ON ST. FORTUNATUS OF TODI, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN UMBRIA,
IN THE YEAR 537.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The memory of the saint in the martyrologies: his native soil: his episcopate: his death: the translations of his relics: his ancient cult.
Fortunatus, bishop, confessor, at Todi in Umbria. (S.)
BY S. D.
With how much magnificence and splendour Tudertum, in Italian Todi, a most ancient city of Umbria by the river Tiber, saw in the year 1596 the translation of the sacred remains of five heavenly ones, namely of SS. Romana and Digna, virgins, of SS. Cassian and Calistus, bishops and martyrs, and of St. Fortunatus, formerly bishop of Todi, can scarcely be told. The saint, whom Usuard first mentions, And indeed the Life of St. Romana was illustrated by Bolland at the 23rd day of February; that of St. Digna by Sollerius at the 11th day of August; that of St. Cassian by Boschius at the 13th day of August; that of St. Calistus by the same at the 14th day of August. Only St. Fortunatus, therefore, remains, of whom we must now treat. Concerning this saint all the more ancient martyrologies, if you except Usuard's, are silent; and Usuard seems to have sought him from no other source than the Dialogues of St. Gregory, for this very reason, that he announces him in almost Gregorian words; and the Roman Martyrology, using scarcely any other than Usuard's words, celebrates the saint today thus: At Todi, of St. Fortunatus, bishop, who (as blessed Gregory relates) shone forth with the grace of immense power in putting unclean spirits to flight.
[2] Ferrarius has more about him in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, chiefly from the Dialogues of Gregory; born at Poitiers, and Gregory is altogether the only one to whom whatever has become known to posterity of this saint's deeds must be credited; and he treats of him in the Dialogues, book 1, chapter X, testifying there that what he relates he learned partly from Julian, defender of the church, who had lived with St. Fortunatus in intimate familiarity, and partly from a certain old man of Todi who knew him very well. This whole chapter, which consists solely of the saint's miracles, Surius and Lippomanus have transcribed, and Peter de Natalibus has reduced to a compendium; but Jacobillus and Possevinus have added very many things to illustrate the saint, of whom indeed the former, in volume II of the Saints of Umbria, page 340, from ancient manuscript lessons in the bishopric of Spoleto, with which I see that both the lesson of the Office of Todi concerning St. Calistus, St. Fortunatus's predecessor, and Ughelli agree, relates that this saint originated from the city of Poitiers in Gaul; and that, as the lesson of Todi just cited has it, when he was journeying from Gaul to Rome, perhaps for the sake of visiting the sacred thresholds, St. Calistus, at that time bishop of Todi, received him with hospitality, and was soon so greatly moved by the outstanding holiness of this man that, when he had afterwards returned from Rome, he chose him as coadjutor in the episcopal charge.
[3] Now St. Calistus ruled the church of Todi, by the reckoning of the same Jacobillus, from the year 524 and set over the church of Todi, until the year 528; namely at that time when, Justinian being emperor and Felix IV sitting, the Arian Goths were threatening Italy with final destruction. In the year 528, therefore, as soon as Calistus had flown to heaven, Fortunatus succeeded to the episcopate, who governed the same church most holily for nine years in all, namely until the year 537, having gained such dominion over the demons that he would sometimes put whole legions to flight from possessed bodies, as St. Gregory testifies. Though these things will become better known to the reader from the Acts to be edited, yet one thing, about which Gregory is silent, is not to be passed over, a miracle truly most fortunate for the people of Todi: for in the year 537 from the Virgin's childbirth (as Possevinus, and from him Jacobillus and others here and there, write, and as a constant tradition among the people of Todi holds), the Goths, having already laid waste various places throughout Italy and sprinkled them with the stain of the Arian heresy, were pressing Todi with a very close siege, when the holy prelate of God, crying to heaven for the safety of his city, wonderfully compelled the Goths to raise the siege. In grateful memory of this benefit the people of Todi every year on the 29th of June, as the writers just named testify, having solemnly sung Vespers of this saint in the church dedicated to his name, hold a solemn procession; not because the city was freed from the Goths on this same day, as Jacobillus erroneously thinks, but on the following day, as Possevinus and Ughelli rightly have it.
