ON ST. GAUDENTIUS OF RIMINI, BISHOP AND MARTYR, IN ITALY,
In the year CCCLX.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Gaudentius, bishop and Mart., at Rimini in Italy. (S.)
BY S. D.
§ I. The memory of the Saint among the Martyrologists: his cult: of what credibility the acts are: synopsis of his life.
Ariminum, commonly Rimini, is a not ignoble town, The Saint venerated at Rimini and elsewhere bordering on the Adriatic sea in that tract of Italy which today is called Romagna, and better known to the whole world, both from the conventicle of the Arians held there in the year 359 and from the most superb triumphal arch erected to Augustus Caesar and other ancient monuments, than to need a more prolix description. At this city St. Gaudentius is commonly believed to have been put to Martyrdom by the Arians themselves, whom the people of Rimini venerated for a very long time as their former prelate, martyr and protector, and the neighbouring peoples likewise; nay, that he was not altogether without cult even in our Belgium, what will be said in the course of this will sufficiently prove. And although, among the various Martyrologists mentioning this saint, whom I pass over here, I find none older than the abbot Maurolico, nevertheless his memory is extant in the common Roman Martyrology in these words: At Rimini, of Saint Gaudentius, Bishop and Martyr. Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, in his manner presents a synopsis of the Acts from Pietro de' Natali; but since it scarcely differs from those which we shall edit, we pass it over.
[2] The Acts, although labouring under anachronism, But a not small difficulty arises as to the Acts of this Saint, which were transmitted to our predecessors by Ippolito Mariano, copied word for word faithfully, as he himself testifies below in the year 1595 on the 1st day of January, from an ancient parchment codex preserved in the archive of the venerable society of St. Jerome and the Holy Trinity of Rimini. This codex was seen by Clementini, a nobleman of Rimini, who also relates, part 1, book II, page 147, that it contains the Lives of St. Gaudentius, St. Marinus, Blessed Arduinus, and many other Saints; and now since the same author, book 1, page 123, asserts that the life of St. Marinus was written about 600 years ago, it becomes clear that this codex is more probably not older than the XI century, and accordingly, having been written more than 600 years after the death of St. Gaudentius — which we shall tie to the year 360 — it can attach to itself little authority from antiquity. Nor this only, but also how light an investigator of truth (not to say a fabricator of falsehood) this biographer was, is clear from more than one head; for first indeed he writes that St. Gaudentius came to Rome in the fourth year of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, and was taken among the clerics by Damasus, recently elected Pontiff, and was initiated successively into sacred orders, and then into the episcopate itself; but that the Pontificate of Damasus was more than 60 years later than the reign of Diocletian and Maximian no one, I think, will deny who has consulted the ecclesiastical annals of Baronius or other chronographers of any note on this matter.
[3] For the rest, to be silent on some lighter things, he relates in the same Acts of our Saint that a certain judge of Rimini named Taurus, and partly drawn from pictures who had received the Most Holy Eucharist with blasphemous mouth, presently felt divine vengeance. At which spectacle (they are his words) there was present the venerable Mercurialis; perhaps other most celebrated bishops also came: Rophilus of Paphilia, Leo of Montefeltro, Marinus, Gaudentius and Geminianus. These same words altogether are read in the Acts of St. Mercurialis, bishop of Forlì, brought into our Work by Papebroch at the 30th day of April; and when the biographer of our Saint found them there, he not only embraced as true this whole tragedy of Taurus, at which St. Mercurialis is certainly said by his biographer to have been present, and copied it almost verbatim, but also introduces St. Gaudentius — whom the same writes was perhaps merely present with others — as if communicating the sacred mysteries to Taurus the prefect and to Martianus the proconsul. But what credence is to be given to this deed is sufficiently intimated by the often-mentioned biographer of St. Mercurialis himself, writing thus: We too, zealously making inquiry into the deeds of the Saints, came to the tomb of Blessed Mercurialis, Confessor and bishop of Forlì; and there, inquiring into his actions, we were able to trace nothing from the inhabitants of the place, except certain very delicate painted images of his actions: but, as they related, many lustres of time having elapsed, the Acts of the aforesaid prelate were taken away from them, more probably in that season in which the barbarians, roaming through Italy, laid waste the sacred places, especially those which were outside the walls of the cities.
[4] and appear fabulous, yet are to be edited: On which words Papebroch, in the Preliminary Commentary to the life of St. Mercurialis, reasons thus: Now further let us see what those pictures could have shown, and what had to be added to them, either from the author's own conjecture or from popular narration, so that some history of the life might be woven. In the first place occurs the punishment of a certain judge who received the sacred Eucharist with the same blasphemous mouth with which he had denied Christ present under it, carried out before St. Mercurialis and others. That the judge whom the picture represented was of Rimini, a contemner of the Christian religion, must have been taken from the common opinion; and, lest he should be anonymous, that Taurus opportunely came to mind, prefect of Rimini under Constantius the Arian, who used violence on the fathers gathered at Rimini for the council before they were dispersed, and cunningly induced them to receive as catholic the confession of Ursacius and Valens, deceitfully woven: on which account he had the worst repute among all Catholics, and so seemed suitable to whom the aforesaid blasphemy and a fitting death should be attributed. I am silent on other things which the biographer of St. Mercurialis conjectured from these pictures, wishing only the reader to be warned how little credence our anonymous biographer of St. Gaudentius deserves, who did not hesitate to follow a conjecturing author as truthful. Nevertheless, the reader having been warned, and to be further warned in the Annotations, we shall subject these Acts, however rude, mutilated and faulty the style in which they are written, to the press, collated with others, since more ancient ones are lacking.
[5] their corrupt chronology Pietro de' Natali follows the Anonymous in age, likewise deluded in this, that he writes that the Saint fled from the conventicle of Rimini, having already been ordained bishop by Pope Damasus; for it is established, as Ferrari rightly notes from Baronius, that Damasus was created Pontiff only in the year 367, or, as some would have it, at the end of the preceding one: since, therefore, St. Gaudentius, already a bishop, withdrew himself from the conventicle of Rimini, which had been held in the year 359, he was necessarily ordained not by Damasus but by some predecessor of his. Whence Baronius, Tome III of the Annals, page 740, rejects these Acts (ours, namely), in which St. Gaudentius is said to have been ordained bishop by Pope Damasus, as spurious, hinting that he had seen better ones; but neither did these please him in everything, especially in that they relate that St. Mercurialis was present at the council of Rimini, who he himself maintains had died already from the year 156. Hence I do not know what those Acts are which Baronius prefers to ours, since in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology he cites no other biographer of St. Gaudentius than Pietro de' Natali.
[6] [and if we correct their history, the Saint, having come to Rome about the year 308,] We have, moreover, two printed copies of the Life of this Saint, both in Italian: one at Rimini in the year 1659 by Giovanni Francesco Mainardi, monk of St. Bernard: the other at Venice in the year 1665 by Gaudenzio Brunacci, much enlarged in rhetorical manner; but as regards historical truth, these authors seem not to have had other Acts before their eyes than those of our anonymous writer, whom they continually cite, the rest which they added being received from tradition; nor do they differ much from one another; but Mainardi's chronology pleases more, by keeping which, a few things being corrected, we shall briefly run through the deeds of the Saint both from the anonymous writer and from others. St. Gaudentius, then, sprung from Ephesus, a most celebrated city of Ionia in Lower Asia, had both parents Christian, and, already orphaned of them by their removal for the faith in the most dire persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, he went to Rome while still a catechumen; where, baptized by Justin the priest, he brought a certain matron named Eusitica, still a pagan, with whom he had lodged a whole year and a half, now instructed in the rudiments of the faith, to Marcellus, recently elected Pope, that she might ask of him the grace of baptism. This happened about the year 308; for in this year Marcellus was elected, not in the year 304, as Baronius thought; for the pontificate was vacant after the martyrdom of St. Marcellinus for four years, as can be seen in Pagi in the Critica of Baronius and in our Henschenius in the Commentary on the Life of St. Marcellinus at the 26th day of April.
[7] and initiated into sacred orders up to the diaconate Eusitica, therefore, having been baptized by the Pontiff after three days in the presence of Gaudentius, and another three days having passed, as the anonymous writer has it, the same pontiff called to him Gaudentius, whose Holy purpose of living he had learned on the same occasion, and, having tonsured him, initiated him into minor orders. Then Pope Marcellus dies, and there succeeds, about the year 310, Eusebius, who Mainardi relates promoted Gaudentius to the major orders, except the Priesthood, after he had already experienced for two years of his Pontificate the outstanding merits of the Holy Man; but he is mistaken; for Eusebius sat not for two years or more, as Baronius thought, but four or at most five months only, nor did Silvester succeed him, as Mainardi would have it, but Melchiades, all of which you will find proved in Pagi and in Daniel Papebroch in the Propylaeum of May. Wherefore I think it more probable that St. Gaudentius received the said orders not from Eusebius but from Melchiades, the successor of Eusebius.
