ON ST. DONATUS OF FIESOLE, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN TUSCANY,
ABOUT THE YEAR 874.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Donatus, bishop, at Fiesole in Italy. (S.)
BY B. B.
§ I. Donatus, a native of Ireland, is set over the church of Fiesole. Of the years of his episcopate, his writings and his cult.
The last writer to treat of St. Donatus of Fiesole I should think to be John Lanigan. He sets forth the life of the blessed Man compendiously in this manner [An ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. III, page 280 and following. Dublin 1829.]: St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole, St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole in Tuscany, flourished in that age (about the middle of the ninth century). He was a native of Ireland, and, as indeed it seems, was already distinguished with the episcopal dignity (this assertion, however, rests on no testimony; rather the contrary follows from the Acts to be printed below) before he undertook the Roman pilgrimage; in which he had as companion a disciple named Andrew, born of a very illustrious family, whom he had instructed in sacred disciplines in Ireland. They came to the City in the reign of Louis the Pious, although it is not known in what year precisely this happened. After some space of time, having received the Pontiff's blessing, they departed from Rome and came into Tuscany, visiting the churches. Having entered Fiesole, they were received most honourably by the people and clergy of that city, at that time of no contemptible size (from the twelfth century the city declined and was gradually deserted by its inhabitants [Moroni. Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, under Fiesole, vol. XXIII, page 257. Venice 1843.]). Nay, since that see was then vacant, St. Donatus is demanded as bishop. After much reluctance, he at length assented to their wishes; and thereafter he began for many years to fulfil the part of a good shepherd, until, God calling him, he flew away to his eternal fatherland on the 22nd of October, not long after the year of Christ 861. He also wrote certain treatises, of which, so far as is known to me, nothing has come down to us except the holy Man's own epitaph, and a certain charming little poem which is read prefixed by way of Prologue (in Colgan Acta SS. Hiberniæ, vol. II, page 582.) to the metrical Acts of St. Brigid of Kildare. Thus far Lanigan, with whom agrees the Legend printed below, which describes each thing more fully. Some prodigies are added.
[2] he was a native of Ireland; The fatherland of St. Donatus, then, was Ireland. This seems certain to the praised John Lanigan; both because in the ancient office, in Burke An eccles. History of Ireland, page 281., it is read that he was sprung of a noble and orthodox lineage of ancient Scotia, that is, of Ireland; and because in his Legend it is expressly had: This, my brethren, this is that blessed and truly-to-be-proclaimed priest of Christ, blessed Donatus, whom Ireland, the island of the Scots, sent over to us. These words Lanigan recited from an annotation of Colgan Ubi supra, vol. I, page 237. on the life of St. Brigid (a different one from the Virgin of Kildare); the Legend itself he did not see, which I think to be unpublished to this day, and to be made public for the first time in our Work. Colgan adds Ibid.: St. Donatus, in certain verses which he wrote about his fatherland, evidently shows that the Scotia in which he himself, St. Andrew and Brigid were born is Ireland. These little verses, further, see below in the Life: In the western bounds… An island rich in wealth, in jewels, raiment and gold. The word Island, however, which is certainly not without weight in this matter, is lacking in Colgan; for he reads Ibid.: Rich in wealth, in silver, jewels, raiment and gold. For the rest, standing by the words of the Life to be published below, there is no doubt that Ireland is meant. Ferrari also relates Catalogus SS. Italiæ, page 659. that Donatus was born of illustrious parents in Ireland or Scotia; Ughelli calls him a noble Scot Italia sacra, vol. III, col. 213. Venice 1718., and likewise Ammirato Vescovi di Fiesole, di Volterra e d'Arezzo, page 7. Florence 1637.. Further, it is known that the old or greater Scotia is otherwise called Ireland Colgan. Acta SS. vol. I, page 237.; but that the lesser Scotia is that part of Britain which was formerly called Albania and is today commonly called Scotland Ibid. page 238.. In the British Martyrology, as also in others, he comes under the name of Donatus the Scot (a Scot). Of these things there will be further discussion. For the rest, this is an old controversy. Between the Irish and the Scots, said our Bolland Acta SS. vol. I of January. Preface, page XXX., a great battle is fought over nation, name, fatherland, and the Saints of their peoples… I am not unaware which side seems more often (though not always) to be superior in right; but to decide such great disputes, I confess is not within my power. When I find Saints called Scots, I count them to the Scots; when Irish, to the Irish. So indeed Bolland; but in March, in the Acts of St. Patrick, num. 2 and following, our predecessors already admit that Ireland was called Scotia up to the twelfth century, and they repeat this often thereafter. And on the testimony of John Pinkerton, a man worthy of credit in this matter as being both a Scot and learned, the dispute is settled. According to him Scotia primitively and from the origin designates Ireland; and he says that this is now acknowledged by the Scottish writers themselves, and it follows, he says [An Enquiri into the history of Scotland, vol. II, page 223 and following. Edinburgh 1814.], from innumerable testimonies, while not even one can be produced by which it may be shown that the region which is now called Scotland was so called before the beginning of the eleventh century. Compare the annotations on the Life, chapter 1, letter c.
[3] it is uncertain in what years he sat; He (St. Donatus) attained the pontifical mitre in the time of the Christian princes Lothair the great and Louis the good. So it is read in the Life. The Epitaph agrees, composed, as is reported, by the holy Man himself:
I served Italian kings for many years, Lothair the great and Louis the Good.
Lothair I the emperor, the elder son of Louis the Pious, was associated in the empire on the 13th of July in the year 817; he obtained the kingdom of the Lombards in the year 820; he was crowned emperor by Paschal I, on the very day of Easter, the 5th of April in the year 823; he succeeded his father Louis on his death in the year 840, and died in the year 855 Art de vérifier les dates, page 432 and 433.. To him his first-born son Louis was substituted in the same year in the kingdom of Italy; and he ruled until the 13th of August of the year 873, on which he died at Brescia Ibid. page 433.. It is certain, moreover, that blessed Donatus held the see of Fiesole in the year 844: for it is established from Anastasius the librarian (who himself too may have been present) that he was present at the coronation of King Louis. And on the following Sunday, namely the 13th of June 844, at Rome, in the same basilica of the prince of the apostles, all the archbishops and holy abbots and all… the Franks were assembled… Then the beneficent pontiff (Sergius II), anointing with his own hands with holy oil that same Louis, son of the emperor Lothair, crowned him with a royal and most precious crown, and made him king of the Lombards; and bestowing on him the royal sword, ordered him to gird it on. Then, the celebration of Mass being finished, all returned rejoicing with the king. So Anastasius De vitis Romanorum Pontificum, vol. I, page 351. Rome 1718.; who then, enumerating the prelates who were present at Rome, has among the bishops in the last place Ibid. page 352.: Donatus, bishop of the church of Fiesole Compare Baronius. Annal. vol. XIV, page 300 and 301. Lucca 1743.. But this too, moreover, seems certain, that our holy Prelate was likewise present at the Roman council which was celebrated in the cause of John, the eighth of this name among the bishops of Ravenna, in the year 861, although, says Baronius Ibid. page 551., others put it off to the following year, but the monuments of the church of Ravenna agree with this year. This council Anastasius mentions, and indeed at length De Vitis Pontif. Ubi supra, page 410 and following.: but the Acts were wanting. Since, says Nicolò Coleti in the Additions to Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. II, col. 346., the Acts of the above-mentioned council, which the most learned abbot D. Benedetto Bacchini first published in the appendix to his Agnellus of Ravenna, from the notable Archive of the cathedral of Modena, escaped the notice of the most learned Hardouin (add also Labbe) while he was preparing the last edition of the councils, and several bishops are found to have been present at it whom our Ughelli either was wholly ignorant of, or, deceived by Rossi, to other
times wrongly assigned them, I have thought it necessary to append them here, etc. Now in the subscriptions occurs Donatus of Fiesole Ibid. col. 350.. And the council is noted as celebrated Ibid. col. 347. In the fourth year of the pontificate of the lord Nicholas, supreme pontiff and universal pope; in the eleventh year of the empire of the most pious Augustus Louis; on the eighteenth day in the month of November. In the tenth Indiction. Since Nicholas was made pontiff on the 24th of April of the year 858 Art de vérifier les dates, page 272. (Papebroch says he was ordained on the 25th of March of the same year Propylæum Maji. Conatus chronico-historicus, page 36 *.), it is clear that the fourth year of his rule corresponds to the year of Christ 862, with which the tenth Indiction also concurs Art de vérifier les dates, page 18. Table chronologique.. Finally it is certain that St. Donatus had departed this life before the year 877, in which the synod of Ravenna was held, whose letter to Pope John VIII Zenobius of Fiesole subscribed Labbe, vol. IX, col. 305.. Thus far, therefore, besides the reigns of Lothair and Louis II, we have three marks of time wholly clear: the first two (namely the years 844 and 862) assign the holy Prelate to the see of Fiesole; the other (namely the year 877) shows him already taken from among the living. Add that at the Roman council under Pope Eugene II in the year 826 there was present Grausolphus, bishop of Fiesole [Ibid., vol. VIII, col. 103. Likewise vol. VII, col. 1567. Compare Baronius, Annal. vol. XIV, page 97.].
[4] more probably from the year 827 to the year 874. These things being posited, it is clear that the episcopate of St. Donatus at Fiesole began after the year 826 and ended before the year 877. If credence be given to the Epitaph, he sat forty-seven years in all:
For eight lustres, and besides for seven years, Was I Prelate afterwards in the city of Fiesole.