[4] Famous for signs, he dies after nine years: Furthermore, renowned for these and other signs and prodigies, when he had shone before his flock for the space of nine years with the examples of all the virtues, at length, in the year 537, full of merits, he happily departed to heaven. Although Possevinus, Jacobillus and Ferrarius roundly assign as the day of his death the fourteenth of October, on which, as the same Jacobillus testifies, he is venerated with a double rite in the city of Todi and its diocese, yet I would not dare to affirm that this day was in fact the saint's last; for although Usuard announces him on this day, since he seems to have been brought by Usuard into his Martyrology, and thence into the present Roman one on this day, only from the Dialogues of Gregory, which express no time, as we saw above, you may think that this was done for no other reason than by the mere choice of Usuard, according to a custom, as Sollerius observes, used also by more recent writers,
namely, that to saints found in Gregory's Dialogues without a birthday they assign an arbitrary day. Ughelli, however, asserts that St. Fortunatus died on the day before the Kalends of July, namely on the same day on which the Goths were put to flight at Todi by the prayers of this saint; but whence Ughelli drew this I cannot discover. Our Sollerius doubts whether the people of Todi perhaps believe that the thirtieth day of August was the saint's death-day, because Castellanus observes that his feast is kept more solemnly there on that day; but of what kind this solemnity is, or for what end it was instituted, Possevinus and Jacobillus are profoundly silent; whence we too prefer to be silent here rather than rashly to conjecture anything.
[5] His relics, laid up in the church of his name, Possevinus relates that the body of St. Fortunatus was buried there at Todi in the church of St. Cassian; Jacobillus, however, in the cathedral. But both will have spoken truly, provided that the cathedral church of Todi, which today, as Ughelli testifies, is dedicated under the name of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was at that time St. Cassian's. However that may be, Jacobillus then goes on and relates that not long after another, quite honourable, church was built in honour of this saint, thereafter called St. Fortunatus's, and that the holy body was translated into it. That the church of St. Cassian was first destroyed, and the aforesaid church of St. Fortunatus raised in its place, I therefore suspect because Possevinus expressly writes that the one which was St. Cassian's is today called St. Fortunatus's. This church had passed from the year 1254 to the Friars Minor Conventual at Todi, when about the year 1292 (Wadding testifies that he found these things in a manuscript catalogue of the bishops of Todi, at the year 1389) the people of Todi, levelling it to the ground because, on account of its age, it was rather low and perhaps in ruins, within the space of a few years completed a new one, which they soon began from the foundations, much more ample and more magnificent than the old; and this is the same basilica under whose principal altar in the year 1301, as the same Wadding, Possevinus and Jacobillus testify, Nicholas Armatus, bishop of Todi at that time, on the nineteenth day of August, placed the body of St. Fortunatus together with the bodies of SS. Cassian, Calistus, Romana and Digna.
[6] approved by various pontiffs, There are also extant various bulls of the pontiffs, says Possevinus on page 120, among which he names in particular those of Alexander V, Boniface VIII, Urban VI and Boniface IX, by which the said holy bodies, as the same Possevinus puts it, were respectively authenticated; that is, says our Boschius in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Cassian, legitimately recognized not only in general as true bodies of saints and worthy of veneration, but also each one singly as truly that of the saint whose name it bore. Of these bulls Boschius confesses that he saw only two, namely that of Urban VI of the year 1380 and that of Boniface IX of the year 1390, which Wadding exhibits in the Papal Register appended to volume IV of the Annals of the Minors, page 176 and following; nor have we been able to see more. But that the body of the saint, when it was deposited by Nicholas Armatus, was already very probably incomplete, I learn from the Chronicle of Sigebert at the year 969: for in this year Theoderic, bishop of Metz, who had accompanied the emperor Otto, joined to him by blood, for three years already on his Italian expedition, returning to Metz, among the other things which he carried away with him, Sigebert lists bodies of saints, and that of St. Fortunatus, bishop and confessor of Todi; which, however, is to be understood of a certain part of the body, not of the whole, as is more than sufficiently clear from what has been said. The same Sigebert then adds that Theoderic placed those sacred pledges in the church of St. Vincent the Martyr, which he had recently built on the island of the city of Metz.
