Rodingus

ON ST. RODINGUS, FOUNDER AND ABBOT OF BEAULIEU,

NEAR BEAULIEU IN THE CHAMPAGNE OF GAUL,

ABOUT THE END OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Rodingus or Chraudingus, founder and abbot of Beaulieu, near Beaulieu in the Champagne of Gaul. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. An account of the monastery which he founded: the Saint's memory in the Martyrologies: his more recent and his ancient cult: which of the Lives are to be published? mention of him in various writers.

[ ] Beaulieu, commonly Beau-lieu, formerly called Waslogium, is an ancient monastery of the diocese of Verdun in the Argonne, An account of Beaulieu. in the tract of Champagne in Gaul, distant two French miles from Clermont to the south, on the testimony of Baudrand in his Geography, with whom the geographical Maps nearly agree, in which it is placed between the rivers Aire and Aisne. The brothers of Sainte-Marthe, tom. 4 of the Gallia Christiana, page 154, note that it now belongs to the Cluniac congregation, and in the same place review other monasteries of the same name, to be distinguished from this of ours. But Mabillon in Appendix 2 to the 4th Benedictine Century, in the preliminary observations to the Life of St. Rodingus, and Baillet in the Life, teach that that abbey belongs not to the Cluniac but to the Congregation of St. Vanne. Further, the founder and first abbot of this place was St. Rodingus, or, as it is written in the Acts to be mentioned below, Chraudingus, in French St. Rouin, a Scot by nation, who, having come from his own country into Gaul, was first enrolled among the monks in the monastery of Tholey or Tabuleium in the Vosges, and perhaps even presided there as abbot. But then, led by love of a greater solitude, he gave a beginning in the forest of Argonne to the aforesaid monastery, which also, after various mishaps, he completed, being helped by Austresius, a powerful man, and by others, and made illustrious by his most holy institutions and by his sacred bones, brought thither from the hermitage, as he had bidden.

[2] The Saint's memory and cult on this day, That the day of his death was the XVII of September the Lives of him testify, and on that day his memory is celebrated in the Benedictine Menologies and a few others. Menard on this day has of him thus: In the forest of Argonne, the Deposition of St. Rodingus, bishop and confessor. In the same words Bucelin announces him in the Menologium Benedictinum, where he says that he was called Rodincus, and then weaves a sufficiently prolix elogium. Saussay too, in the Supplement to the Martyrologium Gallicanum, makes him a bishop and the successor of holy Paul in the chair of Verdun; but wrongly, as we shall see. More rightly Castellanus in the Martyrologium Universale on the same day has in French: On the borders of Champagne and Lorraine, St. Chraudingus, monk of Tholey, and first abbot of Beaulieu in the Argonne. Rightly likewise the Paris Martyrology: In Gallic Champagne, the birthday of St. Rodingus, founder and first abbot of the monastery of Beaulieu. That on this day too he was wont to be venerated throughout the whole diocese of Verdun with a commemoration from the common of a confessor abbot, both in the Mass and in the Canonical Hours, we have from the Missal and Breviary of Verdun, of which the latter, published in the year 1560 by order of Nicholas Psaume, bishop and count of Verdun, and reprinted at Paris in the year 1625, and the former, likewise published by the authority of the same bishop in the year 1554 from the Paris press, exist in our Museum. The first Collect in the Missal prescribed there about him is of this kind: O God, who hast granted us this present day, made sacred in the solemnity of blessed Rodingus, thy confessor and abbot, be propitiously present to the prayers of thy Church, that we, who glory in his merits, may be fortified by his suffrages. Through our Lord, etc.

[3] But that his cult among his own people of Beaulieu, which they clearly prove to have been famous of old nay, in the diocese of Verdun also, was most ancient, is clearly proved by what Flodoard has in book 4 of the History of Rheims, chapter 41, whence I excerpt the following: And when lord Dado, bishop of Verdun, had obtained this abbey (of Montfaucon) from the king, and had begun to hear these marvels (the miracles of St. Baldericus the abbot), he ordained that every year the sacred pledges of three monasteries should be carried together to a certain middle place, by name Gaudiacum. Namely from the see of the city of Verdun St. Vitonus and St. Agericus, but holy Baldericus from his own monastery, and holy Rodvicus from Waslogium. At which assembly innumerable miracles were afterwards wrought, so that scarcely did a gathering of this kind pass by in which some one of the sick was not restored to soundness; but most of all those who experienced the patronage of blessed Baldericus. This "Rodvicus" is read alike in the Paris edition of the year 1611 by James Sirmond, and in the Douai one prepared in the year 1617 by George Colvener; the latter, however, warns in his Scholia that in the manuscript copy which Nicholas Chesneau had used for the French version there is found Rodincus de Vaslojo. However it be, it is certain that these things can be understood of none other than our holy Abbot.

[4] That these things happened as the ninth century was drawing to a close, or the tenth beginning, it is proved; his body at Beaulieu. is clear both from the time of Dado's episcopate and from the reign of Arnulf, who succeeded Charles the Fat when the latter was deposed toward the end of the year 887 and died a little after, and who is that very king from whom Dado had received the abbey of Montfaucon, as Dado himself testifies in Richard de Wassebourg, Antiquities of Belgic Gaul, book 3, fol. CLXXIIII. And that the veneration of St. Rodingus was famous even then, no one will deny who has read the words of Flodoard just reported. Another testimony of the same ancient cult is furnished by the Life of Bl. Richard, abbot of St. Vanne of Verdun, who died about the middle of the eleventh century. For his biographer, a monk of St. Vanne's, in Mabillon, Benedictine Century 6, part 1, page 525, writes thus about him: And as we have learned by the faithful narration of venerable old men [], this blessed father was the ruler and founder of twenty-one abbeys, … in very many of which we have seen the marks of his institutions still preserved; among which the church of Beaulieu, distinguished by the merits of the glorious martyr Maurice and of holy Rodingus the confessor — whose Life he himself composed in honorable speech, and whose shrine he adorned with gold and silver — stands ennobled by his sacred zeal, whose height he increased, and which he adorned with a cloister and the necessary offices*, etc. For the rest, that his sacred body is still religiously preserved in the monastery of Beaulieu, Mabillon in his preliminary observations, and others, affirm.

