ON ST. BERTHOLD OF PARMA, CONFESSOR, OBLATE IN THE CONVENT OF ST. ALEXANDER AT PARMA,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Bertold, confessor, at Parma in Italy. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ single. The fortunes of the monastery of St. Alexander. The age, homeland and cult of St. Berthold. The origin of the conversi.
In the year 781, on Holy Saturday, Charlemagne had his son Carloman, thereafter called Pepin, The widow of Bernard, king of Italy, born of the blood of Charlemagne, lifted from the baptismal font by Pope Hadrian I, and on the next day anointed by the same pontiff as king of Italy Muratori, Annali d'Italia, at the year 781, vol. IV, 378 and 379.. This crown Pepin wore until the year 810, in which, being about 34 years old, he died on July 8, leaving a little son, born of a concubine, Bernard by name Ibid. at the year 810, page 474 and 475.. Charlemagne in the year 812 wished this one too to become king of Italy Ibid. at the year 812, page 482.. Although he was a boy, he aspired to the greatest things. Wherefore, when in the year 817 Louis the Pious had called Lothair, his first-born son, into partnership of the empire and had declared him heir of the imperial crown, Bernard took it very ill, judging that these things rather belonged to himself, king of Italy, and openly rebelled. That attempt turned out badly, for which he paid with his eyes blinded, death following from the wounds three days after, namely on April 17 of the year 818: he was then in the nineteenth year of his age Ibid. at the years 817 and 818, page 504 and following.. Further, he had married Cunegund and by her had begotten a son Pepin; but he did not succeed his rebel father, the kingdom being transferred to Lothair, whom I have just said was the son of Louis the Pious.
[2] [founded about the year 835 at Parma the Benedictine convent of St. Alexander, whose fortunes are set forth briefly.] That young widow seems then to have applied her mind wholly to pious things and to have given her efforts to founding churches or monasteries Cf. Bordoni, ecclesiae Thesaurus Parmensis, page 226.; among which comes the monastery of girls of holy Mary, Mother of God, and of saint Alexander, martyr of Christ, situated within the walls of the city of Parma, which, she herself says in the year 835, we are seen to have constructed or built from our own property In Mabillon, Annales Benedictini, vol. II, app. num. LVIII, page 689.. And she wished it to be well furnished with temporal goods. Thinking, therefore, as she says, for the reward of the soul of my lord Bernard, and mine, and of my son Pepin, she ordered a diploma to be drawn up, so, she adds, that from this day my holy monastery itself may have all my true property, which I am seen to have now at present in my hand here in the territories of Parma, or of Reggio, of Modena, both monasteries and courts or my massaricia properties. In the first place two monasteries, one true monastery within these walls of the city of Parma, which is in honour of St. Bartholomew the apostle. The other monastery outside the walls of the city of Reggio, not far from the city itself, which is in honour of saint Thomas the apostle. And these she gives with all things that pertain to them; and not only these, but innumerable other courts, manses, serfs, etc. Done in the city of Parma, our lords Hludovic and Hlothar, emperors, reigning in the twenty-second and sixteenth year, on the seventeenth of the kalends of July, in the thirteenth indiction, or in the year of Christ 835. And while so many kingdoms and so many republics round about went to ruin, that house of ascetics persevered under the rule of St. Benedict for almost ten centuries. Margaret, its abbess, having voluntarily given up the government, Pope Innocent VIII, by a bull given in the year 1486, decreed that the abbess should thereafter be triennial, and subjected the nuns to the visitation and correction of the abbot of St. John the Evangelist of Parma [Bullarium Casinense, vol. I, page 397; cf. Lubin, Abbatiarum Italiae brevis notitia, page 283.]; by which laws it stood until the beginning of the century in which we now live. For then it was suppressed; and its church is now governed by a presbyter administrator [Zuccagni-Orlandini, Corografia fisica, storica e statistica dell' Italia e delle sue Isole, vol. VIII, page 243, 265, 267 and 268.].