[7] at length in the year 1580 These things in passing; but now let us return to the praised Possevinus, who continues thus: Where, namely having been placed under the high altar of the above-said church, they were always venerated with much devotion until the year 1580, in which, the old altar being demolished because it occupied the greater part of the basilica, so that a new one might be erected in a more convenient place, those five sacred bodies were found there on the thirteenth day of December, in four stone cases protected with iron and lead plates, well preserved, within a very ancient sepulchre, each with its own inscription cut in lead; and that of St. Fortunatus, which was more ancient than the rest, read thus: These are the relics of the most blessed Fortunatus, bishop and confessor. DCCVIII. That this appended year was the one in which the body was enclosed in the case, no one, I think, will deny; for although Jacobillus substitutes another very different one, namely M. CCVIII, I judge that Possevinus is rather to be followed here, for this reason, that this author treated the matter more professedly, as they say (for he had been asked to do so by Angelo Cesi, at that time bishop of Todi), nay, perhaps himself inspected these cases quite accurately, inasmuch as they were found in his own time.
[8] the bishop of Todi lays them up in the sacristy; Furthermore, the bishop of Todi just mentioned, with whose licence and assent this altar was being demolished, having opened the cases, inspected the bodies of each, and showed them openly to the people, who, as is usual in such matters, had run together in very great numbers; and at length he deposited and laid them up honourably in the sacristy, while the new work which he was meditating was being completed. Possevinus says that these things are established from a public instrument drawn up on the 28th day of December of the same year by the hand of Francis Astancolli, public notary at Todi. Meanwhile the bishop, hoping no doubt that the new altar and a new mausoleum under it would be completed in a short time through the devotion of the citizens, treated with the Supreme Pontiff Gregory XIII, and obtained a bull, dated the 10th day of June of the following year 1581; and although its words, as also the series of the translation of the saints' bodies, are diligently and elegantly set forth by our Boschius in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Cassian, nevertheless, for the sake of those to whom that volume is not at hand, or to whom it happens to be too laborious to consult it or Possevinus, I will repeat the same things here in compendium, led moreover by this reason, that among these five heavenly ones the fame of St. Fortunatus is the more glorious among the people of Todi.
[9] The bull, then, which I mentioned, runs thus: To all the faithful of Christ of either sex, truly penitent and having confessed and been refreshed with the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, who shall devoutly visit the church of St. Fortunatus at Todi on the day until, the indulgences having been obtained, on which the translation of the bodies of SS. Fortunatus, Calixtus and Cassian, and of SS. Romana and Digna, virgins, shall take place from the sacristy of the said church, where they are now found, into another sepulchre honourably and fittingly prepared under the new altar in the same church; and thereafter every year on the day of such translation, from first Vespers until sunset of the same day; and shall there pour out pious prayers to God for the preservation of peace among Christian princes, and the extirpation of heresies, and the exaltation of holy Mother Church; we mercifully grant in the Lord in perpetuity plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins… Given at Tusculum, under the Fisherman's ring, on the 10th day of June 1581, in the tenth year of our pontificate. Cae. Glorierius. These indulgences Clement VIII extended also to the following day, in the year 1596, on the 1st day of April.
[10] in the mausoleum now newly built, But this bull, obtained quite promptly indeed, came into use only after sixteen years; for until then, namely until the year 1596, this matter was put off on account of the inability of the citizens, as Possevinus puts it; until at length Bishop Cesi happily completed the long-protracted work, partly at his own expense, partly with money received from the city, before the fifth day of May of the year just named: for in this year, a magnificent altar having now been erected towards the choir, and beneath it a chapel with a remarkable mausoleum of variegated marble, on the eighth day of April he promulgated an edict by which he informed all the clergy and people of the city and diocese that the sacred bodies were to be translated on the 5th day of May, at the same time prescribing the manner which he wished to be observed in this solemnity. But this report, going far beyond the bounds of the diocese and province of Todi, roused so great a multitude of people from the City itself and from other cities and places of Italy that on the appointed day, the 5th of May, as Possevinus testifies on page 129, Todi counted about forty thousand persons, flocking together to this spectacle with incredible devotion.
