ON ST. AMATUS OF REMIREMONT, ABBOT OF HABEND,
IN LORRAINE
Perhaps in the year 625.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Amatus, abbot of Habend or Remiremont in Lorraine (St.)
BY J. P.
§ I. The saint's Acts to be given here; the chronology of his life up to the building of the monastery of Habend.
[ ] An account of the monastery of Remiremont or Habend, by which name there once went a twofold community, namely of men and of virgins, The epoch of the foundation of the convent of Habend to be drawn out founded and instituted by St. Romaricus together with St. Amatus, its first abbot, we gave, so far as it was permitted us to attain from ancient monuments, in tom. III of the month of September at the 11th day, in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Adelphius, its third abbot;
and in the Appendix on his Posthumous Glory, subjoined to the Acts, we brought forward many things and discussed them in such a way that the reader may know what we think about the time and occasion of the translation of the mentioned old monastery from the holy Mount, where it was situated, to the valley lying below beyond the river Moselle, where now exist the town of Remiremont and the most illustrious college of canoness virgins. Besides, we said in the same Commentary that the foundation of that same old monastery is everywhere fixed about the year of Christ 620; but because to prove this last point at that time seemed little to our purpose, we signified that it should be shown more fully when it should come to treating of St. Amatus, from whose deeds chronologically deduced it would be more easily perceived.
[2] This matter would have been settled in few words and sufficiently proved, from the chronology of the life of St. Amatus. if the instrument of foundation deserved credit which Rosières published under the name of St. Romaricus in the book entitled Of the Stemmata of the dukes of Lorraine and Bar, and which Ruyr adopted in the Sacred Antiquities of the Vosges, and Meurisse in the History of the bishops of Metz; where the same Romaricus, after he had said that he had prepared a place for religious men on Mount Romberg, and had there built a monastery of nuns, testifies that he transfers his goods to the monastery in these words: I give and grant freely and purely, because I desire to serve God, my whole patrimony: namely the county of Avendunum, to be held in the same manner, form, authority, and ownership in which my father and I held it. And this gift was made on the fourth of the Nones of March, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 620, Clothar, glorious king of the Franks, reigning. The witnesses are Arnoald, bishop of Metz, etc. But this instrument the learned everywhere reject as corrupted in many places, or rather as wholly forged; who nevertheless retain the chronological character, tying the foundation to about the year 620 — and rightly indeed, as will be clear from the Acts of St. Amatus, to which I proceed.
[3] The Life, from various copies Surius published them in tom. 3 at the 13th day of September, and after him Mabillon in the second Benedictine Century, but enlarged and restored from a manuscript codex of André Duchesne. We too have three manuscript transcripts of them, of which the first is noted as copied from the codex of St. Maximin of Trier, conformable to Mabillon's edition, if you except some small points; the second, collated with the manuscript codices of Remiremont and of Trier, as Fr. Pierre-François Chifflet notes in the margin, who sent it to us, without however marking the codex whence it was drawn. This differs somewhat more from Mabillon's edition and from the transcripts just named and not published, although almost in phrasing alone; but the third, which was received from a codex of St. Saviour's of Utrecht, differs very much from all the rest, except Surius'. For it lacks the author's little preface, prefixed to the rest; besides, it very much curtails things sometimes narrated more fully in the others, and omits not a few circumstances of the matters. Yet it keeps the same order of the deeds — nay, it clings everywhere so much to the same words that I doubted at first whether this had been extracted in summary from those, or those extended according to this by an interpolator.
[4] collated with one another, to be given here But a diligent collation having been made, I judged it more probable that they are mere omissions in the Utrecht one; for first, the style everywhere seemed to me the same; secondly, I noticed that from the said omissions there arises here and there a confusion of the senses and an obscurity of the things narrated; thirdly and finally, I somewhat suspected that another than the first author had put his hand to it, from no. 6, where, a miracle being related of water obtained through the saint from a struck flint, the author thus proceeds: This (leaden cistern built at the said flint) I saw filled with water, continually bursting forth. Which the Utrecht one, in this one place fuller than the rest, thus expresses: This therefore, filled with water continually bursting forth, he saw who first wrote the Life and Legend of the saint. I know indeed that it is not infrequent among authors to designate themselves in the third person; but since no one before the author of whom I shall presently treat seems to have collected the deeds of St. Amatus, that word first and what follows were, as it appears to me at least, added by a later writer. And so I shall give the Life from the Trier manuscript and Mabillon's edition collated with the other manuscripts; and where they differ both among themselves and especially from the Utrecht one, I shall inform the reader. For the rest, the edition of Surius plainly agrees with the Utrecht manuscript, but after his custom the style has been changed; and therefore doubtless Mabillon called his own enlarged and restored.
[5] The author is anonymous, and, as is the common opinion of writers on this matter, it was written by a contemporary. the same monk who consigned to writing the deeds of SS. Romaricus and Adelphius; and of this last I was persuaded not only by the similarity of style, but chiefly by his silence concerning the disagreement of SS. Amatus and Romaricus with St. Eustasius of Luxeuil and concerning other things pertaining thereto, which are studiously passed over in the Acts of both. We shall give these below from the Life of the mentioned St. Eustasius. Hence it follows that the author lived in the same century as St. Amatus, inasmuch as in the Acts of SS. Romaricus and Adelphius he manifestly signifies that he was nearly their contemporary; but that he lived with St. Amatus is not sufficiently clear. He has indeed some things in his Acts whence you might conjecture this also, especially at no. 5, where, after he has narrated that, while a cell was being built for the saint in the wilderness, a beam that was too short was divinely lengthened, he testifies that he saw it lengthened; but he could have seen it long after the saint's death, since it was carefully preserved on account of the miracle. Besides, since he wrote the Acts of St. Adelphius three years after his death — which others write happened about the year 670, and we certainly after 665 — more than forty years had already flowed by since the death of St. Amatus, and nearly sixty since the miracle of the lengthened beam, which we shall show happened about the year 610 — probably more, if Clido, by whose command he says in the preface that he wrote the life of St. Amatus, was abbot of the convent of Habend, as by conjecture Mabillon with others judges in his Preliminary Observations; for to St. Adelphius was substituted abbot Garichramnus, whom only the mentioned Clido could have succeeded. However the matter be, from what has already been observed it is sufficiently gathered that the author was not much later than the saint; and that he was not ignorant of his deeds is clear from the sequence of the things narrated.
[6] The stock, native land, and parents of St. Amatus he sets forth in this brief sentence: Born about the year 570, from youth in the monastery of Agaunum Born of noble parents, sprung of Roman stock, in a suburb of the city of Grenoble (which is the capital of Dauphiné in Gaul) a boy of excellent disposition came forth, his father namely being Heliodorus, resting on the religion of the highest Christianity. He does not mark the year of his birth; yet that it can be placed neither much before the year 570 nor much after it we attain by probable conjecture from the rest of the context of the Life, considered chronologically. To the words recited the biographer presently subjoins the following: When therefore that most devout man (Heliodorus) had vowed his son Amatus to hand him over to monastic watches, the youth is offered, to be given up to the thresholds of blessed Mauritius (the convent of Agaunum in the Valais), as a gift acceptable to God. Without delay, after a space of time, being trained from earliest years among the scholars, he is held the first in good things. Then he adds that the saint, when he had given himself wholly to the monastic rules for nearly thirty years, out of desire for a greater solitude withdrew secretly into the wilderness, not far distant from the convent, and there, the abbot consenting and the brethren helping, built himself a cell, in which he had stayed nearly three years, when St. Eustasius, setting out for Italy and passing that way, visited him.
[7] But Eustasius went on into Italy about the year 613, and lives in solitude until 614; being sent thither by Clothar II, who had then obtained the monarchy of the Frankish kingdom, that he might invite St. Columban, who was in exile in Italy, to return into Gaul. If therefore you subtract three years, St. Amatus began to dwell in the wilderness about the year 610; if from this thirty others, he was given to monastic discipline about the year 580; if finally, as appears to me most likely, you add to the said thirty years of monastic life the time in which he was among the scholars of Agaunum, he can be supposed to have been born within about the years 568 and 572. For since he is said to have been trained from earliest years among the scholars, he had, in my judgment at least, reached his eighth year and had not passed his twelfth when he was joined to the monks of Agaunum. But let us pursue the remaining thread of his life, that we may come to the year in which the convent of Habend was built. St. Eustasius, whom St. Columban — on the testimony of Jonas, the biographer of both — had for a while kept with him in the monastery of Bobbio, returned into Gaul to carry his master's answers to king Clothar; and turning aside again to the convent of Agaunum, as our biographer testifies, and visiting St. Amatus, brought it about that, leaving the wilderness, he hastened with him to Luxeuil, and there passed his life among the monks; which things are not ineptly fixed at the year of Christ 614.
