ON BL. BONFILIUS, BISHOP OF FOLIGNO,
NEAR CINGOLI IN PICENUM
After 1115.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Bonfilius, bishop of Foligno, near Cingoli in Picenum. (Bl.)
BHL Number: 1393
BY J. P.
§ I. His ancient and present cult; a church dedicated to the Blessed; the translations of his body; the yearly festivals.
[ ] We read that this excellent Prelate is inscribed in no Martyrologies, in no general Fasti of Saints or Blesseds; The Blessed inscribed in no Martyrologies not even in the Catalogues of Philip Ferrarius: which we wonder at the more, the more certainly we judge it to be established concerning his ancient cult, continued down to our own times. Bucelin alone in the Benedictine Menology records him on this day, and rather timidly calls him of blessed memory, nay in the margin styles him only venerable: although he sufficiently hints at his cult by the following clause: He (Bonfilius) afterward appeared to a certain sick man, whom he at once restored to health, and revealed his own body, which saint Silvester, founder of the Silvestrines, honored with a notable basilica built over it, and obtained that it should be dedicated to his name. But with the title of Saint or Blessed he is adorned by Ughelli, tom. 1 of Italia Sacra, col. 691; Orazio Avicenna in the Monuments of the city of Cingoli, p. 236; Silvestro Marulo or Maurolico in the Ocean Sea of all religious Orders, p. 188; Giulio Lucenzi in the Splendor of Foligno, p. 88 and following; Ludovico Jacobilli in the Lives of the Saints of Umbria, tom. 2, p. 288 and following, and in the Lives of the Saints of Foligno, p. 326 and following; and lastly Benedetto da Sassoferrato, Giacomo Mercati, Sebastiano Fabrini, and Carlo Franceschini, of whom I shall give a fuller notice below. All these followed as their guide blessed Silvester the abbot, just praised by Bucelin, founder of the congregation of Silvestrine monks and author of the Life of our Prelate, in which he now and then indeed attributes to him the title of Saint, but more commonly that of Blessed, which I too have judged should be retained after his example.
[2] The Acts of blessed Silvester will come to be illustrated at the twenty-sixth day of November, his ancient cult is proved by the testimonies of Bl. Silvester, on which his name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. It must here be observed, however, that he, according to his contemporary biographer, was born about the year 1177, that is, in the same century at the beginning of which Bl. Bonfilius ceased to live; so that the reader may presently perceive at what value the Life of the same Bonfilius is to be held, as being written by a man so near in age and conspicuous for great sanctity, to whom it may be added that the city of Osimo was the native place of both. Of the method which blessed Silvester kept in writing I shall treat in its place: the silence concerning our Blessed in the sacred Fasti spurs me to cull first from the same Work of Silvester some things which may most solidly establish his ancient cult; and then to collect from the writings and monuments of others testimonies which may prove the continuation of the said cult down to the present. Accordingly blessed Silvester speaks thus, not of the past but of the present time in which he writes, in the prologue, where he alleges the causes impelling him to commit the Deeds of Bonfilius to writing: We are compelled to set about writing for a twofold reason; both because, of the multitude of those coming to the tomb of this Saint, very many frequently ask whether there be any writings about him anywhere; and also lest his religious life and character should be utterly taken away from the memory of men.
[3] the founder of the Silvestrines, who wrote his Life, There was therefore at that time a concourse of men to the tomb of Bl. Bonfilius, and that not inconsiderate or useless, but divinely approved and fruitful to those who begged aid. Let the same blessed witness be heard in the same place in the prologue: But if anyone, he says, curious, should desire to know all the things which are wondrously wrought through him by God, let him come to his tomb, and there by the faith of his own eyes he will be able to be more fully taught how often the divine clemency does not cease to bestow the benefits of healings and cures upon any who are sick. The frequency of the miracles he again testifies in a general way at the end of his Work; but that one which was briefly hinted by Bucelin above at num. 1, and which seems to have paved the way for the others and impelled the minds of the people to cult and confidence in the patronage of Bl. Bonfilius, the blessed biographer pursues at length. But while he was writing this, was the yearly memory of Bl. Bonfilius already then kept with a particular rite? I at least am persuaded of it, and anyone, unless I am mistaken, will be persuaded who hears his words; and they are these: They delivered to burial the venerable body of God's servant Bonfilius, hermit and bishop, in which place it rests until these times, whose reverend anniversary day of death is the fifth of the Kalends of October, and whose venerable solemnity is celebrated.
[4] and his body into a church But what of the church built by Bl. Silvester for Bl. Bonfilius, as Bucelin relates above? The same thing is related by Sebastiano Fabrini in his brief Chronicle of the monks of the Order of St. Benedict of the Silvestrine congregation, published in print in Italian in the year 1613; by Jacobilli and Ughelli in the works mentioned; at length and distinctly by Carlo Franceschini; and briefly and elegantly by Giulio Lucenzi in these words: Thus his body, being recognized, his fellow-citizen St. Silvester of the Order of St. Benedict, founder of the Silvestrine congregation, most devoutly raised, and received into a more honorable church built by himself under the name of Bonfilius, and, a Saint writing for a Saint, consigned his Deeds to letters for perpetuity. Of these things indeed Silvester has nothing in his Work,
nay he expressly says that the body of the Blessed rested in the place of its first burial down to those times in which he was writing: but from this it is only to be gathered that the Life had already been written when the church was erected and the translation of the body made.
[5] For that such a church existed before the middle of the thirteenth century dedicated to his name is made indubitable by the Bull of Pope Innocent IV, confirming and enlarging with privileges the congregation of the Silvestrines under the Rule of St. Benedict. That Bull is extant in tom. 1 of the Roman Bullary, p. 64 and following, where it is written as given at Lyons on the fifth Kalends of July in the year 1247, and the following are read: Moreover, whatever possessions, whatever goods the same Hermitage (of St. Benedict of Montefano in the diocese of Camerino, which was the first monastery of the Congregation) at present justly and canonically possesses, … let them remain firm and unimpaired to you and to your successors. Among which we have judged that these should be expressed in their proper names: the place itself in which the aforesaid hermitage is situated, with all its appurtenances. The church of Grotta Focile with its appurtenances. The church of saint Bonfilius with its appurtenances. The church of Ripalta with its appurtenances. With the lands, meadows, etc. The same Bull, and to the same end, is cited by the once and again praised most reverend and most learned man Carlo Franceschini, abbot and definitor general of the Silvestrines, who caused to be transmitted to us a manuscript copy of the Life of Bl. Bonfilius, most carefully drawn from a most ancient autograph volume religiously preserved at Fabriano in the monastery of St. Benedict the abbot of the Silvestrine Order; as he himself testifies in a most courteous letter, given at Cingoli on the twenty-eighth day of March in the year 1757.
[6] To the copy of the Life he kindly added observations, divided by way of a Commentary into eight numbers, consecrated with this clause: These things indeed, useless monuments and such as could easily be called into controversy being omitted, drawn from more accurate records, lord Carlo Franceschini, Silvestrine abbot, transmits to you … fathers. But at num. 5 of the said Commentary of his he cites, as I was just saying, the Bull of the supreme Pontiff Innocent IV, whose, he says, original copy is most diligently kept in the archive of St. Benedict of Fabriano; but he says it issued at Lyons in the year 1248, on the fifth Kalends of July, and in the last place he copies its words given in this order: The church of Grotta Focile … The church of Ripalta … The church of saint Bonfilius with its appurtenances, with the meadows, vineyards, etc.: and thus continues: Mention is also made of this church, called perpetually by the name of saint Bonfilius, in the most ancient manuscripts of St. Benedict of Fabriano, not only in the years 1251, 1254, 1257, 1261, on the occasion of some business to be transacted by the authority of St. Silvester the abbot with the counsel of the monks, and thirteen times in the same thirteenth century after the death of the holy Father (Silvester, whose death is bound to the year 1267); but also from the beginning of the fourteenth century until the year 1509, thirty-seven times.
[7] Of the time when the church was built, its author, the first translation of the body of Bl. Bonfilius, in the thirteenth century he translated it; and the situation of the places, the most reverend abbot discourses thus: But St. Silvester judged it not enough for the religious observance to which he had perpetually devoted himself toward holy men, to have set his hand to writing the Life of the holy bishop Bonfilius, which otherwise would have lain hid in darkness, if he had borne with equal mind that his sacred body, shortly to be given over to oblivion, should be laid any longer in a despised tomb, hedged about on every side with brambles and thickets. He therefore judged it worth the labor that it should be dug up thence and translated to a more honorable place, which, being sacred to God, should be honored by the devout concourse of the people. Which was diligently done, with the consent of the bishop of Osimo, about the year of the Lord, as is reported, 1235. From the ancient sepulcher, therefore, existing beside the wall of St. Mary of Fara toward the North, where it had lain through twice twelve lustres, it was brought into a church of no vast structure indeed, but not unseemly in form and very stable in firmness (so long a course of time having envied its soundness in vain to this present season), raised from the foundations by the holy abbot under the invocation of the same Saint; which indeed is seen distant scarcely a stone's throw, of a stone whirled in a sling, from the little oratory of St. Mary of Fara, although situated in a higher place than that. To this church of St. Bonfilius, an Italian mile distant from the city of Cingoli, there was annexed a monastery of monks of no mean sort, who poured forth to God the sacrifice of praise day and night under so great a father and master as Silvester. Of the present state of the said monastery a few things will recur below.
[8] where he is festively venerated each year. A second translation of the body Hither pertain the things which about the yearly cult Sebastiano Fabrini and Ludovico Jacobilli, praised at num. 4, add: for they say that the aforesaid translation is festively kept every year on the twenty-third day of January; the dedication of the church of his name on the first Sunday of June; his happy birthday in heaven on the twenty-seventh of September; with a huge multitude of people flocking to the three said solemn festivals, both from the city of Cingoli and from the surrounding places. Maurolico in the Ocean Sea, p. 188, mentions only one festival, and calling it the very greatest, says it is held on the twenty-second day of January. I do not doubt that he designates the feast of the translation; but I do not know which of them more rightly marked the day, he, or Fabrini and Jacobilli: perhaps he took his beginning from first Vespers. I go on to num. 6 of Franceschini, where he enumerates and explains three other translations of the body. The second, he says, at the expense indeed of the city of Cingoli, in service of its grateful mind toward its most beneficent Patron, so often excellently deserving of it, happened in the year 1516 (as in the book of the community at that year), when from that part of the church in which they had first been laid by St. Silvester, above the high altar, more magnificently built, they were, with the rite that was fitting, placed within a hollow of the wall (on which indeed it rests), facing the sacred table of the altar diametrically, hollowed out to a height of about two palms and a length of about five palms. Meanwhile the hollow of the aforesaid wall was fortified within with iron gratings * no less than guarded on the outside with a little wooden door closed with two keys; and two years after, in vivid colors a twofold image of the holy Prelate was newly presented to human sight, adorned with pontifical insignia: the one kneeling above the sacred deposit at the feet of Christ crucified; the other standing upright on the side wall at the right horn of the aforesaid altar, having in the midst the blessed Virgin with the little Boy Jesus, and on the side opposite to himself St. Timothy; at the foot of the image being noted these characters: S. Bonfilius 1518.
