ON SAINT CANIO AFRICAN BISHOP CONFESSOR,
AT ACERENTIA IN LUCANIA.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his body and church, and his suspected Acts, and the compendia taken from them.
Canio, African Bishop and Martyr, at Atella and Acerentia in Italy (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
Acerentia a city of Basilicata, formerly of Lucania, most ancient, and adorned with an Archiepiscopal See, which today is called Cirenza, has a Cathedral church dedicated to St. Canio, He is venerated at Acerentia, Patron on account of the body translated thither, on account of the body from the ruins of the Atellan city, between Capua and Naples once situated, translated by the Bishop of the city of Acerentia Leo the second of this name, about the year of the Lord DCCXCIX, as the Acts relate. These from an old parchment book, written in Lombard letters, as in the Acerentian Church they are read, Ferdinand Ughelli published in tome VII of Sacred Italy, comprising the Episcopates of Lucania and Apulia; where he in the very beginning weaving a long preface about the metropolis of that Province, thus describes the aforesaid Cathedral church. It exceedingly illustrious by three aisles is distinguished, and in the middle is divided in the manner of a cross, having on the sides two corners, a place also subterranean, a crypt or sub-confession they call it, in which three altars: in the middle of which they say lies the body of the Divine tutelary Canio, there laid up. The festal day of his translation is celebrated on the XI of March, but of his festivity on the XXV of May: on which day, what is wonderful to say, from a stone little chest a liquor precious is wont to emanate, sweet and to all infirmities salutary… There is preserved in a precious silver statue the notable Relic of the same, and emanating a liquor. for the refuge and devotion of the peoples. Thus far Ughelli, with whom agrees Nicolaus Palma, Archdeacon and Vicar General of Acerentia, under the seal of his Office and his own hand's subscription in the year MDCLXXXII sent to us; adding, that besides that statue there is had also a silver arm, in which nevertheless is enclosed some part of the body: two altars of the same there: nor content with the two only which Ughelli said feasts annually to be celebrated the Acerentians, an Office also to make of St. Canio under the rite of Semidouble on the XXV day of any month whatsoever. Then indeed besides the major altar, in which are kept the two already mentioned reliquaries of S. Canio, likewise a silver statue of S. Oliverius the Martyr, in Ughelli Livarius, of whom to be treated on the XXVII of November, and an arm of S. Anthony the Abbot enclosed in silver. That there are two altars of the same S. Canio there; one in the crypt under the choir, containing the holy Saint's body; the other in the church at the right side of the sacristy, with a most beautiful statue of him and a marble chest; whose cover, most firmly soldered with it, has the use of a table for the sacrifice of the Mass, within containing the Pastoral staff of S. Canio, about which separately something in the Appendix after the Acts to be said.
[2] The very Acts, which Ughelli published, we received under the attestation of public faith signed in this manner: We the undersigned, Archdeacon, Cantor, Canons, Presbyters, The Acts received from there from a Ms. Chapter and Clergy of the Metropolitan Church of the city of Acerentia, have made faith, that the above-said Life,
the martyrdom, deeds, and miracles of the glorious Martyr Divine Canio the Bishop, whose body rests under the major altar of the said Metropolitan Church, founded under the title of the same St. Canio, has been extracted … from its original ancient codex, in parchment manuscript in Lombard letters, containing the life, death and deeds, not only of that Saint, but of many Saints, which is preserved in the public archive of the said Metropolitan Church: and in faith of this we have caused this testimonial, signed with our own hands, and fortified with a particular seal, to be made, in the same city of Acerentia, on the VI day of the month of January MDCX. I Joseph Neritonus Doctor of both Laws, Archdeacon of Acerentia, affirm as above. Abbot Lelius Potentia Cantor. Then eight Canons, nine Presbyters or others, and finally a public Notary all and each confirms, with the seal affixed, which more exactly we do not judge should be given. But that writing to us at Naples transmitted our Antonius Beatillus, and because the Prologue was lacking, this afterwards with the same Acts, but here and there imperfect, he sent down.
[3] The same Acts we had before described from an old Trier codex of the monastery of St. Maximinus, but contracted: which likewise, but more abbreviated, from the Utrecht Ms. of St. Salvator we have. Some Life also in Italian published Paulus Regius, Various compendia in various authors. in the first tome on the Neapolitan Saints, but not without faults: because he asserts Canio to have been Bishop of Carthage, and thence by an Angel carried to Acerentia, whereas the Acts name Atella: which last error Ferrari transcribed in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. The same Ferrari also mentions St. Canio in the other general Catalogue, as also Greven in the Auctarium of Usuard published in the year MDXV and MDXXI. We have finally some Ms. compendium of the Life, divided into Lessons wont to be recited at Matins, with various Hymns and this Collect Deus, qui Beatum Canionem, who Blessed Canio, Your Pontiff and Martyr, with the virtue of constancy in his passion strengthened, and who deigned to confer on him so great a grace, that those laboring with the quinsy disease by his prayers were cured; propitiously grant, that we who invoke Your clemency through his merits, from all languors of mind and body may be freed. in no way better than the Acts, which are given as suspect, Through the Lord, etc. We, all those compendia being omitted, give only the fount of all, the Acerentian Acts, and indeed as suspect, and of no great faith, except so far as they treat of the translation of the body. For whatever the Saint is said either to have done or to have endured in life, after the course of so many centuries (for the Acts were written in the ninth century at least) could not be had except from uncertain and popular tradition: but the style, in which they are written, exuberant in orations and other rhetorical ornaments, makes one believe, that the Author from his own genius invented many circumstances; and perhaps had nothing at all certain about the things done by the Saint, or the torments tolerated in Africa.