[5] To these I add what, in the Life of the same published by Hugh Menard in book 2 of the Observations, the anonymous writer reports in these words about the little hut in which he spent the last period of his life as a solitary: What is to be thought of his cell? St. Rodingus's little hut still survives, to which the sick flock, and especially those laboring with fever, who, having drunk water from the spring adjoining the hut, obtain health. Thus he: but whether these things be true, or at least whether the hut be truly that Saint's, the other Life deservedly bids us doubt — the one published by the same Menard at the end of his little Work, and by Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, which is both of better note than that one, and probably has Bl. Richard, just praised, for its author. For since Bl. Richard was also abbot of that same place, and nevertheless the place in which St. Rodingus lived as a solitary is said in that Life to be unknown, we cannot without just apprehension assent to the statements of the other biographer, who elsewhere too tells fables; or, if some hut be truly held there in veneration, it is certainly permitted to doubt whether it was really inhabited by St. Rodingus. And the words of the praised biographer are these: But he did not withdraw further from the monastery; but lying hidden among the shady places of the woods (for it is uncertain where he dwelt) he remained separated from it by only half a mile. There was therefore, when these things were written, an unknown hut of the Saint, and only the distance of the place where he dwelt was known. However it be, in the map of the diocese of Verdun etc., prefixed to tom. 1 of Calmet's History of Lorraine, I have found a place, St. Ruin, distant a little less than one French mile from Beaulieu; whether the aforesaid hut may perhaps be there, I cannot divine. And these are the things which I have found about the cult of St. Rodingus, which it is likely began soon after his death; and therefore we cannot deny what in the same Life in Menard is said in the first place about the three days' concourse of the people to the sacred corpse: The sacred body was carried to the monastery of Beaulieu, where it could scarcely be buried until after three days, on account of the crowd of the sick who came from every side.

[6] There exists a twofold Life of the Saint; I have already said that two Lives of St. Rodingus were published by Hugh Menard in the Martyrology of the Saints of the Benedictine Order. About the first of these, which he inserted in book 2 of the Observations, he noted at its end: This Life was culled from an old Ms. codex which is preserved in the abbey of Beaulieu. The beginning of this is: St. Rodingus, or Rodincus, was a Scot by nation, born of a noble place in the year five hundred and ninety-four. But about the other, which he added toward the end of the little Work, he gave the following warning: This Life I took from an old Ms. codex of the monastery of St. Peter of Châlons, which I have set down here without changing even one jot, although I inserted the other in book 2 of the Observations; since there is some difference between them. For certain things are narrated otherwise, and some are in the one which are not in the other. Now from this varied manner of speaking, in which he says that the earlier Life was excerpted from an old codex, and that the other was set down without even one jot changed, he seems to have changed some things in that earlier one, at least as regards style. Certainly in one place at the least it was interpolated by him.

[7] the one more recent and sprinkled with fables; Mabillon had seen both written by an anonymous author while he was preparing the second Benedictine Century; but because neither seemed to him sufficiently coherent, either with itself or with the other, or accurate, he preferred to defer the Acts of St. Rodingus to another time, until he should have obtained better. But from the monastery of Beaulieu he obtained nothing, and from the monastery of St. Peter of Châlons no other Life than that which was reviewed by Menard in the last place, and which therefore he printed from his own Ms. in Appendix 2 to the IV Benedictine Century, part 2. About the earlier Life Mabillon in the same place, in his preliminary Observations, gave this judgment: The other Life which is read in Menard is certainly of a more recent author, who patched it together from Richard's little book (whom he makes the author of the Life published by himself) and from the common tradition of the crowd, such as it is, as it will be easy for anyone reading to judge. With Mabillon in this part I gladly agree; this is certain, that popular little tales are contained in it, which we shall exhibit in their places.

[8] The other Life cannot be so charged — the one published, as we have said, by the same Menard in the second place, and by Mabillon. the other, probably by Richard as author, That it is the work of Richard, abbot of St. Vanne's, although it bears no author's name, the latter judged not undeservedly from the words of the biographer of that blessed abbot reported at num. 4, according to which he himself composed in honorable speech the Life of St. Rodingus the confessor. Of this venerable, or, as others will have it, blessed Richard, abbot of St. Vanne of Verdun, you have the Acts illustrated in our Work on the XIV day of June, where he is said to have died in the year of Christ 1046, with Mabillon agreeing, Benedictine Cent. 6, part 1, page 518. And from his age, and from the words of his biographer just praised, Mabillon determined thus: Nor do I doubt that it is that very Life (of St. Rodingus composed by Richard) which we report from the Ms. codex of Châlons, which they say to be nearly six hundred years old. That codex I have not been permitted to see; but if it be really of that age, Mabillon's opinion is altogether likely; for thus the praised codex will have to be referred nearly to the times of Richard, and Richard himself had the care of the monastery of St. Peter of Châlons, and led monks thither from his own monastery with books and ornaments, as may be seen in the same Mabillon, tom. 4 of the Annals, at the year of Christ 1028, num. 43.

[9] Now as regards the history of the Life itself, the better, which we shall reprint. it has nothing on account of which we should greatly blame its author and question his credit; nor yet is it of such a kind that all its statements are to be admitted. For although it is not permitted to doubt the good faith of the venerable man, yet in the space of three and more centuries which passed between the times of St. Rodingus and Richard, some of his deeds, and the circumstances of his deeds, may partly have fallen out of the memory of men, and partly, as is wont to happen, have been adulterated by uncertain traditions; and it would not have been so easy for Richard, writing so long after, to distinguish these from one another. It is also undiscovered whether some older documents lighted his way, or tradition alone. This Life, then, since no more ancient one is at hand, we shall reprint from Mabillon, collated with Menard's edition, and shall correct and illustrate it with the usual Annotations, after we have discussed the chief heads of the matter in the following paragraph.

[10] Besides those two Lives published in print, we have another in manuscript, A third Ms. is rejected: mention of the Saint in various writers. transmitted to our Museum by Theobert, abbot of Tholey, in the year 1735, on the 1st day of February, and set aside for this day of September. This is written in a florid and witty style, but in its age far to be placed after both of those mentioned above; put together, namely, by some more recent writer who wished to adorn with more elegant phrasing the Life published by Menard in the first place, or some manuscript copy of it. For the rest, of our St. Rodingus there also treat Richard Wassebourg in the Antiquities of Belgic Gaul, Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks, James Longueval in the History of the Gallican Church, Baillet in the Lives of the Saints, Calmet in the History of Lorraine, Simon Martin in the Sacred Relics of the Hermitage, and others, for almost all of whom one or the other of those two Lives lighted the way.

senum* (old men)

§ II. The Saint's country: his episcopate not sufficiently probable: his chronology uncertain: his monastic life at Tholey: Waslogium founded by him: the year of his death.