[9] and the continuation of his cult. The account given sufficiently declares that the cult of the Blessed from the first translation to the second was in no way interrupted, nor in any way diminished, nay it signifies that it grew more and more; since before the year 1516 the people of Cingoli, although neither the church nor the body of Bl. Bonfilius was contained within the circuit of the city, venerated him as their most beneficent Patron. But that the same cult persevered thereafter with no less splendor is clear from what Fabrini in the Chronicle published in print at Camerino in the year 1613, and Jacobilli in the Lives of the Saints of Foligno, printed in the year 1628, testify concerning the three yearly festivals and the concourse of people to them, as was said in the preceding number. To these let there be added the testimony of lord Giacomo Mercati, procurator general of the Silvestrine Congregation, in his letter to the senate and people of Osimo, prefixed to the Latin Life of Bl. Bonfilius and published in print likewise at Camerino in the year 1613: Receive therefore with willing mind, he says, this little gift, and do not think it enough for you merely to read it, but take diligent care that the people of Cingoli do not surpass you in venerating this most holy Man, among whom Bl. Bonfilius is so venerated that they have long since chosen him as their Patron: finally strain every sinew that, so far as may be, you may express your blessed Fellow-citizen by imitation. Farewell. At Rome, the fourth of the Nones of January, 1613. Besides this, Maurolico in the Ocean Sea, published in print in the same year, calls Bonfilius the particular Advocate of Cingoli; Jacobilli in the Saints of Umbria, tom. 2, p. 294, its Protector.
[10] Further, the people of Cingoli magnificently declared their affection toward Bl. Bonfilius in the year 1681 on the occasion of the third translation, The third translation, made in the year 1681, which Franceschini describes in this manner: The third was appointed in the year 1681 by Apostolic indult, on the recurring first Sunday of June. And that this might be done the more augustly for the greater glory of God and the honor of the holy Bishop, and might surpass the preceding in splendor of magnificence and in all apparatus, through the eight successive days which preceded it signs of gladness were given by the ringing of the bells of the whole city. And on the eve of the appointed translation, as happens at the chief solemnities of the Saints, there were arranged toward evening joyful spectacles, with trumpets, drums, and bronze bells sounding, and truly worthy of the gaze of the multitude which had flocked together. On the following day, which was Sunday, a public procession being proclaimed, the church of saint Bonfilius was entered, where all things had been most ornately arranged for beginning the long-desired translation.
[11] In this order the matter was begun. There went before horsemen, comely no less in their arms than in their garments, whom in a long column there followed the confraternities, both urban and rural, which had assembled from all the villages and castles of Cingoli, each distinguished by its own badges: presently there walked mendicant Regulars of many kinds. With these was joined in order the company of the Silvestrine monks and all the clergy; behind whom two select choirs of singing musicians. Then followed the noble bier, on which the sacred remains of the blessed Prelate had been fitly placed, which, to procure it majesty, religious men and the chief nobles of the city carried by turns beneath a comely canopy woven of gold and silk: meanwhile, as along the whole way, so round about the bier, were countless burning waxen torches; then in crowds the whole copious multitude of nobles and of common people. Last of all, to complete the affair, a not inglorious troop of footmen.
[12] When the devout procession had been duly conducted to Cingoli, to the church of the monastery they all went round the more frequented streets of the city, on this side and that, to left and right, up and down, notably adorned along the walls of the houses, beneath triumphal arches skillfully set up here and there, until they entered the magnificent and likewise beautiful church of the Silvestrine Congregation under the invocation of St. Benedict the abbot (to which that of saint Bonfilius, the monks having long since withdrawn from thence, had been united), certainly destined for the deposition of the sacred pledge. There was no great delay. The abbot of the aforesaid church, vested in pontificals, with his accustomed ministers assisting him, performed the divine service, during which solemnities a most learned panegyric oration was delivered, and at the same time, after the Synaxis was completed and the Ambrosian Hymn sung, he laid the heavenly pledge beneath the principal altar, in a manner worthy of veneration. This is drawn from the public records of the notary Eusebio Simoncelli.
[13] Thus far the most reverend abbot, whose notices have here been especially most useful to us, not to say to which the church dedicated to the Blessed had been united. necessary; since otherwise we should have been ignorant where that sacred treasure now dwelt: for we have no instrument, whether manuscript or printed work, pertaining to our Blessed which is later than the translation, except the Splendor of Foligno praised above,
in which indeed the author Giulio Lucenzi attributes to Bl. Bonfilius a notable elogium, but is deeply silent about the translation into the city of Cingoli. The cause of the translation Franceschini does not expressly and distinctly give; but he offers at least its occasion to be understood, when he says that the church of Bl. Bonfilius, the monks having withdrawn from thence, was united to the monastery of St. Benedict of the Silvestrine Congregation situated within the city. For hither the said monks withdrew, and most probably, at the urging and by the efforts of the pious inhabitants of the city of Cingoli, they gave unwearied labor that leave might be given them to carry the sacred treasure also thither, which followed after not a few years. Not a few, I say, because Orazio Avicenna, in the Monuments of the city of Cingoli, published in print more than thirty years before the translation, p. 236, treating of the church and monastery of Bl. Bonfilius, says that only two monks were left there for its custody, the rest occupying the monastery of Cingoli. The same Jacobilli relates in the Lives of the Saints of Umbria, printed in the year 1656, tom. 2, p. 294, saying that near Cingoli there is seen the church of Bl. Bonfilius with a sufficiently magnificent monastery, only two Silvestrine monks dwelling there to this day for its custody; but the rest, he says, of the monks of that Congregation, who are the lords of the same (monastery), inhabit the monastery within the city of Cingoli. But let us resume Franceschini's narration.
[14] The fourth translation; a twofold yearly festival at Cingoli; The fourth translation at last befell in the year 1726, when, the dampness of the place compelling, the monks not rashly determined, with the city's consent, that the sacred relics should be carried elsewhere, lest they should suffer any loss. In the side wall therefore, on the right of the church beneath the stone rails of the high altar, a sarcophagus being set, distinguished with various ornaments beautiful to behold, they are there placed, where they are venerated with the pious devotion of the people, a lamp shining continually in their honor. A twofold festival of this holy Bishop is kept every year, namely on the first Sunday of June (that is, on which of old the church of Bl. Bonfilius was consecrated, and on which afterward his relics were carried into the city) and on the fifth Kalends of October, under a double rite in the city of Cingoli and in the whole diocese. At these last words observe in passing that Cingulum, called by the natives Cingoli, an ancient and to this day flourishing city of Picenum in the March of Ancona, which of old had had its own bishop, and afterward had been united to the see of Osimo, in this century at last recovered its former dignity. In the year 1725, the words are Orlendi's, part 2, vol. 1, of the Sacred and Profane World, p. 697, Benedict XIII restored the old cathedral to Cingoli, and decreed that it should have its own diocese; yet so that the same bishop of Osimo should also be bishop of Cingoli.
[15] various indications of miracles or benefits; The miracles, Franceschini thus continues, what and how many were wrought by the intercession of saint Bonfilius after St. Silvester committed his Life to letters, we do not possess, through the sloth of writers; but that there were such, votive tablets, now worn away by excessive age, which are still beheld in the church consecrated to his name, establish beyond all doubt. Nay rather, a most luminous proof of this thing is afforded by the records of the monastery of St. Benedict of Cingoli, which mention countless little offerings hung up at the altar of the holy Prelate, which long since, partly broken by the frailty of their material, partly carried off by the greed of a sacrilegious hand, have utterly perished. By way of conclusion it is not to be passed over that in the church of Foligno a famous monument is preserved, the more precious as its Author is the holier; from which it may be uncovered, clearer than the noonday light, how great was the piety, how great the munificence, and how great the surpassing love toward God and neighbor of the glorious saint Bonfilius. That monument, which the most reverend abbot subjoins entire, regards the deeds of the Blessed in his bishopric, and therefore some things from it will more fittingly be given in § three. But to what has hitherto been said about his cult we annex a few things from Jacobilli, tom. 2, on the Lives of the Saints of Umbria.
[16] He says therefore, p. 294, that at Foligno in the cathedral church, which Bonfilius once occupied, the veneration of the Blessed among the people of Foligno and of Osimo. his memory and veneration are preserved; and that in the episcopal hall his image is beheld among those of the other bishops, with a diadem, in pastoral habit, with the family arms of the Bonfilii, and the following subscription: S. Bonfilius de Bonfiliis of Osimo, of the Order of St. Benedict, is created bishop of Foligno in the year of salvation 1078. Two things I could have wished added here by Jacobilli by way of elucidation: first, what age that image of the Blessed shows, so that if it be very ancient, the family of the Bonfilii, asserted also by others, might thence be confirmed; the other, in what the preserved memory of the Blessed at Foligno consists, or how far his veneration extends; which last I could elicit neither from Lucenzi nor from any other writer. But from the Works of the writers of Foligno I passed to the manuscript and printed monuments of Osimo, that I might learn in what esteem Bonfilius is held among his fellow-citizens. Giovanni Baldi, canon of Osimo, at the end of the Acts of some of the chief Saints of the said city, which, written in Italian, came forth in the year 1620, sets forth a list of certain others with a brief elogium, and among these places Bonfilius, and says that he was laid in the church dedicated to his name in the territory of Cingoli, but nothing further. He is mentioned also with the title of Blessed in the manuscript monuments on the Saints and Blesseds of the city of Osimo sent to Bolland in the month of June of the year 1659 by the most illustrious Antonio Bichi, then bishop of Osimo, a little after Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; and some things are added about his cult among the people of Cingoli, but not a word about his cult among the people of Osimo; and thence I conjecture that no particular one is held there.
Annotata* read: clathris
§ II. His Life and its author; certain circumstances of more recent writers examined.
[ ] The Life, which was written about one century after the Blessed's death Of the Life of Bl. Bonfilius and its author we have tasted some things in the preceding § for proving his ancient cult, from which the reader has now been able to know at what value it is to be held, regard being had to the author's sanctity and age. He does not indeed determine the time at which he wrote; but all things considered, we easily gather that it was done not much later than one century after the death of the Blessed, which is commonly bound to the year 1115, and perhaps happened some years later, as I shall show below. For Bl. Silvester was born in the year 1177, and had already made an end of writing when the body of Bl. Bonfilius still lay in the place of its first burial, as I showed at num. 4; therefore before, and perhaps long before, 1235, about which year the same Silvester, according to Franceschini, had the body translated into the church built by himself and consecrated to Bl. Bonfilius. Yet he seems to have had few, not to say no, written monuments in his possession about his deeds in life; since in his prologue he complains most bitterly of the sloth of writers, and, in accord with his holy candor, speaks thus: But since, according to the prophetic word, In the ancient is wisdom, and in length of time prudence; and since the Lord commands in the Law, Ask thy father and he will declare to thee, thy elders and they will tell thee; we took care diligently to inquire of long-lived old men, of nearly more than a hundred years of age, concerning the life and character of the holy Man; who faithfully reported thereupon to our littleness what they remembered they had learned from their elders. And we, giving undoubting credence to the accounts of those ancient men, according to the Prophet: What we have heard with our ears and our fathers have declared unto us, write without hesitation of the aforesaid Saint.
