Stephen of Caiazzo

ON ST. STEPHEN OF CAIAZZO, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN THE OLD KINGDOM OF NAPLES,

IN THE YEAR 1024.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Stephen, bishop of Caiazzo. (S.)

BY R. D. B.

§ Sole. The cult of St. Stephen at Caiazzo and elsewhere. His birth, education and episcopate. The Council of Capua of about the year 1000. The death, burial and finding of St. Stephen.

[1] Cajazzia, formerly Calatia, in the vernacular Cajazzo, is an ancient city of Campania in the Tifata mountains over against the Samnites, At Caiazzo on the river Volturnus near the Appian Way, distant eight miles from the metropolis Capua and twenty-four from Naples Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 438.. It is adorned, says Bolland [Acta SS., vol. V of June, p. 330. Compare Sanfelice, Campania notis illustrata, Notes, p. 145, Naples edition 1726; Orlendi, Orbis sacer et profanus, part II, book IV, ch. VI, p. 1595 f.], with an episcopal throne, and indeed (if Georg Braun is believed) from the very cradle of the Christian religion. Bolland adds, implying that no great credence is to be attached to this opinion, that he had not examined the sacred monuments which Braun used. This church seems to have suffered many disasters at times, as Ughelli indicates. Its fortunes were also less happy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; for in the year 1741 an agreement was concluded between Benedict XIV and Charles IV, king of the Two Sicilies, by which the episcopal see of Caiazzo (something similar happened to several other churches of that region as well) was to be united to another see. Nothing came of this, except that from the year 1801, the bishop having died, the see was vacant. Then in the year 1818, by virtue of a new agreement concluded between Pius VII and Ferdinand, king of the Two Sicilies, the church of Caiazzo was united with the church of Caserta Bullarii Romani continuatio, vol. XV, pp. 9 and 57.. This union lasted until, in the year 1852, Pius IX separated the diocese of Caiazzo from that of Caserta and restored to it its ancient episcopal see; to which, besides the city of Caiazzo, he willed that twenty-seven adjacent places, thinly populated, should be subject [Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia, vol. XX, p. 275; Giustiniani, Dizionario geografico del regno di Napoli, vol. III, p. 17.].

[2] and St. Stephen is venerated in other places of Campania. Calatia was formerly an ancient Roman municipium, whose vicissitudes were very many and various. In the year 1532 it contained within and without the walls 458 hearths; in the year 1595, as also in the year 1658, 599 hearths; in the year 1669, 378 hearths. In the year 1795 the inhabitants of the town itself were 2921, and besides these 2331 scattered through the fields, so that all together they were 5252. In the year 1824 there lived within the limits of the town 3516 inhabitants Dizionario statistico de paesi del regno delle Due Sicilie, Naples 1824, p. 20.. From this small number of inhabitants it seems manifest that Caiazzo has for several centuries been a lesser town, which however is now growing, and that its prelates have at all times presided over a small flock. The government of this city was held by two bishops illustrious for holiness among the heads of the churches of their age: the one St. Ferdinand, whose deeds our predecessors illustrated with commentaries at the 27th day of June Acta SS., vol. V of June, p. 330 ff.; the other St. Stephen, whose memory has been recalled from the most remote times in the diocese of Caiazzo and in other places on the 29th day of October. He is indicated, namely, in three ancient Calendars of the church of Capua; in the first of which, compiled about the year 1300, there is read at this day the feast of St. Stephen, bishop of Caiazzo Sanctuarium Capuanum, pp. 420, 433, 518.; likewise in the breviary of the church of Capua published in the year 1828 P. 429. we read that in our age the feast of St. Stephen of Caiazzo is celebrated on the same day in some churches of the archdiocese of Capua. But, as was fitting, the birthday of the holy bishop was kept with much greater solemnity in the diocese of Caiazzo; and this is plain to us from the proper Mass and office used in his honour by the priests of Caiazzo, a copy of which our Antonio Beatillo sent to Bolland.

[3] Who, as is said, was born at Macerata of the Menicilla family, Now Michele Monaco Sanctuarium Capuanum, p. 179. by no means doubts that St. Stephen was born in a village of the archdiocese of Capua called Macerata. Macerata is situated in the Terra di Lanio; which territory takes its name from the small river Laneus, commonly called the Lagno and in Latin the Clanius, which, flowing from the marshes of Suessula to the sea of its homeland, separates the territory of Capua from that of Aversa. St. Stephen is also said to have sprung from the family which in the sixteenth century was called Menicilla. But to show this Michele Monaco brings forward no historical document, content with the common tradition of that region, except that he adds the following words: "Since Cesare Costa, archbishop of Capua, who sat in this see from the year 1573 to the year 1602 Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 358 f., had received this tradition also from the mouth of the most illustrious Giulio Antonio Santori, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church (who, born in the year 1532, died in 1602) [Sanctuarium Capuanum, p. 179; Vitae RR. Pontificum et Cardinalium, vol. III, col. 1042, Oldoini's edition.], out of devout memory of this saint he ordained as a cleric the young Lorenzo Menicillo, now primicerius of the cathedral church. And recently, when that primicerius had brought this tradition and other monuments into the Acts before the royal council of Naples, sentence was pronounced that the Menicilla family is the family of St. Stephen. The same tradition is held by the people of Caiazzo." And this Michele Monaco wrote in the year 1630 Sanctuarium Capuanum, p. 179.. But against readily assenting to this we are persuaded not only by the absence of ancient documents, but by the very custom once usual in several cities of Italy, by which saints of the people were ascribed to the chief families, no account being taken of the weakness of the genealogies.

