Placidus and Companions

ON SS. PLACIDUS AND COMPANIONS: EUTYCHIUS, VICTORINUS, FLAVIA, DONATUS, AND OTHERS, MARTYRS AT MESSINA IN SICILY,

ABOUT THE YEAR 541.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Placidus, martyr at Messina in Sicily. (S.) Eutychius, martyr at Messina in Sicily. (S.) Victorinus, martyr at Messina in Sicily. (S.) Flavia, martyr at Messina in Sicily. (S.) Donatus, martyr at Messina in Sicily. (S.) Others, martyrs at Messina in Sicily.

BY J. B.

§ I. Saints Placidus and his Companions, martyrs, commemorated at this day by the more recent martyrologists on the one hand, and by the ancient ones, as it appears, on the other.

St. Placidus and his Companions, martyrs, the more recent Martyrologies as well as the old ones indeed celebrate today in rivalry; St. Placidus and his Companions, martyrs, to the martyrologists but in such a way that it can not undeservedly be doubted whether the same or a different class of martyrs is marked in them. The announcement of the more recent ones, as usually happens, is generally fuller and more distinct; that of the old ones, on the contrary, briefer and more obscure: it will suffice to have praised a few of them. The Roman Martyrology which is now in use reads thus: At Messina in Sicily, the birthday of the holy martyrs Placidus, monk, disciple of the blessed abbot Benedict, and of his brothers Eutychius and Victorinus, and of Flavia, virgin, their sister; likewise of Donatus, Firmatus the deacon, Faustus, and thirty other monks, who were killed by the pirate Manucha for the faith of Christ. Belinus, Maurolico, Molanus and Galesini went before the emenders of the Roman Martyrology: of these Belinus first added to St. Placidus the title of disciple of St. Benedict, in these words: In Sicily, the birthday of the holy martyrs Placidus, monk, disciple of the most blessed abbot Benedict, of Euticius: and of thirty others. Maurolico is far more prolix: At Messina, he says, on the Sicilian strait, of the holy martyrs Placidus, monk, disciple of the blessed abbot Benedict, of Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia, their sister, Donatus, Faustus, Firmatus, and thirty other monks, who were tortured and slain by the pirate Manucha, whom Abdala, barbarian king of Spain, had sent; and were buried by Gordianus, their companion, who had withdrawn in fear, on the very shore of the city, beside the church of St. John the Baptist, where the oratory of the Saints was; and they suffered in the year of Salvation five hundred and forty-one; and Placidus himself, delivered at seven years old by his father Tertullus to Benedict, suffered martyrdom in his twenty-sixth year; and Gordianus wrote their Passion.

[2] both to the more recent, The source from which Maurolico drew his statements his last period, which concerns Gordianus, the companion of St. Placidus, abundantly declares; but that it is muddy, and falsely ascribed to Gordianus, will become manifest when the Acts of St. Placidus are treated. Meanwhile let us hear Molanus: In Sicily, he says, the birthday of the holy martyrs Placidus, monk of the most blessed abbot Benedict, of Eutychius and thirty others: which indeed are Usuard's words; but that Placidus was a disciple of St. Benedict is Molanus's addition, expressed for that reason in a different type, and drawn from the same Acts of St. Placidus, praised by Molanus in his Annotation on St. Placidus. And Galesini, both from the same Acts of St. Placidus and from the Letter of the Sicilians on the martyrdom of St. Placidus, but likewise of slight credit, writes thus: At Messina in Sicily, of the holy martyrs Placidus, monk, Euthichius, Victorinus, Flavia their sister, Faustus, Firmatus and thirty others. These, grievously tortured for the faith of Christ by the pirate Manucha, whom the barbarian king of Spain had sent, at length met death with constant mind. I do not add more of the more recent martyrologists to these, content to have indicated whence the announcement of Saints Placidus and his Companions was derived which is read in the present Roman Martyrology, in which the arena of St. Placidus, his monastic state, his Brothers and Sister, and finally the number of his Companions are expressly and accurately expressed. Not so do the older Martyrologies speak; I take my beginning from the Hieronymian ones.

[3] and very well known to the ancient ones, The codex of Echternach, written at the beginning of the 8th century, has thus: In Sicily, the birthday of Euticus and 8 others. And elsewhere, of Baricus, Victurinus. That of Lucca in Fiorentini: In Sicily, of Placitus, Euticus, and 30 others. And elsewhere, of Baricus. Victorinus. Faustus. Pelagius. That of Corbie in d'Achery, volume 4 of the Spicilegium, first edition, page 676: In Sicily, of Placitus, Euticus, and 30 others. And elsewhere of Victorinus, Faustus, Pelagius. Among the contracted Hieronymian Codices, with us in volume 7 of July, that of Reichenau: In Sicily, of Euticius and eight others, and elsewhere of Placidus, Baricius. That of Augsburg of the monastery of St. Ulrich: Of Placidus, Valentinian, Apollinaris, Euticus, Victorinus. At Auxerre of Faustus, Pelagius, Firmatus, Flaviana, virgin. The Labbean: Of Placitus, Valerius, Apollonaris, Euticus, Victorinus. Ants. Of Faustus. Pelagius, Firmatus, Flavina, virgin. The shorter Corbie one: In Sicily of Placentius and Placitus; of Euticus and thirty others. Among our manuscript Hieronymian codices, the Vallicellian: In Sicily, the birthday of the holy martyrs Placidus and Euticus and thirty others. The Barberini agrees with this; but the Cassinese, which places Placidus in Sicily, marks Victorinus, Faustus and thirty others elsewhere. To the class of the Hieronymian ones can be reduced also that of Gellone, written in the year 804, as d'Achery judges, volume 13 of the Spicilegium, page 12, in the Preface, and that of Murbach, edited in Martène, volume 3 of the Anecdota, column 1563, and written, as he says, in the not much advanced 9th century; of which the former has thus: Of Placitus. At Valence, of Apollonaris, Euticus, Victorinus. At Auxerre, of Faustus, Pelagius, Firmatus, Flavia, virgin. And the latter: Of Placidus, Valentinus, Faustus.

[4] Further, that I have not brought forward so many Hieronymian codices here in vain but whether St. Placidus, the disciple of St. Benedict, will appear a little below: their surely immense variety and dissonance makes it undoubted that most of them have departed from their native purity: yet I should not wish to sprinkle this stain on all; since there seem to be pure the Corbie one of d'Achery, the Lucca one of Fiorentini, and the Blumian in the same Fiorentini, written already from the year 772, and differing from the Lucca one only in this, that for Eutici it has Euti. So I think, both because these agree excellently among themselves (for I do not stay over a difference of a few little letters), and because Ado and Usuard, to whom the Martyrology commonly ascribed to St. Jerome served as a light, inserted St. Placidus and his Companions in their Fasti in almost the same words. Thus Ado: In Sicily, the birthday of Saints Placidus, Eutychius and thirty others. Usuard: In Sicily, the birthday of the holy martyrs Placidus, Euticius and thirty others. This also is peculiar to those three Hieronymian copies, that they come closer than the rest to the present Roman Martyrology and the other more recent sacred Fasti praised at numbers 1 and 2. Let us now consider whether the Hieronymian copies, Ado and Usuard commemorate today the same class of martyrs as the Roman Martyrology, or a different one: for I pass over Bede and Florus, purged of their additions, and Wandelbert, because they made mention of our Martyrs neither on this day nor on any other; Notker agrees with Ado and Usuard; of Rabanus it will be treated below.

[5] Fiorentini, in his Annotations at this day, noticing that among his Hieronymian copies, as much the more recent as the ancient announce today, the History of St. Placidus and the Roman Martyrology partly agree and partly disagree, seems at first indeed to waver in this matter; but at length he judges that the same class of Martyrs is indicated in both, and that his codices, mutilated in some names of the Martyrs, are to be supplied and corrected from them. Fiorentini was moved most of all both by the authority of the emended Roman Martyrology, in which, besides Placidus, Eutychius and thirty Companions, Victorinus, Flavia, Firmatus, Donatus and Faustus, lacking in the Hieronymian copies, are read expressed with marked names; and by the Bull of Sixtus V, Roman Pontiff, by which he permitted their feast to be celebrated on the 5th day of October, and their recent finding and translation on the day before the Nones of August. Nevertheless Chastelain decides the contrary. Let no one wonder, he says in the Preface to the first two months of the Roman Martyrology, number 5, speaking of the Martyrology of Rabanus, that that Martyrology, being the Work of a Benedictine monk, mentioned the feasts of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica: but neither let it move anyone's wonder that St. Maurus is not read there, but St. Placidus is read without the title of monk; since no one up to the time when it was written had attempted to thrust upon those two Saints as monks those of whom Gregory speaks in the Dialogues. Thus Rabanus wrote at the 5th day of October, probably about the year 845, in Canisius, volume 6 of the Ancient Readings: In Sicily, the birthday of Euticus and thirty others. Rabanus therefore passes over Placidus: yet Chastelain manifestly betrays what he thinks of St. Placidus commemorated by the ancient martyrologists.

[6] it is controverted among authors: Sollerius went into the same opinion: This certainly seems undoubted, he says in the Observation on Usuard on the 5th day of October, that none of the ancient martyrologists, when they commemorate Placidus, Eutychius and anonymous Companions, even in shadow thought that they themselves were monks, much less Benedictines

to have been; which those who were themselves monks would surely not have neglected to insinuate, as they commonly do; namely Ado, Usuard, Notker, Rabanus, monks of the Benedictine institute. The more recent Martyrology of the church of Paris commemorates today Saints Placidus, Eutychius and thirty others in Sicily, with these little words added in the margin: According to some in the year 541; by which not only the year in which St. Placidus is said to have undergone martyrdom with his Companions, but also who these martyrs of Sicily are, seems to be called into doubt. However that may be, there are not a few things which compel me to go over into the opinion of Chastelain and Sollerius, and to affirm that some martyrs are commemorated today by the Hieronymian, Adonian, Usuardine and other older Martyrologies, and others by the more recent Roman Martyrology. And first, as regards the Hieronymian Martyrologies, although commonly only the name, the place and the day of the passion are expressed in them, the qualities of the martyrs and the other circumstances being omitted, yet commonly only the older martyrs of the Church have been wont to be commemorated in them, as Ruinart in his Apology for St. Placidus, §4, does not deny; and so the St. Placidus commemorated in them could easily be confused by more recent writers with St. Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, of whom Gregory the Great speaks in his Dialogues, on account of the not slight consonance which exists between the Hieronymian and other Martyrologies and the history of Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict.

[7] different from this one, whatever Ruinart But, says Ruinart in the cited place, that difficulty ought to detain no one: for although the Hieronymian Martyrologies commonly commemorate the older Saints of the Church, yet it can by no means be made out from this that St. Placidus and his Companions commemorated in them are likewise to be numbered among the older Saints: since in them the names of more recent Saints too, and of those later than St. Benedict, are not rarely read, even sometimes at the very head of the little lists; which surely must be granted to the most learned man. Luc d'Achery, in volume 4 of the Spicilegium, presents a Hieronymian Martyrology in which he distinguished by a different type not a few announcements of feasts added in the lapse of time to the Hieronymian Fasti, and indeed at the head of the little lists the feast of the Purification of blessed Mary at the 2nd day of February, and that of All Saints on the Kalends of November. It is wonderful, however, that it did not come into his mind to distinguish in a similar way the announcement of St. Placidus at the 5th day of October, which he had not neglected to do at the 21st day of March in the case of St. Benedict. The same care held Fiorentini in the Martyrology of St. Jerome edited by him and illustrated with notes. Many Saints there too, added more recently, and for that reason likewise distinguished by a type different from the rest, occur, especially at the end of the little lists; while the head is occupied by St. Austreberta at the 10th day of February; Saints Wando, Asbertus and Wulfram at the 31st of March; St. Chilbertus at the 19th of April; St. Ceratus at the 7th of June; St. Wandrille at the 22nd of July; St. Ouen at the 24th of August; St. Leodegar at the 2nd of October; and finally Saints Genesius and Hilary on the Kalends of November.

[8] What Ruinart says, therefore, that more recent Saints were from time to time added to the Hieronymian codices, may say to the contrary, even at the head of the rest, no one may rightly call into doubt: but I should wish another scruple to be removed from me before I depart from the opinion of the difference of the Placidus commemorated in the Hieronymian copies from the Benedictine Placidus. If I inspect the Saints added to d'Achery's Hieronymian Martyrology and marked with a different type, I find all, scarcely one excepted, marked at the end of the little lists; and if the feasts of the Purification and of All Saints appear in the first place in it, the veneration of the transcriber towards the Most Blessed Virgin, and the singular solemnity and celebrity of the other feast, could have brought that about. On the contrary, I find the name of St. Placidus marked at the head of the little list: nor can this be noticed in the single d'Achery copy only, but also in almost all the other Hieronymian codices which either Benedictine monks or any others whatever transcribed. In the first place there occurs in the Echternach one Eutichius, the companion of St. Placidus; Placidus first in the Lucca one in Fiorentini, first in the Blumian in the same, in the Augsburg one, the Labbean, the shorter Corbie one with us in volume 7 of June, the Murbach one, the other Corbie one, and the Tours one in Martène, volume 3 of the Anecdota. There are added the Cassinese, the Barberini, the Baronian of St. Cyriacus, the Vallicellian, the Trier one of St. Martin, the Cologne one of St. Mary ad Gradus, the Romano-Gallican of Luc d'Achery, of which we have copies. Add to these the Gellone one in d'Achery, volume 13 of the Anecdota. The Reichenau one alone of so many Hieronymian codices, or those approaching them, already cited, places St. Placidus in the second place; yet in such a way that it announces Eutichius, the companion of St. Placidus, in the first place, as may be seen at number 3.

[9] Further, from both these heads taken together, namely that the Placidus commemorated in the Hieronymian codices in the ancient not only holds a place in almost all of them, but constantly holds the first, no slight suspicion occurs to me that St. Placidus belongs to their original text, since in those Saints who from time to time were added to the primary text of the Hieronymian codices one or the other is usually lacking, so that they are either not put in the first place or at least not constantly. Let there be as an example both the Saints related at number 7 and placed in Fiorentini at the head of the little lists, and St. Benedict himself; of whom the former, in the copies of Echternach and Corbie of d'Achery, in Fiorentini, and in the others edited by Sollerius in volume 7 of June, are either passed over in silence altogether or are commonly placed in the middle or last place: while St. Benedict, although he occurs in the first place in not a few, yet occurs in the last in the very old Echternach one, in the Reichenau, Augsburg, Labbean, shorter Corbie, Corbie and Gellone ones of d'Achery, as also in the very ancient Hieronymian one bound more than a thousand years ago, and in the Murbach one in Martène, volume 3 of the Anecdota, from column 1547. And then, who would otherwise believe that the interpolators of the Hieronymian codices, as many as mentioned him, almost every one, paid such honour to the Benedictine Placidus that they counted it as it were a sacrilege not to mark his name in the first place, and yet many of the same did not wish to grant as much to St. Benedict, no less celebrated than his Disciple for holiness and deeds? Is St. Benedict perhaps read in the last place in these because he was the latest in age of all whom the little list of the 21st day of the month of March comprises? And St. Placidus, disciple of Benedict, on the contrary constantly occurs in the first place in them because he preceded in age the others who are marked in the Hieronymian copies on the 5th day of October? And yet older than this Placidus, at least a little, is St. Apollinaris, bishop of Valence on the Rhone, who subscribed to the council of Epaone in the year 517; older perhaps by a whole century Firmatus and Flaviana or Flavia; and finally perhaps much older Pelagius and Baricus, who are also inscribed at this day in the Hieronymian codices.

[10] in the Hieronymian copies Wonder also comes into my mind, if the Placidus whom the Hieronymian copies record today was a disciple of St. Benedict, that there is not even one of them all that mentions Messina definitely. Certainly the copies of Rheinau, Reichenau and of the Queen of Sweden in Sollerius announce St. Benedict at Cassino: so that the vague announcement of St. Placidus in Sicily, which flows through all the Hieronymian codices, at least those I have seen, seems to have proceeded from ignorance of the definite arena, and this from the antiquity of the Saint commemorated in them rather than from anything else. What of the fact that the very words of the Hieronymian codices, by which they record their Placidus and his Companions today, abundantly declare that he is other than Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict? If we believe Pseudo-Gordianus, the Benedictine Placidus had as companions of his martyrdom Eutichius, Victorinus, Flavia, Faustus, Firmatus, Donatus, and finally thirty anonymous monks. But the codices already often cited add to Placidus, besides thirty anonymous Companions, only one, namely, for the most part, Eutichius; not one mentions Donatus; indeed they commonly mark the rest elsewhere: whence it becomes very likely that the inventor of the Acts of the Benedictine St. Placidus scraped together the names of martyrs scattered here and there on this day through the Hieronymian codices, and at his discretion attached them to the Guests of his Placidus, as having suffered together with him, keeping the number of thirty anonymous martyrs: so that there is no need to call those codices which commemorate Placidus today together with Eutichius and thirty companions mutilated, and to distinguish a double Victorinus and Faustus, and likewise a double Firmatus and Flaviana or Flavia, which Fiorentini does in his Annotations at this day.

[11] to be designated I do not indeed deny that the Hieronymian codices have been notably depraved in many places by either the drowsiness or the ignorance of those copying them; but why I do not think that this happened in this place, at least in those which I praised at number 4, I have said in the same place. But if in others there occur perhaps not doubtful arguments of depravation, I suspect even from this that Placidus and his Companions commemorated in them belong to the ancient and less known Saints of the Church: since in them the way to errors is not rarely more prone than in those more recent in age and commonly better known by fame and deeds. The Echternach copy confirms my suspicion. It was written about the beginning of the 8th century by a certain Laurence, a monk of Echternach, a son of the Benedictine institute; and St. Willibrord had it in use (whom the Benedictines do not hesitate to make their own), as Bolland proves in the general Preface to the Lives of the Saints, chapter 4, §4. The monastery of St. Placidus at Messina was also then flourishing, destroyed for the third time by the Saracens about the end of the 9th century: and so that copy was written in that tract of time in which the name of St. Placidus, proto-martyr of the Benedictine Order, must have spread far and wide, at least among the monks of his institute. Yet it has thus: In Sicily, the birthday of Euticus and eight others. And elsewhere of Baricus, Victorinus. The Echternach copy is surely mutilated here, and Laurence had a faulty exemplar in his hands; but if mention of the Martyrs of Messina were made there, will not both Laurence have to be accused of supine ignorance or negligence, who passed over St. Placidus in silence, assigned only eight companions to Eutichius, tore Victorinus from the Companions, and joined him to Baricus, who has nothing to do with the Martyrs of Messina; and St. Willibrord himself, who either did not know errors so manifold and palpable, or, knowing them, applied no emendation? I should prefer to suppose that neither, when he wrote or read these things, thought anything of St. Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, but held Eutichius and his companions for ancient Saints little known to him. So much of the copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology. But Ruinart, who contends in his Apology that Placidus was added in the lapse of time to the Hieronymian codices by monks, must be heard before we speak of the other older martyrologists.

[12] He establishes ancient Martyrologies of a twofold kind, so that some were written for the use of secular churches, seems. others for the use of monasteries: the former comprise almost the names of the first martyrs; as may be seen in the Little Roman, edited by Rosweyde:

the latter were commonly augmented by monks with the names of those Saints into whose communion of glory and fellowship they themselves come. Further, since in these the name of St. Placidus commonly appears, but is lacking in many Martyrologies of secular churches, this can be an argument that the name of St. Placidus was added by the Benedictines to the Hieronymian codices which were in use among them, because he was one of those Saints whom it specially concerned them to have committed at least to perpetual memory. So, almost, Ruinart, although rather timidly; who would indeed argue rightly if the Roman and other secular churches had proposed to themselves to consign to their Fasti the memory of each and all of the first martyrs, and had made no selection from the Saints whom each judged it chiefly should honour; and if the monastic Martyrologies had not retained very many names of the first martyrs of the Church. But the matter stands far otherwise: the monastic Martyrologies for the most part place the Saints peculiarly belonging to the monastic Order after the older martyrs of the Church, towards the end of the little lists, as becomes manifest to one who inspects them. From this, therefore, it can by no means be made out that St. Placidus, who, not in one or another only but in most of the Hieronymian codices, as we have seen above, constantly occupies the head of the little lists, is to be expunged from the number of the first martyrs of the Church. And that the Martyrologies of the secular churches did not list the names of each of the first martyrs of the Church, Ruinart himself shows, when he says that in the old Roman Martyrology edited by Rosweyde, which he adduces as an example, neither on this nor on any other day is the memory marked of St. Agatha, St. Lucy, St. Euplus and other Saints of Sicily, although most celebrated. Vain would be he who should for that reason expunge those Sicilian Saints from the number of the first martyrs; vain, he who should expunge St. Placidus. Now chiefly of Ado and Usuard.

[13] Nor otherwise These likewise were of the Benedictine institute, and prepared their lucubrations on the Saints before the third destruction of the monastery of Placidus by the Saracens: each saw the Hieronymian Martyrology; Usuard himself confesses in his Prologue that he used it as an aid for the Martyrology written by him: Ado praises it in express words at the 24th day of February. The words in which each commemorates St. Placidus at the 5th day of October we have given at number 4; we ask, whether the Benedictine Placidus or another? Usuard copies Ado's words, and there is no doubt that both designate the same man: let us see, therefore, whom Ado understands here. We have Ado himself as witness, in his Prologue to the reader, that two Martyrologies especially served as his lights, one of Bede, augmented by Florus, the other sent from the city of Rome to Aquileia, that is, the Little Roman, as Sollerius proves in the Preface to Usuard, chapter 2, article 2: that he also had the Hieronymian Martyrology in his hands is proved from what was said a little before. But since no mention is made of St. Placidus either in the Martyrology of Bede augmented by Florus or in the Little Roman, and Ado uses almost the same words as the Hieronymian codices of Lucca, the Blumian and d'Achery's, cited at numbers 3 and 4, it appears most probable that St. Placidus was transcribed by Ado into his Martyrology from a similar Hieronymian copy. Further, the Placidus commemorated in those was not, as we have shown above, a disciple of St. Benedict; nor, therefore, is he whom Ado and Usuard mentioned. But let us elicit what Ado thought here, so far as it can be done, from himself, not from elsewhere.

[14] of Ado. What Ado undertook to accomplish by his lucubration these words of the Prologue teach: Then the books of passions collected from everywhere so roused my mind that I should describe more broadly and somewhat more openly not only the festivities of days passed over (in the Martyrology of Bede augmented by Florus), but also those of others which were placed there by name throughout the whole year. Quite right: one of those omitted in the Martyrology of Bede augmented by Florus is the festivity of St. Placidus; I expect therefore that Ado, if he knew anything about St. Placidus, whether from the collected books of passions or from elsewhere (and he ought to have known, if he treats of the Benedictine Placidus), should declare it somewhat more broadly and openly. But behold, when I undertake to compare the history of the Benedictine Placidus with Ado's announcement, I find it not only not broader and more open, but maimed and mutilated: there appear there Placidus and Eutychius, there appear thirty others, monks namely, if you please, whom Placidus had taken into the fellowship of his life: but where are Victorinus and Flavia, his siblings? where Firmatus and Faustus? where Messina, the place of the arena? I know that Ado inserted somewhat longer passions of the Saints in his Martyrology, especially towards the end of the little lists; but I do not think he would have given so mutilated an announcement, even at the head of the little list, if he had treated of the Disciple of St. Benedict and the Proto-martyr of his Order; especially since I see that Ado did not lack diligence in supplying both the names of Saints and the places of passions which were lacking in the Martyrologies that served as his lights: this will become manifest to one comparing Ado with the Little Roman, as at the 28th day of January, where to Leucius and Thyrsus, commemorated by the Roman, he adds Gallinicus; at the 7th day of March, where to Perpetua and Felicity he adds Revocatus, Saturninus and Secundulus; at the 26th day of March, where to Theodore he adds Irenaeus, Serapion and Ammonius; which he did not rarely elsewhere too. St. Lucian at the 7th day of June, St. Basil at the 14th day of June, Saints Germanus, Theophilus and others at the 3rd day of November, the Little Roman announces In Cappadocia: Ado adds: At Caesarea of Cappadocia. The former places St. Januarius at the 11th day of July in Lesser Armenia; the latter adds: In the city of Nicopolis: the former places Christina the virgin at the 24th day of the same month Near the lake of Vulsinii in Italy; Ado adds: In Tyrus, which is near the lake of Vulsinii. Likewise St. Theodota with her three sons in Bithynia at the 2nd day of August; Ado adds: In the city of Nicaea.

[15] Usuard followed in the footsteps of the Hieronymian Martyrology, of Bede, of Florus, and indeed of Ado, and of Usuard, who followed Ado, but in such a way that he took care to add and emend what was lacking in them or wrongly related: But if anything, he says in the Prologue, besides what I received from them, has been done or changed in this Work, it can be recognized as having been searched out by me with sagacious investigation: of which it will be helpful to bring forward some specimens. At the 24th day of January, in Rosweyde, Ado mentions St. Babylas without companions: Usuard adds three little boys who suffered with him, Urbanus, Prilidanus, Epolonus. At the following day Ado commemorates St. Praejectus without companion; Usuard joined St. Amarinus to Praejectus, as also, at the 24th day of May, St. Felix to four others commemorated by Ado. The same, at the 27th day of July, added to St. Hermolaus Saints Hernempus and Hermogrates, which Ado did not do. As therefore Ado augmented others, so Usuard strove to augment Ado with the names of Saints expressed by name, if any from the same class of Saints were perhaps lacking. Whence it is lawful to gather that he would have done the same as regards the Companions of St. Placidus; and would not have passed over in silence Victorinus, Flavia, Firmatus and Faustus, if he had thought him a disciple of St. Benedict.

[16] Usuard augmented not only other men's writings but his own too, and augmented, by adding names of Saints, if we believe the editor of Usuard of Saint-Germain-des-Prés: for, as he indeed relates in the Observation at the 23rd day of August, Usuard at first assigned to Claudius only two companions of his passion, Asterius and Neon, which Florus too had done before him, as many as are marked in the codex of Montier-en-Der kept in the royal Library at Paris. But Usuard, having consulted their Proconsular Acts, afterwards added in the Saint-Germain codex two female companions besides to Asterius and Neon, Domnina and Theonilla. What cause then shall we bring forward why he did not use like diligence in listing the Companions of St. Placidus on this day, and left at least four Companions of St. Placidus wholly unmentioned, except that the Placidus whom he commemorates is different from the Benedictine Placidus, and that Usuard had not ascertained more companions of his than those he related? Similarly, to one asking why Usuard did not express Messina, the arena of the Benedictine St. Placidus, I seem able to answer: because he makes mention of another Placidus than the Benedictine, whose arena Usuard had not more accurately ascertained, who certainly would neither have been ignorant of Messina as the arena of the Benedictine St. Placidus nor have neglected to express it if he had mentioned him; in almost the same way in which the praised editor of Usuard of Saint-Germain, to one asking why Usuard at the 17th day of June writes only of St. Gundulf: In the territory of Bourges, of St. Gundulf, bishop, and does not declare what see he occupied, answers affirmatively that it had not been ascertained by Usuard, who would not have omitted to name the see if it had been known to him.

[17] as also of Rabanus Surely neither Ado nor Usuard, when they mentioned Saints Ampelus and Gaius at the 20th of November, omitted Messina, their Arena: and Usuard not rarely supplied by his own industry the locations of Saints lacking in Ado; thus at the 6th of January he assigns St. Macra, commemorated by Ado without a place, to the territory of Reims; thus at the 15th of the same month St. Macarius to Egypt; thus at the 18th of March St. Gertrude to the monastery of Nivelles; nor are there lacking more of this kind. But, someone will say, Ado and Usuard did not impose on themselves the law, to be observed inviolably, of always and definitely relating the location of each of the Saints: hence it could have happened that they did not definitely mention the arena of St. Placidus, although well known to them. But suppose they did not impose that law on themselves: they do it commonly, and that they would have done the same here if they had known the arena of their Placidus can not be presumed without ground. As with Messina, so they are silent about Victorinus, Flavia, Firmatus, Faustus, Donatus, who would not easily have been omitted if they had known them; both omissions seem to have proceeded from the same source. Further, that the old martyrologists did not impose on themselves the law that one should not add anything to another is clear from what has been said. How then did it come about that not even one of them made mention of Victorinus and the others of whom just now? By what distraction of mind was Rabanus, a monk of Fulda in the 9th century and notable for learning, carried away, that, passing over not only them but St. Placidus himself, he wrote: In Sicily, the birthday of Euticus and thirty others? Unless perhaps an error lies here; but I rather suspect that Rabanus followed here a faulty codex partly agreeing with the Echternach one.

[18] it must be said Add that there is none of the old martyrologists who called the St. Placidus of whom they treat on this day either abbot, or monk, or disciple of St. Benedict; none who named or in any way indicated Placidus and Eutichius as brothers; which, however, is, if not perpetual, certainly very familiar to Ado and Usuard. Examples of all these meet one who even inspects each martyrologist. On this very day Saints Firmatus

and Flaviana of Auxerre, Usuard did not keep silent that they were siblings. But, says Ruinart, Usuard called St. Placidus a martyr, and hence enough for his praise, according to the saying of St. Ambrose about St. Agnes: I shall call her martyr, I have proclaimed enough. I hear it: but whence is it clear to Ruinart that Usuard was unwilling to add to St. Placidus the title of abbot, or of monk, or of disciple of St. Benedict for this reason, that he had called him martyr? Usuard called martyrs Liberatus at the 17th day of August, Anastasius at the 22nd day of January, Sinerus at the 23rd day of February, Paul and Isidore at the 17th day of April, Hilarinus at the 16th day of July, and others elsewhere; but in such a way as to express luminously that Liberatus was besides an abbot and the rest monks. Another will perhaps say that no other was known at that time besides Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, and hence it seemed superfluous to the old martyrologists to add any mark by which the Benedictine Placidus might be distinguished from another: for so, almost, the editor of Usuard of Saint-Germain answers Sollerius, who asks why Usuard at the 15th day of January named St. Macarius the disciple of St. Antony, and yet did not call Maurus of Anjou the disciple of St. Benedict; but he equally divines Usuard's mind: for Usuard knew of no abbots besides Attala and Droctoveus, of whom the one had been a disciple of St. Columban, the other of St. Germanus; yet he distinguished each by this mark; nor did he believe it superfluous.

[19] Finally, before the 12th century, at whose beginning they say the Life and Passion of St. Placidus was brought from Constantinople into the West, it appears to us. it seems never to have come into anyone's mind to affirm that the Placidus commemorated today in the ancient Martyrologies was a disciple of St. Benedict: for he who is said to have made it Latin from Greek at the request of the monks of Cassino and to have polished it, Stephen of Le Puy, dedicating his labour to the Cassinese, speaks in this manner: Nor let anyone, either too diligent or less cautious, wish to roll calumny upon us, as though we were introducing a new Martyr to an ageing world. He fears, therefore, lest he should seem to have introduced not only a new history of an ancient Martyr but also a new Martyr: but could Stephen seriously fear such a calumny for himself, which he could rout with no trouble if the Hieronymian, Adonian and especially Usuardine Martyrologies, spread far and wide at that time, were thought to commemorate the Benedictine Placidus? Yet that he spoke seriously his effort betrays, by which he strove to drive this calumny from himself: Since, he says, this Martyr is authentic, not raw nor a novice, but ancient; and lest he should seem to have said this without ground, he presently proceeds thus: The Eastern church being witness, which has venerated from of old in Greek his triumphs expressed by Gordianus the monk, and the emperor Justinian testifying, who by a Sacred letter of the empire directed to Pope Vigilius caused the Passion of this holy Martyr to be canonized. But to what purpose was it to refer the reader to monuments of the Greeks, and those, as will be said in its place, of slight credit, to what purpose to complain so much before the Cassinese themselves of the carelessness and silence of the Latins, if among the Latins or Westerners he had such luminous witnesses at least of the martyrdom of Placidus?

§ II. Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, truly existed, and was venerated before the 12th century, in which his Acts were first drawn out into the light.

St. Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict You perhaps wonder, reader, as you hear it asked here whether St. Placidus, disciple of Benedict, ever existed in the nature of things; but you will cease to wonder at it when you notice that some critics have advanced to such a degree of severity that they think he was not even a man, much less a saint or martyr: so Basnage judges, book 21 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 4, number 4, both because, as he says, it is evident that from the sixth century up to the twelfth the names and martyrdom of Saints Placidus and his Companions were known to no one, and because the manifold and supine errors of the Acts easily prove that they had no other parent than an inept fabler of the 12th century, who, for the sake of gaining authority for his fiction, attached to it the name of Gordianus, who was one of the Companions of St. Placidus. But neither reason helps Basnage; for first, he affirms as falsely as inconsiderately that not even the name of St. Placidus was known to anyone from the sixth century up to the twelfth: for Leo of Marsica, a writer of the 11th century, knew Placidus, since he wrote thus of him in book 1, chapter 1 of the History of Cassino: After these things, found by shepherds (St. Benedict) and at length recognized by many, frequented too by the nobles of the city of Rome, he received, to be instructed in monastic discipline, Maurus, twelve years old, from Equitius, and Placidus, still a little boy, from Tertullus the patrician. Nay, the same author was not ignorant of the holiness of Placidus and of his mission to the Sicilians; for in the same chapter he has this besides: The man of the Lord Benedict then sent also blessed Placidus, his disciple, to Sicily. Leo dedicated his Work to Oderisius, abbot of Cassino, who was taken from among the living in the year 1105 according to the reckoning of Camillo Pellegrino, that is, about a decade before the Acts of St. Placidus came to the knowledge of the Westerners, in the fifth year of his age, as indeed Peter the deacon writes in Ottavio Gaetani, to be cited in the following §, whom, however, Basnage thinks their inventor.

[21] before the 12th century In the 9th century Bertharius was abbot of Cassino, and likewise a martyr; he mentions Placidus in the poem on the Life of St. Benedict in these words:

While Placidus was bearing the constant water of the stream, The flowing water carried him off from his holy services. Go, swift Maurus, the provident Father at once says, Now the water of the lake drags the Boy headlong. Bearing the commands, he hastens over the waters, and runs back, The Boy snatched away, as if walking on the ground.

Long before Bertharius, Gregory the Great also had mentioned Placidus in the Life of St. Benedict, who was taken from among the living at the beginning of the 7th century; first in book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 3, where this is to be read: Then too Equitius gave his offspring of good hope, Maurus, and Tertullus the patrician Placidus: of whom Maurus, the younger, since he was strong in good morals, began to be the master's helper, while Placidus still bore the years of a boyish disposition. Then in chapter 5, where he has this: Whom, kindly consoled, he dismissed, and on the same night, with the little boy named Placidus, of whom I made mention above, he ascended the rock of the same mountain, and prayed there for a long time. And again in chapter 7, in which he treats of Placidus prodigiously snatched from the danger of drowning. From which it is manifestly made out that Basnage is false when he left to Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, not even a place among men, and says that even his name was unknown to all up to the twelfth century; which indeed will be more fully confirmed from what is to be said a little later.

[22] was altogether unknown Further, neither, as I have said, does the other reason help Basnage. Let the Acts of St. Placidus be defiled with errors however enormous; let them have an author however inept, fabulous, recent: therefore whatever he pleases to feign, he feigns about an invented man, and one not known even by name. What sort of consequence is that? That Placidus once lived, and was known in the 11th, 9th and 7th centuries, is clear from what has been said; nor does it always happen that those who feign fables make invented men the subject of their fables. Stephen of Le Puy, praised at number 19, feared the calumny of being said to have thrust a new Martyr upon the world; a new Martyr, I say, not a man who had never been among the living. Simeon the priest, who, as indeed Peter the deacon relates in Gaetani, volume 1 of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, page 183, brought the Passion of St. Placidus to Salerno in the year 1115, bore from John, provost of St. Lawrence, the name of a Constantinopolitan old rogue; not because St. Placidus was altogether unknown to John, but because Simeon had said many things about St. Placidus, many about his Passion, written, as he said, by the hand of Gordianus and kept until then among his forefathers, which could not but fall under suspicion of falsity to a prudent man. In the same Gaetani, page 184, a narrative is woven in which St. Placidus is said to have appeared in the year 1266 to two saddlers of Messina, and the name of St. Placidus is said not to have been heard up to that time even at Messina, where he suffered and was buried; but it will suffice to have read it for you to reject it as unworthy of credit, and to call it better fitted to moving laughter than to persuading.

[23] Here it is: In the year from the Virgin's Delivery 1266, after king Charles occupied the kingdom of Sicily, Basnage blessed Placidus, clothed in the habit of St. Benedict, appeared at Messina in the street of the saddlers to Raymond and Florellus, saddlers, and ordered them by all means to celebrate a feast day for him, unwonted up to that time. They did not refuse; but since the name of Placidus had been as yet unheard, much less the man's institute and deeds, they asked that the figure of his body be shown them, and that it be made plain what he had done after all. He at once brings forth a book in which his Life was written. He orders them not to conceal the history from the people: and his likeness he left in this manner. In the principal church, the same saddlers being present, and likewise the priest James and Serisergius, sacristans, he orders a painter, who himself too was present, to make an image, and himself to look at the model. The painter depicts a monk. Presently, turning to him to ask him to declare whether the likeness was true or not, he sees no monk; he had gone away, although the doors were shut. The source from which this sequence of narrative flowed Gaetani then sets out in these words: Raymond, Doctor and Prior of the convent of the Preachers, often said in a sermon on the feast day of Placidus that he had received the matter itself thus from Florellus himself, his grandfather. But Placido Campulo, a monk in the monastery of St. Placidus, relates that he read this whole history in the book of the Confraternity of St. Placidus, which was kept at Messina in the cathedral church. Then he adds: This makes for the truth of the history, that while the Saracens were ruling the memory of the Passion ceased to be observed, and after Sicily was recovered the feast was still for a long time not celebrated; wherefore in the Office of St. Placidus, instituted on the occasion of this miracle, it is said in a certain Responsory:

May the true piety of God, for whom order and age do battle, Gladden the minds of those who keep the new feasts of Placidus.

[24] Let us hear, however, what Basnage makes out from this. First he holds the apparition just described for a fable; wrongly contends: whether rightly or wrongly is indeed a matter of indifference to me here. But he says besides that St. Placidus in the year 1266 was not only not known to the people of Messina, but would have been wrapped in perpetual oblivion if he had not then appeared to Raymond and Florellus, saddlers. It is truly wonderful that Basnage (a man so lynx-eyed that he perceived what would have become of Placidus if he had not manifested himself to the saddlers in the year 1266) held one part of one and the same narrative, which comprises the apparition of St. Placidus, as fabulous, and the other on the contrary, namely that in which the Saint's name, much less his institute and deeds, are said to have been unheard of in the above-said year, as certain, as though

it were a sacrilege to call this into doubt or to charge it with falsity. Gaetani indeed, in the words cited above, confesses that the cult of St. Placidus ceased among the people of Messina while they were oppressed by the yoke of the Saracens: but he does not say that there was no memory of him in the year 1266. Others say that the aforesaid apparition of St. Placidus was the cause why a sacred cult first began to be paid to him; and if this, as they say, is in fact so, no one, I think, will deny that it surely happened for too slight a cause: but it stands far otherwise. For suppose for a while that that apparition happened in the 13th century in the manner in which they relate, and that then a feast day was established for St. Placidus among the people of Messina; why might not that apparition have been the occasion of the cult of Placidus being restored by postliminy, not the reason of its first institution? You will say that no trace of an older cult exists. And yet I now show the contrary.

[25] but not only known I gave at number 20 the words of Leo of Marsica, who wrote in the 11th century, before the Passion of St. Placidus was, as they say, brought into the West, words in which he distinguished Placidus with the title of Blessed and recorded his mission into Sicily. Ruinart, in §3 of the Apology for St. Placidus, makes mention of a Breviary of Cassino written under Oderisius I of that name, abbot of Cassino, that is, in the 11th century, and says that there are inserted in it Litanies in which St. Placidus is invoked together with St. Benedict and with his other disciple St. Maurus: further, he has it in chapter 4, §1 of the Apology for the mission of St. Maurus into Gaul that it can be consulted among the Fathers of the Oratory at Paris, in the rue Saint-Honoré. The same author cites in the same place other Litanies besides, edited by Cardinal Bona in the Appendix to the Res Liturgicae, from a manuscript codex of Cardinal Chigi, formerly of the monastery of St. Vincent of the Order of St. Benedict, situated not far from the source of the river Volturno, together with a fragment of a Mass not unlike that which Matthias Illyricus brought forward. Only five Saints of the class of monks and hermits are invoked by name in them, in this order: St. Benedict, St. Maurus. St. Placidus. St. Severinus. St. Romanus. Cardinal Bona fixed the epoch of the writing of the codex at the 10th century or the beginning of the 11th: Of the same age, he says in book 1, chapter 12, number 4, namely the tenth century, is the Chigi codex, for skilled men consulted by me assert that the Lombard character in which it is written ceased at the end of that century. The same is gathered from the Saints who are listed in the Litanies in the first part of the little book, for although all the holy monks are invoked individually, yet not those who flourished about the year one thousand and afterwards. The musical notes too with which "Gloria in excelsis" and "Dominus vobiscum" are marked in the order of the Mass are those which were in use before Guido of Arezzo, who, as Sigebert writes in the Chronicle, flourished about the year 1028.

[26] to have been before the 12th century, but also Moreover, in the Library of the Vatican basilica Litanies are kept in which, as Mabillon testifies, volume 1 of the Iter Italicum, page 144, certain Saints are invoked for Holy Saturday in this manner: Sancte Gregorie, sancte Augustine, sancte Ambrosie, sancte Hieronyme, sancte Beda, sancte Antonie, sancte Paule, sancte Basilie, sancte Benedicte, sancte Maure, sancte Placide. From the vocative cases here ending in ie Ruinart argues that those Litanies were written already before the ninth century. Why he thinks so he discloses in chapter 4, §1 of the Apology for the Mission of St. Maurus into Gaul: for, he says, from the age of Charlemagne that was not the usage of expressing the Vocatives of proper names: there exist the Litanies of Charles in volume 2 of the Analecta: there exist likewise the Litanies of Charles the Bald in the Colbert Library: but few names in the former end so, in the latter none. To these I add the lengthy Litanies composed by Alcuin, the tutor of Charlemagne, in which likewise no name ending in that way occurs. The same may be seen in the Litanies of Corbie, which Ménard presents in the Observations on the book of Sacraments of Pope St. Gregory, page 156, and Meibom in volume 1 of German Affairs, page 762. Although these things are so, yet so great an antiquity of these Litanies is not undoubted to me, partly indeed on account of Mabillon's way of speaking, and partly also because the usage of such endings was not so everywhere obliterated from the ninth century on, but that it is found sometimes employed even in Litanies written much later.

[27] Certain Saints, says Mabillon, are invoked in this manner: honoured with sacred cult Sancte Gregorie, … sancte Ambrosie, … sancte Antonie, … sancte Basilie. When you read besides: Sancte Augustine, sancte Hieronyme, etc., you read nothing unwonted, nothing singular and worthy of observation: Mabillon therefore seems to have wished to indicate this, that in those Vatican Litanies the names occur of only certain Saints whose Vocative cases, by the more recent manner of speaking and writing, end in i, but in them end in e by the manner received before the ninth century: although there are not lacking in the same other names of the same kind which end in i in the customary manner. Now in volume 1, part 2, page 476 of the Works of the Venerable and Most Eminent Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Tommasi, edited by Bianchini, there are Litanies taken likewise from a Vatican codex of the 10th century, in which one may read: S. Ylarie, S. Blassie; as also: S. Corneli, S. Laurenti, etc. Further, although they are inserted in a codex of the 10th century, they are yet more recent than that century: since in them St. Dominic of La Calzada is invoked, as is noted there, who flourished in the 11th or 12th century, on which matter see volume 3 of May, page 167. So that the ending in ie of some Vocatives cannot be an undoubted indication that the Litanies in which it is found were written before the 9th century: but because such endings are at least more frequent in the Litanies praised in the preceding number by Ruinart and Mabillon, perhaps the judgment which Ruinart delivered about their antiquity is true.

[28] Muratori edited, in volume 7 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, from column 935, certain Excerpts from an ancient Martyrology of the church of Cassino, various monuments in which these words are read: On the third day before the Nones of October. In Sicily, the birthday of St. Placidus, most blessed martyr, with his companions Eutichius, Victorinus, and thirty others. That Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, is commemorated here the words which immediately follow there show: For whom his father Tertullus the patrician offered eighteen estates of his patrimony to the most blessed Father Benedict. As Erasmo Gattola, keeper of the archive of Cassino, testifies, part 2 of the Accessiones to the History of Cassino, page 824, this was written in Lombard letters by order of Abbot Desiderius (otherwise Pope Victor III), of whom Peter the deacon writes in chapter 63 of book 3 of the Chronicle of Cassino, inserted in volume 4 of the Writers of Italian Affairs: For he ordered some codices to be copied in this place, whose names are these: namely, among many others, a Sacramentary with a Martyrology. The same Gattola relates that names of Saints were added to this Martyrology, either in the margin or at the foot of the leaves, who distinguished in the cited place the more recent from the ancient ones, lest its antiquity should perish for the codex: but he left untouched the cited words about St. Placidus, as written by the first hand. Mabillon saw the same at Cassino in the year 1685, and made this mention of it in volume 1, page 125 of the Museum Italicum: In an old Calendar of Cassino, which shows six hundred years, these things are written, partly in gold letters. Then, having recited the words of the Martyrology or Calendar above, he subjoins: These in the primary hand, but "Octave of St. Placidus" less ancient. Hard would he be who should deny credit here to a most learned man and an eyewitness.

[29] show; And these indeed are the more approved monuments from which it is made out that the memory of St. Placidus flourished among men before the Acts of the same were first drawn out into light in the 12th century: his mission into Sicily Leo of Marsica, his cult the Litanies cited at number 25, and finally his martyrdom the Cassino codex just praised not obscurely testify. Ruinart adds here the Litanies which the Roman Pontifical kept in the royal Library has: he calls it ancient, but betrays the age neither of it nor of the Litanies, and says only that Saints Benedict, Maurus and Placidus are invoked in them in continuous series; as we have seen is done also in the Litanies brought forward from Cardinal Bona. I have assumed that in these monuments it is everywhere a question of Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, whom indeed Leo of Marsica and the Cassino codex designate not obscurely. But that neither in the cited Litanies is it a question of any other, I judge for this reason, that Placidus is placed immediately after St. Benedict, his master, and St. Maurus, his fellow disciple: for this seems to have happened not by chance but by design, lest monks of the same institute, and formerly joined by close intimacy, should be separated either from one another or, as disciples, from their common master. Hence St. Placidus, although a martyr, was most probably related in them among the holy monks and hermits. Contemporary with St. Benedict too were the other holy monks who are invoked by name after St. Placidus in the Litanies cited from Cardinal Bona, namely Saints Severinus and Romanus (of whom the former, abbot of Agaune, died in the year 507, and the latter was the nourisher of St. Benedict, so far indeed as it is lawful to conjecture); so that Maurus and Placidus too, likewise commemorated in them, seem to have been contemporaries of Benedict, and to have belonged to him also by some peculiar reason, as also St. Scholastica, St. Benedict's sister, commemorated immediately after the monks in the first place among the holy virgins.

[30] other monuments being dismissed, I should not wish to adduce here, to confirm the ancient cult of the Benedictine St. Placidus, the Litanies which Arnold Wion dug out of the Library of Cassino and edited in book 5 of the Lignum vitae, from page 620; although in them too Saints Benedict, Maurus and Placidus are invoked in an uninterrupted text: he says they are written in Lombard character, which indeed I do not deny: but what he adds, that they were ordered by Gregory the Great towards the end of the sixth century, while a grievous pestilence was raging in the City, by which Pope Pelagius, Gregory's predecessor, had also been extinguished, I do not know on what guarantor he affirms. The names of Saints Gregory, Isidore and Columban inserted in those Litanies, who, as the sixth century was verging to its end, had not yet departed from the living, prove their more recent age. There are read in them besides the following: That Thou wouldst deign to preserve our Congregation in holy religion: But who does not recognize here the speech not of a Pontiff but rather of a monk? And if anyone with Wion asserts that these are additions of interpolators, I ask whence it is clear that the rest of the text of the Litanies remained untouched by interpolation, and that there was not some one of the monks of Cassino who, from his piety towards St. Placidus, added his name to them, even after the Passion of St. Placidus had, as they say, been brought into the West? Nor

does the Lombard character of the Litanies stand in the way; since it was in use among the Cassinese even in the 12th century, as Giovanni Battista Mari testifies on chapter 47 of Peter the Deacon of Cassino, On the illustrious Men of Cassino, where he has thus: Likewise (Peter the deacon wrote) a very old Register, marked number 86, written in Lombard characters on parchment by mandate of Abbot Senioretto, etc.: and he presided over the Cassinese from the year 1127 to the year 1137.

[31] Nor shall I use here the testimony of Peter Damian, who wrote in the 11th century, of whose antiquity although Arnold Wion, book 3 of the Lignum vitae, at the 5th day of October, speaks of him in this manner: In the same library (of Cassino), on the seventh desk, there are found some heroic verses on the same Saint (Placidus), which from the inscription seem to be Peter Damian's. Of him, I say, I shall not make mention here, both because Wion himself ascribes those verses to Peter Damian doubtfully, and because Constantine, monk of St. Nicholas of the Arena at Catania, of the Cassinese Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, laboriously collected his Works and published them in print, and yet the aforesaid verses have no place anywhere among them. Wion had indeed written a little before this more assertively about Theodinus: Dom Theodinus, monk, delivered two other sermons to the brothers on the solemnity of the same Martyr (Placidus), and the beginning of the first is: "Hodierni diei," and of the other: "Praesentis festi memoria," all of which are found in manuscript in the Library of Cassino, and in a certain little book assigned to the chamber of the Reverend Father Abbot. But who this Theodinus was, or at what time he delivered those sermons on St. Placidus to the brothers, Wion kept silent. In the Catalogue of the abbots of Cassino in Erasmo Gattola, at the end of the History of Cassino, page 951, two abbots of Cassino of this name occur, of whom the former presided over the Cassinese in the year 1166, the latter between the years 1251 and 1263: but since Wion speaks of Theodinus as a monk, he seems to be understood of neither. A third occurs in the Catalogue of Monks of Cassino illustrious in dignity, in the same place, page 955; who about the year 1061 was raised by Pope Alexander II from a monk of Cassino to the purple of the Holy Roman Church, as the Chronicle of Cassino relates, book 3, chapter 26; and he seems to be the same as the Theodinus mentioned by Wion, although he is called Todinus there. Certainly Chacón too thought so, book 1 of the History of the Roman Pontiffs, at the year 1061, writing of Cardinal Theodinus, among other things: He wrote, as Wion relates, sermons on St. Placidus.

[32] From which, if Wion writes true things, we understand two things: is less established for us. the one, that Theodinus most probably delivered those sermons to the brothers on St. Placidus before he was presented with the Roman purple by Alexander II, who prolonged his Pontificate from the year 1061 to the year 1073: the other, that it was already then in use among the Cassinese to recall the memory of St. Placidus every year with a festal solemnity; and so it is also made out from this that the first knowledge of St. Placidus is not owed to the Greek Acts first brought into the West in the 12th century. The same author besides presents three manuscript Hymns copied from a certain parchment Breviary of the monastery of St. Zeno at Verona, and composed in praise of St. Placidus and his Companions; but he advised the reader nothing about their age. Raynald, abbot of Cassino, likewise the author of three Hymns in praise of St. Placidus, as the same Wion relates, received the prefecture of the monastery of Cassino only in the year 1137. Finally, there could not be passed over in this place the Letters which Wion praises, of the Sicilians to St. Benedict, and of Gordianus, one to St. Maurus, another to Pope Vigilius, and others of the same kind; if only their genuineness were established: but of these below; for what has been said in this § suffices of itself, both to refute those who contend that St. Placidus neither was ever even among the living, nor was known in the Church before his Greek Acts began to be drawn out into light; and also to show that St. Placidus obtained some sacred cult or other before the twelfth century, at least in Italy. Therefore I proceed to his Acts.

§ III. The Acts of St. Placidus, manifold, but all of slight credit.

The Acts of St. Placidus, manifold: Several are said to have transcribed for posterity the deeds and passion of St. Placidus, the Benedictine martyr, namely Gordianus the monk, Peter the Deacon of Cassino, and Stephen of Le Puy, of whom Arnold Wion speaks in this manner, book 3 of the Lignum vitae, in the Annotations at the 5th day of October: The Passion (of St. Placidus and Companions) Gordianus the monk wrote, at the command of the emperor Justinian, in a twofold style, namely Greek and Latin: the Latin Lipomanus brings forward in volume 4, and Surius in volume 5 on this day: but the Greek, turned into Latin, exists in manuscript in the monastery of Monte Cassino with this beginning: "In claro et renitenti triumpho," which is in Surius, volume 7. In the second place Dom Stephen, bishop of Le Puy, composed it, which I saw in manuscript in the same place, beginning thus, "Sub S. Spiritus disciplina." A third I likewise found under the name of Peter the deacon, which the same Peter confesses he composed, book 4, chapter 68 (otherwise 66), which began thus: "Gymnosophistarum mos." In the year 1686 Mabillon too surveyed the Library of Cassino; he has this on the same matter, volume 1 of the Iter Italicum, page 125: We diligently inquired at Cassino about the Life of St. Placidus, and about the Life of St. Maurus. A threefold Life of blessed Placidus was found there: one already published (by Surius, fourth Trimester, from page 65, and reprinted in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, Saec. 1, from page 45) under the name of Gordianus, ancient: another by Peter, deacon and monk of Cassino, to Gregory the prelate: a third by Stephen of Le Puy. Both unedited (Mabillon perhaps had not seen the Work of Ottavio Gaetani on the Sicilian Saints printed at Palermo in the year 1657) and translated from the Greek (so these authors say). We found the leaves of the first Life, copied seven hundred years ago, torn off for binding other codices.

[34] that Gordianus in Greek That Gordianus lived as a monk at Cassino together with St. Placidus, and thence clung to him as companion when he went away into Sicily, nay, and was a spectator of his martyrdom, the Acts themselves, which are vended under the name of Gordianus, expressly affirm: Acts written by such an author would accordingly be much to be esteemed, if only both these things were truly said and the Acts themselves had come down to us genuine. But neither is Gordianus said on sufficient foundation to have written any Acts of St. Placidus, nor, if he wrote them, have they come down to us entire. False, first, appears what Wion says, that Gordianus wrote the Acts of St. Placidus in Greek and Latin: that he did so in Greek indeed the Latin Acts have, both those whose beginning is In claro et renitenti triumpho and those which Stephen of Le Puy is said to have written; but of Latin Acts written by Gordianus no mention is made there; nor does Wion make anyone a witness to his statement. Further, that Gordianus set out the deeds of St. Placidus in Greek Stephen of Le Puy said in his Letter to the Cassinese, printed by Gaetani, volume 1 on the Sicilian Saints, page 172 and following: the same Peter the deacon of Cassino affirmed in the Prologue to the Life of St. Placidus, volume 6 of the Old Writers in Martène, column 787; and after these several others: but neither Peter, deacon of Cassino, nor Stephen of Le Puy wrote before the 12th century, and hence each wrote too recently to compel us to confess that the Life of St. Placidus was written in Greek by Gordianus, which all antiquity has kept silent.

[35] But, you will say, each had in his hands the Greek Life of St. Placidus written by Gordianus, he was wrongly believed to have written and made it Latin: for so Stephen of Le Puy in the Prologue: Wherefore we too, * fit and less worthy for this Work, lest we should seem as if from envy to have suppressed in silence the great things of our God, have undertaken, at the exacting prayer of the saints who serve God in the monastery of Cassino, God favouring, to describe the Passion of blessed Placidus, monk and likewise martyr, which, from Gordianus, disciple of the father Benedict and companion of the same Martyr, in Greek and less almost translated into Latin, we pursue in that kind of style that, etc.: So too Peter, cited in the preceding number: For although from the very times of blessed Benedict there had been very many wise men in the school of Cassino, the Passion of this man (St. Placidus) (written, as he had said a little before, by Gordianus) had been translated from Greek into Latin, and this almighty God has deigned to fulfil through us in your time. So he has it: those authors believed that the Life of St. Placidus was written by Gordianus in the Greek language; but too easily, as is shown first of all from the history of the Passion of St. Placidus brought into the West and ascribed to Gordianus. That happened in Peter's age, and, on the testimony indeed of Peter himself in Ottavio Gaetani, volume 1 on the Sicilian Saints, page 183, it runs about thus.

[36] The fifteenth year of the twelfth century was flowing, by some from the (account) of a certain Simeon, and the fifth of Peter's age, when the Acts of St. Placidus, unknown until then, were brought into Italy by a man likewise unknown: he was a Greek, named Simeon, by condition a priest. From Constantinople he went to Sicily, thence to Salerno, the metropolis of the Picentini, being already in his hundred and tenth year, if you are pleased to believe it. He had brought with him a gift which he thought would surely be welcome to the Benedictines, namely the Passion of St. Placidus written by the hand of Gordianus. Therefore, when he had turned aside to the monastery of St. Lawrence at Salerno, the old man began to recount there some things about the miracles and passion of St. Placidus, to gain credit for which he exhibited the Acts of St. Placidus written by Gordianus, and affirmed that Gordianus, after the death of St. Placidus, had left them to his forefathers, with whom he had been a guest at Constantinople. Perhaps 574 years had now flowed by since the martyrdom of St. Placidus; and Simeon related certain new things about St. Placidus, not heard before; it seemed wonderful too to the Benedictines that the Passion of St. Placidus, who had suffered in Sicily, should have been written at Constantinople, and brought thence into Italy at length after the space of so many years: whence not even so did he gain credit for his statements. Therefore, when no one gave assent to such statements (you hear Peter the deacon), that old man Simeon, dissolved in tears, touching the wood of the Cross, said: By this sacred Cross of the Lord, and by the most holy image of the Saviour which is painted there, the things which I have spoken to you about blessed Placidus the martyr are true, and this Charter which I hold in my hands about the martyrdom of him and his Companions Gordianus his servant wrote, and left in the house of my parents, according to their account. So at length the Greek found credit with some, not with John, Provost of St. Lawrence, who, as the same Peter relates, constantly refused to carry that Passion to Cassino, saying that he was a Constantinopolitan deceiver.

[37] of a Greek and unknown man, There was present besides another monk too, called John, of a monastery of Capua, who, although he seems at first to have held the Greek's statements suspect, yet afterwards, whether at Simeon's request or because he had then added some credit to his statements, caused those Greek Acts to be sent to Cassino to Raynald, at whose exhortation or order Peter himself writes, in the place in Ottavio Gaetani praised above, that he at length rendered them into the Latin language. It becomes very probable that there were not lacking at Cassino either those who held those Acts, cloaked with the name of Gordianus, for a fable, or at any rate suspect of forgery and falsity, among whom Peter himself seems to be numbered: since in the Prologue to the Life of St. Placidus, which he wrote in Latin in the twenty-third year of his age, he expressly affirms that Gordianus is their author; but in the book On the illustrious Men of Cassino, which he wrote when older in age, not even a word occurs about Gordianus, although he by no means neglected to insert Faustus, another disciple of St. Benedict and, as he says, the writer of the Life of St. Maurus, among the writers of Cassino whom he follows up by design in that book; he would without doubt have done the same for Gordianus if he had at that time thought that those Greek Acts, which he himself had elsewhere ascribed to Gordianus, were truly written by Gordianus.

