Caraunus

ON SAINT CARAUNUS,

MARTYR IN THE DIOCESE OF CHARTRES.

5TH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On his age, the Acts of his life and miracles, his ecclesiastical cult.

St. Caraunus, Martyr, in the diocese of Chartres in Gaul.

BY G. H.

Among the more ancient Apostolic men, who delivered the Christian faith to the peoples of the Gauls, are commonly reckoned SS. Potentianus, Savinianus and Altinus, suffering among the Senones on December XXXI: of whose time of martyrdom Franciscus Bosquetus touches on some things, The time of martyrdom, in the first book of the Histories of the Gallican Church chapter 22. Carnutum moreover or Carnotum, the head city of ancient Gaul and present-day Beauce, whose Bishops were once subject to the Archbishops of Sens, glory that they were illuminated by the said Apostolic men with some ray of the Christian faith, and then drew fuller light from the preaching and conversation of St. Caraunus, crowned with martyrdom in this diocese on this XXVIII of May: on which day these things are read in Usuard: On the same day, of St. Caraunus the Martyr, who at the city of Chartres, his head being cut off, took up martyrdom. Almost the same things are read in Bellinus, Maurolycus, Felicius, Galesinius and others, with the present Roman Martyrology. But it is well to be noted, that although the Acts, of which we shall treat presently, seem to compose the Saint with the most ancient heralds of the faith in Gaul, yet they by no means make that probable. For they say the Saint was slain not for the cause of the faith by Gentile tyrants, but through cupidity of monies by the robbers of the ways: and they speak of him, as one who in the full peace of the Church, his patrimony being sold, desiring a solitary life, set out abroad, and on the way preached to the peoples: all which could have been done, when the Burgundians held the part of the Gauls nearer to Italy, the Franks the more remote, both still Gentiles. Wherefore from the highest grade of antiquity, in which the compiler of the Acts placed St. Caraunus, we bring him down even to after other Martyrs; because we believe his passion did not long precede the conversion of the Nation of the Franks, nor that he himself lived before the fifth century.

[2] But those Acts of his life and martyrdom which we give, perhaps in the beginning alone, The Acts and life from Manuscripts, more licentiously interpolated to make faith of greater antiquity, we have from several Manuscript codices hitherto not printed; namely from our illustrious Legendary, from the Manuscript codex of the Arrouaise monastery of Canons Regular in Artois, from the ancient archives of the Abbey of St. Caraunus near Chartres, also of Canons Regular, which D. Boulart sent to us at Paris, there a Canon Regular at St. Genevieve, afterwards General of the Order: likewise from the Manuscript codex of the monastery of Corneux, given to us by Pierre François Chifflet. Others we described for ourselves among the Cistercians, from the third codex on the Lives of the Saints: others finally we found at Paris, with the Most Illustrious Man Franciscus du Chesne, in an old codex, which once had been of St. Vincent of Metz: but from this we give the Prologue, which commonly in others was wanting. The same Acts, but contracted, we described from codex 863 of the Queen of Sweden, and a double Utrecht codex, namely of the Church of St. Salvator and of the monastery of the Carthusians. There are extant besides printed compendia in Vincent of Beauvais book 10 of the Speculum Historiale chapter 24, and Peter de Natalibus book 5 of the Catalogue chapter 60. But the Miracles, which happened after death, likewise the Miracles, we described at Paris from the Manuscript Legendary of the Discalced Carmelites, and together with the Acts we received from the ancient archives of the Abbey of St. Caraunus: and the same are extant, but contracted, in the mentioned codex of the Queen of Sweden. The author of all is one and the same, who seems to have lived in the same ninth century as Usuard, when under Hilduin Abbot of St. Denis there prevailed the opinion that St. Dionysius the Areopagite had been directed by St. Clement into the Gauls, and made the first Bishop of the Parisians; which is to be more diligently discussed at his Life.

[3] We have the Breviary of Chartres, by the command of Leonorius Destampes Bishop of Chartres in the year MDCXXXIII printed, in which the feast of St. Caraunus the Martyr is placed on this XXVIII of May under a semidouble rite, the cult in the Breviary of Chartres and three Lections in the second Nocturn are recited proper, taken from the Life. Again the said Breviary by the command of Ferdinand de Neufville, Bishop of Chartres, in the year MDCLXI was reprinted, and the feast of St. Caraunus began to be celebrated under a double rite; where the Lections were changed in this tenor, which we subjoin.