[3] [St. Berthold spent almost his life in this monastery, and has found several biographers.] Further, in this monastery St. Berthold spent a great part of his life, and there received death and the honours of heaven, as is certain from the Life to be published. Now very many have written about him. Among those whose writings have come out into public light you have Gorofano in the Sanctuary of the church of Parma; Ranuccio Pico in the Theatre of the saints of Parma; Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the saints of Italy, which book in the last century, with some changes introduced, was printed again with the title Hagiologium Italicum; Bordoni in the Treasury of the holy church of Parma; and others. Besides, our excellent patron the distinguished Mr. Cernazay sent us two older manuscript Lives, one written in Italian, the other in Latin; which latter is the source and origin of all the other writers and the exemplar or prototype of the Italian one. It seems to have been compiled by a nearly contemporary author and is good, having nothing that exceeds belief or conflicts with chronology and goes against history. Some miracles indeed are read in it, which we should wish to see supported by juridical testimonies; but these are not on that account incredible, unless one should please to call into doubt those also which occur in the best Lives of the saints. For the rest, we leave these things, as is our custom, to the judgment of the readers.
[4] [This saint died at the beginning of the twelfth century; his parents had come from England to Milan about the year 1070:] Neither in this Latin Life nor in the Italian is the time accurately designated in which St. Berthold lived; yet some indications may be found in them by which we may come to some sort of knowledge of the matter. It is certain first of all, from what is narrated in the Life to be published, num. 8, about his burial, that the good Brother died while the prelate of the city of Parma was one who was named Bernard, a man of much holiness: by which words St. Bernard degli Uberti is designated,
[5] [from here, on account of the war against the simoniacs, about the year 1071 they had gone to Parma, where shortly they begot a holy son.] But when St. Berthold's parents had come to Milan, they found affairs there by no means tranquil. For at that time St. Erlembald, whose companion in this work, St. Arialdus, had been slain in the year 1066 Puricelli, de SS. Herlembaldo Cotta, book IV, chap. 23, page 244 and following., was continuing to attack sharply with voice and sword the simoniacal and concubinary clerics; and while this contention was boiling, on the first Saturday of Lent of the year 1071 Milan was consumed by a most hideous fire Ibid. chap. 31, page 263.. Nor will any man who has read the histories of Arnulf, the contemporary Milanese writer, wonder that amid the dissensions by which that city and its territory were then agitated, public want and famine arose, and that very many inhabitants, among them St. Bertold's parents, pressed by these evils, sought a better abode. But since St. Bertold's biographer adds that the same parents came to the city of Parma, which at that time was subject to the holy church, at first sight this seems to put an obstacle in our way, which nevertheless will easily be removed. It is unknown to no one that Cadalus, bishop of Parma, from the year 1061 to 1063 aspired to the supreme pontifical dignity; whence he is known by the name of the antipope Honorius. In the see of Parma Heberard succeeded Cadalus in the year 1063 or 1064. He too in the time of Pope St. Gregory VII became schismatic and in the year 1079 showed his very evil mind most of all. But there is absolutely no reason why he should be held to have been schismatic about the year 1071, about which time St. Bertold's parents migrated to Parma. For in the year 1067, at the council of Mantua, Pope Alexander II so proved to all that his election had been legitimately made that the bishops of Lombardy themselves, among whom the bishop of Parma was reckoned, held it valid Cf. Muratori, Annali d' Italia, at the year 1067, vol. VII, page 215.. There is no doubt, therefore, that from this time the city of Parma was subject to the holy church. Yet this happy condition of things did not last long: namely, when at the beginning of the year 1076 Gregory VII was deposed by the assembly of Worms, Heberard followed the side of the schismatics, like several other prelates of upper Italy. If we gather these things together, St. Berthold's parents came from England to Milan about the year 1070; somewhat later, namely in the year 1071, they migrated to Parma; in the first year in which they came into the city of Parma to dwell, to use the biographer's words, Berta bore a son and gave him the name of Bertold; in the year 1078, or the seventh of his age, he began to learn the shoemaker's craft; in the year 1085, the twelfth of his age, he offered himself as a conversus to the monastery of St. Alexander; where, after journeys undertaken to Rome and to Vienne in Gaul, he died between the year 1106 and 114, being about forty years old.