[4] while they ascribe the Saint to the 3rd century, They prefer the second year of Diocletian and Maximian, that is the year of Christ CCLXXXVI in which the things were done; and therefore conformably all are referred to the form of the old Martyrdoms under the Roman Emperors. Meanwhile that S. Canio's soul as he died, carried up to heaven he saw, and the body into the city he brought, is said Saint Elvidius, Helfidius, or Elpidius. But since dead and buried is said Saint Canio near Atella; no one here more conveniently could be understood, than the Atellan Bishop of this name, of whom we treated on the preceding day. But this one in the time of Arcadius and Honorius, in the fifth century probably already begun, first obtained that See; and so could not have seen the persecutions of the Christians under the Gentiles; but could have reached the time of the Vandal persecution in Africa, under which very many Bishops were driven from their Sees on account of the constancy of the faith by the Arian Kings; Quodvultdeus seems also to be the Carthaginian Bishop, who on account of S. Elvideus named in them who with a very great throng of Clerics was put on ships broken: whom the Lord by the compassion of His goodness, by a prosperous voyage deigned to bring through to a city of Campania, as writes the contemporary witness Victor of Vita. By the same or a similar occasion and manner, to the same place driven S. Castrensis with his fellows judged our Bollandus at the day XI of February: and the Acts he gave from several Mss. collated among themselves, by an Author as it seems contemporary written: where in number 8, while the holy Confessors into a ship rotted the ministers put, with bitter sarcasm mocking them, the order and ministry of each they arrange: and On the inside, they say, of the other part let the place hold Marcus and Augustinus, Canio and Vindemius likewise with them will recline.
[5] This so certain notice of one Canio, from Africa into Campania brought under the Vandals within a decaying ship; it would better be deferred to the 5th century. and the age of Elpidius, in the Acts of this Canio of whom here we treat in whatever way named; collated with the uncertainty and small faith of the Acts themselves, vehemently incline us, that we judge, that only one Elpidius and one Canio are to be held for Saints, and that they pertain to the fifth century and the times of the Vandals. So that, whoever wishes to learn the true Acts of S. Canio Patron of Acerentia, from the Acts of S. Castrensis ought to draw them, with whom he had common prison, and exile, and the place of refuge and first burial in Campania. But then nothing will remain, except that the Acts, written and preserved at Acerentia, altogether be believed to be fabulous, and unworthy of this work. Lest however to anyone too rigid to give the whole Acts themselves, such as I received them; under this caution, that the sentence of the Apostle precede them, which in a similar matter pleased Gelasius the Pope, Test all things, that which is good hold fast: for the greater convenience of the Reader however I will take to myself the liberty, of recalling certain violent and importunate transpositions of words, to the order of an easier construction.
SUSPECT ACTS
From several Mss. Codices and Ughelli.
Canio, African Bishop and Martyr, at Atella and Acerentia in Italy (S.)
BHL Number: 1541
FROM THE MSS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] After God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word sent from the citadel of the Father, through the womb of Mary ever-virgin incarnate, deigned to become man, and put on our mortality, that He might make us partakers of His immortality; the empire of death also destroyed and the prince of the world conquered, with the host of the Saints and the triumph of glory, He returned to the seat of the Father, according to that, When I shall be exalted from the earth I will draw all things to Myself; as if He plainly says, All things, that is, My members: for He drew all things, who of His elect at the bars of hell left none. As heaven is adorned with stars, Jo. 12, 32 For the sacraments of the Catholic faith, by most evident mysteries and illustrious heralds, He declared. For just as His divinity must be confessed incomprehensible, because it is above all things and contains all things; as is that, Heaven is My seat, but the earth the footstool of My feet; so incomprehensibly all things by ordaining He disposes, and by disposing adorns, and by adorning beatifies, and by beatifying glorifies. Is. 66, 1 For heaven is adorned with coruscating stars, which as by diverse light are distinguished, so by the offices of diverse courses are disposed. Therefore the supernal kingdom, so the church with Saints, to human senses invisible (for the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor into the heart of man ascended what God has prepared for those who love Him) consists of an innumerable soldiery of Saints: nor otherwise the Kingdom of heaven, which is the present Church (Truth itself being witness, which says, The Kingdom of God is within you) so by the mystery of disposition is adorned with the heraldings of innumerable Saints, and even to the crown of Martyrdom by faithful testimonies, that to the supernal contemplation of holy souls we may adhere, according to the excellent Doctor who says, But our conversation is in heaven. whose bodies and merits are honored; Luke 17, 21, Phil. 3, 20 For the bodies of the Saints are therefore exhibited to us to be venerated by magnificent miracles, that while we doubt not their spirits to enjoy eternal beatitude, more attentively to become their fellow-citizens, the snares of the world being trodden down, we may gape: and because they are members of Christ, by Christ's faithful are to be reverently cherished and revered. Which not weighing a certain author of nefarious heresy Vigilantius, asserts, that neither the bodies of the Saints are to be venerated, nor their festivities more solemnly to be glorified. For what insane head or overturned brain, testifies a head or body to be venerated? There shall be, says the Apostle, two in flesh one: This sacrament is great, in Christ I say and the Church. The spirits finally of the Saints to eternity devoted, when they are transferred from glory into glory, and when the corruptible shall have put on incorruption, then the member will be perfect in the body, and two in flesh one. As John the Apostle, We know, he says, that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, and we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3, 2
[2] Of which number of Saints the holy Confessor and Martyr of Christ, Canio most famous, especially S. Canio, with the chiefest praises is to be honored; who while our Lord Jesus Christ in this mortal body he faithfully believed, and imitating above all things perfectly loved, of His glory made a partaker and of our salvation a helper and worker, daily also us by his preachings to his eternity as consorts calls, by the testimony of Martyrdom prays for us, with miracles coruscates, a vigilant defender us against the snares of the impious enemies visible and invisible protects, with paternal piety a most pious Patron cherishing and protecting. Therefore his works of virtues, inasmuch as a Patron. his confession with constancy, the palm of Martyrdom so much the more and more perfectly is to be attended, and more devoutly to be embraced, the more excellently him in eternal dignity, from this in which we are corruptible by detriment exalted, of the Angels a consort, of the Prophets a fellow, and of the Martyrs a co-heir, by his continual prodigies we believe and confess; that as effective recruits in the stadium, following the leading guide, the course consummated the prize of the supernal vocation we may be able to attain, and of eternal beatitude the crown and glory to obtain may merit.
CHAPTER I.
