ON ST. THOMAS THE ABBOT,
AT FARFA IN THE SABINE COUNTRY.
IN THE YEAR 712 OR 715.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Thomas, abbot of Farfa in the Sabine country (St.)
BY J. P.
§ I. The Saint's memory in the sacred calendars, his cult, his Acts.
[ ] Farfa, or rather the monastery of the blessed Virgin Mary of Farfa, of the Order of St. Benedict, most celebrated in the territory of the diocese of the Sabines, we described in tome 1 of February at the third day, that Thomas was the restorer of the monastery of Farfa page 362, in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Laurence, surnamed the Illuminator, who, having laid aside the insignia of his bishopric, was the founder and first parent of that same monastery: and in the Acts themselves we gave, from Jacobilli their collector, the state of the said monastery at page 364. A somewhat new account of the same may be drawn here from the things which will come to be said upon the Acts of St. Thomas, who, however much he be later than St. Laurence the Illuminator by more than a whole century, is nevertheless by many called the first Abbot of the monastery of Farfa; because, namely, when it had been devastated after the death of St. Laurence, and so utterly overthrown that scarcely any remains of the ruins survived, and the very place where it had stood had been reduced to a solitude, he restored it, or more truly erected it anew, and governed it as its first abbot. There is an honourable memory of this holy Abbot in a good many of the more recent sacred calendars, and his sanctity is extolled with great elogia in ancient monuments, which we shall cite below.
[2] many more recent martyrologists commemorate him on this day. He is announced on this day by Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology, by Saussay with a longer elogium, as is his custom, in the Supplement to the Gallican, and by Ferrari in both of his Catalogues of the Saints, who cites, besides the Farfa Tables, the Benedictine Martyrology of Arnold Wion, whose announcement I transfer hither: At Farfa, the deposition of St. Thomas the abbot, who, when by divine inspiration and at the admonition of the blessed Virgin Mary he had betaken himself to the monastery of Farfa, and had restored the ruined house to its former dignity, the father of many monks, famous for miracles, passed to the Lord. The same author, in his Annotations at the tenth day of September, subjoins a catalogue of the abbots of Farfa down to the year 1140, and concerning St. Thomas, whom he places in the first position, he says thus: The Tables of the monastery of holy Mary of Farfa, communicated to me by dom Constantino Caetani, a Sicilian of Syracuse, a monk of this congregation and professed of the monastery of Saint Nicholas de Arenis of the city of Catania, treat of him on this very day. With Wion agree, in the Benedictine calendars, Ménard and Dorgan. Bucelin also treats of our Saint at this day in his Menologium, at greater length indeed, as is his manner also, but since he has nothing which cannot be discerned from others already cited or to be cited, I forbear to report his words.
[3] To our Abbot the martyrologists whom I have seen that are older than those already enumerated did not indeed grant a place in the sacred calendars; his sanctity is drawn out from ancient writers, yet that he was held for a Saint for many centuries is gathered not only from the Catalogue of the abbots of Farfa which Antonio de Yepes published in his General Chronicle of the Order of St. Benedict, part 2, at the year of Christ 680; but also from the Chronicle of that very monastery of Farfa, to be cited more fully below, where Thomas is everywhere distinguished with the title of Saint, Blessed, or Most Blessed; and from the Index of the dukes of Spoleto and of the abbots of Farfa, which Ludovico Muratori prefixed, in tome 2, part 2, of the Writers of Italian Affairs, to the Chronicle just mentioned; while Mabillon, in tome 1, part 2, of the Museum Italicum, professes it to have been copied from brief Annals inserted in the greater Cartulary of Farfa.
Now the said Index begins thus: In the year 680, saint Thomas the abbot. I pass over the Life of SS. Paldo, Taso and Tato, of which mention will recur at the end of the Appendix annexed to the Acts of St. Thomas to be published by us, where the author, Peter the priest, more than once calls Thomas Most holy father.
[4] But the antiquity of his cult is drawn out from the manuscript Notices and his ancient cult from an ecclesiastical Office, about the year 1636 which were communicated to our predecessors in the year 1643 by dom Gregorio Romano, abbot of St. Matthew's, at that time the writer of the Annals of Farfa, for the illustrating of the Acts of SS. Laurence and Thomas. In them the author embraces in a compendium the chief deeds of both Saints, and inserts among them the following: But that Laurence the Founder, and likewise Thomas the restorer, were Saints, appears from a most ancient tradition, and from certain fragments of a most ancient Breviary written in a Lombardic hand. Moreover, down to the year 1636 we celebrated the feast days of the said Saints, reciting their Office: but when a certain Prior, named Gregory of Perugia, had taken away the said Office, asserting that it was not by apostolic authority, we were not able to take it up again, the sacred Congregation of Rites answering that we ought not to have given it up; but that, since it had been given up, it was not to be resumed. The remaining things which he there hands down concerning the Saints the aforesaid author concludes with this formula: These therefore are the things which can be faithfully had out of our Chronicles. Thus I, dom Gregorio Romano, author of the Annals of Farfa, confirm with my own hand and with an oath. Further, it is not necessary to transcribe here the deeds of St. Thomas contained in those Notices, inasmuch as they are more fully narrated in the very chronicles and Life, of which presently there will be a place for speaking; it is enough to have culled from thence those things from which his immemorial and lawful cult becomes known.
[5] For the rest, from the words of the aforesaid Annalist which have been brought forward I should not wish to determine with certainty imprudently, as it appears, that the festival of SS. Laurence and Thomas was altogether interrupted from the year 1636. For to one who reads them at least some doubt can remain, whether the aforesaid Prior suppressed only the Office proper to the Saints, and substituted for it the common of Saints, or whether he removed both the Office and the festival altogether. The former interpretation seems to be favoured by the last words, in which mention is made only of the Office given up, and none of the festival; yet the second appears to me more probable. For since the author says earlier: Down to the year 1636 we celebrated the feast days of the said Saints, reciting their Office, he probably hints by what follows that from that year the Office ceased to be recited and along with it the feast days to be celebrated. Therefore in this whole period which we have recited he intends to prove, first, the immemorial cult of both Saints, and secondly, so far as I conjecture, to warn the reader not to suspect that the festival, suppressed in the said year together with the recitation of the Office, had not before been duly and lawfully celebrated; seeing that, as he sufficiently hints, it was suppressed only through the imprudent and untimely anxiety of a certain person.
[6] given up at Farfa, And indeed, if you attentively consider the answer of the sacred Congregation of Rites, you will not with difficulty understand that it itself acknowledged that the Office had until then been lawfully and legitimately recited, and that it was to be similarly recited in the future by them, if they had retained it; since it says that they ought not to have given it up, tacitly in some manner disapproving that they had of their own accord discontinued a cult of this particular kind, established by so long a possession. This exposition is wonderfully supported by the faculty afterwards granted by the said sacred Congregation of Rites of reciting the Office and celebrating the Mass in honour of the Saints of the diocese of Sabina, of which he writes who today happily presides over the universal Church, the supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV, in the second and fuller edition of his excellent Work On the beatification of the Servants of God and the canonization of the Blessed, book 4, part 2, chapter 6, number 2, where he treats of the granting of an Office and Mass in honour of canonized Saints. His words I here transcribe: To this purpose belongs the recent grant made by the Congregation of sacred Rites of an Office and Mass in honour of the Saints of the diocese of Sabina; among whom is reckoned saint Laurence, bishop of the Sabines and confessor, whose name, although it is not written in the Roman Martyrology, yet concerning his sanctity, and his canonization according to the ancient rite, there can be no doubt, etc. Thus the aforesaid Pontiff. But whether St. Thomas, like St. Laurence, is reckoned among the Saints of the diocese of Sabina in whose honour that grant was made, we have not been able to learn either from the words recited, as is plain, or from any other source.
