said it was more right for the bondservants to be divided than for witnesses to settle by combat, and the entire council turned to this opinion. But Saint Benedict by no means forgot that judge and lawgiver, who was the first to craftily and, in keeping with his name, bestially pronounce the judgment that the bondservants should be divided. For immediately after those bondservants had been divided into two parts, he was so struck by the just judgment of God that he could in no way say anything,

the entire function of his tongue having been lost. When his acquaintances who were present there recognized the truth of the matter, they led him to the monastery of the holy Confessor of Christ, whom he had gravely offended. There he remained for nearly a month, begging the help of the excellent Father by whatever gestures he could. At length, having obtained some recovery of health, he returned to his own lands; yet he was never able, as long as he lived, to obtain the power to utter with his own tongue the name of Saint Benedict.

[9] The office of watchmen assigned to sacred temples is known not only in modern times but in ancient times under Blessed Moses, we read, when the Lord consecrated the tabernacle, the duties of guardians were assigned from the tribe of Levi; which, in the course of time, having been arranged in a fuller disposition by the holy Prophet and also the admirable King David, have suggested to us and to our religious life, so to speak, their custom. Numbers 3. And indeed the ancient age received that same office by succession of offspring; but our own admits officials not by the propagation of offspring but rather by purity of life and probity of character. This sacred custom, then, being everywhere in vigorous observance with the greatest renown, the church of the present place also, dedicated to God in honor of the holy Mother of God, Mary, and of all the Virgins of Christ — in which the venerable body of the most holy Benedict is also kept with fitting honor — obtained as its guardian a monk outstanding in all religion and integrity, named Christian. The quality of his merit and sanctity shines more clearly than light for those who knew his life and sincere innocence. It was his custom to approach the sacred tomb with the utmost confidence and, in the common manner of mortals, to complain against Saint Benedict if any adversity came upon this place from outside — using, of course, that confidence with which he knew that he would by no means be despised by him; which will also be sufficiently clear from the deed we are about to describe. Bracelets stolen by theft. In that same church, for the sake of both honor and utility, bracelets formed by the craft of casting from bronze and excellently gilded hung from ropes, by which bells were rung at the appointed hours for celebrating the office according to custom. One day, thieves entered the church mingled with the crowd and noticed the bracelets hanging from the ropes. Thinking them to be of the finest gold, and plotting a most wicked crime with the greed familiar to them, they agreed to undermine the wall. Carrying this out at night as they had planned, they entered the church and carried off the bracelets along with the rods skillfully attached to them, and left through the same opening, blocking the entrance to the tunnel with earth. This was done in such silence by the thieves that none of the watchmen could perceive how such a crime had been committed. When the hour for rising came and so great a crime became known to the venerable guardian Christian, what grief crept into his heart, what tears flowed from his eyes, I confess is not easily said. Coming solicitously to the tomb with such laments, he began sharply to complain and protest as to why he had allowed himself to be plundered by thieves. And because he had conceived with excessive simplicity the confidence that he would be heard by Blessed Benedict, he even conducted his complaint in foreign speech with rustic bluntness (for he was German by birth), saying thus: Having invoked Saint Benedict, O Saint Benedict, why do you grow sluggish in drowsing? Why do you provide for your house so negligently that you allow thieves to steal by theft what I confer upon you in your honor? Certainly I do not care if they even take your breeches, since you did not defend your bracelets. Believe me, if you do not restore your bracelets to me, I shall not light a single candle for you. Threatening in this manner with these and many other words, and at the same time striking with his staff the stone placed before the tomb, he departed in sorrow. But almighty God did not allow his servant to be saddened for long; rather, through the merits and intercession of the blessed Father, with whom he was accustomed to complain more confidently, he very quickly relieved him of his grief and filled him with fitting joy. For the aforesaid thieves, repeating the crime once attempted, a few days later sought out the hole in the undermined wall that they had previously filled with earth. Having dug out the earth, they attempted to gain entrance. But immediately they were captured by the watchmen and subjected to questioning. The thieves being caught, They confessed the crime and that they had entered the church at that hour for the purpose of extracting and carrying off all the gold, silver, and gems from the resting place of Saint Benedict. When they were asked how they would carry out so great a crime with bare hands, especially since they had with them neither larger awls, nor hammers, nor mallets, nor anything from a smith's workshop with which to destroy such finely crafted work, they produced knives from their sleeves, with which they confessed they would have quickly accomplished everything. They were therefore kept until the time of daylight and presented to the venerable Christian. They are recovered: He, having asked them what they had done with the bracelets they had stolen, received the answer that they had them stored away with them. Rebuking them severely and inveighing sharply against them for having dared to attempt so great a crime, which was detestable to God and men, since moreover human laws would order them to forfeit their lives by hanging without any respect for mercy — finally, following the example of the Prophet Elisha (who led the soldiers of the King of Syria, whom he had sent to kill him, blinded in their eyes, into the midst of Samaria, and when the King of Israel asked the Prophet whether he should strike them with the sword, forbade it, and rather had them refreshed with bread and water and sent them back to their own), taking pity on the thieves' toil, he ordered them to be refreshed with food and drink and to return home unharmed, forbidding them ever to burst forth to such audacious deeds again.

[10] In the times of the Emperor Louis Augustus, when, according to the Lord's Evangelical saying, "Because iniquity shall abound, the charity of many shall grow cold," by the dissension of the Frankish nation it came to pass that the commonwealth of that kingdom was afflicted in many ways. For while, through the counsels of wicked men, the deliberation of the commonwealth transformed itself into pride and domination, and it pleased the leading men rather to envy and speak ill of one another than to consult the welfare of the kingdom, all good men began to be more suspect to the Kings — for, as Sallust says, to such men the virtue of others is always fearsome — and above all to hold opinions contrary to the nation. On this account it came about that while the Emperor persecuted the nobility of the veterans by deposing them, and they, mindful of their former virtue, strove to defend their liberty, they prepared a great ruin of defection from the Emperor and the kingdom. But since it is by no means our purpose to encompass the deeds of Kings in our writing, but rather to commit to letters the wondrous works of God performed through his servant Benedict, leaving aside things that, so to speak, of no matter were done rightly or wrongly, let us return to what we had begun. The Emperor, as has been said, regarding the leading men of the Franks with suspicion, summoned the peoples of Germany for an expedition to Aquitaine — namely the Saxons, Thuringians, Bavarians, and Alemanni — and to those whom his father had subdued by the valor of the Franks, he carelessly entrusted the state of the kingdom. With what spirit the Franks received this is easy to understand. The peoples beyond the Rhine, therefore, having obtained their liberty as if for the protection of the Emperor, gave themselves over to vices and settled throughout the entire army — namely to the plundering of the poor, the dishonoring of good men, the violation of sacred places, and the remaining evils that it is repugnant to enumerate. But when the Emperor, conducting an expedition against his son toward Aquitaine, was approaching the river Loire, it happened that certain leaders of the aforementioned peoples touched upon and devastated the small villages of the monastery of Saint Benedict. When, moreover, as the savagery of the plunderers raged, nothing more remained for them to rob from the poor, they approached the monastery, intending to do there what they had done in other places. Not far from the monastery a not inconsiderable herd of cattle was grazing, assigned to the continuous needs of the brethren for service; A soldier about to kill a cow of the monastery, a strong band of plunderers attacked this herd, threatening to slaughter part of it with axes for their own feasts and to carry the rest off with them. When the herdsman told them they should not touch the herd of Saint Benedict, since if they did so it would not go unpunished for them, they, indignant, ordered the fattest heifer they could see to be separated from the whole herd and slaughtered. When it was tied up, one of them who seemed bolder drew his sword and, with his arm raised, attempted to strike the cow. But in the very attempt he was bound and tied with inextricable bonds, The raised arm cannot be bent, holding his arm raised with the sword just as he had lifted it, unable to bend it in any direction. You could have seen the wretched man standing there, bound in his very effort by imperceptible fetters, and experiencing in himself the divine power that he had despised in his Beloved. His companions, seeing the vengeance sent from heaven raging against their comrade, After he and his companions do penance, were dismayed in spirit. They confessed their guilt and implored mercy from him whom they had proudly scorned — namely from Saint Benedict. Setting down their arms, loosening their shoes from their feet, and touching the ground with their heads, thus they hastened to the monastery to seek a remedy, leading with them the one divinely bound. And when they drew near to the church, He is healed, prostrating themselves before the entrance, they confessed their guilt with tears, declaring not only that man alone to be guilty of the crime but that they were all equally accomplices. Finally they bound themselves by a vow never to inflict any harm upon anyone of the household of Saint Benedict, if only they could merit to obtain his grace. Meanwhile the guardians of the sacred house, seeing the devotion of the men and their spirits wholly inclined to obtaining the mercy of the just Judge, raised up those who were prostrate on the ground, and consoling those who were dejected in spirit and body, led them into the church and brought them to the holy tomb. When the prayer was completed, the wretched man was released, and giving thanks as best he could to the Lord and to his liberator Benedict, along with his companions, he returned to his own lands — openly proclaiming everywhere that a divine power excelling all others was present in this place, and that nothing would turn out well for anyone who plotted any evil against Saint Benedict.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles recorded by the author as an eyewitness.

[11] While Louis Augustus was governing the monarchy of the Franks (as was mentioned above), the venerable Abbot Hilduinus of the monastery of the holy Martyr Denis sent envoys to Rome and obtained from Pope Eugenius the body of the Blessed Martyr Sebastian, which, having been brought there, he placed for a time in the church of Saint Medard, in a portable reliquary next to his body. In that place innumerable miraculous works were performed by Christ through the intercession of the holy Martyr. Later, Abbot Boso of the monastery of the holy Confessor Benedict, having been summoned, went to the palace, from which, on his return, he conveniently passed through the monastery of Saint Denis. Turning aside therefore to the aforesaid monastery, he had a familiar conversation with the reverend Abbot Hilduinus, and among their friendly colloquies he requested from him relics of the holy Martyrs, namely Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, and also of Sebastian. Relics of Saints Sebastian, Denis, and their companions brought to Fleury. The most noble Abbot, most willingly assenting to his requests, granted what was asked

the entire function of his tongue having been lost. When his acquaintances who were present there recognized the truth of the matter, they led him to the monastery of the holy Confessor of Christ, whom he had gravely offended. There he remained for nearly a month, begging the help of the excellent Father by whatever gestures he could. At length, having obtained some recovery of health, he returned to his own lands; yet he was never able, as long as he lived, to obtain the power to utter with his own tongue the name of Saint Benedict.

[9] The office of watchmen assigned to sacred temples is known not only in modern times but in ancient times under Blessed Moses, we read, when the Lord consecrated the tabernacle, the duties of guardians were assigned from the tribe of Levi; which, in the course of time, having been arranged in a fuller disposition by the holy Prophet and also the admirable King David, have suggested to us and to our religious life, so to speak, their custom. Numbers 3. And indeed the ancient age received that same office by succession of offspring; but our own admits officials not by the propagation of offspring but rather by purity of life and probity of character. This sacred custom, then, being everywhere in vigorous observance with the greatest renown, the church of the present place also, dedicated to God in honor of the holy Mother of God, Mary, and of all the Virgins of Christ — in which the venerable body of the most holy Benedict is also kept with fitting honor — obtained as its guardian a monk outstanding in all religion and integrity, named Christian. The quality of his merit and sanctity shines more clearly than light for those who knew his life and sincere innocence. It was his custom to approach the sacred tomb with the utmost confidence and, in the common manner of mortals, to complain against Saint Benedict if any adversity came upon this place from outside — using, of course, that confidence with which he knew that he would by no means be despised by him; which will also be sufficiently clear from the deed we are about to describe. Bracelets stolen by theft: In that same church, for the sake of both honor and utility, bracelets formed by the craft of casting from bronze and excellently gilded hung from ropes, by which bells were rung at the appointed hours for celebrating the office according to custom. One day, thieves entered the church mingled with the crowd and noticed the bracelets hanging from the ropes. Thinking them to be of the finest gold, and plotting a most wicked crime with the greed familiar to them, they agreed by common decree to undermine the wall. Carrying this out at night as they had planned, they entered the church and carried off the bracelets along with the rods skillfully attached to them, and left through the same opening, blocking the entrance to the tunnel with earth. This was done in such silence by the thieves that none of the watchmen could perceive how such a crime had been committed. When the hour for rising came and so great a crime became known to the venerable guardian Christian, what grief crept into his heart, what tears flowed from his eyes, I confess is not easily said. Coming solicitously to the tomb with such laments, he began sharply to complain and protest as to why he had allowed himself to be plundered by thieves. And because he had conceived with excessive simplicity the confidence that he would be heard by Blessed Benedict, he even conducted his complaint in foreign speech with rustic bluntness (for he was German by birth), saying thus: O Saint Benedict, having invoked Saint Benedict, why do you grow sluggish in drowsing? Why do you provide for your house so negligently that you allow thieves to steal by theft what I confer upon you in your honor? Certainly I do not care if they even take your breeches, since you did not defend your bracelets. Believe me, if you do not restore your bracelets to me, I shall not light a single candle for you. Threatening in this manner with these and many other words, and at the same time striking with his staff the stone placed before the tomb, he departed in sorrow. But almighty God did not allow his servant to be saddened for long; rather, through the merits and intercession of the blessed Father, with whom he was accustomed to complain more confidently, he very quickly relieved him of his grief and filled him with fitting joy. For the aforesaid thieves, repeating the crime once attempted, a few days later sought out the hole in the undermined wall that they had previously filled with earth. Having dug out the earth, they attempted to gain entrance. But immediately they were captured by the watchmen and subjected to questioning. The thieves being caught, They confessed the crime and that they had entered the church at that hour for the purpose of extracting and carrying off all the gold, silver, and gems from the resting place of Saint Benedict. When they were asked how they would carry out so great a crime with bare hands, especially since they had with them neither larger awls, nor hammers, nor mallets, nor anything from a smith's workshop with which to destroy such finely crafted work, they produced knives from their sleeves, with which they confessed they would have quickly accomplished everything. They were therefore kept until the time of daylight and presented to the venerable Christian. They are recovered: He, having asked them what they had done with the bracelets they had stolen, received the answer that they had them stored away with them. Rebuking them severely and inveighing sharply against them for having dared to attempt so great a crime, which was detestable to God and men, since moreover human laws would order them to forfeit their lives by hanging without any respect for mercy — finally, following the example of the Prophet Elisha (who led the soldiers of the King of Syria, whom he had sent to kill him, blinded in their eyes, into the midst of Samaria, and when the King of Israel asked the Prophet whether he should strike them with the sword, forbade it, and rather had them refreshed with bread and water and sent them back to their own), taking pity on the thieves' toil, he ordered them to be refreshed with food and drink and to return home unharmed, forbidding them ever to burst forth to such audacious deeds again.

[10] In the times of the Emperor Louis Augustus, when, according to the Lord's Evangelical saying, "Because iniquity shall abound, the charity of many shall grow cold," by the dissension of the Frankish nation it came to pass that the commonwealth of that kingdom was afflicted in many ways. For while, through the counsels of wicked men, the deliberation of the commonwealth transformed itself into pride and domination, and it pleased the leading men rather to envy and speak ill of one another than to consult the welfare of the kingdom, all good men began to be more suspect to the Kings — for, as Sallust says, to such men the virtue of others is always fearsome — and above all to hold opinions contrary to the nation. On this account it came about that while the Emperor persecuted the nobility of the veterans by deposing them, and they, mindful of their former virtue, strove to defend their liberty, they prepared a great ruin of defection from the Emperor and the kingdom. But since it is by no means our purpose to encompass the deeds of Kings in our writing, but rather to commit to letters the wondrous works of God performed through his servant Benedict, leaving aside things that, so to speak, of no matter were done rightly or wrongly, let us return to what we had begun. The Emperor, as has been said, regarding the leading men of the Franks with suspicion, summoned the peoples of Germany for an expedition to Aquitaine — namely the Saxons, Thuringians, Bavarians, and Alemanni — and to those whom his father had subdued by the valor of the Franks, he carelessly entrusted the state of the kingdom. With what spirit the Franks received this is easy to understand. The peoples beyond the Rhine, therefore, having obtained their liberty as if for the protection of the Emperor, gave themselves over to vices and settled throughout the entire army — namely to the plundering of the poor, the dishonoring of good men, the violation of sacred places, and the remaining evils that it is repugnant to enumerate. But when the Emperor, conducting an expedition against his son toward Aquitaine, was approaching the river Loire, it happened that certain leaders of the aforementioned peoples touched upon and devastated the small villages of the monastery of Saint Benedict. When, moreover, as the savagery of the plunderers raged, nothing more remained for them to rob from the poor, they approached the monastery, intending to do there what they had done in other places. Not far from the monastery a not inconsiderable herd of cattle was grazing, assigned to the continuous needs of the brethren for service; A soldier about to kill a cow of the monastery: a strong band of plunderers attacked this herd, threatening to slaughter part of it with axes for their own feasts and to carry the rest off with them. When the herdsman told them they should not touch the herd of Saint Benedict, since if they did so it would not go unpunished for them, they, indignant, ordered the fattest heifer they could see to be separated from the whole herd and slaughtered. When it was tied up, one of them who seemed bolder drew his sword and, with his arm raised, attempted to strike the cow. But in the very attempt he was bound and tied with inextricable bonds, The raised arm cannot be bent: holding his arm raised with the sword just as he had lifted it, unable to bend it in any direction. You could have seen the wretched man standing there, bound in his very effort by imperceptible fetters, and experiencing in himself the divine power that he had despised in his Beloved. His companions, seeing the vengeance sent from heaven raging against their comrade, After he and his companions do penance, were dismayed in spirit. They confessed their guilt and implored mercy from him whom they had proudly scorned — namely from Saint Benedict. Setting down their arms, loosening their shoes from their feet, and touching the ground with their heads, thus they hastened to the monastery to seek a remedy, leading with them the one divinely bound. And when they drew near to the church, He is healed: prostrating themselves before the entrance, they confessed their guilt with tears, declaring not only that man alone to be guilty of the crime but that they were all equally accomplices. Finally they bound themselves by a vow never to inflict any harm upon anyone of the household of Saint Benedict, if only they could merit to obtain his grace. Meanwhile the guardians of the sacred house, seeing the devotion of the men and their spirits wholly inclined to obtaining the mercy of the just Judge, raised up those who were prostrate on the ground, and consoling those who were dejected in spirit and body, led them into the church and brought them to the holy tomb. When the prayer was completed, the wretched man was released, and giving thanks as best he could to the Lord and to his liberator Benedict, along with his companions, he returned to his own lands — openly proclaiming everywhere that a divine power excelling all others was present in this place, and that nothing would turn out well for anyone who plotted any evil against Saint Benedict.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles recorded by the author as an eyewitness.

[11] While Louis Augustus was governing the monarchy of the Franks (as was mentioned above), the venerable Abbot Hilduinus of the monastery of the holy Martyr Denis sent envoys to Rome and obtained from Pope Eugenius the body of the Blessed Martyr Sebastian, which, having been brought there, he placed for a time in the church of Saint Medard, in a portable reliquary next to his body. In that place innumerable miraculous works were performed by Christ through the intercession of the holy Martyr. Later, Abbot Boso of the monastery of the holy Confessor Benedict, having been summoned, went to the palace, from which, on his return, he conveniently passed through the monastery of Saint Denis. Turning aside therefore to the aforesaid monastery, he had a familiar conversation with the reverend Abbot Hilduinus, and among their friendly colloquies he requested from him relics of the holy Martyrs, namely Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, and also of Sebastian. The most noble Abbot, most willingly assenting to his requests, Relics of Saints Sebastian, Denis, and their companions brought to Fleury: granted what was asked

on the condition that each year, when the birthday of those same Martyrs came around, a most solemn festival would be held among us in the monastic manner. Abbot Boso, most gratefully receiving the pledges of the Saints, returned joyfully to his own monastery. On the day of his arrival at the monastery, he ordered, having sent a messenger, that the brethren should come to meet him with honor befitting the Saints, not far from the monastery. The brethren, obedient to his commands, received the relics of the holy Martyrs with as much honor as is granted to mortals, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of July, and placed them in the church of the holy Mother of God, Mary. Moreover, no small multitude of men and women followed the relics of the Saints with the greatest devotion, on account of certain miraculous benefits performed by the Lord through the blessed Martyrs. Furthermore, since it had been established by ancient authority that women should by no means have passage inward beyond the outer gates of the monastery, those who had followed the relics of the Saints from afar turned to prayers, asking that they be permitted, for the sake of prayer, to enter the church in which the relics of the Saints had been deposited and to fulfill their vows. Because this was contrary to monastic observance, they were utterly unable to obtain this by any means. But as they persevered in prayer, certain nobles also, aroused by the fame of such a great event, began to flock from every direction to so venerable a spectacle, and joining their prayers, they could scarcely extort from the Abbot and the brethren in any way that he should order a tent to be set up outside the gate of the monastery on the western side, in a place planted with groves, to which the relics of the Saints would be carried at a fixed time — that is, on the vigil of the Lord's day — and would remain there under the returning guard of watchmen, both monks and clerics, until the same hour of the Lord's day, and then be carried back to the sacred buildings. When this had been accomplished, multitudes of people, not only from neighboring but also from distant places, flowed together to obtain healing of souls and bodies. The Lord indeed worked through his most illustrious Martyrs incredible gifts of miracles, which we ourselves as mere boys partly witnessed: so that it might clearly appear that even now in these his most beloved witnesses that was being fulfilled which he once promised to those who would believe in him with true faith, saying thus: Amen I say to you, that he who believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do: and greater than these shall he do. John 14:12 For those captured in their eyes — that is, by any bodily defect, whether by the foulest humor of blearedness or by glaucoma — received back the most clear use of sight; the lame, burdened by the heaviness of their gait, who had never walked on their feet, recovered the ease of walking with the greatest joy; They shine with miracles: demons were driven out from possessed bodies; the lunatic obtained the healing they desired. Moreover, certain persons who had badly suffered the burning of certain limbs — a kind of disease which physicians, deriving the name from cancer, call Cancerauma and declare incurable — rejoiced that they had obtained perfect health. Innumerable gifts of healings, therefore, as we have said, the Lord worked through the relics of the blessed Martyrs in the tent, during the time they were brought there at the appointed period; to the praise and glory of his name, who glorifies his elect everywhere, not only by bestowing the rewards of eternal blessedness, but by illuminating them with miracles in the present age allotted to mortals.

[12] But lest the same Creator and Redeemer of the human race, Jesus Christ, should show the most holy Benedict to be unequal in merits; A cripple not healed by these: indeed, lest some, less able to understand the divine dispensation, should think these Martyrs to be far more glorious before the Lord — who had prepared for themselves the crown of perpetual happiness by the shedding of their own blood — than him who, without the palm of martyrdom, had sent his soul in peace to the abodes of the heavenly fatherland; it pleased him to perform no dissimilar miracles through his most beloved servant at the most sacred church in which the remains of that same Father are preserved. For a small boy, carried by his parents to the relics of the holy Martyrs, was by no means obtaining the long-desired health (for he was so disabled by the withering of his legs and the contraction of his sinews, He is healed at the tomb of Saint Benedict: and indeed his ankle-bones had adhered so tenaciously to his buttocks that he had never from birth been able to attempt the movement of walking). He was carried by bearers to the tomb of the oft-mentioned Confessor of Christ, Benedict, and there persevering throughout the day, on the following day — in the sight of us and of all the brethren who were present (for the evening office was then being celebrated) — his sinews, long contracted, began to extend themselves, and the dry channels of his veins began to be moistened by the infusion of blood, and his ankle-bones, vehemently pressed against his buttocks, gradually began to separate from them. Without delay, the little boy was stretched out and clung with his whole body to the pavement; but shortly after, rising up healthy, though with a tottering step, he began freely to run about in various directions.

[13] When this miracle had been accomplished through the grace of God, there arrived unexpectedly a certain man driven by the madness and furies of demons, He is freed: called by the name Madalbertus, who shortly before had been seized by the citizens of the city of Orleans and, as one deranged, beaten with rods, bound in chains, and committed to custody. But overcoming all these, he sought the monastery at a rapid pace, and there he began most wretchedly to rage in every way, twisting his limbs, dashing his head against the apse, spinning his hair, arching his spine to thrust out his belly, leaping and hurling himself into the air, and being tormented by diabolical incitements through every motion of his body. A raging demoniac: O grief, what a most wretched spectacle! He is finally constrained with bonds and, unhappy wretch, most harshly bound to a column of the church at that part of the body where the garment is gathered by a belt. Priests approached him, who performed the exorcisms and all things that must be done for demoniacs. When questioned, he declared his name, confessing that he was called Legion. He was rolled about in various circuits around the columns; and twisting his most unhappy body with the worst contortions, he displayed what he bore within himself. Those legions of demons struggled, if I may say so, against the intercessions of the Saints. And indeed that wretched man, at the urging of the devout monks who impelled him to beseech the mercy of the Lord and the intercession of all the Saints, was accustomed, as if unwillingly pouring forth a prayer, to say: God, deliver me from the ancient enemy who besieges me. Saint Benedict, do you prod him. And this he uttered not willingly, certainly, but driven by unclean furies, in a jesting manner, as he did innumerable other things. What more? Through the intercession of the most serene Father, regarded by divine compassion, he is freed from the snares of the devil, and sits safe and quiet within the threshold of the church. To those who conversed with him, he explained how he had been seized by demons; he confessed his guilt, and with a contrite heart and humble spirit proclaimed that he had been delivered over to unclean spirits for the enormity of his sins; he gave thanks to the Lord his liberator, and also to the blessed Benedict his intercessor; and so he returned home in good health. From that time onward, as long as he lived, a custom arose in him that each year, when the anniversary of the time he obtained his health returned, he would hasten with a vow to the threshold of the holy Confessor of Christ, and having completed his prayer, return to his own affairs.

[14] Likewise another demoniac: When this man had been freed from demonic madness by such great clemency of God, another, bound with dire fetters, was led down from the upper parts of the Loire's channel, he too possessed by a most cruel demon. He is bound to a column of the church. His eyes were bloodshot, his color pallid, his face gaunt, his look fierce, such as to strike great terror into mortals. He was forbidden to eat bread, for he was not permitted by his master to use food in the human manner; he was accustomed to pass three days without nourishment; he sometimes used plain water; he was forced to accept exorcised water, screaming and twisting his limbs; he sometimes ate meat eagerly but filthily (if it was given to him) in the manner of dogs. Eating in the manner of dogs: With such sustenance the wretched man dragged out his unhappy life. This man, tormented for a long time at the sacred church by various and most savage tortures, was finally led in manacles to the memorial of the holy Martyrs, where also the ashes of the oft-mentioned Confessor of Christ, Benedict, were venerated by the faithful people; he is tied to a post of the tent, and there he is exceedingly afflicted. For the impious torturer knew that by the virtue and merits of the Saints he would be more quickly expelled from the possessed man, and therefore raged against him more cruelly with every kind of torment. But around the third hour, when Mass was already being celebrated, after the reading of the Gospel, the wretched man was turned to sleep; and while the sacred Host was being sanctified by the priest, it seemed to a certain one of our brethren, named Guarno, and also to certain clerics, that three large and exceedingly black flies went forth from the mouth of the afflicted man and flew out of the tent. After this was seen, the sick man began to behave more quietly, and by the compassion of the Lord and the intercession of his Saints, he was snatched from the persecutor of the human race and restored to health; and having obtained his well-being in this manner, he returned to his own home.

[15] There is a certain fortress in the parts of Burgundy, situated on the side of a mountain, above a river called Hermentio, which has given its name to the adjacent region; for from Tonnerre the neighboring region is called Tonnerrois. Over this there presided a certain man of noble lineage, named Racculfus, who by his office exercised the functions of a Viscount. On account of his depravity of character and the enormity of his most wicked deeds, he was seized in his mind and turned to madness. And when he sought to attack himself and all those standing around him on every side with a sword, clubs, The Viscount of Tonnerre, raving mad, is cured: and whatever other weapons came to hand, he was seized by his own men, and bound with great display, as befitting a most wealthy man, was led to the monastery. There he raged for a long time, to such an extent that grinding his teeth he threatened, if it were permitted, to tear with his bites those who approached him. After about fifteen days had elapsed, through the intercession of the blessed Father Benedict, he began to come to his senses; and not long after, fully restored to health, he returned to his native soil with the joy not only of one man but of many. These and many other wondrous things at that time the Lord deigned to work through his servant, freed from the burden of the flesh; which were passed over through the negligence of those whose efforts should have made them known to the people. However, those things which we were able to learn by bodily sight, and which we have discovered through faithful narration, we have taken care to transmit to the knowledge of posterity in a humble style of speech — which is especially effective in the conduct of affairs — at the encouragement of our elders.

CHAPTER IV.

In the Norman irruption Fleury was devastated. The relics of Saint Benedict were carried away and brought back.

[16] But when the most pious Emperor Louis Augustus was stripped of the burden of the flesh, the kingdom of the Franks, which from diverse nations had been made into a solid body, Under Charles the Bald, amid the Breton wars was divided into three parts and taken up for governance by the three sons of that same Emperor: and the eldest, Lothair, possessed France with Italy; Louis, Saxony and all of Germany; but Charles, the younger, possessed Burgundy with Aquitaine. But to say nothing of the kingdoms — whether they declined, worn down by wars, or somewhat flourished in continuous peace — it is agreeable to run briefly through the misfortunes of our own region. Charles, having obtained no small part of the kingdom, misfortune joined to fortune devastated the commonwealth with the greatest harm. And first, when the Marcher lords of the Breton frontier were in bitter civil strife among themselves, a war arose grievous to both sides. For although, with Rainald falling, Lambert emerged victorious, he did not carry off such victorious standards from the enemy, since he saw that thousands of his own soldiers had perished. And repeating this against Herveus, the firstborn of Rainald's sons, who was taking up arms in vengeance for his father's death, he defeated him as he fought badly, and delivered him, pierced with weapons, to death.

With warriors on both sides perishing in this kind of strife, almost that entire region, stripped of its defenders, lay open as prey to foreign nations. For the nearby power of the Bretons, having transgressed the ancient frontier, reduced the region of Nantes, and also the region of Angers, all the way to the river Mayenne, to its own dominion by devastation, slaughter, and fire. Lambert had indeed formerly resisted those attempting this, but by the King's command, yielding his position, he allowed the Bretons to fulfill their barbarian designs. Moreover the Normans, a northern race all too well known to our people, The Normans triumph: no longer merely practicing piracy but freely overrunning the lands with no one resisting, utterly devastated the entire maritime coast, and, to speak more truly, reduced it to a vast solitude. Their most wicked assaults had often been thwarted by the leaders of those regions who succeeded one another — namely Lambert and Robert, and also Rainulf — but when these perished by various fates, nearly all of Neustria, which extends crosswise from the city of Gien all the way to the town of Paris, lay open to Norman ferocity. For going about devastating everything with most frequent raids — at first on foot, since they lacked skill in riding, then carried on horses in the manner of our own people — they ranged over everything.

[17] Meanwhile, establishing a station for their ships, as it were a refuge for all their pirate bands, on a certain island situated below the monastery of Saint Florent, They place a naval station near the monastery of Saint Florent: they also built huts in the likeness of a town, where they kept herds of captives bound in chains, and where they themselves might for a time refresh their bodies from toil, soon to serve another expedition. From this base, making unexpected raids, sometimes carried by ships, sometimes by horses, they destroyed the entire surrounding province. And at their first coming, they burned the city of Nantes by fire; They burn and plunder cities: then, overrunning the region of Angers, they burned that very city; they plundered and devastated the fortresses and villages of Poitiers, and the entire territory from the sea all the way to the city of Poitiers itself, filling everything with slaughter. At the following season they came by ship to Tours, and filling it with their customary carnage, they finally delivered it to the flames, having ravaged the entire surrounding region. Not long after, seeking the upper reaches of the Loire River by ship, they arrived at Orleans, and sold the captured city for gold, Agius at that time holding the bishopric of the aforesaid city; and thus withdrawing for a time, on their second coming they destroyed the aforesaid city by burning, with only the mother church remaining — which had been consecrated in honor of the holy Cross at the command of the Emperor Constantine by the blessed Bishop Evurtius — preserved through the efforts of good men. Why, indeed, by recounting only the disasters of Neustria, do we extend our pen? Not only the four above-mentioned cities felt the losses of destruction. What of Paris, that noble capital, once resplendent in glory, in wealth, in the fertility of its soil, in the most tranquil peace of its inhabitants — which I would not unjustly call the treasure of kings, the marketplace of peoples? Can one see anything more than scorched ashes rather than a noble city? What then of Beauvais? What of Noyon, themselves once the most distinguished cities of Gaul? Did not they too fall to Norman raids and the hostile sword? It is grievous to relate the destruction of most noble monasteries, both of men and of women devoutly serving God, and the slaughters of no ignoble peoples, the captivities of matrons, And monasteries of men and women: the mockeries of virgins, and all the unspeakable kinds of torments that victors can inflict upon the vanquished. Why should I recount the immense affliction of the Aquitanian nation, which, once the nurse of wars, now presents a hand cold in battle, and deprived of its own lights, lacks foreign leaders? For it too, destroying the best men of its native soil against itself, now lies open as prey to foreign nations. From the very shore of the Ocean, so to speak, Also in Aquitaine: toward the east, all the way to Clermont — that city most illustrious in ancient times in Aquitaine — no region was able to retain its freedom, no town or village, no indeed any city, that did not fall by the deadly slaughter of the Pagans. Poitiers, once the most fertile city of Aquitaine, testifies to this, as does Saintes, as does Angouleme, as does Perigueux, as does Limoges; certainly Clermont too, hitherto the boundary of the barbarian sword, and Bourges itself, the capital of the Aquitanian kingdom, proclaim this: that with no warlike hand opposing, they had grievously fallen before the hostile assault.

[18] With these and similar evils, over a span of nearly thirty years, not without the guilt of sundry persons, having worn down the Gauls, For thirty years: how the worship of the divine religion also proceeded — whether or not it flourished — is readily perceptible to any mortal, however slow of understanding. For what order pursues the norm of the Christian religion with such a purpose as to its full extent that it might not rather be judged a violator of the commandments of Christ, if the execution of its deeds were duly investigated? Whence not undeservedly upon such as these — that is, upon us transgressors of his commandments — he seems to inflict the vengeance of retribution once promised through the Prophet; for he says, threatening through the Prophet Jeremiah: Because you have not heard my words, behold I will send, and will take all the kindred of the north, says the Lord, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all the nations that are round about it. Jeremiah 1: And I will destroy them, and will make them an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations, and I will take away from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of the mill and the light of the lamp, and the whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And likewise through the Prophet Ezekiel: Make a chain, for the land is full of the judgment of blood, and the city is full of iniquity. Ezekiel 7:23 And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses, and I will make the pride of the mighty to cease, and they shall possess their sanctuary. Distress coming on, they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. Trouble upon trouble shall come, and rumor upon rumor. And they shall seek a vision from the Prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. And after a few words: According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the Lord. It is therefore to see the prophetic threat assigned to our own age, when on account of the enormity of sins the people once of God and the sheep of his hands have been given over to the nations for plundering and the harshest captivity; and the soil, in the recent age most flourishing in the richness of its earth and the opulence of all things, has been reduced to devastation and the utmost solitude. It is fitting therefore to cry out truthfully with the Prophet David: You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right; Psalm 118 and to implore humbly with another: Lord, have mercy on us, for we have waited for you; be our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of tribulation. Isaiah 32:2 These things about the destruction of our most delightful homeland it has pleased us briefly to commit to writing, so that we might prepare a clearer path for the things that were to follow. Leaving aside, then, the unspeakable disasters of evils — which by their very horror and execration compel the course of our pen to grow dull — let us now return to our subject.