[ ] The Saint was not a Gaul by nation, That St. Rodingus or Chraudingus sprang from Scotia, by which name present-day Ireland was formerly known, both Lives, as well as other writers whom I have seen, agree, with the exception of Wassebourg, who in book 2 of the Antiquities of Belgic Gaul, in the XVII bishop of Verdun, that is, in Agrebert, writes that he was born of an illustrious family in Gaul. The praised Agrebert, he says in French, was in his youth brought up with a certain Gallic prince, his kinsman (in French son parent), by name Grodingus, who forsook the world and led a very austere religious life; so that after his death he was reckoned among the Saints; and out of his own patrimony he founded a monastery, called Waslogium, which out of love toward the aforesaid bishop Agrebert he subjected in perpetuity to the administration of him and of his successors, the bishops of Verdun, as Bertarius writes in his History. Further, since the same Wassebourg likewise makes that Agrebert a kinsman of Pippin of Herstal, he consequently traces back St. Rodingus in some fashion to the illustrious family of that Mayor of the Palace.

[12] But a Scot, that is, an Irishman. But whence Wassebourg learned this Gallic country of the Saint, and his illustrious stock, unknown to all others, I do not know: for Bertarius indeed, or Bercarius, a presbyter of Verdun in the ninth and tenth century, whom he praises, mentions these things by no word, but in Agrebert only says: In his time St. Grodingus built the monastery of Waslogium, and placed it under the dominion of our church. And so I cannot divine whence Wassebourg came into that opinion; for he praises no other author. But neither does it appear likely that so illustrious a birth in Gaul of the holy Founder, even

in the fourth century after his death, should have been so far unknown among his own people of Beaulieu, that either they or their abbot Richard would have believed him a foreigner by race and a newcomer from Scotia, if Wassebourg's assertions were true. Equally unknown to the rest was the erection of the monastery of Waslogium out of the Saint's patrimony, as will be established from what is to be said. Wherefore I prefer to call him, with both Lives and with the remaining writers, a Scot, that is, an Irishman, who, as many others did, went out of his island for religion's sake and came into Gaul.

[13] He does not seem to have been a bishop I should not so easily believe that he was initiated into a bishopric in Scotia before he came to Gaul, as both Lives likewise assert; in one of which — the one published by Mabillon from the Châlons codex, which there bore the title The Life of the most holy and most blessed Chraudingus, bishop and abbot — he is only said to have been distinguished with the pontifical office; in the other, in Menard, it is narrated that, being in his thirty-seventh year, he was promoted to the episcopate, and discharged it duly and wisely for four years. Certainly Mabillon deservedly held this episcopal dignity suspect in his preliminary Observations to the Life; because, as he says, most of those who migrated from England or Ireland into these regions are given that title, and yet he judges that they were not bishops. An example can be St. Fursey, whose Acts you have illustrated in us, tom. 2 of January, who there on page 50, in the Annotations, letter b, was wrongly believed by some to have been a bishop. Mabillon is favored by a certain Verdun codex, in which, on his own testimony, tom. 1 of the Annales Benedictini, at the year of Christ 680, num. XI, there exists the same Life written by Richard, in which, although the same inscription as above is prefixed, yet no mention is made of his episcopal dignity.

[14] Likewise the Breviary and Missal of Verdun favor him, which, in Scotia; certainly not at Verdun. as was said at num. 2, prescribe that St. Rodingus should be honored with an annual commemoration on the XVII day of September, but only from the common of a confessor abbot, not of a bishop. Hence I have preferred to be silent about those sacred infulæ, with which his biographer, two centuries and a half younger than he, adorns him, as deservedly doubtful, rather than to attribute them among his titles. But what Saussay says in the Supplement to the Martyrologium Gallicanum on this day, that he succeeded St. Paul in the bishopric of Verdun, is a manifest error, arisen perhaps from this, that he had read in the Life which Menard published that he was substituted for that same Saint, when the latter was raised to the said bishopric, in the abbey of Tholey, over which he presided, and that he incautiously confused the abbatial office with the episcopal. For Rodingus by no means occurs among the bishops of Verdun; nay, Bercarius just praised reviews as the successors of St. Paul Gisloald, Gerebert, Armonius, and Agrebert, and affirms that under this last our St. Rodingus founded the monastery of Waslogium or Beaulieu.

[15] As regards the Saint's age and the times of the things done by him, His chronology, woven by some the first Life in Menard has many things from which the chronology of his life could for the greatest part be arranged, if its author were as fit to command belief as he is confident in affirming. According to him St. Rodingus … born of a noble place in the year DXCIV, … being in his thirtieth year, was promoted to the episcopate; and when he had administered it duly and wisely for four years, being bidden by God, … he crossed over into Gaul, and came to the monastery of Tholey in the diocese of Trier. There he put on the cowl … under the mastership of St. Paul the abbot; … whom, when he had been raised to the pontifical honor of the church of Verdun, he unwillingly succeeded in the abbey. Having discharged this office praiseworthily, he opened to the monks the divine will about his departure, and, another abbot being elected, came to Verdun, where he remained two years with St. Paul the bishop. After this he gave some beginning to the monastery of Beaulieu, which he also afterwards, having returned from a journey to Rome, completed, and from it, being a hundred and twelve years old, he withdrew into solitude, in which, being in his hundred and seventeenth year, he flew away by a pious death to heaven on the XVII day of September.

[16] Cleaving closely to these things, Simon Martin in the Sacred Relics of the Hermitage on this day from the poorer Life, fixed his birth in the year 594, his death about the year 711 or 712; whence it is clear that it happened by a slip of memory or an error of the typesetters that his final age is said there to have exceeded only seventy-seven years; since on this reckoning his death would have had to be referred to about the year 671. From the same statements of the biographer, Calmet in the History of Lorraine, tom. 1, col. 404, in the Annotations, thus determines a part of St. Rodingus's chronology: He was born in the year DXCIV. He was made bishop in the year DCXXIV. He withdrew from Scotia after a quadrennium of his episcopate in the year DCXXVIII. So great an age, however, as that Life attributes to him, he preferred to pass over in silence, and to tie his death not to the year 711, whither the biographer's reckonings lead, but only to about the year 680, and so to close his life within only 86 years.

[17] and corrected in vain by another, Le Cointe, tom. 4 of the Annals of the Franks, at the year of Christ 686, num. 25, suspecting that a fault had crept into the numbers of the Beaulieu codex (namely thus, that in the year of his age CXVII the letter C had been somewhat moved from its place, and that XCVII should be read), retaining the year of birth 594, assigned his blessed death to the year of Christ 691. And Le Cointe believed this the more because he held that Armonius, bishop of Verdun, who is said in the Life to have been present at the Saint's death, had died long before the year 711, and had sat at Verdun in the year 691. And as regards Armonius indeed, it is not sufficiently ascertained in what year he entered upon the bishopric of Verdun, and in what year he laid it down with his life. Wassebourg, and after him Le Cointe, assign the years of Christ 689 and 701, but Calmet 691 and 703; but none of them proves his assertions. Bercarius, already praised above, reviews him between Gerebert and Agrebert, but mentions nothing about the years. This one thing we hold as certain, that in the seventh year of king Childebert, which was the year of Christ 701, he presided over the aforesaid church; as is plain from the charter of Pippin of Herstal and of his wife Plectrudis, which Calmet exhibits in tom. 1 of the praised Work, col. 262 and following, among the Instruments.