[18] in the manner here set forth; Miracles, if indeed any were divinely wrought through him while he lived in mortal flesh, we do not write, for the reason that they have in no wise come to our knowledge; either because the Saint himself, as is the custom of Saints, was zealous to hide these in every way by the most diligent guarding of his great humility, or because, as is wont to happen, they very easily slipped from the fleeting memory of mortals. But what the Lord wrought through him after his death, we have in some part handed down in written documents. So Silvester, who, since according to what was said before he wrote about one century after the Blessed's death, and cites centenarian old men, these could indeed have learned the deeds of Bonfilius from their own parents, or from others who either at Osimo or at Foligno or in the territory of Cingoli had known the Blessed and had been eyewitnesses of his deeds. Nevertheless the holy biographer, probably out of fear lest even unwillingly he should stray from the path of truth, or should establish doubtful things as true, omitted various matters which would have brought very much light to his account.
[19] and whose author Silvester, long unknown, He kept silence almost everywhere about the names of the persons occurring in the Life, namely the parents of Bl. Bonfilius, the abbots, bishops, Roman Pontiffs, and princes; nowhere does he mark the years, for instance of the Blessed's birth, of his taking the monastic Order, of his entering upon and laying down the bishopric, of his death and age. Finally he so studiously avoided chronological notes that, unless he had recorded Bonfilius's pilgrimage with the Crusaders into the Holy Land, it could scarcely be understood from the whole series of the narration in about what century he flourished: since Silvester himself willed that his own name as author be suppressed, and abstained from every indication by which either his age or his condition might be discerned. But in this last he did not succeed: for one of his disciples afterward inserted the following notice in the manuscript: That the name of the author of the History of blessed Bonfilius the bishop may not be unknown to those who read it, therefore I, brother Benedict of Sassoferrato by name alone, a monk and professed of that same author, thought it would be useful to insert this. The famous name of that brother, nay saint, was Silvester of Osimo, noble by his parents, but nobler in spirit. Who was not only the author of this History, but also of the Order of Montefano, under which he built twelve monasteries under the Rule of saint Benedict to the praise of almighty God and of the other Saints. Through whom also, both while he still lived in the flesh and after he had entered upon the way of all flesh, the Lord deigned to work many miracles.
[20] was at last discovered That notice Mercati caused to be printed at the end of the Life published in the year 1613, copied from the same most ancient manuscript exemplar from which the Life came. The same notice Fabrini declared in Italian in his preface to the Life of Bl. Bonfilius, set forth in the same Italian tongue and published in the year 1613, saying that it was added by Benedict of Sassoferrato, the disciple of St. Silvester, with his own hand at the beginning of the autograph, which exists on but little corrupted parchment at Fabriano in the archive of the monastery of the Silvestrines. Franceschini in his manuscript Notices has these things about that old exemplar or autograph of the Life: The Life of this holy Man was first written by his most illustrious fellow-citizen saint Silvester the abbot on nine parchments, each of which a straight line cuts through the middle, and which, gathered into one codex, are kept as a precious treasure with the utmost reverence at Fabriano in Picenum in the famous monastery of St. Benedict the abbot, the ordinary seat of the superior general of the Silvestrines.
[21] Then, a few things being interposed, he adds these also: That no one
should be unaware — for it is fair, from the testimony, — that saint Silvester the abbot, as he was most tenacious of profound humility, so willed that his own name should nowhere be set in the parchment manuscript, lest he should catch at any honor for himself among posterity. Yet God made his wishes void. For at his inspiration blessed Benedict of Sentino, a Silvestrine monk, most sincerely makes manifest the name of the author of the Life of S. Bonfilius in a little annotation, written in his own hand at the foot of the second page of the aforesaid codex. There is presently subjoined the said little annotation or notice of Benedict, differing however in two words from Mercati's edition: for at the beginning, for the word History is read Life, and the words of Sassoferrato are wanting; which we believe are to be attributed to the copyists, since both cite the same codex. Further, Sassoferrato is a town in the March of Ancona beside the river Sentino, and hence probably Franceschini calls Benedict the Sentinate.
[22] The same Franceschini, affirming that by the consent of experts who weighed the antiquity of the parchment codex, which his own disciple Benedict's little annotation and the characters of the whole book are referred to the same century, adds: And in truth blessed Benedict lived in the same age in which St. Silvester the abbot, being then already advanced in years, lived; although he, being still young in age, followed this his father, with whom while he lived he had long conversed, only after the course of many years, by a happy death in the Lord at Perugia in the monastery of St. Benedict, now for the first time of nuns of the Silvestrine Congregation. Of Benedict as a man illustrious for sanctity of life and as a Blessed, Fabrini also treats in the Silvestrine Chronicle, first at p. 143 in the preface to the Life of Bl. Bonfilius, and then at p. 394, where he reviews some distinguished disciples of Bl. Silvester. For the rest, the recited little annotation of Benedict obtained its effect only at the beginning of the seventeenth century, until which time the name of the author of the Life of Bl. Bonfilius seems to have lain hidden.
[23] Giacomo Mercati deserves to be heard here in his letter to the reader prefixed to the published Life: had written in the autograph, This Life of Bl. Bonfilius was indeed passed through the hands of our monks; nor yet did any of them know who had written it: when behold, there came into my hands a most ancient exemplar in which there was a scholion disclosing that the writer was St. Silvester our father. And when the monks learned this, they all took incredible delight: they rejoiced, they leapt for gladness, they kissed the codex, and six hundred times, always with greater gladness, they repeated the reading of the golden little Work of the most holy father. Then, since they hoped that the little book would be most welcome to thee, they began to treat with me about publishing it: and I, overcome by their prayers, could not but comply with them; the more so because the most illustrious Cardinal Bellarmine, a most learned and truly most eloquent man, to whom I gave this Life to read, commended it in the highest degree; since indeed he affirmed to me that the style of this monument so savors of sanctity that it is most clearly evident that it proceeded from none but a most holy man.
[24] it was published in the year 1613. Certain things are examined And so the praised Mercati caused that Life to be printed at Camerino in the year 1613, the same phrasing being kept and not a single word changed, as he says in the prefatory letter to the senate and people of Osimo, and as the most reverend Franceschini besides bids us believe both in his letter, in which he testifies that Mercati's edition was made to the letter according to the Fabriano codex, and in the manuscript transcript which the same most obliging man, fearing lest the printed copy should be lacking to us, transmitted hither, most carefully drawn from that Fabriano codex, and in truth exceedingly consonant with the published booklet. But the same Mercati had promised in his letter to the reader that he would prepare and, God favoring, bring to light most copious scholia, by which not a few passages of this Life should be illustrated; but these we have hitherto neither seen nor found cited by anyone. Fabrini, however, who in the same year 1613 and from the same press gave in Italian the Life written by Silvester according to the Latin Fabriano codex, mixed in here and there a few words, and very rarely, for the sake of elucidation; but others proceeded more freely, especially Jacobilli, tom. 2 of the Lives of the Saints of Umbria, where he both determines the years and expresses the names of several persons, and establishes other things which Bl. Silvester had suppressed.
[25] [the circumstances added by those more recent writers concerning the Blessed's stock,] The chief additions of those more recent writers it will be well here to bring forward, running through in passing the series of the Life of Bl. Bonfilius, and to inquire whether they can be as solidly proved as they are confidently asserted. His native place and parents Bl. Silvester thus recorded in the Life published by Mercati and in our manuscript transcript of it: Blessed Bonfilius therefore was sprung from Osimo, of parents noble in the flesh but nobler in spirit, as being Catholic in faith and fearing God. Which words Fabrini, translating them into Italian, so enlarged that they make this sense: Bl. Bonfilius was born at Osimo, a city of the March of Ancona, of noble stock, namely of the house of the Bonfilii, of the blood of the noble citizens of that place: but his father and mother were much nobler in spirit and piety; as being, etc. In assigning the family, Fabrini was followed by Baldi in the Saints of Osimo; Ughelli in Italia Sacra; the just-praised Jacobilli; the most eminent Bichi in his manuscript Notices; and the most reverend Franceschini likewise in his manuscript Notices; but the last appeals to the single testimony of Fabrini, and the rest simply affirm it; except Jacobilli, who at least in another place, namely where he treats of the Blessed's veneration among the people of Foligno, cites his image, existing in the episcopal hall with the family arms of the Bonfilii and that subscription: S. Bonfilius de Bonfiliis, of Osimo, etc. But he does not disclose the age of the image and of the subscription, nay he does not even call the image ancient; and thus he leaves us in doubt whether his authority is greater than that of Fabrini, who asserts it without any more ancient testimony. Meanwhile I do not deny the truth of the assertion; yet I should cling to it with a more willing and readier mind if I found it confirmed even by one document of certain antiquity.
[26] about the year of his birth The year of his birth Fabrini passed over in silence with Bl. Silvester: Jacobilli determined it in the Saints of Foligno, saying: Bonfilius was born … in the year of our Salvation one thousand and forty. Of an epoch so confidently set down he cites no author, no monument, and I shall be mistaken if he had any to cite. More cautiously abbot Franceschini in the margin of the manuscript transcript of the Life marked, with due latitude, about the year of the Lord 1040: with due latitude, I say, and only from a conjecture in some measure probable, for the forming of which there came to his aid an instrument to be produced afterward, whence he learned that Bonfilius was bishop of Foligno in the year 1078. The same Jacobilli goes on to weave a chronological order for the Life and to explain other things in his own way in the Saints of Umbria. And first indeed he says that the Blessed, being sixteen years old, that is, about the year of Christ 1056, put on the monk's habit in a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict under the title of St. Mary of Storaco, which, now in ruins, was situated near mount Filottrano in the diocese of Osimo.
[27] That Bonfilius embraced the monastic life Bl. Silvester also teaches, and about his taking up the monastic life and assigns the same monastery, saying at num. 8: Now there was at that time in the diocese of Osimo itself a monastery which was called St. Mary of Storaco, of which down to these times some remains are shown. Then he so orders his narration that thou clearly understandest that Bonfilius dwelt in that same monastery from his earliest age, since he says that as a Boy he was offered by his parents there before the altar to the almighty Lord, to remain reverently in his service, and that the abbot and monks were asked by those same parents to have the same Boy instructed in the teachings and exercises of letters. And so he goes on constantly to call him a Boy until his profession made according to the form of the Rule. But he supplies nothing whence thou mightest deduce a certain year of his age, or a year of Christ; here too all writers earlier than Jacobilli are silent, and therefore I should think that he had no other foundation than the Blessed's birth, which he had before bound at his own discretion to the year 1040. Bl. Silvester does not openly declare of what institute the said monastery was; but that it was of the Order of St. Benedict is urged both by the series of the events narrated and is affirmed everywhere by all with unanimous consent, to whom is added the once and again praised subscription of the image: S. Bonfilius de Bonfiliis of Osimo, of the Order of St. Benedict, etc. Yet the author of the History of the religious Orders published in French blundered, when in tom. 6, treating of the Silvestrine monks and their founder Bl. Silvester, he wrote thus at p. 177: This Order produced many men who made themselves notable by the sanctity of their life, and among whom some earned the title of Saint and Blessed: as saint Bonfilius, bishop of Foligno, who left his bishopric that he might return into solitude. For that author did not observe that Bl. Bonfilius had ceased to live certainly a whole century before Bl. Silvester laid the foundations of his Order or Congregation.