[8] hence he passes to Luxeuil and with St. Romaricus Our saint, having stayed some time at Luxeuil, was directed by the brethren, says our author, to traverse certain cities of the Austrasians; for much grace of preaching flourished in him. On the occasion of that excursion he fell in with St. Romaricus, and persuaded him to carry out the resolution he had conceived of bidding farewell to the world; who not many days after — the words are again our biographer's — despising riches and worldly things, his head being shorn for the service of his Lord, handed himself over to be trained in monastic rules. More fully and more clearly he describes this withdrawal and manner of living among the monks of Luxeuil in the Life of St. Romaricus in Mabillon, second Benedictine Century, p. 417. Finding the man (Romaricus), he says, he exhorts him that, his head being shorn and his goods scattered among the poor, as a treasure laid up for himself in heaven, he should now go on to more perfect things. Hearing which, he, as he was wholly filled with holy desire, sought the monastery of Luxeuil with the substance of many goods — many, namely, having first obtained freedom from service — and there received holy humility and obedience to be followed for Christ's sake. And finally he joined to himself as companions most of those little servants whom he had before had as ministers, shearing them; and he became the subject of those whose most powerful lord he had before been. For he submitted himself to so great a yoke of humility and penance that whatever was despicable to be done in the monastery, he himself took up. Yet, being more frequently than the other brethren a worker in the gardens, he continually committed the Psalms to memory.
[9] the monastery of Habend Hence the same author proceeds to the beginnings of the convent of Habend or Remiremont; thus in the Life of St. Romaricus: For when he (St. Romaricus) had reserved one estate only for a good work that should profit, counsel thereupon being taken, blessed Amatus goes with him to build a monastery of maidens. For many maidens being gathered together, hastening into the wilderness, they establish a holy work. Thus
but in the Life of our saint: Being duly instructed in these (monastic rules, as he had said above) at the same time, the counsel of almighty God without doubt working it, the holy master Amatus and his disciple Romaricus, under great sanctity and with the most religious intention of the highest perfection, found a monastery of maidens. The same things briefly, but no less clearly for our purpose, Jonas, a contemporary writer, reports in the Life of St. Eustasius among us, tom. III of March, p. 789, writing thus: Coming to Luxeuil, he (Romaricus) submitted himself to the monastic institution; and when he had long led his life there under the regular discipline, afterward, Eustasius consenting, he set up a monastery of maidens on his own property, and imposed the Rule of Columban to be kept.
[10] It has seemed good to recite these things here more fully, that the reader may perceive he founds it about the year 620. that no less than five or six years passed between St. Amatus' crossing from the solitude of Agaunum to the monastery of Luxeuil about the year 614, and the beginnings of the convent of Habend, which we have noted are rightly placed by the moderns about the year 620. Nor should you say that those beginnings cannot indeed be placed long before the aforesaid year, but can and perhaps must be placed long after — since, on Jonas' testimony, they only set about founding the monastery when Romaricus had long led his life among the monks of Luxeuil under the regular discipline. For Jonas himself forbids those words being stretched too far: first, by asserting that it was founded with Eustasius consenting, who departed from among the living in the year 625; secondly, by narrating the deeds of Agrestinus or Agrestius, a most wicked monk, who, after he had stayed some time in the monastery of Habend with SS. Romaricus and Amatus, and had drawn them to his own side, deceived by a painted appearance of virtue and by hidden machinations, perished unhappily while Eustasius still survived; thirdly, by recording a certain disagreement between Eustasius and Amatus and Romaricus, on occasion of the government of the monastery of Habend, already then begun when Agrestinus betook himself thither. The history of this man — because SS. Amatus and Romaricus had a notable part in it — I shall exhibit in the following paragraph, first reduced to a summary, and then, so far as it concerns them, in the very words of Jonas.
§ II. Certain deeds, omitted by the saint's biographer, are supplied from the Life of St. Eustasius, and examined.
[ ] Agrestinus, a wicked monk, What Jonas narrates more fully in the Life of St. Eustasius, in the volume cited above from p. 788, concerning Agrestinus, contracted into a summary is as follows: Agrestinus, from a notary of king Theuderic become a monk of Luxeuil, asked license to preach the Gospel of God to the nations, and at last extorted it from St. Eustasius the abbot, who at first resisted and rebuked him for believing himself, a raw recruit as yet in religion, equal to such a task. He went to the Bavarians, then heretics, and brought back no fruit; hence he passed over to the Aquileian schismatics, and, being himself infected with their schism, returned to Luxeuil; where he tried to pour his errors into others, and against Eustasius himself, by whom he was admonished in vain to come to his senses, and was driven out of the monastery. He then began to tear at and assail the Rule of St. Columban, which Eustasius bravely defended against him in the third synod of Mâcon (celebrated about the year 623, as most now judge, on account of the year of Eustasius' death); where at last the same saint addressed the man thus: In the presence of these men I, the disciple and successor of him whose discipline and institutes you condemn, invite you to plead with him (St. Columban) before the divine judgment within the circuit of the present year, that by the examination of the just Judge you may feel whose servant you seek to stain with your detractions.
[12] seduces SS. Amatus and Romaricus; Agrestinus, perceiving his followers so convinced by the reasonings of Eustasius and so struck by that challenge that with every effort they urged him to peace with Eustasius, feignedly asked for it and obtained it, and a little after betook himself to the monastery of Habend. But what he contrived here, receive in the very words of Jonas, who, after the things recited above at no. 9, thus continues: And when he (Romaricus) was now strong in much religion, Agrestinus goes to him, and feigns himself subject and obedient, and at the same time tries Amatus, whom Eustasius had set there to instill the Rule, with soft taunts. For at that time, some things being neglected, both Amatus and Romaricus had been reproved by Eustasius. When therefore he perceived them wounded, that he might more easily join their exasperated minds to his own assertions, he goaded sound minds to receive his venomous words, and to spread his own madness in contempt of the Rule of Columban. Alas! A vessel of destruction, furnished with a deadly steeping, stained sound minds with diabolical madness. And they, casting away their former institutes, tried to instruct the people with raw doctrines; and, the serpent being drawn out according to Job, the divine hand acting as midwife, they do not fear to bring it back again by the zeal of envy.
[13] he is repulsed by St. Burgundofara; Then he directs his journey to Burgundofara, that he might, if he could, stain her with his goadings. Whom the virgin of Christ confounded, not after a womanly manner but with a man's \ answer: "Have you," she said, "the confuter of truth and the introducer of new arguments, come hither for this, that you might pour over sweet honey your poison, and exchange life-giving nourishment for deadly bitterness? Do you detract from those whose virtues I have always acknowledged, whose wholesome doctrine I have received, from whose teaching I have learned that many have entered the heavenly kingdoms? I would have you remember the saying of Isaiah: Woe to him that calls evil good and good evil — and let him depart at once and in haste from this madness."* He is confuted therefore by these answers of the handmaid of Christ, and goes back to Romaricus and Amatus, to smooth out the wrinkle of the reception he had begun.
[14] several of his followers divinely punished, Nor was divine vengeance wanting to them, since all now aspired to this, to be flatterers in the contempt of their former teachings. For first wolves, held by the disease of rabies, breaking in through the dead of night within the enclosure, tore with their bites two of those who were favorers of this assertion, and, leaving them in the aforesaid plague, wretchedly delivered them to death. But another, by name Plareuus, who vehemently aspired to this fuel of discord, a madness of demons invaded, and delivered him ignobly to death; for with his own hand he hanged himself with a noose. But when this vengeance was by no means a correction of the offenders, straightway a greater followed: for suddenly lightning, falling from heaven, strikes the place with such a crash, ranges through the church, overturns the roofing, burns the people, that is, struck lifeless — so that the present chastisement might show that the wrath to come must be fled by those who, through excessive simplicity, mingled now with a preceding craftiness and with sloth, had given assent to the persuasion; and there died on the spot more than twenty, and then it showed \ those struck with fear little by little, so that then from that vengeance, as they say, more than fifty died — the author of the crime, namely, being reserved for penance, so that, if he should recognize it and return, he would without doubt receive health. For the Lord desires none to perish, but always awaits the return, by the fomentations of penance, of one overwhelmed even with grave offenses.*
[15] he is killed by a servant. SS. Amatus and Romaricus And when he had not recognized the place of penance given him so often, so that the sentence of Eustasius, calling him to judgment, might prevail, before the circuit of thirty days, ere the goal of the turning year was completed, he perished, struck with an axe by his own servant, whom he himself had redeemed; and the occasion of the crime was said to be intercourse with his wife. Which, although many said it and would assert it true, yet it is not for us to affirm. For, according to Solomon, God brings all things to judgment for every fault, whether good or evil. And the Apostle says: The fire has proved of what sort each one's work is. By us at last it must be said that, according to him, this sentence of the divine judgment did not delay to strike, that it might show his flatterers to flee from the tearings of the servants of God, and that he might pay by a deserved vengeance for the deeds of his stubbornness. But Amatus and Romaricus, asking the moderation \ of the venerable Eustasius, receive it, and, sloth being removed, enjoy it.* These things Jonas in the Life of St. Eustasius among us, and in Mabillon, second Benedictine Century; here, however, some words are otherwise expressed, as I have noted in the margin.