[11] with a most magnificent display, The people of Todi, delaying no longer after this edict of their bishop, set up a display far more splendid than Cesi had hoped: for triumphal arches were erected throughout the city, wonderfully adorned with the poetic art of the Italians; the churches, the palaces and the principal houses were furnished with the more precious ornaments; the crossroads and the streets through which the procession had been designated were duly cleaned and adorned; so much so that this solemnity cost, partly the bishop, partly the city, about six thousand scudi: whence not undeservedly indeed did the oft-praised Possevinus hand down to posterity the whole series of this display, to whom we refer the curious reader, if he wishes; and meanwhile it will be our task to consider the veneration shown to the bodies of the saints.
[12] inspected and recognized again, On the fourth day of May, or the day before the translation, the most illustrious Cesi, in the presence of the most serene governor of the city, John Charles Cappello, the magistracy and the people, again surveyed and recognized, as Possevinus says, the oft-said holy relics, and, having shut them up in four cypress-wood cases lined inside with silk, he fortified each with his seal, an inscription cut in lead being added to each case: for the first it was this: Here rests the body of St. Fortunatus, bishop of Todi and confessor; for the second: Here rests the body of St. Cassian, bishop of Todi and martyr; for the third: Here rests the body of St. Calixtus, bishop of Todi and martyr. And these inscriptions were renewed, but not likewise that which had been affixed to the fourth: Here rest the bodies of the holy virgins Romana and Digna. That these things were thus done, says Possevinus, is established from a public instrument drawn up by Luke Albert Petti, notary of the episcopal curia.
[13] on the 6th of May in the year 1596 Furthermore, on the fifth of May, which was in that year the third Sunday after the octave of Easter (for, the dominical letter F being current, Easter had fallen on the 14th day of April, about midday the sacred bodies, brought out of the church of St. Fortunatus (I shall use the words of the praised Boschius), after a triumphal circuit through the principal and wonderfully adorned places of the city (which held an incredible multitude of the surging people, filling the streets, the roofs and the upper storeys of the houses, with a spectacle no less religious than august, for four full hours), returned to the same church; where, raised on a platform constructed before the principal altar, with a guard set beside them, they remained exposed, so that satisfaction might be given to the most ardent piety of all, until the Vespers of the following day, sung by a triple choir of musicians; when four bishops, namely of Todi, Spoleto, Narni and Perugia, took the cypress-wood reliquaries down from the platform and carried them, each one his own, into the new chapel under the new altar: that of St. Calixtus, the bishop of Todi; that of St. Fortunatus, the bishop of Spoleto; that of St. Cassian, the bishop of Narni; and that of SS. Digna and Romana, the bishop of Perugia.
[14] There at once, continues Boschius, in the presence of the governor assisting with the leading men of the city
they were enclosed in as many other wooden caskets, they were laid up, fortified with lead, iron and tin, with the seals both of the bishop and of the people of Todi; and so they were then entombed in stone compartments within the marble sepulchre, closed up deep with very firm masonry, and crowned with the pediment of the mausoleum set above. On the right, towards the bell-tower, was placed the reliquary of St. Calixtus, then that of St. Fortunatus, over which, says Possevinus, this general inscription, cut in lead, was read:
Clement VIII being Supreme Pontiff. In the year of the Lord 1596, on the 5th of May, Angelo Cesi, bishop of Todi, clerk-president of the Apostolic Chamber, solemnly translated into this chapel built by himself, and more fittingly placed, the relics of SS. Cassian and Calixtus, martyrs, and of St. Fortunatus, confessor, bishops of the church of Todi, and of SS. Digna and Romana, virgins, laid up under the high altar, situated almost in the middle of this church, and found, Gregory XIII being Supreme Pontiff, on the 13th day of December 1580.