[4] [instructed in letters and the ecclesiastical office in the school of St. Saviour the Greater at Capua,] Further, when St. Stephen was seven years old, as we read in an ancient Capuan breviary Ibid., p. 177., he was handed over by his parents to the schools within the walls of the city of Capua at the church of the Lord Saviour, and in them he learned letters and the whole ecclesiastical office. What this study of letters was like can be gathered from the fact that St. John of Lodi, in the following century, also applying himself diligently to letters at Gubbio, "stored up in the cupboard of his mind the meanings of words, the force of sentences, the genders and cases; and where wanton, unchaste things, harmful to the soul, met him, like Ulysses at the Scyllaean song, bound to the cross of Christ, he passed by with deaf ear" [Acta SS., vol. III of Sept., p. 161 f. Compare, on the symbol of Ulysses, de Rossi, Bullettino, 1863, p. 35.]. The ecclesiastical office, indeed, consisted especially in the study of Holy Scripture and the exercise of the psalter; and this is clear from the Life of the Roman pontiff St. Leo III, who "from a tender age was nourished and educated in the vestiary of the patriarchium, and, spiritually instructed in all ecclesiastical discipline, strong as well in the psalter as in the sacred and divine Scriptures, was made subdeacon, etc." Liber Pontificalis, vol. II, p. 236, Vignoli's edition.. Likewise from the Life of St. Paschal I, who "from the earliest time of his age was devoted to divine worship, and in the patriarchium of the holy church, imbued with the studies of the divine and saving scripture, specially instructed as well in the psalter as in the sacred pages of the new and old testament … was made subdeacon, etc." Ibid., p. 320.. Nor were the younger clerics trained in this way at Rome only, but throughout all Italy, and therefore at Caiazzo; for Eugene II in the year 826, in the Roman council (canon 34), since it had been reported to him concerning certain places that neither masters nor care for the study of letters were to be found, ordered that "therefore in all the bishoprics and in the subject parishes and other places in which the need should arise, care and diligence be by all means had that masters and teachers be appointed, who, holding the studies of letters and of the liberal arts and the holy dogmas,

should teach assiduously; because in these chiefly the divine commandments are manifested and declared" Labbe, Coll. conc., vol. VIII, col. 112.. Renewing this precept in the Roman council of the year 853, St. Leo IV adds: "And if teachers of the liberal arts are, as usually happens, rarely found in the parishes, yet masters of the divine scripture and instructors in the ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE should by no means be lacking." These things indicate sufficiently that St. Stephen, when he is said to have learned letters and the whole ecclesiastical office in the schools, was taught nothing other than the rudiments of grammar, Holy Scripture, and the exercise of the psalter [Labbe, vol. VIII, col. 117. Compare Thomassin, Disc. de l'Église, vol. II, col. 643 f.].

[5] was made abbot of this church, and then bishop of Caiazzo, From the school of the church of St. Saviour the Greater St. Stephen passed into its clergy, of which, on account of his outstanding gifts, he was made abbot or rector. This office was quite distinguished; for besides presiding over all the ministers of the church, even the priests (for this he had in common with other abbots or rectors), he himself chose the priests to be instituted by the archbishop Michele Monaco, Sanctuarium Capuanum, p. 180.. Meanwhile the bishop of Caiazzo succumbed to death. To him, by Prince Pandulf (who held supreme power at Capua from the year 961 to 981) and by Gerbert, archbishop of Capua, and by all the people or clergy, "by the favour of all," as is read in the ancient Breviary Ibid., p. 178., St. Stephen was given as successor. But in what year he was taken up among the bishops we can now show from the diploma which Gerbert issued to make his enthronement public, of which these are the last words: "In the year, by God's favour, of the archiepiscopate of the lord Gerbert, the third archbishop in the most sacred see of the blessed protomartyr Stephen, on the very day of the Kalends of November, in the eighth Indiction" Ibid., p. 574.. If we show which day of the Kalends of November this is, our task will be accomplished; and this we shall perform by showing that Gerbert was archbishop not before the year 970 nor after the year 981, and that in that period the Kalends of November of a year of the eighth indiction were the 1st day of November of the year 979.

