ON ST. VENERIUS, PRIEST AND HERMIT,
IN THE ISLAND OF TYRO MAJOR IN THE LIGURIAN SEA,
Seventh century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Venerius, priest and hermit, on Tyro Major, an island of the Ligurian sea (St.)
BY C. S.
§ I. His memory in the martyrologies: his ancient and more recent cultus: what sort the Life is.
[ ] In the Mediterranean sea, where the farthest part of Liguria washes toward Etruria, The saint's memory in some martyrologies before the famous
harbor celebrated by the ancients, from the old but long since destroyed city of Luna, called the Lunensian and the Port of Venus, and now also the Gulf of Spezia, there lie three tiny islands — Palmaria, Tyro Major, and Tyro Minor or Tyrolus, called on geographical maps Palmacia, Tino, and Tinetto — the middle of which St. Venerius made illustrious by his eremitical life, his blessed death, and his posthumous glory; while the first, more probably, he had as his birthplace. I have found no mention of this holy dweller in the wilderness among the more ancient martyrologists; but among the more recent he is very well known, although they do not altogether agree about the day and place on and in which he is to be announced. Pietro Galesinio at the 13th day of September has of him thus: On this very day, of St. Venerius the confessor, famous for admirable sanctity. Galesinio was followed by Baronius in his Roman Martyrology, although he praises the Catalogue of Peter de Natalibus, in which he is reported to have died on the 11th day of September. Receive the words of Baronius: On the same day, of St. Venerius the confessor, a man of admirable sanctity, who led an eremitical life on the island of Palmaria.
[2] The same 13th day likewise some supplements of Usuard in our Sollier keep, at the 13th and 11th of September; among which the Florentine codex says thus: At the city of Lamus (read Luna) the passing of St. Venerius, whose body was translated to Reggio. The Lübeck-Cologne edition somewhat more fully: On the same day, of St. Venerius the priest, notably (perhaps nobly) born. Who on the island of Tyro led a solitary life, and there by praying restored to life a drowned boy, and healed many of various weaknesses; and afterward happily fell asleep in the Lord. More briefly Belinus: On the same day, of St. Venerius the confessor, a man of admirable sanctity. I pass over Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menology and other more recent writers who celebrate him on the same day. But Greven, although he also mentions him there, judged that he should rather be referred to the 11th day of the same month; for here he celebrates him with the following eulogy, put together from the Life to be praised below, but not without a fault, saying: At the island of Palmaria, the deposition of St. Venerius the abbot, who in the time of the emperor Phocas, leading an eremitical life on that island, famous for many miracles, rested in peace, and was there buried by angelic hands. In which place also oil was seen to flow forth, availing for the health of many. Thus there; but at the 13th day he again says: Likewise, according to some, here, of Venerius the confessor, who is had above at the third of the Ides.
[3] On the contrary Filippo Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy mentions Venerius on the 11th day in such a way but more correctly at the 13th day. as to refer to the 13th, where he recounts his eulogy from the Office of the church of Reggio and from Peter de Natalibus. In both places likewise Castellanus announces him in his Universal Martyrology. The earlier day the mentioned martyrologists, or some of them, doubtless learned from the Catalogue of the praised Peter or a like transcript, in which, as I have noted, he is said to have been buried by angelic hands on the third of the Ides of September; certainly Ferrari praises him. But all our transcripts constantly fix the saint's death to the 13th day, and on the same day the feast of his deposition is celebrated with a yearly Office in the diocese of Reggio, to which we shall see the saint's sacred body was at length translated; and Giuliano Lamorato, a priest of that place, often to be praised in the course of this work, asserts that it is recalled every year also at Portovenere. Those martyrologies too must be corrected which say that the saint died and was buried on the island of Palmaria; for from what is to be said it will be established that both happened on Tyro Major, the island next to Palmaria.
[4] That the cultus of Venerius began in the same century in which he flourished, namely the seventh, A church anciently erected for him: his Offices we have from the Life, in which Lucius, bishop of Luna, is narrated, being divinely admonished, to have built a church over the saint's body — found on Tyro by the indication of oil flowing from the tomb, and endowed with marvelous incorruption and fragrance — with ministers added who should serve the sacred place, of whom mention will recur. Thence, through fear of invading barbarians, it was translated first into the territory of Luna, if credit is to be given to our manuscript to be published, and hence in the ninth century to Reggio of Lepidus, which is an episcopal city of the duchy of Modena; and there it rests to this day, and he himself, taken up among the tutelary saints of that diocese, is honored yearly with a twofold ecclesiastical Office. Of the translations we shall treat below; concerning the cultus receive these things. I have in hand two Breviaries, or Propers as they call them, of the church of Reggio, of which the one was reprinted at Reggio in the year of the Lord 1567, the other printed in the year 1673. In both the Office of his Deposition (on the 13th day of September, as is added in the later one) is enjoined to be recited. And the older indeed has nine lessons, and hymns and nearly all the rest proper, from the saint's Acts; the more recent, approved at Rome in the year 1625 by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, keeping the three lessons of the second Nocturn, reduced the rest to the norm of the Roman Breviary for a Confessor not a Pontiff, and assigns the Office under a double rite of the second class.
[5] Then at the 3rd day of November the Translation of the body in the diocese of Reggio. to Reggio — made, as we noted above and shall say more fully below, in the ninth century — is prescribed in both Breviaries to be celebrated, with almost the same Office as the natal feast, if you except the lessons of the second Nocturn, which in both are proper to the translation, and the rite, which is noted as double only in the more recent one. Of this feast the Florentine codex, praised above, makes mention at the 1st of November, thus announcing: At the city of Reggio, the Translation of the body of blessed Venerius the confessor, from the parts of the Lucchese to the aforesaid Reggio. But a twofold error occurs in this announcement: first, that it refers the memory of the translation to the 1st of November, whereas it should have been referred to the 3rd day of the same month, on which in both Propers of Reggio it is also expressly said to have been made; secondly, that it will have the body brought to Reggio from the parts of the Lucchese — for that it was translated thither from the territory of Luna will be established from what is to be said. More concerning the saint's cultus will present itself in the course of this work.
[6] Copies of the Life, Of his deeds we have not such certain information, although a Life is not lacking, of which three manuscript copies exist in our Museum. Of these one was transcribed by the hand of our Papebroch from a manuscript codex of St. Eremus of the Camaldolese, fol. 141; the other was sent to my predecessors from Genoa in the year 1665 by Giovanni Stefano Flizio, a priest, as it appears, of the Society of Jesus, copied from an ancient codex, but which, as he notes, he was not permitted to consult, and therefore neither to discern whether the faults with which that transcript teems are to be attributed to the copyist's carelessness or to the codex itself. These two have the same prologue; in the rest they differ everywhere in phrasing, and one is a little fuller than the other, especially at the end; for in the Genoese one the translation of the body made to Reggio is wanting. The third is noted at the head, likewise by Papebroch's hand, as taken From Peter Calo, part 2, fol. 256, but in the margin by another hand: From codex 929, but of what library is not declared. Further, Peter Calo, otherwise called Calotius, of the Order of St. Dominic, flourished in the fourteenth century, and besides other things wrote Lives of the Saints collected from ancient monuments and comprised in two volumes of vast bulk, on the testimony of Jacques Échard in the Writers of the Order of Preachers; who adds that two codices of this kind are kept at Bologna at St. Dominic's, and two others in the Barberini library at Rome. But from which library our transcript was received, as I have said, is unknown to me.