[38] of slight credit But if Peter afterwards departed from his former opinion, truly he did so justly and rightly. For he would have seen that errors are contained in those Acts surely too grave and manifold to have been able to be committed by Gordianus, as will clearly appear in their places. I speak, namely, of those errors which are common both to the Acts interpolated, as they would have it, by Peter, and to those translated into Latin by Stephen of Le Puy, and with which accordingly the Greek Acts attributed to Gordianus must have been defiled. That those Acts were written by Gordianus the authority of Simeon alone persuaded: but he would have perceived that Simeon inserted into his narrative some things which, if not openly false, are at any rate very suspect and little probable. Of this kind is what he says of Gordianus having set out for Constantinople a little after the martyrdom of Placidus. The Acts edited by Mabillon, at number 91, bring forward the causes of this journey, both that Gordianus, when the bodies of the martyrs had been committed to burial, did not know what he should do or what he should say, and that too great dangers threatened him as he returned into Italy. If nothing of business remained for Gordianus among the Sicilians, what cause, I ask, was there why he went to Constantinople? He had given his name to St. Benedict, still surviving among the living, and owed him obedience: was it lawful for Gordianus, without consulting him, to go to regions across the sea, and to wander alone where he would in those regions in which there was no colony of Benedictines, no son of the institute? He ought at least to have awaited the orders of St. Benedict, or at any rate to have returned to Cassino whence he had come. But the dangers of the road terrified the man; that very man, namely, whom various perils and the struggles of infinite waves (so Gordianus himself is feigned elsewhere to have written to Pope Vigilius) did not deter from taking up the journey to Constantinople.

[39] Moreover, how is it true that Gordianus had nothing to do among the Sicilians? by the narrative: The invasion of Messina was sudden, and the Saracens made a brief stay there after the killing of Placidus, as the praised Acts have; indeed, setting sail from Messina on the fifth day after the martyrdom of St. Placidus, they perished by shipwreck in the middle of the Strait. And the Benedictine estates were many, scattered through all Sicily, as indeed they say. Was no account to be taken by Gordianus, because of the destruction perhaps of the one monastery of Messina, of so many estates and farms still untouched? There were not lacking, therefore, very many possessions to the preserving of which he might give his effort: he could gather the scattered tenants, he could repair what was shattered, and undertake not a few other things of this kind. Nor was he ignorant that St. Placidus had been sent into Sicily a few years before to snatch those estates from other men's hands and to vindicate them for the monastery of Cassino, whose they were; and so he knew well that it was most far from his duty to desert those goods, destitute of suitable protection, and expose them to the cupidity of those coveting other men's property. Moreover, let us suppose for a while that Gordianus composed the Acts of St. Placidus at Constantinople. He is said to have returned into Sicily and died at Syracuse. Who would easily persuade himself that Gordianus, about to return thither, did not add even a copy of the Acts written by him to his little baggage; or that, having already returned thither, he did not set out in another writing for both his Order and the other Westerners what he had seen? or that he was not permitted by his own people to do so?

[40] Gordianus could indeed have spared himself this labour nor to be Gordianus's they prove if, as it has pleased some to feign, Justinian had spread those Acts far and wide through the churches of the East, and Pope Vigilius through those of the West. But fables are heaped upon fables in vain: for if this had been so, truly at least some copy of them would have been preserved somewhere in the West; at least some one of the ancient writers, especially the Benedictines, would have thrown in some mention of them somewhere, nor, after they had lain hidden about 574 years, ought they suddenly and contrary to everyone's expectation to have burst out of Constantinopolitan hiding-places: but they should have been kept in the Roman Libraries, in the Benedictine archives, or in the chests of the Western churches, and drawn out thence into light, if any oblivion of them had crept in. The Benedictines indeed would have received them with great applause, and would have preserved them as more precious than gold, at least somewhere where they suffered fewer calamities than in Sicily. Nor does any weight accrue to the aforesaid fictions from the Letters attributed both to Gordianus and to the emperor Justinian and Pope Vigilius, and subjoined to the Chronicle of Cassino published at Paris by the zeal and labour of Jacques du Breul, monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in the year 1603, by the press of Ambroise and Jérôme Drouart; since they were so unskilfully fabricated that they deserve no more credit than the Acts themselves; as anyone will easily believe who reads the few things which we subjoin from them.

[41] First, that masked Gordianus, setting out to Pope Vigilius the causes of the same Gordianus, by which he says he was impelled to write the Acts of St. Placidus, alleges, among others, the order of the emperor Justinian in these words: There was added to this that the divine triumpher, Augustus Justinian Aeneades, had decreed that the Passion of his already mentioned nephew Placidus should be written out, burning with insatiable ardour to know exactly his Acts and tortures. The title of Aeneades is given to Justinian in the Acts also, at number 3. But Mabillon confesses in his Observations on the Acts that it was never assumed by Justinian nor by any of the emperors, and further that it is ridiculous. And that Placidus was the nephew of Justinian is a pure invention, as will be said in the following §. Then he says that he not only consigned to writing the birth, deeds and martyrdom of St. Placidus; but also added to these the things which happened in the monastery of St. Placidus at Messina after his death: Adjoining, he says, those things which happened after the Passion in the already mentioned monastery. In which place in the Acts, at number 90, 49 successors of Pope Vigilius, as many as Gordianus certainly could not see, are said to have confirmed the possessions in Sicily offered by Tertullus to St. Benedict. Moreover, towards the end of the Letter he says: Finally, this Work, which I had forged at the order of the invincible triumpher Justinian, I showed to the most holy Eutitius, patriarch of new Rome, Constantinople, in the sacristy of the Greater church, while he was celebrating a synod of 155 bishops together with you by order of our lord Justinian, perpetual Augustus. But from the 2nd session of the second council of Constantinople it is clear that Vigilius constantly refused to be present at that council, although he was then staying there; and Zonaras says in the Life of Justinian that one hundred and sixty-five bishops gathered for it. Finally he says the Letter was written in the 27th year of Justinian, in the 12th year of the consulship of Basil and Belisarius. He ought to have marked the twenty-seventh year of Justinian, the twelfth after the consulship of Basil: for Belisarius entered upon the consulship in the year 535, and Basil in 541, so that the twelfth year of both could not coincide with the twenty-seventh year of Justinian, of Christ 553.

[42] of the emperor Justinian and of Pope Vigilius The Letter of Justinian to Vigilius labours under almost the same faults, in which likewise he here claims for himself the title of Aeneades, as though Justinian had drawn his descent from Aeneas, says that one hundred and fifty-five bishops were gathered at Constantinople together with Vigilius, and calls Placidus his nephew. Moreover, since it is addressed to Pope Vigilius, to the patriarchs Eutitius of Constantinople, Apollinarius of Alexandria, Eustachius of Jerusalem, and to one hundred and fifty bishops constituted at Constantinople, it must have been written at the time of the second council of Constantinople, that is, in the 27th year of Justinian, the 12th after the consulship of Basil, of Christ 553. And yet it is subscribed: Given on the third day before the Nones of May … in the 23rd year of the empire of our God-preserved (lord), in the ninth year of the consulship of Basil, a most illustrious man. Therefore the subscription of the Letter does not cohere with the inscription. Moreover, in the ninth year after the consulship of Basil (of Christ 550), in the month of May, the 24th year of Justinian was flowing, since Justin the Elder presented him with a share of the empire in the year 527, in the month of April. Finally, the already mentioned Letter of Justinian collapsing, the Rescript of Vigilius to it must collapse, although there are not lacking other things too by which it may be shown to be fictitious: and it pleases me to touch only this of the Rescript: May the divine grace, the martyr of Christ Placidus beholding, guard your most pious empire, together with the lady Theodora Augusta and her children, etc.: I have already said that the Letter of Justinian to Vigilius just mentioned must have been written in the year 553, if indeed it were genuine: but let us grant that it was written already from the 23rd or 24th year of Justinian, the ninth after the consulship of Basil, that is, in the year of Christ 550; how could Vigilius pray for long years for Theodora Augusta, who had already before departed from the living? For Procopius, book 3, chapter 30 of the Gothic War, binds the death of Theodora to the 14th year of the same war; and since Justinian undertook this in the ninth year of his reign, as the cited Procopius writes, book 1, chapter 5, the 22nd year of Justinian and the 14th of the Gothic war ran at the same time. Likewise in book 2 of the Persian War, chapter 30, when he had mentioned the 23rd year of Justinian's reign, he presently subjoins: In the preceding year John the Cappadocian had come to Byzantium, summoned by the emperor: for then Theodora Augusta had met her last day.

[43] And as for what is added about Theodora's children, if I rightly follow the fabler's mind, of the pseudo-letter, he thought that Justinian, after entering into marriage with Theodora, had begotten legitimate children by her: but Constantine Manasses writes thus of Justinian in the Chronicle Compendium: The emperor, who abounded in such endowments, had no male offspring, no female, who might succeed him. Wherefore, about to die and to depart from the earth, casting his eyes upon Justin, born of his sister, he designates him emperor. And in the Life of St. Sabas written by Cyril of Scythopolis it is read that Theodora begged St. Sabas to obtain a son for her from God; but that he refused to do this. Cyril's words, in Corelerius, volume 3 of the Monuments of the Greek church, page 341 and following, translated into Latin, run thus: But the Augusta (Theodora) received him (St. Sabas) with joy and greeted him reverently; and afterwards

exhorted him in these words: Pray for me, father, that the Lord may give me a son. Sabas answered and said: May the God of glory preserve your empire in piety and victory. And the Augusta was affected with grief because he had not assented to her petition. And being asked the cause, Sabas answered: Believe me, fathers, let no fruit come forth from her womb, lest it be suckled with the dogmas of Severus and disturb the Church worse than Anastasius: whence Du Cange says in the August Byzantine Families that if any children are ascribed to Justinian and Theodora, they were born of an unlawful liaison of one or the other; in whom more may be read on this matter. For what has been said so far suffices for the monuments adduced for gaining credit for the Acts of St. Placidus having been written by Gordianus to be believed unfit. Nor did Mabillon wish to use them, in the Preface to the Benedictine Acts or in the Annals, to vindicate the Acts of St. Placidus for Gordianus; which he would certainly not have neglected to do if he had thought them apt and suited to that.

[44] Nay rather, that those Acts were attributed to Gordianus by a writer of a more recent age but by more recent (writers) to him Mabillon suspects in the former place, and in the other openly confesses: for in the Preface to the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, §4, he writes thus: Peter the deacon of Cassino, a writer of the 12th century, not a bad one indeed, but not diligent enough, either interpolated or forged the deeds of St. Placidus and his Companions written by Gordianus, Placidus's companion. But in book 3 of the Benedictine Annals, number 25, he speaks thus: It would surely be desirable that we had a more accurate writer of the things done by him (St. Placidus) than that masked author Gordianus, who is said to have been his disciple and companion on his journey, and to have written his Life in Greek. The unskilful narrative, sprinkled with very many errors, which cannot fall to anyone except a man of later times, and an unskilled one too, proves a far more recent writer; and they prove not merely an interpolator but altogether a false author. No less severely did Papebroch receive these Acts, volume 3 of May, page 606, where, when he had said of the Life of St. Maurus that it seemed to him a mere fiction of the following age, he presently adds of the Life of St. Placidus: Like it is what is had about the martyrdom of St. Placidus and his Companions under the name of Gordianus, their servant; what solid truth underlies which cannot be defined, among so many monsters of lies, even by prudent conjecture.

[45] But if Gordianus did not write those Acts, at what time, or by what author, were they fabricated? That author, says Mabillon, book 4 of the Annals, number 14, whoever he is, did not live before the Pontificate of John the Eighth, we gather from the fact that, listing the Pontiffs who approved the donations of Tertullus made in Sicily, he numbers forty-nine from Pope Vigilius. For so many Roman Pontiffs are numbered from Vigilius to John the Eighth. They were not therefore written before the year 872, in which John VIII was proclaimed Pontiff of the Church: nay, perhaps even much later; since neither did Leo of Marsica have any knowledge or use of them, nor is anything known ever to have been handed down about them before the coming, whether true or feigned, of Simeon, a Greek and unknown man, into Italy, the 12th century having already begun. Then it must be confessed that there appears in the Acts rendered into Latin no indication from which you could conjecture that they were translated from Greek into the Latin language; nor is any copy of the Greek text found anywhere. Whence some suppose that whatever is said of these Acts having been written in Greek by Gordianus is an invention of Peter, deacon of Cassino, by which he might gain greater weight and credit for the Acts of Placidus fabricated by himself: and if this is really so, truly he lied splendidly: but for me it is a scruple of conscience to accuse Peter, without more certain arguments, of so abject a fraud, although from what has been said so far I am persuaded that they are not older than the 9th century (whoever feigned them), which is enough for lessening their credit. I proceed to the Latin Acts.

[46] but in the Acts which exist in Latin, a part It is certain that Peter, deacon of Cassino, had some part in these: in book 4 of the Chronicle of Cassino, which he himself wrote, chapter 66, volume 4 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, page 536, these words are read of him: At these times, further, Peter the deacon, in the one thousand one hundred and fifteenth year of the Lord's Incarnation, in the first lustre of his age, was offered by his parents to blessed Benedict, and received by the already mentioned abbot Gerard, and clothed in the habit of holy conversation, and, instructed under the same abbot for twice four years, in the twenty-first year of his age wrote, to Oderisius the second, successor of the above-said Gerard, the Passion of the most blessed martyr (supply Mark) and his companions, the Life of the excellent confessor Fulco, the Passion of the most holy martyr Placidus, disciple of the blessed father Benedict, etc. The same may be read in the Work which the same Peter wrote On the illustrious Men of Cassino, chapter 47, where in neither place is any mention made of the Greek Acts, although in the former place he is read to have translated from Greek into the Latin language the book of Evax, king of Arabia, on precious stones. But in Ottavio Gaetani, On the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, volume 1, page 183 and following, Peter speaks thus of himself: Which (the Greek Passion of St. Placidus received from Simeon) he (Raynald, then monk of Cassino, afterwards abbot), receiving it, handed over to our littleness, ordering that, emending it more diligently, I should hand it over to be kept for future generations; I obeyed this order of the convent, and to the praise of the eternal King I arranged the Passion of the most blessed martyr Placidus in a more polished style, etc.: and so Peter composed the Passion of St. Placidus in Latin, or at any rate interpolated one composed by another.

[47] Peter of Cassino certainly had; The Passion of St. Placidus which Peter says he made Latin from the Greek, but perhaps only interpolated, at Raynald's order, seems to be the same as that which Ruinart and Mabillon inserted in volume 1 of the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, and which we shall reprint from them in the first place: for Peter, deacon of Cassino, is read to have prepared another writing of the Passion of St. Placidus too from a Greek source, in volume 6 of the Old Writers collected by Edmond Martène and Ursin Durand, column 786 and following, where Peter says in the Prologue that he undertook that Work at the order of Gregory the prelate (Mabillon doubts, in the Benedictine Annals at the year 534, number 25, whether of Terracina or of Sessa) in the twenty-third year of his age, that is, about the year of Christ 1133. This lucubration of Peter we have not so far seen; yet the different beginning of the Life of Placidus in each, and likewise the different end, seem to indicate that it is different from that which Mabillon edited: the former has thus: After the dignity of the supreme King drove away the darkness of the idols by the ray of His light and put it to flight far off, He gave to His Church through the world many men who, as the stars the sky, so these should adorn His Church by life and miracles, etc.: and the end thus: Through the glorious merits of most blessed Placidus interceding, of our Lord Jesus Christ, let no one doubt up to this present day for our salvation of the Virgin who descended into the womb, and, the prince of the world being vanquished, bearing with Him the form of captivity, placed it in the citadel, who lives, etc.

[48] A certain Stephen of Le Puy too, an author otherwise unknown, and other (Acts) Stephen of Le Puy is said to have translated from the Greek, is said to have translated the deeds of St. Placidus from Greek into the Latin language at the request of the monks of Cassino. Ottavio Gaetani first published Stephen's version in print and illustrated it with annotations, volume 1 of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints: and that the things which are recited in Stephen about St. Placidus and his Companions proceeded from the same source from which Peter of Cassino drew his will be manifest to one comparing the version of Peter and that of Stephen with each other: but there is this difference between them, that Peter's version, as it is far more prolix and more fruitful in various additions sought from elsewhere, so it yields much to Stephen's version in probability. Further, neither does Peter anywhere mention Stephen, nor Stephen Peter, so that neither seems to have seen the other's version; unless perhaps Stephen tacitly indicates Peter's version when he says to the monks of Cassino in the Prologue: Whence you have also brought forth from the Greeks into light the triumphs and likewise the contests of Placidus, your martyr, which by the carelessness of the Latins had long been buried in silence, although among the Greeks they lived and flourished excellently, and you demand with the instance of a commanding prayer that I should colour the same, published in a middling style, with more ornate and more proper words. But since Simeon himself too is said by Peter of Cassino, in Ottavio Gaetani, in the volume cited above, page 183, to have interpreted and rendered the Greek Life of St. Placidus in Latin, but less aptly, I have a vehement suspicion that Stephen touched by these words the version of Simeon rather than that of Peter.

[49] It is uncertain to Ottavio Gaetani which of the two preceded, it is doubtful which wrote first; which followed. Stephen repeats again and again that the deeds of St. Placidus were celebrated indeed in Greek letters, but not likewise in Latin; whence he may seem to have preceded Peter: but the same Peter in the Prologue to Gregory the prelate, volume 6 of the Old Writers, column 787, affirmed in these words: For although from the very times of blessed Benedict there had been very many wise men in the school of Cassino, the Passion of this man (St. Placidus) too had been translated by no one from Greek into Latin, and this almighty God has deigned to fulfil through us in your time. Nothing therefore can be made out from this for the greater antiquity of either. That Stephen polished Peter's version a little later Mabillon, praised at number 47, relates from the monuments of the Library of Cassino: but I fear that, just as in the Acts of St. Placidus edited by Mabillon Gordianus is falsely thrust upon the reader as their author, so here too either Peter of Cassino, or anyone else, has with evil fraud thrust forward the empty and void name of Stephen of Le Puy, lest Peter alone should be thought to have seen the Greek Acts which are feigned to have been written by Gordianus; two things chiefly make me suspect this. First indeed, that, as I hinted above in passing, who at length that Stephen of Le Puy was is wholly unknown: the other, that the very version of Stephen of Le Puy, the Letter to the monks of Cassino and the Prologue of the Life being taken away, seems capable of being claimed for Peter of Cassino from the monuments of the same Library of Cassino.

[50] if, however, Stephen of Le Puy too As regards Stephen, he himself wrote nothing about himself from which it could be conjectured who he was: yet the manner of speaking in which, addressing the monks of Cassino, he calls St. Placidus your martyr, fellow soldier, patron, seems to suggest that he was not a son of the Benedictine institute. In the manuscript codices of Cassino he is called only the lord Stephen of Le Puy. Arnold Wion, book 3 of the Lignum vitae, in the Annotations at the 5th day of October, calls him bishop. In the second place, he says, Dom Stephen composed it (the Passion of St. Placidus),

bishop of Le Puy. But from what source he drew Stephen's episcopate he keeps silent. Nor is his episcopal see known for certain: he cannot, at any rate, be referred to the bishops of Le Puy. For the prelates of Anicium, or Le Puy in the Velay, are enumerated in volume 2 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, from column 687, and among them no Stephen appears who lived in the 12th century advanced to about the year 33. Stephen the third was driven from his see in the year 1077; and the fourth was elected prelate of Le Puy about the year 1220.

[51] be not a fictitious author. And that there are not lacking monuments of the Library of Cassino from which the Life or Passion of St. Placidus, which bears Stephen of Le Puy as author, could be ascribed to Peter, deacon of Cassino, Edmond Martène, praised at number 47, teaches me: for after presenting the Prologue of Peter, deacon of Cassino, to the Life of St. Placidus, addressed to Gregory the prelate, copied by Mabillon at Cassino, and likewise the beginning and end of the Life, which I gave above at number 47, Martène proceeds thus: After this Passion there follows in codex 449 a Sermon of Peter, deacon of Cassino, on the Passion of St. Placidus the martyr. Then he likewise presents this beginning of this Sermon composed by Peter: Blessed Placidus therefore, bursting forth from a line of senatorial dignity, was a native of the Roman city, etc.; and since the beginning of the Life of St. Placidus ascribed to Stephen of Le Puy is couched in these words too, with this one difference, that in it Placidus is called Martyr of Christ, what is elsewhere ascribed to Stephen seems here to be ascribed to Peter. Moreover, the epilogue of the Passion attributed to Stephen is such that it seems to have been actually spoken in a sermon to the Cassinese on the feast day of St. Placidus: for it runs thus: May the notable Martyr, reverend to every age as well as sex, shining on earth with virtues, living in heaven by merits, stand by the church of Cassino, which venerates and loves him, as an unwearied patron, and so reconcile to the heavenly grace in the present those who always celebrate his solemnities, that in the future he may make them sharers of his crown, Jesus Christ the Lord bestowing it, to whom is glory and dominion through infinite ages of ages. Amen. What there is in this matter the Cassinese can teach us.

* inidonei (unfit)

§ IV. Various instruments fabricated about the deeds of St. Placidus are rejected.

To be held in place of fiction To the Chronicle of Cassino, printed at Paris in the year 1603, there is subjoined from page 760 a not small collection of privileges and letters, of which various ones, pertaining to the deeds of St. Placidus, would add great weight to them, as proceeding from contemporaries and intimates of St. Placidus, if indeed these were genuine and altogether such as their titles indicate. For who would require more luminous testimonies than those of Tertullus, the father of St. Placidus; than of Gordianus, his kinsman; than of the Sicilians, among whom he had stayed some years and suffered; than of another Gordianus and of St. Maurus, his fellow soldiers; than, finally, of Pope Vigilius and of the Augusti Justinian and Theodora? But it is to be regretted that under such specious titles nothing but fictions lies hidden. At what time these were first fabricated I am not able to define: but I have found them cited nowhere before the age of Peter, deacon of Cassino, and Stephen of Le Puy, that is, before the 12th century. Leo of Marsica indeed, book 1, chapter 1, mentions the eighteen estates (as many as are numbered also in the Privilege of Tertullus, of which below) situated in Sicily and given by Tertullus to St. Benedict; but he could have learned this from elsewhere.

[53] And these things indeed diminish the authority of the cited monuments in general: the instrument of donation, but they will find far less credit with the learned reader if they are weighed one by one. I shall sample from each some things here and there from which the reader can judge of their worth, lest, if I should transcribe each here, or relate each of their errors, I should create weariness and annoyance for the reader by too great prolixity. The first indeed of those which pertain to St. Placidus (for of these alone I speak) is that of Tertullus, by which he gives or confirms to St. Benedict his eighteen estates situated on Sicilian soil, in which you would scarcely find anything sound. Here is its beginning, as unwonted as it is ridiculous: Tertullus, by the grace of God patrician of the Roman city, most invincible queen of heaven and earth, to the dictators, magistrates, senators, consuls, proconsuls, prefects, tribunes, centurions, decurions and all men dwelling through the whole world and subject to the Roman dominion, greeting and perpetual peace. The formula, By the grace of God, was first used by Pepin, king of France, as Mabillon teaches, book 2 On Diplomatics, chapter 3, number 6, because he had come to the kingdom in an extraordinary way; nor was it in use with Justinian or with Romans either private or adorned with any dignity whatever. Who in public and solemn writings called Rome the most invincible queen of heaven and earth? Whom, finally, do you hear speaking here, a Roman patrician or an Augustus?

[54] Here now is the end of Tertullus's donation, no less absurd: made by Tertullus to St. Benedict, But if anyone, he says, shall presume to violate this our decree, let him pay 14,000 talents of the purest gold to the Roman empire. Did he who feigned these things know how much a talent of gold was worth? Moreover, the chronological marks added to the donation do not cohere. They run thus: This decree was done on the 15th day before the Kalends of July, in the fifth year of the empire of Justin, in the 326th Olympiad. The 326th Olympiad corresponds to the year 525, on the 9th day of July of which Justin began the eighth year of his empire. Finally these subscriptions of witnesses are subjoined: I, Tertullus the patrician, have strengthened it with the sign of my hand. I, Symmachus, patrician, consul, have subscribed. I, Boethius, twice consul, have subscribed. I, Vitalian, consul, have subscribed; but the marks are not a whit better. Vitalian was consul in the year 520, but in the East, and at Constantinople, in the 7th month of his consulship, pierced with 16 wounds, he was killed in the palace together with Celerianus and Paul, his attendants, says Marcellinus in the Chronicle, with whom Evagrius and Theophanes agree. That Vitalian therefore did not see the fifth year of Justin, nor could he subscribe to the donation of Tertullus in that year: and besides him I know of no other who was consul in these times.

[55] that with many Moreover, just as Vitalian the consul did not survive to the fifth year of Justin, so among the consuls there is not found a Boethius who held the consulship twice. Flavius Boethius increased the catalogue of consuls with his name in the year 487: but the consular Fasti do not repeat his name. At the year 510 indeed Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, colleague of Eutharic, is inscribed in the same Fasti, as also at the year 522 together with Q. Aurelius Anicius Symmachus: but of the two the fabricator of Tertullus's Charter more probably fused one. For although the same names belonged to both consuls, yet neither is said to be consul for the second time, contrary to what is usually done in those Fasti; and Boethius at the year 522, if he had then been consul for the second time, would by custom have been placed before Symmachus, who was then proceeding consul for the first time: for the Symmachus who was consul in the year 485 was called Q. Aurelius Memmius, as Sirmond relates from old copies of Boethius in the Annotations on Letter 25 of book 7 of Ennodius. Where he also teaches that Symmachus, consul of the year 522, was the son of Boethius, consul of the year 510, and grandson, by his daughter Rusticiana, of Symmachus the Elder, who was consul in the year 485. And the same afterwards also asserts it of Boethius, consul of the year 522, who was accordingly at once brother and colleague of Symmachus the Younger.

[56] to teem with errors, Nor did Sirmond teach so undeservedly: for it is certain first of all from Procopius, a writer of those times, book 3 of the Gothic War, chapter 20, that Boethius, consul of the year 510, joined to himself in marriage Rusticiana, daughter of Symmachus, consul of the year 485, and, being killed by order of Theodoric, king of the Goths, left her surviving. Hence the Romans, says Procopius, and the senators themselves, and especially the former wife of Boethius and likewise daughter of Symmachus, Rusticiana, who had spent her means on the needy, were brought to such a pass that in servile and rustic garb they then lived by begging bread and other food from the enemy. And a little below: The Goths were pressing that Rusticiana should be put to death, accusing her of having, by corrupting the leaders of the Roman army with ample largesse, thrown down the statues of Theodoric, in order to avenge the slaughter both of Symmachus her father and of Boethius her husband. It is likewise certain that he saw his two sons promoted together to the consular dignity, which Sirmond proves from Boethius himself, who in book 2 of the Consolation of Philosophy, Prose 3, which he wrote in exile a little before the death inflicted on him by Theodoric's order, mentions his children, consuls together, in these words: When you saw your two children, consuls together (he addresses himself), carried forth from home amid the throng of the fathers, amid the eagerness of the people. And again in Prose 4: What shall I say of your consular children, in whom already, as in boys of that age, there shines a specimen of their father's or grandfather's genius.

[57] Further, Boethius made much, as was fitting, of his father-in-law Symmachus, it is shown: of which fact we have Boethius again as witness, speaking thus in the place just praised: And yet there flourishes unharmed that most precious ornament of the human race, Symmachus your father-in-law, and, what you would not be slow to buy at the price of life, a man made wholly of wisdom and virtues, secure about his own things, he groans at your injuries. Whence Sirmond not undeservedly judges that Boethius gave to his two sons, consuls namely in the year 522, to the one his own name, and to the other his father-in-law's name for the sake of honour. Boethius indeed did not express the names of his sons, but you would not find another pair of consuls of that time of whom he was the father. I know, says Sirmond in the Annotations on Letter 1 of book 8 of Ennodius, that it seemed otherwise to the author of the Life of Boethius, who makes his sons consuls Patricius and Hypatius, who held the consulship together in the year of Christ 500. But this is truly too great an error. For besides the fact that he ought to have remembered that those were Greek and Eastern consuls, and belonged in no way to the family of Boethius, the words of Boethius which have just been cited (namely in the preceding number) could have refuted him, from which it is clear that these consular sons of his were still boys in age when he wrote the consolation of his exile. Which surely I say (read: could be said, or: he could say) could not be, if they had been consuls 20 years before, and more. How truly Sirmond says that Patricius and Hypatius belonged in no way to the family of Boethius is clear from Procopius, book 1 of the Persian War, chapter 8, where among the four leaders of the Persian war he lists Patricius and Hypatius in the third and last place in these words: And the prefects of the soldiers who were at Byzantium, namely Patricius the Phrygian, and Hypatius, nephew of the Augustus (Anastasius) by his sister. I think these things suffice for the Charter of Tertullus of which we treat to be held as spurious.

[58] There is moreover a foul error common both to this donation of Tertullus nor is the donation of Gordianus of more genuine mark, and to that of Gordianus, which immediately follows it in the cited Appendix of the Chronicle of Cassino,

namely that each donation is said to have been made to St. Benedict while he was living at Cassino. And yet St. Benedict came to Cassino only about the year 528, or in the year 529, as the first Life of St. Placidus expressly has at number 11. How then could this donation have been made in the year of Justin, whether the fifth, as is read in the donation of Tertullus, or the fourth, as in that of Gordianus, since Justin died in the year 527? And if you wish to substitute for Justin his successor Justinian, not even so will that donation be combined with his fifth or fourth year. The beginning of the donation of Gordianus is this: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal God, in the five hundred and twenty-ninth year of His Incarnation, and in the fourth year of the empire of our lord Justin, to be preserved, perpetual and triumphant Augustus, on the 14th day of July. The unskilled fabler did not notice that the years of the Incarnation of Christ, or the present-day manner of numbering the days of the months, had not yet been employed at that time. A little below Symmachus and Vitalian are said to have been present at the donation, neither of whom was among the living in the year 529. Towards the end of the Charter a penalty no less ridiculous is imposed on anyone violating the grant of Gordianus, of ten thousand talents of the purest gold to be paid to the Roman empire. There again subscribe to the donation Symmachus and Vitalian, consuls, and likewise Boethius, twice consul, about whom see what was said a little before. Nay, and Belisarius as consul, who did not obtain the consular dignity before the year 535, nor could he have been living in Italy in the year 529, being occupied then in the Persian war.

[59] or of the Sicilians to St. Benedict, In the third place among those which pertain to St. Placidus, the cited Appendix has the Letter of the Sicilians to St. Benedict on the martyrdom of St. Placidus. It contains nothing besides the martyrdom of St. Placidus related briefly, and the suppliant prayers of the Sicilians to St. Benedict that he would send new disciples into Sicily, marked with no year or name; yet in the Acts to be edited in the first place, at number 84, it is said to have been of Messalinus and Pompeius Cylius, procurators of the Benedictine property in Sicily. Mention is made in it of Abdala, king of the Saracens; I scarcely doubt that he who feigned the Letter means him whom the Acts say reigned in Spain: but that the Saracens invaded Spain only about the year 713 will be seen in its place. And even if no error lay hid in it, it would yet not escape the suspicion of forgery, if only for this, that it seems to have come forth from the same workshop as the rest already mentioned, and others, of which below, certainly fictitious. The Letter of Gordianus to St. Maurus, Provost of the monastery of Cassino, seems fabricated by the same hand as that of the Sicilians to St. Benedict. The substance of both is the same, and besides the beginning is the same, with a few words changed signifying the same thing. Thus the Sicilians begin the Letter: To Benedict, the universal institutor and teacher of monks, his servants and sons, desolate and destitute of a pastor, reverence with subjection: Because we have thought it settled that nothing is unknown to your paternity, we wish your holiness to know, concerning the things which have been done among us, that the most religious and most holy disciple Placidus, etc. And Gordianus in this manner: To the Lord's Levite Maurus … Gordianus … Greeting in the Lord and the spirit of faith. Because we suffer your holiness, to be desired by us in every way and to be embraced with the whole inmost fibres of our hearts, to be ignorant of nothing, especially of those things which are known to pertain to the increase of the holiness of our institutor and lawgiver, we have thought it worth while to make known those things which have happened in these times concerning my holy lord Placidus in Sicily. For he, etc. Hence anyone will easily determine what is to be thought of the Letter of Maurus in reply to Gordianus, which immediately follows the Letter of Gordianus in the already often mentioned Appendix.

[60] or the letters of Maurus to Gordianus and of others, The Letter of Maurus to Gordianus is followed, in the Appendix to the Chronicle of Cassino, by another of Gordianus to Pope Vigilius, one of Justinian to the same, and Vigilius's reply to Justinian, which you have refuted at number 41 and the two following. Of the same flour are the Letter of Justinian to Placidus, his nephew; likewise that of Theodora to the same; and finally another Writing of Justinian on the immunity of the monastery of Cassino, on refuting which it does not please me to linger: receive, however, what Baronius wrote about these long ago, volume 7 of the Annals, at the year 541: And to touch on these things in passing, there exist in the same place letters of the same Justinian to Placidus, his nephew, given in the twelfth year of the same emperor Justinian (which is the year of the Lord five hundred and thirty-eight), under the consulship of Boethius and Cethegus, with the third year added; of whom there is no mention that they held the consulship together at the same time, but at different times from each other, and far removed from the said year of the emperor. For Cethegus was consul in the year of the Lord five hundred and four: Boethius in five hundred and ten: but under the twelfth year of Justinian John and Volusianus (as we have seen) held the consulship. With the same censure you may correct the Letter of Theodora to St. Placidus which is subjoined to it, given under the same consuls and year.

[61] But the Letters in the name of the same emperor Justinian joined to them need greater correction, by Baronius long ago in which he wills that there be kept safe for the monastery of Cassino what Tertullus, the parent of Placidus, or the emperor Justin the Elder had conferred on the same monastery: namely estates, lands, fortresses, towns, cities and municipalities listed there, and those not small or slight in number. But what towns and cities could belong to any Roman patrician under Theodoric, king of the Goths? or what could the emperor Justin have given of such as existed in Italy, not being his own? for the emperor of the East possessed not a clod in Italy under king Theodoric. And what of that at the end: "We have subscribed with our own hand in minium," when, as Suidas testifies, Justinian was wholly ignorant of letters? And how (like the preceding Letters) is the same read as given under the consuls Boethius and Cethegus, in the twelfth year of his empire? And what moreover of that ridiculous subscription of witnesses: Theodoric the king, eagle-bearer, Belisarius dragon-bearer, Mauricius lion-bearer, Tiberius wolf-bearer? And finally how could Theodoric, king of the Goths, have subscribed to that privilege in the twelfth year of the emperor, since he had died long before these times, and after him Athalaric, then Theodahad, and afterwards Vitiges were reigning in that twelfth year of Justinian? But let us dismiss these things, which we regret were fabricated by some idle person. We wonder the more that they were not rejected and wholly buried in oblivion by monks of the same sacred Order, learned men.

[62] Although this censure of Baronius is just, yet I should not wish to defend it in every part: deservedly rejected. for first, in joining Volusianus as colleague to John, consul in the year 538, he goes against the ancient consular Fasti, in which John alone is marked as consul in that year. See Pagi at the year 538, number 10. And that he says Justinian was altogether ignorant of letters I likewise do not approve; the Milan codices of Suidas indeed have that, but the Vatican ones more rightly have Justin for Justinian, whom Procopius, chapter 6 of the Secret History, calls ἀναλφάβητον, that is, without knowledge of letters. And that Justinian was not without knowledge of letters Niccolò Alemanni proves at length on chapter 18 of the same History; see him. Finally there follow two letters of Gordianus, one to Messalinus and Pompeius Tyllius, or, as is read elsewhere, Cilius; the other to Constantine, abbot of Cassino, successor of St. Benedict. Each treats of Gordianus's return into Sicily. But as little probable as it is, from what has been said, that Gordianus sailed to Constantinople after the killing of Saints Placidus and his Companions, so probable is it that these letters too are fictitious. Moreover, the first must have been written at a time when the new colony of Benedictines had not yet come to Messina, as is declared by the following words of the Letter: Stand manfully … until … our brothers come from Cassino to restore the monastery. But at that time there were no Benedictines in Sicily, as may be gathered from the letters of the Sicilians to St. Benedict, which see in the Acts, number 85, and yet Gordianus is feigned to address in that Letter I know not what fathers and brothers. Messalinus and Pompeius Cilius, to whom by name the Letter is addressed, were lay people, formerly procurators of Tertullus in Sicily, of whom the first is moreover called an illustrious man in these very letters. And the letters addressed to Constantine the abbot make mention of the Passion of St. Placidus to be written by Gordianus in Greek letters, which he never accomplished, as has been abundantly shown in what precedes. The remaining letters of the Appendix, because they pertain to things done later, I shall touch in their places. Meanwhile you will gather from what has been said that nothing genuine so far, nothing to which safe credit could be attached, has been brought forward from it.

§ V. The things which are circulated about the birth of St. Placidus are discussed.

St. Placidus What position the family of the Anicii held among the Romans, even at the time when the supreme authority of the republic lay with the consuls, no one is ignorant, and it was noble among the Christians chiefly on this ground, that it was the first of the senatorial families to give its name to Christ: hence the longer Acts of St. Placidus, at number 4, record that St. Placidus sprang from it in the paternal line, and in the maternal from the Octavian family, about the beginning of the 6th century. At the time, they say, when Theodoric Augustus in the Elder Rome, and Justin the Elder and Justinian in the New, held the sceptres of the Roman empire, and John the first and Felix presided over the Apostolic See *, Tertullus, a most noble and most illustrious man, and second to none after the Augusti in either court of the Roman empire, a most illustrious and most beloved man, held the reins of the patriciate in the Elder Rome. He, drawing the line of his blood from the stock of the Anicii, so flourished in wisdom, fortitude and prudence that he was called FATHER OF THE COUNTRY by the emperors and all the Roman people. He, taking a wife from the family of the Octavian house, most beautiful in body and character, received from her good fruits of a good tree. For first Placidus, second Eutychius, third Victorinus; and in the fourth place, when she had brought forth a girl, because she descended from the stock of the Octavii and Flavii, they named her Flavia. Stephen of Le Puy, or whoever perhaps lies hidden under this name, praises Tertullus at once more modestly and more truly, saying that he alone attained the summit of the patriciate through the various grades of honours; and Placidus a native of the Roman city, born of senatorial stock, and his mother of the Octavian family.

[64] born of a father who was a Roman patrician, That Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, was born of a father Tertullus, who was also a patrician, St. Gregory the Pontiff is an ample witness, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 3, naming Equitius and Tertullus by name among the Roman nobles who offered their sons to St. Benedict, in these words: Then too Equitius gave his offspring of good hope, Maurus, and Tertullus the patrician Placidus. But he says nothing of Tertullus's Anician stock, nothing of his dignity, second after the Augusti in both East and West, nothing of the mother of Placidus, sprung of the stock of the Octavii. To Gregory about Placidus's

family Leo of Marsica in the 11th century wrote nothing more, nor anyone of the older writers before him; so that it was only from uncertain tradition, or from monuments of doubtful credit, or finally from the invention of Peter, deacon of Cassino, or of anyone else, but of no greater authority, that the Anician and Octavian family of St. Placidus began first in the 12th century to be commonly thrust forward and consigned to books: yet this thing so pleased certain more recent writers that it did not seem useless to them to employ their learning and labour in explaining the genealogy of St. Placidus. Of these we have at hand Arnold Wion, monk of St. Benedict of Mantua, who purposely described the Anician family, widely distinguished into its degrees, in a separate treatise which he prefixed to the Lignum Vitae.

[65] It is not my purpose to discuss each of the things he discourses on, Wion, not on sufficient foundation, but only those which touch our St. Placidus more closely, beginning from the seventeenth Anician degree, that is, from Sextus Anicius Petronius Probus, who in the year of Christ 371 increased the Fasti of the Consuls together with Gratian. This Probus, by Anicia Faltonia Proba, had three male children, Olybrius, Probinus and Probus; and so introduced a twin stock of the Anicii, one of the Probi through himself, the other of the Olybrii through his son Olybrius. From the stock of the Probi Wion derives St. Placidus in this manner: To Probus the Younger was born a son whom he calls Anicius Justinianus Probus. Further, from this Justinianus (another than the emperor Justinian) were begotten three sons, Germanus, Eupropius and Tertullus. The last of these (called by Wion Flavius Anicius Probus) held the consulship in the year 502; from whom finally came forth Flavius Anicius Probus Tertullus the second, or the Younger, consul in the year of Christ 523, and father of Saints Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia. So far Wion; whether truly and solidly I now consider.

[66] That Probus the Elder had three sons, Olybrius, Probinus in the paternal line and Probus the Younger, is neither doubtful nor controverted: but whence did Wion learn that Probus the Younger had a son named Justinianus? There is deep silence among the ancients about this Justinianus; whence at the nineteenth Anician degree Wion confesses that his deeds lie hidden in darkness, so that he scarcely found anything to bring forward about him. Yet he brought forward two things; the one, in the place just cited, namely that he was renowned for three children, of whom below: the other, in the Martyrology at the 21st day of March, page 112, where he numbers that Justinianus among the Roman consuls, probably from an Index of the Roman Consuls transmitted to him from Rome, which he praises in the place brought forward before: whereas the other Fasti of the consuls are ignorant of this Justinianus. The writers whom Wion praises besides at the 19th Anician degree, Peter, deacon of Cassino, Trithemius and others, are more recent and not suitable enough for persuading of the matter. Somewhat more antiquity is shown by Anastasius the Elder, whose Epitome of the Chronicles of Cassino, written about the year 754 by order of Pope Stephen II (to Baronius III), he praises in the same place; but here again a masked author is thrust forward, as Muratori judged, volume 2 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, in his Preface to the same Epitome, where among other things which occur in the said Epitome and are repugnant to the 8th century which it professes, he says this: Finally, since you could not by any colouring reconcile with the 8th century the mention of the Lotharingian peoples, since it is established that this appellation was then unknown to the world. The rest I pass over. So too, before Muratori, Bolland judged, volume 2 of February, page 400 and following. For the rest, that Anastasius says only that St. Benedict had a grandfather named Justinianus, not a consul in dignity, not born of the Anician family or of Probus the consul.

[67] Wion meanwhile goes on to weave the genealogy of St. Placidus; from the Anicii and, as I have already noted, assigns to Justinianus the sons Germanus, Eupropius and Tertullus, but on a foundation not a whit more solid. Of Tertullus at the 20th Anician degree he writes thus: Flavius Anicius Tertullus Probus, son of Anicius Justinianus, vir clarissimus, held the consulship in the year of Christ 502 with Rufius Magnus Faustus Anienus the Younger, vir clarissimus… He begot by his wife N. a Tertullus of his own name, whom at the 21st Anician degree he makes consul of the year 523 with Flavius Philoxenus and father of St. Placidus. The Probus who proceeded consul in the year 502 is nowhere found called Tertullus, nor was he born of a father Justinianus: for Hypatius, Pompeius and Probus were cousins and nephews of the emperor Anastasius, as Marcellinus testifies at the Post-consulate of Lampadius and Orestes; of whom the first in the year 500, the second in the year 501, the last in the year 502 was declared consul by Anastasius. Procopius too, book 1 of the Persian War, chapter 12, mentions Probus, whom he calls Ἀδελφιδοῦν of Anastasius, that is, nephew by a brother or sister. Further, Anastasius had brothers Flavius Hypatius and, according to some, Paul, as Du Cange teaches in the August Byzantine Families from Procopius and Marcellinus; and a sister, whom Theophanes, page 125, relates married Secundinus. Therefore either Hypatius, or Paul, or finally Secundinus was the father of Flavius Probus, consul in the year 502, not Justinianus, as Wion writes.

[68] derived. Nor does it seem true that Probus, consul of the year 523, nay 525, with Philoxenus, was the son of Probus, consul of the year 502. For three Probi who held the consulship from the year 502 up to the year 525 seem to have to be distinguished, namely the consuls of the years 502, 513 and 525: for first, no numeral mark is added to any of these in the Fasti. Then Probus, consul of the year 502, was created in the East, the other two in the West, as Pagi proves in the Critica at the year 525. In the year 502 the consul is called Probus without addition; but the consul of the year 513 is called Anicius Probus, and in some Fasti Probus the second. The third finally is called Anicius Probus the Younger; Anicius, as being of the same family as the second; the Younger, that you may understand that he was the son of the second, not of the first. And as for Wion's naming the consul Anicius Probus the Younger Tertullus besides, and making him the father of St. Placidus, he does so not only without testimony of the ancients, but also against the Monuments of Cassino refuted in the preceding §, on which he nevertheless not rarely relies: for in them Tertullus is written only as patrician, as in fact he was, nowhere as consul, unlike Gregory, Symmachus, Vitalian and others.

[69] Nothing helps him a certain donation of Gordianus, Moreover, Wion at the 23rd Anician degree brings forward a certain instrument, taken from an old manuscript of Cassino, by which it appears that Tertullus, the father of St. Placidus, and Gordianus, the father of Gregory the Great, were sprung of the Anician stock and joined by the bond of kinship: for in it Gordianus expressly calls himself Anicius and records Tertullus among his relatives or blood-relations: but who, among so many instruments of donations which lend a helping hand to one another and are manifestly either spurious or interpolated, would not fear that this instrument too of which we speak, although perhaps more cautiously prepared (for Wion does not present it entire), is, just like the others, the invention of an idle man, or at least depraved by interpolation in this part? That it is at any rate not free of interpolation the very words of the instrument recited by Wion show: for it is read as given: In the fourth year After the consulship of the same our lord (Justin the Younger), year 2, Indiction II, in the month of July, on the 14th day; which manner of numbering the days of the months was not yet in use at that period. Moreover, the fourth year after the consulship of Justin the Younger was the year of Christ 569, in which I do not know whether Bonitus, to whom, as abbot of Cassino, Gordianus by the said instrument gives various farms and estates, presided over the Cassinese. For Mabillon writes at the year 570 that Simplicius, third abbot of Cassino, was withdrawn by divine providence from the storm of the Lombards; so that he did not see, according to Mabillon, this incursion of the Lombards into Italy, the beginning of which he binds to the year 569. Simplicius was succeeded by Vitalis, and he by Bonitus, under whom the monastery of Cassino was afterwards destroyed by the Lombards about the year, as the same author says, 580; and so probably in the year 569 Vitalis presided over the Cassinese. Marco Antonio Scipione, monk of the Cassinese Congregation, in the Eulogies of the Abbots of Cassino, prolongs the rule of Vitalis up to the year 583.

[70] The Anician family of St. Placidus is tacitly confirmed by the letters nothing (help) of Justinian and Theodora which Justinian and Theodora are feigned to have sent to him, since in them Tertullus is called Justinian's cousin, and Placidus his nephew: but neither were Justinian or Theodora joined in blood to the Anicii, nor Tertullus to Justinian. Certainly Theodora, daughter of Acacius the Bear-keeper, whose birth and shameful upbringing Procopius describes, Secret History, chapter 9, had nothing in common with the Anicii. Justinian's father was Sabatius, called Istok by the Illyrians, that is, by his own people: and his mother Bigleniza, sister of the emperor Justin, whom the old writers have related to have sprung of obscure family on the borders of Thrace and Illyricum. Procopius, cited chapter 6, writes that Justin was accustomed to working the fields before he gave his name to the army in order to avoid poverty; whose wife too, named Lupicina, he calls a slave and a barbarian; so that all these seem to have been as far as possible from the renown of the Anicii and from kinship with them. There are those who would have it that Justin, when he was a senator, passed by adoption into the family of the Anicii, which both the consular Fasti and old coins, in which he is called Flavius Anicius, seem to testify: but it appears far more probable that Justin, made emperor, to cover the meanness of his family, assumed that name of his own accord, or ratified it when offered by a flattering people. So too, says Theodore the Reader, his wife Lupicina, after she was called Augusta, the people named Euphemia; and the same is called Aelia Marcia Euphemia on a coin which Du Cange exhibits, On the August Byzantine Families, page 88. Jordanes followed this common manner of speaking when he wrote of the son of Germanus, nephew of Justinian by his brother, and of Mathasuentha, who was the niece of Theodoric, king of Italy, by his sister, in the book On the Getic Affairs, last chapter: In whom the family of the Anicii, joined with the Amal stock, still promises, the Lord granting it, the hope of both races.

[71] Nor further can I perceive how the emperor Justinian could have named Tertullus the Younger his Exadelphus: to St. Placidus for ἐξάδελφοι are the sons of two brothers or sisters: but that Tertullus the Elder and Sabatius, the father of Justinian by Justin's sister, were brothers is neither probable from what has already been said nor can it be confirmed by any suitable witness. And if you establish Justinian as the adoptive son of Justin, then it is necessary that Justin and Tertullus the Elder were brothers; not only Procopius, praised in the preceding number, opposing it, but also all antiquity. Wion, so often cited, proceeds in this way: to Justinianus, of whom at number 65, he feigns three sons, Germanus, married to the sister of the emperor Justin, Eupropius, the father of St. Benedict, and

Tertullus the Elder, grandfather of St. Placidus. Then to this Germanus he assigns as sons Vitalian, another Germanus, husband of Mathasuentha, and the emperor Justinian: which being granted, it is indeed clear enough how the emperor Justinian and Tertullus the Younger were sons of two brothers, that is, ἐξάδελφοι: yet Wion adds at the 20th Anician degree, treating of the former Germanus: If anyone, however, has found otherwise, I yield to contention; and deservedly indeed.

[72] invented letters, For the better known among the writers of those times is Germanus, husband of Mathasuentha, and not the brother but the brother's son of Justinian, as Jordanes writes, On the Getic Affairs, chapter 14 (granted, in the last chapter he calls him brother of the emperor Justinian), and constantly called by Procopius Justinian's ἀνέψιος, or nephew by his brother; the more obscure among the same writers is Germanus, the father of this Germanus, nor could Wion find anything of his deeds, since he perhaps never was among the living. Pope Hormisdas did indeed write to an illustrious man named Germanus, in Labbe, volume 4 of the Councils, column 1507; but no one of the ancients said that this man was Justinian's father: and Procopius expressly assigns that to Sabatius, as has been said above. Further, it was to Sabatius, not to the Germanus to whom Hormisdas wrote, that Bigleniza, Justin's sister, was married, whose name of Bigleniza, says Alemanni on chapter 12 of the Secret History of Procopius, Theophilus handed down in the Life of Justinian: for no other sister of Justin is known. Finally, only one Vitalian who flourished under the Augusti Justin and Justinian is mentioned by the ancients, and he a Scythian by race, as Marcellinus says at the Consulship of Senator; nor was he the son of Germanus or the brother of Justinian; but born of Patriciolus, as Procopius relates, book 1 of the Persian War, chapter 8. Moreover, what kinship could there be between Vitalian and Justinian, when Procopius, Secret History or Anecdota, chapter 5, is witness that John, Vitalian's nephew, scarcely dared to hope for affinity with Germanus, nephew of the emperor Justinian, because he was far inferior to Germanus in dignity of family? In vain Wion alleges the Letter of Justinian to Hormisdas, in which Vitalian is called Justinian's brother; but not in the sense in which Wion interpreted Justinian's words.

[73] nothing, finally, the letter of Justinian to Pope Hormisdas. For it was at that period the custom among leading men to swear fraternal faith to one another over the sacred table: which rite, says Alemanni on chapter 6 of the Anecdota of Procopius, the ancient Fathers made sacred, who took care to overturn those potions of human blood which not only the barbarians and the peoples of the East employed, as Lucian relates in the book on Friendship entitled Τόξαρις, but also the Romans, for establishing friendships, treaties and conspiracies; adding besides that for a like cause Strategius, Pope Felix IV, otherwise III, when he was a layman, and Theodoric, king of the Goths, were called Justinian's brothers. Nor further is it doubtful that Vitalian entered into a pact of this kind together with Justinian. For, the emperor Anastasius being dead, against whom Vitalian had taken up arms, and Justin now holding power, Justinian, as Procopius testifies, Secret History, chapter 6, at once sent and summoned the usurper Vitalian under public faith, impunity being promised, and the mysteries of the Christians being received together. Not therefore on account of kinship of blood, but on account of the bond of the pact entered into and of the mutual faith sworn, did Justinian call Vitalian brother.

[74] Therefore St. Placidus, of a father who was a Roman patrician I do not think it necessary to add more to these for the opinion of Pseudo-Gordianus, of Wion and of others about the kinship of St. Placidus with the Anicii and with Justinian to be held partly very uncertain, partly clearly false. Mabillon treats almost the same argument in the second Appendix subjoined to volume 1 of the Benedictine Annals, in which, about the Anician family of St. Benedict, asserted only by more recent writers, he writes this at page 676: After Trithemius, certain authors of ours have said that the holy father Benedict was sprung from the most illustrious Anician family: but who first wrote it is not so well ascertained. Angelo della Noce attributes the origin and progress of that opinion to Wion, Yepes, Bucelin and others, to whom he leaves the asserting of it; to whom Mabillon himself adds Simon Millet and John Seifried of Breslau, formerly abbot of Zwettl in Austria. Then he also praises Haeften, Prolegomenon 14 to the Life of St. Benedict, in these words: Benedict Haeften, a man notable for religion and learning, prefers to record this genealogy from Wion rather than to assert it, thinking this not so easy, since there are not at hand suitable testimonies of the ancients by which this genealogy may be asserted.

[75] Presently he brings forward the twofold foundation which seems to have furnished Wion with matter and occasion for weaving the genealogy of St. Benedict; it will suffice to have said was sprung. the one, that the name of St. Benedict's father was Eupropius, and of his grandfather Justinianus, which Peter the deacon was the first of all to say, perhaps, says Mabillon in the cited page, number 3, from the monuments and tradition of his monastery; by which words he betrays his fear lest this perhaps be an invention of Peter or of another which gained strength in the Benedictine Order in the lapse of time. And the other, and that on which he judges the hinge of the matter turns, that the father of the same Justinianus, St. Benedict's grandfather, was Probus the Younger; and of this man Sextus Anicius Petronius Probus, husband of Proba Faltonia; which he believes Wion added of his own, and wishes it could be proved by suitable arguments. Finally, since he had not ascertained this, he was content to say that St. Benedict was sprung of a freer family, as is clear from Gregory the Great, or, as he interprets with Florus, of a nobler family. For us too, therefore, after the example of Mabillon and of the others praised above, since the same things occur in the genealogy of St. Placidus woven by Wion, it will suffice to have said that St. Placidus was born of Tertullus, a patrician man, which likewise is clear from Gregory the Great. And how great the honour of the patriciate was you will learn from Cassiodorus, book 6 of the Variae, Letter 2, where it is said to be inferior only to the consulship: nor was it wont to be granted except to men born in an illustrious place and conspicuous for the praise of merits; whence king Theodoric writes to Importunus, in the same Cassiodorus, book 3 of the Variae, Letter 5: Adorned therefore with the praise of so many parents, conspicuous also with the light of so many virtues, take up, after the consular fasces you have earned, the insignia of the patriciate, the full gift of your dignities; and gird your grown hair with the fillets of hoary honour, you who by the praise of merits have overcome the prejudices of age. So much of the paternal family of St. Placidus. Now a few things of the maternal.

[76] That the mother of St. Placidus was sprung from the Octavian family Pseudo-Gordianus says in the words related at the beginning of this §, Uncertain likewise are and the same is read in Stephen of Le Puy: but he is not one who makes undoubted credit for his statements; nor is it clear whether he himself first feigned it or received it from the tradition of his forefathers. The Octavian family, originating at Velitrae, Tarquinius Priscus transferred to Rome and admitted into the senate; Servius Tullius made it patrician. Transferred to the plebs, it obtained five consuls and one triumph: but Gaius Julius Caesar the dictator restored it to the patrician order; which things Pitiscus gathered from various authors in the Lexicon of Antiquities. The name of the mother of St. Placidus, unknown, as it appears, to Pseudo-Gordianus, Giovanni Pietro Villadecani put forth, and called her Faustina, sister of Elpis, wife of Boethius who was killed by king Theodoric, and daughter of T. Annius Placidus, vir clarissimus and consul, as Wion relates after the twentieth Anician degree, where he discourses on the family of the Anician Boethii. But we do not dare to affirm this, since the testimonies of the ancients are lacking, Wion says here cautiously, a caution which is nevertheless not rarely lacking in him, as will appear both from what has been said and from what is presently to be said.

[77] the things which are narrated about his maternal family Further, Pseudo-Gordianus says, in Mabillon as well as in Gaetani, that four children were born of the marriage of Tertullus and his anonymous wife: St. Placidus, the eldest by birth, as they would have it, Victorinus, Eutichius and Flavia, all of whom suffered together with St. Placidus. But that these names were begged from the Hieronymian little lists and attached to the Brothers and Sister of St. Placidus, because their true names were not found out by the inventor of the Acts, someone could suspect not altogether unjustly on account of what was said in §1, number 10. To these Wion adds a fifth, namely, as it pleased him to name her, Anicia Silvia Proba; of whom he writes thus at the 22nd Anician degree: Anicia Silvia Proba, daughter of Tertullus, married Ilduinus Martius, duke of Milan, as Tommaso Porcacchi is author, book 3 of the Malaspina Family: by whom she became the mother of Accinus Martius, who, abandoning the surname Martius, first introduced the name of the Malaspina family: and of Alsuinda Martia, wife of Garimbald, king of the Bavarians. Did Wion wish himself to be believed here without bringing forward any testimony of the ancients, he who for a like cause did not believe Villadecani a little before? Further, on what authority Porcacchi, praised by Wion, affirms that Silvia was the sister of St. Placidus, or at any rate that Silvia married Ilduinus, duke of Milan, neither does Wion declare nor is it ascertained by me, who was not able to consult the cited Work of Porcacchi.

[78] are uncertain. Yet what Wion narrates in this place, whether of his own or from Porcacchi, appears to me not sufficiently founded. I find Albsuinda indeed mentioned by Paul the deacon, book 2 On the Deeds of the Lombards, chapter 29 and following, but as daughter of Alboin, king of the Lombards, sent to Constantinople by Longinus, prefect of Ravenna, to the emperor Tiberius, or to Justin the Younger, Tiberius's predecessor, as Agnellus writes in the Life of Peter the Elder, bishop of Ravenna. The same Paul also mentions two Garibalds, dukes of Bavaria; one indeed in book 1, chapter 21, and book 3, chapters 10 and 29: and the other in book 4, chapter 41. But he assigns to each a far different wife; namely Walderada, previously married to Cuswald or Theodobald, king of the Franks, to Garibald, first of this name, duke of Bavaria; but to Garibald II the daughter of Gisulf, duke of Friuli. For in book 4, chapter 38, Paul speaks thus of the daughters of Gisulf: Who afterwards (their parents having been killed by the Cacan, king of the Avars), sold through various regions, obtained marriages worthy of their nobility. For one of them is said to have married the king of the Alamanni, and another the prince of the Bavarians. Then in chapter 41 he writes thus: In these times, Tassilo, duke of the Bavarians (first of that name), having died, his son Garibald was defeated by the Slavs at Aguntum. So that Paul seems to have expressed in chapter 41 the name of Garibald, which he had kept silent in chapter 38. However that may be, those who have written purposely about Bavarian affairs, such as Welser, Brunner and others, assign no other wives to either Garibald. But it is now time to proceed to other things.