[19] Meanwhile the Normans, as we have briefly touched upon above, attacking Orleans in their second raid, burned the city by fire; and a part of them, under the leader Baretus, with forty ships sought the monastery of the holy Father Benedict, which is distant eighteen miles from the city of Orleans. Finding it empty of inhabitants, They plunder and burn Fleury: but filled with all the temporal goods of mortals, they plundered and scattered it in their customary fashion, and finally, having set fire to it, burned it. The most sacred body of the Confessor of Christ, Benedict, was already absent at that time; for at the first devastation of the aforesaid city, Bernard, a man of most noble birth, having the care of this sacred place, raised the most holy body from the place of its sepulcher and deposited it with fitting honor in a shrine; and thus placed in a portable reliquary, so that wherever the necessity of flight might impel, it could be carried by the brethren protecting themselves by the refuge of flight. But by the working of the grace of Christ, when the pagan sword returned to the places it had chosen, The body of Saint Benedict is carried away: the most holy remains are placed back in their proper place. But at the second incursion of the enemy, with the aforesaid Abbot running through the last days of his governance, the most holy body was again raised and deposited in a portable reliquary, and carried hither and thither by the brethren, as the opportunity of flight presented itself. Yet during these intervals of time, the divine grace did not deign to forget its servants, though they were miserably wandering abroad in uncertain abodes; rather, it consoled them with miracles performed through its most Beloved: so that hearts wavering on account of so many adverse events might be more abundantly strengthened by the presence of so great a Father, and by his power held before their eyes. For after the monastery had been consumed by a grave raging fire, with no beauty of the site remaining (since neither temples fitted for divine worship, An oratory is erected in the dormitory: nor buildings constructed for various uses, nor granaries, nor a pantry, nor certainly anything of adornment or utility had survived, and the bare walls of rubble offered astonishment to the eyes of beholders, and inspired horror rather than beauty or glory), the brethren, compelled, partitioning a building once fitted for repose by interposing arches, And there the body of Saint Benedict is placed: made from a part of it the semblance of a smaller chapel: in which, having fashioned an altar, they celebrate the divine Office by day; to which place they also brought the body of the most blessed Benedict, still placed in a portable reliquary. While therefore the holy remains rested there, by God's working, a certain miracle of this kind occurred.

by Tortarius after the first translation — when also the feast of the Translation was instituted, which we have above rejected as wrongly assigned here by Diedericus.

CHAPTER V.

Various miracles performed.

[20] At the appointed time — that is, on the seventh day of the week, throughout the course of the entire year — from the nearby estates, according to the customary practice of the world, people are accustomed to flock together to buy or sell merchandise in a place situated next to the monastery, which is called Old Fleury. On a certain Saturday, therefore, two partners came to the place for the purpose of trading; One who swore falsely by Saint Benedict is punished with stiffness of the arm: one of them had in a pouch (as he himself claimed) twelve denarii, which they had received together from the sale of goods, and they had agreed to divide them there between themselves. But when the one who had received none of them demanded from his partner the share owed to him, and the other maintained that he had already returned it, a dispute arose. The judge of the market, named Engeraus, came running. When he wished to settle the dispute, and the one who had had the money asserted by every means that he had returned it to his partner, and his words were not believed, he was compelled by necessity and, extending his right hand toward the church, brought forth an oath with fury, saying thus: By that Saint Benedict, I returned those denarii to him. Because he had sworn rashly and falsely, he by no means rejoiced in impunity; for the hand, which he had imprudently stretched out with his arm while about to perjure himself, he could not draw back to himself, but stiffening in its effort, it remained numb. All who were present were terrified and immediately sought what counsel was needed; but nothing more salutary was found than that the guilty man, having already experienced the divine power, should seek the sacred church to beg pardon. This he promptly carried out, downcast in spirit and suppliant, and sought the church, carrying in the other hand — which had not been subject to punishment — an iron pitchfork with three prongs as a votive offering. Finally he was prostrated before the most sacred tomb, empty indeed of the holy body, but filled with divine power from the former association with the blessed bones; and he begged forgiveness for his recklessness and the crime contracted from perjury; at the same time he also implored the mercy of the Lord, that through the intercession of the most loving Pastor, whose venerable name he had treated as a most vile thing in his oath, he might deserve to obtain health. The clemency of the Creator was present at the heartfelt prayers of the wretched man seeking the help of the excellent Leader; Having invoked him, he is healed: and through his intercession, the sick man obtained healing and returned joyfully to the market. But lest he be consumed by excessive grief over the lost coins, the Lord deigned to console him by the power of him through whose help he had wished to confer health upon him. For, marvelous to relate, when nearly the entire multitude of the people had withdrawn from the market to their homes and very few remained, And finds the lost coins: looking at the place where the greatest traffic of the crowd had been, he saw lying there the pouch with the coins he had lost; picking it up, he was filled with greater joy, not only for the health of his body, but also for having found the hard-won earnings of his poverty. To this admirable sign another is added, by the granting of Christ's grace, though at a greater distance of land.

[21] Within the walls of the city of Orleans there is a building constructed in honor of the most holy Benedict by a venerable Abbot of the present place, named Medo; small indeed, but situated in what was considered at that time a more secluded part of the city, and therefore a most suitable dwelling for the monks and Abbot in conducting necessary affairs. Furthermore, around the winter season, when the Pagans were planning an incursion into the upper regions, the brethren, compelled by necessity, betook themselves there. Certainly, as we have already briefly mentioned above, the city having been twice burned by fire and sold a third time, no further use of defense or protection seemed to remain in it — until the venerable Bishop of that same city, to be named with the greatest reverence, Galterius, by divine inspiration, restoring the walls of the city that had been almost entirely destroyed on all sides, with the sagacity of his noble intellect for which he is known to excel, adapted them for the defense of the people. Here therefore the servants of God arriving, they spent the time as opportunity allowed in the religious life. Meanwhile, there was present at the sacred chapel a certain woman from the town of the city, deprived of bodily strength from the waist down, A lame woman is cured: so that she could by no means walk on her feet, but crawling along the ground, she rather dragged herself with the aid of stools. By keeping watch before the doors of that same church, she was accustomed to be fed by the alms of the devout brethren, waiting in the hope that it might somehow come to pass that, by the mercy of God and the merits of the blessed Confessor, she might deserve to obtain bodily health. When therefore she had been doing this for a long span of time, at last by the regard of divine mercy, and by the merits and intercession of the most holy Benedict, she was restored to health, and remaining healthy and well in that same place for a long time, after obtaining a husband, she dwelt with her offspring in that same city.

[22] A certain man from the household of the holy Father, in the district of Pouilly, had built a little dwelling of light construction — namely of wicker and broom — upon his own inheritance, to which he had brought together all that he could acquire, and had placed all his hope of sustaining his very poor life. By a chance accident, having caught fire, it began to emit a ball of flames. With the clamor of those making a commotion, as is usual in such matters, men from the neighboring villages began to run together; but when they saw the pyre of flames rising ever higher and the burning nearly complete, they checked their steps, saying that the dwelling could be saved by no one, since, constructed of wicker and put together with broom, it offered light fuel to the devouring flame. Moreover, as human aid receded, that poor man, turning to divine help, spoke thus: O Lord, have mercy on me, lest I die afflicted by hunger. Saint Benedict, come to my aid and help your servant: The fire is extinguished: for I had gathered all my poverty into this little hut. While he repeated these and many other things with weeping, the Divinity, moved to mercy by the merits of the most sacred Father Benedict, extinguished the blaze, and the entire hut remained safe, with only one wall burned — which had been woven of wicker — and all his belongings remained unharmed.

[23] Caput-Ceruium, a certain district of the province of Aquitaine, given by royal liberality to the monastery of Saint Benedict, had revolted from the authority of this place through many attacks of neighbors, and especially of the leading men of the region. But after a long span of time it was restored to its proper authority by the great labor of the servants of God, and the necessary plan was devised that, with a dwelling suitable for monks constructed there in some fashion, two or three monks should continually remain there: until the fickle minds of the Aquitanians, prone to attempt every new thing, should cease from this confidence of seizing those properties through the insistence of the brethren. The monk Raganarius, a man of great piety, who had formerly been sent to Jerusalem by the Emperor Louis with others, was dispatched to accomplish this, and with him Segevert, a priest and monk; having put together a small cell in the aforesaid place, they removed from the Aquitanian people all confidence in reclaiming those properties. There was at that time a certain man of that same community, not ignoble, named Stephen, who sold a certain part of his own land to one of the servants of Saint Benedict, having received payment. That servant, having obtained the land without any fruitful cultivation, by no means permitted the earth to remain idle, but cultivating it excellently, he planted a vineyard there, and as long as he lived, he kept it for his own use. Desiring to take away a vineyard from Fleury: When that man departed, the former owner of that same land, of whom we have spoken, tried to reclaim what he had sold. But an advocate, coming together with the monk Raganarius to the place of the land's transfer according to the custom of law, was striving by his own authority to restore the aforesaid vineyard to the jurisdiction of the church of Saint Benedict. Thereupon Stephen, moved by the impatience of his fickle mind, approaching the monk Raganarius as he sat on his horse, spoke furiously: I say to you, monk Raganarius, who left Jerusalem across the sea, I swear by this sword that when you and I have departed from this place, Saint Benedict shall have no power over this vineyard. To the raging man, Raganarius replied: Certainly I do not know, and you do not know, whether we can depart from this place according to our wish. He is punished by death: The other, shaking his sword again and repeating his oath, affirmed that he would depart from that place without the grace of Saint Benedict. Having said these things, he immediately fell from his horse, and with all his limbs broken and crushed, was carried back to his own home on a litter by his men; and the vineyard was indeed left to the authority of Saint Benedict, but Stephen himself, consumed by a long illness, died.

[24] While King Charles was governing the kingdom of the Franks, a most severe famine seized all of Gaul; a disaster also from the infestation of the Pagans, no small one, afflicted the entire nation dwelling along the coast of the Ocean. 2 Kings 24:12 But so that, according to the Prophet, the world might experience a third plague, grievous beasts were sent, which would receive with gaping mouth those fleeing the famine and the barbarian disaster. It happened at that time that a certain woman, going out from the estate of Matriniac, led with her a tiny child; while he was playing with other children of his age, with her looking on from a greater distance with many men and women, suddenly a wolf came forth from the forest, seized the woman's son, and lifting him up, did not return to the forest but began to carry him across the open fields. Seeing this, the unhappy woman, wailing with the most wretched cries and immense lamentations, and then the crowd mingled with her, began to pursue the wolf. But the wolf, by no means frightened, was dragging the child farther away. But when the exhausted crowd ceased from the pursuit of the wolf, despairing of being able to snatch the prey from him in any way, the woman, who was goaded by a sharper grief for the loss of her son, by no means rested from the course she had begun; but rather hastened as quickly as she could, invoking nonetheless Saint Benedict, that he might bring her his aid by returning her own son, and would by no means permit his servant to be carried beyond his boundaries. Then, by the clemency of the divine majesty and the intercession of the precious Confessor, she obtained what she was praying for. For the wolf, coming to the boundaries of the territory of Saint Benedict, left the child unharmed and safe, A boy is freed from the jaws of a wolf: and sought the hidden retreats of the forests. The woman, cheerfully receiving her little boy, giving thanks to God and to the liberator of her son — namely to Saint Benedict — returned to the very poor dwelling of her own property.

APPENDIX.

By Adelerius.

BY ADELERIUS

[1] The wondrous power and wisdom of our Lord, which glorifies the most blessed Father Benedict, keeping him glorified with himself in the heavenly court, does not cease to glorify his body, venerable to all mortals, on earth by the continual frequency of miracles. For just as we have learned by credible report from the men of earlier times and those proven by the zeal of truthful assertion, On the feast of the Translation: the generous sublimity of God deigned, through the one so often dear to him, by the gracious gift of his condescension, to work a memorial for the ages. It happened once that the most sacred festival of his Translation came around, at which, as the cycle of time returned, most numerous throngs of diverse multitude had flocked from every direction,

not only from the surrounding areas but also from the most remote places of the provinces. And so, in the celebration of so great a festival, after the nocturnal praises had been duly performed with fitting dignity by the brethren, when the rays of dawn were not yet shining brightly, each one sought his bed for the sake of rest. But a certain one of the brethren, to whom the care of guarding the church had been entrusted, since he was continually intent upon obtaining the joys of eternal heaven and was beseeching the Lord with all the devotion of a devout heart for the forgiveness of his sins, was sitting before the altar in the immediate vicinity of the sacred Body. He was striving to perform most devoutly the melody of Psalms and prayers in his customary manner; and continuing at greater length what he had begun, he fell asleep, overcome by weariness. Presently a certain elder, beautiful in the comeliness of dignity and of venerable bearing, stood beside him and inquired with a pleasant address what the brethren were doing and where they had withdrawn. Saint Benedict appearing: He responded immediately that they had gone to sleep, so that after some refreshment of bodily necessity, they might more abundantly perform the melody of the daytime office. Wondering therefore who this might be who was issuing these commands to him, the most blessed one said to him: Do not wonder at the presence you behold of me, knowing most certainly that I am called Brother Benedict, established as the Prelate and Defender of this place. He gives various instructions: Therefore tell the brethren on my behalf greetings in the general assembly, and let them be forewarned for the celebration of the solemn Mass, because I was unable to be present with them during the performance of the nocturnal office while they were singing. For I obtained from the Lord pardon of sins for Brother Adimericus, who was dying in the parts of Brittany, and snatching him from the jaws of the enemy, I happily raised him to the abodes of eternal life. Let them know therefore, by your testimony, that after my body's presence was by God's disposing transported from the eastern regions to these western shores, none of them has suffered loss, but endowed with the gift of eternal rest, Christ has placed them in the lofty seats of the heavenly fatherland. Having said these things, the vision of the one standing and conversing was taken away. But when the clear light of day poured itself over the lands, and the brethren were awakened from sleep, the same man, by the sound of the bell cast long ago for the purpose of opening conversation, summoning Abbot Teotbert with the rest, delivered the words of greeting and reported in order everything that Father Benedict had commanded to be said to them. Bowing their whole body to the earth in adoration, with joyful spirits they rendered innumerable praises to God and their Protector with unanimous devotion; and each one took care that nothing unsuitable should offend the gaze of the one who was coming. For although especially, when he made known that his presence was to be expected by the brethren while they persisted in the Lord's commandments, he would not be absent from them even for the least moment; yet to declare the power of his virtue and the common joy of all, he showed himself present through the efficacy of divine working. For while all believed they were about to see or learn something great, it happened that after the recitation of the holy Gospel, all who were troubled by any ailment and whom the thresholds of the sacred church had detained, each one returned to his own home with the gift of desired well-being. Sixty persons of both sexes and ages were healed, all rendering praises to God with all magnificence, He heals sixty sick persons: thanks to God, and to the most blessed Father Benedict in common. By so great and perfect a working of God, it was clear to all that our Benedict was present during the solemnities of the Masses.

[2] Meanwhile, King Charles (when his two brothers departed from human life, and the third, Lothair, on account of the penitence by which he had consigned his father to prison custody, having been made a monk at the monastery of Pruem for mercy's sake) having obtained the summit of the entire paternal Empire, showing himself grateful and favorable to all, had drawn many of the Franks into the Imperial sublimity of his unanimity; and thus daily extending himself into a perfect man, he so strenuously exercised the devotion of his most Christian spirit in enriching the monasteries of the Saints, that he seemed inferior to none of the former Kings who had been distinguished by the dignity of the royal name, in all holy religion. For among the other munificent gifts he bestowed upon this place, with his overflowing liberality he most devoutly granted and presented a priestly vestment, which he had taken from the chapel of his brother Lothair when he was returning from the battle of Fontenoy; as well as two golden vessels valued at the weight of ... pounds, together with a Gospel text, fabricated with subtle diversity of workmanship, Charles the Bald bestows distinguished gifts upon Fleury: which he took care to confer by solemn donation through himself for the healing of his soul. But as was said above, when his brothers had died, setting out for Rome with magnificent display, by the favor of all the people he was hailed Emperor and Augustus of the Roman Empire. And when, on his return, he reached the borders of Italy, deceived by the malicious trickery of certain persons, in the city of Pavia, not without the greatest grief of his men, on the day before the Nones of October he ended his life by poison. After this, his son, named Louis, receiving the paternal kingdom, barely enjoying it for two years, Under King Louis, while Normans devastate France: consecrated a laborious beginning for all the nobles of his kingdom. For the Norman nation, which had already twice gone forth from the scabbard of its dwelling and had so often practiced piracy, at length resuming its strength upon the death of his father, freely inflicted the disaster of its malice continuously within the borders of the kingdom of France, with few resisting. And first attacking the parts of Neustria, with all the perversity of its effort intent on slaughter and plunder, whatever had previously seemed desirable and useful for human life, it strove to seize and reduce to its own wicked uses; and it would have accomplished what it had begun, had not Hugo, a most noble Abbot, strenuously governing the commonwealth, Hugo the Abbot resists: by both his arms and counsels and his valor, repressed the barbarian assaults and destroyed a very large force of them. How he powerfully accomplished this through the virtue of this Father Benedict, we think should be briefly added. Passing through, therefore, as we have said, with no one opposing, the harbors of very many cities, he came to Orleans, and thence extending his step further, he hastened to approach the monastery of Fleury, intending to inflict disaster. But the brethren had already learned of this some time before through spreading rumor, and it seemed fitting to them to yield the place and fortify themselves with the protection of necessary resources. Therefore, having fitted carts of various vehicles, arranging whatever was precious in them, along with the remaining furnishings, they resolved to make for the estate of Matriniac, so that there all their possessions might be safe in some way. But that same treacherous nation, arriving at the monastery and frustrated in its hope, finding nothing in it that it could plunder except the walls, at length perceiving the fresh tracks of the wagons, decided to head where it suspected with anxious mind that the brethren had gone — so that, having plundered their better goods, it might return with its wish fulfilled from so great a victory. But the omnipotence of the merciful God forestalled their wicked plan: which would both crush them by its own power and benignly save the innocent people by defending them from their malicious attack. For when the aforesaid venerable man Hugo, coming from the parts of Burgundy for the utility of his own needs, perhaps by God's counsel summoned, was heading toward these borders and approaching the monastery, he learned from the report of his men that the brethren were being pursued by the enemy and would be plundered most swiftly unless they were freed by the marvelous power of God. Having learned this, therefore, pulling his mind in different directions — since he had in his presence only a very small number of soldiers — he began to be greatly anxious and weary over this matter, revolving within himself how the vast multitude should be met. At last, by the exhortation of Girboldus, the most noble Count of Auxerre, he took heart to engage in battle, asserting that no one who, for the sake of the service of the Blessed Father Benedict, had thrown himself into the opposing force would ever suffer any danger. Emboldened therefore in spirit by this exhortation, trusting in the merits and aid of the most excellent Father, And destroys them utterly: they pursued the enemy from behind not far from the monastery; and joining a fierce battle with great valor, they wreaked such slaughter of destruction upon them that from so great a multitude of people there was scarcely anyone who would convey the outcome of the battle to posterity. Having achieved the desired victory, the war leader, questioning his men, asked whether they had perhaps beheld with their own eyes any monk of venerable appearance, clearing a way for himself through the thickets of the enemy. When they answered that they had seen no monk in that battle, he immediately said: Saint Benedict, protecting me through the whole course of this battle, Aided by the appearing Saint Benedict: held the reins of my horse in his left hand, guiding and guarding, while in his right hand holding a staff, he struck down many of the enemy, delivering them to death. Thus both punishment was rendered to the guilty, and safety to the innocent through the intercession of Father Benedict, by the granting of the blessed Son of God, whose blessed name endures for ever and ever.

MIRACLES OF SAINT BENEDICT.

BOOK II.

By Aimoin, monk of Fleury.

From manuscripts and Jean de Bosco.

BY AIMOIN.

PROLOGUE.

To the honorable Fathers, Gauzlin the most reverend Abbot, and the entire holy congregation of the monastery of Fleury entrusted to him, the least of all of them, Aimoin, wishes an eternal kingdom with Christ. The good of obedience, how great a reward it is worthy of, I have merited to learn from your teaching, reverend Lords; and therefore I willingly submitted my neck to the commands of certain of you, who thought this should be persuaded upon me rather by fatherly admonition than by imperious authority — namely, that I should commit to writing for the memory of posterity certain things about the miracles of our common Patron, the most holy Benedict. I have therefore applied myself as best I could, and have taken care to encompass in writing not only those things that were done at the most sacred tomb of that same Father, but also those which, in other places of his memorial, The work divided into two books: the Lord deigned to work for the declaration of his merit, dividing the whole work into two books. Receive therefore, most holy Fathers, though a slender yet a faithful fruit of a slender little branch, proceeding from the great tree of your united society; nor may you regret having labored for its growth, since it strives above all to proclaim the praises of its beloved nurturer Benedict, and to please your desires in all things. But you, most beloved brethren, with whom I learned in the early flower of my age to bear the sweet yoke of Christ, rejoice with me, I beseech you, that by your support also I have advanced to this point: that something useful can be enjoined upon my worthlessness. For although in comparison with you there exists in me no usefulness, whatever good is in me it is entirely from almighty God through the intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary and of our Lawgiver Benedict and through the labor of his servants. Finally, I ask all whose hearts are possessed by the love of that same Confessor of Christ, The thinness of style is excused: that they not seek in this work the persuasion of rhetorical eloquence; but rather, among the rustic baskets of our despicable table, let them admire and drink in the gleaming and sweetly fragrant honey of miracles; and let them remember that in earthen vessels they are accustomed delightfully to enjoy

more sumptuous feasts. Of Saint Benedict wrote Saint Gregory the Great: With these things said in preface concerning the slenderness of our talent, at the close of the prologue we did not think it should be passed over — this which divine mercy conferred upon our Pastor among the other gifts of its generosity: that for bringing forth those things worthy to be told about himself, he never needed the supplement of any outside person. Indeed his own dependents, reared and educated in his monasteries by his help, were found sufficient to commit to the memory of posterity whatever needed to be proclaimed in his praise — after the blessed Pope Gregory at least, who, himself subject to the disciplines of his Rule, expounded with most eloquent discourse the great virtues by which the same Father had shone. Mark the Poet and Paul in the Cassinese monastery moreover published many things about his miracles most elegantly in metrical verse. The Cassinese poets Mark and Paul: The order of the translation of his sacred body to this venerable place, as well as the signs performed here and throughout Gaul by his merits, the most learned Adreualdus, a monk of this monastery, inserted in his writings. To which work Adelerius, likewise a monk of this congregation, added only two chapters. Following therefore in their footsteps, Adreualdus, Adelerius: though not with equal steps, wishing you well, I have given this beginning to the things I have proposed to relate.

CHAPTER I.

The Norman irruption. A King punished with death by Saint Benedict; likewise another invader of the properties of Fleury.

[1] That the inhabitants of the Gallic regions were undermined by the continuous assaults of foreign nations, The Gauls were occupied by Romans, Huns, Goths, Franks: both ancient and modern histories reveal to anyone examining them with understanding. The ten-year struggle of Julius Caesar wore them down, the sudden irruption of the Huns tore them apart, the presumptuous invasion of the Goths to settle there overthrew them, and finally the vigorous right hand of the Franks in war subjugated the vanquished and the victors alike with equal lot under its dominion. The fierce power of these, both in subduing and in driving barbarian nations from their borders, flourished by the strength of concord down to the times of Charles the Bald of divine memory, son of Louis, whose surname was Pius. Against him the accusation of fraternal envy aroused the hatreds of neighboring peoples, especially the Normans; Normans routed by various men: who, practicing piracy, devastated the maritime regions of his kingdom with most grievous plunderings. Robert, Count of Angers, a man of Saxon lineage, to whom in those parts the supreme command had been delegated by the king, first resisted their savage assaults; with the most preeminent men of Neustria supporting him — Rainulf and Lambert — as the most eloquent author Adreualdus relates in his first book. But when these perished by various fates, the Danes, having found a free opportunity for their raids, the damage they inflicted on the cities in two expeditions, through the devastation or burning of monasteries and other churches — the text of the preceding work will make clear to the studious reader. But when Augustus Charles was removed from human affairs, his son Louis succeeded him, who received the surname "did nothing" — either because, having held the kingdom for barely two years, he accomplished nothing vigorously; or because, having taken a certain nun (as we have received from our elders) from the convent of Chelles and joined her to himself in marriage, he committed the sin which is known to be nothing. In his days the fierce nation of the aforementioned Danes arrived to inflict a third disaster on the Neustrians, and would have inflicted one greater than the previous ones, had not Hugo, Under Charles the Simple: honored with the title of Abbot throughout Gaul, repressed their reckless audacity. How with a small force, aided by the manifest assistance of the most holy Father Benedict, he so routed the innumerable enemy battalions that scarcely a messenger survived, is easily recognized from the writings of the venerable Adelerius. Humbled by this blow, the Danes left Gaul undisturbed for some space of time. But when Hugo was closing the last days of his life, and Prince Louis, after administering the kingdom for two years, passed away, his son Charles, who was later called the Simple, spending his age in the cradle, was left orphaned of his father. The leading men of France, deeming his age unsuitable, as it was, for exercising dominion — especially since renewed movements of the Normans were already being reported — deliberated about the highest affairs of state. Two sons of Robert survived: the elder was called Odo, the other Robert, bearing his father's name. Of these, the Franks chose the elder, Odo, though reluctant, as guardian of the boy and governor of the kingdom; who, benign of mind, both strenuously presided over repelling the enemies of the commonwealth and excellently nurtured the little boy, and patiently restored the kingdom to the young man when he claimed what was his. Endowed by him with a part of the kingdom, he remained throughout his life both terrible to enemies and always faithful to Charles. From this gentleness of a brother's spirit, his brother Robert strayed so far that, after Odo's death, because the part of the governance that his brother Odo had held was not being returned, Robert rebelling: he openly seized tyrannical power. The northern peoples, judging that this situation would not be unfavorable to them — since obviously all the inhabitants of the entire region, with their loyalties stretched in different directions, would by no means rebel against them with united vigor — resolved to devote all their forces to plunder. And since it is not our present purpose to discuss the wars of kings or the tumults of nations, but rather our mind desires to bring forth the miracles performed by God's working through the most blessed nurturer of our lowliness, Benedict; we must come to explaining those things. Not indeed do we call him the author of our lowliness as though he himself made us vile; but because he, by his intercession and his help, advanced us who were abject, despised, and of no account, to the point where we might both proclaim his praises and acknowledge that whatever of salvation or benefit we may discern in ourselves, we owe, after the Lord, to him. Jeremiah 1:14 Mindful therefore of the prophetic oracle by which it is said that all evil comes from the north, as if spoken specifically against us, we are compelled by the frequent infestation of the aforementioned Pagans; who from their native soil, They widely devastate Gaul: like swarms of bees, most frequently poured forth upon our provinces, as we have said, a swarm of plunderers; who in this last expedition, about which we now speak, under a certain leader Rainald, endeavored to root out, as far as was in their power, the remaining thorns of our land. Witnesses to this are, not only — as the words of the already mentioned author Adreualdus attest — the cities on the banks of the Seine and Loire, by which Neustria is ennobled; the Dordogne or Garonne, by whose waters Aquitaine is distinguished; but also the ruins of preeminent buildings, among which that most eminent palace of the great Prince Charlemagne called Cassinogilum, once the glory and ornament of the cradle of his already mentioned son Louis the Pious — which the God-hating nation so overthrew as both to render it uninhabitable and yet to make clearly apparent what it once had been. It is situated in the place where the torrent Quodrot flows into the Garonne, having a brick tower constructed on the bank of the said torrent, from which both the approach of hostile ships could be foreseen and their entrance repelled; and also so that the royal fleet, built in the smaller stream without the impediment of adversaries, might be led out to the waters of the greater river. It has moreover a church joined to the larger church, vaulted in wondrous workmanship from bricks; in which, if I rightly recall what I saw, there is a very small sarcophagus, in which the twin brother of Louis the Pious is thought to be buried. From there also Charlemagne is recorded to have crossed the Garonne, bringing aid to the Christians of Spain, and to have returned there, as the book of his life relates. But enough has been said of these things; let us now pursue our purpose.

[2] The innumerable battalions of the Normans, over whom Rainald had obtained kingship, Rainald, King of the Normans: using a great many longships, coursing all the way to the upper reaches of the Loire, devastated everything. At length Rainald, with his men, reaching the monastery of the thrice-blessed and God-beloved Benedict, which is called Fleury, found it empty of inhabitants and stripped of all necessities — with the exception only of the buildings. For the monks, together with the body of our ever-to-be-named Father Benedict, had betaken themselves to safer places, with Lambert then as Abbot exercising the care of pious solicitude toward them. The aforementioned king therefore arriving there, and learning from captives whose habitation such a dwelling was, chose the dormitory of the brethren as the seat of his lodging. In it, while committing various outrages as befits a Pagan, one night as he rested, the Saint stood beside him — Benedict, accompanied by two monks: one, as it seemed to Rainald himself, endowed with the strength of middle age; By the appearing Saint Benedict: the other had a boyish demeanor. The most blessed Father, however, bearing snowy white hair upon his head and a staff in his hand, addressed the reclining adversary thus: What, he said, have I done to offend you, Rainald, He is rebuked: that you disturb me and my people from our own abodes? But henceforth it shall be my care both to restrain you from your undertakings and to restore the desired peace to the servants of Christ and also to my bones. Having said these things, touching the head of the now-awakened king with the curved staff he carried in his hand, he foretold that the end of his life would be near at hand, and so he departed. Troubled by this vision, Rainald called out to his attendants in a loud voice for help. When they came running and asked what he was suffering, he said: A certain monk — none other, I think, than that old man Benedict, the guardian of this place — touching my head with his staff and threatening death, has caused me immense pain. He immediately ordered all to abandon the occupied dwellings and to return to their native soil. Having set out with them, when he reached his homeland, weakened by frequent bouts of illness, he departed this life. And so suddenly, upon his death, such a storm of winds arose He dies miserably: that it overturned not only the rooftops of buildings but even the masses of towering trees; the bonds of captives were loosed; horses and other beasts of burden, led out to pasture twelve and more miles from the city of Rouen, broke their fetters and fled in various directions. We have learned that the pyramid built over the tomb of his body was overthrown by a most violent earthquake, And is cast into the Seine: and that the earth rejected his corpse from its bosom; which, sewn into a leather bag with a mass of stones, was plunged into the Seine, since it could not be contained when covered with earth. By this destruction, the memory of the wicked man would have been abolished, had not the ancient curiosity of the inhabitants of Fleury, concerned for future ages, taken care to fashion a marble effigy of his head, which is now seen inserted in the outermost part of the wall of the church of the holy Mother of God, Mary, and of his servant Benedict, toward the north: so that both those present and all who would follow might recognize what kind and how great a severity of vengeance almighty God had exercised against his adversaries through the intercession of those same Saints. To such a degree indeed did this retribution thereafter terrify Norman recklessness that, above all the other Saints of Gaul, they revere our most blessed Father Benedict.

[3] Meanwhile Robert, desiring openly to exercise the power of his aspired tyranny, extorted from certain bishops — partly by blandishments, partly by threats — that they should crown him with the royal diadem and invest him with the scepter of the kingdom. But by no means did he have happy outcomes of this presumption. For on the plains of Soissons, having been met in battle by the generals of Charles, and stripped of his life — although his army obtained the victory — he himself nonetheless paid the price of his wicked recklessness.

Charles the Simple consigned to prison: Nor were the associates of the defection, terrified by his death, willing to abandon the obstinacy of their perfidy; rather Herbert, Count of Vermandois, by unspeakable wickedness, having captured his lord and King of all France, Charles, by treachery, and having also ensnared him in chains, sent him to Peronne to be shut up in a dark prison. And since the state of the kingdom was being conducted uncertainly without a Prince (especially since the boyish age of Hugh, son of Robert, who later merited the name "the Great" by his upright deeds, stood in the way of his assuming the royal insignia; and Herbert's hatred made all men hostile, especially those whom the respect of humanity and the compassion for the Prince's misfortune moved to mercy) — at length a certain Rudolf, born in Burgundy, was placed over the governance of the Frankish nation. How severe he was in punishing the plunderers of God's holy church will be clear from this one example. An estate had formerly been given as a gift to Saint Benedict by Hugo, an illustrious man who lived in the time of Dagobert the younger, for the maintenance of the brethren of Fleury, situated in the parts of Burgundy, called Diacum. A certain soldier of perverse mind seized it for his own uses, and would not come to trial when the Abbot or the brethren demanded it. When the complaint was brought to him, the King ordered the usurper to cease from this obstinate recklessness; A plunderer of the estate of Fleury: who indeed heard the voice of the one commanding, but delayed to grant his assent to obey. It was reported to the Prince that he not only retained what he had seized, but was also preparing a feast for himself from the substance of the monks or inhabitants in the nearby forest. By chance the King was residing in the city of Auxerre when the report of such a matter reached his ears. Mounting his horse without waiting for a soldier, he hastened as quickly as possible to the place, leaving behind in the city an order that armed cohorts should follow him as he departed. But the royal attendants, stirred by the report of the departing King, He is killed by King Rudolf: eagerly followed his hastening journey; for he feared lest someone in the army, learning of the matter, might make his rival more cautious. When they came to the forest, the Prince ordered it to be surrounded by armed men, threatening that whoever from whose section the usurper of ecclesiastical property should escape by flight would be punished by beheading. He himself, searching the depths of the forest with chosen young men, found the one he sought, willing to resist with arms taken up. The King himself, Rudolf, pierced him with a lance and cast him dead upon the ground, and forced his attendants who had escaped the imminent death to flee in various directions. These things, as we have received them from our Fathers, we have reported in good faith; and we are certain that our Father Benedict, of venerable memory and singular genius, thereafter contributed his aid against adversaries, especially in fighting the army of the Normans.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles. The feast of Saint Benedict. Plunderers of the properties of Fleury wretchedly dead.