S. Canio before the Carthaginian Prefect professes the faith of Christ.
[3] In the second year of the most impious Princes Diocletian and Maximiana surnamed Herculius, Persecution being stirred up, when one ruled the Eastern provinces, the other the Western; and tyrannical savagery, for devastating the Churches of Christ, and afflicting and punishing the Christians, by raging was promoted; by the madness of one conspiracy they destined through all the provinces edicts of this tenor.b Since the benefits of the Gods in war fighting we received, and by their aid trophies from the conquered enemies we took; by the vow of this matter, by which all of you may be made safe, all we have judged should be admonished, that all men of both sexes, whether exalted with Royal fasces, or Clerics of the churches and of the Monksc societies, renouncing their own religions, of the gods, that is, of Apollo, Diana and Minerva,d to the sacrifices gird themselves. But if any of men our commands or empires, on account of the imperial edict, or so great deities shall have believed must be refused, of sacrilege
guilty by the penalty of our judgment let him be struck. And while these precepts, by those obedient to the most impious profanity, carried through the world, and had come into the city of Julianae of the region of Africa (where B. Canio the Bishop, in divine praises conspicuous and to sacred dogmas always intent, was staying) the laws of the edict, by Pigratiusf the Prefect brought, the opinion of an insane rumor everywhere resounded, and through three days the voice of the herald rattled through the clouds, and such a cry of this tenor was diffused in the ears, that all, in whatever place established, should comply with the precepts of the Emperors, to the sacrifices to Apollo, Diana and Minerva to be celebrated.
[4] Canio encourages his own. While these things to B. Canio the Pontiff had come, unmoved the watchful shepherd over the custody of the ransomed sheep, the faithful dispenser of the word of God and provident distributor, in the business of talents an inventive acquirer, ceaselessly the souls of believers exhorted, and confirmed them in God and in Jesus Christ His son, in this manner: O brothers and sons, accepted into the kingdom of the eternal King, upward * your necks suspend, and contemplate God who in the heavens reigns: for He Himself is the King of Kings and Lord of those who rule, Jesus Christ our Lord, who for us through a Virgin deigned to be incarnate, and through the gibbet of the cross to all the just and to those believing in Him unlocked the heavenly kingdoms, to which you through me His servant He willed to call, and to the blessed Angels consorts to be made. For those Kings are very small, the way of truth and justice, which is Christ, being ignorant. He is the truth, the way, the light and the way: but the gods of those are mute idols, consisting of wood and stone and metal, with diabolical death-bringing poisons infected, and those worshipping them lead down to the tartar of hell; where light never is, where their worm dies not, and the fire is not extinguished, where weeping and gnashing of teeth. These things possess the worshippers of demons in eternal damnation, for the sake of salvation to be endured for that: with their prince the devil. He indeed is to be worshipped and confessed, who is the true God of the true God, light of light, creator and savior of the whole human race, and perennial bestower of grace, and the prince of the world who is the devil, the treader-down. For these are not to be feared, who can kill only the body: but rather He is to be feared, who can both the soul and the body send into gehenna; and for whom if anyone shall have lost his soul, in eternal life he will find it. For the same before kings and nations with invincible faith is to be confessed, who in the holy Gospel promised saying, Whoever shall have confessed Me before men, I also will confess him before My Father who is in heaven. Matt. 10, 32
[5] wherefore brought to the Carthaginian Prefect, These and similar things B. Canio the Bishop attesting, strengthened the minds of believers, and to the palm of martyrdom and the heavenly glory to attain most ardently desiring: for now to the heavenly cultivation salutary heraldings were eminent; now the word of Christ, proven in darkness, was preached upon the housetops; now the lamp of God, from under the bushel brought out and placed upon the candlestick, shone to all who in the house, that is in the Church of God, faithfully gathered were; now to the sacrilegious sacrifices of the demons the number of the peoples was being diminished as fast as possible, but the faith and grace of Christ was being diffused. Meanwhile to Pigratius, Prefect of the city of Carthage, proud, it flew, that in the city of his Prefecture Juliana, in no way availed the commands of the Emperors and the sacrifices of the Gods (Canio the Bishop execrating them, and the peoples from their libation averting) but the name of Christ, is sought inserted into the hearts of almost all, by divulged confession to be adored or worshipped truly was professed. Which hearing the Prefect Pigratius, hastily directed a very large band, that wherever the author of this kind of cultivation Canio the Bishop should be found, to his presence without any delay's tarrying he should be led. When this had been said the insane cohort of youths set out, to the walls of the aforesaid city hastening tending: which with great rushing impetus having entered, they began with furious complaints Canio the Bishop to seek, Canio the Bishop to proclaim.
[6] But he hearing this, well trusting in the divine arms, himself to them undaunted offers, himself a worshipper of Christ, and a doctor of the faith, and a protector of the Christians protests and a leader, and to the cults of idols a fit adversary. Him therefore the sacrilegious battle-line with profane hands seized touching, and is brought. back whence they had come with continuous course they seek again the citadel of Carthage, and the prefecture of Pigratius. But when to the impious one by the clients it was announced, that Canio the Bishop, of the Christian religion the professor and defamer and of the cult of the gods the contumacious resister, before the gate by the soldiers seized was standing; with deceitful exultation he rejoices, with insane laughter he curls, and at length against the oracle of truth with shameful insanity about to fight he comes forth. For when with many fires of madness he boiled, and with the nefarious impieties of furies was vexed, he ordered for himself profanaticg tribunals to be prepared; truly profanatic; and the chair of pestilence under which is always borne the counsel of the impious and the way of sinners which leads to the lower regions, and the just renouncing it to perpetual glory.
[7] He sitting on the tribunal there was brought in B. Canio; but entering, the secret place of his heart he fortified, these things instantly singing, God do not be silent of my praise, At the tribunal standing Canio, because the mouth of the sinner and the deceitful over me is opened: but You my God look, and forsake me not, nor depart from me: attend to my help, Lord the strength of my salvation. The Prefect at length Pigratius with these speeches assails him: What religion to you, or what vows of sacrifice, or to whom these by daily cults do you pay? S. Canio, filled with the Holy Spirit, constant said: I of the Christian religion devoted and unchangeable assert myself a worshipper, and of the lie of your idols a most proven contemner. The Prefect also follows saying: I exhort you to consult the hoary old age of yours, that according to the decrees of the most invincible Princes you approach and sacrifice to the gods. S. Canio answered, I ceaselessly sacrifice and pay the vows of praise to God the Father omnipotent, he explodes the vanity of the idols, and to Jesus Christ His son, and to the Holy Spirit: for it is most just to sacrifice to the Creator not to the creature, nor to adore those idols which you worship, deaf and mute, not seeing, with the fallacy of the devil infected, their worshippers making what they are, to whom that poetic verse must be applied:
Wooden one, you ask wood, you seem to cry to the deaf, From the mute you seek answers ---
For David the Prophet of these says: The images of the nations silver and gold, the works of the hands of men: they have a mouth, and shall not speak; they have eyes, and shall not see; they have ears, and shall not hear; they have nostrils, and shall not smell; they have hands, and shall not handle; they have feet, and shall not walk; they shall not cry in their throat. Like to them let them be who make them, and all who trust in them.