Moreover, that he died in the reign of Louis seems more probable from the same Epitaph; and he, as we said above, died in the year 875, and had as successor Charles the Bald Art de vérifier les dates, page 433.. Whence John Lanigan An ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. III, page 283.: It is altogether probable that Louis survived Donatus. Otherwise would not mention have been made in the Epitaph of Charles, to whom the Empire, together with the kingdom of Italy, had devolved? If this be admitted, the death of the holy Pontiff can be assigned to the year 874 or 873; and, it being posited that he sat forty-seven years, the beginnings of the episcopate will fall in the year 827 or 828. With this hypothesis the historical facts of that age agree most rightly. But against the aforesaid chronotaxis stands the Life of St. Donatus, which we give below from three manuscripts, in each of which it is expressly stated that the holy Man transacted business with Charles the most excellent emperor at the city of Piacenza on the eighth of the Ides of February, in the eighth Indiction (the year is omitted). If credence be given to these, the death of St. Donatus will have to be placed after the year 875, in which Charles, as I noted above, succeeded Louis, and died two years later Art de vérifier les dates, page 539.. Likewise it will be necessary to defer the beginning of the episcopate by one or two years, so that an administration of forty-seven years may be found. Nor does the Epitaph altogether stand in the way: for the holy Prelate could have written it some years before his death; nay, to most perhaps this will seem the more probable. The other things agree well, equally as in the preceding hypothesis (which I prefer, because the Life is not of excellent note). Which does not so hold among others, some of whose evident slips I shall set down here. First of all Ughelli asserts that St. Donatus was ordained in the year 816, adding that the year 802 is given by others; that he sat forty-seven years Italia sacra, vol. III, col. 213., and had as successor Grosolphus, who was present at the Roman council under Eugene II in the year 826 Ibid. col. 214.! An incredible hallucination indeed. How, as Coleti aptly noted Ibid. note 2., could St. Donatus have been ordained bishop of Fiesole in the year 816, if in the year 826 Grusolphus was adorned with this mitre? After him, then, Donatus must be placed; nor is he to be said to have ascended the throne of Fiesole except after the said year 826, and to have sat long, since in the year 861 he was present at the Lateran or Roman council? Our Bolland also slips, in the Life of St. Brigid the younger at the 1st of February Acta SS. vol. I of February, page 245., where he intends to declare the years of the aforesaid holy virgin from the Acts of our blessed Prelate, and says that it follows from what he had said before… that Donatus was not made bishop until 841 or 842, after he had served for several years the emperor Lothair and Prince Louis. If you add to these the 47 years in which he administered that church, it will follow that he died not long before the year of Christ 890. Which again cannot stand with the Acts of the synod of Ravenna of the year 877, at which Zenobius, bishop of Fiesole, was present, as our Cuper has already observed in the Life of St. Andrew of Fiesole Acta SS. vol. IV of August, page 451..
[5] It is the common tradition that St. Donatus was a man distinguished in letters and learning. Having given his mind to letters (so in the Life), within a short time he became more eminent in learning than his elders. Did St. Donatus write any treatises? And Ferrari Catalogus SS. Italiæ, 22 Oct.: Excelling the rest in sharpness of wit, in adult age, with Andrew his disciple, whom he had taught philosophy and theology, he began to travel to Rome. The same is read in others. He seems also to have composed some treatises, and John Lanigan assumes this as certain (Compare num. 1), relying especially on these little verses of the Epitaph:
I dictated free writings to my disciples in little books, Figures of metres, the blessed sayings of the elders.
From the former Lanigan concludes An eccles. History. vol. III, page 283. that some books were written by St. Donatus; and indeed some (as he deduces from the latter verse) in bound speech (Figures of metres), others in prose, and that these treated of theological doctrine (the blessed sayings of the elders); but at the same time he reproves Thomas Dempster, who, he says, with his usual impudence invented titles of works which he had dreamed were composed by the holy Man Ibid. page 281.. Compare the Biographie universelle Under the word Dempster Thomas., where Dempster is beaten no more gently, and indeed with full right. If St. Donatus wrote anything, it has been lost hitherto, except the Epitaph, which is generally attributed to him. In the Life, num. 5, some distichs in praise of Ireland are also recited, of which the same holy Prelate is said to be the author. Colgan, where he treats of St. Brigid the younger Acta SS. Hiberniæ, vol. I, page 238., does not hesitate to ascribe those verses to St. Donatus; but afterwards, where he treats of St. Brigid the elder Ibid. vol. II, page 582., they are read at the head or Prologue of her sixth Life, which is metrical, and which the same Colgan testifies was composed by St. Chelianus or Coelanus, a monk of the monastery of Inis-Keltra, without his making mention of St. Donatus in that place. Since, however, as Colgan himself teaches us, a different Prologue occurs in some manuscripts, it could be admitted that this was written by the holy Pontiff, and the Life by the aforesaid monk. Compare Lanigan An eccles. History, vol. III, page 284.. For the rest, the little verses in question here are such that they could be prefixed to any treatise, provided it dealt with Ireland, just as well as to lives of Saints. See the Annotations.
[6] Cult at Fiesole On this day he is announced in the Roman Martyrology: In Tuscany, of St. Donatus the Scot, bishop of Fiesole. In a single auctarium of Usuard in Sollerius it is read, namely from the Florentine codex, where he comes in the first place: In the parts of Tuscany, at Fiesole in the territory of Florence, of St. Donatus the Scot, bishop and confessor of the same city, who, illustrious for virtues and miracles, rested in the Lord and was buried in the basilica of the same city. And in the excellent British Martyrology [A Memorial of ancient British piety or a Britisch Martyrology, 22 Oct. London 1761.]: At Fiesole in Tuscany, the festival of St. Donatus the Scot, bishop of that city in the ninth century, who on this day is honoured there as principal patron. It is worthy of note that he is here called a Scot (a Scot), which would seem to indicate that by the learned writer he is truly numbered among the Scots and not the Irish. His feast is celebrated on this day, the 22nd of October, on which he is also handed down by all to have died, except Ughelli, who writes that he flew away to those above on the 20th day of October Italia sacra, vol. III, col. 213.. But I suspect there is a fault, and that the 22nd day of October should be read. From Fiesole I have received the proper Lessons of St. Donatus, as they are read in a certain great choral Diurnal on parchment in folio, published in Gothic letters in 1568, as is established from the approbation of the Ordinary written at the threshold of the volume in these words: We, Fr. Angelo Diacceto, by the grace of God and of the apostolic see bishop of Fiesole. Having seen certain histories of our Saints, taken word for word from their originals by the Reverend D. Torello Fola, canon of our cathedral, arranged into matins Lessons, and by our order revised by the venerable Father Brother Felice of Castelfranco, of the order of Preachers, and purged of every fault (according to the tenor of the council of Trent), we grant that they may be read in the choir of our same church, together with the prayers of our said Saints and the homily, within the octave of our blessed father Romulus, whenever their solemn and festal days shall occur. In faith of which we have subscribed these with our own hand, from our residence at Fiesole, on the 1st day of January 1568. Those Lessons are taken, with very few words changed here and there, from the Life of the holy Man according to the Strozzi codex (of which see below at the last number of this commentary), and they are nine in number; which I shall set down here chiefly for this reason, that they present a compendium of our Acts arranged in no inelegant style.
[7] and the proper Lessons: 1st Nocturn. Lesson I. It is indeed fitting that him whom the clemency of the divine majesty has crowned with perpetual glory in heaven, Christian devotion should not cease to frequent with praises and honours on earth. Especially since his benefits are never lacking to us, his protection never fails, his aids are never diminished. For by his patronage and continual prayers both the weakness of bodies is relieved and the scab of souls is cleansed; the devil, the author of damnation and death, is detected and renounced; but God, the creator of eternal life and the bestower of the highest salvation, is acknowledged, loved and adored. To these things direct all your minds, and apply yourselves most devoutly to the praises of him who does not cease by his intercessions to show to us, unworthy as we are, such great and such ineffable gifts of benefits. Lesson II. This most Christian confessor, then, and true priest of God, Donatus, born in Scotia of noble parents and also of an orthodox lineage, distinguished from his very cradle with the title of the Catholic faith and of sacred religion, grew up in the Lord a boy of good disposition, and thus surpassing his years in learning and morals,
he was found worthy to fly up to the summit of true honour. Adorned, then, with the arms of the Christian warfare, and imbued with the doctrine of true wisdom, and burning more each day with love of God and His Saints, and also of all spiritual business, leaving his fatherland and his parents, he resolved to visit the churches of Christ through divers regions of the earth, so that, profiting everywhere, he might always become better, and might himself, as a minister and disciple, minister faithfully and humbly to the disciples and ministers of Christ; relying, that is, on that desire by which he might devoutly behold the thresholds of the apostles Peter and Paul, and, God helping, complete the course of his pilgrimage. Lesson III. While Christ's servant Donatus was carrying out these things with his whole mind, in the times of Eugene the second, Louis and Lothair being emperors, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCCXVL, he set out for Rome, and visiting the thresholds of the holy Apostles, discharged the offices of his devotion, and having received the blessing of the supreme pontiff Eugene, he began to travel through the churches of Christ throughout Tuscany. At the same time this venerable church of Fiesole was without a shepherd; wherefore the clergy and all the people, greatly afflicted, assiduously besought the suffrages of God most high, that, having pity on their city, He would provide for His church and people a worthy prelate, by whose merits and government it might deserve to attain the joy of the desired peace and to enter the harbour of salvation. Whence it came about that His clemency, which never fails to console His faithful in their necessities, deigned to destine the blessed man Donatus from the distant nation of the Scots to Fiesole, that by the constancy of his faith and justice he might rescue them from the misery of so great a calamity.
[8] 2nd Nocturn. Lesson IV. And when the most pious and God-beloved Donatus had entered the courts of the sacred hall, that so great a man had arrived there was shown by a token of the divine mercy's compassion. For immediately all the bells began to ring, moved indeed not by human hand, but by the working of God most high. Moreover all the lamps are kindled with divine fire, so that it might be plain to all that to the people of Fiesole, bereft of their eyes, the splendour of the heavenly mercy had appeared. Without delay, as such a divine proclamation thus resounded, the clergy, rejoicing, assemble in the church with the exulting people, and having seized there the man of God Donatus, they unanimously elected him, refusing and unwilling, as prelate of the holy church of Fiesole, praising God, who visits His people in due time, and never fails those who hope in Him. Lesson V. Raised, then, to the pontifical chair, how Donatus, the pious priest of Christ, exercised the pastoral office is incredible to tell; for he was most frequent in fasts, assiduous in vigils, devout in prayer, generous in alms, most ready in hospitality, pre-eminent in doctrine, modest in speech, lofty to the proud, most gentle to the poor and humble; he was most kind to the clergy, most mild to the people, and he was all things to all men, that he might save all. Now one day, when he had sealed very many children with chrism, one of them, through the carelessness of his mother, was seized by the maw of a wolf. At once the mother, most sorrowful, her garment torn, her hair dishevelled, running most swiftly, prostrates herself wailing at the feet of the kind Shepherd, and lays open the unhappy event of her misery. Immediately Donatus, struck with the heaviest grief, implored with prayers the help of the eternal Shepherd, and he had scarcely finished his prayer when that wild beast with swift step brought back to the footsteps of the pious Shepherd the boy whom it had determined to devour, whom he at once restored unhurt to his mother. Lesson VI. He was eager, moreover, every day, to know how he might recover the lost property of the church. For a certain secular man, very powerful, had seized certain estates of the sacred church; and the Prelate, often rebuking him, and more frequently also soothing him with gentle speech, strove to turn him from such madness. But he not only refused to acquiesce in the admonitions of so great a Shepherd, but one day, mocking with twisted mouth the man of God, his Prelate, dared to call him by insults and various reproaches. To this the humble man answered nothing in vexation, but gave him leave to go from him, saying: Go with twisted mouth, which you have twisted by the obstinacy of your perfidy. At the Pontiff's command, then, that most wretched man, as before with twisted mind, looked not forward but backward, and so, having begun his journey with his face turned round to his back, he forgot the things that were before; nay, his tongue, which had spoken perversely against the blessed Man, and besides his hands, which he had boldly laid upon the Servant of God, are drawn together. When he had been brought to the Prelate, and begged that the holy Man would take back the goods of the church wickedly seized, and would not refuse gifts from his own property for the restoration of his misdeeds (which was accomplished by the rebuke of the good Shepherd, so that he who before had furiously seized the things of others afterward, made to tremble, most willingly presented even his own), the Bishop soon, having imposed on him a measure of penance, blessed him, and restored him to his former health.