[4] In the time of Saint Odo, Abbot of Fleury: When Abbot Lambert had been relieved of the burden of the flesh, after some interval of time, Odo, of outstanding sanctity, coming from the monastery of Saint Gerald, which is called Aurillac, was placed over this sacred monastery; in whose days, the things which the Lord deigned to work at the tomb of his holy Confessor Benedict, or in other places under his name, remain unknown to us until now — committed to oblivion partly by antiquity, partly by the negligence of writers. He himself, however, in that discourse which he dictated with most eloquent speech in praise and honor of the same Father, Saint Benedict performs miracles: records that the same Lawgiver of monks radiated in his times with many signs of miracles. But when he passed away, and Archembald took up the care of this sacred fold, a certain Drogo, entangled with the world not only in body but also in his whole mind, came to the monastic conversion. The same Abbot, wishing to test his spirit — long since devoted to worldly vanity — to determine whether it was still from God, went beyond the path of regular probation. For about to seek Rome, he commanded him to lead by hand a beast carrying the baggage necessary for the journey, without any aid of conveyance, wearing out the road on foot: To the monk Drogo, after various trials: so that he who was believed to have exceeded, by the depravity of his ways, others who had renounced worldly trifles, might also exceed them by the demonstrated form of a more abject humility. Using that insult as if a certain whetstone for the sharpening of virtues, after he obtained admission, he strove to surpass the rest in holiness of life. But when the aforementioned Abbot reached the limits of his monastic governance, and the venerable Vulfald succeeded him, who later became Bishop of the city of Chartres, the already mentioned Drogo asked him, and with the greatest difficulty obtained, that he — long proven in the monastic way of life — might be allowed to undertake the solitary combat of the hermitage: which, in the place called Balma, manfully taking up against the snares of the ancient enemy, what great battles of temptations he endured is not the purpose of this work to unfold. Certainly, while he spent his entire life in the mortification of the flesh and spirit, and joining vigils to fasts and fasts to vigils in alternation, he began to endure the more grievous snares of the enemy of the human race. For on a certain night, which preceded one of the festivals of the most excellent Lawgiver of monks, Benedict, The hermit: the hermit, rising earlier as a watchful guard, was exploring under the open sky, in the rising of the stars, the arrival of the appropriate hour in which he might render the praises of lauds to God and to his Protector, the holy Benedict. But the devil, envious of all good things, striving by the cunning of his customary craftiness to deter his mind from the undertaking of his good purpose, in the form of an airy oak tree which seemed to blaze with fire-belching flames, was approaching the roof of the poor little hut. Then the soldier of Christ, resorting to the familiar defenses, armed his forehead with the sign of the Cross, Saint Benedict appears: and threw himself entirely against the phantasmic fire: mindful surely, as can be conjectured, of the works of the Lord and his Master Benedict, Chapter 10 of the Life: who, forewarned by the gift of divine grace, having called his disciples to his eyes, declared that the burning flames were imaginary. By his constancy the hostile deception, conquered, vanished; immediately the gracious consolation of heavenly visitation was present; and, enveloped in the light of immense brightness, he beheld someone who had come together with the splendor, distinguished by outstanding beauty, cloaked in a white robe, who opened his gracious lips in these words: Hail, he said, first inhabitant of this vast solitude, who daily offers to Christ the placable libations of a contrite heart. The obstinacy of the treacherous tempter may indeed have seemed intolerable; but after winds and clouds, trust me, tranquil fair weather will follow for you. Therefore do not cease to continue the perseverance of your resolve, and to pursue the celebration of the praises of your nurturer Benedict. And promises him his help: It will then be yours to deliberate what you wish to ask; his concern, to grant what is requested. Henceforth he will be present, so that it will not be necessary to ask for anything; but rather, before your invocation, he will ensure that it is ready for you. The author of this most joyful address the solitary man without doubt suspected to be none other than the most blessed Father Benedict, and he strove to recompense the duties of thanksgiving to him as best he knew how. Behold what kind and how great a favor of our Protector exists toward those devoutly keeping watch at his most sacred tomb — hence it can be gathered — if his consolation thus appears present even to those who, dwelling in a distant and remote land, humbly give themselves to his service.

[5] Moreover, when King Rudolf died, who, while he repressed the insolent assaults of the Danes by arms, Under Kings Rudolf: had kept Gaul largely free from their attack until that time, things changed. For Charles, shut up in prison, freed his soul but not his body from custody, leaving behind Louis, begotten of Eadgifu, daughter of the King of the English. After the deaths of Charles the Simple and Louis the Overseas: He, fearing to be involved in the storm of his father's calamity, betook himself to the Anglo-Saxons, invited by the favor of maternal kinship, judging himself safer to remain in overseas regions than among his own people — a lord, if he were in a chamber; a king, at a feast. After the death of King Rudolf, recalled by Hugh the Great, he was restored to the paternal kingdom in appearance only; the administration of which, for one desiring to exercise the right of dominion, was laborious both by his own capture by Thibaud, Count of Chartres, and after the recovery of the kingdom, by the various outcomes of unstable fortune. He died, survived by two children, Lothair and Charles, whom Gerberga, sister of Otto, later Emperor of the Romans, had borne to him. Charles, the younger in age, grew old in private dwellings. Lothair succeeded to the entire inheritance, who exercised royal power for thirty and more continuous years. In his days, Under King Lothair: both at the most sacred bones of our Father Benedict, and also in other places where his venerable memorial is held, many miracles were performed, God granting, through that distinguished Confessor, which we shall undertake to hand down to the knowledge of posterity, with Christ aiding us. For there was a certain Arnustus, a man distinguished in the ranks of secular military service, who held in benefice from Archembald, Abbot of this place, certain things from the possessions of the monastery. Arnustus, despoiling an estate of Fleury: He, forgetful of the benefits and of the faith which he had pledged by oath to Saint Benedict and to the monks serving him as best they could, was continually draining the estate of the parish of Pouilly by incessant quartering. When the brethren had sent word to him to cease from this presumption, and he disdained to comply, the brethren were compelled to begin imploring the clemency of the almighty Lord and the aid of their Patron Benedict. While they therefore earnestly besought the Lord, and the adversary persisted in his malice, it happened that one day the aforesaid man, ordering a dinner to be prepared for himself on the said estate, amid the delicacies of a more sumptuous table, ordered pears to be sought for eating. And blaspheming: Holding one of them in his hand, after many blasphemies uttered against the monks of Fleury, he brought forth a lying oath, saying thus: I swear by this pear, he said, that this year I will inflict many injuries upon them. Having said this, he thrust a piece of the already-cut fruit into his mouth, which immediately so blocked the blasphemer's throat that, his voice being cut off, he could utter no words. His men, placing him as if lifeless in their arms, carried him to bed, and exhorted him that, repenting of the things he had unjustly inflicted upon those serving the most blessed Benedict, he should beg pardon. But he, unable to speak, leaning his head against the wall, breathed out his spirit. He is punished with a horrible death: Nor did the Lord Christ allow the prayers of his lowly servants, commended to him by his glorious Mother Mary and his beloved Benedict, to fall in vain.

[6] But one distinguished work of his — I mean Father Benedict's — we now undertake to set forth, which it happened we learned from the account or writings of a certain brother, who testified that he had learned it from faithful men of the holy Church of Reims, that it had been done in the territory of that same city. The annual feast day of the blessed Confessor of Christ, Remigius, was being celebrated on earth in the customary manner — the festival day, full of reverence, on which a concourse of many peoples to his venerable church is accustomed to take place. On that same day the aforesaid Queen Gerberga, at a rather late hour, surrounded by her retinue, In the crypt of Saint Benedict, insolently placing a sword on the altar:

came to the temple; and it happened that she found the vesper praise offices already begun by the singers' choir. Ashamed of her tardiness, she left the customary place of her station and entered the crypts of that church, in which the oratory of our precious Father Benedict is located. While there the royal attendants were bowing their necks to pray, one of them, with the audacity of insolent recklessness, placed the sword he carried in his hand upon the altar. His companions, execrating the deed and removing the sword from the altar, hurled reproachful words against the author of such great vanity. To these he arrogantly replied: What, he said, is this new religion that has come upon us, that you judge a heap of lime and sand with a mass of stones to be holier than my sword? And at the same time as the word, he did not hesitate to replace the retrieved blade upon the Lord's table. Doing this a third time, he could not be restrained from the pride of his obstinacy; but he who would not be corrected by the gentle words of men experienced in himself the harsher rebuke of divine severity. For when the Queen departed from the sacred building, he too departed; and while, excessively secure about himself and presumptuous, he was cheerfully dining with the others at supper, He dies miserably: a knife slipping over his groin, he was wounded amidst the courses and cups. Then carried from the table in the hands of his attendants, he immediately, impenitent, and only too much to be lamented by his own, exhaled his unhappy soul. And God showed that the abomination of his altar displeased him — which is dedicated under the names of his servants to himself, and which, on account of the immolation of the most sacred body of Christ, bears the figure of the Cross.

[7] The possessor of the fortress of Sully, which is three miles distant from the village of Fleury, was a certain man called Herbert, born of his father Herchenald, having a brother named Archembald, now Archbishop of the Church of Tours. The venerable Abbot Richard, successor of the Lord Vulfald, had granted him certain ecclesiastical estates in benefice; but he, by no means content with these, was seizing by wicked audacity the rest that had been assigned to the uses of the monks. Then the Father of the monastery and the entire congregation sent to him, asking that, mindful of the faith sworn to them by oath, he should desist from invading their properties. When he made light of their warnings, Herbert, plunderer of the properties of Fleury: they set out to the King Lothair or Duke Hugo, to bewail the sad affliction of their complaint. Having made little progress with them, they themselves personally approached the same man of treacherous mind, begging him to have pity on them by ceasing from his oppression. But when he turned a deaf ear, they had recourse to familiar defenses. During nearly the whole Lenten season of that same year, amid the solemnities of the Litanies, pouring out their vows to the Lord for their tribulation, they rang two bronze bells, so that those hearing their sound might be invited to a similar work. Meanwhile the aforesaid Herbert, persevering in the obstinacy of his malice, adding worse things daily to his worst deeds, had arranged one night to go with certain attendants into the district of Gatinais. And because, according to the words of Truth, he who walks in the night stumbles, because the light is not in him — lacking the light of virtues and beset by the darkness of vices, every impious person strives also to conceal himself and his deeds in the obscurity of worldly night. John 11:10 But although, as far as lies in him, he avoids human gazes, he is by no means able to escape the eyes of the Lord, which are upon the ways of men and consider all their steps. Proverbs 5:21 For, as the blessed Job testifies, there are no shadows with the Lord, nor shadow of death, that those who work iniquity may hide there. Job 34:22 So from this impious Herbert his light was taken away, and he himself was suddenly removed, since he had long been awaited. For while, seated on horseback, he was making his way with his men under the cover of nocturnal darkness, he suddenly saw standing at his side someone bearing the marks of monastic garb, whose garment, as he himself later told his men, shone with ethereal brightness. Job 38:15 Struck by this figure with a staff, which he seemed to hold in his hands, between the shoulders, he emitted a horrible cry. Struck by the appearing Saint Benedict: And so the vision was taken from his eyes. Those riding around him, overcome by the horror of his cry, anxiously inquired what had happened to him. To them he said: Saint Benedict, just now standing beside me, has afflicted me with a powerful blow, from which, being unwell, I am tortured with immense pain. But you, O most faithful comrades-in-arms, taking the path back, carry me to my home; and thence, to beg pardon for me, hasten to the glorious tomb of the Confessor. They, obeying his commands, supporting him on either side, brought him back to where he had set out from; and between the hands of his servants, at almost the very threshold of the door, he gave up his soul. He perishes miserably: His faithful devotees, approaching the brethren of the monastery of Father Benedict, made known the outcome of the matter, asking that they at least receive the lifeless corpse for burial. The brethren, although they were under suspicion of the displeasure of their Abbot, who happened to be absent, granted their assent and covered the received body with earth. And although they applauded the peace obtained for themselves, they yet compassionated the deceased with pious sympathy, He is buried at Fleury: because, deprived of the gift of this life in the first flower of youth, he had not been able to correct the depravity of his ways.

[8] Romaldus was a citizen of Chartres, whose forest across the Loire in the Sologne is known to be adjacent to the forest which God-devoted men had assigned to the aforesaid church. He was one of those about whom Scripture says: For they have moved the boundaries and plundered flocks; Job 24:2 Romaldus, wishing to defraud the monks in the division of swine: he was attempting to divide equally a herd of swine gathered for pasture together in the forest of Saint Benedict and in his own forest. But since the monks' portion of the woodland was larger than his own, this seemed unjust to the brethren; whence by common counsel they sent certain of their body to Arnulf, then Bishop of Orleans (to whom that same man was subject on account of a benefice received), so that he might by his authority recall him to the rights of equity. But he, stuffed with the spirit of obstinacy, arrogantly replied to the Bishop urging him to observe the path of justice, that on the day when the swine were to be driven from the wood, he would give his answer to those who were importuning him — estimating, the wretch, that he would snatch from the servants of God what they were demanding, unmindful of the rich man in the Gospel, to whom, when he was enlarging his granaries, the Lord said: Fool, this night they require your soul of you, and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be? Luke 12:20 Indeed the aforesaid Romaldus, before he moved his foot from the place where he had arrogantly replied to the envoys, was seized with a great fever and languished to such a degree that on that very day when he had hoped to snatch the swine from the poor of Christ, condemned to death, he was carried out for burial. He dies: Meanwhile the brethren, sent from the rest to the forest according to the agreement, awaiting his arrival and learning that he had died, returned to their home with their due portion of swine, blessing the Lord, and at the same time praising the holy Mother of Christ, Mary, and God's servant Benedict.

CHAPTER III.

A fire removed; other miracles performed.

[9] In the time of the Abbot Richard, so often and with reverence to be named, when from the imperial severity of the heavenly King, on account of the enormity of sins, a decree had issued that this venerable place — Fleury, that is — was to be purged by devouring flames; what and how great prodigies occurred — despicable indeed to the faithless, but wondrous to us and to all who are of sound mind — At Fleury, with the church of Saint Peter ablaze: it is agreeable to recount briefly. First indeed it is quite astonishing that when the church of Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, was ablaze with an accidental fire, the one dedicated to the most holy Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary — which contains the treasure to be cherished in manifold ways by all who fear the Lord, namely the body of the most holy Father Benedict — The church of Saint Mary and Saint Benedict remains untouched: remained unharmed. Not only that church, which was distant some sixty and not much more paces from it, but all the buildings constructed within the exceedingly narrow circuit of the fortress, with only one granary adhering to the wall of the burning church, remained uncorrupted by the flames. A heap of grain also, which we commonly call a stack, which was separated from the very oratory only by a bridge scarcely nine paces extended in length, Together with other buildings and crops: escaped the devouring flames of the fire. This disaster should have moved the hearts of mortals; but, alas, the mind of men is too ignorant of the future! While it does not take heed, while it does not fear, by no means considering the adversities that threaten it, it falls into worse things. For, not many years passing, by the industry of the most excellent Abbot Richard, a bell cast from bronze was being prepared for calling the faithful to the oratory. The workmen of this task, when on the night preceding the Octave of Saint Lawrence they had given their weary limbs to sleep, left a lighted candle fixed to the posts, forgetting to extinguish it; which falling, ignited the straw bedding of the beds made of stubble; When fire was again spread to that church: from which the house, filled with flames, when it was already burning more violently, spread the fire also to the adjoining hall of the holy Mother of Christ, Mary, and of the beloved Lord Benedict. A cry was suddenly raised, and the lamentation of groaning brethren, who feared that, with everything seized, the opportunity to remove the sacred body of the holy Father Benedict would be lost to them. And although they had hope that the same most excellent Father could keep his own limbs uncontaminated, yet the human spirit, agitated by the wind of its own frailty, was carried into uncertainty. The admirable pearl was therefore carried out The body of Saint Benedict is carried out: by the hands of the weeping and mourning, and with the corporal cloth upon which the most sacred Body of Jesus Christ had been confected the day before, it was carried around. When suddenly the north wind, which had been driving the flames toward the granaries of the brethren, ceased to blow, the entire globe of fire, forming a column, extended its summit heavenward, and there appeared a miracle equal to the former one. The church of Saint Benedict, which had been previously burned and restored, remained, along with

the guesthouse and its kitchen, And suddenly the fire is removed: as well as the bakehouse — as if the Lord were saying to his servants not in words but in deeds: Even if I seem angry with you for the sins you have committed, yet, appeased by the prayers of my faithful ones whom I have chosen as guardians of this place, I leave you some dwellings to inhabit.

[10] Another sign, unprecedented in earlier ages, was shown by the Lord, which is not doubted to have been obtained through the merits of the glorious Virgin Mary and of the most holy Confessor of Christ, Benedict, for the consolation of the grieving monks. A tripod destined for the refreshment of the poor: There was a small tripod prepared for the use of refreshing pilgrims who might happen to arrive. This, by chance raised up beneath the tower from which the bells hung, was surrounded by the falling burned timbers. Then God, renewing the ancient miracles — who under Moses preserved the bush unconsumed in the midst of the flames — the wooden table did not feel the heat of fire. Exodus 3 The tripod therefore seemed to burn without burning, nor did the material joined to the heat provide fuel; It is not harmed by the fire: so that it might clearly appear that he who declares that what is bestowed upon the poor and needy is bestowed upon himself had once reclined upon this very table. A great throng came running to this spectacle, and those to whom it was given to see beheld something like a whirlwind rising from the said table, scattering the heap of embers hither and thither. One could see the faces of many, long sorrowful over the imminent calamity, suddenly transformed by the joy of this prodigy. When therefore everything was consumed, this remained unburned. Nor were the spirits of good men broken by these misfortunes; rather, with the venerable worshiper of God, Abbot Richard, managing, within the space of three years this sacred monastery — so delightful to cultivators of the monastic life — was prepared into the state in which it is now seen. Moreover, the year of its burning was that which is said to have been the nine hundred and seventy-fourth from the Incarnation of the Lord.

[11] Around the time when its restoration was being completed with the greatest zeal, a certain architect, One who fell from a height remains unharmed: who is still alive now, named Dominic, was working on covering the refectory of the brethren. When he was standing at the very summit of the roof, and was reaching out beyond what was necessary to someone handing him a cup, his foot slipped and he suddenly fell to the ground among the immense masses of timbers. The brethren, running together, who thought him killed both by the blows of the beams and by the hardness of the ground, found him not only alive but with all his limbs perfectly intact. This is not doubted to have been obtained through the merits of the holy man Benedict, lest a man devoted to his service should sustain any loss of life or limbs. Also at that time, when diligent labor was still being bestowed upon its restoration, and the devoted love of the sons preserved the most sacred bones of their Father Benedict in the church of Saint Peter, our Guardian is said to have shown the following in the former place of his entombment. A certain woman possessed by a demon was led to the monastery and admitted into the inner crypt, A demoniac is healed: so that she might be cured there. After some delays of her raving, she was drawn back and placed before the altar of the holy Mother of God, Mary. From her mouth, as was reported to us, three demons fell in the form of scarab beetles with green bile into a bronze basin, causing a sound by the repercussion of the metal; and so that person was cleansed, through the patronage of the glorious Mother of the Lord and the illustrious Confessor Benedict.

[12] There was a certain man, a native of the district of Gatinais, who, deprived of the use of his feet from his mother's womb, made his way by sweeping the ground with the aid of little stools. He, having heard the fame of our thrice-blessed Father Benedict, approached his venerable threshold. A lame man: Received into the house designated for the feeding of the poor, he asked to be sustained by the food of the brethren, until the Lord, through the intercession of his holy Confessor, should grant him the effect of the desired health. Admitted among the twelve poor of the monastery of Fleury: Abbot Richard, assenting to his prayers, ordered him to be included in the number of twelve needy persons, whom the diligent care of our ancient Fathers in this our monastery of Fleury, on account of the number of the twelve Apostles, established to be fed and clothed daily at common expense. He, by daily sighs beating upon the ears of the most loving Creator, asked for the gifts of desired well-being. And because, according to the words of Truth, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force; asking to receive, seeking to find, and knocking that the door of mercy might be opened to him, he merited to obtain. Matthew 11:12 At length, by the suffrage first of all of the blessed Mother of Christ, Mary, in whose hall he was keeping watch, and then of the most excellent Lawgiver of monks, Benedict, whom he had chosen as Mediator between himself and the Lord for his prayers, He is suddenly healed: the withered sinews began to be moistened and the contracted legs began to loosen. When the ailing man perceived this, he too, eager for health, attempted to tread the way in an unaccustomed manner. Gradually raising himself up, in the course of time having obtained the firmest strength for walking by the merits of the distinguished Confessor, he resolved to return to the property of his native land. Having therefore requested permission to depart, giving thanks as best he could to God his Liberator and to holy Benedict, with his own brothers whom he had summoned for this very purpose, he returned to his home and gave himself thenceforth to agricultural work.

[13] In the times of the oft-named Abbot Richard, to a certain monk named Benedict, surnamed the Black, the care of guarding the sacred building was entrusted by the same Abbot, together with some others from the assembly of the brethren — that building, indeed, which, dedicated to God under the honor of the holy Mother of God, Mary, retains within itself the wondrous pearl of the heavenly treasure — I mean the body of the most holy Father Benedict. On one of the days, therefore, when more diligent watchfulness of his turn in the order of duty pressed upon him, it happened that the lamp, lit out of veneration before the altar of the perpetual Virgin Mary, was extinguished. Three lamps being extinguished: A custom instituted by the ancient Fathers was observed — which we ourselves also saw done in our boyhood — that both by day and by night the aforementioned church was illuminated by the light of three lamps. The aforesaid brother, therefore, carrying the extinguished candle to the other, which was accustomed to shine before the sepulcher of the blessed Confessor, in order to light it, found that one too had failed; and also visiting the third, which was accustomed to illuminate the oratory of the crypt, he found it too extinguished. Troubled in spirit therefore, while with quick step he rushed out to restore light to the church, upon his return he saw that one of the taller wax candles, which are accustomed to be placed near the altar of the Queen of Virgins and lit only on feast days, had been divinely illuminated and was gleaming with brilliant flames. A candle is found spontaneously lit: Greatly marveling at this thing, he gave thanks to God, understanding that the extinction of the lights had occurred not by chance but by divine Providence, to show mortals that supernatural visitation was by no means absent from this most sacred place.

[14] A certain horseman, once making a journey, came to a village belonging to the jurisdiction of the monastery of Saint Benedict, named Vitriarias. Entering the house of a certain widow, In a village of Saint Benedict, stealing oats from a widow: he found a measure of oats, which, wishing to take for the fodder of his horses, he was forbidden by the woman, who said: If you hold my widowhood's poverty in contempt by robbing me, at least reverence the most holy Benedict, to whose jurisdiction belongs this land that I inhabit. To her the soldier replied: I leave just as much for Saint Benedict as I leave for you. And calling his squire, he handed over the oats, which he himself had poured into the poor woman's sack, to be carried on the neck of the horse, and so he departed. Nor had a long stretch of the road been covered when suddenly, with no spurs urging it and on a horse inclined to run, He is punished: the horse stumbled headlong; it died with its throat torn open, and he himself, with a broken leg, languished for a long time. By his own punishment therefore he learned, and provided an example for others, that the Saints ought not to be scorned nor the tears of widows despised — which, as Solomon says, fall from the eyes to the cheeks, from the cheeks to the ground, and the Lord almighty is the upholder of them all. Ecclesiasticus 35

CHAPTER IV.

Victories obtained; other miracles. The monastic profession of Aimoin, the writer.

[15] Caput-Ceruium is a certain possession of Saint Benedict (about which, in what follows, with God's favor, we shall narrate more fully how it came under the dominion of this monastery of Fleury, and how the habitation of monks was transferred from there to the fortress of Salis), over which possession the above-mentioned venerable monk Benedict was appointed as Provost. At that time, from the fortresses that are most numerous throughout that region, a hundred and forty armed men had spread themselves into the fields of Argentomagus, which are neighboring that place, intending to take spoils from them; and for this reason they had also driven off cattle and flocks from the villages of the aforesaid possession. When the damage to their property had been reported by the men of Argentomagus, The men of Argentomagus: some from the fortress immediately sprang from the gates to fight against them; but gathered into one body, when they saw themselves outnumbered by the enemy, they feared to engage with them. Then one of them, divinely inspired, said to his companions: Now meanwhile, O most faithful comrades-in-arms, let us allow the adversaries to enter the land of Saint Benedict to plunder it; and since our lord Giraldus is his Advocate, let us manfully and confidently attack the enemy to defend it on his behalf, having first sent a messenger who may bring from the monastery of Salis, From the monastery of Salis: which belongs to Saint Benedict, the banner of that precious Confessor, to be our protection. The banner of Saint Benedict obtained: With all agreeing and complying with his counsel, after receiving the banner, only forty young men, invoking Saint Benedict with all their strength, came upon the plunderers unexpectedly. But almighty God, by the merits of his beloved Benedict, had so terrified the hearts of the adversaries that they in no way dared to resist; and in this manner, by only forty young men, a hundred and forty of the enemy, with no or minimal blood shed, were put to flight or captured. The victors, having seized all the spoil, with the nobler captives also taken from the enemy's ranks, came to the monastery of Salis, They obtain victory once: asking the aforementioned Provost Benedict that whatever among the spoils could be recognized as belonging to the substance of their poor, he should receive freely. He gladly accepted, and having recovered the spoils of his people, he allowed the exultant warriors to depart to their homes. There follow two other miracles not very dissimilar to this one, done by the Lord through the supreme Confessor Benedict in those same places; of which one, which occurred in the time of that same Provost, we attach to this very one, while another, very similar to it in all respects, we shall relate in its own more fitting place.

[16] While Lothair was still governing the monarchy of the kingdom of the Franks, it happened that the leading men of the Aquitanian kingdom were disturbed by a grave civil strife; for Giraldus, Viscount of the city of Limoges, and Boso, who held the March of that region, were fighting with mutual hatreds aroused against each other. Wherefore Helias, son of Boso, enticed his lord, Count William of Poitiers, with gifts and prayers, that he should besiege with him the fortress of Giraldus, called Brucia; as a result of which not only the villages obedient to Giraldus but also the possessions of the monastery of Salis happened to be grievously devastated. A messenger came to Giraldus, then residing in the city of Limoges, who reported that not only his region but also the fields of Saint Benedict, because they had been entrusted to his protection, were being ravaged by the enemy. He, thinking there should be no delay in such matters, trusting above all that Father Benedict would be present to help him on account of the devastation of his

possessions, he sent there his son Guido with a chosen band of horsemen, giving instructions that he should both restrain the enemy from their raids and, with the men of Argentomagus joining him, deter them from the siege by battle, if he could do so safely. The men of Argentomagus, not unaware of through whom, after the Lord, they had been victorious in the previous battle, And again, having been fed with the bread and wine of Saint Benedict: came to the already-named monastery of Saint Benedict to pray, and asking the brethren for the eulogies of bread and wine to be given to them, they declared that they were of such faith that they believed without doubt that through that food, by the merits of the glorious Confessor Benedict, they would both be victorious in battle and immune from the peril of death. Nor did their hope deceive them; for when the engagement took place, they inflicted such slaughter upon the adversaries that after the victory, the monks — who desired out of respect for humanity to bury even their enemies — could scarcely inter them. Nevertheless, ordering the earth to be turned over here and there with plows in the manner of those plowing, they covered the bodies with clods as best they could. Not a single one of the men of Argentomagus who had been fed with the bread and wine of Saint Benedict for the aid of their salvation suffered any danger of death; but all returned victorious and in full number to their homes, praising the Lord and extolling his Confessor Benedict with the highest praises, through whose merits they openly declared that they had been both freed from danger and the enemy had been routed.

[17] Abbot Richard was succeeded by Amalbertus, who, benign by nature, was made even more benign by the gentleness of humility planted within him. He had received the governance of our monastery from Lothair, son of Louis who had once been captured by Count Thibaud, together with the election of the brethren. In his days, on a possession of this monastery of Fleury, which is called Hervini-curtis, this kind of thing was divinely done. The monk Gauzlin, then Provost of that estate, having hired workmen, had arranged for wooden steps to be built at the entrance of the church dedicated to God in that same village under the name of the distinguished Confessor of Christ, Benedict. A carpenter applying his effort to this task was preparing to remove the superfluous parts with an adze from a tree felled in the nearby forest. A very heavy log is found spontaneously turned over: And when he tried to turn it to the other side and could not, he said: Come now, Saint Benedict, since I cannot, you turn it. He said this not with the desire of one praying nor with the affection of one asking; but rather, as if lacking confidence, he went to the nearby houses of the forest to summon helpers. Returning with them, he found the log — which the hands of scarcely six men could have moved — turned by divine power to the side that he himself wanted. What, do you think, can this distinguished Father of ours bestow in benefit upon those who invoke him with the whole intention of their mind and with purity of heart, if he granted so much to one who had addressed him with a certain, so to speak, vanity of spirit? Nor ought we, to whom, though unworthy, it has been given by God to have such and so great a Father in the present, to despair in any way, if we implore his aid with pure and simple prayer; since he does not spurn even the most humble groans of strangers, and very often hears servants placed far away. What, finally, the ever-to-be-named Benedict bestowed upon a certain monk of his flock, named Aanno, who still survives, stationed at some distance from here — the consolation of sorrowful souls — it is agreeable to set forth briefly.

[18] After the death of the Pastor Amalbertus (from whom in my tender years I received the habit of the monastic religion — and would that it had been with the true intention of mind!) Oylboldus rose to the prelacy of the brethren of Fleury, by their election and by the royal gift of Prince Lothair. He, providing with pious solicitude for both the spiritual and temporal welfare of his subjects, with the solemn feast of Father Benedict's passing imminent, judged it fitting to send someone of his men to regions more abundantly supplied with fish. Seeking fish for the feast of Saint Benedict: Sending therefore the aforementioned brother, and through his hand a sufficient quantity of money for that business, he advised him to apply himself diligently to the enjoined task. He, obeying the command, sought the produce of the rivers with careful attention; what he sought, he bought; and what he had bought, he was anxiously pressing to carry back to the Father from whom he had been sent. But the flooding of Aquitanian rivers, overflowing with the profusion of rains, delayed the speed of his journey. Among these was the Andria, a certain little river contemptible in appearance, but difficult to cross because of the frequent division of its channel into multiple courses and the interposition of marshes in several places. When the aforesaid brother arrived at what is commonly called the mother water of this stream, he found the ford inundated with waters and therefore impassable for horses; and two small boats — one half-submerged in the middle of the river, the other held tied to the farther bank. In a flood of rivers: Looking about on every side, he could find the assistance of no boatman nor the help of any passerby. Placed therefore in this anxiety of mind, when he understood that his journey was being impeded and the feast day approaching, collecting himself and taking courage from desperation, he gave himself entirely to prayer. Now let there be present, he said, O Lord God, to me your unworthy servant, your helping right hand; and if ever our holy Father Benedict performed anything pleasing to your Majesty, Having poured forth prayers: or if any of his lowly servants serving you in the presence of his sacred body has done so, declare it at this present moment. May it please you now, in whatever order pleases you, to exercise that same power which you once exercised through the merits of your Beloved, when you granted his disciple to tread the waves with dry feet. I have not come presuming upon my own merits to ask these things; but trusting that the distinguished Confessor Benedict can obtain greater things from you, I too, relying on his patronage, have presumed beyond my strength for my frailty before your Clemency. He obtains a boat approaching of its own accord: With this prayer, and with the gentle simplicity in which that same monk excels, and with the preceding merits of the most blessed Benedict, the Lord was moved and conferred upon him the swiftest aid of his grace. For the boat, which we said was situated on the opposite bank, divinely loosened, without any mortal oarsman crossed to that part of the river where the monk with his companions was sitting. One could see a great prodigy: a boat that sometimes, with an unwilling and vainly struggling helmsman, took devious courses in the flowing water, then, as if holding a line divinely shown to it from bank to bank, crossed without mishap — until, brought close to the servants of the monk, it was drawn in by their lances. Rowing with their spears, they transported all the loads, committing the horses to swimming. Having returned to the Father and the brethren, who were already preparing to begin the solemn office of the feast day, the aforesaid monk gladdened them with great joy — rejoicing not so much at the arrival of provisions as devoutly exulting in the power of miracles, that wherever on earth their most holy Lord Benedict was radiant.

[19] The grace of that holy man Benedict is also liberal toward the sick; whence I narrate one miracle, which the aforementioned Abbot Oyboldus rejoiced had occurred in his time. Arnulf, Bishop of Orleans, otherwise certainly a good man and one who observed the ecclesiastical rules most excellently in knowledge and practice, never completely loved the Prelates of this place of Fleury: for this reason above all, that they, obeying only the royal authority, would by no means render to him, at the nod of his own will, the subjection in which he took excessive delight. On which account he gave his consent for his attendants to seize the vineyards of Saint Benedict, situated in the suburbs of the city of Orleans in a place called Boaria. So that the vintage might be preserved: When the aforesaid Abbot had sent envoys to him for the recovery of these, and had not succeeded, he deliberated with the elders in council that, taking the relics of the Saints, with the vintage imminent, he should hasten to the place with some of the brethren to collect their fruits: so that, since it was difficult for him to resist that man by force of arms (for that same man is proven to have very often resisted those powerful in secular authority, and even kings), at least this stratagem might be used as a counter-measure; and this same Bishop — who in the things that are of Jesus Christ surpassed in wisdom almost all the Bishops of Gaul existing in his time — could not oppose it out of regard for the divine. Having therefore raised up the bodies of two Martyrs, Maurus and Frongentius, they came to the place under the name of the illustrious Confessor of God, Benedict; Relics of saints are brought under the name of Saint Benedict: and as they proceeded on the journey, when neighbors and those who inhabited dwellings near the road inquired whose such a famous procession of passersby it was, the answer was: Saint Benedict's. Among these, a certain sick man, worn out for a long time by the ardor of fevers, was asking those passing by: In whose service was such a great crowd treading the way with Crosses? The answer given to him was that Saint Benedict, the Lord's beloved, was passing by that road to the suburbs of Orleans for the defense of his vineyards. Hearing this, he put on hope of obtaining health, and supporting his feeble limbs with a staff, he dragged himself all the way to the blessed Relics and, prostrate beneath the silver shrine in which they were enclosed, he was overcome by sleep. After one night had passed, rising at dawn, he felt himself restored to his former good health; and giving thanks to God, with whatever praises he could, The fever is driven away: he extolled the holy Benedict, calling him the procurer of his well-being. Nor did his opinion deviate much from the truth: for by his help and prayers it is established that he was restored to his proper strength — he who, trusting in his merits or summoned by his fame, had hastened to those places; although we by no means exclude the above-named witnesses of truth from the working of this miracle, but rather judge them to be in all respects equal both in merit and in action. Moreover, the brethren with the aforementioned Abbot, having completed without the impediment of any challenger what they had gone for, returned to their home rejoicing with twofold joy. But that poor man in spirit, who had been healed, constructed a little hut with wooden boards at the spot where he himself, lying down, had had the limbs of the Saints placed above his head; And various sick persons are healed: beneath which, those detained by a similar illness who rested there, if their faith fully demanded it, received most swift healing with the aid of the three aforementioned Saints, as the inhabitants of those places attest.

MIRACLES OF SAINT BENEDICT

BOOK III.

By Aimoin, monk of Fleury.

From manuscripts and Jean de Bosco.

CHAPTER I.

Under King Hugh Capet a fire is quelled; a cripple twice healed.

[1] By a favorable presage of heavenly condescension, this monastery in which by God's authority we serve received the name Fleury: Prologue of the author: which in ancient times, by a not dissimilar prerogative of grace, was called Golden Valley; for it retains within itself the golden flower of paradise, the most holy Father Benedict, who by the most pleasing fragrance of his virtues invites even the most remote to reverence of him. If we should wish to explain the nature of whose works in every detail,

we should wish, we would certainly understand that parchment and speech would fail us before the subject matter of our speech. But lest we seem ungrateful for the benefits of his fatherly goodness, bestowed upon us undeserving by him; those things which have come to our notice, insofar as the gracious supplication of that same benign Patron has obtained strength from Christ for our weak talent — though in rustic speech — we shall undertake to commit to the memory of posterity. And first, let us briefly outline how the commonwealth of the Franks has stood in these times, so that we may afterwards more freely pursue the things we have proposed. When King Lothair exchanged, as we believe, his heavenly for an earthly kingdom, his son Louis succeeded; who, cut off by premature death, left the principate of the Frankish nation destitute of a proper heir, being without a natural marriage. His uncle Charles, whom we have noted above grew old as a private citizen, was trying, if he could, to claim for himself the Empire long held by the authors of his line; but his will achieved no effect. For the leading men of the Franks, leaving him aside, Hugh Capet is consecrated King with his son Robert: betook themselves to Hugh, who was then strenuously governing the Duchy of France, the son of that great Hugh of whom mention has already been made, and elevated him to the royal throne at Noyon. In the same year he chose his son Robert as his partner in the kingdom. And since, as far as pertains to the cause of the matter undertaken, we have spoken of kings, we must proceed to pursuing it. When therefore Abbot Oylbold had fallen asleep in Christ, Saint Abbo, Abbot of Fleury: Abbo, a man dear to God and men, elected by the brethren with the approval of King Hugh, rose to the rank of monastic governance; who, in the year preceding this one in which we write — which was the one thousand and fourth from the Incarnation of the Lord — in the parts of Gascony, was innocently killed by the treacherous men of that nation in our presence, and, crowned with the blood of Martyrdom, was called by Christ to the eternal kingdoms. In whose days, the marvelous things performed by almighty God through our most preeminent Father Benedict, He dies a Martyr in the year 1004: because it happened that we had by then reached the limit of the age of understanding, we write in a more certain style, being present at some of them.