* Sedi

§ VI. The birth of St. Placidus, his offering to St. Benedict, his monastic life at Subiaco, until he went away thence together with St. Benedict to Cassino.

Born, as they say, in the year 515, The Acts of St. Placidus edited by Mabillon expressly say, at number 83 with us, that he was born in the year of the Incarnation

of the Lord five hundred and fifteen; and the same may be gathered from number 5, where Tertullus is said to have offered St. Placidus to St. Benedict at seven years old, or, as is read again at number 83, in the seventh year of his age: in the five hundred and twenty-second year of the divine Incarnation; whence, if you take away seven years, you will reach the year 515: but in the same number 5 the approach of Tertullus to St. Benedict and the offering of Placidus are wrongly said to have taken place in the times of Pope Julius, who was in the 4th century. Whence Mabillon advises in the margin that one should read not Julius but John I, mentioned in the Acts at number 4: but in this way another correction too will have to be applied; and for the year 522, 523 will have to be substituted. For John obtained the Pontificate, as Anastasius writes in Bianchini, under the consulship of Maximus, which falls in the year 523. In the same year too the offering of St. Placidus is read as having been made in the Extract of Pope John XXII from the books of the supreme Pontiffs, which may be seen after the Chronicle of Cassino so often cited, and it runs thus: In the year of the Lord 523 blessed Maurus and Placidus were received by St. Benedict. John XXII presided over the Church in the 14th century; but what the antiquity of those Pontifical books is, from which this, as also other things which are related there about St. Placidus and his Companions, were taken, I do not know.

[80] But the Acts which in Ottavio Gaetani bear the name of Stephen of Le Puy record in these words that St. Placidus was offered to Benedict either as the seventh year of his age was verging to its end, at seven years old, to St. Benedict, or at the beginning of the eighth: The Boy, nourished by the diligence of his parents, and brought up tenderly, as had been fitting, when, seven years old, he was already reaching the bounds of boyhood, was offered to the most blessed father Benedict, who was practising the angelic life in the territory of Subiaco, to be regularly imbued with the norm of monastic institution. The compiler of these Acts, just like him who wrote the Acts of which in the preceding number, affirms in the Prologue that he consulted a Greek source; and yet he did not determine the year in which St. Placidus was born, in which he was offered to St. Benedict, in which he was sent into Sicily, in which finally he was crowned with martyrdom: whence it is lawful to conjecture that all these things were added to the Greek Acts, if they ever really existed, from some tradition or other of the Benedictines; Gordianus at any rate did not use years of the Incarnation: for this reckoning, although composed by Dionysius Exiguus from the year 532, was received into use long afterwards, as Mabillon teaches, On Diplomatics, book 2, chapter 23; who did not find a writer older than Victor of Tunnuna, who numbers the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 567, but only once, in the sum of years which he subjoined to his Chronicle. The year of St. Placidus's birth, therefore, is not certain: but because it is the common assertion of writers that he was born in the year 515, and this is not convicted of falsity from elsewhere, we too shall use that as his true birth year.

[81] in the year more probably 523, at Subiaco As regards the year in which he was offered to St. Benedict, we establish nothing certain about it either: since, however, both Acts affirm that he was offered in the seventh year of his age, and indeed as it was already verging to its end, or at its completion, as is read in Stephen of Le Puy; and since the completed seventh year of St. Placidus, or the eighth, fell partly in the year 522 and partly in the following, we are the more inclined to think that it happened rather in the year 523 than in 522, expressed in the Mabillonian Acts; and most of all for this reason, that the compiler of the later Acts seems to have indicated in this place too Pope John, whom he had mentioned a little before, not his predecessor Hormisdas, much less Julius, long since then taken from among the living. But whatever may be the case with the year, it is certain from Gregory the Great that St. Placidus, not yet out of boyhood, was offered by Tertullus to St. Benedict; who describes the event thus in book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 3: When the holy man (Benedict) was for a long time growing in virtues and signs in the same solitude (of Subiaco), many were gathered by him in the same place to the service of almighty God: so that he built there twelve monasteries with the help of the almighty Lord Jesus Christ, in which, fathers having been appointed, he assigned twelve monks to each; but a few he kept with himself, whom he judged to be more fitly instructed still in his presence. Then also the nobles and religious of the city of Rome began to flock to him, and to give him their sons to be nourished for almighty God. Then too Equitius gave his offspring of good hope, Maurus, and Tertullus the patrician Placidus: of whom Maurus, the younger, since he was strong in good morals, began to be the Master's helper; while Placidus still bore the years of a boyish disposition.

[82] his father Tertullus offered, Pseudo-Gordianus in Mabillon, narrating the same things, uses from time to time the very words of Gregory, so that he plainly uncovers the source consulted by him. Whatever accordingly he records besides about the splendid retinue of the chief men of the Roman empire of Tertullus as he approached Benedict, about his singular favour with the emperor, and about the imperial affairs, I number among fictions. And indeed what were those imperial affairs in which he was involved? Theodoric's? But he, as Procopius testifies, book 1 of the Gothic War, chapter 1, would usurp neither the insignia nor the name of Roman emperor, and lived content with the appellation of king, nor do writers commonly assign him any other title: just as neither do they commonly call Clovis, king of the Franks, when they speak of him, emperor or Augustus, although he was saluted consul and Augustus for the sake of honour by the emperor Anastasius. Justin's? But he ruled in the East; nor does it sufficiently appear in what affairs he held Tertullus, dwelling at Rome under Theodoric, involved. Nothing of these things is read in Stephen of Le Puy, who finishes the whole matter in the words transcribed at number 80; so that he most probably either did not find fictions of this kind in the Greek Acts, or, having found them, thought they should be cut out as foreign to the truth.

[83] to be imbued with the institutes of monastic life; This besides may be certain from the same Gregory, that the boys whom parents offered to St. Benedict were not wont to be offered only to this end, that he should imbue them with the disciplines of profane arts; but most of all also that he should instruct them in virtue and piety, which, as Mabillon rightly says, book 2, number 3, at the year 522 in the Benedictine Annals, Gregory declares in very clear words when he relates that they gave him their sons to be nourished for almighty God: whom it would have been better to have instructed at Rome, if their parents had cared chiefly for the sciences only, as certain innovators ineptly fable, and not for their morals and piety, as they certainly did care. Yet in such a way as to give second place to fitting learning. Nor is there any room for doubting that Equitius and Tertullus offered their children, Maurus and Placidus, to St. Benedict with the same mind, and willed that they should lead a religious life perpetually according to the institutes of their master. But whether they were offered to God with that solemn rite which Benedict prescribed in his Rule is not clear, says Mabillon in the place just praised. What seems to have brought doubt to Mabillon is that the Benedictine Rule, as he writes at number 2, at the time when St. Benedict took Placidus into the number of his disciples, was only conceived and sketched, and afterwards completed on Monte Cassino. Yet he inclines to this, that they offered their children to Benedict with that more solemn rite: Although, he says, no slight conjecture of this is drawn from the fact that they are recorded to have given at the same time with them most ample estates and great possessions.

[84] The rite of receiving the sons of nobles and of the poor, but whether by solemn oblation, of which Mabillon speaks, is described thus in the Benedictine Rule, chapter 66, in the book On the Concord of Rules, illustrated with notes and observations by Ménard: If perhaps anyone of the nobles offers his son to God in the monastery, if the boy himself is of minor age, let his parents make the petition (that is, the binding writing, says Ménard on chapter 65) which we have spoken of above: and with the oblation let them wrap that petition and the boy's hand in the altar cloth, and so offer him. And concerning their goods, let them either promise in the present petition under oath that never by themselves, never by a substituted person, nor in any way, will they at any time give him anything, or furnish him an occasion of having it: or at any rate, if they are unwilling to do this, and wish to offer something as alms to the monastery for their reward, let them make a donation to the monastery of the goods which they wish to give, reserving to themselves (if they so wish) the usufruct. And so let all things be observed (elsewhere it is read: obstructed) that no suspicion may remain to the boy by which, deceived, he might perish (which God forbid), which we have learned by experience. And those who have nothing at all, let them likewise make the petition, and with the oblation offer their son before witnesses.

[85] Mabillon says that he suspects, not slightly, from the most ample estates and possessions offered at the same time, that St. Placidus was offered to St. Benedict by his father Tertullus with this rite of the nobler people, more uncertain than Mabillon believes. but what Mabillon here assumes is plainly contrary to the Acts edited by him: for in these, at number 5, it is read that Tertullus approached St. Benedict and offered St. Placidus to him at Subiaco in the five hundred and twenty-second year of the divine Incarnation. But from number 13 and following it may manifestly be gathered that St. Benedict, having left Subiaco, went to Cassino before he received any estates from Tertullus to possess; and Mabillon himself, book 3 of the Annals, number 5, binds Benedict's arrival at Monte Cassino to the year 528. The Privilege of Tertullus, indeed, subjoined to the Chronicle of Cassino, in my copy at page 768, by which he granted to St. Benedict the estates of his patrimony which he had in Sicily, is read as given In the fifth year of the empire of Justin, on the 15th day before the Kalends of July, which year and day designate the year 523; since Justin obtained the empire in the year 518 on the 9th day of July. And so this privilege indeed seems to hint that that donation was made at least about the same time at which Placidus was offered to St. Benedict: but that it is fictitious has been said before, and is clear again from the fact that it mentions St. Benedict as though already then abbot of Cassino, in these words: I grant to you for ever, father of fathers, Benedict, and to your successors in the monastery of Cassino, etc. Leo of Marsica mentions the same donation, book 1, chapter 1, and the old Calendar of the monastery of Cassino praised by Mabillon, book 3 of the Annals, number 25; but in neither is the year of the donation made expressed; so that nothing certain can be established about it, although Mabillon confuses it with the year of St. Placidus's oblation.

[86] And from that time he was at Subiaco, But as regards the place in which Placidus was offered to St. Benedict and began the rudiments of the religious life, that this was Subiaco, where twelve monasteries built by St. Benedict were already to be seen,

is undoubted from Gregory the Great. Ortelius describes the situation of this place thus in the Geographical Thesaurus: It is a town of inland Latium near the sources of the Anio. The Deacon writes that it is forty miles distant from the City. It is called Subiaco by the Italians. Abbot Angelo della Noce teaches the etymology of the name in the Annotations on chapter 1 of the Life of St. Benedict. In some, he says, I find Sublaqueum, but Sublacus or Sublaceus is to be retained from its situation, for the fortress of Sublacus is placed below a lake: for the river Anio, running out between the Simbruine mountains among the Aequicoli, the narrow gorges of those mountains having been blocked by Nero or by Claudius, about a thousand paces above the aforesaid fortress, caused its waters to stagnate at the top and to be gathered and spread out into a lake, which afterwards rushed headlong with a crash from steep cataracts. In that lake, whose surface was level with the chapel of St. Placidus, which is still visited, Placidus was snatched by Maurus from the whirlpools of the waters. But now, the barriers of the dams having burst, the stagnant waters, having obtained their former liberty, flow lower down, that artificial lake having ceased, of which only the ditch and hollow now appears. I add the names of the twelve monasteries mentioned above from Gregory, from the same author, in the Annotations on chapter 3 of the Life of St. Benedict: They are the sacred Cave: Saints Cosmas and Damian, now St. Scholastica. St. Angelus beyond the lake. St. Mary, now St. Lawrence. St. Jerome. St. John the Baptist, now John of the Waters. St. Clement near the lake. St. Blaise, today St. Romanus. St. Michael the archangel below the sacred cave: St. Victorinus at the foot of Monte Porcaro, St. Andrew and Eternal Life, now the Holy Valley. Mabillon adds in the Annals at the year 520: All, if you except the first two, which still stand, have been reduced either to ruined walls or at any rate to simple oratories or chapels.

[87] he bore himself praiseworthily; That St. Placidus, whom Gregory the Great calls a Little boy in book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 5, and whom both Acts say was seven years old when he was offered to St. Benedict, made in this solitude of Subiaco, in a short time, notable progress for his age in virtue and holiness of morals under so great a leader and master, no one may rightly deny. Surely what the just-praised Gregory, and from him both Acts, relate of Placidus in chapter 7 greatly commends his humility and obedience: whence, namely, it is understood that St. Placidus, although sprung of an illustrious family, showed himself prompt and ready to undertake even the meanest services and to carry out any commands of his master. Let us hear Gregory rather than the Acts. One day, he says, while the same venerable Benedict was staying in his cell, the aforesaid boy Placidus, the holy man's monk, went out to draw water from the lake: who, incautiously letting down into the water the vessel which he had held, himself also followed it by falling. And the wave at once snatched him, and drew him inward from the land almost the course of an arrow's flight. But the Man of God, placed within his cell, at once knew this, and quickly called Maurus, saying: Brother Maurus, run, because that Boy who had gone to draw water has fallen into the lake: and already the wave is drawing him further off. A wonderful thing, and unwonted since Peter the Apostle. For, the blessing having been asked and received, Maurus hastened, roused at his father's command: and, thinking that he was going over land, he ran upon the water up to that place where the Boy was being carried by the wave, and held him by the hair, and returned also with rapid course. Who, as soon as he touched land, coming back to himself, looked behind him, and recognized that he had run upon the waters, and what he could not have presumed to be done, he wondered at and trembled at as done.

[88] In what year this happened can be made out neither from Gregory nor from the Acts of St. Maurus or of St. Placidus: already then, as it seems, a monk in the true sense, yet Mabillon refers it to the year 528, about six years after Placidus was offered to St. Benedict, at which time Mabillon seems to have thought he was still a novice, in volume 1 of the Benedictine Acts, page 9, annotating thus on the words of Gregory transcribed here a little before: For in the first centuries of our Order novices kept the secular dress and their hair. Martène contends, book 5, chapter 7, On the Ancient rites of monks, that he was then a monk in the strict sense. His words are these, at number 5: All these things are confirmed (he had said that there were monks who roughly cut off for themselves with shears the superfluity of their hair, so that, when it had grown somewhat, it could easily be grasped by the hand) from book 2 of the Dialogues of Pope St. Gregory, where he relates that the boy Placidus, sent by St. Benedict to draw water and having fallen into the lake, was grasped by the hair by St. Maurus and drawn out of the waters: for I am not pleased by what Benedict Haeften answers to this objection put to himself, that St. Placidus, still a boy, having only then first been offered by his father Tertullus, was at that time a novice, and accordingly not tonsured before solemn profession: for that solemn oblation too obtained the force of profession, and so consecrated the boys to God that they could not thereafter return to the world, as we prove in the Commentary on chapter 59; and once it had been performed, they were reckoned true monks, whence Placidus himself too, although a boy, is called by St. Gregory in the same place, and by Faustus in the Life, number 11, the holy man's Monk. Nor does Mabillon seem to deny this in the Benedictine Annals at the year 528, number 2, where, recording Placidus drawn out of the water by the hair by Maurus, having dropped the former observation about the secular dress kept by novices up to profession, he observes thus: For monks were not then cut to the skin. And at number 8 he has this besides: The oblation of the parents made boys monks, each one's own profession made adults such. Since therefore he writes that Placidus was offered to St. Benedict at the year 522, he seems to confess in this place that he was a monk from then too.

[89] Further, that Placidus was snatched from the waves by St. Maurus not without a prodigy the words of Gregory betray manifestly enough: nor deserving the censure of Baillet, less fair towards Maurus and Placidus. Baillet, however, writes very obscurely on this matter in the Life of St. Placidus, when he says that Maurus went under the waters by swimming and trod them: if Maurus snatched Placidus from the waves by swimming, Gregory ridiculously recited it as a thing unheard of since St. Peter the Apostle, which it is impious to suspect of so great a Pontiff; nor less ineptly would he have introduced Peter speaking thus: Very great are the things which you relate, and such as will profit the edification of many: but I, the more I drink of the miracles of the good man, the more I thirst: namely of St. Benedict, to whose merits St. Placidus not obscurely ascribed the life preserved to him, as Gregory goes on to narrate after the words related at number 87. Baillet adds in the same place that Placidus's manner of life at the beginning was such as savoured not a little of the weakness of his age; that is, if I understand Baillet's meaning, that the Boy's morals at the beginning were likewise not a little boyish: but that he afterwards so amended them that he ascended to the summit of Christian and religious perfection, and especially of obedience. Baillet probably drew this from the words of Gregory, in the cited book, chapter 3: Of whom Maurus, the younger, since he was strong in good morals, began to be the master's helper; while Placidus still bore the years of a boyish disposition. But it is one thing to bear the years of a boyish disposition, another to express the vices of a boyish disposition in one's morals. Pope Zachary thought more fairly of Placidus, interpreting Gregory's words in this manner: Ὁ δὲ Πλάκιδος νέος ἔτι ὑπάρχων ἀσκητικοῖς πόνοις τὴν ἑαυτοῦ νεότητα κατεδάμαζεν. But Placidus, while he was still a boy, subdued his boyhood with ascetic labours. Which he could accomplish, although he either never, or perhaps rarely, succumbed to the vices of a weak age.

[90] the love and care of St. Benedict towards Placidus and the other disciples, The singular love, as well as care, which St. Benedict seems to have had towards Placidus could contribute much to this. It can be gathered not only from what has already been said from Gregory; but also from what the same Gregory relates in chapter 5 of book 2 of the Dialogues, and after him the Acts, both those edited by Mabillon, at number 8, and those by Ottavio Gaetani, at number 7. Three, namely, of the twelve monasteries of the solitude of Subiaco were set upon rocks, whence the descent to the lake, from which the water necessary for the uses of the monks had to be drawn, was dangerous and difficult. The pious father, therefore, about to provide for the convenience of his people, goes by night to the rock of the mountain, and, prayers having been poured out to God, obtains a spring in it in a place more convenient for his people. And when he did this, of all his disciples he wished Placidus alone as his companion and spectator of the thing. Nor less does it betray St. Benedict's paternal care towards his disciples, what the Mabillonian Acts go on to narrate, likewise from Gregory, from number 9; the Acts edited by Ottavio Gaetani under the name of Stephen of Le Puy being silent here. A certain Florentius, a priest, stirred by the goads of envy, had tried in vain to remove Benedict by poison: but he who had been unable to snatch life from the master strove to bring a more atrocious disaster upon the disciples, by setting before boyish eyes a spectacle as foul as it was dangerous.

[91] for which, that to Cassino with Placidus, Those disciples were living in the same place as Benedict; and he, as appears, had the care of them himself: wherefore Florentius sends into the garden near St. Benedict's cell a band of naked girls playing wantonly, at the sight of whom the fragile minds of the boys might be moved to lust: and when St. Benedict noticed this, he ordered the boys to be carefully guarded; and not content with that, having at once arranged matters, fearing much more for his novices than for himself from Florentius, he withdrew from Subiaco accompanied by a few monks. So, almost, Gregory. But Pseudo-Gordianus in Mabillon was pleased to add some things to Gregory's statements. Gregory did not express the names of the disciples who accompanied Benedict as he went away from Subiaco: among these Pseudo-Gordianus expressly numbers Maurus and Placidus at number 12. Moreover, at number 10, that Benedict withdrew from Subiaco admonished by divine revelation; which, just as I should not dare to deny obstinately, so neither to assert pertinaciously; since nothing about that matter occurs in Gregory in the Life of St. Benedict, and Mark the poet seems to hint it in the words to be cited at number 100. But the speech which he attributes, at number 11, to Benedict as he bade farewell to the monks whom he was leaving at Subiaco, I do not doubt is the invention not of the departing Benedict but of someone divining what happened in that departure. But that Placidus was the companion of Benedict as he went away to Cassino appears very probable to me; both on account of the singular care which Benedict had for him, and because, as Gregory testifies in chapter 8, he yielded to the envy of Florentius because a fall for his still more tender disciples, of whose number certainly

Placidus was, he greatly feared.

[92] But as regards Maurus, Pseudo-Gordianus expressly affirms, at number 10 and following, that those disciples so that not with Maurus, whom Florentius was striving to draw into ruin were Maurus and Placidus, and for that reason at number 12 makes not only Placidus but also Maurus the companion of Benedict as he went away to Cassino; whether rightly, I now inquire: it is certain that the Life of St. Benedict written by Gregory the Great far prevails over the Acts of St. Placidus in authority and weight. And yet Gregory, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 8, says that Benedict went away from Subiaco to Cassino without Maurus: for he has it thus: For when the aforesaid priest (Florentius), standing on the balcony, learned that Benedict had departed, and was exulting, while the whole structure of the house remained immovable, that very balcony on which he was standing fell, and, crushing Benedict's enemy, killed him. Which a disciple of the man of God, named Maurus, at once judged must be announced to the venerable father Benedict, who was still scarcely ten miles away from the same place, saying: Return, because the priest who was persecuting you is dead. Maurus therefore seems to have been of the number of those whom Benedict had left at Subiaco while he himself meanwhile went on to Cassino; and, Benedict continuing his journey, to have returned to Subiaco, whence he had come.

[93] Hence Mabillon, in the Annotations on the Acts of St. Placidus, charges this passage with error: who, on account of the words of Pseudo-Gordianus Against these things, he says, is the eighth chapter of the Life of St. Benedict, from which it is understood that St. Maurus then remained at Subiaco. But in volume 1 of the Annals, at the year 528, number 4, he does not speak so affirmatively, when he says: Whether this Maurus (who announced the death of Florentius to St. Benedict as he went away to Cassino) is the son of Equitius, although the book on the Life of St. Maurus asserts it, some of ours doubt, and not without foundation: both because St. Maurus accompanied Benedict as he departed from Subiaco: and because Gregory, having once named Maurus the son of Equitius (chapter 3), always calls him simply Maurus in what follows (chapters 4, 6, 7): whereas here he is called with a long circuit of words a disciple of the Man of God, named Maurus. I do indeed recognize some foundation here; not, however, such that on account of it the opinion which establishes that Maurus went away from Subiaco together with Benedict should seem to be preferred to the contrary: for when they say that Maurus was the companion of St. Benedict as he went away from Subiaco, they assume what they ought to give proved.

[94] Nor does the reason press more which is sought from the manner in which Gregory, in chapter 8, named Maurus, does not seem to be doubled, the messenger of Florentius's death. For although the same Pontiff in chapter 3 called Placidus the son of Tertullus, and presently in the same chapter (you have his words at number 81) named Placidus without addition; yet in chapter 5 he uses a not dissimilar circuit of words, writing thus of Placidus: With the little boy named Placidus, of whom I made mention above. If therefore Gregory here used a circuit of words not necessarily in the case of Placidus, why might he not perhaps have used it also in the case of Maurus, even omitting this or a similar addition, of whom I made mention above, which Gregory does not use everywhere. However doubtful the words of Gregory may seem, it appears to me at any rate more probable that Maurus, the son of Equitius, was designated by Gregory in chapter 8 in the words adduced above at number 92; most of all because Pope Zachary, the Greek interpreter of Gregory, manifestly so understood the praised text of Gregory, who rendered it thus in the Greek idiom: Τοῦτο θεασάμενος ὁ ἀνωτέρω πολλάκις μνημονευθεὶς Μαῦρος etc. When the Maurus often mentioned above had seen this, etc. Which words can be understood of Maurus, the son of Equitius, alone. Zachary certainly, who began to occupy the Pontifical see in the year 741, although he cannot make the matter certain by his own authority, since he is removed by a quite long interval from the 7th century, about the beginning of which Gregory died, is yet much older than Pseudo-Gordianus and more worthy of credit. And that Benedict left Maurus at Subiaco, although he without doubt had notable care of him equally with Placidus, ought not to seem wonderful: for Maurus had struck deeper roots in virtue, and for that reason already before, to use Gregory's words, had become the Master's helper.

[95] is compelled to migrate about the year 528. If the year is asked in which Benedict sought Monte Cassino from Subiaco together with Placidus, which Gregory kept silent, pseudo-Gordianus expressly declares it in these words at number 11: When he (Benedict) had said these things, in the five hundred and twenty-ninth year of the Lord's Incarnation, in the times of Justin (rather Justinian; for Justin, his predecessor, ceased to reign in the year 527) the monocrat, he ordered all the oratories which he had built (at Subiaco), twelve brothers being added in each, under appointed Provosts, and, two angels and three ravens accompanying him, began to proceed to the fortress of Cassino. But Pseudo-Gordianus cannot make this certain; nor are certain testimonies at hand from elsewhere by which that year may be determined. For the five hundred and twenty-ninth year I read the five hundred and twenty-eighth at the end of the Chronicle of Cassino printed at Paris in the year 1603, page 760. Camillo Pellegrino, in the Series of the Abbots of Cassino, says that some refer the departure of St. Benedict from the monastery of Subiaco and his arrival at the fortress of Cassino to the year of Christ 527, others to the year 528, others finally to the year 529: nor did Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals define the same year much more closely, writing only this at the year 528, number 7: This arrival of the holy father (Benedict) at Monte Cassino is established already from many centuries in the twenty-eighth year, or the following, above five hundred; so that on this side Pseudo-Gordianus cannot be convicted of certain error.

§ VII. St. Placidus goes from Subiaco to Cassino: the monastery of Cassino is founded, and is enriched by Tertullus, the father of St. Placidus.

St. Benedict, Placidus and Maurus, according to the Acts Gregory the Great, although he records St. Benedict's departure from Subiaco, its occasion, and his arrival at Monte Cassino, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 8, yet relates nothing of the things which happened on that journey: an equally deep silence about these is in the Acts ascribed to Stephen of Le Puy and edited by Ottavio Gaetani. The Acts edited by Mabillon are fuller here, as commonly elsewhere. Let us hear these, therefore: after the words related in the preceding number they proceed thus. And when he (St. Benedict with Saints Maurus and Placidus) had come near the city of Alaterna (read, says Mabillon, Alaterina), he was received in the monastery of St. Sebastian, martyr of Christ, namely by St. Servandus the deacon, as immediately follows. And Alatrum, which is also Aletrium, is a city of old Latium situated among the Hernici, and today subject to the dominion of the supreme Pontiff. Ughelli exhibits the series of the prelates of Alatri, whose column is led by Paschasius, who went to Constantinople together with Pope Vigilius and subscribed the condemnation of Theodore, bishop of Caesarea, in volume 1 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 288 and following. It is distant five miles from Veroli, and thirty from Cassino. Further, that there existed in the time of St. Benedict in Campania (understand the Roman Campania, which, as Baudrand writes, comprises the greater part of ancient Latium, in which were, besides the other peoples, the Hernici) a monastery over which Servandus the deacon presided, Gregory, so often cited, teaches in book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 35, in these words: At another time too Servandus, deacon and abbot of that monastery which had been built in the parts of Campania by Liberius, formerly patrician, had come to him according to custom for the sake of a visit.

[97] And what Gregory then narrates of Benedict lodging with the same Servandus Having set out from Subiaco to Alatri, they lodge with Servandus: luminously shows that no slight friendship existed between St. Benedict and Servandus, which perhaps gave Pseudo-Gordianus, reading here and there in the footsteps of Gregory, occasion to assert that Servandus extended the rights of hospitality to St. Benedict, together with his Companions, while he was hastening from Subiaco to Cassino. This host of St. Benedict the Mabillonian Acts distinguish with the title of Saint; but I have not found him adorned with this title elsewhere. Liberius, the founder of the monastery of St. Sebastian, is to Baronius in the Annals at the year 526 the same as the Liberius, patrician, praetorian prefect of the Gauls under Athalaric. The marks of the times favour the Baronian opinion, and the illustrious eulogies with which Liberius is adorned by contemporary writers. Among others Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, writes that he is bound to him by many titles, book 9, Letter 23, in which he digresses at length in his praises. That he was a beneficent man is clear from his Epitaph, which was placed for him at Rimini by his sons, and which you have entire from Sirmond in this volume, page 63, in which among his other praises the man's beneficence is commended by this verse:

Father to all in mind, venerable in his whole age.

[98] From Alatri the Mabillonian Acts say St. Benedict proceeded to Veroli, the monastery of St. Erasmus at Veroli, begun by St. Benedict another episcopal city of Latium among the Hernici, subject to the Roman Pontiff. And what was done there they set out thus: Departing thence too, the man of God, bidding farewell to St. Servandus the deacon, came with his disciples Placidus and Maurus near the city of Herculana (read Verulana), namely to a place which was called Aureola by the neighbouring inhabitants; and when he had arrived at it, he recognized through the Holy Spirit that there would be a congregation of religious men there, and, himself making with his own hands the foundations for a church to be built, he ordered his disciples Placidus and Maurus to bring to completion the same church founded by him in honour of the holy martyr of Christ Erasmus, and so to come to Cassino, which they also did. St. Erasmus the martyr, of whom there is talk here, is announced at Formia in Campania, and Henschenius illustrated his Acts at the 2nd day of June, page 211 and following: where, in number 5 of the preliminary Commentary, he observed from these very Acts, the words of the Acts just cited being related, that St. Benedict seems to have been devoted to Erasmus the martyr.

[99] his disciples completing it, Mabillon passes over this matter in silence in the Annals; was it because he did not give credit to these Acts? Or because he believed that Maurus, perhaps left at Subiaco by St. Benedict, did not put his hand to this work, and thought that, from that addition, if not certainly false, at any rate doubtful, the rest too were not a whit more certain, and accordingly not to be inserted in the Annals? But neither can these things be certain to me, on account of the doubtful credit of these Acts, unless they are proved from elsewhere by more luminous testimonies. Meanwhile you would find nothing about this matter in Gregory, nothing in the Life of St. Maurus, nothing in Stephen of Le Puy. However that may be, that a monastery at some time existed there Augustin Lubin writes from Ughelli in the brief Notitia of the abbeys of Italy, who mentions it in this manner: The abbey of the title of St. Erasmus, whose church St. Benedict, patriarch of the monks in the West, began, and St. Placidus, his disciple, completed, in the diocese or territory of Veroli, or rather near Veroli, three thousand paces distant from Alatri; it is now a parish church, which is served by canons under a superior called abbot *, and on account of the secularization of the abbey he is called a secular abbot

by Ughelli, tome 1, page 334 *, who assigns it to the year 1574. It lies in Latium, or in the Campagna di Roma. I return to the course of the Acts.

[100] He himself makes for Mount Marsicus, While Maurus and Placidus apply themselves to the work laid upon them, St. Benedict presses on with his journey towards Cassino; and, his disciples being absent, two angels in the likeness of young men accompany him on his way and show him which road he must take. Lest anyone, however, should hold this, like the rest that rests on the sole authority of Pseudo-Gordianus, suspect of falsehood, I am glad to confirm it by a clearer testimony, namely that of Mark, disciple of St. Benedict, who in his poem on the same Saint, in Mabillon, tome 1 of the Benedictine Acts, page 29, sings thus:

To which (the citadel of Cassino) when, warned, you came from another mount *, Christ was your guide and your way through the wilderness. For He led two young men to every fork of the road, To confirm you in the path you were to follow.

From the same source seems to be drawn what the Acts add next: In that same place a certain holy man, named Martin, then had his dwelling, to whom it was said by God:

Spare these places; another friend is at hand.

For so again Mark, but with the name of Martin suppressed:

Here * too He had foretold to one just man then living: Spare these places; another friend is at hand.

The Acts further add that Martin went off to Mount Marsicus or Massicus, situated in Campania in Italy near Calenum, called Carinola by the Italians; whence it is clear that this is the man whom Gregory, book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter 16, writes led a solitary life on Mount Marsicus and was known to St. Benedict; and also the man whom the Roman Martyrology commemorates on the XXIV day of October, though with the name somewhat altered, in these words: In Campania, of St. Mark the solitary, whose illustrious works St. Gregory has written.

[101] Not much time, if the words of the Acts are considered, [and not long after, with the same men helping, he founds the monastery of Cassino, where] Placidus and Maurus (if indeed the latter had a part in that matter) seem to have spent in completing the church of St. Erasmus: for St. Benedict did not need many days to reach Cassino from Veroli, which is about fifty miles distant from Subiaco. When he had arrived there, as the Acts relate, he gave forty days to prayer; and when these had elapsed, he applied himself, aided by the work of his disciples Placidus and Maurus, to shattering the idol of Apollo, overturning the altars, cutting down the groves, and founding the monastery of Cassino. So that the church of St. Erasmus seems accordingly to have been at first a work of no great size. Mabillon nevertheless writes in the margin: Maurus and Placidus build the monastery of St. Erasmus, so that Mabillon seems to assert that they founded not only the church of St. Erasmus, which the Acts have, but also a monastery; although the Acts do not assert this, but rather say only that St. Benedict recognized through the Holy Spirit that there would be a congregation of religious men in that place — namely, as appears, in times to follow. Nor do I know whether so small a space of time sufficed for founding a church and a monastery together, unless perhaps someone wishes a few cells to be understood by the name of monastery. I fear also on other grounds that the Acts attribute here somewhat more to Placidus than is fitting: for by their reckoning Placidus was in the seventh or eighth year of his age in the year 522, and so about the fifteenth in the year 529, in which, according to the same Acts, St. Benedict withdrew from Subiaco; and that age hardly seems suitable enough for undertaking and carrying out such great matters.

[102] But perhaps someone will say: what is this narrative about a temple of Apollo, he overthrows the idolatry which up to that time an idol, altars and groves? Had the darkness of pagan superstition not yet been dispersed there, long after the light of the Gospel had been brought to Italy, so that even public temples of idols remained for Benedict to overthrow? Yet Cassino itself had long professed the faith of Christ; one of its bishops, Caprarius by name, is read as a signatory to the Roman council under Hilarus; and another, whose name was Severus, likewise to the Roman council under Felix, as the fifth century grew old. Nevertheless so the matter stands: for the compiler of the Acts did not assert this without a witness, but drew it from Gregory the Great, who in book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 8, has this: Where (in the stronghold of Cassino) there was a most ancient shrine, in which, after the custom of the ancient heathen, Apollo was worshipped by a foolish rustic people. And a little after he speaks thus of Benedict: Arriving there, therefore, the man of God broke the idol, overturned the altar, burned (elsewhere: cut down) the groves, and in the very temple of Apollo built an oratory (oratorium) of blessed Martin, and where the altar of the same Apollo had been, an oratory of St. John; and by continual preaching he called the multitude dwelling round about to the faith. Nor without fruit: for the same Gregory says in chapter 19: Now not far from the monastery was a village, in which no small multitude of men had been converted from the worship of idols to the faith of God by the exhortation of Benedict.

[103] Angelo de Nuce, abbot of Cassino, in chapter 8 of the Life of St. Benedict, Annotation 23, suspects it seems never to have been entirely rooted out there; that the worship of idols had been brought back into Cassino by the superstition of the Goths: it appears truer, however, that remnants of the ancient paganism survived at Cassino in the age of St. Benedict. For when the Goths set foot in Italy they were not idolaters but followers of the Arian heresy, to which Jordanes writes, in chapter 25 of the Getica, that the Gothic nation had been brought over by Valens, an emperor of the Arian party; and which that nation afterwards carried into the Gauls, Spain and Italy together with its victorious arms. Certainly very many of the Goths must have given their names to Arianism from the beginning of the fifth century, since the army of Alaric, king of the Goths, was forced to join battle near Pollentia on the holy day of Easter, though unwilling on account of the veneration of the day, as Orosius witnesses, book 7, chapter 37. That remnants of paganism, moreover, survived here and there in Italy down to the sixth century will seem less surprising to one who recalls what the Orosius just cited left in writing for posterity concerning the multitude of pagans existing even in the city of Rome under the emperor Honorius at the beginning of the fifth century: While he (Radagaisus) therefore threatened the Roman citadels, there was a concourse of all the pagans in the City: the enemy, they said, was powerful both in abundance of forces and above all in the protection of the gods; the City, however, was forsaken and would soon perish precisely because it had lost its gods and its rites. With great complaints it was everywhere urged, and there was continual talk of restoring and celebrating the rites. The last words of Orosius indeed indicate that the worship of idols had then been taken from the pagans at Rome; but what was not done at Rome at that time could not only be practised elsewhere then, but even much later, when the affairs of Italy were continually in turmoil, or when the Arian kings of the Goths cared little for the Christian cause.

[104] in vain of the monastery, whose I am glad to insert here a few things only which concern our knowledge of the renowned monastery of Cassino, in which St. Placidus spent some years under the teaching and discipline of Benedict himself. Mount Casinas, at the farthest borders of Samnium, bordering on Latium and Campania, rises with a double summit, of which the higher is called Cairus; the other Casinum, on which is the monastery of Cassino, which also takes its name thence. From there one descends by a winding path for nearly three miles to the town of San Germano, situated at the foot of the mount. On its side towards the summer East not a few ruins, and those magnificent, of the old town of Casinum are seen: so that Cluverius, when he writes that the ancient town of Casinum stood on the same spot as that on which the monastery of Cassino was founded, is known to have departed from the truth; as have those who followed Cluverius in this matter. A large part of the inhabitants of old Casinum were brought down into the town of San Germano when abbot Bertharius, who governed the monastery of Cassino from the year 856 to the year 883, founded it. The river Rapidus flows through and makes fertile the plain lying beneath the mount. See more in Angelo de Nuce in the Annotations on chapter 8 of the Life of St. Benedict, in Erasmo Gattola in the History of the abbey of Cassino, and in Mabillon in the Iter Italicum, page 119 and following, tome 1 of the Annals at the year 528, number 5, and tome 2 at the year 720, where he shows a view of the monastery of Cassino.

[105] an account is given, The Mabillonian Acts, number 13, call this monastery the head of all the others of the Benedictine Order, both because the remains of St. Benedict were laid in it and because the holy patriarch wrote his Rule there. The same is read in the Life of St. Maurus in these words: With his disciples Placidus and Maurus he founded the monastery of Cassino, and by his bodily rest there and by the writing of the Rule established it as the head of all monasteries. Whether St. Benedict wrote his Rule at Subiaco or at Cassino is not altogether beyond controversy. Mabillon in the Annals at the year 520, number 2, writes that it was conceived and sketched at Subiaco and afterwards completed on Monte Cassino. Angelo de Nuce discussed the question itself at length in a historical Excursus attached to his Annotations on chapter 29 of book 3 of the Chronicle of Cassino, and fights with all his strength for the monastery of Cassino; consult him if you please: for there is no need for us to dwell on this matter further, since it does not pertain to the deeds of St. Placidus, nor does any loss or weight accrue from it to the Mabillonian Acts, however the matter stands. And so I return to Pseudo-Gordianus.

[106] He goes on, then, to transcribe Gregory, when he says while the building was delayed by that St. Benedict raised two churches on Monte Cassino, the one to St. Martin, in the place where the temple of Apollo had been; the other to St. John, where the altar of Apollo had been; that he converted the neighbouring multitude of heathen to the Christian rites, and had the devil visible to him in bodily form, indignant, to be sure, that the impious shrines and altars were being destroyed and new temples raised to the divine Majesty: whose voices indeed Placidus and Maurus heard, but whose form they did not see at all. All this, I say, Pseudo-Gordianus took from Gregory; for the same things are read in Gregory, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 8: except, however, that Gregory did not state the names of Placidus and Maurus, whereas Pseudo-Gordianus, at least in its interpolated form, did state them; very likely for this reason, that he regarded Placidus and Maurus as the chief disciples of St. Benedict and his almost inseparable companions. For the rest, that the temple of Apollo and its altar did not stand in the same place is gathered both from the Acts of St. Placidus and from Gregory: for the altar, as Angelo de Nuce notes on chapter 8 of the Life of St. Benedict, was outside the temple on account of the sacrifices, which were performed under the open sky, yet not far from the temple. He describes the site of each in this way: *The altar of Apollo was on the very summit of the mount, where afterwards the oratory of St. John, and now

the sanctuary of the basilica of Cassino. Below the altar, towards the West, was the shrine, to which the oratory of blessed Martin succeeded.* That the oratory of St. John survives even today, but has passed into the name of St. Benedict, while the little chapel of St. Martin now stands on the northern side of the Major church, we learn likewise from the same author and from Mabillon at the year 528, number 6.

[107] The envious demon, of whom in the preceding number, the envy of the demon: not only showed himself to be seen by St. Benedict while he was founding the monastery of Cassino, but also, as the Mabillonian Acts relate at number 14 and following, threw what delays he could in the way of the disciples as they advanced the work: now he sat upon a stone so that it could not be moved from its place, now he deluded the eyes of the disciples, now he destroyed what they had built, so that he even crushed a boy under the mass of an overturned wall. Gregory narrates the same things in chapter 9 and the two following: but where he speaks of the disciples of St. Benedict in general, the Acts we have cited mention Placidus and Maurus straightaway; and why they seem to do so has been said in the preceding number: whence this may indeed seem probable, but by no means certain and beyond doubt. Gregory likewise passed over in silence the name of the boy crushed by the collapse of the wall; our author calls him Severus; which Angelo, on chapter XI of the Life of St. Benedict, ascribes to the additions of Peter, deacon of Cassino. For, as he says, among the Cassinese codices older than Peter, the one marked 85 has this title for chapter XI: Of Severus, a little one of God: which it is easy to perceive is faulty, and that one should read Of a little servant of God, as all the other codices have, says Angelo. Peter, then, will have followed a faulty codex here, if this is his addition: who otherwise (they are the words of the author cited) not seldom shows himself hasty in judging. From which you will estimate the authority of Peter in those things which he is not seldom believed to have added of his own.

[108] then Tertullus, the father of St. Placidus, of whom the Acts here We have come to a place where the author of the Mabillonian Acts plainly betrays his ignorance or his licence in invention. At number 16 he has roughly this: Tertullus, the father of St. Placidus, was lord of the estate of Cassino. He hears at Rome that a monastery has been founded there by St. Benedict, and that his son Placidus is living in it. A desire therefore seized Tertullus of going to Cassino and seeing Placidus: messengers having been sent to and fro, a day is appointed for the meeting. At the appointed time the patrician Tertullus hastens to Cassino, accompanied by the noblest of the Romans, to wit, Boethius, Symmachus, Vitalianus, Gordianus, Equitius. That Boethius and Symmachus had been put to death by order of Theodoric, king of the Goths, already before the year 529, we have said elsewhere. How then could it happen that in the year 529, in which St. Benedict is read, at number XI, to have withdrawn from Subiaco, or later, they were companions to Tertullus going to Cassino? Stephen of Le Puy was more cautious, who not only makes no mention of these companions of Tertullus, but does not even write that Tertullus came to Cassino. Equitius, of whom there is mention here, was the father of St. Maurus, whose liberality and munificence the monastery of Cassino is said to have experienced as much as that of Tertullus; here then was a fitting place for the writer of the Life of St. Maurus to commit at least something to writing about that matter, about which, however, you will not find a jot there. These things were very likely drawn from those fictitious documents which were dealt with abundantly in § IV, so that we need not dwell on them longer here.

[109] they relate certain fabulous things, For the rest, Tertullus is said to have been very generous towards the monks of Cassino, as may be seen at numbers 17 and 19 in the Mabillonian Acts. But no prudent man will easily persuade himself that Tertullus, however abounding in the riches of fortune, was so wealthy as to grant to St. Benedict to be possessed not only as many estates as are numbered there, but even cities, ports and islands. That he was generous to the monks of Cassino, however, I would not deny: for Leo Marsicanus expressly affirms, book 1, chapter 1, that Tertullus gave St. Benedict eighteen estates or curtes situated in Sicily, and the monks of Cassino even today pay him annual rites to testify their grateful mind; hear Angelo de Nuce commenting on this matter thus: So great was the devotion with which Tertullus burned towards the sacred monastery of Cassino that at his death he wished to be buried among us before the refectory, so that by this monument the monks, going in and going out, might accompany the most holy shade of their most munificent benefactor with grateful remembrance and with prayer for his rest. In the Necrology or Obituary of Cassino, in the written codex 47: "On the seventeenth day before the Kalends of August (the day on which the donation was made) of Tertullus of the Romans patrician our benefactor" (I do not dwell on the solecism) on which day the monks of Cassino, following ancient rite, and led by their own devotion, and by the sanction of Pope Zacharias (of which just below), with a funeral catafalque lit with very many tapers, and with solemn Offices and Sacrifices, still every year perform the obsequies of the most well-deserving prince.

[110] he enriches them liberally. Tertullus is said to have granted to St. Benedict Monte Cassino; his house, situated at Rome on the Caelian hill and afterwards changed into the monastery of St. Erasmus, from which about the year 672 Adeodatus was raised to the government of the universal Church, as Anastasius writes in Bianchini; and finally very many possessions both in Italy and in Sicily, which you have described at length, though faultily enough, at numbers 17 and 19. That the monastery of Cassino was founded on the land of the patrician Tertullus is read in these very words in the Apostolic Command of Pope Zacharias, which concerns the yearly celebration of the Commemoration of Tertullus, and indeed of Placidus, by Masses, on the XIV day of July, printed after the Chronicle of Cassino of the Paris edition, page 792. But there follows in the same place a certain Privilege under the name of the same Pontiff, which Baronius at the year 748 held suspect, both on account of its prolixity and because Indiction 1, which with the seventh year of Zacharias: and so I fear that one may trust the former more safely than the latter, as it stands there; besides the fact that the Command of Zacharias also contains something on account of which it may seem fictitious or interpolated, lying in these words: And also let them (the monks of Cassino) pay to the patrician Tertullus a full and solemn Commemoration every year on the XIIII day of the month of July; to which these words concerning St. Placidus are added: And to the most blessed Placidus likewise on the same day let them celebrate a Commemoration of Masses. For Zacharias does not seem to have used that way of numbering the days of the months. If you consult the not few letters of Zacharias, either in Baronius from the year 743 to the year 752, or in Labbe, tome 6 of the Councils, from column 1494, no day of any month will occur in them which Zacharias has not expressed either by the Kalends or by the Nones, whether in the subscription of the letters, as is commonly done in them, or in their course, as may be seen in Labbe, column 1500. Hence in §2, in which I treated of the ancient cult of St. Placidus, I made no mention of this Command or sanction of Zacharias. For the rest, Stephen of Le Puy passes over all those donations except one, namely the Sicilian, which, as I have said, Leo Marsicanus mentions.

* called

* col. 293 of the new edition.

* Subiaco

* Christ

§ VIII. St. Placidus, departing into Sicily, is renowned for many miracles.

St. Benedict sends Placidus into Sicily, The Benedictine family was not permitted to enjoy for long in quiet the goods granted by Tertullus in Sicily, if we are to stand by the reckoning of the Mabillonian Acts: for scarcely six or seven years had passed since the donation was made before those goods felt the violent hands of rapacious men. In the year 536, as we have from number 21 (Stephen of Le Puy does not state the year), it was announced to St. Benedict, living in the monastery of Cassino together with Placidus, that the goods of the Congregation among the Sicilians were being laid waste, that no fruit could be received from them any longer, and that it was no longer in the power of their agents to keep them in good repair. St. Benedict judged that the evil must be met, and that no more effective remedy could be applied to repel it than to send there St. Placidus, who would protect by his authority what had lately been his father's goods. The words with which the holy father addressed his departing Disciple the Mabillonian Acts report at number 20 almost as if the writer of the Acts had heard them with his own ears: yet he speaks of Gordianus in such a way as to reveal himself to be another than he. And so he attributes to St. Benedict words, not such as he is known actually to have uttered, but such as he surmised he said, as to their force and sense. Let the same judgment be passed on those things which, in what follows, he not seldom reports St. Placidus to have spoken when he worked wonders; which it may suffice to have noted once. Gordianus and Donatus were given to Placidus as companions of his journey; of whom the former was a Roman, learned above all in Greek letters, and not long before enrolled in the Benedictine family; to whom the true author of this Life of the Saint attributed it, in order to acquire for himself a credit and authority which he would otherwise by no means have found, and did not even thus deserve: the other, the companion of St. Placidus in martyrdom, though slain for the faith somewhat earlier. Furthermore St. Placidus set out on his journey with his companions Gordianus and Donatus in the same year, namely 536, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June, or the XX day of May, from number 21. But these things, as will appear a little later, do not cohere with what follows.

[112] who first to Capua, On that day, then, St. Placidus, having departed from Cassino in the morning, reached Capua in the evening: it is a city of Campania Felix, situated in the age of St. Placidus between the rivers Volturnus and Liternus, but from the ninth century transferred to the place where of old was the bridge of ancient Casilinum. In the chorographical Map of Campania Felix in Camillo Pellegrino, tome IX of the Thesaurus of the Histories of Italy, part 2, the Latin Way, which St. Placidus very likely took, leads from Cassino through Teanum Sidicinum, Cales and Casilinum to Capua. St. Germanus the bishop presided over the city of Capua, inscribed in the Fasti of the Saints on the XXX day of October, and deceased about the year 541, as Ughelli writes. He received St. Placidus with his Companions kindly, on account of the friendship which he had with St. Benedict, who saw the soul of this bishop, when he died, carried into heaven, as Gregory the Great witnesses, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 35. For the rest, St. Placidus seems to have made the beginning of his wonders in this place, where he is said to have healed a man suffering from a pain in the head, and also to have restored sight to a blind man in the presence of the bishop of the place: for he is not read anywhere, so far as I know, to have worked miracles before. I would hardly believe that St. Placidus, as the Mabillonian Acts say at number 21, already then shone with the fame of miracles throughout the whole Roman world.

[113] thence to Calatia, From Capua St. Placidus went to Calatia: so it is read in the Acts edited by Mabillon, and to be reprinted here below at number 24. But Stephen of Le Puy has Galatia. Cluverius's geographical Map concerning Samnium and Campania, prefixed to tome 2 of Ancient Italy at page 1087, places Calatia to the left of the Volturnus (going up the river from its mouth at the Tyrrhenian sea

towards its source) on the bank today called Cajazzo by the Italians. But among the Ortelian maps attached to the Geography of Ptolemy, the one which concerns Ancient Italy, and which was likewise drawn up by Cluverius, shows the site of Calatia on the opposite bank of the Volturnus, above Capua. So too the Peutinger Table, in its fourth Segment. Camillo Pellegrino, in the Map of Campania Felix prefixed to Dissertation 1 on the Campanias of the ancients, places Calatia on the left bank of the Volturnus, and Galatia on the right, between Capua and Caudium. It is doubtful, then, first, whether Calatia (Cajazzo) and Galatia were different cities; and next, if they were different, whether St. Placidus made his journey by this one or by that. As regards the first, besides Calatia, which today is named Cajazzo, another city also seems formerly to have been situated on the opposite bank of the Volturnus, between Caudium and Capua, which likewise bore the name of Calatia, or Galatia, and which was at one time distinguished by an episcopal see. For, to pass over the Peutinger Itinerary, in Ughelli, tome 6 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 442 and following, there is extant a diploma of Gerbert, archbishop of Capua, given about the year 978 to the church of Cajazzo, whose beginning is: To praiseworthy desires we have brought no delay: we have ordained for you as priest our brother and fellow bishop Stephen. If Stephen had then been ordained prelate of Cajazzo or Calatia, the one who subscribed the same diploma in this manner must certainly have held another see: I, Aldericus, bishop of the church of Calactia, have consented and subscribed.

[114] Michael Monachus, however, in the Sanctuarium Capuanum, page 580, recognizes only Calatia, today called Cajazzo, not that one,. Was bishop Aldericus, then, some stranger, bishop of another city elsewhere of nearly the same name, who was then perhaps staying at Capua? Michael does not believe this, and rightly. Was he bishop of Cajazzo, but called Calactinus from the ancient name of the city, Calatia? Neither can that be said, says Michael: for at that time the city was called Cajacia, not Calatia. Nor can it be said either, he says, that Aldericus was indeed bishop of Cajazzo but had yielded his place to Stephen: for thus he could have called himself a bishop, but not Calactinus; nor did Stephen succeed Aldericus, but Ursus. The Monk therefore turns elsewhere. I would willingly believe, he says, that, according to the barbarous Latinity of those times, Calectinus or Calactinus is derived from Cales. Now Cales is the city of Calvi, and therefore the bishop Calactinus is the one who is today called bishop of Calvi. Ughelli, cited in the preceding number, subscribes to the Monk: This speculation of the Monk, he says, pleases me, and Aldericus is to be ascribed among the bishops of Calvi, just as Leo (who in the subscriptions of the diploma is written Suranus, with o changed to u) is to be reckoned among those of Sora. That Leo was bishop of Sora I readily grant to the authors cited; but that Aldericus was bishop of Calvi, not so.

[115] I am moved to this chiefly by a diploma of Robert, prince of Capua, which is today called Cajazzo by the Italians, given in the year 1119, in which the site of the church of Calactia is assigned as different from the city of Calvi. In that diploma, a little after the beginning, Robert speaks thus, in the cited Ughelli, on the Bishops of Caserta, in the cited tome of the enlarged Italia Sacra: By this princely writing we give, deliver, grant and confirm in perpetuity to the church of Calatia, under the title of St. Mary, over which the lord Rainulphus, by God's providence bishop of Caserta, is seen to preside, all things which the aforesaid church of Calatia is now seen to possess, and which it may hereafter justly and lawfully acquire. From which it is understood, in the first place, that the church of Calatia was at that time subject to the bishops of Caserta. Yet the city of Calvi already then had its own bishop: for, as Ughelli witnesses in the cited tome 6, column 477, mention of a bishop of Calvi is made in the History of the Translation of St. Mark the Solitary, whom St. Bernard, bishop of Carinola, brought from Mount Massicus to his cathedral in the year 1094; and Peter of Capua presided over the church of Calvi in the year 1141. Then Robert proceeds thus: Again, namely by this princely writing, we give, deliver, grant and confirm to the aforesaid church of Calatia that you, the aforesaid lord Rainulphus, bishop of Caserta, and your successors, and your men dwelling in the territory of Calatia only, may have power to send your animals and those of your men to pasture in our mountains and plains and marshes, and to take wood from our forests, just as the knights dwelling at Maddaloni have hitherto been accustomed to have by usage, and have. Since, then, by force of this diploma the inhabitants of the territory of Calatia were permitted to pasture cattle and cut wood in the same places as the knights living at Maddaloni, these must have been separated from those by an interval that was at least not great. Indeed, that the church of St. Mary of Calatia was situated in the very territory of Maddaloni is clear from a bull by which Sennes, archbishop of Capua, confirms to Rainulphus, bishop of Caserta, of whom above, various churches, and among these, in the stronghold of Maddaloni and its territory … the church of St. Mary of Calatia. Now I find Maddaloni marked not far from Caserta, between it and Nola, in the Map of the kingdom of Naples by Giulio Cesare Capaccio, in the tome of the Histories of Italy cited above.

[116] and is situated between Cassino and the river Volturnus, Hence Michael Monachus, in the Recognitio of the Sanctuarium Capuanum, page 85, having cast aside his former opinion about Calatia, writes thus: In the year 1635 there was found at Caserta a privilege of Robert, prince of Capua, by which the lands of the church of Calatia in Maddaloni are granted and confirmed to the bishop of Caserta. It must therefore by all means be said that the bishop of Calatia was bishop of a place near Maddaloni, which was called Calactia or Calatia, and of which mention is made in the bull of the bishop of Caserta. It must be said also that the bishopric was transferred from there and called that of Caserta. To these, finally, Pellegrino adds, on Campania Felix, Dissertation 2, chapter 27: For the rest, if this Calatia, already ill known, was, as is gathered from Livy, near the place where today is the castle of Maddaloni, and if the same was, as the Peutinger itinerary teaches, six miles distant from Capua, we can be certain that it was in that place where even today there appear manifest traces of the ditch and wall of a city not very large, of which some slight remains survive in an open field, and deserted churches. From the largest of these, which is more intact than the others and dedicated to St. James the Apostle, that tract takes its name; which in another way, from the name of the extinct city, is also called le Galazze. But enough of this on the distinction of the Calatias: it remains that we say a few things on the other point also which was proposed above; namely, which of the two cities of the same or nearly the same name St. Placidus, setting out from Capua and hastening to Benevento, visited and made illustrious by the wonders he worked there?

[117] but which was once beyond it, above old Capua; Mabillon, to these words of the Acts — for me number 24 — When the Saint of the Lord had departed from there also, and was making his way near the city of Calatia, etc., subjoins the following: For Calatia, Cajazzo, Michael Monachus in the Sanctuarium Capuanum, page 330, suspects that one should write Galatium or Galitia; otherwise (he says) he would have made a devious and rather long journey. Which seems more probable to me also: for if from Capua he had made for Calactia (today Cajazzo) and thence through the Caudine Forks for Benevento, he would have had to cross the river Volturnus three times altogether: first when going from Cassino to Capua; again when from Capua to Calatia, today Cajazzo, as we suppose; and thirdly when he hastened from there through the Caudine Forks to Benevento, which would surely have been a winding route. On the other hand the straighter way is the one which leads from Capua to Galatia, and thence through the Caudine Forks to Benevento; so that St. Placidus seems to have made his journey by that tract which is described in the Peutinger Itinerary in this way: Capua. Calatia. ad Novas. Caudium. Benevento. Further, what Placidus did in this place see in the Mabillonian Acts from number 26 to number 28, which are described somewhat more succinctly in Stephen of Le Puy. You will find that he worked very many miracles there, which need no commentary: but I could wish that there were something at hand from elsewhere by which that great multitude of miracles, which he is reported to have worked both here and in other places to be mentioned in the course of the narrative, could be more solidly confirmed. I now follow St. Placidus as he goes elsewhere.

[118] then the Caudine Forks, Benevento From Galatia he made for the Caudine Forks, with nearly equal wonders accompanying him as he journeyed this way: now the Caudine Forks are situated among the Hirpini, memorable for the disaster of the Roman army, and are called the Stretto d'Arpaia; Ortelius wrongly placed them in Apulia. Thence he went to Benevento, then to Canusium; in each place, as the Acts prelates received most honourably. Over Benevento, formerly a city of the Samnites and a Colony on the border of the Hirpini, presided St. Marcianus, placed among the Saints on the XIV day of June, of whom Papebroch, tome 2 of June, at the said day, and Ughelli, tome VIII of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 17. Papebroch observes, moreover, that no more ancient mention of Marcianus is found than this which we have just touched on from the Acts of St. Placidus. The Acts rightly call him bishop, since in the age of St. Placidus the see of Benevento did not yet enjoy metropolitan dignity, with which honour Pope John distinguished it in the year 969, as Vipera writes on the Bishops and archbishops of Benevento, page 69.

[119] Over Canusium, formerly an episcopal city in Apulia, and he goes to Canusium; now united to the archbishopric of Bari, presided St. Sabinus, the II of this name, whose Acts you have with us in tome 2 of February at the IX day of that month. He was a familiar friend of St. Benedict: for Gregory, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 15, writes that he was accustomed to visit him, in these words: Moreover the prelate of the church of Canusium had been accustomed to come to the same servant of God, whom the man of God loved greatly for the merit of his life. The same is read in the Life of St. Sabinus, tome 2 of February, page 324: Therefore all the nobles and chief men of Italy desired often to see the face of the aforesaid servant of Christ, and to feast with the most holy man on heavenly food. Whence he also met with Germanus, bishop of the church of Capua, in frequent familiar intercourse. But with Benedict too, the servant of Christ placed in the stronghold of Cassino, he conversed in constant friendship, and was accustomed to visit him every year. Since he was joined to St. Benedict by so close a bond, it is very credible that he was a friend of St. Placidus also, so that for this reason alone Placidus could have thought it wrong to pass him by unsaluted when he was journeying from Canusium.