[6] [St. Berthold seems to have been the first conversus to whom ecclesiastical honours were paid. The origin of the conversi in monasteries,] Since, as far as I know, St. Bertold is the first conversus who obtained heavenly honours on earth, it pleases me to add a few things about this class of men. Very many have written about it; but no one more fully or more accurately than Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli, a Camaldolese, who published a Dissertation on the various kinds of the old conversi in the order of saint Benedict and especially in the Camaldolese congregation Annales Camaldulensium, vol. I, app. col. 336 and following.. From the beginning a double order of men was distinguished in the order of St. Benedict: some, who had not been converted from a world which they had never known, but had been offered in boyhood by their parents; others, who in adult age had taken refuge in the harbour of religion; and these were called conversi, the former oblati and nutriti. Similarly from the beginning learned and rude men were received; of whom the former were occupied for the most part with mental and often clerical matters; the latter with cultivating fields, feeding flocks and the like. Yet these were not held to occupations of that kind by reason of their state; and so, when they had been instructed in letters, nothing forbade their being promoted to sacred orders. It was for the abbots to assign to each his work; so that, if some did bodily labours and others other things, this depended on the discretion of the superiors, prescribing to each what he should perform according to his strength and opportunity. But when among the Benedictines the eremitical life was added to the monastic, it seemed necessary to have some men who would take care of external matters, since the management of these seemed little to agree with the solitude and silence which were most of all commended in these new institutes. And hence in these houses a double order of monks arose, some being separated from all external business, others administering it. When, therefore, at the beginning of the eleventh century St. Romuald had built the hermitage of Camaldoli, he took conversi, also called laymen; similar laymen, or servants, to serve the monastery the monks of Fonte Avellana admitted; and the same conversi were used by St. John Gualbert, founder of Vallombrosa. This institution pleased other congregations of the Order of St. Benedict, namely the Cluniacs, Cistercians, Carthusians, Grandmontines, those of Hirsau and others, and here and there were introduced conversi, laymen, bearded ones, regular servants, brothers, familiars, etc.; although among these monks there was not so great a need of this diversity as among the hermits.
[7] their servile condition At first that class of men was held in the place of servants, namely those who for love of Christ had of their own accord undergone servitude. Hence they are found called servants and boys by St. Peter Damian, and fed with servile food, much meaner than the common dishes of the monks Cf. Acta SS. vol. VIII of October, page 197.. When they embraced this norm of life, they made this promise: I, Brother N., promise obedience and perseverance all the days of my life in … for the fear of our Lord Jesus Christ and the remedy of my soul. And if at any time I should attempt to flee or go away from here, let it be permitted to the servants of God who shall be here to seek me with the full authority of their right and recall me by compulsion and force into their service. This latter part was observed everywhere; the former was not everywhere the same, yet sufficient for the conversi to be truly religious: although they were not commonly called monks; nay sometimes that name was expressly denied them. Here and there also the conversi were separated from the monks in dwellings, table and choir, and took part only partly in the divine offices. Rustics and others of the lowest people first gave themselves to this servitude; but afterward leading men and nobles, eager to imitate the most humble condition of Christ, who for love of us took the form of a servant, having transferred themselves and their castles and goods into the dominion of monasteries, made the servile profession; especially if they were unlettered.