[28] Our Blessed, having gradually received the ecclesiastical Orders and the priesthood, and about the government committed to him, first of an obediential church was set over a certain church, thus indicated by Silvester: Moreover, there was a certain obediential church belonging to that monastery in the diocese of Foligno, to whose government the abbot and brethren by common counsel decreed that Bonfilius should be sent. Then these things are subjoined: Bonfilius therefore, compelled by the necessity of obedience, having sought and received a blessing from the abbot, comes to the place and takes up the government of the aforesaid church; and although he changed his place, yet he did not change his pious mind and pious works: nay, when he beheld himself set over the care of souls, he strove more and more that he might not be held inferior to the higher place over which he seemed to preside. Thence indeed the author allows us to conjecture that to that church there was attached a monastery with a company of monks: but he has given no handle for resolving various questions which might here again be formed; for instance, by what name the church was called; in what place of the diocese of Foligno it was situated; whether a great or a small number of monks lived there; at what time Bonfilius was set over them, and with what title he was distinguished, whether of abbot, or only of Prior, provost or dean, which and like titles were granted to the rectors of lesser monasteries, or cells, provostships, obediences, and Priories depending on a nobler monastery.
[29] and then of the abbey of St. Mary of Storaco. Jacobilli asserts that it was a monastery sacred to St. Silvester the Pope, which of old stood near Foligno, but is now contained within the city and takes its name from the Holy Spirit: and that its government was taken up by Bonfilius in the year 1060. Neither does he confirm by testimonies. As to the place Ughelli and Lucenzi agree, but likewise by bare assertion; but the latter is certainly mistaken when he says: He (Bonfilius) was bidden to preside over the rest, first in the monastery of St. Mary of Storaco, then in that of St. Silvester by the walls of Foligno; where, while he led a life of the utmost rigor, he is demanded by clergy and people for the pontifical see of Foligno, etc. For the biographer expressly testifies that, when the Blessed was governing his church in the diocese
of Foligno, the abbot of Storaco died, and he himself was substituted as abbot in his place, and performed that office until he was called to the bishopric. In vain again wouldst thou here ask how long the Blessed held the government of the monastery or obediential church in the diocese of Foligno, the biographer supplying nothing whence I might attain it even by conjecture. But if nevertheless thou art willing to stand by Jacobilli's reckonings, thou wilt give thirteen years to that government. For according to Jacobilli, Bonfilius took it up in the year 1060 and held it until he was set over the monastery of Storaco; and when he had presided over this for five years, he was made bishop of Foligno in the year 1078. But for my part I do not trust these reckonings, fortified by no authority; especially because, according to the biographer, the Blessed had governed the monastery of Storaco for very many years when he was demanded for the bishopric.
§ III. Of the Blessed's episcopate, his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, his return into Italy, and the time of his happy death.
[ ] He held the bishopric in the years 1078 We have at length come to the point where we can bring forward one or another chronological note, from which it may be established for readers at what time Bl. Bonfilius flourished; and whence, as it seems to me at least, Jacobilli wove the chronological order of the life at his own discretion. Both those notes regard the Blessed's episcopate of Foligno. The first we obtain from the instrument cited above, which Ughelli and Franceschini affirm is preserved down to now in the archive of Foligno, and which the same Ughelli printed in tom. 1 of Italia Sacra; and which Franceschini caused to be copied and inserted in his manuscript Notices, lately transmitted hither. Its beginning is this. In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1078, on the third day of the month of November, in the first Indiction, in the reign of the lord king Henry, yet by the working of the divine clemency. I, Bonfilius, prelate of the church of Foligno, etc. The other chronological note Bl. Silvester supplies in the Life, where he treats of the same episcopate of Bonfilius. Having first related the death of the bishop of Foligno, whose name he suppresses, he says that the whole clergy assembled and with one voice decreed that Bonfilius should be substituted for him; that messengers were sent to him, who after many prayers obtained the consent of him who resisted; that the election was confirmed by the Apostolic See, and that Bonfilius, having set out thither a little after, was there consecrated bishop, after his fitness and virtue had been approved by the supreme Pontiff, whose name likewise the biographer passes over.
[31] At length, having set forth the Blessed's manner of governing his church, he says: and 1096; He passed nearly ten years set in the episcopate, strengthened by these and other gifts of virtues; at length a fervent desire of seeing the Holy Land … inflamed his mind. But at that same time … the fierce race of the Saracens and other barbarous nations … were raging most atrociously in the holy places: whence not a few of the Christians from the parts on this side of the sea, remission of sins being granted them by the supreme Pontiff, took the cross and crossed the sea in great numbers to the succor of the Holy Land. Then also the man of God, bishop Bonfilius, desiring to bring to effect the desire which he had long conceived in mind, having obtained leave from the supreme Pontiff, took the cross, and, having taken with him clerks and laymen of his household, … crossed the sea in safety. And the leaders and princes of the Christian people, the crossing being universally accomplished, … rendered the Holy Land … wholly free. There is no one, I think, who doubts that here is indicated the first expedition of the crusaders into the Holy Land, which, Urban the second being supreme Pontiff, was decreed in the year 1095 and undertaken in the very next year.
[32] We know then that Bonfilius was bishop in the years 1078 and 1096; but it is not sufficiently established in what year he took it up; but nothing further is suggested in the instrument and in the Life, whence we might discover the year in which he entered upon the bishopric. The biographer indeed says: He passed nearly ten years set in the episcopate; but that saying must be referred to the time at which the desire of visiting the Holy Land came upon the Blessed, and which was committed to execution only some years after; as is clear from what follows: Desiring to bring to effect the desire which he had long conceived in mind. But that it cannot be referred to the whole duration of the episcopate, or to the space of time which flowed from the beginning of the episcopate down to the sacred pilgrimage, is clear from this, that between 1078 and 1096 there certainly flowed sixteen whole years. Ughelli, Jacobilli, and Lucenzi bind the beginnings of the episcopate to the same year 1078, and in this again they have as supporting them the several times cited subscription of the image existing in the hall at Foligno: S. Bonfilius … is created bishop of Foligno in the year of salvation 1078. But, as I indicated before, the age and authority of that subscription is unknown to me, nor should I venture to affirm that there was any other reason for marking in it the year 1078, than that in that year he certainly was bishop according to the instrument which Ughelli produced to commend his liberality toward the clergy, and which I have not judged should here be reprinted, because the reading of it seemed likely to bring no pleasure or profit. For indeed it is mutilated, faulty in various places, and difficult to understand; and it contains scarcely anything besides a long enumeration of unknown goods and places which the Blessed grants to the canons of the cathedral church for the remedy of his soul and of his successors, that, he says, I may deserve to hear the desirable voice of the Lord, saying: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord. There are subjoined then threats and penalties against those who should oppose the donation, and some subscriptions, of which the first is this: I, Bonfilius, prelate of the church of Foligno, have ordered this decree made by me to be subscribed.
[33] The praised Ughelli and Jacobilli, as they set the year 1078 as the first of the episcopate, having set out for Palestine in the year 1096, so consequently say that the Blessed spent sixteen years in the administration of the same episcopate before he set out for Palestine; and that he returned thence into Italy after fifteen years. This last space of time Bl. Silvester does not indeed express, yet he so orders his narration that he allows us to conjecture that that stay was not shorter, nor yet much longer. For it becomes probable from his words cited at num. 31 that the blessed Prelate in the year 1096 joined himself to the great army of the crusaders and clung to it until 1099, in which the Christian princes, as all write everywhere, stormed Jerusalem, and, as Bl. Silvester says, rendered the Holy Land wholly free from the fierce infestations of the Saracens. And then, according to the same Silvester, bishop Bonfilius, being by divine grace made master of his vow, visited all the holy places in which the Lord accomplished the mysteries of our redemption. But while … he was intent for some time upon divine contemplations and praises in the parts beyond the sea, all the companions whom he had brought with him from his house are, by the command of almighty God, universally taken from this light. After he had honorably buried their bodies and piously celebrated their obsequies, being rendered as it were free from all secular care, he withdraws into a certain part of the wilderness, and there, having found a cave, begins to dwell in it, about to lead an eremitical life, in which, giving himself to God alone, in fasts, vigils, and prayers, and in all spiritual exercises, he awaits from the Lord the end of his life with an eternal reward. And while he sweated at such exercises, day and night set in the cave, nearly ten years' time rolls round, and then he is divinely admonished in a vision that he should return into Italy. And so, the holy places being visited again, he commits himself to the sea and is happily carried back into Italy.
[34] he stayed there Regard being had to the manner of narrating, it must seem to anyone most probable that by nearly ten years' time the biographer meant to indicate the time spent in the cave in the solitary life: if therefore thou add to these three years or a little more, which preceded the storming of the city of Jerusalem, thou wilt easily find fifteen years: since only two remain for the other deeds before and after the solitary life until his return into Italy. But neither absolutely are more required for us to believe true what the biographer says about the death of all the household of the blessed Prelate before he took up the solitary life: for he neither determines the number of the household, nor says that all survived after the recovery of the Holy Land; and therefore it remains probable that some of them had earlier succumbed to the continual labors of the journeys, and that some fell both in the siege of Jerusalem and of other cities, and in the frequent and most fierce conflicts which preceded and followed the said siege, so that, the barbarians being wholly put to flight from the Holy Land, very few survived, who themselves also, a little after, exhausted by wounds, diseases, and labors, departed from among the living.
[35] more probably for fifteen years, and, having returned into Italy, But I said that, regard being had to the manner of narrating, it is most probable that by nearly ten years' space the biographer indicated the time spent in the solitary life, and that thence, together with the other circumstances, it may be conjectured that the Blessed's stay in Palestine, or absence from Italy, was neither much shorter nor much longer than fifteen years. I used that caution because, if anything from elsewhere stood in the way, then the same words could suitably be taken for the whole space of time during which he had lived outside Italy, and their sense would be: While he sweated at such exercises, nearly ten years' time rolls round, namely from the undertaking of the pilgrimage. And indeed, if the epoch of the death of Bl. Bonfilius be true, which, Silvester being silent and no other testimony being produced, the moderns everywhere fix at the year 1115, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, they will be understood much more suitably in the latter sense, so that a sufficient space may be found for the Blessed's other deeds from his return into Italy until his happy death. For indeed, according to Silvester, the Blessed, having disembarked, made for Rome on foot, and obtained from the supreme Pontiff that, the bishopric of Foligno being transferred to another, it might be lawful for him to withdraw to the monastery of St. Mary of Storaco, over which he had formerly presided. From Rome he betook himself to Foligno, to bid farewell to his flock and to the substituted bishop, and thence to the said monastery. Here he dwelt for some time, but how long is not said; but when, because he reproved their dissolute ways, he had incurred the hatred of certain wicked monks, and had suffered various injuries and insults, he withdrew thence also, meaning to seek another place for himself. He stopped in the mountains of Cingoli, built himself a little cell, and resumed the solitary life. And although, the words are the biographer's, he dwelt in the remote recesses of woods and mountains, he could not be hidden longer: for the report of his sanctity and virtues flew swiftly not only to those near but even to those far off, … very many of whom were led by great devotion and exceeding affection toward his sanctity: whence, hastening to him very often, they desired to enjoy the sight of him and to obtain converse with him … And when the man of God, blessed bishop Bonfilius, had there passed A SPACE OF VERY MANY YEARS … he was called to heaven.