[120] But how could this have happened in the year 536, to which the Mabillonian Acts, number 21, tie the departure of Placidus from Monte Cassino, and indeed to the 20th day of May, but before the year 536, on which he came to Capua and was lodged with St. Germanus? Thence he went to Benevento and visited St. Marcianus. After some days, as is read at number 36, he was most lovingly received by St. Sabinus, with whom he stayed three days: let us grant that he stayed as many at Capua,

then at Benevento; let us finally join to these some days spent in making the journey: they will surely not be so many that he could not easily have reached Canusium towards the end of May or the beginning of June. But at that time St. Sabinus was not staying in his diocese: for he was present, as legate of the Apostolic See, at the first session of the council of Constantinople, held in the year 536 on the sixth day before the Nones of May, or the 2nd day of May, as also at the last, on the day before the Nones of June, as may be seen in Labbe, tome 5 of the Councils, columns 3 and 98. After the council had been held, moreover, he turned aside into Lycia before returning to Italy; whence he could not have been back at Canusium except when the year 536 was already advanced beyond June, or in the following year.

[121] Hence, then, it is again concluded that not Gordianus, but an unskilled author of a more recent age, contrary to what the Acts, with little consistency, say. wrote these things: for it could not have happened that Gordianus, a companion of the journey, should write that he had seen Sabinus at Canusium, who, as we have shown, was then staying elsewhere. To what year, then, must the setting out of St. Placidus for Sicily be fixed? Although there is nothing by which that year can be determined with certainty, I am pleased nevertheless with the conjecture of Bolland in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Sabinus, number 31, by which he would have St. Placidus go away into Sicily in the year 530 or not long after, and certainly before the year 536. To this Mabillon also comes, saying in the Preface to tome 1 of the Benedictine Acts, § IV: In the common Acts of St. Placidus, number XX (in his edition), his journey into Sicily is assigned to the year of the Lord DXXXVI. I should prefer the year DXXXIV, before the Gothic war, especially since Sabinus, bishop of Canusium, whom Placidus is said then to have visited, was staying at Constantinople in the year DXXXVI. And indeed on this opinion Placidus could have seen Sabinus at Canusium, since he did not set out for Constantinople before the year 535; and sufficient time is put between the donation of the Sicilian goods, made to Benedict in the year 529 according to the Acts, and the departure of St. Placidus for Sicily, for them to have been seized in the meantime by strangers, as the Acts relate at number 19, who perhaps feared the humility of a new and religious man less than the power of a leading man.

[122] from Canusium to Rhegium, thence to Messina Rhegium occupies the farthest shore of Calabria, where it faces Sicily; to it St. Placidus betook himself in order to cross into Sicily, and there he was kindly treated by the bishop of the place, Sisinnius: the memory of this bishop does not seem to be found anywhere else than in these Acts. He is numbered by Ughelli among the holy bishops of Rhegium, tome IX of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 323. Ferrari, however, does not mention him in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, nor Polito in his book on the Saints of Calabria. Ughelli employs no witness, but seems to have had only the Acts of St. Placidus before his eyes, writing thus of him: St. Sisinnius, citizen and bishop of Rhegium, flourished in the year 536. He sat for twenty-five years, more or less. He very kindly received in hospitality at Rhegium for two days St. Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict and renowned martyr of Christ, as he was making his way from Rome to Messina; at length, illustrious for holiness of life, he flew away to heaven; the day, however, is not known. By what road, further, Placidus proceeded when leaving Canusium and hastening to Rhegium, and what cities he visited, neither set of Acts explains. And as for Ughelli, just now praised, saying that Placidus went away from Rome into Sicily, he does so quite wrongly; for they say he set out from Cassino; and those going from Cassino to Rhegium do not have to pass through Rome, which they leave far behind them. At length, setting sail from Rhegium, Placidus, together with his companions Donatus and Gordianus, happily put in at Messina, a city of Sicily on the shore of the Sicilian strait.

[123] he comes, where a monastery and a church, which to St. John the Baptist There was staying at Messina at that time a certain Messalinus, joined by intimate friendship to Tertullus, the father of St. Placidus: and so he not only received Placidus most lovingly into his house, but also attended him with every kind of service: the Saint, however, who had come there to recover his father's goods, took pains above all to fulfil as quickly as possible the charges he had received from St. Benedict. And so on the same day on which he had arrived, after some conversation with Messalinus on divine things, he raises the question of his father's goods and summons their agents. For he desired, say the Mabillonian Acts, for me number 41, to see one by one the places in which the possessions were. On the following day, having found a place near the port of Messina suitable for founding a monastery, he presently ordered hands to be put to the work, which he brought to completion in four years: and to the monastery he added a church, which, following the example of his master, he wished to be consecrated to St. John the Baptist. The office of the Dedication, as the cited Acts have at number 56, was performed by the bishop of Messina on the fifth day before the Kalends of August, about the year 540, namely in the fourth year after Placidus had departed from Cassino, which the Acts indeed tie, as we said above, to the year 536; but which, we likewise said, must more truly be referred to about the year 534, if St. Placidus saw Sabinus at Canusium.

[124] Further, one is led to wonder here why the fabricator or interpolator of these Acts, [the bishop of Messina, very likely unknown to the writer of the Acts, consecrated,] who in the preceding portions expressly named Germanus, Marcianus and Sisinnius, bishops of the churches of Capua, Benevento and Rhegium, did not here, contrary to his custom, disclose the name of the bishop of Messina (of whom there is no mention at all in Stephen of Le Puy). Did he perhaps not know it? That certainly cannot be said of Gordianus. Some more recent writer therefore seems to have written these things, who either did not know the name of the bishop of Messina or cautiously suppressed it; perhaps because he had learned that a certain Eucarpus sat at Messina in the year 504, from the sixth Roman synod held under Pope Symmachus; and likewise another under Pelagius II, raised to the Pontificate in the year 577, who enjoined on Eucarpus, bishop of Messina, the visitation of the church of Catania; and yet did not dare to name Eucarpus, because he judged that both the year 504 and the year 577 were separated from the year 540 by too long an interval for him to ascribe to Eucarpus the dedication of the church of St. John the Baptist; nor did he know any other who then presided over the church of Messina. For the rest, the manifest virtue of St. Placidus, made illustrious at Messina by many wonders, soon brought it about that, besides Donatus and Gordianus, whom he had brought with him from Cassino, the monastery lately founded by him numbered as many as thirty pupils, who under his auspices gave themselves over to the Benedictine institute and the service of God.

[125] This was the first monastery which the Benedictine Order had outside Italy. he founded and enriched it with pupils. Mabillon refers to the year 543 the building of the monastery of Glanfeuil, than which the Order had none more ancient in the Gauls. Yepes, at the year 537, freely grants the palm of antiquity to the Sicilian Benedictines over the Spanish and the Gauls; but he attributes it to the Spanish over the Gauls, writing that the monastery of St. Peter of Cardeña in the diocese of Burgos was founded in that year. Whether truly, is not much to our purpose: it is certain that the Chronicle of Pseudo-Maximus imposed on Yepes. Dismissing these things, therefore, I return to Placidus at work at Messina. There can be no doubt that the monks of Messina under the auspices of Placidus carefully fulfilled all the parts of the religious life: by what examples he here lighted the way for his Companions Yepes sets forth at the year 536, chapter 3, abridging the Mabillonian Acts of St. Placidus, for me number 51, thus: If you bring the accounts of the cellar, whether of the pantry or the wine-cellar, to the reckoning, the holy Father kept a perpetual Lent. During the spring fast, moreover, on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays he allowed some bread and water to his parched throat and empty stomach: on the rest he abstained even from a crumb and a drop. From the time he vowed himself to God he was always clothed in a rough hair shirt, his skin protesting in vain. He wore away the greater part of day and night now reading, now praying. When his wearied knees could no longer support him, he withdrew to sit upon the ground, which served him for cell and bed. He then records many things drawn from the same Acts (Stephen of Le Puy mentions these only in general) about the Saint's love for God, his self-denial, contempt of the world, care of the monastery, constancy of manners, gravity, affability, zeal for the poor, and the other virtues by which he beyond doubt stirred up his disciples in no mean degree to the diligent imitation of himself.

§ IX. Barbarians invade the monastery founded by St. Placidus: who they were.

The Brothers of St. Placidus visit his monastery, It was natural that so excellent an ordering of life should spread on every side the fame both of St. Placidus and of the monastery built by him: brought, then, to the City, it roused in his Brothers and Sister the desire of seeing St. Placidus: and these were Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia, to whom Faustus and Firmatus joined themselves as companions of the journey, as the Acts seem to intimate: but I said in §1 that these names were perhaps, at least in part, borrowed from elsewhere. Having happily arrived at Messina, they unmoor the fleet on the shore, say the Mabillonian Acts, number 58, and, going down from the ship, they make for the monastery of St. John, and seeing their Brother they were filled with great joy, about which indeed it is wrong to doubt: but see whether the Acts speak consistently when they add: And at first indeed they did not recognize him, namely because from the time he was offered to blessed Benedict they had not seen him again, and after so long a space of time he had become a man, and was clothed in the monastic habit, and through excessive abstinence and the enormity of his vigils was wasted and brought to nothing in body. For what then? Messalinus, the agent of Tertullus's affairs in Sicily, had perhaps never seen Placidus; and yet, when Placidus landed in Sicily (who one may suspect was already then as much emaciated by the austerity of his life as four or five years later), he had scarcely caught sight of him before he at once recognized Placidus from the form and lineaments of his face, in which he resembled his father exactly, and leaping from his horse threw himself at his feet. Hear the Acts, number 41: Now Messalinus, seeing blessed Placidus standing by the shore of the sea, and his form resembling the face of Tertullus his father, getting down from the horse on which he was sitting , fell at his feet.* More rightly, in my opinion, whoever either wrote or interpolated these Acts would have kept silent about these things concerning Messalinus, as Stephen of Le Puy kept silent. But let us return to St. Placidus and his Brothers and Guests.

[127] where both the Monks and the Guests are unexpectedly slain by barbarians: Scarcely had they refreshed themselves for some days with mutual talk and converse when an altogether unexpected and most grievous disaster disturbed all their joy. Placidus was occupied with the nightly praises of God together with his Brothers and the other Pupils of the monastery of Messina, when, the doors of the monastery having been broken open, barbarians fall upon them as they suspected nothing of the kind, cast them into chains, and at length, after some days of torments, most cruelly put them to death, which the Mabillonian Acts relate at length and diffusely from number 59. The chief circumstances of the event are these. The year of Christ was 541, as is expressly stated below at number 83; the commander of the barbarian fleet was Mamucha, general of Abdala, the idolatrous king of Spain; the barbarians, finally, were Agarenes or Saracens, and pagans. Behold,

says Mabillon on this passage of the Acts, a labyrinth of errors. It was not pagans who occupied the Spains in the sixth century, in which St. Placidus underwent martyrdom, but for the greatest part the Goths, and Gallaecia the Suevi, both of them Arians; the former under king Theudis, who ruled the Visigoths from DXXXI to DXLVIII, the latter under their own king, but an unknown one… These PAGANS are called Saracens below at number 74 (for me 80). But Rodrigo of Toledo, in book 3 on the Affairs of Spain, chapter 19, relates that the Saracens invaded Spain only in the era DCCLI, that is, in the year of Christ DCCXIII; and in the following era, Roderic having been conquered and slain, overthrew the Gothic kingdom. Octavio Gaetani observes similar things in his Remarks on the Life of St. Placidus ascribed to Stephen of Le Puy. The learned, therefore, have gone in different directions in order to defend at least the substance of the matter.

[128] Antonio Yepes, in the Chronicle of the Order of St. Benedict at the year 541, observes almost the same things Yepes will have these barbarians from Arabia and Africa, as Mabillon and Octavio Gaetani; and he adduces as witnesses Procopius and St. Isidore, who lived in that age, that at that time it was not Abdalla who reigned in Spain but Theudis, not a pagan but an Arian. Nor, he says, could Moors have set sail from Spain for Sicily, since they made themselves masters of affairs in Spain much later, in the year, as he judges, 714. And so Yepes contends that those words of the Acts at number 59, Who (the pagans) dwelt in Spain, were added to Gordianus by an interpolator unskilled in history, and he judges that Saracens or Agarenes made an attack on Sicily from Arabia and Africa; which last perhaps does not stray from the truth, as will appear from what is to be said. But that those words were sewn on by an unskilled interpolator through an interpolation made in the History of Gordianus does not seem probable to me, both because Yepes takes for granted, without proof, and indeed with the whole tenor of the Acts persuading the contrary, that Gordianus first wrote these Acts; and because Stephen of Le Puy, who says he consulted the Greek source of Gordianus, also writes that Abdala ruled over the whole of Spain.

[129] Filippo Villadicani, a patrician of Messina, as Octavio Gaetani, praised above, witnesses, judges that the authors of this slaughter Villadicani, the Goths under king Totila; were Goths, and that they raged against the holy Martyrs at the time when their king Totila brought his arms into Sicily, attacked Messina, and laid waste the rest of Sicily. And indeed, says Mabillon in the Preface to the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, § IV, while some things here agree well enough with the common Acts of St. Placidus, this above all accords, that in both the plunderers are said to have made for Rhegium (which a little before had surrendered to the Goths) by ship. There is, however, this difference between the two narratives (that of Procopius on the expedition of Totila into Sicily, and that of the Acts on the martyrdom of St. Placidus), that Totila landed happily in Italy (according to Procopius), whereas Mamucha is said to have perished with his men by shipwreck. Add that Totila was neither a pagan nor reigned in Spain, and that he laid Sicily waste only about the year 550: for Procopius, book 3, chapter 39, of the Gothic War, fixes the expedition of Totila into Sicily to the fifteenth year of that war, whose beginning he refers, book 1, chapter 5, to the ninth year of Justinian, of Christ 535.

[130] Gallonio, in the Work which he entitled on the holy Roman Virgins, treating of St. Flavia, Gallonio judges they were Arians dwelling in Spain: since he perceived that her martyrdom could not be ascribed to Saracens dwelling in Spain, ascribed it to Arians. But the Arians, though they denied that Christ is God, nevertheless abhorred the worship of idols. Abdala, however, Mamucha, and the barbarians who obeyed him, are so described in the Acts that they must all have been worshippers of idols. The names of idols, Moloch, Rempham and Lucifer, are mentioned below at number 59. At number 68 they are called Pagans generally, as elsewhere also more than once. At number 72 Mamucha himself presses the Martyrs in these words: Deny that your Christ is God, and after our custom worship Lucifer, the Star of our God Rempham, that you may be able to enjoy together with us the joys of this life. Just as these things do not fit the Arians, so neither need these have been the authors of the martyrdom; unless, against the credit of the Acts, if they have any here, those who perpetrated the slaughter of the Saints were not only not Saracens but not idolaters either. Constantino Belloti turns another way in his Apology for John the deacon, as Octavio Gaetani, praised above, reports, and judges that the Pagans mentioned in the Acts were Goths; that Abdala is the same as Theudis or Agila, each a king of Spain; and that Mamucha and his companions the Saracens, who removed the Saints from the midst, were idolatrous Moors summoned from Africa into Spain; this, I say, is the opinion of Belloti; now hear how, on the strength of it, he strives to apply a healing hand to the Acts.

[131] Belloti likewise the Goths. First he says that it ought to seem strange to no one that the Goths dwelling in Spain, though Arian in sect, were nevertheless called Pagans by Gordianus, inasmuch as they had joined to the Arian impiety the ancestral worship of idols also. If Constantine the Great named the Arians Porphyrians after the idolater Porphyry, and the holy Fathers compared them to idolaters on account of the impiety of their sect, why could not Gordianus call them by the name of pagans? Then he says that Gordianus wrote Abdala for Agila, a tolerable and easy error in a writer who was not Spanish; the more so since even among the Spaniards there is no agreement about this king's name, some calling him Agila and others Aquila. And perhaps Gordianus made mention of Abdala for no other reason than that, when Gordianus was writing at Constantinople, Agila was reigning in Spain. He adds that Abdala is nowhere in the Acts called a Saracen, but only Mamucha his commander and the soldiers who obeyed Mamucha: and that these, finally, were Moors, who, hired for pay either by Theudis or by Agila and sent into Sicily against the Romans, wore down Messina with a signal slaughter. So Constantino, on the witness of Gaetani. But what is to be thought of these things?

[132] who hands down things partly doubtful, That the Goths held dominion in Spain both before and after the year 541 is doubtful to no one. Of their religion Procopius writes thus in general, book 1 of the Vandal War, chapter 2: For all … the same laws, the same rites, namely Arian. There is no mention here of the worship of idols joined with the Arian heresy in the same persons; nor did Belloti establish this by any suitable testimony: wherefore this assertion of his is rightly called into doubt. Next, grant that the Arians, whether on account of their heresy or of their very bad morals, were called pagans or compared with them both by Constantine and by the holy Fathers: certainly they did not say that they sacrificed to idols. Thus St. Athanasius, writing in Oration IV against the Arians, number 31: For those who in this place separate the divine Word from the divine Incarnation think that He is diminished when they hear that He was made flesh, and accordingly think altogether the same as the gentiles, as indeed they do think, when they suppose the divine Incarnation to be a change of the Word; writing thus, I say, Athanasius shows indeed that the heretics whom he reproves subscribe in some part to the errors of the gentiles, but he does not affirm that they are in fact idolaters and were accustomed to sacrifice to idols. Those, however, who raged against our Martyrs are said by the pretended Gordianus to have been not only imbued with depraved opinions but worshippers of idols, and to have served them as gods.

[133] partly false, Neither is it true that Gordianus indeed wrote Abdala but meant Agila: for he expressly ties the martyrdom of St. Placidus to the year 541, in which not Agila but Theudis was reigning in Spain: for if to the era 569, or year of Christ 531, in which Isidore writes in the History of the Kings of the Goths that Theudis began to reign, you add 17 more, you will reach about the year 548, in which Theudisclus succeeded Theudis, and after him Agila. This one was perhaps reigning, indeed, when some would have Gordianus to have drawn up the Acts of St. Placidus at Constantinople; but Gordianus without doubt designated, not the king who was reigning in Spain when he wrote the Acts, but him who ruled over the Spains when the Martyrs were put to death. And to say that Gordianus intended indeed to designate the latter but by mistake expressed Agila or Abdala — is that not to fasten a very grave error on an author describing things done in his own memory, and, as they say, excellently learned in Latin and Greek letters, and by the same labour to wish both to establish and to overthrow his credit?

[134] The addition, however, by which it is asserted that the king Abdala himself is nowhere read in the Acts partly things contrary to the Acts: to have been a Saracen or an idolater also contradicts the Acts: for from them it becomes clear that Mamucha with his men were Saracens and Pagans; and from the same it can at least clearly be gathered that both Mamucha with his men and Abdala himself were of the same rite. For thus Mamucha addresses Placidus below at number 60: Deny your Christ and utter insults against Him, and according to the rite of the most invincible king Abdala adore God, and I release you. And a little below, thus his Companions in martyrdom: What do you say? Will you obey the commands of the most excellent king Abdala, so that, abandoning Christ, you adore our God? Again at number 72 Mamucha speaks in this manner: Assent to us and it will profit you; deny that your Christ is God, and after our custom worship Lucifer, the star of our God Rempham. And at number 76: I exhort and admonish you to deny the Crucified, and to adore the God to whom our most excellent king Abdala bends his neck; otherwise you will perish by a most bitter death. Both, therefore, were of the same rite: nor did Stephen of Le Puy conclude anything else from the Greek Acts consulted, as he says, by him, whose mind words by no means ambiguous declare: they are of this kind: At the time when blessed Placidus was staying at the city of Messina in Sicily, Abdala, head and prince of the Saracen nation and of a most abominable rite, ruled over the whole of Spain. What has been said above about the Moors we shall examine below, when we treat of the opinion of Gaetani.

[135] Mabillon, in the Preface to the Acts of the Saints of his Order, § IV, affirms that there is some reason Mabillon, that they were Sclavini, can be said after a fashion, for which the martyrdom of St. Placidus could be ascribed to the Sclavini. He draws it from Procopius, who, book 3 of the Gothic War, chapter 38, relates that the Sclavini laid waste Thrace and Illyricum under Justinian: Mabillon adds that they very likely did not spare Sicily either, hired perhaps by Totila. Moreover, that the Sclavini were accustomed to rage against the conquered with almost the same punishments with which our Martyrs were afflicted: on which matter the Procopius praised above has this: *Those they met they did not dispatch with the sword, nor with the spear, nor by any other usual kind of death, but, having firmly fixed sharpened stakes in the ground, they drove the seats of the wretches upon them with great force, and, forcing the points of the stakes, fixed between the buttocks, up into the bowels, they wrung life from them. Besides, having sunk four rather thick pieces of wood in the ground, these barbarians bound to them the hands and feet of those whom they had taken, then their heads

by beating them continually with clubs, they slaughtered them like dogs or serpents or some other kind of wild beast. Others, together with the oxen and sheep which they could not lead off to their own country, they shut up in huts and burned without mercy. In this way the Sclaveni were accustomed to kill those upon whom they fell. The rite of the Sclavini, too, was not in every respect unlike that of the barbarians who slaughtered our Martyrs: Procopius describes it in book 3, chapter 14, in this way: For they acknowledge one God, the maker of the lightning, as sole Lord of this universe, and they sacrifice to him oxen and victims of every kind… Moreover they worship rivers and nymphs and certain other divinities (δαιμόνια is read in the Greek; whence Mabillon translates: demons) to all of whom they sacrifice, and in the midst of the sacrifices they make conjectures of divinations.* So, roughly, Mabillon in the place cited.

[136] having adduced for that purpose The reasoning of this most learned man is of little force: for, first, the irruption of the Sclavini into Thrace and Illyricum is some years later than the martyrdom of St. Placidus, unless we are altogether to depart from the Acts edited by Mabillon, which fix that martyrdom in express terms to the year 541: for Procopius refers that irruption to the fifteenth year of the Gothic war. Now this began in the ninth year of Justinian, of Christ 535, and so the irruption of the Sclavini into Thrace and Illyricum brings us down to about the year of Christ 550: but thus the times do not agree, the one assigned by Procopius to the irruption of the Sclavini into Thrace and Illyricum, the other assigned in the Acts to the martyrdom of St. Placidus. Nor, on the showing of Procopius, may one feign an irruption of the Sclavini into the territories of the Romans earlier than this: for, as the same witnesses, book 3 of the Gothic War, chapter 38, before that irruption these barbarians had never even attempted to make an incursion into the Roman empire. Indeed before that time, which I mentioned above, they seem never to have crossed the river Ister with an army. In chapter 40, indeed, Procopius narrates that the Sclavini afterwards inflicted most grievous damage on the whole of Europe, perhaps to gratify Totila, which was then, as the same Procopius witnesses, the suspicion of some. If Mabillon had turned his eyes to this, when he said that the Sclavini very likely invaded Sicily also, besides Thrace and Illyricum, he would not have disregarded the year of the martyrdom of Placidus fixed in the Acts in order to make room for his conjecture. Now let us examine what concerns the rites of the Sclavini and their customary ferocity.

[137] reasons, he says: If we compare the rites of the Saracens mentioned in the Acts with the rites of the Sclavini handed down by Procopius, we shall find nothing which greatly profits Mabillon's conjecture. So far as can be gathered from Procopius (you have his words at number 135), the chief divinity of the Sclavini was the one whom they thought the maker of the thunderbolt: the others were secondary, such as rivers, nymphs and certain other divinities, as Claude Maltret, the translator of Procopius, renders it. Mamucha, however, calls Lucifer the most excellent of all the gods: and from Jerome, in the Life of Hilarion, chapter 20, in Rosweyde, it is clear that the Saracens held Lucifer and Venus in chief honour. His words are: He came to Elusa by chance on the day on which the annual solemnity had gathered all the people of the town into the temple of Venus. Now they worship her on account of Lucifer, to whose worship the nation of the Saracens is given. And on chapter 5 of Amos he comments thus on these words of the prophet, The star of your God: What in Hebrew is called Chochab, that is, Lucifer, whom the Saracens venerate to this day. But I do not see what connexion there is between Lucifer and Venus, worshipped chiefly by the Saracens, and the God, maker of the thunderbolt, and the other vain divinities of the Sclavini mentioned by Procopius, such that they can be called the same.

[138] but, as is shown, As for what now pertains to the torments: although our Martyrs are read in the Acts to have been afflicted with some torments which come near to those which Procopius, cited at number 135, writes were in use among the Sclavini; nevertheless they are said in the same place to have undergone, besides, some which Procopius denies were in use among the Sclavini. What punishments the Christian Sicilians had to endure from the Saracens the Acts set forth thus below at number 70: And now who could worthily relate with what great punishments the Christians in Sicily were afflicted at that time? For some, forcing open their mouths with the levers of stakes, poured in fetid filth. Others they tormented by twisting the bellowing sinews in their foreheads and shins; very often they held out to them without mercy sea-water, vinegar, oil-dregs and fish-sauce, and many other cruel things, put to their mouths as though from filled skins, urging them to walk with iron goads. Snatching little ones also from their mothers' breasts, they dashed innocent infancy to the ground. Others, holding them by the feet on opposite sides, they tore apart from the natural passage right up to the crown of the head. Others were burned with plates of glowing iron; and fitting clubs, in the manner of saws, from palm branches with their stumps, and scourging the backs of the Christians with them, they not only broke the bones, but the piercing spines also remained within, and the flesh being torn apart, the bowels were laid open. Some, again, with their feet bound behind the backs of running horses, were dragged through the thorny places of the woods, so that, dragged to and fro, their bodies were torn by the bristling spines of the thickets; and for long and often they bound their shins, twisting them with twanging cords.

[139] Hanging women, moreover, by one foot on smaller toothed stakes, straight at the head, not very strong. and tying their hair to the same, and pulling more violently, they tore off the whole scalp together with the hair, binding huge weights to the one foot, and applying fiery plates of iron to the back, belly, breasts and sides. Behold a heap of the forms of punishment, many enough: yet none of the Christians is said to have been fixed on stakes in the ground; none, while being pounded with blows, bound to four pieces of wood sunk in the ground; none shut up in a hut and so burned with fire, which kinds of torment Procopius writes were familiar to the Sclavini. The kind of death, moreover, by which our Martyrs perished was not only not familiar to the Sclavini, but not even in use: the Acts describe it thus below at number 78: And when the holy martyrs Eutychius, Victorinus, and the virgin Flavia, with their thirty-three Companions, had answered Amen, bending their knees they were beheaded together with the most blessed Placidus. But, as Procopius witnesses, the Sclavini did not dispatch those they met with the sword, nor with the spear, nor by any other usual kind of death*; so that from the customary savagery of the Sclavini and the punishments endured by our Martyrs it cannot be proved that the Sclavini raged against the Saints with such horrible punishments, and Mabillon rightly said only that there is some reason (but, from what has been said, not very forceful) for which the martyrdom of St. Placidus might be ascribed to the fierce nation of the Sclavini.

[140] Mabillon further relates a twofold disaster of Sicily, [the slaughter of the Martyrs did not happen in the time of Gregory the Great, nor at the instance of Buccelinus:] of which one happened under Gregory the Great; the other is mentioned by the continuator of Marcellinus, by Aimoin, and by the Chronicle of Moissac in Duchesne, tome 3 of the Writers of France: Mabillon admits that the former is too remote from the age of St. Placidus for Placidus to have been able to undergo martyrdom in it. The same, moreover, must be said of the second, unless we prefer to depart plainly from the Acts. It happened indeed while Justinian was emperor; but while Agila was reigning in Spain according to the Chronicle of Moissac, who, as we have already seen above, began to rule Spain some years after the martyrdom of St. Placidus. Besides, its author Buccelinus was serving not a Spanish king but Theudebert, king of the Franks, and led his army into Sicily not from Spain but from Italy. But the error of the Acts in this place seemed intolerable to Mabillon; and so, not anxious about reconciling the writer of the Acts with the histories of those times, he was content to have brought forward certain incursions of barbarians into Sicily which happened while Justinian was emperor, and which are marked by such characters and signs that the martyrdom of the Saints might after a fashion be ascribed to them. Octavio Gaetani attempted greater things in his Remarks on the Acts of St. Placidus published under the name of Stephen of Le Puy. Let us, finally, hear him.

[141] [Gaetani will have it that the Barbarians burst into Sicily from Mauretania Tingitana,] In Remark 15 on the Life of St. Placidus he sets forth succinctly what he thinks, in these words: I say, then, that the barbarians whom Gordianus writes afflicted Sicily and slew Placidus and his Companions for the faith of Christ were Saracens, worshippers of the superstition of demons, and that they sailed to Sicily from Mauretania, which is called Spain by Gordianus. And first, according to Octavio, it is not at all surprising that Gordianus gave Mauretania the name of Spain: for he did so after the example of ancient writers, who called Spain the Mauretania which received the name of Tingitana, as Ortelius observes, under the word Mauretania, concerning Honorius, Sextus Rufus, and the book of the Notitiae. Next, neither is it surprising that the Moors, namely of the Tingitane province, were called Saracens by Gordianus (as he indeed judges, while I for the moment choose to feign it here): for although the Saracens constituted a particular nation of the Arabs, they nevertheless spread their name to the rest of the Arabs: thus Ammianus Marcellinus, book 22, chapter 15, writes that the Scenite Arabs were called Saracens in his age. Now from the Arabs or Saracens sprang the Moors who then inhabited Mauretania, a province of Africa: for Procopius, on the Vandal War, book 2, chapter 10, writes that the Moors sprang from those nations which Joshua compelled to flee elsewhere from Phoenicia, of which Palestine was then a part; which first withdrew into neighbouring Egypt, and then into Africa: further, since he writes that those nations were abundant in number, and Arabia borders on Egypt and Palestine, it is probable that Arabs too were compelled by Joshua to migrate elsewhere and withdrew into Africa. Certainly, as Ortelius notes, the Spaniards today name the Moors Alarabes, on the authority of Olivarius, as if to say Arabs; for Al is the Arabic article. Add to these that the Arabs or Saracens also occupied a part of Palestine, from Jerome, whose words you have at number 137: for Elusa, which Jerome writes was inhabited by Saracens, was a city of Palestine in Idumaea. Whether, then, the Moors migrated into Africa from Arabia or from Palestine, Gordianus will have called them Saracens because they drew their origin from the Arabs, who were also called Saracens.

[142] but contradicting himself Gaetani heaps up many more things besides to confirm his opinion: that the Moors and the Ammonites, a people of Palestine, had the same idol, called Moloch; that the Moors and the Arabs lived with the same manners, and that the Saracens burned with an old hatred against monks. Finally also the wars which took place between the Moors and Justinian. But, however probably perhaps the rest is said by Gaetani, what he has about these wars does not seem accurate enough. For he says, from Procopius, that Justinian, having crushed the Vandals, turned his arms against the Moors; that he fought badly with the Moors, having lost his forces together with their commander, in the fourteenth year of his reign, of Christ 540; wherefore it could easily have happened in the following year, in which St. Placidus was taken off by martyrdom, that the Moors, elated by that victory, made a descent upon Sicily and brought their wrath and slaughter upon the unarmed Sicilians. These things, I say, do not seem accurate enough: for only a twofold — which Procopius records — upon the forces of Justinian by the Moors

defeat do I find inflicted: the one, indeed, in book 2 of the Vandal War, chapter 19, but that which Gontharis, serving Justinian under Solomon, received in the year of Justinian 13, of Christ 539, at the river Abigas not far from the city of Bagai; which, however, Solomon presently avenged splendidly; so that that earlier victory, such as it was, could elate the spirits of the Moors but little and for a very short time.

[143] The other, in the cited book, chapter 21, in which Solomon, commander of Justinian's army, was killed by the Moors: he seems to have Procopius, but Procopius tied that to the year of Justinian 17, of Christ 543; so that Gaetani seems wrongly to have assigned to it the year 14 of Justinian. For after Mount Aurasius had been taken by storm by Solomon in the year of Justinian 13, as Procopius narrates in chapter 20, all the Africans who obeyed the Romans, having obtained a stable peace under the moderate and very beneficial government of Solomon, and having laid aside every thought of war, seemed the happiest of all mortals. And accordingly the Moors seem at that time indeed to have rested from arms. When, however, there was a return to arms again, the same Procopius declares immediately at the beginning of the following chapter, as he is about to relate the defeat and at the same time the death of Solomon, in these words: This happiness was turned into its contrary in the fourth year after, in which Justinian, in the seventeenth year of his reign, set Cyrus and Sergius, sons of Bacchus, the brother of Solomon, over the cities of Africa. Procopius, then, seems to be opposed to the opinion of Gaetani, unless one wishes to put off the death of St. Placidus by two or three years or to anticipate it by as many: for the Acts of St. Placidus are not to be valued so highly as to forbid this. For the rest, the opinion of Gaetani has this peculiar to it, that it assists the Acts, which ascribe the death of St. Placidus to Mamucha, general of the Spanish king Abdala, more than the rest; although it is not favoured by the fact that the Acts ascribed to Stephen of Le Puy say that Abdala ruled over the whole of Spain; which does not seem capable of being conveniently understood of Mauretania Tingitana alone: but perhaps what he had read here of Spain without addition he interpreted of his own accord of the whole of Spain.

[144] Gaetani, it appears, would likewise be favoured, that I may add something to what he said, which, however, would be favoured by both by the fact that Abdala and Mamucha are Arabic names; and most of all by what is read below, number 63, in the Acts published by Mabillon, in these words: And when all (St. Placidus and his Companions) had been tortured singly, one after another, in this order, the general Mamucha ordered one handful of raw barley to be given to each of the Saints to eat, and a little water to drink. For food of this kind was familiar to the African Moors at that time: hear Procopius, book 2 of the Vandal War, chapter 6: They lack bread, he says, wine and the other comforts of a gentler diet: but spelt, olyra and barley, neither softened by fire nor ground, they chew after the manner of beasts of burden. Indeed, that the Moors not seldom compelled Christians to the eating of that food is gathered from Victor of Vita, book 2 of the Vandal Persecution, number 12, in Ruinart, where concerning the savagery of the Moors against the Christians he has, among other things, this: The rest, the more able-bodied, come to places of desert (the Moors leading them, as he has a little before), in which, being settled, they receive barley to eat like beasts of burden. Ruinart subjoins to the History of Victor of Vita already praised the Passion of seven holy Monks who suffered at Carthage under Huneric, written, as he says, either by Victor or certainly by a contemporary author, in which also, at number 2, things not unlike these are read: First he (Huneric, very probably by means of the Moors, as being gentiles and more spirited in persecuting Christians) thrust out into distant and farthest regions in cruel exile a most numerous and very great crowd of priests and ministers. To these he ordered to be given, by way of compassion, a sharp kind of grain, which is permitted to be eaten by beasts of burden alone, by no means crushed by the labour of the mill, but armoured in the husk of the bran still remaining. So that plainly what is read in the Mabillonian Acts at number 63, provided it be true, savours of the Moors.

[145] the punishments inflicted on the Martyrs, Finally, for the sake of confirming his opinion Gaetani could have adduced besides the various kinds of punishment with which St. Placidus and his Companions were savagely treated, plainly similar to those with which the Vandals, often through the gentile Moors as ministers of their ferocity, afflicted the Africans of the Catholic rite under Genseric and Huneric, kings of the Vandals: for under Genseric indeed, as Victor of Vita witnesses, who was then living in Africa, book 1, number 2, in Ruinart, the Vandals, opening the mouths of some with the levers of stakes, poured fetid filth into their throats to make them confess their money: some they tormented in their foreheads and shins by twisting the bellowing sinews. To very many they administered without mercy sea-water, to others vinegar, oil-dregs and fish-sauce and many other cruel things, put to their mouths as though from filled skins… Priests and illustrious men they urged to walk with iron goads… But the barbarian fury also, snatching little ones from their mothers' breasts, dashed innocent infancy against the ground: all of which may be read in the Acts (see above, number 138) in almost the same words. That sharp and most bitter vinegar was also forced upon Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, though against his will, the same Victor writes, book 5, number XI. If, moreover, the barbarians who brought death upon St. Placidus and his Companions tore off the whole scalp together with the hair from Sicilian women by smaller toothed stakes straight (read rather erected or thrown) at the head (see number 139) and their hair tied to the same, Huneric ordered the same to be done, either by the Vandals or by the Moors subject to him. Hear Victor, book 2, number 4: But when he (Huneric) received such an answer from the man of God (Eugenius, bishop of Carthage), he decided to station torturers at the doors of the church: who, seeing a woman or a man walking in the dress of his nation, at once, smaller toothed stakes being thrown at the head and the hair tied to them, and pulling more violently, tore off the whole scalp of the head together with the hair.

[146] unless some more recent writer had applied these things to them at his pleasure. The barbarians I have mentioned, as the Acts say, bound huge weights to one foot and applied fiery plates of iron to the back, belly, breasts and sides of women: the Vandals, or the Moors their ministers, as Victor, cited just now, says at number 7, torturing sacred virgins by grievous hanging, and binding huge weights to their feet, applied fiery plates of iron to the back, belly, breasts and sides. That the Moors, moreover, were not seldom the ministers of Vandal ferocity can be gathered from Victor: Afterwards, he says at number 12, the Moors were commanded to drag those who could not walk, with their feet bound (the longer Acts of St. Placidus again have similar things at number 70), like the carcasses of dead animals, through hard and rough places, where first their garments, afterwards each of their limbs, were torn away. These things the Acts narrate of the Sicilians in general: of our Martyrs, however, they say that they were tortured more than once with clubs, with hanging and with smoke; that St. Flavia was hung up by the feet on high and altogether indecently; that St. Placidus had his tongue cut out, but spoke no less readily without it: similar to which Victor again has things in book 5, numbers 1 and 6. These things, I say, would contribute not a little to confirming the opinion of Gaetani, if Gordianus, as he thought, had written them: but from what has been said before, and from the words of the Acts compared with the narrative of Victor, anyone will easily understand that they belong to a more recent author, who scraped together his material from Victor and others, and perhaps fastened on the barbarians who killed St. Placidus whatever manners he pleased. Further, since in so great a variety of opinions not even one presents itself which can safely be trusted, it is manifest how difficult it is to apply a healing hand here to the badly put together Acts of St. Placidus, and to establish and define who they were that put our Martyrs to death.

[147] Nothing is read in Stephen of Le Puy about the year in which St. Placidus suffered: The Martyrs suffered perhaps in the year 539, but the Acts edited by Mabillon have thus at number 83: Now the most blessed Placidus, the exalted martyr of our Lord Jesus Christ, suffered in the twenty-sixth year of his age, with his two brothers Eutychius and Victorinus, and his sister Flavia, with Faustus and Firmatus, and at the same time thirty monks (Donatus had already been slain before, while Gordianus had escaped the hands of the barbarians, from number 59), under the most savage king Abdala and the general Mamucha, in the thirteenth year of the emperor Justinian, at Messina, a city of Sicily, on the third day before the Nones of October. From which it follows that St. Placidus underwent martyrdom in the year 539, whose month of October coincides with the thirteenth year of Justinian; but a little after, in the same place, is read: Crowned with martyrdom in the five hundred and forty-first; which does not cohere with what precedes. The Roman Breviary, revised by the authority of Clement VIII and Urban VIII, retained the former note of time: and I too, if anything is to be ventured in so uncertain a matter, would prefer to retain it: for from what has been said before, I judge it more probable, until something more certain be brought forward, that the authors of the death of St. Placidus were Moors dwelling in Africa; and in the year 539 those same Moors waged wars with Justinian, as I said from Procopius at number 142, and accordingly it could easily have happened that they attacked Sicily, which Belisarius, Justinian's general, had wrested from the Goths, in a sudden raid, and slaughtered our Martyrs: since, however, not even this appears sufficiently established, I marked the death of St. Placidus under the year 541 at the beginning of the Commentary.

[148] About the day on which the martyrdom of St. Placidus took place both sets of Acts agree: on the V day of October, except Donatus, slain in the month of September. namely the third day before the Nones of October; on which they say all were slain except Donatus. Donatus, however, in the Roman Martyrology published by command of Gregory XIII, and printed at Antwerp in the year 1586 at the Plantin press, is commemorated on the fourth day before the Nones of October, or the IV day of that month, in these words: In Sicily, of St. Donatus, monk and martyr, disciple of St. Benedict the abbot: who, taken by the Saracens, since he would not deny Christ, was struck with the sword. Wion adds: He suffered in the year DXLI … on the day before St. Placidus suffered. He is marked on the same day in the Benedictine Martyrology of Ménard, in the Calendar of the Benedictine Saints prefixed to tome 1 of their Acts, as also in Ferrari: but today, as was said on the fourth day of October among the Passed Over, he is joined in the Roman Martyrology on the V day of October together with Placidus and his other Companions. The reason for the change was that its authors preferred to join him to the rest on the V of October rather than to announce him on the day before, since from both sets of Acts it must be that many days intervened between the death of Donatus and that of Placidus, as will be evident even to one who merely looks into them. Gaetani counts nineteen days from comparing the Acts with one another, both those which he himself calls Gordianus's and which Mabillon published, and those of Stephen of Le Puy: in which case Donatus must be said to have undergone martyrdom on the XVI of September.

* on which he had been sitting

* thrown

§ X. Various vicissitudes of the monastery founded by St. Placidus at Messina.

The monastery of Messina, the Martyrs having been slain, The blood of so many Martyrs, poured out, did not stay the impious cruelty of the barbarians; but when they perceive that there are no more Christians to sacrifice to their fury, they turn their fury upon the monastery of St. Placidus, and lay sacrilegious hands on the temple of St. John the Baptist founded by him: the former they give to the flames and overturn from its foundations: against the temple of St. John the Baptist they commit those things which you could not read without horror below in the Mabillonian Acts at number 80: what is read there about the same in these words is, however, hard to believe: Because of the greatness of its height, the Saracens were not able to burn (not even in the four days during which they are said to have applied themselves to it) or overturn the church which blessed Placidus had built within his monastery in honour of St. John the Baptist, since it was spacious and lofty. These things done, the barbarians, on the fifth day after the Martyrs had been slain, set sail from Messina, but with divine vengeance following: for while they were still in the Sicilian strait, sailing towards Rhegium, so great a storm suddenly fell upon them that it sank the Saracens, as many as they were, says Stephen of Le Puy, into the depths of the sea. The Mabillonian Acts number a hundred ships, and sixteen thousand eight hundred Saracens; on what witness I do not know. And this, indeed, was the first disaster of Placidus's monastery.

[150] is destroyed by the barbarians; but shortly Meanwhile the bodies of the Martyrs lay unburied on the shore of the sea; beasts more humane than the barbarians had spared them until then; Gordianus, who had escaped the punishment of death by flight, being informed of the barbarians' departure, gathered the remains of the Saints and laid them in tombs with such honour as was possible: namely those of St. Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia in the church of St. John the Baptist; those of the thirty monks on the very shore of the sea on which they lay. Where are Firmatus and Faustus? The Martyrs having been buried, Gordianus is said to have gone away to Constantinople; which in any case, as has already been said at number 38 and following, is little probable, nor was it his duty. The Sicilians are said to have been more worthy: for they are said to have set their minds on restoring the monastery of St. Placidus, and to have asked a new colony of disciples from St. Benedict, having written to him a letter which you have below at number 85 in the Acts to be published in the first place: but not only this letter, but also the speech of Benedict to his monks on hearing of the martyrdom of St. Placidus, anyone who even casts his eyes upon them will, I think, regard as fictitious; of which nothing occurs in Stephen of Le Puy, as neither is anything read in him of those things which are further narrated in the Acts edited by Mabillon. These are chiefly the following: that St. Benedict, whom they determine to have departed this life in the year 543, gladly assented to the wishes of the Sicilians, and sent across to the Sicilians a new colony of his monks to restore whatever the barbarians had overthrown; that from its arrival in Sicily the anniversary day of St. Placidus and his Companions was celebrated among the Sicilians with public and very solemn rite; and that the church of St. John the Baptist, having lost its former name, was thenceforth called St. Placidus's, as long as Sicily was under the Romans. These things, although I will not call them false, cannot be certain to me, since I do not see them established by the testimony of undoubted authority or by certain tradition and usage.

[151] That the monastery of St. Placidus was nevertheless restored, is taught by it is restored, and flourishes what we shall see happened afterwards. Rocco Pirri, Sicilia Sacra, book 4, part 2, Notice 3, writes that the monks of Cassino obtained from Pope Vigilius (he sat from the year 538 to 555) a confirmation that they might freely enjoy the revenues, fruits and ownership of their farms, estates, ports, fisheries and other goods in Sicily and Italy granted as a gift by Tertullus: but is that Vigilian diploma which he praises any more genuine than the letter to Justinian falsely attributed to the same Pontiff, which was dealt with above at number 42? Pirri adds that the goods of the restored monastery also grew not moderately in the lapse of time through the pious liberality of the faithful; in which indeed I find nothing improbable; but the Benedictine family did not rejoice in these things for very long. For, the emperor Constans having been slain at Syracuse, a violent irruption of the Saracens was made into Sicily, by which the monastery of Messina was again crushed with great slaughter and ruin, the Benedictine family inhabiting it being slain once more.

[152] Peter of Cassino, in Octavio Gaetani, in the Fragment of the Passion of St. Placidus, tome 1 of the Lives of the Sicilian saints, page 181, sets out the course of events in this way: until the times of the emperor Constans, At that time when the emperor Constans wished to transfer the empire of New Rome to Elder Rome, coming from the city of Rome to Sicily he tarried there for six years. Now when he had entered the bath Daphne, which is near Syracuse, for the purpose of washing, and had begun to be anointed with Gallic soap, Andrew, son of Troilus, taking a bucket, brought it down on the head of the emperor, and slipping away in flight escaped. But when the emperor delayed in the bath, those who were outside rushed in, and finding the emperor slain, took care to give him burial, and in his place chose a certain Mezentius without the will of the Romans; against whom the emperor Constantine, son of the aforesaid Constantius , coming with the army of the Romans, condemned him to death in the city of Syracuse.*

[153] When these things had come to the knowledge of the Saracens, who had already overrun Egypt, who being slain, by the Saracens coming suddenly with a multitude of ships, they invade Sicily, enter Syracuse, and making great slaughter of the Christians, they come to the monastery of blessed Placidus, lay it level with the ground, plundered by the hands of robbers, leaving only the church of the same Martyr. The monks, as many as they found there, they afflicted with various punishments and gave over to death, scarcely a few of the Christians escaping, who had fled for refuge to the most strongly fortified camps and ridges of the mountains; carrying off also exceedingly great booty, and all that ornament in bronze and in various kinds which the emperor Constans had carried off from the city of Rome, they returned to Alexandria. This narrative of Peter is drawn partly from Theophanes, page 292 and following, partly from Paul the deacon, on the Deeds of the Lombards, book 5, chapter XI and the two next following: Paul speaks thus in chapter 13: Hearing this, the nation of the Saracens, which had overrun Alexandria and Egypt, coming suddenly with many ships, invade Sicily, enter Syracuse, and make great slaughter of the peoples, scarcely a few escaping, who had fled for refuge to the most strongly fortified camps and ridges of the mountains. Carrying off also exceedingly great booty, and all that ornament in bronze and in various kinds which the emperor Constans had carried off from Rome, they thus returned to Alexandria.

[154] it receives a second disaster That Peter of Cassino applied to the monastery of Messina also what Paul the deacon said of Sicily in general, and above all of Syracuse, will become plain to one comparing the words of both: further, he probably did so from the tradition of his forebears: certainly I know no writer of those times who has handed down that fact expressly of the monastery of Messina. Neither do Theophanes or Paul, whom Peter chiefly consulted, do so. But though the ancient authors are silent about the monastery of St. Placidus being again overthrown by the Saracens at that time, nothing prevents credit being given to the words of Peter: for historians dealing with matters of this kind are not always wont to pursue every minute and particular thing; and that Sicily lay open far and wide to the fury of the Saracens the words of Paul just quoted abundantly declare. As for what concerns the time at which that disaster was brought upon both Sicily and the monastery of St. Placidus at Messina, it is clear from Paul the deacon that it must be referred to the time which next followed the death of Constans, slain at Syracuse, and of Mezentius, vanquished (Paul calls him Mecetius, Theophanes Mizizius and Mizizinus), who, Constans having been slain, had seized the imperial name.

[155] in the year 669, Constans, as Paul relates, chapter XI, book 5, entered Sicily in the seventh Indiction… Now the emperor remained in Sicily from the seventh Indiction to the twelfth: but at length he paid the penalty of such great iniquities, and while he was washing himself in the bath he was killed by his own men. In the year 668, on the Kalends of September, the twelfth Indiction took its beginning. Anastasius indeed, in the Life of Pope Vitalian, says Constans was slain in Indiction XI, on the XV day of July: but, as Pagi witnesses in the Critica at this year, number 9, for Indiction XI the twelfth must be substituted, as it is marked in the manuscript copies of Anastasius — the royal, the Thuanean, the Mazarin and certain others — as also by Marianus Scotus: and he advises, from the Acts of the third Council of Constantinople, that Constans was slain at Syracuse in the year 668 after the XVI day of September and before the VII day of November; which indeed agrees better with the words of Paul the deacon related above. Further, Constantine Pogonatus, the successor of Constans, being informed of the tyranny of Mezentius, took Mezentius at Syracuse with the help of soldiers gathering from Istria, Campania, Africa and Sardinia; and he having been deprived of life, returned to Constantinople: after his return, however, the Saracens burst unexpectedly into Sicily, as is clear from Paul the deacon: which sequence of events from the death of Constans persuades us to tie this disaster of Sicily at the hands of the Saracens to the year 669, which Hermannus Contractus does in his Chronicle in these words: The Saracens, who, having already laid waste many provinces, held Egypt, invading Sicily at this time, make great slaughter of men: and having plundered the island and carried off the things which the emperor Constans had collected there, they returned to Alexandria.

[156] Baronius in the Annals at the year 669, thinking that Pope Vitalian died in this year on the sixth day before the Kalends of February, not under Adeodatus, relates that that disaster took place under Adeodatus, who succeeded Vitalian in the Roman See, following Anastasius, who reports it in the Life of Adeodatus. Baronius was indeed not ignorant of the letters, both of the Sicilians who had escaped the hands of the Saracens to the Lateran monks, and of Vitalian himself to the people of Messina, in which he exhorts them to restore the monastery of St. Placidus; but he held them suspect: Chiefly, says Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year 669, number 73, because Anastasius says that this assault of the Saracens upon Sicily happened under Adeodatus the Roman Pontiff, not under Vitalian, whom Baronius wrongly thought died in this year (669). So it is; for that reason Baronius held the aforesaid letters suspect: but, as regards at least the letter of the Sicilians, receive in Baronius's own words what chiefly made them suspect to him: Thus far, he says, the letters (he had recited the letters both of the Sicilians and of Vitalian) which please us little, chiefly for this reason, that the monks would be said to have possessed many cities in Sicily at this time (ninety-eight cities and estates, as the letter of the Sicilians to the Lateran Congregation says), when not even the Roman Church itself was mistress of a single little town, so as to possess it, nor did the emperor himself, lord of the island, have so many cities there. This indeed is not read in the letter of Vitalian, but Baronius probably judged both equally fictitious on account of their mutual connexion.

[157] For the rest, the opinion of Baronius on the year of the death of Pope Vitalian is today generally disapproved by more recent writers. but under Pope Vitalian.

In our Work, at the XXVII of January, page 779, the Pontificate of Vitalian is discussed thus: St. Martin was carried off from Rome by Theodore Calliopas on the XIII day before the Kalends of July, a Wednesday. Therefore in the year of Christ DCLIII, in which the Dominical letter was F. St. Eugenius sat two years, IX months, XXIV days. And he died on the 2nd of June; wherefore he seems to have been elected about the X of August, namely when it was certainly established that Martin had been banished to Cherson and would not return to Rome; although, while Martin was living, he did not conduct himself as Pontiff, but as vicar of the Pontiff. After his death the bishopric was vacant one month, XXIX days. Vitalian was put in his place towards the end of July in the same year DCLVI, and sat XIV years, VI months, until the XXVII of January in the year DCLXXI. That he died in the same year Papebroch writes in the Propylaeum of May. Pagi ties the first year of Adeodatus, Vitalian's successor, to the year of Christ 672. Mabillon, however, relates from Milo of Elnone, in tome 1 of the Benedictine Annals, page 407, that Vitalian made way for Adeodatus in the year 673; but that Milo was little versed in Pontifical Chronology both Henschen, tome 1 of February, page 839, and Papebroch in the Propylaeum of May, where he treats of Vitalian, have shown. However it be, since Vitalian very probably prolonged his life at least to the year 671, Peter of Cassino, who at least intimates, in the words soon to be cited, that this disaster of the Sicilians and the second ruin of Placidus's monastery happened in the time of this Pontiff, cannot certainly be convicted of error in this respect; nor ought Gaetani certainly to be trusted, who in Remark 6 on the Fragment from the History of Peter the deacon about St. Placidus and his Companions ties this devastation of Sicily, following Baronius, to the Pontificate of Adeodatus rather than of Vitalian.

[158] Peter of Cassino, having narrated the destruction of the monastery of Messina, The third disaster of the same monastery presently proceeds to narrate its restoration thus: And so, when it had been reported to the Congregation of Cassino, then living at the Lateran (for the monastery of Cassino then lay overwhelmed, namely, by a not dissimilar calamity, and the monks of Cassino had betaken themselves to Rome), how the Saracens had given the monastery of the aforesaid martyr Placidus to ruin and the monks to death, supported by the aid of Pope Vitalian, sending into Sicily with great equipment, they restored the same monastery. I do not transcribe here the letters given on this matter, either by the Sicilians to the Benedictine Congregation living at the Lateran, or by Vitalian to the Sicilians, both because they do not seem genuine and because Mabillon did not defend them, though they were rejected by Baronius. Let us now hear from Peter of the third disaster brought by the Saracens both upon Sicily and upon the monastery of St. John the Baptist at Messina: concerning Sicily he has this: But after the same emperor (Leo the Isaurian) had entered the way of all flesh, when the courses of many years had been run, at the time when Louis, son of Charles, took the imperial sovereignty at Elder Rome, Pope John VIII presiding in the Apostolic See, and in the church of Cassino the abbot Leo governing the chair, in the first year of his ordination, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCCC, Indiction III, on the 1st day of the month of August, the Saracens, coming from Babylon and Africa like a swarm of bees with Ibrahim their most impious king, enter Sicily. Finding the island at peace, wherever the troops of impiety went they laid it waste and depopulated it, giving everything over to fire and slaughter. But what was done by the Saracens at Messina?

[159] is set forth from Peter of Cassino, After so many plunderings, then, says Peter after some other things, slaughters, burnings and captivities, the most savage nation of the Saracens came to storm the city of Messina. And when they had entered the monastery of the blessed martyr Placidus, they draw their swords, fall upon the monks, and compel them to deny Christ and venerate their abominable religion. When they scorned this, all were slain in the same place by the swords of the Saracens, together with the monks of Cassino who had been sent there by their abbot. These too having been butchered in this order for the faith of Christ, the whole monastery, except the church of the holy martyr Placidus, was destroyed by the Saracens. Then, some things having been interposed, he continues thus: Sicily having thus been conquered and subjugated, the Saracens, having destroyed the cities and estates and the monasteries belonging to the monastery of Cassino, going to the island of Lipari, lay it level with the ground. And so, returning to Sicily on the day of the Kalends of August, they lay the city of Taormina, with the remaining estates and towns, level with the ground, leaving only the church of blessed Placidus near the city of Messina, in the year of the Lord DCCCCIII, Indiction VI.

[160] who ineptly heaps many things together, I do not discuss the several assertions of Peter: I observe only this, that Peter heaped together and confused many things as though done from the year 900 to the year 903 — namely the capture of the cities of Palermo, Syracuse, Messina, Taormina, and finally the whole of Sicily — which happened at times far apart. Whatever be the case about the time of the capture of Taormina by the Saracens, Leo Marsicanus, older than Peter, writes in the Chronicle of Cassino, book 1, chapter 23, that the Saracens entered Sicily from the year 820 and occupied Palermo; Baronius, however, in tome 9 of the Ecclesiastical Annals, only from the year 827. In tome 1 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, part 2, page 245, in the Sicilian Chronicle, which runs from the year of Christ 827 to the year 963, I read these things: In this year (from the founding of the world 6335, of Christ however 827, according to the custom of the Sicilians, among whom Christ was believed born in the year of the world 5508, as Caruso comments on this passage of the Chronicle) the Moslems (Saracens) came into Sicily in the middle of the month of July. In the year 6339 (of Christ 831) Messina was taken, and the patrician Theodotus was slain. In the year 6340 (of Christ 832) Palermo was taken … In the year 6386 (of Christ 878) Syracuse was taken on the twenty-first of the month of May, a Wednesday. John Curopalates, published at Venice in the year 1570, has thus at page 68: Syracuse having been taken… by the Saracens of Africa, at the time when Basil the Macedonian was emperor (he reigned from the year 867 to the year 886), the whole island too was occupied, the cities overturned and destroyed, Palermo alone excepted, which survived; setting out from which as from a kind of bulwark the Agarenes occupied the region situated opposite. Again, in the Sicilian Chronicle cited a little before, at the year of the world 6409 (of Christ 901), these things are read: Abul-Abbas took Palermo and there was a great slaughter on the eighth day of the month of September. Since, then, the Sicilians were repeatedly afflicted by the Saracens with so many disasters at that time, it becomes plainly uncertain in what determined year that third, and at the same time last, disaster of the monastery of Messina happened, however lavish Peter is in assigning Chronological Notes, and though it is certain from elsewhere that Ibrahim took Taormina about the beginning of the tenth century.

[161] Nor did the author of the Epitome of the Martyrdom of St. Placidus think it wrong to depart in this matter from the words of Peter, it happened perhaps about the year 880, on the I day of August, in Gaetani, tome 1 on the Sicilian Saints, of the Remarks on their Lives, page 161, printed at Messina in the year 1610; who conjectures that this last disaster of the Benedictines at Messina rather happened about the year DCCCLXXX, on the Kalends of August, John VIII being Pontiff, Louis son of Charles emperor, Leo abbot of Cassino. About the day on which the disaster was accomplished, just mentioned, there is the agreement of all: whence Arnold Wion entered the monks slain in this last disaster into the Benedictine Martyrology on the Kalends of August in these words: At Messina in Sicily, the Passion of innumerable (this is said somewhat liberally) holy Monks, who were slain for the faith of Christ by Ibrahim, leader of the Saracens. And after them Octavio Gaetani in the Sicilian Martyrology on the same day: At Messina, the Passion of the holy Monks of the Order of St. Benedict, by the Saracens, under their leader Ibrahim. This, however, is peculiar to Wion here, that he says the Benedictines suffered twice under Ibrahim, first, as he says, in the year of the Lord DCCCLXXXIV, but on an unknown day, from the author of the Martyrdom of St. Bertharius; and then in the year of the Lord DCCCCIII, Indiction VI, on the first day of August, from Peter the deacon: but what is the authority of Peter here, that it should prove what Wion says?