[16] This history our biographer has not touched even by a word in the Acts of St. Amatus or of St. Romaricus, repented; as I hinted at no. 5 of this Commentary, and set forth somewhat more fully in tom. III of September in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Adelphius, no. 11; and I assigned the cause of such silence which seems to me most likely: namely an untimely and imprudent fear lest by recording such things he should injure among posterity the memory of the holy abbots and his brethren. Cardinal Baronius in the Annals at the year 617, after relating the same history at length, says: We have wondered that those who followed out their (SS. Amatus' and Romaricus') deeds say nothing of the lapse — so much so that this would have remained altogether unknown, had not Jonas in his Eustasius, a writer of the affairs of his own time, left it attested with ample notes, surely to the greater glory of God and as a profitable example in his Church, in which it rarely happens that one returning from heresy or schism repents worthily. The latter part of this sentence throws a scruple upon me. Were those saints therefore at some time heretics or schismatics, as the most eminent Cardinal seems to suppose? Or does he suppose them to have been heretics or schismatics in such a sense that they professed a formal error in the Catholic faith, or fell away from union with the Roman Church? For my part I cannot with certainty, or even with greater probability, elicit anything of the sort from the whole context of Jonas, whence the praised Baronius, with all the rest, drew his material.
[17] It is true; Jonas narrates that Agrestinus adhered to the Aquileian schism concerning the Three Chapters, yet they had not been and tried to draw others also into it; but he adds that the same man, after he had suffered a repulse from St. Eustasius and had made no progress with others, turned his cares to accusing the institute of St. Columban. On this one point, as may be seen in the same author, the debate was held in the synod of Mâcon, no mention being made of the Aquileian schism. When Agrestinus had come to Amatus and Romaricus, when he perceived them wounded (by Eustasius' reproof), that he might more easily join their exasperated minds to his own assertions (I understand those which he had objected against the Rule of Columban before Eustasius in the synod), he goaded sound minds to receive his venomous words, and to spread his own madness in contempt of the Rule of Columban. Here again I find nothing which must be explained of the Aquileian schism. Whence, when the same author says that, casting away their former institutes, they tried to instruct the people with raw doctrines, its natural sense seems to me to be that, being more inflamed against Eustasius by the evil arts of Agrestinus, they turned aside from the institutes which they had learned under him at Luxeuil; that they assented to Agrestinus in those things which he had objected against the Rules of St. Columban in the synod; that they taught their subjects new things foreign to those Rules; and that they perhaps permitted or introduced a laxer rule of living. But I should believe that the punishments were divinely inflicted on others because with more vehement ardor and greater contempt of the Rule to which they were bound they carried into execution what Agrestinus had suggested, and the saints had not hindered them.
[18] fallen into heresy or schism Besides, Jonas himself abundantly confirms our opinion, concluding thus after the punishments have been narrated: But Amatus and Romaricus, asking the moderation of the venerable Eustasius, receive it, and, SLOTH BEING REMOVED, enjoy it. But Abilinus (a bishop, kinsman and formerly patron of Agrestinus) and the other bishops of the Gauls afterward aspire to strengthen the institutes of Columban. Do you see how he alleges sloth alone, and hints that the matter concerned only the Rule of St. Columban? Nor does it stand in the way that our saint, as the anonymous biographer narrates at length, after performing a rigorous penance for his sins, when now near death wished the Letter of Pope St. Leo I to Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, to be read to him, because in it the fullest account of the Catholic faith is contained, and through all its sentences would always fit his own confession — that is, that the holy man might prove himself orthodox in all things. On which Mabillon observes thus: Amatus seems to have made this confession and penance because he had for a little while, with Romaricus, adhered to the schismatic Agrestius or Agrestinus. For, unless it be proved from elsewhere, it is not lawful to deduce thence that the saint was at some time not orthodox; since it happens very frequently that men whose faith was always most entire, and never suspect to any mortal, when about to die either themselves recite or ask that there be recited to them by others the Symbol of the Apostles or like summaries of the chief articles of faith.
[19] fallen. I should not, however, wish to deny that his previous intimacy with a schismatic in some way influenced that act of the saint; but only in that sense in which Mabillon's words too can be understood: that he wished to exhibit such a testimony of his faith as should take away every suspicion whatever from those who, knowing that he had been seduced by Agrestinus in one thing, might suspect that he had also been perverted in another. However the matter happened, never indeed from what has been adduced thus far shall I persuade myself that SS. Amatus and Romaricus adhered to the schism; nay, it appears to me far more probable either that they were ignorant that Agrestinus was infected with schism, or at least that they thought he had laid it aside. Besides, I scarcely doubt that that same Agrestinus, although he still fostered the schism in his mind, carefully took care that it should not become known to the saints, and thus (for he knew how ill it had gone with him among others) alienate their minds from him.
Notes\ Mabillon, virili*
\ Mabillon, mors rapit*
\ Mabillon, convenientiam*
§ III. The time of the death of St. Amatus, who must be distinguished from those of the same name; his memory in the martyrologies, his ancient cultus.
[ ] The saint's death, about which writers vary The year of the saint's death our anonymous does not indicate, nor has he left it to be drawn out by us by conjectures from any mark. That he departed from among the living before St. Arnulf, bishop of Metz, having abdicated his bishopric, betook himself into the wilderness of Habend, is the common opinion of writers, founded on this: that the contemporary biographer of the mentioned bishop, narrating his withdrawal, says that Romaricus met him as far as Metz and prepared a fit place for him in the wilderness; and nowhere has any mention of St. Amatus the abbot, as though, he being dead, the care of the monasteries lay upon Romaricus alone. This is a conjecture, by its nature of no great weight, but in matters so hidden not to be wholly despised. Nevertheless, even with this conjecture standing, writers do not agree about the last year of St. Amatus, since they do not agree about the withdrawal of St. Arnulf. Pagi thinks this should be fixed in the year 625, and the death of St. Amatus in the year 624; Le Cointe, Arnulf's withdrawal in the year 626, the death of Amatus in 625; Mabillon, whom Calmet, Castellanus, and others follow, defers the death of Amatus to the year 627, because he judged that Arnulf held the bishopric until the year 629, in his notes on the Lives of both; but he seems to have thought otherwise in the Annals, referring the abdication of the bishopric to the year 627.
[21] We gave the Acts of St. Arnulf in tom. IV of the month of July at the 18th day; and in the Preliminary Commentary, to be tied § III, the chronological years being discussed in which he entered upon, held, and gave up the bishopric, we showed that the beginnings of his solitary life must be assigned to the year 625, about the month of September. Wherefore, adhering to the common conjecture concerning St. Amatus' departure from among the living before St. Arnulf's coming to the solitude, I judge that both must be tied to the same year — so that St. Romaricus the abbot received St. Arnulf in the wilderness not many days after the death of St. Amatus, which is believed to have happened on the Ides of the same month of September. But that I may not place Amatus' death a year earlier, the synod of Mâcon forbids, held according to Le Cointe in the year 623, according to Mabillon in the year 624, according to others in the year 627 — which last cannot be admitted, because St. Eustasius, who certainly was present at it, ceased to live in the year 625. St. Amatus seems to me to have survived the said synod by two years; for Agrestinus, on Jonas' testimony, perished one year, less thirty days, after the celebration of the synod; when he was dead, Amatus and Romaricus entered upon peace with Eustasius; and Amatus, as our biographer testifies, spent another year in penance, which without doubt followed the peace entered upon with Eustasius. Therefore, even if with Le Cointe you tie the synod to the year 623, the death of Amatus will have to be deferred to the year 625.
[22] But I said that the death of St. Amatus must be tied to the year 625 by adhering to the common conjecture, perhaps in the year 625. according to which I have noted it above in the margin, with the particle perhaps added. For, to speak candidly, I do not defer much to that conjecture, because I do not see what could solidly be objected to one who says that from the silence in the Life of St. Arnulf it can in no way be deduced that St. Amatus was then dead. Amatus, you say, was abbot, and where Arnulf is treated Romaricus alone appears; he alone comes forward to lead him into the wilderness. Be it so: Romaricus had before been intimate and a friend of Arnulf at the king's court — nay, already then, while staying at court, they had together meditated sending word of farewell to the world and withdrawing to the island of Lérins. What wonder if Romaricus, though not yet abbot, yet certainly founder of the monastery of Habend, hearing his friend's purpose, going out from the parts of the Vosges, goes to blessed Arnulf, and by the providence of both prepares for him a fit place in the vast wilderness? What wonder, I say, if Romaricus performs these things for his friend, while Amatus remains in the cave which, as our author has it, on the sloping part of the mountain … he had prepared as a dwelling for himself alone … from which, going out on the Lord's days, he continually read over the sacred Scriptures to the brethren and sisters?