[8] and he contemns the threats of death proposed. Hearing these things the Prefect, said: Are you ignorant, that the most invincible Princes, our Lords, have ordered such not denying the faith to be gravely punished? S. Canio answered: I have neither denied, nor do I deny myself to be a servant of Christ, and of His holy Deity a most true confessor: but to me to live is Christ, and to die gain. But when the iniquitous one heard so great in B. Canio the constancy of invincible faith, anxious everywhere he raged, and knew not to what arguments of cunning by contradicting he could turn himself; and again repeating the senselessness of pusillanimity, he said: Cease as fast as possible from this perfidy of obstinacy which you preach, and to our gods and goddesses sacrifice. But Saint Canio, fortified with the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit opposed, saying: Already me a sacrificer of the great God and savior Jesus Christ you have heard, and that I to Him a sacrifice constantly offer and vows render, to whom is proper divinity and eternity, through the infinite ages of ages.
ANNOTATIONS.
* perhaps hearts?
CHAPTER II.
S. Canio tried with various torments, remains unconquered in all.
9] Therefore when he sees himself conquered the impious one, his wrath [Beaten with leaded scourges,the Prefect discloses, by iniquitous furies goaded: (If however he can rightly be called Prefect, who by no honor of virtues is preferred) Against the Saint savage gnashing: fury supplies arms to incapacity. Stripping him, he ordered him to be beaten with leaded scourges. But when he was being beaten, looking up to heaven he said: To You, Lord, I have lifted my soul, in You I have hoped, let me not be confounded forever. The herald vociferates saying, Consent to the Prefect and sacrifice to the Gods. There follows the voice of the Prefect with empty adulations of blandishments: Sacrifice, man, and consult your venerable old age, and I will make you a Priest of the temples. B. Canio answered, Woe to you, most wretched one, and his sides scorched with lamps, to whom rather it was necessary, that from the diabolical snares of errors divested, the Lord God and savior Jesus Christ you should acknowledge: for I marvel at the sacrilege of your impurity, that the true way of salvation spurning, shrines of no sense adoring you worship. But Pigratius, kindled with a more fervent rage of madness, ordered fiery lamps to be applied to his sides, and most vehemently him to be urged to sacrifice to the gods. But the holy combatant, made in the agony of the glorious contest, warlike to the Prefect said: O wretch, who are ignorant that your torments exhibit me to God and my Lord Jesus Christ a most acceptable victim, but to you and to those favoring you of eternal damnation the destruction threaten.
[10] by a rescript of the Emperor he is left to the discretion of the Prefect. After this he orders him to be thrust into prison, and
the doors of the prison to be signed over to Caesarius: where praying without ceasing, the divine help in the battle of so great a contest he demanded, saying: God be not far from me, God look to my help: lest at some time say my enemy, I have prevailed against him. The Prefect at length these writings of suggestion to the impious Augusti directs. Most pious Princes, succor your laws, and Canio the Bishop of the Christians to your sights present. But the Emperors wrote back this license to the Prefect Pigratius, that if Canio the Bishop persevered in this confession, he should have license with whatever penalty he wished to mulct him. And when he had received this precept, he sent him into the lower prison. after the darkness of the prison endured, But the blessed faith the more in the inner darkness it was thought to be concealed, so much the more eminent in the glorious light of divinity it exulted, as it is written: Gold the furnace proves, and the just the trial of tribulation. Shut up therefore in darkness B. Canio, prayed saying: God of the heavens, who an unspeakable judgment hast decreed, through whom all the ages stand, whom all the powers of those above and below dread, look upon me and have mercy on me, that the war of this contest by an immaculate path I may be able to perfect, and the palm with Your Saints victorious to grasp, and the unfading crown of glory.
[11] But after the third day, by a public confession wishing him to be heard, he orders him to himself by the herald's voice to be presented. And when he had been led, Jacinthus the Commentator,a proclaimed, again he is set at the tribunal Canio of the Christians the Bishop, who in prison had been consigned, behold now to be examined stands by. Pigratius said: The whole assembly of the senate exhorts Canio that from this he desist obstinacy of perfidy, and according to the statutes of the most invincible Princes approach and sacrifice to the gods. Jacinthus the Commentator to him said: O man, have you understood what for you by counseling the pious Prefecture has said. B. Canio answered: I have remained and remain of the true faith in Jesus Christ a confessor, just as He commanded promising to the faithful, and he is flogged, Who shall have persevered unto the end he shall be saved. The Prefect struck with fury, pursues: Canio the sacrilegious, who testifies himself in this unto the end to persevere in confession, we order to be stripped and with bludgeonsb beaten. Matt. 10, 22 And when he was being beaten almost one hour, he answered him not any word. After this he cried out to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, to help me hasten: and when my spirit shall have failed, God, forsake me not: let be present to me the power of Your virtue, through which the three boys from the fire of the burning furnace You brought out.
[12] As he was speaking these things, Pigratius the oracle of his profanity to those favoring him said: Tell him, that at least now he come to his senses, and consult his old age. The holy one therefore Canio to these things nothing answered, hung up on the rack, but in the instancy of his prayer he persisted. But when the impious Prefect saw, that him neither by bland speeches could be soothed, nor by the hope of promises bent, nor by threats and torments moved; to a more austere again he turned himself madness; and S. Canio on the rack to be hung up, and with beltsc vehemently to be beaten he orders. But so much him the divine power protected, and grievously beaten, that neither the torture of breaking raised on the rack he felt, nor by the injury of the scourges at all was vexed: for now in him there was not the affection of carnal passibility nor its instancy, and by the wonderful grace of the Holy Spirit in not feeling he was strengthened. But when the executioners with such ferocious tortures saw him nothing pain or feel, more keenly they were goaded his members with miserable blows to mangle, so that much gore from his body flowing ran down.
