Hilarus

ON SAINT HILARUS,

ABBOT OF GALEATA IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 558.

Hilarus, Abbot of Galeata, in Italy (S.)

By the Author D. P.

Galeata, a village at the roots of the Apennine mountain, now in the borders of Aemilia Romanula, not far from the present Florentine Dominion, on the river Bidens, or Bethensis, or Uticensis, by Livy called Utens, which thence flows down to the little town of Civitella, and the town of Meldula, and afterwards above the Aemilian way and Forum-Livii, which it does not touch, called Ronco, washes Ravenna, and then falls down into the Adriatic sea. But Galeata owes its origin to S. Hilarus, Galeata a monastery built by S. Hilarus, or as it is commonly written Hillarus, or also Hyllarus and Illarus, of whom we here treat, and by whom there a certain monastery was erected, afterwards converted into a most opulent Abbey: so that thirty-six parish Churches were subject to it; and the Abbot was Lord of several villages, and of almost the whole valley.

[2] There Anscausus, Bishop of Forli-Popilio, in whose territory that monastery is situated, with the greatest humility of honor is said most gravely to have received Pope Stephen II, granted by Stephen to the Bishop of Popilio, when in the year 753 he was hastening to the region of France, to redeem at once the Province of Italy and the Exarchate of Ravenna from the hands of the Lombard peoples, and to have abundantly furnished him with the subsidies of the journey: who, having obtained what he desired through the Franks, returning a recompense of a favorable benefit to that same Bishop Anscausus, granted the aforesaid monastery to him to enjoy for the days of his life: which his brother and successor Paul confirmed. and was long subject to its Archbishop, Then he being dead, recognizing the aforesaid venerable monastery to exist of the right of the holy Church of Ravenna from long times, and therefore weighing it to be against all reason, that that venerable place should be withdrawn from the holy Church of Ravenna; those things which before had been promulgated for its withdrawal, incongruously and irrationally, he decreed all to be void and invalid. How certainly these things are said I know not: for although Rubeus begins the fifth book of the Histories of Ravenna with a fragment of a Bull, restored by Paul I to the Church of Ravenna. published thereupon by Paul I, in favor of the church and Archbishop of Ravenna; yet by no means does it make us secure of the truth of the matter, while he himself says this Privilege is signed, as given on the Nones of February, the Lord most Pious Augustus Constantine reigning, by God Crowned great Emperor in the 40th year and of peace (nay P. C., that is, after the Consulate) in the 20th year of it; but also Leo, the greater son of that Emperor, in the 7th year, Indiction 12. For to be silent how incongruous it is for the Bulls of the Roman Pontiff to be signed by the Empire of Copronymus, an excommunicated heretic; all the aforesaid numbers of years fall in the year of the Christian era 759; while it is established that Paul departed this life in the year 757. Yet the fiction itself, if it is a fiction, supported by the antiquity of at least 800 years, easily proves the old fame of the place, and some controversy over it between the nearer people of Forli-Popilio, and the more remotely distant people of Ravenna, and the appellation of Saint attributed to Hilarus from immemorable time. But for establishing the stronger right of the people of Ravenna it makes, that the monastery itself received its first endowment and first possessions from Olybrius, a man among the people of Ravenna exceedingly powerful, who there with his sons professed monasticism, verisimilarly on this condition, that the place itself should be immediately subject to the Archbishop of Ravenna: which also King Theodoric could singularly have established for that same place. Adhering therefore to the stronger right of the people of Ravenna, Hermenfredus the Abbot of Galeata, designated in the year 997, swore obedience and faith to Ravenna by a solemn oath; and in the year 1251, in the porch of the monastery of the Lord Hilarus of Galeata, the Prior, Prefect, and Monks made the Monk Palmarius Procurator, who should ask that the Abbot elected by their Convent, Rainerius, son of Ugo Count of Carpineta, be confirmed by Philip the Archbishop of Ravenna. Again in the year 1324 Arduinus, Abbot of the Lord Hilarus of Galeata, after the manner of his ancestors, leaning on his knees, the book of the Gospels being touched, paid solemn obedience to Aimericus the Archbishop. In the same manner in the year 1334 the designated Abbot of the monastery of the Lord Hilarus of Galeata, Alexander, asked to be confirmed: as these and other things are related in Rubeus.