[23] Trithemius' hallucinations concerning the manner and time of his death, That our saint died a natural death is manifestly clear in the Life at no. 27; whence I do not make out on what ground Johannes Trithemius reckoned him among the martyrs, in On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, book 3, chapter 309, weaving the following eulogy: Amatus, abbot of the monastery of St. Romaricus, a holy man and a zealous cultivator of monastic discipline, after many pursuits of good works, was crowned with the laurel of martyrdom on the Ides of September — which I think must be understood of our Amatus, as also another thing which he sets forth more confusedly and entangled in the same book, chapter 88, in these words: Amatus, abbot of Luxeuil after blessed Walbert, a devout and holy man, instructed many excellent disciples by his teaching and example. For he was full of charity, mild, humble, and discreet, and filled with the abundance of the holy Scriptures, by which he could profit all. He flourished in the year of the Lord 660. The same as to time he nearly repeats in the same place, chapter 90: Romaricus, abbot of Luxeuil after holy Amatus, whose disciple also he had been… He flourished in the year of the Lord 660. Neither survived to the year assigned; neither presided as abbot over the monks of Luxeuil, or could have presided — since St. Waldebert governed those monks as abbot from the year of Christ 625 to 665, and Ingofredus was substituted for him, as was shown in our work in various places, and lately in tom. III of September in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Adelphius, § II. Not a few more recent writers have followed Trithemius, all of whom, like him, must here be corrected.
[24] and of others, confusing the saint Trithemius disturbed times and places; others have confused persons. Among the supplements of Usuard the Anchin codex, announcing today St. Amatus, bishop of Sens, has thus: At Douai, the translation of St. Amatus, archbishop of Sens. Who, cast down from his bishopric by Theuderic, king of the Franks, at the counsel of Ebroin the Mayor of the Palace, was banished into this province by the order of the aforesaid king. Who, being made abbot of the monastery of Romaricus, of marvelous abstinence etc. On which our Sollier rightly notes that after king there has been omitted: Likewise of another holy Amatus, or something similar, lest two different men be confused into one. Heinrich Murer in Helvetia sacra, in the eulogy of St. Amatus the bishop, whom he makes bishop of Sion, and whose death he marks in the margin in the year 666 on the 13th day of September, attributes to him most of the things which our biographer narrates as done by our saint in the monastery of Agaunum and in the wilderness near it; but the rest which the same Murer reports are so consonant with the deeds of St. Amatus, bishop of Sens, that you might suspect that this author's lucubration, or at least the documents which he followed in that place, were compounded partly from the Acts of our saint and partly from those of St. Amatus of Sens. More on the same matter will be able to be observed on this very day, on which likewise the Acts of St. Amatus of Sens come to be illustrated, and what must be determined concerning the bishop of Sion will be indicated.
[25] with bishops of the same name I notice another confusion in the brothers Sainte-Marthe, in the series of the bishops of Sion, writing in this manner: The 12th, St. Amatus, abbot of the monastery of Agaunum, held the bishopric in the year 716, Dagobert II being king of the Franks; and he lies in the church of Remiremont in Lorraine. With the Sainte-Marthes agrees the Reverend Sebastian Briguet, canon of the church of Sion, in his lucubration On Christian Valais, published in print in the 44th year of the present century; and he adds that it is thus handed down everywhere by those who have written on the same matters. He cites Pantaleon in the Prosopography of the Illustrious Men of Germany, whom I consulted, part 1, p. 232, where he treats of Amatus of Sion, as also Johann Stumpf in his Chronicle of Switzerland written in the German tongue, to whose book 11 the praised Pantaleon refers; in both places I found nearly the same things which I had read in Heinrich Murer, cited in the preceding number, but no mention of the body of the aforesaid bishop being buried on Mount Romaricus.
[26] It must be therefore that the praised Briguet read this in others; who confuse them, whom, since he does not name them, I cannot go to — however little it matters. For whatever those writers may be, I scarcely doubt that, not knowing whither the body of Amatus, according to them bishop of Sion, had gone, they had recourse to Mount Romaricus, because they had learned that the body of a certain St. Amatus was preserved there and held in great veneration. But in this they are manifestly deceived; for it is established from Jonas and our anonymous, first, that Amatus of Remiremont is earlier by nearly a whole century than the Amatus who, according to the Sainte-Marthes and Briguet, was bishop of Sion about the year 716; secondly,
that Amatus of Remiremont was led from the wilderness of Agaunum to Luxeuil by Eustasius, not called to the miter of Sion; thirdly, that the same man presided as abbot over the monastery of Habend, erected about the year 620, and there after some years died and was buried, and not long afterward began to be venerated as a saint, and is venerated to this day — as I shall presently show, after I have premised the sacred calendars in which I have found his name inscribed.
[27] Among the more ancient martyrologists, Ado is the first to recall the memory of our saint at this day thus: The saint's memory Likewise of St. Amatus, priest and abbot of the monastery of St. Romaricus, who, a follower of marvelous abstinence and of the anchoretic life, led an illustrious life by the grace of virtues and miracles. Ado, as Sollier observes, Usuard transcribed almost to the letter; nor is Mabillon to be listened to here, in his Preliminary Observations on the saint's Acts, when he notes that the former part of the announcement is Ado's, and the rest, from the words Who, of marvelous abstinence, was superadded by Usuard; since the whole is read in the published and manuscript codices of Ado, from which the codex which Mabillon used differs greatly, as the same Sollier shows both elsewhere and especially in the Preface to his edition of Usuard, no. 152. No more does Notker differ from Ado in this place than Usuard, save one point: that in Notker, instead of Amati, is read Anniani, which is a slip of the copyists.
[28] Nor does the following commemoration in today's Roman differ from them in substance: in the sacred calendars; At the monastery of Romaricus in Gaul, of St. Amatus, priest and abbot, illustrious for abstinence and the grace of miracles. But Wandelbert adorns the saint today with this little verse:
On the Ides shines abbot Amatus, in merit and in name Beloved.
I forbear to write out or even to enumerate the more recent martyrologists; for very few are those who have passed over our Amatus. Let the studious reader only remember, when he consults them, that those must be emended who with Trithemius write that he was a martyr or abbot of Luxeuil, or with others abbot of the monastery of Agaunum and afterward bishop; for these things either pertain to other saints or have been inserted from conjectures without foundation. Yet I judge it fair that what Sollier gave today among the supplements of Usuard from the codex of Mont-Saint should hold a place here: Now flashes the orbit of the solemn day on which the illustrious confessor of Christ, Amatus, leading a heavenly life, rejoicing obtains by lot the highest hall of the heavenly court; whose miracles whoever wishes to read over, let him (consult) his acts and Life. Who, of marvelous abstinence etc.
[29] Ancient cultus. The inhabitants of Habend followed the memory of their holy abbot with a solemn yearly cultus soon after his death. Hear the biographer at the last number of the Life: When the circuit of the year had now been completed, and the limbs of the blessed man were covered beneath that tomb, as we said above, and for his solemnity vigils had been celebrated by night, again after Matins it was revealed to a certain brother that those blessed limbs should as quickly as possible be placed within the basilica of holy Mary; which was straightway, the Lord helping, performed with great reverence; where, in the yearly revolution, throngs of peoples hastening to his solemnities do not doubt that they will be saved through his intercession. The same is confirmed in the Acts of St. Adelphius, who died in the same century: For thus, says the contemporary author at no. 6, God disposing, it came about that on that day on which the feast of holy Amatus was kept, his little son (he had received Adelphius from the sacred font, and this is here signified by the word filiolus, in French filleul) holy Adelphius was buried in the same basilica with great adornment. And in the same place at no. 7: Since the twofold festal day of holy Amatus (as we have already said) and of Adelphius was at hand, Matins being finished, they began to sing the hymn of blessed Amatus, which Adelphius continually sang with them in a loud voice from the first verse to the end.
§ IV. Sacred places built in the saint's honor; his notable cultus and yearly feasts.
[ ] An oratory on the Holy Mount That the saint's cultus, which we have shown began almost from his very death, always persevered without interruption, many things persuade, and chiefly the churches or oratories distinguished with his name. Augustin Calmet, tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, col. 388, discoursing of the deeds of St. Amatus, after he has enumerated seven churches or oratories which are believed to have been erected by him on the mount of Habend, that in them holy virgins might continually sing the praises of God, proceeds in nearly this manner in the French tongue: Afterward there were restored there (on y rétablit) seven other chapels under the invocation of other saints. The first of the holy Cross, the second of the holy Sepulcher, the third of St. Michael, the fourth of the Virgin Mother of God, the fifth of St. Clare, the sixth of St. Margaret, the seventh of St. Romaricus and St. Amatus. There are some who enumerate nine, taking as two the chapels of SS. Romaricus and Amatus, which were adjoining, and joining to these the basilica of the monastery, or, if you please, the parish church of St. Amatus, which is at the foot of the mount, and not far distant from the rock which that man of God had inhabited.
