ON SAINT GREGORY BISHOP OF OSTIA, IN ITALY,
DEAD ON A SPANISH LEGATION.
THE YEAR 1044.
CommentaryGregory, Bishop of Ostia, dead on a Spanish Legation (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Ostia, a most ancient colony of the Romans, founded at the mouth of the river Tiber by Ancus Martius King of the Romans, has been raised to so great Ecclesiastical dignity, that its Bishops are in a certain manner by their very nature also Cardinals, The Bishop of Tiberine Ostia and surpass in dignity all the Bishops of the World whatsoever, the one Roman Pontiff alone excepted, and for a long time now are held the Deans of the Purpled. Among these Bishops in the eleventh century of Christ flourished two, eminent both in sanctity of life and in splendor of doctrine. Of these one was B. Peter Damian, Prior of the desert of Holy Cross of Fons Avellanus, who departed life in the year 1072, on the XXIII of February, on which day we illustrated his Acts. The other somewhat older than this one (for two intervened between each) is B. Gregory, who died most holily on this IX of May on a Spanish Legation. Some compendium of the things done by him Ferdinand Ughelli edited in tome 1 of Italia Sacra among the Bishops of Ostia, which we here give, and is of this kind.
[2] Blessed Gregory, a monk of S. Benedict, and Abbot of SS. Cosmas and Damian at Mica-Aurea, was chosen Bishop of Ostia, and so also Cardinal and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church. created in the year 1034 About the year 1034 he succeeded Peter: who discharged the same office most amply under four Pontiffs succeeding one another, displaying surely those examples of virtues, which seem to befit a most holy man. But when everywhere and always his sanctity had become known to mortals, then truly especially in the kingdom of Navarre by the sending of the Pontiff it shone forth. For when God, sent into Spain by Benedict IX, irritated by the crimes of mortality, in the times of Benedict the Ninth, had most foully devastated the borders of Navarre with a dense column of locusts, nor did any battle-lines seem equal to the disaster daily more savage, at last destitute of all human help, Legates being sent to the Roman Pontiff they obtained divine aid. Which that he might more holily prepare against that depredatory pest, he proclaimed a prayer of three days and a public fast. From the admonition of an Angel, who affirmed that the destroying locust would be put to flight by the benediction of Gregory of Ostia, he sent the same as Legate into Navarre. Who by the benediction and sign of the Cross, as if he had brought standards into battle, the locusts thence put to flight destroyed that army of locusts even to the last man: and shining besides with many miracles, put to flight worse sins than the locusts. Having therefore sojourned for some time in the Spains, by divine instinct he initiated S. Dominic, commonly called della Calzada, a Priest, and joined himself as an indefatigable companion to him enunciating the word of God. At length Gregory of Ostia, when for the greater glory of God he had undertaken many labors, in the year 1044 he dies, oppressed by death flew to the heavens, in the year one thousand forty-four, on the seventh of the Ides of May, and was buried at Lucerinum, a castle of the Navarrese dominion: where the memory of the same is solemnly kept among those peoples every year.
[3] Thus far Ughelli, who before this B. Gregory Bishop of Ostia establishes that there were four other Bishops likewise of Ostia, called by the name of Gregory, and in the Bishop XXIV, Gregory IV, writes these things: Constantine Cajetan the Benedictine Abbot, in the Life of Gregory Bishop of Ostia (which he recently indeed at length prescribed, which printed at Rome is in the hands of the pious) wanders by the whole heaven, while he has B. Gregory, from Abbot of SS. Cosmas and Damian at Mica-Aurea, created Bishop of Ostia by John XVIII in the year 1004, and to have flown to heaven in the year 1044. For as we clearly saw, He seems to be distinguished from the elder Gregory likewise Bishop of Ostia after Gregory Bishop of Ostia librarian of the Holy Roman Church, who in the year 1005 subscribed to the diploma of John XVIII, a certain Peter of Ostia ruled the Church in the year 1026, of whom there is mention in the year 1028. Whence either B. Gregory yielded to fate before the year 1026, or after Peter, the year 1028 elapsed, obtained the See of Ostia, it must be confessed. For I, convicted by an evident reason, after Peter, who in the year 1003 dwelt among mortals, place Gregory in the year 1005, after Gregory, Peter, after him B. Gregory, called to the Episcopal See of Ostia by Benedict the Ninth about the year 1034; sent into Spain, there to have closed his last day in the year 1054. These things again Ughelli. But Tamajus Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology on this IX of May reprints the Life of B. Gregory written by Constantine Cajetan, but then recedes from his opinion, and adheres to Ughelli, who subjoins discrepancies among the Gregories Bishops of Ostia. We leave to the curious investigators of the antiquities of Ostia the said controversy concerning the duplicated Peters and Gregories, and since the reader can recur to the said editions of Cajetan, we omit that Life as amplified with many words: in which very many things are indicated concerning S. Dominic of the Calzada, which are more accurately related from older Acts on the XII of May, his birthday. In those things also nothing is had concerning the priesthood conferred on him by B. Gregory, and sermons held to the people: nor that he sat under 4 Pontiffs. but it is said that B. Dominic, that he might refresh his soul with salutary doctrines, made his disciple, accompanied him even to his death. Neither also did B. Gregory, now Bishop of Ostia, discharge the office of Librarian under four Pontiffs succeeding him, as from Cajetan Ughelli, not sufficiently mindful of himself, seems to have derived. He is recorded above to have been made Bishop of Ostia in the year 1034, when already then the Pontiff was Benedict IX, by the testimony of Ughelli himself, intruded into the Apostolic See in the year 1032. By this Pontiff in the year 1039 B. Gregory sent into Spain, would have died there in the year 1044, before in the place of the said Benedict, expelled from the Pontificate, and other schismatics removed, Gregory VI was constituted legitimate Pontiff. But neither under Benedict IX nor under any of his predecessors ought Gregory to be believed to have been Librarian, unless documents are produced, in which he subscribes with a title of this kind: but none are produced hitherto: but well others by others subscribed with the title of Chancellor, who was also called Librarian.