[36] That these things are true, no one who considers the sanctity of him who relates them will deny: but they are not probable to me in the opinion of the moderns, who assert that Bl. Bonfilius stayed in Palestine fifteen years, that is, according to the reckonings adduced above, until the year of Christ 1111 or 1112, and yet died in 1115, which time appears too narrow for the truth even of that last clause alone,
in which the blessed author says that Bonfilius passed a space of very many years in the mountains of Cingoli. Wherefore I judge either that his death must be placed some years later, or that the earlier words of Silvester, in which he says that nearly ten years' time had rolled round while Bonfilius, dwelling in a cave in Palestine, was admonished about returning into Italy, must be so taken as to embrace the whole time, as I said, of the pilgrimage down to his return into Italy, and thus that same return may be set about the year 1106, which was the tenth from the undertaking of the pilgrimage, and from which down to the Blessed's death there will remain at least nine for the deeds set forth in the preceding number. Yet the first, as being more consonant with Silvester's Relation, pleases me the more, and therefore I have marked his death as after the year 1115, to which opinion I shall adhere until a trustworthy testimony be produced from which I may learn that that determinate year was not marked by the moderns from mere arbitrary choice, as most of their other epochs, among which I also reckon the Blessed's age, limited to seventy-five years.
LIFE
By Bl. Silvester, founder of the Silvestrines.
From the edition made according to the autograph in the year 1613, and compared with a faithful manuscript transcript of the same autograph.
Bonfilius, bishop of Foligno, near Cingoli in Picenum. (Bl.)
BHL Number: 1392
A. By Bl. Silvester.
PROLOGUE.
[The author, complaining bitterly of the vanity of men who follow after unjust things,] Of all who love thee, O worldly vanity, most cruel enemy, and most deceitful supplanter of those who lean upon thee, we earnestly complain against thee, and send forth against thee countless voices full of complaints; thou who not only, seducing secular men, such as lawyers and others instructed in the sciences of the liberal faculties, by thy poisonous blandishments, compellest them, partly by desire of vain praises, partly by the intervention of gifts, to serve thee daily in the forum of secular judgments with long disputations and eloquent loquacities; but also, ensnaring with the same captious allurements not a few of the clergy, who are taken to give themselves to the things that are God's, learned in the skill of many faculties, importunately drivest them continually to break into the palaces of secular powers, to frequent the courts, to press on with quarrels and lawsuits, to furnish patronage to men, and often shamelessly and against conscience to defend unjust causes with most lengthy declamations: (alas, the grief!) they who commit such things do not fear to hide, burying in the earth to the heaping up of their own damnation, the talents of the sciences delivered them by the Lord.
[2] and who neglect just and holy things,, Truly windy vanity and like to most vain smoke, shortly and swiftly to be dissolved into nothing. Both these sorts, most eloquent to thee, dumb to God, drawn away and enticed by thy poisoned sweetness, with lifted mind vainly glory in their foolish wisdom, and not only raise overmuch the horns of pride, but also strike and oppress the innocent; whom, wretchedly turned to thee, unless they come to their senses and do penance, going forth empty, naked, and carrying nothing with them but their sins, from this wicked present world, thou sendest over to the torments of hell, to be tormented in the fires of gehenna through infinite ages. Since therefore, being taken captive by the wisdom of this world, which is folly with God, and by the wisdom of the flesh, which is itself also, according to the Apostle, an enemy to God, they are seduced, not one of them is seen so much as to awake to write anything meritorious for his own salvation, pleasing to God, and useful for the memory of posterity.
[3] teaches why, For behold, now the courses of many years b roll round in which the servant of almighty God, blessed Bonfilius, is known to have departed from this present world, and none of the aforesaid foolish wise men has been found who has taken care to note down on useful sheets the religious character of the religious Pontiff, by which the sanctity of his life might rightly be known, and piously to leave these things in the archive of holy Church to be usefully preserved for the edification and memory of posterity. But to us, who are pricked with the conscience of our own offenses, it seemed safer to sit in the narrow corner of our cell and to wash away our own evils in fountains of tears, than to obscure the illustrious deeds of any Saint with unskilled words. But since this work has been passed over from long times back, and hitherto before us undiscussed, we are compelled to set about writing for a twofold reason: both because, of the multitude of those coming to the tomb of this Saint, very many frequently ask whether there be any writings about him anywhere; and also lest his religious life and character should be utterly taken away from the memory of men.
[4] But since, according to the prophetic word: In the ancient is wisdom, and in length of time prudence: with what helps, and since the Lord commands in the Law: Ask thy father and he will declare to thee, thy elders and they will tell thee; we took care diligently to inquire of long-lived old men, of nearly more than a hundred years of age, concerning the life and character of the holy Man, who faithfully reported thereupon to our littleness what they remembered they had learned from their elders. And we, giving undoubting credence to the accounts of those ancient men, according to the Prophet: What we have heard with our ears and our fathers have declared unto us, write without hesitation of the aforesaid Saint.
[5] Miracles, if indeed any were divinely wrought through him while he lived in mortal flesh, and in what manner he is about to give the Life, hitherto unwritten; we do not write, for the reason that they have in no wise come to our knowledge: either because the Saint himself, as is the custom of Saints, was zealous to hide these in every way by the most diligent guarding of his great humility, or because, as is wont to happen, they very easily slipped from the fleeting memory of mortals. But what the Lord wrought through him after his death, we have in some part handed down in written documents. For these are the things which render his outstanding sanctity and glorious merits more certain and more probably clear. But if anyone, curious, should desire to know all the things which are wondrously wrought through him by God, let him come to his tomb, and there by the faith of his own eyes he will be able to be more fully taught how often the divine Clemency does not cease to bestow the benefits of healings and cures upon any who are sick c.
[6] But desiring that the name of our littleness be written in the Book of life by God, and alleges the cause for suppressing his own name. we have therefore judged that it should not be inserted in this Work, though we write it d, lest we should stir up against ourselves the envy of rivals, who, like serpents sharpening their cursing tongues, would hurl at us the poisoned darts of their curses, themselves first wounding their own souls with this deadly wound. But for these things we invoke the help of almighty God, that he who conferred upon blessed Bonfilius, his bishop and confessor, the grace of living piously and holily, may grant to our unskillfulness the faculty of writing rightly about him. Beseeching the reader of this Work that if he find in it anything less fitly or less sufficiently set down, he pardon us the more readily, inasmuch as for a long time now the study of composition has been laid aside by us: and that he embrace what he shall read, out of reverence for this Saint, with willing mind and the devout zeal of a pious will. But now let us begin, by his merits helping us and the Lord granting it, those things which we have arranged to write concerning him.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The Blessed's birth; his monastic life; his government of a monastery.
[ ] Nobly born and piously brought up Blessed Bonfilius therefore a was sprung from Osimo b of parents noble in the flesh but nobler in spirit, as being Catholic in faith and fearing God c. Whom his parents, who feared God, commanded to be named Bonfilius, that is, good son, when he received the sacrament of baptism: which name was a presage of his future goodness, which he was to obtain through the grace of the Redemption granted and by the exercise of good works: whence he deserved to be called a good son and to be numbered among the sons of God, as afterward plainly shone forth in his works: who, passing his infant years simply at home, when he had come to boyhood, being set in it, began to be devout toward almighty God, and, passing that same age in pious ways, according to the measure of the understanding granted him by God, panted continually after the things of heaven: whose parents, devout toward God, when they had learned his devout mind, began gladly to concur with him, and, rejoicing together at his happy deeds, desired to have him as a son in the spirit, even as they had begotten him in the flesh.
[8] he is offered to the abbey of St. Mary of Storaco; Now there was at that time in the diocese of Osimo itself a monastery which was called St. Mary of Storaco, of which down to these times some remains are shown d, whose abbot and monks were reported to lead a religious life: which the religious and pious boy Bonfilius learning, he ardently desires to be joined to their fellowship, and makes known his desire in this matter to his parents, and urgently asks of them that they should procure it to be brought to effect. And they, assenting to the petitions of the Boy devout to God, lead him with them to the aforesaid monastery: they address the abbot and monks, they set forth the mind and character of the boy Bonfilius; humbly beseeching that they would deign to receive him into the monastery to be brought up in the service of almighty God. The abbot therefore and the monks, having together taken counsel, determining to receive the oft-mentioned Boy, admonish the parents that the offering of the Boy should be solemnly made e: which admonition the parents receiving with willing mind, lead the Boy himself with them to the oratory of the monastery, and there before the altar, the abbot and monks being present, offered him to the almighty Lord, to remain reverently in his service; earnestly requesting of the said abbot and monks that they should have the same Boy instructed in the teachings and exercises of letters: which being done, his parents, leaving the Boy there under the protection of the heavenly Father, returned to their own home.
[9] where he is instructed and becomes a monk and a priest. And the abbot and monks began to train the Boy whom they had received in the knowledge of letters, instructing him no less in regular disciplines, whom also the Spirit of the Lord, according to the sentence of the apostle John, taught concerning all things by his unction. Whence the Boy himself made progress in all things, that unction going before and teaching: whom also the abbot, at his own entreaty, when the time of probation was completed, makes a monk; his profession being received according to the form of the Rule, clothing him in the habit of holy religion. And Bonfilius, passing beyond the rudiments of boyish age, began to be a youth of good disposition, and, growing in bodily form, grew day by day from virtues to virtues; and although in the monastery he was last of all in time, in the understanding of the holy Scriptures and in holy character he went before them all. For he was, according to the precepts of the Rule, loving the Lord God above all things, founded in humility, ready for obedience without delay, shining in chastity, gentle in kindness, a despiser of himself, a lover of the brethren, subjecting himself to all, preferring all to himself as though they were lords, and he was adorned with the flowers of all virtues: whom the abbot and brethren, perceiving him to be such, by common counsel decree worthy to be promoted to the Orders of the clergy, to which they cause him to ascend by degrees
at the appointed times, until he is ordained priest. And after he had been ordained priest, he wore down his flesh with fasts, applied himself to nocturnal vigils and prayers, anticipating the canonical hours, and frequently and carefully gave attention to psalmody and holy readings, exercising himself in all works of piety.
[10] Moreover, there was a certain obediential church f belonging to that monastery in the diocese of Foligno, He is set over an obediential church; to whose government the abbot and brethren by common counsel decreed that Bonfilius should be sent. Bonfilius therefore, compelled by the necessity of obedience, having sought and received a blessing from the abbot, comes to the place and takes up the government of the aforesaid church; and although he changed his place, yet he did not change his pious mind and pious works: nay, when he beheld himself set over the care of souls, he strove more and more that he might not be held inferior to the higher place over which he seemed to preside; and because the lamp, burning and shining, had now begun to be set upon a candlestick, it could not be hidden, but stretched out its rays not only to those near but even to those set far off. For the fame of his goodness, running praiseworthily far and wide, declared his true religion to all; very many hastened to behold and at the same time to hear him, desiring to enjoy his acquaintance and likewise to be joined in friendship: to whom the Man of the Lord, offering admonitions of salvation, bountifully served out streams of doctrine from the fountains of the divine Scriptures, satisfying each as they had need according to his power, that they might rejoice that they had received from him fitting medicines for their souls, and might return glad to their own homes. And the diocesan bishop and the clerks of the cathedral church, with the priests and all the citizens, knowing the goodness of the Man of God and venerating his religious life, loved him with exceeding affection, and desired often to see him, that they might be able to obtain his conversation and friendship; and they devoutly commended their souls to him, that he would deign to pour forth prayers for them to the Lord, which he carefully took pains to fulfill, not only for them, but indeed for all with exceeding charity and affection.