[4] From it a compendium of the Life. Caraunus, a Roman by fatherland, was by lineage a Patrician. As a youth he gave attention to the liberal disciplines with great praise of talent. Soon as a young man he was converted to the faith of Christ, and baptized. By his parents, that he should take a wife, he could never be led: but after their death, his faculties, which he had received from them most ample, being bestowed on the poor and especially Christians, he undertook the order of the Diaconate, in which he contained himself for the rest of the time of his life with the utmost humility. Departing from Rome with zeal for propagating the Christian faith, he embarked on a ship: and after a tempest had been calmed by the sign of the Cross, and those who were in the same ship were converted and baptized by the novelty of the miracle, being carried to a certain island of the Tyrrhenian sea, in a short time he won the whole of it to Jesus Christ. Hence, almost all the coast of the Ligurian sea being traversed, he came to Marseilles, then to Lyons: where by doctrine and miracles he led very many to the Christian religion. Lastly, coming to Chartres, and there received by the Christians whom before Potentianus and Altinus had baptized, he confirmed them in the faith by word and example; and converted to Christ a great number of those who had not yet believed, therefore deservedly called the Apostle of the people of Chartres. But when he was setting out for Lutetia of the Parisians with his disciples, behold from the lurking-places of the wood breaks forth a band of assassins: to whom he himself, constantly and intrepidly going to meet them, while his own meanwhile, slipped away into flight, consulted their own safety, by a singular example of fraternal charity, offered his neck to be cut off by the impious sword, in the year of Christ about ninety-eight, on the fifth Kalends of June, Domitian reigning, at the sixth milestone from the city of Chartres, where even now a church is seen, consecrated to the memory of the matter. His body by his disciples, admonished by a heavenly voice, was buried in that place not far from the same city, in which the holy Martyr while still living had forewarned them he wished to be buried, and in which afterwards a church was dedicated in his name.

[5] This is the church of St. Cerauni, near the walls of the city, on account of its antiquity commonly called St. Caraunus the old, in French S. Cheron ancien, The church and monastery. which yields only to the most celebrated church of the Virgin Mother of God among the people of Chartres, founded, as will be said below, in the sixth century of Christ, and committed to the Clergy under a certain Abbot called Aper, and afterwards endowed by King Clothaire II, and at last in the year MCXXXVII delivered to the Canons Regular, who administer the same hitherto: but to the Abbot of these is subject the church of St. Caraunus at the public square, commonly S. Cheron du chemin, where he had been slain. The Calendar prefixed to the old Breviary of the Church of Saint-Malo among the Armoricans notes on this day the name of St. Cannus the Martyr, whom I would scarcely doubt to be St. Caraunus. But below on this very day are given the Acts of St. Germanus Bishop of Paris: and toward the end of book 2 of the miracles number 3, these things are referred: Pilgrimage to St. Caraunus in the 9th century. A boy of twelve years, from his mother's womb contracted in the loins and broken at the knees, and from the beginning of his age deprived of the office of speaking had grown up. Who being carried to the sepulchre of Bl. Caro the Martyr, which is situated near the town

of Chartres; by the intervention of St. Caro his feet, the contraction of the knees persevering, were only at the hinder parts disjoined; then by the help of St. Germanus he was fully healed, as is there indicated. But St. Caro, in others Caraunus, commonly S. Cheron, as we said above. The said miracle happened about the year DCCCXLVII. Whence we gather that pilgrimage to St. Caraunus was then in use, nor do we doubt that it was wont to be made frequently on account of miracles.

ACTS OF THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM

From VII Manuscript codices.

St. Caraunus, Martyr, in the diocese of Chartres in Gaul.

BHL Number: 1565

FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

PROLOGUE.

If the inflated opinion of rumors of the Gentile poets The Lives of the Saints written for the incitement of virtue. strove to display its figments with the comeliness of figures, and to deliver to its codices certain sophisms in the sport of frivolous boasting, and, by the rite of teaching, the memory of letters bringing it forth, to renew them into monuments of crimes: wherefore shall we, worshippers of the Catholic faith, nourished at the breast of holy mother Church, by the tenacity and torpor of mute silence deliver to oblivion the most illustrious trophies of the Saints? since to them succeeded infernal damnation, but to us a happy remuneration of perennial joy is owed by divine help? Whence, rendering immense odes to the divine piety, which wondrously and unceasingly distinguishes ^a its Saints with prodigies, seeking the powers of speaking from God Himself, who is the fount and origin of knowledge, in whom remains the plenitude of the Godhead, the grace of the Holy Spirit cooperating, we strive with glorious style to expound a little of the miracles which the all-powerful Lord deigned to work for the love and honor of His Martyr Caraunus, or how, the Lord granting it, he attained to a glorious martyrdom, and to commend it to the distinction of a codex. For by the intercession of the Saint himself we deem that we earn the freedoms of perpetual felicity, if we bring forth in faithful narration the miracles he wrought. Let us recall therefore to memory the prodigies of the most holy Caraunus, that by his diligent intervention, imitating his footsteps, we may be able to attain to those things which the Lord conferred and promised to him. Wherefore I ask the reader, that, if witty urbanity is not at hand, the things to be narrated be by no means cheapened: because the kingdom of God consists rather in faith than in eloquence.

ANNOTATA.

LIFE.