[31] and of a parish church beside the rock With these agree the things which our Serarius reports in chapter 7 of the Life of St. Romaricus, collected from manuscripts of Remiremont, where he first speaks of the various little oratories, the name of the saints to whom they had been dedicated being nevertheless suppressed; then he thus concludes: If the two churches, of which the summit held one and the rock of St. Amatus the other, be joined to these seven set below, there were as it were nine choirs of angels, who without end celebrate God together, and say: Holy, Holy, Holy. But since most things here are set forth in words denoting past time, so that you might doubt whether that parish church and the oratories exist today, or at least whether, being destroyed by the wickedness of times and wars, others now existing were substituted for them, it is well to hear Thierry Ruinart, who visited the place itself in the year 1696 and accurately described the things most worthy of note in his Literary Journey of Lorraine, published together with his own and Jean Mabillon's posthumous works by Vincent Thuillier, a Benedictine of the Congregation of St. Maur, from the Paris press in the year 1724. And so the praised Ruinart, part 3, p. 471, having premised some things about the situation and origin of the town of Remiremont, about the notable church and dwelling of the noble Canonesses, and about other things not pertaining here, subjoins what follows.
[32] On the first day of October we climbed the mount, where formerly was the monastery of Habend. A little before we reached the summit, we saw the beginning of a bridge intended to join two very lofty mounts, whither holy Arnulf of Metz had withdrawn — the common folk call it Fezzeus. which he formerly inhabited, On the very brow of the mount there was formerly a twofold monastery, which holy Romaricus had built in his own castle of Habend about the year 620, thenceforth called Mount of Romaricus. Now, the monastery of the nuns being translated, as we have said, there remains one of men, which is called the Holy Mount by the Reverend Fathers Benedictines of the Congregation of St. Vanne. There, besides the greater church where the divine offices are daily performed, five oratories remain, situated here and there on the slope of the mount. To the north one in honor of the holy Cross, another dedicated to St. Michael; but to the south, the first is of St. Clare or Cecilia, where she was buried, and her empty tomb is still to be seen; the second of St. Margaret; but the third, which seems more ancient than the rest, is divided into two aisles, in the left of which are two ancient tombs, resting on four columns — namely of the holy Amatus and Romaricus, whose bodies with other relics of saints have been translated thence, and are now kept in the basilica of the canonesses, except for some particles which are kept with the body of St. Clare in the greater oratory of the holy mount.
[33] The praised author, some things being interposed which do not pertain to our purpose, consecrated to St. Amatus. continues in these words: Through the southern part of the mount, which is very steep, we descended among rocks and stones to see the cave which is set on the slope, where holy Amatus is said to have done penance. The place is so narrow that it can scarcely hold a man; a little lower is the parish church of the neighboring villages, whose southern door has a little forecourt with an ancient tomb without inscription. Thus far Ruinart, clearly enough for the doubt to vanish which was likely to arise from Serarius; but from him nevertheless, as one who used ancient manuscripts, we gather that the basilica of St. Amatus was built beside the cave many centuries ago, and probably before the ninth century, in which occurred the first translation of the bodies of SS. Amatus, Romaricus, and Adelphius, and the migration of the holy Virgins to the place where the town of Remiremont is now seen.
[34] Order would now require that, to demonstrate the uninterrupted perseverance of his notable cultus, Four translations of the body I should set forth in what manner, at what time, and on what occasion the translation just alleged and three others which followed it were carried out, and were made illustrious by many prodigies. But since these pertained equally to SS. Amatus, Romaricus, and Adelphius, we have treated that matter at length at the 11th day of September, sacred to St. Adelphius; for there in the Appendix on his Posthumous Glory, in four paragraphs, I brought forward the opinions of various writers concerning the time and occasion of the translations made, and, the documents of Remiremont being examined, set forth what appeared to me more probable in that matter. In the fifth paragraph I showed with what solemnity the festive commemorations of each translation are performed every year; to which finally I subjoined the fuller histories of the miracles and translations, taken from manuscripts of Remiremont, and, where there was need, elucidated with notes. Wherefore, that I may not do what has been done, I here exhibit the chief points contracted into a summary, without further examination, and for fuller knowledge of all these things refer readers to the cited 11th day.
[35] made formerly at different times And so, according to what was said there, the first translation of the holy bodies, which is also the epoch of the translated monastery, happened in the time of Louis the Pious, king and emperor, that is, before the year 840; the second between that year and 899, when namely the sacred bodies were carried from the old chapels into the new basilica; the third we fixed within about the years 910 and 920 — occasion for this was furnished by the Hungarians breaking into Lorraine and devastating everything; for through fear of them the virgins with the sacred remains fled to the mount of Habend, the ancient seat of the monastery, and after their departure returned thence, and laid the bodies again in the mentioned basilica, in the presence of Drogo, bishop of Toul, who from the year 905 to 921 or 922 occupied that see. The fourth translation, which we noted is not undeservedly called by some the canonization of the saints — at least as this was wont to be done at that time — was performed on the Ides of November in the year 1051, when at the request of the abbess Oda, Pope St. Leo IX directed to Mount Romaricus as his legates Hugh, prelate of Besançon, and Udo, then primicerius of the church of Toul and afterward bishop; who — the words are of the account which we gave — a judicial inquiry being instituted concerning the virtues and miracles of the holy Romaricus, Amatus, Adelphius, and Gebetrudis, first their
sacred bodies they raised with solemn pomp from the lowly place in which they had rested until then into a loftier one. Then they ordained, by the authority of the Roman Pontiff by whom they had been sent, that their histories and miracles, as of true saints of God, should both be written down and inserted into the divine Offices.
[36] are festively recalled on as many days through the year: A proper Office and Mass — whose Prayers, Hymns, lessons of the second Nocturn, and other chief parts, as they are today recited by the people of Remiremont, I exhibited in the same place — are performed with a double rite of the second class at the 17th day of the month of May, on which the memory of the first translation recurs; with a greater double rite on the days 15th of February, 20th of August, and 13th of November, on which the yearly feast of the second, third, and fourth translation is celebrated. In the appendix on the Posthumous Glory of St. Adelphius, assigned several times, we gave an account, received from Chifflet, of another and more recent translation of the bodies of the saint just named and of St. Amatus; which, because it is briefer and teaches in what place the saint's body now is, I have judged should be repeated here: In 1634, on the 8th of October, a Sunday, Philippe de Ligniville de Tantonville, provost of Saint-Dié (Saint-Diey, a town of Lorraine) translated the bodies of St. Amatus and St. Adelphius from the old cases into new ones covered with silver, which were placed above the altar of St. Romaricus in niches prepared on either side: the chest of holy Amatus on the Epistle side, that of holy Adelphius on the Gospel side. It will not be unfitting to subjoin to these also what Ruinart, praised at no. 31, handed down about the said altar, as also about the basilica itself, from what he saw: The church, he says, is very ample, which the princess abbess repaired when it had been shaken some years ago by an earthquake, and strengthened with the firmest columns. The high altar Leo IX, Supreme Pontiff, consecrated, at which only the seven canons who are appointed to minister to the virgins celebrate Mass; behind it, at the end of the church, is another, more lofty, in which are five cases of holy relics, chiefly of holy Romaricus etc. That among the saints whom he suppresses SS. Amatus and Adelphius must be reckoned is clear from the words of Chifflet just given.
[37] It remains that we set forth how solemn is today's feast, today's feast has a peculiar solemnity among the people of Remiremont; celebrated formerly, as we observed above, in the very year next following the saint's death. In the Proper of the Saints of the notable church of St. Peter of Mount Romaricus, at the 13th day of September, the Office of St. Amatus is prescribed to be recited with a double rite of the first class with an Octave. The lessons of the second Nocturn report his deeds up to the founding of the convent of Habend; the remaining part of the deeds is presented by the lessons, likewise of the second Nocturn, appointed for the octave day. I transcribe none of them, because what they embrace the reader will find narrated more fully in the Acts, whence the said Lessons, with the style changed here and there, were drawn. The Hymns likewise are proper, and comprise the chief deeds of the saint in verse elegant enough. At Vespers and Matins this is sung:
[38] Amatus, when you leave your father's soil, Cularo, Hymn at Vespers and Matins To the company of Agaunum, You are enrolled a citizen of the heavens.
Shut in a lofty cave, You look down on the storms of the world, And with all the impulse of your mind Are joined by love to the heavens.
From a rock next to your cell, Which you strike only with a staff, By the power of Moses implanted in you, You draw forth perennial waters.
Lest such a lamp lie hidden In a secret corner, Eustasius, passing by, Brings it forth to Luxeuil.
Hence Romaricus the prince From the vanity of the world To the path of holiness You lead over by noble art.
