ON BL. JORDAN, ABBOT GENERAL OF THE PULSANO ORDER,
IN APULIA
About the middle of the twelfth century.
SYLLOGE.
Of his cult and deeds.
Jordan, abbot general of the Order of Pulsano in Apulia (Bl.)
BY J. S.
Our Papebroch endeavored to draw the Order of Pulsano out of darkness on the occasion of St. John of Matera, The Blessed one's memory in the Fasti, who was the founder of that Order and its first abbot, when he illustrated his Life in tom. IV of June pag. 37 and following. In the preliminary Commentary to that same Life at num. 15 he proved by a twofold testimony that St. John of Matera's successor Bl. Jordan is likewise honored, with certain others of that same Order. The same Blessed one is recorded today in the Florentine codex of Usuard's Martyrology in Sollier in these words: In the monastery of Pulsano, in the diocese of Siponto, near Manfredonia, the deposition of saint Jordan abbot of the said monastery. Sollier indeed wonders that no mention of Bl. Jordan is had in the Pulsano codex; but this cannot stand in the way of his cult, since that Usuardine codex, or that Martyrology of Pulsano, seems to have been written while Bl. Jordan was living, as Papebroch notes at num. 8, and Sollier proves more fully in his preface to Usuard pag. 58. Wherefore there is no need to doubt about the ancient cult of Bl. Jordan, which Jordan, general of the Order of Monte Vergine, also affirms in various places in his Chronicle, as does Ottavio Beltrano, praised by him, in his Description of the kingdom of Naples, whose words Jordan adduces at pag. 498.
[2] Nevertheless, because the monks of the Order of Pulsano gradually failed, and cult: and the monastery of Pulsano itself was afterward inhabited by a few Conventual Franciscans, it is not sufficiently agreed whether Bl. Jordan was honored with an Office and Mass, nor is it known on what day his festivity was celebrated. For this cause I use only the title of Blessed, although he is called Saint by various writers; and I have chosen this day, on which he is had in the praised Florentine codex. The testimony about the cult of Bl. Jordan sent hither in the year 1642 by the vicar of the monastery, because it also treats of relics, I will partly repeat. Receive the words: And in that same church (of Pulsano) there are also two other bodies, namely of the aforesaid St. Joel and of St. Jordan the monk: which bodies are laid up in one place, at the Gospel horn of the high altar, and are held in much veneration. Lastly we declare that the aforesaid St. John of Matera, and Bl. John Bonus his disciple, and St. Joel, and Bl. Jordan are held for Saints and are venerated by the faithful of these parts: whose miracles also, wrought in this time, are reported. The others are celebrated on other days, and will be given in their own places. Of Jordan alone I here observe that he is called a monk, not an abbot; but this seems to have been done through ignorance, since it is agreed from the Life of St. John of Matera that Jordan was the second abbot general of the Order of Pulsano; and since it is not likely that there is another Jordan whose body is kept to this day in the church of Pulsano: for various writers, with the Florentine Martyrology, name Jordan the abbot Blessed or Saint, nor does any acknowledge another Bl. Jordan of that Order.
[3] he is said to have been asked to intercede for a dead man; The deeds both of this Blessed one and of the other Saints of that same Order, except the founder, have remained very obscure. The Life of St. John of Matera has few things about Bl. Jordan, unless more be said of him with his name concealed: for various things are narrated about St. John's disciples without a name added, so that some may be about Bl. Jordan; but it is not settled which things were thus reported about him or about others. The first deed in which Jordan is expressly named is reported at num. 39 and 40 of the Life, and is such. A monk of Pulsano, whose name is not given, had such a dream that he seemed to himself to be led to a certain heavenly palace, where among other dead monks he saw one, named Oddo. But this Oddo, not yet enjoying full rest, asked both about others, and chiefly about a certain brother in particular, who had been more familiar and more friendly with Bl. John, namely the most reverend servant of God Jordan, who after that father John governed the rule of the whole congregation, dwelling in the protection of the God of heaven, strenuously, justly, piously and faithfully, a good and just man, and reasonable both to God and to men. After Oddo had heard that Jordan was well, he indicated that through a failure of obedience he still lacked the glory prepared for him, and added: But ask, I beseech, the most devout man Jordan, that he entreat for me the most holy spiritual father John, that he remit to me the faults which I committed against him &c. If anyone should not have great faith in this dream, he will nevertheless not be able to deny that Jordan was made much of by this contemporary writer, and is here adorned with a signal eulogy.