[18] is not sufficiently probable. But even if by this reasoning the Saint's death were brought back to the episcopate of Armonius, it is by no means likely that a fault crept into the years of his age, and that for the year CXVII the year XCVII should be substituted. For since in that same Life St. Rodingus is said, when he was a hundred and twelve years old, to have withdrawn into the hermitage after designating Stephen as abbot, it is manifest that that correction of the numbers can have no place here. Hence I, the more I consider that Life and compare the biographer's statements with his chronology, the more am I persuaded that it should be reckoned of no worth, and that we should not adhere to the reckonings of an uncertain and by no means ancient writer, who both elsewhere retails little fables, and here, as no sufficiently fit author, affirms an extraordinary longevity. Dismissing therefore what that biographer reports about his year of birth and the rest of his chronology, let us inquire into certain other things, from which the time in which he lived may afterwards in some fashion be determined.

[19] He did not come with St. Columbanus. He withdraws to Tholey, The Life to be published affirms doubtfully at num. 1 that our Saint came into Gaul together with SS. Columbanus and Gall, saying: And the companions of his journey are handed down to have been BB. Columbanus and Gall. But this tradition cannot be admitted, nor does it agree with the biographer's other statements. For since St. Columbanus was already engaged in Gaul some years before the end of the sixth century, and the monastery of Tabuleium or Tholey was first founded about the year 623, how could St. Rodingus withdraw to that monastery soon, or at least not long, after his coming into Gaul, as the same biographer signifies, if he had arrived there with Columbanus? Further, this withdrawal of Rodingus to the praised monastery, and his taking up the monastic state there, the other Life also hands down, with all who have written about the Saint agreeing. And the monastery of Tholey, now of the Order of St. Benedict, commonly called Tholey, is founded on the borders of the diocese of Trier and of Lorraine in the Vosges, not far from the town of St. Wendel on the river Saar.

[20] In it had lived, or perhaps was then even flourishing, St. Wandelinus or Wendelinus, abbot of the same place, where probably under St. Wandelinus, a Scot by nation, as is reported, and sprung of royal stock. There too had been famous, or still was, St. Paul, afterwards promoted to the bishopric of Verdun, in whose Life, illustrated on the VIII day of February, page 176, num. 6, one may read this among other things: Many began, from far-off parts of the earth, hearing the report of his fame, to flock to him (to the monastery of Tabuleium), and to fly with one accord to his mastership — not only sons of middling folk, but also those born of the nobility of the most powerful and noble. Enticed therefore by the desire of these men, or of one of them, or by the fame already procured for that monastery through them, St. Rodingus too could have betaken himself thither, to be steeped in monastic discipline in so holy a school.

[21] The Life given by Menard in the first place expressly asserts and under the mastership of St. Paul that this was done under St. Paul. There, he says, he put on the cowl, and under the mastership of St. Paul the abbot learned the first rudiments of the monastic life. But Le Cointe, tom. 3 of the Annals of the Franks, at the year of Christ 640, num. 61, denying that St. Paul was ever abbot of Tholey, but saying that from master of the schools of that place he was created bishop, thinks that our St. Rodingus was instructed in the first precepts of the monastic life under him indeed as master, but under Wandelinus as abbot. And certainly it appears far more probable from the Life of the same, page 176, num. 5, that Paul was indeed set over the novices there, but was never abbot; since no mention is made in it of his abbatial office, and it is expressly said about him: He was loved by all, all venerated him, he pleased everyone, and with exceeding affection, out of reverence for his holiness, he was honored in the place of a master, save only for the name of Pastor.

[22] The same can be confirmed from the Life of our Saint to be published, he led the monastic life; in which the biographer, rendering a reason why he was received here most kindly by St. Paul when already bishop, mentioning nothing about Paul's abbatial dignity, only says: Who therefore honored the blessed Man with that honor which he taught, because in the aforesaid monastery of Tabuleium, where the other had been abbot, he (Paul) before the office of prelate had spent very many years under the habit of the monastic religion. About the year in which the praised St. Paul was advanced from the monastery of Tholey to the infulæ of Verdun

it is neither established from ancient monuments, nor do the more recent writers sufficiently agree. On these matters the Preliminary Commentary to his Life, §3, may be consulted, where our Bolland conjectures very probably that it was done not before the year of Christ 630 or the following, whom both Le Cointe and others have followed. Hence it is likewise permitted to conjecture in some fashion about the time in which St. Rodingus dwelt in that monastery.

[23] Further, after his virtue had been proved to his brethren of Tholey, St. Rodingus was set over that same monastery as abbot, and perhaps presided as abbot. as each of his Lives testifies. The Life to be published does not disclose his predecessor, in which at num. 2 one reads thus: When by these signs of virtues the fame of the holy Man was now being made known to very many, the abbot being dead, by the election of the brethren and the authority of the metropolitan of Trier he is appointed pastor of the Lord's flock. But in the other, in Menard, he is indeed said, St. Paul having been raised to the pontifical honor of the church of Verdun, … to have succeeded him unwillingly in the abbey; but, from what has been said above, with little probability. Yet I do not see why we should so confidently deny that he was abbot of that place, as the cited Le Cointe denies it, although he brings forward no solid argument. For what he says, that he was under abbot Grimo, and that Grimo succeeded Wandelinus — as he has it both in the place cited and at the year 631, num. 13 — he does not prove. Nor ought the published Catalogues of the abbots of Tholey to detain us, because the name of Rodingus does not occur in them, since it is not proved that these go back to the age of our biographer, nay, they are as far as possible from it.

[24] He founds the monastery of Waslogium before the middle of the seventh century, From the praised monastery our Saint — whether he was then abbot or only a monk — withdrawing for the sake of a more retired solitude with the leave of his brethren, is said to have met St. Paul the bishop at Verdun; and, having departed from him, to have given some beginning to the monastery of Waslogium in the forest of Argonne. And at first indeed unhappily enough: for, Austresius the lord of the place forbidding it, he was compelled to break off what he had begun, which afterwards, when that man had been won over to him after a journey to Rome, he completed most prosperously. Those beginnings of the place Claude Robert and the brothers of Sainte-Marthe, each in his Gallia Christiana, Le Cointe in the Annals, Calmet in the History of Lorraine, and others, tie to the year of Christ 642; to which Mabillon in the Annals, in the same place at num. 15, also admits that they can be referred. But although nothing occurs by which that opinion is certainly convicted of error, yet neither is anything brought forward which persuades that that epoch should be tied to the year 642 rather than to one of the immediately preceding or following years, which, namely, elapsed between the year of Christ 630 or 631 and the year 649 or one or two before it, within which, according to the more common opinion, the episcopate of St. Paul is contained.