[9] Lesson VII. Again one morning, when he wished to behold the rays and the rising of the sun, the Mount of Valentianus, which stood eminent before him, 3rd Nocturn. denied it, and withheld the benefit of so great a brightness; to which the Saint, cheerful as he was in mind and countenance, putting forth words of his pleasantry, said: Why, excellent Mount of Valentianus, do you withdraw from us the heavenly and common sun? It must needs be that the blessing of the heavenly dew be taken from you, and also the abundance of fatness. That mountain, therefore, receiving the voice of the speech of the Man of God, began from that time to remain unfruitful, no verdure thereafter appearing on it, no abundance in fruits or crops. Meanwhile the husbandmen of that mountain, grieving, reported everything, and from what cause it had happened, to the holy Pontiff. Soon he, kind as he was, troubled by the clamorous report of his sons, grieved as though he had sinned in this, and offered prayers and vows alike to the most high Creator; and at once he restored to the mountain the blessing of fatness. Which deed indeed brought him the greatest increase both of admiration and of veneration. Lesson VIII. God also brought this token of His love. For when one day he was distressed with pain in his feet, after the evening office had been performed, while he was keeping vigil, behold, he saw at the right of his little bed certain maidens carrying most bright lamps, to whom he said: Who are you, and whither are you going? Brigid, the virgin of God, said: We have come to you, Father, and we bring the blessing of health obtained from Christ the Lord. Having said this, she touched, blessing them, the feet of the sufferer, whom she anointed; and so from the virgin's hand he obtained the grace of health. Another sign also of the love of God toward him we shall not keep silent. For as he was passing to the basilica, when a huge rain was growing heavier, at the morning hour, his garments were seen to be dry, no moisture whatever having been taken up, for the safekeeping of His Servant. Since, then, the things which he did at that time alone can scarcely be comprehended, what are we to say of all that he wrought in the rest of his life? And all these things (carried away) the clergy and people into such admiration that they did not know how not to admire and venerate the Man of God continually. Lesson IX. Finally, when he saw the time of his death approaching, having called together the clergy and received the sacraments of the church, he soon turned to them and admonished them to live holily and justly, and commended them to God. Meanwhile a rumour of the Pontiff's passing spread among the people, who filled heaven with many cries. And amid these lamentations of the mourners the loving Father, pierced with sorrow, offered prayers and supplication to God in their sight. When this was finished, blessing the clergy and people who stood by, the venerable Old man rested in the peace of eternal brightness, and was buried by his disciples in a stone tomb on the 11th of the kalends of November; who also after death shines with everlasting miracles. Thee therefore we beseech, Priest and Pontiff of God, our Ruler and Shepherd, that thou cease not to succour thy flocks. Help the forsaken and the fallen, have mercy on widows and captives, aid orphans and wards, bring help to the living and the dead. Exalt the clergy, increase the people, protect from calumnies, rescue from snares, enjoin peace and drive away famine, so that under thy leadership we may direct our journey thither where true rest and tranquillity never grow old. By the gift of Him who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
[10] likewise among the Irish. On the same day the feast of St. Donatus is celebrated throughout all Ireland, and indeed under the rite of a greater double, and this from a decree of Benedict XIV, whose tenor we here set down, as far as is needful, from Thomas de Burgo Hibernia Dominicana, page 23. Edition of 1762.: To the most humble prayers presented, in the name of the clergy of the kingdom of Ireland, through its agent in the Roman curia, to our most holy lord Pope Benedict XIV, and remitted by his holiness to the sacred congregation of Rites, for the grant and extension of the proper offices and masses of the national Saints written below, under the rite of a greater double, to the whole of that kingdom; namely on the 16th day of January, of St. Fursey, abbot of Lagny… on the 22nd of October, of St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole and confessor… The same sacred congregation, having first heard orally the most reverend father, the lord Promoter of the faith, and on the report of the most eminent and most reverend lord cardinal Portocarrero, has benignly indulged and granted the grant and respectively the extension of the proper offices and masses of the above-said Saints to the whole aforesaid kingdom, if they have been approved by the holy see, otherwise from the common, to be recited under the rite which they hold, otherwise under the semidouble rite, on days not impeded, by all the faithful of Christ of both sexes who are bound to the canonical hours, and also by all the Irish living collegially in parts beyond the sea. On this day, the 1st of July 1747. The aforesaid Thomas de Burgo notes, moreover Hibernia Dominicana, page 23, note n., that all the feasts mentioned are to be celebrated under the rite of a greater double…, since it is certainly established that each of them is celebrated under that rite in some diocese or religious order. So it is pointed out in express words at the end of the copies of that double decree (Benedict XIV issued two decrees, the former on the 8th day of July 1741; the other six years later, which we here recite and which alone bears on our matter) in the newly printed Dublin Supplement to the breviary, which presents the proper Offices of each of the praised Saints, as they have been found in approved breviaries or Supplements, with the sole exception of SS. Celsus and Colman Duach, whose proper offices could be found nowhere. And what is read in the said Supplement I myself obtained after a diligent four years' inquiry by letter in various and distant dioceses of Europe, and I used the greatest care that they should be printed accurately by the printer, although he was wholly ignorant of the Latin language, and that they should be accommodated, as far as could be done, to the Dominican manner of praying the Hours. For the rest, at the front of the Hibernia Dominicana is inscribed: Father Thomas de Burgo, a member of the aforesaid Order, master of Sacred Theology, and apostolic protonotary, and also historiographer of Dominican Ireland, afterwards bishop of Ossory.
§ II. Of the relics of St. Donatus and their translations. Acts here published for the first time.
Relics In the Life St. Donatus is said to have been buried by his disciples in a stone chest on the eleventh day of the Kalends of November, in the place where the other holy pontiffs are laid; and in the Prologue, num. 2: Donatus, while he lived,
presided over us; when he laid down the burden of the flesh, his lifeless corpse remains with us. Ughelli expressly asserts Italia sacra, vol. III, col. 213. that he was buried in the cathedral in a marble tomb, and nothing prevents our so establishing, at least concerning St. Donatus, since in the ninth century (the holy Bishop died about the year 874) it was not infrequent for prelates and others to be committed to burial in cathedral churches. Compare the Acts of St. Agricola Acta SS. vol. VIII of October, page 886 and following, num. 6.. It is otherwise with the predecessors of St. Donatus, since up to the seventh century the dead had to be buried outside the city, because a city is said to be of the living, not of the dead Ibid.. See the Annotations to the Life, chapter 1, letter s, where we say that Fiesole was overthrown before the middle of the sixth century. Ferrari will have it Catalogus SS. Italiæ. that the holy Pontiff was laid in the church of St. Martin by the river Mensola, which his disciple St. Andrew, with St. Donatus assenting and exhorting, had restored, adding a monastery [Lami, sanctæ ecclesiæ Florentinæ monumenta, vol. II, page 1331 and following. Florence 1758.]. But what was done with the sacred body is not plainly established. We have among our manuscripts a letter of Father Master Raffaello Badi, a Florentine Dominican, dated the 29th of April 1629, in which the relics of St. Donatus are expressly treated. His words, turned from Italian into Latin, I shall subjoin; but first I shall note that Jacopo Bavaro, bishop of Fiesole, having built another cathedral, established in the year 1028 [Ibidem, vol. III in the Chronological Index, page CXXXIII. Likewise Ughelli, Italiæ sac. vol. III, col. 224 and following.] the church of SS. Romulus and Bartholomew, situated not far from the city, which had hitherto been the cathedral (but when it began to be the cathedral, no one could easily say; nor even whether it was really situated away from the city, since the beginning of the ruin of Fiesole, as I have noted, took place before the middle of the sixth century: for if the church of SS. Romulus and Bartholomew was placed outside the walls, and the site of the city was not changed, it is not credible that it was the cathedral, but rather a cemetery basilica) as a monastery named after the same Saints; and at the same time translated the relics of the same St. Romulus and of St. Alexander, formerly pontiffs of that see; and finally, in the lapse of time, the aforesaid monastery passed to the Lateran canons regular, who, says Lami Vol. I, page 111., now inhabit it. But today it is suppressed.
[12] where they were first deposited; But it is disputed in which of the two churches the body of St. Donatus is preserved, nay whether in either, as will be declared from what follows. The canons of Fiesole hold (the words are Badi's) that together with the relics of SS. Romulus and Alexander the body of St. Donatus the bishop was also translated, as is read in the office of the said translation; and that it was placed in his chapel near the podium (pozzo, or the singers' screen?), nor is it anywhere related that it was afterward exhumed. I would not, however, assert that it rests there. And if it is there, it lies wholly hidden; nor is any veneration shown it, nor any cult rendered, nay not even the slightest trace of the presence of so great a treasure appears. For the rest, each one discourses of these relics in his own way, and that more or less probable. The canons of the cathedral stand for their own church, relying on the translation of which we have spoken: the Lateran Fathers claim them for themselves, and show a little chest (cassetta) placed under the high altar, in which they claim the bones of St. Donatus are contained (for they do not believe that the body exists entire), together with some relics of St. Julius the martyr. Authentic letters are lacking. Nothing else is had except a strip of parchment (un pezzo di carta pecora) inserted in the altar, which was built in the year 1615 by the abbot of that monastery. And on that little sheet it is written that the body of St. Donatus, with some relics of St. Julius the martyr, was placed in the aforesaid little chest. But on this matter in particular it is worth while to see the life of the holy Prelate published a few years ago by Father Placido Puccinelli. For he affirms that the body is found in some church of the Florentine abbey, near the city. Which indeed I have not hitherto been able to make clear to myself; but I shall investigate. These things the praised Father Raffaello Badi to our predecessor hagiographers. I have found nothing else in our manuscripts. Obscure, therefore, up to now are the things which pertain to the relics of St. Donatus.