[8] and sometimes honourable offices. But truly by the admission of such men the whole character of the institution was changed. For no longer were servile works alone imposed on them, but others also, sometimes most honourable. Some indeed continued to perform rustic ministries; but others bought and sold fields; received investitures and donations; exercised the most honourable offices of chamberlain, syndic, procurator, viscount, notary, etc.; they crept even into the chapters of electors; nay they were sometimes made abbots and provosts of churches, having the care of souls: which last happened only when secular presbyters or other lettered men preferred to become conversi rather than monks, so as not to be held so closely within the bars of the cloisters. But wherever the administration of temporal and external affairs was permitted them more than was just, it was a ready thing that they should no longer seem of servile condition but plainly the lords of the monks and hermits: and indeed in some congregations most grave disturbances were stirred up by the family of the conversi: but to pursue these things is not of this place. To return, then, to St. Bertold: when he was made a conversus of an abbey of nuns (a thing worthy of notice), that institution had already been very widely spread, although it had not yet been devised a whole century; nor had there then been seen the grave inconveniences which very many monasteries afterward suffered: for the rest, he himself fulfilled his part with excellent simplicity, much lowliness of mind, singular piety and splendid obedience, by which, through the mercy and merits of Christ, he obtained for himself the heavenly reward.
[9] [St. Berthold began to be venerated immediately after his death in the church of St. Alexander; which when it was renewed and consecrated in the year 1530,] The blessed man seems to have begun to be venerated immediately after his blessed passing. St. Bernard, prelate of Parma, had ordered the holy body to be laid with all reverence in the church of St. Alexander on the left side of the church itself, as the biographer says at num. 8; and at once a great concourse of the sick took place at his tomb; some graces granted there, or miracles wrought, are narrated at num. 9: which need no explanation. When in the year 1530 the church was renewed and solemnly consecrated, the translation of St. Berthold was made. About which things old memoirs, in Italian
written, the aforesaid distinguished Mr. Cernazay sent to us; we here put them into Latin. On July 17 of the year 1530 the new church together with the choir was consecrated in honour of St. Alexander, pope and martyr, by the Rev. Lord Bishop Pompeo Musacchi. There had assembled there very many presbyters, by name Dom Annibale Marçocho, Dom Luca da la Fuar, Observant, Dom Bartolomeo di Berberi, Dom Francesco di Strenui, and Dom Antonio di Savelli da Borgo, chaplain; who, in place of the bishop, who was present, sang the Mass, a great multitude standing by. The said office lasted from the ninth hour to the fourteenth. There were present at the aforesaid consecration the Rev. Father Confessor (Gregory of Piacenza); the Very Rev. Mother Dame Dorothea of Verona, abbess; the venerable Dame Catherine, prioress; the deans Dame Maria Bianca, Dame Joanna, Dame Margaret, Dame Zenevera; the subjects Dame Perpetua, Dame Felicitas of Modena, Dame Jacoba of Reggio, Dame Hieronyma, Dame Angela, Dame Benedicta, Dame Alexandra, Dame Mary Magdalen, Dame Lucy, Dame Justina, Dame Clare, Dame Cecilia, Dame Euphrosyne, Dame Euphrasia, Dame Barbara, Dame Paula of Reggio, Dame Anastasia of Reggio, Dame Mary, Dame Bartholomaea, Dame Gelasia (de Bechis), Dame Antonia (de Botinis), Dame Agnes, Dame Frances, Dame Susanna, Dame Flavia, Dame Scholastica (sister of Dame Antonia de Botinis), Dame Eustochia, Dame Febronia, all professed; the commissae Sister Anne, Sister Benigna, Sister Daria, Sister Mansueta, Sister Veronica, Sister Bridget, Sister Helen, Sister Ursula, Sister Archangela, Sister Apollonia, Sister Maura, Sister Gabriela, Sister Placida, Sister Victoria. And all the above-written are present alive at the translation of the holy bodies and the entry into the new church, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now those commissae were a kind of lay sisters, who had accepted neither the habit nor all the rigour of the lay sisters; but no less than they were occupied with the management of domestic affairs Annales Camaldulenses, diss. cit. col. 390..