[25] not in the eighth century; The single thing which can be opposed to these is the authority of Bercarius, a presbyter, as we have said, of Verdun, according to whom those beginnings must be thrown back to the eighth century, at least a few years begun. For thus Bercarius goes on in that place after the elogium of St. Paul: After him came Gisloald as bishop, Gerebert, Armonius, Agrebert, bishops. In the time of the last St. Grodingus built the monastery of Waslogium, and placed it under the dominion of our church. Now Armonius, the predecessor of Agrebert, presided over the church of Verdun at the beginning of the eighth century, as was proved above at num. 17. But the authority of Bercarius in this part is not to be reckoned of such worth that on account of it we should judge that we must depart from the biographers and from the rest, though more recent. For from the very text which we have given it is clear that he knew nothing about those four bishops except their names and the order of succession; and so that he was little instructed about the affairs of Verdun of that time: which indeed is the less to be wondered at, because in his own time, as he himself declares in the Prologue, the principal church of Verdun was set on fire, and its books were for the great part burned up. Add that his credit wavers elsewhere too: for he made St. Paul the full brother of St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, which cannot be admitted, as our Bolland showed in the Preliminary Commentary praised above, §2, num. 7.

[26] for which he is said to have obtained a royal precept. From the same words of Bercarius there arises besides another difficulty, which it is not easy to settle. For he asserts that the monastery of Waslogium was placed by its holy Founder under the dominion of the church of Verdun; whereas in the Life to be published, at num. XI, the same Saint is said to have obtained a precept from king Childeric, by which the latter, having fortified that abbey with his royal defense, ordained that it should be altogether free and immune from every external service, saving the regard due to the bishop of Verdun, in whose diocese it is contained, in respect of sacred Orders and Benediction. But that Bercarius indicated a subjection other than the one the biographer mentions is gathered from the same author in the elogium of Amalbert the chorepiscopus, where he says: Then (while Amalbert was administering the vacant see) this church lost Waslogium, and Tilliacum, and Stagnum, and Merla, and Casea Petria, and very many others: for this was in the time of Charlemagne. Further, the testimony of Bercarius here is of the greater weight, the nearer to his own age are the events he narrates. Wherefore, to reconcile these things, nothing more likely occurs to me than that the praised monastery was deprived of the immunity which it had obtained from Childeric not long after the Saint's death, under Agrebert, and recovered the same under Amalbert. Certainly by this reasoning the biographer's authority will stand, and at the same time it will be understood whence Bercarius came into that error of judging that Waslogium was founded under Agrebert and subjected to the church of Verdun.

[27] What Rule the holy Abbot observed and prescribed to his own, He probably handed down the Rule of Agaunum the Life to be published does not disclose. That it was the Benedictine, Menard writes in the Life published in the first place, saying: In this monastery he wished the Rule of our holy father Benedict, which he had learned in the monastery of Tholey, to be observed. So the old Ms. codex of that Life, which is preserved in the monastery of Beaulieu. With Menard agree other Benedictines, who inserted St. Rodingus in their Menologies, and Mabillon, who inserted him in the Annals and in the Acts of the Saints of his own Order. I should indeed wish to ascribe so holy a Man to so illustrious an Order; but, for me to do that, that Life from the Beaulieu codex is not sufficient, which Mabillon himself rejected as the work of a certain more recent writer, and which, as we said above, smells of fables in more than one place. Yet I do not doubt that he wished the same Rule which he had learned in the monastery of Tholey to be observed at Waslogium; but that this was the Benedictine is not established, nor did Mabillon dare to affirm it as certain in his annotations to the Life of St. Paul, Benedictine Cent. 2, page 270, where about that same abbey of Tholey he says thus: It seems to have been devoted from its first founding to the Rule of our holy Father Benedict.

[28] Le Cointe in the Annals at the year of Christ 642, as to be observed there. num. 65, judges not improbably that in both monasteries no other was then observed than that which was in force in the abbey of St. Maurice at Agaunum. His words I report hither: Since the Rule, he says, which Rodingus commanded to be kept in the monastery of Beaulieu, is to be judged no other than that which he had earlier learned in the monastery of Tholey, we judge that, as for the monks of Tholey, so also for those of Beaulieu, the norm of the monks of Agaunum was prescribed. This opinion is not a little favored by the fact that the principal church, as at Agaunum, so also at Tabuleium and at Beaulieu, was dedicated to God in honor of St. Maurice and his fellow martyrs. So he, who likewise refuses to stand by the authority of the Beaulieu codex, as being more recent. But although that opinion of Le Cointe's is not certain, it appears to me likely enough.

[29] Further, since we have said that Beaulieu was first called Waslogium, it will be useful to have added something here about the time and occasion of the changed name. The monastery's name changed in the eleventh century: That it was done in the eleventh century the Life of St. Poppo the abbot teaches, published and illustrated in our Work on the XXV day of January, from whose chapter 7, num. 26, I have excerpted the following on this subject. He moreover made over to him (to Poppo the abbot) the abbey of St. Maurice, called Waslogium, with all the appurtenances of the same place; and, that he might sweat over doing there what was needful, took care to admonish him. And having undertaken it, because he found that the abbey, which the pleasantness of the site made commendable, was growing cheap in its offices and in the very cramped cloisters of the monastery, he overthrew the monastery from the foundations with the lodgings adjoining it, and rebuilt it with greater elegance than it had had, and, the former name being changed, ordained that from its comeliness it should be named Beloacum. And by that name indeed it is now everywhere published abroad; nor, as the days have rolled on down to us, is it established that it has been deprived of it. For the rest, whether some fault lurk here in the word Beloacum, or whether St. Poppo really so called the place, it is manifest from the ancient name Waslogium that today's Beaulieu is designated; and in this latter manner it is also called in the Life to be published.