[8] he was at length made a priest, Wonderful indeed how much, together with these grades of sacred orders, he increased the austerity of his life, for besides the fifth weekday and the Lord's day, on the testimony of the anonymous writer, he took no food at all, so illustrious in virtues that he seemed already then girded with that shield with which he is related afterwards, in the council of Rimini, most vigorously to have repelled the weapon of Arius, who was just about to invade the church. As this fame of the virtues in which Gaudentius shone at Rome grew more and more, the year of the pontificate of St. Silvester was now running about the fourteenth, of the common era 327, and peace had been restored to the church, when the Pontiff just mentioned, calling Gaudentius to him, held him so dear and intimate that he kept him with himself as long as he lived. And in the fifth year in which he was staying with Silvester (the anonymous writer and Pietro de' Natali wrongly write with Damasus), a priest
was ordained, and, Pope Silvester having at length died in the year 335, he left the pontifical palace, and lay hidden, not much known, until about the 10th year of the pontificate of Julius, which was 346 of Christ, when it pleased divine providence again to make its Saint illustrious.
[9] and when he had cured a demoniac For it happened at that time that, the prelate of Rimini having died, legates from that city arrived at Rome with letters, asking a new prelate of the Pontiff, who might the more quickly come to the aid of the people of Rimini, who in great part were listening to a heretical proconsul. A copy of the letters, mutilated, though, and faulty like the rest, I read in the anonymous writer thus:
To the Lord imbued with the largess of perpetual holiness, the citizens of the Pentapolis: Services in Christ, whom we worship perennially.
Let it be made clear to your modesty that our prelate has departed from this world; and the consul Marsianus has so far fallen into heresy that almost the greatest part of the people bends its neck to his norm; we await the clemency of your goodness, that you deign to send us a pastor, lest your sheep perish, but that, you acting, Jesus Christ our Lord having mercy, they may be freed and follow the destruction of error. In all things, fare you well. While these letters were being carried to the Pontiff, it opportunely happened that a certain soldier named Tarsentius, long harassed by a demon, did not cease to call upon St. Gaudentius, crying out thus: Servant of God Gaudentius, help me, the demon at the same time testifying that he would leave the man only at the command of Gaudentius alone. Hearing such things, Julius the pontiff orders Gaudentius to be summoned forthwith, inquires into his faith, and discloses the desire of the possessed soldier. Then the Man of God, Mass having been celebrated according to custom, held out to the same soldier the part of the sacrifice which he had reserved, namely the saving host, and, the same legates of Rimini standing by, as Mainardi says, restored him to health; by which miracle very many of the pagans, Jews and heretics were moved and embraced the true faith.
[10] he was given as prelate to the people of Rimini, And Julius the Pontiff, having now perceived the Holiness of the man, thinking he need not deliberate long whom he should give as pastor to the people of Rimini, presently consecrates Gaudentius bishop, and sends him to Rimini with the right of legate of the apostolic see, the Romans grieving not a little at the departure of so great a man. Having set out from Rome, therefore, with the legates, the Prelate came to a certain place which was called Martana or Martiana, where he visited with the highest charity the few Christians whom he found, and, among very many whom he had already brought to the faith by words and signs, he so restored to health a certain sick man of no obscure birth, fixed to his bed for many years and abandoned by the physicians, that, at once leaping from his bed, the idols being cast out, he embraced the true faith with his household, twenty-three in number, and was regenerated in sacred baptism. Then, Mass having been celebrated, and the few Christians who were present having been refreshed with holy communion, the Holy man, having prayed peace and blessing on all, after a stay of ten days continues his journey; and when on the way the wine once failed his companions, he made water wonderfully put on the taste of wine, persevering untiringly in preaching the word of God through all the places of his journey, the pagans raging in vain, and in curing sicknesses.
[11] among whom he works very many miracles; Rumour had already announced beforehand to the people of Rimini that Gaudentius the bishop was arriving, when behold, as he approached the city, the multitude of the people meets him and joyfully leads its pastor to the gate of the city; and as he enters it he has to meet him a not small troop of sick persons, who all, as the anonymous writer testifies, having recovered health, praised together with the whole people the divine goodness, that it had granted them so great a prelate. And on this same day, while he offers the most holy sacrifice of the Mass, the statue of Mars, which was in about the middle of the city, and the other idols which remained, suddenly fell down; by which miracle and the assiduous preaching of Gaudentius very many pagans were brought to the light of the Gospel truth. It happened also after four years that the niece of Eusitica, with whom the Man of God had lodged at Rome, harassed by an evil spirit, coming to Rimini, earnestly implored the help of the Holy prelate (for the demon had candidly professed that he would yield to no one except to Gaudentius alone); when the Prelate, taking pity on the girl, signed her mouth with the sign of the cross, by whose power, at once freed, she returned joyfully to Rome.
[12] until, from the council proclaimed at Rimini, But although the most vigilant pastor guarded his flock excellently, yet he could not prevent the whole church of Rimini, in the eleventh year of his ordination, as the anonymous writer speaks, from being disturbed on account of the dogma of the heretics and of Martianus the proconsul. We judge, with Ughelli, Brunacci, Mainardi, Pietro de' Natali and others generally, that this heresy was the Arian, which under the wings of the emperor Constantius harassed the church most dreadfully; and when Gaudentius, together, if we believe Mainardi, with Marinus and Leo — of whom he had recently created the latter priest, the former deacon — had resisted it for some time with all his strength, the emperor proclaimed a council at Rimini, under the pretext indeed of providing for the good of the universal church, but in reality so that he might at length induce the fathers, either deceitfully or by violence, to subscribe to the Sirmian profession of the Arians. But the four hundred and more catholic bishops who had come together, all except a few Arians, at once perceiving the deceit, condemned the Sirmian profession, and unanimously subscribed the Nicene faith. And when the emperor heard the decrees of the council from the legates, already forestalled by the Arians, he meditated using violence on the fathers; wherefore he detained the same legates at Adrianople, and the fathers at Rimini, although the harshness of winter was imminent, until he should return from the expedition which he was preparing against the barbarians.
[13] Meanwhile, says Labbe, tome II, page 861, the Arian bishops, about to pass into a conventicle, who at Nicaea in Thrace by order of the emperor (for at the persuasion of the Arians he had cunningly divided the council) published a new formula of faith according to the mind of the same Constantius under the Nicene name, induced by force, through fear of exile and torments, not only the legates detained at Adrianople and the remaining bishops at Rimini, but almost all the prelates of the whole world to approve this perfidy by their subscription, except Liberius the pontiff and Servatius of Tongres, and 18 other (among whom St. Gaudentius) bishops bravely resisting. There was at that time prefect of the city of Rimini a most severe judge (so the anonymous writer calls him) named Taurus, to whom Constantius gave these orders by letters, as Sulpicius Severus testifies, Leipzig edition of the year 1709, book II, chapter 42, namely: That he should not dismiss the synod before all professed that they consented by their subscriptions. And if any resisted more obstinately, provided their number was within fifteen, they should be driven into exile. But Gaudentius and the other Catholic prelates exceeded this number, and, perceiving that all the others, struck with fear, were yielding to the violence of the emperor, they withdrew of their own accord from the council, presently to pass into a conventicle, choosing a certain village where they watched the outcome of the conventicle from a distance, and strengthened in the catholic faith the people flowing together there copiously.
[14] having made a withdrawal, And the aforesaid village was thenceforth called Cattolica, and merited to obtain a monument of this event from the most eminent cardinal Spada, which is read in Mainardi, page 108, thus: In the year 1637, at the village which in the territory of Rimini is called "Cattolica," where St. Gaudentius with a few other orthodox prelates once assembled apart from the Arians summoned to the synod of Rimini, and gave occasion for the village thereafter to be called "Cattolica," Bernardino cardinal Spada, to preserve the memory of so great a matter, and also to testify his love toward the province, and especially Rimini (as, from the valley of the Lamone, Tommaso Spada remained long attached to the Malatesta, until he himself became senator of the Gracious City, in which he died in the year 1458), erected a marble title with this inscription:
"In the year of restored salvation CCCLIX, Liberius being Supreme Pontiff, Constantius Emperor, when the world, groaning under the frauds of the heretics, wondered to find itself Arian, of four hundred bishops summoned to the Synod of Rimini, a very few orthodox, coming frequently to this place to perform sacred rites apart from the Arians, and to impart catholic communion to catholics, gave occasion for the village itself to be named Cattolica; the reason for which name, and the memory of the whole affair, Caesar Cardinal Baronius inserted in the ecclesiastical annals.
Bernardino Cardinal Spada, to instruct the piety of pilgrims and to testify his love toward his native province, indicated it by this marble set up. In the year of the Lord 1637."
[15] returning, he was slaughtered outside the city. The prefect Taurus and the consul Martianus, bearing this withdrawal of the prelates most ill, devised every most dire thing against the catholics; but the unconquered champions of Christ, terrified by none of these things, the conventicle being now ended, mostly returned to their sees. Gaudentius indeed, having returned to Rimini with some others, presently assembled his clergy, rescinded the acts of the conventicle, and excommunicated Martianus, a priest, a relative of the consul, because he obstinately adhered to the Arian faction; whence, stirring up against himself more fiercely the hatred of the consul, he was attacked by his soldiers with cudgels and stones outside the gate of the city and obtained the laurel of martyrdom in the year of the Lord 360, the 9th of Liberius the pontiff, the 24th of the emperor Constantius. And these are the Acts of the Saint, which, excerpted from the anonymous writer and others whom we have cited, we have touched upon in a more probable chronotaxis, not wishing greater credence to be given to them than to bare traditions (for they altogether lack authentic monuments); nay, Tillemont, in the place cited above, thinks the things carried about concerning this Saint so uncertain that he would have each one be content with knowing that the church of Rimini venerates St. Gaudentius as its former bishop, singular patron, and slain by the Arians under the emperor Constantius. For the rest, therefore, regarding the punishment of Taurus and Martianus, which we touched on above, and which Brunacci and Mainardi adopted as true, we refer the reader to the Acts and the Annotations subjoined to them: but how I would wish that Baronius had shown, even with only his middle finger, those Acts more ancient or better than these of our anonymous writer; how they lay hidden from Clementini, Brunacci, Mainardi and all the others whom I have consulted, I cannot sufficiently wonder.