[162] Further, the most grievous yoke of the Saracens, under which Sicily groaned from the ninth century down to the times of the Norman princes, the church of St. John the Baptist having survived thus far, brought it about that the monastery of St. Placidus, now destroyed for the third time, was not restored: the church of St. John the Baptist nevertheless survived (which is indeed remarkable) this disaster too; but, whether from the injuries of the Saracens or from its own age, it suffered much damage, until at length under the Normans, the Saracens having been expelled from Sicily by successful warfare, it was restored. How the Saracens were driven from Sicily by the Normans, Peter the deacon of Cassino narrates in the Fragment of the History of the Life and Passion of St. Placidus and his Companions, in Octavio Gaetani on the Sicilian Saints, tome 1, page 182: but somewhat differently Geoffrey, in the Sicilian History written at the command of Roger, liberator of Sicily. He narrates, book 1, chapter 3, that Becumen, Admiral of Sicily, as he calls him, having been defeated in battle by Belcamedus, fled to Count Roger at Rhegium, on whose advice Roger attacked Sicily. Peter, on the contrary, writes thus: When, then, the Admiral Vulthaminus held the government of the city of Palermo, Belchius his servant, rising against him, deprived him of his honour and his country. Driven from Sicily, therefore, he fled for help to Robert, duke of Rhegium. Geoffrey, chapter 10, says Messina was taken by Roger in the year 1060; Peter, by duke Robert in the year 1068. Again, as Geoffrey witnesses, chapter 17, in the year 1061 Robert and Roger joined battle with Bechamet (by Peter he is called Balchaoth) near the stronghold of John: the Normans had only 700 soldiers, while Bechamet had 15 thousand armed men: yet the victory lay with the Normans, ten thousand Saracens having been destroyed, as Geoffrey writes. But Peter says that there were in the Saracen battle-line fifteen thousand horsemen and a hundred thousand foot: he adds that the number of the Saracens who perished in that battle could scarcely be reckoned; whereas of the Christians not even one was wounded, much less slain. Peter, then, narrates here things partly false, partly surpassing belief. Further, according to Geoffrey Palermo was taken in the year 1071, Taormina in 1078; and finally in the year 1090 Roger, brother of Robert, the disturbances everywhere having been quelled, became master of all Sicily.

[163] which Roger, count of Sicily, Further, Roger bore signal praise not only for conquering Sicily by arms but also for restoring there the Christian cause, which had suffered no little damage under the dominion of the Saracens. At Messina, already from the year 1081, as Geoffrey witnesses, book 3, chapter 32, he built a Church … in honour of St. Nicholas … with the greatest magnificence, or repaired it, and enlarged it with various possessions. That Roger did the same in other places of Sicily as well is clear from a diploma of Arnold, bishop of Messina and Troina, in Pirri, book 3, Notice 7, which concerns the Priory of Messina. It runs thus: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord MCXLVII, Indiction X, in the month of June, in the reign of the most excellent Roger, king of Sicily, of the duchy of Apulia and the principality of Capua.

I, Arnold, by the grace of God elect of the church of Messina and Troina: for the love of God and for the redemption of the soul of Count Roger of blessed memory, and of his wife Adelasia; who through many tribulations, with God's help, acquired the whole island of Sicily, and there diligently built very many churches, and sufficiently endowed them from his own means; have freely and quietly given and granted a certain church of ours of St. Mary, with its appurtenances, which of old is situated near the brook of Vaccaria, with the counsel and assent of the chapter of Messina and Troina, to the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. The subscriptions of the witnesses follow, which I omit for the sake of brevity.

[164] repaired. Rocco Pirri, Notice 3, part 2, book 4, among the temples founded, or restored, or erected anew by Roger, count of Sicily, reckons the temple of St. John the Baptist at Messina; in which, moreover, as he writes, Notice 7, book 3, in the year 1099 he erected a hospital, which he granted to the knights, first of St. John of Jerusalem, then of Rhodes, and now of Malta; with Brother Gubaldus set over it as Prior. Pirri, just praised, brings forward a diploma of Roger, the first king of Sicily of this name, and son of Count Roger, given in the year 1136, in which Roger, king of Sicily, confirming his father's gifts, makes mention thus of the church of St. John the Baptist, formerly founded by St. Placidus, and of the goods granted to the knights of Jerusalem by Count Roger: The whole place and holding situated in the plain of Messina outside the walls of the city, where is the church which is known to have been piously established in honour of St. John the Baptist under the glorious Count Roger of blessed memory, our father, with all its buildings, cemetery, boundaries and appurtenances … we have thought fit to grant, and confirm in perpetuity, to the said venerable Prior (Gubaldus) and his sacred convent and their successors. Peter, deacon of Cassino, in Gaetani, says that this church of St. John the Baptist, from the coming of the Normans into Sicily, was commonly called by a corrupted name St. Jacinthus, and that this error still prevailed in his own age; in which matter I do not wish to oppose him; but that from the time when the remains of St. Placidus were buried in it, it was called St. Placidus's after the same Saint, which both the Acts at number 93 and Peter, just praised, add, I could wish I were able to confirm by more certain testimony. The diploma adduced a little before, indeed, and given in Peter's age, shows sufficiently that even then it was known by the ancient name which it had received from St. Placidus. So much concerning the vicissitudes of the monastery of St. Placidus: now the order of things demands that I return to the Saint.

* Constans

§ XI. The restored cult of the holy Martyrs among the people of Messina, and the finding of their bodies.

Which, the holy Martyrs' among the people of Messina The most grievous oppression of the Sicilians by the Saracens, of about 230 years, as a contemporary author of the History of Messina freed from the Saracens writes, and the destruction of the Benedictines, just as it beyond doubt brought signal disaster upon the Christian cause in general, so also it not moderately obscured the memory of St. Placidus among the people of Messina. But behold, in the year of Salvation MCCLXXVI, says Pirri, Notice 3, part 2, book 4, concerning St. Placidus of Colonero, the Old and New Monastery, the memory of St. Placidus, long since obliterated, revived, an apparition of the Saint having been divinely granted to certain craftsmen of Messina. The brief history of this apparition, since it must be weighed somewhat more carefully here, and that I may not send the reader elsewhere, I repeat from number 23 above: In the year from the Virgin's childbearing MCCLXVI (Pirri above reads MCCLXXVI), after King Charles had taken possession of the kingdom of Sicily, blessed Placidus, clothed in the habit of St. Benedict, appeared at Messina in the street of the saddlers to the saddlers Raymond and Florellus, and ordered them to celebrate a feast day for him, until that time altogether unused. They did not refuse; but since the name of St. Placidus had been as yet unheard of, much less the man's institute and deeds, they asked that the figure of his body should be shown them, and that it should be made plain what, after all, he had done.

[166] He at once brings forth a book in which his Life had been written: memory and cult, he orders them not to conceal the history from the people. His likeness, moreover, he left in this way. In the principal church, in the presence of the same saddlers, and likewise of the priest James, and of Serisergius the sacristans, he orders a painter, who was himself also present, to paint an image, and to look upon himself as the model. The painter portrays the monk himself. Presently, turning to him to ask him to declare whether the likeness was true or not, he sees no monk; he had gone away, although the doors were shut. Such is the course of the apparition: now learn from what authors it has come: That he had received the matter itself thus from Florellus himself, his grandfather, Raymond, doctor and Prior of the convent of the Friars Preachers, often said in his sermon on the feast day of St. Placidus: but Placido Campulo, a monk in the monastery of St. Placidus, relates that he read this whole history in the book of the confraternity of St. Placidus, which was preserved at Messina in the cathedral church. Gaetani adds: This makes for the truth of the history, that while the Saracens ruled the memory of the Passion of St. Placidus ceased to be kept, and when Sicily was recovered the feast was still not celebrated for a long time; wherefore in the office of St. Placidus instituted on the occasion of that miracle, it is said in a certain Responsory:

May the true loving-kindness of God, for whom every order and age does battle, Gladden the minds of those who keep the new feasts of Placidus.

[167] interrupted under the Saracens, This history, clothed with the circumstances just related, savours of fable on more than one count. For, first, although it would not indeed have been so surprising that not even the name of St. Placidus was known at that time to two saddlers, it would truly be more to be wondered at that the memory of St. Placidus at Messina had then been extinguished to such a degree that the name of St. Placidus was not known then to the other people of Messina either. And indeed there is no lack of writers on the affairs of Messina who, while admitting that the place of burial of the holy Martyrs was then unknown to the people of Messina and that their cult had ceased, contend nevertheless that there was a perpetual and constant tradition among the people of Messina that their remains had been deposited and preserved in the temple of St. John the Baptist, though in a hidden place. Among these is Valtrinus, who, describing the finding of the holy Martyrs, in Gaetani cited above, page 185, says this: But when in later centuries the city and island were oppressed by the impious dominion of the barbarians, the church in which the relics of the Saints were kept having been burned, and the marks of the tomb itself thrown into confusion, little by little, together with the memory of the place, the cult and honour of the Saints also seemed to fall into disuse; there remained, however, that common and constant opinion received from our forebears, that the bodies of St. Placidus and his Companion martyrs had been laid in the church of St. John; although, the memory of the places being confused, the tomb of the Saints itself was, properly speaking, unknown. As witnesses of what he says he adduces two verses inscribed on the apse of the temple when it had been restored by Roger: they run thus:

Messina, the celebrated relics of Placidus endure. Here he lies; here he endured a savage death.

[168] was restored, Next, whatever at last be the description of that apparition, it is too recent and too remote from the event for certain credit to be given to it: for since it makes mention of Placido Campulo, who, as Pirri writes, was abbot of the monastery of St. Placidus of Colonero in the year 1428, while the apparition happened in the year 1266 or 1276, more than a whole century must have intervened between the one and the other. Besides, it may rightly be called into doubt whether Florellus, a man perhaps of a simpler and too credulous disposition, Raymond, and the history of the same apparition read by Placido Campulo, which is of an age unknown to me, related also those circumstances in which that apparition comes forth here clothed. Finally, where on earth was that book of the Life of St. Placidus, which surely deserved to be preserved most zealously, ever seen? Where was it kept? Or what became of it at last? Nevertheless some apparition, or at least some wonder worked by St. Placidus, on the occasion of which the cult of the Saint among the people of Messina began to be renewed, appears very probable. You have an indication of this in Valtrinus: There exists also today, he says (he wrote about the year 1558), in the cathedral church itself of the Mamertine (or Messinese) city, a very ancient framed panel of blessed Placidus, in that dress and kind of tonsure which were perhaps then in use among the followers of St. Benedict: which panel NN. is said to have painted in colours diluted with oil nearly ccc years ago (and so about the year 1276, or rather 1266).

[169] But far more illustrious in this matter is what Pirri, praised above, writes; and the monastery of Colonero founded in honour of St. Placidus. namely that the monastery called St. Placidus of Colonero, twelve miles distant from Messina towards the South, was erected to the honour and name of the same, the history of whose building he relates thus from the original Manuscript of that monastery: In the year of the Lord MCCCLXI certain honest and noble men of Messina, namely the venerable priest Robert de Gilio, Marius de Spetiariis, deacon, Leonard de Anastasio, subdeacon, and John de Sancta Cruce, a layman, all with one vow renouncing the world, took the novice's habit at St. Mary Latina of Messina, of the Order of St. Benedict. When their desire had become known to the priest Nicholas Mustazosio, of the land of Milazzo and a dweller at Messina, he gave them a little farm to dwell in; on which was the church of St. Aloysius de Calsidiro, where now is the church of Old St. Placidus: which he also repaired, and provided many yokes of oxen, and other necessaries too, both he himself and the venerable priest Gentilis de Gangis and the honourable man Nicholas de Balsamo, who furnished more than the others. The Fathers meanwhile, while the church and dwelling were being repaired, lived in caves near the said church; then, their probation having been made, they received the aforesaid habit from the Prior of St. Mary Latina of Messina, and when the year MCCCLXI had elapsed they made their profession. Afterwards from Alimandus de Sancto Sepulchro, canon of Messina and vicar general of Dionysius, archbishop of Messina (rather from Fr. Lucidus of Murcia, an Augustinian, in the year 1363 on the X day of November, says Pirri from the records of the same monastery), they obtained leave to form a congregation in the aforesaid place under the Rule of St. Benedict, under the title of St. Placidus, and to perform the Offices and celebrate the solemnities of Masses. This monastery of St. Placidus was first a Priory; Urban V erected it into an abbey in the year 1369. But since it was situated in a place little suited, Placido Campulo, its IV abbot, of whom mention was made above, transferred it to a more pleasant place, previously granted by Count Andrea Vinciguerra of Aragon and two miles distant from the old monastery, having received leave for that from Eugene IV in the year of Christ 1432, as Pirri relates. From here, finally, says the same author, in the year MDCXXXIII almost the whole Benedictine family … migrated to the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene at Messina.*

[170] The cult of St. Placidus, restored at Messina on the occasion I have mentioned, from the year 1588, Then the bodies of the holy Martyrs, in which his body and those of his Companions were at length happily discovered in the church of St. John the Baptist, not at Messina

only, but in the whole Christian world, received signal increase. The finding of the holy Martyrs, and the rejoicings put forth on that occasion by the people of Messina, were accurately described in the Italian idiom by Filippo Goto, a knight of Messina, in a special Opuscule dedicated to Philip of Austria, prince of the Spains, and printed at Messina in the year 1591; from which Mabillon, tome X of the Benedictine Annals, book 4, number 16, relates the finding of the bodies in compendium. Valtrinus also, praised above, himself a contemporary of the event, wrote an Epitome of this finding, which you have in Octavio Gaetani from page 184. I shall present his words here, cutting away those which do not touch the finding itself more closely. He discourses first, indeed, on the family of Placidus, his coming into Sicily, his martyrdom, the ancient cult and its interruption, and the constant tradition of the people of Messina, by which the remains of St. Placidus and his Companions were said to have been laid away in the temple of St. John the Baptist, though in an unknown place.

[171] preceded, as they say, Then he proceeds thus: There were added, besides, prodigies divinely shown, which proved and confirmed this opinion of men about the place of burial of the holy Martyrs. For they report that in former times, among the clergy of that temple, to a priest of ancient virtue and age, rising for the night prayers, there were often seen several monks entering from the left side of the temple, two by two, with lighted candles, in the manner of suppliants, and halting before the high altar, then presently turning to the altar of St. Placidus, which was at the right-hand pillar of the apse, and suddenly departing. Another priest likewise of that order, Francesco Caramanna, a man of the highest religion and integrity, was accustomed while he lived to relate in the hearing of many that, as he entered the temple towards dawn, three monks were frequently seen by him chanting psalms before the altar of the most holy Eucharist, and he did not hesitate to affirm that these were the holy Martyrs who lay in that church: and he added that it would come to pass that after his death their sacred bodies would be found. Wherefore, though they had long since ceased to venerate the holy Martyrs publicly, many nevertheless offered them private cult and prayers in that temple.

[172] by several apparitions, Something similar, if not the same, with the circumstances changed, is read in the Letter of Dom Maurus of Castrogiovanni to Bernardino Vegio, written in the year 1588 on the last day of August, which you have rendered into Latin in the Appendix of the Chronicle of Cassino, often praised, from page 802. There Maurus of Castrogiovanni writes thus of himself: When, advancing in our reasoning, I thought of informing him that I had once heard from a certain priest of already advanced age and renowned for holiness of life; who said in his turn that he had heard from a sexagenarian (I read of 90 years in the Letter written in Italian and reported by Wion in the Martyrology at the III day of August) priest of the same church, that in the dead of night, in the middle of the temple, at the morning prayers, behind the High altar, near the altar of St. Placidus, he had seen a monk who measured out the whole temple in three walks, and at once returned to the place from which he had gone out. When I had related these things, I also pointed out the place to the lord Prior himself (of the knights of Jerusalem, soon to be named). Whatever be the case with the visions just related, which were then said to have happened formerly, but were very probably not believed by all; in the place at least which Maurus had pointed out the bodies of the Martyrs were afterwards found, as the narrative of Valtrinus will now teach more surely.

[173] in the year 1588, by Rinaldo di Naro, a knight of Jerusalem, Having recounted the vain attempt of a certain archbishop of Messina, whose name has been omitted, perhaps by a printer's fault, to discover the bodies of the Martyrs, he proceeds thus: In this state of things and of report, then, in the year MDLVIII, Rinaldo di Naro of Syracuse, of the military Order of Jerusalem, received the church of St. John with the priory. (For to that Order Roger, son of the count and first king of Sicily, assigned in the year MCXXXVI the church restored, as I have said, by Count Roger, and the priory.) He, having come to Messina on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of July, had nothing more urgent than, by command of Brother Hugo the Cardinal, Grand Master of the whole Order of Jerusalem, to refashion the temple of St. John into a more elegant form: not without some hope also of finding the relics of the holy Martyrs, which he had heard by report were kept in that temple, long since unknown and hidden. Having communicated the matter, then, with the archbishop Antonio Lombardo and the sworn fathers of the city, on the fifth day before the Kalends of July he transfers the high altar, with the choir, to the opposite part of the temple, where the doors were: he himself decided to pierce new doors, in the place from which the altar had been transferred, opening onto the square and the public road, and to unfold the whole face of the church.

[174] While the earth was being dug out for the foundations of these works, under the other altar (for there were two, on each side of the apse), under that altar, then, which, dedicated to St. Placidus at the right-hand pillar, restoring the temple of St. John the Baptist, had his panel of ancient work, on the day before the Nones of August, as they were working the earth more deeply, at the fifteenth span, between two walls, shaped with a gable like a kind of crypt, first of brick structure, lastly of varied marble, a tomb appeared, about eight feet in length and four wide. When this was opened the bodies of four dead persons were found, with their heads and all the other bones entire. The position of these four, as also of the other bodies, see in the plan set out below, which we have had copied from Filippo Goto, supplying the letters M, O, Q, which were missing in Goto. What the letters mean their added explanation will give.

A. Earth dug out, 20 spans.

B. Tomb of St. Placidus, his 2 Brothers and Sister

C. Their Bodies.

D. Body of the first Martyr.

E. II Mart.

F. III Mart.

G. IV Mart.

H. V Mart.

I. VI Mart.

L. Wall around the Tomb of St. Placidus.

M. Half-burned Bones and Charcoal.

N. Most ancient Altar.

O. Place full of Vessels with burned Bones.

P. Spring found there.

Q. Form of the little Vessels with blood

R. Tomb of Pompeo Cilio

S. Form of the little Vessels found around the Bodies.

Within the enclosure, which was of the sixth span, very many corpses were likewise found, placed in a certain order around the tomb, and to each at the head or the breast were set glass and earthenware phials, full of blood, or filled with blood-stained earth, which namely it is very probable absorbed the gore flowing from the wounds. There were seen also here and there heaps of burned bones and ashes, carefully covered with small bricks, as it were little ovens; with fragments of weapons of bronze mixed in, in which two arrows also were recognized; further, what ought to cause the greatest wonder in all, from the very bones consumed by the decay of so many years, and so from the very dust of the tomb, a certain unwonted and likewise most sweet odour breathed forth. But let us halt our step here for a little.

[175] Maurus of Castrogiovanni writes that that coffin and the four bodies contained in it were discovered on the third day of August: are discovered: Valtrinus, however, as is clear from the words cited, on the IV day; which Filippo Goto also does, who was present at the event. There is, however, no contradiction here between these authors: for on the third day of August, at night, the bodies of the Martyrs were first discovered secretly and covertly by the diggers; but only on the following day, the matter being published through the city, did it lie open to the view of all ranks. For the rest, as Goto relates, those four bodies, enclosed in a separate tomb, had such a position that three of them looked with the head towards the South, while the fourth, which was a woman's, in the contrary position towards the North. Goto agrees with Valtrinus that very many other bodies too were found there, namely thirty-three, of which nine lay placed around the first tomb and shut in by a particular enclosure; the rest beyond the enclosure, so far indeed as can be conjectured from Goto's plan, which shows only fifteen bodies outside the enclosure. Gaetani adds in the Annotations that besides these others also were found, and among the rest the body of a boy of three years. I return to Valtrinus.

[176] This new finding of the bodies having been published through the city, the matter having been published, although no marks had been inscribed on the tomb to indicate the matter, it was doubtful to no one that these were the very bodies of Saints Placidus and his Companions, which, hidden for so many centuries, had been sought with pious rather than successful labour. And so at once great concourses of men began to be made to the church of St. John: and innumerable persons, oppressed some with one disease and some with another, having drunk the water which welled up at the bottom of the tomb, or even having touched the tomb itself, were marvellously healed, the great God glorifying His Martyrs. A few of those prodigies I relate in the words of Octavio Gaetani, who entered our society at Messina six years before these things happened. The first sign which the holy Martyrs gave, he says, is reported to have been in Giuseppe Frassica. For they relate that on the very night on which the holy relics were found, as he was carrying off a head from the tomb to his house, the wrath of the heavenly ones came upon him; as soon as he set foot outside the temple, struck with a sudden shuddering, he barely made a hundred paces; neither courage nor strength permitted him to go further, wherefore he carried back into the tomb what he had taken away.

[177] To Mariano Marrocco the power of sight, which had been eaten away, returned, his eyes being sprinkled with the water: and confirmed by various prodigies, in Guglielmo Spuccio the bones of the arm, slipped out of place, and the sinews were happily made whole. Giovanni Luparo was snatched from a difficult disease, not to be overcome by human help in the judgment of the physicians. Francesca Blasia, wasted by a long-standing decline, seemed to hear in her sleep that she would recover as soon as she drank the water of St. Placidus. Roused at sunrise, and not thinking what she had heard a vain dream, she quickly carried out the command, and soundness was the reward of her faith, the long decline of her body being released through the discharge of blood. Tommaso Viviano was freed from apoplexy, Mariano Carozza from paralysis, Tissa Gotha from dropsy. A girl crushed by a cart recovered when her forehead was washed; and to some hands and feet were restored to use, to others ears, to others eyes: evil demons were driven out of the possessed. Finally, very many tablets affixed in the temple of the Saints testify to the multitude of the miracles. These few out of many Gaetani believed to suffice, that a conjecture might be made about the rest. Let us hear further what Valtrinus records.

[178] the archbishop of Messina, Antonio Lombardo, The archbishop, having been informed of these matters, as was his duty, came to the church of St. John, and having diligently inspected all things in person, ordered the abbot Tommaso Calvo to inquire most zealously into the miracles which were said to have been done; and to have them, when proved by witnesses, rightly and in order entered by a scribe into the public records. Then, having called in twelve most learned physicians and surgeons, he asked of them whether it could be known by any means whose were those bones which had been laid apart in the stone tomb. They, having attentively considered the several heads, from the size and figure of the bones and other precepts of the anatomical art, constantly answered that three bodies seemed to them to be of men, and the fourth of a girl; and this too they attested on oath, having duly touched the sacred things.

[179] instructs Pope Sixtus V juridically on all matters, *When, moreover, very many were earnestly demanding of the archbishop that, by that power which the synod of Trent seemed to grant to bishops, he himself should set forth the relics of the holy Martyrs, vindicated by the esteem of men and by miracles, to be publicly venerated

he, lest he should decide anything rashly in so great a matter, called into council from his clergy and the religious families all the most learned, about thirty in number; and although the three males found with a girl in the same tomb, and besides the position and appearance of the tomb itself beneath the apse, the place itself, the records of the histories and the tradition of our forebears, as well as the fragrance of a wonderful odour, and the miracles explored by a most certain inquiry, gave credit to the treasure at last found, and there was no doubt of the archbishop's power in vindicating them; nevertheless, in order that this finding might obtain greater authority with less doubt among all nations, the whole matter was referred intact to the Supreme Roman Pontiff.

[180] from whom he obtains sacred honours for St. Placidus and his Companions. And so the same archbishop, having set out for Rome, relates the matter to Pope Sixtus V, and asks that by his authority he should ratify what had been shown and proved by the arguments of so many things. The Pontiff, glad at the outcome of events, communicates the matter with the purple-clad fathers, and by common opinion decrees that the honours of the heavenly ones are to be paid to the Holy Martyrs Placidus and his Companions, and to their relics found at Messina; a diploma having been drawn up and brought to Messina by the archbishop, great joy pervaded the citizens; then at length it was decreed by the senate of Messina that the Finding of the Saints should be celebrated with anniversary rite, solemn pomp and festal supplication on the III day before the Nones of August. Thus far Valtrinus, accurately enough: yet what Goto records is not to be omitted, that there was found there also, not far from the tomb of St. Placidus, the tomb of Pompeius Cilius, marked with this inscription:

Σέστος

Πομπηιὸς

Φοίβος

ἀπὸ

Ρόμης

εθαλε * κείται.

That is:

Sextus Pompeius Phoebus, from the city of Rome, lies here.

The same, namely, who in the Acts edited by Mabillon, number 42, is said to have been in charge of the port of Messina when St. Placidus first put in there with his Companions.

[181] The circumstances of the Finding and the Acts are compared with one another, This finding of the Martyrs confirms not a little the History of their martyrdom, and shows that the Acts written about them, however badly stitched together and sprinkled with errors, are not in every part fabulous. That tomb, which contained four bodies, three of men and the fourth of a woman, separately from the rest, altogether suggests that there existed between these four Martyrs not only fellowship in their passion but also a certain particular kinship and connexion; which the Acts in more than one place attribute to Placidus, his two Brothers and his Sister. The tomb of Pompeius Cilius also, not far removed from the burial of the Martyrs, confirms the familiarity of both, which the Acts likewise assert at number 42. The heads torn from the bodies, or the bodies found without heads, indicate the kind of martyrdom by which some of them perished. The Acts, number 79, say that St. Placidus with his Brothers and 33 Companions were beheaded. More bodies than these, indeed, were found in the lapse of time; but neither is this contrary to the Acts, indeed it is conformable: for at number 70 the Saracens are said to have raged not only against the aforesaid Martyrs but also everywhere against the faithful of both sexes; and even against children: and among the other bodies of the slain, Gaetani writes, was found the body of a boy of three years. Bones found there sprinkled with the soot of fire, and charcoal and ashes heaped together, are evidence that some of the Martyrs were tortured with fire: but this kind of punishment too the Saracens are read at number 70 to have employed. Finally there is also a report (certainly recent, and not doubtful) that there was found in the tomb (of St. Placidus) a small vessel in which the tongue of St. Placidus was preserved, which, adorned with silver and gems, the professed house of the Society of Jesus at Messina obtained, as Gaetani likewise writes: and that Placidus, besides the other torments inflicted on him, also had his tongue cut out, you have at number 74 of the Mabillonian Acts, which I have praised here.

[182] From these things a new suspicion enters the mind here about the time at which the Acts of St. Placidus were first written. [and from both a not improbable conjecture is elicited about the time at which the Acts were first written.] It appears quite certain indeed from what was said in §3 that these Acts were not brought out into the light before the twelfth century, but they could have been written sooner and lain hidden up to that time: and indeed that this actually happened these words of the Acts, number 90, seem to persuade: His successors (of Pope Vigilius) to the number of XLIX did the very same; for since, numbering 49 Pontiffs from Vigilius, we arrive at John VIII, about whose times, namely, the last disaster is said to have been brought upon the Benedictines of Messina by the Saracens; I suspect that about that time, from the tradition then flourishing, lest the memory of the History of St. Placidus should vanish altogether, someone undertook to commit it to writing, whose composition lay hidden, wrapped in darkness, until the twelfth century, until at length, found by chance somewhere and perhaps believed to be Gordianus's, it was sent forth into the light under his name by Peter of Cassino or someone else, not, however, without interpolation. Certainly, from the occupation of Sicily by the Saracens from the ninth century down to the beginning of the twelfth, the knowledge of the martyrdom of Placidus does not appear to have flourished so distinctly that anyone in the twelfth century could know, not to say divine, so many and such particular circumstances of it as I recounted in the preceding number, and which the finding of the bodies, made at last in the year 1588, exposed to the eyes of all. And hence perhaps Leo Marsicanus in the eleventh century wrote so little about St. Placidus in the Chronicle of Cassino. Add that Mabillon in the year 1685 saw at Cassino a copy of these Acts which he judged to have been written seven hundred years before (see tome 1 of the Iter Italicum, page 125), and so, in Mabillon's judgment at least, to be referred to the tenth century. But now let us see what followed the finding of the holy Martyrs.

* otherwise Guereis

* perhaps ἔνθα δὲ

§ XII. Public cult decreed to the holy Martyrs by Sixtus V and Paul V.

Sixtus V, the holy Martyrs' In the preceding §, number 178, we saw that Antonio Lombardo, archbishop of Messina, went to the City in order that Sixtus V might approve by his judgment the relics of the holy Martyrs and decree that the honours of Saints should be paid them: and that he obtained his wish and returned joyful to his own people. Indeed the Pontiff had satisfied the wishes of the people of Messina most abundantly, though after the matter had been maturely examined: for he not only decreed that sacred honours should be paid to the holy Martyrs, but also instituted a twofold feast in their honour; the one on the third day before the Nones of October, on which they suffered, to be celebrated at Messina and in the whole of its province under double rite, and under simple rite in the whole Christian world: the other, namely that of the Finding, on the day before the Nones of August in the church of St. John the Baptist at Messina, likewise under double rite. Besides this, to stir up the faithful more vehemently to the cult of the holy Martyrs, he bestowed plenary indulgences to be gained on the day of the Finding in the aforesaid church; an Apostolic Brief having been issued on these matters on the Ides, or XIII of November, in the year 1588, the fourth of his Pontificate. You have it entire in Gaetani, tome 1 of the Sicilian Saints, in the Remarks on their Lives, page 157 and the two following; in Ruinart in the Appendix attached to the Apology for St. Maurus, from page 174; in Wion, Lignum Vitae, book 3, from page 253; in the Appendix of the Chronicle of Cassino from page 807. This prolix and so often reprinted bull I shall touch on only briefly, yet in such a way as to confirm what I have just said with the express words of the bull.

[184] a double feast Immediately after the proem the Pontiff weaves a brief history of the life and martyrdom of St. Placidus; in which he says that Placidus was slain by the Saracens; which take as related by him historically and on the credit of others, not as defined by an oracle of Pontifical authority. Then he explains by what course of events the bodies of the Martyrs were found after an interval of a long time. Then he says that he had given the business of the relics found to the Cardinals, interpreters of the council of Trent, to be diligently discussed from the process of the proceedings, as befitted the gravity of the matter; and finally, by their counsel and assent, he decrees by Apostolic authority that the feast day of the same holy martyrs Placidus and his Companions, on which, having finished the good and lawful contest for the glory of Christ, having consummated their course and kept the faith, adorned with the most noble palm of martyrdom, they passed to the heavenly fatherland, namely the III day before the Nones of October, be perpetually celebrated in all parts of the Christian world under a simple Office, but in the city and province of Messina under a double; and besides, another feast day of their Finding on the day before the Nones of August in the aforesaid church of St. John the Baptist of Messina only, likewise under a double Office, by all ecclesiastical persons, secular, and religious of whatever Orders, from the common of many Martyrs where a proper one is lacking.* Then the Pontiff proceeds thus:

[185] he prescribes, And we will that in the Calendar which we now use, as in the Roman Martyrology, and as was formerly the case in certain Calendars, the names of the same Saints be inscribed at that day, even though they have been passed over in the newest edition of the Roman Missal and Breviary. Exhorting the faithful of Christ of both sexes, inhabitants of the city of Messina, to keep and observe piously and religiously the feast day of their martyrdom: and, as is the custom on the other feast days by precept of holy mother Church, to abstain from servile works. And finally, to increase the devotion of the Christian people towards the same renowned Martyrs, and that they may flock to their sacred tombs the more frequently and with the more ardent zeal of piety, the more abundantly they know themselves to be refreshed thereby with the gifts of heavenly grace, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to the same faithful of Christ, truly penitent, who shall have confessed their sins to suitable priests approved by the Ordinaries of the places, and received the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, and on the aforesaid feast day of the Finding shall have devoutly visited the said church, where the same holy bodies rest, and there poured forth pious prayers to God, we grant and bestow in perpetuity a plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins. Wherefore, etc.

[186] These things, indeed, Sixtus V did to promote the cult of St. Placidus and his Companions among the faithful: in which matter but did Sixtus conduct himself prudently enough in this business? For Baillet, treating of St. Placidus in the Lives of the Saints at the V day (you may read his words below at number 191), did not fear to taunt that Pontiff as having acted with too little caution in this matter. That those whose bodies were found at Messina in the year 1588 were Saints and martyrs no one, I think, who has considered the place of burial, the signs of martyrdom related at number 174, and the miracles related at number 176 and following, lawfully proved to the Pontiff, will call into doubt; nor did Baillet deny it. But whether they were the bodies of Saints Placidus and his Companions is to Baillet only doubtful and uncertain: let us consider whether rightly. It was the tradition of the people of Messina that St. Placidus, the disciple of Benedict, his Brothers, Sister and Disciples were slain at Messina for the faith of Christ

and buried in the temple of St. John the Baptist. That tradition flourished among the people of Messina in the eleventh century, when it had advanced to its sixtieth year, in which we saw above that Roger wrested Messina from the Saracens and afterwards restored the temple of St. John the Baptist. It was restored, moreover, under the name of St. Placidus, and so called in the following century, about the beginning of which was born Peter of Cassino, who says that this appellation of the said temple remained down to his own age, though corruptly under the name of St. Hyacinth.

[187] Baillet admits this: but no other cause of this appellation not so lightly can be assigned besides that tradition which I have mentioned. From the same tradition also it came about that on the apse of the temple restored by Roger, as Valtrinus relates in the place cited at number 167, the martyrdom of Placidus and his Companions was painted, of which he writes that traces survived even in his own age. Further, that tradition drew its origin neither from the miracle of St. Placidus of the year 1266, as is self-evident; nor from the Acts of Pseudo-Gordianus, which, written I know not where in the world, and only brought out into the light in the twelfth century, began to be worn by men's hands; nor from any particular event that happened in the time of Roger, of which, namely, there is no mention anywhere; nor can any other epoch of the tradition's beginning, older than the eleventh century but more recent than the age of Placidus, be feigned, except altogether gratuitously. It remains, then, unless we wish to incur the mark of rashness, that we believe with the writers of Messina that it endured, never at any time interrupted, from the very martyrdom of St. Placidus and his Companions down to the sixteenth century.

[188] acted Now, let us feign for ourselves for a moment, if you please, a man of the sixteenth century who, before the bodies of the Martyrs had been discovered, doubts the truth of the tradition, though it was so ancient and constant, and not incredible in itself. Let him see, by chance rather than design, not by Benedictine monks but by a knight of Jerusalem, on whom no sinister suspicion could fall, certain bodies carefully hidden beneath an altar uncovered; let him see the signs of martyrdom and the miracles recounted above: how many are there who, having beheld these things, would hold that tradition suspect of falsehood, namely in that part in which it maintained that the bodies of holy Martyrs were contained there? Would he not rather acknowledge that it was proved in this part by the very outcome of the matter, and begin to think a little better of it? Then let him see certain bodies enclosed in a separate tomb; let him notice the agreement of the number and sex with the tradition; and I do not doubt that some weight would accrue to the tradition. Finally let him compare what was said long before and recounted in the Acts, above all those things which we gathered together at number 181, with what he drinks in with his own eyes; I am much mistaken indeed unless he pronounces without hesitation that that tradition, at least as regards the substance of the matter, is true.

[189] the Pontiff, After he has seen, moreover, the tomb of Pompeius Cilius, he will not doubt that it is the tomb of the one of whom mention is made in the Acts at number 42. And although he may perhaps doubt whether he was in charge of the port of Messina in the name of Tertullus, he will not question that he gave some help to St. Placidus as he was founding his monastery, and that he wished to testify his love and veneration towards him by choosing the place of his burial not far from the tomb of St. Placidus; and so he will recognize with nearly equal security both the tomb of Pompeius Cilius and that of St. Placidus, though he finds the latter marked by no inscription, and will be not a little confirmed in the opinion he has taken up. The tradition of the people of Messina alone, then, proved by the outcome of events in its principal heads, even if all else had been lacking, could suffice for Sixtus V to declare, without the mark of levity, that the bodies found in the year 1588 in the temple of St. John the Baptist at Messina were those of Saints Placidus and his Companions, and to decree that sacred honours should be paid to them. The Pontiff praises besides in the Bull both ancient histories and records of the church of Messina, in which, especially in the latter, I would not dare to affirm that nothing at all certain and undoubted was found.

[190] is shown, But, you will say, the Acts of St. Placidus are supposititious, recent, fabulous, of no credit. Granted: the tradition of the people of Messina does not owe its origin to the Acts, but the Acts to the tradition: accordingly these are to be valued from that, and to be admitted in those things in which they are known to agree with the tradition, so far indeed as this has been proved by the outcome of events: nor is it fair to strike the true and the false alike with the same censure, provided there is a means by which the one may be separated from the other. But, you will likewise say, Saints of the same names are found marked on this same day in the ancient Martyrologies, and indeed more probably different from St. Placidus the disciple of Benedict and his Companions: perhaps, then, the bodies of these Martyrs were found at Messina in the year 1588, and thought by mistake to be those of Placidus and his Companions. So it is: we find in the ancient Martyrologies Saints of the same names, and more probably different from ours, marked on the said day: but nowhere in them are they read to have suffered or been buried at Messina, or translated there, but they are only announced broadly in Sicily, and not even all of them: for Firmatus and Flavia are attributed to Auxerre. It is a light reason, then, for thinking that those Saints, otherwise altogether unknown, of whom no one ever said the things that were discovered at the finding of the year 1588, were formerly buried at Messina in the temple of St. John the Baptist: since it is not surprising either that the Companions of St. Placidus should come under the same names as those martyrs: for Pseudo-Gordianus, since he did not know the true names of the Brothers and Sister of St. Placidus, and found in the ancient Martyrologies, on the same day on which his Placidus suffered, a certain Placidus who suffered in Sicily, whose Companions were recorded there as Eutychius and Victorinus, seems to have applied their names to the Brothers of the Benedictine St. Placidus; just as he applied the name of the virgin of Auxerre to his Sister, and called Firmatus their companion on the journey. Sixtus, indeed, called them by the same names; but the names ought not to have delayed the Pontiff, when he was certain of the fact and of the persons. Now let us weigh the French words of Baillet, cited above, rendered into Latin.

[191] They run thus: Of the bodies discovered in the year MDLXXXVIII (at Messina) there was no inscription, and Baillet insinuates, no mark which indicated the names of those whose bodies had been discovered. Nothing likewise was noticed from which it could be proved that those bodies were of monks, or specifically of St. Placidus, his two Brothers, his Sister, and his thirty Religious. It was only judged, from certain heads separated from the rest of the body, from some vessels or instruments of martyrdom, and from lead poured into certain bodies, that they could have been of some martyrs. But these conjectures, joined with a certain tradition of that country, which the Benedictine monks had taken care to foster by the help of Pseudo-Gordianus, seemed to Sixtus the Fifth sufficient for him to declare, by a bull issued on the XIII day of November of the same year, that the relics discovered under the pavement of the church of St. John the Baptist at Messina were the bodies of St. Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, of his Religious, Brothers and Sister, afflicted with martyrdom in a certain landing of Mamucha, commander of the fleet of Abdalla, king of the Saracens, and to prescribe a public and perpetual feast of these Saints, as martyrs, throughout the whole Roman Church. Although the circumstance of the Saracen king and commander appears false, and nothing but what is doubtful and uncertain occurs in this approbation of bodies recently found, the holiness worthy of the cult decreed to them by that Pontiff can be placed in the monk Placidus and his Companions, and the execution of the bull can be referred to other martyrs of the same names, more certain, slain at another time, but inscribed in the ancient Martyrologies on the V day of October, the day chosen by Sixtus the Fifth for the feast of the latter.

[192] The Pontiff, then, orders one thing to be done, with little sincerity Baillet on the contrary advises another. The former prescribes that Placidus, the disciple of St. Benedict, and his Companions be honoured with the cult of Saints; the latter on the contrary, leaving to Placidus and his Companions the holiness they perhaps had, advises that the same cult be transferred to other martyrs inscribed in the old Martyrologies. Which will be obeyed? If Baillet wished the people of Messina, if he wished the Church to listen to his words, he ought to have remembered that he should have acted a little more faithfully in order to persuade them that the Pontiff's judgment in this matter was weak and uncertain: and that it was not enough if, omitting the principal and particular circumstances of the finding, he described certain general ones from which nothing particular can be concluded. It is true indeed that no inscription was found which revealed whose the discovered bodies were: but was nothing discovered on that account from which it could be proved that those bodies were those of St. Placidus and his Companions? Did those four bodies, of which three were of men and the fourth of a woman, enclosed in a separate tomb, contribute nothing to this? Did the tomb of Pompeius Cilius contribute nothing, nothing the other circumstances related above, which showed that the ancient tradition of the people of Messina, which Baillet, disparaging it in words, calls a certain tradition, was true and genuine at least as to the principal heads of the matter?

[193] writing on this subject. Further, with what good faith does Baillet say that it was only judged that the bodies found could have been of some martyrs? He had read Ruinart, he had read Mabillon, whom he praises in the margin: yet both write, from Goto, a knight of Messina and an eyewitness of the event, that it was not even doubtful to the people of Messina that they had found the bodies of St. Placidus and his Companions, which, they had been taught by most ancient tradition, had been buried in the temple of St. John the Baptist, though in a hidden place. Thus Mabillon renders Goto's Italian words into Latin, book 4 of the Benedictine Annals, number 16: And because ancient tradition held that St. Placidus and his Companions had been buried in that temple, but in an uncertain place, the people of Messina did not doubt that these were their bodies. Whether the Acts of St. Placidus falsely attributed to Gordianus ever fostered the tradition of the people of Messina or not matters nothing: it had flourished long before those Acts came out into the light; nor did it need a prop of this kind in order to continue to flourish. Baillet seems here to have considered the badly stitched fables of the Acts more than the force and antiquity of the tradition of the people of Messina, more than its agreement with the circumstances of the finding, and finally more than the diligence of Sixtus in examining the matter, which, however, were not to be neglected: whence he passed a less fair judgment both on the more recent cult of St. Placidus and on Pope Sixtus. Baillet is also mistaken when he wrote that St. Placidus as disciple of St. Benedict, Saints Eutychius and Victorinus as his brothers, St. Flavia as his sister, and the thirty Monks as his disciples, were first inserted into the Roman Martyrology under the same Pontiff: for all these things are expressly read, in almost the same words which the present Roman uses, praised at number 1, in the Roman Martyrology published by command of Gregory XIII, the predecessor of Sixtus, and reprinted in the year 1586 at the Plantin press. That has thus: At Messina in Sicily, the birthday of the holy martyrs Placidus, monk, disciple of blessed Benedict the abbot, and of his brothers Eutychius and Victorinus, and of Flavia the virgin their sister, and of thirty others, who were slain for the faith of Christ by Mamucha the pirate.

[194] after the example of Sixtus, Paul V Concerning the bodies of the Martyrs found in the year 1588 at Messina in the temple of St. John the Baptist

thus far, whose number, Goto writes, grew in all to 37. But while the people of Messina continue to apply themselves to repairing the temple of St. John the Baptist, other and yet other bodies, furnished with similar signs of martyrdom, are dug up from time to time, whether within or without the precincts of the temple, lying more or less deep. A succinct Epitome of the whole finding, published at Messina in the year 1610, will explain what was done. It runs thus: In the year of the Lord MDLXXXVIII, when it had been decided that the high altar of the temple of St. John the Baptist, in which the bones of the holy Martyrs lay hidden, should be transferred to the opposite part, where the entrance into the temple lay open, and a door was to be set up at the apse, where the altar had been, while the earth was being dug out for laying its foundations, not only was the tomb of the four Martyrs, the Brothers and Sister, discovered within the church, nearly under the altar, but afterwards the bodies of some of the Companions were found dug up in the earth itself, but within the church, deep down near the spring of water, about fourteen common spans. Indeed some of these were found under the very foundations of the same temple, so that it is probable that the monks obtained from blessed father Benedict through Messalinus and the people of Messina, and sent in the place of the Martyrs, transferred into the temple those whom Gordianus, as the time allowed, had buried in the sand; and that it came about that, when the temple, whether fallen through age or overthrown many centuries later by the Saracens who had made themselves masters of affairs in Sicily, was being rebuilt by the pious religion of the citizens, after they had been driven out of all Sicily by the valour of the people of Messina and under the auspices of Roger the Norman, and was being reduced to a narrower form, the bodies of certain Martyrs, by then unknown, came to be placed under the foundations of the building, and many to be left outside the church, even of those which had been put into it.

[195] But the relics of Placidus and some of his Companions having already been found and approved by the authority of Sixtus V, supreme Pontiff, others besides having afterwards been discovered and exposed with as much pomp and solemnity as could be; while the temple in which the sacred pledges had been buried was being gradually pulled down and restored more magnificently at public expense, the corpses of some others are discovered, which the most reverend Brother Bonaventura Secusius, patriarch of Constantinople and then archbishop of Messina, by the faculty granted him by the sacred canons and finally by the ecumenical synod of Trent, had placed with those found before, and exposed with them. And when in the year MDCVIII the building was already running on to its farthest part, where namely the face of the temple was to be built up, with doors opened onto the plain and the sea-shore, and when, in order to lay the foundations there, they were working the earth deep down not far from the place of the tomb that had been found and of the other bodies, others and then others, very many indeed, corpses of holy Martyrs are brought to light, with a great concourse of citizens, a great throng of all ranks, many miracles having been worked at the touch of the earth and of the sacred bones, many at the drinking of the water in which they had lain. And the conjecture is that of these, all those which were buried at the same level as the Companions of blessed Placidus, namely found deep down and near the water, are of those who under Mamucha happily completed the first contest together with St. Placidus; but the rest, buried less deep, and placed above those already mentioned with some space of earth between, are of those who in later centuries bravely underwent the second and third contest. For since that whole region is sandy, it grows up with the inflow of the torrent running down into the sea, so that in the course of time some could be laid and heaped up above others. All these bodies are kept apart most carefully, until they may be shown for public cult and veneration by the authority of the Apostolic See.

[196] For this end Giacomo Cariddi, a priest of the Society of Jesus, was sent to Rome by the senate of Messina to Paul V with the lawful documents of the new finding and of the miracles: that public cult may be shown to the bodies of the holy Martyrs Paul submitted the matter to the examination of the Congregation of sacred rites, which, when it had declared that those bodies were of holy Martyrs, and had judged that they were to be venerated by the faithful as such, as is clear from the public testimony of Domenico Pinelli, bishop of Ostia, dean of the sacred college and prefect of the Congregation of sacred rites, in Gaetani, often cited, page 159, Paul V confirmed the judgment of the same Congregation in the year 1611 with a bull of this kind: Pope Paul the Fifth. For a perpetual memorial of the matter. Holding, though unworthy, in the See of the Prince of the Apostles, the place of the Lord, King of Martyrs, we assert, as due from our office, merited veneration for the bodies of those who, enrolled in the white-robed army of Martyrs, are recognized to receive the rewards of the heavenly kingdom.

[197] he declared. Since, then, as our beloved sons the Community and Men of the city of Messina have lately caused to be set forth to us, while from the year MDCVIII and successively up to the year MDCX inclusive they were digging the foundations of the church of St. John the Baptist, which the same Community and Men, for their religion towards God, are having built in the said city, many bodies of saints were found; and our venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies, to whom we committed the process made by our venerable Brother Peter, archbishop of Messina, and the whole business to be examined, having maturely and diligently considered all things contained in the said process, have reported to us that a process of this kind is lawful and juridically drawn up, and that from it it is lawfully established that those are the bodies of holy Martyrs; we, in order that due cult of honour may be shown by all the faithful of Christ to holy bodies of this kind, who have merited crowns of glory from the hand of God, and that the Most High may be exalted in His Saints, by the counsel of the same Brothers, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, decree and declare that the said bodies found in the digging of the foundations of the aforesaid church of St. John the Baptist from the year MDCVIII to the year MDCX inclusive are the bodies of holy Martyrs, and ought to be venerated and honoured as such by all the faithful of Christ, anything whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding. Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the ring of the fisherman on the XIX day of March MDCXI, in the sixth year of our Pontificate.

* add diocese

§ XIII. The feasts of St. Placidus and his Companions at Messina; their relics dispersed to various places; the Offices customarily recited in their honour.

Besides the natal day of the holy Martyrs, the people of Messina The feast of the Finding of the holy Martyrs, instituted by Sixtus V in the year 1588, the people of Messina celebrated in the year immediately following with very illustrious and singular pomp, with various signs of rejoicing, and with a most solemn supplication over the space of three days, beginning from the second day of the month of August. The course of what was then done Filippo Goto, knight of Messina, and one of those to whom the senate of the city had entrusted the care of duly carrying out the solemnity, set forth, as we have said, in a special Opuscule, which let the one curious about those matters consult. Thereafter the solemnity of the same Finding was held yearly among the chief feast days of the city, and a solemn supplication on the III day of August, by decree of the senate of the year 1588. Receive its order from Bonfiglio, book 5 of the Description of the city of Messina: The beginning of the procession, he says, is made by a crowned boy set on a very lofty car , to which four horses are yoked, who holds in his hand a drawn scimitar, the token of a bloody death. There follow in long order noble boys, clothed in silk tunics and adorned with foreign hair, crowns and wings, such as are commonly painted on genii: they carry lances to which are fixed panels representing the miracles done by these Saints after their corpses were found… A hundred confraternities of flagellants, with banners and crosses borne before them, carrying lighted tapers in their hands, surround and escort images in which the bloody death of these Saints and the sinking of the fleet of Mamucha, before it had sailed past the lighthouse, are portrayed.*

[199] These are followed by the brethren of many religious families, the day of the Finding distinguished in their orders: the last of whom, after the brethren of St. Dominic, are the Greeks of the Order of St. Basil, with their abbots, Priors and archimandrite, clad in sacred and priestly vestments. Finally the priests of the cathedral church, the canons conspicuous in their mitres, and the archbishop advance. After the urns, moreover, the abbots and monks of the family of St. Benedict are seen, likewise clad in priestly vestments. The four urns in which the bones of the Saints are contained are covered with most precious cloth of gold. The first, which holds the bodies of the three Brothers and the Sister, is carried under a canopy, as they call it, borne by the senators, whereas the canopies of the three others are held up by monks of the Order of St. Benedict only. Then Bonfiglio records the streets and their adornment through which this passes, brought out from the priory of St. John and brought back to the same, the throng of the people, the discharges of cannon, which for brevity's sake I omit here. Refer to this what Octavio Gaetani writes on the III and IV day of August in the Sicilian Martyrology: At Messina, the Finding of the Holy Martyrs Placidus the abbot, Eutychius and Victorinus his brothers, Flavia the virgin his sister, and XXXIII Monks. Likewise: At Messina, the translation of the Holy Martyrs Placidus and his Companions.

[200] He likewise makes mention of another translation of the same Saints on the XVI day of May, in these words: and yearly keep that of the Translation; At Messina, the translation of the Holy Martyrs Placidus and his Companions from the Old church into the New chapel and altar: Bucelin, Ménard and Ferrari, in the Martyrology of the Saints who are not in the Roman, did the same; but Ferrari adds this in the Annotations: Their finding and translation took place in the year of the Lord MDLXXXVIII under Philip II of Spain. Which indeed is true if understood of their Finding: but if Ferrari is speaking there of the translation which took place on the XVI day of May, it could not have happened in the year 1588; since the relics of the holy Martyrs were only discovered in the month of August of the same year. I rather suspect that this took place about the year 1617, in which, an inscription teaches, the people of Messina set up for St. Placidus and his Companions, their patrons, a new chapel with an altar in the temple of St. John the Baptist; which inscription, carved on marble in the chapel of the choir, Pirri transcribed in this manner, Notice 7 of the Priory of Messina, book 3: To God, Best and Greatest. In the reign of Philip III, the Senate and People of Messina, venerating the dignity of the place where the sacred relics of the Holy Martyrs Placidus and his Companions were formerly kept, piously caused a chapel with an altar to be set up to their most excellent patron in the year MDCXVII.

[201] Pirri further adds in the same place that the chests [in which Paul V forbade the dispersal of the relics of St. Placidus and his Companions:] in which the remains of the holy Martyrs were enclosed, which at first were only four, afterwards grew to 17; and that in one of them, fitted with panes of glass, the heads of Saints Placidus and his Brothers and Sister are kept; in the others the bodies of the Companions: and moreover that Paul V had long since forbidden by an Apostolic Bull that the sacred relics should be taken from their places. We have this Bull printed at Messina in the year 1621 and attached to the Office of the holy Martyrs, framed in these words: *Pope Paul the Fifth. For a future memorial of the matter. Wishing to provide for the preservation and also the honour of the sacred relics of Saints, men and women, which, as we have learned, are honourably and becomingly kept in the churches and pious places of the city of Messina, inclined by the supplications humbly presented to us on this matter by our Venerable brother the archbishop of Messina and our beloved sons the Community and Men of the said city, to all and each

persons, ecclesiastical as well as any others whatsoever, secular and regular, of whatever dignity, state, degree, order and condition they may be, we forbid and prohibit by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, under pain of excommunication latae sententiae, that they dare or presume at any time, under any pretext whatever, to take out, or cause to be taken out, the aforesaid relics, enclosed in chests, vessels or walls, or any part of them, from the aforesaid churches and pious places. Notwithstanding Apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and anything else whatsoever to the contrary. Given at Rome at St. Mark's under the ring of the fisherman on the VIII day of February MDCXI, in the sixth year of our Pontificate.

[202] which in part, already before, to Valladolid, From this it can be gathered in how great esteem the relics of the holy Martyrs were among the people of Messina; as also from what Wion relates on the IV day of August about Cardinal Hugo, Grand Master of the knights of Jerusalem. In the year 1589 Cardinal Hugo had pressed Sixtus V that he might be permitted to transfer a part of the relics of Saints Placidus and his Companions to the island of Malta, and had brought his matter so far that a bull, whose words Wion recites, had already been drawn up, by which the faculty requested was granted to Hugo. But he says that the senate of Messina brought it about through the royal ministers that the bull was revoked. So, namely, Wion had understood from a letter of Romano Poliziano, abbot of Catania, sent to him on that matter; wherefore he says he does not know whether the aforesaid bull took effect. But that a signal part of the said relics fell to Philip III, the Catholic king, with the assent of Pope Clement VIII, before the prohibition of Paul, is not doubtful: for we have two testimonies on the matter, excerpted from the Manuscript Lipsanologium of the royal monastery of St. Lawrence, commonly the Escorial, the one of Francisco Velarde, archbishop of Messina, the other of Giacomo Framontana of Messina, who carried them to Philip in Spain in the name of the people of Messina.

[203] as is shown from instruments drawn up on the matter The archbishop's testimony sounds thus: I, Francisco Velarde de la Concha, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See archbishop of Messina, and royal counsellor, certify and attest to his Catholic majesty, that today, having received the letters written below, presented to me by the beloved in Christ Don Pedro Borgia, prince of Squillace, the Strategotus, and also Filippo Cicala, Marcellino Cirino, Don Pietro Saccano, Giovanni Pellegrino, Don Maurizio Porzio and Giovanni Battista de Caelis, sworn officers of this noble city of Messina, whose tenor is as below. Here the one who transcribed both testimonies inserts a few words of his own: There follows, he says here, a letter in Italian, in which it is signified that it pleases the Roman Pontiff that certain relics of St. Placidus and his Companion MM. be sent to the Catholic king. Then the aforesaid Francisco Velarde proceeds thus, says the transcriber of the testimony again: that for their execution, at their instance, I betook myself in person with the canons of this metropolitan church written below to the church of St. John the Baptist of this city, of the priory of the hospital of the same St. John of Jerusalem, where are preserved with the greatest religion, and venerated by Apostolic authority, the bodies of the holy martyrs Placidus, Eutychius and Victorinus his brothers, and Flavia his sister, and of the thirty-three other Companions; and that, vested pontifically with all reverence, I took with my own hands the relics noted below, and, having placed them in a precious golden pyx adorned with gems, blessed by me with the due ceremonies, consigned them to Don Giacomo of Messina, professed monk of the Order of St. Benedict, Prior of Monreale of the same Order, specially chosen for this and deputed by the same sworn officers to carry them faithfully to his Catholic majesty. In faith whereof I have ordered the present letters to be issued, fortified with the subscription of my own hand and of the aforesaid canons, and strengthened with the archiepiscopal seal. At Messina, on the XI day of April MDCIII.

[204] The enumeration of the relics runs thus: Four pieces of bone from the shin-bones of the saints Placidus, is shown by instruments, Eutychius and Victorinus the brothers, and Flavia the sister; one ten fingers in length, another nine, another six, and another five; and also another from the head of the same St. Placidus, from the scaly petrous part of the ears, of the size of a small hand, with their labels. Another piece from the head of one of the thirty-three Companions of St. Placidus, of nearly the same size of a small hand, with thirty-two other small pieces of bone from the bodies and relics of the other Martyrs, Companions and Monks of the same St. Placidus. The subscriptions are of this kind: Francis, archbishop of Messina. Nicola Andrea Mauro, cantor. Giulio Cesare Minutolo, abbot and canon. Don Sidenio Porzio, Doctor of both Laws, Apostolic protonotary and canon. Teodoro Costa, Doctor of both Laws, canon. Francesco Flaconio, canon. Don Bernardo de Arce y de la Concha, abbot and canon. I, Don Antonio Stizia, canon of the church of Messina and master notary of the great archiepiscopal court of the same, was present at all the aforesaid, and by command of his most reverend lordship drew up a public instrument in the Acts of the same court. I, Francesco Marna, public royal and Apostolic notary, was present at the aforesaid.

[205] The other testimony is framed in these words: I, Don Giacomo Framontana of Messina, had been sent. Prior of the monastery of St. Mary of Monreale in the kingdom of Sicily, of the Cassinese Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, specially chosen and deputed by the sworn officers of the noble city of Messina, with the consent and blessing of our most holy lord Pope Clement the eighth and of his superiors , to carry faithfully into Spain and present in the name of the aforesaid city to the royal Catholic Majesty of Philip III, our most invincible lord, a venerable and precious reliquary containing the most sacred relics of the glorious martyrs of Christ Placidus and his Companions, certify and testify that I presented and faithfully offered those very sacred relics, according to their quality, number and quantity, placed in a golden pyx adorned with gems and blessed, and consigned to me by the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Francisco Velarde de la Concha, archbishop of Messina, in the name of the aforesaid city of Messina, to the same royal majesty at the city of Valladolid, in the upper oratory of the royal palace, on the XXIII day of the month of November MDCIV. In faith and memory whereof I have caused these testimonial letters to be made, and have subscribed them with my own hand at the aforesaid place and time. The relics are these: namely the same as above. I, Brother Don Giacomo of Messina, Prior of the monastery of Monreale.* Further, Philip ordered the said relics to be delivered to the monastery of St. Lawrence, and, a procession having been held which the king himself wished to accompany, to be placed among the other relics in the altar of St. Mary the Virgin in the year 1606 on the V day of October, as the Spanish Notice attached to the testimonies just transcribed teaches.

[206] as also into the Mantuan territory: To these I add some other things which I have found noted here and there about the relics of the holy Martyrs. Wion, Lignum Vitae, book 3, at the first day of May, has thus: At St. Benedict of Padolirone (it is a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict in the Mantuan territory, commonly called Polirone or del Po) on this day in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-nine (the next after the finding of the relics) there was made a solemn procession, at the time of the general chapter, of nearly two hundred monks, for the reception of relics of St. Placidus, protomartyr of the monastic Order, and of some of his Companions. To which Wion adds this in the Annotations: This (procession), at which I count it a great favour to have been present, was made with the greatest devotion both of the monks and of the people who were then present, by command of the Reverend Father Dom Serafino Fontana of Milan, president of the chapter of that time, and the other Reverend Father definitors. The aforesaid relics of St. Placidus and his Companions were first placed in a certain ivory casket, in which were also relics of other Saints, given by the most illustrious and reverend Raimondo, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; namely in the year 1500, on the XXVII day of October, as may be seen in the Copy of the donation which Wion subjoins.

