ON ST. SERENUS, PRESBYTER AND CONFESSOR, IN THE PRIORY OF CELLE,
IN THE PRIORY OF CELLE BELOW CHANTEMERLE IN CHAMPAGNE IN GAUL.
PERHAPS ABOUT THE YEAR 650.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Memorial in Usuard and other sacred Fasti, cult, what the Acts are like.
Serenus, presbyter and confessor, in the priory of Celle below Chantemerle in Champagne in Gaul. (S.)
BY C. B.
Usuard, at this day, without doubt from private information, since in that matter he did not have Ado going before him, announces St. Serenus in these very few words: Memorial of the Saint in the sacred Fasti, On the same day, of St. Serenus, confessor. Greven rightly followed Usuard, and afterwards Peter Canisius also did this very thing in the German Martyrology he compiled. Nevertheless this announcement is reckoned by Molanus only among the Usuardine Additions; and it is altogether omitted by the present-day Roman Martyrology, either because St. Serenus, as our Sollerius already observed before me in the Usuard illustrated by him, was not found in Belinus, or because he was not sufficiently known to those who reformed the present-day Roman about the last twenty years of the sixteenth century. Certainly, since Usuard indicates this Saint by name alone, they could not know from him alone whether the discussion concerned ours or another St. Serenus. From Maurolico without doubt, whom, although already published in print in the year 1568, they do not seem to have had before their eyes, they would have acquired a more distinct knowledge of our Saint. For he, while commemorating our Saint at this day in his Martyrology, not only expresses his name, but also rightly assigns the place in which he is venerated, namely the fortress of Chantemerle. Ferrari in the general Catalogue of the Saints followed Maurolico, who, however, omitting the word Fortress, attributes our Saint to Chantemerle with this brief announcement: At Chantemerle, of St. Serenus, confessor. But the fortress of Chantemerle and Chantemerle, by which name, as we shall presently see, an abbey of Canons Regular of St. Augustine and a parish of the same name are now distinguished, designate the same place. Further, Saussay, in the Corollary after part 2 of the Gallican Martyrology, page 1212, using a more general manner of speech, ascribes St. Serenus to the territory or diocese of Troyes, in which, as we shall see, the Abbey of Chantemerle is situated; in which matter he seems to excel Maurolico and Ferrari; for our Saint is venerated not only at Chantemerle, but besides at two other places of the diocese of Troyes; and in one of these his sacred body also rests; wherefore he seems to be attributed with better right either, as we do, to that place which rejoices not only in his cult but also in his sacred remains, or certainly generally to the territory or diocese of Troyes, in which three sacred buildings (for I do not find that more do so) have been accustomed to venerate him.
[2] However that may be, those three sacred buildings, which bears more on our matter, cult in three different places, of which are the basilica of the abbey of Chantemerle and of the parish of the same name, the church of Celle-Saint-Serein, and the church of the village which is called Fontaine-Béton. I learn this both from the notice which I find subjoined to the Acts of St. Serenus which the reverend lord Jacques Cousinet, Canon Regular of St. Augustine, having turned over the ancient charters of the church of Chantemerle in the place itself, transmitted to our Papebroch in the year 1682; and from the annotations which Nicolas Desguerrois, in the Work whose title is The Christian Sanctity of the diocese and city of Troyes, added at the end of the Life of St. Serenus. The words of the former, in Latin, are these: The estate or village which is called Chantemerle, situated on an eminent place in the borders of Champagne towards the West, was formerly a fortress defended by ramparts. This Henry I, count palatine of Troyes, ceded to Canons Regular, and erected and founded it as an abbey in the name of St. Serenus, Adrian, supreme Pontiff, fourth of this name, first approving, and Alexander the third afterwards confirming, namely in the year 1165. There is one basilica of the monastery and of the parish. Below Chantemerle towards the East there is the Cell of St. Serenus of the Order of St. Benedict, where the body of the same holy confessor Serenus is set forth in a little casket above the altar for the devotion of the faithful. The head of St. Sebastian is also preserved there in the sacristy. And towards the West, in the village which is called Fontaine-Béton, the church has the same St. Serenus as patron. The feast of St. Serenus under the title of Confessor these three churches, and parishes too, celebrate together on one and the same day, namely the second of October, with more solemn rite. The words of the latter, which are French, I have rendered in this Latin translation: In our diocese (of Troyes) there are three churches dedicated to God under the name of St. Serenus: 1. the priory and parish church of Celle, which is older than the rest. 2. The abbey and church of Chantemerle. 3. The parish church of Fontaine-Béton. The feast of St. Serenus is celebrated on the 2nd of October, and that with solemnity in the places mentioned, especially in the church of the priory of Celle, where his relics, enclosed in a casket, are kept above the principal altar together with those of St. Sebastian, separately.
[3] exact notice The brothers Sainte-Marthe agree for the most part with the lord Cousinet just cited in the things he records concerning the foundation and confirmation of the monastery of Chantemerle. For of it they write thus in tome 4 of Gallia Christiana, page 214: Chantemerle, of the diocese of Troyes, of the Order of St. Augustine, is founded by Henry I, Count Palatine of Champagne, the privileges of which monastery Pope Alexander III confirmed by a diploma at Paris in 1165, on the 18th day before the Kalends of May. But as regards the approval of the foundation of the said monastery, which the cited lord Cousinet also asserts was made by Adrian, supreme Pontiff, fourth of this name; of it I find mention neither in the cited Sainte-Marthes nor in any other writers whatever. But I have no doubt that he learned it from the ancient charters of the church of Chantemerle, such as his letter sent to our Papebroch in the year 1682 signifies he had turned over, and such as it becomes most probable really existed there at that time from the things which the cited Desguerrois narrates in the Work cited in the preceding number, at the year 1180, page 307, to whom I therefore refer the curious reader. Certainly meanwhile the Pontificate of Adrian the fourth agrees exceedingly well with the time at which Henry I, count of Troyes, flourished: for the latter, as Pierre Pithou witnesses in the Genealogy of the counts of Troyes or of Champagne, was born in the year 1127, and died in the year 1180; while the former, as is agreed among all the learned, sat at Rome in the Chair of St. Peter from the month of December of the year 1154 until September of the year 1159, so that on this head there is no reason why it should be doubted whether the often-cited lord Cousinet rightly attributes to Adrian the fourth the approval of the foundation of the abbey of Chantemerle, which therefore must necessarily have been founded before the year 1160.
[4] is handed down; Further, the cited Desguerrois, at the year 1135, page 282, and the year 1180, page 307, for a more distinct knowledge of the abbey of Chantemerle, opportunely for our purpose intimates that it is situated in a village of the same name, which, enclosed by walls and placed upon a hill, lies between a village named Barbonne and Villenauxe, a little town in Champagne in Gaul, from which it is distant only a single league of an hour's walk; from which it follows that the Cell of St. Serenus below Chantemerle is distant from the same little town by about five quarters of an hour's league. For to the East of Villenauxe, as I find noted in the Geographical maps of Blaeu, is situated the monastery of Chantemerle, and from it, also towards the East, as I learn from our Collectanea, the Cell of St. Serenus is distant scarcely a quarter of an hour's league; between which and Chantemerle, at an equal distance from each, a small church is seen, built, as Desguerrois says, by order of St. Serenus; wherefore it cannot but become plain to one who considers it that the Cell of St. Serenus is distant from Villenauxe by about five quarters of an hour's league. However, although, as has already been said, the priory of the Cell of St. Serenus is removed a very small space from the abbey of Chantemerle, it does not therefore depend on it, but, as again I learn from our Collectanea, on the monastery of Celle near Troyes, of the Order of St. Benedict, in French Montier-la-Celle; from which perhaps it came about that Chastelain, since he knew indeed that Celle below Chantemerle depended on the said monastery of Celle, but had not sufficiently ascertained whether the body of St. Serenus was preserved here or there, preferred to ascribe it at this day in his Universal Martyrology to the monastery of Celle near Troyes, as being more celebrated and more noble than the priory of Celle below Chantemerle.
[5] However that may be, it is certain that the body of St. Serenus is not honoured in the monastery of Celle near Troyes, the abolition of a procession wont to be made yearly, indeed that the Saint himself is not, nor ever was, honoured there with any ecclesiastical cult, although meanwhile in the places mentioned in no. 2 he has had an immemorial and constant cult, at least until the end of the past century; into which, however, some change as to the manner may perhaps from time to time have been introduced. Such was that of the year 1502, which the often-cited Desguerrois narrates at that year, page 413, in this manner: In the year 1502, on the 27th of April, our bishop (of Troyes, who is named below), as befits a vigilant shepherd, visited many places of his diocese, and first of all the Priory of Celle below Chantemerle, whose prior was brother Jean Truchot; there the divine Office was rightly kept up, and four Masses were said each week. In the Priory
there rest the bones of St. Serenus, and the upper part of the head of St. Sebastian, martyr, which relics were at that time wont to be carried round through many villages and hamlets and other places in the manner of processions for the sake of collecting alms; but R. Raguier (bishop of Troyes) for a just cause forbade this to be done. So he, who adds besides that this account of his is excerpted from the Diary of the visitation which the said prelate made in the churches of his diocese. But I have before my eyes an excerpt from the Acts or Diary of the same visitation, transmitted to our Predecessors together with the Acts of St. Serenus by Pierre Chifflet, priest of our Society, which makes no mention either of a procession once wont to be made with the relics of SS. Sebastian and Serenus, or of its abolition by the Right Reverend Jacques Raguier, bishop of Troyes, and ends with these words of Desguerrois's account: and the upper part of the head of St. Sebastian, martyr: but since the following words of the same account were most probably also in the autograph, and have been omitted in our excerpt only through the fault of the copyists, I have no doubt that, as Desguerrois narrates, a procession with the relics of SS. Sebastian and Serenus through villages and hamlets was once wont to be made yearly, and that it was abolished by the Right Reverend Jacques Raguier, bishop of Troyes, probably on account of abuses that had been introduced.