§ II. The miraculous finding of the body: translations made first at Rimini: thence to Senigallia: lastly to Montebodio: another finding of the relics.
The sacred remains of the martyr by a blind woman The sacred body of the Martyr, thrown by the same soldiers of Martianus into a deep well, lay unknown for 70 years, if we believe the anonymous writer, until it was wonderfully shown by a certain woman who had been blind from birth. The series of the event, sprinkled with fables by the anonymous writer, is shown in purer form, as it appears, by the Little Book written by order of Joachim, abbot of St. Gaudentius at Rimini, by Dom Celestino, monk of the same monastery, in the year 1442, and transmitted to our predecessors by Fr. Francesco Via, rector of the college of the society of the same city, and now printed in Ughelli, tome II of Italia Sacra, from page 412. This little book comprises the stations or places of indulgences which are seen in the church of St. Gaudentius at Rimini, nine in all, of which I transcribe the eighth here, since it is to our purpose, as follows: The eighth station or place of indulgences of St. Gaudentius is in the same church, below, in another lower body of the same church, which is called the confession, in the chapel of the Holy Martyrs Valentine and Victor, who were wonderfully found there together with the body of St. Gaudentius, as is recited in the History
of his passion, in a certain well which is on the left hand of the aforesaid altar, where there is a marble stone in the ground, through a revelation made to a certain honest and religious woman named Abortina, who was blind from birth and dwelt at Ravenna; it is related in this manner: That when the said woman was blind at Ravenna, and daily with great devotion and faith was entreating God for sight, or for having the light of her eyes, and when she had persisted and persevered in this prayer for a long time, it was at length said to her by an angel how God had heard her prayers, and that, in order that she might merit to receive her sight, she ought to come to the city of Rimini, and go to the church of St. Gaudentius, and tell the Blessed Abbot of that monastery how in the aforesaid place of the confession, in the chapel already mentioned, there was a certain well covered with a marble stone, in which lay the bodies of the Holy Martyrs Gaudentius, Valentine and Victor, and that they should be extracted thence and venerated with worthy honour; adding that when the same Most Holy bodies should be found and extracted from the said well, and devoutly adored and kissed by her, she would immediately merit to receive her sight.
[17] to the monks of the place These things having been said beforehand by the angel to the aforesaid Holy woman, as is set forth, the woman added to the same angel, saying: Thou knowest, Lord, that I do not see: nor can I go by myself to any place unless I am led. Then the angel took her, and suddenly, as in the twinkling of an eye, placed her at Rimini within the said church of St. Gaudentius, in that place where the aforesaid holy bodies were, and the angel said to her: Behold, beloved daughter, you are now in the church of St. Gaudentius of Rimini, and in the chapel and place where the precious bodies of the Holy Martyrs Gaudentius and Valentine and Victor are, and where I had told you, when you were at Ravenna, that you ought to come; but now go to the Blessed Abbot of this monastery, and relate to him in order all the things which have befallen you, as they have been done up to now. Then that Holy woman falling to the ground, all bathed in tears for excessive joy of heart, and giving thanks to God and to that Most Holy angel, and most humbly commending herself to him, that Most Holy angel and divine messenger flew into heaven: and she, rising from prayer, went to the Blessed Abbot, and the well was shown to him where those Most Holy bodies lay. Then the same Blessed Abbot, giving full faith to the words of that Holy woman, applied all his diligence to this matter, committed to him by God and specially enjoined; and having called together many servants of God, both religious and clerics, and honest seculars, and all being gathered in the said church of St. Gaudentius with the abbot and his monks, the same Blessed Abbot made known to all everything which that Holy woman had told him, and how on the part of God she had specially enjoined that he should extract those Most Holy bodies of the Holy Martyrs Gaudentius, Valentine and Victor, which were there in a certain well unseemly buried, so that, extracted thence and laid back in a seemly place, they might be venerated with worthy honour; and that this was the cause why he had called and gathered them there, because he wished all standing there to go together with him to the place where those Most Holy bodies lay, and to search for them, and extract them thence.
[18] wonderfully shown Then the Blessed Abbot, vested pontifically with his companions and ministers, and all the others in order processionally, the cross going before, as is the custom, went very solemnly and devoutly to the place where those Most Holy bodies were, that Holy blind woman, who had come to reveal them, being present there, showing the place of the Holy Well, and directing that they should open it confidently. When they had opened it, and had found those Most Holy bodies, and had extracted them, wonderfully and beyond human measure fragrant, and that Holy woman, blind from birth, with great devotion and faith had most humbly touched them with her face, and immediately, suddenly, had perfectly and wonderfully received eyes and sight, which she had never had, all who were present, from excessive astonishment and wonder at so great and so magnificent a Miracle done before them, as if beside themselves, and prostrate on their faces on the ground, adored God, praising and glorifying him in his Holy Martyrs Gaudentius, Valentine and Victor; whose most sacred bodies they merited to find and have for the protection of themselves and of the whole city.
[19] not indeed 70 years after his death, Then the aforesaid venerable father abbot first, and afterwards successively all the others who were present, with great reverence and devotion, bathed in tears from immense joy of heart, approached to venerate and kiss those most holy bodies, and in wonderful manner it came about that all those who touched them were perfectly cured and freed from all their infirmities, pains and sicknesses. Then they conducted them into the sacristy of the same church with huge joy and great honour, singing "Te Deum laudamus"; and there they were honourably laid away in a certain casket and venerated by all the people with worthy honour, where likewise many Miracles were done; and those most sacred bodies stayed there for some short time, until a stone tomb was made in which they might be placed… St. Gaudentius was laid back behind the high altar in a most beautiful tomb with solemn and wonderful honour… According to this narration, therefore, to which we give greater credence than to the anonymous writer, the body of St. Gaudentius, together with the bodies of the Holy Martyrs Valentine and Victor, MM., were found in the same well, and that in the Chapel of the Confession, which was part of the church already dedicated to St. Gaudentius, called also the Lake of the Martyrs, because very many Christians who refused to sacrifice to the Gods suffered Martyrdom there for their final confession of the faith and were buried together. Whence I suspect that our Martyr's body did not begin to lie hidden immediately, as the anonymous writer would have it, until the seventieth year after, but was raised from the well shortly after and translated into the said Chapel, with the bodies of SS. Valentine and Victor (of whom it will be treated in our Work at the 13th day of November), by John, the pupil and successor of this Saint, as Mainardi hints, and laid away under a marble stone.
[20] but long after, as it appears, Ughelli, Mainardi and others relate that the same John converted the Chapel of the Confession into a fairly ample church and dedicated it in honour of St. Gaudentius, whence also they say it came about that this church, the name of the Confession of Martyrdom being obliterated, was thereafter called St. Gaudentius's. And John the bishop having died, and this former church having been destroyed by wars, Galla Placidia Augusta, mother of the Emperor Valentinian, who was then staying at Ravenna and was wonderfully devoted to the Saint on account of the fame of his Miracles, raised a new one, says Brunacci, from the foundations, and furnished it with most splendid ornaments. Nay, Ughelli writes that the Augusta just mentioned also contributed her labour excellently to the basilica which John built — the former, namely; but we think with Brunacci that it ought to be understood of the second, which she herself completed at her own expense. It doubtless came about through the rebuilding of this basilica and the death of John the bishop that the place where the aforesaid holy bodies rested began to be unknown, until at length they were wonderfully shown, through the blind woman of whom we have spoken, to the monks of the place, who — a fairly ample monastery having long since been built there that they might serve the church (there is there, as a certain anonymous writer says, that notable abbey of St. Bartholomew today, placed outside the walls of the city of Rimini, and in the year 1645 granted to the reformed monks of St. Bernard, Cistercians) — afterwards professed the rule of St. Benedict of Cassino.
[21] laid away more seemly, thence to Senigallia, More probably, from then on, after the wonderful finding of the Saint, the people of Rimini began to venerate him as their singular protector and patron with God; and perhaps not long after they caused coins to be struck in his honour, one of which, of silver, seen by himself, Ughelli presents in the cited Tome, page 418, and Mainardi an almost similar one at page 184, where they can be seen. And the remains of St. Gaudentius rested behind the high altar of the often-mentioned church until about the year 590, at which time, carried miraculously to Senigallia (by a certain soldier, Brunacci asserts), about half the head excepted, they were most honourably received by Sigismund, then prelate of Senigallia, and laid away in a marble chest, which at the end of the XVII century was still seen preserved in the church of St. Sebastian outside the walls of the city of Senigallia, and perhaps is seen to this day, with the following inscription on the front face of the monument and on a half-broken stone on the left:
Sigismund, bishop of Senigallia, solemnly placed the body of this Saint Gaudentius in this tomb.