[2] The most blessed Caraunus therefore, originating from the Roman territory, Instructed in secular learning, was begotten of an illustrious and honored father; since through the grades of office he merited to sit among the Chiefs in the Senate. When therefore he was now growing in the greenness of adolescence, he was delivered to a certain most skilled Grammarian to learn the studies of the liberal arts. So great finally was the abundance of spiritual grace conferred on him, that not only the trivium of knowledge, but also the quadrivium, fully and strongly built a domicile in his heart. For he so put forth shoots in the magnitude of secular learning, that he surpassed the most flourishing talents of many. At length however the omnipotent God more clemently looked upon the fabric of His power, and seasoned the foolish talent of mortal prudence with heavenly salt. converted by the reading of the epistle of St. Paul, For at a certain time it happened that he read an epistle of Bl. Paul the Apostle, where he says: The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Who forthwith stricken by the dart of this divine word, with silent conscience repeated these words: In vain hast thou labored, Caraunus, in worldly knowledge. Kindled therefore with the fervor of this faith, running to a certain holy Man, dwelling for the love of God in the cave of a mountain, he is instructed by a holy Man: he approached; because he most avidly desired with joyful heart to receive the gifts of the divine law. Then having tarried a little time with him, he was most brilliantly instructed in spiritual doctrine, and most fully founded in the faith of Christ: for now he had obtained the laver of sacred Baptism.

[3] Meanwhile the pious addresses of his parents and a crowd of servants urging him, that he should take to himself in marriage the daughter of a certain Senator; he himself, the servant of God, girt about with the vigor of Angelic chastity, spurned their counsels as serpentine contagions. And when he went to the court of the Emperor, he spurns marriage: by the discourses of the Senators he was persuaded that he should not refuse to fulfill the affection of his parents. But he, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, adorned with the flower of chastity, returned them this eulogy: He who joins matrimony, does well: and he who does not join, does better. And when divers wise men approached the man of God, that he should assent to their wishes, he overcame them all altogether with divine arms: for by all his prudence was held wondrous. his parents being dead he becomes an Ecclesiastic; Nay even his father and mother being dead, ^b he delivered himself to the service of the Church: and he who through the brambles of secular knowledge had strayed, turned back his footsteps into the flower-bearing grass of evangelical doctrine: it is said indeed that he had an ascent even to the sixth grade. In that very time the superstition of the Gentiles seemed almost everywhere to be multiplied, save only that ^c Bl. Clement, the successor of Peter the Apostle, directed certain of his disciples into Gaul ^d, Photinus to Lyons, Dionysius to Paris, a fellow-disciple of St. Dionysius, with whom holy Caraunus had been very long instructed. For after his example and doctrine no small crowd of disciples had flowed together: for ineffable sanctity, and innumerable virtues, far and wide had become renowned of him: but lest the prolixity of the discourse breed weariness to the readers, let us begin to narrate a few of many.

[4] At a certain time therefore the holy servant of God Caraunus beheld a certain young man sitting in public, he heals a blind and dumb man by the sign of the Cross, whose eyes blindness had overwhelmed, and a dumb plague had closed the breathing-passages of speech. For whose vast affliction the disciples beseech the man of God, that to the closed voice and eyes he would grant the aid of entire health. Who, compelled by their prayers, delivered over him the little sign of the Cross. O wondrous power of God! the extinguished face is honored with its pristine lamp, and the bonds of the mouth are loosed, and the gifts of distinguishable voice. This health therefore being obtained, he, blessing the Lord and His servant Caraunus, returned sound to his own home. It is worthwhile to insert that, what miracle the Lord wrought through him. For at that time in the Roman cities this custom was held, that on festal days chariots should run in the circuit; the members crushed by a fall, prayers being poured forth, and the charioteer, whose horses impeded the course, should by no means be the assignment of victory. And when a certain charioteer was carried in a chariot with running horses, he incurred a fall from it: and destitute of all solace, his members crushed, he fell to the earth as if dead, so that he could neither move a hand, nor in any way bend back his neck: for the voice of supplication alone had remained on his tongue: who being carried in a little bed to the holy Man, asked the remedy of his lost health. The holy man therefore, moved by these vows, invoking the mercy of the Lord, in the space of one hour, all pain being put to flight, restored him to perfect health. Nor is that to be passed over in silence. When on a certain day the same servant of God was returning from the church to his lodging, he saw a certain man sitting at the crossroads, another blind man by spittle, from whom now for a long time the hope of seeing had been withdrawn. Who forthwith moved with pity, after the example of our Saviour spat into his eyes. For by such medicine, under the name of Christ, the darkness of blindness is driven away, and the obscured face is repaired with perfect light.

[5] For with miracles of this kind the servant of God shone, because he by no means wished to remain in the darkness of sins, he sells his goods and gives to the poor, but with avid mind always loved to follow the sun of justice. For great was the intention in him to sell all things, and to reserve nothing for himself of those things which he could have, but always to bestow solaces on the poor and the churches: for through this distribution he placed his treasure in heaven; ascending the mountain of perfect virtue, the Lord inviting him, who says: If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor; and come, follow me. Let the divine virtue be preached, that the servant of God may grow with praises. The disciples therefore knew that he had a journey disposed for himself, which in every way he contrived should be unknown to them. And when this report of his going had come to the notice of many, a crowd of men and women flowed together to him, and bursting into tears, anxiously said: Either tarry among us, best Father, or admit us as companions of death. But he, astonished, striking the ground with his staff, in mind desired the desert. For in the silence of the night, when high sleep had rushed upon all, he alone fled from that place. And when he walked along the seashore, he found a burden-bearing ship. he flees by night: But the holy Man ascending into it, behold from the Western region a dire hail came forth: but the ship was tossed by the storms of the waves, so that all who were present cried that the perils of near death were at hand. And immediately the man of God, directing his eyes to heaven, he calms the tempest; when he exhibited the little signs of the Cross against the rage of the winds, a great tranquility was suddenly made, so that the heathen, who were present, cried with consonant mouth: What manner of man is this, whose service the tempest of the sea obeys? For truly the insensible element obeyed him, because it executed the will of the Creator of all in all His precepts. For this miracle was an indication of salvation, because, receiving from him the little sign of faith, they confess that they henceforth believe Christ.