[6] And this indeed is the change which was certainly introduced into the cult of our Saint; the ecclesiastical Office, it can also be doubted whether some change has not likewise already been brought into the ecclesiastical Office once composed in his honour; certainly, if this has not yet been done, it can with every right be done: for that ecclesiastical Office consists of 39 Lessons, which are set out to be recited at Matins through the Octave with which our Saint was assuredly once honoured in the places mentioned above, namely nine on the first and last day, six on the Sunday within the Octave, and three on each of the five remaining days. And since those Lessons are all for the most part drawn from the Acts of St. Serenus, and these, as will become plain from what is to be said, are defiled with very many fables, someone might perhaps deservedly judge them, as being woven from these, unworthy to retain a place in the ecclesiastical Office of our Saint without any correction being applied. The said Lessons, with the Antiphons, Hymns, Responsories and other things of that kind added as well, which constitute the proper ecclesiastical Office of St. Serenus to be recited on the feast and through the Octave, the Chifflet cited above transmitted to our Predecessors; he transmitted also, the Antiphons, Hymns etc. being omitted, the Lessons alone, transcribed from a manuscript codex of sacred Lessons of the priory of Celle-Saint-Serein, and prefixed to them this title: Life of St. Serenus, presbyter and confessor. The often-cited lord Cousinet did the same from the Antiphonary of the church of St. Serenus of Chantemerle. Those Lessons, sent by both men who deserved well of our Museum, agree with one another almost word for word, but with the Acts from which they were composed they do not so agree that some discrepancy does not now and then occur, perhaps arising from this, that the composer of the Office of St. Serenus partly added, partly took away some things at his own discretion.
[7] The Acts, which firstly in the miracle Those Acts are of two kinds, some more prolix, some more contracted, both written by an anonymous author; the latter are extant in Saussay in the place which I cited in no. 1, and contain nothing which is not also contained in the often-mentioned Lessons, not the reverse; the former, however, are in Desguerrois at the year 638, divided into 17 chapters, and now and then differ from the things which the Lessons in the Office of St. Serenus record, mostly, however, only in circumstances of lighter moment, if especially you do not attend to those which regard the relics of St. Sebastian, and which import a difference of graver moment. For the Acts extant in Desguerrois, which henceforth for brevity's sake I shall now and then designate by the name of Desguerrois alone, relate that the Priory of Celle-Saint-Serein was once enriched with the precious relics of St. Sebastian, which from no. 2 it is established are really preserved there for the veneration of the faithful, on the occasion of the translation of the body of the same holy martyr, which, when it was being carried from Rome into Gaul to Soissons, and the journey was being made not far from the said Priory, by the counsel of the people in attendance was brought into the church of that place, and, honoured there by a huge concourse of the people and made famous by many miracles of healing performed, remained for some time; whereas the Lessons of the Office of St. Serenus intimate that the head of St. Sebastian, which is the relic of this holy martyr extant in the Priory of Celle, was brought to the Priory of Celle below Chantemerle by St. Serenus himself, who had received it at Rome from John the Pontiff at the admonition of an angel: those Lessons in turn, for brevity's sake, I shall henceforth for the most part name the Life of St. Serenus, which we shall also publish.
[8] which they affirm, therefore suspected of falsehood Desguerrois, at the year 638, chapter 16, narrates the matter thus: Long after these things it came about that the body of St. Sebastian, the distinguished martyr, was being carried from Rome into Gaul (as we shall say at the year 815) to Soissons. That translation was being made through Champagne near the Priory of Celle, where it seemed good to the people to deposit these sacred relics in the church for the sake of rest. By divine providence, we believe, it happened that this sacred body could not be moved from there to be carried out of doors, although a great multitude of men laboured at it. All took refuge in prayer, that God would deign to disclose what they ought to do: among them a churchman more sensible than the rest suggested this sound counsel: If you are willing, my friends, he said, to believe me, you will bring the relics of the holy martyr into the choir and place them on the principal altar of St. Serenus; perhaps you will obtain from God what you ask. They, having heard this counsel, taking up the sacred body to be transferred there, found it of such lightness that it seemed to be of almost no weight. In that place (God abundantly conferring manifold benefits on all who visited the holy place) it long remained, and then was translated with great veneration to Soissons, where it still exists now; and hence it is that the skull of the head of St. Sebastian is extant in the Priory of Celle. In this last period the relics of St. Sebastian are openly declared to have come to Celle-Saint-Serein on the occasion of the translation of that holy martyr, which is more probable to me, and to exist there still now; but that period the anonymous author omitted in the Life to be published at no. 32, where was the proper place to set it down, consistently with what he had previously indicated about the relics of St. Sebastian brought by St. Serenus from Rome to the Priory of Celle; the same anonymous author also narrates a little differently the prodigy of the body of St. Sebastian being unable to be moved from its place, related in the words of Desguerrois just recited, namely that it happened not after, as Desguerrois indicates, but before the body of the same holy martyr was brought into the church of Celle.
[9] But I do not believe that that signal prodigy happened, either as the Life to be published are held, because the author of the History of the translation omits it or as Desguerrois affirms; indeed, although I do not hold it for incredible, and something similar occurs more than once in our Acta, and indeed quite recently at the preceding day in the Posthumous Glory of St. Bavo, §4, no. 76, since nevertheless it is founded on the sole authority of the Life to be published and of Desguerrois, and this, as will become more plain from what is to be said, is exceedingly weak, I shall perhaps not stray much from what the fact is if I say that it is a mere and sheer little fable, which the rude common people ineptly contrived as the cause for which the body of St. Sebastian, while being carried to Soissons, had once remained for some time in the church of St. Serenus. Certainly, although the History of the translation of St. Sebastian, which first Bolland at the 20th of January, and then Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, Century 4, part 1, from page 383, published in print, records that the body of the same holy martyr, when it was being carried from Rome to Soissons, was brought into Celle-Saint-Serein, and remained there for some space of time, miracles of healing also being performed, it nowhere indicates that it could not be moved from its place, very many even straining at it, either before or after it had been brought into Celle-Saint-Serein, until it was decided either that it should be carried into the church of Celle or placed upon its principal altar. It will be helpful to have transcribed the words bearing on this from chapter 8, from no. 36, of the Bollandian edition.
[10] And they are these: The distinguished martyr of the Lord (St. Sebastian) having been carried with an honourable procession into Celle-Saint-Serein, of St. Sebastian to the monastery of St. Médard, a certain bedridden woman, always looking at the ground and never able to raise herself upwards, had herself dragged to the church to meet him: who, as soon as she arrived, lifted herself upright, and, as though she had never suffered any hump, appeared to all who were present straightened and sound by the suffrage of the martyr. There is wonder and amazement, chiefly for those who had known her before yesterday. She, thus loosed by wonderful power, giving thanks to God and the Saint, went back to her own home. Among the frequent throngs running together to the saint (Sebastian), a certain plebeian, deaf, dumb, maimed and lame, was presented to the martyr there: who thus spent three days before his life-giving body. On the fourth day following, while he persevered in votive prayers, he experienced that he was reconciled through the Saint's intercession. For both the deaf man obtained hearing, and the dumb man uttered ready speech, the maimed man also changed his withering into vigour, and the lame man extended his slipping step into firmness. He, in testimony of his restoration, having obtained entire health, carried the most blessed martyr of God on his shoulders to the village of Calno-munde (Mabillon: to Calnomum). By which probably only the more illustrious and more certain miracles wrought at the relics of St. Sebastian in the church of Celle are recorded; this very thing, since the author of the cited History of the translation of St. Sebastian affirms in the Epilogue that he has comprised in unpolished speech only a few of the miracles wrought at the relics of St. Sebastian, I think was probably also observed as regards the miracles which were wrought in any other places whatever through which St. Sebastian was translated from Rome to Soissons, and hence I shall only with the greatest difficulty bring myself to believe that that most signal miracle of the body of St. Sebastian being unable to be moved from its place, worthy of record perhaps before all others, if it had really been done, would have been passed over in silence by that author.
[11] to whom, however, if it happened, it would have been known, Nor is there reason for you to say that that signal prodigy, even if it was done, perhaps did not become known to the author who consigned the History of the said translation to writing; for since he had Rodoin lighting his way, as he indicates in the Epilogue in these words: There survives to this day in our archive a schedule of Rodoin sent to the memorable abbot Hilduin. In which, in a very numerous series of chapters, the signal instances of his (St. Sebastian's) miracles are inserted, abridged, one by one; the sum of which, brought to a head, rises to four thousand, one hundred and seventy: and Rodoin, by whose chief authority and impulse the translation of St. Sebastian was made, so many miracles as in the words just
cited are implied, performed at the relics of St. Sebastian, handed down to the memory of posterity, there is no reason to doubt that the said miracle of which we treat, at which he himself would have been present as an eyewitness, since he accompanied the sacred body of St. Sebastian from Italy into Gaul as far as Soissons, he would likewise have transmitted to the memory of posterity, provided it had been done, so that therefore, on that same hypothesis, the author of the History of the said translation would most certainly have learned it from him. There is added that the same author, as may be seen in Bolland in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Sebastian, § VII, no. 37, was contemporary with the translation of St. Sebastian, and was then probably, or certainly not long after, one of the monks of Saint-Médard of Soissons, into whose monastery the body of St. Sebastian was translated, those very persons who had continuously given it escort on the journey from Italy to Soissons giving it escort then too, so that he could have known, and most probably would have known, the oft-mentioned miracle, if it had happened, from many who had been present.
[12] as being a contemporary monk of the same monastery, Further, since Mabillon, in tome 4 of the Benedictine Saints, part 1, asserts that the Book of the translation of St. Sebastian was written about the beginning of the tenth century, and so almost a whole century after the event, and thus weakens its authority not a little, it is pleasing now, so that the things we have thus far discussed from that Book or History may stand more firmly, to bring forward some things concerning the name of the author and the time at which he wrote. Our Bolland, in the place just cited, doubts whether that same monk, named Odilo, who dedicated to Ingrannus, abbot or rather dean, the Narrative of the translation of SS. Tiburtius and others composed by him, did not likewise compose the History of the translation of St. Sebastian. Mabillon asserts it in the place cited, in the Preliminary Observations to the Book of the translation of the relics of SS. Sebastian and Gregory, but not so assertively that he too does not seem to doubt; Sanderus, on the contrary, in the Bibliotheca Belgica, page 83, without hesitation attributes that composition, from a codex of the monastery of Saint-Vaast written in ancient character, as he says, to Odilinus, whom the few words he cites from it (provided they are Odilinus's) clearly show to have been a monk, as Odilo of Mabillon and Bolland also was, so that the difference which intervenes between the two names ought not to prevent the one whom Sanderus calls by the name of Odilinus from being believed the same as the one who is called Odilo by Bolland and Mabillon, and who was a monk of the monastery of Saint-Médard of Soissons.