[13] recognised in the year 1810, But from the rescripts which I have received from Fiesole in these days light arises, and the question is authoritatively settled, and the Lateran Fathers win, since from their monastery, today suppressed, the relics of St. Donatus were solemnly translated in the year 1817 into the cathedral church, as will be established from the following instrument, which, rendered from Italian into Latin, I here subjoin as far as is useful to our matter. Before, however, I recite it, I shall note that among the aforesaid rescripts recently sent me from Fiesole there is a life of St. Donatus, copied from a Florentine codex of the Medicean Laurentian library, in which is read: His body (St. Donatus's) the clergy and people … entombed with the greatest honour in the church of St. Bartholomew, near the city, on the descent of the hill. That codex, on the authority of Bandini Codd. latini, vol. I, col. 617., belongs to the beginning of the fourteenth century. Whatever may be the case with the question whether that church could already be called, or can lawfully be called, after St. Bartholomew when St. Donatus died; this seems rightly to be inferred from the place cited, namely that this was the opinion when the aforesaid life was written, that the body of the holy Man rested in the church which was then dedicated to St. Bartholomew. These things premised, here is the instrument of recognition and translation: In the name of God. Amen. In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, the fifth Roman indiction, on this fifth day of the month of July, Pius VII, supreme pontiff, sitting in the Vatican … and Ferdinand III, grand duke of Tuscany, happily ruling. By the following writing, which must be valid and held as a public instrument, let it appear and be known that, since already from the year one thousand eight hundred and ten it had been represented to the Right Reverend lord Ranieri Mancini, bishop of Fiesole of happy memory, that the church of the suppressed monastery of St. Bartholomew of Fiesole … was in a state little fitting for sacred worship, and since it was moreover known to the same Right Reverend bishop Mancini that in it was to be found the body of St. Donatus the Scot, bishop of Fiesole; on the seventeenth day of the month of May of the same year one thousand eight hundred and ten, the said Right Reverend lord Mancini went to the church of the aforesaid monastery of St. Bartholomew together with the illustrious D. Bandino Panciatichi, administrator of the vacant Florentine mensa, and the very reverend priest Dothel, secretary of the same Right Reverend lord bishop, and there, in the presence of the Reverend D. Canon Romolo Palagi, then parish priest of the cathedral church of Fiesole, of Gioacchino Ranfagni of Fiesole and of Gioacchino Marchini, then custodian of the aforesaid suppressed monastery, there was offered to him (the Right Reverend Mancini) by the above-said D. Bandino Panciatichi a key by which, as was said, could be opened certain smaller iron gratings standing under the altar, where was the deposit in which the bones of St. Donatus of Scotia, bishop of Fiesole, were reported to be preserved. The same prelate therefore ordered the said deposit to be unlocked, in which was found a copper casket with glazed windows, over which was stretched a little net of copper wire; the said casket contained bones; the head, however, was lacking. Above the bones was found a little parchment sheet on which could be read what follows: On the 24th day of August one thousand six hundred and fifteen (this in the Italian language; the rest of the inscription of the sheet in Latin) "The relics of St. Donatus of Scotia translated on the Ides of September," with the year written in Roman characters or figures not well distinguished, and another line in the Italian language partly torn. After such indications, and other notices pertaining to the said body, the above-said prelate declared that IT WAS THE TRUE BODY OF ST. DONATUS, BISHOP OF FIESOLE, and ordered the bones to be taken out and placed in a chest, and this to be deposited in the private oratory of D. Canon Romolo Palagi; the same Right Reverend Mancini declared moreover that he would take care that at his own expense, at the altar which stands in his cathedral church dedicated to St. Donatus, an urn should be prepared in which the said sacred bones should be deposited, after, however, they had been duly arranged and adorned, to the greater glory of God and of His Saint.
[14] translated in the year 1817 Meanwhile the Right Reverend lord Mancini died; but his heirs, having perceived his wish concerning the placing of the bones of St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole, decided to put it into execution, and therefore, with the consent of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Martino Leonardo Brandaglia, by the grace of God and of the holy apostolic See now bishop of Fiesole, they had made at their own expense a marble urn in the altar, in the form of a Trapezium, that the bones of the said bishop St. Donatus, kept in a wooden casket, might be deposited there. There follows a long and most minute description of the casket. All which things having been fully observed and diligently examined in the presence of D. Provost Filippo Trabellesi and the Reverend D. Canon Romolo Palagi, both of the clergy of the cathedral church, the said casket was raised on the said altar and enclosed in the marble urn of which above, so that piety toward the supreme Giver of all good things and toward the holy bishop Donatus might be more fully promoted perpetually among the faithful. All the above-said things having been done and observed, in the cathedral church at Fiesole, before the most illustrious and most reverend lord Martino Leonardo Brandaglia … and the witnesses named above, and me the undersigned chancellor of the episcopal curia of Fiesole, the present instrument having also been recited, of which two authentic copies were made, the above-named subscribed with their own hand … and the Right Reverend lord Prelate commanded me, the undersigned chancellor, to fortify the present act with his episcopal seal, and to deposit one authentic copy in the casket of St. Donatus of Scotia, bishop of Fiesole, and the other in the archive of the episcopal chancery of Fiesole. It was subscribed: Martin, bishop of Fiesole. — The two witnesses mentioned above declared that on the 23rd day of July one thousand eight hundred and seventeen they received at Florence the casket with the said bones of St. Donatus, whither it had been carried to be decorated with due adornment, in order to transfer it to Fiesole; which they also did, and deposited it in the chapel of St. James next to the episcopal palace, and then toward the evening of the following day, the 29th, after the sacred offices, it (the casket with the relics) was translated in procession by the chapter, accompanied by the whole clergy and the confraternities of the city, and in particular the confraternity of St. Donatus, which exists in the parish of St. Dominic, from the aforesaid chapel (of St. James) to the cathedral church, and placed on the aforesaid altar, a numerous people standing by. It was signed. Giuliano Leonardi, episcopal chancellor at Fiesole.
[15] into the cathedral church. It is clear from this instrument whence, whither and when the relics of St. Donatus were translated, and what is their present state and seat. Our rescripts add: The bones of four holy bishops of Fiesole, Romulus, Alexander, DONATUS
and Andrew, seem to have rested in the abbey of St. Bartholomew, which most certainly was the ancient cathedral of Fiesole, and is not more than one mile distant from the city. The said church seems to have been dedicated first to St. Peter, then to St. Romulus, then to St. Bartholomew. On the base of the column of the altar in which the relics are now preserved, the following inscription is read:
The bones of St. Donatus, Bishop of Fiesole, That treasure holds laid up, Whose seat was long At the suburban church of St. Bartholomew. Whence Ranieri Mancini, bishop of Fiesole, While he was in exile among the people of Parma, Had vowed to transfer them into this greatest church, To satisfy his piety, As soon as he should return By right of homecoming to his own. But, cut off by death, He left that work to his nephew Lancillotto To be completed; Who willingly in mind Discharged his uncle's vow. And they, having been carried round In solemn procession, With torches and burning tapers, Were brought to this altar, Adorned with step and coffer Of marble, On the 3rd of the Kalends of Quintilis, 1817.
On the same altar there is a painted panel showing St. Donatus in pontifical habit. As regards the head of the holy Man, it was restored by order of Ranieri Mancini to the confraternity of St. Donatus; it is not known, however, when it was first given to the confraternity, perhaps in the year 1615, which year is marked on the little parchment sheet found by Mancini when the case of the relics of St. Donatus was opened. Perhaps we must go up to far more remote times, when the said relics were translated under the altar, in which place Mancini found them: but no one could define the time accurately. These things thus in the rescripts furnished us from Italy.
[16] Acts We have three different manuscript copies dealing with St. Donatus, collected by our predecessors. The first bears this heading: Life of St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole, transcribed from a very old manuscript codex in folio inscribed "Chronicles of Fiesole," on the 11th of the kalends of November. At the end of the second is read: This life exists in manuscript in Lombardic letters at the Minerva, case 21, last book. The third, finally, comes from the manuscript Legendary of Cardinal Strozzi, num. 1, fol. 82. In general they agree with one another in that they are arranged in the manner of a homily delivered on the feast-day of St. Donatus, and likewise in that they consist as it were of two parts: a Prologue and a Life. The first two agree almost word for word in the Life, and were evidently copied from the same original; in the Prologue they differ. The last (which seems not a little inferior to the former in age) again has a different Prologue; the Life is presented in a far more elegant style than in the two aforesaid; the things or deeds are altogether the same, and neither more nor fewer are recited in either. The first two you would say were originally written in great part in verse: for besides some continuous series of verses inserted here and there, in others it is not difficult to find the limbs of a dismembered poet. I should think, then, that the life was scraped together from various fragments, most of which were held composed in metre. For the rest, it is very luxuriant in words, very meagre in facts. As regards its authenticity, I would say this one thing: it seems ancient enough, and to render the old tradition of the church of Fiesole; and on this account we have thought it should be subjoined to our commentary, and indeed according to the copy from the Minerva manuscript; although this is in very many places faulty and corrupt, so that it plainly appears to have been written by an unskilled Copyist. These faults, however, it was easy to emend from the other copy, which, as we have said, agrees entirely in the Life, both in words and in facts, with the preceding, and a similar copy of which Colgan had in hand, as he himself testifies at the 1st of February in the life of St. Brigid, patroness of the church of Opaco near Fiesole in Italy, in these words Acta SS. Hiberniæ, vol. I, page 237.: A very ancient author of his (Donatus's) life, which we have copied from a great manuscript book of the chronicles of the church of Fiesole. Likewise from the third copy, which was very recently sent me from Fiesole with the following note: At Fiesole we have two enormous parchment volumes in folio; each contains a series of lives of the Saints through the year; which differ a little from each other in the form or manner of narration. I should not doubt that both copies sent to our forebears were transcribed from these same volumes. Finally, on the same occasion we received from Fiesole another life of St. Donatus, but far shorter, copied from codex VI of Case XX, page 26 b, of the Medicean Laurentian library. This life agrees well enough with our Acts; the style is rougher and incorrect. It brings forward a little more (I do not know with what credibility) concerning the deeds of St. Donatus before his departure from Ireland, his fatherland. For the rest, in the judgment of Bandini Codices latin. vol. I, col. 618., the aforesaid codex is of the beginning of the fourteenth century. The order of events (for the chief ones are reported) is a little inverted. From these various copies many things will come into use in the Annotations. The life of St. Donatus was printed by Filippo Villani, likewise by Placido Puccinelli and by Francesco Cattaneo Diacceto, bishop of Fiesole; as also by Scipione Ammirato Vescovi di Fiesole di Volterra e d'Arezzo. Florence 1637.: the last I have in hand; Diacceto I consulted at Paris (in the month of July 1855) in the Imperial Library; Villani and Puccinelli I have not hitherto found. Diacceto wrote in Italian of St. Romulus and the other holy Bishops of Fiesole [Vite delle invitissimo martire santo Romolo primo vescovo di Fiesole et di piu alteri Vescovi suoi successori, del RR. Monsignore Francesco de Cattanida Diacceto, vescovo di Fiesole. Florence 1578.], among whom is St. Donatus Ibid. Vita del beatissimo Donato di Scozia, vescovo de Fiesole, page 99., whose deeds he sets forth in the manner of an encomium, beginning from a very prolix Prologue on contempt of the world and other things of that kind. For the most part, especially at the beginning, he follows the life published by us; he treats briefly of the episcopate as also of the death of the holy Man. What occurs worthy of mention you will find in the Annotations.
