Severus

ON ST. SEVERUS, MARTYR IN NOVEMPOPULANIA,

PROBABLY IN THE YEAR 407.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

BY G. V. H.

§ I. On the Lives of St. Severus. On their age.

St. Severus the martyr gave his name to the city of Saint-Sever * in Gascony. For a monastery was founded over the martyr's sacred tomb, which was often destroyed We narrate the history of St. Severus the martyr and often rebuilt; and as pagans, as happens, settled around the walls of the cloister, at length about the year 1100 the city of Saint-Sever was fortified. As other sources for the facts fail us, we shall narrate the history of St. Severus from the History of the Monastery of Saint-Sever, which Pierre Daniel Du Buisson, of the Order of St. Benedict, of the Congregation of St. Maur, carried through in ten books. The work, finished as early as the year 1681, was brought out of the darkness of nearly two centuries by J. F. Pédegert, canon of Aire, and A. Lugat, canon and dean of Villeneuve, who, enlarging it with fresh labors, with the help especially of the Reverend Father Labat, S.J., and of Monsieur Labeyrie, gave it to the public light, dedicated to the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Victor Delannoy, bishop of Aire, under the auspices of whose predecessor, the Most Illustrious Lord Epivent, they had set their hand to the excellent work. It came out at Aire-sur-l'Adour from the press of L. Dehez, in the year 1876. The title is: Ten Books of the History of the Monastery of Saint-Sever, by Dom Pierre Daniel Du Buisson, O.S.B., of the Congregation of St. Maur.

[2] Following Du Buisson, from a threefold Life not wholly sound. This author begins his history, as was fitting, from the Life of St. Severus, whose threefold form he presents in three copies. Here are Du Buisson's words, book I, Prologue, p. 1: I find his (Severus's) Life written in three forms already more than six hundred years ago and copied thereafter into our small cartulary, smelling quite enough, and more, of the simplicity of antiquity. The first proceeds up to the time of his martyrdom, though the martyrdom itself is not related there. Whether the few things lacking were omitted through the carelessness or inadvertence of the writer, or rather of the transcriber and copyist, it is not easy to conjecture, except that we may rightly judge that it was finished in every way by the original writer himself in the autograph, since he repeatedly invites us to visit his tomb often thereafter. The second is written in meter, with a no less gross pen, and no less rude and unpolished, by the same or perhaps by another monk of the same age, since in the first he says he undertook this as a work enjoined under obedience. — The third is recognized as drawn up in a somewhat more polished style. But certain contradictions and falsehoods, which I shall report and refute in due course, make their credit in some matters not so beyond doubt. So far Du Buisson; this is his judgment of the authority of the Lives of St. Severus, not a very favorable one. In the notes which he appended to the text it is said that the small cartulary, from which he copied the threefold Life, was written about the year 1580 by a public notary, secretary of the monastery of Saint-Sever, as may be seen at the end of the first page, where he set his name Volume cited, p. 1, note c.. The notary was called Abadie Ibid., p. 2, note b.. The Life which Du Buisson calls the first is said to have been written by order of Abbot Gregory, who died in the year 1072 Ibid., p. 2, note a.. But the Life which he calls the third is said to be the first in time, written, he says, eight hundred years ago Ibid., p. 2, note d.. In narrating the deeds of St. Severus Du Buisson used a quite convenient method, which he declares in these words in the prologue cited Ibid., p. 2.: So that each may more easily distinguish the certain from the doubtful, I shall give here a compendious Life of this same most sacred king and martyr (Severus), prefatory to these anciently written ones (the threefold Life), which I shall append to it, subjoining annotations to each, and then I shall faithfully and honestly write out from the aforesaid cartulary the miracles performed at his tomb, etc.

[3] A compendium of these Lives we borrow from Du Buisson. That compendious Life of St. Severus which Du Buisson drew up we attach here, to set a general survey of the life of St. Severus before the reader's eyes. Once it has been looked over, everyone will be able to follow our discussion more easily.

Compendious Life of St. Severus.

St. Severus was prince of a certain region in Scythia, which region was called Ambligonia or Amplicania, of which he was the petty king, and he was called king. We may conjecture that he was converted to the faith of Christ about the middle of the fourth century from the Lord's incarnation, since he reigned in the time of Julian the Apostate. Moved by the horror of that man's cruelty and impiety, and also by the obstinacy of his own nation, which he had not been able to make Christian as he wished, he resolved to renounce his kingdom and royal honors, so that he might serve Christ the King of kings more freely and peacefully in the desert. But while he was meditating such a withdrawal, he learned by divine means that he was called by God to the preaching of the gospel and to the crown of martyrdom; and therefore, joining six companions to himself, namely Gerontius, Justin, Clarus, Polycarp, John, and Babilus, he set out for Rome. From there, having received their mission from the Roman pontiff, Christ's vigorous messengers made for the Gauls, with an angel as companion and guide of the way. So traversing Narbonese Gaul, they come to Toulouse, where they devoutly visit the tomb of the holy martyr Saturninus, humbly commend themselves to his intercessions, and, having received some particles of his relics, going out from there they enter Novempopulania, which is now called Gascony. They first shine the light of the gospel upon Sotrium or Sotium, now a city of the diocese of Auch, and build a church there in honor of St. Saturninus. Then, under the angel's guidance, they direct their way to the Castrum Caesaris or Palestrion, which was the king's seat, so that the light of the gospel might pass more easily and quickly from the head of the province to the members. When therefore St. Severus, by the working of divine power, had divided the waters of the river Alpheanus or Aturris *, and had crossed with his companions through the bed with dry feet, and had freed King Adrian, who ruled over the fortress and the province, from various infirmities and from possession by several demons, he converted him and his people from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ and the worship of the true God; and thereafter, at the beginning of the fifth century, his head being cut off by the hands of the Vandals, he flew up to the palm of martyrdom and to heavenly glory. Yet, more powerful than death, taking up in his own hands his severed and beheaded head, he carried it all the way to the place of burial, where afterwards a little church was built in his honor, and several miracles were performed by his merits and intercession, some of which I shall relate in due course, as they were written and related by our first fathers. The festival of this same holy martyr was formerly celebrated on the first day of November, on which he is reported to have undergone martyrdom; but because of the feast of All Saints his feast day was transferred to the eighth day of the same month by a bull of Pope Clement V, which I shall append to the threefold Life of him that follows and to the history of the translation Ibid., pp. 3–5.. Thus far the compendious Life of St. Severus condensed by Du Buisson; whether it was rightly inscribed by him WITHOUT ANY BLEMISH OF FABLES, the present discussion will show. First of all it is to be regretted that no ancient copy of the threefold Life is at hand, nor perhaps was one found by Du Buisson himself, since he admits that he copied out the codex of the small cartulary, made about the year 1580.

[4] The third Life is older than the others. Du Buisson contends that the third Life was composed before the other two, at the beginning of the ninth century. For the author of the third Life, after relating certain miracles of St. Severus, continues thus: And so as time went on a certain Sebastinus, a religious man and most powerful prince of the whole province, dedicated in honor of blessed Severus a church of wonderful size and beauty, which he adorned with very many ornaments of gold and silver and also with marble columns. From this building certain columns are still kept among us, in which little silver nails are seen fixed; for the rest, the guilt of our offenses deserving it, utterly

were torn down by the army of the Franks Ibid., book II, chapter I, p. 126.. This author therefore lived after the destruction of the church built by Prince Sebastinus. And Sebastinus must be said to have lived between the years 670 and 769. For Monsieur de Marca, says Du Buisson Ibid., p. 127., in his History of Béarn, book I, chapter 24 etc., enumerating the dukes and governors of the Gascons, assigns as first Genialis about the year of Christ 602, as second Aiginhamus in the year 626, as third Amandus in the year 630, as fourth Lupus in the year 670. But he knows of no other between this Lupus and another of the same name, who he says existed in the year 769; and so Lupus I would have been duke of Gascony for a space of a hundred years. And so Sebastinus must be said to have occupied the vacant intervening place, duke and most powerful prince of the whole province, who would thus have been such about the end of the seventh century and the beginning of the eighth. So Du Buisson, and certainly not unsuitably.

[5] Its author lived before the end of the 10th century. And the author lived before the rebuilding of the church and monastery carried out by Count William Sancho. For in the charter or diploma and deed of the second foundation or restoration of the monastery of Saint-Sever at the head of Gascony, made by William Sancho, count of the same, it is read: Those wise men inquired whether St. Severus had his deeds or Passion written down. It was found by those reading how that monastery had been built, and how it had been destroyed by men of the Franks. See the whole diploma below, among the documents. That diploma was written, according to the cartulary which Du Buisson had before his eyes, in the year 963, according to Monsieur de Marca in the year 982. Apart from the fact that Monsieur de Marca did not see the cartulary of Saint-Sever, as Du Buisson testifies Ibid., book II, p. 143, note c., the two opinions can perhaps be brought into agreement, so that the cartulary indicates the beginning of the work and Monsieur de Marca the completion of the work, upon which the diploma would have been solemnly promulgated in a crowded assembly. Be that as it may, it remains certain that the aforesaid words were then found in a certain Passion of St. Severus, which assuredly was none other than this third Life. For no other document is found, nor has mention ever been made of any other, in which the aforesaid words are read, which touch very clearly the sense of the said author. He lived therefore before that time; for had he survived, since he indicates clearly enough that he was an inhabitant and monk of the destroyed place, he would have borne present testimony, and there would have been no need of the wise men's inquiry.

[6] The first Life belongs to the 11th century. Likewise perhaps the second. The first monastery was destroyed by the men of the Franks probably in the year 819. For at that time Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, chastised the Gascons, who had rebelled in the year 816, and Chronicle of Moissac (Pertz, Monum. Germ., Scriptores vol. I, p. 313). the army he had sent against the rebel Gascons returned with the triumph of victory, the tyrants having been slain. To this opinion Du Buisson adheres Ibid., p. 131.. Hence it is manifest that the author of the third Life, since he saw the ruins of the demolished church, lived either in the 9th century or at the beginning of the 10th. The Life which Du Buisson calls the first, because he found it written in the first place in the cartulary, belongs to the 11th century. For the author says he wrote at the bidding of Abbot Gregory, which Gregory presided over the monastery from the year 1028 until 1072, and was afterwards bishop of Lescar and Dax. The second Life is written metrically in leonine hexameter verses, by an unknown author, perhaps of the same century.

* Saint-Séver (dépt Landes).

* in French Adour.

§ II. On the homeland of St. Severus, and on his family and the time of his life.

St. Severus in homeland The first Life indicates Severus's homeland in these words: So blessed Severus, sprung from the farthest parts of the world toward the Sithic clime, though a barbarian by the harsh nation of the Vandals, etc. And the second: In the western parts of the Scitic tract of country. The land of the saint's birth is called Amplicania or Ambligonia, and Severus is said to have ruled it as king. For thus it is read in the first Life: Severus, a most noble king, ruled the Ambligonian people. And in the third Life Severus himself is brought in speaking: We are sprung from the gentile nation of the Vandals and from the homeland of the Ambligonic region. For Ambligonia, however, Amplicania is written later in the first Life, and St. Severus in the same Life says to his companions: The most blessed Saturninus, having gone out from our region, became a disciple of the apostles, and, ordained bishop by the apostle Peter, was sent to preach the truth to the citizens of Toulouse. If these things are gathered into one, we have a Sithic clime or Scitic land, a region of Amplicania or Ambligonia, from which region the martyr Saturninus went out and became a disciple of the apostles. And Severus, going out from his native land, came with his companions to the port of Accaron; from there, setting sail, they came to the city of Joppa, near Mount Golmentaneus.

[8] perhaps Abilene, The three Lives thus agree in assigning to Severus a homeland either in Palestine or Syria, or in Upper Egypt. For it seems that we are not here to think of Scythia, whether European or Asian, since they are said to have come on foot to the port of Accaron, and indeed the Sithic or Scitic region is close at hand. For there is the mountain Sethim or Sithi, a mountainous region which stretches from Damascus along Palestine and slopes down to the sea; and there is also the region of Scithi in Egypt near Lake Mareotis. Frequent mention of both is found in the Lives of the Fathers. The great difficulty lies in finding Ambligonia, whether you say Ambligania or Amplicania. It is a region certainly unknown to the geographers, or at least the name of the region is unknown. Yet this raises no scruple, because in the Lives of the Fathers who dwelt around those places very many names of places occur which you would seek in vain through the books of the geographers. One must therefore take refuge in conjectures. Severus is called a king of barbarians, barbarian by the harsh nation of the Vandals: it is known that the name of Vandals attached itself, as a kind of general appellation, to the barbarians overrunning the empire. And we are of opinion that our Severus was a certain chieftain who ruled barbarian tribes with authority. Now the places neighboring Palestine were harried by the incursions of many barbarians, whether you call them Saracens or Blemmyes, of whom there is frequent talk in the Lives of the holy anchorites. If we say that Severus sprang from the region of Scithi near Lake Mareotis, the difficulty in finding Ambligonia or Amplicania will be greater; if from Mount Sethim, the conjecture of the most learned Father Labat will seem probable. Abila is a city of Lysanias which lies to the west of Damascus, toward the north, which gave its name to one of the tetrarchies mentioned by the Gospel, Abilene; which could be called in Latin Abilania, and by an easy corruption Amplicania. This is that Abila which Ptolemy, book V, chapter 15, lists among the cities of Coele-Syria by the name of Abila, surnamed of Lysanias: Ἀβίλα ἐπικληθεῖσα Λυσανίου. St. Saturninus is said to have gone out from that region. And indeed the holy apostle of the people of Toulouse, in the Life which we shall explain in its proper time, is read to have sprung from the East and to have been a disciple of John the Baptist. Whether this is true or falsely invented I do not wish to dispute here. I contend only that the Sithic clime, the region of Amplicania, in the mind of the authors who wrote the deeds of Severus, is to be sought not in the northern tract of the Scythians, but about the borders of Palestine.

[9] or rather at Scythopolis in Palestine, But what if we say that Severus was born at Scythopolis? For Scythopolis is a city of Palestine which, on the testimony of Zonaras Annals, book I, chapter 1., was once called Methora: Near whose walls the corpses of Sol and his children were raised up on crosses. Scythopolis, says Pliny Natural History, book V, chapter 16., formerly Nysa, from Father Liber's nurse being buried there, Scythians having been settled there. It is also called the city of the Scythians, for example in the version of the LXX: τὴν βηθσᾶν, ἥ ἐστι Σκυθῶν πόλις, Bethsan, which is the city of the Scythians; which Josephus, book V of the Antiquities, chapter I, calls Scythopolis. In book II of Maccabees, chapter XII, 29: ὥρμησαν ἐπὶ Σκυθῶν πόλιν, they set out against the city of the Scythians. Whose inhabitants in verse 30 are called Σκυθοπολῖται, Scythopolitans. We find the site of the city accurately determined, with its distance noted from the lake of Genesareth and from Jerusalem. For Josephus in his Life, no. 65: Ἣ δὲ σὴ πατρὶς, Τιβεριὰς, ὦ Ἰοῦστε, κειμένη ἐν τῇ Γεννησαρίτιδι λίμνῃ καὶ ἀπέχουσα… Σκυθοπόλεως στάδια εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν, But your homeland Tiberias, Justus, situated on the lake of Gennesaret… is a hundred and twenty stadia from Scythopolis. And Maccabees, in the place cited: ὥρμησαν ἐπὶ Σκυθῶν πόλιν ἀπέχουσαν ἀπὸ Ἱεροσολύμων σταδίους ἑξακοσίους, they set out against the city of the Scythians, six hundred stadia distant from Jerusalem. Strabo, book XVI: ἡ περὶ Γαλιλαίαν Σκυθόπολις, Scythopolis, which is around Galilee. And Josephus, On the War, book III, chapter 4: Γαλιλαίας … διορίζει ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας Σαμαρίς τε καὶ Σκυθόπολις μέχρι τῶν Ἰορδάνου ῥείθρων, Galilee … is bounded … on the south by Samaria and Scythopolis, as far as the streams of the Jordan Compare Cellarius, Ancient Geography.. Therefore Ptolemy must be thought to have erred, who in book V, chapter 15, places Scythopolis in Coele-Syria; on whom, as Cellarius rightly believes Ibid., book III, chapter 13., the Decapolitan association imposed, which is beyond the Jordan, excepting Scythopolis alone, which is on this side of the river, though near it. Pliny, in the place cited, lists it among the Decapolitan cities; and of all these Josephus affirms that Scythopolis is the greatest On the War, book III, chapter 31.. Finally Ammianus Book XIX, chapter 24. and On Places. Jerome place Scythopolis in Palestine. Since the city of Abela is its neighbor, the name of Amplicania was perhaps formed from that. Certainly as the homeland of Saturninus, whom Severus says sprang from his own region, a place quite close to the Jordan, which would suit a disciple of John the Baptist, is easily admitted. So then it seems we should determine that Severus was an Eastern man, born in the borders of Syria. In ascribing to Severus an illustrious family the three Lives agree. They call him king of the region of Amplicania, who, converted to the faith, abdicated his power and, leaving his kingdom, first considered the desert and then apostolic journeys.

[10] He abdicates his kingdom in the time of Julian the Apostate. The three Lives indicate the time of his life with fair accuracy. For Severus abdicated his kingdom and rule in the time of Julian the Apostate. Hear the words of the first Life: In the time of whose (Julian's) reign Severus, a most noble king, ruled the Ambligonian people. He, hearing of the persecution of the Christians, laid aside the royal diadem and resolved to lead a solitary life in the desert. In a like sense the metrical Life, which begins thus:

In the time when the monarchy of the wide world feared the rule of the wicked deserter Julian… He (Severus) determined within himself to leave his kingdom for Christ.

The third Life says the same in more words, adding that Julian's persecution afforded Severus the occasion of publicly confessing himself a Christian and, leaving his kingdom, of fleeing to the desert. It is therefore plain that the beginnings of Severus's journeys, in the times of Julian the Apostate

are to be referred back, and he will not be far from the truth who assigns Severus's abdication to the year 362. And it can be believed, with the most learned Labat Hist. of the Monastery of Saint-Sever, Appendix vol. II, p. 364., that Severus left his kingdom in order that he might not be forced to march with the impious Apostate into Persia. How great a space of time lies between Severus's abdication and the glorious triumph of his martyrdom is difficult to estimate. But since he is reported to have been killed in Aquitaine by the invading Vandals, before the walls of the city of Palaestrium, I willingly assent to Father Labat, who places Severus's death in the year 407 Ibid., p. 369..

§ III. On the journeys of St. Severus.

He considers the desert. Having confessed the faith of Christ by public worship, despising the delights of the world and leaving his kingdom, Severus considers the desert, on the testimony of the three Lives; whether he actually lived in the desert is not so certain. I think the stronger authority of the third Life is to be followed, which relates the following: And so he proposed to flee to the desert, that in a quiet and solitary life he might without distinction toil in the service of him whose Spirit utterly disdains to rest except upon the humble and quiet. But at length, having taken counsel in deeper deliberation, he embraced that opinion of Augustine by which he is preferred who would rather bear a toilsome life than flee it; since, although those serving God alone in a solitary life can easily escape unharmed from the enticements of the world, yet before the just Judge he will rightly be enriched with a greater reward who, by laboring for himself and for others, will struggle with greater exercise against the wiles of the ancient enemy. And so, setting aside his desire for the desert, he resolved to labor in distant exile, that by preaching the grace of the divine word he might profit many, and, his flesh being worn out by many labors, might at length be adorned with a glorious martyrdom.

[12] He journeys with companions to the West, He seems to have held this course of pilgrimage. Following the mountain tract called Mount Sethim, he finally reached the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and, coasting along the shore, Severus and his companions came to the port of Accaron. They board a ship and make for northern parts; but, carried back to the shore, they make their way on foot as far as a city named Impetus. Then in that city and in all that region they sow the seeds of the divine word. When they saw that they were bearing no fruit, they changed their plan and unanimously decided to go to Rome. From Rome they are sent into Aquitaine to the peoples of Novempopulania, whom they reach by traveling through Toulouse. Having entered the city of the Sotiates, they preach the faith. Departing from the Sotiates, they make for Palaestrion, cross the river Alpheanus or Adour, and convert the king with his people to the faith. Severus ranges here and there through the whole region and imbues the people with the teaching of the faith; at length, as the army of the Vandals was approaching, he returns to Palaestrion, and, slain by the barbarians, is crowned with a glorious martyrdom before the walls of the city. And he is said to have walked, carrying his head in his hands, as far as the place of burial.

[13] by a doubtful route, The apostolic journeys of St. Severus have given rise to more than one question. And leaving aside the course through the regions of Asia, which we have described above by opining toward likelihood, it is asked from where and when they set out for Rome. Nothing is found in the threefold history of the Life to bring light to the solution of this question. One thing only is to be noted, that the journey to Rome was not decided immediately after the return from the sea voyage, but after the preaching of the faith had been tried. The voyage completed, they came from the port of Accaron to the city of Jope according to the first Life; the metrical Life passes over this voyage and, right after leaving the desert, mentions the journey to Rome. But the third Life, whose authority is greater, is silent on the arrival at Jope. To the sea voyage the first Life assigns forty-six days, the third Life forty days. A fairly great divergence of narrative is found here, which, for the sake of clearness, we shall set before the reader's eyes. Here you have the account of the first Life: As they walked to the port which is called Accaron, along the seashore they went up onto the prow of a ship. So the sailors, by accustomed right, asked a hundred denarii for the passage; but the glorious soldiers hold earthly things cheap while they desire to purchase heavenly ones, and, wishing to fulfill what they had conceived in mind, gave a thousand to those asking a hundred denarii. Within the space of forty-six days, with the help of the divine clemency, they sailed across the seas and came to the city of Jope near Mount Golmentaneus, and then walked on foot for a hundred and twenty-three days.

Then, entering another ship, paying the price and sailing through the deep toward the northern part, they went out at a port, and, traversing that region, the most constant athletes found no one who would question them about the matter they carried in their breast. They went around cities and fortresses, to find someone who by the palm of martyrdom would unlock for them the gates of paradise. And so Justin turned to Gerontius and said: Why do we not go on to Rome? Gerontius answered: When first we went out from our region, then this ought to have been done. All that space which lies between the leaving of the desert and the journey to Rome the metrical Life leaps over in these words:

With such a counsel, he withdrew from the cave of the desert;

but resolved first to turn his steps to Rome.