[13] However that may be, that composition, as appears from these words of its Epilogue, who about the middle The prince of the whole Roman world (the emperor Louis the Pious) having been taken from life, an epilogue also of this theme must at length be set down, the modesty of the pen compelling it, subjoined immediately to the narrative of the death of the emperor Louis the Pious, was completed not long after the death of the same prince, and therefore about the middle of the ninth century, perhaps some twenty-five years having elapsed after the translation of St. Sebastian from Italy into Gaul, made in the year 826. Certainly Bolland does not oppose this opinion of ours: for at the day already cited, in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Sebastian, no. 37, he writes thus: The History of this Translation (of St. Sebastian) was committed to writing by one who was then present (namely when that translation was made), a monk in the monastery of Saint-Médard. Mabillon nevertheless, as I have already indicated, refers that Work of Odilinus or Odilo to the beginning of the tenth century; and he does so for this reason, that it was dedicated by the author to Ingrannus, dean of the monastery of Saint-Médard, who, as he understood from the Chronicle of Flodoard, was ordained bishop of Laon in the year 932. But whence did Mabillon learn that the Ingrannus to whom Odilo or Odilinus inscribed his composition on the translation of St. Sebastian is certainly the same as the Ingrannus who in the year 932 was raised to the sacred fillets of the see of Laon? Since from about the middle of the ninth century, as is understood from the augmented Gallia Christiana, tome IX, columns 412 and 413, until the year 970 the abbey of Saint-Médard had commendatory abbots, and in their place various regular deans then ruled that monastery, why could not another Ingrannus, likewise dean of the monastery of Saint-Médard, to whom Odilo dedicated his Work, have flourished before the Ingrannus of whom Mabillon and Flodoard speak? Certainly in the said History of the translation of St. Sebastian many things occur which openly require this, as also that it was written earlier than about the beginning of the tenth century. One only, lest I digress too far by prolixity from the things which pertain more properly to St. Serenus, adduced here by me, will clear up the matter thoroughly.
[14] The author of the oft-mentioned History, Odilinus or Odilo, in Bolland, chapter 18, no. 84, writes thus: in the ninth century We have seen certain men of probity not to be despised, who protest that they received from those who heard it of the coming ruin of the city of Soissons, which we dread. There was a little tower in the same city, of the East, looking towards the western regions: upon which an ambiguous spirit, when the dawn had already begun to scatter the dark shadows of the night, poured forth a voice of terrible sentence, thrice redoubled, saying: Woe, woe, woe to thee, Soissons, to be burned up, as once Sodom and Gomorrah, with mighty flames of fire, and reduced to empty cinders of ashes! He then narrates that the report of this portent was spread far and wide, and subjoins: Which thing I have heard from many who survived into our times, with harmonious account and without suspicion of falsehood, and I have thought it right to annex it to this Work, for the correction of all who inhabit the same city; and a few things intervening, in no. 85 he says: Our fathers and predecessors, who narrated these things to us, attributed it to the merits and intervention of this our most loving Protector (St. Sebastian) that they by no means saw this fulfilled in their time. Which things certainly Odilo would not have written with those circumstances which intimate that the city of Soissons had not yet been overthrown when he wrote, nor to the correction, as he nevertheless says, of all who inhabited the city of Soissons, if he had consigned the translation of St. Sebastian to writing after the year 856, in which the Danes or Northmen, as is read in the Chronicle of Tours on the Deeds of the Normans in Duchesne, and is sufficiently established from elsewhere, destroyed and burned Saint-Quentin and the city of Soissons and Paris with the adjacent land, so that therefore it is necessary that it was written before the year 856; from which it follows besides that the Ingrannus to whom that composition of Odilinus was dedicated is most probably not that Ingrannus who in the year 932 was ordained bishop of Laon; for thus, when he was promoted to the see of Laon, he would have been either almost a centenarian, or even, which appears still less probable, more than a centenarian, as having already discharged the office of dean in the Abbey of Saint-Médard before the year 856, before which, from what has been said, Odilo dedicated his said Work to him, and therefore, since he had probably come to it as a man of not fewer than 30 years, born about the year 826.
[15] he wrote; then also the fictitious But if perhaps it could be objected to what has been said thus far that among the deans of Saint-Médard of the ninth and tenth centuries, of whom, however, I should not think a catalogue is to be found, no Ingrannus is found besides the one who in the year 932 was raised to the chair of Laon, I answer that the Preface prefixed in Mabillon to the History of the translation of St. Sebastian is not Odilinus's, but that of a writer who in a later age attached it to it. This indeed becomes most probable even from this, that the cited Preface of the History of the translation conflicts with its Epilogue; for in the former these things are read: But I do not cease to wonder how so many immense stars, such huge signal instances of miracles, to be admired by all ages, which Christ has deigned to work through this His martyr (Sebastian), to be always honoured, cultivated and venerated by special privilege, could have been suppressed in unpraiseworthy silence up to this age: especially since it is known that the alumni of this holy congregation (of the monastery of Saint-Médard) have always been lavishly endowed with wisdom of mind and witty urbanity. Unless perhaps we accept this, which is conjectured with a reason not to be despised to be so, that divine miracles had grown cheap from their constancy. And while in this place they enjoyed more and more a continual frequency of signs, and wonders always succeeded wonders, delighted by the abundance of recent ones, thinking it unserviceable and less useful to bind to writing the past ones, which they said even exceeded number itself, they neglected it with sluggish zeal: while in the latter are these things recited above: For indeed there survives to this day in our Archive a schedule of Rodoin sent to the memorable abbot Hilduin, in which, in a very numerous series of chapters, the signal instances of his (St. Sebastian's) miracles are inserted, abridged, one by one, the sum of which, brought to a head, rises to four thousand, one hundred and seventy: which things are certainly contradictory, as will be plain to one who considers them. Wherefore, since it is not probable that Odilinus, or the writer of the translation of St. Sebastian, whoever he finally is, was so little consistent with himself, it must be that either the Preface or the Epilogue is not his; wherefore, since on account of the inconveniences that would otherwise arise, as is easy to gather from what has been said, it appears that this must be said of the Preface, nothing is had from it for putting off the writing of the History of the translation of St. Sebastian to the beginning of the tenth century.
[16] And so indeed no one will weaken the credibility or authority of the History of the translation of St. Sebastian both from what they narrate of the coming of Charles and Pippin from the time at which it was written; no one will say the same of the Life of our Saint or the Acts extant in Desguerrois, to the further discussion of which I now proceed: for in these nothing occurs from which at least the century in which they were written can be determined, I will not say certainly, but even probably, as is done in the History of the translation of St. Sebastian. Nevertheless, since, as is clear from what has been said, they make mention of the translation of St. Sebastian, it follows that they were not written before the year 826, in which this was made; indeed, that they were written much later is made most probable to me by the things which in no. 33 they subjoin immediately to the mention of the said translation and of the miracle of the body of St. Sebastian sticking immovable which accompanied it. And they are these: Meanwhile, as the fame of the blessed man Serenus spread far and wide, some began often to frequent his sacred threshold, and by his merits to ask there for pardon of their crimes, and at length to obtain it. Which rumour grew so long, until it had altogether reached the ears of the glorious kings, namely Charles and his brother Pippin. Who, rising up in haste together with their mother Bertha, the renowned queen namely, came to visit the oratory of the Man of God, where they were most dutifully received by the servants of that place. And entering the holy basilica they prayed the Lord according to custom that through His saint Serenus He would deign to wipe away their crimes, and grant to the nation of the Franks all times prosperous and likewise peaceful.
[17] For since the recited words imply by the order of the narrative with their mother Bertha to the oratory of St. Serenus, that Bertha and her sons Charles and Pippin, after the translation of St. Sebastian in the year
826, came to the oratory of the man of God Serenus, while long before the year 826, as is the unanimous consensus of the historians, namely in the year 783, Bertha departed from the living, as did also her sons Charles and Pippin, the latter namely, as the Annalist of Metz witnesses, in the third year from his birth, which took place in the year 759, and the former in the year 814, the author of the Acts or Life of St. Serenus is convicted of manifest error, into which he probably fell from this, that he was removed by so great an interval of time both from the translation of St. Sebastian and from the age of Bertha and her sons that he did not distinctly know what things preceded the one and the other, or what followed; and that consequently he wrote the Life of our Saint not only long after the age of Bertha and her sons, but also after the translation of St. Sebastian. And even if, in the things he narrates about Bertha and her sons, he did not deviate from the true order and time in which they were done, his credibility would nevertheless waver greatly, and he would be judged to have written long after the translation of St. Sebastian, on account of an error no less grave which he commits in the same place. For he says that Bertha and her two sons Charles and Pippin, having entered the basilica of St. Serenus, prayed God according to custom that through St. Serenus He would deign to wipe away their crimes: but this can never be said with truth of Pippin, son of Bertha, as being one who ceased to live when the third year of his age, as has just been said, was not yet completed, and that whether regard is had to the time preceding the translation of St. Sebastian or to the time following.