[11] Meanwhile, while such things were being done by the man of God Bonfilius in the aforesaid place, he is elected abbot of his own monastery of St. Mary of Storaco, it happened that his abbot closed his last day at the aforesaid monastery; to whose burial the monks and lay brothers all assembled with one accord; at which assembly the man of God Bonfilius also was zealous to be present. The obsequies therefore being celebrated according to custom, and the abbot's body entombed, they all meet in chapter, and diligently treat, conferring with one another concerning the canonical making of an election of a future abbot: who, with one accord invoking the grace of the Holy Spirit to their aid, as though divinely inspired, the grace from above granting it, all with one accord name and elect Bonfilius. Which the man of God Bonfilius earnestly refusing, declared himself in every way unworthy: at length, being constrained by the prayers and supplications of all the brethren, and they adjuring him terribly, he at last acquiesced. And that election being duly celebrated, as has been said, and, as was the custom, confirmed by the diocesan bishop, Bonfilius the man of God, as though laden with a heavy burden, fearfully took up the care of the monastery and the government of souls to the glory of almighty God.
[12] which he piously and prudently governs, Being set therefore in the office of the abbacy, he ponders with sedulous solicitude what and how great a burden he had taken up, namely to rule souls and to serve the characters of many; and to whom he would have to render an account of the stewardship he had undertaken; looking about himself in all things, he tamed his own flesh more sharply with sharp fasts; he applied himself to vigils and prayers more at length than was his wont, and in all spiritual exercises he showed himself imitable both to his subjects and to others who beheld him. The arduous institution of regular discipline was so strictly kept by him in the monastery that it was lawful for no one to act otherwise than the Rule prescribes, nor to turn aside through any unlawful things; and because he had been taught in the divine Law by grace from above, he knew whence he brought forth things new and old; to more capacious and more advanced minds he set forth the Lord's precepts by a more open preaching of the divine words; but to those harder and slower of understanding he showed forth those same divine precepts by the living voices of good works, cherishing after the manner of a most kindly Father the gentle and obedient disciples and those intent upon spiritual exercises, he received them in the bowels of charity, and often prayed them that they should be zealous to advance to better things: but the stiff-necked, if ever he found such in the monastery, the proud, the hard, and the disobedient, and also the contumacious, he corrected more severely after the manner of a stern master, yet with charity; and, thinking in all things of the divine recompense, applying himself untiringly to these and other spiritual exercises, he awaited with most certain hope a copious reward of eternal happiness from the Bestower of all good things: but there is no reason why we should dwell longer here; we must hasten to other and greater matters.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
His election to the bishopric; his manner of governing; his journey to the Holy Land, his stay there, and his return into Italy.
[ ] He at first resists the election made of him to the bishopric of Foligno; But when he had passed very many years in the care and government of the monastery, as his venerable merits grew, the gifts of grace from above grew in him likewise, the divine Clemency bestowing them. For while such excellent and such magnificent works were being done by him, set in the government of the monastery, it happened at that same time that the bishop of Foligno a departed from this world; and his body being entombed, as was the custom of the province, all the clerks of the cathedral church come together into one to make the election of a new prelate, pouring forth prayers and supplications to God, and with most humble heart beseech that almighty God, by pouring in the grace of the Holy Spirit, would deign to reveal and grant a fit person, who should be worthy to discharge over them the office of the prelacy: then one of them, whose authority happened to be not the least, as though taught by the divine Spirit, named the man of God, abbot Bonfilius, as fit and worthy to take up this office. Thereupon all who were present, hearing the nomination made, rendering therefore thanksgivings to almighty God, with one accord and with one voice ask for him as bishop, and all alike elected him: and strengthening that election, as the canon laws require, with a public hand, they take care to send it by the more skilled and more suitable from among themselves to the man of God Bonfilius, beseeching him with great prayers and great supplications that, having pity upon them rather than upon himself, he would deign to accept the same election made of him, to hold it ratified and to undertake it: which as soon as God's servant Bonfilius understood, being a most careful zealot of his own exceeding humility, bearing it most ill, sad and troubled in mind, and accusing himself, he began to proclaim himself most unworthy, asserting that, set in the government of a monastery, he did not at all fulfill that office well, or discharge its care sufficiently; how much less fitly then, holding the pontifical chair, would he discharge a sufficient care of the clergy and of the whole people of the city; and for this reason he declared that he by no means consented to the election made of him.
[14] Then the messengers sent to him say: Venerable Father, then he acquiesces, your paternity must carefully take heed lest, if for your exceeding humility you desire to please almighty God, you be found for this very reason to resist his most holy will: for, as the Scripture testifies, it is not easy to fight against the Lord: whence know most certainly that we firmly believe it was done by his great dispensation and his most holy will, that, without any effort or knowledge of ours or of anyone else on your behalf, divine Providence made us agree with one accord upon your election without the hindrance of any contradiction: since therefore, as the Apostle says, you are called by God as Aaron was, you must lay aside all stubbornness of contradiction, subjecting your neck to the divine dispensation, and humbly and devoutly obey his most holy will. By which reasons the man of God Bonfilius, plainly overcome, greatly feared lest he should be found contrary to the divine will, and, laying aside the contradiction which he had made to guard his humility, at last gave his consent to the election made of him. Whence the aforesaid messengers, greatly rejoicing, returned with swift course to those who had sent them, relating likewise what they had treated with the man of God Bonfilius, and how he had given his consent to the election which had been made of him.
[15] and is consecrated bishop at Rome; Then they, exceedingly glad at this, with one accord rendered thanksgivings to the Lord, and take care to send the aforesaid election and the consent of God's son Bonfilius by a suitable messenger to the Apostolic See; whose confirmation, after they had come thither, by the Lord's bounty they most easily obtained. After these things therefore, a few days having passed, the man of God Bonfilius, at the entreaty of the clergy and people of the aforesaid city, willed to come to it in person: whom the clergy and people received with the greatest honor and the utmost reverence, and after the interval of a short time sent him with a suitable company to the Apostolic See to be consecrated: concerning whom the supreme Pontiff b and those about him, a diligent examination having been held and the goodness of the Man being known, when they had found his honorable person fit in life, character, and knowledge, by the cooperating grace of the Holy Spirit consecrated him bishop; and afterward with an episcopal privilege and their favor sent him back to take up the government and to bear the care of the church of Foligno.
[16] having for some years Being therefore raised to the episcopal chair, according to the Prophet, his heart was not lifted up, nor were his eyes exalted, but, humbling himself with a greater humility, he followed in all things the former gravity of his character and his former meekness, considering diligently that it behooved him rather to profit than to preside, and this in
his mind was turned over in assiduous meditation. For he knew, according to the teaching of the excellent doctor Gregory, that the action of a prelate ought so far to surpass the action of the people as the life of the shepherd is wont to differ from the flock: hence indeed he strove carefully to measure himself, with how great a necessity of keeping uprightness he is bound, in comparison with whom the people is called a flock. Whence he labored to the utmost that he might continue pure in thought, foremost in action, discreet in silence, useful in word, near to each in compassion, above all uplifted in contemplation, by humility a companion of those who do well, by zeal set up against the vices of the delinquent: not lessening the care of inward things in the occupation with outward, nor forsaking the provision for outward things through solicitude for the inward: and amid these exercises of holiness, upon which he sedulously and carefully attended, with fervent compassion he grieved with all the oppressed, and, piously compassionating their afflictions, succored them with most ready pity.
[17] For with kindly eyes he looked upon those who publicly begged, having excellently discharged his dignity, taking utmost care by works of mercy to relieve their want; for he fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, covered the naked and those going about without clothing by supplying garments, brought pilgrims and guests into his house. All these things, by the bounty of divine Grace, he fulfilled with assiduous works: by the exhortations of holy preaching he continually and openly expounded the holy Scriptures to his subjects, both clerks and laymen; for these excellent ways therefore, with which by divine grace the man of God, bishop Bonfilius, was full, the clergy and all the people greatly rejoiced over his admirable life, as over a good shepherd of their souls and a most diligent father. He passed nearly ten years c set in the episcopate, strengthened by these and other gifts of virtues; at length a fervent desire of seeing the Holy Land, and the places in which the Redeemer of the human race, the Son of God and of the Virgin, our Lord Jesus Christ, coming down from heaven for us and for our salvation, willed to be born, to suffer, to die, and to rise again, inflamed his mind.
[18] But at that same time it happened that the fierce race of the Saracens with the crusaders he crosses to the East; and other barbarous nations, crossing the Christian borders and raging barbarously, horribly slaying all worshipers of Christ and making a great slaughter of them, seize d the Holy Land, and were raging most atrociously in the holy places: whence not a few of the Christians from the parts on this side of the sea, remission of sins being granted them by the supreme Pontiff e, took the cross and crossed the sea in great numbers to the succor of the Holy Land. Then also the man of God, bishop Bonfilius, desiring to bring to effect the desire which he had long conceived in mind, having obtained leave from the supreme Pontiff, took the cross, and, having taken with him clerks and laymen of his household who seemed fit and useful for this work, and having prepared money and other necessaries, he himself, a ship being found, almighty God being propitious, crossed the sea in safety with the others sailing with him. And the leaders and princes of the Christian people, the crossing being universally accomplished, and a copious army of Christians being gathered, and the help of our Lord Jesus Christ being invoked from heaven, ordering their lines as is the custom, set out to make war upon the enemies of the Cross of Christ, the said Saracens and other barbarous nations; and almighty God being made propitious to them, all the enemies being put to flight and manfully overcome, they rendered the Holy Land wholly free from their fierce infestations f.
[19] But the servant of God, bishop Bonfilius, being by divine grace made master of his vow, he visits the sacred places, and there lives a solitary in a cave; was zealous to visit in person all the holy places in which our Lord the Son of God, Jesus Christ, accomplished the mysteries of our redemption: and in each of them offering very many prayers and supplications with tears, he was intent with ardent contemplation upon the Son of God himself, and seemed as it were to behold him visibly. But indeed, while blessed Bonfilius was intent for some time upon divine contemplations and praises in the parts beyond the sea, all the companions whom he had brought with him from his house are, by the command of almighty God, universally taken from this light; and these being sent before him to God, and their bodies delivered to more honorable burials, and prayers offered to almighty God, and the solemnities of Masses celebrated for their salvation, blessed Bonfilius remains alone, deprived of the solace of his own people: but although outward solaces seemed to fail him, after his accustomed manner, by the earnestness of holy prayers and by holy meditations in the holy Scriptures, he frequently had recourse to divine solaces; and thus, being consoled from heaven in the contemplations of divine things, he scarcely felt the outward desolation. These things being thus done, the servant of God, bishop Bonfilius, being rendered as it were free from all secular care, withdraws into a certain part of the wilderness, and there, having found a cave, begins to dwell in it, about to lead an eremitical life, in which, giving himself to God alone in fasts, vigils, and prayers, and in all spiritual exercises, he awaits from the Lord the end of his life with an eternal reward.