[7] where he is honoured with an annual cult. His Acts Mabillon certainly, in tome 2 of the Benedictine Annals at the year 715, page 44, asserts that our Saint is honoured with an annual cult at Farfa in the basilica of the blessed Virgin Mary, where, as is read in the Acts, his body was buried by his disciples; near St. Laurence the founder, as Gregorio Romano adds in the Notices mentioned above; and until now he rests together with the body of St. Laurence, as Antioco Onofrio testifies at pages 110 and 160 of the book which he entitled Heroum compilata præconia. And these are the things which have become known to us concerning the ancient and the more recent cult of St. Thomas. His Life, drawn out from a manuscript codex of Farfa, the aforesaid Mabillon published in print in part 1 of century 3 of the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict. There is also preserved in our museum a manuscript Life of the Saint, divided into Lessons and excerpted from a parchment Breviary, as Papebroch noted in the margin; but he does not express the place from which it was taken. I strongly suspect that it is the very thing which Gregorio Romano above in the Notices calls fragments of a most ancient Breviary written in a Lombardic hand, from which Breviary, either in the monastery of Farfa or perhaps in the library of the most eminent Cardinal Barberini, perpetual commendatory abbot of that same monastery, Papebroch procured a transcript for himself; when, travelling through Italy with father Henschen, he searched out the ancient monuments serviceable to our Work. Perhaps, I say, in the Barberini library, in which we learn from Muratori, presently to be cited, that codices of this kind, and among them a manuscript codex of the Chronicle of Farfa, are extant, and to which, when Henschen and Papebroch had been invited, the aforesaid Eminence, besides other tokens of great benevolence which he showed them, gave leave to carry home whatever books they wished, that from them they might copy out what should be of use to them, as Papebroch himself attests with the highest expression of a grateful mind in his Diary of his stay in the City in the year 1661.
[8] Finally, from whatever source our transcript was taken, it appears to me authentic; collated with the Lessons of the Office, not only because it agrees with what is reported in the Chronicle of Farfa concerning the Saint's deeds; but chiefly because what it has so agrees with the Life published by Mabillon and to be reprinted by us that I cannot doubt that the Lessons were taken from the same Life. The phrases are the same in both, nay the very words, however slightly altered here and there, and the same arrangement of the things narrated. Yet in our transcript, as was necessary lest the Lessons of the Office should grow longer than was right, very many things have been passed over; and hence the reader will easily gather why I have not judged it fit to be committed to the press; nevertheless it has not been useless to me; for it helped, first, to confirm what will be established below concerning the year of the Saint's death; and then to supply certain things which, without doubt through the carelessness of the copyist, seem to be wanting in Mabillon.
[9] Not a little also toward the elucidating and confirming of certain deeds of our Saint has been contributed by the twofold Life of SS. Paldo, and with other ancient Tato and Taso, one of which was drawn up by Peter the priest, the other by St. Autpert, abbot of the monastery of Volturno, writers of the eighth century. Of both, as I have already mentioned concerning the first at number 3, we shall treat more fully in the Appendix. There has likewise contributed the Chronicle of Farfa mentioned several times, restored to the light after long darkness by the labour of Ludovico Muratori, in tome 2, part 2, of the Writers of Italian Affairs. Hear concerning its authors Gregorio Romano in his Notices: There were three chroniclers of the monastery of Farfa, each distinguished by the name of Gregory. The first Gregory wrote in the year 860; the second, called Gregory of Catino, in the year 1090; the third, I the least, in the year 1643, who now also continue the Work under the title of the Annals of Farfa. Muratori in his Prolegomena to the said Chronicle makes no mention of the first Gregory, treats more fully of the second, or him of Catino, and shows from the preface attached to it that by this Gregory two volumes of great bulk were first put together, embracing the Charters, privileges and instruments of the Archive of Farfa; but that afterwards, lest so long a series of Charters should breed weariness in the reader, a third and much more compendious volume was made, containing the origin of the monastery, the series and acts of the abbots and the chief privileges; and this, he says, is nothing else than the Chronicle of Farfa, which I make public.
[10] monuments But not even in this third volume, as Muratori rightly notes, did the chronicler take sufficient care to avert the reader's weariness; seeing that here too he seems to have been intent solely on enumerating and asserting those things which concerned the donations, privileges and rights of the monastery, being little solicitous to report the virtues and famous deeds of the holy founder and Restorer and of the other abbots; which he touches on everywhere, and adduces only in so far as they are apt for defending the aforesaid privileges and rights. This he himself professes where he treats of a certain right of his monastery over the monastery of St. Vincent of Volturno; for having reported the beginnings of this monastery, and having described at greater length than usual certain deeds of St. Thomas with SS. Paldo, Tato and Taso, he presently subjoins: But all these things we have wished to compress most briefly in a truthful account, in order that we may be able in all respects to assert, both by canonical and by legal authority, that the aforesaid monastery of blessed Vincent belongs to this monastery of blessed Mary and ought to be of its lordship. Then he goes on to prove this last assertion with many testimonies and reasonings, whether solid ones also it is not for us to inquire. Nevertheless, however much he studied brevity, he could not but treat of St. Thomas, by whose labour indeed the monastery of Farfa was restored and greatly increased, in various places, from which I conjecture that he used a longer Life, and perhaps the same one which Mabillon, cited at number 7, affirms to have been drawn out from a codex of Farfa; and the complete similarity of many passages persuades me of this.
[11] to be published. The age It remains that we likewise note a few things concerning the Life which, collated with the monuments hitherto mentioned, we shall annex to the Commentary. Concerning its author Mabillon says that nothing occurs to him to be said, in the Observation prefixed to it. And indeed nowhere does the biographer either give out his own name or expressly declare the age in which he put together the Acts of St. Thomas. Nevertheless from some passages he allows us to suspect that he was neither contemporary with the Saint nor yet very far removed from him. The first is drawn from the last number of the Life. For after he has related in what manner the Saint
our Saint helped SS. Paldo, Taso and Tato, the founders of the monastery of St. Vincent by the river Volturno, he continues thus: But indeed the aforesaid men, and their successors for many courses of years, at fitting seasons used to come to the monastery of the holy Mother of God Mary, and to keep their weeks in the office of the kitchen, as the other Brethren did, in that same monastery, and by the disposition of the lord abbot Thomas and of his successors the monastery of saint Vincent itself was ordered. Therefore, to omit the rest, our author lived after St. Thomas had had several successors as abbots, and probably did not live together with him, which will presently be confirmed.
[12] of the author. Meanwhile, lest anyone judge that the biographer was very far removed from the Saint's times, against the second part of our conjecture, because his text already given seems altogether to breathe a time long past, it must be noted that the custom designated in it obtained only, if the author of the Chronicle of Farfa writes rightly, until the time of dom Fulcoald, who out of piety and without taking counsel granted to the Prelate and monks of that same monastery (of Volturno) their weeks in the office of the kitchen, and, bestowing on them the ordinance which the man of the Lord Thomas had obtained from duke Gisulf, thenceforward enjoined upon them that they should have care of their own monastery only. By ordinance understand here a charter or diploma, from which the chronicler there contends it may be proved that the monastery of Volturno was subject to the lordship of the monastery of Farfa. Further, Fulcoald, after the deaths of Haunepert and Lucerius, the first successors of St. Thomas, is read to have been appointed abbot about the year 740, and to have presided over the monastery until about the year 759; therefore, even supposing that toward the end of his life he rescinded the said custom, this did not last beyond 45 years from the death of the Saint, which I shall say below happened in the year 712 or 715; and accordingly the text recited in the preceding number does not compel us to defer the age of the biographer beyond the same eighth century when it was already advanced, or the following when it had not much begun; nay, another text of the same author in the aforesaid Life, number 3, seems to forbid it. For there, relating the Saint's coming into Italy, he has it thus: And coming into the place which is called Cervinaria, he rested there beneath a certain tree which still survives. It would surely have been a tree of many years which had survived from the seventy-seventh year of the seventh century, in which we shall see at number 15 that these things happened, down to the end of the eighth or the beginning of the ninth century. Finally, since the same author says in the same place, number 2, that he learned what he narrates from the report of the fathers, I again conjecture that he was indeed not contemporary with the Saint, but yet lived together with those who had been either contemporary with him or very near to him.
§ II. The Saint's country; the restoration of the monastery of Farfa; the year of his death.