[18] of the victory won by them over a hostile army, Let the same judgment be passed on the victory which he affirms in no. 34 Charles the Great and Pippin, kings and brothers, their forces joined and the patronage of SS. Medard and Serenus implored, won over a numerous army of enemies. But if you contend that in place of Pippin one should read Carloman, who was also a son of Bertha, and after the death of his father Pippin reigned in a part of Gaul, then indeed it could have come about that he at some time (before, however, the translation of St. Sebastian was made, as is easy to gather from what has been said) visited as a suppliant the basilica of St. Serenus with Bertha and Charles, yet you would not find that victory of the two brother kings founded anywhere in historical truth. For I nowhere find that Carloman and Charles the Great waged war with joined forces before the death of their father Pippin; and Carloman reigned from the death of his father Pippin only three years, two months and ten days, in the whole of which space of time I do not read that arms were moved by the Franks except against Hunald alone, father of Waifar, duke of Aquitaine, lately slain, who, having gathered some forces, was striving to claim again for himself the dukedom of Aquitaine, which more than twenty years before, on taking the monastic habit, he had handed over to his son to rule and possess. Wherefore, since Carloman was unwilling even in this war to join allied arms with Charles the Great, who was undertaking it, it is clear that what the often-cited author of the Life or Acts of our Saint relates in the cited no. 34 is altogether foreign to the truth, and that even if Carloman is there substituted for Pippin, son of Bertha.
[19] their forces joined, as related, And that Carloman was unwilling in the said war to join his forces with the forces of Charles, Einhard teaches us in the Life of Charles the Great, and in the Annals in these words: A certain Hunold, aspiring to royal power, stirred up the minds of the provincials to attempt revolution: against whom, because that same province had fallen to him by lot, king Charles set out with an army. But since he could not have the help of his brother (Carloman) (who was hindered from doing so by the evil counsel of his nobles), having held only a conference with him in the place which is called Duasdives, his brother returning to his kingdom, he himself sets out to Angoulême, a city of Aquitaine; and thence, forces being gathered from every side, he pursues Hunold fleeing on every side. He then narrates how Charles the Great, Hunold having been handed over into his hands, alone brought that war to a happy end, so that it is plain that Carloman brought aid to his brother Charles neither towards its beginning nor towards its end. And these indeed are the things pertaining to the 8th and 9th centuries in which the author of the Life or Acts of our Saint manifestly went astray; but wherever, in the things which are to be referred to a time more remote from his age than the said two centuries, he deviates from open truth, he is to be accused not so much of wandering as of invention; for this author narrates so many doubtful, so many wonderful, so many incredible things bearing on that time, that he seems to have drawn almost all of them not from ancient monuments less worthy of credit, but to have fabricated them at his mere will.
[20] and of the war of Dagobert I against the people of Metz, which To prove this, I take my beginning from the rebellion of the Austrasians against Dagobert, which he intimates in no. 2 in these words: And at the same time there arose no small sedition in those parts (the territory of Metz) from the army of the renowned king Dagobert, on account of the rebellion of that land against him. When these were conquered, the Man full of God (St. Serenus) was taken and led into captivity. These things Duchesne, in tome 1 of the writers of the History of the Franks, from the manuscript Life of St. Serenus, and from him afterwards Martin Bouquet, in tome 3 of the writers of Gallic Affairs, inscribed and referred to Dagobert I, to whom indeed they are to be referred, if indeed that which is narrated by our biographer in no. 22 accords with the truth, namely that St. Serenus, when a Pontiff whose name was John occupied the chair of St. Peter, returning from the city of Rome, whither, already freed from captivity after the war of Metz, he had betaken himself for the sake of visiting the sacred places, into Gaul, his native land, met St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, in the Alps; for since this holy prelate closed his last day about the year 660, and while he was living no Pontiff named John occupied the chair of St. Peter except John the fourth, who departed from the living in the year 642, it follows that the war of Metz, if there was one, as having been waged before St. Serenus returned from Rome into Gaul while John the fourth sat, took place before the year 642, and therefore that it and its circumstances are to be referred to Dagobert I, since besides him no king named Dagobert reigned in Francia before the year 642. But the said war of Metz appears to me very doubtful, not to say altogether false, for this reason, that both in Fredegar and in any other writers whatever who have consigned the affairs of Dagobert the first to writing there is the deepest silence concerning a war of Metz. And certainly, if the people of Metz were ever to be assailed in war by Dagobert I on account of rebellion, either that was done when Dagobert, his father Clothar II still surviving among the living, ruled the Austrasians alone, or when, the latter now dead, he held the monarchy of Francia.
[21] The first is not allowed to be admitted both by the seat of the kingdom, nor before the death of Clothar II his father, which Dagobert had then placed among the people of Metz, as among a nation friendly to him, and by Fredegar, who in chapter 58 writes in this manner of Dagobert the first, when he ruled the Austrasians alone and had not yet come to Paris, already made monarch, as of a prince complete in every respect and most beloved of absolutely all his subjects: Up to that same time (when he came to Paris), from the beginning when he had begun to reign, using first the counsel of the most blessed Arnulf, pontiff of the city of Metz, and of Pippin, Mayor of the palace, he ruled the royal government in Austrasia with such prosperity that he had praise from all nations in immense measure. And his usefulness had so powerfully struck fear that they now eagerly hastened with devotion to hand themselves over to his dominion; so that even the nations which dwell about the border of the Avars and the Slavs readily sought him, that he should go happily behind their backs, and he confidently promised that the Avars and Slavs, and the other nations of peoples, as far as the public hand (that is, as Ruinart observes in the Fredegar published by him, the Roman empire), were to be subjected to his dominion. After the departure of blessed Arnulf, still using the counsel of Pippin, Mayor of the palace, and of Chunibert, pontiff of the city of Cologne, and strongly admonished by him, he ruled all the nations subject to him, embracing them with such prosperity and love of justice, until he came to Paris, as I mentioned above, that none of the preceding kings of the Franks had been more excellent than he in praise.
[22] All which things do not leave probable a rebellion of the people of Metz against Dagobert I nor could it have been waged afterwards; when he ruled the Austrasians alone; and as regards the second, namely whether these things happened when Dagobert was already monarch, Desguerrois indeed maintains it, when, in the notes added at the end of the Life of St. Serenus, he cites the Annals of the Franks for fixing that rebellion of the people of Metz against Dagobert I to the year of Christ 630; but which, or of what sort, those Annals are, he does not declare. I, for my part, find no Annals of the Franks at all in which even the least trace of a rebellion of the people of Metz against Dagobert I occurs at the year 630. The same is the case with the later years of his reign; for although at that time, as can perhaps be drawn from the end of chapter 68 of Fredegar, the Austrasians, of whom the people of Metz were a part, seem to have been of a mind estranged from Dagobert, yet they never came to the point of breaking out into open rebellion which had to be checked by arms. All these things being weighed, the learned reader will likewise, as I think, hold as not a little suspect, or perhaps even false, whatever the biographer of our Saint relates concerning the war of Metz.
[23] both from the things which the captivity of St. Serenus with Boso, But these are not the chief things by which he weakens his credibility; for he then subjoins others, I will not say doubtful, but even altogether incredible; he narrates namely, in nos. 5 and 6, that St. Serenus, whom a count named Boso had bought when he was captured on the occasion of the pretended war of Metz, and had then given as shepherd for pasturing his flocks, learned the sacred letters with the son of the same count, and for this purpose for three and a half years daily frequented the monastery of Nesle, unknown to count Boso himself, the herds committed to his care being left to the keeping of the wild beasts among the groves and glades; and that these, however much they were dispersed in divers parts, were wont, when our Saint returned from the school of letters and a signal was given with the horn, to run to him from every side, although the wild beasts threatened them. In nos. 9, 11, 12 and 13 he sets forth things no more worthy of credit: for there he represents a wonderful strangeness of marvellous events succeeding one another in close succession, which, although they are not certainly proved false on this sole head, nevertheless become most deservedly suspect of fiction or a similar blemish, if, as is done here, they have been committed to writing only by an author who is clearly detected from elsewhere to have stained his writings either with fables or even with open falsehoods.
[24] his return from Italy, whither he had gone, soon to be undertaken, Further, in nos. 15 and 16 he narrates that St. Serenus, having undertaken a pilgrimage to the thresholds of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, arrived happily at Rome, an angel accompanying him, and there stayed seven years and a half, and when he was then thinking of returning to his native land, an angel appeared in sleep to John, the Roman Pontiff, and commanded him to initiate St. Serenus into the order of the presbyterate and to present him with the sacred relics of SS. Fabian and Sebastian. And in no. 19 he says that John the Pontiff, in order to find out whether the relics of SS. Fabian and Sebastian were to be handed over to Serenus, proclaimed a fast to the Roman people, which certainly is altogether incredible, and by no means squares with the things he had narrated before. For to what end would John the Pontiff have proclaimed that fast, if he, as our biographer had narrated in no. 16, had already learned the will of God, as regards the relics of SS. Fabian and Sebastian to be given to Serenus, from the angel who appeared to him, and which you would vainly reply was still doubtful to John, since in accordance with it he had already consecrated St. Serenus presbyter?
[25] undertaken, and then I strongly suspect that that angelic apparition offered to John the Pontiff, and the fast proclaimed by him to the Roman people, are mere inventions, fabricated after the likeness (see Odilinus in the translation of the body of St. Sebastian in Bolland, chapter 6) of the fast celebrated by the Roman clergy, and of the heavenly vision then offered to bishop John, who seems to our Bolland to have been John, bishop of Silva Candida, when in the year 826 he went to dig up the sacred relics of St. Sebastian from the tomb of the same holy martyr, to be translated into Gaul. To these inventions others are superadded which are still more certainly inventions, and indeed impious ones and injurious to St. Eligius. For, as our biographer, or rather fabulist, proceeds in nos. 22 and 23, St. Serenus, when returning from the Roman pilgrimage to Gaul, meets under the ridges of the Alps or at the Po St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, on his way to the thresholds of the holy Apostles, who takes away by force from our Saint the relics of SS. Fabian and Sebastian, and, being compelled to restore them, the skiff in which he was being carried standing immovable in the middle of the bed of the Po, summoning St. Serenus at once, promises restitution; the latter, in order to come to him, walks upon the waters after the manner of Peter the prince of the Apostles; St. Eligius embraces him as he comes, and, the sacred pledges being restored to Serenus, promises that he will visit his Cell on his return from Italy.
