ON SAINT LUPICINUS, ABBOT OF THE JURA MONASTERY IN BURGUNDY, AROUND THE YEAR 480.
Preliminary Commentary.
Lupicinus, Abbot of the Jura Monastery in Burgundy (S.)
[1] That in the territory of the ancient Sequani, in that part where the County of Burgundy is now separated from Bresse and Bugey, there stands the most celebrated monastery of Saint Claude, with its adjoining town, it owes its first origin to Saint Romanus and his brother Saint Lupicinus, and to the successor of both, Saint Eugendus, upon whose burial there the monastery began to be called the monastery of Saint Eugendus: whereas before it was called Condadisco, Condadiscense, Among the Sequani in Burgundy, Condadescense, or Condatiscense, built in the wilderness of the Jura mountain. The deeds of these three ancient holy Abbots were written by one and the same author, a contemporary monk of Condat, who testified thus in his Preface: Therefore, breaking through the modesty of an unlettered heart, I shall set before you the Life of three Abbots of the Jura, that is, of the holy Fathers Romanus, Lupicinus, and Eugendus, as a three-fold narrator for the aforesaid loaves. Of these the last, Saint Eugendus, is venerated on the first day of January, and the first, namely Saint Romanus, has his veneration on the last day of February: but the middle one, Saint Lupicinus, has his feast day on this day, the twenty-first of March: whose earlier part of his deeds is contained in the Life of his elder brother Saint Romanus: with whom he is said to have been born within Sequanian Gaul, as we have shown: which we demonstrated took place around the year of Christ four hundred.
[2] with his brother St. Romanus, Before Saint Romanus, as is related in the Life, chapter 1, absolutely no one among the monks within Sequanian Gaul had pursued, under the pretext of religion, either a solitary life or one of communal observance... For before he took up the profession of religion, he had seen a certain venerable man named Sabinus, Abbot of the island of Lyons, and his vigorous institutes and the life of his monks... He also elicited or obtained the book of the Life of the holy Fathers and the excellent institutes of the Abbots by every means of elegance and effort, either by supplication or by purchase. When therefore Romanus had already long been enjoying an angelic life in the aforesaid place, an imitator of the ancient Anthony, and apart from the heavenly gaze, enjoyed the sight of none but wild beasts and the rare hunter; his venerable brother Lupicinus, later to be written of as Abbot, who was younger in the same brotherhood Saint Lupicinus embraces the monastic life, but not afterward unequal in holiness, admonished at night by his brother through a vision, having left behind for the love of Christ his sister or mother, ardently sought the fraternal hut and profession: it being without doubt destined, as the subsequent outcome of the matter proved, that in that little nest, that is, the secret of the desert, like a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, they would pour forth spiritual offspring, conceived by the inspiration of the divine word, into the monasteries and churches of Christ through a chaste birth.
[3] Then the influx of various persons to the monastic life is narrated, and the construction of their own dwelling and of new monastic buildings all around, and then the following is added: New buildings erected, In that source, from which the streams of the institutes were derived, the old but ever purer and more recent institution of the masters persisted. For both Fathers mutually preceded each other with the necessary skill of ruling and governing. a purer institution remains among these Saints. For as Blessed Romanus was most pious toward all and most tranquil; so the latter was more severe in correcting and ruling others, and even in himself. Romanus readily granted pardon to offenders with unexpected mercy: the latter, lest repeated leniency should lead to offense, reproved most vehemently. Romanus imposed on the Brothers only as much abstinence as the will of the mind dictated they could bear: but Lupicinus, offering himself as a model in all things, did not allow anyone to refuse what was possible with the help of God.
[4] These Acts are indicated before Saint Romanus was ordained a Priest by Saint Hilary, Bishop of Arles: which we have clearly shown happened in the year of Christ 444. Another monastery was afterward built at Lauconnus in the neighboring plain. In both monasteries, as is said in chapter 2, both were Superiors. Saint Lupicinus presides over 150 monks: However Father Lupicinus lived more particularly and freely at Lauconnus: so that after the death of the most blessed Romanus he left there up to one hundred and fifty Brothers imbued with his own discipline. So much from that source. We have judged the death of Saint Romanus should be assigned to the year of Christ 460 or the immediately preceding ones. But Saint Lupicinus, as is indicated below in section 12, since prolonged years, old age also, and ill health assailed him with a double burden... departed to Christ, so that he seems to have completed eighty or more years of age, and died around the year of Christ 480 or immediately following. died around the year 480, After his death, when Saint Eugendus was Abbot, the author of the Life of these three Abbots entered upon the monastic life, as one who below in the Life of Saint Lupicinus cites the testimonies of Saint Eugendus and other Elders who had lived under Lupicinus. The Life of both Saints Romanus and Lupicinus was also written by Saint Gregory of Tours in his book on the Lives of the Fathers, which we published after the other Life of Saint Romanus on the twenty-eighth of February, pages 746 and following. The same is described by more recent authors: Gononus in the Lives of the Fathers of the West, book 2, chapter 1, Simon Martin in the Flowers of Solitude, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and many others passim.