LIFE OF ST. DONATUS, BISHOP, FAMILIAR OF CHRIST.
From the Minerva manuscript, case 21, collated with the manuscript of the Chronicle of Fiesole and another manuscript of Cardinal Strozzi.
Donatus, bishop, at Fiesole in Italy. (S.)
BHL Number: 2305
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PROLOGUE.
Exhortation to celebrate the feast of St. Donatus.
The festival of St. Donatus is to be kept, The most blessed a priest of Christ and venerable Donatus meets us today. Whom the divine piety has made to shine forth b with the light of a festival, and has poured forth for us the flashing light of perpetual glory. And let him be honoured by us for ever with a serene and full breast, that he may be glorified for ages there where he also merited the pontificate. And we sound this in your ears for this reason, that you may extol with great praises, on the solemnity of so great a Father, him whom Scotia, his mother, deigned to send over to us. Let us recall to mind the divine Scripture c, which teaches with bountiful charity: "Honour thy father and mother, that thou mayest live a long time" Deut, V. 16, adopted into the inheritance. For as much, brethren, as is the difference between neighbours and fathers, so much is the difference between the Saints whom we possess and those whom we venerate by devotion alone.
[2] who while living was of profit to the people of Fiesole, Behold, the blessed athlete Donatus, while he lived presided over us; when he laid down the burden of the flesh, his lifeless corpse remains with us d, crowned by Christ. By his intercession we are daily washed in the world from the filth of crimes; he who, while he lived in the body, merited to shine with miracles and to show to the living the rule of justice; when he died merited to heal the weak, and redeemed the strong by his intercession. And therefore let us invite the whole world with us to the common gladness of this day; yet let us exhort particularly and above all those over whom the father presided ; whom he formed by living well, whom he enriched with wealth, whom he exalted with blessings. For indeed, brethren, as a pious father rejoices in the little services of his children and exults in their number; and so much do the merits of his joys increase, as the increase of his spiritual sons advances. Rightly, then, let not the tongue of our people grow stiff in the praise of him through whom we have merited salutary remedies. For the author of salvation gave us Donatus as a supreme teacher, whom, born of Scotia, festilis e given over, Fiesole intimated would be its prelate in time to come.
[3] and when dead he is their patron. O solemnity to be honoured and truly to be borne up with great things, on which the angels praise the Lord among the stars, the assembly of priests resounds with great honour, the throng of the peoples now meets with great devotion; on which the sight of the blind returns, and mouths long closed resound with sonorous voice; the weak are made whole with all strength, and the dire stains of sins of the wicked are washed away, and the vows of all are taken up in the praise of the Saints. His festival, surely, as I believe, the prophet of the Lord had once beheld when he said: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house and the place of the dwelling of thy glory;" and as if exclaiming he said: "How lovely are thy tabernacles, etc." And that we may fittingly declare f the passing of our most blessed father Donatus, he sang: "Blessed is he whom thou hast chosen, etc. He shall dwell in thy courts:" And as if asking he said: "Lord, who shall dwell, etc.;" and answering he said: "He that walketh without blemish, etc." Without blemish today blessed Donatus entered the tabernacle of the Lord, the signs of whose virtue have shone forth loudly in the world. For whoever came to him sad went away rejoicing; whoever, wearied with grievous sickness, merited his blessing, the Lord granting his vows; whoever, weighed down with the burden of his offences, was visited by him with groaning, by his prayer g and his admonition was returned to the pasture h of the eternal kingdom.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Another reading: Cadavere?
* peculiarius
* profuit
* namely to his brethren,
CHAPTER I.
The birth, boyhood and education of St. Donatus. He travels into Italy. He is placed by heaven in the see of Fiesole, which he makes illustrious by virtues and miracles.
A native of Ireland, This, my brethren, this is that blessed priest Donatus, truly to be proclaimed, whom Ireland, the region of the Scots, sent over to us. a Now Scotia and Ireland b are next to Britain. Ireland is an island situated between Britain and Spain, narrower in extent of land but more fertile in situation. It stretches toward the North at a longer distance from Africa. The forward parts of this Ireland face the Cantabrian Ocean, whence also it is called Ibernia; but it is called Scotia because it is inhabited by the nations of the Scots. The Scots c have their name in their own language from the painted body, because it is marked with iron pricks and ink with the varied stigma of various figures. Next to this, then, is the island of Mevania d also, itself not small in extent, convenient in soil, and inhabited by the nations of the Scots. But in Scotia there is no snake e, few birds, no bee; so much so that if anyone should scatter elsewhere among the hives dust or little stones brought from there, the swarms would desert the combs.
[5] which he himself sang in verse, But of how great fortune or dignity, or also how friendly to peace it is, blessed Donatus briefly praises in verse, sounding forth:
In the western bounds is described a land most excellent, And Scotia by name, written in ancient books. Rich in wealth, in silver, jewels, raiment and gold; Kindly to earth-born bodies f in air, in crumbling soil. Scotia flows with honey and milk in her fair fields, With raiment and arms, with crops, with art of the countryside g. No rage of bears is there, nor has the Scottish land Ever borne the savage seed of lions; No poisons harm, no serpent creeps in the grass, Nor does the chattering frog complain h with plaint in the pool i, In which the nations of the Scots deserve to dwell, A people of men renowned in warfare, in peace, in faith.
[6] his boyhood holily spent, In this land, then, blessed Donatus, born of the lineage of his forebears, of the blood of noble parents, and Catholic in faith almost from his very rattles, his mind given to letters and devout toward the worshippers of Christ, within a short time became more eminent in learning than his elders. He strove moreover to overcome his tender years by maturity of morals, and to season his masters with the sweet honey of benevolence of heart, according to that saying: "How sweet are thy words to my palate, more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth." Ps. CXVIII, 103; Ps. XVIII, 11. For there was in him in his small age an already mature zeal; finally, he fled the crowds of malignant men and of those who work iniquity, so that he might well say with the prophet: "I have not sat in the council k of the malignant," and with those who work iniquity I will not sit; but he did as is written of the Lord: "And the boy advanced l and grew, full of wisdom; and the grace of the Lord was with him." Truly the grace of the Lord was with the most blessed Man, when, placed at that age of men which desires to embrace the wantonness of the world, he panted with all his strength in desire for the fatherland of the life above. He cleaved to the sayings of his elders, that he might receive that which says: "And they that approach his feet shall receive of his doctrine" Deut. XXXIII, 3.; so that whatever worthy of hearing he could receive from them, he retained in the memory of his heart. He drank in, in short, with thirsty breast the streams of doctrine, which afterward at a fitting time he would pour forth with honeyed throat, according to that: "Good words are as a honeycomb m," and with the prophet: "My heart hath uttered a good word." Ps. XLIV, 2.
[7] having left all things, Strengthened, then, in the fear of the Lord, there began to arise in him the love of setting out on pilgrimage, so that he should leave fatherland and parents and cleave to the Lord alone, that he might be able to hear the gospel word: "Every one that hath left for my sake house, father, mother, wife and children, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting" Mat. XIX, 29.; and that we may make that Blessed one equal to the patriarch Abraham, to whom the Lord said, "Go forth n out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee;" he was obedient to the voice of the Lord, and merited to receive the land of promise, flowing with milk and honey; so also this holy Man, having heard the evangelical trumpet thundering, from the inmost marrow of his heart abandoned also all the hope which he had in the world, leaving riches, honours, fatherland and parents, that he himself, poor, might follow Christ, who became needy for us, who said: "Take nothing for the way, neither have two coats:" Luc. IX, 3. he strove to desire nothing in this world, that he might be able to hear: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Mat. V, 3. o.
[8] he makes for Italy; He set out, therefore, and, as the evangelist says: "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return." Luc. XIX, 12. For that most blessed Donatus might be able to obtain the eternal kingdom, he gave himself as the price; and he not only arrived at the eternal, but also merited to ascend into the heavenly kingdom with the robe of gladness. And as the Scripture says: "The poor man reigns in secret by having the Lord;" and of those who serve as soldiers of the Lord it is said: "The kingdom of God is within you." But how he arrived at the pontifical mitre I shall relate, to be read through, according to the truthful sayings of our elders that overflow to us.
[9] reaching Fiesole, In the time, then, of the Christian princes Lothair the great and Louis the good [p], who in their assembly at the palace of Aachen instituted the holy canonical rule in the year of the Lord's Incarnation CCCXVI, in the tenth Indiction [q], most blessed Donatus was at that time making many churches illustrious through the grace of Christ; and so it came about that he arrived at the basilica of the apostles [r]. At that time, then, it happened that the church of Fiesole [s] was suffering grievous troubles on account of the devastation of the Normans, which had happened before, but also because, bereaved, it lacked the blessing of a father. And the numerous people, full of sorrow, implored the suffrages of the saints, that He who saved the people of Israel and delivered them from the hand of Egypt would Himself protect them with His right hand, and deign to guard His church by an angelic visitation. While the people send up their voice to the stars, Christ then shows new prodigies; He led Donatus, returning from the thresholds of the apostles, to the basilica of the Saints.
[10] by a heavenly prodigy And when, according to the sayings of those who assert it, he had come not far from the church, the bells began to ring; new and unheard-of miracles were seen in the candelabra [t], the lamps being kindled without human use of fire, and the bells, resounding, ring out to the heavens; then he enters the basilica, shining with all gifts, small in stature, lofty in nature. Soon the ranks of the peoples run together at the miracle [u]; a cry goes up to the stars of those praising the great works of the King *, since Christ then deigned to show new and notable prodigies. The whole people ask from Christ, concerning the name of the God-given one, the name of Donatus [v]; and when they hear it, with joyful breast they speak thus: Come, father Donatus, given by the Lord, take your seat (sit) in the pontifical chair, that you may lead us to the stars; under your leadership may we merit to come to the lofty pastures; and by your intercession may we be able to find salvation.