[4] he prays together with St. John of Matera for a man in peril, who is delivered: Another deed, which likewise hints at Bl. Jordan's familiarity with St. John of Matera, is reported at num. 52 and 53, and this I thus express in a compendium. A certain one of the monks, William by name, had fallen with the horse on which he was riding into a precipice; this was divinely made known to St. John of Matera, with whom the most holy servant of the Lord Jordan was then on the road, and he indicated the brother's peril to Jordan. Both therefore hasten to the place; and when no one dared to help with human aid, St. John, trusting in the divine mercy, together with the blessed Jordan alike, at once prostrated himself in prayer with grave sorrow. And when the prayer was finished, a most splendid youth appeared, who drew the monk out of the precipice and out of peril. They believed him an angel, because he suddenly vanished again from the eyes of all. That divine aid indeed is attributed to St. John's prayers; nevertheless some part of the praise can be attributed to Bl. Jordan also, because he prayed together with St. John.
[5] If it pleased us to follow conjectures, we could probably attribute certain other things to Bl. Jordan out of the things reported in that same Life. being elected general of his Order, he is called to the king, But leaving these aside, I subjoin in what way he was elected successor of the dead St. John, and what befell him when elected. The praised Life at num. 59, after reporting St. John's death and other things which presently followed, has thus: Being therefore deprived of the bodily presence of so great a father, almost all our strength and vigor of mind so fled from us through the greatness of our grief, that, as if out of our senses, we knew not what we ought to do. Then a certain one of the Brethren, whose understanding was sounder, standing in the midst of the Brethren, thus addressed them: If our holy father, held by the corruptible mass of the flesh, taught us God's way, my Brethren, and by teaching showed it; how much more vehemently, being free from earthly bonds, and cleaving to God's wisdom in a manner far other than before, do you reckon that he cannot minister to us things temporal and spiritual? At this voice therefore, as though awakened from sleep, let us raise up for ourselves as shepherd him whom we shall be able to find more excellent in his institute, and more knowing before God and men. Which Roger king of Sicily hearing, by letters and by most frequent messengers (impelled by what occasion I know not) called our elect to himself. For the shepherd, taught by holy discipline (for he was wise and provident), lest he should further seek his own [] suffrage in this election, or his lordship should seem to have existed further than it ought, resolved not to go to him. And when the king's envoys did not cease, but rather increased day by day, and sharply threatened an invasion not so much of goods as of persons, that most reverend servant of God Jordan, elected abbot by his own brethren, was compelled by them to go.*
[6] Who, when on a certain day he was at St. James's, and, compelled by the prayers of the Brethren, but, praying at St. John's tomb, is warned not to go: had unwillingly ordered horses to be saddled that he might go to the king, first went to the tomb of his most blessed father John; and there he is said to have poured forth such a prayer to the Lord: Three and One God, incomprehensible and boundless, who by thy Majesty fillest the whole world, who hast also granted us this thy holy servant on earth, by thy ineffable loving-kindness and by the merits of this most holy servant of thine John deign to make known to us whether I ought to go to that man or not. This prayer being performed, he presently perceives that a clear voice sounded from the tomb, saying: Thou shalt not go,
I admonish thee; for I have spoken sufficiently for thee to the king: but send with those whom thou hadst resolved to take with thee brother Joel also. Such an oracle at length being received, he bade them hasten to the king with the brother of whom he had been warned. Who, being made somewhat sad at the beginning of the journey for the Father, because he was not going with them; came at length to the court; and were so familiarly received by the king, and so admonished and exhorted in doctrine, that they rejoiced that they had come not to a king to be feared, but to a brother's love. After many words therefore familiarly uttered to them, the king himself asks them to greet their own Shepherd on his part, and that he would deign to entreat the Lord for his own transgressions, together with the congregation devoutly committed to him. These things are narrated in the same manner, but more briefly, in the Rhythm in which St. John's Life is set forth in Jordan abbot general of Monte Vergine pag. 526.
[7] his age in some measure assigned. Further, how long Bl. Jordan governed his Order I find nowhere set forth, as neither his other deeds. But since his successor St. Joel, of whom mention was made above, is said in a certain Martyrology of Pulsano in Jordan pag. 498 to have presided thirty-three years; and since Joel was probably not a young man when Bl. Jordan was made general, this latter does not seem to have presided many years, unless St. Joel reached an altogether decrepit age. Yet this reason does not stand in the way of Jordan's having been able to preside ten or twelve years, and perhaps even more. Wherefore, since he succeeded St. John of Matera in the year 1139, in which the latter is said in the Life at num. 55 to have died, I have by conjecture fixed the death of Bl. Jordan about the middle of the 12th century, not denying however that he could have died some years earlier, or have lived even several years later. More about this Blessed one has not offered itself to me; but from what has been said it is abundantly gathered that he was a Man distinguished by many virtues.
ANNOTATIONS.
. That is, of the king.*