Scarcely was Senigallia rejoicing in the relics of the Saint when they became so illustrious with Miracles that the most pious queen of the Lombards, Theodelinda the Bavarian, who was then living at Verona, inflamed with zeal of devotion, and at the same time so that she might avert through the Saint's intercession the scourge of the plague, which was raging most dreadfully, visited his holy bones in veneration, and not long after wished a noble basilica to be raised at her own expense and preciously adorned in that estate of Senigallia which is called the Courts of St. Gaudentius, scarcely 12 stadia distant from the city.
[22] at length they were carried to Montebodio, Sigismund the bishop adorned the completed basilica with the sacred bones of Gaudentius and dedicated it in his honour, afterwards converted into an abbey, the Benedictines migrating there. But when the city of Senigallia was plundered and levelled to the ground in the year 1264 by the army of Manfred, king of Sicily, and by the factious bands of the Ghibellines, this church too was thrown down together with it and the monastery destroyed; whence the sacred pledges of Gaudentius remained abandoned under the rubble until the year 1520; at which time a certain Captain of Montebodio, sprung of the most noble stock of the Bergamini, inflamed with pious zeal, an opportunity being seized, searched for the chest, opened it when found, and, the sacred bones which had rested there 930 years being brought out, carried them to the church of St. Francis of the Minor Conventuals of his native Montebodio; where, reverently received by the Fathers of the Convent just named, they were fittingly enclosed in the wall of the tower, authentic writings also being placed with them, as we shall presently see. Then a magnificent altar sacred to St. Gaudentius was erected by the same Bergamini before the aforesaid wall, as is proved from the following inscription which is read above on it: To the body of St. Gaudentius brought here by their ancestors, Giacomo, Lattanzio, Roberto, Sallustio and Annibale de' Pergamini dedicated this altar: and at the foot of the altar there was written on the wall thus: The body of St. Gaudentius, Bishop and Martyr, who under the consul Martianus, on the day before the Ides of October, at the city of Rimini, was consecrated by Martyrdom, rests in this tomb in the Lord.
[23] and of them found there again, and from the writings placed with them Further, there had now rested for 70 years the sacred
bones in the said wall, and the memory of the Holy Martyr had been much obscured, when it seemed good again to divine providence to make it illustrious; for in the year 1591 the most illustrious Pietro Rodolfi of Tossignano, prelate and count of Senigallia, undertaking a general visitation of his diocese, while he lodged with the Minor Conventuals of Montebodio, formerly his confreres, on the same day, which was the 16th of October, ordered the bones of St. Gaudentius, of which the knowledge was not very certain, to be searched for; wherefore, the wall of the tower behind the altar being opened, there standing by with the bishop the Rev. Fr. Giovanni Angelo Acurio, Guardian of the Convent, with all the Friars, and Bartolomeo Alberico, the bishop's Notary, a fairly ample casket made of walnut wood and bound with cords was found, which the bishop presently ordered to be reverently brought out from the wall with lighted lights and carried to the sacristy. Here, while it is unclosed, the following writings which had been added testified that the true Relics of St. Gaudentius were preserved in it, of which the first ran thus: In the name of God, amen. In the year of the Lord MDXX, in the month of March, on the last of the aforesaid month, the body of Saint Gaudentius the Martyr was extracted, being in a certain little wooden casket, bound with pitch, with cords, and closed with nails, before witnesses, namely D. Giovanni Battista Ventura, Ser Agostino, and Barnabeo Pijssimo, and Brother Antonio de Fortia, and Brother Floriano, and Brother Luca, and Brother Giovanni.
[24] by the writings The other: In the name of God, amen. In the year of the Lord MDXXI, on the second day of March, with the licence of D. Tommaso Mercurio, Vicar of the Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Senigallia, together with the will of the Lords Priors, namely master Tommaso Betti and Francesco di Ser Domenico, and also of the Rev. Fr. Fra Antonio de Fortia, past Guardian, together with the will of the Ven. Fr. Fra Pietro Simone, future Guardian, Fra Floriano, Fra Battista, Bachelor, Brother Luca, and others of the said land, there being present Ser Bernardino di Bartolomeo, Ser Persimone di Niccolò, Ser Agostino di Francesco, Giacomo Verzilli, Bernabeo Pijssimo, Antonio Mei, Ant. Battista, Marco Guidi, the aforesaid body was extracted from the aforesaid little casket of pitch and placed in the Chapel of the same Saint, in the year, month and day as above, Fra Antonio Muratore of the Convent. I, Giovanni Battista di Girolamo di Marco Guidi, with the consent of all, wrote with my own hand. And that these things happened so is clear from the attestation of the aforesaid Notary of the episcopal curia, which is of this kind:
Bartolomeo Alberico, Notary of the episcopal curia of Senigallia.
In the name of God, amen. In the year from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand five hundred and ninety-three, the sixth indiction, on the sixteenth day of the month of October, in the time of the pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ and our Lord, Lord Clement, by divine providence Pope VIII, in the second year of his Pontificate.
[25] recognized I, Bartolomeo degli Alberici, Notary and Scribe of the episcopal curia, give faith and attest with the word of truth how the very Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Fra Pietro Rodolfi, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Bishop and Count of Senigallia, in the visitation of the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-one, in the month of October, while he was in the land of Montebodio in the diocese of Senigallia, with the Friars of St. Francis of the Order of Minor Conventuals, commanded the Bones of St. Gaudentius, Bishop and Martyr, laid away in the wall of the church of St. Francis beside the altar of St. Gaudentius, to be searched for, and so (God helping) they were found in a certain wooden casket with writings inside giving faith of the truth of the holy Relics, seen by me and by others who were with me; and so I give faith and attest, and in faith I have written these presents with my hand and published them, being asked and required.
The Sign of me the Notary.
The remains of the Saint, recognized in this way, were enclosed again in the same casket, and in the same manner in which they had come, the leading men of the land, who, summoned by the bishop of Tossignano, had come, being now also present, were carried back to the same place; the wall was then closed with masonry, until it should be agreed about a place more apt and more seemly for so great a treasure.
[26] into a more seemly place The Council of that land being therefore assembled on the following day, after mature deliberation held, they determined at last that a chest should be made, to be unlocked with four keys, of which the Magistracy should keep one, the Custodian of the sacred Mount another, the Guardian the third, and the eldest or more honourable of the Bergamini stock the fourth. It was resolved also to build at public expense a new little shrine or Chapel within the church itself, whose first corner stone the bishop of Tossignano himself laid before he departed, and then pursued the visitation of his diocese. Meanwhile, the Chapel being completed and adorned with pictures wonderfully showing the deeds of the Saint, Giovanni Battista of the noble family of the Tranquilli gave as a gift a chest made of Istrian stone, placed in the same church of St. Francis under the altar which enjoyed the patronage of the Tranquilli family. This chest therefore was extracted, adapted by the help of craftsmen, and polished, especially on the front face, where there was inserted a round window surrounded by a most beautiful festoon or leafy garland, with the following inscription: He merited the crown, he will live for ever, and closed with a grille or iron grating, which likewise could be opened with four keys and closed with one: on the right of the said window the following words were carved: Saint Gaudentius, bishop of Rimini, in the time of the Arian emperor Constantius, rescinding the acts of the conventicle of Rimini, was slaughtered with various kinds of torments by the soldiers of the proconsul: on the left these: The bones of Saint Gaudentius, bishop and Martyr, laid away in an obscure place, divinely found after seventy years, were brought into this monument by Fra Pietro of Tossignano, of the Order of Minor Conventuals, bishop and count of Senigallia, the people of Montebodio looking on, and at their expense, in the year 1594. Above, at the head of the face: Relics of Saint Gaudentius, Martyr: and below: He washed his robe in the blood of the lamb.
[27] Then a smaller chest was worked of copper, covered inside with cypress and dyed with purple colour, the translation was fixed for the 3rd day of August of the year 1594. to the Italians cremesino, in which the bones of the Saint were first to be placed and so carried into the stone chest: there was likewise made a silver arm, fairly noble, interwoven with certain gems, to this end, that, the bone of the arm being placed inside, it might be carried every year in procession on the anniversary day of the translation. Meanwhile the bishop of Tossignano, in order to obtain a fuller knowledge of the relics, not unaware that some were also preserved at Rimini in the church of St. Gaudentius, gave letters on this matter to the most illustrious Salicini, then prelate of Rimini, who, an examination having been duly instituted, answered through Giustino Catanio, his Vicar General, that only the following, yet true, parts of the head alone were found, namely: both bones of the eyebrows, the occiput, two little pieces of the bones above the ears, the middle bone between the eyes and the jaw; but that the jaw itself, the chin, and part of the bone which makes up the remainder of the collar-band were lacking. This information having been made, and faculty having been asked of the pontiff and obtained, the bishop of Tossignano, together with the magistracy and the deputies, appointed the solemn translation for the III day of the month of August of the year 1594; wherefore not only were the whole clergy and people of the diocese of Senigallia invited to this solemnity, and the manner which was to be observed prescribed, but letters were also given by the bishop of Tossignano to the most illustrious Ferrante Farnese, bishop of Parma and governor of the Marche, Gabriele del Monte, bishop of Jesi, and Giulio Ottinelli of Fano, that they would deign to honour the same solemnity with their presence: and as they assented by letters not unwillingly, fitting lodgings were prepared at Montebodio for them, as also for all the clergy who were to come.
§ III. The most solemn translation of the Relics, honoured by three bishops: the cult of the Saint in Belgium.