[26] But afterwards, as our fabulist again proceeds in nos. 25 and 26, accompanied its completion, are clearly shown, and these things St. Eligius returns from Rome unharmed, passes not far from the Cell of St. Serenus, and neglects to enter it; he is struck by God with sudden blindness in punishment for the unfulfilled promise. Long troubled by this, he goes on to St. Serenus, who, while he anxiously awaits the holy prelate's return from Italy, understanding from a messenger that he is not far off, runs forward to meet him; Eligius confesses to him that he has incurred blindness in punishment for the lie he committed, asks that prayers be poured out for him; he recovers the use of his eyes as Serenus prostrates himself on the ground and implores the divine mercy, and stays in the same hermitage with our Saint for a year and a half, after which, the hour of death having been divinely revealed to himself and to Serenus, who perseveres in the hermitage, as they had asked of God, he returns to his bishopric. All which things, since they are by no means recorded in the Life of St. Eligius which St. Ouen wrote most accurately, and are so worthy of note that, if that holy biographer had known them, he would certainly not have passed them over in silence; and he would most certainly have known them if they had been done; I without hesitation judge that they are altogether to be held as empty little fables spread by the rumour of the unskilled common people, or as inventions fabricated from zeal for exalting St. Serenus above St. Eligius, and likewise, as I think, the learned reader will so hold them with me.
[27] However, these inventions last reviewed, so injurious to St. Eligius, nevertheless, although they also leave the age of St. Serenus uncertain, and many others occurring in the Life of our Saint, part of which we have given before, bring me a twofold doubt: the first is whether the age of our Saint, of whom Le Cointe treats in the ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 650, can rightly be fixed to the seventh century, as the Life to be published requires: the second is whether that Life of St. Serenus, befouled with so many inept little fables, is not altogether unworthy to be sent forth into the light. For since nothing is available by which the age of our Saint may be fixed to the seventh century besides the war waged by Dagobert I against the people of Metz, and the return of Serenus into Gaul from the Roman pilgrimage while John IV occupied the chair of St. Peter; and this, equally with that, may deservedly be called into doubt because it has its foundation in the fabulous Life of St. Serenus alone, it follows that it can likewise not undeservedly be called into doubt whether the age of St. Serenus is to be placed in the seventh century. The cited Le Cointe noticed almost the same already before me in the Annals: for he says at the year just cited, no. 38: If you deny that the people of Metz rebelled against Dagobert, and that Serenus went to Rome, you must confess that the age of St. Serenus is entirely unknown to you. He would nevertheless have said better, with a restriction added: you must confess that it is entirely unknown to you in what century before the ninth century the age of St. Serenus is to be fixed. For it is easy to gather that St. Serenus flourished neither after the ninth century nor in the ninth century itself from the often-cited History of the translation of St. Sebastian, in which, since in chapter 6 the body of this most holy martyr, while it was being transported in the year 826 from Italy into Gaul, is declared to have been brought into the church sacred to St. Serenus, it follows that our Saint flourished neither after the ninth century nor, which at least is also most probable, in the ninth century itself, so that therefore his age is to be referred to the eighth century or another earlier. I meanwhile, to whatever it is referred or looks, relying on his Life such as it is, following Le Cointe's example, have doubtfully ascribed St. Serenus to the seventh century when the middle part of it was advanced.
[28] to be sent forth into the light, an elogium As regards now the other doubt, about the fabulous Life of our Saint; namely whether it is not altogether unworthy to be published; Camuzat indeed holds it so cheap that he does not even mention St. Serenus in the Promptuary of the sacred antiquities of the diocese of Troyes; I, however, have judged that it should be published, however unworthy of the light, to this end, that even from its mere reading the prudent reader may understand how deservedly it is reckoned by us fabulous and fictitious. That Life, drawn, as I have already indicated, from the manuscript codex of sacred Lessons of the Priory of Celle, and to be published here, we shall illustrate now and then with annotations which will serve either for the further refutation of the little fables or for another end, where this has not been sufficiently done in this Commentary, and I shall especially assign in what things it notably differs from the Lives or Acts extant in Desguerrois and Saussay. Moreover, so that it may easily become known to the reader which words constitute the individual lessons of which, as I have already indicated in no. 6, the Life to be published consists, or rather which were plucked from the Life to be published, I shall distinguish it according to custom with arithmetical figures into numbers, each of which corresponds to one lesson; and for the greater convenience and precision of the annotations I shall distribute it into three chapters. Solecisms, moreover, and formulae of speech conflicting with the purity of the Latin tongue occur now and then in the same Life to be published, but the things which are narrated are of such small value, and those defects obscure them so little, that I have not thought it worth the trouble to advise the reader of them in the Annotations. Meanwhile I premise here also the Elogium inserted in our manuscript Florarium at the 2nd day of October, in which St. Serenus, whom no circumstances there besides the day on which he is announced show to be our Saint, after being announced in this manner, On the same day the heavenly birthday of St. Serenus, confessor, is especially commended for the extraordinary austerity of his life and his chastity.
[29] likewise fictitious, premised, I have judged. Here it is: This Man (Serenus), of the highest sanctity and continence, who, applying himself to prayers and fasts by night and by day for the inward chastity of his heart, when he had seen that he had obtained the wishes of his prayers, and that all the heats of carnal concupiscence in his heart were extinguished, burned with greater zeal for chastity, and began to devote himself to more intense fasts and supplications, so that the mortification of this passion should reach even to the very purity of the flesh, so far that he should no longer be stirred even by that simple and natural motion which is excited even in little ones and sucklings *, believing that God could much more easily pluck out these indicated goads of the flesh, which the industry of human art is seldom wont to remove by certain potions or medicines or cutting with iron; and when he persisted unwearied in the supplication and tears he had begun, an angel, coming in a vision of the night and as it were opening his belly, tearing out a certain fiery swelling of flesh from his entrails and casting it away, and restoring all the intestines to their places as they had been, said: Behold, the intestines of your flesh have been cut away, and know that you have obtained this day the perpetual purity of body which you faithfully asked. From what source the author of our Florarium drew that angelic apparition, and the gift of chastity divinely conferred in it on St. Serenus, the tinder of lust in his entrails being extinguished by the angel, I am entirely ignorant; certainly I have been able to find nothing similar in any writers who treat of St. Serenus, although I employed a most accurate and most diligent investigation; indeed the very Life to be published, however fabulous it is and lavish in the praises of St. Serenus, keeps deep silence concerning the said angelic apparition and the gift of chastity divinely granted in it to our Saint, so that even for that reason I hold this prodigy suspect of invention, and for that reason too I have put off the recited elogium to this place, as a new invention to be superadded, by way of a Corollary as it were, to the other inventions of the Life to be published mentioned before. And this ought not to seem strange; for since our manuscript Florarium was written only in the year of Christ 1486 (see Papebroch in the patriarchs of Jerusalem before tome 3 of May, page X), and therefore at least six centuries after St. Serenus, it ought not to be of such authority that for that reason alone undoubted faith should be given to a miracle which pertains to the age of our Saint.
Annotations* Of what motion, then, is there talk here?
FABULOUS LIFE
By an anonymous author,
From the manuscript codex of sacred lessons of the Priory of Celle below Chantemerle.
BHL Number: 7592, 7593
A. anonymous.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's distinguished birth, captivity, piety, humble office, study of the sacred letters, recovery of freedom.
The Saint, born of a distinguished stock, The blessed a athlete of Christ Serenus, born of distinguished parentage, namely his father Hadrian and his mother Serena, is said to have been a native of the territory of the city of the people of Metz b, whose magnificent name clearly discloses its etymology; because, just as the sky, when it is serene, is called clear and tranquil, so the holy Man, and to God
worthy, is interpreted clear, gentle and tranquil, as indeed he was c; who also from the very rudiments of infancy so strove to serve the Lord God that in his infant limbs there seemed to be the mind of a more mature age: whose sacred mind was always so ready towards the needy that whatever he could snatch from the resources of his father's and mother's property he gladly strove to bestow on them for the Lord's sake d, although he was as yet without knowledge of divine letters; and so he grew up, tenderly brought up by his parents, a venerable offspring, not only in age but also in most serene uprightness e: wishing indeed to choose for himself, with the narrow path, such a part as should in no way ever be taken away from him, which he has obtained perpetually.
[2] war having arisen, he is led into captivity, At the same time there arose no small sedition in those parts, from the army of the renowned king Dagobert, on account of the rebellion of that land against him f. When these were conquered, the Man full of God was taken and led into captivity, whom, God so disposing, a duke and most noble count named Boso bought for five solidi g, who at that time presided over a certain part of the Gauls, and who cherished him diligently and tenderly; but not long afterwards he was long sought by his mother and found. When he was found, the aforesaid matron, with the greatest joy of heart, wished to give the aforesaid count whatever price pleased him, that she might receive back her dear Offspring: which she altogether obtained from him without any delay, being made exceedingly glad by it. When this was learned, the most holy Man in no way acquiesced in the words of his own mother about returning: preferring for Christ's sake to be a stranger and an exile, and to become an heir of the heavenly kingdom, rather than to trust in the transitory and perishable goods of his parents; fulfilling that saying of the Lord: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me h.”
[3] from which to be freed, and by Boso, To him his mother Serena, dying and weeping greatly, spoke thus: My son, if it has been disposed by almighty God that you should remain thus, His will be done, although I shall end all the days of my life in sorrow; yet may His will be done, and to Him I commend you, who, when you were not, created you that you might be. Saying this she spent one month with him i, thinking to recall him from this intention, which she could in no way do; and so she kissed his face, weeping long and much upon his neck and wailing, and returned sad to her native land, whence she had come. Then, the blessed and venerable Man advancing ever more and more for the better before God and men, in age as well as in works, desiring to please God alone, having put aside the cares of earthly things by which very many mortals are commonly hindered, he only prayed continually, entreating God day and night for heavenly gifts, that He would deign mercifully to direct all his actions in sacred services k.