[4] The same B. Gregory Thomas de Trugillo celebrates, in the Treasury of Preachers on this IX of May, and among other things, which are worthy of relation, writes these: When the holy Bishop had come to Navarre, by his holy preaching and most upright life, he amended and corrected vices: and the sins and iniquities ceasing, the plague also ceased. But the holy man instituted also many processions, he institutes pious works: fasts, prayers, alms, sacrifices, and other works of this kind holy, by which the wrath of the Lord might be appeased. Whence this glorious Saint is an Advocate for us against locusts, and blight and other animalcules of this kind, which are wont to infest the crops. Hence it comes about that water, with which his bones shall have been washed or touched, if it be sprinkled through vineyards, gardens, crops and wild trees, and other plants of this kind, is wont to be the greatest remedy against such noxious animalcules. But this glorious Pontiff died, glorious for miracles after death. and his body was buried in the same kingdom of Navarre, namely at Berrueca: where he shone with many miracles, and God by his intercession and merits is wont to succor many. Thus Trugillus, whom cited Joannes Marietta related some Acts of this Saint in book 5 on the Saints of Spain chapter 68, and asserts that he preached at Calahorra and Logroño, and that his body is preserved in a church dedicated to him on a high rock of Navarre, not far from the said Logroño: and that to it in suppliant procession many peoples of the neighboring dominions hasten, that by his intercession they may be freed, especially from the infestation of locusts, taking with them water consecrated by the touch of his sacred Relics. Thus there. That the church dedicated to him, The body found in the 13th century. was before known under the name of S. Salvator de Pinava, is indicated from Cajetan in Tamajus Salazar on the X day of May, on which he celebrates the finding of the sacred body of S. Gregory, made in the presence of the Bishops Peter of Pamplona surnamed Ximenius de Gazolaz, created in the year 1266, and Sanctius Haxius or Hachius, who ruled the Church of Bayonne from the year 1256 until the year 1275. Then are subjoined miracles written by Aegidius of Calahorra a coeval author, which we subjoin and are of this kind.
[5] In the year of the Lord 1298 the armor-bearer of a certain Navarrese Knight, A dumb and blind man is healed in the year 1298 who was called Fortunius de Almozavia, deaf and dumb, very religious toward S. Gregory, in his church kept vigils, gave himself with more impense zeal to prayers, that he might be able to recover hearing and speech. On the eighth day when the Clerics of the land of Berrueca and Valdega and other places, had come there in troops, for the cause of obtaining rain; he by the merits and intercession of the Saint was made partaker of his vow. In the year of the Lord 1302 on the III day of June a certain man of Olite ascended to the church, in which the body of S. Gregory is laid, the plague of locusts extinguished in the year 1302 Vicus by name, offering five solidi: and affirmed, that in past times the inhabitants of the place, afflicted with a grave pestilence and plague of locusts, had vowed the said sum to the Saint for the expense of lamps, and the vineyards and fields being lustrated with water sanctified by the Relics of the blessed man, the calamity had altogether ceased. The like to this the guardian of the monastery of S. Francis of Estella recounted before the same Aegidius and the Vicar of Piedra-millera, called Petrus Joannes, and Michael Sanctius the Cleric, Vicar of S. Gregory. A prodigy of this kind happened in Falces, whose villagers for that very cause yearly offer eight bushels of wheat to the church of S. Gregory.