The sacred pledges carried into the sacristy Three days before the day appointed for the translation, the prelate of Senigallia, the bishop of Tossignano, arrived, and on the first day of August of the aforesaid year 1594, having entered the church of St. Francis with the prefect of the city, the leading men, and a numerous people, and being vested in pontificals, he blessed the copper chest, which we have mentioned, destined to keep the sacred bones, and the silver arm; which done, the Rev. Fr. Francesco Giovanni Zabazzino and the Rev. Fr. Bartolomeo Vetuli of Corinaldo, guardian of the often-mentioned convent, reverently brought out from the wall of the tower the walnut chest in which the sacred bones had been preserved up to then, and, in almost the same manner as three years before, the bells, organs and drums sounding without intermission, carried it to the sacristy, there being present here, so that they might be witnesses of the deed, M. Filippo Thegetti, public notary and chancellor of the bishopric of Senigallia, M. Ortensio Duranti of Montebodio, and M. Scipione Colbassano, chancellor of the territory of Montebodio, likewise public notaries: there were present likewise, of the people of Montebodio, Isidoro Fedele, captain, M. Tiberio Verzelli and M. Giovanni Antonio Micheli Bergamasco.
[29] and duly examined While the chest was thus deposited in the sacristy, the bishop of Tossignano wished indeed that it should be unclosed at once, but, fearing the pressure of the people, who had come up in great numbers, and at the same time because the hour of dinner had already been heard, he put the matter off, and ordered the walnut chest with the relics to be shut in the public archive which was in the same sacristy. And dinner having been taken, the bishop of Tossignano returned to the church together with the magistracy, the leading men and the deputies, and, so that nothing of his office should be wanting, took with him Francesco Maria Tassoni of Urbino and Tolomeo Francolini, most skilled physicians, and Master Innocenzo Innocenzi, a surgeon likewise most experienced, who should examine the bones more diligently: there were present at the same time the aforesaid three notaries and Captain Isidoro with M. Barnabeo Roberti, to testify to what they saw, when, the chest being brought out of the archive, loosed and opened, the aforesaid physicians and the surgeon recognized the relics preserved in it as true bones of a human body, an instrument being drawn up thereupon by the notaries; and the bones were of the following parts of the body: of the head, the arms, the hands, the legs, the ribs and the spine of the back, and accordingly bones of almost the whole body, only half of the head, as we warned above, excepted.
[30] were enclosed in a new reliquary, until, These things done, the bishop of Tossignano, reverently taking the bone of the arm, wrapped it first in green Multitio silk, then in another, crimson or purple, artfully interwoven with gold, and so fitted and inserted it into the silver arm recently made for the end we have mentioned: then, taking the remaining bones, he placed them in the copper chest, which, covered and closed first with white and most fine silk, then with crystal so that the relics might be seen, was deposited in the same archive until the day of the solemn procession should dawn, lights being lit all around, and the Rev. Conventual Fathers with the Rev. Capuchin Fathers crowding about it in assiduous prayer. On the following day, therefore, the 2nd of August, the bishops of Parma and Fano had already arrived (for the bishop of Jesi was not able, on account of his health), when, vespers having been solemnly sung by the bishop of Tossignano, a certain Franciscan father, having first discoursed excellently on many things in praise of the Saint, published the indulgences which Clement VIII had granted to excite the devotion of the faithful the more.
[31] The copy of the Clementine Bull sounds thus: Pope Clement VIII, to all and each who shall inspect the present letters, greeting and apostolic benediction. Since, as we have learned, the indulgences being published, the venerable Fra Pietro, bishop of Senigallia, on the third day of next August, the relics of St. Gaudentius, bishop and martyr, to the church
of the land of Montebodio in the diocese of Senigallia intends to translate processionally and to place fittingly in a chapel completed in his honour in the said church: We, intent with pious charity on increasing the religion of the faithful and the salvation of souls by the heavenly treasures of the church, to all the faithful of Christ of either sex, truly penitent and confessed and refreshed with holy communion, who shall devoutly be present at the aforesaid procession, or shall visit the said church and chapel on the day of the translation of the present year, and thereafter each year on the anniversary day of the same translation, and there pour forth pious prayers to God for the concord of Christian princes, the extirpation of heresies, and the exaltation of holy church, mercifully grant in the Lord plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins… Given at Rome at St. Mark's under the ring of the fisherman, on the XXIII day of July 1594, in the third year of our Pontificate…
M. Vestrius Barbianus
[32] The morning of the desired day of translation having come, and all things being duly arranged for the procession, on the III of Aug., carried around through the city the bishop of Tossignano, prelate of Senigallia (the bishops of Parma and Fano declining the honour), began the solemn Mass, clerics of the first dignity assisting, and, the gospel having been said, paused for so long as Ottavio Pascuzi, a pupil of Grammar, sang the deeds of the Saint in a brief but graceful hexameter poem: which done, and the mass completed, he enters the sacristy together with the magistracy, the deputies and the aforesaid notaries; where the chest with the silver arm was brought out from the archive by the Rev. Conventual Fathers and carried to the principal altar, then placed upon a portable and preciously adorned litter, which the three bishops and Pietro Rotati, vicar of Fano, lifting, carried as far as the door of the church, where, taken over by the same Conventual fathers, it was carried around under a baldachin by these and other clerics by turns through the designated streets of the city, a guard of soldiers also being employed: but it happened, through the frequent change of the bearers, that the silver arm was broken, and was snatched up by a certain assisting priest, whose intention the prefect of the guard interpreting sinisterly, he calls to arms; whence there arises a not slight tumult of the people making an onset, full of danger indeed, but happily quieted, both doubtless through the intercession of the Holy Martyr and by the authority of the bishop of Parma: and lest anything of the kind should happen further, the bishop of Parma himself, taking the arm in his hands, carried it thereafter for the duration of the procession, while meanwhile the bishops of Senigallia and Fano kept a hand continually set to the chest, crowded about now by a stronger guard of soldiers, lest they should be crushed by the people pressing on all sides (who had filled all the places of the city).
[33] deposited in a new mausoleum, Having so proceeded through the principal streets of the city, they came to the monastery of the nuns called of the Consolation, to whom the bishop of Parma, stepping out of the order for a little, showed the sacred arm, so that their devotion too might be satisfied; and presently, returning to his place, followed the procession: and when at last they returned to the same church of St. Francis, as soon as all the clergy with the magistracy had entered, forthwith the doors of the church were closed, and the copper reliquary of the relics with the silver arm was honourably brought into the newly erected chapel, and into the stone mausoleum newly made in it, and the following writing on parchment was placed with it: These most holy bones and relics of St. Gaudentius, bishop of Rimini and Martyr, on the first day of the month of August 1594, the seventh indiction, of the pontificate of the most holy father in Christ and our Lord, Lord Clement, by divine providence Pope the Eighth, were laid away in the present chest by the very illustrious and Most Reverend father in Christ, brother Pietro Rodolfi, by the grace of God and of the apostolic see bishop and count of Senigallia, and commissary specially deputed by the same Most Holy our Lord, there standing by the magnificent Lords Sigismondo Accurio, Ottaviano Guidi, Scipione Mancini and Tommaso Menchetti, priors of the magnificent community of Montebodio, the magnificent lords Andrea Accurio, the aforesaid Ottaviano Guidi, Giovanni Giacomo Pascuzi and Battista Francolini, deputies, and the magnificent lords Francesco Maria Tassoni of Urbino, physician of the said magnificent community, Tolomeo Francolini likewise physician, and Innocenzo degli Innocenzi of Montebodio, surgeon; and all things done thereupon reduced to public and authentic form by lord Ortensio Duranti, public notary, lord Scipione Colbassano, chancellor of the said magnificent community, and me, Filippo Thigetti, undersigned, chancellor of the aforesaid Most Reverend bishop, as in the instrument drawn up, to which, etc.; in faith of which, etc. Given in the church of St. Francis on the 3rd day of the same month of August, on which the most solemn procession was made; there intervening the most illustrious and Most Reverend lord Ferrante Farnese, bishop of Parma, governor of the province of the Marche, and the most illustrious and Most Reverend lord Giulio Ottinelli, bishop of Fano, and the whole clergy of the entire diocese of Senigallia, and a very great throng of men.
[34] and were enclosed: The larger chest having then been closed and secured with lead, the prelates withdrew, until, the hour of vespers having come, returning to the church they gave the bishop of Fano the honour of beginning them, solemnly sung by three choirs of musicians; and as the following day, the 4th of August, dawned, the bishops of Parma and Fano returned to their own; the bishop of Senigallia stayed two days more, until on the second day, which was that of Blessed Mary of the Snows, the stones of the altar having been consecrated and Mass celebrated over the same relics, on the following day, the VI of August, he too returned to Senigallia. And these are the acts of that most celebrated translation, which, written in Italian by Scipione Colbassano, chancellor of Montebodio, and printed at Jesi in the year 1597, we have here reduced to a compendium, sending the reader who desires more to the same, if he wishes. For the rest, that old marble chest which we have mentioned, which had remained under the ruins of the church of St. Gaudentius outside the gate of the city of Senigallia, the Canons of the Cathedral chapter of the same city sought and obtained in the year 1616 from the Most Reverend B. Rusticucci de' Rusticucci of Sitria (to whom the goods of the monastery of St. Gaudentius had been granted by Sixtus IV in the year 1483), commendatory abbot, and a public instrument was drawn up thereon by Valeriano Marchetti, public notary of Rocca Contrada: and the aforesaid canons translated this chest into their church of St. Sebastian, situated outside the walls of the city, in which perhaps it is seen to this day.