✠ Place of the seal of the bishop of Todi.
[15] The inscription recited differs scarcely at all from another carved in marble in the same chapel by order of the same Cesi. Certain relics having been translated elsewhere before. For the rest, what this most illustrious prelate Cesi further accomplished for the honour of these saints and the salvation of his flock, and what eulogies all the most distinguished men poured out in his praise, anyone will easily recognize who has had leisure or time to consult Possevinus on this matter. We, however, in order to trace certain other relics of the saint, shall return to Jacobillus, who adds at the end that certain of them were found and recognized in the year 1583 in the greater basilica of Catanzaro in Further Calabria, that certain are kept in the church of Andria in the kingdom of Naples, and that various churches have been dedicated in honour of this saint, especially, he says, in the territory of Todi, of Spoleto, of Terni or Interamna, of Assisi and of Spello; whence it is sufficiently permissible to conclude that the cult of this saint is very celebrated.
LIFE, OR RATHER MIRACLES,
By St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues, book I, chapter X, from the fourth Trimester of Lawrence Surius, collated with others.
SOLE CHAPTER.
The saint frees the possessed from demons: restores sight to a blind man: calms a raging horse: heals a certain Goth stricken by God: raises a dead man.
Fortunatus, bishop, confessor, at Todi in Umbria. (S.)
BHL Number: 3088
BY GREGORY THE GREAT.
The saint, from a possessed woman There was a certain venerable man in the parts of Tuscia, Fortunatus by name, bishop of the church of Todi, who in putting spirits a to flight excelled by the grace of immense power, so that sometimes he drove legions of demons from possessed bodies, and, intent on continual zeal for prayer, overcame the multitudes of them set against him. Very intimate with this man was Julian, defender of our church, b who died in this city not long ago. From his account I too learned this which I relate: for he was often present at his deeds through the habit c of familiarity, and afterwards held his memory in his mouth for our instruction, like the sweetness of a honeycomb. A certain noble matron in the neighbouring parts of Tuscia had a daughter-in-law, who, within a short time of having received her son, had been invited together with her mother-in-law to the dedication of an oratory of the blessed martyr Sebastian. But on the same night, on the following day of which she was to go out d to the dedication of the aforesaid oratory, overcome by the pleasure of the flesh, she could not abstain from her husband. And when, morning having come, the delight of the flesh she had indulged e terrified her conscience, but shame commanded her to go in procession, blushing more at the face of men than fearing the judgement of God, she went out with her mother-in-law to the dedication of the oratory. But as soon as the others entered the oratory of St. Sebastian the martyr, f a malignant spirit seized the same aforesaid matron g and began to torment her before all the people. And the priest of the same oratory, when he saw her most violently tormented, at once took a linen cloth from the altar and covered her. But the devil likewise suddenly invaded him too. And because he had wished to presume something beyond his strength, he too was compelled to recognize in his own torment what he was.
[2] drives out a legion of demons; from another, a single one: Those who were present lifted the girl in their hands out of the oratory and carried her back to her own house. And when the ancient enemy wore her down violently with continual torment, her relatives, loving her carnally, and in loving persecuting her, handed her over to sorcerers to obtain a remedy for her health, so that they would utterly extinguish her soul, whose flesh they were trying to benefit for a time by magic arts. She was therefore led to a river and plunged into the water; and there the sorcerers strove for a long time to act by incantations, that the devil who had invaded her might go out. But by the wonderful judgement of almighty God, while one was driven out of her by perverse art, a legion h suddenly entered into her. From this she began to be agitated by as many motions, to resound with as many voices and outcries, as the spirits by which she was held. Then, taking counsel, her parents, confessing the guilt of their faithlessness, brought her to the venerable man, Bishop Fortunatus, and left her with him. Having received her, he gave himself to prayer for many days and nights, and applied himself to his prayers with as much effort as he found the battle-line of a legion standing against him in one body. And after * not many days he restored her so sound and unharmed as if the devil had never had any rights of his own in her.