[11] he is elected bishop, Then the Saint with pure breast spoke these words to them all together: Spare me, O brethren; why do you sound empty words; * in vain you beat the air, to esteem the little one great and worthy; know that I mourn my crimes, do not believe that I can teach the people. At these words sounding, all the throngs began to say: As the Orient from on high has visited us, so let us act toward the holy Man; Christ has brought him from the west; let us elect him at Fiesole. And behold now one worthy of the Lord, shown by Christ, given by the Lord; let him now be led to the see, that father Donatus may be given to us by the Lord; if there is a will to resist, let there be force to elect. And so, although he resisted with much reluctance and very great opposition, he was nevertheless enthroned, and elected prelate of the church of Fiesole.
[12] he shines with virtues Consecrated, then, with the episcopal blessing [x], he appeared as apt and devout as if he had continually presided in the office to which he had newly ascended. For he was generous in alms, diligent in vigils, devout in prayer, pre-eminent in doctrine, ready in speech, most holy in conversation; he showed serenity of mind in his countenance, and displayed the piety of a most clement heart by the gentleness of his speech. He wept most abundantly if anyone reported the crimes of his subjects, so that he could say with the prophet: "Every night I will wash my bed, and water my couch with my tears;" and again: "My tears have been my bread day and night;" and with the apostle: "Who is weak, and I am not weak?" Ps. VI. 7, Ps. XLI. 4, 2 Corinth. XI. 19. O Lord, * a Man worthy in all things! In aspect he was terrible to sinners, serene to penitents; he was reverend in gait, to be feared for his severity, to be venerated for his kindness; the mildness of humility tempered the censure of authority. Happy Scotia, which bore such a one; let Ireland rejoice, which sent forth such a Teacher to us; let Fiesole too be glad, and with it almost the whole province, resounding in his praise, and Tuscany [y].
[13] and with miracles: By him many miracles also shone forth, of which we have endeavoured to pluck a few out of a multitude, so that, as from a basket filled with various spring flowers, we may understand in a figure, closely and briefly, lest a prolix reading should seem rightly to be despised.
[14] among which the rescue of a boy from a wolf's jaws, Now let us set down in the first place the miracle which Christ willed to make known in deed in the name of the Shepherd. For since this holy Man was full of fatherly charity, and kept watch with brotherly solicitude over the sheep committed to him, one day, when he had sealed very many children with the chrism of Christ, and it had happened through a mother's negligence that one of them was snatched away by the cunning of wolves, the mother at a swift run, the garment of her breast torn, the hair of her head loosed, sending up her voice to the stars with immense sorrow, returned to the footsteps of the Shepherd. At once the Priest, struck with inmost grief, poured forth prayers to the Lord most high: O Father and Son, and kindly Spirit, succour our grief, and have mercy on us, Thou who by the standard of the cross didst shut out the tree of death, and didst show this sign, worthy for the redemption of captives, that, crucifying their bodies, they might raise their souls to the heavens; suffer not those marked out for Christ to be devoured by the most wicked enemy *; do not, O Christ, let him whom I have confirmed with chrism be swallowed by the most wicked wolf. Thou also didst say: "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep;" Joan. XI. and in Thy name Thou hast willed that we should be shepherds; but now
I beseech Thee, with the Theologian and the Spirit [z], that Thou appoint me not a hireling, since Thou sayest: "The wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep; and the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and he hath no care for the sheep;" behold now the sheep commended to me, confirmed, I have assigned to Thee; the boldness of the wolf craves in its cunning to be sated with the gluttony of its belly. I beseech Thee, Offspring of the most high Father, Thou who didst restore alive to the widow her only son; do not spurn the prayers of this woman in her son's danger. While the holy Man multiplies these and similar supplications, the wolf, feeling the divine darts *, flies up at a swifter run, and the boy whom it had striven to devour it brought back to his footsteps, at the Shepherd's prayer which had been heard. Many things then the people sang to the glory of the Father, in joy of the Son, and the praises of the Paraclete resound in the praise of the miracle of many. On this account most blessed Donatus stood out in the admiration of all, like a city set upon the top of a mountain.
[15] and of a plunderer of the goods of the church He was eager every day about the lost property of the church, that he might be able to restore what had been lost: for the Lord gave him grace against invaders, so that very often he stood forth as an avenger. For when a certain man of perfidious mind, with cruelty, seized estates of the holy church, and was often corrected by blessed Donatus, and often admonished, and more frequently soothed in mind, that he should restore what he had unjustly seized, lest in vengeance he should come to those scourges to which the Psalms bear witness: "Who have said: Let us possess the sanctuary of God for an inheritance; O my God, make them like a wheel, and as stubble before the face of the wind" Ps. LXXXII. 13, 14. and the rest that follows; he, counting the sentence of the Psalm as nothing, valuing little the words he had heard, defended with obstinate purpose the things he had plundered. Finally it happened that one day that most wicked plunderer came, not out of devotion but out of perfidious audacity, before the sight of the holy Man. Again and again he is reproved for the seizure; but the hard and impenitent heart treasures up for itself wrath against the day of wrath. And when, his business being finished, he was arranging to return home, and was disposed in no way to acquiesce in the admonitions of the holy Man, but persisted in insult to the Priest, mocking him too and twisting his mouth, he heard: Go with twisted mouth, which you have twisted by your obstinacy.
[16] his conversion. In a wonderful manner he was seen to have his mouth toward his back; whereupon, confounded, he is thrown down on the ground; his tongue stiffens, which had spoken perversely against the holy Man; his eyes, which had coveted, are closed; his hands, which had seized, are drawn in. Then stammering, scarcely able to put forth speech, he says: Carry me to the Man of God, for I have sinned in taking away his property. The invader of holy things is brought by the hands of servants and prostrated at his feet, begging at length with much prayer that the Saint would take back what had been seized and accept ample gifts from his own property. And so it came about that he who had before plundered the property of others afterwards most willingly offered even his own. And the holy Man, being a man of great piety, led by mercy, enjoined on him the lamentations of penance. And so afterwards he rendered immense thanks to the Lord through the ages of times, and at last gave him his blessing and raised him up whole.
[17] He recovers the property of his church; O power of God to be remembered, O great might, over a great space of time! Wonderful to tell, this memorable power of God was in those borders both the health of the sick and signs for those to come. For at that time many invasions had formerly been made against the aforesaid church of Fiesole, in its property and means, through precepts of the emperors and the loss of charters, which had happened on account of the devastation by the most cruel nation of the Normans. Whence the church had been brought low [aa] in some measure, and was much distressed over redeeming such means. The aforesaid Bishop therefore went to Louis the great prince, who, receiving him with kindly mind, out of devotion to the most holy Man, denied nothing that he asked.
[18] he obtains other things also. The most glorious Augustus [cc] granted [bb] besides to the same church that no person, great or small, should presume to usurp, invade or disturb the property of the said church, or to inflict any violence on its possessions or households; he granted it also the annual gifts, the post-horses [dd], the lodgings [ee], the sureties prepared, by no means to be taken away, nor should anyone presume to inflict any molestation on the men themselves belonging to the above-said church without lawful judgment. This was done at the city of Capua. And likewise the same blessed Donatus at the city of Piacenza, on the eighth of the Ides of February, in the eighth Indiction, obtained from Charles [ff], the most excellent emperor, that they should receive precepts containing a page of immunity and defence according to the form of the former sentence; and that if anyone should presume to go against these things, he should pay to the same church a penalty of thirty pounds of gold. This we, accounting it a great thing, have been careful to mention in this little work *, (and) have described it, as far as we could, to the praise of so great a man.
[19] He is illustrious with new miracles: Most blessed Donatus also began so to shine with miracles that, after the manner of Joshua, who commanded the sun to stand, and it stood; or also in the likeness of David, that neither dew nor rain should descend upon the mountains of Gilboa, and he obtained it; or also according to the gospel saying: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Remove, and it shall remove," he acted (so acted). But while I speak these things, it is with trembling (mouth) that I tell the miracles [gg].
[20] a mountain is made barren and fertile again; One morning the sun with (new) glowing little eyes looked upon the hollows of the earth, the mountains and the estates (and) the forests; the fleeting shadow lies hid; the darkness is separated by light. It was the time of cold and frost. A mountain stood eminent over the place in which the Saint was praying to the Saviour; the mountain hid the place from the sun; there was shadow there; and since he could not enjoy the rays of the sun, he uttered these words, not commanding but as if speaking cheerfully: Why do you, lofty Mount of Valentianus [hh], withdraw the sun given by Christ? You separate the sun from us; let the heavenly dew also be taken from you. From that same hour, then, the mountain, receiving the word, began to remain without return for labour, so that it which before had been most fruitful afterward became unprofitable; no verdure afterward remained on it, no abundance is yielded in its crops. The rustics, therefore, grieving, make everything known (make known) to the Pontiff. And the kindly Pontiff renders his vows. Soon he gave his blessing, and makes the mountain fruitful, and so more fruitful than before, and better. Very many signs of salvation he also furnished to the people; through him God had wrought great signs of power for the husbandmen in those crops . Hence the Prelate left praises in those borders and among the peoples, together with the crop. He was in their mouths while they lived, for many years; hence the fame of the Prelate was spread through that land.
[21] St. Brigid appears; Now the most holy Man himself was often wearied with pain in his feet. When one day he was scarcely able to bear it (the pain), and stretching out his hands, raising his eyes to heaven, begging that Christ would succour him, when evening had come, as they temper the borders of night; in the following night indeed there came to pass a very great power of Christ. When night rushes on and heavy shadows roll down from the mountains, behold, a sun flashed forth in the darkness, it had scattered flames with a lamp; and he had seen at the right of his little bed maidens shining in raiment with a clear light. Wondering, he speaks words of salutation: O fire-bearing ones, who carry lights by night? What are you? What does this light mean, who these lamps? What are you? What do you desire, to what part do you wish to go? Brigid [ii], the virgin of God, did these things in words and deeds: We have come to you, now we prepare health for you. O manifest power of God is shown in him! O to be long remembered, to be venerated for many years! With hallowed thumb she blessed and anointed his feet; from the virgin's hands dropped the fragrance of the Thunderer. Wonderful things I tell: suddenly indeed the Prelate obtains very perfect health of his limbs.
[22] he passes wonderfully through the rain. At the new morning the day shows its glowing face from the hinge of heaven; the black shadow of fearful night flees, as we have said; or as the shadow flees the day when the rising of the sun has begun, all evil had fled, the fountain of health being poured forth; but then, the Old man seeking his shoes to go to the church, as soon as he mounted his horse, a huge rain came down; he arrived at the basilica wetted in no part, even to his footprints. The people beseech the Pontiff with tears and voice: O kindly Father to thine own, thou seest we stand at thine altars, now bless thy Servant, standing with devoted breast, and our hearts with the sacred nourishment of the Eucharist. Together they render thanks to Christ for the gift; they are fed by the Pontiff with spiritual food, they are then sated with the banquet of God.