[35] and the cult of the Saint was propagated even into Belgium There remains the cult which we said at the beginning this Saint obtained in Belgium; and that it is in fact fairly ancient I learn from the letters of the very Reverend Lord Leonard Schindel, pastor of the Beguinage of Diest, given to our predecessors in the year 1659: for at that time in the chapel of the infirmary of the said Beguinage, sacred to St. Leonard, there was an image of St. Gaudentius so old that the old women of that time testified to the same Schindel that they had seen it from childhood; but the kind of martyrdom seems to have been unknown to the painter; for, the matter being diligently examined, I found that in the said image the martyr lies on his back on the ground, with a youthful and quite handsome face, and, already mutilated in hands and feet, is being begun to be cut through with a saw from the right shoulder to the left hip, with this Flemish inscription, which I render thus in Latin: Saint Gaudentius, Martyr; but that this Saint suffered otherwise is easily gathered from what has been said. The same Schindel also testifies that this Martyr was at that time customarily invoked by those suffering from gout, and that Mass was celebrated in his honour; but that this cult has long since ceased there I suspect from this, that they carried the said image, perhaps because it smacked too little of art, into the loft at one or another alteration of the chapel or destruction of the altar.
[36] An image similar in all respects is seen at Mechelen in the Nassau almshouse for the aged, was propagated if you except only the Flemish inscription, which sounds thus in Latin: St. Gaudentius, physician of the gouty. This image was seen by our Henschenius, painted about two centuries before, and will accordingly number today three hundred years and more; whence this is altogether to be turned to the praise of the people of Mechelen, that together with the antiquity of this image they have also preserved to this day the cult of the Holy Martyr; for those suffering from gout in the feet or hands, and those tormented with other pains of the kind, were wont earnestly to implore the help of this Saint, ordering not a few lights to be lit before the same image; and not without reason, for about the middle of the past century, as the same Henschenius testifies, several asserted, and by name the very noble lord Serats, that they had experienced, on invoking this Saint, no small relief from pains of this kind: wherefore also at that time, on the 14th day of October, when his feast recurs, it had a solemn Mass; but that this custom has long since fallen out of use I gather from this, that the Rev. Augustinian Fathers know not even a shadow of such a thing, who nevertheless for a hundred years now have alone performed the sacred rites in the chapel of the said almshouse, and have accurately informed us of the present cult of the Saint. That there is a report that a similar image existed in his age at Louvain in the seminary of the Irish the same Henschenius put on record, but he doubted which seminary this was; but a similar image, an inquiry having been duly instituted, I have not been able so far to detect either in the college of the Irish, or with the Rev. Irish Dominican Fathers, or with the Franciscans.
THE FABULOUS ACTS
From a Copy of the MS. Codex of the Rimini confraternity of St. Jerome and the Holy Trinity, by an Anonymous Author, collated with Pietro de' Natali and others.
Gaudentius, bishop and Mart., at Rimini in Italy. (S.)
BHL Number: 3276
BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
CHAPTER ONE.
The homeland of the Saint: his journey to Rome: his steps to sacred orders: on what occasion he obtained the episcopate of Rimini.
St. Gaudentius, coming to Rome, Eusitica In the times of Diocletian and Maximian, in the fourth year of their reigns, when the persecution of the pagans had been sown in diverse parts, a certain Man named Gaudentius, of Ephesian race, coming to the city of Rome, lodged with a certain matron named Eusitica a whole year and a half, who secretly served the lord and desired with all her intentions the waters of the sacred font. Meanwhile Damasus, a a most illustrious Man, took up the episcopate of the Roman church; and when Eusitica heard that Damasus was bishop of the Roman see, she summoned Gaudentius to her, whom she addresses thus, saying: Servant of God Gaudentius, behold, you have taught me through very many days to believe in one Lord born of the Father before the ages, and the Father without beginning, with the Son and the Holy Spirit in perfect trinity: for before you came here, this voice, as a trumpet thunders with things far off, sounded in my ears; but when your discourse shone about us, I truly believed and obeyed with devout mind; I beg your clemency that, as you made me believe the true trinity in unity, so you may lead me into the way of truth, so that, when I shall have been washed in the most sacred water, until I can work those things more openly which I work secretly, by working I may receive the life everlasting which you have promised.
[2] desiring to be baptized To whom Gaudentius said: Lady, what you have asked I cannot confer, b because the ministry of the priest has not been handed to me: yet if you believe with your whole heart in the lord Jesus Christ, by whom you will be saved, who freed the world from error, recovered the lost age, of his own will emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, c who, when he was in the glory of the father, lacked nothing, but all things were present to him, so far humbled himself,
that he showed himself about to be born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A virgin born of a virgin, humbled, he gave himself to death for us, on the third day he rose, that by rising he might free us from perpetual death; through a woman the age fell, through a woman it was raised up; through a woman it was given into dispersion, through a woman it was reconciled to God the Father. Hearing these things, Eusitica fell at the feet of Blessed Gaudentius, weeping and saying: Whoever does not believe this is foolish and likened to the beasts: Servant of the most high God, I have heard that Damasus, a most noble Man, has ascended to the episcopal dignity; let us go and ask of him that he grant me the Sacrament of baptism, that I may be able to receive the eternal kingdom. To whom Blessed Gaudentius said: What you wish, Lady, let us do. To whom Eusitica said: After sunset, at night-time, let us hasten as cautiously as we can, lest perhaps my kindred d find out, and before * I receive what I desire, kill me. e To whom Blessed Gaudentius said: Whoever in persecution shall give his soul for the Lord will find it in the future crowned with perpetual glory.
[3] he offers her to Damasus the Pontiff, And Eusitica said to him: This I have loved, and yet I ask that it not be done without the office of baptism; this I ask of you -N- I have heard, by hearing I have believed, that whoever is not reborn of water and the Spirit does not enter paradise. At the first hour of the night Eusitica together with Gaudentius went to Damasus the bishop: and when they had come before the presence of the bishop, rolling at his feet, they began to weep strongly: to whom the Most Blessed Damasus: What is it that you have come here at the hour of night? To whom Blessed Gaudentius answered, saying: Most holy father, we beg your clemency that you hear that for which we have come, and by hearing strengthen us, since your strengthening is quite necessary for us; since we entered the city we have lodged with this most noble matron, and, as we have been able, we have taught her with heavenly industry, so that, since you ascended to the pontifical glory, her mind has burned the more quickly to receive the grace of the sacred font of baptism. To whom the Most Blessed Pope Damasus speaks thus, saying: Of what nation are you? Who, answering, said: Of the Greeks: To whom Damasus: Why have you come here? Who said: When I was a boy, I received with my father and mother the ministry of catechumens. Meanwhile my father and mother were slain; I heard that at Rome there was a very great people of Christians; hearing which I came here on this account, because I always desired to receive the grace of baptism, and I have lately been baptized by Justin the priest. To whom Damasus: And now what do you wish? Who said: I desire nothing but to do your command.
[4] Then Blessed Damasus ordered Eusitica to rise, who, when she had returned after three days and began to speak to her thus, saying: Eusitica, see whether you believe with your whole heart; who, answering, said: As this Servant of God Gaudentius has instructed me, so I believe. To whom Damasus said: Have you children? Who said: I have an only daughter, who in this year has taken a husband, who often promised to remain in virginity, but, constrained by her parents, f was given to a husband, who also, if she can, desires to imitate my path. To whom Damasus said: Return home and take care to come to us on the third day; complete fasting together with alms, as you are able. g And she, having received the blessing, returned with joy together with Gaudentius to her own home, and for three days took no food at all, but paid out alms more liberally to the poor. And on the third day, according to the precept, they betake themselves * to Pope Damasus; and when Blessed Damasus had seen her, he said: What do you wish, daughter? Who said: I ask that you give me baptism, so that I may receive the eternal kingdom; who said to him: Most holy Father, I have heard, and I believe: I have heard that the eternal kingdom is never corrupted, but always remains, in which indeed is found no mourning nor any sadness, but those who are there always rejoice happily, and their gladness is so great that it can by no means be looked upon by anyone.
[5] Then Blessed Damasus said: It is a very great having baptized her, he consecrates Gaudentius priest, joy to us, because your discourse, resounding, has made the wonders of God resound in our ears. Presently he ordered water to be brought to him; which being brought, he catechized her and said: Eusitica, do you believe with your whole heart in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? Who, answering, said: I believe; and according to the custom of the Roman church he poured water over her three times, and anointed her with Chrism, and in the same hour gave her communion, and, giving her the peace, at the same time dismissed her with leave. And after three Days Blessed Damasus sent to Blessed Gaudentius and ordered him to come to him, and said to him: Gaudentius, we desire to have you in the order of our Clerics; to whom Blessed Gaudentius said: I am not worthy to ascend to this dignity, because neither does knowledge prevail nor does understanding abound; to whom Blessed Damasus said: Son, the Lord, who is the fullness of knowledge, can give you knowledge abundantly: Then Blessed Gaudentius acquiesced in his words, and Blessed Damasus promoted him according to the custom of the Clerics. Blessed Gaudentius began to give himself to very many fasts and prayers, so that, besides the fifth weekday and the Lord's day, he took no food at all. And after two years he was advanced to the levitical order; h and Blessed Gaudentius stayed with Pope Damasus seven years and five months and a half; i and in the fifth year he was advanced to the Order of priesthood, in which the Lord made many benefits abound.