[7] of which one is to be published. This last lacks the prologue, but reports a certain translation of the sacred body procured by Lintecarius, bishop of Luna, which is absent from the two other transcripts; it has also some things concerning his posthumous glory or miracles which the Camaldolese manuscript curtailed or omitted; the rest agree well enough, if you except circumstances of lesser moment. Besides those enumerated we have likewise a manuscript Italian summary of the Life, at whose end is read: D. Favorito, secretary of the most eminent Cardinal Chigi, saw to it that these words were transcribed from an ancient manuscript of his family. That a copy of Calo or one like it lay before the compiler of the summary we gather from this, that he likewise mentions the saint's body translated by Lintecarius. But although Calo's age is removed by many centuries from the saint, I have nevertheless preferred to reprint his transcript, both because the others are of uncertain age and perhaps even more recent, and because it is fuller and more correct than the rest, and yet does not differ in the matters done by the saint — so that it is manifest that a like manuscript lay before them all, although Calo learned the translation from elsewhere, which we shall examine in this Commentary, and shall also observe where anything worthy of note occurs in the others.
[8] The Life is not older than the ninth century, The author of the Life nowhere betrays himself or his age, except that in the prologue of the Camaldolese and Genoese transcripts he confesses that he lived far removed from the age of St. Venerius. For he says thus: Of the most blessed father Venerius, priest and monk, so much as in these our times we have been able to comprehend from his deeds, we have written down for posterity to know. But whence he drew his material he then thus indicates: What I have either myself learned, or come to know from religious men relating it, I have found should be narrated to posterity. And so he seems to have learned some things from certain monuments, others from tradition. And some monuments indeed he could perhaps consult, written by the monks who after the saint's death are reported to have inhabited the island of Tyro as guardians of his body, as we shall see below; but those religious men, from whom he professes to have heard the rest, could not have lived with the holy hermit, who died in the seventh century, since the biographer records a translation of the sacred body made in the reign of Louis the Pious, and so cannot be older than the ninth century. It is indeed absent from the Genoese transcript; but since in this as well as in the others the irruption of the Normans into the maritime parts of Italy is recorded, the author could not have written before the aforesaid century, as will be established from what is to be said.
[9] Yet that we may not believe the Life written later than the eleventh century, nor later than the eleventh: a certain instrument persuades, signed in the year 1085 and to be recited at no. 25, in which from his admirable Life express mention is made of the saint's body buried by angels, and of the church built over it by bishop Lucius, both of which may be read in our Lives. From all these things determine that that writer, whoever he finally was, cannot give certain credit concerning the things done by the saint, inasmuch as he is later than he by three or perhaps even four centuries. Hence I think it has come about that he mixed some popular traditions, often fabulous, with things truly done and drawn from a better source, and, not sufficiently consistent with himself, adopted certain things not cohering with one another. Of this sort appears to me that story concerning the terrible dragon at Luna, deadly not only to men but to whole ships, whom at no. 6 and following in our text he writes was driven by St. Venerius by the sign of the Cross into the deep of the sea. Besides, he says that the saint, removed from all human society and living alone in the wilderness,
and yet he there narrates his deeds and sayings as though either he himself, or another from whom he could have learned these things, had been present.
[10] Of the moderns various writers have mentioned our holy hermit. certain moderns who have written of the saint. The most illustrious Peter de Natalibus, as we hinted above, inserted a summary of his Life in book 8 of the Catalogue of the Saints, chapter 65. Of the same treat also Antonio de Yepes in the General Chronicle of the Benedictine Order translated into Latin, at the year of Christ 603; Ludovico Zaccone in the Lives of the Saints published in Italian; and others. But more fully than the rest Giuliano Lamorati, a priest of Portovenere, who wrote his Life in the Italian tongue and published it from the Genoese press in the year 1665, which I have in hand. The former, since they cleave closely to the manuscript Life and bring forward nothing besides, will be of no use to me; but Lamorati differs here and there, and also illustrates some things which we shall examine in the following paragraph.
§ II. The saint distinguished from the hermit of the same name: his native land, his probable monastic profession, his prelacy, his priesthood, the time of his death.
[ ] [He is distinguished from one of the same name: he seems to have been born on Palmaria,] That our St. Venerius flourished under the pontificate of St. Gregory surnamed the Great and under the reign of Phocas, all the copies of the Life teach, and the consent of all the moderns who have written of his deeds; whence it is concluded that this saint is distinct from the hermit of the same name who, as blessed Peter Damian hands down in the Life of St. Romuald, tom. 2 of February, p. 61 and following, was famous among the people of Tivoli under the emperor Otto III, and who is read as inscribed in some martyrologies at the 11th and 13th day of September — which the deeds of both also sufficiently declare. The same copies of the Life, as also the Offices of the church of Reggio, assign to the saint noble parents and the island of Palmaria as his birthplace — that one, namely, which at no. 1 we said is situated before the Port of Venus or of Spezia. The Camaldolese transcript has thus: Blessed Venerius therefore was of the island which is called Palmaria, which is held near the sea not far from the bishopric of Luna, sprung of noble parents. But the Genoese thus: This man therefore was of the island which is named Palmatia, which is held near the sea, in the province of Luna, sprung of noble parents. The manuscript to be published agrees, which may be consulted at no. 1 of the Life.
[12] or perhaps at Portovenere, It must be therefore that none of these was seen by Lamorati when on p. 9 he wrote that he is indeed said by the writers of his Life to have been born in the diocese of Luna, but that the place is not named. Namely, he himself used the Catalogue of Peter de Natalibus and those who followed him, in which in fact the place of birth is placed indeterminately in the diocese of Luna. I wonder more at what he subjoins in this manner: Nevertheless, he says, the author of the saint's Life, to be cited toward the end of this history, a most weighty writer indeed and little less than an eyewitness in the things which he wrote on this subject, determining what others had left in doubt, honors with this most noble glory that place which lies on the seashore nearer to the island of Palmaria, and which, first called the Port of Luna, then out of the reverence with which it followed this its holy son was called Portus Venerii, but now, by a corrupted word, is called Portus Veneris.
[13] as Lamorati will have it, What further is to be thought of that almost eyewitness author I plainly do not know; but Lamorati himself, toward the end of his little work, p. 31, recounting the authors from whom he professes to have drawn all that he had written up to that point — besides the Roman Martyrology, Peter de Natalibus in the Benedictine Gonon's Lives of the Western Fathers, Ludovico Zaccone, and Vivion — praises indeed a certain instrument as found in the archive of a monastery inhabited by the saint's successors, and written by one of the monks who had lived not much removed from his century; but he praises it only for certain miracles done after the saint's death, which he then subjoins, and which are read also in our transcripts, but in which no mention is made of his native land. Wherefore I strongly fear that Lamorati indulged here more than was fair his zeal for his own native place. Nevertheless, if in the praised manuscript, so ancient as he asserts, he is really said to have been born at Portovenere, I shall willingly assent to him, since our monuments are, from what has been said, much more recent.
[14] As concerns the mentioned town, Caffaro in the Genoese Annals in Muratori, tom. 6 of the Rerum Italicarum, col. 253, Uberto Foglietta in the History of the same people, book 1, in Graevius, tom. 1 of the Thesaurus of the Antiquities of Italy, col. 248, Agostino Giustiniani likewise in the History of the Genoese, and others, of whose name write that it was first founded in the year of Christ 1113 — and so some centuries after the saint — by the Genoese, and inhabited by a colony led thither; but these seem to be understood of the town restored and enlarged, for from what is to be said it will be manifest that a town called Portus Veneris existed long before. Of the origin of the name writers do not agree, some deriving it from St. Venerius, as Lamorati will have it, others from Venus. Flavio Biondo in Etruria illustrata thinks it named from a temple of Venus which was built on Palmaria, the island lying over against the harbor, and afterward consecrated to St. Venerius. On the highest summit of that island, he says, a temple of Venus formerly, afterward in Christian times consecrated to St. Venerius, gave the name to Portus Veneris. But where the promontory, or island, looks toward the west, there is a town likewise called Portus Veneris, a colony of the Genoese people, and formerly the boundary of their territory.