[14] but according to the Lives Now let the narrative of the third Life follow: For some time, then, journeying on foot, they came down to a seaport which the natives of the region were accustomed to call in their barbarian tongue Accaron. When they had reached it, they ask for a ship, and, indicating that they wish to set out for northern parts, they inquire what they owe for the passage. When the sailors, moved by no impulse of mercy, had demanded no small amount, they did not hesitate to bestow more, Martha still sufficing for the newness of exile. Meanwhile, carried by ship over a course of 40 days, they return again to the shores; and then, continuing the journey on foot, they come by a direct path to the city called Impetus, situated near Mount Golmentaneus. Here the author adds mystical considerations. Passing over these, we proceed with him thus: So after they reached the aforesaid city, they range all round through that whole region, and do not cease to sow the seeds of the divine word everywhere. But, the wisdom of divine providence not yet so disposing, in that region it was granted to the faithful of Christ to gain neither of their wished-for desires, neither the gains of the Catholic faith in the winning of peoples, nor the attainment of the longed-for martyrdom. Then afterwards Severus is brought in making a speech to his companions and disclosing the plan of making for Rome. This having unanimously pleased all in the sight of all, on the counsel of blessed Severus they hasten to Rome. These things are therefore to be reconciled, and from the two narratives joined together what will be more like the truth is to be fished out.

[15] partly by sea And first it is to be noted that in each Life something is found which is passed over in the other, or that something is stated in general terms in one which is said exactly in the other. In both narratives Severus with his companions sets sail from the port of Accaron or Acharon. Accaron is a port on the shore of Palestine. According to the first Life, within the space of forty-six days, with the help of the divine clemency, they sailed across the seas; according to the third Life, carried by ship over a course of forty days, they return again to the shores. According to the first Life, they came to the city of Jope near Mount Golmentaneus; of Jope there is no mention in the third Life, but only of the shore at which they landed. According to the first Life, from the city of Jope they walked on foot for a hundred and twenty-three days. Then, entering another ship, paying the price and sailing through the deep toward the northern part, they went out at a port; according to the third Life, from the shore, continuing the journey on foot, they come by a direct path to the city called Impetus, situated near Mount Golmentaneus.

[16] partly It is agreed therefore on both sides that the first sea voyage lasted forty or forty-six days from the port of Accaron. Now it is asked where they landed. It can scarcely be believed that after a voyage of so many days they came to the port of Joppa, which is only a little distant from the port of Accaron. They could very easily have got there in one day, nor is it likely that men leaving a neighboring port would have thought of a port so near, especially after paying so great a fare. It must be seen, then, whether a maritime city of the same name turns up. The third Life notes that our pilgrims wished to set out for northern parts. Now for those making northward from Accaron there meets them on the shore of Rough Cilicia the city of Jotape. It could easily happen that in the manuscript codex from which the writer of the Severian cartulary copied these Lives, an abbreviated word was found for Jotape, or perhaps Jotape itself, which, since he did not know it, the compiler thought should be read as the very well-known word Jope. However that may be, I shall hardly be brought to believe that Joppa or Jope, the port of the Palestinian shore, is here indicated. Moreover Jope is near Mount Golmentaneus, but Joppa adjoins no mountain, nor indeed does Jotape. Further, the third Life knows nothing of a second voyage, and it mentions Mount Golmentaneus at the end of the journey on foot, where the pilgrims reach the city of Impetus situated near Mount Golmentaneus. Certainly, since an error must be acknowledged in one Life or the other, I set the first after the third Life, inasmuch as that is the older. It is asked next where the city named Impetus is located, near Mount Golmentaneus, to which the pilgrims could have made their way by a journey on foot. No city Impetus with a Latin name occurs in the books of the geographers; yet it does occur under a Greek name, and it is situated near a mountain. Ptolemy marks it in Macedonia near Mount Scardus, under the name Horma, which in Latin means Impetus; to which the pilgrims could have come by a journey on foot, especially in the space of a hundred and twenty-three days which the first Life assigns to the first journey on foot. So great a difference lies between Jope and Impetus that a slip of the writer cannot be thought of. Moreover both Lives in harmonious style set the limit of the journey at the point where they began to go about the region all round, preaching, which limit according to the third Life is the city of Impetus and the surrounding region.

[17] on foot, from Accaron to Jotape, and thence to Horma. These things considered, I arrange the course of the saints thus. From the port of Accaron they completed a sea voyage of forty days and sailed across the seas, that is, having crossed no small part of the Mediterranean Sea from the shore of Palestine, they return from the sea to the shores and land on the coast of Cilicia, at Jotape. From here on foot, through Asia Minor, through the city of Constantinople, they make for Macedonia, and stop in the city of Horma. They apply themselves to the preaching of the word of God, but, no fruit following, they decided to go to Rome. Let us hear the first Life: Justin turned to Gerontius and said: “Why do we not go on to Rome?” Gerontius answered: “When first we went out from our region, then this ought to have been done.” A reply truly in keeping with the circumstances. For they could have gone much more easily from the port of Accaron by a straight way to Italy than by so great a detour made through Cilicia and Greece.

[18] At length they reach Rome, Setting out therefore from Horma, they make their way to Rome. But meanwhile they do not cease to devote themselves to the urgency of continual preaching, which they everywhere effectively confirm by the powerful virtue of signs and miracles. So the third Life. Hence I think I can conclude that the saints, journeying through Dalmatia, Liburnia, and Istria, going around the Adriatic Sea, entered Italy and were brought to Rome. For there is no talk of a voyage here in either Life.

It can finally be asked what Mount Golmentaneus is. No Mount Golmentaneus whatever is found in the books of the geographers. So it is natural to suppose that this name is not the proper name of a mountain, but an adjective, in the Semitic idiom native to our saints, which signifies rough and stony places: so that Mount Golmentaneus is the same as a rocky mountain; for golmo among the Syrians is a place of rocks.

[19] St. Damasus holding the apostolic see, At this point a knot occurs in the threefold Life of Severus which I can neither untie nor cut. For St. Severus and his companions, when they reached Rome, find sitting in the apostolic see Pope Eugenius. But no pope named Eugenius held the chair of the Roman Church in that period; during the whole span of Severus's life no pope named Eugenius presided over the Roman Church. So, leaving aside all conjectures, I am compelled to acknowledge a simple error. For I do not dare to suspect with the most learned Labat Hist. of Saint-Sever, Appendix vol. II, p. 368. that the name of the usurper Eugenius, whom the great Theodosius overcame, is indicated here, as though the widespread fame of Eugenius, spread throughout the whole world, had settled so deeply in men's minds that they necessarily believed so glorious a man to be the Roman pontiff himself. Since therefore the name of Eugenius must of necessity be struck out, the question arises as to which pontiff was seated when Severus came to Rome and, as a consequence, by which pontiff these men were sent into Aquitaine. There is no wide room for error. For he must have been either Liberius or Damasus; and I think it was Damasus.

For Severus abdicated his secular dignity when Julian was emperor, and at once began the course of his journey; if we allot to this three years, we seem to have done enough for the text of the Acts, which narrates travels almost continuous, interrupted by a modest halt. We are of opinion, therefore, that Severus left his kingdom when Julian was preparing the expedition against the Persians, in the year 363, and that he came to Rome in the year 366, the first of Damasus. Most kindly received by him, they stayed at Rome one year and one week.

[20] who kindly receives the pilgrims. Again a difference of narrative comes between the first and the third Life. According to the former, after they had left Rome and entered the borders of the Gauls, and Gerontius had died, an angel appears to them as they are considering Gascony. According to the latter, they receive the angelic visitation while staying at Rome, Gerontius still surviving. Following the larger authority of the third Life, we believe that the angel appeared to Severus while he was staying at Rome. And so Severus, strengthened by the angelic warning, communicates to his companions what he had received from heaven, namely that the course of the journey was to be completed, first to Toulouse, then to Palaestrion in Novempopulania, and the promised help of God. Without delay Severus and his companions went to blessed Eugenius; explaining how it had happened to them in the vision, they asked leave for the journey after the manner of illustrious men. The pontiff strengthens them by exhortation with the apostolic blessing, saying: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and peace accompany you everywhere; and may he himself grant a prosperous outcome to your labor, who has poured into your minds so great and such a desire. Having received this blessing, they leave Rome and, rejoicing to reach the province assigned from heaven, they begin the lengthy journey, making light of it as brief. That they undertook the journey on foot I gather from this, that through all the villages or cities to which they turned aside, they shone forth in preaching with signs and miracles. So they reach Toulouse, and, having received relics of St. Saturninus, they make for Novempopulania. Having been brought there, they entered the city of the Sotiates and began the preaching of the gospel at the city of Sotium itself. That city having been imbued with the gospel, they went on to Palaestrion, and, having crossed the river Alpheanus, not without the prodigy of the waters drawing back on either side, they were brought to the king; and when he had been freed from demons and converted to the true faith, Severus went around through the whole province, and, a great multitude of people having been joined to Christ, at length, the barbarians rushing in, he was slain and fell a martyr before the walls of Palaestrium. Such was the series of Severus's journeys, as we have been able to order it both from the authority of the Acts and from probable conjecture.

§ IV. On the apostolate of St. Severus.

Not yet raised to the priesthood The life of St. Severus, from the time he laid aside his secular dignity, was consecrated to apostolic labors through various regions of the world. For we learn from the Acts that Severus, after he had hesitated for a while about the choice of a rule of life, whether to keep to the desert and the holy contest of a life hidden in God, or the holier labors of apostolic journeys, at length, burning with the desire for martyrdom, gave himself wholly, together with his companions, to the spreading of the word of God. Hence it seems not out of place here to ask to what degree of ecclesiastical dignity he was advanced. The threefold Life of Severus does not speak in express words of the holy man's priesthood; yet deeds and acts are narrated of such a kind as all but necessarily designate a priest, nor are other things lacking from which one may rightly conclude that Severus was a bishop. Yet it may be that before they came to Rome, neither Severus nor any other from the number of the seven companions had been raised to the priestly character. Nor would I wonder if anyone thought the manifest sterility of the earlier preaching should be ascribed to this defect, the force of the apostolic oracle remaining: How shall they preach, unless they be sent? But they, sent by no one, were running of their own accord. The holy men seem at length to have understood the same when, the sterility of their labors being perceived, they decided to go to Rome. There they confessed the ardor of their zeal to the Roman pontiff, and, received by the supreme pastor with open arms, they spent a whole year and one week at Rome. But the purpose of so protracted a delay of men in a hurry is expressed in clear words by the author of the third Life.

[22] Damasus addresses them and hears them, The pontiff, as soon as he sees Severus approaching with his companions, enlightened by divine light beholds the secrets of their hearts, and understands from heaven how great these barbarians are, and says to those standing by: O truly happy men, for whom Christ is exile, and whom zeal for the faith has wholly persuaded to contempt of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ has kindled you with the fire of his ray for the light of many. Through you a countless multitude of peoples, the cloud of diabolical blindness having been put to flight, will rejoice to be restored to the service of their creator. You too, at length, after finishing the lawful course of labor, will offer your bodies in a happy martyrdom as pleasing victims to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then Severus speaks out on behalf of his companions: Excellent successor of the apostolic lot, we are sprung from the gentile nation of the Vandals and from the homeland of the Ambliganic region; but, though unworthy, we yet bear the yoke of the Christian religion: and after we submitted our necks to it, setting aside all that we seemed to possess, we freed our minds for its service, and we have come that what it is more fitting for us to do may be indicated to us by the authority of the holy Roman Church through the intercession of the apostles, ready for God's name to bear with constancy whatever fortune may bring. To whom the pontiff: Your venerable purpose will attain a happy outcome. But meanwhile we beg you to stay for some time under the patronage of the apostles, so that among us, through the fellowship of a common life, the grace and the teaching of the whole religion may advance. Then the author continues: At the exhortation therefore of blessed Eugenius they stay at Rome; and there, a year being finished, they return again to their original purpose, and those who were branches of that true vine wished no longer to be barren, but to bring forth fruit perpetually unfading. Soon there follows the angelic vision, and the designation of the field to be cultivated by apostolic labors; their mission is requested from the pontiff, and they set out for the glory foreordained.

[23] then, having proved and instructed them The pontiff understood therefore that these men had been chosen by God for the apostolate of the nations; he hears them professing the desire of their hearts and asking a mission from the Roman see. He bids them stay with him for a while, so that through the fellowship of a common life the grace and the teaching of the whole religion may advance. To what purpose this delay of men burning and eagerly hastening? No doubt the prudent pontiff wished to see with his own eyes how duly they were equipped in morals, way of life and doctrine for the dignity of so great an office, in order to see what grade of the priesthood he should confer on each, and whom he should set over the rest. I am confident therefore that I can rightly and deservedly hold that the episcopal dignity was conferred on Severus, as being set over the rest. For this conforms to the customs of the Roman Church, suits the nature of the matter, and has always been observed. And I believe not only Severus, but also some of the rest, or perhaps all, were imbued with the episcopal character, by which they might better, more aptly and more amply fulfill the apostolic office. In the ancient breviaries of Bordeaux, certainly, Clarus is read to have been a bishop. Be that as it may, it cannot be believed that so great a number of apostolic men were sent to bring nations under the yoke of the faith with no bishop from among them set over the rest; and Severus manifestly presided over the rest.

[23] and perhaps advanced to the episcopate Our opinion is confirmed from the narrative of the third Life about the fruit of the preaching in the city of the Sotiates: After they had remained in the aforesaid place for some time and had arranged all things, the clemency of God favoring, both among clergy and in churches according to the Catholic faith, etc. I ask, how could they have arranged all things among clergy and churches according to the Catholic faith, if there had been no bishop among them? And who could have been a bishop, if Severus, who was set over the rest, is thought to have been deprived of this dignity? Finally our opinion approaches certainty by the help of the deeds of this same Severus which are related in the third Life. For thus I read: So it came about by divine means that within no long space of time he fully imbued all in the faith of the Holy Trinity with the Christian religion, and utterly destroyed the profane places, and solemnly dedicated churches in the name of God and of the holy martyrs in each place. Now solemnly to dedicate churches is, and has always been, the office of bishops. Therefore I conclude thus: Severus was one of those sixty-two bishops whom Damasus is read to have ordained.

[24] he dismisses them to apostolic labors. Of the apostolic labors of Severus the record of the Acts is splendid. Severus himself with his companions can be enclosed so perfectly in that form of apostolic men which Eusebius Eccl. Hist., book III, chapter 37 (P. G., vol. XXX, p. 291). has left drawn out, that nothing would fit better. Kindled by the fire of divine love, despising all earthly things, they go away to unknown regions, to gain nations for God: they discharged the office of evangelists, ambitiously striving to preach Christ to those who had not yet heard the word of faith and to hand on the books of the sacred Gospels. There, after they had laid the foundations of the faith in certain remote and barbarous regions, and had appointed other pastors, and had entrusted to them the care of the new planting, content with that they hastened to other nations and regions, God's grace and power accompanying them. Severus too with his companions, having received the apostolic mission, carried on the business of preaching in the same way. They imbue the Sotiates with the word of God, appoint clergy, order churches, and then hasten on to other places. As the chief field of apostolic zeal Severus chose the fortress of Palaestrion, with the surrounding region.

[25] The companions of St. Severus. Before I go on to the rest, I have decided to speak at this point of the companions of St. Severus, whose names follow from the third Life:

Justin, Clarus, Gerontius, and Polycarp; and equal to these in merit, Babilius and John. All of whom are said to have undergone martyrdom and to be venerated in neighboring places Hist. of the Monastery of Saint-Sever, book I, pp. 37, 38.. St. Clarus is venerated at Lacora or Lectoure,

where he is reported to have been crowned with martyrdom; a church and estate of St. Justin exist in the viscounty of Marsan; of St. Babilus in the place called Brocas. But where John and Polycarp suffered has not become known to me; yet the relics of all the companions together with Severus, laid up in the same casket, are preserved in the church of St. Eulalia at Bordeaux, whither they are said to have been brought by Charlemagne. St. Gerontius is read to have shed his blood on the thirtieth day after the martyrdom of St. Severus; his oratory once stood within the walls of the town of Saint-Sever. This Gerontius is different from that Gerontius, confessor, who is venerated on the sixth day of May.

[26] Severus comes to the Castrum Caesaris, where King Adrian The fortress of Palaestrion, or Castrum Caesaris, adjoined the city of Saint-Sever; and there the walls of the old fortress were still to be seen, on the testimony of Pierre de Marca in his History of Béarn (book III, chapter 8, no. 2), in the seventeenth century; their stones, in the middle of the eighteenth century, the lieutenant-general de Basquiat, furnished with royal authority, demolished in order to build himself a house and put up country houses Ibid., Appendix, vol. II, p. 370.. In the place of the fortress, which is now the Place Morlanne, pieces of precious marbles are dug from the earth with no trouble, and fifty years ago a most beautiful head of a marble statue was found Ibid.. This fortress the Romans built after Novempopulania had been subjected, for the governor of the province to reside in. At the time when Severus came to preach the faith of Jesus Christ, the fortress and province were under the authority of Adrian, whom the Acts of Severus have favored with the title and name of King. Pierre de Marca, in the place cited, no. 8, rightly denies that he was a king; yet it can be admitted with the most learned Father Labat that the name of king attached to this leading man, as happens readily in remote provinces, the Romans tolerating it.

[27] with his people is converted to Christ. King Adrian was suffering from an incurable disease, being beset by demons. Severus and his companions set out to him and crossed with dry footstep the river Alpheanus, which flows past the fortress. The inhabitants, marveling at the prodigy, announce to the king that foreign men endowed with heavenly power have arrived. And so Severus with his companions, invited, go to the king. To the king's question they disclose who they are, from where they have come, and what is the purpose of their arrival. He being thereupon converted to the Christian faith and freed from the demons by the prayer of Severus, a baptismal font is prepared with solemn rite, and the king with his whole court is dipped in the saving water. Crowds of the peoples run together from all sides. These, imbued with divine faith, Blessed Severus strives to lead to Christ. Meanwhile the enemy of the human race strives to root up the new plantings, and tries, by presenting himself in the monstrous form of serpents to the terrified, to disturb the minds of the believers; but, the hellish enemy's device being scattered by Severus's prayers in the presence of the whole people, the whole multitude of the people hastens to receive baptism. Touched by the fresh fruit of his preaching and exulting in richer hope, Severus goes around everywhere through the whole region and in a short space of time fully imbues all with the Christian faith, destroys profane temples and places, and dedicates churches to God in each place; so that deservedly, according to the author of the third Life, he holds the primacy of all Gascony after Christ. At this point I cannot pass over Severus's special insistence on preaching the mystery of the most holy Trinity. Which thing suits the time exceedingly well, and serves to demonstrate the soundness of the Acts. For, with the Arians running riot throughout the world, it was of the highest importance that new Christians should be imbued with a most exact faith in the divine Trinity. It should also be noted in passing that after the king's conversion no mention is made here of Severus's companions, inasmuch as, dispersed into different parts, each was cultivating his own field of preaching. But of these elsewhere.

§ V. On the martyrdom of St. Severus.

The Vandals rushing into Aquitaine, Meanwhile, while these things were being done and the people were being gathered to Christ, flying rumor brings horrible news: that an infinite swarm of barbarians has burst into the Gauls, that Trier has been wiped out, that the tracts of the Gauls are being defiled with blood and slaughter and burning, and that the frenzied enemy will make his way through Aquitaine into the Spains. For in the year 406 Stilicho, a Vandal by nation, had summoned the hosts of the barbarians, who, entering Gaul on the Kalends of January, devastated from the foundations the city of Mainz and perhaps also the city of Trier. While all tremble, the Vandals are at hand, a countless medley of barbarian nations; they try the barriers of the Pyrenees, yet are unable to break through. For Didymus and Verinianus, Spanish brothers, having armed the slaves of the soil, besiege the barriers of the mountains and break the barbarian onslaught. Repulsed, they pour forth through Gaul, full of anger and indignation; they confound all things with slaughter and blood; and their fury devastates Novempopulania. So great a calamity St. Jerome relates in these words, writing to Ageruchia: Innumerable and most ferocious nations have occupied all the Gauls. Whatever is between the Alps and the Pyrenees, what is enclosed by the Ocean and the Rhine, the Quadi, Vandal, Sarmatian, Alans, Gepids, Heruli, Saxons, Burgundians, Alemanni, and, O state to be lamented, Pannonian enemies have laid waste. For indeed Assur has come with them. Mainz, once a noble city, has been captured and overthrown, and in the church many thousands of men have been slaughtered. The Vangiones have been wiped out by a long siege. The very powerful city of the Remi, the Ambiani, the Atrebates, and the Morini, the farthest of men, Tournai, the Nemetes, Strasbourg have been transported into Germany. In the provinces of Aquitaine and of the Nine Peoples, of Lyon and of Narbonne, all has been ravaged except a few cities. And these too the sword wastes without, and famine within Migne, P. L., vol. XXII, pp. 1057, 1058..

[29] Severus protects the king and people, And so in this mournful overthrow of affairs blessed Severus found martyrdom. For, rumor attesting that the Vandals were to enter the borders of Novempopulania as enemies too and to lay everything waste from the foundations, unto extermination, Severus came to the town in order to look to the king and people. So when the minds of the king and people had been strengthened and were prepared to bear all things for Christ, a sudden rumor arises in the town, and it is announced that the Vandals have now come near the bank of the river. Severus goes out to meet them with the whole multitude of the people. And when he saw now the infinite troops of the barbarian army striving to cross the river, with his hands and eyes he implores the mercy of God in devout prayers: Loving and ineffable God, creator of all things visible and invisible, show a sign of your power, so that, although the whole people, ready to undergo anything for you, does not tremble, yet a visible sign of your vengeance may show that you are the true protector against all enemies. And when he had said this, suddenly the river swelled and, growing out beyond measure over the surrounding plains in the manner of a most monstrous pool, by its flooding killed the greatest part of those who were advancing in column. Seeing this, the whole army is struck down with exceeding dread, and each one vies in departing in swift flight far from the river. And so it became most plainly known to all the faithful that true salvation of mind and body rests in faith in the Holy Trinity alone, and that nothing can in any way harm the faithful of Christ, if the divine will has not permitted it for the sake of some profit.