[6] and the prelate of Rimini having died, Meanwhile the pastor of the Pentapolis k died, under the name of which city it is called of Rimini or Cirenensis, l which city is situated in the province of Flaminia m near the Adriatic sea. And in that year there rose up in that city Marcianus the consul, who himself also was a heretic; and he denied that there was resurrection after death, and said that what the Christians believed was most profane; n and since the branches of the heretics were already sprouting through very many places, the citizens sent a legate to Pope Damasus, saying thus: "To the Lord imbued with the largess of perpetual holiness, the citizens of the Pentapolis: Services in Christ, whom we worship perennially. Let it be made clear to your modesty that our prelate has departed from this world, and the consul Marsianus has so far fallen into heresy that almost the greatest part of the people bends its neck to his norm; we await the clemency of your goodness, that you deign to send us a pastor, lest your sheep perish, but that, you acting, Jesus Christ our Lord having mercy, they may be freed and follow the destroyer of error. In all things, fare you well.*" Hearing these things, the Most Blessed Damasus began to weep: Eternal King, for whom nothing is impossible, to whom all power is subject, whom every creature serves, who madest heaven and earth from nothing, who for the salvation of the human race didst descend and take up our form, hear, I beseech thee, thy servant, and pour forth the help of thy mercy from thy most holy throne on high, so that, thou governing, thy sheep may not perish, but be increased for the better, and thy enemy, who devises evil concerning them, may be tormented in the fires of perpetual damnation.
[7] the same, on the occasion of a certain soldier And while he was pursuing these and similar things, a certain soldier named Tarsentius met them, harassed by a demon, crying out with loud voice and saying: Servant of God Gaudentius, help me; because, since the demon invaded me, he has cried out thus for himself and said: unless the Servant of God Gaudentius comes, I will not go out hence; which being heard, Blessed Damasus sent a messenger to Gaudentius and ordered him to come to him; he summoned him secretly and said: Gaudentius, I beseech you by the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you worship, declare to me what are your works? o Gaudentius said: My works are nothing, but only I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit; to whom Damasus said: And we likewise believe; behold N. * a soldier harassed by a demon cries out, saying: Servant of God Gaudentius, help me; and at once they parted from one another. Presently Blessed Gaudentius went to the church, celebrated Mass according to his custom, took part of the sacrifice, but left the rest: the Mass being finished, he went to the prelate, whom he addresses thus, saying: Holy Father, although unworthily, we have celebrated Mass, and we have left some part of the sacrifice; now, if it please you, let it be given to this demoniac; under your word and the command of your holiness, perhaps by the merit of your modesty he will be freed from the power of the demon. To whom Damasus said: Go, son, in the name of the Lord, who cured paralytics, put demons to flight, freed the sick from diverse infirmities, who also raised the dead, and whose disciples in his name performed greater things; in his name give him the Eucharist.
[8] the man freed from the demon, he ordains him bishop; These discourses being completed, Blessed Gaudentius ordered the man possessed by the demon to be brought to him; and as he was being led, the demon began to cry out and say: Servant of God Gaudentius, have mercy on me, because the power of your holiness disturbs me on every side; withdraw and give place to one going out; and when Blessed Gaudentius had heard these things, he began to weep with a very great crowd of peoples together with Damasus his Lord , and took hold of the one harassed by the demon, and gave him the body and blood of the Lord. Then the demon, like a crow, [p] went out of the body of the possessed man with a most violent smoke, and crying out, saying: Great is the God of the Christians, whom Gaudentius his Servant worships with devout mind, in whose name I could not stand. For many of the Jews and pagans together believed in the Lord and were baptized through the power which the Lord exercised through his Servant Gaudentius. And the repute of the Most Blessed Gaudentius grew, so that he was venerated by all. And the man freed from the demon longed for the Lord with all his inward parts, and paid out to the poor whatever he had. He had already been baptized by Justin the priest, and after ten years he passed to the Lord. And Pope Damasus, with the counsel of the faithful peoples, ordained Gaudentius bishop, and sent him with the legation of the apostolic see to the Pentapolis. Intolerable mourning, immense sadness, came upon all who were present, because they were striving to approach so soon after the blessing had been received.
[9] Having therefore gone out from Rome with those who had brought the legation, Blessed Gaudentius the bishop went sorrowful, saying: Lord God of Abraham, wherefore, presently setting out, on the way a sick pagan, who didst appear to thy Servant Moses, who didst send an angel to Tobias, deign to send thy holy angel, who may lead us to the destined place, to which without thee we cannot come: thou art the consoler of the sorrowful, the raiser of the fallen; hear, I pray, thy servant, be present to our petitions, and turn our immense sadness into joy. And the prayer being completed, bending his knees three times, he said: Have mercy on us, O God, arise and help us. Setting out thence he came
to the place in which there had formerly been a city which was called Martana, [q] for a small people of Christians was there. And Gaudentius the bishop stayed there ten days, and began to teach unceasingly; for a certain pagan had been sick for long spaces of time, and was so reduced to nothing that he was in no way able to rise from the place in which he lay. And when he heard that Blessed Gaudentius the bishop had entered the region, he sent to him and caused him to come to him; and when Blessed Gaudentius was about to enter the house of the pagan, he first set against it the sign of the cross, saying: Lord God, eternal king, who by the cross didst save the world, who didst cure diverse infirmities, hear me and grant, through the invocation of thy name, that not only the infirmity of the body of this pagan be cured, but that thou deign also to enlighten the eyes of his heart, so that, made whole, he may be able worthily to praise thy wonderful name: so, entering the house, he said: "Peace to this house." [r]
[10] first catechized, Meanwhile the sick man received him with great salutation, asking medicine of him, saying: As I see, you are a Greek: who, answering, said: It is so: to whom the soldier: It is heard among us that the Greeks above others use medicine; therefore, if you are able to cure me, take of our goods as you wish: to whom Blessed Gaudentius the bishop said: We have an incomparable medicine, which, if you receive it, you will at once be saved: to whom the soldier said: Even if it is incomparable, what will it avail me? To whom Gaudentius the bishop said: If you will renounce the unknown Gods whom you worship, who cannot help themselves nor free others, and will follow our saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, who made heaven and established the earth, who is Lord of Gods and prince of princes, you will merit to be freed from the infirmity by which you are held. Who said: And who is the Lord who made heaven and earth? Blessed Gaudentius said: He it is who lacks beginning and end, who, born before the ages, deigned also in the age to be born through a virgin for the salvation of men, afterwards of his own will undertook death, that he might free us from perpetual death; on the third day he rose, and by rising prepared for us eternal life.
[11] he heals and baptizes. When the soldier had heard this, he said: If you do what you say, so that I may recover my former health, then I will follow your saviour, whom you say to be the true Lord. At once Gaudentius ordered all to go outside, and, bending his knees, said: Most invincible eternal king, physician of physicians, most loving Jesus Christ, be present to our prayers, and apply the remedy of thy medicine to this sick man, so that when he has received health of body, he may be able to acknowledge thee, believe, praise, and reject with his whole heart the idols which he worships. And when he had completed the prayer, the sick man forthwith rose, entirely free from the infirmity, [s] and began to cry out with a free voice, saying: Great is the Lord Jesus Christ, God of the Christians, whom Gaudentius his servant preaches. Then he ordered water to be brought to him, and he was baptized with his whole household, wife and children, namely twenty-three in number.
ANNOTATIONS.
d. That is, household.
p. Pietro de' Natali: in the form of smoke.
q. Or Martiana, so called from the idol of Mars; for this city, once situated on the bank of the river Esino, venerated this idol as its tutelary deity, until, devastated by the Vandal Vulcan, it retained only the memory of its name on a nearby hill enjoying a few inhabitants. So Brunacci.
r. Luke, chapter X, verse 5.
s. Brunacci would have it that it was paralysis.
Read: priusquam* (before)
Perhaps: nam* (for)
Add &* (and)
Perhaps: gradiuntur* (they go)
Understand: mittendum* (to be sent)
* Tarsentius
Perhaps Domino* (Lord)
Perhaps: abscedere nitebatur*? (he was striving to depart)
CHAPTER II.
He enters Rimini: he works notable miracles: he chastises the consul and the prefect of the city with divine vengeance: he is slain.
Coming to Rimini, he works various prodigies. And there resounded among the pagans the report of the wonders of Gaudentius the bishop, and they wished to destroy him. But he gave peace to all, celebrated Mass, bestowed a blessing, granted holy communion, and began to go joyfully; for on the way of his journey the Lord showed many wonders through him, so that on a certain day he turned water into the taste of wine, gave light to the blind, put very many demons to flight. Meanwhile the Most Blessed Gaudentius came to Cirenensis, a and when the people of the city had heard that Gaudentius the bishop had come from the Roman see with such great wonders and signs, they ran to meet him outside the gate of the city about at the second stadium, b praising and glorifying the Lord, who had granted them such a pastor. And when Blessed Gaudentius had entered the gate of the city, a multitude of the sick met him, who, having recovered health, praised the Lord together, saying: Great is the Lord God of the Christians, whom Gaudentius his Servant preaches. Now there was in about the middle of the city a little station * of Mars, c which the pagans worshipped: and when Blessed Gaudentius was celebrating Mass on the first day of his entry, the little station was broken, and all the idols were shattered; for many of the pagans were converted at the preaching of Blessed Gaudentius, and Martianus, the heretical consul, was altogether astounded; but the preaching of Gaudentius did not cease, and the conversion of the pagans was not lacking.