[4] refusing to be exalted by his lord, he seeks and discharges the shepherd's He therefore raised himself up against himself, spurning all the delights of the flesh, and taking up the shield of the faith of the Lord's protection, the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation, by which he might utterly quench all the fiery darts of the crafty lier-in-wait; whose deadly persuasions, as afterwards became clear, he altogether crushed under his feet, the Lord helping, in no way willing to grant him entrance. Meanwhile the aforesaid count, perceiving the gift of the Holy Spirit glowing in the most holy Serenus, began secretly to deliberate within himself how he might altogether exalt him, next after himself, over all that he had. Whence, having sought out wholesome counsel, calling him before him, he addressed him in these words, saying: I see indeed that the spirit of God dwells in you: therefore I wish to make you first in the household of my palace, that you may be second from me, and that whatever you command may be accomplished without delay. To whom the most blessed man of the Lord Serenus gave first of all this answer: If I have found favour in your eyes, my lord, I pray you judge me fit for nothing else among the things which you are seen to possess in temporal wise except that you commit to me only all the herds of your flocks, since I am altogether ignorant of other arts; but in these know without doubt that I shall acquire for you much increase of the flock in a short time l.
[5] And the count, seeing the constancy of the most blessed Man, bountifully and gladly granted him all things the office, and while meanwhile the school of letters, that were serviceable for the pastoral office. And so from then on he was made shepherd of his cattle, which the holy Man cared for so providently that all remained unharmed and untouched by the bites of wild beasts. And how, or for how long a time, he presided over this office, what follows will declare. At the same time the son of the aforesaid count used to go to the monastery of Nesle for the study of the sacred letters, with whom the man of the Lord Serenus secretly went at the same time, leaving the animals among the groves and haunts of the glades m, under the keeping, however, of the wild beasts of the field, so that in those days that saying of hagiography seemed to be fulfilled: “And the beasts of the earth shall be at peace with thee n”, and that: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion and the ox shall eat straw o.” And when both were learning day by day before the teacher, the most blessed Novice drank in so thirstily whatever he had heard flow from the master's mouth that in a short space he seemed to become equal to his preceptor, and from then on he was made the fully accomplished master in the art of Grammar of all his contemporaries [p].
[6] And when he returned from the discipline of literary exercise to his pastoral charge, leaving the flock, he frequents secretly, at the resounding voice of the horn, wherever in whatever places the flocks of cattle committed to him were dispersed, by the nod of God they came together humbly before him from divers parts, the wild beasts driving them [q]. And again at his command all the herds returned to whatever places of the dense woods, until they were called back again by him. For three years and a half the Man dear to God presided over this office. In which how great was his abstinence it would be long to relate. O Man to be imitated in all things, gentle, peaceable, cheerful, merciful, humble, kindly, chaste, adorned with sacred manners, who faithfully paid out in alms for the needy whatever he could have had spent on himself for his daily sustenance. Made all things to all, that he might give a pious example to all.
[7] Meanwhile the inventor of all evils, namely the adversary of the human race, the devil, he is accused of negligence before Boso, who not bearing such and so great a manner of life of the sacred Man, bitterly instigated with deadly mouth certain wicked men against him, wishing to remove him from his purpose. Who straightway turned to such madness that, rising up like rabid dogs, they assailed him with reproaches and ill-named words before their lord, and accused him, saying: Our most excellent duke, that evildoer whom you said and hoped was faithful to you, to whom you lately committed the care of the flock of your cattle, for three years and six months has done nothing else than go to the schools with your little boy, and there he is seen to make profession with such eagerness of mind, more than your son himself and his other contemporaries, that all, younger and older, marvel that he has surpassed their prudence and skill. For this reason we wished to inform you that of the herds which you once committed to him some have been so utterly destroyed by robbers, and some by wild beasts, that you will receive nothing further from them for the use of your house and household.
[8] thereupon, angered, St. Serenus, although he here the flock safe Thereupon the count himself, moved exceedingly with anger, desiring to know truly for himself whether matters stood so, appointed a certain time at which he would hasten to the Man of God. On a certain day, then, he set out together with the lying accusers, wishing to test the truth of this matter, and, having called blessed Serenus before him, he rebuked him harshly with these words: Why, he said, did you take upon yourself the charge of providing for my herds for this purpose, that you might abandon them in the wilderness and give yourself to idleness? To whom the most blessed Man, with constant mind, his rivals being confounded on every side, spoke thus: Do not, my lord, be grieved over me in anything, since, as I promised you above, you will receive without delay, with every increase, all the herds which you had entrusted to me. To this he answered: If you match deeds to words, you will be able to lose through no envious tongues the favour which you have always had with me. Otherwise I shall destroy you evilly. To whom St. Serenus said: As you have spoken, so be it. These things being thus done, several gathered to the spectacle of the blessed Man, to see whether he would fulfil what he had promised.
[9] presents, wishes to beat him; but with thirst And when he sounded his pastoral horn according to custom, immediately all the flocks lying hidden in the depth of the groves, hearing the voice of their Keeper, flowed together altogether before him, the greater together with the little ones, in the accustomed manner. Seeing which, the heart of his lord was hardened, not otherwise than we know that the heart of the faithless Pharaoh was once dulled against Moses, the prophet of the great God. Him the Man of the Lord began thus to calm with gentle speech. Behold, as I had promised above, the Lord doing it, I restore to you all the herds which you had committed to me, with every multiplication and increase [r]. Hearing this, his lord, forgetting the promise he had made, ordered rods to be given him with which he might beat him sharply. But the Lord, whom the most blessed Serenus always served with devoted breast and pure mind, wishing to show of how great merit he was; when his lord would have seized the rods with all his might to beat him, at once his hand, with the arm, was made so withered and bloodless that he could in no way stretch it out. And in the same hour such a thirst seized him that he said that, unless there were someone who would give him a cup of water, he would very quickly lose the breath of life.
[10] he is divinely punished, and, water being lacking to quench it, And when his servants ran about this way and that, and sought a drink with which his thirst could be quenched, and had been in no way able to find the vein of any spring or well, they were made exceedingly sad thereby. For all the courses of waters were far from them except one little spring, which is called Fons Danilus [s], to which, because of the length of the way, none of them could come in so short a space of time. When the most holy Serenus of God saw these things, he began to invoke the majesty of the Lord in this manner, wishing to return him good for evil; he spread out his hands to heaven and said.
[11] Serenus raises up a spring by his prayers. Thou, Lord, founder of heaven and earth, who hast no need, and whom all Thy work serves, following the command of Him who bids, before whom the underworld trembles, who didst once make water flow abundantly from the dry rock, that Thy people might not fail, remember not, I beseech Thee, our former iniquities, but command now that there come forth for us here, to the praise and glory of Thy name, a vein of living water, by which this parched body of Thy handiwork may revive. Saying this, he commanded one of the bulls to dig the earth with its horn,
which presently, as though a rational animal, obeyed the voice of him who commanded, and struck the earth with its horn with all its force; the gap of which stroke was followed by such an abundance of waters that it seemed to be diverted into a very great river, but, gradually decreasing and drawing back its course, it was turned into a huge spring, which remains to this day [t].
[12] Therefore the most blessed athlete of Christ Serenus, giving thanks thereupon to God, the bestower of all good things, and with it he refreshes Boso, by whom, therefore, with freedom, took a vessel full of this water, holding it out with cheerful countenance to the count, thirsting and half-dead. Having drunk it, his whole body returned to its proper health, and presently, falling at the feet of the Blessed man, he began to address him thus: Serenus, servant of God most high, henceforth be free and released from all service of earthly rule and of our right [u], and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, who has deigned through you to recall me from due death. This freedom having been received, he enjoined on him that he should take as much as pleased him of the part of the woods of that place and of other lands, so that he might build a little cell for serving God, and might be able to receive there whatever was necessary for human use.
[13] Hearing this, the most holy Man gladly obeyed his entreaty, and he is presented with a place for building a Cell. and, in the sight of all who were present there, he at once threw the iron tool with which he was wont to cut wood from the place where he was standing almost one mile. It fell upon a certain oak, through the hole of which oil is said to have flowed, so that almighty God might plainly show that there should be built the sacred little cell of the most blessed man Serenus, where the oil overflowed, that is, the gift or unction of the Holy Spirit. Which was afterwards manifested to all by the event [x]. And so it came about that all who were present there gave thanks to God. Seeing this, the aforesaid count, filled with great joy, giving a kiss to the most holy Man, returned with his people to his home, and from then on the most holy Man began to be held a companion [y], distinguished far and wide and very famous. Therefore the most holy Man, when he saw himself set free and at liberty from all human servitude, turned wholly and at once, as Christ's freedman, to His service.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Some things are added here in Desguerrois which, since they are of lighter moment, I do not transcribe here.
q. What we think of this obedience shown to St. Serenus by the wild beasts, see the Preliminary Commentary, no. 23.
r. Desguerrois says that St. Serenus here said to count Boso: Behold, what I promised you, I now give everything back into your hands, and since I am free, I go away to devote myself to God alone. St. Serenus here deservedly calls himself free if, as Desguerrois, chapter 2, and the very Life which we publish, no. 2, intimate, his mother Serena had already before redeemed him from count Boso, the ransom having been paid; but Saussay and the same Life which we publish, no. 12, intimate that our Saint, when he was addressing Boso here, had not yet been restored to freedom.
s. I have been able to find neither the site nor the name of this spring anywhere.
t. The lord Cousinet, often cited in the Preliminary Commentary, in the margin of the Lessons which, as I indicated in the Preliminary Commentary, he transmitted to our Predecessors from the Antiphonary of the church of St. Serenus of Chantemerle, distinctly noted that that spring, which he does not name, still exists today; but I do not see by what reasoning it can be proved that any spring which still exists arose from the prodigy related here; that indeed I shall never believe unless an authority weightier than that of our biographer is adduced.
u. These words intimate what I have already noted at letter r towards the end.
x. Hence gather that the Cell of St. Serenus, as I have already indicated at letter m, was at least about one mile distant from the house of count
Boso. In the Preliminary Commentary, at no. 23, the curious reader will find what we judge is to be thought of that chain of prodigies woven here in nos. 9, 11, 12 and 13. Saussay passes over in silence the miracles related in nos. 9 and 13.
y. The noun comes is without doubt redundant here, so that the sense is that the most holy man, namely Serenus, and not count Boso, began thenceforth to be held distinguished far and wide and very famous. Certainly in Desguerrois it is read thus: St. Serenus was thenceforth held for a great friend of God, whom heaven favoured with miracles and wonders.