[6] Thence by naval conveyance they came to a certain island, where a temple of Venus was held: he is betrayed by a possessed woman: in which when with most foul rite, with a multitude of the people, an annual festivity was being celebrated, behold the daughter of the Priest, gravely seized by a demon, began to wail and cry through the crossroads, that the servant of Christ Caraunus had come, and that she ought to hasten to his meeting. And since she was the daughter of the Priest of the temple, all followed her: and when she came before the presence of the man of God, the demoniac multitude cried out through the mouth of the girl: Why, servant of God, hast thou come to tear us from our ancient and old seats? For the people of this land have not the belief of Christ. But this only we beseech, that when thou shalt expel us from these seats, thou cast us not headlong into the abyss by thy command. he frees her, Forthwith therefore the man of God, seeing the girl cruelly vexed, under the name of the Trinity freed her, every demon being expelled. Seeing therefore all, who were present held by the deceptions of the demonic insult, hastily flew to the servant of God, asking that from him they might receive the little sign of Christ. Blessed Caraunus therefore opens to them the light of truth, demonstrating the way of perpetual felicity: and them, instructed in the Catholic faith, for almost three days he caused all to be reborn by the laver of baptism: and converts many: and every diabolical superstition being put aside, armed with excellent belief, without delay they destroyed the image of the devil, and in honor of Christ erected the title of a church. Besides, through divers islands of the sea whosoever were disturbed by demonic vexation, more madly cried that the servant of Christ Caraunus had come, and dwelt in a certain island of the sea, and that he ought to be approached with the utmost haste. again he frees various possessed persons: And whosoever

approached, their health being restored by divine virtue, and by the merits of Bl. Caraunus the foul spirits being put to flight, briskly returned to their own homes whole. And when for these signs he was venerated by all the people with excessive affection, he utterly made little of the honor of human adulation, fearing lest the wind of human favor should snatch away what the sincerity of humility was placing in heaven.

[7] Therefore, a few Brethren being taken into his company, and all things being left, he wished to make pilgrimage; not unmindful of that saying to Abraham: Go out from thy land, he lands at Marseilles: and from thy kindred, and go into the land which I shall show thee; or of that thundering sentence of the Lord, He who shall not have left all things which he has, to take up his cross, and follow me, cannot be perfect. Gen. 12. 1 At length with prosperous course he was driven to Marseilles, going out of the sea. Having tarried there a little, he recalled many from the worship of idols, and consolidated them exceedingly in the faith of Christ. Thence he came to illuminate the parts of the province of Lyons. Where, as has been said, he beheld the people held by so great madness, that, the name of Christianity being abandoned, which is absurd to say, though reborn by the font of baptism, in the country of Lyons. they adored idols deaf and dumb, which lack both intellectual natures and senses, but are the works of the hands of men. Seeing therefore the man of God the people serving the empty cult of this idolatry, kindled with the heat of faith, he began to preach, that they should remove themselves from this nefarious rite, and ought to worship the living God, who reigns in the heavens. For his immense sanctity, he overthrows the shrine of the idols, and perfect faith, and copious charity, could not keep silent the things it saw negligently done, because a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden: and seizing an axe, the most enormous rock, which by the folly of men was worshipped for God, with his own hand he broke in pieces. Nor did anyone dare to contradict him, because illustrious in sanctity, excellent in discourse, resplendent with the greatest virtues, which through him the Lord did, he was to be honored and feared by all the people of that land. For so great a terror had invaded them, that all, wondering at his constancy, venerated him as an Angel of God, feared him as the Lord. The order of the lection therefore demands to be made manifest, what the Lord deigned to work there through him.

[8] A certain woman finally was there, who swelled with a subcutaneous disease through her bowels. Whom the blessed servant of God beholding, a dropsical woman converted, said to her: Wilt thou become whole shortly? But she answered: O man of God, I have spent all my substance on physicians, for the desire of recovering health, nor could I feel from any anything of salvation. To these things the servant of God Caraunus says: If thou shalt promise to renounce the idols, in which diabolical servitude is exercised, and seduced souls perish; know for certain, that by the divine piety thou wilt be able to obtain the remedy of health. But she with no small faith asserts that she obeys all the precepts, whatsoever the man of God shall command. he heals by touch: Soon indeed, the right hand of St. Caraunus touching, all the wasting of the infirmity withdrew, and health restored in the whole body rejoices: for by such an antidote the body exults in soundness, and the soul in Christ's cruelty endured. Not only moreover did she exult in this gift, but also many there cured of demons magnified the Lord, and His servant Caraunus, by whose merits so great miracles shone. Seeing therefore those who were present so glorious prodigies to shine through the servant of God Caraunus, all vying overthrew the images utterly, and being baptized who had been deceived by demonic fraud, renewed their pristine faith, and the Pagans with the joy of exultation all received the healthful laver. Meanwhile who can explain in words the miracles, and he baptizes many: with which the Lord through His servant Caraunus deigned beautifully to adorn the world? For sooner will the abundance of words fail, than the signs will touch the shore of miracles. Besides, while for a few days he had tarried there, so had the Lord, as has been said, seasoned him with His grace, that all venerated him as an Angel of God: for by his preaching they had been recalled from the worship of idols, and there shone in them in word and work the notable offices of Christianity.