[5] The memorial of Saint Lupicinus the Confessor is inscribed at the twenty-first of March in the ancient manuscript Martyrology of Cassino. The Corbie manuscript, venerated on 21 March, the Cologne manuscript of Saint Mary ad Gradus, and others agree. Usuard adorns him with this eulogy: In the territory of Lyons, of Saint Lupicinus the Abbot, whose life was illustrious for the glory of holiness and miracles. The same is read in the printed Bede, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and others, as also in today's Roman Martyrology. Ado calls him Abbot of the Jura, and adds: His body is venerated in the territory of Besancon at the monastery of Lauconnus. For the monastery is in the diocese of the Archbishopric of Lyons, although it is less distant from Besancon, the metropolis of the Sequani: indeed it is quite near to the Episcopal city of Geneva. Notker adorns him with a long eulogy. Arnold Wion inscribed him in his Benedictine Martyrology, also in the Benedictine Martyrologies. with a eulogy drawn from Ado. Dorgany, Menard, and Bucelin follow. And in order to show that his statement could be proved, Wion wished Saint Romanus his elder brother to have flourished around the year of the Lord 564, while Bucelin says he flourished in the year 570, whom we have shown by certain evidence to have been consecrated Priest in the year 444, and to have departed from life around the year 460 or even sooner. The Benedictines of today do well, however, in venerating those Saints who flourished in the glory of virtues and miracles in those monasteries which later adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict.
LIFE
By a contemporary monk of Condat, extracted from a manuscript codex of the same monastery by Peter Francis Chifflet, S.J.
Lupicinus, Abbot of the Jura Monastery in Burgundy (S.)
BHL Number: 5073
BY A CONTEMPORARY MONK.
CHAPTER I.
The austere manner of living of St. Lupicinus. Wheat divinely not diminished. Health restored to a sick man.
[1] The debt of our promise having now been discharged, with the Lord's help, in its third part, Things said in the Life of St. Romanus are omitted. it remains now, dearest Brothers, that with the support of your charity we may pay the bond of our preface, even if from a very poor purse. For as long as we know we ought to sing, we are undoubtedly held bound by the obligation of fitting knowledge. Since therefore we have already mentioned some things about the manner of life and exercises of the most blessed Abbot Lupicinus in the preceding book, though not brilliantly according to merit, yet faithfully and simply according to our desire; now let us touch upon, as memory suggests, those things which he did after the death of his holy Predecessor: and first let us reveal what cheapness he had in clothing, what frugality in food; then let us set forth his singular and imitable seriousness in religion.
[2] Therefore, to ward off the cold of that most frigid place, or to crush the wantonness of the body, St. Lupicinus's tunic, he always wore a fur and hairy tunic: which however, for the sake of humility, fashioned or sewn together from the skins of various quadrupeds, was not only misshapen and bristly, but was also disfigured by a certain diversity of cheapness. His cowl likewise was of the poorest sort, cowl, which merely kept off the rain, but could not effectively repel the cold of the place, as we have said. He used footwear shoes, only when he went out perhaps to intercede for someone at Court. But in the monastery, even if he went out rather far for cultivation, he used only wooden soles, which Gallic monasteries commonly call clogs. He is said never to have had bedding or a bed for his use: bed, for in milder weather, after the evening office was completed, while the rest went to their beds to rest, he entered the oratory rather to meditate than to repose: taking only so much sleep there as nature could steal from one who, rising from the ground after prayer, rested upon a bench. But if a harsher force of cold pressed upon him, he had, measured to his own stature, a bark trough stripped from oak in the shape of a cradle, with closures sewn at each end from the same bark: in this, secretly and for a long time toasted open near the coals, he either rested, having shared somewhat in the warmth, or he immediately dragged it warmed under his arm into the oratory to rest. In fasting and vigils food, he was so mighty that Gallic nature surpassed the virtue of the Eastern and Egyptian monks. For although no one in the monastery of Condat, even to this day in the name of Christ, dares to taste anything from an animal except milk, or from poultry except eggs, and this only when sick; yet he very often did not permit even a drop of oil or milk to be poured into even his porridge. He was never compelled even slightly to taste wine from his monastic profession: drink, for he abstained from even water itself for about eight years before his death, not tasting it at all. But if in the summer time, when the hour of refreshment was approaching, the force of thirst should press more severely upon his stomach and dry limbs, he simply ate bread crumbled and soaked in cold water in a dish, in place of all other food, by the spoonful. I would recount greater things which he did in abstinence, had I not known that they would be inimitable by the Gauls, those things which he is reported once to have done: abstinence not to be imitated. lest someone, following unsuitable examples, should perhaps eagerly strive to imitate those things which by the dispensation of grace have been distributed by divine bounty not to all but to some.