[207] with these, various places, whether before or after Paul's That the lower jaw of the head of St. Flavia, with ten teeth, which they call incisors, fell to the professed house of the Society of Jesus at Messina, Gaetani has in the Remarks on the finding of St. Placidus and his Companions, page 156, besides the tongue of the same, of which we made mention at number 181. Bonfiglio, in the Description of Messina, at the beginning of book 4, attributes only two teeth of St. Flavia to the Professed house of Messina, but adds some other relics of Saints Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and their Companion martyrs. In the same place he affirms that part of the head of St. Flavia fell to the Dominican Fathers of Messina. The same, in book 1, among the relics of the New monastery of St. Placidus, of which we treated above at number 169, numbered certain relics of the same holy Martyr and his Companions. That at Ferrara also part of the head of St. Placidus, as also of his sister Flavia, is kept enclosed in silver, Marco Antonio Guarini writes in the historical Compendium of the churches and pious places of the city and diocese of Ferrara, book 2, page 64, where he treats of the church of St. Benedict. I have besides in my hands the Catalogue of the Saints whose Office is celebrated in the Professed house of the Society of Jesus at Rome, printed at Rome in the year 1729; in which at the V day of October I read this: Saints Placidus and his Companions, MM. Notable relics in the sacristy. From the Common of many Martyrs, except the proper parts.

[208] enriched with their relics, Our Papebroch in the year 1661, as is read in his Manuscript of the Roman Journey with Henschen, saw at Cassino in the sacristy relics of St. Flavia, a rib of St. Placidus, and two arms of the Companion Martyrs. Baillet, in the Life of St. Placidus, notes that an arm of his, as is believed, is kept at Paris in the abbey of St. Germain-des-Prés. Michael Monachus, in the Sanctuarium Capuanum, page 544, annotates these words of the Capuan Calendar, III Nones (of October), of Placidus and his Companions, thus: In our age a notable relic of St. Placidus was brought from Sicily to Capua and placed in the church of St. Eligius, by the work and diligence of Father Marco de Angelis, a clerk regular and citizen of Capua. Raissius, page 160 in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, among the relics of our English college at Saint-Omer, reckons a small bone of St. Placidus and his Companion martyrs. Cesare Caracciolo, in the Italian Work on Sacred Naples, part 2, page 307, among the relics of the church of St. Mary in Portico numbers relics of St. Placidus also, namely, as he adds in the Index, a piece from the head. Among the treasures of our Professed house at Antwerp is numbered part of a bone of one of the Companions of St. Placidus, which, together with a finger of St. Eleutherius, Father Scribani received as a gift in the year 1612 from Father Agostino Vivaldi, rector at Genoa.

[209] So he in his letter on the matter, fortified with the seal of our Society enriched, and subscribed with his own hand: *Agostino Vivaldi, rector of the college of Genoa of the Society of Jesus. To all into whose hands these letters shall come, everlasting salvation in the Lord. Whereas to the very reverend Father Charles Scribani, rector of the college of Antwerp of the same Society, one of the joints of a finger

of St. Eleutherius, bishop and martyr, son of St. Anthia, martyr, which I myself took out at Rieti from the church of St. John, where his sacred body and his mother's are honourably kept, in the year one thousand six hundred, with the faculty of the most reverend lord Orazio Gentile, then Apostolic vicar in that city, I have given; and besides part of one bone of the Companions of St. Placidus, martyr, whose bodies, divinely found at Messina, our most holy lord Paul V declared to be truly their bodies; lest sacred relics of this kind should be defrauded of their due honour, I have wished to certify all the premises by these letters, subscribed with my own hand and fortified with the seal of our Society. Given at Rome on the twenty-third day of the month of January, in the year from the Nativity of the Lord one thousand six hundred and twelve. Agostino Vivaldi.

[210] Besides this, in Francesco de Magistris, book 1 of the State of the church of Naples, page 274, among the relics of the church of Saints George and Severus I find this noted: are added. From the head of St. Placidus, abbot and M. Giuseppe de Magistris enlarged Francesco's Work with his additions, at the end of which, concerning the relics kept in the church of the Carthusians, I read: Of St. Placidus, martyr, with a phial of the same Saint. At Gaeta also, in the monastery of St. Angelus, relics of Saints Placidus and his Companion monks are kept, says Pietro Rosetto in the Description of Gaeta, page 23. That some of the same are found at Brescia, Monreale, L'Aquila, Isernia and elsewhere throughout Italy our Manuscript Collections on the relics of the Saints scattered throughout Italy teach me: if, however, it is everywhere a question of St. Placidus, the Benedictine martyr; for Masini also, in Bologna Illustrated, at the XI day of October, says that the body of St. Placidus is found with the Nuns of Saints Vitalis and Agricola, brought there from Rome with the assent of Gregory XV; who, the circumstances just related abundantly declare, is different from the Benedictine Placidus. Nor do I doubt that relics of the same Martyrs are found in various other places also, and preserved with due honour to them. To these I add a few things on the Offices customarily recited in their honour.

[211] That the cult of St. Placidus flourished at Cassino in the eleventh century is shown by the ancient Martyrology of the place, praised at number 28: and the interpolation which was added to it, of which I made mention in the same place, certain Offices proper to the holy Martyrs is evidence that the feast of the holy Martyr was afterwards celebrated with an Octave by the monks of Cassino. Similarly at Subiaco also Mass is celebrated, and a proper Office of semidouble rite, which we have, printed again at Palestrina in the year 1709, and revised and approved by the sacred Congregation of rites from the year 1696. The proper Mass is the same as that in the Roman Missal at the V day of October. The Office has proper lessons of the second Nocturn: these present a compendium of the life of St. Placidus drawn mostly from the Acts; but the sixth Lesson fixes his martyrdom to the year 539. The seventh Lesson is from the Gospel of Matthew: At that time, as Jesus sat upon the mount of Olives, etc., which is followed by the Homily of St. Hilary the bishop: The Disciples question the Lord. The rest is said from the Common of Martyrs. The same Office, already approved before by Paul V for the Benedictines, is inserted in the monastic Breviary printed at Venice in the year 1623. The Breviary of the Benedictines of Portugal, printed at Coimbra in the year 1607, in Lesson 8, records that the martyrdom of St. Placidus took place in the year 540.

[212] proper. At Messina, however, there is a twofold proper Office, the one on the V day of October, or the natal day, to be recited in the whole diocese of Messina with an Octave; the other on the IV day of August, or that of the Finding; as also a partly proper Mass on each day. The Mass, the same on both days, runs thus: Introit: But the salvation of the just, etc. Collect: O God, who grantest us to keep the Birthday (or the Finding) of Thy holy martyrs Placidus and his Companions, etc. Epistle from the book of Wisdom, chapter 3: But the just shall live for ever, etc. Gradual: The just cried, etc. Gospel from John: At that time Jesus said to His disciples, Amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat, etc. Offertory: The souls of the just, etc. Postcommunion: What I say to you, etc. The Lessons of the second Nocturn of the Office to be recited on the natal day of the holy Martyrs, or the V of October, likewise comprise a Life of St. Placidus condensed from the Acts; in place of which other Lessons from Ambrose, Augustine and Cyprian are proposed to be recited on the remaining days of the Octave. Further, on the IV day of August, on which the memory of the Finding is celebrated, the Lessons of the first Nocturn are taken from the second book of Maccabees, chapter 1: When our Fathers were being led into Persia, etc. Those of the second contain the history of the finding, much as I presented it above at number 171 and following. Finally Paul V approved both Offices and granted that they be recited, in the year 1611, on the XXVI day of February; all of which I have excerpted from both Offices, published at Messina in the same year by the press of Pietro Brea.

[213] and Hymns Receive also some Hymns formerly customarily recited in the Office of St. Placidus and his Companions, which Wion copied from a parchment Breviary of St. Zeno at Verona, ancient indeed, as appears, but of an age unknown to me, and inserted in his Annotations on the V day of October.

Hymn at Vespers.

Applaud, O throng of monks, For the triumph of the Companions, Whom the King of the heavens crowns Amid the choirs of angels. Be not silent in praise enough, Seeing your own prevail, And sit down at the table With the other young soldiers. Who, bloodied for Christ, And laurelled from the fight, Like kings clad in purple, Are set upon thrones. Great Advocates you have, Exalted above the heavens, Ever pleasing to the highest King, Ready to entreat. By whose merits we ask To be saved and enlightened, To be made whiter than snow, And to be placed in the heavens. To the King of all the Saints Be praise through all the ages, Who through martyrdom has made these Great in glory. Amen.

Hymn at Nocturns.

Praying, of Christ's Martyrs in their honour We sing the wondrous deeds, Whose torments of the body We see to have been dire. Your cheeks too, reddening, Shining with your rosy blood, Gleaming white With every snowy beauty. With these rosy and shining Golden crowns of flowers, You sing the song with the Lamb Upon the mountains of spices. We too sing psalms to you; Pardon us offenders, The strength of the enemy being broken, And restore us to the heavenly ones. To the God of all gods Be salvation, honour and glory, Who to Your own through martyrdom Give immense rewards. Amen.

Hymn at Lauds.

Throughout the world is sung The sacred form of the just contest, customarily recited. The glory of the Monks' Most exalted Order is extolled. From whose citadel go forth Thirty-five soldiers *; Who return with triumph, Climbing the bounds of the sky. They are the glory of our Order, They are the leaders of our host; And the foulness of crime to us Forgive, O King of the contest. Grant us to climb to things above, And to bring forth sacred hymns; For the praises of these Martyrs Pour in the radiance of lights. To the summit of the highest Father Be the sweetest song of praise, Who to us through martyrdom Bestows every reward. Amen.

[216] There follow the Acts published by Mabillon in the first Benedictine Century, Which Acts are published, and why. and falsely ascribed to Gordianus, which writers everywhere lash with their censures: there are subjoined also those which were brought out into the light by Octavio Gaetani under the name of Stephen of Le Puy, both that the reader may more conveniently compare these with those, and discern how frequent are the interpolations that occur in the former; and because these are at least less faulty than those.

* car

* of mine

* rather 32

ACTS OF SS. PLACIDUS AND HIS BROTHERS

Eutychius and Victorinus, and of Flavia his sister, and also of Donatus, of Firmatus the deacon, and of Faustus, and of thirty other Monk Martyrs.

By Pseudo-Gordianus.

From the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, tome 1, from page 45.

Placidus, M., at Messina in Sicily (S.) Eutychius, M., at Messina in Sicily (S.) Victorinus, M., at Messina in Sicily (S.) Flavia, M., at Messina in Sicily (S.) Donatus, M., at Messina in Sicily (S.) Others, MM., at Messina in Sicily. BHL Number: 6859

By Pseudo-Gordianus.

PROLOGUE.

Gordianus, the Acts of St. Placidus, to the glory of God, To add any praises ^a to the bright and shining triumph of the most blessed brothers Placidus, Eutychius and Victorinus, and of their sister Flavia the virgin, and of their thirty-three Companions, is something idle and superfluous. For those whom Christ has placed in the heavenly kingdom, whom He has also appointed to praise the undivided Majesty with the angels and archangels, He has shown, no doubt, to have no need of the praises of men. But since the Psalmist prophet invites all spirits and all creatures to the praise of the Lord, I, Gordianus, disciple of father Benedict, think it worth while, to the glory of the eternal King, to note down in Argolic characters the life-giving passions of the same Martyrs ^b. For with so great a prerogative of miracles, with so great a radiance of virtues did the most holy Placidus, leader and forerunner of these Martyrs, shine, that not only the faithful but even the unbelievers are compelled to cry out in praise of Christ. And rightly; for according to the precept of his master Benedict he loved Christ with his whole heart, his whole soul, his whole strength, and for His name poured out his blood with the aforesaid Martyrs. For these are the heavens which declare the glory of God. These are the light of the world, who lead back to the true light those sitting in darkness. These are the salt of the earth, who salt minds, lest they fail through the torpor of weariness, and lead them into the heavenly kingdom. For, relying on the power of almighty God and inebriated with His wisdom, they despised the raging world like dung, and preached the true faith in season, and laid down their lives for it.

[2] whose greatness shines forth in the Martyrs, the glory For David, marvelling at this greatness, power and wisdom of God, said: "Great is the Lord our God, and great is His power, and of His wisdom there is no number ^c." Great indeed, since He fashioned us inexpressibly from the matter of clay, and created all things from nothing. Great is His power, since He burst asunder the legions of hell, bound the prince of the world, took away his vessels and arms, destroyed his kingdom, redeemed the human race with His precious blood, restored the bond of peace between God and man, joined heavenly things to earthly, and, raising the sons of men from the earth, joined them in the heavenly kingdom to the orders of the supernal Virtues. Let the holy and universal Church, then, now thunder forth, and, taking up with that same most renowned and sublime harpist the timbrel of heavenly harmony, bring forth devout canticles, saying: "Great is our Lord, and great is His power, and of His wisdom there is no number." Great indeed is He, great His power and wisdom, who from almost the very beginning of the world has made little ones, old men, the unwise, the wise, herdsmen, countrymen, fishermen, and Monks spokesmen of the eternal kingdom and soldiers against the devil. To confirm this matter fittingly for us, there is present, with his Companions and his sister Flavia the virgin, and his two brothers Eutychius and Victorinus, the most holy and most blessed Placidus, disciple of Father Benedict, who, exchanging earthly for heavenly commerce, appeared like the patriarchs, prophets, Apostles, martyrs and confessors,

and, while still placed in the flesh of clay, spurned fleeting delights as refuse, and constantly bore in his body the mortification of the Cross for love of the name of Christ.

[3] In setting forth, then, the passion of this Martyr, at whose command I have begun to act, He undertakes to write by command of the emperor Justinian. I shall bring it forth. For the divine Justinian, triumphant, invincible son of Aeneas ^d, when he had learned how the aforesaid martyr of the Lord Placidus had received the triumphal laurel, at once summoning our littleness, commanded that, setting forth his passion and miracles as I had myself seen them with my eyes, I should comply by providing them for the sons of holy Church to read ^e. Obeying his most sacred command, I gave my mind to describing the passion of so great a Martyr, knowing without doubt that all things which have been and are both subsist and endure by the will and permission of God. In this Work, however, let studious readers not look for a panegyric, but for the truth. Let others adorn their writings with trappings, bringing forth what seems base and dark; we, omitting the purple of concealment, shall display bare what is in itself honourable and luminous. It is not for churchmen to seek soft and delicate speeches, which entice the minds of men to everything depraved and harmful, as those of the comic and tragic poets do; but those which build up the minds of the hearers to purity, chastity and integrity, and lead them to eternal life. And because we describe with a rustic pen the passion of Placidus, most beloved of God, and of his Companions, let not the spiritual man, who judges all things, pass it by with a deaf ear like the natural man, who does not know the things that are of the spirit, since he savours only the things that are of the spirit. Supported, then, by the protection of the supreme King, I shall undertake to write the passion of so great Martyrs.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER I.

The family of St. Placidus, and the beginnings of his monastic life.

St. Placidus, born of the Anician family, At the time when Theodoric Augustus in Elder Rome ^a, and in the New, Justin the Elder and Justinian ^b held the sceptres of the Roman empire, and John the first and Felix ^c presided over the Apostolic See, Tertullus, a most noble and most distinguished man, and in both courts of the Roman empire second to none after the Augusti, a most illustrious and most beloved man, held the reins of the Patriciate ^d in Elder Rome. He, drawing the line of his lineage from the blood of the Anicii, flourished so greatly in wisdom, fortitude and prudence that he was called Father of the fatherland by the emperors and the whole Roman people. He, taking a wife from the family of the Octavian house, most beautiful in body and in character, received from her the good fruits of a good tree. For first Placidus, second Eutychius, third Victorinus; and when in the fourth place she had borne a girl, since she was descended from the stock of the Octavii and Flavii, they named her Flavia ^e. When she had borne these to the said patrician, she taught them to follow the way of the Lord, to pursue patience, humility, sobriety, chastity and charity. For they were fathers of the poor, judges of widows; and the cause which they knew not they searched out most diligently. The mind of the patrician himself, though he was entangled in imperial business, was nevertheless always about the churches or about the monasteries, always seeking the things that are God's. At the same time the most blessed Benedict, most beloved of God, like the morning star among the stars, was shining at Subiaco ^f. Many then began to flock to him in that same place, and to tame the necks of their hearts under the gentle yoke of the Redeemer, and many were gathered by the same Father in that same region to the service of almighty God; so that he built twelve monasteries there, in which he appointed twelve monks each under appointed Superiors: some, however, he kept with him, whom he judged were still more fittingly to be instructed in his presence.

[5] St. Benedict, a boy of seven delivered to him by his father, The fame of so great a father, then, flying through the whole Roman empire, filled like a radiant sun the city of Rome itself, which is the head of the Roman empire and of all cities, to such a degree that it reached the ears of the patrician Tertullus. He, when with * the chief men of the Roman empire, in the times of Pope Julius ^g, and in the year of the divine Incarnation five hundred and XXII, he had come to the most holy father Benedict, a most excellent man, and lofty and singular of the emperor in the Roman world, clothed in purple, radiant with gems and gold, throws himself at his feet, and with tears and sobs entreated him to implore the clemency of the Lord for his offences. The man of the Lord Benedict, observing the humility of the patrician, lifted him from the ground, and instructed him sufficiently in those things which pertain to eternal life. The same patrician, delighted with the teaching of the servant of the Lord, on that day offered to God and to the same father Benedict his son Placidus, seven years old ^h, to be nurtured and instructed according to the norm of the regular institute ⁱ: and so, fortified with a blessing, he returned to the City.

[6] The most holy Placidus, then, growing up under the regular teaching of the most blessed Benedict, from the danger of drowning began to lead a life holy and pleasing to God in all things. The man of God, seeing him grow towards lofty things, and loving him singularly as his own son, began carefully to instruct him in the things that are God's, and to fortify him against tempting vices; he from the very time of his boyhood followed abstinence and vigils ^k. For, tending in swift course towards the heavenly fatherland, he did not cease to aim at arduous and holier things, and night and day, at every hour and moment, he did not cease to seek the things that are God's. He so claimed for himself the path of obedience that for this he was held admirable by the most holy Benedict himself. One day, when water was lacking in the cell, blessed Placidus went out to draw water from the lake: and when he had carelessly let down into the water the vessel he was holding, he himself also followed it by falling, and the wave at once seized him, and drew him inwards from the land nearly the distance of a bowshot. O inexpressible clemency of the Saviour! O, I say, divine watchfulness never failing over His elect unto the end of the world! For He was with Placidus in the water, lest he be killed, who had been with Peter on the sea, lest he sink. This that excellent Psalmist had prefigured when he said: "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy paths in many waters ^l." But what does the cunning of the ancient enemy avail against the power of God? For as soon as the holy Placidus fell into the water, the Holy Spirit, who holds the principal place in the hearts of the Saints, revealed the event to the most holy father Benedict. He instantly called blessed Maurus with great haste, saying: Brother Maurus, run quickly, for the boy Placidus, who had gone to draw water, has fallen into the lake, and the wave is already carrying him far off.

[7] A wonderful thing, and unheard of in all past ages since Peter the Apostle! snatches through his disciple Maurus, For having asked for and received a blessing, Maurus went off in haste at his father's command, and to that place where holy Placidus was being carried by the wave, thinking he was going over land, ran upon the waters ^m, and seized blessed Placidus by the hair, and returned at a rapid run. As soon as he touched land, Maurus, coming to himself, looked behind him, and recognized that he had run upon the waters, and what he could not have presumed to be done he marvelled at and dreaded when done; and returning to the father he set forth quite fully and in order what had been wrought in him. But the man of the Lord Benedict began to attribute this not to his own merits but to the obedience of Maurus; Maurus, on the contrary, said it was done by his command alone, and that he was not privy to that miracle which he had done unknowingly. But into this friendly contest of mutual humility came as arbiter Placidus, the boy who had been rescued. For he said: When I was being drawn out of the water, I saw the abbot's sheepskin over my head, and I perceived that he himself was bringing me out of the waters. Here it is plainly to be considered what Placidus was under the teaching of father Benedict, to whom almighty God granted to perceive what was not permitted to blessed Maurus to behold. Say, say now, venomous serpent, what has your savagery profited * you? Where now is your victory? Behold, your throat has been pierced by the auger of Christ: holy Placidus has been snatched from the waters, at whose fall you rejoiced not moderately. O admirable holiness of a most blessed man! who judged that what he did not doubt was brought about by his own merits should rather be ascribed to the obedience of his disciple.

[8] and then, while staying at Subiaco, Of these monasteries which father Benedict had built in that same place, three were up among the rocks of the mountain, and it was very laborious for the brethren always to go down to the lake when they had to draw water, especially since, from the steep side of the mountain, there was grave danger on the way to those going down. Then the brethren of those three monasteries, having gathered together, came to the most blessed father Benedict, saying: It is very laborious for us, O father, to go down every day to the lake for water; and therefore it is necessary that the monasteries be moved from that place. The venerable father, having gently consoled them, ordered them to go back to their places. But in the following night, together with the most blessed Placidus, his disciple, he climbed to the summit of the mountain, and, making prayer there, placed three stones in that place for a sign, and returned with Placidus to his monastery, all those others not knowing. And when on another day the aforesaid brethren had come for the need of water, he said: Go to that rock on which you will find three stones placed one upon another; dig a little there; for almighty God is able to bring forth water even on that summit of the mountain, that He may deign to take from you the labour of so long a way. Going, they found the rock already sweating. And when they had made a hollow place in it, at once it was filled with water, which flowed out so sufficiently that until now it runs down abundantly and is led from that summit of the mountain down to the lower parts. Let no one, then, doubt that the most blessed Placidus was a sharer in so great a miracle, whom his blessed master wished to have as the only one privy to this sign ⁿ.

[9] then from there, because of Florentius And when all those places were glowing far and wide with the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and many were leaving the secular life, a certain priest, Florentius by name ^o, inebriated with the poison of the ancient enemy, began to envy the endeavours of the holy father, and whomever he could, from his

visitation to restrain. And when he now saw that he could not stand in the way of his progress, he sent him bread infected with poison as if for a blessing [p]. The man of the Lord received it with thanksgiving, but what pestilence lay hidden in the bread did not lie hidden from him. Now at the hour of his meal a raven was accustomed to come from the neighbouring wood, and the man of God threw down before the raven the bread which the priest had sent, and commanded it, saying: In the name of Jesus Christ take up this bread and throw it in such a place that it can be found by no man. Then the raven, with open beak and spread wings, began to run about that bread and to croak, as if it were saying openly both that it wished to obey and yet could not fulfil the command. To it the man of God commanded again and again, saying: Lift it, lift it without fear, and throw it where it cannot be found. After delaying over it for a long time, the raven at length took it in its beak, lifted it and went away. After the space of three hours, having cast away the bread, it returned, and received from the hand of the man of God the ration it was accustomed to. The venerable father, seeing the priest's mind burn against his life, grieved for him more than for himself.

[10] But the aforesaid Florentius, since he could not kill the body of the master, the machinations of the priest, kindled himself to extinguish the souls of the Disciples, so that he sent into the garden of the cell in which Benedict dwelt, before their eyes, seven naked girls, who, holding one another's hands in their presence and playing for a long time, were to inflame their minds to the perversity of lust. The holy man, seeing this from his cell, and fearing a fall for his more tender disciples Placidus and Maurus, ordered them to be guarded, and resolved to give place to envy. While he was turning these things over with anxious mind, a heavenly revelation deigned to exhort him with such an oracle: Why, most sweet and most beloved Benedict, are you sad? Do you not remember what I spoke to My disciples, saying: "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you [q]." For another way must be chosen by you, another road sought. For I have chosen you out of all who dwell in the world. You, being the heavenly trumpet of My Gospel, are filled with My spirit. Arise now, and go to the stronghold of Cassino, and the people of that province, who still serve the abominable worship of idols, and in whose hearts the cunning of Satan reigns, who know or say nothing but what the cunning of the aged serpent has written in their hearts, preaching with truthful speech, strive to convert to My worship; for I will be with you, and will not forsake you, and I will confound all your adversaries. Set out to the battle against the idols, be strengthened and be robust, for I will deliver the stronghold to you, and there the seat of your name shall be for ever.

[11] When the holy father Benedict had heard such things, calling his disciples to him, departing to Cassino, he began to speak to them thus: Hear me, brethren and sons, co-heirs and companions in the promise of the eternal King. For my Lord Jesus Christ has commanded me to go to the stronghold of Cassino to exterminate the worship of idols and consign it to eternal oblivion; and therefore the will of God is by all means to be put before our wills. You know besides, and know well, how many deceits and how many snares the priest Florentius has brought upon us, who wished to kill me with poison, and to extinguish the souls of my disciples Placidus and Maurus. Wherefore we must yield the place, according to that saying of the eternal King: "If they persecute you in one city, flee into another [r]." And since it is so, and the command of the same our Lord Jesus Christ is pressing, we must obey, we must go. Besides this, there is also this law for us, that we open the bowels of compassion to all, and with the fraternal love of charity bring help to all mortals, as we too have received from the Lord Jesus Christ. But you, stand, and remain in the grace and conversation of holy religion, knowing without doubt that the more zealously you have persevered in spiritual disciplines, the greater rewards you will receive on the future day of examination [s]. When he had said these things, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation five hundred and twenty-nine, in the times of Justin [t] the monocrator [u], he ordered all the oratories which he had built, twelve brethren being attached in each one under appointed Superiors, and, with two Angels and three ravens accompanying him, he began to go to the stronghold of Cassino [x].

[12] he takes as companion And when he had come near the city of Alatri [y], he was received in hospitality in the monastery of the holy martyr of Christ Sebastian [z]. Departing from there also, and bidding farewell to the holy deacon Servandus [aa], the man of God, with his disciples Placidus and Maurus [bb], came near the city of Herculanum [cc], namely to a place which was called Aureola by the inhabitants; when he had arrived in it, he recognized through the Holy Spirit that there would be a Congregation of religious men there, and making with his own hands the foundations for a church to be built, he commanded his disciples Placidus and Maurus to bring to completion that same church founded by him in honour of the holy martyr of Christ Erasmus [dd], and so to come to Cassino, which they also did. The most holy father himself, proceeding from there, made for Cassino. But when he was travelling alone through unknown places, wherever a fork of two or three roads met him, two Angels, as we said before, were present in the form of young men, who showed so great a father whither he ought to direct his step through the wilds of the mountains. In that same place a certain holy man, named Martin [ee], then had his dwelling, to whom it was said by God thus:

Spare these places; another friend is at hand [ff].

He, at once lending his ear to the divine commands, made for Mount Marsicus [gg], and there closed with a holy end a life glorious with virtues.

[13] and as helper And when father Benedict had come to the stronghold of Cassino [hh] [ii], he remained for forty days not far from the temple of Apollo, praying to almighty God. At length he broke the idol, overturned the altars, cut down the groves, and with his disciples Placidus and Maurus founded the monastery of Cassino, and by his bodily rest in it and by the writing of the Rule established it as the head of all monasteries. Where the temple of Apollo was, he built the church of blessed Martin: and where the altar of Apollo was, an Oratory * of St. John, and converted the peoples dwelling round about to the faith of Christ. But the ancient enemy, not bearing these things in silence, thrust himself before the eyes of the same father, not secretly or in a dream, but in open vision, so that even Placidus and Maurus heard his voices, though they did not see his image at all. For, as the same father told his disciples Placidus and Maurus, the most foul devil appeared to his bodily eyes, and all on fire, and seemed to rage against him with flaming mouth and eyes.

[14] in founding the monastery of Cassino One day, while the most holy men Placidus and Maurus were building the dwellings of the monastery of Cassino, a stone lay in the midst which they had decided to lift into the building. And when they could not move it, more were added: but it remained as immovable as if it were held in the earth by roots; so that it was plainly given to be understood that the ancient enemy himself sat upon it in person, since the hands of such men could not move it. A difficulty having thus arisen, Placidus and Maurus sent to the man of God that he should come and by praying drive off the enemy, so that they might be able to lift the stone. As soon as he came, he gave himself to prayer, and the stone was lifted with such speed as if it had had no weight before. Then it seemed good, in the sight of the man of God, that they should dig the earth in that same place; and when by digging they had penetrated deeper, the brethren found there a bronze idol. This having been thrown for the time being by chance into the kitchen, fire suddenly seemed to come out, and showed to the eyes of Placidus and the other brethren that the whole building of that kitchen was being consumed. And when, by throwing water and as it were extinguishing the fire, they were making a great din, the man of God, struck by the same tumult, came. He, perceiving that the fire was in the eyes of the brethren but not in his own, forthwith bowed his head in prayer, and those brethren whom he found deceived by the phantom fire he recalled to their own eyes, so that they saw that building of the kitchen standing sound, and did not see the flames which the ancient enemy had feigned.

[15] Again, while the holy one of the Lord Placidus was building a wall a little higher with the brethren, monastery; the devil appeared to the man of God as he was engaged in prayer, and indicated that he was going to the brethren at work. This the man of God sent word of most quickly by a messenger, saying to the brethren: Brethren, act cautiously, for at this hour the evil spirit is coming to you. He who brought the message had scarcely finished the words when the devil overturned the wall that was being built, and, crushing a little boy monk named Severus [kk], ground him with the ruin; carrying him in a cloak to father Benedict, having not only his limbs but even his bones crushed, they threw him down on the mat * on which the holy father was accustomed to pray; and making prayer, in the same hour he restored him sound and strong as before, and sent him again to the same labour, that he himself might complete the wall with Placidus and the brethren, over whose death the ancient enemy had believed he was insulting Benedict.

[16] When, then, it had come to the ears of Tertullus, patrician of the Roman court, that the father of St. Placidus that the holy one of the Lord Benedict, together with Placidus, son of that same patrician, and his disciple Maurus, had built a monastery on his possession of Cassino, he rejoiced with great joy, and took pains to direct his Son to find out the will of father Benedict concerning his coming and send it back to him; for he said that he wished, if it pleased the servant of the Lord, to see both the monastery of Cassino and his son Placidus. When the same holy Placidus had disclosed these things to father Benedict, the man of God answered that it pleased him that both the same patrician and his friends should come to see the monastery. Placidus took pains to send to Tertullus his father a fixed day on which he should come to see the monastery, and in accordance with what father Benedict had given in charge. He, at once summoning to him the most noble men of the city of Rome, namely Boethius, Symmachus, Vitalianus [ll], Gordianus and Equitius [mm], having mounted horses, came at a swift pace to Cassino, the estate of his possession which had fallen to him by paternal inheritance. When his coming had been announced to father Benedict, he goes out with his disciples Placidus and Maurus before the gate of the monastery to meet him. The patrician, seeing the most blessed father Benedict exhausted in body through abstinence, quickly got down from the horse on which * he had been sitting, and, just as he was, adorned with gold and gems, falling to the earth, kissed his footsteps. The most holy father, lifting him from the ground and pressing him to his breast, kissed him. Then, leading him into the church of the holy confessor of Christ Martin [nn], and bursting into tears for joy,

he led him and the rest into the assembly of the brethren. Tertullus, having kissed the whole Congregation, asked father Benedict that the brethren would deign to receive him into their fellowship. And when he had speedily obtained what he asked with the greatest devotion, together with the patricians, consuls and senators who had come with him, he offered to God and to the same most blessed father Benedict the whole of Monte Cassino entire, with all its appurtenances, and, cutting it off from his own right, delivered it to the same father to be possessed in perpetuity. And calling to him the chief secretary of the commonwealth [oo], he had a testament drawn up according to Roman custom, decreeing that the same place should remain perpetually alien from the right and dominion of all mortals.

[17] Tertullus, Likewise henceforth he offered to the same father the strongholds, estates and possessions [pp] which belonged to him by inheritance, with all their appendages, having these boundaries: on one side the river Volturnus, on another the river Liris, on the third the river Sacco, on the fourth side the municipality of Carsioli, with all things that were held at that time within the aforesaid boundaries. The house, moreover, in which Placidus his son had been born, in the city of Rome on the Caelian hill, dedicating it to the name of blessed Erasmus, he granted wholly to the most holy father. He also offered on that very day to God and His Saints the half of the Lucrine lake, and also the island of Capraria situated in the Neapolitan sea, and the port of Trajetto and of Ultrano, and the whole fishery of Lesina together with its fascia, and at the same time the three islands of Diomedes and the river Lauro near the fishery of Lesina. His own properties which he had in Apulia he likewise granted at the request of his son Placidus, whose names are these: in Canusium the estate Melitensis, Podensis, the estate Pertusa, the field Caliensis, the hamlet Babolianum, and the church of St. Mary built in the same city of Canusium, with these courts: Mirazanum, Plazanum, the pastures of the plain, the Roman Lake. In the territory of Capua, the estate Patenariensis and Amortonum. In the Corsine territory, the estate Curritanum, Laudanensis, Melassanum, Funiclirum, and also his properties in the Maiella, where afterwards the monastery of the Lord Saviour was built by the same father Benedict, together with all that the same patrician was seen to possess there, namely these regions: Chieti, Abruzzo, Penne, Ascoli, Fermo; on the Adriatic sea the port of Sabinus and the port of Maurinus; in Liguria these courts: Adili, Musalinum, Montiro, Fraguanelum, Rongalia, Campodulsum Laurentianum, Argelae, Ragogusosa, Calderaria, Frassevetula, Serata, Petrosa, Pons longus Berseli, Gremanum, Moncerio. In the sea of Gaeta these islands: Ponza, Ventotene, Palmarola, and the port of the river Garigliano. All these the patrician Tertullus, with Placidus his son, delivered to father Benedict in writing to be possessed in perpetuity.

[18] and other Roman guests, Emulating him for good, the senator Equitius also, together with his son Maurus, offered the estate Gentianum with the cell of St. Agapitus, and his court situated in the city of Naples, with the church of the holy virgin of Christ Cecilia and of St. Severinus. In Sorrento, Sariintravi, in which churches were afterwards sited by father Benedict, and also the church of St. Mary in Cosenza. Gordianus also, a man of rank of the Roman city, delighted by their devotion, offered for himself and Silvia his wife the estate Enchelia, situated in the suburb of Aquino, with its appurtenances between these boundaries: on one side the Silex and the Brook which was afterwards named from the name of blessed Maurus; on another the Long Field and the Brook which goes through the field of Matilia Famelica, and the river Caruellus; on another from the brook of Silvaricus as far as the Silex. In like manner also he offered the estate Granarium between these boundaries, which begins from St. Firmanus and goes straight into Camarda, and thence into the river Melfa, thence into the boundary below Granarium, and goes to the mount of St. Angelus. He granted also the estate of Regina between these boundaries: on one side it has the Latin Way, on another the Silex, on another the river Melfa and the Campanian Way, thence into Portaritia, and it goes into the ditch and runs into the Silex. All these, with very many other things, the same most illustrious Gordianus offered to the same most holy father Benedict to be possessed by perpetual right.

[19] At the same time the aforesaid patrician Tertullus, at the urging of his most holy son Placidus, offered to the most blessed and venerable father Benedict eighteen courts of his patrimony, endow with ample possessions. which he had in Sicily [qq] and possessed, a very powerful man, in divers places, very good and great, with their ports, woods, waters, fisheries, mills and water-courses belonging to the same courts, with seven thousand slaves, excepting their wives and sons, with the agents of the same courts; and, cutting off the same courts from his own right, he delivered them to the same father by a precept to be possessed in perpetuity, a penalty of fourteen thousand talents of gold being set upon whoever should attempt to remove it. In these days too a certain Gordianus [rr], a Roman by nation, excellently learned in Greek letters, came to the venerable father Benedict and submitted himself to his teaching. The most blessed Placidus, when the strength of manly age had come upon him, took pains to submit himself in all things to his master Benedict, and in his presence began to lead an angelic life on earth; and father Benedict, loving him as his own only son, instructed him carefully and diligently, with the greatest industry, in the things that are God's.

ANNOTATA.

l. Psalm 76, verse 19.

p. That is, as a gift.

q. John, chapter 15, verse 20.

r. So, roughly, it is read in Matthew 10, verse 23.

s. This speech, attributed to St. Benedict, presents not his own words to his monks as he departed for Cassino, but the style of the writer of the Acts; who not seldom attributes elsewhere not dissimilar speeches devised by himself to St. Placidus and others; which it may suffice to have noted once.

t. Read: Justinian. See here the Annotations at letter b.

u. That is, one who alone holds the empire of affairs, or, as they say, monarch.

The same things are read in the poem of Mark on St. Benedict, in Mabillon, tome 1 of the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, page 29. Of the Angels, companions of St. Benedict, he sings thus:

For He Christ led two young men to every fork of the road, To confirm you in the path you were to follow.

And of the ravens:

Let me be thought to speak fictions, unless, lest you should go away alone, Three ravens suddenly earned the right to follow you.

y. Read: Aletrinam; now it is Alatri, which is also Aletrium, a city of Old Latium among the Hernici.

z. Liberius the patrician founded it, as Gregory writes, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 35.

aa. The cited Gregory also mentions Servandus; but I have not found him called Saint either in Gregory or elsewhere.

bb. Maurus seems, when St. Benedict went away from Subiaco, to have remained there, from Gregory, cited chapter 8. See number 92 of the preliminary Commentary and the two following.

cc. Namely Veroli, another city of Latium among the Hernici, obedient to the Pontiff.

dd. I gave an account of the monastery of St. Erasmus in the territory of Veroli at number 99 of the preliminary Commentary.

ee. Gregory mentions this Martin, book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter 16; and the Roman Martyrology at the 24th day of October.

ff. This verse is copied from the poet Mark, disciple of St. Benedict.

gg. Mount Marsicus or Massicus is situated in Campania in Italy near Calenum, called Carinola by the Italians.

hh. You have an account of Cassino at number 104 and following of the preliminary Commentary. Further, what Pseudo-Gordianus narrates in this number and the two following is drawn in great part from Gregory the Great. See numbers 102, 106 and 107 of the preliminary Commentary.

ii. Namely in the year 529, as Pseudo-Gordianus indeed says above at number XI.

kk. Gregory kept silent about the name of the boy crushed by the wall; Pseudo-Gordianus called him Severus, very likely following a faulty codex, which has Of Severus, a little one of God instead of Of a little servant of God. See number 107 of the preliminary Commentary.

ll. Behold Pseudo-Gordianus fallen into a shameful error. He said above at number XI that Benedict went away to Cassino in the year 529; whom, the monastery at Cassino having been built, Tertullus, as he says here, visited. But see whom he makes companions to Tertullus: Boethius, Symmachus and Vitalianus. Boethius and Symmachus were ordered to be killed by Theodoric, who was not living after the year 526, and who died a little after the death of Boethius and Symmachus, before Justinian, who began to reign in the year 527, obtained the empire, as Procopius writes, book 1 of the Gothic War, chapters 1 and 2. And the same Vitalianus, as I think, is designated here who subscribes to the fictitious instrument of Tertullus's donation: but he had been stripped of consulate and life together already in the year 520. See number 54 of the preliminary Commentary and following.

mm. The father of St. Maurus, as is clear from number 18 below.

nn. There is mention of this church in St. Gregory, book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 8.

oo. The chief of the secretaries.

pp. In the Appendix of the Chronicle of Cassino, page 781 and the three following, is read a fictitious diploma of the emperor Justinian, by which he confirms the donations made by Tertullus to the monastery of Cassino: the names of the possessions are expressed somewhat differently; but corruptly in both. Among them are not a few whose site I have sought in vain; and to describe here the site of the rest I have judged would be more tedious than useful to the reader.

qq. Leo Marsicanus mentions only this donation; but in general, book 1 of the Chronicle of Cassino, chapter 1.

rr. The very one, namely, whom they would have to be the writer of these Acts, and the companion of St. Placidus in Sicily, who died at length at Syracuse; concerning whom see what is found in Octavio Gaetani, tome 1 of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, page 187, where he is also given the title of Blessed and Saint. He was dealt with briefly at the XVIII day of March among the Passed Over.

* supply: with

* a kind of garment made of hair or skins.

* venomous

* profited

* oratory

* mat

* on which

CHAPTER II.

St. Placidus takes the road to Sicily, and is renowned for a multitude of wonders.

The Benedictine cause, disturbed in Sicily, About the same time the agents of the courts ^a which the patrician Tertullus had granted to father Benedict in Sicily sent envoys to Cassino to the most blessed father Benedict, because the courts ^b themselves were being laid waste by all and sundry, so that they could in no way be defended by the agents, nor the due dues be exacted from the holders. The venerable father, having heard these things, called together the whole Congregation and set forth in order what had been done in his possessions and reported to him. At length, by the counsel of the Congregation of Cassino, judging his most holy disciple Placidus most fit to sustain so great a labour, chiefly because no one could defend and guard those possessions as he could, he summons him, and, directing him to the protection of those courts, said to him: Gird up your loins like a man, most beloved, to undertake the labour of the warfare which Christ, the King of all, who became obedient unto death, now gives you through me. Remember, then, His words when He said: "I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me, the Father ^c." Let not the hardship of a long journey disturb you; remember that Apostolic saying: "For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us ^d," and: "Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God ^e." For those who have contended for the name of Christ in this life will receive in the future an eternal recompense, namely that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him. And may Jesus Christ the Son of God be always with you, and lead you to the fellowship of eternal life.

[21] St. Placidus, to restore it, in the year 536, When he had finished speaking these words, he gave Gordianus and Donatus as fellow soldiers of so great a journey, charging them to obey the blessed Placidus, his only and most dear one, in all things just as they had obeyed himself hitherto; and kissing blessed Placidus and blessing him, he dismissed him from him in the year of the Lord's Incarnation five hundred and thirty-six ^f. Having received, then, the blessing and the kiss of so great a Father, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June the most blessed Placidus, with his two servants Gordianus and Donatus, having mounted horses, starting on his journey at first dawn, reached the city of Capua ^g as day was already drawing towards evening, where he was received kindly with his companions by blessed Germanus ^h, bishop of that city. Now the Primicerius ⁱ of that same church of Capua, named Zoffas, suffering greatly from a most grievous infirmity of the head, which physicians call by the Greek word Cephalea, when he learned that Placidus was there, disciple of the most blessed father Benedict, the fame of whose miracles was already shining through the whole Roman world ^k, fell down at his feet, saying: I adjure you, Placidus, servant of the most high God, by the venerable name of your most precious master Benedict, that you deign to lay your holy hands upon my head and pour forth prayers to the Redeemer and Saviour of all; for I trust and most constantly believe that, if you do this, I shall at once receive health.

[22] and at Capua of wonders The holy one of the Lord Placidus, when he had heard such words from the same primicerius, struck with dread, began to refuse in every way, saying: Depart, for these things are not mine, but of the most blessed father Benedict and of those who have pleased the Saviour of all. For I am a sinner, and in need of the suffrages of most perfect men. But the holy bishop Germanus, together with his clergy, hearing these things from the mouth of the servant of the Lord Placidus, and foreknowing that he was most dear and most beloved to God and men, overcome by the prayers of the primicerius, began to beg him most insistently for the health of the same sick man. The man of the Lord, judging that the supplication of so great a father was by no means to be despised, raised himself, and rising laid his hand upon his head, and lifting his eyes to heaven said: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose power I was snatched unhurt from the waters by which I was being carried off, aided by the merits and prayers of our master Benedict, if you have faith of so great a belief, may God restore you to your former health. And when all who were present had answered, Amen, at once the pain of the head, by which he had been wearied for many years, departed from him, and he began to praise and bless God, saying: Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made me whole by the merits and intercessions of the most blessed father Benedict, through his most holy disciple Placidus.

[23] While, then, the holiness of blessed Placidus was flying through the mouths of all, he makes a beginning: a certain blind man, struck by the unexpected clamour of the people shouting, began anxiously to ask what it was. And when they had answered that Placidus, the disciple of blessed Benedict, had come, the blind man, fervent in faith, had himself led before blessed Placidus, asking him by the holy and terrible name of the Lord, and adjuring him, that by his holy prayers he would obtain health from the Lord. The holy one of the Lord Placidus, bursting into tears according to his custom, ordered him to be brought to him, and, when he had drawn near, making the sign of the saving Cross over his eyes, prayed to the Lord, saying: Mediator of God and men, Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to earth for this, that Thou mightest enlighten those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, who didst confer so great grace on our most blessed master Benedict that he should succour all sicknesses and wounds, do Thou through his merits restore light to this blind man, that, seeing Thy mighty works, he may venerate and adore Thee as father, Thee as lord. The prayer finished, the Saint of the Lord, turning to the blind man, said: In the name of Him who set the sun and moon for the adornment of the heaven, and bestowed on the man born blind the eyes which nature had denied, aided by the merits of our most holy master Benedict, rise whole and unharmed, and proclaim to all the wonders of God. At this voice, rising whole, and blood unexpectedly flowing from his eye, his eyes marvellously recovered their health. As soon as he saw the light, rushing to his footsteps, insatiate with joy, he began most eagerly to kiss his feet, Gordianus and Donatus likewise weeping for compunction, who praised the mighty works of God, because He had restored the eyes to the same blind man. And these things indeed were done in the presence of the holy bishop Germanus.

[24] When the Saint of the Lord had departed from there also, and was making his way near the city of Calatia ^l, thence the territory a certain sick man met him, complaining that the dwellers of that region were suffering from a grievous weariness. The man of God, marvelling at his faith, having first offered prayer, signing all the sick who were present with the standard of the saving Cross, restored them to their former health. At that time a certain woman, having a little son gasping at his last breath, now on the very point of dying, brought him before the holy one of the Lord Placidus, saying: Placidus, most honourable father, who have restored the joys of health to very many, regard, I beg, the voice of your handmaid, attend to her weeping, receive her prayers, and give back to me my only son, now placed at his last, that, full of joy and empty of groaning, I may be able to praise the mighty works of Him who rules all things. You see the unhappy woman's loss, death wresting it from her: either restore my son to me, or let me be buried together with him. Have mercy, father Placidus, on a wretched woman whom grief makes bold, I adjure you by your master Benedict. As she asked tearfully, at once, as soon as the right hand of blessed Placidus had impressed the sign of the saving Cross upon the dying child, as if awaking from sleep he sought his mother's breasts, who was already growing cold in death. So in a moment of time the son is taken from the jaws of death, the mother from the funeral of mourning. Thanks are rendered by all to the Creator and governor, the holiness of father Benedict is proclaimed by the mouth of all, who was worthy to nurture such a disciple, by whom diseases and sicknesses were continually commanded. After this there was brought to him a certain paralytic, bearing the functions of all his limbs condemned, and retaining no vigour of foot or right hand. The holy one of the Lord Placidus, who bestowed large gifts on mortals, made over him the sign of the saving Cross, and at once the disease is shut out, healthy vigour flows in, and, his inward parts refreshed, he is reborn better by health than by birth; acquiring more and receiving more from the gift than he received from his origin.

[25] going through the territory of Calatia, Meanwhile another man, since he was grievously afflicted with the quartan type ^m, trusting in the favour of God, took pains to meet blessed Placidus; and the holy Man, seeing him worn out, poured forth prayer to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who didst cure the mother-in-law of Thine Apostle Peter and the servant of the Centurion with a word alone, I beseech Thee, through the suffrages of Thy most beloved servant, our master Benedict, show to this sick man the harbour of health. He had not yet finished the words, and, as though by the rush of a river, the fire of the quartan fever

was extinguished, and rising whole he gave praise to the Most High. In these days, further, a certain lame man, scarcely carried by two, was presented to him, who was dumb and lame; his tongue was stiff and immovable, his breathing gasping; he was wholly a part of the grave, so that to the eyes of beholders what remained was a corpse. Over him, as father Placidus mercifully impressed the sign of the saving Cross, at once all greenness is diffused through his limbs, the flow of the veins is roused as if it were a brook, the stupor of the feeble sinews is shaken off, the whole frame is renewed by natural motion to the use of life. Presently the plectrum of the tongue and the knuckles of the fingers are stretched out, the bases of the feet are made firm, and the whole mass of the inward parts. To touch was for Placidus to give life, and as the remedy took effect, giving thanks to God, he kissed the footsteps of the Saint. At that time also a certain man, approaching the Saint of the Lord, began to entreat that either he himself or his envoys ⁿ should come to his friend. But since access was difficult for the Servant of the Lord, he put it off for a little. And on the next day, being prevailed upon, he took pains to go to him, who under a double torturer was on the one hand oppressed by ill-health, on the other tormented by the wound of gout. The Man of the Lord, having first offered prayer, signed him, and in the same moment the feeble man, his hands straightened, leapt up from his long sickness with firm step. But that the mystery of health might then be doubled, the health which went before in one came to another.

[26] not a few wonders For a certain man having a daughter dumb, blind and deaf, lays the living corpse before the footsteps of the holy Man, saying: Most holy Father, whatever remains to you of medicine, spend it on this sick girl. For we believe it is reserved to you that, her health restored, she may acquire from you what she lost by birth ^o. Then signal compassion is called forth in tears. Presently Placidus, the warrior, turns to the arms of his warfare; to obtain the victory he offers prayers, the chief pleader among pleaders. The holy man, rising from prayer, making the sign of the saving Cross over the sick girl, in that moment, the sickness being driven off in the threefold name of the Trinity, at once the passages of the ears and eyes being opened, all applauding, the dumb girl was made to speak, the deaf to hear, the blind to see. This done, all gave praise to the Most High, and to Placidus, disciple of the most blessed father Benedict. Another besides, an inhabitant of the Roman city, when he had fallen into a very bad type [p] of infirmity, was brought to the Saint of the Lord and restored to his former health. These having thus been touched upon, let us pursue the rest also. A certain burgess besides, of no unknown family, having put his hand into the wound of someone, it swelled up entirely; the heat raging from this, the whole part of the arm is loosened with putrefaction. He, sending a message to the Saint of the Lord that he would turn aside to him, obtained it by pouring out prayers. But as soon as the Man of God fortified his arm with the sacred Standard, the wonderful physician, whatever of ulcer was in it, bound up by the precious sign. Meanwhile, since the hands of another man had been contracted, he ran to the most holy Man, the disease urging him on, and he restored him to his former health by the sacred sign with prayer added. Things more wonderful succeed to wonderful things, to the glory of Christ. A certain man besides, when he was sharply beset by an unclean spirit, was brought into the presence of the holy Man to be cured. The most holy Father restoring him to health, while those standing around saw it, a counterfeit shadow went out from the head of the possessed man like smoke.

[27] At that time also there was brought to the Man of God a sick man, illustrates everywhere: in whom there was a double disease, on the one hand old age, on the other blindness, who began to beg for health with trembling words. Father Placidus, moved by this supplication, prayer going before, by the sign of the holy Cross the lamps of the eyes of the sick and feeble old man give back the ray of light, and the mirror of the Cross being given, the darkness fled. He, enlightened, rendered glory to God the Father, through whom Christ works, and spread abroad the praises of the Saint on every side; diseases are numbered, that Christ may be glorified, the fountain of the most holy father Placidus. For a certain sick man was so distended in head, eyes and all his inward parts by the disease of dropsy that his whole belly was drawn out in its vitals as it were into the likeness of a wine-skin, and, like glass, the infected skin shone through outwardly; who, despaired of by the physicians, fled to the Blessed one, a remedy of last resort; and as soon as he was stripped of his garments and fortified with the sign of the most sacred Cross, the enclosed liquid of the dropsy is consumed by the impression of the sacred Sign. Thus in an admirable manner the fluid was neither retained within nor went out without; by a praiseworthy art he dried up the fluid with the sign. He who had been sick, perceiving the divine benefit wrought in him through the most blessed Placidus, began to praise and bless God, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who hast restored to me health by the merits of Thy most holy servant Benedict through the most precious Placidus, his disciple, I bless Thee.

[28] When the Man of the Lord was already drawing near the Caudine Forks [q], having advanced to the Caudine Forks, a blind man, a certain blind man came to him to ask for light. When the Saint of the Lord saw him, he ordered him to be brought to him. And when he had drawn near, laying his hands upon his closed eyes, and turning his own eyes to heaven, he prayed to the Lord, saying: Light of the world, O God, who in the end of times didst appoint Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be incarnate of the Virgin, who didst mercifully raise up through Thy aforesaid Son the world lying in the pit of sin, who didst give our most blessed father Benedict as mirror and lawgiver to Thy Church, who didst give him power to heal all wounds and sicknesses, do Thou through his holy intercession deign to bestow the joys of light on this wretched man placed in darkness. And when he had completed the prayer, impressing on his eyes the sign of the light-bearing Cross, he said: May our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who restored light to the man born blind, enlighten you. These words said, as soon as he impressed the sign of the Cross upon his eyes, light shone forth, and the power of the Cross made all the labour of the physician cease.

[29] an infirm woman, Meanwhile a certain woman, when she was held by a most grievous infirmity, having heard the fame of the holy Man's miracles, began anxiously to ask whence there was such great joy among the people. And when they had answered that Placidus, disciple of the most blessed father Benedict, was passing that way, who gives light to the blind, puts demons to flight, and imparts divine gifts to all who suffer need, the woman, fervent with faith in God and hope in the Saint of the Lord, took pains to go to him. The most holy Man, foreknowing things to come, seeing the woman coming, began to ask whence, or for what cause, she had wished to come to him. She, throwing herself at his footsteps, said: It is long, reverend Father, that, afflicted by a lasting sickness, I have wholly lost the benefit of health. Whence I have come as a suppliant to entreat your Paternity to hear the prayers of your handmaid: for I trust and confidently believe that through your holy intercession the Lord will show His grace in me. Placidus, marvelling at the woman's faith and devotion, with hands spread out to heaven, prayed to the Lord, saying: Light, eternal God, life, way, glory, lofty wisdom of Thy own, drive out, I beseech Thee, all sickness from Thy handmaid, that, restored to health, she may be able to pay proclamations of thanks to Thy holy name. Scarcely had holy Placidus finished the words in prayer, and, health returning, the woman, rising in haste at the word of the Man of God, began most devoutly to sing the offices of praise to Him who works wonders in heaven and on earth, confessing that the benefit of health had come to her by the intervention of Placidus.

[30] a fever-stricken man, a man with a withered hand, a possessed man, While these things were creeping through the mouths of those dwelling around, a certain man, fever-stricken for a very long time, lay in his bed. When the miracles of the most blessed Placidus had been related to him, going with what speed he could to blessed Placidus, he asked a blessing of him. The holy Man, fortifying him with the standard of the life-giving Cross, said: The Lord God bless you out of Sion, that you may see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of your life. At this voice of the Man, then, the strength of the sickness withdrew, the pain was put to flight, and it turned all the bystanders to stupor and admiration, saying that God had truly visited His people, who had deigned to send to those parts so great and such a gift. The holy Man himself, though, with his master's help, he worked such great and astounding miracles, a friend of humility, keeping humility in every way, judged himself the last of all men, saying: "I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people [r]." After the miracle had thus been worked by blessed Placidus in the sick man, a certain feeble man with a contracted hand came to him. When the holy Man had looked on him, with eyes raised to heaven he said: Lord Jesus Christ, who at the intervention of Thine Apostle Peter didst marvellously raise * the lame man sitting at the gates of the temple, do Thou through the intercession of Thy most beloved servant Benedict, our master, restore the hand to this contracted man. At this voice, when he had handled his fingers with his holy hands, suddenly the dry palm grew green again. In the same days, further, a certain man, grievously vexed by an unclean spirit, was brought to the holy one of the Lord Placidus to be cured. And when he had implored the clemency of almighty God for him, making the sign of the Cross over him with his hand, at once smoke was seen by those standing around to go out from his nostrils with sparkling fire, and it became openly known to all that the author of wicked thought had departed from him in the form of smoke.

[31] Now if the several miracles were to be set out and he heals those suffering from any disease whatever; which flourished especially on such a journey, they would be without number, nor would there be measure in the page. For in whatever place the presence of blessed Placidus turned, there was no lack of medicine by his intervention for the kinds of diseases: for as many wounds of the sick as presented themselves, so many seeds of health did he pour out upon the ailing. For who could equal the first things of blessed Placidus to the last? When through the sign of the Cross he saved the sick, cured the possessed, before whom, however secretly the cunning of the ancient enemy had come, its fraudulent deceit at once revealed itself. For this reason, since they could not be hidden from the sight of the holy Man, nor did they endure his presence, with terrible howling they bewailed their burnings, violently set forth their crimes here and there, suspended through the air; frequently, though he did not ask, they confessed even their names; and often by their own impulse the demons ran to the holy Man to be tormented, and the possessed hung bound by an airy bond, and, as though fixed with nails, they strained at the spot. And as he made his journey, heaps of demons fell in troops before the gaze of blessed Placidus, poured out in divers ways along his path, some dumb, some crying out, some fixed, some slippery: and as though before a judge while they bore their deeds, they did not escape torments. But for the praise of the holy Man how great is this laudation, when things ineffably many and astounding were done in a moment [s]? And now how lavish he was in relieving the misery of the needy, who could unfold? For so greatly, even when placed on a journey, did he strive to relieve the miseries and wants of others, that he could rightly say with Job: "From infancy compassion grew up with me [t]."

[32] At that time a certain young man was so bereft of the use of his limbs in which, three feeble men, that his heels

clung fixed to his buttocks as if with nails, and his hands were bound to his breasts, and his arms backwards on either side to his ribs, as if with a kind of glue; his eyes too and ears, and his very tongue, were denied their proper functions. He, placed by the help of his people in a basket [u], with boys accompanying him, came to blessed Placidus, and, prostrated at his feet, asked that he would succour him with his wonted compassion. When the Saint of the Lord had looked on him asking mercy with tearful voice, he asks whence he had come. Then he said: For your sake, most holy Father, having left country and parents, in no way doubtful of the promise, but secure in the power of Christ, I have come here to you to be healed. At this the Saint, with hands and eyes raised to heaven, began most devoutly to supplicate the clemency of almighty God, that through the merits of the most holy Benedict He would succour the wretched man with His wonted * compassion. And when he had completed the prayer, the sick man began to cry out with loud voices, so that all were struck by his cries. And behold, suddenly the limbs that clung together began to be loosed, and, blood running down, little by little his legs and hands, constrained by the long-standing glue, were restored to their former vigour. And so it came about that the sick man, who had come carried by the hands of others, now walked whole on his own feet. And so was the fullness of health restored in him that in one and the same time both his eyes received sight, his ears hearing, and his tongue its former function of speaking rightly. A certain man, moreover, who for very many years had been deprived of the use of hands and feet, and of eyes too, coming to Placidus, the life-giving father, was freed from all the trouble of his debility. Another youth also, who was from the loins downwards immovable with the rigidity of all his limbs, so that, leaning on his hands and dragging his whole body behind him, he crept along the ground like worms, being brought to holy Placidus, recovered the most entire health in all his limbs.

[33] and a man blind from birth. In those days, while the miracles of the most holy Placidus were flying through the mouths of men, and they were giving thanks to God and to the most holy father Benedict, his master, for such great prodigies, a certain blind man had himself led into the presence of blessed Placidus, crying and saying: Placidus, servant of the living God, I adjure you by the most sweet name of your master Benedict, that you deign to obtain for me sight from the Lord Saviour, the enlightener of all. For I trust, and faithfully believe, that whatever you ask of the Lord you will obtain. The holy one of the Lord Placidus, a disciple of compassion, bent to mercy according to his custom, making the life-giving sign of the Cross over his eyes, said: Lord Jesus Christ, who didst give back to the man born blind the eyes which nature had denied, and didst enlighten those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, deign Thou through the merits of Thy servant, our master Benedict, to enlighten the eyes of this blind man, that, seeing Thy wonders, he may praise here and everywhere Thy holy name, which is blessed for ever. When Amen had been answered by those standing around, at once his eyes were opened, and he began to praise God, saying: Blessed be the name of the most glorious Lord, who has enlightened me through the intercession of blessed father Benedict and through the most holy Placidus, his disciple. A voice of gladness arises through the mouths of all; boys with women, youths with old men run to meet him, singing praise to the Ruler and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they cried: Glory to Thee, salvation and life of all, who hast deigned to send so great a gift to our parts.