[6] on the 1st of November Further, Leo of Ostia says in the Chronicle of Monte Cassino Pertz, Monum. historica Germaniae, vol. VII, p. 635. that John, son of Pandulf, prince of Capua, about the year 966, whose indiction was the ninth, ascended the episcopal see of that town, which was then for the first time made archiepiscopal. Then he adds, passing over the year of John's death: "after whom the lord Leo, a monk of this (Cassinese) monastery, having held the archiepiscopate in the same city for four years and a half, left the succession to his honour to Gerbert, likewise a monk of this place." Hence it appears that Gerbert was not created archbishop of Capua before the year 970, and therefore did not perform the consecration of St. Stephen before that time. Moreover it is manifest that Gerbert had a successor in the see of Capua, Adenulf, between the month of April of the year 980 and the month of April of the year 981; since in the month of April of the year 985 he was already in his fifth year as archbishop of Capua. For in the opening of a diploma which Ughelli mentions we read: "In the name of the Lord God our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 986 (that is, from the Nativity of the Lord 985), and in the fourth year of Landenolf, most excellent prince, in the month of April, in the 14th indiction, and also in the fifth year of the lord Adenolf, distinguished archprelate, who by God's favour was consecrated archprelate of the holy see of Capua" Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 321.. This is also confirmed, on the one hand, from the Life of St. Nilus, written by a contemporary, in which it is related that Gerbert died before Pandulf, prince of Capua; here are its words: "St. Nilus, when he had come to Capua and had been honourably received by Pandulf, at that time prince, and by the nobles, so that they had formed the plan of choosing him as their bishop (Gerbert having died), which would also have come about, had not the prince been forestalled by death" Acta SS., vol. VII of September, p. 325.; and on the other, from two diplomas reviewed by Muratori [Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. II, part I, p. 303 f. Compare Acta SS., vol. VII of Sept., p. 326.], we learn that Pandulf died his last day between the month of February and the month of June in the ninth indiction, that is (in whatever month the indiction began) in the year 981, and not 980, as Ughelli would have it Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 321.. From this discussion it follows, first, that Gerbert departed from among the living before the middle of the year 981; second, that St. Stephen was consecrated bishop before that time.

[7] of the year 979. Finally it must be shown that the day of the Kalends of November in the eighth indiction, on which St. Stephen was made bishop, was the 1st day of November of the year 979. Every indiction indeed comprised fifteen years, but it began in some places at the beginning of September, in others on the 24th day of September, in others on the 25th of December or the 1st of January. At Rome it took its beginning on the 1st of January Du Cange, Glossarium, under Indictio; Art de vérifier les dates, p. XI f.. In Campania, on the contrary, inasmuch as the Constantinopolitan indiction was used there, it began at the beginning of the month of September; which is deduced from several diplomas of that age mentioned by Muratori Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. II, part I, p. 416, and likewise from a diploma published by Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 395.. Hence it is manifest that the month of November of the eighth Constantinopolitan indiction is the month of November of the seventh Roman indiction. Now since the day of the Kalends of November in the eighth Constantinopolitan indiction, or the day of the Kalends of November in the seventh Roman indiction, of which we speak here, falls on the 1st day of November of the year 979, it follows that St. Stephen was consecrated bishop on this day. Yet from the day of the ordination there arises a difficulty that must by all means be cleared away. For from the most ancient times it was established by law and usage that bishops should be consecrated on Sundays; but in the year 979, marked with the dominical letter E, the first day of November was not a Sunday, but a Saturday. But it must be considered that this law was sometimes departed from, and that ordinations were occasionally celebrated on other days also, especially if they were solemn festivals. Thus, to adduce an example nearest to the times of St. Stephen, St. Heribert, archbishop of Cologne, was consecrated on the Nativity of the Lord in the year 999 Acta SS., vol. II of March, pp. 465, 479., which was a Monday; yet in such a way that, according to the custom of the age, the rite was begun on the preceding evening [Ibid., vol. XII of Oct., pp. 375 and 653; Martène, de Antiq. eccles. ritib., vol. II, pp. 10 and 27.]. It is therefore no wonder that St. Stephen received the episcopal insignia on a Saturday, since on account of the festival of All Saints the people were no less obliged to keep holiday and to attend the ecclesiastical offices than on the Nativity of the Lord.

[8] St. Stephen attended the council of Capua Gerbert's successors as archbishops were Adenulf, Aio, Hybald, who attended the Roman council of the year 998, and Paldulf. This last assembled at Capua, in what year is unknown, a synod of bishops, which St. Stephen of Caiazzo attended. But since Paldulf, created archbishop after the year 998, already had a successor, Adenulf, in the year 1008 from the birth of Christ, it follows that the synod was celebrated after the year 998 and before the year 1008 from the birth of Christ Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. VI, cols. 322 and 445..