[3] But now let us speak of his wonders. For at a certain time when an enormous congregation, and a multitude of seekers from the secular world, with famine now pressing ever closer, disturbed the steward, and besides fifteen days' food he had absolutely nothing for the trimester until the new harvest should come to the rescue; by his prayer the wheat does not fail: taking five elders with him, he came weeping to the holy Father Lupicinus, and declared that all would soon perish together from want. But he, fearlessly trusting in the Lord, and raising the mind and the eyes of his heart to that living bread which descended from heaven, said: Come, my little ones, let us enter this granary of ours, in which a small amount of sheaves remains, and let us pray: for we also, having left the cities, follow the Savior to hear him in the desert. And when the Father had entered and prostrated himself for a long time in prayer, and then raising himself only to his knees, and with hands also extended had raised his suppliant eyes to heaven; completing his prayer in a kind of ecstasy, he said: Almighty Lord, who through your servant Elijah promised the widow that neither the jar of flour nor the vessel of oil would mystically diminish until the day of rain; do you this Church, which now, having left behind the types, from Jesus Christ
your Son, her eternal Spouse, is defended: as you refresh her with the satiety of the word, so refresh her with the fulness of bread, and until we obtain the rain of new fruits, do not permit this granary of ours to fail in the abundance of wheat. And when the Brothers had responded, Amen, he turned to the steward and said: Now shake out what the Lord has blessed. For the Divinity, responding to faith, says: They shall eat and there shall be left over. The blessed Abbot Eugendus, who was then present as a boy, and all the Elders who remembered that this had been done with him and who had been satisfied from that same blessing, also testified that they could never exhaust that food by shaking it out, until new harvest grains arrived and were mixed with the old in a kind of circle of renewal: and so the man of God, trusting in faith, delivered both the brotherhood and the multitude of secular people from the peril of famine.
[4] There was at that same time a certain monk there who, by the rigor of extraordinary abstinence, had so contracted his poor body with a kind of roughness a monk half-dead from excessive fasting, and rendered it half-dead with excessive emaciation that, constricted as if by a kind of paralysis, he could neither straighten his spine, nor control his step, nor gather or extend his arms for his own uses, so that, apart from the faint breath preserved in his body, you would almost have believed the survivor had already departed: indeed nearly seven years had elapsed since he had eaten nothing except the crumbs of the monastic tables, carefully swept up after the brothers' meal with a little broom, moistened with a little water, in the evening. To this man the blessed Father, coming to his aid with salutary counsel, is said to have helped with a kind of healing elegance, so that he would not seem nevertheless to reproach or even criticize the man's excessive abstinence. One day therefore, when the Brothers had gone out to the fields to do some work, carried by him into the little garden, and the entire monastery was perfectly deserted, the Abbot said to the Brother: Come, and placed upon my arms and shoulders, let us enter the brothers' little garden: for it has been a long time since, constricted by a very serious disease, you have been touched by the sun, or enjoyed even the slightest sight of any green things. And when he had spread sheepskins on the ground and had also brought to them the torpid limbs, he stretched himself out alongside the Brother, and as if he himself were constrained by some similar illness, he began now alternately to move his arms, now his feet in turn, now also lying on his back and frequently rolling over on both sides, to straighten the spine with a delightful turning, and amid these things, to persuade by excessive seriousness, the elder added: Good God, how strengthened, how restored I am for the moment! Come, he said, Brother, and let me turn you this way and that with a similar alternation for the remedy of health. and warmed in many ways, And when he had extended the twisted and exhausted little body in various directions, like a kind of masseur, and smoothing the limbs one by one, touched them with a healing contact, that Brother began to stretch out his limbs, half-dead as yet but now straight for the function of a man. Therefore the Father, running to the steward and entering the little storeroom, mixing whatever finer fragments of bread softened in wine, and also bringing the remaining food enriched with a more generous amount of oil, into the little garden, said: Come, sweetest Brother, and setting aside the rigor of your own will, if perhaps command offends you, at