[15] The same judges Leandro Alberti in his Liguria, where he reckons the opposite opinion a fable. some things are observed. And deservedly; for, to pass over the rest, it is established that in the time of St. Gregory I, with whom we have said Venerius lived, a place called Portus Veneris was in the diocese of Luna. For of it that holy Pontiff in book 5 of the Register, letter 3 of the latest Paris edition, writes thus to Venantius, bishop of Luna: Besides, answering the consultations of your fraternity, we determine that the deacon and abbot of Portus Veneris, whom you indicate has fallen, neither ought nor can in any way be recalled to sacred orders… But at Portus Veneris, in the place of the fallen deacon, you shall ordain another who is to fulfill this office. Of the same place he treats again in letter 4 of the same book to Constantius, bishop of Milan, where he calls the aforesaid deacon and abbot Jobinus. Yet I would not deny that the ancient word Veneris was at some time changed by later men into Venerii out of their reverence toward the saint; since Giacomo Bracelli too, a Genoese writer of the fifteenth century, says that the port of Luna, the old name being abolished, was called from the above-said temple Portus Venerii, or, as more say, Veneris, and finally the town from the port. But Lamorati certainly erred when he judged that the original word of the place, Venerii, had passed into Veneris.
[16] Concerning the kind of life first taken up by Venerius also, Some write that he was a monk and abbot Lamorati does not agree with our transcripts; for whereas they, after the labor happily bestowed on the study of letters, presently lead him away to the island of Tyro for the eremitical life, he writes that the same man was first a monk and then abbot of a certain monastery, and that, having secretly forsaken it, he fled to Tyro for the sake of inhabiting the wilderness. With him agrees the author of the Office of Reggio, approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and printed, as we have said, in the year 1673. For in it I read these things: At a riper age, having professed the life of a monk, he is presently chosen abbot by those very monks, because he was conspicuous in virtues. Thence, setting out to an island situated not far from the territory of Luna, which they call Tyro Major, he led a solitary life. Of his monastic profession the older Office too makes mention, namely that reprinted in the year 1567; but it is silent about the prelacy. While he was here, it says, being illustrious in the knowledge of letters, the grace of sanctity so shone forth in him that in the order of monks he received the dignity of the priesthood. The world therefore being set aside \, on an island which, surrounded by the waves of the sea, is distant eight miles from the territory of Luna, by name Tyro Major, he led an eremitical life.*
[17] which is not improbable; While I was reading these things, I somewhat feared lest the deeds of another Venerius — namely of Tivoli, of whom we treated briefly at no. 11 — had here been mixed with the acts of our holy hermit, though with other circumstances; for he in the Life of St. Romuald praised in the same place is said also to have dwelt first in a certain monastery, and, while he was there most ill treated by the other monks, to have fled thence into the wilderness without the abbot's knowledge, and to have lived there until, admonished by St. Romuald, he went to his abbot, from whom he also obtained leave to live as a solitary. But since it was formerly usual enough among monks to withdraw from monasteries into the wilderness, there is no reason why we should not believe the same was done by our saint likewise. Nor does it stand in the way that that withdrawal is not read in our transcripts; for it is manifest that something is wanting in them. For since they constantly assert that St. Venerius was not only a monk but also a priest, and yet make no mention of his receiving that order, but straightway, from his boyhood spent in the study of letters, make him a dweller in the wilderness, it is clear that here some period of his life has been passed over; for it is not likely that he was initiated into the priesthood while he lived removed from all intercourse with men.
[18] but in what monastery is uncertain: And so that opinion appears to me probable enough; but in what place, or of what Order, the monastery was which he entered, is uncertain. Yepes in the General Benedictine Chronicle at the year 603, chapter 1, reckons him among the saints of his own Order, and lays down that he took the monk's habit on the island of Palmaria, which, he says, Tertullus had formerly given to St. Benedict. This is another island than that on which we said the saint was more probably born — situated, namely, in the Tyrrhenian sea over against Terracina, in which it is certain that monks lived in the age of St. Gregory, as Yepes observes in the same place, from letter 50 of book 1 of that Pontiff's Register, of the edition praised above. Perhaps for no other cause than that he had read the island of Palmaria both in St. Gregory and in the Life of St. Venerius, he judged that this man too led the monastic life on it. But this reasoning is empty; for besides that he thus confuses two Palmarias, and it is established from the letters of the same holy Pontiff that other islands of the Mediterranean sea also were inhabited by monks, at Portovenere itself at the same time there existed a monastery, over which Jobinus presided, as we showed at no. 15.
[19] in what monastery, uncertain: But that you may not doubt whether that Jobinus presided over monks, I add what the praised Pontiff subjoins concerning him in the letter cited in the former place: Whom indeed (Jobinus), deprived of his sacred order, it befits you to appoint to penance; whose former place among the other monks — where, however, you shall have decreed — if afterward his acts and manner of life shall deserve it, of standing
let him obtain. The saint therefore could have taken the monk's habit in this monastery, or in another than that of Palmaria near Terracina. Equally uncertain to me is whether, as the praised Yepes and Gabriel Bucelinus in his Menology assert without hesitation, he was of the Benedictine Order; yet this does not follow from his admitted monastic profession. And Mabillon too, although on the occasion of Venerius of Tivoli, in his notes on the Life of St. Romuald, part 1 of the sixth Benedictine century, p. 291, he made mention of our Venerius, nevertheless grants him no place among the saints of his own Order, not even among the things passed over.
[20] That he was abbot, as the more recent Office of Reggio with Lamorati asserts, he was initiated into the priesthood: I can neither deny nor assert. I only observe that our transcripts, together with the older Office likewise of Reggio, are silent about that dignity, and that the title of abbot is sometimes ascribed to holy dwellers in the wilderness for honor's sake, although they never discharged any prelacy. What the Breviary of Luna or Sarzana, praised by Lamorati, has about it I do not know, since it does not exist in our Museum. The order of the priesthood is granted him by all the transcripts and by the moderns, and therefore I have judged it should be adjudged to him. But certainly Leandro Alberti and Agostino Oldoini were deceived, of whom the former in his description of Liguria believed him bishop of Lucca, the latter in the Athenaeum Ligusticum bishop of Luna.
[21] The year of the saint's death is plainly unknown; but since he is said to have flourished under Gregory the Great and the emperor Phocas, the year of his death he must be referred to the seventh century. In our three transcripts of the Life, as also in the older Office of Reggio and in the Italian summary, he is said to have lived with Lazarus, bishop of Luna, and by his order to have driven away a huge dragon; but instead of Lazarus Lamorati has Lucius, and Peter de Natalibus and the more recent Office omitted the name. Ughelli in tom. 1 of the reissued Italia sacra, col. 834, among the bishops of Luna who can be referred to the saint's age, recounts the following in this order: St. Venantius, St. Basil, St. Salarius or Solorius, Lucius, and Lazarus.
[22] Of these, that Venantius lived under the pontificate of St. Gregory he must be referred to the seventh century. the letters given by that Pontiff to him teach, which may be read in the Register of Letters. Lucius Ughelli knew only from the often-praised Office; Lazarus he writes lived in the year 640, led by what reasoning I do not know. But if it is so, either another must be substituted for Lazarus in our manuscripts, or Lazarus must be placed before Lucius; since all, both published and unpublished, agree that the body of St. Venerius was found by bishop Lucius and honored with a church built over it. If Lazarus is to be retained, and he really survived until the year 640, the death of St. Venerius could be placed about the middle of the seventh century, with some latitude nevertheless — did not that story of the dragon, at least in its circumstances, savor of fable.
Notes\ elsewhere, postposito*
§ III. The elevation of the saint's body, a church built over it and a monastery added: a translation to the mainland probably made in the seventh or eighth century.
[ ] Translations of the sacred body are recounted in the manuscript to be published to the number of three altogether, The saint's body is elevated, while the Camaldolese records only two, and the Genoese only one. Concerning the first, which was rather a kind of elevation, all the copies agree, and hand down that it was made by Lucius, bishop of Luna. For they say that the praised Lucius, being divinely admonished, went with clergy and people to the island of Tyro, and, his tomb being found by the indication of oil flowing forth, dug up the sacred body — laid there, as they will have it, by angels, and venerable with marvelous incorruption and a heavenly odor — and, a church being built over it, appointed ministers who should guard the precious treasure and honor it with pious observances. Concerning the place, however, in which these things were done, some disagree. In the first place the author of the more recent Office, often mentioned, at the 3rd day of November, on which the last translation, made in the ninth century, is recalled, supposes that the saint's body remained on the island of Palmaria until that time, and so that it was buried there and made illustrious by the church built by Lucius; for of a body translated from Tyro to Palmaria neither he nor anyone else makes mention.