[2] The festive day of the Translation of the same glorious Father recurred in annual succession during the summer months; On the feast of the Translation of Saint Benedict: to witness whose joys not only the country people had flocked together — as indeed the Wise Man says in his praise — but also the urban populace, adorned with honorable persons of the clergy. While these were engaged in the vigils of the nocturnal praise, During the nocturnal vigils, a fire breaks out: which the devout throng of monks, likewise gathering from every direction for the joy of so great a solemnity and joining our company, was fulfilling in the service of their Lawgiver — suddenly through the northern windows of the church the light of a harmful fire shone horribly; for a fire had fallen by chance into a hay barn, and fed by the dry kindling, it spread into the surrounding buildings. Nor did the flame labor to increase its strength, since the heat of summer had already scorched the rooftops of the buildings, and the houses, joined to each other, offered one another easy occasion for burning. Meanwhile, leaving the matutinal hymns, all rushed out of the sacred sanctuaries, each one intent with all their minds on protecting their own possessions. A few of the elders, together with us who were then in the years of boyhood, concluded the matins — though with a less fitting ending — as the situation demanded. Then ready hands were turned to removing from the flames whatever was necessary. The ornament of the church is removed: The hall of the holy Mother of God, Mary, was so beautifully adorned within on all sides with silken hangings and such a variety of other veils that many of those who had come for the feast day confessed they had never before seen the same church so fittingly decorated. To the beauty of whose adornment, The shrine of Saint Benedict is carried out with other relics: when the starry area, so to speak, of lamps and candles was added, the bier gleaming with gold and gems shone from the front, retaining within itself a treasure to be preferred to Arabian metal and the topaz stone. This was first carried out on the shoulders of its grieving servants, along with the relics of the other Saints, and set out in the cemetery of the brethren on the eastern side of the church. Then, all turning to take down the ornament of the sanctuary, which the careful diligence of helpers had elegantly arranged over the space of eight days, we took it down in the interval of three or not much more than four hours of the night. One could perceive and groan that the royal hall of the Mother of the Lord — bearing the marks of that way by which once Benedict, beloved of the Lord, ascended to heaven in the nocturnal praises — Chapter 38 of the Life: had shortly after been made like a deserted dwelling. And because it was conjectured that the lead in the glass windows could already be melted by the fiery heat, especially as the conflagration of the conquering flame was consuming everything — with the hope of mortal aid removed, various furnishings were hidden far from the monastery amid the dense groves. When suddenly, to one of the Abbots who had come from neighboring monasteries to serve their distinguished Leader, named Rainard, a vision of heavenly consolation appeared. For he perceived, together with others to whom it was given to see this, two doves whiter than snow, which, circling the circuit of the temple with a triple flight, directed the course of their flight to the south, where the violence of the fires had already stood near the granaries of the brethren, The fire is quelled by the flight of two doves: and it dared not pass beyond the divinely designated boundary. And now the art of human ingenuity had ceased, and the labor of men had quieted; so that the greater power of divine mercy might shine through the most blessed Benedict, whom we wretches were blaming for having gone to sleep. Nor did any of those things which were enclosed by the circuit of the cloister sustain any loss — as if they were surrounded and protected by the flight of those birds of angelic appearance.

[3] In our own days, we have known an Archembertus, an inhabitant of the territory of Auxerre, to have been grievously afflicted with a prolonged illness; A cripple: for whom, since the careful attention of friends or relatives had been lacking, his legs had adhered to his thighs by the constant bending of his knees during his prolonged lying in bed, so that the flesh growing underneath exceeded the width of a man's palm. When his parents had decided to carry him to the sepulcher of a certain Saint Simeon, which they had learned by spreading fame was illustrious for the grace of healings — since it was within their own region — the sick man refused, and asked to be brought to the monastery of Fleury. Advised in a dream: For he said that he had perceived through nocturnal sleep that while he was standing before the most sacred tomb of Father Benedict, he had stood with erect feet before the altar of the exalted Virgin Mary, and had beheld a church of immense beauty, from which the faculty of departing was denied to him. Nor were these the vain dreams by which we are often deceived; but with God helping and the merits of the Queen of Virgins and the most eminent Confessor supporting, Carried to Fleury: they had a salutary effect. Being placed upon a donkey, therefore, he was brought to the desired place, and by the relatives who had led him there, he was set down before the doors of the monastery. From there, since he had not yet used stools, crawling on his buttocks and hands, he dragged himself to one of the public bakeries and was received by its keeper out of compassion for his human condition. There, long awaiting the arrival of his cure, he was kindled with the desire of approaching the hall of the Mother of Christ, in which He is healed at the tomb of Saint Benedict: the holy Benedict rests in hope. Having entered it, wishing to place upon the altar — which is dedicated to God under the honor of Saint Mary and all the holy Virgins — a coin sent to him by the Vicar of that same village, named Ermenfred, obtained as alms, he felt his sinews loosening. And looking around for someone who might bring him aid, he was lifted up by the sacristan of the church. He placed his stools upon the railings of the sanctuary, and his gift — no less acceptable to Christ than the farthing of that Evangelical widow — upon the altar. Luke 21:3 Then, prostrate on the ground, when he had devoted himself to prayer, he was overcome by sleep and drenched with salty sweat. Not having given thanks, upon departing he relapses: Having awakened, no longer asking for stools but supporting himself with a staff handed to him by a bystander, he went to his lodging, and gradually obtained the firmest strength for walking. But when he perceived that the ability to make the journey was not lacking to him, ungrateful for his health, without the permission of his host or of the Saints who had granted him the efficacy of healing, he secretly departed. Coming to the village called Domini Petri, he was again made weak. A priest named Teudo, who had granted him a place to stay in his house, spoke to him thus: What evil, he said, have you committed, O man, that you cannot escape your former illness? He replied that he had departed from the Saints, the providers of his cure, without giving thanks. Meanwhile, during the following night as he rested, it seemed to him that he stood unharmed in the sacred places from which he had departed, holding a candle before his hands, equal to the measure of his stature. Brought back: By the advice and assistance, therefore, of the aforesaid priest, he was placed upon a cart and brought back to the places he had wrongly deserted. Finally, carrying purchased wax to the memorial of the illustrious Virgin Mary, according to the vision shown to him, he lit it before the tomb of the glorious Confessor of Christ, Benedict; and clinging to the pavement, he begged pardon for his committed fault along with the restoration of his health. And having lit a candle with a vow to remain there, he is healed: Having therefore made a vow never to depart from that same village, he merited to be restored to the most complete fullness of his steps. This we happened to hear from his own mouth on the very day on which we began to write these things. At that narration there were also present Constantine, a priest, and Letherius, a Levite by rank, a monk by habit, then assigned to the ministry of receiving guests.

CHAPTER II.

The fortress of Caput-ceruium offered to Saint Benedict on account of a paralysis cured; occupied by fraud, it is recovered.

[4] And since, as the blessed Pope Gregory relates, the holy Martyrs show more frequent miracles where only their memory is held than where their sacred bodies are preserved, it is clear that the same is to be understood of the other Saints, especially from this our Father, the most holy Benedict, who is to be honored in manifold ways: whose most excellent signs, performed by God through his merit in other places, our mind desires to hand down to the knowledge of posterity. Otherius the paralytic: Caput-ceruium is called an estate situated on the borders of Bourges, adjacent to Limoges; from which the neighboring region is called by a corrupted name Capcerpgensis. That this came under the dominion of the monastery of Fleury, dedicated to almighty God under the name of the perpetual Virgin Mary and the most holy Benedict, for this reason we have learned from the report of very ancient elders. The lord of that possession was called Otherius, distinguished among the Aquitanian magnates by a famous lineage of nobility. He, struck from the flower of his early youth by the illness of paralysis, had been deprived of the use of his hands and feet; only the faculties of his tongue, his hearing, and his sight in part remained. Laboring therefore with a long-standing illness, when he understood that the vain efforts of physicians more diligently applied to him conferred nothing of health, having heard the fame of the miracles which the omnipotence of the Savior was then most frequently working at the most sacred bones of our common Patron Benedict, he said to his men: You see, He sends his men to the tomb of Saint Benedict: most faithful friends, dearer to me than life itself — wretched as it now is — that I gain nothing from the expenditure on medicine; indeed the length of my illness is daily prolonged. Therefore, if any care for your Otherius touches you, having pity on my miseries, I beseech you, take care to approach by a swift path the tomb of the glorious Confessor of Christ, Benedict. And lest unknown roads perhaps disturb you, know

that the banks of the Loire River and the district of Orleans are illuminated by this illustrious treasure. A divine oracle foretold this to me while I had committed my weary limbs to sleep: that I must direct the seekers of my health there with vows, because from there I would obtain the remedy of well-being. And since I have remained alone with my dearest mother, bereft of father and brothers, she not refusing but rather earnestly requesting this very thing to be done, He arranges for the estate of Caput-ceruium to be offered: I vow to God and to the aforesaid distinguished Benedict a portion of my inheritance, to which the name Caput-ceruium belongs, with all things pertaining to it — on this understanding, that both of us, retaining the usufruct and the income of the present life while we survive, shall cause all things to be restored to the brethren of Fleury after our dissolution. For, deprived of the hope of receiving offspring by the above-mentioned revelation, I have entirely cast aside the concern of taking a wife. Hasten therefore as quickly as possible, and by your prayers and those of the servants of God dwelling there, entreat help for a wretch. His faithful men, having received such instructions, with his gloves ornamented with gold — by which they would place the donation of the aforementioned properties upon the sacred altars — Having offered gloves, the donation being made, he is healed at that very hour: without delay they approached the venerable monastery, making known to the assembly of the brethren the requests and prayers of their lord. A thing memorable to relate: on the very same day and at the very same moment of the hour in which those who had been sent presented the gift with prayers before the tomb of the Saint, the sick man, who lay separated from the place by ninety miles, obtained the most complete health. Giving praises to God and songs of thanksgiving to the holy Benedict, he sought the hidden retreats of the forests for the sake of exercise or hunting. While he was devoting himself to that pursuit, he met his men returning from our monastery. When they beheld him riding through the forest on horseback, they were struck with immense astonishment, seeing a man who recently could not rise from his bed without another's help, then not only walking firmly but even fatiguing a horse at the gallop. While they hesitated and supposed themselves deceived by a likeness of countenance, he offered himself to meet them joyfully. He then inquired more carefully about the day on which they had fulfilled their vows on his behalf, and found it most certainly to be the one on which he rejoiced that health had come to him. This ancient account of the old men was contradicted by the older edict of King Chlothar III, in which it is contained that the aforementioned Otherius was ordered to be killed by that same King for his treachery, and that, all his properties having been confiscated, that estate was bestowed upon Saint Benedict by the same Prince. And this is what is read in a certain passage of the first book — that the brethren of Fleury had obtained Caput-ceruium by royal liberality. It could have happened, however, that after this donation which we have now related, Otherius himself, accused before the King of disloyalty, was ordered to be killed, and that the same King, as if from his own portion, bestowed that same estate upon our monastery. The fact that in the same royal decree he is called Aaotharius is due to the interchange of ancient words, as we shall show more fully later. After his death, all the neighbors attempted to take this estate from them, and compelled them to resort to a plan useful to themselves.

[5] Accordingly, as is contained in the series of the preceding book, having constructed dwellings suitable for the monastic Order there, they removed from the adversaries the hope of seizing those same properties down to the times of King Robert, son of Hugh. After Ademar had occupied other places: When he took up the burden of governing the kingdom, a certain Ademar, elated by his youth and equally by his beauty of body — whose father Guido held the honor of Viscount in the city of Limoges — plotted a most wicked crime. For by no means content with the resources of Limoges, rightfully available to him from his paternal inheritance, when he saw the numerous stock of his co-heirs and brothers growing, he turned his mind to appropriating the property of others. And an artisan of treachery, entering the fortress called by the rustics Bruccia, he acted as its lord. There was in that province a man of not contemptible power, named Hugo, to whom the middle portion of that same fortress had come by hereditary succession; this he, as well as the portion that belonged to his own father, seized with reckless audacity. Having thus obtained the whole fortress, eluding the forces of two Counts who were striving to expel him from there — namely William of Poitiers and Boso of Perigord — for a space of fifteen days, he compelled them to lift the siege. Freed from that necessity, daring greater things, he entered the fortified place of Father Benedict, distant four and a half miles from the aforementioned castle, having watched for the absence of the Provost Otherius, in the manner of bandits. Antiquity had given the name Salis to that fortified place, He invades the estate of Caput-Ceruium, then called the castle of Salis: and the monks had transferred their permanent habitation there from Caput-ceruium, because that place was largely fortified by nature. The aforesaid Ademar attempted to invade this, as he himself later related, so that with the supplies of grain and wine — which had been gathered there by the surrounding inhabitants for the protection of the sacred places — he might relieve the poverty of the occupied Bruccia; but in truth, he was laboring to extend the very narrow bounds of his possession. Meanwhile, the Provost of the place, the already-named Otherius, having received news of so great a calamity, was touched in his heart with grief within — because he seemed to have completely lost the place entrusted to him by the venerable Abbot Abbo, then Rector of Fleury, and the brethren — and was swept away in a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts. At length, understanding that the time that had come upon him was not one for grief but for counsel, he proceeded directly to the above-named Hugo. Revealing to him the opportunity for capturing the enemy — namely that, having abandoned the very strong fortress of Bruccia, he had moved to the dwelling of the fortified place of Salis — he urged him to set out to forestall his designs. Nor did Hugo delay, who understood it was to his advantage if he could forestall him in a less secure place. What more? Drawing in not only him, but all the surrounding neighbors whom he knew cared for the venerable love of Father Benedict, to his assistance, he warned them at dawn on Tuesday that the enemy must be met. Meanwhile, to a certain soldier among the auxiliaries of our side, during the night preceding the day of battle, After a vision shown to a soldier: the following vision was shown during sleep. It seemed to him that, as if with the Provost of the church of Saint Stephen of the See of Limoges, named Ainard, he was roaming through a forest, and having spread nets in suitable places, was driving a multitude of wild boars before him — of which some, led to the prepared ambush, he captured alive, while others, pierced with hunting spears, he delivered to death. Waking therefore, when he had told a certain comrade what he had seen, he received this answer from him: The meaning of your vision, with God helping and the most holy Benedict's merits supporting, will be manifestly revealed in the near future; for what was shown to you about the wild boars, you will see carried out upon treacherous men; and what you dreamed of doing under the leadership of Ainard, you will, on the coming day, accomplish together with us — with Christ aiding — under the leadership of Otherius, the monk of the holy man Benedict. And when the one who had seen the dream asked that the matter be declared more clearly to him (for he was ignorant of the affairs that were transpiring), the interpreter said to him: Has it not yet come to your ears that Ademar, the son of Guido, has invaded the monastery of the distinguished Confessor Benedict, and that the Provost Otherius has therefore sought the help of our lord? Gaufredus, called by the surname Asinus on account of the strength of his body, in whose fortress the aforementioned monk happened then to be — while the soldier was reporting these things to his comrade — added these words, saying: We too, with God willing and Saint Benedict helping, shall either strike the usurpers of the sacred place with the avenging sword or lead them captive in a noble triumph. This saying strengthened the trembling hearts of many men. It seems to me that this dreamer and his interpreter are similar to the two men from the East, of whom one dreamed of the victory of Gideon and the other interpreted it. Judges 7:13 It was indeed Friday of the second week of holy Lent when the gang of thieves occupied the aforementioned monastery; It is besieged by the assembled soldiers: and behold, at the twilight of Tuesday of the following week, auxiliaries summoned from every direction stood unexpectedly at the gates. Then, while certain men of our force were still stationed far from the fortress together with the Provost Otherius, a divine prodigy appeared. For they saw that while the sun was most brightly illuminating all other parts of the earth, the circuit of the fortress was surrounded by the densest fog — which indeed would bring no impediment to fighting for themselves, but would cloud the sight of the enemy. That day seems to them comparable to the one about which the ancient Lawgiver writes: That for the Egyptians there were thick and palpable shadows, but for the children of Israel there was light in all their borders. Exodus 10:22 Emboldened in spirit by this sign, they resolved to attack the enemy in battle; and having sent the Provost ahead (who, formerly their leader but now attacking the hostile walls, should cry out more loudly the name of blessed Benedict), they themselves, lifting their voice on high, Crying out the name of Saint Benedict: invoke Benedict, the Father of monks. The hollows of the valleys then resounded Benedict, and the recesses of the nearby forests echoed back Benedict. By which uproar, it seemed to the enemy that the neighboring mountains had collapsed and the depths of hell had opened. And since mention has been made of mountains, let it not be burdensome to the hearers to recall the situation of the already-mentioned fortress of Salis. It is a mountain of no great height, on whose slope the fortress is situated; which indeed from the eastern or southern side offers difficult access to those approaching, while from the northern side the slope of the mountain prevents the conveyance of any siege engines. But toward the west, where the easy advance of the enemy was feared, there was a house most firmly constructed of stones, extended lengthwise to the south, quite suitable for repelling enemies. This kind of fortification, however, became the occasion of destruction for the adversaries; for through excessive security, they sensed the enemy was present before they had foreseen them. Gaufredus was the first to bring armed forces from the northern side — surnamed Asinus not for laziness but for his strength — and he ordered fire to be applied, He is captured with his companions: as he had agreed with his men the day before over their cups, taken in the love of Father Benedict. After him the remaining auxiliaries — namely Giraldus, lord of the fortress of Clues, and Hugo of Gargelle, and the rest whose names I have refrained from mentioning — who, protected by a band of two hundred armed men, began to drive the adversaries, who trusted in equal numbers but were unequal in the strength of resolve, from the battlements they were preparing to defend, with javelins and stones. And behold, by divine Providence and the intercession of the distinguished Confessor, the north wind rising up drove the flames of fire into the gates, while driving back the enemy's missiles. And when the townspeople saw the fire growing and their own weapons falling in vain, putting fear into their hearts, they fled inward. With the rebels seeking the church, our men followed more closely at their heels, and slaying some at the entrance of the gate, they pursued those who were seeking the church. In which, Ademar — suspecting that the church would not be a safe hiding place for him — fearfully climbed the wooden tower from which the bells hung, with six accomplices of his faction. There also, despairing of being able to hide, he walked about the rooftops in the manner of an architect; until, seen by Hugo, who was searching for him more diligently than the rest, he was captured with a guarantee of safety for his life and limbs. With him, five of his most prominent accomplices were taken: namely Hugo and Archembaldus of Buciac, Rainardus and Americus his brother, sons of Heldegart, a not ignoble man of Argentomagus, and Giraldus of Terins — apart from those whom either lesser power or less distinguished blood from the nobility of their parents removed from our knowledge, whose number is reported to have been twenty and more. A hundred and twenty horses were captured,

besides those which were either secretly stolen by the victors or led away by the vanquished as they took refuge in flight. From these both the multitude of the enemy could be gathered and the heavenly power, together with the most excellent merit of Father Benedict, could be evidently recognized — that by so few men of trained military service, adversaries fortified by numbers and the nature of the place were so easily overcome. We believe no less that this was freely granted to us by the grace of God: that while thirty of the enemy's soldiers were slain, none of our men was even wounded, with three exceptions — one, indeed, devoted to military service, who, having received a lethal wound, returned to his home and departed this life; and two devoted to agriculture rather than to military service, who, along with many other common men, aroused by the report of the battle, had come to help our side; while excessively devoted to plunder, it is uncertain whether they were killed by allies or by strangers. In this manner, the fortress was recovered within the sixth hour of the day on which they had first arrived there, and restored to our side — in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand. Year 1000 And lest anyone think that so great a victory should be ascribed to the valor of men rather than to the divine largesse, let him know that it has been made public to us by the account of the adversaries themselves, that they had been so deprived of vigor that, although they saw themselves abounding in a mass of weapons and stones, they nonetheless felt no efficacy within themselves in hurling them. The souls also of the slain, during the nighttime, very often compelled those resting in that same village to interrupt their sleep, roaming about mournfully and crying out that they were wretched, who had not hesitated to seize the properties of the most excellent Father Benedict. Nor were Guido, the father of Ademar, or even Giraldus his brother, the godfather of the aforesaid youth, Ademar's father Guido is punished: free from miseries; but just as they were sharers in his wicked counsel, so too by God's most just disposing providence, they were partners in dangers. For Guido, who had gone to Rome not so much for the sake of prayer as of dissimulation — as if he did not know what was being done by his son — was so debilitated by the disease of vitiligo that he could not return to his home except in a litter. His uncle Giraldus: Giraldus, meanwhile, who under the pretext of the same dissimulation was staying at Poitiers and awaiting the outcome of the affair, was seized by a fierce horse that bit him through the hip, and was forced to lie in bed for several days. Hildebertus also, The standard-bearer Hildebertus: an inhabitant of Argentomagus, the standard-bearer of this faction, who as a mediator of peace seemed openly to be for peace but secretly nurtured treason — burned on the jaw by divine fire — remained incurable until the day of his death, so that with the flesh consumed, his teeth were laid bare in a wretched spectacle. Blessed in all things be God, who continually glorifies the Saints who are pleasing to him.

CHAPTER III.

A horse freed from drowning. Those fed on the bread of Saint Benedict prevail in battle. One who injured him perishes wretchedly.

[6] Since we have once entered Aquitaine, it does not seem beside the point if we narrate a miraculous event, which the order of events connected, a few years elapsing, to the previous one. Captured, as was said above, Ademar was led by Hugo to the fortress of Bruccia. A certain Giraldus, favoring the side of Ademar, held this, In the recovered fortress of Bruccia: having excluded the supporters of Hugo, who was no little indignant that the portion of that same fortress had been snatched from him by Ademar. Therefore, leading out the same young man whom he held captive, within view of the walls where he could be seen by his own, he threatened to cut off his head unless they quickly yielded the fortifications to him. This greatly terrified Giraldus and those who were inside, especially seeing their lord, along with so many distinguished warriors of trained military service, cast down by the sudden reversal of fortune; whence, terrified, they surrendered not only the fortress but also themselves and all their possessions. Hugo, having gained the fortress, immediately demolished the tower which seemed to have been under Ademar's jurisdiction. Next to it was a cistern dug out for collecting rainwater, extending in depth forty-five cubits and more. It happened that after some interval of time, two of our brethren, dwelling at the aforementioned monastery of Salis belonging to the holy Father Benedict, visited the aforementioned Hugo, then residing at Bruccia, for the benefit of the monastery. The horse of the monks falls into the cistern: Seeking the upper levels of the tower for a conversation with him, they left their two horses, tied together by their halters, on the lower level. One of these, impatient of rest, while wandering here and there and dragging its companion, slid by its hindquarters into the above-named cistern, nor could it be helped by the other, but it fell all the way to the bottom. Immediately a cry arose from the onlookers: the monks' horse had fallen into the well. Hugo, anxiously inquiring the cause of the commotion, when he found the damage of the fallen animal, was greatly distressed that the monks who had come to visit him (for he was ill) had suffered such a great loss. Therefore he ordered his wife to summon the most robust young men and have the half-dead horse's carcass pulled from the well. He himself, shortly after, when he had dressed, followed her. Leaning over the mouth of the well, he saw only the horse's head above the water, the remaining limbs, together with the saddle, covered by the water. And turning to the bystanders, he said: This horse will never again feel the burden of a saddle. To which the woman replied: Is that old man Benedict, who obtained the victory from the Lord for you over the enemies, so feeble that he cannot obtain that his own monk be carried home by his own animal? To this he, doubting, said: If he obtains this, I will commit myself to his protection above all other Saints. Ladders being therefore brought, a certain man descended, trusting in his bold youth, who would bind the horse with ropes around suitable parts of its body, so that it could be more easily pulled out. But when he had come out, since it seemed difficult — on account of the narrowness of the well — to extract so immense an animal's body together with the ladder at the same time, they first pulled out the ladder, then began to pull out the horse. But almighty God, to show not only to the already oft-mentioned Hugo but to all of sound mind, that the distinguished Leader of monks — namely the supreme Benedict — was not of small merit before him, but rather of greater than any mortal could conjecture, doubled the miracle. For when the numerous young men had already raised the horse to the very edge of the well, Almost extracted, it slips back: and the brethren standing at a distance were offering the prayers of the Litany to the Lord, just when they began to invoke the Lord's beloved Benedict, the ropes suddenly broke and the horse slipped back to the depths. Despair seized everyone, despairing that it could any longer be pulled out alive — especially since descent to tie it up again would be difficult, nor did they have such an abundance of ropes, and the fall from above was thought to have crushed its limbs. But one of the brethren, approaching the aforementioned Hugo, urged him that, with confidence taken in the power of the Confessor of Christ, Benedict, they should once more attempt the tried work. When certain young men also, eager to test what their strength could do, agreed to his persuasion — especially the wife of that same most noble Hugo, who was ablaze with the ardor of faith and devotion toward our most blessed Father Benedict — By those invoking Saint Benedict: ladders were again lowered into the well. Moreover, no other supply of ropes could be found except nets prepared for the use of capturing wild goats in the forest, which they used tied together and twisted to each other. With these therefore, tying the horse as they had done before, they were pulling it back, crying out in great voices and invoking the holy Benedict. And behold, when it was almost within their hands, the bindings again failing, it had begun to slip back into the depths. Then one man from the crowd asked to be tied with belts cut from deerskins, which the Aquitanians use, very wide and very strong, and thus to be lowered inside. Seizing the bands around the horse's legs, he most aptly tied the horse's head and advised his companions to pull him out first, It is pulled out: then the quadruped. They, most swiftly obeying the advice, brought both back to the surface. The horse was laid on the ground as if dead. The honorable Hugo, approaching and touching it with a rod, said to the bystanders: This one will never live again. Then the horse, with some lifting it from the ground, raising itself shook itself, and expelled through the urinary passage the water it had unwillingly swallowed. Immediately the cheerful woman reproached her husband with these words: See, she said, learn by this experience that Benedict, the servant of God, is present to those who faithfully invoke him, especially to his own servants. Immediately applause and the voice of joy arose throughout the whole fortress, of those praising Benedict, of those giving thanks to Benedict — that the horse was now living, that it was now walking on its own feet. The religious woman, since it was winter, led the horse into a sunny room, and she herself covered it with softer straw until it broke into a sweat. The horse, drawn out shortly after, rolling on the ground and shaking all its limbs, was neighing in search of its companion. The brethren who had come, receiving it with joy, brought it home unharmed, with no limb weakened. One of them was named Aanno, who holds the office of priest; the other Remigius, remaining in the Order of deacon; from whose account, fifteen days before, I learned that these things had happened in this way, and by whom the saddle was also shown, which had fallen with the horse — whose sideboards, though new, the horse itself had broken with its feet, unable to bear its pommel. Let anyone now who boasts that these things do not seem marvelous to him consider which of these is more excellent: whether to have brought iron back from the depths of a lake, or not only to have preserved the life of a quadruped in so great a precipice but also to have brought it back unharmed to the surface. Number 6 of the Life I, because our Lawgiver performed both, confess that in both he was not merely powerful but most powerful. In this indeed that is most worthy of admiration: that the horse, which they could not pull out with the hold of ropes, was brought back by the reins of a fragile little band — as if the loving Father Benedict were admonishing them not in words but in deeds, that this should not be attributed to human strength but rather to divine working and to his own intercession. But if anyone judges the wondrous deeds of that Father to be contemptible on account of the lowliness of our person, we ask this man, not to read our writings, but by no means to exasperate the most gentle countenance of that same Father by his ingratitude: who, if — God forbid — he is offended, no one doubts that he will show himself hard and intractable; just as, on the contrary, appeased by the prayers of humility, he will show himself favorable and gentle.

[7] In the war of Hildebert, Count of Perigord, and William of Poitiers: It seems opportune to insert also in the reading that which

in that same province, under the aforesaid Provost Otherius, the Lord deigned to work through the merits of his holy Benedict. Hildebert, son of the above-named Boso, having obtained the County of the city of Perigord through succession from his maternal grandfather, took up arms against William, Count of Poitiers, and having mustered his army, pitched his camp at the second milestone from the city of Poitiers. Among the other auxiliaries whom he had summoned for this war, there was Hugo, of whom we have spoken, lord of the fortress called Gargilissa. He, knowing that our most blessed Father Benedict was accustomed to aid in every place, and especially in battle, those who invoke him with full faith, asked the aforementioned Provost Otherius to give him at least two loaves from those which the monks ate, which he himself might take as food with his men when entering the contest — being of no small faith, he who believed that by that food he could be more powerfully armed against all dangers than by any weapons. Meanwhile, while Hildebert was awaiting both Hugo himself and the rest of his forces, especially Fulco, Count of Angers, the gathered men of Poitiers attempted to crush him by a sudden attack, so that with him — who was the leader of the war — overwhelmed before all his forces were assembled, they might deter the rest from aiding him. Nor was he slower in opposing them; but with the few he had with him, engaging the arrivals, he clashed with them twice in open battle. And when he was on the point of being overwhelmed by the multitude of the enemy, with even his veterans not ashamed to flee, unexpectedly the already-mentioned Hugo arrived, who, seeing the spirits of his allies cast down by adverse circumstances, Having been fed on the bread of Saint Benedict, they prevail: swiftly breaking the loaves he had received from the monastery of Saint Benedict, both took some himself and distributed them to those he had brought with him; and finally, attacking the men of Poitiers — who were already on the verge of victory and too secure about themselves — together with Hildebert, he conquered and routed them. None of the soldiers who had taken even a small portion of the bread of Saint Benedict received a lethal wound, but all escaped unharmed.

[8] Now, advancing our step of words from Aquitaine, let us return to France; and having narrated about the state of the kingdom and its Kings what shall seem pertinent, let us recite a miracle done by almighty God through our most blessed Father Benedict in the place called Abbatis-villa; and thus, for certain reasons, let us make our way through the monastery to the parts of Burgundy. Hugh, Duke of the Franks, having obtained the insignia of the kingdom, enjoyed them with his son for ten continuous years; dying, however, he left the monarchy of his Principate to his son Robert. Robert, son of Hugh, having long been contemplating in his mind taking a wife, and wishing to take a spouse from the parts of Arles, assembled an army, intending to meet his bride who was soon to arrive. While therefore the army was making its way along the farther bank of the Loire, it happened that William of Belleme chose for his camp the court of the above-named village of the Abbot. But one of his attendants, a young man of perverse mind, arriving before his lord, A soldier, after an insult committed against Saint Benedict: furiously commanded the monk in charge of that court, named Theoderic, to open the gates for him, since he himself was going to take up lodging there. To him the monk replied: Have patience with me, O best of soldiers, as I await the arrival of your lord, to whom alone these gates will be opened. The soldier, perceiving that entrance was being denied to him, turning to anger, said to his companions: Look, he said, behold this monk like a puffed-up toad, arrogantly sitting on an equally puffed-up horse, and not willing to open for me. The monk, moved by these words of insult, turned toward the east — the direction in which the monastery is situated — and said: I, O most holy Lord Benedict, either suspect that you have fallen into a perpetual sleep, or that, offended by our sins, you have departed from these dwellings once dear to you, since you thus allow the injuries of your people to remain unavenged. Why should I delay with many words? The avenging retribution for the blasphemy was not long delayed, since divine Providence, through the merits of the blessed Confessor, hastened it — we believe for this reason: lest the brother, overcome by faintheartedness, might fall into the lapse of a greater offense in word. For when William arrived, that wretch Having drunk his wine to drunkenness: who had scandalized the brother and moreover had despised Father Benedict — boasting that he would fill his own and his men's bellies with the wine of his servants to the point of drunkenness, without his grace — entered a house rather far from the court, in which, about to satisfy the execution of his threats, while he drank wine beyond measure, he drank the cup of the Lord's fury along with the wine to the dregs. Rising from the table, he placed himself by the fire, joining temporal sleep to the eternal. For the fire, seizing the straw of the beds, raised globes of flame on high and easily ignited the roof of the house. He wretchedly perishes in the fire: Nor did the wretch awaken until, with everything seized, he was buried under masses of timbers. And so, with two boys of his service — for a third escaped half-burned — and five horses, together with all his travel equipment, he was consumed by fire. The one who had escaped the peril of death by the benefit of flight, with his clothes burned or the hair of his head singed, was brought into the presence of William and reported the matter as it had occurred. Then he said: Deservedly has this punishment come upon those wretches who, by the malevolent spirit of their own folly, thinking they could drain all the wine of the monks, so gave themselves to drunkenness that they could not avoid the imminent danger. By this deed, therefore, the brother's suspicion was removed, by which he had been falsely accused that our most blessed Father Benedict had fallen asleep — who with watchful care exhibits constant solicitude toward the flock subject to him. Moreover, no one of us can be deterred from the visitation of these places pleasing to him by any heinous crime, whom the welcome presence of his bones invites. Nevertheless, we must be all the more careful not to offend the gaze of so loving a Visitor with the dark cloud of committed sins.

CHAPTER IV.

The danger of drowning averted. Death inflicted on a guilty man. The body of Saint Paul of Leon brought to Fleury.

[9] In that flood of the Loire which the inhabitant of its bank felt to be more than usual, and the farmer remotely situated felt to be unprecedented — what wondrous thing was done through the merit of our most frequently named Patron Benedict — since it happened that I was absent, I shall undertake to commit to the memory of posterity what I have learned from the report of elders. The Loire, then, the greatest of those rivers which carry their courses through Gaul in their own channels to the Ocean under their own names, exceeded its ancient limits in a manner unheard of in previous ages, When the Loire River flooded in the year 1003: in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and three, and in the sixteenth year of the reign of King Robert — from when he began to reign with his father — but the seventh of his sole monarchy. So great and so sudden was its flooding that it engulfed with sudden ruin farmworkers laboring in the fields or horsemen making a journey — so that Virgil's saying about the Po may not unfittingly be applied to it: Pouring forth, whirling with mad current, forests / the king of rivers, Eridanus, and through all the fields / swept away herds with their stables. Georgics 1 So also this river, not only livestock with their folds, men with their houses, but even the father or mother of the family with sons and daughters, or with all utensils, swept away with its unexpected force. A cowherd of Fleury: Fearing to be engulfed by this flood, the cowherd of the herd dedicated to the use of the monks of Father Benedict dwelling in the monastery of Fleury, led away the herds of cows to the safer pastures of the mountains. Returning from there, while he rushed headlong to be received within the enclosure of the fortress and escape the imminent danger, he encountered the hostile stream he wished to flee. Turning back therefore, he headed with the greatest haste to the bridge of a rivulet which, because of the breadth of the surrounding marsh, is called Long-net, which he had perhaps already passed. Having invoked Saint Benedict: There too, encountering the waves of the flooding current, he slipped into despair of life, and uncertain of counsel, loosening the wrappings from his legs, he tied himself to two planks of the bridge. He then began to invoke Christ and to pray to the holy Benedict to have mercy on him by bringing aid. But when the bridge was broken apart by the force of the swelling river, he too was equally carried headlong. Then indeed, with the whole affection of his heart, he repeated more frequently the name of the most blessed Benedict; Already carried far by the force of the waters: and because he believed himself already delivered to death, he asked only that his soul be saved. And while the waves propelled him to the place where the little river Bonodia flows into the Loire, carried by the waters for nearly three miles, and always on his lips, always in his heart repeating the name of the most holy Benedict, he merited to be heard. For when the blowing of the winds changed, the west wind began to bring him to the bank with a gentle push. Certain men known to him, He is saved: sailing near in small boats, recognizing who he was, having loosened the bonds with which he had tied himself, brought him back with them safe and sound to the secure station of the harbor. The man himself is called Constantius; who also reports that he was surrounded by a multitude of serpents and various kinds of reptiles, yet through the providence of God and the intercession of the distinguished Confessor of Christ, Benedict, Unharmed among serpents: nothing harmed him. This is deemed all the more remarkable because certain men, climbing to the very tops of the highest trees, where they thought the watery torrent could not aspire, were pursued by crawling snakes, and torn by wretched bites, were forced to fall into the deep. But him, placed in the depths, although they circled around him like a belt, they nonetheless did not harm in any way — divine grace protecting him by the merits of his holy Confessor Benedict, to render the service of devoted servitude to his servants. And tree trunks: To him also another benefit of the divine gift is known to have been attributed. The flood of waters had torn up by the roots enormous masses of trees, by whose impact even trunks solidified by long antiquity were overturned. He, by their impact, not only could not be submerged, but with just his hand or arm, as if they were light wisps approaching him, pushed them away.