[8] of about the year 1000. And perhaps knowledge of this synod would not have come down to posterity, had not Paldulf set forth in a synodal letter how St. Stephen complained before the fathers about the harassers of his church. Receive the surviving fragment of this letter:

"Paldulf, humble archbishop … that while I was sitting in the hall (of the major church) of the Holy Mother of God and Virgin Mary, and of the saints Stephen the protomartyr and Agatha, with the other fellow-bishops, suffragans of our see, and with the priests and deacons, and around us stood the throng of the other ecclesiastical orders, to celebrate the holy synod: then in the sight of all there rose from his seat Stephen, our fellow-brother and bishop of the see of Caiazzo, and began to say both to me and to all those sitting and standing by: 'I wish you to know, lords and fellow-brothers, that my see has been reduced to nothing by those who have continued to be its heirs.' But since the voice of our aforesaid fellow-brother, on account of infirmity and old age, came forth from his mouth so faintly that it hardly reached the ears of all, my humility then began to address him, that either he should himself speak in such a way that his speech might reach clearly to the ears of all, or that he should call one of his men who in his stead might declare what he himself was unable to say. Then John, deacon of his see, was summoned, and he enjoined him to declare in the sight of all what and what kind of losses he was suffering from the invaders of the inheritances. Upon this my humility ordered the same deacon to declare by name who the invaders were, the laymen also. Then he first of all named Lando, son of Count Sigenulf, and Adenulf, son of Count Adenolf, and said that they had invaded the court of St. Cosmas, etc." Ibid., col. 444..

[9] [Born in the year 935, he dies in the year 1023. Famous for miracles, he was honourably buried] Paldulf departed from among the living in the year 1007 from the birth of Christ. St. Stephen long outlived him, prolonging his life up to the year 1023, having been born in the year 935. For when he was made bishop in the year 979 he was in his forty-fourth year, as we read in his Life to be published below, and he completed forty-four years in the episcopate. St. Stephen enjoyed a reputation for holiness, living and dead, all the greater because through his intercession God worked many miracles, some of which we shall recount below. Hence no one will wonder that very great honours were paid to St. Stephen by the people of Caiazzo immediately after his death. Indeed the citizens of Caiazzo considered, as Michele Monaco excerpted from the Acts of the finding of the bones of St. Stephen made in the year 1512, "for the renewing of devotion, that from his hidden venerable body a joint of a finger of the blessed hand should be kept apart, to be shown to the people every year on the solemn day of his celebration at Mass, and no less to be kissed. Meanwhile it was kept in the sacristy under a silver finger-shaped case. Accordingly, having erected a chapel with an altar, with an iron railing surrounding it above the pavement, they built a sort of tomb … over against that honour-bearing body, with no bones placed inside, and a lamp burning continually. Wherefore anyone would suppose that the sacred relics of which we speak lay hidden there. They diligently venerated it, since the gifts of divine grace entreated were by no means lacking to those who took refuge there. The people of Caiazzo feared lest the desirable saint should be given up to theft, especially to the neighbours of Capua, and therefore they hid him away thus most carefully" Michele Monaco, Sanctuarium Capuanum, p. 183 ff..

[10] and by Bishop Vincius The remains of St. Stephen rested in this place,

when, on the 12th day of August in the year 1507, Vincius Maffei, a nobleman of Salerno, formerly bishop of Segni, was created bishop of the church of Caiazzo: a man, as Ughelli relates [Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 451. Compare Cappelletti, Le chiese d'Italia, vol. XX, pp. 263 and 270.], illustrious for learning and celebrated for his skill in both the Greek and the Latin tongue, an outstanding theologian at the Lateran council under Leo X, whom they had made cardinal as a youth. "He," says Michele Monaco, "when he had read in the hymn at Matins of the office of St. Stephen, concerning the place where his body lay:

His sacred body lies hidden In the present tomb, Whole, except, as is plain, A finger in a little vessel Kept apart, as is fitting, That it may be shown to the people,