[ ] St. Thomas, a Gaul by nation, was not a monk of Monte Cassino Concerning the parents of our Saint, and concerning his family or his early years, I have found nothing whatever committed to writing among writers either ancient or recent; yet all constantly affirm that he was a Gaul by nation, and most of them that his native place was Maurigena, by which word they will have designated the region of Maurienne in Savoy, then subject to the Gauls, and whose principal and episcopal city, under the archbishopric of Vienne, is likewise called Maurienne, by others Fanum S. Joannis de Mauriana, commonly Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. That he was a priest before he set out for Palestine our biographer hands down with the rest; but that he was a monk, Gregorio Romano alone in the manuscript Notices cited above says, beginning his summary of the deeds of St. Thomas in this manner: St. Thomas of Maurienne (who is set down as the first abbot of the monastery of Farfa) was a monk of Cassino; and when, after the destruction likewise of his own monastery of Cassino, he had betaken himself to the holy sepulchre of the Lord, and there was intent upon prayer and contemplation, he was on a certain night thus admonished by the most blessed Virgin: Go, Thomas, and restore my monastery in the Sabine country, which has now long lain destroyed. For my part I do not perceive whence Gregory drew such things, or why in the words reported at number 4 he testifies that what he writes may be had from the Chronicles of Farfa. Certainly of the monastic profession of St. Thomas in the monastery of Cassino there is not even mention in the Chronicle in Muratori; nay, the opposite is rather drawn from the following passages taken from it: But when it pleased the divine goodness that it (the monastery of Farfa) should be restored, holy Thomas, admonished by a revelation of the gracious Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, having discharged the office of a priest, returning to Italy from Jerusalem and the sepulchre of the Lord, whither he had journeyed from Gaul and the West, proved the marvellous finder and restorer of this sacred monastery.
[14] With these agree the things which the author of the Life hands down at number 3: before the restoration of the monastery of Farfa for he says that the Saint stayed three years at Jerusalem, and another three at Ephesus, and then, adding to these one year spent on so long a pilgrimage, concludes: And thus it came about that the time in which he set out from Gaul to the East, and stayed there, and in which he returned, filled up the space of seven years. Whence it is clear that the Saint only passed through Italy, and, having saluted at Rome the thresholds of the holy Apostles, pursued his journey into the East, as the aforesaid author of the Life writes at number 1. Gregorio Romano must therefore be said to have noted those things with little attention, or to have followed a Chronicle different from the Chronicle of Gregory of Catino and faulty. Faulty, I say; for although we grant it to be true that St. Thomas before his pilgrimage to the Holy Land professed the monastic life in Italy, it will not yet become probable that he dwelt in the monastery of Cassino while it was not yet destroyed, and after its destruction journeyed into the East, as the words of Gregorio Romano present it. For neither, amid so unanimous a silence of all writers, is it probable that the Saint had already for about a hundred years been a monk and a priest when he began to restore and govern the monastery of Farfa.
[15] about the year 680. Yet this would have to be admitted as true, if credit is to be given to Gregorio Romano. For the destruction of the monastery of Cassino happened, as very many contend and as Mabillon laboriously proves in tome 1 of his Annals, about the year 580; but the restoration of Farfa about 680, as is gathered from the Chronicle of this monastery. Take the words: The happy and glorious time of the most blessed Thomas aforesaid, abbot of this sacred monastery, gathering it more distinctly and clearly from the years of the Pontiffs and the times of the kings, and the successions of the abbots, and likewise the Indictions of the charter written out according to his own 35 years and 7 months and 5 days, during which he presided over this monastery rebuilt by him, we have found to have been about the years of the Lord's Incarnation, more or less, 680. This same year is noted in the Index of the dukes of Spoleto and the abbots of Farfa, which we said at number 3 begins thus: In the year 680, saint Thomas the abbot. But there are among writers those who think that the restoration of Farfa was begun in that year, and there are on the contrary those who think it was completed, and these indeed more conformably to the chronicler, who a little after the words just recited expressly asserts, In the year of Christ 677 … saint Thomas found and restored the monastery. Thus he in Muratori, tome 2, part 2 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, column 328. These are favoured by another Index of the abbots of Farfa, which the aforesaid Muratori prefixed to the same Chronicle at column 296, under this title: Here begin the Catalogues of all the abbots with their times, in which they presided: The first place there is given to St. Laurence the founder, the second to our Saint in this manner: But Thomas the venerable, after the destruction the first restorer of this monastery, priest and abbot in the times of the lord Pope Adeodatus, and of the Augusti Constantine and Tiberius, and of Pope John VI, and also of Gisulf duke of Benevento, or of Transmund and of his son Faroald, dukes of the duchy of Spoleto. He presided for 35 years, and 7 months, and 5 days. And he died on the fourth of the Ides of December in peace. For Pope Adeodatus, according to the reckonings of our Papebroch in his Conatus chronico-historicus, died in the said year 677, on the eighteenth day of May.
[16] But here a certain difficulty arises; for those times seem not to agree either with the words of the same Chronicle presently to be reported, a difficulty arising from this epoch, or with the things which are narrated in the Life at number 5 and following, and which, compressed into a summary, run thus: When St. Thomas with his companions had remained some days at the basilica of the blessed Virgin Mary which he had found, they began to grow faint-hearted, and to fear lest in a place open only to wild beasts and robbers they should be butchered, or certainly, when the provisions which they had brought failed, should perish of hunger. The holy Man consoled them, and promised that in a short time the divine providence would come to their aid; as indeed happened; for Faroald, who at that same time held the duchy of Spoleto with a great rule, being admonished by the most holy Virgin Mary, sent them a great abundance of provisions. So, in substance, the biographer. Which things indeed are hinted to have been done a little while after they had arrived there, as will more clearly appear to one who reads through the whole history of the event in the Life at the place cited. But this Faroald here designated, the second of that name, does not seem to have held the duchy of Spoleto until many years after six hundred and eighty; and accordingly it might be said that here an error was made in the name, and Faroald put for Transmund his father and predecessor, or that all these things happened much later than the chronicler writes, as seemed to Jacobilli, to be cited hereafter. Let us therefore see what has been handed down concerning the dukedom and times of Faroald by the writers of Italian affairs, and thence what may be more probably established concerning this difficulty.
[17] The father of Faroald was Transmund, first count of Capua, and from the age of Faroald then, on account of notable service rendered in war, obtaining the duchy of Spoleto from Grimoald king of the Lombards, his father-in-law; when he had compelled Constans the emperor of the Greeks to withdraw from the siege of Benevento, as Paul the deacon hands down in his Deeds of the Lombards, book 5, chapter 16, that is, about the year of Christ 663. Carlo Sigonio, in book 2 On the Kingdom of Italy, thinks that Transmund presided over the duchy of Spoleto down to the year 712. For having narrated the death of Aripert II, king of the Lombards, which by the common chronology is bound to that year, he continues thus: At the same time, Transmund duke of the Spoletans having died, his son Faroald succeeded. But to this author's opinion Paul the deacon just cited is opposed, in book 6, who indeed records the death of Transmund in almost the same manner in chapter 30, writing thus: Transmund duke of the Spoletans having died, Faroald his son was substituted in his father's place; yet he sufficiently hints that this was done earlier than Sigonio will have it; seeing that in the very next chapter he begins to relate in what manner Justinian the younger, having conquered and slain Tiberius Absimarus and Leontius, recovered the empire, which happened certainly seven years before the death of Aripert, of which for that reason Paul makes no mention until chapter 35. Filippo Argelati, in tome 2 of the Works of Sigonio, column 151, corrects in his Notes the passage of his which has been recited, and shows that Faroald succeeded his father about the year 703
both from Paul the deacon and from the Catalogue or Index of the dukes of Spoleto which we have several times alleged, where these things are noted: In the year 691, Transmund duke, father of Faroald. In the year 703, Faroald duke. The opinion of Argelati is altogether probable to me.