[30] and strengthens them by his words in the faith, and is slain by the enemy. We have related the whole series of events in the very words of the third Life, not only that we might commend the holiness of Severus, but also that the excellent prudence of the holy man might plainly appear. Severus feared that a people recent in the faith might take the threatening slaughter as a penalty inflicted by the gods abandoned for Christ, or at least as an argument of Christ's weakness, as though he could not save his own. The author had likewise given this above as the cause of Severus's sudden return to the town, namely lest, through the observance of the gentiles, they should ascribe it more to a retribution for what they saw as a new rashness than for former offenses. For the error and frequent complaints of the heathen could not escape Severus, as if the gods of the Romans used the invasions of barbarians as avengers of their abandoned worship. This error St. Augustine, a few years later, began to attack and crush in his splendid books On the City of God. For that reason Severus besought almighty God for a sign of the power of the right hand of the Most High, which could strengthen wavering minds and bring thoughts worthy of God to the whole gathering of the faithful peoples. And so it was done: for a few hours afterward, the river flowing back within its bank, and the barbarians returning to their crime and, having forded the river, proceeding to invade the town, Severus went to meet them with a great band of Christians. When he had exhorted them to constancy, the enemy at once rage with drawn swords against blessed Severus and all those who had gone out from the town with him. And so the man of God, by capital sentence, near the place in which his most sacred body is venerated in its resting-place, both merited the end of his labor and attained the eternal fellowship of the heavenly life. Finally he took up his head in his own arms and carried it until he reached the place of burial, an angel leading the way. In these words the author of the third Life narrates Severus's death.

[31] [St. Severus alone is venerated as a saint, his companions from the common people being neglected, because they were not commended by their previous life.] That the honors of public veneration were paid to Severus and not to the rest was surely due both to the known holiness of the man and to his priestly honor, and especially to the miracle that happened after his death, when his lifeless body, carrying its head in its hand, proceeded as far as the place of the tomb. Another reason too can be found and another cause brought forward why those who had fallen with St. Severus were deprived in the memory of later generations of the name and glory of martyrdom. For the Aquitanians and Novempopulani were of ruined reputation because of the foulness of their morals, and the calamity inflicted by the Vandals had to appear not a martyrdom but a penalty. Which the author of the third Life insinuates in clear words, considering it the cause of Severus's anxious return, lest through the observance of the gentiles they should ascribe it more to a retribution for what they saw as a new rashness than for former offenses. The first Life too reports in open words the very bad reputation of the Novempopulani. Hearing, it says, that the nation of the Gascons (so by anticipation it names the Novempopulani) was prone beyond measure to evil. Let us hear Salvian, a man of that century and an eyewitness of events, speaking of the Aquitanians and Novempopulani: No one doubts that the Aquitanians and Novempopulani possessed the marrow of nearly all the Gauls and the breast of all fertility, and not of fertility alone, but of those things that are sometimes preferred to fertility, of delight, of pleasure, of beauty. To such a degree was the whole region there interwoven with vines, or flowery with meadows, or marked out with tillage, or planted with fruit trees, or made lovely by groves, or watered by springs, or threaded by rivers, or tressed with harvests, that the possessors and lords of that land truly seem to have possessed not so much a portion of that soil as an image of paradise. What then after all this? Beyond doubt those ought to have been more dutiful to God whom God had especially enriched with a most abundant dowry of his benefits On the Government of God, book VII, no. 2. (Migne, P. L., vol. LIII, p. 131).. Having set out this reason, he continues thus: Such then all the Aquitanians too, beyond doubt, ought to have been. And indeed, as we have said, more especially such, because they possessed special gifts of God. And what after all this? What followed? What, but everything that is the contrary? For in all the Gauls, as they were first in riches, so in vices. For nowhere was pleasure more shameless, nowhere more polluted

was life, nowhere more corrupt was discipline. This repayment they gave the Lord for his sacred gifts, that in the measure in which he had drawn them to himself by his benefits to be gracious, in that measure they labored by their outrages to provoke him Ibid., pp. 131, 132.. And shortly after: But the rest, and nearly the most numerous and noblest, were almost all the same; the gullet of all was almost one whirlpool; the life of all was almost one brothel. And why do I speak of brothels? For I think even a brothel a lesser crime. For the prostitutes who are there do not know the marriage bond; and so they do not stain what they do not know. They are indeed liable to the guilt of unchastity, yet they are not held by the charge of adultery. Add to this that brothels are in general few, and few the prostitutes who have condemned themselves to a most unhappy life in them. But among the Aquitanians, what city was not, in its richest and noblest part, as it were a brothel! Who among the powerful and rich did not live in the mud of lust? Who did not plunge himself in the gulf of the filthiest pollution? Who kept faith with his wife? Rather, as far as concerns the promiscuity of lust, who did not reduce his wife to the number of the slave-girls, and so cast down the sacraments of venerable wedlock that in his house no woman seemed viler, in her husband's contempt, than she who was first in the dignity of matrimony? Ibid., p. 132. So he, who adds still more, but of filth there is more than enough. Such were the Aquitanians, such the Novempopulani, when God handed them over to the Vandals, avengers of chastity, to be extirpated or crushed.

§ VI. On the veneration of St. Severus. On his relics and miracles.

Whether the veneration of St. Severus advanced beyond the borders of the Gauls and Spains The veneration of St. Severus in Spain and in Gaul. I have not been able to learn. That it reached Spain is certain from a document to be related below concerning the most holy head of the martyr, carried across into Spain and brought back again to the Gascons. The ancient martyrologies, abounding in many Severuses, do not list this one of ours. Neither Ado, nor Usuard, nor the Roman Martyrology makes mention of this saint. In Gaul, however, especially in Aquitaine, he is honored with a most celebrated veneration, above all in the city which has drawn from him its name and glory. But at what time the veneration of our martyr began in the place of his contest and triumph, I have not been able to discover. It is credible that the honors due were paid to the martyr soon after his blessed martyrdom. It is agreed beyond doubt that through very many centuries the veneration of St. Severus flourished in those places which he consecrated by word and blood. Ancient documents of this veneration scarcely survive. But we have received these, reworked by a more recent hand, from the often-cited Du Buisson, monk of the monastery of Saint-Sever, O.S.B., whom, apart from some breviaries, we have as almost our only authority. For this reason we judge it best to set before the reader's eyes what the most learned man wrote and copied out on the matter. We shall therefore give these below with the rest of the documents. At the present day, in the city of Saint-Sever, the ancient monastery having been destroyed, the honor of the holy martyr persists, and he is venerated with a great concourse of the people.

[33] The relics, except the head, which has perished, The relics of St. Severus at first rested in the place of the sacred contest, then according to some were carried to Bordeaux, except the head, which, carried to Spain and thence brought back not without a miracle to its former place, remained there until the 16th century. But in the year 1569 the Huguenot heretics, having entered the city of Saint-Sever, demolished the church and monastery, as Bernard d'Abbadie, public notary of that city, narrates in a certain French account, which Du Buisson, having received it from Monsieur Joseph de Batz, deputy magistrate in the seat of Saint-Sever of the Seneschalcy of the Landes, inserted in his history of the monastery of Saint-Sever Book III, p. 358 and following.. At that time a certain Lord d'Estignos, as the report went, tore the head of St. Severus from its reliquary and threw it into the public square, so that it was reduced to small particles; and thus this precious treasure was lost Ibid., pp. 373, 374..

[34] they are preserved at Bordeaux. Du Buisson thinks Hist. of the Monastery of Saint-Sever, book II, chapter 86. that only part of the relics of St. Severus was perhaps carried to Bordeaux. In which city the priest Monsieur Firminhac writes, in a French pamphlet entitled Holy Bodies Les corps saints, p. 8, that the body of this martyr with the bodies of his companions is still preserved with great honor. Particles of the relics seem indeed to survive elsewhere too in that region; but the learned men whom I asked about these matters in Gascony could communicate to me scarcely anything of certain documentation. For the rest, documents being wanting, we are compelled to omit an exact inquiry into the matter. We therefore send the reader to Du Buisson and to the instruments of his monastery transcribed by him, which will be given below.

[35] Few miracles are written down. Very many miracles are said to have proved the holiness of St. Severus and his ready spirit toward those calling upon him. Of these, nevertheless, we find very few written down. Remarkable and most renowned is the prodigy of the head of St. Severus brought back from Spain. To the protection of the same holy martyr is ascribed the most celebrated victory over the Northmen won by William Sancho, count of Gascony, of which Monsieur de Marca treats in his History of Béarn Book III, chapter 7, no. 2. and Du Buisson in his History of the Monastery of Saint-Sever Book II, chapter 2.. Documents on the miracles, together with the diploma of William Sancho, will be given below from the often-named Du Buisson.

FIRST LIFE OF ST. SEVERUS, MARTYR

from the cartulary of the monastery of Saint-Sever, edited by Pierre Daniel Du Buisson in the History of the same monastery, vol. I, p. 6 and following.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

BHL Number: 7688

FROM THE CARTULARY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER.

FIRST CHAPTER.

Severus, king of Amplicania in the East, when Julian the Apostate was persecuting the Christians, abdicates his kingdom and, setting out with six companions to preach the faith of Christ, at length arrives at Rome, and there is kindly received by the Roman pontiff.

In the time of Julian the Apostate Here begins the history of the most blessed martyr Severus, patron of the province, who once held the royal scepter. — After the passion of the Lord and Savior and his glorious ascension into the heavens, the witnesses of his divinity thundering the word of truth on every side through all the world, for the increase of good fruit, divine providence so foreordaining, holy Mother Church rejoiced from day to day in the abundance of the children of spiritual generation. Grieving not a little over the fertility of so sudden and new a blessing, the universal author of envy and inventor of the ancient ruin, watering his bitter root with the moisture of inveterate cunning and spreading far and wide its little branches of the worst savor, strove with all his effort to clothe again the sweet and gentle fruit of holy Church in the wild spirit of its ancient fierceness. From this root he produced one branch, eminent among the rest in malice and like himself, which outdid all others in its bitterness: Julian, the wicked apostate and, under the likeness of religion, foul hypocrite; whom also by the device of his guile he exalted by the increase of the Roman Empire, that he might the better exercise his tyrannical rage against God's faithful, and with most savage lordship afflict with the most diverse penalties those who gainsaid his law.

[2] King Severus, having abdicated his kingdom, In the time of whose reign Severus, a most noble king, ruled the Ambligonian ^a people. He, hearing of the persecution of the Christians, laid aside the royal diadem and resolved to lead a solitary life in the desert, that, freed from the storm of this world, he might serve almighty God in tranquil security. He preferred therefore to have God as eternal king above him rather than hold dominion over a people by tyrannical power. So he was instructed by the example of the patriarchs and prophets, proved by the signs and miracles of the apostles, strengthened by the fortitude of the martyrs to endure suffering, adorned by the zeal of the confessors for good works; among the hosts of virgins, by praiseworthy continence he merited to find the hundredfold fruit. For he was a lamp in the house of God, placed not under a bushel but set upon a lampstand, and such grace of supernal light began to shine in it that he turned the darkness of others into light; and he who formerly, borne up by the swelling of pride, had stood above many, now, gentle and humble, did good to all who came to him.

[3] in good Converted to Christ, he opened his granaries to the poor and, according to Job, warmed the freezing with his fleeces. works he pressed on and in virtues he was eminent. For, thinking it little to sing psalms with the mouth and to direct marrow-rich holocausts to heaven with groaning, unless he also lifted up his hands with his heart and fed and nourished the needy, he strove mercifully, by paying back their money, to free the crushed and wretched and those in debt, pursued with great fury by their exactors *. He never sat in judgment without mercy, because he hoped at some time to obtain it from the loving Judge. Placed in the valley of tears he sang with his mouth, he sang also with his heart: Of mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. For anger, which the Apostle could not altogether forbid, he did not permit to rule in him, but before the setting of the sun restored the pledge to the debtor. He fled rumors and quarrels, shunned flatterers like enemies; he joyfully received for Christ the insults offered to him. Indeed, since our words are not sufficient to tell how great things the divine clemency deigned to bestow on him, there seems, if one rightly weighs it, to be praised in him the obedience of Abraham, the prudence of Joseph, the patience of Job, the mercy of David, the wisdom of Solomon. Desiring therefore to imitate his Head, the Savior and Lord, he left his kingdom and all his common host, choosing more happily to bear for him the burden of poverty and to escape the dangerous shipwreck of the storm, rather than to perish with the multitude of peoples and to possess securely the uncertain superfluity of delights, knowing that it is written: It is better to dwell in the house of God with the poor than to perish in the world with the multitude of the proud and rich, and according to that word of the Psalmist: If riches abound, set not your heart upon them, and: Better is a little to the just than to possess the riches of sinners.

[4] He preferred the desert to his kingdom. So the most glorious athlete, having in his breast by divine inspiration the understanding of the holy Gospel, girded with these arms, spoke the splendid things of the faith among the barbarians. Because he panted more for the heavenly kingdoms than to hold among peoples the dominion lawfully granted him, coming down from the throne, leaping over the world, he flew away to the desert; he exercised himself in good works, living justly and piously, that the most just Judge might not find in him at the last examination anything to punish. He refused to hold the kingdom of the Amplicanian ^b people lawfully granted him by his parents, he who longed to receive an inheritance in the heavens, that from him who holds the heavenly kingdoms he might receive a fitting wage according to his labor. What more? He left the royal scepter which he wielded among the barbarians, that he might be able to attain the starry kingdoms in the heavens. So the chief men of the peoples and all the common crowd of barbarians, grieving that they were losing so loving and merciful a judge, said to him with one accord: Why do you despise the region of Amplicania and refuse to rule that people and possess your inheritance? St. Severus answered and said to

them: O sluggards, why do you tell me to hold a kingdom over these mad and senseless men, adoring idols and sacrificing to demons, when I am among them like a fish among serpents? Know this for certain, that I am among your barbarian countrymen like a lamb among asps, and it is not fitting that I should hold a kingdom any longer in this world, since I am called from heaven by the almighty Creator, from whom I hope to receive a crown henceforth. And when he had said this, he went out from the region of Amplicania and hastened to everlasting glory.

[5] Soon he begins the course of his journey with companions; Having gone out from the barbarians, he submitted himself wholly to God and his angels. He took a way he did not know, undismayed, having no more than six youths in his company; but the grace of God was with him. Their names, as the earlier ^c writings hand down, are these: Gerontius, Justin, Clarus, Polycarp, John, Babilus. And he led them who is the inward arbiter and true searcher of hidden things, who knows the secret and mystic thoughts of men. As they walked to the port which is called Accaron, along the seashore they went up onto the prow of a ship. So the sailors, by accustomed right, asked a hundred denarii for the passage; but the glorious soldiers hold earthly things cheap while they desire to purchase heavenly ones, and, wishing to fulfill what they had conceived in mind, gave a thousand to those asking a hundred denarii. Within the space of forty-six days, with the help of the divine clemency, they sailed across the seas and came to the city of Jope ^d near Mount Golmentaneus, and then walked on foot for * a hundred and twenty-three days.

[6] and at length they decide to go to Rome, Then, entering another ship, paying the price and sailing through the deep toward the northern part, they went out at a port. And, traversing that region, the most constant athletes found no one who would question them about the matter they carried in their breast. They went around cities and fortresses, to find someone who by the palm of martyrdom would unlock for them the gates of paradise. And so Justin turned to Gerontius and said: Why do we not go on to Rome? Gerontius answered: When first we went out from our region, then this ought to have been done. So the most holy Severus, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed his comrades thus: The most blessed Saturninus, having gone out from our region, became a disciple of the apostles, and, ordained bishop by the apostle Peter, was sent to preach the truth to the citizens of Toulouse. Let us go to Rome, and then at last let us hasten to adore so great a martyr. First let us beg the suffrages of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and ask pardon of our offenses, and give thanks for the benefits conferred, and afterwards let us entreat the aforesaid martyr Saturninus with all our efforts, that by his intercession we may be able to ascend to the heavenly court where he reigns with Christ, offering ourselves by the mortification of the flesh.

[7] where they are kindly received. And so Eugenius ^e, who at that time ruled the citadel of the apostolate, when he had seen the most vigorous men and recognized that they were servants of the true God, said to them: In truth we find you to be witnesses of God and most robust servants. And the life which you rightly account fleeting and wretched you will finish in a brief space of time, having laid down the burden of the flesh. The prize of the eternal inheritance which you eagerly seek you will swiftly find. Take heed, Gerontius, and be a helper of blessed Severus, knowing this for certain, that, as he desires to imitate Christ, his Head, so must you, who are one of the members of Christ, follow him by the trophy of suffering to eternal blessedness. Do not desist from the purpose of your intention; seek that you may be able to find, and so unceasingly, that you may be able to obtain the propitiation of the divine majesty. They stayed therefore at Rome one year and one whole week, at the bidding of the blessed Pontiff Eugenius.

ANNOTATIONS.

b. See note a.

* understand ab exigentibus magno c. f.

* cartulary præclaram.

* cartulary sidera.

* cartulary dies.

SECOND CHAPTER.

He makes for Gaul with his companions. Having crossed a river with dry feet, he frees King Adrian from a demon, and baptizes him with all his people.

They make for the Gauls, and Gerontius dies. Then, having gone back into parts of the Gauls, when the most holy Gerontius ^a was passing from this present light to him whom he loved with his mind and with a pure heart, the peoples, on hearing that such and so great a man had been taken from this light, began to make mournful lamentation. The Church wept to have lost such a pastor; paradise rejoiced to have received an excellent heir: peoples lament, angels are glad, provinces groan, the dwellers in the heavens rejoice. For the Christ-worshipers born of earth, always desiring to fly to the heights, do not cease to cry out, groaning: How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord. Our souls long and faint to dwell in them. O holy man, praiseworthy in the mouth of all, who so lived as to live not for himself alone but for all! After his departure, the six named men who remained alive in this toilsome life, kindled by the fire of divine love, began to discuss in the secret places of their hearts how they might be able to attain the supernal joys and the heavenly homeland. So hearing that the nation of the Gascons was prone beyond measure to evil, having the most sacred Severus as their leader and forerunner, clothed in the fervor of faith and most honorably armed with the impregnable shield, the breastplate of faith, and the sword of the Holy Spirit, like horses scenting battle, they began to long for martyrdom with all their efforts.

[9] By an angel The Lord therefore sent his angel to meet they are strengthened. them, to defend and free them from a malicious and seditious people, promising that he would stay with them, and saying thus to blessed Severus: Most glorious athlete Severus, do not fear, because you must endure various torments for Christ whom you love. Be sure of your reward, because I will not desert you, nor permit you to be overcome by the madness of those who with wicked mouth persuade you to withdraw from your Creator. I will be the companion of your journey as far as the fortress of Caesar which is called Palaestrion, where with the triumph of martyrdom and the palm of victory you will come to him whom you have loved with all your efforts. But for searching out what you cannot perceive with the eyes of the body, lest you hesitate about the heavenly promise, you must, like the unformed Church by the apostles, be given milk to drink, because you are not yet able to take the food of perfect spiritual grace. You will see, he said, first great and inscrutable wonders, and ineffable signs and portents, and then at last you will receive the prepared crown which God has promised before the ages to those who love him.

[10] Severus prays and is strengthened again by the angel. Blessed Severus, then, hearing this voice that had come down to him by divine means, poured out a prayer with groaning and great cries to the Lord, who does not despise any who perfectly trust in him, and said: Most mighty King, almighty Lord, who through the Wisdom coeternal with you have deigned to show your wonders to man, formed from the slime of the earth, who have not refused to promise us through a holy angel that your help would be present, especially when we are not yet worthy of grace, the obstacle of our offenses standing in the way, yet you do not refuse * to disclose it to us. His prayer completed, he was filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and then he was soothed by the aforesaid angel with this address: King Severus, do not fear, but wait constantly until the glory of the Lord is revealed among the peoples, that they may see and know that the hand of the Lord is not weak, and that as he worked in the Red Sea, so he can now work similar things both in the aforesaid fortress and in the river Alpheanus.

[11] For the travelers the river Alpheanus provides a dry path. Strengthened by these words and by very many others, rejoicing and exulting he went on to the appointed place which he did not know; yet he took care to hasten to the prize of supernal reward promised him. Wishing therefore to cross the river with the disciples joined to him, when they had drawn near to it they could by no means find a boat; but they, like ignorant men and sons of distrust, nevertheless affirmed that they could cross. So blessed Severus, running back to his accustomed arms, that is, to continual prayer, like the dove to the ark floating on the waves, spoke oracles such as these: Prepare your ways for us, O Lord, and direct us through the paths of your will. Unlock hidden things for us, and let the secrets of your will be open to us, what the diligence of our spirit ought to do, and show the wonders you promised us through the angel; because, as you know, we are ignorant of the nation in whose midst we are, and fear it, and we do not know the path by which we ought to go. Prepare for us, O Lord, in your loving-kindness, what you have promised; not as our merit demands, but by your spontaneous will, that we may be able to fulfill your most gracious will. And when blessed Severus had completed these and similar things in constant continuation, the river Alpheanus was divided, and the waters stood on the right and on the left like a rocky wall, and all marveled at this sign which the Lord had worked through his servant.

[12] The fame of this miracle For there was in the aforesaid fortress King Adrian, held for seven years and more by a most grievous illness flying abroad, King Adrian summons Severus,; and in no way could any physician cure him. And the report went out into the king's palace and through that whole region that, as the Lord had done for Moses and the peoples of Israel, and as he had dried up the waters of the Jordan for Joshua entering the land of promise, so he had caused foreigners and strangers to cross the river Alpheanus. The novelty of so great a miracle, as it was unheard of, so was it spread abroad by very many, raised to the height of great wonder, and proclaimed before the king and all the princes not in chambers but upon the housetops. The king ordered them to be brought in to him, and questioned them, saying: From where are you, O most comely men, at whose arrival waters flee and streams are dried up? Or what is your art, that you can perform new and unheard-of miracles? To him blessed Severus: If you wish to know from where we come, we are sprung from a barbarian nation, but I, king of Amplicania, was raised up on the throne by right of paternity from princes or predecessors. The art about which you have asked is for us none other than to worship one God in Trinity, and to adore him as three in the power of majesty. I, as I have told you before, by right of parents or

of my predecessors I held a kingdom of barbarians; but now, wishing to be an imitator of the loving Master, Jesus Christ our Lord, who, coming from the citadel of the Father and descending into the womb of the Virgin, deigned to appear visible on earth, and in his love willed to show himself humble for our salvation, that he might carry back on his own shoulders above the stars to the sheepfold the wandering sheep which had been lost as its merits deserved; for whose name I am more delighted to be a stranger in a foreign region than, seeking the pernicious gains of the world with princes, to reign in my own. For I trust in no art or sorcery, and * I do not know the place where I am; but I desire with an eager heart to render up my soul to Jesus Christ, my crucified Lord, for love of whom I pass in need from place to place.