[13] But the multitude of those standing around, having their bowels endowed with piety, wept most bitterly over the Martyr of Christ: by his constancy he converts 160 of the bystanders: the Holy Spirit also preventing illuminated their breasts, and seeing in the combatant of God the most blessed constancy of confession by the hope of perennial grace strengthened, they began God and our Lord Jesus Christ to know, and with open voices His glory to confess. But there were who believed men one hundred sixty: and they cried to B. Canio and said: Servant of God the most high, pray for us to the Lord your God, that we also may be able to be His servants. At their voices with exceeding fury moved the Prefect, and with the torches of wrath inflamed, said: By magic, as I see, arts we are conquered, and the deities of our gods by Canio's illusions are overturned. O soldiers, he said, of the most invincible Princes obedient to the commands, and to the sacrifices of the gods and goddesses fit, gird yourselves with powerful arms; and how many have vociferated this name even to slaughter with the sword destroy. who all slain with the sword, But when they were being slain, and the bloody sword of the soldiers on the holy gore raged, their blessed voices struck the stars more attentively: the cry goes to heaven, and the gift of the Holy Spirit from heaven was multiplied in the hearts of the faithful: one faith, and one voice consonant of those for Christ dying there was; Servant of God the most high, pray for us to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may be made His servants, and of His glory with you forever consorts. Blessed therefore Canio placed in torments prayed: Lord Jesus Christ, God of God, deign to receive into eternal beatitude Your servants and martyrs, for Your name's confession dying, they are baptized in their own blood, whom You have made through the Holy Spirit to know the glory of Your name. For although the sacred dogmas of the reading of the Gospels testify, Unless one shall be born again of water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven; no one however doubts them to be born again of the Holy Spirit from infidelity to faith, and from the filth of sins into the grace of remission by the font of their own sacred blood washed, the consortium of Angels and all the Saints and the crown of perennial glory to merit. Jo. 3, 5.
[14] Pigratius at length the Prefect, gnashing and grinding his teeth, ordered him to be taken down from the rack, The Saint demonstrates that temporal things are to be postponed to eternal, and on the eculeus to be hung up, and with rods to be beaten and tortured. And while he was being tortured Pigratius says to him: O man, assent to me and obey the commands of the most invincible Princes: cease from this magic obstinacy, and sacrifice to our gods and goddesses immortal, and with the manifold splendor of gold and silver and precious gems for certain you will be enriched. But the blessed Martyr and athlete of Christ smiling said: True faith holds, and the sacred dogmas of Scripture testify, that the things which are seen, are temporal and perishable of themselves; but those which are of God our Jesus Christ, are invisible and immutable; no eye finally has seen, nor ear heard, nor into the heart of man have ascended what God has prepared for those who love Him. But these are above all things to be loved, because they are not to be changed: for whatever with bodily eyes we see and with the affection of the flesh love, it is established to be mutable and to be reduced to nothing. For whether they are parents, they die; whether friends, they change; whether kinsmen, they do not remain: but God alone, the finder of the world and founder of the heavens is, whose majesty eternal, whose glory not mutable, whom unless one above gold and silver and gems and all the honor of the world shall have loved, he will not see, nor His glory will he merit. And there was a voicee from heaven saying, Canio servant of God, be well constant: because in Campania will be to you rest and life through the infinite ages of ages.
[15] Then Pigratius the Prefect ordered S. Canio to be taken down from the eculeus, and says to him: Consent to me and sacrifice to the gods, that it may be well with you: Finally drenched in his wounds with melted lead and resin, because by the safety of the Gods and of the most pious Princes, either you will sacrifice or by various penalties I will kill you. B. Canio said: O wretch and most cruel of the perfidious, do what you are about to do: because if you considered, what you yourself were or your Princes were, you would humble yourselves to God and to Jesus Christ His son. Then the Prefect filled with fury, ordered him under the herald's voice, again with leaded scourges to be beaten, crying and saying: The Gods and goddesses do not blaspheme. After this he ordered lead and resin to be melted, and over the torn wounds to be poured. The holy one also Canio, unmoved in the confession of Christ persisting, said: I pass through fire and water, that I may be led into refreshment. Looking up therefore to heaven he said: I give You thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, because Your victim I have merited to be made, and me in the number of Your faithful servants to aggregate He has deigned. But his members were beaten vehemently, and miserably mangled by the flogging of blows. But one of the executioners, of cruel impiety the minister, to those standing around threatening said: Of this one who preaches the temples must be destroyed, who our gods calls demons, all alike of the gods and our lords let us avenge the injuries.
[16] But when the sacrilegious executioners ceased his wounds with fervent lead and resin profanely to burn, and ever constant to himself, the Prefect with these words addresses him: Canio, what do you say, or where do you see your miserable body? Assent to me and sacrifice: for you cannot the precepts of the Emperors and the assembly of all the gods convince. The blessed soldier of God to these things nothing answered. The Prefect said: Do you answer nothing? B. Canio said: To nothing nothing it behooves to answer: but you, and your idols, and your gods and lords, are nothing: for they themselves of no sense [are], nor of true virtue nor of salvation anything have, just as also all who trust in them: but God the most high is to be believed, who created all things, he praises God. who through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ the true way of salvation has opened to us, and the kingdoms of heaven has bestowed on the faithful believing in Him: to Him I immolate, to Him grateful libations I pay, to Him I sacrifice the sacrifice of praise and justice, and I render to the Most High my vows which my lips have distinguished, and which my mouth has spoken in my tribulation. Lifting moreover his eyes to heaven he said: Lord Jesus Christ, who dwellest in eternal glory and reignest in the ages of ages deign to break my chains, that to You with Your Saints in Your glory I may render the victim and sacrifice of Your praise.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