[10] A certain field, subject to the jurisdiction of the church of Saint Stephen of the city of Auxerre, is adjacent to the land of Saint Benedict, which is next to the marsh mentioned above. About to seize a part of the field of Saint Benedict: A certain Walter, having obtained this by right of benefice, wished to appropriate a part of that same land for his own uses; and having fabricated a charge that it was part of his benefice and had been unjustly seized by our farmers, he presented a complaint before the venerable Abbot Abbo. For at a certain time he was sent by one of his lords to serve the aforesaid Abbot on his behalf, who was hastening to the royal palace. When both of them returned from there together, and they had come to the place about which the dispute seemed to have arisen, that same man turned to the Abbot and said: Now, Lord Abbot, if you please, I will show you the boundary of my possession. But when the Abbot warned him not to determine anything beyond his own right, lest it not go unpunished for him, And provoking to single combat: he, spurring his horse, hastened to the place of the boundary line that pleased him, with nearly all who were with the Abbot protesting that he was transgressing the landmark of a just division. But when he tried to rein in his horse, saying: From this place, all the right to that side (pointing to it with his hand) I will also, if necessary, vindicate for myself by single combat — the horse, driven to a gallop, could not be held back by him; rather, despite its rider, rushing forward once and a second time, it stumbled on an injured foot. Then the most reverend Abbot Abbo, turning to his men, said thus: Now you will very swiftly behold the just judgment of the most equitable Judge. After these words, the horse, stumbling a third time, threw its master from its back; who, falling, with his internal organs ruptured and his shoulder blade broken, was carried, disabled, to a village of the monastery, and on that very evening died. He perishes from a fall from his horse: And he himself alone carried out the single combat he had proposed — God manifesting his clear judgment through the merits of his beloved Confessor Benedict, whose property he had wished to alienate. Whose fall the honorable Abbot Abbo, pitying — because he had served him most devoutly on the journey — together with the brethren, committed him to burial in the cemetery of the church with the most honorable rites.

[11] Ossa is a certain island in the Ocean sea, which is separated from the mainland of the Armorican region, called Cornouaille, by a sea extending sixteen paces across. On it we have learned from the book of his Life that the Blessed Paul, surnamed Aurelian, led the eremitic life. This same Saint Paul, When the body of Saint Paul, Bishop of Leon: having been made Bishop in the place of Brittany called the Town of Saint Paul, illustrious by many virtues in his lifetime, merited there by divine designation a burial sepulcher. His body, long ages after his death having passed, was translated to this our monastery of Fleury by Mabbo, Bishop of that place. The order of this translation, since the occasion has presented itself — although it was done many ages ago — just as we learned it by hearing from our predecessors, we have deemed worthy to relate. Had been translated to Fleury by Bishop Mabbo: The aforesaid venerable Bishop Mabbo, inflamed by the divine love of the contemplative life, was hesitating in his mind as to which place he could best fulfill his purpose. He was divinely inspired that he could accomplish this nowhere more fittingly than in the presence of the body of our most holy Father Benedict, who was the Leader and standard-bearer of that institution which he himself desired to follow. Having therefore taken Gospels and no contemptible adornment of sacred vestments, together with the most sacred body of the distinguished Bishop Paul, he arrived at the habitation he desired. The Abbot of this sacred monastery, named Vulfald in the preceding book, and the entire congregation, receiving him with the most joyful service of affection, kept him honorably with them for as long as he lived. He, having completed the course of a praiseworthy life, obtained a burial sepulcher before the altar of Saint John the Evangelist in the church of the holy Mother of God, Mary. The body of the aforesaid Confessor Paul, together with its own coffin, they placed behind the coffin of the most holy Father Benedict — enclosing both, however, in one larger shrine, which was also covered with silver. Let us now return to pursuing what we have begun.

[12] On the aforementioned island, therefore, out of love for so great a Bishop, a certain citizen of the aforesaid region of Cornouaille, Felix the hermit: named Felix, migrating there to dwell, together with other men of his province, strove for several years to lead a life pleasing to God. But when he had learned from truthful report that the body of the aforesaid Saint was kept among us, he determined in his mind to hasten to his most sacred remains. The renown also of our most holy Father Benedict, which had filled even the most remote recesses of all Brittany, spurred on the effort of his good will. Having therefore boarded the one ship which was all he then found, he intended to come to the above-named town of Saint Paul, Sailing to the town of Leon: to discuss with the Bishop of that See whether it was expedient for him to carry out what he had been contemplating. But that sea, which we have said lies between the island and the mainland, on account of its narrowness and the roughness of the rocks jutting out in it, often makes the crossing difficult for those sailing. When the aforesaid man wished to cross it, the ship, capsized by the unexpected force of the waves, enclosed him together with all his companions between itself and the sea. Among them were those ignorant of swimming, whom the wave, seizing them, deposited unharmed upon one of the jutting rocks. He, with only one companion, leaped into the ship, now restored to its proper position; When the ship overturned: and bailing out the waves that had filled it with the cloth of his gathered garment, with the two oars that alone remained, he approached the rock to take back his companions. Having received them, he noticed from a distance the book, through which he was accustomed to render praises to God, being tossed by the waves but not sinking. Directing the ship's course after it, he lifted it up, entirely free of moisture within, as if the waves had not carried it through the sea but the wind through the lands. Then, having recovered some oars along with some of their equipment, they were finally brought to their intended destination. And when the aforesaid man, having a familiar conversation with the Bishop of the place, wished to relate what had befallen him, the Bishop forestalled him, saying thus: Do you not know, my Lord Felix, what was revealed to a certain monk, well known to all and to you, about you during nocturnal sleep? When he said that he was entirely ignorant of this, the Bishop said to him: That same monk reported to me in the presence of many witnesses, saying: It seemed to me that Felix, who lives on the island, was here among us. Through Saint Benedict he is rescued from drowning: While he wished to return to his home and had boarded a ship, the devil, coming in the form of a vulture — whose bulk of body was thought to be comparable to the height of a mountain — seemed to me to plunge all who were carried on the vessel, together with it, into the deep. When they had thus been submerged, there suddenly appeared a certain man, covered in monastic garb, carrying a curved staff from his head in his hand in the manner of Abbots, and walking upon the water, with that same staff he dragged the ship with the men, who had suffered no harm, and all their belongings, from the deep to the shore. Having freed them and commanding them to wait for him there, he pursued the vulture, which had already prepared to flee, and struck it with his rod and plunged it into the depths of the abyss. Returning to Felix and his companions, with the cheerful countenance that he bore, he encouraged them to board their boat and sail securely where they wished, saying: Behold, your adversary, submerged by the grace of God through me, has lost all power to harm you. When the servant of God had heard these things from the Bishop's report, he also laid out all his own mishaps to him, asserting that the very vision had also been completed in himself by bodily action. Understanding therefore from the aforementioned apparition that our most holy Father Benedict had brought aid to his salvation, he began to burn more with love for that same most excellent Confessor, and to press on to reach his most sacred tomb. Therefore, after a brief interval of time, having taken the things he thought he needed, he determined to return to the mainland. And indeed almighty God, Again departing from there: to inflame his heart more greatly to the love of the Saints whose presence he sought, doubled the miracle. For when the anchor was lifted from the shore and he sought the high seas, suddenly the waves rose up, and a steep mountain of water, lifted on high, so entirely surrounded the boat that no means of escape could be found from any quarter. Then the aforesaid servant of Christ, Felix, struck by the horror of the imminent danger, poured forth from the depths of his breast prayers of most humble supplication: O illustrious Confessors of Christ, Benedict and Paul, he said, whose most sacred ashes I long to approach, bring aid to me, a wretch, who now dread only the peril of death. After these prayers, more quickly than can be told, the swollen seas subsided, and the sea standing placid in the calm winds offered a safe way to those sailing. He lives at Fleury: Thus the oft-named Felix, rescued from the imminent shipwreck, came to this long-desired monastery, and reported to us that this had been the manner of his salvation.

From this place, all the right to that side (pointing to it with his hand) I will also, if necessary, vindicate for myself by single combat — the horse, driven to a gallop, could not be held back by him; rather, despite its rider, rushing forward once and a second time, it stumbled on an injured foot. Then the most reverend Abbot Abbo, turning to his men, said thus: Now you will very swiftly behold the just judgment of the most equitable Judge. After these words, the horse, stumbling a third time, threw its master from its back; who, falling, with his internal organs ruptured and his shoulder blade broken, was carried, disabled, to a village of the monastery, and on that very evening died. He perishes from a fall from his horse: And he himself alone carried out the single combat he had proposed — God manifesting his clear judgment through the merits of his beloved Confessor Benedict, whose property he had wished to alienate. Whose fall the honorable Abbot Abbo, pitying — because he had served him most devoutly on the journey — together with the brethren, committed him to burial in the cemetery of the church with the most honorable rites.

[11] Ossa is a certain island in the Ocean sea, which is separated from the mainland of the Armorican region, called Cornouaille, by a sea extending sixteen paces across. On it we have learned from the book of his Life that the Blessed Paul, surnamed Aurelian, led the eremitic life. This same Saint Paul, When the body of Saint Paul, Bishop of Leon: having been made Bishop in the place of Brittany called the Town of Saint Paul, illustrious by many virtues in his lifetime, merited there by divine designation a burial sepulcher. His body, long ages after his death having passed, was translated to this our monastery of Fleury by Mabbo, Bishop of that place. The order of this translation, since the occasion has presented itself — although it was done many ages ago — just as we learned it by hearing from our predecessors, we have deemed worthy to relate. Had been translated to Fleury by Bishop Mabbo: The aforesaid venerable Bishop Mabbo, inflamed by the divine love of the contemplative life, was hesitating in his mind as to which place he could best fulfill his purpose. He was divinely inspired that he could accomplish this nowhere more fittingly than in the presence of the body of our most holy Father Benedict, who was the Leader and standard-bearer of that institution which he himself desired to follow. Having therefore taken Gospels and no contemptible adornment of sacred vestments, together with the most sacred body of the distinguished Bishop Paul, he arrived at the habitation he desired. The Abbot of this sacred monastery, named Vulfald in the preceding book, and the entire congregation, receiving him with the most joyful service of affection, kept him honorably with them for as long as he lived. He, having completed the course of a praiseworthy life, obtained a burial sepulcher before the altar of Saint John the Evangelist in the church of the holy Mother of God, Mary. The body of the aforesaid Confessor Paul, together with its own coffin, they placed behind the coffin of the most holy Father Benedict — enclosing both, however, in one larger shrine, which was also covered with silver. Let us now return to pursuing what we have begun.

[12] On the aforementioned island, therefore, out of love for so great a Bishop, a certain citizen of the aforesaid region of Cornouaille, Felix the hermit: named Felix, migrating there to dwell, together with other men of his province, strove for several years to lead a life pleasing to God. But when he had learned from truthful report that the body of the aforesaid Saint was kept among us, he determined in his mind to hasten to his most sacred remains. The renown also of our most holy Father Benedict, which had filled even the most remote recesses of all Brittany, spurred on the effort of his good will. Having therefore boarded the one ship which was all he then found, he intended to come to the above-named town of Saint Paul, Sailing to the town of Leon: to discuss with the Bishop of that See whether it was expedient for him to carry out what he had been contemplating. But that sea, which we have said lies between the island and the mainland, on account of its narrowness and the roughness of the rocks jutting out in it, often makes the crossing difficult for those sailing. When the aforesaid man wished to cross it, the ship, capsized by the unexpected force of the waves, enclosed him together with all his companions between itself and the sea. Among them were those ignorant of swimming, whom the wave, seizing them, deposited unharmed upon one of the jutting rocks. He, with only one companion, leaped into the ship, now restored to its proper position; When the ship overturned: and bailing out the waves that had filled it with the cloth of his gathered garment, with the two oars that alone remained, he approached the rock to take back his companions. Having received them, he noticed from a distance the book, through which he was accustomed to render praises to God, being tossed by the waves but not sinking. Directing the ship's course after it, he lifted it up, entirely free of moisture within, as if the waves had not carried it through the sea but the wind through the lands. Then, having recovered some oars along with some of their equipment, they were finally brought to their intended destination. And when the aforesaid man, having a familiar conversation with the Bishop of the place, wished to relate what had befallen him, the Bishop forestalled him, saying thus: Do you not know, my Lord Felix, what was revealed to a certain monk, well known to all and to you, about you during nocturnal sleep? When he said that he was entirely ignorant of this, the Bishop said to him: That same monk reported to me in the presence of many witnesses, saying: It seemed to me that Felix, who lives on the island, was here among us. Through Saint Benedict he is rescued from drowning: While he wished to return to his home and had boarded a ship, the devil, coming in the form of a vulture — whose bulk of body was thought to be comparable to the height of a mountain — seemed to me to plunge all who were carried on the vessel, together with it, into the deep. When they had thus been submerged, there suddenly appeared a certain man, covered in monastic garb, carrying a curved staff from his head in his hand in the manner of Abbots, and walking upon the water, with that same staff he dragged the ship with the men, who had suffered no harm, and all their belongings, from the deep to the shore. Having freed them and commanding them to wait for him there, he pursued the vulture, which had already prepared to flee, and struck it with his rod and plunged it into the depths of the abyss. Returning to Felix and his companions, with the cheerful countenance that he bore, he encouraged them to board their boat and sail securely where they wished, saying: Behold, your adversary, submerged by the grace of God through me, has lost all power to harm you. When the servant of God had heard these things from the Bishop's report, he also laid out all his own mishaps to him, asserting that the very vision had also been completed in himself by bodily action. Understanding therefore from the aforementioned apparition that our most holy Father Benedict had brought aid to his salvation, he began to burn more with love for that same most excellent Confessor, and to press on to reach his most sacred tomb. Therefore, after a brief interval of time, having taken the things he thought he needed, he determined to return to the mainland. And indeed almighty God, Again departing from there: to inflame his heart more greatly to the love of the Saints whose presence he sought, doubled the miracle. For when the anchor was lifted from the shore and he sought the high seas, suddenly the waves rose up, and a steep mountain of water, lifted on high, so entirely surrounded the boat that no means of escape could be found from any quarter. Then the aforesaid servant of Christ, Felix, struck by the horror of the imminent danger, poured forth from the depths of his breast prayers of most humble supplication: O illustrious Confessors of Christ, Benedict and Paul, he said, whose most sacred ashes I long to approach, bring aid to me, a wretch, who now dread only the peril of death. After these prayers, more quickly than can be told, the swollen seas subsided, and the sea standing placid in the calm winds offered a safe way to those sailing. He lives at Fleury: Thus the oft-named Felix, rescued from the imminent shipwreck, came to this long-desired monastery, and reported to us that this had been the manner of his salvation.

CHAPTER V.

Those who injured Saint Benedict punished with death. A sick person aided. Candles and a lamp lit.

[13] Brevity indeed should be pursued, lest the prolixity of words beget tedium for the hearers with respect to the subject matter; Devastating a village of Saint Benedict: but since the flowing discourse could not be restrained, which the force of love for the most holy Father Benedict impelled to a fuller exposition of the deeds, it must be pardoned if the garrulous page has been more than was permitted. We shall henceforth endeavor to comprehend the miracles of that same beloved Lord in a concise style of narration, so that we may both proclaim his praises and by no means be a burden to the reader. In the parts of Burgundy, in the territory of Troyes, there is held a village of Saint Benedict, named Tauriacus, which the Advocate, named Gaufredus, although he defended it from outsiders, devastated more violently than any outsider. When he had been frequently admonished by the monks to cease from his misdeeds, and did not comply, the loving Father Benedict obtained from God that he should first be struck with the scourge of correction before his malice should be completely destroyed. He falls into madness: On a certain day, therefore, while he was sitting in his own house, situated within the walls of the aforementioned city of Troyes, and conducting a judicial proceeding among the country people, a black dog, full of madness, came and, harming none of the bystanders, attacking him with an assault, tearing his nostrils and face with its bites, departed. From which he, turned to insanity, was led by friends to the church of Saint Denis; and there, having somewhat but not fully recovered his senses, he returned to his home. While he added worse things to the evils he had inflicted upon the poor of Saint Benedict, he was seized by a demon; and chained and thrust into a certain room, he breathed out his last spirit. And seized by a demon, he dies: All who had known him confessing that on account of his cruelty toward the farmers of the precious Confessor Benedict he had suffered such things. To this fearsome retribution let us annex another sign of mercy and healing to be embraced.

[14] In the lower parts of this Neustria, namely in the city of Angers, a certain Ainfredus had voluntarily been made a monk from a cleric at the monastery of Saint Albinus. A monk spurned by his Abbot: He, for the sake of improving his life, migrated to this venerable place of Fleury, stayed with us for some time, and returned to the aforementioned monastery. While he remained there, afflicted with a grave illness of a swelling hip, he was pressed by a twofold anguish; for the Abbot of that monastery, assailing him with certain enmities, had forbidden all the brethren to visit him, even at the departure of his soul. And when he,

with his illness growing worse and the pain creeping toward his vital organs, he asked the brethren to come visit him and commend his departure to the Lord, he learned from the one man Even in grave illness: to whom alone it was granted to visit him, what the Abbot had decreed about him. Hearing this, he bore it grievously, and through the nobles of the city of Angers — who could not be restrained from visiting him because they loved him — he sent word to the Abbot to have pity on him, ready to make satisfaction if he had committed anything not rightly against him. But when the Abbot delayed, the sick man was compelled to seek consolation elsewhere; and because he saw himself despised by his temporal Abbot, to the one who has long since devoted the care of his solicitude to the legions of monks, Having invoked Saint Benedict: he betook himself with his whole mind. And remembering how great a love he had found among the Fathers of this monastery of Fleury during the time of his sojourn, turning his head to the wall and his face suffused with tears, he burst forth into these words: O Saint Benedict, he said, have mercy on me who anxiously implore your help, and I pledge to you that if you obtain for me from God health of body and prosperity of life, I will humbly seek your most sacred bones, to render vows of thanksgiving as best I can. And he appears and is healed: Having said these things, he suddenly saw, as he himself later related, a certain man of unknown countenance, covered with the garment of monastic habit, who, with his hand extended in the direction of the wound, seemed silently to depart. Presently the sick man fell asleep — he who had spent three and more nights wide awake — and enjoyed the most placid rest for the space of an hour. But on waking, while he carelessly pressed with his fingertips the wound which the force of the disease had opened, a certain piece of putrefied flesh, resembling a mushroom, sprang from it along with the greatest part of the pain; and at length, within a short time, having recovered his strength, he devoutly and not without a gift fulfilled what he had vowed.

[15] Patriciacus is the name of a village situated in the territory of Autun in the region of Burgundy. Patriciacum was given by Count Echardus of Burgundy: This, Echardus, the wealthiest Count of the Burgundians, bestowed upon Saint Benedict and the brethren of the monastery of Fleury for certain stipendiary expenses by his generous liberality. When he died and was buried at the monastery of Fleury next to the church of Saint Mary, the brethren established a habitation for themselves on the aforementioned estate. On which also, having brought relics of the holy Father Benedict from Fleury, There are relics of Saint Benedict there: a church was constructed in honor of God and of the glorious Virgin Mary and at the same time of that distinguished Confessor himself; which Christ the Lord, through the merits of his holy Mother and also of his beloved servant Benedict, very frequently rendered illustrious with miracles. Of which, since many through negligence have been consigned to oblivion, a few that have come to the notice of our lowliness Celebrated by miracles: we shall take care to hand down to the memory of posterity, for the praise of almighty God and his Saints. The estate of Solmariscum, subject to the already-mentioned monastery of Patriciacum, certain men of perverse mind were attempting to invade. The monk Robert, then Provost of that place, wishing to resist their malice, hastened to the place with the relics of the Saints as the time of the vintage pressed. When these were brought in procession to Cluny: And while in the course of the journey the bearers of the holy relics came to the monastery of Cluny, they rested there for the night. On the morrow, about to resume the path of their begun journey, they were led by the brethren of that same monastery with a great display of procession. And behold, at the very exit from the church of Saint Benedict, a rain arising with wind completely extinguished the candles lit in honor of God and the Saints. But before they had gone through the gate of the fortress of that same monastery, the fair weather returned, and the candles, divinely re-lit, could not be extinguished for some space of the journey by any blasts of wind, as all looked on. Candles and lamps are spontaneously lit: In like manner, when, having completed the things for which they had gone, they brought the holy relics out from the tent under which they had remained, the extinguished lamps, lit by divine power, lost their light by no breath of breezes until the relics of the Saints would proceed from the land of Saint Benedict. Moreover, those which were being carried together with the patronage of our holy Father Benedict were the precious relics of the most blessed Confessors Eucherius and Veranus, as well as of the Martyrs Cyprian, Speratus, and Pantaleon. These, as we have learned from the report of our elders, a certain Archbishop of Lyon had once bestowed upon a certain monk of this holy Congregation, by way of recompense for his diligence, because he had instructed him in the liberal studies of letters. Which relics that monk, so that the place might be more celebrated from them, deposited in the oratory of that same estate of Patriciacum.

[16] A certain Bernard, an illustrious man of that same Burgundy and lord of the fortress called Uzon, had a quarrel with a certain man related to him by kinship and of no lesser power, A certain man kills servants of Saint Benedict: named Letboldus. While he was devastating his possessions with raids, he also desired to carry off cattle from the villages pertaining to the already-mentioned monastery of Patriciacum, and killed certain servants of Saint Benedict who resisted him. On account of which, the above-named Provost Robert, approaching him, humbly asked that he legally make amends to Saint Benedict and his monks for the wrong he had inflicted upon their servants against the laws. He, full of the spirit of obstinacy, responded in these words: I am amazed, Lord Robert, that you — so wise a man — have fallen to such folly And threatening worse things: as to demand satisfaction from me, when you should rather have begged me not to add worse things. And he added: I call to witness, he said, the Lord who caused me to be born, that before fifteen days pass from this day, I will prove by experience whether Saint Benedict prevails against fire, or fire thrown by me into his houses prevails against Saint Benedict, who strives to defend my enemy within his fortress. To these words the monk, moved, replied: I trust in the Lord and in the merits of his Saints that you will neither accomplish those things, nor will you by living exceed the term you have set for yourself. He is wretchedly killed: The truth of the matter followed upon this saying. For when the aforesaid venerable Robert had returned to the monastery, before the appointed day had passed, the aforementioned Bernard was pierced by a lance and killed by his prescribed enemy, Letboldus, who met him. Destined certainly to undergo that prolonged contest with fire which he had falsely sworn he would shortly bring upon Saint Benedict. Let there be added to this prodigy of vengeance four notable signs of healings, bestowed by Christ upon only two persons of the female sex in the same monastery of Patriciacum, through the merits of his holy Mother and the illustrious Confessor Benedict, and the patronage of the other Saints whose relics are held there.

CHAPTER VI.

Lame women, a cripple, blind persons healed; a fire extinguished.

[17] A certain woman named Adelais, deprived of the use of her tongue and feet, A mute and lame woman is healed: came to the aforementioned monastery, crawling on her hands. Lying before the doors of the monastery for some little space of time, she asked the brethren for the sustenance of life by the gesture of her hands, but from the Saints she sought the help of health by the voice of her heart. On a certain day, therefore — namely, Tuesday before the holy feast of Pentecost, whose festival that year fell on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June — she perceived that the hour of her healing was at hand. Coming before the church and requesting by whatever signs she could that the entrance be opened to her, when she obtained this, dragging herself along the ground she entered the oratory, and before the altar of the Holy and undivided Trinity, placed at the very entrance, she suddenly stopped, and began gradually to raise herself from the ground. Why should I delay with more words? Within a brief moment, fully erected, she progressed with upright steps to the altar of the holy Mother of God, Mary, and of the Confessor of Christ, Benedict, and prostrated herself as if in prayer. Then, after a short while, raising herself up, with her hands lifted high, she burst into this utterance: I give thanks, she said, to you, my Lady, Queen of Virgins, Saint Mary, and to you, Saint Benedict, through whose intercession almighty God has bestowed upon me — crooked and mute — the straightness of my limbs and the power of speech. Nor to you, holy Eucherius and Veranus, do I render lesser acts of thanksgiving, whom I do not doubt, having often been implored, to have been helpers of my salvation. In these utterances she spent nearly the entire night. On that day was being celebrated the feast of Blessed Romanus, the pupil of our most holy Father Benedict, and the brethren were rendering the Compline hymns to God; who immediately, with the bells sounding, rendered cheerful praises to God for the miracle that had been shown.

[18] With Christ continuing to make his Saints distinguished by wondrous signs, Another lame woman healed: on the ninth day after this sign was performed — that is, the third day before the Kalends of June — another woman was led there. Her name was Alexandra; she, carried on a stretcher of the kind used for carrying stones by two men, asked to be brought into the church. She, in the same place where the former one had been raised up, inclining herself to prayer, after a little while began gradually to raise herself up. The brethren, who had gathered to witness so marvelous a spectacle, desiring to help her effort, were supporting her by lifting her between their hands. She also, around the third hour of the day — the hour at which she had been brought — was granted full health, and remained for several months in the service of the church. Having then asked and obtained from the already-mentioned Provost Robert permission to return to her home, she promised She serves the church: that she would return to the begun service of the sanctuary; but while she delayed in returning, she incurred her former illness. Her relapse through her own fault: Nevertheless, while she sought those who would carry her back to the place of her health and could not find them, she began to be anxious and sorrowful. At length necessity found counsel: that she should vow to God and to Saint Benedict that, if the health bestowed upon her were restored so that she could return to the already-named monastery, she would henceforth never again depart from there. Immediately therefore, as soon as she made this vow, resuming in the place where she sat the firmest strength for walking, She is healed again: setting aside all occasion of delays, she returned to the monastery of Saint Benedict at Patriciacum, where she had formerly been healed. And when she reported to the brethren all that had been done concerning her, and pledged that she would never again depart from there, they jointly blessed the Lord and his most holy Father, our Benedict, giving thanks to him who,

by deeming worthy of spiritual visitation his servants, whom perhaps the absence of his sacred body could have saddened, gladdened them with miracles. And lest any doubt remain about the benefits of the marvels bestowed, they took care to solicitously investigate the neighbors of both women; also questioning the host of the one who had been healed first, whether he had ever seen her speaking or walking upright. Both from him and from the rest who had known both women, they learned that they had truly been disabled, and truly healed by Christ through the merits of his holy Mother and of his beloved Benedict.

[19] When our venerable Father Abbo departed to the heavens, in the order related above, immediately certain adverse things befell us, especially those of us who had adhered to his service. But, leaving aside the other hardships, let it not seem burdensome to the hearers to commit to memory one thing that would have devastated this sacred monastery with an almost intolerable loss, had not the merciful clemency of Christ the heavenly King, appeased by the intercession of his holy Mother and of our Father Benedict, drawn back the avenging right hand of our sins. For since in the preceding signs it has been shown how powerful this distinguished Leader of ours, the ever-to-be-named Benedict, has been in two elements individually — namely water and fire — in this it will be manifestly apparent how much he prevailed in both at one and the same time, and, to speak more truly, in a moment of time. The solemn day of the Translation of this supreme Confessor had dawned upon our world, On the feast of the Translation of Saint Benedict: which is accustomed to represent to us annually, on the fifth day before the Ides of July, a delightful festival. And when the whole night of vigils with the ensuing day had been fittingly spent in the praises due to God, for the devotion of so great a Father, after the due refection and the Vesper office, the hour of rest arrived. And while we desired to steal our eyes from the day's labor, the deceitful snares of the ancient enemy were present. For, at his instigation, certain men of perverse mind — out of desire for plundering, as some report — set fire to the buildings outside the town; but as others confess, an accidental fire crept into those same buildings. For this reason, when a tumult was raised, the brethren were awakened and hastened to extinguish the devouring flames of the fire. A fire arises at Fleury: Having first removed, wherever opportunity presented itself, all the ornament of the church (which was no less — indeed in all respects greater — than in the former fire, and adorned the interior of the temple), they turned in unison to the aforesaid task. But their labor was going for naught; for the fire, rising to greater heights by the blowing of the breezes, suddenly seized the kitchen of the guesthouse, which was near the hall of the holy Mother of God, Mary, in which the precious Confessor of the Lord, Benedict, rests. Then a great fear seized all, fearing that by occasion of that building the temple, venerable to all who fear the Lord, would be burned. Whence some of our brethren, with the voice of the inner man, were asking the holy Mother of God, Mary, and her illustrious servant Benedict to help them with their holy prayers, [Having invoked the Virgin Mother of God, Saints Benedict and Scholastica, suddenly by rain:] repeating more frequently the name of his sister Scholastica. Others, however, were repeating the same thing in a clear voice but with querulous words. At length the almighty One heard the prayers of the aforesaid Saints, and it thundered from a clear part of heaven. For when there was the greatest serenity of the sky, rain suddenly poured from the clouds and utterly extinguished the flames that were devouring the inner buildings of the fortress. And by changed winds, it is extinguished: Moreover, the changed currents of the winds forced the falling embers — whose abundance was being carried inward like falling snow — driven back, to return upon themselves. Thus, by the merits of our distinguished Protector Benedict, not only did the monastery remain unharmed, but not as much of the town was burned as had perished in the former fire — which had occurred during the same festival and in the times of the aforementioned venerable Abbot Abbo. Whence assuredly the legions of monks can not incongruously and without pretense apply to their lord Benedict that saying of a certain wise man, which he, using flattering praise, uttered about a certain earthly Prince of affairs, saying thus:

O one too dear to God, for you the heavens fight, And the winds come, conspiring, to your trumpet call.

Let us be permitted to say a few things playfully about this matter. It seemed fitting, as I think, to our Lawgiver, in the commotion of the elements, to employ the comfort of his venerable sister, whom he remembered had opposed the obstacle of storms to retain him. Whence, not unfittingly, about to strenuously resist the powers of the air that were striving to overturn the places dear to him, he wished that same sister of his to be invoked along with himself by his servants, whose prayers he knew to be suitable for obtaining outpourings of rain from the Lord.

[20] That a certain girl born of noble lineage of old, named Adelaide, A girl with contracted legs: had her legs contracted, we have recently learned. While her father and mother led her through many places of the Saints, they were able to obtain no remedy for her from the Saints. Having given up hope of health, leading her back home, they remained sad, not knowing what to do about her. For they had brought her to Paris, to the tomb of Saint Denis, and to Limoges, to the tomb of the divine Martial — both of whom were then gleaming with miracles — and had accomplished nothing at all. But to her mother as she slept, a heavenly voice came, which said: What madness has driven you to waste such great expenses in vain, that you should approach the distant patronages of Saints, leaving behind your neighbor here — namely the most holy and Lord's beloved Benedict, whose most sacred bones, translated for your salvation, if you should seek it in faith, A vision given to the mother: and the salvation of many, from the province of Italy, have been divinely translated to this region? Whence know for certain that your daughter will by no means be healed unless she is brought there. The woman therefore, awakening, told the dream to her husband lying beside her. To whom he said: I myself had already conceived the same thing in my mind. But I fear that the Saint, irritated by our contempt, may not wish to intercede with the Lord for her. To this she, replying, said: Let her be led to the tomb of the Saint, and if indeed he shall heal her, let him have her as a handmaid forever; but if he is unwilling, let her be brought back, retaining both her disability and her freedom — for they were not only free but also most distinguished in birth and endowed with resources. Rising therefore with the sun, they set out on the road to the monastery, which was distant from their home only eighteen miles, She is healed on the feast of Saint Benedict: leading their disabled daughter with them. The solemn feast of that same most holy Benedict was at hand; and on the very day of the feast, they offered her to the holy Father Benedict to be healed. On the following morning, rising, when they wished to return, they found their daughter healthy and well in all her limbs. For which reason, rendering immense acts of thanksgiving to God and to his friend, the most blessed Benedict, they handed over that same daughter of theirs to serve him forever; who, afterwards taking a husband, bore children, from whose progeny certain persons continue even now, not useless, in the service of the brethren.

[21] Recently also an event occurred that I now narrate. A certain blind man, an inhabitant of the fortress of Argentomagus, while the relics of that same most excellent Confessor of Christ, Benedict, were being carried by the brethren from the cell of Salis to the church of Saint Marcellus the Martyr, Two blind persons are illuminated: touching the coffin, immediately received his sight. The body of that same holy Martyr rests in a church constructed not far from that same fortress. When this had likewise been brought to the monastery of Salis, another blind man from a village of that same monastery, called Modicia, came there, invoking Saint Benedict with great cries; for the fame of the above-mentioned miracle had already reached his ears. He also, not long after he had arrived there, with God taking pity and the merits of the Saints obtaining it, merited to receive the sight he sought. In which monastery of Salis, that same Father of monks, Benedict — venerable throughout the whole world — shines with such great and constant miracles, and especially in avenging against enemies, that if one wished to commit all to memory, they would require their own volume.

[22] These things about the miracles which God deigned to work through the merits of his holy Benedict in various places, we have set forth in an uncertain style and rustic speech. Epilogue of Aimoin: Nevertheless, attaching this little conclusion to close the work, we advise the reader that we have knowingly passed over many things. For in all things excessive length must be avoided, and the attention of the hearers must be invited by a pleasing brevity, not driven away by a wearisome loquacity. Here therefore will be the end of the book. Although, if the Lord wills and life be our companion, those things which faithful report has spread abroad in nearly all of Neustria shall by no means be silenced by our negligence. Our enemies also compel us to silence, who consider it their greatest feast if they may fix a tearing tooth into the efforts of others. Nevertheless, we shall be deterred by no detraction of theirs from proclaiming the praises of God and of his beloved — namely our most blessed Father Benedict. All these things, therefore, and the miracles described in the former little work by other authors, under thirty Abbots who presided over this monastery of Fleury from the beginning of its foundation for three hundred and eighty-five and more years, in various places through the merits of his holy Confessor Benedict, Jesus Christ our Lord deigned to work — who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God in perfect Trinity, through all ages of ages. Amen.

MIRACLES OF SAINT BENEDICT.

BOOK IV.

From the history of the monk Andrew, published in verse by Rodulphus Tortarius, monk of Fleury.