To God the Father be glory, And to his only Son, With the Spirit, the Paraclete, Unto everlasting ages. Amen.
[39] And this one at Lauds and at second Vespers:
Through you, great father, on the height of Habend at Lauds and second Vespers, There rises a holy house; where a flock of Virgins, The torch of an earthly bridal chamber set aside, Devoutly offers itself to Christ.
Here four times twenty, with four added, The Virgins call themselves back by alternating turns; And in twelve companies of seven each They sing a perpetual melody to God.
These you indeed imbue with pious laws, And teach by examples and help by prayers; And, their hearts adorned with sacred necklaces, You present them to Christ as bridesman.
Rich in so many merits, yet on haircloth Prostrate you die, and, rough with ashes, You bid your body be trodden upon at the door Of the virgins' temple.
Spare it, O guest, I pray, who approach the sacred threshold To pray; and beware lest with blind foot you trample The relics that ought to be laid up In the inner sanctuary.
Thee, O highest and one Godhead, we beseech, That by the prayers of the saint you may make us also, suppliants, To sing in the heavenly country To you with eternal songs. Amen.
[40] The remaining arrangement of the proper Office and Mass. There are some things in these verses which would need explanation; but they will presently become clear when the Acts and the Notes subjoined to them have been read through. The Mass is read from the common of Abbots; except, however, the Prayer presently to be recited, and the Gospel, taken from chapter 11 of Matthew: Jesus answering said: I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven — on which Gospel likewise, in the third Nocturn of the Office, is read a Homily from the book of the Morals of Pope St. Gregory. The Prayer in both is this: May the prayer of our blessed father Amatus the abbot obtain for us, O Lord, the spirit of saving penance — he who continually bore the mortification of the Cross in his body for the honor of thy name. Through our Lord.
[41] He is probably venerated elsewhere also, where relics are kept, For the rest, it is entirely likely that the saint is today honored with a peculiar cultus also on the mount of Habend, and especially in the basilica erected for him beside the cave; but for lack of documents we can teach the reader nothing certain on this matter, as neither concerning the relics which are perhaps kept there, as Ruinart, praised at no. 32, allows us to suspect, since he says that the bodies of SS. Amatus and Romaricus with the relics of other saints are kept in the basilica of the Canonesses, except for some particles, which are kept with the body of St. Clare (she is otherwise called Cecilia and Gegoberga; she was the daughter of St. Romaricus and second abbess of the nunnery) in the greater oratory of the holy mount. Finally, since mention has fallen upon relics, there pertain hither the things which Calmet in the cited tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, col. 391, reports in French, and which, rendered into Latin, run thus: In the sacristy of the holy Mount there were long preserved two little bowls, or dishes of smaller form, of cast Cyprian bronze, not beaten. One approaches in size the dish which surgeons use (namely to catch the blood of an opened vein); the other is almost twice as large. In these bowls food was set before him (St. Amatus) when he ate with the monks. After these things the same author notes below in his observations that those bowls are kept to this day in the abbey of Senones (in French Senones; it is situated in the mountains of the Vosges, and is so called because it had as founder Gumbert or Gondebert, archbishop of Sens, whose deeds were illustrated among us with a historical Commentary in tom. III of the month of February at the 21st day).
THE LIFE
By an anonymous contemporary author.
From the manuscripts of Remiremont, of St. Maximin of Trier, of Utrecht, and another, collated with Mabillon's edition.
Amatus, abbot of Habend or Remiremont in Lorraine (St.)
BHL Number: 0358
By an anonymous contemporary.
LITTLE PREFACE.
By whose command the author wrote. To your commands, most blessed father Clido a, I have resolved to obey with a slender eloquence indeed, but with a most abundant will. You enjoin therefore that those holy works which blessed Amatus did in this light I ought in the course of time to commit to the pages of letters; and that what is worthy to be celebrated with the highest praises should not rather be passed over in silence. Now therefore, the Lord granting and you commanding, I shall set forth a few things out of many, showing, namely, the way of this journey to learned men b.
NOTES.
CHAPTER I.
The saint's birth, monastic and solitary life.
Committed as a youth to a convent by an illustrious father In the times, then, of king Dagobert a, as he was excellent in character, so in all things in sanctity, in name and in deed he was Beloved (Amatus). For, born of noble parents, sprung \* of Roman stock, in a suburb of the city of Grenoble b a boy of excellent disposition came forth, his father namely being Heliodorus c, resting on the religion of the highest Christianity d. When therefore that most devout man had vowed his son Amatus to hand him over to monastic watches, the youth is offered, to be given up to the thresholds of blessed Mauritius e, as a gift acceptable to God. Without delay, after a space of time, being trained from earliest years among the scholars f, he is held the first in good things.
[3] For when, continually applying himself to monastic rules, he had given himself wholly for nearly thirty years, seeking the secret of a greater wilderness, going out secretly from the enclosure of the monastery, a little way off on the sloping rock of a very lofty mountain the champion of Christ gave himself to do battle \ against the devil. after thirty years into the wilderness For when he was being sought by the abbot of his monastery and by the brethren with anxious and careful zeal, a three days' fast being performed by them, at length scarcely, along the slopes of the mountain among the perilous g crags of the rocks, his holy footprints are found; and thus they came to where the saint lay hid h from men indeed, but was at hand to God. And when he had been found, they beg that he should return to the monastery, since the abbot and the brethren were anxious and mourning for him, and they asked \ what that departure of his might mean. Straightway he says: "Suffer me, O brethren, I beseech you, in this narrow little place to bewail my offenses, and to serve my Redeemer with diligent obedience."
[4] he withdraws, and living more austerely is vexed by a demon. And when they could not tear him from these things, then they say: "What do you wish to be the food of your sustenance? At least tell us." Then he says: "Bread and water after every three days — until the Lord shall will the fast to be completed — that these be given me; better things I do not ask for, nor do I need them; and let this be of barley \." They tell the abbot these words and that he had been found. Then one of the brethren is thereupon chosen by the abbot as a servant, whose name was Berinus, who should serve him with continual attendance; and taking bread and a jug filled with water, he goes to the man of God, and, these being given, withdraws. And when the holy man \ was applying himself to prayer, presently the tempter appeared in the form of a raven, and, the bread being stolen, poured out the water. But Amatus, rising and beholding these things, says: "I give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, because you bid my fast to be increased, and this shall be by your help,"
"since there is nothing in this world which is done apart from your will."
[5] By prayer he lengthens a beam that was too short for building his cell; After some time therefore a small cave is built for him; but the workman, not keeping the measure of the chamber, comes to the man of God, saying: "Let me go i, man of God, to the place where wood is cut, since the beam seems to be shorter by the measure of two handles." Then he says: "Do not, son, but return and measure, and have \* faith." Returning therefore and measuring the wood, he finds it as much longer as it had a little before been shorter. Straightway going back to the man of God, he tells what was done. Then he says: "Be silent, and do not cut it off, since it is a gift of God." For of this work k I myself am a witness, because I saw on the outside that the above-written measure projected beyond the rest of the roofing l.
[6] he draws forth a spring from a rock; Another miracle at length the Lord did through the same man. And when for the space of a year water had been brought to him by his servant from the streams of the valleys, grieving at the trouble he says to the brethren \*: "Let us go, brethren, and come to this rock, and let us pray, since God is able to bring forth water from the stone." The prayer therefore being finished, they both rise, and with the staff which the man of God carried in his hand he struck the flint; and presently a perennial stream, coming forth, flows; and there he ordered a leaden cistern to be prepared. This therefore I saw filled with water, continually bursting forth.
[7] he lives by the labor of his hands and avoids idleness, After these things, finding on that same rock a very small space of earth, the wood being cut away, he made a little field, holding as it were the fourth part of a bushel, in which he was wont to sow barley; saying indeed that it is just that each should live by his own labor. And he had also within his little cell a mill, which he then worked by hand when sleep crept upon him as he sang, and upon his weary limbs. He used no shoes there at any time; and the little place in which he was wont to stretch out \* his feet for grinding was filled with tiny and very sharp pebbles. And so it was his custom to drive away the temptation of the flesh or the sleep of the body by the labor of the mill.
[8] But at a certain time, when he was digging in the little field which the man of God was wont to till, he prodigiously stays a huge rock falling upon his cell, a huge stone rushing down from the lofty rock of the mountain, he saw that ruin was presently threatening his little cell — which I think diabolical craft had driven on; and thus, marking the sign of the Cross, he says: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I command you not to come down further." And when it was already close to the roofing of his little dwelling, straightway, stopping, it clung to the mountain. And it hangs on the side and clings to the mountain, and does not harm the cave at all. And the devil, frequently coming with his satellites, threatened that the little cell would be shaken and utterly overthrown from the mountain; but he, a most valiant fighter in the Lord, bore an unshaken and undaunted breast, saying: "The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man may do to me."