[24] a church built over it on the island of Tyro, The same judges Francesco Orlendi in part 2 of the Sacred and Profane World, book 3, chapter 30, no. 9, following doubtless the aforecited Office. They could have been led into this opinion both because of the church which we said at no. 14 was dedicated to him on Palmaria, and from the manuscript Life, in which the saint is narrated to have returned from the island of Corsica, to which he had fled for the sake of avoiding honor, to his native place and to the place whence he had gone out, and to his own island, not long before his death; which, though they ought to have been understood of Tyro, which the hermit had inhabited and whence he had gone out, they seem to have interpreted of Palmaria, on which he had been born. Nor does it stand in the way that Palmaria, not Tyro, more probably fell to him as his native land; for since these islands lie next to one another, it can not unfittingly be said that he returned to his native place when he returned from Corsica to Tyro. Ughelli writes that a church was dedicated by the same Lucius on Cyrnus or Corsica; but the instrument presently to be recited too has some difficulty. Nevertheless that neither the saint's tomb nor the church built by Lucius must be sought elsewhere than on Tyro, the Life persuades, and other things which we shall bring forward in the course of this work.
[25] to which a monastery also was added, Lamorati not undeservedly judges that the guardians of the aforesaid church — whose ruins he says still existed in the seventeenth century, in which he was writing — were monks, who afterward, because of the incursions of the barbarians, migrated to the mainland. Yet that their monastery was not so deserted that it was not afterward restored we learn from Secondo Lancellotti's Olivetan History, book 2, chapter 24, where he has various things about it, and among the rest says that in the years of Christ 1017, 1127, and 1237 it is found called, in certain instruments I suppose, the Monastery of St. Mary and St. Venerius, which is built on the island which is named Tyro. He adds also another instrument of the eleventh century already decrepit, by which the saint's church, to be restored, is given to the abbot and monks of that place; which, because it manifests the saint's ancient cultus, I subjoin here entire. ✠ In the name of the most high God and of all the saints. The elders of Vezzano, namely Einricus and Arnulfredus, sons of Bellagarius, their mother Guaza consenting, and Gerardus with his brothers, namely Opizo of Ardesio, with the rest of their kinsmen and counselors, have determined that the church of St. Venerius, confessor of Christ, be rebuilt in the place which is called Antonia, of old wonderfully set there, but wickedly destroyed by certain perversities; where the same confessor, in ancient times, as is read in his admirable Life, by the hands of Lucius, bishop of Luna, it having been divinely revealed to him, was brought — having been buried by angelic hands on Tyro Major; and to which the same prelate, as also the present prelate Lazarus, had granted the gifts of very many lands.
[26] as is shown In such order, namely, that it remain perpetually, and be served and held by abbots and monks faithfully living on Tyro and warring for God and holy Venerius; nor let it be granted that the land of that same basilica, given by us now or in the future, or assigned to the above-written monastery by the faithful, be sold, or transferred, or enfeoffed; but let it always be kept for the expense and use of the brethren. In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand and eighty-five, Indiction 6, the fourth of the Nones of November etc. Done at the Castle of Vezzano, happily. Thus there; on which a few things are to be observed. In the first place an error seems to have crept into the year or the Indiction, since in the year assigned not the sixth but the eighth Indiction was running. Vezzano I find marked on geographical maps on the border of Liguria, of the dominion of the Genoese, where it adjoins Etruria, about five Italian miles from the city of Sarzana, but on the other bank of the river Magra.
[27] It is moreover uncertain whether the church of which there is question is said to be restored at Vezzano, as Lancellotti judges, from an instrument of the eleventh century. or on the island of Tyro. If the former, what is asserted from the Life about the saint's body being carried thither by Lucius is false; for all the transcripts of the Life, as we have said, affirm the contrary. Perhaps the writer of the instrument confused Lucius and the first elevation of the body with Lintecarius or Leothecarius the bishop, and with the translation of that same body made by him from Tyro to the river Magra, which we shall presently examine. But when in the same instrument it is said: where the same confessor … was brought, by the word existit understand was; for in the eleventh century it rested neither on Tyro nor at Vezzano, but at Reggio of Lepidus, as will be clear from what is to be said. For the rest, the monastery of Tyro, on Lancellotti's testimony, was afterward handed over by the Pontiff to the Olivetans, and was inhabited by them until the year 1470, in which they migrated to Portovenere. More concerning the same monastery you will find in the praised Lancellotti.
[28] The second translation of the sacred body in the manuscript to be published is said to have been made by Lintecarius, likewise bishop of Luna. The same body The Italian manuscript summary agrees, where he is called Linthuarius; and the hymn at Lauds of the older Office, in which he is called Leothecarius, and it is thus sung:
The prelate Leothecarius carried the bones to Sarzana: And there God through him unceasingly heals the sick.
The occasion for the translation is narrated to have been given by the incursions of the barbarians; from whose hands, when the guardians of the sacred body had divinely escaped, fearing lest they should at some time fall into them, they are said to have asked of the praised bishop that they might be permitted to cross to the mainland together with the relics of their Patron; and this leave being given, to have built a church beside the bank of the river Magra at Sarzana, eight miles distant from the city of Luna, in which the sacred remains of the man were laid by the aforesaid prelate. Now the Magra is a very well known river, which, dividing Liguria from Etruria, falls into the sea near Luna, a city long since destroyed. On its left bank Sarzana — which others call Serezana, Sergianum, and New Luna — was founded, a city indeed of Etruria, but of the dominion of the Genoese, to which the bishopric of old Luna was translated by Pope Nicholas V, on Ughelli's testimony.
[29] Of this translation the two other transcripts have nothing, because of the incursions of the Saracens as I have already noted above, and the more recent Office of Reggio is likewise silent. Nevertheless their silence is not an argument effective enough for us to reject as fictitious a translation which from the circumstances is probable enough. That the Saracens invaded Africa in the seventh century, and Spain also in the eighth, and thence infested the seas, is undoubted from the ancient Annals at hand; so that it is by no means strange if they attacked the island of Tyro also, and for that cause the body of St. Venerius was translated to Sarzana. Certainly Lamorati too writes that the monks, having left Tyro because of the incursions of the barbarians, migrated to the mainland, although he makes no mention of the body being translated; and besides he will have it that they settled not near Sarzana, but near Portovenere — that is, not only on the other bank of the Magra than that on which Sarzana is situated,
but also on the other shore of the Gulf of Spezia, fixed their dwelling; which he indeed seems to have judged because in that place there really was formerly a certain monastery, or hermitage, which was afterward given to the Olivetans, on the testimony of Lancellotti praised above.
[30] is said to have been translated from the island to the mainland. But to whichever of the two places the aforesaid monks withdrew, it is not likely that they departed from Tyro without the sacred body of their Patron, or, their seat being already changed, left it on Tyro. Add that the same Lamorati on p. 33, reporting from a certain ancient instrument, as he says, a miracle done at the saint's monastery — to be recounted by us at no. 18 of the Life — expressly says that that monastery was set on the mainland. Perhaps too the church which we said above at nos. 25 and 26 was restored by the men of Vezzano was that very one to which the aforesaid translation had formerly been made, Lucius being confused with Lintecarius, as we have already observed with hesitation, and the translation being procured by both bishops; which indeed we shall wonder at the less if we notice that that church was perhaps built between Sarzana and Vezzano, both of which we have said are situated on the bank of the Magra; for thus, on account of the nearness of both places, it could be said to have been built beside the bank of the river Magra at Sarzana, as the Life speaks — namely in its territory — and to have been restored by the men of Vezzano.