ANNOTATIONS.
These again are from St. Isidore of Seville, book IX, chapter 11 Ibid. col. 338.. The last word is written there in the plural number: Annotentur. The rest agree. I cannot but wonder, says Camden Theatrum orbis terrarum of Joan Blaeu, part IV, page 54. Amsterdam 1647., whence Isidore had: "The Scots in their own language, etc." Which Rabanus Maurus also attests in the same words in his geography addressed to the emperor Louis the Pious, which exists in the library of Trinity College, Oxford. It is clear that St. Isidore used the word Scots generically, as if it embraced all the inhabitants or nations of that region. Now among these were, and indeed very well known in the age of St. Isidore, the Picts; of whom Claudian writes in the third consulship of Honorius, as given by Christoph Cellarius Notitia orbis antiqui, page 351. Leipzig 1773.:
He tamed the nimble Moors, and the Picts not falsely named, And followed the Scot with roving blade.
And the same Cellarius notes Ibid.: "Not falsely named," because the nation was accustomed to decorate the body with painted figures of animals, whence he thinks the name was given. What, therefore, properly suited the Picts, Isidore attributed to the Scots universally. Cellarius adds Ibid.: Bede, following the common opinion of that time (for he says, as they relate), writes that the Picts were brought from Scythia. But Camden proves by reasons not to be despised that the Picts were natives of northern Britain, and did not come from elsewhere. The same, and indeed as certain, is held by John Pinkerton [An enquiry into the History of Scotland, vol. I, page 103 and following. Edinburgh 1814.], but from other reasons than Camden. Elsewhere John Pinkerton proves that the name of Scotia primitively and from the origin designates Ireland Ibid. vol. II, page 223 and following.; and he says that this is now acknowledged by the Scottish
writers themselves; because, he says, this follows from innumerable testimonies, which he then recites. See Preliminary Commentary, num. 2. He also proves that the Scots have an origin altogether different from the Picts Ibid.; and he concludes with an insulting judgment on St. Isidore, calling his books of the Origins or Etymologies an unsound work (foolish book); and he suspects that Isidore is the one and only parent of the new name (of Scots) attributed to the Picts; and that the following passage: The Scots in their own language, etc., turns the whole history of the Picts upside down. For who, he exclaims, after this would not establish that the words Scots and Picts are different names of the same people, who nevertheless are wholly different from each other An enquiry into the History of Scotland, vol. II, page 246.? Finally he observes that the Chronicle of the Picts (the first part of which he publishes in the Appendix from a manuscript of the royal library of Paris Ibid. vol. I, page 482 and following) begins with the aforesaid text of St. Isidore, but in place of Scots has: The Picts in their own language, etc. Ibid. vol. II, page 246.. Whoever wishes to know more of the origin, name, customs, etc., of the Scots and Picts, let him consult Pinkerton's two truly learned volumes.
The word here evidently is redundant. For the rest, that verse is read variously. In our copy from the chronicle of Fiesole it is had:
Commodaterrigenis corpore, aere, solo. Kindly to the earth-born in body, air, soil.
Lanigan reads An eccles. History, vol. III, page 284.:
Commoda corporibus aere, sole, solo. Kindly to bodies in air, sun, soil.
So also Colgan in both places Acta SS. Hiberniæ, vol. I, page 238, vol. II, page 582..
The Chronicle of Fiesole has:
Vestibus atque armis, frugibus, arte, viris. With raiment and arms, with crops, with art, with men.
With this Lanigan agrees, as also Colgan, places cited.
p. See Preliminary Commentary, num. 3, where we said that St. Donatus flourished under the kings of Italy Lothair and his son Louis. Lothair, further, was the elder son of Louis the Pious, who had succeeded his father Charlemagne. Compare the following Annotation.
q. First of all there is here an evident fault. It should be read: in the year 816. The council of Aachen, says Labbe Concil. vol. VII, col. 1307., in which was published the form of the institution of canons and nuns, was celebrated by order of Louis the Pious in the palace of Aachen in the year of Christ 816, in the tenth Indiction, in the first year of Pope Stephen IV, in the third of the same Louis the Pious, king and emperor. Elsewhere the ninth Indiction is assigned to the aforesaid year Art de vérifier les dates. Table chronologique, page 17.. There is here, therefore, as Father Bolland already suspected Acta SS. vol. I of February, page 244, num. 6., a hallucination; Louis the Pious is confused by the writer of the life of St. Donatus with Louis II, king of Italy, the son of Lothair. Hence in all likelihood arose the opinion that St. Donatus had already ascended the see of Fiesole from the year 816. See Preliminary Commentary, num. 3 and 4.
r. From these words it seems to follow that St. Donatus went to Rome before he came to Fiesole. Diacceto has otherwise Vite, etc. page 127.: Before they reach the City, SS. Donatus and Andrew come to Fiesole. They had learned, he says, that the most beautiful hill of Fiesole abounded in very many relics of holy Martyrs, in privileges of indulgences and in stations. There is no leisure to dwell on interpreting these things.
s. Fesulae, Faesulae, Fesula and in some places Festola, a city three miles above Florence, now the village of Fiesole, situated at the roots of the Apennine; formerly a not uncelebrated town Cellarius, Notitia orbis antiqui, page 572.. Cicero mentions it, II Catil.: From those colonies which Sulla established at Faesulae. A most ancient city, the remains of its Cyclopean walls still exist; today it is reduced almost to nothing, both inhabitants and buildings failing [Repetti, Dizionario geographico-fisicostorico della Toscana, vol. II, page 107, Florence 1835.]. It was taken in the year 539 by the army of Belisarius Ibid. page 110.. From then on scarcely any mention of that city occurs. When Narses had routed Totila, who about the middle of the sixth century had subdued almost the whole of Italy, in the year 553, several cities surrendered to the victor, among which Volaterra, Pisa and Florence are named, but not Fiesole. After the year 539 Fiesole is mentioned only incidentally, and that under the name of the city of Fiesole, or of the castle or of the court. And from the Gothic war, the few things read of it pertain to its cathedral church, which is situated about one mile outside the Etruscan fortifications with which the city was girded. In a diploma of the emperor Guy of the year 890, the villa of Sala (today Saletta) is marked in the county of Fiesole and Florence, from which Repetti judges it may lawfully be concluded that both counties were certainly already then, and perhaps many centuries earlier, united under the governor of the province, the count of Florence; and that this therefore did not happen in the year 1010, as Malespini and Giovanni Villani would have it Ibid. page 111.. Ughelli also relates Italia sacra, vol. III, col. 211. that the city was wholly destroyed on the day sacred to St. Romulus (6th of July) in the year 1010, when the Florentines had taken it by treachery and had transferred the people of Fiesole to Florence, so that from both peoples a more powerful state might be formed. Which Repetti rejects altogether Dizionario, ubi supra, page 110., as founded on the mere authority of certain legends. Moroni judges [Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, vol. XXIII, page 257. Venice 1844.] that it should be established thus, with the learned Lami: that from of old there were grave enmities between the people of Fiesole and the Florentines; and that the latter in the year 1125 took their city by storm, stripped it of its walls and levelled some buildings to the ground; the inhabitants
nevertheless remained there almost as before, nor were they ever at any time forced to migrate to Florence; but after the said disaster the richer and more distinguished citizens began of their own accord to transfer themselves thither, and so the city, gradually deserted, especially after the departure of the bishop himself, at length came in the fourteenth century to the state in which it now is. The episcopal see and church remain to this day Compare Cracas. Notizie per l'anno 1845. Rome.. The city today numbers about 2086 inhabitants Guibert, Dictionaire Géographique, page 707. Paris 1850..
t. In the Minerva manuscript it is had, no more happily, Candelabra. Candelabris should be read, as in the Office of St. Donatus. These things are rendered thus in the copy from the manuscripts of Cardinal Strozzi: At once the divine piety laid open the tokens of its compassion and of its visitation, and showed that the prayers of the flock had been heard. For immediately all the bells began to ring, moved not by human hand but entirely by the working of God, that it might be made known the more happily to all that an excellent Shepherd, given by God, had come for the guarding and protection of the faithful flock of Fiesole. Moreover all the lamps are lit up with divine fire, so that it might be clear to all that to the bereaved eyes of the people of Fiesole the splendour of the divine compassion had appeared, through which they might both escape the stumbling-blocks of damnation and receive the true consolations of their bereavement, etc. From these words it is clear that this life was written, as I have noted, in a better style. See Preliminary Commentary, num. 7 and following.
u. From here almost to the end the narration is everywhere poetic; very frequently the limbs of a dismembered poet will strike the eye. See what was said in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 16. These things are found thus in both manuscripts, namely of the Minerva and of the Chronicle; but they scarcely appear in the manuscript of Cardinal Strozzi; from which it follows that its author was chiefly concerned to present the deeds in a more correct and more flowing style.
v. An obscure passage, and entangled in its words. The sense, however, is clear. The throngs, that is, inquired by what name the prelate designated for them from heaven was called.
x. These words, as I hinted in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 1, declare clearly enough that Donatus then received episcopal consecration for the first time. Hence the assertion of Colgan (if it is an assertion) is rendered improbable, who makes him already a bishop before he left Ireland: The holy youth Andrew, then, he says Acta SS. Hiberniæ, vol. I, page 236, num. 2., is handed over to St. Donatus the bishop to be imbued with piety and disciplines, etc. Perhaps Colgan calls him bishop by anticipation, although he does not intend to say that he had already then attained that dignity. Certainly Lanigan An ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. III, page 282. interpreted the words just recited in the former sense.
y. These things smell somewhat of a Prose or Sequence.
z. That is, through the Word (θεοῦ λογόν) and the Holy Spirit (Πνεῦμα). In the Office of St. Donatus is read: But now I beseech Thee, O Father, O Son. Then some words are lacking.
aa. A corrupt word. In the chronicle Sublimata is had, likewise in the Office. It is not of such moment that we should dwell on these things.
bb. This whole number is rendered thus in Cardinal Strozzi: Whence also it came about that the most serene and magnificent emperor Louis, and also afterward Charles, the excellent king of the Franks and Lombards and patrician of the Romans, confirmed the church of Fiesole by the power and precept of his empire, and fortified it with the seal of a royal page, so that no person of his whole empire, great or small, should presume either to seize its goods or even to contend for (retain) them when seized; and so at length the excellent Shepherd, both preserving what he found and recovering what had been seized, enriched it with wealth, enlarged it with honours, seasoned it with all religion, and, to speak more fully, magnified it with every excellence.
