ON SS. SABINUS AND CERTESIUS,
ROMAN MARTYRS TRANSLATED INTO CASTILE.
CommentarySabinus, Roman Martyr, near Pastrana in Castile (St.)
Certesius, Roman Martyr, near Pastrana in Castile (St.)
Contemplation & solitude always have been the end & spirit of the Order of the Carmelites: Of the Eremitic among the Discalced convents & therefore from its origin, cenobia in deserts & places from the cities' tumult removed founded were even to Innocent IV's times, who them in the very cities (that their Religious together with the rest of the Mendicants to the neighbors' salvation their work to expend they could) to found kindly granted. But the Order being reformed by the great heroine & Seraphic mother Teresa, the firstborn of so great a Parent sons, that the primitive spirit might revive & be fostered in the restored Carmel, determined, that in every single province one Convent should be eremitic in the midst of the woods, rocks among & caves built, the form, after the manner of the Lauras, once by SS. Sabas, Euthymius & others in Palestine constructed, whose circuit by a wall enclosed to one or another league & more should be extended; in whose middle a convent with a church, the little cells from each other by a little garden separated, as in the Carthusians' cenobia is seen: but besides those little cells, a convent in the Church's circuit, with a refectory, kitchen & other workshops necessary forming; other are built little cells with little chapels, here & there among the grove's shades, in valleys or on rocks pathless, within however the wall's circuit, to which in the time of Lent, the discipline, of Advent, & at other more holy of the year times some from the convent withdraw, there for God alone about to be free, & on vegetables alone, & other of the earth fruits raw or cooked, or with oil or vinegar macerated, the whole of that retreat time about to live: which completed to the conventual cells they return. This moreover in convent much than in other convents more rigorously is lived. No have there the Religious acts common, besides the choir's & refectory's: the rest of the time to contemplation & psalmody in the church they are free; or to the hands' labor in the little cells. A perpetual there silence is kept. To this Convent none are sent, except who shall have asked, & it with repeated prayers shall have obtained: nor it to the younger easily is granted, but everywhere to preachers, confessors, & others in external of charity toward the neighbor works continually occupied, that the spirit strength may take, & to their own progress may be free; completed there a year, to the intermitted of this recollection for the grace charity works about to return stronger & more fervent.
[2] & the origin. Of these eremitic convents in the Teresian Carmel the institutor was, together with the VV. PP. Alphonso of Jesus Mary & Bartholomew of S. Basil, V. P. Thomas of Jesus a Spaniard, of the Carmelites Discalced in Belgium the founder; where also a convent eremitic of S. Joseph, in the wood of Marlanne near Namur, by the Most Serene of the Belgians Princes Austrian, Albert & Isabella, Philip III of the Spains King consenting & approving, Of these the first of Bolarque so called. to be founded took care in the year 1619. But the first of this kind of eremitic institute convent he founded in Castile new at the Tagus, not far from the City of Pastrana, in the wood & mountains of Bolarque, from which this Convent a name received, & commonly is called the Eremus of Bolarque: in which of the eremitic life the exercises to be done began in the year 1592 on the day XVI of August, in a little oratory of trees' branches constructed under the invocation of S. John the Baptist. The Angelic life, which there by the Hermit-dwellers Carmelites Discalced was led, so all, either who it before their eyes beheld, or absent by others' report with their ears received, to devotion toward the said hermitage kindled, that everywhere Kings & Princes, both secular & ecclesiastical, most ample for constructing the convent of their own accord alms conferred; & to themselves a grace & benefit to be afforded even the greatest judged, if of some little cell conventual, or of some hermitorium separated from the convent the founders to be they merited. The Card. Albornoz Among whom is eminent the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Albornoz, who from Rome itself with many sought prayers, that to himself in this hermitage to found it might be lawful a cell eremitic within the wall's circuit, under the invocation of S. Michael the Archangel: which also to him graciously was granted. In whose favor's gratitude, two of the holy Martyrs bodies, by himself from the cemetery of S. Cyriaca outside the walls of the city Roman with a special faculty of the supreme Pontiff Innocent X extracted, to this eremitic convent as a gift sent, with the following Epistle, in Spanish written idiom, which here I subjoin in Latin rendered.