At another time also the same man, the servant of almighty God, cast out an unclean spirit from a certain possessed man. And that malignant spirit, when, the day already drawing towards evening, he saw an hour secluded from all, * pretending to be some stranger, began to go round the streets of the city and to cry out: "O holy man, Bishop Fortunatus! See what he has done: he has driven a stranger out of his lodging. I seek where I ought to rest, and in his city I do not find it." Then a certain man was sitting by the coals in his lodging with his wife and little child; who, hearing his voice and asking what the bishop had done to him, invited him to his lodging and made him sit with him by the coals. And while they were talking of some things in turn, the same malignant spirit entered his little son, and threw him into those same coals, and there at once shook out his soul. And the wretched man, bereaved, recognized whom he himself had received, or whom the bishop had driven out.
[3] sight to a blind man, soundness to a raging horse, Peter: What are we to say this is, that the ancient enemy should receive the daring to kill in the lodging of him who, thinking him a stranger, had called him to himself for the sake of hospitality? Gregory: Many things, Peter, seem good, but are not, because they are not done with a good mind. Whence also in the Gospel the Truth says: If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be darkened. i For when the intention which goes before is perverse, every work that follows is wicked, though it seem to be right. For I judge that this man, who was bereaved while as it were showing hospitality, did not take delight in a work of piety, but in the disparagement of the bishop; for the punishment that followed made known that that preceding reception was not without fault. For there are some who study to do good things for this reason, that they may cloud over the grace of another's working. Nor are they fed by the good which they do, but by the praise of the good, by which they press down others. * For which reason I consider that this man, who received the malignant spirit into hospitality, aimed rather at the display of good than at the work, that he might seem to have done better things than the bishop, inasmuch as he himself received him whom the man of the Lord Fortunatus had driven out. Peter: It is as you say; for the end of the work proves that the intention of the working was not clean. Gregory: At another time also, when a certain man had lost the light of his eyes, being led to him, he sought the help of his intercession, and obtained it. For when the man of God, having made a prayer, imprinted the sign of the Cross k on his eyes, at once, light being restored, the night of blindness departed from him. Moreover, the horse of a certain soldier had been turned to madness, so that it could scarcely be held by many, but attacked whomever it could and tore their limbs with its bites. Then, bound somehow by many, it was led to the man of God; who at once, stretching out his hand, made the sign of the Cross on its head and changed all its madness into gentleness, so that afterwards it was milder than it had been before that frenzy. Then the same soldier decided that his horse, which he saw changed most swiftly from its madness by the command of the miracle, should be offered to the same holy man. And when he refused to receive it, and the other persevered in his entreaties that his offering should not be despised, the holy man, holding a middle way between two parts, both heard the soldier's petition and refused to receive a gift for this power shown; for he first paid a worthy price, and afterwards accepted the horse which he was offering him. For since he had seen that he would be saddened if he did not receive it, at the compulsion of charity he bought what he did not need.
[4] to two boys carried off by the Goths Nor ought I to be silent about this among the powers of this man, which I heard about twelve days ago. For a certain poor old man was brought to me, and since conversation with old men is always wont to be pleasant to me, I asked him eagerly whence he was. He answered that he was of the city of Todi; to whom I said: "I beg you, father, did you know Bishop Fortunatus?" He said: "I knew him, and knew him well." Then I added: "Tell me, then, if you know any miracles of his, and make known to me, who desire it, what kind of man he was." He said: "That man was far different from these men whom we see now. For whatever he asked of almighty God, he obtained even as he asked. Of him I relate this one miracle, which comes to mind at present. For one day the Goths came near the city of Todi, l who were hastening to the parts of Ravenna, and they had carried off two little boys from an estate, which estate was subject to the aforesaid city of Todi. When this had been announced to the most holy man Fortunatus, he at once sent and caused the same Goths to be called to him. Addressing them with gentle speech, he first studied to soften their harshness, and afterwards went on, saying: 'I will give whatever price you wish; give back the little boys whom you have carried off, and grant me this gift of your favour.' Then he who seemed to be the foremost of them answered, saying: 'Whatever else you command, we are ready to do; but these little ones we will by no means give back.' To him the venerable man said, gently threatening: 'You sadden me, m and you do not hear your father; do not sadden me, for it is not expedient for you.' n But the same Goth, remaining in the savagery of his heart, went away refusing. And on the next day, being about to depart, he came again to the bishop; and the bishop again asked him with the same words for the aforesaid little boys. And when he would in no way consent to give them back, the bishop, saddened, said: 'I know that it is not expedient for you that you depart having saddened me.'