[9] A journey being disposed, the holy man of God Caraunus traversed all places, and with divine aid accompanying him many signs and virtues shone through him; so that the proud pomp of Gallican knowledge, everywhere preaching. the eloquence of his preaching softened with a spiritual shower: and those who were held captive by the cult of diabolical superstition, renouncing the images which they worshipped, strove to precede one another; that by the imposition of the hand of holy and most blessed Caraunus, the wave of baptism being received, they might be cleansed from every blemish of sins, and prayed that he would represent them to the heavenly fatherland. Blessed Caraunus therefore, desiring to multiply the talent committed to him, instructed them fully in the faith of Christ, and the grace of Christ helping, more fully strengthened them. Thence from the part of the province of Lyons the most blessed Caraunus, like the sun with its rays, he comes to Chartres, so glittering with many virtues, came to illuminate the city of Chartres. Where he found a small number of Christians, and an infinite company of Gentiles held by diabolical error. Then at length the man of God was received by a few Christians in the city. Let us therefore bring forth into light, the not small virtue done in a certain man there.

[10] When the most blessed servant of Christ was walking through the crossroads, he saw a man lying in a bed, he heals a paralytic. afflicted with the languor of paralysis, whose life was without the use of the body: and when the man of God had known that he had obtained the fellowship of the holy Church, he approached his couch. Which forthwith making over him the little sign of the Cross, the loosed bonds of the sinews are consolidated to perfect health, and the joining of the members receiving its pristine strength, as if a languid man roused from sleep, most perfectly whole, brisk he rose from his little bed. For this miracle was an indication of salvation, because how many he recalled from the worship of idols, we cannot comprehend the number. And so lest the discourse protracted to length breed loathing to weak hearers, let us turn the point, that the holy dictation may cautiously and chastely touch the offices of his martyrdom.

[11] But it came to pass after so great benefits of God, with which He deigned to honor and adorn the world, About to go to Paris, through His servant Caraunus, the most blessed man of God himself, admonished by his own, was asked that he would go more quickly to Paris. To whom the Saint says: We can indeed, Brethren, we can: but it behooves me to tarry longer in this city. But not having delayed there a long time, as they besought, he began to hasten. For at a distance stands a pleasant mountain from the city, on the eastern side; where when the pleasant hour of eating had befallen him, the Brethren reclining at the refection, St. Caraunus, his knees fixed in the mud, I know not what besought of the Lord. For the Brethren rising from food, his eyes besmeared with a font of tears, looking into heaven, the Saint is raised in body. he designates for himself a burial there: Then the servant of God, beholding the Brethren, says: I pray you, most blessed ones, most dear with heartfelt love, that if God deigns to receive me in this region, I may merit to have this place of burial. These things indeed the Brethren hearing, prostrated at the feet of the Saint, weeping with wailing, watered their cheeks with tears, and from the depths brought forth secret sighs, answering such words: Why, they say, most blessed Father, while thou desirest higher things, dost thou wish to leave us desolate in captivity? But the most blessed Caraunus, trembling in body, himself also weeping: Do not, said he, my Brethren, do not weep: I have not said it that it must so be done; but it shall come to pass, that this place shall be illuminated by the bodies of many Saints.

[12] And the prayer being said, they began to take the journey disposed for them. For at the sixth milestone of stones ^f from the city the sons of Belial met them, suddenly armed, thinking the Saint to carry very much money, casting their battle-line: seized by barbarians, and immediately all his own fleeing through the lurking-places, and the enemies pursuing through the shady places of the woods, St. Caraunus alone remained intrepid. But the most blessed man of God Caraunus, preferring to die rather than that his Brethren should perish, began to cry with louder voice: Do not, O men, do not persecute the innocent: the money which ye seek, behold it is had with me. But they hearing this, all returning to the Saint, asked that he should produce it. Then the man of God showed them not more than one solidus, which he had reserved for himself as provision for the journey. But all the rest which he had had, besides these, he had bestowed on the poor. For he was unwilling to weigh down his soul with a pecuniary weight, the Lord saying: Neither purse, nor scrip is to be carried by you; and, Be not solicitous for the morrow. Then those most unhappy men, thinking they had been mocked by the old man, the sword being unsheathed, his neck being of his own accord given over, cut off the head of St. Caraunus. his head being cut off he dies: Rejoicing therefore the man of God received martyrdom, as an insuperable soldier desires the prize for triumph. But spoiling his body, nothing more of money was found, except what had been presented by himself.