[31] as concerns the bishop who carried out the translation; As concerns the bishop who carried out the translation: Lintecarius or Leothecarius is doubtless the very man who in Ughelli's Italia sacra, tom. 1, col. 834, is called Lenthecorius, and is placed after Severus, who subscribed to the Roman council of the year 680 under St. Agatho, and before Apollonius, the predecessor of Petroaldus — which Petroaldus was likewise present at the Roman synod celebrated under Eugenius II in the year 826. Of Lenthecorius and Apollonius, besides their names, Ughelli knew nothing; whence it remains uncertain whether Lenthecorius should be referred to the end of the seventh century or to the eighth — especially since in the space of 146 years which came between the two mentioned synods more than two bishops could have sat at Luna between Severus and Petroaldus. But to whichever century you refer him, the occasion for translating the body could have been given by the Saracens, who, as we said above, in both those centuries infested the Mediterranean sea. From all these things the aforesaid translation becomes to me exceedingly probable, which the older people of Reggio also believed, as is clear both from the words of the Office given at no. 28 and from the hymn at Vespers, in which they acknowledge that the sacred body of Venerius was brought to them from Sarzana. Receive the words:
Whose bones are venerated at Reggio, Carried from Sarzana, once entombed, Lest by its touch the barbarian throng Should be able to defile them.
§ IV. The last translation of the body to Reggio of Lepidus: other matters pertaining to the relics.
[ ] Through fear of the Saracens Concerning the body of St. Venerius translated to Reggio of Lepidus in the duchy of Modena, in the reign of Louis the Pious, all our transcripts agree (except the Latin Genoese one, in which that translation is wanting), as do the Offices and the moderns, although they vary in the circumstances. The cause of the translation is set forth in our manuscript to be published in these words: But in the time of the emperor Louis the Pious, the most cruel nation of the Saracens, breaking out, devastated the borders of the people of Luna by an onset, and overthrew the churches of Christ; and of those whom they took, some they slew, some they drowned \ in the sea, some they led away captive. Hearing which, the emperor commanded that the borders of that province should be guarded by turns by the prelates of the Lombards, until the savagery of the barbarians should be quieted.* Then he subjoins that among the aforesaid bishops there was a certain Apollinaris, who, when he was passing the night at the saint's sepulcher, being overcome by sleep, was ordered by the saint himself to lay the sacred body in a safer place, because the irruptions of the Saracens were not yet then about to cease; which also he presently carried out, the body being translated to Reggio. So our manuscript, with which the Camaldolese, as also the Offices of Reggio, agree as to substance.
[33] That the territory of Luna was laid waste by the Saracens in the time of the emperor Louis the Pious I have nowhere found; the body to Reggio of Lepidus but that this was done in the year 849 the Annals of St. Bertin hand down, in Duchesne, tom. 3 of the History of the Franks, p. 204, where is read: The Moors and Saracens, plundering Luna, a city of Italy, with none resisting, devastate all the maritime parts as far as Provence. The Western empire at that time was ruled by Lothar, the first emperor of that name, and he had declared his son Louis, afterward also emperor, king of Italy, whom Pope Sergius II also crowned. Hence some suspicion arises in me that the biographer confused two Louises, and ascribed to Louis the Pious what should have been attributed to Louis II, son of Lothar.
[34] But since all the transcripts with the Offices of Reggio agree on Louis the Pious, is translated in the ninth century, I should not wish to deny that the translation of which we treat happened under him; for that in his time also the Saracens infested the Italian sea is certain from the Annals of Einhard. Yet I should believe that the laying waste of the territory of Luna, if any was done under Louis the Pious, was not so great as is here described by the biographer, but was confused with the later one which we have just mentioned, and wrongly enlarged from it. For the rest, Lamorati erred when on p. 30 he places this translation about the year of Christ 860, in the reign of Louis the Pious — who had died, namely, in the fortieth year of that century. Papebroch erred too when at the 25th day of June, in his Animadversions on the Translation of St. Prosper of Reggio, p. 61, no. 18, he believed that the body of St. Venerius, together with the relics of SS. Prosper and Jucunda the virgin, was laid by bishop Thomas in the suburban church of Reggio in the eighth century; for as concerns our saint, we do not doubt that this was done only in the ninth century and by another bishop.
[35] Who he was, however, writers do not so agree. but it is uncertain Our manuscripts call him Apollinaris; and the Camaldolese transcript adds that he was of Reggio, with which both Offices of the church of Reggio agree. Apollinaris he is called also by Peter de Natalibus in the Catalogue, and by Lamorati in the Life; but he is affirmed to have presided over the bishopric of Luna, not of Reggio. On the contrary Ughelli, tom. 2 of Italia sacra, col. 247, names him Vitalis, and likewise reckons him among the bishops of Reggio. Those who ascribe the translation to a bishop of Luna are favored by this, that the saint's body — whether on the island of Palmaria, or on Tyro, or in the territory of Sarzana, which we think more probable — then rested in the diocese of the latter bishop, not of Reggio, and so its translation would pertain to him. But it is against them that no Apollinaris occurs in the catalogue of the prelates of Luna in Ughelli, and it may seem strange that that treasure was carried by a bishop of Luna into another diocese, namely that of Reggio. But as these things partly favor and partly oppose the asserters of the mentioned opinion, so also the defenders of the opposite.
[36] by what bishop But to these it can be answered that that translation was most probably carried out by the bishop of Reggio with the consent of the bishop or clergy of Luna. For the bishop of Reggio, whose diocese adjoins that of Luna, could have come to Luna in order to confer counsel with its bishop about the common safety in so perilous a time; and on that occasion, keeping vigil at the tomb of St. Venerius, could have been admonished by the saint himself to translate the body into his own diocese — which it is not strange should have been permitted by the bishop of Luna, both because the saint's commands so required, and because Reggio of Lepidus, being farther distant from the sea, lay much less open to the piratical incursions of the barbarians. It could also be that the see of Luna was at that time vacant, and that the neighboring bishop of Reggio meanwhile bore the care of it, and with the assent of the clergy carried the aforesaid body, for the cause mentioned, even if for a time, to Reggio; and that there, when it had been carried thither, it afterward remained. The more recent Office of Reggio brings forward another occasion on which this translation was made by the bishop of Reggio. It says, namely, that the bishops of Lombardy were commanded by Louis the Pious to guard by turns, in fixed months, the churches most exposed to the fury of the Saracens; and that in this way it came about that the bishop of Reggio, keeping watch in the order of his turn, translated the saint's body.
[37] it was done. It remains that we say something of Ughelli's opinion, who ascribes the translation, as we noted above, not to Apollinaris but to Vitalis. He proves that Apollinaris presided over the church of Reggio in the eighth century under Charlemagne, from three privileges which he exhibits there, granted to him by the praised Charles; but he lays down that the same man died in the year 786, and so before the reign of Louis the Pious. To Apollinaris he substitutes Adelmus at the year of Christ 814, and to him, dying in the year 822, Noderbertus, who was present at the council of Mantua in the year 824; and finally Vitalis, by whom he affirms St. Venerius was translated. And rightly indeed does he adjudge the translation to another than Apollinaris, if he learned from a suitable document that his death and Adelmus' episcopate must be tied to the years which he records; but why he would have it ascribed to Vitalis rather than to Adelmus or Noderbertus I do not sufficiently discern — unless perhaps he learned this too from elsewhere.
[38] Other matters pertaining to the saint's relics: There would remain here many things most worthy of relation concerning various other translations and elevations of our holy hermit, as also concerning the suit over the possession of his sacred body brought by the canons of the collegiate church of St. Prosper of Reggio against the Benedictines of Monte Cassino, who long inhabited the suburban monastery and church, and which was at length decided by Pope Clement VIII in the year 1594. Many things, I say, about these matters would have had to be recounted in this place, had they not already been given and illustrated at the 25th day of June in St. Prosper of Reggio, over whose sacred body there was likewise contention. Lest therefore I do what has been done, referring the curious reader to the Histories of the translations printed there, I here only observe that the aforesaid monks remained in possession of the body of St. Venerius, the decree of the praised Clement VIII being at length carried into execution in the year 1601, as you will find at greater length there.