least let example not fail. What you will see me do, he said, you will surely do out of obedience, by the irrevocable judgment of the regular discipline. And when he sat down at the brother's side after collecting himself in prayer, he refreshed his limbs, torpid from excessive severity: indeed supporting him, he raised up the fraternal donkey collapsing under its burden on the road, and having said a hymn, he carried the refreshed man back to his cell. On the following day, having brought him back to the little garden with his usual kindness, he also applied the previous day's treatment. And when on the third day he walked at last, sustained not by another's strength but relying only on his own, the elder prepared a light hoe fastened to a piece of wood, and taught him, now standing, now lying down, to loosen the ground for vegetables either with a rake or with his fingers. Why should I delay with many words? Within about one week, he recovers his health. having set aside the vitiation of vanity, he so restored to life one who was all but ready for burial, that for many years the Brother survived, effective and alive, in testimony of his virtue and charity. And so by a clear and divine example he taught that no one in the course he has undertaken should walk along the steep paths to the right or the downward slopes to the left, but should follow the middle discipline of the royal road. For to this Brother, by the assistance of the grace of his merits, it was divinely granted that if anyone who was sick were placed on his bed, every illness being expelled, he would immediately be restored to the benefits of his former health. I myself, even as a small boy, saw many of those Brothers who proved this both by their own sight of it in others and by their own most frequent experience. Let everyone therefore conjecture that nothing is kept silent about the merits of this man, since what words do not express, deeds proclaim.
CHAPTER II.
Monks saved from flight planned or even carried out.
[5] Now let us speak of the vigils of the most blessed Father. For on a certain occasion, while he kept watch everywhere in the uncertain quiet of that place unknown to all, Two monks wishing to flee at night, two Brothers at night, having united their plan to carry themselves off, entering the oratory by arrangement, as if to pray and in a way to bid farewell, mutually admonished each other in silence after their prayer, saying: You, said one, take from there my satchel and axe, and I will more carefully draw out your bag or cowl from the bed, so that in such and such a place, with everything packed up and extracted, we may be united by our mutual arrival. And when through the concealing darkness, yet the Divine power was shining through the servant of Christ, and the Father perceived that, with everything arranged, the step was about to be taken from the boundary of Paradise, then the elder said from his corner: Since, O little ones, you have now given me a prayer as you are about to depart, you ought not to withdraw your peace as you leave. Immediately the wretches fall, by his word they are preserved: as if about to perish before a Judge: and drawing long sighs from the depths of their hearts, they testified that their bowels were being scourged by deep groans and frequent sobs. But he, by name and gently, extending his hand and grasping each one by the chin, kissing them with the gentlest touch, and adding nothing further of speech, fell to his knees and seized the weapons of prayer with paternal piety. Then divinely, the wicked tempter having been driven from their minds, those Brothers, frequently signing their own breasts and eyes with prayer and the invocation of the name of Christ, returned fearful and trembling to their beds, so shaken with fear and shame that they dared not speak or utter to each other what had happened to them: trusting only in this, that they could have pardon for their guilt, whom paternal piety had perceived to be thus beaten by their own confusion. I call Jesus Christ to witness, this, after 20 years, who does not allow us, redeemed by His passion, to perish by renewed hostile persuasion; that the Father so concealed the matter in silence for the purification of compunction, that after nearly twenty years, when one of them had already departed to Christ, with the other testifying and present for the sake of a more cautious example, one of them having died, it is related by him for caution, the Father related the same thing to the entire congregation, and mixing joy with sorrow, he preached to all the Brothers in common, saying: You see, O little ones, with what hidden and crafty things the ancient enemy attempts to overthrow the servants of Christ, and behold, by the mercy of the Redeemer, he indeed permitted his servants to be tempted for an hour according to the quality of their senses, but having extended the right hand of his mercy, he did not allow the wavering to be devoured by the seducer. Behold, he said, one, having cast