S. Canio translated by an Angel into Campania, there shines with various miracles.
[17] Then Pigratius, seeing that from his torments in him the constancy of faith was increased, and that inexpugnable and unconquered he persisted in the confession of Christ, orders to be brought to him by Jacintus the Commentariensis the deeds of Canio the Bishop: To be punished with the head, and when in his presence they had been read, he gave the sentence against him, writing thus: Canio, resisting and to the gods libations not offering, or the precepts of the Emperors contemning, with the sword to be beheaded we order. Therefore is delivered to iniquitous men the holy man: and when he was being led to be beheaded, the ministers of iniquity reproached, mocking and saying to him: What has this your temerity profited you? Why could not your Christ, in whom you hope, snatch you from these monstrous torments? But that God might glorify Himself in His Saint, a horrible tempest having arisen, willing to show His power on the vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction, and to render His indignation according to the hardness of heart and the impenitent heart treasuring up for themselves wrath, in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God; it happened; while with such sports of madness they derided the Blessed Canio, suddenly there were made thunders and rains, hails, and coruscations, and earthquakes. But the soldiers of the Prefect seeing, from the supernal powers so terrible a wrath of fury burst forth; some, half-alive fleeing, here and there hid dispersed; others, falling on their face, miserably expired. But the Angel of God seized the blessed servant of God Canio the Priest of Christ, and snatched him from the midst of his enemies;a and that still, like gold by the fire of passion made provable, a much brighter light might be effected on the way of eternal salvation, he is carried away by the Angel, like a dove of Christ applauding, into Atellab a city of Campania he brought.
[18] But on the next day, when the fame of the deed through the Carthaginian city rattled, on all sides a clamor rises up, on all sides the roar of the tumultuating peoples, on all sides the complaints of complaints against Pigratius burst forth. Which he hearing, with great confusion of the Prefect. with the exceeding horror of confusion stupefied, by anxious straits everywhere was constrained, and with spread hand smote his forehead, saying: What shall I say to this people or to the Emperors? For the Christians most instantly required of their Christianity the author; the widows and orphans required their patron and Bishop, saying: Render to us the lawgiver of our salvation, render the most pious patron and savior of souls. For Pigratius terrified with fear, when he saw himself encompassed with exceeding straits, the impetus of the strepent peoples rushing upon him, what he should do or whither he should turn himself knew not, and these things at length falsely began to bring forth from his mouth; The Angel, saying, snatched him into heaven, and by some it is reported, that for a price he redeemed himself.
[19] Besides B. Canio coming before the amphitheater its suburb, He cures the quinsy, having near it a vault of work consisting of marble; behold a certain one with the quinsyd endowed disease, so that even to the extremity of life now he came, was offered to him, and by those offering suppliantly was asked the Saint, that by his merits and prayers soundness he might be able to receive. But the holy Canio looking up to heaven prayed, Lord Jesus Christ, King of the supernal virtues, who through Your Angel to this city brought me, guard my entrance, and over this infirm one, through this saving sign of the Cross, of Your power show the virtue, that the bystanders may know that You are blessed in the ages and true God of true God, who created and govern all things. Then the sick man to his pristine health was restored, and those who stood around seeing the miracle done, believed in God, and glorified Jesus Christ His son. Nor less also, endowed with a singular grace against it, that eternal benefits to posterity, God attributing it, in the memory of his entrance might be given, again he prayed saying: Grant Lord Jesus Christ, that if anyone depressed with the quinsy disease that arch shall have passed through, in the virtue of Your name unharmed let him departf from this pain. And there was to him a voice from heaven saying: Canio, good servant, all that you have asked you have received. In the same place for the merits indeed of the prayers and the testimony of holy faith and of his miracle, the benefits of curations from this sickness remain even to the present day; so that whoever suffers this infirmity, and to the placeg itself shall come trusting in God, by the prayers of B. Canio the Martyr and Confessor, safe shall depart.
[20] Then the man of God, ever well trusting in the divine arms, intrepid the city of Atella enters, and began to preach the Kingdom of God, he works miracles of every kind. and to evangelize that Jesus Christ is the true God, and that He gives certain salvation to all. There was diffused also everywhere the virtue and grace of God, in testimony of the glory of the name of Christ: the deaf were repaired in hearing, the lame from troublesome weakness were raised, and various infirmities of bodies through the invocation of the name of Christ were corrected: demons also from many were put to flight from their bodies; but also the dead brought, in the virtue of true salvation and life, were raised: lepers were cleansed, paralytics were cured, and notable things of charisms and virtues in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ were worked: of which a few to memory to recall in a compendious style we have judged, that of the illustrious Martyr and Confessor the glorious trophies may be magnified in virtues, against the efforts of the ancient enemy and how greatly in the heavens he shines crowned with the perennial exultation of glory may be shown. But many hearing the words of life, and discerning the works of miracles by the beatific Bishop done, by the Holy Spirit compunct, unanimously praised God, saying; Lord Jesus Christ, creator of all things, blessed be Your name in the ages: and there believed in the Lord souls about sixty-seven.
[21] One possessed nine years by a demon, But there was a certain man, having an unclean spirit. He hearing the opinion of B. Canio, and that he freed all from their infirmities, and demons also from the obsessed bodies put to flight by sacred exorcisms, asked earnestly that to the blessed Pontiff he might be led. And when he had been brought where the blessed Bishop the word of salvation was preaching to the multitude of believers, and hearing from his mouth so great miracles of truth to go forth, he began at his feet to roll himself and to ask indulgence for his sins. B. Canio says to him, What do you wish that I do for you? But he with tears cried out, saying: I ask you, cause to be put to flight from me the unclean spirit, because behold nine years there are, from which I have been given to it in its power that me it may torture. by the same one, lamenting in vain, And when B. Canio the Bishop had heard, that he was bound by an unclean spirit, he began to weep, and to pour forth tears, and to pray, saying: Unclean spirit, to you I say in the name of Jesus Christ, depart from this boy, whom the Lord fashioned: He Himself contradicts you, devil, that you depart from him, nor any longer His creature mangling presume to assail. And behold the devil appeared naked, and his whole body full of wounds, and thus vociferated saying: I adjure you, servant of God, by Him who bound us with our father, when He suffered for the salvation of the world, that he not be taken from me from my hands: because behold already nine years there are, from which him into my power I received. Then B. Canio says to him: To you I say, unclean spirit, go into the depth of the abyss, and there relegated be unto the consummation of the world, that you may not be able to hurt anyone.