CHAPTER II.
The Saint's solitary life, pilgrimage and stay at Rome, return into Gaul, various miracles.
St. Serenus, having led a solitary life for some time, to Rome And although he seemed to dwell among men for a time a, yet his sacred mind conversed among the angels in the heavenly places, fulfilling that saying of the Apostle: “But our conversation is in heaven b.” For he strove always to carry theoria, that is, the contemplation of God, within the chamber of his heart, frequently recalling and singing certain little verses of the Psalmist: “How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord c.” And again: “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever. For better is one day in Thy courts above thousands d.” Then, no very long time having passed e, he began to deliberate within himself f how he could secretly go to Rome, aspiring to visit the magnificent houses of the Apostles Peter, key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom, and Paul, the distinguished teacher, and faithfully to go round the other places built there in honour of other Saints. He desired nevertheless in every way to learn the institution of the monastic Order or of the canonical, as the outcome of the matter afterwards proved.
[15] he goes on pilgrimage, and when, having stayed there more than seven years, Afterwards, then, he prepared for the journey, content with a small companion and scanty food. Having begun it, he merited to have an angel of the Lord as his guide until he came safe and sound whither he was bound g. On which journey too, how much he wasted his sacred body with cold, hunger and thirst and the watches of vigils, it is long to relate. And so, altogether rejoicing, the Lord Jesus Christ helping, whom he always devoutly served, he completed the way he had begun, where indeed, staying long and much, he spent vigorously seven years and a half, going round all the places of the Saints, and, investigating very many deeds of the martyrs and of the shining virgins, he wrote them down with the greatest zeal and faithfully retained them. The other things which he did there, what follows will declare.
[16] And when the time had run its course, the same Servant of the Lord was thinking of returning, [he prepares to return to his native land, John the Pontiff, at the admonition of an angel,] desiring to go back to the native land whence he had come. And on a certain night the Lord sent His angel in a vision to the Apostolic John, who then presided over the Roman Church h, to whom he gave command, saying: At dawn, at matins, rise and seek diligently a certain cleric named Serenus, come hither from the parts of the Gauls, who from the rudiments of infancy has in no way ceased to serve God faithfully, but, coming here lately to visit all the places of the Saints and to learn the sacred institutions, where he has now spent one lustrum and a half i, is deliberating now to return to the native land which he once left. When he is found, promote him to the grade of the presbyterate, because he is worthy to discharge the priesthood in the house of the Lord; and when you have sanctified him with the holy oil, take the sacred relics of Saints Fabian and also Sebastian k with the little caskets which are upon the principal altar of St. Peter, with one carbuncle, and gladly grant him all things that are serviceable for his journey, and afterwards let him return with joy to his home.
[17] Having said these things, the angel of the Lord was nowhere to be seen. And when day dawned, when he summons him to himself, blessed Pope John, rising from the bed on which he was lying, altogether anxious about the vision of the angel, sent clerics and laymen to all the places of the Saints that were venerated there, to seek him out studiously. And when the Saint of God had been sought long and much by them, he was at last found hidden in a certain oratory, occupied with psalms and prayers. He was fittingly led before the lord Pope, by whom he was received with the greatest reverence; who began to address him in these words: Why, brother, have you lain hid so long, staying among us, unknown to us for so long a time, so that you did not say confidently that which you had come to accomplish, and you will receive from us all necessary things; remain, I pray, with us as long a time as you desire, until those things are accomplished which have been commanded by the Lord concerning you. When therefore the appointed term came at which it is lawful for faithful clerics to approach to receive the Order of the sacred presbyterate, the servant of Christ Serenus was called before the lord Pope, who addressed him thus, saying.
[18] We know, dearest Brother, that you have been pre-elected by the Lord God he ordains him presbyter, and, presented with to be His special priest and devoted minister in His holy temple, because you have been found worthy to discharge the office of the sacred priesthood, and to offer worthy incense for an odour of sweetness within the chamber of your breast, to intercede for the transgressions of the whole people. Wherefore, I beseech you, do not refuse to receive this blessing, that with the rest that saying of Solomon may be said of you: “Beloved of God and men, whose memory is in blessing l.” To whom the man of the Lord Serenus, as he was most gentle, gave this answer: Although, most excellent father, you know me unworthy to receive the gift of so great an office, yet may the will of the most loving Lord be done. Hearing this, the holy prelate of God, and all who were present there, blessed with one voice the Lord who had deigned to choose for Himself such a priest. Then, led honourably before the altar, the sacred office of consecration was begun in the accustomed manner over him, and when it was happily completed, he was thus thenceforth made a mighty minister in the house of the Lord.
[19] These things being duly completed, the Saint began to deliberate in his mind about returning, asking that leave be given him by the sacred Pontiff to go back to his own native land. with the relics of SS. Fabian and Sebastian, sends him away with honour; He gladly gave his assent to his wishes, giving him all things that were serviceable for the length of the ways, except the sacred relics of the holy martyrs Fabian and Sebastian, which had been promised him by the angel. Seeing this, the man of the Lord Serenus spoke thus to him: But know that I shall in no way depart from here until the command of the holy angel is fulfilled. Whence, the Roman people being called together, a fast was proclaimed, to learn whether the entreaty of the Man of God ought to be fulfilled m. This done, the Lord so disposing, it was cried out with one voice by all that the petition of the Man of God ought to be fulfilled. And having recovered the sacred relics, giving kindly kisses to one another, he happily set out on the long-desired journey.
[20] he, on the way, to prayers, fasts, and other Then the progress of daily exercise advanced in him, always ascending beyond itself, so that by his merits he not only conquered the world, but, having tamed the body, rather triumphed over it. For who will set forth how pre-eminent he was in the sparingness of fasts, how near in the delight of vigils, how praiseworthy in the assiduity of prayer, how singular in the work of mercy, so that he both extinguished the enemy who fought against him, and, by that with which he alone afflicted himself, succoured all with the greatest hope.
[21] pious exercises he gives himself, For he was ready to obey, ripe for trampling down vices, one to whom to live was always Christ and to die gain. For he did not accommodate his eye to pleasure, nor his ear to mockeries, nor his mind to softness, always ruling himself by the anchor of gravity. Nor did he, rejecting what was outside himself, prefer anything to Christ, whom, the stronger for being faithful, he carried in his body. Occupied therefore in these pursuits, he came to such brightness of life that the Lord of the world testified to his devoted service by miracles.
[22] the relics which he had received at Rome, from St. Eligius, who met him On a certain day, before he came to the Alps, crossing a certain river named the Po n, there met him the blessed prelate Eligius, a man dear to God, going to Rome, who took away by force the sacred relics of Saints Fabian and Sebastian which he had received from blessed Pope John o. Whereupon, exceedingly sad, he began to call God to witness before all that he would not depart from there until the aforesaid relics were restored to him; in what order or in what manner he merited to recover them, you would have seen if you had been there, as will be declared in what follows. Meanwhile the athlete of Christ Serenus began with tearful prayers to entreat the Lord, the consoler of pilgrims, that He would deign to relieve him, placed in that same strait and tribulation, so that he might as quickly as possible complete joyfully the journey he had begun. A wonderful thing, and in our times wonderfully to be marvelled at. For he had not yet ceased from prayer when the little boat, in which the already-mentioned prelate Eligius wished to cross the channel of the aforesaid river, so stuck to the waves of the water that, neither with the oarsman pushing nor with the blasts of the winds agitating the sails, could it in any way be moved at all from the place where it stood, either forward or back.
[23] he recovers prodigiously what had been snatched away, Seeing this, the holy pontiff of God, struck with huge fear, straightway calling the saint of God Serenus, knowing him to be of great merit, promised to return to him the little casket with the relics of the holy martyrs Fabian and Sebastian. He, hearing this, filled with great joy, ran with swift course right up to him. Under whose feet the aforesaid river so offered itself to be trodden, just as once the deep sea obeyed the glorious steps of blessed Peter. Whom presently blessed Eligius humbly embracing and long kissing, gladly returned to him the pledges he had taken away, and thenceforth both, joined together by the bond of charity, glorified the almighty Lord, who directs the steps of men to salvation, and always lovingly protects those who hope in Him. Blessed Eligius went on to Rome, St. Serenus also pursued the way he had begun; only he entreated him that he would deign to return by way of him.
[24] Therefore the devoted Servant of the Lord, crossing very swiftly the ridges of the Alps and hastily reaching the borders of the Gauls, he comes to his native land, gives himself wholly to piety, safe, the Lord favouring, until he was received into his own hut. At whose coming all the neighbours of that region rejoiced with one accord. And he afterwards seemed so reverend to all that, the merits of his works shining forth, no one attempted to resist his will. For his countenance was seen as though shining with an angelic aspect, and according to the Scripture the countenance showed the mind. For there was present temperance of manners, by which the scale is balanced. In the exercises of the Lord's worship there was in him a most devout mind and an inexhaustible love. And the words which he spoke you would have seen seasoned with the salt of divine wisdom, and imparting to all the fragrance of its odour. All these things he had placed in his chaste breast upon the foundation of the Catholic faith, applying Christ as the perpetual foundation of his structure, who is the true rock, upon which every building, established, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. There was in him meanwhile a great fervour of love towards pilgrims and exiles, so that to whomever he could he supplied nourishment and provided coverings.
[25] And that same year having passed, returning
now from Rome, blessed Eligius, and Eligius likewise returning into Gaul, and on account of the promise passing through the borders of the Man of God, neglected to go to him as he had promised. For this a sudden blindness seized him, by which, long and grievously oppressed, preparing the provisions necessary for the journey, he hastened very quickly to go to the saint of God Serenus by the way by which he had come. Meanwhile the man of God Serenus was awaiting with all solicitude the return of the blessed prelate, not knowing what had happened to him. And when he was distressed with these and suchlike anxieties, behold, a messenger suddenly arriving announced that the holy prelate Eligius, having gone out from his own borders, had come thither. To him St. Eligius said: See, dearest Brother, how for the crime of the lie which I committed against you I have been struck with a severe blindness. Wherefore, I beseech you, do not delay to intercede with God for me, so that, helped by your prayers, I may merit to receive my former sight.