[13] At length, the time of the day being passed, the darkness obscuring all, in the very twilight of the night, those who fleeing lay hid through the shady thickets, and is buried. hear as it were a human voice three times proclaiming: Be comforted, Brethren, be comforted, and do not fear: but return to the place shown to you, and there seek my little body. But they, who lay hid trembling through the shady groves, recognizing indeed the voice of the most holy one, more maturely running together, came to the place where he had asked to be buried himself: and they found his body in the place where before he had bent his knees, lying as if prostrate in prayer, bearing his head on his right arm ^g. This most blessed Caraunus, the truthful asserter of the Lord's faith, and the most praiseworthy gainer of gentile souls by divine preaching, the most powerful expeller of demons from possessed bodies, and the most healthful repairer of all health to the sick lying down, consummated by such a rosy martyrdom, to be crowned among the peoples, to be associated with the choirs of Martyrs, to be aggregated to all the Saints, the assemblies of Angels and Archangels meeting him, bearing back a noble triumph from the ancient enemy, exulting victor flew away to heaven, receiving the perpetual garland. With what lamentation, with what miracles on that day it was done; what companies of Pagans, what crowd of Christians, on account of the miracle of the matter done, had joined together; it is not easy to explain in words. There by the Christians his body was buried, where before it had been designated by him.

[14] How great virtues our Lord and Redeemer deigned to show on that day in honor of His servant, who could narrate? he is famous for miracles. Where to the blind sight is restored, the tongue of the dumb is loosed, to the deaf hearing is opened, to the lame sound walking is given, to many possessed by demons liberation is granted; or if any are vexed by the type of tertian or quartan fever, or by the remaining various languors, having obtained their pristine health they rejoice, unharmed they return home; blessing the name of the Lord in the splendors of the Saints, to whom is equal splendor, equal majesty, associated loftiness, in the ethereal citadels, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

MIRACLES

From III Manuscript Codices.

St. Caraunus, Martyr, in the diocese of Chartres in Gaul.

BHL Number: 1567

FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

[15] By the help of the divine gift, most beloved Brethren, of so great a man, namely the excellent Caraunus, we have indeed in a small skiff sailed across the enormous ocean of miracles, which while he lived he wrought most brilliantly, which conferred both the edification of the mind and the greatest strength of faith, Honor paid to the place of his burial, and splendidly taught the norm of full sanctity. The golden light of miracles is therefore to be brought forth, which after his most glorious passing shone in the world like a most splendid sun, and gladdened the city of Chartres with the joy of vast exultation. Meanwhile, just as the servant of God Caraunus, full of the spirit of prophecy, had foretold, so it came to pass, that no Christian or Religious was found in that place, who did not, where the members of the Saint himself rested, so many signs being seen, desire to have a sepulchre, whence also it worthily stands called the Holy Mount. But when the barbarous nation of the Franks, under the Christian Franks the cult restored, divinely inspired, leaving the deadly disease of infidelity, obtained the name of Christianity, and (as it is wont to be said) a sudden heat overcame a long lukewarmness; and as it was strong of hand, after it knew the way of truth, so vehemently it began to worship God; and Roman lukewarmness being trodden down, the strength of the Franks grew strong from the faith. Seeing therefore a certain illustrious man ^a Sechranus that the name of St. Caraunus would be celebrated, and that the place of his burial was by no means held in veneration, kindled with divine fervor, he ordered a basilica to be made over it. For an Apostolic man, by name ^b Pabolus, resplendent with illustrious sanctity, at that time Bishop, instituted there at once an Abbot and a fair series of Cleronomy, which should serve the burial.

[16] Let therefore the joy of the miracle be brought forth in the ears of the faithful people, which the Lord deigned to show for the love of His servant Caraunus. On a certain occasion, while the venerable Abbot Aper with the Brethren for the sake of prayer had entered the oratory according to custom, the accustomed course being completed, the rest of the Brethren departing, The Abbot doubtful about the burial, the elder remained alone in the basilica with the doors closed. And because another sepulchre stood near the holy members, whence which was that of the most blessed Caraunus was held unknown; he was tormented with tearful sadness. For with desire of finding this illustrious treasure, prostrate in body on the ground, transcending the stars in mind, he alone besought God, to whom all hidden things are open, that He would take the ambiguity from his breast, and demonstrate the notice of the certain matter concerning the body of the holy man. Persevering therefore in this constancy of prayer, and a little bending his knees, with hands expanded, and eyes intent on heaven, an apparition being made he is rendered certain. he beholds standing ready before him a man, with hoary head, comely of form, with angelic countenance, and saying to him: Why, Brother, art thou consumed with grief? The Abbot says: O excellent Father, on account of the burial of the most blessed Caraunus, because which of these twin tombs it is we know not. But he with the staff, which he seemed to hold, designating the tomb, says: Behold here the holy members rest. Forthwith however that most beautiful vision, with these words of gladness, departed from his eyes. Then indeed the Father, filled with vast astonishment and great joy, again wrapped himself in the ashes of the most sacred tomb, giving thanks to God with tears, because, master of his vow, he merited to be heard, in the revelation of this excellent body.