ANNOTATA.

o. Perhaps: from birth?

p. See letter m.

q. Among the Hirpini, between Abella and Benevento, memorable for the disaster of the Roman army. They are commonly called the Stretto d'Arpaia.

r. Psalm 21, verse 6.

s. Certain things here from Fortunatus, says Mabillon at this place. So, namely, Venantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, writes in the Life of St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, who died in the year 576, with us in tome VII of May, page 786, column 2: But if we should set out the several miracles which flourished by his deeds in the present life, they are without end once begun, nor will there be measure in the page: because, wherever his presence turned, there was no lack of medicine for the kinds of diseases: and as many wounds of the sick as presented themselves, so many seeds of health did he pour out. For which of the bishop's works shall we set out, the first or the last, when by the spittle of his mouth many ulcers were cured, the possessed were cleansed? Before whom, however secretly the wickedness of the enemy had come, its fraudulent deceit at once revealed itself: and from the sight of the holy man, since they could not be hidden, nor did they endure his presence, with terrible howling they bewailed their burnings; flitting here and there through places they set forth their crimes too; suspended through the air, frequently, though not asked, they confessed even their names, since often by their own impulse the demons ran to the holy man to be tormented. In whatever place his minister held the Saint's staff, there the possessed man hung by an airy bond, and, as though fixed with nails, was held to the spot… But when he set foot out of the house or church, you would see heaps of demons before the gaze of so great a bishop and triumpher. They fell in troops about the Saint's footsteps, poured out in divers ways; some dumb, some crying out, some fixed, some slippery; and as though before a judge while they recounted their own deeds, they did not escape torments. But for the praise of the Saint how great is this laudation, when things ineffably many and astounding were done by him in a moment? It is manifest, then, that not Gordianus, but one of the number of more recent writers, applied the words of Fortunatus about St. Germanus to St. Placidus; which I have observed was done elsewhere in these Acts from Victor of Vita, number 144 and the two following of the preliminary Commentary.

t. Job, chapter 21, verse 18.

u. Sistarcia, σιταρκία, signifies among the Greeks provisions or victuals: among the more recent Latins also sitarcia, and more often, but with corrupted name, sistarcia, is taken for a chest or basket or wallet in which food is contained. So Mabillon in the Annotations.

* raise

* wonted

CHAPTER III.

The Saint continues his journey, puts in at Messina, and founds a monastery there.

The Saint, by St. Marcianus Going out from there, then, Placidus, the most blessed father, came to Benevento ^a, and was received with all reverence by the holy bishop Marcianus ^b for love of the most blessed father Benedict. There, then, while the man of the Lord Placidus was staying with the same holy pontiff, a certain lame man, named Malus ^c, dwelling near the same bishop, who swept the ground with little stools, creeping in no other way than on his knees, learned from Gordianus and Donatus and the citizens of the city that Placidus had come there, disciple of the most blessed father Benedict, the fame of whose holiness and virtue had already spread through the whole world. He, hearing blessed Placidus, began to cry out with what effort he could, saying: I adjure you, Placidus, servant of God most high, by the prayer of your most holy master Benedict, by whose merits, as we have heard, you were freed so that you could not be harmed by the waters, that you restore me to health. And when he was asked by the holy bishop Marcianus and by all, he ordered him to be brought to him, and standing poured forth prayers over him to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who didst restore the whole world when it was lost, be present, through the merits of the most blessed father Benedict, to us and to this Thy servant, bringing him the help of health, that, his former health received, he may bless Thy glorious name for ever and ever. And when all had answered, Amen, at once his feet and soles were made firm, and rising most sound he cried: Glory to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, who hast saved me through the most blessed Placidus, disciple of the most holy Benedict, Thy servant. The inhabitants of the city of Benevento, seeing such a miracle wrought by blessed Placidus, praised and blessed God, saying: Let the earth and the sea exult and sing psalms to Thee, O God, and let the faithful people chant a hymn, who hast granted to Thy servant Benedict so precious a disciple.

[35] at Benevento; When a certain blind man had heard such things, he had himself led by the hands of his kinsfolk into the presence of father Placidus, and cried with tearful sobs, saying: Placidus, beloved servant of God, who, aided by the merits of your master Benedict, have restored the joys of health to very many, succour, I beg, my miserable blindness, that, the darkness being destroyed, I may be able to behold the light, and may be able to praise with jubilation of heart Him who rules all things. The holy one of the Lord Placidus, bent to mercy, with hands raised to heaven, said: Lord Jesus Christ, true light, which enlightenest every man coming into this world, deign Thou through the merits of my master, Thy servant Benedict, to grant light to this blind man, that, seeing Thy wonders, they may praise and bless Thy name, which is glorious for ever. When those who were present had answered, Amen, the Lord heard His Servant from His holy temple, and restored light to the blind man who asked it. He, restored to health, cried out, saying: To Thee, O Christ, be praise, honour, glory and jubilation, who hast enlightened me by the intercession of Thy most holy servant Benedict, through the most blessed Placidus, his disciple. The fame of this thing at once filled the whole city of Benevento. At so great a miracle all rush to meet him, praising with great exultation Him who rules all things.

[36] The most blessed Placidus, saluting the holy bishop Marcianus with a holy kiss, by St. Sabinus after some days came to Canusium ^d, a city of Apulia, in which, with great joy and love, for love of blessed Benedict, he was received by the holy Sabinus ^e, bishop of the same city,

The same holy bishop Sabinus showed every care of kindness both to the most blessed Placidus and to all who had come with him. St. Sabinus, keeping blessed Placidus with him for three days, they held with one another sweet discourses of the everlasting life, and at intervals of the hours he asked him about the mighty works which the divine Majesty had wrought through the most blessed father Benedict, and at the same time also about his life and his honeyed and most discerning teaching.

[37] Meanwhile, while these things are being said and those related, a certain man named Landulf, at Canusium; having a withered and bent hand, when he learned that Placidus, disciple of blessed Benedict, had come there, came weeping and wailing and cried out: Placidus, most holy of men, I adjure you by Him who created all things, and by the holy name of your master Benedict, that you implore for me from the Lord the benefit of health: for I trust that through you the Lord will show His mercy in me. When he had said these things with great lamentation, he showed his withered hand to the most blessed Placidus. The very same thing all who were at that spectacle, and who could run up, together with the holy bishop Sabinus, suppliantly requested, asking him to supplicate the almighty Lord for him. He, being most compassionate, drawing long sighs from the depth of his heart, poured forth prayer to the Lord with tears, saying: Almighty God, to whom nothing is impossible, who didst create from nothing heaven, earth, sea and all things that are in them, who gavest to this Thy servant in baptism the remission of all sins, deign Thou through the merits of our most blessed father Benedict to reintegrate * him in his former soundness, through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who lives and reigns with Thee, God, for ever and ever. When he had said these things, taking his withered hand with both his own hands, he said: May the Lord Jesus Christ heal you, who deigned to stretch out the withered hand in the Synagogue. At once, then, his withered and bent hand was stretched out and restored to its former health. The holy bishop Sabinus, when he had perceived such a miracle wrought through blessed Placidus, glorified the Lord, saying: I render thanks to Thee, Life and salvation of all, who hast granted to Thy most blessed servant Benedict to nurture such a disciple, through whom it is Thy pleasure that signs and wonders be wrought for Thee. Blessed be Thy name from this time forth and for evermore. Those who were present, seeing this, glorified God, and extolled the most holy father Benedict with the highest honours ^f.

[38] The holy Placidus, bidding farewell to blessed bishop Sabinus, he is received at Rhegium by St. Sisinnius: and hastening his journey from there, after not many days came to Rhegium ^g, a city of Calabria. Him the holy Sisinnius ^h, bishop of that same city, received with all diligence, for the reverence which he had for the most holy father Benedict, and kept him with him two days. While, then, the report of the coming of blessed Placidus was flying through the whole province of Calabria, a certain leper, having heard the renown of the holy Man's miracles, came to him, crying and saying: Placidus, servant of God, I adjure you by the holy and venerable name of your master Benedict, that by your holy prayers you implore for me from the Lord the grace of health: the Lord has directed you to these parts for this, that you may confer health of heart and body on the sick and feeble. The man of the Lord Placidus, raising himself towards heaven, poured forth prayer to the Lord, saying: Almighty God, salvation without end and beginning, who didst create the whole world from nothing, who in the end of times didst cause Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be incarnate of the Virgin and to undergo the gibbet of the Cross, whereby He might loose the ancient sin with His own blood, deign Thou through the merits of Thy most holy servant, my master Benedict, to cleanse this leper, that, having received health of his body and soul, he may praise Thy holy name here and everywhere. At once, then, restored to health, he began to bless and praise God, who deigned to show such wonders through blessed Placidus.

[39] whence at length, following him When these things had come to the knowledge of all, a certain man, vexed with a long-standing sickness, came to the Saint of the Lord, and falling down at his feet said with tears: I believe, most holy Father, that by the intervention of your holy merits God will give effect to my petition in receiving health. The most holy Father, pouring forth prayer to the Lord for him, restored him to health: and he who had come half-alive returned unharmed, all marvelling. And not only there, but also over the whole space of the journey, the Lord Jesus Christ deigned to work many mighty works to the praise and glory of His name through blessed Placidus, the merits and prayers of the most blessed Benedict his master intervening. For he gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, right sense to the witless and foolish, he restored walking to the lame, put demons to flight, cleansed lepers, and succoured all infirmities. For which reason, glorifying God in all things, they extolled the merits of blessed Placidus with great praises, saying: Blessed be the glorious name of the Lord from age to age, who deigned to work such and so great mighty works through His most holy servant Placidus, the disciple of blessed Benedict.

[40] with signs everywhere, Donatus, moreover, the servant of the same blessed Placidus, while he was anxiously seeking a ship in which he could sail to Sicily, met a certain cleric, dumb and deaf, named Sico, suffering from unheard-of and lamentable diseases, from whose ears putrefaction flowed out with worms. He, although he had lost hearing and speech in his infirmity, yet was very strong in the knowledge of recognizing and seeing, and requested by nods and signs the things that were suitable for the sustenance of the body. When Donatus ⁱ had seen him weighed down and burdened with so great a misfortune, he inquires of those who stood near about the matter of so great a calamity. And it was told him that he had lost speech and hearing by force of long infirmity. When Donatus had taken these words from the citizens, pitying his calamity, he brought him to the Man of God, and throwing him at his feet, set forth the matter in order as it was. The Servant of the Lord himself was then sitting and giving his attention to reading, and when he was asked by the citizens and clergy who had come to visit him to implore the clemency of almighty God for that same sick man, rising he prayed the Lord inwardly for a little while, then turning he placed his hands upon the head of the sick man, saying: Lord God almighty, who didst form * man from the slime of the earth, and breathe into his face the breath of life, who gavest him the discernment of good and evil, deign Thou, Lord, through the prayers and merits of our most holy father Benedict, and of all the monks who serve under his teaching, to be present to us, and through us, Thy most humble and sinful servants, to come to the help of this Thy servant, conferring health on him, that all seeing and hearing may give glory to Thy holy name, which is blessed before all ages, and may be blessed now and through infinite ages. And when all who were present had answered, Amen, at once the bond of his tongue was loosed, and his ears were opened and healed, and hearing most plainly he spoke without stumbling, praising and blessing God and the most holy father Benedict.

[41] On another day, bidding farewell to blessed bishop Sisinnius, he boarded a ship, he reaches Messina, and crossing the Faro ^k, came to the city of Messina ^l in Sicily. And when he had gone down to land, he directed Gordianus, his servant, to the city, charging him to call to him Messalinus, a Roman citizen, a very close friend of Tertullus his father, for he was very rich. When he found him, he brought him with him to the shore of the sea, where the holy one of the Lord Placidus was waiting. Now Messalinus, seeing blessed Placidus standing by the shores of the sea, and his form resembling the face of Tertullus his father, getting down from the horse on which * he had been sitting, fell at his feet. The most holy Placidus, lifting him from the ground, kissed him and, blessing him, set forth in order the matter for which he had been directed by the most holy father Benedict. Messalinus, embracing blessed Placidus for a long time and pressing him to his breast, they lingered, shedding tears mutually for joy: finally the same Messalinus, kissing Gordianus and Donatus his servants, again taking the right hand of blessed Placidus and kissing it for a long time, led him with great honour to his house; and the whole city of Messina was filled with joy over his coming. Messalinus, while he sat in his house with blessed Placidus and heard from him some things of those which pertain to eternal life, was asked by the same Servant of the Lord about the possessions and ports, about the slaves and handmaids, which he himself together with Tertullus his father had delivered to blessed Benedict to be possessed in perpetuity. For he desired to see one by one the places in which the possessions were. He asked also that he would make known his coming to all the friends of Tertullus his father, and show the slaves and handmaids whom he had there; and he ordered the agents also, whom his aforesaid father had set over the same courts, to be summoned to him. Messalinus, calling his son Metellus, commanded him to go through the courts and possessions of the patrician Tertullus with one of his slaves, and to bring the agents of those same courts and the guardians of the ports, with the friends of the aforesaid patrician, to blessed Placidus. He, obeying his father's commands, taking only one slave, having mounted horses, began carefully to fulfil what had been enjoined on him.

[42] When day was dawning, blessed Placidus, calling Messalinus, said to him: It is not fitting for a monk to have his station in the houses of laymen; and there, in founding a monastery for St. John the Baptist for it is in every way contrary to our Order. Wherefore, if it is not held contrary to your nobility, let us go and look out a place on my father's possessions in which I may be able to build a monastery, for I have determined not to build upon another man's foundation. Coming after this to the harbour of the sea, he found a place suitable for building a monastery, and with the staff which he carried in his hand he marked out the place in which he might be able to build an Oratory of John the Baptist, in which his house and all the workshops of the monastery. After this blessed Placidus, turning to Messalinus, said: The Overseer of this port of the city of Messina, where is he, and by what name is he called? And Messalinus: He is near, he said; and as to the name about which you asked, know that he is called Pompeius Cilius. Then the Saint ordered him to be called to him; and when he had come, he fell at his feet. Blessed Placidus, lifting him from the ground, commanded that from the revenue which he had received from the port he should build a house in which he himself might dwell with his own, and at the same time also a church in honour of blessed John the Baptist, in which he might serve the almighty Lord day and night. And he said

to him: I will that it be yours to bring craftsmen to work in this place, wherever you find them throughout the whole of Sicily, and also that slaves and handmaids be gathered to carry stones and whatever things are necessary, that this work itself may be completed the more quickly, and above all the house in which I may dwell. And that all these things may be done the sooner, we will that all the overseers of the ports and the agents of the courts take part in so great a labour, giving the expenses and whatever things are necessary without any delay. Set your son over the port in your place: but do you press on with the building, that it may be quickly completed. And he commanded him to send money to Rome from the revenues of the courts and the dues of the ports to buy columns and architraves. He also marked out, in the presence of Pompeius Cilius, in what place the dormitory, refectory, kitchen, cellar and all the workshops of the monastery should be built.

[43] he sets his hand. Very many craftsmen having thus been gathered, and the foundations having been laid in the name of Christ, the work begun was carried on eagerly and without intermission. For first they built there a house, quite spacious, in which blessed Placidus might stay. Messalinus meanwhile assigned to blessed Placidus a most suitable dwelling, in which he could freely sit alone, read and pray. His slaves, and all the friends of his father, brought food to him and his companions. The same Messalinus too remained apart with his household in another house. Pompeius Cilius, according to what blessed Placidus had commanded him, set in his place over the port of the city of Messina his son, named Pillius Vitellius, a most prudent young man, strong in wisdom and much goodness.

ANNOTATA.

f. That is, praises.

* restore

* didst form

* on which

CHAPTER IV.

He flourishes at Messina with wonders and holiness of life.

St. Placidus One day, while the holy one of the Lord Placidus was returning from the building of the monastery to his house, which Messalinus had lent him, he met a certain blind man, named Silvius, a Roman by nation, who had lost his sight by weeping, and for eighteen years had not seen at all. For at that time all who dwelt in the island of Sicily were inhabitants of the Romans ^a. The boy who was leading the blind man, seeing Placidus, the most holy father, coming, said to him: Behold, the holy one of the Lord Placidus, disciple of blessed Benedict, lately come from Italy, of whom report has gone out through the whole of Sicily, is now drawing near. The blind man, when he had heard such words from the mouth of the boy, began to cry out with a loud voice, saying: I adjure you, Placidus, most blessed servant of God, by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and His most precious blood, which He shed for the salvation of the human race, that you deign to intercede for me with the Lord, that He may give back to me the light of my eyes, which I lost by weeping, for for eighteen years I have not been able to see the light of heaven at all. The very same thing Messalinus with his servants, and very many others who were returning to the city with him, besought. Moved, then, by such great supplications, the man of the Lord Placidus stopped, and ordered the blind man to be brought to him. And when he had come, he placed his hand upon his head, praying inwardly for a little while. The prayer completed, making the most sacred Sign over his eyes, and laying his hands upon him, in the hearing of all he said: Lord Jesus Christ, who art the true light which enlightens every man coming into this world, who didst enlighten the man blind from birth and gavest him the light which nature had denied, enlighten Thou the eyes of this blind man to the glory and praise of Thy name, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest God for ever and ever, Amen. At once his eyes were opened, and he began to see as keenly as if he were a little child. Those who were present, seeing and hearing these things, falling to the earth, blessed and glorified God, and extolled the most holy father Benedict with worthy veneration. This miracle was spread abroad through the whole of Sicily, so that from the whole island the sick and the ailing were gathered together and brought to him.

[45] In these days too a certain man seized by a demon among the miracles, was tormented with a grievous end. The man of the Lord Placidus, being asked, then, to implore the clemency of almighty God for him, ordered him to be drawn to him, and, standing, poured forth prayer over him to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who didst free from his power the world seduced by the devil's fraud, who didst destroy his kingdom, through the intercession of Thy beloved servant Benedict, our master, deign to cleanse this man from this demonic vexation, that those who see may praise Thy holy name for ever and ever. And when those standing around had answered, Amen, the man of the Lord Placidus, making the sign of the Cross against the vexed man, put the unclean spirit to flight from him. Those who were present began to praise God, who deigned to work so signal a miracle through the most holy Placidus, disciple of blessed Benedict. When, then, report had gone out through Sicily that there was in that same province Placidus, disciple of blessed Benedict, who lays hands on the sick and they are healed, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, raising up the lame, putting demons to flight, and curing all infirmities; coming together from the whole of Sicily, and also from Africa, they gathered all the sick into one place, asking, and adjuring Placidus by the name of father Benedict, that he would obtain for them from the Lord the grace of health. The holy one of the Lord, grieving with such great calamities, and at the same time marvelling at their faith, prayed thus: Lord Jesus Christ, who gavest to my master Benedict the power to obtain from Thee what he would, deign Thou through his holy intercession to confer health on all these sicknesses, that, health received, they may render praise to Thy holy name. And when Amen had been answered, they were made whole, praising and glorifying God ^b. How great miracles, too, the Lord Jesus Christ deigned to work in those times through the most blessed Placidus, it would be very long to relate them all; of which, however, we shall tell some.

[46] which among For while he was staying in the city of Messina, and Messalinus with friends was sitting beside him, certain men brought to the same Servant of the Lord a certain paralytic so afflicted that no one could distinguish the joinings of his limbs. At the asking of Messalinus and of those who were present for him, the man of the Lord Placidus, having made prayer, and handling the loosened limbs *, said to him: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by whose power all things subsist, aided by the merits of our most holy master Benedict, rise whole and unharmed, and carry on your work. At once, then, rising at his command, he blessed God and the most holy father Benedict. The Sicilians, seeing this miracle, blessed our Lord Jesus Christ, who deigned to confer so great grace on those who love Him.

[47] among the Sicilians likewise In these days too a certain Sicilian came to the Man of the Lord, asking and with much prayer requesting that he would heal by his visitation his companion, held now for a long time by the sickness of paralysis. At his entreaty, then, together with those who were present, he took pains to go to the bed of the sick man, and pouring forth prayer to the Lord, said: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the most high Father, who didst cure with a word alone the paralytic lying in his bed, do Thou through the intercession of Thy most beloved servant Benedict, our master, release this paralytic from the bed of pain, that, cured of so great a sickness, he may render thanksgiving to Thee in Thy Church. The prayer completed, making the sign of the Cross over him, he ordered him to rise from his bed. At once he who before could by no means rise by his own strength, for sickness and pain, rose unharmed at the command of the most holy Placidus. All who were present, struck by so great a miracle, magnified God, who alone does wonders, and began eagerly to bring the sick to him, whom he, signing and blessing them, restored unharmed.

[48] At the same time also a certain man, possessed by a demon, and very many in number, was brought to blessed Placidus; and as soon as the abominable enemy felt his power, he began to cry out through his mouth, saying: What is it, Placidus? Do you perceive that I am he over whose defeat you were rejoicing a little before? The holy Placidus, turning to the vexed man, said: May my Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Almighty, whom every creature of heaven and earth obeys, Himself command you in the power of the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of our most holy father Benedict, accursed demon, that going out you depart from this man, and have no further power of entering into him. And at once, going out of the man, he gave a huge and terrifying crash. Those who were present at the spectacle, turned to stupor, blessed God. A certain man, weighed down by madness of mind, when he had been brought to the Saint of the Lord, and he had made prayer over him, gave him a blessing, and so he was made partaker of the mind he had lost, as if he had never at any time suffered insanity. Returning to his country, he proclaimed with sonorous voice in every way the merits of father Benedict and the praises of blessed Placidus.

[49] At that time two blind men, having heard the fame of the holy Man's miracles, and in quality said to one another: Why, blinded by outward darkness, have we lost the light of the inner man? For whatever sick person goes to blessed Placidus goes away whole, and we, torpid with sloth, remain in darkness. Let us go, then, to the Man of God, that through his holy intercession the Lord Jesus Christ may grant us His grace. When they had spoken these things together, supported by the aid of their kinsfolk, they came to father Placidus. When the holy Father saw them, grieving at their blindness, with eyes lifted to heaven he said: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit didst create all things in the beginning, who didst open the eyes of the man born blind, who the world, in the mire of sin

and lying in darkness and in the shadow of death, raising it by Thy mighty power, didst lead back to the splendour of the true light, let my prayer enter, most loving One, into the sight of Thy glory; incline Thine ear to me and hear me, and through the suffrages of Thy most beloved servant, our father Benedict, restore sight to these who are deprived of light, that they may be able to bless Thy holy name through all ages of ages.

[50] And when those who were present had answered, Amen, illusory the Lord heard His Servant from the holy temple of His glory, and restored their light to the blind, who cried out and said: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from age to age, and blessed be the holy name of His glory, who strikes and heals, wounds and cures, who has enlightened us by the prayers of the most holy Benedict through the most blessed Placidus his disciple. And so, rejoicing and exulting, with the blessing of the holy Man, they returned to their homes. For there was found none in Sicily and Africa and in the whole East, besides Placidus, who was more marvelled at among men. And as among many gems the most precious gem sparkles, and the radiance of the sun overwhelms and obscures the little fires of the stars; so in the East and the South Placidus alone surpassed by his mighty works the virtues and powers of all. For he made himself the least among all, that he might be the greater of all, and the more he cast himself down, the more he was lifted up by Christ. For he was most clement to all, good to all; nothing was more clement than his mind, nothing more humble, nothing more gentle. He wept, that he might ever rejoice; he despised, that he might ever love; he fled the snares that are broken, that he might find the unfailing fountain.

[51] and various In such exercises, then, a certain man was shaken by the assault of a demon, whom the demon then began to torture with various torments before Placidus also; he howled after the manner of wolves, barked like a dog, roared like a lion, hissed like a serpent, bellowed like a bull, whirled his head, and touched the ground behind his back with the crown of his head. Placidus had pity on the so great misfortune of the vexed man, and, shedding tears, began to entreat the clemency of almighty God, saying: Lord God, restorer of all, protector and haven of life, who didst free with Thy precious blood man possessed by the ancient enemy, do Thou through the intercession of our master Benedict drive out the demonic poison from this Thy servant, that, restored to his former health, he may be able to glorify Thy holy and venerable name. At this prayer, then, the vexed man, made whole, began to praise and bless God.

[52] he works, In the same days, further, a certain man had been deprived of the use of all his limbs, so that he could never without great pain bring his hand to his mouth or move his feet to walk, since they were held joined too hard to his buttocks. And death itself was to him his living, because his soul lay hidden within his body as in a kind of little vessel. When he had been brought by his kinsmen to the holy one of the Lord Placidus, and they suppliantly asked him that he would deign to pour forth prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ for his deliverance, the Saint, acquiescing in their requests, said: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who art the true light, salvation, glory and life of the human race, who restorest the broken, and by restoring preservest, who raisest up those who are dashed down, who loosest those who are fettered, do Thou through Thine ineffable mercy restore, repair and make firm this Thy creature, whom Thou hast freed from the snares of the devil, that those who see Thy wonders may bless Thy holy name for ever. The prayer finished, making the sign of the Cross over the feeble man, he said: May the Lord Jesus Christ heal you, who deigned to cure the paralytic lying in his bed. Wonderful is God in His Saints, who glorifies those who glorify Him by keeping His precepts, and hears in a moment. For, restored to health at the word of the Man of God, he began to sing praise to the Redeemer of all. The peoples who had come to the spectacle, seeing this, began to sing perennial glory and praise to the unbegotten Father and the only Begotten and likewise the holy Spirit. The holy one of the Lord Placidus, though he worked such great prodigies by the grace of Christ the Lord, and performed such astounding miracles for those coming to him from all sides, by no means ceased from the building of his monastery.

[53] On the thirtieth day Metellus, son of Messalinus, with his slaves, and at the same time with the overseers intent on completing the monastery of Messina, of all the ports and the agents of the courts and a multitude of the friends of the patrician Tertullus, coming to blessed Placidus, bringing with him an immense sum of money, offered it to the holy one of the Lord Placidus. Receiving it, he directed it to his native soil, that is, to the Roman city, from which he bought columns and architraves, which, when they had been brought into Sicily, he ordered to be placed in the church which he was then building in honour of St. John the Baptist. With the bailiffs and the overseers of the ports and the agents of the courts he spoke long and much, and related for what reason he had been directed to those parts by his most holy master Benedict, and each of them rendered the account of his stewardship of the courts and ports of the patrician Tertullus, his father, which they had held. After this he commanded all in common that without fraud and any deceit and without any delay they should daily spend whatever was necessary for himself and his own in food, drink and clothing, or in the building of the monastery; and he said to them: I will come to visit you and all the possessions which my father held in this province; and therefore so act, so strive, that you may be able to obtain our favour, knowing this without doubt, that if you scandalize me, you will be scandalized. When he had said these things, with the blessing of the holy Man they returned each to his own.

[54] The most holy Father himself strove in every way to fulfil the things which he had learned from his master Benedict, and no less to austerity of life,. The teaching of piety shone forth brightly in him, and the teaching of holy conversation was spread abroad, sowing the field of justice. Whence it came about that through blessed Placidus and his Disciples the venerable religion of father Benedict and of the monastery of Cassino was spread and noised abroad throughout the whole world. The same holy one of the Lord Placidus, filled with the Holy Spirit, chastised his holy body without intermission and brought it into all subjection, that he might mortify the members which are upon the earth. His discourse was nothing else than to spurn the delights of this world, to leave the burdens of the world, that he might freely follow Jesus Christ the Son of God, recalling that which the Lord spoke: "Unless a man renounce all that he possesses, he cannot be My disciple ^c." In his discourse, moreover, how great gravity, how great modesty there was, who could tell? He laboured daily alone at prayer and reading, and often and much, when he was given to meditation, he flowed with tears; for he had the spirit of great compunction; neither by day nor by night did he cease from divine colloquies and psalmody, leading at all times a Lenten life, never drinking wine. In Lent, on the Lord's day, and on the third and fifth weekdays, he was content with bread and water only; on other days receiving nothing at all.

[55] He always used a hair shirt next to his flesh, and when he was wearied with prayer or with genuflexion, and applying himself to virtue, he took his sleep sitting rather than lying. No one ever at any time saw him disturbed in any act, but always honourable, humble, grave, gentle, kind, harming no one, envying no one, seeking evil for no one: for at every hour he was full of the grace of God. Never at any time did he speak to any man unless necessity compelled, or affection for the brethren, or for good men or the poor, or when the need of the monastery required it, and his spirit was always placed in God. But in all the virtues in which his most perfect master Benedict had instructed him, he advanced and grew from day to day; not accounting himself the equal of others, but the servant of all the last. Now what shall I say of his clemency? For nothing was dearer to his mind than not to prefer the powerful to the poor. If he saw a poor man, he supported him; if a rich man, he exhorted him to do good, preaching that Gospel saying: "He that has two coats, let him give to him that has none; and he that has food, let him do likewise ^d," that he may be able to receive the kingdom of heaven. He went frequently to the workmen who were building the monastery and the church, and also to visit the harbour of the sea and the courts of his father, and so at length returned to the house which Messalinus had provided for him.

[56] he completed it in four years, In the fourth year ^e after the holy one of the Lord Placidus had come into Sicily, the whole monastery, together with the church of St. John the Baptist, was completed quite becomingly in all its construction, and the church was dedicated by the bishop of the same city of Messina on the fifth day before the Kalends of August. The same Saint also asked the bishop ^f to sprinkle the whole circuit of the monastery with exorcized water and to give a prayer, and so the Saint of the Lord entered into it with his own to dwell. Then some began to leave the world and to tame the necks * of their hearts under the teaching of blessed Placidus. For within a short space of time thirty brethren were gathered in that place to the service of almighty God.

[57] and works a new prodigy. After this there was brought to the same servant of the Lord Placidus a certain possessed man, who, long entangled in the snares of Satan, was direly afflicted. When the Man of God had seen him so worn down, compassionating his calamity, he poured forth prayer to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, true light, who art loving, clement and merciful, drive out from Thy creature, through the intercession of our most holy master Benedict, the raging enemy, that, snatched from the snare of the lier-in-wait, he may say praise to Thy holy name. When he had completed the prayer, making the sign of the Cross against the vexed man, he forthwith put the ancient enemy to flight from him. Since, then, it would be long to unfold how great things the Lord worked through him, let us come to setting down his most glorious passion.

ANNOTATA.

d. Luke 3, verse XI.

* limbs

* necks

CHAPTER V.

His Brothers and Sister visit St. Placidus: the Saracens, bursting into the monastery, rage against both the Monks and the Guests.

Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia, lodging with St. Placidus, About the same time, when the report had grown in the City that the holy one of the Lord Placidus, sent by the venerable father Benedict to build a monastery,

and to retain the courts and possessions of Tertullus his father, had been directed into Sicily, and that he had already gathered thirty Brethren under the rule of his father Benedict in the monastery built by him: Eutychius and Victorinus, his brothers, of whom we made mention above, together with their sister Flavia the virgin, led by the desire of seeing their brother Placidus, and kindled beyond measure in love of him, going out from the city of Rome by the counsel of their parents, board a ship; and giving their sails to the winds they make for Sicily, and putting in at the port of the city of Messina, they unmoor the fleet on the shore; and going down from the ship, they make for the monastery of St. John, and seeing their Brother they were filled with great joy. And at first indeed they did not recognize him, namely because from the time he was offered to blessed Benedict they had not seen him again: and after so long a space of time he had become a man, and was clothed in the monastic habit, and through excessive abstinence and the enormity of his vigils and prayers was wasted and brought to nothing in body. But when they recognized him by tokens, rushing to kiss him and embracing one another for a long time, they burst into a very great weeping for the excess of love and joy. After this, when they had gone through all the dwellings of the monastery and praised them as fittingly built, they resolved to stay some days with blessed Placidus, their brother.

[59] At the same time Abdala ^c, a most impious persecutor and enemy of Christ, was administering the kingdom among the pagans ^a who dwelt in Spain ^b. Mamucha, bursting into the monastery by night, He, desiring to eradicate utterly from the earth the worship of the Christian religion, and to increase the temples of Moloch and the worship of Lucifer, gathered an expedition of a hundred ships, and, setting over them as commander a certain most cruel Agarene named Mamucha, directed it against the Roman empire, charging him to burn the cities and strongholds with fire, to destroy the churches, to compel the Christians to the worship of the demons Moloch, Rempham and Lucifer ^d, and to put to death with divers punishments those who did not consent. He, obeying his command, having made a very great slaughter of our people, some days after Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia the virgin had come to blessed Placidus, while the Brethren were chanting the nightly synaxis in the church, the aforesaid Mamucha, arriving in his ships with sixteen thousand eight hundred pagans, ordered the doors of the monastery to be broken and all to be bound in chains. When this had been done, the aforesaid Gordianus, who had come with blessed Placidus from the monastery of Cassino to Sicily, being a young man, escaped, fleeing through a certain postern of the house; but Donatus, who was already affected by old age, was beheaded without any questioning ^e.

[60] together with Placidus and most of the monks, The holy Placidus, together with his brothers Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia the virgin, Faustus, Firmatus ^f the deacon, and at the same time with thirty Monks, bound in chains, is presented to the gaze of Mamucha. When the savage judge saw him, he said to him: What are you called? Holy Placidus answered: I am a Christian. The commander said: Deny your Christ, and utter insults against Him, and according to the rite of our most invincible king Abdala adore God, and I release you. Holy Placidus answered: I shall never deny the Lord Jesus Christ, and I desire to die for His name. The commander, savagely indignant at this, said to Eutychius and Victorinus, Flavia, Faustus, Firmatus the deacon and the thirty others: What do you say? Will you obey the commands of the most excellent king Abdala, so that, abandoning Christ, you adore our God? The holy Martyrs, as though with one mouth, said: What sits in your mind, carry out. For we have one mind, one faith, one order of living: wherefore reckon that what you heard from the first has been said by all. For the love of Christ we are ready to lay down our lives.

[61] having direly beaten them, he commits them to prison, At these utterances of the Martyrs, then, the commander Mamucha, vehemently angered, ordered the saints of God Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and the virgin Flavia with the other Saints to be stripped, and most grievously beaten with clubs, saying: Let words give way to blows. The holy Martyrs exulted and rejoiced in the Lord, because they had been counted worthy to suffer the punishment of blows for His name. The most impious commander, seeing that they were already at their last, said to them: Say, you who are destined to death, whether you are willing to abandon the Crucified, or have resolved to perish? The holy Martyrs said: We believe with the heart and confess with the mouth that the Lord Jesus Christ is true God, and we will never withdraw from His worship. Do what you will; we are Christians. Stupefied at this, the most cruel judge said to his ministers: Let them be scourged again, let them be most cruelly tortured, let blows be added to blows; perhaps these who have resolved to remain in error will come to their senses. The ministers, then, scourging and torturing them according to the commander's order, cried out, saying: Deny your Christ, deny Him. But the Saints, while they were being tortured, prayed the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, deliver us from every temptation, and from the scandals of those who work iniquity. The commander, moved at the endurance of the Martyrs, commanded that, with their hands bound behind their backs and bound in fetters, they should be shut up for seven days, and that neither bread nor water should be given them, that they might faint, putting off their death, in case, wearied with bodily wounds, they might obey his abominable commands. The holy one of the Lord Placidus, set in so great a punishment, ceased neither by day nor by night from divine colloquies and prayer.

[62] and after some days again with clubs, While these things were being done, a great storm arose on the sea; the barbarians, since they perceived that they could not return to the Spains because of the unfavourable weather, moved with anger, destroyed everything round about with fire and sword, and committing adulteries and innumerable evils in the churches and upon men, and slaughtering men and women for the faith of Christ, brought unspeakable evils upon the city of Messina, and resolved to carry off the holy martyrs of God Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and the virgin Flavia with their Companions into their own land. While, then, the inclemency of the sea had blocked their way, seeing that holy Placidus with his Companions, without food and drink, gave glory to Christ, they marvelled, and going at a quick run to the commander's tent, they set forth in order what had been done and said. He, kindled with bestial rage, ordered the holy Martyrs of God to be most sharply beaten with clubs every day, and to be left without any food or drink. And while they were being beaten, the pagans cried out: Deny Christ, and utter insults against Him, and you will be released. The holy Martyrs, as though with one mouth, said: We neither deny Christ our Lord, nor bring insults against Him who is the Creator of all; do what seems good to you.

[63] The barbarians, marvelling beyond measure at the constancy of the Saints, and tortures with other punishments: going at a most rapid run to the commander, set forth the matter as it was. The commander, inflamed with his wonted wickedness, ordered holy Placidus with his Companions to be hung up with their feet turned upwards, and to be most cruelly torn with scourges on this side and that, and a horrid smoke to be supplied under the head of each one. When this had been done, the pagans cried out against the Saints after their custom: Deny your Christ, deny Him. The holy Martyrs, despising the admonitions of the pagans like dung, cried out to the Lord, saying: If armies in camp should stand together against us, we will not fear evils, for Thou art with us, O Lord. And when all had been tortured singly, one after another, in this order, the commander Mamucha ordered one handful of raw barley to be given to each of the Saints to eat, and a little water to drink ^g. And they said to the Saints: If you deny that Christ is God, whatever you ask we will give you, and you will be numbered among the first friends of our commander Mamucha, and you will be as brothers of our king Abdala, and lords in all his kingdom. The holy brothers Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and the most holy virgin Flavia, their sister, as though with one mouth, said: If you should promise to make us lords of the whole earth, we will not deny our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose again, and, having ascended into heaven, will come to judge the living and the dead and the whole world by fire. Nay rather, you who are full of misery, who are condemned to eternal death, do you rather believe in our Lord Christ Jesus, and you will be saved for eternity. The most dire Mamucha, when he had heard such words from the mouth of blessed Placidus, savagely indignant, ordered him with his Companions to be handed over to prison.

[64] When night came, the aforesaid Gordianus, but Gordianus, who had secretly fled, who at the time when blessed Placidus had been taken had escaped by flight, came to him in the prison, and falling at his feet, strengthened him, saying: Be constant, my lord Placidus, and do not fear, for the hand of the Lord is with you, who has set for you a mansion in the heavenly kingdom, furnished with precious stones. If the persecutors flatter you with words, do not give them your consent; if they offer gold or silver or precious stones, do not bend your mind, but rather look to Him, attend to Him who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are in them. For nothing is found more praiseworthy than martyrdom, nothing more excellent, nothing more honourable; since Christ the Lord is its helper, and those who love and desire it are rewarded with immortality and perennial glory. O how terrible, and how much to be feared, will the day of judgment come, in which, according to the Apostle, each one will receive according to his own labour. In which even the angels will tremble, who have not sinned, and the just will be terrified, who have pleased the Lord. This day the Prophet designated when he said: "That day is a day of wrath, of calamity and misery, a day of the trumpet and of clangour, a great day and very bitter, a day of cloud and whirlwind ^h," full of indignation, in which the heavens shall be moved with great violence, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved.

[65] St. Placidus You have already taken up the fight against the common enemy, you have already trampled on the head of the ancient serpent; hold fast the arms of constancy and fortitude, that you may be able to repel his darts and javelins with the shield of faith, and according to the Apostle "put on the armour of God ⁱ"; watch strenuously, "for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour ^k," whom it is fitting to resist, persisting bravely in faith. Recall the last day before the eyes of your mind, night and day alike, at every hour and moment, and how fleeting, how brief is the glory of this world, how perishable, and to what hardships it is subject. And consider how a sudden whirlwind carries it off, and turn it over with diligent mind. Where then will be the honour and glory of lofty kings? Where the rich man and the prince? Where the strong and the rich? Where then will they be who looked askance on the needy and thought them unworthy of their speech? Where the silver and gold? Has it not passed away like dust, and vanished like a shadow? It has already withdrawn, it has already passed, to

the depths below it has gone down, where the worm of the wicked shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched. There then the mighty shall mightily suffer torments, and for the stronger the torment will be intolerable: from which the father will not lead out the son, nor the son the father, nor will there be a companion to redeem, nor a brother to rescue. Lift up your heart with your hands to God, saying with the Prophet: "Deliver me from my enemies, O my God, and free me from those who rise up against me ^l"; rescue me from the hands of those who hate me. You have already begun to fight; fight, that you may conquer and receive the crown of immortality.

[66] he rouses to constancy: Hearing these things, the most blessed Placidus gave thanks to God, the Redeemer of all. Then turning to Gordianus, he said: Leaving aside, brother, circuitous words, let us call upon Him who conquers the world, asking that He who has given the will may give also the power. For Him I desire, for Him I sigh, to Him I long to go, to whom I have vowed my soul, who has made me worthy to suffer for His name. And after this, See, he said, that whatever you perceive befalling me you make known in writing to our master Benedict, and also to my fellow disciples and kinsmen, Maurus and Felicissimus ^m. For I am already being poured out; already bound in body, and bound in spirit too, I shall go whither the Lord Jesus Christ shall lead me. For God is my witness that I show pure charity to all men, praying almighty God that He would defend us, placed in dangers, with His protection, and keep us unharmed amid the squalls and tempests of this world, and grant peace to His holy Church as soon as may be. When he had said these things, with hands spread out to heaven and eyes raised on high, he prayed to the Lord, saying: Only-begotten Son of God, Word incarnate, protect and defend Thy Church, redeemed with Thy most precious blood, keep the church of Cassino in holy religion, and bid me come to Thee, the devil being conquered.

[67] When morning came, then, the commander Mamucha, inflamed with rabid fury, the barbarian repeats the torments a third time, ordered holy Placidus with his Companions to be presented to him. And when they had been presented before the most impious commander, with their hands bound behind them, silence having been proclaimed, he said: I call the gods to witness, and Lucifer, most excellent of all, that our excellency has not judged you worthy even of questioning. Hence, however, I address you not as guilty of a crime but as brothers, that, laying aside the obstinacy of a vain superstition, you acquiesce in salutary admonitions, obeying the commands of our king Abdala and venerating our magnificent prophet Moloch. If you do this, you will happily enjoy the joys of this life, and we will give you infinite possessions and wives; but if you do not do it, you will perish by divers punishments. The holy Martyrs said: You will neither be able to persuade us with blandishments, nor will you be able to strike terror into us with the harshness of threats. Then the abominable judge, kindled with fury and great anger, ordered holy Placidus with his Companions to be stripped, and beaten with clubs, and most cruelly tortured in all their limbs. And while the ministers of iniquity were carrying out the commander's orders, Gordianus, with all the Christians who had escaped the hands of the commander Mamucha, cried out with great weeping: Lord Jesus Christ, strength and palm of martyrs, come to the help of Placidus Thy servant, set in the peril of this contest: and this he begged day and night, offering to the Lord without intermission victims of tears and prayers for him.

[68] The same holy one of the Lord Placidus, when he had been tortured beyond measure with his Companions by the pagans, and inhumanly was removed from the punishments by order of the most savage commander, and the most blessed virgin Flavia, shining with incredible beauty, was presented to the tribunal. When the savage beast had looked on her, he said to her: Say, wicked woman, and altogether unworthy of any mercy, do you acquiesce in the royal commands, or have you resolved to remain in folly? To him the most blessed virgin of Christ Flavia answered: I have never had folly, for I have always loved Christ, who rules all things; but the commands of your king I cast away like mud which is trodden underfoot. The commander, kindled with great anger against the virgin Flavia, said to the ministers: Strip her, and, her feet raised on high, hang her up aloft. She will have a fitting return for her honour, who has refused to bend the neck of her heart to salutary admonitions. The pagans, according to what the commander had ordered, hung up the holy virgin Flavia with her feet raised aloft. The commander addressed her thus, saying: Most foolish of all women, are you not ashamed in the disgrace of your nakedness? And the Virgin of Christ to this: Sacred Scripture testifies that God is the maker of man and woman, for which reason no injury on account of sex will be ascribed to me because I am naked; nor am I ready to bear only the nakedness of the body, but also sword and fire, for the sake of Him who for me willed to be stripped and scourged and crucified.

[69] The commander, relying at this on his carnal fury, said to the ministers: he tortures Flavia; What are you doing? Bring clubs, and scourge her most sharply without intermission. And while the soldiers were cruelly scourging the holy virgin Flavia, the Virgin of Christ cried out to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, be present now to Thy handmaid Flavia in the arena of this contest, lest Thine enemies say, lest they say: We have prevailed against her. Disturbed at this, the most cruel censor said: If this woman is not destroyed, she will bring the greatest loss to our king Abdala. And after this: Come, he said, twisting her forehead and breasts, and her arms too, tear them apart. And underneath supply a most acrid smoke, and kill her by tormenting her body with various torments. They, then, carrying this out with the whole effort of their minds, cried out: Deny your Christ, most shameful woman, worthy of every disgrace, for death already prepared hangs over you. And so, the day having passed in such things, the commander Mamucha ordered the holy virgin of God to be taken down and shut up in prison with blessed Placidus and the Rest, and, moved with anger, commanded that as many of the Christians as they found they should put to death with divers punishments.

[70] And now who could worthily relate with what great punishments the Christians in Sicily were afflicted at that time? nor meanwhile does he treat the other Christians more mildly. For some, forcing open their mouths with the levers of stakes, poured in fetid filth. Others they tormented by twisting the bellowing sinews in their foreheads and shins; very often they held out to them without mercy sea-water, vinegar, oil-dregs and fish-sauce and many other cruel things, put to their mouths as though from filled skins, urging them to walk with iron goads. Snatching little ones also from their mothers' breasts, they dashed innocent infancy to the ground. Others, holding them by the feet on opposite sides, they tore apart from the natural passage right up to the crown of the head. Others were burned with plates of glowing iron; and fitting clubs, in the manner of saws, from palm branches with their stumps, and scourging the backs of the Christians with them, they not only broke the bones, but the piercing spines also remained within, and the flesh being torn apart, the bowels were laid open. Some, again, with their feet bound behind the backs of running horses, were dragged through the thorny places of the woods, so that, dragged to and fro, their bodies were torn by the bristling spines of the thickets; and for long and often they bound their shins, twisting them with twanging cords. Hanging women, moreover, by one foot, with smaller toothed stakes, straight * at the head, and their hair tied to the same, and pulling more violently, they tore off the whole scalp together with the hair, binding huge weights to the one foot, and applying fiery plates of iron to the back, belly, breasts and sides ⁿ.

ANNOTATA.

l. Psalm 58, verse 1.

* She will have

* fault

* thrown

CHAPTER VI.

The Saints, tortured again and again, are at length diminished by the head, and are committed to burial by Gordianus.

Again Mamucha; first indeed all to be beaten, The holy virgin Flavia, while she was thrust back into the confinement of the prison with her Brothers, spoke to Placidus her brother, saying: Already, brother Placidus, by the favour of your sacred prayers, I have begun martyrdom; now, I beseech you, do not cease to complete what has been begun. Pray more attentively, I ask, that the Lord Jesus Christ may make worthy the desire of our heart before the sight of His glory, and grant us what He has deigned to promise His faithful and all who seek His grace. The holy one of the Lord Placidus, opening his mouth, consoled Eutychius and Victorinus, his brothers, and the virgin Flavia, his sister, and the thirty-three Companions, saying: Be of brave mind, look up to heaven, and implore with prayers Him who rules all things, that by the intercession of father Benedict He may grant us endurance in suffering. On another day the commander Mamucha, sitting in the consistory, ordered the holy martyrs of God Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and the virgin Flavia, with their thirty-three Companions, to be presented to him, and most grievously with clubs

to be beaten, and hung up by the feet, and sharply tortured in all their limbs, and a horrid smoke to be administered under them, saying: Deny your Christ, and utter insults against Him, and we will give you the good things of this world. After this the holy martyr of Christ Placidus, with eyes raised to heaven, cried out to the Lord, saying: "The wicked have told us fables, but not as Thy law," O Lord ^a. All Thy commandments are truth; the wicked have persecuted us; help us, O Lord our God.

[72] On the fifth day, the pagans, seeing that the holy martyrs of God Placidus, then St. Placidus and his Brothers, Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia the virgin were bound by a certain special love, and anticipated one another in honour, that they took food together, that they stood apart from the others, that they prayed alone together, marvelled, and said one to another: These are joined by kinship, therefore they are separated from the others. One of the pagans, then, questioning the Saints through the interpreter whom they used, said to them: What kinship do you bear among yourselves? They answered: We are four brothers and sister, begotten of one man and woman. He again questioned them, saying: Are you of this country, or from another region? And the Saints answered, saying: We are Romans and Christians. And he: It befalls you well, for you have always wished to humble the race of all men and to exercise dominion, and you have never wished to bow your necks to any nation. But tell us, what are your names? At this holy Placidus, speaking out, said: These two brothers of mine are called Eutychius and Victorinus ^b. And this my sister, and a virgin, is called Flavia. And I, a sinner, am called Placidus the Monk. And he said: Assent to us, and it will profit you; deny that your Christ is God, and after our custom worship Lucifer, the star of our God Rempham, that you may be able to enjoy together with us the joys of this life. The holy martyr Placidus, answering, said: Far be it from us that we should deny our God Jesus Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth, and worship for God a lost man, who has already been condemned by the Lord Jesus Christ, with the devil and his angels, in hell, to be burned in perpetual fire.

[73] orders them to be beaten almost to death; When the pagans had heard these words from the Martyr's mouth, they took care to report them to the commander Mamucha. The most savage commander, kindled with excessive fury, ordered the most holy Placidus with his two Brothers and his sister Flavia to be slaughtered with rods until they fainted under their hands. When this had been done, the pagans, thinking them dead, withdrew. But almighty God, who has care and solicitude for His own, sent His holy angel, who strengthened the bodies of the holy martyrs Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and the virgin Flavia, and cured the wounds of their blows. When morning came, the pagans, returning to the arena, and perceiving the holy Martyrs of God standing unharmed, said to them: Take note and see how great mercy our God and prophet have used towards you, who, when they ought to have killed you, have conferred health upon you. Leave, then, vanity and a superstitious sect, and adore those who have bestowed health upon you, and let them govern your life. Holy Placidus answered: Rather do you leave the devil whom you adore, and adore our Lord Jesus Christ, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them, and leave that lost prophet of yours, and Satan, whom he worshipped for God, with whom he has been condemned to eternal fire.

[74] when this was done in vain, Placidus's tongue is cut out, The Saracens, when they saw that they could bend the Saints of God to their worship neither by threats nor by promises, took care to relate to the commander in order what had been done and said. The savage commander, indignant, ordered holy Placidus with his Sister and his two Brothers to be hung up by the feet, and beaten with clubs, and a most acrid smoke to be supplied, the pagans crying out according to their custom: Deny your Christ, deny Him. When this had been done, blessed Placidus, together with his brothers Eutychius and Victorinus and the virgin Flavia, cried out as though with one mouth, saying: We give Thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who strengthenest Thy servants that hope in Thee. But the most hard commander, moved with pain and anger, ordered the mouth and windpipe of the most blessed martyr Placidus, who spoke before all and for all, to be broken with a stone, saying: If you will not deny your Christ, both you and the others will perish by an evil death. The holy martyr Placidus glorifies the Lord, saying: I give Thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned to reckon me in the number of Thy servants. The most impious commander, not bearing that the most blessed Placidus thus often named Christ, kindled with great anger, ordered his tongue to be cut off by the root. But holy Placidus, his tongue cut off ^c, cried out, saying: Blessed be the name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose name and power endure for ever, who also delivers us always from every evil.

[75] And when his Brothers and Sister had answered, Amen, Flavia is exposed to defilement: the most savage commander, gnashing his teeth for excessive anger, ordered them again to be beaten with most heavy clubs. The holy virgin Flavia the savage judge commanded to be handed over to certain procurers of his army to be defiled, saying: Invite the whole army to her disgrace. The holy virgin Flavia, when she had learned the sentence pronounced against her, looked up to heaven and said: "O God, who sittest upon the thrones and judgest equity ^d," "be Thou to me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me ^e." An unjust judge has risen up against me, biting my flesh with canine rage; he has put out savage hands to blows; I have been hung up by the feet, I have been most sharply beaten with clubs, I have been most cruelly tortured in all my limbs, a horrid smoke has been administered under me; the savage commander is fattened with my blood: Thine is the love, Thine the fidelity; for Thee I suffer all these things; look upon me, holy God of Sabaoth, lest the enemies defile Thy handmaid, lest they say: We have prevailed against her. She prayed, and behold, suddenly the divine power, looking upon the holy Virgin, fenced her about with its protection. For when, at the commander's order, the procurers wished to defile the holy virgin Flavia, wishing to do her violence, whoever put forth his hands to touch her, their sinews were benumbed, and their hands and arms withered, and for pain they gave a bellow from the depth of their hearts. The most blessed virgin Flavia herself, though she had been, as we have already said, many times beaten and tortured with her Brothers for the name of Christ, and afflicted with divers punishments, remained immovable in the faith of Christ.

[76] After this the most impious commander Mamucha caused the holy martyrs of God Placidus, at length, for overcoming the Martyrs Eutychius, Victorinus and the virgin Flavia to be set before his examination, and with swelling breast, furious face and shaking head, addressed them thus: How long does our clemency bear with you fools? I exhort and admonish you: deny the Crucified, and adore the God to whom our most excellent king Abdala bends his neck; otherwise you will perish by a most bitter death. Holy Placidus answered: O unhappy men, why do you not bring out the eyes of your mind, bereft * by black darkness? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of heaven and earth, and dismiss the devil whom you adore, and leave your false prophet. If you do not do this, eternal fire will receive you. Mamucha, turning after this to the holy martyrs Eutychius, Victorinus and the virgin Flavia, said to them: Say, unhappy and wretched ones, do you abandon the Crucified, or have you resolved to perish with Placidus the seducer? The holy Martyrs said: We have already told you very often that on no terms and for no reason do we abandon our Lord Jesus Christ, and your admonitions we abominate like mud which is trodden underfoot.

[77] a last engine, but equally Having heard these things, the most savage Mamucha, driven by excessive furies, ordered the holy martyrs of God Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia to be bound more tightly, and ships' anchors to be placed upon their shins, and great stones to be placed on top of the anchors, that, compelled by this pain, they might deny Christ. The pagans, carrying out the orders of the most iniquitous commander, cried out: Unless you deny that your Christ is God, you will be consumed by a bitter death in such a punishment. And when they had endured that day and the whole night in so great a torment, and the holy one of the Lord Placidus sang psalms, and his Sister and Brothers prayed and gave thanks to God, as the next day dawned ^f the pagans returned to the Martyrs, and seeing that they persisted immovable in the faith of Christ, they said: Do you nourish fibres of horn, stony breasts, that you do not acquiesce in salutary counsels? Look to yourselves, and deny that Christ is God, and we will give you gold and silver, gilded cloaks and precious stones. Holy Placidus answered: Neither for gold nor for silver, nor for gilded cloaks or precious stones, will we give assent to your impious and perverse suggestion that we deny Christ. For the rigour of justice and the way of truth know not how to be bent, if held with a brave breast. The very same thing the saints of God Eutychius, Victorinus and the blessed virgin Flavia affirmed.

[78] applied in vain, At this the satellites of Satan, vehemently angered, set forth the matter in order to the commander as it was. The most savage Mamucha, kindled with terrible fury and anger, dictated the sentence, saying: Placidus, Eutychius, Victorinus, Faustus, despising our commands, and worshipping as God Christ, who was crucified by the Jews, and abominating our worship and our prophet Moloch, we order to be beheaded, and their bodies to be left unburied to be devoured by wolves and dogs and the birds of the sky. The most wicked ministers, returning at a swift pace, cast the Saints out of the custody in which they were held shut up, and led them, scourging them, as far as the shore of the sea, on which they were to be beheaded. When they had come there, the pagans, speaking to the Saints, said: Will you comply with the order of the most invincible commander Mamucha, that you deny Christ, and adore and worship God after our manner?

[79] on the IV day of October all are diminished by the head. The holy Martyrs, renouncing their admonitions, said: Never do we deny our Creator, never do we withdraw from His worship. Another God we altogether do not know, nor adore, besides our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we offer ourselves as a living victim in sacrifice. We are Christians, and for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we desire rather to die than to live. Now carry out upon us what seems good to you. When they had given these words, the most blessed martyr Placidus, lifting his eyes to heaven, prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who didst come down from heaven to earth, and for our salvation didst endure the gibbet of the Cross, be propitious to us, Thy servants, and through the intercession of our master, Thy servant Benedict, give us constancy of virtue, that, made partakers of the most glorious resurrection,

we may be able to run the course of this contest with intrepid spirit and robust mind, lest the enemy of the human race set any obstacle before our minds, lest the prince of darkness and his accomplices hinder us. But may Michael, the angel of Thy covenant, receive our souls in peace, for Thou art God, blessed and glorious for ever and ever. And when the holy martyrs Eutychius, Victorinus and the virgin Flavia, with their thirty-three Companions, had answered, Amen, bending their knees they were beheaded together with the most blessed Placidus, on the third day before the Nones of October, in Sicily, in the port of the city of Messina. After the beheading their bodies lay beside the sea for four days ^g.

[80] After the passion of the most blessed martyr Placidus and his Companions, whose, on the fifth day after, the Saracens perishing in the sea, Mamucha, the most impious commander of the Saracens, not yet sated with the blood of the Saints which he had caused to be innocently shed, commanded that the monastery which blessed Placidus had built, in which also he had dwelt, should be burned and overturned from its foundations. And so it came about that during the four days in which the bodies of the Saints lay on the shore after the beheading, the whole monastery was burned and overturned to the ground *, so that the Saracens even tore up the foundations of the monastery and threw the stones into the sea. Meanwhile the sea is calmed, the whirlwinds of the winds are pacified, the way is opened to the sailors. The most cruel commander, perceiving this, orders all the Saracens to return to the sea, so that, the signal given, they might board the ships. As the dawn of the fifth day was breaking, the Saracens with their commander Mamucha, boarding the ships, began to furrow the deeps of the sea. Because of the greatness of its height, the Saracens were not able to burn or overturn the church which blessed Placidus had built within his monastery in honour of St. John the Baptist, since it was spacious and lofty ^h, but they polluted and profaned it in every way they could. For the beams which they found inside the church they cut into small pieces, they defiled the church with adulteries, they fouled the altar of the Lord with dung and urine, and went to stool upon it, and whatever depravity can be spoken or thought, they practised there. And, as we described before, boarding the ships, they began to sail with as much urgency as they could. And when they were already in the middle of the Faro (for they had arranged to make for Rhegium), suddenly a great storm arose, so that they could proceed further neither back nor forward, but, seized by the running waves in the middle of the Faro, by the just judgment of God a hundred ships together with sixteen thousand eight hundred Saracens were sunk into the depth of the sea ⁱ.

[81] The bodies of the holy Martyrs were still lying on the shore, where no beast and no bird touched them, Gordianus buries the bodies. and instead of a stench they gave forth a most sweet odour. Gordianus, who had followed blessed Placidus from the monastery of Cassino, and who, as we related above, had escaped by flight at the time of his capture, who also sought out the Saints at night time and strengthened them while they were in prison, took the body of the blessed martyr Placidus, his lord, and the bodies of Saints Eutychius and Victorinus, his brothers, and of the holy virgin Flavia, his sister, and joining their heads to their bodies as best he could, buried them in the church of St. John the Baptist, first cleansing it of all the uncleanness of the Saracens. For that church alone, as we described above, had remained of all the buildings of the monastery. The remaining bodies of the thirty-three holy Martyrs, fragrant with a wonderful odour, he buried in the sand in the very place where they had been beheaded, where Jesus Christ our Lord does not cease to bestow His benefits to this present day, the merits of the holy martyrs Placidus and his Companions intervening. For there the blind are enlightened, the lame are cured, the deaf receive hearing, lepers are cleansed, demons are put to flight, and all the sick are saved.