[20] Admonished from heaven, he returns into Italy. And while he sweated at such exercises, day and night set in the cave, nearly ten years' time rolls round g, and then he is divinely admonished in a vision that, returning into Italy, he should take care to visit his own country: which when the holy Man learned, setting aside the doing of his own will and desiring in all things to obey the divine will, presently going out from his cell, as though to bid farewell to the holy places and also to the oratories of the Holy Land, he traversed them all in person on his own feet, and in each of them offering very many prayers and supplications and thanksgivings, most earnestly commended his soul to almighty God. Thence coming to the harbor of the sea, meaning to seek a ship for his return into Italy, and having found one by the divine will, he asks the sailors for his passage; and they, cheerfully assenting to his prayers, promise him that, the divine Clemency favoring, they will carry him with them in the ship, being about to cross over into Italy: and when a suitable time came there, they going up into the ship, blessed Bonfilius went up likewise with them, and, favorable winds blowing, they began to sail through the deep plains of the sea, and after not many days, by God's bounty, they came to the desired harbor, putting in to the Italian shore.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
The resignation of the bishopric; his return to the monastery; the injuries there inflicted upon the Blessed.
[ ] Leave being obtained from the Roman Pontiff After these things the man of God, bishop Bonfilius, having gone out from the ship, walking on foot, compelled by the necessity of poverty, and some days having elapsed, coming to the city of Rome, diligently strove to visit the thresholds of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and very many prayers being there poured forth, rendering thanksgivings to the Lord and to his holy Apostles, presented himself to the Apostolic presence. Now the supreme Pontiff a, when he had recognized him, remembering of what life and sanctity he had long since been in the monastery and in the church of Foligno b, receives him kindly and charitably to the kiss of peace, and, beholding him with gladness, marveled: for he had heard that he, some years before, together with the companions whom he had brought with him, had departed from this world; whence among the other things which he said to him he brought in this also, saying: Know, dearest Brother, that some years ago we received reports of thee and thy companions, that ye had entered upon the way of all flesh after ye had come, God being propitious, into the Holy Land; whence we and our brethren, taking care to provide with pastoral solicitude for the church of Foligno, whose chair by God's authorship thou didst take up, lest it should remain longer without episcopal government, ordaining a certain fit man as bishop and substituting him for thee, judged that he should be sent to the government of the aforesaid church c: but since almighty God has preserved thee until these times and has sent thee back to us from the parts of the Holy Land, we restore to thee thy church, to which thou hadst been ordained, being about to provide for the bishop substituted for thee from another church.
[22] To whom the man of God, bishop Bonfilius, said: Most blessed Father, of laying down for the great benefit of your exceeding bounty my littleness most humbly renders every kind of thanksgiving to your most reverend Holiness: nevertheless I desire that my insufficiency should not be hidden from your Holiness: for bodily infirmity and the weakness of a rather long old age greatly hinder my littleness from undergoing episcopal burdens: whence I earnestly beseech the Apostolic Holiness that you would deign to unburden my littleness of the care of the episcopal office and of pastoral solicitude; since I am sick in body, worn out with a rather long old age, and my infirmity also vehemently desires to return to the quiet of a monastery: but to the church of Foligno, since you enjoin it, I shall hasten to bid farewell to the bishop substituted for me, to the clergy and to the people of the city: for I firmly believe that it was brought about by the great dispensation of almighty God that through your Holiness he was substituted for me, so that henceforth, an old man, infirm and weak, I may rest from the solicitude and labors of the episcopal care. The supreme Pontiff therefore, mercifully assenting to the supplications of the Man of God, deigns to grant him his return to the monastery, being absolved, as he had requested, from the care of the episcopal office: and although he willed to relieve him of the weight of the episcopal care, yet he graciously allowed him to remain in the honor and the episcopal dignity; and in this manner he permitted him to hasten to the monastery with his blessing and favor.
[23] the bishopric; he bids farewell Blessed Bonfilius the bishop therefore, exceedingly glad at the leave he had obtained, which he had desired, setting out on his journey, sent a messenger before him, commanding that he should hasten swiftly to Foligno d, announcing his return to that city; and when this became known there to the bishop then existing, to the clerks and to the people of the city — namely that blessed Bonfilius, formerly their bishop, was still alive, and that he was at that time coming to them in person — all rejoicing with the utmost gladness went out to meet him in eager rivalry: giving thanks to almighty God and praising together his magnificence, because they were still found worthy to enjoy the sight and converse of the Man of God, and ardently desiring to receive his blessing, being charitably blessed by him with the sign of the Cross, they were received to the kisses of peace. Thence blessed Bonfilius, coming to the city,
all those accompanying him who had come out to meet him, he enters the oratory of the cathedral church, and offering to almighty God the calf of his lips e, prays the more fervently for the common salvation of all: but afterwards he was received into hospitality with very great charity by the bishop substituted in his place and by all the clergy, and was most kindly attended in every office of charity, for as long as it pleased him to abide with them.
[24] He returns to the people of Foligno and to his own monastery; At length blessed Bonfilius, after some days had passed in which he consoled them by his presence, addressing the aforesaid bishop substituted in his stead, and with him all the clergy, was zealous to render them very many thanksgivings for the boundless [*] offices of charity shown him, and admonished them likewise that they should keep the divine fear in their breasts, and his fervent charity toward one another without intermission, and should not cease ever to show forth examples of light and of surpassing sanctity to the souls subject to them, that with them they might receive in the heavenly kingdom the eternal reward and joy without end. After this conference, however, which he had briefly held with them concerning the sanctity of charity and the virtues to be obtained, bidding farewell to all, and taking companions for the journey, he sets out upon the road, about to return to the monastery from which he had long ago been taken to be bishop; and the bishop and some of the clergy accompany him for some space of the journey. Then, humbly asking his blessing, with heads bowed, and commending their souls to him, they return to their own places.
[25] where he is at first kindly received; Blessed Bonfilius therefore, coming to the monastery of St. Mary of Storaco, was received with all devotion and reverence by the abbot of that place and by the whole congregation, and also by the country folk dwelling in that village; and entering the oratory, and rendering copious praises and thanks to almighty God and to blessed Mary ever Virgin, the Mother of God, he most intently commended his soul to them with prayers and devout supplications. Having gone forth from the oratory, he does not omit to receive the abbot and the whole congregation with charity to the kiss of peace, as is the custom with pilgrims returning from the parts of the Holy Land; and he sat down with them, setting forth spiritual and consoling words concerning those things which pertain to the salvation of souls. And so, after sweet colloquies of the heavenly life, he entreats the abbot and the monks with most humble prayers that they would deign to assign him a cell in the monastery, separated from the common workrooms, in which he might be able to rest, worn out as he was by long old age, and more freely by day and night to give himself to those things which are God's, without noise and clamour. To his petitions the abbot and monks assenting, they assigned him a separate cell, as he had asked, with such utensils as seemed necessary. Moreover there still survived there some monks and lay brothers of those whom the blessed Man had been zealous to bring up in holy conversation, who attended upon him carefully in all devotion and office of charity.
[26] When therefore blessed Bonfilius enters the cell with fervent mind, but afterwards, rebuking the vices of the wicked, although his body was now wearied by exceeding old age, yet fervent in spirit, he applied himself to silence, fastings, vigils, prayers and sacred readings, watchful by days and nights. He by no means deserted the dwelling of his little cell, nor wandered abroad, except when he came to the oratory to receive the Lord's Sacraments and to celebrate the solemnities of Masses, or when opportunity offered itself of setting forth the word of God to the congregation and to any others whatsoever. Yet indeed, because to religious men and to men of consummate perfection the contests and snares of the ancient enemy are never lacking, so that they may be held the more approved and perfect in the divine sight, the more faithfully they have been found in the contests of temptations to have manfully overcome that same ancient enemy. For in that same oft-named monastery there were certain monks of looser life and of more wanton manners, whose dissolute vices, wantonness, levity and reprobate manners were pernicious to their own souls, and dangerous to the others of the monastery on account of the bad example, and seemed intolerable. And when they had long persisted in their perversities and depraved manners, nor at any time, coming to their senses, desisted from what they had begun, at last the outcry of their depravity came into the ears of the servant of God, Bonfilius the bishop. And the man of the Lord, Bonfilius the bishop, when he understood these things, grieved exceedingly, both for the peril of their souls and also lest by their occasion others of the monastery should be marked with the blot of infamy. But he awaits a fitting time, namely when the abbot gathered the chapter, at which the man of God, Bonfilius the bishop, took care to be present; and having first, after his manner, made an exhortation from the authorities of the holy Scriptures, he charitably and modestly turned his discourse to the aforesaid dissolute monks, and rebuked them for their excesses very kindly and very humbly, with the affection of a most diligent Father.
[27] But because it is written: As vinegar upon nitre, he is afflicted with many injuries, so is he that singeth songs to a perverse heart f, the oft-named Sarabaites g, falsely bearing the name of monks, increased their malice whence they ought to have diminished it, and where they ought to have made progress, they failed. Straightway, after the manner of serpents, they hurled the venom of their malice against the holy Man with a slandering tongue, crying him out with sacrilegious mouth as a superstitious impostor, a doting and mad old man, in the fury of frenzied persons, and, like men raving, babbling many things like to these, they threatened to inflict upon him very many injuries and atrocious things. But the man of God, after the insults received, after evils rendered him for good, as one stoned for a good work, rising nonetheless with tranquil mind from the place of chapter, hastened swiftly to return to his cell; where, rendering thanks to the Lord for the insults received, he faithfully besought Him for the salvation of those who persecuted him. But the oft-named Sarabaites, at the prompting of their father the devil, whose malice they followed, inflamed by the malignant spirit of wickedness, contrive to drive the man of God Bonfilius out of the monastery by wiles, insults or frauds.
[28] For it was then a time of harsher winter and the air exceedingly cold, when abundant snows had fallen and stiffening ice bound the earth: all which things agreed in every way with their own most frigid malice. And they, most fervently desiring to fulfil their deliberated wickedness, came wrongfully and secretly to the privy which the man of God had not far from his cell, and clandestinely cut through [*] the timbers of the seat upon which the man of God sat when he had to discharge the superfluities of nature, so that when in the night hours the man of God Bonfilius should come thither to sit according to his custom, the seat giving way, he might himself fall together into the filthy pit; which also was done, even as it had been contrived by the aforesaid wicked Sarabaites. But when the servant of God, Bonfilius the bishop, found that he had fallen into the filthy pit, although it was the silence of the dead of night and all who dwelt in the monastery were at rest, yet against his own custom, compelled by an unwonted necessity, breaking silence, he calls his beloved monks by name with a louder voice, those whom he himself had instructed in regular discipline: and they, astounded at the unwonted cry of the man of God, rising swiftly, ran to the pit where his voice was heard, and lifting him thence, bring him back to his cell, prepare a fire, warm water, strip him of his soiled garments, and washing the flesh of the man of God and his garments from the filthy defilements, and making his bed because of the pressing cold, they compelled him to rest again. But over the tribulation brought upon the man of God they poured forth abundant tears from exceeding sadness, whom the servant of God gently consoles, saying that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.