off the burden of the flesh, possesses the prepared rewards of Paradise: but the other rejoices with us, as you see, and shares in the mercy of Christ. Consider then that not merely the inclination to sin, but rather the act of sin is charged as guilt; and not everything that is badly planned is assessed as guilt, but that which is most wickedly carried out is taxed as a crime. Therefore let each one of you who stands always fear, with an added exhortation: according to the saying of the Apostle, a fall, and again, having fallen by the error of fragility, let him rise by the prophetic oracle. For what profit and advantage would I have sought then, if, publishing their intention for the severity of the discipline, I had punished the modest and trembling with a harsh harshness? This truly only, that, impelled by shame, I might have driven into a tighter bind after perhaps a few days those things which had already ceased, by the Lord's mercy, through modest satisfaction. Therefore, just as the contumacious and proud ought to be more vehemently rebuked; so those pierced by the humiliation of conscience should be soothed with the gentleness of healing. For which of you is ignorant that in this cenobitic administration a spiritual skill of healing has been entrusted to us to preserve, so that as by perfect physicians, according to the nature of wounds or the weakness of causes, appropriate medicine should be applied to each? For not every illness is to be burned by the cutting of surgery or the burning of cautery: for some things must often be poulticed and fomented, lest, applied incongruously in times of fever, they generate for each person not a cure but rather a malady from untimely and incongruous application. This speech of the most blessed Father then brought much caution to the Brothers, for the quality of things and the discretion of causes.
[6] For after months had passed, the ancient enemy likewise sought one of the most proven and chosen Brothers as prey, another, fervent at first, and with such cunning bound and captivated the man's spirit that, first depriving him of the arms of discretion and the power of prayer, he bound the rest with secret chains. He was a man of the greatest humility and gentleness, and besides the virtue of obedience, divinely adorned with great gifts of graces in every skill. The devil, gradually and little by little casting upon him, from his very lowliness, a spark of pride, as soon as he perceived it had blazed up, stirred up certain Brothers against the man by the spur of quarrel, so that while some daily fanned with the winds of scandal one already heated by pride, others urged him, drawn out of the monastery by the ropes of gossip and the soft lures of the world, deceived by the devil, he flees; not to endure but to desert such persons. Therefore having packed and tied up his belongings, he secretly departed lest he be detained by anyone, and arrived at the town of Tours by a hasty, uninterrupted journey. And when he had entered the courtyard of the basilica of the most blessed Martin, and had also reverently entered the church itself to pray, behold, unexpectedly one of the demoniacs ran up and exclaimed joyfully: Behold our monk from the Jura! at Tours he is mocked by a demoniac: and calling him by name, said: Greetings, O Dativus, our companion. And when he, terrified and groaning most heavily that he had been mocked by the devil, had sighed deeply, that possessed man added: Well, he said, our vehicle has tamed you with this vexation; thus let us live. He therefore prayed hastily and returned, and again prostrating himself, begged to be received back into the monastery: and henceforth cautiously and diligently, with divine help, more wisely than before he shut the door against the devourer. For when two years had passed, the ancient rider returned to the man, having returned, and in his former manner constrained him and made him pack his bag and belongings into a bundle to depart. And when the holy Abbot wept that his little sheep was not now going to depart and return as before, but was going to perish utterly; lest he flee again, and that one had placed his burden on his shoulders before the Brothers, about to depart; he stood for a half-hour meanwhile, stupefied in the courtyard, and by the prayer of the servant of God, blowing away the very instigator of wandering, and also casting off the saddlebags from his neck into the vestibule;
Come then, he said, you yourself my counselor and adviser, aided by the prayer of St. Lupicinus. carry first where you compel me to go: and I will follow, if I see you bearing it. Immediately, the diabolical phantom having been put to flight from his mind, he turned joyful and eager, and kissed and embraced the entire brotherhood. For from that hour the mocked and despised tempter did not dare to bind the little sheep of Christ with the customary bonds of persuasion.
CHAPTER III.
The oppressed defended: another freed from prison by the appearance of St. Lupicinus.