[3] We give the Acts of S. Hilarus from three illustrious MS. codices: of these the first we ourselves at Rome had described from a Vatican MS. marked number 3044: another there Ferdinand Ughello gave us, Acts from the MSS. which seem to have been sent to him from the monastery of Galeata itself: the last John Gamansius described for us, from a MS. of the monastery of Bödeken. The latter two run in a somewhat more polished style: the first preserves the native simplicity. This therefore we chiefly follow; we use the others to supply its defects or illustrate certain obscure places. The author at the end asserts himself a monk there, and that what he saw and perceived with his ears he has faithfully written, God being witness. the author Paul his disciple, Rubeus names Paul the disciple of S. Hilarus, and inserted an illustrious compendium of his history, afterwards reprinted with the Lives of the Saints of Surius. Peter de Natalibus contracted some

epitome from the said Acts, as also Silvanus Razzius in volume 1 on the Etruscan saints, and Philip Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this XV of May, on which he died: memory in the Calendars on the 15th on which day in an ancient MS. Martyrology of the Queen of Sweden, under the name of Usuard, is celebrated the memory of S. Hilarius the monk and hermit. And again Ferrarius treats of the same in the General Catalogue, the monuments of the Church of Galeata and the Vallombrosan Breviary being cited: with which as to the day Rubeus agrees. Others refer S. Hilarus to the XIII day of May, following Peter de Natalibus, and on May 13; in whom it is read that he died on the III Ides of May, and these are Greven, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Canisius, Surius, and others. But Peter followed the History of the Life, evidently corrupted by the transcribers, in that place where Paul had written that after death foretold by an Angel on the third day, on the very Ides of May the Saint departed hence.

[4] S. Hilarus was born in the year 476, as he who in the Consulship of Dinamius and Sifidius, in the year 488, the time of his life and death, was in the twelfth year of his age. But since he reached the eighty-second year of his age, it follows that he fell asleep in the Lord in the year 558; and to the church formerly built by himself began to gather disciples about the year of Christ 497, inasmuch as he was then in the 21st year of his age. What rule, moreover, he then prescribed for himself, is not established. Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, Bucelinus inscribed him in the Benedictine calendars; but Luke d'Achery and John Mabillon omitted him in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of S. Benedict: and rightly. and the monastic order. For S. Hilarus was some years older than S. Benedict, and embraced the monastic life before that one began his Order. Certainly if you consider those few heads of the Rule observed and handed down by him, of which the Life makes mention; you will doubt nothing, that this was singular and proper to himself and his disciples, neither established by writing but by usage: to which accordingly the Benedictine Rule most easily succeeded, when it began to be spread through Italy, which scarcely seems to have been done before the restoration of the Cassinese monastery under S. Petronax.

[5] The discipline afterwards collapsed, as are all human things; so that in a certain Chronicle of the Faentine city, The Translation to the Camaldolese monastery, dug out into light about the beginning of the present century, and handed down in the vulgar tongue by Gregory Zuccolo, it is found noted, Razzius being witness, that from the year 1163 to 1212 the Abbot of S. Hilarus, like some secular Prince, several times led into Romagna troops of horse and foot, himself a horseman, making incursions now into the fields of the Faentines, now for these into the lands of their adversaries. At last into Commendam, as they call it, the Abbey fell, and under that servitude groaned for sixty years, until about the year 1488, when it was handed over to the Camaldolese. This change was followed by a renovation of the place: which that it might proceed more happily, subsidies of money being collected from everywhere, S. Hilarus himself effected it, brought forth into light and by a solemn translation carried to the chief altar, through Peter Delfinus, the General of the Camaldolese Order. Concerning this matter among his letters printed at Venice in the year 1524 by the art and zeal of Bernardinus Benalius, there is extant in order the ninety-sixth, to Francis Piccolomini Cardinal of Siena, by his uncle Pius II created Archdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, then Supreme Pontiff in the year 1503 Pius III: which the Most Illustrious and most Erudite Antonius Magliabechius transcribed for us with his own hand, a benefit so much the more to be esteemed, because the copies are found most rare, so that scarcely after a long inquiry one was found for Alexander VII asking it. described by Peter Delfinus the General of the Order, But Peter was from the 33rd year of his age, of Christ 1477, General, until the 81st year of his age, of Christ 1525: when most holily he died at Venice, in the monastery of S. Michael of Murano on the XVII of January: but his Life, collected from his letters, may be read in Silvanus Razzius, in another work on the Blessed of the Camaldolese, page 149 and following.