ANNOTATA.
read impensis*
read secuerunt*
CHAPTER IV.
His withdrawal from the monastery; his solitary life; his death; his burial; his miracles.
[ ] Bidding farewell to the abbot and monks, But the oft-named Sarabaites, when they had inflicted such atrocious injuries upon the servant of God, hardened exceedingly with obstinate mind, remained in their malice, in no wise at all changed from their depraved manners, and had no repentance whatever, either for their other evils or for the insults which they had thought fit to inflict upon the servant of God. When therefore the servant of God, Bonfilius the bishop, understood that with obstinate mind they firmly resolved to remain in their malice, he judges it more useful and more right to give place to their hardened malice and to turn aside from their obstinate envy, than by remaining there in vain to provoke their wickedness further: fearing lest, the impious being more atrociously hardened in their impiety, he himself should in some measure turn aside from the path of his own rectitude, and remembering likewise the command of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel: If they shall have persecuted you in one city, flee humbly into another. But after the interval of a little time the man of God, the servant Bonfilius the bishop, having learned that the abbot and monks had come together in chapter, hastened thither at once, and prostrating his body upon the ground, before them, after the manner of regular discipline, he casts himself at the feet
of each one, and with most humble supplication begs pardon of them: and rising from the ground with great meekness of mind, and addressing them with a placid countenance, he prayed with devout mind for them to the Lordly Majesty, that for the works of mercy which they had been zealous to bestow upon him, He would deign to repay them a copious reward from the heavenly kingdom.
[30] I know, said he, dearest brethren, most certainly, that by the working of my sins he withdraws into the mountains of Cingoli. I do not at all deserve to be your colleague, and that most unworthily do I linger in this holy monastery: wherefore I commend you to almighty God and to His grace, that you may deserve to be made partakers of the citizens above. For with your leave I now depart from you, to seek a place which the divine Clemency shall deign to grant me, in which my infirm old age may rest and perform its penance; but I devoutly beseech you that with almighty God you would aid my infirmity by your prayers. And having said these things, going forth from the monastery, he sets out on the road, about to seek a fit place for the solitary life dear to him, which long since, for very many years, he had experienced in the parts beyond the sea. Journeying on, therefore, he inquired the more diligently where he might find a place suitable to his desire. And very many told him that he could obtain such a place as he desired in the mountains of Cingoli, which was called St. Mary of Fara a, situated in a remote valley surrounded by lofty mountains, which was full of great and ancient trees and of dense groves: whence that place was seen to be pleasant for the solitary life, yet it was terrible to many by reason of its exceeding solitude. Coming to which, the servant of God, blessed Bonfilius the bishop, trusting in the goodness of the almighty Lord, to whose will he committed himself in all things, began undaunted to dwell there.
[31] where he passes the remainder of his life in solitude: And when he had built himself a little cell there, after the manner of solitaries, out of mean material, that is, of tamarisks and ferns, of which things there was abundance in that place, being set therein rejoicing, in the great quiet of solitude now, as long as he had wished, he applied himself watchfully, according to the measure of his custom, to fastings, vigils, psalmodies and other spiritual exercises. And although he dwelt in the remote recesses of the woods and mountains, he could not there be hidden for long: for the fame of his sanctity and of his virtues flew swiftly not only to those near, but even to those far off, which declared him to all who heard, though he desired to lie hid; and very many of them were led toward his sanctity with much devotion and exceeding affection: whence, hastening to him very often, they desired to enjoy the sight of him and to obtain his converse. And they who brought him food for the body, themselves carried back in their breasts, from his mouth, the nourishment of the heavenly life. And when the man of God, blessed Bonfilius the bishop, had there passed the space of very many years b in holy works and in the pursuit of holy virtues, almighty God, willing to remunerate his labours which were acceptable to Him, and to repay a copious reward to his glorious merits, deigned to call him back from the affliction of the present world and from the exile of this life to joys that abide for ever, about to bestow upon him the fellowship of the citizens above in eternal glory, which he himself, while set in mortal life, had most frequently desired from the time of his boyhood even to his long old age.
[32] [he dies, and is buried by the pious faithful who had been wont often to visit him.] And departing in holy works and in holy confession, he did not lose life but changed it, and leaving the mortal world to mortals, he passed to the society of the immortal citizens above. But some of the aforesaid faithful devoted to him, hearing of his venerable passing, from that affection of piety by which they were exceedingly led toward him, coming to the place in which his lifeless body rested, as though bereaved, compunct in heart at the death of the good Father, poured forth abundant tears: and celebrating the more diligently the obsequies over his revered body, and preparing his tomb, they carefully delivered the venerable body of the servant of God, Bonfilius the hermit and bishop, to burial in that same place beside the wall of the said oratory of the holy Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin, namely about the foundation of the eastern corner, which looks toward the region of the North, in which place it rests even to these times [c]; and the anniversary day of his revered death is the fifth of the Kalends of October, and on it his venerable solemnity is celebrated. But after the decease of that servant of God, the place itself, in which he had been delivered to burial, is left through the cycles of many years destitute of the comfort of inhabitants, and therefore, the structure of his little cell being dissolved within a short space of time, afterwards, by reason of the long solitude, the building of the aforesaid oratory was likewise dissolved: and because that place had remained untilled for a rather long time, with groves growing up there, it ran wild on every side. Hence also very great thickets of thorns, of briars and brambles, grew up over the tomb of the man of God.
[33] At that same time, when the place in which the body of the man of God was laid had remained so desolate, A youth wretchedly contracted there dwelt near the island of Orzale a certain countryman, whose son, a lad or young man, was from the girdle downward so destitute of the use of all his limbs that he could not move from his place unless he were carried by the hands of his parents or of others, and, greatly contracted, he had now for a long time lain resting upon his little bed. And his parents, exceedingly grieving with fatherly affection at his long-continued sickness, spent very much of their substance upon physicians for the recovery of his health: but, as is declared in what follows, it is believed to have been brought about by the divine will that the medicines applied to the aforesaid sick man profited nothing at all, namely that the glorious merits of that surpassing sanctity by which blessed Bonfilius, bishop and confessor, was illustrious in the sight of God, might be made manifest to men and come to the knowledge of many. But when the aforesaid sick man and his parents utterly despaired both of the medicines of physicians for obtaining his health and of human aid, they turn themselves to entreating the divine Clemency and to imploring the suffrages of His Saints.
[34] But while the oft-named parents of the aforesaid sick man frequently invoked almighty God and His Saints to the aid of the suffering young man, he is divinely admonished that to the tomb of the Blessed one on a certain night in sleep the young man himself sees one very comely standing by him, who, calling him by his own name, commands him in this manner: If thou wilt be delivered from these sicknesses in which thou art now held from a long time, say to thy father that he take care to saddle in haste the little ass which he has, and, setting thee upon it, bring thee with all speed to the oratory of St. Mary of Fara; and when you shall have come to the aforesaid place, let thy father set thee down from the ass and make thee rest upon the ground; and let him go himself to the eastern corner of the oratory, to that part which looks toward the North, and, manfully cutting down with an iron tool which he shall carry for this very purpose the dense multitude of brambles, briars and thorns which has grown up there, let him be careful to cleanse that place of their encumbrance: and after it has been the more diligently cleansed of thorns and briars, let him make thee rest upon it, and let you both together faithfully invoke the divine aid, that almighty God may deign, through the merits and intercessions of blessed Bonfilius, His bishop and confessor, to deliver thee from thy sicknesses — whose most holy body rests there below, entombed.
[35] And when this shall have been done, with undoubting faith, health being restored to thee through the merits of the servant of God, blessed Bonfilius the bishop, he should have himself carried, thou shalt at once rise up whole, delivered from all thy sickness; and then thou and thy father, rendering all manner of thanksgivings to almighty God and to His servant Bl. Bonfilius, shall return rejoicing to your own home: proclaiming thenceforth the mighty works of almighty God, and the venerable merits of His servant Bonfilius the confessor, by whose most holy prayers thou shalt have been delivered. Awaking after this vision, the said sick man, when morning came, exceedingly desiring his own health, called upon his father with frequent cries: and the father, hearing his cries, takes care to rise in haste, hurrying swiftly to the place where his son was calling out; to whom the son related in order all the things which he had learned in the vision. And the father, having heard these things, exceedingly desiring the health of his son so long sick, straightway saddles the little ass, sets his son upon it, and hastens to come swiftly to the aforesaid place where the body of the man of God, Bl. Bonfilius the bishop, was kept. And when they had come thither, that countryman diligently carries out in order all the things which had been revealed in the vision to his sick son. For, the place being cleansed and made free of the density of briars and thorns, then, a cloak having been spread there, he at last lays his suffering son upon it.
[36] where he And the father and son together, invoking with one accord the mercy of the Lord, prayed from the inmost affection of the heart that almighty God, through the merits and intercessions of Bl. Bonfilius His servant, would deign to succour them. And while they persisted for some time in prayer, that sick man slept for about the space of one hour: but awaking from sleep, with a great effort he began to stretch out his sick limbs with exceeding force and ardour, and in that very stretching, as the bones and sinews returned to their joints, a certain crackling sound began to be heard, as though reeds were being broken with great violence; then that young man, feeling health restored to him entire, at once rose up sound from the ground exulting, and rendering surpassing thanksgivings to almighty God, who through the merits of Bl. Bonfilius His servant had deigned to deliver him from his grievous and long-continued infirmities. And when this miracle had been wrought, the countryman and his son, rejoicing at the benefit of health received, magnifying God with loud voices and praising together Bl. Bonfilius, His bishop and confessor, returned to their own home.
[37] and several others are delivered from infirmity, But at the health restored to the young man his parents had the greatest joy, and all who had heard of it, wondering, rendered surpassing thanks to almighty God, and praising His servant blessed Bonfilius the bishop, began thenceforth exceedingly to venerate his sanctity. And the astonishing fame of so celebrated a miracle was borne far and wide, which moved all who heard it to the greatest admiration: for which reason many of those who heard, having sick folk seized with divers infirmities and pains, carrying them in what ways they could, hastened with them reverently and faithfully to the tomb of the oft-named servant of God, Bl. Bonfilius the bishop, for the obtaining of their health: and there, having poured out most devout prayers and supplications to the Lord, they returned sound to their own homes, by the intervening prayers and glorious merits of blessed Bonfilius the bishop. In fine, those miracles so illustrious and so frequent, by which he is seen very often to shine forth through supernal grace, more manifestly attest and evidently intimate of how surpassing a sanctity Bl. Bonfilius, bishop and confessor, stands in the sight of almighty God, and of how great a prerogative of merits he enjoys with Him, by the granting for ever of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATA.
c. Namely
until the time when the author wrote these things; for afterwards he himself translated the body into a church erected by him not far thence and distinguished by the name of the Blessed one, as has been shown in the preliminary Commentary, num. 4 and following.