[13] and he begs a remedy for his disease. The king says to him: This fortress, to which you have just come, is called Palaestrion; the river which you merited to cross with dry feet, the Alpheanus. But since you have come from distant regions, I would have you know that, if you can bestow on me any remedy by which I can recover health, I will give you my kingdom, and I will enrich those who are with you with great gifts. Questioned then by blessed Severus as to what infirmity he was languishing with, the king said in answer: Seven years have now been completed since I began to be ill; and I have been able to find no physician to restore me perfectly to my former health. So the most sacred Severus, seeing in part fulfilled the wonders promised him by God, strengthened not moderately but perfectly in the orthodox faith, brought to the king these promises: I confess to you, O king, that the health which you seek with burning spirit you will obtain in no better way than by leaving your ancestral errors. Acknowledge the true God, your creator, and be purified through the regeneration of baptism, and afterward you will recover health of mind and body. The king said to him: What is baptism? Blessed Severus said in answer: That which the Lord Jesus promised his followers, who is the great priest and supreme king of heaven and earth, saying thus to his faithful: He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

[14] Severus threatens the crying demons, Then the demons who were in King Adrian cried out with a mighty howling and said: Woe to you, Severus, for you are stirring up great sedition against the king. And there was a multitude of people near him, hearing the voice of the demons, but seeing no one. And blessed Severus spoke to the unclean spirits, saying: I command you in the name of the Lord to leave the body created by him, which you have tormented for so long a time; and go to the foulest places and to the punishment of Gehenna, which the Lord, before the creation of the human race, prepared for you in your pride. And he raised his eyes to the stars, he who had long been accustomed to lift up his hands with his heart to God, and praying for a long time he poured out prayers with groaning and tears: You, O Lord, creator and redeemer of those who hope in you, who have deigned to lead me through your angel to this place, let your name be made manifest among these peoples, glorifying your Son Jesus, whom you sent from the seat of heaven to the depths for the salvation of all, and free this king from the assaults of demons, and imbue him with the grace of the sevenfold Paraclete, that, having received the protection of saving regeneration, with all the troop of peoples subject to him he may acknowledge you as the living and true God and bless the holy name of your glory, who with your beloved Son and his sacred Spirit live and reign forever and ever.

[15] and he frees the king from them and spurns the gifts offered. When blessed Severus had finished his prayer, the king was freed from the demons who were tormenting him, and he believed in the God whom the glorious athlete preached. And the king said to him: Behold, your God has made me well through your intercession. I wish to submit myself wholly to your lordship and to do nothing without your order. It is clearly evident to all that the Lord brought you out of distant regions for this reason, that both I might be restored to my former health and the whole people might be freed from plagues and demons. Indeed I confess this, that none of the physicians could cure me of my infirmity, until God, whom you preach, sent you to put to flight with power the demons who were tormenting me. It remains for the business that you should receive gifts and honor, and should lay open saving counsels to all in need. And presents were offered to the blessed man: vessels in abundance in gold and silver, and garments and steeds, and whatever they could find most desirable and best of all. But the most blessed man of God, whose mind dwelt in the ethereal citadels, apart from his daily necessities, spurned as dung all that was offered him on earth. Holding all things as nothing, he addressed them again and said: Your gifts are not necessary to me; but repent of your folly, and free yourselves from a foreign nation which is to come upon this region, as your malice deserves.

[16] A great concourse is made to the king's palace. And when the king publicly confessed that he worshiped the God of heaven, all began to run together to his palace, desiring to see him wonderfully healed without any medicine. To this blessed Severus said: What do these ranks and such multitudes of peoples want, and what do they seek at the fortress or the king's palace? All said to him in answer: We have seen the miracle which you performed on our king, and how you freed him from the savagery of demons; indeed, had we not drunk it in with our own eyes , we would have condemned it as incredible . And blessed Severus said to them: In truth I tell you that if you believe with your whole heart and adore God who reigns in the heavens, who created all things seen in the fields and moving in the waters, and if you do what I tell you, hesitating in nothing in your hearts, all that you faithfully ask of him you will easily obtain.

[17] Severus orders the serpents to go into the abyss of the ocean. Then the devil, grieving to be cast out by all, ran back to his old device, and put on again his friendly or customary beast, and, as far as was permitted, armed himself for renewed hostility; and he contrived to set two serpents in the river itself at the landing where the approach for crossing lay, so that, if anyone wished to cross, he could not escape from them. When the king spoke of this matter to blessed Severus, he said to him in answer: Let us go to the places where those pestilent animals dwell. And when they had come together to the place where that crafty and cunning enemy was raging in the serpents, with hands raised to heaven blessed Severus said to him: I command you, author of all evils, by almighty God and the Lord who created you for the punishment of evildoers and who will torment in hell the souls of the lost, that you have no power to tempt or harm the bodies or souls of men whom God's eternal foreknowledge has disposed to call to sacred and holy baptism, to the company of his elect. You, therefore, serpents, take your way through the riverbed to the depth of the sea; and so, together with your author the devil, plunge into the abyss, and there you will find prepared for you a burning that will never fail you for all eternity. Not able to bear his gaze, willing or unwilling, obeying his commands, they appeared no more anywhere in the aforesaid riverbed. And the king and St. Severus returned to the palace, praising God and blessing the Lord who had done great wonders before the whole people, both in the crossing of the blessed man, the river Alpheanus having been dried up, and in the health restored to the king from his very great infirmity. And in the freeing of the people from the devil's savagery they glorified God in all things.

[18] Seeing these things the peoples are converted Pricked in heart therefore, and having experience of the wonderful works, all the peoples cast themselves at the feet of blessed Severus, saying: We beg you, best of men, to indicate to us what we ought to do. He answered and said to them: If you wish to receive most wholesome counsel, leave your long-standing error and adore God who reigns in heaven, and so through confession and penance you can receive the sacred water of baptism and the crown of eternal perpetuity. They answered with one accord and said: We find you in truth filled with divine wisdom and goodness; therefore we wish to remain with you in this life and obey your commands, that with you as leader we may be able to reach the everlasting glory which you preach. These and many other things the Lord worked through his holy confessor, as he had earlier willed to foretell through the prophet, who says that their sound has gone forth into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. So blessed Severus, rejoicing that the people had received the word of God, spoke thus in the hearing of all: If you wish to believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one in Trinity, I am ready to baptize you, because according to the Lord's command every one who comes to us must be drawn to Christ, who wills all men to be saved and rejects no one.

[19] and they are baptized with the king. So the king, when he had been baptized with all who lived within the palace, was made well and the beauty of his countenance was restored to him, recovered by God to all soundness as in perfect age or in first youth, when he was thirty years old. And he rejoiced and exulted, praising Christ the King, who through his servant Severus had done great wonders upon him. Then an infinite multitude of peoples began to come to baptize ^b or to hear the deific sacrament. And, the prayers of the most blessed man helping, the whole people was baptized, praising the King of kings, the Lord, who does not despise any who hope in him. And filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, abandoning all heretical ^c depravity, they destroyed the idols or images made by hands, advancing to higher and better things, building churches and preparing themselves as most sacred temples of Christ; that there might be fulfilled in them that word of the prophet: All the nations you have made shall come and adore before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name forever.

ANNOTATIONS.

* cartulary annuis.

for nullo modo? supplied by the editors.

* cartulary nec.

* cartulary optatibus.

* cartulary dampnaremur. Perhaps for arbitraremur?

THIRD CHAPTER.

The Vandals, bursting into Novempopulania, are driven back when the river swells at the prayer of St. Severus.

[The irruption of the Vandals being announced, Severus exhorts the king and people] At that time news came to the king in the fortress that the nation of the Vandals was coming to besiege him. Hearing this, the most blessed man exhorted them to advance to better things and never to swerve from the path of righteousness which they had promised to Christ, and to bear those men's wickedness with patience. He admonished them, saying to them all: Because the filth of our offenses presses upon us, that nation has come to wage war against us, that what the Lord said in the holy Gospel may be fulfilled: Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And King Adrian said: Our iniquities are multiplied before God, and our barriers have been made weak by our sins. Yet let your prayers be to us like adamantine ramparts before them. As our wickedness and the negligence of the people demanded, the kingdom has been handed over into the hands of foreigners. To these things blessed Severus declared to King Adrian and to all the people: Be confident *, do not fear; the Lord is our warrior and defender. If you perfectly trust in him and do not hesitate, I promise you that you will not perish, but, safe after the storm, you will sing that prophetic word: The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man may do to me. And again: It is better to hope in the Lord than to hope in princes. Cast cupidity and avarice far from you, drive earthly, transitory and fleeting things far away, strive to hasten to the heavenly kingdoms as far as your frailty allows, and according to the Apostle seek not the things that are on earth but those that are above.

ANNOTATIONS.

[21] that they may hope in While blessed Severus was thus admonishing them and making his exhortation to the people to cast their hope and thought upon the Lord, the Lord; who terrifies the barbarians by flooding the river. the infinite multitude of the Vandals came near the river Alpheanus. But the most blessed man in his accustomed manner did not desist from prayer and divine converse, and he cried to the Lord and said: You, O God, creator of all things, whose Spirit in the beginning moved over the waters, spread these elements over the dry ground by thirty cubits, that the proud may be confounded in all their strength and fortitude, and may see and wonder at the mighty works which your right hand performs, you who live and abide now and through all ages. And when he rested from his prayer, the river was raised with mighty turmoil over the face of the ground where the foreigners were staying. Seeing, therefore, the most excellent wonders of almighty God and that their devices did not prevail, that multitude of rustics and heretics, terrified and struck by the invincible right hand of him who brings water from the rock and dries up pools of water, leaving their tents fled, each one, to every kind of out-of-the-way place.

[22] The barbarians return, And the troops of Christ-worshipers believing in Christ, seeing the wonderful sign which almighty God had deigned to work through his servant, and recalling God's help which had been promised them by blessed Severus, with one accord praised God, who has done great wonders among the peoples. For all that folly of the Vandals was stilled for a little while. But he who makes eloquent the tongues of infants will fill in his Church the mouths of his praisers. By divine will it came about that, as the heart of Pharaoh was hardened at the freeing of the Hebrews, so the nation of fools and sons of perdition should be hardened, for strengthening the faith of Catholics. So the ancient serpent raged in his henchmen against the recruits of Christ, that, spurred on by his malice, they might fight in their own failure and fulfill that prophetic word: Like smoke they shall fail, as hay they shall wither, and like the green of herbs they shall quickly fall. And going forth they tried, armed, to come to the fortress *, to destroy the people who were in it, submitted to the yoke of Christ. But these, running back to the soldier of Christ as sons to a father, beg from him protection in the name of the Lord. So the most sacred Severus prayed more earnestly in his petitions, that God would free them from the attacks of their enemies. And when he had raised his eyes to heaven and stretched out his hands toward the river, it was so violently raised with very great turmoil that all who seemed to believe perfectly could recognize that the enemies had been hindered by divine means; and so suddenly the river rushed upon them that three hundred and twenty perished.

[23] but to their own ruin, Severus again strengthening the people. The aforesaid man, returning to the people, found all praying to God with one accord. And those who were in the fortress hastening out found the Vandals dead; and there was fulfilled in them that prophetic word: I saw the ungodly highly exalted and lifted up; and I passed by, and behold, he was not. And because they had no wisdom, they perished through their folly. So the people of the outskirts of that place, learning all that had been wonderfully done, believed firmly and faithfully in the God whom blessed Severus preached. He, seeing that what he had asked had been bestowed on him by divine means, the divine clemency granting it for the saving of the Christian troop, comforted the Lord's people, saying thus: Come, Christ-worshipers, do not be afraid, you who repeatedly see the arm of supernal power fighting for you; and you see those who have tried to tear down the inheritance of Christ turned back upon themselves, divine wisdom cooperating. Know, little children, that your defender, who dwells on the heavenly throne, will not allow your bodies to be torn by the ungodly nor your souls to be devoured by the most savage lion; but him you must fear who, after he has killed the body, has power to cast the soul into Gehenna. For those who without a shepherd run down like sheep, plunging through the precipices of vices, perish forever and to their damnation; but those who in this unstable and perishing region, by mortifying themselves, go by the narrow path, ascend forever with the angels of God to see the heights of the heavens. See therefore that you do not perish through earthly cupidity, and are not sunk in hell, as you see these sunk in the river Alpheanus. Stand then manfully against the ancient enemy, believing in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that you may be able to pass safely through the perilous shipwreck of this world, and after the course of this present fleeting life to rejoice with the holy angels forever. Attend therefore and diligently beware not to exchange eternal things for perishable, and not to lose heavenly things for earthly.

* cartulary xonfidite.

* cartulary theatrum.

FOURTH CHAPTER.

When the Vandals return, St. Severus exhorts the people to constancy in the faith. He is slaughtered by the barbarians.

Again the Vandals are announced to be at hand; So King Adrian, instructed by these and very many other lessons, said with a joyful spirit and willing heart to blessed Severus: Take the kingdom and all my possessions, and dispose of them as seems right to you. Only provide this, that you withdraw my body from the occupations of this world and render up my soul, which I commend to your prayers, to Christ, who directed you for our salvation, as I think. I shall consider my death good, then, if I have nothing of my possessions with me. Now there were watchers frequently on the lookout, lest the crafty Vandals should come and kill all who were in the aforesaid fortress of Palaestrion, keeping guard over it. Looking out from afar and perceiving them coming, shouting with huge din and clapping and urging one another on to battle, they repeat words such as these, proclaiming with one accord: Now, now, O bravest recruits, prepare yourselves for battle, with danger pressing, for a foreign nation demands the destruction of death against us.

[25] then Severus gives courage to all. To these things St. Severus, gently consoling all not only in words, but also uttering such things to his hearers, said: O most beloved brothers, who have been reborn in the font of baptism, imbued with holy preaching, gladdened by miracles, proved by the patience of Jesus Christ our Lord, lay aside all worldly audacity and all urban frivolity, and through faith and hope prepare yourselves to lay hold of charity and to receive the crown of everlasting glory. He prepares great gain for himself who gives his body so that his soul may escape the flames forever. Take comfort and strengthen your hearts manfully, do not fear the onslaught of your enemies, because for your protection the Lord has sent * many thousands of angels. Remember what Elisha the prophet, when the king's army came to seize him, answered his servant, who wished to frighten him: Are we not more than they? But when he did not understand, the prophet prayed for him that the divine clemency would open his eyes; and he saw the legions of angels who freed them from the hand of the Samaritans. Remember how in baptism you renounced all pomps, renounced Satan, vowed obedience and gentleness, and promised to walk faithfully without complaint on the way that I have shown you. And now you must fight against diabolical darts and temptations: for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places. Act with better counsel and reconsider more wholesomely, laying aside earthly arms and taking up spiritual ones, that you may be able to receive from the most loving Judge ineffable gifts and abundant presents, and come to joys that are not yearly but continual. Free your souls, ensnared in the mantle of the flesh, from the foulest slavery, taking refuge under fatherly love in the hall of the eternal King, where you may find most shining mansions and inestimable treasures prepared from the origin of the world. There awaits you that uncircumscribed King, whose majesty is invisible, whose greatness is incomprehensible, whose generosity and goodness are inestimable; whose love is unspeakable, whose fullness is incredible; to whom the angels minister, whom the patriarchs and most holy prophets praise together, whom the evangelists and the twelve apostles preach, whom the martyrs laureled with glorious blood adore, to whom the confessors adorned with purple ornaments make supplication, whom the virgins follow, adorned with lighted lamps of white lilies. Do not then, most beloved, for the sake of this transitory shadow despise that royal court, not only full of various delights, but perpetual in happiness. Prepare yourselves, not for the human wrestling-ground, but to resist the most savage lion who ever goes about seeking whom he may devour, that, having conquered him, you may be able to receive from so very rich a King the prize of reward and the penny of the day's work. And indeed, as you will see me act against the enemy, so strive to imitate; for behold, now is the acceptable time, in which you may be able to enter the wedding of this same King, if you have not refused to put on the wedding garment which has been prepared for you. Attend to the apostle Paul saying to you: All you who have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ; and again: Stripping off the old man with his deeds and putting on the new, him who is created according to God in justice and the holiness of truth

a. […]

[26] He (made a martyr) is greatly to be honored. The hairs of your head are all numbered, and not a hair of your head shall perish. This in your

beloved Severus, by marvelously accomplishing it, you had ordained, when you willed his head to be separated from his body. Here then, Gascony, you can perceive by open proof whether his merits can avail before the Lord, whom he so rendered strong in life against all the dangers of temptation, and whom he so exalted after death. Therefore run back devoutly to your patron; recognize what sort of gift has been committed to you from heaven. Glory in your Severus, and entreat him with constant prayers. Visit his tomb often; honor him as father and lord with your vows of first-fruits. Unless you are spread abroad through different climes by the honor of his name, if you trust in your own merits, you will be without a name, as one poor and lowly. If you wish to learn the law that the lands everywhere love, nothing else will be dear to you as your own. Do you not see how Rome, which in ancient times was called the head of the world, even today glories through all the world, by the merits of her apostles Peter and Paul, in no ordinary * primacy of name? Whom does she so venerate in the world as those whom she constantly entreats? All her glory rests on the memory of the apostles. How does Galicia, your neighbor, exalt herself, except by the grace of the apostle James? What do the people of Toulouse so much praise as the merits of St. Saturninus? The people of Poitiers wish to hear of nothing but Hilary; the people of Tours preach of nothing but Martin. If you go around the different climes of the world, you will find no other example than that you should love your patron above all. Therefore do not you alone refuse to do what you see all doing. Love then Severus, your father and lord; show honor to him whom you will have as intercessor before the Lord; flee to him confidently in your need, because he is by no means devoid of loving-kindness. On this day in each year let there be solemn joy for you; let it be always in your mind on what a day he reconciled you to Christ by his martyrdom.

[27] These things were written at the order of Abbot Gregory. These things, most beloved brothers, have been thus told because of the rusticity of a poor style; and let them not displease you, while many other things about his passion or life, composed by the wise with the eloquence of refinement, suffice for us. So much did the love of your charity compel me. Chiefly in order to obey the commands of the reverend Abbot Gregory ^b, I took no account at all of the measure of my ability. If I have rashly committed a ship without a rower to the winds, yet, trusting in your steering, I may perhaps still escape all harm of danger. Do not then search out here anything of profound reasoning, nor seek anything other than common speech; for where something is done according to simple truth for the sake of edification, there is no need there to demand the manifold reasoning of dialectical disputation or the various enthymemes of rhetorical speech. Yet this we shall add, most beloved brothers, at the close of our discourse, and with our accustomed rusticity of words we admonish you to weigh with constant attention how great and what kind of patron you stand by. Let all your intention be to attend devoutly on his service at all times. Let no weariness befall you for the sake of the world's vanity or of human levity, but let your desire ever glow and persevere in hymns and spiritual songs; because, as the Lord himself promised in the Gospel, not he who begins, but he who perseveres, he will be saved. May he who uttered this saying give you the constancy of true perseverance, that you may be able so to persevere in his service and that of his saints that you may merit to enter the gates of the heavenly kingdom, by the gift of him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* cartulary dixerit.

* cartulary quovis.

* cartulary quæcumque.

* so D. for cartulary entimata.

* cartulary nobis.

* cartulary nobis.

SECOND LIFE OF ST. SEVERUS, WRITTEN IN METER

from the cartulary of the monastery of Saint-Sever in the same Du Buisson, vol. I, p. 45 and following.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

BHL Number: 7689

FROM THE CARTULARY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER.

In the time when the monarchy of the wide world feared the rule of the wicked deserter Julian, in the western parts, a tract of the Scitic region, descended from the high lineage of his nation, there flourished a royal child, of fathers bright in rank, Severus by name, full of the better teaching.

Grown to a young man, he attained the heights of the kingdom; ordering his decree by the right of those before him, by his country's law he ruled the people most justly. At length, king of his homeland, bright in the royal citadel, he determined within himself to leave his kingdom for Christ, by wholesome counsel, and to spurn the pomps of the world. So at last fleeing and leaving the heights of the kingdom, by the washing of baptism he wished to join himself to Christ. Soon after baptism he betakes himself to be tried in the flesh, seeking the wastes of the desert, conquering the wiles of the enemy. While there he overcame in mind very many dangers, like a good athlete, always attempting greater things, wishing to overcome the enemy publicly in war; that he might shun family , custom, and honor too, he plans to remove himself as a stranger into exile. With such a counsel, he withdrew from the cave of the desert; but resolved first to turn his steps to Rome, in order to ask the suffrages of Peter and also of Paul. In this season, full of the piety of good morals, dear to the Lord, and learned in the teaching of the laws, Eugenius was residing in the citadel of the apostolic see. To him the Trinity gave just command by an angelic minister that, by receiving well the Lord's servant Severus, he should show the affection of love by the law of a good father. The apostolic man promptly fulfilled this, as the envoy had ordered in due order, and carried out the orders and agreeable things . At length, once he was confirmed and strengthened in faith, he ordered him to go steadfastly to the parts of Gascony, and with divine mind shows whatever is to come; which the devout man took up, ready for all things. Soon, setting out on his way, rejoicing in such a charge, and mindful of his commission, he began to be a promoter of the faith, and, going on his way, to send forth sound teaching, which he confirms with signs and worthy prodigies as well. At last, a long contest having passed, coming on, he determined to go to far-famed Toulouse, desiring to know the deeds of holy Saturninus. Him the natives soon receive with devout honor of mind, and reverently give as well what he asks. After their leave, and not unmindful of those earlier men, in hastening course, joined with his six companions , he soon does not hesitate to penetrate the thresholds of Gascony. This barbarian nation, savage in its wild breast, given over by gentile rite to a vile worship, knew nothing but the empty law of its homeland. In no small measure empty was Adrian, then its king, who by the protection of the kingdom held his seat at last in the fortress of Palaestrion, holding the people in check by this citadel; and this head, first of all, of a religion so empty, Severus visits undismayed and with firm mind. The rush of the Alpheanus, and his lack of a ship as well, troubled him a little, lest he be unable to see the fortress. But soon the man of the Lord ran with faithful mind; taking up the arms of prayer, he fought most faithfully with himself. Soon too the waves, divided from heaven, stood open, and a way is shown in the waters to the Lord's servants. All straightway, perceiving such things from the fortress, carry this great report to the king's hall, who, vexed for a long time by a dire demon, could never be healed by any means.

He ordered them to be devoutly brought to him. And while the king's decision stood on many things, recognizing at length that there was no deceit in them, he addresses especially Severus, full of the divine gift, more closely, and prays him with such a voice: Servant of God most high, whom the fabric of the world serves, if you know how to heal this cause of disease by art, all that you would wish you could safely ask.