From the manuscript of Queen Christina of Sweden.

[1] What Andrew is said to have written about the wondrous deeds of our Father, our pen records. While the people of Limoges suffered, with God striking, the sacred fire, they gave themselves this counsel: The plague is removed: to carry the venerable relics of the Father through the city; when they had done this, the wicked plague perished.

[2] While a little woman saw the sacred bier being carried — A cripple is healed: she who, crippled in her feet, could not walk her way — she said: Holy Father, if I could, I would accompany you; and what she requested, she immediately obtained.

[3] A horseman of wicked mind is kindled with the fire of jealousy;

for he lets his horse loose through the brethren's crops: One who harms the monastery is punished: while he hurries along the edge of a pool, submerged to the bottom, the horseman barely escaped, but the horse perished.

[4] A certain woman had been given over to an impudent spirit; he rages, having hurled insults at the Father. A demoniac is freed: He swears he will not go out of the possessed girl — but groaning he flees, and fleeing he groans.

[5] Rannulfus was gaping to seize frequent spoils; Death hastened for a plunderer: one day he did as was his custom: he prepared lavish feasts from the tears of widows — the first morsel blocked his fierce throat.

[6] Because you seize his estates, Walter, Likewise another: you see the throngs of the dark demon present at your obsequies. You were made a monk, called by that surname long before, and you reach the end of life swiftly.

[7] Why, Giraldus, do you shelter the enemies of the Father for profit? To the wife and children of another: The Virgin Mother of God has been seen by you. She herself reproves you for sheltering her enemies — your wife Eua perishes, together with your children.

[8] There is a spacious house of the Father situated in the district of Barcelona, At Barcelona: where, often invoked, he performs many wondrous deeds. In it a devoted throng serves God in Christ, and rejoices, safe under your protection, O Patron.

[9] A friendly knight came here to pray, having left his horses outside until he should depart. When a thief was drowned, the horses are recovered: A thief eagerly steals them; he is drowned in the nearby river. The knight, whom he feared would lose them, recovers his horses.

[10] Brought by their fleets, the Saracens hasten there, to burn it with fire and plunder it of its goods. The Saracens are divinely impeded: They wish to pour out the wines — they stiffen as if by hard ice; and fire, once thrown in, dies of its own accord. The King judges these men soft and sends fiercer ones; he wonders why the same thing happens to them too. One who desires to demolish the sacred altar, while he aims his blow, kills himself by his own striking.

[11] A cleric, raised up, prays for his wicked habits to be removed; A sparrow impeding prayers perishes: while a sparrow flies over him, it defecates in his mouth. He swears himself angry at the Father, if it goes unavenged — with its innards burst, the bird immediately falls dead.

[12] In you, Alaric, the truthful Scripture is fulfilled: An iniquitous witness loses an eye: a false witness shall not be unpunished. While on your testimony the Count affirms the forest is his, you weep for an eye gouged out by an oaken branch.

[13] From the sacred body, Constantius, reveal Posennus; One who conceals a vision is beaten with stripes: twice warned, the third time you are seized with blows. What the vision taught, compelled you reveal what you reveal — the discovery is placed in a sacred tomb.

[14] The dust of his tomb grants you, Tetberga, health; A demoniac is freed: a spirit was pressing her with harsh goads. When the dust was drunk, the wicked guest is expelled — the Holy Spirit has its own dwelling.

[15] A bent woman is raised up: She lay before the doors of the temple for no short time, another woman, bent over with contracted knees, lying face down. While the priest was singing Mass and urging the brethren to pray, at that hour she is made well without delay.

[16] One who mocks the Saints is possessed by the devil: A soldier complains that the Saints are sleepyheads, that without any loss he has stolen their property. He is delivered to Satan; the servant is freed from the enemy. He believed them to be snoring, whom he proves to be awake.

[17] A bondsman is corrected from heaven: While you deny, Alberic, that you are an ancestral bondsman, you are rebuked by threats from heaven. With your fingers fixed in your palm along with your right thumb, you appease the offended master, having rightly confessed.

[18] An image of the Mother of God and other things untouched by fire: While fire devours everything, the image of Christ's Mother, though carved from wood, remains inviolate. Those who carry away the sacred things complain of suffering cold, with veils and various vestments unharmed.

[19] One who violates the feast is punished: Rustic, while you drive a cart laden with hay, holding the celebrated day of the Father as nothing — fire reduces your carts to tiny ashes, and both you and your oxen lose your feet.

[20] False witnesses are punished: There is no need to discern the truth by the red-hot iron, Constantius — a thoroughly false witness is present. The shameful noise of a bursting bladder from his exploded belly testifies that it is the tithe of the lawgiver.

[21] One who breaks a vow: While you break your vow, you lose your sight a second time — you had vowed that she would be a perpetual handmaid. But again you recover your sight, nor do you afterward lose it, keeping your vow, by remaining a servant.

[22] One who invades a fortress: Landricus threatens from behind with a great army; Geilo enters the lands of the Father instead of the fortress. He commands the soldiers to shout Benedict as a signal — he captured Landricus and destroyed his force.

[23] One who seizes a courtyard: The nephew of Gallaicus seizes the sacred courtyard of the Father, which his uncle obtained by his service. Whence on a certain day there was much dispute — under which she is struck with paralysis, wretched.

[24] One who refuses service: He proclaims himself freeborn and refuses his service — Stabilis, with his shield and staff, to prove this. He ties an obol in his sleeves, as if a head-tax — it falls out, enormous, having the size of a shield.

[25] A buried corpse is retained: A demon suffocates you first, Robert, having filled you; the earth casts you out, and does the same three times. The power of a charter sent from Fleury was shown there — the earth contained you, when placed over it.

[26] A sinner becomes a demoniac; when corrected, he is freed: You drag from a church consecrated in the name of Benedict an enemy, Walter, and you are given to a demon. Again you are purged of the crime, when you come to your senses — for you release the captive and give also a small estate.

[27] Guitbert drives a cart laden with sheaves, snatched from your land, O Leader Benedict. One who stole a harvest is punished: The ox feels neither goads, nor blows, nor sounds; it cannot go forward, but goes backward, carrying the load back.

[28] Those who steal a yoke of oxen: A priest leads the yoke of oxen of the aforementioned church; arrogant young men come with carts. They drive away the yoke of oxen; the priest prays to Benedict — their cart immediately stands rigid like a mountain.

[29] One injurious in writing: While writing, you erase the dear Paternal name as worthless — you find yourself trembling, cast upon an adverse shore. Given over to demonic lashes, you are tortured by them; never cured, bereft of mind, you die.

[30] One who alienates relics: You incur a pernicious disease, Walter, when you dare to give away relics entrusted to you. Having confessed the crime, you are healed — but you do not finish out the year itself; rather, in it you die.

[31] One who cuts the harvest: You mock the Father, you labor to cut his harvest — you cut through the middle of your hand with your sickle, rustic. They say the fire consumed the heaps, animals, cart, and the rest, but not the house.

[32] Nor is another Walter considered different in these matters; a vision warned him to abandon what he was doing. Likewise another: He is beaten with immense blows because he does not consent; his neighbors carry him from his own field.

[33] While a squire sees geese feeding on the shores of a pool, One desiring to steal a goose: he hastens vainly, his gullet urging him on. He drives his sharp horse headlong with spurs, and submerged in the waters, is buried by them.

[34] While you, monk, secretly steal a lamp offered as an oblation, One who stole an oblation: warned in your sleep, you restore it trembling. Furthermore, you suffer fevers for three days for the crime — lest you commit anything similar afterward.

[35] While he sits at feasts provided by the tears of the poor, he is roused by the sudden sound of a ringing trumpet. One who robs the poor: Archembaldus rushes forward, swift in seized arms — he is struck in the temple by a deadly weapon.

[36] A new thing: when a vessel is riddled with very many holes, Wine cannot be drawn from the vessel: no wine flows, as if it were frozen stiff with cold. The impious enemy burns it and pierces it with red-hot spits — but whatever he did, he drew nothing out.

[37] A boy related what he saw and asked his parents to believe; The lame are healed: they mock him, thinking them false dreams. But the boy, crawling prone on his customary stools, sought Fleury and returned from there whole.

[38] Another comes, requesting the fluent powers of speech — A mute person: he who had been mute from his mother's breasts. He sees a snow-white dove addressing him — he says what it wants, and the man merited to speak.

[39] A third little boy heard that the Father had done Another lame boy: wondrous things, saving two boys. This little one, a servant of his, asks that his step be restored to him — and he soon obtained it.

[40] A voice in the night warned Radulfus, born at Disesia, that to become well he should seek Fleury. Likewise another: Believing these words, he drags himself on his knees — on the day Christ ascended, he receives his feet.

[41] While the potter William stretches out both palms, A perjurer's elbow withers: swearing by the Patron, speaking broken words: at one moment both elbow and hand wither — but a piece of wood placed in place of the elbow helps.

[42] A demoniac runs like a dog: Possessed by a frenzied demon, the Breton Roaldus crosses rivers and pools, rough and smooth terrain, vast and cultivated lands, with swift foot, nimble — the fierce demon, pretending him a dog, left him a man. But when he wishes to visit his native soil at last, the plague-bearer enters a known lodging; Left wretchedly tormented: in the form of a black bird it enters his mouth, the wretch trembling — thence it is expelled through excessive urination. It grieves to be expelled, for having assumed the voice of a crow, He caws: it terrifies any timid ones it finds. It attacks a brother who had conjured Odo — at hearing the Father's name, it fell silent.

[43] He is restrained: Captured by his enemy, he is tied in the pit of a prison; he is constrained with chains, fetters, manacles. In vain he implores many patrons with his voice — A captive is freed: our Father, whom he calls, rescues this man.

[44] A woman first demands veils from her handmaid, so she may hasten, more elegantly dressed, to the great church. A madwoman is healed: She, not finding them, struck with fright, goes mad — she recovers her senses, but at the Father's tomb.

[45] Overly talkative sacristans, against what is right, speak at night, A chatterer is chastised: breaking the prescribed rules of the sacred norm. Divine punishment chastises the first of them, teaching them to be more cautious in sacred places.

[46] A night vision warns one of them to rise from his bed; he scorns what he has seen and lazily turns to his other side. Preserved from a falling ceiling: That vision cast the bed's covering upon the sluggard — the ceiling soon fell, but it did not harm him.

MIRACLES OF SAINT BENEDICT

BOOK V.

By Rodolphus Tortarius, monk of Fleury.

BY RODOLPHUS TORTARIUS.

CHAPTER I.

Men and brutes punished for injury done to Saint Benedict.

[1] While King Henry of the Franks was happily holding the scepter, and his brother was somehow administering the Duchy of Burgundy, their brother Odo Under King Henry, his brother Odo: lived as a private citizen, elevated to the pinnacle of no dignity; who, since he had no property of his own, was gaping to steal what belonged to others, devoting his effort to raids and plundering. Whence it happened one day that, having gathered a strong force of soldiers, he went to plunder the fields of Sully and those adjoining his territory. Returning thence laden with spoils and plunder, it happened that he had also seized the goods of certain poor men of Father Benedict. Turning aside into a certain estate of that same Father, called Germiniac, he took violent lodging there, while the officials of that same estate contradicted him and reported how severely the Almighty avenged the violators of that place through the merits of Father Benedict.

He, making light of their words, ordered the plunder of the poor to be enclosed around the church, Having plundered the goods of Saint Benedict: dedicated there in honor of the Savior of the world; for that same church had a cemetery fortified by a rampart. Moreover, when the servants of the aforesaid Father demanded back what had been stolen from them by him, hardened in spirit, he was willing to return absolutely nothing; he further threatened to have them beaten into silence, for he was of excessive fierceness and haughtiness. He therefore ordered a lavish feast to be prepared for himself and his men from the goods of the poor. And when there was a lack of wax from which to make the lights necessary for those about to feast, he asked whether there were candles in that church. When the answer was that no wax was to be found there, except the Paschal candle — offered by the parishioners in the solemn customary manner in honor of the Lord's Resurrection — And the Paschal candle: he ordered it to be quickly brought and from it candles to be abundantly supplied, showing no fear of insulting the Savior, to whom both the candle and the church had been consecrated. Then, accurately refreshed with wine and various dishes of food along with his men, healthy and whole, after prolonging in vain his drawn-out conversation into the late hours, he went to bed. And while, resting in a light sleep, he had passed some hours of the night, suddenly disturbed by the anguish of a sudden illness, he called out to his men; and when they stood around, he indicated that he was seized with a mortal sickness. And so, for the remainder of that night, with the same illness growing worse, he remained in that place; but when morning came, clearly recognizing that the goods of Father Benedict could not be tampered with by anyone, no matter how nobly born, with impunity, he mounted his horse as best he could and departed. And as the same disease grew worse, he ended his last day — becoming a quite convincing proof He dies wretchedly: that that saying is true which declares there to be no respect of persons with God. Romans 2:11

[2] There was a steward of that same estate, named Vivianus, a man barbarous in his manners and fierce in appearance. To him the care of the aforesaid church, as well as of the other affairs of that same estate, had been entrusted. He, deeming it superfluous to spend time on such things (since he was ignorant of how greatly they should be valued), entirely neglected the custody of the sacred places delegated to him, being more intent on exacting the annual profit from the goods of the poor subjects under him. The precinct of that same oratory, therefore, neglected through his carelessness, was protected by no barrier of rampart or other obstacle, but with its doors left open, it lay exposed to dogs, pigs, and animals of every kind. Now Vivianus was a cultivator of fertile land, abounding in wealth, rich in livestock; and since he was an avid hunter, Dogs bursting into the church: he kept a pack of dogs, skilled at catching game of various kinds, both small and large. It happened therefore one day that one of the dogs, since the entrance lay open with no one opposing, entered the aforesaid oratory of the holy Savior, and others from the pack followed it. The one that had entered first, since the lamp — in which a quantity of oil was kept for dispelling the nocturnal darkness of that sacred place — hung rather close to the pavement, And licking up oil from the overturned lamp: leaped up and knocked it down; and the liquid of oil that had been poured out from the broken lamp, it licked up with its tongue. Now this one was very dear to its master, since it was of that breed of dogs that overtake hares by the speed of their feet. The others came running too, desiring to share in this delicacy. Without delay, those that had licked the oil turned to madness; and going forth from the oratory — marvelous to say! — mingling with the other dogs that happened to be in the house or yard, they made all of them rabid; They become rabid: and running about in packs in every direction, they attempted to tear with their mouths and rend with their claws whatever animal they encountered. Nor was any rest given from their assault to the inhabitants of the surrounding village, until all were killed by various kinds of death.

[3] Vivianus was therefore rebuked by friends, or by whatever sane-minded men were neighbors, not to hold the sacred place in contempt — to close off its precinct, to keep his animals from entering it; but by no means lending his ear to the words of those admonishing him, he incurred another greater loss. For when he had a multitude of pigs — there were indeed nearly eighty — As were the pigs that entered: he was by no means willing to apply any care to them, lest they enter the above-mentioned sanctuary. Therefore, one day, some of them having slipped into the recesses of that sanctuary, were turned to frenzy, and going forth from it, they encountered their whole herd. Immediately therefore all the pigs, like the dogs above, were turned to madness, so that none of them ever returned to Vivianus's customary sty. You could see them wandering about everywhere with gaping mouths, with that ferocity with which that animal, driven by frenzy, is said to rush about raging, and to defile with its unclean mouth and trample with its feet whatever met it. Nor did they cease from that madness until all, killed by various deaths, perished. The unconquered patience of the Almighty toward such transgressors must be considered, which, leading them to repentance, prefers retribution from their possessions rather than from themselves; for this man afterward became a monk, though at the very end.

[3] For Gaufredus, surnamed Rufus, instigated by greed, twice seized four oxen, Having stolen four oxen from a village of Saint Benedict: which had been assigned to cultivating new fields pertaining to the revenues of the brethren, in that same estate. Warned to return them, he by no means complied. Moreover, he threatened to inflict many adversities upon those serving Father Benedict. For while passing through a village of that same Father, called Bulliac, he summoned Gauterius, the Mayor of that same village, and among other insane things that he uttered with furious mouth, he swore that as long as he lived, Saint Benedict would never have peace with him. To whom that same Gauterius, a modest man, replied with this address: We have endured the threats of many such men, he said, and from all of them the Lord has delivered us through the merit of the most holy Benedict, our Lord; yet none of those who vainly uttered such words against him was for long glad to have uttered them with impunity. Not yet had the eighth day passed since he had stolen the oxen, and behold, surrounded by a certain enemy of his, to whom he had likewise inflicted very many losses, he was pierced with a sword and perished. He perishes wretchedly: Having no further complaint against those serving Father Benedict; for the impious, as Solomon says, shall be destroyed from the earth, and those who act wickedly shall be taken away from it. Proverbs 2:22

[5] Abbot Hugo, still in his youthful years, while he wished to be considered magnificent, did many things in a youthful manner. And since he drew his origin from the illustrious stock of the Franks, he thought himself degenerate if he did not do those things whose manifold reputation would strike the ears of the populace. Whence, among other things, he ordered his retainers to gather for him in the aforesaid estate — that is, Germiniac — a large flock of those birds called Peacocks. They, complying with the commands of their lord, ran about in every direction, approaching those who bred birds of the same kind, and by both entreaties and gifts quickly obtained a supply of them. A peacock flying to the altar becomes immobile: Devoting care to their offspring and applauding the wishes of their lord, it happened one day, as is usual, that one of the males was walking about alone. While it wandered here and there, it entered the church of the holy Savior, which we have mentioned above; and walking through it, suddenly with wings spread, it flew up to the altar. As soon as it touched the altar step, its legs immediately became weak and it remained motionless beside the altar. After several hours had passed, certain persons entering the church found it rolling around the altar, and taking it up, they returned it to those to whom the care of feeding those birds had been entrusted. They, receiving it, Having made an offering, it is healed: reported to their lord the misfortune of their bird and revealed how it had happened. But he, full of faith, ordered a thread of tow to be made to the measure of the peacock — that is, from the tip of its beak to the end of its tail — and wound with wax, and lit and placed before the altar before which the disability itself had occurred. They, fulfilling the orders, fashioned the wick and, having lit it, placed it before the altar. The wick was not yet consumed, and the bird had fully recovered its former health. Behold what faith has merited: for although the Psalm says, Your mercy, O God, is multiplied; you save men and beasts. Psalm 35; Augustine on Psalm 35 And blessed Augustine says: He who saves you saves also your hen; yet, as the Apostle says, we know that God has no care for such irrational beings, except insofar as the use and necessity of the rational creature requires. 1 Corinthians 9:9

[6] In the territory of Portian, there is a certain field called Aruini-curtis, possessed for a long time by this institutor of the monastic religion; Plundering the goods of Saint Benedict: whose Advocate of the field was called Adelardus. He, when he should have protected and defended what was entrusted to him, set himself more to ruining and wearing it down than to rescuing it from the violence of others. Gaping indeed with all his jaws upon the goods of the farmers, by fair means and foul he was taking their property and appropriating it to his own uses. Nor was it enough for him merely to plunder their goods; he also afflicted them with many beatings. But, more frequently warned by the brethren who had been placed in charge of that same estate that he ought to cease from such great malice, he was unwilling to mend his ways, but rather burned with greater savagery. He had taken something from a certain poor woman, who, running to the church, lifting the linens that covered the altar, beat the altar with her whips for a very long time, rebuking Father Benedict as if he were present, in these words: Benedict, you old man, you sluggard, you lethargic one, what are you doing? Why do you doze? Why do you allow your servants to lie under such great reproaches? A certain man also — to omit many others — And oppressing a subject: a rustic of great simplicity, named Arnaldus, goaded by the stings of wickedness, when one day he was working in the field, Adelardus came upon him unexpectedly, seized the goad with which he was prodding his oxen, and inflicted such beatings upon him that he left him half-dead. Nor, led by repentance, did he ever wish to appease him with any satisfaction. He who had suffered the beatings, however, was entreating the almighty Lord for vengeance against him, imploring the aid of his lord Benedict in this matter. Nor did the Lord, who frees the poor from the powerful, long delay; he repaid the wicked man according to his wickedness. For one day, hearing that his enemies were hastening to the place where he was, he mounted his horse, protected by arms, and hurried to meet them. Routed by them, while he was hastening to cross by the leap of his horse a certain small river called the Minio, He dies wretchedly: from the spike of the lance he was carrying, extended further before him and resting on the ground, he incautiously drew the iron of that same lance back toward his own throat, and with the horse on which he was sitting spurred on, while he was trying to cross the stream, he plunged the lance into his own throat. Immediately rendered lifeless, he was carried back to his home by the hands of his companions — never again to inflict beatings on any of the servants of Father Benedict.

[7] Another also, named Rainerius, who was one of the tax collectors of that same estate, was himself also, as the outcome of the matter proved, malicious toward the servants of that same Leader of monks. While he did many things otherwise than he should, more frequently crushing the innocent with false accusation and plundering their goods by unjust violence, he took away from a certain widow the one pig she alone had. When the widow demanded her swine back, and with tears and groaning prayers humbly begged that it be

restored to her by him, he was by no means willing to comply. On account of which, she in her grief was heaping constant imprecations upon him. One day, therefore, it happened by chance that the same widow unexpectedly entered the house in which Rainerius was reclining at table with certain others. When the memory of her lost animal tormented her with heavy grief, she began, as she very often used to do, to demand that her pig be restored to her. Swearing falsely against Saint Benedict: But he, thinking that what he was about to say would not harm him, uttered with reckless boldness what he afterwards repented of having said — thinking Father Benedict to count as nothing if someone dared to violate the faith promised to him by words too carelessly spoken. He said: By the oath I made to Saint Benedict, I never touched your pig. Now this same Rainerius, in order to obtain the tax-collecting office of the village, had promised by oath, according to the custom of the place, that he would contrive nothing unjust against the servants of the above-mentioned Father. Therefore, after he had uttered the false oath by perjury, stirred to anger, he threw the knife that he happened to be holding in his hand upon the table; which, rebounding from the table with its point turned upward, He loses an eye: pierced the eye of the perjurer and condemned him to perpetual blindness. At last the villain, after he understood that he had been deprived of one eye by divine judgment, confessed that he had previously spoken falsely — perceiving that the tears of widows are by no means to be despised, which fall from the cheek to the ground, and the Lord almighty is the upholder of them.

CHAPTER II.

The sacred fire and other afflictions removed, and also inflicted as punishment. An enemy overcome in single combat.

[8] The merciful compassion of the Almighty is to be embraced and cultivated with all favor — he who corrects those he loves and scourges every son whom he receives. He permits the spirits of various infirmities to dominate our bodies at times, so that, admonished at least by our own affliction, we may remember his gracious long-suffering. If with the whole intention of mind we implore his kindness on account of that same affliction, unless he foresees it to be harmful to the increase of our soul, he will give easy access to our sighs to reach himself; for he rejoices in the welfare of all his creation. And if also, according to what is written, they turn to some one of his Saints, he will hear the voice of his faithful one, commending our prayers to himself. This assertion of ours is confirmed by the wondrous works shown to us more often through Father Benedict. A servant is freed from the sacred fire: For a certain man from the servants of that same Father, named Archembaldus, brother of Hildruardus, the steward of Bray (which is a not contemptible possession of that same Leader of the monastic cohort), was being consumed by the sacred fire. Carried from the village to those most sacred remains, with continual groans imploring the help of the Creator of all through the merit of his Lord to aid him, he was restored to his desired well-being more swiftly than he had hoped. For when the fire, which had already consumed the front part of his foot, was quelled, he returned rejoicing to his home, pouring out devout libations of prayers to God the Savior and extolling with great praises his Patron, through whose merits he had earned his health.

[9] Another also, detained by the same affliction, a certain young man, And another young man: was brought from the regions across the Loire to Fleury on a donkey by his mother. He is proved to have been of more vigilant faith from this fact: that as soon as he realized he was burning with the sacred fire, he without any delay asked his mother to have him brought to Fleury, saying he had faith that through the merit of Father Benedict he could be saved by the almighty Lord. Nor did the devotion of his praiseworthy faith deceive him. For, brought before the altar of the glorious Mother of God, without delay, through the grace of that same ever-Virgin and the merit of the loving Father, he was restored to complete health according to his faith. And so he returned joyfully with his glad mother, who had followed him in mourning and with heavy sorrow.

[10] On account of the feast of the Purification of Blessed Mary being violated: The feast of the Purification of the ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God — who was always most pure and most chaste above all human purity and chastity — was being celebrated, and it was a Sunday. A certain woman, therefore, named Tescelina, an inhabitant of the village of Fleury, was devoting her effort to spinning. As the day was already growing late, reckoning that both the celebration itself and the Sunday had passed, and wishing to profit from some remaining moments of that day, she took up her distaff and, spreading wool thinly over her knees with dewy spittle, began to wind the same distaff thinly with that wool. She was cautious, however, lest her neighbors should see what she was doing; but the Redeemer of the world, to whose eyes all things are naked and open, severely avenged both the injury to his Mother and his own Lord's day. Hebrews 4:13 For when the irreligious woman profaned a day sacred by a twofold religious obligation, her hands, driven backward and completely disabled, Punished with her hands twisted back with burning: she experienced in herself what punishment the violators of sacred days are worthy of. Along with the twisting of her hands, she suffered another great torment: for she felt an intolerable burning issuing from the spaces between her fingers. And when she was tortured with immense sufferings, at the urging of neighboring women, she entered the monastery on the following day and stood before the altar of the Mother of God, beseeching that same Mother of mercy with continual and tearful sighs to have pity on her, frequently also invoking Father Benedict to intercede for her. When therefore several hours of the day had passed, with her hands restored to their former state She is healed: and the burning quelled, she gave thanks to God, the Creator of all, and to the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, by no means forgetting the Lawgiver of monks, Benedict.

[11] The aforementioned Abbot Hugo had given a certain man from the household of Father Benedict, named Letardus, to Tescelinus of Petuers, so that both he and those born from him would serve him forever in servile obedience. Servants of Fleury given to another: He, having become his master, held him for not a few days. But that same nobleman, after a long time, being petitioned by a certain one of his soldiers, named Ingrannus, to give the aforesaid servant to him by right of benefice, assented. Ingrannus also, upon his death, left him to his son Isembardus to possess. Now the aforesaid Letardus fathered a son named Robert, His son Robert: whom Isembardus, as his own born slave, reared and educated in his house. But Robert, having grown somewhat older, learning from his parents that he had sprung from the household of Father Benedict, but had been sold by the aforesaid Abbot as a cheap slave, was distressed; nor could he any longer conceal the grief of his spirit. Having therefore taken flight, he withdrew from the presence of Isembardus; but unable to remain hidden for long, he was brought back home by the same man and suffered the punishments that a fugitive customarily suffers. Moreover, he was bound by an oath not to refuse to bear the yoke of servitude henceforth. Since he had not yet passed beyond the years of adolescence, he kept silent for the time being, until with advancing age he should gather the strength by which he could resist his unjust master. After therefore the flower of youth had clothed his cheeks, the seasons of adolescence having passed, he sought Abbot William, who at that time presided over Fleury; with whom, laying down the anguish of his heart with anxious sighs, he complained of the injustice done to him and his family. He flees to Fleury: William therefore, since he was an energetic man and always yearned with his whole desire to increase his commonwealth, replied that he wished to have pity on his hardships, and to make his just complaints known to prudent men, and to be a support to him if he could in any way. When therefore Isembardus learned that Robert, whom he thought to be his perpetual slave, had fled to the sanctuary of his former masters, he sent word to the named Abbot to return his own slave to him, otherwise he would henceforth be his enemy. The Abbot, sending those who would convey his words, sent back this message: that the one he was unjustly demanding was a slave of Father Benedict, and that he himself had possessed him unlawfully for too long; therefore, if he wished to have him as a slave henceforth, it was necessary to come to trial. And condemned in law to single combat: Isembardus, hearing these things and deliberating within himself — since he had neither the right nor the power to resist the Abbot unjustly — sent word that a day should be set on which this controversy between them would be resolved. On the appointed day, with very many noble and sagacious men assembled from both sides, long and much was the verbal dispute; but the quarrel by no means came to an end on that same day. At length, after many prior assemblies had been held, it was adjudged that this matter must be settled by single combat. A day therefore being set for entering the single fight, the claimant came to the agreed-upon place — and a certain man named Airicus, whom Isembardus had offered in his place, strong in vigor, a soldier by profession; he was tall in stature, while Robert was small. Although he feared the bulk of his opponent, he had nonetheless, as he later related, confidence in Father Benedict, his rightful Lord, and he kept pressing this speech upon the man hostile to him: It is not I who fight with you, but my Lord, whose servant I profess myself to be — Benedict. Having invoked Saint Benedict: Airicus therefore, who was attacking him, as is the custom, aimed his first blows at him. But he, protected by the grace of God, steadfastly sustaining them, remained unharmed; and attempting to deal a return blow to his enemy, with the power of the Father whose name he held in his mind guiding his hand, he struck the boss of the shield with which his adversary was covered. He emerges victorious: Which, with the nails by which it was attached torn out, bounced far away, and immediately the hand of the adversary appeared bare. For there had been a hole in the shield, which the boss had covered, being attached from the inside by a half-foot piece of wood; by holding which with his hand, Robert's adversary could more easily turn the heavy shield. Robert, seeing the hand of the one fighting him bare, with a repeated blow struck it with all his might. But the other, impatient of pain, let go of the shield; and since, with the hand by which he had managed his covering disabled, he had no means of protecting himself, wearied by Robert's continual blows, he proclaimed himself defeated. Then, disarmed by the victor, he returned home in confusion with Isembardus, for whom he had entered the ignominious contest — henceforth no longer doubting that Father Benedict would by no means be absent from his people in adversity. This victory was no small exultation for the Floriacensians, but the greatest confusion for the enemy. Moreover, the holy Father demonstrated in this deed that no one could in any way sell his own born servants. Let those look to themselves who wickedly distribute to laypeople or persons of whatever kind the servants, revenues, and estates attributed to holy places for the purpose of rendering praises to the almighty Lord.

[12] The wretched race of men inhabiting the countryside hardly ever desires to submit its iron neck to the light yoke of Christ; but just as a fierce untamed bull, first sensing the yoke being placed upon its untamed brow,

driven by goads, kicks back, A rustic of the field of Saint Benedict: making crooked furrows: so that race of men, always resisting sacred religion, hardly ever consents to walk the path of rectitude. Whence a certain rustic, when he had heard a priest announcing in the customary manner that the solemn festival of the Translation of Father Benedict was being proclaimed — which is celebrated each year with great ceremony among very many nations in the month of July — making light of the command of that same priest, who had ordered all his parishioners to keep holiday, he resolved to devote that day to agricultural work. Now he lived in a certain small field of Father Benedict called Vinoilum. Violating his feast: Rising therefore at dawn, while all the neighbors rested from the work of their hands, he alone, having yoked his oxen, headed for the field he wished to cultivate — desiring to break up again the field he had plowed in winter, so that, softened by both the heat of summer and the cold of winter, and at sowing time, with the clods broken up by a toothed harrow and reduced to dust, the field, having received the seed, would produce a more abundant crop for its cultivator in the days of harvest. While therefore he was performing his desired task, behold, there stood beside him a certain figure in monastic garb, who, seizing both his hands, He is punished with his hands fixed to the plow: pressed them so tightly to the forked stick by which the plow is guided, that he drew blood through all his fingernails, and the same rustic was utterly unable by any means to tear them from that same stick. When this was done, the monk who had appeared was no longer seen. He, in equal measure anguished by excessive pain and confused by shame, hesitated about what to do. When people came running from all directions, marveling at so great a wonder (for they had learned of it through the ploughboy, who had told them with an unrestrainable spirit), he revealed what he had seen, while they clearly saw what had happened to him. Those who had gathered therefore, conjecturing from the circumstances — namely from the apparition of the monk and the violation of his feast day itself — that the Leader of monks had inflicted this vengeance upon the presumptuous perpetrator of so great a crime, they urged him to make a vow to that same Father that he would never, as long as he lived, profane his feast days; that he would seek his monastery and do penance for so great a transgression. Having made a vow, his hands are freed: When he vowed these things, and all whom the unprecedented astonishment of so great a matter had drawn were praying to the almighty Lord for him, and with tearful voice more frequently calling upon Father Benedict to have mercy on the wretch, his hands were released, and he began to stand free who a little before had been held bound by invisible straps. Overjoyed therefore with unspeakable gladness, he took care to fulfill effectively the vow he had made; for, heading to Fleury, he presented himself to Abbot Rainerius and the brethren on the Octave day of that same feast, while Mass was being celebrated, He comes to Fleury: relating how great and magnificent things the almighty Lord had shown in him through the merits of his faithful Benedict. And they, rejoicing with great gladness, with the whole insistence of their hearts proclaimed praises to the Savior, extolling the great Father with great acclamations; and to him in whom so great a miracle had been shown, corrected with salutary blows, they gave permission to return to his home. For he had learned that the warnings of his priest were by no means to be despised by him, since about such matters the Savior says: He who despises you despises me, and he who hears you hears me.

[13] In the territory of Troyes a certain estate is held, under the jurisdiction of the same Father, on the river Seine, called, on account of an oratory built there in his honor, Saint Benedict on the Seine. A woman named Maria lived on it, who, detained by a long-lasting illness, her spine being contracted, had become bent over, A bent woman is healed: so that she could by no means raise her face toward the sky. She, a native of that same estate, drew her origin from the household of that same Father. Having remained many years, therefore, in that same curvature, she had already despaired of her health, not daring to think she could ever again be raised upright. On a certain Sunday, therefore, while standing in that same oratory and hearing the celebration of Mass along with the rest, when the Gospel was being read, the joints of her spine, which had long deviated from their place, returning to their former state, with her back drawn back to a shorter compass and her belly, which had been more contracted for a long time, extended to a longer space, she suddenly began to stand erect, who for long years past had walked bent over. All who were present were astonished — those who had known her from infancy and had been aware of her infirmity — at so unhoped-for a remedy, and stretched their palms toward heaven, praising the supreme Maker through Saint Benedict, who deigns to bestow his aid upon his venerators. That woman, indeed, greatly extolling with praise the merit of the same Father, persevered in the health she had received until the end of her life.

CHAPTER III.

Speech restored to a dying man for Confession. Those who injured Saint Benedict variously punished. An iron bond dissolved.