[10] [St. Berthold's relics were brought there and placed above the altar; but in the year 1590 below the altar.] In the same year, on November 15 *, while the translation of the relics of St. Alexander was being made, the body of St. Berthold was also translated into the new church. There were present the Rev. Lord Vicar, and the Rev. Father Dom John, prior of the monastery of St. John the Evangelist (for the nuns of St. Alexander were subject to this monastery; cf. above, num. 2). He carried the little casket in which the relics of St. Berthold were enclosed. There was present also the Rev. Father Dom Gregory of Piacenza, most worthy confessor of us nuns, with his companion Brother James, and other priests and pious men. These relics were placed in a marble tomb above the altar dedicated to his name; which, honoured and visited daily by very many, shone with many miracles. To the praise and glory of our Lord. The Mother and the sisters sang within the cloister the Te Deum with great piety, spiritual joy and tears. On October 27 of the year 1592 the marble tomb in which the body of St. Berthold lay, and which was above the altar, was placed below the altar, a solemn procession being held by the Rev. Lord Simone Cassola, canon of the greater church of Parma, conservator of the monastery of the nuns of St. Alexander, the Rev. Father Dom Urban, prior of St. John the Evangelist, Dom Salvatore, confessor of the nuns, Dom Eusebius, dean, and Dom Lactantius, lector, with the first and second chaplain, Dom Antonio and Dom Andrea, and besides the cleric Giovanni Maria. There were present moreover the Rev. presbyters of St. Mary della Steccata, and very many other religious and seculars of both sexes, who had come there led by piety. And this translation was made in the morning at the hour of Terce; Mass and the Office were celebrated; hymns and other prayers were sung; many lights were lit and incense burned; and, as far as was permitted, God was glorified in the outer church, the venerable nuns rejoicing to the divine goodness in psalms, hymns and canticles.
[11] The rest about his cult The reader will surely have noticed that in the church of St. Alexander an altar was dedicated to St. Berthold and called by his name. Besides, Bordoni Thesaurus sanctae ecclesiae Parmensis, page 266., speaking of the paper found in the hands of the deceased, by which his special help is promised to women in childbirth and to those labouring with quartan fever and epilepsy, adds: Of these three graces commemoration was made in his proper office before the reform of the Breviary: from which it is established that he was honoured with a more solemn yearly cult. Nay more, his Office was written in the Calendar of Parma of the year 1602; afterward struck out Ibid. page 267.. And indeed now the monks themselves of St. John the Evangelist of Parma, to whose visitation we have said the convent of St. Alexander was subject, do not keep the feast of St. Berthold, as is established for me from their Ordo for reciting the divine Office for the year 1845. Yet it is more than sufficiently evident that a hundred years before the last decrees of Urban VIII on the cult of the Saints St. Berthold was honoured with ecclesiastical honours, and accordingly that his veneration is entirely legitimate and that a place had to be given to his name in our work. Some have held Ibid. page 267; Ferrarius, Catalogus SS. Italiae, page 659. that he was canonized by Callistus II about the year 1120. But no certain memory of this matter survives.
Annotation* Bordoni has 14
LIFE OF ST. BERTHOLD, CONVERSUS
In the abbey of girls of St. Alexander at Parma, from a Parma manuscript.
Bertold, confessor, at Parma in Italy. (S.)