[22] and seeking that an injury was done to him, he frees him: At these things the devil vociferated, and dire and grim bellowings of voice into the air emitted; saying, O violence, which from this decrepit old man I suffer! O impious plunderer of an acquired possession! Did not suffice you two hundredg thousand Africans, which you took from me? besides also my hope from me utterly you cut off, and to your God through baptism offering you sanctified them. And again to groans turned he repeated saying, O violence! O most wicked old age! now no longer do I bear your machinations, and besides from the long-lasting receptacles of human bodies torn away, in the uninhabitable hiding-places of the abyss I am plunged. Perish that day of the years from the number, nor by the sun be illumined from light, but in malediction be obscured forever, in which you, of all my virtue and dominion the perfidious adversary, to be born were permitted: for the river of your tears like a torrent struck my dwelling weak, and my hope having slipped is overthrown. The multitude therefore of those standing around, hearing the vehement bellowing of the departing malign spirit, and seeing the miracle of virtue which through His servant the power of the Lord was working, astonished and stupefied praised and confessed the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: for also the boy himself from the devil's vexation and snares was snatched, and the rest of the multitude of believers to the number of one hundred were baptized by the blessed Pontiff, confessing and saying, Blessed are You, Lord Jesus Christ, God omnipotent; and blessed be the name of the majesty of Your glory: for You are God one and true, whom this wretched world is ignorant of: but we believe and know, cleansed by the wave of sacred baptism, since the way of eternal salvation through Your blessed servant Canio we have merited to know.
[23] he restores sight to a blind widow: Then S. Canio, exulting with special joy in the Lord Jesus, said: I give You thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who have gathered this number of faithful souls, that it may praise Your name in Your holy court, and order Your testament upon the sacrifices of Your praise. Multiplied let it grow, and growing let it be multiplied Your holy Church, in the glory of Your kingdom, in the ages of ages. Besides when the notable opinion of very great virtue in the hand of the Saints by most famous fame was divulged; a certain widow by name Eumenia, of her husband and twin children bereft, for a long time weeping, her eyes lost blind made had been: who hearing of the miracles of the holy Bishop, came to him with tears, and at his feet with immense grief and sighs rolled, prayed saying: I adjure you by God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that you make me see the light of heaven: because five years it is, from the death of my husband and my sons, that in darkness I live and the light of heaven to see I cannot. But blessed Canio, nothing hesitating, but on the defense of faith relying, lifting his eyes to heaven, said: The Lord Jesus Christ, who opened the eyes of the blind Tobiash the Prophet, may He Himself illumine you. And the sign of the Cross being made on her eyes, he baptizes her whole household. in the same hour they were opened; and she saw the light, and began to cry, saying: Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ, God eternal, who illumined me through His servant Canio the Bishop: and at once she was baptized with her household of both sexes to the number of ten, giving praises and thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The death, burial, translation of S. Canio to Acerentia.
[24] The executioners hearing what was done in the same city in miracles, S. Canio sought for death. more wonderfully done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, gnashed their teeth, and sought to kill him. But when it had been announced to the blessed Pontiff, that by the executioners to be killed he was sought; it happened, while instantly they sought him, they found him curing one paralytic in the name of Jesus. They said therefore among themselves, Is not this the very old man, of whom it was said to us that our gods and goddesses he derides, and preaches Him who is called Christ? and they sought how him they might be able to seize. But the holy Canio imitated Christ, when the Jews took stones to cast at Him, he takes flight, but He hid Himself and went out of the temple, and passing through the midst of them went, and began to flee before them, according to that Gospel saying, When they shall have persecuted you in one city flee into another. Matt. 10, 23 But a certain man said to them, Whom do you seek? And one of the executioners answered, That old man who deludes our Gods. He says to them: Behold before you he proceeds. But they hearing these things, began quickly to follow him: for he was seen from afar. But the holy Canio, when he looked behind his back, saw behind him the executioners instantly running. But knowing that they followed him, because already it had been told to him that by them he was sought; he entered the house of a certain old woman, in which was a monument of an old threatening ruin, where the blessed Pontiff hid himself. But to the woman standing before the doors of her house approaching the executioners, said: Woman, have you not seen a man tonsured,a a decrepit old man, here fleeing? and he eludes his pursuers, first under an old monument, Who said to them, I saw him with swift step pass by. But they the begun journey on an empty track pursued. And entering to him the woman said: Behold the executioners who pursued you have passed by: but do not delay to go forth, lest perchance returning they find you here, and likewise we shall be burned with fire.
[25] But blessed Canio having gone out of the monument, came to a certain bramble, which place the beatific burial after this consecrated. From heaven indeed the divine Power effected, that a spider all around the bramble a web of wonderful art with skill wove.b But when the ministers of iniquity running here and there, then under a bramble and the webs of spiders hiding. and by exceeding sloth of running fatigued, came to the place where the Saint of God lay hidden, by the divine power hedged round; these things within themselves with insane murmur they revolved, saying, Let us see lest perchance under this bramble he has hidden himself. But looking around, they saw the place encompassed with the web of a spider, and said: If that man here had entered, this web of the spider without doubt he would have torn. By this divine nod blinded and made doubtful, frustrated of their sacrilegious vow, back whence they had come they returned.
[26] Blessed therefore the servant of God Canio the Bishop, while of this mortal dwelling he was wearied of the horror, and for the glory of the supernal benediction he panted, came into that place wherec to the entrance of two basilicas even at present the entrance lies open, Coming to the two basilicas where the bodies of Saints, that is, of Felix and Vincentius Confessors and Priests with most famous affection were laid up, and also of two Confessors Felix and Felix, with the felicitous grace of peace ever buried, in the basilica surnamed Argentaria. And there in the very journey turning aside, with knees fixed, hands spread, head inclined, for a long time the Lord Jesus Christ he besought, that from this prison of the mortal body his soul He would snatch, and in the glory of heavenly beatitude to place would deign: that there might be fulfilled that of the Prophet, In the desert and in the trackless place, so in the holy place I appeared to You, that I might see Your virtue and Your glory. Ps. 62, 3 Praying therefore he said: he dies as he had asked. I Canio Your servant from this place will not depart, until You hear my groaning, and free me from the filth of this world, and in the sight of Your majesty my immaculate spirit You command to be presented. You I bless, You I glorify, who made me to come to this day, that I may receive a part in the number of the Holy Martyrs Your faithful. But now, because already it is time that to You I come, desiring to see You, Lord Jesus Christ, into Your hands I commend my spirit. These things said, his holy spirit delivering, in peace he fell asleep in the Lord.