[14] Since the remaining things we write are works of mercy, mercifully bestowed by the almighty Lord through Father Benedict, we have deemed it worthy to relate one thing that can properly be called a work of mercy, both for its own dignity and for the instruction to be fittingly taken for similar situations if ever necessary; and so that the merciful compassion of Father Benedict may more clearly appear, which he more diligently bestows upon those who hasten to submit their necks to the light yoke of Christ, prompted by his teaching. A monk from a village: A certain monk of our congregation, called Humbaldus, who, while young in age, seemed energetic in his deeds, obtained the guardianship of certain possessions subject to the place of Fleury — namely Almeri-curtis and those under it. When he had served as Provost for nearly three years, he decided at some point to revisit Fleury in the customary manner, eager to know whether all things were proceeding well among his fellow monks. He returns to Fleury sick: Setting out on his planned journey, it happened that he became seriously ill on the way; but by no means yielding to his affliction, although the illness grew worse daily, at last he brought his moribund body, master of his desire though exhausted by excessive weariness, to Fleury. There, while he lay in bed with his strength broken by disease, visited by the brethren, he was warned that, mindful of himself at the end, he should confess his own sins to the Abbot or to whichever of the Elders he chose. He delays Confession of his sins and loses the power of speech: He, imitating the voice of the crow, began to promise that he would do what was urged on the morrow. I wonder indeed what forgetfulness had settled upon his mind, when it should be the greatest concern of every Christian, and especially a monk, if he has sinned — which is human — to run immediately to the remedy, that is, by confessing his own transgression to some devout person. And even if he is kept free from harmful sins by the gift of the Almighty, it is nonetheless a safeguard of humility to believe and confess himself guilty at every hour, according to the sanctions of his Rule: but especially then, when he is struck even with a slight ailment, so that he may always be more secure about himself. He therefore, the sick man about whom we had begun to speak, when pressed again and again by even his closest friends about the same matter, always deferred by saying tomorrow, as with the rest — nor could anyone extract from him by any means that he wished to apply to himself the remedies of Confession. He answered this for so long until, having lost his voice, he immediately ceased to speak. He speaks, confesses, and is fortified with the Viaticum: When the brethren then discovered that he had become mute, dismayed in spirit, they did not know where to turn — fearing that the conscience of that brother was polluted by the stain of some very great crime, which he had not dared to reveal even at the very end. When therefore the question was raised in Chapter about what should be done about this matter, with all fearing for that brother's salvation, one of them, named Gaurbertus, a God-fearing man (who had also served in the office of Abbot, but being unable to correct the ways of those under him, renouncing the title he held in vain, had sought Fleury out of love for Father Benedict), spoke thus: I am amazed, brethren, that you — wise men — are so uncertain about this matter, when you have in your presence so great a Patron, the lawgiver of your rule, distinguished by the prerogative of miracles. The seven Psalms are recited with the Litanies at the tomb of Saint Benedict: If it please you therefore to follow my counsel, let us enter the monastery and prostrate ourselves on the ground before him; let us appease the wrath of the supreme Judge through him, with the Litany sung with the seven Psalms. The brethren, hearing the exhortation of the wise man, acclaimed that what he had suggested should be done. Therefore, prostrate on the pavement before the tomb of the Father, they sang the Litanies with the seven Psalms. When these were completed, they assigned to the ailing brother a certain brother of sound mind, named Milo, who, when he had called him by his own name, the other, as if awakening from the sleep of death, opened his eyes and immediately, his speech restored, answered him. Then, admonished, he confessed his sins. When this was done, receiving the Viaticum of his salvation — namely the Body and Blood of the Lord — he departed this life. The brethren, indeed, greatly cheered, rendered acts of thanksgiving to the almighty Lord, who had deigned so magnificently to come to the aid of their brother who was about to perish, through the merit of Father Benedict.

[15] Albericus, one of the magnates of the fortress of Chatillon, which is situated on the little river Loup, driven by the stings of madness, was devastating the estates of the oft-to-be-named Father by most frequent plundering, A plunderer of the goods of Saint Benedict: especially those adjacent to the estate of Martiniac. On account of which, both Abbot Rainerius and the brethren dwelling under him sent word to him to correct what he had committed and henceforth to beware of committing such things against Father Benedict; who, counting their orders as nothing, added worse to the worst. The brethren, therefore, grieving that the Father was so often held in contempt and his servants were being reduced, having taken counsel, they unanimously struck that plunderer, together with those participating with him in this crime, with the sword of excommunication, He is excommunicated: unless he should cease and make amends for what he had neglected. He, however, persisting in his evil, despised their excommunication as something trivial; hardened in spirit, he neglected to amend what he had neglected, and refused to cease from his perversity. Therefore the Almighty, who by no means spurns the cries of the humble and who from on high looks down upon the groans of widows and orphans, deigned to console his servants under this anxiety. For it happened that the aforesaid plunderer was leading the army of Count Theobald against the inhabitants of the fortress known by a disgraceful name among secular men — but by us, to whom it is forbidden to speak shamefully, called Malum-talentum. While he, as leader, was making his way in the front ranks past the already-mentioned estate of Martiniac, those who inhabited it, terrified to see the man hostile to them approaching with such a great multitude of soldiers, went out to meet him with arms at strategic points of the same village, lest with the approaches open to them he might be able to inflict some danger upon them. Incensed at which, that wretch threatened

with many oaths that, once the business to which he was heading was completed, he would lead them all away as captives and moreover would burn that same village. Threatening worse things: To him those men responded: It is plain that you are very powerful and have the will to harm us; but God is powerful, through the merits of our Lord whose servants we are — Benedict — to mightily deliver us from the calamities you threaten. He, with a menacing voice, spurring on his horse, proceeded where he was heading — the wretch, who when he ought to have besought Father Benedict with a suppliant voice to be his help in such a crisis lest he be endangered, instead swore that he would drive his servants to plunder, would seize their goods, and would burn their dwellings with fire. When therefore he had arrived at the aforementioned fortress, attacking it with the first cohort which he was leading (for the rest of the army with the Count followed far behind), he began to harass those inside with arrows and various missiles. But the armed natives of that same fortress, sallying forth from its gates, proved by what happened to have resisted strenuously. For a certain man of the opposing side, drawing his bow, shot an arrow at Albericus; He dies wretchedly: struck by it above one of his knees, he immediately fell so headlong from the horse on which he sat that his helmet struck the ground, and he expired. And the threats he had vainly poured out against our Father, he allowed to perish; for indeed after receiving the wound he was able to say nothing. Such was the retribution God, the Lord of vengeance, rendered to the proud man.

[16] Seguinus also, the brother of this Albericus of whom we have spoken above, in flesh as in malice, was by no means terrified by the horrifying death of his brother; Excommunicated, he is absolved after death: for he became more wicked than his brother, presuming greater things against our Father, raging with manifold cruelty against his servants. After the death of his brother, he came to Fleury for the absolution of the same, and having obtained it, he had promised to be faithful henceforth and to bestow many things from his own property. But he lied about everything — instead of faithful, he became faithless; instead of generous, a plunderer. He therefore, having entered upon his brother's deviant path, began also himself to practice raids on the possessions of Father Benedict, capturing whatever servants of his he could and plundering their goods, His brother, worse in seizing the goods of Saint Benedict: as if seeking vengeance for his brother from the servants of Father Benedict. He too, having been more often warned that he ought to cease from his malice, by no means complied. At last, when one day he was driving spoils from the land adjacent to the estate of Martiniac and was driving off a herd of swine, men were sent to him to demand back their property and to urge him to make amends. They, going out, found him in his house. Now that same house was a wooden tower — for he was a powerful man, among the nobler inhabitants of that same fortress of which Albericus had also been. That tower therefore had in its upper level a chamber, where the same Seguinus lived with his household, conversed, feasted, and rested at night. In its lower level, however, a cellar was maintained, containing storerooms of various kinds, suitable for receiving and storing the necessities of human sustenance. The floor of the chamber, as is customary, was built of dressed planks, which had somewhat little thickness but considerable width and very great length. Swearing to the destruction of Fleury: Those who had been sent, therefore, found the aforesaid man in this upper chamber. Approaching him, they began to relate in milder language what had been enjoined upon them. But he paid no attention to what was being communicated; rather, with a savage spirit, he answered with a furious mouth, saying with terrible oaths that he wished to have thrown into the monastery of Saint Benedict a fire of such strength as would burn its towers and consume all buildings adjoining them. He was speaking these words while standing at the top of one of the planks by which, as we said, the floor of the chamber was constructed. He had scarcely vomited these words from his poisonous mouth when the head of the plank on which he was standing with his feet collapsed, the other end of it being lifted into the air. His neck is broken and he perishes: He, falling headfirst, fell in such a manner that his head was wedged between two chests — which were in the cellar (which we said lay beneath the chamber) — like a wedge hammered into wood, with the rest of his body thrown upon one of the chests. When a cry was raised, the servants of the house rushed into the cellar; they found their master with his neck broken, having breathed out his soul. Carrying him back to the upper level, they shed the most bitter tears for his sudden death. By this departure the mouth speaking iniquity was stopped. The ancient power of the same Father was renewed in this treacherous man; for when Florentius fell, the entire fabric of the house remained unharmed, except for the floor on which the same Florentius was standing. Number 8 of the Life: So also when this man fell, the entire fabric of the tower remained intact, with only the plank on which he had been standing having suffered collapse.

[17] Saint Benedict shines with miracles in the district of Leomansis: There is a certain small estate in the district of Leomansis, called Alsonia, attributed to Father Benedict long ago by Leotbert, an upright man. There the same Father, through the grace bestowed upon him by God, shows such a frequency of miracles that all the people of that nation cultivate that same place with the greatest veneration of devotion. They have placed rather tall Crosses around the circuit of the cemetery, Crosses in the cemetery and asylum: which no one pursuing his enemy, however detained by mortal hatred of him, dares to transgress if the fugitive has taken refuge in the church constructed in that same place. Fugitive homicides, therefore, and whoever else has fled to that same place, driven by the anxiety of any other guilt, remain immune as long as they keep themselves within the boundaries of the cemetery. No one dares to steal anything or commit any fraud against anyone regarding anything in that same precinct. It happened, therefore, one day that the hunters of a certain nobleman named Adelardus — namely the Advocate of that estate — returning from the hunt, settled there with their weary dogs. And since they had nothing with which to provide food for their dogs, they brought their complaint to a certain prudent man named Isaac, whom the brethren of Fleury had placed in charge of that possession. When he replied that he did not know what they could do, they said they would take one measure from the grain of Father Benedict, which was stored in that same place, so that food might be prepared from it for the dogs. Dogs of hunters fed with the grain of Saint Benedict: But he objected that they could not do this with impunity, and that he by no means gave his consent to this recklessness — fearing lest the punishment soon to follow this presumption, if it happened, should rebound upon him. They, counting what was said as nothing, took as much grain as seemed good to them, as they had conceived in their mind; ground it into flour by the grinding of millstones; and from it prepared food for their beasts. Having filled them with such nourishment, with night approaching, they shut them up together in one small building. But at dawn they rose from their beds, wishing to devote the customary effort to the hunt. All found dead in the morning: Going to the room in which they had shut up their dogs, they opened its door, and looking in, they saw them dead: some lying on the floor prostrate with their whole body, some lying dead with mouths upturned, others clinging with their front paws to the wall of the house with their heads drawn back upon their backs. Seeing this, with an outcry raised, some struck their thighs with their palms, others, clapping their hands, emitted a great sound with a querulous voice; for they feared the punishments to be justly inflicted upon them by their lord for the loss of the dogs. Long therefore, lingering in stunned amazement and querulous cries, they at last departed — to report to their lord the misfortune that had befallen them and how severe an avenger Father Benedict had been against them.

[18] At another time, while soldiers were making their way past that same village at the hour of breakfast, they turned aside there. While some were preparing food and whatever was suitable for those about to eat, one of them said to his squire: Seizing fodder for horses from a meadow of Saint Benedict: Why, most sluggish of men, has such great laziness overwhelmed you, that you do not provide some fodder for your horses while what is necessary is being procured for us who are about to dine? But the squire said he did not know from whom he could ask for any hay or straw. Go, he said, into the meadow of Saint Benedict, which adjoins this village, and having gathered a bundle of grass such as you alone can place on the neck of a horse, bring it and set it before your animals. He, obeying his master's commands, borrowing a scythe from someone, flew into the meadow; he cut the grass with all his might, so as to be able to return as quickly as possible, lest he miss his companions' meal. Meanwhile, while he was pressing on with the illicit work, a certain one of the country people saw him and, running quickly, reported it to the aforesaid Isaac, the Provost of the village; for that meadow was next to his house. Isaac, observing the squire cutting the grass of the meadow with a scythe, called out in a louder voice from a distance: Who are you, O wicked man, who have entered the meadow of holy Benedict as a profaner, against what is right? Get out, you plague, more quickly, lest divine vengeance more quickly destroy you. But the squire, despising the warning voice, burst out into these playful words: Saint Benedict, he said, will this time forgive me this little crime. And having made a bundle of grass, he returned to his lodging, providing fodder for his animals. Then hastening quickly to the house where his companions were feasting, he too feasted with them. When therefore the food was consumed and breakfast finished, each one mounting his own horse hastened to head where they had arranged. But the despiser of Father Benedict left the village last of all. I believe some grass was left over, which he was waiting for his horse to consume. He himself then, in order to catch up with his companions, who were already at some distance, His horse being struck with sudden death, he breaks his thigh: spurring on his horse, attempted to pursue them. But before he left the village, the horse, falling headlong to the ground, fell dead with its neck broken. The horseman who sat upon it also fell, and with his thighbone broken, he could not rise from the ground unless lifted by the arms of others. When a crowd came running to the sudden execution of divine judgment, Isaac himself was there too, reproaching the wretch with these words: Did I not tell you, miserable man, that blessed Benedict never leaves his injuries unavenged for long? But because you refused to believe me, behold, you lie useless, with your limbs broken.

[19] A certain man, fearing the day of the last judgment for the crimes he had committed, A certain man, having assumed an iron bond: had his arms bound with iron, in order to appease the fear of the supreme Judge, and traversing very many stretches of land, he sought the shrines of many Saints, begging with frequent groans that the sins which his conscience reproved might be blotted out. Continuing this diligently over several yearly cycles, although it should be faithfully testified that those whose memorials of the Blessed he had visited had interceded with the Almighty for the absolution of his sins, yet he seemed to have perceived the manifest aid of none of them. For this was his faith: that after his sin had been remitted by the merciful Judge, the loosening of his arms would soon follow. While therefore he ran about in every direction, trusting that the aid of Father Benedict would be useful to him, he reached Fleury; and entering the main church, in which the most sacred bones of the same Father rest, he offered devout libations of prayers to God, making the rounds before individual altars. Coming, however, to the altar of the Mother of God, He is freed at the altar of Saint Benedict:

which had behind it the altar of the oft-named Father, with his hands stretched toward heaven, he prayed to the almighty Lord more attentively that his debts be forgiven him, more frequently invoking the Mother of God together with that same Father. And while he was intent upon that same prayer, with the nail by which the iron bond was fastened suddenly breaking, the iron bounced onto the pavement with a clatter. And he, seeing himself freed, and understanding in that visible loosening that the invisible bonds of his sins had been relaxed, overjoyed beyond measure, leaped with unspeakable joy, proclaiming praises to the almighty Lord, and rendering innumerable acts of thanksgiving to the Mother of God and to Father Benedict.

CHAPTER IV.

Plague removed by the aid of Saints Benedict and Maurus the Martyr; other miracles of the latter.

[20] When the burden of sins demanded it, it once happened that a most fervent drought was continued for some months, with the sun's star burning everything more fiercely than usual with its heat; whence it came about that the people of Fleury were severely afflicted, with a most harsh pestilence raging for some time against the inhabitants. A pestilence raging at Fleury: You could see houses empty, with the father of the family suddenly perishing along with his offspring and entire household. You could see storehouses overflowing with wine, chests full of grain, and there was no one who dared to touch them, as men withered away from the fear that had come upon all of them. Indeed, the person with whom you had just been speaking, you would immediately see or hear had perished by an unheard-of kind of death. Someone would feel himself pricked by a sudden sting, either in the shoulders or in the arms, or the thigh, chest, or belly; and immediately falling to the ground, he would die. This inviolable plague had held Fleury for several monthly recurrences. Therefore the brethren, together with the entire people of that place, resolved to carry the sacred remains of the most celebrated Martyr Maurus in a Litany procession to the mother church of the town, [When the relics of Saint Maurus were carried in procession and Saint Benedict invoked:] which was dedicated to Christ in honor of the witness of Christ, Sebastian. Trusting that the Savior, appeased by the merits of his faithful one whose relics were being carried and by the prayers of Father Benedict, would take pity on his people. On the agreed day, therefore, with feet unshod, drenched in tears, both the sacred Order and the people, together with children and women, with the remains of the blessed Martyr being carried on the shoulders of two clerics in the customary manner, arrived with the supplication of the Litanies at the aforesaid church. There, how many deep groans were poured forth from the depths of hearts, how many tears were shed, how many vows of prayer offered to almighty God, is exceedingly difficult to describe. When therefore the celebration of the Masses was completed in the customary manner, each returned to his own home, It ceases: awaiting the immense clemency of almighty God, which was not long absent. For immediately, when the dry north wind was shut out, the moist south wind, blowing freely across the fields of Fleury, moistened with dew-bearing wings everything that the sun's heat had made dry, watering the earth with copious rain. The bodies also, both of men and of other animals, being refreshed with a welcome tempering, completely extinguished all fever in them. When therefore the immoderate heat of the sun ceased, the hateful plague also ceased; nor did anyone thereafter die in that same place at that time, beyond the customary manner. And those who had been freed from so great a disaster rendered due praises to the almighty Lord with all their hearts, giving deserved thanks to the blessed Martyr Maurus and to Father Benedict.

[21] A few days having elapsed, the same pestilential plague invaded the inhabitants of the fortress called Gordonicum, situated in the district of Bourges. When the sun, exerting greater forces than usual, scorched the Gallic region with such heat In the fortress of Gordonicum, from a great drought: that springs, which had flowed for nearly all of time past, having dried up, could by no means provide their accustomed drink to their inhabitants; and the earth, gaping on every side with cracked fissures, opened very frequent and unusually deep chasms. Accordingly, rivers of large flow, which, like the great deep, had been accustomed to carry freight-bearing ships, with their channels dried up and the use of navigation lost, offered passage to a twelve-year-old boy, if it were necessary to cross on foot. What shall I say of the burning of the meadows? Which in summertime are accustomed to be clothed with grasses rivaling the appearance of an emerald stone — worn down by the heat of the sun, they had so dried up as if they had never had any moisture. Moreover, all these hardships, unprecedented in our age, were accompanied by a deadly plague that daily dealt innumerable slaughters of human bodies; As a pestilential plague raged: which plague especially afflicted the inhabitants of the aforesaid fortress, while the remaining disasters held sway over nearly the entire Gallic world. Nothing appeared in that fortress except the image of death: everything was full of mourning, full of sorrow, full of grief; nowhere laughter, nowhere gladness of heart, nowhere cheerfulness of face. All walked with their eyes cast down to the ground; there were not heard the voices of those rejoicing, the tinkling songs of women leading dances did not resound, no throng of people in the streets. And it was remarkable that in so populous a town, with the fear of death running through all, you could see barely rare or no gatherings at all. The beauty of women, the playfulness of children, the impetuosity of young men, the various adornment of garments — all had been changed into dark clothing. And not without reason, for scarcely any house there was found free of a corpse; for the person with whom you were transacting something, a moment ago a man, shortly after became a corpse. When someone died, we usually seek undertakers to provide burial for the deceased; but there, before it was known who should be placed in them, very many graves were dug by the ministers of that office, certain that they could not be defrauded of the reward for their labor. Pressed by these and greater evils, the townspeople of the already-named fortress at last recalled to memory The body of Saint Maurus is brought there: how the almighty Lord had freed the people of Fleury from the most cruel plague in previous years through the blessed Martyr Maurus, accompanied by the merits of Father Benedict. Having therefore taken counsel, they resolved to send prudent men to Fleury who would convey the common prayers of the people to the brethren of Fleury, With relics of Saint Benedict: that the worshippers of Christ should not delay in aiding the flock that was perishing in droves, by transporting to them the body of the aforesaid Martyr, together with the relics of Father Benedict. When therefore the envoys came to Fleury and set forth in order the matter for which they had come, it seemed indeed difficult to the brethren to remove the glorious Martyr from Fleury and to have him separated from it even by a small distance of land, since after the most holy Father, their greatest hope was placed in him; yet it seemed even harder to those of sounder counsel if they should allow so great a people — especially lovers of Father Benedict — to perish, especially since they were certain that aid could be quickly brought to them, and the faith of those petitioning held this within itself. Some of the devout brethren, therefore, taking up the most celebrated Martyr together with the most sacred relics of Father Benedict, escorted by an honorable company of both clerics and laypeople, as befitted so great a Martyr, they arrived at the designated place. When the people of Gordonicum learned of the approach of those they awaited, all sexes and every age rushed out to meet them: the very old, supporting their bent limbs with a staff, even little children whom their age had just made capable of going about, begged in whatever words they could for help to be hastened to them. For an immense joy filled their hearts, because they were beholding the relics of the most blessed Maurus, which they had desired with all their mind's longing to see; already confident of their own salvation through him, whom they had heard could do so much before the almighty Lord. The canons of Saint Satyrus also came out to meet them with the greatest celebration, clothed in white garments, covered with silken copes, with Crosses, candles, and thuribles vaporizing incense sent ahead. The reliquary is immersed in wine: The most blessed Martyr was led by this multitude of people all the way to the upper part of the fortress, which, as those who have seen it recall, is situated on the eminence of a steep hill. When therefore barrels were set out on the level ground of that same town, wine was brought in rivalry in amphoras and other vessels suited for carrying wine, and was poured into them, so that when the bier containing the remains of the blessed Martyr had been washed, from that potion, as if seasoned from those sacred remains themselves — like some medicinal preparation — all might drink. You could see throngs of every age and sex flocking together, bearing goblets, cups, bowls, and vessels of every kind, to receive the drink. Having therefore received in his own cup a draught of that medicine, From which all drink: no one would then carry any home to those staying in their houses until he himself was sufficiently refreshed, fearing lest, if even a slight delay occurred after he had received it, a sudden plague might kill him. For he who could drink more of the same potion hoped he would earn a greater measure of salvation. When therefore all had been amply refreshed (moreover, that same fortress abounds in wine above others, and it was a joy for whoever was able to provide it), they earnestly begged that the blessed Martyr be carried around through the streets and lanes of that same town, He is carried around through the streets of the town: so that the pestilential plague, fleeing his presence, might be driven from all its corners. When this was done, immediately a wind began to gather the air into clouds with a gentle breath, then the sky began to be obscured by the density of clouds; and without delay, as rain is accustomed to descend in April, with a light whisper of breezes, a most welcome shower poured itself with a gentle descent into the bosom of the thirsting earth, And with the plague ceasing: driving away the harmful heat of the sun that had long held grievous dominion over the world. Moreover, that deadly scourge was soon expelled, which had produced innumerable slaughters of mortal bodies in those places in an unprecedented manner. With the blessed Martyr cleansing those borders, it dared not thereafter touch anyone in that place in an unusual manner. And so, snatched from the immense danger, it is not easy to say with what great joy they celebrated, rendering songs of praise to the almighty Lord, who through his most faithful witness had deigned to rescue them from the peril of sudden death. Bound no less by the love of our Lawgiver, they extolled his merit with the praise of an exalted voice: that he had merited to have so great a companion, through whose united prayers with the Father they had escaped the imminent death. And with gifts offered: Moreover, how great were the gifts of presents, anyone can judge, since each one hastened to offer the best things he had, lest another should appear more devoted than himself. For three days indeed they detained their health-bringing guest, so that, more certain of the health granted, no further dread of that plague should remain in their minds. He is brought back: On the fourth day, with hymns and songs worthy of so great a Martyr, they accompanied his bier for a long stretch of the way, and bidding him farewell, returned to their homes. The brethren, therefore, returning to Fleury, narrated to those remaining what great works the almighty Lord had performed through the merits of his faithful ones. Who, rejoicing, rendered praises thenceforth to the Creator of all, commending themselves more attentively to the prayers of the blessed Martyr and of their Father.

[22] Let it not seem burdensome to anyone if we append two chapters in praise of this present most holy Martyr, relating the wondrous works which the almighty Lord has deigned to show through him in two regions far removed from each other, in which his most sacred relics are contained. Two bones of Saint Maurus are brought to two estates: First, however, it must be briefly communicated to those who do not know that when the relics of his honorable Translation had been brought to Fleury, the brethren of Fleury placed two venerable bones of his arms in two estates under their jurisdiction,

for their subsidy and protection, indeed: one of which is called Diacum, situated in the parts of Burgundy, namely in the territory of Tonnerre; the other — though its name, since it is barbarous, might be deemed less fitting to be noted in writing, yet we have noted it in the barbarous fashion as it is pronounced — is called Pontons, situated in the region of Gascony. At Diacum, then, there was a certain steward of that same place named Joscelin, who, while he acted in many things otherwise than he should — squeezing out the revenue of his lords, appropriating through fraud the income of the fields, stealing the goods of the rustics entrusted to him — An iniquitous steward: after many rebukes by which he was warned to correct himself from his wicked acts, since he was by no means reformed, he was compelled by Rainerius, then Provost of that same estate (later Abbot), to render an accounting for certain matters unfaithfully managed by him. Then, with the question of those affairs sifted in a judicial manner, it was determined that he must refute the charges against him by oath, because he denied all those things of which he was accused. He replied that he would cheerfully take the oath. Without further delay, the aforesaid Provost Daring to swear falsely at the relics of Saint Maurus: ordered the above-mentioned relics of the Blessed Martyr to be brought before them. But the wretched Joscelin, although his own conscience reproved him, compelled by fear of his Provost, presumed to rashly place his hand upon the sacred relics. After the oath was performed, as those who had judged it should be done had dictated, the shameless perjurer, now secure — since the divine retribution had not immediately struck him — with a cheerful face and impudent words, seizing the very long beard he had from his chin: By this beard, he said, I have performed the oath soundly. Having said which, the entire beard followed his hand, as much as he had grasped. For the rest of the time he lived, his chin persevered completely in the deprivation of his beard. He loses his beard: When therefore his infidelity was made clearer than light by a just judgment, having lost his stewardship, neither he nor his offspring could serve as steward any longer, having experienced the blessed Martyr to be of admirable power, whom he had previously by no means venerated with the due reverence.

[23] Moreover, with the Count of Poitiers leading many thousands of armed men on an expedition to Jerusalem, his wife was managing the provinces subject to her authority. Whence it happened that while she traversed Gascony, having crossed the Garonne, she reached the borders of that same region in which is situated the place mentioned above — namely Pontons, in the district of Auch, With the rustics, fearing the soldiers, hiding their goods in the church: above the river Adour, subject to the jurisdiction of the brethren of Fleury; where, as we have said, relics of the aforesaid most celebrated Martyr are kept. With the necessities of travel requiring it, therefore, the Countess, surrounded by a band of soldiers, took lodging there. When the arrival of the men of Poitiers was discovered three days in advance, the inhabitants of those places, out of fear of them — since they greatly detested their dominion — brought all their possessions that could lawfully be carried into a church, and piled up in the oratory of that same estate various kinds of clothing, food, and other things useful for human purposes. When therefore the Poitevins had taken lodging, they heard that the provincials had, as was said, thrown all their belongings into the church. While the rest — although that nation is rash in daring any illicit thing — yet feared to profane a sacred place, one of them, bolder than the rest, bursting into the church, A soldier carrying out a sack of grain: placing a sack full of grain on his shoulders, laden with sacrilege, returned to his own lodging — by no means to rejoice for long over such a deed. For as soon as he crossed the threshold of his quarters, all his limbs, in the manner of those suffering from quartan fever, began to tremble, and an intolerable cold, spreading through his whole body, constrained all his joints with icy rigidity. Seized with a fever: Moreover, the inhabitants of that place, who knew more certainly why so sudden an illness had befallen him (for they had been very well aware of the great powers of the Blessed Martyr), urged the wretch to restore the grain he had violently dragged from the church. What they urged was reluctantly obtained; but the blessed Martyr was by no means appeased by his unwilling repentance. Therefore, with the Poitevins moving on from that place with their lady on the following day, the wretch, fearing to remain there, proceeded with them as best he could. He tears at his own arms: In the course of the journey, however, while he walked with his companions, gradually clothed with a dreadful madness, he began to tear at his own arms with insatiable biting in the manner of a dog; and those who wished to restrain him were by no means able to. While he persisted in such great madness, they came to a certain river; and while the others crossed, that wretch, throwing himself of his own accord into the river, was suffocated by the waters and perished, And throwing himself into a river, he dies: instilling the greatest terror in his companions and henceforth caution not to presume to be violators of sacred places any longer. There were indeed more things that could be said about this most excellent Martyr; but lest anyone, opposing us, should wish to build a charge against us, saying that we have gone beyond our purpose — since, while we ought to have related the wondrous works of Father Benedict, we have related some deeds of the Blessed Maurus — let us return to what was omitted above; although we are not unaware that Father Benedict was a participant in those things we have individually ascribed to the Blessed Maurus. For they rest in the same church, and have accepted the same places to be guarded; and the same possessions, in which we said the Blessed Martyr had performed the related miracles, are themselves subject to Fleury — of which place both have been made Patron, by the granting of the almighty Lord.

CHAPTER V.

Plunderers defeated in battle. Fevers removed; a contracted hand cured.

[24] When Queen Mathilda exceeded the limits of living, King Henry took as his wife the daughter of the King of the Russians, After the death of King Henry: named Anna. She bore him three sons: Philip, Robert, and Hugh. Of these, Robert died while still a small boy; Hugh afterward obtained the County of the Vermandois; but Philip, after his father's death, obtained the governance of the entire kingdom of the Franks. He was seven years old when his father died; on which account, the most illustrious Baldwin, Count of Flanders, obtained his guardianship. He, most prudently administering the affairs of the kingdom until the same Philip should reach the years of understanding, Under his son Philip: subdued the tyrants sprouting up throughout all of France by both counsel and arms, and caused a great peace to be maintained. Therefore, when Philip had become a young man, he restored the entire kingdom to him without the diminution of a single small town, and he himself not long after came to the end of his life. Philip in his first years managed many things energetically; but as his age advanced, burdened by the mass of his flesh, he devoted greater effort to food and sleep than to affairs of war. He took as wife the daughter of the Duke of Frisia, named Berta, who bore him Louis. But certain nobles of the Franks rebelled against him, trusting in the resources and forces of William, King of the English; among whom Hugo of Puteolum took up arms against him, attracting many supporters to himself. The King, wishing to repress his audacity, assembled a force of soldiers from every quarter; In a war with William, King of the English: among the other auxiliaries, he also ordered an army to come from Burgundy. Having received the command, they hastened into France — namely Odo, Duke of that same Burgundy, William, Count of Nevers, Gaufredus, Bishop of Auxerre, and very many others whom we thought too tedious to enumerate. Making their way along the road, in a certain estate of Father Benedict called Evera, they received lodging. But as is the custom of country folk when soldiers arrive — to be frightened, to make a commotion, to flee in every direction, to hide their belongings in safer places — especially amid such a great tumult, the rustics of the above-mentioned district carried all their possessions to the church, both grain and various furnishings. But when the ranks of soldiers, having refreshed their bodies weary from the road's labor with food, were about to procure fodder for their horses, they discovered that the country people had hidden all their grain in the church. Disheartened at this, they reported the whole matter in order to the leaders of the army: that the rustics had carried the hope of their sustenance to a safer port — the church, I mean — and were utterly unwilling to give or sell them the fodder necessary for their vehicles. But those leaders, at a loss for counsel, did not know what to do; for they neither wished nor dared to become violators of the sacred places. The Bishop, therefore, who ought to have been more cautious than the rest, driven by youthful rashness, asked in a scurrilous manner whether men had deposited that grain in the church. When the answer was: yes. Then, he said, let men remove it. Having plundered the goods of the rustics from the church: He therefore ordered them to go quickly and provide as much barley as necessity demanded for their horses. They hurried to the church; the barley was violently taken from it; fodder was provided for the horses from it. On the morrow, they headed where they had begun — believing they had incurred no harm before Father Benedict for the violation of that place and the injury done to his own. But when the King was hastening with the rest of the legions of soldiers to Puteolum, they too met up with him; they pitched camp — both they and the King — around that same fortress. When therefore the fortress was besieged, after frequent assaults over several days already completed, one day those who seemed to be enclosed — namely Hugo with his men — opening the gates, unexpectedly appeared before the besiegers, resounding with every kind of warlike tumult, with trumpeters also blaring in a terrifying roar. They are captured in the battle: Those who were in the camp, terrified by the sudden audacity of the enemy, believed that the military cohorts of all France had entered that same fortress during the night, and that Hugo had therefore dared to burst forth to so great an undertaking. What more? They turned their backs, committing themselves to the refuge of flight, leaving behind tents of various kinds full of various furnishings and the rest that they had brought together for so great an expedition. The enemy, seeing them flee — which they had by no means previously presumed to conceive in their minds, that so great a multitude should be put to flight by so few — pursued them more fiercely. Very many noble men were therefore captured in that flight, especially the army of Burgundy, which had dared to insult Father Benedict, being plunderers of his estate. With the Bishop of Auxerre: The Bishop, indeed, who had by his scurrilously uttered words impelled the others to act wickedly, was captured along with the father of the Count of Nevers, and was compelled to ransom himself with a not inconsiderable sum of money. Freed at length from that captivity, making his way to Fleury, he confessed that he had acted foolishly and that what had befallen him had rightly occurred; When the fault was thereafter confessed: he begged pardon and obtained it. In that flight you could see fulfilled what is read at the end of Deuteronomy in the imprecations which the man of God Moses pronounced upon the people of Israel, if they should ever depart from the law of their God: Through one road, he says, you shall go out against your enemies, and through seven you shall flee. Deuteronomy 28:25 And in Leviticus: You shall flee, with no one pursuing. Leviticus 26:17

[25] The church of the ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in which the blessed Father Benedict rests in body, having been partly demolished by age and partly by fire, it seemed good to Abbot William, with the help of Odilo, an upright man,

the sacristan of that same church, to demolish the old structure and erect a new work in place of the old. On account of which it was necessary to remove the venerable remains of the same Father, which had been stored in a wooden chest — with a bronze shrine surrounding it on the inside for the sake of durability — from that same chest [The wood of the chest of Saint Benedict, immersed in water or wine, drives away fevers:] and to place them in another coffin. From the remains of which chest many remedies are provided to the infirm, through the merits of that same Father whose venerable bones it had enclosed. Indeed, whoever among those suffering from fevers — whether afflicted with daily, tertian, or quartan attacks — washes some small piece of the wood of that same chest with water or wine, and drinks that same potion with the aid of faith, immediately, with the fever killed, he comes through healthy. This we have proved most frequently by manifold experience. They are carried to various parts of the world and work miracles: Furthermore, many men of diverse regions have carried some of those very woods of which that chest had been composed to their own lands for the sake of their health; and they have afterwards attested that they had been very useful against various kinds of diseases. We, therefore, passing over very many signs that have been shown through them, shall recount only one, by whose evidence we may demonstrate that many similar things could have been done. Veranus, who held the governance of Fleury for a considerable number of years, was fiercely burned by quartan fevers for nearly six months. As is shown by a domestic example: He, applying to himself more diligently the care of many physicians, whom he thought learned, made no progress; he merely spent a considerable sum of money on purchasing medicines and on the fees of those who, in vain, refuse to undertake even a small labor of their art. He himself also, since he boasted of having some small knowledge of medicine, attempted many things on himself by himself; but nothing helped him. Destitute therefore of all aid and cheated of his attentive hope in medicine, he remembered that many, oppressed by the weight of this same infirmity, had been restored to their former health through the relics of that same chest. Rising therefore at dawn one day from his bed, carried in the hands of his chamberlains, he entered the church, prostrated himself on the pavement before the altar on which the aforesaid relics had been stored, begging with weeping and groaning that aid might come to him through the prayers of the blessed Father. At last, raised from the hardness of the floor and supported in the arms of his bearers, he asked the custodian of the aforesaid sacred bones to bring him some small piece of the chest, wash it with wine, and give it to him. When he had obtained this and drunk such a potion, his heart failing, he fell from the hands of those carrying him to the ground. Then, vomiting out the entire abundance of superfluous humor that had brought that illness upon him, he lay prostrate on the ground for the space of nearly one hour, having suffered a failure of consciousness. From which, having somewhat recovered his strength and raising himself, he was again carried to his bed and, lulled with tranquil rest for a little while, he felt no further distress from that disease thereafter. He recognized therefore that it was a better medicine to beseech the clemency of the almighty Lord in one's infirmity than to rely upon the juices and powers of precious herbs.