[18] duke of Spoleto But in what sense is it said in the Life of St. Thomas that Faroald held the duchy of Spoleto with a great rule and at the bidding of the holy Mother of God destined provisions for Thomas and his companions before the restoration of the monastery of Farfa, made, as we supposed above, about the year 680? Ludovico Jacobilli, in tome 1 On the Lives of the Saints of Umbria, among whom he numbers Faroald at the nineteenth day of February, calls him the restorer of the monastery of Farfa, and without doubt on account of the same difficulty judged that all these things happened much later, as I said just now. His words, rendered from the Italian into Latin, run thus: In the year of our Lord 702 (Faroald), desiring to set out for Rome with a great retinue, had the most blessed Virgin appearing to him in a dream, and saying to him that he should not go thither, but should use the expenses of the journey for supplying the necessaries of life to certain monks, inhabiting a desert place of his duchy, and wandering through the province of Sabina in the extreme want which they suffered; and moreover that he should restore their destroyed monastery. Faroald, being awakened, recognized that the aforesaid monks were those who dwelt beside the river Farfa in the monastery of Acutianum … Presently to those monks of the Order of St. Benedict, and especially to St. Thomas of Maurienne, abbot of the monastery, one of the said needy men, he sent provisions for a long time, and not a few gifts, and in the year 703 helped them with great alms to restore that (monastery) which had been destroyed by the Lombards. Thus Jacobilli.
[19] it is examined I confess that the matter could in this way be conceived to some extent, if indeed it depended solely on the beginnings of Faroald in the principate of Spoleto, probably deduced from Paul the deacon, and perhaps expressly stated in the Index of the dukes of Spoleto, where Faroald is set down as duke at the year 703. Perhaps, I say; for in the same place Transmund likewise is set down as duke at the year 691, in which his beginnings certainly cannot be expressed, since it is established from Paul the deacon that Transmund was given as duke to the Spoletans from about the year 663 by Grimoald his father-in-law. But, to pass over the rest, the aforesaid liberality of Faroald toward St. Thomas and his companions ought not to have been deferred by Jacobilli to the year 702, since he himself asserts at the beginning of the Life of Faroald that he governed the duchy from the year 691 together with his father Transmund; nor could it be deferred so long, unless credit be altogether denied both to the often-cited Index of the dukes and abbots, where St. Thomas is set down as abbot of Farfa in the year 680, and to the Chronicle of Farfa, which Jacobilli cites in the margin, where about the same year the monastery is written to have been restored by St. Thomas, and where the things which pertain to Faroald are thus set forth: Returning to Italy, he (St. Thomas) proved the marvellous finder and rebuilder of this sacred monastery, and when, like a new guest in this place now discovered, he was dwelling most poorly together with a few disciples, Faroald the glorious duke of Spoleto, being bidden in a dream by the blessed Mother of God, bestowed much upon the monastery of Farfa and directed expenses thither, and granted very many donations to this sacred monastery through pages of ordinance, which, by reason of the length of times and the carelessness of the keepers, are now for the most part not to be seen. To these, I say, credit must be denied, if the chronology of Jacobilli be true; for by what shadow of truth can St. Thomas be said to have settled at Farfa from the year 680, if, after he had stayed there some days, as the biographer says, like a new guest, Faroald relieved his want in the year 702? By the same right, and indeed with greater reason, the other passage of the said Chronicle and the second Index of the abbots of Farfa, whose words we recited at number 14, will have to be convicted of falsehood.
[20] Wherefore, that we may emerge from that difficulty, we shall enter upon another way than Jacobilli entered upon, and by a twofold reasoning and shall try to reconcile writers who differ among themselves, at least in appearance. I therefore set forth the matter thus, without longer reasoning. Transmund about the year 663, as we gather from Paul the deacon, took to wife the daughter of king Grimoald, and with her obtained the duchy of Spoleto. Therefore Faroald, the elder son of Transmund, even supposing that he was not begotten of some earlier wife of Transmund, could easily in the year 677 have reached the age of 13 or 14 years, advanced enough for him to plan a journey to Rome with a great retinue, and, admonished by the most holy Virgin, to call his mind away from it, to direct to St. Thomas the provisions destined for it, and, Transmund favouring his son's pious endeavours, to help him with many gifts to restore the monastery. As time went on, the number of monks increasing, he performed this more abundantly, both while his father lived and especially after his death; when moreover he willed that whatever donations and privileges had been granted to the monastery should be confirmed by public instruments, lest in the future troubles might be created for the monks. Hence it is permissible to suspect that it came about that the biographer, and after him the chronicler — of whom the latter wrote in the eleventh century, the former perhaps, as we noted at number 11, in the eighth or ninth — finding Faroald everywhere in the said instruments distinguished with the title of duke of Spoleto, and not distinguishing the times accurately enough, called him by the same title even when they were writing of those years in which he did not in fact yet hold the duchy.
[21] Moreover, what hinders us from believing that Faroald was taken into partnership of the principate by his father, who was taking thought for his heir it is dissolved. and wished to accustom his subjects to his rule, at that very time when he first relieved the want of our holy Abbot? Thus the aforesaid authors would have written rightly that all these things were done at the same time in which Faroald held the duchy of Spoleto with a great rule. Nor should you think that the passage of Paul the deacon alleged at number 16 has slipped my mind, where Faroald is written to have been substituted in his father's place when Transmund had died: for I do not see why Faroald, substituted for his father who died about the year 703 or 704, cannot be understood in this sense, that then for the first time he began to govern alone, and not subject to another's judgment, the subjects over whom he had before presided together with his father, to whose will he had to submit his own judgment in many things. The words from the first Index of the dukes of Spoleto, recited at number 17, being expounded in the same sense, whatever we have brought forward from ancient monuments concerning the time of the restoration of the monastery of Farfa remains safe and sound.
[22] The Saint's death, bound by many to the year 706, As the more ancient monuments do not give out the year of St. Thomas's birth, so neither do they express the year of his death: yet the modern writers thought they had attained it from the number of years in which the holy Abbot governed the monastery of Farfa. All conspire in this, that they assign as the first year of his rule the year of Christ 680, from which as from an epoch they deduce the last year of his life. But since the greatest part erred in the number of years in which our Saint ruled the monastery, they likewise erred in fixing the year of his death. Wion and Yepes, and following them Bucelin, Ferrari, Castellanus and others, bound his death to the year 706, supposing forsooth that the Saint did not preside over the monastery beyond twenty-six years, which whence they drew I do not perceive; Wion and Yepes indeed cite the Farfa Tables; but I cannot doubt that these were corrupted, or very negligently transcribed. For in all the more ancient monuments which we have hitherto mentioned, and in which the number of years is expressed, namely in the second Index of the abbots of Farfa, in the Life published in print by Mabillon, in the Lessons of the old Breviary in manuscript among us, and in the Chronicle in Muratori, it is constantly read that St. Thomas presided over his congregation for 35 years, and 7 months and 5 days.
[23] to be deferred to the year Hence Mabillon, who had likewise followed the aforesaid authors in Century 1 On the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, in the Life of St. Laurence the Illuminator, abandoned them in Century 3, part 1, being better instructed from the Acts of our Saint, in the Annotations to which he advised that his death must be deferred to the year 715, adding: Seeing that in the year 680 (as they will have it) Thomas began to restore the monastery of Farfa. Whence it is clear that this author computed the years of our Saint's presidency from the beginning of the restoration of the monastery. But, as I hinted at number 15, the opinion of those who place the beginnings of the restoration in the year 680 appears to me less probable, not only from the Chronicle of Farfa, where it is handed down that St. Thomas in the year of Christ 677 … found and restored the monastery, but also from the often-cited second Index of the abbots of Farfa, where he is said to have been priest and Abbot in the times of the lord Pope Adeodatus, who died about the year 677; therefore according to the manner of computing conceived by Mabillon, the Saint's life will not be able to be prolonged beyond the year 712. Which I wonder was not observed by the aforesaid author; since he himself had already committed to the press the Index last named, transcribed from the Cartulary of Farfa, in tome 1, part 2, of the Museum Italicum, and had consulted other ancient monuments of the said monastery before he turned his mind to writing the Annals of his Order; yet in these, in tomes 1 and 2, he keeps the same reckoning of times as in the Acts, and binds the Saint's death to the year 715.