[5] liberty, The Goth, despising these words, returned to his lodging, and the same boys, concerning whom
the matter was, he sent ahead with his men, placed upon horses. He himself, mounting a horse at once, followed after. And when he had come in the same city before the church of the blessed Apostle Peter, his horse's foot slipped; it fell with him, and his thigh was at once broken, so that the bone was divided into two parts; and, lifted up in men's hands, he was brought back to his lodging. He sent in haste and brought back the boys whom he had sent ahead, and sent word to the venerable man Fortunatus, saying: 'I beg you, father, send me your deacon.' And when his deacon had come to the man lying there, he brought into the midst the boys whom he had utterly refused to give back to the bishop, and gave them back to his deacon, saying: 'Go and say to my lord the bishop: Because you cursed me, behold, I am stricken; but receive the boys whom you sought, and intercede for me, I beg.' Having received the little boys, therefore, the deacon brought them back to the bishop; to whom the venerable Fortunatus gave blessed water, o saying: 'Go quickly, and sprinkle it over the body of the man lying there.' The deacon therefore went, and having gone in to the Goth, sprinkled the blessed water over his limbs. A wonderful thing, and exceedingly astonishing: as soon as the blessed water touched the Goth's thigh, the whole fracture was so knit together, and the thigh restored to its former health, that in the same hour he rose from his bed, and, having mounted his horse, began to make his journey as if he had never suffered any injury of the body. And so it came about that he who, though subject to obedience, would not give back the boys to the holy man Fortunatus for a price, gave them without a price when subdued by punishment." These things being finished, the old man was eager to tell other things also about him. But because some were present whom I was occupied in exhorting, and a later hour of the day had already come on, it was not permitted me to hear the deeds of the venerable Fortunatus; which, if it were permitted, I always wish to hear.
[6] and restores life to a dead man. But on another day the same old man told a still more wonderful thing about him, saying: "In the same city of Todi a certain Marcellinus, * a man of good conduct, lived with his two sisters; who, a bodily ailment coming upon him, died when the most sacred Paschal Saturday was already drawing towards evening. And since his body had to be carried out to a distance, it could not be buried on the same day. And since there was a delay of time before the duty of burial could be fulfilled, his sisters, afflicted by his death, ran weeping to the venerable man Fortunatus and began to cry to him with loud voices: 'We know that you hold the life of the Apostles; you cleanse lepers, you give light to the blind. Come and raise our dead.' As soon as he learned that their brother was dead, he himself also began to weep over his death, and answered them, saying: 'Go back, and do not say these things; for it is the command of almighty God, which no man can go against.' So, when they had departed, the bishop remained sad over his death. But on the following Sunday, before the twilight of the rising light, having called his two deacons, he went to the house of the dead man, and approaching the place where the body lay lifeless, he gave himself there to prayer. And the prayer being finished, he rose and sat beside the body of the dead man. And not with a loud voice he called the dead man, saying: 'Brother Marcellus.' And he, as if gently sleeping and woken by a voice near at hand though slight, at once opened his eyes, and looking at the bishop said: 'O, what have you done?' The bishop answered him, saying: 'What have I done?' And he said: 'Yesterday two came, who, casting me out of the body, led me to a good place. But today one was sent, who said: Bring him back, because Bishop Fortunatus has come into his house.' These words being finished, he at once recovered from his sickness, and remained in this life a long time." Yet it is not to be believed that he lost the place which he had received; for there is no doubt that by the prayers of his intercessor he who before death too studied to please almighty God was able to live better after death.
ANNOTATIONS.
Supply non* [not].
Read reliquiae* the relics.
Others: cum*.
Read hominibus*.
Perhaps deprimunt* press down.
Read Marcellus*.