[7] This most blessed Abbot was moreover truly wonderful in the authority of his speech, with the sincerity of his conscience accompanying him, and he was not burst open by the vain flattery of judges, The oppressed poor defended before the Patrician, nor was he ever shaken or changed from the tenor of justice by the terror of princes. For on a certain occasion, when for the affliction of the poor, whom a certain person, swollen with the honor of courtly dignity, had subjected to the yoke of unlawful servitude by force of persuasion, the servant of God strove to defend them before the illustrious Patrician of Gaul, Childeric, under whom the public authority of royal jurisdiction was at that time concentrated, with the most pious assertion; that wicked oppressor, inflamed with the fury of anger, belching out certain froth of words against the most holy man, filled with rage, said: Are you not that former impostor of ours, who about ten years ago, arrogantly demeaning the civility of the Roman order, kept declaring that destruction was about to fall upon this region and its Fathers? Why then, I ask you, are the prodigies of so terrible a prophecy not confirmed by the proof of any sad event? Explain, you false prophet! Then he boldly extended his hand toward the aforementioned Childeric, a man of singular intelligence and exceptional goodness, and said: Behold, you perfidious and lost man: attend to the ruin which I was predicting to you and your kind. Do you not see, degenerate and unhappy one, right and law confused by the frequent invasion of the innocent by the sins of you and yours? That the axes totter under a judge clad in furs? Come to your senses a little, and see whether a new occupant does not presume to claim for himself your lands and fields by an unexpected jurisdiction. Which things however (just as I do not deny that you know or perceive my humble person) I do not deny that you have grown, branded with the mark of disgrace, before a timid King or one trembling at the outcome, by a two-pronged hook. What more? The aforementioned Patrician was so delighted by the boldness of truth that, with the courtiers standing by, he confirmed that this had happened by divine judgment, with many examples and much explanation. Soon indeed, a sentence of royal authority having been promulgated, he restored the free persons to liberty, and caused the servant of Christ, after gifts were presented for the needs of the Brothers or the place, to return to the monastery with honor.
[8] For this same man once, as I do not doubt that the long-lived may perhaps remember, obtained a great and wondrous acquittal, having pledged his word to a friend, Count Agrippinus unjustly accused by praying in the monastery while the man was bound in prison at Rome. A certain illustrious man, Agrippinus, endowed with singular sagacity and, on account of the distinction of secular military service, appointed Count of Gaul by the Prince, had been discredited before the Emperor through Aegidius, then Master of the Soldiers, by crafty and malicious art, on the grounds that, shining with the Roman fasces, he was undoubtedly favoring the barbarians and was striving by secret deception to tear the provinces from the public authority: and as we said, before he could overthrow the false charges with the truth in the assertion of common integrity, Aegidius had defamed him with the foul accusation. Soon inflamed imperial orders command that the Master of the Soldiers who had accused him should send the enemy of the Republic to Rome to be punished with royal severity. Meanwhile the aforementioned Agrippinus, slightly stirred by a certain whispered rumor about the matter on the spot, was forced to hasten to the Court under a kind of guard. And while still in the place, about to go to Rome to the Emperor having perceived by the whispering of certain persons, as we said, that the Emperor's mind had been prejudiced against him by the malicious envy of his rival, he began stoutly to resist and protest that he would by no means go unless the one who had secretly accused him would come openly to convict the defendant face to face. But Aegidius indeed, not venturing to contend with him in verbal combat, but somewhat trembling in his conscience, began to entangle the innocence of Agrippinus with frequent bonds of oaths rather than to clear it. Namely that he had absolutely nothing to fear, because he had not perceived that anyone, that is, a blameless person, had branded him before the Prince with the stain of false accusation. But it only seemed to him that, if he had perhaps been charged by someone, he would make the suspicion grow by resisting rather than could clearly wipe away his treacherous conscience by being present. If therefore, said Agrippinus, my Lord and superior Aegidius, there is nothing I should fear there, accused as I am, I beg he asks for St. Lupicinus as surety: that the holy servant of God Lupicinus, who is present at this moment, may stand surety for me in this matter in place of your nobility. So be it, said Aegidius. Immediately kissing the right hand of the servant of God which he had seized, he handed over the pledge of the compact to the accused.