[9] The bishop of that place m at length was bound to him with the most familiar charity; he rejects money offered and left against his will who, since he took delight in the frequent visitation of the man of God, following poverty for the love of Christ, resolved to comfort him with a quantity of gold, whether he should wish to appoint it for himself or for the poor. But he said: "O good prelate, these things which are offered by you must be given to those on whom greater need presses. But I, the fetters of the world being spurned, came forth naked from my mother's womb; naked shall I return into the earth n." And when he wished to press these things upon him with importunate entreaty, and could not, secretly, as he was going out, he laid the gold upon the little altar at which he was wont to celebrate Mass; and when, after the custom, the night being spent, the servant of Christ had come at the lawful hour to the sacred Mysteries, finding the coins, he cursed o them as snares of the enemy and plunged them with a headlong throw into the depths of the valleys, saying: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance; I do not need these things."
NOTES.
\ elsewhere, oriens*
\ Mabillon, pugnaturus*
\ elsewhere, sciscitantur*
\ elsewhere, de ordeo*
\ elsewhere, of God*
\ Mabillon, habeo*
\ elsewhere, of the brethren*
\ Trier, tenere*
CHAPTER II.
He is brought to Luxeuil by St. Eustasius; and he himself draws thither St. Romaricus, with whom he builds the convent of Habend.
[ ] Wholly given to austerity He covered his limbs with the skins of wethers. In the times of Lent too, at his daily refection, after the evening praises were performed, a table was prepared with five kernels of nuts and a little cup of water — mean indeed, but pleasing to God. For sometimes drawing out fasts of three days and frequently longer, weary in limbs but filled with the Holy Spirit, he served Christ with continual obedience. He used the comfort of baths there only twice in the year, namely before the holy day of the Lord's Nativity and before that of his sacred Resurrection at Easter. This was his care of the body; but for the rest, very many things lie hidden and secret which were then done as miracles.
[11] he is visited by St. Eustasius and led to Luxeuil. But in those times in the parts of the Vosges a there was an excellent man and most famous in religion, the abbot Eustasius b. Then it happened by chance that, going out, he penetrated to the borders of Italy; and entering the convent of Agaunum c, he began to ask who among the chief men was there held first in sanctity. Then they say: "Do you perhaps not know the holy man Amatus, who on this very lofty rock has now for nearly three years led a hard life?" And he, hearing this, straightway climbed the very narrow path of the mountain, almost slipping under his step; and finding the man, he embraced him with such charity that he would by no means suffer him to be absent from him. What more? Returning from Italy d, he took the holy man away and led him as far as Luxeuil e, affirming that a lamp is not to be hidden under a bushel, but rather that light must be furnished to those who are in the house of the Lord, and that he can hold the way of perfection who has left his own dwelling.
[12] dear to all for his virtues, he is employed in preaching, At length, having lived for some space of time in that monastery, holy Amatus was made beloved by all. He was serene in countenance, cheerful in aspect, excellent and ready in speech, cautious and firm in counsel, given to compunction, abundant in tears, temperate in prosperity, mild and glad in adversity, excellent in character, most shining in sanctity, endowed with charity toward all, resting on discretion in abstinence. Thus, enriched with all good things, he shone like a great light in the world. And it happened in those times that he was directed by the brethren to traverse certain cities of the Austrasians; for much grace of preaching flourished in him.
[13] Now there was a noble man in the palace and honorable among the people, by an elegant discourse he moves St. Romaricus whose name was Romaricus f, in lay habit, but already then bearing a religious mind. By a divine nod therefore, as I believe, consenting, holy Amatus came to this man's house for the sake of hospitality. And beholding the man of God, he received him with much reverence and honor. And when the table had now been set, he began to beg amid the courses that he would announce to him, desiring it, the word of salvation. Presently he, since he was quick and cautious in speech, began and said: "Do you see this silver dish? How many masters has it had of old, and how many is it about to have hereafter! And you, willing or unwilling, are now its servant, since you possess it in order to keep it. But now it renders a fair service to those eating from it, of which an account will be required of you hereafter, who now keep it; for it is written: Your gold and silver has rusted, and their rust shall be for a testimony to you g. Whence the Lord says: Woe to you rich, who have your consolation h."
[14] Hearing these things at length, Romaricus says: "I beseech your holiness, make some little stay of days i with me, to flee the world, and tell me what I should do k; since that alone which of old, in my anguish, I longed for, I now rejoice, the Lord granting, to be at hand in these modern times." Then Amatus began and said: "Listen a little, good man. Since you are lofty in the nobility of your parents and renowned in riches and shrewd in wit, I wonder if you do not know the answer of the Lord. When a certain man had asked him how he could obtain eternal life, saying: Good Master, what shall I do l that I may have eternal life? — and, a few things being interposed, it is said to him: If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. [He says to him, Which? And Jesus said: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself m.] The young man says to him: All these I have kept from my youth; what is yet lacking to me? Jesus says to him: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Hearing these things, Romaricus the man of the Lord,
filled with the desire and love of God, not many days after, despising riches and worldly things, his head being shorn for the service of his Lord, handed himself over to be trained in monastic rules n.
[15] Being duly instructed in these at the same time, the counsel of almighty God without doubt working it, and with him he builds a convent. He heals a man crippled in the feet, the holy master Amatus and his disciple Romaricus, under great sanctity and with the most religious intention of the highest perfection, found a monastery of maidens o. But while this was being built, a certain man crippled in his feet, his walking taken away, was shaken, unhappy man. He came therefore to holy Amatus, beseeching that the soundness of his former strength be granted him. Then the kindly man said: "It belongs to my Lord Jesus Christ to give you what you ask, my son." But, moved with mercy, he said again: "And because I see that you need these things, be with us at least for a few days, and let us pray the Lord together. Have therefore faith, and there shall be given you by the Lord what you ask [p], for how abundantly kind is his mercy." What more? In the next space of time walking is granted to the weak man, and [q] again the fields, exulting, receive the soles that had long been strangers to be trodden by them; and thenceforth the man walks on his own feet, who a little before was carried on the feet of others.
[16] he frees a possessed woman. A consecrated maiden in the same convent presumed to eat an apple without leave of her Superior; but presently the devil, entering, began to tear her. Then Amatus is present at a swift message, and presently says to the bystanders: "Did I not foretell you that \ our enemy the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour?" At length he says to the maidens: "It behooves, O daughters, that this unclean spirit be driven out by vigils and fastings and prayer"; and when these at length were imposed, the deceiver fled away [r]. And when she had been restored whole to her sisters, the kindly man said: "Behold, O good sisters [s], what the Lord has granted us — as it is written: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.*" It was indeed his custom to ascribe what the Lord granted to his own prayers as having been done by the merits of others.
[17] The first abbess of the convent dies. In this same convent this man chose one who should preside over the sisters; and she was full of the desire of the Lord and outstanding in religion, whose name was Mactefledis [t]. Her he set forth for the rest to imitate as an example of the highest sanctity. But almighty God, who is always the helper of his faithful, wishing to render eternal rewards as quickly as possible to her labors and holy desire, before she had completed in this care the courses of two years, as I conjecture, she came to the end of this life [u]. But one of the sisters on the preceding night saw in a vision a star of marvelous size going out from the monastery, and beheld it entering the heavens. But the aforesaid Mactefledis, when at the very point of her life her soul was already departing, a certain sister said: "Sing psalms, for now our mother is leaving us." She amid these things said: "Be silent a little, since holy Paul is not yet here." And after a little while at length she gave a nod that they should sing; and thus that holy soul, glad, hastened from this light to the Lord [x].
NOTES.
g. James 5, verse 3.
h. Luke 6, verse 24.
p. The Utrecht: beseeching that his former strength be granted him. To whom the holy man says: Have faith, and there shall be given you by the Lord what you ask — omitting the things which in the other copies are interposed and follow as far as In the next.
q. Again there are wanting in that same Utrecht one those words as far as and he walks.
r. In Mabillon: and these being finished, the demon fled away; but in the Utrecht one, from these words began to tear as far as these, and when she was whole, the sense is thus contracted: Whom the man of God put to flight.
s. Mabillon reads: Behold, most sweet sisters, what the Lord has granted you; the Utrecht one omitted it.
t. The Utrecht one, the rest being again suppressed, after the words he chose one presently subjoins: whose name was etc.
u. The Utrecht one here too, more briefly than the other copies, reports the matter thus: But almighty God after the courses of two years brought her to the end of this life.
x. Whether she ever had a cultus we do not know. She does not seem to have it today among the people of Remiremont; certainly I find no commemoration of her in the Proper of the Saints. Our predecessors mentioned her among the things passed over at the 13th day of March in this manner: The happy passing of the abbess Madefledis, appointed by St. Amatus, is recorded in the Life of the said St. Amatus, to be given at the 13th of September. Of her there is nothing in the public calendars. Menard, Bucelinus, Saussay, and after them Arthur in the Gynaecium have reckoned her among the saints. For the rest, in the Utrecht one, after the words and beheld it entering the heavens, there is presently subjoined: And thus the holy soul etc.; and nothing is recorded of the saying of that sister, or of Mactefledis' answer.