BHL Number: 1284
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
[His father a leather-worker, his mother a weaver, they came from England, laid waste by William the Bastard, to Milan, and from there to Parma;] In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here begins the Life of saint Bertold, confessor, who was an oblate a in the monastery of saint Alexander of Parma b under the rule of our most holy father Benedict, abbot. The blessed confessor of Christ Bertold drew his origin from noble parents, not according to the nobility of the world, but according to the dignity of the Christian religion. His father was named Abundius, a man by no means rich in wealth, and his mother was named Berta. Since they were good trees, they produced good fruit. Abundius was from the region of England and Berta from Bertania c. And therefore they called their son Bertold. At that time there was a great battle between the Gauls and the English d; from which there arose e the greatest destruction of the regions and slaughter of men in the parts where they dwelt. Whence they, wishing to live peaceably, thought of escaping from such great tumults; and, making their journey, they came into Lombardy; and dwelt at Milan for a certain time, practising those crafts which they knew how to do, namely Adundius practised the leather-worker's craft and Berta did weaving work. And so they lived by the labours of their hands. After some time it happened also that war and scarcity came upon Milan f. Desiring to avoid these evils, they at length withdrew from there. And they came into the city of Parma, which at that time was subject to the holy church; and they dwelt in a little house of the monastery of saint Alexander. And since they were frugal people of upright life, they had dealings with the said monastery, receiving also many alms.
[2] [where they begot St. Berthold. He, most piously brought up, in the twelfth year of his age resolved to become a conversus at St. Alexander's.] In the first year in which they came into the city of Parma to dwell, Berta bore a son and gave him the name of Bertold. At once they offered him with all devotion of heart to the service of almighty God. And when with the help of the said monastery they had nourished him and he had reached the age of seven years, his father began to teach him the craft, that he might better be able to satisfy the said monastery. In such work it happened that one day, as the boy was mending a shoe, he pricked his hand sharply; and, blood coming out in great abundance, he said within himself: O how much better it would be to shed blood for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shed all His for us, than to suffer for the world! And in this good will of his he conversed daily with the priests of the monastery, learning from them the Lord's Prayer and the Salutation of Mary g; and he took care to learn the Little Creed and also the Ten Commandments, the corporal and spiritual Works of mercy, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the deadly Sins, and the Pains of hell, that he might know better how to do good and flee evil. And when he came to the age of twelve years, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he resolved to leave the world entirely and to serve almighty God and the glorious saint Alexander in chastity and humility. And he disclosed this desire of his to his parents. And bending his knees before them, he asked their blessing. At which the father, moved with pious feeling, begged that he would not wish to desert him in his old age. To whom the holy child answered: In this I do not now desert you, if I cleave to that heavenly Father who created you and me. Hearing this, Berta his mother said to Abundius her consort: Let us let him go where the Lord inspires, because I dedicated him to the service of His majesty before he was born; and at once, as he was born, I offered him with the greatest devotion of heart. He, hearing these holy and devout words, said to his beloved and only son Bertold: My sweetest son, my hope, staff of my old age, light of my eyes, which now lack sight, go in peace, since it is the will of the Lord; but remember to pray the divine goodness for us, that, the burden of this corruptible body being laid down, we may be able to see each other in that heavenly homeland Jerusalem.
[5] [Admitted by the abbess, he received the care of the bells and excelled in holiness.] Then Bertold, all devout and joyful, departed with the blessing of his parents, and betook himself to the reverend abbess of the aforesaid monastery of St. Alexander; and, disclosing to her the holy desire in which he was of offering himself to the divine service in the said monastery, he urgently prayed that she would receive him as a conversus. She, when she had perceived his good will, with mature deliberation and the consent of her chapter received him as a conversus of the monastery and set him over the office of the bells. Bertold, then, began to serve the monastery with the greatest fervour, in profound humility, faithful obedience, in chastity, and in extreme abjection and poverty. Every night he rose for matins an hour before h, and with great devotion and tears visited all the altars. Giving himself much to holy meditation on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, afflicting his body with assiduous vigils, disciplines i and prayers, he continually wore a rough haircloth; and every Friday, in memory of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, he scourged himself with a scourge with such fervour that he shed a great quantity of blood. And so he passed the time of this wretched life, living in continual martyrdom. He dwelt in one little cell, near
the tower of the monastery: in which how many devout vigils, how many fasts, how many mental and vocal prayers, how many meditations and contemplations, how many holy vows and desires, how many sighs and tears, how many devout exercises, spiritual and bodily, he performed, God alone is aware, and he who has experience of the spiritual life can ponder beforehand.