[39] Finally, that in the year 1627, on the 23rd day of November, the body of this our saint was translated into a new marble urn, and his head into a silver image, an elevation made in the seventeenth century. a summary account published in Italian on this matter by the monks of the same monastery in the year 1692 teaches me. To the body they affixed the old inscriptions and one new one. The old ones may be read in the Histories of the translations praised above; the new one was transmitted to us in this form: The body of St. Venerius the abbot, by the piety of the Cassinese monks, they placed here more honorably in the year of the Lord 1627, Urban VIII being Supreme Pontiff, Cesare d'Este duke of Reggio and Modena. The names of the Reverend Fathers, the abbot and monks, by whose presence and comfort these sacred bones were laid up: Nicolaus of Salò, abbot; Basilius of Mantua, Prior; Geminianus of Modena; Jacobus of Brescia; Anastasius of Finale; Maurus of Piacenza; Petrus Paulus of Genoa; Celsus of Salò; Martinus of Mantua; Petrus Ma. of Modena; Claudius of Padua; Ilarius of Pavia; Prosper of Reggio. I, Stephanus Ghisonus, citizen and Notary of Reggio, being asked concerning the above-written, have here subscribed and signed as required.
Notes\* i.e., they drowned
THE LIFE
By an anonymous author.
From Peter Calo, part 1, fol. 256, collated with the Camaldolese and Genoese manuscripts.
Venerius, priest and hermit, on Tyro Major, an island of the Ligurian sea (St.)
BHL Number: 8535
By an anonymous author.
CHAPTER I.
The saint's native land and the training of his boyhood, his eremitical life, miracles, flight into Corsica.
Venerius a, monk and priest, was a native of the island of Palmaria, near the sea, in the province of Luna b, Born on Palmaria, he makes for the island of Tyro, of noble parents, by whom he was handed over to the study of letters, in which he so far advanced that within a few years, being imbued with the liberal arts, he seemed to surpass both his contemporaries and even his elders; and being fully instructed, he began to consider lest for temporal things he should lack eternal ones. Whence he gave heed either to be joined to the society of monks c, or alone to lead an eremitical life, that he might attain eternal life. The soil of his birth therefore being set aside, he sought the aforesaid island d, surrounded by the sea, distant from the city of Luna about eight miles, which is called Tyro Major, that there, giving himself to prayer, he might lead a solitary life, content with wild herbs and the fruits which that place bore.
[2] he is visited by Agrestius, And when he had lived thus for many years, the Lord admonished a man Agrestius, saying that he should visit his servant lying hidden in a cave, and should fully accomplish what he should enjoin upon him. Terrified at the greatness of so great a vision, before the sun rose he boarded a ship, sails thither, seeks the man, and, God making his journey prosperous, is brought thither; and he began to set forth the revelation to the saint, and to ask what it pleased him to command. Whom the holy man began to admonish concerning the love of God and of neighbor and concerning other virtues, and that through many tribulations the saints must enter into the kingdom of God. Then Agrestius, falling at his feet, prayed him to beseech the Lord for him, because by his own strength he could accomplish none of the things which he had heard. Then the saint, raising and exhorting him, and bidding him farewell, sent him back to his own home, asking that he would send him a hoe and a sextarius of barley, that he might sow it for himself, so that, according to the Apostle, he might labor with his own hands for a living.
[3] he provides food by the labor of his hands: That man, having returned home, related what he had seen and heard, and takes pains to fulfill as quickly as possible what he had been bidden. And so, a hoe with barley being sent over, the man of God at once sows it at the time when the first crops are reaped. The barley grew; and when it was brought to maturity, he reaped and threshed it, and brought forth ten bushels e. Thereupon crowds of people began to run to him, seeking the medicines of penance; but he, like a wise physician, exhorts all that, the trappings of the world being set aside, they should learn to mortify their members upon earth, lest for these delights they be deprived of heavenly gifts. So great a grace abounded in him that whoever was able to come to him departed as though refreshed from heaven, so filled was he with the sweetness of his admonition.
[4] he calls a drowned boy back to life: A poor man, Domealis by name, came to visit him, and left his servant boy to watch the ship on the shore of the sea until he should return; and while they were talking deeply, the boy falls asleep. But when the dog which the man of God kept with him at home barked at the coming of those who came, the boy, terrified and wishing to leap out, was drowned in the sea. And so, returning, he found the boy dead; but the ship was being tossed by the force of the wind. And so Domealis, goaded by the boy's death and anxious about his return — since he had no means by which to return home — going back to the man of God, began to appeal to him not to suffer that he had come to see his blessedness only to lose his boy and to find no ship in which he might return home. Hearing these things, the holy man, falling to the ground, prayed; and lying long prostrate in prayer, he brings the ship back to the shore from which it had been carried off, and raised the boy, and rendered him living to his master. The cause of the matter he made known to all.
[5] he becomes known to high and low. The people began to run together to him from every side for the entire health of their bodies, and many possessed by a demon came to him; and he, supported by God's help, came to the aid of all with a cure \*. But he was so wasted with hunger that he was scarcely believed to live, so that he who was anxious about the healings of others might always show in his own body to others how those who desire to serve God worthily should mortify their bodies. When the fame of the holy man spread marvelously not only through Tuscany but also through the Roman and Ausonian parts, his repute came to the emperor Phocas f, who at that time was most brilliantly governing the Italian and Constantinopolitan empire. But blessed Pope Gregory g too, hearing his famous name, sent him a letter, asking his company for a familiar conversation.
[6] Now near the city of Luna there was a huge dragon A horrible dragon which, doing various harms to men, overturned the keels of those who came h. And when it frequently killed an innumerable multitude of men, and by no art could they escape so most savage a plague, compelled by necessity they go with one accord to Lazarus i, the bishop who then ruled the see of Luna k; they humbly beseech that he would have mercy on them set in such need, so that, supported by his holy help, they might escape the most cruel beast. And the anxious archbishop, calling his deacon l, sends him to blessed Venerius, asking that he would drive away the dragon by his prayers. And so the aforesaid archdeacon, coming, sets forth the commands which the bishop enjoined. Hearing which, the man of God, terrified, says: "Why does my lord the bishop enjoin such things upon me, since I am of no merit, that I should be able to do this miracle?" And when he who had come, the archdeacon, pressed that he should obey the prayers and commands of the bishop, he answered: "By no means shall I attempt to do this, since I find that I am of no merit, that I should be able to do such things." But the archdeacon, boarding the ship, came to the bishop, and reports what he received in answer.
[7] But the bishop sends the same archdeacon with several other priests and religious men to the same man, being asked by the bishop of Luna beseeching that he would favor both his own prayers and those of the people, and would drive away this wicked death from them; to whom he, as before, began to protest earnestly that he was unworthy — that he was not of that merit that the Lord should deign to work such things through him, a sinner. And they returned and tell the cause of their frustrated labor. Then the bishop sends to him a third time, beseeching with many prayers and tears that he would come to the aid of those laboring in so great a necessity, and would remember that the Lord is so merciful that he bestows himself favorably on those who cry to him with all devotion and are set in need. Then Venerius the man of God gave himself to prayers and fastings for three continuous days; and on the fourth day at first dawn, the divine Mystery being celebrated, and communicating himself with the Body and Blood of the Lord, he thus began to descend by the steps of the hardest flint to the dragon m; and where the man of God set his foot, he so made a footprint as though he were walking upon snow.