[30] The year of the Saint's death is uncertain. About the year in which the Saint most holily met death in a hermitage not far distant from his monastery, I have warned above at num. 16 and 17 that the moderns vary; whose opinions, however, come to this, that those who cleave closely to the Life given by Menard in the first place think it happened in the year 711 or 712, but those who reject so long an age of his, of a hundred and seventeen years, about the year 680, as Mabillon and Calmet, or 691, as Le Cointe. The matter is plainly doubtful, nor supported by any certain argument, except that in his Lives he is said to have lived with certain illustrious men, whose age persuades that he reached the seventh century when already decrepit, or at least growing old. Among these St. Paul, bishop of Verdun, died about the middle of that century; Childeric II, first king of Austrasia and then monarch, from whom St. Rodingus is said to have received a privilege, was made king long after the middle of the same, and was slain while it was growing old; Armonius, finally, who according to Menard's first Life stood by the Saint as he died, was still presiding over the church of Verdun when the eighth century had begun. Hence I have judged that the death of our St. Rodingus should be placed, in a broader phrase, about the end of the seventh century.

LIFE

By, perhaps, Bl. Richard, abbot of St. Vanne's, in the eleventh century.

From the edition of Mabillon, Benedictine Cent. 4, part 2.

Rodingus or Chraudingus, founder and abbot of Beaulieu, near Beaulieu in the Champagne of Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 7281

BY BL. RICHARD.

CHAPTER I

The Saint's coming into Gaul: his monastic life at Tabuleium: his withdrawal into a hermitage, and his expulsion thence: his journey to Rome, and his return: the erection of the monastery.

[ ] Having arrived from Scotia already a bishop, he withdraws to Tabuleium, Blessed Chraudingus, sprung of the stock of the Scots ^a, when he had already been fully taught in the institutions of the Catholic faith and distinguished with the pontifical office ^b, leaving his country and his parents, and having crossed, as they say, three seas with a prosperous voyage, with Christ as his guide enters the borders of the Belgic region.

And the companions of his journey are handed down to have been the blessed Columbanus and Gall ^c, of whom the one guards Italy and the other Gaul by his merits and prayers. But the man of the Lord Chraudingus, since he burned with desire of the solitary life, came to the monastery of St. Maurice, situated in the Vosges forest, which of old was called Tabuleium, because it had been built of stones cut in the manner of tablets; now it is called Theologium ^d, because it is apt for the contemplative life, or because frequent converse about God is held therein: where, when he had been kindly received by the father of the place and by the brethren, he began in a short time to be made known by great virtues.

[2] For he was renowned for obedience, endowed with knowledge, given to prayer, spread abroad in charity, devoted to God, marvelous in patience, most sweet in the kindliness of his manners, active in work, diligent in silence, remarkable in justice, incomparable in humility. where he becomes abbot: then, having substituted Chroduinus for himself, When by these signs of virtues the fame of the holy Man was now being made known to very many, the abbot being dead, by the election of the brethren and the authority of the metropolitan of Trier he is appointed pastor of the Lord's flock ^e; and by his industry, to be sure, that same monastery was enriched with an abundance of temporal things also, and he sprinkled the hearts of those dwelling round about with the sweet odor of his virtues. Whence the man of God began to be much visited by many, who, desiring to commend themselves to his prayers and wishing to be instructed by his saving counsels, ran to him thirsting as to a fount of life: bearing ill their frequent visits, and burning with desire of a more retired life, having substituted in his rule his nephew Chroduinus ^f, whom he had brought with him from his native soil, he admonished him that he should rule kindly the flock committed to him, form it by good examples, bear a fatherly solicitude over them, and be busy to lead them by the oarage of a pious governance to the harbor of salvation.

[3] Then, a blessing being given and received, and saying farewell, departing thence, having greeted Bl. Paul, bishop of Verdun, having taken with him certain of the brethren, he goes out from the monastery, and is separated from them not without heavy sorrow. Setting out on his appointed journey, he goes forth, enters the district of Verdun, and is received with worthy honor by Bl. Paul, bishop of that city ^g; who therefore honored the blessed Man with that honor which was fitting, because in the aforesaid monastery of Tabuleium, where the other had been abbot, he before the office of prelate had spent very many years under the habit of the monastic religion. The venerable father Chraudingus, therefore, having spent a few days with him on the ground of their familiarity ^h, being asked by him not to depart further off, but, achieving his vow, to choose a place to dwell in the nearby waste of the hermitage, with only two disciples, as is reported, accompanying him, enters the forest of the Argonne ⁱ solitude.

[4] And desiring to find a place suited to his vows, and going round the mountains and hills and the hollows of the valleys, having entered the Argonne, he begins the monastery of Waslogium. he came to a place to which antiquity gave the name Waslogium, called, as I judge, from its exceeding wasteness, as it were Vastus locus (waste place), which the moderns, changing the name, have preferred to be called Beaulieu ^k on account of the most beautiful situation of the place: with whose pleasantness the Servant of Christ, being greatly delighted, having joined to himself in the labor his most faithful companions, the brushwood being cut down on every side and the roots of trees torn up, began to build the long-sought place of habitation. Meanwhile, where were the lairs of wild beasts, a house of prayers arises: among the thickets you might behold the standards of the saving Cross rising up: there a choir of psalm-singers sounds forth hymn-uttering praises to God, where the wolf was wont to howl, the fox to yelp, the nightingale sweetly to warble, and every kind of beasts and birds to make noise with diverse voices: that place of solitude is turned into the cultivation of divine praise. And without delay the report of these deeds is spread abroad among many of the people, it is announced on every side that unknown strangers had come, who, as fame reported it, were said to be building themselves dwellings not among men, but among wild beasts.

[5] Hence, being contumeliously expelled by Austresius, These things came to the knowledge of a certain rich man, by name Austresius, who at that time was staying on his own estate, which from his name is called Austresii-curtis ^l. And he, when he had heard that men of a barbarian nation had entered the forest which was possessed by him by hereditary right, and were building themselves little dwellings in it, the trees being cut down, sent word to them, saying that it was not fair to invade what belonged to another; and that it was of proud rashness and audacity to wish to dwell in what was not one's own. Let them rather withdraw swiftly, lest there they should run into deadly peril, where they had thought they had found a most safe habitation. And when these things had been announced to the man of God, making little of men's threats, he was unwilling to abandon the work he had begun ^m. And when the messengers reported his constancy to their lord, Austresius, driven by the furies of a maddened mind, sent his henchmen and ordered them to be beaten with scourges and expelled with great dishonor from the oft-mentioned forest.