[24] Yet I should not wish you thence to judge that it seems to me altogether certain 712 or 715 that the death of our Saint is to be fixed in the year 712; for it is doubtful whether the 35 years, 7 months and 5 days of his rule ought to be counted from the year 677, in which the restoration of the monastery was begun, or from the year 680, in which it is believed to have been completed. The latter is urged by the first Index of the dukes of Spoleto and the abbots of Farfa, which has it thus: In the year 680, saint Thomas abbot, and, In the year 716, Haunepert abbot. But since this Index does not accurately note the beginnings of the governments, as I proved at number 19, and since both from the Life and from the Chronicle it is established that the Saint from his very coming to the place of the destroyed monastery had companions or disciples subject to him, and moreover in the other Index of abbots he is named Abbot under Pope Adeodatus, I incline strongly to the former opinion also, and therefore I have fixed his death in the year 712 or 715. Here Saussay in his Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology has gone further astray than the other writers cited at number 22, when he wrote that St. Thomas departed from this life under Pope John V, who certainly did not prolong his life beyond the year 687.
[25] Less difficulty, nay none, is there in determining the day and the month the tenth day of December. on which the death of St. Thomas occurred. For it is expressly stated in the second Index of the abbots, in the Life, in the manuscript Lessons and in the Chronicle, in these words: And he died on the fourth of the Ides of December in peace. Hence, unless anyone should wish to suspect that a fault has crept into all these ancient monuments, which is not probable — hence, I say, Ferrari is to be corrected, who asserts that the Saint departed to the heavens on the fourth of the Ides of September,
without doubt because he had learned that he is venerated on this day; for the same reason Wion and Bucelin recall his deposition today, in which they too are to be corrected. And these are the things which we have judged should be set forth beforehand concerning St. Thomas; the rest of his deeds the studious reader will learn from the Life, which after our custom we subjoin illustrated with Notes, and from the fragment of the Life of the holy abbots of Volturno, Paldo, Tato and Taso, which, because it is longer than may be inserted into the Notes, we have thrown back into an Appendix.
LIFE
by an anonymous author,
From the edition of Mabillon.
Thomas, abbot of Farfa in the Sabine country (St.)
BHL Number: 8250
A. By an anonymous author
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's country; his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and return; his deeds for the restoration of the monastery of Farfa.
[ ] Having set out from Gaul, his country, to Rome, and thence to Jerusalem There was in Gaul a man of venerable life, Thomas by name; sprung, as others report, from the province of Maurienne. This holy Man discharged the office of the priesthood: to whom indeed the Lord deigned to inspire that he ought to go to Jerusalem to the sepulchre of the Lord and to the other holy places to adore there. Fired vehemently by this inspiration, having taken with him some disciples, he set out upon the journey of pilgrimage. And when, coming to Rome, he had adored the thresholds of the holy Apostles, he hastened as swiftly as he might to the places appointed. There were joined to him also religious men from Italy, namely Marcian, who afterwards held the bishopric of the church of Fermo a; and also Martyrius, who afterwards presided over a monastery at the church of blessed Peter b. For all these, bound by the bond of charity, took the road of a shared journey: who after very long marches at last arrive at the places they desired. Then therefore, fulfilling the vows of his desire, they adored the life-giving wood of the cross of Christ, and the venerable and glorious place of the sepulchre, and likewise visiting all the holy places of the dwelling and passion of Christ, they adored them in like manner. But Marcian and Martyrius, the aforesaid glorious [*] men, retracing their way, returned into Italy.
[2] But when the venerable Thomas had returned to the glorious sepulchre of the Lord, [he stays some time at the sepulchre of the Lord, and being admonished by the holy Virgin Mary] serving there three continuous years, he besought the Lord day and night with weeping and exceeding sorrow that he would deign of his clemency to direct him to the harbour of salvation. But because, according to the Lord's promise, Everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened, the Lord deigned to hear him as swiftly as might be. At length, as we have learned from the report of the fathers, while one night he was keeping vigil at the same sepulchre of the Lord, wearied with too many prayers and vigils he was overcome by sleep: and then the most blessed Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, deigned to appear to him in a vision and to question him, saying: What is it, Brother, that you are consumed with so great sorrow and weeping? Be steadfast, and act manfully, and the Lord will fulfil your desire. For you must return to the air of Italy: and when you have gone back thither, the Lord protecting you, seek in the province of Sabina, in the place which is called Acutianus, three cypresses of great height set together, beside which also you will find a basilica of fair beauty dedicated in my honour, a place which I am wont frequently to visit. And when you have found it, there you will complete the course of your life. In which place indeed there will never be lacking to you or to those after you anything of good: but you will there enjoy all the goods of the present life, and a copious multitude of brethren by your example will pass to the heavenly kingdoms. Now when the most blessed Virgin was unfolding these words by revelation to the venerable Thomas, carrying in her hand a loaf of wonderful size and whiteness she offered it to him, saying: Take this loaf, and go in safety. But know this, that you will never have less of it, but through the whole span of your life it will suffice you abundantly c. For thenceforth the divine goodness deigned to bestow on him so great a grace of compunction and of tears that he could say almost nothing of God without tears, and day and night, kindled with the desire of psalmody or of prayer, he poured forth sweet tears for God. For truly he could say with the Psalmist: My tears have been my bread day and night.
[3] He seeks Italy again, and being admonished a second time by the holy Virgin The venerable Man therefore, solicitous by reason of the admonition of the revelation, set out with all his company upon the journey of return to Italy: and coming to Ephesus he stayed at the sepulchre of the blessed evangelist John, where he spent another three years: and thus it came about that the time in which he set out from Gaul to the East, and stayed there, and in which he returned, filled up the space of seven years. But having returned into Italy, he was travelling through the province of Sabina d: and coming into the place which is called Cervinatia, he rested there a little while beneath a certain tree which still survives e; and it pleased him that a sacrifice should there be offered to God. And so, when the solemnities of the Mass had been performed, a heaviness seized him. Then indeed he ordered his disciples that, while he rested a little, if they had anything in their wallets for refreshing their bodies, they should prepare a table. For he said that he wished to set out speedily for Rome, that, having again adored the thresholds of the blessed Apostles, he might take the road for seeking again his own province.
[4] As soon as the most holy Man was overcome by sleep, again the blessed Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, [he stops with his companions at a basilica dedicated to her name which he had found,] with a glad and most kindly countenance, as is her way, appeared to him, saying: Behold, Brother, this is the place which I had promised you: now indeed be strengthened in the Lord, and be not faint-hearted. And again she showed him in the vision the three aforesaid cypresses, and said: Go, and beside these trees which you see you will find the basilica which I foretold to you, dedicated to my name: for remaining there you will find the best rest, and labour like a good soldier f, that you may receive the crown of life. And I will be always with you and with all yours, both present and to come, and a copious band of Brethren will be gathered to you, commending their souls to the service of almighty God. And when, awaking, he had reported these things to the Brethren, looking round about he saw not far off, toward the regions of the East, the three aforesaid cypresses, and rejoicing he said: Behold, in truth these are the trees just now shown in the vision: rise therefore, let us go to them. And they, fulfilling his commands, with much labour cutting down with their knives the thickets of thorns and brambles which had grown up there on the right hand and on the left, made their way thither: and entering the basilica they had looked for [*], they rendered boundless thanks to the Lord.
[5] And when they had passed some days there in the praises of God, whom, terrified by the harshness of the place, he strengthens. the aforesaid men of God began to grow faint-hearted, and to question him with great sorrow, saying: What shall we do, O venerable Father, when these provisions which we have brought in our bundles fail? For this place is open to none but wild beasts and robbers, by which robbers perhaps we shall be butchered. Whom the same venerable man Thomas, kindly cherishing, consoled, saying: I trust in the great bounty of almighty God and in the intercession of the most blessed Mother of God, Mary, that we shall neither suffer hunger here nor be destroyed by robbers; but his clemency will swiftly come to our aid, because he himself deigned to promise through the Prophet, saying: They that hope in the Lord shall not want any good thing: whose promises also will swiftly be fulfilled for us.