To him the man of the Lord, trusting in the gift of the Most High: He is the true physician, from whom no disease of body or soul is hid, who is generous with both healings, who knows the art which your devotion asks. Soon praying to the Lord, pouring out a fount of tears, straightway the compassion of the Most High grants the king, the sickness being driven away, to have the sense of reason . There is suddenly for all the greatest joy of mind, and they come in a crowd together and ask the gifts of baptism. While, after a father's manner, holy Severus was showing them the words of salvation, the crafty enemy, wishing to throw them into confusion, by a new art feigns two wondrous bodies, like serpents gliding * in a long trail. When the king saw these and greatly feared, coming with all his people he also said to Severus: Holy father of the homeland, save those you wish to believe in you. The man of the Lord, glad and trusting in the gift of the Most High, commands the serpents constantly and with power to hurt no one, but to make again for the abyss of night. They soon make for the depths; as he had ordered, they leave the fields. For this mighty deed and first salvation all run in rivalry and seek his teachings. Afterward, as a father his children, he wishes to render them pleasing to Christ, and duly warned them what are the teachings of life.

These things being well completed and they being taught in Catholic fashion, the Vandal nation too, savage for a long age, received through Julian this boon of a gift, to attack the faith and to cut away the law of Christ. For this * cause, laying waste many places then, they rejoice and enter the strongest places of the land of Gascony. Whose arrival broke the hopes of the minds of the Gascon nation, by reason of the timid breast of the king; and soon with a like vow they prostrate themselves with their whole body, and ask Severus, their accustomed patron, to help. He soon, strengthening their breasts with holy examples, warned them rather to ask for death than for the lot of life. When these had been comforted and tested by teaching, he himself, foremost, does not neglect to go to meet the enemy wedge, with neck at last stretched out.

And so with many, on the Kalends of November to be sure, he merited by the blood of martyrdom the holy joys of heaven. Here, in death itself, he lifts up in his own hands and revered arms the severed head laid on the vile ground, and most lovingly carries it to the tomb: where * God is still praised in many signs, and is to be praised in the age that will lack an end.

* cartulary demon.

* cartulary conferat.

* thus.

* thus.

* cartulary quoque.

* cartulary indigne.

* cartulary compte.

* cartulary sena.

* cartulary afferre.

* cartulary Severe.

* cartulary mune.

* cartulary honore.

* editors for tractuam.

* cartulary hic.

* cartulary qua.

THIRD LIFE OF ST. SEVERUS, MARTYR

from the same cartulary in Du Buisson, vol. I, p. 51 and following.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

BHL Number: 7686

FROM THE CARTULARY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER.

FIRST CHAPTER.

Severus, king of the Vandals, when Julian the Apostate was persecuting the Christians, abdicates his kingdom and, setting out with six companions to preach the faith of Christ, at length arrives at Rome, and there is kindly received by the Roman pontiff.

After the faith was spread through the world, There follows and continues the history of the most holy

Severus. — The adherents of the Christian religion, although at the beginning of the newborn Church they grew from a difficult start, yet in wonderful fashion, heavenly grace cooperating, so filled the whole world that that testimony of God the Father concerning the Son, by the prophetic mouth, seems truly fulfilled: And he shall have dominion, he says, from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

[2] St. Severus, having become a Christian, considers renouncing the world. So blessed Severus, sprung from the farthest parts of the world toward the Sithic clime, though a barbarian by the harsh nation of the Vandals ^a, yet, having received the knowledge of the Christian faith, was filled with such grace of the Spirit Paraclete that he who before had been a gentile and given over to idols, now at last, kindled with zeal for the faith against unbelievers, could deservedly be called rigid and Severus. And since he presided over that region with royal dignity by right of paternal inheritance, being now wholly placed in the Lord, he was considering in his mind how to renounce all worldly pomps and submit himself without distinction to the yoke of servitude of him whose grace he had merited to share; and he had no hesitation about contempt of his kingdom, who was hastening to cleave to that King whose kingdom, though manifoldly divided among his innumerable faithful, nevertheless remains incorrupt and whole in itself.

[3] In the time of Julian the Apostate In that same season, when the Roman Empire, though given over to ignorant gentilism, ruled nearly all nations, the wretched rage of the gentiles began to blaze with such fury against the new and despised Christians that a general edict went out through the whole world from the most impious Julian ^b, who in those times as dire tyrant ruled over the aforesaid empire: that if anyone should be found an adherent of this new superstition, he should either be called back to the worship of the gods by intolerable punishments, or be punished with the capital sentence of the final vengeance.

[4] He professes himself When this, with such authority, had reached the farthest borders a Christian. of the Vandals ^c, blessed Severus, desiring through the palm of martyrdom to attain more worthily the restoration of that unchangeable kingdom, began publicly to confess himself a Christian, and truly of that profession by which the only-begotten Son of God is believed to have suffered and on the third day to have risen again for the restoration of the first man. When this was spread through the whole region, a rumor arose in all the people, with lamentable madness indeed, and with long deliberation they were at a loss what was to come of it. For, since it is a crime to violate the veneration of the gods, and fearing the imperial edict at the same time, they did not dare to enjoy his society any further; but, mindful then of his past liberality and benefits, they would not suffer any molestation to be brought upon him.

[5] He proposes to flee to the desert, But the renowned Severus, taking their ungrateful forbearance ^d ill, disappointed in the hope of his highest desire, decided to stay with them no longer. And so he proposed to flee to the desert, that in a quiet and solitary life he might without distinction toil in the service of him whose Spirit utterly disdains to rest except upon the humble and quiet. But at length, having taken counsel in deeper deliberation, he embraced that opinion of Augustine by which he is preferred who would rather bear a toilsome life than flee it; since, although those serving God alone in a solitary life can easily escape unharmed from the enticements of the world, yet before the just Judge he will rightly be enriched with a greater reward who, by laboring for himself and for others, will struggle with greater exercise against the wiles of the ancient enemy.

[6] [but, his plan changed, he girds himself for apostolic journeys together with companions,] And so, setting aside his desire for the desert, he resolved to labor in distant exile, that by preaching the grace of the divine word he might profit many, and, his flesh being worn out by many labors, might at length be adorned with a glorious martyrdom. Without delay, he at once takes to the road, and, leaving all things, becomes an unencumbered soldier, soon to fight lawfully. Seeing this, all the peoples, groaning and grieving, strive in vain to call him back from his happy purpose with prayers such as these: Spare, they say, glorious king, such madness; have regard to the height of your nobility, and, leaving the ignorance of so great a madness, use powerfully with us the royal * dignity which has come down to you by hereditary right of your parents. But the man of God, founded on the rock of faith, is found immovable; and truly Severus, he is called back from his lawful course by no blandishments. Content therefore with the company of only six excellent men, he continues the journey begun. Their faith and merits rightly demand that their names too be written down: Justin, Clarus, Gerontius, and Polycarp; and equal to these in merit, Babilius and John. Content therefore with these companions, whom divine grace had joined to him as most ready, both to undergo the labor of an undefined journey ^e, and also, if need be, to persevere constantly in the contest of suffering.

[7] divine grace drawing him, O wonderful and ineffable grace, given to the human race from heaven through Jesus Christ! Behold, he who before was veiled by original sin in diabolical ignorance, in the wretched blindness of bestial barbarians, now, light being infused through Christ, desires to attain the fellowship of angels. O venerable mind too of so great a man, who, made now a garden fit to be tended among thorn-brakes, hastens to bring forth fruits of unfading savor! You leave the throne of a most powerful kingdom, crucifying the flesh; and you who formerly, hedged about by thousands of men, were accustomed to pay out infinite stipends, behold, you are made a poor and solitary exile. In ambition of a better kingdom you follow Christ and render him the due homage foretold by the voice of the prophet in words such as these: And all kings, he says, shall adore him, all nations shall serve him.

[8] by a journey partly on foot, partly by sea, For some time, then, journeying on foot ^f, they came down to a seaport which the natives of the region were accustomed to call in their barbarian tongue Accaron. When they had reached it, they ask for a ship, and, indicating that they wish to set out for northern parts, they inquire what they owe for the passage. When the sailors, moved by no impulse of mercy, had demanded no small amount, they did not hesitate to bestow more, Martha ^g still sufficing for the newness of exile. Meanwhile, carried by ship over a course of 40 days, they return again to the shores; and then, continuing the journey on foot, they come by a direct path to the city called Impetus, situated near Mount Golmentaneus.

[9] led from the waves of the world to the immovable faith of Christ. But here the diligence of deeper consideration may figuratively detect the cause of a very great mystery. For he is deservedly described as having left the sea route who is understood to flee with utmost affection the stormy waves of the world, as a tempest threatening shipwreck. Equally deservedly too, leaving the ship, he wished to follow a firm and land route, who, freed from the shipwrecking tempest of gentilism, wished to be established immovably on the rock of faith in Christ; toward whom, what kind of man and how stable he showed himself is not to be gathered up * briefly, since in what follows the prudent reader will easily be able to understand with what constancy of preaching he shone forth.

[10] They preach in hope of martyrdom, So after they reached the aforesaid city, they range all round through that whole region, and do not cease to sow the seeds of the divine word everywhere. But, the wisdom of divine providence not yet so disposing, in that region it was granted to the faithful of Christ to gain neither of their wished-for desires, neither the gains of the Catholic faith in the winning of peoples, nor the attainment of the longed-for martyrdom: for wretched and detestable men, hindered by diabolical fraud, were held wholly unworthy of sharing in the divine word and of such great patrons.

[11] but no fruit following, they go on to Rome. When the men of God saw that they were attaining no effect in accordance with their wish, they deliberated among themselves with mutually addressing opinions what it was more fitting for them to do. So blessed Severus begins thus: Indeed, dearest brothers, it is not to be doubted that it happens by the wonderful disposition of almighty God, who fittingly arranges all things according to the opportunity of affairs and times, that our labor, frustrated to such a degree, has been able to attain no effect in accordance with our wish. For I believe that it is reserved to be of greater profit to other nations, and that for us, with increased merit of justice, the palm of the contest is being more gloriously prepared. But meanwhile let us go to the thresholds of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, that there, paying the Lord our vows of prayer, we may give him thanks for the attainment of faith; and at length, the apostles' intercession being obtained, we may more suitably discover what is pressing upon us to do. This having unanimously pleased all in the sight of all, on the counsel of blessed Severus they hasten to Rome. But meanwhile they do not cease to devote themselves to the urgency of continual preaching, which they everywhere effectively confirm by the powerful virtue of signs and miracles.

[12] The pontiff receives them with open arms. When therefore they had come there, they rejoice with the highest exultation, and with earnest prayers they entreat God's clemency that what they ought to do may be divinely revealed to them. There was at Rome in those days the apostolic man Eugenius ^h, full of the highest wisdom and virtues. He was inspired with such knowledge from the divine Spirit that, the appearance of a man once seen, nothing hidden in the secret of the breast could in any way be concealed from him. When he saw from afar blessed Severus coming to him with that holy company of his, he suddenly testified to those standing by, saying of them: O truly happy men, for whom Christ is exile, and whom zeal for the faith has wholly persuaded to contempt of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ has kindled you with the fire of his ray for the light of many. Through you a countless multitude of peoples, the cloud of diabolical blindness having been put to flight, will rejoice to be restored to the service of their Creator. You too, at length, after finishing the lawful course of labor, will offer your bodies in a happy martyrdom as pleasing victims to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when now they had come before his sight, he anticipates them with a venerable greeting, and, giving highest thanks to God at the arrival of such illustrious men, with his gaze fixed on the heavens he exults, saying: To the supreme Creator of all be praise and glory constant through the ages, who, for no cause of necessity, but by the sole immensity of his kindness, willed to restore clay-made man to the number of the angels, and through the attainment of faith has predestined you as coheirs of his only-begotten Son. And so, having perceived in their faces the blaze of divine ardor, although he had already learned from heaven, nevertheless with fatherly benevolence he inquires their homeland and names and the cause of their arrival.

[13] [Questioned by him, they answer through the mouth of St. Severus, receive the apostolic mission, and are strengthened by an angel.] Satisfying his questions point by point, blessed Severus alone, for all, set out distinctly the names of each, and then completed his response about the rest in words such as these: Excellent successor of the apostolic lot, we are sprung from the gentile nation of the Vandals and from the homeland of the Ambliganic region; but, though unworthy, we yet bear the yoke of the Christian religion. And after we submitted our necks to it, setting aside all that we seemed to possess, we freed our minds for its service, and we have come that what it is more fitting for us to do may be indicated to us by the authority ⁱ of the holy Roman Church through the intercession of the apostles, ready for God's name to bear with constancy whatever fortune may bring. To him Eugenius: Your venerable purpose will attain a happy outcome . But meanwhile we beg you to stay for some time under the patronage of the apostles, so that among us, through the fellowship of a common life, the grace and the teaching of the whole religion may advance. At the exhortation therefore of blessed Eugenius they stay at Rome; and there, a year being finished, they return again to their original purpose: and because * they were branches of that true vine, no longer

did they wish to be barren, but to bring forth fruit perpetually unfading. And while they were being troubled with anxious mind night and day by deliberation on this matter, an angel of the Lord appeared in a vision to blessed Severus and, carrying out the divine commands to him, said: Behold, I come sent from heaven to you and your companions, that what you are constantly turning over in an anxious heart I may make known to you for certain by divine decision. First, then, you must seek with special prayers the intercession of the blessed martyr Saturninus, whose relics are venerably laid up in the city of Toulouse; after that you must penetrate the thresholds of the Gascon nation, near the borders of the Ocean. For to those borders the divine disposition has predestined the grace of faith through you; and there at last the glorious crown of martyrdom will come to you. So, laying aside all anxiety, you will have no need at all to doubt, since in all these things, by divine order, I shall cleave to you as an inseparable companion and comrade.

ANNOTATIONS.

* cartulary regi.

* cartulary perferre.

* cartulary circumspectus.

* cartulary pedestre.

* cartulary indigenes.

for ἄξιον? understand lucro? Du Buisson.

* cartulary participationem.

* cartulary affectum.

* thus.

* cartulary importunius.

* cartulary palmam.

* supplied by D.

* cartulary affectum.

* cartulary qui.

SECOND CHAPTER.

He crosses with his companions into Gaul. Having crossed a river with dry feet, he frees King Adrian from a demon, and baptizes him with all his people.

[Having received the pontiff's leave they set out, and announce the faith along the way.] So blessed Severus, now certain through the angelic vision, in the morning related in order to his companions all that he had learned from the angel. And without delay they went to blessed Eugenius. Explaining how it had happened to them in the vision, they asked leave for the journey after the manner of illustrious * men. And the man of God, although, if it were possible, he would not have wished ever to lack their society, yet, knowing the divine disposition which he could not delay, rejoicing greatly in their faith, but no less suffering with them at the separation, strengthens them by exhortation with the apostolic blessing, saying: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and peace accompany you everywhere; and may he himself grant a prosperous outcome to your labor, who has poured into your minds so great and such a desire. Oh, if you were present and could behold so loving a parting, with what compassion you would stir your soul! Sorrowing in mutual charity, they weep over their bodily separation; but, ever present and undivided in the unity of faith, they rejoice to have merited to hear by divine intimation what they should do. So they leave Rome and, rejoicing to reach the province assigned from heaven, they begin the lengthy journey, making light of it as brief. But meanwhile, through all the villages or cities to which they turned aside, with how many signs and miracles they shone forth in preaching it would be difficult or altogether impossible to describe; since the greatness of the work would go beyond measure past the writer's strength.

[15] So as the course of both time and journey went forward, They reach Toulouse, and, having obtained relics of St. Saturninus when now they had reached Toulouse, they run at once to a small ^a little church; and there for the space of some hours, paying their vows to the Lord, they earnestly implore at the same time the intercession of the most blessed martyr Saturninus with prayers such as these: Excellent martyr Saturninus, intercede for your confessors, and entreat our Lord Jesus Christ, to whose heavenly contemplation we do not doubt you came long ago by the constancy of very great labor, and finally by the triumph of glorious suffering. And when they had finished their prayer, they approach the clergy of the place, who, though in lowly life, yet with pious devotion kept watch over the relics of the blessed martyr Saturninus, and from them they inquire diligently many things about his works and passion. When the clergy had related to them very many things of his deeds worthy of admiration and report, they soon began to think themselves happy, if they should merit to have some of the relics of so great a martyr; for they believed that through the merits of the holy relics all their journeys * would be of greater profit, and that in their name a new church would be venerably consecrated for the peoples who by divine gift were to attain the grace of faith, as the angel had foretold. Enticed therefore by so great a desire, they ask some for themselves from the clergy; and, lest they seem liable to be charged with rashness, they shut out every occasion of refusal by a reasonable petition in this manner, saying: Although, men and brothers, we do not doubt that you love the venerable body with inseparable love, yet, since at angelic command we are hastening to win new peoples to the faith, we therefore ask so great a thing of you, by which both all our labor will prosper for us through the merits of the holy relics, and the memory of the same martyr, a church being built in his name, will be extended with greater veneration. When this had pleased them in their sight, on the counsel of all, they distribute to them both hands of the sacred body of blessed Saturninus.

[16] they enter Gascony and stay at Sotrium. And when, continuing their journey, they reached a certain city situated on the very frontier of Gascony, called by the ancient name Sotrium ^b, like excellent recruits burning for the battle against the spoils of the ancient enemy, they began to give thanks to the Lord that they had merited to arrive in the parts where they were to attain the effect of a vow of so long a time. So, constantly preaching the faith of the Holy Trinity, they adorned * the whole city and the entire region round about with the Catholic faith, and, in memory of Saturninus, venerably laying up his most sacred hands in that place, they built a church. And although to many this may seem by no means to be so, yet from the ancient account of illustrious men and from certain letters written there on a marble stone, it is truly confirmed to be so.

[17] Thence, all things being arranged, to Palaestrion, where Adrian reigned, So after they had remained in the aforesaid place for some time and had arranged all things, the clemency of God favoring, both among clergy and in churches according to the Catholic faith, in order that the series of the divine distribution might continue, they undertake to penetrate with happy progress to the place which, the angel announcing it, they had learned to be the state and head of the whole province. For there was in the interior parts of Gascony, from the ancient constitution of the Romans, a certain most famous town, which, established for the defense of the whole province, deservedly had also such a name: for it was called Palaestrion ^c, which by a fitting etymology is interpreted the wrestling-place. In this town therefore was the frequent gathering of all the provincials, and the constant presence of the royal seat itself, with very many soldiers. And there reigned in the aforesaid town a king named Adrian, who by the incomprehensible judgment of God was beset by seven demons, so that in his material * cure both the merits of God's servants might be declared and the teachings of the Catholic faith might the more easily be urged.

[18] the river wonderfully affording a way, they arrive. To this place, then, while the men of God, kindled with divine ardor, were striving to come, they meanwhile reach the bank of the river which washes the same fortress below; it stood swollen and had grown with such a flood of waters that, forgetful of its own bed, it overflowed arrogantly here and there through the plains, and yet, on deeper consideration, was reasonably obeying the nod of the divine command. And when they wished to cross, they look for a ship; but finding not so much as a man anywhere, they all run along the bank in vain. So, thrown for a little while into confusion over what to do, they doubt about reaching the place where they expect the end of all their labor. But the man of God Severus, going before them in merit and rank, addresses his companions, saying: Let no anxiety of distrust, most blessed brothers, drive us, lest divine providence find us unworthy of its help; but let us await God's mercy the more confidently, the more constantly we do not doubt that nothing is impossible to him. So let us entreat his clemency with earnest prayers: Loving and ineffable power of the divine majesty, whose wondrous no power of the elements oversteps, and who by the sanctification of waters have recovered the salvation of all peoples, do not permit the purpose of your servants to be delayed by the hindrance of waters. And when he had finished his prayer, in wonderful fashion the water is parted, and for the faithful of Christ, the waters standing up on either side like a wall, a way is prepared through the riverbed with dry steps. O power of almighty God to be wondered at, clemency to be praised, and mysteries of powers beyond measure astounding! Which, while they perform what seems wondrous to human eyes, show another thing that lies hidden within. For as that mediator between God and the people of Israel, Moses, who crossed the sea on dry feet, Pharaoh being destroyed, merited to be the master of the law and prince, in the same type almighty God here divided the waters for his faithful, that he might declare them to be masters of the true law, and might offer to the peoples for whom he had predestined them the fullness of grace by the mystery of the new law, that invisible Pharaoh being extinguished *. And when, on the way prepared from heaven, while many from the town looked on, they had crossed the river, a new and unheard-of rumor arises in the whole palace, and the deed is at once announced in order to the king.

[19] They stand before the king; The men of God, not unmindful of so great a benefit, render thanksgiving to almighty God with the highest devotion. This solemnly completed, they go up into the town before the king, all waiting, animated by divine ardor. The king, although in foreigners, yet perceiving that there was the highest prudence in their countenances, invites them to a seat, and investigates * their homeland and their profession, or by what art they had crossed the river. Blessed Severus, satisfying him point by point, says, and in that very response in a certain way pronounces an illustrious sentence in words such as these: Most serene king, we have come sent here by divine means, though we are sprung from a distant region of the Amblicanic province, and we bear the yoke of Jesus Christ our Lord and redeemer, whose rule, since no nature of the elements seems or dares to overstep it, in his name we have merited to overcome the flood of the river by an unheard-of way. But the king, who was wholly ignorant even of the report of the Christian religion, takes in the matter under a brief statement, but reverently asks that he repeat it to him, setting it out point by point.

[20] to whom Severus announces Christ. To him blessed Severus: Excellent prince, if it would not weary the height of your magnificence, I would both repeat my discourse to you and make all things known in order in open narration. For this purpose then I have come, divinely sent into these parts, and I bring you a new mystery of religion, through which you may receive the teaching of true knowledge. For I shall show by what mediator the human race, deceived by the transgression of the first parent, is called back to the grace of its Creator; and into the fullness of his grace, if you believe, I shall without doubt lead you. For the mediator of God and men

is he, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we believe and preach as the true Son of God and everlasting redeemer of the world. For he, since the invisible essence of God the Father was in no way bearable to human intercourse, incarnate of the undefiled Virgin, willed as Lord to bear the form of a servant, that he might mercifully call back to the Lord's grace the servant cleansed from all iniquity by the sprinkling of saving water; and at length, suffering on the cross, he resolved to undergo temporal death, that rising on the third day he might free us from the perpetual condition of death. This, though divinely confirmed by the prophecy of all the prophets, can yet be made indubitable by the natural consequence of deeper understanding. For, what it is wicked to say, the abundance of mercy would not sufficiently overflow in the most loving Creator, if he did not free his image, thrust into everlasting damnation by diabolical fraud, even by some power of his presence.