LIFE

By the Author Paul the Disciple of the Saint.

From three old MSS.

Hilarus, Abbot of Galeata, in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 3913

BY PAUL THE DISCIPLE FROM A MS.

CHAPTER I.

The anchorite life of S. Hilarus, the monastery founded and in it Olybrius of Ravenna received with his own.

In the times in which the Roman city was governed by Consuls, by Dynamius and Sifidius, there was a certain little boy, named Hilarus, in the province of ^b Tuscany, and from his infancy fearing God and withdrawing from all evil: By the reading of sacred Scripture, who, while among his parents he secretly used the Christian rule, there came into his hands the epistles of the most blessed Apostle Paul ^c, which day and night he used. Then while these things were being turned in his heart, how he might withdraw from his parents, and be able to come to the ^d worship of God; the divine Spirit instigating, while in the church he had walked to prayer, he heard the lesson of the holy Gospel where the Lord says to the disciples; If anyone wishes to come after me, and does not hate his father and his mother, and the rest together which he possesses, and his own soul, he cannot be my disciple; and he asked a certain old man what this was. Luke 14, 26, The old man answering said to him, Thou, since thou art ^e twelve years old, dost thou constantly desire to scrutinize what this is? and stirred up by the words of the Gospel, To this the boy answered, Father, the Lord speaks in the holy Gospels, Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me. Mark 10, 13 The old man hearing this, ^f that there was no doubt an Angel of God had been present, said to him; Son, according to thy will be it done to thee as thou wilt, and set forth to him all things which ^g it behooved concerning the kingdom of God.

[2] Which heard the boy, filled with great joy, said: Lord Jesus Christ, who art the Leader of chastity, he asks his journey to be directed: the redeemer of sinners, the protector of the innocent, the helper in tribulations, whom the heavens of heavens scarcely contain, who art the unfailing light of all; thee I invoke, thee I beseech, that thou deign to appoint thy holy Angel in my journey, who may direct my ways by thy holy power, that the enemy be not able to remove thy boy, who for the desire of thy ^h name placed in this place, desire to embrace the solitary institution, that I may be able to fulfill the precept of thy word, who livest and reignest, now and ever, and through all ages of ages. Amen. And when the prayer was completed, comforted by an Angel, there appeared to him the Angel of the Lord, and comforting his soul, said: Be comforted, act manfully: for God completes all the desires of thy will: and behold I am given to thee as guardian, that whatsoever thou shalt wish to do, may be prosperous in thy hand. At the same time also, going out from the parts of Tuscany, he placed himself in the parts of Aemilia: where the place of his habitation shown by the Angel in the mountains and in the deserts, as had been his love, he promptly attained.

[3] But that place which had been shown by the Angel was thus disposed. There was a mountain above, and under it the river Bethesse ⁱ running down more or less one mile, he departs into Aemilia where the Lord deigned to grant him so great grace, that within three years on that mountain a church was built; and builds himself a hermitage: and under that same church constructing for himself a cave, there day and night he rendered praises. And when in that same place in the ^k wilderness he had been placed, trusting in the grace of God, the Lord commanded him there to furnish daily sustenance by the labor of his own hands.

[4] But when he came to the twentieth year of his age, he began carefully to observe the rule of a monastery. ^l There was a certain man named Olybrius, most powerful, and of noble race, who dwelling in the city of Ravenna was seized by a demon: and the demon began to cry out from his mouth and say, unless I see the boy Hilarus, I will not go out of this man. where betrayed by the demon besetting Olybrius, Then weeping his household or his wife asked him saying: Of what form is the man, or where can we find him? To whom the demon said: In the mountains and in a deserted place he dwells: and that mountain is set over the river Betens, on which mountain he has placed for himself a church, in which place indeed day and night he perseveres in the praises of God: he is about twenty-two years old, but of short stature, and a scant beard grows for him, and the Angels of God accompany him. Which heard the whole household alike, together with their Lord and Lady, hastened to come to that same place, him coming to him, where the holy man used prayers, on the second day, at the ninth hour. But while they had approached to within a stone's throw of that same place, the demon, fearing and trembling and groaning, began with most rapid course to hasten to the man of God. And when he had come before the ^m gates of the church, the Angel of the Lord did not permit him to enter, until the servant of God fulfilled the rule of his prayer: but the evening song being completed, he so absolved him that he might enter.