thought of finding and digging up the holy body; wherefore in the year 1512, in the silence of the night, he committed a task of this kind to a certain upright priest, and one very robust of body, Don Andrea, sacristan of the major church, that, having implored the divine help, with the doors shut, taking a mattock or hoe, he should busy himself no less religiously than diligently in digging up the treasure. No delay: the priest Andrea carries out the orders; he goes on digging, and when he had broken into the first sarcophagus, he knew that the holy body he was seeking was not there; sad on this account, he secretly reported the vain labour to Lord Vincius. The prelate, struck by the report, enjoined silence, and lest the citizens should understand it, he feigned joy, and that he had found what he had sought; indeed, to act more cautiously, so that it might be hidden from his own household and companions in the undertaking, he had the head of a certain corpse, with a shin-bone, fitted into the same place. But ill report gathers strength as it flies, because those bones neither breathed forth fragrance nor bore the marks of a bishop. Seeing the decayed corpse, the citizens are angered. The tribunes, or the elect of the people, assail Vincius with reproaches and threats, complaining that he had attempted the scandal of abolishing the devotion of the people. The bishop blushed. Wherefore, having summoned Girolamo de' Gentili, his most intimate friend, afterwards a canon, they began the journey to St. Mary of the Graces near the city, which they undertook with bare feet and suppliant hands. Entering the sanctuary, weeping before the Virgin, they beg for refuge with prayer and fasting.

[11] found at last in the year 1512. The most pure Virgin did not fail them. They returned home, inwardly inspired to open the ground right down to the veins of water. The bishop, nevertheless still hesitating, having packed his bags, discloses his mind to the aforesaid Girolamo: that he would set out for Rome unless the most desired body should come to light. 'Let all our furniture,' he says, 'be carried to Baia, a castle of our diocese bordering on the road to Rome; perhaps flight must be taken because of the clamour of the people.' But when night had hastened on, putting off his gown, doublet and hose, he walks about the hall sick at heart, as though he had gone out of his mind, and reproaches himself; at length, recovering his spirits, he speaks again to Andrea, saying: 'The Spirit breathes where he will: who knows? Today, as the sun was turning towards midday, while I stood sad in the sacred building, a certain Agamemnon of the family of the Fortunati, though he himself is a stammerer, showed me this, exhorting me: Behold, he said, some flies, Lord, come forth from that part where you are seeking the holy body, breathing fragrance. They are a portent, I myself declare it; arise, let us go down lower, let us press on with the work.' The priest Andrea obediently takes up the task again. Bishop Vincius, anxious, invokes blessed Mary. Meanwhile, behold, under the labour begun the priest perceives a sweet fragrance; then, digging a little further, a tomb made of mortar appears. Leaving everything on the spot, he runs with great jubilation to the bishop's dwelling; the bishop, wide awake, beside himself with jubilation, calls out the whole household; he goes ahead half-clothed, weeps for joy, puts on his stole, opens the tomb, and behold, the body of the most blessed father lies open to all, whole, except for that small part of a finger which we have mentioned. Lord Vincius at once stretched out his hand to the holy breast and took the cross (for the body was clothed in episcopal ornaments), so that he might show it daily to the people among the holy relics. The body was tall of stature, long of face, laid out in pious order, with hands crossed. Then there was great rejoicing in the whole city; all flock together to kiss the hands and feet. Vincius delivered a most joyful address from a high place, and when the citizens had returned to their homes, he gathered the sacred relics and placed them in a venerable shrine, some fragments being kept in the sacristy. The feast of this finding, or translation, is celebrated on the octave day of Pentecost. These things concerning the finding were written in a fuller style by an uncertain author of that time; from it we have copied them briefly." Thus far Michele Monaco Sanctuarium Capuanum, p. 187 ff.. Ughelli adds Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 445. that Bishop Vincius erected a noble chapel in the same cathedral, in which the bones of the same St. Stephen are religiously preserved, and that there before the altar this is read on marble:

The head and bones of St. Stephen. Exhumed from here, Vincius of Salerno, then bishop of Caiazzo, with the applause of the people, caused them to be laid up in the pulpit. In the year of the Lord 1512, the 23rd of May.

The feast of this Finding is still celebrated every year on the octave day of Pentecost Ibid..

LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN

from an ancient Capuan Breviary.

Stephen, bishop of Caiazzo. (S.)

BHL Number: 7897

St. Stephen, born in the Terra di Lanio and educated at Capua, Lesson I. In the times, then, of Landulf ^b, the eminent prince of the city of Capua, there was a certain man named John, and his wife Guiselperta, living namely in the place of Lanio, within the border of the land of Campania; who had a little son named Stephen, whom, laid in the cradle and brought up with a child's tenderness, they perceived the power of the Lord to be already at work in his infancy; for the boy grew little by little in size of body (so that all wondered), not so much fed by his mother's breast as increased by heavenly grace. And when he was seven years old, he was handed over by his parents to the schools within the walls of the same city of Capua, at the church of the Lord Saviour.

[2] he was made abbot of the church of the Lord Saviour Lesson II. He, by the favour of God's clemency, learned letters and the whole ecclesiastical office in a short time, beyond his other companions; as often as he sang the psalms, or read, or was at leisure, he always thought of heavenly things and held God as his creator; things perishable and transitory he utterly rejected; and he himself, most chaste from his earliest age, taught his companions chastity, and those whom he knew to be acting wrongly he corrected with honey-sweet words; he loved all and was loved by all. While he was doing such things, he was made a cleric by all the clergy and by the abbot of that place, and was led from grade to grade to the honour of the priesthood; and not long afterwards he was ordained abbot ^c in the same church.