[9] And when, having set out and completed the journey, he had arrived at the greatest city; immediately having been presented to the Patrician according to the previous information, and the Senate having also been summoned, the Emperor, now implicated, is consulted as to what punishment would be fitting for the one who simulated being a partisan of the Republic, and what the conspirator of the enemy deserved to receive. to be struck with the axe, He therefore orders the unconvicted and unheard man to undergo the death sentence immediately. But by the will of God no doubt, indeed by the prayer of his servant, it was granted that the innocent man, uncondemned, should not immediately be struck with the public axe. Therefore he is ordered to be thrust into prison meanwhile, the mob on all sides exulting and insulting with the cry that he who seemed to kindle the favor and ardor of invasion for the barbarians had at last been divinely restrained, and would henceforth have no boldness for barbarian recklessness. But Saint Lupicinus was not at all unaware of the entire affair: for the aforementioned Agrippinus also constantly appealed to his surety in spirit. Therefore the servant of Christ imposed upon himself, along with continuous prayer, unceasing penance, and apart from the raw uncooked marrow of cabbages and water, and cheap rustic turnips, by the appearance of St. Lupicinus he is taught the way of escape from prison: he partook of absolutely nothing else in his daily use until he should see him acquitted. When therefore the friend of Christ, with ever-watchful petition, struck the ear of divine piety with continual insistence; on a certain night he came by vision to his pledged friend in the prison, exhorted him not to be troubled, and pointing out a corner in the dungeon said: Lift this, struck with a light push, and with a quiet pull, hastening, go back before it grows light. Roused therefore from sleep, as if, shut up in a Herodian prison, he had been addressed by the ancient Apostolic Angel, immediately seizing a peg from which the prisoner's personal saddlebags were hanging, and also breaking his chains, and prying loose the corner stone with careful leverage, he opened an exit in the manner of a tunnel. Therefore, as if returned to earliest infancy, with hands lowered and extended along the ground, crawling out in a kind of creeping motion, he did not know in which direction to seek the Apostolic threshold for refuge. Finding a street, however, he fled with quick step, the crowd so that, carried far off and mingled with passers-by, he could not be recognized mixed in. With his cowl therefore drawn over his head, he had no idea at all where he was going. Meanwhile, looking to the right, he flees to the church of St. Peter, pretending to be a foreign monk, claiming to be a pilgrim, he asked a certain veteran religious man how he might go directly to the basilica of the Apostolic summit. And that man said: Through the Vatican, where now in that most famous place, in the public porticoes, the cells of the disabled are arranged on one side, pointing out also all the streets and crossroads and turns with an indicative word, as to one ignorant of the localities, he left nothing at all doubtful about the right path.
[10] Having entered therefore the basilica of Saint Peter, he prostrated himself, wailing with tears and pouring out all his miseries from the depths of his breast, admonished by St. Lupicinus, he receives food: and murmuring to the healing physician the pardon of his own faults and the snares of present entrapments, as one wounded. On the following night therefore, his surety again consoled his charge in the basilica through a vision with gentle speech. But he, amid their familiar conversation, rejoiced indeed that he had been led from the darkness of prison into the light, but, vexed by natural discomfort, testified that he was very hungry: for having escaped from custody and fleeing here and there frequently, he had not at all requested any food. Rest a while, said the servant of God: for I will send you at dawn things by which you may be nourished with sufficient refreshment. When therefore the following day had begun to dawn, behold a certain Senatrix, as she was turning to depart from the confession of the Apostle after prayer, caught sight of Agrippinus in a corner and said to her servant: This man is a pilgrim, and as far as his genuine bearing testifies, it is clear he is a person of no small family. Therefore offer him these two coins which are left over from our little distribution, in the meantime, until returning home I may send larger gifts at your reminder. Immediately therefore, having received the coins, he purchased food from the nearby markets, and returned with a more joyful step to the outer courtyard. And behold, he heard certain men from the Palace conversing sad and anxious: This Agrippinus, who has escaped from prison, compelled no doubt by a grave injury, is going to send the barbarians for the overthrow of the Republic. Hearing this, and because he was unknown by face, he inserted himself slightly and lightly among the conversants, and like a native cunningly inquired and chatted about these things by way of conversation: and amid this, mixing counsel into conversation, he said: How much better would the Emperor have done if he had made such a man, even if he had been convicted in the accusation, rather a debtor to himself by the benefit of mercy, than had an unconvicted and untried man perhaps provoked by injury to that which had been falsely charged. But they said: he makes himself known: The Emperor and the Patrician and the entire Senate groan that it was not done as you say. And he said: And even now, if there were regard for him, he would escape. If he could be found and discovered anywhere, they said, not only unharmed but even elevated with honors and greatly rewarded would he return to his own country, he makes himself known, provided that the Republic were freed from this present fear. That you may know, he said, that Agrippinus, wickedly accused, could indeed have fled to the enemy: but if he is guilty, he wishes, convicted, to be condemned with the truth made plain. Go now and announce to the Emperor and the Patrician free and enriched he returns; that behold, I am Agrippinus, here. But they immediately, stupefied, embraced and kissed the man, and sent a runner swiftly to the palace. For the Emperor, hearing this, was made more cheerful, the entire populace rejoiced with the turn of events, and with their wish and countenance changed for the better, they were now glad. The Senate in turn was rapidly consulted, generous kindness hastened from all sides, and frequent small gifts were dispatched, the former abuse having been abolished, with no lawyer at all to mend the case. Without delay, having been presented to the Emperor, the accusation was made public, he was freed from suspicion, and returning to Gaul, he prostrated himself before the servant of Christ and, giving thanks, reported before all what we have related.