[21] He believes in Christ, So the king, hearing that the men were strangers from such distant parts, in more private counsel tells them the causes of his infirmity; and he investigates, with the highest promises, whether they know any means of curing it by some medical art. At once blessed Severus, undismayed in reliance on God's mercy, professes himself a most approved physician, and says that he has learned the medical art under the instruction of that Master who knows how to cure the sicknesses of bodies and souls by his command alone: For the only-begotten Son of God, whom we believe and preach, is himself the hope of counsel and of salvation, the enlightenment of believers and the unchangeable stability of his faithful; in whose name, if you believe in the holy and undivided Trinity, you will at once without doubt merit whole health of body and soul. And the king, divinely moved by so great a pledge, both gave faith with his heart, and with his mouth, by the confession of salvation *, promised that he would do all things at his word under the aforesaid condition.

[22] and, freed from the obsession of demons At once the malignant spirit, ever envious of human restoration, in the hearing of all who stood by, began to cry out through the king's mouth with wretched howlings, vexing the king with execrable affliction, and raging against blessed Severus with the many-sided hurling of insults. But the man of God Severus, not doubting the help of him who deigned to say: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world, fixed his gaze earnestly on heaven, and turned to God's mercy with prayers such as these: Ineffable God, Creator and origin of things, God of incomprehensible mercy and loving-kindness, God, inestimable Judge, from whose just decision all things that happen come down either by command or by permission, be magnified before all who stand by in the power of your arm, and from this man, who under this condition has promised to undergo the yoke of your service, expel all the savagery of the devil's right, that, set free in mind and body alike, he may believe and confess you as true Lord in Trinity, and through him the whole people may acknowledge you as creator and redeemer of the whole world, without any cause of necessity, but by your ineffable prevenient charity alone. And almighty God, who is ever most loving to his faithful in tribulation and bountiful in petition, here too at the prayers of his servant did not disdain suddenly to be wonderful. For at once that whole troop of demons went out with bloody sobs, and, foully expelled into everlasting damnation, departed with wretched cries.

[23] he gives himself wholly to Severus and is baptized. Immediately that whole crowded court ran up, and, all marveling beyond measure, Adrian with winning devotion says to blessed Severus: I have truly recognized that you are a messenger of the most high God, in whose hand the death and life of all are set, by the invocation of whom I have obtained the health which I could recover by no art of physicians; and nothing further remains to be done but that I should commit the whole government of my jurisdiction to your authority, and then satisfy your word in all things. To this the man of God Severus said: Let us give thanks to the King of kings, who through the office of our lowliness has deigned to work in you the sign of his power. But I do not canvass for the height of earthly power, since those who aim to serve our Lord and redeemer with the zeal of perfect contemplation do not seek the hindrances of any earthly substance. Meanwhile the font of baptism is solemnly prepared ^d, in which the king, diligently instructed in the Christian faith, with the whole crowd of the court, with exultant spirit, is baptized without delay. O whoever you are that are kindled by the love of Christ, if you were present, seeing the new sons of mother Church with such haste and abundance, with what exultation would you stir your soul away from grief! Behold, to its Creator the creature of his image, the ancient enemy being put to flight, is reconciled, and a new people is renewed in paschal white garments, the king having been baptized with his whole court.

[24] As the peoples flock together, Severus preaches the faith, The report of this matter then through all the province , and it was sounded abroad that the king, on the arrival of certain strangers and unknown men, had been cured of demons without any medical art, and had undergone the worship, by a new religion, of that God by whose invocation he had merited to obtain health. So an infinite multitude of both sexes from all the province ran together from every side to the king's palace, desiring to see the king, who had recovered in so wonderful and unheard-of a way. But blessed Severus, excellent steward of the divine word, when he saw so great a multitude of people running up from every side, glad and rejoicing to instruct them in the Christian faith, the Holy Spirit flowing out fully through his mouth, begins thus: I give thanks to almighty God, who wills that none should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of his mercy, and who, through the wonderful sign of his power, by his sacred dispensation has caused you all to come together into one, that he may make you united in the Catholic faith without delay, whom he mercifully desires to be made sharers of his redemption. He is that one whose eternal essence, although it is wholly incomprehensible to any human conception; who is truly to be believed and most constantly to be confessed as one in Trinity, three in unity. He, having compassion on the form of his image immersed in perpetual darkness, sent to earth his only-begotten Son, our Lord and redeemer Jesus, incarnate of the undefiled Virgin, that he whom human frailty could in no way bear in the fiery power of divinity might become bearable, having assumed the lowliness of human flesh.

[25] He destroys the snares Meanwhile the enemy of the human race strives in a thousand shapes, by a thousand ways, of the demons and baptizes the people; and thus sets about hindering the new peoples from the way of truth by terror of himself. For suddenly in the form of two monstrous serpents ^e he is stationed at the very entrance of the river, and threatens danger of death to all attempting to cross. When the man of God had learned this from the report of all, he goes out there with the whole multitude of the people, and there on the bank of the river he entreats God's mercy before all with prayers such as these: God, whose will is power and whose word is command, here too be mightily magnified by a sign of your power before all the people, that according to the word of preaching which I have set before them they may believe and confess you as true God in undivided Trinity. And when he had said this, both serpents emerge from the depth of the river, all looking on, and, turning aside to neither bank, but holding a straight way through the bed of the stream, they do not stop until they are sunk in the sea. O clemency of the Creator exceedingly to be venerated! That the word of Severus might the more easily persuade, the goodness of almighty God effectively came to him. For at once the font of sacred baptism is made ready again, and the whole multitude of men and women, hastening in rivalry, is baptized.

[26] then he goes around through the region. The man Severus, perceiving the happy effect of his labor, sets out going around here and there through the whole region, and in nothing, as divine grace had disposed, is he frustrated in the attainment of his purpose; for wherever he turned aside, the whole multitude of the people ran to meet him in rivalry. So it came about by divine means that within no long space of time he fully imbued all in the faith of the Holy Trinity with the Christian religion, and utterly destroyed the profane places, and solemnly dedicated churches in the name of God and of the holy martyrs in each place, so that St. Severus deservedly holds the primacy of the whole Gascon nation after Christ, which, snatched from the devil's fraud by his loving labor, escaped the danger of eternal damnation.

ANNOTATIONS.

* cartulary lustrium.

* cartulary itinere.

* cartulary oraverunt.

* cartulary materia.

* cartulary allitus.

* supply with D. potentiam.

* cartulary Farone.

* cartulary investigant.

* cartulary solutis.

add, if you wish, with D. vulgata est emanante? * cartulary circuendo.

* cartulary omnis et populi multi.

THIRD CHAPTER.

The Vandals, bursting into Novempopulania, are at first driven back when the river suddenly swells at the prayer of St. Severus; but then, the river subsiding, returning they slaughter St. Severus with many others.

As the Vandals burst in, St. Severus strengthens the Christians. Meanwhile, as the grievous persecution of the Vandals threatened everywhere throughout the Roman Empire, of which very frequent mention is found in the books of the historians, the terror of them also penetrated ^a into Gascon parts, rumor attesting that they were to enter these borders as enemies too and to lay everything waste from the foundations, unto extermination. So Severus, the athlete of Christ, prudently anxious for the flock entrusted to him, began to fear lest, on account of the newness of the faith, some occasion of scandal might arise among the people, namely lest, through the observance of the gentiles, they should ascribe it more to a retribution for what they saw as a new rashness than for former offenses: and for this reason, returning without hesitation to the king, he came to the town. Having called together the whole multitude of the faithful, he said: Let no dread drive you, most beloved sons, let no force of the oncoming enemy deter you, but hope constantly in the help of our Lord and redeemer Jesus Christ, who is the protector against all enemies, visible and invisible. He is that one for whom to die is truly to live, and to renounce all things transitory is to abound in the highest riches and exultation. For since it is impossible to serve secular pursuits and divine contemplation together, he knows by divine means so to love his faithful that they cast aside all the blandishments of the world as a kind of hindrance, and make their steps unencumbered for the way of the supernal homeland, that there they may merit to rejoice forever with eternal joys and inestimable glory with him for whom some of them not

hesitated to shed their blood in glorious martyrdom; and some to chastise the flesh with vigils and fasts and very many labors, although their mind too, had the nod of divine decision so provided, would in no way have trembled at the shedding of blood. You therefore, if you desire to carry wholesomely the yoke of Christ which you have taken up, do not tremble at anything at all. Be ready too to endure the punishment of death for the name of Christ, if the cause demands; since no hostile assault can bring anything at all upon you, if the divine loving-kindness does not permit it, either by reason of some offense intervening or for some increase of justice, which indeed I rather believe.

[28] [The overflowing river terrifies the invading barbarians and destroys some of them.] And when the king, with the whole multitude of the people standing around, most constantly professed himself ready to undergo all things for the name of Christ, a sudden rumor arose in the town, and it was announced that the Vandals too were coming near the bank of the river. So blessed Severus, wholly undismayed in reliance on God's mercy, went out to meet them with the whole multitude of the people at the bank; nor meanwhile did he desist from admonition and prayer. And when he saw now the infinite troops of the barbarian army striving to cross the river, with his hands and eyes he implored the mercy of God in devout prayers: Loving and ineffable Creator, God of all things visible and invisible, show a sign of your power, so that, although the whole people, ready to undergo anything for you, does not tremble, yet a visible sign of your vengeance may show that you are the true protector against all enemies. And when he had said this, suddenly the river swelled and, growing out beyond measure over the surrounding plains in the manner of a most monstrous pool, by its flooding killed the greatest part of those who were advancing in column. Seeing this, the whole army is struck down with exceeding dread, and each one vies in departing in swift flight far from the river. And so it became most plainly known to all the faithful that true salvation of mind and body rests in faith in the Holy Trinity alone, and that nothing can in any way harm the faithful of Christ, if the divine will has not permitted it for the sake of some profit. At once the whole people of Christ-worshipers resounds with the praises of God in loudest voices, and does not cease humbly to offer him innumerable thanksgivings for the frequent display of miracles.

[29] But the rest return and kill Severus with others. But the divine loving-kindness, whose judgments are altogether incomprehensible, willed neither to leave the arrogance of the unbelievers unavenged * nor to delay for its faithful the unfading crown of eternal reward. For when after the space of some hours the water, gradually subsiding, went down and, now made passable, returned to its own bed, the whole army was kindled again with renewed fury, and each in rivalry, having forded the river, proceeded to invade the town. When blessed Severus had seen this from afar, he went out again from the town to meet them with many Christians, and pressed on with exhorting the brothers without any intermission: Be constant, he said, come, most beloved sons; and let no one hesitate to undergo the contest of suffering for God, who, to call us back to life, deigned to die, having in himself no necessity of death. When he had said this, those who were advancing first in the column suddenly rushed upon them and raged with drawn swords against blessed Severus and all those who had gone out from the town with him. And so the man of God, by capital sentence, near the place in which his most sacred body is venerated in its resting-place, both merited the end of his labor and attained the eternal fellowship of the heavenly life. Finally he took up his head in his own arms and carried it until he reached the place of burial, an angel leading the way. These things concerning the life and passion of the excellent martyr Severus, though few out of many, we have described according to the weakness of our ability, although the same most sacred martyr, already placed in that eternal contemplation, has obtained more from God by his prayers, to some of which, if the help of divine clemency deigned to accompany it, it would be worthwhile to turn the pen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* cartulary gloriæ.

* word supplied.

* in the cartulary se twice, here and after nomine.

* cartulary barbararum.

* cartulary multam.

MIRACLES OF ST. SEVERUS, MARTYR

from the cartulary of the monastery of Saint-Sever in the same Du Buisson, vol. I, pp. 77 and following and 81 and following.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

BHL Number: 7687, 7690

FROM THE CARTULARY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER.

For the clemency of almighty ^a God flows with such abundance toward his faithful that even in the places in which their relics are laid up he deigns to show innumerable miracles, by which both their merits are declared to the praise of his name and the minds of those who survive are more effectively spurred to the worship of divine service. This the Almighty has very often deigned to reveal through the intercessions of this most sacred martyr. For when the pious devotion of Christians often brought very many whom the malignant spirit had shamefully invaded to his tomb for the grace of a cure, it happened that before they approached his monastery, within the interval of one mile, the unclean spirit would burst out with the loudest cries and insults against Severus, and, compelled by his prayers, would let go the body it had beset. Nor could it be sufficiently told point by point how many times the like has happened to the many whom the torments of various sicknesses were vexing. But this is worthy of no less veneration, which almighty God has many times deigned to work by the interceding prayers of this same martyr of his. For often, when a deadly drought was pressing upon the lands, and all ran together from every side to obtain the suffrages of blessed Severus, when their prayers had been humbly finished, on the very way back they were suddenly drenched with an abundant and wholesome rain, and returned to their own homes with the highest exultation.

[2] But I think that this should by no means be passed over, for how much admiration and veneration it deserves the very narration of the thing will make clear. For on a certain occasion a certain householder, desiring to come with his wife to the thresholds of blessed Severus for the sake of prayer, had very many of his neighbors as companions on the journey for the sake of a like intention; and he allowed his seven-year-old son, whom he had as his only and dearest child, to go in the company. Continuing their journey, then, they reach the river Alfianus, and, desiring to cross it, they board a ship in a crowd, as its size allowed. And when the ship had come into the middle of the waves, it suddenly sank, and there the aforesaid householder with his wife and his only son and many others were in peril. But, the martyr Severus interceding, to whose veneration they were setting out, divine help deigned to be so present that of all the shipwrecked not even one perished, except the only boy of that householder, whom yet, as will be seen , not so much weakness of age or of strength hindered, as, it will be made clear in what follows, the decision of heavenly dispensation so provided . So a cry and miserable mourning rises from both banks for the lost boy; and especially the mother raved senseless with very great impatience of grief, which drove her to bring undeserved blasphemy against blessed Severus, because from the place from which she had hoped for the supplement of all salvation, from there she should meet the loss of her only son as well. So weeping and groaning they reach the church, and there, before the venerable relics of blessed Severus, they prostrate themselves in prayer with their whole heart. And when they had risen from prayer, they make known the causes of their grief, and they beg, with the promise of a reward, that those who knew the skill of sailing should at least bring out the little body of the dead boy, which was sunk in the middle of the waves.

[3] At once many, led more by compassion for them than by any hope of reward, hastening to the river, board little boats, but run along the whole bank in vain until night. In the morning, the labor being taken up again, they board the little boats, and, investigating more diligently all the side-channels of the river, they come to a certain very small island which rose in the middle of the river one mile below the place where the shipwreck had occurred. When they had landed here, they see the little boy, whose lifeless little body they were seeking, sitting on the turf with a cheerful face, and holding in his hand half a loaf of bread, which excelled beyond comparison all the form and beauty of our daily bread. So with the greatest haste, venerating God's omnipotence, they take the boy and, bringing him into the boat, by a swift return they give him back safe and unharmed to his parents. When he was asked from where he had received the bread, he flatly denied that he knew. But there is no doubt that he received it from angelic hands, by whose assistance, at the command of almighty God, through the intercession of blessed Severus, he came out from the violence of the waters and did not lose his living breath. So the father and mother and all who were present, astounded by exceeding joy, run together to the church, and do not cease to render innumerable thanksgivings to almighty God and to his martyr Severus with loud cries. And so the merciful God both gave back the son to his parents and, by showing the grace of his power, filled the whole people with the highest joy.

[4] On another occasion a pilgrim deprived of the sight of both eyes, while he was earnestly applying himself to prayer before the relics of blessed Severus, was suddenly restored to full light as all the brothers looked on. Among [b] the other miracles of his goodness which blessed Severus performed after he came through the crown of martyrdom to the palm of victory, he wrought in our times, with God's help, one in particular, very noble and well worthy of memory, which it is unworthy to pass over in silence. We have judged it worthy, since we considered it to be to the praise of so great a martyr and to the edification of many, to insert in this page what no one could doubt was done by divine power and not without wonder.

[2] For on a certain day a certain man, seized by the love of Christ, resolved to come with his wife and little son to the monastery of St. Severus for the sake of prayer and to commend the aforesaid little boy to the saint. And when he wished to bring his settled will to completion, he came to the bank of the river that flows down beside the monastery. By chance also, and not without the saint's management, the water had come up so high that no one could have crossed beyond it without a rower. Anxious about the crossing, looking all around, he found a very small boat.

What need of more? The man, a rustic indeed by birth, but truly noble in the faith he had in the saint, at once boarded the boat with his family. And when, not without great labor, he was trying to reach the other bank, before they touched land the boat was overturned by a wave striking it, and, the parents scarcely keeping themselves safe, the boy was snatched away by the stream and slipped wholly from his parents' sight. The parents, by no means desisting from their vow, stricken with exceeding grief for their lost son *, came in hurried course to the martyr's church to pray both for their own salvation and for that of their lost child. So the rumor of so great a peril is at once raised; the parents' sorrow is made known to the abbot of the monastery and to the others flocking from every side, and all began to be anxious about the loss of the son.

[3] At once therefore messengers run this way and that to search for the boy, in case they could find, if not a living one, at least a lifeless body. When they had long and anxiously searched and found no trace of certainty, they began rather to be anxious. And wearied both with sorrow and with fruitless inquiry, they were endeavoring to turn back. At length, looking out from afar, they saw the boy on a small island

staying. Thinking it to be something else, they came to the island in quick course by boat, and there they found the boy standing, holding a piece of bread in his hand and eating; and soon taking him into the boat, they returned with huge joy to the monastery. They call the parents, and restore the child to them unharmed. Great joy, surely, comes to the parents; there is a running together of many peoples rejoicing over the admirable clemency of almighty God. O wondrous, Jesus, the power of your martyr! The boy was further asked by his parents, others looking around, how he had escaped unhurt among the waves. He answered and said: A certain man of most beautiful form and very honorable garb came, who, snatching me from the danger of so great a shipwreck, brought me unhurt to the island and gave me the bread which I hold in my hands. At this word the whole people standing around began with immense cries to extol St. Severus, by whose power the little child had been freed from the danger of death. There is also commended in this miracle something truly wonderful, which we would account it sloth to hide: the bread which St. Severus had given the boy both satisfied the boy and seemed in no way to fall short of its measure. A wonderful thing! The bread drove out the want of hunger and, remaining whole in itself, afforded the people a glorious miracle. And this bread, in memory of so great a miracle, is preserved intact in the monastery to the present day.

[4] These miracles are yours, Severus. You were able to obtain these from the Lord, who had little fear of shedding your blood for love of him. Come to the aid of our miseries, be an intercessor for us, that, snatched from the want of goodness, we may be able to be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit. We are certainly very prone to slip, wrapped in the excessive corruption of crimes; we cannot look up to heavenly things, grievously weighed down by the hump of pride. Come then, and by your goodness strive to deliver us from such a plague, that before the Judge of equity we may be able to obtain pardon for our crimes. Behold, we are here for you, praising your merits together with lofty voices. We ask therefore that, as today we by no means desist from laboring in your praise, so you may not desist from guarding us by praying for us, that, helped by your prayers, we may merit to attain the heavenly kingdoms, by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* cartulary videbantur.

* cartulary provideat.

* word supplied.

* cartulary diem.

* cartulary filiæ.

Of the relics of St. Severus and their translation

from the same Du Buisson, vol. I, p. 85 and following.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

BHL Number: 7691

FROM THE CARTULARY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER.

PRELIMINARY NOTE FROM DU BUISSON.

It is established from the preceding Lives of St. Severus and the narratives of his death and martyrdom that he, after his beheading, took his head in his own hands and, an angel leading the way, carried it to the place where his sacred body was buried; and that together with him many others, who had undergone martyrdom with him, were buried in the same place, as is reported in the catalogue of the relics once preserved in this monastery, and in the notes of Bernard d'Abadie, public notary and secretary of the monastery, in the time of the fury and depopulation of the Calvinist heretics raging in this place. It is also established that a little church was built over the tomb of St. Severus, before a larger church and monastery were built there. Nor is it less certain that the tomb of St. Severus used to be frequented by a multitude of Christians, as is evident from what has been said above. But whether his sacred relics lay long in his tomb, whether the same tomb was in the chapel already called All Saints, or in the presbytery of the church, behind the high altar consecrated in honor of St. Severus, is not established for us. In the Breviary of Bordeaux and of Bazas, on 1 June, on the feast of St. Clarus, companion of St. Severus, it is said “That their relics repose in the same casket, in the church of St. Eulalia at Bordeaux, brought there by Charlemagne; as is read in an old inscription carved on a stone of the same basilica.” But that testimony is not proved to us, first, because it is sufficiently evident that the relics of St. Severus could only have been carried off after the destruction of this monastery, and I judge, not without foundation, that that overthrow came about not so much from the army of Charlemagne as from that of his son Louis, king of Aquitaine, as I shall say in its place; second, because we find it written that, even after the destruction of the monastery itself, the sacred relics of St. Severus still lay hidden in their tomb and were translated by the abbot and monks; and third, because it is beyond doubt established that the head of St. Severus, with its silver case or casket, was preserved in this monastery until the last century, and thereafter was despoiled by the heretics, thrown down and trampled by sacrilegious feet. Hence I would grant, perhaps, that only some part of the relics of St. Severus was translated and carried to Bordeaux, but not that all his sacred relics were translated. I append the narrative of the translation made by the abbot and monks, after the destruction of the first monastery by the Franks, about the beginning of the ninth century, written by a monk of the same age and eyewitness, who wrote the third Life of St. Severus copied above, and his miracles related here as well. He writes thus after the mention of the building of the first monastery and its overthrow, as is reported in the small cartulary:

ACCOUNT OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY OF ST. SEVERUS.

Before that time the excellent martyr of Christ Severus shone by his intercessions with such power of miracles that an infinite multitude of the sick ran together from distant parts on every side: which then so utterly ceased that it was even believed by some that the venerable body itself had been carried off by the Franks. Having taken counsel, they proclaim a three-day fast, and inquire by divine revelation why the intercession of the sacred martyr had ceased from the benefit of its power. So at the dead hour of night blessed Severus appeared with angelic countenance to two religious men, of whom one was called Theodore, the other Magnus, and he explained to them in words such as these what they were inquiring: and he reported that that place was wholly unworthy of divine grace and of his visitation, which a hostile hand had polluted with very great shedding of blood. In the morning, these two venerable men narrate the vision they had seen in the sight of the whole people. By unanimous counsel, therefore, the venerable body is carried to a fitting place, where both its former honor was restored to it as far as possible, and that same venerable martyr was appeased toward his people by his own intercession: by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

SECOND NOTE OF DU BUISSON.