[17] Meanwhile with the utmost haste he discloses to the aforesaid Prelate, namely Pabolus, the miracle of the matter done. Which heard, the Pontiff, as if waking from sleep, gave a most elegant response: If it is so held, Brother, as thou assertest, it behooves us to proclaim a three-day fast, imploring the majesty of the holy and individual Trinity, that by His suffrage, who deigned to show so wondrous things, The body is elevated, we may be able to bear the holy members, which indecently lie, into a more honorable place. The third fast therefore with a vigil being performed, a gathering of all the clergy together with the people being made, the body of the most holy man Caraunus before the horn of the altar they wondrously buried with immense dancing. So great finally on that day from the body of the holy Man flowed a fragrance, and that place was sprinkled with an inestimable sweetness of odor, that you would believe the whole edifice to have been anointed with a universal kind of odoriferous unguent, so that all who were present glorified the Thunderer on high for the sprinkling of so great pleasantness. For it is plain in this wondrous deed, that the holy Man himself, while he enjoyed surviving life, singing with the Apostle, We are the good odor of Christ to God, had the temple of his breast smeared with the aromatics of virtues, and sprinkled with abundance of prayers, and surrounded with the lilies of most holy celibacy, the former sarcophagus being incorrupt, from whose body had flowed the sweetness of so great odor. But that wooden vessel, in which the body of the Saint had been buried, was bound with iron nails: which neither the impediment of heat, nor the alluvion of rain moistened through the spaces of so many years, but you would believe it to remain as wood of Setim, imputrescible: whence, even today by many believers the wood and iron are preserved out of faith. For many indeed who are infirm with various languors, or if any are agitated by the type of diabolical insult, if they shall have had of these upon them, forthwith receive the briskness of health.

[18] To this page indeed it is necessary to insert the praise of a miracle, which is established to have been done in the times of the often-mentioned Bishop: for with fear and love we are pricked in observing the reverence of the holy Man, when these resplendent words of the prodigy have resounded. on account of a chalice taken away, For it happened, when a certain parish had by no means a vessel for offering the Sacrifice, the aforesaid Pontiff bestowed from the basilica of Caraunus one chalice on the needy parish, promising that he would restore a better one in that place. Meanwhile while by I know not what condition a delay of returning the aforesaid gift intervened, the Bishop being punished, forthwith the savage anger of divine vengeance is moved against him, and the organs of health are snatched from him; and so the torments of a feverish sickness are introduced, that, the marrow of his body being burnt up, he could scarcely move even his lips. On a certain night therefore one of the citizens, surrounded with the fear of God, and fully founded in holy religion, saw in an illustrious vision an Angel standing by and saying: Go, brother, and through another, thrice taught by the Angel, and tell Pabolus the Bishop, that he quickly restore the gift of St. Caraunus, which he unworthily took away, and then there shall be repaired in him the cheerfulness of pristine health. But he, sleep mocking him, thinking the mystery of so great a revelation to be vain, would tell no one. A second time therefore, appearing to him as also before, he says: Why hast thou not made known to thy Pontiff what had been commanded thee? Then he, rising maturely, running to the sepulchre of the holy man, prostrate begged such words with all his effort, saying: I beseech the multitude of Thy immense piety, O Lord, that by the merits of St. Caraunus, if from Thee this vision proceeded, the same may appear a third time, and repel far from me every wound of doubt. At length, the light of day being passed, now the horrid chaos of dark night had assailed, on his accustomed couch he gave himself to placid sleep: and behold the Angel who had appeared to him, admonished, the chalice being restored he is healed. now came as if gnashing: and rebuking his sloth, says: Why hast thou not obeyed the divine admonitions, and, faithless, not at once announced to thy Pontiff, what had been commanded thee? know thyself to be guilty of a double negligence before the Lord. Thereupon waking forthwith from sleep, more quickly he hastens to the meeting of the Pontiff, expounding in order all the things which had been divinely shown to him. Legates therefore are directed to the parish with swift course, and while the ornament of the chalice is carried back to the aforesaid place, there returns to the Prelate the desirable gift of fair health. For the chalice being returned to the basilica, the Pontiff brisk with dancing health rose from his little bed.

[19] Let us pursue the series of miracles, and let there be added among these hagiographa the joys of heavenly mercy, by the merits of St. Caraunus done in a certain man. A man truly venerable, adorned with the fillet of the Priesthood, by name ^c Leodegisilus, when at the summons of the most glorious King ^d Clothaire (whose youthful son was said to be detained by the grave weariness of an infirmity so vehemently bound, that nothing else was supposed, but that, the obsequies being prepared, the obscurity of death should put to flight the lights of life) he was setting out; with a companion youth he went to the venerable monastery of St. Martin, that, his intercession suffraging, divine piety might confer on him the remedy of health. The son of King Clothaire, And while the aforesaid man, hastening, was passing by the city of Chartres, he granted his colleagues a little space for refreshing themselves or the vehicles; but he himself, his body wearied by continual frugality, gave himself to sleep; and, as if waking, saw a man, with angelic countenance standing by, and inquiring of him his journey. SS. Martin and Caraunus appearing, But he, as the matter was being done, narrated all to him. Then the man of God to him: Well, said he, Brother, that thou goest: but already the Lord has deigned to visit him through His servant indeed, Lord Martin, and me His servant. And when Leodegisilus the Presbyter himself inquired his person or name, he answered that he was a Roman citizen, by name Cavaunus, he is healed, and had suffered in the city of Chartres. And when at Stirpiniacum, according to the summons of the said Prince, the often-mentioned venerable man Leodegisilus the Presbyter had been presented, he found the boy who had been languishing, according to the word of the man of God which he had foretold, filled with the joy of health and renewed.