CHAPTER IV
The perfection of the monks of St. Lupicinus: his death and burial.
[11] For at the same time there flourished, indeed burned everywhere, the good odor of the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, Mutual charity of the monks of St. Lupicinus, because no crafty envy gnawed at anyone, no consuming jealousy tore at anyone: all, I say, were one, because all belonged to one. If therefore any of the Fathers should perceive that his colleague in the governance of the Brothers, that is his Co-Abbot, was burning and enjoying some portion of graces by the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, raising his eyes and hands to heaven, as if he himself were performing it, he poured forth tears of joy joyfully to Christ.
And if anyone was, by God's doing, more eloquent, or more learned in sacred erudition, the consciousness of pure simplicity in the Brother delighted more than his own skill in sophistical arguments. Likewise all the simpler ones wished with all reverence to be instructed or taught by those to whom, according to the Apostle, the opening of the mouth was more effectively and more instructively granted for speaking the mysteries of Christ. For no one, according to the Apostolic constitution, said that anything was his own: anyone was distinguished from another only by the property of his name, not by the cultivation of wealth or fame. humility, So content with nakedness, they burned with such unanimity of charity and faith that if a Brother, appointed for any necessity, had gone out somewhere in the cold, or had perhaps returned drenched by a winter rainstorm, each one would eagerly strive, having shaken off his softer and drier garment and removed his shoes, to warm and cherish the brother's body rather than his own. Not at that time (which now too, with institutions everywhere declining, it is shameful to report and say) was a Brother sent out from the Abbot for some cause, a sensible biped, carried on a four-footed horse: but it sufficed for each one, with the support of a staff, to have a thicker and sturdier monastic roll. And therefore often through the servants of the Lord, with the grace of virtues accompanying them, the gifts of healings and wonders were accomplished: for they almost passed by the places of miracles perfection. before they were known by sight or name to anyone. For there they taught those who marveled that they should seek the source and origin of graces, where, as quickly as possible, with love and the warmth of faith, having fulfilled and completed the commandments, they hastened without the venality of grace: lest, constructing the markets of commerce in the temple of their heart, they should be struck, like the money-changers at their tables and the sellers of doves, with the scourge of the Lord's severity.
[12] St. Lupicinus is ill Therefore when prolonged years, old age also, and ill health beset the most blessed Father with a double burden, he first appointed a Father over the monastery of Condat, the older monastery; then also, with his passing imminent, he designated an Abbot for the monastery of Lauconnus; and then he began to be afflicted with daily increasing illness, until his long-parched limbs burned with accumulated fever heat. And when, urged by the monks to purge the hollows of his mouth with a small sip of water (from which he had abstained for about eight years, as we said), as is customary, by frequent fanning of his tongue, the venerable Sons, breaking the Father's vow with the bonds of charity, though with a late and small change, mixed a spoonful of hidden honey into the little cup from which he was about to receive a mouthful of water. But when he, lying down and supported on this side and that in a sitting position, had tasted what was offered to the tips of his lips; he does not accept a little honey mixed with water: immediately stirred by zeal for his vow, he said: Enemy, do you even at my departure attempt to corrupt my humility with the delight of perishable sweetness? Then, reclining a little, he departed to Christ with eager alacrity. Therefore, by the inspiration of inborn piety, he dies, is buried at Lauconnus. in that very monastery of Lauconnus, as we have said, his sons laid the paternal body to rest: so that since his brother already illuminated the place of prayer at Balma, and Saint Eugendus was one day going to illuminate the interior of the monastery of Condat, this one might meanwhile instruct the monastery of Lauconnus with virtues, imbue it with examples, adorn it with patronage, and continually assist it with prayers.