[5] But having entered, all that night he continued in vigils and prayer: but the demon cried saying, he frees him, absolve me, most blessed Hilarus, and torment me not with burning scourges. To this B. Hilarus thus answered: Be dumb, accursed and most unclean spirit; go out of him. And true health being received, B. Hilarus began to give thanks to God, saying: I give thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who biddest me thy servant put to flight the most unclean spirit: but thou, good and blessed Father, if by thy command thou hast put to flight this unclean spirit, bid the eyes of his heart to be opened, that he may know thee alone to be his creator, and leave the vain and deaf idols, and adore no other besides thee, Lord. And when the prayer was finished, Olybrius rolled himself at his feet, together with his wife and two sons, and causes him with his wife, sons and household to be baptized, asking him to institute in them the firm rule of Christianity. Which B. Hilarus seeing, filled with great joy, began to think how he might gather them to the grace of baptism. Whence it came to pass that, the Lord prospering, there passed by thence a certain Presbyter, named Julianus, who was walking from Arezzo ⁿ to the city of Ravenna. Who when he had come there, caused him ^o to be renewed by baptism: and the whole household being collected together with their Lord, more or less than ninety souls, all were baptized. But on the third day the wife of Olybrius, Eustasia by name, migrated to the Lord.

[6] But why many words? It is not necessary to relate their work and faith: for Olybrius, together with his sons [p] Jobius and Eunomius, who being made a monk with his sons, persevered in the rule of the monastery

until his passing; but the household and all the money, which they had been able to have, they carried with them from the city of Ravenna, and delivered into his hands. And because not far from that monastery, [q] more or less about a throw of two arrows, although in the deserts, was the possession of that same Olybrius; there he sent his servants to work. Whence it came to pass, the grace of the Lord helping, that those places, which in the wilds had been deserted, within the space of ten years, he bestows his estates on him, were all cultivated: and so great means there the Lord deigned on daily days to bestow, that to the poor [r] and widows they gave. And when through him the Lord did many virtues (for he both restored sight to the blind, and cured every disease in the name of Christ) [s] [there came together thither very many, both to obtain health of soul and of body: and he who with integrity of faith, concerning whatsoever necessity had asked, rejoicing and cheerful returned with the desired choice obtained. This Rule also B. Hilarus instituted for the Brethren, that from morning until the ninth hour they should occupy themselves with the works of the earth, on private days, fasting: but refection being made from the ninth hour, they should most studiously serve God with the evening praises until night, and he keeps the Rule instituted by him. but from midnight until morning they should stand in the praises of God;] until an Angel appeared to him [t] when he had established the true rule in that place.

ANNOTATA.

p. There Junius for Jobius. Rubeus also calls him Junius.

q. The Vatican MS., "Passio," surely by a scribal error: the Ughello MS., an estate.

r. The Bödeken MS., And so great abundance the Lord conferred on that place, that to the poor and pilgrims and all the inhabitants food and clothing were abundantly there ministered.

s. These taken from the Ughello and Bödeken MSS.: for the Vatican here is miserably truncated, and sets forth the first rule thus, That souls from the ninth hour to the evening praises were most prudently increased by the zeal of reading, but at midnight likewise it did not cease from the praises of God.

t. The Bödeken adds, Who daily comforted him, and announced what was to be done by the Brethren.

CHAPTER II.

The fury of King Theodoric against the Saint repressed: his virtues in government and his death.