[6] he makes for Rome, Austresius meanwhile paying the penalty. And when the ministers of the devil had accomplished this, and had expelled the poor men of Christ, afflicted with contumelious injuries, beyond the bounds of that forest, the man of the Lord, seeing that he and his companions were destitute of all human solace, having found a wholesome counsel, undertaking anew the labor of pilgrimage, desiring to come to the Thresholds of the Apostles, goes on to Rome, there by their intercession to implore, through the judgment of the divine will, in what place he might at length be able to plant his step in his pilgrimage. After his departure the impious Austresius is struck with a heavenly blow: bereft of his children, he is deprived of all his animals and of innumerable cattle, and of the multitude of his men-servants and maid-servants; and over and above these he is invaded by a grave languor of body, by whose continual pains he is compelled to pass nights and days sleepless ⁿ. Meanwhile the kindly priest of God Chraudingus, coming to Rome, there, prayers having been poured forth before the most sacred presence of the Apostles ^o, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit [p] received an answer that he must set out again to Gaul, and that he ought to return to the place of the beloved solitude from which he had been expelled.

[7] Returning from Rome, and having performed miracles, he obtains an estate: Encouraged by this revelation, he turned again toward Gaul, and at length came to a hamlet which is called Riessonis [q], distant sixteen miles from the monastery. At that time the dryness of a great drought had taken possession of the borders of that region: and when the holy Man had sat down upon the edge of a certain spring, and wished to refresh the weariness of his poor body with the eating of bread and a draught of water, no abundance of waters could be found there whereby the eagerness for drinking in one thirsting might be quenched. Then, turning to the Lord, he prayed him to pour out waters upon him from the fount of his mercy, and fixed in the ground the staff which he carried in his hand. A marvelous thing! Presently a spring, bubbling up from the depth of the earth, leaped forth, and turned most copious waters into a stream. And while all were running to the spectacle of this deed, a matron, to whose dominion the revenue of that estate was subject, was present among the rest; and, an agreement having been made with her by the holy Man, since he had no money, by the munificence of the divine bounty he found in the aforesaid spring just so great a weight of gold as it was reckoned the estate could be valued at: and presently he received from her, in the sight of all, the possession of that estate as the first increase toward the building of a church.

[8] Being made known by such wonders, while he was published everywhere, he heals a woman, Austresius, a certain widow at her little estate, which is called Argisivilla, being held by a grave sickness, humbly sent word that he would deign to visit her. And to her, as soon as the man of God had entered, he poured forth a prayer for her, and raised her whole from the bed of sickness: and she, not ungrateful for the benefit conferred, straightway handed over to her Physician the possession of that estate as an inheritance [r]. While he was doing these and like things, there were not wanting those who took pains to narrate them to the prince Austresius, worn out with long languor. He, dismayed in mind because he had learned that this was the very man whom he had ordered to be beaten and expelled from the forest; yet set between hope and fear, humbly sent word that he would deign to visit him. But the most patient Man, unmindful of injuries, did not refuse to hasten to him, and kindly pardoned him as he confessed the crime which he had committed against him; and without delay obtained from the Lord that he should be healed [s].

[9] And he, that he might not stand ungrateful and exempt toward his Healer, and this man's sister: he completes the monastery begun. handed over the forest from which he had unbecomingly expelled him, to be possessed forever. And not far off the sister of that same Austresius, by name Bava, was held disabled by a loosening of her limbs on her own estate which is called Bonna [t]; and when he had been asked to come to her, as soon as the holy Man entered, he restored her to her former health, and none the less received that estate from her to be held forever. These things accomplished, he returns with joy to the place of his beloved solitude, and with his companions, very many running together from every side to his help, hastens to consummate the work begun. A monastery is built in honor of the holy Savior and of holy Maurice the martyr and his companions [u], which in a short time was not a little enriched by the contribution of the faithful. And because the name of the monastic religion was still new and as it were unknown in those regions, many, not only of middling folk and the poor, but also nobles and the rich, spurning the gains of a slipping world, escaping naked from the shipwreck of worldly desire, put in at the harbor of ministry and quiet [x].

ANNOTATIONS.

William de L'Isle in his map of Champagne and the adjacent regions places scarcely two miles toward the East from Beaulieu.

p. In the Life just cited an angel is said to have appeared and enjoined this upon him. Moreover, if we believe the same, while the Saint was staying at Rome, not only was a certain poor man, already vexed three years with a quartan fever, restored to health at the mere touch of his garments, but also an immense crowd of the sick came to him, all of whom he healed with the sign of the Cross, and also by the imposition of hands; and wherever he passed, he always left some trace of his holiness — all of which things we should like to see asserted by someone other than that biographer.

q. It seems to be present-day Rezonville, which in Calmet, in the Geographical Table of the diocese of Verdun prefixed to tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, is marked in the diocese of Metz at nearly the same distance from Beaulieu as the biographer presently assigns.

r. This estate in the Life published by Menard is called Argisimilla, in the other one in the same author Argevilla; where, the prodigy of the spring drawn forth which we reported at the previous number being omitted, gold is here said to have been marvelously found by the Saint, and to have been given for that same estate Argevilla to the woman who had been healed and who had given it as a gift. But because, he says, nothing was left over to that woman for sustaining her life, plunging the end of his staff into the spring (beside which he had sat down), he drew from it a great quantity of gold, which he gave to the woman as the price of the meadow.

s. The other Life at this place thus concludes the fable begun about the Saint's name prodigiously inscribed on the girl's fingers (about which see above at letter n): The man of God came to him (to Austresius), and healed him with his daughter Bana by mere touch; and she, looking into the palm of her hand, noticed that the name of St. Rodingus had been blotted out. Further, in the Life which we publish, there will presently occur Bava, who nevertheless is said to have been not the daughter but the sister of Austresius.

t. In the other Life, in which, as I have warned, it is a question of Bava the daughter of Austresius, not of Bana his sister, no mention is made of the estate Bonna.

u. In the Life just cited it is said of the church then founded by the Saint (I do not know whether truly): The church was of an immense structure: in it were four and twenty altars.

x. Calmet, tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, col. 404, writes that that great number of disciples were all Scots; where he learned this, I do not know. In the other Life not a few canons of the church of Verdun also are said to have been among them. I judge that most of them were Gauls. That the Benedictine Rule was prescribed by the Saint there, the same Life just cited asserts: but go to the Commentary, num. 27 and following.

CHAPTER II.

The privileges, relics, and goods obtained for the monastery by him: his withdrawal into the hermitage: his holy death and burial.