[3] and afterwards bishop of Caiazzo. Lesson III. In which church, namely, with all the years he had had from the day of his birth, he completed forty-four years. At the same time, Ursus, bishop of Caiazzo, having died, the lord Stephen was elected and consecrated bishop by Pandulf ^d, the prince who then ruled at Capua, the son, namely, of the aforesaid Prince Landulf, and by Archbishop Gerbert ^e and all the people, or clergy, with the favour and joy of all; in which episcopate, namely, he again completed another forty-four years, and fell asleep in the Lord.

ANNOTATA.

MIRACLES OF ST. STEPHEN OF CAIAZZO

taken from his office in the church of Caiazzo.

Stephen, bishop of Caiazzo. (S.)

BHL Number: 7898

[4] St. Stephen suddenly restored a broken glass chalice whole. One day, when the solemnities of the Mass of the Lord's Resurrection had been celebrated by him, it happened that a certain cleric received for wiping the chalice in which the divine mysteries had been handled; and when it broke between his hands (for the chalice was of glass ^a, after the custom of those times, in which priests used glass chalices), and this did not escape the holy bishop, coming to the place and carefully examining what had happened by chance, he ordered the pieces of the chalice to be shown; and when they had been brought, he poured out prayers to the Lord, and at once it was firm and whole, as it had been before. Those standing by, astonished at this miracle, magnified God in his saint, and treated him with greater veneration.

[5] The oblation of the Mass from the teeth of dogs, At the same time, when the holy prelate had betaken himself with his clerics to a certain village to dedicate an altar in the church of St. Maximus, the work of God having been performed as was fitting, he withdrew into the house of the priest who governed that church to take refreshment for the body. While he was staying there, then, a dog came, carrying in its mouth the oblation ^b, which it had found guarded not carefully enough in the church. When it had come to the crossroads by that house, it laid it down on the ground; and when it tried with all its strength to take it up again and could not, it called other dogs together by howling; and when they ran together and were unable even to touch it, much less to take it up again, the people ran up; nor was blessed Stephen slow to come. Having heard the cause from the priest, who also confessed the fault of his negligence, he asks for the oblation; and when it had been brought to him and he had found it not handled by the dogs' teeth, he signs it and breaks it, and gave it to those standing round to receive; and while all wondered at this miracle, he attributed this unheard-of thing to the merits of the holy man *.

[6] and preserved the offered bread from the teeth of mice. Nor was another unlike it. For when on the fifth weekday the holy confessor of the Lord had celebrated the divine mysteries, and had given the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist both to the clergy and to the people, what remained of the formata ^c he gave to the custodian of the church to be kept with great care; who, obeying the orders, with what diligence he could, laid it in a fitting and safe place; but having found the opportunity of the night's quiet, mice come, pierce the wall, gnaw the casket, find the formata; and having found it, overwhelmed by sudden death, they could not taste it; whence, the formata remaining untouched, the mice were found dead beside it; and those who saw and heard this did not cease to bless the Lord.

[7] Likewise he healed a man from pain of the head. After his death a certain cleric, when he had been sent by the prince of Capua into Apulia on an embassy, and had completed the stage of three days unharmed, suddenly incurred so great a dizziness of the head that he seemed to fall into madness. Wherefore Stephen was invoked to free him from such a disease, and appeared to him by night, and having made over his head

the sign of the Cross, he put to flight all the sickness of his head.

Let it suffice to have copied these few out of many.

ANNOTATA

* Read: they attributed.

HYMNS OF THE OFFICE OF ST. STEPHEN OF CAIAZZO

Stephen, bishop of Caiazzo. (S.)

AT VESPERS

St. Stephen was illustrious for miracles. The kindly father, noble-born, And illustrious confessor, Beautiful in charity And shining in modesty, Is crowned with the angels, Precious Stephen.

He was holy and prudent, Humble, lovable, And in the world, while he lived, Greatly venerable, Who spurned all earthly things, Made beyond all telling.

He joined the pieces ^c Of the broken chalice, as the wonders Of his deeds declare, And as the history teaches, Which shall stand in the memory Of our posterity.

Countless signs he worked Living and after his death, Which tongue cannot tell; With unceasing prayer, then, Let us beseech the Lord, The Saviour of all things,

That through the sacred vows And suffrages of the confessor, The Expiator of sin May absolve us from our misdeeds, That we too may rejoice with the saints In the starry kingdoms.

Glory and honour to God Most high for evermore, To the Father together, and to the Son, To the glorious Paraclete, To whom is praise and power Through measureless ages.

Amen.

ANNOTATA.