[6] For at that same time Faroald g held the duchy of Spoleto with a great rule. Faroald, duke of Spoleto, at the bidding of the Virgin Mother, He, at that time wishing to set out for Rome, ordered his equipage, in abundance of food and wine, to go before with laden men and beasts; intending on the morrow, as he purposed, to follow them himself with his fellow-soldiers. But the same holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, deigned to admonish him by night in a vision, saying: See that you desist from this journey, because it is inconvenient for you now to go to Rome, inasmuch as it is by no means expedient for you; but rather give your consent to my counsel, which will profit you better. For there is in the territory of Sabina a basilica dedicated to my name, in which indeed pilgrim monks dwell, who day and night serve God in hymns and prayers. Cause therefore all these supplies which you had ordered to go before to be carried thither, so that, helped by their prayers, you may have God favourable to you.
[7] sends provisions He, rising at once from sleep, set forth this revelation to his servants, and said to them: Search out who here is from the city of Rieti h. And they said that the assessor of that city, Castallus i, was there. Whom, being summoned, he began to question where in the Sabine country there was a church dedicated in honour of blessed Mary ever Virgin, in which pilgrim monks dwelt. And he said: Many basilicas in honour of blessed Mary ever Virgin are held to be built in the Sabine country, but in which of them is the dwelling of these monks or pilgrims I am wholly ignorant. Then he said: Go, and diligently cause search to be made where the pilgrim monks dwell, and all the provisions which I had ordered to go to Rome cause to be carried to them as swiftly as may be. And he, obeying his command at once, sent all those supplies to the Sabine country. And when his men were carrying the provisions already spoken of, and had come to the place which is called Pompeianus, they began to ask of the inhabitants of that place in what place a basilica had been built in honour of blessed Mary the Mother of God, where there was a dwelling of pilgrim monks. Who all with one voice answered, saying: We know indeed that there are many churches in honour of blessed Mary in the Sabine country: but where the dwelling of the Monks is, we altogether know not. Nevertheless we have heard from our fathers, who heard their fathers or grandfathers relate, that in the farmstead k which is called Acutianus, beside three cypresses, there is set a church of blessed Mary built with wonderful beauty, in which in old time, in the age of the Romans, there is said to have been a dwelling of monks; but now we know of no dwelling of men there. And saying these things they showed them, not far from that very place, the three aforesaid cypresses.
[8] to the Saint and his companions, And when they by no means knew how to go to that place, and could in no wise find the way, the laden beasts which they had with them began to go before them, and to make for the appointed place by a straight road: and following them they came to that very place. But before they had reached it, the Brethren heard a voice and a noise: and, struck with fear, they thought that an armed band of robbers was coming to destroy them. And straightway fleeing to the oratory, they complained to the venerable man Thomas, saying: Behold, Father, as we said, robbers are here who wish to kill us, and they took care to block up the door of the church. But those who were carrying the burdens, setting them before the doors of the church, caused the beasts to be unloaded. Then one of the same disciples of the venerable Man of God, looking through an opening of the door, saw that equipage set down before the doors of the church: and returning
he announced to the Father and to his companions that there was no evil at hand; but on the contrary that men had come laden with the most abundant provisions of food and wine carried on the backs of beasts and on their own shoulders.
[9] Then going out to them they took care to ask what those provisions were, or who had sent them thither. and confers gifts on the monastery. But they who had come, prostrate on the ground, strove to commend themselves to their prayers, and the first of them, by whom the provisions had been sent, said: Faroald the glorious duke of Spoleto, admonished by the blessed Mother of God Mary, has taken care to send a benefaction to your gracious holiness, asking that you deign to commend him to the Lord in your holy prayers. Then, the gifts being offered and the blessing of the Saints received, they returned home: and from that time onward the glorious duke himself took care very often to send them his gifts, and asked the aforesaid venerable man Thomas the abbot to come to him at Spoleto, and strove to commend himself to his holy prayers, and conferred a certain donation upon his monastery by his Ordinance.
ANNOTATA.
elsewhere, complentes* (fulfilling).
elsewhere, religiosi* (religious).
elsewhere, repertamque* (and having found).
CHAPTER II.
The increase of the monastery of Farfa; the Saint's dealings with SS. Paldo, Taso and Tato, founders of the monastery of Volturno, and his death.
[ ] Disciples flock to him. Three noble Beneventans, unknown to their parents, Therefore a, when the sanctity of the venerable Father, and the fame of his good odour, had been spread far and wide, men began to run together to him in rivalry, both from the nearest and from distant provinces, that under his mastership they might subject themselves to the service of the Lord, and might lead the monastic life in that monastery of the blessed Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary. At the same time there were at Benevento three men sprung of noble lineage b, near also by the right of kinship, one of whom had the name Paldo, the second Taso, and the third also was called Tato. These, begotten of two fathers — Paldo, namely, of one, and Taso and Tato of the other — being kindled with divine love, with one counsel and an equal vow determined to leave their country and their parents, and to strip themselves of the pomps of this world and its deceitful riches, so that they might attain to the true and heavenly wealth. They desired therefore to make their way into the provinces of the Gauls, that there, separated in body but not in mind, they might in various monasteries subject themselves to the service of almighty God.
[11] But since through the anxious care of their parents for them they could by no means fulfil this openly, thinking to go into Gaul to consecrate themselves to God they professed that they wished to go to Rome to adore the thresholds of the holy Apostles. For, having laden their beasts with the things which seemed to them necessary on the road, mounting their horses they set out upon the journey. When therefore they had traversed the bounds of Benevento, and had entered the province of the Marsi, dismounting from their horses they command their servants to take away the horses and all that they had brought with them and to return home. For they said that they had a heavenly vow that these three alone should go to Rome on their own feet. And when the servants had gone back, while the aforesaid soldiers were pursuing the journey they had begun, they met poor men having mean and filthy rags, on whom they bestowed their own precious garments, and were covered with their filthy and mean clothing.
[12] But going on by a straight road, they came in the Sabine country to the monastery of the blessed Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, he receives into hospitality, and having praised their purpose, in which the aforesaid man of venerable life, Thomas, then had the charge of governing. Who, when he had received the same soldiers of Christ into hospitality, went with the fathers according to his custom, that according to the Lord's precept he might wash their feet. At length, when he had seen their delicate and white limbs covered with filthy garments, and beholding their noble countenances, he understood that they were by no means common beggars, as they feigned. And when he had fulfilled the whole command of the Lord's work, he betook himself to his cloister. Early therefore in the morning he caused them to come to him secretly, and took care to question them subtly and gently, saying: Who are you, brothers, or whence have you come? I entreat you therefore that you ought not to hide from me the cause of your coming; for perhaps you are undergoing some judgment from the judges of this world; or else, as is wont to befall human frailty, having fallen into some crime you have fled. Believe me, he said, that so far as I shall be able I will strive to lend you support, if only you profess the plain truth. But they, seeing that their secret could by no means be hidden from the venerable Father, related to him in order all that they had done, and whence they were, and the cause of their coming, and their own names and their fathers'.
[13] Moreover they by no means hide from him that they wished to go to Rome and to seek the provinces of the Gauls, he accompanies them to Rome; adjuring him that he should in no way hinder their purpose. But he said: Far be it, O sons, that I should desire to call you back from a good purpose, but rather I wish to lend you aid. For as far as the thresholds of the blessed Apostles I will be the companion of your journey. The venerable Father wished to do this in order that by holy counsel he might call those religious men back from so long a journey, as indeed he did. Which we by no means doubt was done by God's will. And when the same men had come to Rome with the blessed man Thomas, they committed their devotion with tears to the suffrages of the Apostles.