[7] In that ^a time King Theodoric coming, that he might build for himself under that mountain over the river Betens a ^b palace: and when he had imposed many ^c burdens on the neighboring peoples in building the palace, certain of the peoples, pestiferous men, announced to him saying; ^d a certain man, named Hilarus, To be seized by command of King Theodoric, having gathered to himself a multitude of his familiars, attempts to obey no command of thy Excellence; but neither in the public works, nor in any of thy commands does he listen: ^e and, if thou biddest, let us appoint a crowd from the soldiers, which may bring him together with his familiars apprehended to thy Clemency. Which heard King Theodoric was very angry, and an apparition being sent with ^f forty soldiers, he ordered him to be set before his sight. the soldiers sent for it he turns aside by praying; And the soldiers walking, when they had wished to enter into his little possession, to plunder his household, when they were descending to that valley, B. Hilarus seeing them descend thither, entering into prayer, thus prostrating himself to the Lord said: Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned prosperously to appoint thy holy Angel for me to this place, who also showed me this dwelling, to thee I commit thy cause, who art the judge of all: be present in this hour, that the enemy may not rejoice, who wishes to sadden thy servants. And the prayer being made, immediately straying onto another road, for two days they wandered in the mountains.

[8] This heard King Theodoric, filled with great wrath, with most rapid course mounted his horse: and the King himself forbidden to advance, and in that fury when he had wished to hasten to the man of God, before he entered to the ^g Court of that monastery, more or less about one throw of a stone, the horse groaned within itself and would not go. But the King struck it; whence there is no doubt, that the horse trembled at the Angelic countenance. ^h And when he often struck his horse, with most rapid fury the horse cast him to that same place; whence neither the King nor the horse could move. King Theodoric therefore seeing this sign, understood, he has him a suppliant. that he had not destined to do a good work: and he sent to him two soldiers, asking him to come, and absolve him. Which heard the servant of God, filled with great joy, at his command went gladly. And when the King saw him coming to him, he ran and rolled himself at his feet, saying: I have sinned, thinking against thee an evil counsel, through the exhortation of evil men; but I ask thee to pray for me to the Lord Almighty, that he may forgive me this sin which I thought. Then blessed Hilarus took his hand, and raised him and led him to his cave, and the prayer being made they made charity. For from that same day the King much venerated that place, but also gave there many monies or possessions, far more than he had had.

But why is it many words for us to relate his venerable life? Among his own he keeps exact discipline, and how in the rule of the monastery day and night he untiringly exercised himself [how studious in hospitality, how cautious and solicitous in the service of God, how discreet in the operation of labors, how provident he was in correction]. Every ordering of the church, gathered in that monastery, was disposed under his governance; and so he commanded each one, that they should wash one another's feet in turn, or perform whatever cause of service one for another. But he himself, not as it were exercising the power of a father of a family, but truly as one of the congregation of the Brethren, exercised a like burden. But none of the congregation without his command worked anything: all exercising humility toward one another, there was no dissension among them. and a sober reckoning of food. But at the time when anyone of the Brethren had been sent to gather fruits, he had such a Rule set forth, that until he presented it to him to be blessed, ⁱ he should not thence touch it tasting: but he who had been sent, when he brought it collected to the midst, with the basket veiled they were uneaten: the blessing being made all alike ate, putting in their hand under the veil, but no one looked who took how much to eat.

[9] the demon detected under the appearance of a grape-cluster But one of the Brethren, Glycerius ^k by name, when he passed through the vineyard at the time when the grape ought to come to ripeness, and it had not yet happened; saw one beautiful grape among the rest and found ripe: and there was suddenly in him a desire of tasting it: but while he made his ^l Course according to custom, recollecting himself he went to B. Hilarus, saying: It came into my mind to taste a grape, because it was beautiful and new in the time of the first-fruits. Looking up therefore B. Hilarus said: Go, and fulfill the desire of thy flesh; for God will prosper, and will not forsake thee. Glycerius therefore went to take the grape, he drags into the churches, and from that grape was made a huge serpent. But he ran quickly and announced to him this deed. Which heard the servant of God hastened more quickly to the serpent, speaking to no one. And when he had come and seen the serpent standing on its tail, no one ^m doubting he knew that it was an unclean spirit: and he cast himself and seized it, and began to drag it after himself. But when he sent it into the church while he fulfilled the Course of the day, and compels it to confess its frauds. the demon began to cry from the mouth of the serpent and say: O most ardent fire, why dost thou burn me through Hilarus! O fury insanable for me! Let me find rest for the space of even one hour. Why does the power of my kingdom suffer violence through thee? What I think against thee I find not: I will go therefore and hither henceforth I will not return. To this B. Hilarus said to the demon: I command thee, accursed one, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou tell me if thou didst put the desire of tasting the grape into him. To whom the demon answered, If I had been able to bring about that he should thence taste, I would have removed him from thy service. Then B. Hilarus the prayer being made commanded the serpent to burst, and the serpent burst, and was reduced to dust, so that there went out of it a smoke blacker than pitch: but all seeing it plunged itself into the deserted places, [that it might no more tempt anyone of the Brethren in such concupiscence.