[13] and the demon being driven out of a possessed girl, After four years the niece of Eusitica, with whom Blessed Gaudentius had lodged, harassed by a demon, was always crying out from the possessed body, saying: I will not go out of the body of this girl until Gaudentius, bishop of Rimini, orders me to go out. Then she came from Rome to the Most Blessed Gaudentius, beseeching him and saying: Servant of God Gaudentius, have mercy on me: then Blessed Gaudentius did nothing else but the sign of the cross on the girl's mouth, and the demon, going out of the possessed body with a cry, said: Wonderful is the God of the Christians, whom the Most Blessed Gaudentius preaches; I could not stand before his presence. Then the girl, freed from the demon, longed for Christ with all her inward parts, and, the blessing being received, returned joyfully to Rome. And in that same year Blessed Gaudentius heard of two clerics, who themselves were of the province of the Dalmatias, of whom the first was called Leo and the other Marinus. [d] He ordained Leo priest, made Marinus deacon, and promoted very many other clerics; for in his times the Lord exercised many benefits through him at the city of Rimini.
[14] the prefect Taurus and the consul Martianus In the eleventh year of his ordination the dogma of the heretics, namely of Martianus the consul, arose to so great a degree that almost the whole church of Rimini was disturbed. Meanwhile the Most Blessed Gaudentius did not cease to preach and exhort the people, saying: Do not fear, be firm, for soon you will see the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not many days after, Blessed Gaudentius made Mass for the people; and it happened at the same time that a certain most severe judge of the city of Rimini, Taurus e by name, inflicted outrages on the Christians, and compared the holy mysteries with the things which had been sacrificed to idols. He said, finally, that the sacred things which had been sacrificed by the supreme Pontiffs should be sent into the privy, like the most wicked sacrifices of his idols, and through this he inflicted diverse insults on the priests of Christ. Whence it happened that the Christians had a very great conflict with the pagans. Martianus the consul was present at the office of the Mass, at which spectacle there was present the venerable Mercurialis the bishop; perhaps other most celebrated bishops also came: Rophilus f of Pipilia, Leo of Montefeltro, Marinus, Gaudentius and Geminianus. g
[15] And when the same wicked judge persisted in the aforesaid outrage, on account of blasphemies the venerable bishops, protected by the shield of God, resisted him with a mighty arm; but he remained in the wickedness begun, so that he did not fear to utter such abominations, nor did he venerate as a suppliant the footsteps of Christ; for he asked of the holy prelates this, that they should prepare the sacred ministries as much as they could, because he would take them as an accustomed food. h Hearing this, the Most Blessed prelates became exceedingly sad, fearing to hand over the holy mysteries to a profane and wicked pagan; but, so that the institutions of the Christian faithful might not be annulled, what the wicked man asked he obtained to his own destruction. At length the venerable prelates, having taken counsel, gave themselves for a longer time to prayers, so that the clemency of God might be present to them, that it might turn … of the judge, i if he did not repent. k Therefore, rising up from prayers, they were clad in the sacred vestments which pertain to the worship of the holy prayers, and each, with great sobs and diverse lamentations, celebrated the most sacred offices of the Masses; which being completed, they again prostrated themselves in great and continual prayers, asking the Lord that he would deign to come to their aid.
[16] Among other things they spoke thus: Lord of all kings, at the prayers of the Saint and his companions show us thy mercy, so that this whole world may know that this abominable man defiles thy holy things: thou, God almighty, who didst grant to Moses thy servant to overcome the cunning of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to defeat the contrivances of the magicians, and didst make the Israelite people pass over the bottom with dry foot, and to destroy diverse nations with its sword, and didst David thy servant from innumerable persecutions
of Saul didst rescue, and the three children from the pyre of the Chaldeans, and Daniel didst snatch from the den of lions, hear us and grant us to exercise the triumph of victory over this wicked and deceitful judge. Thee also we entreat, Lord Jesus Christ, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit cooperating, didst restore light to one blind from birth, didst raise Lazarus, four days dead and already stinking, that these thy holy mysteries, which thou hast commanded us, thy unworthy servants, to hand over to thy faithful for the consuming of thy body and blood, may be to this sacrilegious judge, if he shall not have confessed thee, unto perpetual damnation, the Father cooperating together with thee and the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. And when Amen had been said by the Christians, the holy prelates set the holy mysteries before the execrable judge to be eaten. l And when the hour had come for receiving the body and blood of the Lord, Blessed Gaudentius wished to give communion to Martianus, but he refused and declined to take it.
[17] divinely punished, Then the judge Taurus began greedily and rashly to eat them until he was sated, which done he began to insult the Christians; but the bountiful prelates, having perfect hope in the Lord, believed that he would quickly fall into perpetual damnation. At length, as he persisted in insult, presently vengeance was at hand: God from thee. m Then Blessed Gaudentius said to him: Martianus, as you refused to receive the Body and Blood of the Lord for your remedy, so may paradise refuse you, hell seize you, with all who imitate your teaching; and as he said this, at once Martianus began to be harassed by a demon; and the judge sought the privy, where he lost all his vitals with the intestines; n for the aforesaid privy of the judge stood over the Adriatic sea, which adjoined the city of Rimini: and when the vitals with the intestines were poured out from his sacrilegious body into the sea, they seemed to the bystanders to be those of a beast. He having died too, and remaining in the aforesaid place, then those who attended him came to him, thinking that he was lingering over some business, and, seeing his body lifeless and the ray of the sun o piercing through from the mouth by the anus, they knew that he had perished, and took care to report these things to the holy fathers; which being learned, the holy fathers gave thanks to God, and directed all the people to the praise of God.
[18] This triumph being accomplished, each of them returned to his own house; he is slain outside the city but the Blessed prelates Mercurialis and Rophilus, hastening with other bishops through the town of Cesena [p] to the city of Pupilia, Rophilus remained in his own see: Mercurialis was hastening to come to his own. And when the soldiers of Martianus the consul had heard that Martianus was harassed by a demon through the endeavour of Gaudentius the prelate, on a certain day they seized Blessed Gaudentius, and led him outside the city about at the second stadium, not far from that place [q] in which he had been received by the people, near the lake by the sea, and there struck him with cudgels and stones so long, until by the punishment he breathed out the last end of life in Christ. And the Most Blessed Gaudentius the bishop rendered his soul to the Lord and commended his sheep to the most high. Then the soldiers of the tyrant Martianus dug a pit until they came to water, and threw in the body of the martyr of Christ with the cudgels and stones. And the Most Blessed Gaudentius, martyr and bishop, was martyred at the city of Rimini under Martianus the consul on the day before the ides of October, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning. …
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Cesena is an episcopal city in the same province of Romagna, situated on the river Savio, which washes its walls, and almost midway between Rimini to the East and Faenza to the West.
q. See above, letter b.
statua* (statue)
APPENDIX
Of the first finding of the body
By the same Author.
Gaudentius, bishop and Mart., at Rimini in Italy. (S.)
BHL Number: 3277
In the seventieth year after the death of the most illustrious Man Gaudentius, the archangel Raphael with Pope Damasus appeared in sleep to a woman named Abortina, The Saint's body after 70 years who lacked the eyes of the body, who worshipped Christ and dwelt at Caesarea; a and they said to her: Abortina: who, answering with excessive terror, said: Who are you? To whom the archangel: I am Raphael, the medicine of God; this old man is Pope Damasus, a Most Holy Man, who with devout intention served the Lord, who is Alpha and Omega; b he is Agios, Orania, Imas, Emmanuel: this is Damasus, who taught Gaudentius of the race of the Greeks, and at length ordained him bishop of Rimini, who was slain by the soldiers of Martianus, and thrown into a pit near the lake by the sea not far from the city, from the gate which looks toward the rising of the sun, whose exit turns as it were to the South, and whose lintel is inscribed with golden letters. Arise, go to the city of Rimini, and tell all that you see to the people of this city, and say to them: Raphael the angel has sent me to you, that you may go outside the city to the place in which Gaudentius the bishop lies; for he as it were
stands alive, that you may bring him out of the pit: I shall have eyes and shall see, and he will heal very many, and to you there will be very great salvation.
[2] Likewise tell the people of this city that they omit none of the things he is revealed by a blind woman. which we command. Then Pope Damasus said: For if it omits anything, it will perish by the fury of God: at once they withdrew: and the woman, rising, began to think about the way of her journey, saying: What shall I do? I do not see the light: how shall I go? Then I will walk in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, because I believe that the Lord is able to provide a direct way for the blind; and she did so. And when she went out of her little lodging, she felt as it were a reed in her hand, and as it were a guide going before her: and when she had come to the city of Rimini, she began to act according to the angel's precept. As soon as this word resounded in the city, the people fulfilled all things according to the vision of the woman. And when the people had come to the place where Blessed Gaudentius stood upright, taking him up they brought him out of the pit; and when he had been brought out, according to the pronouncement of the angel, it befell Abortina to see; she began to see and to praise God, and vowed herself with all her inward parts to the Lord; and many sick were cured on that day: for the people, when it saw such things, began to magnify the Lord, and laid the body of Blessed Gaudentius wonderfully in a marble sarcophagus, and then devoutly offered subjection to the Lord God, to whom is honour and everlasting dominion through infinite ages of ages. Amen.