[4] [Bidden by St. Alexander and permitted by the abbess, he undertook a journey to Rome,] As he was resting one night upon his bed of straw, blessed Alexander k appeared to him, saying thus: Go to Rome, and visit the chair upon which I sat when I was the seventh pontiff after blessed Peter l. Bertold, awakened, wholly filled with spiritual consolation through such a devout vision, returned immense thanks to almighty God for the gifts and graces granted to him. And all devout, with a holy inward joy, he hastened to meet the reverend mother abbess, and with due and customary reverence and humility asked free leave to fulfil his vow and holy desire; which was to satisfy the will of his glorious father saint Alexander. She, wholly refreshed with spiritual joy, seeing herself possess a spiritual son of so great merit with God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, kindly granted him free will to go, saying: Go, dearest and devout son, with the peace of the Lord. And when you visit those holy places, I pray that from a good heart you may be mindful of me and of the whole flock granted to me. And humbly bending, he asked her blessing, and with it departed. And when he had arrived at Rome, he saw and touched the said chair with the greatest devotion of heart. And he stayed at Rome through one whole Lent, visiting with much devotion and tears those holy churches of the martyrs, receiving all those indulgences m. How much joy and spiritual consolation this devout Bertold received in his heart in contemplating the life and passion of the holy martyrs whose relics he visited, a devout contemplative soul could better consider than we write with the pen. The Lord's resurrection being past, he returned to the city of Parma; and at that time he found that his parents had died.
[5] and then to Vienne in Gaul, where he wrought many miracles, Inspired also by the Holy Spirit, he wished to go to Vienne for the sake of seeing the basilica and hospital of saint Anthony n. And remaining one day in the said hospital, and vehemently compassionating those sick, one of them, upon whom the falling sickness had miraculously come, and also that which is called by the common people the fire of saint Anthony. He, seeing Bertold, said: O man of God, if you will, you can heal me. To whom the holy man answered: I will that you be healed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And these words being said, the sign of the holy cross being made over the sick man, he received health from both ills. The other sick, when they had heard of this miracle, began to seek the man of God diligently, that they too might obtain the benefit of health. But one, who had his son tormented by the said fire, having been present at the aforesaid miracle, did not rest from seeking Bertold. And so he followed him almost as far as the town of saint Marcellin o. And finding him there, he knelt before him, beseeching with many tears that he should intercede for his son. In which matter the holy man, resisting him, said that he was liable to sins, and that he himself also needed to be loosed from his sins. But at length, overcome by the prayers and tears of that wretched man, he said: Go in peace; the glorious saint Anthony deigns to hear you. And he, going back, found his son healthy and cleansed.
[6] [Returned home, he is a mirror of obedience and of all virtues. He begs for the poor] The blessed Bertold, then, having returned to Parma, persevered faithfully in the said monastery, giving himself to the divine service and very obedient to all the sisters: that never once in the needful affairs of some did he find himself weary. Always giving most pleasing reasons to all where he could not answer with deeds. He was distinguished as an example of life and morals, who was present to that monastery as a mirror of holiness, and as a living lesson to the young women who desired to advance in the spiritual life. And although he obeyed the will of all, his holiness produced in all a certain fear, as though he had been the spiritual father and rector of the monastery. He spent his time thus: in the morning he continually occupied the church until the solemnities of the masses and the other offices were completed; the rest of the time he went through the city begging, if he was not detained by the mother for some service of the monastery; and afterward he spent on the poor the alms which he had acquired. He visited the sick, and especially the needy, who stayed in the hospitals, and served them with his own hands in all their necessities with great charity and humility; and he procured all the things which they needed for repairing their health.