AT MATINS.

St. Stephen, whose finger the people of Caiazzo honour, Sing, O tongue, the zealous Miracles of the glorious Confessor and precious Prelate Stephen, To whose pastures, noble father, May we be called.

Chosen in virtues, restored health to the lame and other sick. Christ's prelate Stephen, Proven in miracles, Shines nonetheless, And, beloved of the Lord, A most holy confessor.

To the lame he granted their step Most wonderfully, To the mute he likewise bestowed Clear speech, [And] he put demons to flight Thus unfailingly.

By whose prayers let us praise In hymns and lauds, Let us beseech the true God That he grant to his servants Eternal life, that we may exult, In the heavens.

Amen.

ANNOTATA

AT LAUDS.

At the tomb of St. Stephen This confessor, blessed Stephen, Our bishop and mirror of life, Receives today great triumphs In paradise.

He, holy, prudent and famous for merits, ^b With the hammer of the holy cross and with a word, Restores the tiny fragments of the shattered chalice, In his strength.

Coming to whose sacred body, the prayers of many are heard. Which the present stone tomb covers, Whoever lacked the health he longed for Receives it.

Whence now our company, rejoicing, To the honour of the wary leader and father, his, We pray to be helped by his merits, Here and everywhere.

Salvation be to him, honour and power, Who, seated above the summit of heaven, Governs the fabric of the whole world, Three and One.

ANNOTATA.

Letter of Gerbert, archbishop of Capua, concerning St. Stephen's creation as bishop of Caiazzo.

Stephen, bishop of Caiazzo. (S.)

[11] Gerbert, archbishop of Capua, The letter by which Gerbert, archbishop of Capua, makes public that he has appointed St. Stephen bishop of Caiazzo, we have judged should be published here, because it not only concerns St. Stephen but also shows the boundaries and discipline of the diocese of Caiazzo at the end of the tenth century, in the form which, as Ughelli says Italia Sacra, vol. VI, col. 442. Michele Monaco, p. 571., the archbishops of Capua used thereafter.

"Gerbert ^a, by the grace of God archbishop of the holy see of Capua, to all the orthodox faithful, to the clergy and order, and to the people dwelling in the church of Caiazzo, subject by apostolic institution to our archiepiscopate, most beloved sons in the Lord, greeting. To worthy desires we have brought no delay: we have ordained for you as priest our brother, now also our fellow-bishop, Stephen; to whom we have given command that he never presume an unlawful ordination; that he permit no bigamist, or one not joined to a virgin wife, nor an illiterate man, or one maimed in any part of the body, or a former penitent, or one bound to the curia or to any condition, or one under a mark of censure, to approach sacred orders; and if he should perhaps find any such, that he dare not promote them. Africans ^b who everywhere put themselves forward for ecclesiastical orders he is by no means to receive, because some of them have very often been proved Manichaeans, and some rebaptized. The ministry and adornment of the church, or whatever else is in its patrimony, he is not to dare to diminish, but to increase.