[8] And coming to the place where the dragon lay, arming himself with the sign of the Cross, he drives away by the sign of the Cross, and flees into Corsica, he said to it with a clear voice: "My bishop Lazarus commands you, O dragon, that, harming no one, you go into the depth of the abyss." But not even then did the dragon make any movement n. Then the man of God, stretching out his hand and making the sign of the Cross, said to it: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit I command you, dragon, that, harming no one, you go out of this place, and be plunged into the deep, so that you may appear no more." Then the dragon, straightway leaping forth with a great crash and noise and intolerable fury \*, shattered into fragments the huge rock beneath which it lay hid, and, plunged into the deep of the sea, nowhere appeared. But the bishop, seeing it, together with the clergy and people, boarding a ship, began to sail, that they might come to him and congratulate him on such a trophy of victory; foreseeing which, the man of God, boarding a ship by night and fleeing over the sea, came to the island which is called Cyrnus o, and there lay hid for some days until the outcry should be quieted, lest the favor of flatterers should defile a mind full of virtues.
[9] where he is fed by a raven, And when he stayed on the said island, fleeing the reports of men, he led an eremitical life alone with the beasts, dwelling among the myrtle groves and being nourished by their little fruits. And when, staying there now for forty days, he received no other viands than those which we have mentioned, God was present there, who never ceases to prepare a table in the desert for his servants, and who therefore permits his servants to be tried, that, being tried, they may become manifest, and that their excellent devotion may come to the knowledge of men. While on a certain day he was persisting alone in prayer, he saw a raven come to him and bring him half a loaf and a piece of beef; which the holy man taking, rendered thanks to God the giver, and, receiving the food, kept a part for his servant [p].
[10] and raises a dead man. Meanwhile, while the man of God was walking along the seashore, he found the body of a certain man which the sea had cast up dead; and standing over it, he began to say with tearful words: "Alas, wretched man! What madness deceived you, that for temporal advantages you thought the sea should be sailed? Would it not have been more advantageous for you to be content with your poverty than for earthly gain to suffer harm of body and to lie under peril of soul? For perhaps your sons and wife await your coming with great riches; and — alas the grief! — you lie on this sand." And saying these things, lifting his eyes and hands to heaven, he prayed Christ that he would bid this man's soul be brought back to his body, that he might be able to bewail his past sins and might deserve to stand clean before his sight; and, wholly bathed in tears, he cast himself upon the body of the dead man, and again began most devoutly to beseech the clemency of God to restore the soul which he had taken [q]. He had not yet finished his prayer, and behold two men stood by him, saying: "Venerius, rise; why do you lie? God has heard your voices, has seen your tears, and has restored to you the soul for which you asked." And as they said this, the man rose and stood upon his feet; and the angels with swift flight sought heaven again, and Venerius gave thanks to God.
NOTES.
be made known, and may profit for their gain and increase. Not therefore, driven by the vice of vainglory or by any wicked rashness, have I tried to narrate the deeds of so great a man; but out of love for him, what I have either myself learned or come to know from religious men relating it, I have found should be narrated to posterity; believing that by his holy prayers I shall remain unharmed amid the storms of this world, if I shall have taken care that what he did be made known to the ears of the faithful.
Agrestius sends the saint a mattock with barley; Soon the sextarius, sown, yields back seven times ten.
In both Offices too it is said that he distributed to the poor that barley so prodigiously produced.
p. He did not therefore live there alone, as nevertheless the biographer exhibits him. The Camaldolese manuscript has mystery; but probably faultily.
q. In the Camaldolese and Genoese transcripts the whole prayer which the saint used is recounted; but whence did the biographer know all these things so clearly, if the holy hermit stayed there entirely alone? Or to whom did the saint himself relate all these things?
\* abundantly with care
\ elsewhere, stench*
CHAPTER II.
His return to Tyro, death, burial, the elevation of his body, miracles, the translation made to Reggio of Lepidus.
[ ] First repulsed by sailors, After these things the man of God began to consider whether he should return to the desired place which he had chosen and left, or should lead an exile's life there where he was staying. But while he was considering these things, it was shown him in a vision that he should more swiftly return to his native place and to the place from which he had gone out a, because the day of his falling asleep was at hand. And when he had awakened, he began to walk here and there along the shore, if by any means he might find a ship in which he might be carried to his native place. And while he anxiously awaited a ship, it came about by God's providence that two ships came with swift course to the place where he was standing, whose steersmen said that they wished to set out for the island of Sardinia for the sake of trading. Rejoicing at the sight of them, he asked that they should bring him to his own island, and that thus thereafter, with a favorable west wind blowing, they might now in safety take up their desired journey. But when they affirmed that they could by no means do this, because the winter season was upon them, the man of God says: "It is better for the love of God to have compassion on the necessities of one's neighbors than for the sake of earthly gain to go against the commands of God by disobedience, who says: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
[12] a storm arising, and being calmed by him, And when they by no means yielded to his prayers, the man of God, lifting his head upward, prayed, saying: "Eternal Creator of things, do you prepare for your servant Venerius a fitting place in which I may be able, as I desire, most devoutly to serve you b." But the sailors, moving their keels, drove them into the deep; but straightway a wind came which brought the ships back to the place from which they had gone out, and for four days, the sea by no means resting, they could not enter it, but more and more the deep swelled. But one master of a ship, understanding that the sea was swelling against him for the injury done to the holy man, coming, cast himself at his feet, asking that he would have mercy on him and pardon what he had committed; and he said that he would also take him as quickly as possible whither he wished. And he: "If you do what you promise, I will implore the Lord's mercy for you, and his fury will depart from you, and with a favorable wind blowing you will come to your appointed place." And they promised to obey his commands in every way, if only the waves of the sea might rest.
[13] and a dead man raised, he is carried by them back to Tyro, And as the man of God prayed, the sea rested from its fury, and there was a great calm; and those who were in the ship were filled with great joy, and began to sport on the shore, and vied in throwing stones as at a mark. And while they were thus playing, one of them, throwing a stone awry, so struck one of his companions on the temples that he straightway breathed out his spirit; and thus the play was turned into mourning and huge sorrow. But when those who were present were laboring to commit the body to the earth, the man of God asked them to withdraw a little farther; and, bending his knee, he prayed, and standing over the body, said: "Bid, my God, this soul return into the body, that these may know that you are our [God] \*, who kill and make alive, lead down to hell and bring back." And straightway he who had been dead lived again, and stood upon his feet and walked c. And those who were in the ship, seeing what had been done, glorified God, who works such things through his servant. And at once, the ship being boarded, with a favorable east wind blowing, in a straight course they bring the holy man back to his island; and, having received his blessing, they set out on the way which they had appointed.
[14] But while the man of God was staying some time on the island of Tyro, where he dies, and is buried by angels: the days of his death drew near, and, destitute of human help, he was aided by angelic comfort d; and knowing by revelation that the day of his death was at hand, he began so to labor in prayer, fastings, and vigils as though he had never done anything good. And being seized by infirmity, he came to his last day, and, his life being ended e for everlasting days, on the Ides of September he rendered his soul to heaven; whose body, buried by angelic hands, long remained unknown. But in the place where the holy body lay oil began to flow, which happens to this day; and whoever is anointed with it straightway finds that he has received comfort of his toil and pain, provided he receive it with faith f.
[15] The Lord also appeared in a vision to Lucius, bishop of Luna, over the body divinely found a church is built: commanding that in the place where the saint lay he should build a church and set guardians who should render service to that same holy man. And he, telling this to the clergy and people, and boarding a ship with them, came to the revealed place, and, seeking the place, at length found it where the oil was flowing. Wishing to know the truth, he came to the sepulcher, and the bishop himself first approached as digger of the earth; and when he had begun to dig, he came to the body on the Kalends of May, and they found it so untouched and whole as though it had been buried at that same hour, and so great a fragrance of odor flowed from that place that it seemed to be equaled to the odors of paradise. And bidding the sepulcher be covered, he built a very beautiful church there, and appointed guardians who with diligent care guarded his body g; who, when they had no sweet water to drink, by the merits of this saint, within that same church beside the altar there burst forth a spring of perennial water, which flows to this day, and which heals those sick of fever who drink of it with faith, by the merits of the saint of God h.