\ Mabillon, quod*
CHAPTER III.
The saint's last deeds and pious death.
Further, holy Amatus, always loving the secret of the wilderness, finding within the deep and vast Vosges a stronghold, He establishes continual psalmody; he withdraws into a cave, just as the monastery is now seen, migrated thither; and there, the Lord helping, he established for many virgins the singing of psalms in seven companies, twelve singing in each company, continually by day and night a. But he himself, finding a hollow rock on the sloping part of the mountain, prepared a narrow dwelling for himself alone, and had a little bed made in a small trough to the measure of his stature b. For the cave did not extend wider or longer, and above it a huge rock hung; and through this his servant, with a little bell tied to a rope, offered a small portion of bread with a little cup of water to Amatus the man of God.
[19] But on the Lord's days, going out, he continually read over the holy Scriptures to the brethren and sisters, admonishing them to hasten as quickly as possible to eternal joys and to the heavenly country. whence, going out on the Lord's days, he instructs his people. For he was wholly sweet in counsel, wholly beloved \* in speech; he was indeed full of the Holy Spirit, always meditating a heavenly work. It was his custom that, while he continually bore a cheerful countenance, you might see drops of tears flowing from his eyes like a cluster of grapes. For often with a foreseeing spirit he even disclosed the thoughts of certain persons.
[20] He provokes to penance a brother guilty of private property, And so on a certain day, when a certain brother was walking in his presence, he said: "Stop, my brother, that I may speak with you. I fear, my most sweet one," he says, "lest perhaps the madness and subtlety of the enemy cast upon you some evil of covetousness, of having something of your own against the decree of the Rule." Then he: "Far be it from me to do anything otherwise than what your holiness preaches and our Rule contains." Amid these conversations \* therefore the holy man, holding the edge of his cowl and grasping the seam on either side with both fingers, found within a third of a coin, and presently said: "What then have you here, my brother?" At once he, struck with fear, prostrated himself at the feet of the holy man, saying: "Alas for me, wretched! I have stolen a tremissis." Then he said: "Rise, and do penance: let him that stole steal no more c."
[21] he teaches the nuns obedience. At length on a certain day, while the consecrated maidens were eager to take in a swarm of bees, the holy man was present. And there were there two vessels prepared for the bees; to whom he says: "Do you wish to take in this swarm?" They say to him: "This vessel we have smeared with milk and good herbs; in this the bees are to be received." "Do not," he says, "but let them be received into the other vessel." And having said this, he went away. They therefore, disregarding the holy man's command, fitted the bees into the vessel which they had prepared; but against the bidding of the man of God, the creatures put into the catching-place for five days neither take flight nor pluck the flowery woods for their needs. And the maidens, frequently coming, knock on the vessel; they indeed murmur alive within, yet do not come forth. At last the maidens, recalling to memory the commands of the man of God, go to him and tell him everything. Then he says: "Go, and move d them into the vessel of which I spoke." And when this had been done, coming out as it were from the keeping of a prison, presently, glad, they both take flight and food, and made greater gains for all who labored there. Many miracles indeed he wrought in this life, which, if they should now be unfolded with the pen, would make it long enough and abundantly so. Now therefore let us hasten to narrate those things which, as the day of his death drew near, he did praiseworthily.
[22] Foreknowing his own death Amatus therefore, before the circuit of the year was completed, foretold to certain brethren that the day of his death was at hand. And so there was a certain brother whom he kept in familiar affection; and calling him, he says: "If you know with how great zeal and charity I have nourished you from your earliest age, I wish you to do secretly what I enjoin upon you, and to carry it out carefully, since you may without doubt believe that the departure of my death is now drawing near. Have therefore as a companion in this work our priest Castorius, and you shall go into this wood, and, ashes being carried up, make of haircloth my mattress, which, filled with ashes, place upon the bed of my couch; for it behooves me, and it pleases me, to do penance for certain deeds of mine."
[23] he publicly confesses his faults, Then that brother said: "O lord, how can this be, that you should endure such things, since through long abstinence and many tribulations you are already weary in your limbs?" But he e: "These things, brother, I used of old without your knowing it, but strong
the Lord has always made me to be in them. My confession," he says, "I have resolved to make before all, and, receiving a lawful penance, I so desire at length to depart from the world. But do you do what I have said." What he enjoined therefore was done. Now not many days after, the brethren being called, whatever he remembered himself to have done amiss, prostrate on haircloth and ashes, he confessed in their presence with a public voice. While therefore he was performing this penance, suffering an unevenness of body, he was shaken with continual pain. But the holy man, knowing that the time of the purging \* of his sins had come, exulted in these infirmities with manifold gladness.
[24] There were present at length those who should read the holy Scriptures before him. and after a year of penance had elapsed For the brethren came in troops to hear the word of salvation from him; and when these, being instructed, withdrew, others came to be instructed. Likewise the handmaids of God, coming in companies at the fitting hours, received full doctrine from him concerning the life to come f. And when now, nearly a year being completed in this haircloth and ashes, with his limbs full of infirmity, he applied himself continually day and night to prayers, his skin and flesh being taken away, the bare bones showed; but his voice, persevering with weeping, was always to Christ.
[25] There came therefore the last day, glad indeed for his soul, he orders the letter of St. Leo to be read to him. but bitter to the brethren and sisters. Everywhere then through all the little cells weeping and mourning reigned. They mourned therefore that they were deserted by so great a man, but they rejoiced with him that he had already obtained the fellowship of the angels [g]. And so, when presently he had come to the end, he enjoined a certain brother, saying: "Bring the letter of Pope Leo [h] sent to St. Flavian i, since in it the fullest account of the Catholic faith is contained." And the letter being brought, it was read before him. And when it was being recited in his presence, the holy man said: "So do I believe, O ineffable Trinity; so do I confess, almighty God; so do I think of thee, Jesus Christ, Son of God, who for our salvation didst deign to come into this world; so do I understand of thee, eternal God the Holy Spirit: one God in Trinity, and Threefold in Unity, do I confess. So, being taught, do I think of thy Incarnation, most loving Christ k." What more? Through all the sentences he always fitted his own confession — that is, that the holy man might prove himself orthodox in all things.
[26] At length, since he was outstanding in holy humility, reckoning himself unworthy to be buried within the doors of the basilica, He himself dictates the epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb, he ordered his sepulcher to be prepared at the entrance of the door of the basilica of holy Mary, writing above it an inscription which he himself composed, speaking in this manner: Every man of God, who shall enter into this holy place to pray, if you have deserved to obtain what you ask, deign to beseech the mercy of the Lord for the soul of Amatus the penitent, buried here; that if my littleness could not obtain anything concerning my sins by repenting lukewarmly, the charity of you so many may obtain it, diligently beseeching the mercy of the Lord.
[27] The brethren therefore and sisters being gathered, and all of either sex mourning, awaited the departure of the holy man, and, bidding his people farewell, he dies. reading namely the Gospels, and singing psalms and hymns before his little bed. Amid these voices therefore, asking pardon of all and bidding them farewell, he thus sent forth his spirit. Then l it pleases one rather to exult there, but one is rather compelled to weep. The monks therefore weep, the devout maidens lament, all the peoples mourn, both sexes, youths and infants, that the holy man is dead and that they are left orphans and in anguish.
[28] He was buried therefore in the place which he himself had appointed; but on the third day he appeared in a vision to a certain brother, Matins being said, saying: "What are you doing, O brethren?" Then he: "We are mourning and sad at your absence, He appears once and most loving father, because you have left us orphans." To this he: "Do not be saddened; know that I am absolved from my sins, and well received into the sight of my Lord. But you now in this place the furnace of poverty refines; but after no long space of time the Lord God almighty will make you abound here in all good things. Meanwhile tell brother Romaricus to be of an even mind, and to bear great care of the monastery, and to be always mindful of me." And having said this, he departed. That brother, rising at once, related all these things with tears to Romaricus the man of God.
[29] again, and indicates that his body is to be translated. After these things the king's munificence suddenly appointed about two hundred gold pieces thither. For m thereafter also, the Lord bestowing, as is now seen, very many helps were made over to the uses of the monastery of Habend. These things without doubt the prayer of St. Amatus obtained. At length, when the circuit of the year had been completed, and the limbs of the blessed man were covered beneath that tomb, as we said above, and for his solemnity vigils had been celebrated by night, again after Matins it was revealed to a certain brother that those blessed limbs should as quickly as possible be placed within the basilica of holy Mary. Which was straightway, the Lord helping, performed with great reverence; where, in the yearly revolution, throngs of peoples hastening to his solemnities do not doubt that they will be saved through his intercession; by the bounty of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.
NOTES.
\ Mabillon, amabilis*
\ Trier, fabulas*
\ Utrecht, purgationis*