[20] other miracles. Nay even, how many wonders, all pains being put to flight, upon the weaknesses of those lying down most frequently appear by the suffrage of St. Caraunus, it is very long to unfold; because they shine more to the eyes of the faithful, than they can be comprehended by the memories of letters. Wherefore, those being struck with the dart of contumacy, who have a stronger affection of detracting than of imitating, we have taken up the happy chalice and proceeded with holy silence. Let us therefore receive, Brethren, and consider the clemency of so great a Patron; and let us implore his protections under frequent prayers and worthy reverence; that we may turn away from all vices, cultivate the ornaments of the several virtues; of faith,

hope and charity may we be knit together by their bonds, and also be freed from the incursions of all enemies, and be adorned with the flowers of all sanctity: insofar as in the ethereal courts with exulting souls we may be applied to the assemblies of the Heaven-dwellers, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Breath, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

ON THE VERY MANY HOLY MONKS,

MARTYRS AT TEKOA IN PALESTINE.

From the present Roman, and the VI Conference of John Cassian.

ABOUT CCCCX.

The Very Many Holy Monk-Martyrs, of Tekoa in Palestine.

BY G. H.

[1] The tablets of the present Roman Martyrology celebrate the memory of these Martyrs on this XXVIII of May in these words: At Tekoa in Palestine, of the holy Monk-Martyrs, who in the time of Theodosius the Younger were slain by the Saracens: Memory in the Fasti, whose sacred Relics the inhabitants collecting, held them with the utmost veneration. Baronius, to whom the recognition of the Martyrology had been committed, and the amplification permitted, from those whom he could then have as better authors; in the Annotations afterwards made and published, does not explain, whether he found them anywhere ascribed to the fasti of the Saints, which elsewhere he not undiligently notes; whence we gather that he himself, by the power given to him, used it also so, that those whom he knew once to have been deemed worthy of the cult of the Saints, and yet knew not on what day of the year, he himself read for them on this one by his own judgment. This nevertheless I know not why dissimulating, and as if treating of another's work, nor precisely knowing whence they were taken, he ascribes in the Notes, that they seem to be those of whom John Cassian treats in the sixth Conference on the slaying of the Saints chapter 1 and following: The words of Cassian are these.

[2] In the parts of Palestine near the village of Tekoa, which merited to bring forth the Prophet Amos, from Cassian. is a most vast solitude, stretched out with most ample extension as far as Arabia and the dead sea. In this Monks of the highest life and sanctity dwelling very long, were suddenly slain by the roving little brigands of the Saracens. Whose bodies, although we knew them snatched with so great veneration both by the Pontiffs of that region, and by the whole people of the Arabs, and laid among the Relics of the Martyrs; so that innumerable peoples flocking together from two towns, proclaimed a most grievous combat to themselves, and the contention proceeded even to the conflict of swords for the holy plunder, while they strove among themselves with pious devotion, which of them should more justly possess their sepulchres and relics; some indeed glorying in the vicinity of their dwelling, others in the propinquity of origin; we nevertheless, moved either by our own offense, or by that of certain Brethren not moderately scandalized on this side, and inquiring why men of so great merit and so great virtues were thus slain by the little brigands, and the Lord permitted so great a crime to be perpetrated against His servants, that He delivered men wondrous to all into the hands of the impious: sad we went to St. Theodore, a man singular in active conversation… To whom when we had poured forth a complaint of the slaying of the aforesaid men, wondering at so great patience of God, that He had permitted men of that merit to be thus slain, so that they who ought also by the weight of their sanctity to free others from temptation of this kind, did not even snatch themselves from the hands of the impious; or why God had granted so great a crime to be admitted against His servants; Blessed Theodore answered: This question is wont to move the souls of those, who possessing little of faith or knowledge, think the merits of the Saints or the rewards, which are not rendered in the present, but are laid up for the future, to be restored in the brevity of this temporal life. These and other things Cassian, which can be read in him.

[2] The same in other places also treats of the discipline of the ancient Monks through Palestine and the rest of the East, namely book 3 of the Institutes chapter 3 and book 4, and elsewhere expounding their discipline. chapter 19, 20 and 21; which seem to be able to be applied also to those Monks in the desert of Tekoa, here praised. But would that Cassian had indicated the names at least of those two towns, which claimed to themselves the sacred Relics of the bodies; perhaps we could more easily render a reason, why in the monasteries of Palestine, for whose uses St. Sabas and others ordained the Typicon of the ecclesiastical offices, no memory of those Martyrs is found. Meanwhile it will be permitted to suspect, that, the bodies being distracted (as has been said), and the Laura which those holy Monks had built for themselves remaining thenceforth desolate (for there is afterwards no mention of it in the Life of St. Euthymius and others, in which the Desert of Tekoa is named several times) there was no one who cared to write the history of the martyrdom, by the benefit of which they would have remained venerable to all the monasteries of the Holy Land; who little by little came into oblivion, the dominion of the Saracens growing strong in all the towns of Palestine, and the cult of the Saints famous in them vanishing.