[27] And while for many days the body of the Saint lay unharmed, no one of the Christians knowing; by the nod of God it was done, that a watchful guardian bird, over the holy body flying about, [it] protected, The citizens admonished by angelic song at the body bury it: lest by a deadly contact it could be defiled. Coming therefore certain of the faithful near the place, they heard voices like thousands of thousands saying: Behold a just man, a true worshipper of God, who has followed the way of the Lord, and has a part with Him forever. Knowing at length the Christians of the body of the Saint through the virtue of God, giving thanks to God, with worthy funeral obsequies and hymn-singing praises, they buried him in the cemetery of SS. Felix and Vincentius on the eighth of the Kalends of June. Blessed also Elvidius after some time, the persecutiond now lulled which had raged against the Christian peoples, about the sixth hour of the night, saw in a vision an Angel of God, him into the city then S. Elvidius translates, bearing a soul like a dove, who said to him: That soul which you see is of our fellow-servant Canio the Martyr: for he has found a place with the omnipotent God of perpetual refreshment. When the holy Elvidiuse knew the death of the most blessed Martyr and Confessor, he came to the place, where by the faithful he had been buried, together with the people of God: which insisting and to perfection bringing it, he built a church and a chamberf above his body, with all the splendor of various kinds adorned, as the testimony of the title written on the front of that chamber declares.
[28] After very many courses finally of years, when the city had begun to decay, In the year 799 about to go to Jerusalem Leo Bishop of Acerentia and from the divine dogmas deviating, and so great a virtue's honor irreverently cherishing, of the same was deprived; and ungrateful of the salvation conferred on it, estranged from the Savior remained. For in the year of the Lord's Incarnation seven hundred ninety-ninth, a notable man of the See of Acerentia Leog the Pontiff, the Holy Spirit suggesting to Jerusalem to set out, and the venerable ever Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ oracle, and His holy Resurrection's sepulchre, and His most glorious Ascension's salutary indication wishing to see, that a perennial patron for the people he might provide and everywhere in all things a protector, from Atella he takes away the body, the aforesaid city Atella sought: and the treasure of the holy body being taken up, like the Gospel merchant, to the eminent See of his Pontificate conveyed it, and built with the industry of a special work a temple: and to this administering very many ornaments, in honor of the most blessed Martyr and Confessor, dedicated the completed Basilica.
[29] But the Bishop himself, when the journey of the said devotion he had undertaken, by God's providence it was done, that he who his faith's indications in the earthly Jerusalem wished to see; in that eternal Jerusalem, and himself dies at Juliana, which is our mother (according to that of the Apostle where it is said, But that which is above Jerusalem, is free, which is our mother) Him who is true peace in His own majesty he merited to see, and with His Saints His glory to possess everlasting. Gal. 4, 26 But he died and was buried in the already mentioned Julianah of the region of Africa, where benefits of divine salvation to believers through his merits by bestowing offers the power of Christ, in miracles of notable virtue. and there he is venerated as Patron. O wonderful clemency of the omnipotent God! O unspeakable piety! O immense dispensation! who so all things by dispensing govern and by governing dispense, that those hoping in You never lack the gift of Your salvation: who when B. Canio, the aforesaid city of Juliana's Pontiff, to the confession of Your name in the contest of Martyrdom You strengthened, and through Your Angel to the salvation of very many translated, as has been said; by an unspeakable mystery of virtue made, that he who his body into his own translated Pontificate, for his people providing the perennial aid of salvation; he himself into the city of his Pontificate, by glorious miracles of eminent virtue a standard-bearer, and without end perpetual of salvation a bringer, and ever a pious Patroni should be translated.
ANNOTATIONS.
was made, was made at the very point of time at which S. Canio died.
APPENDIX
On the Staff of S. Canio.
Canio, African Bishop and Martyr, at Atella and Acerentia in Italy (S.)
[30] The staff enclosed under the altar, Ferdinand Ughelli, in that place which the preliminary Commentary exhibits, there where… we noted, these things besides has, by us reserved to the end: Near the sacristy is seen a place, where is preserved the image of the same Saint on an altar, compacted of white marble, yet empty. In it is preserved the staff of the Martyr, which through a hole is seen and touched, but sometimes for many months neither appears nor can be touched; which they say, when it happens, the wrath of God near to announce. The same most recently to us confirms the Archdeacon Nicolaus Palma, and calls it a continual Miracle: and more distinctly describing it says, with various wonderful motion, the aforesaid hole two fingers together to the touch put in receives, and is in the right side of the chest: but that it can now be touched and seen, now cannot, thence to happen; because now and then close to the hole it moves itself, now and then drawn back and in the midst of the air suspended remains. Then the same Archdeacon alleges, and transcribed sends to us a Poem of Alfonsus Costa Doctor of Medicine, which I was not grieved to weave in.
31] Here the Staff of Saint Canio is laid up: in years [it is described in the poem of Alfonsus Costa:A thousand and five hundred it does many thousands. Now outside it appears, you touch it: now it is hidden in the chest, And to the hand the touch, which it gave before, it denies. Hither and thither it runs out: it goes away, returns: it remains, clings: The light of this temple it is, and the light of the city it will be. It is rendered untouched and incorruptible. It is wonderful: When the mass of iron to nothing had been reduced. Of the Saint's staff a certain Hero had wavered: [Incredulous of the miracle, and therefore blinded, by believing he recovers his sight:] Lo! At once he becomes blind, and cannot go. To the Saint a suppliant turned he adores, and prays That He restore to him his lights: he believes: he has them. There cannot be written with the pen miracles so great, As flourish: the altar and urn make these credible. Pray for us, Martyr Canio, make this City safe from harms, from famine, from plague, from the dog.* In what present hardships it is straitened, be At hand: lest utterly destroyed, fallen it fall. For the dead pray rest, and for the living health: And Your aid in all things, Holy one, we pray. Whoever you are, hasten to the Saint, and reverently adore; the citizens are stirred to the cult of their Patron. That, possessed of your vow, free from crime you may go. On earth your one Protector He will be: and praying, To heaven the kindly one will make the way as a forerunner. Thrice, four times O happy, Acerentia, worthy this Blessed one To have had: thrice venerate your day. Alfonsus the Physician Costa to you dedicated the verses: Himself, his own he commends: protect, receive, your own.
Annotation* that is, the plague.