[26] Then the most holy Serenus, prostrating himself in prayer, not kept, he restores sight to him when struck with blindness. poured out prayers to the Lord so long until the lost light was restored to the holy man Eligius. Whereupon, rejoicing exceedingly together, they returned the greatest praises to the most high Lord, and then came eagerly with their people to the little cell of the blessed Man. Where he spent one year and a half, marking out, prudent as he was, how the Man of God should build a tabernacle to the Lord. This done, both entreated the Lord that both might know the day of their calling, which they also merited to obtain. And afterwards, commending one another to the Lord, the prelate returned safe to his bishopric, and the champion of God Serenus dwelt alone within the arena of his exercise [p].
ANNOTATIONS.
p. All the things which are narrated here in nos. 22, 23, 25 and 26 we hold for fictitious. See, if you please, the Preliminary Commentary, nos. 24 and 25. Saussay records only the theft of the relics and the miracle that followed immediately upon it, who would have done better if he had likewise omitted the other inventions.
CHAPTER III.
The Saint's illness, death, place of burial, and the miracles wrought at it.
While the Saint daily virtues Who then will be able to set forth his patience, who his purity, who his charity, who his holy zeal, who the meditation of his mind day and night in the law of the Lord? A champion of the faith, an adorner of churches, a preacher of grace, an extinguisher of strife, a seed-bed of chastity, a rule of discipline, a weigher of manners, a balance of counsel. Never did detraction, never a lie, never a curse against any person whatever proceed from his mouth. He not only did not detract from anyone, but did not patiently hear one who detracted. Never, too, did he hold anyone in hatred. And not only for friends, but also for enemies he prayed with the whole affection of his heart. He did not teach by words what he did not fulfil by examples. For no hour of the day passed without meditation on the divine word, so that he could rightly and truly say: “The meditation of my heart is always in Thy sight [a].”
[28] he exercises more eagerly, is seized with illness, For when he was sweating in these and suchlike struggles, and the eager warrior with almost untiring intent was daily exposing himself to the insolent enemy in single combat, the end inevitable to all began to knock at the door of his little body, so that the soul beloved of God, bound very long with the chains of prison, might at length, free, break the bonds of servitude and go to meet its King, to be received into His joy; his body being seized by a most acute fever, his marrow was burned through with fire, and the flood of blood was dried up through each limb, yet the spirit, as the vigour of the flesh grew weak, was rendered stronger, and was kindled more and more to entreat the face of God, that he might be most speedily set free by the dissolution of the vessel of the flesh, desiring, according to the Apostle, to be dissolved and to be with Christ.
[29] he dies, is buried in the temple built by himself, And the Godhead, favourer of good prayers and receiver of reasonable wishes, kindly admitted his prayers to itself, and lovingly fulfilled what he was anxiously asking. Finally, his dissolution being now near, the gatherings of the peoples standing about him and awaiting what was to befall him, he foretold to them his dissolution which was to come a little after b, and, as far as possibility permitted, faithfully admonished them to be mindful of him, to whom he bade a last farewell, and afterwards rendered his precious and most holy soul to the Lord God; paying the funeral offices to whose body, they prepared a coffin with great diligence, and committed him to the earth in the basilica which he himself had prepared before his death c.
[30] he becomes illustrious with miracles; and when long after Which place the Lord Jesus Christ, to show what favour He had towards His Servant, has been accustomed to ennoble with wonderful works; for neither does the brevity of this Work permit, nor is there ability in the pen to relate, how many sick received health at his tomb after his departure, or the infirm their power of walking; but also demons were driven from possessed bodies, and very many benefits besides were conferred on mortals through the intercession of the most holy Serenus by Christ the Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.
[31] not far from there the body of St. Sebastian is carried to Soissons, After a long time it came about that the body of the blessed martyr Sebastian was being transported from Rome to the city of Soissons. And when on a certain day the manifold throng carrying the glorious pledges of the holy martyr wished to pass through the borders of the man of God Serenus, it came about, as we believe, by the disposing of the supernal clemency, that the sacred body could in no way at all be moved from that place; whence an infinite multitude of the faithful was gathered from divers parts d. Then, together with one mind entreating the clemency of the Lord that He would deign to reveal to them
what they ought to do about it. Among them a certain very wise one of the clerics, giving them wholesome counsel, spoke in this manner.
[32] If you are willing to give assent to my suggestion, you will carry the holy limbs of the martyr to the Cell of blessed Serenus, it cannot be moved from the place except to the oratory of St. Serenus, where the head of the same holy martyr Sebastian is fittingly laid up, and perhaps in this you will be able to obtain what you faithfully ask e. They, at once acquiescing in his words, and taking up without delay the sacred body of St. Sebastian, set out from there to the oratory of the holy Man with such speed as if they had felt they were carrying no weight. In which place it stayed long beside the head of the said precious martyr Sebastian, the Lord showing by these things that He would confer very many benefits, to the praise and glory of His name, on those who frequent that place.
[33] Meanwhile, as the fame of the blessed man Serenus spread far and wide, and thus, his fame increasing, the kings of the Franks also some began often to frequent his sacred threshold, and by his merits to ask there for pardon of their crimes, and at length to obtain it. Which rumour grew so long until it had altogether reached the ears of the glorious kings, namely Charles and his brother Pippin. Who, rising up in haste together with their mother Bertha, the renowned queen namely, went on to visit the oratory of the Man of God, where they were most dutifully received by the servants of that place. And entering the holy basilica they prayed the Lord according to custom that through His saint Serenus He would deign to wipe away their crimes, and grant to the nation of the Franks all times prosperous and likewise peaceful f.
[34] And staying there a long time, they enriched with their own property the place of the blessed Man at Celle near Chantemerle, visit it, and triumph over their enemies by the Saint's patronage, commending themselves, and afterwards returned with great joy to their own seats. And some days having passed, a very great battle threatened the army of the Franks, shaken and terrified on every side by fear of which the aforesaid kings gathered at the fortress of kindly Medard g with a wedge of their army; whom unanimously entreating that he would deign to beseech the Lord for them, they gave him as a pension the aforesaid little place of blessed Serenus h, so that, helped by the prayers of both, they might merit to triumph happily over their enemies. And the battle being joined, both the enemies were put to flight through the suffrages of the Saints, and the renowned kings returned with their people in joy to their homes, praising and blessing the only-begotten Lord and our Saviour.
[35] The death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord; the natal feasts of the most blessed Serenus, whose Acts with an elogium a chief co-father i, and also a distinguished confessor, commend it. For rightly should I call the sacred passage of the same from the world a birthday, in which, emerging from the squalor of the worldly prison, he merited to ascend to the palaces of the heavenly kingdom, and, transferred from the left to the right, exchanged the atrocious laws of death for perennial immortality. Truly Blessed, truly most worthy of every kind of praise, whose purpose it was so to serve as a soldier in the world that he might reign with Christ for ever.
[36] Finally, the most blessed Serenus, following the victorious standards of the eternal Emperor, from fortitude of mind, and, having given in his name among the most robust athletes, bound by the military oaths, did not grow torpid, sluggish, in the divine warfare, did not suffer the brand of a deserter to be put upon him. Nor finally, contemplating shameful flight, did he turn his back to the adversaries; but rather, engaging manfully with the enemy, by the disciplined method of combat he not only, circumspect, eluded the opposing blows with the shield of faith; but also, a renowned warrior, crushed the hostile onsets of the enemy with huge weight. Thus, God protecting him in all things, emerging victor, borne up in an ethereal chariot to the heavenly capitol, he raised a noble triumph, and, presented at once with the palm and the laurel of immortality, he heaped up the starry companies with the privilege of his merits.
[37] from the abundance of miracles and sanctity, There happily perpetual, and perpetually happy, reigning together with Christ Himself, he dwells with the angels, walks with the archangels, and finally rejoices together with all the thousands of all the Saints. Thence have flowed the rejoicings of today's festivity, thence have poured forth such great and such solemn joys of the Christian people. Here the clergy sings together, there the people applauds, the poor man dances, the rich man exults. Young men and virgins, old men with the younger, let them praise the name of the Lord, by whose gift St. Serenus here shone forth so great, so celebrated, so pre-eminent in fine, that he is deservedly proclaimed both second * in the height of sanctity and greatest in the abundance of miracles, to be compared with any of the Saints.
[38] from continence, patience, charity and other virtues For whose continence of singular parsimony did he not equal, to whom was he unequal in the virtue of patience, than whom was he found inferior in faith, less in hope? Whom finally did he not surpass in the advances of the highest charity? What needy man went away from him without a meal, what weary man without solace, what destitute man without protection, or what man held by any weakness of body without the remedy of soundness? For in very truth Christ so placed in His servant Serenus a most pleasing couch of humility, charity and mercy that, as has been said, He set him second to almost none in righteousness and sanctity. With how great a splendour of principal signs the confessor of God Serenus shone I judge it superfluous to repeat, which are so great that by their magnitude they would easily claim the knowledge of many, nay of all.
[39] having asked, the biographer here at length closes. He therefore who, while mortal, could do such things, we believe indeed, and not with vain faith, will be able, immortal, to obtain much greater. If, fighting, he performed such things, reigning with God he will perform incomparably better. Let us therefore frequent him with prayers, him with the offices of due service. Nor does the mind grow torpid in duty, if it does not wish to be frustrated in its prayer; asked, he will be present; entreated, he will favour. Removing all hurtful things, he will provide all things beneficial. He will bend the Judge with prayers, he will intercede with the Author for the guilty and the frail. He will obtain from God pardon of crimes and will procure, by the gift of immortality, fellowship in the rewards, the same our Lord granting it, to whom be perennial praise, unfailing glory, immortal victory, now and for all ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
a. Psalm 18, verse 15.
* add nulli to none