[3] he sends two bodies of Martyrs, Since hitherto I have neglected to fulfill that my obligation, I would not permit that without this my epistle there go away P. Fr. Francis of S. Anastasius, the office of Procurator general having discharged, by whom the hands I may kiss of your Paternity, & of all the Fathers of that convent & hermitage. This setting-out this I him nearly envy: for I desired myself to those holy places to go, & to be the bearer of the two holy bodies, which in their of ebony cases shut with authentic documents I send to that convent: where I wish & desire that they remain always: & therefore this very thing I write to the P. General that to be done he may command, & also your Paternity I supplicate that the same he take care, in what manner about to do I believe. For on that only condition them I destine to that holy house. Greatly I rejoice that our P. General has wished to me to be sent the measure of the tablet, of which capable is the altar in the hermitorium of S. Michael, that it here to be made I may take care by the best whom I shall find painter; & a daily Mass he founds. & within a brief time thither also about to send myself I trust of money a sum, for this necessary that hermitorium that have a dowry of a hundred ducats yearly, for whose cause the hermit who the place shall inhabit be obliged daily to sacrifice to my intention. But that my name, to the eyes of those entering exposed them may admonish for me to pray not only the present but also future, therefore, not indeed of any vanity for the cause, I have supplicated the P. General & the same I ask of your Reverence, that there be placed above the door a title, by which it be understood that I am he who there a daily Mass founded, & who sent two of the Saints bodies to that holy house: of whose dwellers single & to your Paternity the hands I kiss, asking all, that me they commend to God, who you for many years preserve. At Rome the VIII of March in the year 1647. Adds then with his hand own the Most Eminent: Those two bodies are of S. Sabinus & S. Certesius the Martyrs. The servant of your Paternity the Cardinal De Albornoz.
[4] That epistle, & together of the holy Martyrs the bodies happily to Madrid came, are received they religiously in the year 1647 & thence to the hermitage of Bolarca under the beginning of December of the same year 1647, leading them R.P. Antonius of the Cross, of the same hermitage Prior, & from the village of Sayaton the Parish-priest, the Bailiff, & some other devout persons of the same place accompanying. The Hermit-dwellers to meet the sacred bodies even to the lower gate of the Enclosure came: where with knees bent for some space in prayer prostrate, with the greatest of mind devotion & exultation to the new of the hermitage dwellers now now about to be a happy coming wishing, them religiously, the hymn Te Deum laudamus singing, to the church led; & there laid them up even to the tenth day of May (which was a Sunday) of the following year that is 1648, on which their translation's festivity solemnly was celebrated. Which that more solemn might be there came R. P. the Provincial P. Gaspar of S. Joseph, & the translation is celebrated in the year 1648. with some of the neighboring Convents' Priors. A Mass solemn by them sung, & other divine Offices duly completed, replaced were SS. the Martyrs Sabinus & Certesius the boys' bodies, on this & on that of the sides of the highest altar, in urns of ebony made & transparent (so that the sacred bones to be seen can) with glasses crystalline adorned, & by the very Most Eminent D. Cardinal from Rome transmitted. Burning were to the Hermit-dwellers coals those of SS. the Martyrs bones; greatly indeed of their devotion the ardor they kindled, especially of S. Certesius of so small an age a little boy: scarcely indeed the eighth of age year he had completed, as from the head & other of the body little bones, & also & by the teeth (which never to have changed he seems) it can be conjectured.
[5] Of these Saints the bodies received the abovesaid Cardinal Albornoz, the blood of S. Sabinus given to the Hermitage of Batuecas. & sent with two ampullae, of the same with blood filled: but R.P. John Baptist, the General of the Congregation Spanish, the ampulla of the blood of S. Sabinus the Martyr sent to the convent eremitic of los Batuecas in old Castile, where in great price & honor it is held. The aforesaid moreover of the Saints' bodies Translation, every year on the day X of May devoutly by those Hermit-dwellers Carmelites Discalced is recalled. Hitherto the relation, communicated by R.P. Joseph Ignatius of S. Antonius from Topraches of Rebec, then of the Province Gallobelgic of the Carmelites Discalced Procurator at Brussels: to which what to be added greatly should I desire? For the things which to be desired perhaps here could testimonies to make of the finding faith, since altogether similar to others a little before brought forth & oftener elsewhere proposed they are, without inconvenience hence to be absent they seem.