[26] One of the brethren, surnamed Gilbert, who had been placed in charge of the masons working on the aforesaid project, sometimes being rather short of funds, went about visiting many places and leading with him semi-preachers, by whose admonition the hearts of men and women, entangled in the affairs of the world, might be aroused to relieve his penury with some support, even if modest. While therefore he was running about in all directions, he came to Vitry, A hand contracted into a fist: a place that in our times was graced with the distinction of a royal Palace. Entering therefore a church, with an exhortatory discourse he was reminding the people to flee the mutability of the present life and to desire with a burning mind's longing the stability of the future life. Among other things, moreover, with gentle persuasions he begged — which was the source of that whole exhortation — that they would grant at least a few coins to support the task enjoined upon him. There was present in that same congregation a certain rustic named Marcus, who, weakened in his left hand, could attempt no work with it; rather, with the sinews contracted and the tips of the fingers fixed in the middle of the palm, with the thumb pressed on top, he had assumed the form of someone wishing to strike with a closed fist. And, afflicted with this disability for nearly five years, he could be helped by no skill of physicians; moreover, his fellow villagers knew him to have been long detained by that same affliction. When therefore he heard the preacher frequently extolling among other praises the virtues of Father Benedict, and saw in his presence certain relics of Saints enclosed in gold, When the sign of the cross was made with the relics: which the aforesaid brother had brought with him to arouse the devotion of the people (I believe by the inspiration of the grace of the almighty Lord, who had resolved to have mercy on him by this occasion), he turned to the above-mentioned brother and said: I hope, my Lord, and my faith holds this as certain, that if you paint on the outside around my weak hand the banner of the Cross with these sacred relics which I see before me, invoking the name of the Saint whose servants you are — Father Benedict — my disability will be driven away and it will be restored to its former health. Those present, hearing his request and admiring his faith, he himself also asked that what he requested be done. The brother, himself also full of faith, trusting in the power of the holy relics and the merits of the Father, taking the relics of the Saints, surrounded his weak hand on the outside with the sign of the Cross, just as he had asked. It is cured: Immediately, with the sinews making a great cracking sound, the hand received its complete health, with all the fingers raising themselves up. That same rustic therefore began to have a free hand, who had long had only a useless fist. Seeing in himself so great a clemency of the almighty Lord, he rendered him acts of thanksgiving as best he knew how, for his restoration; also giving thanks to Father Benedict, through whose merits he professed he had obtained his health. No less did all who had assembled in that same church, lingering very long in the praises of the Redeemer, extol his great works with whatever praises they could — he who is everywhere wondrous in his Saints.

CHAPTER VI.

Fire removed. A blind woman, a demoniac, one who fell from a height, and a deranged person healed.

[27] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and ninety-five, The village of Fleury is burned in the year 1095: the flame of a devouring fire consumed the greatest part of the town of Fleury. It is unknown, however, whether that same fire was accidental or set by stealth. For on the night following the most sacred Sunday of Easter, a violent fire seized one of the houses that were situated on the northern side, excluded from the enclosure of that same town; which, since it was a shelter for cattle, had a great deal of hay and straw. These things, although they are the most welcome fuel for fire at all times, were even more so at that season, because with all other winds excluded, only the north wind was blowing freely through the Gallic world, which in its usual manner, drying everything, had rendered it arid, with absolutely no drop of rain falling for some space of time. When therefore the third part of the night — which is called the dead of night — was beginning, with those who first saw the fire being kindled making a commotion, the rest of the crowd, awakened, was shouting that terrifying cry with a horrible howl: Fire! Fire! The monks set aside the ornaments of the church in the treasury: Roused by which commotion, the brethren left their beds and rushed into the church. That same church, however, had been most honorably adorned with silken decorations for the Paschal celebration; to take these down and store them in the treasury (since that building was protected by a stone vault), the younger of the brethren eagerly girded themselves. Along with books and privileges: This was accomplished very swiftly, with some raising ladders, others climbing by their steps to the heights of that same hall and taking down those very decorations, others receiving them on their shoulders and in their arms and carrying them to the aforesaid safe place. No less, fearing to lose by the violence of fire the very necessary supply of books, we piled them in the same place, together with the mass of our testaments and privileges. For we feared lest the small tower in which these had been stored, succumbing to the force of the flames, might be reduced to ashes, since it was full of cracks, having been consumed in the previous fire that devastated the monastery of Fleury in the time of the Lord Abbot Gauzlin. Moreover, while the younger men were occupied with the things we have described, those who were more devout and advanced in age carried the remains of their most holy Father — a thousand times more precious than all these treasures — into the aforesaid treasury, And with the body of Saint Benedict: together with the relics of the other Saints who rested in that same church. Some, moreover, taking the remains of the most sacred Martyr Maurus and the golden right hand, And part of the Lord's sudarium: in which a portion of the Lord's sudarium is enclosed, carried them outside, opposing them to the fire. But when they could by no means endure the smell of the fire, retreating within the circuit of the fortress, they climbed the wall and implored the Lord's aid, nonetheless opposing the sacred relics to the fire. While Abbot Joscerand opposed the relics of Saints to the fire: Joscerand, moreover, a man of blessed memory, who at that time was strenuously executing the office of Abbot at Fleury, taking with him a few brethren along with the boys who were still held under the stricter custody of discipline, went about the dwellings of that same monastery until dawn, conducting the Litanies, with hands stretched toward heaven, more frequently crying out Kyrie eleison. Meanwhile the fire, gradually augmenting its forces, having consumed the buildings that it had first begun to consume on the northern side outside the town, driven by the blasts of the north wind, which was blowing violently, seized the church of Saint Denis, which was situated nearly in the middle of that same town. And from there, as if released with freer leaps from a higher place, it spread in every direction, so that it even burned the wine presses, which were about a hundred paces further away in the vineyards. The crackling was so great that all who heard it trembled in their hearts, scarcely able to stand, as excessive trembling shook their knees. Then indeed a great fear seized all. The brethren, seeing embers mixed with fiery sparks falling upon the monastery, which was covered with thatch, feared that in one moment all their dwellings would be consumed by that fire. That same monastery, indeed, which we said above had been begun to be renewed, since it still remained unfinished, was covered with thatch. At length, therefore, the Savior, appeased — as we believe — by the merits of his glorious Mother and of Father Benedict, and also by the prayers of the aforementioned devout man, brought in a strong south wind, which, blowing from the side, completely excluded the north wind from the circuit of the monastery; and utterly warded off the vapors of the fire, which the north wind had been driving with its blasts, from it. Perceiving which compassion of the Almighty, we rendered

to his immense Clemency acts of thanksgiving as best we could, who had snatched us from so enormous a peril. For as long as all that fire continued to be quelled, that same wind did not cease to blow more vehemently. And with the wind changed, the fire is averted: That same fire, moreover, continued its raging, ruining the dwellings of the people of Fleury, along with whatever food, clothing, and various furnishings it found in them, from the third hour of the night until the first hour of the following day — devastating everything from the northern gate toward the east, all the way to the southern gate, with a few remaining houses toward the east that were outside the town.

[28] A certain poor old woman, coming from lands unknown to us, A blind woman: happened to come to Fleury, seeking her living by begging from door to door. Long persevering in blindness, she had completely lost the hope of recovering her sight. Walking by giving her left hand to a little boy, carrying a staff in her right hand for the sake of support, she entered the hall of the Mother of God (behind the image of our Savior, clothed with gleaming silver and beautifully interspersed with golden brilliance, where at that time the venerable remains of the most blessed Father were resting, having been transferred for the sake of the invocation of that same hall). Asking Saint Benedict for the relief of sustenance: The old woman, standing there with her guide leading her, mindful of her own poverty, entreated the holy Father to come to the aid of her want — namely by providing her with the necessities of food and clothing; for she did not presume to pour forth a prayer about the restoration of her eyes, about which she had already despaired. But the loving Father, who was able to bestow both, granted what was more important; since, with her eyes restored, she could more easily procure the rest for herself. She is illuminated: Unexpectedly, therefore, with her blindness driven away, she began to see the light of heaven clearly; and not a little rejoicing, she proclaimed with all the praises of her spirit the merits of the most holy Father, through whom her eyes had received the gifts of light. She reported, moreover, that someone had stood beside her who was cutting with a sharp razor the thin membrane that had covered her pupils; and when this was cut, she immediately received her sight.

[29] A certain man of middle age, invaded by the adversary of the human race, A raving demoniac: having been made bereft of mind, had lost all the keenness of his senses. He, bound with the tightest straps by those closest to him by blood, was brought to the most celebrated tomb of the Father, and spent a whole day there, adding also the night adjoining the day. When he had spent that night awake, at the dawning of the following day's twilight, no sign of the desired health appeared in him, with the demon that had invaded him tormenting him unceasingly. Indeed, looking with a terrible gaze at whoever approached him, he would have torn them even with his teeth in the manner of a dog, had it been permitted, gnashing and making an assault upon them as much as he could. But, as we said, bound with dire

is celebrated annually with reverence, a woman who was swelling with the pride of carnal freedom said to her who was also boasting of being one of the handmaids of the Father: Come, my dear, let us hasten to finish the work we had begun together — for they had undertaken to weave a linen cloth that belonged to the Breton himself. To which she replied: Far be it from me, my sister, that I should presume to undertake any labor today and profane so solemn a feast of my Lord, whose handmaid I am. But the other replied: If you have leisure, keep your holiday; for today I am going to work so that I may enjoy food; but do you celebrate your Lord's feast. The Breton himself intervened in this altercation; and having inquired what kind of conversation they were having between themselves, when he learned the cause, he compelled both by his exhortations to undertake the work they had assumed. While weaving, the comb adhered to her hand: And so the handmaid of the Father, sitting very anxiously behind the loom, began to wait and see what her companion would do. She, taking up the weft, when she first drew the thread through the warp, taking up the wooden comb, was pressing that same thread into the rest of the weave by striking. Instantly, with the vengeance of a just judgment following, the comb adhered to her hand. When she perceived this, she began to cry out in terror, trying frequently to see whether she could in any way shake the comb from her own hand; but seeing that she was doing it in vain, she desisted from her attempt. Many inhabitants of that same village ran together, roused by her cries, among whom the Breton was also present. Extracting this by force: He, by no means reverencing the most righteous judgments of the Almighty (which, even if they are sometimes hidden, are nevertheless always just), seizing the right hand of the woman to which the comb had adhered, shook it free by violently extracting it.

[34] That Breton was immediately struck by the vengeance of the heavenly Judge for his arrogant recklessness, and rightly so. For his right hand, which had violently shaken the comb from the poor woman's hand, He is punished with the withering of his hand: was immediately dried up, so that, rendered useless, it could perform no work. Along with this very withering, another affliction of an unusual suffering grew. For, as if he were accused by some fear of his guilt, agitated with trembling concussion, he could not be held in one place even if bound with chains, but with unprecedented instability leaped about without any rest. And with paralysis: Gradually also, as the force of the illness increased, that rustic, struck with dire paralysis, was deprived of half his body, so that he became useless for every task. The wretch, however, had been seized with such great folly and hardened with obstinacy of mind that he would by no means consent to confess that he had incurred so great an illness on account of the aforesaid recklessness — until, worn down by the inveterate severity of the disease, he unwillingly uttered in his own voice how it had happened to him. And after a pilgrimage to Fleury, he is not healed: But at the admonition of the fellow inhabitants of that same village, he sought Fleury on the feast of the Father's Translation, when he left Cassino and chose the Gallic region as the abode of his sacred relics; and having professed service henceforth to the same Father, he spent the night after his most holy entombment — the night adjoining the feast day itself — beseeching the clemency of him whose vengeance he had provoked upon himself, which we ourselves also observed. But since the crime descended from the vice of pride, he by no means obtained the pardon he implored, but persevered uncured to the end of his life, accompanied by the hidden judgment of the Almighty. The woman, therefore, who had experienced the severe vengeance of the Lord in herself, terrified also by the dire sufferings of that rustic, having professed service to Father Benedict, pledged that she would offer a candle at the same feast every year for as long as she lived, and that she would observe that and all his other feasts with due devotion.

[35] In Chatillon, a not inconsiderable possession of the Father himself (where the blessed Confessor Posennus rests, about whom Andrew also reported very many things in his writings), the almighty clemency often displays great wonders to the praise of his name, through the merits of both Fathers; about which we too shall say some things. A certain little man named Herbert fell into so grave an illness that, with all his limbs paralyzed, he had the use of none of them, except his tongue, Wretchedly contracted by paralysis at Chatillon: which, although rather faint, retained its sound. His poverty was sustained by the food of God-fearing men, who had even constructed a small hut for him in the portico of the church of that same place; where he also lay for numerous cycles of years, rolled up like a ball, scarcely able to sip thin little broths with his mouth; and unable to move from place to place even for the necessity of relieving his bowels. By the aid of Saints Benedict and Posennus he is freed: By the pitying omnipotence of the merciful Savior, with the prayers of our Father and of the blessed Confessor of Christ, Posennus, supporting him, with his limbs gradually recovering their lost health, he became well again — giving thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the measure of his knowledge, and to both of his faithful ones. He remained, moreover, in that same place for many seasons, assigned to the service of the church; supplying water, light, and whatever was suitable for the ministry of the altar — Having been healed, he serves the church: whom we ourselves also observed performing that duty diligently for many years.

[36] In the territory of Nevers there is a certain fortress, called Huben, on the summit of a steep hill. Its lord was called Hugo, a man of advanced age. He had fathered a son named Gauterius, who, elated by the pride of his youthful age, thinking too little about the commands of almighty God, was burning to plunder the property of churches and of the poor by gaping for spoils, and to spend them on his own needs. Desiring to plunder Chatillon: Whence, thinking he could carry off rich spoil from the already-mentioned estate on account of the multitude of diverse animals that were in that place (for it is suitable for feeding animals because of the fertility of its pastures), he took companies of horsemen and foot soldiers and came there, fearing neither the offense of God nor the merit of our Father. The inhabitants of that same place and of the surrounding countryside, discovering his insane greed and fearing the numerous band of plunderers, summoned to their aid the lord of the fortress called Saint-Brice, named Robert, a man truly energetic in both arms and counsel; who, protected by a wedge of his men, came running with a ready spirit, prepared to undergo with them whatever danger might threaten, for the sake of earning the Father's patronage and for the benefit of the neighbors who had sought him out. Gauterius therefore, having attacked the people of Chatillon, was striving to accomplish by deed what he had conceived in mind — namely, to lead away the farmers and their livestock and spoils with him. But Robert, having advanced to meet him with his men and also with the farmers of the neighboring places who had joined him, unable to contend with him, fearing his forces, turned his back. He suddenly dies: Gauterius therefore, exhorting his men with many shouts and spurring on the horse on which he sat, pursued him swiftly. But Robert, seeing him already approaching ever closer — as is the custom of those fleeing, casting his lance back over his shoulder, he opposed the iron of the lance to his pursuer. But the other, by no means foreseeing the effort of the enemy, while he burned more recklessly to reach him on horseback, rushed into the iron point, which, plunged into his throat, deprived him of life without delay. His attendants, seeing their lord dead, filling the air with howls and their cheeks with tears, placing the body on their shoulders, hastened to depart — with the very man by whose iron he had perished taking pity, and also with those whom he had come to plunder granting them free opportunity to flee, and proclaiming praises to almighty God, and thanks to Father Benedict and the holy Confessor Posennus, for the swift punishment of their enemy. The parents arrange for funeral rites to be held at Fleury: The father and mother of the deceased, seeing their son dead — in whom their whole hope hung, since they possessed him alone — it is not easy to say what groans they uttered and how many tears they shed, mourning with inconsolable grief him whom they embraced with their only love. Fearing, however, the future scrutiny of God the just Judge — for they were God-fearing people — since all hope owed to the body had been removed, they deliberated how they might provide for his soul, so that he might find pardon, who had so wretchedly precipitated his last things. And offer a golden chalice in satisfaction: Taking therefore the Bishop of Auxerre, truly a venerable man, with a great display of funeral rites and with the lifeless body of their son, they hastened to Fleury. Prostrate at the knees of Hugo, who at that time was serving in the office of Abbot at that same place, and of the entire Congregation, they implored that the bonds of the dead man's guilt be loosed by their prayers — holding it as certain that his crime would be forgiven in the sight of the supreme Judge, if those to whom injury had been done would first, with their whole heart, forgive it in the present. Whence they placed a chalice of the purest gold, weighing one pound, in the right hand of their son and offered him as a pledge, so that he might deserve to obtain a readier pardon for his sin if they should pay some recompense for his recklessness — believing that as often as the sacrifice was offered to the supreme Divinity in it, he would by no means be excluded from that same sacrifice. The brethren, therefore, moved by pious compassion, offered the sacrifice to the almighty Lord on his behalf in common, asking that his offenses be absolved, and themselves, according to the possibility granted by Christ to his faithful ones, forgiving what he had committed against them. And when the funeral rites had been completed with fitting honor, they dismissed the parents, together with the noble men whom they had gathered in their retinue, to their homes, carrying back no small consolation regarding the salvation of their son.

[37] After some years had elapsed, confederates from the neighboring parts of Burgundy, Plunderers entering the same field of Chatillon: against those same people of Chatillon, gathered a not inconsiderable force of soldiers, both mounted and on foot. Having crossed the river Loire, they spread themselves through the fields pertaining to that same estate. So great, indeed, was their confidence, trusting in their multitude, and so great was their arrogance about the strength and fitness of their youth, that they had a jester go before them, who with a musical instrument would sing of deeds bravely done and the battles of former men — so that they might be more keenly incited by these to accomplish what they had conceived in their malicious minds. Now the Provost of that same estate at that time had been appointed by the brethren, a certain upright man named Aymericus, who, having abandoned the pomps of the world and assumed the monastic habit, was serving the almighty Lord with faithful obedience, being constantly faithful to Father Benedict in the things entrusted to him. Before he had changed his habit, he had served in the office of priest; and his neighbors and those who knew him bore testimony that he had conducted himself legitimately as long as he had remained in the lot of the clergy. And so the bands of plunderers, having broken into the houses of the farmers, loaded themselves with spoils, driving before them herds of cattle which they had found grazing in the nearby meadows of the streams or on the bank of the Loire; for the rustics, who had foreknown the arrival of the plunderers, had hidden a very great multitude of them in the forests and in the rough valleys. Departing with their spoils: With the singer therefore going before them — as men having no fear at all — they hastened to the bank of the river, where they had stationed many of their men to guard the ships with which they had crossed that same river. Now the farmers of the said estate had already gathered together, following them from a distance; for they by no means dared to approach. The aforesaid Provost, however, conceiving no small grief in his heart, was greatly distressed, not knowing what he ought best to do; for he perceived that it would not be safe for himself or his men to rush upon the enemy, nor to seize their shipping beforehand — since those who had gathered to him were few in number and not sufficiently resolute in spirit. For indeed, since he was destitute of human strength,

of men, and was destitute of human strength, with all his marrow he turned to the divine aid, and prostrate with his whole body on the ground, he prayed for heavenly help for his people; and turning to the enemy, he cursed them in the name of the Lord, and commanded his men to pursue the backs of the wicked from a distance with the loudest cries. They, already descending along the slope of the hill, were hastening to return to their ships once boarded, suspecting that no one dared to oppose their assaults. When therefore they heard behind their footsteps the uproar of those shouting and the cries of men as if exhorting one another, so great a fear clothed their hearts that they all gave themselves over to headlong flight, Struck with vain terror: and vied with each other in a swift race to fly to the river, and there was none who would attempt to restrain them from flight, as usually happens in such matters — for those who had been leaders in the crime were the first in flight. Job 38:31 Then you could see that saying of the blessed Job fulfilled, though under another sense: My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those who weep. They are either drowned in the Loire: And so, entering their boats precipitately, while each one of them was hastening to be carried across by the river, the boats, weighed down by the burden of the overcrowded multitude, split apart when they had gotten into the deep. The banks resounded with groaning, the hollows of the valleys and the dense groves echoed back the cries and howls of the wretched and dying. You could see bows with arrows floating in the channel of the Loire, and even lances with shields, which the river with its swift current was carrying downstream. They report, moreover, that those who were suffocated and perished, submerged in the blind currents of that same river, were not few. Or captured on the bank: But a not inconsiderable multitude of those who had been unable to reach the ships, or had been terrified by the dread of the river and had remained on the bank, were captured — all of whom, by the command of the Abbot and the remaining brethren, were released and proclaimed the power of the Father far and wide. Blessed in all things be God, who cast down their insolence and shattered their strength.

[38] There was in the above-mentioned estate of Martiniac a certain young man, elated by the flower of his youthful age, named Waldo, By the sorceries of a woman formerly loved: who, not enduring the itch of his flesh, had formed a habit of debauchery with a certain little woman. Having been frequently rebuked by friends, he rejected her and took a wife. But she, grieving and striving with all her heart to avenge herself, investigated by what art she might vindicate her injury. He becomes deranged: Whence, devoting assiduous care to sorceries, she so prevailed that she alienated the young man's mind and utterly extinguished in him by her witchcraft the force of reason. He, having lost his mind, going out from his own home, with his own family not knowing what he intended to do, having taken up a bow and arrows (for he was devoted to this art), he sought the forests of Bald Mountain, hiding without food for some days in them. At last leaving them, he came to Fleury on the vigil of the Blessed John the Baptist, and

the task being weighed; he was present among them in the choir while they were singing, by whom he was led all the way to the altar of the Mother of God, and he stood before it. Pouring forth therefore more attentively in his heart — since he could by no means do so with his mouth — the vows of his prayers to the Lord Savior, he besought him to have mercy on him through the merits of Father Benedict, commending his own prayer to that same Lord through that same Father, whom he desired to be his intercessor; whose aid he perceived most swiftly — how faithfully he had sought it. For when the barriers of his mouth were opened, his tongue began to attempt various inflections, He recovers the use of his tongue: to gather the complex modes of speaking, and she who had lain as if dead for the longest time in the sepulcher of the teeth resounded with revived speech, as if sprouting buds, pronouncing first words. He remained uncertain for some moments whether it was permitted for him to enjoy continually the gift most recently bestowed upon him, until by experience itself he learned that he had perfectly recovered the use of speech. Rejoicing, moreover, in the lavish munificence of Father Benedict shown in him, he by no means delayed to gratefully render in return what recompense he could. For the greater part of the stone vault of that same church had collapsed on the northern side, the foundation of which, since it had been too weak, having been entirely removed, the brethren undertook to build more firmly, so that the same vault, placed upon a more robust foundation, might be sturdier. In the construction of which building, that same energetic young man persevered as a diligent workman as long as it was fully completed. For afterwards, having rendered his act of thanksgiving to Father Benedict and having received permission from the brethren, he returned rejoicing to his home.

[42] A certain girl, with her appearance excluding sight and both eyes being blinded, had been made blind; and as is the custom of those deprived of the light of this sun, the light of a more vivid intellect illuminates their minds more clearly — A blind girl: what she had less of in the right fear of almighty God, being impeded by the smallness of her age, she began to be more fearful and more fervent in the love of the same Lord. And as those weighed down by disability of the body are accustomed to become more robust in mind, Having made pilgrimage to various Saints: made more solicitous toward the worship of the Lord, she frequented the church, seeking his untiring clemency to deign to relieve her sufferings. But perceiving that she could by no means attain this by her own prayers unless she had some intermediaries among his faithful ones who would more acceptably present her petition, she made the rounds of the memorials of many Saints, and those whom she had heard were more closely allied to the almighty Lord himself by more illustrious merits, summoning them as her advocates, she more frequently appealed to them by name in her entreaties. Having therefore traversed many places, but by no means obtaining the compassion of the Saints — what she had longed for — At Patriciac:

ended his life. He himself, however, hung from sunrise until the third hour, and with the prayers of his mother resisting, he was by no means able to die. He cannot die: Shepherds indeed, hastening in their customary manner to see those who were hanged, when they came to the place, they saw that one had ended his life, and the other was alive. Astonished therefore at so great a miracle, they hastened with a swift course to announce to both the soldiers and the common people what they had seen. They, by no means believing their words, sent men to report back to them whether what they heard was true or false. But those who had been sent, hastening to the place of the hanging, finding it to be as the shepherds had said, reported back to those who had sent them. All, in amazement, sent men to release the youth and bring him before them, to learn the whole matter more fully from him. And he is taken down from the gallows: They learned therefore that by the tears and prayers of that widow — whom they had seen running to the church, drenched in tears — the almighty Lord had preserved the life of her son through the merits of Father Benedict, whom she had more devoutly implored; magnifying the clemency of the Almighty for this deed. Finally, the youth, when questioned, declared that he had felt no injury through the whole duration of his hanging; from which it may be conjectured that he had committed the theft more through want than through malice.

[46] Gauterius of Capriac, on a certain night preceding Saturday, Having forgotten to arm himself with the sign of the Cross: was hastening to the fortress called Mont-Saint-Vincent, hoping to be present at the gathering of people that is customarily held for assembling merchandise — whence both the gathering place and the business conducted there are commonly called a market. It takes place, indeed, in that same location on Saturday. And so, while at the place called Planchia-Guillelmi he was passing alongside the little river Vuldrace, which flows past the fields of Patriciac, sitting on his horse and having no companion, first trembling with immense fear, he perceived that demons were present. Seized by demons, having invoked Saint Benedict: And having forgotten to make the sign of the Cross upon himself, he was surrounded by them, fortified by no protection. They, seizing him together with the horse on which he sat and carrying him through the air, were finally trying to plunge him into the deep. But he, with God being merciful to him, brought back to memory the name of the glorious Father Benedict; and when he was already near to being plunged by the demons into the depths of that stream, he began to cry out more frequently in a great voice: Saint Benedict, Saint Benedict! The demons, therefore, terrified at the invocation of this name, immediately leaving him, vanished in their customary manner. He is freed: He, moreover, seeing himself rescued by the power of this name, returned by a backward path to Patriciac, by no means daring to attempt further the journey he had begun. Having returned, therefore, on account of the excessive fear the demons had struck into him, his memory

was seized by sleep. For the solemnity of the most blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, was at hand, whose night vigils the brethren were awaiting in the customary manner with humble reverence. Meanwhile the holy Father, by no means forgetful of the one who humbly sought him, appeared to him in the form in which he had seen the soul of his own sister entering the palaces of the heavenly kingdom; and spoke to him with gentle words: Why, he said, boy, have you come? Or what do you seek for your health? To which he replied: Lord, you know. Suddenly the organs of speech occupied the silent fibers of the veins and performed their unaccustomed duties. Waking, moreover, and rendering the first fruits of his new speech in praise of so great a Patron, he rushed forth joyfully outside, and by the restoration of himself gladdened us and the entire crowd of those assembled, who said: Glory to you, O Christ.

[3] A certain little boy of the same age, seeing such notable signs of power, asked with the tears of his whole prayer to be carried to the mausoleum of that same Saint, And another lame boy: from whose household also, by the condition of his natural genealogy, he had drawn the origin of his flesh — totally disabled from the waist to the feet. He was accustomed indeed to spend the night continually before the doors of the kitchen of the brethren (since he was destitute of the aid of his steps) and to beg from those passing by for the alms of food. Persisting in that same place for the course of nearly three months, carried in the arms of others to the threshold of the venerable

he might ask in words, But the body itself: that he should at least grant him the power to preserve intact the bared bones of that same most holy Father Benedict, since they would be of no use or benefit to his master. The extraordinary kindness of God softened the heart of Aventinus — otherwise savage toward sacred relics — so that he consented to the petitions of Foubert. And he handed over to him the wooden casket, removed from the larger golden chest, It is preserved in a certain chamber: in which the bones of the most holy Father were enclosed. The aforesaid Prior Foubert most vigilantly and studiously concealed it in a certain chamber of the Abbatial hall of the aforesaid monastery. In which place it was kept until the year of the Lord 1581; for in that very year it was hidden within a painted wooden chest and placed in the treasury, as the document set forth below testifies and indicates. When, moreover, the common people of Fleury saw the golden chest of Saint Benedict, broken into fragments, being carried in a barrel to the port of the Loire — to be transported by ship to the fortress of the Isle, which belonged to the Calvinist Grolot, bailiff of Orleans, where Chatillon was then staying — they wept, The people lamenting during the plundering of the monastery of Fleury: and on bended knees with a mournful voice cried out: Behold, they are taking away from us Saint Benedict! To which mournful voices of the people of Fleury the Calvinist porters replied: This is only the gold of his chest; for we left his bones with the monks when they asked; and in this way they departed.

[9] But Boscius, from a French book called the Sea of Histories, reports on page 362 that a certain portion of the head and arm of the most holy Father Benedict was attributed in the year 1393 to the monastery of Saint Denis near Paris. Then on page 365, Some at Paris: from the Valladolid Breviary printed in the year 1598, he relates that the royal and principal monastery of the Valladolid congregation of monks had formerly received as a gift from Henry III, King of Castile and Leon, a certain particle of the body of Saint Benedict; to which a great addition was made by the intact thigh bone of the same Saint, brought from Montpellier, a city of France, into Spain, At Valladolid: and received in that same Valladolid monastery — the matter having first been diligently examined according to the decrees of the Council of Trent and confirmed by Apostolic authority — with solemn pomp; King Philip II ordering that, with all the leading men of the Royal Senate, all the clergy, and monks of all Orders accompanying, in the manner and order which the King himself had prescribed, it be brought into that same monastery

and his dear heart. He entered the arena as an intrepid and fearless soldier of God. On this side and that, the ministers tore his back, arms, and chest with blows; they drew blood, they cut into his flesh, they left the Saint prostrate on the ground, uttering no savage cry at all, but fulfilling a perfect martyrdom for God — and this for Christ the Son of God, and our God: for to fight for his sacred image is itself to suffer martyrdom. Let the meek hear and be glad; let the lovers of the martyrs exult and rejoice; let the devil be confounded, let the throng of iconoclasts fall. By the works of both, according to the divine command, recognize both. For these attacked not only him, but many of our people and of those not our own (rather, they too are our own; And patience through the remaining life: for we are all one Body in Christ Jesus, who is

the head of the body, the Church) they afflicted with diverse torments. May the Lord God of hosts assign to us, together with his Saints, an inheritance in the heavenly kingdom, through the intercession of our most holy Father Benedict and of all the Saints. Amen.

since he does not make the year of death and the year of translation the same.

[4] For, understanding from the obscure tradition of the people that the Blessed Benedict had begun to shine with miracles among the people of Lucca in the very year of the said plague, they were persuaded that he had also first departed this life in that same year. Therefore Franciottus, holding the manuscript suspect of error in this regard, changed the last number, judging that a minimum of three years was required so that in the meantime the veneration of the common people toward the deceased might grow, and that by the celebrity of growing veneration the Senators might be moved to receive that venerable pledge within the walls — after (as both of them fabricate) they had vainly attempted to restrain the throngs of people flocking from every direction to the church of Saint Leonard, out of fear of increasing the contagion. This last point is so far from being true Long after his death: that, on the contrary, it is established from the aforementioned Decree that the place was completely desolate and the body lay there without honor; whose great veneration otherwise, undoubtedly aroused by frequent miracles, is indicated by the appellation of Saint and the other titles of honor that are inserted in the Senate decree. We do not therefore seem likely to stray from the truth if we say he flourished in the twelfth century, or even earlier than the reform of the clergy of Lucca through the Canons of Saint Frigidian would have its beginning: so that in that universal corruption of the ecclesiastical Order, the virtue of this one man might have shone more brightly; and leading an almost uniquely chaste and sober life, he might more easily have come among the common people to a reputation for holiness that was by no means common; which afterward, that it might gradually be handed over to oblivion, the desolation of the place which we have mentioned, coming upon it,

The lid of the chest rises to a peak at the top in an angle; which is entirely draped with silken cloth of purple color, And decently opened: as are also the rest of the caskets of the bodies of Saints in this cathedral; to the front part of whose covering this title is inscribed in silver letters: HERE LIES THE BODY OF BLESSED BENEDICT, PRIEST OF LUCCA. Finally, above the chest hangs a silken canopy or baldachin of the same purple color, for the greater reverence of the sacred body; which, had the face not been so disfigured by mutilation, could by the marvelous integrity of itself have moved the viewing populace to a tender and very great feeling of pious devotion.

[12] These things he reports, to which the highest credibility is due on account of the undoubted truthfulness, which knows not how to deceive, conjoined with a consummate expertise in natural science and anatomy, In which it seems to have formerly lain in public view: which does not allow him to be deceived in judging the cause of integrity — whether it is according to or beyond the forces of nature. And so nothing occurs to add, except that, after due acknowledgment of the kindness, we indicate that from the above description of the larger chest it can be not obscurely gathered that, before the inner cypress chest was made, the sacred body lay for a long time in that larger one, visible through the open doors and the grilles placed before them in the church of Saint Leonard; and thus that those who, in a not very frequented place, had easy access to the almost deserted church, and perhaps also opened the not sufficiently firmly closed doors without difficulty, were given the occasion to tear apart

the third, And the third: called Saint Mary at the river, from its church, near which a stable once had above the gate an image of the Mother of God, embracing the little Son in her bosom; before which the piety of the neighbors not infrequently lit votive candles. These, they say, when the river once rose to a great height, burned even under the water. When the veneration of the citizens had been increased by this, and the nuns were obliged to move from there to the monastery of Saint Anne in the year 1573 (Gregory XIII so decreeing by a Bull, which is extant), Whence the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin was received: the image was also translated to the same place, and it was decreed that it should be placed on the main altar there, with the image of Christ affixed to the Cross removed to another place. But by no effort, however many labored at it, could what they wished be accomplished — until the Crucifix was returned to the more prominent place of the altar; under whose feet the Blessed Virgin very easily allowed her image to be placed. This image, already famous by more than one miracle, the Canons of the Lord Peter adorned with a double golden crown, of which one covers the head of the mother and the other of the son; the Crucifix, however, was some time later brought to the choir of the nuns.

[7] Amid these cares of erecting monasteries, which are numbered up to twenty-four, She governs the whole Order: the heart of Santuccia blazed with an immense love of God; whence it came about that as many monasteries as she herself governed, so many were

is depicted with seven signs, and in the tenth, where Petrinus of Vitiano together with his wife Francisca, when their little son had died with original sin not yet removed, obtain not only bodily but also spiritual life. And the baptism of the infant is shown; while in the background his parents are depicted kneeling before the altar, before whose steps they seem to have placed the dead child.

[4] These things are depicted there around the image, as I said, of the Blessed one, standing in the habit of the Augustinian Order, with his whole countenance radiant, The homeland of Blessed Ugolinus is Mantua: and holding in his right hand a heart, from which two flourishing branches rise, which he contemplates in wonder, with this inscription: BLESSED UGOLINUS OF CORTONA, ORDER OF HERMITS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. He is called of Cortona, certainly, by a newer appellation on account of his place of habitation and veneration; for by the older name (which it is the custom to take from one's homeland), that he was believed and called a Mantuan, even by the brethren of the convent of Cortona itself, is shown by these words of Giles of Viterbo, the General of that same Order, transcribed from the Roman archive by Thomas de Herrera in the Augustinian Alphabet, page 494, as dated December 17 of the year 1508: At Cortona, climbing the hill, we saw the body of Ugolinus of Mantua, The body, uncorrupted after thirty years, is exhumed: having opened the sepulcher; whose face indeed, although it had lain in the earth for thirty years, was nevertheless preserved so intact that not even a red hair of his beard was harmed. In beholding which, such great grace of mouth and countenance appeared that he seemed most worthy that God should honor him with so great miracles.