[ ] [From Rome he brings back a privilege from the Pontiff, from Agaunum a bone of St. Maurice:] Seeing therefore that that monastery was heaped up in no ordinary measure with the necessary things, the Man full of God judged it worthy that it should be distinguished with the pledges of Saints, and strengthened with the privilege of the Roman Pontiff. Wherefore, undertaking a very long but a most happy journey, he came to Rome, made known to the Pope the cause for which he had gone, and, having taken according to his wish a writing of his authority, turns his step more swiftly back toward Gaul ^a. The Alps therefore being crossed, he came to a place to which antiquity gave the name Agaunum ^b, and, burning with desire of obtaining relics of the Martyrs ^c, he caused the provost of the place to be summoned, to whom he opens the whole secret of his mind, and by persuasive words entices him to favor his desires, and in recompense promises a weight of money exceeding count. An agreement therefore being firmly made on both sides ^d, on the following night each of them approaches the sepulcher, marked out beforehand with great care, of the most glorious martyr Maurice; and taking from his wallet the price which the seller of an inestimable treasure had demanded, he received a bone of the arm from the elbow, more precious than whatever gems or gold there be anywhere; and presently he bids his companions hasten their departure and make no delay in going. And when, unwearied through the greatness of their gladness, they were now drawing near to the monastery by the swiftness of their journey, troops of people flowing together from every side, they are received with great joy, and before the eyes of all the blessed Man places the most precious relics of the excellent martyr Maurice in that same place, and to his patronage and name hands over [*] and commends forever both what had been acquired before and what should be acquired afterwards.

[11] And so, by the generous liberality of the nobles, or by the outpouring of money in the purchase of possessions, the beginning of the newly founded abbey had grown to as many as seven hundred and seventy manses ^e; he obtains another privilege and a villa from Childeric. which possessions, indeed, lest they should afterwards be plundered by ministers of iniquity, counsel being taken, he determined to have confirmed by the authority of a royal precept. Approaching therefore the glorious Childeric ^f, who at that time held the kingdom of the Franks, he implores that by his clemency effect be granted to his wish. To his prayers the various powers of the palace join their prayers, whose ears the fame of his holiness had filled. Enjoying therefore the favor of all, he not only obtained what he was asking, but also received by the prince's bounty a certain villa, called Ermeriaca ^g, which the king made over to him by a precept; and, having fortified that abbey with his royal defense, he ordained that it should be altogether free and immune from every external service, saving the regard due to the bishop of Verdun, in whose diocese it is contained, in respect of sacred Orders and benediction. Having obtained his wish, therefore, the venerable man of God returned to the monastery, and, exulting in the increase of his good flock, took care of his sons, who under the vigilance of so great a Father flowed together, partly from the borders of the surrounding region, partly from beyond the sea, desiring his presence — men of the same country and race of the Scots.

[12] Having substituted Stephen for himself, he withdraws into the hermitage, Having therefore settled what seemed necessary for the profit of the brethren, seeing that something of perfection was being withdrawn from himself, while, his mind being occupied about many things and entangled in earthly business, he was giving less attention to the sweetness of the contemplative life, he called his brethren together and opened to them the deliberation of his vow; namely that at least in his last old age he wished to withdraw into solitude, so that, removed from human fellowship, he might more freely fix the eye of his mind on divine contemplation. Now there was a certain monk of that Congregation, Stephen by name, more than the rest given to the religious life and distinguished by the vigor of regular discipline. Him therefore, with the consent of the brethren, he set over them as father; and content with one companion, going out from the monastery, he withdrew into a place of horror and vast solitude, and thenceforth dwelt with himself ^h.

[13] whence he often visits his own, But he did not withdraw further from the monastery; but lying hidden among the shady places of the woods (for it is uncertain where he dwelt) he remained separated from it by only half a mile ⁱ. On feast days too he was wont to return to the monastery, and there, performing the solemnities of the Masses, and the brethren being refreshed with the food of spiritual discourse, he would go back to the squalor of his solitude. Moreover he was wont to revisit the place by night, so that, if he should find anything done too negligently, he might correct it. And when about cockcrow, or by the sight of Arcturus, or the rising of Bosphorus ^k, or of the other stars that announce the day (for he was skilled in astronomy, as very many of the nation of the Scots are), he perceived that the dawn was drawing near, unseen by anyone he would return into the solitude, continuing in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, unwilling to be on earth, and by desire already mingled with the citizens of heaven.

[14] Lying gravely ill, having called his own together Therefore, when the Lord now willed his Servant to rest from so toilsome a contest, and to admit him to the prize of the heavenly calling, he began to be forsaken by the strength of his body, and to be gravely vexed by the violence of fevers. And he, having summoned a disciple, ordered him to announce it to his beloved son abbot Stephen, and that he himself should hasten with the brethren to commend his departure to the Lord; and when they had run together, and in the presence of the Father, lying upon the ground with only a hair-shirt spread beneath him, he declares to those standing by that he was now being loosed, and was being invited by the Lord from the valley of pilgrimage to the joys of the heavenly country. Hearing these things, his sons with unbearable sadness began to weep over the departure of their most beloved Father. But he, as far as he could, restrained them from pouring forth weeping for him, and rather admonished them to congratulate him as he returned to his country; at the same time he taught also that this death of the body is not to be feared by the Saints, but rather to be desired, through which, being about to cleave to Christ, they make a passage from death to life. For to be dissolved and to be with Christ, he said, is much better than to be afflicted daily with the anguishes of my prolonged sojourning.

[15] And when amid the most bitter tears the brethren asked him he gives his last counsels, that, while he still lived, he would allow himself to be carried back to the monastery, where the things necessary for his funeral could more generously be provided; The earth is the Lord's, he said, and the fullness thereof: for a place does not justify him whom the consciousness of sin condemns. Here therefore shall be for me the end of the present life, here the entrance, the Lord opening it, of the life that follows. But I beseech you that with diligent care you lay my body in the tomb, that you too, mindful of the Lord's precepts, may receive the rest promised to the Saints in heaven. Amid words of this kind, as the soundness of his strength failed, understanding that he would presently depart from the body, he asked for the Viaticum; and partaking in the communion of the Lord's Body and Blood, with knees fixed upon the ground and hands stretched to heaven, he first, in expectation of his departure, began to sing the Responsory, and to admonish the rest, tunefully and without confusion, to the harmony of the psalms — by a sign of his hand, since he could not with his voice.

[16] Continuing the intent of this last labor, as his hands fell from the height of heaven he dies, and is buried in his own monastery. and all his limbs declined to their setting, amid the hands of those supporting him, amid the tearful sighs of his sons, on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October he renders to Christ his soul, taken out of the bonds of the fleshly prison, full of happy merchandise, to cleave to eternal goods ^l. The funeral obsequies which the ecclesiastical order teaches being celebrated, they take up the lifeless corpse, and, placed upon their shoulders, carry it with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs all the way to the monastery, and before the altar of St. John the Evangelist, as he himself while still living had asked by bidding and had bidden by asking, with due veneration lay it in the dug-out place of the sepulcher, where to those present and those to come, who seek with undoubting faith, the benefits of his patronage are furnished, our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing and cooperating, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages, both now and always, God through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

al. tradit* (hands over)