[10] Innumerable and perhaps incredible things could be said of this most holy Father: but because to doubting minds it is not easily suggested to believe what seems to them impossible]: He commands all things to be conferred in common: these things which we have seen, and from his mouth have heard we announce to you, that the concord of the Brethren

instituted by him, and the constancy of faith, how far it profits.

[11] But the days of his life being fulfilled, that is, eighty-two years [p], the Angel of the Lord [q] appeared to him on the fourth Ides of May, saying: Be comforted and act manfully, comforting thy congregation and the multitude gathered to thee, and in the 82nd year of his age taught by an Angel the day of his death, because after three days I will come to thee, taking thee from this world. Hearing this B. Hilarus, filled with great joy, gathering the multitude of the Brethren said: Dearest sons, be constant: keep the things which are commanded you: let no one fall into the snare of the devil. What more? through the whole day he ceased not to speak, admonishing each one of them. But on another day he went not far from the church, about a hundred [r] stades, and ordered a little place to be prepared for him, not made wonderfully: but he did as it pleased his will. After these things, moreover, he did nothing else, except that in that same place day and night he sang praises to the Lord. But in the morning [s] on the third day, which was the day of the Ides of May, as if having drowsed from sleep, he migrated from the world. Whose body indeed with great veneration laid up with spices we buried. he dies on May 15. I indeed [t] the least of all the Brethren these things, which I have seen and heard, God being witness, have written, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom God lives and reigns through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

p. Rubeus adds, when he had sent Olybrius of Ravenna before to heaven, his life holily spent and most famous by many miracles wrought. Hence Surius made the title, The Life of SS. Hilarus and Olybrius Confessors of Ravenna.

q. The Bödeken MS., On the third of the Ides of May.

r. The Bödeken MS. omits to define the space. The Ughello MS., About a hundred paces.

s. The Ughello MS. simply, on the third day, the rest being omitted. The Bödeken and Vatican MSS., on the third of the Ides of May, which since they are to be disjoined, according to what preceded, I added the parenthesis; and so also understanding the words to be disjoined Rubeus in the second edition of the enlarged work dedicated to Sixtus V in the year 1580, and completed at Venice in the year 1603, put, On the Ides of May: while in the former, of the year 1571, which Surius followed, he had written, on the third of the Ides of May.

t. The name of Paul the writer Rubeus ought to have found in the title of his MS.

ON THE TRANSLATION OF S. HILARUS

The Epistle of Peter Delfinus the Camaldolese General to Francis Piccolomini Cardinal of Siena, Protector of the Order.

Hilarus, Abbot of Galeata, in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 3915

[12] Since thou rejoicest, most worshipful Lord, in the successes of Religion, I will relate to thy Amplitude, what during these days happened in a certain Monastery of our Order. The monastery being translated from Commendataries to the Camaldolese, The Abbey of Saint Hilarus, situated in the valley of Galeata, and distant about a thousand paces from the little Church town of Civitella, for sixty years was subject to Commendataries. Laboring in that servitude, and desolate as in a hostile devastation, so that the not ignoble roof of the temple fell down, and the whole house as if burned by fire heaped up ruins; at last the Orient from on high shone forth, and the Lord remembered His mercy. For freed first about seven years ago from the hand of strange sons, and restored to the Order, this it has at last most lately been enriched with as a gift.