[7] and wonderfully heals several. Whence once, giving alms to a blind man, he said: See how this bread is distinguished by whiteness: by which words the blind man obtained the light of his eyes. And he returned great thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, who had deigned to work such a miracle through His servant. The man of God Bertold, being engaged in keeping the vigils of a night in the hospital of saint Alexander for a sick man who seemed to be pouring out his last breaths, very compassionately said: O good Jesus! have mercy on this servant of yours; and at once the sick man, sighing, said also himself: Kind Jesus! have mercy on me. And opening his eyes he asked for a drink, and receiving the strength of his limbs he recovered health on the third day. In which matter it is not to be feared but that he would not have obtained health except by Bertold's prayer. For at another time a certain woman, when she had a son so troubled with worms that he seemed to be without life, besought the man of God that she might enjoy his help. He, placing the sign of the holy cross upon his forehead, bestowed the benefit of health.
[8] [Dying suddenly, he is found holding in his hands a paper with three promises inscribed.] When the time had drawn near at which it pleased the Lord God to reward His faithful and strenuous knight, on the eleventh of the kalends of November, spending the middle of the night in mental prayer, as was his custom, this most sweet man gave back his spirit to his Lord with sweetness and joy. O how the blessed souls in that heavenly homeland were affected with the greatest joy at the reception of this blessed soul was shown even on earth. For at that hour in which he passed to the Lord, all the bells of the said monastery began to ring without human force, and did not cease until that holy body was buried. Whence the nuns, wondering at the novelty of so great a thing, the mother with the other sisters hastened with swift step into the church, and in Bertold's cell they saw a very great brightness, and entering they perceived a most sweet odour: from which their hearts were refreshed with such spiritual consolation that human tongue could not attain to it. And they found that holy body on bended knees, holding a paper in its hands, and, thinking that he was alive and giving himself to prayer, as had been his custom, they began to ask about the novelty of the thing. But the holy man answered them nothing, because he was without life. At which all the mothers, astonished, considering so great a miracle, resolved to disclose all to the prelate of the city of Parma, who was named Bernard, a man of much holiness [p]. He, coming and seeing the aforesaid, and Bertold kneeling upright against nature and the custom of the dead, wondering vehemently, took with the greatest reverence that paper which he held in his hands, when no one else had been able to take it. And that paper contained the words written below: "By the merits of the glorious saint Alexander, the grace has been granted by God to this holy confessor of putting to flight the sickness of women in childbirth, quartan fever, and the falling sickness." Whence the good prelate ordered that holy body to be laid with all reverence in the said church of saint Alexander on the left side of the church itself.
[9] Buried, he works many miracles. And when the holy relics had been laid with the highest veneration, all the clergy and a multitude of citizens standing by, the bells ceased to give out sound. All the nuns stood by filled with consolation, since they possessed so precious a gem in their church; and no less the citizens gloried to have received so noble a treasure in their city. I do not fear, but most certainly affirm, that they possess him in heaven as a good advocate, mediator, intercessor with God in their occurrences, both spiritual and bodily. The fame, then, of the aforesaid miracles having been spread through the city, many began to visit the sacred tomb of blessed Bertold, going away from their petitions refreshed with consolation. Whence a baker of the monastery, when he had lost the light of his eyes through his constant dwelling at the oven, came to the said tomb and received sight. A woman bound in the fellowship of a husband, who could not bear any son, but brought forth all of them without life, being near her delivery, came to the tomb of this saint, and, knocking with prayers, obtained the grace of bearing a son alive and sound. A man who was troubled with quartan fever, which had sat upon him through a circle of five years, and who was also liable to the falling sickness, coming to the holy relics, vowed a vow that, if he obtained health, he would visit the said tomb daily and continually for a year. This vow being made, he was freed from both diseases; and as long as he enjoyed this light, no fever ever attacked him. Many other miracles too can be written, which we omit to write, since new ones are done from day to day, as is known to all. To the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Of him we spoke in the prelim. Comm. num. 4.