It is not said here where the body of St. Severus was translated: whether from the chapel of All Saints to the presbytery, or behind and to the rear of the old high altar? Or perhaps into a chapel newly constructed, after the destruction of the monastery by the Franks? Certainly it does not seem to have been translated to another city, near or remote, since it is said that its former honor was restored to it, and that he was appeased toward his people. Whether the head was then separated from the rest of the body is not indicated to us: it is certain indeed that, separated from it, it has been preserved for many centuries now in a silver case; indeed, I judge that the pawning of that same sacred head and its miraculous translation from Spain by the ministry of angels took place before the overthrow of the first monastery. This translation is, indeed, still solemnly celebrated every year on the fifth of the Ides of October; I shall presently report its special office, as copied in our cartulary. But first I append its history written by a monk of this monastery, as it is copied in the same small cartulary.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE HEAD OF ST. SEVERUS FROM SPAIN.

Songs of praise of human beings, and the deeds of temporal lords, which do not spur our minds toward salvation, we see either written in engraved bronze or commended to the memory of posterity in letters radiant with gold; and considering these things, I wonder at our forebears, that they did not blush to cover in silence the miracle noted below of so great a king, the soldier of Christ, the martyr Severus, or why, to the praise of the supreme Trinity and of the same martyr, they neglected to hand down even on cheap sheets how, in so dire a famine and pestilence (in which nearly all in the Gascon district at that time were closing their last day), he mercifully came to the aid of all his subjects of the whole Gascon district, or otherwise wonderfully bore himself. And although I, a sinner, confess that I am less fit and unworthy to speak of such wonderful things, yet trusting in the fullness of divine grace and the merits of the gracious martyr Severus, and because the divine word shows that a sinner must not cease from all praises and vows, although he cannot fulfill what he feels, for it is written: Though praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner, do not cease from praise, because from it pardon is promised you; and elsewhere the Psalmist: The sacrifice of praise shall honor me, and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God, which no one will apprehend unless I have first shown him; and because from God not so much the effect as the will is sought, as it is written: Nothing is more pleasing to God than a good will: I have attempted to reduce the following miracle to writing, not by myself, but ordered by the pen of the gracious Spirit. First of all, dearest brothers, I humbly ask the gift of your grace, that

you grant pardon to my presumption or imperfection, since I am slow of wit and untaught in eloquence; and may the Most High himself, who does not reproach but gives all things to all abundantly, who said to his disciples: It is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit who speaks in you, deign to bestow on me and on those reading what is written below the grace and blessing which are promised and owed to brothers dwelling in unity.

[2] O how admirable is most blessed Severus, who, though he was great and raised on the royal throne, coming down from it, supported by divine help, willed to become small and lowly, like the bee. For the bee, as the philosophers report, excels the other animals subject to men. Though it is of the smallest size of body, it turns huge spirits in a narrow breast, weak in strength but strong in wit. When, the time of life having been explored, the frosty winters have laid down their hoariness and the temperate things of springtime have wiped away the icy age , at once the care of going out to labor follows, and, dispersed through the fields, balancing their wings a little, with their legs hanging, they begin in part to gather little flowers with the mouth; then, laden with their provisions, they return to the camp, and there some with inestimable art build cells with tenacious glue, some pack in flowing honey, some turn flowers into wax, some mold their young with their mouth, some enclose nectar from * leaves with the flowers they have gathered. For as these do, so behaved the athlete, the most holy King Severus, in life and in death alike, as the older writings report and as I remember having read through in his deeds, in which the miracles which he had performed anywhere are set forth in praiseworthy and wonderful manner. And because the moderns rejoice in brevity, verbosity being omitted, it has pleased me to record a few of the miracles, although by divine grace they grow in strength daily even now, to this end, that the present little work may be welcome to its readers in a compendium of brevity.

[3] After the palm of martyrdom which the holy King Severus himself attained by divine grace, he shone with very frequent miracles; and in our days and time we have seen and heard, and daily we see with the eye, very many things being wonderfully wrought. But afterward such malice of men, the sower of tares, the enemy of the human race, procuring it, grew up in the whole Gascon district, and they were piling up with sins such vices and such diverse crimes that these were hateful not only to the heavenly beings, but even the earth, which knew itself to be so polluted, showed itself as it were barren to them and for some time refused to give its fruits as it had been accustomed. The prelates too and the other religious then living in the aforesaid Gascon district in the garden of holy Church, as well as the parish priests, counts and barons, perceiving the peoples perishing under the dire sword of famine , gathered a general council at Saint-Sever; and, an infinite multitude of people having been assembled, they ran back devoutly with one accord to the most blessed martyr Severus with vigils and prayers, and more humbly begged that the same martyr, whom they themselves had seen and heard the earth and water and other elements obey by divine help, and who had always snatched them from many dangers and had been accustomed mercifully to come to their aid in their necessities, would open to them some way by which they might meet so great a danger and dire pestilence. The aforesaid king, the gracious martyr Severus, who never sat in judgment without mercy, attending to the contrition of their hearts and the devotion of their spirits, willed to impart to them the comfort of his accustomed mercy, and with the dew of fertility munificently to water the frosty winters by which the land had been overshadowed in the icy age of sterility. He appeared in sleep to certain devout persons, intimating to them that they should go to the Spanish parts, where a very great abundance of all grain was shining, and that, having obtained a supply of corn and the misery of famine being lulled, they should sow the remainder in their lands, as they had been accustomed. And so thereafter, rendering praises to the Lord, loving vigils and pressing on with prayers, they would gain earthly and spiritual fruits. And, if perhaps their means should not suffice to buy the said corn necessary for them, they should not be afraid boldly to carry to the aforesaid Spanish parts his head, which, when it had been cut off, he himself, divine power cooperating, had carried with his own hands as far as the tomb, and to give it in pledge for the grain. So when the relation of the aforesaid vision had been made, all with one accord, as above, strove in wonderful manner to render exceeding praises and thanks to the most high Creator and to St. Severus. After this, considering that their movable means were not then sufficient to buy so great a sum of grain for lulling the misery of so great a famine and for watering so great a sterility of the land most abundantly, trusting in the kindness and mercy of the aforesaid holy martyr, certain prelates and religious as well as other nobles, counts and barons, with the greatest reverence due to so great a king, received his most precious head from the sacristy where it was laid up and carried it humbly and honorably toward the said Spanish parts.

[4] The prelates and others of those parts of the Spaniards , hearing that the Gascons wished to give them in pledge for grain the gracious head of so great a king and martyr, whose flowers of miracles were shining, as it were, through the climes of the whole cosmos, answered with the greatest joy that not only what they were asking, but fourfold and more, out of reverence and honor for the most blessed martyr Severus, should freely abound for them. And it having been arranged between them and a very firm pact established about returning the said head, the sum of all the grain having been rendered and paid over to them, the Gascons left that head with frequent groans and not without weeping, and returned to those parts with an infinite supply of all grain.

And a general council having been convened and assembled again, they most prudently divided the aforesaid grain through all parts of the aforesaid Gascon district, as each had need, so that by the grace of God and the intervening merits of the blessed martyr Severus such an abundance of crops sprouted in a brief space of time in the aforesaid Gascon district that without loss they were able accordingly to pay the sum which they had borrowed *. So, a general council having been joined again, the aforesaid Gascons, as not unmindful of the benefit received, rendered to the supreme Trinity and the life-giving King Severus with great reverence manifold thanks and praises with manifold speed.

[5] Standing before him with clasped hands, having taken counsel, they agreed that so sacred a pledge must not be left in foreign parts, and that it would not be consonant with reason for the body of so great a consecrated martyr to remain without the solace of its head. So, the whole sum of the grain which they had borrowed having been gathered, the above-mentioned Gascon prelates and nobles went with the aforesaid grain to the said parts where they had left the said head in pledge. And the prelates and other nobles of those parts of the Spaniards having been convened, the narrative of the deed was recited and diligently set forth there by the Gascons; and the Spaniards, hearing that the Gascons had been able so quickly, with abundance retained * for themselves, to gather so great a supply of grain, asserted that it had been divinely ordained. Nevertheless they answered that from the time they had the presence of the said sacred head, that whole region had been shining with the flowers of various miracles; for sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf were very often restored by the merits of that martyr: and an infinite number of the sick with various illnesses, having recovered their health, testify to this in praise. For this reason, since these things prove that the said head is in a place pleasing to it, they said that they would never permit so solemn and saving a remedy for various infirmities to withdraw from here or go away. The Gascons replied to them that it should please them to keep the pacts: for it was highly unfitting that the body of so great a king should remain without its head. And after many altercations had been brought forward on both sides, those Gascons had to remain without the said head. And a general council having been convened again, the less learned asked of the more prudent what they ought to do about this. These, with circumspect diligence, the agreements and pacts being brought in, found that they ought first to pay the said sum of grain rather than recover the head: and so they unanimously agreed that they should go back there and pay the said grain as they ought. This done, and the debt paid, they still could not recover the said head; for the abundance of various miracles was shining so brightly there that holy Mother Church, which is one and preaches and worships one Lord, was wonderfully exulting in those parts from day to day. And the Gascons, seeing that by no peaceable way could they recover their pledge, their eyes drenched with most abundant tears, not leaving off their groans, as if plowing their faces with their nails, returned to their own homes. And so, convened again into one, they took counsel that within a certain day, joined in one concourse of arms, they should go to those parts: for, calling on divine help and trusting in the accustomed protection of the blessed martyr Severus, they intended with manly arms to contend lawfully by force of arms, until the pledge which they so heartily desired should be returned to them.

[6] King Severus therefore, considering that one ought to open the door of hearing to those justly asking just things, Du Buisson reads debite. and wishing mercifully to free the said parts from so great a danger as was impending, and reflecting that it was not fitting for his body to remain without the solace of its head, on a certain day, the fifth of the Ides of October, the divine clemency foreordaining it, that most sacred head was carried in a sudden flight and in one moment into this monastery of St. Severus by an angel of God, and was found on the altar of the same martyr at the hour of Terce by a certain monk and sacristan who shone with morals and the title of a praiseworthy life. And at the sight of so great a miracle all the prelates of the whole Gascon district and the other nobles, convened into one, repeating with the highest reverence thanks and praises to the Triune God and to the martyr King Severus, and the divine office having been celebrated with the highest solemnity and reverence, most reverently placed the said head in its accustomed and fitting place. And they sent prudent and trustworthy messengers with the greatest haste to that place where they had left the said head in pledge, to * inform themselves on what day and at what hour they had lost the said head. These found the prelates and religious as well as a very great number of the nobles of those parts together, not a little astounded at so great a miracle. These answered them that on the aforesaid day and at the hour of Terce a white cloud had raised that head upward as if to the stars, very many of them being present and seeing, so that they believed that head had ascended to the summit of highest Olympus. So after very many words exchanged with one another, our Gascons, returning to these parts, reported the truth of the business, as it had been, to the said prelates and others. These, by the will and decree of the supreme Roman pontiff, then prelate of the first see, in order to leave to posterity the memory of so great a miracle, solemnly ordained the festival of today's date for future times, to last forever.

[7] It is fitting therefore in this so great solemnity and reception of the head of the most sacred martyr Severus, that with rejoicing spirits * about divine things, worldly things being set at nought, we should labor with all our efforts. For all that we labor at according to the present world scarcely suffices until death: death indeed, intervening

cuts off the fruit of our labor; but what is done about divine things for eternal life is preserved even after death, and then begins to appear when the fruit of carnal labors has begun not to be seen. There then that reward begins, where this one is ended. Whoever therefore has already come to know eternal things, in his mind let temporal fruits grow cheap. Let us work such fruits as remain and which, when death ends all things, take their beginning from death. For that the fruit of God begins from death, the Psalmist testifies, who says: When he has given sleep to his beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord. For the elect of God, after they have come to death, then find their inheritance. For he who labors more will receive more wage; and the labor will be finished in a brief time, but the wage will abide forever. Let us rejoice therefore, dearest brothers, in so great a king and guardian; let us pour out our prayers more devoutly before him, that he may intervene for us before the most holy Trinity, that he may rescue us from all disturbance of those lying in wait, and guard us from the suggestions of unclean spirits, and raise us to heavenly things together with those who devoutly carry out his solemnities; that we may merit faithfully to serve Jesus Christ the Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

* cartulary detegere.

* cartulary sedulis.

* cartulary canice.

* cartulary de ter sernit.

* cartulary incidunt.

pariter? editors.

* cartulary inextimabili.

et? cartulary sterilis.

* cartulary fame.

* cartulary ibernia.

* cartulary fames.

* thus.

* cartulary genitus.

manulare, in Gascon manlevar, that is, to receive on loan. Editors. reventa? editors.

* cartulary deb.

* cartulary laudabiliter.

* word supplied.

* cartulary animo.

CHARTER OF THE RESTORATION OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER

GIVEN BY COUNT WILLIAM SANCHO IN THE 10TH CENTURY

from the same Du Buisson, vol. I, p. 151 and following.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

FROM THE CARTULARY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER.

Each mortal ought to have the supreme God unceasingly before his eyes, and to have the last hour and the final day in mind, and to pursue justice as he is able, that he may escape the torments of the wicked and come to the rewards of the just, where no wretched one is admitted, no happy one is excluded. To suffer all that is sad and to do all that is good is most worthy. Therefore:

[2] I, Count William Sancho, considering the days of old and the eternal years, fearing the future judgment of examination, for the salvation and remedy of my soul, or on account of the stability and peace of our whole realm, and in order that almighty God might give my offenses and those of my parents to oblivion, and not take vengeance for those same offenses, have decided to honor God and the places of the saints from what he has granted me.

[3] Now the occasion of this intention of mine is this: A certain wicked nation of the Northmen, going out from its own soil, was carried into our very borders, desiring to depopulate and plunder the lands which God has deigned to give me by hereditary right. And that God himself might rescue me from the hands of these most criminal men rising to make war against me, with bended knee before the tomb of the most blessed martyr Severus , that he might protect me by his intercession. And as Adrian, once king of this homeland, after the restoration of his body, submitted his kingdom and his whole self to the lordship of the aforesaid martyr, in the same way I left to him the whole homeland subject to my authority , if I should gain the victory; I vowed also to serve Christ and the holy martyr Severus in all things; and I promised that in place of a small little church I would build a magnificent and celebrated monastery.

[4] After the vow was made, I attacked the most wicked throng; and that same most glorious aforesaid martyr, whom I had invoked in aid, appeared adorned with a white horse and splendid arms, laying them low, and sent many thousands of the wicked to the prisons of Tartarus. At last, having gained the victory, I was zealous to carry out what I had vowed; and summoning the knights who possessed that sacred place, I begged them to sell me the Saint with the estate. But they resisted, unwilling to sell a free place, at liberty from all tax. Angered at this, I maintained that the place was in the allod of my fortress. At length it pleased them to hold a judgment by cold water. The hour of the day came. Unwilling to seem defeated in this matter, I sent my wife with my sons, with the bishops and elders and with the princes of all Gascony and of the neighboring counties around that land, I myself remaining * in the fortress.

[5] And when the hour was now at hand for the little child to be plunged in the water by the bishop, whereas at first the sky was so clear that no cloud appeared in the air, such lightnings and thunders were sent forth from heaven that all who were present scarcely believed they would escape the strokes of the bolts, fleeing to the small little church of St. Germain; after this, unharmed, they came together to me and alarmed me, ignorant as I was of how the matter had come out. Diligently discussing with the wise men who then happened to be with me, I marveled much at these miracles which had happened. Those wise men inquired whether St. Severus had his deeds or passion written down. It was found by those reading how that monastery had been built, and how it had been destroyed by men of the Franks.

[6] For this reason I bought that place from them with all that belonged to it, giving them 300 solidi of silver of twelve denarii, and forty-five cows, with many other things. Desiring therefore, as I had first vowed, to build there a most famous monastery, I called together the bishops of Auch or Bordeaux, or all the bishops who were of my jurisdiction, and the elders of all the counties, namely the Gascons, the people of Bigorre, Bordeaux, Agen, Fezensac or Lectoure; I established its liberty and constitution in this manner:

[7] I, Count William Sancho, who am building this place in honor of the Holy Savior and of the holy prince of the apostles, Peter, and in honor of the renowned martyr Severus, decide to corroborate this charter with my own hand, with the consent of my wife Urraca, proceeding from royal stock, my sons Bernard and Sancho favoring it: forbidding, by the authority of almighty God and of the holy prince of the apostles, Peter, to whom in Christ's stead has been granted the power of binding and loosing, and by the authority of all the saints, and also by the authority of the holy Roman see and of its prelate himself; with the confirmation of the archbishop of Auch, and also of the archbishop of Bordeaux, and of the bishops of Agen, Gascony, Bazas, Bigorre or Lectoure; with the consent of all the counts and chief men of all Gascony:

[8] That no archbishop or bishop, neither I myself, nor my son, or grandson or great-grandson, or stock, or successor, either kin or stranger, nor any powerful person, nor any of our parents, as I have said, or of our blood relatives, in future after the course of many times, no one of the clergy or laity, noble or ignoble, may presume in any way to raise pretexts concerning the revenues, goods or charters of the monasteries, or concerning the cells, or villages, or churches which belong to it, or to make any frauds or incursions; nor may they lead knights or foot soldiers out from there to the host or the cavalcade; nor may anyone take jurisdiction in the forum or the market belonging to that sacred place; nor may he presume to make any claim on its appurtenances, in waters, in woods, in meadows, in moors, in fisheries, in pine forests or in vineyards; nor may he seek any lodging from it by force or any tax; nor may anyone dare to molest the clergy in the churches of the villages which the aforesaid Saint possesses by right, or concerning all these things which that most sacred place itself may have acquired, by things acquired or given or to be acquired.

[9] No popular occasion may be afforded by any of the bishops or laity to those serving there, from * their withdrawn retreats. Nor may any bishop dare to set up his chair in the aforesaid place, or have any license of power to command, nor to make any ordination however slight, except with the will and permission of the abbot presiding over that most sacred place; but let them be in every way free and safe without any claim or disturbance. And let all bishops, who are now present or who are to come forever, not dare to lodge there, nor require any tax or tribute, without the will, as we have said before, of the abbot. Moreover, I hand over all the tithing of my substance, namely of bread and wine and whatever must be tithed.

[10] I set over these as abbot and lord of this place one named Salvator, most holy and praiseworthy in the eyes of all; and I establish and confirm the brothers living under him, from whatever parts they may have come, for as long a time as they wish to be joined to the monastery. And I command the Brothers to have an abbot, not through any gift nor through vice nor through favor nor through flattery, but according to the ordinance of St. Benedict. And to St. Peter I command the abbot to pay five solidi at Rome every single year. I also hand over all the churches in all my counties which I now hold, wholly and sincerely, immune without any tax. But all those too which have been granted * by me to any man, after the death of those who now hold them, shall return to the most sacred place. Also the church of the holy Mother of God, Mary, which is called of Soulac or of Finisterre, I gave in benefice to a certain Bonofilius for as long as he lived: and after his death I hand over the aforesaid church to St. Peter and to the gracious Severus, Goscelin and Achelin, his sons, consenting, who at first made a claim, but afterward, a price being given by me, most willingly assented. Likewise I give the church of St. Genius, confessor, where his sacred bones lie buried, where I ordered an abbey to be made under the rule of the abbot of Saint-Sever, and I grant it with all that belongs to it, with the consent of Otdatus the viscount and of Arnald, abbot of the aforesaid place.

[11] Lastly, I hand over the fortress of Palaestrion, with all its appurtenances and all that belongs to it in woods, in meadows, in villages, in moors, in waters, in pine forests or in vineyards, with all the knights or men-at-arms.

[12] I grant all that is between the two rivers, from the Alpheanus, which is now commonly called the Aturris, as far as the Gavarsuasensis; I, William Sancho, establish, decree, confirm, assign, and hand over, with this deed beautifully adorned with gold and silver, to the prince of the apostles, the holy key-bearer Peter, and also to the most glorious martyr Severus, invoking all the curses that are written in the Old Testament to come upon those who in nothing have opposed this most sacred place. And if any powerful bishop, or any of our parents or blood relatives, greater or lesser, any person, whether man or woman, tries to diminish any of these: by the authority of almighty God and of all the saints, and by the apostolic authority of St. Peter, and also of the pontiff presiding over his see, let him be excommunicated and separated from all the congregation of Christians, and let their part be with Achan son of Carmi, and with Dathan and Abiron, whom the earth swallowed alive; and let them perish with Julian the apostate and lost

Dacian; let them be damned with Nero and Simon Magus; let them burn accursed without end, with the devil and his angels, in fire and sulfur, forever and ever. Amen. Amen. So be it. So be it.

[13] After an evil act, if anyone should wish to come to satisfaction, let him restore the evils committed or the damage he has inflicted fourfold, and let him give seven pounds of gold to the monastery; and because we have handed over this same place to the holy apostolic see, let him go with bare feet, and present to his own bishop letters received from the Roman prelate. And that this charter may be most firmly believed here at the present and in the age to come, I have decided or established that it should worthily be strengthened and authorized by my hand and those of my wife and sons, and also by the hands of the bishops and the faithful.

† Sign of Count William Sancho, who ordered this charter to be made. † Sign of Countess Urraca. † Sign of Bernard William, his son. † Sign of Sancho, his son. † Sign of Godfrey, bishop of Bordeaux. † Sign of Oriolus Sancho of Fageto. † Sign of Donatus Garcia of Donagelum. † Sign of Aquelinus Atilius of Calonar. † Garcia Mancius of Bergiu. † Sign of Odo, archbishop of Auch. † Centulus Gaston. † Sign of Gaston Centulus of Béarn. † Sign of Azinellus Elzius of Samadellum. † Sign of Asnarius Elsus. † Sign of Bergomus Sancho. † Garcia Lupus of Sylvester.

* supply for example deprecatus sum.

* cartulary ditionis.

* cartulary remanes.

* defective phrase.

* cartulary contributas

Liturgical texts of St. Severus.

Severus, martyr in Novempopulania. (S.)

FROM THE CARTULARY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT-SEVER.

NOTE OF DU BUISSON [Vol. I, pp. 101–103.].