[13] On the thirteenth day of the past month, when for a long time there had persevered among the inhabitants of that region an opinion, in the year 1495 on April 13 the body is dug up again. and the fame had grown, that there lay in the temple of that Abbey the body of the most Blessed Hilarus, Abbot and Confessor, the Abbot of that place himself with three others set his hands to seek out the relics of this Saint. And what was held for a miracle, in the space of two or three hours they completed a work, which otherwise they could scarcely have done in ten in one day. At last much earth being dug out and removed, they found a great stone upon another stone, both of marble, both most heavy. The stones being then lifted and removed, immediately appeared a leaden box, in which these letters were incised. HERE IS THE BODY OF THE MOST BLESSED HILARUS THE CONFESSOR. The box being opened they found the head and bones, partly entire, partly broken. But beside the box was an earthen vessel, full of dust. Immediately the deed beginning to be made common through the neighboring fields, towns, cities, from everywhere an incredible multitude of men and women began to flow together. I being summoned by several both messengers and letters of the Magistrate of the town of Galeata, whom they call the Antiani: and asked by them, that I should hasten thither with speed, both to honor the most sacred Relics, and to consult what needed to be done concerning their custody, I satisfied those asking. Yet our forerunner was John the Hermit, whom I appointed thither immediately at the first message with a companion.

[14] Not long after, when I was required by other letters upon others, the Alps ^a being surmounted I betook myself thither with several. The General Delfinus going to Galeata, It appeared from the meeting of the townsmen and the Magistrate and the Praetor that our coming was to all most desired and most expected. We stayed there for four days. The Lord's day ^b coming, asked by them, that I should celebrate the solemnities of the Masses in that same temple, and show the body of the most blessed Confessor to those coming, as they had ordered to be divulged to many for several days before through all that region as about to be on that very day, he reposits it under the altar solemnly, I fulfilled their vows. Wonderful indeed is God in His Saints. We saw the neighboring hills on the left side of the valley (since the Abbey is situated in a more eminent and conspicuous place) covered with an innumerable concourse of men, so that it was believed that more than fifteen thousand had assembled on that day. Offerings also not slight, both of monies and of candles and torches, were made by those coming, a frequent and famous supplication being first performed through the ridge of the mountain. At last under the altar of the chief tribunal we reposited the Relics, where they had been found, with the box; four citizens being set over the building work, to cover the temple, and especially to adorn the place, where the blessed bones might more decently be preserved. Already the material has begun to be conveyed, and the work let out to an Architect. It is hoped on this occasion that there will easily be a reformation of the destitute and uninhabited place.

[15] and so a beginning is given to restoring the temple, Under the Altar of God I believe the blessed Confessor cried out, that from its ruins he might at last be dug out, and from long oblivion and solitude be restored to memory and fame. Certainly the desolation of so famous a monastery pricked my heart, which is the head of that whole valley, and has a jurisdiction exceedingly great. It excited me to weeping, the collapsed roof of a most beautiful temple, fabricated with skillful ingenuity and much expense. I thought with myself often, what benefices commended to Courtiers, laboring with negligence, produce, saying within me: Assuredly if it were permitted to the Supreme Pontiffs to behold these things with their own eyes, never would they suffer, I think, that the sheep should be committed to wolves to be torn. Yet these things are done daily to the greatest disgrace of divine worship, and the ruin and destruction of the sacred Orders, of those living under the regular life.

[30] But that I may return thither, whence I digressed, on the fourth day after we had gone thither, setting out thence, on the fifth at last to Fonte-bono we returned safe, and the General returned to Camaldoli, writes to the Cardinal. although a perpetual rain accompanied us, and poured down from above most vehemently and rushing. Nor yet on that account did the journey repent us, undertaken chiefly in honor of God and His Confessor; especially leaving behind among that people a desire for us and our companions, who desire as much as possible, that that place be governed by our hands and those of ours living regularly. But of this, if it shall be needful, more at length another time. Let it now be enough, that to signify the finding of the sacred body, divinely revealed in this most recent time, I have perhaps used more words than was fitting for one writing to a most occupied Lord. This is done by a confidence greater than my merits in thy humanity toward me, of which among the rest, whom I have experienced as Prelates and great men, thou easily holdest the chief place. Farewell, my most worshipful Lord. From Fonte-bono, on the XX day of May 1496. ^d

ANNOTATA.