[82] eulogy of St. Placidus, put to death in this way, In such manner the most holy martyr of the Lord Placidus with his Companions, tossed by divers tribulations and punishments, made white his robe in the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, whom he now follows through the delights of paradise, inserted among the Apostles, because he left all; among the Martyrs, because he bore in himself the martyrdom of peace and of persecution; among the Confessors, because he confessed Christ before believers and unbelievers; among the Virgins, because he guarded virginity of heart and body. Inserted in these choirs, he does not cease to praise the immense King, bearing a crown woven of roses and lilies, and singing a canticle in exultation and joy with unwearying voice, and rightly. For through him the church of Cassino was made purple, which before, in the works of father Benedict, had stood white; because he first became a teacher to very many in the war of Christ by that same word and example. He, in the times of father Benedict, first began battle against the pagans. He, the standard-bearer among the soldiers of Christ, he, at the beginnings of the raging persecutions, joining battle with the very prince of the assault, the author Mamucha, while he conquered the adversary with unassailable firmness, made the way of conquering for the rest. And therefore he now does not cease to sing a new canticle with those who follow the Lamb. With this Lamb may he deign to intercede for us, and, when we have been cleansed of all stains, may he will to clothe us with the fleece; presenting all to the same Lamb whom he follows, that He may not suffer those whom He redeemed with His blood to lie subject to another's right.

[83] and the chronological synopsis of his life. Now the most blessed Placidus, exalted martyr of our Lord Jesus Christ, suffered in the twenty-sixth year of his age, with his two brothers Eutychius and Victorinus, and his sister the virgin Flavia, with Faustus and Firmatus the deacon, and at the same time thirty Monks, under the most savage king Abdala and the commander Mamucha, in the thirteenth year ^k of the emperor Justinian, at Messina, a city of Sicily, on the third day before the Nones of October, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God through all ages of ages, Amen. And the days of the life of the most blessed Martyr are numbered thus. He was offered to God by his father, the patrician Tertullus, and delivered to blessed Benedict, in the seventh year of his age; he dwelt with him at Subiaco five years; he stayed in the monastery of Cassino, which he himself together with his master Benedict and his fellow disciple Maurus had built on his own estate, nine years. He built a monastery on his patrimony in Sicily over four years. He presided over the same monastery one year; which together make twenty-six years. He was born in the year of the Lord's Incarnation five hundred and fifteen. He was crowned with martyrdom in the five hundred and forty-first.

ANNOTATA.

a. Psalm 118, verse 85.

e. Psalm 30, verse 3.

* perhaps: covered over?

* was

CHAPTER VII.

The restoration of the monastery of Messina, and the cult of the holy Martyrs.

Having learned from the Sicilians Having set forth these things which pertained to the passion of the most blessed martyr Placidus and his Companions, I shall now take care to commit to the memory of posterity the destruction and restoration of his monastery, or what and how great things the inhabitants of the place suffered after his departure ^a, whether that the knowledge of the matter may be at hand, or that in its manifold and wonderful raising up the mercy of the Lord may be praised, who scourges every son whom He receives, and after weeping and wailing brings in exultation. After Mamucha, the artificer of perverse guile, had been sunk with all his army into the depths of the sea, and it had come to the knowledge of the Sicilians how the holy one of the Lord Placidus had received martyrdom with his Brothers and Companions, at once from the whole island an innumerable crowd ran together, asking how this had happened. For from the least to the greatest the bitterest weeping held all. Messalinus and his sons, hearing that the holy one of the Lord Placidus had been crowned with martyrdom, rending their garments and sprinkling their heads with dust, came to the tomb. After this Messalinus and Pompeius Cilius, having taken counsel, sent envoys to Cassino to father Benedict, dispatching a letter containing these things:

[85] the slaughter of the Martyrs To the universal founder of Monks and

teacher, Benedict, his servants and sons, desolate and bereft of their shepherd, with due subjection, obedience. Since we have judged it right that nothing should be unknown to your paternity, we wish your holiness to know of the things which have been done among us: that your most religious and most holy disciple Placidus, on the third day before the Nones of October, after many kinds of torments, passed to the Lord by the punishment of the sword. For, taken by Mamucha, commander of the Saracens, with his brothers Eutychius, Victorinus and his sister the virgin Flavia, with Faustus, Firmatus and thirty Monks, after slaughtering with blows, hanging, the administration of smoke, the torturing of all his limbs, the breaking of his windpipe and teeth, and also the cutting off of his tongue, he was beheaded with all his Companions. Whence we suppliantly ask your paternity that you deign to send disciples to retain the courts and possessions ^b, etc.

[86] St. Benedict Gladdened, then, by the holy letter, the holy father, lifting his palms on high, gave thanks to the Redeemer of all, saying: I now bring forth thanks to Thee, Life and salvation of all, who hast caused the fruit of my lips, the most beloved Placidus, the singular and only son of my breast, to ascend to Thy throne. The most holy father proclaiming these things, and rejoicing beyond measure with spiritual gladness over the passion of the most blessed Martyr, calling together the whole assembly of Cassino, delivered to them such a speech: As it is a father's part to rejoice in the progress of his sons, so it is the sons' part to reckon the increase of their father as their own gain. Wherefore know that my most sweet son Placidus, adorned with the robe of martyrdom, has passed to the Lord. For already with my inward eyes I have escorted his spotless victim, well-pleasing to God, into the heights of heaven. Him indeed, at the time when I received him from his father, I remembered to be mortal, nor did the opinion deceive me. Now there is nothing for me to complain of. I have that for which I may give thanks to God, for I have always desired that a sacrifice should be offered to almighty God of the fruit of my heart. For I had nothing more precious than this sacrifice, nothing more lovable, nothing dearer. For Placidus chose for Christ a momentary death, and came to Him reigning on the heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father. For for this Christ died for all, that we might live not to ourselves but to Christ. I render thanks to the Redeemer of all, for I cannot be ungrateful.

[87] For I ought to rejoice, namely, that I had such a Disciple, sends a new colony of monks to Messina, not grieve that I have lost him. For the former was a gift, the latter a debt; namely, that I performed the service of Placidus my disciple as long as God willed, and afterwards He who gave took back. What belonged to our common nature Placidus laid down for Christ, and what belongs to singular grace he merited. But why should I grieve that Placidus my son has been snatched from me, when for our salvation God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all? Who was ever excepted from the condition of dying who was not excepted from the condition of being born? Let me not, then, weep for Placidus my son, whom I know to have passed from death to life. For in his death one must rejoice, not grieve, since he tasted it for the truth and the faith of the eternal King. For why then should I weep for you, Placidus, most dear son, who have been so snatched from me that you might belong to all? For you have not lost the use of your nature, but exchanged it. Before, existing in the body inseparable from God, now you are abiding undivided with God. Happy the words which I spent on you, happy the labours which I bore for you while you lived with me! The love of Tertullus your father could not tear you from me, nor did you ever prefer your father to me, until you passed to eternal life ^c. While father Benedict was speaking these and similar things, by the counsel of the whole Congregation of Cassino he directed certain of his disciples to Sicily, commanding them to hasten the more quickly to the aforesaid island, to restore the monastery of the blessed martyr Placidus and to govern the courts and estates of the patrician Tertullus.

[88] They, complying with his commands, when they had arrived in Sicily, which, having put in there, calling the servants of the blessed martyr Placidus, said: Where have you laid the light of the world and the glory of the church of Cassino, Placidus, disciple of father Benedict? Tell us where the bread of rest lies, where the money of the heavenly King is hidden, and many things like these. They, answering, said that they were at the church of St. John the Baptist, and showed the place in which Placidus, witness of Christ, lay buried. They, rushing to the earth, with fear and great joy began to kiss the holy tomb, the funeral rites, so to speak, of certain angels in the flesh to the blessed martyr Placidus, in whose passion the heavens opened, the angels attended, men exulted, the earth was glad. The brethren, then, seeing the tomb in which Placidus, the most holy father, had been laid away, cried out with sobs and tears, saying: Most holy of men, who, fenced about by the protection of the supreme King, trampled on the prince of the world, intercede for us with the Lord, that, by the support of your merits, we may be able to walk in your footsteps and take hold of the joys of heaven.

[89] he venerates the tomb of St. Placidus, When they had said these and many other things, as though they saw him bodily, they by no means spared their tears, kissing the holy tomb without intermission. For an odour, so to speak, of the sweetness of paradise flowed from the tomb; they watered it with tears, they smoothed it groaning, they kissed it with delight. For the bishop of the city of Messina, when he learned that the disciples of father Benedict had come to restore the monastery and to govern the courts and possessions, took pains to go to them, and saluting them with a holy kiss said to them: God has not suffered the works and labours of the most holy father Placidus, most beloved of God, to be lost; but as after the migration of Israel from Egypt He restored to the sons of Shem the region of Palestine, their own, possessed by the Canaanites, to whom, on account of the work of his natural sons, their father, the heir of the world, confirmed with an oath the testament of distribution, that at no time should they plunder one another's possessions, as they had done before the flood, and pollute the land with iniquities and bloodshed; so also, repaying what was just concerning our most blessed father Placidus, our God has acted, by sending his brethren and sons to govern and restore the monastery and to retain his courts and possessions. For according to the Scripture God bestows good things unto many generations, who, after the manner of the death of Moses, restored the spirit of Placidus to the Father. For as he heard: Go up into the mountain, and die there ^d, so to this one He said: Go out from Cassino, Placidus, and presently entering the island of Sicily, through martyrdom you will pass through the fleshly and corruptible life. God therefore is true, and it is impossible for God to lie. So it befell Placidus, the most blessed father. Now these things were done by the dispensation of God; for He permitted Mamucha, the most cruel persecutor of the Christians, windy with violent voice, a surprise attack, a tempest, mourning and confusion, to come to these parts for this, that Placidus with his Brothers and Disciples might be crowned with martyrdom. Bursting, then, the bond of the tying of his body, he flew through the midst of the waves of the present life into the heights of heaven.

[90] and keeps his anniversary day as a feast together with the people of Messina, The day having been spent in such things, the bishop, with the multitude of the people which had come with him, kissing the holy tomb, withdrew to his own. When the anniversary day of the passion of blessed Placidus and his Companions came, a great crowd, coming together with tapers and incense to the tombs of the most holy martyr Placidus and his Companions, remaining day and night in the church in his honour, sang praises to the Lord; all, I say, coming together, from men to women and infants, bringing offerings and vows in royal fashion ^e. For it behoved them to celebrate the holy festivity in the light of knowledge, and the people to adore the things understood of splendour. In these times too the most blessed father Benedict, full of virtues and holiness, happily passed to the Lord in the year of the Word Incarnate five hundred and forty-two ^f, after he had presided over the government of the monastery of Cassino for fourteen years, and he was buried there before the altar of St. John the Baptist ^g. To this most holy father the holy Pope Vigilius confirmed by privilege all the courts and possessions which the patrician Tertullus had offered him in Sicily. The very same thing his successors did, to the number of XLIX ^h.

[91] These things having thus been succinctly touched upon, let us hand down in the present little Work what Gordianus, the servant of the martyr Placidus, did. when Gordianus had already gone away to Constantinople, For after the same Gordianus had committed the bodies of the holy Martyrs to burial, he did not know what to do or what to say. For he said within himself: If I remain here, I shall make no further progress; if I wish to return to Cassino, it seems to me altogether impossible: for I know how great dangers lie upon me on so long a journey. While he turned these things over silently with himself, he besought more attentively day and night the suffrage of blessed Placidus and his Companions. Meanwhile, as the fourth day came, very early in the morning a ship laden with the merchandise of the Neapolitans came into the port of the city of Messina, and some of them, going down to land, came to the church of St. John the Baptist, in which the holy martyr of the Lord Placidus was buried with his Companions ⁱ. Gordianus, seeing them, after the offices of greeting kissed them, and then questioned them, saying: Who are you, or whence, and whither are you making your journey? Then they said: We are Neapolitans, and our course is towards Constantinople ^k. Gordianus, when he had heard such words from them, was filled with great joy, and having given the fare boarded their ship, and crossing with them the very long ways of the sea, reached the city of Constantinople; having entered which, he was lodged for very many years in the house of a certain very powerful man.

[92] And there, at the command of the emperor Justinian [l], he took care to make known more precisely the Life and miracles, where he wrote the Acts of St. Placidus, and also the Passion, of the most blessed martyr Placidus and his Companions, and to set them down more fully for the memory of posterity in Greek letters, in which he was excellently versed. They, hearing these things, glorified God, and urged that Gordianus should by all means remain with them in that same city, which he also did. After some courses of years, however, Gordianus, bidding them farewell, left with them the Passion of the martyr Placidus and his Companions, which, as we noted above, he had drawn up there in Greek characters ^m; he himself, boarding a ship, returned to Sicily, and coming to the city of Syracuse, survived there a short time, in which, always living piously and holily, he completed the end of his life, acquiring for himself the eternal kingdom, the holy Martyrs whom he had served interceding.

[93] From the day on which the bodies of the holy martyrs Placidus, and the church of St. John had already put on the name of St. Placidus. Eutychius and Victorinus the brothers, and of the most blessed virgin Flavia, their sister, were buried in the church of St. John the Baptist, that basilica was no longer called St. John's ⁿ, but in honour of the Saints who were buried within it was called the church of St. Placidus, namely until those times when the Romans lost Sicily [o]: all also

in the times in which the Saracens ruled Sicily, that church was called by the name of the blessed martyr Placidus [p].

ANNOTATA.

p. Peter of Cassino, in Octavio Gaetani, quoting this same passage, so far as appears, adds this: And so, when the aforesaid island had been filled with Franks (he means the Normans), they began to name the church in which St. Placidus rested not by the name of the same Martyr, as we said before, but St. Jacinthus, not knowing the proper form of the name, as being men of a foreign nation and newcomers; and therefore down to the present day they have always been accustomed to call the same church corruptly by the name of St. Jacinthus.

read rather separable or separated*

and* is superfluous

OTHER ACTS

By Stephen of Le Puy

From the edition of Octavio Gaetani, tome 1 on the Sicilian Saints, from page 172.

By Stephen of Le Puy.

PROLOGUE.

To the holy men living under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, At whose prayers the author wrote who practise the piety of the cenobitic warfare in the church of Cassino, Stephen of Le Puy, their unworthy and last servant, wishes that they may merit the twofold spirit of the Church. That you are philosophers of heaven, and professed in heavenly philosophy, your spiritual apprenticeship teaches, and the very choice of better things proclaims. You have chosen the best part with Mary, and, having gone out from Ur of the Chaldees, and fleeing the darkness of Egypt, you specially hold, by the singularity of your conversation and life, the holy mountain, the curdled and fat mountain, that you may be able to see the God of Sabaoth. Having laid aside the baseness of the old man, you are transfigured into the newness of the heavenly Adam, and sitting at the door of the cave with Elijah, your desires suspended towards eternal things, we believe that you perceive the whisper of a gentle breeze, sounding without sound in your hearts. For the solace of your pilgrimage and to soothe the hardships of temporal exile you dig diligently and strenuously the wells of the Scriptures, in which is living water. And in the night of this mortality you ask the three Gospel loaves of your friend, that, given to drink of the water of refreshment and fed with the solidity of the true bread, in the strength of this food you may reach, as manfully so also happily, Horeb the mountain of God. Secure already of attaining the fellowship of the Saints, you love with such tenderness, and cultivate as fellow soldiers in war, the men of confession and grace who have impressed on you with their footsteps the paths of everlasting life; but, as future fellow citizens in the kingdom, you honour them with divine cults, and put on according to your strength their likeness and figure alike. It pleases you to imitate those whom you venerate. And lest the famine of Christ God, which * oppresses the land of Canaan and compels even the highest Patriarchs to go abroad, should violently invade your borders, after the canonical Scriptures you humbly go over the passions and deeds of the Saints, and in them, as in a mirror, you rejoice to refigure the face of your nativity; whence also you have brought to light the triumphs and contests of Placidus, your martyr, which through the neglect of the Latins had long been buried in silence, while among the Greeks they lived and flourished excellently, dug out from the Greek ^b; and you request with the urgency of a commanding prayer that we should colour them, published in a middling style, with more ornate and more proper words.

[2] Weighed down by the mass of your authority, I cannot refuse the service which so solemn a voice demands: the History of St. Placidus. but I fear lest the pipe of an impoverished wit should appear unequal to your uses: for I know that among you too there is a fountain of living water springing up unto life. And so great is the brightness of this Martyr that it is clouded rather than made bright by my ineloquent and quite slender speech. I will put my neck under so great a burden, and will sustain the weight of your command on submissive shoulders, that I may touch upon, with what integrity of speech I can, the most genuine passion of Placidus, formerly a monk, now a martyr; once your fellow soldier, now your guardian and patron alike. There will be no need either to adorn the martyrdom of the blessed Man with the rhetorical colours of sentences, or to clothe it with flowers; since there is so great a splendour of piety, of virtues and of works in this History, that it and the properties of the things which are to be expressed can wring out the most coloured discourse even from one unwilling. Nor let anyone, whether too diligent or too little cautious, wish to roll upon us the calumny that we are introducing a new Martyr to a world already growing old. For this Martyr is authentic, not raw, nor a novice; but ancient, on the witness of the Eastern church, which has from of old venerated his triumphs expressed in Greek by the monk Gordianus ^c, and on the witness of the emperor Justinian, who by an Imperial Rescript directed to Pope Vigilius ^d caused the Passion of this holy Martyr to be canonized. We too, following their footsteps, shall reform in Latin the truth expressed by them in Greek, and, as it were shaping a new path in an old way, we shall advance so moderately as both to satisfy the business and by no means to wound the delight of your ears with superfluous prolixity.

ANNOTATA.

perhaps: which* (feminine)?

SECOND PROLOGUE.

The causes of the writing. To extol the immortal triumphs of the Blessed and the perennial victories of the Martyrs with heavenly praises, and to honour them with divine titles, is as honourable for the Church as it is delightful for readers. Illustrious are the actions of the Saints, and from the ray of the power of God they take so much of splendour and light that they are able sufficiently to illumine the whole world. Whoever should wish either to cloud with silence the brightness of such divine works, or should not take pains to colour it with what kind of eloquence he can, seems to sin against the King of deity and against the very majesty of the Lord. Wherefore we too, fit ^a and less worthy for this work, lest we seem to have suppressed in silence, as though from envy, the mighty works of our God, at the exacting prayer of the Saints who serve God as soldiers in the monastery of Cassino, have undertaken, God favouring, to describe the Passion of blessed Placidus, monk and martyr at once, which, written in Greek by Gordianus, disciple of father Benedict and companion of the same Martyr ^b, and little translated into Latin ^c, we shall pursue in such a kind of style that we may both touch upon the course of the action with a compendium of truth, and that the grace of due propriety may not be denied to things dedicated to the Lord. In which business, however, there will be no need to clothe the martyrdom of the holy Man either with rhetorical flower or with the colours of discourse, because so precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints that even an uncultivated or bare series of pious actions does not beg for others' suffrages, nor need to be crowned with the little flowers of words. We set forth the acts of the blessed Martyr in such purity of truth that both what we have found among the Greeks may be restored to its integrity, and the honesty of our relation may not engender distaste, but bring forth devotion in the hearer. May the Spirit of truth assist my heart and my mouth alike, that I may so be able to serve the reverence due to the Martyr that the same Saint may become known to posterity by my labour, and that I, with my readers who shall piously receive this work, may merit a fuller reward in heaven.

ANNOTATA.

a. Read: unfit.

b. See above, letter c.

CHAPTER I.

The family of St. Placidus, his stay with St. Benedict, and his mission into Sicily.

St. Placidus, born at Rome of patrician family, Blessed Placidus, then, martyr of Christ, springing from a line of senatorial dignity, was a native of the Roman city, and shone forth like a most splendid star to illumine the darkness of this world in the time of the emperor Justin. Proceeding by temporal birth, like a rosy flower, from the thorn of secular warfare, he washed his robe in wine, and in the blood of Jesus Christ the cloak of his flesh

he wonderfully made purple. His father was named Tertullus; first a soldier, afterwards, through the fasces of honours and the discharge of the offices of dignities, he rose to the summit of the Roman patriciate. His mother, descended from the Octavian family, brought forth by a sober and profitable enough birth this very one of whom we treat, as it were a certain lily of purity ^a. Happy and so worthy mother of so great a son, she brought forth not this shoot of holiness alone, but also bore three others, Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia the virgin ^b, that in four children, as in four rivers, her chaste fruitfulness might water the land of the thirsting Church. We forbear to set forth in Placidus the praise of earthly nobility ^c; for so great is the splendour of merits and works in him that before the glory of his virtue the brightness of the flesh vanishes utterly.

[5] The Boy, nurtured by the diligence of his parents, and tenderly, as was fitting, and delivered from boyhood to St. Benedict, brought up, when, being seven years old, he was reaching the bounds of boyhood ^d, was offered to the most blessed father Benedict, who was leading an angelic life in the territory of Subiaco, to be regularly imbued with the norm of the monastic institute. The man worthy of God received the Boy, assigned to him by the divine will and by the devotion or faith of his parents from heaven, that, as a skilled gardener of the Church, he might bring the rivulets of heavenly teaching to the growing lily, and that under his teaching or leadership the most tender flower of virtue, bursting into maturity, might in its time give the fruit of martyrdom. It was plainly most fitting that the Boy, who was to be a vessel of election and grace, and who was to be promoted to the name and merit of Martyr, should take for himself the form of holiness from the mirror of Benedict, and should colour the innocence of life which he had received from him with the white of confession and the purple of martyrdom. Clothed in the habit of religion, the Boy clung to the teaching of Benedict as assiduously as strenuously. The new plantation was watered with heavenly teaching, and under the discipline of the Holy Spirit an age still unformed and tender was being formed to perfection of conversation and life ^f. The spirit of piety had betrothed to itself the mind of the devout Boy, and, painting the rudiments of love on the tablet of his heart, instructed him with the largesse of its grace to pursue the virtue of humility and obedience.

[6] by whose merits he is snatched from the danger of drowning. While the boyish mind was intent on these pursuits of the virtues and was striving for happy progress towards the things before, being ordered according to the custom of the monastery to carry water from the river for necessary uses, obediently embracing the word of him who ordered, the Son of a Roman patrician, taking up a water-vessel, came to the river; he let the bucket down into the water too little prudently, and, himself incautiously following it, with the vessel which he had dipped he was drawn from the land into the river, the wave carrying him off, as far as the cast of an arrow. His venerable master Benedict, suffused with the ray of the Holy Spirit, by which he was very often wont to be the knower and discerner of things remote and absent, beholding with spiritual eyes what had happened to the Boy, called Maurus, a disciple of fuller age, and, signifying what was happening concerning the boy Placidus, commanded him with modest vigour of spirit to hasten with swifter course to the rescue of the one sinking. Having humbly implored and received the paternal blessing, the monk Maurus came to the river, and, finding the boy Placidus now almost sunk, like the Apostle Peter he made free runs over the element of water, snatched the Boy by the hair, and brought him back from the middle of the river to land with ready and secure speed ^g. Let each say what he thinks; I define absolutely that the merit and power of the blessed father were able in the first place to accomplish this, that the liquid of the moving wave should suffer the print of the foot pressed upon it. I have held, God supporting me, that the simple innocence of Placidus merited this, that at the command of his master, snatched from the midst of the waters, he might be able to reach the end of a greater glory. The loving arbiter of equity did not will that the innocent and too little cautious life of His Boy should be shut off by the snatching waters: but disposing to promote him to better things, He both freed him from the instant moment of death by that kind of clemency with which He is wont, and reserved him for undergoing with glory the victory of passion at a time fixed with Himself. Taken out of the danger of the waters, this pious Boy advanced to better things by daily increases. And as outwardly, by reason of time, he was seen to grow in age, so in his inner man he busied himself assiduously to be renewed to the image of God through virtue.

[7] and to whom he clings constantly, In the school of the spiritual teaching, assisting humble and devout to father Benedict, he merited to obtain so much familiarity and favour with him that he was present not only as a common observer at the public actions of the same father, but also very often took part as a suitable witness — the truer the more secret — in his secret and intimate prayers or miracles. The devout Boy was present at the nightly supplications of the blessed father, when, specially taken by him as a companion, he saw and experienced what the merit of the holy man could do, who by the violence of his prayer compelled the summit of a lofty rock, utterly dry and parched, to sweat living waters, which ministered daily succour for the relief of the brethren's labour and complaint alike ^h. We believe that the venerable Benedict, with that eye of the spirit by which he took knowledge of future things, had a presentiment of how great excellence Placidus was to be, as your simple opinion reports to us. For this cause the pious father wished his happy Disciple to be present at his secret things, that he who from his public discourses and examples had taken the form of life might draw from the contemplation of the heavenly secret the fitting modes of praying and the force of true supplication. We judge it quite fitting that Placidus should have been present at his master's miracles, that he who in his time was to do miracles might easily perceive from the quality or bearing of his master with what form of prayer or insistence of supplication, at the moment of necessity, he ought powerfully to wrest from the vein of divine compassion the power of signs. Whence it came about that, following the heavenly teaching, he became an imitator of his spiritual master, and he who had long been an inspector and witness of wonderful works himself also became a worker of wonders. And, lest the lighted lamp should lie hidden under a bushel, he who was great in the eyes of God appeared wonderful also in the eyes of men; putting off adolescence and putting on the strength of youth, blessed Placidus, among the scholars' ranks of the spiritual apprenticeship in the monastery of Cassino, followed the exercise of camp discipline under Benedict, the servant of God.

[8] At that time there had arrived from Sicily the agents of the courts and estates, he is sent into Sicily to protect the estates of Cassino. who reported to the most blessed father that the possessions and estates which Tertullus, father of blessed Placidus, had conferred on the monastery of Cassino with patrician liberality, were being laid waste and pulled apart by the inhabitants of that land, and that the annual dues could not be paid over by the ministers to the church of Cassino. Counsel having been shared with the brethren, it seemed good to all, and most of all in the eyes of Benedict, that Placidus should be sent for the reformation and protection alike of those places, who would both show forethought for the forsaken places out of the liveliness of his prudence, and would suffice to preserve and protect the estates committed to him as much by the authority of his person as by the excellence of his parentage. By common deliberation father Benedict enjoins on Placidus the heavenly business, and, two companions having been delegated to him, Gordianus and Donatus, who had toiled with him in the spiritual fellowship of arms, he dismissed him with the paternal blessing. I think it was not done humanly, but rather came about by divine providence, that Placidus should be destined thus into Sicily, in order that, as we believe, and as the order both of his merits and of the time demanded, he might end in that province, God being propitious to him, the course of his toil, and, the contest of passion accomplished, might receive * the prize and crown alike of heavenly triumph. With what miracles this Blessed one flourished on that journey, with what rays of virtues he shone on that way, so far as I have been able to learn from the History of Gordianus, disciple of father Benedict and companion of the same Martyr, I shall not omit.

ANNOTATA.

* might receive

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's journey into Sicily, illustrious with many prodigies, and the building of the monastery of Messina.

From the Primicerius of Capua Placidus ^a, the athlete of Christ, having departed from the presence of the blessed father, when he had come to the city which is called Capua, was received with quite dutiful kindness by the bishop Germanus ^b of happy memory. A city already built and set upon a mountain could not lie hidden, but an honourable report occupied the public ears of all that Placidus, disciple of the most holy man Benedict, had made illustrious the city of Capua [c] by his presence. There was in the Major church, which is distinguished by the title of the blessed protomartyr Stephen, a certain Zoffus, holding the office of primicerius, who, suffering from that disease of the head which is called Cephalaea [d], could by no remedies soften or take away the sharpness of his pain. The coming of the blessed Man having become known, and perceiving that Placidus had taken his night's lodging with the bishop of the city, presenting himself before his sight, he unfolds and discloses by what trouble he was oppressed, and demands and asks with all the insistence of exacting supplication he can that he may be cured and healed through his merit. He confesses that he is most certain that so powerful a truth of virtue and holiness is held in Placidus that by the suffrage of his prayer he is altogether sufficient to remove the now inveterate disease with what speed he will; and that, if he were inferior and unequal even to attempting this, the virtues and merits of Benedict, whose disciple he was, could nevertheless powerfully bring it about that the inveterate sickness of the head, which had worn out the sufferer with grief, should gladden him by its departure.

[10] he takes away pains of the head, Placidus, friend of God, raising himself into the custody of humility, when he piously repelled the suppliant and asserted that what was asked of him was above his merit, that sick man, to whom the disease had been the cause, interposing the name of Benedict between them, appeals to Placidus and adjures him not to refuse to put his hand to his head for the remedy of his pain and to apply to him the medicine of prayer. Overcome by the supplication of the petitioner, and pricked at hearing the name of his father, and moved alike, rising from his place he puts his hand to the head of the sick man, and, having repeated the name of Jesus Christ, humbly adding after it the name of father Benedict, the sign of the Cross being applied, he shut out the pain, which had long lain hidden shut in: and the whole man

restoring to due health, he sent him back to his own house with the common exultation both of himself and of those who were present. O spectacle worthy of admiration! The absent Disciple works in the name of his master the miracle of the health sought, and prefiguring by his own work also the deed of the prophet Elisha, who is read to have divided the waters struck with his master's mantle, by the novelty of the miracle he both reveals his own merit and exalts the praise of his own preceptor. So the blessed Man, keeping the state of entire humility, while he puts his hand to the sick man but interposes the name of his master, in the one respect indeed appears truly the worker of the miracle; but in the other, as though taking care lest the plague of pride creep in upon him, assigns and ascribes the whole wholly to his master. The fame of the miracle wrought had filled the city of Capua; the health bestowed on the sick man was rolling in the mouth of all, and the whole people together exulted over the novelty of the heavenly miracle.

[11] There was in the city of Capua a certain blind man, whom eternal night had condemned, bereft of the use of his eyes: and restores sight to a blind man: from Capua having heard the name of the Man of God, and having learned beforehand the truth of the health granted, he inquires more diligently who is so great a worker of divine works. It was told him that he was the Disciple of Benedict, abbot of Cassino, who, the most diligent imitator of his master, as he had been his companion in teaching, so also was his most effective heir in virtue. Having conceived the confidence of solid hope, that blind man had himself led to the lodging of the blessed Man, and presented himself before his eyes. While he adjured the Man of the Lord with the violence of his prayers, or asked that he would deign to pour the lost light into his blind eyes, Placidus, friend of God, at once ordered him to stand by him, and, prayer going before, the name of the Saviour being invoked, impressed the sign of the Cross on the eyes suffering the horror of perpetual night. When, then, the blessed Man poured the sign of the Cross over the eyes of that blind man, and repeated the most wholesome name of father Benedict, the eyes of the one standing by burst suddenly into light, and, visibly drinking in the light of this visible air, were promoted to the function of seeing, the darkness of their former blindness being wholly wiped away. Made happier from being once wretched, that man, falling prone at the footsteps of blessed Placidus, paid the thanks which he owed for the benefit received, and, turning those who had stood by as beholders of the miracle from admiration to joy, joyfully magnifies the power of Jesus Christ in His Servant, and the holy Man had done it, and this discourse was flying through the mouths of all: that Placidus, friend of Christ, by the same power by which he had restored soundness to the ailing head, had also restored the grace of seeing to eyes condemned to dark blindness. A general acclamation arises among the people; the whole city dances and exults. The favour and glory of Jesus Christ is raised beyond measure, and in Him the name and merit of St. Benedict also is celebrated with the highest praises in the city. So Placidus, friend and son of the true light, while he pours the most desired light into blind eyes, brings out into manifest light of what merit he is with God, and, glorifying the author of light, produces in himself what brightness he can for the divine name.

[12] having departed, at Galatia he restores strength to a sick man, Having gone out from the city of Capua, as he was hastening the journey he had begun into Sicily, passing by that city which is commonly called Galatia ^e, he met a sick man, who, when he had expressed the manner of his misfortune and the sickness by which he was wretchedly oppressed, testified with groaning and grief that many of the dwellers of that region were suffering from the same trouble. He began to pray and entreat that the Man of the Lord, whose virtue could not lack worthy effects, would be moved with mercy, and, restoring to health in the first place himself, who had met him first, would then show the divine power in the rest. The Saint, pitying the wretched sick man, and no less compassionating the calamities of others, gave himself to prayer, and, having completed it, fortifying with the form of the cross both him who had met him first and the others who were flocking together from divers parts, and signing all those who were brought to him, he gave them full soundness. The efficacy of virtue could not be lacking to the Minister of virtues. And the order was quite fitting, that he who toiled with unwearied zeal in the exercises of the virtues should be held more glorious by signs of the virtues, to the praise of Christ, for whose glory he was fighting. Wherever this most celebrated Saint went, the celebrated fame of his coming went before. A lamp, in short, shining and burning, whatever places he had illumined by his presence he wonderfully kindled their inhabitants to love and desire of seeing him.

[13] a boy all but dead, Whence a certain woman, having received the report of his holiness, laid down her little son, already gasping with his last breath and with his breast alone, at the feet of blessed Placidus, tearfully and anxiously enough, crying out and adjuring him that by that spirit of compassion of which he was full he would condescend to her and take thought for a mother's bereavement, and give back to her her son, whom a death all too untimely was hastening to snatch away from her altogether with that violence with which it is wont to carry off all. She said that she had this confidence, and relied on so great faith in the Lord, that whatever blessed Placidus should request of Him he could obtain by his prayers without any delay. That the Disciple of Benedict could not lack the effect of virtue, for whom the holiness or virtue of his master, as it had ministered discipline in carrying out divine things, so would by assiduous pleading obtain from the power of the Lord in showing wonders. So the woman, altogether wretched and mournful, pressing upon the powers of the great Disciple the name and merit of the supreme preceptor Benedict, demanded with adjuration and tears the restoration of her son. The kindly Man, overcome at length, put on the bowels of mercy, and not bearing that the name of his master should be repeated to him in vain, put his right hand upon the little boy, now almost dead and scarcely drawing his last breath, impressed the sign of the life-giving Cross, and, snatching him from the jaws of death and restoring him to life in a moment, so fully quickens the one scarcely breathing that he restores to the lamenting mother the joys she had longed for. This report filled the neighbouring places; Benedict is proclaimed in his disciple Placidus: so Christ the Lord, magnificent in both, is proclaimed, resplendent and in accord with the truth of all.

[14] a paralytic The athlete of the Lord Placidus, as he had taken from his master the knowledge of curing the sicknesses of souls, so also, through the intervention and merit of his master together, he wonderfully exercised heavenly power in driving away the troubles of bodies. There was brought to him on the way a certain paralytic, bereft of the functions of all his limbs, whom the loosening of his joints had so condemned wholly in all his members and rendered altogether useless that he could neither press his foot upon the ground nor put his hand to his mouth unless he relied on the help of others. The Servant of God, seeing this man and compassionating his pain, betook himself to God, in whom he had placed the confidence of all his hope, and brandishing the sign of the Cross at the paralytic, he expressed the mystery of the Trinity. At the blessing of the holy Man the weakened nature took up again the fullness of its strength. The sap of vigour is diffused everywhere through the sinews, and all the limbs which had withered by the contrary affliction are repaired in colour and strength together. And so it came about that what a more corrupt origin had disfigured in that wretched man the most ample power of the holy Man re-formed, and the several limbs, restored to their functions, were given back to their proper faculty; he stands whole and unharmed in a moment, who had long lain on a pallet, not sick but almost dead, and profiting more from the gift of St. Placidus than he had taken before from the bestowal of nature, he raises up body and mind together, and glorifying God in His work, joyfully pays vows of thanks to Placidus, by whose ministry he had been healed.

[15] The devout cultivator of the Christian faith, though he had faculty and grace ready at hand in exercising great mighty works, he recalls to health one suffering from quartan fever, was not negligent or sluggish in the least things either, but in equal and like measure both flowered from the least and bore fruit in the great. A man suffering from the quartan trouble met the holy Man on the same journey, so scorched by the intemperance of heat and cold that he was foul with pallor and leanness, since he was burning with the fires of a most violent fever. Presenting himself before the gaze of the blessed Man, he rolls at his knees, stretches out suppliant hands, confesses the disease whose signs shone in his face, and asks that through the Servant of the Lord he may merit the grace of health. He said that he had the fullest faith, and from faith had conceived confidence that, if he could merit either the prayer or the touch of the most blessed Man, the fever driven off, he would receive the joys of recovered health. The mind of the holy Man, overflowing with the bowels of compassion, pours itself wholly out in prayer, and entreating Him who freed the mother-in-law of Peter from fevers by the sole power of His word [f], and restored to the functions of his limbs the centurion's servant lying with paralysis, he implores with groans that He would have mercy on this man too. In the midst of praying, when he had not yet put an end to the prayer, the sick man felt power flowing wonderfully from Placidus, and, the force of the fevers being entirely extinguished, he is so wholly restored to health that no traces of the former disease any longer remained in him. He gives thanks to his healer, and, testifying with voices raised to heaven that diseases are submitted and sufferings subjected to the command of the holy Man, he who had come trembling and pale departed unharmed.

[16] I could draw out words to infinity and load the page with miracles, and many other but, lest the lengthy reading compel the reader to be nauseated, and as it were to reject with distaste what is to be embraced with the highest zeal, whatever follows about the miracles of this Saint I shall touch upon with the brevity of a faithful oracle. So great an amplitude of power did the Lord minister in that territory of Calatia that He poured out in those places, as divinely so abundantly, the riches of signs which follow. A certain man, both dumb and lame, is presented by the service of two; who, at the blessing of the Saint, the plectrum of his tongue being loosed, received the vigour of motion and of speech, and in his feet, which the feeble stupor of the sinews had invaded, merited to take up the freedom of walking. Another, suffering from the gouty disease and vehemently afflicted, he humbly signed with the Cross of Christ, and at once, the disease being shaken off, restoring him to good health, sent him back unharmed to his own. A little girl brought to him, who had been condemned at once to the privation of mouth, eyes and ears, having poured out prayer for her health, he signed with the impression of the Cross, restoring her diminished senses, so that she who had been dumb spoke; lacking eyes, she saw fully; and deaf before, she obtained to hear plainly. A native of the Roman city, when he was held by a very bad infirmity, being brought to the Servant of the Lord, was cured by his help.

[17] he performs prodigies; The arm of a certain man, whose excessive swelling was loosening into putrefaction and pus together, was freed from its ill health at the application of the sign of the Cross. The contracted hand of another, when he had come to him at the persuasion of his disease, he fully restored to soundness by applying the sign of the Cross, the flexings of the sinews being made whole. A blind man who met him he flooded with visible light by the power of the Cross, through which he worked all these things. A certain possessed man, who was most grievously vexed by an unclean spirit, he so constrained with the wonted help of the Cross that the spirit which had invaded him, going out like smoke as though from the crown of his head, the man evilly possessed

was compelled to leave whole. A blind old man, prayer having first been given, he signed, and wonderfully poured into his marvelling eyes the light long denied. One wearied with the dropsical disease, whose belly had swollen like a wine-skin and whose skin shone through like glass, he flooded with the protection of the saving sign, and, draining out the pestilent liquid in him, re-formed to its former evenness the body, utterly uneven and distended, the fluid having been dried up. That these things happened in the territory of Calatia we have found in the History of Gordianus, and we destine them to be read by posterity to prove the magnificence of Christ in Placidus.

[18] as also in other places, The good traveller, hastening the journey he had begun, had reached the Caudine Forks [g], as they are called; that place, which before had the name of torment, he made to be a place of miracle. On the eyes of a certain blind man, who was brought to him in the same place, he laid his hand, offered prayer first, poured on the Cross, and restored to his astonished eyes the daylight long lost. A feeble and infirm woman, having implored the help of the Man of God, merited health through the prayer he offered. Another, fever-stricken, brought to him, he blessed with his wonted grace, and, the sickness removed, sent him back unharmed. One feeble in hand came to him, whose finger when he had handled, the name of Benedict having been put first, the joints being loosened, the palm stretched out, the long-standing dryness grew green again. A certain man, falling from a height, punished with the injury of a broken arm, was granted the desired health by the visitation and prayer of the Saint alike. In the same place, when he had marked the form of the Cross by the stretching out of his hand over a certain man who was troubled by an unclean spirit, a fire sparkling from his nostrils, the wicked spirit went out unwilling in the form of smoke from that dwelling most wickedly usurped. He then healed the spotted eye of a certain man, and by the power of prayer or of the Cross rendered free and upright a young man whose heels clung to his buttocks. How many sick, suffering from contrary ill health, the power of Jesus Christ cured in those parts, we indeed forbear to unfold, but we leave that whole to God, by whose aid and help he wrought these and other divers things, and to whose glory whatever he did is to be referred. Meanwhile let us pursue the simple History.

[19] Placidus, the minister of Christ, strong in virtue and flashing with miracles, through which he passes: came to Benevento ^h, received honourably by blessed Marcianus ⁱ, bishop of that city; a certain lame man, named Major, who, his knees bent back to the rear, seemed as it were to sweep the ground with little stools, he gave the natural restoration of shins and feet, having invoked first the name of Christ, afterwards of Benedict. There too, restoring to a blind man the light he had lost, he bade farewell to his host, the pontiff Marcianus, and proceeding further into Apulia, at the city of Canusium ^k he was received with much kindness by the holy bishop Sabinus [l]. Where also, re-forming to its natural function, a blessing having been given, the withered and bent hand of a certain man named Landulf, proceeding forward, God directing him and his works, he came to Rhegium, a city of Calabria, received by Sisinnius, venerable bishop of that city; a certain leper, whose surface, almost wholly whitish, the colour of leprosy had overspread, he re-formed to bodily cleanness by the merits of Benedict and his own prayer. There a certain cleric named Sico, dumb and deaf, from whose ears worms flowed down, exposed to him, prayer being poured out and the name of Benedict interposed, he restored more fully to hearing and speech alike.

[20] On the following day, boarding a ship with his Companions, he put in at Messina ^m, having at length put in at Messina, having founded a monastery there? and took lodging with Messalinus, a Roman citizen, the familiar and friend alike of Tertullus his father, with whom, spending that day and the following night in the praise of the Lord and in conference on the faith, as the twilight of the next day was dawning, he went down with the same Messalinus to the harbour, and finding a place suitable for constructing buildings, with the little cane which he carried in his hand he marked out more carefully the place in which the oratory of John the Baptist and the other workshops should be founded. So the Man of the Lord, craftsmen having been gathered from all sides, laid the foundations in the name of Christ, and, assisting at his work as a diligent hastener, strove to bring to completion the structure of the monastery begun. With how great mighty works he flourished there, with what signs he shone in that place, the following works of piety make manifest. One day, as the Man of God was returning home from the monastery, a blind man met him, who, imploring his suffrage, received through his prayer the function of his eyes with due integrity. That deed at once became known to the region, because the person in whom the sign was shown had been a native of the city of Rome, and it was very well known to all that the one to whom daylight had been restored was named Silvius. The Lord was glorified in His Saint, and, doing wonders by his hand, wonderfully spread his name and fame through the whole of Sicily; those bound by divers afflictions were brought to him, among whom a certain man, seized by a demon, when he was set before his sight, was purged by his intervention. A certain paralytic, all of whose limbs had failed with continual sickness, being shown to his presence, the aforesaid Messalinus standing by and seeing alike, merited the dutiful restoration of his limbs.

[21] by the fame of his prodigies, A man whose arm, with the hand withered, had grown torpid with dryness, he repaired to his former state, prayer going before, the name of Benedict too being added after, very many standing by and astonished at the novelty of so great a miracle. The paralytic companion of a Sicilian man, his sickness being healed by the power of prayer and of the Cross together, he restored to his strength. Another man, lacking the functions of life and enduring a useless longevity, in whom, the body being already extinct, the surviving spirit panted, and whose lifeless corpse wakeful eyes guarded, at the prayer of the most blessed Placidus received the full re-formation of his whole body. One of the chief men of that province, struck with the elephantine infirmity, when he could be cured by no art of the physicians attending him of the leprosy which had invaded his body, was cleansed by the mediation of blessed Placidus. One possessed by a demon, through whose mouth the malignant spirit vomited forth insults against the holy Man, blessed Placidus, snatching him from the demon's power by the sole command of his word, restored to his ancient freedom; and with the power by which he had healed the foregoing, placed in the same monastery, he cured very many who ran to him, who were oppressed by divers troubles of diseases, through the mediation of the saving Cross of Jesus Christ.

[22] and of life Blessed Placidus conversed in his place at the church which he had built in honour of blessed John the Baptist in the port of Messina, fully given to fasts and prayers and applying himself wholly to the other pursuits of piety; an Evangelical Merchant, he bought with precious works the pearl of everlasting life. He gathered to himself those whom he could, and, uniting with himself in the same monastery those who wished to follow the Apostolic life, he formed them with spiritual teachings. He set himself before his subjects as an example and form of discipline, upon which they ought to imprint themselves; he sculptured it in his actions. At length the multitude of brethren dwelling with him had grown to that number that there were already thirty, who, having left the vanity or pomp of the world, bearing the naked Cross of Christ on naked shoulders, were subject to his spiritual teaching: and he, causing the discipline of religion and of order to be guarded and kept in that truth which he had taken from his master, followed the censure of monastic rigour with full fervour of spirit. The fame of his holy repute and name had occupied the borders of Sicily, and, powerfully escaping the very limits of that province, was poured out also upon foreign nations.

[23] celebrated for holiness, The holiness of Placidus, cultivated and adorned alike with miracles, had filled the city of Rome, and the celebrity of his virtue, seasoned with a multiplicity of signs, was borne to the stars by popular favour. So Placidus conducted himself, so he lived, that towards those who came to him he exercised the grace of household gentleness: and having good testimony even from those who were outside, he used the zeal of all in common for the glory of Jesus Christ. Placed within, he led a heavenly life, and conforming himself according to his strength to angelic purity, while he was still a pilgrim in the flesh, he nevertheless already held the heavens by devotion of spirit. How fully he chastised his body, how he tamed his flesh and subjected it to servitude, we judge it as it were superfluous to express in detail. Since all his actions and all his pursuits burst forth into such perfection that they seemed as it were certain preludes of his future passion, and breathed more fully of the virtue of martyrdom to be consummated in him. The glory of the holy Man and the solemnity of his signs, passing beyond the surrounding regions, had reached Roman ears. It was borne and sounded alike by public report how blessed Placidus, son of the patrician Tertullus, disciple of Benedict of Cassino, having built a monastery in Sicily within the bounds of his patrimony, and gathered thirty brethren to himself, was practising the monastic purpose.

[24] At that time Eutychius and Victorinus, the full brothers of blessed Placidus, by his Brothers and Sister with the virgin Flavia, their sister, were staying within the household walls of their father, under the care and protection alike of their parents. They, having received the common report that their brother Placidus had founded a place in Sicily, touched with the desire of seeing their brother, by the judgment or assent of their parents, committing themselves to a ship, began to set out for Sicily. Having traversed the vastness of that sea which, from Rome to Sicily, is seen to glide past the borders of Campania and Calabria at the side, at length, enjoying favourable winds, they put in at Messina. There, seeking more diligently the end of their desire, blessed Placidus, they found him at the church of blessed John the Baptist, which the provident Founder had raised for himself on his patrimony, serving the Lord in holiness and justice: having learned by the indication of the monks standing by that they had found the Brother whom they had long not known by face, they rejoiced, triumphing in mutual recognition; Placidus and his Brothers, their eyes stretched towards one another and tears poured out for joy, cherishing one another with mutual discourse, resolved to stay together for some days. They enjoyed in turn the sight long desired, and from the mouth of Placidus, the elder, they devoutly and humbly heard daily the seeds of the heavenly life. The monk Brother stirred up with heavenly words his Brothers, still living in the secular habit, and with daily discourses animated their infirm and weak minds to the desire or love of eternal life. The Holy Spirit was not lacking to his mouth, who, illumining through the ministry of Placidus the heart of Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia, made them firm in such fortitude of charity that, following their Brother up to the triumph of victory, dying with him with whom they had not long lived, they attained eternal life through him and with him alike.

[25] The opportune time had come in which the sweats or labours of Placidus should be laid up in heaven, is visited. and his daily contests, which the pious warrior had carried out in the wrestling-school of the monastic life, ought to be rewarded by the Lord with worthy recompenses. He was drawn to the odour of the heavenly ointments, and, foretasting in spirit and savouring in mind the sweetness of spiritual joys, he was borne with full desires towards their attainment and palm. His marrow had grown warm, his heart had been kindled with the sweetness and love of Jesus Christ alike; and desiring now to be dissolved and to be with Him, he panted with the highest zeal for the laying aside of his tabernacle, which was soon to be dissolved. Temporal life was a weariness to him; the appearance of earthly things seemed deformed and squalid, and he was rapt with the whole ecstasy of his mind to the sole contemplation and possession alike of the beauty of Jesus Christ.

He aspired to eternal things who was a despiser of temporal things: and because he could not yet attain the end of his purpose, he melted into tears and burned to the marrow to reap the harvest of joy. God, the loving hearer of the poor, did not fail Placidus, who sought Him, but hearing his prayers and fulfilling his wholesome vows granted the good which he had asked. God did not will Placidus to enter the common way of all flesh, but by that kind of largesse by which He truly makes His Saints wonderful, He decreed to make glorious by the triumph of passion him whom He had made wonderful by confession; the course of whose Passion we have thought fit to unfold briefly in the following style.

ANNOTATA.

c. In Campania Felix.

g. Among the Hirpini.

CHAPTER III.

The martyrdom of Saints Placidus and his Companions.

Meanwhile the Saracens suddenly to Messina At that time in which blessed Placidus was staying at Messina, a city of Sicily, Abdala, head and prince of the Saracen nation and rite, ruled over the whole of Spain [a]. This was his only care, this had been his special solicitude, that, by royal magnificence, he should strive to exalt the rite of his nation, venerating Moloch, Rempham and the star of Lucifer, and, forces being brought together in a heap, not to depress or trample on the Christian name, but to extinguish it altogether. He communicated his secret to his counsellors, the barons and princes of his land, and testified that this was the purpose of his mind: that, wherever he could, he should make a certain sudden assault upon the Romans, who at that time were seen to hold the first head in the glory of Christian dignity. His faithful ones who were then present gave this answer from duty: that the excellence of the Roman name could be injured not moderately in this, if at some time a military assault should be delivered by the Spanish nation in Sicily, which at that time was held assuredly as a certain possession of Roman right. It was approved by common assent, and the princely sentence rested on this word only: that, ships being prepared, and provisions given as was fitting, a military force gathered with more diligent zeal from the Spanish bay should invade the possessions of the Romans in Sicily, and inflict so much damage that what was done should both bring ignominy to the Roman valour and draw the glory of his kingdom down into the memory of posterity.

[27] From the common multitude of the rest there is chosen a certain man named Mamucha, not the lowest of the Agarene nation, a most powerful assailant and enemy of the Christian faith, to be at the head of the chosen force as commander, and to show himself greater than all in harming the Romans. they invade, and, the monastery broken open, the Saint Ships having been prepared, youth chosen for warfare, things gathered which seemed necessary for crossing, they all together commit themselves to the voyage, spread their sails to more favourable winds, and, having traversed the vastness of the whole sea, reaching Sicily, they touch at that port in which the holy man Placidus was serving the Lord with his Companions, the state of the weather * smiling on them. It was the dead of night, and sleep had poured into the eyes of mortals the grace of its quiet, when the abominable nation, blasphemer of the Lord's Cross, seized that most longed-for shore, where Placidus, the blessed man, with the Recruits of his lot, keeping watch from early morning and raised up to the Lord, was celebrating the solemnities of the nightly synaxis [b]. The Agarenes who had taken the port, taking comfort for their presumption partly from the defencelessness of the places, partly from the support of the nightly silence, having gone out of the ships, invade the port with their first assaults. Then they run together, as they had been adjudged the readier, to the monastery of the blessed Man. Making an onslaught, they destroy the doors, pull down the enclosure, and utterly scatter and break whatever of defence could be within. They come to that place in which the holy man Placidus, the future martyr, was applying himself with his Companions with unwearied strength to the nightly watches. All the Saints who were toiling in the heavenly vigils the Agarenes seize unexpectedly and suddenly, and, only one of them, namely Gordianus, having slipped away in flight, dragging off the rest, as many as they were, they cast them into chains. In that seditious and altogether unconsidered invasion, however, a certain Donatus, formerly the inseparable companion on the way of the blessed man Placidus, already advanced in age to an old man, was beheaded by the Saracen sword, and as a martyr purchased for himself the heavenly kingdom by the happy shedding of his blood.

[28] The goods having been dragged off and the monastery of the blessed Man broken open, they hold them in chains, the morning day had dawned, when Mamucha, a man of most perfidious mind, commanded the most blessed Martyrs, whom he had lately caused to be put in chains, Placidus, Eutychius and Victorinus with Flavia the virgin and their thirty Companions, to be shown to him quickly. When he had first softened them with blandishments, afterwards terrified them with threats, seeing that they thus despised him as he threatened, he caused them to be most sharply tortured. He exhorted them with what speech he could that, utterly denying the rite of the Christian faith, they should follow the superstition of the gentiles, and most insistently threatened that, unless they did so, he would spend upon them whatever punishment or torment he could find. Whatever the cruel beast thundered, however much he raged against the Saints, they, utterly spurning both the threats and the blandishments of the tyrant, most constantly profess that they truly believe in Christ, and that they fight for His faith even unto blood. That they could on no account desert the truth of religion and faith once received, but for the charity of Christ Jesus, who for their redemption did not dread the gibbet of the cross and of death, they too were ready to endure death. That they did not fear death, which for them, tending to eternal life, would be as the exit from miseries, so the entrance to blessedness. That they wished to be freed from the bonds of this flesh, and by the sure path of passion to follow the Lamb going before, that they might merit through the triumph of Martyrdom the life which knows not how to be closed by any end.

[29] Thus conducting themselves manfully and acting confidently in the Lord, Placidus with his Companions long with hunger, scourges and other enormous the wicked Mamucha, when, with their hands bound behind their backs, fastened with iron fetters, he had committed them to prison for seven days, deprived of food and drink, having restored them again to his sight, commanded them to be worn down with scourges, torn with clubs, and, while in the space of four days he would allow them neither food nor drink, to be handled with daily punishments. The glorious martyrs of Jesus Christ, Placidus and his Companions, thus persevering in faith, he caused to be handed over to custody again, hanging them up and scourging them alike, their feet turned aloft, their heads pressed downward, a stinking smoke breathing into the nostrils of the Saints. Where also in the following night, as the Martyrs kept watch in the praises of God, that Gordianus of whom we made mention above, secretly bursting into the prison, soothing their pains and chains with consoling words, animated the happy souls of the Saints to the contest of Martyrdom. On the following day, when the unbelieving Mamucha had most cruelly clubbed blessed Placidus with his companions Eutychius, Victorinus and Flavia the virgin, Faustus also and Firmatus the deacon, with their thirty Companions, He willed * to show so astounding a miracle in the virgin Flavia that the procurers who at the tyrant's command strove to seize or defile her, their sinews benumbed, their arms withered with their hands, were tortured with excessive pain, so that they could neither touch the Virgin nor use their own strength. Thus Christ, lover of virginity, kept unharmed from the vice of corruption His virgin Flavia, whose virginal embraces He desired, that Flavia, martyr and virgin, as she obtained the purple of the heavenly kingdom from the victory of passion, so among the lilies of paradise, following the Lamb wherever He goes, might sound on the harp of her flesh the new canticle of purity and holiness.

[30] afflicted with torments, The blessed Martyr was racked with blows and mockeries, and the raw barbarity was cruelly unbridled against God, and pressed His Saints with torments, handled them with punishments. Placidus, already a confessor but soon to be a martyr, repeating and reiterating with public voice Christ, whom he had conceived by faith, celebrated with manifold confession Him in whom he had placed the end of his hope. The rival of the Christian name, taking it ill that the name of Christ was frequent in the mouth of Placidus, indignant because he spoke before all and for all, when he had bruised his mouth with a stone, as though reckoning it too little done, uprooting his tongue to the very top, he supplied with crueller wickedness whatever he had done too little hitherto. The virgin Flavia, lest she should be inferior in punishments to her martyr Brother, he caused to be racked, bestially rather than humanly, with the wrenching of her breasts. But, God working wonderfully in His Saints, both the martyr Placidus, even with his tongue cut out, obtained the faculty of speaking, and the virgin Flavia, keeping the immovable firmness of faith, resounded with pious praises to Christ.

[31] at length they diminish them by the head. The monstrous tyrant, to be called a beast rather than a man, having so often experienced the Christian virtue but refusing to give it faith, when after blows and wounds, cured by God's healing through an angel, when amid chains and bonds, amid the anchors of ships, when, great stones having been laid upon their shins, he saw the invincible spirits of the innocent, having now nowhere to betake himself, he promulgated a capital sentence against the Saints of God. The deliberation of the tyrant having been received, the satellites of impiety take blessed Placidus with his two brothers Eutychius and Victorinus, and their sister Flavia the virgin, together with the thirty-three Companions: they cast them out of the custody of the prison in which they were held shut up, and lead them out as far as the shore of the sea, where they were to be beheaded, afflicting them with lashes and blows. There Placidus, already so many times a martyr, and passing over in mind and devotion into the desire of everlasting life, lies down wholly in prayer, and, commending his spirit into the hands of the Redeemer, having implored the help of Benedict, from whose teaching he had this, that he should buy heaven with blood, stretches out his extended neck to the smiter. The impious executioner, standing over the venerable head, brandishes the flashing sword at the neck, and rendering the body a trunk by the cutting off of the head, beheading with equal enormity the rest, both the Brothers of Placidus and his Companions, went off rejoicing in a victory rather deadly *.

[32] The monstrous crime having now been perpetrated, Mamucha with all his following, divine vengeance soon following, and Gordianus gathering the bones of the Slain. the clemency of the weather smiling, boarded ship, as though to set out for Rhegium. But, God avenging more severely in retribution for the blood of the innocent, the sea not bearing the weight of their iniquity, the waves being lifted up into mounds, bristled so impatiently that, the ships being utterly dashed and overturned, the enemies of the Cross of Christ, as many as they were, were equally slain under so great and common a shipwreck. The persecutors of the Blessed having thus been condemned by heavenly judgment, that Gordianus whom the foregoing page marked out, preserved (as we believe) for this, that he might minister the service of humanity to the beheaded Martyrs, burying in the bosom of that shore the bodies of the Saints, which had lain unburied for four days, the venerable

body of the blessed martyr Placidus in the church of St. John the Baptist, which he had raised for himself in the port of Messina, and which alone survived, the other workshops having been pulled down, he committed to burial with the remains of his Brothers, honourably, as far as he could. So the most blessed man Placidus, disciple of Benedict, monk and martyr at once, made perfect in a short time, on the III day before the Nones of October fulfilled the course of his precious passion, and, receiving from the hand of the Lord an unfading crown, ascended to the heavens, made purple with the laurel of his blood. May the signal Martyr, to be revered by every age and sex alike, flashing with mighty works on earth, living by his merits in heaven, stand by as an unwearied patron of the church of Cassino, which venerates and loves him, and so reconcile to heavenly grace in the present those who ever celebrate his solemnities, that in the future he may make them sharers of his crown, by the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

* perhaps: of the weather

* supply: God

* read: potitus (having obtained)