cc. Namely Louis, whom the author named a little before. This Louis, however, is the son of Lothair. Below these things are said to have been done at the city of Capua. It will help to have illustrated this place from a certain Annotation of our Bolland in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Brigid the younger, where mention of the Life of our St. Donatus occurs. Louis the Pious, he says Acta SS. vol. I of February, page 244, num. 7., never went to Capua (he therefore is not meant here), since Pepin ruled Italy while Charles was alive; then Bernard; when he had been deprived of his eyes and his life, Lothair was sent into Italy, to whom, however, the princes of Benevento, who also held Capua, were not subject… After the death of Louis the Pious the affairs of the Lombards in Campania and the other provinces of that tract were wonderfully thrown into confusion; so that to settle them Louis, the grandson of the Pious (the son of Lothair), had to set out thither frequently with an army. And indeed in the third expedition, undertaken in the year 866, as Leo of Ostia has it, book I of the Chronicle of Monte Cassino, chapter 38, he arrived in the month of June at the monastery of Monte Cassino, where he was received with the greatest honour by St. Bertharius the abbot. "After this, departing thence, he made for Capua; which, having besieged it for three months, he took, and destroyed it for the greatest part." At that time, then, it is probable that Donatus obtained from him what is reported in the life "at the city of Capua" in the year 866. Thus far Bolland, and rightly indeed in our opinion. Compare Preliminary Commentary, num. 3 and 4.
dd. Parafredi or Paraveredi are pack-horses, whose use was on cross-roads and military roads, as that of veredi on the public roads. Du Cange's Glossarium, which see.
ee. Without doubt he means Mansionarii, or Manentes and Mansuarii, who by reason of their dwelling or holding paid a tax or rent yearly to the lord. Du Cange in the Glossarium.
ff. Charles, on the death of Louis, the son of Lothair, succeeded in the kingdom of Italy in the year 875, and died two years later, namely in the year 877, in the month of October Art de vérifier les dates, page 539.. Further, he was in Italy in the year 875, in which he was crowned emperor at Rome by Pope John VIII in the month of December Ibid. Likewise the Biographie universelle. Under the word: Charles-le-Chauve.; Novaes puts the following year Storia de sommi Pontefici, vol. II, page 135.. Again he had crossed the Alps in the year 877, summoned by the same John VIII to set a barrier against the Saracen incursions; but, the business unaccomplished, while he was sorrowfully preparing his return into Gaul, he died on the 6th of October 877, in the second year from his coronation Biographie univers. ibid.. Accordingly nothing prevents St. Donatus from having been able to meet him at Piacenza in one or the other, or in both years. But as regards the eighth day before the Ides, that is the sixth, of February, in the eighth Indiction, I note that this Indiction according to the Benedictines belongs to the year 875 Art de vérifier les dates, page 18.; if we admit that this is so, the eighth day before the Ides of February does not fit, since Louis died in the territory of Brescia only on the 13th day of August of the same year 875 Ibid. page 433.. But it is not worth while to pursue these things further. The reckoning of the Indictions, however, might not be accurate in every respect.
gg. The verses return. In the Strozzi manuscript the style changes.
hh. I wonder that no mention is made of the Mount of Valentinianus, nor any trace found, in Lami in his Index of geographical names Sanctæ ecclesiæ Florentinæ monumenta. At the end, vol. III., where at the word Mons he reviews in two columns through almost four entire pages the various names of hills and mountains. For the rest, there is no room for doubting that the ridge which is here called the Mount of Valentinianus was in the vicinity of Fiesole. Diacceto Sanctæ ecclesiæ Florentinæ monumenta. At the end, vol. III. writes that the river Mensola runs down at the roots of the hills of Fiesole. One of these may have been called the Mount of Valentinianus.
ii. Of St. Brigid, sister of St. Andrew, the disciple of St. Donatus, see in her Acts in Bolland, vol. I of February Page 243 – 247.; likewise in the Acts of St. Andrew, vol. IV of August Page 539 – 548.. The text of our author, however, cannot conveniently be interpreted of her; for St. Brigid the younger survived St. Donatus, as Bolland has it Vol. I of February, page 245.. Rather, therefore, the great Brigid will be meant, the Wonder-worker, patroness of Ireland, whose Acts the same Bolland illustrated at the same day, the 2nd of February Ibid. page 99 – 185., and whom he holds more probably to have died in the year 523 Ibid. page 109.. Diacceto does not mention this apparition.
* Christi
* in aurem
* Deo.
* maligno.
* imperia
* causa exstitit
* pervasore
* legibus
* acciperet
* populo
* Valentiniane
* finibus
* tentant
* inruit
* gratia Christi
* positam
* subtalarios
* infusus
CHAPTER II.
The precious death and burial of St. Donatus.
Near to death Accordingly, since we desire to put an end to our slight labour, we pass over many things a which are owed to you. We hasten now to come to those things, how he laid down the burden of the flesh and arrived at the pastures. For in all the days of his life he never gave his mind to idleness, but either applied himself to prayer, or bent over reading, or served the needs of the church, or also dictated learned b figures of metres to his disciples, or toiled in ecclesiastical affairs, or pressed on in his solicitude for widows and orphans and had care of the needy. At the last, indeed, when the Lord had decreed to put an end to his labour and solicitude, he was struck with sickness, and pain returned upon his body to the vitals [c].
[24] his disciples stand around. Wherefore he, seeing the day of his death approaching, called the brethren, asked for and received the viaticum, and admonished them to live holily and justly, commending them to God and to His word; and so, rendering prayers and vows to the Lord, he prayed with outstretched hands. Scarcely had he poured forth his prayer to the Lord, when behold, suddenly there was a concourse of peoples mourning and saying: O pious Prelate of God, have mercy on our grief, comfort all the wretched with the bowels of piety: have mercy; you can, I bear witness in the name of Christ; we ask help, we all earnestly beseech. O pious Father, have mercy on us; now hear the words of those who pray, cherish our numbed limbs; give the help of piety; have mercy on our grief, both of body and of soul; if you ask Christ the judge, we believe indeed that by your prayers we shall receive e full salvation from our faults.
[25] He prays, At these words of those who prayed, then, he blessed the whole throng. And moved by their weeping, he blessed them with the blessings of the Saints; for, pierced by their sorrows, he poured forth this prayer to the Lord in their sight d:
O Christ, the power of God, the splendour and wisdom of the Father, Begotten, abiding in the Begetter without time, and before The ages; who, born of a Virgin, took our form; Nourished, suckled at the breast of His mother;
Who, cleansing our faults with holy baptism, Now a new offspring is brought down from high heaven; Who undid the noxious meal of the forbidden tree, And who healed our wounds with His own blood, Who by dying gave life, by death redeemed us; And when He was buried, changed the laws of the tomb, Rising from death, and condemned bitter death; Who once destroyed Tartarus, who the thresholds of black Dis, Overcoming the torrents of greedy Acheron, Who wrung the black enemy, the torturer, in the depth; He ascended; He led captivity captive, the right hand of the Father; The Powers, thousands of thousands, praise the victor. Thou also, who didst deign to take such penalties for us, Hast given the heavenly kingdoms to the wretched; Grant me to climb the lofty ladders of paradise; Grant that the gates of life be opened to me as I knock aright. Let not the swollen, not the greedy enemy come at me, Nor let a strange hand touch me, nor take away my rewards; But, O Christ, receive me now, Thy wretched servant, That I may merit, trembling, to see the glorious fellow-guests Who rejoice with Thee; may I see the banquets of the Holy One, Who with the Father abidest reigning through the ages for ever, And the Holy Spirit. God delights in an odd number [e].
[26] he dies. These things finished, he armed himself wholly with the sign of the cross, and, blessing the brethren and his spiritual sons, he was gathered to the holy fathers an old man, and, full of days, was led into heaven. He was buried by his disciples in a stone chest [f] on the eleventh day of the Kalends of November, in the place where the other holy pontiffs are laid, and there was written there an epitaph [g] of this kind:
[27] Epitaph. Here I, Donatus, sprung from the blood of the Scots, Alone in this tomb, am devoured by dust and worm. I served Italian kings for many years, Lothair the great and Louis the good. For eight lustres, and besides for seven years, Was I prelate afterwards in the city of Fiesole. I dictated letters to my disciples, written in little books; Figures of metres, the blessed deeds of the elders. I beg, wayfarer, whoever you are that come, for the reward of Christ, Let it not irk you, O man, to look upon my tomb, And pray to God, who rules the heights of heaven, That He may grant me His blessed kingdom.
[28] The holy Prelate appears after death. And since the reading demands an end of the work, we wish only to note this miracle, which we have heard concerning the enclosed body. For when after some days of burial he was held shut in the tomb, and Christ was then showing innumerable prodigies and signs, driving away leprosy and restoring sight to the blind, and steps to the lame, and opening to the deaf; and by innumerable miracles salvation came to the believers who came; one day through human negligence it happened that drops of water came down upon the stone chest. At a certain last hour of the night, through a man, as I believe, very worthy, Christ deigned to show a sign. The most holy Bishop stands by him in a vision, as he lay astonished, not sleeping, saying: Up, minister; arise at once to cover my chest, that the water may not come down upon me. At these words he arose, but neglected the thing itself. A second time he appeared to him again and admonished him, but he neglected it and kept silent. But the third time he appeared, and amid the words of command he added blows also. Then at once he arose and obeyed; he announced the words and declared his wounds h, and so it was done, to the devotion of the holy Man and the veneration of all.
[29] Epiphonema O prudent man, and Pontiff to be imitated through the ages, to whom to live was Christ, and to die gain; who, building his house upon firm rock, did not fear the terrors of rivers and winds; in whose mouth truth found no guile, and therefore chose him (him) for itself as priest. Let us all then say:
[30] and prayer. Holy and precious confessor of God, Donatus, father and pontiff, educator and nourisher, ruler and shepherd; succour with your prayers the forsaken and the fallen; have mercy on widows and captives, aid orphans and wards; succour the present and those to come; bring help to the living and the dead; do not, I pray, refuse our prayers also, who, although bound in the knot of iniquity, yet according to the capacity of our sloth and the smallness of our little wit, have presumed to leave these writings to the masters to the praise of your name, that what they find useless they may emend, and may indulge and spare our sloth; and since we cannot attain to the pastures of paradise, may we at least find your holy suffrages as solace amid our punishments. By the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in the Trinity; to whom all things have been given by the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. Here ends the Homily of St. Donatus i, Bishop. Thanks be to God. Amen.