[12] describes the boundaries of the diocese of Caiazzo "Furthermore, we have granted him a diocese by these bounds: from the stream ^c itself which is next to Pretamala, and as the whole county of Caiazzo itself contains, with these churches which we declare here below: that is, in Baluniam the church of St. Nazarius, and the church of St. Vitalian; and St. Cosmas in Vivaru, and St. Terentian at Sorba; St. Peter at Pile; St. Peter; St. Angelus at Palma; St. Felix and St. Mary in Maliatu; St. Donatus in Ceperano; St. Peter in Palude; St. Mary and St. Januarius in Marcianisu; St. Victor in Persoli; St. Nazarius in Crispianisi; St. Mary and St. Felix in Peti; St. Peter at Sassa; St. Peter and St. Priscus in Mairanu; St. John and St. Secundinus in Treple; St. Laurence and St. Mary and St. Matthew in Puzanu; St. Rufus in Ceseranu; St. Mary in Vulanu; St. Peter and St. Laurence in Luczanu; St. Angelus and St. Felix and St. John in Campanianu; St. Peter; St. Vitus; St. Cosmas in Rainanu; St. John; St. Mary with St. Angelus; St. Felix; St. Nicander in Predi of Caiazzo; St. Angelus and St. Saviour and St. Vitalian in Campora longa; St. Maurus in Alvinianu; St. Angelus in Auxilio; St. Vitus in Bage; St. Andrew and St. Peter and St. Vincent and St. Andrew and St. Caesarius in Traguni; St. Mary and St. Priscus at Cuultere; St. Laurence at Altina, and St. Sebastian in Squille, and St. Secundinus in Rajanu, and St. Mary at Baniolo, and St. Angelus in Poscari: with all the churches, and the lands belonging to those churches, which are within these bounds, which they are now seen to have and possess, and which hereafter you may be able to acquire on behalf of those churches, and with the priests and with all the ecclesiastical orders belonging to your aforesaid diocese; except that we do not give you all the territories in Casa Marcella, and the churches which are there; and the inheritance of the sons of Andrew the bath-keeper, that is Petundo and Leo, and of the sons of Ursolus, which were and belonged to the already mentioned St. Mary at Peti, by these bounds declared below: the first piece ^d where they themselves are settled, on one side ^e the old road, on the other side the land of Rodoald, one end ^f the public road, the other end at the Serra de Monte; the second piece near there, one side the land of the named St. Mary and the stream itself, and the other side the land of Benerusus with our boundary-ditch ^g itself; one end the public road, the other end that of Deodedus the priest, our aforesaid boundary-ditch itself; one side the public road, the other side the land of Benerusus and of his brother, one end the land of Deodedus the priest; the third piece in Iuvenelli, one side the land of Andrew with our boundary-ditch itself, the other side the land of Paldolf, which was Summus's, one end at the Silex, the other end at the stream; the fourth piece there also, one side the land of Paldolf, which was Summus's, the other side the road which divides the Cava itself, one end at the Silex, the other end at the stream; the fifth piece there also, one side that of the already mentioned church of St. Mary, the other side the church of Cicus and Musus, one end at the Silex, the other end the land of Landulf and of Cicus his brother; the estate itself near the aforesaid St. Mary, both sides those of that Church of St. Mary, one end at the stream, the other end the land which was Leopardus's. The sixth piece near St. Angelus at Palma, one side is the land of Summus and the other of Lupus the cleric, the other side the land of Count Landolf, one end on the road, the other end the land of the above-named St. Mary. The seventh piece at Centuru, one side the land of Martin Turella, the other side the land of Adifulola, one end at the stream which is called Lata, the other end on the public road. The eighth piece, which is called at Argellaru, one side on the mountain, the other side at the stream which at times has water, one end the land of Count Landulf, the other the old road. The ninth piece at Castanetum, one side the land of Audoald and the Mountain, the other side the land of the son of Geremund, one end the public road, the other end the land of Sabinus the cleric and of his brother. The tenth piece next to the church of the above-named St. Mary, one side the land of Andrew, the other side the land of Landulf and Audoald, one end at the Silex, the other end on the mountain. Such

order and manner, therefore, that whatever inheritances the subjects of the archiepiscopate, or of our abbey ^h, or any serf whatever of our archiepiscopate, have held, or may hereafter be able to procure, or have acquired by lawsuit, shall be in the power of us and of our successors; but we have not given to you and your successors the church of St. Angelus in Melanico, which we reserve in the power of us and of our successors.

[13] and gives the new bishop various instructions. "Of the revenue of the church ⁱ, indeed, or the offering of the faithful, let him make four portions, of which let him keep one for himself, distribute the second to the clerics according to the diligence of his sons, the third to the poor and to strangers; the fourth is to be reserved for the fabric of the churches; of which he will have to render an account at the divine judgement. Let him know that ordinations of priests or of deacons ^k are to be celebrated only on the fasts of the first, fourth, seventh and tenth months ^l, and at the beginning of Lent, and at mid-Lent, on the evening of Saturday. Let him know also that the sacred sacrament of baptism ^m is to be administered only at the festival of Easter and at Pentecost, except for those whom, under the urgent danger of death, it is necessary to succour with such remedies lest they perish for ever. You must therefore, keeping the precepts of our see, obey him with devoted minds, so that the body of the church may become irreproachable and peaceful, through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen. In the year, by God's favour, of the archiepiscopate of the lord Gerbert, the third archbishop in the most sacred see of the blessed protomartyr Stephen, on the very day of the Kalends of November, in the eighth indiction. I, Aldericus, bishop of the church of Calactina, have consented and subscribed ⁿ. I, Leo, bishop of the see of Surana, have consented. I, Bonus, priest ^o cardinal of the holy church of Capua, have subscribed. I, John, priest cardinal of the holy church of Capua, have subscribed. I, Avioald, deacon of the holy church of Capua, have subscribed. I, Peter, deacon of the holy church of Capua, have subscribed. I, Toto, subdeacon, have subscribed. I, John, subdeacon of the holy see of Capua, have subscribed. Given by the hand of John, our subdeacon and librarian [p], on the aforesaid Kalends [q], in the indiction written above. Farewell."

ANNOTATA.

p. Librarians were those who were charged with guarding the books of the churches, or also with writing the bishop's letters and other things of this kind; which office afterwards, the title of librarian being suppressed, belonged to the chancellors Michele Monaco, p. 579; Du Cange, Glossarium, under Bibliothecarius..

q. That the Kalends of November in the eighth indiction agree with the 1st day of November of the year 979 we have shown in the preliminary commentary, no. 6.