From what has been said above it is evident that two feasts of St. Severus used to be celebrated every year with solemn rite in this monastery: namely the first festival, on the day of his glorious martyrdom, the first day of November, on which he was cut down by the cruelty of the Vandals; for thus his festival was announced in our ancient hagiology or martyrology: “On the Kalends of November, in the Gascon district, at the fortress of Palaestrion, the Natal Day of St. Severus, who, after the division of the river and the healing of King Adrian and the preaching to the people, shining with many miracles, merited to be beheaded.” In succeeding time this festival was transferred to the eighth day of November, because of the feast of All Saints, which is celebrated by the universal Church on the first day of that month; and therefore this festival of St. Severus was thereafter announced on the 6th of the Ides of November, and celebrated as well. Of this transfer there still exists in our possession the bull of Pope Clement V, given in the year 1307, which I shall presently report at length. The second festival of St. Severus accustomed to be celebrated in his honor is the solemnity of the translation just now written above, which is accustomed to be announced every year thus, from the ancient hagiology: “On the 5th of the Ides of October, the reception of the head of the most blessed martyr Severus”; on which same day there is a general procession through the city. The office of this day was once of only nine lessons, and the office of the other solemnity, on the day of the martyrdom, was of twelve lessons. These special offices accustomed to be sung on these feasts I shall append to the bull praised above, which I think should be reported here.

Bull of Pope Clement V, given in the year 1307, for the celebration of the feast of St. Severus on the eighth day of November, since formerly it was celebrated on the first day of that same month, on which he had been crowned with martyrdom.

Clement, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our venerable brother the bishop of Aire, greeting and apostolic blessing. Although, for the veneration of the saints, Mother Church has thought it proper to decree that the solemnities of Masses and of other divine offices be celebrated on certain days, yet when a diversity of several feasts falls on one and the same day, in the celebration of such divine offices we judge it quite equitable and fitting that, to avoid the inconvenience of the diversity, the celebration of one of the feasts should be changed. Now our beloved son Galhardus, abbot of the monastery of Saint-Sever, belonging immediately to the Roman Church, of the Order of St. Benedict, of the diocese of Aire, recently humbly begged us that, since the feast of the said saint has long been accustomed to be celebrated on the day immediately following the feast of the commemoration of All Saints, on which day too the obsequies of the faithful departed are celebrated, and thus the solemnity of such offices can be celebrated either not perfectly or not solemnly, as is fitting, or not without great inconvenience of difficulty for the celebrants, we would deign of apostolic kindness to transfer and change the solemnity of the aforesaid feast of St. Severus and the celebration of its office to the eighth day after the aforesaid feast of the commemoration of All Saints. — We therefore, thinking it would be pleasing to God and suited to equity to assent favorably in this matter to the petition of this same abbot, command your fraternity by apostolic letters that, if the assent of the convent of the aforesaid monastery and also of the clergy and people of the said place is given to this, you are to decree, ordain, and grant by our authority what is requested on this matter. — Given at Lormont in the diocese of Bordeaux, the sixth of the Ides of October, in the third year of our pontificate.

OFFICE OF ST. SEVERUS

Formerly accustomed to be celebrated on the feast of his martyrdom [In Du Buisson, vol. I, p. 103. The lessons at the Nocturns are taken from the first Life.].

At First Vespers. Hymn.

Glory, O Christ, and adornment of the saints! Receive the praises, we humbly ask *, which we pour forth in honor of Severus your martyr.

Who, despising the royal diadem and spurning all the blandishments of the age, had conquered the world, Severus duly in name and heart.

But, embracing your commands, O Christ, he was made a dove in simplicity of mind, glad of countenance, modest in bearing of heart and mouth.

After the manner of the serpent, striving to keep the head unhurt, promptly, for you who are the Head and author of things, he offered his body here, his blood being shed.

Whom, warned by his command from the heavens, with an angel for leader, heavenly grace sent as teacher from the farthest borders of the region to these.

For your clergy, blessed Severus, renowned martyr of Christ, intercede, whom we hope for before God as leader and patron.

Glory to the Father and to the begotten Offspring, and to you, Holy Spirit, like to both, with whom honor and power are one through the ages. Amen.

At the Magnificat. Antiphon. The most blessed martyr of Christ Severus flourished as a fruitful stock from a royal lineage; from which holy Church breathes sweet fragrance through the whole world. He willed of his own accord to be deprived of the height of the earthly scepter, and desired with all his being to imitate Christ.

Prayer.

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we, as you have deigned by the warnings and wondrous miracles of blessed Severus your martyr to call your people back from unbelieving perfidy, by his intervening merits may merit to receive securely the unfading crown of eternal reward. Through the Lord.

At the Night Office.

Invitatory. Come, let us adore the King of supreme grace, who gloriously received in the heavens Severus, triumphant, who spurned the scepters of an earthly kingdom.

In the First Nocturn.

Ant. Athleta Dei Severus in Christi fide religiosissimus alta oriundus extitit prosapia, et parentum lege gloriosus heres regni obtinuit sceptra. [Antiphon. The athlete of God Severus, most religious in the faith of Christ, was sprung from a high lineage, and by the law of his parents, a glorious heir, obtained the scepters of the kingdom.]

Ant. Barbarorum regnum dum ad tempus rexisset strenue, quod legali possederat jure, cœlestis regni instigatus amore, terreni sceptri se privavit honore. [Antiphon. When he had for a time vigorously ruled the kingdom of the barbarians, which he had possessed by lawful right, spurred by love of the heavenly kingdom, he deprived himself of the honor of the earthly scepter.]

Ant. Compositis tandem regni gubernaculis, decrevit adhærere christicolis, et divinæ legi magis voluit subesse, quam dominio tyrannicæ potestatis barbaris præesse. [Antiphon. Having at length put in order the helm of the kingdom, he resolved to cleave to the Christ-worshipers, and willed rather to be subject to the divine law than to rule over barbarians with the lordship of tyrannical power.]

Ant. Dominio regni privatus altiori contemplatione est admonitus ut, ad probandum boni certaminis triumphum, solus devolaret in eremum. [Antiphon. Deprived of the lordship of the kingdom, he was warned by higher contemplation that, to prove the triumph of the good contest, he should fly down alone into the desert.]

Ant. Exorta superni luminis gratia, mox dilecti sui in tantum irradiabant pectoris intima, ut juste et pie vivendo, omnibus factus sit exemplum, arctæ et angustæ viæ proposito. [Antiphon. The grace of supernal light having risen, soon they shone so much into the depths of the breast of their beloved one, that, by living justly and piously, he became an example to all, in the purpose of the strait and narrow way.]

Ant. Fortis ut athleta, postquam plurima tentationum vicit pericula, arctiori divini amoris ardore succensus et peregrinationis studio est incitatus. [Antiphon. As a strong athlete, after he had conquered very many dangers of temptations, he was kindled by a closer ardor of divine love and spurred by zeal for pilgrimage.]

After Lesson I. ℞. The glorious martyr of the Lord Severus, full of the grace of virtues, wishing to flee the favor of the people, took on the labor of pilgrimage. * And, spurning all the honor of his patrimony, he was no deaf hearer of the Gospel. ℣. Inspired by divine grace and strengthened by the constancy of faith, he perfectly imitated Christ. And, spurning.

After Lesson II. ℞. He chose certain men privy to this secret and constant companions in the purpose undertaken; * and by common decree of these he went to Rome to ask the suffrages of the apostles. ℣. Not without the counsel of divine goodness, he willed first of all to be supported by the blessing of apostolic authority. And by common.

After Lesson III. ℞. In that season Higenius, by the gift of divine clemency, governed the citadel of the apostolate with skilled providence. When he saw Severus with his companions, * he soon knew that the grace of God was with them. ℣. Truly a zealous follower of charity, he honorably received them with every office of humanity. Soon.

After Lesson IV. ℞. After some time had rolled by, unwilling to delay in their purpose those imbued with saving warnings, * he prophesied to them of their future suffering, by the presage of the divine mind. ℣. The prize, little sons, of the eternal inheritance, which you eagerly seek, you will swiftly find. Of their future suffering. Glory be.

In the Second Nocturn.

Ant. Gloriosus Severus apostolica benedictione confortatus, pro Christo sustinere volens passionem, iter devertit ad barbarorum nationem. [Antiphon. The glorious Severus, comforted by the apostolic blessing, wishing to endure suffering for Christ, turned aside his journey to the nation of the barbarians.]

Ant. Hæsitanti in cœpto proposito, taliter angelico monitus est alloquio: Gloriose agonista, Severe, noli quasi dubius timere; per triumphum passionis, obtinebis palmam æternæ remunerationis. [Antiphon. As he hesitated in the purpose begun, he was warned thus by angelic address: Glorious athlete, Severus, do not fear as if in doubt; through the triumph of your suffering, you will obtain the palm of eternal reward.]

Ant. Ista voce dilectus Deo confortatus, socios sui itineris est consolatus, ut confidenter coronam victoriæ sperarent et ab incepto se non retardarent. [Antiphon. Comforted by this voice, the beloved of God consoled the companions of his journey, that they might confidently hope for the crown of victory and not hold themselves back from what they had begun.]

Ant. Charismate divino plenus, ut supernæ prævisioni placuit, ad barbaras nationes Vasconum pervenit, ubi ad comprobandum sua merita plura ostendit Dominus miracula. [Antiphon. Full of the divine charism, as it pleased supernal foresight, he came to the barbarian nations of the Gascons, where to approve his merits the Lord showed many miracles.]

Ant. Luminis superni comitatus jubare, in primis divertit ad castellum Palæstrion nomine, ubi tunc sedes erat regia, cujus lege coercebantur totius imperii frena. [Antiphon. Accompanied by the radiance of supernal light, he turned aside first of all to the fortress named Palaestrion, where the royal seat then was, by whose law the reins of the whole realm were held in check.]

Ant. Mirum in modum Alpheano appropinquantes fluvio, impediti navigio, sed ad solita sanctus Severus recurrens arma, mox subvenit misericordia divina. [Antiphon. Wonderfully, as they drew near the river Alpheanus, hindered for want of a boat, but St. Severus running back to his accustomed arms, soon the divine mercy came to their aid.]

After Lesson V. ℞. The divine clemency coming to their aid, through the middle of the divided river the bed was made a dry * way in the deep. ℣. As St. Severus crossed by it with his companions, a great miracle was done for the natives. Way.

After Lesson VI. ℞. Struck by the fame of so great a miracle, Adrian, king of that land, ordered them to be brought to him, * and with reverence of humility received them honorably. ℣. This novelty of a prodigy having been spread abroad, he began to treat them with all humanity. And with reverence.

After Lesson VII. ℞. This Adrian was held by a most grievous infirmity; no physician could cure him; * now despairing of his health, he addresses Severus and begs him to pray to the Lord for him. ℣. Servant of God most high, if through you I should be restored to health, I would give you my kingdom, and adorn your companions with great gifts. Now despairing.

After Lesson VIII. ℞. Blessed Severus, hearing of the king's infirmity, and seeing the humility of his contrite heart, addresses him with such words: * If through the regeneration of baptism you are purified, and confess the true God your Creator: ℣. All diseases being removed, you will recover health of soul

and body. If through. Glory be. If through.

Prose. By confessing the true Lord and the one Creator of the heavens, perfect in Trinity, and no other besides him: (He stands as Judge of all the living and the dead,) baptized, you will see wonders, for you will be enriched * with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and you will truly obtain health of body.

At the Canticles. Ant. Alma Superni gratia donante, sanctoque Severo orante, post baptismi regenerationem, rex integram adeptus est curationem. Quod videntes sui, cœperunt laudare magnalia Dei. [Antiphon. The gracious favor of the Most High granting it, and St. Severus praying, after the regeneration of baptism the king obtained a complete cure. Seeing this, his people began to praise the mighty works of God.]

After Lesson IX. ℞. As blessed Severus was showing the word of salvation to the people, the king addresses him thus: O most holy man, rescue us from the one danger that remains, * that all this people may believe in the Lord through you. ℣. Drive away by your prayers two monstrous serpents, long besetting this landing of the river and polluting the whole homeland with noxious plague. That all.

After Lesson X. ℞. Soon the man of the Lord, desiring to strengthen the heart of the people about to believe * by the power of a divine miracle, trusting in God's mercy, together with the king and all the people, went undismayed to the place. ℣. And when he had come there, and had finished the words of his prayer, the dragons, obeying his command, withdrew into the depth of the abyss. By.

After Lesson XI. ℞. At the sight of such miracles great joy arose among the peoples, and, falling down at the feet of blessed Severus, they begged * that they might merit to be baptized by him. ℣. They began with one accord to glorify God, and, pricked in heart, to petition St. Severus. That.

After Lesson XII. ℞. Let us exult with all gladness of heart in this special solemnity of our father Severus, on which he was made a glorious senator of heaven, * he who was preacher of all Gascony. ℣. He was received today to behold the face of the eternal King; today he merited a throne among those who with Christ are to judge this world. He who of all. Glory be. He who of all.

Prose. In the hall of the heavenly palace, joined to the immortal Judge, exalted on the twelvefold throne, he rejoices together in the judgment. He holds the huge * ministry of judge of the twelve tribes; he draws the weight burdened by crime in open examination. In the apostolic choir, no less in merit, added to the power of binding and loosing; through the worthy price of blood, a shining gem and flower of martyrs: where he will be our intercessor and will obtain pardon for our offenses, helper and loving intervener.

At Lauds.

Ant. Baptizatis et perfecte in Christi fide confortatis, se ipsum cunctis pro exemplo monstravit, et ad majora quotidie provocavit. [Antiphon. When they had been baptized and perfectly strengthened in the faith of Christ, he showed himself as an example to all, and daily urged them on to greater things.]

Ant. Crescente numero fidelium, christiana religione Vasconia illuminatur et sanctus Severus ut pater ab omnibus honoratur. [Antiphon. As the number of the faithful grows, Gascony is enlightened with the Christian religion, and St. Severus is honored by all as a father.]

Ant. Dum vir beatus pabulo vitæ reficeret eos provide, sciens sibi appropinquare passionem, hostili manu prædixit eis venturam Wandalorum nationem. [Antiphon. While the blessed man was providently refreshing them with the food of life, knowing that his suffering was drawing near, he foretold to them that the nation of the Vandals would come with hostile hand.]

Ant. Ea tempestate, gens Wandalorum persecuta est religionem christianorum, et ut prædictum est per sanctum Severum, veritas mox secuta est rerum. [Antiphon. In that season the nation of the Vandals persecuted the religion of the Christians, and, as was foretold by St. Severus, the truth of events soon followed.]

Ant. Forti manu venientes, Wandali obsederunt ripam fluminis Alpheani; sed, orante S. Severo, præter solitum excessit alveum, et dimovit exercitum paganorum. [Antiphon. Coming with a strong hand, the Vandals besieged the bank of the river Alpheanus; but, St. Severus praying, beyond its wont it overflowed its bed and drove off the army of the pagans.]

At the Chapter. ℞. Martyr Severus, hail; give us the joys of life. ℣. Hear the groans of your servants. ℞. Give us. Glory be. Martyr Severus.

Hymn.

God, our only hope, from whom all things subsist, by nature's own law, which truly are in essence:

To you with earnest prayers we pour out the tears of the heart: have mercy, most loving One, and appeased, look upon us.

Our faults deserving it, we wither in grief, and, ills threatening, we fail, almost conquered.

But, maker of the fabric of the world, whom nothing can deceive, who rule all things by the governance of your knowledge:

Pour into our senses the fire of the Holy Spirit, that it may make the dwelling of the heart pleasing to you.

May your clemency drive away all kinds of evils, and where crimes press us down may your right hand raise us up.

May the loving intercession of the sacred martyr Severus aid your servants, and enrich them with the reward of life.

You then, renowned martyr, protect us before God, whither you have merited to climb, your sacred blood being shed.

Glory be to the Triune God, through infinite ages, whom the Catholic faith believes one in substance. Amen.

At the Benedictus. Ant. Gloriosus martyr Domini Severus omni virtutum perfectione plenus, cognoscens instare ejus vitæ terminum, suis administravit verbi viaticum, et tradidit se pro eis spontanee martyrio, exultans et gaudens in Domino, cui gloria et imperium per secula seculorum. [Antiphon. The glorious martyr of the Lord Severus, full of all perfection of virtues, knowing that the end of his life was at hand, administered to his own the viaticum of the word, and gave himself up for them of his own accord to martyrdom, exulting and rejoicing in the Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever.]

At Terce.

Antiphon. Let us all rejoice together in the Lord, proclaiming the yearly solemnities; and may the blessed athlete of Christ Severus be present to us, and free us from the shipwrecks of the world, and refresh us with heavenly foods; who restored to his parents unhurt, and wonderfully enriched with heavenly bread, a boy sunk in the waves for a day and a night. Alleluia. Alleluia.

At Second Vespers. Hymn.

With the voices of the heart let us all resound harmonious praises, rejoicing to the King of all kings, by the merits of Severus, his gracious soldier.

Flooded with the ray of eternal light, despising the wandering scepters of vanity, that he might be enriched with crowns in the ethereal hall.

What the old Moses once did in the sea, that the new Moses here now did in the stream: the former then with a rod the sea; this one by his voice alone puts the waves to flight.

He himself became salvation to the king who met him, while an iniquitous plague was tearing him, filled now with a demonic throng, in a sevenfold ring.

Hence we, present and singing, ask that you may cleanse all the stains of the heart; grant us to enjoy the flashing riches on high.

Let there be perpetual salvation and adornment to the Lord, who rules the whole cosmos without end, one and three, residing in the citadel all ages.

At the Magnificat. Ant. Today the distinguished Severus, patron of Gascony, by the obtaining of devout prayer, the Alpheanus rising, drove off the onslaught of the Vandals. Today with many others he attained martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. Today, by the service of angels, he carried his own head as far as the place of the tomb: to him be honor and glory who granted these benefits to him.

Prayer. Almighty everlasting God, who have disposed that blessed Severus your martyr should be our renowned patron: grant, by the protection of his intercession, that we may be so free from the filth of all vices that we may merit happily to reach the height of your blessedness. Through the Lord.

Prayers through the Octave. God, who deign to show us many benefits through blessed Severus your martyr: raise us daily to higher gifts; that we, who devoutly attend his most sacred body, may at some time be joined to his spirit in heaven. Through the Lord.

God, who adorned with a glorious martyrdom blessed Severus, who spurned for you the heights of transitory dignity, and clothed him with the robe of everlasting gladness: grant that, by spurning earthly things and perfectly imitating him whom you gave us here as an excellent teacher, we may feel him before you as loving patron and defender. Through the Lord.

We humbly implore your immense clemency, almighty God, that we, who, hindered by the frailty of the flesh, sin innumerably, may be helped by the prayers of the most blessed Severus your martyr; that, whose most sacred body we here venerably embrace with loving affection, by the help of his merits, we may be freed from all adversity. Through the Lord.

Look down, O Lord, from heaven and see, and visit this place of blessed Severus your martyr with its inhabitants; and protect it from the incursion of hostile wickedness, and from the snares of unclean spirits and of lightning tempests, and also from the dangers of raging fire; nor may we be involved in the sins of others, who are not able to answer * for our own offenses. Through the Lord.

OFFICE.

At the reception, otherwise translation, of the head of the most holy Severus, carried from the parts of Spain. At Vespers.

At the Chapter. ℞. The most holy soldier of Christ Severus, now the loving defender and patron of the Gascon nation, strengthened the believing people in the faith by the teaching of salvation and regenerated them in Christ by baptism, * and ever comes soon to their aid in their necessities. ℣. Today an angel brought his head from the Spanish parts, and laid it here, that it may profit us. And ever. Glory be.

At the Magnificat. Ant. Renowned senator of the palace of the heavens, Severus, by your prayers lift up the people who daily honor your noble triumphs; and you who, laying aside the diadem, as a new recruit divided the course of the river, and, having passed through it, cleansed the whole Gascon nation with the water of baptism: deign to intercede for us before him who today ordered your head to be carried here from the Spanish parts by his angel: that with you we may merit to be enrolled among the citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

Prayer. God, who on this day willed the most precious head of the life-giving king, your martyr Severus, to be wonderfully carried from the Spanish parts into this your monastery by your angel in sudden flight: graciously grant that we who celebrate his solemnities may obtain whatever we ask in the name of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the prayers and merits of so great a king and martyr. Through the same.

At Lauds.

At the Benedictus. Ant. Distinguished athlete of the Lord, Severus, adorned with the noble triumph of suffering, sacrificed as a living victim to God for your own, intercede for us before him, or for our sins, who today ordered your head to be carried here from foreign borders by his angel: we ask you not to desist from governing us by your intervention, and from saving us here forever from all dangers.

Lessons on St. Severus.

From the Proper of Auch. — Severus and Gerontius with certain companions, according to the ancient records of Gascony, were sent to preach the faith of Christ to this region. They were slaughtered in hatred of the Christian faith by the barbarians who, in the reign of Honorius, at the beginning of the fifth century, inflicted very great calamities in those parts. They shed their blood in the territory of Aire, in which there stood a celebrated monastery distinguished by the name of St. Severus and anciently built under his invocation. There Severus is honored with great solemnity as a martyr and the apostolic man of the whole region. Not far from the monastery of St. Severus there once stood a monastery known by the name of St. Gerontius, whose much-adorned basilica, rich in sacred furnishings, was despoiled by the Calvinists.

From the Proper of Tarbes. Severus and Gerontius, sprung from the Vandals, with certain companions, according to the ancient records of Gascony, were sent to preach the faith of Christ to this region. They were slaughtered in hatred of the Christian faith by the barbarians who, in the reign of Honorius, at the beginning of the fifth century, inflicted very great calamities in those parts. They shed their blood in the territory of Aire, in which there stands a celebrated monastery distinguished by the name of St. Severus and anciently built under his invocation, adjoining which is a city which seems to have grown from the celebrity of the place, and is called the head of Gascony. There Severus is honored with great solemnity as a martyr and the apostolic man of the whole region. In the martyrology of the same abbey the festival of St. Gerontius, martyr, is noted on the fifth of the Ides of December. There once stood within the borders of the diocese a celebrated monastery known by the name of St. Gerontius, whose much-adorned basilica, rich in sacred furnishings, was despoiled by the Calvinists in the year 1569.

NOTE. In the litanies of the saints of the church of Dax, of the 13th century, St. Severus was invoked after St. Stephen and St. Saturninus. In the Breviary of Aire of the year 1829, Severus and Gerontius, martyrs, are venerated

on 16 January, with semidouble rite. The lesson is the same as in the Proper of Tarbes. But in the edition of the Breviary of Aire of the year 1847, Severus is venerated alone on 9 November. The lesson is the same, except for the memorial of St. Gerontius. In the Proper of Tarbes and in that of Auch they are venerated on 13 Feb.

* word supplied by D.

perhaps dono is to be supplied, unless dilecti Severi or dilecti Dei is to be read. ditaris in the edition.

* thus.

* word supplied