[6] In the year of the Lord 1310 on the XII day of March, in the villa of Arellano, a grain slipped into the ear falls out in the year 1310 when into the ear of a certain Priest, Pyrrhus by name, a grain of barley had fallen, and could by no means be extracted; he with never intermitted prayers to God sought to be freed from that trouble. Nevertheless he used the work of a surgeon, if in any way he could bring a remedy to the laboring ear: but when it had happened contrary to what he had hoped; piously commending himself to S. Gregory, he betook himself to his church not without inconvenience, a brother being taken as a companion. Keeping vigil therefore before the altar of the Saint, he vowed that he would offer to him a certain measure of wheat in each year of his life, if he should drive away the disease. The vow being made the grain of barley immediately went out from the man's ear, and his pain was assuaged.
[7] a deaf woman is cured in the year 1312 In the year 1312 in the place of Viana, the wife of the treasurer of S. Gregory, so grew deaf, that through the space of seven months she could find no remedy for the disease. It seemed therefore good to implore the divine help. Wherefore both took care that many expiatory victims be offered to God: and various prayers also and vigils they performed, both in the church of Viana and elsewhere. But when neither thus the faculty of hearing was restored to the woman
restored; the husband, who, as we have said, was the treasurer of S. Gregory, persuaded his wife, that she should betake herself to his church, and there await the supernal remedy on account of the merits of the Saint. And when the woman had obeyed her husband, with many tears and groans she asked the Saint, that he should either obtain hearing for her, or a swift departure from this life. But the Saint restored to the woman the pristine sense of her ears. For on the fourth night, while she was in the church keeping vigil after the custom, about the sixth hour she perceived by hearing the crowing of the cock, and a little after the sound of the bells, by which the signal was given of rising to perform the matins hours: and in this manner she knew herself by the merits of S. Gregory to be free from deafness. She therefore rendered great thanks to God and the Saint for the received benefit: and returned home with great cheerfulness, persevered in each year to bestow an alms for wax candles to be kindled before the sacred Body.
[8] In the year of the Lord 1322 on the XIII day of March, a Saturday, to this church a certain woman came from the place of Amescoa, an energumen is freed in the year 1322 seized by a demon: who when she had kept vigil before the altar of S. Gregory, at that hour in which the Abbot of the church was celebrating the sacrifice of Mass, was so tortured and convulsed by the malign spirit, that those who were present reputed her dead. But a little after the demon left the woman, and made so great a crash and gnashing, that the temple seemed to fall: and departing gave such an indication, that the fractures of the walls can even now easily be perceived.
[9] In the year of the Lord 1323 on the day of Saturday, on which the anniversary congratulation of S. Gregory the Pope is celebrated, hearing is recovered in the year 1323. a certain inhabitant of the villa of Estella, Perrus Garsiae by name, a butcher of that place, long before lacking hearing, came to the church of our S. Gregory with others about to intercede. And when he had spent the whole night keeping vigil, and had supplicated the Saint, that he would deign to apply a medicinal hand to his disease, nor yet had felt any help; attributing this to his crimes, he took his way homeward overwhelmed with sadness. But having entered the boundary of the villa of Estella, he heard the sound of the bells, and plainly ascertained that he had obtained what he had sought. Wherefore giving the greatest thanks to God and the Saint, he sent an alms as great as he could to the church.
[10] A Confraternity instituted. Thus far those miracles: after which related it is added, that some men of the chief nobility coming together into one, constituted a confraternity under the protection of S. Gregory, and that they obey certain laws, and are exercised in spiritual meditations. Nay, says Tamajus Salazar, it was an ancient custom among the Spaniards of Calahorra, the Navarrese and the Aragonese, of celebrating the feast day dedicated to this most holy Prelate: ancient hymns and therefore in several churches are found certain very old Prayers, deprecations and hymns, by which they begged to be freed from the ruin of locusts, and paid the due thanks for his succor, with devout humility. Tamajus subjoins five hymns of this kind, between which he interposes a Prayer, and another after the miracles, and a third after the Life of S. Epitacius Bishop and Martyr, edited by him separately in the year 1646. and prayers Of these by a Presbyter, clothed in surplice and stole, the Cross going before, the following Prayer is wont to be devoutly recited. O God, who didst confer on B. Gregory, Thy Confessor and Pontiff, against the pest of locusts, a special grace, grant propitiously, that we who devoutly ask Thy benefits, may by his merits and prayers be mercifully freed from the corrosion and consumption of them and of whatsoever other pests, in our fruits and cattle, and from pest and epidemic in our bodies. Through the Lord etc.
[11] And that far and wide the water, with which the fruits are sprinkled, may be carried; the rite of water to be blessed. the peoples come to the place of the sepulcher with urns, and enclose in the urns the water introduced through the opening of the shin-bone of the holy Confessor, sanctified by the ministry of the Presbyters: and to those carrying it away is granted by the minister specially constituted for it a certificate, strengthened by the sign of the basilica itself. The sign itself is exhibited by Tamajus, and is the image of S. Gregory clothed in Pontifical vestments with locusts flying on this side and that. Ferrarius related him on the VII day of this month of May.