[14] Now there was at Rome at that same time a certain aged woman, and brings them back to his own monastery. a religious widow, who with her whole house served in the practice of hospitality. And as often as the venerable Thomas went to Rome for the sake of prayer or to greet the Pontiff, he had been accustomed to have lodging in her house: in which also he then lodged with the aforesaid men c. When therefore the prayer had been performed (as we related above), he began to admonish them with persuasive words that they ought to return with him to the monastery, so that by seeing and by doing they might learn the purpose of his institute, and thenceforth, whither the Lord should wish to direct them, might go the more safely, being now instructed. For he addresses them with words of this kind: Hear, he says, O dearest sons, my counsel, and let it not irk you to return with me to the monastery of the blessed Mother of God Mary, over which by the Lord's bounty I am seen to preside. And although it be outside the usage of our monastery, yet on account of the ardour of your praiseworthy desire I will cause you to be received within, so that you may share the common table with the Brethren, and may sleep in the same house where they sleep, and may attend together at the divine office, and go out likewise to the labours of the hands, that, imbued with their instruction, you may be able to know in what order a monk ought to live in a monastery. And when the venerable Father had pursued these things and things like them with sweet admonition, the aforesaid men gave him their assent: and so they returned with him to the monastery.
[15] Found by their parents, Therefore when all these things (as we have said) had been done, it happened that the father of the two brothers,
that is, of Taso and Tato, together with the rest of their kinsfolk, to run about hither and thither in anxious search for them, and to come to Rome: where, while they were diligently searching for them through monasteries and churches and the houses of individuals, they entered the house of the religious widow of whom we made mention above; whom, questioning her anxiously, and describing their appearance and marks, they received from her this [*] answer: These men whom you seek I have received into hospitality in this house of mine with the venerable father Thomas: for you will without doubt find them in the Sabine country in the monastery of blessed Mary, where he holds the government. And they, hearing this, were made exceedingly glad, being driven as they were by the goads of great love, and hastening at a swift pace to the aforesaid monastery, earnestly asked the aforesaid Father that he would order them to be presented to their sight.
[16] and unmoved by their complaints But the venerable man of the Lord, Thomas, having compassion on their griefs, admonished with persuasive words the aforesaid religious men, namely Paldo, Taso and Tato, that they ought to go out to speak with their kinsfolk. And when they refused to do this, compelling them by his authority he persuaded them to obey his commands. And when they had come in to them, their kinsfolk began to upbraid them: Why, they said, O most beloved sons, did you wish to leave us, reckoning us as dead, and abandon the care of our souls? Is there indeed no feeling of affection in you, and no compassion of kinship? For we are ready to be converted to the Lord and to leave the world utterly: therefore we ask you, and we adjure you by the Lord the maker of heaven and earth, that you do not forsake us, but rather return with us; otherwise know that we shall be required at your hand. But they, counting their words and tears and sobs as nothing, were moved by no affection at all; but said that they would set out for the Gauls, as they had vowed to the Lord.
[17] Then indeed the venerable man of the Lord, Thomas, the Holy Spirit speaking in him, he himself calls them away from the journey into Gaul, addresses them with these words: O most beloved sons, he says, hear my counsel, and do not distrust God's mercy. For if it shall please you to receive my admonitions with the ear of the heart, by the example of your good working many will pass to the heavenly kingdoms. Therefore, O dearest ones, listen to my wholesome words, and do not despise the prayers of your kinsfolk. For if you will, I shall show you a place in which you may be able to fulfil the vows of your desire. For I trust in the Lord's clemency and abounding goodness that there you will bring forth good fruit and acceptable to the Lord. For indeed the same Man of the Lord, when he had returned from the parts of the East to Italy, had made his way through the province of Samnium, in which, namely, above the bank of the river Volturno, about a thousand paces from the place where it takes its beginning, he found an oratory dedicated in honour of blessed Vincent the martyr, which a most dense wood on either side of the river also encompassed, and there was no dwelling there except the lairs of wild beasts and perhaps of robbers.
[18] Desiring to direct the aforesaid men to that place, and persuades them to withdraw to the river Volturno; he gave them this indication of the place which we have described above, and admonished them to hasten thither as swiftly as they might, saying: Go, O most valiant athletes of Christ, go in safety, and in that same place fix the step of your journey: for almighty God is able to keep you unharmed in that same place from every evil, and to render all who travel by that road safe from the fear of robbers. But I will receive for you from the prince of that land an ordinance of security, and will take care to restore you to his favour. Softened therefore by these and admonitions of this kind, they call back their minds from the intention of going to the Gauls which they had conceived, and, attending as it were to Christ speaking in the venerable Man, and having received his blessing, they set out on the journey to that place. And not long after, as the same man of the Lord, Thomas, had promised, being kindled with an exceeding love of charity, he set out on foot to Benevento for their sake.
[19] For at that same time Gisulf d, a man of note, held the princedom of the duchy: [where by Gisulf duke of Benevento, to whom he appears in a vision with the Blessed Virgin Mary,] to whom on a certain night the holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, deigned to appear in a vision together with the same venerable man Thomas, and commanded him, saying: See that whatever this pilgrim shall ask of you, you by no means deny him: because he is a holy man, and will pray for you. And saying this she departed. And the same duke in the morning, rising from his couch, gave command to his servants, saying: Go, he said, and search before the doors of this palace, if perchance you may be able to find a certain pilgrim man clothed in a monastic habit, and he is comely of aspect and bald; whom, when you have found him, hasten to bring in to me with honour. And the servants, going out, at once find him standing before the gates of the palace, and, as had been commanded them, they led that holy Man to duke Gisulf: whom presently, as soon as he saw him, recognizing him from the vision, he straightway rose from his throne, and prostrating his whole body upon the ground, doing him reverence, said: The gracious Mother of God, Mary, showed you to me this night in a vision. Now therefore, whatever shall please you, ask of me, and I devoutly and most willingly will grant it to your holiness.
[20] But he said: One little petition I ask of your highness's goodness. he obtains a place for building a monastery. For there is in the province of Samnium above the bank of the river Volturno a certain place reduced to solitude, where there is no dwelling of men, and there is held to be built an oratory in honour of the blessed martyr Vincent: which place indeed I beseech that the bounty of your goodness may deign to grant to me, so that there may be there a dwelling of monks, and that for this a great reward may accrue to your goodness with the Lord. Which petition indeed the duke himself, receiving it gladly, answered with a cheerful countenance, saying: Behold, Father, that very place which you ask shall from this hour remain in your power, and receive from me an ordinance of security concerning it. Which ordinance indeed he ordered to be drawn up, and, when it had been confirmed, delivered it into his power: and the aforesaid e men, namely Paldo, Tato and Taso, the man of the Lord, Thomas, restored to the favour of that same duke, and hastened with them to that same place. There too, staying some days, he gave them many admonitions of salvation, and showed them in what place they ought to build the refectory and the dormitory and the reception-house for guests, and all the buildings which were necessary.
[21] he sets Paldo over it, and dies holily. Paldo also, who was gentler than all, he chose to preside over them in the government. But the most reverend man of the Lord, Thomas, returned to the Sabine country to his own monastery, carrying with him the ordinance which duke Gisulf had given him. But the aforesaid men and their successors for many courses of years f used at fitting seasons to come to the monastery of the holy Mother of God Mary, and to keep their weeks in the office of the kitchen, as the other brethren did, in that same monastery, and by the disposition of the lord abbot Thomas and of his successors the monastery of saint Vincent itself was ordered. The venerable Thomas therefore, when in his monastery through long spaces of years he had given his disciples the example of a holy manner of life, being now an old man and full of days, passed to the Lord: and his body was buried by his disciples in the basilica of blessed Mary the Mother of God. For he presided over this holy congregation for 35 years and 7 months and 5 days g. And he died on the fourth of the Ides of December in peace.
ANNOTATA.
* something is redundant.
* this.
APPENDIX.
Thomas, abbot of Farfa in the Sabine country (St.)
BY J. P.
[ ] The deeds of St. Thomas with Paldo, Taso and Tato from St. Ambrose Autpert. However clearly the deeds of St. Thomas with SS. Paldo, Taso and Tato have been described in the Life of him already given, yet I judged that I should do something pleasing to the curious reader if I set the same before his eyes from St. Autpert, both that by making a comparison with these he may conjecture how faithfully our biographer wrote the rest of the Saint's deeds, and that he may learn from honourable testimonies how great was the esteem of St. Thomas with the aforesaid writer. And so St. Ambrose Autpert, abbot of the monastery of Volturno, who flourished a little after our Saint, having died namely in the year 778, as our Cuper proved at the day
19th of July in the preliminary Commentary to his Acts — Autpert, I say, having narrated the departure of SS. Paldo, Taso and Tato from their country, thus relates their coming to our Saint.