[16] But when, charity growing cold and iniquity abounding, the body divinely preserved wars had arisen among the nations, the tumultuous and unstable nation of the Saracens, striving to pursue Italy with the sword, set about defiling also that place where this saint lay; and, surrounding the church and the house where the guardians dwelt, they strove to set fire to it. But by God's nod those Saracens, when they could neither break the doorposts of the church nor set fire to it, recognizing that the power of God was there, boarding their ships, at once departed; and the guardians rendered thanks to God and to his saint i.
[17] And fearing lest at some time they should fall into the hands of plunderers, is translated to Sarzana. and the saint's sepulcher be defiled by the impious, they chose to carry away with them the relics of so great a father and to place them in a safer place. And going to Lintecarius, bishop of Luna, and telling him the cause of their sorrow, with his consent
and by his command, they built a church beside the bank of the river Magra k at Sarzana l, eight miles distant from the city of Luna; and so at last, boarding a ship with clergy and people, he came to the saint's sepulcher, and, raising his relics, carried them to the aforesaid place and laid them up with due honor, guardians being appointed there who with great veneration should celebrate his obsequies and offices m.
[18] An irreligious man divinely punished and healed: When a certain soldier, Peruerius of count Bercarius, was passing beside the basilica of this saint, he coveted the young fowls which he had seen there, and told those present to give him some of those fowls; but when they refused and said that they did not dare to do this because of their great awe of them, leaping down from his horse he began to chase the fowls, and, two of them being caught, went away. But the divine vengeance was presently at hand, and turned him into madness. And when those who were walking with him saw him deprived of his senses, returning to the church, they ask the guardians to take back their fowls; and when they took them back, he remained openly as he was. But as his companions were anxious about the recovery of the man's senses, they offered his horse and his arms with his belt to St. Venerius; and thus he was restored to his former health, and returned home whole with his companions, telling all what had befallen him; whence they feared the more to do any harm to his ministers, as being deadly n.
[19] a guardian of the sacred body, the church being burned by the Normans, Long afterward the most fierce nation of the Normans, sailing over the sea, came to the city of Arles, and thence began to sail to the city of Luna; and there, trying to destroy houses and churches, they came to the church of St. Venerius. But the guardians and all being put to flight by terror of them, they found no one there except one old man; whom, being seized, they ask of what condition he was, and why, when the others had turned to flight, he had presumed to remain there. He answered that he was both a Christian and a guardian of blessed Venerius, and that for the love of the said father he had remained in that place, believing that by his intercession he could escape their hands. Hearing this, the barbarians say to him: "Do you believe that by the help either of your God or of St. Venerius you can escape our hands?" He answered that he did.
[20] is preserved unharmed. But they, as they were most cruel, straightway seizing him with his hands tied behind his back, and wishing to burn him bound at the altar of the holy man, set fire beneath, saying to him: "Now it will appear what your Venerius can do for you." But the old man, seeing himself surrounded with fire, looking up to heaven, said: "Holy Venerius, confessor of Christ, for your love I have stood fast in this place; now favor me with your prayers, that the fire itself may not have dominion over me, nor harm me in anything." Marvelous to say! The whole church with the houses round about was so burned up that nothing of all the buildings remained, and the bonds with which that old man had been bound were burned up; but upon him neither did any spark of ash fall, nor did any pain of the fire come down upon him — so much so that the barbarians, marveling, left him untouched and went away o.
[21] An impure priest seized by a demon and freed, When a certain priest, Turingus by name, dwelt together with his co-mother [p], and had not the guard over his own body which was needful for him, the ancient enemy, offering his accustomed poisons, began to tempt his heart, that he should overpower that same co-mother of his; and that there was no one who would suspect this, that they should defile themselves with so wicked a debauchery; and that therefore this was the less evil, because no one would suspect it, and because it would lie hidden, than if he were joined to another woman and it could not lie hidden — believing that it would either be hidden from God, or, if he perceived it, that he would mercifully remit it. And consenting, he gave heed to such pleasure, overpowering the wretched co-mother. But the just Judge was straightway at hand, applying vengeance; for presently he was handed over to so most fierce a demon that he could scarcely be bound with the hardest chains, tearing himself violently, and striving to rend with his bite whomever he could reach. But being brought to the church of this saint, and there for six days much chattering and raving, at last on the seventh day he was freed by the intercession of this saint; and in that same place he kept watch at the saint's services until his death, bewailing his sins; and there he was buried.
[22] A girl seized by a demon began to cry out that she was tormented by the prayers of blessed Venerius, likewise a possessed woman healed. and that she wished to go to his sepulcher. But as they wondered at hearing the name of St. Venerius, which had been unknown to them, they led her to the church of St. Mary; and entering the church, she began to cry out: "By your prayers, blessed Venerius, I am tormented, and by your prayers I am driven out"; and tearing herself much and leaping up, she fell before the altar as though dead, and so lay for nearly two hours. Afterward, rising whole, she returned home with her parents, praising God and St. Venerius [q].
[23] But in the time of the emperor Louis the Pious, the most cruel nation of the Saracens, breaking out, The saint's body, translated to Reggio of Lepidus, shines with miracles. devastated the borders of the people of Luna by an onset, and overthrew the churches of Christ; and of those whom they took, some they slew, some they drowned [r] in the sea, some they led away captive. Hearing which, the emperor commanded that the borders of that province should be guarded by turns by the prelates of the Lombards, until the savagery of the barbarians should be quieted. Among whom was bishop Apollinaris [s], assiduous in the law of God and famous for virtues, who, hearing the report of this man's sanctity, as a servant of Christ frequently visited the places destroyed by the Saracens, where the body of this saint had rested. But on a night, while after his custom he was passing the night at his relics, sleep seizing him, blessed Venerius appeared, saying to him: "Take my bones hence, and lay them up in a safer place, because the fury and indignation of the Saracens is still enduring." Without delay, rejoicing at the vision, his people being called together, he rose at once and opened the sepulcher with diligence, and gathered his fragrant and exceedingly sweet-smelling bones, and carried them with great honor to Reggio, and laid them up within the basilica of blessed Prosper, with an altar set over them, according to the fittingness of so great a saint, on the third of the Nones of November. By whose merits how many paralytics and men burdened with other sufferings have been freed, who is able to tell? A certain man burning sharply with fevers, being led before his sepulcher, was so restored to his former health that he suffered no further attack [t].
NOTES.
The dragon flees, the rock hides it, and the raven feeds him in the grove; To three dead God through him granted life.
Whose little body lies hidden, and by God's gift there flows A liquid marking that he knew how to live with charity.
p. That is, whose offspring he himself had raised from the sacred font. This whole narrative concerning Turingus is absent from the Camaldolese manuscript.
q. These
healing of a possessed woman is reported also in the Camaldolese manuscript, but is wanting in the Genoese, in which last nothing is said either of the translation made in the reign of Louis the Pious; but after the miracle reported by us at nos. 19 and 20 the following prayer to St. Venerius is recited: O God, who through the merits of blessed Venerius thy confessor didst raise three bodies of the dead, mercifully grant that we who keep his commemoration may by his prayers, through the breathing of thy Spirit, rise again from the death of the soul. Through our Lord etc.
r. Negare, a barbarous word, is in Latin to drown: perhaps necabant should be read. As concerns this devastation by the Saracens, consult the Commentary, nos. 33 and 34.
s. That writers do not agree about the bishop's name and his see we said in the Commentary, which consult at no. 35 and following.
t. He who is here said to have been freed from fevers was the very man who put together this translation, or at any rate the old Office of Reggio; for there he speaks thus: By whose merits thereafter how many paralytics have been healed, how many entangled in various sufferings, how many too held by different infirmities have received health, who could suffice to tell? Of whose number I have seen many healed, and I was even one of them myself, whose limbs were sharply vexed with fevers. And being led before his tomb, I was so restored to my former health that I thereafter endured no suffering of that calamity.
\ elsewhere it adds, God*