[2] Having begun their journey, as they go on they come to the monastery of the glorious Mother of God Mary which is in the Sabine country, The three young men, purposing to go into Gaul in which the man of venerable life, father Thomas, presided. Of whom I have heard from many that formerly, when he was established in the parts of the East, as he himself related, he gave himself to prayer at the sepulchre of the Redeemer so long, until he obtained what he asked in his prayers; at length, as they assert, on a certain night, when he was wearied with prayers and overcome by sleep, there stood by him a certain one bearing in his hand a loaf of wonderful beauty, to whom also he said: Take this loaf and depart; and know that you will never have less of it. For thenceforth, as they say who saw him, the Man was of such compunction that he could say almost nothing of God without tears.
[3] He, when he had received the aforesaid servants of God into hospitality, as is the manner of monks and of good Christians, St. Thomas receives them most kindly into hospitality, goes with the brethren, as was his custom, to wash their feet according to the Lord's precept. But those who had come were covering delicate and white limbs with mean and filthy garments, and presented an elegant and composed aspect of countenance. Wherefore neither could their secret be hidden from the eyes of the Man of God. And so, the office of charity being performed and the course of the night passed, when dawn was giving beginning to the day, he asked them apart with gentle speech who they were, whence, and why they had come, lest perchance they were suffering some prejudgment, lest, having committed the crime of some sin, they were fleeing, promising that he would furnish them help in what he could: only let them declare why it had so pleased them to take up so great a dissimulation.
[4] and, their purpose being detected, At this they, astonished, seeing that their counsel could not be hidden from the Elder, having taken counsel, relate all things in order, who they were, whence, why they had come, and how they wished to go to Rome and thence to seek the regions of the Gauls: binding him with many adjurations that he should not himself be a hindrance to their purpose. At this the venerable Old Man, groaning, said: By no means, O sons, do I desire to hinder you in this so praiseworthy purpose, but rather to help you: nor will I meanwhile leave you. I will go with you for some while; you shall have me as the companion of your journey as far as the thresholds of the Apostles. But the Man full of God longed to become a sharer of their journey for this reason, that he might, as indeed he did, call them back by his saving counsels from the length of that journey. That this was done by God's providence no one is ignorant who beholds this monastery.
These by their look, their form, their gift of learning, he knows; The gracious Father cheers them with counsel, lifts them with service, Lest they should fear; may they favour it, and may the high labour lie open and easy.
[5] having accompanied them to Rome Meanwhile they go on together, as was the Old Man's will, and, many tears being shed, they committed their devotion to the suffrages of the Apostles. But when the prayer was completed, the aforesaid Father of reverend memory began to admonish them with persuasive words that they should return with him to the monastery: and, staying with him some while, should learn by seeing and doing the purpose of his institute, and then at last hasten whither the Lord should wish to call them. And, to use his own words: Hear, he says, O sons, my counsel. Return with me to the monastery which I serve, and on account of the ardour of your desire, although it be outside the usage of the monastery, I will receive you within, that you may eat together with the brethren, sleep together, give yourselves together to prayer, and go out together to the labour of the hands: that, being tried by these exercises, you may know by what ways you may be able to fulfil the purpose of a monk. When he had said these things and things like them, they gave their assent, and returned together with him to the monastery, in which, staying a few days, they were fully instructed.
Behold, they seek thee together, while they seek the thresholds of Peter, O Rome exceeding blessed, both the brothers and the faithful Old Man, Whom the very ship of faith bears and draws along the shores.
[6] he leads back to his monastery, and, when they have been found by their kinsfolk Now it came about that, while the father of the two brothers, namely of Tato and Taso, with the rest of their kinsfolk were seeking them hither and thither, they came to Rome at a most rapid pace. And when they were diligently seeking them, and by no means found them there, they hear from persons saying that they were in the Sabine country, in the monastery of the glorious Mother of God Mary. Then they, driven by the goads of a greater love, as it were flying over the space of that journey, came to the aforesaid monastery, and asked of the aforesaid Father of the monastery that they might be presented to their sight. But the venerable Old Man, persuasive as he was in speech, admonished them to come out. But when they resisted, he compelled them to obey him who commanded. And when they had come out, and their kinsfolk saw them, they began to weep vehemently, and with lifted voice said to them: Why have you left us sinners as though we were dead? Why have you forsaken the care of our souls? Is there no feeling of affection in you, no compassion of kinship? We beseech you, they say, we beseech you, and by God the maker of heaven and earth we entreat you, that you forsake us not: because we are ready to be converted to Christ and to leave the world utterly. But if not, we call heaven and earth to witness that our blood will be required by God at your hand.
[7] At whose words and tears and sobs, when they were by no means moved by affection, [and unmoved by their prayers, he himself calls them away from the journey into Gaul] and said that they would seek the Gauls, as they had promised God, therefore [*], as we now openly recognize, the Old Man is reported to have said to them with his voice: Trust, he says, sons, trust, and presume upon God's mercy: for if now you shall lend the ear of obedience to my admonitions, many by the example of your action shall enter the heavenly kingdom. Hear, he says, sons of men, hear the counsel of your Father, and do not scorn the prayers of these. I will show you, if you will, a place prepared for you by God. For I hope in the Lord that there God will fulfil your desire, and there will make fruit acceptable to God. But receive the indication of the place, and hasten to it as swiftly as you may.
Not by admonitions did the Father, nor the parents by groaning, move these; But [*] rightly declaring that they despised country and kindred, Spurning soft things, bearing hard things for Christ.
[8] But there is, dearly beloved, a place to which I desire you to go, in the parts of Samnium above the bank of the river Volturno, showing them a place fit for a dwelling. about a thousand paces from where it takes its beginning, in which place, namely, is situated an oratory dedicated to the name of Vincent, martyr of Christ: but on either side of the river a most dense wood, which affords only a dwelling of wild beasts and lairs of robbers. But the almighty Lord, to whom you desire to render service, both will keep you unharmed in that same place, and will make it peaceful and safe from the fear of robbers for all who travel by that road, and moreover will make it abound with cherry trees, with thickets and briars, and with fruit-bearing trees. Go, he says, sons, and remain in that same place without fear of anyone.
The Father bids them go, and shows them places passable by none, With many trees, fair ones, which crown the streams, With mountains, and with winds; they are cold with dismal snows.
[9] The same things which St. Autpert relates, Softened therefore by these and things of this kind from the rigour of their obstinacy, attending as it were to Christ speaking in the Elder, and remembering the Apostle's saying, Let each of you look not on the things that are his own, but on the things of another, they call back their minds from what they had begun, and, having received his blessing, set out upon the journey, and come to this place which we inhabit, etc. Thus far, according to Mabillon's edition collated with Muratori's, St. Autpert; who in his Prologue in Muratori, declaring the cause why he writes, plainly hands down what was said of his age at number 1 of this Appendix: For this I do, he says, not impelled by the daring of rashness, but following the admonitions of my abbot, and I pursue with my pen only those things concerning which there still exist witnesses who affirm that they heard them from them (SS. Paldo, Taso and Tato).
[10] another writer, older than he, also narrates Further, to the Life written by St. Autpert there is subjoined in the aforesaid Muratori a second Life of SS. Paldo, Taso and Tato, in which altogether the same things, at least as to substance, are recorded concerning our Saint, and whose author thus indicates himself and his age in the Prologue: All these things which I am about to tell were related to me, Peter, priest and monk, in order by my most kindly father, my lord abbot Taso. Whence you may conjecture that he was earlier than St. Autpert, since Taso, as we have said, certainly died before the year 740, nay perhaps before 730. But that this Life was afterwards interpolated becomes evident from the fact that, before mention is made in it of Gisulf duke of the Beneventans, of whom our biographer speaks at number 19, certain things are reported concerning the union and mutual charity between the monks of Cassino and of Volturno down to the times of Angellarius abbot of Cassino, which name the men of Cassino did not have for an abbot until about the year of Christ 883.
AnnotataMuratori, prophetica* (prophetic).
Muratori, se*.